Trump loses Post Office gambit to suppress voting. Late Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected 7-2 the Trump regime’s request to stay the First Circuit’s decision upholding Judge Indira Talwani’s order blocking its vote-suppression U.S. Postal Service rule that would have wreaked havoc with mail-in voting. (Not even Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh could bring himself to join the radical dissenters Samuel A. Alito and Clarence Thomas, who would have upheld Donald Trump’s scheme. As Kavanaugh put it, “state and local election officials do not have sufficient time to reasonably implement the rule before the elections.”) This is a historic win for pro-democracy forces, protecting a critical aspect of our elections from the malicious grasp of a desperate, failing president bent on holding on to power at all costs.
The ruling followed a decision earlier on Monday from conservative, Trump-appointed Judge Carl J. Nichols of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, in a case tracking the First Circuit case. Nichols issued his own ruling enjoining the entire rule (even so-called voluntary compliance by certain states), holding that Trump lacked the power to take over mail-in ballot regulation and finding the plot would have made it “close to impossible” to implement, therefore posing “an increased risk that a significant number of absentee or mail-in ballots will ultimately not be counted.” (The Supreme Court may review this decision, but its outcome will not differ from Monday’s ruling.) Bottom line: This noxious attempt at voter suppression is dead.
Trump chaos will cost us. The widening Iran conflict, including a new Houthi offense, “has put the two most important energy corridors in the Middle East—including the Strait of Hormuz on the other side of the Arabian Peninsula—under the sway of Iran and its allies,” the Wall Street Journal reported. That sent the price of Brent Crude Oil prices surging on Monday. With new fears about AI and energy instability, the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield rose to over 5 percent. Under chaos-creating Trump, prepare for more economic turbulence, rising borrowing costs, and higher inflation.
Trump’s AI lunacy. We don’t need AI regulation, Trump declared, just “a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT.” We need both and have neither, sadly. Trump denounced widespread concern a “HOAX!” Trump is isolated in his hostility to AI guardrails. Not even AI execs agree, but Trump’s endemic oppositional behavior and willful ignorance won’t abate even though he is more than 30 points underwater in polling on this issue, another problem for his creepy cult party, already burdened by high public disapproval of the Iran war, tariffs, etc.
Trump’s temper tantrum. Trump ruined the Kennedy Center, chasing away patrons and artists by slapping his name on the building and putting political stooges in charge. Desperate to avoid humiliation, he again threatened to close it down (despite an order not to) and vowed to send it into “bankruptcy” (the government owns it, so what does that even mean?! ) unless he — you got it! — gets his name on it. Back in court today, the judge slammed the ongoing effort to rename the Kennedy Center and ordered Trump to take and keep his name off the building.
Polls. Not even cheating re-redistricting helps Republicans. According to Decision Desk HQ’s forecast, Democrats have an average gain of 13 seats in the states without re-redistricting but also “an average of 2 seats across the nine states that redistricted.” Meanwhile, Reuters/Ipsos give Democrats a 7-point lead in a generic ballot, the widest in Trump’s second term. The New York Times/Siena poll likewise gives Dems a 51-43 percent advantage. And in the USA Survey Nebraska poll, independent Dan Osborn leads Republican incumbent Sen. Pete Ricketts 46-42 percent.
Epidemic lawlessness. A federal whistleblower finds that investigators “may have broken state laws under the direction of top Homeland Security leaders” in their frenzy to find noncitizen voters, the New York Times reported. Also, according to a new Department of Homeland Security inspector general report, so-called Alligator Alcatraz used tiny detention cages (with only 18 square feet of space) that posed “significant” risks to health and safety and failed to “align with standards for humane treatment.”
Russia, Russia, Russia. You can’t make this stuff up. ProPublica reported Umar Kremlev, a Russian oligarch close to President Vladimir Putin, “footed the bill for hundreds of thousands of dollars of wedding expenses” for Donald Trump Jr. — a conflict of interest and example of gross influence peddling so extreme as to make even the Qatari jet “gift” seem innocuous. This should go to the top of Democrats’ oversight investigation to-do list if they win in November.
California surprise. California Gov. Gavin Newsom told CNN he won’t run for president if former VP Kamala Harris does — a weird rationale, unless he’s just looking for an out.