Wag the Dog

I remember when this shit was frowned upon.

"shall be removed from Office for Impeachment for... bribery"

It's right there in the Constitution! Orange Julius Caesar offered a bribe to voters on national TV* last night. I predict this will not be a scandal and, in fact, will not be mentioned again by next week.

What a time we live in.

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* Well... C-SPAN. But C-SPAN is national!

What every headline should say: Mentally Disabled President Once Again Mistakenly Believes He Has the Ability to Tell People What Name to Use for Geographic Features

Can someone just mention that the President of the United States does not have any "power to name things" under the Constitution? He can, as chief executive, order the federal officers in the executive branch to use some new dumb name in official executive branch documents. So I guess the U.S. Geological Survey is now bound to publish maps that say "Lake America" and the military can waste taxpayer dollars reprinting all their maps to change the name of one of the Great Lakes.

But that's it. That is all the President has the authority to do. Everyone else in the rest of the world can continue to call Lake Ontario "Lake Ontario." And members of Congress, the Judiciary, all state and local governments, and every private person and business are legally entitled to ignore the ravings of our lunatic leader who still, after almost 6 non-consecutive years in office, does not have a solid grasp on what the job of U.S. President is.

What is the point of White House Counsel?

Is there any reason to still have a separate position of White House Counsel? My understanding is the position is to give the current president a lawyer to represent his own personal interests while he is president. This was needed because the Attorney General/DOJ was independent and was supposed to represent the interests of the country as a whole, which could conflict with the president’s personal interests.

But under Trump, that distinction no longer exist. He expects his Attorney Generals and the DOJ to act like his personal lawyers, and the guy who was his personal attorney (and still apparently thinks of himself as that) is now the AG. Doesn’t that make the White House Counsel superfluous? Why are taxpayers paying for another lawyer to represent Trump’s interests?

Will Trump end virtually all voting in two States? No one bothers to look into it

I've mentioned this issue before, but as Trump keeps trying various ways to stop mail ballots (whether through the latest edition of the SAVE Act or through Trump's executive order to block mail ballots from being delivered in states that won't give his administration full access to their voter rolls) no one is talking about the fact that two states vote almost entirely by mail: Washington and Oregon. If vote by mail ends, or even is severely restricted to just members of the military etc., then those two states would not be able to hold anything resembling an election in November.

Unless I'm missing something? That is possible. It is hard to figure out what the effects of, for example, the SAVE Act would be. There have been several different versions, and our national press is chronically allergic to explaining policy. A ton of ink is spilled over whether there are votes to break the filibuster, or machinations to attach the SAVE Act to some must-pass budgetary bill. But almost none of them ever get into the weeds to explain what the Act would do if it was passed.

The Fantasy Nuclear Deal with KSA

Giving the Saudi's nuclear technology is a terrible idea, IMHO. Biden was willing to give it to them, but only if the deal includes the inspection regime to make sure the commercial nuclear program was not used to make nuclear weapons, like the regime that Obama required when he entered into a deal to share nuclear technology with the UAE. Biden also insisted that the Saudis recognize Israel as a precondition to any nuclear deal. The Saudis would not do it, particularly after Israel's brutal invasion of Gaza made diplomatic recognition even more politically toxic in the Arab world. But even if Biden had gotten UAE-style inspections and recognition of Israel out of the deal, I still don't think it would be worth it. No inspection regime is perfect, and once the nuclear door is opened, you can't really close it again.

Trump has now entered into a deal to share nuclear technology with Saudi Arabia. How did our deal-making president reach an agreement after Biden couldn't? He dropped all the conditions that Biden insisted upon and gave the Saudis everything they wanted without much in return. No inspection regime (in fact, the deal seems to be crafted to prevent UN inspections from happening) and no recognition of Israel. Art of the deal!

Of course, since the tentative deal came out yesterday, including how little the U.S. got in return, a backlash is brewing in Congress and commentators, including people on the right. So now Trump is claiming that the deal includes a requirement that Saudi Arabia join the Abrahamic Accords (i.e. recognize Israel). But the earlier reports said that wasn't a requirement! What gives?

It is almost certainly the usual phenomenon. Trump can't handle criticism from anyone on his own side, so he is probably lying about the recognize Israel condition to the deal. If the administration now tries to slip that in the final deal, the Saudis won't sign, which will kill the deal (which is good!) But it is also possible that recognition of Israel won't be in the actual agreement, the Saudis will sign and won't recognize Israel while Trump just insists that they will or have.

ADDING:

The (terrible) deal was announced and signed, now Trump wants to add a condition after the fact that Saudi has been explicitly rejecting for years and, what, hoping they won’t notice? Trying to regain Saudi confidence after Iran war debacle was likely the point of the deal, and this ain’t that.

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— Abu Aardvark (@abuaardvark.bsky.social) July 23, 2026 at 1:12 PM

ADDING (a second time):

Typical.

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— Olga Nesterova (@onestpress.onestnetwork.com) July 23, 2026 at 12:41 PM

Maybe this is "too political" too

When Trump gives his speech tonight airing whatever election conspiracy passes through his dementia-addled brain, remember that the TV networks don't have to broadcast the speech at all. They have options. They can just do what they did with President Biden when he tried to warn the country about Trump's fascism.