A QUICK TUESDAY LOOKAROUND

There are 152 days to the mid terms. Today was supposed to be Surgery Day, but yesterday afternoon I was informed by Cedars-Sinai that my surgeon was sick and everything was rescheduled to next Monday. If you stand at Point X and want to get to Point A, and each time you take a step you move halfway to the goal, can you ever arrive?

Yes indeed, things can always get worse: Yesterday Trump nominated Bill Pulte, the 38-year-old grandson of homebuilding magnate William J. Pulte - who tried to get Lisa Cook, James Comey, Letitia James Eric Swalwell and Adam Smith sent to jail for “real estate fraud” when he was director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) - to replace the failed Tulsi Gabbard as Acting Director of National Intelligence; he will do the job part-time, remaining with FHFA simultaneously. This once again proves that Loyalty To Dilbert trumps (pun intended) Competence every time. Pulte doesn’t even have the minimal exposure to the Intelligence Community Gabbard had as a result of her time in the House. Politico described the appointment as “a surprise move that would elevate a political ally with no known background in intelligence to a key national spy post.” Calling him Completely Unqualified demonstrates the failure of language to completely describe full reality. Trump’s Lies Anti-Social announcement read: “William has deep experience managing the most sensitive matters in America, the safety and soundness of the Markets, and over 10 Trillion Dollars at Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac, a substantial increase from where it was just 12 months ago.” Politico reported, “... John Thune alluded to the controversy surrounding Pulte in his initial reaction Tuesday and said he was unsure he would ever be nominated for the permanent post.” He will never gain Senate confirmation, so this appointment can only run to January 3, 2027, when the next Congress is convened. I sense an upcoming battle over illegal occupation of office creating a tremor in The Force. Erick Erickson posted: “Bill Pulte is one of the worst members of the President’s team and has convinced Trump to do more stupid stuff than anyone else in the past year.” Stan Soloway, a former deputy undersecretary of defense, posted: “Does Trump know that building a strong intel infrastructure is not about buildings?” UPDATE: Ken Dilanian reports that there's a provision in the authorizing legislation for the office of DNI that requires that “the person holding this job has significant, substantial intelligence experience.” Trump’s appointment is open to legal challenge.

Monday, the TrumpDOJ said it will comply with a federal court order blocking its proposed “Anti-Weaponization Fund,” despite strongly disagreeing with the ruling, as backlash mounted from Republicans over the initiative. In a statement, the TrumpDOJ criticized Judge U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema of the Eastern District of Virginia for barring the fund, which it said was intended to support individuals who believed they had been unfairly targeted or persecuted, regardless of political affiliation. The TrumpDOJ said the fund aimed to address “abuse, harm, and hate” but confirmed it would abide by the court’s decision, effectively ending the effort (for now). The TrumpDOJ statement reads: “The Department of Justice disagrees strongly with the decision on the Anti-Weaponization Fund put forth by the United States District Court Judge in the Eastern District of Virginia, wherein the Court stated that, under no circumstances, may the Department of Justice proceed with the Anti-Weaponization Fund recently established in order to make up for the tremendous abuse, harm, and hate unfairly shown to so many people. This Fund was open to anybody who was so weaponized, targeted, or persecuted, whether they were Democrat, Republican, Conservative, Independent, or otherwise. The Department will abide by the Court’s ruling.” The words that are implied in the last sentence are “for now,” which is unstated but obvious. There was no mention of the Get-out-of-all-audits-free deal with the IRS. Remember, as with everything else from Maladministration II, 95% of what was said was a lie. As Michael Sellars points out: “There is a reason to be cautious about taking this at face value. Trump has a long history of floating, pausing, reviving, reframing, and reintroducing controversial ideas once the immediate pressure passes. In this case, the phrase “for now” does a lot of work... So the question is not only whether the fund survives. The question is whether the whole settlement survives. And more specifically: does the IRS immunity survive?” Today, the NYT reported that it is “unclear whether getting rid of the fund would affect another part of the legal settlement in the case, which provides Mr. Trump, his family and his businesses with significant immunity from audits.”

Trump claims the Iranians “never informed us” they were leaving the negotiations as was announced yesterday. He also claims that the talks are continuing “at a rapid pace.” Trump also said the end of talks “doesn’t mean we’re going to go and start dropping bombs all over there.” This is a significant backdown on his part compared to previous positions in the negotiations. In a later post, Trump said that he had a “very productive” call with Netanyahu over the operation in Lebanon, saying “There will be no Troops going to Beirut, and any Troops that are on their way, have already been turned back.” He said he also spoke with Hezbollah “through highly placed Representatives.” According to him, “They agreed that all shooting will stop - that Israel will not attack them, and they will not attack Israel.” Heather Cox Richardson had a very full and complete explanation/takedown of all this bushwa in her post last night - I highly recommend you read it.

Axios reported late yesterday that the conversation with Nitwityahoo referenced above wasn’t as polite as the report implies. In fact, Trump let Yahoo have it, according to the Axios report of the conversation. The call was curse-filled, with Trump blasting Nitwityahoo according to two U.S. officials and a third source briefed on the conversation. Trump said: “You’re fucking crazy. You’d be in prison if it weren’t for me. I’m saving your ass. Everybody hates you now. Everybody hates Israel because of this. What the fuck are you doing?” Additionally, Trump objected to Israel demolishing entire buildings to take out a single Hezbollah commander and was disturbed by the high civilian death toll. Netanyahu said in his own readout of his call with Trump that Israel’s stance “remains unchanged” on the matter and that the Israel Defense Force will continue to operate “as planned” in southern Lebanon. “I spoke with President Trump and told him that if Hezbollah does not cease attacking our cities and citizens, Israel will attack terror targets in Beirut.” Yes, the Israelis are once again proving that with Israel for an “ally,” you don’t need an “enemy.”

Maladministration II is increasingly seen as a bad investment by the rest of the world, causing interest rates to climb in ways that are worsening affordability pressures, hampering economic growth and creating a new risk for Republicans in November’s midterm elections. The energy price spike triggered by the Iran war has seeped into the price of bonds that help fund the U.S. government. Interest rates on a 10-year U.S. Treasury note are topping 4.44%, up from 3.95% before the war started. Average mortgage rates have climbed to their highest levels in nine months, while auto sales are slumping. The challenge is global in scale; interest rates have risen for multiple countries as the world adjusts to the prospect of higher inflation, mounting questions about the sustainability of government debt and a dramatic surge in investment in artificial intelligence. Higher interest rates are giving Democratic candidates in the races to determine control of the House and Senate another line of attack at a time when voters are concerned about high costs for food and gasoline. As of now, investors continue to buy shares in U.S. companies, causing the stock market to increase in value in a sign of confidence in America’s economic potential. But the increase in interest rates also suggests that investors view the national debt as a vulnerability for the U.S.

Further proof that Republicans Are Permanent Shitheads: Minnesota Republican Party Chair Alex Plechash refused Monday to say whether he supported a moment of silence for convicted murderer Derek Chauvin held at the GOP’s state convention over the weekend. When WCCO’s Vineeta Sawkar asked Plechash point-blank if he agreed with delegates who believe Chauvin was wrongly convicted, he dodged. “I don’t think I’m going to comment on that. The court system had its verdict, and I’m not going to challenge the court.” Sawkar pressed harder: “Did you like the fact that a convicted murderer had a moment of silence at your convention?” He replied, “I don’t think I should comment on that.” When she asked why not, he finally explained his silence: “It indicates whether I do or don’t agree with something that came out of the court. So I think I’ll just let that pass.” The tribute for Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer who is currently serving a 22 1/2-year federal prison sentence for murdering George Floyd, with no release until 2037, came Saturday morning at the opening of the Minnesota Republican State Convention in Duluth - just days after the sixth anniversary of Floyd’s death - when a delegate called for a moment of silence, which passed on a voice vote. Convention chair state Rep. Danny Nadeau led the roughly 10-second observance after saying he recommended against it but could not unilaterally block it. Plechash defended the tribute as coming from the delegate body rather than party leadership. “There are a lot of people, I think, that believe that Derek Chauvin was improperly convicted and not treated well. And those people wanted to have a moment of silence and recognition because they felt that way.” Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, who led the prosecution of Chauvin, called the moment of silence “an act of profound cruelty to the Floyd family.” He added: “The jury heard all the evidence. The appeals courts reviewed every claim. Justice was rendered according to our system of law.” Former Michigan Republican Party executive director and Lincoln Project senior advisor Jeff Timmer was equally blunt: “On brand for today’s Republican Party: Racists who despise the rule of law.” The GOP is now officially white supremacist in all ways.

Trump gets yet another political kick to his balls: Senior U.S. District Judge R. Brooke Jackson in Colorado has put a stop to Maladministration II’s plans to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, slamming the move as an effort to exact political revenge on the state. He called Maladministration II’s plans to transfer NCAR’s supercomputing facility to the University of Wyoming “arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, or otherwise not in accordance with law.” Jackson agreed with the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR), the plaintiff in the case, “that breaking off parts of NCAR, dismantling projects and potentially firing thousands of employees was intended by Trump and agency officials as direct political revenge.”

Maladministration II continues it’s upside-down-and-backwards approach to energy and climate change: The Energy Department recently issued guidance reinterpreting a program in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act that set up a rebate program for people who make high-efficiency electric purchases for their homes. The program includes heat pumps for heating and cooling, stoves, and ovens, as well as insulation. However, the new guidance, which took effect Friday, disallowed “fuel-switching,” meaning people would not be eligible for the rebates if they replace a gas-powered appliance with an electric one. Instead, the rebate will be open for people who replace appliances that are already electric with other electric appliances that are more efficient.

Trump also received an astounding rebuke from the legal community that reveals how much worse Maladministration II is compared to his first, according to two experts. Attorneys Brian Kabateck and Shant Karnikian discussed a recent survey that found 94% of judges and lawyers believe Maladministration II poses a greater threat to the rule of law than the first in a new episode of their podcast “Civil Action.” Karnikian argued that the survey results were “astounding” and showed just how much Trump has eroded faith in America’s institutions. “Here we are. It’s gotten that much worse,” Karnikian said.

There was big news yesterday about Scott Pelley’s eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation with CBS News management. Pelley questioned Nick Bilton’s qualifications to head “60 Minutes,” pressed him to account for the logic behind last week’s mass firings, and accused Bari Weiss of “murdering” the storied news program. “Bari has no qualifications for her job; you have slender qualifications for this job. The changes that she’s made at the Evening News have been catastrophic. So why should we expect that any of this is going to be any better?” When Bilton said that Weiss loved CBS News and “60 Minutes,” Pelley responded, “She is murdering ‘60 Minutes.’ She does not love this place. She was brought in to kill it, and she’s been doing exactly that.” On two occasions, Weiss drone Charles Forelle told Pelley he was being “rude.” Pelley’s reply was For The Ages: “I’m not being rude. I have some pretty - you know what was rude? Black Thursday. That was the absolute definition of rudeness. Telling Tanya Simon she had to be out of here at five o’clock. Sending Draggan Mihailovich to HR to get fired, because nobody could look him in the eye. Not talking about Tanya’s contract. Not talking about Sharyn Alfonsi’s contract. Not talking about Cecilia Vega’s contract. Just calling them up and telling they were fired. That’s rude. This is a conversation. That is rude, and you were part of that.” In the Cool Writer’s Bar in the Sky, Paddy Chayevsky pours a stiff one and says “Mmm-hmmm.” Pelley received applause from staffers immediately afterward. As someone who has had dreams of walking into a Hollywood Meeting like that, strapped with an M-60 locked and loaded with a 500-round belt of Full Metal Jacket, I can only bow to Mr. Pelley’s example of what pissed-off courage looks like.

The kind of news I love to report: TMZ reported that Chris Robinson, lead singer for The Black Crowes, hit back at a crowd booing his band during a show in Florida over the weekend. The red state crowd started chanting “U-S-A” when the band’s backing video showed the “Black Crowes character dressed as Uncle Sam,” just before the band started playing its hit song “She Talks to Angels.” Robinson told the crowd, “Thanks for the geography lesson.” When the crowd kept chanting, he quipped back, “I don’t know what you have to be so proud of right now.” People in the crowd started walking out of the venue, but Robinson didn’t let up over the heckling” “For those of you fucking booing us, some of us are not afraid. And we most assuredly are not fucking ignorant.”

Remember, you are not the crazy ones, and we were made for these times. Regardless of what you may feel right now, act as if you believe that and redouble your efforts.

“Neither let us be slandered from our duty by false accusations against us, nor frightened from it by menaces of destruction to the Government, nor of dungeons to ourselves. Let us have faith that right makes might; and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty, as we understand it.” - Abraham Lincoln

Benjamin the football fan

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