L'eggs 😱 ✡️🌻😱 💣🚀

War:  The thing about having an administration led by a reality TV star and made up of broken toys, Fox news commentators, grifters, and real estate buddies is that you have an administration made up of broken toys, Fox news commentators, grifters, and real estate buddies.  That’s a problem under the best of circumstances but throw in a war, skirmish, or whatever the Iran escapade is being called today and it’s even more of a problem.  Trump’s unwillingness to assume responsibility for the bombing of the girls’ elementary school in Iran serves as an example of much of what’s wrong with him and his administration.  Bad things happen during wars and sometimes those bad things involve the accidental bombing of civilian targets. As Louisiana Senator John Kennedy said of the deaths at the school, Trump should say "It was terrible. We made a mistake… We would never do that intentionally. I think the department is investigating it now, and I'm sorry. I'm just so sorry it happened. It was a mistake."  Trump however is incapable of issuing apologies or admitting wrong so instead he’s doing what he does, deflecting and lying, claiming the tomahawk missile that hit the school must have come from some other country, maybe even Iran while asserting that lots of countries have those missiles.  The problem is that lots of countries don’t have those missiles, they’re made by Raytheon for us and we’ve only sold them to the UK, Australia and more recently Japan and the Netherlands and none of those countries shot missiles at Iran. Even worse, War Pete who has bragged about maximizing lethality has fired most of the Defense Department’s unit responsible for mitigating harm to civilians and for investigating civilian casualties during combat operations.  The Trump administration can’t even keep their story straight about the purpose of the war, they’re still vacillating between taking out the nukes, getting rid of the missiles, regime change, and the always popular Bibi and Israel made us do it. It’s hard to believe that no one warned Trump that going to war with Iran would impact oil prices and the equity markets, yet he seems shocked to see that it has.  Similarly, his response to Iran mining, or trying to mine, the critical Strait of Hormuz is tough talk and threats, rather than the implementation of any well thought out plan that should have been in his war quiver.  He’s rattled which might explain why he’s spewing more than his usual bit of nonsense.  For example, Monday night at the GOP retreat in Florida he said that there “were dead people walking around with no arms or legs.” WTF.  Additionally, he, or at the very least War Pete should have anticipated that Iran had what appears to be an unending supply of relatively inexpensive lethal drones, yet months ago the administration “brushed off an offer from Ukraine for assistance in strengthening defense systems against them.” Ukraine is helping us now, however, giving Trump’s antipathy to all things Zelenskyy he’s barely acknowledged the assistance.  Instead, he and his real estate buddy/negotiator Witkoff continue to insist, that their trusted good friend Vlad Putin isn’t helping Iran pinpoint US targets even though he is. Vlad is also benefitting from rising oil prices, a windfall that he’s using to bolster his economy and fund his war against Ukraine.  Sadly, our incompetence isn’t surprising given who’s in charge.  Seven Americans dead, somewhere around 140 wounded and it’s not clear what will have been accomplished when, or if, this war is ever over which isn’t to say that Iran isn’t hurting. Reports are that one of the reasons we haven’t seen the new Ayatollah Khamenei is because he was injured during the attack that killed the last one, the other reason is that he fears that he’s got a target on his back. There’s a reason that several members of the Iranian Women’s soccer team have decided to stay in Australia rather than return home, the bigly problem is that this war is unlikely to liberate Iran from the Ayatollahs and the IRGC or make it more hospitable to athletes who had the nerve to not sing their national anthem.

Midterm Madness: In addition to his nonsensical remark about legless people walking, Trump told his GOP apparatchik’s that the only way they can win in the midterms is by passing the SAVE Act. Forget about improving the economy or making things more affordable, Trump’s position is that making it more difficult for those who might vote for Democrats is the way to go. Anyone who thinks that the SAVE Act is just about making sure that non-citizens who almost never try to vote don’t vote, is delusional.  We don’t have an alien voting problem; we do however have a desperate president who wants to limit voting to those most likely to vote red because he fears the specter of a Democrat led Congress. Senate Leader John Thune continues to say that he won’t get rid of the filibuster to facilitate the passage of the SAVE Act.  However, to placate Trump he has agreed to bring the act up for a vote even though he doesn’t have the sixty votes necessary for its passage. Remember how much crap, Senator Schumer got for refusing to ditch the filibuster when he was the Senate leader, this is why he held firm.  Now we’d better hope that Thune sticks to his guns.  As to the midterms, Trump still hasn’t endorsed anyone in the Texas Republican Senate race but there were two notable primaries yesterday.  In Mississippi, 78 -year-old Democrat Bernie Thompson easily won a primary against a younger opponent whose chief argument was that it was time for a changing of the guard.  In Georgia in the special election for the seat that opened up as a result of Marjorie Taylor Greene’s departure from the House, Democrat Shawn Harris came out on top with 37% of the vote. Trump endorsed candidate Republican Clayton Fuller came in second with 35% of the vote.  Since neither received the requisite 50% of the vote, they will face off in a primary that will likely be won by Republican Fuller because though Democrat Harris performed well, once the Republican votes consolidate behind one Republican candidate he is expected to lose in the ruby red district. On a more positive note, in another special election Democrat Bobbi Boudman flipped a Republican state seat in New Hampshire. Those state elections don’t involve many votes but do appear to be indicative of a trend towards blue.

Faux US Attorneys:   On Monday, a federal judge ruled that the three-person leadership team of the New Jersey federal prosecutor’s office that had been put in place after Trump lawyer Alina Habba had overstayed her “temporary” status, was unlawful.  The judge said that Trump’s “insistence on handpicking US attorneys showed that the White House cared more about personal control than public safety.” He added that Trump’s continued reliance on unlawful mechanisms to appoint top federal prosecutors meant that “scores of dangerous criminals could have their cases dismissed or convictions eventually reversed.” Keeping with that theme, Federal judges in Milwaukee announced that they won’t extend former Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel’s temporary appointment as US Attorney for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, meaning his appointment will expire next week.  The judges said that they “await the nomination and confirmation of a full-time United States Attorney by the President and United State Senate.”  They may be waiting a long time because neither Attorney General Bondi nor Trump seem to care about the rules and both seem willing to let this problem fester even if the result is criminals getting away with criming. On a more gossipy note, Alina Habba who currently serves as Senior Advisor to the Attorney General for US Attorneys within the Department of Justice, focusing on national violent crime efforts whatever that really means, just divorced her second husband and moved to a house near Trump’s Mar a Lago club as one does when one is supposedly working for the federal government in DC. And though not a legal issue, RFK had rotor cuff surgery yesterday because maybe its not such a good idea for 72-year-olds to do pull-ups in airports?  As to airports, the DHS is restarting Global Entry because it’s also not such a good idea to punish Americans over the DHS funding battle by making lines at airports longer.     

More 💩:  Perhaps emboldened by the Iran war, or more likely because he is a hate filled bigot Tennessee Republican Congressman Andy Ogles who previously argued that NY Mayor Mamdani should be deported posted on social media on Monday that "Muslims don’t belong in American society.”  Though some Republicans including former Ambassador Richard Grennell who currently heads the Kennedy Center or what’s left of it called him out for his post, most have ignored it or shrugged it off but then again many of them previously ignored Florida Congressman Randy Fine’s saying that all Muslims should be deported. For his part Speaker Johnson, the we are a Christian nation guy, mumbled something about how while that wasn’t the language he would use, he understood the fear of Sharia law. Oy.