“I think Kash Patel opened the barn door on this one, I suspect the FBI Social Media Cleanup Squad is gonna be busy trying to close it.” John Buss, @repeat1968
Good Day, Sky Dancers!
There are so many people appointed to public office without qualifications, temperament, or even basic knowledge that many state, federal, and local agencies and functions are beyond dysfunctional. Political appointments have always been a touchy process, but the system of checks and balances and the presence of officials who take their jobs seriously and sanely are obviously lacking these days. The Trump appointments are stand-outs. They’re like an army against rational thought. The problem is that they hold positions where they can spread ignorance, sow disarray, and cause extremely harmful outcomes.
We have people needlessly dying of diseases that have been curable for a long time because of the insane RFK jr. We have Pete Hegseth, who eliminates any qualified person who isn’t a white male and simply has no knowledge of battle command or war strategies. In fact, some congress critters were ready to impeach him, so Trump toady Speaker of the House Mike Johnson simply sent the House of Representatives on a long vacation until after the November Elections.
Let me start with a review of this insanity that endangers our service members and our country’s national safety and standing among enemies and allies alike. Republican Congressman Thomas Massie organized a movement to impeach the ineffective and inept Secretary of “War” Pete Hegseth. This move came to the forefront last week. This is from The Hill. “Massie: GOP leaders found ‘other Republicans’ who would join Hegseth impeachment push.” Max Rego reports the story.
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) argued Wednesday that House GOP leaders sent the lower chamber home early because they found other Republicans in support of his push to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
“The fact that they didn’t vote on it tells me that they did a whip check, and they probably found that there were some other Republicans, besides me, that were going to vote for this, or at least didn’t want to be on the record supporting Hegseth,” he told host Kaitlan Collins on CNN’s “The Source.”
Massie accused Hegseth of violating his “oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States,” citing his handling of the Iran war and operations to kill alleged drug traffickers in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean.
The GOP lawmaker, who lost his primary in May to Trump-backed Ed Gallrein, also made his impeachment resolution privileged.
Given that, Massie argued the early recess was because of his impeachment resolution.
“I know it was,” he told Collins, adding it is “actually bad politics” to have the resolution “hanging over Pete Hegseth’s head” until the House returns in November.
Mike Johnson’s tenure as the Speaker has been anything but illustrious. This move basically obstructs the basic functions of the House. There were even enough Republicans to get the hearing which is how the system is supposed to work. This is clearly obstruction of some kind but undoubtedly so outrageous and obvious there’s little the Congress can do. This is analysis from MS NOW’s Michael A. Cohen. “Mike Johnson’s do-nothing House goes home with a whimper. It is a fitting step for what has been, undoubtedly, the least effective Congress in American history.” Consider we’ve had 250 of dubious congressional actions for that to be the headline.
On Wednesday afternoon, Speaker Mike Johnson adjourned the House and sent the 433 current members back to their districts. They won’t return until after the midterm elections.
It is a fitting end to what has been, undoubtedly, the most ineffective, underperforming and borderline useless Congress in American history.
This might seem like a harsh judgment, but the numbers bear it out. Since convening in January 2025, the 119th Congress has passed 108 major laws — and only 36 this year. Up to this point on the calendar, no Congress has passed fewer laws in modern American political history — except for the last Congress, which was also led by Johnson.
The 119th is on pace to pass fewer laws than any Congress since the Civil War. Even the infamous Do-Nothing Congress of 1947-1948 enacted more than 900 laws. Johnson has canceled 63 scheduled voting days. Through Aug. 31, the House was in session for 383 hours — an average of 48 hours per month. By comparison, the onerous Medicaid work requirements Republicans enacted in 2025 asked recipients to work 80 hours per month.
And this isn’t just an issue of quantity; it’s also one of quality. The only major bill the 119th enacted was H.R. 1, widely known as the “big beautiful bill,” which cut taxes, slashed Medicaid and remains deeply unpopular with Americans.
Beyond that, the 119th’s legislative accomplishments were the Laken Riley Act, which tightens immigration enforcement; the Genius Act, which regulates the crypto industry; the Take It Down Act, which addresses artificial intelligence-produced imagery; and a bill to release the so-called Epstein files.
Doing the job well or using established law, reality, and precedence has nothing to do with any recent Republican appointments to key positions. Take Justice Samuel Alito, please. This analysis is from Balls and Strikes. It’s authored by Madiba K. Dennie. “A Brief History of Sam Alito’s Delusional Obsession With Voter Fraud. His conduct in several recent cases suggests that Alito is deep in the right-wing conspiracy theory weeds.”
Against Justice Samuel Alito’s most fervent wishes, a federal district court order that prohibits the U.S. Postal Service from implementing a rule overhauling mail-in voting will remain in place during the 2026 midterm elections. Earlier this month, the Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to temporarily lift the order, which would have allowed it to immediately disenfranchise millions of Americans who vote by mail. But in an unsigned opinion on Monday, the Court in Postal Service v. Californiadenied that request.
In its opinion, the Court reasoned that the Trump administration was “unlikely to succeed” on the merits of its legal claim, and the “equitable factors” didn’t support lifting the order either. This is basically the polite way of saying “this is obviously illegal” and “this is too much of a hot mess, even for us.” But in a dissent joined by Justice Clarence Thomas, Alito contended that the mess was worthwhile. Although Alito claimed to take the “practical effects” of implementing the rule “very seriously,” he argued they were outweighed by the government’s “strong interest” in combating “election fraud.”
This “strong interest” is untethered from reality. Decades of research has shown that voter fraud is vanishingly rare. And one recent study that specifically examined mail voting between 2016 and 2022 found an average of four cases of fraud for every 10 million mail votes, or about 0.000043 percent.
Nevertheless, Alito has been preoccupied with voter fraud for years, and has used his unfounded fears to justify broad attacks on the right to vote. Just during the Court’s most recent term, Alito signaled his distrust of mail-ballots at least three times. First, in October 2025, the Court heard oral argument in Bost v. Illinois, a case about whether candidates for federal office have a right to sue over election rules in federal court. The Court would go on to rule that they do, reasoning that candidates have a unique stake in “the rules that govern the counting of votes in their elections.” At oral argument, though, Alito suggested that the candidates left a valid argument off the table by not alleging “what most people believe to be true”—namely, that counting mail-in ballots “generally hurts Republican candidates” and “generally helps Democratic candidates.”
Second, in March 2026, the Court heard oral argument in Watson v. Republican National Committee, a case about whether states have been violating the federal laws that establish “Election Day” by counting ballots that were mailed on or before that date but arrive a short time afterwards. Alito argued that counting these ballots is a threat to election integrity, because they can “radically flip” the “apparent outcome”—language commonly used by Republican politicians to frame the process of counting votes as suspicious.
Finally, in June 2026, Alito dissented in Watson, and in his opinion went on at length about the “vulnerabilities” of mail-in ballots; the majority, he said, had issued a decision that “compounds” the democratic danger. According to Alito, not only does counting valid and timely-cast votes facilitate “charges of a rigged election,” it empowers “bad actors” to “stuff ballot boxes when early election results suggest a tight race.”
Dennie has plenty of evidence and you may read it at the link. Since I mentioned RFK, Jr. in the introduction let’s just go there, shall we? This is from the New York Times. “Kennedy Assures Vaccine Skeptics That They Have a ‘Friend at the White House’. The health secretary spoke at a conference featuring misinformation about vaccines, including a claim that the success of the polio vaccines was a “fraud.” Sure, why not drive the kill our citizens bandwagon around the country. Christina Jewett and Teddy Rosenbluth share the lede.’
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Thursday told members of the anti-vaccine group he founded that they had “a strong and steadfast friend at the White House” and that he would “die with my boots on” pursuing answers about the risks of vaccines.
His remarks, to a convention of Children’s Health Defense, signaled a notable shift from earlier this year when White House officials and political advisers had pushed Mr. Kennedy to sidestep the vaccine issue, given widespread support among voters for protecting children against deadly diseases. They came just one day after President Trump’s nominee for surgeon general, Dr. Nicole Saphier, gave a full-throated defense of the safety and efficacy of vaccines during her Senate confirmation hearing.
But Mr. Kennedy, after spending the first part of his speech on the far more politically popular topics of food safety and nutrition, plunged headlong into vaccines, in a conference riddled with misinformation and references to discredited studies.
The speaker before Mr. Kennedy was Mark Gorton, the president of the MAHA Institute, who called the success of the polio vaccine a “fraud,” priming the audience for the remarks of their former leader, who railed against vaccines for two decades. The speaker after him was Andrew Wakefield, a discredited British doctor whose retracted paper linked the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine with autism. Decades of research have proved that finding to be wrong.
Sure. Why not keep supporting things that have been rigorously disproven and are deadly. So, now let’s head to Kash Patel’s crazy senate hearing that made my showboat Senator John Kennedy (R-Lousyana) look reasonable. It was the battle of the showboats. This is from The Independent. “Kash Patel’s bizarre Senate hearing somehow landed on ‘victims’ of bestiality
In one of the strangest Trump administration appearances yet, Patel made jokes about canines and had to clarify he is not ‘into’ animal sex before getting into a yelling match with a Democratic senator about the midterms, writes Holly Baxter.”
FBI director Kash Patel testified to the Senate Tuesday in a hearing that almost immediately descended into discussions about bestiality. Because that’s the world we live in now.
If you’re one of the fortunate souls who remains unfamiliar with Patel, let me fill you in: Trump’s FBI guy has, in the past, floated the idea that Jan. 6 was a Deep State setup, purged thousands of FBI workers after taking up the job, used polygraphs to test the loyalty of officials to the Trump administration, and overseen the detainment and deportation of thousands, the majority of whom have no criminal record. He believes that no media can be trusted, and is currently suing The Atlantic for publishing a highly critical article about him.
Oh, and he removed the requirement for FBI recruits that they had never had sex with animals.
As with most people connected to this hall-of-mirrors version of an administration, Patel is a mixture of scary, sarcastic and bizarre. He opened today with the usual MAGA stuff about how he’s changed the FBI to “let cops be cops” and how he’s been busy “capturing literally the worst of the worst.” He listed off a few data points about child abusers and “gangbangers” who have been imprisoned under his watch.
And then the questioning began.
You’ve removed the requirement for people joining the FBI not to have criminal convictions for stealing, soliciting sex, or engaging in bestiality, Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Ohio noted to Patel. Does that make your standards higher? (Patel had recently monologued about how historically high the FBI’s standards are now, because of changes like asking potential recruits to do a single pull-up.)
“Our standards have never been higher,” Patel replied. Pushed on that, he added that he wouldn’t have wanted to exclude “victims of bestiality” from applying for FBI jobs. Which all sounds very woke and lovely, until you consider that the victims of bestiality are animals.
“You’ve turned that upside-down,” said Durbin, dismissively, as he wrapped up his time.
Another senator wasn’t going to let it go so easily — and this was, in fact, a Republican: Sen. John Neely Kennedy of Louisiana. Kennedy began by demanding that Patel “pull that mic closer to you,” before diving into why anyone would remove the three requirements for anyone applying to the FBI.
It’s to protect victims, Patel responded; to which Kennedy clarified, “So it’s not if you frequented a prostitute, it’s because you were a prostitute?” Patel nodded. Kennedy paused, considered, seemed to find that reasonable, then leaned forward again and asked, slowly, “What about the bestiality?”
This is where things began to descend again. Patel again said he was protecting victims, to which Kennedy asked the obvious question: “So you don’t disqualify the animal?” At this point, Patel should probably have launched into some pre-prepared spiel about abuse, but instead he let out a nervous laugh and said, “We have great canines but we’re not going to disqualify animals.”
Kennedy didn’t find this acceptable. Do you realize, he asked Patel, that removing requirements like this makes everybody here look bad? This has hurt the FBI, having people hear that they seemingly don’t think bestiality is a big deal. With a perplexed look on his face, he finished with: “Why would you even get into bestiality?”
Read the rest if you can or dare or can stomach creepiness. But, wait, this entire post is about creepy Republican appointees! I could probably write an Encyclopedia on it! Lost your lunch yet?
So, there’s one piece of good news about the Creep-in-Chief’s active blocking of release of the Epstein Files that yet again, links to Congressman Massie and will be put-off until after the election by the creepy Speaker of the House. This is from MTN (MeidasTouch News). “Massie, Khanna Say They Have Secured 218 Signatures for New Epstein Files Vote. The announcement comes hours after MeidasTouch reported the discharge petition was just two signatures short of the threshold needed to force a House vote.” It’s reported by Brett Meiselas.
Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Ro Khanna, D-Calif., announced Thursday that they have secured commitments for the 218 signatures needed to force a House vote on the Epstein Files Transparency Act II.
The announcement comes just hours after MeidasTouch reported that the discharge petition had reached 216 signatures, leaving Massie and Khanna just two short of the 218-member threshold. At the time, every House Democrat except Reps. John Garamendi of California and Adam Smith of Washington had signed.
According to Khanna, those final two signatures are now accounted for.
“Thomas Massie and I have defied history for a second time, securing 218 signatures on Epstein 2.0,” Khanna said in a video Thursday. Khanna said four Republicans had joined the effort and that the two remaining Democrats had been sick and would sign when Speaker Mike Johnson calls the House back into session.
Massie made the same announcement, saying the four Republicans backing the petition are himself and Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Ralph Norman of South Carolina and Nancy Mace of South Carolina.
“Four Republicans have signed the Epstein Files II discharge petition!” Massie wrote. “When we return from recess that Speaker Johnson imposed until the election, Rep. Ro Khanna & I will have 218 names required to force a vote!”
Justice delayed, is justice denied. Right? Evidently Speaker Mike Johnson’s only job is to placate Orange Caligula.
So, I’ll stop right here because, again, I could write a huge, long book about all the injustices and surreal bandwagons rolling forward within the Beltway because some damn people just had to vote for the Maggots. I’m still lighting incense and wearing down my mala hoping the midterms bring in more reasonable people although I’m afraid we’ll just get more feckless or Fettermanish Dems. Reasonable Republicans are severely endangered species.
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No if’s, vote accordingly. Bring oversight of the most corrupt administration ever back, in numbers too big for Elmo and his high-tech bros to manipulate. Make America Great Again By Neutering Trump! John Buss, @repeat1968
Good Day, Sky Dancers!
I hope you’re having a great day with whatever plans you’ve got! Labor Day has always been one of my favorite holidays because it’s really about We, the People. It doesn’t involve spending a bundle just because it’s been hyped into a merchandising event. It’s about breaking bread with others and just taking a day off. It’s celebrating the people who do all the work, not gobbling up all the money. There are still many of those gobblers out there that still look for child labor, or hiring or paying people on the basis of something other than their skills. We have movements now to counteract that, and we need them more than ever.
The first set of suggested reads today has to do with Germany. It’s time to bring up one of the most used quotes ever. That would be this one from 1905 and the great mind of George Santayana. “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” There are always people who want to rewrite and blur history. Orange Caligula does this daily. It pains me to read headlines like this in The Guardian today.”The AfD’s win in Germany is a dark day for Europe. Time is running out to stop the far right. This party is among the most extreme in Europe. To protect our democracies, liberal parties must urgently change their tactics.” Cas Mudde has the report.
The far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) narrowly failed to secure an outright majority in state elections in Saxony-Anhalt. But nobody should take comfort from that. The party still won by a landslide. Decades of far-right election gains have made them seem normal to the point where only the biggest victories are deemed newsworthy. But 44% of the vote for a party that is officially classified as “extreme right” is not normal. It is a black day for European democracy, even if it occurs in a small east German state.
While Saxony-Anhalt (and Germany itself) may have dodged the worst outcome because the AfD won’t automatically fulfil its ambition of forming the first far-right state government in Germany since the Nazi era, there is no reason to assume it will be so lucky at the next election. Neither will other German states, such as Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in two weeks’ time, or other countries, such as France next year. No country is immune from the far right and, perhaps even more worryingly, no far-right party or politician is too extreme for political success (as the US has shown). We must therefore update our analyses and strategies.
Although Saxony-Anhalt, and east Germany in general, is an extreme case, it reflects similar trends in the rest of Europe. Far-right parties are going from strength to strength, with old dominant parties decimated, and party systems fragmented. Consequently, coalition formation is becoming increasingly complicated, particularly if we want to keep the far right out of power. In many countries, provinces and cities, most democratic parties are having to govern together to exclude the far right. This often leads to inefficient and unstable coalitions, in turn feeding yet more political dissatisfaction and far-right support.
Sunday’s results will only intensify an ongoing debate in Germany about the so-called Brandmauer (a firewall maintained by mainstream parties against cooperating with the AfD). Actually, Germany is one of the few EU countries to still have a far-right cordon sanitaire. Throughout Europe, from Italy to Sweden, far-right parties have been normalised and integrated into the political mainstream. In most cases, the (rightwing) parties that collaborate with the far right claim that the latter have moderated and are now “conservative” – a claim that is factually wrong, but increasingly popular with the electorates and members of these parties, and much of the media.
This will remain almost impossible to claim in Germany. The AfD is among the most extreme parties in Europe, and its most successful branches, including the one in Saxony-Anhalt, are among the AfD’s most extreme. This will not prevent some rightwing politicians from claiming that the AfD is less of a problem than the left, and there is even a fear that some parliamentarians from the conservative CDU in Saxony-Anhalt will defect to give the AfD a majority in the state. On the other side of the political spectrum, calls for an AfD ban will become even louder, and while this might be legally possible, it could create a massive popular backlash, going well beyond Saxony-Anhalt.
Both approaches share a too-limited interpretation of the problem. The idea of maintaining the Brandmauer is that the only (or main) problem is outside the system. Yet the system is falling apart as it is. Yes, the AfD (and the far right in general) is a fundamental threat to liberal democracy, but so is the fact that a sizeable and growing part of the population no longer feels represented by its politicians. While many still come out to vote for democracy, they increasingly vote against a party rather than for one.
As usual, both my degrees and fascination with History and Economics lead my interests. This next one is from Dr. Paul Krugman’s SubStack. “Neo-Nazis and the Impotence of Trumponomics. Crude economics doesn’t explain what just happened.” Of course, Elon Musk plays a role in this. I’m horrified.
Neo-Nazis — no point in euphemisms — just won big in the rough equivalent of a state-level election in Germany. America’s leading neo-Nazi — again, no point in euphemisms — congratulated the AfD (in German) on the result, and in return received “thanks for your support” from the AfD’s lead candidate.
In the days and weeks ahead there will be many analyses of the results and its implications from people who, unlike me, know something about German politics. For now, let me do something more parochial, and write about what the Sachsen-Anhalt election might teach us about U.S. political economy.
So, about America: Make America Great Again meant different things to different people — racism, of course, being a key component. But in Donald Trump’s mind it also clearly meant trying to bring back “manly” jobs. He would do this by imposing tariffs to eliminate trade deficits, which, in his garbled version of economics, would end huge U.S. “giveaways” to surplus nations. And this would, in turn, lead to a huge revival of U.S. manufacturing employment.
Why is Germany relevant to this story? Because in terms of both trade balances and manufacturing Germany is, in effect, the anti-America. Where we do indeed run large trade deficits, Germany runs huge surpluses. And while Germany, like every other advanced economy, has seen the manufacturing share of employment decline over time, it remains a more industrial nation than the U.S. has been since the 1980s.
Indeed, relative to the size of its economy, Germany runs trade surpluses and retains large-scale manufacturing employment to an extent that lies far beyond the wildest dreams of Trumponomics.
And none of this appears to make a bit of difference to the resentment that underlies right-wing extremism on both sides of the Atlantic.
Take a moment to let that sink in. We know the prior stated grievances of Trump and is ilk have never been the real agenda. However, now, the agenda is flying it’s flag full staff. Just look at the no-good that Pete Hegseth and his Department of War (sic) has been up to. The agenda is could not be more evident in every action. Racist, Sexist, Full on Right-wing Christianity supporting Israel so their rapture fantasy can be fulfilled and ruthless idiotic endless wars. These roads lead back to Elon Musk who has the where withal to change the world, and rewrite history with all his kindred grievance-filled white man.
This is from The Guardian, again and not surprisingly. “Far-right AfD win in Germany is ‘grave moment’ for Europe, politicians warn. Mainstream politicians express alarm while lead candidate in Saxony-Anhalt welcomes congratulations from Elon Musk.”
Spain’s socialist prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, told a party gathering in Madrid on Monday that the result showed that “the extremist threat, largely thanks to the surrender of the traditional right, is gaining ground in Europe and in the world”.
France’s finance minister, Roland Lescure, said it “clearly sends out a very, very worrying signal … This shows that we face a major challenge in the face of a populist wave which is spreading around the world today and which we must resist.”
Lescure’s comments echoed similar remarks on Sunday evening by France’s European affairs minister, Benjamin Haddad, who posted on social media: “To see the far right prevail in the German regional election marks a very grave moment for Europe.”
Haddad added: “We must listen with humility to the anger, fears and worries and duly respond to these concerns. But nationalism and xenophobia will never be the answer. We cannot forget our history.”
Poland’s foreign minister, Radosław Sikorski, said on Monday the AfD’s win was “a very worrying sign”. Poland’s prime minister, Donald Tusk, said on Sunday night in Poland: “Only idiots or traitors can rejoice at the triumph of the AfD in Germany.”
Italy’s foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, described the election result as “terrible news … because it concerns a political force that is antithetical to liberal and western values”.
The reaction was not limited to Europe. Elon Musk congratulated the far-right party on its election victory with a “Well done!” on his social media platform X, prompting Ulrich Siegmund, the AfD’s lead candidate in Saxony-Anhalt, to thank the nativist US tech billionaire for his support.
We all know that the last thing Elon Musk would be off doing today is helping his adopted celebrate Labor Day. This is from The Economist with a shared link. “Elon Musk’s praise for the far right infuriates most of Germany. A controversial op-ed may have set the terms of the election campaign.” This was what was going on in January of 2025. We should’ve seen it coming.
Alice Weidel could hardly have hoped for better publicity. With federal elections due on February 23rd, Ms Weidel is running for chancellor as co-head of the hard-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. In an op-ed on December 29th in the Sunday edition of Welt, a conservative paper, Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and a confidant of Donald Trump, called the AfD “the last spark of hope” for Germany. The country, he claimed, is “teetering on the brink of economic and cultural collapse”. He had a right to speak out about German politics, he said, because he has invested heaps of money in the country. (A multibillion-dollar plant in Brandenburg producing cars and batteries for Tesla, his electric carmaker, opened in 2022.)
The AfD is polling at 19%, putting it second behind the centre-right alliance of the Christian Democratic Union and Bavaria’s Christian Social Union, at about 30%. It is not the first hard-right European party to attract Mr Musk’s support: earlier in 2024 he praised Giorgia Meloni, the Italian prime minister. Mr Musk said she was “even more beautiful on the inside than she is on the outside”. She in turn called him a “precious genius”. He is said to be considering a donation to Britain’s anti-immigrant Reform UK party.
Mr Musk’s love-note to the AfD may have been counterproductive. It certainly incensed Germany’s leaders, already anxious about Mr Trump’s second term in office. “I can’t remember a comparable case of interference in the election campaign of a friendly country in the history of the Western democracies,” said Friedrich Merz, the CDU leader and chancellor candidate, on December 29th. Olaf Scholz, the current chancellor and candidate for the Social Democrats, noted in his New Year’s Eve speech that Germany’s fate is decided by its citizens, not “by the owners of social media”. Mr Musk owns X, a social-media platform. His recent posts there have been childishly offensive: one called Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the German president, an “anti-democratic tyrant”; another called the chancellor “Oaf Schitz”.
The op-ed editor of Welt, Eva Marie Kogel, quit in protest after Mr Musk’s article was published. The piece had been accompanied by a rebuttal by Jan Philipp Burgard, the paper’s incoming editor-in-chief, calling Mr Musk “fatally wrong”. The rebuttal’s headline calls the AfD “partly xenophobic and antisemitic”; Mr Burgard also blasts its anti-Americanism and its endorsement of leaving the European Union. Yet like Ms Kogel, many Germans found it wrong to have run Mr Musk’s piece at all.
Mr Musk’s op-ed was poorly argued. Yet the furore around its publishing seems unexpectedly to have shaped the early phase of the campaign. In the long run this may not prove terribly important: social-media algorithms, misinformation and Russian influence campaigns could have far more impact, as Michael Hanfeld, a German pundit, argued in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, a daily. But for the moment, the affair has had the odd effect of aligning the AfD with an American oligarch, making the Alternative for Germany seem slightly un-German.
“Sound and fury, signifying nothing” in the end. But, remember what a lot of money and propaganda can buy.
Josephine Walker’s latest at Axios truly shines life on life during Orange Caligula’s regime. “America’s expensive groceries are getting less safe to eat.”
Plenty of Americans feel like they’re forking over a fortune for groceries—only to get hit with a recall notice that forces them to throw that expensive food out.
Why it matters: While grocery prices are driven by complex trade and energy costs, the safety net meant to keep them safe to eat is fraying, creating a dual crisis of affordability and safety.
The average American household pays more than $10,000 on groceries every year, and two-thirds of Americans think they’re spending too much.
Prices have increased by more than 18% since 2022, although some foods have seen sharper or smaller increases.
What they’re saying: “It can be really, really scary out there,” Lauren Borsheim, a food policy analyst at Food & Water Watch, tells Axios.
“The Trump administration since 2025 has really just dismantled many of the fundamental protections we need to keep our food supply safe.”
“We have people that are really afraid that the U.S. is not doing a good job regulating our food supply. It’s definitely a concern out there that as people are spending more money on their food, they are also fearful that that same food is going to cause them to get sick,” Borsheim says.
By the numbers: Recalls are relatively on par with normal levels this fiscal year, according to FDA data.
So far, 5,504 products have been recalled in 2026. That’s up slightly from the 5,461 products recalled last year, but down from the 6,524 products recalled in 2024.
Yes, but: The FDA recently hit a record 19 simultaneous outbreak investigations, covering everything from infant formula to jalapeños.
Between the lines: Mega-corporations and corporate consolidation can turn single-suppliers’ errors into multi-state panics, as seen with the Cyclospora outbreak linked to iceberg lettuce.
“The U.S. food safety system has gotten hit so hard over the last year and a half,” Christopher Barrett, an economist at Cornell University, tells Axios.
Zoom out: Food-safety advocates are concerned about declining federal surveillance after the Trump administration eliminated or pushed out thousands of workers across the CDC, FDA and USDA.
Those cuts prompted federal officials to say they plan to do fewer inspections.
“When you cut corners, and you’re not seeing the inspectors show up very often, then more stuff gets out the door. You get more episodes of foodborne illness. You have expensive recalls. That just adds to companies’ costs, which gets turned into higher prices for us, and it’s a vicious cycle,” Barrett says.
So, this is not the world or country I want to leave to children and animals all over the world. I seriously hope this Labor Day motivates every one to vote like their lives depend on it. Because, I truly believe it does.
Happy Labor Day!
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“Given trump’s track record of hiring Fox News pundits. Maria Bartiromo, come on down!” John Buss, @repeat1968
Good Day, Sky Dancers!
The end of the week is always good for a little drama. It’s not that I want to go all gossip rag, but anytime something weird happens to a hyper Trumper, especially one kicked from Fox News, I’m all in. Fox News is not worth watching, but what it does is always of interest. It’s still the home of blatant right-wing propaganda.
Maria Bartiromo used to be a business reporter with a following on the normal Fox Business schedule. Now, she’s been inexplicably booted from Fox. It is always interesting to watch the back-and-forth relationships between the network that flies its freak flag continually and what’s going on in the current West Wing. This is so weird that I can’t help but follow it.
This head line comes from Status News. It’s written by Oliver Darcy, a former CNN senior Media Reporter. “Bartiromo’s Fox Betrayal. Fox News offered no explanation for Maria Bartiromo’s abrupt firing. But Status has learned what happened behind the scenes and why it put the longtime host at odds with her own network.”
On Thursday afternoon, Fox News issued a press release that reverberated through the media and political worlds. In a terse statement, the network announced that it had severed ties with Maria Bartiromo, the once-respected business journalist who in recent years became consumed by right-wing conspiracy theories. “We thank Maria for her work over the last 12 ½ years and wish her all the best on her next chapter,” Fox News said.
That was it. The Rupert Murdoch-controlled network offered no explanation for parting ways with the high-profile host, who is known to be very close to Donald Trump. It didn’t even explicitly say that Bartiromo had been fired—though make no mistake, she was. In the hours that followed, insiders wondered what had gone awry. What had Bartiromo done to get pink-slipped by the outlet she had called home for more than a decade?
Status has learned that Bartiromo’s termination stems from an incident, which has not previously been reported, that occurred in July. After Trump delivered his unhinged prime time speech in which he pushed more conspiracy theories about the 2020 election, this time making a number of allegations against China, I am told that Fox issued guidance to senior employees instructing them to steer clear of giving credence to Trump’s delusional claims. I’m told that the guidance was issued in writing.
Indeed, the day after Trump’s prime time address, Fox conspicuously avoided covering the debunked claims the president had pushed. The lack of coverage raised eyebrows among media observers at the time. It also appears to have caught the attention of the White House.
It’s unclear whether Trump or someone at the White House inquired with Bartiromo about the lack of coverage. But ultimately Bartiromo spilled the secret, Status has learned, divulging to the White House that Trump’s speech had received scant coverage on the channel because network bosses had ordered it so. I’m even told the text message in which Fox Business brass offered their guidance was shared by Bartiromo with the White House. In doing so, Bartiromo not only effectively betrayed her employer, but also disclosed confidential company information, violating the terms of her employment agreement.
Well, isn’t that interesting. The Hill has this analysis. “Trump: Fans ‘will not be happy’ Bartiromo out at Fox News.” The reporter on this story is Mira Bhakta.
President Trump said late Thursday that Maria Bartiromo’s fans will not be happy that the host is out at Fox News.
“I can’t believe Maria Bartiromo is no longer going to have her great show(s) on FoxNews/Business,” the president wrote on Truth Social. “Three different shows, always number one. Maria is a total professional, and a true warrior.”
“Her fans, of which there are many, will not be happy. God bless you, Maria,” he added.
Bartiromo worked at Fox Business for just more than 12 years and grew to be one of Trump’s most vocal supporters on the network. Before that, she worked as a financial journalist for 20 years at CNBC, where she won an Emmy Award for a documentary about Google.
Fox abruptly announced that the final episode of “Mornings with Maria” aired Thursday morning and that the show would be called “Mornings with Fox Business” beginning Friday and feature rotating hosts.
The network will also rename “Maria Bartiromo’s Wall Street” to “FBN’s Wall Street,” with a new host.
Fox News gave few details on what led to Bartiromo’s departure.
Hot Air‘s Ed Morrissey has this new headline up this afternoon. “War? Bartiromo Gets Boot From Fox, Lawyers Up.”
Reporters live by the leak. Sometimes, they die by the leak too … if they’re the leaker. Allegedly.
“Word leaked out yesterday that Fox Business Channel and longtime host Maria Bartiromo had parted ways. At first, observers expected to hear that she had left to replace Karoline Leavitt as White House press secretary. However, her former booking producer Breanna Morello made it sound as though Fox cut ties with Bartiromo rather than the other way around:
Fox Corp is parting ways with Maria Bartiromo. As her former booking producer, I can say she is the hardest-working journalist at the company. Bartiromo has given everything to her 12 years of work at Fox Corp. She worked six days a week and has a presence on their platforms seven days a week. She was always a class act and embodied what journalism should be. I look forward to seeing what she does next.
As I noted in last night’s Final Word, the situation was confusing enough to become a topic in Vice President J.D. Vance’s press briefing at the White House. When asked about it, Vance seemed surprised to hear the news, calling her a “very very dear friend.” Vance also said he didn’t think she would be coming into the White House …
Well, more of the worst economic policy ever is likely on the way. This is from CNBC. “Trump doubles down on threat to halt trade with top partners unless Fed cuts rates.” This story is reported by Kevin Breuninger.
President Donald Trump on Friday doubled down on his threat to cut off trade with countries that have surpluses with the U.S. unless the Federal Reserve cuts interest rates.
“What I’m saying, very simply, is that we should be paying the lowest interest rate in the world,” Trump said in the Oval Office Friday afternoon. He had been asked about his Truth Social post earlier in the day declaring, “LOWER THE RATE OR I’LL STOP TRADING WITH COUNTRIES WITH WHICH WE HAVE A DEFICIT.”
Trump issued that sweeping ultimatum after urging the Fed and its chairman, Kevin Warsh, to “get smart” and cut rates following a much-stronger-than-expected monthly jobs report.
Read Trump’s full post:
Great jobs number just announced, breaking all estimates (except mine!) by double and triple – And you haven’t seen anything yet! EMPLOYERS ADDED 162,000 JOB IN AUGUST. Lower the interest rates because the U.S.A. is a much stronger credit than it was just a short time ago! A STRONG COUNTRY MEANS A LOWER INTEREST RATE – IT’S A BETTER CREDIT…Very simple! We should have the LOWEST RATE of any country in the World, like “the old days.” Without the United States agreeing to allow them their big surpluses, and we could stop that immediately, they would no longer be considered financially ELITE! LOWER THE RATE OR I’LL STOP TRADING WITH COUNTRIES WITH WHICH WE HAVE A DEFICIT, which the U.S. Supreme Court, in its ridiculous and very costly Tariff decision, strongly acknowledged “the President” has an absolute right to do. IT’S BETTER THAN TARIFFS! The Fed Board, with its great new leader, must get smart – BE PATRIOTS for a change. High interest rates put the U.S.A. at a very unfair disadvantage, and I won’t allow that to happen! President DONALD J. TRUMP
The Fed declined to comment on Trump’s post.
It’s likely also one the reasons for this phenomenon. This story is reported by Catherine Rampell writing at The Bulwark. “Europe’s Gold Fled the Nazis. Now It’s Fleeing Trump. Our allies once trusted America to safeguard their reserves. Now they worry the president might freeze them.”
NEARLY A CENTURY AGO, our European allies evacuated their gold to America to safeguard it from the Nazis. Today, some European countries are taking it back—apparently to protect it from Donald Trump.
I wish this were a gag about our president’s garish tastes.
It is not.
In a frightening sign of just how much trust has been lost between the United States and its erstwhile allies, billions of dollars of gold reserves are being repatriated or otherwise moved out of Trump’s reach.
Yesterday, the Dutch central bank announced that it had shifted about $12 billion of gold reserves held mostly in New York over to London vaults instead.1 This follows a similar move by France’s central bank, which recently sold off about $15 billion of bullion held in New York, replacing it with gold bars stored in Paris instead. And for the past year, Germany and Italy—the second- and third-largest holders of gold reserves, respectively, after the United States—have been debating whether to pull their gold from U.S. vaults, too.
Paul Krugman has even more frightening details to outline on his SubStack. “Ingots We No Longer Trust. America’s word is as good as gold — that is, unreliable.” This really sends a bad signal to every one.
For the most part, monetary gold — gold held as reserves by national central banks — is a lot like the stones of Yap. Central banks own trillions of dollars’ worth of gold, which they sometimes sell to each other to settle international payments. But these transfers rarely involve physically moving gold across borders. A large fraction of the world’s gold reserves actually sits in a vault underneath the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, although the New York Fed does move ingots between compartments when transfers take place.
And why not? The sanctity of nations’ ownership of gold stored in New York is guaranteed by the word of the U.S. government — a government that is utterly reliable, because it honors the role of law.
Or anyway, that’s the country we used to be.
“Rule of law” is not a phrase often applied to the Trump administration. And the administration has special contempt for international law. Many of Trump’s tariffs have been ruled illegal under U.S. law, but more or less all of those tariffs were and are in clear violation of past agreements solemnly signed by previous U.S. presidents, including Trump himself.
So the idea that the U.S. government might devise some excuse to seize gold held in the Fed’s vault is no longer far-fetched. And nations are taking precautions. Earlier this week the Dutch central bank announced that it was shifting about $12 billion in gold from the vault in New York to the Bank of England’s vault in London. This follows a move by the French central bank to shift an even larger sum from New York to Paris. Other countries are considering similar moves.
The direct economic or financial impact of these actions will be minimal. There won’t even be large trans-Atlantic gold shipments: foreign central banks will sell their New York gold to private buyers in America and replenish it with purchases from private sellers in Europe.
But the symbolism is chilling. America is no longer trusted. Foreign governments can no longer count on us to obey the most basic rules, like the commandment that thou shalt not steal other people’s gold.
A federal prosecutor investigating the murder of a man by an ICE office is under investigation. This is scary and shows how out of control the DOJ has become. This is from CBS News. There a quite a few reporters on this story. “Federal prosecutor fired after investigating ICE officer for civil rights offenses in Minnesota shooting, sources say.” Violating civil rights of people is evidently A-OK with the Trump Regime’s war on the U.S. Constitution.
A federal prosecutor in Minnesota who was investigating an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer for possible civil rights crimes has been fired, four sources familiar with the matter told CBS News.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Evans was investigating ICE officer Christian Castro over the shooting of a Venezuelan immigrant earlier this year. The Justice Department ultimately charged Castro this week with making false statements about the incident, but the indictment remains sealed, CBS News has previously reported.
Earlier this week, ProPublica reported that Evans told attorneys for the man who was shot, Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis, and other victims to prepare for Castro to only be charged with making false statements, which would carry lesser penalties than criminal charges that he violated people’s constitutional rights under color of law.
ProPublica quoted directly from an email it said Evans had sent to the attorneys.
“This is being directed by the Main Justice and the US Attorney,” the email from Evans reportedly said. “I objected in the strongest possible terms and fought it as hard as I could. It wasn’t enough.” (CBS News has not obtained the email reviewed by ProPublica.)
Three sources told CBS News that Evans is under investigation by the Justice Department. Two sources said the investigation focuses on allegations of leaking.
This country is a cesspool. The elected officials that we vote for and count on to ensure the Constitutionality of actions taken here are sadly missing. But the, look at this headline, and you’ll see that clearly. This is Politico‘s take on a Wall Street Journal Investigation. “‘Too lazy to do the job’: Democrats dump on Fetterman after WSJ report. The Wall Street Journal’s story recounted multiple instances of Sen. John Fetterman refusing to meet with constituents in Washington even for scheduled meetings.” Gregory Svirnovskiy has the lede.
A swath of Democrats denounced Sen. John Fetterman in the aftermath of a Wall Street Journal report that showed the Pennsylvania Democrat routinely ducking meetings with constituents, skirting committee hearings and contemplating skipping a police funeral in his home state.
“John Fetterman is a disgrace,” Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.) wrote Thursday night on X. “Our state deserves better than a lazy trust fund baby who is too lazy to do the job.”
“There is a lot I could say about this report of John Fetterman’s pathetic behavior as a Senator,” Rep. Chris Deluzio (D-Pa.) wrote on the platform Friday morning. “But between the laziness, disrespect, and willingness to carry water for a foreign government, it shows us something we already know: this man has no sense of duty. He is not up for the high office he was elected to — and we in Pennsylvania will do something about it in 2028.”
The Journal’s story recounted multiple instances of Fetterman refusing to meet with constituents in Washington, even for scheduled meetings. In one case, he canceled on three paralyzed military veterans in his office, telling his staff that he was feeling unwell. But Fetterman came into the office shortly thereafter to prepare for a live hit with Fox News.
I have a feeling he’s not alone. Many of our elected officials are not doing their jobs. I certainly hope the midterms are based on change. I’d like to believe our democracy is still recoverable.
What’s’ on your Reading, Action, and Blogging list today?
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“Shouldn’t the new US Attorney General be prosecuting Reflecting Pool Vandals instead of spinning on the Sunday News Shows?” John Buss, @repeat1968
Good Day, Sky Dancers!
Regurgitating the past is so Trumpian. He’s the very model of a relic, an anachronistic trope. This week was full of reminders of how detached he is from reality. Once again, Orange Caligula tried to get the case brought by E. Jean Carroll overturned. Even the Supreme Court didn’t buy it. He may be able to control many of the folks he appointed to executive office, but his manipulation of U.S. democracy still only goes so far.
This is from NBC News‘ Lawrence Hurley. “Supreme Court turns away Trump’s latest bid to block E. Jean Carroll award. President Donald Trump filed an unusual request asking the justices to reconsider a decision they made not to hear his case several weeks ago.” E. Jean and her attorney, Roberta Kaplan, are real American heroes.
The Supreme Court on Monday declined for a second time to take up President Donald Trump’s bid to overturn a jury verdict that awarded $5 million to writer E. Jean Carroll for alleged sexual abuse and defamation.
In an unusual move, the president had asked the court to reconsider its decision from June that rejected Trump’s initial appeal. The court almost never grants such requests.
The case arose from a federal lawsuit Carroll filed in New York City alleging that Trump sexually assaulted her in the dressing room of a department store in 1996. The defamation claims relate to statements he made about her after his first term in office, in which he described her claims as a “con job” and “hoax.”
Trump has denied any wrongdoing and has said he does not know Carroll.
Trump has a separate appeal at the Supreme Court concerning a different defamation case in which Carroll won an $83 million judgment. That case concerns comments Trump made as president during his first term and has been tied up in litigation over whether he can claim immunity.
The court is not set to act on that appeal until later this year.
Good news. E. Jean Carroll spent a decade in court fighting one of the most powerful men in the world.She fought with tenacity and grace — and she won. She is one of my personal heroes.We owe her a debt of gratitude.https://www.cnbc.com/2026/08/17/trump-supreme-court-e-jean-carroll.html
And of course, he argued presidential immunity. This is from Politico.
Trump’s Supreme Court challenges to both verdicts argued in part that the verdicts were flawed because they relied on statements Trump made in 2019 about Carroll while he was serving as president and those statements should be considered immune from legal liability under the high court’s 2024 ruling granting presidents immunity for many acts they take while in office.
I wonder when the new AG is going to jump wily-nily into the case? I wrote a lot on Monday about the current treatment of the US Service members deployed to the Iran-Israeli/US war and their deplorable conditions. I mentioned that historically, Orange Caligula has shown mostly contempt for anyone who served in the military, voluntarily or not. My family has served this country since the Revolution, and I really don’t take kindly to the implications that my dad, uncles, or cousins, or any of the others that fall into the multiple greats, did so because they’re “suckers and losers”.
Public Notice‘s Noah Berlatsky takes on his constant denigration of the many who served. This happened after a Fox News “journalist,” Joey Jones, earned this headline from The Independent. “Fury erupts at Fox host who blasted ‘weak’ sailors on USS Abraham Lincoln: ‘Put him on that ship’. The former Marine Corps staff sergeant compared the carrier crew’s living conditions to his own deployment in Afghanistan.” The outrage over this continues. Here’s the take from Berlatsky: “Suckers and losers” as policy. The plight of the USS Lincoln lays bare Trump’s disdain for the troops.”
The Navy Times reported last week, based on interviews with family members, that multiple sailors have recently tried to jump overboard from the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln — a ship has been deployed for 250 days as part of President Trump’s war of choice against Iran.
Food is deteriorating and being rationed, there are water shortages, the laundry facilities are broken. And the psychological toll has been brutal.
Trump started a war without provocation and has prolonged it because he does not want to admit he lost. But when questioned on Friday about conditions on the Lincoln, he responded not with compassion or regret, but with callous vindictiveness.
Asked if the deployment had lasted too long, he replied, “No. Not nearly long enough.”
Q: The family members of US service members are concerned about the conditions on the USS LincolnTRUMP: No they're notQ: Has the deployment gone on too long?TRUMP: No no no. Not nearly long enough.
Trump also claimed that a carrier was moving to the Middle East to relieve the Lincoln. That appears to be true. Still, his belligerent denial of the suffering of service members is shocking.
“Shocking,” though, does not mean surprising.
Over the last decade, Trump has consistently insulted and mocked US troops. His defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has made clear that he sees service members as props in his endless battle to win culture war accolades from Nazi bloggers and right-wing talking heads.
The fact that real men and women are experiencing mental health crises and are dying in service of their ill-informed and vindictive whims doesn’t trouble Trump or Hegseth. It should more than worry everyone else though.
In yet another deranged Orange Caligula moment, we see his priorities. This is from the AP. “Trump blames vandals for damaged grass in the same spot where he held his big July 4 celebration.” WTAF? Is this paranoia or some odd brain fart? He’s done more damage to the District than the British ever did!
President Donald Trump on Sunday said vandals are to blame for large swaths of dead grass on the National Mall near the World War II Memorial — in the same spot where Trump had a stage built and hosted crowds for his July 4 celebration.
Trump made the accusation in a social media post without saying why he believes it’s the work of vandals instead of trampled turf from the Independence Day festivities. He posted a photo showing a once-grassy area by the World War II Memorial, now patchy and brown across much of the sprawling turf.
“Look what VANDALS did to the grass connecting the vandalized World War II Monument and the vandalized Reflecting Pool, which will be opened again, and better than ever, shortly,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform.
“Anybody who thinks the Reflecting Pool wasn’t vandalized should go back to Law School!” he added.
Trump has been obviously obsessed with World War II and its generals recently. Does he want to be Eisenhower now? Does he really think starting WW III would be a terrific idea to cement his place in history? I just don’t get any of this. Can someone please stop this madman before the country declines beyond repair?
In a truly bizarre move, Trump decided joint military exercises with South Korea should be ended because he’s such a good friend of the bizarro leader of North Korea. This is from the New York Times‘ Helene Cooper. “Trump Orders Pentagon to Curtail Military Exercises With Ally South Korea. In a social media post, the president scolded South Korea for not helping denuclearize Iran, and also praised North Korea and its leader.”
President Trump said on Sunday that he had instructed the Pentagon to reduce joint military exercises with South Korea, a longtime U.S. ally and a linchpin of America’s national security strategy in the Asia-Pacific region.
The announcement may heighten growing worries among Asian allies over what the United States is now willing to do to deter China, given the enormous distraction and resource drain of the U.S.-Israel war against Iran. The United States is running low on critical weapons and has been moving military resources out of Asia to the Middle East.
In a convoluted social media post, Mr. Trump complained that Seoul did not “join us in the Denuclearization of the Islamic Republic of Iran.” In the same post, he said that North Korea under Kim Jong Un had been “unthreatening and respectful” while he has been president.
In his post Mr. Trump did not mention a rift in relations in 2017, when the North Korean leader called him a “mentally deranged dotard” after Mr. Trump delivered a speech at the U.N. threatening to “totally destroy” North Korea if the United States had to defend itself or its allies.
Now Mr. Trump is speaking only of what he on Sunday called his “very good relationship” with North Korea and its leader. In his post, he said that because of those ties, he was “not happy with the fact that the United States has, long ago, agreed to participate in Joint Military exercises with South Korea.”
“These exercises are not only costly, with much of these costs paid for by the United States of America (as usual!), but send a signal that is totally inappropriate and hostile, to a Country that, as long as Donald J. Trump has been President, has been unthreatening and respectful,” Mr. Trump said in his post.
Mr. Trump said that because it was too late to cancel the exercises entirely, he had asked Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to “substantially reduce” U.S. participation.
The U.S. and South Korean militaries have held joint exercises for more than 70 years, since 1955, after the 1953 armistice that ended the Korean War.
The South Korean Defense Ministry confirmed that the joint military exercises had begun on Monday as scheduled. In a statement last week, the allies emphasized that the 11-day annual Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises were “defensive in nature” and aimed at enhancing the countries’ readiness and capabilities by “incorporating realistic threats, including lessons learned from recent conflicts.”
But North Korea’s Foreign Ministry on Friday had reiterated its condemnation of the drills, branding them “a rehearsal for an aggressive war.” In response, the country conducted two ballistic missile tests off its east coast this month, vowing to “respond to a new level of a threat with a new level of a deterrent.”
I don’t know about you, but I think having a President so totally located in a completely different reality, in charge of things — especially the military — is an extremely dangerous place to be.
So, let’s end this on hope, a wing and a prayer. This is from Axios‘ Mike Zapler and Ben Berkowitz. “Even some Republican voters sour on Trump.” I would hope they could. How can you live in this country today and afford anything? How could you have draft-age children or grandchildren and not be worried?
High prices, a persistent war and anxiety about corruption are quickly eroding President Trump’s support among Republicans, a warning sign for the White House with less than 80 days to the midterms.
Why it matters: Democrats look likely to take control of the House already, but Trump’s weakness could cost Republicans more seats and further endanger the Senate.
The loss of one or both chambers would guarantee two years of scrutiny and gridlock for the end of Trump’s presidency.
By the numbers: Three surveys out in the last week paint a clear picture of growing dissatisfaction among the president’s base.
📉 An Economist/YouGov poll out Tuesday had Trump’s approval rating among Republicans at a second-term low of 79 percent — a decline of 12 points from shortly after he took office.
In that time, the percentage of Republicans who “strongly approve” of Trump’s performance has dropped more precipitously —by 20 points (from 68 to 48 percent).
Trump is barely above water among non-MAGA Republicans, who make up about 30 percent of the party. Only 51 percent approved of his performance, vs. 47 percent who disapproved. The positive rating among non-MAGA Republicans fell 13 points in one week.
⬇️ A Financial Times poll out this weekend had Trump’s net approval rating among Republicans off 8 points from just a month prior.
💰 Republican consumer sentiment fell 9.5 points in August from July, per the University of Michigan monthly survey out Friday — one of the largest declines the decades-old project has ever recorded. The Republican decline was more than double the overall headline number.
Driving the news: It’s no secret what’s behind the numbers: the war in Iran, high gas prices and stubborn inflation.
These recent findings come on the heels of polls that show rising Republican skepticism of the war and GOP wariness over whether Trump is using his office for personal profit.
The intrigue: Trump’s political strength has long derived from outsized loyalty among Republicans, so even a slight slippage could be consequential.
I also was under the delusion that Republicans were deficit hawks. But, I guess that was just another gaslighting session. If you have time, check this one out by Max Boot from the Washington Post. Too bad it took some of these assholes so long to figure things out. “I’m a hawk. I’m shocked by a $1.5 trillion defense budget. The request would top World War II spending while funding boondoggles and sweetheart deals.”
So, anyway, it’s another hot, humid Monday down here in New Orleans, and I have to go water the small patch of sod that is now the middle of my small backyard. I’m still trying to teach folks economics and finance, but nothing fits the reality these days. The entire Data Center thing and the supposed “financing” of it are totally outside my realm, as a PhD in Financial Economics. Call me churlish, but this looks more like the Command-and-Control economics and policies of the old Soviet Union than those of the United States. Then there’s this, which is so far outside the bounds of legality I can’t even think straight about it. “Trump family crypto business World Liberty gets preliminary approval to establish a bank.” The flunky he appointed as Comptroller of the Currency has already approved it. Let’s see how he manipulates the Federal Reserve System and the SEC! Don’t even get me started on RFK Jr’s latest romp through medicine and the vaccines that have saved so many people.
As usual, more at the links.
Anyway, I can’t believe what’s going on. I really can’t. None of this should be happening. Let me know what you think. As usual, more on any of this can be found at the links.
What’s on your Reading, Action, and Blogging list today?
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“We all know why Todd Blanche was sworn in as the U.S. Attorney General behind closed doors in the Oval Office.” John Buss, @repeat1968
Good Day, Sky Dancers!
As we continue Joint Operation Chaos with Israel in the Middle East, it’s becoming apparent that more money and thought are going into Project Glitz up the White House than into taking care of our all-volunteer army. The headlines this week and today have been disgraceful. The latest weird decision by the peerless leader, which put others’ lives in danger as he escaped in a food cart to a different plane, is to spend billions of dollars on the US Navy to restore old technology.
It’s also becoming apparent that almost all the ships at sea have deplorable living conditions. Trump has never had respect for those serving in the military, but this is over the top. It goes beyond calling them all “suckers”. It endangers their lives. Senator Mark Kelly has a lot to say about this today. This report is at The Hill and covered by Finya Swai. “Mark Kelly on aircraft carrier catapult order: ‘Donald Trump knows nothing about this stuff’.” I hate to think that the U.S. Military is one of the things Trump touches that dies.
Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) blasted President Trump on Thursday for ordering the U.S. Navy to revert to older catapult systems on its aircraft carriers, arguing the change would be costly while questioning Trump’s qualifications to make such a call.
“He’s a marginally failed real estate developer with multiple bankruptcies,” Kelly said in an interview with MS NOW. “He shouldn’t be weighing in on systems, on aircraft carriers.”
Trump earlier Thursday directed the Navy to return to steam-powered catapults and hydraulic systems on its Ford-class aircraft carriers, ditching the newer electromagnetic technology.
The order would require changes to future carriers, including the USS Doris Miller, which is currently under construction and already slated to use the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS).
Kelly, a former Navy combat pilot and NASA astronaut who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee, warned the move would force the Navy to redesign ships that are well into development and are “probably going to cost billions of dollars.”
The Arizona Democrat has said that despite his own experience in hundreds of career takeoffs and landings, his degree in aeronautical and marine engineering and his work as a test pilot, he still would not tell Navy engineers how to design a carrier.
“Donald Trump knows nothing about this stuff,” the senator continued in the interview. “Not in any world would I suggest to the Navy to change the design of some system on a ship at this point.”
He added, “I mean, does the guy know nothing about the way our government is supposed to work and how it’s supposed to be managed?”
As usual, Orange Caligula is always thinking like it’s still the late 20th Century. This is from the AP. “Trump orders the Navy to return to an older system of launching jets off aircraft carriers.” It’s reported by Konstantin Toropin.
President Donald Trump is ordering the U.S. Navy to remove the advanced system used to launch fighter jets from its newest type of aircraft carrier and return to using older steam catapults that he has long said he prefers, according to a directive issued Thursday.
The new mandate would likely cost billions of dollars and revert the Navy’s most advanced ships to a system that takes more sailors to operate and is more difficult to maintain.
The memo directs the Pentagon and the Navy to present Trump with plans to remove the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System, also known as EMALS, within two months. It also says the Ford-class carrier’s electromagnetic weapons elevators should be replaced.
The move comes after years of Trump railing against the new, magnetically powered catapult system that shoots fighter jets off the deck of the carriers. It also comes at a time when the U.S. military is trying to find funding from Congress for all its desired equipment and as the Navy is struggling to fill its ships with enough sailors.
Trump’s memo directs the fourth Ford-class carrier, the USS Doris Miller, to be the first ship to include the new changes. That will leave the USS Gerald R. Ford, as well as the forthcoming USS John F. Kennedy and USS Enterprise, untouched.
However, redesigning an already finalized ship for such a major system change will not be an easy task.
MS NOW interviewed the wife of the sailor who recently jumped ship. “‘The boat is finally getting to me’: Wife of USS Abraham Lincoln sailor who jumped overboard shares texts. The sailor’s wife told MS NOW her husband expressed his mental health concerns to leadership during his long deployment on the aircraft carrier in the Iran war, but was brushed off.” Lindsey Pipia and Priya Sridhar share the lede.
The wife, who was granted anonymity to describe sensitive mental health issues, said she was not contacted by Navy officials about the incident until four days after her husband jumped off the ship on Aug. 3.
“I think that it was handled very poorly because they didn’t inform me and they didn’t want me to know, and they’re just trying to cover this up,” she told MS NOW as she awaits her husband’s arrival back to San Diego after he was medically evacuated off the ship.
She learned about what she described as a suicide attempt after one of her husband’s friends on the ship messaged her that someone from his squadron went overboard, she said. Later, that friend told her it was her husband, according to messages reviewed by MS NOW. Unable to reach him, she reached out to the ship’s ombudsman in hopes of receiving more information.
Her account contradicts what Navy leadership told family members of the sailors and Marines serving on the Lincoln during tense in-person and virtual town hall meetings last week. Navy officials said they could not comment on the medical records of individual service members, to protect patient privacy.
Many family members are concerned about potential exhaustion, low morale and the mental health of those on board, as the aircraft carrier’s deployment at sea appears to have been extended twice during the ongoing Iran war, with no clear end in sight.
MeidasTouch continues to investigate the conditions on the USS Lincoln and has expanded its research to other ships. This is the report by Aaron Parnas. “Not Just the Lincoln: Families Describe Human Waste, No Food, No End in Sight Across Multiple Ships.” Well, that certainly isn’t a good approach to maintaining morale.
One parent whose son recently returned from eleven months aboard the Lincoln, after finishing five years with an F/A-18 fire squadron known as the “Top Hatters,” described conditions that had deteriorated badly by the time he got off the ship.
Early in the deployment, the ship’s water system went down entirely, leaving sailors unable to shower or wash their clothes. When the system was eventually restored, showers had to be tightly rationed. Supplies ran low repeatedly, made worse when resupply ships were unable to bring materials back to the carrier. By the time this sailor left the ship, the parent said, toilets had backed up and overflowed, leaving roughly half a foot of human waste across restroom floors used by around 200 sailors at any given time.
There are many more stories included in the lengthy piece. It’s basically horrifying. Meanwhile, Cadet Bonespurs is threatening Iran again. This is from Reuters. “Hormuz traffic slows further after US threatens more economic pressure on Iran.” The lede is shared by Jonathan Saul, Phil Stewart, and Idrees Ali.
Transit through the Strait of Hormuz appeared to grind to a near standstill on Friday after two more ships were attacked there and the United States said it could maintain a naval blockade of Iran indefinitely.
A senior Iranian source said on Wednesday that there had been no progress in talks to build on a June agreement to end the war. Since the ceasefire renewed in the June deal broke down, Iran has resumed attacks on ships it accuses of trying to transit the strait without its permission.
The United Arab Emirates’ Abu Dhabi National Oil Company said two of its vessels were attacked transiting the strait on Thursday evening. The UAE government blamed Iran, which made no immediate comment.
Two vessels passed through the narrow waterway on Friday, according to analysis from ship tracking firm Kpler: a grain ship entering Iranian waters and an empty dry bulk ship going in the other direction.
A separate empty liquefied petroleum products tanker was sailing into the Gulf via the strait, the data showed. There were no crude oil shipments visible on Friday.
Nine vessels passed through the strait on Thursday, up from five on Wednesday but below the average of 12 for August.
I’d say there’s no Nobel Peace Prize for Cadet Bonespurs this year. So, what exactly are Trump’s priorities? Lawrence Hurley at NBC Newshas this report. “Trump asks Supreme Court to allow White House ballroom construction to continue’. The president wants the justices to act before a court ruling that would block construction goes into effect.”
President Donald Trump on Friday asked the Supreme Court to allow him to continue construction of a sprawling ballroom adjacent to the White House.
The emergency application follows an Aug. 7 ruling by an appeals court in Washington upholding a federal judge’s decision that would block abovegroundwork on site while litigation moves forward.
“If allowed to go into effect, the injunction would wrongfully install a single district judge as sole arbiter of what further construction is ‘strictly necessary’ to protect the safety of the President, his family, staff members, and visitors to the White House, including foreign dignitaries, and presidents and prime ministers of other countries,” Solicitor General D. John Sauer said in the filing.
The appeals court decision has yet to go into effect, meaning construction continues while the Supreme Court decides what to do next. The deadline for the justices to act is Aug. 21, with Sauer asking the court to act immediately.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld an injunction issued by U.S. District Judge Richard Leon.
Leon said that the White House could move forward with below-ground construction of security and medical facilities, but not the ballroom itself.
The administration immediately appealed, and his ruling has not gone into effect.
One key issue in the case is whether the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which brought the underlying lawsuit, has legal standing to sue based on its members being harmed by construction of a building they object to on aesthetic grounds.
Well, the same agenda as ever. He wants to build himself a Wonderland of monuments and buildings in the District. He wants his name on everything. He wants freedom to grift at will. He wants to live forever in the White House. We need to stop all of this, now!
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The Sky Dancing banner headline uses a snippet from a work by artist Tashi Mannox called 'Rainbow Study'. The work is described as a" study of typical Tibetan rainbow clouds, that feature in Thanka painting, temple decoration and silk brocades". dakinikat was immediately drawn to the image when trying to find stylized Tibetan Clouds to represent Sky Dancing. It is probably because Tashi's practice is similar to her own. His updated take on the clouds that fill the collection of traditional thankas is quite special.
You can find his work at his website by clicking on his logo below. He is also a calligraphy artist that uses important vajrayana syllables. We encourage you to visit his on line studio.
Let me start with a review of this insanity that endangers our service members and our country’s national safety and standing among enemies and allies alike. Republican Congressman Thomas Massie organized a movement to impeach the ineffective and inept Secretary of “War” Pete Hegseth. This move came to the forefront last week. This is from The Hill. “Massie: GOP leaders found ‘other Republicans’ who would join Hegseth impeachment push.” Max Rego reports the story.
Mike Johnson’s tenure as the Speaker has been anything but illustrious. This move basically obstructs the basic functions of the House. There were even enough Republicans to get the hearing which is how the system is supposed to work. This is clearly obstruction of some kind but undoubtedly so outrageous and obvious there’s little the Congress can do. This is analysis from MS NOW’s Michael A. Cohen. “Mike Johnson’s do-nothing House goes home with a whimper. It is a fitting step for what has been, undoubtedly, the least effective Congress in American history.” Consider we’ve had 250 of dubious congressional actions for that to be the headline.
Doing the job well or using established law, reality, and precedence has nothing to do with any recent Republican appointments to key positions. Take Justice Samuel Alito, please. This analysis is from Balls and Strikes. It’s authored by Madiba K. Dennie. “A Brief History of Sam Alito’s Delusional Obsession With Voter Fraud. His conduct in several recent cases suggests that Alito is deep in the right-wing conspiracy theory weeds.”
Dennie has plenty of evidence and you may read it at the link. Since I mentioned RFK, Jr. in the introduction let’s just go there, shall we? This is from the New York Times. “Kennedy Assures Vaccine Skeptics That They Have a ‘Friend at the White House’. The health secretary spoke at a conference featuring misinformation about vaccines, including a claim that the success of the polio vaccines was a “fraud.” Sure, why not drive the kill our citizens bandwagon around the country. Christina Jewett and Teddy Rosenbluth share the lede.’
Sure. Why not keep supporting things that have been rigorously disproven and are deadly. So, now let’s head to Kash Patel’s crazy senate hearing that made my showboat Senator John Kennedy (R-Lousyana) look reasonable. It was the battle of the showboats. This is from The Independent. “Kash Patel’s bizarre Senate hearing somehow landed on ‘victims’ of bestiality
Read the rest if you can or dare or can stomach creepiness. But, wait, this entire post is about creepy Republican appointees! I could probably write an Encyclopedia on it! Lost your lunch yet?
As usual, both my degrees and fascination with History and Economics lead my interests. This next one is from Dr. Paul Krugman’s SubStack. “Neo-Nazis and the Impotence of Trumponomics. Crude economics doesn’t explain what just happened.” Of course, Elon Musk plays a role in this. I’m horrified.
Take a moment to let that sink in. We know the prior stated grievances of Trump and is ilk have never been the real agenda. However, now, the agenda is flying it’s flag full staff. Just look at the no-good that Pete Hegseth and his Department of War (sic) has been up to. The agenda is could not be more evident in every action. Racist, Sexist, Full on Right-wing Christianity supporting Israel so their rapture fantasy can be fulfilled and ruthless idiotic endless wars. These roads lead back to Elon Musk who has the where withal to change the world, and rewrite history with all his kindred grievance-filled white man.
We all know that the last thing Elon Musk would be off doing today is helping his adopted celebrate Labor Day. This is from The Economist with a shared link. “Elon Musk’s praise for the far right infuriates most of Germany. A controversial op-ed may have set the terms of the election campaign.” This was what was going on in January of 2025. We should’ve seen it coming.el, quit in protest after Mr Musk’s article was published. The piece had been accompanied by a rebuttal by Jan Philipp Burgard, the paper’s incoming editor-in-chief, calling Mr Musk “fatally wrong”. The rebuttal’s headline calls the AfD “partly xenophobic and antisemitic”; Mr Burgard also blasts its anti-Americanism and its endorsement of leaving the European Union. Yet like Ms Kogel, many Germans found it wrong to have run Mr Musk’s piece at all.
Josephine Walker’s latest at Axios truly shines life on life during Orange Caligula’s regime. “America’s expensive groceries are getting less safe to eat.”
Well, isn’t that interesting. The Hill has this analysis. “Trump: Fans ‘will not be happy’ Bartiromo out at Fox News.” The reporter on this story is Mira Bhakta.
Hot Air‘s Ed Morrissey has this new headline up this afternoon. “War? Bartiromo Gets Boot From Fox, Lawyers Up.”
Well, more of the worst economic policy ever is likely on the way. This is from CNBC. “Trump doubles down on threat to halt trade with top partners unless Fed cuts rates.” This story is reported by Kevin Breuninger.
It’s likely also one the reasons for this phenomenon. This story is reported by Catherine Rampell writing at The Bulwark. “Europe’s Gold Fled the Nazis. Now It’s Fleeing Trump. Our allies once trusted America to safeguard their reserves. Now they worry the president might freeze them.” 
Paul Krugman has even more frightening details to outline on his SubStack. “Ingots We No Longer Trust. America’s word is as good as gold — that is, unreliable.” This really sends a bad signal to every one.
A federal prosecutor investigating the murder of a man by an ICE office is under investigation. This is scary and shows how out of control the DOJ has become. This is from CBS News. There a quite a few reporters on this story. “Federal prosecutor fired after investigating ICE officer for civil rights offenses in Minnesota shooting, sources say.” Violating civil rights of people is evidently A-OK with the Trump Regime’s war on the U.S. Constitution.
This country is a cesspool. The elected officials that we vote for and count on to ensure the Constitutionality of actions taken here are sadly missing. But the, look at this headline, and you’ll see that clearly. This is Politico‘s take on a Wall Street Journal Investigation. “‘Too lazy to do the job’: Democrats dump on Fetterman after WSJ report. The Wall Street Journal’s story recounted multiple instances of Sen. John Fetterman refusing to meet with constituents in Washington even for scheduled meetings.” Gregory Svirnovskiy has the lede.
And of course, he argued presidential immunity. This is from Politico.
In yet another deranged Orange Caligula moment, we see his priorities. This is from the AP. “Trump blames vandals for damaged grass in the same spot where he held his big July 4 celebration.” WTAF? Is this paranoia or some odd brain fart? He’s done more damage to the District than the British ever did!
Trump has been obviously obsessed with World War II and its generals recently. Does he want to be Eisenhower now? Does he really think starting WW III would be a terrific idea to cement his place in history? I just don’t get any of this. Can someone please stop this madman before the country declines beyond repair?
As usual, Orange Caligula is always thinking like it’s still the late 20th Century. This is from the AP. “Trump orders the Navy to return to an older system of launching jets off aircraft carriers.” It’s reported by Konstantin Toropin.
There are many more stories included in the lengthy piece. It’s basically horrifying. Meanwhile, Cadet Bonespurs is threatening Iran again. This is from Reuters. “Hormuz traffic slows further after US threatens more economic pressure on Iran.” The lede is shared by Jonathan Saul, Phil Stewart, and Idrees Ali.
y at NBC News has this report. “Trump asks Supreme Court to allow White House ballroom construction to continue’. The president wants the justices to act before a court ruling that would block construction goes into effect.”
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