The Fourth is over and so is the heat wave, in the NYC area it least. At mid-morning it’s 65 degrees and pouring rain. The AC can rest for a while.
Trump is on his way to a NATO conference, where he will further display his ignorance of what NATO even is and piss off our used-to-be allies. The Wall Street Journal is running a story that is headlined ‘There Is No Going Back’: The Inside Story of Europe’s Rupture With America.” It sounds juicy, but it’s behind a paywall.
I’ve heard elsewhere that European leaders are pretty much done being nice to Trump to his face to dissuade him from doing more damage. It doesn’t work, anyway. But I don’t know what they’ll do with him at the meeting. They’d probably like to shove him under a bus, but they probably won’t.
I want to look at the further adventures of the SAVE America Act. Yesterday Mike Johnson announced that the House will pass SAVE America one more time as part of a budget reconciliation bill. Which, of course, would allow the Senate to bypass the 60-vote threshold and pass it with Republican votes. They tried this trick once already, and the Senate Parliamentarian nixed it. The Byrd Rule dictates that only provisions with a direct impact on federal spending and revenue can be in a reconciliation bill, and that seems to me to leave out the SAVE America Act. I understand Johnson has talked about adding a $4 billion grant program attached to the SAVE America act to make it about revenue.
However, Mychael Schnell at MS NOW says that even Republicans are tired of getting bogged down with the SAVE America Act.
“He wants to go it alone, his way to the highway, and it don’t work,” Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., who’s retiring at the end of the year, told MS NOW. “He’s trying to pound the square peg through the circle, and it doesn’t work.” … …
,,,Yet another House GOP lawmaker was more succinct: “Republicans — those of us who can do math — would like the president and other members to recognize that there isn’t a path forward.”
As Trump continues his pressure campaign — he managed to mention the SAVE America Act during his July Fourth speech on the National Mall on Saturday night — several Republicans say it’s time for him to pivot. Instead of trying to force GOP skeptics in line, some lawmakers said Trump should consider a compromise with those holdouts, or even with Democrats.
“There’s things that we should be able to do,” the House GOP lawmaker said, “but we’re so focused on legislation that will never get a Democratic vote and won’t make it through the reconciliation that it’s stopping all progress.”
Some House Republicans say that Trump needs to put pressure on Democrats to change their votes. But I say hell hath no fury like what the Democratic base would do to any Dem who played ball with Trump on this bill.
The last time it was voted on in the Senate, all Dems plus four Republicans voted no, and if that holds it would not pass even if only a majority vote were required.
In other news — Trump’s interference in the World Cup games is turning into an international big deal.
FIFA has dismissed Belgium’s challenge over the eligibility of Folarin Balogun after world soccer’s governing body decided to suspend his one-game ban ahead of the World Cup round-of-16 game with the United States.
Despite being dismissed against Bosnia and Herzegovina, the USMNT striker is available to face Belgium in Seattle on Monday night after an intervention involving U.S. President Donald Trump, government officials, U.S. Soccer and an extensive legal team.
Belgium formally objected to that decision, saying it had “no alternative but to challenge (Balogun’s) eligibility for the upcoming match”.
FIFA’s appeals committee, however, has rendered the request submitted by the Royal Belgian Football Association (RBFA) as “inadmissible”. They did so on the grounds that “the RBFA is not a party to the proceedings and, as such, has no standing to appeal the decision,” a statement from FIFA said.
I have not been following the World Cup games and have no idea if the penalty imposed on Balogun was fair or not. But the appearance of the thing stinks out loud, to mix metaphors a bit. I’ve seen people on social media calling for the U.S. team to voluntarily bench Balogun for tonight’s game, to show good sportsmanship. I haven’t heard anything from the team, though. See also FIFA Loses Control of World Cup After Bending the Knee to Trump by Hafiz Rashid at The New Republic.
Update: It looks like Graham Platner’s campaign is in big trouble. There have been no allegations, and he’s canceled several campaign events. Platner may be toast. I have been told that by Maine rules if he drops out by July 13 the Dems can appoint a replacement. But then he released a video that doesn’t sound like he’s dropping out.
Regarding SAVE – no, it won't go away. GOP efforts at voter suppression are the tip of the spear. They don't expect they can long win free and fair elections when they are delivering domestic chaos and misery. SO they are going to cheat. The SAVE plan now is the same plan that failed, put it in a budget bill, which has been ruled a violation. I am not sure if Republicans in the Senate will not vote to strip Save out in order to pass a legitimate reconciliation bill.
Re FIFA: I saw several replays of the foul that resulted in the red card. The US player very accidentally stomped on the ankle of an opponent. IMO, the foul was real and the red card was excessive. I'm not a soccer fan and not an authority on fouls in that game. BUT, the stench of Trump is on the US team if they play the guy who was red-carded. The US was granted an exception to the rules all the other teams have to play by. This is one more snowflake in a blizzard of injustice. It hardly rates a comment next to the murder of girls in school, or blowing up boats on the high seas.
Gas prices are down about fifty cents from a peak that was a buck above pre-war pump prices. I read that with the 'end' of the war, there was an exodus of tankers and freighters that had been bottled up for three months. True or not, the story last week was that tankers are not eager to enter to fill up in SA or UAE if they will get trapped again for three months. If true, there's not the relief of a normal flow of oil out of the Gulf states. By how much it's still reduced, I have not seen reliable numbers. Are we destined to three bucks a gallon soon? (A reduction of fifty cents more.) HellifIknow.
Will Trump get red-carded at the UN? (Too funny if they did.) He will be an asshole and they will probably ignore him. Trump may pull more troops out of Germany and other countries bordering Russia. This will be a gift to Putin at a time he's too weak to act on the opportunity. Ukraine has showed Europe how to defeat Russia – I mean a blueprint for bleeding Russia dry. I'm inclined to believe that Putin is on the ropes, hoping to negotiate an end that lets Russia keep Crimea. If what I hear is true, and I have a brother in Ukraine now, the end will come with an internal collapse or coup in Russia. I'm not suggesting NATO can dismantle – Russia, under bad leadership, keeps coming back to conquest as a means of global dominance.
US lost. They are out. The Nicks lost the game Trump attended. With Trump's help, defeat seems to be assured.
Cheaters never win. Sometimes they even get routed 4-1.
Which is a mild loss in comparison to the respect the country lost in the process.
I would like to think the "foot mashie" cost them, that they might have won if they knew it would have been looked upon as a fair win. Too bad they never got that option. The fixer in chief robbed them of that option with his "help". You know, the kind of help Regan cited, which most of us call a hindrance.
"Cheaters never win"
Your not paying attention are you?
Not a real win those get a *win at best.
"Some House Republicans say that Trump needs to put pressure on Democrats to change their votes"
Where are the democrats on this, hiding as usual. I don't watch as much tee-vee news (baseball season) but the democrats should be out en masse getting the word out on this bill. If enacted damn near half of the country would be ineligible to vote. I wouldn't be able to vote. I have a real id but it does not say I am a US citizen, I have a VA disability card it does not say I am a US citizen, my military discharge papers do not say I am a US citizen, my passport is expired? The entire country would be required to re-register to vote 3 months before an election. The democrats should be out explaining what the act requires and how insane it is to expect people to comply three months before an election when real ID was given a decade? As usual they sit on their hands. The republicans will get this passed, Trump is relentless, democrats are spineless.
"Under the proposed federal SAVE Act (Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act), a standard driver’s license or REAL ID alone does not qualify to register to vote. To prove U.S. citizenship, you must provide one of the following primary documents:A REAL ID driver’s license or state ID card that explicitly indicates U.S. citizenship on its face. A valid, unexpired United States passport. A U.S. military ID card paired with a military service record showing your place of birth was in the U.S.?"
Off Topic: Iran hit two tankers in the Straight with drones today, disabling one. They want control of the Straight. I think they will get it.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/tankers-hit-hormuz-amid-khamenei-funeral-events_n_6a4cd807e4b0a7adb6d76891?origin=home-latest-news-unit
Trump & the FIFA Fiasco
I tend to think that Trump’s actions reinforces to the entire world the total unreliability of the USA. If the head of the US Gov’t is ready to cheat in a World Cup just how much an anyone around the world trust the US anywhere?
This is something literally billions of people in every, or almost every country in the world will have seen and heard discussed. Even the genocide in Gaza or the Ukrainian–Russia conflict are unlikely to get the same level of attention. They are “wars in a distant country”, etc.
Almost everyone in the world can relate to this because almost everyone in the world, even someone with almost no interest in sports, would be happy to see their country’s team do well in the World Cup and it’s pretty easy to understand what happened. Ten–year–old girls and boys around the world who play football will understand this.
I’d say Trump has done more to destroy US prestige/soft power in this stupid, trivial, act than if he had started another war.starting a war.
This is a breath–taking own goal