So the Supreme Court issued a pile of decisions this morning, including one in which the only good part was intellectual honesty about being disingenuous (of which more in the future). It is that time of year, after all; and there will be more tomorrow. I'll defer touch-typing anything for a few days, probably while the rest of the country is busy driving under the influence and blowing its fingers right off.
- So even the white flag raised by this Administration over the (latest) Iran conflict has failed to prevent further military action. I'm shocked — shocked, I say — to find disregard for post-absolute-monarch Euro-American concepts of "ending a conflict" in those parts of the world that are not post-absolute-monarch Euro-American… for the nineteenth time in my lifetime. (Just as the meaning of victory is context- and observer-dependent, so is the meaning of ceasefire.) At most, there's deescalation from using military ordnance — on one side, anyway, and definitely inconsistent with GOP norms. And, meanwhile, Big Oil continues to extort from consumers (and do not kid yourself — contrary to the implication in the article that because Big Oil only owns 5% of gas stations, its control over the supply chain virtually mandates quick-rise-slow-fall behavior).
- There are several updates from the Department of Self-Selected Unaccountability. Consider prospective war criminals calling themselves peaceniks. Consider immigrants (of dubious compliance with immigration laws) from shithole countries. Don't forget Big Tech (particularly obnoxious given its purported commitment to freedom of expression). Then there's the problem of official opposition to imaginary slights, and promised prosecution of those who vandalized a national monument while entirely ignoring the real vandal. I wish DOGE had abolished this department…
- The present leader of the royal family the US started to throw out a quarter of a millennium ago is publishing his tax return for the first time. Our dynastic leader… didn't.
- In entertainment-industry news that will largely escape notice, the most-recently-formed media oligopolist is consolidating its "labor relations" in a single office. What could possibly go wrong? Like, say, giving that office responsibility for dealing with freelancers?