from the no-real-principles-but-self-interest dept

It is zero surprise that the Supreme Court officially overturned its 91-year-old precedent first created in Humphrey’s Executor. That case held that when Congress designates an agency as independent of the executive branch, the president cannot just fire its commissioners. The Humphrey’s Executor opinion stopped FDR from trying to fire an FTC Commissioner he didn’t like, and reinforced the important idea that Congress could design independent agencies, staffed by experts, that should be less prone to partisan political influence.

The Roberts Supreme Court has been signalling it wanted to overturn Humphrey’s for years, and it finally took until the case brought by former FTC Commissioners Rebecca Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya* (unceremoniously fired by Donald Trump for being Democratically appointed) to make it official. In Trump v. Slaughter, the Supreme Court said outright that the president can fire commissioners of government agencies and laughed off the idea that Congress could ever create truly independent agencies.

And yet, on the very same day, the same Court said in Trump v. Cook, that the president cannot fire members of the Board of Governors for the Federal Reserve. In that ruling, the majority makes it clear that of course the Federal Reserve should be seen as wholly independent from the Executive Branch and the president can’t fire its Board members, because that would cause chaos!

Both cases involve the same basic fact patterns — involving whether or not the president can fire board or commissioner members of independent agencies. Both decisions were written by Chief Justice John Roberts. Both seem to take wholly opposite views without even a remote attempt by Roberts to explain how he can say both things (on the same day, no less).

And, as many people are noticing, about the only thing you can say about these two contradictory rulings coming down on the same day is that John Roberts believes in the imperial presidency when it impacts everyone else, but believes in Judicial supremacy when it impacts his retirement funds.

There is no other consistent principle here at all. None. Zero. Zilch.

As Madiba Denne writes in that last Balls & Strikes link:

Throughout Slaughter, Roberts warned that the “unity” of the executive branch would be “destroyed” if presidents could not fire agency officials at will. But in Cook, Roberts was much more worried about the destruction of the stock market. Roberts traced the development of the country’s first banking systems and asserted that the Framers knew “calamities” could arise from “even the suspicion of political manipulation of monetary policy.” The chief recounted at length how President Andrew Jackson opposed a national bank that “he could not control,” and suggested that the president’s meddling directly contributed to “an era of ruinous financial panics.” 

Without an independent central bank, Roberts said, there would be “no way to contain the damage whenever a major institution fell,” “no lender of last resort,” “no elastic currency that could expand to meet demand,” and “no mechanism to ensure that small banks issued loans only within their means.” Roberts concluded that at-will removal would be “corrosive” to the Fed independence that Congress sought to safeguard. The possibility that at-will removal would be similarly corrosive to the independence that Congress sought to safeguard at dozens of other agencies seems not to have crossed his mind.

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Roberts ignores that the same reasons the Fed is designed to be independent are why the FTC, FCC, and other agencies were designed to be independent. Congress relied (for basically a century) on the Supreme Court blessing this arrangement to create a variety of independent agencies that lived under the Executive Branch, but were designed purposely by Congress with strong independence in mind.

In the Cook decision, Justice Brett Kavanaugh is the one who actually comes close to blurting out the truth, which Roberts carefully avoids. Kavanaugh admits that Slaughter and Cook stand in contrast, but that contrast is okay to him, because Trump fucking up the Federal Reserve would really fuck with monetary policy, and that’s what he really cares about:

I agree with the Court, moreover, that we should not leave open the question whether the Federal Reserve can remain an independent agency in the wake of Slaughter. After Slaughter, there is a clear choice: Either the Federal Reserve may remain independent (with the Governors removable for cause, not at will), or it may not. Leaving that question open would create significant uncertainty about whether the Court might soon eliminate the Federal Reserve’s independence, and thereby expose the Federal Reserve to political influences and jeopardize the efficacy of U. S. monetary policy. Even temporary uncertainty about the status of the Federal Reserve could spark political upheaval, including confusion about whether the President could immediately remove multiple Governors at will, as well as turmoil in the U. S. and world economies.

I would not go down that road. I would not risk destabilizing the U. S. economy just so that we can further mull over an issue that, in various permutations, we have been thinking about for many years.

This is quite the admission, though it’s unclear if Kavanaugh recognizes how astounding it is. He is basically admitting that while Slaughter creates chaos for all sorts of policies — consumer protection, labor relations, financial protection, etc. — that’s all for the little people. As Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern notes, the ruling in Slaughter creates a hugely damaging scenario for all sorts of rights:

The impact of this decision is gobsmacking. It strips independence from a vast range of federal agencies, including those that regulate nuclear energy, consumer safety, unions, hazardous chemicals, mine safety, crypto, and large swaths of the economy.

But those policies don’t matter to the Justices like Kavanaugh. Monetary policy, however, impacts his bottom line, and we can’t have that.

Such is also the situation with Roberts. Those other policies don’t impact John Roberts. But a screwy economic system would really put a dent in his various investment funds.

Denne again:

Part of Roberts’s justification for the outcome in Slaughter is democratic accountability—that removal power is necessary for the president to be the one person “with whom the buck stops.” But Roberts was clear, in Cook, that he’s really just concerned about the bucks: Giving Trump unfettered control over most federal agencies could help the rich get richer, and only screw over the little people, but giving Trump control of the Fed could cause an economic crisis big enough to negatively affect Roberts and his rich friends, too. 

Of course, the reality is that this decision isn’t so much about giving the presidency more power, it’s about giving Roberts’ Supreme Court more power. Yes, in the immediate future, this gives Donald Trump, as president, much greater power over the federal government, which will have many dangerous and damaging results.

But does anyone actually believe that the same John Roberts, who blocked former President Obama’s immigration policies or former President Biden’s student loan forgiveness policies, really believes in giving the executive so much power? Of course not. The lesson from John Roberts is clear: when Republicans hold the presidency, they have nearly unlimited power, with the one exception being when Trump threatens to wreck John Roberts’ investment funds. But when a Democrat is president, then suddenly the Supreme Court tut-tuts about how Congress restrains the power of the Executive Branch and it just can’t do anything about it.

The end result is that the power really resides in the ever-consistent view of John Roberts: Republican presidents can do anything they want, so long as it doesn’t harm Roberts’ investments. Democratic presidents are rightly restrained by Congress, and Roberts’ biggest job is swinging that big dial back and forth depending on who is in the White House.

Roberts has spent years whining about how unfair it is that people think his decisions have a political bias. But, really, if he didn’t want that, he maybe shouldn’t have handed down two rulings on the same day that so nakedly confirm exactly what he’s denied.

* Bedoya had to drop out of the case because while he was suing to get his job back, he couldn’t wait around unpaid for the years this case took, and had to go get a real job.

Filed Under: alvaro bedoya, brett kavanaugh, donald trump, executive power, federal reserve, humphrey’s executor, independent agencies, john roberts, lisa cook, rebecca slaughter, supreme court, unitary executive

A new prompt injection attack dubbed “BioShocking” could trick AI-powered browsers into treating real-world risky actions as part of a fictional scenario, causing them to ignore any safety guardrails.

A proof-of-concept (PoC) for the attack, devised by researchers at LayerX, was successfully tested against six mainstream agentic browser products (ChatGPT Atlas, Comet, Fellou, Genspark Browser, Sigma Browser, and the Claude Chrome plugin), with only one addressing it after receiving the report.

How BioShocking works

LayerX created a proof-of-concept in which a malicious webpage presented a BioShock-themed puzzle game that rewards wrong answers. This teaches the browser’s control agent that normal rules do not apply.

In the final step for winning the game, the agent is instructed to visit a GitHub repository and copy and share data present in the code, including sensitive information such as passwords.

The main problem LayerX discovered in this exercise is that AI agents fail to distinguish between real-world sensitive operations and a given scenario.

“Once the agents figured out the rules and learned that ‘incorrect’ actions are acceptable, they were no longer tied to reality,” explains LayerX.

“When tasked with the final step of the puzzle – compromising user credentials – all 6 agents failed to identify it as going against their safety guardrails.”

LayerX’s PoC did not actually perform any malicious actions, but the researchers underline that it could do so without changing the outcome of the exercise.

AI vendors’ response

LayerX informed vendors of its findings in October last year and received no reply from three of them.

The researchers say that OpenAI was the only vendor that has implemented a working fix for BioShocking in its ChatGPT Atlas browser.

Anthropic attempted to fix the problem on its Chrome plugin, but the patch is ineffective against the PoC, LayerX says.

Perplexity AI closed the report without fixing the issue, the researchers note in the report.

LayerX recommends that vendors add explicit user confirmation for sensitive actions, stronger context checks, and scope limits for agentic sessions.

On their part, users should use the available options on their platform of choice to restrict AI browser access to sensitive services.

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Clyde Shaffer spent years working on a console that would let people create and play entirely new 8-bit games on real cartridges. He started from the premise that most modern retro devices either replay old titles or rely on programmable chips that hide how the hardware actually works. GameTank takes a different route by using only common, still-available logic chips and two real 6502-family processors.

The finished machine is covered in a bright blue 3D-printed case with a cartridge slot on top and two controller ports visible from the front. A typical RCA jack allows composite video to be sent to antique CRT televisions or any other device that takes that signal. Power is connected via a simple barrel plug. The general design pays homage to classic machines while not imitating any of them.

Inside, the magic happens with a W65C02S CPU chugging away at 3.5Mhz to handle the primary software. Another identical processor running at 14MHz serves as a dedicated coprocessor for the audio side. There’s no FPGA in the mix, and no single microcontroller attempting to do everything. Instead, the design depends on plain old 74-series logic chips and RAM to handle address decoding, timing, and data movement, making it easy to fix and allowing anyone with minimal electronics knowledge to follow the schematics.

Graphics are rendered using a 128 by 128 pixel framebuffer. A clever small blitter circuit handles the difficult task of copying sprite data into the buffer at full clock speed, freeing up the main processor to focus on game logic. Sprite pages are stored in 512Kb of dedicated memory. Each one may be enlarged, turned on either axis, and can have transparency applied to the background. Artists get to work with a 200-color palette, which provides more versatility than many vintage systems. Sound is routed through the audio coprocessor and its own tiny memory. The chip then activates a four-voice FM synthesizer. The game code just passes note, instrument and timing info across a simple link . The result is music and effects that seem right at home in the 8-bit universe yet benefit from the extra processing punch.

Memory banking expands the address space. The top part of the bus maps directly to the cartridge slot. 6522 Versatile Interface The adapter chip swaps 8Kb banks in the bottom cartridge space while also managing the controller input and the back expansion connector. That 26-pin socket on the back accepts GPIO lines and other signals, allowing future add-ons to be easily integrated without the need to rework the mainboard. Cartridges plug in to a unique 36 pin edge connector with a 0.1 inch pitch. Production carts have a massive 2Mb of flash memory. Blank carts come with development kits so creators can load up their own code. Programming is done using a small Arduino-based flasher that connects to a PC. The entire process takes seconds and works with both EPROM and flash versions.

There is no operating system or built-in menu inside the console, as each game loads directly from the cartridge. This keeps the focus on new applications rather than obsolete title libraries. Developers get to write in assembly for maximum speed or mix C and assembly through the open SDK. There’s an emulator that runs on Windows, macOS, Linux, and even mobile phones that closely matches the real hardware, so most code just crosses over with minimal tweaking. A successful crowdfunding campaign on Crowd Supply reached its goal earlier this year. The development kit includes the built console, a matching controller, a blank cart, the flasher, and a physical copy of Accursed Fiend. Units are scheduled to arrive with backers in July.

Anthropic is now rolling out Sonnet 5, and it’s almost as good as the Opus range, but it is designed to be cheaper than the company’s flagship model.

In a blog post, Anthropic said Claude Sonnet 5 is “built to be the most agentic Sonnet model yet,” and added that it comes with advanced features, such as the ability to make plans and use tools like browsers and terminals.

Previously, these features were mostly locked to Opus 4.8, but now Sonnet 5 can do almost everything the flagship model can.

According to Anthropic, Sonnet 5 is a big upgrade, especially for those who rely on Claude for coding, research, automation, document work, and other multi-step tasks.

“Sonnet 5 narrows the gap,” Anthropic said, confirming the new model is a step closer to the expensive Opus 4.8 model.

Claude Sonnet 5 is designed for more agentic work

I personally found the Sonnet 5 experience similar to Opus, which means it’s better at creating plans or calling tools, and it’s also surprisingly good at verifying its own work.

In other words, it handles “Can you fix your code?” queries much better, almost closer to Opus.

Anthropic argues that the agentic AI era began with Sonnet-class models, referring to earlier models such as Claude Sonnet 3.5, 3.6, and 3.7. 

However, more recently, the largest gains in agentic capability had been limited to its Opus-class models.

Anthropic no longer wants to limit agentic gains to just the Opus-class or more expensive models. That’s why Sonnet 5 is meant to bring some of those improvements back to the cheaper Sonnet tier.

Anthropic said testers described Sonnet 5 as “much more agentic than its predecessors,” and noted that it can check its own output without always being explicitly asked.

Sonnet 5 gets closer to Opus 4.8, but costs less

As a developer, I love Opus 4.8, and I still strongly believe nothing comes close to Fable, which was recently pulled after orders from the United States government. But Sonnet 5 is one of those models that becomes a better cost-performance option compared with Opus 4.8 or Fable.

I personally pay for the Max subscription, which costs $200, and I often run out of my usage because Opus can use more tokens than Sonnet, and it costs far more. But even as a heavy user, I like to interact with the model to understand my own code, and in those cases, it makes sense to use a cheaper model.

However, Sonnet 4.6 wasn’t a great model at planning or understanding a massive code base. That seems to have changed with Sonnet 5.

In my tests so far, I’ve found Sonnet 5 to be far better than Sonnet 4.6 at following instructions, and also for agentic search.

These performance gains are also justified by benchmarking companies, including BrowseComp and OSWorld-Verified.

Anthropic says users can adjust effort levels between Sonnet 5 and Opus 4.8 depending on whether they want lower cost or maximum performance.

The company says Sonnet 5 is launching with introductory API pricing of $2 per million input tokens and $10 per million output tokens through August 31, 2026.

After that, Sonnet 5 will cost $3 per million input tokens and $15 per million output tokens.

That is still cheaper than Opus 4.8, which Anthropic lists at $5 per million input tokens and $25 per million output tokens.

For regular users. Sonnet 5 is available to everyone with Free, Pro, and Max subscriptions.

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from the maybe-he-should-stop-making-up-history dept

Call me crazy, but I tend to think when Supreme Court Justices make a big sweeping statement in one case, they should actually follow it through with other cases. You may recall, for example, that in the Dobbs case, where the right to an abortion was overturned, Justice Samuel Alito took the ‘history and tradition’ test and made it the centerpiece of modern conservative jurisprudence — using it to wipe out a 50-year-old precedent. Specifically, his reason for overturning Roe v. Wade was that he, a very weak amateur historian, could find no support for such a right in the history at the time the 14th Amendment was passed.

That very bad amateur historian shtick was on display again this week in the (otherwise good) decision in Watson v. the Republican National Committee, regarding whether or not the federal government could invalidate mail-in ballots received after election day. The majority, written by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, and joined by Chief Justice Roberts, along with Justices Sotomayor, Kagan, and Jackson, pointed out that (duh!) while the federal government sets the date of the presidential election, the states get to determine how those elections are run, including how the ballots are counted, including absentee ballots.

Barrett goes through the history of how absentee and “mail-in” ballots have been used since the Civil War, and for over a century many states have allowed them to be counted, so long as they were post-marked by election day. And democracy has survived without any indication of any problem with those mail-in ballots arriving after election day.

But, to Justice Alito, this is the end of democracy. In a typically overwrought dissent, he claims that this move (which again, many states started doing over a century ago), upsets the entire concept of an election.

The acceptance of these late-arriving ballots effectively postpones the date on which the electorate’s choice is made, and federal law precludes that postponement.

But as Barrett notes in the majority opinion, federal law sets the date of the election, not the date of the vote counting, or the date results get announced. Those are different things, and Alito pretending they’re the same is bizarre for someone who seems to think history should be his guide in legal issues. The majority points out:

The Constitution requires the “Day on which [the electors] shall give their Votes” to be “the same throughout the United States.” Art. II, §1, cl. 4. But it says nothing about the day for receipt, and, of course, 18th-century modes of transmission did not offer same-day delivery. The Constitution therefore envisions a system in which receipt is necessarily divorced from voting, and it sets the crucial, uniform day as the day of voting, leaving receipt to happen down the line. The federal election-day statutes follow the same pattern: They set when the people “shall give their Votes,” ibid., but leave open when those votes must be received.

And here, Alito’s complete ignorance of the history of American elections shines through. All we need to do is go back to the very first presidential election of George Washington, in which election day was set as February 4th, 1789, but Congress waited until April 6th of that year to fully gather and actually count and certify those votes — over a month past the originally planned March 4 inauguration date. The votes were all technically “submitted” — you could loosely say “mailed in” by election day — but it took two months to actually count them (and then over a week for anyone to tell George Washington he’d been elected).

So, I’m sorry, but Alito can spare me with the idea that counting ballots that arrive after election day somehow “postpones the day on which the electorate’s choice is made.” That’s just utter bullshit and wholly inconsistent with the history of this country and the way elections work. The actual election day can be a single day, but the votes can be counted way later, and the results announced even later. Saying that it violates the historical concept of “election day” to allow mail-in ballots that are post-marked by election day makes zero sense at all.

And it’s not like the Washington situation was a one-off of a young country trying to sort out its presidential election system. Four elections later, in the infamous 1800 presidential battle between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr, the US had to wait until months later when the matter went to the House to resolve (perhaps Alito should rewatch the musical Hamilton, which dramatizes this moment).

Or the elections of John Quincy Adams, which was also sent to the House to decide long after election day. Or the infamous Hayes-Tilden fight in 1876, where many of the votes were disputed and it took a specific (and possibly corrupt) “Electoral Commission” to sort things out and give the election to Hayes just days before the inauguration was set to take place.

No matter how you look at it: the US has a long “history and tradition” of voting on election day, and then (sometimes) taking a great long while to sort out who actually won, including waiting to count all the ballots. Mail-in ballots that are post-marked by election day and counted later are perfectly within that tradition, no matter what Alito has to say.

Alito’s entire jurisprudential brand is built on the idea that history and tradition should constrain what courts can do. He made that the centerpiece of Dobbs. But when that same history turns around and bites him — when it turns out the United States has a long, consistent tradition of counting ballots well after election day — suddenly history doesn’t matter anymore. What matters, apparently, is whether the outcome suits the narrative. That’s Alito retrofitting a legal standard to reach an outcome he desires. It should be seen as an embarrassment for a Supreme Court Justice to do so, but as we’ve all learned, Alito has zero shame in cooking up pretenses to reach his desired outcome.

Filed Under: absentee ballots, amy coney barrett, counting ballots, election day, history, missisippi, samuel alito

After a closer look at some new data, Apple’s iPhone 18 Pro modem situation may not be cut-and-dried. Here’s what the latest leaks say is in store for cellular connectivity, the A20 chip, and possible camera improvements.

On June 25, AppleInsider exclusively revealed that iPhone 18 Pro schematics and documents were among the more than 630GB of files taken from Tata in a cyberattack.

An initial analysis of the leaked documentation uncovered Apple’s plans to use its proprietary C2 modem in the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max. Additional details have since come to light, thanks to new research conducted by us and an analyst we’ve worked with in the past.

Qualcomm chip in the U.S. and Apple C2 elsewhere

Our findings suggest Apple may implement a region-based modem approach and a split release, with some iPhone 18 Pro models using the C2 chip and others a Qualcomm modem.

While all models of the iPhone Air use an Apple-designed mode, that may not be the case with the iPhone 18 Pro.

For the U.S. variant of the iPhone 18 Pro, which will feature mmWave compatibility, Apple seemingly plans to use Qualcomm modem hardware.

Multiple Qualcomm components, including the SDX80M, SDR875, QDM8771, QDM8720, PMK75, PMX75, and QET7100A, are referenced in a bill of materials related to the iPhone 18 Pro model Apple plans to sell in the United States.

As for the iPhone 18 models which will be sold elsewhere, Tata documentation suggests these configurations will use Apple’s proprietary C2 modem. While this approach may sound unusual, there is at least one possible explanation.

Apple’s current in-house modems, the C1 and the C1X, do not support 5G mmWave, and it looks as though the C2 will continue this trend. Until Apple develops a modem compatible with mmWave, it looks as though the company will offer mmWave support to iPhone 18 Pro users by using Qualcomm hardware.

With the iPhone 17 range, Apple already offers a mixed bag in terms of cellular hardware. The iPhone Air and iPhone 17e use Apple-designed modems, while the iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max use Qualcomm hardware.

This split-release strategy will likely become more complex, as the iPhone 18 Pro now factors region into the equation. iPhone 18 Pro board schematics reinforce this idea, as two separate part numbers and logic board variants exist.

820-04340-06 corresponds to the iPhone 18 Pro logic board with a mmWave connector and Qualcomm modem hardware. The non-mmWave iPhone 18 Pro logic board, meanwhile, bears the part number 820-04305-06.

With Apple’s current iPhone 17 lineup, some cellular features already vary by region.

iPhone models sold in mainland China, for instance, do not use eSIM, instead offering support for two physical SIM cards. That may change in the near future, as Tata’s documentation suggests iPhone 18 Pro models sold in China might gain eSIM support.

“No more dual PSIM starting in V64 P2,” reads a region-based configuration list for the iPhone 18 Pro Max, up to the Proto2 stage of development. The document outright mentions eSIM and physical SIM support for a configuration labeled CN, more than likely referring to mainland China.

A20 Pro chip may use WMCM packaging

As AppleInsider originally pointed out, among the files leaked from Tata were documents related to the upcoming A20 Pro chip, codenamed Borneo.

Further analysis of the more than 630GB worth of files has revealed new details about the A20 Pro system-on-chip. The documentation appears to suggest Apple will use a WMCM-style package for the A20 Pro chip, with the AP and memory side-by-side, unlike in the standard InFO-PoP packaging.

WMCM is short for Wafer-Level Multi-Chip Module, while InFo-PoP stands for Integrated Fan-Out Package-on-Package. Both are chip packaging processes, but the two are quite different.

With InFo, Apple uses a single die housing the CPU, GPU, and the Neural Engine, and limited memory configurations. Non-CPU components, like the memory, are added to the chip package rather than being an external component.

By using WMCM, meanwhile, Apple could have separate dies for the CPU, the GPU, and the Neural Engine. This means the company might be able to better mix and match the combinations of each, increasing the number of different chip configurations available to consumers.

Rumors of Apple using WMCM date back to at least August 2025. Tata’s files appear to corroborate these claims, at least regarding the A20 Pro chip.

Additionally, some of the iPhone 18 Pro board schematics suggest the system-on-chip will move closer to the outer edge of the dual-layer board. The storage of the device will seemingly sit deeper between the two board layers, though.

This design decision could ultimately impact thermal performance and repairability, though the exact impact remains to be seen.

iPhone 18 Pro may get upgraded rear camera

Diagnostic data, which compares the iPhone 17 Pro to the iPhone 18 Pro, reveal that the ID of the Wide sensor has changed from 0x903 to 0x905. This more than likely means the main rear camera of the iPhone 18 Pro is changing.

The iPhone 18 Pro might offer an upgraded rear wide camera.

To be more specific, the wide or main camera of the iPhone 17 Pro uses the Sony IMX-903 image sensor. Our findings would thus suggest that the iPhone 18 Pro will use the Sony IMX-905, a new custom-made image sensor.

As for what the upgrade itself might entail, rumors from October 2025, February 2026, and April 2026 claim the iPhone 18 Pro will get a rear camera with a variable aperture. If implemented, a variable aperture would reduce the need for computational photography to accomplish bokeh effects.

Though the documentation taken from Tata reveals a multitude of information about the upcoming iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max, the documents themselves detail prototype hardware in various stages of development. It’s not yet clear if these are final schematics, or interim ones.

from the well-that’s-a-choice dept

It should be obvious at this point that JD Vance is a purely political creature. There’s no virtue to find in there, no moral stances firmly taken, nor anything resembling a true political ideology. There is only the attainment and retention of more and more power. You need look no further than Vance’s prior status as a self-affirmed “never Trumper” that compared the current president to Hitler, only to flip-flop completely and become both Trump’s greatest defender and running mate. He wants to be president, of course, and will take whatever action or stance he thinks gives him the best chance to sit behind the Resolute Desk.

Now, I’m not particularly keen on giving free political advice to someone so loathsome, but I don’t think I’m breaking new ground when I say it’s not a great idea for Vance to brag about how this administration has so perfectly neutered the free press that they could do a bunch of Watergates and it wouldn’t be a major issue for them.

Vice President JD Vance on Thursday said the Watergate scandal that brought down President Richard Nixon would have been a blip in today’s news cycle, and he drew parallels between Nixon and President Donald Trump — arguing that both were targeted by “deep state” forces.

“If Watergate happened tomorrow, it would be like a 12-hour news story. The idea that it would have taken down a presidency is crazy,” Vance said.

He went on: “If you look at the story of how the deep state took down Richard Nixon, it’s not all that different from what the same groups of people, the same institutions tried to do to Donald Trump in the first Trump administration.”

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On this, Vance is sadly correct on multiple fronts, while incorrect on others. A Watergate scandal today probably wouldn’t get as much attention as it did in the 70s, in large part due to the bifurcation of our news media into one traditional media wing and one plain propaganda wing for the proverbial right. But that’s not a good thing. It’s bragging about the culmination of a long term plan to subjugate the press being that you can pull off wild scandals and get away with it. And if you need proof of that, you need only remember that January 6th happened, Donald Trump attempted to pull off a coup to retain the presidency over the clear will of the voters, and then managed to get elected to office again.

Vance’s comparison of Trump to Nixon is also quite apropos, though it’s quite incredible to see him willing to make it voluntarily. Once again, if you’re making a list of the worst political scandals in United States history, Watergate and January 6th are 1 and 1a, with the only argument being in which order you place them.

But it’s what he gets wrong about Watergate that explains why Vance somehow thinks these are good words to say out loud. The Nixon resignation from office was most certainly not the work of some “deep state.” Quite the opposite, in fact. Nixon used what might be called the deep state, or at least government intelligence services and the Justice Department, to attempt to evade accountability for breaking into the DNC headquarters and bugging them. He was caught attempting to hide and destroy evidence of his involvement in this crime. He’s on tape ordering an end to an investigation into his own reelection campaign. He resigned instead of being impeached. None of the above is a matter of debate.

Which is why, when Vance goes even further and happily compares himself to Nixon, I suggest we take him at his word.

Vance then noted his own similarities with Nixon.

“Young senator, vice president, writes some bestselling books, is hated by the media,” he said. “It kind of sounds like JD Vance. I’ve always liked Richard Nixon.”

Nixon was not a perfectly terrible president, but nobody serious wants to compare themselves to Mussolini over the apocryphal claims that he kept the trains running on time. Until the current president, Nixon was clearly the most disgraced American president ever. Again, I don’t really think that is a matter for debate.

What this smells like instead is Vance attempting to will into existence the “renaissance” he claims Nixon’s legacy is undergoing at the moment. I have not heard of this renaissance until Vance decided to talk about it. Normalizing a scandal-plagued president must surely serve some purpose, but I can already see campaign ads in a few years asking the public if they really want another Nixon president, since that was Vance claims to be.

These are not the most talented people, it is clear. I can’t possibly see the percentage for Vance in trying to frame himself as a modern day Nixon. But I suppose there is some honesty in the claim, for what it’s worth.

Filed Under: jd vance, politics, richard nixon, scandals