Do not flip off a cop while running a stop sign on a souped-up lawnmower

Time for a link round-up:

• David Graham reminds us that the OAFPOTUS can hoodwink his MAGA minions but not so much the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps.
• He's also trying to put 50% tariffs on Canada again, this time for not preventing forest fires within their 526 millon hectares of unmanaged wilderness.
• Brian Beutler is one of the only pundits on the left giving real thought to beating the billionaires.
• New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill (D) announced that their motor-voter registration software registered 6,600 non-citizens to vote, which the state blames on the software vendor. And I have to say, given that all 6,600 ticked the "not a citizen" box but still somehow got voter registration cards, I would also blame them.
• Remember when Google was the way you could find anything on the Internet without bullshit intermediation? Yeah...
• Crain's laments how airport lounges have enshittified, which so far does not apply to American Airlines or British Airways, in my experience.
• But American Airlines has made changes to its basic economy fare class that really piss me off. (They're still better than Delta.)

Finally, let's all give a nice, slow golf clap to 33-year-old Thomas Matteson of Clarendon, Vt., whose balls and brains are approximately the same size:

A Clarendon man is charged with leading city police on a chase riding a souped-up lawnmower.

The Rutland City Police said Ofc. Timothy Rice was on patrol at around 7 p.m. Sunday when he saw Matteson riding the mower on Pine Street. Rice wrote that he was going significantly faster than a normal lawnmower and estimated his speed at around 20 mph.

After Matteson ran the stop sign turning from Pine Street onto Forest Street, Rice said he activated his lights, signaling Matteson to pull over. Matteson ran another stop sign, according to affidavits, and turned around and gave Rice “the finger.”

Matteson led Rice on a chase at speeds from 10 mph to 25 mph to Rover Street, Dorr Drive and Creek Road, police said, running another stop sign and failing to yield to a vehicle in the process.

The chase did not end until a second police cruiser got in front of Matteson, blocking the road along with an oncoming vehicle, according to affidavits. Matteson veered off the road and into the brush, police said, where he got stuck and was taken into custody. Police said they were more than two miles from where the six-minute chase began.

The article also delves into the nuances of what qualifies as a "farm tractor" under Vermont law. This is something the Vermont Supreme Court has ruled on, so it's kind of a big deal in the Green Mountain State. And hey, if you're riding a 24-horsepower lawnmower down a Vermont street, please stop at stop signs and don't flip off the cops.