Coordination

This is illegal, but since laws aren't real anymore, we can at least laugh.

Allies of Mike Rogers, Michigan's GOP nominee for the U.S. Senate, have asked AIPAC not to advertise on his behalf, triggering a rupture with the powerful but polarizing pro-Israel group.

Rogers spoke with AIPAC chair Michael Tuchin in Los Angeles last week. The next day, AIPAC shelved an already-cut video ad targeting Rogers' Democratic rival, outspoken Israel critic Abdul El-Sayed.

I do remember when people in DC did take this stuff seriously, to the extent that certain people wouldn't be in the same room with other people. 

Soylent Beef Is Made Of PEOPLE

What is the mystery meat?

But when a reporter asked the most basic question about the arrangement — where exactly is all this beef coming from? — Trump refused to say.

"On the beef deal, which countries did you make the deal with?" a reporter asked Trump Friday afternoon.

"I don't want to say," Trump responded.

President Deals Strikes Out Again

Oh no was trump engaged in bad faith negotiations?

A fresh wave of US tariffs on a wide array of Canadian goods came into effect on Saturday after a last-minute breakdown in trade talks.

Announcing the suspension of negotiations shortly before the Friday night deadline, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said he would impose reciprocal tariffs on US goods "dollar for dollar".

Carney said "last-minute changes in the US proposed terms were unfair, uneconomic, and called into question the reliability of any deal".

 

I saw the headline and was curious about what happened, given that all the recent reports had been about how Canada was going to cave and agree to some sort of deal. Unsurprisngly, willingness to deal with President Deals didn't work out!

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Slacker Saturday

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Ground Beef

Genuine question: are people concerned about beef prices concerned specifically with the price of ground beef?

Somewhat answering my own question: the internet tells me almost half of beef consumption is ground beef. Also this is about 2% of ground beef consumption so...

The Health Of Our Big Beautiful President

I know what excuses all the journalists will make, but there are endless hours of cable news to fill with speculation, endless hours that they often do fill with speculation, and they are not speculating about this.

So much not speculating that I suspect it is ordered from above that they do not.

Junk In The Trunk

The most convincing suggestion I've seen is exoskeleton mobility device.

Seriously, what is going on with Trump’s rear end here? It looks like he has some sort of contraption back there

[image or embed]

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) August 16, 2026 at 3:43 PM

Sure Why Not

Or, more appropriately, what for?

The National Space Transportation Policy directs the Secretary of War, NASA, and other agencies to identify federal land for an additional reentry site within 90 days, part of a push to support more than 1,000 launches and reentries annually by 2030.

The policy also calls for priority airspace corridors, transparent range scheduling, and a "commercial-first" approach to national space transportation needs.

It directs NASA to facilitate commercial transportation to the Moon and robotic access to Mars, building on a separate executive order Trump signed in December outlining plans to return "Americans to the Moon by 2028 through the Artemis Program."

Elon and SpaceX are involved with Artemis - critical roles though not all of them - so good luck with that!

Blue Origin’s demonstration lander represents a number of the capabilities that will be featured in their Blue Moon Mark 2 lander, which will be used for crewed landings on the Moon’s south pole. The test lander doesn’t include the BE-7 engine of the Blue Moon Mark 2, but it does include a life support system and crew habitation area, which will allow the crew to live and work onboard while it’s docked with the Orion spacecraft.

After the two separate, SpaceX will launch its Starship Version 3 rocket, with a docking adapter on the nose of the upper stage. That Starship will be the target for Orion to dock, but because it won’t have a crew habitation area, the astronauts will remain onboard Orion while the two are mated.

“Now with respect to SpaceX, I think you’re what you’re witnessing, you’re seeing an increase in launch cadence, and that’s critical. If they’re able to launch again in early September after their last launch and continue to track inside the month, potentially every couple of weeks before the end of the year, that’s going to — we’re going to feel very good about their time to contribute to Artemis 3 next year,” Isaacman said.

SpaceX is so gonna be ready I promise I mean they're increasing cadence which is really critical and of course they're gonna be ready no lies no worries did I mention we're gonna feel very good if they do this thing which they're gonna do no really they're gonna do it. 

At Least The War Is Over

I am curious if they really have any new and exciting sanctions for Iran, a country not a stranger to such things, or if this is just mostly bluster to hide surrender.

As a result, experts say, Mr. Trump is stuck in a conflict with limited leverage, a demonstrated vulnerability and an emboldened adversary. Even as Iran reels from shortages and inflation, Mr. Trump is likely to increasingly feel the pressure of the approaching midterm elections in the shadow of an unpopular war and high gas prices. It is a dangerous combination, experts say, that could prompt Iran to sense American weakness and lash out.

“They read him now as not wanting to escalate militarily,” Dennis B. Ross, a former Middle East negotiator for presidents of both parties, said of Iran’s leaders. “That creates an incentive for them to show that they may escalate militarily.”

Mr. Bessent told CNBC on Thursday that the Treasury Department would hold a news conference about the new measures targeting Iran next Monday. He said traders had been wrong to bid up the price of oil in response, given that the administration’s new economic threats were a sign there would not be an immediate return to full-scale bombing.

No full-scale bombing, but also no genuinely open strait, so I am not sure what exactly we think the impact on oil prices should be.

As  I suggested yesterday, Trump was making noise that the sanctions would hit any 3rd parties, but I'm not really sure there's much room for that.

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Probably In About Six Months To A Year

We might create Commander Data one day but the idea that the spicy chatboats are going to become sentient is ridiculous. Belief in the probability signals a type (gullible, self-important, self-styled smartest guy in the room, likely has given his chatbot a woman's name).

Oh What A Lovely War

Sean is trying so hard here, but he really can't manage to do it.

Rising Stars

Obviously I don't trust the Trump FBI about anything, but Swalwell's life trajectory has certainly changed.

Federal agents seized electronic devices from former Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell at the San Francisco airport on Saturday and then raided his home in Washington, DC, the next day as part of an ongoing probe connected to sexual assault allegations, sources familiar with the investigation told CNN.

Weaponized Interdependence

Sure the US controls many of the levers, but there is still the "inter" in "interdepdence" and there are limits to how much you can punish others without punishing yourself and everybody.

Donald Trump has announced a new campaign to isolate Iran’s economy, threatening “tremendous economic consequences” on any country that helps or does business with Tehran, a move that could set up a fresh confrontation with China if implemented.

“Today, I am announcing the most crushing economic operation ever taken against any country!” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Any country that allows its financial institutions, businesses, airports, or government entities to provide any type of lifeline to Iran will itself face tremendous economic consequences.”

And, for better or for worse, countries will move away from that system as best they can. 

Kind Of A Big Deal

It is kind of a big deal that Iran destroyed the "U.S. Navy’s main resupply base."  Not my area at all, but while their have been plenty of troop deaths/casualties in our various misadventures over the years, I don't remember any destruction of a strategic military asset of that importance.

I'm not saying Democrats should emulate what my imaginary Republicans would do, but you can imagine the kind of questioning - both from Republicans and the media (somewhat led by those Republicans) - Secretary of Defense Democrat would face if he had fucked things up so badly.

It will probably take some time for the full story of events to come out, and one will have to sift through the self-interested asscovering by other participants. But the sequences of events, and demands from Pete, will be interesting to learn about!

We know he fired everybody who knew anything.

These misadventures do give us an opportunity to remind ourselves just how vast our military empire is. And just how ultimately pointless and ineffectual it is.

Certainly ineffectual at what we are supposed to think it is for.

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Theatrical Thursday.

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They All Still Received Their T Shots

Food isn't necessary.

The USS Abraham Lincoln wasn’t able to be resupplied because the U.S. Navy’s main resupply base in the Gulf of Oman was destroyed by Iranian strikes—a fact that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth chose not to make public, David Rhode, MS NOW’s senior national security reporter, said on Tuesday.

From late February until June, Iran launched extensive missile and drone strikes on Naval Support Activity Bahrain, causing devastating damage that was not acknowledged by the Pentagon.