Let’s start here: “Federal judge lifts final block on Trump mail-in voting order.”
A federal judge on Wednesday lifted the final injunction blocking President Donald Trump’s executive order restricting mail voting, clearing his administration to impose new ballot requirements weeks before the November midterm election.
U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani made her ruling reluctantly, because she recognizes the confusion that will ensue as election officials scramble at the last minute to figure out what the new rules mean — or whether the Trump mandate will survive.
The decision came as the policy faced a fresh wave of litigation. Democratic-led states filed a new lawsuit earlier Wednesday, while voting-rights groups amended their existing complaint to challenge the finalized U.S. Postal Service rule — the third legal challenge targeting it.
“Despite acknowledging that the disposition of the government’s emergency application ‘does not mean that any measure taken by the Government to implement the Order will necessarily be lawful,’” Judge Talwani wrote, “the Supreme Court found any judicial review of the merits unavailable at this time.”
But that was then.
Since the Court’s ruling, the Trump Administration has, in fact, published the final USPS rule. In her ruling, Judge Talwani noted that the plaintiffs “have substantial arguments that might persuade the Supreme Court to reach a different result.” And, indeed, the plaintiffs immediately filed a supplemental complaint challenging the Post Office rule and filed an emergency motion for a temporary restraining order.
In other words, the courts may eventually find that Trump’s attempts to mess with mail-in voting are illegal, but we have to go through the motions fewer than 10 weeks from the election.
Robert Hubbell cautions against undue panic: “Here’s the bottom line,” he writes today, “The Post Office rule is still contested and will likely be stayed in short order, followed by an appeal to the Supreme Court.”
That absolutely right. But let’s be clear about what is happening here:
Trump wants fewer people to vote; he wants to make it harder for people to vote; he wants to spread confusion and fear among election officials; and he wants to sow doubt about the results of any election he loses.
In other words, whether Trump ultimately wins or loses in court, he has sown chaos. And the chaos is very much the point.
Happy Thursday.
Greg Abbott has turned Texas into a sanctuary state…
…for criminal ICE agents. Via the NYT:
An immigration officer facing state charges in connection with a shooting in Minneapolis was released from jail on Thursday after Republican officials in Texas prevailed in an extradition battle with their Democratic counterparts in Minnesota. It is unclear whether the agent will ultimately answer those charges in court.
The officer, Christian Castro of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, had been jailed for the last three months in Cameron County, Texas, while Minnesota officials sought to have him sent north to face assault charges related to a shooting in January that wounded a Venezuelan immigrant.
Exit take: This week marked six months since the murder of Alex Pretti by an ICE agent in Minneapolis. To date, no one has been held accountable.
Idiocy has (deadly) consequences
The two deaths from measles this week marked the first measle-related deaths in Pennsylvania in 35 years. They may not be the last.
So far this year, there have been 393 cases confirmed in the state, while 70 people have been hospitalized with the disease that the US declared eradicated 26 years ago.
Which brings us, inevitably to RFK Jr. And it is not hard to connect the dots. “RFK Jr. praised Lancaster County’s low vaccine rate in 2021. Now, 2 people are dead from measles.”
In 2021, then-chair of the anti-vaccine nonprofit Children’s Health Defense, Kennedy visited an Amish country fair in Lancaster, where he praised the low childhood vaccine uptake, downplayed the severity of measles, said Big Pharma was “selling the remedies for the chronic diseases that are coming from the vaccines” and warned that the government was “coming for the Amish.”
“I am a measles survivor,” he sarcastically told the crowd, to laughs and applause. “It was extraordinarily lucky. Very, very lucky to have lived through that nightmare because we had to stay at home and watch TV the whole week with all of my brothers and sisters. It was horrible.”
“What is the cure for measles? Cure for measles is chicken soup and vitamin A, and neither of those things can be patented,” he said. (The American Academy of Pediatrics and extensive scientific research dispute this.)
Exit take: Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro connected the dots:
In a press conference, Shapiro blamed the Trump administration for spreading misinformation that led to declining vaccination rates.
“There’s real-life consequences to scaring people and not relying on actual doctors and actual medical professionals to provide unbiased information to parents so that we can make reasonable decisions for our kids,” Shapiro said.
Enshittifying the Pentagon
(And, yes, “enshittifying” is today’s Word of the Day.)
Once again, let’s connect the dots:
Hegseth’s Purge of Top Generals Leaves the Army Rudderless - The New York Times
A series of firings and feuds initiated by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has left the Army essentially rudderless as it struggles to deal with the threat posed by cheap, deadly drones and missiles that have pounded U.S. bases in the Middle East.
Days before the Army’s top officer was abruptly fired earlier this year, he was advised by a fellow general now vying to replace him to stop the military’s investigation into an unauthorized helicopter flyby of musician Kid Rock’s Tennessee estate, three people familiar with the matter said.
Gen. Randy George, whom Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth removed as the Army chief of staff without explanation, felt it was important to follow typical protocol and determine whether any safety regulations had been violated during the March 28 flyby…
Two destroyers are staying behind as USS Lincoln heads home
While the USS Abraham Lincoln makes its way home to San Diego after a grueling nine-month deployment, 600 sailors aboard two guided-missile destroyers that were deployed to protect the aircraft carrier are staying behind and will remain deployed at sea.
And this one seems to be a canary-in-the-coal-mine story: “Troops fighting against Iran and drug smugglers say they're being asked to violate international law”
Nearly six months into the United States’ war with Iran — and a year into the Pentagon’s decision to launch deadly strikes to kill alleged drug traffickers — the number of service members seeking a formal discharge from the military as conscientious objectors has skyrocketed, according to two groups that help them file their applications.
Their objections?
One service member is concerned the military blew up bridges in Iran that were not military targets. Another thinks Pentagon leaders are not doing enough to prevent civilian deaths during airstrikes inside Iran.
Yet another asked questions about how the military knew it was not killing civilians when launching missiles at boats it believed were trafficking drugs.
MS NOW spoke to five troops who want out of the military because what they saw in recent months challenged their moral beliefs.
And, finally: “US faces critical shortage of Patriot missiles in Europe, officials tell AP”
That giant sucking sound you hear…
Is Donald Trump enshittifying the GOP midterm campaigns by insisting that it should be all about him.
With his approval ratings trending toward the Nixon Line1, Republicans across the map would love to distance themselves from their tone-deaf leader. But no such luck.
Vis The Atlantic: “Trump Plans to Buy Midterm Ads About His Own Record; The president has come up with a simple plan to win the election: more Trump.”(Gift link)
The solution Trump settled on, according to three people familiar with the meeting, was to lean into the Democratic strategy of focusing on himself. The president ordered a series of television advertisements about his own record that will serve as a backdrop to the hundreds of individual House and Senate contests. Trump wanted what one person described to us as “environmental lift” ads—commercials that would focus on nationalizing the midterms broadly around his victories—and he suggested that the ad makers mine his own on-camera statements as building blocks. “Go look at the clips,” the president told his team, according to this person. “I cite accomplishments all the time.”
That decision has resulted in a Trump midterm-election ad blitz that is set to be rolled out soon from MAGA Inc., the main repository of Trump’s political fundraising.
Meanwhile, he is also planning another lavish TrumpFest — a “mid-term Convention” that is already being described as a “shit show.”
President Trump announced last month that Republicans would hold the first-ever midterm convention in September, promising “lots of Great Entertainment” and “a RALLY like none other.” Yet, it’s turned into a “shit show,” said one G.O.P. campaign strategist, and few lawmakers want to go….
[With] no party business being conducted (as would be typical at a presidential nominating convention) and poor planning (invitations were sent in the last several weeks, way after lawmakers had already committed to other events), campaign strategists are seething that it’s little more than a fundraiser for an unnecessary Trump production, at a time when some swing-district lawmakers aren’t exactly clamoring to be associated with the president.
“It’s yet another opportunity to shake down corporate America,” said one Republican strategist. Added the campaign strategist: “Nobody understands why we’re doing a midterm convention. It’s just another show that Trump is going to put on to remind the voters that he is sitting there, and maybe they don’t want to be reminded of that.”
BONUS: It’s the corruption, stupid. Always. “Trump's oil and gas stock trades continued during Iran war, filings show” - CBS News
Antisemitism is a political cancer
Via Bloomberg Opinion: “The Left’s Antisemitism Goes Beyond Hasan Piker” - Bloomberg
[Democrats] “are now conceding that the party’s antisemitism problem is veering into dangerous political territory that could eventually cost Democrats Jewish support at the ballot box, to say nothing of the moral implications.”
David Frum: “What Are Jewish Voters Supposed to Do? - The Atlantic
On X, Frum writes: “The national Democratic party faces a cruel dilemma in Michigan. It's attempting to resolve the dilemma by pretending that the entire problem is the campaign surrogate who explicitly threatened Jews. But the surrogate became a surrogate in the first place because of a larger climate of tolerance - or worse - of anti-Jewish violence among the candidates who used the surrogate…
“On March 12, a Hezbollah-connected gunman attempted a massacre of 140 Jewish preschool children in West Bloomfield, Michigan.
In August, Michigan Democrats nominated a Senate candidate who condemned the attempted crime, while also expressing empathy for the gunman’s motives.
Should Michigan Jewish voters - or anyone who cares about the equal safety and dignity of all people in Michigan - support such a candidate for the larger cause of electing a Senate that can hold President Trump accountable?
That’s the topic of this week’s David Frum Show. Listen.
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Via Jewish Insider: “Ossoff ‘unreservedly rejects’ Piker’s comments on Jewish support for Israel”
An Ossoff spokesperson told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the Georgia senator “unreservedly rejects reckless and dangerous rhetoric suggesting that policy advocacy invites violence against the Jewish community or any community” and that “American Jews and all Americans must have the freedom and security to speak out and petition their government without fear of reprisal.”
Meanwhile, in the GOP: “Mike Collins’s former staffer posted KKK, Nazi imagery” - The Washington Post
A former staffer for Rep. Mike Collins (R-Georgia) shared images in June and July on his X account of a swastika and one that depicts himself in Ku Klux Klan robes.
The images — found in a search by The Washington Post — follow other controversial actions and rhetoric from former Collins staffers and other Collins associates that have dogged his Senate campaign.
A number of people in Collins’s orbit have been accused of having ties to white nationalists or of making racist or antisemitic comments, and the congressman’s own social media presence has also drawn scrutiny.
Finally
Tone-deaf much? Trump declares “Mission Completed.”
Thursday dogs
Wednesday evening with newsletter co-editor, Eli. (Auggie is keeping an eye out for coyotes.)
Richard Nixon’s lowest recorded Gallup approval rating was 24%, measured in August 1974 just before he resigned. Gallup found 24% approval, 66% disapproval, and 10% unsure.
In August 2026, according to the Economist, Trump’s Disapproval rating hit 61%.
"In a press conference, Shapiro blamed the Trump administration for spreading misinformation that led to declining vaccination rates.
"“There’s real-life consequences to scaring people and not relying on actual doctors and actual medical professionals to provide unbiased information to parents so that we can make reasonable decisions for our kids,” Shapiro said."
Remind me again on how Pennsylvania went in the 2024 election. It went for Trump, right? And it went for Trump even though he was clear that he embraced RFK Jr.'s views on vaccines and promised RFK Jr. would be part of his administration.
The voters of Pennsylvania got what they voted for. And some may think that I'm a coldhearted bastard for point out this simple truth. There's a bit of truth to that observation. But it's also true that the voters of Pennsylvania have agency. No one made them vote for Trump. No one made them ignore Trump's mismanagement of COVID, or Trump's 34 felony convictions in New York State, or his attempted coup. ***The voters chose Trump willingly***. The bill has come due for that choice. And if the voters don't want to pay that bill, too fucking bad.
I tend to think the chaos is another way of flooding the zone. It is how Trump operates. Do note that "Lake Epstein" was one of the more amusing things I read yesterday. Shit just surfaces and gets thrown away, like Kim Jong Un or A new Tariff, Renaming a lake, Every day, spaghetti is thrown at the wall. Nothing is done to make American's lives easier. The democrats need to address that, every day.