Comment on Steve Bannon’s man in the Middle East

There's a contractor at the end of my street who raised various Trump flags during the Cheeto's reign of incompetence. When Biden was elected, he raised one of the classics: "Fuck Biden And Anyone Who Voted For Him." Since the flag flyer is known to be a tad paranoid, no one said anything -- but most neighbors went out of their way not to patronize his business. But some of the whack jobs across America flew the American flag upside down, the universal distress signal adopted as a "Stop The Steal" symbol.

If Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas had any shame or scruples, he would have resigned already as a result of the corruption reported on by ProPublica. That’s not counting his refusal to recuse himself from cases that his coup-plotting wife has stuck her nose into. Nor the dark money she has received to promote causes he rules on. At the very least, Thomas now has some ‘splaining to do about that ultra-luxury RV he purchased with the help of one of his rich pals.

On this day in 1967, singer-songwriter Glen Campbell recorded one of his signature hits, “Gentle on My Mind” at Hollywood’s Capitol Recording Studio. John Pavlovitz: Not Voting For Joe Biden Isn’t Penalizing Joe Biden. Diane Ravitch's blog: Alexandra Petri: A Message from the Worm That Ate Part of RFK Jr.’s Brain. Lawyers, Guns, Money: The common clay of the swing state. Attention space nerds!

Donald Trump brain went into system overload yet again while on stage a few days ago; he slurred, made up nonsensical words and sounded like his cerebral cortex was shutting down. The man AIN'T WELL. Trump shouldn't be speaking in public, much less running to be leader of the free world (though, should he win, it'd be leader of the kinda, sometimes free world at best, totalitarian America at worst).

“The contest to succeed Gavin Newsom in the nation’s biggest, bluest state is already turning bitter. And it’s still more than two years away,” Politico reports. “California’s gubernatorial sweepstakes are well underway in a stampede for early blessings from powerful insiders, scheming among the growing field of contenders and hushed conversations with major donors.” “The tortuous path to 2026 — when Newsom’s term ends — started last year and is among the longest-running electoral battles in America given the immense challenge of nurturing a statewide profile.

“Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell opened a new front in his battle to shape the Trump-era GOP this week when he torched Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and called out Republicans who have sought to boost the far-right strongman,” Punchbowl News reports. “Fresh off his victory on Ukraine aid, McConnell is making clear he isn’t finished trying to blunt what he sees as a dangerous foreign policy doctrine taking hold in the Republican Party under Donald Trump.”