The Conversation -- August 4, 2025

Dangerous Times. Paul Krugman: "... right now Trump has immense power, thanks in large part to the cowardice of many of the institutions that should be holding him in check. But he’s also rapidly bleeding [public] support, in large part because he’s completely failing to deliver on his economic promises. That combination makes this an extremely dangerous moment. And if authoritarianism does come to America, don’t count on it being soft 'like Hungary's]."

Marie: Okay, this may not be any less tasteless than a Trump dance hall, but please save your outrage, and I'll consider it merited: ~~~

Newish post by Marcie Jones of Wonkette linked below.

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Marie: I don't suppose there has ever been a headline quite like this on the editorial page of the New York Times. But there it is: ~~~

“What to Do When the President Acts Like a 5-Year-Old?” Economist George Akerlof in a New York Times op-ed: “... like many pillars of democracy — free press, fair elections, impartial courts — what protects the Bureau of Labor Statistics is not law but a common set of assumptions about how government should function. A basic idea that says: Presidents don’t manipulate the scoreboard. Past presidents respected this boundary.... The credibility of American statistics is foundational. It undergirds investor trust. It guides fiscal and monetary policy. It tells businesses when to hire, when to expand and when to hold. When those numbers are tainted or appear to be, the ripple effects are vast. Markets can lose faith in the data and in the country that produces it.” MB Note: It appears that the original headline was, “Why Trump's Meddling in the Bureau of Labor Statistics Matters.” Somehow I don't think the Times' notoriously right-leaning, both-sides-at-best headline writers were the ones responsible for the update. ~~~

~~~ Meagan Vazquez of the Washington Post: “The White House on Sunday dispatched Kevin Hassett, its top economic adviser, to publicly defend the president’s decision to fire [BLS Commissioner Erika] McEntarfer, but he did not provide evidence to support Trump’s claims that recent monthly job figures, which were revised downward last week, were rigged to make him look bad.... On Sunday evening he called the [jobs] report 'a scam' in a gaggle with reporters. 'The numbers were ridiculous that she announced,' he said, adding that he plans to announce McEntarfer’s replacement in three to four days.... When 'Meet the Press' host Kristen Welker pressed Hassett for proof Sunday to support Trump’s claim that those numbers were 'rigged,' he deflected. 'The revisions are the hard evidence,' he said, adding, 'If I was running the BLS, and I had a number that was a huge, politically important revision … then I would have a really long report explaining what happened, and we didn’t get that.'...  On CNN’s 'State of the Union' on Sunday..., Trump’s former BLS commissioner, William Beach ... rejected the argument that McEntarfer somehow manipulated the data for political purposes, saying that 'by the time the commissioner sees the numbers, they’re all prepared. They’re locked into the computer system.'” The NBC News story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Here is a likely cause of the remarkable change in the previous months' jobs numbers that I've suspected from the moment Trump had his hissy-fit: ~~~

     ~~~ From a Marketplace story Steve M. heard on the radio, “There’s another way federal data is being undermined, said Steve Pierson [, director of science policy at the American Statistical Association]: across-the-board job cuts initiated by DOGE starting at the beginning of the Trump administration, which Pierson estimates led to 15% to 40% staff attrition at some statistical agencies. 'The biggest impacts so far have been just the reductions of force, which are collateral damage,' said Pierson, leaving fewer trained statisticians to sample, survey, and analyze results for error, seasonal, or regional variation.” Steve writes, “Agencies like BLS ... are seriously understaffed, thanks to Trump and Musk and the DOGEboys firing people without congressional authorization (and possibly Vought replacing professionals with unqualified political hires, as laid out in Project 2025). The professionals claim to be confident that they're producing good data, but it seems pretty clear to me that at the very least those initial monthly jobs figures are likely to need more revision than they have needed in the past, and I'm sure that's the reason for the crazy-looking discrepancy in the May and June figures.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Even Trump -- who isn't very bright -- may have an instinctual suspicion that the drastic change in numbers is his fault. His Trumpertantrum then is his way of deflecting his rage against his own mess and onto an innocent bureaucrat (or in his telling, a deep-state anti-Trump, Biden-planted conspirator). 

Prof. Nicholas Grossman of Arc Digital: “The president insists the economy is 'booming,' the data says it isn’t, and he wants government officials to prioritize making him look good, reality be damned. That is the very essence of Trump’s political program. It’s inherent in the slogan 'Make America Great Again,' which calls for returning to a past that didn’t actually exist. They call poorer times more prosperous, and periods with higher violent crime rates safer. MAGA politicians, media, and influencers offer their followers the nostalgia-drenched lie that life was easy but now it’s hard, and whoever they already hate is to blame.... Living inside a lie is apparently what MAGA voters want.... [And] they try to push it on everyone else.... Trump firing the BLS Director institutionalizes the effort to live inside a lie.... Trump’s second term is doing that institutional lying on a larger scale. Along with reorienting DOJ, HHS, and other federal departments around lies, the administration is at war with science, universities, media, and courts — any public or private institution that can credibly say  'that’s not true.'”

POTUS* Bickers with Radio Host. Adeel Hassan of the New York Times: Donald “Trump railed at the radio host and author Charlamagne Tha God early Sunday morning, after the host said that the administration’s handling of information related to Jeffrey Epstein was fueling a 'coup' in the Republican Party. 'I think that traditional conservatives are going to take the Republican Party back,' Charlamagne said on a Fox News program on Saturday hosted by Lara Trump, the president’s daughter-in-law and a former co-chair of the Republican Party.... Mr. Trump posted on Truth Social early Sunday, saying that Charlamagne 'knows nothing about me or what I have done.'” ~~~

     ~~~ Matthew Daly of the AP: “Trump on social media called Charlamagne a 'racist sleazebag' and criticized his use of God in his professional nickname. 'Can anyone imagine the uproar there would be if I used that nickname?' Trump asked.”

Rebecca Solnit of the Guardian: “One of the reasons the epidemic of violence against women is so unacknowledged is because cases like [Jeffrey Epstein, Sean Combs & Harvey Weinstein] are talked about individually, and often treated as though they are shocking aberrations rather than part of a pervasive pattern that operates at all levels of society. Another is that it is in the most literal sense not news – ... violence against women is global and enduring, a constant rather than an event. Another is that law enforcement and the legal system have often been more interested in protecting perpetrators and society has often normalized and even celebrated violence against women.... Now, like all the men mentioned in the first paragraphs of this essay, Trump has a protection machine at work – one without precedent. Our own federal government, funded by our taxes, is apparently striving to protect Trump from whatever’s in those files.”

The Ballroom That Kleptocrats Built. Ashley Ahn of the New York Times: “Experts on historic preservation are raising concerns over the feasibility of ... [Donald] Trump’s plans to complete large-scale renovations to the White House by the end of his term, and whether the project can be done while respecting the historic nature of the building.... It remains unclear whether the Committee for the Preservation of the White House..., It remains unclear whether the Committee for the Preservation of the White House, which works in tandem with the White House Historical Association..., [and] which works in tandem with the White House Historical Association, has provided recommendations or raised concerns about Mr. Trump’s ballroom.... Questions about who is funding the project are also still largely unanswered. White House officials said the president and 'other patriot donors' would pay for the renovations but declined to give details.” ~~~

~~~ Matt Shaw in a New York Times op-ed: Trump's ballroom “project, designed by the traditionalist architect James McCrery II, will be built in the style of Gilded Age neoclassicism, complete with arched windows, chandeliers and Corinthian columns.” Shaw goes on to discuss the search for a "national architecture" and why that is so difficult. However, he doesn't address what I consider a central issue: how can we inaugurate a national architectural style when we don't have roofs over the heads of so many Americans? The gaudy neoclassicism the king prefers is an affront to the people he leaves without so much as a tent. More on the Gilded Age dance hall at the top of today's Comments.

Trump's Gilded Plastic Appliques Too Tacky for Historical Ass'n. Replica. Andrew Trunsky of the New York Times: “The White House Historical Association recently unveiled its replica of ... [Donald] Trump’s Oval Office, but it mirrors the office from his first term, before he festooned it with gold.... Until the Trump transformation was unveiled late last month, visitors who came had seen a room looking almost identical to the one occupied by former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. 'We are replicating President Trump’s complete tenure within the Oval Office,' said Luke Boorady, the exhibit’s managing director, 'starting with his first-term décor.'”

Riley Beggin & Jeff Stein of the Washington Post: “The White House does not plan to require health insurers to provide coverage for in vitro fertilization services, two people with knowledge of internal discussions said, even though the idea was one of ... Donald Trump’s key campaign pledges. Last year, Trump said that if he returned to office, the government would either pay for IVF services or issue rules requiring insurance companies to cover treatment for it. The pledge came as Trump faced political blowback over abortion rights after his appointees to the Supreme Court helped overturn Roe v. Wade.... A senior administration official ... said that while expanding IVF access remains a 'huge priority' for Trump, the president can’t legally make IVF an essential health benefit without Congress first approving legislation to do so. It is unclear whether the administration plans to ask lawmakers to take up a bill, but the two people said that forcing insurance companies to cover IVF is not currently on the table.” MB: It was a nearly-impossible, stupid campaign promise to make in the first place. ~~~

     ~~~ OR, as Scott Lemieux puts it in his LG&$ headline: "Obvious lie turns out to be obvious lie."

Greg Jaffe of the New York Times: “Jen Easterly, who had served in Republican and Democratic administrations, was headed to [a distinguished teaching chair at West Point]. Then a right-wing activist [-- Laura Loomer --] stepped in.... Over three decades, Ms. Easterly, 57, had compiled an impeccable résumé as a West Point graduate, a Rhodes Scholar and an Afghanistan war veteran. She had served as a key aide on President George W. Bush’s National Security Council and led a critical cybersecurity agency under President Joseph R. Biden Jr.... Ms. Loomer, a podcaster and persistent social media presence ... and self-described 'Islamophobe,' ... has run for Congress, but never served in government. Senior White House officials, who view her as unmanageable and often toxic, have blocked her from serving in the Trump administration.... 'Now some TV commentator keen to score political points can humiliate even very senior officers,” said Andrew Bacevich, a retired Army colonel, Vietnam veteran and emeritus professor in history and international relations at Boston University. 'And, of course, those officers allow themselves to be humiliated with the secretary of defense as either bystander or co-conspirator. It is an extraordinary moment.'”

Teeing Up an Election-Rigging Scheme? Ali Swenson & Gary Fields of the AP: “Over the past three months, the [Department of Justice]’s voting section has requested copies of voter registration lists from state election administrators in at least 15 states, according to an Associated Press tally. Of those, nine are Democrats, five are Republicans and one is a bipartisan commission.... The unusually expansive outreach has raised alarm among some election officials because states have the constitutional authority to run elections and federal law protects the sharing of individual data with the government.... The department historically has focused on protecting access to the ballot box. Today, it is taking steps to crack down on voter fraud and noncitizen voting, both of which are rare but have been the subject of years of false claims from Trump and his allies.”

Nancy Gertner & Stephen Vladick in a New York Times op-ed: “Last week, in a post on social media, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that the Justice Department filed a misconduct complaint against James Boasberg, the chief judge of the Federal District Court in Washington, claiming he made 'improper public comments about President Trump' and his administration.... The complaint misrepresents both what Judge Boasberg said and the nature of the setting in which he spoke, and it misapplies the law and the rules governing judicial conduct. Worse, it is a dangerous escalation in a mounting list of assaults by the current administration on the legitimacy of the federal courts. It is, in a word, preposterous.... Even if the claims against Judge Boasberg had merit — they don’t — the attorney general’s announcement on social media is a violation of the law, which requires confidentiality.” The link appears to be a gift link; the writers' arguments are worth reading.

Marcie Jones of Wonkette:  “A typo-ridden [secret] memo authored by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s little brother Phil, also Pete’s liaison to DHS, got leaked to The New Republic, featuring the agenda of a [secret] meeting between the Hegseth boys, representatives from DHS, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine, General Gregory Guillot, and NORTHCOM Commander Lieutenant General Chris LaNeve. In that meeting, Hegseth and team DHS urged the military officials to prepare to get involved a years-long war on America’s streets, in “‘L.A.-type” operations' that the memo says are a 'priority for POTUS.' Funny, because Pete Hegseth has been polygraphing and firing people all over the place to find THE LEAKERS, who have been snitching to the press nonstop about what an incompetent, raging, hypocritical and shitty boss he is, and how everyone at the Department of Defense hates him.” MB: Maybe the problem was that Brother Phil typed up his memo after the White House told Pete to quit polygraphing the help.

Luis Ferré-Sadurní and Ashley Cai of the New York Times: “New federal data shows that half the migrants arrested in the New York City area since Jan. 20 have been detained after being summoned to the federal immigration offices in Manhattan or to the immigration courts there.... In recent months, hundreds of people have been handcuffed without notice, largely out of public view.... Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested at least 2,365 immigrants in the region between late January and the end of June, a nearly 200 percent increase from the five months before Mr. Trump took office.... Most people arrested in New York during the Biden administration were released within a few hours so that they could wait for their asylum hearing.... The Trump administration has ... [been] holding most people in detention, for weeks and months, as their deportation cases play out in the courts.... And in recent months, those apprehensions [of non-criminals] have begun to surpass the arrests of immigrants who have criminal records.”

Tobi Raji of the Washington Post: “As the administration seeks to fulfill ... Donald Trump’s pledge to carry out the largest deportation operation in U.S. history..., Afghans who fear retribution from the Taliban for their work assisting the United States in its 20-year war in Afghanistan ... have found themselves in the crosshairs of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.... One former interpreter for U.S. forces in Afghanistan was detained by immigration agents in Connecticut last month after he showed up for a routine green card appointment. A second was arrested in June, just minutes after attending his first asylum hearing in San Diego.... After Kabul fell to the Taliban in August 2021, President Joe Biden’s administration moved to resettle Afghans who had worked for the U.S. government through the Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) program, which grants lawful permanent resident status and a pathway to U.S. citizenship. As of April, about 25,000 Afghans had received an SIV, and another 160,000 had pending applications.... But the Trump administration is rolling back programs created to assist more than 250,000 Afghans — including the allies who worked for U.S. forces and other refugees who fled after the Taliban takeover.”

David Gelles & Maxine Joselow of the New York Times: “Ever since 1965, when President Lyndon B. Johnson’s science advisory committee warned of the dangers of unchecked global warming, the United States has taken steps to protect people from these risks. Now, however, the Trump administration appears to be essentially abandoning this principle, claiming that the costs of addressing climate change outweigh the benefits. The effect is to shift more of the risk and responsibility onto states and, ultimately, individual Americans, even as rising temperatures fuel more extreme and costly weather disasters nationwide, experts say.... Lee Zeldin, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, this week proposed to repeal the landmark scientific finding that enables the federal government to regulate the greenhouse gases that are warming the planet. In effect, the E.P.A. will eliminate its own authority to combat climate change.... But Mr. Zeldin’s announcement was only the latest in a rapid-fire series of actions to weaken or eliminate protections against climate change.”

William Mao & Veronica Paulus of the Harvard Crimson: “Harvard President Alan M. Garber ’76 has told faculty that a deal with the Trump administration is not imminent and denied that the University is considering a $500 million settlement, according to three faculty members familiar with the matter. The University is seriously considering resolving its dispute with the White House through the courts rather than a negotiated settlement, Garber said, according to the three faculty members. Harvard and the Trump administration restarted negotiations in June to restore billions of dollars in frozen federal research funding.... The New York Times reported last Monday that the University is considering a settlement with a price tag of half a billion dollars. But Garber, in a conversation with one faculty member, said that the suggestion that Harvard was open to paying $500 million is 'false' and claimed that the figure was apparently leaked to the press by White House officials.... Talks between Harvard and White House officials have also been 'on and off again,' according to the faculty. But in any discussions, Garber reportedly said, the University is treating academic freedom as nonnegotiable.”

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Texas. David Goodman & Julie Bosman of the New York Times : “Democratic members of the Texas House of Representatives left the state on Sunday in a last-ditch attempt to stop Republicans from adopting an aggressively redrawn congressional map. Their absence is expected to prevent the House from reaching the quorum needed to hold a vote this week. The walkout was a sharp escalation in the bitter partisan clash over a mid-decade redistricting in Texas that was requested by ... [Donald] Trump. Republicans in the State Legislature were rapidly moving forward, with the map — drawn to flip five Democratic congressional districts to favor Republicans — being passed out of two committees over the weekend. A floor debate on the map, and a potential vote of the full House, was scheduled for Monday. The ultimate outcome is far from certain: The walkout could delay action in the Legislature for several weeks or more, but comparable past attempts to block Republican legislation and redistricting in Texas have eventually failed.” The Texas Tribune story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Caroline Vakil of the Hill: “Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D) said on Sunday that the state would protect Texas Democrats who fled to the Prairie State over GOP efforts to redraw the Lone Star State’s congressional maps. 'They’re here in Illinois. We’re going to do everything we can to protect every single one of them and make sure that — ’cause we know they’re doing the right thing, we know that they’re following the law,' Pritzker told reporters at a press conference Sunday night held alongside the Texas state lawmakers. 'It’s Ken Paxton who doesn’t follow the law. It’s the leaders of Texas who are attempting not to follow the law,' he continued. 'They’re the ones that need to be held accountable.'”

The Conversation -- August 3, 2025

Greg Jaffe of the New York Times: “Jen Easterly, who had served in Republican and Democratic administrations, was headed to [a distinguished teaching chair at West Point]. Then a right-wing activist [-- Laura Loomer --] stepped in.... Over three decades, Ms. Easterly, 57, had compiled an impeccable résumé as a West Point graduate, a Rhodes Scholar and an Afghanistan war veteran. She had served as a key aide on President George W. Bush’s National Security Council and led a critical cybersecurity agency under President Joseph R. Biden Jr.... Ms. Loomer, a podcaster and persistent social media presence ... and self-described 'Islamophobe,' ... has run for Congress, but never served in government. Senior White House officials, who view her as unmanageable and often toxic, have blocked her from serving in the Trump administration.... 'Now some TV commentator keen to score political points can humiliate even very senior officers,” said Andrew Bacevich, a retired Army colonel, Vietnam veteran and emeritus professor in history and international relations at Boston University. 'And, of course, those officers allow themselves to be humiliated with the secretary of defense as either bystander or co-conspirator. It is an extraordinary moment.'”

The House the Kleptocrats Renovated. Ashley Ahn of the New York Times: “Experts on historic preservation are raising concerns over the feasibility of ... [Donald] Trump’s plans to complete large-scale renovations to the White House by the end of his term, and whether the project can be done while respecting the historic nature of the building.... It remains unclear whether the Committee for the Preservation of the White House..., It remains unclear whether the Committee for the Preservation of the White House, which works in tandem with the White House Historical Association..., [and] which works in tandem with the White House Historical Association, has provided recommendations or raised concerns about Mr. Trump’s ballroom.... Questions about who is funding the project are also still largely unanswered. White House officials said the president and 'other patriot donors' would pay for the renovations but declined to give details.”

David Gelles & Maxine Joselow of the New York Times: “Ever since 1965, when President Lyndon B. Johnson’s science advisory committee warned of the dangers of unchecked global warming, the United States has taken steps to protect people from these risks. Now, however, the Trump administration appears to be essentially abandoning this principle, claiming that the costs of addressing climate change outweigh the benefits. The effect is to shift more of the risk and responsibility onto states and, ultimately, individual Americans, even as rising temperatures fuel more extreme and costly weather disasters nationwide, experts say.... Lee Zeldin, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, this week proposed to repeal the landmark scientific finding that enables the federal government to regulate the greenhouse gases that are warming the planet. In effect, the E.P.A. will eliminate its own authority to combat climate change.... But Mr. Zeldin’s announcement was only the latest in a rapid-fire series of actions to weaken or eliminate protections against climate change.”

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Jonathan Chait of the Atlantic: “Broadly speaking, Donald Trump’s authoritarian moves come in two flavors. The first is devious plans that help him amass power (say, turning the Departments of Justice and Defense over to lackeys, or using regulatory threats to bully media owners into favorable coverage). The second is foolish impulses that he follows because they make him feel momentarily better. Firing Erika McEntarfer, the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, as Trump did via a Truth Social post [Thursday] afternoon, falls into the second category.... Trump himself has spent years insisting that economic numbers were made up, regularly denouncing every positive jobs report during the Obama era as fake. And so, when this morning’s report came out, his lizard brain was primed to act: Bureaucrat say Trump economy bad. Trump fire bureaucrat. Now economy good.... Trump has been raging against [Fed Chair Jerome] Powell for being too slow, in Trump’s view, to cut interest rates. But cutting interest rates is what the Fed does when the economy is weak.... Trump is thus simultaneously claiming that the economy is stronger than people think and that Powell should act as if it’s weaker than people think.” Thanks to laura h. for this gift link. ~~~

~~~ When even Peter Baker of the New York Times gets it: “Mr. Trump has never been especially wedded to facts, routinely making up his own numbers, repeating falsehoods and conspiracy theories even after they are debunked and denigrating the very concept of independent fact-checking. But his efforts since reclaiming the White House to make the rest of government adopt his versions of the truth have gone further than in his first term and increasingly remind scholars of the way authoritarian leaders in other countries have sought to control information.... 'It’s a post-factual world that Trump is looking for, and he’s got these sycophants working for him that don’t challenge him on facts,' said Barbara Comstock, a former Republican congresswoman from Virginia.... 'Firing the top statistical official sends a clear signal to others across the government that you are expected to compromise scientific integrity to appease the president'..., said Gretchen T. Goldman, president of the Union of Concerned Scientsts and a former science adviser to President Biden]. 'This puts us in dangerous territory far from an accountable and reality-based government.'” 

Edward Helmore of the Guardian: “Senior Republican lawmakers are condemning the decision of ... Donald Trump to fire the leading US labor market statistician after a report that showed the national economy added just 73,000 jobs – far fewer than expected – in July.... 'If the president is firing the statistician because he doesn’t like the numbers but they are accurate, then that’s a problem,' said Wyoming Republican senator Cynthia Lummis.” MB: Helmore cites similar criticisms from Thom Tillis & Rand Paul. I'd say negative comments from three GOP senators, two of whom are Trump's most frequent critics in the Senate, doesn't amount to much. But it is a start. 

Trump Shifts Burden of Government Funding to Poorer Americans. Andrew Duehren of the New York Times: “Even before the latest tariffs kick in, revenue from taxes collected on imported goods has grown dramatically so far this year. Customs duties, along with some excise taxes, generated $152 billion through July, roughly double the $78 billion netted over the same time period last fiscal year, according to Treasury data.... Over time, analysts expect that the tariffs, if left in place, could be worth more than $2 trillion in additional revenue over the next decade. Economists overwhelmingly hope that doesn’t happen and the United States abandons the new trade barriers. But some acknowledge that such a substantial stream of revenue could end up being hard to quit.... The recent Republican cut to income taxes and the social safety net is perhaps the most regressive piece of major legislation in decades.... Lower-income Americans spend more of their earnings on those more expensive goods, meaning the tariffs amount to larger tax increase for them compared to richer Americans.” 

Liar-in-Chief Wants Thanks for Next to Nothing. Karen DeYoung of the Washington Post: “Despite ... Donald Trump’s repeated assertion in recent days that the United States has contributed $60 million for food to Gaza, U.S. pledges have been half of that amount, only a fraction of which has been actually disbursed.... Using nearly identical wording, Trump has at least three times in the past week made the $60 million claim, disparaging what he said was media inattention to his administration’s generosity. 'We gave $60 million a couple of weeks ago,' he told reporters at the White House on Thursday. 'Nobody said anything about it.… Nobody said thank you.'” ~~~

~~~ In Our Names. Mehdi Hasan in a Guardian op-ed: “The debate over whether or not Gaza is a genocide is, effectively, over.... The inconvenient truth is that the US has not just looked the other way, as tens of thousands of Palestinians have been besieged and bombed, starved and slaughtered, but helped Israel pull the trigger. We have been complicit in this genocide, which is itself a crime under article III of the Genocide convention.... Donald Trump has given Benjamin Netanyahu ... and his far-right government not only the green light to 'clean out' Gaza and 'finish the job', but also the arms, intel and funds to do so. When Netanyahu launched his blockade of all food and aid going into Gaza in March, he emphasized it was done 'in full coordination with President Trump and his people'.... Congress is filled with GOP cheerleaders for genocide, from Senators Tom 'bounce the rubble in Gaza' Cotton to Lindsey 'level the place' Graham. The newest member of the House, Randy Fine, a Republican representative of Florida, has called for the nuking of Gaza and said just days ago that Palestinians in Gaza should 'starve away' until the Israeli hostages are all released.... But we cannot let Democrats off the hook either.... Then there is the US media’s complicity in this genocide.... Elite US institutions are also disgracefully complicit in the annihilation of Gaza....”

Jonathan Fischer & Samantha Chery of the Washington Post: “The Smithsonian said on Saturday that it would restore information about ... Donald Trump’s two impeachments to an exhibit in the National Museum of American History within weeks. The Washington Post reported on Thursday that in July, the museum removed a placard describing Trump’s impeachments and reverted the exhibit to how it looked in 2008. That display — a glass case dominated by a file cabinet damaged in the Watergate break-in — says that 'only three presidents have seriously faced removal': Andrew Johnson, Richard M. Nixon and Bill Clinton. The placard mentioning Trump was removed from the exhibition.” ~~~

     ~~~ In its earlier report, the Post reporter wrote, “The Smithsonian spokesperson said that a large gallery like 'The American Presidency' requires a 'significant amount of time and funding to update and renew.'” This suggested that it would be a lo-o-ong time before the Smithsonian got around to again acknowledging Trump's impeachments. An NBC News report is here.

Mary Jalonick & Joey Cappelletti of the AP: “The Senate left Washington Saturday night for its monthlong August recess without a deal to advance dozens of ... Donald Trump’s nominees, calling it quits after days of contentious bipartisan negotiations and Trump posting on social media that Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer can 'GO TO HELL!' Without a deal in hand, Republicans say they may try to change Senate rules when they return in September to speed up the pace of confirmations. Trump has been pressuring senators to move quickly as Democrats blocked more nominees than usual this year, denying any fast unanimous consent votes and forcing roll calls on each one, a lengthy process that can take several days per nominee.” Politico's report is here.

Senate Confirms Former Fox Host Boxwine. Grace Moon & Theodoric Meyer of the Washington Post: “The Senate on Saturday confirmed former Fox News host Jeanine Pirro as the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia in a 50-45 vote along party lines. The 74-year-old Trump loyalist previously served as a judge and prosecutor in Westchester County, New York and has been interim U.S. attorney since May.” The CBS News report is here.

Tom Cotton will never stop being an obnoxious, attention-seeking ass: ~~~

~~~ Devlin Barrett of the New York Times : “An agency that scrutinizes the conduct of federal employees has opened an investigation into Jack Smith, the former special counsel who investigated Donald J. Trump before he returned to office, following a request by a Republican senator. The Office of Special Counsel confirmed on Saturday that it had opened an investigation into Mr. Smith for a possible violation of the Hatch Act, a law that prohibits federal workers from using their government jobs to engage in political activity. Senator Tom Cotton, Republican of Arkansas, had asked the agency to investigate on the premise that some of Mr. Smith’s actions, such as seeking quick trial dates in the two criminal cases against Mr. Trump, were designed to influence the 2024 election.... The ... most severe penalty possible for a Hatch Act violation is dismissal from federal employment, and Mr. Smith left the government at the start of the year.... The type of prosecutorial decisions criticized by Mr. Cotton, Mr. Trump and others are far different from the type of cases the O.S.C. typically handles. The office traditionally investigates and addresses violations of federal rules about the civil service.” The AP's report is here.

Zach Montellaro & Josh Gerstein of Politico: “The Supreme Court said Friday that it will weigh the constitutionality of a common form of redistricting used to protect the voting power of Black and Hispanic voters: the drawing of congressional districts where racial minorities make up at least half the population. Experts in election law said the move signals that the court may be poised to further narrow the Voting Rights Act. In a terse order issued Friday evening, the justices called for briefing on whether the 'intentional creation of a second majority-minority congressional district violates the Fourteenth or Fifteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.' The order came in a case challenging Louisiana’s congressional map, which contains two majority-Black districts out of the state’s six House seats.” Thanks to Akhilleus for the link. See also his commentary near the end of yesterday's thread. A Washington Post story is here.

Texas. Gerrymandering the Gerrymandered. David Goodman of the New York Times: “A Republican-led committee of the Texas House voted on Saturday to advance a new congressional map drawn to flip five Democratic House districts in favor of Republican candidates, setting up a showdown over redistricting next week. The vote came after a marathon 15-hour hearing on Friday in which the committee heard public testimony, almost all of it firmly against the aggressive changes that affect districts in Houston, Dallas and Austin, and along the U.S.-Mexico border. Several Democratic members of Congress came to Austin to testify, arguing that the proposed map would diminish the power of Black and Hispanic communities across Texas and violate the federal Voting Rights Act. Al Green, a congressman from Houston, said the map was 'racist.' Jasmine Crockett, a congresswoman from Dallas, vowed to immediately challenge it in court. But in the end, the Republicans on the committee voted to deliver the map that had been called for by ... [Donald] Trump, who said last month that he hoped to get five more Republicans in the House. Republicans currently hold 25 of Texas’ 38 congressional seats.” Mother Jones' report is here.

The Conversation -- August 2, 2025

Zolan Kanno-Youngs of the New York Times: “... on Friday, [Donald] Trump, confronted with foes and facts that he could not easily control..., respond[ed] with disproportionate intensity and a distinct impatience. His actions [against the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics & against Russia] were part of a pattern in which he has shown growing intolerance toward those who will not bend to his will.... His actions on Friday were especially striking because they involved fiery reactions to two of the biggest issues on his plate[: the Russia/Ukraine war and the U.S. economy].... '“It’s more evidence he’s not fit to be president. This is not the way a president responds to either one of these situations,' said Trump's former national security advisor John Bolton].... Having surrounded himself with aides unwilling to challenge his impulses, Mr. Trump faces no constraints on lashing out impulsively, Mr. Bolton said. 'Trump is not deterred by reality,' Mr. Bolton said.”

The POTUS* is not just a petty tyrant; he is a predictably stupid tyrant: ~~~

⭐ ~~~ Andrew Ackerman of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump on Friday said he ordered the firing of Erika McEntarfer, the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, following the release of a dismal jobs report that showed lackluster employment growth for July but also revealed large downward revisions for hiring in May and June. Trump, who took to social media to announce McEntarfer’s ouster, criticized her as a President Joe Biden appointee overseeing what he called 'faked' or unreliable jobs numbers, promising she would be replaced with someone 'more competent and qualified.' Without evidence, he alleged the jobs numbers had been manipulated for political purposes. The firing came just hours after the BLS reported that the jobs market was far weaker than previously believed. Large cuts to earlier job counts erased 258,000 positions originally reported for May and June, marking the steepest two-month downward revision on record outside the pandemic. July figures were also below expectations, highlighting an economy struggling under new tariffs and tighter labor conditions.” The AP's report is here. MB: When the dictator shoots the messenger, can you trust the accuracy of the next message? Nope. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Ben Casselman & Tony Romm of the New York Times: Donald “Trump unleashed his fury about weakness in the labor market on Friday, saying without evidence that the data [which the BLS reported] were 'rigged' and that he was firing the Senate-confirmed Department of Labor official responsible for pulling together the numbers each month.... Economists widely interpreted the report as evidence that Mr. Trump’s policies were beginning to take a toll on the economy, though the president insisted in a subsequent post that the country was 'doing GREAT!'... Dr. [Erika] McEntarfer was appointed to her post by President Joseph R. Biden Jr. in 2023 after a long career at the Census Bureau and other agencies, where she served under presidents of both parties, including Mr. Trump. Among the Republicans who voted to confirm her as commissioner was Vice President JD Vance, who was then an Ohio senator. The firing prompted swift criticism from economists, former government officials and others, who said the removal would further erode trust in government statistics and make it more difficult for policymakers, investors and businesses, who rely on having dependable data about the economy to make decisions.” ~~~

~~~ “Senseless.” Jason Furman, President Obama's chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, in a New York Times op-ed: The Bureau of Labor Statistics is a “highly respected, nonpartisan agency, widely considered the producer of the best labor market data in the world. This is closer to what one expects from a banana republic than from a major democratic financial center. This is even more senseless than his other threats to fire officials like Jerome Powell, the chairman of the Federal Reserve.... Erika McEntarfer, the fired B.L.S. commissioner, is a highly respected economist with extensive experience in the production and analysis of government data. But she does not make policy in the way that someone like Powell does. Nor does the commissioner traditionally even make the particular numbers that the B.L.S. releases. Instead those numbers are produced by the 2,000 nonpartisan career staff members who work in the agency, in this case compiling the survey responses from the more than 100,000 businesses that report their employment to the B.L.S. every month.... Revisions are a normal part of the statistical process and.... About one-third of the sampled businesses do not return their survey responses on time....” ~~~

~~~ Paul Krugman: "Over the past six months we’ve watched institution after institution corrupted by the Trump administration. Institutions that might produce inconvenient information, from those tracking climate change to those tracking infectious disease, have been special targets. And now they’ve come for the economic data.... Who could have seen this coming? Anyone paying attention.... [Trump] just fired the head of the BLS because he didn’t like the numbers it reported — a clear signal to the remaining staff not to report bad news. And just like that, we can no longer treat BLS data as the gold standard.” ~~~

~~~ Don Moynihan: “Trump has no evidence for what he claims. He simply does not like reality, and will do what he can to deny it. And as tariffs kick in, and Trump’s layoffs of public employees becomes incorporated into jobs data, that reality will look worse and worse.” Read on. Right down to the reference to Erdogan. Moynihan adds quite a bit of context & color to the story. ~~~

~~~ Steve Benen of MSNBC: “... with roughly two hours before the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics released the latest jobs data, Donald Trump published a rather furious missive to his social media platform, calling his own handpicked Federal Reserve chair, Jerome Powell, 'a stubborn MORON.' The president went on to suggest the Fed’s board  'should assume control' of the entire institution unless Powell agrees to 'substantially lower interest rates, NOW.'... It was, to be sure, a rather unhinged tantrum, but it was also a pretty big hint: Trump had seen the job numbers, and he wasn’t pleased. The public soon learned that the job totals were quite awful.... The president ... keeps telling people how 'hot' the economy is, and reality keeps getting in the way. [After ordering the firing of the commissioner of labor statistics]..., Trump, without a shred of evidence or shame, proceeded to claim that [Erika] McEntarfer had secretly conspired against him during the 2024 campaign — a bizarre claim, given that the job totals in the months leading up to Election Day really weren’t great — before flubbing basic facts about Labor Department reports that anyone in an Economics 101 course would recognize as absurd.... This ... [is] how despots rule.” (Also linked yesterday.) 

Sydney Ember of the New York Times: “Companies are starting to shift more tariff-related costs onto consumers. Many businesses chose to absorb the additional tax during the early days of President Trump’s trade war. But evidence is emerging that they are running out of options to keep prices stable in the face of deteriorating profit margins, suggesting that the tariffs could have a more pronounced effect on prices in the months ahead. Government data, including from the Commerce Department this week, show that prices rose in June on items heavily exposed to tariffs, such as home furnishings, toys and appliances. And in recent days — before Mr. Trump announced tariffs for much of the world on Thursday night — Adidas, Procter & Gamble, Stanley Black & Decker and other large corporations told investors that they either had increased prices or planned to do so soon to offset the tariff costs. Companies like Walmart and the toymakers Hasbro and Mattel had already warned that tariffs would lead to higher prices.”

Danielle Kaye of the New York Times: “After months of rallying and periods of relative calm, stocks tumbled on Friday as fresh economic data reflected unexpected signs of weakness in the labor market and .. [Donald] Trump announced steep new tariffs against some of America’s largest trading partners. The S&P 500 ended the day down 1.6 percent, capping one of the index’s worst weeks since Mr. Trump wrought chaos across the global trading system when he unveiled his first round of steep tariffs in April. The benchmark fell 2.4 percent for the week. On Friday, investors parsed through the president’s latest tariff plans and how they might further drive up costs for companies and consumers. But it was [the jobs] report from the Labor Department that caused the most alarm.”

Paul Krugman: "Presidents do have considerable discretion in tariff-setting, but there are a limited number of allowed reasons for imposing temporary tariffs: To give a U.S. industry a breathing space against an import surge (Section 201[;] To preserve an industry essential to national security (Section 232)[;] Unfair foreign practices (Section 301 and anti-dumping duties)[.] Presidents can also claim additional powers during an economic emergency — but Trump keeps insisting that the U.S. economy is doing great, which presumably means that there is no emergency. Now, just about everything Trump has been doing on trade is illegal, but in the case of Brazil it’s completely blatant.... Do Trump and his advisors really think they can use tariffs to bully a nation of more than 200 million people into dropping its efforts to defend democracy, when it sells 88 percent of its exports to countries other than the United States?" (Also linked yesterday.) 

Alan Rappeport & Colby Smith of the New York Times: “The Federal Reserve announced on Friday that Adriana D. Kugler will step down from her position as a governor of the Federal Reserve Board next Friday. Her term was due to expire in January, but her early resignation gives ... [Donald] Trump an opportunity to more quickly appoint someone who could eventually replace Jerome H. Powell as chair. Ms. Kugler missed the Fed’s most recent policy meeting this week and did not vote. In a speech earlier last month, she said the Fed should not cut interest rates 'for some time' as tariffs trickled through to consumer prices. The opening on the board comes as Mr. Trump pressures the Fed to cut interest rates and publicly berates Mr. Powell, saying he should lower borrowing costs or resign. The president has also toyed with firing Mr. Powell or naming a successor before Mr. Powell’s term as chair ends in May. On Friday, he went so far as to call on the board to remove Mr. Powell from his position as chair. The Fed statement about Ms. Kugler’s early resignation did not give a reason for her decision.”

David Sanger of the New York Times: Donald “Trump said on his social media feed on Friday that he had 'ordered two nuclear submarines' to be repositioned in response to online threats from Russia’s former president, Dmitri Medvedev, a rare case of potential nuclear escalation between the superpowers. Mr. Trump said he had ordered the submarines 'to be positioned in the appropriate regions, just in case these foolish and inflammatory statements are more than just that.' He added: 'Words are very important, and can often lead to unintended consequences, I hope this will not be one of those instances.'” MB: While the situation is dead serious, that is a hilarious comment coming from Loose Lips McTrump, the master of indiscretion. The Guardian's report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Heather Cox Richardson writes, “In The Atlantic, Tom Nichols points out that Medvedev is little more than an internet troll at this point and that U.S. submarines carrying nuclear warheads routinely travel through the world’s oceans (all American submarines are nuclear powered, Nichols notes). Trump’s threat is unlikely to spark a nuclear crisis, Nichols writes, 'at least not this time.' But it is reckless, he adds. 'Trump knows that a foreign-policy crisis, and anything involving nuclear weapons, is an instant distraction from other news,' Nichols writes. 'The media will always zero in on such moments, because it is, in fact, news when the most powerful man on Earth starts talking about nuclear weapons…. Nuclear-missile submarines are not toys,' he points out. Previous presidents were sober and careful in how they talked about nuclear weapons. But now, Trump 'has initiated a new era in which the chief executive can use threats regarding the most powerful weapons on Earth to salve his ego and improve his political fortunes.'” No link to Nichols. ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Here's a gift link to Tom Nichols' post in the Atlantic, courtesy of laura h.

Bill Kristol has some thoughts on the One Big Hideous Ballroom. (Also linked yesterday.) Both Forrest M. & Elizabeth compared the city lot sizes in their communities to the size of the Trumpendanzzimmer. They found that the ballroom is roughly the size of ten house lots. I'm telling ya, it's a great place for a huge, commodious homeless shelter. 

The Kleptocracy in Action. Ken Vogel & David Yaffe-Bellany of the New York Times: “... lobbyists, political consultants and others in the influence industry have capitalized on Mr. Trump’s aggressive fund-raising while in office to deliver for clients and earn chits with a president who keeps close tabs on who is delivering cash and listens to their appeals. It is a cycle that has helped Mr. Trump fill the coffers of his political groups, defying the gravity that sometimes drags down the fund-raising of term-limited presidents. The degree to which this dynamic has benefited Mr. Trump, his donors and their lobbyists — while shutting out regular people seeking assistance from their government — was laid bare in MAGA Inc.’s financial report. The group, which can accept unlimited donations, raised an astounding $177 million in the first half of the year.” One example: soon after Elizabeth Fago donated $1MM to MAGA Inc., Trump gave a fully pardon to her tax-fraudster son Paul Walczak, “spar[ing] him from having to pay nearly $4.4 million in restitution and from reporting to prison for an 18-month sentence.”

Zachary Leeman of Mediaite: “Bloomberg reported on Friday that ... Donald Trump was among those whose names were redacted from Epstein documents, citing multiple people familiar with the matter. Bloomberg’s Jason Leopold reported that an FBI Freedom of Information Act team conducted a final review of volumes of documents related to late billionaire Jeffrey Epstein. The team was reportedly tasked with redacting the name of Trump, a former friend of Epstein, and other 'prominent public figures.' The final review occurred before the release of a Department of Justice/FBI memo determining Epstein committed suicide and that further disclosure of files was not 'warranted,' setting off a MAGA firestorm.... The names of Trump and other prominent figures were redacted in accordance with FOIA exemptions.” (Also linked yesterday.) 

Ghislaine Goes to Girls' Camp. Perry Stein of the Washington Post: “Jeffrey Epstein’s imprisoned associate Ghislaine Maxwell has been moved from a detention facility in Florida to a lower-security prison in Texas, her attorney David Oscar Markus said Friday. Maxwell, who was convicted in 2021 on sex trafficking charges, had been serving her 20-year sentence at a low security prison in Tallahassee. She has been transferred to a prison in Bryan, Texas, her attorney said. That facility has a minimum level of security and is known as federal prison camp.... Bryan is among the facilities with the lowest level of security in the federal system, with limited or no perimeter fencing, dormitory-style housing and a relatively low staff-to-inmate ratio.... Based on her conviction and sentence, Maxwell is an unusual candidate to be transferred to a federal prison camp. Bureau of Prison guidelines say that inmates who have more than 10 years remaining on their sentences are not typically eligible for a minimum-security facility.” (Also linked yesterday.) This story has been updated. ~~~

     ~~~ Chloe Atkins, et al., of NBC News: "... according to the bureau's designation policy, Maxwell appears ineligible to be housed at a minimum-security prison camp because she is a convicted sex offender. Sex offenders must be in at least a low-level security prison like FCI Tallahassee, unless she received a waiver. Only the administrator of BOP's Designation and Sentence Computation Center can make that decision, according to the waiver policy.”

Marie-Rose Sheinerman of the Washington Post: “Most of the remaining National Guard troops stationed in Los Angeles are being withdrawn, the Pentagon said Thursday, as the Trump administration continues to roll back its unprecedented military deployment to the city.... About 1,350 troops are leaving Los Angeles, and about 250 will remain 'to protect federal personnel and property,' according to a statement from Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell. The move follows an initial scaling back of the military presence in the city earlier this month....”

Marianne LeVine of the Washington Post: “A federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration from rapidly deporting immigrants granted parole at a port of entry, a setback for the Department of Homeland Security that could affect its ability to remove hundreds of thousands of people. U.S. District Judge Jia M. Cobb of D.C. said in her ruling Friday that DHS had exceeded its authority by summarily deporting those immigrants under a process known as 'expedited removal,' which allows officers to remove certain individuals without granting them a full court hearing.... The case brought forward ... challenged three new policies DHS has implemented since Trump’s inauguration. Collectively, the policies allowed federal immigration officers to arrest immigrants who entered within the last two years and were granted a temporary status known as parole. Among those given parole were Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans for whom the Biden administration created a legal pathway to enter the U.S. to discourage them from arriving in large numbers at the border.”

Everything the Trump administration does is shady. Here's another example: ~~~

~~~ Douglas MacMillan & Aaron Schaffer of the Washington Post: “David Venturella, a veteran of private prison firm Geo Group, joined the Trump administration to help oversee an expansion of the immigrant detention system that’s benefiting his former employer.... A federal ethics rule generally bars government employees from working on contracts awarded to their former employers for one year.... So ... the Department of Homeland Security hired him as a full-time adviser and granted him a waiver from the ethics rule.... Venturella, 59, is now the No. 2 official overseeing the ICE division that manages contracts for immigrant detention centers.... Venturella’s hiring highlights the revolving-door relationship between ICE and Geo, a Boca Raton, Florida-based conglomerate that has emerged as one of the leading players in Trump’s mass deportation agenda. As Geo has grown to become ICE’s contractor of choice, the company has cultivated close ties to the ICE officials who write and oversee its contracts and offered some of them jobs after they left government. Venturella was one of these officials.... Private contractors including Geo hold 86 percent of ICE’s immigrant detainees....”

Marie: Among Trump's many insane claims during the 2024 presidential campaign was his promise that his administration would save U.S. pet owners from immigrants who were "eating the dogs; they're eating the cats." In a terrible irony, it turns out that the real threat to Americans' furry friends was Trump himself: ~~~

Maria Paul of the Washington Post: “From California to Tennessee, the effects of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown have reached a place most wouldn’t think to look: the kennels of overcrowded animal shelters. Animal welfare groups across the country say they’re fielding a surge of calls about pets left behind when their owners are detained or deported, or self-deport in fear. That heightened need is colliding with a shelter system already stretched thin by post-pandemic overcrowding, chronic staffing shortages and plummeting adoptions — leading to longer stays for animals, difficult choices about space and growing fears that more pets could be euthanized simply because there’s nowhere for them to go.”

Annie Gowen of the Washington Post: “'DESTROY' stickers were affixed this week to hundreds of cases of U.S.-branded food aid — 15,000 pounds’ worth — that have languished for months in a Georgia warehouse and then expired before they could be sent overseas to famine-stricken areas.... And Mana Nutrition’s warehouse holds plenty more of the peanut paste, a crucial element in treating malnutrition. A $50 million supply has been stacked for months in the nonprofit’s facility [near] ... Savannah, caught in the chaos as the Trump administration upended foreign aid and never shipped. The food could still help 60 million people, Mana estimates. 'This is a giant glut,' chief operating officer David Todd Harmon said. 'All contracted. All bought and paid for. It’s just not been picked up.'... The logjam followed the Trump administration’s breakneck dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development.... Secretary of State Marco Rubio assured lawmakers in May that no food aid would be wasted....”

Benjamin Weiser, et al., of the New York Times: “A federal judge in New York declined in a ruling on Friday to order the Trump administration to restore hundreds of millions of dollars in terminated funding that had been awarded to research institutions by the National Science Foundation. The ruling came in a lawsuit filed in May in which a coalition of 16 states argued that the grants were critical to maintaining the United States as a leader in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM, subjects, and that the cuts were 'in complete derogation of the policies and priorities set by Congress.'... The judge, John P. Cronan of Federal District Court in Manhattan, found that the court lacked jurisdiction to hear the suit because it sought monetary damages from the federal government. Such cases, he wrote, must be brought before the Court of Federal Claims in Washington. In his 78-page opinion, the judge also noted that plaintiffs seeking an injunction must, among other things, show a likelihood of success on the merits of a case. The states had not done that, he said.” MB: Cronan is a Trump appointee.

Chris Cameron of the New York Times: “A federal appeals court on Friday allowed ... [Donald] Trump to move forward with an order instructing a broad swath of government agencies to end collective bargaining with federal unions. The ruling authorizes a component of Mr. Trump’s sweeping effort to assert more control over the federal work force to move forward, for now, while the case plays out in court. It is unclear what immediate effect the ruling will have: The appeals court noted that the affected agencies had been directed to refrain from ending any collective bargaining agreement until 'litigation has concluded,' but also noted that Mr. Trump was now free to follow through with the order at his discretion.”

Yesterday I linked to Marcy Wheeler's explanation of John Ratcliffe's & Kash Patel's claims that John Durham proved Hillary Clinton's campaign conspired to frame Donald Trump for colluding with Russia during the 2016 presidential campaign. Here's an easier-to-follow explanation debunking the claim: ~~~

~~~ Charlie Savage of the New York Times: “Kash Patel, the F.B.I. director, and other Trump allies have declared that a newly declassified report on the Russia investigation provides 'evidence that the Clinton campaign plotted to frame President Trump and fabricate the Russia collusion hoax.' The reality is almost precisely the opposite. The report shows that a purported email that Trump supporters have long tried to portray as a smoking gun is instead most likely a fake. Russian spies appear to have tried to make it seem authentic by assembling passages lifted from actual emails by different hacking victims. Here is a closer look.” The link is a gift link.

Mike Stobbe of the AP: “U.S. health officials have told more than a half-dozen of the nation’s top medical organizations that they will no longer help establish vaccination recommendations. The government told the organizations on Thursday via email that their experts are being disinvited from the workgroups that have been the backbone of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. The organizations include the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Infectious Diseases Society of America. 'I’m concerned and distressed,' said Dr. William Schaffner, a Vanderbilt University vaccine expert who for decades has been involved with ACIP and its workgroups. He said the move will likely propel a confusing fragmentation of vaccine guidance, as patients may hear the government say one thing and hear their doctors say another.”

⭐Benjamin Mullin of the New York Times: “The Corporation for Public Broadcasting said Friday that it would shut down next year, effectively ending its half-century role as a backer of NPR, PBS, and local radio and TV stations across the United States. The organization will continue to support public broadcasters through a transition period that will end in January, said Patricia Harrison, its president and chief executive.... The Corporation for Public Broadcasting has been in the cross hairs of Republicans for decades. Conservative policy advocates, legislators and presidents argued persistently that the public shouldn’t be responsible for financing media they perceived as having a liberal bias. But repeated attempts to defund public broadcasters failed, until this year. Congress voted last month to claw back more than $500 million of the organization’s annual funding.... The Corporation for Public Broadcasting is among the first casualties of the claw back, which puts public radio and TV stations across the United States at risk of going dark. Scores of stations rely on government financing to fund their operations, especially those in rural areas.” The CBS News report is here.

🐔Annals of “Journalism,” Ctd. Sophie Culpepper of Nieman Lab: The media advocacy group Free Press has created a new “Media Capitulation Index,” which “ranks the 35 largest commercial media and tech companies on a scale from one to five chickens, from 'vulnerable' (Comcast; Microsoft) to 'propaganda' (X/SpaceX; Trump Media). That scale, per Free Press, captures 'the degree … to which each media company has compromised its commitment to independent news and information in exchange for political favors and higher profits, or simply to get the Trump administration off its back.'... The report calls out the concentration of ownership in a few ultrawealthy hands — billionaires, private equity firms, conglomerates — and the threat that poses to democracy.... 'The New York Times would be more positively rated here were it not for one consistent failing at the massively influential newspaper: those damn headlines,' the index states. 'In an apparent and ill-advised attempt at both-sides objectivity, the paper’s headline writers routinely normalize the most extreme elements of Trumpism.'” Thanks to RAS for the link. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: That last bit interests me, because we have often called out NYT headline writers here. Now someone has quantified these sanewashing headlines, so the ones we've point to were not flukes; they're part of a pattern, if not a policy, of the Times. The report itself is here. The full list of media capitulation ratings is on Page 10.

Radioactive Wasps. Emily Anthes of the New York Times: “Four radioactive wasp nests have been discovered at a South Carolina nuclear facility, according to federal officials. The first nest, which was found by workers at the Savannah River Site early last month, was recently disclosed in a report from the Department of Energy, which owns the site. The facility, near Aiken, S.C., produced material for nuclear weapons throughout the Cold War. Three additional nests have since been discovered at the site, officials told The Times on Friday.... Edwin Deshong, the manager of the department’s Savannah River Operations Office, said in an emailed statement[,] 'The nests do not pose a health risk to SRS workers, the community, or the environment.' But the discovery raised questions about the extent of the environmental contamination at the site, said Timothy Mousseau, a biologist at the University of South Carolina....”

Mark Maske & Rick Maese of the Washington Post: “The brain of the gunman in Monday’s deadly shootings at the Manhattan building that houses the NFL’s offices will be evaluated for the degenerative disorder from which he claimed to be suffering, according to the city’s medical examiner’s office. A spokesperson for New York City’s Office of Chief Medical Examiner said testing and evaluation for chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) will take place over multiple weeks in an assessment of possible diseases of the brain, spinal cord and nerves of the shooter, identified by authorities as 27-year-old Shane Tamura of Las Vegas.”

~~~~~~~~~~