05/20/26
Good morning! It’s Wednesday, May 20th.
National Band Director’s Day
This one goes out to my Uncle Russ… (just the day. I don’t think he’d enjoy it if I was like – and all the news and devastation and corruption – this is all dedicated to you Uncle Russ!)
And now, the news.
Update: Iran
-via ABC News
Starting in Iran where, after seven failed votes, the Senate, on a 50-47 vote, has narrowly advanced a war powers resolution that would finally limit Trump’s power in Iran, resolving that Trump must “remove U.S. Armed Forces from hostilities within or against Iran unless a declaration of war or authorization to use military force for such purpose has been enacted."
AKA – per the Constitush, Congress declares war. You have literally put us in a Constitutional crisis here (again) with this and you need to either bring our troops home or allow Congress to vote on this war.
But don’t think this thing is done and dusted. This was simply the procedural vote, which only needed a simple majority to pass. It now heads to the floor, where it needs a filibuster-proof majority (60 thumbs up) to actually pass.
It was hard enough to get 50. It’s going to be dang near impossible to get 60.
So in other words… as always, the Republicans are just going to let Trump do anything he wants.
DOJ Ends IRS Investigation
-via Axios
Speaking of… after that $1.776 billion slush fund that was created on Monday (by the way - $1.776 – 1776. I didn’t even notice that because it’s just SO lame), we also have now learned that the IRS is "forever barred and precluded" from ever being about to charge Trump, or his ding dong sons, with any crimes they did, prior to Monday.
It’s not that no one can, but the IRS can’t.
So again… Trump, while the sitting president, sued his own government. Then retracted that suit and in exchange created a slush fund to pay out insurrectionists that did insurrection on his behalf and then also he now has the added bonus of never having to worry about the IRS charging him with a crime for his entire life leading up to Monday, May 18th, 2026.
And you KNOW he did a lot of money crimes. A lot of other types of crimes too, but money specifically.
And again… Trump voters are going to be totally cool with all of this.
What a world. What a wildly upside-down world.
Election Night
-via NY Times
Speaking of all that corruption…
It was election night on Tuesday! There was no corruption there! Relax!
But I used that segue because, on Tuesday, Trump threw his support because Texas Senate candidate Ken Paxton and that dude is crazy corrupt. Their election wasn’t on Tuesday but just… leave me alone, the segue worked and those two are quite the pair.
Anyway, it was election night on Tuesday and the big headline was that Republican House Rep Thomas Massie, who has become a thorn in Trump’s side because he’s dared to speak out against the president, lost his primary. This is a significant bummer because if we’re going to have to deal with Republicans, and we are because even though obviously we need to take back the House and Senate, in theory a multi-party system is the best way to run a government (it’s just that right now we don’t really have that. We have the Democrats, other parties, and a cult) and it’s we’re going to have to deal with Republicans, I’d obviously much rather argue on policy than whether it’s okay that the president is on a pedophilia’s list. Ya know?
In Georgia, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who was running for governor, lost his primary. You may remember Raffensperger as one of the people who Trump called to ask if he could just find a few more votes in the couch cushions or wherever and Raffensperger released the call.
To be clear, while Raffensperger did a good thing, he still also did a ton of voter suppression that ultimately helped Trump and Republicans. But obviously that call angered Trump and Trump threw his support behind his opponent.
Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville, who once blocked all promotions for senior military members for ten months because he was so upset that the military reimbursed for abortions, won his primary in his race for governor.
Something else about Tuberville is that he was once asked if white nationalists should be allowed to serve in the military, and he said the Biden administration called them white nationalists. "I call them Americans."
After that interview, his own brother said he keeps his distance because of Tommy’s "ignorant, hateful rants" and "vile rhetoric."
CNN's Kaitlan Collins asked him about his earlier comments on white nationalists, defining them as "someone who believes that the white race is superior to other races". He called that an "opinion” before denying that white nationalists are inherently racist.
The next day he had to admit they are, obviously, racists. (I’m adding the word obviously, because OBVIOUSLY they are.)
And uh… yeah those are the big races from Tuesday.
And that’s it. That’s the news.
I mean, honestly, this DOJ slush fund this is HUGE news. Plus the election. Plus everyone’s making a very big deal about the war powers resolution (I guess so they can make a big deal when it doesn’t pass?)… not much room for oxygen elsewhere.
But because I’ve got nothing but oxygen for you, and because you’re never just hot air… I’m proud of you.