The Circus Is Not Coming To Town.  The WWE has settled with plaintiffs in the civil trial that was set to begin today in the Court Of Chancery.  So, we won’t see the ‘Mr. McMahon Strut’ up Market Street. But you will see the Mr. McMahon Strut:

https://www.wwe.com/videos/no-one-does-the-billionaire-strut-like-mr-mcmahon

PFA’s Pervasive In Delaware River:

Toxic PFAS chemicals are pervasive across the Delaware River, as well as in the fish that swim along the waterway and its tributaries, according to a Delaware River Basin Commission report published in May.

The study finds that PFAS concentrations are increasing at a faster rate than the volume of water moving downstream toward the Delaware Bay. Researchers say the lack of dilution downstream suggests the so-called “forever chemicals” continue to be discharged from potential sources like industrial and wastewater facilities.

The chemicals were detected at higher levels in the river between Chester, Pennsylvania and Pea Patch Island, located across from Delaware City, Delaware — indicating that there are sources of PFAS contamination south of Chester.

Trump Finds Out That Bibi Wears The Pants In This Relationship:

Iran and Israel traded strikes on Monday and President Trump called for the two sides to “immediately stop” the attacks, as the two-month truce that had suspended the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran broke down.

The fighting has propelled the Middle East back to the precipice of the full-scale war that began in February with the U.S.-Israeli assault on Iran.

On Monday, Iranian ballistic missiles sent sirens wailing in central and southern Israel as booms from air defenses could be heard overhead. Israel’s air force bombarded sites in western and southern Iran, including the country’s largest petrochemical complex, the Israeli military said.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps threatened to target energy infrastructure across the region in response to the Israeli attack, saying that Israel had “initiated a dangerous game.” Earlier in the war, Iran fired volleys of missiles and drones at Arab states across the Gulf, including at critical energy depots and refineries.

The renewed fighting could tie up Mr. Trump’s efforts to extricate the United States from the war with Iran, which has proved politically costly and jacked up global oil and gas prices. He did not elaborate on what the United States might do to cool the escalating attacks between Israel and Iran, the first of their kind in two months.

A Playlist For Your Dog?  I’m not buying it.  However:

Dog ownership has gotten increasingly elaborate, and nobody seems embarrassed about it. The fresh food delivery services, the orthopedic beds, the Halloween costumes with coordinating owner outfits—and now, according to new research, the personalized Spotify playlist.

MetLife Pet Insurance analyzed more than 500 public Spotify playlists made specifically for dogs and surveyed over 1,000 dog owners about their music habits. Nine in 10 play music for or around their dog, though 87% are just playing whatever they’d normally listen to. Only 13% choose music based on their dog’s mood or personality, and just 14% have ever made a dedicated playlist. Most people just have Spotify on, the dog is ambient.

The playlists that do exist have mainstream similarities. “Yellow” by Coldplay is the most popular song across American dog playlists, followed by “Creep” by Radiohead and “Linger” by The Cranberries. (They’re, uh, programming this for their dogs, right?)  Taylor Swift is the top artist overall (surprise, surprise), appearing on 1 in 6 playlists, though no single Swift track cracks the top five in any category. Dog-themed songs skew predictable: “Dog Days Are Over” by Florence + The Machine, “Hound Dog” by Elvis, “Me & My Dog” by Boygenius.

Genre choices are somewhat situational. Rock leads walking playlists at 33%, classical tops calming and anxiety playlists at 34%, and home-alone playlists—which you’d expect to be soft and soothing—somehow include “Don’t Stop Me Now” by Queen and “I Was Made For Lovin’ You” by KISS. Not sure how the dog is feeling about those.

What do the dogs think about this?:

Does your dog howl to songs or fall asleep when classical music is playing? You might be wondering if it’s all in your head or if dogs, like people, really do respond to certain melodies. You’re not the only one who’s curious—multiple studies have been done on dogs and music. The results? Mixed.

So we talked to Lisa Radosta, DVM, DACVB, a board-certified veterinary behaviorist at Florida Veterinary Behavior Service and a host for Top Vets Talk Pets, to get her take on whether your pooch should have her own playlist.

The answer to whether dogs like music is: It depends, Radosta says. Research indicates that when dogs are stressed, music may help.

A landmark study in 2002 compared how shelter dogs responded to classical, pop, and heavy-metal music as well as conversation and silence. Researchers found that classical music had a calming effect on dogs. The pups went from standing and barking to laying down and resting. Another study showed that harp music could help hospitalized dogs with better breathing and heart rates compared to dogs that didn’t listen to it.

But recent research found that shelter dogs were most soothed by the sounds of an audio book, not classical music. What gives? Radosta says what’s probably making the biggest impact is having a rhythmic sound to drown out scary noises like hospital machines or other dogs barking.

‘Unsupervised Art’, Or–‘A Massive Techno Lava Lamp’?  Yep, it’s here, and it’s not going away:

Nearly every flower in the Amazon rainforest living in synchronicity in the opening gallery at Dataland.

We were in downtown Los Angeles at Dataland, the soon-to-open museum dedicated to art generated by artificial intelligence, and yeah, it was pretty crazy. The students, from an A.I. class at the University of California, Los Angeles, were getting an advance look at the invitation of their professor, the digital art star Refik Anadol.

Founded by Anadol and his wife, the painter Efsun Erkiliç, Dataland is a highly anticipated addition to the city’s burgeoning art/tech scene — and arguably the most ambitious museum for A.I. art to date. But for now Anadol’s 20-odd students and I were the only visitors in a vast, black-walled, 22-foot-high gallery awash in light, color and sound.

One moment, brightly colored photographs of flora and fauna from Brazil’s Amazon were sliding down the wall and across the floor; then, similar photos drifted toward us in 3-D before abruptly speeding up and slowing back down; strips and circles of white light appeared in intricate patterns; abstract streaks of green and yellow, red and yellow splashed across the room.

“Beautiful patterns from butterfly wings,” Anadol explained.

Butterfly wings? Well, yes. The A.I. that he and his studio have built for the new museum is transforming data about rainforest butterflies into the constantly moving imagery his students call “crazy.”

“Data is not just a number,” Anadol pointed out. It used to be, but with the information explosion that began in the 1960s, almost anything can be considered data — photographs, video, audio, even butterfly wings. Anadol’s data on butterflies — their origins, their life spans, their color patterns, their behavior — comes mainly from The Encyclopedia of Life, an online repository compiled by the American Museum of Natural History.

Using this information, Anadol said, “We were able to model algorithmically how butterflies move.” By feeding this into the extraordinarily sophisticated software that powers Dataland itself, and the artificial intelligence that makes it work — software that Anadol said is made up of more 10 million lines of code — he ends up with a hyperkinetic work of art.

The vision behind this is human.  So, I, for one, give it a thumbs-up.

Nothing Says ‘Humanity’ Quite Like Serif Fonts.  Which is what A I (not Al) wants you to think.  Call it ‘tasteslop’:

As public backlash to the seeming omnipresence of artificial intelligence intensifies, the collective quest to weed out—and reject—telltale signs of its use continues.

One of the first casualties, to my dismay, was em dashes—which are a great, and very human form of punctuation, by the way! There’s also the “rule of threes,” which is meant to scan as rhythmic, but often comes across predictable, hackish, and stale. And, of course, there are the clunky grammatical constructions of the “not X, but Y” variety.

The shift away from slicker, more conspicuously computerized typefaces is something the San Francisco Bay Area writer, designer, and type practitioner Keya Vadgama has termed “the serif renaissance.” In a recent newsletter, published on her Substack, Vadgama suggests the move is a bid for companies to project more “personality and warmth.”

“It’s not that difficult to discern why AI-native companies in particular are being drawn to serif fonts: AI is inherently cold and without opinion,” she writes. “[Using serifs] signals ‘We’re AI! But real humans use (and made) our product! We swear!’”

“Serifs have an origin in calligraphy,” Vadgama tells WIRED. “It connotes a very human, fluid way of making letterforms.” Vadgama has noticed that Anthropic’s Claude was defaulting to serifs. Other AI companies—Runway, Perplexity, Manus—had also adopted similar typefaces in their UX and branding.

Both Qadeer and Vadgama see the trend toward serifs as a rejoinder to AI’s perceived (and, indeed, literal) lack of soul, and the wider public suspicion of the technology. They’re not the only ones. Alongside the “tasteslop” discourse, people online have criticized the serification of AI aesthetics as “generic” and “very ugly.”Not everyone is so despairing. While designer and founder Yitong Zhang described the transition to serifs as “cursed” on X, he doesn’t think it portends anything especially sneaky or sinister. “Somebody at these labs is trying to get these models to be good at design,” he says.“It’s pretty pragmatic.”He likens this emergent style to “premium mediocre,” an idea coined by the blogger Venkatesh Rao, to describe a kind of popular, faux luxury. (“Premium mediocre,” Rao writes, “is the finest bottle of wine at Olive Garden.”)

The quote of the week.  Which begets this lyric:

“The serifs are the heralds of the New Fontier.”

Karney Klaims He Has A Plan To House The Homeless.  Sounds more like a chance to diss those who have krossed him:

Wilmington Mayor John Carney said the city does have plans for those still residing at the unhoused encampment at Christina Park, despite the intention to close it on June 15.

In an after-hours press release sent Friday at 6 p.m., Carney responded to a Wilmington City Council resolution passed Thursday night, asking for details about the city’s plans for when the park is returned to normal operations.

Carney said they have identified 20 beds are two unidentified housing programs that would offer case management and wrap-around services.

The Wilmington Housing Authority will offer temporary storage of personal items, and will cover the cost of emergency hotel and motel stays for anyone in Christina Park who cannot access one of those 20 program beds.

Carney did call out Council President Trippi Congo and Councilwoman Shané Darby, who both threatened Thursday night to freeze any legislation proposed by the Mayor’s Office until the unhoused situation is resolved.

“(They) have not been actively at the table to bring collaborative solutions forward or to hear about what is currently happening at the park. When they are ready to roll up their sleeves, we will be here doing the work,” Carney’s statement read.

That’s, what’s the word I’m looking for, a lie.   He’s all of a sudden found a solution to a problem he created?  With two unnamed programs?

Can you say ‘Friday afternoon news dump’?

I’m Repeating My Prediction–Trump Will Not Be President Come The End Of 2026:

Being a paramedic sucks.

The hours suck. The pay is insulting. We get no respect. We are treated like ambulance drivers and expected to just do as we are told. We aren’t treated like medical professionals despite the years of training we have.

Did you know as a paramedic I can show up, start an IV, intubate (Put a breathing tube down your throat), give you a massive number of different medications, interpret an ECG (Which aside from doctors, no one else can do) all while moving at 60 mph?

When it comes to the things I am able to do, the list is actually insane. Here is a skill that I can do that will shock you. I am trained and capable of taking a scalpel to your neck, cutting it open, and putting in a breathing tube.

That’s right, you know that bullshit you see on Chicago fire or 911? Where they use a straw to breathe for someone through their actual throat? I’m trained to do that, except the right way.

Yet people see me as a stretcher jockey.

It comes down to one single thing I can’t do. I cannot diagnose. I can know what is wrong. I can treat what is wrong. I can even fix what is wrong. I just cannot officially tell you what is wrong.

This guy is great. Snark galore.  ‘Felonious Chunk’ is a perfect monicker.  Read the whole thing.  But here’s where he departs from the conventional wisdom:

Most of the doctors who have talked to the news have stated that they believe they have been tracking the mental decomposition of Trump’s brain. They think they are monitoring the obvious growing neurological impairments that Trump keeps displaying.

I’d challenge that. Why? Because fuck them guys.

Trump is suffering from symptoms of chronic heart failure (CHF). That is caused when the heart cannot pump blood through the body without backing up. That is what causes all that swelling and edema. It is why if you could use his ankles like silly putty and capture scenes from Marmaduke in the newspaper with it.

There are a lot of different causes of CHF. More often than not it is caused by BLC, or commonly known as bad life choices. The heart no longer has the strength it needs due to stress, damage, and other circumstances.

It isn’t fatal. It does cause people to not sleep at night well because if they are not sleeping with a c-pap machine then they are sleeping elevated to stop the fluid from backing up into the lungs and causing them to stop breathing.

Except that doesn’t explain why he has been getting a CT scan EVERY three months. A significant number of medical professionals are dead set that they are worried about his mental decline, and they are trying to make sure he still has all neurologic functions.

I think that there is something more dangerous that his medical team is monitoring and tracking. I think that what they are monitoring closely isn’t his mental health. It is the time bomb in his belly.

An abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is what happens when the Aorta (Main blood delivery system to the heart) starts to get a bulge in it. The side wall of the Aorta starts to push outward. It is a serious life-threatening condition.

If a AAA ruptures, which they are prone to do, then unless you are physically on an operating table under bright lights with a skilled surgeon, you can kiss your ass goodbye.

The AAA makes the CHF worse which also explains why he has the pitting edema in every extremity. Edema is what happens when there is a fluid leakage from the blood vessels and the body’s natural drain system (The Lymphatic system) isn’t able to filter out all the excess fluid from the blood.

It causes that ‘sloshy’ looking skin that if you press into, leaves an indent. When you know what you are looking for, you can spot pitting edema across the room just by the socks the person is wearing.

I also want to take a moment and explain something important here. There is obvious mental decline happening with Trump. I told you I was going to approach this like a paramedic, and that means we handle life threats first. The immediate life threat is the AAA and CHF.

I won’t say what all of us are thinking/hoping.

Another Prediction–When It Comes To The World Cup, Everything That Can Go Wrong Will Go Wrong:

Thousands of workers at Los Angeles’ SoFi Stadium are threatening to strike, citing insufficient pay and plans for ICE officers to be present at the World Cup — and raising the possibility that the massive soccer tournament could start without workers to sell food and drinks to spectators.

Unite Here Local 11, which represents more than 2,000 cooks, dishwashers, concession workers, bartenders and servers at SoFi, announced Friday that members voted 96% in favor of authorizing a strike.

The vote took place just one week out from when the stadium is set to host its first World Cup match.

Union members have been working without a contract since their previous agreement with stadium operator Legends Global expired last year, giving them the power to strike at any moment. They resumed bargaining over a new contract at the beginning of this year, but called for a strike vote in late May, citing a lack of progress over key issues including wages, ICE’s role at the games, and the erosion of good jobs as a result of automation and subcontractors.

Management “raises prices every year for sales, but our wages stay stagnant,” Mike Burgh, a bargaining committee member and catering bartender at SoFi, told HuffPost. “We’re just asking for a respectful cost adjustment, and they’re playing lowball with us.”

“I’m one of the thousands of workers behind every meal prepared, every drink served, and every guest experience at the World Cup,” bargaining committee member and suites runner Yolanda Fierro said in a statement. “Fans from around the world will come expecting an unforgettable event, and we take pride in making that happen. But no worker should have to fear being separated from their family or worry about dangerous ICE activity while simply doing their job.”

SoFi, the most expensive sports venue in the world, is set to host eight World Cup matches and is expected to seat 70,000 spectators. In Seattle, which is hosting six matches, unionized hotel workers represented by Unite Here Local 8 authorized a separate strike on Friday, pushing for better pay, healthcare coverage and protections from ICE.

“FIFA runs a soccer tournament, not Los Angeles,” Petersen said last month. “No one elected Gianni Infantino or Donald Trump to rule Los Angeles. No one gave FIFA the power to decide who is safe and who is hunted, and no one, no one gets to bring ICE into our city,” he continued, as workers behind him began chanting, “SHUT IT DOWN, SHUT IT DOWN!”

Incyte, BPG, The City Of Wilmington.  What could possibly go wrong?:

Less than two years after investing nearly $80 million into two downtown Wilmington office buildings, the pharmaceutical company Incyte sold the properties to the city’s most prominent developer in a deal that generated just 10 cents in real estate taxes, according to public deed records.

The tax payment suggests a sale price of $1 for each of the Bracebridge buildings that sit next to Rodney Square and once formed the backbone of Delaware’s credit card industry.

That sale price also raises the question of whether the companies involved in the transaction earlier this spring avoided what might have been millions of dollars in taxes to Delaware and its largest city. 

Delaware imposes a tax on real estate transactions that amounts to 4% of a sale price, or the fair market value of the property — whichever is higher. The revenue is then split between state and local governments.

Last year, Incyte held a book value for the two downtown Wilmington properties of at least $76 million, according to a company earnings report. While a book value does not necessarily reflect what a buyer would pay in an open market, it does offer a benchmark that is difficult to reconcile with a transaction that generated only 10 cents in taxes.

By essentially gifting the properties and writing off their value as a business loss, Incyte will be able to reduce its future taxable income. However, it won’t have the tens of millions of dollars in the bank that a sale likely would have produced.

Such a deal allows the transaction to move much faster than a sale, avoid costly attorney fees and transfer taxes, and negates the need to find financing for the property acquisition — particularly if the properties weren’t originally in Buccini/Pollin Group’s long-term plans.

Comparatively, when Incyte purchased the buildings two years ago, it paid the state $1.2 million and the city $700,000 in transfer taxes. It was the largest single transfer tax payment the city had seen since Barclays acquired its U.S. headquarters in the Riverfront district in 2021.

Beyond the tax question, Incyte’s sale of the two buildings marks the end of the company’s ambitious project – backed by nearly $25 million in taxpayer grants – to renovate the buildings for what would have been a massive expansion into Wilmington’s city limits.

Incyte did not reply to an emailed question about the real estate tax payments.

A spokeswoman for the Buccini/Pollin Group said in an email that the listed sale price of $1 does not reflect the entire compensation involved in the sale of the buildings. 

“We aren’t able to discuss the specifics of the arrangement,” the spokeswoman Claire Nester said.

Nester did not reply to a follow-up question, asking whether the modest taxes paid on the sale were legally sufficient.

Comments from Delaware’s government officials also did not shed light on the questions around the 10 cents in real estate taxes.

A spokeswoman for Wilmington Mayor John Carney said the city has no control over “what the property sells for.” 

Forget it, kids.  It’s Buccini/Pollinville.

City Council To ‘Throw A Wrench’ Into Carney’s Homeless Plan?  Too late, sez I.  Should have held up the budget to do it.  Still:

Wilmington City Council President Trippi Congo says he’s ready to throw a wrench into city government until a future plan for the unhoused living at Christina Park is announced.

Congo, along with Councilwoman Shané Darby, voiced frustration that they learned about Mayor John Carney’s affordable housing plan during his Budget Address, and that it has continued through the timeline of creating the encampment at Christina Park.

Carney announced last month that the Christina Park encampment was to be closed on Monday, June 15, but not specifically spelled out what will happen to the dozens of people living there after that point.

Wilmington’s contract with Friendship House, which has been helping to run operations at Christina Park, runs out on June 30.

“We have to have a plan in place that is comprehensive, humane, and adequate in their transition to housing, or transition to services, or whatever that looks like for each individual,” Councilwoman Darby said during Thursday’s meeting.

One of the major issues has been a rift in priorities between Wilmington City Council and the Mayor’s Office when it to who should benefit first from affordable housing.

The short-term future of that space remains under debate, although advocates on both sides agree the current Christina Park encampment cannot be a permanent solution.

Darby said like Congo, she’s prepared to play her part to stop any legislation coming from Governor Carney (oops!) until he helps the unhoused situation.

A resolution passed Thursday by all 9 members of council in attendance asked the office to create a Houselessness Response Coordinator position, also for them to work with Springboard Delaware to build pallet villages, similar to the one in Georgetown, in the city.

Congo said he didn’t believe the Mayor’s Office was going to listen to Council’s request on the topic, but Darby said she’s prepared to shut them off, if needed.

“We’re not weaklings just sitting here at the whim of the Mayor’s administration. We have the power, we vote on things. I’m not voting on anything else for you, if you do this. I would do it.”

Rethugs Sign Senate Death Warrant?  Ultimately, they just can’t quit him:

Senate Republicans on Friday rammed through their $70 billion bill to fund President Trump’s immigration crackdown through the remainder of his term, after beating back bipartisan efforts to add language to bar or sharply restrict a federal payout fund for his political allies.

The 52-to-47 vote early Friday morning sent the measure to the House, which was expected to move quickly to pass it.

It was a victory for the president and his party, who have been eager to spotlight their hard-line immigration stance — and Democrats’ opposition to it — in the middle of an election year when their control of Congress is at stake. Senator Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska, was the only Republican to oppose the measure, joining all Democrats.

The overnight session featured a series votes orchestrated by Democrats seeking to force Republicans to weigh in for the record on unpopular moves the president has made, including his plan to create a $1.8 billion payout fund to compensate people who he claims have been victimized by the government; his push for $1 billion in federal funding for his White House ballroom project; and his decision to name the housing secretary Bill Pulte as the nation’s top intelligence official.

The tactic the Rethugs used to pass the bill?  The amendments required 60 votes, passage of the bill required only 50.

The result was the success of Republicans’ move to use a special filibuster-proof budget bill that was never meant for routine funding matters to effectively muscle through a multiyear mega-spending bill for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and Customs and Border Protection over unified Democratic opposition. They resorted to the maneuver after Democrats refused to agree to further funding for Mr. Trump’s immigration crackdown without new restrictions on the tactics and conduct of federal agents carrying it out.

What do you want to talk about?

Not Better Late Than Never?  I’m not so sure:

The biggest legislative controversy of last summer is back before the General Assembly.

Lawmakers are set to introduce a bill today that would indefinitely extend New Castle County school districts’ controversial ability to tax commercial and residential properties at different rates.

Authored by Rep. Kim Williams (D-Stanton), the bill will be filed among a slew of property tax-related proposals by lawmakers who took part in the Delaware General Assembly’s months-long committee investigation into the fallout from last year’s first-in-a-generation property reassessments.

Enacted last summer as a one-time fix, the separated tax rates – sometimes called split rates – were meant to provide residents with temporary relief from the post-reassessment tax bill sticker shock.

While the split rates reduced some homeowners’ property bills by several hundred dollars, they also sparked outcry from small business owners and spurred a months-long legal challenge by landlords and hotel operators in Delaware’s northernmost county.

Regardless, the ability for school districts to levy different tax rates for residential and non-residential property will expire on June 30 unless legislators act.

A handful of other property tax-related bills and resolutions are set to be filed today along with the split rate extension.

If passed, the bills could work in tandem to make immediate changes to address short-term concerns and create new working groups to investigate long-term solutions.

Whether the General Assembly will pass the package in its entirety during the final 10 working days of the legislative session remains to be seen. 

Lawmakers must pass each of the bills included in the forthcoming property tax package in both the House and Senate before the General Assembly gavels out for a final time on June 30. Any bills that fail to pass by that date will effectively be dead in the water.

The package will now join a growing list of legislation – including next year’s nearly $7 billion state budget, healthcare reforms, banking code modernizations, hemp regulations and more – that lawmakers have only 10 working days left to address.

One thing experience tells me: If this package is rushed through, there will be unintended consequences heaped upon unintended consequences.

Meyer>Carney:

After a slow roll out, Delaware is speeding up its initiative to clear low-level offenses from people’s records.

Delaware passed its Clean Slate Initiative in 2021 and it went into effect in 2024, making it one of the first states to implement such a measure.

It’s meant to clear low level offenses from people’s records, such as petty theft or small drug possession, without requiring individuals to file petitions or pay fees. Other records are eligible after a period of 3 to 10 years. The goal is to improve housing and employment opportunities for people with criminal records.

But until now, these expungements were done manually. According to the 2025 State Police Report, its Clean Slate unit reviewed 16,869 cases and cleared 25,287 charges last year.

Gov. Matt Meyer observed that scratched the surface of more than a million records eligible for automatic expungement under Delaware’s 2021 law.

“When I came into office last year, very, very few of those records have been expunged,” Meyer said. “It was being done by hand, and taking way too long.”

He said the problem was as the Clean Slate Unit cleared those cases, “more than 17,000 offenses were added to the list. So, if we continued at the same pace, we’d never catch up.”

Meyer said the state has improved coordination between record keeping departments and moved to an automated processing system. And this week, the state announced that it’s cleared more than 64 thousand cases eligible for automatic expungement.

Meyer said moving to the automated processing system is making a difference, but conceded this week is just a start.

Proof Trump Is A Lame Duck:

The House on Wednesday voted to direct President Trump to withdraw U.S. forces from the conflict with Iran or win approval from Congress to continue the war, after four Republicans sided with Democrats in a striking sign of growing opposition to a military campaign now in its fourth month.

Adoption of the resolution was a remarkable rebuke to Mr. Trump and his handling of the conflict, after he has repeatedly dismissed any effort by Congress to curb his power and as the G.O.P. has largely ceded its prerogatives to do so, deferring to him time and again. Republicans had abruptly postponed the vote two weeks ago, recognizing that they did not have sufficient votes to defeat the measure and wanting to spare themselves and the president the affront.

The move was also the latest reflection of divisions between Republicans in Congress and the president on a range of issues as their interests diverge in the run-up to the midterm congressional elections. It came after Senate Republicans have in recent days forced Mr. Trump to abandon his request for $1 billion in security funding for his ballroom project and a plan that the Justice Department announced to create a federal fund to pay claimants who accuse the government of having victimized them.

But the vote in the House, and a similar one in the Senate last month when a handful of G.O.P. defectors broke from the president and opposed the war, indicate an increasing willingness by some members of the president’s party to pressure him to end a conflict that a majority of Americans say is not worth the costs.

Republican Representatives Tom Barrett of Michigan, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Warren Davidson of Ohio and Thomas Massie of Kentucky crossed party lines to vote with Democrats in favor of the resolution. Representative Jared Golden, Democrat of Maine, who had previously opposed similar measures, switched his position to support it.

To state the obvious, this is the new high water mark for Trump support in Congress.  Self-preservation dictates that more will be fleeing from the anchor that is Trump.

I’m Calling It–This nomination is GOING DOWN:

President Trump has indicated that he plans to nominate the acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, to take on the role on a permanent basis, the latest move by the president to place loyalists in top jobs across the government.

Dan Scavino, one of Mr. Trump’s most trusted advisers, posted a video of the president announcing the plan on Wednesday night.

“Tomorrow I’m instructing Dan and everybody else that’s involved in that very complicated process, which is going to go, I think, very quickly, that we are going to make him permanent attorney general,” Mr. Trump said of Mr. Blanche in the video.

If Mr. Trump follows through and formally nominates Mr. Blanche to the post, it would likely set off a bruising confirmation battle in the Senate.

Time to enjoy your fill of schadenfreude.  You’ll be wallowing in it all summer long.

Satire Is Dead.  This is real:

Why are beverages so endorsable? Maybe we’re not willing to trust Hulk Hogan with our dinner plans, but for a quick boost during a long workday? Sure – why not slam a can of Hogan Energy. Drinks tend to be profitable, relatively low-risk, and especially ripe for celebrity endorsements. So it’s become one of the easiest, most popular markets for influencers and celebrities to dip into.

Now, another mega-celeb has entered the beverage game. Or rather, beverage companies have enlisted him in an effort to spread the good word about their product.

Jesus, it turns out, has a branding problem – at least according to the makers of these drinks. Too many people simply haven’t heard the message. “God put it on our hearts to specifically preach the gospel through an energy drink,” the creator of Yahweh says in an Instagram video defending the company against accusations that it exists mainly to turn a profit.

What do you want to talk about?

The New Medical School Is A BFD.  I think this is a win-win, and, yes, a coup for Gov. Matt Meyer:

Delaware will soon have its own medical school, a first in the state’s history.

The state is partnering with Philadelphia’s Thomas Jefferson University to establish a regional campus of Sidney Kimmel Medical College. It would create a four-year medical school that would accommodate 40 students when it opens in 2028.

The school will be housed on the University of Delaware campus in Newark until a long-term home is found.

Delaware is one of only a handful of states without a medical school. Gov. Matt Meyer has advocated for one as a way to combat health care provider shortages, especially in rural areas in southern Delaware and meet the needs of an aging population.

Meyer said one of the goals is to increase the pipeline of doctors choosing to practice in Delaware.

“This medical school is about training physicians here, keeping talent here and delivering better care in every corner of our state,” he said. “Especially in those communities that need it the most.”

Jefferson CEO Joe Cacchione said with this new investment, they are committed to helping make sure all Delawareans have access to primary care and specialists.

“It’s a turning point for students who want to become physicians without leaving their home state, and it’s a turning point for Delaware as it takes a decisive step toward building a stronger, more sustainable health care workforce,” he said.

Delaware officials said medical students will start their classroom instruction at UD and then do their clinical training at offices and health care systems in Kent and Sussex counties, where the shortage of doctors is most acute.

Did I say ‘win-win’?  There’s an exception:

However, ChristianaCare, which has its own partnership with Jefferson, is not participating. The state’s largest health care system was part of Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine’s unsuccessful bid to operate the school. In a joint statement from ChristianaCare and PCOM, the two organizations expressed disappointment with not being part of the consortium of higher education institutions and healthcare organizations.

“The path forward raises genuine questions about whether the school’s goals can be fully realized without ChristianaCare’s meaningful participation in its clinical training mission,” it said. “The success of any four-year medical program depends not just on an academic institution, but on a true and committed partnership with its clinical partners — one built on shared mission, mutual investment and trust developed over time.”

So. Delaware’s healthcare behemoth, which had already killed a Hospital Care Cost Containment Board, and had emasculated a piece of legislation that would have had a pretty significant impact on controlling hospital costs, is having a sad.  You’d think that they’d done enough to make healthcare less affordable and available for one legislation session.  You’d think wrong.  ChristianaCareCorporate is an enemy of progress.

One more thought.  Say what you want about Meyer–and I’ve said a lot–it sure helps to have a Governor who has the ‘vision thing’.  Beats merely occupying a vacant office because it’s there.

Delaware Adds Funding For Homeless Families:

Lawmakers on Delaware’s powerful Joint Finance Committee included an $800,000 line item into the state’s supplemental budget last week that would pay for homeless Delaware families with school-aged children to move into stable housing.

The introduction of the item – pushed by Rep. Kim Williams (D-Stanton) – followed an announcement last month from Delaware budget forecasters that the state would collect nearly $200 million more in revenue during the next fiscal year than previously estimated.

It also follows news from earlier this spring that Williams could face a primary election challenge from progressive Will Imbrie-Moore, whose platform calls for increases in affordable housing spending. Imbrie-Moore launched his candidacy in March, but has not yet officially filed as a candidate. 

In other words, Will has already had a positive impact on Delaware w/o having been elected yet.  

Williams said she decided to push the initiative forward after the nonprofit Action for Delaware’s Children reached out to her.

“These children and families often do not have a strong voice in the legislature, and we need to help them be that voice,” Williams said last month.

The newly budgeted housing money would help 50 Delaware families move out of shelters and motels and into rental housing. Lawmakers will pass the state’s operating, capital and supplemental budgets later this month.

Trump Dumps Unqualified National Security Head, Appoints Even More Unqualified National Security Head:

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) told reporters “we don’t need a weaponized” director of national intelligence when asked about President Trump’s appointment of Bill Pulte, the homebuilder and director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), to serve as acting head of the nation’s intelligence services.

Thune pointed out that Pulte, who has come under sharp criticism from Democrats for pulling up mortgage information to investigate Trump’s political opponents, would have to undergo the Senate confirmation process to permanently take over as director.

“If they nominate him to take the position permanently, he’ll have to go through a confirmation process and hearings and everything else, so we’ll see,” Thune told reporters.

When asked whether he has concerns that Pulte would “weaponize” the position given the role he has played during Trump’s second term in plumbing mortgage records to see whether Trump’s political adversaries have committed fraud, Thune said: “We don’t need a weaponized DNI; we need professionals there.”

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), the vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, blasted Pulte’s appointment to serve as acting director of national intelligence as a terrible choice.

“Americans have already seen Mr. Pulte use the powers of his office at the Federal Housing Finance Agency to pursue the president’s grievances and lend credibility to dubious prosecutions of President Trump’s perceived political opponents,” Warner said in a statement.

“Elevating him to oversee the Intelligence Community makes clear that this president is not looking for an intelligence leader who will follow the facts or speak truth to power, but rather someone who will be willing to shape intelligence around the president’s wishes, regardless of the cost to the American people,” he said.

Iowa May Elect A Democratic Governor–And Senator:

For Iowa Democrats, a decade-long drought may finally be coming to an end.

The economic turmoil of the past year-and-a-half has been felt acutely in Iowa, where the agriculture-heavy economy has been jolted by tariffs. Medicaid cuts in last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act are ransacking rural health facilities, Democrats say, and several clinics in the state have closed. And the Iran war has spiked prices for fertilizer and diesel — critical supplies for the farm state.

“You go into these rural communities, the word that I hear the most is ‘betrayal,’” Josh Turek, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, told POLITICO in an interview late Tuesday night after winning his primary. “We’re leading the nation in farm foreclosures. Farm suicide rates skyrocketing. And so the Trump signs and Trump flags are coming down, because they say we’ve been betrayed.”

Even some Republicans are sounding the alarm.

“The reality is, if voters do not trust Republican elected officials and candidates with the future of the economy, they’re not going to vote for them this November,” said Drew Klein, an Iowa-based regional vice president of Americans for Prosperity. “That is what is going to decide the election in November.”

Turek, a Paralympic gold medalist, cruised to victory Tuesday in the primary for U.S. Senate, a victory for national Democrats who backed his campaign and will be eager to support him in November. He’ll run statewide with Rob Sand, the current state auditor and rising star within the party, who ran unopposed in the gubernatorial primary.

Democrats’ optimism starts atop the ticket: Sand will take on Republican Zach Lahn, who won his primary with less than 40 percent of the vote over Trump-endorsed Rep. Randy Feenstra (R-Iowa).

Sand — an avid hunter who is the only statewide-elected Democratic official — has gained popularity in conservative Iowa for his independent, fiscally moderate streak. “They know him and trust him,” said Emma O’Brien, deputy campaign director for Sand. “He has bucked the Democratic Party and told them he disagrees where he has disagreed, and has given props to the other party when they do the right thing.”