Flotsam and Jetsam - Trump Still in China

As far as I know. Don Surber say Trump conquers Red China, "He has the oil, the military and the corporate wizards on his side." Don maybe be exaggerating for effect, but it's true, Trump is holding lots of cards. Sasha Gong at Am Great, aks Who Really Needs Whom? Trump, Xi Jinping, and the Illusion of Chinese Strength. "China projects strength abroad, but internal purge politics, economic strain, and structural dependence suggest a far more fragile system than it appears." At PJM, VodkaPundit says Wait, China Is Gonna Buy Oil From WHERE? Alaska. News Wax hears Trump, Bessent Say China May Help Reopen Strait of Hormuz. My breath remains unbated. Jerry Dunleavy IV @JerryDunleavy, "Differences between U.S. & Chinese readouts on Trump-Xi meeting. U.S. mentions fentanyl, no to toll on Strait of Hormuz, buying U.S. oil, & opposition to Iranian nuke. China does not. China warns U.S. about Taiwan & says it is most important issue. U.S. doesn’t mention it at all." At Althouse, "Speaking just ahead of Trump, Xi... said a major question for the two countries was whether they could avoid the 'Thucydides Trap'....", "I'm reading "Xi asks Trump if U.S. and China can avoid 'Thucydides Trap' at high-stakes summit" (CNBC). (That's the original headline. The headline was rewritten, perhaps to avoid mystification, as "Xi warns Trump: Mishandling Taiwan will put U.S.-China relationship in 'great jeopardy.'")"... "Based on an observation by Thucydides in his "History of the Peloponnesian War" that "it was the rise of Athens and the fear that this instilled in Sparta that made war inevitable," [political scientist Graham] Allison used the term to describe a tendency towards war when a rising power (such as Athens) challenges the status of a ruling power (such as Sparta). Allison... argued that "China and the US are currently on a collision course for war."..."

Matt Vespa at TownHall reports the Senate Parliamentarian Just Delivered Some Brutal News About the Reconciliation Package. Eric Daugherty @EricLDaugh, "JUST IN: The unelected SENATE PARLIAMENTARIAN has STRUCK DOWN major provisions of the GOP's ICE-CBP reconciliation funding bill This is RIDICULOUS! The parliamentarian has been a HUGE roadblock, even playing games with the Big Beautiful Bill last year Thune should've removed her a LONG time ago. Now, Republicans have to go back and fix: - CBP sections - Border security, tech and screening funds - Some $2.5B relating to Homeland Security Appropriations And then wait for her "green light" so it can pass with 50+1 votes." "The parliamentarian of the United States Senate is the official advisor to the United States Senate on the interpretation of Standing Rules of the United States Senate and parliamentary procedure. Incumbent parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough has held the office since 2012, appointed by then-Senate majority leader Harry Reid." Term length - "Serves at the pleasure of the majority leader" Time for her to go. Also at TownHall, Kurt Schlichter says Good Riddance to the Awful Thomas Massie in his own inimitable way.

Da Wire is pleased to see Republicans Move To Wipe Out Democrat Seats In Louisiana, South Carolina. "Republican-led Southern states have raced to redraw their congressional maps after the U.S. Supreme Court's decision two weeks ago." But, maybe not as many as they could, still pretending to be the better party. Brianna Lyman at Da Fed hears Democrats Tell Pollsters They’d Happily Ditch Black Districts To Get More Power. At PJM, Rick Moran thinks This One Thing Is the Democrats' Achilles Heel and the Republicans' Super Power.

Andrew Kolvet @AndrewKolvet, "UNBELIEVABLE. Vice President Vance just did a double take after hearing this wild stat dropped by Dr. Oz: "You're saying that we kicked off 800 fraudulent healthcare providers off of the Medicare system and not a single one of them called the government and said, 'hey, you made a mistake?'" "It's just completely insane."" Financial Express, Empty offices, Indian HR calling the shots: ICE uncovers rampant OPT abuse by foreign students. At the Victory Girls, Minnesota: Different Day, More Fraud, A Minnesota “grocery store owner” was charged yesterday with $1 million dollars in EBT food stamp fraud. "Abdid Wahid Mohamed, the owner of Minnesota Food Grocery LLC, allegedly used EBT cards registered to others to purchase items at Sam’s Club and Costco in 2021 before turning around and reselling them in his store, Fox 9 Minneapolis reported.""

PJM's Stephen Kruiser sings I'm California Dreaming About Karen Bass Losing Her Job. Jen O'Connell at RedState, LA Mayoral Candidate Proposes Backyard BBQ Ban to Fight Wildfires, Gets Raked Over the Coals. Bonchie @bonchieredstate, "Spencer Pratt: “We need to clean up homeless camps, get rid of the drug addicted everywhere, prepare for fires better, and lower taxes.” Nithya Raman: “We need to ban the normals from cooking hamburgers.” The right vs. left paradigm perfectly illustrated." Quote California Post @californiapost, "LA mayoral hopeful Nithya Raman proposes backyard BBQ ban https://trib.al/qaHiUo7." VodkaPundit at Insty finds THE CHICAGO WAY: Spencer Pratt Can Win Because Angry People Vote. Just Ask Former Chicago Mayor Michael Bilandic. But so do the homeless, either by ballot harvesting or direct payments. Also, THIS IS MY STATE ON DEMOCRATS: Colorado Unfiltered @COUnfiltered, "So let me get this straight… Citizens get pissed that Colorado roads are held together with crack sealant, expired hopes, and orange cones from 2007, so they launch a ballot initiative to constitutionally force transportation money toward… you know… transportation. And the State Senate’s response is HB26-1430. A bill specifically designed to basically go: “Ok sure, you can vote for road funding… but we’re gonna offset it, redirect it, cut fees somewhere else, reshuffle transfers, and accountant-ninja kick the actual impact into another dimension.” That is objectively insane behavior..."At Twitchy, Schadenfreude-a-PALOOZA! Abigail Spanberger VETOS Collective Bargaining and HOOBOY, Their RAGE Fuels Them.

Melinda Hennenberger at RCP calls it How ‘Trumpian’ of the Left To Go After Susan Collins’ Tremor. I just thought she drank a lot of coffee... 

John Solomon at JTN reports the House Judiciary Chairman urges DOJ to permanently dismiss all Trump cases after bombshell report ""It's probably time that this all just ended," Jim Jordan told Jsu the News." Some in FBI still hanging onto the remains of Jack Smith's case for whenever a Democrat can get into office. 

Brian Cates - Political Columnist & Pundit @drawandstrike, "Trump's already irretrievably crippled their 'human wave' migration machine by defunding it. All those "Catholic charities" aren't getting the US Treasury/USAID money any longer. Trump's been shutting off their REVENUE STREAMS to the human wave machinery for over 15 months at this point. And all this criminal networking is intertwined. Human trafficking, drug trafficking, sex trafficking, arms trafficking, gambling, contraband, moving stuff around public sanctions, when you cut off one network, you affect all the others also. The **last and easiest step** is the domestic stuff. Trump is actually a massive humanitarian. He knows who set up most of those 'rogue narcoterror regimes' to our South. WE DID. WE DID THAT. Well, to be fair, the people FORMERLY IN CONTROL OF OUR US FEDERAL GOVERNMENT and most especially, our CIA did that..."

Northern Barbarian @xnoesbueno, "Lost in the reaction to @NickKristof doing journeyman's work pushing Hamas propaganda is the tremendous service he's done by promoting the most apt possible metaphor for modern American journalism: Dog Rape. Credit where credit is due." Quote John Podhoretz @jpodhoretz "New Wirecutter feature: We tested the rape skills of these 15 breeds of dog. Here are our rankings. x.com/dansenor/statu…"

Western Lensman @WesternLensman, "Here's Joe Biden calling a reporter he didn’t like “a stupid son of a bitch." Normalized like that?" Quote Mehdi Hasan @mehdirhasan, "When did we normalize this? When did it become okay for a president to tell a female reporter she’s a ‘dumb person’ for asking a totally legitimate question about his contradictory answers? Was there a specific date and time it become okay? Normal? Normalized? x.com/atrupar/status…"

From Campus Reform, UCLA med school illegally discriminated based on race, DOJ concludes. I prefer my doctors chosen for ability, but maybe that's just me. Aaron Sibarium @aaronsibarium, "NEW: In a mandatory anti-racism class, Penn State told 1L law students they must "acknowledge the reality of systemic racism" and "dismantle systems that racialize, subordinate, and oppress." One student withdrew from the law school over the class. We obtained shocking audio." Teach them how to lie early; it's an important lawyerly skill.

At NYPo, Former BLM activist goes scorched earth on ‘scam’ group, insists systemic racism in US isn’t real.

Leslie Eastman at LI notices CDC Official Dusts Off Familiar ‘Six Feet’ Playbook Regarding Hantavirus. "So far, 11 passengers have tested positive for Andes strain, with 3 in critical condition. An expert asserts that assurances of low risk to general public is “calm-mongering”." Eventually, like a broken clock, they'll get one right.