America just broke a record today, but it's not one to be proud of. The average price of diesel fuel nationwide just hit $5.85 per gallon, which is the highest it has ever been. It beat the previous record of $5.82, which was set in 2022, just after Russia invaded Ukraine. Diesel costs have risen over 50 percent since Donald Trump started his war of choice with Iran. But even though he normally likes bragging about setting records, Trump will probably not be boasting about this one.

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Here we go again. Our toddler-in-chief threw another tantrum this week, because he was mad at Canada. Donald Trump was astonished that Canada didn't immediately knuckle under and agree to all his kooky demands, so he went ahead and opened up a whole new trade war with our neighbor to the north. These demands (to show you how inane the negotiations must have been) included trying to force Canada to reject their bilingual nature and get rid of all that French stuff. Canada refused. So Trump announced a new 50 percent tariff on Canadian goods. Canada then announced their own tariffs on American goods. Trump then threw his tantrum, announcing that he had just renamed Lake Ontario, which will now officially and henceforth be known by the U.S. government as "Lake America" (or possibly "Lake Of America," Trump didn't seem too sure). Which (of course) spurred the internet to respond. The site MapQuest helpfully pointed people to a tool they could use to rename the lake to anything they wished, which (of course) led to all sorts of amusing new names for it (Lake Epstein Files? Lake Hormuz? Lake Cheats At Golf? Lake Gulf Of Mexico?). The funniest one (to us, at any rate) came from "Mister Cool" on the site formerly known as Twitter, who posted an image showing: "Lakey McLakeface."

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Much is being made over the ideological struggle happening within the Democratic Party, with some likening it to a "Democratic Tea Party," or even a civil war among Democrats. Both terms are a bit overblown, but there is indeed a struggle for the soul of the party happening. It didn't spring into existence overnight, or even with the election of New York City's Mayor Zohran Mamdani, for that matter. Instead it is a movement that has gradually built up steam to reach the point in Democratic politics where it is now.

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The 2026 primary season is almost over. This week's crop of primaries generated some big news, mostly due to a young and very progressive Democratic candidate winning the nomination for an open Senate seat in Michigan. This was seen as an epic defeat for both the establishment of the Democratic Party and for AIPAC, who spent tens of millions of dollars unsuccessfully trying to defeat Dr. Abdul El-Sayed -- who narrowly won the nomination, despite being outspent almost 9-to-1.

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Maybe we should call Donald Trump's war of choice against Iran the "On-Again/Off-Again War"? That's what it feels like, at any rate, as Trump and Iran both stumble along, taking potshots at each other, with absolutely no end in sight. Trump in particular seems to have no idea what he's doing, no plans whatsoever to bring the conflict to an end, and an unclear understanding of what that end should look like. Which doesn't exactly build confidence, obviously.

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Donald Trump has ramped up his war of choice once again, bombing Iran on a nightly basis while Iran launches missiles at U.S. military installations and other targets in the region. Sadly, four more American soldiers lost their lives as a result of all this crossfire. And the war seems to be escalating, as the Houthis in Yemen have now entered the fray by blocking the strait at the southern end of the Red Sea to any Saudi ships. All of this has caused oil prices to spike above $100 per barrel once again, and gas prices here in America to spike to over four bucks a gallon once again.

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Shakespeare posed this question a while back, in his masterpiece Romeo And Juliet. Since the two lovers were from families in a longstanding feud with each other, Juliet begins her famous "balcony scene" railing against how fate has given her new love the wrong last name. Here's how she expressed her frustration:

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The mainstream political press loves to highlight the differences within the Democratic Party, usually presenting them as some sort of open warfare between opposing factions. But while there are indeed issues that polarize Democratic politicians and voters (support for Israel, for one), there is also an underlying consensus building within the party on a big issue that is much more relevant for most voters. And it has proven to be a winning issue for both progressive and moderate Democrats alike, because it affects everybody.

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What was expected to be a free-for-all contest among Maine Democrats instead turned into a coronation this weekend. After Graham Platner ended his campaign to take on Senator Susan Collins in November, Maine's Democratic Party only had a couple of weeks to name a replacement to appear on the ballot instead of Platner. They could have used any method they wanted to select a new nominee, and the method they settled on led to an anticipation of a messy convention fight. Instead, what happened was one candidate essentially swept the field of challengers and will now (barring any unforeseen problems) be officially named the new Democratic Senate candidate at the party convention next weekend.

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Last week, we warned everyone that July was going to be a sketchy month for us, in terms of our ability to write these Friday columns. So we begin today with a program update. Today's offering is not a complete Friday Talking Points column. It is bare-bones, at best. We're not even really going to attempt reviewing the past week, and we're also not going to write out talking points at the end (although we did complete the two awards sections). Just to warn everyone up front.

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