holy shit -- Schiff ties Trump's judicial nominees in knots by asking them who won the 2016 before *before* asking them who won in 2020, which results in them sounding like election deniers about Trump's victories!
A.J. Carrillo
@ajcarrillo.bsky.social
Candidates+Causes @ Basis Technologies. Co-founder @treasuryblue.bsky.social. Fiat lux #GoBears Interests: politics (inc. Mexican and Canadian), economics, adtech, and state-sponsored disinfo operations.
I encourage all of us to have the grace and focus shown in this going up within minutes of the race being called.
The Right seems to think PressProgress is dying. That couldn’t be further from the truth. It’s been an eventful few weeks here at PressProgress. Here are some updates 👇🏽
as noted yesterday, Trump has now come around to treating an Iranian toll system covering the Strait of Hormuz as a given. Hard to overstate the level of strategic failure. US started the war purely as a war of choice and ends up dramatically empowering Iran and given the Iranian govt big wins.
Bill Grueskin@bgrueskin.bsky.social · 10h agoReuters: Iran wants fees of 5%-7% of the price of cargo from ships using the strait; Oman wants 3%. "Making fees voluntary, at least nominally, could be a way out of the impasse, although an implied threat of Iranian attacks could mean shippers would be unlikely to risk transit without paying."
Someone is worried about his reelection chances.
Carl Quintanilla@carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 15h agoPage One in Austin:
‘U.S. Treasuries, JGBs and the yen have all undergone periods of heavy stress in recent decades, but rarely have all three been under such pressure at the same time. And this comes as market confidence in new Fed Chair Kevin Warsh and the BOJ is running dry.’ www.reuters.com/commentary/r...
US yen intervention signals perfect storm rising in FX and bond markets
The U.S. bond market has long had a dark cloud hanging over it: the threat that one of America’s biggest creditors, most likely China or Japan, might liquidate some of their enormous Treasuries holdin...
reuters.com
Dems strongly favored to take the House in our new election forecast. Senate just better than a tossup: Iowa: 41% Dem Texas: 48 Alaska: 51 Ohio: 53 Maine: 68 Michigan: 69 North Carolina: 84 Georgia: 94 www.gelliottmorris.com/p/democrats-...
Democrats strongly favored to take the House, Senate tilts Democratic in our new election forecast (crosspost)
Our brand-new election forecast for the 2026 congressional midterms puts Democrats at above even odds to take control of both chambers
gelliottmorris.com
This is why this is not just about Max Miller. It’s about “devout Christian” House Republican leadership who is standing with this guy because they crave power above all else. It’s the culture of MAGA and it comes straight from Trump. Vote them out.
Republican power grabs in Kansas and Missouri are going down in flames with 18-25% of votes reported so far. Missouri's Amendment 4 aimed to make citizen-initiated constitutional amendments practically impossible. Kansas' Amendment 1 was designed to flip the state Supreme Court to ban abortion
Done and dusted. Kris Kobach, Leonard Leo, and other anti-abortion, anti-public school funding conservatives in Kansas who tried to remake the state Supreme Court in their image have LOST.
Carolyn Fiddler@cfidd.bsky.social · yesterdaySome +other+ primaries in Michigan, and more than you maybe wanted to know about the Kansas ballot measure to upend judicial selection (which is already a little gerrymandered!) open.substack.com/pub/statehou...
The Trump administration has revoked the visa of Brazil's ambassador to the United States. apnews.com/article/trump-braz...
Trump administration revokes visa of Brazil’s ambassador to US in spat with Lula
The Trump administration has revoked the visa of Brazil’s ambassador to the United States in retaliation for Brazil’s denial of visas last month for two American diplomats who sought to visit ahead of upcoming elections.
apnews.com
Bombshell new report out from my investigators this morning spanning our four year investigation into Jeffrey Epstein’s financial records. This report shows exactly how Wall Street protected Epstein and enabled his sex trafficking for decades. Mega thread following with some key points:
Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan, BofA Enabled Epstein, Wyden Report Says
Democrat Ron Wyden cited nonpublic documents held by the US Treasury in a report that says banks delayed reporting suspicious financial transactions and calls for tougher anti-money-laundering rules, ...
bloomberg.com
Whitehouse: "The last Q I'm left with is what's left of this committee? What's left when we don't demand straight answers? How many times has this DOJ been asked what became of the $50k the FBI reported it handed to Homan? ... our Republican colleagues see no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil"
At this point, Thom Tillis has nothing left to lose but his principles, so he made sure to toss them overboard too.
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · yesterdayTillis admits Trump is weaponizing the DOJ during his speech announcing he'll vote for Todd Blanche: "Maybe it's a little bit more intense in this administration than the last one ... I'm going to support Mr Blanche's nomination"
Whitehouse: "Today I think is a sad and embarrassing day for this committee as it looks like on a party-line vote we are going to advance out of this committee probably the most discreditable person ever to seek the office of attorney general. Let's start with the Epstein files ... "
“.. such weapons – which cost over $1 million each – would also be important in any conflict with China.” @cnbc.com @reuters.com www.cnbc.com/2026/08/04/u...
What's revealing here is that Iran and Oman are negotiating what is essentially a shared hormuz toll ("service fee") agreement. So the US is moving pretty rapidly to treat a post-war toll system as a given. 'Come up with an agreement on tolls or we'll attack!!' In other words, a massive defeat.
Bloomberg News@bloomberg.com · yesterdayUS President Donald Trump is pushing Iran to reach a deal with Oman on the Strait of Hormuz as soon as Tuesday, or face devastating air strikes on the country.
100% supportive of this sentiment. The WNBA needs a crash course in online information dynamics and media manipulation. ASAP. Old school crisis response plans are going to fail spectacularly.
Ben Collins@bencollins.bsky.social · 3d agoA good commissioner steps in now before every WNBA game becomes a rightwing performance space, like school board meetings were during peak CRT. You just have to throw the hammer down on this. Do not give them an inch.
He's losing words. Anyone with a parent or loved one suffering from dementia will recognize this pattern. Wen he says "moving cameras," it's because he can't recall the word "videos" and so he's stating the component parts as best he can. E.g., a "camera" is involved and the images are "moving"
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 2d agoTrump: "We have photographs or tapes -- like moving cameras, right? -- where people are on the side cutting it with a box knife."
Cornyn lost his primary. Tillis is walking. Neither has a donor, a term, or a future to protect. Both caved before lunch Monday. www.JackHopkinsNow.com
in constitutional terms i think this kind of has to be right. this isn't a ceo transition where they negotiate the hand off. pulte is a temporary whose only authority rests on the job being vacant which it ceased to be with Clayton's confirmation.
emptywheel@emptywheel.bsky.social · 2d agoCATO argues Bill Pulte could not legally serve after Jay Clayton was confirmed, so everything Pulte did in the last week (like firing a bunch of people) can be challenged. www.cato.org/blog/william...
it's xmas early www.cnn.com/2026/08/03/p...
Furious Trump is considering removing Pirro over Reflecting Pool filing, sources say | CNN Politics
President Donald Trump is considering removing Jeanine Pirro, the US attorney for the District of Columbia, over a Justice Department filing on the Reflecting Pool, two people familiar with his thinki...
cnn.com
When Uber Eats and DoorDash hid the tip button, delivery workers paid the price. Tips fell by 79%. In January, we changed that. Since then, more than $104 million has gone back into the pockets of the delivery workers who keep New York City fed.
BOOCKVAR: “.. the only reason why the US Treasury and Scott Bessent are getting involved in defending the yen is because they don’t want US Treasuries to be a source of funds for the Japanese.” peterboockvar.substack.com/p/pretty-ple...
It's worth noting while you don't know what Warsh thinks about rate policy, New York, Dallas, Cleveland, Minneapolis Fed chiefs have already weighed in. More regionals plus Gov. Cook speak this week. We're going to know where everyone stands except for the Fed boss, who is intentionally mum.
Michael Derby@michaelsderby.bsky.social · 3d agoTim Duy, SGH Macro, on the disappearing Fed Chair: "Warsh appears to have ceded intellectual leadership on the Board to others, most notably Governor Chris Waller. Institutionally, the Board is likely to solidify its own position which will have the effect of minimizing Warsh’s influence."
The Trump administration is so opposed to socialism that it has acquired — sometimes by coercion — equity stakes in 30 companies so far. www.cato.org/blog/governm...
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 3d agoHassett: "After World War 2, bc we had centralized production to defeat the Nazis, there were a whole bunch of socialists in the UK and US that wanted to take over the economy bc they said, 'Look, we've already centralized production, so let's just be socialist.' That's why the CEA was created ... "