Nothing But Grift

More sideshows to amuse us. 

• Former Trump attorney Alina Habba told the president that another one of his top advisers — former Kennedy Center leader Ric Grenell — failed to deposit a multimillion-dollar donation that her billionaire husband made to the center a year ago, according to four senior administration officials and three insiders briefed on the controversy. 
• Grenell denied the accusations as "absurd" and a "lie."
• Habba and her husband, Turhan Mildon, declined to comment through a spokesperson.

Place your bets: who wins this battle? Keep in mind that the winner isn't neccessarily the correct side, just the side that Trump likes more

Welp

FANNIE MAE sees higher mortgage rates through the end of this year and into 2027. Sees 30-year fixed at 7.4% for Q4 and 7.5% for all of next year. (via @dianaolick.bsky.social) @cnbc.com

— Carl Quintanilla (@carlquintanilla.bsky.social) 14 October 2026 at 16:45

Pay Me

She wants wingnut welfare tenure, of course.

Kimberly Guilfoyle is threatening to bring the Trump family down with her following her shock ouster this week, insiders say. 

Just gossip, but we can have a bit of fun. 

Bad TV

Gramps still has some sense of what might not be the greatest show on Earth.

President Donald Trump and his advisers are debating whether to call off plans to livestream the firing squad execution of the Fort Hood shooter, with Trump having remarked privately that he did not initially know that Nidal Hasan was paralyzed from the waist down, two sources familiar with the discussions told CNN.

...

One of the sources familiar with the discussions pointed to Trump’s deep understanding of imagery as a key reason why he may decide to ditch plans for the livestream. The president has also listened to the argument that a public execution by firing squad could serve as propaganda for foreign adversaries and terrorists to try to paint Hasan as a martyr, a Trump adviser told CNN.

"Deep understanding" that there really isn't any way to make shooting a paralyzed guy look good, even to (most of the)  people who want to see live firing squads.

Men In Good Standing

One wonders what Musk will have to do to make him as unacceptable to Beltway journalists as Hasan Piker is.

Elon Musk has turned on Ukraine by imposing limits on his Starlink devices, Kyiv has claimed.

Advisers to Volodymyr Zelensky said on Wednesday that military missions had been scuppered after restrictions were implemented on the critical communications devices without warning.

I mean, if I started posting various Musk quotes as my own then held a fundraiser for a Michigan Senate candidate, Kristin Welker would grill that candidate endlessly about me and those quotes.

Or if I could credibly be painted as a Putin sympathizer.

Musk can fund half the Republican party and take active sides in this conflict and no one says a word to his associates, the entire Republican caucus.

Biden should've seized Musk's company when this happened before.

KYIV - During a pivotal push by Ukraine to retake territory from Russia in late September 2022, Elon Musk gave an order that disrupted the counteroffensive and dented Kyiv’s trust in Starlink, the satellite internet service the billionaire provided early in the war to help Ukraine’s military maintain battlefield connectivity.

America First

Ukraine isn't the only place where being "American" means nothing to the people who run America if it is inconvenient to the people in charge and their policies.

As President Donald Trump and his administration have ratcheted up pressure on Ukraine to stop striking Russian refineries, citing harm to American consumers, they have remained silent on recent Russian strikes on US businesses in Ukraine.

Russia has escalated its attacks on facilities tied to American corporations – and civilian infrastructure in Ukraine writ large – over the past several months.

According to Andy Hunder, the President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine, Russian missiles and drones have damaged facilities belonging to some of America’s most notable brands, including Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, McDonalds and Oreo.

This isn't surprising, but it is interesting that this is the first I am hearing of it.

Morning

Thinking of going to my plastic surgeon (I have one, of course) and asking for Mar-a-Lago face.

Happy Hour

get happy

How Many Scaramuccis

Maybe we can get another firing for my amusement.

Afternoon

busy with some life things

Then Why Did Trump Fire You

Can't say this:

“My gratitude and respect for President Trump and Secretary Rubio remain unwavering. I am proud of what we accomplished together, and I will always be a loyal supporter of President Trump and his mission to Make America Great Again,” Guilfoyle posted on X.

Paired with this:

“I also want to address the recent allegations against me,” the former Fox News on-air personality wrote.

“These allegations are false, and I intend to vigorously defend my name, my reputation, and my integrity. I have dedicated my professional life to fighting for justice, standing up for what is right, and defending the values that make America exceptional. I will not allow false accusations to define my decades of public service.”

It's an unimportant sideshow, but as I have said, Trump firing people is one of the few pleasures we get.

End of the Road

I do wonder if she has wingnut welfare tenure, or if she's in a bit of trouble here.

Kimberly Guilfoyle has been asked to step down as US ambassador to Greece, after weeks of reports that she sought payment from a Trump donor in exchange for access to administration officials.

I suppose someone has to make sure she keeps her mouth shut.

Always Thought He Was A Boob Man

Trump on Jon Husted: "I don't do this with men very often. I started examining his body, because I didn't know he was a great athlete ... I looked at his ass"

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) October 13, 2026 at 12:28 AM

So Much For Abundance

Abundance was basically the Silicon Valley/Big Energy Trojan Horse into the Dems, co-opting the urbanist YIMBY movement of build more housing and transit to build more data centers and trample over any resistance to various energy projects. 

Opposition to it was coded Left (juvenile, silly, ridiculous, Al Gore Is Fat stuff) - the thrust of the Abundance book - even though YIMBYism was a left-leaning grass roots project for decades.

Then rightwingers and normies also started hating the data centers.

Anyhoo, I'm sure all those Dems who, for months, starting saying "abundance" like it was some sort of Hogwarts politics incantation, will reconsider the advice of people who led them into that trap.

As thousands of new data centers have been built to fuel the booming artificial intelligence industry, escalating public resentment against both the energy-sucking infrastructure and AI itself is roiling small towns and suburban communities from coast to coast, a CNN investigation has found.

Police have been called into action to investigate dozens of threats to data centers, from bomb claims etched on bathroom walls to online incitements to “use bullets on city council members” to suggestions that protesters should “unalive” pro-development officials, according to a CNN review of more than 100 police reports filed since last year.

As the article makes clear, there's a push to make opposition an Extremists-On-Both-Sides thing, and of course highlighting the threats-and-violence aspect of opposition, as the article does, helps to do that. But everyone hates these things, often with good reason!

One good reason is, simply, why do these guys get to stampede over local laws when local businesses struggle to get permits for minor things?

President Deals

Doesn't get the concept.

Q: You said Russia and Ukraine agreed to a ceasefire, but both sides said they have not agreed to that TRUMP: Well they agreed, you know why? Because I said 'you agree.' That's why.

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 12 October 2026 at 22:05

All Over But The Voting

Not quite, but absent the arrival of a giant alien squid invasion, the path to the November elections is pretty much set. The results aren't predetermined, but while individual campaigns might have some drama, basic campaign messages have been decided and ads have been purchased.

Everybody whose livelihood and reputation depends on the result will start putting in their excuses early, just in case things go a bit wrong. And if things go right, look for the puff pieces about the geniuses who made it happen. I am not even sure who the 2026 "Rahm Emanuel (2006)" is,  but I am sure that someone will step up to take credit, and some journalists will hitch their wagons to him (probably a him, it is usually a him).

Sure that all sounds a bit cynical, because I am a bit cynical about the people who work in politics professionally. The well-meaning dogooders tend to be driven out by the self-serving self-promoters, the ones who always have one eye on the next job, the next payday.

Then the presidential primary begins. Personnel decisions are good early signals.

Up With We Will Not Put

We can debate precisely how this is best communicated, but "we are not going to put up with this shit, we are not going to move on, you fuckers will pay as soon as we are back in power" needs to be understood.

And Where Do They Live

A lot of Americans imagine they are Italian or Irish or whatever, occasionally with some justification, but I am a bit curious about where Trump imagines these Italian-American voters are.

With fuel prices surging and the war with Iran dragging on, President Trump’s popularity has slipped among nearly every demographic group. So on Friday — three days before Columbus Day and less than four weeks before the midterm elections — he made his pitch to Italian Americans.

“As you know, the radical left communists hate Columbus and they want to abolish Columbus Day,” Mr. Trump told a group of several hundred Italian Americans he had gathered in the East Room of the White House.

“These lunatics that are running,” he continued, “they’re all against Christopher Columbus. But I’ll tell you what, we’re going to be here almost two-and-a-half years. He’s going to be so protected, like nobody’s ever been protected before.”

Spoiler: northern Mid-Atlantic and southern New England (mostly).

I suppose there are a few swingy congressional districts in there, but I suspect they are mostly not the 2026 battlegrounds.

 

Gavin's Ex

It's pretty hard to be too corrupt for the Trump administration, though being a woman helps of course (one does not have to see her as a feminist cause to observe this).

President Donald Trump is weighing whether to dismiss Kimberly Guilfoyle from her position as US ambassador to Greece after a string of reports about misconduct, a person familiar with the matter said Sunday.

Trump has been monitoring reports claiming Guilfoyle, who was engaged to Trump’s eldest son Donald Trump Jr. for four years, accepted lavish gifts as ambassador and sought money in exchange for providing access to administration figures before she was confirmed.

People say her problem is making it too obvious, getting caught, but these fuckers get caught every day!  Honey badgers of corruption, usually.

Seems Bad

I bet most Republican members of Congress, when asked about this, will claim ignorance and never be asked again.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal agents searched Democratic U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar’s home on Monday morning as part of a criminal investigation, according to people familiar with the matter.

The search was conducted by Homeland Security Investigations agents, said the people, who were not authorized to publicly discuss an ongoing investigation and spoke on the condition of anonymity. More details about the investigation were not immediately clear.

...sure why not.

The ​news outlet reported that the raid followed a criminal fraud investigation ⁠into the Minnesota lawmaker's paperwork, filled out by her late father when she ​was a child.