This Weekend in Politics, Bulletin 196 Ron Filipkowski Aug 31 … The mysterious case of disappearing Trump continues to leave more questions than answers with each “proof of life” post put out by him. Trump has not appeared or spoken at any public event in 5 days, he has carefully avoided getting anywhere near the press, and his supporters continue to post videos of him on the golf course from months ago claiming they were from this weekend. … The press got a quick photo of Trump has he got in his car to go supposedly go to the golf course today. He was wearing a strange gray hat that I have never seen him wear before. Later, he posted a photo of himself sitting in a golf cart claiming that he was playing today with former NFL coach Jon Gruden. However, none of the usual sources posted any video of him actually playing. … Gruden was forced to resign his position as head coach of the LV Raiders after a series of disparaging homophobic and misogynistic emails were leaked to league officials. Someone on X also posted that this photo of Gruden appears to be identical to the hat, clothes, socks and shoes he was wearing when he posted a photo of himself playing golf last week on Aug 23. … The Washington Times reported that Trump was supposed to spend the last two weeks of Aug at Bedminster, but abruptly canceled his plans: “Instead, Trump will stay at the WH this weekend, scrapping his earlier plans to leave for Bedminster on Sat and come back on Mon. Trump's last public outing was at his cabinet meeting on Tues, and with no weekend commitments on his schedule, online users began forming their own theories.” … At 4:42 PM today, Trump’s account posted: “NEVER FELT BETTER IN MY LIFE.” … JD Vance was asked about Trump’s medical issues and says he’s tanned, rested and ready to go: “I feel very confident the President is in good shape. If God forbid, there's a terrible tragedy, I can't think of a better on-the-job training than what I've gotten.” … NY Post: “Rudy Giuliani was seriously injured in a freak car accident in NH on Sat night, a rep said. Giuliani was hospitalized with a fractured vertebrae and multiple cuts and bruises, including injuries specifically to his left arm and lower leg, after his car was hit from behind.” … Giuliani’s head of security Michael Ragusa: “Mayor Giuliani was flagged down by a woman who was a victim of domestic violence prior to the accident. He rendered assistance and contacted 911, remaining on scene until responding officers arrived to ensure her safety. The accident occurred after he re-entered his vehicle, which was then hit from behind at high speed. The mayor is in great spirits. He’s a beast. He survived 9/11.” … NYT: “Social Security’s chief data officer, Charles Borges, has resigned, 3 days after submitting a whistle-blower complaint that alleged members of DOGE had uploaded the confidential personal information of hundreds of millions of Americans to an insecure cloud server. Borges said he was quitting because he could not ‘verify that agency data is being used in accordance with legal agreements or in compliance with federal requirements.’ He also said employees were afraid to speak out internally for ‘fear of retribution or termination.’” … WSJ: “After months of pushing out career govt officials and Democratic holdovers, President Trump is starting to turn on some of his own picks. On Wed, the WH said it was firing Trump’s CDC director, one month after she was confirmed by the Senate. The White House said she wasn’t aligned with the president. Several other top officials at the agency resigned in response.” … This week’s turmoil followed ousters at other agencies. Trump replaced the head of the IRS less than 2 months into the job because the appointee, Billy Long, clashed with officials at the Treasury Dept. Two top DOJ antitrust officials were removed from their roles after clashing with senior officials at the agency who they accused of cutting deals with favored lobbyists. One of them has publicly questioned the integrity of other DOJ officials. The WH also removed the acting FEMA administrator after he said the should continue to exist, contradicting others in the admin.” … “Trump also pushed his Treasury secretary to fire the agency’s second-in-command and installed a second deputy at the FBI after the WH soured on the first. The firings are separate from his attempts to remove dozens of other personnel he didn’t appoint, including a Fed Reserve governor, a top official at the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, prosecutors who investigated him and a coterie of leaders across the government, such as the National Archivist.” … Max Stier with Partnership for Public Service: “No admin has seen more chaos in its leadership ranks than the Trump admin other than Trump one. He begins by being right, and if anyone challenges his worldview, they need to go away.” … “The WH also has started to look into Corey Lewandowski, who once ran Trump’s 2016 campaign and is now in an unpaid advisory role at the DHS. The inquiry stems from allegations Lewandowski tried to skirt rules that limit how long he can stay in the role. WH lawyers have looked into whether Lewandowski bent the rules to prolong his time at the DHS, including avoiding swiping in to get into dept buildings so his presence isn’t recorded. As a special govt employee, Lewandowski’s govt service is capped at 130 days a year. DHS officials told the WH recently that he had worked fewer than 30 days since the start of the new admin, though he is a constant presence by Noem’s side.” … USA Today OpEd: “Congratulations to President Trump and his whip-smart admin on turning America’s brave National Guard troops into the most expensive gardening crew in human history. Violent crime in DC was already down considerably before the president did anything, and now some of the troops – patriots who have jobs and homes and families they were pulled away from for this deployment – are spreading mulch and picking up trash in our nation’s capital. One Guard member: ‘I think it’s nice, as a DC resident. But there are different things we could be doing.’” … “Simply put, he’s using Nat Guard troops to do whatever he wants, from getting Americans used to seeing a military presence in the streets to any light gardening the president might desire. He has no concern for the men and women in uniform or for the vital role they play in responding to actual crises.” … “The National Priorities Project, a nonprofit federal budget research group, estimates the cost of the DC deployment at more than $1 million per day. Trump’s authoritarian reality show does not come cheap. What’s worse is the way these soldiers – all dutifully following orders – are being used as high-priced labor to compensate for National Park Service cuts the Trump admin made earlier in the year.” … A Park Service official to WaPo: “The service used to have 200 people assigned to maintain thousands of acres of trees and gardens in DC, and now there are 20. It’s everybody ‒ the masons, the maintenance workers, the groundskeepers, the plumbers. Every shop is short.” … Military Times on Trump using troops for landscaping: “Such DC-based chores once fell to National Park Service staff, but in the wake of significant NPS cuts, the admin has determined that personnel wearing orange reflector vests atop camouflage have the warrior ethos necessary to beautify. Various critics, meanwhile, have suggested the beautification work runs counter to Pete Hegseth’s oft-repeated mission statement of bringing ‘a warfighting ethos back to the Pentagon. Everything else that distracts from lethality shouldn’t be happening,’ he said in December.” … Former Rep. and Air National Guard officer Adam Kinzinger: “So Trump put the National Guard on 29 day orders?! Why does this matter: They don’t pay full housing allowance and no health insurance until 30 days. What an abusive Commander-in-Chief. So Trump.” Getty Images … IL Gov JB Pritzker was asked on CBS about Trump’s plan to send troops into more cities: "He has other aims other than fighting crime - the other aims are he would like to stop the elections in 2026 or frankly take control of those elections. He'll just claim that there's some problem with an election and then he's got troops on the ground that can take control." … Pritzker: "We don't want troops on the streets of American cities. That's un-American and frankly the president ought to know better. This one doesn't seem to. He hasn't read any books. He doesn't seem to understand the Constitution or the laws. No one in the admin - the president or anybody under him - has called anyone in my admin or me. It's clear that in secret they're are planning this invasion with US troops." …. DOG KILLER Kristi Noem responded on CBS: "I do know that LA wouldn't be standing today if President Trump hadn't taken action. That city would have burned down.” … CNN’s Edward-Isaac Dovere on Noem’s preposterous claim: “The secretary of DHS claims that one of America’s largest cities would have completely collapsed if not for Trump’s limited intervention over a few square blocks of its downtown.” Reminder that we make the entire Weekend Bulletins available for all subscribers, with about the first 30% of the daily Bulletins during the week available to free subscribers. This one is pretty long and packed with good stuff, so it is a good one to get the whole thing. Tomorrow I have to get out a slightly abbreviated Bulletin early because I am heading out in the late afternoon for the Bernie Sanders / Grant Platner (running against Susan Collins) rally here in Maine. I hope to interview Platner and post his answers on Substack in a standalone column. Thank you to all for supporting our work. Meidas+ is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. … MD Gov Wes Moore on ABC: Q - Let's talk about President Trump. You've called him President Bone Spurs. Moore: “Well, when the President wants to attack my military record, as someone who is actually a decorated combat veteran, as someone who has served overseas, as someone who has defended the country, I just think if the President wants to have a real debate about sacrifice for this country, he should really sit that debate out. I'm not the one he wants to have with.” … CNBC: “Alexis Wilkins, the girlfriend of FBI Director Kash Patel, is suing an ex-agent and self-described whistleblower for defamation, alleging he called her a former Israeli spy whose relationship with Patel is a ‘honeypot’ operation. The lawsuit alleges that right-wing podcaster Kyle Seraphin ‘has maliciously lied’ about Wilkins by ‘falsely asserting that she is an agent of a foreign govt, assigned to manipulate and compromise the Director of the FBI.” … Seraphin said on his Aug 22 show: “Patel has had his own little ‘honeypot’ issue that’s been going on of late, so we’re just going to acknowledge it real publicly. He’s got a girlfriend that is half his age, who is apparently is both a country music singer, a political commentator on Rumble, a friend of John Rich through Dan Bongino, who also now owns a big chunk of Rumble, and she’s also a former Mossad agent in what is like the equivalent of their NSA.” … He then questioned whether the very attractive Wilkins would really be interested in Patel: “But I’m sure that’s totally because, like, she’s really looking for like a cross-eyed, you know, kind of thickish built, super cool bro who’s almost 50 years old who’s Indian in America. Like it has nothing to do with the fact that uh we’re really close to the Trump admin. I’m sure that’s totally just like love. That’s what real love looks like.” … NBC: “DNI Tulsi Gabbard blindsided CIA leaders last week when she disclosed the name of an undercover CIA officer on a list of people she stripped of security clearances. The move alarmed the agency’s workforce, and is the latest example of simmering tensions and crossed signals between Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe. The two have clashed previously over her decisions, including earlier this month when Gabbard declassified a lightly redacted document related to Russian election interference.” … “The CIA officer whom Gabbard publicly identified and stripped of her security clearance was a veteran analyst. Days earlier, she had worked intensely to help prepare the WH team for a summit in Alaska between Trump and Putin. She was due to take up a new assignment for the CIA in Europe. After the summit, the CIA informed the analyst that she had lost her security clearance, effectively ending her career. A CIA source: ‘She did most of the prep for the Putin summit and to this day has no idea why her clearance was removed.’” … “Apart from the CIA analyst, there were at least two other current intelligence officers on Gabbard’s list. One was Vinh Nguyen at NSA, who colleagues say was recognized as the intelligence community’s top mind on cutting-edge technology such as AI. The govt recruited Nguyen at the age of 17 and he was the youngest NSA employee ever promoted to a senior position. Former intel officers described him as a generational genius who could not be replaced: ‘The US govt is the big loser here.’” … Attorney Mark Zaid, who represents several people stripped of clearances: “There is literally has no rhyme or reason. This act was nothing short of unlawful and disregarded decades of established precedent. Given the last 6 months, it is clear this admin has chosen to weaponize the security clearance process, which would make the late Sen Joseph McCarthy proud.” … WSJ: “The leaders of 3 of the world’s 4 most powerful nations are meeting in China this weekend to discuss how to react to the upending of the international order wrought by the fourth: the US under Trump. Chinese leader Xi Jinping is set to welcome Russian President Putin, and Indian PM Modi, whose country—long cultivated by the US as a centerpiece of its aspirations to contain Beijing—has just been slapped by punitive American tariffs.” … “They will be joined by several other national leaders, including those from Turkey, Indonesia and Pakistan, at a summit that aims to showcase Beijing’s global economic and political clout. World leaders are flocking to China just as the Trump admin has frustrated Washington’s allies and partners, particularly in Asia, by imposing stiff trade tariffs while seeking an opening to Russia. Washington’s unpredictable foreign policy has also fueled doubts about the reliability of US security commitments overseas.” … Xinbo Wu with Institute of Intl Studies in Shanghai: “The US is helping China to increase its global influence. China may suffer economically because of the tariffs, but politically, China is gaining more sympathy and more support from other countries, and not just in the Global South. We now certainly face less diplomatic pressure than we did under the Biden admin.” … Victor Gao with Center for China and Globalization in Beijing: “What China tries to make sure is that multipolarity is very much preserved and that no country should be allowed to play solo, dictate and hold a gun to the heads of other countries to try to get its way. The US under Trump is launching a revolution after revolution. The Chinese know well about revolutions, and we know that you better know what the consequences will be if you launch a revolution. I don’t think Trump is fully aware of the consequences of all these tremendous forces he’s unleashing around the world.” … The NYT reported that Trump pushed Modi during a phone call to nominate him for the Nobel Peace Prize but Modi refused, stating that the US had nothing to do with the ceasefire they reached with Pakistan. Right after that, Trump wrecked relations between the US and India by imposing a 50% tariff on all goods coming from that country. Trump’s effigy was recently burned at a major festival in India. … Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) on Fox: “If the Nobel Peace Prize committee knows what’s good for them, they’ll nominate him. I think that Melania Trump might also have a nomination. I think she will be a key reason why we are able to broker peace with Ukraine.” … Norway canceled plans to purchase US ships and decided to do their $13.5 billion deal with UK companies after the Trump admin threatened to turn off some of Ukraine’s weapons capabilities remotely. … The Atlantic’s David Frum: “I visited Norway earlier this year. Leaders told me they had initially favored a US bid for the frigates. Trump's comments about ‘kill switches’ alarmed Norwegians that the US was no longer a trustworthy supplier of equipment to defend Norway against Trump's friends in Russia.” … WSJ: “The Trump admin is drawing up plans to rebrand the Department of Defense as the Department of War. It could be done by an act of Congress, but the White House is considering other avenues to make the change.” … WaPo reported that the Trump admin has developed plan to transform Gaza into “the Riviera of the Middle East” by relocating of all 2 million residents to other countries, with the US govt taking over control of the territory and administering it under a trusteeship for a minimum of 10 years “while it is transformed into a gleaming tourism resort.” … AG Pam Bondi on the court decision stating Trump did not have legal authority to issue most of his tariffs: “Trump found there was a national emergency and took action under the law by imposing tariffs. The judges of the Fed Circuit are interfering with the President’s vital and constitutionally central role in foreign policy. This decision is wrong and undermines the US on the world stage. DOJ will appeal this decision and continue to fight to restore the president’s lawful authority.” … Fortune: “US producers of corn and soybeans have sent dire warnings as prices for their crops have crashed in recent years while Trump’s trade war whipsaws farmers. The National Corn Growers Assn raised alarms about ‘the economic crisis hitting rural America, as commodity prices drop at a time when input costs remain at near-record highs.’” … “Corn prices have plunged more than 50% from their 2022 peak, while production costs are down just 3% in that span, translating to a loss of 85 cents per bushel, the NCGA said, adding that the outlook for next year is worse with even lower prices and higher costs. The NCGA called on Congress and the Trump admin to boost demand, including via higher blends of ethanol and increased foreign market access.” … A week before that, the American Soybean Assn sent a letter to Trump, warning that ‘US soybean farmers are standing at a trade and financial precipice. Historically, the US was the provider of choice for Chinese customers. However, due to ongoing tariff retaliation, our longstanding customers in China have and will continue to turn to our competitors in South America to meet their demand, a demand Brazil can meet due to significantly increased production since the previous trade war with China.” … Like the corn growers, the soybean growers also cited sharply lower prices and high costs. Since peaking in 2022, soybean prices have fallen about 40%: “Soybean farmers are under extreme financial stress. Prices continue to drop and at the same time our farmers are paying significantly more for inputs and equipment. US soybean farmers cannot survive a prolonged trade dispute with our largest customer.” … Reuters reports that tariffs are having the opposite effect from what Howard Lutnick promised: “The US trade deficit in goods widened sharply in July as imports surged, suggesting trade could be a major drag on economic growth in Q3. The goods trade gap soared 22.1% to $103.6 billion last month. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the goods trade deficit would rise to $89.45 billion.” … Lara Trump had Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on her Fox weekend show: “Q - Critics say tariffs are a hidden tax on consumers but give us the reality. Bessent: If they’re so bad and the American consumer is paying them, why do we hear the European and Chinese companies complaining about tariffs.” … Bessent isn’t dumb - he is a liar. Tariff make their products more expensive and therefore less competitive in the marketplace. Of course that is why they don’t like them. He knows this very well but is betting on Lara Trump’s Fox audience to be ignorant. Not a bad bet. … CBC: “The parent company of American alcohol producers such as Jack Daniel's whisky and Woodford Reserve bourbon says sales to Canada dropped 62% during the latest fiscal quarter compared to a year ago, as American alcohol remains off the shelves in many provinces. After Trump imposed tariffs on Canadian goods in early March, a number of provinces retaliated, pulling American alcohol from store shelves. … The company told investors on a conference call: "While we were encouraged by recent discussions, American spirits products have been off the shelf in Canada for months. This had a significant impact on our first quarter of fiscal 2026, which will impact our full fiscal year results." … Podcaster Jennifer Welch on CNN: “As someone who lives in a red state, let me just tell you what MAGA supermajorities get you. We're 50th in education. The worst in the whole country for women to live. We're poorer, worst health care. And if you look at the bottom 10 states, they are all MAGA supermajorities. These policies hurt people. They use people's faith to lure them in and say, oh, we're family values. But then they don't vote to help women have children. They don't vote for health care. They don't vote for child care. They demean the poor.” SHE LIVES IN OKLAHOMA: OKLAHOMA THINKS BUYING TRUMP'S OVERPRICED MADE IN CHINA BIBLES WILL EDUCATE KIDS?  ADDED:  The Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com › education › 2024 › 10 › 04 › oklahoma-schools-trump-bible Oklahoma buying schools 55,000 bibles. Specs match the $60 Trump bible ... Oct 4, 2024Okla. is buying schools 55,000 Bibles. Specs match the $60 Trump Bible. The state put out a bid for leather-bound Bibles with U.S. founding documents. Few, if any, such Bibles are currently for ... The Oklahoman https://www.oklahoman.com › story › news › education › 2025 › 07 › 24 › oklahoma-schools-ranked-nearly-the-worst-in-the-nation-in-new-study › 85310196007 Oklahoma schools rank 50th in the nation in latest education quality study Jul 24, 2025Here's what education looks like in Oklahoma, according to the WalletHub study. Oklahoma ranked 50 th for quality education Oklahoma's quality education score ranks the Sooner State 50th out of 50 states and Washington, D.C., as evaluated by WalletHub. The survey consistently … Mint: “The WH calls its decision to send naval forces and 4,000 troops off the coast of Venezuela a drug-interdiction effort. The move has also prompted speculation that Trump may be preparing something more aggressive against the country’s leader, Nicolas Maduro. The deployment of the Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group and 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit gives the US the capability to attack targets on land — a much different specialty than that possessed by the nimble Coast Guard cutters and high-speed boats that normally intercept South American cocaine.” … “Those movements have spurred questions about Trump’s ultimate goal. The president labels Maduro a terrorist and on Aug 7 his admin put a $50 million bounty on Maduro’s head. In response to the US deployment, Venezuela announced it would send vessels to a key oil-exporting hub near Colombia. Maduro earlier ordered the deployment of 15,000 troops, as well as surveillance drones, to the Colombian border to counter US military activities in the region.” … Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-FL): “Our prayers are with the courageous men and women of our armed forces as they approach the coasts of Venezuela!” … WaPo on the mess at CDC under RFK Jr: “Under the Trump admin, the agency has slashed billions in funding, shed hundreds of employees and rolled back programs to help Americans quit smoking and to prevent infant and maternal deaths, including support for monitoring sudden unexpected infant deaths. Funding for programs to prevent drowning, youth violence and sexual assault is in limbo, while they are under review by DOGE. The consequences of some of these cuts have been muted or delayed because they have yet to take effect or have been halted by courts. But public health workers and experts say they’re worried the worst is yet to come.” … Harvard public health historian Allan Brandt: “I never have seen an instance of an advanced, affluent country with among the finest scientific resources and leaders in the world be under assault, not from small pockets of the public or people who have unusual beliefs, but from the govt itself. This has just been radically unprecedented.” … “States and local govt officials who depend on the CDC for much of their funding say they haven’t been able to tap CDC experts in a health crisis, or can no longer operate certain programs. They are bracing for it to get worse: Trump’s proposed budget for next year would cut the agency’s budget from $9.1 billion to $4.2 billion. Communities big and small have felt the pinch of CDC cuts this year, scaling back vaccination efforts in GA and the response to a lead hazard crisis in Milwaukee that resulted in the closure of several schools after children tested positive for lead poisoning.” … WaPo: “The White House selected Jim O’Neill, a top deputy to RFK Jr., to serve as acting head of the CDC after a clash over vaccine policy ended in the departure of several agency leaders.” … O’Neill is a tech investor and former CEO of the Peter Thiel Foundation. He has no medical education or experience. What could go wrong? … Sen Lisa Murkowski (R-AK): “The firing of CDC Director Susan Monarez just a month after her confirmation, along with the departure of other high-level disease experts the day after her termination, raises considerable questions about what is happening within the agency. Americans must be able to fully trust that CDC rigorously adheres to science-based and data-driven principles when issuing policy directives. The removal of the director after such a short tenure appears to be evidence that politics are taking precedence over policy. I fully support HELP Chairman Cassidy’s call for congressional oversight and look forward to participating in the committee’s work.” … They won’t do shit. All talk and BS as usual from the people who are responsible for this mess by voting to confirm a grossly unqualified conspiracy theorist and 15-year heroin abuser with a brain worm as HHS Secretary. … State Sen Carlos Guillermo Smith (D-FL) to Fox 13 on Desantis’s Alligator Alcatraz disaster: “The Governor is embarrassed and humiliated that the court is shutting down the Everglades camp, a very important priority of his. Nearly $250 MILLION in corrupt no-bid contracts were given to GOP donors to build this site and taxpayers get none of it back. So much for DOGE.” ADDED: PAPER BALLOTS ARE ALWAYS EMPLOYED BY DOMINION & SMARTMATIC - THEY COUNT MARKS ON THE PAGE! HOW BRAIN DEAD IS MAGA THAT THEY HAVEN'T NOTICED THE RECOUNTS OF PAPER BALLOTS! THIS IS ELECTION RIGGING THAT PUTIN TOLD TRUMP TO DO! PUTIN HAS NEVER WON A LEGITIMATE ELECTION FOR DICTATOR!  JUST MORE TRUMP ELECTION LIES THAT HAVE BEEN DEBUNKED! … Emperor Trump continues to claim that he’s going to take over all voting in the US by executive order. He posted: “Voter I.D. Must Be Part of Every Single Vote. NO EXCEPTIONS! I Will Be Doing An Executive Order To That End!!! Also, No Mail-In Voting, Except For Those That Are Very Ill, And The Far Away Military. USE PAPER BALLOTS ONLY!!!” … Fox continues to devote segments attacking Gavin Newsom for supposedly “copying” Trump’s social media posting style. Host Raymond Arroyo: “Whatever anybody thinks of Trump, it’s authentically him. He created this brand—the caps in the Twitter posts—that’s him. Trying to replicate that is dangerous. Newsom posted this on X and it shows you the level he’s at. He’s suggesting the president has dementia! I’m not even going to read it. Does this grow his base at all? Who is this appealing to?!?” … Newsom Press Office account responded: “Doctors have a term for someone who rants endlessly, repeats lies constantly, and grows more incoherent by the day…” … He’s also not copying him, he’s mocking him. … Unhinged Trump posted this little gem last night: … Trump also chose Labor Day weekend to attack the people working on his remodeling of the WH: “I used, at the WH, the most beautiful marble and stone available anywhere. Surfaces are very important to me as a Builder. I am very proud of the beautiful stonework we did in the Rose Garden, in this case, using limestone plus. Three days ago, while admiring the stonework, I happened to notice a huge gash in the limestone that extended more than 25 yards long. It was deep and nasty! I started yelling, ‘Who did this, and I want to find out now!’ — And I didn’t say this in a nice manner. I wondered, ‘Was it vandalism or, was it stupidity?’” … “Lo and behold, because of the fact that we’ve installed the finest security equipment anywhere, they brought back the stupid people, with their boss watching (in sunglasses!). It was a subcontractor that was installing heavy landscaping on a steel cart that was broken and tilting badly, with it rubbing hard against the soft, beautiful stone. I love and respect great workers and contractors, but something like this should never happen. Now, I’ll replace the stone, charge the contractor, and never let that contractor work at the WH again — But, how great is the video equipment? We caught them, cold.” … 59 year old former Superman actor and current ICE recruit Dean Cain posted a photo of himself with a new injury after DHS Secretary Kristi Noem lowered recruiting standards at the agency: “Small mishap. Will heal fully and quickly— so happy that it’s a college football weekend!!” … AJC: “Brant Frost V faces dozens of state ethics complaints accusing a PAC he led of illegally influencing Georgia elections. His father, Brant Frost IV, has publicly apologized for orchestrating what authorities say was a $140 million Ponzi scheme. Yet on Thurs evening, Frost V presided over a tense Coweta County GOP meeting without a word about the collapse of the family business, First Liberty Building & Loan — or the hundreds of investors regulators say were bilked out of their life savings.” … Frost resigned as county chair on Thursday but was then immediately elected to a district committee seat and presided over the next meeting this weekend. … Breitbart Editor Matthew Boyle says the Red Sox are winning now because of Trump: “Since they met with Trump on July 3, the Boston Red Sox have the best record in the American League. Pretty remarkable turnaround that you can literally pin to this moment. They ripped off a 10-game winning streak right after meeting Trump and overall since then they have the best record in the AL. Amazing.” … It’s a cult. … Right-wing podcaster and Turning Point leader Charlie Kirk: “The decline in fertility rates around the developed world is driven overwhelmingly by progressives not having kids. Conservatives in the US remain above replacement levels. We will outbreed them.” … It’s a weird cult. … NY Post: “When the late Ivana Trump opened the doors of her limestone townhouse on East 64th Street, visitors stepped into a world of gold fabrics, mirrored baths and leopard-spotted walls. Today, that same 8,725-sq ft property sits on the market at $17.9 million following its most recent price cut — roughly one-third below the $26.5 million it first sought in 2022. When Trump died, the townhouse was listed just months later at $26.5M. Since then, it has undergone a series of price cuts: to $22.5M in Sept 2023, to $19.5M last summer — and now to $17.9M.” … The 5-story dwelling carries with it both a history and a look that could only belong to her. On the 3rd floor, a library entirely wrapped in leopard print stood as a signature expression of her flair. Wallpaper, upholstery and artwork all echoed the theme, right down to a painting of two leopards in mid-play. On a sofa sat a doll made in her likeness, dressed in a silver jacket and a fur stole. While Trump’s home carries a distinct provenance, its interiors present a buyer with a choice: embrace the décor as-is or commit to a costly renovation.” GHASTLY!