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.