But don't kid yourself that the Republican Party is a morally superior alternative anymore.
J. D. Vance already has no anti-semitic enemies to the right in the Republican Party.
Everything forbidden is becoming permitted.
Carville: Democrats Should Not Seat Avila Chevalier In The Democratic Caucus
The corresponding figure for China at the end of 2025 was . . . $0.85 trillion.
🤣
Total external debt of China was $2.328 trillion.
Total external debt of the United States was $29.448 trillion.
America is where it's at, Jack.
In Trump v. Barbara, Chief Justice John Roberts screams from the rafters that the framers of the 14th Amendment affirmed “citizenship, then as now, was the right to have rights—freely to participate in our community.” That’s contrary to history. The framers made sure that the newly freed black citizens didn’t get the vote, because if that benefit had been included, the amendment wouldn’t have passed.
It took the 15th Amendment, ratified more than 1½ years later, to enfranchise black Americans. And that still didn’t extend the franchise to all adult citizens. In Minor v. Happersett (1874), the Supreme Court unanimously held that although women were citizens, the 14th Amendment didn’t confer on them the right to vote. The justices applied the then-standard definition of citizenship as an exchange of protection by the sovereign for loyalty of the citizens. It took the 19th Amendment to enfranchise women as a matter of constitutional right. In the meantime, voting was left exclusively to the states. The Civil Rights Act of 1866 covered only the private rights to contract, testify and make wills. No political rights were involved.
The chief justice wholly failed to explain how his flawed originalist methodology supported birthright citizenship for the children of illegal aliens or temporary visitors. His blunder is captured in the false proposition that birthright citizenship “crossed the Atlantic with the colonists—and was adopted with little fanfare after the Revolution” as an outgrowth of the common law of England.
Not so. English law had adopted a form of birthright citizenship—but, as Blackstone noted, not as a common-law matter but because naturalization “cannot be performed but by an act of parliament.” The English statutory framework was explicitly rejected in the U.S. Alexander Hamilton noted in Federalist No. 32 that the constitutional requirement of a “uniform” naturalization law conferred exclusive jurisdiction on the federal government, to the exclusion of the states.
The chief justice never cites that clause or the Naturalization Acts of 1790 and 1795, which limited naturalization to “free white persons” who had resided in the U.S. for two years (later raised to five), were of good character, and had explicitly renounced their loyalty to all other sovereigns, and determined the status of minor children solely by the status of their parents. That provision excluded all people of African descent until reversed by the 1870 Naturalization Act, which didn’t apply to people of Asian descent until after 1900. Chief Justice Roberts then cites a group of irrelevant state-law cases, none of which deal with birthright citizenship, but addressed such issues as the ability to inherit under state law, to hold state office, or to vote in state elections.
A key to the constitutional structure was the distinction between “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” in the 14th Amendment’s Citizenship Clause and “within the jurisdiction” in the Equal Protection Clause. The latter isn’t limited to citizens, as the Privileges or Immunities Clause is, but applies to all persons.
That rests on Blackstone’s explicit distinction between “local” and “natural” allegiance. The former requires all persons to respect the criminal and civil law while in a foreign nation, but ceases to bind them on their departure. Local allegiance never confers any opportunity to obtain citizenship, which natural allegiance does. The chief justice incorrectly collapses the two into one by writing that “the Citizenship Clause uses jurisdiction in its ordinary sense—referring to the power of the United States to govern those within its territory.” The Equal Protection Clause had nothing to do with citizenship. How could the 14th Amendment confer automatic birthright citizenship when the 1870 statute set out more-rigorous conditions to apply for naturalization?
Against this background, U.S. v. Wong Kim Ark (1898) wrongly held that birthright citizenship attached to a man born in the U.S. whose Chinese parents were legally resident in the U.S. In so holding, Justice Horace Gray committed three major blunders. First, the Naturalization Acts then didn’t make Asians eligible for citizenship until after 1900. Second, Wong Kim Ark traveled on a Chinese passport and thus hadn’t renounced his former sovereign. Third, an elaborate set of treaties with China prevented any Chinese national from applying for U.S. citizenship.
All these arguments are found in my friend-of-the-court brief, written with Benjamin Flowers; in my extensive comments on the oral argument; and in my recent book, “The Myth of Birthright Citizenship.” The chief justice found it all too comfortable to ignore every objection.
Mr. Epstein is a professor of law and NYU Law School, a senior lecturer at the University of Chicago and a Senior Fellow at Civitas Institute.
U.S. won’t renew USMCA, opening door for negotiations with Canada and Mexico
... The USMCA was negotiated during Trump’s first term to replace the previous, 26-year-old trilateral trade pact known as NAFTA, which Trump frequently excoriated as a raw deal for the U.S.
When the new deal came into effect in July 2020, Trump touted it as “the fairest, most balanced, and beneficial trade agreement we have ever signed into law.” ...
It was Speaker Nancy Pelosi who abandoned the House progressives in 2009, bowing to the Senate plan.
DeGette was progressive before progressive was cool, but now you have to pass the anti-semitic litmus test, as her opponent has, to be a real progressive.
DeGette loses reelection bid to DSA challenger in major upset for Denver-based House seat
Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) lost her reelection bid to former attorney and current Ph.D. student Melat Kiros, marking the third time a democratic socialist has scored an upset in a competitive House primary this cycle, according to Decision Desk HQ.
Kiros, who studies at the University of Denver, defeated DeGette, who’s served in Congress since 1997 — delivering a major blow to the Democratic establishment despite the fact that DeGette herself was a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. University of Colorado Regent Wanda James also ran in the Democratic primary.
... Kiros was fired from her law firm after she wrote a letter directed at U.S. law firms on her Substack in November 2023 in which she disputed the notion that it was antisemitic to call for the state of Israel to be eliminated or criticize Israel’s government.
The former lawyer has also received criticism for declining to say whether or not a 2025 firebombing in Boulder, where protesters calling for the release of Israeli hostages by Hamas were injured, was an act of antisemitism, saying in a recent interview with 9News, “I don’t know what was in the heart of the perpetrator.” ...
Panetta: Putin ‘not quite sure what to do’ after Ukraine drones strike Moscow
... Panetta, who led the Pentagon during former President Obama’s administration, told NewsNation’s Leland Vittert on “On Balance” that he does not “think there’s any question” that Putin is, as Vittert asked, “on the ropes.”
“I just think that it’s clear right now that Putin is cornered in this situation and is not quite sure what to do,” Panetta said. “He obviously ought to, frankly, negotiate some kind of ceasefire, but knowing Putin, he will continue to resist that, and Russia is going to pay the price.”
He later added that the “most important” assistance that the U.S. can provide Ukraine is “whatever it needs in terms of weaponry so Ukraine can present a bigger threat to Russia,” which will “send a message to Putin” and lead to Russia losing the four-year war.”
Panetta said it was critical that President Trump “stand up to a tyrant like Putin.”
“Putin’s not going to win under any circumstances,” Panetta continued. “It would be smart for the president to pick the side that is going to win this war, and that is Ukraine.” ...
3
Supreme Court strikes down limits on political parties’ campaign spending, in win for GOP
The ruling actually levels the playing field more in the direction of the Democrats than the GOP.
But that is beside the point.
Unlimited spending on campaigns is a good thing, AS LONG AS the funds come from inside the representative's congressional district, or the Senator's state, or the president's country (well doh, except the latter appears to be no longer the case!).
I'm tired of special interests outside my state electing my representatives in the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate.
And I certainly don't want foreigners electing the president.
Exclusive: Johnson says housing bill will become law, with or without Trump
... "He won't veto the bill. We already know that. He'll either allow it to just go into law, or he'll put his signature on it and take partial ownership, and I hope he does the latter." ...
... Officials from Oregon, Washington, Massachusetts, Illinois, North Carolina and Connecticut told CNN they declined an invitation from the Trump administration to showcase their states at the giant fairgrounds being built on the National Mall. Pennsylvania has yet to decide whether it will participate.
... But all 50 states and territories will be represented even if some states don’t provide input, and details are still being “actively finalized,” a spokesperson for Freedom 250 told CNN.
“What we can say is that every state’s story will be told in a way that’s authentic to its people, history, and culture,” the spokesperson said, adding, “Whether represented by a governor’s office, a tourism board, or a beloved state company or organization, every community will be celebrated.”
... In Michigan, visitors will get a chance to see a mechanical milking cow ...
The main take away is that Ukraine easily penetrates Russian air defenses with these weapons.
If that can be done there, it can be done here, there, and everywhere.
Nota bene.
Putin’s fuel shortage admission signals growing strain on Russia’s energy infrastructure
... Ukraine has stepped up attacks on Russian oil facilities in recent weeks, seeking to cut off Moscow’s energy revenues and try to force Putin into bringing an end to the more than four-year war.
... Ukraine has also intensified its strikes on Crimea, which Russia seized by force in 2014, as part of a strategy to isolate the peninsula, and has benefited from a series of political tailwinds in recent weeks.
... Ukraine’s president recently signed off on a 40-day operation designed to influence the Kremlin to bring an end to the war. Zelenskyy, who shared the announcement via Telegram on Thursday, gave no further details about the campaign. ...
Saudi Aramco resumes oil loading at Ras Tanura in boost to supply
... Two Very Large Crude Carriers controlled by Saudi’s shipping arm Bahri were seen loading crude at Ras Tanura, the world’s biggest oil port, while another is heading towards the terminal, the data showed on Friday. A fourth VLCC waited nearby. Each VLCC is capable of loading 2 million barrels of oil.
... Ras Tanura sits on Saudi Arabia’s eastern coast on the Gulf and is west of the Strait of Hormuz. It used to export more than 5 million bpd of crude before the conflict. The country’s largest domestic 550,000 bpd refinery is also located at Ras Tanura, which was shut during the war as a precautionary measure.
Aramco last loaded a cargo from Ras Tanura port for China on March 8, LSEG data showed, and had to divert its exports to the Red Sea port of Yanbu after the Iranian blockade of the strait during its war with the U.S. and Israel prevented ships from entering the Gulf.
The war has caused Saudi crude exports to slump to about 4 million bpd in the past three months, the data showed, from more than 7 million bpd in February.
... [Rystad Energy] now estimates that shut-in production across the Gulf has fallen to 9.6 million barrels per day (bpd) in mid-June, down from 11.7 million bpd just three weeks ago, and expects a full supply recovery in the region by the end of the year.
In any case he's going with "we're more like Nixon than Reagan".
Alrighty then.
I think they'll be a LOT more like Nixon after November.
Some call this knowing how to get in the headlines, others call it dog-whistling.
Trump says he is nominating former Oklahoma state trooper Lance Schroyer as ICE director
... Schroyer hails from the same home state as the new Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, a former congressman. ...
Mullin: "I know a guy".
Trump: "Good. He's in".
Trump will never master personnel.
I sure hope he turns out better than the pool guy!
Meanwhile the foreign born population level, which counts without respect to citizenship status, is still higher than when Trump was elected in November 2024.
That deportation thingy in Trump II is going about as well as The Wall went during Trump I.
Venezuelans take search for the missing into their own hands as earthquake death toll climbs
... The number of dead was expected to climb, and civilians reported tens of thousands of people missing on independent digital databases. The number of missing likely includes those who have been incommunicado due to the lack of cellphone signals in disaster zones. Some reports may be duplicates created when multiple loved ones are searching for the same person. ...
In a world where tankers routinely turn off their automatic marine identification systems to avoid identification and hide their locations, or use them to broadcast fake identities and locations, or even sail under false flags, it is difficult to know what to believe.
The oceans are still The Wild West.
Two examples today claiming Saudi use of the Strait of Hormuz:
... Aristidis Alafouzos, CEO of Okeanis Eco Tankers Corp, a crude oil shipping company headquartered in Greece, said he doesn’t expect Thursday’s attack on a ship in the Gulf of Oman to “significantly change” the trend of transits through the waterway.
“We’ve seen a large increase, especially on the crude oil passages, and I think this is set to continue and maybe this one-off event isn’t enough to really disrupt the recent events of the large exports of Kuwaiti and Emirati crude oil from the Gulf,” Alafouzos told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” on Friday.
“The one big missing factor is the Saudis. For now, we haven’t seen them export almost anything from inside the Arabian Gulf and everything is coming from Yanbu in the Red Sea.” ...
1Q2026 real GDP in the third estimate today came in at an annualized rate of 2.1%.
The first estimate was 2.0%. The second was 1.6%.
The revision back up again and a little higher was "primarily reflecting a downward revision to imports", which are a subtraction from GDP.
Expect higher GDP in 2Q on the strength of oil exports.
The post-war economic growth rate to Reagan was 3.64% compound annual vs. 2.1% now.
The compound annual rate 2017-2025 was 2.48%.
Trump is even underperforming himself by 15%.
Real personal income year over year in May 2026 fell 0.24%.
Are Obama and Biden still in charge?
What in the Sam Hell is golden about this age?
Absolutely nothing.
There's nothing Greenspan about it either.
Alan Greenspan's core pce inflation averaged 2.46% year over year 1987-2006.
Trump halts bipartisan victory lap on housing
... One potential wrinkle in that 10-day clock is that it doesn’t start until the enrolled bill has been officially “presented” to the president.
It wasn’t immediately clear whether that had happened yet as of Trump’s social media post at 10:26 a.m. But as the day went on it became apparent the bill still hadn’t been presented to the president, according to a top Democrat.
House Minority Whip Katherine M. Clark, D-Mass., laid the blame at Johnson’s feet.
“Mike Johnson could, right now, at any time, formally present this bill to the president and make the president choose: Will he veto it or will it become law in ten days?” Clark said at a news conference. “But Mike Johnson is not choosing that path. That is a betrayal of duty.”
Aides to Johnson didn’t respond to requests for comment. ...
This is not a joke.
Postmaster general confirms plan to hold back mail ballots in states that won’t share voter data
Postmaster General David Steiner told lawmakers Wednesday that the U.S. Postal Service will no longer deliver mail-in ballots in states that refuse to provide sensitive voter data to the federal government, in line with a proposed rule from the Trump administration. ...
But he will be remembered negatively for it in November either way.
Democrats who want to impeach the president will include it prominently in their campaigns against him.
Throwing a fit over this is about as smart as attacking Iran without a plan to keep the Strait of Hormuz open.
France suffers major power outage as Europe sizzles in record-breaking heat
... A heat-related incident left around 68,000 homes without electricity in western France, according to the prefecture in the coastal department of Finistere. ...
House passes affordable housing bill, sends it to Trump’s desk
The U.S. House voted Tuesday night 358-32 in favor of a sprawling housing package designed to lower costs for homebuyers and increase supply. ...
The broad bi-partisan support for the bill tells you it won't do much for very many people anytime soon.
But expect the politicians to brag on it as silly season ramps up.
A key provision of the bill caps institutional investor ownership of single family homes at 350 from here on out.
Investors already owning single family homes, however, at whatever level, are grandfathered in. Blackstone, for example, owns approximately 58k such homes. It is thus prevented from buying number 58,001 under the bill.
That means that the approximately 530k+ homes currently owned by institutions, which is only about 4% of the single family housing rental pie, will not be forcibly sold into the market.
About 87% of the pie is individual investors who own in the neighborhood of 1-5 homes. There will be no change mandated there either, which is where most of the available single family housing stock is.
There are 46.4 million renter-occupied housing units in the United States in the first quarter. Of those, approximately 11.3 million are single family homes. That means that the number of owners of those rental homes ranges roughly between 9.8 million and 2 million individual investors, probably living in a rich suburb right near you.
The bill does prevent umbrella companies from owning multiple small entities created by individual investors to beat the 350 cap, with stiff penalties, so that is good.
The problem is this bill entrenches the status quo of the rich preying on both ends of the housing spectrum.
Mobile homes in parks are not considered single family homes under the bill. They are considered multi-unit commercial real estate. Private equity investors are notorious for buying up these parks full of affordable housing and jacking up lot rents on approximately 4.3 million homesites to the moon. Up to 12 million mostly low income Americans live in such parks.
The bill eliminates the mobile chassis rule for new manufactured homes, marginally reducing their cost. But imagine parking one in one of those parks and being unable to move it while the landlord holds a rent gun to your head. There are other provisions in the bill to help these existing park owners, and the mobile home owners who live there to borrow more to pay the greedy bastards.
11.3 million hostages to the rich on the front end, 12 million on the ass end.
The bill had passed in the U.S. Senate 85-5 on Monday.
Since the beginning of the 21st century in the United States, growth of renter-occupied housing continues in the ascendant while growth of owner-occupied housing continues south.
We still live with the deleterious effects of the Great Recession, when more than 6 million residences were completely foreclosed in the United States, and this is the best our elected representatives can do almost two decades on.
Congress is already getting Mamdanied as this goes to Trump for his signature.
Three New York Democrats backed by Mamdani win House seat primaries; 2 incumbents lose
... Brad Lander defeated incumbent Rep. Dan Goldman in the 10th District; Darializa Avila Chevalier bested Rep. Adriano Espaillat in the 13th District; and Claire Valdez won the primary for the 7th District, where Rep. Nydia Velázquez is not seeking reelection. ...
The Democratic Socialists of America organization backed Chevalier and Valdez.
A year ago, the DSA’s efforts helped Mamdani stun the local and national political world by soundly defeating former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic mayoral primary, and months later in the general election.
“It’s not just a question of electing more Democrats. It’s a question of electing better Democrats,” Mamdani said Tuesday, according to The Associated Press. ...
For June 18-20, JMIC Update 061 had 30 total tanker transits whereas this Bloomberg guy has just 24.
U.S. issues sweeping Iran oil sanctions waivers, unlocking billions in revenue for Tehran
The U.S. has issued a sweeping rollback of sanctions on Iranian oil, allowing dollar-denominated trade for the first time in more than four decades ...
The U.S. Treasury on Monday issued a wide-ranging 60-day exemption allowing Iran to produce and sell crude oil, petrochemical and petroleum products in U.S. dollars through Aug. 21. ...
The move on Monday marks the most sweeping rollback of American oil sanctions against Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, reversing years of pressure designed to cripple Iran’s economy, and is expected to deliver billions in oil revenue for the Iranian regime. ...
U.S. President Donald Trump defended the lifting of the sanctions, saying on Monday that any oil profits were meant for Iran to purchase American agricultural goods, rather than rebuild its military. ...
“With dollar clearing now authorized, expect China to accelerate purchases aggressively,” said Maleki. Chinese buyers, in the past, have settled transactions through opaque channels to avoid secondary U.S. sanctions exposure. ...
He expects a rapid storage “top-off cycle” under which Chinese buyers could rush to replenish stockpiles before the exemption expires in August.
China currently purchases roughly 90% of Iran’s oil exports, with teapots accounting for the bulk of China’s imports. The country’s crude imports shrank by an unprecedented 4.8 million barrels per day (mbd) between February and May — a steeper drop than the 4 mbd decline seen during the depths of the pandemic in the second half of 2020, according to JPMorgan. ...
Iran will likely use this 60-day window to repair war-damaged oil facilities and lock in longer-term contracts with Chinese buyers, said Michael Feller, chief strategist at Geopolitical Strategy. “This will be a huge boost to Iran, both to its economy and its sense of victory.”
The max was 6k bpd in 2021 of petroleum and petroleum liquids, the equivalent of 2.2 million barrels, slightly more than one VLCC can carry.
What's next, imports from Russia?
Treasury Department authorizes Iranian oil sales through August
... The authorization allows the import of Iranian oil and refined products into the U.S.
... The authorization allows the import of Iranian oil and refined products into the U.S. Payment can be made to Tehran in dollars. The license expires Aug. 21, unless it’s renewed. ...
Oil prices fall after U.S. authorizes Iranian crude sales
Trump actually started the ball rolling during the pandemic in 2020.
He bought some petroleum products from Iran in October 2020 after the collapse in oil demand crashed prices of WTI to -$37/barrel in April.
Biden made purchases in March 2021, January 2022, and in 2023 from August to October.
The rate when he began as Fed chairman was 64% in 1987, and again in 1990 and 1994, before taking off during the Clinton-Gingrich era.
Supporting the high homeownership rate was full time employment on an average annual basis north of 50% of population for twenty-three consecutive years 1986-2008.
We call it The Lost World.
