Edition #1150

Friday. The end of another week. Seems to happen every seven days or so.

“Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government measure.” Milton Friedman, quoted in the Vermont Daily Chronicle. And I would add, as a corollary of that, a one-time tax.

I am sure that this is the straw, that proverbial one that makes all things come crashing down, no? Capital One closed close to four hundred accounts that were connected to Trump and his family for violating, or suspected of violating, anti-money laundering laws. I mean, the Republicans have been all over this one as soon as…wait, I am just hearing from my newsroom, and…no, we hear only crickets from the law and order, drain the swamp, look at Hunter crowd. I can hear it now…”Where are the indictments? Where are the convictions?” As if that mattered with Hunter & Joe, and even when there are indictments and convictions or judgments, it is chalked up to biased judges, corrupt prosecutors, and, of course, the deep state, whatever the fuck that is supposed to mean. But the reality seems to be that at least one financial institution was concerned enough about what was passing through their institution that they said enough. But this is all of little concern for those who decided, long ago, that there was no bridge too far.

So my “Gym Talk” Nuggets are always about something that happened at the gym I go to…Iron Lab Fitness in Encino, the only place anyone should ever go to work out, just saying. But I read something about a movement, if I can extend it that way, that I had to write about under the Gym Talk heading. And what is it that would lead me to do this? A growing trend towards male-only gyms. And who would want this? Apparently Christian men who are not comfortable with having “female nakedness shoved in my face” or “who are looking for “lust-free” environments. And I am not sure where these guys have been going to work out, but I have yet to encounter a gym where women are shoving their nakedness in my face, or exercising in a lustful way. And the temptations of women that the owner of Proverbs 27:17 Fitness is attempting to escape in order to become the “warrior-king spiritual leader” that he envisions his god demands will not be excised by doing another rep or two out of the eyesight of the fairer sex. And fuck it. Let’s be honest…no, let’s not.

Honestly, there is a lot to make fun of in this Nugget, but the truth is scary as fucking hell. As we all know, Trump and his team have had little to no luck in getting the Iranians to admit that they lost the war in the first hour or two, and that the Iranians have no option but to acquiesce to our every demand. And the back-and-forth “we will end your civilization” or “we will bomb every one of your power plants, desalination plants, bridges” or “we will bomb you back to the stone age” or even “we will stop bombing because you are begging us to” has just not worked at all. Maybe because Trump always makes up a reason to not follow through with his over-the-top threats in a perverse reversal of Roosevelt’s “speak softly and carry a big stick.” But now, in what I had to Google several times to confirm before I would believe it, Trump’s military team is crowdsourcing for a creative plan to end the Iran war. In other words, they are flailing and have no idea of how to get out of the pile of shit that they created on their own. Crowdsourcing…seriously, that is how our government is being run now.

…………………Predictable Unpredictability –

In this latest article by Michael Koplow, of the Israel Policy Forum, the predictability of Trump’s unpredictability is now fully exposed for all to witness and use to their own advantage. Rather than mercurial, Trump’s irrationality is strictly impulsive, self-enriching, reactionary, and completely expected. The Iranians know that Trump can rant and threaten, but if the Iranians sit still, Trump will fold, will change course, will lie about some negotiations or whatever, and in the end, they look to push any final deal in their favor. For instance, Trump’s latest “a deal for opening the Strait is almost done” is really a formalization of the end of the Strait of Hormuz being international waters subject to freedom of navigation. Not a deal that in any way favors the US. Quite the opposite. If Hormuz is now territorial waters of Iran and Oman, then the Bab el-Mandeb at the bottom of the Red Sea will become Yemen’s to control, the strait between China and Taiwan will be China’s, and on and on. After over two hundred years of the US enforcing freedom of navigation around the world, for our own benefit, not others, Trump is willing to let all that slip away to soothe his ego.

The definition of a rigged system is any system that does not allow you to get your way all of the time. That is what I take away from almost any discussion with friends and associates. Be it a commercial endeavor or a governmental policy, if there are barriers in the way, the system is obviously rigged. It does not matter if the obstacles were the result of multiple layers of well-meaning policies that act to make something that much harder, even if created by your own side. The system is rigged. But many systems are intentionally created to make getting things done hard. Our constitutional order here in the United States is one example of that principle. Everything about how our government operates was intended to make it hard to get things done. Actually, it was intended to make it impossible to get anything done without consensus and compromise with those you disagree with. Setting up a system that allows one side, or just a simple majority, to get their way entirely would violate everything the framers of our Constitution envisioned. Almost no one likes this fact. Trump certainly chafes under that structure. The DSA is attempting to rebel against it (with their policies to abolish the presidency and the Senate and the Electoral College). The voices calling for terminating the filibuster (although not in the Constitution) see it as an obstacle to simple majority rule. Instead, it is instrumental in preventing the back and forth of policies that would result from each succeeding administration repealing that of the last to implement their own. Our system is intended to prevent radical change in favor of incremental changes that are borne of negotiation and compromise. And yes, that prevents extremists and radicals from taking over the system. And those changes are exactly what we see the Trump administration doing now, and what we hear the DSA chanting in their attempt to change a system that, on the whole, has worked pretty well for all of us.

A few days ago, the second stage of an old SpaceX rocket crashed into the Moon. Back in January 2025, a Falcon 9 rocket launched a few probes towards the Moon, and in order to do that, the rocket used up all of its fuel with none left to direct it back to Earth (to burn up in the atmosphere) or to obtain a stable orbit. So an eccentric orbit that flew far out was where it ended. But over time, with other factors affecting its journey, it ended up crashing into the Moon in the wee hours of Wednesday morning. Images are beginning to come in from satellites orbiting the Moon, but none from Earth-bound telescopes. But studying this incident is not just cool, as crashes always are. To the extent that we are to have a permanent manned presence on the Moon in the future, the ejecta from such impacts on the Moon could become critical to survival. How does the surface material react to the impact? What angle and speed does it fly off at? How do the pieces break apart? How does a spacesuit protect its occupant from a catastrophic failure? Same for whatever habitats that are being used. So NASA and other space agencies around the world are interested in obtaining as many images of this as they can. And as for me, I just hope to see some cool pictures.

Well, have a good weekend. I am sure nothing will have changed when we meet again. For better and worse. Stay healthy and be good to each other.

Me.