The Common Ills

Sunday, August 09, 2026

The Chump economy continues to crash and burn. Sean Williams (THE MOTLEY FOOL) notes:

Shortly after President Trump green-lit military operations against Iran, the latter shut down the Strait of Hormuz to most commercial vessels. This action effectively halted the flow of approximately 20 million barrels of petroleum liquids, representing a fifth of global demand. It's the largest energy supply disruption in modern history.

Removing a fifth of the world's crude oil supply in the blink of an eye had a notable impact on energy markets. Within a matter of weeks, crude oil prices surged more than 70%, with fuel prices following suit. Gas prices rose at the fastest pace in more than three decades.

For consumers driving gas- and diesel-powered vehicles, the impact of the Iran war on their pocketbooks was impossible to miss. Between February and May, trailing 12-month (TTM) inflation surged from 2.4% to a three-year high of 4.2% -- more than double the Federal Reserve's long-term inflation target of 2%.

[. . .]

While President Trump has insisted that inflation will plunge once the Iran war ends, evidence is mounting that the inflationary effects of this conflict are spilling over into the broader economy. If accurate, this may prove devastating to Wall Street's historic bull market rally.

Veronica Majerol (NEW YORK TIMES) reports:

Oil prices rose and stocks were down slightly on Sunday as hopes were dashed for a breakthrough in the standoff over the Strait of Hormuz.

At the end of last week, Iran and Oman indicated that they were near an agreement that would allow oil and other important commercial traffic to resume. But on Saturday, Iran issued a long list of demands that it said would have to be met before ships could move again through the strait, and it was clear that Iran wanted to continue to use the strait as leverage.

Chump continues the Iran War. It was supposed to be over in days, then it weeks. We're now 19 days away from six months and there's still no end in sight. Tim Lister and Aida Karimi (CNN) report:

The list of demands from Iran can’t have surprised the White House.

Hardliners have been repeating the mantra on a daily basis: the limited agreement in the works with Oman on the Strait of Hormuz is not the same as reopening the vital waterway in the way Washington wants.

For that, they say, “America must correct its behavior.”

Tehran has now spelled out what means, laying out a series of conditions that appear to go beyond the memorandum of understanding which was agreed in June but later suspended amid US strikes on Iran, Iranian retaliation across the Middle East and a resurgence of attacks on shipping.

Early Saturday morning, the Senate voted in a 50 to 49 vote to confirm Todd Blanche as Attorney General. The laughable Bill Cassidy voted for Blanche and started to cry when explaining why he was voting for Blanche. Today on CBS' FACE THE NATION, Cassidy attempted to minimize and pretty up a 68-year old crying in public as he voted:

MARGARET BRENNAN: Good morning, and welcome to 'Face the Nation.' Both the House and the Senate are now gone for the summer, but we begin with one lawmaker who hasn't taken off quite yet for his home state, Louisiana Republican Senator Bill Cassidy. Good morning, and thank you for delaying your departure to be here in person. It's good to talk to you.

SENATOR BILL CASSIDY: Good to be with you. Good morning.

MARGARET BRENNAN: So you were skeptical, you made that clear back when we spoke in June of Todd Blanche and confirming him to be Attorney General. You did late Friday confirm him, but you said you're not entirely satisfied. You no doubt will have concern in the future, and I want to play for our viewers what you said. Take a listen.

[START SOUND ON TAPE]

SEN. CASSIDY: I'll be criticized for this vote. What's new? But the people of Louisiana can be assured that I worked hard to understand the issue and to make the right decision.

[END SOUND ON TAPE]

MARGARET BRENNAN: You were emotional there. Your voice cracked. Why? And why do you think you're going to be criticized?

SEN. CASSIDY: Oh, you're going to be criticized. My voice cracked because my wife thinks it's endearing. I think it's embarrassing. But sometimes you're aware of the incredible privilege of representing your state and your nation. Incredible privilege, and as a- as a little boy, I would read history books, and I- and I'd read about these great decisions on the Senate floor, and the fact that I have the ability to participate, and after an intense 48 hours of coming up with a decision that wasn't black or white. You can argue one way or the other, and you can come up with just this side or just that side of approval. Now, the fact that I, Bill Cassidy, was able to do that, I am so privileged. And whenever I just for a second am hit by the gravity of that and the honor of that, I get emotional. And- and and that's just again, my wife finds it endearing. I find it embarrassing.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, it does have a great gravity to a decision like this, and you weighed it very carefully when we spoke back in June. You you were specific in some of your concerns, and I know acting Attorney General Blanche now, who's set for that confirmation had posted documents, including he rescinded the order to create the anti-weaponization fund, and he had an unsigned statement in which he narrowed the terms of the Trump-IRS protections that you had objected to. Now they'll apply just to Trump, Don Jr., Eric and the Trump Organization. Senator Durbin, who's the top Democrat on Judiciary, said these new clarifications-they're unenforceable. Is he correct?

SEN. CASSIDY: So, a couple things. Again, one more time, if you're looking for a black or white decision here, you're not going to find it. This is a gradation of gray. But what I'm told as regards to the anti-weaponization fund, if you put it in the context of the political environment, the judicial environment, the process you would have to go back through in order to reinstate that effectively is dead. Now, John Cornyn, a former state attorney general in Texas, was comfortable with it. I'm not an attorney. MARGARET BRENNAN: It took him a while to get there, though--

SEN. CASSIDY: --Took him a while to get there-

MARGARET BRENNAN: --Basically said we can't take his word for it.

SEN. CASSIDY: It took him a while to get there, but the fact that John did was important to me to a certain extent. I'm relying on others that are bringing me information, and I have to trust them on that. Not everything, but some of that, and I trust John on that.

MARGARET BRENNAN: And on giving his family protection from IRS probes?

SEN. CASSIDY: That's totally wrong. Totally wrong. And so I will go back. This is not a black or white decision. That is wrong, and no American should be targeted by the law, but no American should be above the law, and that, frankly, almost weighed to vote no.

MARGARET BRENNAN: And you're just hoping it- you had to accept it in the end, I mean--

SEN. CASSIDY: So, let's look at the positive. There's three aspects to the attorney general. The attorney general is supposed to give advice to the president, supposed to run the Department of Justice and is supposed to make sure that the U.S. attorneys nationwide are doing their job. It really weighs strongly in his favor when I speak to my U.S. attorneys in Louisiana, and I spoke specifically to David Courcelle and Kurt Wall, and they said, listen, we have calls once weekly between our office and DOJ, and they give metrics for our prosecutors, and each individual prosecutor is weighed on that metric, and we've had our focus restricted down to fighting violent crime, human and drug trafficking, and going after fraud in programs like Medicare and Medicaid. And if I need extra resources to bring a case home, we do it. And if there's a drug kingpin, we get the resources to go after them, and- and our morale is up, not despite the accountability, because of the accountability. Now, if you want a DOJ which is actually doing its job, you need stable leadership, and you need leadership which is effective, and in that which is making the greatest difference in my life, in your life, in the American people's life. There's a lot of positive things to say about Todd Blanche.

MARGARET BRENNAN: And you are confident that he will uphold the constitution with the upcoming elections? There are Democrats saying he may not.

SEN. CASSIDY: Well, of course, there's always this existential anxiety.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes.

SEN. CASSIDY: But I am as confident as you can be about the future you are. I cannot predict the future, and this is not a black or white decision. But I'm confident on that.

Let's look at the positive? Existential anxiety? Look, there's your answer, you don't vote for someone when you're filled with existential anxiety. He's yacking away trying to justify that which cannot be justified. Yes, there are times when you take a chance and give someone the benefit of the doubt. That's when they're an unknown. But when they've tried to pay January 6ers, when they've come up with a pass for Chump and his family with regards to paying national taxes, when they have refused to comply with Congress' Epstein Files law? They are not an unknown.

They are a known. You know that they will not follow the law and that they will not represent the American people but instead as though they are Chump's personal attorney. You know they will degrade the Constitution. You know that they will continue to degrade the legal system by lying to the courts.

He is a known and you have to be an idiot -- and a coward -- to vote for him and then offer the slop Cassidy did to try to justify it. There is no justification for it. None at all.

Senator Adam Schiff's office issued the following regarding the vote on Blanche:

Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) issued the following statement after voting against the nomination of Todd Blanche to be U.S. Attorney General:

“As I said his confirmation hearing, the fundamental problem with Todd Blanche isn’t that he’s inexperienced or unintelligent. It’s that he’s never been able to shed his role as criminal defense lawyer for Donald Trump. He cannot and will never do it.

“I voted to oppose his nomination. And he should have been rejected for numerous reasons:

“He has used the Department of Justice to enrich the President of the United States – leveraging the power of the DOJ and IRS to make the president, his family, and his businesses more money and to provide immunity for their actions – that is not the job of an Attorney General.

“Under Blanche, the Justice Department has become an instrument of revenge and reward. We should not confirm an Attorney General who believes the president has a right and a duty to go after his enemies and bring sea shells cases against them.

“His efforts to protect the president and others in the Epstein Files were a scandalous abuse of power in which he covered up and withheld documents to protect Donald Trump and further injured the victims by publishing their names and photos.

“Blanche has sought to compensate cop beaters who attacked the Capitol in support of the president. Even if the anti-weaponization fund doesn’t move forward, Blanche’s Justice Department has been using other funds of the department to pay off criminals and cronies of the president.

“He has also violated his code of ethics, firing career officials involved in cases against Donald Trump – the same cases in which he served as the president’s personal criminal defense attorney.

“A nominee with such a record should never be made Attorney General, not if we ever hope to preserve what is left of the rule of law. Todd Blanche will never do what’s best for the American people. Only what’s best for Donald Trump.”

###

And Senator Alex Padilla's office issued this statement:

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, issued the following statement following the Senate’s confirmation vote on the nomination of Todd Blanche to be the next U.S. Attorney General:

“Todd Blanche is unfit to serve as Attorney General. As Acting Attorney General, Blanche has shown he is more loyal to Trump than he is to the American people or the Constitution.

“He is the architect of the $1.8 billion taxpayer-funded slush fund for convicted January 6 insurrectionists who stormed our Capitol and assaulted law enforcement officers. He has repeatedly refused to provide transparency around the Epstein files while shielding Donald Trump — who appears in the files thousands of times — and his predatory allies. Blanche has also made clear that, if confirmed, he will roll back abortion access across the nation.

“When forced to choose between the Constitution and Donald Trump, Todd Blanche chooses Donald Trump, including by helping secure immunity for him and his family’s potential tax crimes. America deserves better.

“I strongly oppose Todd Blanche to be our next Attorney General. His confirmation will be a setback for the independence of the Department of Justice, but I will continue to stand up for everyone’s Constitutional rights, demand accountability from the Trump Administration, and fight to uphold the rule of law.”

Padilla has consistently fought to hold Trump’s Department of Justice (DOJ) accountable. This week, Padilla slammed Todd Blanche during the Senate Judiciary Committee’s vote on Blanche’s nomination, making clear that Blanche is unfit to be U.S. Attorney General. Last month, Padilla questioned Blanche during a Senate Judiciary confirmation hearing, demanding answers about the anti-weaponization fund and allegiance to Trump.

###

Newly confirmed Blanche will no doubt continue attempting not to cooperate with New Mexico and their inquiry into Epstein and Zorro Ranch. Jason Miciak (RAW STORY) reports:

Short and sweet, New Mexico — as is its duty and right — intends to investigate the crimes that may or may not have occurred at "Zorro Ranch," a sprawling estate 30 miles south of Santa Fe. But its investigation continues to stall due to roadblocks and uncooperative behavior by Blanche's DOJ, to the point that New Mexico feels it has little choice but to ask a judge to order the Justice Department to deliver some justice.

In response, according to MS Now, DOJ says any reluctance is due to its deeply sincere intent to preserve the victims' anonymity: "The Justice Department said it was not releasing some information the state requested because federal court orders ban disclosing “victim-identifying information carte blanche, and New Mexico has provided no lawful basis to justify such sweeping disclosures.”

Hang on.

"Carte blanche"? This is not the University of New Mexico's library seeking access to the information. It's the state cops. Federal court orders banning dissemination of victims' names surely don't encompass "all other American law enforcement."

Were that the only problem. See, New Mexico isn't even suing "just to get the names of the victims."

"Torrez said his office has made 10 separate requests for key information and has been ignored or denied. "We have heard repeatedly they will cooperate and what our team has experienced is anything but cooperation," he said.

Right.

And that's a much bigger problem for Blanche than may appear at first blush. Because it's one thing to go in front of a federal judge and say, "But we cannot give this stuff out to them, and we've told them that repeatedly for 18 months now," versus that same federal judge reading an email or hearing DOJ say, "Yes, we will be getting that to you shortly," and never coming around.

Torrez says it's the second, and judges are busy enough without having the hassle of ordering you to do what you promised. Especially when it appears you might have an especially nefarious reason for holding back. Occam grabs the gavel.

The following sites updated: