Human beings set a record this week for reaching the farthest distance away from Earth ever, as Artemis II looped around the far side of the moon. Hopefully the astronauts will safely splash down in the Pacific Ocean later today. The whole space mission was a bright spot in the news this week -- in a week that sorely needed some positivity.

This week also saw the president of the United States threatening to commit war crimes in his war of choice with Iran. Even this wasn't enough for him, as he quickly moved on to threatening crimes against humanity. Thankfully, neither actually happened, because he chickened out at the last minute.

There has been a lot of speculation about why Donald Trump was suddenly so eager to find some sort of offramp for his war adventure, but the real answer might be that the military is burning through their stockpiles of advanced weaponry at an alarming rate. It was little noticed, but a pre-eminent British security and defense (or "defence," as they spell it) think tank published a very deep and technical dive into how bad things have gotten. This was written a few weeks ago (March 24) so the problem has gotten even worse than their numbers show by now (they only examined the first 16 days of the war), but even their early numbers are frightening enough (the whole article is very technical, but worth reading in full because it is so sobering):

What stands out most about Table 3 is that the US military is approximately a month, or less, away from running out of ATACMS/PrSM ground-attack missiles and THAAD interceptors. Israel is in an even more precarious spot, with its Arrow interceptor missiles likely to be completely expended by the end of March. While the war could proceed with other munitions, this implies accepting greater risk for aircraft and tolerating more missile and drone "leakers" damaging forces and infrastructure. The precariousness of this "empty bins" issue could possibly explain why President Trump is already suggesting the "winding down" of the Iran war; it could take years to replace what was expended in only 16 days.

While the defence industrial base is producing most of these munitions at present, they are incredibly complex and difficult to surge, meaning it will likely take at least 5 years to replenish the 500 plus Tomahawk missiles already fired in the war. Worse, sourcing critical defence minerals, rare earths, and materials to make the weapons and munitions is complicated by China. China controls most of the world's gallium and germanium, and Beijing has imposed numerous mineral export controls since 2023, to prevent the US and its allies from acquiring these necessary inputs for the defence industrial base.

There are two crucial questions to ask about these ultra-modern weapons: "How many do we still have?" and: "How fast can we resupply them?" If the answers are now: "Not very many," and: "Not very fast -- if we even can," it might explain why Trump is now so desperate to see his war of choice come to an end.

Adding to the pressure on Trump is his falling approval rating with the American public and the soaring price of gasoline and diesel. The official inflation number for last month was published today, and (no surprise) it has spiked way upwards too -- all the way to 3.3 percent. And that might stay high for a while, since the increased costs for fuel aren't the only economic pressures at play. Fertilizer prices have skyrocketed too, meaning food prices might be heading upwards very soon now.

This all feeds in to the increasing desperation Trump has been showing. On Easter Sunday (of all days), Trump posted a message on social media that will long be remembered for just how unhinged it truly was: "Open the Fuckin' Strait, you crazy bastards, or you'll be living in Hell -- JUST WATCH. Praise be to Allah." He followed this up on Tuesday with an even more insane message: "A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don't want that to happen, but it probably will." These are the rantings of a madman, quite obviously. Not to put too fine a point on it, but Trump is threatening to use the U.S. military to commit genocide. So much for American moral leadership on the world stage, eh?

Then Trump blinked. Thankfully, it turned into TACO Tuesday. Right before his deadline, he announced that he had agreed to a two-week ceasefire. Iran later tentatively confirmed this, but their understanding of the terms of the ceasefire were notably different than what America and Israel thought. Which led to the Strait of Hormuz staying closed to ship traffic (even though the ceasefire was supposed to open it up).

Talks are scheduled to take place tomorrow in Pakistan between Iran and the United States. JD Vance will lead the American team. But it's not very plausible that the two sides are going to agree on a permanent peace plan before the two-week deadline is up, because they are so far apart in what they are demanding.

Trump, of course, is claiming victory. But what exactly did he achieve? His stated reasons for launching this war have not been fully met -- he hasn't made any progress at all on some of the most important ones (Iran's nuclear ambitions, most notably). And now we're in danger of Iran actually getting stronger as a result of the negotiations, since they are now insisting that they will be in full control of the Strait from now on, and that they'll be changing steep tolls to every ship that passes through. That would be a massive victory for Iran, and a severe embarrassment for the United States. As one pundit put it: "A war that began without a clear strategy for victory seemed to be converging, perhaps inevitably, on an endgame missing a formula for peace."

Interestingly, more and more of Trump's MAGA supporters seem to be turning against him, as he uses apocalyptic holiday language while the price of gas stays sky-high. Here is a sampling of what some of them are saying, starting with Ann Coulter:

I really wish "legal experts" hadn't screamed bloody murder about every little thing Trump did, so they could speak with authority now that he's actually committing war crimes.

Marjorie Taylor Greene, while urging Trump be removed from office via the Twenty-Fifth Amendment, condemned Trump's threats:

We cannot kill an entire civilization. This is evil and madness.

She had a few more things to say as well:

Everyone in his administration that claims to be a Christian needs to fall on their knees and beg forgiveness from God and stop worshipping the President and intervene in Trump's madness. This is not making America great again, this is evil.

Candace Owens echoed these sentiments:

He is a genocidal lunatic. Our Congress and military need to intervene. We are beyond madness.

Tucker Carlson, meanwhile, is urging soldiers to refuse illegal orders:

Now it's time to say no, absolutely not, and say it directly to the president, no.

Carlson also called Trump's Easter post "vile on every level," saying it began "with a promise to use the U.S. military -- our military -- to destroy civilian infrastructure in another country, which is to say, to commit a war crime, a moral crime, against the people of the country whose welfare, by the way, was one of the reasons we supposedly went into this war in the first place." He also condemned the timing of the post:

How dare you speak that way on Easter morning to the country? Who do you think you are? You're tweeting out the f-word on Easter morning.

Joe Kent, who quit his job as the director of the National Counterterrorism Center in protest over the war, had perhaps the best comment from the right:

Trump believes he is threatening Iran with destruction, but it is America that now stands in danger. If he attempts to eradicate Iranian civilization, the United States will no longer be viewed as a stabilizing force in the world, but as an agent of chaos -- effectively ending our status as the world's greatest superpower.

These comments all come from very conservative people, not Democrats or liberals. This is what the people who supported Trump from the very start are saying about him now. So it's no wonder his job approval rating is at its lowest point yet in his second term.

Next week, Trump will travel to China for a summit meeting. That should be a very interesting conversation, because China is sitting back and watching us burn through our stockpiles of advanced weaponry -- weapons that we will sorely need if we ever need to defend Taiwan from a Chinese attack. And China is well aware that we cannot resupply these stockpiles without their help obtaining the crucial minerals we need to build more of them. So China's conversation with Trump will probably be pretty humiliating for him to endure, no matter what sort of happy talk he gives to the media afterwards.

 

There were a handful of elections this week, and the results were so impressive we thought we'd just give the Most Impressive Democrat Of The Week to all the voters in Wisconsin, Georgia, and Arizona who turned out to vote blue.

The results were impressive pretty much across the board. Even the Democrat who lost chalked up an impressive showing -- that's how good it all was:

On Tuesday night, voters in a conservative and rural corner of Georgia sent a Republican, Clay Fuller, to Congress to replace Marjorie Taylor Greene. But they did so with decidedly less enthusiasm than they showed two years ago: All 10 of the district's counties shifted by double digits toward the Democratic candidate compared with the 2024 presidential election.

And in Wisconsin, voters again handed a liberal Supreme Court candidate, Chris Taylor, a commanding victory over a conservative rival, cementing a five-to-two liberal majority on the state's high court. Judge Taylor's victory came by an even wider margin than the 2023 and 2025 liberal triumphs in Wisconsin Supreme Court elections that drew national attention and served as magnets for political donors.

Georgia's special election had the largest shift towards Democrats, about 25 points, of any congressional contest since President Trump took office at the beginning of 2025. It came a year after Wisconsin's last state Supreme Court race brought the first Democratic rebuke of Mr. Trump's second term.

This continues an unbroken streak, it is worth mentioning. In every single House special election since Trump took office again, Democrats have outperformed their 2024 showing by double digits. This has many Republicans very worried:

The shift is a potential harbinger for Republicans in this year's midterm elections. Nearly two dozen House Republicans won their 2024 races by 10 points or less. The Senate map includes seats in Alaska, Iowa, Ohio and Texas that could be in play if the Democratic advantage proves to be durable through November. Georgia Democrats also saw the outcome as a boost for Senator Jon Ossoff, who is seeking re-election this fall.

As the losing candidate in Georgia put it: "If Democrats, independents and Republicans can do this in a ruby-red district, the Democrats can win anywhere. Nobody ever thought that we would ever be this close." This is in Georgia's reddest district, it is worth pointing out.

In Wisconsin, a Democrat won a mayor's race for what had been considered a reddish suburb (Waukesha) in a very red county. And the state supreme court candidate won by a whopping 20 points -- twice the margin of the previous race for the high court. Notably, Elon Musk was nowhere to be seen, this time around.

Out in Arizona, voters elected a majority of liberals to the board of the state's largest public utility (the Salt River Project). The candidates campaigned together as the "Clean Energy Team," and they soundly defeated candidates backed by Charlie Kirk's Turning Point USA. For the first time, a majority dedicated to renewable power will control the utility's board.

None of these wins guarantees anything in the upcoming midterm elections, of course, but it continues an unbroken streak of Democrats doing well at the ballot box ever since Trump took office. But at the very least, heading into the midterm season it is Democrats who have the political wind at their back. And that's impressive enough, for now.

[Congratulations to everyone who voted for a Democrat or a liberal in this week's elections! Obviously, we can't provide contact information for everyone, so if you know someone in Georgia or Wisconsin or even Phoenix, be sure to let them know you appreciate their efforts.]

 

Congress was largely absent this week, and there was so much massive disappointment coming from the White House that it kind of drowned out any other bad news, so we find ourselves once again with no candidate for the Most Disappointing Democrat Of The Week. Which, of course, is good news....

 

Volume 836 (4/10/26)

Our talking points are a bit repetitive this week, because Democrats need to all be singing from exactly the same songbook right now. Gas prices are high because of Trump's war, period. That's really it in a nutshell.

 

   Not just a number on a sign

To give credit where it is due, this one is taken from a campaign event held by Janelle Stelson, who is a Democrat running for a House seat in Pennsylvania. She held her campaign event right in front of a Mobil gas station, with the sign behind her reading $4.24 per gallon. We just took her first sentence and made the rest of the message generic, so that any Democrat can use it.

"Gas prices are not just a number on a sign. The cost of living is crushing American families, and the Republicans in Congress are just making it worse. Every time you pay sky-high prices for gas, that is money that you can't spend on other things you need. And none of this had to happen! So if you are disgusted with what Donald Trump and the Republicans have done to your family budget, let them know about it at the ballot box."

 

   Trump's war is why

This one is taken from a campaign ad from Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, who is running for a Senate seat in Michigan. It does not mince words -- it lays the blame exactly where it belongs, at Trump's feet. And you know what the best thing is? He's running these ads on gas pumps. That is absolutely brilliant!

You know why gas is so expensive? Because of Donald Trump's $200 billion war with Iran... Trump is taking us to war with Iran using our tax dollars, $200 billion already. And now every time you fill up, you're paying for it, again.

 

   All of it is Trump's fault

In fact, let's just hammer that message home some more.

"Unlike other times when gas prices went through the roof, this time it's pretty clear that there is one reason and one reason alone. This is all Donald Trump's fault. Gas was selling nationwide for an average of $2.75 a gallon before Trump decided to launch an unprovoked war with Iran. It's gone up $1.40 since then. All because of Trump's war. There is no worldwide pandemic, there is no shortage of oil, there is no other reason you are paying through the nose to fill up your tank. It's all -- all of it -- Donald Trump's fault."

 

   Not just the price of gas, either

Connect these dots too.

"Trump seems to think that everything is going to magically go back to where it was in a matter of days, but that is not how the economy works. Gas prices are going to stay way high for a long time to come. Diesel prices have gone up even more than gasoline prices. And that means every single product that moves by truck in this country -- which is virtually everything you buy -- is going to get more expensive as well. And because fertilizer prices shot up as well, that means food prices are sure to follow, for the rest of this growing season. Inflation is already up to 3.3 percent, and the experts expect it to get even higher in the next few months. All because of Donald Trump's stupid war."

 

   The exact opposite of what he promised

Point this out too, in case anyone's forgotten.

"Donald Trump ran for office promising he'd bring prices down on everything 'on Day One.' Remember that? But what he's been doing is driving prices up on everything instead. He swore he'd get gasoline prices down by half in his first year in office. He didn't even come close to that, and now gas prices are over a buck more per gallon than the day he took office. Donald Trump lied to American voters. He's doing the exact opposite of what he promised he'd do. Remember that, in November."

 

   Let me get this straight...

Or maybe "Strait"?

"So let me get this straight... Donald Trump started a war with Iran and now he thinks, to quote him, that it is 'a beautiful idea' to allow Iran to extort protection money from every ship that sails through the Strait of Hormuz -- what used to be international waters. Trump's on board with this because he thinks he can horn in on the deal and actually join with Iran's extortion scheme. So this is why we fought a war? To make Iran richer and more powerful? Seriously?"

 

   Remember when?

Let's close on a moral note, shall we?

"Remember when the United States of America used to be the good guys? Remember when we wore the white hats? Remember when we were a force for good in the world? Remember when the rest of the world looked up to us as a shining example of what a superpower should do? Remember when our allies respected us instead of feared what our toddler-in-chief will do next? That's all gone out the window now. Maybe we should concentrate on making America a force for good again, instead of this spiral into madness and deranged behavior. It's time to come up with a better MAGA slogan: Make America Good Again."

-- Chris Weigant

 

Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant

Cross-posted at: Democratic Underground