Just wanted everyone to know that I won’t be seeking the Democratic Party nomination for U.S. Senate in my home state of Maine.

Is Chuck Schumer still alive?

So the Camelot Cult takes another well-justified hit.

Why aren’t more progressive parents naming their children Adlai?

Here’s an example of what the maritime trade analysts call “front loading”. It’s the practice of getting your orders delivered before tariffs or transport charges go up. Christmas, for those keeping score at home, is six months away.

Conservative California business organization backs Democrat for governor.

96 years ago today, President Herbert Hoover signed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act into law.

Happy Bloomsday! Today’s menu is the inner organs of beasts and fowls, eaten with relish.

Okay, folks: The big El Niño update is now out on Weather West! This sure looks like it's going to be a dramatic year from a global climate perspective, and there are major implications for extreme events (across California, the U.S. West, & well beyond).

U.S. foreign trade statistics for the month of April are expected to be released by the Commerce Department tomorrow morning. April is normally the month each year when trade data are revised and updated. Cue the trolls who will argue the numbers have been rigged.

April U.S. foreign trade statistics arrive on Tuesday.

Daddy, did the U.S. have an Attorney General between Bill Barr and Pam Bondi? Yes, Susie, his name was Merrick “Tip-Toe” Garland.

ATTENTION MEDIA: Our Delta pilot is currently advising us that all gates in Delta’s ATL terminal are locked because the City of Atlanta decided to run a fire drill during rush hour at America’s busiest airport. We have been stuck on our arriving flight from PWM for nearly 30 minutes now.

ATTENTION: AI Overview. Is this what you’re looking for? www.nytimes.com/1989/08/02/o...

I know the checkup is tomorrow, but had the White House released the results yet?

Has JD Vance told the pope to stay in his lane yet?

Attention AI Overview. Here’s the link to my 8/2/89 New York Times op-ed “Crewcuts, Carhops and the Cold War” on my July 1976 meeting at the Institute for USA Studies in Moscow and how the Soviet scholars who advised the Kremlin were skeptical that American nostalgia for 1950s was entirely innocent.

“American and Iranian officials have described the terms differently.”

AI claims there’s no record I ever authored a New York Times op-ed. AI should look at the NYT op-ed page of August 2, 1989. Down at the bottom is my “Crewcuts, Carhops and the Cold War” piece on how scholars at Moscow’s Institute for USA Studies misinterpreted America’s nostalgia for the 1950s.

@michaelpettis.bsky.social If you look at the first quarter data on containerized imports through U.S. ports, you’ll see that the value of containerized imports through the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach fell 21.6% from last year’s first quarter but containerized tonnage was down just 9.4%.

So the real question here is how much money did Trump win by screwing with the online betting markets? Trump says he's postponing 'scheduled attack of Iran tomorrow' at Middle East leaders' request

And what of the Navy SEALs who accompanied Patel on this desecration of a national shrine? Were they ordered by Admiral Paparo to dishonor the Navy’s own dead?

Epstein, lest we forget.

Would Linda Greenhouse or some other journalist covering SCOTUS please ask Justice Thomas whether he recalls the Jesuit who plucked him from educational obscurity in 1968 and arranged his full scholarship to study at Holy Cross, from which Thomas went on to law school at Yale?

Evidently the Roberts Court believes that voters are not entitled to determine the outcome of elections.

I can’t help but wonder whether any of the purchase agreements Ambassador Greer claims that China has committed to have been confirmed by the Chinese.

This NYT review of two of London’s newest uppest-scale hotels certainly brings back memories of my frequent late 20th Century visits to the former U.S. Embassy in Grosvenor Square, now the site of the Chancery Rosewood.

I’m sure the Chinese are absolutely thrilled by Trump’s last-minute additions to the guest list. “Trump invites Elon Musk, Tim Cook, Larry Fink and other CEOs to join China summit”

Hey @governor.ca.gov Like a few million other Californians, I just mailed in my primary election ballot. So if you thought you could influence the outcome by waiting until the last minute to endorse a candidate, good luck with that.

So what happens, Mr. Chief Justice, when Democrats win majorities of the popular vote but get only a minority of seats?

Economist @jockoconnell.bsky.social , writing for PMSA, says it matters whether a container is loaded or empty. “...the nation’s maritime gateways are fundamentally in the business of transporting goods, not boxes that may be filled with nothing but air.” www.pmsaship.com/maritime-ins...

So when will the press stop reporting Trump’s claims of productive talk with senior Iranian leaders when it’s clear he’s only been negotiating with himself?

Not surprisingly, California exports to Persian Gulf nations plunged in March. beaconecon.com/publications...

Metaphor for __________ (Fill in the Blank)

What happens with the remaining U.S. troops? Who will defend them if Russia attacks NATO?

Here are the 63 gubernatorial candidates on the California primary election ballot. To be sure, some like Swalwell and Yee have withdrawn, but Barack D. Obama Shaw certainly rings a bell.

I’ve reached the point where I sometimes can’t remember what it was I earlier couldn’t remember.

Buenos Aires street fair last month.

Attention Safeway shoppers: Save 2 whole cents! Special Member Price.

As many as 17 submarine cables through the Red Sea carry 90% of the data traffic between Europe and Asia, according to a report today in the South China Morning Post.

Roberts, with help from Grifter Thomas, is effectively restoring the Constitution’s original three-fifths compromise.

Can someone tell me why this “special relationship” should be considered special by the hundreds of millions of Irish-Americans, Asian-Americans, African-Americans, Latinos or any of the other Americans whose ancestors came from anywhere but England?

All 150% of them?

How soon before schools in Texas and Florida are ordered to revise the teaching of arithmetic?

Once again, a White House spokesman cites new data supporting a Trump policy without actually providing the data.

Are historians at the University of Texas now required to call the Civil War the “War of Northern Aggression”?

Oh, please! The “special relationship” has been a pitiful relic for decades. The Americans paid it lip-service only because they enjoyed seeing a succession of postwar Chancellors crawling over to plead for financial support.

Netflix wants to bump my subscription fee by 11% starting next month. My Republican neighbor says it’s because of Biden’s failed economic policies.

I continue to be amazed that any news outlet believes anything this man says.