Wednesday, August 26, 2026

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,

###




The following sites updated



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Monday, August 24, 2026

Speaker of the Closet Mike Johnson is clueless

First up, Katie Phang.  

Next?  Speaker of the Closet Mike Johnson.  Marita Vlachou (HUFFINGTON POST) notes:

In an interview with Fox News’ Peter Doocy on Sunday, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said he is confident the GOP will retain its majority in the lower chamber even if the Iran war is not over by November.

“It would be helpful to get that thing resolved in the next 73 days, but if it’s not, we’re still going to win. People know we took the head off the snake. We had to make sure the largest state sponsor of terrorism does not have a nuclear weapon. That was an objective of every administration the last 50 years. Donald Trump did it,” Johnson said.


Yeah, Mike Johnson learned to lie years ago, in fact, it was the first time he ever went out with a girl.  Joe DePaolo (MEDIAITE) notes more crazy from Johnson:


House Speaker Mike Johnson says White House staffers have told him he’s like President Donald Trump’s “co-president.”

In an interview with NOTUS, the Speaker claimed that he has the hardest job “in the world” in trying to unite a fractured Republican caucus that holds such a slender majority. The dynamics of the House have necessitated constant contact with the president, and Johnson told NOTUS the frequent communication between the two has led some in the West Wing to give Johnson a lofty informal title.

“Some on his staff have said, ‘No, it’s really like you’re co-president,’” Johnson recalled to NOTUS. “Because the president and I speak all the time.”

Of course, that comment doesn’t figure to sit well with Trump — who is not exactly renowned for sharing credit with others. In fact, the president recently tried to take credit for doing Johnson’s job as well as his own.

“I have two jobs: being president and being speaker,” Trump said privately back in June, according to NOTUS.


Johnson has presided over the do-nothing House and he thinks that makes him co-president?  He will lie about anything.  And when the Republicans lose control of the House in November, look for him to lose his position of Speaker and he won't just be busted down to Minority Leader, he'll be kicked out of leadership.

He doesn't even see it, he's that out of it.  He just can't buy a clue.  


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


Monday, August 24, 2026.  Chump continues his war on immigrants and brings in his disrespect for service members, the Secretary of Education sees nothing wrong with a daily 8% increase for parents to provide a sack lunch to their child, and much more. 


Donald Chump did not have a good Sunday or a good early Monday morning.




On CNN's STATE OF THE UNION Sunday, Dana Bash spoke with Secretary of Education Linda McMahon.  We'll note this exchange:


BASH: You too.

So, millions of students are heading back to school. And there are a lot of things on parents' minds. One of them is sticker shock. One analysis found that the cost of school supplies rose nearly 8 percent since last year, averaging nearly $175 per child, and the average cost of packing a school lunch is up more than 10 percent compared to last year.

What do you say to parents who are struggling not just with how to manage schooling, but also the economic strains of it?

MCMAHON: Well, I think if you -- if you look at what's going on here throughout the country, really, yes, there are some price upticks, I think, but the general economy is so strong and doing so well.


No, the general economy is not doing well.  And a 10% increase in the costs of a packed school lunch is outrageous.  I believe the number of days in a school year (non-year round school) are 180.  You take that 10% and do it for 180 days?  You're going to have a very big number and add in that many people have more than one child in school.  Megan Cerullo (CBS NEWS) reports:

The U.S. job market is less robust than it looks, according to a new analysis. 

The nation's unemployment rate fell to 4.1% in July, well within the range economists consider healthy. Yet that measure, which reflects the percentage of people over the age of 16 who don't have a job and who are looking for work, is an imprecise metric that fails to offer a full picture of the health of the job sector, according to Gene Ludwig, chairman of the Ludwig Institute for Shared Economic Prosperity (LISEP).

The economic research firm's "True Rate of Unemployment" (TRU) seeks to capture the share of workers that the group defines as "functionally unemployed." This includes not only people who are unemployed and looking for a job, but also those who are involuntarily working part-time and who are earning poverty-level wages, or less than $26,000 annually before taxes. 


McMahon isn't the only one in the government giving false information.  Yesterday, MORNING EDITION (NPR) reported on Chump's latest "false claims of widespread illegal voting by noncitizens:"

AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:

President Trump is using an unusual report out of the Census Bureau to renew false claims of widespread illegal voting by noncitizens. NPR has learned the analysis has ties to a think tank aligned with Trump, and both data and election experts say the report's conclusions are questionable. NPR's Hansi Lo Wang has our report.

HANSI LO WANG, BYLINE: Many past studies and audits show illegal voting by non-U.S. citizens is incredibly rare. But in these final months before the midterm election...

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: We are releasing the results of a stunning investigation by the Department of Homeland Security.

WANG: President Trump and officials, like Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, have been releasing a lot of numbers about noncitizen voting with little details about how they were produced.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

MARKWAYNE MULLIN: One thing that I love about numbers, and I love about facts, is they don't lie.

WANG: The latest number is over 24,000. That's how many noncitizens allegedly voted illegally in the 2020 presidential election, according to a highly unusual report from the Census Bureau. That number translates to less than 0.02% of more than 128 million voter records that this report says were compared with government files. But it doesn't say who at the bureau did the comparing.

AMY O'HARA: It doesn't mention which division produced it - who the authors were.

WANG: Amy O'Hara is a data scientist who once led the Census Bureau's research on matching data records to produce statistics.

O'HARA: It is light on details about the data sources that were used. And so I've got a lot of questions about how the matching was done.

WANG: Matching of different kinds of records. That's known to be an especially hard way to produce accurate numbers. In this case, the Census Bureau report used voter records from a firm called Data-Clear. Carolyn Carlson started the firm, and she says the voter file was part of a 2024 contract for improving surveys and the census.

Was there any indication that it would be used to look for noncitizen voting?

CAROLYN CARLSON: It is not in the 2024 documentation.

WANG: NPR has learned the report's analysis was not done by career civil servants. And the team behind it included individuals affiliated with the America First Policy Institute, a think tank started by officials from Trump's first administration. That's according to a Census Bureau employee who NPR agreed not to name because they fear retaliation at work. Spokespeople for the bureau and the think tank did not respond to requests for comment.






 Jason Linkins (THE NEW REPUBLIC) reports:

If you want to get the unfiltered skinny on how the never-ending war with Iran is going, it’s written in the dust. Responsible Statecraft’s Trita Parsi reported this week that U.S. service members marooned in the Persian Gulf have been expressing themselves in messages fingered onto a dusty aircraft flap. The anonymous graffiti, which calls to mind the helmet scrawls of disgruntled soldiers in Vietnam, include “Operation Epstein Fury,” “Peace deal #64 incoming … ALL THIS FOR THE HOLY LAND,” and “Bibi’s cucks.” Sounds like things aren’t going so well! “I have no frame of reference, I can’t compare it to the sentiments of U.S. soldiers in previous conflicts,” Parsi wrote. “But I suspect these are new sentiments, or at least a new willingness to express them this openly and directly.”

Whether these sentiments are new is indeed unclear, but it’s not without a frame of reference. Trump has always been fairly explicit in his disrespect for the grunts who do most of the work—and all of the dying—in this racket that we call “war.” But only now is a seemingly unwinnable war bringing this all to a head. It’s no longer possible to pretend that the president doesn’t have boundless contempt for U.S. service members. They’re trapped in a war that was essentially kicked off to distract from all the other terrible news the Trump administration generates—or at least to turn attention away from the Epstein files. (Though if these dust etchings are any guide, Trump failed in this attempt to wag the dog.)

In recent weeks, this dynamic has been playing out on board the USS Abraham Lincoln, an aircraft carrier that has been on a nine-month deployment to support Trump’s war with Iran. Conditions on board the carrier have deteriorated to the point where some seamen have jumped overboard in an attempt to escape the misery. The crew has, for several weeks, been dealing with food shortages and grotesque sanitation issues. As TNR’s Hafiz Rashid reported, “In recent town hall meetings with military leaders, including acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao, things have gotten heated, with family members expressing fear and worry over mental health and the risk of self-harm for the ship’s personnel.”

As it happens, this trouble is not confined to the USS Lincoln: Crews on the USS Benfold, Carl Vinson, and Tripoli have also reported miserable conditions in recent weeks. Pete Hegseth, our self-styled “secretary of war,” has gone to great lengths to downplay and even deny these accounts, characterizing them as misrepresentations while covering up the reason the Lincoln, which is now finally coming home, wasn’t resupplied. The dust scribbles surfaced by Parsi tell a different story.

If anything, the story is an old one. There has always been good reason to question Trump’s respect for U.S. service members. As The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg reported in September of 2020, Trump canceled a visit to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery in Paris, questioning his senior aides as to why he should go to a cemetery full of “losers.” Per Goldberg, “In a separate conversation on the same trip, Trump referred to the more than 1,800 Marines who lost their lives at Belleau Wood as ‘suckers’ for getting killed.” All of this came about because he didn’t want to get his hair mussed in the rainy conditions. (Trump’s former chief of staff, John Kelly, would later confirm Goldberg’s reporting.)


And of course his efforts at destroying STARS AND STRIPES is his combined war on truth and the troops.  ALJAZEERA notes, "The Pentagon has fired the editor-in-chief of the Stars and Stripes, a prominent United States military newspaper, as well as one of its top reporters."  Filip Timotija (THE HILL) notes three people got fired, "The Pentagon fired the publisher, editor in chief and at least one reporter at Stars and Stripes, a historically independent military news outlet, Friday as the department has looked to reshape its coverage in recent months."  BrieAnna J. Frank (USA TODAY) explains, "The firings come months after the Pentagon dismissed the newspaper's ombudsman, a position Congress established in 1991 to protect its editorial independence."   Jennifer Jacobs and Kathryn Watson (CBS NEWS) remind, "Recently, Stars and Stripes, along with the Military Times, reported on challenging conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, writing that family members of service members aboard the aircraft carrier were concerned about their loved ones' mental health and risk of self-harm. Acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and President Trump downplayed or denied those reports, but the ship left the Middle East this week to begin the journey home to the U.S. after a nine-month deployment."  Minho Kim (NEW YORK TIMES) report:


The Defense Department on Friday fired the publisher and the editor in chief of Stars and Stripes, a government-funded news outlet that reports on the U.S. military, according to a senior Pentagon official and the dismissed journalists.

The firings raised questions about the Pentagon’s willingness to ensure the editorial integrity of the publication that has reported extensively on difficulties faced by military communities as the war in Iran has dragged on. The terminations came about 10 days after Stars and Stripes journalists reported on hardships that Navy sailors were facing on the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln, the aircraft carrier whose deployment was extended to nine months amid the war.

On Friday, the Pentagon sent termination notices to Erik Slavin, the editor in chief, and Max Lederer, the publisher, who had announced his retirement earlier this week, citing conflict with the Pentagon leadership on the paper’s direction. Lara Korte, a Middle East correspondent at the news outlet, was also fired on Friday, according to the official and a post she made on social media.


Edward Helmore (GUARDIAN) notes how Chump and company have been 'bothered' by the news outlet: 

The outlet’s reporting on the Lincoln, which is heading for port in San Diego after an extended deployment in the Middle East as part of the war in Iran that the Trump administration started in February alongside Israel, was published on 12 August, on the same day as similar reporting in the Navy Times.

Donald Trump subsequently dismissed concerns about conditions on Lincoln in part, with the president saying the crew’s deployment had been “not nearly long enough”.

The outlet’s reporting on the Lincoln is not the only issue to have placed Stars and Stripes in conflict with the Trump administration. Heralded as representing “the free thought and free expression of a free people”, it has sometimes had a contentious relationship with its primary sponsor before evidently reaching a boiling point during Trump’s second presidency.

The Trump-led Pentagon has been warring with the press that covers it, restricting access and demanding that journalists not seek confidential sources. That led to reporters turning in their access badges rather than acceding to those demands, setting the stage for an influx of rightwing media voices at the Pentagon and a legal battle.


Today on ALL THINGS CONSIDERED (NPR), Danielle Kurtzleben spoke with Lara Korte about her firing:


DANIELLE KURTZLEBEN, HOST:

This week, the Pentagon fired three people from Stars and Stripes, a government-funded outlet that covers the Defense Department. A reporter, the publisher and the editor in chief were given notice the department was terminating them. The firings are the latest in a series of moves by the military to exert greater control over the publication. Lara Korte covered the Middle East for Stars and Stripes. She joins us now from Germany, where she lives alongside members of the military. Welcome, Lara.

LARA KORTE: Thanks for having me, Danielle.

KURTZLEBEN: Sure. So tell us, when did you learn that Pentagon officials had fired you, and what was your reaction?

KORTE: Yeah. This happened yesterday, almost exactly 24 hours ago. We were working on putting out a story, a story I've been working on for a while now, and we got the notice in our emails. It came as a shock, to say the least. I'm still processing it, still, you know, trying to figure out what this all means. But, you know, we're staying positive.

KURTZLEBEN: Now, you wrote online that your firing was because of an interview you gave to CBS, along with editor-in-chief Erik Slavin. Let's listen to a portion of that interview.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "CBS SUNDAY MORNING")

KORTE: I'm working for Stars and Stripes, not for the Pentagon, not for any administration, not for any policymaker.

KURTZLEBEN: Why did those comments constitute a fireable offense in the eyes of the government?

KORTE: You know, per the separation notice, they said that that was insubordination. But from my point of view, I was just reaffirming what the Pentagon has already said in its own policies and what has been longstanding tradition that Stars and Stripes is editorially independent. We have been very fortunate that we do not have government control over the contents of our paper. And so by saying that I work for Stars and Stripes, I feel like I was simply asserting what the Pentagon itself has said.

KURTZLEBEN: Now, that CBS story itself was about other recent developments at Stars and Stripes, like the Pentagon rescinding a regulation that maintains the paper's independence earlier this year. Has the editorial climate at Stars and Stripes changed in recent months?

KORTE: You know, I said this in the CBS interview that I had not been stopped from reporting as I usually do. I've been a reporter for a long time now, and I was able to conduct my work in the same way that I've always conducted it at Stars and Stripes. There was nobody telling us what to write or what we couldn't write. As other people have said before me, I think that's really critical to earning the trust of our readers and the trust of the military community. So as far as I could see, nothing had changed at that point.

 [. . .]

KURTZLEBEN: I want to ask about your reporting, because you've reported closely on how the Iran war has affected service members. What do you think your reporting revealed about this war that the public should know?

KORTE: Something that I have reported on pretty closely is the evacuation of military families and civilian employees attached to the Department of Defense out of Bahrain. There is a naval base in Bahrain that has families attached to it. It's the only base in the region where families are allowed to accompany their service members. And they were evacuated very quickly, and in some cases, in a really scary environment. I talked to parents who were hiding with their young toddlers for days in closets, listening to drones hit high-rises.

And now, you know, it's six months out, and they've been evacuated, and thank goodness they are safe. But, you know, now they're dealing with a situation where they don't really know where home is at. And I talked to a lot of them this week, and they basically expressed frustration about not knowing where they're going to live next. They also, you know, are struggling with the finances of this. One person told me that they fronted $40,000 at this point to pay for rental cars and Airbnbs, and that their kids are sleeping on the floor of temporary housing. These folks are really frustrated with the system and looking for answers from the Pentagon.

KURTZLEBEN: That's Lara Korte, who covered the Middle East for Stars and Stripes. She was fired on Friday by the Pentagon. Thank you so much, Lara.



Family and friends are waiting for loved ones serving on the USS LINCOLN to return to the US.  Safiyah Riddle, Amy Taxin and Jack Brook (AP) report one family member has been targeted by Chump:

When Luis Manuel Aviles was arrested by immigration authorities, his son was entering his ninth month on the USS Abraham Lincoln with the Navy — a vessel that set a U.S. military record for uninterrupted time at sea, stirring concerns about supply shortages and deteriorating mental health among soldiers.

Luis Manuel Aviles, 48, was arrested after leaving his house to take his car to the mechanic, according to his wife, Argelia Aviles. She said her husband, a handyman in Key West, Florida, has a permit to work in the United States. Originally from Nicaragua, he has lived in the U.S. for 19 years.

“He dedicates himself only to work so he can put food on the table at home. He is a good father. He loves his children with all his soul,” said Argelia, 47.

Aviles’ arrest comes as the Trump administration rolls back immigration protections for military families to pursue its mass deportation agenda, detaining at least dozens of parents and spouses of active-duty U.S. troops.


Camilo Montoya-Galvez (CBS NEWS) observes, "Historically rare, immigration arrests of military spouses and parents have become more common under the second Trump administration, which rescinded prior limits on arrests by ICE and Border Patrol as part of its mass deportation campaign."  Bill Feather and Dennis Romero (NBC NEWS) add:

Joshua Aviles said on Facebook that he’s on board the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, which is on its way back to the U.S. after its prolonged stretch at sea, including its deployment to the Middle East to engage in the war with Iran.

“I’ve been deployed for over nine months, out at sea in the Middle East aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, fighting for a country that has given me everything,” he wrote Saturday.

He said that his father is hard-working, giving and humble and that he has a work permit, a Social Security card and a driver’s license.

“This is heartbreaking for me,” Joshua Aviles said. “I don’t know how I can mentally continue working 12+ hour days knowing that my dad is somewhere, possibly being treated like a criminal.”


Chump doesn't care about those who serve.  He makes that clear every day and this is just another example of it.   In other ICE news, Alexander Willis (RAW STORY) notes:

The Trump administration deported a father of two who helped them prosecute Mexican drug cartels and put him at extreme risk of torture, Maryland court records show.

The man, identified only as John Doe, was the subject of a memorandum opinion filed Friday by U.S. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher.

Doe was granted Deferral of Removal under the Convention Against Torture (CAT) in 2024 after an immigration judge found he would likely be tortured if returned to Mexico, where he had testified against cartel-affiliated defendants on behalf of the Justice Department.

Journalist Kyle Cheney wrote on social media Sunday that Doe "was illegally removed three times in recent weeks," including once to Mexico despite his CAT protection. Gallagher's opinion details a chaotic series of removals beginning in July, including one attempt to deport Doe to Guatemala, which refused to accept him and handed him to Mexican officials, who also declined to take him. Doe was deported to Mexico outright on Aug. 1 “without his phone or other personal belongings.”


The worst?  The criminals?  That's what those who defended Chump's immigration campaign promises said ahead of the election.  The reality is that Chump and his comrades consider anyone who came into the country to have committed a crime.  Therefore, they are -- in these people eyes -- criminals.  



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.

###




Kat's  "Kat's Korner: Sam Smith sings to and for lovers" went up yesterday.  The following sites updated: 


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