Pack the Court. Bowling. Kharg vs. Larak. Tariff Refunds.

Pack the court please!

Democrats won’t let go of the court-packing idea. Hakeem Jeffries says democrats will “push for dramatic reform of the Supreme Court” because its “conservative, right-wing majority” is “a subsidiary of the MAGA Republican Party.” That’s nonsense, but it’s not new. Trump has won some and lost some in this Court. Back in 2021, Senate and House democrats introduced legislation to expand the Court from nine justices to 13, to “guarantee” short term liberal victories. In 2023, members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus called for adding four seats. And this past term, the Court’s Louisiana v. Callais decision ending racial gerrymandering renewed calls from the left to expand the bench. Just recently the republicans in the House voted on a proposal to amend the Constitution to fix the Court at nine Justices. Since passing an amendment takes a two-thirds majority it failed, 212-206, with all but a one Democrat, Don Davis of North Carolina voting against. Of course, the republicans knew it would fail but wanted to make a statement. This was a useless exercise and a waste of the country’s time. Why don’t the republicans quit being so dumb (the stupid party) and really be proactive? They want a constitutional amendment to fix the number of justices at nine. Why? I have a better idea that doesn’t require amending the constitution.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the moment democrats hold the presidency and both chambers of Congress, they will try to conduct all sorts of mischief including packing the Court. So why should republicans wait? They hold the majority now — a majority the midterms could put at risk, with democrats having a real shot at flipping the Senate and the House. Trump should take a page from the democrats’ own playbook and send four nominations to the Senate right now. The Senate could expedite the confirmations and get them all done before November. 

Trump loves to shake things up, so do it!

Let’s go bowling

The White House’s Harry S. Truman bowling alley is getting a glow-up. A $230,000 contract has been awarded for lighting work on the two-lane alley, plus a companion $8,800 contract for escort services — not that kind of escort service, but the kind that walks outside workers through secure areas so they can do the lighting. This is the same bowling alley Obama tried to renovate, until republicans had such a fit that the GSA pulled the contract. House republicans went so far as to adopt an amendment barring funds for the renovation. I’m waiting for the democratic outcry now, and I’m confident this time the republicans will stay quiet.

Er, Mr. President, that was not Kharg Island

The president must have been pulling our collective leg when he posted an AI-generated video of an attack on Kharg Island, captioned “Kharg Island being blown to smithereens!!! President DJT.” Hamid Bovard, chief executive of the National Iranian Oil Company, called the post “laughable,” noting that Kharg Island was operating as normal. Critics pounced. One wrote that “Trump is fighting a war in VR while our troops are going without, our bases are being destroyed, and our munitions are depleting — pure buffoonery.” Another warned that “Trump is getting ready to do something crazy — which is why the generals and admirals are leaking to the Washington Post. They’re freaking out because it’s obvious Trump and his team are about to make them do something nutty.” Trump is probably laughing it off. But the U.S. did strike two Iranian missile launchers on Larak Island, a strategically located island in the narrowest part of the strait. My question is this: with more than 20,000 airstrikes on record, why hadn’t those launchers been hit before now?

So what did you do with your tariff refund?

I noted earlier that companies keeping their tariff refunds would enjoy windfall profits — the cost of the tariffs had already been passed on to consumers, whatever the president says, so the refunds are pure gravy. And sure enough, some companies are doing exactly that. The government is refunding a total of $168 billion collected from 330,000 importers.

Walmart received $2.9 billion. Target got $994 million. Apple, $2.2 billion. Ford, $1.3 billion. Home Depot, $730 million. Nike, $684 million. Amazon, $640 million. Meanwhile, the average U.S. household paid roughly $1,700 more in 2025 and 2026 because of the tariffs. The real question is whether consumers see any of that money back. Walmart and Tractor Supply (where I buy my dog food) are using their refunds to fund price cuts, but that’s not the same as a direct refund to the people who overpaid. Other companies aren’t cutting prices at all. Smaller businesses, which say they never had the pricing power to pass tariff costs on to customers in the first place, are using their refunds simply to cover the costs they already absorbed.

The administration’s media intimidation is getting downright silly

Presidents do love to lean on the media. Nixon kept an enemies list and tried to strip a television station of its license. Biden tried to manage coverage of questions about his fitness for office. Trump has continued the tradition with gusto: he has sued CNN, the Des Moines Register, the Pulitzer Prize Board, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal, and walked away with a $15 million settlement from ABC and $16 million from Paramount. He has also sicced the FCC on adversaries including Media Matters and threatened broadcasters’ licenses if they don’t operate “in the public interest.”

He went after the reporter who broke the story of the Air Force One mishap in which Trump boarded the plane and ended up being carted off in a cargo container. Now he’s demanding NBC discipline Kristen Welker for reporting that his endorsements have had “mixed results” on GOP candidates. They have but Trump erupted anyway: “How can anyone be allowed to say this, working for freely given Public Airwaves? Because of this purposeful inaccuracy, she will be reported to the FCC for rebuke or punishment.” He added that his endorsement is “without question, the strongest Endorsement in the History of Politics. If it were not, I would be the first to admit it,” and accused “Radical Left News” of going out of their way to “harass, demean, and libel anything TRUMP,” calling on FCC Chairman Brendan Carr to “take this threat to our country very seriously.”

Didn’t Trump endorse Andy Ogles?