“This is how America is Made Great Again!” John Buss, @repeat1968
Good Day, Sky Dancers!
I have to apologize for the delay in this post. Between trying to prepare for a tropical system, getting my Wi-Fi updated, and needing lots of sleep, I slept most of the morning. I upgraded my old wifi modem and doubled its capacity to 2 gig. I’m hoping the lag and sudden short downtimes go away. It’s always something.
I hate to have that Déjà vu feeling about Vietnam and all the Gulf Wars we’ve entangled ourselves in, but I do. This headline from the New York Times brings about everything I’ve felt about all the unnecessary wars we’ve had since the Korean War. “Pentagon Withheld Dozens of U.S. Military Injuries in Iran War. Central Command is not required to release information about injured troops, especially when they quickly return to duty, a military official said.” Eric Schmitt has the story.
In the week leading up to the Iranian attack on Friday that killed two U.S. soldiers and left one service member missing in Jordan, Iran carried out three other strikes against U.S. forces in the country.
Those attacks injured dozens of U.S. service members and damaged several helicopters, according to several U.S. officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss operational matters.
But the Pentagon did not disclose the earlier strikes, nor the casualties and damage they inflicted.
The episode is the latest example during the Iran conflict of the tension between what the Pentagon says is the need for operational security and the government’s obligation to inform the public about the conduct of the war.
Moreover, another U.S. military official added, why would the Pentagon divulge information that could help Iran zero in on its deadly ballistic missiles and drone attacks in Jordan and other bases in the Middle East where thousands of American troops are stationed?
Central Command has also stopped announcing how many sit.
Meanwhile, Trump is in full saber-rattling mode. This is from The Guardian. “Trump says Iran ‘will pay’ for killing soldiers ‘many times over’ after Pezeshkian says country fighting ‘full-scale war’ – Middle East crisis live.” Some how the word ‘crisis’ seems like a supreme understatement.
The US president wrote on Truth Social:
Every time Iran kills an American Soldier they will pay for that killing many times over! This directive has been passed on to Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Daniel Caine, and every Leader in the Military.
The US military on Monday identified two soldiers killed in Jordan while defending against Iranian ballistic missile and drone attacks. An examination of remains is underway to determine whether they belong to a third service member who was reporting missing in that attack. And in Iraq, another US service member died after “a controlled detonation” of an Iranian drone.
It brings the total number of deaths in the war with Iran, which the US and Israel started in late February, to 17.
The article includes updates from Lebanon and more details on the incursion into Jordan. I just can’t believe that so many of these geriatric Senators we have, who have seen all of the wars in the Middle East and their results, won’t use their Constitutional duties to stop this mess. Well, there seems to be an attempt, but I seriously doubt it will go anywhere. This is fromPolitico. “House GOP leaders scrambling to set up a briefing on Iran war developments. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth could possibly attend the House GOP Conference meeting Tuesday morning.”
House Republican leaders are making plans for a Trump administration official to attend Tuesday morning’s GOP Conference meeting on Capitol Hill to brief members on the latest developments in the war with Iran, according to four people granted anonymity to share private discussions.
Their hope is that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will be the special guest, one of the people said. He is already scheduled to testify before the Senate Appropriations Committee later Tuesday regarding the administration’s supplemental funding request for more military aid as the conflict in Iran continues. Meredith Lee Hill has the lede.
It comes after violence in the region over the weekend culminated in the death of three U.S. service members. A growing number of House Republicans, including vulnerable incumbents, also have been asking GOP leaders and the White House for more information about the war before they vote Wednesday to advance a plan to free up $95 billion in additional funding for the Iran war, defense activities and farm assistance.
More military and war spending! Also, do they really think Peg Hegesth is going to give up on us testosterone testing for something that has historically enriched Congressional Members? You’d think an all-volunteer military would make them a bit more cautious about filling the ranks, but Trump and Hegesth must have below-average IQs, given the craziness they’ve pulled.
So, this is an amazing story from New Jersey. It will inform you exactly how far the Trump Family Crime Syndicate will go to enrich itself. The article can be found at The American Prospect. “The Kleptocrat Nesting Dolls Behind Trump’s Potemkin Gas Stations. How can Freedom Fuel afford to sell gas for $3.47 a gallon? That’s the wrong question to ask.” This excellent reporting was done by Maureen Tkacik. Beware of anything Trump labels ‘freedom’ anything.
Five years ago, a manager for a Virginia gasoline distributor opened an invoice for more than 200,000 phantom gallons of gas they had no record of selling. Truckers on contract with a chain of gas stations that had recently terminated its contract had been filling up their tanks using an emergency PIN that the distributor, Petroleum Marketing Group, Inc. (PMG), had designated for one-time out-of-contract gas purchases, effectively stealing $667,517 worth in just over a week.
Upon subpoenaing the gas station chain CEO’s bank records, PMG ultimately discovered he had no fewer than 28 other credit agreements he hadn’t disclosed on behalf of three or four alter-ego companies whose businesses he’d never listed on his application. The CEO and his brother/partner—two central New Jersey men in their thirties named Syed and Shamikh Kazmi, respectively—had outstanding default judgments against them in Wisconsin and Michigan, a business in Florida they had never disclosed, and legal disputes with landlords and franchisors from Circle K to Phillips 66 to 7-Eleven, the latter of which accused the brothers in a lawsuit of allowing a store they were operating to fall into such an alarming state of squalor it was forced to “disown” it, then exploiting a provision in the franchise agreement to order hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of cigarettes in its last weeks of operation that they allegedly neither returned to corporate nor paid for. Another landlord was suing them for tens of thousands of dollars in unpaid rent. The lawsuits would drag on and multiply while the Kazmi brothers bid on new assets under slightly altered names, then failed over and over again to wire over the required deposits.
Enter the high-flying Wall Street money manager Blue Owl, the reluctant owner of a vast portfolio of hundreds of gas stations across the country for which it had vastly overpaid. Prior to 2023, the gas stations and adjoining convenience stores had been run by an outfit called Mountain Express, which was forced into liquidation that spring after the founder sucked $130 million in ostensibly illegal fake dividends out of the stores and retired, leaving a trail of broken soda machines, failing refrigerators, disemboweled cash registers, and unpaid bills across the land. Blue Owl ended up paying $15 million to the bankruptcy estate for having enabled the grift.
You might assume that Blue Owl, a private credit behemoth founded by Wall Street’s titular best and brightest with $315 billion in assets under management, would attempt to find squeaky-clean, meticulous types to take over the leases at its service stations and start anew. LOL, no: For at least 17 of its stations in New Jersey, they chose the lawsuit-embroiled Kazmi brothers, a transaction formally announced last fall shortly after the trustee in another bankruptcy filed an amusing legal brief detailing Shamikh Kazmi’s effort to hire a locksmith to access a former Rite Aid store in Maryland on whose lease he had bid but never actually wired over the required $71,000 earnest money deposit. (A few months later, Kazmi placed an audacious $75 million all-cash bid on an iconic brutalist Philadelphia skyscraper complex, touting a plan to convert the 1.8 million-square-foot office complex into a Hard Rock Hotel, but he again failed to make the deposit.)
Earlier this year, the Kazmi brothers unveiled the latest makeover of their struggling gas station chain: a fast-food empire called Yum Grills, whose “$60 million expansion” Shamikh purported to be “self-funding” in a February Philadelphia Business Journal story that promised a breakneck rollout of 15 locations in 120 days. They appear to have successfully opened just one, not counting a related concept called Cousin’s Burger that boasts two others.
Head to the link to read the entire nasty business. I just couldn’t bring myself to watch the final game of FIFA because, damn, do we really need a fricking half-time event? Messi met with Trump all friendly-like, and Trump attended the shebang, got booed, and tried to upstage the winning Spanish team. I could mention a few more things, but anyway, I never thought I’d be pulling for Belgium and Spain in a series. This is from Raw Story. “Trump globally mocked as Spain seemingly edits his World Cup photobomb: ‘That’s awesome’.”
President Donald Trump faced global ridicule for photobombing Spain’s championship celebration after winning the 2026 World Cup — and he was hit with another round of mockery after the team seemingly edited him out of an official photo.
The official X account for the Spain men’s national team shared an image of the players and coach Luis de la Fuente celebrating Sunday’s 1-0 win over Argentina.
The picture did not feature Trump, despite the president spending most of the celebration lingering at the side while the winners jumped for joy.
The 80-year-old president had accompanied FIFA President Gianni Infantino onto the field for the trophy presentation ceremony, and he continued to remain onstage even as Infantino attempted to usher him aside for the team photos.
But the one shared by the victorious Spanish team on X had no sign of Trump, prompting speculation that he’d been digitally removed. At the least, the team made a decision not to use one of the many photos he was in.
Trump and Messi seemed to have jinxed the Argentina Team. The question of the Jinx is actually a USA Today headline. Messi’s eyes were all teary at the end of the game. You know the one about everything Trump touches, right?
In a pre-recorded interview with Fox’s Jenny Taft that aired before the game, Trump didn’t state who he wanted to win but made friendly remarks about the Argentinian superstar.
“I thought about it a lot. I knew that was a question. I hate to get involved, even though politically, it doesn’t matter so much,” Trump said. “I would say that it’s hard to bet against Messi … I won’t pick sides. I just think it’s very hard to bet against Messi. He’s great.”
“We don’t want to do any trade with Spain anymore,” Trump said. “Spain is a terrible partner in NATO.”
Trump attended the game and was booed when he stepped onto the field to present the trophies for the tournament. During the handing out of silver medals, the interaction between Trump and Messi was brief.
Trump has regularly attended sporting events and surrounded himself with sports stars while in office, with multiple examples of teams losing after being connected to him.
One last suggested read by Paul Waldman at Public Notice. “Trump would love to steal the election. But he’s floundering. Republicans would rather talk about almost anything else than his conspiracy theories.” I’m sure they would, given the polls.
Just as there are only so many times you can hear Trump say “It’s like nothing anyone has seen before” before the hyperbole loses all meaning, yet another allegation that elections are being stolen no longer registers as revelatory or urgent. That’s especially true when Republicans have worked so hard for so many years to prove that voter fraud is organized and widespread, with an enormous amount of time, effort, and money spent by the entire conservative movement, yet have come up with essentially nothing.
Everyone knew what Trump would deliver — some lies, some innuendo, some banal facts portrayed as deeply sinister. And no one was less enthusiastic about the speech than the Republicans actually trying to win elections this November.
“The people I talk to are scared shitless,” one unnamed former Trump administration official told Politico in advance of the speech. Trump’s 2020 obsession only served to remind voters that the president is unconcerned about the genuine problems they face.
The lack of support from the conservative propaganda machine was obvious in the response afterward. One might expect a dramatic White House address to be followed by a push to spread its message and multiply its effect — GOP candidates for office touting its importance, segment after segment on Fox News about it — but instead there was a deafening silence.
Fox could barely bring itself to discuss the speech afterward, mentioning it briefly on a couple of shows before moving on to more urgent culture war subjects like whether Caitlin Clark is being targeted for hard fouls by Black players.
“The unkindest cut came the next morning from Fox & Friends, long Trump’s media home and favorite program,” reported Media Matters’ Matt Gertz, “which did not discuss the speech at all — not even in a news brief.”
incredible — more than two hours into this morning's Fox & Friends, "fraud" has not been mentioned a single time and hosts haven't discussed Trump's big primetime speech at all. They have 787 million reasons to ignore it.
They know something Trump doesn’t: This isn’t helping him. In fact, it would be just about the worst strategy he could have come up with, if there were a strategy at all.
So it’s so late that I’m almost bumping into student time. I hope you had a great weekend. I’ll be facing Tropical Storm Bertha in a few days, so send out some good juju to all of us down here on the Gulf Coast!
What’s on your Reading, Writing, and Blogging list today?
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She won the Golden Ball (best player of the World Cup). She also won the Golden Boot (top goal scorer). And she led the U.S. Women to a 4th World Cup. Her name is Megan Rapinoe. She is an American icon and she is not going to the fucking White House! 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/9LjEnPKYa6
— Power to the People ☭🕊 (@ProudSocialist) July 7, 2019
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Born Erdelyi Tamas in Budapest, Hungary, and known professionally as Tom or T. Erdelyi, Ramone played on the first three epoch-making Ramones albums, “Ramones” (1976), “Leave Home” (1977) and “Rocket to Russia” (1977). He also co-produced the latter two albums with Tony Bongiovi and Ed Stasium, respectively. He appeared on and co-produced the 1979 live Ramones opus “It’s Alive.” ….
One of the first high-profile releases to emerge from New York’s punk underground of the mid-‘70s, “Ramones” – reportedly recorded in six days on a budget of $6,400 – brought a pared-down, hyperactive style to the stuffy rock scene of the day. Tommy’s driving, high-energy drum work was the turbine that powered the leather-clad foursome’s loud, antic sound….
The Ramones finally disbanded in 1996 after a show at the Palace in Hollywood. Joey Ramone died of lymphoma in 2001; Dee Dee succumbed to a drug overdose in 2002; and Johnny expired from prostate cancer in 2004.
(From left) Johnny Ramone (1948-2004), Tommy Ramone (1952-2014), Joey Ramone (1951-2001) and Dee Dee Ramone (1952-2002) of the American punk group The Ramones (NY Daily News).
He played drums on just three Ramones studio albums. The ones everyone, but everyone, knows are the three best: Ramones, Leave Home and Rocket to Russia. He’s on the first live album, too, It’s Alive, and between those four records you get the complete summation of why the Ramones mattered, and why they continue to matter. Over the 42 tracks on the three studio albums, lasting barely an hour and half, rock’n’roll is reduced to its undiluted essence: a count-in, a riff, a verse, a chorus. Very occasionally there’s a middle eight. But anything unnecessary – anything that distracts from the rush of excitement – is excised. The aim of a Ramones song is not to make you admire the musicianship or the arrangement. It’s to take you from a standing start to fever pitch in 120 seconds or less. And at the back of it all, playing the unfussiest drum patterns you’ll ever hear – he made AC/DC’s Phil Rudd sound like Keith Moon – was Tommy Ramone.
He wasn’t meant to be the drummer. He was meant to be the manager. Joey was the drummer. “What happened was, they just kept playing faster and faster, and I couldn’t keep up on the drums,” Joey remembered in Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain’s Please Kill Me. “Tommy Ramone, who was managing us, finally had to sit down behind the drums, because nobody else wanted to,” Dee Dee told McNeil and McCain….
…for me (and for others, not lots of others, but enough of us) the Ramones were the best group rock’n’roll ever produced. Not the most inventive, or the most versatile, or the most skilful, or the most emotionally resonant, or the most lyrical – but the best, because every time I put on one of the Ramones’ best records, I was reminded of how I felt the first time I heard it. And the first time I heard it, I felt: this is the sound I’ve been hearing in my head and here it is on 12 inches of black vinyl; this is what I have been waiting for since the first single I ever bought. The Ramones were the sound of juvenile excitement, expressed with such breathtaking singlemindedness that nothing could kill the excitement.
And they were never as exciting without Tommy. Partly that was because those first three albums were such perfect statements of intent that there was very little left for the Ramones to say, and so each new album became another turn around the circuit rather than a manifesto.
The fantasy series is based on George R.R. Martin’s “A Song of Ice and Fire” book series, and as “Game of Thrones” approaches its fifth season, fans are concerned it’ll soon run out of source material.
But on Thursday, HBO CEO Richard Plepler and network Programming President Michael Lombardo assured reporters at the Television Critics Association press tour that “Game of Thrones” will get its fully story.
“George is an integral part of the creative team, so next season every move is being choreographed very closely with him,” Lombardo said. “Certainly after next year we’ll have to figure it out with George, but we’re not concerned about it.”
And for True Detective fans:
On Thursday, the freshman anthology series [True Detective] earned 12 Emmy nods, including nominations for best drama, best writing and two best actor nods for Season 1 stars Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson.
The show’s structure presents a new cast of characters and story each season, and while Lombardo didn’t have any casting news on Thursday he did drop a major tease for Season 2.
“The two scripts we have are — I hate to jinx it — but they are more exciting than the first season,” he promised.
Variety reports that Colin Farrell is “in talks for True Detective, Season 2.” I’m not a big Farrell fan, but I guess I’ll have to give him a chance. Here’s a bit more on Season 2 from The Wrap: What We Know So Far.
Here’s a weird Game of Thrones tribute from Buzzfeed, A Couple Have Recreated “Game Of Thrones” With Their Pugs And It’s Magnificent: “The Pugs of Westeros” sees canine trio Roxy, Blue and Bono playing doggy versions of the show’s main characters.” Here a couple of the photos of the couple’s dogs in costume.
The pugs don’t look very happy, but I guess pugs seldom do. See more photos at the link.
A Missouri woman has finally been able to break her rental lease after learning that her home was used as a torture chamber by a suspected serial killer over a decade ago.
Maury Travis hanged himself while he was being held in jail in 2002 but police now believe that he killed between 12 and 20 women, many of whom died in the basement of his Ferguson, Missouri, home.
Catrina McGhaw had no idea about the home’s sinister past, however, when she signed a lease in March, she told St. Louis station KMOV-TV.
She says her landlord – Sandra Travis, the suspected killer’s mother – made no mention of the case or the bodies that her son allegedly kept in the basement before he was arrested in 2002.
It was only when a friend called her and told her to watch a documentary on serial killers that she realized that the home was connected to Travis’ case, McGhaw told KMOV.
Travis was never officially charged with the crimes, because he committed suicide.
Carole Donoghue, a retired journalist, said she found the bumper stickers at Fairfax County Republican Committee headquarters in Fairfax, Va. The bumper stickers read “Monica Lewinsky’s X-Boyfriend’s Wife for President.” In small print, they included the words “Authorized By Republican Party Of Virginia.”
Donoghue talked to TPM hours after a spokesperson for Republican Party of Virginia denied the state party had anything to do with the anti-Hillary bumper stickers. The spokesperson told the Washington Post that the stickers were “an amateur effort” and the state party’s strategy “does not involve that.”
Donoghue says she found the sticker in the GOP office when she gave a ride to a man was out campaigning and looked ill. He told her he was “diabetic and needed insulin,” so she drove him back to Republican headquarters.
It was there in the office, Donoghue said, where she found the Lewinsky bumper stickers.
“The man wanted to repay me for driving him, so I just took one of the stickers as a trophy,” she said. “There was a whole stack of them there.”
Here’s the sticker:
That should really attract women voters, dontcha think?
This is how Republicans destroy their own narrative of the lawless Obama presidency: with a faceplant.
When House Speaker John Boehner officially announced that he planned to sue President Obama, he was absolutely clear about one thing. He didn’t know what the bill of particulars would be, or really anything other than that he would take Obama to court. But he knew that the scope of Obama’s lawlessness was widespread enough that it merited significant legal action. This wasn’t a picayune disagreement with the executive, but a pattern of behavior that had upset the balance of Constitutional power at the expense of Congress….
But on Thursday evening, Boehner laid down his cards. All but one were blank. It turns out Obama’s vast and indisputable misconduct is limited to one act of enforcement discretion: his decision to delay implementation of an Affordable Care Act’s requirement (one Republicans despise) that businesses with more than 50 employees provide their workers health insurance or pay a penalty.
“Today we’re releasing a draft resolution that will authorize the House to file suit over the way President Obama unilaterally changed the employer mandate,” Boehner said in a statement. “In 2013, the president changed the health care law without a vote of Congress, effectively creating his own law by literally waiving the employer mandate and the penalties for failing to comply with it. That’s not the way our system of government was designed to work. No president should have the power to make laws on his or her own.”
It’s actually pretty likely that the provision in question will go into effect before Boehner’s legal challenge is resolved one way or another. At the end of the day, by his own reckoning, Boehner may ultimately have zero grounds upon which to sue the president, whose brazen lawlessness Republicans treat as self-evident.
Sigh . . .
I’ll end with the latest FIFA Cup news from NDTV Sports:
Bogota: With a reputation for arrogance and illusions of European-styled grandeur, Argentines have long been the objects of scorn and the butt of jokes across Latin America
But for at least 90 minutes on Sunday, when Argentina takes on Germany in the World Cup final, most Latin Americans will put aside their irritation with their proud neighbors as they look to Lionel Messi and his teammates to salvage what’s left of the region’s soccer pride. (Related: Argentina fined for flouting FIFA rules ahead of final)
A defeat for Argentina would be historic: Never has a European team been crowned champion on this side of the Atlantic.
But in the wake of Germany’s 7-1 thrashing of host Brazil even the most-devoted believers in the spontaneous and stylish Latin American brand of soccer are wondering if the region is outmatched. (Rio braces for Argentina fan frenzy)
Santo Andre, Brazil: Germany have a secret plan to shut Argentina superstar Lionel Messi out of Sunday’s World Cup final at Rio de Janeiro’s iconic Maracana Stadium.
Assistant coach Hansi Flick said Thursday there is a “special plan” to cope with the four-time Ballon d’Or winner but refused to give details. (Argentina vs Germany: A ‘battle’ of two popes?)
Messi had a relatively quiet match against the Netherlands as Wednesday’s semi-final was settled by penalties.
The 27-year-old was often greeted by two Oranje shirts in Sao Paulo and the Germans are also getting organized. (Five warnings for rampaging Germany)
“We saw how the Dutch managed to keep Messi out, but we too have a special plan for him — although I won’t give that away,” said Flick.
We’ll find out who the best team is tomorrow.
Now, what stories are you following today? Please share your links in the comment thread, and have a great weekend!
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The Sky Dancing banner headline uses a snippet from a work by artist Tashi Mannox called 'Rainbow Study'. The work is described as a" study of typical Tibetan rainbow clouds, that feature in Thanka painting, temple decoration and silk brocades". dakinikat was immediately drawn to the image when trying to find stylized Tibetan Clouds to represent Sky Dancing. It is probably because Tashi's practice is similar to her own. His updated take on the clouds that fill the collection of traditional thankas is quite special.
You can find his work at his website by clicking on his logo below. He is also a calligraphy artist that uses important vajrayana syllables. We encourage you to visit his on line studio.
Meanwhile, Trump is in full saber-rattling mode. This is from 
The article includes updates from Lebanon and more details on the incursion into Jordan. I just can’t believe that so many of these geriatric Senators we have, who have seen all of the wars in the Middle East and their results, won’t use their Constitutional duties to stop this mess. Well, there seems to be an attempt, but I seriously doubt it will go anywhere. This is from
More military and war spending! Also, do they really think Peg Hegesth is going to give up on us testosterone testing for something that has historically enriched Congressional Members? You’d think an all-volunteer military would make them a bit more cautious about filling the ranks, but Trump and Hegesth must have below-average IQs, given the craziness they’ve pulled.
Head to the link to read the entire nasty business. I just couldn’t bring myself to watch the final game of FIFA because, damn, do we really need a fricking half-time event? Messi met with Trump all friendly-like, and Trump attended the shebang, got booed, and tried to upstage the winning Spanish team. I could mention a few more things, but anyway, I never thought I’d be pulling for Belgium and Spain in a series. This is from 
Trump and Messi seemed to have jinxed the Argentina Team. The question of the Jinx is actually a 
One last suggested read by Paul Waldman at 
So it’s so late that I’m almost bumping into student time. I hope you had a great weekend. I’ll be facing Tropical Storm Bertha in a few days, so send out some good juju to all of us down here on the Gulf Coast!
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