Tariffs Are Back 😱 ✡️🌻😱 🚀🚢

Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire:  We all know that Trump lies a lot, but his Pentagon’s newest lie is a despicable doozy.  Pentagon officials have removed the four soldiers who died this week from the list of Iran war casualties asserting that because their deaths occurred after the ceasefire that Trump declared in April, they don’t count as war deaths.  Putting aside that the ceasefire is a myth, that is an insult to the fallen and their families but it’s in character for Trump who insists that we’ve won the Iran war, something he repeatedly claims while threatening to obliterate more of Iran’s infrastructure every time they or their Houthi surrogates attack another ship. Threats or no threats those ship attacks keep coming, which explains why the price of a barrel of Brent crude surged to over $100 for a while yesterday before settling back a bit. Trump isn’t just lying, he’s also all in on his TACO dance.  After announcing that he’d agreed to provide Saudi Arabia with nuclear capability in a deal that didn’t include the safeguards and inspections that we’ve imposed on other allies to insure that approved civilian uses don’t morph into the manufacturing of nuclear bombs and then getting scathing public criticism from some of his usual Congressional allies and Israel he’s back tracked.  He now insists that the deal is preconditioned on the Saudis joining the Abraham Accords which would require that they normalize relations with Israel. That’s an unwelcome surprise to the Saudis who have no interest in doing that, so at least for now, with now doing a lot of heavy lifting, the nuke deal is on ice. Also, tariffs are back. In substance the newly imposed tariffs look a lot like the ones that the Supreme Court ruled against except they are justified by different laws, mostly by Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 which allows for tariffs on trading partners over policies related to forced labor in global supply chains. It’s hard to believe that Trump whose trade minions have spent the past few months searching for evidence of those labor violations cares much about forced labor but if that’s what it takes to get his tariffs back he’s all in.  The new tariffs which replace the terming out tariffs that Trump imposed following the Supreme Court decision cover “roughly” 60 trading partners, including China, the European Union, and the UK, and account for 99.4% of US imports.  Trump repeatedly says that affordability is a fake concept ginned up by Dumbocrats so why should anyone be surprised that he remains all in on inflationary tariffs during an election year when voters are focused on rising costs?

Legal Morass:  We haven’t heard much from Congressman Jim “Gym” Jordan lately, maybe because he’s positioning himself to challenge Speaker Mike Johnson as head of the House Republican caucus after the midterms but he’s back.  Yesterday, he referred former special counsel Jack Smith to the Department of Justice, claiming that Smith made false statements to Congress while testifying about his Trump investigation. Smith’s lawyers deny the allegation, saying that he testified truthfully but since its Trump’s DOJ it’s fair to assume that Smith is in for some torture.  Besides, the DOJ needs something to distract from their most recent screw-up.  Yesterday, after being skewered by District Court Judge Arun Subramanian for violating protections given to journalists as well as for “slipshod” legal work, the DOJ withdrew the subpoenas that had demanded grand jury testimony and phone records from NY Times journalists as well as the additional subpoenas for their families’ phones. Those subpoenas had been issued to placate Trump who remains irate about the NY Times article about how he flew to Turkey on his Qatari gifted plane even though the plane hadn’t been retrofitted with the critical communication and security features included on the old Air Force One, the plane he hates because it doesn’t have Trump approved gold accoutrements. Though Trump continues to insist that the Qatari plane is up to snuff, the NY Times article was spot on about its security inadequacies which explains why it is back in the shop having all those neat and very expensive security features added. In other legally fraught news, the DOJ has dropped its demand that the University of Pennsylvania turn over a list of Jewish people on its campus. The DOJ’s rationale for demanding the list was that it was needed as part of its investigation into anti-Semitism but WTF a “Jewish list.” What could possibly go wrong with that?  In other legal news Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche hasn’t been confirmed yet, but a lot of arm twisting is going on so it’s probably just a matter of time.  In addition, since Trump’s CDC nominee Erika Schwarts now has Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy’s support she is expected to be confirmed but since not enough Senators attended yesterday’s Health Committee meeting her confirmation is still on hold.. While she is expected to pass muster, Sean Kaufman, Trump’s nominee for assistant secretary for preparedness and response, might not. His problem is that he previously made lots of anti-vaccine statements and also dissed lifesaving vitamin K shots for infants.  Just what we need an anti-vaccine, anti-RNA guy dealing with the next pandemic.  By the way, there have been somewhere around 11,5000 cases of cyclosporiasis, the gnarly parasite that RFK insists he has under control even though he doesn’t.

More 💩:  Most of us don’t pay much attention to the really skeevy Tate Brothers Andrew and Tristan but among the so-called manosphere they’re influencer idols because who cares about their misogyny, and those credible accusations of trafficking of girls and rape anyway. Earlier this year with a lift from the Trump administration, the Tates who are dual citizens of the US and the UK had been freed from confinement in Romania and allowed to travel to the US where they’ve been busy hobnobbing with lots of MAGA types in Florida.  Not everyone in Florida was happy about them being there which may explain why they’re now in US federal custody awaiting extradition to the UK where they face a total of 59 combined charges involving seven alleged victims. Andrew Tate is charged with 42 counts, including rape, human trafficking, assault, and indecent images of a child, while Tristan Tate faces 17 counts including rape and human trafficking.  A number of their MAGA fans, a group that included Don Jr, Barron Trump, Alina Habba, and Candace Owens, among others have gone quiet, but some are sticking with them including Tucker Carlson who blames their woes on their outspoken criticism of Israel because that rape stuff is so not a problem when you can just blame Israel. Back from her short maternity leave, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt insists that Trump won’t intervene on their behalf but it’s early so who knows, a TACO could be in the works.