Monthly Archives: August 2026

The Fringe starts tonight, folks, and while it’s come down a bit from its pre-pandemic heights, it can still be fun. We’ll be attending a few shows, constrained by our various surgeries and recoveries there from.

Contumacy:

1.  obstinate and wilful rebelliousness or resistance to authority; insubordination; disobedience
2.  the wilful refusal of a person to appear before a court or to comply with a court order [Collins Dictionary]

This seemed familiar, but I can’t find it on the blog, so I guess not. Noted in “Peter Navarro inches closer to Supreme Court in his Jan. 6 subpoena contempt appeal,” Jordan Rubin, MS NOW:

“Because President Trump did not, in fact, invoke executive privilege, neither the Select Committee’s subpoena nor the prosecution for Dr. Navarro’s contumacy in the face of that subpoena presents the separation-of-powers concerns of which Dr. Navarro complains,” the panel said last month in rejecting his appeal.

Too bad, kid. Best to wear your conviction with faux-pride.

Primary Day, in Missouri, is also Amendment Day, and the most important Amendment priority for Governor Kehoe (R) didn’t do well:

Missouri voters have rejected Amendment 5, declining to give lawmakers a blank check to raise or expand sales taxes, something some lawmakers sought to enable enormous income tax cuts for the state’s wealthiest households. By doing so, voters in the Show-Me State set a positive example for states around the country, turning away from what would have been one of the most damaging tax policy changes in any state in recent years.

Otherwise divided voters were united in rejecting redistributing taxes away from the wealthy, with just 17 percent of voters casting their ballots in favor. Despite a well-funded campaign and no signs of wholesale rejection of their elected leaders, Missourians across the state rejected their governor’s biggest priority. [ITEP]

A symptom of one of the toxic influences on Republican politics. If rich people want to reduce their relative tax burden, then raise corporate taxes. They’ll pass on their additional tax burden to their customers, because heaven forbid their investors take the hit, and it’ll be quite popular.

If the Republicans want to become unpopular, keep on trying to undertax the wealthy. It’s a bit like splashing one’s self with hot tar and then jumping in a lake. Splash splash.

I found this report on Secretary of Department of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin’s (R-OK) encounter with MAGA fascinating:

Yet [Mullin] apparently isn’t good enough for MAGA die-hards. They’re furious and calling for his ouster over comments he made Saturday at a National Governors Association meeting in which he drew a distinction between legal and illegal immigration, and also suggested immigration reform would be a good idea in the long term because it’s needed to help the economy grow. [Zeeshan Aleem, MS NOW]

What did he say?

Over the weekend, Mullin told the National Governors Association Summer Meeting that in order to grow the economy, there needs to be more employment visas for the farm and agriculture sector, which some Republicans have tried to change out of concern that those who use them will be taking Americans’ jobs.

“Because this narrative that it steals American jobs is true in some industries, it’s not true for all industries,” he said during a fireside chat moderated by NGA chair Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt. “We want to take care of Americans first. It’s our economy, it’s our homeland, but there’s a way to utilize labor where we’re not having the participation rate we need to, and we can plug those holes.” [ABC News]

I think that, to the dispassionate observer – sure, go look that up, I’ll wait – that’s actually the beginning of a nuanced conversation, even if it looks like maybe Mullin dropped a word here or there.

MAGA is given to neither being dispassionate or, in fact, analysis.

We could discuss this in the context of apparent MAGA precepts, or the impact of the loss of immigration on the economy, or several other contexts, but I find more interesting what the future behavior of MAGA might be. We need to remember that, like most human institutions, there’s a power structure involved, whether it’s your local club for collecting post-stamps, or the “Catholic Church hierarchy.”

In an organization centered around disputes with central societal assumptions, in this case tolerance of variations in such human attributes as skin color, immigrant, religion, and other such attributes, the important valuations center around purity, and rejection of anything that might imperil such purity, and so what I think we’re going to see is rejection of nuance, of compromise, and the very idea that MAGA can be wrong. Instead, much like the Republican Party, discussion within the group will center around who can go further into the extremes of ideology and, importantly, arrogance. These will be the valuations upon which judgments of social position will pivot, and the ambitious will strive to find more and more ‘pure’ positions.

In other words, look for MAGA positions to become more and more extreme, and MAGA attitudes to become more and more arrogant.

I don’t expect MAGA to grow appreciably; indeed, the drive towards purity may result in the ejection, voluntary and involuntary, of members. Some will not qualify for membership, and some will become disgusted, either by the perceived weakness of the organization or by the consequences of the group dynamics. Will there be a wall where no ideological warrior can move even further right?

But I had been ignoring MAGA as likely to dissolve – and I still expect them to dissolve. But they’ll be making a racket for while longer, it seems.

President Trump has not yet fired U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro over her doing the right thing with regards to the Reflecting Pool debacle, but he might as well have done so:

The pool’s problems had sparked tirades from Trump inside the White House, and the president soon grew angry for another reason: Pirro did not give the White House a heads-up about dropping the charges, a White House official said. The president spoke with her by phone Saturday to discuss the decision, a call first reported by CNN.

Trump publicly turned his ire on Pirro too, saying on social media he disagreed “100%” with her decision and again insisting that vandals were to blame. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum chimed in to agree that vandals “repeatedly” damaged the site, claiming the acts were caught on camera and insisting his agency had been forthcoming with Justice Department lawyers. [WaPo]

So he’s embarrassed her, criticizing her actions and her judgment. Will this diminish her admiration for someone who, frankly, is a failure at darn near anything he tries?

Or will she live up to her reputation of being no-nonsense, resign, and go out with return insults?

And how about Secretary Burgum? He claims to have evidence of vandalism on camera. If so, then Pirro’s office should be able to use same for prosecuting a case. Her failure to do so suggests Burgum’s either lying through his teeth in order to please Trump, or his understanding of what he has is deeply flawed. Neither is an admirable position.

And is this another step on the way to impeachment and conviction? It depends on how much more amateur hour bullshit Republican members of Congress can tolerate, and that’s a hard number to quantify.

For those readers maintaining an interest, Trump Media & Technology Group Corp went live with their Truth API on Saturday. How do I feel about this? Let’s start with the announcement:

“Markets already move on Truth Social posts,” Truth Media’s McGurn wrote at the time of the announcement. “Truth API delivers a direct, licensed, real-time feed of the platform’s most market-moving Truths while advancing our strategy to monetize proprietary assets through a high-margin, recurring revenue stream.” [CNBC]

Unfortunately, he’s probably right. Libertarians should be shivering in horror at this juncture, as this is clear evidence of government interfering in free markets. But is that the position of their customers, or are they too focused on making money and keeping their shareholders happy to actually think about the implications of this entire sordid mess?

Then there’s the true conservatives in this context – Senators Warren (D-MA) and Schiff (D-CA):

“This appears to be an outrageous abuse of the President’s office for his personal benefit that undermines everyday investors and the integrity of our markets, while enriching Wall Street and other wealthy insiders,” they wrote in a letter to SEC chair Paul Atkins dated Tuesday.

If you’re busy being outraged at the thought of those two Senators being conservative, keep it in context. They’re calling for government not to interfere in the private sphere, especially for personal gain. Plenty of liberals and conservatives have been caught with their hand in the cookie jars, to be sure, and mutter about that if you must. It’s corruption.

But it’s worth a bit of contemplation concerning corruption. Why is it so bad? Because corruption misdirects societal resources for critical services. Just as putting investor desires for return on investment first in the corporate world, corruption’s purpose of skimming resources, whether it’s product, information, or wealth, changes how resources are distributed – and reduces efficiency, sometimes drastically.

That’s why the concern over corruption, whether it’s Fat Leonard corrupting naval officers, or Donald Trump corrupting his own Administration. Misdirecting resources can result in chaos and disaster.

Well, I’m a bit far afield here, so I’ll stop and let your mind wander on the various subjects.

For science geeks, the Big Rip refers to a hypothesized future astrophysics phenomenon in which atoms themselves rip apart as the Universe expands.

But for my purposes, this news, a continuation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool debacle and the arrest of David Hearn for vandalism of same, may be a big red flag:

The felony indictment that [former Fox News host and current District of Columbia U. S. Attorney Jeanine] Pirro’s office brought alleged that Hearn had caused more than $1,000 worth of damage to the Reflecting Pool. It was a facially absurd claim when it was made on July 2 in a Pirro press conference that was roundly mocked at the time.

Unsurprisingly, the indictment did not stick.

Less than a month later, Pirro and Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael P. Spence filed Friday’s motion to dismiss the indictment against Hearn. [Law Dork]

President Trump violently disagreed with Pirro’s activities, and you can find that at the Law Dork link.

When analyzing this incident, it’s important to keep in mind that US Attorney Pirro, when she was a Fox News host, was an avid Trump fan, even agreeing with his election-denial position, regardless of the lack of evidence; no doubt that and her former position as a judge led to her nomination by Trump, and her confirmation by the Senate, as US Attorney for D. C.

Now he’s shriekingly angry at her for withdrawing a false accusation^[1] and admitting the whole incident is a farce, all because it thrusts the fault for the embarrassing and expensive incident back on the President.

Chasing away your most ardent fans is not a path to success; this is how those he counts on for loyalty and protection suddenly find a reason to turn on their sugar daddy and melt him in a pot. This could be the precipitating incident for Trump loyalists in the Cabinet, in the House, and in the Senate to quietly consider how to remove him from office and from influence.

Nothing may happen. Heavens knows the loyalists have had to ignore fallacious economic theories, fallacious war theories, humiliating Cabinet meetings, and a petty, boastful, grasping President who makes decisions based on personal loyalties rather than objective merit; many of them no doubt revel in their elevated, and often unearned, social positions. Some may have used their positions for grifting.

But realizing the society in which they exist is being put through a cheese-grater will occur to some of them, and that the consequent loss of national prestige among the community of nations is damage to themselves. I’m guessing there’ll be a delay as folks organize, and one day Trump will be dumped out of the White House on his ass, and his Secret Service detachment either replaced with a smaller group or even, in extreme circumstances, withdrawn.

All ignited by this small incident.

¹ A not unknown phenomenon in Trump’s life, as those who remember the shameful Central Park 5 accusations are aware.

At least they served dinner.
You’re quite sure?
Well, not quite. Merely sure.
You fluster me, sir. Fluster me.
If you insist. The dinner was a dessert?
Not at all. Olives are not a dessert.
I say. With enough sugar, anything’s a dessert.
Ah, so much nonsense. Puns do not exist in this hotel, so prey do not employ them here. I have not the funds to pay them. Their teeth are sharp and their claws are borrowed from the snickety-snick!
The tax auditor was snatched up and eaten while inventing an adequate response to this breath-taking assertion. His scuba tank fell off when it happened, but the inspector missed the clue twelve hours later.

Mr. K (2024) is where you go if you need your fix of surrealism. Mr. K, a sleight-of-hand magician, has been invited to entertain at a hotel. His stay rapidly transforms into a trap as the hotel itself seeks to contain him, shunting him from kitchen to his room to another room to, well, perhaps that was Alice of Wonderland.

All the while the purposes of hotel and story remain obscure. That’s about all I can really say, as the story becomes more and more obtuse, and when an escape finally is presented, I can only wonder if it’s really an escape, or another trap.

Like I said, surrealism. If you like it, great, have at it, have fun. If you don’t, though, this may not be your cup of tea.

THE BAD NEWS TSUNAMI

Republicans are facing a wave of bad news, and it’s mostly their leader that has them in a pickle, with a fair seasoning of their own inability to say No! to their little child of a leader. I could cite Trump’s War and how it’s sucking in various players, or the threats to the nearby and critical Suez Canal, or we could move on to an economy that is so worrying the Federal Reserve that at their recent quarterly meeting, the leaders of the various Banks leaders didn’t even consider reducing interest rates, as demanded by President Trump, but held them steady while reporting some of the leaders recommended a rate increase. Or we could talk about his various distractions, such as redesigning Dulles Airport, or the Qatari-gifted airliner that needs upgrading, or the Medicare subsidy cancellation, … so many other problems.

But let’s go with a poll from highly respected Quinnipiac University:

Thirty-two percent of voters approve of the way Donald Trump is handling his job as president, while 58 percent disapprove, with 10 percent not offering an opinion.

Trump’s 32 percent approval is an all-time low approval rating for him in a Quinnipiac University poll.

This may be especially hurtful to the GOP Senators …

Twenty-nine percent of voters think Donald Trump is focused enough on addressing the problems most Americans are facing, while 68 percent think he is not focused enough on addressing the problems most Americans are facing.

By the time the November elections comes around, voters may be asking why the GOP caucus in Congress did not remove the President as soon as problems appeared. And vote accordingly.

HERE’S THAT CAVE WHERE YOU LEFT YOUR TOY MONSTERS

They said that was from last week and they don’t want them.

• Remember the recent action in Nebraska wherein Democratic nominee Cindy Burbank declared she couldn’t beat incumbent Senator Ricketts (R) and withdrew in favor of Dan Osborn (I)? It’s happening again in Idaho:
  

  The Democratic candidate who hoped to unseat U.S. Sen. Jim Risch in Idaho announced Tuesday that he is dropping out of the race, leaving Independent Todd Achilles as the challenger to the longtime Republican.

  David Roth, who won the Democratic primary in May, said he was proud of his campaign and believes in what Democrats are fighting for across Idaho, but decided to shift his efforts to other areas.

  “I have concluded that I can make the greatest difference by focusing my time and energy on helping Democrats win up and down the ballot and in communities across Idaho,” he wrote in a statement. [Idaho Statesman]

  Mr Achilles doesn’t appear to be a slouch, according to Ballotpedia, with time in the US Army, various degrees in economics and international relations, time in corporate America, and a couple of years in the Idaho statehouse, albeit on appointment rather than winning an election.

  So does Mr Achilles have a chance? Some parts of the country are hungry to kick out old politicians, and Senator Risch (R) is 83. Public Policy Polling (PPP) thinks he could be ejected. Me? The information at PPP struck me as a trifle fantastical and speculative. Show me a poll from a highly-rated pollster.

• Troy Jackson, the Democratic nominee for the Senate seat currently held by Maine Senator Collins (R-ME) is up for grabs:
  

  Jackson said Maine voters do not think the federal government is working for them and are looking for a change. “There’s an energy like I’ve never seen of people that are frustrated. They’re fed up,” he said.

  “We can have much better government than we have right now, and people in Maine are going to show up in November, and Susan Collins is in trouble,” he added. [MS NOW]

  But Mainers know Senator Collins. Certain of her votes in the Senate have certainly been unpopular, but the mark of a good politician is the ability to turn what looks unpopular into a badge of honor. In today’s polarized climate, however, that feat is more difficult to accomplish than in previous decades. And Maine is … the nation’s oldest state, according to Census.gov. That may work against Jackson.

• North Carolina’s getting a bit of love in this issue of Campaign Update as the national GOP tries to claw back the Senator Tillis (R) seat, which former Governor Cooper (D-NC) currently has in a headlock:
  

  The Senate’s top GOP super PAC is launching a $17 million summer ad campaign in North Carolina — its largest reservation anywhere in the country so far this cycle, underscoring the state’s importance to Republicans’ hopes of defending their Senate majority.

  The investment, shared first with POLITICO, is the first tranche of Senate Leadership Fund’s previously announced plan to spend $71 million in North Carolina this year. It comes as early public polling shows Democrat Roy Cooper, the state’s popular former governor, with a lead over GOP nominee Michael Whatley, the former RNC chair. [POLITICO]

  $71 million seems excessive, as I continue to ignore Trump’s Inflation forcing prices up. But it seems Republicans think they can expose weaknesses in Cooper’s record. The problem with this assertion? The Republicans have spent much of the last few years being absolutely tone-deaf, which is also true of the Democrats. But Cooper has struck me as not so tone-deaf, having won two governor races in this Republican state.

  

  On The Issues: Gov Roy Cooper (D-NC).

  Meanwhile, highly respected Fox News Poll is giving Cooper a 53% – 44% lead over Michael Whatley, the Republican nominee for Tillis’ Senate seat. Of particular interest was that Cooper voters are mostly interested in voting for Cooper, but Whatley voters are 46% voting against Cooper. While that doesn’t directly address the enthusiasm question, it is suggestive of a Democratic advantage in that department. Add in that nearly half of participants were concerned Whatley is too close to the profoundly unpopular President, and Whatley will need to step away from Trump in order to make a move on Cooper.

• Another clutch of polls for Michigan: In the Democratic primary, Mitchell Research has Abdul El-Sayed (D) with a 52% – 38% lead over Rep Haley Stevens, while the defunct Mallory McMorrow (D) is at 4%, trailing Undecideds, who are at 7%. This is a larger lead for El-Sayed than Mitchell’s prior poll. However, the margin of error is ±4.85 points with n=406 likely primary voters, which is not all that large.

  Meanwhile, in another poll Mitchell has Republican nominee and former Rep Rogers in a tie with El-Sayed at 45%, while Rogers leads Stevens by 3 points, 46% – 43%. Margin of error is ±3.77%.Emerson College Polling has El-Sayed with a 54% – 39% lead, impossible to overcome using only undecideds, so Rep Stevens will have to convince El-Sayed leaners to lean towards herself. I know Emerson had better ratings than Mitchell, so this one should worry Rep Stevens.Finally, unknown Tavern Research gives El-Sayed a 46% – 36% lead, again substantial. Polls can be badly wrong, but three, including Emerson, leaning against Rep Stevens must cast a shadow on her chances.

• The Texas GOP may want to contract with Austin, TX, for a heaping bucket of the blues. The highly respected Fox News Poll does not have good news for them as Democrat James Talarico (D) leads state AG Ken Paxton (R) 51% – 48%, with a margin of error of ±3 points. Of course, the Democrats should lead by more, and that should tell them something, too. But, like the Republicans, they are too arrogant to listen, I expect.

IS CHANGE IN THE AIR?

Not usually, but I never expected to see even a hint that Idaho might be in play. Let’s be frank, it’s still not likely that Senator Risch (R-ID) will lose, but, like the Minnesota Twins game Thursday night in which they were beat until they weren’t, often dominance doesn’t seem to be beatable until someone grits their teeth and doesn’t stop and overturns the unbeatable.

Or, for those of us who favor brevity, persistence pays off.

While the odds are still with their opponents, these two independents could herald the beginning of the replacements for the major Parties of today.