Is the job of a cabinet member to advise a president on the propriety and lawfulness of a policy or course of action, or to be fawning sycophant who does whatever he’s told to do without regard to whether it’s unlawful, dangerous or counterproductive? In another time, the answer would obviously be the former. But during their confirmation hearings, neither Todd Blanche nor Jay Clayton, nominated to be the Director of National Intelligence where the stunningly unqualified Bill Pulte sits in the chair, made clear that their duty is to do as they’re told no matter what.

PADILLA: Do you personally believe that someone who forcibly entered the Capitol and assaulted law enforcement should be rewarded with taxpayer money?

BLANCHE: I can’t answer yes or no pic.twitter.com/Gdo8LWa00P

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 15, 2026

Continue reading →

Humility prevents me from saying I called it, but I called it. To be fair, it wasn’t hard to do, even if many did not. The Trump v. IRS suit “settlement” was nothing more than a scheme to law-wash Trump using taxpayer monies as a giveaway to his devoted militia, who are likely to be useful come next November, and to himself and his posterity  It was obvious from the outset, and the fact that they even screwed it up with a day-late settlement agreement that was never provided to the court, and then a day-even-later immunity conference that couldn’t even be bothered to be fashioned as if a settlement.

The whole sham was under the auspices of then auditioning Attorney General, Todd Blanche. The immunity gambit was signed by one, and only one, person at the Department of Justice. That too was Todd Blanche. Continue reading →

It may never be known whether Trump assumed that conventional bombing of Iran would produce a Venezuela-like outcome, with the regime collapsing and agreeing to do Trump’s bidding, or not. But what has become overwhelmingly clear, long before Trump’s surrender to Iran, was that there was no consideration of what Iran would do with the Strait of Hormuz or Plan B strategy if the regime survived.

Perhaps it would have gone smoother had Trump focused on a goal in advance of an unlawful war rather than throw things against the wall and see what would stick, thereby being able to sell the war to Americans as worth the cost, in terms of lives and money. It surely would have gone better had Trump not blathered about how we won, we decimated Iran (as opposed to obliterated their nuclear program a few months earlier), how Iran was nice to him and agreed to everything he wanted. And oh yeah, how he was in control of the Strait of Hormuz, a critical international waterway that was open to all before he started the war and was now closed, whether by Iran, the United States or both. Continue reading →

There is a tendency of the unduly passionate to take the enemy of my enemy is my friend a bit too far. We saw this in the deification of Michael Avenatti, who became the darling of the woke and star of MSNBC. This happened again when Trump’s one-time fixer, former lawyer and prisoner Michael Cohen, took the witness stand against his childhood idol in the New York County criminal prosecution for the handling of Trump buying the silence of porn actress Stormy Daniels, upon whom he forced himself after Melania gave birth to Barron.

Cohen portrayed himself as a reformed lying tough guy who would do anything for Trump. Cohen, reviled for being as low a POS as possible, claimed to now be telling the truth and sorry for his miscreant existence. And when Cohen called Trump a liar and a conman, the Trump-haters swooned and forgave him his trespasses. They embraced Michael Cohen, the enemy of their enemy, and welcomed him back into the fold. At least some did. Continue reading →

It was only one day ago that Trump claimed Iran, the nation with whom we’re at not-war which we already won 38 times and who is being very nice to Trump and giving him everything he wants, asked to resume talks after Trump declared the ceasefire over. Iran says it didn’t ask to resume talks, just as it disputed pretty much every word Trump tried to put into its mouth all along. Trump’s cred was not bigly.

But now there’s another threat raised by Trump, and this time it seems like the sort of threat that may well be true given that the United States assassinated Iran’s Supreme Leader and much of its government. Continue reading →

Dear Democrats in Maine:

Look, we can’t sugar coat things. You guys have a problem right now, and I want to help you fix it. With Graham Planter out of the Senate race now, y’all need to find someone on the double quick to take his spot challenging Susan Collins.

Allow me to throw my name into the ring for consideration.

Now I do have some drawbacks for the spot. For one, I don’t live in Maine. Second, the one thing I really care about in Maine are lobster rolls. I do love me some lobster rolls. Continue reading →

Lorenzo Salgado Araujo had lived in the United States for 35 years. He had three American children. He was a hard working, law abiding man. He had a pending application for labor certification. And an ICE agent shot him dead.

When agents tried to stop the vehicle, the encounter quickly escalated, and an agent shot Mr. Araujo in the abdomen. He died at a hospital hours later.

Homeland security officials said Mr. Araujo had tried to use his vehicle as a weapon, though no video or other evidence for that claim has emerged.

Continue reading →

If I had to guess, the only memory we’ll have of Graham Platner in a year is as the punchline to a bad joke. A belated accusation is likely to be the rape that broke the camel’s back, because Totenkopf tat and sexting while married, etc., weren’t red flaggy enough. After all, as the millennial pixie argues, he had what young passionate Democrats were seeking in a senatorial candidate who had never before served in any public office.

Also liable for this disaster are the progressive operatives who recruited Platner and were so infatuated with his identity — a gruff, handsome oysterman with social democratic politics — that they failed to do their due diligence. The Wall Street Journal reported last month that Platner’s top strategist, Dan Moraff, didn’t want to spring for a thorough background check, which can take weeks and cost around $20,000. “Moraff asked for an expedited, cheaper review to be done within days,” The Journal said.

Michelle Golberg bigly blames herself as well, for having come under Platner’s spell. Continue reading →

Trump made more money in the first year of his second term than he ever did as the “successful businessman” he purported to be. It wasn’t the stock market, as he claimed. It was mostly cryptocurrency.

President Trump reaped a stunning windfall in his first year back in the White House, including about $1.4 billion from his family’s cryptocurrency businesses, a new filing shows.

All told, the president pulled in at least $2.2 billion, a figure that includes other parts of his vast holdings, such as his real estate assets. That compares to a minimum of $622 million his enterprises pulled in for all of 2024, before he returned to the presidency.

Continue reading →

My running joke is that soccer (futball for you purists) is the favorite sport of people who feel baseball is too exciting. I don’t hate soccer. I just don’t like it, care about it or watch it. You are welcome to disagree. Many do, and that’s great too. But the international governing body of soccer, Fédération Internationale de Football Association, or FIFA as its commonly, known, has long been seen as a shady, borderline corrupt, association.

This was true even before FIFA invented a Peace Prize to give to Trump when he was sad not to have won the Nobel, to place alongside the trophy he glommed and the medal he pocketed. FIFA’s president, Gianni Infantino, is nothing if not pragmatic. He knows where his tongue must be stuck to get what he wants. Continue reading →