Author: Charlotte Hays

The U.S.-Iran interim agreement is the big news. But analysis is sidetracked because nobody knows what’s in the deal. The New York Post cover refers to “Trump’s Mystery Deal.”

Docusign. The deal was virtually signed by President Trump, who is now attending the G-7 summit in France, Vice President Vance, and Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf. The ceremony takes place Friday, but Vice President Vance indicated that the details could be released earlier.

Meanwhile, tentative interpretations are emerging. The opinion pages of the Wall Street Journal are a hub of analysis. “Trump, Cynicism and the Deal” is the headline on international affairs authority Walter Russell Mead’s column. Mead argues that the negotiations demonstrate both President Trump’s strengths and weaknesses:

The memorandum of understanding is, in other words, a thoroughly typical example of Mr. Trump’s second-term diplomacy. He is driving world events with an agreement that hasn’t been formally signed, whose specifics are unknown and whose prospects are at best murky.

Viewed from that angle, this deal exemplifies both the strengths and the weaknesses of Mr. Trump’s foreign policy. He is a master of political theater, producing, directing and starring in the greatest and most compelling spectacle of our time. Yet faced with opposition from serious and determined opponents, he often fails to achieve the kind of concrete results that mark the difference between a P.T. Barnum and an Otto von Bismarck.

For Gerard Baker of the same publication, the deal marks Trump’s foreign policy’s “return to realism”:

Not for the first time, we may be on the brink of a deal to end the war with Iran. If this one holds, President Trump is to be congratulated, not pilloried. He faces a choice between high-risk escalation with an uncertain outcome and cutting our losses with an imperfect deal….

The Hobbesian approach isn’t very idealistic. It doesn’t appeal to the American instinct for moral as well as material superiority. But the naked pursuit of our national interest is a surer route to the survival of our values than the fruitless chasing of unrealistic aspirations.

An editorial in the Wall Street Journal sees the deal as President Trump staging a retreat. Daniel Pletka (whose punchy writing is always a pleasure) writes in a Substack column headlined “The Trump Problem“:

Perhaps it’s not as bad as it looks. And perhaps Donald Trump will be wise enough to do what’s necessary to eliminate the threat the regime poses. But it doesn’t look like that right now. What it looks like is that version of Donald Trump that had the courage to do what was necessary to stop Iran has lost out to the Donald Trump who got bored and gave up on a war that wasn’t going as quickly as he would have liked. That bodes ill for the future.

Well, maybe the reviews will be better when we know more. Oil prices have responded positively. President Trump warns Iran of “ultimate consequences” if the regime obtains nukes. Vice President Vance today faces a really hostile audience: the women of “The View”:

Vance is appearing on the program the same day his second memoir, Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith, is released. The book focuses on his conversion to Catholicism and how his spiritual journey has shaped his public service.

Early Christians faced wild beasts in the Roman Coliseum. Vance faces the modern equivalent:

All six of The View’s co-hosts, Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Sunny Hostin, Sara Haines, Alyssa Farah Griffin and Ana Navarro, are expected to be present in the New York studio for the live interview.

Not a Movie. The FBI has revealed a shocking plot to target President Trump’s birthday party/ UFC fight with drones and explosives. Five people have been arrested in connection with the alleged attack:

The multi-phase terror attack allegedly involved using explosive-laden drone aircraft to strike buildings in the vicinity of the event, sparking mass panic and driving the fleeing crowd toward a sniper team poised to pick them off, officials told Fox News Digital.

A “second wave” of attackers then allegedly planned to storm the White House gate, officials said.

A suspect told investigators the goal of the attack was to target “capitalist elites,” “billionaires” and politicians who received money from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), according to the outlet.

The first arrest was made in Cincinnati. Several suspects had gathered in Fredericksburg, Va., to plan the attack. It’s customary to compare what’s happening in the U.S. today to the French Revolution. This looks more like the Russian Revolution. So far, the legacy media doesn’t appear to have jumped on this story.

“Gruesome Newsom.” “The few months of relative silence from Gavin Newsom have, unfortunately, come to an end,” writes James Billot in “Undercurrents,” the newsletter of Unherd. (Sorry, no link.) Billot is referring to Governor Newsom’s claim that he is being investigated by the Justice Department. Axios has a story on the “apparent probe” into Newsom and his wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom.

There’s more electoral news today. Georgia voters decide who advances to several high-visibility runoffs. The primary for a U.S. Senate seat features Trump-backed state Rep. Mike Collins and Governor Brian Kemp-backed former football coach Derek Dooley. The winner of the DC Democratic primary for Mayor, which today uses ranked choice voting for the first time, is almost assured of a November win—if that is, the District manages to figure out ranked choice vote counting by then.

Mamdani Moment? Democratic Socialist Janeese Lewis George, who is polling well, vows to overturn the fine on her campaign for illegally coordinating with unions to fundraise. A win for Lewis George could inspire President Trump to attempt a DC takeover. Which means that the white-haired ladies in my ‘hood who bang on pots and pans to “Free DC” might be further energized.

American parents will be watching the social media ban for under-16-year-olds in the U.K. that will begin next year. Telegraph columnist Isabel Oakshott supports the ban because “parents need all the help they can get.” “Starmer’s social-media ban is driven by pure hysteria,” counters Joanna Williams of Spiked Online. Libertarian Reason suggests that, based on evidence, the ban probably won’t work:

Britain is following Australia into a policy that has already struggled to keep children off social media, while forcing adults through intrusive age checks.

American Dads. The Wall Street Journal’s Bill McGurn has a great column (“Girl Dads Take on Maine“) on the fathers behind a Maine ballot initiative to protect female spaces from boys and men.

American Brother. The London Spectator has an amusing “Cockburn” column on LA Mayor Karen Bass’ brother Kenneth, who has joined defeated mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt in suing Mayor Bass for “reckless negligence” during the horrific LA fires.

American Tragedy. Here is the beginning of Rich Lowry’s column on Karmelo Anthony:

The system failed Karmelo Anthony — he stabbed someone to death and is going to jail for it.

If this doesn’t strike you as an injustice, you haven’t been paying attention to the voices defending the 19-year-old who was just sentenced to 35 years in prison for murdering another teenager at a high school track meet in Texas two years ago.

New Day. This is new Fed Chair Kevin Warsh’s first Fed meeting as head. Former World Bank President Davis Malpass to pursue a slate of reforms to rebuild market confidence.

A Novel Idea Worth Considering—For Both Sides. “America’s Birthday Isn’t About Trump” is the headline on the lead story at The Free Press. The byline is the outlet’s editors, who boldly propose: 

Trump and his critics are making the president the focus of the country’s 250th anniversary. But Americans have so much more to celebrate.

Radical.

The U.S. and Iran have reached an agreement to stop fighting and open the Strait of Hormuz:

Iran and the U.S. have agreed on an interim peace deal, the two nations announced Sunday, a potentially major breakthrough after nearly four months of fighting that created global political and economic turmoil.

A deal is set to be signed Friday. … Trump said the Strait of Hormuz would be reopened on Friday, indicating in a social-media post the time was needed “for purposes of mine removal.” In an earlier post, Trump said that Iran’s restrictions on shipping in the Strait and the U.S. naval blockade on Iran would be simultaneously and immediately lifted.

U.S. stock futures jumped on word of the interim deal. What the Democratic talking point will be was outlined yesterday on Fox’s Sunday show by Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island: We expended immense treasure and American lives to get back to something similar to Barack Obama’s JCPOA. Reed characterized the deal as President Trump’s birthday present to himself.

Supporters of the agreement point out that, unlike with the JCPOA, Iran will only get phased sanctions relief if it meets the provisions of the deal. Dr. Rebecca Grant said that the agreement could open the door to the expansion of the Abraham Accords.

There is no shortage of criticism. “Trump Gives Iran a Lifeline and Calls It Peace” is the headline on Eli Lake’s Free Press article. The Free Press also publishes a symposium entitled “Has the Iran War Been Worth It?” Contributors are Aaron MacLean, Elliott Abrams, Sohrab Ahmari, Martin Gurri, and others. Abrams has a piece in National Review headlined “The Iranian People Have Been Forgotten.” Abrams writes:

Many aspects of the Iran deal announced on Sunday are unclear, or nonexistent. … But one key aspect is now crystal clear: The American agreement with Iran completely abandons the Iranian people. …

Powerline’s Scott Johson has been particularly critical (here, here, and here). Grimmest assessment: “The Iranian ayatollahs don’t want a deal. They want apocalypse.” On the other hand, posting on X, Mark Penn says, Give peace a chance:

It’s easy to criticize this deal but Iran did lose at least two rungs of top leadership, much of its missiles, its navy, its air force and its Uranium. These changes including taking out the Ayatollah were unthinkable but were executed in days.

As we used to say, Give Peace a Chance, and so this is an opportunity for the Mideast to wake up and change course here. Will they take it? Probably not, but this is still a significant accomplishment to get to this point without a general war.

Israel will still need to defend itself but its enemies have been weakened and the region is gradually learning that accepting Israel has its rewards and that terrorism is not a way of life.

It’s His Party. Here’s how USA TODAY describes President Trump’s big 8-0 birthday bash:

Call it the Donald J. Trump spectacular, a Vegas-meets-White-House extravaganza at dusk.

Seated under “The Claw” – a 90-foot arch adorned with glimmering stars and stripes lights, which loomed over a Colosseum-style arena on the White House’s South Lawn – the president, on his 80th birthday, spent the evening of June 14 taking in a series of Ultimate Fighting Championship mixed martial arts cage matches.

A Wall Street Journal report:

The unprecedented event used some of the most iconic symbols of American power—the U.S. military, the White House and the Lincoln Memorial—to promote the Ultimate Fighting Championship, a company that stands to profit from the fight’s far-reaching exposure….

Taken together, the spectacle symbolized the style of politics Trump has brought to Washington, breaking norms and snubbing elite sensibilities. After delivering a flurry of strikes that lead to a knockout, middleweight fighter Bo Nickal credited Trump for having “the balls” to put on the show. Another fighter, Diego Lopes, leapt to the top of the cage after a win, facing the White House with arms spread wide, the audience erupting.

Here are the top moments from the USA TODAY. Here’s a moment Ms. Must could have done without: “Michelle Obama is a man, shouts champion at Trump’s birthday UFC fight.”

Compact mag’s Matthew Sshmitz explores the revolutionary cultural significance of President Trump’s UFC fight on the White House lawn. Comparing White House Parties: “Media Head For Fainting Couch Over White House UFC Fight After Shrugging at Topless Trans Twerker.”

Lest We Forget. Happy Birthday, Mr. President. Miranda Devine on the U.S.’s “Ageless President Trump keeps on winning at 80. And laughs in the face of his naysayers.“

The District of Columbia may be headed for what a Wall Street Journal editorial calls “a Mamdani moment”:

The nation’s capital is in the throes of a mayoral election, and buckle up. The apparent front-runner in Washington, D.C.’s June 16 Democratic primary is a Zohran Mamdani lite, setting up what could become a confrontation with the Trump Administration.

The seat is open after Muriel Bowser, who counts as sane and effective by Washington standards, decided not to run for a fourth term. … This sets the stage for the district’s Mamdani moment. Ms. Lewis George isn’t promising government-run supermarkets as the New York mayor is. But she does want to build 72,000 new housing units within five years, while expanding rent control. A centerpiece of this program is a pledge to ramp up government-owned housing construction. She promises a universal childcare subsidy.

Meanwhile, Ms. Lewis George appears to share the widespread view among her philosophical allies that the inconveniences of socialism are for other people. She recently purchased a $1 million residence after railing against zoning for single-family houses.

Maine’s moderate Republican Senator Susan Collins is being accused by the mainstream media of “pouncing” on opponent Graham Platner by noticing Mr. Platner’s colorful past. Shame on Senator Collins! Spiked Online’s Jenny Holland has also had the temerity to notice that Mr. Platner’s “shady treatment of women and even shadier taste in body art reek of ‘progressive’ hypocrisy.” Holland writes:

Bernie Sanders, the Vermont senator and folk hero for addled rich-kid Commies, summed up the vibe nicely: ‘Is he a saint? I guess not.’ That’s one way of putting it.

Look, accountability is for the other side, okay? Being true to a set of values is just not what the Dems are about. Get with the programme, you guys.

Speaking of Sanders. Writing in The American Spectator, Lou Aguilar shows Sanders’ economic ignorance and call to envy in his response to Elon Musk’s dazzling IPO that, unlike Sanders’ dated political ideas, holds financial potential for ordinary Americans:  

“Today, Elon Musk, a trillionaire, pays the same amount into Social Security as someone making $184,500,” Sanders tweeted. “If we end that absurdity and lift the cap on taxable income, we can make Social Security solvent for 75 years.”

Sanders’ apparatchik Elizabeth Warren chimed in. “Elon Musk just became the world’s first trillionaire,” she said. “The typical American household would have to work more than 11 MILLION years to make Elon Musk’s level of wealth. We need a wealth tax.” And Komsomolka AOC posted on X regarding Musk, “But taxing wealth so normal people can afford to see a doctor and not go bankrupt over inhalers is radical left. OK.”

That there exists a major American party ruled by such abject economic and historical ignorance not only boggles the mind but constitutes a clear and present danger to the country. Yet Sanders came within a hair’s breadth of locking the Democratic nomination for President in 2020. He had to be torpedoed by panicky party leaders, and replaced with a dimmer — eh, more deceptive — leftist zombie. And a recent poll put AOC as the Dem favorite for President in 2028.

I could waste my time arguing why the Democrat attacks on Musk are Marxist hogwash. 

Have you been to Union Station lately? If you have, you might have been tempted to praise President Trump’s literal cleanup.

Now, maybe we need to beautify our embassies abroad? The great Theodore Dalrymple says as much.

Is this the real deal?

President Trump cancelled planned night strikes on Iran’s most important oil terminal yesterday, claiming a deal is imminent:

Speaking in the Oval Office, Trump asserted that an agreement to end hostilities would be signed “maybe this weekend,” after which the United States would immediately lift its naval blockade of the country.

The deal would bar Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, Trump said, an objective he has named as key in deciding to strike the country.

“Bluster or Breakthrough?” is how Mark Helperin framed the issue. Halperin noted the president’s confidence and the instantaneous and positive reaction of the markets, but remained unconvinced. Despite the president’s optimism, Tehran says that no final decision has been made. In an exclusive, Politico reports that there was “a scramble” to stop the president’s planned Thursday attacks on Iran:

Soon after President Donald Trump posted Thursday morning that he would hit Iran “VERY HARD TONIGHT,” leaders from Gulf and South Asian countries called the president in a last-ditch effort to change his mind. They assured him a preliminary agreement that paves the way for more detailed talks was, in fact, at hand.

The calls, which have not been previously reported, came from Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, United Arab Emirates President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Pakistani defense chief Asim Munir, according to two administration officials and a diplomat briefed on the calls. Both were granted anonymity to discuss a sensitive diplomatic mediation….

A person close to the White House said that the veracity of a deal will depend on who the Trump administration is negotiating with.

The president had threatened to seize Kharg Island. Axios has a good story on why Kharg matters so much.

You’ve probably been hearing about Ms. Rachel, the kid’s star with a following of millions, who, clad in bubble-gum pink, visited Capitol Hill yesterday carrying letters and artwork by children in ICE detention. Ms. Rachel’s cause is ending family detention. But here’s the crushing irony: As unsatisfactory as life inside a detention center may be for a child, it’s not as terrible as the fate of these poor children:

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said Thursday that the Trump administration has found at least 146,000 migrant children that were unaccounted for during the Biden administration.

A total of 450,000 went missing under former President Joe Biden — and “nearly 300,000” are still unaccounted for, Mullin said at a news conference.

“We’re investigating reports to where some of these kids claim that they were raped 6[00] to 700 times,” he added. “I don’t care who you are. I don’t care if you have kids. You don’t have kids. I don’t care if you’re a liberal, you’re independent, you’re a Democrat. You’re Republican.

“If you can’t stand for law enforcement to go find these kids, who are you? Who are you?” Mullin fumed. “And do you know where we’re finding the most of them: sanctuary cities.”

Major metropolitan centers like New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles have refused to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement as a result of their sanctuary policies.

Another illegal immigrant angle: Catholic Charities received federal grants totaling $11 million to shelter unaccompanied minors. The Trump administration has cancelled these grants. I feel certain Catholic Charities treated the children well, but, as an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal observes, “Taking federal money has made the Catholic Church a handmaid of the welfare state.”

Speaking of the welfare state, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has been accused of putting the country in danger by refusing to spend sufficiently on defense by John Healey, former defense minister, who resigned dramatically, and former Armed Forces Minister Al Carns, who also resigned. A Wall Street Journal editorial addresses “The Revolt of Britain’s Defenders”:

Labour won’t fund defense because it puts a higher priority on welfare spending, which it refuses to reform. About one in 10 working-age people in the U.K. now claim a sickness or disability benefit, and nearly a million Brits under 25 aren’t employed, in school or in training.

The resignations are a jolting repudiation of the government by officials who best understand the threats Britain is facing.

Frail Britannia. Military decline isn’t all. Examiner Editor Hugo Gurdon writes:

It is impossible to avert one’s eyes from the United Kingdom’s cultural disintegration. It produces horrors that stand as a warning to all Western nations to guard their societies against their current influx of hostile foreigners.

Britain’s moral collapse has, notoriously, produced industrial-scale rape of English girls by Muslim men, mostly Pakistani. More recently, last December, it led to the videoed murder of a teenager, Henry Nowak, by a Sikh wielding the dagger of his religion.

The brilliant Brendan O’Neill of Spiked Online ties together the resignation of the ministers and immigration—both are part of one big scandal, he writes:

Nothing better captures the fall of Britain than the fact we now spaff more cash on caring for people with ‘long-term health conditions’ than we do on training men and women to defend us from our foes. 

Even Switzerland has been changed by the influx of immigrants who don’t assimilate. Switzerland votes Sunday on a radical referendum to cap the population:

If passed, the initiative would force the federal government to restrict family reunifications for resident immigrants and new asylum claims the moment the population hits 9.5 million. If it touches the 10 million ceiling, Bern would be constitutionally required to tear up its free-movement agreement with the European Union, risking access to a market that absorbs over half of Swiss exports.  

A Wall Street Journal editorial has harsh words for those in the House who allowed Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to expire today. Nineteen Republicans joined the Dems, partly in “myopic revenge” for the President’s “bonehead choice” of housing regulator Bill Pulte as DNI chief.  Meanwhile, Trump has switched to Adam Clayton, the Manhattan U.S. attorney, for DNI.

Permission to Brag. Independent Women has always supported flexible working schedules for women. The old Women’s Quarterly, which we published, had a cover on flex time as beneficial to women in the late eighties. Well, now the world is catching up. Please don’t miss “Remote Work Lets Moms ‘Have It All’,” by Kate Odell in the Wall Street Journal.

Permission to Brag Again. Independent Women has argued over the years in a stream of articles and blog posts that capitalism and the free market are the tools for prosperity in developing countries. “Hundreds of Billions in Loans Didn’t Make a Dent in Global Poverty” is the headline of a Wall Street Journal story. The subtitle:

Microfinance aimed to foster prosperity but stoked hardship for those borrowers who took on debt they couldn’t afford.

Does that sound familiar? Like maybe our own student loan crisis?

The Miracle of Capitalism. “Vindication For Young Elon Musk” is the headline on a WSJ story on the guy who told the Senate in 2004 that open competition would transform the space industry. Musk’s SpaceX, valued at $1.77 trillion, goes public today in what the Washington Post calls “the most audacious IPO in history.”

Los Angeles voters were not so audacious. Joel Kotkin writes at Unherd that a left-wing civil war is about to take place in Los Angeles:

Nithya Raman’s come-from-behind victory represents a challenge from the Left to an LA establishment that also regards itself as progressive.

Such conflicts are becoming more common as coastal cities evolve into de facto one-party systems, split between establishment Democrats and a newer, generally younger cohort of socialists. Even moderate Democrats — and Republicans, including Spencer Pratt, whose much-hyped effort ultimately failed — are increasingly outliers in their own cities….

According to Tim Campbell, a longtime Angeleno and former government auditor, Raman’s record on homelessness is “worse than Bass — if that is possible”. She has opposed encampment clearing and has been accused of being linked to dodgy NGOs. “She’s incompetent and arrogant, which is a fatal combination,” he concludes.

Two For the Road. Humanities professors at Berkeley, one of California’s most prestigious colleges, have learned to assign fewer pages for reading. Seems Berkeley students just don’t read that well. …  “Have the Artists Left the Washington Post Yet?” is the Wall Street Journal’s James Freeman’s headline. We join Mr. Freeman in hoping the answer is “yes.”

The shooting between the U.S. and Iran has resumed, but on a limited basis. Here’s this morning’s CBS headline: “U.S. and Iran trade attacks again after Trump pledges Tehran will ‘pay the price’ for not accepting deal.”

But what if the art of the deal simply doesn’t apply in Iran? “Iran is not a normal nation you can make deals with. It’s a national security threat,” Erfan Fard, a Middle East analyst, argues at Fox Digital. Fard writes:

For nearly half a century, American policymakers have debated how to negotiate with the Islamic Republic of Iran. The real question is whether Washington is still misdiagnosing the problem. Iran is not simply a diplomatic adversary but a regime whose strategy is built on terrorism, proxy warfare and hostility toward the United States.

Why does Washington continue to treat the regime as a negotiating partner when decades of evidence suggest it is a national security threat? The answer lies in a misunderstanding of its nature. Successive administrations have often analyzed Tehran as a conventional state pursuing national interests. It is not. The regime was born as an ideological project built on hostility toward America, Israel and the Western order. …

The problem is that the United States has repeatedly misunderstood the actor across the table. The Islamic Republic has often used diplomacy as a shield, a delay mechanism and a survival tool….

Today the regime may be weaker than it once appeared. Its terrorist network has suffered serious setbacks, damaging Tehran’s illusion as a regional power. …But a weaker regime is not necessarily a safer one. …

“Trump Needs a New Iran Strategy” is the headline on a Wall Street Journal editorial:

After weeks of insisting a deal with Iran is around the corner, President Trump may be admitting the reality. The regime is “tapping the U.S. along” in negotiations, he said Wednesday. The President has given diplomacy a chance, but “they keep playing us for suckers,” he added. Is Mr. Trump ready at last for a new approach?

The President’s choice now is to alter the facts on the ground or leave the conflict in a worse position than Mr. Bush did in Iraq.

A Washington Post editorial admonishes:

Trump has degraded the regime. He’ll squander that progress, and his leverage, if he seems too desperate.

President Trump, who announced that top Iranian officials called him directly to ask him to stop the bombing, even as Iran is targeting Gulf nations, revealed that the U.S. has secretly helped 200 commercial ships and more than 100 million barrels of oil through the Strait of Hormuz. The president said that this is one reason crude prices aren’t higher. The Wall Street Journal reports that a “sharp fall in China’s crude oil imports during the Iran war has been instrumental in holding down oil prices and keeping the global economy humming.” But can this last? India says that the U.S. attack on a tanker killed three Indian nationals. Stocks are set to rebound after yesterday’s selloff.

Inflation makes going to the grocery store an ugh! experience. CNBC reports that consumer prices rose 4.2% annually in May, the highest in three years:

Inflation accelerated in May as rising energy costs contributed to pain for consumers, though underlying pressures were less intense.

Batya Ungar-Sargon writes that, when it comes to the cost of living, people don’t feel heard by the Trump administration. The Washington Post suggests that new Fed Chair Kevin Warsh may soon be telling President Trump that there will be a rate hike.

The tragedy of Austin Metcalf, whose heart was stopped by the knife thrust by Karmello Anthon, a seemingly promising young man, cannot get more heart-wrenching. But that’s not stopping the race hustlers from capitalizing on it, as Kristen Fleming observes today in the New York Post. You expect outgoing Rep. Jasmine Crockett to get in on the action:

On social media, some have ghoulishly celebrated Metcalf’s death, while race hustlers like Democratic Rep. Jasmine Crockett are trying to turn this avoidable tragedy into a racial reckoning for a broken nation.

“Black women live in fear and agony every single day. A fear and agony, I promise you the Metcalfs probably never spent a day living that way,” she so callously said in an episode of her podcast, “Clock It with Crockett.” …

“If a 300-pound man is beating me, like on top of me and beating me down, I’m not limited to fists,” she said, presumably saying she’d stab him too. Except Metcalf was 200 pounds and was never on top of Anthony beating him.

Meanwhile, a GoFundMe campaign started by Anthony’s mother has been raising eyebrows. In addition to legal costs, the proceeds enabled the Anthony family to move. If reports that they decamped for New Orleans are true, visiting Karmello in prison will be more difficult.

On the subject of fundraising, GOP lawmakers got nothing beyond repeated assertions of Fifth Amendment rights (even regarding her name) from a top ActBlue official yesterday in a hearing to probe the progressive power house’s alleged foreign donations. An Alabama Rep lashed out:

Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Ala., lashed out at Republican efforts to investigate a Democratic fundraising apparatus on Wednesday afternoon, characterizing the ongoing fraud probe as the most recent instance of GOP retribution against Black women in power.

“Over and over again, Donald Trump’s Department of Justice has harassed Black women with bogus lawsuits,” Sewell said on Wednesday morning.

Mike Davis of the Article III Project says that ActBlue is a money-laundering organization for foreign donations into Democratic campaigns. 

The “Journey” of an Imperfect Man. George Will astutely seizes on an aspect of Graham Platner that has not received enough attention:

Platner is an interesting bore because he is symptomatic. He and his apologists use the jargon of therapy-speak. It is coined to pave the road of life’s “journey” with off-ramps from accountability.

The “J” word is revealing, as in Platner’s, “My journey is one of transformation.” His identity at the journey’s outset has been replaced by today’s identity, which will be supplanted by tomorrow’s. This endless transforming, this remarkable plasticity of self, is supposedly produced by semi-autonomous psychological churnings. They supposedly can be mitigated (or instigated) by therapy. Platner’s acknowledging a colorful record of bad behavior has become a sign of his everyman “authenticity.”

Ms. Must can’t resist another quote:

Today’s Democratic Party, which has anointed him a “working class” hero, evidently has met few members of that class.

Most such members do not say they are surprised to learn that for 18 years they have had a Nazi tattoo on their chests. (Long before Platner decided to join Daniel Webster on the list of senators from New England, Platner reportedly spoke of his “Totenkopf” tattoo.) Few in the working class get $200,000 mortgages from their father, or have their mothers as their largest customers. (“Oyster farmer” Platner sells to his mother’s restaurant.) His sexting to sundry women occurred, he says by way of extenuation, early in his marriage. (He has been married less than three years.)

Tempus fugit! I hope I have time and space enough for just a few more Essentials: Happy Birthday, Mr. President. In “From Marilyn Monroe to UFC Freedom 250,” Tevi Troy notes that President Trump isn’t the first President to throw himself a big birthday bash. Troy recalls JFK and Marilyn Monroe at Madison Square Garden. … Mr. Trump’s critics are having an absurd freakout over the reflecting of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. … And Hugh Hewitt says don’t be surprised if the GOP presidential field for 2028 has double-digit contenders:

President Trump may endorse and throw his considerable political weight behind VP Vance — or Secretary Rubio or somebody else. Nobody knows and it’s very doubtful the president himself knows. He’s said a few times that a Vance-Rubio ticket would be formidable and it would be.

What it isn’t is “inevitable.” GOP primary voters don’t have to begin actually casting votes until January 2028. Will they want a “reversion to the mean” of GOP politics and issues? Will they want a candidate who can endorse what President Trump has done in every aspect or one who picks and chooses among the Trump record?