IT’S REALLY FRIDAY ALREADY?

There are 90 days to the midterms.

Polling seems all over the place in Michigan’s Democratic Primary. A new independent poll from Emerson College has Abdul El-Sayyed leading Haley Stephens. However, Democrats are staring at the possibility that the party won’t unify behind El-Sayyed in the general. Rep. Hillary Scholten, D-Mich, said in a recent interview, “I will not stand beside someone who has allowed distinctly anti-American sentiment to enter our public dialogue,” referencing his decision to campaign with far-left streamer Hasan Piker - who publicly supported Hamas and has attacked several progressive Democrats over support for Israel. Democrats also do not forget that, while he said in the 2024 presidential election that he would support Democrats, he was a leader of the “Uncommitted” movement, when a sizable bloc of Democrats — including El-Sayed — protested Joe Biden in the primary over his Gaza policy. El-Sayed stressed he would support Democrats in the general election over Trump. But Democrats believe Kamala Harris’ eventual loss in Michigan stemmed in part from the lingering splits over Gaza, leading disaffected voters to stay home despite the urging of many progressives who had previously backed the protest. Scholten claimed that, while El-Sayyed may lead online, “in the field” Haley Stevens is drawing large crowds. This is a crucial seat that Democrats must hold if they are to retake the Senate. According to another poll, El-Sayyed is far behind Stevens in the essential black voter bloc. Whuile El-Sayyed polls stronger for the primary, Stevens polls stronger against Republican Mike Rogers.

Thursday, Trump proclaimed on Lies Anti-Social platform that he has reached a solution for the Gaza war” “Today, the Board of Peace reached a HISTORIC agreement for the COMPLETE DISARMAMENT of Hamas and all other armed groups in Gaza. This is a monumental step toward lasting PEACE and SECURITY. This is a major milestone in the implementation of the Trump 20-Point Plan. The agreement will be carried out in carefully structured phases. As disarmament is completed, Israeli forces will withdraw, and the International Stabilization Force will work with a new Palestinian police force to take responsibility for Gaza being safe for its residents and its neighbors. One year ago there was a violent raging war, humanitarian crisis and hostages kept in brutal captivity. We have made historic progress and there is still much work to do, the threat that emerged from Gaza on October 7 will NOT be allowed to rebuild! Under this agreement, Gaza will finally be in the hands of a new Palestinian government that serves its PEOPLE. CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL ON THIS AMAZING DEVELOPMENT, THAT EVERYBODY SAID COULD NEVER BE ACHIEVED!” As to the truth of this statement, there has never been a report of Trump’s Board of Authoritarians holding any meeting since he initially announced its existence. While Trump still largely wants a solution that gives Israel everything it wants while making bombastic threats against Hamas, he has recently grown more frustrated with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Trump did not provide details of the phases in his post. Amit Segal, chief political analyst for Israel’s N12News, outlined some terms the reported 15-point document earlier, saying Hamas would surrender all weapons within “weeks” to depots guarded by multinational forces, as well as ending all military activity and recruitment. Israel would not withdraw its military behind the “yellow line” until disarmament is complete. Neither the Israelis or Hamas had officially commented on Trump’s announcement. The “Board of Peace” was proclaimed by Trump as the organization that would oversee Gaza’s reconstruction earlier this year. Thursday evening, Hamas confirmed the deal and said it is committed to implementing the plan.

Trump’s inability to understand war and international trade continues to make everything worse. The conflict in the Middle East is widening. On Wednesday, a drone hit gas vessels at Egypt’s Mediterranean port of Damietta, signalling a potential new front in the war. The attack renewed concerns about the nearby Suez Canal and Sumed pipeline, a vital route for Saudi oil exports.
Egypt’s cabinet said on Thursday that an initial investigation found an unidentified drone caused a fire on two vessels at Damietta port on Wednesday. Trading sources said the drone hit U.S.-owned gas storage tanker Energos Winter, causing a fire that spread to a second vessel. A drone attack on gas tankers at an Egyptian port on the Mediterranean is a worrying development for Gulf energy producers who have gotten ever more reliant on the Suez Canal to get their supplies out if the Gulf. Suez is an expensive but critical alternative option after the U.S.-Iran war choked off the Strait of Hormuz and the Iran-backed Houthis started targeting Saudi Arabian tankers in the Red Sea. Saudi Arabia on Thursday unveiled plans for a multinational maritime defence coalition aimed at protecting international shipping and energy supply routes in the Red Sea region. Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said Egypt’s security is of “utmost importance” to the Islamic Republic. “Egypt is an important friend and partner in the region, and its security is of utmost importance to us.” All this is creating an alarming new norm for Gulf energy supplies, with worries about the reliability of supply becoming increasingly entrenched among buyers. India’s state-owned Mangalore Refinery this week issued a crude purchase tender that, for the first time, explicitly asked suppliers to avoid using the Red Sea and the Strait of Hormuz. This suggests that, even if shipping resumes and a diplomatic agreement is reached, a big if, Gulf exporters may be forced to offer discounts to retain customers. Brent futures settled down at $89.03 a barrel. Trade was choppy; Brent touched a session high of $93.31 earlier in the session. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures settled down 87 cents at $83.59, after hitting a high of $85.94.

Many observers have pointed out that Trump’s threat to withdraw Blanche’s nomination for Attorney General, and then resubmit it in the new Congress where Cornyn and Tillis will not hold office, ignores the fact that there is a good likelihood Democrats may control the Senate in the new congress, which would make any such nomination DOA. Tillis sees the fund as a campaign liability for his colleagues, something Trump is ignoring as he seeks to keep the fund alive. Trump sent Chief of Staff Susie Wiles to Congress today to talk with Republicans about how to revive Trump’s agenda legislatively. She got an earful from John Thune, who told her he would like to support Trump but “the votes aren’t there” in the Senate to move the third reconciliation bill with the SAVE Act attached. Trump took square aim at Thune Wednesday, suggesting to reporters that Thune might not be the right man to lead Senate Republicans. “We will find out, and I will let you know.” Trump really is the “most persistent ignoramus,” as John Kelly observed five years ago. Senate Republicans are not going to strip themselves of tyhe filibuster, their major tool to prevent passage of Democratic legislation and maintain their minority rule whether or not they hold a Senate majority, and there are not 60 votes in the Senate to overcome a filibuster to pass the SAVE Act, no matter how desperate Dilbert gets.

In a Thursday piece for The Wall Street Journal, Sen. John Curtis made it clear, “I won’t change the filibuster. Under no circumstance will I support any effort to end or alter the filibuster, as any party that does so wouldn’t be guaranteed survival. Their agenda would be guaranteed death come the next majority.” Curtis defended the filibuster, writing that it “protects independence” and “gives individual senators the ability to stop or slow a bill—a significant amount of influence for one person.” He added that the filibuster protects the minority, which “isn’t just a party. It can be any senator, on any issue, at any time, whose view doesn’t align with the majority.” He noted this kind of resistance “happens more often than people might think” and that the filibuster makes it so a senator who disagrees with party leadership “can’t easily be overruled and pushed aside.”

A drone factory in Kyiv destroyed by a Russian ballistic missile last Friday was owned by a US corporation registered in Delaware, in what appears to be the first time Moscow has targeted a US company in the conflict. Terminal Autonomy makes precision “deep-strike” drones with guidance systems that are resistant to Russian jamming signals. The phrase “terminal autonomy” refers to the final phase of a kamikaze drone’s attack in which AI takes over control of the weapon after the defending force jams radio waves or mobile service.

Thursday, Judge Daniel Bress, appointed by Trump during Maladministration I, joined a slew of other federal courts in rejecting Trump’s efforts to expand “mandatory detention” for long-time but undocumented U.S. residents. Bress wrote: “ Although no reading of the complicated and interrelated textual provisions at issue here is without some shortcomings, the historical understanding of the statute is the better one. The government’s new interpretation, by contrast, is less consistent with the statutory text and introduces a series of interpretive complications. We accordingly do not think that Congress in 1996 made such a large-scale change to our established system of immigration detention in the way that the government now contends.” The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in the 2-1 decision written by Bress, joined the Second, Sixth, Tenth, and Eleventh Circuit courts in making similar decisions stopping Maladminstration II. In 2025, Maladministration II had “declared that a 1996 law had, without anyone noticing, mandated the detention of every undocumented immigrant who initially entered the country unlawfully, no matter how long ago.”

Georgia Republican Senate candidate Mike Collins’ press conference abruptly ended after reporters questioned him about his son-in-law’s pro-Nazi online posts. Thursday, Collins tried to shift the topic to his Democratic opponent, Sen. Jon Ossoff. But reporters pressed the issue, and Collins ultimately walked away from the podium with minimal comments about how David Alan Scheer II, according to a CNN investigation, is “a pro-White nationalist and social media influencer with a track record of sharing antisemitic material and Nazi imagery in comments across the internet.” Towards the end of Collins’ seven-minute press conference outside the Monroe County Hospital, a reporter asked him if he wanted to comment on what Scheer posted online, like how, “There’s nothing wrong with White Nationalism.” Scheer also shared Nazi imagery. Despite his decision to call on other reporters, they each kept asking the question. Finally, he said, “Listen, I appreciate y’all’s time. I appreciate you coming out this morning,” Collins said as another reporter asked if he really was not going to talk about his son-in-law “at all.” He then walked away. Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball has moved the race from “lean Democratic” to full-on “Democratic” as Ossoff continues to surpass Collins.

Thursday the National Capital Planning Commission, one of the numerous federal agencies Trump has staffed with his allies, approved his controversial arch project following a lengthy public hearing in which members of the public spent hours detailing their opposition to it - and pointed out its Nazi forefather. Preliminary site and building plans for the 250-foot gilded ‘Arc de Trump,’ planned for Memorial Circle near Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C., were approved after three hours of public testimony in which multiple people raised concerns about the arch’s height and its potential to obstruct views of the cemetery. At 250 feet, it would be more than twice as tall as the nearby Lincoln Memorial, and taller than the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. One person highlighted the similarities between Trump’s arch and an arch that Adolf Hitler wanted to erect in Berlin. Chief Nazi architect Albert Speer designed a triumphal arch to be built in Berlin, three times as large as the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, as part of Adolf Hitler’s plan to remake the German capital in his own image. “The arch is fascist in design.” “I’m not sure what you think you’re accomplishing,” commission Chairman Will Scharf, who also serves as a White House staff secretary, replied. Scharf said a final approval vote could take place at the commission’s next meeting in September. He went on to say, “I think commemorating America’s 250th anniversary is important. I think that the proposed arch is a fitting commemoration of 250 years.” Priya Jain, chair of the heritage conservation committee of the Society of Architectural Historians, told the commission, “Reject this hasty and inappropriate proposal. Respect public opinion and engage in a deliberative design process to ensure that we end up with a fitting memorial for America’s 250th anniversary.” The panel voted 8-1 to approve the project, with Trump allies and congressional Republicans all voting in favor. According to National Park Service documents published last month, Maladministration II is scrambling to complete Trump’s arch before he’s out of office. To meet the 2028 deadline, construction workers would need to work 20-hour days year-round for two to three years.

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

Brother and sister: Cary and Phantom

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