The Imperial Presidency

[robkelk]

Does this count as "Ambassador Steven Segal" on the bingo card, what with DOGE's cost-cutting measures?

Former reality TV star Sean Duffy appointed NASA interim administrator

Duffy has little experience in the space arena. Before entering politics, he starred in The Real World: Boston in 1997, the sixth season of the MTV reality television show, and Road Rules: All Stars in 1998, an MTV Winnebago driving event where he met his future wife, Rachel Campos. He resigned from Congress in 2019, later becoming a Fox Business host in 2022 before being appointed secretary of transportation in 2025.

[classicdrogn]

He has experience with driving a Winnebago; that was good enough for Lone Star and Barf, right?

[Labster]

Doesn't really count, it was mainly the idea of appointing a C-list celebrity with uh, leanings to an ambassadorship. Any Kardashian would count, however.

On my own front, there's been a few things in the news about a ICE raid on a farm near me, in Camarillo. We used to get tomatoes on the vine from here, back when it was Howeling's -- resold at Costco a few miles away, and thus pretty fresh. A couple years back they realized that all of these greenhouses could make more money growing the Mary Jane, so they've been sold converted to grow the cash crop.

When ICE showed up in force, one guy climbed up on top of the greenhouse, then fell and broke his neck. Today, they announced that he had died, one of the first casualties of the war on immigrants. Then a few hours later, the County Hospital announced he was actually alive, just in critical condition. So less than a kilometer away from me, is a man at the center of all of this, in the hospital, because he tried to work.

Oh, and more tariffs on Canada, because last time worked so well.

[hazard]

It looks like the whole Epstein List issue is blowing up in the social media, so escalating the trade wars may be an attempt to redirect attention.

[classicdrogn]

Is that the steel tariffs thing? I got a video popping up about it on YT, but fifteen seconds on google reveal that it was heavily sensationalized and wirtten as if everything had been in place for months generating huge economic and geopolitical ripples, which, well, no. It's not good, certainly, but Canadian steel foundries haven't shifted all output to the European and Asian markets leaving US industry at a standstill, etc., as it repeatedly attempted to claim. It may in fact have been entirely AI generated, or someone just reading an AI script. I'm not sure how good voice synth has gotten TBH since I only use the one in my ereader that's a couple years old and the free voices for the web browser extension TTS, so I'm not really riding the bleeding edge of SoTA.

[robkelk]

Is that the steel tariffs thing?

No. His Orangeness has announced 35% tariff on everything from Canada and 30% tariff on everything from the EU, effective August 1.

Considering Canada and the USA are in the middle of negotiating a trade agreement, this smacks of bad-faith from the USA.

[classicdrogn]

... sigh.

Dickwaffle: "Hey Rocky, watch me pull a tariff out of my ass!"

Balboa: "Again?"

But yes, absolutley in bad faith, either because "it's a strong negotiating tactic" he never intended to follow up on, or just because TACO day rolls around again.

[robkelk]

Trump wants to take over some U.S. cities. It's unlikely — but he can make life hard for them

tl;dr: His Orangeness is upset that people might elect mayors who don't like him. It's unlikely he can override Constitutional guarantees of States' rights to take over NYC or LA... but DC isn't in a state.

[hazard]

If there ever was an argument that Washington needs to be a state that cannot be directly controlled by the federal government, this is it.

[robkelk]

It looks like the whole Epstein List issue is blowing up in the social media, so escalating the trade wars may be an attempt to redirect attention.

If that's the case, it isn't working.

Trump's MAGA base is in crisis over the Epstein files. Could it cost Republicans the midterms?

A number of high-profile Trump supporters and associates have warned that any perceived lack of transparency from his administration would have negative consequences.

Far-right commentator and 9/11 conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer has been especially vocal, calling on Bondi to resign her attorney general's post, while comedian Dave Smith accused Trump of "actively" covering up "a giant child rapist ring."

Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who is also known for pushing conspiracies, said that a coverup would cross "a red line" for many Trump supporters — while InfoWars host and Sandy Hook conspiracy theorist Alex Jones said that Trump's Epstein problem "is not going away ... it's out of control."

Yeah. When Marjorie Taylor Greene isn't blindly on His Orangeness's side, the GOP has an internal problem.