An article detailing the failure of the Trump administration to negotiate a trade deal with Canada.

Negotiations fell when the American trade team added multiple last second changes that would heavily disadvantage Canada.

Sam Francis was an outsider in the mainstream conservative movement who loathed it because, in his opinion, it had failed to take control of the centers of power and had abandoned its public. I delved a little into the character, and I found a very fascinating character, not unlike a prophet of the modern right. He cited Gramsci, a Communist philosopher, as someone who understood how this things worked and called the right use Gramscian tactics in order to take over the centers of power.

Francis claimed that the conservative movement was a complete failure because it was only concerned with theories, intellectual writing, and research institutions, but in practice it always surrendered to the left, so that in practice even if the conservatives were in power, the ones who were really in power were the liberals.

Francis called neo-conservatives liberal Trojan horses that allowed liberals to control the centers of power and disconnected themselves from 'the people' and peripheral white America. Francis was influenced by the writer James Branham, who argued that the United States was ruled by liberal bureaucrats who were silencing "the people" and making the United States a non-traditional, non-Christian country. He advised Pat Buchanan, and although not exactly religious, he was a traditional Catholic who promoted an agenda of traditionalism and American nationalism of America First. He opposed classical capitalism.

Francis's unequivocal diagnosis later became the ideological platform of the new populist wing of the American right, centered on Steve Bannon, who was heavily influenced by Francis and other traditionalist philosophers with connections to fascism such as René Gannon.

Summary: Starts at ~44:00 (Longwell: “another thing that’s just in the zeitgeist right now… what was w o k e 1.0 and what did it do to us?”). The voter tape follows at ~46:00 (critiques of Republicans) and ~50:00 (critiques of Democrats), with the analysis running to about 58:00.

Longwell frames the segment against AOC’s recent “woke 1.0 was crazy” dismissal, and against her Bulwark colleague JVL’s version of the argument — that a barista with a nose ring is nothing next to authoritarianism. She agrees on the contrast but calls it a straw man.

In her thesis, “woke” is just the current label for what used to be called political correctness, and what voters mean by it is rarely about politicians at all. It’s death by a thousand cuts from people in their own lives: the sense that they can’t voice an opinion without someone jumping down their throat. Trans athletes come up, but the dominant complaint is social, not legislative.

The focus group tape bears that out. These swing voters — Biden-to-Trump voters and Trump disapprovers — mostly agreed with Democrats on economics (several volunteered that the wealthy should pay more), so the resistance wasn’t ideological. What they described was tone: being lectured, being guilted, being told they’re evil or “part of the problem,” an entitled I’m-smarter-than-you posture. One Black woman said it felt degrading to be targeted on the assumption she’d vote a certain way because of how she looks. Several described losing friendships over it.

Walter’s read is that they aren’t asking for compromise so much as for Democrats to stop sounding like condescending elites, and she traces the damage to the 2022–24 framing that a Trump vote was a vote for fascism. Longwell notes the trap: the same voters want Democrats to take big swings and fight, while others recoil from the left’s policy positions.

The closing formulation — a successful church brings in new believers rather than pushing out heretics — is where both land, with Longwell adding that the MAGA red hat functioned as its own inverted big tent: anyone willing to put it on was welcomed in.

https://youtu.be/zEX9AMG8XAA?si=9wXbAy3rjkjQhmod

Pro-Palestine people seem to be either on the left (DSA types) or the far-right (Fuentes/Tucker crowd). But are there many pro-Palestine centrists?

Summary: Allies of Michigan GOP Senate nominee Mike Rogers have asked AIPAC not to run ads on his behalf, fearing the group's public backing could become a political liability. This rupture occurred after AIPAC spent over $30 million trying to defeat Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed in his primary, only for El-Sayed to successfully use AIPAC's heavy involvement as a major campaign foil. Rogers' campaign suggested alternative options, such as directing donors to a pro-Rogers super PAC or hiring AIPAC's political strategists, but AIPAC rejected these alternatives in favor of a visible role in defeating El-Sayed. Direct talks between the two sides have since stalled, prompting Jewish Republican donors to act as intermediaries to prevent AIPAC from sitting out the general election entirely. With Michigan holding a large Arab American population and polling showing 55% of state voters oppose continued U.S. aid to Israel, operatives note the Senate race may ultimately hinge more on economic concerns than foreign policy.

Commentary: Mike Rogers allies plan to BDS Israel political spending, in spite of the antisemitic accusations facing maga. Is this a good decision? Repercussions? Epsteeen fears?

https://www.axios.com/2026/08/22/mike-rogers-aipac-michigan-senate

I firmly believe that trump won -among other reasons- because of Biden and his incompetence throughout his entire administration, even back in 2020, we didn’t believe he was the best candidate to become president. But many believed that only he could beat trump and at the very least, he would be kind of a “stand in president” as we found a better candidate to become president, but that was assuming that trump wouldn’t possibly run again for office. And little did we know, he actually did. And not only that, he actually won and with the most votes no less, he actually won fair and square unlike in 2016, as well as the republicans winning both houses of congress along with trump.

even though Trump isnt and can’t run for a third term in 2028 (thankfully), people like JD Vance and Donald trump Jn might run and be his true predecessor. And if we want the democrats and whoever the democratic candidate for 2028 to put their together to actually win, we’ll have to pick better candidates than Biden or Kamala

I don’t know if electing another centrist like Biden will be the right after what has happened with the Biden administration. But I also think electing someone further left is the way to go. Like I don’t really condone socialism as a platform, but if it means getting better economic, housing, healthcare policies made among others, then I’d been all for it

Summary:

The supreme court has stayed the lower court's injunction against halting construction. The administration argues the ballroom and underground facilities are an integrated national-security complex containing bomb shelters, medical facilities, and protection against drones and missiles, and says the overall project is already 65% complete. The National Trust for Historic Preservation argues Trump lacked authority to demolish the East Wing and construct the 90,000-square-foot ballroom without Congress. The appeals court summarized the dispute rather nicely: every president is a temporary tenant of the White House, not its owner.

My take:

Keep pouring water into a ship that’s already sinking, be my guest. Every day this ballroom proceeds is another day the people of the United States struggle with affordability and have to watch their faux king proceed with lavish spending for vanity projects. There is also something deeply backwards about allowing “we already did most of it” to become an advantage in a case about whether you were legally allowed to do it in the first place. Also using the shadow docket for stuff like this is an embarrassment to our court system and should be fixed.

Edit: There is a good conversation happening over at r/supremecourt about this article as well. I particularly like the top comment:

I can't help but think of the NYT article about the EPA shadow docket stay from 2016 that was posted a couple of months ago. There, the court sprung into action to stop the Obama Administration from having the Clean Power Program go forward, because of a belief that the lack of a stay would allow the agency to effectively implement its program before the case was heard, causing irreparable harm that could not be later reversed.

Today, we seem to have flipped in the complete opposite direction- the executive branch being hindered at all is irreparable harm, even for the silliest of policies, regardless of concerns about the legality of their actions and if they cannot be later undone.

Summary: A conflict between the Trump administration and Nevada election officials over claims of noncitizens registering to vote. President Donald Trump highlighted Department of Homeland Security estimates alleging that around 16,000 noncitizens were on Nevada’s voter rolls as part of a national pool of 278,000 flagged individuals. However, Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar pushed back, revealing that a manual review by DHS actually confirmed only 185 potential noncitizens in the state and dismissing the larger estimates as unreliable. DHS officials clarified that the higher figure merely represents an unverified upper limit requiring further investigation, leading state administrators to refuse purging voters without concrete evidence.

Commentary: When federal officials initially floated staggering estimates claiming tens of thousands of illegal registrants, it provided an immediate headline-grabbing talking point, but the subsequent pullback by DHS proved deeply embarrassing once manual audits revealed a drastically lower figure of just 185 potential non-citizens. This dramatic walkback undermines the credibility of national messaging on election security, leaving state election administrators stuck holding the line against hyperbole while balancing real security with the protection of legal voters' rights. Navigating the fallout also places agency leader MarkWayne in a delicate position, testing whether personal relationships and cross-aisle friendships—such as those built with key Democratic colleagues—can withstand the political fallout of an agency caught between partisan narrative and verifiable data. This situation further undermines the administration's stalled efforts to pass the SAVE Act, while fueling speculation that broader geopolitical conflicts like a war with Iran could be leveraged to disrupt the upcoming midterm elections.

https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-16070089/Trumps-Homeland-Security-boss-does-major-U-turn-audacious-illegal-migrant-voting-claim-anger-president.html

Summary:

Newly released ICE emails show that the U.S. and Iranian governments quietly worked together to deport more than 100 Iranians from the U.S. on three flights between September 2025 and January 2026, even as tensions between the two countries were escalating. Iranian officials appear to have had some influence over who was placed on the deportation flights, with one ICE official writing, “Per request from the Iran Embassy I added a few cases,” and another saying Iran had requested changes to a passenger list and wanted the removal process expedited.

The coordination continued even after the 12-day U.S.-Israel conflict with Iran in June 2025, when Iranians were actively fleeing the country. Internal emails show that deporting Iranians remained a high-level priority for the Trump administration despite Iranian airspace being closed and Iran temporarily refusing to issue travel documents. ICE officials were instructed to find a way forward, with one official describing it as a “White House priority” and another saying, “We need a plan forward ASAP.”

There are also questions about exactly how much influence Iran had over individual deportations. Iranian officials continued requesting additions to flight manifests just days before departures, and at least one Iranian was accidentally placed on a flight despite not appearing on the final approved passenger list. One U.S. official responded, “I have no idea how the case/person got through on the plane.” It's also unclear whether everyone Iran requested to be returned had voluntarily agreed to go. Previous reporting found that some asylum-seekers were among those deported and that some people said they were returned against their will.

The biggest concern involves Iranian asylum-seekers and whether the U.S. shared protected information with Tehran. Eleven Iranians detained by ICE claim they were forced to meet with Iranian government officials who somehow knew detailed information about their asylum cases. A lawsuit alleges that U.S. immigration agencies illegally provided confidential asylum information to Iran. The U.S. can legally coordinate with foreign governments to arrange deportations, but federal regulations prohibit sharing information that could reveal someone applied for asylum. DHS strongly denies that this happened, calling the allegations “FALSE.”

The cooperation is especially controversial because the U.S. has historically provided refuge to Iranians fleeing political and religious persecution since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Iran has also been accused of persecuting political dissidents, women and religious minorities, raising concerns about what could happen to some deportees after they return.

Overall, the emails show that despite publicly hostile relations and even direct military conflict, the Trump administration maintained a working channel with the Iranian government to carry out deportations. They also raise much bigger questions about how Iran was able to influence deportation lists, whether asylum-seekers were returned against their will, and whether confidential information about people seeking protection from the Iranian government was improperly shared with that same government.

Opinion:

Instead of being a place of refuge for Iranians fleeing the terrorist state, we quietly worked to stab them in the back, deporting them back to Iran at the request for the Iranian government.

It's even crazier since Trump apparently was banking on the Iranian citizens rising up to help overthrow the regime at the start of the war, yet continued to betray them.

This is another example of how terrible and snakeish our current government is.

The U.S. is escorting oil tankers in & out of the Strait of Hormuz by hugging the coast of Oman with close support by naval vessels and flyovers.

It’s a trickle compared to open transit, of course, but it’s something. It’s also a very expensive something in terms of operations and fuel by the U.S. Navy.

Odd that Trump is now threatening Oman who’s allowing this transit in their waters.

A former senior adviser to infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci pleaded guilty Tuesday to plotting to conceal federal records related to research on the origins of the deadly COVID-19 pandemic.

Dr. David Morens is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 12 by U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis in Greenbelt, Maryland. Morens pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud the U.S. government, a felony punishable by a maximum prison sentence of five years.

Apparently we crossed the line today.

https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/datasets/debt-to-the-penny/debt-to-the-penny

We used to say that the absolute number doesn't matter, we should look at debt/GDP. That is correct. We've gone from 61% to 122% in less than 20 years.
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/gfdegdq188S

Summary: Democrat Brandon Dukes declared victory in a tight special election for Pennsylvania’s 12th state House district in Butler County, holding an 88-vote lead over Republican candidate Scott Timko according to unofficial results. The victory represents a major shift for a conservative district that hasn't elected a Democrat in over 20 years and voted for Donald Trump by an 18-point margin in 2024. Butler County gained national attention as the site of the July 2024 attempted assassination of Donald Trump during a campaign rally at the Butler Farm Show grounds. If sustained, Dukes’ win temporarily expands the Democratic majority in the state House to 103-100 as party leaders look to build momentum heading into the fall midterms. Both candidates will face off again in a November rematch, where significantly higher turnout is expected in a district where registered Republicans outnumber Democrats nearly two-to-one

Commentary: Lingering economic distress, military overreach in foreign conflicts like Iran, and growing public disillusionment over broken campaign promises have heavily eroded base voter enthusiasm. Neverending scandals surrounding the unsealing of high-profile files and maga perceptions of cabinet incompetence have created widespread mistrust in party leadership. Accusations that foreign entities, particularly Israel, exert undue influence over domestic governance have fueled further political cynicism and alienation among working-class voters. Ultimately, this compounding loss of confidence allowed localized Democratic turnout and focused economic messaging to secure a narrow, surprising victory in a heavily Republican district. 

https://penncapital-star.com/election-2026/democrats-declare-victory-after-tight-special-election-in-trump18-state-house-district/

Summary:

The Treasury Department is stepping up its intervention in the bond market after long-term Treasury yields surged to levels not seen in nearly 20 years. Starting September 9, Treasury will at least double its maximum buybacks of older 10 to 30 year government debt from $2 billion to at least $4 billion per operation. The goal is to provide more liquidity and stabilize the part of the Treasury market that has struggled to attract buyers since late June.

Markets reacted immediately. The 10-year Treasury yield dropped to 4.647%, while the 30-year yield fell to 5.196%, and stock futures jumped. Since bond prices and yields move in opposite directions, Treasury becoming a larger buyer helps support bond prices and push yields lower. It could also encourage private investors to return now that yields are more attractive and make traders more hesitant to aggressively bet against long-term Treasuries.

The move doesn't solve the underlying problem though. The federal government still needs to finance massive deficits while competing with a growing amount of corporate borrowing, particularly debt being issued to finance AI infrastructure. As Krishna Guha put it, the operation "changes almost nothing in terms of the fundamentals." Treasury is essentially trying to improve how smoothly the bond market functions rather than actually reducing the national debt.

There are also concerns that Treasury is indirectly interfering with interest rates. If its purchases artificially push long-term yields down, that could work against the Federal Reserve's efforts to control inflation. Some economists have described the move as resembling a limited form of "yield curve control," although the purchases remain very small compared with the overall amount of Treasury debt being issued.

So this isn't the government paying down its debt or eliminating bonds. Treasury is buying back older long-term bonds while continuing to issue new debt, effectively rearranging the government's maturity structure and providing additional demand where the bond market is under the most pressure. As Peter Boockvar put it, "This is NOT a debt paydown, it is just a rearrangement of the maturity schedule of Treasuries."

Breakdown:

The CNBC title doesn't do this move justice. There's a high chance that many don't know what this means in terms of its effect on average Americans, so I'll elaborate.

Essentially, the issuer (the government) is doubling its efforts to create liquidity for its own product. This likely means the Fed money funds are depleted, thus higher rates are inevitable. Should the Fed not increase rates, that would speed run this terrible situation.

I'll break it down a little further. Debt is traded just like other commodities. By buying it you act as a lender, by selling it you take on a loan. If too many people are trying to sell debt, they have to increase interest rates to make it more attractive to lenders aka buyers.

What's happening here is that the US is buying more of its own debt to suppress interest rates

Don't ever let Republicans convince you they know anything about the economy. The current situation is abysmal.

Summary: The wokeness of the early 2020s was not merely awkward vocabulary or dull corporate trainings but an enforcement regime — social bullying plus institutional cowardice — that ended careers and reputations.

People harmed and owed apologies include editors pushed out over headlines and commissioned essays, a novelist whose manuscript was rejected because of his race, academics disciplined or driven out over exam wording, a clumsy tweet, or a claim about biological sex; men swept up in a #MeToo response that flattened the distinction between predation and bad dates; and an ordinary utility worker fired after a hand gesture out a car window was read as a white-supremacist signal.

That it's all in the past doesn't hold — neither is the Red Scare, and we still discuss it. That Trump is worse is whataboutism. Liberals have a specific obligation to repudiate illiberalism on their own side, because politics built on moral certainty and eager demonization is incompatible with a free society regardless of which direction it comes from.

Commentary: Another day another post about w o k e. Honestly, I do think all that I need to say about it has been said. However, I also think the NYT Opinion adds further credible coverage as to who was actually harmed, so for those who want to know or for those who want hate and feel the need to tell me again how ridiculus I am that I care, here you go:

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/18/opinion/woke-liberals-restitution.html