It Didn't Have To Be This Way

I know it is a bit ridiculous to ponder "what if Trump, but good" and I don't mean that precisely, but the basic truth is that every Republican president has the weight of the news media behind them and all they have to do is not fuck *everything* up.  Simple path to being very popular.

They can do horrible Republican things - even horrible Trump things - as long as they show enough restraint to not break absolutely everything.

None of them managed.

Yes Saint Regan won re-election in a landslide, but he wasn't a very popular president (nor very unpopular, mostly) except for the real Americans in the Beltway who worshipped him.  Over the years we've had a lot of dishonest coverage referring to the fact that he left office as a very popular president, but that is based on his lame duck polling which tapped into some sympathetic nostalgia for the senile old bastard.

Clinton versus the Gipper.

At Least The War Is Over

TRUMP: We're gonna be attacking Iran, and attacking them very hard. REPORTER: Resuming bombing? TRUMP: Yeah. We are.

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 10 June 2026 at 11:52

De-escalation

The messages, they are mixed.

Oh No Not Our Big Beautiful Boaters

No group is entirely monolithic, but boat guys are Trump guys.

Damn You Sleepy Joe

Why does he keep doing this.

Annual inflation rose to a three-year-high of 4.2% in May, underscoring how elevated energy prices are rippling through the US economy, according to new data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

How is this holding up: 

“I firmly believe that nothing is more transient than a supply shock, and we can, we can look through that, because before the Iranian conflict began, core inflation was coming down,” Bessent told CNBC’s Joe Kernen from the sidelines of President Donald Trump’s summit with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping. “So I think core inflation will continue coming down.”

That hasn’t been the recent trend, however.

Separate readings this week showed that consumer prices jumped 0.6% in April — and still rose 0.4% even when focusing on core costs that exclude food and energy. Twelve-month inflation stood at 3.8% for inflation and 2.8% for core.

Similarly, wholesale prices, a better indication of pipeline pressures, soared 1.4%, putting the 12-month level at 6%, the highest since late 2022. The inflation shock showed up in import and export prices as well, which also posted their highest levels in about four years.

That was from March. 

At Least The War Is Over

Going well.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has claimed attacks on United States military bases in Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan in retaliation for US strikes on Iranian ports and islands in the Strait of Hormuz.

In a statement carried by state media on Wednesday, the IRGC said it launched drone attacks on the US Fifth Fleet in Bahrain and the Ali Al Salem airbase in Kuwait, as well as a long-range missile strike on an airbase in Azraq, Jordan.

But, Atrios, you can't take what the IRGC says at face value! Yes, true, but I have some bad news about Pete Hegseth's Pentagon. 

Morning

Wacky Wednesday

Happy Hour

Get happy

Screwed

Heckuva job, Elon.

New York — The screwworm, a flesh-eating parasite and longtime foe of American ranchers, is back in US cattle after decades.

The US Department of Agriculture confirmed at least three infected cattle Texas this week. The beef industry has already been grappling with the smallest cattle herd in 75 years due to prolonged droughts.

The early months of Trump II were especially enraging, in part because of Dem (not all) politicians talking about DOGE as if it could be a force for good.

War Off War On

 

The American Dream

I have been curious about what they expected to find here.

But since arriving in the US, Afrikaners – largely the Afrikaans-speaking descendants of Dutch settlers and French Huguenots – have faced major challenges, in large part due to policies aimed at immigrants and enacted by the White House and Ohio’s Republican-run legislature.

Last June, Ohio introduced new driving license rules for lawful residents who are not citizens or green card holders.

They include the requirement for all applicants to complete eight hours of lessons through a designated driving school, 24 hours of classroom work and 50 hours of driving with a licensed adult before being able to take a driving exam. The cost of fulfilling these requirements is estimated at about $500 and could take up to nine months, when in the past it took a matter of weeks.

I am a "ban cars" guy and this is insane.

Headlines Every Time

The problem with all (good) fact checking type reporting is that the other reporters wake up every day with their minds wiped, putting the new claim/lie in the headlines and first paragraphs.

Including the period before the ceasefire, he’s done it at least 37 times. That’s the number of times he’s said directly — in social media posts, public appearances and phone calls with the media — that a deal was nigh or claimed Iran was desperate to cut one.

At Least The War Is Over

Or maybe it's infrastructure week.

United States President Donald Trump has said that a deal between Israel and Iran is imminent, and that the two will leave each other alone for at least a week.

He told reporters late on Monday that the US was “in the final throes of what will be a very, very good deal”.

Morning

 Taco Tuesday

Happy Hour

Get happy

Afternoon

Busy with life stuff

Badass

Elissa Slotkin is working on the important issues.

But those rules don’t go far enough for Senator Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) or Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.), who are introducing the Protecting America from Chinese Cars Act. Should it pass, the bill would ban connected cars built or designed in China (and other adversarial nations like Russia) from entering the country, including any connected cars built elsewhere by a Chinese company or by any firm in which Chinese companies own more than 15 percent.

I do find it funny that the usual centrist dipshits were setting her up to be The Next Big Thing before realizing she is dumber than dogshit.

Trivially easy for Canada or even just Ontario to retaliate.

I have some bad news for people who are pretending to be frightened of Chinese computer chips.

At Least The War Is Over

Few pleasures in politics these days, but it is funny when Trump makes horrible people eat shit, even if only temporarily.

Bringing The Fun

No idea how this doesn't cause fans to miss half the game.

Screwed

Funny how they all know they have to suggest Sleepy Joe is to blame.

Well before the first U.S. detection of New World ​Screwworm, since February of 2025, USDA has worked around the clock with our state, local, industry, and ranchers on the ground. The secretary herself made four trips to South Texas, more than anywhere else in the country," a USDA spokesperson told Reuters. "The idea that this department has not been transparent is absurd and does not match what ranchers are telling the department and our partners directly."

Sleepy Joe gave the cows citizenship!

Rollins blamed the spread of screwworm toward the U.S.-Mexico border on “the open-border policies of the last administration and the resulting illicit cattle movement” in a separate social media post an hour before Wednesday’s press conference.