August 30, 2025

Trump Upset Subs Ruined the Stone Slabs He Installed to Ruin the Rose Garden. Jennifer Bahney of Mediaite: “...  Donald Trump ranted on social media against 'stupid' subcontractors he accused of nearly ruining the White House Rose Garden remodel. In a lengthy Truth Social post, Trump referenced his real estate background before saying he found a 'deep and nasty' gash in the Rose Garden and he angrily insisted to know who was responsible. 'I used, at the White House, the most beautiful marble and stone available anywhere. Surfaces are very important to me as a Builder. As everyone knows, I built many GREAT Buildings, and other things, over the years,' Trump wrote.”

Ken Bensinger of the New York Times on the nutty, lying right-wing fake journalists the White House has invited into the press room & other media events: “Among them is Jack Posobiec, who in 2017 helped spread the debunked  'Pizzagate' conspiracy theory and last year stated that his goal was to 'overthrow' democracy; Tim Pool, a podcaster who last fall was revealed to have been paid indirectly by Russia as part of a secret political influence operation; and Julie Kelly, a right-wing journalist who helped start the false narrative that the Jan. 6, 2021, riots were an 'inside job.' Even among that group, [Benny] Johnson, who has a large following on YouTube, a popular daily podcast and a large X account, stands out for his checkered journalistic record. Over the years, he has been fired from one job for plagiarism and suspended from another for publishing an article containing an unfounded conspiracy theory about Barack Obama that was later retracted. He has been accused of repeatedly propagating false election information and, like Mr. Pool, produced videos that had been secretly funded, via a seemingly legitimate media firm, by Kremlin operatives.” Thanks to Ken W. for the link.

~~~~~~~~~~ 

 ~~~ Thanks to akaWendy for the lead. She writes that she was "curious about the line 'Time to blackout the system'. But fortunately there is a link to Blackout,which describes it as 'The largest economic blackout protest in U.S. history begins NOW!' - Sept 16th-20th, urging participants to spend only at community stores."

⭐A Very Happy -- and Very Unusual -- Friday-Afternoon-Before-a-Holiday News Dump. Doug Palmer, et al., of Politico: “A federal appeals court on Friday struck down ... Donald Trump’s use of emergency powers granted by Congress to impose tariffs, opening the door for the administration to potentially have to repay billions worth of duties. The 7-4 ruling raises doubt about deals Trump has struck with the European Union, Japan, South Korea and other major trading partners to reduce the 'reciprocal' tariff rates on their imports, from the levels the administration originally set in April.... The ruling also invalidates the tariffs that Trump has imposed on China, Canada and Mexico to pressure those countries to do more to stop shipments of fentanyl and precursor chemicals from entering the United States. The decision, however, will not take effect until Oct. 14, giving the Trump administration time to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court.... The ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upholds a May decision by the U.S. Court of International Trade, which concluded that Trump exceeded his authority under the 1977 law he invoked to impose both the fentanyl trafficking tariffs and his worldwide tariffs, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's report is here. (Also linked yesterday.)  The New York Times report is here.

     ~~~ The problem is, as Ken W.'s son said (see the end of yesterday's Comments thread), "The Supremes will probably overturn it if they can find a 14th C. pope who imposed tariffs." Alas, according to the Googles' AI, yer popes of yore did indeed impose tariffs. ~~~

~~~ Paul Krugman: "... Trump is facing a completely self-inflicted disaster here. He probably could have gotten Republicans in Congress to vote for insane trade policy. But he was impatient, and wanted to start ruling as a dictator right away.... Scott Bessent is saying that ruling that Trump’s illegal tariffs are, in fact, illegal will embarrass the United States.... Last I heard you weren’t allowed to act illegally if obeying the law would be embarrassing. Anyway, let’s be clear: It won’t embarrass America. It will embarrass Trump and Bessent. If anything, it might reassure the rest of the world that some vestige of rule of law yet remains in this nation."

Vicious and vindictive to the core, Donald Trump is celebrating Labor Day by laying off some federal workers and stripping union protections from many who remain. ~~~

~~~ Amudalat Ajasa of the Washington Post: “The Trump administration has fired at least seven Environmental Protection Agency employees for signing a letter nearly two months ago criticizing the agency’s leadership, according to union officials. The agency confirmed the firings Friday but did not specify how many people were terminated. EPA leaders had placed 144 employees on leave for endorsing a public missive that said the changes ... Donald Trump and his appointees had made at the agency 'undermine the EPA mission of protecting human health and the environment.' More than 270 employees initially signed the letter, with over 170 choosing to be named.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Minho Kim of the New York Times: “The Trump administration on Friday moved to lay off nearly all of the remaining staff at Voice of America, setting up a potential battle with a federal judge who had blocked attempts to restructure the federally funded news network. Kari Lake, a fierce Trump ally and the acting chief executive of Voice of America’s oversight agency, announced on social media that the agency sent layoff notices to 532 employees. About 100 journalists and other staff members remained employed. Ms. Lake had to rescind a previous effort in June to layoff workers. Trump officials first started shuttering government funded newsrooms in March, following the president’s orders. Ms. Lake said on Friday that the latest layoffs would allow these organizations to focus on getting news to people living under Communist governments and dictators.Ms. Lake has faced significant hurdles in her efforts to shrink Voice of America. Judge Royce C. Lamberth, of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, ruled in April that the administration had to restore the network, citing the law that requires the continued broadcasting of Voice of America.” ~~~

~~~ AND This. Reuters, published in Yahoo! News: "U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said on Friday that there had been an IT breach at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the American disaster response agency that has been buffeted by deep cuts and is slated for elimination. Noem's statement gave few specifics about the nature of the breach except to blame FEMA's staff, two dozen of whom she said she had fired.... Noem devoted nine paragraphs of her statement about the breach to attacks on FEMA's IT staff, accusing them of 'failure,' 'neglect,' 'incompetence'  and dishonesty." MB: Okay, supposedly fired for cause. ~~~

~~~ Chris Cameron of the New York Times: Donald “Trump expanded his wide-reaching effort to strip union protections from federal employees on Thursday, signing an executive order that commanded roughly half a dozen government agencies to end their collective bargaining agreements with unions representing their employees. Those agencies included NASA; the National Weather Service and the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service; the United States Agency for Global Media, which manages federally funded news agencies like Voice of America; the Office of the Commissioner for Patents; and units of the Bureau of Reclamation that operate 53 hydroelectric power plants across the country. If the agencies comply with the order, union employees will lose the rights and protections provided by the collective bargaining agreements.” (Also linked yesterday.)  

So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past. -- F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby ~~~ 

~~~ Brad Plumer of the New York Times: “The Transportation Department on Friday said it was terminating or withdrawing $679 million in federal funding for 12 projects around the country intended to support the development of offshore wind power, the latest of the Trump administration’s escalating attacks against the wind industry. The funds, approved by the Biden administration, include $427 million awarded last year to upgrade a marine terminal in Humboldt County, Calif. The new terminal would be used to assemble and launch wind turbines capable of floating in the ocean, which the state of California had been planning to deploy to meet its renewable energy goals. The list of targeted projects also includes $48 million for an offshore wind port on Staten Island, $39 million to upgrade a port near Norfolk, Va. and $20 million for a marine terminal in Paulsboro, N.J. Most of the projects were intended to be staging areas for the construction of giant wind turbines that would eventually be placed at sea.” (Also linked yesterday.) 

Catie Edmondson of the New York Times: “The White House has informed Congress it intends to cancel $4.9 billion that lawmakers approved for foreign aid programs, invoking a little-known and legally untested power to slash spending without their approval. The 15-page notification, sent to Congress on Thursday night..., is the administration’s first effort to push through what is known as a 'pocket rescission.' It is an effort to unilaterally claw back money that has already been appropriated by waiting so late in the fiscal year to make the request that lawmakers do not have time to reject it before the funding expires. The fiscal year ends on Sept. 30, before the 45-day period in which Congress is required to consider a rescission request from the White House. Republicans could bring the matter to a vote sooner, but party leaders have shown little appetite for resisting the president’s spending demands and asserting their own prerogatives.” Here's Politico's story. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Miss Collins Objects. Jacob Bogage & Emily Davies of the Washington Post: “The Republican chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee on Friday called the move an 'attempt to undermine the law.'... 'Article I of the Constitution makes clear that Congress has the responsibility for the power of the purse,' Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), the Senate Appropriations chair, said in a statement. 'Any effort to rescind appropriated funds without congressional approval is a clear violation of the law.' Sen. Patty Murray (Washington), the top Democrat on the panel, echoed the sentiment.... The [White House's] move risks complicating talks to avert a looming government shutdown deadline.... The last time a president used a pocket rescission to claim Congress’s spending authority was in 1977.” 

Andrew Ackerman & Rachel Siegel of the Washington Post: “A federal judge on Friday said she would consider a request over the coming days to temporarily block the Trump administration from removing a Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook, while her lawsuit challenging the dismissal proceeds. U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb, who was appointed by former president Joe Biden, said she would speed up the legal proceedings that could determine the fate of the president’s ouster of Cook, who sued ... Donald Trump, arguing that allegations of mortgage fraud cited by the White House fall short of the legal standard for removal.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Victoria Guida of Politico: “Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte expanded his allegations against Federal Reserve board member Lisa Cook, saying she may have made false representations about a third property she owns. Pulte, in a letter to the Justice Department posted on X, said Cook bought a Massachusetts-based condo in 2021 and classified it as a second home, but then she listed it as an investment/rental property in filings to the U.S. government in December of that year. Cook was nominated to the Fed board by President Joe Biden in January 2022.... The letter adds to the accusations made by Pulte against Cook that she may have committed criminal mortgage fraud by classifying two properties, purchased also in 2021, as her primary residence in loan applications.” (Also linked yesterday.) 

A Meeting of the Mindless. Zolan Kanno-Youngs & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: The mutually-beneficial relationship between Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is “an alliance driven by political calculation and a striking alignment of some of their views. Their ties have empowered Mr. Kennedy to push the boundaries of public health and science with the support of the president, who in turn benefits from Mr. Kennedy’s coalition of followers opposed to vaccines and health mandates.... Mr. Trump gave Mr. Kennedy a freer hand than he did most cabinet secretaries to shape his own department.” ~~~

~~~ Steve Benen of MSNBC: “And now Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who technically oversees the CDC under the umbrella of the Department of Health and Human Services, is giving the public new reason to question his judgment and competence. The morning after [CDC Director Susan] Monarez’s firing, RFK Jr. appeared on Fox News and boasted that he could diagnose children with 'mitochondrial challenges' by walking past them at a distance in airports. (Kennedy has no professional background in medicine or science.) Dr. Kathleen Bachynski, a professor of public health at Muhlenberg College, described Kennedy’s comments as 'absolute gibberish' and slammed the HHS secretary as a 'dangerous buffoon' who is 'threatening us all.' Dr. Ashish Jha, dean at Brown University School of Public Health, added, 'This is wacky, flat-earth, voodoo stuff.'” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I did have to ask Mizz A.I. Googles what "mitochondrial challenges" might be & how one can diagnoses such challenges in passers-by. She sez, "Mitochondrial challenges refer to difficulties or diseases related to mitochondrial dysfunction, where cells cannot produce enough energy. These challenges manifest as a wide range of symptoms, from fatigue and muscle weakness to developmental delays, seizures, and organ failure, because organs with high energy needs (like the brain and heart) are most affected. Diagnosing these disorders is challenging due to their genetic heterogeneity and diverse symptoms...." So you can see why Drs. Bachvnski & Jha might be a tad skeptical of RFKJ's claims of extraordinary diagnostic skills. 

Donald Trump threw a head-of-state -- Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky -- out of the White House when Zelensky tried to correct JayDee and him on the history of Putin's belligerence against Ukraine. Here's what happened when another head-of-state disputed Trump's self-delusions: ~~~

Mujib Mashal, et al., of the New York Times: Donald “Trump’s repeated claims about having 'solved' the India-Pakistan war infuriated Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India.... During a phone call on June 17..., he told Mr. Trump that U.S. involvement had nothing to do with the recent cease-fire. It had been settled directly between India and Pakistan. Mr. Trump largely brushed off Mr. Modi’s comments, but the disagreement — and Mr. Modi’s refusal to [nominate Trump for a] Nobel [Peace Prize] — has played an outsize role in the souring relationship between the two leaders, whose once-close ties go back to Mr. Trump’s first term. The dispute has played out against the backdrop of trade talks of immense importance to India and the United States, and the fallout risks pushing India closer to American adversaries in Beijing and Moscow. Mr. Modi is expected to travel to China this weekend, where he will meet with President Xi Jinping and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.”

Marie: It should not be necessary to explain the ordinary steps in problem-solving. A certain set of facts points to a problem, so -- based on those facts -- you explore ways to mitigate the problem (employing more facts and data along the way), then set what seems to be the most practicable policy to alleviate the problem. Comes now a Texas A&M professor who discovers that "facts → solutions" is not the way Trump & his administration operate. ~~~

~~~ Hannah Bloch-Wehba in a New York Times op-ed: “... since the New Deal, the United States has built a vast administrative apparatus around the collection of information.... Instead of using data to determine how to govern, the administration is manipulating, ignoring and even jettisoning data altogether. Those who balk at the administration’s wishful thinking about reality face threats to fall in line or leave, as Jerome Powell, Lisa Cook and now the C.D.C. director, Susan Monarez, have all experienced. The administration has clearly embraced the strategic cultivation of uncertainty and ignorance.... The government’s collection of data and its production of statistical information count among its core responsibilities. Increasingly, however, the administration is abandoning those functions ... across the government.... The administration is rejecting the idea of rational governance altogether, looking away from its responsibility to produce and validate evidence in favor of a return to policymaking through instinct, hunch and preference.”

Heather Cox Richardson weaves together all of these recent developments disasters. MB: One disaster she includes is one I'm not sure I've covered: "... the outing last week of an undercover intelligence officer, which has in the past been enough to lead to an indictment of an administration official. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard released the name of a senior undercover Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer when she published a list of 37 current and former officials from whom she was stripping security clearances. Brett Forrest of the Wall Street Journal reported that Gabbard did not consult with the CIA before posting the list on X. At the time, Gabbard said she was acting on Trump’s orders." ~~~

~~~ Marie: Gabbard's "It's Trump's Fault" fallback reminds me of this: ~~~

     ~~~  Josh Fiallo of the Daily Beast via Yahoo! News: “Conservative political consultant Rick Wilson says a 'MAGA Hunger Games' is playing out in Washington as ... Donald Trump, 79, shows his age. Wilson said 'rumors from the Trumpverse' indicate that Vice President JD Vance is 'moving fast' in this shuffling of power behind the scenes, positioning himself to take over the MAGA movement sooner rather than later, according to Wilson’s Substack.” MB: I would not hang on Rick Wilson's every word, but his rumors comport with my unsubstantiated hunch that Trump is sickly and my suspicions that his Cabinet is full of grasping, self-absorbed, unprincipled twits who would stab each other in the back without hesitation.

Lower courts deliver more bad news to King Donald. OR, as Ken W.'s son might say, "The Supremes will probably overturn the rulings if they can find a 14th C. pope who deported pilgrims."

Janie Har of the AP: “A federal appeals court on Friday blocked the Trump administration’s plans to end protections for 600,000 people from Venezuela who have had permission to live and work in the United States. A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling that maintained temporary protected status for Venezuelans while the case proceeded through court.... The 9th Circuit panel found that plaintiffs were likely to succeed on their claim that the department had no authority to vacate or set aside a prior TPS extension because the governing statute written by Congress does not permit for it. 'In enacting the TPS statute, Congress designed a system of temporary status that was predictable, dependable, and insulated from electoral politics,' the court wrote.” (Also linked yesterday.) 

Zach Montague of the New York Times: “A federal judge on Friday blocked the Trump administration from carrying out fast-track deportations of people detained far from the southern border, removing, for now, one of the cornerstones of ... [Donald] Trump’s campaign to carry out mass deportations. The case focused on a policy shift announced during the first week of Mr. Trump’s second term that authorized the Department of Homeland Security to launch quick deportations, across the country and without court proceedings, of undocumented immigrants who cannot prove they have lived in the country for more than two years. Such quick deportations, known as expedited removal, have been carried out for decades, but they were concentrated among people arrested at or near the southern border. The Trump administration sought to expand the practice nationwide, to hasten the removal of people arrested deep inside the country. In a 48-page opinion, Judge Jia M. Cobb of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia wrote that the Trump administration had acted recklessly in a frenzied effort to quickly remove as many people as possible, likely violating due process rights and risking wrongful detentions.” The embedded link to the opinion is to a non-firewalled document.

Danny Hakim of the New York Times: “Federal public defenders in Nevada and California filed challenges this week seeking to overturn the appointments of the acting U.S. attorneys in Las Vegas and Los Angeles, who have been serving in their roles without the approval of Congress. The moves are the latest challenge to the Trump administration’s attempts to install political allies as federal prosecutors, in several cases circumventing established rules for such appointments.... The motions contest the reappointments of two Trump allies: Bill A. Essayli, the acting U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, and Sigal Chattah, the acting U.S. attorney in Nevada.” Both Essayli & Chattah have been active in Republican politics and have defamed Democrats. Chattach, for instance, once referred to New York Rep. Jamaal Bowman -- who is Black -- as an “antisemitic ghetto rat.”

Bove Is Still Hanging Around at Main Justice. Devlin Barrett of the New York Times: “Emil Bove III, a senior Trump administration official, was narrowly confirmed last month to serve as an appeals court judge, brushing past a bitter confirmation fight despite concerns that he would carry out the president’s directives while on the federal bench. Still, Mr. Bove has continued to work at the Justice Department, appearing just last week at a department event to celebrate the crime-fighting takeover of the Washington police.... It was just one instance of Mr. Bove’s presence at the department, where he has also attended meetings, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the department’s inner workings. The code of conduct for federal judges does not appear to apply to Mr. Bove, who court records show has yet to be sworn in. But the fact that he has remained at the Justice Department has raised eyebrows.” (Also linked yesterday.) 

     ~~~ Marie: Gee, an office party featuring Emil Bove to celebrate a hostile takeover of the D.C. police. Sounds like scads of fun!

Edward Wong & Adam Rasgon of the New York Times: “Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on Friday that he would not issue visas to Palestinian officials to prevent them from attending the annual United Nations General Assembly in New York next month. The visa ban applies to officials from the Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organization who are not based in the Palestinian mission at the U.N.... The agency is demanding that they both 'consistently repudiate terrorism' ... and 'end incitement to terrorism in education.' The department also said the Palestinian Authority, which governs the Israeli-occupied West Bank, must end appeals to legal institutions, including the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice, and stop pushing countries to recognize a 'conjectural Palestinian state.' The action by Mr. Rubio raises doubts about whether Mahmoud Abbas, the leader of the Palestinian Authority and the P.L.O., will be able to attend the General Assembly in September....

“The United Nations has said the United States has no right to prevent foreign officials from visiting U.N. headquarters. The relevant law is a headquarters agreement between the United States and the United Nations that limits U.S. government efforts to restrict certain visitors to the headquarters, said Julian Ku, a professor of international law at Hofstra University.”

     ~~~ Matthew Lee of the AP: “Secretary of State Marco Rubio has revoked the visas of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and 80 other officials ahead of next month’s annual high-level meeting of the U.N. General Assembly, a step the Palestinian Authority decried as against international law. A State Department official ... disclosed Friday that Abbas and other officials from the Palestinian Authority were among those affected by new visa restrictions. Palestinian representatives assigned to the U.N. mission, however, were granted exceptions.”

Meagan Vazquez & Meryl Kornfield of the Washington Post: “A Social Security Administration official responsible for overseeing the agency’s data access resigned from his role on Friday, days after submitting a whistleblower complaint alleging that U.S. DOGE Service staffers uploaded critical personal information for more than 300 million people to the digital cloud. The SSA’s chief data officer, Charles Borges, wrote in a resignation letter to Commissioner Frank Bisignano that he was 'involuntarily leaving' his position. The new leadership in the technology and executive offices 'created a culture of panic and dread, with minimal information sharing, frequent discussions on employee termination, and general organizational dysfunction,' he wrote in the letter....” The NBC News story is here.

Melissa Lang & Kyle Swenson of the Washington Post look at the realities of homelessness in Washington, D.C.: Multi-agency teams have cleared 50 street encampments “since Trump declared a crime emergency in D.C. on Aug. 11, ordered federal agents to patrol the streets and warned unhoused residents that they 'have to move out, IMMEDIATELY.'... Most [of the unhoused] simply picked up their belongings and moved to another street corner, another patch of trees, another neighborhood, where they hoped federal agents would pass them by.... Forcing homeless individuals to move from site to site impedes their ability to get help and get housed, advocates and caseworkers have said.”

Mike Masnick of TechDirt: "Congress has absolutely zero constitutional authority to investigate a private website for its editorial decisions. Zero. None. This is First Amendment 101. Yet House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer and Cybersecurity Subcommittee Chairwoman Nancy Mace have decided otherwise. In a letter to Wikimedia Foundation CEO Maryana Iskander, these two Republicans are demanding that Wikipedia hand over editor identities, internal communications, and arbitration records because some studies suggest there might be bias in Wikipedia articles about Israel-Palestine issues.... The letter’s requests read like a fishing expedition designed by people who fundamentally misunderstand both Wikipedia and the Constitution.... The chilling effect ... [is] the entire point."

Julie Bosman of the New York Times: “Gov. Mike Kehoe of Missouri on Friday called a special legislative session to redraw congressional maps in his state to favor Republicans, becoming the first Republican-led state to follow Texas and join a push from the Trump administration to help the party keep control of the House in midterm elections. He also called for the legislature to make it harder for state residents to pass citizen initiatives.... Mr. Kehoe and state Republican leaders want to ... [split] Missouri’s Fifth Congressional District in Kansas City, a seat currently held by a veteran Democrat, Representative Emanuel Cleaver, over the objection of Democrats in the legislature.... The Trump administration has lobbied Mr. Kehoe to call for redistricting and pressured Republicans in the state legislature.” The AP's report is here.

Amy Harmon of the New York Times: “... in the aftermath of the shooting on Wednesday at Annunciation Catholic Church, many right-wing commentators zeroed in on a single facet of the attacker’s life: At 17, the shooter legally changed her name to Robin Westman from Robert Westman, because she 'identified as female and wants her name to reflect that identification,' according to court documents. The shooting has inflamed an already vitriolic debate over the very legitimacy of transgender identity. Several prominent right-wing activists have pointed to the attacker’s own seeming ambivalence about her gender identity to bolster their contention that all trans people engage in a form of self-deception. Others have gone further, using this case to falsely portray all transgender people as prone to mental illness and violence.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The majority of U.S. mass murderers are straight White men. So why is it these "right-wing commentators" never seem to agitate about how straight White men are prone to mental illness and violence? 

~~~~~~~~~~   

California. Richard Winton of the Los Angeles Times, republished by Yahoo! News: "Former Vice President Kamala Harris will receive protection from the California Highway Patrol after ... [Donald] Trump revoked her Secret Service protection, law enforcement sources said Friday. California officials put in place a plan to provide Harris with dignitary protection after Trump ended an arrangement that gave his opponent in last year's election extended Secret Service security coverage.... The decision came after [Gov.] Gavin Newsom's office and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass were in discussions Thursday evening on how best to address the situation. Harris resides in the western portion of Los Angeles."

Ioway. Jennifer Jacobs of CBS News: "Republican Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa has told confidantes she plans to reveal next week that she won't seek reelection in 2026, multiple sources familiar with the matter told CBS News. Ernst's announcement is scheduled for Thursday, the sources said. Ernst, 55, has served in the U.S. Senate since 2015." (Also linked yesterday.)