In the back of your mind you may have felt somebody would say it. Well, EmptyWheel has.

 

https://emptywheel.net/2026/08/10/the-jimmy-carter-talk-has-started/

UPDATE: It is interesting EmptyWheel took to the theme. And - it is not only a boutique political junkie level of attention directed that way. 

Today, AP -

https://apnews.com/article/trump-carter-iran-inflation-71fab887b88febc073c89a8c8db595f3

Mid-item:

The two have inflation and Iran in common

While inflation plagued both presidents, Carter had it much worse, facing a peak inflation rate of 14.7% in April 1980. Consumer prices rose 4.2% this May from a year earlier — a three-year high — and though they fell sharpl y from May to June, that decline included lower gas prices fueled by a U.S.-Iran ceasefire. That deal is now in tatters, driving up oil prices again.

Trump suggested he didn’t think about Americans’ financial woes when it comes to Iran, a war he started in conjunction with Israel in February. More recently, he shrugged off inflation concerns. But resolution has proved tricky and U.S. attacks have intensified anew after Iran’s attacks on commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz.

Like Trump, Carter was also bedeviled by the strait, declaring during his 1980 State of the Union address that the situation “demands the participation of all those who rely on oil from the Middle East and who are concerned with global peace and stability.”

Another Trump-Carter parallel was the Democrat having considered military action to seize Kharg Island, though he ultimately decided against it so as not to jeopardize the hostages. Trump targeted the island with U.S. strikes early in the war, looking to thwart Iranian oil exports, and has threatened it again.

Schake, a senior fellow and director of foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, noted a key difference was “while the Carter administration gave serious consideration to attacking Kharg Island, the reason they didn’t do it was they didn’t want to be at war with Iran.”

“And we’re already at war with Iran,” she said.

 [...]

 FURTHER: 

https://militaryspend.org/us-iran-war 

https://www.csis.org/analysis/last-rounds-status-key-munitions-iran-war-ceasefire 

Being fair to Carter, he was not a dumb-fuck who'd have listened to a Bibi or a Hegseth. Also, his "Israeli war mongering problem" was not a part of his own making. They then were alone blood-lusting against their neighbors, and it was during Ford's Presidency they so acted. Leaving Carter to suffer the resulting stag-flation. There is that key aspect. 

 When Israel defeated its Arab neighbors in the Yom Kippur War of 1973, Arab oil producers retaliated against Israel's allies by leading the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to enact an embargo. Oil prices skyrocketed immediately in the United States as the demand outstripped the supply. Automobiles and drivers sat in long gas lines at service stations.

FURTHER: Those are harsh words about the Israelis. Standard model is they were surprised attacked, in Oct 2073, and fought back. It's the same "He started it" show they put on in letting the latest Oct thing, with Hamas and Gaza being turned into an ethnic cleansing exercise because - what asleep at the switch again just as in Oct. 1973, caught off guard, and only a right to defend themselves. 

In the 1967 war when Israel tried to sink the USS Liberty and blame it on Egypt, they glommed onto a hell of a lot of real estate, so much so that they got no respect; so in 1973, that October, I have seen it written about it that Kissinger told Mier and Daylan bluntly that any preemptive strike, and they'd "not even get one nail" of US stuff toward their then pending warfare. Nixon got purged after that, but that's its own story. 

So, knowing things, they in 1973 let Egypt and Syria move first. This latest October war on Gaza, recall that they let Hamas move first, then the slaughter. If you think Mossad is that much a fuck-up as twice off-guard - caught off guard and such two separate Octobers, years apart, well, as that kind of believer vote for Trump.

======================================= 

https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1969-76v25/d100

https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/1973-10-06C.pdf 

https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB98/octwar-10.pdf 

Those are official U.S. government documents online, not some forgery or made up story. 

They knew, they waited, they won; and, nice script, they did it again against Gaza.

It's like, "It worked so well last time, so redux and smile."

 ======================================

FURTHER: Somebody shot Charlie Kirk dead, after he was online speculating in the wake of Oct. 7,days after Hamas acted, about something just not fitting right. 

 

With Tomorrow, Aug 11, being primary election day in Minnesota, what if you go to vote and see that ICE has shown up?

 https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/vote-safely-2026

That resource is something voters, and election judges in particular, should read.

If nothing else, there is phone information for an "election protection hotline" to call if any intimidation show, or action, is noticed at a polling place. And a checklist of info to provide. Presumably the local county sheriff's office can be called, to give notice of an improper polling place situation, and ICE or whoever can be told to leave, and should.

Beyond that, check the Brennen Center resource itself, as linked to above.

In particular, election judges should pay attention. They are the officials at polling places to assure voting is honest and fair, and they have voter registration lists available allowing them to assure election integrity.

 

Selling you bullshit, one truck at a time.

https://www.ford.com/electric/fathom/

https://www.fromtheroad.ford.com/us/en/articles/2026/ford-universal-ev-truck-name-reveal

https://www.fromtheroad.ford.com/us/en/articles/2026/ford-and-geely-auto-join-forces-in-europe 

Does it have a hemi? And - gee, where can I preorder?

UPDATE: Does this visual speak to you? Is it something you feel you can take to the bank?

Link: https://www.fromtheroad.ford.com/us/en/articles/2025/ford-affordable-electric-vehicle-platform-midsize-electric-truck --- It appears to still be a speculative thing. A program that could be killed, or allowed to die. This story needs vehicles on dealer lots with price stickers. Tires to kick. Willing sales agents offering you a test drive.

Don Lemon prosecution - Lemon's Motion to dismiss. Relating to back then in Minneapolis, when there was a church protest because one pastor was an ICE boss.

 https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mnd.231106/gov.uscourts.mnd.231106.611.0.pdf

From the second page, a screen capture -

 

click the image to enlarge and read

"PROSECUTORIAL VINDICTIVENESS" is asserted as a basis to throw the whole thing out. MSN carries reporting by The Hill, providing detail, including:

Lemon’s lawyers filed a motion on Friday requesting that a felony indictment charging the former CNN anchor with federal civil rights and conspiracy crimes be thrown out on “vindictive prosecution” grounds.

They pointed to a “well documented” pattern of President Trump’s “animosity” toward Lemon, as well as public statements from senior Justice Department officials that demonstrated “direct hostility” toward his work as a journalist.

[...] The Hill has reached out to the Justice Department for comment.

Lemon was arrested in January in connection with what then-Attorney General Pam Bondi described at the time as a “coordinated attack” on Cities Church in St. Paul, Minn., during the administration’s federal law enforcement surge.

[...] Lemon was among a group of journalists who documented a group of protestors entering the church where one of the pastors was believed to be affiliated with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and interrupting the service with chants of “ICE out!”

Eight people, including Lemon, were indicted on two charges under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, which protects access to houses of worship “free of force or threats of force.” He has pleaded not guilty.

The grand jury indictment followed failed attempts by the Justice Department to secure charges from a federal magistrate judge, who found no probable cause to arrest Lemon, according to the filings. The chief judge and Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit also declined to intervene.

Lemon has maintained that he was not on the church premises as a participant but rather as a journalist simply covering the demonstrations, arguing his actions are protected by the First Amendment. 

The case certainly looks vindictive, from the above excerpt and other general online coverage. The DOJ is noted above as having a difficult time getting charges filed. That is likely because the case is bullshit. What the motion suggests, is soon the case will be thrown out, as more likely than not.

UPDATE: From Jan. 2026. The Hill  background coverage from roughly the time of the event. 

 

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.