~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Here’s what’s new on The Matterboard:

PAY ATTENTION ⚠️

The Iran war has cost Americans $88 billion so far, including $48 billion in higher gasoline costs, according to a Brown University tracker. That’s about $670 per household for a war now in its sixth month. President Trump’s desperation to find a way out is becoming farcical. On August 18 Trump posted a schlocky map of the Strait of Hormuz with the label, “New US Territory.” Iran responded with a social media post claiming that California is now Iranian territory. This is all fake juvenile bravado. Trump can’t end the war and we are paying the price.

Trump’s latest self-dealing scheme is a plan to turn his crypto firm, World Liberty Financial, into a bank. That will allow it to manage institutional money and take fees from anybody seeking to curry favor with the president. No US president has ever owned a major stake in a bank or attempted graft so brazenly.

[More: Trump’s biggest grift yet]

Another Democratic Socialist beat a more mainstream candidate in a prominent Congressional race. Angie Nixon upset polling favorite Alex Vindman to become the Democratic Senate nominee in Florida. That energized liberals—but made it far more likely Republicans will hold the seat. The Brookings Institution points out that far-left candidates aren’t that numerous, even if they get an outsized amount of attention. The risk for Democrats is that a handful of candidates that seem extremist to centrist swing voters tarnish the whole party.

MIGHT GET SPICY 🤔

ABC and its parent Disney are suing the Federal Communications Commission for threatening the network’s broadcast licenses. The FCC, headed by Trump ally Brendan Carr, went after ABC last year after relentless mocking of Trump by late-night host Jimmy Kimmel. The FCC told the network it planned to review eight ABC broadcast licenses at least two years earlier than scheduled, a clear threat to use federal power to prohibit ABC from broadcasting. ABC and Disney are now suing to stop the FCC’s early reviews.

The upshot is that Trump is trying to punish the network for airing content he disapproves of, with ABC fighting for its free speech rights. ABC should win. It will be a gloomy day if it doesn’t.

Facebook parent Meta is facing a landmark lawsuit alleging it deliberately tries to addict kids to content on Facebook and Instagram. Duh? Twenty-nine states, both red and blue, brought the suit, with the trial beginning on August 18. It will last about six weeks. If Meta loses, it might have to pay damages and put new limits on how children interact with its content.

[A Subaru Capitalist takes on the “Subaru Socialists”]

Trump threatened South Korea because it won’t join his military effort to topple the Iranian regime. He said the Pentagon will “substantially reduce” US military participation in what have long been joint US-Korea exercises.

As a reminder, the Korean War is not over. There’s been a ceasefire in place since 1953, so you might think, what’s the big deal. Except North Korea remains an extremely hostile dictatorship, tightly aligned with Russia, that has nuclear weapons it has threated use against the United States. If war breaks out again, it could destroy much of Seoul with artillery launched from thousands of tubes just north of the demilitarized zone.

If you wonder why we should care about South Korea, there’s a simple one-word answer: Semiconductors. South Korea produces roughly 15% of the world’s chips, which are already in short supply. Disrupt that and there’d be an economic earthquake.

Russian drones have been entering European airspace with alarming regularity, and intelligence reports say Russia is building several new drone bases near its border with eastern Europe. Russian dictator Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine is going badly—but that doesn’t mean he’s backing down. Putin may actually get bolder and more reckless as his Ukraine war deteriorates. He also knows Trump has riven the NATO military alliance. He probably won’t mount attacks on NATO countries, but he may well push provocations right up to the line that warrants some kind of NATO response.

RESULTS MAY VARY 🤷‍♂️

$4 gas is likely to irritate voters at least through the midterm elections. It now seems like a safe bet that Iran will disrupt Strait of Hormuz shipping till at least then, hoping to punish Trump and his fellow Republicans with election losses tied to war-related inflation. There’s no reason to think Trump can do anything to prevent it. If there’s any good news, it’s that gas prices aren’t heading toward $5. Under current conditions, energy-market workarounds have left prices elevated but not stratospheric.

[How Trump is missing his own economic targets]

People hate Flock surveillance cameras and have been destroying them. Flock makes a suite of surveillance products, powered by artificial intelligence, that can read license plates and gather other data on people’s cars, where they go, and what the occupants do in them. Municipalities have installed 120,000 Flock cameras systems, which alarms civil libertarians and pisses a lot of people off. The Washington Post documented at least 50 instances in which cops used Flock data to harass their exes or conduct other illicit activity. People have vandalized or stolen the devices in Detroit and other cities. There are online videos showing how to dismantle a Flock system. We don’t condone violence but the backlash seems appropriate.

Justice for Tupac? The trial is finally underway in the case involving the 1996 murder of rapper Tupac Shakur in Las Vegas. Prosecutors charged Duane Davis with the murder in 2023, after the Compton, Los Angeles gang leader bragged about ordering the drive-by shooting in documentaries and a memoir. Davis now says those boasts were a fictional effort to gain notoriety. We don’t have an opinion on whether he’s guilty, but any effort to solve a salacious 30-year-old celebrity murder gets our attention.

SAFELY IGNORE 🚫

Rising interest rates won’t affect most people today, but they signal stress in certain corners of the financial market and a reckoning, at last, for vast amounts of irresponsible government borrowing. Long-term interest rates recently hit the highest level since 2007, forcing a very unusual intervention on the bond market by the Treasury Dept. to bring rates back down. For now, this only affects consumers and businesses in the market for a loan, since they have to pay more. But if rates rise further, which is plausible, it could force stock prices down and generate recessionary pressure.

[The myth of the prosperous worker]

Trump threatened to bomb Oman, another runty overreaction to a nation unwilling to board the sinking ship that is Trump’s Iran strategy. Trump is not going to bomb Oman, because he can’t afford to make his Middle East quagmire even worse. But he’s unhappy that Oman, situated on the south side of the Strait of Hormuz, opposite Iran, is pursuing its own deal with Iran to manage ship traffic through the strait. It’s yet another ugly consequence of the war that Trump and his incompetent Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth, failed to anticipate.

Jackson Hole yawner. Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh will give a big speech in Wyoming on August 28, which financial news networks are sure to overhype. There’s a big financial conference in Jackson Hole every August and the Fed chair customarily gives an address. Once or twice, it has moved markets, which is why the media fixates on it. And Warsh, new to the job, still has to prove himself up to the task of getting inflation down.

[The double-haters’ guide to the midterm elections]

But it’s unlikely Warsh will make any actual news. Everybody knows the Fed is split on whether to raise interest rates. That decision won’t come until the Fed’s next policy meeting in mid September. Warsh is more likely to talk about arcane ways he wants to change the way the Fed does business. It might matter for some economists and traders, but not so much for the rest of us.

Harping on Natalie. Trump assistant Natalie Harp is suddenly one of the hottest topics on the internet. Harp is the 35-year-old blond woman who always seems to be by Trump’s side. She reportedly carries a portable printer so she can give Trump hard copies of any news story or social media post he wants to see. Harp was one of the three people who accompanied Trump when he snuck off Air Force One in the catering truck in Turkey on July 8. So Trump must consider her pretty important.

Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia said at a recent rally that Trump “doesn’t want to do the job [of President]. He wants to build his ballroom and travel with Natalie.” The insinuation was that Trump is having an affair with his aide. In response, Trump called Ossoff “Pee-Wee Herman.” That means Ossoff got under his skin.

We kinda doubt Trump is having an affair with Harp right under the glare of the White House press pool and the rest of the presidential entourage. But he might not mind if people think that. As for his wife Melania, she ought to know better than anybody about Trump’s ability to have a fling at the age of 80. And she hasn’t voiced any concern.

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Here’s what’s new on The Matterboard:

PAY ATTENTION ⚠️

The Iran war could last until 2029. Not kidding. A top Iranian official said recently, “Trump will not reach an agreement with us. We will accompany him until his term ends.” Analysts interpret that to mean Iran plans to string Trump along until he leaves office in 2029. That would mean continued harassment of Gulf energy shipments, and elevated energy prices, for another two-and-a-half years, unless Trump can find a way out.

If the war does simmer that long, however, energy markets will adapt and Iran’s leverage will decline. One expert at the Atlantic Council argues that Trump should calm down, maintain the oil blockade of Iran, and wait it out. Americans aren’t happy with $4 gasoline, but it’s not killing the economy, either. We’re already learning to live with the Iran situationship.

The Democratic Socialists rose from RESULTS MAY VARY to the PAY ATTENTION quadrant this week, mainly due to Abdul El-Sayed’s win in the Michigan Democratic Senate primary. El-Sayed says he’s not a socialist. But he’s in the Bernie Sanders camp, backing policies such as government-run health care.

We care less about El-Sayed’s policy views than his role as a GOP bogeyman and the odds that a few high-profile lefties will leave the Democrats’ brand more damaged than ever. President Trump calls El-Sayed a communist. El-Sayed is Muslim, and the Internet is filled with false claims that he wants to enact Sharia law in the United States. (Emphasis: false.)

A huge question in the 2026 elections is whether the growing slate of far-left Democrats on the ballot, socialist or otherwise, will energize young voters and create momentum for Democrats, or horrify centrists who flee to the other side. You can read more here about the Democratic Socialists’ awful branding problem.

MIGHT GET SPICY 🤔

Trump hiding in the catering truck. The memes are delightful (“Operation Iran Away”)😄. And we still don’t know some of the most important details. Is there a specialized presidential catering truck built to military specs? Or does the president of the United States have to ride in an off-the-shelf catering truck? Were there chairs? Or did Trump sit on the floor?

But still: The story of Trump sneaking off Air Force One on July 8 to secretly board another plane is pretty stunning. The Secret Service ordered the switcheroo because of reports that Iran might try to shoot down Air Force One as it left the NATO summit in Turkey, bound for home. There have already been at least two assassination attempts against Trump. The Iranians might not have gotten very far, but they’ve tried before and they’ll keep trying. Crazy times could get crazier.

[“The lousy, stinking politicians”]

Vaccine lunacy. If you don’t trust the government, good. Trump signed an executive order on August 10 reducing the list of recommended childhood vaccines from 18 to 11. He did that based on nothing except prodding by the kook Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., the laughably unqualified Secretary of Health and Human Services. If you take health advice from Trump and RFK Jr., god help you. Don’t listen to them! Just do what your doctor recommends.

RESULTS MAY VARY 🤷‍♂️

Trump’s approval rating keeps sinking. It hit 33% in the latest YouGov poll, with his net approval rating (approve minus disapprove) at -29. Both are record lows for Trump. The worst Joe Biden net approval was -23, and that was after Biden’s disastrous debate performance in June 2024. Trump is doing worse than Biden was at his most feeble.

Biden hurting. Hunter Biden says his father Joe’s prostate cancer is worsening and has spread to other parts of his body, most likely the bones. It’s not necessarily terminal, and Joe Biden continues to make public appearances. We put this on The Matterboard because it’s the first Biden health update in a while and we sincerely wish Biden well. For all his foibles as president, he was mostly decent and normal.

SAFELY IGNORE 🚫

Chipflation is something you’re likely to encounter eventually. The cost of DRAM memory components is expected to soar by 400% from the start of 2024 to the end of 2026, according to JP Morgan. That’s already raising the cost of flash drives and memory chips. It will probably start to push up the cost of smartphones, computers and other things that require chips, such as cars. We expect chipflation to rise higher on The Matterboard as it becomes more noticeable.

[The AI boom is just getting started]

You need to know about “The Zapper.” She’s a young White House staffer with a Barbie-style blank stare seen standing next to Trump at his White House desk, possibly for the sole purpose of zapping him back to life when he falls asleep. The theory is, she wears some kind of gizmo beneath her clothes and pushes a button when a nearby aide nods or gives her a signal. It then pings a vibrating device somewhere on Trump’s person, reviving him. Check it out here.

Look, it’s obviously probably not true, but The Zapper made The Matterboard because of the bizarre spectacle of Trump repeatedly nodding off with the cameras rolling. Any other president would do something, like take stimulants before boring TV events or just stop doing them. Trump is such a publicity-hog that he can’t say no to the cameras, even when he’s sleeping. Americans voted for this farce.

Leavitt Leaving. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt is leaving the job at the end of August to spend more time with her family. That excuse is a classic cover story when somebody screws up and needs to go, but Leavitt had a baby in May, so this may be one instance when it’s actually true. Another Trump loyalist will replace her and end up with the thankless job of covering for Trump’s mistakes and explaining his many inanities. Press secretaries come and go, and Leavitt’s departure would only be especially notable if it turns out she knows some huge controversy is brewing and wants to get out before the storm hits. Meanwhile, she’ll doubtless turn up as a talking head, probably on Fox.

AOC’s pregnancy plans. Why does Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez want everybody to know she’s freezing her eggs so she can still have a baby later in life? This is normally a private decision and we don’t need to know. But something’s going on with AOC, who is 36.

Around the time she posted a series of egg-freezing videos, it became public (deliberately leaked?) that she broke up with her fiancé a couple of years ago. Put them together, and the message is, she doesn’t have a family that might get in the way of her job, but she’s family-minded and hopes to have kids someday.

AOC also made news on Aug. 9 when she said on an ABC news show, “Woke 1.0 was crazy,” referring to the peak political correctness mania that occurrred around 2020.

AOC has senatorial and maybe presidential ambitions, and she’s disowning some of her most fiery leftist positions, such as defunding the police and bashing moderate Democrats. In a way, it’s a public version of how a passionate, radical-minded young person learns how the world works and becomes more rational. Is it AOK? We’ll find out if she ever needs the votes of people beyond her deep-blue Congressional district in New York City.

Enjoy a real cartoon.

You can order this cartoon👆 and play cartoon-themed puzzles and word games at CartoonStock.com.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Here’s what’s new on The Matterboard:

PAY ATTENTION ⚠️

The Iran war could last for months. Iranian officials told Reuters recently that they believe they can put the United States in a “strategic stranglehold” by continuing to threaten oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz. That will ultimately force President Trump to make a deal granting many Iranian demands, which will likely include some sort of prolonged control over the strait. The Iranian strategy is “calculated escalation” meant to increase economic and political costs for the United States and its allies. It already seems to be working.

Interest rates are rising because of inflation fears and loads of debt hitting the market, including ongoing massive borrowing by the US government. Mortgage rates have risen from 6% before the Iran war to 6.7%, the highest level in a year. The US Treasury recently engaged in an unusual effort with Japan meant to strengthen the yen without raising US interest rates even more. Trump wants low interest rates and they’re going in the opposite direction, in part because his own policies—tariffs and the Iran war—are exacerbating inflation. He expects new Federal Reserve chair Kevin Warsh to get rates lower. But Warsh may not be able to do it. Fireworks seem inevitable.

MIGHT GET SPICY 🤔

Iran is apparently trying to sabotage American infrastructure, to bring the US-Iran war home to ordinary Americans. Officials in Michigan, Minnesota and several other states have reported cyberattacks on water systems. There’s no evidence the attacks caused serious damage, but Iran is pretty good at cyberwarfare and national-security experts have long warned that US infrastructure could be vulnerable. China, Russia, and North Korea probably have similar capabilities.

US Central Command, responsible for military operations in the Middle East, is looking for better ways to deal with Iran. An unnamed CentCom officer sent an email to military analysts recently saying the military was looking for “creative and unconventional ways to pressure and punish Iran,” according to CNN. We have an idea: Get rid of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, the most senior civilian advising Trump on this debacle. Firing Hegseth would let Trump blame the whole fiasco on him and push the reset button. But only Trump can fire Hegseth, and alas, there’s no sign he’s leaning that way.

[Why markets are manic right now]

Four million Americans have lost food aid because of cutbacks in the tax law Trump signed last year. Some of them are kids. And further cutbacks are probably coming. The president of the Children’s Defense Fund told NPR some families are facing “desperation.” Republicans who structured the cutbacks added work requirements and other conditions, knowing it would reduce the amount of aid going out and free some money to help finance the tax cuts. The tax cuts benefit the wealthy more than anybody else. Something seems wrong here.

Todd Blanche is set to become attorney general, after he revoked the May order setting up a $1.8 billion slush fund Trump wanted to pay off allies. That was a condition some Republican senators set in order to vote for Blanche’s confirmation. So they’ve now cleared the way for him to become attorney general. But Trump didn’t sign the new Blanche order and there’s a good chance the slush fund isn’t dead. The Justice Dept. has become a politicized arm of Trump’s machine and Blanche seems unlikely to change that.

[What you should know about Trump’s new insider-trading scheme]

Trump blames ExxonMobil and Chevron for $4 gas. He said they’ve made “too much money” since the Iran war sent oil prices surging, and should “give some of that back to the public.” Joe Biden would be proud. Energy companies always earn more when oil prices rise. They earn less when oil prices fall, but nobody notices that. Politicians looking for scapegoats have tried to browbeat Big Oil into cutting prices many times, but it never works because private-sector companies answer to shareholders, not politicians. Oil and gas prices would fall if Trump resolved the Iran war.

RESULTS MAY VARY 🤷‍♂️

Trump’s approval rating has hit record lows, according to several polls. His approval rating ranges from 32% to 34% in surveys by CNN, the Associated Press, and Quinnipiac. Trump’s Iran war is deeply unpopular and he keeps doing things voters don’t want, such as raising tariffs on imports and making everybody pay more for stuff. Trump’s terrible ratings are the best hope Democrats have of winning one or both houses of Congress in the upcoming midterm elections.

Contaminated food is marring the summer of 2026. Two people in Michigan died from the cyclospora parasite that has poisoned lettuce and other vegetables and caused an epidemic of explosive diarrhea. And a salmonella outbreak linked to eggs has sickened a bunch of people in 17 states. Food illnesses affect relatively few Americans but do tend to freak some people out.

SAFELY IGNORE 🚫

Mitch McConnell is still missing, and he may even be too frail to sign his name, according to a Daily Beast report. The odd silence of his staff and family amid a long hospitalization makes it seem like the Kentucky Republican senator is gravely ill. We’ve pointed out before that if McConnell dies, Kentucky’s Democratic governor may try to appoint a member of his own party to temporarily replace McConnell.

[Why Trump’s approval rating is cratering]

A “nudification” ban took effect in Minnesota on August 1. The law prohibits the use of technology to “nudify” an image of somebody. One of Elon Musk’s companies sued to block the law, claiming it went too far. A judge shot that down. We live in interesting times.

Two skeevy Congressmen face uncertain futures. The House Ethics Committee rebuked Rep. Chuck Edwards, a North Carolina Republican, for what sounds like sexual harassment of young women on his staff. In Ohio, Rep. Max Miller, also a Republican, is facing calls to resign because of what sounds like abusive behavior toward his ex-wife, who is the daughter of Ohio Sen. Bernie Moreno. The two youngs had a contentious divorce, finalized last year, with the woman accusing Miller of abusing her and the two-year-old daughter they share. Moreno kept silent on the matter until August 2, when he said on social media that Miller is “erratic and dangerous” and should resign. Both of these guys are running for reelection in November.

The reflecting pool is back in the headlines, and we are delighted! Justice Dept. prosecutor Jeanine Pirro dropped the case against a 67-year-old Maryland man for “vandalizing” the pool because there was no evidence he did. Trump flipped out, because he’s clinging to the lie that vandals wrecked the pool rather than his no-bid contractors. Now, he might fire Pirro. The falsely accused Marylander might sue the government. Meanwhile, the pool is empty because the new lining didn’t work. This is one of the dumbest stories of all time and it perfectly encapsulates the folly of the Trump presidency.

FIFA flap. There’s a big controversy at soccer’s governing body, which everybody can ignore because Americans only care about soccer when their kids play or the World Cup comes to town.

Enjoy a cartoon.

You can order this cartoon👆 and play cartoon-themed puzzles and word games at CartoonStock.com.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Here’s what’s new on The Matterboard:

PAY ATTENTION ⚠️

The Iran war is likely to continue for months. President Trump can’t find an exit ramp and Iran seems intent on threatening shipping in the Strait of Hormuz at least until the US midterm elections in November. Expect gasoline prices to stay in the $4 range for at least that long.

Ukraine has newfound mojo in its war with Russia and its barbaric leader Vladimir Putin. Ukraine has been battering Russia’s energy infrastructure with drone strikes and bringing the impact of the war back home to ordinary Russians. President Volodymyr Zelensky’s July 28 meeting with Trump was private and “productive,” according to news reports—a complete 180 compared with the performative dressing down of Zelensky at the White House last year. Trump seems to be realigning himself with what may ultimately be the winning side in this ghastly war.

The Russian energy crisis is becoming a global problem. Russia has banned the export of some petroleum products, worsening the supply crunch caused by Trump’s Iran war. Russia needs the cash from energy exports, so it will start exporting again as damaged facilities come back online. Ukraine will keep at it.

Wildfires are everywhere. Dozens of Canadian fires are still burning, while France and Spain are now dealing with an unusual spate of fires fueled by unprecedented heat waves. Yes, it’s global warming. We’ve set our own biosphere on fire.

MIGHT GET SPICY 🤔

The Pentagon is running drastically short of defensive weapons meant to shoot down missiles and drones, thanks to the Iran war and gaps in the military-industrial complex. This is an alarming vulnerability undoubtedly noted by adversaries such as China and Russia. Drones are cheap and easy to build by the thousands. Interceptors are expensive and complex. Asymmetric warfare is here to stay.

Journalist Kurt Andersen has a novel coming out in which Trump dies at the age of 89 and his supporters deem it a deep-state assassination. Riots ensue. Seems plausible.

The Federal Reserve is unlikely to raise interest rates until September at least. Rate-hike odds are getting more attention than necessary.

[See the Democratic Socialists’ awful branding problem]

Circular financing is unnerving investors who think big companies helping finance purchases by their own customers is a risky move that could backfire, as it did during the dot-com bust in the early 2000s. Nvidia, Alphabet, Anthropic, OpenAI and other tech firms are inking these types of deals. The risk is that a slump at one company could affect others and create a systemwide wipeout.

RESULTS MAY VARY 🤷‍♂️

The singularity is here, according to Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI. That means AI is surpassing human intelligence in its ability to self-improve and assert control. To many, this sounds like a nightmare right out of science fiction. Altman thinks it’s a good thing, and will improve life for humans.

Drones are operating as police officers in China and other repressive places. In a social-media video that went viral, a drone hovers over a man in the ocean surf in Qingdao because he violated a nighttime ban on swimming. The drone shines a spotlight on the man while a voice on a loudspeaker tells him to get out of the water. Drones also handle traffic incidents in some Chinese cities and even give out tickets for infractions.

Space evangelicals want to put a religious cross on the moon by 2030. The cross would have to be made of titanium and be drilled into the moon’s surface. The “Cross on the Moon Coalition” hopes to convert SpaceX CEO Elon Musk to its cause so the cross can hitch a ride to the moon on one of Musk’s rockets. The moon-cross people are Trump supporters.

[Americans feel pinched, so Trump piles on with more tariffs]

SAFELY IGNORE 🚫

Where’s Mitch? That’s the latest parlor game in Washington, DC, where Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has been unseen for 45 days. McConnell, who’s 84, apparently had a heart attack at his DC home on June 14, and has been hospitalized ever since. It’s not weird that an eightysomething is in the hospital. What’s weird is that his family and staff won’t say what’s going on with a high-profile elected official. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat, has called on McConnell to “verbally address” the public, as if to demonstrate proof of life.

The measles illness is having a banner year, with more than 2,300 cases reported so far in the United States in 2026. That tops the tally for all of last year. Measles was essentially eradicated in the US until anti-vaxxers started shunning the vaccine. The current outbreak is the worst since at least 1991. Humanity sometimes regresses.

Mick Jagger was prescient in 1966 when he wrote about what a drag it is getting old. Mick has been doing interviews to promote the new Rolling Stones album, and describing how he dislikes aging. “There’s nothing good about it,” he told the New York Times. The interviewer asked, what about acquiring wisdom? “You don’t get wisdom,” Mick explained. “You forget everything. I forgot all my wisdom.” Worth a listen.

Former Covid czar Anthony Fauci kept a diary during the pandemic, and Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky somehow got ahold of more than 1,000 pages and released them publicly. In the diaries, the government’s former top infectious diseases specialist mused about his fame and his connections with celebrities such as Barbra Streisand. He expressed doubts about the severity of federal Covid safety guidelines and his own theory that the virus emerged from an animal market in China. Fauci retired in 2022 at the age of 82. He’s still an oddly divisive figure, for a doctor.

Cracker Barrel CEO Julie Masino is leaving next month, which seems to be the last act in a silly rebranding drama that began last year. The schlocky chain redid its logo last August and removed the old guy sitting on a rocking chair, which enraged a large segment of the US population with nothing better to do than cling to nostalgia. So the chain put the old man back. But that wasn’t enough and a head needed to roll. Why anybody cares remains a mystery.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

This week’s Matterboard has ten new items, three modifications, and three items carried over from last week. Here’s what’s new:

WORTH PAYING ATTENTION TO:

The Iran war is hot again, with US and Iranian forces shooting at each other and Iran attacking the occasional tanker in the Strait of Hormuz. One new development: The Houthi militia in Yemen says it will block Saudi oil shipments from transiting the Red Sea, which creates another flashpoint. Oil is back up to $90 per barrel and gas is once again above $4 per gallon. Diesel is $5.14, which will raise the cost of food and other products. The Iran war is a mess and this on-and-off pattern could persist for months. The Council on Foreign Relations has this nice Iran war tracker.

More ICE controversy. A man started a gasoline fire at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in New York on July 20, apparently to protest ICE’s thuggish actions and at least two killings its agents have committed in recent weeks. We don’t condone violent protests. But ICE is a rogue police force that brings unwanted attention to itself. Cleaning it up is the best way to deter attacks on federal workers.

Russia’s energy crisis is becoming the world’s problem. Russia has stopped exporting diesel, because Ukrainian attacks on its energy infrastructure have created shortages at home. Russian motorists queue for hours and sometimes days to fuel their vehicles. The diesel export ban could cut global supplies by 6% or 7% at a time the US-Iran war is already straining supply. The energy crisis is far from over, and it will continue to fuel broader inflation.

[Check out the price of gasoline around the world]

Canadian wildfires are still burning, even though the smoke that hung over much of the United States in mid-July has dissipated. Global warming has made wildfires hotter, bigger and more destructive. The fire season also lasts longer. President Trump wants to punish Canada for its fires, but many are in inaccessible places where the only choice is to let them burn. Smoky summer air seems to be an unpleasant new fact of life. Here’s a web site you can bookmark showing where the wildfire smoke is.

MIGHT GET SPICY:

GOP midterm cheating will stress-test the US electoral system in November. Trump’s July 17 speech on election integrity was filled with falsehoods, and independent monitors consider the US election system very secure. What Trump is trying to do is raise public doubt about election security, because he’s planning — what, exactly? — in November. Maybe he just expects Republicans to lose, and is establishing an excuse. But it could be something more nefarious, like sending federal agents to seize ballots in close races.

[The double-haters’ guide to the midterm elections]

New York police might arrest Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he visits New York City in September for the UN’s annual meeting, Mayor Zohran Mamdani said recently. That’s because Mamdani and many of his supporters consider Netanyahu a war criminal for Israeli military action in Gaza that has harmed Palestinians. This seems like a dumb idea that Mamdani won’t follow through on. Israel’s treatment of Palestinians is troubling, but it’s not a US mayor’s job to resolve it. Just fix the potholes, dude. And the rent.

Cheap AI products from China are the latest worry roiling the artificial-intelligence boom. Cheap AI models could undercut offerings from Google, Anthropic, OpenAI and the like, making it even harder for these “hyperscalers” to get a return on the hundreds of billions of dollars they’re investing in AI. On the plus side, cheaper AI would be good for consumers and the makers of chips and other equipment Chinese AI models need just as other models do.

[The Weekly WTF: President shouts, nobody listens]

$4 gas is irritating drivers anew and causing more midterm election problems for Trump and his fellow Republicans. Trump obviously wants gas prices closer to $3 as Americans prepare to vote in the fall. Iran gets a say and they’d love to punish Trump by keeping gas prices high as long as possible. Iran, for now, has the advantage.

RESULTS MAY VARY:

The Trump tariffs are returning. Trump rolled out new 50% tariffs on some Canadian imports and he’s planning broader tariffs on imports from many countries. There will be lawsuits. Meanwhile, the import taxes will stoke inflation and convince more voters that Trump is crazy to risk making inflation worse in the months before an election.

Trumpy MAGA Republicans are losing heart, according to Washington insider Sally Quinn. “The MAGA Republicans don’t seem to be having such a good time ransacking the place anymore,” Quinn wrote in the New York Times on July 19. She cites Trump’s garish cage matches on the White House lawn on June 14 as a jump-the-shark moment.

Elon Musk is no longer a trillionaire. That’s because the share price of his company SpaceX has dropped to $128, a 37% decline from its peak of $201 just a couple days after it went public in June. Musk owns nearly half of the company, and the drop in the share price has cut his net worth from a peak of $1.4 trillion in June to around $800 billion. Seems like enough.

SAFELY IGNORE:

“The Odyssey,” starring Matt Damon as one of the world’s first protagonists, is a welcome change in what has become a fairly gloomy Hollywood narrative. People are going to the theater to see a blockbuster instead of waiting for it to stream. Plus, people are talking about a 2,800-year-old literary epic and maybe even reading it. One movie won’t change America’s viewing habits, but it’s a refreshing effort.

[The new stock-market trade you should know about]

Contaminated lettuce has sickened thousands and made many others queasy just by thinking about it, since the cyclospora parasite probably got on the leaves from irrigation water contaminated with human feces. But it’s not as bad as salmonella or E. coli, which can be deadly. Most of the bad lettuce has probably been consumed or trashed, so this could be over soon.

Andy Burnham is Britain’s new prime minister, and we bet you can’t name the three PMs who preceded him (answer below1). Some Europeans don’t understand why we have to wait four years for a chance to get rid of Donald Trump. Americans, meanwhile, wonder why parliamentary leaders in Europe come and go like the seasons. At least the royalty sticks around for a while.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

This week’s Matterboard has 11 new items, plus seven carryovers from last week. We ditched Reflecting Pool Follies and eight other items. We’re disappointed that the courageous algae in the National Mall’s reflecting pool have fallen from the headlines, and we hope they come roaring back. But other stuff has pushed them aside.

Here’s a rundown of the Matterboard, by quadrant:

WORTH PAYING ATTENTION TO:

The Iran situationship is an urgent matter once again, as both the US and Iran have resumed attacks on each other. Oil prices have jumped once more, to around $83 per barrel. This could go on for months.

Trump’s self-dealing suffered a setback on July 13 when a federal judge voided the “deal” Trump made with the IRS in May to shield himself from future tax prosecution and set up a fund to compensate allies. The judge referred Todd Blanche, acting attorney general, and another man who is Trump’s personal lawyer to their state bar associations for possible disciplinary action for ethical misconduct. Blanche is up soon for Senate confirmation hearings for the AG job, the nation’s top law-enforcement position. Perfect.

More ICE killings. Immigration agents have killed two more people, one in Maine and another in Texas. That’s at least nine people shot by immigration officials in the last two years. This is a rogue force similar to the internal security thugs that operate in countries like Iran.

Russia is taking a beating, as Ukraine attacks energy facilities deep inside Russia, oil tankers on the high seas, and logistical hubs deep in the battlefield’s rear. Russians have to wait hours and sometimes days for gasoline. Ukraine isn’t necessarily winning, but Russian dictator Vladimir Putin is bringing disaster on his country as the costs of the war hit home.

Job growth is middling and consumers say the job market stinks. With the midterm elections less than four months away, it matters more than usual.

CNN’s future is hazy, given that David Ellison’s Paramount Skydance is due to take over CNN parent Warner Brothers Discovery by the end of September. That’s the same company that recently took over CBS and is now wreaking havoc at CBS News. But there could be a white knight coming for CNN. The attorneys general of 12 states sued to stop the merger, which the Trump administration has already approved. If the deal isn’t done by Sept. 30, Paramount has to start paying financial penalties. Maybe the 12 AGs are hoping to stop the merger simply by delaying it and making Paramount pay.

MIGHT GET SPICY:

GOP midterm cheating will stress-test the US electoral system in November. Trump’s latest effort to rig the election is the firing of all three commissioners at an agency that helps states with federal elections, leaving the agency leaderless.

World Cup video reviews risk marring the splendid tournament, after a goofy overturned call in the Argentina-Switzerland quarterfinal tilted the game toward Argentina. Mystified Americans new to soccer learned one important thing: Video reviews are as tedious in soccer as they are in American football.

The AI stock bubble hasn’t burst yet, but manic swings in semiconductor stocks suggest something crazy is afoot.

$4 gas is coming back, now that the Iran war is hot again and oil prices are surging. Trump desperately wants this to be over by November. Iran desperately wants it not to be.

E. Jean Carroll finally received $5.63 million from President Trump, three years after a jury awarded her the payout as compensation for sexual assault and defamation. Trump tried and failed to get the verdict overturned. Worth noting: Trump complied with a judge’s order to pay the money, in the end.

RESULTS MAY VARY:

The Trump tariffs are still there. His latest scheme was to place 20% tariffs on all cargo shipments leaving the Hormuz Strait, a wacky idea that barely lasted a day. Wherever there’s a problem, Trump sees a tariff.

Nearly a dozen candidates calling themselves Democratic socialists could be heading to Congress this year. It’s astonishing they can’t come up with better branding.

Trump calls it a “big yawn,” but a new housing law passed by Congress could eventually help lower costs for people who aren’t billionaires. Trump didn’t sign the law, but he didn’t veto it either. He just did nothing, and it became law by default. Trump boycotted the signing because he’s pissed Congress won’t pass a separate voting law that could make it harder to vote. We don’t get it either.

The Super Bowl-champ Seattle Seahawks are now the nation’s most valuable sports franchise, fetching a $9.6 billion bid from venture capitalist Vinod Khosla. The bubble in NFL franchises has been going on way longer than the AI bubble.

The Qatari version of Air Force One lacks the security systems of the regular Air Force version, as the New York Times reported on July 8. Trump is so embarrassed by the failures of his luxury jet that his Justice Dept. issued subpoenas to the Times reporters, trying to compel them to reveal their sources. The real villain is the vainglorious Trump, who never should have accepted the Qatari jet or spent hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars trying to retrofit it to presidential standards.

SAFELY IGNORE:

The death of Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina is sad and unfortunate, and it will make a difference in the interplay between Congress and the Trump White House. But it won’t change the balance of power in the Senate, given that South Carolina is a deep-red state that will undoubtedly replace him with another Republican. For ordinary people parsing the news, there’s not much upshot, except that one of Trump’s most vocal defenders will no longer fill the TV screen.

The share price of Elon’ Musk’s rocket company SpaceX has been sliding for nearly a month. The company went public on June 12 at $135 per share, and peaked at $202 a few days later. But it’s now at $136, basically where it started—a bit of schadenfreude for Musk’s many critics.

Trump has a primetime speech scheduled for July 16. He actually wants to talk about election fraud in 2020, even though there wasn’t any. Yes, we have to endure nearly three more years of this. 😞

Okay sure, some people can, and do. But The Pinpoint Press is for normies, and a big part of our mission is telling you what matters and what doesn’t, to help optimize the fact-to-fluff ratio of the news you consume.

So we’ve created The Matterboard, our weekly assessment of what’s worth your attention and what isn’t. The Matterboard features four quadrants, as you’ll see below. We’re ranking the news based on how important we think it is—the stakes— and how long we think it will matter—the duration.

You might disagree with our assessments or feel like we missed something on the political-economic spectrum. Let us know! Sound off in the comments below, in the Substack notes app, or by sending an email.

We’ll summarize our entries each week by quadrant, starting with what’s most important. Here’s the list as of 7.7.2026, which includes the Graham Platner meltdown in Maine, Trump’s startling intervention in the World Cup, and the rise of the new Democratic socialists:

WORTH YOUR ATTENTION (upper right quadrant):

Ukraine pounding Russia. The Russia-Ukraine war was static for a long time, but Ukraine has found new ways to destroy energy infrastructure deep inside Russia and cause President Vladimir Putin a lot of domestic pain. It could mark a turning point.

Trump’s self-dealing. Roughly 1 million Trump supporters lost $3.8 billion buying the president’s scammy memecoin after he took office last year, demonstrating that Trump will dupe anybody. Even some diehard Trumpers are losing faith as his overall approval rating tanks.

[The Weekly WTF: Icky presidential bedroom]

Iran situationship. There’s a patchy ceasefire, but Iran has shown it is likely to harass ships targeting the Strait of Hormuz for a long time, as it seeks greater control over the whole Persian Gulf region. This could still be going on by the time the next president takes office.

WAIT AND SEE (upper-left quadrant):

Republican efforts to steal the midterm elections. Trump has sent FBI agents to intimidate election workers in Georgia and threatened many other moves to “take over” the November midterms. There are a lot of safeguards, but Trump may still attempt the most brazen election fraud in memory.

Fried oysterman. The Senate Democratic nominee in Maine, Graham Platner, is a plain-speaking oysterman who seemed like a rising star—until an ugly past caught up with him. Now, new allegations of rape have likely doomed his campaign. Dems thought they had a chance to flip the seat long held by Republican Susan Collins, but now they don’t even know who their candidate will be in November. If you’re a political geek, there will be no end of what-went-wrong analyses. For everybody else, the takeaway is: A new Democratic candidate might have a better chance of beating Collins if he or she carries less baggage.

The AI stock bubble. Is there one? Wall Street is split, but if it bursts and the stock market tanks, some worry about a replay of the dot-com bust of the early 2000s. The broader concern is that the huge AI buildout is holding up much of the economy at the moment.

[This is how the AI bubble could burst]

Birthright citizenship outrage. Some extremist Republicans are aghast that the Supreme Court recently upheld birthright citizenship, which has been enshrined in the Constitution since 1868. They want Congressional action to change this right, and some are calling for a ban on pregnant foreigners entering the country, to make sure they can’t give birth on US soil. We think these attack dogs have lost their minds and will soon find something else to bark at.

MEH (lower-right quadrant):

The Trump tariffs. They’ve fallen out of the news since the Iran war and the Trump energy crisis set the whole world on edge. But many Trump tariffs are still intact and his team of protectionists is plotting new ones. Trump will probably keep at it through his entire term.

[The Trump economy is barely improving]

The AI job apocalypse. It keeps not happening. We’re watching for it in every bit of data, but like many economists we also expect AI to create whole new categories of work and innovation.

Congressional housing bill. Congress passed a bipartisan bill meant to improve housing affordability on June 23, and it might actually do some good, over time. Trump, however, has refused to sign it, because he wants Congress to pass other legislation first. If Trump does nothing, the bill will become law soon—but Trump may not get any credit for it.

More Democratic socialists. A handful of Democrats identifying as “socialist” have won primary elections this year and are likely heading to Congress. We’re no fans of socialism, but the numbers are small and the real message these outsiders convey is anti-incumbency. Besides, the Democratic brand is such a wreck that an energized group of outsiders might make it better, not worse.

SAFELY IGNORE (lower-left quadrant):

Trumpflation. We think the rapid drop in energy prices during the last month will bring overall inflation lower and render market concerns about elevated inflation overblown. That won’t solve the affordability crisis, which is a long-term erosion in earning power for millions of Americans. That means Trump’s approval ratings on the economy will likely remain dismal, even if inflation falls—exactly the same thing that happened to President Joe Biden.

Hawkish Federal Reserve. See above. If inflation subsides, the Fed won’t have to raise interest rates this year, as the market currently expects. We think the Fed generates way too much chatter.

Elon Musk in your retirement plan. Musk’s company SpaceX is now part of the NASDAQ 100 index, which means it will be part of index funds that track the NASDAQ. Honestly, so what. If you own index funds, you also own shares of tobacco companies, fossil-fuel drillers and defense contractors. And the S&P 500 index, much more widely followed than that NASDAQ, won’t admit SpaceX for a long time.

[America 250 isn’t as grim as it seems]

World Cup bonhomie. There was poetic justice in Team USA’s loss to Belgium after Trump intervened with FIFA to overturn the one-game suspension of a star American player. The Americans lost anyway, which means the World Cup tournament can once again delight fans without the stench of political interference. The tourney is clearly a feel-good experience for everybody following it, and America, for once, seems like a gracious host. Enjoy it while it lasts.

Crypto winter. At around $64,000, bitcoin has fallen by 50% from its all-time high last October. Trump’s involvement in crypto may have been more like a kiss of death than any kind of endorsement, since it made the whole enterprise seem scammier than ever.

Apple price hikes. Apple stock fell 6% on June 25 after it announced price hikes of a couple hundred dollars on iMacs and iPads. Guess what: It has gained it all back, and then some. Underscores our point that financial media trumpets big moves and trends as they happen, but doesn’t always follow up to tell you what happened next.

Maxxing trends. First it was looks-maxxing, then came body-maxxing, sleep-maxxing, nonna-maxxing, vice-maxxing, and many other types of maxxing. Cliche alert: Too much maxxing. 86 maxxing.

Reflecting pool follies. We love the battle between Trump and the determined algae in the National Mall reflecting pool, who have become so famous that many tourists in the nation’s capital now stop by to see how they’re doing. We plan to milk this story for as long as it delivers delightful absurdity. But we know in our heart of hearts that this is news about nothing and when the weather cools in the fall, Trump will win. Still, the algae have already punched well above their weight. ^🫡

Enjoy a cartoon.

You can order this cartoon👆 and play cartoon-themed puzzles and word games at CartoonStock.com.