EW Has The “Blabbermouth In Chief” Dead To Rights, This Morning… Flawless!

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Without any more ado, I offer you the writings from the Emerald Isle… of EmptyWheel.

Trust every word she writes — and her graphics are spot-on. Here’s a bit — but do go read it all:

…An unnamed journalist with the traveling White House press pool asked Trump on Sunday why he’s using his Flying Bribery Palace if it lacks antimissile defenses, to which the blabbermouth-in-chief responded that it would soon be sent back to the shop to be “maxed out.”

A reporter traveling with the small group of reporters in the presidential motorcade pointed to the Qatari jet’s fuselage and said: “Mr. President, this plane does not have antimissile defense systems on it. Why are you flying it?”

Mr. Trump replied, “Well, it has — it has a lot, and you know it has a lot of capability, but as I understand it, in about a month or so, they’re going to send it to have it be maxed out. So they’re going to be sending it, and they’ll have it be maxed out.

“It’ll take about a month,” he said.

The first NYT report of that exchange, published the same day, was bylined by Maggie Haberman. Then yesterday, Tyler Pager — one of the journalists targeted by a subpoena that the FBI didn’t manage to serve on him — did a follow-up, recording both Karoline Leavitt’s explanation that it will receive “additional enhancements,” and a White House tweet recording that Trump said the “plane will be taken out of service to be ‘maxed out’,” introduced with the words, “say less,” as if someone hopes the President will stop confirming that his Flying Bribery Place is unsafe….

This would be… hilarious — if it was not so fundamentally… sad, for America for the next two years.

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Mirengoff… Begging For Tangerine 2.0 Crumbs?!

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Well — I will just note that it took him a week to get the boot-licking post up.

And, that he never says that “the (purported) evidence” from Trump was… weak sauce.

[Amazingly, last week, Hinderaker did outright call it “evidence” that did not support the claims Trump made — on purported elections’ fraud.]

And Paul, for his part, highlights Trump’s rank speculation (about why it took so long to get a final count in some states) — to leave a (false) whiff of impropriety, around the 2020 national election. Poppycock.

If Mirengoff dislikes the fact that NPR drew negative inferences from the paucity of Trump’s purported evidence… he ought to stop drawing positive inferences (for Trump), based on the same missing evidence — for his claims.

Put up, or shut up — boy.

Out.

Thanks To Anon., We Learn That Again Trump Has Paid Cronies Billions — To Utterly Fail, In A Contract With The Federal Government.

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If these floaters ultimately are NOT outfitted with razor wire… maybe that is a small improvement.

Everyone here knows the back story (we’ve followed it, for over three long years). Do read there, if you don’t. This is all. . . an “idiots’ only” show:

…On Friday, a CBP spokesperson told Border Report that “these were not buoys that were already deployed and anchored in the river.”

However, photos and videos show many of the cylindrical buoys were already attached in a string as they came downriver, and that’s what caused the most pileups under the World Trade Bridge, as well as several other international bridges in South Texas.

“After several sections accumulated near the World Trade Bridge, traffic operations were temporarily suspended out of an abundance of caution, but the operations have since reopened. There are no reported injuries or damage to the bridge. Contractors are working to recover remaining buoys,” the CBP spokesperson said….

U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, says the federal government, which initiated the buoys by arguing they were necessary to stop illegal immigration, needs to take responsibility for what happened.

“CBP immediately faulted the contractor but at the end of the day they got hired; they got paid literally billions of dollars, not millions, billions of dollars to do this. So even though there was a contractor, it’s still the federal responsibility,” Cuellar told Border Report on Monday….

Tangerine 2.0’s incompetence is only eclipsed by his… malevolence. Crazy — with a hat tip, to Anon.!

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A Look Back — At How Quarantines Prevented A Wider Outbreak Of The [Potentially] Aerosolized Hantavirus This Past Spring…

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Yes — nearly 30 people, none of whom ultimately developed into active, spreading cases of the virus, were in isolation for a total of 42 days. That is a significant impinging — upon their constitutional / civil liberties.

But let us not forget that, at the point of quarantine. . . seven had alrady died from that small ship. It seemed possible — probable even — that this strain of the hantavirus was spreading at distances of something around four feet, when someone coughed into your own “airspace”.

Even so, the NYT has quite rightly published the inside stories of those held for 42 days.

I support both truths here. And I support arresting epidemics… aggressively. Here’s the counter-narrative:

…It was May 17, six days after United States health officials had evacuated 18 Americans from the cruise ship at the center of a hantavirus outbreak that had killed three people, and taken them to the special facility in Omaha, Neb., for what they had said would be a quick 72-hour evaluation before the passengers could go home to quarantine.

None of them had tested positive for the virus but now, an official from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. David Fitter, was telling them on a video call that they would not be permitted to leave for at least two more weeks.

These were people who had paid thousands of dollars for a cruise through uninhabited regions, in pursuit of exotic birds and animals. They chafed against the loss of fresh air, nature and, most of all, their freedom.

“I’m asking you, as a scientist and a human,” a passenger with a red-headed woodpecker as his Zoom icon said to Dr. Fitter, on a copy of the video call viewed by The New York Times. “Do you think that this is really a sensible decision to keep me here in this room that’s making me sicker day by day, being here when I could be home isolating in a perfectly reasonable situation?”

Now you know — both sides have merit here — but the good of the many outweighed the good of the few in this setting. That’s my estimation… all as the Canadian wildfire air has mostly cleared here. Thank you, Lake Michigan winds!

नमस्ते

Tangerine’s Supposed-Canadian Tariffs Are… PREPOSTEROUSLY Ineffectual; Stupid. And Largely Only Injure US Businesses — And Cash-Strapped US Consumers.

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So… it hardly seems worth a new post, but since Tangerine 2.0 tried this same stupid move in October of 2025, we will largely re-run our October 2025 post — but note that he claims to be imposing a 50% tariff — not 10% this time.

Yes — “Saint Ronnie” made clear, back in 1987 (see YouTube video below), that tariffs mostly hurt the nation that imposes said tariff. Trump is a delusional, malign sociopath — bound and determined to injure US blue collar families. Damn — these will likely die in the courts, but… end update.

[Oct. 2025] Even though the Ontario Premier / honcho (and conservative — somewhat in the style of Trump), one Mr. Doug Ford — has agreed to suspend the running of the TRUTHFUL Reagan TV ad — in order to ease tensions and improve Canada’s trade negotiation position. . .

Tangerine 2.0 announced a new 10% tariff on specified Canadian goods. As ever, we will have to wait and see if he actually tries to enforce such a tariff — because approximately 80% of all the tariffs he has announced have never gone into effect. His brand is simply. . . trade chaos.

Here is the latest — out of Detroit:

…President Donald Trump said on Saturday that he plans to hike tariffs on imports of Canadian goods by an extra 50% 10% because of an anti-tariff television ad aired by the province of Ontario.

The ad used the words of former President Ronald Reagan to criticize U.S. tariffs, angering Trump who said he would end trade talks with Canada. Ontario’s Premier Doug Ford said he would pull the ad after the weekend, and it ran Friday night during the first game of the World Series….

Trump is a sad… small clown, on a very big stage. There really is no other way to see this. As a reminder, heres the truthful ad:

Once again, Trump is trying to suppress free expression — solely because it expresses a truth he doesn’t like. Buckle up, buttercup. Damn.

नमस्ते

Not A Song You Want to Sing, Here Hinderaker. Yikes.

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While I was gone, John Hinderaker asked whether Trump is worse than Nixon… hilarious.

And then he proceeded to explain how Mr. Nixon was not really a Conservative at all. [As though that might absolve Hinderaker of all his sins — in touting Tangerine 2.0 and 1.0 lawlessness. Sheesh.]

John goes on to point out that Trump isn’t either.

I’m sure that that’s gonna work really well to hold the base together my friend.

He really should put the keyboard down.

He regularly does more damage than good, for GOP causes.

Thesis: A Presidential Pronouncement Is Not His “Private Asset” — To Be Sold. It Is A DUTY Of The Person Sitting At 1600 Penn. It Must Be Accessible To All, Simultaneously — If It Will Move A Market.

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Look — I get it. The stock symbol DJT is off about 75% from its all-time high. The useful idiot and former MAGA Congressman Devin Nunes has long ago been ousted as CEO, and still the stock is falling.

Long-suffering investors are now likely looking for a way out — any way out — at something near breakeven. And so, in palpable desperation, they are convincing his “failsons” to try to sell “front running” access to the statements that 1600 Penn makes that will move markets.

Potentially lucrative? Sure. Lawful?! Very likely… not.

This sort of profiteering off of ones’ own role in setting policy — while not disclosing ones’ conflicted interests… is exactly why the framers forebade it. In any event, I supsect it will never get off the ground — fully. Federal judges will enjoin it. Bank on that. Here’s the UK Guardian on it all, thus far:

..“He’s selling expedited, privileged access to information about what he is doing as president,” said Kathleen Clark of the Washington University School of Law and an expert in government conflict of interest rules. “It’s yet more brazen corruption, an improper exploitation of government power to enrich himself….”

Stock in TMTG has plunged more than 70% since the president took office last year, erasing $6bn (£4.4bn) in shareholder wealth.

Those losses, along with billions more of investor losses tied to new Trump family crypto businesses, have drawn scrutiny after Trump’s annual disclosure of his financial holdings shows he took in more than $1bn in revenue last year in the same companies and offerings.

Trump launched TMTG in 2021 after Meta’s Facebook and X banned him for apparently encouraging his supporters to participate in the 6 January attack on the US Capitol. He went on to launch Truth Social in February 2022 and two years later floated the business – trading under the ticker symbol “DJT” – Trump’s initials – at an initial valuation of $8bn.

Trump indirectly owns about 53% of TMTG through shares he transferred to a trust in December 2024, a month before he took office, giving him a paper fortune of about $1.41bn based on TMTG’s current $2.67bn market capitalisation.

The US president earned $2.2bn in total in his first year back in office, according to a mandatory disclosure with the US Office of Government Ethics….

What a vast waste of skin he (and his sons) are. Of course, he could remain silent, until he had actually completed a thing. But we all know he cannot keep his mouth shut (or tell the truth when it is flapping).

That said, I did quite relish when the Spanish (Champions!) soccer players pushed him to the side, so that they could celebrate WITHOUT him — and when the majority of Meadowlands fans… booed him. Delicious — but embarrassing — in front of the world (again). Wow.

नमस्ते

In A Lead USAID Funding Freeze Challenge Case, In DC — The Pace Is Accelerating Now, Before USDC Judge Amir Ali. Tangerine 2.0 Will… Lose.

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This has been a slow roll. But now, perhaps for not much longer. The DC appeals have been resolved against Tangerine 2.0, and Musk — as his DOGE minion.

So it is on to trial, now — where Trump/Musk will lose. Here’s the latest order, from while I was away in the mountains:

…MINUTE ORDER.

The court is in receipt of Plaintiffs’ [193] motion to compel ex parte production of documents for in camera review and to compel production of unredacted documents. The motion indicates that Defendants consent to in camera review of the documents at issue but the parties disagree as to the timeline for Defendants to file a brief defending redactions in the relevant documents, given pending summary judgment briefing.

The court agrees in camera review is appropriate. Defendants shall file the relevant documents, under seal for in camera review, and their brief defending the contested redactions by July 21, 2026, at 4:00 p.m.

Signed by Judge Amir H. Ali on 7/18/2026….

Onward, resolutely.

नमस्ते

Trivia: Fitton-Shill Plaintiffs Offer Decidedly Weak Sauce — On Statute Of Limitations Issue, In Evanston Reparations Case…

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I won’t quote any of this nonsense — but instead just link to it — for the sake of a complete record.

USDC Judge Kness has already ruled that these faux-plaintiffs / crisis actors cannot stop a statute of limitations challenge mounted by Evanston — essentially by saying it is inconvenient for them to admit to the defects in their case.

And relatedly — as their “case” falls away, so to does the Trumpian US Attorney’s attempt to intervene, here.

This is civil dispute between private parties (if any dispute there actually be). He cannot “intervene” where there is no case or controversy, to begin with. That is so, because the shills missed the deadline to file.

He may separately bring his own suit — but again, the statute of limitations will bar his efforts, as well. He is just. too. late. Onward, smiling — in spite of the poor air quality here.

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Psyche Fly-By Of Mars — As A Movie — And, Musk Won’t Launch Before Thursday This Week. Heh.

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The promised “video fly-by” of Mars, or Barsoom if you prefer — is now up, at NASA’s YouTube page.

I thought we’d have seen it by end of May, but here it is — finally, in mid-July. Pretty cool, either way:

…NASA’s Psyche spacecraft flew by Mars on May 15, using the planet’s gravity to gain speed and slightly tilt its trajectory. The flyby also gave the team an opportunity to prep for the science they will be conducting when they reach the metal-rich asteroid Psyche in 2029.

Using Mars as a stand-in for the asteroid during the flyby, they could test the spacecraft’s science instruments. The results, downlinked and analyzed over the subsequent weeks, were impressive. Not only did the instruments operate precisely as designed, delivering data that matches what NASA already knows about Mars, they also provided a few new insights about the planet along the way.

“The mission’s imager, magnetometer, and gamma-ray and neutron spectrometer teams worked overtime to make full use of this planetary encounter, and all instruments delivered great results,” said Lindy Elkins-Tanton, principal investigator for Psyche at the University of California, Berkeley. “We didn’t anticipate big discoveries, given how extensively the planet has been studied, but we did complement Mars science with the data we collected through Psyche’s unique perspective….”

Oh. And Musk’s next Starship attempt for launch will be no earlier than this Thursday or Friday. Musk seemed rather… unclear. Hilarious. Out.

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