There’s been another fatal ICE shooting this morning, this time in Maine. No details yet.
Update: Here’s an eyewitness account from the Portland Press Herald. Sounds like another government-sponsored homicide.
Mitch appears to be alive, although lots of folks are saying the photo released of Mitch and his wife as “proof of life” is just AI. Could be. This, of course, is legit:
The conspiracy theory regarding Mitch is that Republicans don’t want to hold the special election because they’re afraid a Democrat (or GOP Rep. Thomas Massie, who is not fond of Trump) will win it. But this is Kentucky; Democrats tend to be long shots. And, anyway, an absent Mitch leaves the Senate one short of Republican votes.
And Lindsey Graham is gone, leaving the Senate short two Republicans at the moment. I’m seeing news stories saying this will slow down Trump’s agenda. The problem is that the governor of South Carolina can appoint a replacement to fill the seat until January, and that can happen any minute now. So I’m not celebrating.
Here is the best retrospective on Miz Lindsey I’ve seen so far — Tom Schaller at Public Notice, Lindsey Graham and the rot of modern conservatism.
The so-called cease fire with Iran never existed except in theory, considering that the U.S. and Iran never actually stopped shooting at each other. And now Trump has restored the naval blockade of Iranian ports. I understand some peace talks are still going on somewhere, with somebody, but nobody seems to care.
And now we have Trump Being Trump:
President Donald Trump on Monday said the U.S. will take over the Strait of Hormuz — and will be reimbursed “at the rate of 20% on all cargo shipped” for overseeing one of the world’s most critical oil passageways that has been at the center of the U.S.’s re-escalating war with Iran.
“We will become guardians of the strait,” Trump said during an interview with “Fox & Friends” on Monday morning. “We’re going to hit [Iran] very hard and keep the strait, and probably run it.”
This could be a skit on Saturday Night Live. Unfortunately, it isn’t.
Trump said the “process and formation will begin immediately.”
“We guarded the strait for 50 years and never got paid for it,” Trump said on Fox. “We want to be reimbursed for this, for putting our people in danger.”
Trump wants everything to be a protection racket that he’s running.
Iranian state media declared the strait closed “until further notice” on Saturday — a claim that Trump later rebuffed, telling NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday that the waterway was “open” and the U.S. “bombed the hell out of them last night.”
To remember what the world was like when there were real leaders running things — if you get the History Channel, do look up the World War II series narrated by Tom Hanks. It’s quite good. I’ve been watching and learned a few details I’d never heard before. Overall I’d say it’s better than the World War II series by Ken Burns, which was a bit overstuffed and confusing. They’ve released most of the episodes of the Tom Hanks series, although roughly the last year or so of the war has yet to be covered.
Finally, Trump’s tribute to Miz Lindsey is, of course, really about himself.
Quote of the Day (from MIchael Fanone):
"Lindsey Graham is dead. I will always remember my first and only encounter with him when he looked the grieving mother of a dead police officer in the face and barked that he wasn't going to listen to her blame Trump for January 6th. When I showed him my body cam footage from that day he turned away and looked at his phone."
The rest of the quote is below:
https://bsky.app/profile/deanobeidallah.bsky.social/post/3mqhi72jc6c2m
“His brain is a Rumba trapped under a chair.”
That, people, is really all the analysis one needs, with no attempt to get technical about the inner workings (or bat-shit crazy disfunction) of the Rumba.
Yes, the Rumba is in Lala land, but do not pull a Lindsey and join the Rumba there.
If you find yourself trapped with a Rumba under a chair you just might die there.
Then you risk getting Died with a Rumba Trapped Under a Chair chiseled on your tombstone. NOBODY WANTS THAT.
Lindsey's sister will finish his term.
A federal judge voided the deal Trump made with himself in what the judge ruled was a phony ploy to dip into the IRS treasury and to grant himself immunity from ever being audited by the IRS. Not using those words, the judge said it 'stunk out loud' because there was never a dispute between Trump and the IRS, just a ploy to create a plausable excuse for Trump to gift himself.
I expect this will be appealed – Trump really does not believe in paying taxes and even less does he like to explain WHY he won't pay taxes. IMO, he loved the idea of a lifelong 'get-out-of- audits-free' card. Two billion in a slush fund for his paramilitary organizations was gravy. I would note that Todd Blanch said that the two billion was a dead horse but he would not sign or swear that it would not be resurrected.
A Federal Judge Slams Trump's IRS Lawsuit As a Pretext for Delivering a Phony 'Settlement'
Trump has something up his sleeve for Thursday – a speech on voting machines that some predict is the next volley in the move to nationalize elections under Trump's control. Trump will have an executive order which will be challenged in court. Trump is in deep shit in the polls, which means the House is toast and the Senate is in play. The voter suppression bill can't get through Congress and there's only a few weeks before Congress goes on August recess. So this is a Hail Mary pass because he doesn't have much else.
Regarding the US piracy of merchant commerce thru the Straight of Hormuz, it won't work for the US but it will have the effect of closing the Straight. Who pays the 20% of the value of the cargo for safe passage? The shipper? The buyer of the cargo? Or the owner of the vessel? Who calculates the value of the cargo? When does the extortion have to be paid, by what funds, and what happens if the ship runs the gauntlet while these issues are not settled? If a deal with the US is struck and payment made, who is liable if Iran gets a drone through? They paid the US for protection and were not protected. This is a complete cluster-flock, to use bird terminology. The Straight is closed, even if Trump says it's open because nobody will take the risk. Iran is willing to take the beating of US bombing – they will hunker down and drag out the bodies of slaughtered civilians for the press. And the GOP will get slaughtered (I hope) in the midterms.
Gas prices are going up slowly. If the rumors are true, the reserves are gone, or nearly so. That means (if true) that US consumers will demand more gas than the market can provide. This is when gas prices will really go up and lines at gas stations will form. Maybe what I read isn't true and the gas execs were lying. We will find out, but things may get VERY bad with the US economy in the next month or two.
On the topic of other stuff, news from the Uber Con(job) Con(vict) wing of the republican party.
From a Michelle Goldburg piece in the NYT. Victor Marx, son of Karl but not the Karl, has risen in the Colorado republican party. He claims he can do exorcisms by phone. Enough spoilers. Read more distressing info at the link.
Opinion | The Ridiculous Rise of Victor Marx – The New York Times
Love the photo! I might have added Jeffery Epstein, but he's actually more likely to be alive than Mitch (and anyway, he wouldn't be in that room, he'd be next door, recruiting young nurses).
In FL, Gas is up to 3.99 / gal. I think the House is shut down and the Senate is days from it. Members of Congress back home are going to get an earful, and damn few voters are going to complain that they saw a communist. I expect the GOP will try to change the subject from gas prices and an unpopular war. I expect it won't work. That suggests to me that when Congress returns in early September, the GOP in particular will know this can break three ways.
1) Things with gas prices may turn around and gas prices may be way down. But NOTHING indicates that's likely. Strategic reserves are exhausted and we're likely to have less gas than we need, a formula for long lines and higher prices.
2) The Republican members could return with a message highly critical of our involvement in the war with Iran. (Not directly critical of Trump for the war, but blame the war and demand an immediate end and withdrawl.) There won’t be time for anything to improve, but they will say they took a position against the disaster Trump caused.
3) Republican members could line up in full support of the war, and gas prices in the area of $4.50 to $5.00 in most areas, sing their praises of Trump and the great economy while voters in the real world see stuff going to crap. And the clock ticking from just over 60 days to the election when they get back to DC.
If you see a 4th option, do let me in on it. This situation may explain the attempt by Trump to take over elections, which I think is the objective of the Thursday speech.
I saw this conversation on bluesky. I'm curious what everyone here thinks about it:
I couldn't understand why the FBI was investigating Lindsey Graham's death—in the absence of any suspicious toxicology report in the autopsy—until I realized it gave Trump and his lawyer Kash Patel an excuse to enter Graham's house and remove potentially incriminating documents
Yep. It was a clean and scrub mission. Make no mistake about it.
https://bsky.app/profile/sethabramson.bsky.social/post/3mqmrudjnfc2g