July 28, 2026

 

~~~ Marie: You know how Droopyface McTrump blames Canada for causing fires because Canadians didn't sweep their millions & millions of acres of forest floors? Well, Minnesota --one of these United States -- has some big ole forest fires burning right now. And maybe, just maybe that is because Tim Walz did not go out in the woods with his broom and brushpan. Why did he not? Perhaps because, as Brianna Sacks of the Washington Post reported Saturday, “the Trump administration delayed a $10 million grant that was supposed to help Minnesota thin out about 4,000 acres of dense, dry forest at high risk of burning.... 'We were shovel-ready,' said Aaron Kania..., a U.S. Forest Service district ranger.... But at the beginning of 2025, the U.S. DOGE Service [Elon! -- the richest, whitest man in the whole world --] paused or canceled federal grants and spending to review whether they were connected to diversity or climate initiatives.... DOGE’s involvement also delayed a regional support fund that moved crews across the country for fire prevention work.... In the following months, the agency would lose about one-third of its employees....” MB: I link this here because Rachel Maddow mentions the report in the segment embedded above and because I failed to link it this weekend. ~~~

~~~ In the segment, Maddow notes what a dangerous quack RFKJ is. She's right, of course, but maybe we should add that Doctor Donald J. for Just-Add-Bleach Trump's medical advice is just as dangerous & crazy: ~~~

~~~ Trump Gooses Kennedy to Cut Down on Children's Vaccines. Joe DePaolo of Mediaite: “Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s vaccine skepticism is well established — and yet the HHS Secretary is not moving fast enough on the issue for President Donald Trump’s liking. According to the Wall Street Journal and reporter Liz Essley Whyte, Trump confronted Kennedy back in May about 'why he wasn’t doing more to probe the alleged connection between vaccines and autism.' Kennedy was reportedly 'taken aback' — as White House staffers had asked him to tone down his rhetoric on vaccines ahead of the midterms. But Trump himself contradicted that directive. Essley Whyte wrote Trump wants to see Kennedy 'do more to reduce the number of shots that federal guidelines recommend for children,' with Trump believing autism rates would eventually drop as a result.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I thought when Trump picked Kennedy as HHS secretary, it was because he didn't care how many people died in the cause of his thumbing his nose at "experts." But evidently, Trump is so stupid, he really believes in some of the snake oil Bobby Junior is selling. 

Katie Rogers of the New York Times: “Visiting a General Motors proving facility in Milford, [Michigan,] where vehicles are pressure-tested before they hit the market, [Donald] Trump accepted some gifts (car sculptures) and road-tested his latest insult for the Democratic Party — 'Dumocrats' or 'Dumbocrats'; he is apparently still mulling the spelling — as he attacked several presidential predecessors.... Before he spoke, Mr. Trump watched a crew of professional drivers drag-race several luxury vehicles, including a race between a black 2027 Corvette ZR1X, a car that starts at $227,000, and a silver Corvette ZR1 convertible, which costs around $207,195. Later, he told hundreds of supporters, many of them dressed in Trump regalia, that the economic pressures they were experiencing were problems inherited from the Biden administration.... Michigan has been among the states hardest hit by tariffs because of the impact on automakers, a pillar of the economy. Tariffs have siphoned off money they could be using to invest in new car designs and new technologies. Mr. Trump promised that General Motors would soon see major benefits. 'It’s amazing what tariffs will do for General Motors,' Mr. Trump said before his speech....” The link is a gift link. (Also linked yesterday.)~~~

     ~~~ Marie: What you won't read even if you read every word of Rogers' report is that during his remarks, Trump made a new (as far as I recall), disgusting, racist statement. And Trump wanted you to hear it. He anticipated the remark would "make news." Donald Trump is not an ordinary, run-of-the-mill racist. He's a proud racist: ~~~

~~~ Joe DePaolo of Mediaite: “'This is maybe gonna make news,' said President Donald Trump on Monday at a rally in Milford, MI....'“When [the Left] take[s] something over, it’s always dirty,' Trump said. 'The sidewalks are dirty. The people are, I hate to say this, not clean, OK? The curbs are loaded with you know what? This smell is terrible. I mean, I see it happening to cities, blue cities. They’re all blue. They’re blue.'... He also tried to take credit for the current state of affairs in the District of Columbia. 'It was filthy,' Trump said. 'Graffiti all over the place. We fixed up 72 monuments and fountains, and we’ve done an unbelievable — we took the graffiti off the beautiful marble columns. We have new grass going down. But you know what we did the best? We stopped crime in Washington. It’s down 88 percent.' The president first deployed the National Guard in Washington in August 2025. An analysis from the Niskanen Center — a nonpartisan think tank — showed a dramatic reduction in non-violent crime, but hardly any reduction in violent crime. The analysis found crime went down 24 percent overall as of June, rather than the 88 percent Trump claimed Monday, and violent crime went down by even less.” (Also linked yesterday.)  ~~~

... people love Trump because I've done more for you than your parents. OK, your parents are good. I'm not going to knock your parents, but I have been better to you than your parents. That I can tell you. -- Donald Trump, at a General Motors facility in Milford, Michigan, Monday ~~~ 

~~~ Andrew Feinberg of the Independent: “It took 46 minutes for ... Donald Trump to mention the name of the man he’d come to stump for in Michigan [-- Rep. Mike Rogers, who is running for the open U.S. Senate seat --] on Monday as he delivered a bizarre, seemingly endless rant in which he at one point told the crowd of largely autoworkers that he’d done more for them than the people who raised them.... Trump claimed Michigan’s autoworkers had been 'sold out and betrayed by globalist politicians and corrupt special interests' for decades before he came into office, neglecting to mention how he raised import taxes on many of the auto parts used by the car makers. Then he set his sights on the head of the United Auto Workers union, Shawn Fain. 'This guy was bad news. I never spoke to him. Never saw him,' Trump said as he attacked Fain as 'a Democrat' and claimed there’d be 'no auto industry' had he not been reelected in 2024.” ~~~

~~~ Here's something else Michiganders must know about Trump's abrasive, careless, acquisitive, stupid person and policies: ~~~

~~~ Rebecca Falconer of Axios: "Canadian travel to the U.S. fell 25% last year, according to a new Canadian government report, which says early 2026 data show the decline has persisted. The report provides some of the clearest measures yet of the economic cost to the U.S. tourism industry after trade tensions, tariffs and ... [Donald] Trump's repeated '51st state' comments led many Canadians to vacation elsewhere.... Canada has traditionally been the largest source of international visitors to the U.S.... Canadians spent C$3.3 billion ($2.3 billion) less on trips to the U.S. in 2025, with lower leisure travel accounting for most of the decline, according to Statistics Canada." ~~~

~~~ Did I mention the Gordie Howe Bridge?

Trump Takes Voter Suppression E.O. to Supremes. Amy Howe of ScotusBlog: “The Trump administration on Monday asked the Supreme Court to allow it to fully implement an executive order signed by ... Donald Trump that seeks to impose additional restrictions on mail-in voting. U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer called an order by a federal judge in Massachusetts that paused portions of the order in 23 states and the District of Columbia 'extraordinary,' and he argued that it 'flouts settled' doctrines governing when courts can weigh in on a dispute. Sauer also asked the court to issue an immediate administrative stay – an order that temporarily puts the lower court’s order on hold while the justices consider the government’s request. Trump signed the executive order at the center of the case ... on March 31 of this year. Among other things, the order instructs the U.S. Postal Service to propose rules for mail-in and absentee ballots, and it directs the Department of Homeland Security to compile 'state citizenship lists' – lists of individuals in each state who are U.S. citizens over the age of 18. Under the order, the rules issued by the USPS must provide that the Postal Service can only send mail-in ballots to voters whose names appear on the state citizenship lists.” (Also linked yesterday.) The New York Times report is here; the link is a gift link.

Sarah Rumpf of Mediaite: “The BBC scored a blow against ... Donald Trump in its defense against the defamation suit he filed when a judge ordered the president to turn over years of financial documents to the British public broadcaster.... On Monday, [U.S. Magistrate Judge Enjoliqué] Lett issued a nine-page written order spelling out what documents Trump would have to disclose to the BBC and setting deadlines for that document production.... [Trump argued that properties owned by his trust should not be subject to discovery because the Trust was not a party to the lawsuit. But] Trump is claiming damages up to $10 billion which include the 'value' of his 'brand, properties, and businesses,' wrote Lett, and [a]s represented by the parties, virtually all of these “properties and businesses” are owned by the Trust.'” Lett limited the order to records covering the period from January 1, 2023 to the present. (Also linked yesterday.)~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Unless the judge rules otherwise, these financial documents will become part of the public record; that is, they will come under the scrutiny of our prying eyes.

Courtenay Brown of Axios: "The small businesses behind high-profile legal challenges to ... [Donald] Trump's trade agenda are suing again to block his latest import taxes.... The lawsuits set up another legal test of Trump's tariff agenda after courts this year rejected one tariff regime and another remains tied up in court.... One lawsuit was filed on behalf of Burlap & Barrel, which previously challenged Trump's temporary Section 122 tariffs, and watch retailer Collective Horology. The other was brought by toymaker Learning Resources, along with a flooring manufacturer and affiliated firms. Learning Resources was a party to the consolidated Supreme Court litigation in which the justices invalidated Trump's emergency powers tariffs, though its own case was dismissed on jurisdictional grounds."

Annals of “Journalism,” Ctd. Scott Nover of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump escalated his attacks on the news media over the weekend, following a blistering address at the rescheduled White House Correspondents’ Association dinner by posting an edited image mocking CNN’s Kaitlan Collins — a personal jab later amplified by an official White House social media account. Trump posted the edited image to Truth Social on Sunday, replacing transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney’s face in a mock Bud Light advertisement with Collins’s, in a nod to the beer brand’s 2023 partnership with Mulvaney — a campaign that triggered a right-wing boycott. Trump’s broadsides against the press inspired a new round of calls from media critics to end the dinner, arguing that the president’s particularly contentious relationship with the news media exposes incongruities surrounding an event designed to honor reporting on the executive branch.” ~~~

~~~ Margaret Sullivan on Substack: “The insults. The lies. The extremely unfunny attempts at humor. The lack of respect for the role of the free press. The lack of respect for the U.S. Constitution, which forbids a Trump run for president in 2028. The lack of respect for the rule of law. Any one of these should have been reason enough not to invite Donald Trump to the rescheduled White House Correspondents Dinner, which is billed as an annual celebration of the First Amendment. But for reasons that continue to baffle and anger me, the organizers — journalists and media figures who should know better — did so anyway. What happened was predictable.... Trump used his time on the stage that had been made available by the correspondents association — during a nationally televised event — to let loose with a hate-filled rant. It was aimed at journalists, at his political enemies and at anybody else who has failed to suck up to him at every moment or to support his lawless regime.”

Ryan Reilly of NBC News: “A key grand jury witness in a case against a former Olympic canoeist accused of tampering with the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool testified that the area was already damaged and would have required repairs regardless, lawyers said in a court filing Monday. David 'Davey' Hearn was indicted this month and accused of damaging the liner of the long, shallow pool near the Washington Monument. Hearn, who has pleaded not guilty, previously told NBC News that 'the condition of the Reflecting Pool was the same after I stepped away from the water as it was before I got there.'... Donald Trump blamed vandals for the issues with the pool after he announced a plan to coat the bottom with 'American flag blue' ahead of America’s 250th birthday.”

Devlin Barrett of the New York Times: “James B. Comey, the former F.B.I. director, asked a judge on Monday to throw out the indictment accusing him of threatening ... [Donald] Trump with a photograph of seashells arranged to read '86 47,' calling it a misuse of criminal law to punish free speech. The charges, filed in North Carolina in April over an Instagram post Mr. Comey later deleted, say he 'did knowingly and willfully make a threat to take the life of, and to inflict bodily harm upon, the president of the United States.' Mr. Trump has argued that the term '86,' popular among restaurant workers, is mafia slang to kill someone, an accusation that many of his supporters have embraced. The other number, 47, is a reference to Mr. Trump, the 47th president. 'That claim,' Mr. Comey’s lawyers wrote in the new filing, 'is contradicted by every possible source of meaning: dictionaries, context, precedent and common sense. “86” simply means “get rid of” “eject” and has no violent connotation except in the most uncommon usages.” The link is a gift link. (Also linked yesterday.)

Another Fake Trump Prosecution Bites the Dust. Jill Cowan of the New York Times: “Federal prosecutors moved on Monday to dismiss their case against David Huerta, a Los Angeles labor leader whose arrest during an immigration raid last year helped spark a wave of demonstrations against the Trump administration’s crackdown in the nation’s second-largest city. The U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles said in a statement that the case would be officially dismissed by the end of next month, as long as Mr. Huerta continued to follow the terms of his pretrial release agreement and not violate any laws. He had been scheduled to go to trial in August. Mr. Huerta, the California president of the Service Employees International Union, was arrested in June 2025 after federal agents said he had impeded their work by trying to block a car and had encouraged others to join him as officers conducted an immigration raid on a clothing wholesaler. Other protesters captured video of the arrest, which was violent enough to send Mr. Huerta to the hospital with a head injury. The next day..., [Donald] Trump deployed thousands of National Guard troops to Los Angeles....” The link is a gift link.

Joe.My.God.: “Wired reports: 'The Department of Homeland Security’s top numbers-cruncher has resigned, citing the Trump administration’s 'war on immigrants' on his way out.... 'I’m thrilled to end my relationship with the current administration,' [wrote Marc] Rosenblum[, director of the Office of Homeland Security Statistics] ... in a LinkedIn post over the weekend. 'Between the war on immigrants, the war on feds, and the war on facts (not to mention the crazy war in Iran and the brazen corruption), I just need a change.'” The Wired story is firewalled.

Heather Cox Richardson: “On July 22, Sam Fortier of NOTUS reported that the Trump-appointed judges of the Presidential 1776 Award competition, emceed by Education Secretary Linda McMahon, apparently rigged the competition to cut out a 17-year-old Indian immigrant in favor of a homeschooled blonde girl from Wyoming, a Michigan boy who attended a private Catholic school, and a girl from Washington who told CNN she supported Trump and wanted to see 'everyone walking away from the competition knowing this is the greatest country of the world.' In order to privilege white contestants over an immigrant, the judges apparently changed the acceptable answers to questions about our history. This story mirrors the larger attempt of the Trump administration to rewrite the history of the United States.” Read on, please. The behavior of Reps. Nancy Mace, Lauren Boebert & Eric Burlison (R, R & R) was particularly egregious. Here's the NOTUS report.

Where's Mitch? Theodoric Meyer of the Washington Post: “Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) has not been medically cleared to leave a rehabilitation facility, the Capitol physician’s office said Monday, and will miss Kentucky’s Fancy Farm Picnic on Saturday as he continues recovering from a June fall.” A Guardian report is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Here's a new photo released Sunday. McConnell's office says the photo was taken Sunday: ~~~

     ~~~ Aaron Parnas has more. (Also linked yesterday.)

Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: “... Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, released more than 1,100 pages of Dr. [Anthony] Fauci’s typewritten daily notes as part of his investigation into whether the virus might have leaked from a laboratory and whether, as Mr. Paul claims, Dr. Fauci lied to Congress about it. The diary does not provide the smoking gun the senator is seeking. Rather, it echoes past disclosures showing Dr. Fauci wrestling with a fast-moving crisis as scientists’ views evolved. But it further inflames a polarizing political battle over the origins of the virus and how history should treat Dr. Fauci. It also paints a portrait of Dr. Fauci as obsessed with himself, reveling in his own importance and the celebrities he knows, from the actress Julia Roberts to the singers Joan Baez and Barbra Streisand. It shows, as well, the pressure he was under, as he became the public face of the government’s response while at the same time countering what he called 'slanderous lies' about him spread by “extreme right elements in society....

“Senator Paul taunted Dr. Fauci on social media about the disclosures, writing that 'While America buried loved ones, Anthony Fauci was counting headlines that doted over him.' He posted what appeared to be an AI-generated image of Dr. Fauci, dressed in a bright sweater and lying on a pink blanket, writing in a diary as if he were a teenage girl.” The link is a gift link.

     ~~~ Marie: I don't see anything the least bit wrong with Fauci's expressing private pleasures in a private diary. No matter what else was going on, if I kept a diary & one day Julia Roberts said she liked me, I would probably write it down. I don't want to think about what Rand Paul's private reveries might be. Paul should be ashamed of himself for releasing pages not directly related to Paul's quixotic quest to find a ficticious diabolical technician (and friend of Fauci's!) who created the Covid-19 virus in a Chinese lab.

Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: David “Ellison’s willingness to cater to the president ... is almost certainly why Trump’s Justice Department approved Ellison’s bid ... [to] merge Paramount and Warner Bros., which would leave ... Ellison in charge of two of the big five major movie studios, as well as HBO Max and CNN., reportedly overruling career officials who worried it would violate antitrust law.... [But] This month, buoyed by a growing movement, 12 Democratic attorneys general sued to stop Ellison’s Warner Brothers takeover, arguing that it violated antitrust law. 'Historically, it’s unusual for the states to take the lead on antitrust enforcement actions,' reported Variety. But the case was strong enough that last week, a California judge issued a temporary restraining order putting the merger on hold. And on Friday, Paramount, which had hoped to close the deal this month, agreed to postpone the merger until next June or the end of the trial, whichever comes first.... The mere possibility that the deal could be defeated, said [actor Mark] Ruffalo, has strengthened resistance in Hollywood.... As Trump looks ever less indomitable, so does his dream of remaking American culture in his image.... Trump is beatable if you take a page from his playbook and flood the zone with opposition.” The link is a gift link.

~~~~~~~~~~ 

France & Spain. Carlos Barragán & Ségolène Le Stradic of the New York Times: “Firefighters in Spain and France were scrambling on Tuesday to keep ferocious wildfires near Madrid and Bordeaux in check before a scorching heat wave hits the area, which could worsen the largest blazes the countries have faced in their modern history.... Temperatures in parts of both countries are expected to climb to 104 degrees Fahrenheit, or 40 degrees Celsius, this week — the latest in a succession of extreme heat events that have dried out vegetation, combining with strong winds to increase the risk of fires spreading. The fires in France and Spain have consumed scores of houses and burned hundreds of thousands of acres of land so far, highlighting the challenge faced by Europe as summers grow increasingly hot and wildfires become more widespread.” The link is a gift link.

Spain. Jason Horowitz of the New York Times: “In a country led by a government that has defined itself by the seriousness with which it takes climate change..., [wildfires] have come unsettlingly close to the capital. The fires around Madrid have brought to tears the region’s president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso. Experts say they are a harbinger for the damage to come on the world’s fastest warming continent.... In the face of what his government has called the largest fires in the country’s history, and after a summer of record-breaking heat waves, [Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez] called for a national pact with all Spain’s political parties to work together to prevent blazes that he attributed to climate change.” The link is a gift link.