Pun Salad

As sometimes happens—probably more often than it should—I go looking for a big dumb violence-laden movie on the streaming services. Google's more than willing to help out. I settled on this one from 2020. It stars Thor himself, Chris Hemsworth; he made it in between Marvel movies.

It's set in Bangladesh, where a drug cartel has (violently) kidnapped the young son of the head of a different drug cartel. A private mercenary force is enlisted to go rescue the kid. Nearly-immediate carnage and betrayal results, with pretty much the only survivor being Tyler Rake (Hemsworth), left alone with the near-impossible task of getting the boy out of Bangladesh, across a bridge leading to (relatively) safe Indian territory.

We know from the first few minutes (so this isn't really a spoiler) that Tyler winds up on that bridge, badly wounded, barely able to crawl. Most of the rest of the movie shows us how he got there: by shooting, and getting shot at by, a nearly unlimited supply of bad guys. Fortunately, they all took their marksmanship training from the Imperial Stormtrooper Academy from Star Wars. And Tyler has a near-infinite supply of ammo and (just to mix it up a bit) knives and explosives.

The action scenes are intense and non-stop, and I stayed awake. Extraction 2 is also available on Netflix, and I will probably check that out someday.

Of course, having a doddering old fool in charge of the Executive had its downsides too.

Oh, wait, now we just have a different doddering old fool.

Also of note:

• Another day, another demand to desecrate the Constitution. One of the headlines in Mr. Ramirez's cartoon refers to this matter: Trump tells FCC to punish journalist for calling his election results "mixed"

  President Trump [Sunday] demanded that the Federal Communications Commission punish or rebuke an NBC journalist for saying he has “mixed results” in his election endorsements. In the latest example of how Trump is using the FCC to harass reporters and news organizations that he dislikes, he said Meet the Press host Kristen Welker “will be reported to the FCC for rebuke or punishment” for what he claimed was a “purposeful inaccuracy.”

  “Kristen Welker, the Unpopular ‘Hostess’ of the once great Meet the Press, now considered Meet the Fake Press, just stated that Donald Trump has ‘mixed results’ on his Endorsements of Candidates, when the recent WINS of Darline Graham and Mike Mazzei, stand at 100% for the U.S. Senate, and 98% for the U.S. House, recently and over the longterm. How can anyone be allowed to say this, working for freely given Public Airwaves? Results are attached. Because of this purposeful inaccuracy, she will be reported to the FCC for rebuke or punishment,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.

  The Ars Technica article goes on to observe:

  Poynter Senior Media Writer Tom Jones writes, “What Welker said about Trump’s endorsements having mixed results was true. Trump just didn’t like it.” While Trump praised himself for his successful endorsements, he didn’t mention primary losses by Republican gubernatorial candidates Burt Jones in Georgia and Randy Feenstra in Iowa and the failed re-election bid by Rep. Cory Mills (R-Florida).

  It's true enough that Ars Technica leans left. That doesn't excuse Trump for taking yet another dump on the First Amendment.

• "Worse than Biden" is a high bar. But Trump has been doing his best to clear it. The WaPo editorialists take a look at the numbers, and find … Trump’s tariffs aren’t reducing the trade deficit. (WaPo gifted link)

  The trade deficit doesn’t matter, but even if it did, tariffs aren’t an effective way to reduce it.

  In July, the monthly trade deficit in goods hit its highest level since March 2025, the Commerce Department revealed on Thursday. That was the month before President Donald Trump’s announcement last year of massive tariffs on products from nearly every country in the world.

  The Supreme Court’s February ruling against Trump struck down only tariffs he imposed under one law. He has imposed import duties under other laws before and after that ruling. They remain in effect. The average tariff rate is currently about 11 percent, which is more than four times higher than it was when Trump started his second term.

  I also liked their last paragraph:

  The trade deficit is a number, nothing more. It is primarily determined by differences in saving and investment patterns between countries, not by trade policy. Trying to control it with tariffs is like trying to change the score of a football game by yelling from the bleachers.

  Metaphorically "yelling from the bleachers" seems to be Trump's preferred tactic in many areas.

• Oh well, enough about Trump. As I've previously pointed out, I have to choose among eight GOP candidates for US Senator on my primary ballot next week. If I were to choose the one with the coolest name, that would be: Sky Danley.

  The link goes to his campaign website, and … gosh, he says a lot of things I agree with. E.g.:

  Our current subservient legislatures, beholden to the legalized payola of special interests, shirk their constitutional duties because, on both sides of the aisle, they’re more interested in protecting their individual office holdings and associated monetary power than in promoting the general welfare.

  And thus, in all three branches, we have a wanton abandonment of civic virtue, an abandoning of the common good in favor of perpetual, self-serving interests.

  James Madison, the father of our Constitution, warned that without civic virtue, a republic cannot survive. One can easily conclude that our republic may already be gone, existing in name only and no longer in function. If so, the goal must be to get it back, to restore the last best hope.

  He also says some things I disagree with; I think he's too hard on the current SCOTUS, for example. (He has an associated term-limit scheme for SCOTUS that he insists is not court-packing.)

  But another thing I like: he claims (I haven't checked) to be the only candidate who's answered all 34 questions on the Citizens Count questionnaire.

  But another thing I don't like: he favors a partial repeal of the First Amendment to "absolutely get the corrupting money out of politics."

  Sorry, Sky. Red flag there.

• 

  Still available from Amazon! James Freeman notes that the proud winner of my state's four electoral votes in 2024 (by 50.65% to 47.87%) is weighing in on our state's D-side primary: Kamala to the Rescue! (WSJ gifted link)

  Remember when Democrats nominated a presidential candidate in 2024 who had endorsed positions so progressively wacky that not even her friends in the media could believe they were real? Such is the speed of the Democratic party’s continuing leftward lurch that believe it or not former Vice President Kamala Harris now appears to be a relative moderate as she intervenes in a key Senate race against a democratic socialist.

  Last week this column noted that Democrats’ dreams of a U.S. Senate majority have been complicated by rising difficulty in New Hampshire, where Democrat Sen. Jeanne Shaheen is retiring and her expected replacement, Rep. Chris Pappas, suddenly appears to be struggling. A recent Granite State Poll from the University of New Hampshire found the relatively unknown socialist Karishma Manzur surging against Mr. Pappas just ahead of next week’s Democratic primary.

  To remind us of our "choice" back in 2024, check out Charles C.W. Cooke's take at that time, agreeing with our Amazon Eye Candy du Jour: Kamala Harris Is an Idiot.

• Turns out it was terrorism after all! Shocker! National Review notes a small bit of recovered sanity in the Great White North: CBC Reverses Course, Will Describe 9/11 Attacks as Terrorism After Backlash.

  After directing staff not to refer to the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon as acts of terrorism, the Canadian Broadcasting Company has reversed course and published new guidance acknowledging that the term is in fact accurate.

  Basem Boshra, the senior director of journalistic standards and public trust at CBC News, issued a memo earlier this month, first reported by the Toronto Sun, instructing staff not to refer to the events of 9/11 as terror attacks in accordance with the network’s “longstanding language guidance.” Boshra rescinded that guidance last week following significant backlash.

  "And I would have gotten away with it too, if it weren't for that significant backlash!"