Wednesday, August 26, 2026

Disgusting Chump and McMahon

First up, Katie Phang.




Next up, Chump and his war on trans people.  PINK NEWS reports:


A White House back-to-school celebration took a sharp turn into anti-trans rhetoric on Monday (24 August), as Donald Trump and Education Secretary Linda McMahon used an event attended by schoolchildren to repeat unfounded claims about transgender students and schools.

Trump falsely claimed that Biden-era policies forced “transgender insanity” on children and said schools could be committing child abuse by telling a child they are “trapped in the wrong body”.
McMahon, meanwhile, repeated the debunked claim that schools have been “secretly” transitioning students and threatened to pull federal funding from schools over what she described as “radical experiments”..
The Education Department has not identified schools conducting medical experiments or medically transitioning students. Its investigations have instead involved issues such as educators respecting students’ names and pronouns, or schools disclosing the gender identities of children without their consent.
LGBTQ+ students continue to report discrimination and harassment at school. An 18 August GLISTEN-Trevor Project report found that 56 per cent of trans, nonbinary and gender-diverse students surveyed attended schools with at least one discriminatory policy, while 61 per cent had experienced a negative event at school.
Trump also used the event to repeat a false claim about childhood vaccines and autism, suggesting that spreading out vaccinations would reduce autism despite extensive research finding no causal link between vaccines and autism.


They are a danger to children with their lies.  And I think we all need to grasp that Caitlyn Jenner is a liar too.  She's transgender but has given Chump a pass on all of this.  Because she only cares about herself, not anyone else.  She had a fit a few months back when she found out that  gender markers on her passport would show her as male and she wouldn't be able to travel as a result.  Remember this?  Back in April, she was whining about this but she forgave Chump because she's an apologist for transphobes.

As for Linda McMahon, should we have a woman currently facing charges of sexual exploitation of children as our Secretary of Education?  And when it comes to trans issues, none of us need to hear from the idiot who thought AI was referring to A1 steak sauce.  She's an idiot. 


This is a summer movie that’s been seen before: President Trump makes demands. When the other side does not give him what he wants, he escalates with bombastic threats of crippling punishment. The other side surrenders.

Except that Mark Carney, the prime minister of Canada, evidently has not read the script. His refusal to buckle in the face of Mr. Trump’s trade ultimatum even at the cost of retaliatory tariffs has flipped the narrative of the president’s second term. Instead of giving in, Mr. Carney is testing whether defiance is a viable strategy against Mr. Trump.
The age of capitulation that defined Mr. Trump’s return to office may be starting to fade. World leaders and domestic institutions are, in some cases at least, showing less willingness to submit to Mr. Trump’s will. European leaders have refused to join his war with Iran. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel flatly rejected his Gaza plan. Gulf Arab states forced him to abandon plans to charge a shipping toll in the Strait of Hormuz.

Universities and law firms are rebuffing his directives rather than signing on the bottom line. Bond markets are rebelling against his fiscal policies. Even the ABC network, whose $16 million payment to settle a Trump lawsuit was seen as an early example of yielding to the president, has discovered that it did not buy peace and is now suing his administration for threatening its broadcast licenses.


Chump the Invincible died long, long ago. 

Here's C.I.'s "The Snapshot:"


Wednesday, August 26, 2026.  Chump was warned exactly what would -- and did -- happen if he went to war with Iran but he went to war anyway, Hegseth's fired so many officers whose expertise was needed, Chump's war with Canada is not going well, his convention next month that's all about him is not off to a good start, Ghislaine Maxwell gets turned down by the court, and much more.







Chump's Iran War continues.  He said it would be brief.  But a few days turned into a few months turned into six months and counting.  And it's destroyed the economy and left at least 756 troops  injured and at least 18 service members dead.  And Chump has no way out, no plans, nothing.  So it's worth knowing that he was warned of all of this before he started the war -- and yet he started it anyway.  Reanna Smith (DAILY EXPRESS) reports:


Donald Trump was issued three specific warnings about launching a war against Iran, but ignored them anyway, according to leaked details of a February White House meeting.

Just days before launching the joint strikes with Israel against Iran, Trump summoned his intelligence chief Tulsi Gabbard to the Oval Office to get her advice on whether an all-out attack would work to dismantle Iran's nuclear program and force regime change. Gabbard, who was the Director of National Intelligence at the time, highlighted three potentially disastrous consequences of launching a war with Iran as she outlined US intelligence on the matter.
According to details of the meeting leaked to the Wall Street Journal, Gabbard informed Trump that killing Iran's supreme leader would likely result in a more hard-line regime taking over, which would be more eager to acquire nuclear weapons. It comes after Donald Trump's 'tense' chat with Melania decoded by lip reader amid Natalie Harp claims.
She also reportedly warned that in response to strikes, Tehran would swiftly shut down the Strait of Hormuz, sparking a global energy crisis. Gabbard further warned that Iran would strike US forces and allies in the Middle East, prompting concerns about American resolve and reliability among allies.
Gabbard's warnings echoed those Trump had already received from top military leaders, who had reportedly informed the president that a war with Iran would lead to casualties and concerns about US weapons stockpiles.

All that could go wrong -- all that did go wrong -- was outlined to Chump before he started the war but he's a chump and Netanyahu and Lindsey Graham played him. Shay Bottomley (NATIONAL SECURITY JOURNAL) reports:

The Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council has warned neighboring countries not to join the United States’ “economic war” against the authoritarian regime.

Mohsen Rezaei, who succeeded Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr as secretary earlier this month, said that Tehran would “retaliate in a seismic manner” and would consider any country that cooperates with economic sanctions as an enemy of Iran.
President Donald Trump has largely shifted to an economic campaign after military strikes failed to topple the Iranian regime earlier this year.

A temporary peace agreement brought an end to much of the fighting, but Washington and Tehran continue to remain at odds over key issues including the Strait of Hormuz – a vital shipping lane through which 20% of the world’s oil and gas passes, which has been closed since the war began back in February.


And Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling (THE NEW REPUBLIC) notes Hegseth's role in all of this:

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s decision to fire numerous top generals has put America’s military between a rock and a hard place in its war against Iran.

The Army has been without a chief of staff since Hegseth fired General Randy George in April; he has forced out at least three senior officers that were believed to be in the running to be George’s replacement, according to current and former officials that spoke with The New York Times.

All in all, Hegseth has forced out at least half a dozen senior officers, according to inside sources that spoke with the Times, who say this purge has damaged the service’s expertise and has eroded its top ranks.

Those affected include General James Mingus, the Army vice chief of staff that Hegseth forced out last year with little explanation, and General David Hodne, whom Hegseth hired and then fired just eight months later.

Other axed officers include Major General William Green, General Christopher Donahue, and General James Slife, the Air Force vice chief of staff.

General CQ Brown Jr. was also fired from his position as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs in the early weeks of Donald Trump’s second term, and General David Allvin retired early last fall.

Army Secretary Daniel P. Driscoll, the Army’s top civilian leader, is also believed to be on his way out in the coming months, according to the Times, which reported that Driscoll has already moved out of the large family house he was renting outside Washington.


That's not all Hegseth's done.  


Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gutted a key Pentagon program he viewed as “woke” after every top military commander rebuffed his push to dismantle it, according to a new ProPublica investigation.

Retired Army Gen. Erik Kurilla, then the leader of U.S. Central Command, and other senior officers urged Hegseth to keep the Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response program, which helps the military avoid killing noncombatants.
“That intent was overridden,” one retired general told ProPublica in a report published Tuesday.

The U.S. military has killed hundreds of noncombatants since Hegseth decided to gut the program last year, the investigation found. But after significant blowback, the Defense Department is now considering partially restoring it with 70 full-time employees, the outlet reported.

The number of civilians killed in the Iran War may be as low as 3,400 or as high as 6,000 while the number of civilians left injured is in the tens of thousands. 


Turning to our northern neighbor, Chump acted the bully and was surprised to find that Canada wouldn't be bullied.  All weekend and on Monday, he was bullying Canada and talking smack.  Yesterday he experienced pushback.  Sebastian Murdock (HUFFINGTON POST) notes:

President Donald Trump threw a hissy fit Tuesday over Canada’s refusal to give in to his ridiculous trade war demands.
“Canada has been ‘Ripping Off’ the U.S.A. for decades,” Trump posted on Truth Social Tuesday. “They have been charging our Farmers 400% Tariffs, and more. They have driven many wonderful U.S. companies out of business.”
Neither claim is true, but Trump has been grasping for anything after Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney made it clear he wouldn’t abide by Trump’s harmful trade war demands. Part of Carney’s refusal included that he would not accept a trade deal that would have weakened French language protections in Canada.
Trump responded Monday by announcing 50% tariffs on $20 billion worth of Canadian goods. And in a posting spree about Canada on Tuesday, Trump desperately claimed he “would never interfere with Canadians speaking French!” before pivoting to a post about how “difficult and unreasonable” the country is being.





Jennifer Bowers Bahney (MEDIAITE) notes the fact check CNN's Daniel Dale did on Chump's lies about Canada:

 
“The sheer number of lies from President Trump about Canada – growing again today – is remarkable,” Dale wrote on X. “Just some fact checks from the last 18 months:”

Dale began with two whoppers Trump told Monday.

“Trump falsely said today that Canada’s unemployment rate is ‘10% and rapidly rising,’ though it is 6.4% (under the Canadian method that adds about a percentage point) and has been declining for three months,” Dale wrote.

Next up, “Trump falsely said today that Canada does 95% of its business with the US, though 72% of Canadian exports went to the US last year.”

And finally, “Trump falsely said today that high Canadian agricultural tariffs have caused the entire US trade deficit with Canada, though that deficit is overwhelmingly caused by US imports of cheap Canadian crude and though something like 97% of US ag exports to Canada are tariff-free.”


His lies have become common place.  There is strong pushback to Chump's war on Canada.  Alex Henderson reports:

When U.S. President Donald Trump threatened Canada with new 50 percent tariffs on Canadian autos and steel on Monday, Prime Minister Mark Carney responded by revealing retaliatory tariffs against the United States. Liberal economist Paul Krugman is warning that no good can come from a trade war with Canada, but liberals aren't the only ones who are criticizing Trump's economic policies. According to The Hill, Trump is getting a strong pushback from conservative Republican senators.
Journalist Alexander Bolton, reporting for The Hill, explains, "President Trump is headed for a clash with Senate Republicans over his decision to pause tariffs on beef imports while ratcheting up tariffs on key Canadian goods. Trump's plan to exempt 300,000 tons of product for ground beef from out-of-quota tariffs to address Americans' concerns about high food prices while simultaneously threatening Canada with 50 percent tariffs on imports that could impact auto and housing prices has sparked a furious response from GOP senators across the party's political spectrum."

One of the Republican senators who is speaking is Sen. Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina).

Tillis said of Trump's trade and economic policies, "I think it's a mistake. It's what happens when he has advisers trying to micromanage things. They're skating where the puck is versus where it needs to be. If you think that providing subsidized beef for some period of time is going to make farmers happy and prices go down on (a) systemic basis, you're wrong. It doesn't happen. Every time the government micromanages the economy, consumers suffer."

On X, formerly Twitter, Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kansas) wrote, "Importing beef below market prices will only put further downward pressure on the livestock sector, endangering what has been a bright spot in a struggling agriculture industry. I urge President Trump to halt this action, listen to ranchers and let the free markets work."

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) described Trump's tariffs threat against Canada as "a mistake," telling News Center Maine, "We produce a lot in Maine — our blueberries, our potatoes, our lobster, our lumber — that is processed across the border. If it comes back with a huge tariff on it, perhaps as much as 50 percent, that increases the cost of eating, building homes and (merchandising) our best-known products."

Senate Republican Whip John Barrasso (R-Wyoming) tweeted, "Americans want US beef on the table – not foreign imports. Wyoming ranchers produce the highest quality beef in the world. Our ranchers don't ask for special treatment. They simply want a fair marketplace. It needs to be easier – not harder – for Wyoming ranchers to feed America. I will continue to fight for policies that strengthen Wyoming beef producers and invest in the American cattle herd."


Other things disappointing people?  Chump's convention next month. 





President Donald Trump billed his first-ever Republican midterm convention as a historic, can't-miss spectacle, but inside the party, some strategists are calling it a "s-- show."

The two-day gathering, set for Sept. 9-10 at Dallas's American Airlines Center, has become a headache for Republicans who don't see the point, and don't want to pay for it, according to Puck's Leigh Ann Caldwell and Marianna Sotomayor.
Their reporting detailed a steep tab for lawmakers, as the National Republican Campaign Committee is asking House members to fork over $25,000 to bring themselves and a guest, three people who saw the invitation told Puck.

And that's just the entry-level rate.
The top tier runs $100,000. Corporate sponsorships, meanwhile, are being routed through a nonprofit that isn't required to name its donors.

Unlike a presidential nominating convention, no official party business will be conducted. The RNC rewrote its rules in January to allow a purely ceremonial event. That, combined with invitations that landed only weeks ago, after many lawmakers had already booked their fall calendars, has left some operatives fuming that it amounts to a glorified fundraiser built around a Trump rally.

There are more complaints.  Including concerns of costs since Chump can be very stingy after an event and refuse to pay the agreed upon sum.  Devyani Chhetri (DALLAS MORNING NEWS) reports: 

Dallas typically asks major-event organizers to put money down to help cover city services. But with about two weeks before President Donald Trump's Republican convention, officials could not tell City Council members on Monday whether organizers had been asked for a deposit.
The uncertainty deepened concerns among some council members that Dallas could be left with part of the bill for security and other city services, even as officials presented their first cost estimates for the Sept. 9–10 event.

The arrival of a president, senior administration officials, dignitaries and more than 20,000 attendees will require an extensive security operation for the convention at the American Airlines Center and elsewhere in Dallas.  

Police spending alone could reach $1.8 million. Cleanup and barriers could add $14,000, and the fire department's estimate is still pending, said Kevin Oden, the city's director of emergency management and crisis response, in a briefing for the council's finance committee.

Committee members did not question whether Dallas should protect or welcome the event. But they repeatedly asked how the city reached this point without confirmation that a payment had been secured upfront.
They also pressed for a clearer accounting of any convention expenses taxpayers might have to cover.

"I do have real concerns" about nonpayment, said Chad West, the committee chair, citing payment disputes after smaller Trump events in other cities. He said organizers of major events such as the Dallas Marathon typically agree to pay security expenses upfront.

Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Maxie Johnson focused on the city's already strained finances. 

"I don't care if it costs $10," Johnson said. Dallas was already facing a budget shortfall, he said, and should not assume another financial obligation it lacked the capacity to cover.

Again, Chump has a habit of stiffing people he doesn't pay ahead of campaign events. El Paso apparently never got paid the $570,000 he owes it for a February 2019 rally, Albuquerque says he owes them $445,000 for past events.  Grand Rapids wrote off approximately $50,000 that he owes for 2024 rallies.  There are many more. 



Travis Gettys (RAW STORY) reports more bad news for Chump:

A MAGA congressional candidate in a Kentucky district Donald Trump carried by 15 points in 2024 has quietly rebranded himself just over two months before Election Day.

Ralph Alvarado is running for Congress in Kentucky's 6th Congressional District, which covers Lexington, Richmond and Georgetown, and received the president's "Complete and Total Endorsement," but NBC News reported that he has stripped his campaign website of pro-Trump messaging and a photo of the two men together.
Before the primary, Alvarado's homepage branded him an "AMERICA FIRST FIGHTER," saying, "President Trump needs more allies in Congress to deliver on his bold vision to Make America Great Again. With your help, I will be that fighter," alongside a photo of Alvarado and Trump smiling together, the president flashing a thumbs-up.

That language is gone. Where the site once called Alvarado an "AMERICA FIRST FIGHTER," it now promises "INDEPENDENT LEADERSHIP," according to archived versions reviewed by NBC News.
The Trump paragraph has been replaced with one centered on healthcare: "Healthcare isn't a talking point to me — it's been my life's work. In Congress, I'll work with both parties to fight for affordable healthcare, lower costs, and practical solutions that help Kentucky families."

Gettys details many other removals and changes to the website.  All involve Chump.  That's how toxic Chump has become.  Smart Republicans are erasing his endorsement and their ties with him in an effort to win their campaigns.  Chump seemed invincible once upon a time.  But that never lasts.  And we noted when the country soured on him last year.  The polls began to drop and that tends to be what they do -- drop.  They don't turn around and rise back up.  And Chump is the anchor around his party's neck.  Martha McHardy (DAILY BEAST) reports:


Donald Trump’s approval rating remains stuck at a humiliating low two months ahead of the midterm elections.  
The latest Reuters/Ipsos poll, conducted Aug. 21-24 among 1,215 U.S. adults, shows just 33 percent of Americans approve of Trump’s job performance.
That matches his approval rating earlier this month, which was the lowest recorded in Reuters/Ipsos polling across either of his presidencies.
The brutal number lands as Trump’s war with Iran loses public support and the midterm elections draw closer, threatening to turn his sinking popularity into a major problem for Republicans fighting to hold Congress.
Only 31 percent of respondents said they support U.S. military action against Iran, down from 37 percent in March and 34 percent earlier this month.



Donald Trump secured strong support in rural areas, winning 69% of rural voters in 2024, according to Pew. Data from Investigate Midwest further shows that farming-dependent counties across the Corn Belt backed him with an average of 78% of the vote.

Today, however, this farm-country stronghold faces severe economic turmoil. Many farmers report that Trump's policies, specifically his trade war and the conflict with Iran, are worsening the crisis, driving the agricultural sector into its most significant financial downturn in decades.
These agricultural communities face historic uncertainty and rising costs. War with Iran has driven gas prices from about $3 to over $4 per gallon, raising household expenses and undermining Trump's promise to lower the cost of living.
Agricultural producers who voted heavily for Donald Trump in 2024 report that his trade disputes and the conflict with Iran have driven up operational expenses and market unpredictability, triggering the sector's sharpest economic contraction in decades.


President Donald Trump has received a new warning sign about Americans’ confidence in the economy just 70 days before the 2026 midterm elections, as a flurry of recent polls reveals growing voter frustration with his administration.

The Conference Board announced on Tuesday that its Consumer Confidence Index decreased to 89.4 in August, down from 90.2 in July, with its Chief Economist Dana M. Peterson saying consumers “were more pessimistic about business conditions and the labor market over the next six months.”



Turning to Chump's friend since the 80s, the late Jeffrey Epstein.  












Epstien died in jail.  His partner in crime lived to be convicted and put in prison.  REUTERS reports: 


A U.S. judge rejected Ghislaine Maxwell's bid to throw out her conviction and 20-year prison sentence for helping the late financier Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse teenage girls.

In a decision made public on Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer said Maxwell's claims were all meritless, and all or almost all were frivolous.
Maxwell, 64, who represented herself, challenged her December 2021 conviction and sentence in Manhattan federal court, and sought a writ of habeas corpus declaring her punishment unlawful.


The 64-year-old submitted evidence from the three million Epstein files released by the US department of justice (DoJ) as part of her appeal.

Judge Engelmayer said the evidence “incriminates her” and “reinforces” her guilt.

The disgraced British heiress, who is Epstein’s former girlfriend, is serving 20 years in a US prison for trafficking children to the paedophile.

A New York appeals court rejected a previous effort to have it overturned, and the US Supreme Court declined to hear her case.

The latest decision by Judge Engelmayer leaves a presidential pardon from Donald Trump as her only chance of freedom.
The US president has not ruled out giving Maxwell a pardon, telling reporters in July 2025: “I’m allowed to do it, but it’s something I haven’t thought about.”

However, Maxwell was moved to a lower security prison near Houston, Texas, in August 2025 after complying with the Trump administration’s investigation into Epstein.
Mr Trump, Maxwell and Epstein were fixtures of the same social circles in Palm Beach and New York in the 80s and 90s and were pictured together multiple times.



Let's wind down with this from Senator Elizabeth Warren's office:


“Your recent public statement appears to indicate that the information you provided to the Committee and the Office of Government Ethics is no longer accurate and suggests that you have either modified your ethics agreement or strayed from it altogether.”

Text of Letter (PDF)

Washington, D.C. — Following a social media post from Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (RFK Jr.), U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) wrote to RFK Jr. asking whether he has changed his ethics agreement, and if so, how and when any changes were made. The letter builds on an investigation by Senators Warren, Blumenthal, Alsobrooks, and Andy Kim (D-NJ) into whether RFK Jr.’s family may be financially benefitting from a $50 million anti-vaccine settlement he could have influenced as HHS Secretary.

Prior to his confirmation as Secretary of HHS, RFK Jr. helped spearhead a lawsuit against the vaccine manufacturer Merck & Co. (“Merck”) and the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, Gardasil. RFK Jr.’s initial ethics agreement allowed him to retain a 10% contingency fee in cases that he had referred to his former law firm, Wisner Baum. After warnings from Senator Warren about this conflict of interest, RFK Jr. agreed to amend his ethics agreement to “divest [his] interest in any such litigation [related to Gardasil] via an assignment to [his] non-dependent, adult son.” RFK Jr. also signed an ethics agreement compliance certification in which he indicated that he had “completed all of the divestitures indicated in [his] ethics agreement.”

In June, Merck & Co., Inc. (Merck) announced that the company would pay $50 million to settle more than 200 lawsuits regarding the use of Gardasil, a safe, effective vaccine that prevents multiple types of cancer. The settlement covers lawsuits for which Secretary Kennedy was listed as the attorney of record and cases represented by Secretary Kennedy’s former employer, Wisner Baum. 

Following the settlement, Senators Warren, Blumenthal, Alsobrooks, and Kim opened an investigation to clarify whether the Secretary’s son benefitted from this agreement. The Secretary thereafter stated on X, “[b]efore taking office, I relinquished any interest in potential Gardasil fees back to the Wisner Baum law firm” rather than to his son, and claimed that Wisner Baum had “publicly confirmed this during [his] confirmation process.” 

In a new letter to RFK Jr., the senators note that these recent statements are a departure from what he told the Senate Finance Committee during his nomination process and the ethics agreement that he filed with the Office of Government Ethics.

“Your response raises questions about the disclosures you made to Congress and in federal ethics documents, and your statements require further clarification,” wrote the senators. “Your recent public statement appears to indicate that the information you provided to the Committee and the Office of Government Ethics is no longer accurate and suggests that you have either modified your ethics agreement or strayed from it altogether.”

The senators note that their staff conducted a diligent review of all of Secretary Kennedy’s public financial disclosures and ethics documents and identified no amendments or modifications to any of these materials. Additionally, the Senate Finance Committee did not identify any information indicating RFK Jr. changed the disposition of his Gardasil stake.

To understand these discrepancies, the senators wrote to RFK Jr., pushing him for answers on whether he had transferred his 10 percent stake in Gardisil litigation to his son or any other entity and whether he or his family stands to gain from this recent settlement.

Senator Warren has led Senate oversight on RFK Jr.’s anti-vaccine agenda and conflicts of interest as HHS Secretary: 

  • In July 2026, U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), and Andy Kim (D-N.J.) opened a new investigation into whether Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ‘s (RFK Jr.) family may be financially benefiting from a $50 million anti-vaccine settlement that his actions as Secretary could have influenced.
  • In January 2026, Senators Warren (D-Mass.), Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Markey (D-Mass.), and Alsobrooks (D-Md.) pressed RFK Jr. on his proposed overhaul of the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, which could threaten the domestic vaccine supply, undermine public health, and potentially enrich Secretary Kennedy’s family and close allies. 
  • In June 2025, Senator Warren (D-Mass.), on the eve of a key committee meeting, slammed RFK Jr. for his “reckless” and “shortsighted” decision to fire all 17 independent members of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and replace them with eight members who appear to be hand-picked to advance RFK Jr.’s own anti-vaccine agenda. 
  • In February 2025, Senators Warren (D-Mass.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) wrote to RFK Jr., then-nominee for Health and Human Services Secretary, pressing him to urgently resolve his serious conflicts of interest related to his stake in Gardasil lawsuits.
  • In January 2025, at a hearing of the Senate Finance Committee, Senator Warren (D-Mass.) questioned RKF Jr., then-nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), about his dangerous conflicts of interest and record of profiting from anti-vaccine conspiracies.

###





The following sites updated:



Posted by at

Liars Chump and Mike Lindell

First up, Katie Phang.




Next up, crazy Mike Lindell.  My Pillow guy has a pillow brain.  Last week, he lost the GOP primary he was running in to secure the governor nomination.  And he's screamed and cried ever since insisting that there were irregularities and he wasn't going to be silent, he was going to prove this!!!!


Mike Lindell, the MyPillow founder and election conspiracy theorist who lost the Republican Minnesota governor’s primary race, has missed the deadline to post funds for the recount that he demanded.

Lindell, who was endorsed by President Donald Trump, lost the gubernatorial GOP primary to Speaker of the Minnesota House, Lisa Demuth, by about 45,000 votes on August 11 and refused to concede on election night. He has since claimed “major deviations and anomalies on election night,” despite a lack of evidence.
He then launched a fundraising drive to come up with the money to cover the cost of a recount, which must take place within five days of the canvass of a primary election, per Minnesota law, asking his supporters to donate.

Despite claiming to have the $825,000 “primed and ready” to meet Monday night’s deadline, Lindell’s team said he was asking Minnesota to waive the deadline and claimed the parameters of the recount proposed by state officials were an “unlawful bait and switch.”

The campaign disputed the state’s plan for a recount on the grounds that it would only recount votes received for Lindell and Demuth, as opposed to all of the candidates.


There have been no official findings of fraud or irregularity in the Minnesota primary results. Lindell told reporters during primary night on Aug. 11 that he would not concede until every vote was counted and that his team had spotted "anomalies" it needed time to review, though he offered no evidence at the time.

Minnesota law states that "an apparent losing candidate must submit a request for a discretionary recount along with the funds to cover the cost of the recount within five days of the canvass of a primary election."  

According to state election officials, 179,683 people voted for Demuth in the primary, while 134,282 voters cast a ballot for Lindell.

The Republican nominee will face Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar in the Nov. 3 general election to succeed retiring Gov. Tim Walz. 


No one likes Lindell anymore.  Boo hoo.  Cry baby Mike.

And no one likes Chump.  Remember all the lies Chump and Ric and the rest told about how he was saving The Kennedy Center?  Travis Gettys (RAW STORY) reports:

Kennedy Center leaders privately knew ticket sales and donations were collapsing even as they publicly claimed President Donald Trump's takeover had rescued the institution financially, according to newly revealed confidential internal documents.

The Washington Post obtained budgets, forecasts, board minutes and financial presentations that show both revenue streams were already sliding since Trump replaced the board and installed himself as chairman in early 2025, then cratered further after trustees voted in December to rename the center after him.
"The center took a huge hit when the takeover happened," said an official familiar with the finances. "It was just an absolute fiscal cliff. Donors disappeared, ticket sales disappeared, artists disappeared — like it was doomsday."

In a failed June court filing seeking to keep Trump's name on the building, a Justice Department lawyer argued the renaming had "represented a saving of The Kennedy Center" that prevented "financial and structural collapse."
But the center's own projections from the week before showed the opposite – ticket revenue and fundraising had plunged after the name change, putting it on track to miss its revenue target by nearly $100 million.

The center had budgeted about $220 million for fiscal 2026. By late May, officials projected only $124 million. Even after cutting expenses by roughly a third, it still projected a $23 million deficit.
Earned revenue was on pace to miss budget by 70 percent, and contributed revenue by 25 percent. One report described pledges falling by "more than 100 percent" from write-offs and withdrawals — suggesting donors pulled money already committed.

Andrew Taylor of American University called it "a nosedive" and said Trump's takeover "had a consequence, and the consequence was a catastrophic drop in revenue." Jennifer Benoit-Bryan of SMU DataArts, which tracks nonprofit arts finances nationally, said the trajectory was "remarkably different" from the rest of the sector, where large institutions generally stayed stable.


Chump is a liar and has always been a liar.  He has lied about The Kennedy Center over and over.  

Here's C.I.'s "The Snapshot:"


Tuesday, August 25, 2026.  Chump attacks allies and then wonders why they won't support him, ICE is out of control, Todd Blanche looks more like a liar than ever before, and much more.




Donald Chump is destroying the country.  And that continues to include our long term allies who Chump continues to threaten.  From yesterday's PBS NEWSHOUR.




Mark Carney, Canadian Prime Minister:

Our government understood before many that America would transform all of its commercial relationships, that it would put a series of tariffs on its closest allies and use economic integration as a weapon. We recognize that sometimes its signature was written in pencil.

Geoff Bennett:

The breakdown threatens to deepen the economic fallout on both sides of the border and raises new questions about the future of North American trade.

For a view from Canada now, we're joined by Peter Armstrong, senior business correspondent for the CBC.

Thank you for being with us.

Peter Armstrong, CBC Senior Business Reporter:

Thanks for having me, Geoff.

Geoff Bennett:

And President Trump, as you well know, has long argued that Canada takes advantage of the U.S. when it comes to trade. What does the data actually show?

Peter Armstrong:

Yes, I mean, it it's an argument that really infuriates Canadians, because, for the most part, that trade deficit that the U.S. runs is only because America decided to buy more safe, friendly, next-door-to-them oil from Canada.

Were it not for oil, there wouldn't be a trade deficit at all. And, in fact, if you look at it and include services, so everything from consulting to software to digital streaming, that trade deficit shrinks to basically nothing. I think it's $40 billion at that point.

So the argument that the trade deficit is what's behind all this, economists will tell you, I run a trade deficit with my dentist. It doesn't make him a bad guy that's trying to rip me off. It means I use the services he provides and he spends my money somewhere else in my community, and it all kind of works out well.

Geoff Bennett:

When the president writes, "We don't need Canada, they need us," economically, how accurate is that? Is Canada more vulnerable in this trade war than the U.S.?

Peter Armstrong:

I mean, yes, Canada is more vulnerable, but that doesn't mean this isn't being felt already by American producers, American businesses, American households, and consumers, right?

Like, just take the auto industry. The automakers in North America have paid out something to the tune of $110 billion in the last 18 months alone in tariffs and costs due to the disruptions. And we've seen a pretty significant drop-off in U.S. made cars coming to Canada. Canada is the number one export market for everything in the United States.

It's the number one export market for cars as well. And a 27 percent drop-off has meant, like, I think it's a $7 billion loss for U.S. automakers. And you look at what else do they need, we provide an awful lot of the oil that gets turned into gasoline for American consumers, right, 25 percent of refinery throughput.

Put another way, the oil that goes into refinery to become gasoline, 25 percent of that comes from Canada. And so it's been this really helpful, really reliable, really friendly relationship for 60, 70 years. And the undoing of that, if that's in fact the goal is to undo the economic ties between these two countries, is not going to come without pain for people on both sides of the border.

Geoff Bennett:

And that remarkable phrase from the prime minister that America's signature was written in pencil, given the depth of the U.S.-Canada relationship, what does it say when a Canadian prime minister is now publicly questioning whether the U.S. can be relied upon?

Peter Armstrong:

Well, a couple of things.

You have to take into account the ferocious anger and sense of betrayal that I think a lot of Canadians are feeling right now. And it's not just this round of tariffs. It's not just the last round of tariffs, and it's not just the constant berating of, we're going to turn Canada into the 51st state, or that they refer to the prime minister as governor, and these other sort of just disrespectful ways of treating your closest trading partner.

But the cumulative effect of all of that really has weight. And then you have to think about the fact that what we're undoing here is the USMCA agreement that was signed into effect during Trump's last term. It's not like this was a deal that was made 40 years ago by some other -- a Democrat or somebody that he disagrees with.

This was made by Donald Trump, by Jamieson Greer, by American officials that are still part of this administration. And they said at the time this is the greatest trade deal in history and it was going to benefit everybody on both sides of the border.

And then literally on day one of the administration, they came in and said, well, that deal's no good anymore. We want to restart everything. So you do have to wonder how much an agreement that we might have made would have been worth and whether at the last minute or in six months or in a year from now the terms of that agreement would have been torn up.

So I do feel some sympathy for the prime minister trying to carve a way through all of that uncertainty to find a deal that's good for both economies, but especially for Canada for his constituents.

Geoff Bennett:

The ferocious anger that you speak of, when Carney describes what's happening in terms approaching an economic war, is that how Canadians broadly see this rupture with the U.S.?

Peter Armstrong:

They do, absolutely.

And to put it very plainly, again, it's not just the tariffs. And it's not just the threats of economic annexation or this -- like, today, the vice president of the United States referred to Canada as a state. This is not something that I think anybody in the United States would accept from any other country talking about your country.

Nobody here is accepting it as something that should be reasonable or taken reasonably here in this part of the country. And they have taken lots of measures to push back, but the ones that seem to get under the skin of the administration the most are the two that have nothing to do with the federal government.

It's the provinces that have taken American alcohol off the shelves of liquor stores in eight of 10 provinces. And it's been a really grassroots move by Canadian consumers and households to not travel to the United States while these tariffs are in place. Both of those have come with enormous costs to tourism-heavy regions and to California wines and Kentucky bourbons.




FLORIDO: Why did Canada end up walking away?

COYNE: It was touching on issues that went way beyond mere tariffs. I mean, the tariff part was problematic enough. And then on top of that - and I don't have the chapter and verse on this but according to the prime minister, there were demands made that would limit our ability to sign trade treaties with other countries and to trade freely with other countries. And that really touches so closely on sovereignty and, particularly, it's our strategy in dealing with this president who was trying to weaponize our dependence on U.S. trade against us. Our strategy is to try to trade more with other countries. So to be told we couldn't do that was just clearly not going to be accepted.

FLORIDO: What has been the reaction in Canada to Prime Minister Carney's decision to reject a deal with the U.S.?

COYNE: Pretty universally supportive. Trade negotiations are always - can be hardball. People understand that. People understand, also, that trade negotiations are usually about trade. They're usually about countries that would like to trade more closely with each other but they have some sensitive sectors that they want to protect.

In this case, I think the perception and the reality in Canada is that the president wants to dominate us, wants to use trade as a weapon to coral us and to make us into something of a vassal state. And that belief is very firmly held across all parties in this country, for the most part, and all regions of the country.

FLORIDO: Even so, you know, Canadian businesses are going to be hurt by this trade war, by retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods. How are industries feeling about being sucked into a trade war?

COYNE: Very apprehensive, and rightly so. The auto industry in this country, which is a huge industry in the large province of Ontario, is looking at a very bleak future with or without this deal. But I think even industry was reacting to the particular terms of this deal saying we can't possibly accept that.

FLORIDO: Carney gave a well-received speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos this year, and he talked about a rupture in the world order without mentioning the U.S. directly. Now he is saying, in his words, America has changed. Is his willingness to stand up to Trump defining Carney as a politician, you think?

COYNE: Yes, very much so. And this is a guy, you know, who worked at Goldman Sachs, you know, studied at Harvard, he's part of the business community. He's not your typical, you know, lefty anti-America, if anybody's trying to portray him that way. This is a guy who would like to get deals done. He's been a dealmaker of one kind or another all his life. But I think he also understands the stakes for the country. And I think he understands that this is a moment when he has to lead and has to, you know, summon the will of the country to deal with this existential threat. I think a lot of Canadians would say, at this point, they think he's rising to the challenge.



If you missed it, Chump has whined throughout his ongoing Iran War about various countries refusing to join in on his war of choice.  Why would they?  Since he was sworn in, he has declared war on US allies. With Canada, thats included his threat to annex them and make them part of the US.  He's done the same with Greenland.  France even prepared plans to go to war with the US if Chump attempted to annex Greenland.  The crazy and demented Chump has been out of control and his actions have harmed the US' standing in the world.  


When not attacking our allies, Chump and the administration like to threaten Iran.  The latest threats are aimed at Iran and Chump is threatening an 'economic D-Day' which he keeps announcing and keeps backing off from.  This morning, Paul Krugman examines that threat:

So here, according to Trump and his officials, is the state of the war with Iran: Iran has been totally defeated and is desperate for a deal — indeed, Trump has announced that a deal is imminent on at least six distinct occasions. Also, because there is no deal, and Iran is intransigent, Scott Bessent, the Treasury secretary, is preparing what he calls an “economic D-Day,” economic sanctions that will bring the Iranian regime to its knees — a tricky proposition since, according to those same officials, Iran is already on its knees. But whatever.

What you need to know is that this economic campaign will fail as thoroughly as the military campaign.

The U.S. plan, or maybe just a concept of a plan, appears to be “Blockade me? No, blockade you!”

On one side, the U.S. is trying to restore the flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz despite Iranian threats. At least some tankers are running the strait “dark,” with their transponders off. Private insurers won’t cover the risks of these runs, so the U.S. government is providing insurance instead. And U.S. military forces are providing some protection against Iranian drones and missiles.

This part of the plan is, dare I say it, not entirely stupid. Clearly at least some oil is making it out. The Trump administration says 8 million barrels a day, which would be a significant amount if true. Unfortunately, that figure is coming from Trump officials, who have zero credibility, so it’s anyone’s guess how big the number really is.

More important, however, is the fact that even a successful re-opening of the Strait of Hormuz matters a lot less now than it would have a few months ago. There are two main reasons ending Iran’s blockade of the Strait, even if possible, will be ineffective.

First is the sheer scale of the U.S. military failure in the Persian Gulf. Not only did U.S. attacks on Iran fail to overthrow the regime, Iranian attacks have forced the U.S. to abandon many of its bases in the region. The loss of these bases, combined with the depletion of U.S. stocks of interceptors and other munitions, means that America is effectively unable to defend its Gulf allies.

So what will happen if Iran feels that its blockade of Hormuz isn’t doing enough damage? It can and will escalate to attacks on oil facilities all around the region. And there’s very little America could do to stop it.


The hottest competition in Washington, D.C. these days is not any political race nor is it the ridiculous “grand prix” that bumped its way across the city’s potholed streets this week as the latest entertainment to soothe Mr. Harp, our president.

No, it’s the ongoing contest among Trump’s Cabinet members to demonstrate who is the worst among them. When Trump spoke of “the worst of the worst” during his campaign, not everyone was clear on the fact that he was referring to his future stable of advisors.

Those in hot pursuit of the “distinction” of being the most corrupt, most incompetent, and most dangerous can be comforted by one fact: No matter where they finish among a group that seems dedicated to finishing off this country, each will very likely end up being the worst ever to hold their particular post.

That is no small distinction. We have had some bad Cabinet secretaries in our history. Remember Don Rumsfeld? Remember Nixon’s Attorney General John Mitchell? What about former Secretary of the Interior Albert Fall, who was at the center of the Teapot Dome Scandal? He was the first Cabinet secretary ever to be convicted of a crime and sent to prison. How about A. Mitchell Palmer, Woodrow Wilson’s atrocious attorney general who drummed up Steven Miller-like hatred for foreigners and oversaw mass arrests and deportations during one of America’s first Red Scare eras? Let’s go back further? Grant’s Secretary of War William Belknap resigned just before he was impeached for receiving kickbacks.

Bad as all these guys were, their scandals and failures were merely a prelude to Team Trump’s disastrous tenure. When they stole, they stole less. When they hate-mongered, they did it at a smaller scale. When they sought to obstruct justice, they were just setting the stage for the real wholesale debasement of our justice system that we are seeing today.



It's difficult to tell who is the worst in the administration because they're all pretty bad and they're all liars.   They don't even understand what D-Day, the original, was actually about as Rachel Maddow explained last night on MS NOW. 




Meanwhile, there is Homeland Security.  And it is attacking people.  Eve Sampson (ARMY TIMES) reports:

When masked agents pounded on the windows of the family vehicle, Army Sgt. Hedar Leonel Turcios Juárez's six-year-old daughter started crying.

She sat, buckled into her car seat, as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials ordered the windows rolled down and announced they would be detaining Cristy Maryori Villafranca Trejo - the child's mother and Turcios's wife - for a missed court appearance. 

The child watched as the figures handcuffed her mother and removed her from the vehicle.

"It took me a minute to realize what was going on - my heart just dropped," Turcios told Military Times about the encounter. "It was very hard looking at my daughter crying because of what was going on and not being able to do something and keep my family together."

On July 11, ICE detained Villafranca Trejo as the family drove home after a trip to Walmart. Turcios said he observed a vehicle following his family out of their military housing subdivision on the way to the store and then, when the family left Walmart, it reappeared.

He was pulled over shortly after, the sergeant said, as unmarked vehicles boxed in the family's Dodge Durango.

"All I was trying to do was stay calm because my daughter was watching everything that was going on and that was already a lot for her," he said more than a month after his wife was detained. "She's only six, and she was going through a lot. She's still going through a lot right now."


Taking the spouse of an Army member?  This angers a lot of Americans.  It outrages them.  It is not popular.  And it goes against what the policy has always been.  


A bakery owner in North Carolina says he denied entry to President Trump’s former Border Patrol commander during an encounter on Sunday.

​Manolo Betancur, the owner of Manolo’s Bakery in Charlotte, says he told Gregory Bovino he was not welcome on his property. ​Bovino was previously one of the faces of Trump’s immigration crackdown, overseeing operations in Minneapolis and Charlotte.

​In a statement posted on Instagram, Betancur said he engaged in a “tense conversation” about immigration enforcement in the city and that Bovino asked why the bakery owner regularly carries his U.S. passport.

​“Because people are being pursued because of the color of their skin, not because of their nationality,” Betancur responded.

The bakery’s statement also addressed Operation Charlotte’s Web, which saw the U.S. Department of Homeland Security flooding immigration enforcement officers into Charlotte.

​“This is bigger than Manolo’s Bakery,” the statement said. “Families are afraid, employees are afraid to go to work, customers are afraid to leave their homes, and small businesses are paying the price.”

Again, ICE has outraged the American public.  It's not one person outraged, it's millions.  And that number only increases as the horror stories emerge.  Rebecca Montecinos (LATIN TIMES) reports:

A mother and her adult daughter, both from Ecuador, were led out of a Central Florida hospital in handcuffs this week, only days after a highway wreck nearly killed them — a case that has reignited a running argument over how far federal immigration agents can go once someone is already in a hospital bed.
Grace Calero, who is 39, and her daughter Giulianna Carriel, 19, were traveling a Florida highway on Thursday, August 20, when an oncoming car veered across the center line into their path, sending their vehicle into a rollover. Paramedics freed both women from the wreck and brought them to HCA Florida Poinciana Hospital in nearby Kissimmee, where doctors placed a neck brace on Calero for her injuries while Carriel was evaluated for the shock of the collision. Neither woman had been discharged when a second ordeal began.
According to family members who spoke with Univision, Calero was still under sedation for pain when agents came to her bedside, asked about her immigration status, and then handcuffed her and walked her out of the building in her hospital gown. Relatives say they asked to see a warrant or asked the agents to identify themselves and got no response. Carriel was taken into custody a short time later. A relative who filmed the encounter can be heard begging the officers in Spanish to stop, while other patients in the room reacted with visible alarm. The video spread quickly online and drew sharp criticism from immigrant-advocacy groups.

And then there is the DOJ and the inept and corrupt Attorney General Todd Blanche.  David Edwards (RAW STORY) reports:

Attorney General Todd Blanche abandoned his months-long claim of compliance with an order regarding the Epstein files one day before a frustrated judge's deadline and appealed the order instead.

The notice of appeal, filed Sunday in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, acknowledged that the order requiring Epstein files to be handed over to the court may not even be appealable. Senior U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan had given Blanche until August 25 to hand over Epstein-related documents.

The filing came 11 days after Sullivan used a courtroom hearing to put Blanche on notice — invoking the last time he held Department of Justice attorneys in contempt of court, a 2009 case later affirmed on appeal.

[. . .]

Independent journalist Katie Phang sued Blanche in April, arguing he had violated the Epstein Files Transparency Act — a 2025 law requiring the release of all Justice Department files on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Sullivan granted Phang a preliminary injunction on June 25, according to NOTUS.

"By not responding substantively, the Attorney General has conceded Ms. Phang's merits arguments," the judge wrote.



Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) openly accused Attorney General Todd Blanche of illegal conduct Saturday on the heels of a new report that an alleged trove of “missing” handwritten FBI notes related to Jeffrey Epstein had been sitting online for months, fully unredacted, and accessible to anyone.
The supposed notes stem from a 2019 FBI interview with a South Carolina woman who accused President Donald Trump and Epstein of sexually and physically abusing her starting when she was 13 years old. Referred to as “Jane Doe 4,” the woman was interviewed by the FBI four times and was found credible by the agency, a Justice Department source told the Miami Herald.

Trump is not facing any criminal charges and has repeatedly denied any and all wrongdoing as it relates to his conduct with Epstein.

The Justice Department (DOJ) has not released the sought-after handwritten FBI notes, which are among the Epstein-related files being sought by former MSNBC host and attorney Katie Phang with her ongoing lawsuit. The agency has justified withholding Epstein-related files by describing them as “duplicative” of material already released.

On Saturday, however, data researcher and writer Rye Howard-Stone released a new report regarding nearly two dozen of the FBI notes – which he claimed had been uploaded by journalist Kaelan Deese of the conservative Washington Examiner. The notes themselves also revealed, according to Phang, that they were not, in fact, “duplicative” of any documents released thus far.

Lieu took to X to publicly call out Blanche.

“Dear [Blanche]: Please tell us the exception under the Epstein Files Transparency Act that allowed you to withhold the below FBI interview notes from the American people,” Lieu wrote Saturday in a social media post on X, tagging Blanche’s account on X and resharing commentary related to the discovery of the FBI notes.


Let's wind down with this from Senator Patty Murray's office:

Lawmakers seek answers on glaring quality of life and operational issues aboard not only the USS Lincoln—but the USS Ford and USS Benfold, which recently suffered a dayslong power outage

Washington, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senators Patty Murray (D-WA),Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, and Chris Coons (D-DE), Ranking Member of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, wrote a letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao calling for the Department of Defense (DOD) to immediately open an independent strategic review of the extended deployments of the USS Ford and USS Lincoln, as well as the USS Benfold’s four-day power loss.

“We are writing to express our deep concern regarding the recent extended deployments of the USS Gerald R. Ford and USS Abraham Lincoln, and the USS Benfold’s recent undisclosed power loss, and what it means for our sailors, Marines, and their families, as well as for the Navy’s overall military readiness,” write Murray and Coons. “Given the serious quality of life and operational concerns that have been documented and the Department’s inability—or refusal—to provide the congressional defense committees with full and accurate information, we request that the Navy initiate an immediate independent strategic review of these deployments, and brief Congress on its findings.”

The lawmakers note that a variety of serious quality of life issues have been documented aboard these aircraft carriers, and servicemembers and their families deserve better: “This administration has tried to downplay or paper over these reports, but the fact is our servicemembers and their families have reported alarming concerns that deserve redress and accountability.”

Murray and Coons call on DOD to immediately conduct a review of these issues and to provide, in the meantime, responses to a series of questions about the extended deployments by September 1, 2026.

Full text of the letter is available HERE and below:

Dear Secretary Hegseth and Acting Secretary Cao:

We are writing to express our deep concern regarding the recent extended deployments of the USS Gerald R. Ford and USS Abraham Lincoln, and the USS Benfold’s recent undisclosed power loss, and what it means for our sailors, Marines, and their families, as well as for the Navy’s overall military readiness.  Given the serious quality of life and operational concerns that have been documented and the Department’s inability—or refusal—to provide the congressional defense committees with full and accurate information, we request that the Navy initiate an immediate independent strategic review of these deployments, and brief Congress on its findings.

While the reporting that the Lincoln is now on its way home is welcome news, we still have many unanswered questions about the quality of life issues reported on these ships.  This administration has tried to downplay or paper over these reports, but the fact is our servicemembers and their families have reported alarming concerns that deserve redress and accountability.  Our military family members with loved ones serving on these ships deserve honest answers, and the Pentagon’s denials to date are an insult to the service of these sailors and Marines.

These firsthand accounts from the Ford, Lincoln, and Benfold have included mental health and morale concerns, supply issues for basic necessities such as food, clean water and hygiene items, air conditioning, and cleanliness and sewage issues in bathrooms.  There have also been reports of long lines at the mess halls and ship stores and disrupted and lost mail service.  After working long shifts on duty during combat operations, our sailors and Marines should not have to worry about basic day-to-day functions, whether they’ll have a full meal, or be able to communicate with their family members. 

It also appears that the Navy was inadequately prepared for predictable risks associated with the Iran war, and we are deeply concerned about the implications for future operations or management of a peer conflict.  Among these concerns is the availability of replacement carrier groups across the combatant commands and the disruption of the Navy’s supply chain in the Middle East.  We are also concerned about the future unbudgeted maintenance costs for the Ford and Lincoln and the length of time required to complete these repairs, which have not yet been outlined to Congress despite our requests.

We insist you immediately direct an independent strategic review of the extended deployments of the Ford and Lincoln, and the Benfold’s four-day power loss.  This review should be conducted by senior civilian executives and former military officers.  It should examine readiness issues relating to operations, manning, quality of life, including mental health, and culture on the ships as well as communications with the crews’ families.  The review should provide recommendations in these areas to improve future extended deployments for sailors and Marines serving on carriers and all other Department of the Navy vessels. 

As you begin this investigation, please also provide responses to the following questions:

  1. Will the Lincoln make a port call along its voyage home, allowing sailors and Marines to enjoy critical relief from intense combat operations?
  2. When is the next town hall and virtual meeting scheduled for families of the sailors and Marines serving on the Lincoln?  Will these outreach meetings continue on a regular basis until the carrier arrives home?
  3. What homecoming support resources have been provided to the sailors and Marines on the Ford and their families since returning home?  Will the same or additional resources be provided to the sailors and Marines on the Lincoln and their families?
  4. What mental health and sexual assault prevention and response resources are available to the sailors and Marines on the Ford and Lincoln?
  5. When will the congressional defense committees receive the final command investigation report from the extensive laundry fire on the Ford, which destroyed berthing quarters?
  6. What actions has the Navy taken to address and prevent future power issues on the Benfold?
  7. What steps is the Navy taking to prevent similar quality of life issues on the USS George H.W. Bush and USS George Washington and other ships currently deployed in the Middle East and globally?
  8. What were the Navy’s operational and contingency plans for deploying the Ford first to the Caribbean for Operation Southern Spear and then immediately to the Middle East?
  9. What were the Navy’s contingency plans for supply chain disruption and being forced to remain at sea rather than docked at an ally’s port?
  10. What is the maintenance schedule for the Ford and Lincoln?  What are the costs associated with these repairs?
  11. What is the Navy’s contingency plan to meet force requirements, including during any potential conflict, while two carriers are undergoing unplanned maintenance?

We request a written response to these questions and establishment of an independent strategic review by September 1, 2026.  Thank you for your prompt attention to these important issues. 

Sincerely,

###




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