Skeets Of The Day

 

Operation Epic Fail: talk is cheap, war crimes, Hormuz "fees", Bibi pep talk time --

The murderous religious extremists in Iran are more credible than the murderous criminal in the Oval Office.

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— Mark Jacob (@markjacob.bsky.social) July 28, 2026 at 8:47 AM

 

Trump is back to threatening war crimes: "I could take out most of their bridges in less than an hour ... I could knock out all of their power plants within one day ... they know I'm going to do that If they don't make a deal. The bridges are gonna be gone."

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) July 28, 2026 at 8:44 AM

RIYADH, July 28 (Reuters) - Oman has presented a proposal to Iran for a joint regional mechanism to manage the Strait of Hormuz with voluntary fees, a Gulf source told Reuters on Tuesday. @reuters.com www.reuters.com/world/asia-p...

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— Carl Quintanilla (@carlquintanilla.bsky.social) July 28, 2026 at 8:13 AM

 

'A disaster for America First': Trump allies fear his meeting with Netanyahu will pull the US even deeper into the war with Iran.

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— Jon Cooper (@joncooper-us.bsky.social) July 28, 2026 at 8:55 AM

 

Voter suppression update: on to the Republican Supreme Court -- 

🚨BREAKING EPISODE: Trump's DOJ has filed an emergency appeal asking the Supreme Court to let his mail voting executive order take effect before the midterms — a move that could let the administration decide who gets a mail ballot and who doesn't. www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBI7...

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— Marc Elias (@marcelias.bsky.social) July 27, 2026 at 9:16 PM

 

The Malignant Fascist's suit against the BBC boomerangs -- 

NEWS: Trump’s $10B BBC lawsuit just forced his own trust to open the books. A federal magistrate judge has now filed her written order demanding the production of financial docs on the 400+ businesses the trust owns.

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— MeidasTouch (@meidastouch.com) July 27, 2026 at 6:58 PM

They mean "not worth caring about" -- 

Here's another example of the noxious trend we identify below: Stephen Miller claiming "all asylum claims" are "fake." What he really means is no asylum seeker is *worth caring about.* It's the same trick Musk uses with "zero" died from USAID cuts. (h/t @lastpositivist.bsky.social @mattortega.com)

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— Greg Sargent (@gregsargent.bsky.social) July 28, 2026 at 9:07 AM

Mayor Mandami's "tax the rich" is what triggered Republicans. Surprise! -- 

GOP triggered by Mamdani making the ultrarich pay up www.dailykos.com/stories/2026...

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— Oliver Willis (@owillis.bsky.social) July 28, 2026 at 9:35 AM

Our broken media's partisan slant --

The media ended Joe Biden's presidency over headlines like this, yet this ACTUAL headline was two days ago and no one ran with this AP story. 🙃

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— scarylawyerguy.bsky.social (@scarylawyerguy.bsky.social) July 27, 2026 at 8:08 AM

South Afrikaner fascist and white supremacist's bad month continues -- 

SPACEX DROPS 20% UNDER IPO PRICE, LOSING $1.2 TRILLION FROM HIGHEST VALUE.

— FinTwitter (@fintwitter.bsky.social) July 28, 2026 at 9:39 AM

The Onion reports on a very adaptable company -- 

Profits Soar As Taylor Farms Rebrands As Biological Weapons Manufacturer

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— The Onion (@theonion.com) July 27, 2026 at 3:00 PM

 

Reflecting Pool Damage Case Derailed By Witness

The office of the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia headed by right-wing loon and devoted MAGAt Jeanine "Box Wine" Pirro has a rather terrible record for prosecutions of MAGA enemies.  The latest bogus case, one brought against Olympic canoeist David Hearn for damaging the Reflecting Pool's blue liner, has run into a major problem: Pirro's sole witness undercut their case for Hearn damaging the liner:

"A key witness in the case against a former Olympian charged with vandalism at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool admitted that the landmark was already damaged—and would have needed thousands of dollars’ worth of repairs anyway.

The president spent months hyping his renovations of the famed monument, only for the $16 million 'repairs' to result in peeling blue sealant and a record-breaking algal bloom that turned the water slime green.

Instead of blaming the companies that received no-bid contracts to complete the work, Trump claimed the damage was the work of vandals and ordered a law-enforcement blitz at the site.

But during the grand jury proceedings that led to his indictment, the sole government witness who testified about the damage Hearn allegedly caused 'could not quantify any loss' attributable to Hearn’s conduct, according to a new court filing from Hearn’s legal team.

The witness, who was not identified, testified the property was already damaged before Hearn touched it, and that about $6,000 to $15,000 was needed to fix the immediate area." (our emphasis)

Hearn's legal team is now asking the judge to order the release of all materials concerning the grand jury instructions and transcripts to determine whether there was prosecutorial misconduct and more.  You can be certain that Pirro and her lawless team will be found to have broken the rules to give their cult leader a fig leaf for his inept handling of the no-bid pool renovation by one of his contributors. 

(image: Occupy Democrats Facebook)

 

QOTD: Trump's Hypomanic Episode

 

From the documentary makers at The Shallow State on the mentally ill Malignant Fascist's posting of AI slop late last Sunday night:

"Trump has been having a hypomanic episode the past 2 hours. Post after post after post. I count about 60 of them - mostly images, many of them AI. All his trademark pathologies; all his underlying themes: Malice. Grievance. Division. Entitlement. 

His gut is a simmering stew of agitation, rage, and desperation. His disordered brain is filled with paranoid fantasies of revenge alongside fantastical visions of regaining his grandiosity.         

He hates being trapped and stuck in Iran. He hates that Epstein won't go away. He hates being told his speech at the dinner was inappropriate. He hates that his name needed to come off a building. He hates that musical artists canceled from his show. He hates losing in court. And he especially hates his own mortality.     

Neither you nor I can EVER feel the kind of frenzied fear and fanaticism that Trump feels now. This is a man, who knows he's in his final chapter, who is confounded that he, all that he is, all that he ever said he was, his lifetime of secrets and lies and false constructs - is vulnerable to exposure.      

How can he possibly sit still? How can he sleep?  Who can he trust?      

Malignant narcissists in decline always get worse, it's always messy, and they never want to go down alone."

Has anyone seen coverage of this mental breakdown by the MF in our legacy media? Of course not. They would rather ignore this and see what happens than show their viewers / readers that the MF is quite literally out of his mind. 

 

The Media, The Moron, And The Moment

 

Jon Stewart had a lot to say last night about the White House Correspondents Association dinner, and the puerile Malignant Fascist's appearance there. 

QOTD -- White House Correspondents Association Fiasco

 

"... Just imagine if the reporters gathered in that room had gotten out of their seats and walked out on that maddening address to the nation. Millions of Americans would have been cheering in their living rooms. Instead the wide shots and cutaways of the crowd on hand told a far more depressing story, revealing not just the stunned and tortured looks of some of the finest journalists in the world, who missed a golden opportunity to stand up for what is arguably our most precious right guaranteed under the Constitution. People sat in their seats, defeated and depressed. It was agonizing to watch from home. But it was also clarifying. The event itself was an indictment of our news media. Our system of delivering information to the American people is badly broken.  [snip]

"The correct response, and I’m sorry to report that some of my friends in the press will never get this, was to take a stand - something, yes, most journalists are trained to avoid at all costs. That training, unfortunately, has led many of us, as a profession, down the wrong path. We are not supposed to take sides in a story, reporters say. We are here to report the news, they insist. My reply to that is, and always will be: there are not two sides to a story when it’s a matter of right versus wrong. And to put it mildly, a different kind of president calls for a different kind of playbook. Do we continue to just report on the destruction of our profession? Our democracy? Or could we try a new approach? A kind of journalism that understands the assignment - in an age of rising autocracy. Without journalism, there is no democracy. And without democracy, well… you see where I’m going here.

"Our democracy is only as strong as those willing to defend it. That includes the press. When courage could have been summoned at the White House correspondents dinner, a dangerous complicity took its place. Yes, democracy dies in darkness, but also in cowardice."  --  former CNN anchor Jim Acosta in his Substack piece "Democracy Dies In Cowardice Too," on the recent White House Correspondents Association dinner featuring the unhinged Malignant Fascist in full-blown anti-First Amendment rage.  Over 500 journalists had appealed to the WHCA to confront MF at the dinner, an appeal that was brushed off by outgoing WHCA president Weijia Jiang of CBS "News" (apparently angling to stay in Bari "Bad News" Weiss' good graces).  Instead, they platformed the biggest threat to press freedom in our history, and sat there stupefied and defeated. 

 

Musk Lost 37% Of His Net Worth In A Month

 

The last month has been brutal to the unstable South Afrikaner white supremacist and ketamine freak Elon "Leon" Musk.  Not only has he been repeatedly confronted with the fact that his "DOGE" cuts to USAID have resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths mainly in Africa, his net worth has plummeted from $1.32 trillion to $832 billion. From 247wallst.com:

"Elon Musk has just had the worst month of his financial life. His net worth fell from a peak of roughly $1.32 trillion to about $832 billion over the course of a month, a decline of roughly 37%, or about $500 billion, according to Benzinga’s tracking. [snip]

The primary driver of the wipeout was SpaceX. SpaceX shares fell roughly 41% to 45% over the relevant month, erasing more than $1 trillion in market cap, with an aborted Starship launch accelerating the slide. Tesla did the rest. On July 22, 2026, Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA | TSLA Price Prediction) reported second-quarter revenue of $28.24 billion but adjusted earnings of just $0.33 per share, missing consensus by 38.51%. Free cash flow swung to negative $1.09 billion as capital expenditures more than doubled. The stock closed at $313.03 on July 24, down 17.81% for the week and 30.39% year to date." (our emphasis)

We hope at some point in the not too distant future that this thoroughly despicable creature will be brought down, and held accountable for his looting of investors wallets and his crimes against humanity for slashing food and medical aid to the poorest of the poor. It can't come soon enough for the sick s.o.b.

(photo: Letting his Nazi character show)

 

Skeets Of The Day

 

Operation Epic Fail / failure to launch / #s / remembering the execrable Lindsey Graham --

 

Trump has fired all of his missiles Feels like quite the metaphor

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— Will Bunch (@willbunch.bsky.social) July 27, 2026 at 10:05 AM

 

When the new Pentagon data is combined with updated totals for Operation Epic Fury, 18 troops have died and another 624 have been wounded since the US launched its war against Iran on Feb. 28. www.cnn.com/2026/07/26/p...

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— Tim O’Brien (@timobrien.bsky.social) July 27, 2026 at 7:16 AM

 

“.. He loves blowing stuff up,” Lindsey Graham said admiringly of Trump while celebrating the launch of the Iran war. (h/t @kenvogel.bsky.social)

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— Carl Quintanilla (@carlquintanilla.bsky.social) July 27, 2026 at 11:28 AM

 

Tinpot dictator Trump --

Cutting money that provides food and health care but spending $300 million to permanently deploy the military to the streets of the capital in times of peace is tinpot dictator stuff

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— Don Moynihan (@donmoyn.bsky.social) July 27, 2026 at 8:00 AM

 

The Neanderthal party and ICE --

It's a party of the absolute worst people fulfill the absolute worst neanderthal instincts. Barely evolved past grunting into spoken word.

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— Matt Ortega (@mattortega.com) July 27, 2026 at 10:37 AM

 

South African fascist Elon Musk's in a ketamine rage --

 

Elon Musk, owner of X, has called the editor of the Economist "a traitor to the West, plain and simple" after her recent interview with him. He now argues that "anyone who opposes remigration is a traitor" Musk has been socialising violence since Aug25: "fight or die, that's what it comes down to"

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— Sunder Katwala (sundersays) (@sundersays.bsky.social) July 26, 2026 at 4:46 AM

 

Elon attacks the best human being on the planet

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— Thor Benson (@thorbenson.bsky.social) July 27, 2026 at 10:19 AM

 

When Elon Musk says "zero" children died in Africa from his DOGE cuts, he really means zero children died who are *worthy of any concern.* It's vile coded signaling to his global fascist audience. From me and @polphilpod.bsky.social, a deep dive into Musk's fascism: newrepublic.com/article/2135...

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— Greg Sargent (@gregsargent.bsky.social) July 27, 2026 at 7:41 AM

 

Corporate media sanewashing Trump, cont. --

I know it’s early but see if you can find a mention of this crazy on major networks or papers. The neglect is another type of sane-washing.

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— John Robinson (@jrobin.bsky.social) July 27, 2026 at 6:40 AM

Can't Democrats do better than this??--

 

Cannot get over how electable just drifting away from a constituent who asked you a challenging question makes you.

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— A.R. Moxon (@juliusgoat.bsky.social) July 27, 2026 at 9:06 AM

 

New Column: In 12 years as Minn party chair, he never lost a statewide race. So how did he become such a disaster in Washington? newrepublic.com/article/2135... via @newrepublic.com

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— Michael Tomasky (@mjtoma.bsky.social) July 27, 2026 at 8:40 AM

 

... yes, Democrats can --

Ossoff just rocks

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— Jen Rubin (@jenrubin.bsky.social) July 27, 2026 at 12:47 PM

 

Hitting home --

Good grief, this hits home.

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— Dr. Jeroen W.P. Wijnendaele (@drdragases.bsky.social) July 27, 2026 at 1:59 AM

 

 

Whitewashing The Smithsonian

 

The ignoramus Malignant Fascist's white "Christian" nationalist KKKoup is now targeting the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.  The Orwellian, McCarthyite gaslighting and lies have reached fever pitch:

If President Donald Trump gets his way, the first thing visitors to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History will be greeted with are signs warning them that because of “inaccurate information presented in the Museum” they should seek “accurate information” elsewhere.  [Ed. -- From the lips of the moron in the White House?  From the racist, anti-immigrant, misogynist, homophobic, fascist clowns who form his advisors and base of support?]

The president on Friday ordered the installation of temporary “warning” signs on the museum’s sidewalks, marking a major escalation in his campaign to pressure the Smithsonian Institution to rewrite American history to better align with his administration’s ideology.

The executive order directs Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought and several other Cabinet officials to utilize “all available authorities to encourage” the Smithsonian Institution to “correct the issues found” in a scathing  White House report released on July 4 that accused the museum of “extreme political activism” and claimed it “cannot be trusted to tell America’s story honestly and in a way that is inspiring, unifying, and worthy of our great republic.”

The sidewalks and walkways outside of the popular museum, which welcomes just shy of two million visitors annually, are federal property controlled by the National Park Service. The signs would “notify visitors that the Museum exhibits should be renovated consistent” with the findings of the July 4 report. They would also “direct visitors to locations and resources for accurate information regarding America’s history.”

Trump also accused the museum of failing to “to appropriately honor the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence during this 250th anniversary year of the founding of our country,” and instructed Burgum to install “temporary exhibits” on Smithsonian walkways to correct “inaccurate information presented in the Museum.”

McCarthyism alert:

The signage order followed a week of congressional testimony by Smithsonian officials in hearings called by House Republicans in response to the White House report. Anthea Hartig, head of the National Museum of American History, was grilled over her patriotism and dedication to country.

Hartig said the White House report “does not fairly characterize the full body of work of this museum.” And under questioning from GOP lawmakers she reaffirmed her allegiance to her country multiple times, at one point answering, “I love this country unconditionally.”

The report, oversight hearings and signage demand compound more than a year of the Trump administration’s pressure campaign against the world’s largest museum, education and research complex. In March 2025, Trump signed an executive order that vowed to strip federal funding from Smithsonian programs that present what he viewed as “improper, divisive, or anti-American” ideology.

The Trump administration has since threatened to withhold federal funding from the Smithsonian Institution unless a number of its museums submit documentation for an expansive content review. 

If the question is who loves and is dedicated to our country, Ms. Hartig wins hands down over the cult-over-country crowd that we call the MAGAt Republican party.

As the aforementioned Orwell said, “The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.”  We are under the sway of a narcissistic baboon who's never cracked a book, along with his vapid white nationalist supremacist subalterns in the Republican party/ cult.  They've systematically gone after the rule of law, the system of checks and balances, our institutions of higher learning, news media, our free and fair elections, and now the repository of our common American history.   That they seek to remake our republic into a fascist white authoritarian state, cannot be seriously challenged now.  

BONUS:  Clay Bennett in the Chattanooga Times Free Press today --

(Image:  who you gonna believe, this guy or the Smithsonian? via Getty Images)

Today's Tomorrow Cartoon

 

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Putting false words in other peoples' mouths once they're dead -- no matter how absurd -- is one of the sick Malignant Fascist's tools, along with his infamous "sir" fables.  With "Creepy Guy" Miller and bell hop Vance around to stoke his evil, the MF has no guardrails to contain his lunacy. 

Please consider supporting Tom's work by going here.

 

The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly

 

The good:

A federal judge overseeing Katie Phang's lawsuit against the Trump Justice Department is making one thing abundantly clear: he's not willing to simply accept the government's explanations about its Epstein files redactions at face value.

In a new order issued Saturday, U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan directed Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to submit unredacted versions of key Jeffrey Epstein-related emails and documents directly to the court for a private in camera review, along with evidence backing up the Justice Department's claims that its sweeping redactions are legitimate.

Rather than relying on DOJ's assertions, Sullivan is requiring the government to prove them.

The order requires Blanche to submit eight unredacted email chains, identified by specific Bates numbers, as well as documentation supporting the department's claim that the names blacked out in those emails are, in fact, victims whose identities are protected by law.

Sullivan also ordered the Justice Department to produce an unredacted version of another document and provide evidence supporting its claim that the names removed from its "to" and "from" lines belong to law enforcement personnel. A third document must likewise be submitted in unredacted form with documentation supporting DOJ's assertion that the names it concealed are victims.

The deadline for the production is 3:00 p.m. ET on July 30.

The judge is sending a clear message that if the Trump administration wants to keep information hidden from the public, it will have to do more than simply say its redactions are justified... (our emphasis)

We'll see if Blanche finds a way to stonewall, appeal, or otherwise drag or weasel out of the judge's order.  "If they have nothing to hide, why are they hiding it," said the little boy.

The bad:

Adm. Daryl Caudle saw an opening to land the Navy’s top job last year, and he seized it.

Before Pete Hegseth had even been sworn in as defense secretary, Admiral Caudle, then the head of a major Navy training command, offered to help Mr. Hegseth prepare for his politically contentious Senate confirmation hearing, according to current and former defense officials.

The outreach was a breach of military ethics, the officials said. Senior military officers are supposed to avoid any hint of partisan bias or political activity.

Nothing came of the offer. But soon after Mr. Hegseth took office, he fired the first woman to lead the Navy: Admiral Caudle’s boss. Days later, a senior officer on Admiral Caudle’s staff contacted Mr. Hegseth’s team in another breach of protocol.

His pitch: Mr. Hegseth should choose Admiral Caudle to be the next chief of naval operations, the current and former officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive personnel matters.

The officer described Admiral Caudle in terms that matched Mr. Hegseth’s view of the values that military officers should embody. There was “no one more in line” with Mr. Hegseth’s vision for remaking the military, he said, according to an official familiar with the exchange. The officer cast Admiral Caudle as a “warfighter” who wanted to remove “woke barriers” that he claimed were weakening the force, the official said... (our emphasis)

Well, if you didn't know this kind of thing was coming, we're sorry to inform you that the top uniformed ranks at the Pentagon are already being infused with racist MAGAts, the better to carry out the Malignant Fascist's unlawful orders when they're passed down.  Another area to thoroughly purge and sanitize when the time presents itself.

The ugly: 

As his new tariffs went into effect and gas prices climbed on Saturday, President Donald Trump said he’s not ruling out a full-scale war.

In a phone interview with French journalist Sonia Dridi, Trump said he’s “absolutely” considering resuming full-scale war with Iran if the U.S. doesn’t “get 100% of what we want.”

The president told reporters in the Oval Office on Friday the U.S. is “talking” to Iran, adding that he believes Iran is “getting more and more serious as the days go by” but  “that doesn’t mean we get there.” Friday night was the first in 13 consecutive nights that the U.S. did not strike Iran.

The national average gas price rose slightly Saturday to $4.11 a gallon as Trump’s newly imposed tariffs on goods from more than 80 countries threatened to heap further financial strain on Americans ahead of the midterms. The reporter said when she asked Trump whether he would follow through with his threat to levy “substantial” new tariffs on the European Union, which he has accused of “robbing” American tech companies, he declined to comment.

The tariffs, which took effect Friday and have already been challenged in court, could cost American households an extra $1,100 annually, according to an analysis by The Budget Lab at Yale University. That comes at a time when consumers are already shelling out more for necessities, including gas and groceries, as the Iran war drives inflation and energy prices upward.

Gas price averages in the United States surpassed $4 a gallon on July 20 for the first time in more than a month as fighting in the Iran war escalated following the collapse of a temporary ceasefire agreement between the U.S. and Iran, which the White House billed as a significant step toward substantial nuclear negotiations and a permanent peace deal... (our emphasis)

The Very Stable Genius, a.k.a. Moron Metternich, has blundered into a quagmire, with no end in sight and no chance of the situation returning to what it was before his war of choice with Iran.  To compound the disaster, the fool continues to put inflation- driving tariffs on foreign goods because of his "kindergarten-level understanding of economics"(and even that may be giving him too much credit). Sic transit gloria, America.

QOTD: War Costs And Lies

 

Heather Digby Parton writes in Salon.com today that testosterone-obsessed Whiskey Pete Hegseth's math for the Iran war and the eye-popping Pentagon budget don't add up, but will get little push back from the supine and cowardly MAGAt Republicans in Congress.  Her article's coda:

"As usual, Hegseth behaved like a teenage bully during the Senate hearing. He argued with senators, blamed Biden and insisted that America has won the war in Iran while simultaneously requesting many more billions to win it. Since the GOP is attempting to push this supplemental package through using reconciliation, they won’t need Democrats to pass it, so one can probably expect that he’ll get what he wants. The firehose of money flowing to the Pentagon and all the insiders who are making massive bank from it isn’t going to dry up any time soon.  

Hegseth ended the week with a gratuitous gesture to his commander in chief, who spent a good part of his time explaining that the 18 deaths in the Iran war are nothing compared to all the deaths in previous wars. To make Trump feel better, Hegseth removed from the tally four troops who were killed in renewed fighting, bringing the official death toll back down to 14. Military officials told the New York Times that 'one reason behind the change was . . . because their deaths occurred after President Trump declared a cease-fire in the war in April.'

Nonetheless, Trump attended the dignified transfer of the four fallen soldiers’ remains and concocted a story to burnish his war lust. “All of them said very strongly, ‘We cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon.’”

Sure they did." (our emphasis)

Lying about fallen men and women of our armed forces is on brand for the dishonorable, draft-dodging narcissist felon Malignant Fascist. 

 

Today's Cartoons

 

(click on images to enlarge)

(Paul Duginski, caglecartoons.com)

(Lee Judge, King Features)

(Jeff Stahler, gocomics.com)

(Bill Bramhall, New York Daily News)

(Clay Bennett, Chattanooga Times Free Press)

(Harley Schwadron, caglecartoons.com)

(Rob Rogers, Tinyview.com)

(Bill Day, caglecartoons.com)

(Matt Wuerker, Politico)

(Ann Telnaes, anntelnaes.substack.com;  context here)

(Mike Smith, Las Vegas Sun)

(Banx, @banxcartoons)

Making America Sick Again: The "Catastrophic" Response To Cyclospora Outbreak (UPDATED)

 

The Malignant Fascist and his crack team of leech therapy, raw milk, horse antibiotic ingesting, anti-vaccination squirrels led by Bobby "Brainworm" Kennedy, Jr., have earned a new superlative from the MF's former FDA deputy commissioner for their handling of the cyclospora (explosive diarrhea) outbreak in multiple states... "catastrophic":

President Donald Trump’s former top food safety official is calling for an independent review of the federal government’s response to a cyclospora outbreak that has sickened thousands of people this summer.

“This one deserves a lot of questions, and it is starting to approach a catastrophic level in terms of how mismanaged it’s been on multiple fronts,” said Frank Yiannas, who served as the Food and Drug Administration’s deputy commissioner for food policy and response during both Trump and former President Joe Biden’s administration from 2018 to 2023.

He pointed to the outbreak’s magnitude, the widespread consumer confusion and the “lack of strong federal leadership” as well as what he described as uncoordinated messaging from federal authorities.

“My point is not to find fault, but to find facts on how we can further strengthen the system,” Yiannas told POLITICO. “It’s not being critical of any particular agency, but it is being critical of the system. In some respects, I think there’s been some dismantling of the system.”

Yiannas’ call for an independent review of the government’s response adds to pressure facing the FDA since the agency scrambled to do damage control this week after announcing a positive lab test linked a new batch of Taylor Farms lettuce to the outbreak — only to reverse course to say final test results contradicted the initial finding.  [snip]

The false positive test announced July 19 did not change the focus of the FDA’s investigation or the ongoing recall, and the agency says it has strong evidence that implicates certain Taylor Farms lettuce products as a source of the outbreak. But the backtracking fueled online speculation that the FDA’s decision was a politically motivated effort to exonerate Taylor Farms.

Yeah, it helps if you can make a $1 million donation to the super PAC MAGA Inc. after the FDA delayed implementing a food traceability rule.  "Online speculation" said the cowering news organization.  But we digest (because we haven't eaten any tainted produce): 

The company’s messaging added to public confusion when it claimed the FDA had “apologized” for the false positive test — a claim the FDA later denied to reporters.

Yiannas, who has also served as a vice president for food safety at Walmart, also urged the FDA to provide more information about how it made the mistake of releasing a false positive test result, a misstep he said was “extremely rare.”

“They just went too fast and they made a mistake,” he said. “They should share more about how and why it happened and what they’ll do to prevent it in the future.”

Yiannas’ comments come as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently announced that an outbreak of cyclospora illnesses in four more states have links to some Taylor Farms lettuces. The company is continuing to work with public health authorities as well as farmers and customers “to address the issue,” Taylor Farms said in a statement... (our emphasis)

With the MF's catastrophic mismanagement of the coronavirus epidemic already tumbling down the public's collective memory hole, it's good to remember that it didn't start with him.  Earlier this century, several terms were coined to convey the results of Republican mismanagement due to incompetence and / or excessive obeisance to corporate interests.   You may recall "E. coli conservatives" or "bridge collapse conservatives"?  Or of mine collapses or chemical plants exploding or poisoned water because of lax (or no) inspections under Republican misrule?  When your party's philosophy boils down to "comfort the comfortable, and afflict the afflicted" you don't have much concern for anything except making sure your nest (and PAC) is feathered by the corporate interests and oligarchs whose interests don't extend beyond their bottom line.  That's the Epstein class of venal, sociopathic people the MF has in his cabinet and peppered throughout his regime, making sure America gets sick again.

UPDATE:  Now they want to eliminate a longstanding radiation safety rule.  

Sunday Reflection

 

"That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons that history has to teach." -- English philosopher and author Aldous Huxley (7/26/1894 - 11/22/1963), from his "A Case of Voluntary Ignorance" in Collected Essays (1959). The author of such classics as "Brave New World" and "The Doors of Perception," Huxley also found some success as a screenwriter in Hollywood, with Pride and Prejudice (1940), Madame Curie (1943), and Jane Eyre (1944) to his credit. He used some of his income from his screenwriting to help evacuate Jewish and progressive artists from Europe and Hitler's Germany. 

(photo: Getty Images)

Trump's Latest Voter Suppression Scheme Blocked By Appeals Court

 

Another attempt by the J6 insurrection leader Malignant Fascist to rig elections has been blocked, for now:

A federal appeals court on Saturday declined to allow U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration to implement in 23 states his executive order that aims to tighten rules for mail-in voting ahead of November elections that will decide control of Congress.

The Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the administration’s request to lift an injunction several Democratic-led states secured on June 25 from a lower-court judge who concluded that key parts of the Republican president’s order were unconstitutional. In asking the court to pause U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani’s ruling while it pursues an appeal, the U.S. Department of Justice had argued that because government agencies had yet to finalize actions and policies to implement Trump’s directive, any lawsuit challenging his order was premature.

The appeals court, in a 2-1 ruling, rejected that argument.

“As the district court reasoned, the (executive order) lays out a clear set of rapidly approaching deadlines by which states must coordinate with federal officials and comply with new voting procedures — all while the states must also ensure that their officials and the public understand the evolving set of rules that would govern the upcoming September and November elections,” the judges wrote. “The Plaintiff States have no practical choice but to respond to the (order) now.” Before Talwani ruled, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., rejected a related effort by Democrats to block Trump’s order on similar grounds. The Justice Department warned that absent a ruling in its favor from the 1st Circuit, it may be forced to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene.  [snip]

But Talwani, in siding with a coalition of 23 states and the District of Columbia that was led by California, Massachusetts, Nevada and Washington state, said the president lacked any authority to direct DHS to compile voter eligibility lists for each state to use and that USPS had no statutory authorization to adopt any binding regulations on mail-in voting.

The judge, who was appointed by Democratic President Barack Obama, said Trump also could not attempt through his order “to intimidate local election officials to use the necessarily incomplete confirmed citizenship lists as a resource, lest they face criminal prosecution.”

The "Justice" Department is expected to run to the Republican Supreme Court in order to overturn the Appeals Court's decision, where we're certain his MAGAt lackeys will create some new powers for the MF and the agencies involved that don't exist in statute.  From gerrymandering to purging voter rolls to mail-in ballot restrictions, the objective is for the MF and his party/ cult to choose who votes, because that's the only way they win.

(Cartoon:  R.J. Matson, CQ/ Roll Call)