This one is for basketball fans.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/basketball/watch-caitlin-clark-takes-kick-from-olivia-miles-as-fans-demand-investigation/ar-AA29sxsM 

There is an embedded video in this post. It's the evidence. Clark failed to give the player in the air a safe landing zone. It could have been called a flagrant-1. Against Clark. The days of Bill Laimbeer play are well over. Miles was in the air watching the basket. Clark was cutting to cover for a defender beaten on the play. Clark was both trying to block the shot and stay in position to rebound a miss. Miles was leaning on the shot and testing her landing area. Clark's momentum carried her into Miles' leg. Miles was leaning and had the right to test for whether she'd need to adjust her landing, which she did without falling, and she had the right to try to be positioned to clean a missed shot.

It was in the circle, not a perimeter 3. Even Clark being motionless would not get a call for a charge in the circle. But her momentum was straight into the landing zone and she was not trying to veer toward the line but rather trying a block and being positioned to try to box out on a rebound if the shot missed.

It was a good no call. The landing zone rule is important. Nephreesa Collier had to have both ankles operated in the off season and just now is returning. Landing on a foot is something suffered here, and it hurts badly while taking long to heal, and can always feel as if it never healed properly.

Mitchell for the Fever shot lights out on threes that game, and was not crowded but her right to a landing zone was continuously respected. She never got a call for being crowded. It was clean basketball. Furthermore, in the low paint it's hard to get a call either way. Let them play.

 

The 800 pound gorilla approach AIPAC has adapted looks to have pissed several people off. That feeling, likely festering a long time, is getting a genocidal bump into a more public posture. The AIPAC bunch overreached. Overspent. Failed, but there will be the Michigan general election.

The text in the image - maybe so. Maybe not. We await November.

 

https://truthout.org/articles/abdul-el-sayed-triumphs-over-haley-stevens-in-60m-loss-for-aipac-corporations/

As to the fist (not thumb) on the scale that AIPAC election-time habit has been, is, and will continue to be, links - 

https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/15/politics/democrats-primaries-aipac-israel

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/8/5/abdul-el-sayed-wins-michigan-democratic-primary-for-senate-in-blow-to-aipac 

https://iranwarroom.com/events/aipac-shifts-focus-to-republican-candidate-after-backing-losing-democrat-in-mich-2026-08-05 

The bastards are simply not subtle, rather they get in-your-face confrontational and threatening to candidates and incumbents; and that approach can generate hostility, which can be masked for convenience, but may remain real and galling.

 

Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, the committee chairman, said that constitutional protection did not apply since Fauci last year received a pardon from Democratic President Joe Biden and thus did not have to worry about the threat of prosecution. Fauci and Democrats who opposed the contempt resolution said he had a well-founded fear of self-incrimination given a public desire by Republicans to seek his prosecution. “Dr. Fauci faced no risk of federal prosecution,” Paul said at the outset of a hearing. “All he had to do was tell the truth.”

https://www.twincities.com/2026/08/06/senate-committee-fauci-contempt-vote/ 

All Fauci had to do to really be in contempt was fail to show up. Taking the Fifth is not a contempt, it is a right, and those are clear lines everybody knows and should honor.

Rand Paul was clear. It was a witch hunt, with the witch, Fauci, already made aware that he could skate by using the Fifth Amendment while Sen. Paul knew he would and took the opportunity to embarrass him into having to do it. That set the table for this inexcusable further dog and pony addon.

Rand Paul and the Republicans are overreaching. They knew Fauci would do it, they catered to it, and now are saying, "That's contempt."

It is not. Misspeaking might have put Fauci into distress. He had the crystal clear right to avoid that. Not since Roy Cohn - Joe McCarthy days has that show been played. Rand Paul decided a little McCarthyism Revival would be good theater. 

The entire dog and pony show deserves the contempt of the public, in the common sense of that word, for wasting taxpayer money on a show trial look-alike.

Yes, what Fauci did, the entire Wuhan lab thing aimed at boosting human susceptibility to a pathogen which generated a worldwide pandemic, is obscene and inexcusable. The mini show-trial took care of making that clear. There is no need to push it further into the election, where the Iran War and its impact, healthcare needs, and general suffering of the people inflicted upon them by the government under control of the wealthy who were and are and will be pursuing their class war on everybody else - and Rand Paul and Fauci are both tools in that situation and each came out of the exercise dirtier than before they entered into it.

Putting Fauci's Lab Leak knowledge into the public eye had some value, but this contempt thing is nothing but a sick political stunt where the Republicans should know better. But don't.

UPDATE: The Crabgrass headline is text taken from within the published report. 

We have to put up with this lame duck buffoon longer than is reasonable. There are countdown clocks online.

Guardian: 

war on Iran

US president hits out at ExxonMobil and Chevron, saying they should ‘give some of that back to the public’ -- Jillian Ambrose --Tue 4 Aug 2026 04.54 EDT

[... omitted image of a sick man] 

Donald Trump has criticised oil companies for “making too much money” from the global energy market disruption caused by his war on Iran.

Brent crude had been trading at about $70 (£52) a barrel before the first US-Israeli strikes at the end of February, but by the end of April it had soared as high as $126 and is now trading at about $85 a barrel.

The US president took aim at the windfall profits revealed last week by ExxonMobil and Chevron, and said the companies would “give some of that back to the public”.

BP profits more than double as Iran war sends oil prices soaring

Read more

“They’re making too much money based on a shortage,” he told reporters at the White House on Monday evening. “I don’t like it.”

Trump was speaking just hours before BP reported its profits had doubled in the last quarter, to $5.7bn.

The US oil companies made profits totalling more than $26bn for the three months to the end of June by taking advantage of the energy market disruption triggered by the US-Israeli war on Iran.

Chevron reported its highest ever quarterly profit of $12.2bn, a fivefold increase on the same period last year. ExxonMobil reported a profit of $14.5bn in the second quarter, double what it made in the same period a year ago and its highest quarterly profit since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

“Chevron: too much money. ExxonMobil: too much money,” Trump said. “They’re going to give some of that back to the public and they better cut the retail price, the consumer price.”

Asked about Trump’s comments, the BP chief executive, Meg O’Neill, told CNBC that she understood the pressures on households. “The reality is, we produce a global commodity, and the product we sell hangs off that global commodity price,” she added.

The entire exercise was started and dragged out so the oil cronies could make out like bandits, they did, and now there may be movement in the Gulf amoung countries there to work something out. With that, the oil price will drop, and this moron will then say it was his "honor" on the line that caused things to correct to help the people of the U.S. of A. and some like-minded morons will buy that line.

Getting close to the midterms, so have to try some kind or apparent reconciliation so that the people that got fucked will perhaps not blame the moron as much as he deserves and show less scorn than he earned. May it fail. For the sake of the world, may it fail badly. This would-be tyrant is so lame nobody should be fooled. But there are MAGA people around, and they - well * * * you know what I mean.

 

 

AJ current reporting is focused on Oman - Iran talks and Trump has paused operations and has talked by phone with MBS. [UPDATED]

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/8/2/iran-says-negotiations-with-oman-over-strait-of-hormuz-in-final-stages

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/8/3/trump-says-new-iran-negotiations-starting-what-we-know

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/8/2/saudi-crown-prince-mbs-urges-trump-to-prioritise-dialogue-in-us-iran-war 

https://gulfnews.com/world/mena/us-pauses-iran-strikes-what-trump-said-and-what-the-proposed-deal-means-1.500628122

https://www.ndtv.com/video/us-iran-war-trump-pauses-iran-strikes-as-fragile-ceasefire-holds-warns-us-is-locked-and-loaded-1136831 

The GCC - Arab Gulf State coalition - seem interested in watching and waiting on bilateral Oman - Iran talks.

How the U.S - Saudi nuclear enrichment "deal" will fare, and fit into something more wide reaching seems an open question. Israel is as always, an impediment. Or seems so. They will be having elections in the fairly near future, and Bibi may be ousted. Or not?

Organized and scripted "settler violence" in line with "Greater Israel" long term aims of that nation seem to be either escalated or more widely reported in mainstream U.S. reporting. It could be both.

UPDATE: While admitting he'd been serving the pecuniary interests of his oil donor cronies he bitched about their continued present hosing of consumers in the U.S. with midterms approaching. Or explain that item differently. It seems to say what it says.

 FURTHER: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/8/2/why-has-trump-halted-iran-attacks-and-what-is-the-deal-he-is-hinting-at

FURTHER: A Google Analytics readership check indicated a recent boosted readership from folks in Singapore. Of all places? One strait here, one strait there, here a strait, there a strait, everywhere a strait strait . . . No. They would not think to do something like that. They have no military to make it stick.

FURTHER: Perhaps MBS mentioned to Trump that the Saudi Red Sea outlet gaining hostile attention was a game changer, and the Gulf Arabs needed to get serious about working something out. One expects Trump would hear it, if MBS said it.

Telegraph reports:

 Donald Trump appears to have been cut out of a potential new deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran and Oman are close to finalising an agreement to restart shipping traffic in the strait by charging commercial ships for passage and splitting the fees, according to several officials.

Vessels heading into The Gulf would transit a channel controlled by Iran close to its coast, while those exiting would use a channel close to Oman.

The discussions were reported by The New York Times after Tehran publicly rejected Mr Trump’s claim that the US and Iran were negotiating their own deal to reopen the strait and end the war.

In a furious tirade on social media, the US president later accused the Islamic Republic of being “unbelievably duplicitous”.

Trump said THAT? Calling somebody else "duplicitous?" Continuing the quote: 

Iranian officials said there would be no toll, but a “service fee” would be applied to cover the environmental impact of the shipping, security for cargo ships and tankers, and staffing.

The revenue from this charge would be divided equally between Iran and Oman.

A US official denied the proposal, saying the Iranian account was “not accurate”. The official said any “temporary” routes established through the strait would not involve approval or permission from Iran, or any tolls.

Either way, Iran has said it will not reopen the waterway until Washington lifts its naval blockade of Iranian ports – even if an agreement is struck with Oman.

If finalised, the deal could help ships flow again, in what has become Mr Trump’s biggest prevailing problem with the war he launched alongside Israel in February.

But it would come at a heavy cost, with Iran able to assert more control over the vital corridor than it did before the war began.

Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, said recently that this scenario would be the opposite of what the US wanted.

He told a meeting of South-east Asian officials: “If we create a precedent in the Middle East where a nation state can decide that they are going to control an international waterway, charge a toll and, if you don’t pay them blow up your ships, we have created a very dangerous precedent, which will repeat itself in other parts of the world.”

On Monday, Mr Trump claimed the two sides were resuming talks to wind down the war after calling off renewed air strikes on the Islamic Republic.

But on Monday Esmail Baghaei, an Iranian foreign ministry spokesman, said no negotiations were being held with the US, adding that Tehran’s talks were only with Oman, and were focused on establishing a route for safe navigation through the strait.

 FURTHER: LInks here, here and here.

 

Why doesn't somebody hammer Trump down to size? Because he endorses, and the endorsee wins the Republican primary. That preempts duty to country. That is how Republicans operate.

This time the headline is the entire story.

 

 

Asshole, and not even a trustworthy one. Who else? Trump. Of course. Outdoing himself. And he sees himself on Mt. Rushmore. Self unawareness, ya betcha.

 If they don't give me Todd Blanche as AG, I will throw a shit fit. Watch me. Or just cave into the blackmail of it all. 

This is a message to the Senate of the United States. A Constitutional branch of the preeminent trioka, Congress, Courts, Executive. The gall and stupidity are staggering.

Here's the AP report, carried in a local daily, PioneerPress:  

Trump’s threat to push ahead on settlement fund injects new uncertainty into attorney general talks

By Associated Press

PUBLISHED: August 1, 2026 at 8:48 AM CDT | UPDATED: August 1, 2026 at 1:47 PM CDT -- 

By ERIC TUCKER

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Saturday threatened to push forward with a fund to compensate his allies if two Republican holdouts will not support his nominee for attorney general, injecting fresh uncertainty into a Senate confirmation vote planned for next week and underscoring once more his interest in securing payouts for supporters who feel unjustly persecuted.

Trump asserted in his Truth Social post that he would keep acting Attorney General Todd Blanche in his current role and press ahead on the “Anti-Weaponization Fund” if Sens. John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina refuse to back the former federal prosecutor who was key member of Trump’s defense team when the Republican battled four indictments.

The administration needs their votes but both lawmakers have protested Blanche’s selection because of a lawsuit settlement that created a $1.8 billion fund to compensate people who feel mistreated by the criminal justice system and provided Trump and family members with immunity from tax audits.

In a sign of apparent progress Friday, Trump pronounced the fund “dead.” As negotiations continued into the night, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Chuck Grassley, rescheduled a committee vote for Blanche that had been postponed earlier in the week.

A spokesperson for the committee said Grassley, R-Iowa, would like to see Blanche confirmed before the August recess and that putting the Tuesday vote on the calendar “gives more time for the White House to secure the votes for the President’s nominee.”

But by Saturday morning, those plans were in jeopardy with a new announcement from Trump that appeared to put the fund back on the table — and dinged the two senators who are leaving Capitol Hill when their terms end in January.

“If Senators Cornyn and Tillis, both upset because I wouldn’t Endorse them (they lost, and quit, respectively!), aren’t going to approve Todd Blanche, one of the most respected professionals, according to everybody, in the Country, to be the United States Attorney General, then I will keep Todd as Acting A.G., and push hard” to restore the fund. The president insisted, as he previously has, that the fund “takes care of those who have been so badly treated” during the administrations of Democratic Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

Tillis, who is retiring, took note of the president’s turnabout by saying in a post on X that despite Trump’s comments Friday, he “clearly intends to resurrect the payout pot for punks either by inappropriately establishing another bogus fund or pushing Congress to vote for a bill that the majority of Republicans in the Senate would be against.”

He added: “It’s unfortunate that Todd Blanche, who I consider qualified for the job, will not be confirmed because of this reversal. Hopefully, we can resolve this by Tuesday.”

[...] 

What brand of stupid is this? How could anyone have voted for that gentleman?

How? How,how,how,HOW!!! 

Hopefully, those who did are capable of feeling buyer's remorse.

Blanche is hoist in Trump's petard. Bless the two of them.

That entire bogus collusive litigation exercise, with Blanche in the middle, stinks.

UPDATE: This is an extrajudicial contempt of the District Court. The judge handling the case should enter a finding of contempt; $500,000 fine per day until the contempt is cleared. Not a public expense. From Trump's personal wealth. He can pay it in crypto for all  the fuck I care. But just hang the contempt onto his shoulders. He caused counsel to misrepresent the truth, in court, about that dumb-fuck slush fund attempted theft.