Unfortunate Events 😱 ✡️🌻😱 🚀🚢

Drip, Drip, Drone:  The Iran peace deal is percolating, along the lines of an erratic coffee maker with one remaining broken K-cup. In other words, having a good cup of coffee by breakfast time, like smooth transit through the Strait of Hormuz and an absence of hostilities in the region is unlikely to happen soon, if ever.  Over the weekend, Iran shot projectiles at a few of the ships bold enough to move through the Strait, something about the Mullahs and the IRGC being pissed that those ships were using a route in Oman’s territorial waters rather than one under their control.  The US responded by striking Iran and then Iran responded by shooting a few missiles and drones at Kuwait and Bahrain.  Last night the administration said that what Trump had referred to as “unfortunate” attacks by Iran were over, since the two sides have once again agreed to “stand down,” by temporarily halting hostilities to move back to hammering out the terms of a peace deal, one based on the vague Memorandum of Understanding.  Iran responded by saying not so fast we didn’t agree to do that.  The US insisted that Iran was prepared to keep a scheduled meeting on logistics, Iran again said, not so fast, we’re not attending that meeting. The NY Times reports that officials in Tehran believe that despite their struggling economy and the damage to their infrastructure they have the upper hand for now.  Their assessment is that Trump doesn’t want to resume all out war with the midterms on the horizon, so they see no reason to make concessions or to give up control of their nukes especially since they also believe that once the midterms are in the rearview window, Trump is likely to ramp up hostilities. There will be little time to brew a strong cup of coffee on the Lebanon-Israel border either because while Israel and Lebanon have signed a US brokered framework agreement to end their hostilities, Lebanon doesn’t have much, if any, influence over Hezbollah, the source of those hostilities, who almost immediately declared the agreement “null and void.”  If only someone had told the East Wing, Arch d’ Trump, pond scum obsessed Trump just how complicated the Middle East was and will always be earlier 🤯.   As to that huge pond, the one with the blooming green algae problem, the paint manufacturer says that some peeling was always expected.  Also, it turns out that Trump’s geniuses removed the large filter boxes that were supposed to help keep the algae under control because they were ugly 🤦‍♀️and the orange guy didn’t want ugly things around during all his planned 250-year anniversary celebrations, like the one that took place this weekend that few people attended.        

Pride Celebration?  Last week while the rest of us were going about our lives, someone decided to seriously disrupt former Mayor, Transportation Secretary, and maybe future presidential contender Pete Buttigieg’s.  That disruption involved reporting to authorities that he had confessed to some random person that he had done horrible, twisted things to his now four-year-old adopted twins.  As a result of the anonymous report, Michigan State Police and Child Protective Services showed up at his home and removed his twins from his custody for 24 hours while they investigated what they quickly determined and then publicly acknowledged was most definitely a false and malicious report. It’s probably not a coincidence that the heinous accusation took place during pride month. Moreover, despite the conclusion that was reached by authorities that the accusations against Buttigieg were false and that he had been the victim of a twisted form of swatting, they hurt.  Buttigieg is an effective messenger who has been out on the campaign trail helping candidates around the country, he had to cancel a scheduled appearance in Arizona to deal with this slime. The accusations against him are an indication of how much someone, or some group of people, fear him but that doesn’t make them less damaging, a quick look at the crude, bigoted comments posted on Twitter and other social media sites shows how even false accusations can haunt.      

More 💩:  So, is anyone surprised to learn that Trump’s sons Eric and Donald Jr and a few, if not all, of Commerce Secretary/Peace Guru Howard Witkoff’s sons are now significantly, as in multiple millions of dollars richer as a result of their proximity to power?  Their climb up the billionaire ladder is the result of some lucrative mineral contracts that businesses they are involved with have obtained and how those businesses have received more than one billion dollars of preferential loans from the US government.  The NY Times includes details of one of those deals, with a Kazakh entity. Apparently, Hunter’s real problem wasn’t that he benefited from his father’s name while his father was out of office but that he didn’t go big enough and didn’t go all in while his dad was president.  While they’ve been getting richer, Dad Trump is doing his best to make sure that the midterm elections and any subsequent ones are called into question. His interim Director of National Intelligence Pulte, whose remit is supposed to be the temporary oversight of the intelligence integration function while Trump’s new appointee Jay Clayton goes through his confirmation process, has hired Christina Norton, the former Director of the Republican National Committee and election denier who worked on election-related issues as his chief of staff. Norton’s hire is an indication that Pulte knows that Trump has no plans to get Clayton confirmed anytime soon.  She, like Pulte knows little if anything about intelligence, but that’s the point, her role is to “find” problems with the upcoming elections in order to disrupt them while casting doubt on their integrity.  We are cruising to disaster, in five alarm territory 🔥with few, if any, hoses. Our best hope at this point may be that Trump will prove as incompetent with his election disruption as he has been with his pool.

 

 

Strait Poker 😱 ✡️🌻😱 🚀🚢

Elusive Peace:  According to Trump the Iran deal is moving ahead swimmingly.  Unfortunately, that’s only true in his mind.  Yesterday, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard attacked a Singapore flagged ship transiting through the Strait of Hormuz.  As a result, a number of countries have once again halted the movement of their ships through the Strait and the UN's International Maritime Organization has paused its Strait evacuation plan. Secretary of State Rubio keeps whistling into the wind that Iran has no right to charge any Strait transit fees or to dictate transit routes, but Iran appears to have other plans, and those plans include military action. Strikes or no strikes, Trump is keeping with his deception strategy, last night in an effort to rally support among US farmers Trump repeated his claim that Iran has promised to purchase US grown agricultural products including corn and soybeans with the funds that he agreed to unfreeze because unlike Obama when Trump frees funds it’s okay. If the crop purchase claim was true that would be a boon for farmers who’ve suffered from Trump’s tariffs.  The problem is that Iran insists that they have not agreed to use the funds to buy any American agricultural goods.  While Tehran is willing to call Trump out when he lies, it looks like two of the Republican Senators who voted to limit his war powers have caved to his threats. Louisiana’s Bill Cassidy who is on his way out of the Senate because he lost his primary after Trump endorsed his opponent changed his vote and now no longer supports crimping Trump’s war powers.  He asserts he flipped after receiving a convincing private briefing on the Iran deal, but more likely it’s because that briefing involved threats perhaps involving decapitated horses and beds 🤷‍♀️, that Trump would make sure that no one hired him for any lucrative lobbying jobs upon his departure.  Rand Paul, one of the other Republicans who had voted with Democrats shifted his vote to present, muttering something about since the hostilities are over, boat strikes aside, he changed his vote to enhance Trump’s negotiating position. Senators Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins stuck with their war powers votes. Murkowski because she frequently walks to her own drummer,  Collins because she’s got a pass to cross Trump on an as needed basis through November’s election.   

Legal Update:  We’re still waiting for the important SCOTUS ruling on birth right citizenship which may or may not come today.  However, a few opinions have been released. Yesterday the Court issued some anti-immigrant decisions.  In one of their 6-3 ideological decisions, written by the extremely conservative Justice Alito, the Court ruled that the government can legally turn away asylum seekers who attempt to reach a port of entry as long as they haven’t physically set foot on US soil. In another ideological decision, also written by Alito, the Court cleared the way for the Trump administration to remove temporary protected status (TPS) protections for citizens of Haiti and Syria under a federal program that allows foreigners to stay in the US when the US government believes that it is not safe for them to return to their homes. The bottom line is that though neither country is much safer than they were when their citizens were granted TPS, their citizens are no longer welcome here because they’re not white South Africans.  The legal news wasn’t all bad.  Yesterday, Boston based District Court judge Indira Talwani blocked Trump’s order for the US Postal Service to impose limits on voting by mail, a real problem because Postmaster General David Steiner has said that if Trump wants him to refuse to process likely blue ballots from states that decline to hand over sensitive data, as in bogus incomplete and inaccurate citizenship files, he would be happy to do so.  Of course, the Trump administration is expected to appeal because squelching votes, alongside political gerrymandering, is a key part of their midterm and future presidential election strategy.  On the Epstein front, in response to a lawsuit by attorney and journalist Katie Phang US District Court judge Emmet Sullivan ordered the DOJ to un-redact and produce more Epstein files by July 2 or show cause why the documents must remain blacked out. 

Other 💩:  The administration is now seeking $1.4 billion to help combat Ebola because it turns out that the DOGE boys’ decision to defund those efforts was incredibly short sighted and ignorant.  In a similar vein, all the branches of the military are once again requiring new recruits to get flu shots. On the personnel front, Gregg Phillips the third ranking FEMA official in charge of disaster response has been ousted, something to do with his repeated claims that he had been teleported to Waffle Houses.  On more serious note, War/Beer Pete has ousted Chris Donahue, another four-star General, General Donahue had been the Army commander in Europe.  Apparently decapitating the military by eliminating its most competent and experienced leadership is his thing. Similarly, Bill Pulte, the housing official with no intelligence experience who is the acting Director of National Intelligence because Trump is holding up the confirmation hearing for his less controversial permanent pick Jay Clayton in an effort to get his voter squelching SAVE Act passed has started firing DNI staff as one does when the concept of coordinating intelligence among the various intelligence agencies to avoid another 9.11 is no longer prioritized. Similarly, Trump cancelled the signing of a bi-partisan passed Housing bill claiming there are parts of it he who is an expert in all things housing suddenly doesn’t like but really because he is holding it hostage to get the SAVE Act passed.  The Senate doesn’t have the votes to pass the SAVE Act but Trump doesn’t like taking no for an answer and though it’s hard to see how he could get the SAVE Act passed, he did just get two Senators to flip their war powers votes so we shouldn’t totally discount the chance that he’ll force something, something bad.   

 

 
Duck, Duck, Goose 😱 ✡️🌻😱 🚀🚢 🦆 

Deflecting Pool:  The Reflecting Pool is still green, the algae is still blooming, at least one duck 🦆 maybe even  🦆 🦆🦆  are dead, and without credible proof Trump, the lamest 🦆 of all, is blaming his $16 million plus folly on Democratic aligned antifa radicals claiming that a horde of them slashed the pool’s lining, a lie that Fox and the other right wing media outlets that are viewed by the MAGA and MAGA curious universe are amplifying. Even Trump admits that since the pool which is now being “protected” by fences, a variation on the way that the Kennedy center’s signage sans Trump’s name is still covered by tarps, needs to be drained again and is unlikely to be repaired in time for his July 4^th 250^th anniversary celebration/MAGA political rally. Things are also going swimmingly on the Iran front with Trump asserting that the Iranians have “fully and completely” agreed to allow nuclear inspections and Veep Vance saying IAEA inspectors could be back in Iran as early as this week while Tehran asserts that they have no plans to allow any of those inspectors to return to its enrichment sites. Similarly, though some ships are now transiting through the Strait of Hormuz and fuel prices are improving, traffic remains way below normal. On the domestic front, with Republicans Susan Collins, Rand Paul, Bill Cassidy, and Lisa Murkowski joining all Democrats except for Pennsylvania’s John Fetterman the Senate finally joined the House in voting for a largely symbolic war powers resolution directing Trump to end the Iran war.  Naturally, Maine Senator Susan Collin’s vote was symbolic too, part of her usual election year dance. Former Senate Leader Mitch McConnell remains MIA.  

 

Primary Results:  It pains me to report that in New York City, Mayor Mamdani’s endorsed House candidates won their Democratic primaries in districts where winning the primary is tantamount to winning the general election, all but ensuring that while Dan Goldman, possibly one of the most competent members of Congress won’t be returning to the House in January, a group of Mamdani’s socialist, anti-Semitic dog whistling favorites will be in the House’s freshman class, proof that Republicans aren’t the only ones who send crazies to Congress.  That’s alarming because should Democrats retake control, this new crowd is likely to make Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries’ life that much more difficult, especially if his Democratic majority is a small one and given how Republicans have won the gerrymandering war, his majority, assuming he wins one, is likely to be smaller than it would be had all the partisan redistricting not taken place. In one piece of rational news, in the more normal but very expensive NY 12 primary for the seat being vacated by the retiring Jerry Nadler, Micah Lasher won, edging out his closest competitor Alex Bores and trouncing nepo Kennedy Jack Schlossberg while also leaving George Conway, the former Republican/spouse of Kellyanne, in the dust. Of course, Trump celebrated his nemesis Conway’s poor showing. It’s not just that the outcome of most of the New York City primaries that was disappointing, it’s the process itself that leaves a lot to be desired because by their nature closed primaries in one party dominated districts, particularly those held late in June, attract so few voters and by definition exclude independents.  Shifting south, in South Carolina, where Trump endorsed both of the candidates in the Republican gubernatorial runoff, Alan Wilson rather than Pamela Evette, who he endorsed in South Carolina’s first round, won. Naturally, Trump celebrated that his candidate had won.  Don’t try to make it make sense because it doesn’t.  

 

Other 💩:  On the legal front, in Minnesota Federal District Court judge Patrick Schiltz, a George W Bush appointee, quashed subpoenas targeting Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, state Attorney General Keith Ellison and other officials, saying there was “no doubt” that they were issued to harass Trump’s political opponents.  Elsewhere, the DOJ withdrew subpoenas that sought to compel reporters from the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal to testify in front of a grand jury, part of the Trump administration’s efforts to crack down on leaks and press freedom.  Clearly, the DOJ didn’t do that because they care about press freedom but because they didn’t think that those subpoenas would get them the results they wanted.  In other legal news, we’re still waiting for some very important Supreme Court decisions to be announced. On the health care front or more accurately the no health care front, the number of reported cases of the flu at Lackland Air Force base is now up from 160 to 200 because eliminating vaccine requirements for young people living in close quarters is both stupid and irresponsible. On the vaccine front, a study on how the COVID vaccine reduced hospitalizations by 55% and trips to emergency rooms and urgent care clinics by 50% that the CDC refused to publish finally saw the light after it was published in JAMA Network Open, the monthly, peer-reviewed, open-access medical journal published by the American Medical Association (AMA).  On the stupid and disturbing front, the Education Department which Trump is working to eliminate has transferred special education management for nearly one million autistic students to RFK’s Health and Human Services. That’s a problem because RFK who has said that autistic children "will never pay taxes, hold a job, play baseball, write a poem, or go on a date" has a limited understanding of what autism is, how the definition of what constitutes autism has expanded over the years, and how valuable special education programs can be for so many of the people he has basically and quite erroneously labeled as worthless. To him autism is merely a term to be tossed around to justify eliminating vaccines. 

 

Fungus Among Us 😱 ✡️🌻😱 🚀🚢

Weekend Fungus:  First the reflecting pond, not because the green algae bloom matters much in the scheme of things, but because Trump’s incompetent, deceitful, and corrupt handling of its “fix” is so indicative of how he deals with everything else.  He hired and overpaid a Mar a Lago corrupt crony who looks like a rejected extra from a bad gangster movie to make it beautiful for his birthday party.  Until this weekend he insisted that the pond was a beautiful blue even as it became greener than ever. He’s now blaming Democrats, or in his word those radical “Dumocrats,” for dumping chemicals and peeling off his precious blue paint, even arresting a few including a former Olympian who had the temerity to pick up a piece or two of the floating blue detritus. Odds are that the arrested won’t be indicted because Washington DC juries aren’t stupid but still being arrested isn’t fun.  By the end of the weekend, Trump admitted that the pool would have to be drained again to repair the repair job, but of course that’s the fault of those radical Dumocrats and has nothing to do with his or his overpaid contractor/thug’s incompetence.  Now on to the Iran war which does matter, not just because people have been killed but because of its impact on the economy and inflation.  Trump sent Veep Vance to Switzerland to lead the talks promised in last week’s memorandum of understanding.  As Iran said that they were reclosing the Strait of Hormuz, Energy Secretary Chris Wright was appearing on Sunday talk shows insisting that it was open and that energy prices were on their way back to normal, whatever that means.  Trump also asserted that the Strait was open but then threatened Iran for closing it, adding that if they didn’t behave he’d restart the war, seize control of the Strait, and take a share of Iran’s oil profits. In response the Iranians, who made Vance wait and then refused to shake his hand, stormed out of the Swiss talks for a few hours.  We’re now supposed to believe that the talks which resumed after all that performative foot stomping were productive even though their focus appeared to be primarily on Lebanon and the battle between Israel and what Trump correctly called Iran’s “highly paid proxies” and not on the Iran’s nuclear facilities, the issue that was the impetus for the war.  If Trump lies about blue paint why should we trust him on Iran?  If Iran is still funding surrogates, why should they be rewarded with hundreds of millions of dollars of “reconstruction” funds?  Is the Strait really open to all, or is it, as the Iranians say, still blocked, or at least blocked for most? Much as Trump is blaming radical Dumocrats for his blue paint debacle, he’ll soon be holding Vance responsible for any Iran talk failures and, of course Bibi too, who both he and Vance will blame for forcing him into this situation because the contentious and irascible Bibi is an easy target, and as Hezbollah knows, so is Northern Israel.

Peeps:  Stories about former DNI Tulsi Gabbard’s membership in an extreme secretive Hindu associated cult, the Science of Identity Foundation (SIF), led by a guru named Chris Butler aren’t new but via the Washington Post more details about her allegiance to the cult and how she took directions from Butler were published over the weekend.  Apparently, Butler has been dictating Gabbard’s political positions and talking points for years, going back to the days when she represented Hawaii in Congress. The impending release of the Washington Post article is being cited as the reason behind Gabbard’s ouster from the Trump administration. By the way Gabbard’s parting shot as she departed was to further slime Virus hero Fauci. It’s also not much of a secret that Trump sells his pardons so it’s not surprising that GPB Capital CEO David Gentile who had been convicted for a $1.6 billion Ponzi scheme was pardoned and had his $15.5 million restitution obligation wiped out after serving only twelve days behind bars. What is surprising is that according to the NY Times, his pardon was brokered by a Catholic Priest from Queens who has long been friends with Trump. Even more surprising is that some federal attorneys from the Eastern District of NY were so upset that they had the nerve to open an investigation into the pardon scheme.  Naturally, despite their compelling evidence, including jailhouse conversations by Gentile in which he talked about the $2.5 million he’d spent on what was then his expected pardon, main Justice put the kibosh on their efforts.

The Big 🍎:  Though there’s no chance of Democrats losing any Manhattan and Brooklyn seats in November, there are a few seats that are for grab in tomorrow’s NY primary. Mayor Mamdani has taken the unusual step of endorsing a few candidates over established incumbents.  Races to watch include NY 10 where Mamdani’s choice is former NYC Comptroller Brad Lander who is challenging incumbent Representative Dan Goldman. Basically, Mamdani owes Lander a favor for cross endorsing him in NY’s ranked choice mayoral election but didn’t offer him a role in his administration because he really doesn’t like him that much. Mamdani dislikes two-term Congressman Goldman, who’s a really good guy who served as the Democrats counsel on Trump’s first impeachment trial, for being pro-Israel. Sadly, Goldman who shouldn’t be at risk, is in real jeopardy because of Mamdani.  Mamdani has also endorsed Democratic Socialist Avila Chevalier, another anti-Israel candidate with lots of hateful social media posts including a few crude ones in which she mocked Kamala Harris. Chevalier is seeking to oust longtime Representative Adriano Espaillat who is more established in his NY 13 district and will probably be harder to unseat than Goldman. In the NY 7 race for retiring Congresswoman’s Nydia Velazquez’ seat. Mamdani has endorsed Democratic Socialist Claire Valdez over the more mainstream Antonio Reynoso who has both Velazquez’ and NY AG Letitia James’ endorsement. Probably because his endorsement wouldn’t carry much weight,  Mamdani has not endorsed anyone in what is expected to be a close race in the NY 12 upper east side/upper west side seat that’s open because of long-term Congressman Jerry Nadler’s decision not to seek reelection.  The NY 12 race is between the Bloomberg/Nadler endorsed Micah Lasher, nepo Kennedy Jack Schlossberg, anti-tech guy Alex Bores, and Trump hater/one-time Republican George Conway.  For the record, I am team Lasher, that Bloomberg endorsement carries lots of weight with me.   

Primary Hijinks:  Federal Election Commission filings now confirm Democratic suspicions that Lead Left PAC, Real Change PAC, and Blue California PAC have been purposefully boosting candidates perceived as weaker contenders in a general election in hopes of engineering more favorable November matchups for Republicans.  They haven’t always been successful, but they have had a few wins, though we won’t know for sure until November.  One example of their success is that they quietly backed Matt Dunlap, a possibly too progressive for the general election candidate, who went on to win the Democratic primary to succeed retiring Democrat Jared Golden in Maine’s 2^nd District.  Maine 2 is a purple district where Golden’s wins were always among the closest in the country. Trump carried it in 2024.  After Golden decided not to run for reelection, Cook Political Report shifted Maine 2 from a Toss-Up to Likely Republican, Democratic leadership, as opposed to the Bernie crowd, are now even more concerned that they will lose the seat in November.    

More 💩:  Over the weekend Trump, ever the diplomat, engaged in a war of words with Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni who he offended bigly with his assertion that she’d begged him multiple times to take a photo with her during last week’s G7 economic meetings. Trump responded by questioning her popularity, she hit back, saying he should focus on his own.  Oof. Trump also engaged in another faux pas, pre-announcing that the UK’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer would be resigning today. While Trump jumped the gun, Starmer did resign this morning.  He lasted longer than “head of lettuce” Liz Truss, but not the five years he’d hoped.        

 

 

Green is the New Blue 😱 ✡️🌻😱 🚀🚢 ⛹️ 🏀

Green Algae and Iran:  The blue paint that Trump had applied to the bottom of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool as part of his overbudget $15 million renovation is peeling off helped by the gallons of peroxide that his cracker jack pool team poured into the pool to kill the algae that is making the pool appear greener than ever because it turns out that in addition to killing algae, peroxide removes paint.  In a few days Trump will tell us that green is the new blue and he will move on from the pond to one of his other vanity projects, like his planned Arc d’ Trump or the East Wing/ballroom monstrosity that was supposed to cost $200 million and be funded by private donors but will now cost $600 million with $350 million coming from taxpayer money that had been earmarked for the Secret Service and the White House Military Office. Given his pool failure and all those cost overruns, why should we be surprised that the far more complicated and impactful Iran war that Trump was “forced” into by Bibi who despite his persistence never managed to achieve similar influence over Trump’s predecessors is ending or ending for now with Iran emerging on top.  Nevertheless, Trump, the master of deception, insists that having achieved none of his nuclear, regime change, and missile goals, he’s achieved everything he wanted to achieve and that he’s done so in a manner far superior to that “stupid son of a bitch” Obama and Sleepy Guy Biden.  Trump’s capitulation involves unfreezing $25 billion of Iran’s assets; Obama got skewered for releasing $2.7 billion.  Trump’s deal involves $300 billion making its way to Iran for reconstruction, Obama’s deal zip. Trump has pushed off making a deal on Iran’s uranium stockpile and hasn’t done anything about Iran’s enrichment program. Obama’s deal involved a 98% reduction in the stockpile and capped the enrichment at 3.7%. Trump’s deal has opened the Strait of Hormuz but leaves it likely that Iran with the help of Oman will control the Strait and charge tolls at some point in the not-so-distant future.  Under Obama the Strait didn’t have to be reopened because it wasn’t closed and transit remained free.  Obama’s deal did nothing about Iran’s missiles, Trump gets points for eliminating some of them, but he basically blew that accomplishment out of the water by saying that “it would be unfair for Iran not to ​have ballistic missiles if ​other countries have them.” Obama, the guy who got trashed for wearing a tan suit never said it was okay for Iran to have ballistic missiles, nor would he.

 

Fractured History:  To cap things off, Trump affixed his signature to his memorandum of understanding with Iran in Versailles, where the disastrous treaty to end World War I, the treaty which is blamed for creating the German instability that facilitated Hitler’s rise, was signed. An optically awful location but then again the NY Times’ Haberman and Swan team report that Trump frequently compares himself to Hitler, citing the writings of an “important” historian who is really a golf pro.  Keeping with that idiocy, not just the vision of Trump supergluing gold “décor” on to WH walls or throwing out valuable WH silverware or tossing candy detritus on the floor, earlier this week Yale law school graduate VP Vance defended the Iran deal by saying that all wars including WW II ended with some kind of negotiation.  Apparently he missed that following Hitler’s suicide, Germany surrendered unconditionally to Allied forces and that Japan did the same after Hiroshima and Nagasaki were nuked. JD is also blaming Israel for everything, something he wouldn’t be doing without Trump’s blessing. Netanyahu should have looked up the acronym ETTD, as in Everything Trump Touches Dies months ago. As to the rest of the Iran negotiations that are supposed to be completed in 60 days, Vance, Trump’s designated point person/blame cushion cancelled his scheduled trip to Switzerland last night either because Israel and Hezbollah are still attacking each other or because the Iranian travel team wasn’t ready or both.  Tan suit guy Obama did however have a great day yesterday.  With all previous live presidents and their wives, except of course for Trump and Melania, he celebrated the opening of his library. Milli Vanilli wasn’t there to help him celebrate but that’s okay because Bruce Springstein and Stevie Wonder filled in.  😊 🎶

 

More 💩:  New Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh held rates steady, opting to continue fighting inflation instead of providing Trump the rate cut that he covets.  The Federal Reserve’s decision was both appropriate and funny given that Trump still hasn’t forgiven Warsh’s predecessor for doing the same.  It turns out that War/Beer Pete’s decision to eliminate the flu shot mandate for troops is playing out as expected.  A major flu outbreak at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas has sickened 160 troops, with one of the afflicted dying, sadly joining the other 24,000 people who have died from the flu so far during the 2025-2026 flu season. Who but everyone could have possibly anticipated that a bunch of young, unprotected people sleeping in close proximity would get sick with a contagious disease that could be avoided, or at the very least made less lethal by a simple shot.  The Air Force is now requiring that everyone at the Lackland Base get their jab, better late than never?  No comment from Beer/War Pete perhaps because he’s in the midst of launching his review of NATO participants where he’s expected to punish members for not supporting our efforts in Iran because. To state the obvious, we’re living in truly bizarre and disheartening times.  

  

 

Green Algae and Nukes 😱 ✡️🌻😱 🚀🚢

Deal or No Deal:  What’s going on at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool provides a good analogy for Trump’s Iran deal. The pool has long had a gnarly green algae problem.  All in on optics, Trump hired his swimming pool guy who was told a quick fix was needed.  The out of his depth pool guy filled in a few cracks and painted the pool’s bottom blue. Within days the algae returned in force, the pool is now greener and murkier than ever.  Trump now has his “expert” who may or may not know swimming pools, but who is clearly way out of his depth dealing with the problems of an enormous reflecting pool pouring gallon containers of hydrogen peroxide into the pool that’s not really a pool to create another temporary fix. And of course, it’s all Obama’s fault.  Like the pool, Iran has long been a problem.  Obama’s painstakingly negotiated JCPOA nuclear deal was far from perfect.  It limited Iran’s uranium enrichment for a while but kicked much of the nuclear problem down the road.  It didn’t address missiles or Iran’s funding of surrogate groups like Hezbollah, and it very controversially involved the releasing of some frozen funds.  However, the deal for all its imperfections was negotiated by genuine experts schooled in international diplomacy and nuclear science and did keep Iran from expanding its reserves of what Trump calls nuclear “dust.” Trump walked from the deal during his first administration.  Iran went back to enriching its uranium while building up its missile supply and funding its violent surrogates.  Trump went to war, saying he’d put an end to the nukes, missiles, and surrogate funding.  He inflicted lots of pain but apparently Iran has a high tolerance for pain and a Strait of Hormuz ace card.  Trump’s experts who aren’t experts have now negotiated a memorandum of understanding that few including Israel, which is supposed to walk away from Lebanon as part of the “cessation of all military operations” deal but won’t, have officially seen though maybe they have now since CNN just released what they say is the deal’s terms.  It involves Iran holding on to its uranium but promising not to build a bomb, the end of sanctions, financial relief in the form of Iran being allowed to return to the selling of its oil and other petrochemical products, the release of more funds than either Obama or Biden ever freed up, a large aid package from neighboring countries, the opening of the Strait for which Iran may or may not charge transit fees but nothing with regard to missiles and surrogates.  Reports are that Trump’s Kushner and Witkoff led negotiating team are now searching for nuclear experts to help with the nuke details that are supposed to be worked out in sixty days, as if that’s possible. Trump who is very good at convincing his base that what he says is true even when it is not, says his deal is way better than Obama’s ever was and anyway the current situation is all Obama’s fault, and Biden’s too.  The pool is greener than ever; Iran won the war.

Primary Update:  Representative Mike Collins, Trump’s preferred candidate easily won his Georgia Senate primary yesterday. Collins is an election denying MAGA who is currently being investigated by the House ethics committee for making ghost payments to an “intern” who was the girlfriend of his chief of staff.  In other words, he’s a typical Trump choice but maybe not so perfect for Georgia which of late has been voting for blue Senators.  Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff couldn’t be happier.  Trump and Governor Kemp’s preferred Governor candidate Lt Governor Burt Jones, another MAGA election denier lost to billionaire health care executive Rick Jackson who also positioned himself as a Trump supporter even though he didn’t have Trump’s endorsement.  Jackson will face off against former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms in what is likely to be a very expensive race since he’s still got lots of money to burn.   

More 💩:  Further feeding fears that the NY Times’ Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan have obtained tapes of White House strategy sessions, the newest segment of their soon to be released book “Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump” previewed in the NY Times reveals that White House officials debated suspending habeas corpus in order to facilitate mass deportations of undocumented immigrants. Habeas corpus is the Constitution given right that allows a person who is detained or imprisoned by the government to challenge the legality of their confinement in front of a judge. Advocated by White House strongman Stephen “Goebbels” Miller, the proposed suspension of rights, was ultimately put to rest, or put to rest for now, by Staff Secretary Will Scharf who wrote a series of confidential memos addressing its illegality.  Scharf is no liberal snowflake but apparently is one of those conservatives who still believes that the Constitution matters. The conversations detailed by Haberman and Swan also reveal that VP Vance who has been trying to soften his image in anticipation of a presidential run by appearing on programs like The View advocated for invoking the Insurrection Act to “quell” Minnesota’s anti-ICE protests. Keeping with the suppression and targeting theme California Governor Gavin Newsom, a likely 2028 presidential candidate, reported yesterday that his wife is being investigated by the Department of Justice, saying she’s being targeted for being his wife and is another victim of Trump’s vindictiveness. On the pettiness and vindictiveness front, early this morning Trump announced via Truth Social that he’s cancelled today’s Senate confirmation hearing for DNI nominee Jay Clayton, not because he’s cancelling Clayton’s nomination but because he wants to punish the Senate and House by keeping acting DNI/Housing guy Bill Pulte who no one trusts in place for a while, payback for the continuing hold up of the FISA surveillance extension, the failure to pass his SAVE voter ID/suppression bill, and also for subjecting Clayton’s replacement to the Southern District of NY US Attorney position to the blue slip convention that requires signoff from NYS’s two Democratic Senators Gillibrand and Schumer.

 
Sponge Cake 😱 ✡️🌻😱 🚀🚢 🏀

The Weekend That Was: First the high point: the awesome NY Knicks won in five, the ticker tape parade down the NYC Canyon of Heroes is on Thursday. Now for the rest. Trump who saw twenty-one medical specialists during his recent “annual” physical turned eighty.  His rain delayed ultimate fighting let them eat cake birthday spectacle including sweaty men and scantily dressed women, took place at the White House.  One of the fighters that Trump had specifically invited to participate called former first lady Michele Obama a man and then put a medal around a smiling Trump’s neck which is about as much as anyone needs to know about the 💩 show hosted by the 💩tiest and most embarrassing leader we’ve ever had. Moving on, Trump announced that the war with Iran is over, spoiler alert we did not win.  No one seems to know what is in the so-called unseen framework or memorandum of understanding with Iran that is now scheduled to be signed on Friday, despite earlier assertions that it would be signed yesterday.  Though there have been lots of claims that Iran has agreed to give up its nuclear program, the nuke part is to be worked out over the next sixty days, sixty days being Trump’s new two weeks.  Supposedly the Strait of Hormuz which was open before the war started and that War/Beer Pete said we never lost control of even though we most certainly did, will be reopened and toll free by week’s end.  Though Israel giving up on attacking Hezbollah in Lebanon is part of the agreement, Netanyahu, who has morphed from being Trump’s BFF to his punching bag has not agreed to do so. It’s also not clear how much money Iran will get for this deal, but it is likely they’ll get some funds “unfrozen,” maybe more than the amount that Obama got skewered for “unfreezing.” However, it’s also fair to believe that whatever Trump agrees to, he will say his deal is way better than Obama’s because of course he will. The real bottom line is that no one really knows what’s in the memorandum of understanding probably because it’s not finalized.  Also, no one knows if it the ceasefire will stick.

People: Former Senate leader Mitch McConnell is in the hospital where his spokesman says he is receiving “excellent” care whatever that means. Whether that care involves life support or something more pedestrian has not been disclosed but given that the 84-year-old Mitch has been struggling of late, his hospitalization is likely related to something serious. Kentucky’s legislature passed a law in 2024 stripping the state’s Governor of the right to appoint replacement Senators, largely because the current Governor is Andy Beshear, a Democrat, so if McConnell passes a new Senator will be selected by a special election.  McConnell has been critical of Trump but for the most part has voted with him so his absence might make it a little more difficult for Trump to get his replacement cabinet appointees confirmed, or at the very least it might mean that a few vulnerable Republicans like Maine’s Susan Collins aren’t given their usual election year passes to vote no.  Among those who will need to be confirmed are Attorney General nominee Todd Blanche, DNI nominee Jay Clayton, and another one of Trump’s lawyers, James McDonald who Trump just nominated to replace Clayton as US Attorney for the Southern District of New York.  McDonald, a Sullivan and Cromwell partner, is currently representing Trump in his pending appeal of his felony convictions related to his Stormy Daniels hush money payments. Curiously, there has also been some twitter chatter about RFK leaving after the fourth of July but that could just be someone’s pipe dream.  

Primaries:  Tomorrow is primary day in Alabama, Georgia, Washington DC, and Oklahoma.  Georgia’s election involves runoffs for the races where no candidate received 50% of the vote in the earlier state primary.  One of those races is for the Republican candidate for Senate where Trump just endorsed MAGA congressman Mike Collins over the former University Tennessee football coach Derek Dooley who is term limited Governor Brian Kemp’s choice.  The winner will face Democratic darling du jour Jon Ossoff in November in what was supposed to be a pick-up opportunity for Republicans but is increasingly looking to result in Ossoff’s reelection. In the Georgia governor race Kemp and Trump have both endorsed Lt Governor Burt Jones who is up against billionaire businessman Rick Jackson.  The winner will face Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms, the former Mayor of Atlanta in November.  Trump is threatening to take over Washington DC if Janeese Lewis George, who describes herself as a democratic socialist wins her primary. She is currently leading in the polls.  Early voting has begun in New York for its June 23 primary. If you are a NYC resident and you aren’t registered as a Democrat, you’ve screwed up because NY primaries are closed meaning that you only get to vote if you are registered in a party.  Being an independent or a Republican might make you feel good, but it renders your vote worthless because with the exception of Staten Island the winner of each of the competitive NYC Democratic primary races will cruise to victory in November’s general election. Again, if you want to have a say in New York City’s local politics or in any blue NYS districts you really should be registered as a Democrat.  Registering Democrat doesn’t mean that you give up your right to vote for a Republican or anyone else in November, but it does give you a say. You can always change your party affiliation later.  It’s too late for this cycle, but it’s not too late for future state, local, and federal elections. Please share that message with your friends and those turning eighteen because while you can complain all you want about election outcomes you don’t like, if you don’t register in your area’s dominant party and vote in primaries you are part of the problem.    

More 💩:  Trump’s name has been taken off of the Kennedy Performing Arts Center or at least that’s what the Trump administration has told the courts. The center is now shrouded in a tarp that looks like it may be permanent because if Trump can’t have his name on the building, he doesn’t want us to see the name that remains. Keep an eye on the Supreme Court because decisions in some important cases are expected shortly. The White House is convinced that the NY Times’ Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan have gotten hold of tapes of the Epstein related conversations that were held in the situation room and possible in other parts of the White House because their reports are so accurate. And Elon Musk is now a trillionaire. If you have any money in an equity mutual fund, you probably own some of his newly issued Space X shares too but just to be clear you are not a trillionaire or even a billionaire as a result.   

 

The 39 Steps 😱 ✡️🌻😱 🚀🚢 🏀 🏀

Iran TACO:  Yesterday morning Trump threatened to attack “Iran very hard tonight,” broadcasting that the onslaught would begin at nightfall.  He added that his plans included the ultimate seizure of Iran’s main oil export terminal Kharg Island. He then called off his threats, saying that a peace deal was imminent and would be signed over the weekend in Europe though he wouldn’t be able to attend the signing because, assuming the courts don’t force him to cancel and maybe even if they do, he’ll be busy hosting his Ultimate Fighting Championship birthday party.  His 80^th shindig is clearly more important than any peace deal, especially one that Iran’s spokesperson yesterday denied existed and that Israeli officials said was news to them.  According to Politico the genesis of this deal, or more accurately alleged deal, wasn’t yesterday’s early stock market dive or jump in oil prices, it was an urgent phone call from very senior officials from Qatar, the UAE, and Pakistan who “have sway over” Iran’s hidden Supreme Leader.  The trio assured Trump that a memorandum of understanding with Iran was very close. Trump responded to their claims by calling off the planned attacks, announcing “we just made a great settlement of the war in Iran….we should get in done in a few days.”  If that sounds familiar, it’s because it is, according to CNN’s Andersen Cooper that’s the 39^th time he’s said that an agreement is imminent.  If there is an agreement, and this morning AXIOS reports that an MOU is close to completed, it will be very limited, focused on reopening the Strait of Hormuz, ending the US blockade, and freeing up funding for Iran, but nothing on nukes, because that part will come later as in never. Wasn’t the Strait open before this war was started?  How are we better off?    

DNI TACO: Early yesterday, Trump doubled down on his appointment of Housing honcho Bill Pulte as his Director of National Intelligence.  Then he pulled another TACO, announcing that Pulte was no longer his choice, that instead he planned to nominate Jay Clayton, who served as Chair of the SEC during Trump One and is currently serving as the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York. It remains unclear whether or not Pulte will serve as Trump’s interim DNI during Clayton’s confirmation process.  Like Pulte, Clayton has no relevant intelligence experience, he’s a better choice for the position only because Pulte was such an awful and inappropriate one. Trump is only moving on from Pulte because of the Congressional pushback that left the already challenging vote on the reauthorization of FISA (spy powers) in limbo.  One “tell” that Clayton’s appointment was in the offing is that he’d been auditioning, publicly casting aspersions on the California primary.  Interfering with the election process is not supposed to be within the DNI’s remit, however with Trump it’s the only thing that matters.  That’s why exiting DNI Tulsi spent time poking around Fulton County, Georgia’s election records and the pugnacious, pliable Pulte were chosen in the first place.  Clayton, legitimate legal credentials or not, is clearly willing to do whatever he’s told, his office has already obtained some questionable indictments.  As one pundit put it, Clayton’s willingness to work for Trump is evidence that he’s willing to cross the line by subverting the midterms and any other elections that may or may not follow. 

Discounting Votes:  Getting his DNI involved in mucking up elections is only one part of Trump’s plan, yesterday the US Postal Service proposed a new rule that would allow it to refuse to deliver mail ballots in states that don’t turn over voter rolls to the federal government.  Trump wants those rolls so he can have his minions toss voters they allege are fraudulent, and quite a few who aren’t, off the rolls. That the US doesn’t have a fraudulent voter problem isn’t the point because in Trump’s view anyone who might not vote for his “team” is by definition fraudulent.   Should those new rules make it pass judicial review, that would mean that states that rely heavily on mail-in voting, not just California but seven other states including Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Vermont, and Washington State, would see millions of their votes tossed out as would all the other states who allow anyone to vote by mail.  Though Democrats aren’t the only ones who vote by mail, they outnumber Republicans so clearly the purpose of the proposed rule is to limit Democratic participation in future elections.  Trump who earlier this week delivered Democrats a winning sound bite when he said that he “loves inflation” isn’t worried about appealing to swing voters with popular policies because his strategy involves excluding them from voting altogether. As to that inflation he loves, it’s up to 4.2% and exceeds wage growth. If the “it’s the economy stupid” rule that contributed heavily to Kamala Harris’ loss continues to hold sway Republicans are going to face lots of pain at the polls, assuming that is that all the ballots cast are counted.

More 💩:  Epstein may be dead, but his files and legacy continue to haunt.  The NY Times’ Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan’s new “Regime Change” book is due out June 23.  As a teaser, the NYT published a selection from the book that reveals how Trump and his White House were beyond panicked about what the files said about his relationship with Epstein. Chief of Staff Susie Wilesa set up a “war room” inside the Situation Room, the space that is typically reserved for things like taking out Osama bin Laden, to strategize on how to hide anything and everything that implicated Trump. In addition to Wiles, some of the other participants in the meetings were then Deputy Attorney General, now AG nominee Blanche, VP Vance, and FBI Director Kash Patel.  Vance actually argued for full disclosure, including the revealing of some “surreal” stuff about Trump’s fascination with nipples, the others were focused on following Trump’s orders to completely eliminate any references to his involvement with Epstein. Vance also thought it would be a good idea to have his friend Tucker Carlson conduct an aired interview of Ghislaine Maxwell, one where she would presumably disavowed any Trump involvement.  That never happened, though Blanche did interview her and probably got a promise from her that she’d stay silent because afterwards she was moved to a Club-Fed prison where she was rewarded with a puppy. Current reports are that Vance who also opposed the Iran “excursion” is now on the outs with Trump.  His falling star could explain why his Chief of Staff announced that he’s exiting.  In other gross news, the New Yorker has a piece on Andrew Tate, one of the truly despicable Tate Brothers (no relation to the cookie people), entitled the Empire of Abuse which details how Tate’s "manosphere" persona is built on a “systemic, multi-year operation of psychological manipulation and sexual exploitation” of women. The American born Tates were recently freed from Romanian custody where they were being investigated for human trafficking, rape, money laundering, and organized crime.  They were sprung with the help of the Trump administration.  One of their fans is Trump son Barron who reportedly has sought dating advice from them.  

Go Knicks !!!   

 

 

Oysters and Caviar 😱 ✡️🌻😱 💣🚀🚢

Iran in a Nutshell:  On Sunday night Iran launched missiles at Israel.  Trump told Netanyahu not to respond because what’s a few missiles targeted at civilians anyway.  Nevertheless, Netanyahu, another one with a shaky political future, responded.  Iran then said that they were done for now, now being the operative word, and Israel went back to focusing on Lebanon where it continues to try to wipe out Iran’s Hezbollah surrogates. After waking up from his Knick game nap, Trump promised a peace deal with Iran in two or three days. Iran laughed, responding by shooting down a US Apache helicopter, pilots included, over the Strait of Hormuz.  Trump who on Monday had told Netanyahu to exercise restraint responded by dropping a few bombs on Iran. Iran hit back with strikes on US targets across the Middle East, including bases in Jordan, Bahrain, and Kuwait.  While all this was going on VP Vance both echoed and contradicted Trump in one pre-taped interview saying that we could strike a peace deal in a few days or by the midterms.        

Primary Update:  Graham Platner, the Maine Senate candidate who “accidentally” got a Nazi tattoo, a Totenkopf death head not to be confused with the Tottenham football (soccer) team emblem that I mistakenly referenced on Friday, easily won his primary last night. However, 25% of those voting cast their votes for one of the other two Democratic candidates.  Platner has got his work cut out for him since to win in November against Susan Collins he will need to convince most of those who voted for Governor Mills and the other Democrat to jump on his oyster boat.  Though the California votes are still trickling in, with 91% of the votes accounted it’s official, the Governor’s race will be between Democrat Xavier Becerra and Republican Steve Hilton meaning that billionaire Steyer has little to show for the $200 plus million he spent trying to buy his way into office.  It’s also clear that all those fearmongers who were convinced that Democrats were in so much disarray that they would be frozen out of the Governor’s race were very wrong.   In Los Angeles where 98.5% of the votes have been counted, it’s clear that despite all the hoopla surrounding his run, Spencer Pratt is out though a lucrative offer to appear on Dancing With the Stars could be in the offing.  The mayor’s race will be between two Democrats, incumbent Karen Bass and Democratic Socialist Nithya Raman.  South Carolina Representative Nancy Mace might also get one of those DWTS calls. The shapeshifting Mace who depending on the day and the make-up of her House district portrayed herself as either a moderate or a MAGA loyalist, came in fifth in her state’s primary.  Paula Evette who was endorsed by Trump won.  However, since Evette only received 29% of the vote, she faces a runoff primary against second place finisher Alan Wilson. South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, another beneficiary of a Trump endorsement, won his primary earning enough votes to avoid a runoff despite a challenge from a more MAGA, less war interested competitor.

The March to Mayhem:  Trump is pointing to California, it’s mail-in process and the performance of his preferred candidates as proof that all elections where he doesn’t come out on top and even some where he does are fraudulent. His echo chamber, including Speaker for now Mike Johnson and Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche who Trump has officially nominated to be the Attorney General are all in on his messaging.  It’s not clear that Blanche has the votes to be confirmed since a number of the Republican Senators who Trump has successfully kicked to the curb have now found their cojones, well maybe, but Trump will delay the process so at least for now Blanche isn’t going anywhere.  It’s even clearer that Trump’s preferred Director of National Intelligence, Bill Pulte, doesn’t have the votes, particularly since Democrats appear to be making good on their threat to hold up the passage of a FISA (espionage) extension until Trump finds himself someone else as in someone who actually has the legislatively required intelligence experience.  Unfortunately, keeping Pulte in place is part of Trump’s kill the midterms strategy, so he insists he’s sticking with him, putting him into his new spot a few days earlier than planned because Trump really doesn’t care all that much about US sources of intelligence and would rather just eliminate the role altogether.  Afterall Trump gets so much of his information from friends like Vlad.   

More 💩:  US District Judge Leo Sorokin has blocked Trump’s $100,000 fee on employers seeking to hire foreign workers through the H-1B visa program, labeling the policy an unauthorized “tax” that requires congressional approval.  That’s good not just for technology companies but also for health care since many of the people eligible for those visas are health care professionals.  Not that health care is such a priority for Republicans, Speaker Johnson was caught on tape saying he has a plan to further cut Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security because given the choice between raising or in many cases just restoring taxes and taking care of those who need care and paid Social Security taxes all their working lives, he’d rather just cut care and retirement funding. And in case you missed it, the growing screwworm infestation, like everything else that’s bad, is Joe Biden’s fault.      

 

 

 

Melt Down Aisle Trump 😱 ✡️🌻😱 💣🚀🚢

Californication: As more votes were counted over the weekend the rankings in both the California Governor and Los Angeles Mayor races shifted.  With 72% of the Governor race vote counted, Democrat Xavier Becerra has moved into first place with 27.2 % of the vote.  He is now ahead of the previous leader Republican Steve Hilton who has 25.9% of the vote. Democratic billionaire Tom Steyer remains in third place with 21.5% of the vote.   In the LA mayor’s race with 83% of the vote counted , Democratic incumbent Karen Bass remains solidly in first place with 34.7% of the vote but the second and third places have flipped.  As a result, Democratic Socialist candidate Nithya Raman now has 27.1% of the vote, putting her ahead of reality TV guy Spencer Pratt with 26.7% of the vote.  Absent anything unexpected, the November Governor’s race will be between Democrat Becerra and Republican Hilton while the Mayor’s race will be between Democrat Bass and Democrat Socialist Raman.  Naturally, following the lead of election denier-in-chief Trump, the conspiracy theorists are out in force claiming that the weekend “flips” are the result of illegal vote dumping and tainted counting.  They’re not, nor are they all that surprising.  First Assistant US Attorney Bill Essayli, the Trump appointee who leads the Los Angeles-based US attorney’s office, reports that so far as far as his office can see, the election is legit.  Of course, statements like that could get him fired so stay posted. California’s system, which involves the methodical counting of lots of paper ballots, many of which arrive after election day, is slow.  Moreover, there are far more Democrats in the state than Republicans, particularly in Los Angeles where registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans by 1.9 million. If anything, the results aren’t all that surprising though Trump will continue to cite them as proof that mail in ballots should be curtailed and that at the very least only ballots received by election day should be counted.  Due to scandal plagued former Representative Eric Swalwell’s late withdrawal from the Governor’s race, many California Democrats sat on their ballots, sending them in a little later than they might otherwise have while voting strategically to make sure that the Democrat with the best chance of winning made it to November, even if that Democrat wasn’t their personal favorite.  As to the LA Mayor’s race, Spencer Pratt’s chances of winning were mostly the fever dream of an over excited press eager to turn the LA race into a circus.  Sure, a lot of people are dissatisfied with Mayor Karen Bass, but Spencer Pratt, an inexperienced, reality TV star far further down that rabbit hole than even Trump, is hardly the solution for the city’s woes.  In the absence of a qualified centrist Republican or Democrat, if there is such a thing these days, without another very unlikely “flip,” LA’s voters will now have to choose between Bass and a Democratic Socialist, albeit one with impressive Harvard and MIT credentials.        

Trump Dump:  The California election may be one of the things that led Trump to be even more agitated and nasty than usual during his pre-taped interview with Meet The Press’s Kristen Walker.  The interview which took place in a Wisconsin barn, went sideways as the bloated and frustrated Trump grew increasingly angry with Welker for asking legitimate questions, rather than the soft ones he’s grown used to getting from the media outlets who fear that his wrath will lead to threats to their licenses or in the case of CBS, pushback against their mergers.  He kept on citing phony election fraud, calling the 2020 election rigged and dirty, adding that “it’s happening again right now in California.” To her credit Welker effectively challenged him, calling his assertions out as the bull 💩it is.  She also got him on record saying that it would be his preference for his much-disparaged slush fund to remain intact and for the money in that fund to go to all those unfairly treated “tourists” who stormed the Capitol through no fault of their own so what if 70 or more of them have been arrested since for crimes including child sex abuse. Welker’s pushback, combined with the rat-a-tat of rain hitting the roof of the venue that his team had chosen, threw him further over the edge.  After calling Meet the Press, NBC, her, and all press crooked he then said, “let’s call it quits darling” and stormed out, throwing his mic to the floor and then stomping on it with his cankled legs for good measure.  Showing a scintilla of regret for his bad behavior or more likely realizing that his tantrum was about to go viral, at an agricultural roundtable that followed, he said “I just did an interview…but it was raining.  It was with NBC Fake news.  And because it was raining, I got a little bit angry with them….but we had a good time.  Note the problem was the rain and the fake news, not that he’s unhinged and lacks impulse control.  Also, Welker, just another one of those Black women he called stupid, did not appear to be having a good time.  The interview may have been the highpoint of Trump’s weekend because last night Iran launched missiles into northern Israel which despite Trump’s warnings that they should ignore, Israel responded in kind. Is it still a ceasefire if the parties are shooting missiles at each other? 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️ It appears that war or no war, Trump will be attending Game 3 of the Knicks – Spurs finals.  Weird how he needs a $1 billion White House ballroom for security purposes but can attend a game full of raucous, likely booing fans at Madison Square Garden. Ticketed attendees have been told to show up two hours without bags early to accommodate his added security while the MSG area watch party has been cancelled.  

More 💩:  RFK is probably somewhat relieved about Trump’s Meet the Press tantrum and those Iran-Israel missiles because they’re providing some cover from the scathing NYTimes article about his management, or lack thereof, of the Department of Health and Human Services.  The article detailed how many critical positions at his department remain unfilled, how he shows up to the few meetings he attends late, that even when physically present he spends most of his time scrolling through his phone, and that he refers all inquiries to his long-term aide-de-camp Stefanie Spear who, despite not being confirmed for anything, is the decision maker who runs everything. The only thing he remains interested in is vaccine cancellation and pushing his diet preferences.  The diet preferences being a bit of a problem given that telling the masses to eat beef when already high prices of steak are about to go higher due to the New World screwworm that is showing up in Texas cattle is just a wee bit tone deaf and problematic.  Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins, another one who loves the cameras but has a hard time with truth telling is now scrambling, denying that the screwworm infestation is a significant problem while Texas’ Governor Abbott acknowledges that it is because as much as he loves all things Trump, he also cares about his state’s cattle, and having Canada ban US beef imports over the screwworm is not a good thing.  Turning back to RFK’s anti-vaccine stance, it looks like Secretary of State Rubio has also had it with RFK’s idiocy.  He’s pushing for the US to resume funding for the global humanitarian vaccine alliance Gavi, reversing RFK’s decision to hold up funding over his phony vaccine concerns because with Ebola and Hantavirus out and about and AIDS still a significant and now growing again problem, maybe helping control illness in undeveloped countries makes sense. Left unsaid is the fear of how the lack of health management will impact all of us if, or more likely, when another pandemic hits.

 
Stilettos, Flats, Loafers, Sneakers 😱 ✡️🌻😱 💣🚀🚢 👠👡👢

Jungle Fever Update: In California where some counties update their results daily and others only bi-weekly the results of Tuesday’s election contribute to trickle in slowly.  With only 60% of the votes counted in the Governor’s race and 64% counted in the LA Mayor’s race the relative positions between the top candidates are the same as they were on Wednesday morning, however with so many votes left to be counted the rankings could change.  In the race for Governor the spread between Republican Steve Hilton, who currently has 27.2% of the votes and Democrat Xavier Becerra, currently at 26% has narrowed from 2.45% to 1.2%.  Though the apparent third place finisher, Democratic billionaire Tom Steyer, has inched up to 20.2% from 19.6%, absent a significant vote dump in his favor he’s likely to remain in third place and out of the money, in his case out of the $201 million he spent on the race.  In the LA mayor’s race, incumbent Democratic Mayor Karen Bass’ lead has grown to 35.1% from 34.8%.  Republican reality TV guy Spencer Pratt remains in second place; however, his share of the vote has shrunk from 30.4% to 29.4% while third place finisher left wing Democrat Nithya Raman’s share has grown from 22.3% to 23.4% leaving open the possibility that after all the votes are counted she could, just maybe, pass Pratt.  Naturally, Trump who has declared Hilton and Pratt victorious together with some members of his echo chamber are already calling the California election fraudulent, it’s not, it’s just frustratingly slow.  

👞👟👠👡👢:  While California is frustratingly slow, Maine is just totally frustrating. A few more shoes crashed to the floor yesterday for Maine Democratic Senatorial candidate Graham Platner.  The NY Times reports that oyster farmer Platner’s “romantic” past includes a boatload of rocky, alcohol infused relationships and messy break-ups, including at least one that, according to one of those former girlfriends, a Republican who has worked on several Republican campaigns, involved violence. The same woman who detailed her violent experience with Platner also says that he knew from the start that his Totenkopf tattoo was a Nazi symbol, in fact, she says that he and his Marine buddies chose the Tattoo for that reason as a statement of their warrior prowess. Appearing on MSNOW’s Chris Hayes show, Platner who admitted that he had a rocky, alcohol infused past which he attributes to PTSD, denied the violent episode, stuck by his assertion that he wasn’t aware of the significance of the Totenkopf symbol when he was inked, and said that since the source of both of those assertions was a Republican operative they shouldn’t be believed.  He also went with the some of my best friends and closest relatives are Jewish defense with regard to the tattoo.  When asked about the NY Times article, Michigan Democratic Senator Elissa Slotkin spoke for many when she said that she looked forward to the day where she is “not answering every single week a question about bad behavior by another dude.” Unfortunately, for Platner there could be more 👞👟👠👡👢 because there remains the possibility that after seeing the NY Times article more women will emerge from his closet and maybe, just maybe a member of his Marine unit will confirm that they knew what the tattoo was when they got it. Unfortunately, for anyone hoping for the Democrats to send Republican Senator Susan Collins packing, the damage may already have been done. Platner is still polling ahead of Collins but back in 2020 her Democratic opponent Sara Gideon polled ahead of her by even more before losing by almost 8 points.  Collins is a notorious underperformer in polls, so Maine’s polls are not all that predictive and as the departed John McCain used to say with his centipede analogy, there can be lots of 👞👟👠👡👢. Maine’s Senate primary takes place next week and assuming Platner remains in the race, and he says he will, if things get worse for him and they may, the Democrats have until July to replace him.  

The Worst People:  Keeping with the frustration theme, yesterday Trump announced that the nomination of Todd Blanche, his personal lawyer/Acting Attorney General to be his next Attorney General.  It’s not clear if Blanche can get the votes he needs to be confirmed as a number of Republican Senators aren’t fans, especially due to his handling of Trump’s on again, off again, maybe on at some future point slush fund.  However, Republicans never fail to disappoint when critical votes are taken so there’s a chance that Senate Judiciary committee head, Chuck Grassley was right when he said yesterday that he sees no impediments to Blanche’s confirmation.  At 92 years of age, Grassley is more coherent that Trump who continues to nod off in meetings when he isn’t hiding his very bruised and swollen hand so we shouldn’t discount his prediction.  Besides, Republicans can do what they did last night, give “passes” to vulnerable Republicans allowing a few to vote against Trump, including Maine’s Susan Collins, Alaska’s Dan Sullivan, and Ohio’s Jon Husted, all of whom are facing close elections in November, while still allowing Trump to win measures he cares about.  Last night the three “opposed” the slush fund but since all their colleagues held firm, an amendment to the $70 billion Ice and Border Control funding package that would have banned it failed.  The funding package passed through the Senate early this morning. However, in one piece of good news, that package did not include funding for Trump’s $1 billion ball room project. Not that Trump’s project list has shrunk, having turned the reflecting pool into a non-reflecting swimming pool blue, he now has plans to do something to the Washington Monument.   Back to the frustrating, despite push back Trump is standing with his decision to appoint Housing Finance Head William Pulte as his Director of National Intelligence.  In an attempt to placate some of the naysayers, Trump says that the scarily unqualified Pulte will only serve on an interim basis, and by interim, Trump means long enough to find lots of election fraud and to disrupt the midterms.  At least for now, following the lead of Virginia Senator Mark Warner, Democrats have voted against extending FISA and its surveillance authority to protest Pulte’s appointment, a problem because Democratic votes are needed since some Republicans oppose FISA’s enhanced surveillance provisions.  

More 💩: Former National Security Advisor/Ambassador John Bolton is a hard guy to feel sorry for; he’s arrogant and most people don’t like him.  That said, it hard to feel good about him pleading guilty to one count of retaining classified information, a charge that the Biden administration chose not to pursue, especially given how many secret documents Trump took, stored in his Mar a Lago ballroom and toilet, and then shared with some of his guests.  The war is still on, though Lebanon and Israel have extended their truce, Hezbollah has not.  The House voted to restrain Trump’s war powers, but their vote was performative because the Senate won’t follow suit. 

 

Bungle in the Jungle 😱 ✡️🌻😱 💣🚀🚢

Jungle Run: Yesterday was primary day in California, Iowa, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, and South Dakota.  California is a bit of an odd duck because rather than holding individual party primaries the state uses a “jungle” format meaning that its primaries are nonpartisan with the top two finishers, regardless of their party affiliation, advancing to November’s election day. In addition, the state’s votes take days sometimes weeks to count because every registered voter in the state is sent a mail-in ballot.  Ballots from those electing to vote by mail are valid as long as they’re postmarked by election day and arrive at county elections offices within seven days of the election. The first-place finisher in a California’s primary frequently doesn’t win in November because party affiliated voters who voted for a losing member of their preferred party in the primary tend to cast their vote in the November election for their party’s candidate even if that candidate wasn’t their first choice. As of this 6 AM, with only 57% of the votes counted, the Governor race is still too close to call.  Trump endorsed Republican Steve Hilton is currently leading with 27.8% of the vote ahead of Democrat Xavier Becerra who is in second place with 25.4%. Though their relative positions might change, once all the votes are counted it’s likely that both will make it to the November election. That makes Becerra the favorite to win in November since most of the voters who cast their votes for the other Democrats in the race, including the 19.6% who voted for the likely third place finisher billionaire Tom Steyer will probably cast their votes for Becerra in November. Further bolstering Becerra’s chances is that California has 5 million more Democratic voters than Republican ones. With 63% of the vote counted in the Los Angeles Mayor race, Democratic incumbent Karen Bass is leading with 34.8% of the vote, reality TV guy/Republican Spencer Pratt is in second with 30.4%, and Democratic challenger Nithya Raman is in third with 22.3%. Assuming those rankings hold, Bass and Pratt will proceed to the November election where most of Raman’s voters are likely to cast their ballots for Bass making it likely that she will win a second term. There were lots of other races in California, some impacted by the state’s recent redistricting and many still uncalled because that’s how California rolls.

Some Other Races:  In New Jersey Republican Representative Thomas Kean, who has been MIA for several months won his primary with a lift from Trump who endorsed him citing his tireless work 🤷‍♀️. Kean who keeps promising mostly through his surrogates to reappear soon is still missing despite concerted efforts by the press to track him down.  He’s not at his house, his vacation house, or even at his family’s protected private retreat.  That provides a boon to Democrat Rebecca Bennett who won the Democratic primary and will challenge him for his seat in his very swingy district. Also in NJ, the AOL/Bernie endorsed retired army doctor Adam Hamawy who used to hang with the infamous terrorist Blind Shiekh but also helped save Senator Tammy Duckworth’s life won his House primary.  In Iowa, Trump’s preferred Gubernatorial candidate Randy Feenstra lost to political operative/farmer Zach Lahn who Democrats think they could maybe beat in November with their candidate current State Auditor Rob Sand.  Democrats also think they maybe have a chance of winning the race for the Senate seat being vacated by Joni Ernst with their primary winning candidate Paralympian Josh Turek who will be running against Republican Representative Ashley Hinson. Blue hope springs eternal even in Iowa. In Montana Kurt Alme, Trump’s endorsed candidate easily won the Republican primary to replace retiring Senator Steve Daines who sneakily announced his decision not to run for reelection moments before the filing deadline for the race expired but after he’d given Alme a heads-up leaving Democrats in the lurch scurrying for a good candidate. Democrat Alani Bankhead won her party’s primary, but what makes very red Montana worth watching is that there is a third candidate, independent veteran/former University of Montana president Seth Bodnar running.  Bodnar is endorsed by former Democratic Senator Jon Tester.

More 💩:  The White House has walked back plans for its $1.776 billion slush fund with Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, who only lies on days of the week ending in “day” saying it’s definitely not going to happen.  Democrats and maybe even a very few Republicans want to add an amendment to the still not passed Homeland funding bill permanently banning the slush fund. Though Blanche says that the slush fund is dead, or at the very least almost dead, he stands by the plan to kill all of Trump’s tax audits, because at the end of the day getting excused from paying the $100 million plus interest he owes plus anything else we don’t even know about is what Trump cares about the most, well that, his East wing ballroom and drone pad, and staying president for the rest of his life.  Pete Hegseth continues to stand in the way of the promotions of those he finds too woke, Black or female but has no problem with convicted January 6 rioters one of whom he has appointedto a highly sensitive counterterrorism role. Trump has chosen Housing Administrator Bill Pulte to replace Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence because though Pulte has none of the relevant intelligence experience Congressionally required for the job he’s shown a willingness to go after Trump’s enemies and will probably be happy to help disrupt the midterms and any other elections that matter. The Supreme Court has signed off on Alabama ridding itself of its one Black district in the upcoming midterms because Jim Crow. Former FBI Director James Comey is still indicted but a federal judge in DC is okay with a progressive group continuing to display a flag including the numbers 86 47, concluding that it is "difficult to fathom ... that a reasonable observer would view the flag as a true threat."  Graham Platner is still likely to be the Democrat’s candidate for Maine Senator but while some of his most ardent supporters including Bernie and Elizabeth Warren remain enthusiastically in his camp, a few Democratic Senators who met with him yesterday are less than enthused with some fearing that another shoe may drop.  And after saying exactly what he thinks about CBS and 60 Minutes’ new management Scott Pelley was fired by that management last night for his “antipathy.”  Pelley’s response was to post a letter saying that new management had instructed him to “inject falsehoods and bias“ into his stories.  He went on to say that the new management’s “incompetence and unprofessionalism” have “wreaked havoc.”  A number of media reporters have reported that Joe Rogan is being asked to join the 60 Minutes team. RIP 60 Minutes as we knew it.   

Iran War:  More bombing last night. 96 Days and counting.