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.