Maybe The Strait Doesn't Matter At All

Wall Street seems to think so. What if they are right?

It's Tariff Week, Again

Trump is back to happier times, when he would announce them daily and watch his Foxy friends on TV clap.

How Is He Doing

This car-hating hippie does find rising gas prices somewhat pleasing (yes, I know they impose real additional costs on people who can't afford them, but so do so many other things people don't obsess about as much), and also a hilarious  tribute to the energy and industrial and military policies of our greatest president.

At Least The War Is Over

And we won, and we obtained many spoils.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is arguing that the war in Iran has already ended because of the ceasefire that began in early April, an interpretation that would allow the White House to avoid the need to seek congressional approval.

The Catturd2 Presidency

I don't claim to have my finger on the pulse of America about everything, but I really don't think that the president regularly trying to get TV comedians fired has much appeal beyond the hardcore.  

President Donald Trump says ABC had “better” fire Jimmy Kimmel soon, in his latest broadside against the network and its popular late-night comedian.

To the extent that all the "cancel culture" nonsense resonated with normies, it's because in their not-paying-much-attention brains, this is sort of what they imagined "cancel culture" was.  

Elite concerns about cancel culture were something entirely different of course.

Normies (hearing the endless cancel culture whine): Biden is blacklisting my favorite actors because of woke!  Office workers are losing their jobs because they aren't saying Latinx!

Elites: Regular people are being mean to us on twitter and college students are protesting our 5 figure student fee-paid speaking fees because we are racist sex pests! This is tyranny!

Morning

Get a life!

Happy Hour

Get happy. The stonks are soaring!

Housekeeping

I've long thought about changing the font from the joke-pretentious Times New Roman (just like that real newspaper!) to something more readable to my (and your) ageing eyes. As a temporary measure, there's a little checkbox at the top of the left column that switches everything to Arial if you so desire!

Afternoon

Busy with some things.

Mills Out

I've avoided getting sucked into the Platner discourse, as my beautiful mind is already occupied by too many things, but Schumer recruiting Mills was an obviously ridiculous step.

Gov. Janet Mills of Maine, the Democratic establishment’s choice to run for the Senate seat long held by Senator Susan Collins, a Republican, suspended her campaign on Thursday, saying she no longer had the financial resources to compete against Graham Platner, a progressive political newcomer.

Her exit paves the way for Mr. Platner, an oysterman who has led her in polls, to become the Democratic nominee in one of the most important Senate races in the country.

Strait Flushed

The fundamental stalemate is that there is nothing Iran would agree to - especially when we all know that President Deals is not bound by deals -  that would satisfy Trump's ego and his need to semi-plausibly claim HE WON.

I shouldn't have been, but I was a bit surprised he went back to posting threats. Or, at least, a bit surprised his staff didn't stop him.

Chat Is This Good

This is how Trump approval can go from 34 to 27.

(source)

Morning

Thirsty Thursday.

Happy Hour

Get happy

The Stonk Mystery

Oil prices soar, stocks keep going up, or at least stay flat.

Yes they're down a bit today, now, but hardly panic selling.

Leaf Eaters

We are ruled by people who were like my middle school cohort - almost everything you do means you're "gay" (effeminate, not a real man, etc.).

Continuing to address military culture, Cao said the services needed “meat eaters” instead of “leaf eaters.”

A funny thing about getting older is you see the same fads return again and again, with the details and justifications changing.  The usual aesthetic of "meat eating is manly" has been  bolstered by the "keto" and high protein diet fads, especially for wannabe muscleheads.

Aesthetics of masculinity aside, the one bit of diet advice which is likely more important than any other, at least in the context of a typical American diet, is: almost everybody needs to eat more fiber.

Certainly more than none!

At Least The War Is Over

Here in Ye Old Blogosphere, we've long joked that the political press are like 6-year-olds playing soccer, just chasing wherever the ball is kicked, but it's quite funny that a major international military and economic crisis can be largely forgotten because of a minor security incident where they were all assembled.*

*And, yes, a guy with guns - in America! -  who didn't fire a shot (almost certainly) and didn't get through security is an extremely minor security incident, even if the Secret Service started shooting.

The Peak Comeback Kid Column

It was David Broder rooting for his boy, Bush, in 2007.

It may seem perverse to suggest that, at the very moment the House of Representatives is repudiating his policy in Iraq, President Bush is poised for a political comeback. But don't be astonished if that is the case.

He gave the game away about what motivated the column:

He has been far more accessible — and responsive — to the press and public, holding any number of one-on-one interviews, both on and off the record, leading up to Wednesday's televised news conference. And he has been more candid in his responses than in the past.

Journalists got their special treat - a candid off the record talk with the preznit!  - and what could be more compelling than that! 

Newsworthy

You would think insane unhinged rants by the president - in this case on the flagship public affairs/news show! - would be newsworthy, but instead it is always something to be smoothed over and hidden.

CBS News’s 60 Minutes cut out large portions of its interview with President Trump in which he rambled about his ballroom, how hot his Secret Service agents are, and how the No Kings protests are just like the Ku Klux Klan.

An analysis by Decoding Fox News revealed that many portions of the interview, which took place Sunday following the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, simply never made it to air.

As has been the case since I have been blogging, other top journalists are strangely quiet on clearly indefensible practices by their colleagues.  

That's one aspect of the news ecosystem that I think has become worse over the years.  There used to be more "internal" media criticism.  Much of it was bad, of course, but there was at least some insider reflection on what was happening.

Now there are plenty of critical voices (good!) but they are all outside the room, not in it, making it easier to just ignore them.

TNR (linked) used to be inside the room, when it was right-wing-masquerading-as-center-left, and now it isn't. Funny how things work.

Morning

Every single day.