Saturday Afternoon

 Enjoy

Seems Bad

For awhile, Europe was especially strict with their data protection laws, with companies genuinely scared of crossing them, and now - lol, whatever.

Google is indexing conversations with ChatGPT that users have sent to friends, families, or colleagues—turning private exchanges intended for small groups into search results visible to millions.

A basic Google site search using part of the link created when someone proactively clicks “Share” on ChatGPT can uncover conversations where people reveal deeply personal details, including struggles with addiction, experiences of physical abuse, or serious mental health issues—sometimes even fears that AI models are spying on them. While the users’ identities aren’t shown by ChatGPT, some potentially identify themselves by sharing highly specific personal information during the chats.

In case it isn't 100% clear here, "share" doesn't mean share with the public, it means "text a link to a friend, or even yourself."  Or so people think. 

The Rot At The Top

With Trump firing the BLS commisioner (is that "legal"? I have no idea), I am reminded of the time in 2020, when the stats were a bit weird due to Covid, and almost every economist, represented here by Wolfers, reacted in horror at the idea that the BLS could ever be corrupted.

Krugman was mostly kidding here, he was defending the BLS while acknowledging that Trump is Trump, and the reaction was, basically, that the BLS was INCORRUPTIBLE and that it was grossly irresponsible to suggest any other possibility.

I was amused by this at the time, because it fits in with the general view of many economists that all people are corruptible - they all respond to INCENTIVES - except economists, who never bend their work in favor of those lucrative expert witness (or other) gigs.

If I were working at the BLS right now, I'd be very corruptible.  I'd say,  "fuck it, I'm going to keep my job and retirement plan."  Sure, boss, +1 million jobs this month, every month, there are now more jobs than people.  Whatever you say, boss.

I'd look at all the institutions that were caving - law firms, universities - and understand that no one was going to have my back, that all of those people - law school partners, university presidents, people much richer than me - were going to do just fine.  

I'd understand that no one was going to reward me for a noble stance, and in fact those universities would probably blacklist me if I tried to move from BLS to an academic job.  The University of Pennsylvania would not risk their Trump Treats to hire me.

That's how corruption works!

To be clear, I didn't think the stats were being cooked then, and neither did Paul! I just think that it is more important to warn about the fallibility of sainted institutions than to assert their infallibility.  Wolfers thought the greater danger was even suggesting the possibility, not that there was a possibility.

Institutionalists believe that the people must have faith in institutions whether or not that faith is earned.  Perhaps especially if that faith is not earned.

A light breeze knocked over half the country in  6 months.  Our institutions are not strong and it is wrong to expect more from the workers than the leaders!

Sure Why Not

President Deals is displaying his keen nuclear diplomacy skills.

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America's Worst University

Columbia University. But, Atrios, how can there be TWO worst American universities?

Sure Why Not

Putting this "conspiracy theory" to rest.

Jeffrey Epstein’s imprisoned associate Ghislaine Maxwell has been moved from a detention facility in Florida to a lower-security prison in Texas, her attorney David Oscar Markus said Friday.

Maxwell, who was convicted in 2021 on sex trafficking charges, had been serving her 20-year sentence at a low security prison in Tallahassee. She has been transferred to a prison in Bryan, Texas, her attorney said. That facility has a minimum level of security and is known as federal prison camp.

Everything Is Trump

Every single blacked out name.

While reviewing the Epstein files, FBI personnel identified numerous references to Trump in the documents, the people familiar with the matter told me. Dozens of other high-profile public figures also appeared, the people said. (The appearance of Trump’s name or others in the Epstein files is not evidence of a crime or even a suggestion of wrongdoing.)

In preparation for potential public release, the documents then went to a unit of FOIA officers who applied redactions in accordance with the nine exemptions. The people familiar with the matter said that Trump’s name, along with other high-profile individuals, was blacked out because he was a private citizen when the federal investigation of Epstein was launched in 2006.

Lunch

eat

America's Worst University

Brown University.

It's Tariff Week, Again

To the extent that there is any long term strategy other than "Fox News junkie gets mad at something and uses power he believes he has over other countries," it's to settle on high long term tariff rates.

We're past the "panic the market" phase of tariff posturing, for whatever reason, and now we'll see if actual real economy dangers can get them to do anything other than blame Powell.

I do stand by my earlier assertion that that tariffs themselves wouldn't be economy-destroying, but the tariffs+surrounding uncertainty (new policy every day!)+plenty of other things they've done (ICE - workers and tourism, student loans, ACA premiums about to skyrocket, federal job cuts, ...)...

The tariffs matter, the ongoing uncertainty - which will never stop under President Deals - matters more. You might invest in a factory if there's a 20% tariff, you won't if that tariff might be 50, or your competitors in other countries might suddenly get a better deal, or...

Jerbs

Not looking good.good.

Job growth totaled 73,000 for the month, above the June total of 14,000 but below even the meager Dow Jones estimate for a gain of 100,000. June and May totals were revised sharply lower, down by a combined 258,000 from previously announced levels.

Morning

Fancy Friday.

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Good Advice

Something escaping most people for, some reason.

Premier Doug Ford is urging Prime Minister Mark Carney to stand his ground against U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff assault on Canada.

“I told the prime minister, do not roll over. Hit that guy back as hard as we possibly can. And that’s what we need to do — and we can do it,” Ford told reporters Thursday in Thunder Bay.

...

“Prime Minister Carney is trying his best, but this guy (Trump) will say something one day, and he’ll wake up — and the cheese slips off the cracker — and then all of a sudden he goes the other way,” said Ford.

“And you’re thinking, ‘How do you deal with a guy like this?’”

 Of course Ford can put a big tax on electricity sales, or worse, himself...

Ms. Rachel

I know we are all set to hate the Bezos Post (happy to!), but this is a surprisingly positive profile of someone who has been on the receiving end of a huge amount of shit for having the controversial view that Palestinians are humans.

“I think it’ll be really beautiful,” Accurso says of the forthcoming episode, which is expected to air on YouTube this fall, but she’s also braced for those who will feel differently. On Instagram and her other adult-focused social media channels, Accurso has been increasingly outspoken in her advocacy for the children experiencing trauma and starvation in Gaza. Though Accurso keeps her commentary fixed on the humanity of all children — “Children deserving access to water, food, education and medical care is not controversial,” she wrote in one post — it has drawn a fervent outcry from some supporters of Israel. Accurso has seen hateful comments accumulate below her posts; she’s been the subject of derision from Fox News commentators; she’s received threatening messages. In April, the pro-Israel group StopAntisemitism published an open letter calling on Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate whether Accurso was acting as a “foreign agent” who was being paid to “disseminate Hamas-aligned propaganda to her millions of followers.” This claim, Accurso says, is “false, hurtful and absurd.”

The criticism and controversy has weighed heavily on her at times, she says. But she keeps a screenshot of Mister Rogers and Officer Clemmons on her phone as a reminder of what it must have been like for Rogers to make that statement through his show. “I know it didn’t feel easy to do that,” she says. The scene was so simple, and also so radical, even if it doesn’t seem so now. She reminds herself of this, too: “I think, in time, what I’m doing won’t seem as controversial.”

Officer Clemmons and Mister Rogers share a pool on “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” in 1969. (Fred Rogers Productions) The escalating criticisms and the threat of an investigation made her worry, at first, that she wouldn’t be able to spend time with Rahaf or film the new episode of the show. But she did not intend to be silenced. “Speaking out for kids in this situation is more important than my career,” she says.

And so, on a bright May morning, Accurso sits at a child-size table in front of a green screen in a Midtown Manhattan film studio. Rahaf sits next to her, wearing a new red dress, pink sneakers on her prosthetic feet, and an ecstatic grin. They are drinking tea, which is actually water, and eating cookies, which are real, and singing a song as they stir with tiny spoons. Accurso looks at the child beside her, and then she looks into the camera, at all the children who will eventually be looking back. She smiles.

“Rahaf is my friend,” she says.

Lunch

 eat

For Your Consideration

Yes it's Politico, and also these things are called "trial balloons."

Senate Democrats have a chance to show their voters they can effectively stymie President Donald Trump as Republicans work to advance spending bills and a flurry of nominations.

But publicly and behind closed doors, the Democratic Party is grappling with whether to resist or — in Minority Whip Dick Durbin’s words — seek a “quid pro quo.”

Nothing like making deals with President Deals, a man who respects people he makes deals with and also sticks to them.

Deals with their Senate collegaues, in theory, but it is the same thing.

Sure, Man

Why can't we get an insane rich guy who is like "I want to build a high speed rail from New York To Chicago." It would probably cost less than what he spent trying to develop Second Life II: One Day There Will Be Legs, and whatever this is.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg told investors that the newly formed Meta Superintelligence Labs is focused on building AI models that can self-improve—meaning they can learn from themselves without as much human input. The remarks came during a second-quarter earnings call on Wednesday.

“At some level, [it’s] not just going to be learning from people, because you want to build something that is fundamentally smarter than people,” Zuckerberg said. “So…you’re going to develop a way for it to improve itself. That is a very fundamental thing that’s going to have broad implications for how we build products and how we run the company.”

And what will it learn? I know they believe they are creating God, but they never seem to have a good framework for what that would even mean.

The Greatest Act Of Political Violence Since Sarah Sanders Was Politely Asked To Leave A Restaurant

This is quite legal, although of course the law is LOL, whatever these days.

“Bigoted vendor @ Martha’s Vineyard Farmer’s Market refused to sell to me for political reasons. I’m suing,” he posted, along with a link to his Rumble channel, where he said that he was just denied the six pierogi he ordered from a vendor.

... DERSHOWITZ: Can I have six pierogi?

“BIGOTED VENDOR”: No.

DERSHOWITZ: Oh, you’ve run out of pierogi? Too bad.

“BIGOTED VENDOR”: No, no, no. We have plenty of pierogi. I just won’t sell them to you.

DERSHOWITZ: What do you mean you won’t sell them to me?

“BIGOTED VENDOR”: I won’t sell them to you because I don’t approve of your politics. I don’t approve of who you’ve represented. I don’t approve of who you support.

DERSHOWITZ: What is it about my politics that you don’t–

“BIGOTED VENDOR”: I’m not gonna tell you. I just don’t like your politics.

[according to Dershowitz]

This has never been illegal.

“The clear implication was that he opposed me because I defended Donald Trump on the floor of the Senate,” Dershowitz added. “I think that’s illegal.”

Which NYT reporter is smart enough to get their editor to expense their trip to the Vineyard for this one???

Morning

One of these every day.

Wednesday Night

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Happy Hour

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Sure Why Not

40% additional (I don't know what the totals are, who can keep track) tariff on Brazil.

The entities (countries, universities, law firms) telling Trump to fuck off are the smart ones, as the rest will keep finding out.

The New Normal

Insane that "we" had to worry about this.

Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani returned to the United States on Wednesday from a week-and-a-half-long trip to his home country of Uganda and was allowed through Customs without any incident, his campaign confirmed to amNewYork.

America's Worst Humans

Larry Summers.

Too Much Fucking Perspective

"What is it like to be a teen right now?"

"We went over the next day and it was completely covered in tarps," said 18-year-old artist Léda Pelton, who had not yet finished her section of the mural about cars and college acceptance.

Pelton said Smithsonian officials told them they covered it up because they were "afraid that somebody was going to walk by and see 'Free Palestine' on our mural and get mad and hurt us. And I'm like, 'maybe we are not the problem in that situation.'"

 

Intractable

This is extra funny as the one man who could have prevented it was Mayor Mamdani, if he hadn't fired all the cops.

The "some" here is... Andrew Cuomo.

Bonus:

Mayor Mamdani has failed to do the impossible, and only right wing weirdos who read our headlines on social media think he is responsible.

Nothing Sus

The fact that Bill Barr personally reviewed the Epstein prison footage should of course put all concerns to rest.

Bill Barr's dad hired Jeffrey Epstein to teach at Dalton.

Jeffrey Epstein did not have a college degree.

What I am saying is that I am going full QANON.

Morning

Go

Tuesday Night

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Welp

Trump: People were taken out of the spa, hired by Epstein… I told him we don’t want you taking our people, whether it’s spa or not spa. He did it again, I said out of here. Reporter: Was one of the stolen people Virginia Giuffre? Trump: I think so. He stole her.

[image or embed]

— Acyn (@acyn.bsky.social) July 29, 2025 at 7:25 PM

Sure Why Not

Perfect Starmer logic.

We will recognize the state unless Israel agrees to a "two-state solution" which is the fake aspiration used to forestall progress for decades.

No I am not being unfair

The UK will recognise Palestinian statehood in September ahead of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), Keir Starmer now says - before listing some conditions for this to happen.

 

According to a written handout of the cabinet meeting he held earlier, Starmer said this would happen "unless the Israeli government takes substantive steps to end the appalling situation in Gaza, reaches a ceasefire, makes clear there will be no annexation in the West Bank, and commits to a long-term peace process that delivers a Two State Solution".

You gotta get off the front page for a bit or we won't let you keep doing what you're doing.  Just slow your genocide a little bit, guys.

The man looked at himself in the mirror and was pleased with himself, pleased with how clever this was.

Dissolve The People

The voters have departed ways from the people who think that it's their job to tell what voters to think, and that it's the job of voters to listen to them. 

New York City’s Democratic primary voters overwhelmingly believe that Israel is “committing genocide” in Gaza and that the United States should stop arming the Jewish state, according to new polling from a pro-Palestinian group and shared first with Semafor.

Asked if the city should “enforce the arrest warrant” against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani supports, 63% of primary voters said yes.

Lunch

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Why Weren't College Students Protesting At The Hamas Embassy

Sounds like Israel should've recruited a bunch of students from Columbia to a sit in, as that would've brought all the hostages home.

Blinken finally noted that while he understood people's frustration and emotions after October 7, he believed more pressure should have been put on Hamas.

“I wish that those who, understandably, have been moved and motivated by everything that’s happened since October 7, if they’d spent maybe just 10% of their time, calling on Hamas, demanding Hamas put down its arms, give up the hostages, stop what it’s doing, maybe if the world had done that, we’d be in a different place.”

Deploy the college protester brigade! Bombing the shit out of every square inch of the country wasn't enough, you needed a drum circle! Failure of planning by Israel, IMHO, if they cared about the hostages.

Sausage Factory

Smith is Lis Smith here.

On Feb. 24, Smith said in a group message to the rest of the crisis team, "Just talked to [Edward-]Isaac Dovere at the Atlantic - he is very hard on our side on this." When asked for clarification, Smith replied, "Total mind meld ... He says he could be convinced to write something on andrew Bc he thinks this whole thing is bullshit." Dovere, who now also works at CNN, did indeed write something for The Atlantic on Cuomo, which took the shape of the unfortunately titled story "Of Course Andrew Cuomo Isn’t Going to Resign." The piece sources quotes from Cuomo's inner circle as well as skeptical New York lawmakers, though its valence is certainly pro-Cuomo. Three days before its publication, Cuomo made an apology, and Smith relayed to the team that "Isaac said he nailed it."

That Lis Smith is very welcome, still, in Democratic politics says nothing good!

Everything is Computer

Well not everything...

Tesla is in constant finesse mode with the often-touted but much delayed rollout of its robotaxi service. After a limited launch in Austin, Texas, the company said it would offer the service in the San Francisco Bay Area. But according to Reuters, that ain't gonna happen because a key California regulator hasn't given Tesla the go-ahead. Instead, Tesla will provide a "chauffeur-style service operated by human drivers," in Reuters' exceptionally diplomatic parlance. Translation: taxis driven by cabbies.

Morning

Taco Tuesday.

Monday Night

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New Kind Of Wife Guy

Does Mystery Wife live in the computer?

The 10-time Pro-Bowler continued to express his appreciation for his wife — whose identity remains a mystery to the public — by saying that she has become his “rock.”

“And to have that person that unconditionally loves you behind the scenes, there’s no better feeling in the world, and I’ve got the most incredible wife,” Rodgers continued. “I just really love her, and I’m so thankful to have her by my side at the end. When you have that stability and that rock behind you at the house, you feel like you can do anything.”

RIP Alexander Bernstein

I didn't know him, but he was a reader of the blog and he emailed me occasionally over the years, often just to say he appreciated my posting videos of his father conducting.

Sure, Donald, Whatever You Say

I assume all the people engaging in "trade deals" with Trump know it's all bullshit he can change tomorrow, so they can just agree to nonsense.

The agreement calls for EU imports of U.S. energy, which currently are mainly crude oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG), of $250 billion a year for three years.

This is a delusional level of imports that the EU has virtually no chance of meeting, and one that U.S. producers would also struggle to supply.

Even if the EU did manage somehow to boost its energy imports from the United States to the $250 billion a year mark, it would also prove massively disruptive for energy flows around the rest of the world.

"The EU" can neither make these purchases nor force countries/firms within the EU to do so...

Lunch

Eat

Every Time

Never surprising.

An investigation is underway in Oklahoma after a television screen in the MAGA state school superintendent’s office reportedly showed a video of nude women during an executive session of the State Board of Education on Thursday.

The images reportedly appeared on a screen in the office of Ryan Walters, Oklahoma’s far-right Superintendent of Public Instruction. Walters previously told schools to teach the Bible and Ten Commandments, demanded students watch him pray for Donald Trump, and named transphobe Chaya Raichik to a state education committee. He also tried to use state money to purchase bibles for classrooms that matched the specifics of those marketed by the president and his family.

As you might expect, Walters has led a crusade against “pornography” in school libraries.

Sure Why Not

Josh Shapiro did an interview with Ted Nugent on "Real America's Voice" to talk about repealing Pennsylvania's ban on hunting on Sundayshttps://t.co/BtHNuCYmv4 pic.twitter.com/XxrzYQ26MO

— Allan Smith (@akarl_smith) July 27, 2025

That Ted Nugent?

He described former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who’s now considering a presidential bid, as “Jew York City mayor Mikey Bloomberg.”

Nugent labeled Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., as a “Globalist political agent” and contended that the late New Jersey Sen. Frank Lautenberg “Gave Russian Jew immigrants your tax money.”

As part of his continuing anti-Semitic rampage, Nugent on Tuesday posted a follow-up Facebook post, saying Jews killed by Nazis in World War II were “soulless sheep to slaughter.”

Bad Wolf

As I've posted a couple of times, mass starvation is something that happens slowly then all at once. It does not happen overnight for adults, though it does for infants, just about.  Everyone pushing this line knows this; they often aren't as stupid as they pretend to be (which means they are liars).

The people who warned about this made it harder to respond, you see.  The real heroes are the genocide deniers.

I don't care what people call it, themselves, but do not come into comments arguing about the word genocide. I am done with that.

Morning

Late start

Sunday Night

Rock on.

What's An Auto Maker To Do

15% on European car imports (final goods), 50% on steel and aluminum (inputs) from everywhere except the UK, where it is set at 25% for steel (I think, this shit changes daily as you know)

Tactical Pause

Same as it ever was.

At least 62 people have been killed in Israeli attacks across Gaza despite a “tactical pause” in fighting to allow aid into the enclave, medical sources told Al Jazeera.

         Among the dead, 34 were aid seekers.

Sunday Afternoon

lazy sunday

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Be Kind Online

I really don't understand things like this.  Pod Tommy has been better than most on this issue from the beginning, but what tent is he talking about? The Bluesky shitposter tent? The expelled -from-Columbia tent?  The had-your-student-visa-revoked tent?  The can't-even-get-an-oped-in-the-New York Times tent?

Tweeting "I told you so" at people who change their mind about what's happening in Gaza does nothing to help the kids who are being starved to death. Welcome people into the tent. Build a bigger coalition and use it to force political change.

— Tommy Vietor (@TVietor08) July 26, 2025

losing my mind at this. Tommy, name me a prominent Dem who has substantively changed their position on the genocide? All the comments in the past 72hrs are just reiterating the Biden party line which is let in some food but keep bombing and herding them like animals indefinitely. https://t.co/GZtsUuA3hY

— Adam Johnson (@adamjohnsonCHI) July 27, 2025

I think it's up to powerful people to let their critics into the tent where it matters, which they will not do, even now.  There are still powerful people in the tent where it matters who are actively "opposing the opposers," actively making sure the big tent doesn't even include the winner of the NYC mayoral primary, actively excluding even his Jewish pseudo-running mate. 

It isn't the people who have risked their reputations and careers and lives for 20 months who need to expand the fucking tent.

None of these people will even get near Peter Beinart.

Easy thing: Cory Booker can say "I defer to my colleague Chris on this subject from now on."

It’s way too late, but the truth has a way of coming out. Forget the airdrops and scrap GHF — let the UN organizations resume their humanitarian delivery operations NOW to stop the ongoing starvation: https://t.co/PocfiT54NJ

— Senator Chris Van Hollen (@ChrisVanHollen) July 26, 2025

Cory Booker will not do that. Cory is just an example here.

Morning

Sunday funday.

Saturday Night

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The Thin Blue Line

Heroes every day.

The initial 911 call, made at 2:05 a.m. by the Hoffmans’ daughter, Hope, included the fact that the suspect was disguised as a police officer and wearing a mask.

In a deviation from department policy, Brooklyn Park police waited more than an hour to enter the home of Melissa Hortman after watching Mark Hortman get shot in the doorway.

...

At 3:35 a.m., two Brooklyn Park police officers arrived at the Hortman residence. Those officers fired at Boelter as he entered the house after shooting Mark Hortman. Additional muzzle flashes from Boelter inside the home lit up the entryway.

Despite the gunfire, officers didn’t enter the house until 4:38 a.m., according to timestamps on the bodycam footage. Instead of entering immediately to check on Melissa Hortman, the officers waited for a drone to be deployed to see if Boelter was inside and if Melissa Hortman was still alive.

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Musk Committed A Little Light Treason

I mean that in the colloquial, not constitutional, sense, but it is fair to say that is what Musk did.  This also isn't a new charge.

A lot of people overlooked that when they would have gone apeshit if some lefty member of Congress, or prominent pundit, had been vocally opposed to helping Ukraine. Why is that?

A Funny Thing Is

The powers that be in the country (and not just the Trump administration) are still going after anyone who objected.

A retired US special forces officer has revealed to the BBC why he resigned from his work with US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) aid distribution centres.

"I witnessed the Israeli Defense Forces shooting at the crowds of Palestinians," Anthony Aguilar told the BBC.

He added that in his entire career he has never witnessed such a level of "brutality and use of indiscriminate and unnecessary force against a civilian population, an unarmed, starving population".

Someone called me curmudgeonly, recently, and maybe that's a bit true about my online persona. If it seems that way it's because most of our faves failed the "is genocide bad" test, including the person who made her brand and career posing as the lone brave person who thought genocide was bad.

You can call it whatever you want, but if you were ever mad because people were perhaps a bit hyperbolic about what has been happening, instead of what has been happening, you should go meditate in the woods for a few years.

Morning

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America's Worst University

Columbia University

...ooops fixed

Seems Bad

People much more clever than I am see no problems with handing over military capabilties to unaccountable billionaires.

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.

According to three people familiar with the command, Musk told a senior engineer at the California offices of SpaceX, the Musk venture that controls Starlink, to cut coverage in areas including Kherson, a strategic region north of the Black Sea that Ukraine was trying to reclaim.

At that moment Biden should have seized the company but, ah, well, nevertheless

Lunch

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Plano

Why does the guy running for mayor of New York City need the approval of voters in Plano?

Another reason Jeffries might be slow-walking an endorsement is that, as House minority leader, he will be judged on whether he can lead Democrats to a majority in the upcoming midterms. While left-wing Democrats might be able to hold deep-blue House seats in the five boroughs of New York City, they’re unlikely to fare as well in swing districts in suburban New York and New Jersey, let alone in Florida, Georgia or Texas.

The question for Mamdaniism is not just whether it will play in Park Slope or Prospect Lefferts Gardens—it’s whether it will play in Plano.

Reihan is a horrible right winger, but this is where POPULARISM from centrist dipshits has brought us. We've gone from arguing you need Claire McCaskill-style moderates to win senate races in red states to arguing that the reason "Claire McCaskill" can't win her election is that there is a left winger, somewhere, anywhere, maybe not even in office, who alienates her potential voters.

But, hey, "Claire" loses all the time, so maybe we should try a few more Zohrans.

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To Make Sense Of This, We Spoke To 15 Trump Voters Who Love Trump

And then over to Hakeem Jeffries, who is on day 119 of a speech about the price of eggs.

WASHINGTON, D.C. ­­— Six months into his second term, President Donald Trump’s job approval rating has dipped to 37%, the lowest of this term and just slightly higher than his all-time worst rating of 34% at the end of his first term. Trump’s rating has fallen 10 percentage points among U.S. adults since he began his second term in January, including a 17-point decline among independents, to 29%, matching his lowest rating with that group in either of his terms.

...

Trump’s ratings for handling each of eight separate foreign and domestic issues are also generally poor. He earns the highest marks for his handling of the situation with Iran (42%) and foreign affairs (41%). Approval is slightly lower for his job on immigration (38%), the economy (37%), the situation in the Middle East between the Israelis and Palestinians (36%), and foreign trade (36%). Americans’ ratings of Trump’s handling of the situation in Ukraine (33%) and the federal budget (29%) are even lower.

Morning

Fabulous Friday

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Loser

Some hopeful signs.

The three officials who spoke to The Times on condition of anonymity said prosecutors have struggled to get several protest-related cases past grand juries, which need only to find probable cause that a crime has been committed in order to move forward. That is a much lower bar than the “beyond a reasonable doubt” standard required for a criminal conviction.

When government officials respond like this, it should be normal practice to treat them as presumptive liars.

Essayli declined to be interviewed for this article. A statement provided by his office on Tuesday accused The Times of spreading “factual inaccuracies and anonymous gossip,” but offered no specifics or further comment in response to questions.

Agency

How could a governor from Pennsylvana think he can tell a mayor (future) from New York what to do?

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro on Mamdani:

"He left open far too much space for extremists to either use his words or for him to not condemn the words of extremists that said some blatantly antisemitic things." https://t.co/nAnhNsXxwM

— Jacob N. Kornbluh (@jacobkornbluh) July 23, 2025

I suspect this is not Mamdani's fault.

“I am concerned that support for Israel in the United States broadly is down compared to what it was a decade ago.” Shapiro told Jewish Insider

And I suspect there's nothing either of you can do about it, though obviously Shapiro is not genuinely interested in doing anything about it.

Lander's response: Go back to Kable Town, Shapiro.

Lunch

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SUMMER FUNDRAISNG DAY 4

You don't need that new car, anyway.

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Anonymity

I'm not responding to anything in a particular at the moment, but I have been thinking, as I often do, about much anonymity is abused by journalists (yes I mean journalists, not their sources). Low level whistleblowers need it. High level sources need it if they are revealing things they aren't supposed to reveal. It should be granted, carefully, to allow the reporting of newsworthy things that would not otherwise be reported.

There are many ways that it is abused, but one is granting anonymity to people simply to shit talk their opponents. This is not a  good reason for it, and it privileges the people in "DC" who have press familiars, the ones with good relationships with the press, a problematic concept generally!

"Democratic strategist has been granted anonymity because otherwise everyone would know what a big asshole he is" is not a good reason to grant anonymity! Also, readers have no way of knowing if this person is influential or not, other than the influence granted by his pet journalist.

All Deals Are Final

As Mr. Deals always pays in full, as promised.

This deal won’t end Columbia’s torture. Whatever onerous terms the school has agreed to will be deemed to have been broken in the face of a campus protest, an edgy syllabus, a leaked classroom discussion or even an acerbic student opinion piece. New civil rights violations will be imagined, new vistas of anti-Americanism on campus will be discovered, and the attacks will continue.

Though I suspect the people who have the real power at Columbia are mostly happy about this, and not just because they imagine they get to move past it. I'm not saying they're correct, precisely, but they're on board with the basic agenda and are happy to have an excuse.

Morning

get it started

Wednesday Night

Rock on.

Oh No

drip drip

When Justice Department officials reviewed what Attorney General Pam Bondi called a “truckload” of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein earlier this year, they discovered that Donald Trump’s name appeared multiple times, according to senior administration officials.

This next bit is silly as of course they can redact the CSAM that inexplicably is associated with Trump.

They also told Trump that senior Justice Department officials didn’t plan to release any more documents related to the investigation of the convicted sex offender because the material contained child pornography and victims’ personal information, the officials said. Trump said at the meeting he would defer to the Justice Department’s decision to not release any further files.

The meeting set the stage for the high-profile review to come to an end. Bondi had said in February that Epstein’s client list was “sitting on my desk right now to review.” Trump said last week in response to a journalist’s question that Bondi hadn’t told him that his name was in the files.

LOL Kash someone just slammed your dick in a door.

FBI Director Kash Patel has privately told other government officials that Trump’s name appeared in the files, according to people close to the administration. 

It Can't Do That

I am being driven slowly insane by this continuing "surprise" about the fact that "AI" can't possibly do what people expect it to do because that is not what it is designed to do. It doesn't know anything! It doesn't reason! It really is just "spicy autocomplete."

Weeks earlier, the US Food and Drug Administration, the division of HHS that oversees vast portions of the American pharmaceutical and food system, had unveiled Elsa, an artificial intelligence tool intended to dramatically speed up drug and medical device approvals.

Yet behind the scenes, the agency’s slick AI project has been greeted with a shrug — or outright alarm.

Six current and former FDA officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive internal work told CNN that Elsa can be useful for generating meeting notes and summaries, or email and communique templates.

But it has also made up nonexistent studies, known as AI “hallucinating,” or misrepresented research, according to three current FDA employees and documents seen by CNN. This makes it unreliable for their most critical work, the employees said.

“Anything that you don’t have time to double-check is unreliable. It hallucinates confidently,” said one employee — a far cry from what has been publicly promised.

Revise?

Fear of the bad orange man meant that people didn't want to confront just how insane this was at the time, but it was fucking insane.

“The people who criticize [Israel’s response] are essentially saying, ‘Yeah, but look how many people you’ve killed in retaliation, how many is enough for you to kill to punish them for the terrible things they did?'” the former US president continued.

“That all sounds nice until you realize what you would do if it was your family and you hadn’t done anything but support a homeland for the Palestinians, and one day they come for you and slaughter the people in your village.”

“You would say, ‘You have to forgive me, but I’m not keeping score that way.’ It isn’t how many we’ve had to kill because Hamas makes sure that they’re shielded by civilians. They’ll force you to kill civilians if you want to defend yourself,” Clinton continued.

Insane on the substance, and insane because this was a campaign trip to Michigan.

Lunch

eat

America's Worst Democrats

Rahm Emanuel.

SUMMER FUNDRAISER DAY 3

I'll admit that the Covid era wasn't so bad for me, personally. A bit Best of Times/Worst of Times. Horrible and stressful, but I also somehow managed to have some fun.

I'm not saying everything in my personal life is horrible now - not so bad! - but current events do manage to overshadow everything else. I am not the protagonist of all of this, nor a victim, really (currently), but it has been quite some time since I have slept very well (metaphorically and somewhat literally).

Getting up in the morning and just tuning it out is not a luxury I have often.

My occasional complaining about the difficulties of my otherwise easy job is now over for awhile.

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Which Of Your Faves Disagrees With Bret?

Quibbling over the word 'genocide' has long been a favorite tactic for people who liked to pretend they disagree with Israel (extremely well-armed state) but were more troubled by their critics (student protesters, people who annoy them on twitter).

I don't care which word people use, myself, and have no interest in arguing about legal definitions, but anyone who has spent the last 20 months doing so has made clear where they stand, even as they think they are cleverly fooling people.

People are being murdered and starving, but the most important thing is to agree upon the proper language, at which point we will find some other distraction. The "fooling people" part is key. Monsters and liars! Many of your faves.

Ah, yes, it's bad, but you used a word I don't like, so I am going to have to continue supporting it for another few months.

The UK media has been worse than the US media on this issue, generally, and UK politicians as well, but The Express is not a weird commie tabloid.  It is less known, but still very right wing. Today's paper:

Neither Dem leader can even manage the perfunctory "this is sad" statement. This is, in part, because there is little pressure to do so because people have spent 20 months ensuring that there wasn't.

Morning

Another glorious one.

Tuesday Night

Rock on.

Happy Hour

Once again.

Pennsylvania's Worst University

The University of Pennsylvania.

We Are Vain And We Are Blind

How much can the lives of a couple of dozen kids be worth, Michael, six figures?

Pagurek told colleagues at FEMA that the delay was the tipping point that led to his voluntary departure after months of frustration with the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle the agency, according to two sources familiar with his thinking. It took more than 72 hours after the flooding for Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to authorize the deployment of FEMA’s search and rescue network.

...

“It is laughable that a career public employee, who claims to serve the American people, would choose to resign over our refusal to hastily approve a six-figure deployment contract without basic financial oversight,” another DHS spokesman said in a statement about Pagurek’s resignation. “We’re being responsible with taxpayer dollars, that’s our job.”

SUMMER FUNDRAISER DAY 2

Back in the Blog Era (indulge me, I get a bit nostalgic when I do fundraising for some reason), Professional Democrats mostly weren’t fans, at least for awhile. They didn't like that there was no manager to complain to about coverage. They didn't like that liberal blogs were on the left side of things, even though (or perhaps because) that mostly meant Iraq. They liked to infantilize blogs - silly children on the internet - even though blog readers then were about my age now (average). For years they mostly preferred to dismiss and marginalize instead of figuring out how to work with it.

It is a different era now, but there are similar reactions coming from a similarly ossified leadership in response to anything or anyone new, even as they fret about their lack of a "Joe Rogan."
 

Anyway, give until it hurts!
 

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Lunch

Eat

Sure Why Not

 

World Cup Madness

I doubt there is any truth to the claim that FIFA might move matches out of the US, but I don't see how they continue as planned.

Wow Nobody Could Have Predicted

Some in the extended MAGA universe are mad about the Epstein stuff, but journalists pretending to believe Johnson and most other prominent electeds when they were pretending to care was absurd.

Morning

Taco Tuesday

Happy Hour

Get happy

Summer Fundraiser Day 1 Afternoon Edition!

At least as worthwhile as donating to a hopeless senate campaign!

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Nazis and Their Fans

There it is.

The ultimate source for The New York Times’ story about Zohran Mamdani’s college application is an open secret. It’s an anime-loving neo-Nazi whose hobbies include furry drawings, posting fan art of a video game character, and hacking universities. On X, the alleged hacker is followed by New York Times freelancer Benjamin Ryan, who was the first byline on the Mamdani story.

The alleged hacker uses an online handle that is a racial slur, so I will be referring to them as the Anime Nazi; they have taken credit for five hacks of universities. Three of them, as first reported by Bloomberg, targeted the University of Minnesota, New York University, and Columbia University.

Social media reviewed by The Verge — including X and fediverse accounts — shows a series of reposts of statements and images such as swastikas, “miss u hitler,” and “minorities have no place in our world.” The Anime Nazi themselves posted such things as “I am racist,” “I am violently racist toward black people,” and a picture of a unicorn sitting on a swastika.

Lunch

eat

Does Coverage Reflect This

I have no idea if this is true - there is no publicly released polling that I am aware of - but do we think this is what most people would understand to be the case given weeks of coverage about opposition and even fear from Jewish New Yorkers?

At Hampton Synagogue this morning, Andrew Cuomo said he "didn't debunk" Mamdani enough.

Cuomo added that Mamdani got "more than 50 percent" of the Jewish vote.

"Those young people, the under-30 people, they are pro-Palestinian, and they don't consider it being anti-Israel." pic.twitter.com/tvRzfnkGQh

— Jacob N. Kornbluh (@jacobkornbluh) July 20, 2025

If it is indeed true that Mamdani won the Jewish vote in the primary then I’m curious on what basis the NYT, Colbert, and CNN repeatedly implied or explicitly said he was uniquely struggling with “Jewish New Yorkers”. (Clearly they just meant pro-Israel crybully pressure groups)

— Adam Johnson (@adamjohnsonCHI) July 20, 2025

SUMMER FUNDRAISER DAY 1

I admit blogging has not been the best recently. It isn't as if I ever thought that this little blog had great influence, but now I find all of our actual influental and powerful people/institutions are impervious to influence.

Can't shame the shameless.

Still I work hard at his and rarely have a chance to tune out.  I hope it provides some value!

 

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Permission Structure

People - including me - cheer Trump's falling poll numbers, but unless they inspire The Opposition to oppose, the decline in his approval doesn’t mean all that much.

They are still incredibly resistant to the idea that changing their approach to immigration is the path forward, even with the falling poll numbers. I don't know what will give them the Alpha Energy they need to understand that roving bands of armed and masked kidnappers deporting senior citizen green card holders to countries they have never been to is a problem.

I used to worry I was too mean to Hakeem Jeffries but I do not think I can be too mean to him.

Schumer sucks too but the man at least knows how to Do Politics of a kind.  Jeffries got to where he is by sucking up and anything else confuses him.

Impressing Pelosi is not actually a skill that generalizes.

Morning

Manic Monday

Sunday Evening

Enjoy

The Great Noticing Continues

You can run a one day story, put it on page 17, and never mention it again. Or you can have rolling coverage with a new front pager every day.  

These are always choices and the people who run the agenda-setting newspaper understand this.

Ms. Farmer said that when she discussed her concerns with the New York Police Department, then with the F.B.I., she also urged them to take a broader look at the people in Mr. Epstein’s orbit, including Donald J. Trump, then still two decades from being elected president. She repeated that message, she said, when the F.B.I. interviewed her again about Mr. Epstein in 2006.

In interviews this week about what she told the authorities, she said she had no evidence of criminal wrongdoing by Mr. Epstein’s associates. But she said she was alarmed by what she saw as Mr. Epstein’s pattern of pursuing girls and young women while building friendships with prominent people, including Mr. Trump and President Bill Clinton.

 

Iraq's Most Wanted

Oldheads remember the playing cards.  It was how we normalized assassination.  Kill or capture,  but it didn’t really matter which.  Cable news got excited either way.

MechaHitlerYouth

What could go wrong.

I love how we have gone from "inventing God" to "curing cancer" to "chatbots that will teach your kids to be good Nazis and probably sexually harass them."

The Great Noticing

It is a term used by lefty shitposters in Britain, where political journalists spend most of the time pretending not to know/understand things they know and understand very well.  Then one day, for largely unclear reasons, they suddenly start noticing all those things.

One of the young women who later said Mr. Epstein groomed and abused her was recruited into his world while working as a spa attendant at Mar-a-Lago. Another accuser recalled being eyed by Mr. Trump during a brief encounter in Mr. Epstein’s office, and claimed that Mr. Epstein had told Mr. Trump at the time that “she’s not for you.”

Another woman has said that Mr. Trump groped her when Mr. Epstein brought her to Trump Tower in Manhattan to meet him. This week, The Wall Street Journal reported that Mr. Trump gave Mr. Epstein a note for his 50th birthday in 2003 that included a sketch of a naked woman and a cryptic reference to a “secret” the two men shared. Mr. Trump has denied writing the message and filed a libel lawsuit on Friday challenging the story. The New York Times has not verified the Journal report.

Mr. Trump has never been accused of wrongdoing in connection with the Epstein case, and has said he had “no idea” that Mr. Epstein was abusing young women. In response to a request for comment about the president’s history with Mr. Epstein, Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said that Mr. Trump had barred Mr. Epstein from his Mar-a-Lago club “for being a creep."

Did a lawyer write the first sentence of the third paragraph? Trump has been accused of plenty of wrongdoing. You just did it!

But, Atrios, how do political journalists convey a full picture when they are constantly pretending they don't know things?

Morning

The Great Noticing begins.

Things That Don't Enrage Dash Sulzberger

I don’t think that fucking newspaper is omnipotent, but it has not tried to use its agenda powers against this .

Rest in Piss

Another baddie gone.

Two Years Is Long Enough To Learn A Language

It is hard and it takes works and I am very sympathetic to anyone who doesn’t manage, but Americans tend to think both that learning a second language is a wizard skill AND anyone coming to the US should manage it in a few weeks.

American father who moved to Russia to avoid LGBTQ+ “indoctrination” for his kids is being sent to the front line against Ukraine despite being assured he would serve in a non-combat role.

Derek Huffman, 46, feels he is being “thrown to the wolves” after being told that his job in the military would be as a correspondent or as a welder, his wife, DeAnna, said in a recorded plea for prayers, which has since been removed from her YouTube page.

Huffman has no prior military experience, DeAnna said, adding that his limited training was conducted in Russian. She suggested this language barrier has made her husband particularly unprepared for the horrors of combat.

...

“Unfortunately, when you’re taught in a different language, and you don’t understand the language, how are you really getting taught?” she pondered. “You’re not. So, unfortunately, he feels like he’s being thrown to the wolves right now, and he’s kind of having to lean on faith, and that’s what we’re all doing.”

 

Morning

Slacker Saturday

TRUMP SUING GAVIN MACLEOD, MARKIE POST, THE 1977 DENVER BRONCOS, THE OTHER GUY ON CHARLES IN CHARGE

OK just Rupert Murdoch, Dow Jones, News Corp and a couple of WSJ reporters.

Check The Doodle Kerning

Right wingers will keep throwing anything against the wall until they find something that sticks.

Afternoon

Busy with things.

Lunch

Eat

Some Lies Are Good

I don’t think it matters much if I shun these people, and no one who "matters" is likely to.

On July 11, the New York Times Magazine ran a deeply reported piece on how Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has prolonged the war in Gaza for political reasons. In addition to showing a prime minister so maniacally obsessed with maintaining his own governing coalition, and thereby avoiding jail, that he is willing to kill tens of thousands of Palestinians (and counting), sacrifice the lives of Israeli hostages, and turn his country into an international pariah, the piece serves as another exhibit in the prosecutorial brief against the Biden administration’s handling of the war. U.S. President Joe Biden is portrayed in turns as feckless and cranky, pushing Netanyahu to change course and believing him when he says he will and then getting mad when Netanyahu inevitably doesn’t. Over and over and over and over

Pertinent

Trump knows how to do a "good enough for the New York Times" document dump. Maybe he will even bring Bill Barr in to tell them how to write it up.

Birthday Bestie

Gramps is raging.

The letter bearing Trump’s name, which was reviewed by the Journal, is bawdy—like others in the album. It contains several lines of typewritten text framed by the outline of a naked woman, which appears to be hand-drawn with a heavy marker. A pair of small arcs denotes the woman’s breasts, and the future president’s signature is a squiggly “Donald” below her waist, mimicking pubic hair.

The letter concludes: “Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret."

Morning

May every day be another wonderful secret.

Thursday Happy Hour

I appreciate that our president is always incredibly open and honest about his health issues.

Seems Bad

So much does. Nothing to be done, as Americans who matter (Trump voters who love Trump and the NYT management) love this stuff.

Mr. President, make sure the paperwork is correct!

Afternoon Read

From Rümeysa Öztürk.

Lunch

busy with some things today...

What Enrages Dash Sulzberger

When you consider what is happening at the moment and consider the agenda journalism the NYT is currently engaged in - anti-Mamdani, still on the anti-trans beat - and the agenda journalism it largely eschews (masked agents of the state kidnapping people and disappearing them) - you can draw some obvious conclusions about top management at that fucking paper.

If I Did It

Whatever else one can say about Trump/Epstein, he clearly did not get the services of a skilled celebrity crisis management PR firm..

Morning

every day

Wednesday Evening

enjoy

All We Have To Do Is Keep Talking

Never stop.

The end is nowhere in sight, as the president’s supporters — from MAGA influencers and Republican politicians — continue to raise hell over the Justice Department’s memo announcing the administration’s belief that Epstein killed himself in prison, and that it was effectively closing its case on the convicted sex offender and accused sex trafficker. The melodrama has clearly eaten away at the notoriously mercurial president’s patience. “They won’t shut the fuck up about it,” Trump privately vented — referring to conservative influencers and media types lashing out over the Epstein memo — according to a source with direct knowledge of the matter.

Eat Shit, Losers

Gramps is having a real one.

On The Road

Travel day, so worse than usual blogging.

Unabombed

Sure why not

Donald Trump delivered a rambling speech in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he made several improbable claims and appeared to forget names.

 

Trump falsely asserted that his late uncle, Dr. John Trump, taught Theodore Kaczynski, the Unabomber, at MIT, despite Kaczynski never attending the institution. 

He also claimed to have discussed

Kaczynski with his uncle, which is highly unlikely as his uncle died in 1985, years before Kaczynski was identified as the Unabomber

America's Most Ridiculous Humans

All the rich investors who have fashioned themselves as "tech leaders" but who are just dumbasses.

Morning

Wacky Wednesday

Happy Hour

go

You'll Miss It When It's Gone

Predictions are hard, especially about the future, but it is possible that many people will soon be missing the glorious American civilization of 2024.

Patients and medical centers are already feeling the pain as several provisions in the GOP’s deadly spending law take immediate effect, either as required or in practice.

Hospitals are closing or actively considering doing so, cutting programs, and laying off staff. Planned Parenthood is warning patients it can no longer accept Medicaid insurance and in one region says it can’t provide services to Medicaid recipients at all, even if the patient doesn’t use Medicaid to pay. And lawmakers in at least five states are planning special sessions to revamp their already-enacted budgets and determine how to handle the cuts, including what cuts they should enact and how to administer the new Medicaid work requirement.

Stay Away

100 days detention is not the appropriate response to a minor tourist visa overstay. Tell people to get on a plane home.

Sure Why Not

Yesterday, Mrs. A asked if this is real. I hadn't heard about it yet so said probably not, and, well...

President Trump has revealed that the champions of the Club World Cup won’t be getting the original trophy, because he’s keeping it.

Stuff's, Like, Hard, Man

Still can't believe Bill Clinton swooped into to endorse this guy.

Cuomo said he would make affordability a cornerstone of his general-election campaign but would run on the notion that he will actually be able to make the city more affordable while Mamdani will only talk about it. “It’s about not just connecting with the perception of the problem. It’s finding the real solution and then having the ability to do it. You don’t want someone who just connects. That’s step one. What you really want is the problem-solver, and I can actually do that.”

So what would he do on housing affordability? “There is no real answer,” he said. The key was not to freeze the rent but to build a lot of both affordable and market-rate housing, while broader affordability could only be tackled by making government more efficient and cutting taxes. “That is really the only truth. That’s not pithy or sexy, I know, but it’s also the truth.”

Abundance!

Sure Why Not

I have long said the Ukraine/Russia situation is above my pay grade, but I think it is fair to observe that Donald Trump is not especially consistent on his approach to the issue.

Donald Trump has privately encouraged Ukraine to step up deep strikes on Russian territory, even asking Volodymyr Zelenskyy whether he could strike Moscow if the US provided long-range weapons, according to people briefed on the discussions.

The conversation, which took place during the July 4 call between the US and Ukrainian leaders, marks a sharp departure from Trump’s previous stance on Russia’s war and his campaign promise to end US involvement in foreign conflicts.

Who knows what is rattling around his melon, but I suspect the desire to get his Nobel Peace Prize and anger that Vlad doesn't just obey his every whim have a lot to do with it.

Times change.

The Protagonists

This is not an new observation - I and others have been making it for years - but the media obsession with "Trump voters" and the basic question of "do people who like Trump still like Trump" is enraging, especially as the obsessive coverage by mainstream outlets doesn't actually attempt to explain his appeal (or be honest about it).

Trump is an unpopular president. He isn't as an unpopular as I would like, but he is as unpopular as late term Biden. That his core supporters stick with him, or don't, doesn't matter much. There was never any coverage of "Biden voters who like Biden" or any interest in "the Biden coalition" at all.

I'm sure there are Epstein "conspiracy theories" but the full truth would be one of them.

This one isn't precisely that, but why does this get a prominent placement in the NYT? Who cares? Which Dem "back bencher" gets this much attention?

Morning

Taco Tuesday

Happy Hour

Get happy.

Sure Why Not

Chuck Schumer said there wouldn't be a constitutional crisis until Trump started disobeying Supreme Court orders, so I guess we'll never have one.

BREAKING: The Supreme Court allows the Trump administration to move forward with the abolition of the Department of Education. It gives no explanation for its order. All three liberals dissent. www.documentcloud.org/documents/25... From Sotomayor's dissent:

[image or embed]

— Mark Joseph Stern (@mjsdc.bsky.social) July 14, 2025 at 8:20 PM