Sunday, May 17, 2026
A Perfect Plan
Two months after Donald Trump announced that the US would provide insurance to ships seeking to transit the Strait of Hormuz, the programme has not provided a single dollar of cover.
The scheme never got off the ground, according to insurance brokers, as it did not fulfil all the requirements needed for ships transiting the strait and was tied to a US naval escort for vessels, which has not been established.Hey it got major headlines and writeups and the stock market went ZOOM so who can say whether the journalism on this was good or bad.
Perfect
Trump on saying he doesn't think about Americans' financial situation: "It's a perfect statement. I'll make it again. Everybody agrees."
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) May 15, 2026 at 11:24 PM
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Saturday, May 16, 2026
We Interviewed Some People Who Agree With Trump And Discovered They Agree With Trump
Friday, May 15, 2026
America's Worst University
Cornell just released this statement from its committee of Trustees investigating the incident where the President ran over a student's foot with his car. The statement extols the President and blames the students.
— Dan Hirschman (@asociologist.bsky.social) May 15, 2026 at 3:20 PM
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The Professionals
After failing to secure a visa to broadcast from Beijing, Tony Dokoupil was also forced out of his backup location in Taiwan, Status has learned, adding to an embarrassing series of events for the Bari Weiss-led network.
"We"
Trump complains he can't brag about the Iran War because of the "little man with the $4 gasoline": "I don't want to say we're making a fortune ... because if I say it, they're going to say, 'He forgets about the little man with the $4 gasoline.'"
— FactPost (@factpostnews.bsky.social) May 15, 2026 at 2:46 AM
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Republicans Will Do Liberal Things, But Conservatively
Dem legislators have occasionally been able to (though not rreally in the age of Trump) get some Republicans to sign on to some liberalish things, though too often by making those things overly bureaucratic, privatized, punitive, and means-tested.
Still the idea that the Republican party would ever embrace these things wholeheartedly is always nonsense.
This particular one was especially ridiculous. ONCE WE OUTLAW ABORTION, WE WILL THEN BE IN FAVOR OF HELPING WITH CHILDCARE.
Centrists are always imagining that there are nonexistent deals on the table, but this one was nonsensical.
Where In The World
Can I go to this place with no cameras?
Members of Mr. Kean’s team were seated conspicuously in the third row, watching as the Democrats took turns weighing in on their boss’s mysterious absence. Afterward, his chief of staff, Dan Scharfenberger, reiterated a now familiar explanation.
“He’s dealing with a personal health condition, and he’ll be back soon,” Mr. Scharfenberger said in an interview.
When pressed on the nature of the health condition and why Mr. Kean had not been seen in New Jersey or in Washington, Mr. Scharfenberger said, “There’s no cameras where Tom is.”
Gone for 2 months.
I don't think we need regular medical updates of every member of Congress, but missing for 2 months is an issue in itself.
Thursday, May 14, 2026
The Finest People
This will be a 4 minute story, because that's the world we live in now.
Mike Banks, the border patrol chief who oversaw the most aggressive militarization of the US southern border in recent history, has resigned with immediate effect.
“It’s just time,” Banks told Fox News in an interview. “I feel like I got the ship back on course from the least secure, most disastrous, most chaotic border to the most secure border this country has ever seen.”
It's just time...
The resignation comes weeks after the Washington Examiner reported that six current and former border patrol employees had accused Banks of regularly paying for sex with prostitutes during trips to Colombia and Thailand over more than a decade, and bragging about it to colleagues.
The behavior was said to have been investigated twice by CBP officials, with one inquiry reportedly ending abruptly while the former homeland security secretary Kristi Noem was in office.
Oh
My Apes Are Doing Great
I registered for a road race. The customary FAQ (what time does it start, where is there water during the race, is there a bag drop, etc...) was replaced by, or at least hidden under, an "AI" chatbot.