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… At the Trump-centric Republican midterm convention last night in Dallas, Republicans offered up fear, paranoia, lies, false promises, and a hefty bribe to voters.
… NYT: “The photos plastered in the hallways were all of Trump. Jackets were bedazzled with his name. And the red hats dotting the audience on the floor of the convention hall were embroidered with MAGA, his indelible political slogan. And yet, the president and his Republican allies spent more time whipping up fears about the specter of socialism, communism and even anarchy than they did trumpeting the successes of his admin.”
… “As they took the stage at the party’s unusual midterm gathering in Dallas, amid growing Republican anxiety about the midterm elections, speaker after speaker focused on what they characterized as an urgent threat to American life: a Democratic Party they claimed had veered beyond its traditional liberal principles into a dangerous, un-American ideology.”
… “Democrats running for Congress were ‘evil.’ They were ‘communists and anarchists.’ And they wanted to turn the country into ‘a socialist hellscape.’ Trump has long been a master of the politics of fear, regularly stoking anxiety about immigration and crime. Now, as his party faces its most difficult political environment in years, the president and his supporters are attempting - once more - to channel fear into electoral victory.”
… Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to the crowd: “The radical left is relentless in their pursuit to remake America in the image of every socialist hellscape of the last century - to import the misery of failed workers’ paradises like the Soviet bloc, Caracas and Havana.”
… By the time Trump took the stage, at the end of the evening, the narrative of Democratic extremism had been woven into nearly every aspect of the 6-hour program. Trump:
“They want to take away health care for veterans. They want to steal your money for reparations. Our country doesn’t have that kind of money. They have the money for $5000 but they don’t have that kind of money. They want to punish you for crimes that happened a hundred years ago. They want to give it to the people who hate our country.”
"If the Republicans win the House and Senate, I will issue a dividend to every adult citizen in the US for $5,000. We're making a fortune. So if the Republicans win, you win with us and you get $5,000. It will be called the Trump Dividend. Congratulations."
"You have a neighboring state - New Mexico. We think it should be called New America. New America! The people love the idea."
"I think we should call the Hormuz Strait the Trump Strait. I should get something out of it. The Trump Strait."
"Oil will be going down as soon as we win the war with Iran."
"Canada very much wants to make a deal. They're dying to make a deal. But it's gonna be called Lake America."
“Whether it's wine, champagne, cars - everybody's got a weak spot. I won't tell you what my weak spot is.”
“Do I get credit for building a ballroom with my money? I’m the only one. I’m building the ballroom with no tax money. Zero tax dollars for the ballroom. But I get criticized. I’m giving you a ballroom free of charge.”
"We'll pass the Great Healthcare Plan to stop all govt payments to the big insurance companies and give the money directly to the people for you to go out and buy your own healthcare. You'll get much better healthcare and have money left over for yourselves.”
"Vote Republican and we will leave the world in our dust for generations to come."
… The part of the speech that got the most attention was his promise to hand out checks for $5,000 to every American, but only if Republicans win. I posted this on X this morning, which went viral:
“Last year, Trump promised $5,000 stimulus checks from DOGE cuts. You got 0. Trump promised $2,000 stimulus checks from tariffs. You got 0. Trump promised $1,000 checks from Obamacare cuts. You got 0. Trump promised $1.98 gas. You got $4+ gas. But now Trump now has more false promises.”
… Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) replied to my post: “‘Mexico will pay for the wall!’ Mexico paid nothing.”
… Axios: “It’s not the first time the president has suggested some sort of rebate for Americans from his admin’s policy actions. In July 2025 and again in Oct 2025, he proposed the possibility of tariff rebate checks of up to $2,000. Before that, in Feb 2025, Elon Musk floated the idea of $5,000 dividend checks from DOGE savings, an idea Trump later backed. None of those were ever issued.”
… “There are about 245 million adult US citizens. Giving each of them $5,000 would cost $1.2 trillion.”
… Former House Freedom Caucus Chair Bob Good: “Sadly, most ‘conservatives’ don’t even know (or care) that the president doesn’t have the constitutional authority to spend money, or send out ‘dividend’ checks without Congress. But he said last night ‘only I can do it.’ Will post-conservative Republicans also try to defend Trump’s $5K ‘dividend’ socialist vote-buying scheme that would cost $1 trillion?”
… Palantir co-founder and Republican mega-donor Joe Lonsdale, who hosted a party with Don Jr. after the convention: “For the record, I am hugely in favor of winning the midterms, and love much about this admin, but am strongly against bread and circus bribes.”
… Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) was asked if he supported the scheme: “I would like to know how they would plan to pay for it - well over $1 trillion.”
… Politico: “The payout, which would need to be approved by Congress, would dwarf the amount distributed during the Covid pandemic and likely explode the deficit. Trump did not detail how the checks would be financed - only that the money would be limited to citizens and required to be spent in the US.”
… A GOP operative expressed skepticism, calling it “a desperate attempt to change the political mood.”
… “If the president followed through on such a plan, it would likely worsen inflation by further boosting consumer spending and supporting higher prices, which are already elevated due to the war in Iran. The dividend could also exacerbate a rise in longer-term borrowing costs for the US govt, which have been going up in part on fears the federal debt is growing unsustainable.”
… Fox contributor Jessica Tarlov on the MeidasTouch podcast with Ben: "Trump did have a platform, right? That's how he used to campaign. And now he just is like, ‘I'll pay you to like me. I know I can't get you to like me for any other reason, so I'm going to put cash in your hand.’”
… Fox host Bret Baier interviewed JD Vance after the speech: Q - “$5000 for every adult citizen, that's about $1.3 trillion. The critics will say the president is bribing voters and he's bankrupting the country. Vance: Tariffs have generated a lot of revenues. The president is saying, if you keep us in power, then you will share in some of the benefit of this incredible wealth that we are creating.”
… Vance’s answer was hit with a fact-check Community Note on X: “Annual tariff revenue (under $300B) cannot fund a $1.3T payout, and distributing funds requires congressional approval. Previous cash dividend promises were also never delivered, including the 2025 DOGE dividend and proposed $2,000 tariff rebates.”
… Nandita Bose, WH correspondent for Reuters: “FACT CHECK: Trump keeps talking about the arena being full and obsessing over capacity. It isn’t. The upper decks are empty, large stretches of the side sections remain sparsely filled, and even with Trump onstage the arena is clearly not at capacity.”
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… Sen. John Fetterman recorded a video that was played at the convention where he praised Trump for helping the steel industry as well as Republican Dave McCormick, who he called a “great senator.” He told the Washington Sun after that he isn’t leaving the party: "I'm a lifelong Democrat who votes overwhelmingly with my party-and should the Senate flip in November, I will still be the 51st vote that I ran on."
(NOTUS just changed their name to Washington Sun)
… Irish Star: “Grindr, the world’s largest LGBTQ+ dating app, reportedly went down as the RNC’s midterm event began on Wed. According to Downdetector, the app reported several outages just as the event kicked off in Dallas ahead of the speech of Trump. The highest number of reported outages appeared to occur in and around the Dallas area.”
… Former Republican NY Congressman George Santos called the RNC the ‘Grindr Super Bowl’ in a video posted to X. “Let me tell you something, just come out the closet, boys. Come on, it’s fun! You can be gay and conservative.”
… Democrats reacted to the convention at an event called ‘Fighting for an Affordable America’ that they held in Dallas to counter-program the RNC:
Kendal Scudder, Chair of the TX Democratic Party: “The ramblings of an old man in a half-empty auditorium changed the minds of zero people.”
Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA): “Republicans are obsessed with socialism and lying to the American public. We're focused on lowering the cost of gas, the groceries, and the food. And so, anyone that wants to be a part of that coalition, jump on board.”
Garcia: “Trump is a known liar. This is the biggest liar to ever serve in govt. The dividend is not happening. He promised a dividend on the tariffs. That didn't happen. He promised a dividend on DOGE. That didn't happen. He promised some strange new dividend from Air Force One. That never happened.”
Garcia: “There’s a group of Jeffrey Epstein’s survivors that are here in Dallas, and they’ve opened the Trump Epstein reading room here, which I had a chance to visit yesterday. And the survivors are saying that they are also disgusted that Todd Blanche is out there giving speeches while refusing criminal convictions, while refusing to release the rest of the files.
Rep. Madeline Dean (D-PA): “You can take a look at the arena last night and you can see the empty seats. He is weak. His numbers are plummeting.”
Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-CA): We have an opportunity to win in Nov and we will have both the power of the purse and the power of the gavel, and it is so important that people see us delivering for the American people in both of these ways: holding folks accountable - dragging these thieves into our committees.”
Q: “What specific policies are you going to bring foward? Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO): “We need to end this war which is costing now hundreds of billions of dollars in direct and indirect costs. We need to stop the corruption. Ending the trade wars. Repair the damage to our healthcare system.”
Dean was asked about Fetterman’s video: “I was disappointed with that stunt. What we have seen in his service as a senator is something very different than what I got to know. We can see in his work ethic that he's just not present. He doesn't participate.”
… Politico: “Senior Turning Point USA leaders were ‘livid’ when they first learned the convention was scheduled to take place on the anniversary of the killing of founder Charlie Kirk, according to two people familiar with the group. TPUSA was given no advance notice and weren’t consulted about the dates.”
… “Vance plans to call into ‘The Charlie Kirk Show’ during its live broadcast today to mark the anniversary. The call will come as many of TPUSA’s top brass skip the convention, including Kirk’s longtime right-hand man, Andrew Kolvet, who won’t be using their massive platform to amplify the convention’s message.”
… Kolvet: “I personally made the decision. I want to remember Charlie here, inside his studio and on the campus that he built. I want our influencers and our contributors to come here and be a part of remembering Charlie.”
… One Republican close to the Trump WH: “It’s a huge missed opportunity. This week we should be laser focused on two things: commemorating the run-up to Charlie Kirk’s assassination, and hammering the Democrats in the run-up to 9/11 - not a half-assed convention.”
… MS NOW: “A few weeks ago, Trump announced a controversial new policy, seemingly out of nowhere: The president declared his intention to import foreign beef without imposing a tariff and below current market prices. The news was not widely applauded. The American beef industry wasn’t pleased, and neither were Republican lawmakers from Western and Midwestern states.”
… Eric Schlosser in a NYT OpEd:
“If American consumers knew where that beef was coming from, they might not want to eat it. The cuts of meat covered by Trump’s proclamation aren’t fresh sirloins, rib-eyes and filets. They’re lean beef trimmings that will be added to fattier American cuts to make ground beef.”
“They’re small chunks of frozen meat that could have been kept in cold storage overseas for years. They are the quintessence of generic industrial meat, imported here to be subsequently processed in massive grinders that combine pieces of tens of thousands of cattle from multiple countries, mainly into fast food hamburgers.”
… Trump said most of the beef is coming from Brazil. Schlosser:
“One of the worst food-safety scandals occurred in Brazil, the world’s largest exporter of beef. In 2017, the Brazilian federal police raided nearly 200 meatpacking plants after allegations that govt inspectors and politicians were being bribed to allow the sale of contaminated beef.
“Rotten meat treated with ascorbic acid and other chemicals to mask the contamination had been sold to hospitals and schools in Brazil and also exported. Executives at the Brazilian company JBS, the largest beef producer in the world, later admitted to bribing inspectors.”
… On Sept. 1, the EU announced that it was suspending meat imports from Brazil after the South American country “failed to guarantee its compliance with EU rules on the use of antimicrobial substances.”
… Me crossing beef off my shopping list …
… Axios: “The Trump admin is reshaping regulations to make data centers - and the fossil-fuel power fueling them - easier to build. The moves risk inflaming an already fierce and bipartisan backlash to data centers, the backbone of the AI boom. The EPA is considering a rule that could treat some temporary gas turbines as mobile equipment rather than stationary pollution sources, potentially making them easier to permit.”
… Natural Resources Defense Council’s John Walke, who is director of their clean air program: “We have been told by senior people at EPA that there is a pants-on-fire, hasty rulemaking proposal underway. It’s being driven squarely by concern for data centers.”
… This possible rule is on top of at least 3 others EPA has proposed or developed in the last year to ease permitting procedures or environmental regulations for AI infrastructure. The agency is proposing to:
Eliminate federal minimum requirements for public participation in permits for smaller pollution sources, leaving those decisions to state and local regulators.
Allow more construction to occur at data center sites before receiving permits.
Exempt power plants not connected to the electric grid - an increasingly common way to power data centers - from the EPA’s Acid Rain Program, a landmark program restricting sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide pollution.
After this is published, I get to suffer through another night of the Trumpalooza, this time featuring Mr. Charisma JD Vance with special guest Trump. Maybe Trump will offer to give everyone $10K tonight. I expect even more empty seats with Vance as the headliner.
RNC Chair Joe Gruters was hyping some “huge surprise guests” earlier this week on Fox. I guess that was Fetterman, whose one minute video had 14 cuts since he can’t read the script coherently that his Republican handlers wrote for him.
We had another great show yesterday on Uncovered, where we did a deep dive on Trump’s 9/11 stolen valor, Mamdani releasing evidence of Rudy’s 9/11 coverup, the moronic RNC convention disaster, Kushner and Witkoff’s disgraceful Russia trip, Canada trade war escalation, the latest Trump grifts and scams, and lots more. A link to the show is here. The last Bulletin is here.
Thank you to everyone who watches, reads, shares and subscribes!
… NYT: “Tal, Oren and Alon Alexander, 3 prominent brothers convicted of running a decades-long sex-trafficking scheme in NY earlier this year, have enlisted the lawyer Alan Dershowitz in their apparent pursuit of a pardon from Trump. They retained him
in March 2025, nearly 11 months before their trial began in NY federal court, and since then have paid him hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
… “The retainer includes a check for $250,000, as well as a wire transfer receipt and an invoice from Dershowitz requesting an additional $250,000.”
… “In Trump’s first term, Dershowitz was credited with shaping more of the president’s clemency decisions than almost any other advocate. He played a role in at least 12 clemency grants, including two pardons, which wipe away most consequences of convictions, and 10 commutations, which reduce prison sentences.”
… “He was sought after by other clemency seekers looking for an edge in a system in which connections to the president are seen as a way to skip to the front of the line. Lawyers and lobbyists with ties to the president have charged steep rates to people seeking to avoid or shorten prison sentences.”
… Kobeissi Letter: “August PPI Inflation rises to 5.4%, above expectations of 5.3%.
Core PPI Inflation rose to 4.6%, the highest since June 2026. July's headline and core PPI inflation numbers were also revised higher. The odds of rate hikes are rising further on the news.”
… Fox Business host reacting to breaking news of the new inflation data: "Some of this is a little bit hotter than expected. It's the cost of energy that is starting to flow through and create somewhat of an inflationary environment."
… Sen. McCormick (R-PA) on CNBC: Q - “You talked about how you think economically we're in a better place today. What statistics would you point to? Inflation is higher, manufacturing jobs are down, employment participation is not better, and oil prices are higher. McCormick: I think people have more money in their pockets.”
… CBS: “Multiple American military aircraft were damaged in Iranian strikes on Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan. One A-10 Thunderbolt, an attack aircraft known as the Warthog, was struck and lost a wing. Roughly 8 F-15s sustained light damage and were put back into service.”
… “The overnight damage came after the US said Tuesday it attacked 5 Iranian tankers in retaliation for Iran targeting a US Navy warship. In response, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed it launched attacks at 8 tankers and 2 warships, including the base in Jordan. US forces in Jordan launched more than 30 Patriot missiles defending against the Iranian strikes in Jordan.
… Patriot missiles cost $4 million each and we are rapidly running out of them. We have denied urgent and repeated requests from Ukraine to supply them with Patriots.
… WSJ: “Iran is increasingly trying to escalate its conflict with the US as it seeks to break a stalemate in the Strait of Hormuz that is strangling its economy. At least 3 times in the past week, Iranian forces have launched missiles at American warships, including an aircraft carrier, taking direct aim at the US Navy in a way it hasn’t done since the start of the war. Iran also fired a large missile salvo at US forces stationed in Jordan on Wed.”
… Pentagon correspondent Ryan Morgan: “In an exclusive interview, Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao told me that Iranian forces ‘blew the hell out of Bahrain.’
While open-source analyses have long indicated that the US Fifth Fleet HQ at Naval Support Activity Bahrain sustained extensive damage in the early days of the Iran conflict, Cao’s comment represents a direct and high-level acknowledgment of the matter.”
… Fox national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin: “This is a pretty stunning admission by the Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao, whose nomination is hung up in Congress, about how Iranian forces ‘blew the hell out of (US Navy’s 5th Fleet base in) Bahrain.’ Haven’t heard a senior US official admit this on the record until now.”
… NYT: “The Iran-backed Houthi militia captured a strategic Red Sea port city on Thursday, in a sweeping ground offensive that could hand the group greater control over an important shipping route and further destabilize the Middle East. The Houthis pushed out forces allied with the Yemeni govt, which is backed by Saudi Arabia, and seized the city of Mokha as well as its port.”
… “Mokha has been the focus of several days of fierce ground battles between the Houthis and the internationally recognized govt. For Saudi Arabia and its Yemeni allies, the capture of Mokha is a major setback, raising questions about their ability to constrain the Houthis.”
… “For the Houthis, who are increasingly demanding to be treated as the country’s legitimate govt, taking Mokha is a significant victory. It also puts an ally of Iran one step closer to controlling a key maritime choke point. Mokha is less than 50 miles from the narrow Bab al-Mandab Strait at the southern end of the Red Sea.”
… “The Houthis have previously attacked ships in the Red Sea from Yemeni territory further north, but control of Mokha gives the militia a foothold closer to the strait, with implications for global trade and oil markets.”
… Adam Baron, a Yemen-focused fellow at New America: “This is potentially one of the more significant turning points, particularly in recent years, of the Yemen conflict.”
… Middle East analyst Danny Citrinowicz:
“The Houthis Are Changing the Rules of the Game and Washington and Riyadh will Need a New Strategy. It is time to acknowledge an uncomfortable reality: Saudi Arabia was not prepared for this confrontation with the Houthis.”
“Iran considers the Houthis one of its most important strategic partners in the region. Tehran has provided weapons, technology, expertise and other forms of assistance that have dramatically strengthened Houthi capabilities.”
“But the Houthis do not see themselves simply as Iranian proxies waiting for instructions from Tehran. They see themselves as partners in the so-called Axis of Resistance, with their own interests, ideology and decision-making process.”
”The Houthis are pursuing something far more consequential than another battlefield victory. Their advance toward Bab el-Mandeb potentially strengthens their ability to threaten one of the world’s most important maritime chokepoints. That is the real strategic issue.”
“The Houthis do not need to defeat the US Navy or conquer Saudi Arabia. They only need to demonstrate that they can repeatedly threaten commercial shipping, impose economic costs and force Washington and its regional partners to choose between accepting a new reality and entering another costly military confrontation.”
”Iran is already benefiting. Tehran does not need to control every Houthi decision. From Iran’s perspective, a powerful Houthi movement capable of threatening Bab el-Mandeb, tying down Saudi Arabia, consuming American military resources and raising the economic costs of regional confrontation is itself a major strategic achievement.”
… Investing.com: “Saudi Arabia’s crude oil production dropped to its lowest level since 1990 in August. The decline comes as renewed hostilities between the US and Iran disrupted export routes from the region. Riyadh informed OPEC’s secretariat that its output fell by 1.9 million barrels per day to 6.238 million barrels per day. The figure marks an even sharper decline than the previous low reached in April, which was the lowest production level reported by Saudi Arabia since the start of the Gulf War.”
… CNBC: “US crude oil prices surged past $100 per barrel on Thursday, the highest level in more than 3 months as fighting has sharply escalated between Washington and Tehran this week. West Texas Intermediate futures hit a session high of $100.88 per barrel, levels last seen in May. US crude oil was last up 3.4% to $99.32 per barrel.”
… “Brent crude, the international benchmark, traded 3.4% higher to $104.69 per barrel. Oil prices have advanced nearly 16% in Sept as the market braces for a prolonged war in the Middle East. Top WH advisors have discussed with Trump the possibility that the Iran war could drag on past Inauguration Day in Jan 2029.”
… “Trump claimed to reporters Wed that oil and gasoline prices would fall after the midterms.”
… Politico: “Congressional Democrats are promising to target Pete Hegseth if they win control of Congress in Nov. Emboldened by the possibility of a sweep at the polls, they’re plotting a blitz of public hearings and inquiries, using their agenda-setting authority and potentially the power to subpoena Trump admin officials over the Iran war, allegations of war crimes, Pentagon business dealings, purges of top military officers and a host of other controversies.”
… Jimmy Kimmel said he will not air his interview with Texas senate candidate James Talarico after threats from the FCC, and will post in on his YouTube channel instead:
“I’ll be interviewing James Talarico tomorrow night under unusual circumstances. For the whole 20-plus years of our show, I’ve been interviewing Americans who are running for office with no problem at all, just like Letterman did, Leno did, Arsenio, etc. I’ve interviewed a lot of political candidates from Hillary Clinton to Ted Cruz to Trump himself. I interviewed Trump when he was running for president in 2015.”
“But for some reason, and I can’t seem to figure out what that reason is, something has changed. Now that he is president, his FCC has threatened me, threatened our show, threatened our network, ABC, our affiliates, our local stations based on simple traditional editorial decisions, guest bookings it would seem they don’t like.”
He said he made the decision not to air the interview “out of consideration for our local stations, especially our ABC affiliates in Texas, who would have to deal with this nonsense.”
… Politico: “Rep. Jim Jordan said he plans to end his 8-year run leading Republicans on two of the House’s most prominent committees after this Congress, raising fresh questions about what comes next for the veteran OH lawmaker. Jordan said in an interview on the sidelines of the RNC convention that he has no plans to seek a waiver of the GOP’s 3-term limit on committee leaders to retain the top spot on the Judiciary Committee.
… Nor, he said, would he seek to return to lead Republicans on the House Oversight Committee. He previously served as ranking member from 2019 to 2020, when he took the GOP reins at Judiciary, and has at least two terms of eligibility remaining there.”
… “The decision is likely to stoke speculation about another potential leadership run for Jordan, who is seeking his 11th term this fall. He unsuccessfully sought the speakership after Kevin McCarthy’s 2023 ouster, and there has been open chatter in recent months that he is quietly setting the grounds to make another run at the top job.”
… Punchbowl: “The race for the top Republican spot on the House Oversight Committee is heating up. At least 5 House Republicans are actively mulling a race to succeed Rep. James Comer (R-KY) as the panel’s GOP leader.”
… “If Republicans keep their majority, the allure of the Oversight gavel is obvious: subpoena power and wide-ranging investigations of the chair’s choosing. But in the minority, the panel’s ranking member would be charged with defending Trump from an onslaught of Democratic investigations.”
… “The most provocative option is Rep. Brandon Gill (R-TX) who has become one of Congress’s most viral lawmakers thanks to hardline partisan questioning during hearings, although he’s toward the bottom of the panel in seniority. Rep. Michael Turner (R-OH) is the panel’s No. 3 Republican. Turner’s office said he’ll look at ‘all leadership opportunities.’”
… Rep. Pete Sessions, the panel’s 10th ranking Republican in seniority, is also considering a bid along with the current House Rules chair, Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC). Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) is considering a run too and Rep. Pat Fallon (R-TX) announced his run back in April.
… Punchbowl: “Senate Republicans are tentatively preparing for Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to be back in the Capitol next week. McConnell’s final plans aren’t yet clear, but GOP leadership sources believe the former Senate Republican leader could make his return for the Sept work period, which begins Monday.”
… “McConnell’s long absence complicated some GOP priorities. Senate Agriculture Committee Chair John Boozman (R-AR) failed to get his farm bill through the panel before the August recess. Democrats opposed the package and McConnell’s vote was needed in order to advance it through the panel.”
… Daily Beast: “A former two-term Republican governor of Kansas has endorsed his state’s Democratic candidate for Senate over the Trump-backed Republican. Bill Graves, who served as governor from 1995 until 2003, announced his support for pastor Adam Hamilton, who faces incumbent Sen. Roger Marshall in Nov. Marshall is seeking a second term.”
… In a Kansas City Star opinion piece, Graves wrote that while Marshall “has turned his back on Kansas, Hamilton understands what it means to be compassionate in lifting up those in need, while still appreciating and respecting the contributions of those who make that help possible. Adam understands the value in finding the common ground necessary to solve the tough issues confronting our nation.”
… “Marshall's pre-political career as an obstetrician has come under scrutiny this week. The NYT reported that Marshall sued over 700 patients with unpaid bills. Of them, 81 were arrested.”
… The Hill: “The Supreme Court on Thursday blocked an order that told Missouri to keep implementing Republicans’ favored 7-1 congressional map, which sparked confusion about what boundaries would be used in the Nov election. By lifting that federal judge’s directive, it leaves in place a state court directive that tells elections officials to return to the existing map with a 6-2 split.”
… “The GOP had pushed for a pickup opportunity as part of the mid-decade redistricting war. The Supreme Court did not publicly explain its decision, and no justice publicly noted a dissent. It marked the second round at the Supreme Court in less than a week for Missouri’s redistricting battle after the state’s top court ruled Republicans’ favored 7-1 map could not go into effect yet.”
… “That state court’s decision instructed officials to return to the existing design, finding the Missouri Constitution allows a referendum organizer to put the new map to voters before it goes into effect.”
… Hillary Clinton gave an extensive interview on MS NOW about US foreign policy:
On continuing aid to Israel: “I love Israel, and I hate Netanyahu’s govt and his policies. I love America, and I hate Trump’s govt and policies. If the Israelis want to vote for that again, then I think the US has to take a very tough position.”
“We have to look at our potential dangers, especially what Xi is thinking: ‘They can’t defend anybody anymore because they don’t have the capacity to defend. Maybe we can coerce Taiwan into just giving up because there’s not going to be any support.’ If you look at the world map right now, it is not favorable to the US. That’s because of very wrongheaded decisions that are being made by this admin.”
… The Mirror: Super Bowl winning QB Aaron Rodgers has launched a scathing attack on Trump, blasting the President's handling of the Epstein Files:
“Trump gets into office, and he’s running on all these policies: he’s going to go after the swamp, go into Fort Knox, cut the vaccine stuff, avoid foreign wars, and end the Ukraine stuff. And transparency in the Epstein files!”
"I was actually excited because, you know, the moron Kash Patel goes on Joe Rogan - which I watch a lot because I like Joe and Joe's a friend - and he says, 'Day one, we're going in, and we're opening up the Epstein files.' There's been nothing but the obstruction of transparency with this entire admin.”
"This is a pro-Israel-first admin. There is no MAGA movement; there is no Make America Great Again movement, because the guy you elected hasn't kept any of his campaign promises."
… Melania Trump posted this press release on X:
“First Lady Melania Trump’s elevated creative vision has played a significant and meaningful role, shaping architecture, landscape, preserving historic interiors, and enhancing decorative arts to carry the WH forward.
“First Lady Melania Trump’s most substantial design accomplishments include the award-winning design and construction of the WH Tennis Pavilion, the complete renovation of the Queens’ Bedroom and the Queens’ Bathroom, the conservation of the historic Zuber wall covering in the President’s Dining Room; and the 2020 restoration of the Rose Garden.”
“First Lady Melania Trump’s WH preservation work also encompassed the East Room floor, State Entrance and Hall marble floors, President’s Elevator, WH Bowling Alley, and Children’s Garden.”
“Notably, her design work has extended beyond the WH grounds to Camp David, further broadening her approach to preserving and evolving America’s historic presidential spaces. The First Lady exclaimed, ‘Great design transcends aesthetic appeal; it shapes our lived experiences."‘“
