Friday, August 21, 2026

Idiot of the Week

First up, Katie Phang.


Yea for Katy and her lawsuit.  


Idiot of the Week?


Well we all know Chump wears a diaper this week after all the photos.  That makes him  a poopy pants but not an idiot.  He was doing his regular stupid stuff this week but not enough to really register for the title of Idiot of the Week.  Sean Duffy tried to go for it but he's so ineffective and such a little powder puff that he couldn't win either.  That left Scott Bessent and Pete Hegseth and one other person.  Bessent seems dangerously confused.  He's dumb but he's also confused.  Hegseth is stupid and dangerous and showed that again this week.


However, I went with the third choice because their stupidity really cost them. 

What would you call someone who sold out every belief that they had in order to be president but selling out didn't move the needle one bit on the prospects?  


I'd call that person: Miss Sassy!


Yes, our cross dressing vice president JD Vance as a US senator called Chump Hitler and called him out and called out January 6ers and yet, in 2024, he sold out all of his beliefs to be Chump's running mate.  And how did that work out for him?

Tom Boggioni (RAW STORY) reports:

Any hope that Vice President JD Vance may have harbored about replacing President Donald Trump in the Oval Office suffered a devastating setback on Thursday morning.

According to a report from The Hill, Vance, who has always suffered from likability problems within his own party, would lose to most of the Democrats predicted to be the opposing nominee in 2028.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio performed slightly better than Vice President Vance in multiple hypothetical 2028 presidential matchups against Democratic candidates, according to a new Emerson College and The Hill survey.

In five matchups against Democrats, Rubio outperformed Vance in all but one. Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg held a 5-point edge against both Republicans.


Stephen Silver (NATIONAL SECURITY JOURNAL) notes:

No one knows how long the war in Iran will last, or how long its shadow will fall on the 2028 presidential race. However, the war appears likely to have an outcome that reflects positively on the Trump Administration and anyone who was in the room where its decisions were made.

The midterm elections are just over two months away, with the Iran War not expected to help Republicans’ standing.

And not long after that, the calendar will flip to 2027, with the presidential primary season right around the corner after that.

With Trump term-limited, JD Vance is likely to run for president in 2028. And while the president has not yet endorsed a successor and has been known to ask donors whether to support Vance or Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the Washington Post reported in early August that Trump has more recently made it clear to donors they should back Vance. Rubio, of course, is also in the Administration during the war.

If there is a competitive Republican primary in 2028, the Iran War will likely be litigated as part of it, with some Republican candidate possibly trying to claim the antiwar lane.

And should he distance himself from the war during a primary contest, Vance would risk alienating Trump ultra-loyalists, and also, possibly, the Iran hawks in the Republican Party.

But even if that doesn’t happen, and Vance wins the nomination without much of a fight, he’ll likely find himself in a similar position in the general election as Kamala Harris did in the 2024 campaign, of wrestling with whether to distance himself from unpopular stances held by the administration that he had himself served as vice president.


Vance is Idiot of the Week.  He gave up every belief he had to be the v.p. of a liar.  He just 'knew' that this would lead him to being the 2028 candidate because Chump couldn't run again in 2028.  He knew nothing.


He sold out everything.  And what he has to show for it?  Republicans still don't like him.  Ha ha ha. 

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


Friday, August 21, 2026.  Chump and his Cabinet compete in the new reality program WHO'S THE DUMBEST MEMBER OF THE GOVERNMENT?, the Secretary of the Treasury doesn't understand an oil spike, nut job Junior is more focused on criticism of his cooking show than on the many foodborn outbreaks, Hegseth is fretting over the SAT scores of the enlisted instead of the USS LINCOLN and other real issues, and much, much more.



Donald Chum does more late night memes.


As Ben (MEIDASTOUCH NEWS) noted, it just makes Chump look foolish. 


So does another thing . . . 



Yep, still blaming Joe Biden.  

Joe Scarboroguh: We're 19 months into the second Trump administration and they're still blaming Joe Biden.  First of all, war on cows?  Really?  You're going to blame a war on cows for the fact that tariff policies and all the other horrific policies that are being put in place continue to cause grocery -- make groceries spike? 

As Willie points out, they're blaming The Green New Deal -- which never passed -- to blame Biden on the cows.  



"Let's remember, Biden actually created 12 million jobs," Christopher Titus notes also calling out the constant blaming of Joe Biden for Chump's screw ups. 


While Chump and company keep trying to pin the blame n Biden, Senator Adam Schiff notes who is responsible:

Sacramento, CA – In case you missed it, U.S. Senator Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) spoke at the POLITICO California Summit on his priorities for tackling the affordability crisis, including by addressing the housing shortage. Schiff also emphasized that Democrats should continue pushing a legislative agenda that focuses on making our economy work for all Americans.

Schiff, in conversation with POLITICO’s Dasha Burns, highlighted how Trump and Republicans represent the failed status quo as Americans are facing higher prices on their watch as a result.   

View the full interview here.  

Key Excerpts:  

On Republicans and President Trump owning the status quo:  

[…] Donald Trump, Mike Johnson represent an ugly status quo. A status quo in which people can’t afford the price of gasoline, they can’t afford the price of housing, they can’t afford childcare. We’re involved in yet another foreign war that the president doesn’t know what to do about. They are the status quo. 

And much as they try to change the topic and make a handful of Democrats the subject, I don’t think it’s going to work because people are asking themselves, “Is my life better? Did the president and Republicans keep their word?” And the answer is no. The president promised he would keep us out of foreign wars. He promised he would address rising prices. And what has he done? In addition to getting us involved in this terrible war, he has told the country that the cost-of-living affordability is a hoax. 

On building an economy that works for everyone as AI transforms the economy:  

[…] What most Americans really have on their minds, and that is, they’re working their ass off, and they’re still struggling to get by. They feel very little security in their retirement. They are afraid of getting sick because their health insurance isn’t going to cut it. They are terrified.  

[…] We are in the midst of another transformation. I think it is the fault of policymakers that we have not adapted to a workplace that is so different than the workplace my parents worked in. Where so many people stayed with the same company their whole career and had health care and retirement through their work. And we’re going to have to, with the advent of AI, think even more broadly now about how do we ensure that people have gained full employment and dignified employment and secure retirement. What does that look like in the era of AI and globalization and automation? So, this is, I think, going to be the cardinal challenge for both parties. And I’d like to see the Democratic Party leading the way.

On taxing the ultra-wealthy and making the tax code fairer for working Americans:   

[…] There should be a wealth tax at the federal level. There should be a much more progressive tax code than the one we have. And one thing that has become so abundantly clear is this concentration of wealth we see now is operating to perpetuate itself. And you have individuals now that have such a massive say in our electoral process that they can pour hundreds of millions of dollars into a single campaign if they choose to. We have a broken campaign finance system that allows them to do that.  

And I think if we don’t bring determination to solving that problem, also, this income inequality, wealth inequality gap is just going to get worse. And it is, I also think, deeply destabilizing. The combination of the disruption of the workforce through AI, the vast concentration, and the arrogant use of wealth by some who have amassed it, is going to be hugely disruptive for society. It’s bad economics. I think it’s immoral, and I’m working on federal solutions to try to address that. 

###



Chump and his administration just make stuff up.  Nick Corasaniti (NEW YORK TIMES) provides one example:

A month after the Trump administration declared without evidence that thousands of noncitizens had illegally registered to vote in Nevada, officials with the Department of Homeland Security were unable to substantiate the claim.

The administration claimed to have identified 278,000 noncitizens registered to vote in four states, including an exact number of 15,903 in Nevada. But during a meeting last week with state election administrators, Homeland Security officials said they had identified just 185 potential noncitizens in the state so far, according to emails as well as recordings of the meeting obtained by The New York Times.

The federal officials said they were still considering 14,000 names for further review, according to one of the emails. In the virtual meeting, federal officials told Nevada that the nearly 16,000 they had originally identified represented “the ceiling” of potential noncitizens.

But the list the Homeland Security Department shared with Nevada is incomplete — it doesn’t even include names — and is nearly impossible to verify, according to files released by the secretary of state’s office. Nevada officials have requested more information, but the department has not yet offered it.


Chump's entire administration lies and tries to hope you share their stupidity.



"We've got a spike in oil prices today that I don't really understand."  That's what Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent said yesterday.  Hafiz Rashid (THE NEW REPUBLIC) explains:

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent tried in vain to spin the country’s astronomical $40 trillion debt on CNBC Thursday.

Speaking to the network’s Sara Eisen, Bessent admitted that he didn’t know when the Iran war would end, but that things were otherwise going well with the economy despite the soaring national debt and increasing deficit.

“This Iran conflict, we will get on the other side of this. We don’t know when,” Bessent said, failing to inspire much confidence.

Bessent was even less inspirational when it came to the national debt, telling Eisen, “There’s nothing magic about the 40 trillion number, and we can grow our way out of that,” before blaming tariff refunds for the poor GDP and rising deficit. 




Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent wants you to think that a weak job market is a good thing.

CNBC’s Sara Eisen asked Bessent to comment on recent signs that the job market was cracking. Bessent downplayed the “noisy” numbers suggesting the job market was not stable.

“The jobs that we’re seeing are going to Americans,” Bessent. “After the deportations that we’ve seen during the President Trump administration and the closing of the border, that’s like this unfettered migration, we don’t need to produce as many jobs.”

In July, the U.S. labor market shed 23,000 jobs, a worrying sign when paired with high gas prices and tariff-based inflation. Notably, women accounted for 100 percent of that decline, losing 32,000 jobs while men gained 9,000. The report also revised down job growth numbers from the previous two months.

For several months, the Trump administration has been pushing Americans to lower their expectations for job growth to reflect a labor market that doesn’t rely on undocumented immigrants. Americans don’t need jobs, apparently! It’s a strange spin for the simple fact that the president’s sweeping deportations are hurting the economy.


And then there's Health and Human Services where Chump put a nut job in charge.  Yesterday's ALL THINGS CONSIDERED (NPR)  took  a look at how HHS is no longer protecting the American people:

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

The number of cyclosporiasis cases confirmed by the CDC reached almost 16,000 this week. That's eight times the previous annual record with thousands more suspected cases of this diarrhea-causing bug. So what does this protracted outbreak tell us about the country's readiness? Well, NPR's Yuki Noguchi joins us now to explain Hi, Yuki.

YUKI NOGUCHI, BYLINE: Hi, Ailsa.

CHANG: Hi. OK, so I understand that you have spoken with people working in local, in national and international food safety. So what did you hear from them?

NOGUCHI: You know, that they're hobbled. Remember, most food safety funding in this country comes from the CDC and the Food and Drug Administration. Both agencies also fund most state and local food safety programs, and they historically also support them with, you know, things like scientific research or pathogen surveillance data or by coordinating outbreak response, like, between states or across international borders.

But Trump's sweeping federal cuts last year slashed staff and funding, and the CDC alone lost 40% of its grants. So that means many states cut public health workers, which a lot of people tell me has slowed this sort of local ground game and case investigations. My sources say other federal agencies, you know, the Agriculture Department and the now defunct USAID, which both funded food-borne pathogen research, have also been seriously curtailed.

CHANG: So how would you say that all of that has affected this year's response?

NOGUCHI: It's made us more vulnerable, at least according to Susan Mayne, who headed the FDA's food safety division until about three years ago and is still, you know, in contact with folks there. You know, it's a division that oversees 80% of the food supply, you know, anything basically that isn't meat.

SUSAN MAYNE: It's not just one thing. It's the cumulative impact of all of the things.

NOGUCHI: You know, Mayne says the government's slow response to Cyclospora reflects underfunding and disarray, you know, throughout the food safety system, from the very top to the very bottom.

CHANG: Wow. Well, then what do you think that might mean for future outbreaks?

NOGUCHI: More illness, you know, because to understand outbreaks, we've relied on two government functions, research and surveillance, like, you know, data and trends. And both those functions have changed. You know, on the research side, there are federally funded labs that study parasites like Cyclospora and other pathogens. You know, the CDC has a parasite lab, and the USDA has food pathogen labs in Beltsville, Maryland. And people familiar with those labs tell me the CDC's lab lost most of its funding with the shuttering of USAID. And a USDA employee, you know, who wasn't authorized to speak with me, showed me documents referencing that agency effectively shutting down its labs this summer and telling, you know, the staff that remain there that they either have to relocate to other agency operations or leave.

CHANG: Interesting. Well, how has the government responded to that?

NOGUCHI: Well, now, in emails, Health and Human Services tells me the CDC lab staff were not cut, and the USDA said it's pathogen lab, you know, continues uninterrupted today. One thing we do know is that CDC used to track trends, you know, for eight food-borne pathogens. And last year, they pared that to only two. You know, Cyclospora was cut. And so we won't have that data going forward.

As Elaine noted last night in "We are screwed:"

Dr. Jerome Adams (USA TODAY) writes:

America is watching foodborne illnesses and vaccine-preventable diseases surge while the secretary of Health and Human Services tells us to “eat real food.” The irony is hard to miss.

Jalapeño-linked salmonella has sickened hundreds across multiple states. Cyclospora has produced waves of debilitating illness.

A massive egg recall tied to a multistate salmonella outbreak involved more than 1.5 million dozen eggs. Investigators from the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have linked recalled eggs to an outbreak that, as of late July, had sickened about 100 people in 17 states and hospitalized 26.

These are not abstract statistics. They are parents watching children suffer, businesses throwing away food, people who don’t feel safe eating a salad or omelet, and a food supply that feels less reliable by the day.

This comes at a time when we are left with the worst nut job in the world to ever serve as Secretary of Health and Human Services.  We are at risk, all of us, with that nut job in office.

He can't protect us, he doesn't even believe in science.  We are screwed. 


Edith Olmsted (TNR) observes, "This week of many public health announcements follows a national cyclospora outbreak that has sickened more than 13,000 people and caused two deaths. Last week, the FDA finally dispatched investigators to the facilities linked to the outbreak—nearly a month after linking the parasite to Taylor Farms. Before any of this, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. reportedly cut back on parasite monitoring."



And the nut job is doing a cooking show.  Because, well, being head of HHS doesn't have enough duties -- especially when he keeps cutting out what they do. And he's not only doing a cooking show, he's having a fit when it gets critiqued. 

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. accused CNN host Erin Burnett of having “Trump Drangement Syndrome” after the network put one of his new cooking show’s budget-friendly recipes to the test, and tallied a price triple the amount.

Kennedy recently launched The Real Food Show, a YouTube cooking series promoting nutritious meals he says can cost less than $5 per serving and remain “affordable for every family.” The show is part of his healthy eating campaign.

On Wednesday’s CNN journalist Tom Foreman tested that claim for Burnett on OutFront, recreating Kennedy’s wild Alaskan salmon cakes and side salad, which the show priced at $19.64 for four people. Foreman’s grocery bill, however, came to $70.54.

After the report aired, Kennedy hit back on X, trashing the host and accusing her of having “abandoned both common sense and basic arithmetic.”


And then there's Pete Hegseth.  The man who, along with Chump, bears responsibility for the USS LINCOLN scandal.  Jem Bartholomew (GUARDIAN) reports this morning, "The USS George Washington aircraft carrier has arrived in the Middle East to relieve the USS Abraham Lincoln from its record deployment, amid concerns about poor living conditions and morale." Courtney Kube, Mosheh Gains and Kyla Guilfoil (NBC NEWS) report:


The Lincoln, which has been at sea for more than 250 days, has 5,000 sailors and Marines on board. The deployment has been marred by reports of deteriorating conditions. Cooper downplayed the concerns in the op-ed.
The Lincoln, which has been at sea for more than 250 days, has 5,000 sailors and Marines on board. The deployment has been marred by reports of deteriorating conditions. Cooper downplayed the concerns in the op-ed.

Relatives of those on board have told NBC News that conditions have been grim, citing a lack of supplies and food and a rising concern for worsening mental health. There have been some “man overboard” incidents, including one in which a sailor was rescued, according to U.S. officials. While the incidents have raised concerns within the Navy, they have not been viewed as reflective of a broad mental health crisis aboard the carrier, according to a U.S. official.

The mother of a sailor aboard the Lincoln told NBC News that her son was expecting to be deployed for six months. When she finally heard from him, about a month after the Feb. 28 strikes, she said, he mentioned he was hungry and losing weight. He told his mother the Lincoln’s onboard commissary was limiting service members’ purchases.

“He was just eating what he could eat,” she said, adding that he said the hot water was sometimes out for days and that the crew members went three to four months without getting mail after the carrier was redirected from the South China Sea.

The mother, a former service member herself, said her son told her that there were people “who weren’t doing too well.”




And the carriers -- all of the carriers -- are facing problems.    Priya Sridhar  and  Lindsey Pipia (MS NOW) reported yesterday:

After nearly six months in a fast-paced, unplanned war with Iran, the parts onboard the Navy’s aircraft carriers are at risk of wearing out. That includes the plumbing and air-conditioning systems, catapults that launch fighter jets and the gear that catches the planes slamming to a halt on the floating runway. 

Retired senior Navy leaders are raising concerns over the wear and tear the unexpected record-breaking deployments have on the $22 billion carriers, the expensive aircraft they transport around the world and the badly needed extended maintenance time it will take to repair them. 

“We are excessively wearing out our ships,” said Brent Sadler, a retired Navy captain and senior research fellow with the Heritage Foundation. “The longer that you’re working them hard at sea,” he said, the longer the Navy needs to put “a lot of time” into maintenance when the ships are not available for deployments.

That is the challenge facing the USS Abraham Lincoln, which the Navy is preparing to rush back to its home port of San Diego after operating at a blistering tempo launching missions against Iran and protecting U.S. bases and allies in the Middle East.






That is the challenge and that is something that the Secretary of Defense should be focused on.  Instead, we've got Hegseth focused on everything else. 


Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's anger over the rescinding of an Army memo on new standards has the branch reeling to come up with something that will make him happy, resulting in "some internal drama."

According to a report from The Hill, Hegseth was furious when the Army withdrew new academic standards it had recently issued for Reserve Officers' Training Corps cadets, just days after announcing an implementation date.

Graig Graziosi (INDEPENDENT) adds:

The new standards required scores of at least 1000 on the SAT. The average score in 2023 was 1028, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. The upgraded standard, which was supported by Hegseth, was adopted on August 5, but was withdrawn on Wednesday, the New York Post reports.

Then-assistant secretary of the Army for manpower and reserve affairs Jules Hurst argued earlier in August that the Army "must cultivate intelligent and adaptive officers to build a lethal and ready Army prepared to deter, fight, and win our nation’s wars."

"The strength of our Officer Corps is the strength of our Army," he said. 


Hegseth can't feed the troops on board the USS LINCOLN or guarantee them drinking water.  But he's got time for all of this other stuff -- including SAT scores -- that honestly are not hi business.  That includes his efforts to control STARS & STRIPES.  Tom Boggioni reports:

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was given notice by Senate Democrats Thursday that they intend to launch a probe over his alleged misuse of active-duty personnel.

The Democrats claim Hegseth installed loyalist inside Stars and Stripes, an independent news source that dates back to the Civil War, correspondent Scott McFarlane was among the first to report.

“The placement of an active-duty Public Affairs officer in the senior leadership of an organization whose credibility depends on its independence from the military chain of command raises serious questions," the Senators wrote.

The warning arrived the same day The Washington Post reported thatStars and Stripes publisher Max Lederer had announced plans to retire after 19 years as the publisher.

Malcolm Ferguson (THE NEW REPUBLIC) adds: 

“Our offices have been informed that the Department of Defense assigned an active-duty Public Affairs officer to serve as a ‘deputy’ to Stars and Stripes Publisher Max Lederer, reportedly without consultation with Mr. Lederer,” Senators Elizabeth Warren, Richard Blumenthal, and Jeanne Shaheen wrote in a Thursday letter to Hegseth. “On August 18, Mr. Lederer announced that he will retire after more than three decades at Stars and Stripes … citing fundamental differences between his understanding of the value and mission of Stars and Stripes and the Department’s plans for the organization.”

“The placement of an active-duty Public Affairs officer in the senior leadership of an organization whose credibility depends on its independence from the military chain of command raises serious questions.”

Stars and Stripes is partly funded by the Defense Department but has long had editorial independence. Installing an active-duty military officer in an editorial position at the newspaper in the midst of an extremely unpopular overhaul of Pentagon leadership—and an even more unpopular war on Iran—reeks of bias. The senators gave Hegseth a deadline of August 28 to offer a “detailed explanation” as to why he appointed the active-duty officer to oversee the outlet.


While Chump and his cronies never find time to do work to actually help the American people or to take the blame for the mistakes they make, they always have time to glorify Chump. Jennifer Bowers Bahney (MEDIAITE) reports:


A U.S. aircraft carrier slated to be named after a Black Pearl Harbor hero may be named to honor President Donald Trump instead, according to a new report.

During Trump’s first term, the Navy announced that a new Ford-class carrier being built would be called the USS Doris Miller to honor an enlisted sailor who helped defend the U.S. against Japan’s attack on Dec. 7, 1941.

But two anonymous sources told CNN that those plans had been scrapped, and that the Navy was considering naming the newly constructed ship to honor Trump.

“The effort to rename the USS Doris Miller has been underway since earlier this year,” the sources told CNN.

“The Navy is looking instead to rename another warship after Miller, according to one of the sources, and is recommending him for the Medal of Honor, the highest decoration for military valor,” the report said. “The final authorization for the award is up to Congress and approval from Trump.”

Although it would be “an unprecedented move” to name an aircraft carrier after a sitting president, CNN reported that Acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao has been researching how to update “the official guidance for how ships should be named and specifying who they can be named after, including presidents.”




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

Washington, D.C. — Today—over a year after Republicans passed the largest health care cut in history in their Big Ugly Bill—U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, released the following statement after a new report found Trump and Republican’s $1 trillion cuts in health care, and refusal to extend the Affordable Care Act (ACA) enhanced premium tax credits, have caused premiums to double for over 200,000 Washingtonians.

“We are over a year past Republicans passing the single largest cut to health care in our country’s history, and it has been nearly a year since Republicans blocked Democratic efforts to extend the ACA tax credits. Republicans have created a national health care crisis in America, causing costs to skyrocket and clinics to struggle keeping their doors open,” said Senator Murray. “Trump and Republicans would rather give trillions in tax breaks to billionaires and endlessly fund Trump’s war with Iran than help working Americans afford their doctor appointments and prescriptions. Republicans chose to put billionaires and foreign wars ahead of health care for the American people—but the people can have the last word using their voice and their vote.”

A new report has detailed how the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA)—which cut over $1 trillion from health care to fund tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires—has caused 50,545 Washingtonians to lose their Medicaid, CHIP, or ACA coverage they relied on to receive health care. Republicans also refused to extend the ACA enhanced premium tax credits, which caused premiums to double for 226,813 people across Washington state. A family of four in Washington state who makes $130,000 a year saw their average annual premium rise by $12,392—costing them a total of $23,442 this year.

Hospitals and clinics in Washington state are facing a $160 million loss in funding, a 5.6% spike in uncompensated care, and are expected to lose between $31 billion and $51 billion over the next decade due to Republicans’ health care cuts. So far 37 hospitals, clinics, and nursing homes in Washington state are at-risk, have announced cuts to services, are closing, or have closed, including:

  • AT-RISK: Astria Sunnyside Hospital, Coulee Medical Center, Dayton General Hospital, Forks Community Hospital, Klickitat Valley Health, Lake Chelan Hospital – Labor & Delivery Ward, Mason General Hospital, Mid-Valley Hospital, Odessa Memorial Hospital, Othello Community Hospital, Planned Parenthood of Greater Washington & North Idaho – Spokane, Prosser Memorial Health, Samaritan Hospital, Summit Pacific Medical Center, Three Rivers Hospital, Toppenish Community Hospital
  • CUTS ANNOUNCED: East Adams Rural Healthcare – Ritzville Hospital, Overlake Medical Center & Clinics, PeaceHealth, PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center, Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center, Providence Swedish, Seattle Children’s Hospital, Virginia Mason Franciscan Health
  • CLOSED: DominiCare (St. Joseph’s Hospital), Legacy Salmon Creek Pain Clinic, Legacy-GoHealth – Camas, Legacy-GoHealth – Cascade Park, Legacy-GoHealth – Salmon Creek, Outpatient Orthopedic Physical Therapy Clinic (Providence Medical Park), Overlake Medical Center – Lake Hills urgent care clinic, Planned Parenthood – Port Angeles Health Center, Providence St. Joseph’s Hospital Orthopedic Physical Therapy Clinic, St. Michael Medical Center Pediatric Outpatient Rehabilitation Clinic, Swedish Weight Loss Outpatient Clinic, The Spokane Allergy & Asthma Clinic, ZoomCare Super Bellevue – Emergency Care

ABOUT TRUMP’S MEDICAID CUTS:

Nationwide, the Republican health care cuts represent a more than $400 billion hit to America’s hospitals—with one estimate finding that over 170 rural hospitals will likely be forced to close or scale back their services, which will force more Americans to travel further for maternity care and emergency room visits, and face longer wait times. Washington state is one of the states most at-risk, with 22 hospitals at-risk of closing or reducing services. An estimated 477,000 health workers will lose their jobs as a result of the Republican cuts to Medicaid. Senator Murray has consistently advocated for rural health care access across the state, hosting numerous events to emphasize the importance of investment into rural communities.

Hospitals in Washington state could lose at least $662 million in Medicaid revenue every year under OBBBA—forcing hospitals to lay off staff, cut services, or close their doors entirely. Overall, Washington state is expected to lose between $31 billion and $51 billion in federal Medicaid dollars over the next decade. In 2024, Washington had an uninsured rate of 4.8 percent—the lowest in the country—but the Republican bill is expected to balloon that number into the double digits.

In Washington state, nearly 2 million people—roughly 1 in 5—are enrolled in Apple Health, the state’s Medicaid program. Washington’s 4th Congressional District has the highest Medicaid enrollment in Washington state, with nearly 300,000 people—38 percent of all residents—reliant on Apple Health, including 70 percent of all children in the state.

ABOUT GOP REFUSAL TO EXTEND ACA TAX CREDITS:

Senator Murray forced the issue of the ACA tax credits at every opportunity before Republicans ultimately refused to take any action, speaking out nonstop about the urgent need to save health care and calling on Republicans to come to the negotiating table to work out a bipartisan deal to extend the ACA tax credits. She took to the Senate floor in November 2025 with her Democratic colleagues to call for a clean one-year extension of the ACA tax credits, and held numerous virtual press conferences with Washingtonians, as well as residents of neighboring states Idaho and Montana, about the exploding health care premiums that Americans would see due to the expiration of the tax credits. As the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, Senator Murray led legislation supported by the Democratic caucus that would have addressed the health care crisis during the government shutdown last fall. Senator Murray has also cosponsored multiple pieces of legislation over the past year—the Health Care Affordability Act and the Protecting Health Care and Lowering Costs Act—that would make the ACA tax credits permanent.

As then-chair of the Senate Health Committee, Senator Murray played a critical role in passing the ACA enhanced premium tax credits into law in the American Rescue Plan Act in 2021 and extending them in the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022.

###




The following sites updated:


Posted by at

Chump and his Cabinet of Idiots

First up, Katie Phang.


Ka$h Patel is an idiot.  But I didn't realize he was as big an idiot as he has turned out to be.  I know it's hard to pick the biggest idiot in Chump's Cabinet.  

Next,  Bennito L. Kelty (RAW STORY) reports:


Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has struggled to attract viewers to his controversial road trip reality show after months of delays.

According to a Thursday report by MeidasTouch, "almost nobody is watching" Duffy's six-episode reality show, "Great American Road Trip," which features his wife and nine children traveling with him through several states. The show has been criticized for its questionable funding sources and for showing off Duffy's road trip vacation while Americans struggle to afford gas and groceries.

The show aired on Wednesday, and after 24 hours, the six episodes had accumulated only about 5,400 views combined, according to MeidasTouch. The most-viewed episode was Duffy's Philadelphia episode, which had 2,300 views, and his Charleston and Arizona episodes drew fewer than 500 viewers each, MeidasTouch reported.


Didn't a plane and a helicopter collide this week?  Isn't that what Duffy should be focusing on.  Or how about telling his son-in-law to lay off the make up?  Those eye brows on that guy are not real eye brows.  

Sharon Zang (TRUTHOUT) reports on another cabinet member:

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent expressed confusion as to why crude oil prices rose on Thursday, hours after Donald Trump threatened yet another escalation against Iran nearly six months into the war that has thrown global oil markets into chaos.

Speaking to reporters, Bessent brought up the rise in oil prices as he discussed the muted effect of the Treasury Department’s surprise bond buyback announcement yesterday, saying that the department is “trying to bring the market back into equilibrium.”

“We’ve got a spike in oil prices today that I don’t really understand,” he said.


Treasury Secretary and he doesn't understand the spike in oil prices?  Wow, Chump picked a worthy one, didn't he?  An idiot is all Bessent is.  And that's all Chump has -- a Cabinet filled with idiots. 


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


Thursday, August 20, 2026.  Chump continues to wreck the economy, the US national debt soars to new heights, Pete Hegseth is responsible for the suffering on board THE USS LINCOLN, did FBI documents on Epstein get 'released' to REDDIT, and much more.



As Ben (MEIDASTOUCH NEWS) notes in the video below, the rats are fleeing the sinking ship. 




Daniel Orton (NEWSWEEK) notes Chump's losses Tuesday night:

President Donald Trump suffered his most concentrated series of endorsement defeats of the 2026 primary cycle on Tuesday, when three Republican candidates he supported lost races in Florida and Wyoming.

Representative Cory Mills was defeated in the Republican primary for Florida’s 7th Congressional District, Catalina Lauf lost the contest for the GOP nomination in Florida’s 19th District, and Wyoming Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder fell short in the state’s Republican gubernatorial primary.
The three losses do not erase Trump’s long list of successful endorsements, including several victories on the same night. But they add to a run of August defeats that has exposed the limits of the president’s ability to carry candidates past local opposition, controversy or questions about their fitness for office.

Former NBC News moderator Chuck Todd summarized the political moment in a post on X late Tuesday, writing: “August has been a cruel month for Trump politically.”

And we note that again today  because Chump can never admit he's wrong or that he lost. And so the day after the election, he had to announce that he had told Cory Mills to drop out of the race:

On Wednesday, in a post on Truth Social, Trump called Mills a friend but said he had urged him “to get out of the Race, but he wouldn’t listen.”

Then why, if this lie were true, did you endorse him?  

Regardless, you endorsed him and he lost.  You called on your followers to vote for him and they told you "NO!" 



Donald Trump’s effort to boost Republican candidates isn’t packing the punch he wants it to, as his losing endorsements hit double digits this week thanks to a series of primaries in his home state.

Ten GOP candidates endorsed by the president have now lost their primary race after the Florida Republican primary season came to a close on Tuesday.
[. . .]
Trump seeing ten candidates he endorsed lose so far is only one shy of the eleven candidates he endorsed who lost their primary bids in 2022 in total, and the 2026 primary season has not completely wrapped up.

Back in 2022, only one of the incumbents Trump endorsed lost his primary, Rep. Madison Cawthorn, who was facing numerous investigations. Six of the primary challengers he backed also came up short, making up the vast majority of his losing endorsements. Four were running for open seats.

In 2024, just four Trump-backed candidates lost their primary bids as the president ran for a second term.

The last time Trump was president and faced a midterm election season in 2018, only two of the candidates he endorsed in the primaries lost, but he went on to face a rough general election season, and Democrats retook the House that year.

While Trump struggles to admit the truth, FOX "NEWS" fesses up to one of their own lies.  Ayeesha Walsh (THE MIRROR) explains: 


Fox News was forced to broadcast an on-air retraction after making false claims about gas prices in the US.

The news broadcaster issued a correction to viewers after they broadcast a graphic on Monday, August 17, where it was claimed that in 2025 consumers were paying $4.13 a gallon, with current prices at $4.06 a gallon. The report stated that this meant the current average gas price was actually lower than last year, despite President Donald Trump's ongoing conflict with Iran.
However, the graphic was actually false, with prices a year ago really sitting at $3.13 a gallon, meaning that there has been an 93 cent increase based on the current average. Fox claimed in the correction that the Trump administration has claimed "those gas prices will fall quickly, once the operations in Iran end." It comes as CNN analyst Harry Enten shared figures showing the president at a record-low approval rating.


President Donald J. Trump, at least according to a Reuters poll this week, has the lowest approval rating of his second presidency and is tied for the lowest across both of his presidencies. The war in Iran, which Trump launched and with which he is closely associated, is also wildly unpopular; there’s not much confidence among anyone in either party that the United States will be able to pull itself out of that conflict anytime soon.
Therefore, the Iran War, along with rising gas prices and related inflation, is likely to be top of mind for voters as the November election approaches. And that could be bad news for the GOP, beyond the traditional expectation that the president’s party will lose seats in a midterm election. And the Republicans are already defending a slim majority in the House.
A CNN report on Tuesday looked at how Republicans are approaching this dynamic.

CNN reported that some Republicans are “growing impatient” with the continuing war, which they fear “threatens to further imperil their chances in the midterms.” However, as the story notes, very few Republicans still running for Congress have publicly broken with the president. Most Republicans in the House with any degree of public skepticism toward Trump have either declined to run again or lost their primaries.
Those candidates are “gambling that voters can stomach the economic pain of the war for national security.

“Let’s deal with this now, and let’s get it done,” Rep. Zach Nunn of Iowa, who is running for re-election, said of the war, contrasting that with the position of Democrats, whom he implied want to give up on the Iran mission.

Barrett Marson, a Republican strategist in Arizona, was a bit more circumspect about the party’s predicament.

“There is one person in this country who doesn’t care about gas prices — just one — and unfortunately that one person kind of controls our fate,” Marson told CNN. “For Republicans, it is a balancing act on the thinnest of wires to still support the president but also feel the pain that voters are going through.”

Indeed, Trump said at a rally last week that he would never apologize for high gas prices and told his supporters that a bit of a pain at the pump is worth it to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.


Be interesting to see how he feels if the voters respond that entering a war of choice and doing so with no Congressional resolution nor oversight means it's his problem and his alone.  As Joe Scarborough noted yesterday on MS NOW, "They've got no message. But I would say the worst message right now is to go out and actually say to a microphone, 'Your family would be doing much better if we had listened to every expert over the last generation and not launched an unnecessary war in Iran'."

And it will be interesting to see how voters react to a higher inflation as a result of diesel costs.  In a second article, Stephen Silver notes:

According to a Financial Times analysis published on Tuesday, rising diesel prices “threaten [a] new jolt of inflation” this fall, ahead of the vote in November.  Diesel cost $3.46 at the start of the year, but surged throughout the Iran war, occasionally dipping on a couple of occasions when it appeared the conflict was nearly over. At the same time, the continuing war between Ukraine and Russia has affected oil supplies as well, with frequent drone strikes on oil tankers and refineries.
Per FT, the “pump price” of diesel hit $5.47 a gallon on Tuesday, an eight percent increase over the last month, and is approaching the all-time high of $5.82, which occurred shortly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The “crack spread,” which is the difference between the cost of diesel and crude oil, has also reached a record high. It’s sometimes called the “3-2-1 spread.”

Per Bloomberg News, that spread, defined as the “margin for making diesel from crude oil,” has risen above $100 per barrel. Monday was the first time that it had ever settled in the triple digits, after that number had never gone above $89 per barrel before this year.

The “Crack Spread,” Skip York wrote in a New York Times op-ed on Wednesday, “is going to make your life unpleasant.”

The high cost of diesel can have many effects. It drives up costs for truckers and across the industrial chain, and businesses may pass those costs on to customers. That could mean inflation that Americans notice day to day.

The economy's in the toilet and Chump put it there with his tariffs, his war on immigrants and his war on Iran.  Business are going under.  Christopher Edwards (NEW YORK POST) notes, "Classic American fried chicken chain KFC has permanently closed a total of 44 restaurants across California from July 2025 to July 2026, according to a new analysis from search visibility platform Local Falcon. The chain closed 312 restaurants nationwide in the same period, representing a 7.6% loss in the chain’s national footprint."  Alexander Kirk (9NEWS) reports, "Mission Foods will close its tortilla plant in Pueblo and lay off 90 workers.  The world's largest tortilla maker will close its factory plant at 2110 Santa Fe Dr. in Pueblo on Oct. 13, the company said in a letter to the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment."  Jordan Hart, Madeline Berg, Natalie Musumeci and Kelsey Vlamis (BLOOMBERG NEWS) report, 

Retailers and restaurants are gearing up for another wave of store closures.

It's shaping up to be the continuation of a retail pullback that Business Insider tracked in 2024 and 2025. Major chains, from department stores like Macy's and Saks Fifth Avenue to restaurant chains Pizza Hut and Wendy's, have already announced multiyear closure plans that extend into 2026, as have some niche stores.

And Jordan Valinsky (CNN) reports another closing.  

Columbia House, a pioneer of subscription music before streaming, is shutting down after seven decades in business.
A widely reported statement appeared on its website saying the company is closing on September 15 has been removed, but a customer service representative confirmed to CNN by phone that it is soon ceasing operations.
Columbia House became a household name in the 1980s and 1990s for offering monthly deliveries of records, tapes, CDs and later DVDs each month.

Streaming didn't kill off COLUMBIA HOUSE but Chump did.  

Things are bad and they could get worse.  And the new reality has not been good for Chump.  BALLER ALERT notes:

Nearly one in four people who backed Donald Trump in 2024 now say their financial situation has gotten worse since he returned to the White House, putting fresh attention on the economy just months before voters head back to the polls. The latest Trump economy poll from the Financial Times and Focaldata found that 24 percent of Trump’s 2024 voters said they are worse off financially. 23 percent of voters who supported Trump in 2020 said the same. Across the broader survey, 53 percent of respondents said their finances have worsened since Trump’s second term began, while about 20 percent said they are doing better and 26 percent said their financial situation is about the same.


Today on MORNING JOE (MS NOW), Joe Scarborough noted that Chump promised he was going to pay off the national debt has done nothing but increase the national debt. 



The US national debt hit 4 trillion dollars this week.  Fatima Hussein (AP) notes, "The milestone figure was recorded just five months after the U.S. hit a record $39 trillion debt in March. It reached $38 trillion five months before that, in October."  Michael Race and Francisco Velasquez  (BBC NEWS) add, "The faster-than-expected rise has sharpened concerns about how quickly the government's borrowing needs are growing and what that means for future interest costs."  Brittney Melton (UP FIRST, NPR) points out, "The government will spend more than $1 trillion this year just to pay interest on the debt, which is about 15% more than it spent on interest last year. "  Myles McCormick and Kate Duguid (FINANCIAL TIMES OF LONDON) explain: 
 

Trump returned to office in 2025 pledging to curb wasteful government spending. Treasury secretary Scott Bessent vowed to curb the budget deficit to 3 per cent of GDP by the end of Trump’s term. 
But measures taken to cut spending in some areas have been offset by large tax cuts in the president’s 2025 signature budget legislation, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which is set to push up debt by more than $4tn by 2034. Trump has also called for annual defence spending to be increased by more than half to $1.5tn, the largest funding request in US history. 




The US gross national debt reached $40tn for the first time on Wednesday, the highest in US history.

The government deficit doubled over the past decade, with government spending growing under both Donald Trump and Joe Biden – Trump approved $8.4tn worth of debt during his first term, with a large chunk going to Covid-19 relief spending, while Biden approved $4.3tn worth of debt.

In fiscal year 2026, which began in October 2025, $1.8tn has been added to the debt so far.

Both Democrats and Republicans responded to the milestone with outrage, with Democrats placing the blame on Trump and a Republican-controlled Congress for the uptick in spending.

“The President said he’d pay off the debt in his first term. Well we all knew that was a lie. Instead he ran it up to $40 trillion while he and his family made billions,” Mark Kelly, a Democratic senator from Arizona, posted on X.

“Republicans ran up the tab, handed billionaires another tax break, and now wanna lecture working families about ‘fiscal responsibility’. You can’t max out the card AND pretend you’re the accountant. Pick a struggle,” Jasmine Crockett, a Democratic congresswoman from Texas, said.

“The Republican One Big Ugly Bill adds over $4 trillion alone—all to shamefully give tax breaks to billionaires and corporations,” Jason Crow, a Democratic congressman from Colorado, posted on X.


Meanwhile, Chump continues his war on the First Amendment.  As he orders and encourages FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr to go after ABC, not only is ABC fighting back, but also others are noticing what's taking place.  Matthew Rozsa reports:

President Donald Trump’s war against ABC and Disney for platforming comedian Jimmy Kimmel has boomeranged on him, with the entertainment behemoth suing Trump’s FCC for violating their First Amendment rights. More recently, the FCC has challenged ABC’s broadcasting licenses.

Even a conservative newspaper is siding with ABC and Disney over the Trump administration.

“ABC sued the FCC on Tuesday for ‘coercing and retaliating’ because it ‘refuses to bow to the Administration’s demands,’” wrote The Wall Street Journal editorial board on Tuesday. “The lawsuit says the government has violated its First Amendment rights ‘by launching pretextual regulatory investigations and threatening the Stations’ valuable broadcast licenses.’”

Describing FCC Chairman Brendan Carr as a “mob-boss” and agreeing with the premise of the lawsuit, the Journal opined that Trump’s FCC is indeed violating “the First Amendment by letting the FCC interfere in editorial judgments and suppress disfavored content and viewpoints. ABC’s lawsuit says the FCC’s pressure has resulted in it ‘passing on further consideration of booking several political candidates,’ and none have appeared on the program since February.”

The Journal added that Carr once criticized Democratic administrations for violating free speech rights, and concluded that “in 2020 he lambasted a progressive media group for petitioning the FCC to censor broadcasts of Mr. Trump’s Covid press conferences, calling it a ‘dangerous and sweeping attempt by the left to weaponize the FCC.’

"It’s a shame Mr. Carr won’t defend ABC’s free-speech rights today," the board added.


Yesterday on NPR's MORNING EDITION, Leila Fadel spoke with FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez: 


LEILA FADEL, BYLINE: ABC agreed to a settlement with President Trump over a defamation lawsuit, and there were critics at the time that said, well, you're just conceding to an intimidation over your - over speech. That was the criticism at the time. Why do you think the network is now choosing to challenge the actions of the government versus settle?

ANNA GOMEZ: One of the things that we learned from this administration is if you capitulate, it doesn't buy you peace from the administration. Instead, it just buys you time. The administration will keep coming back and continuing the threats, continuing to use whatever leverage it can in order to retaliate against critics. And so Disney has found its courage and it is pushing back. And this is good. It's good for the First Amendment, it's good for the public and it's good for broadcasters in general.

FADEL: The FCC chief, Brendan Carr, says that he is upholding requirements that broadcasters operate in the public interest. What do you say to that?

GOMEZ: When we talk about the public interest traditionally, we say we want licensees to provide service to their communities and that means providing them content that matters to the communities. The problem with saying that you're using this public interest standard in a vague way is it's now being wielded about in order to say, any content we don't like is contrary to the public interest. That is not what our Constitution allows the FCC to do, it is not what our Communications Act allows the FCC to. And so I've called on the FCC to say, OK, if we're going to say - keep using this public-interest standard - a vague, nebulous standard that really has no definition - then the FCC needs to establish rules that specifically say what that means. And if those rules violate the First Amendment, then we will learn that lesson.

FADEL: Are other commissioners concerned? I know you're the only Democrat on the commission, and there might be people listening to you saying, well, that - she thinks that 'cause she's a Democrat and the president is not. Are other commissioners concerned?

GOMEZ: Well, I will say this. Protecting the First Amendment is not a partisan issue. And, in fact, this FCC has heard from former FCC chairs that were Republicans, former FCC commissioners that were Republicans. We have heard from Senator Cruz, Senator Kennedy and other Republicans who have been concerned about the FCC's actions and their effect on the First Amendment. There is bipartisan support for respecting the First Amendment.






As we noted yesterday, there are rumors this week that Pete Hegseth, failed and failing Secretary of Defense, wants to be a presidential candidate in 2028.  Ed Kilgore (INTELLIGENCER) offers his take on that possibility:

Put aside, if you can, your priors about Hegseth’s reported history of alcohol abuse, sexual misconduct, and adultery, or any visceral reaction you have formed toward his juvenile addiction to public displays of physical fitness, hypermasculinity, and performative bellicosity. Has this martinet done anything in his 46 years to show he is presidential timber?
Yes, it’s true the man who lifted Hegseth from a Fox News studio to the summit of the Pentagon has largely obliterated past assumptions about qualifications for the presidency. But compared to Hegseth, the pre-presidential Donald Trump was a virtual Pericles, running (however erratically) huge businesses, developing a national following, and expressing opinions on a broad range of issues. The secretary of War was trounced in a Minnesota GOP convention by a Ron Paul disciple in his one bid for public office (a doomed 2012 U.S. Senate run in Minnesota for the chance to get beaten by Amy Klobuchar) and then devoted his life to bloviation on Fox News. That was clearly enough to qualify him for the Trump Cabinet but not to form a Cabinet of his own.
What would a Hegseth candidacy for president represent, other than outlandish claims about his brilliance in directing the U.S. military in a war whose outcome doesn’t look that promising right now? His well-worn tirades against DEI, LGBTQ+ troops, and the debilitating effects of feminism would hardly make him stand out in any sort of GOP presidential field. Now, it is true that he is the highest-ranking over-the-top Christian nationalist in public life today, and that the particular form of patriarchal neo-Calvinism to which he avidly subscribes might have a constituency in places like Iowa and South Carolina, both well-established Christian-right strongholds. But does he have any point of view at all on topics like the cost of living, AI (other than its military applications), health care, education, or any other dimension of government beyond bristling militarism?
If your reaction to Hegseth for President speculation is to laugh, then laugh longer and louder and maybe he can be shamed into ruling it out. Even for Pete Hegseth, hubris must have its limits.

Zeesham Aleem (MS NOW) also weighs in on a presidential run on the part of prissy Pete:

What makes it all the stranger is that Hegseth is exceptionally unpopular in the Trump administration. CNN data analyst Harry Enten, reviewing recent polling from Fox News and Quinnipiac University, called Hegseth “the lowest of the low” in the president’s Cabinet. In the Quinnipiac poll, Hegseth’s job approval is 22 points underwater — significantly worse than the net approvals of Secretary of State Marco Rubio (-8%),  and Vice President JD Vance (-17%). Given that Rubio is also associated with the war with Iran (as well as Trump’s intervention in Venezuela), it suggests Hegseth has something uniquely repellent about him to the public. 

Remarkably, despite his poor marks with the public, The Washington Post reported that “officials familiar with Hegseth’s thinking believe that he is considering a run for president or some other political office after his time in the Trump administration is over.” Appearances in Iowa are a surefire strategy for potential presidential candidates to float trial balloons about their viability. Given his track record, anti-charisma and polling trends, I think we already have the answer to that. Something tells me Hegseth might need more convincing.


Hegseth's attention appears to be everywhere but where it should be: Focused on doing the job of the Secretary of Defense. 




The USS LINCOLN remains a scandal and, we are learning, that it's such a shock because Hegseth lied to the American people.  Brendan Cole (NEWSWEEK) reports: 

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth “hid” how Iran had destroyed much of the main resupply base for the U.S. military in the Middle East, according to MS Now, as concerns grow about the conditions faced by sailors on board USS Abraham Lincoln.

The network’s senior national security reporter David Rohde made the claim about the aircraft carrier, which, according to The New York Times, has faced supply problems since Iranian strikes hit the logistics hub Naval Support Activity Bahrain at the start of the war. 

During a segment in MS Now discussing President Donald Trump’s dismissal of reports of low morale and the mental health concerns of those aboard the carrier during an unusually long deployment, Rohde said the resupply issue was “because Pete Hegseth hid the fact that Iran destroyed the main resupply base that the United States has in the Gulf.”

“He did not make that public in press conference after press conference, and that is, again, the way that they have mishandled this war,” Rohde added. 







The USS Abraham Lincoln wasn’t able to be resupplied because the U.S. Navy’s main resupply base in the Gulf of Oman was destroyed by Iranian strikes—a fact that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth chose not to make public, David Rhode, MS NOW’s senior national security reporter, said on Tuesday.

From late February until June, Iran launched extensive missile and drone strikes on Naval Support Activity Bahrain, causing devastating damage that was not acknowledged by the Pentagon.

The U.S. Navy was forced to evacuate most personnel, and move supply operations to a U.K. naval base on Diego Garcia, a tiny island in the Indian Ocean 2,200 miles from where two aircraft carrier groups have been operating in the Gulf of Oman.


That's presidential?  No.  No it's cause to fire him from his post immediately. 

Let's note this from Senator Tammy Duckworth's office:

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – Combat Veteran and U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) joined all of her fellow members on the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) minority, as well as the Democratic leaders of the Senate Appropriations Committee and Subcommittee on Defense, in demanding answers from Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth about deteriorating conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln. The Senators’ letter follows reports that the aircraft carrier’s crew has endured food and water shortages, broken plumbing and mental health crises severe enough that multiple sailors reportedly attempted to go overboard during its record-setting deployment. The Lincoln has been at sea for more than 250 days, including over 200 consecutive days without a port call, the longest continuous deployment at sea for a U.S. aircraft carrier in the modern era.

In the letter, the Senators wrote: “Our sailors and Marines signed up to serve and to be treated with respect. They did not sign up to be kept at sea indefinitely with no announced return date and, by multiple accounts, without reliable food, hot water, or working plumbing. That is not how we treat the men and women we ask to carry out this mission.”

“This situation was preventable, and the conditions aboard the Lincoln are nearly identical to the issues faced by the USS Ford when it conducted an extended deployment that ended earlier this year,” the Senators continued. “The USS Lincoln was redirected to the Middle East as the war with Iran began and has remained there as that war has dragged on with no clear endpoint. This is a symptom of poor planning by both you and the President and exacerbated by the deeply unsound decision to start a war with Iran. Open-ended deployments driven by an open-ended war have real consequences for our servicemembers, and we are seeing those consequences now.”

The Senators pressed Secretary Hegseth on his Department’s failure to provide a clear timeline for the crew’s return and condemned his public dismissal of the reports as “completely misrepresented,” as well as President Trump’s remarks suggesting the Lincoln had not been deployed “nearly long enough.” The Senators demanded detailed answers on mental health and medical resources aboard the ship, the state of good order and discipline, hygiene and food conditions, the full extent of the reported man-overboard incident and support being provided to military families, along with a formal request for a bipartisan congressional delegation to visit the ship.

Along with Duckworth, the letter was co-signed by the following SASC members: Ranking Member Jack Reed (D-RI), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Senator Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Angus King (I-ME), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Gary Peters (D-MI), Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Mark Kelly (D-AZ) and Elissa Slotkin (D-MI). U.S. Senators Patty Murray (D-WA) and Chris Coons (D-DE) of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense also joined.

The full text of the letter is available on Senator Duckworth’s website and below:

Dear Secretary Hegseth,

We write regarding the deployment of the USS Abraham Lincoln and mounting evidence that conditions aboard the carrier have deteriorated to the point that the safety and wellbeing of its crew could be compromised. These are deeply troubling reports, and the American people deserve honest answers.

The USS Lincoln departed San Diego on November 21, 2025. The ship has now been deployed for more than 250 days, including over 200 consecutive days without a port call, setting a modern-day record for continuous time at sea for a U.S. aircraft carrier. Family members of the sailors and Marines serving aboard have received urgent messages describing conditions that should alarm you, and everyone serving in a position of leadership at the Pentagon, to include concerns about exhaustion, food and water shortages, and mental health crises serious enough that multiple sailors reportedly attempted to go overboard.

In response to these reports, you publicly stated that the conditions aboard the carrier have been “completely misrepresented.” Even more galling, when asked by reporters about the conditions on the Lincoln, President Trump dismissed the concerns of the families and stated that the Lincoln had not been deployed “nearly long enough.”

Our sailors and Marines signed up to serve and to be treated with respect. They did not sign up to be kept at sea indefinitely with no announced return date and, by multiple accounts, without reliable food, hot water, or working plumbing. That is not how we treat the men and women we ask to carry out this mission.

This situation was preventable, and the conditions aboard the Lincoln are nearly identical to the issues faced by the USS Ford when it conducted an extended deployment that ended earlier this year. The USS Lincoln was redirected to the Middle East as the war with Iran began and has remained there as that war has dragged on with no clear endpoint. This is a symptom of poor planning by both you and the President and exacerbated by the deeply unsound decision to start a war with Iran. Open-ended deployments driven by an open-ended war have real consequences for our servicemembers, and we are seeing those consequences now.

Recent press reports indicate that the USS George Washington will be deployed to the Middle East to relieve the USS Abraham Lincoln. While that is welcome news, the Department’s mismanagement of carrier deployments also means that the U.S. will not have an aircraft carrier in the Pacific for the foreseeable future. However, ensuring the USS Lincoln returns to port takes precedence, and it is incumbent on the Department to inform Congress, and the families, on the plan and timeline to get the crew home. Denial and defensiveness are not acceptable responses. Congress and these families need accountability.

Given the seriousness of these reports, we request written answers to the following:

  1. What is the current timeline for the USS Lincoln’s relief and return to homeport, and what specific operational requirements are driving continued extensions of this deployment?
  2. Was the crew informed that the deployment could be extended indefinitely? Have any members of the crew been changed out since the beginning of this deployment, and if so, how many?
  3. Has there been any degradation in the operational capability of the USS Lincoln or her airwing?
  4. What mental health resources are being provided to the crew?
  5. Have there been any suicides aboard the ship during this deployment? How many instances of detected suicidal ideation or attempted self-harm, including attempts to go overboard, has the Department recorded?
  6. What other medical resources are available aboard the ship, and are resources sufficient to meet the crew’s needs given the length of this deployment?
  7. What chaplain resources are available to the crew, and have they been adequate to the scale of need aboard the ship?
  8. What is the current state of good order and discipline aboard the USS Lincoln?
  9. What is the hygiene and healthy food situation on board, including the status of reported plumbing failures, water contamination, and food shortages?
  10. What is the extent of illness or injury aboard the ship, including full details of the reported man-overboard incident and any other similar incidents?
  11. What is the state of the families of the sailors and Marines aboard the USS Lincoln? What resources are being provided to them, and are they being kept informed on a regular basis about the status of the deployment and their loved ones’ wellbeing?
  12. Will the Department authorize a bipartisan congressional delegation to visit the Lincoln to conduct firsthand oversight of conditions aboard the ship?

As the Secretary of Defense, you are accountable to the men and women who serve our nation. It is time for you to demonstrate leadership, rather than peddle excuses. The servicemembers we send into harm’s way deserve nothing less.

Sincerely,

-30-


Turning to the topic of Jeffrey Epstein, Chump's dead buddy who was a pedophile and a sex trafficker. Jane Doe in The Epstein Files is a woman who spoke to the FBI four times about being assaulted.  The file summary on that released by Todd Blanche was the one noting Jeffrey Epstein.  Three other interviews -- hidden by Blanche -- had her noting Donald Chump.  Katie Phang is suing to get the files released -- as the act of Congress mandated.  Yesterday, Ellie Leonard reported on what may be FBI files that have ended up posted to REDDIT. 


P







The Republican chairman of the House oversight committee has threatened to hold the private equity investor Leon Black in contempt if he does not fully cooperate with the panel’s ongoing investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, amid accusations that the billionaire is purposely delaying and disrupting the panel’s inquiry.
A letter released by Representative James Comer’s office on Tuesday, which was addressed to Black’s lawyer, revealed new details about the high-stakes clash between the powerful Kentucky congressman and Black, the co-founder of Apollo Asset Management who was Epstein’s friend and former client and paid Epstein tens of millions of dollars in fees.

“If Mr Black refuses to provide the Committee with responsive documents or refuses to appear for his scheduled deposition on September 3, 2026, the Committee will use all tools at its disposal, including contempt,” Comer said.


The following sites updated:





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