In all the news stories about the FBI raid on John Bolton’s house, I haven’t seen any mention of a warrant. You’ll remember that when the FBI raided Mar-a-Lago they got a warrant from a judge first. Nor have there yet been any announcements that the FBI found anything that would get Bolton into trouble, but I’m sure they’ll comb through whatever they removed and then apply their imaginations.
This was nothing but political targeting, of course. See Greg Sargent on the several people being targeted. The FBI used to target a lot of people back in J. Edgar Hoover’s day. During the Joe McCarthy reign of terror Hoover used to send McCarthy the names of people he didn’t like so that McCarthy would “investigate” them. No real dirt was ever discovered, of course. But the point is that Hoover mostly functioned independently of the White House, I believe.
I dimly remember that Dick Nixon did have Hoover do some political work for him, such as wiretap surveillance of journalists and government officials Nixon suspected of leaking things he didn’t want leaked. But I don’t recall Hoover ever raiding the home of anyone on Nixon’s Enemies List. And there were lines Hoover would not cross, even for his close friend and long-time ally Nixon. That’s why Nixon organized his own clandestine organization, known as the Plumbers. Who got caught. And FBI investigations brought the details into the open.
I don’t know if the presidents Hoover served under before Nixon — Calvin Coolidge to Lyndon Johnson — used him to do any dirty work. I don’t know if any presidents were involved in, or even aware of, Hoover’s infamous COINTELPRO scheme. I think it’s safe to say that what the FBI is doing now on behalf of Trump is unprecedented.
In other news — all the recent high-level theatrics over the war in Ukraine achieved absolutely nothing. See Trump’s peace bid flops as Kremlin says no plans for Putin-Zelenskyy summit. Trump still can’t seem to grasp that Putin doesn’t want peace. He wants Ukraine. And then he probably wants more. Zelenskyy surely wants peace, but not a peace that leaves Ukraine vulnerable to the future Russian invasions that will surely come. And not a peace that doesn’t return the children the Russians stole from Ukrainian parents.
But Trump’s admiration for Putin is unabated. Now Trump wants to invite Putin to the FIFA World Cup.
In more Trump tired of winning news — he doesn’t understand his own trade agreements. I’m not even sure the agreements are real agreements.
Seventeen days ago, President Donald Trump made a dramatic claim in an interview on the business news channel CNBC. As part of his July trade agreement with the European Union, he said, the EU gave the United States a $600 billion present he could spend however he wanted.
“They gave me $600 billion. And that’s a gift,” he said. “That’s not like, you know, a loan, by the way. That’s not a loan that, oh gee, three years comes up, we have to pay it back. There’s nothing to pay back. They gave us $600 billion that we can invest in anything we want.”
A CNBC journalist said she appreciated the information, since they had been trying to figure out the details surrounding the $600 billion. Trump responded: “There are no details. The details are, $600 billion to invest in anything I want. Anything. I can do anything I want.”
And, of course, nobody agreed to any such thing. There’s some language from the EU that private sector EU companies are expected to invest $600 billion in the U.S. through 2028 as they see fit. This may be what EU companies invest in the U.S. pretty much every year, as far as I know. But there are no commitments, and this money is not going to Trump or anyone else in the government. Trump thought he got a big concession, and he got nothin’.
In even more Trump winning news, see Paul Krugman, Kilowatt Madness. trump’s policies are driving energy costs through the roof.
And it’s going to get worse, Krugman says. This is being driven by the huge power consumption of AI data centers, and possibly also crypto centers, or “mines,” or whatever generates crypto, whatever that is. See Wired, AI Is Eating Data Center Power Demand—and It’s Only Getting Worse.
Even so, I know you’ll be excited to see how the Rose Garden renovation turned out.
I’m surprised Trump didn’t put in a pool and a bar. Or at least some soft drink vending machines. I got the photo from USA Today, which doesn’t explain exactly what the tables and chairs are for, especially if there is no food or drink service available. I have a hard time believing this will be open to the public. Maybe the White House staff can eat their brown bag lunches outdoors when the weather is nice.
Update: The DoJ has released a tape and transcript of the two-day interview with Ghislaine Maxwell. Big surprise — she doesn’t incriminate Trump.
I don't know if crypto *requires* a lot of energy. Now, Bitcoin is an exception – it was set up so that each new Bitcoin "mined" takes more computational work than the last – and the cost increases faster than computational power. So, yes, CPUs and GPUs have gotten 10x faster than the last X_Years, but, Bitcoin might need 1000x as much computational power for each new coin, so they want 100x as many GPUs mining the Bitcoin, and there's the electricity usage for crypto.
I don't think *crypto* requires enormous amount of energy, and I don't think blockchain tech (the tech behind Bitcoin) requires enormous amounts of energy. But Bitcoin does require enormous amounts of energy, and, for the same sort of things that is also powering AI, so, it's all sort of the the same thing – massive amounts of energy-sucking computing power doing stuff in hopes of finding a big fortune buried… somewhere.
Re Maxwell and the transcript. How many hours would the transcript cover, because they took two and a half days. So a script that accounts for two hours leaves a lot of time unaccounted for. On the same theme, WTF authorized the transfer to a camp right after the meeting? SOMEBODY granted a waiver because sex offenders are not allowd to serve time in a camp. Nobody is explaining.
If you think that there were off-the-record conversations, did Maxwell's lawyer point out that she wants a presidential pardon? Or else. If so, she still expects one and the transfer to a camp was a temporary concession in the hope that the USSC will pardon Maxwell (effectively) so Trump is spared. That decision won't happen until late this year. I don't think the USSC wants to do Trump that big a favor, Meanwhile, Trump is investigating how to do the pardon but keep it classified til after Trump dies.
I have solar panels. For the year-to-date, my electric consumption has been 7073 kwh. My solar production has been 7178 kwh. I expect that next month I will go in the negative, producing less than I consume with the A/C running in FL. Around Oct. I will come close to a break-even and I may finish the year at a break-even. I pay $115 per month for the panels to power a compact 4 BR 2 BA suburban home.
A non-scientific post on the subdivision group page revealed that some in my neighborhood (similar age and construction) are paying twice as much as we are.
Regarding the FBI raid…. did they conduct it without a warrant? If so, is anything they say they found admissible in court? Cases get tossed all the time for a minor error in a warrant. Is that the point if they know they have no evidence to make a wild accusation and claim it was beaten in court by a liberal technicality? In the minds of MAGA the accusation is a conviction, unless the accusation is against Trump.
Trump is demanding that Colorado release the clerk who illegally allowed Trump nuts to access election machines. It's a state conviction and he can't issue a pardon.
I finally did hear that a magistrate judge signed off on the search. So they did have a warrant.
This is why diaper don appointed someone so inexperienced and unqualified to lead the pentagon. Stumps race war is coming soon!
https://apnews.com/article/washington-federal-intervention-trump-national-guard-df942130ec117288cfc648ab4e37f031
I think it will prove to be a tactical mistake to 1) let the Natl Guard harass people in DC and especially 2) harass political enemies like Bolton, also in DC. For no good reason, other than he wrote against Orange Julius.
I'm certain Bolton is well connected to powerful friends, who can clearly see what's going on, and who still love the rule of law in this country. Tick-tock.
Handy tool for watching the rise of fascism: Project 2025 Tracker
Backassward would be my word choice for counterintuitive, but who am I to critique The Cobra. She nailed the ending.
Imbedded was the analysis which saw both the narcissism and the oppositional bent of what she refers to as the nepo baby. The sum of the interplay between them seems to yield a quantity of discord much greater than each in isolation. Evil beyond that codified in the ten commandments, suggesting a feat obtainable only by the Greatest Satan.
I have no tiny quibble at all with Krugman, though his pen lacks the venom that Dowd inks contain.
Kilowatt Madness bit hard with:
Yes, the Turkey which flaunts not one but two large buildings displaying the logo of Delulu Don.
Was I the only one that missed Jerome Powell's omission of the threat of stagflation in his speech, or did he slip it in without my notice? Krugman used it twice.