I'm Just Saying.

I’m so tired of Harry Enten treating poll numbers as though they were delivered from Mount Sinai in a golden chariot. He’s concerned almost entirely with the numbers, not what they represent, why they reflect what they reflect, or what forces shaped them in the first place. To him, the number is the meal . Context is just cauliflower pushed to the edge of the plate. And this isn’t new. He was just as excited about poll numbers before the 2024 election, when the spread was usually two points at most and often much smaller. Once you factored in the margin of error, half of what he was breathlessly analyzing wasn’t movement at all. It was statistical pink noise . There he stood in front of his magic wall, treating every tiny fluctuation inside the margin of error like democracy had just handed him a notarized confession. That’s the problem with so much political polling coverage. The number goes up. The number goes down. One candidate gains a point. Another loses two. Suddenly, we’r...

In May 2025, former FBI Director James Comey was vacationing on the North Carolina coast. During a walk along the beach, he came across seashells that someone had arranged to form a four-digit number. Comey photographed them and posted the picture on Instagram with the caption, “Cool shell formation on my beach walk.” Trump allies quickly manufactured an assassination threat out of the post. Comey removed the photograph, explaining that the violent interpretation had never occurred to him and that he opposed violence. Trump then personally endorsed that interpretation, insisting the number meant Comey wanted him assassinated. The administration subsequently turned that interpretation into a federal investigation and, eventually, an indictment. Donald Trump explained that “86” is a Mafia term meaning “kill.” To make the point, he asked, “You ever see the movies?” Well, yes. I have seen the movies. If Mafia movies are evidence, The Godfather is Exhibit A. It is by far the greate...

 If Trump is only joking about running again in 2028, then first and foremost, he needs to stop. For one thing, it is not funny. There is no wit in repeatedly hinting that you may violate the Constitution and then smirking while your supporters cheer. Second, it is unbecoming of the office of the President. The president is not a nightclub comic testing material on a friendly crowd. He has a duty to respect constitutional limits, not turn them into a running gag. Third, the joke is aimed mostly at stupid people. It is designed for people who either do not understand the Twenty-second Amendment or do not care what it says. They hear “Trump 2028,” laugh, applaud, and treat constitutional government as another prop in the show. Meanwhile, Trump preserves the usual escape hatch. If the crowd likes the idea, he keeps feeding it. If critics object, he says they cannot take a joke. But when asked about serving a third term, Trump did not simply toss off a funny line. He said there were “...

“From this point forward, any time the Islamic Republic of Iran shoots at a ship in the Strait of Hormuz, whether it be by Missile, Rocket, Drone, or any other device or weapon, the United States will bomb and destroy ONE BRIDGE OR POWER PLANT, including those located next to, or in, the Capital City of Tehran. Thank you for your attention to this matter!” What in the hell is that supposed to be? There are just so many things wrong with it. First, you do not make war policy on Truth Social. War policy is supposed to emerge from intelligence assessments, military planning, legal review, diplomatic coordination, clearly defined objectives, and some serious consideration of what happens after the first bomb falls. There should be discussions about what the United States is trying to accomplish, what targets actually serve that objective, how Iran is likely to respond, how American forces and allies will be protected, how escalation will be controlled, and what conditions wou...

Over the weekend, I watched White House Down . In one scene, Air Force One is shot out of the sky. My immediate reaction, based on general knowledge and military training, was that the scene was Hollywood bullshit. Air Force One is not merely a large airplane with “United States of America” painted on the side. It is a national command platform protected by secure communications, defensive systems, military planning, and layers of procedures designed to keep the president alive and the government functioning during an attack. Then I remembered which Air Force One Donald Trump had been flying. Almost immediately, the movie scene stopped looking so ridiculous. The Trump administration did not build a new Air Force One in a year. It rushed a former Qatari royal aircraft into presidential service even though it lacked the full defensive capabilities of the older aircraft already available to the president. The press is now treating those missing system...