"Unraveling"

Guys, if what is happening at the moment isn't enough to demonstrate that it's an ex-ceasefire, Trump himself declared the ceasefire to be over. Did we forget?

Live Updates: Cease-Fire Unraveling as U.S. and Iran Trade Strikes Again

Morning

Like sands through the hourglass...

Sunday Evening

Relax.

Our Colleagues Are Great

I don't expect his Senate colleagues to piss on his grave, but they can stop short of praising him in a way that makes people think that Republicans are good actually, maybe I should vote for them.

This is a general issue. You can't separate the Republican party (especially, but not limited to, Graham) from Trump, and you can't message on days ending in 'y' that they are a threat to all we hold dear while also messaging on days ending in 'y' that they're a great bunch of guys and gals.

President Deals

Seems like he made a great deal!

Critics say that Mr. Trump conceded this new status quo in the June agreement with Tehran. At the insistence of Iranian negotiators, that 14-point document acknowledges Iran’s power in the strait.

It prohibits the charging of tolls or fees, but only for 60 days while negotiations toward another agreement continues. (Mr. Trump has said the United States could try to charge tolls.) The memorandum also does not include an ironclad guarantee that ships can safely sail any portion of the strait.

Iranian officials and diplomatic experts say the final line formally ceded to Iran a central role in managing the strait: “The Islamic Republic of Iran will conduct dialogue with the Sultanate of Oman to define the future administration and maritime services in the Strait of Hormuz, in discussion with other Persian Gulf littoral states, in line with the applicable international law and the sovereign rights of coastal states of the Strait of Hormuz.”

At the time, Mr. Trump praised the agreement as a return to free navigation through the strait. But Iranian officials were soon citing it as grounds for dictating where ships should sail — namely, along a route near Iran’s coastline.

President Deals made the deal to prevent economic meltdown (in his mind, whether it would have happened or not) but the key thingsabout President Deals is he doesn't believe deals are ever binding on him!

What A Great Guy

After reading the many tributes to Senator Graham from his friends across the aisle, I'm suddenly very sad that I never had a chance to vote for him.

A Long Proud Career

There will be many tributes to one of the favorite senators of our rotten political journalist class.  

My view: he was one of America's most successful serial killers. 

What are his proudest accomplishments? War. All war.

People will pay tribute to the man he wasn't instead of the man he was proud to be.

Remember him how he would want to be remembered. He wasn't shy about his support for and love of every war.

The internet tells me David Petraeus first applied "Three Amigos" which I had forgotten. Perfect.

Morning

Sunday funday 

Zero Amigos

Lindsey Graham died.

Happy Hour

Just had a lovely 20 minute chat with Mitch.

One Of Those Days

 

The medical exam was 6 weeks ago, so shruggy...

Happy WHCA Dinner (Soon)

Jake Tapper is distributing a new set of cheeky pocket squares!

The Trump administration has issued subpoenas to several New York Times journalists after the newspaper reported on security concerns with the president’s new plane, according to the outlet.

Shahada

Gramps is having a normal post-market close Friday.

There was a time when anything Trump posted was covered like OJ's Bronco. Now media outlets mostly pretend his posts don't exist, or "translate" them into appropriate President.

Morning

Slacker Saturday

Friday Night

Rock on.

Friday Evening

Get your evening on.

Let Them Fight

Funny.

Apple on Friday sued OpenAI in federal court in Northern California, alleging trade secret theft, saying that the artificial intelligence lab took the iPhone maker’s intellectual property in order to develop its own consumer hardware.

“This much is clear, however: at every level, from members of its Technical Staff to its Chief Hardware Officer, and in coordination with business partners, OpenAI has been stealing Apple’s trade secrets and confidential information,” the company said in a legal filing.

No respect for IP? Shocking. There were no warnings.

Read the full article. There are good bits!

They Could Still Tout It

Don't really understand the entire premise here. Trump isn't gonna veto it (presumably). They passed it. It will become law .

President Donald Trump said Friday that he will not sign a bipartisan housing bill in protest of Republicans’ inability to advance separate elections overhaul legislation, dealing a major political blow to vulnerable lawmakers in his own party.

The housing bill is set to become law at midnight even without Trump’s signature. But GOP leaders had originally hoped to tout the moment as a historic economic achievement ahead of midterm elections that are likely to be defined by Americans’ concerns over the cost of living.

"AI Agents"

I really think the only people who could imagine the computer assistants would work well are the people who have actual assistants do everything for them and therefore don't understand the complexity of "simple" tasks.

NEW YORK, July 2 (Reuters) - Meta (META.O), opens new tab Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg acknowledged shortcomings ‌in the company's sweeping restructuring at an internal town hall on Thursday, saying the systems known as AI agents had not progressed as quickly as he had expected, according to a recording heard by Reuters.

Sure, Jan

I hope they showed him some scary pictures.

Israel shared new intelligence with the U.S. that it said indicated a fresh Iranian plan to kill President Trump, people familiar with the matter said, a finding that would mark an escalation in the war between Washington and Iran.

Analogous to this one:

Yes of course it's possible. Even likely given recent actions! But I am skeptical that Israel has some additional intelligence beyond "they probably would!"