@kenbazinet
Longtime DC scribe, covering three presidencies (DC is fine, but I prefer the United States). Reflections on democracy, First Amendment, Boston sports, and jam bands. Simple approach: trusted source intel + research & data + analysis = smart solutions.
Trump also said he was open to having a religious leader in Iran. “Well I may be yeah, I mean, it depends on who the person is. I don’t mind religious leaders. I deal with a lot of religious leaders and they are fantastic,” Trump told CNN.
(meanwhile, hostilities continue and shipping is halted)
“There’s no love lost with Iran in this, but on the other side, you’re worried about a new forever war,” Jack Hammond, a retired Army brigadier general who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, told The Globe.
Diesel has risen even faster than regular gasoline. Price of diesel was, on average, $4.33 a gallon Friday, AAA data showed. Climbing diesel prices could directly affect cost of shipping goods, pressuring businesses to raise prices or let higher transport costs eat into profits, The Times reported.
"Supplies from the region were cut off by the fighting, which has escalated since it began on Saturday," writes Alex Travelli. "That leaves India with few options to feed its growing economy’s need for fuel, 90 percent of it imported. Russia looks like the obvious solution."
It’s almost like he’s hoping for it so that he can have an excuse to use “emergency powers”
"I don't have any concern about it," Trump told Reuters when asked about the higher prices at the pump. "They'll drop very rapidly when this is over, and if they rise, they rise, but this is far more important than having gasoline prices go up a little bit."
(Oil heading today for $90/barrel)
“Now we have the Clinton rule, which is that presidents and their families have to testify when Congress issues a subpoena, and that means that Donald Trump needs to come before our committee and explain what he knew about Epstein,” said Rep. Ro Khanna, New York Magazine reported.
#EpsteinCoverUp
“For rates to continue their descent in 2026, we will need clear signals in the months to come that this conflict is not driving up prices for consumers at home,” said Joel Berner, senior economist at Realtor.com., adding indications are "positive news on inflation may be hard to come by.”
#IranWar
"Feeling that No-One Who Has Not Already Been Subjected to Visiting and Searching the DOJ's Voluminous Epstein Files Should Have to Start Now, HERE ARE THE FULL MISSING FILES," posts @jimbourg.bsky.social.
#EpsteinCoverUp
The United States is on a course toward a national debt of $58 trillion within the next decade if the country continues its current rate of spending, according to a new analysis by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. https://bit.ly/40cE0qk
Why oil at $200 a barrel is no longer unthinkable ft.trib.al/pMCTyYB | opinion
He’s not fucking around. He 100% will do anything to steal the midterms along with the 2028 election, where he FULY intends on running for a 3rd term. This man is terrifying.
The Justice Department has posted online three FBI interviews related to sexual assault allegations against Trump that had been missing from the massive trove of Epstein files released by the DOJ.
Trump has consistently denied wrongdoing in connection with Epstein. https://cnn.it/47ry28K
As war spending surges again, America’s largest weapons manufacturers are funneling more money to shareholders than into expanding production.
US Democrats working on bill to rein in prediction markets after Iran bets reut.rs/40IDArQ
"What has changed is what we’re seeing in states across the country — and a President who says he is ‘entitled’ to more Republican seats before this year’s midterm elections," Gov. Abigail Spanberger said, WJLA reported.
NEW: An attorney pushing for the executive order that would grant Trump control of federal elections revealed his effort was based on a 2020 conspiracy theory on voting machines:
"Let me tell you that these machines are capable of changing the vote,” he said at a conference of election deniers.
The DNC is allegedly hiding a report showing that Kamala Harris’s Gaza policy helped cost her the 2024 election. But that report won’t tell us anything we don’t already know about the disastrous choices the party made.
https://bit.ly/4b2u5IM
Retail gasoline prices in the U.S. have jumped nearly 27 cents since last week to $3.25 per gallon on average, according to the motorist group AAA, CNBC reported.
The last time gas prices made a similar jump was in March 2022 after Russia invaded Ukraine, the group said.
#InflationNation
Senate Democrats on Thursday blocked for a third time a spending bill to reopen the Department of Homeland Security, insisting that they would not approve the measure without new curbs on immigration enforcement even amid President Trump’s war in Iran.
Senate Republicans are raising an interesting question that hasn't been pondered:
What president would knowingly go to war with his Department of Homeland Security partially shut down?
Off hand, a president who doesn't think there is a threat, or one who doesn't care if there is a threat, perhaps.
Who told her she can't keep The Plane?
And does the Trump administration provide her with transportation back to Dakota (doesn't really matter which Dakota at this point) as a courtesy?
BREAKING: Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem will be replaced with GOP Senator Markwayne Mullin, President Trump says.
Headlines asking, 'Where are Iran's allies?' are getting answered. Trump inadvertently handed China the unlikely role of pragmatic peacemaker.
China's official state media put out the timeline below of official Iran War related actions. Beijing appears to be adjusting the tempo of its outreach.
Susie needed to sound the alarm before Trump took the call from Netanyahu. Maybe next time, right?
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Maryland) has a plan that he says would ensure roughly half of all U.S. workers pay no federal income taxes.
The measure would be paid for by a new surcharge on millionaires.
“What an embarrassment for Trump's Alaska fossil fuel fantasy,” Cooper Freeman, Alaska director of the Center for Biological Diversity, told NPR affiliate, Alaska Public Media. “And what a relief for the inlet’s waters and fish and wildlife.”
(No thanks, even with no oil moving out of Middle East)
"You can, in some instances, purchase plug-in solar, but right now it is totally unregulated in the state of Colorado," said bill cosponsor, Rep. Rebekah Stewart, a Democrat. "We want to make sure that we are removing barriers and red tape to actually being able to legally access plug-in solar."
“I think this attempted spin/gaslighting is not working very well on the general public or the media," Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei wrote to staff, TechCrunch said.
“It is working on some Twitter morons, which doesn’t matter, but my main worry is how to make sure it doesn’t work on OpenAI employees.”
