Happy Juneteenth!

The Iran War: Donald Trump Did Not Ace This Test

The reviews are in, and pretty much everyone hates the Iran deal. We're going to share some select quotes, in groups of five.

First, some analyses from experts on the Middle East and/or national security:

1. Ian Bremmer and Firas Maksad, Foreign Affairs: "After nearly four months of fighting, concerns over Iran's nuclear program, ballistic missile arsenal, and support for proxies across the Middle East remain largely unresolved. The regime that Trump set out to change is still standing, and it may now be set to receive economic relief in exchange for restoring free passage in a strait that was open before the war began. Iran has emerged from the conflict battered but in a stronger strategic position, with its regime and its ability to threaten the region intact. This outcome, after months of destruction and global economic disruption, is the greatest foreign policy failure of both of Trump's terms. And the consequences of that failure will persist long after the war ends, making the United States' growing strategic challenge in the Middle East even more difficult to address."
   
   
2. Brett McGurk, Former National Security Council Coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa: "From the text, it's remarkable how much the United States is offering for little in return. I've negotiated difficult agreements with Iran and this document stands out in providing Iran much of what it's demanded in the past—and rarely gotten."
   
   
3. Alan Eyre, Middle East Institute: "I have given up trying to divinate what U.S. policy is based on President Trump's statements because they change so radically. I mean, some of the things he said today, he could have been the [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] spokesman in terms of justifications for this deal. But, no, we haven't achieved any war goals. Iran has maintained a significant missile and drone force. It will use whatever money it gets to a large extent to rebuild its defense industrial base."
   
   
4. Emily Harding, Center for Strategic and International Studies: "The deal itself is horrifically lopsided. Iran gets most of what it wants, and it gets it up front—before negotiations on a final deal even start. The United States gets very little. Israel gets even less. And there are still a great many trap doors through which Iran can escape, or through which the whole thing can fall apart."
   
   
5. Ray Takeyh, Council on Foreign Relations: "Wars are defined by their narratives. The much-touted MOU between Iran and the United States is greeted differently in each country. The Americans are talking of peace; the Iranians of victory."

Second, some comments from right-wing media and/or influencers:

1. Editorial Board, The New York Post: "Trump, talking with Qatar's ruler (!), actually claimed the regime has changed, since we killed off so many leaders and those who wound up in charge 'are very rational people,' 'nice to deal with,' 'not radicalized.'
   
   "Huh? It's the leaders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps calling the shots over there now—the goons most committed to the radical agenda."
   
   
2. Mark Levin, Radio Talker: "When the dust settles, the American people are going to be furious. I'm warning my brothers and sisters. As we comb over the MOU for guarantees, the enemy won't give a sh*t. They're going through the motions."
   
   
3. Ben Shapiro, Professional Twerp: "This MOU appears to be a disaster that does not achieve any of the actual goals set by the administration at the beginning. The Vice President, the chief negotiator on this project has not well served the president."
   
   
4. Former Rep. Trey Gowdy: "How are we better off? What did we get? Don't we have midterms coming up? Are gas prices high? I mean, I hate to be cynical, but I don't think it's a national security document."
   
   
5. Joel Griffith, Fellow at Advancing American Freedom: "Make no mistake: This MOU is a capitulation to the Iranian terrorist regime, potentially more dangerous than Obama's JCPOA. This will rejuvenate a terrorist regime with nuclear ambitions committed to global ideological domination through terrorism."

Third, some comments from Republican members of Congress:

1. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX): "History teaches that giving billions of dollars to theocratic lunatics who want to murder us is not a good idea. I think the president is receiving some very poor advice on this deal."
   
   
2. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA): "Reagan is rolling over in his grave. Iran's nuclear ambitions were not curbed, and they have learned that threatening the Strait of Hormuz works and will undoubtedly leverage it in the future. Now, Iran gets to build brand-new infrastructure under this deal.
   
   "Before the war, the strait was open, Iran was being crushed by sanctions, and 13 service members were still alive. Now, 13 Americans are dead, families have paid billions at the pump, sanctions will be lifted, and the bombing has stopped. This is the worst foreign policy blunder in decades."
   
   
3. Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS): "I am concerned that the memorandum of understanding negotiates away the victories of Operation Epic Fury in ways that are completely out of step with the President's goals.
   
   Specifically, the $300 billion fund for the reconstruction and economic development of Iran—though not funded by U.S. taxpayers—would make Iran's payoff under President Obama's 2015 deal look like a pittance by comparison... I also oppose the U.S. lifting any sanctions on Iran, or unfreezing Iranian funds, in exchange for Iran's mere agreement to negotiate for another 60 days. The Iranian regime has not renounced its ultimate goal—'Death to America, Death to Israel.' The regime will invest every penny it receives to further that aim."
   
   
4. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC): "We set out by saying we were going to drive down to zero their nuclear capability. Now we're equivocating on that. We said that we were not going to make the mistake that Obama did by sending them a plane full of cash. I got to reconcile the numbers there."
   
   
5. Anonymous House Republican: "He promised total surrender. And here it is."

We provide the first group of quotes to affirm that it's not just us who think the deal is a boondoggle. Everyone who knows, well, pretty much anything about the subject thinks that. We tried to find at least one or two people who wrote, "Well, it's not ALL bad for the U.S," but we couldn't do it.

The second and third groups of quotes represent the people whom Trump actually has to deal with. He cares a lot about what right-wing influencers think, and he needs nearly all hands on board in the Senate whenever there's a vote. The Iran deal, not to mention the DNI shenanigans (see below) won't make that easier.

That said, the administration's calculus here could not be clearer: Get gas prices down, at all costs. And Trump is undoubtedly patting himself on the back on that front, as the national average for a gallon of gas just fell below $4/gallon for the first time in a couple of months. That's down 13 cents/gallon from a week ago and 53 cents/gallon from a month ago. It is also possible, at least according to some analysts, that the price could drop below $3/gallon by the end of the summer.

There are, of course, no guarantees on that front. The petroleum economy is a strange beast, and any further disruptions to the supply chain (say, from hurricanes, or maybe from the war starting up again) could be disastrous. Further, even if gas prices do drop, Trump may already have an unshakable reputation as the "inflation president," making the Republicans the "inflation party." Many members of the GOP, both within the White House and without. fear that is the case.

There are, of course, other complications that could arise entirely separate from the gas prices. The one that sticks out like the sorest of sore thumbs is the $300 billion for Iran to rebuild. We stand by our position that it does not matter how that money is structured, it's a non-starter. And without the money, Iran is not likely to keep the peace. Oh, and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has calendars, and is aware of the significance of November 3. It would be not be out of character for them to act at the moment that it will do most harm to Trump and his party in the elections. (Z)

In Congress, Part I: The President Is a Real Scrooge

Donald Trump has just made his latest move in the game of DNI chess checkers tiddlywinks he's been playing with the Senate.

Recall that Trump wants Bill Pulte, an utterly unqualified flunky, to serve as acting DNI. There is nobody, regardless of political stripe, who does not believe the goal here is to give Pulte an opportunity to find some intel that can be weaponized against the President's enemies, foreign and/or domestic. Perhaps that means laying hands on information that one federal agency or another already has in its possession and turning it over to Trump. More likely it means using the nation's intelligence-gathering apparatus to "investigate" people like James Comey, Hillary Clinton, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) in search of dirt.

Pulte is legally entitled to serve as acting DNI for up to 120 days, since he is already Senate-confirmed to his current position. And the day he would take over, on an acting basis, is... today. In an effort to forestall this, members of Congress from both parties demanded that: (1) Pulte not be allowed to serve, and (2) Trump should nominate immediately a proper replacement. The President only delivered on one of those two demands, naming U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Jay Clayton. And even then, Trump only made the pick after the House had adjourned for a week's break. So, the House declined to renew the intelligence-gathering law known as FISA, hoping that would put pressure on Trump to abandon his Pulte plan.

That did not work, so Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) came up with a new plan: He and his colleagues, including the Democrats, would rush the approval of Clayton, so that there would be no "interim" period during which Pulte might serve. This plan might well have worked; Clayton isn't really qualified to be DNI, as he has no intelligence experience. But he's much more qualified than Pulte, while also being less corrupt. So, the members of the Senate might well have swallowed hard and agreed to universal consent (necessary for the expedited timeline), just to block Pulte.

And that now brings us to Trump's counter-move. Shortly before Clayton's confirmation hearing was set to begin, the President announced that he was "postponing" the nomination (while Clayton said he'd been told by the White House not to show up). Trump made two demands of his own, which are ostensibly related to each other. The first of those is that he will not un-postpone the nomination until his nominee to be the new U.S. Attorney for SDNY, Jamie McDonald, is confirmed.

If that was the only issue, then Thune might be able to swing it, though a lot of members would have to grit their teeth at the thought of ramming through two key nominees (i.e., McDonald and Clayton) because Trump can't play nice. However, the second demand that Trump made was that he would not sign off on an extension of FISA until Congress passes the SAVE Act.

This means that we are now in the curious situation that Congress is using FISA as leverage against Trump, and Trump is using FISA as leverage against Congress. It's not supposed to work that way. In any case, as we have written many times, passing the SAVE Act is not plausible. Senate Democrats would never go for it, and so it would quickly die on the altar of the filibuster. If Thune agreed to kill the filibuster, or to create another carve-out, that almost certainly still would not get the job done. It is improbable that there are 50 GOP votes to change the filibuster or 50 GOP votes to pass the Save Act, much less 50 votes for both things. It was a major theme of Sen. Thom Tillis' (R-NC) letter, which we wrote about earlier this week, that the Save Act is a no fly zone for Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) and for senators from predominantly rural states.

We spent 4+ years during Trump v1.0 trying to make sense of what he does. Somehow, during Trump v2.0, he's become even more inscrutable. Here are our best guesses as to what is going on here, from most to least likely:

1. Trump so very badly wants Pulte to be able to do his thing for a few weeks or a month that he (Trump) will do whatever it takes to make that possible.
   
   
2. Trump is trying to create a distraction from the disastrous Iran deal (see above). Or maybe the Epstein files. Or maybe one of half a dozen other embarrassments.
   
   
3. Trump, who has always been prone to obsessing over things, and seems to be getting worse on that front, has fixated on the SAVE Act, and will use any leverage that presents itself to try to get that bill passed.
   
   
4. Because Trump is extremely angry with Republicans in Congress, he is jerking them around to punish them and/or to amuse himself.
   
   
5. This is a backdoor attempt to kill the filibuster, so Trump can have his ballroom money and maybe his slush fund.

Again, it's not clear if we have two pairings here (with McDonald and Clayton being #1, and SAVE Act and FISA being #2), or if these are all connected for Trump, since they're all linked to national security. If he won't send Clayton to the hill until McDonald is confirmed AND the SAVE Act is passed, then Pulte is going to have a nice, long time to conduct sham investigations. And even if FISA and the SAVE Act are a separate thing for him, unrelated to the DNI position, then he's either going to have to back down, or the U.S. is going to be operating in partial darkness for a while, intelligence-wise. Everyone will know who is responsible, and if there happens to be a terrorist attack during that period, then Katy bar the door. (Z)

In Congress, Part II: House Democrats Continue to Chip Away at GOP's Grip on Power

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and his colleagues in the House Republican Conference don't have much to hang their hats on these days. They don't do much when it comes to passing legislation. And they are saddled with an unpopular president who keeps pushing them to do things that the majority of voters will hate (see above for one example). If House Republicans do what Trump wants, one group of voters is going to be furious. If they reject Trump, a different group of voters is going to be furious. And, as it turns out, if they hem and haw and do nothing, pretty much everyone ends up furious.

Recognizing that time before the midterm election is pretty short (especially given how many days the House is in recess between now and then) and the odds of passing any substantive legislation before then are pretty long, it appears that the House GOP is now grasping at the most obvious, and perhaps only, straw when it comes to their chances of holding their majority: gerrymandering. They are telling themselves that the roughly +9 seats the Republicans gained by redrawing maps mid-decade will be enough insurance to keep the gavel in Johnson's hand.

You never know, given that the Democratic brand is not too popular these days, and given that there are considerably fewer swingy districts than there once were. That said, a couple of non-gerrymandering-related indicators suggest the House Republican Conference should be bearish. To start, Cook Political Report just updated its ratings for seven different House races, and moved all seven in the direction of the Democrats. And six of those seven are currently held by Republican members, with Cook's Erin Covey observing that, "Districts that once appeared to be relatively safe for Republicans look increasingly competitive."

Similarly, the generic House ballot is definitely not trending in the Republicans' favor. Race to the White House has the average at 47% for the Democrats, 41.2% for the Republicans, or D+5.8. Real Clear Politics has it at 47.9% to 43.1% in favor of the Democrats, or D+4.8. Nate Silver's number crunching says it's actually 48% for the Democrats, 41.7% for the Republicans, for a net of D+6.3. Broadly speaking, this is about where the numbers were in June of 2018, which is Donald Trump's first midterm election. Eventually that year, the average grew to D+8.6, which resulted in a gain of 41 seats for the blue team. So, something like D+8 is what House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) and the DCCC are hoping to get to, and at the moment, they are on pace. That probably wouldn't flip 41 seats, like it did 8 years ago, but it would certainly flip enough to hand control of the lower chamber to the Democrats. (Z)

Political Bytes: From Harry S. Truman to Barack Obama

Boy, has the news piled up this week:

Obama Nation: Yesterday, Barack and Michelle Obama, adhering to a tradition started by Harry Truman in under the auspices of the 1955 Presidential Libraries Act, formally dedicated the Obamas' presidential library. In his speech, the former president said his library was a symbol of core American values, including "a belief in the peaceful transfer of power," "no one is above the law" and "character, honesty, integrity, kindness, compassion, sense of duty, and honor, those things matter."

Our Take: Perhaps Obama had someone specific in mind when he was speaking—hard to tell. The occupants of the presidential box, incidentally, were the Man of the Hour and his wife, along with Joe and Jill Biden, George W. and Laura Bush and Bill and Hillary Clinton. Do you see anyone who should have been invited, but is missing from the list? Us either.

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People Who Shouldn't Be Governor, Part I: There are now two lawsuits challenging Sen. Tommy Tuberville's (R-AL) right to run for governor in Alabama, on the basis that he has not lived in Alabama for the 7 years required by state law.

Our Take: This is probably accurate, but very hard to prove. That said, we tend to think residency laws are stupid. If the people want to elect a resident of Mars to represent them, why shouldn't they be able to do so?

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People Who Shouldn't Be Governor, Part II: The newest quallity poll of the Minnesota gubernatorial race says that the candidate who is leading the Republican primary field is... MyPillow guy Mike Lindell. He's got the backing of 27% of Minnesota Republicans, as compared to 22% for Speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives Lisa Demuth and 17% for entrepreneur Kendall Qualls.

Our Take: If Lindell actually wins the nomination, Democratic pooh-bahs AND late-night comedy writers will both get down on their knees and thank the deity of their choice.

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A Bombshell!: We saw at least a dozen outlets refer to this news as a "bombshell" (see here for one example). It turns out, as The Washington Post first reported, that Donald Trump's ballroom will indeed use taxpayer money, with only about half the funds coming from corporate bribe-payers donors.

Our Take: A bombshell? Really? You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means. Is there anyone who actually thought that no taxpayer dollars would be used? The only bombshell here is that taxpayers are (allegedly) only on the hook for half the cost. We would have guessed something more like 95%.

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Baghdad Joe: In a performance reminiscent of Sean Spicer's first press conference as White House Press Secretary, RNC Chair Joe Gruters declared that the UFC event held on the White House lawn drew a larger audience than this year's Super Bowl. This is not exactly true; the Super Bowl 125.6 million viewers, while the viewership for the UFC event was announced yesterday, and it was about 7 million people.

Our Take: Actually, 7 million people is very solid for a UFC event, especially since they are streaming-only. However, the staff mathematician advises us that 7 million is a shade less than 125.6 million. Maybe if Dana White had hired Bad Bunny to do the halftime show at the UFC event.

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It's Kind of Official: The final tallies have not been released yet, but Democratic Socialist Janeese Lewis George (D) remains steady at about 53% of the mayoral vote in Washington, DC, while her nearest competitor, Kenyan R. McDuffie, conceded yesterday. So, Lewis George is going to be the next mayor in the District.

Our Take: Lewis George is about to become pretty famous, either as one of the faces of the resistance, or as the mayor whose town was put under de facto martial law by Donald Trump because the election results hurt his fee fees, or both.

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Back to Work: After 117 days spent dealing with an as-yet-unknown medical issue. Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (D-NJ) said he will return to work on June 30.

Our Take: Will he explain to his constituents why he missed nearly 4 months of work? And if he doesn't, can he hope to hold on to his seat? Your guess is as good as ours.

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Penis Crimes Don't Pay: Jackson Lahmeyer, the pastor and would-be Representative from Oklahoma who got caught sexting a woman who is not his wife has dropped out of the runoff that was triggered when no candidate cleared 50% in Tuesday's primary election.

Our Take: Lahmeyer's goose was cooked anyhow, so he fell on his sword (no, not that one) for the red team. Now, Republicans can criticize Democratic sexter and would-be U.S. Senator from Maine Graham Platner with a clear conscience.

We're in touch, so you'll be in touch. (Z & A)

Never Forget: Short Stories, Part III

Another collection of shorter accounts:

E.L. in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, TX: My grandfather was too old to be drafted in World War II but volunteered to join the Navy. He almost never spoke about the experience, and growing up all I knew was that he participated in D-Day. He did tell us a little more after my grandmother passed away. It turns out that he was trained in demolition, and very few members of his unit survived since they were some of the first sent onto the beach. My grandfather was a kind and helpful person, but there were signs of the trauma he endured. My mother only remembers him with white hair. Despite living in coastal Florida, he almost never went to the beach. Another major impact of the war was that, after he returned, my grandfather and his brother changed their last names to something that sounded less Jewish because of antisemitism in the U.S.

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D.S. in Oscoda, MI: I was spurred to write because no servicewomen have been mentioned yet. My mother, from Michigan, turned 18 on December 7, 1941, and joined the WAVES soon after. Since she had been working as a secretary after graduating high school, she was sent to secretarial school/basic training in Oklahoma. My father, from New Jersey, joined the Navy at age 17 and became a pharmacist's assistant on a hospital ship stationed in the South Pacific. They met in New York City when my mother was assigned to handle his mustering out paperwork at the end of the war. They married in 1946, eventually relocating to Michigan, where I was born and raised. My mother was thrilled to be able to visit the Women in Military Service for America Memorial, near the entrance to Arlington National Cemetery, after it was dedicated in 1997. She saw her name listed in the computer database set up at the memorial and received an honorary medal.

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F.H. in Akron, OH: Reading the stories of World War II men and women prompts me to tell you something shared by my professor at the University of Pennsylvania in 1962 or 1963. He had been a serving officer aboard ship in the Pacific when they heard about the explosion of the first atomic bomb. He asked us in an anthropology class how we thought the men on that ship had responded to the news. What would American students in their twenties think? Of course, that those sailors would rejoice, knowing that they would not now be facing death in battle. "No," he said. Wrong. "We were furious." Their thinking: If we had that sort of weapon coming along, why did all those other guys have to die fighting the Japanese. Why couldn't the government and the military just slow the effort, sparing that suffering and death, and just bring the bomb along as fast as possible? The intervening years had not changed our professor's mind that his shipmates' reaction had been the sensible one.

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A.G. in Denver, CO: My father, Samuel Gerber, was born in 1920 in lower Manhattan, the child of immigrant Ashkenazi Jews from Ukraine and Russia. He went to New York City public schools and then majored in Chemistry at City College of New York. He was in his senior year in 1941 when Pearl Harbor occurred and was drafted into the Army. He got an exception to complete his degree, and went to basic training in 1942.

As was typical for a college graduate, he was soon sent to Officer Candidate School and became a 2nd Lieutenant. He spent the bulk of the war teaching chemical warfare to pilots in California and Arizona. When the war in Europe ended, he went back to infantry training to lead men in the planned invasion of Japan. Thankfully for me and my sister (yet unborn) that never occurred. He was part of the occupational forces in Japan and worked both in the Quartermaster corps and Military Police, where he developed a lifelong love of detective work and Sherlock Holmes. He was not given a middle name at birth, but in the military started writing "M" for a middle initial, and then "Michael," which stuck for the rest of his life.

He returned to the U.S. and got his M.S. and Ph.D. in Physics at Columbia, where he met my mother. He wrote/edited two popular books about "Chemistry and Crime" and was made a member of the "Baker Street Irregulars," a prestigious Sherlock Holmes society. He had a long career in the chemical industry, and passed at age 93 in 2014.

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P.D.N. in Austintown, OH: Two stories not of heroism but of the vagaries of warfare—and life.

My father was with the Fifth Army in World War II in Italy. His captain liked him and one day sent dad to take a message to some GIs staying in a farmhouse. They asked dad to stay and have a drink but dad said no, he had to get back. Five minutes later, the farmhouse took a direct hit and everyone was dead. When the Fifth Army got to Rome, dad's captain promoted him to Supply Sergeant. He had 45 Italian civilians under his purview and proved himself a natural manager. The Army awarded dad a Bronze Star and the Military Infantry citation.

My in-laws were Korean and, during the war, when Korea was under Japanese occupation, because he was a Presbyterian minister, the Japanese authorities removed him and his wife and all the other pastors to a camp in Japan. It was outside Hiroshima. One day, everyone was told they would have to move to another camp and reluctantly they left. A month later, the Americans destroyed Hiroshima.

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B.Z. in Atascocita, TX: Having read all of the Never Forget stories submitted so far, I felt that I would be remiss not to include my own father's service during World War II. However, his story is not one detailing military battles or personal courage in far off lands, but rather is one that may be simply described as a home-bound love story.

My dad, John, was born in 1916, the fifth of six children born to Polish immigrants in Newington, CT. He joined the Army near the beginning of the war and, instead of being sent overseas to fight, he was assigned stateside to the coastal town of Westerly, RI, where cannons were temporarily situated to help protect America's shores from any enemy vessels or possible invasions. His primary job throughout his deployment was truck driver. The camp held weekly dances for the troops, and Dad would drive his truck into downtown Westerly to pick up groups of single women and girls and transport them back to the base for the dances, then return the ladies back to town at the end of the evening.

One dance night, as he was waiting for the women to load, one young lady named Ruth decided that, instead of riding in the back of the army truck with the other girls, she was going to ride up front with that handsome soldier behind the wheel. This happened week after week, and eventually John and Ruth fell in love, resulting in their marriage in October, 1943.

At the conclusion of the war, John and Ruth stayed in Westerly, where they eventually raised a family of six children (I was fourth of six). Dad worked a number of jobs before being hired by the U.S. Postal Service, where he worked as a letter carrier for over 20 years. As a side note, my older brother John Jr. was nicknamed "Jack" to honor Dad's older brother Jack, who was killed in action in Italy during the war.

Thanks to all of you. (Z)

I Read the News Today, Oh Boy: Trout Mask Replica

Do people still remember Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band? Trout Mask Replica was certainly their best-known album, and with a name that could only have been bestowed in the 1960s.

We gave two clues as to last week's theme. The first was: "[W]e'll say that it's a tricky one, and this headline is subtle. Well, to be precise, it's Suttles." And the second was: "Larry Bird would have worked, except... wrong sport."

And here is the solution, courtesy of reader N.S. in Los Angeles, CA:

These headlines all contain part of the name or nickname of inductees to the Baseball Hall of Fame, specifically the part of the name/nickname that is shared with an animal:

• Johnson Can't Pull a Rabbit Out of His Hat—Walter "Rabbit" Maranville
• You Can't Out Fox a Federal Judge, Especially If You Are a Moron—Nellie Fox
• I've Got a Mule, Her Name is Sal—George "Mule" Suttles
• And Their Singles Ads Are Probably People Trying to Catfish You—Jim "Catfish" Hunter
• This Should Goose the Mexican Economy—Rich "Goose" Gossage

[Mike] Trout, from this headline, fits as well, since he is a surefire Hall of Famer. Larry Bird would fit, too, if not for the fact that he did not play baseball. Note that we were pretty liberal in accepting answers, as long as they included "baseball."

Here are the first 60 readers to get it right:

J.S. in Huntington Station, NY M.B. in Denver, CO K.R. in Austin, TX G.M.K. in Mishawaka, IN B.A. in Edmond, OK S.K. in Ardmore, PA M.M. in Dunellen, NJ R.S. in Landing, NJ E.W. in Skaneateles, NY R.S. in Milan, OH S.G. in Durham, NC H.B. in Santiago, Chile A.G. in Plano, TX C.B. in Lakeville, MN G.M. in Arlington VA N.S. in Los Angeles C.R. in Cromwell, CT J.C. in Carmel, IN M.L. in Simpsonville, SC M.K. in Long Branch, NJ K.M. in Ypsilanti, MI E.S. in Providence, RI M.T. in Wheat Ridge, CO R.D. in Cheshire, CT N.K. in Cleveland Heights, OH C.A. in West Palm Beach, FL S.B. in Palm Harbor, FL C.W. in Atlantic Beach, FL B.D. in Hood River, OR R.M. in Summerville, SC

K.S. in Chicago, IL M.A. in Park Ridge, IL R.N. in Cleveland, OH P.S. in Chicago, IL S.I. in Minneapolis, MN G.W. in Avon, CT T.K. in Manchester, MO D.L. in Springfield, IL J.N. in Zionsville, IN M.J. in Oakdale, MN B.K. in Mystic, CT M.K. in Seattle, WA D.D. in Bucks County, PA M.H. in Ottawa, ON, Canada S.D. in Cedar Park, TX R.G. in Washington, DC K.H. in Maryville, TN M.B. in Albany, NY K.J.O. in Brookdale, NJ M.S. in Canton, NY B.R. in Berwyn, PA J.T. in Philadelphia, PA R.S. in Pittsgrove, NJ J.F. in Fayetteville, NC R.E. in Birmingham, AL P.R. in Havertown, PA J.H. in Flint, MI N.G. in Clarkston, MI K.L. in Sterling, VA P.A. in Redwood City, CA

The 60th correct response was received at 6:30 a.m. PT on Friday.

For this week's theme, it relies on one word per headline, it's in the category Movies, and the "Never Forget" headline is not part of it. For a hint, we'll tell you that the solution is a real E. Nygma.

If you have a guess, send it to comments@electoral-vote.com with subject line June 19 Headlines. (Z)

This Week in Schadenfreude: Death to Algae!

Boy, this story is almost too obvious for this feature. And yet, it is also damn near the Platonic ideal of schadenfreude, so we're going with it. As most readers have heard by now, the Trump administration's slapdash efforts to "improve" the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool have turned into an unmitigated disaster.

When you have water that is somewhat warm and somewhat still, that is a recipe for algae to form, at least in the summer. The algae problem has gotten worse in the last decade or so, a development broadly attributed to climate change—a phenomenon that the current presidential administration considers to be "fake news." There is a way to make the algae problem even worse, and that is to paint the bottom of the pool a color—say, blue—that absorbs heat and makes the water even warmer than it would otherwise be. And so—Surprise!—this year's algal bloom is the worst it's been in at least 5 years, and possibly longer. Consequently, the color of the water is not the "American flag blue" that Donald Trump has promised. Something more like "American sewage green." See for yourself:

Those images are from EarthCam.

Obviously, Trump cannot handle the fact that he cannot overcome the realities of marine biology with force of will. And so, Department of the Interior (DoI) employees have been dumping vast amounts of hydrogen peroxide into the reflection pool. It is true that will kill algae. It is also true that it will have a broader environmental impact, like killing the ducks that use the pond for swimming and drinking. Oh, and the hydrogen peroxide being used is a very strong 12% concentrate, which is potentially dangerous for workers. Take a look at this picture:

Does it look like proper safety measures are in place?

And it gets worse. Recall that the cost of painting the pool blue was $14.7 million, with the no-bid, overpriced contract being awarded to a crony of the President's. This arrangement did not get all that much scrutiny, probably because $14.7 million seems like pennies compared to the $1 billion for Trump's ballroom and the $1.776 billion for his slush fund—two stories that were in heavy rotation at about the same time. It would seem that $14.7 million doesn't go as far as it once did, because just 12 days after the re-paint was "finished," the paint started peeling from the bottom of the pool. There are pictures all over the Internet showing big chunks of paint floating to the surface:

In fairness to the firm that did the work, even they probably know that in addition to killing algae and ducks, hydrogen peroxide is also a paint remover.

And now that the whole project is a complete and utter mess, and has made the White House the butt of jokes (yet again), how have the President, his underlings and his supporters responded? In exactly the two ways you would guess, if you thought about it for a minute. The first of those is conspiratorial thinking. One popular claim is that Trump-hating government employees deliberately seeded the pool with algae, so as to embarrass the President. Another is that the embarrassing photos that are all over the Internet were actually taken while Joe Biden was president. Unexplained is why the photos would show big paint chips, since Biden's administration never painted the bottom of the pool.

The other oh-so-Trumpy response is gaslighting. The DoI, for example, put out this tweet:

The advanced nanobubbler technology very effectively killed the algae that has plagued every Lincoln Reflecting Pool reopening—most infamously Obama's reopening—since 1922.

The Reflecting Pool water is crystal clear, and our National Park Service team is now vacuuming up the dead algae resting on the bottom of some parts of the Reflecting Pool—just like the destroyed Iranian Navy resting on the bottom of the Persian Gulf.

In other words: Don't believe your lyin' eyes, especially since we have a copy of Photoshop.

At this point, let us review the elements of this story:

• Disdain for history and tradition
• Climate change denial
• Ill-considered, hasty action
• Lack of concern for the environment
• Lack of concern for workers
• Corruption
• Shoddy work...
• ...by people of questionable competence
• Conspiratorial thinking
• Finger-pointing
• Gaslighting

It's remarkable how very much this situation is a microcosm for the entire administration.

The good news for Trump is that there has been an enormous increase in tourist traffic to the reflecting pool. That bad news is that it's from people who want to see if it's really as bad as the media is reporting, and who want to laugh at Trump's failings. Oh, well, any publicity is good publicity, right? (Z)

This Week in Freudenfreude: I Am the Eggman

Last weekend, we were asked about the Scottish National football team, and gave a poor review due to loutish behavior by some past Scottish Premiership fans. That produced a lot of pushback, so we suppose we'll tell a different side of the story this week.

The Scots team played its first World Cup match at Gillette Stadium, a bit outside of Boston, on Saturday, and it will play another match in that same venue today. Scotland hasn't made the World Cup draw in a couple of decades, and it's not all that difficult a flight from Edinburgh to Boston, and so the Scottish fanbase has turned out in force, with about 50,000 of them in town for the two fixtures.

Apparently—and there have been stories all over the place about this—the Scottish fans have absolutely charmed the residents of Boston. As the social media videos show, there has been much singing and dancing and bagpipe-playing by the "Tartan Army," often involving fellows in the somewhat unexpected combination of a kilt and a Red Sox jersey. One such gentleman lost his passport, went to a police station for help, and so impressed the officers that they bought him an egg and cheese sandwich while he waited (hence the headline).

Now, as you may have heard, Bostonians have a reputation for enjoying their beer. There's a reason that Cheers was set in that town, and that brewer Samuel Adams is headquartered in that town. However, as it turns out, the Bostonians are pikers when compared to the Scots. The out-of-town visitors have been downing pints at something like four times the rate that Bostonians do, even on a holiday weekend. Quite a few bars have run clean out of beer, and had to secure emergency re-supplies. "We had NO idea what these folks were going to drink" said one Boston barkeep.

Buying all that beer (not to mention all those Red Sox jerseys, and the hotel rooms, and the meals, etc.), the Scots are leaving quite a bit of money in Beantown. What they are NOT leaving, however, is a bunch of trash. Observing that they are visitors, and that the Bostonians have treated them well, the Scottish football fans have been quite careful about putting their trash in the trash, and maybe even picking up a few pieces of litter that were not their doing.

So, what can we say, other than "Slàinte Mhath!" to Scottish football fans, and have a good weekend, all! (Z)

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