OMG, Grindr to improve back-end tools

 Grindr’s AI spend is paying off and its pricey new tier has had some surprises, CEO says

LGBTQ-focused dating platform Grindr is using AI to develop new premium subscription products and improve back-end tools. ...

The Trump administration specializes in inflating everything

 GAO finds Elon Musk’s DOGE inflated claims of $110 billion in savings for federal government

Because some of them are communists, including Abdul El-Sayed

 Why Michigan voters are hearing ‘communist’ as they vote Tuesday

... Democratic socialist Darializa Avila Chevalier, who took down Rep. Adriano Espaillat, D-N.Y., in a Democratic primary in June, maintained a since-deleted Twitter account on the platform now known as X. There she included calls to “seize the means of production” and a quip that the now-candidate wiped her hands on an American flag. Trump seized on the latter tweet in a recent interview with CNBC.

Chevalier has since told MS NOW that she is not a communist. She called the focus on her past commentary a “distraction.” ...

This story fails to mention Abdul El-Sayed's proposal for the federal government to take a 50+1 stake in AI.

Most of the coverage of El-Sayed instead emphasizes that he says he's not technically a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, just as Chevalier insists she's not a commie.

 

They did this late on a Friday afternoon on purpose because no one is paying attention

 Pirro moves to drop Reflecting Pool vandalism case, says damage caused by ‘flawed installation’

U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro on Friday moved to dismiss an indictment charging U.S. Olympic canoeist David Hearn with vandalizing the Reflecting Pool of the Lincoln Memorial, writing in a court filing that damage to the pool’s sealant was the result of a “flawed installation.” ... 

Good morning, philosophers

 

Trump's Pentagon plays games with Iran War deaths, apparently didn't get the memo that hostilities formally resumed on July 7th

Or is the reasoning, which clearly isn't Trump's, that the four new deaths belong to Iran War II, not Iran War I? 

 Pentagon lowers official Iran war death toll, omitting four killed this month

... Three military officials told the Times that the four service members killed this past weekend — three in Jordan and one in northern Iraq — were struck from the list because their deaths came after President Donald Trump declared a ceasefire in April. All of the deaths listed on Thursday U.S. time on the website, which said it was updated as of Wednesday, occurred in March. ... Trump himself has used the higher figure for the death toll. At an event on Thursday, he said, “I had a very sad day yesterday. I went to Dover, four great American patriots killed. That’s 18 … and one is too many, but it’s 18.”

Trump sends Congress formal notice that Iran conflict has resumed

WASHINGTON, July 13 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump has sent Congress formal notification that hostilities against Iran resumed on July 7, a letter his administration sees as opening a new 60-day ​window to use the military in the region without congressional approval. ...

The fix for Social Security is easy, lawmakers just don't have the balls to do it

 Raise the tax rate two points, split between employer and employee, and raise the full retirement age from 67 to 69. Phase both in same as was done starting in the 1980s. That process concluded, by the way, only just this year.

It was going on all along and you never even noticed.

Doing this again will make Social Security solvent until 2100.  

 

AARP to Congress: ‘We strongly object to fast-tracking Social Security changes’ 

 

 

These are toothless resolutions against the Iran war meant for consumption by the dumb public and would never force Trump to do anything

 Congress splits on war powers resolutions to force Trump to abandon Iran war

 

 

Looks like Trump's 2025 loss in the Red Sea is coming back to bite

 Iran’s Houthi allies declare maritime embargo against Saudi Arabia, escalating threat to oil market

GILTS at 5% are OK when Labour does it

 UK’s Andy Burnham becomes PM as Trump slams Britain as ‘Poverty Stricken Disaster’

 

 

It's soccer, and it's finally over, thank God

 World Cup 2026 final in photos: Spain triumphs as football crowns a new champion

Well well well

 Lettuce at Taco Bell in five states confirmed as source of a diarrhea-causing parasite outbreak

... lettuce from Mexico ... A Food and Drug Administration investigation identified a single supplier of the lettuce. ...

 

 

He'll drink to that

 

 Todd Blanche says he has ‘full faith’ in Kash Patel as FBI director

Overall wholesale price inflation in June 2026 was still highly elevated at 5.5% yoy, May revised down to 6% from 6.5%

 CNBC found some guy to say producers won't raise prices on consumers "as much" lol.

 

ICE suspends murdering people in their cars, still not wearing body cameras despite receiving $75 billion in July 2025, $39 billion last month, and $15 billion in normal appropriations in 2025-2026

Fixed it for ya. 

 ICE suspends vehicle stops for U.S. immigration enforcement, Reuters sources say

... Maine Senator Angus King, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, told reporters that the agents involved were not wearing body cameras, leaving questions unanswered about the circumstances surrounding the shooting. ...

The bastards in the Trump administration slow-walk compliance with oversight no different than Obama did. The issues change, but the behavior of the executive remains the same. 

Fed Chair Kevin Warsh, whose wealth is his wife's, peddles the myth that the Fed is in control

This country eats, drinks, and sleeps inflation in the post-war . . . at 3.4% since 1948.

It's the cover for the haves to rob the have-nots. The Fed's job is to keep it going, just at a lower level than the 4.4% of the last six years, while telling you that they work for you when they actually work for the banks and the corporations.

From 1871 to 1948 the inflation rate was 0.8%, for most of which time we had sound money . . . until they confiscated it in 1934.

The only true words below are "We don't know". 

 

 Warsh promises inflation will be a ‘thing of the past,’ cites benefits of AI investment boom

... "if we get policy right — and we will — the inflation surge of the last five years will be a thing of the past."

... "While monthly price fluctuations are inevitable — especially in an unsettled world — underlying inflation over longer time horizons is determined largely by monetary policy," he said. 

... "We don’t know the extent to which the economy will benefit from the AI buildout," he added. "Yet it seems inevitable that what is now called ‘AI investment’ will soon be called just ‘investment.’"

Warsh previously has said he expects an AI productivity boom will prove disinflationary — a premise challenged by some economists as well as his fellow Fed policymakers. ...                          

 

Gee, I hope it's not this disinflationary:

 

 

The whole world is laughing at Trump's stupid Strait of Hormuz toll proposal, especially Iran

A 20% charge on a fully loaded VLCC is $30 million. Iran is widely believed to be charging less than 2%.

Trump is a buffoon.

 

Global shipping industry sounds the alarm over Trump’s Hormuz toll plan 

... Shipping giant Hapag-Lloyd has said it is “fundamentally wrong” to charge tolls for passage through international waters, regardless of the country in charge. 

“Tolls for infrastructure such as the Suez Canal or Panama Canal are different, because they reflect major infrastructure investments,” the firm said in a statement. “That is not the case in the Strait of Hormuz.” ...

So Trump isn't really worried about a global recession triggered by high energy prices after all

 Brent oil jumps more than 9%, biggest daily gain since 2020, after Trump reinstates Iran blockade

... Brent crude futures advanced 9.6% to close at $83.30 per barrel. It was the international benchmark’s best daily performance since May 2020. West Texas Intermediate futures gained 9.4% to settle at $78.14. ...  

 

Trump's protection racket in the Strait of Hormuz effectively blockades the good guys, violates international law same as Iran

 UN maritime agency opposes Hormuz transit fees after Trump demands protection money

The International Maritime Organization, a United Nations agency, said Monday that it opposes transit fees in the Strait of Hormuz after President Donald Trump demanded that ships pay protection money.

“We have always been consistent on our stance on fees – IMO stands firmly against charging fees for passage through straits used for international navigation,” a spokesperson said.

“There is no legal basis through which to introduce mandatory tolls simply to transit through a strait,” the spokesperson said.

... Tolls to transit Hormuz are against international law, said James Kraska, an expert on international maritime law at the U.S. Naval War College. The world has an unimpeded right to transit Hormuz, Kraska said. ...  

Incompetent organized crime boss imposes protection fees on Strait of Hormuz cargo which he will also blockade

 

 The tyrant is the real slave. He is mastered by a whole host of conflicting desires, none of which he is therefore able to in any way satisfy.  

Trump proposes 20% toll on cargo through Strait of Hormuz; restarts Iran blockade

President Donald Trump on Monday said the U.S. will impose fees in the Strait of Hormuz “at the rate of 20% on all cargo shipped,” after declaring America’s role as the “guardian” of the major oil-shipping route. ...  Trump’s post asserts that commercial vessels attempting the transit must now pay protection money to the U.S. ... 

“The U.S.A. will be, from this point forward, known as ‘THE GUARDIAN OF THE HORMUZ STRAIT,’” he claimed. “But as such, and as a matter of FAIRNESS, will be reimbursed, at the rate of 20% on all cargo shipped, for any and all costs necessary to do the job of providing safety and security to this very volatile section of the World.”

“The process and formation will begin immediately,” he added. ...