Lunch

Holiday posting schedule.

The Newspaper Shouldn't Be Complicated

I know that most journalists would defend this Haberman special  as obviously highlighting the absurdity of Trump's obsession with his little building projects, but readers shouldn't need a decoder ring for this stuff.

As the war with Iran grinds on, Mr. Trump finds reprieve by focusing on the minutia of an endeavor much more within his grasp: renovating Washington with ornate projects.

“He loves to build,” Mr. Lutnick said, shortly before an emergency hearing about Mr. Trump’s desire to rename the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in his own honor. Mr. Lutnick added: “This is what he enjoys. So late at night, 11 o’clock at night, he calls me and wants to talk about things he’s building, because it’s fun for him.”

“If you sat with him, would you have a nice chat with him? No, you’d ask him about Iran, then you’d ask him about this, then you’d ask him about that,” he noted. “Everybody does that. And the one thing he likes to do during the week is construction.”

Writing it up as a piece about his charming eccentricities is a choice. There are other ways to write it.

 

Where's Mitch

It is quite reasonable to ask just how long a senator can be absent.

Morning

Holiday Monday funday.

Sunday Evening

 The fun starts again tomorrow.

How Low Can It Go

Often IRL friends ask me why Trump's poll numbers aren't lower. I explain that absent economic catastrophe, it is unlikely any president gets any lower than where Trump is now.

But implicit in their question is the belief that if his approval is low enough, then Something must happen. 20% approval would trigger... something.

And it really won't.

How Did They Mess This Up

This is a rhetorical question, of course, but given that the 45 year prime mission of the neocons was to conquer Iran, how did they screw it up this badly?

At Least The War Is Over

Escalating tit-for-tat is unlikely to lead to a anything good.

Morning

Sunday funday

Saturday Evening

Enjoy

People Who Pay Their Bills Are Suckers

Trump's beliefs about the losses from trade probably aren't entirely an extension of his core business practice, but I suspect they are not unrelated.

I also suspect that going after the rich guy from TV with a series of ads from people he had stiffed over the years would have been effective.

Good journalism angle, too, if we had any journalists anymore.

At Least The War Is Over

With Iraq, "everyone" agreed it was a glorious idea even though nobody could agree on why or what it was supposed to achieve.

I suppose most pundits basically agreed with Richard Cohen, whatever they said, that the "prudent [?] use of violence could be therapeutic." Afghanistan didn’t cure their wwr boners. 

Still the entire neoconservative movement had been building up to it and even they didn’t have a clear, generally agreed upon, purpose.

And that was complete clarity compared to whatever we have now with Iran.

Iran has grown more confident in its ability to attack targets in the Middle East and appears determined to continue the conflict for months to frustrate the United States, according to U.S. intelligence reports in recent weeks.

Probably the goal of their war now is to change the name of Tehran to Trump City. Actually he will probably tell google to do that tomorrow.

We all know that hippies and George McGovern humiliated America by losing  [it was a tie] Vietnam. Obama lost Iraq, Biden lost Afghanistan, and now President Emanuel will lose Iran.

That is how popular history is written.

Morning

Slacker Saturday

Friday Happy Hour

Ladies and gentlemen... The weekend.

Sure Why Not

New innovations in heterodox political economy.

President Donald Trump threatened on Friday to prevent the US from trading with many nations unless the Federal Reserve lowers interest rates.

 

“LOWER THE RATE OR I’LL STOP TRADING WITH COUNTRIES WITH WHICH WE HAVE A DEFICIT, which the U.S. Supreme Court, in its ridiculous and very costly Tariff decision, strongly acknowledged ‘the President’ has an absolute right to do,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. “IT’S BETTER THAN TARIFFS! The Fed Board, with its great new leader, must get smart - BE PATRIOTS for a change.”

 

Maria Messed Up

Oops

Behind the paywall, but basically the suits at Fox ordered everyone there to ignore Trump's unhinged July speech about the 2020 election.

Maria Bartiromo snitched to the Trumpers.

She forgot who her actual bosses are and got fired.

A bit more here.

The Senior Senator From Pennsylvania

I don’t think I would enjoy being a senator. Also I never tried to get the job. 

One morning in June, three paralyzed military veterans in wheelchairs from rural Pennsylvania arrived at the office of Sen. John Fetterman for a long-awaited meeting to discuss legislation that would improve their care.

Fetterman’s staff greeted them with bad news: The Pennsylvania Democrat had to cancel. He’d told his staff he may have eaten something bad and wasn’t feeling well, according to people familiar with the matter.

Less than an hour after his staffers met with the veterans in his place, Fetterman walked into his office, showing no signs of illness. He had an appointment he didn’t want to miss, he told staff: an interview on Fox News to discuss Israel and the war in Iran.

The hardworking evil ones to the most damage, but I do have extra contempt for people who too lazy to do the important jobs they asked for.

CHOP is the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

Morning

Fantastic Friday

Happy Hour

Get happy

The Pro-Genocide Wing

Partial list, at least.

Here are the 33 Democrats who voted with Republicans to block federal funding to American colleges if they engage in boycotts against Israel — a foreign country that's committed genocide and killed Americans using American tax dollars:

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— Prem Thakker ツ (@premthakker.bsky.social) 3 September 2026 at 17:40