Tune in on Thursday 😱 ✡️🌻😱 🚀🚢

Wars:  Despite Trump’s multiple assertions that he’s won the war with Iran and that Tehran wants peace more than us, we’re still at war and the war is escalating with no end in sight.  For a while this week, Trump who is once again threatening to bomb Iran to smithereens, said that the US would take over the Strait of Hormuz, charging passing ships transit fees to cover the costs of their protection. Given that just about everyone, except for Iran and Oman but including Secretary of State Rubio have rejected the idea of imposing transit tolls for a previously free waterway, that idea sunk like a lead balloon. In response to the pushback, Trump pulled another TACO; he now says that countries in the region will compensate for their protection by investing in the US.  That’s one of his favorite lines, it’s a face-saving claim, the transit fee is off the table, the investment will probably never come.  Though there have been no reported deaths of US soldiers on the Iran front this week, the same can’t be said about the war against immigrants.  It turns out that arming untrained ICE agents with guns has consequences, something that proved deadly for 25-year -old Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a father and Columbia national who was killed when an ICE agent shot into his car in Maine. Guerrero was not the person ICE was seeking, “just” collateral damage in Trump’s war against immigrants.  Naturally, the official government response is that Guerrero was using his car as a weapon.  There’s no evidence of that and at least for now, in response to Guerrero’s death and last week’s “shooting while driving” death of 52-year-old construction worker Mexican national Lorenzo Salgado in Houston, ICE agents have been directed to halt most traffic stops. Worth noting, Maine Senator Susan Collins provided a critical vote for the huge ICE funding package.  Though Democrats still haven’t selected a candidate to oppose her, they’re making sure that Maine voters are well aware of that vote and though it might be wish casting, polls show her lagging behind a TBD Democrat . On the Senate front, Linsdey Graham’s sister, Darline Graham Nordone was sworn in as his replacement yesterday. She’ll serve until January when she’ll be replaced by the winner of South Carolina’s November election. Picking a family member as an interim replacement for a dead Senator is not without precedent, usually the interim appointee is a spouse but since Graham was a bachelor, Darline, who has no plans to run for election, was not a surprising choice.     

Flashing Red Lights:  The Iran war and the INS shooting news are newsworthy but something even more frightening is scheduled to take place on Thursday night when Trump takes to the airwaves to deliver a primetime speech in which he plans to provide “evidence” the outcome of the 2020 election, the one he lost to Joe Biden, was swayed by foreign interference in those voting machines that he’s been screeching about for years.  To bolster his claims, he plans to share previously rejected “proof” provided to him by Bill Pulte, the interim Director of National Intelligence who picked up the ball from Tulsi Gabbard who had spent some of her final days as DNI lurking around Fulton County, Georgia’s election facilities and who has been kept in place longer than anyone had anticipated to provide Trump with this kill the midterms ammunition. It’s reported that Trump is going to claim that Georgia’s two Democratic Senators, Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock are illegitimate since they benefited from all that phantom foreign manipulation of Fulton County’s election machines. Notably Warnock didn’t just win in 2020 when he was running in a special election to replace Republican Senator Johnny Isaacson who stepped down for health-related reasons, he also won a full term in 2022.  Ossoff is up for reelection in November. Early in the year, Republicans had targeted his seat as their most likely pick up but much to their dismay, his popularity his grown and he’s polling well.  Absent election interference from Trump’s forces, Ossoff is expected to win reelection which goes far to explaining what Trump is doing.  He is laying the groundwork to justify taking over Fulton County’s election apparatus, a plan that will involve scrubbing the election rolls of “illegitimate” Democratic voters while stationing very intimidating armed troops outside of Fulton County polling places to scare off voters. He won’t limit himself to Georgia, he is expected to use his faux claims of election interference to justify doing the same in other heavily Democratic areas in swing states like Michigan and Pennsylvania.

More 💩: Confirmation hearings for Jay Clayton, Trump’s nominee to replace Bill Pulte, and Todd Blanche, the interim Attorney General who Trump wants confirmed to the AG spot that used to be filled by Pam Bondi take place today.  Clayton whose initial hearing was delayed so that Trump could keep the nefarious Pulte in place a bit longer is expected to his quick confirmation, not because he’s qualified but because Senators on both sides of the aisle want Pulte gone from the DNI spot as soon as possible. Unless a few Republicans, especially ones like John Cornyn and Thom Tillis who are on their way out and therefore have little to lose, step up to the plate, Blanche who should not be confirmed will be confirmed as well. That’s a travesty.  He doesn’t even pretend to be anything but Trump’s personal lawyer.  On Monday, while trashing the deal that Blanche helped Trump “negotiate” with the IRS, the one that would eliminate audits of his tax returns and that also involved the funding of a huge slush fund for Trump’s January 6 abettors, Federal Judge Kathleen Williams of the Southern District of Florida referred him to the NY Bar, more than suggesting that he’s not fit to practice law.  As noted in today’s NY Times editorial, Blanche “has celebrated the January 6 rioters. He has misled Congress under oath. He has said it is Mr. Trump’s ‘right,’ and ‘indeed it is his duty,’ to use the department to investigate people he ‘has had issues with.’”  Blanche has also engaged in “frivolous” prosecutions of Trump’s foes, impeded the Epstein investigation, and probably promised Ghislaine Maxwell, who he had moved to a Club Fed, a pardon if only she keeps her mouth shut about Trump’s Epstein related crimes. Sadly, Blanche is the worst, which is why Trump wants him confirmed and also why so many of Trump’s abettors will vote for his confirmation.  On a positive note, E Jean Caroll has finally received the $5 million (plus interest) that Trump fought so hard to deny her.