August 13, 2026

A lot of people are saying I'm one of the greatest presidents ever. -- Donald Trump in a recent interview with Jake Sherman ~~~

 

Thanks to RAS for the link.

They Just Won't Stop. Julia Jacobs of the New York Times: “The board of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts voted on Thursday to inscribe ... [Donald] Trump’s name on the building beneath the main signage, according to two people with direct knowledge of the proceedings, aggressively testing a federal judge’s order. According to the resolution approved by the Trump-allied board, the inscription underneath the institution’s name would read: 'Restored and Renovated by President Donald J. Trump.' The board’s decision, which directs officials to act by 'all legal means,' came shortly after it voted to move forward with Mr. Trump’s plan to shutter the building for renovations.... The president’s name was added to the building last year, but the judge ordered the letters taken down, finding that only Congress had the authority to change the institution’s name. The center removed Mr. Trump’s name in June but is appealing the ruling. The move appeared to be a creative workaround to a provision in the federal law governing the Kennedy Center that says 'no additional memorials or plaques in the nature of memorials shall be designated or installed in the public areas.'” The board also stuck with their decision to close down the center, even though the court had found that board had been “derelict” in making that decision.” The link is a gift link.  

Hugo Chiasson & Elise Spenner of the Harvard Crimson: “ district court judge dismissed the Trump administration’s antisemitism lawsuit against Harvard on Thursday, concluding that the incidents pointed to by the government were 'too isolated and episodic' to show that the University remained in violation of federal civil rights law. U.S. District Court Judge Richard G. Stearns wrote that the government’s amended complaint focused almost entirely on incidents from the 2023-2024 school year and cited just three incidents from March 2025. The government sued Harvard in March alleging that the University’s response to alleged antisemitism following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack was so inadequate that it constituted 'deliberate indifference.' The lawsuit sought extraordinary relief, asking the court to cut off future funding to Harvard and retroactively claw back nearly $1 billion in federal grants issued.... The brief, four-page decision dealt a major blow to one of the Trump administration’s most aggressive legal attempts to hold Harvard accountable for its response to campus antisemitism — but stopped short of deciding whether the University had violated civil rights law during the tumultuous months immediately following Oct. 7.”

Alan Feuer & Ernesto Londoño of the New York Times: “Four days after Alex Pretti was fatally shot while filming officers taking part in the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota, the Homeland Security Department quietly opened an investigation ... not the Border Patrol agents who had killed Mr. Pretti ... [but into] several left-leaning political organizations — labor unions, a climate change group, socialist collectives — that investigators believed had provided help and money to what they described as the 'violent opportunists and agitators' on the street, according to newly released government documents. As part of their inquiry, the documents show, homeland security officials used an array of invasive tactics during the first half of this year to gather information on many groups and individuals who were never accused of crimes, crossing the line that has traditionally stood between investigating criminal activity and political dissent.” The link is a gift link.

Hamed Aleaziz of the New York Times: “In 1924, Congress sent a message to the world: We are no longer ready to take 'your tired, your poor, your huddled masses.' Seized by fears around crime, demographics and economic losses, it set quotas that limited immigration from Italy, Poland and Russia. It effectively barred immigration from Asia. It also instituted a cap of 150,000 immigrants allowed into the country in a given year, rejecting the vision laid out by the writer Emma Lazarus in her famous poem.... Today, many historians see those dynamics repeating — except this time..., [Donald] Trump is hardening the country’s borders against the huddled masses largely on his own authority....

“Using administrative action, and backed by expansive new powers upheld by the Supreme Court, Mr. Trump has drastically pulled back on all forms of immigration. He has banned asylum at the southern border. He has ended deportation protections for people from disaster- and war-scarred countries. He has blocked refugees except a group of mostly white South Africans. He has instituted policies essentially halting long-term immigration from parts of the Middle East and Africa. And he has tried to limit green cards for those who could be seen as relying on government benefits. At the same time, he has deported hundreds of thousands of people and paid others to leave voluntarily, using threats of being banished to dangerous third countries if they stay.” The link is a gift link.

Drew Harwell, et al., of the Washington Post: “The country’s most prominent seller of automated license-plate readers said Thursday it will enact major changes in hopes of more proactively preventing abuse by police officers. Flock, the maker of a vast roadside camera network that maps cars’ movements into a database searchable by law enforcement, said it would for the first time start requiring officers to label every search with a criminal case number and automatically review all searches for 'abnormal activity,' a previously voluntary feature that the company said was used by about a third of its 7,000 law enforcement agencies nationwide.... The announcement [of this and other changes] comes roughly a week after The Washington Post reported that at least 50 officers had been accused, charged with or convicted of misusing Flock’s system and other license-plate readers to spy on people’s locations, including to stalk their girlfriends and ex-wives. Since publication, The Post has confirmed more than a dozen additional cases of license-plate-reader misuse.”

~~~~~~~~~~

Marie: In a life-or-death situation, where Trump essentially got to play god in determining who would live and who might die, Donald Trump chose his personal aides (and Drunk Pete) over Cabinet members (who are in the line of succession) and other top aides. Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: “Joining him on the other plane were [Natalie] Harp, his ever-present aide; [Walt] Nauta, his longtime 'body man' who now is the head of Oval Office operations; and [Dan] Scavino, a deputy White House chief of staff and head of presidential personnel, who has also handled Mr. Trump’s social media for years.” Yes, Trump potentially saved Pete from a mid-air mishap, but Pete seems to have been chosen because he “apparently was part of the deception plan.” The link is a gift link. It's always all about Trump. Even in extreme circumstances, he chose people who knew how to attend to his personal needs over those who might have an inkling of how to attend to the nation, like Marco Rubio & Scott Bessent (4th and 5th in the line of succession). Dickheads, sure, but neither is nearly as stupid as Drunk Pete. ~~~

     ~~~ Tom Nichols of the Atlantic: “... now that we know that Trump was getting shuttled around a Turkish airport in a food-supply crate with three of his courtiers, we also know more about this White House — and about the war in Iran.... Perhaps the president thinks it’s acceptable to send up an airplane full of innocent Americans as a decoy to draw fire so that he can evade enemy action.... Not only was it morally appalling to keep so many people in the dark about the threat; it was politically inept, on two levels. First, imagine if something had actually happened to the decoy.... And second..., had he brought a few reporters with him, they could have told the story of a clever evasion. The 747, meanwhile, could have been temporarily held and its passengers delayed until Trump emerged in Britain, when the Iranians would find out they’d been had. That’s not how this White House works. Trump and his people operated under the kind of paranoia and callous disregard for military and civilian lives that have characterized the president’s time in office.” ~~~

     ~~~ Akhilleus has some helpful commentary on "Trump’s decision to risk the lives of journalists to save himself" at the top of yesterday's Comments. And, as RAS pointed out yesterday, this is not the first time Trump has hunkered (or bunkered) down and was derided as a coward #bunkerboy.~~~

     ~~~ AND Heather Cox Richardson devotes most of her latest "letter" to reviewing articles that show what a loser Trump is. ~~~

~~~ Blame It on Bibi? Warren Strobel, et al., of the Washington Post: “U.S. intelligence officials were skeptical of an Iranian assassination threat against ... Donald Trump that was relayed by Israel and prompted an extraordinary clandestine maneuver that saw him secretly fly out of Turkey in an alternate military aircraft, current and former U.S. officials familiar with the intelligence said. The assassination threat was relayed by the Israeli government to the CIA, where analysts did not view the intelligence as compelling and conveyed that skepticism to Trump administration officials, one of the officials said. Another official called the reports of threats against Trump’s life 'Israeli-derived, not U.S.-generated, and viewed as low confidence.'” (Also linked yesterday.) MB: Oh, so this whole complex operation was not really a big deal? Could this be an authorized leak meant to minimize the seriousness of the threat in order to make it seem as if Trump was not a coward who left a hundred people, including his top aides, as helpless fodder in a terrorist attack?

Jonathan Reiner, a heart specialist who treated Dick Cheney for decades, in a New York Times op-ed: “Despite reassurances from the White House to the contrary, at times over the past year, [Donald] Trump has not looked well.... A variety of physical ailments are easy to see. He’s had large bruises on both hands, swelling in his legs and episodes when it appears that he is struggling to stay awake. He’s also had advanced imaging performed for unclear reasons. The public is again left to wonder whether the nation’s leader is OK.... The 25th Amendment to the Constitution allows for the best solution to this problem: It permits Congress to establish a panel outside the executive branch to assess the health and fitness of the president. In April of this year, Representative Jamie Raskin introduced a bill to create a congressional commission that would do just that.... In a representative democracy, the people must have confidence in the health of their leader, and in the leader’s capacity to guide the nation. We have been kept in the dark too long.”

Erica Green, et al., of the New York Times: “Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary and one of the most public-facing officials in the Trump administration, will step down to spend more time with her family, she and ... [Donald] Trump announced on Wednesday. In a social media post, Mr. Trump said that Ms. Leavitt, who recently returned from maternity leave after giving birth to her second child, would leave at the end of the month to spend time with her young children — a decision that he said 'I totally understand and respect.' He said Ms. Leavitt would become one of his 'top' outside advisers and called her 'one of the best White House Press Secretaries in the History of the Office.'... He did not name a replacement in his announcement, nor a timeline for naming one.... Ms. Leavitt’s departure comes at a critical time for the White House, as Mr. Trump faces multiple headwinds, foreign and domestic, and the midterm elections in November.... [Ms. Leavitt said in a social media post,] 'Being a mother and welcoming a new baby while working in one of the most demanding jobs in the world has been the most rewarding yet challenging season of my life, to say the least.'...” The link is a gift link. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

    ~~~ Marie: Let's be real. Leavitt's departure was abrupt and probably unexpected. It came about a day after the news of his elaborate airplane hoax broke. I mentioned the other day that "If I were a young reporter and was informed I was going to become a decoy to spare Old McDonald, I most likely would have opted out, even if it cost me my job." Leavitt is not only a young person, she has very young children -- one a newborn -- and a 60-year-old husband. Besides wanting to live out her own natural life, she certainly doesn't want her children to be orphaned. So I'll bet that when she realized Trump went to lengths to set her up as a decoy in order to save himself (and Trump girlfriend Natalie Harp's), it was easy for Leavitt decide "to spend more time with her family." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: For a contrast in what are supposed to be straight news reports, here's Salon's report. And here's Politico's. In his lede graf, Troy Farah of Salon writes that Leavitt “... has been one of the biggest and most controversial mouthpieces for the president, describing Democrats as 'terrorists,' making 'your mom' jokes and organizing a White House 'media offender' list.” He goes on from there. Meanwhile, Megan Messerly of Politico asserts in her story that Leavitt& “has been widely praised on both the left and the right for being an effective communicator for the president in the White House briefing room. She earned a reputation for her tough but friendly banter with the press in that format.” ~~~

~~~ We've already established that Karoline Leavitt, who is still in her 20s, has gotten extensive plastic surgery to give herself the Mar-a-Lardo look. Now it appears that was not enough. AI/Photoshop to the rescue: ~~~

~~~  Vic Verbalaitis of the Daily Beast, republished by Yahoo! News: "Karoline Leavitt appears to have used AI-generated content in a statement announcing her departure from the White House.... Her hair, face, chest, and waist all appeared modified compared to a similar photo taken by Getty Images staff photographer Anna Moneymaker on July 15, 2025. Her hair appeared fuller, her cheekbones higher, her chin narrower, her waist slimmed, and her chest enlarged.” (Also linked yesterday.)

Jim Saksa of Democracy Docket: "A federal judge in Massachusetts Tuesday issued another order blocking the United States Postal Service (USPS) from implementing ... Donald Trump’s sweeping attack on mail voting and his attempt to create a national voter registration list before the midterm elections. District Judge Indira Talwani agreed with a coalition of voting-rights groups led by the League of Women Voters of Massachusetts that Trump’s March 2026 anti-voting executive order (EO) was likely unconstitutional, noting that the administration didn’t even attempt to argue otherwise.... This is the second time Talwani has blocked implementation of Trump’s EO. But unlike the first, this preliminary injunction will now cover the entirety of the nation. In June, the judge ruled in a separate lawsuit and prohibited the order’s implementation in 23 states and Washington, D.C...."

Ed Pilkington of the Guardian: “Military families and Congress members are sounding the alarm about an intensifying mental health crisis onboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, as its 5,000 sailors and marines endure a record-breaking deployment at sea tied to the war with Iran. Two leading specialist military papers, the Navy Times and Stars and Stripes, are reporting that there have been multiple attempts by sailors to jump overboard as poor conditions and mental stresses on the Lincoln reach the breaking point. The crew is in its ninth month at sea, and has spent 250 days consecutively without making land – a record for an aircraft carrier in modern times.... The families’ worries were expressed ... at the town hall [to] the acting navy secretary, Hung Cao, and other top officials.... Mike Levin, a Democratic member of Congress from California, has sounded the alarm over conditions onboard the warship, which is in its fifth month of combat operations against Iran. He described the lot of the crew on X as 'moldy showers, broken toilets, laundry down for weeks, long stretches with no hot water, a meal that came down to half a cup of rice and two tortillas. No soap, deodorant, or toothpaste.'” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: War or not, let's stipulate that the gross mismanagement of the deployment of the Lincoln was avoidable.

Jason Wilson of the Guardian: “Pete Hegseth’s appointments to a key Pentagon advisory body include two men with ties to the venture capital fund where Donald Trump Jr is a partner, which has lucrative investments in military and space technology. Defense Policy Board appointee Marc Andreessen’s firm, Andreessen Horowitz, one of Silicon Valley’s largest venture capital firms and known by the name 'a16z', co-invests alongside the Trump partnership 1789 Capital in three defense contractors. Fellow DPB appointee Blake Masters also sits on the boards of three ventures tied to 1789 Capital. Both men now advise the Pentagon on the defense-technology sector those companies operate in. Companies jointly backed by a16z and 1789 have already drawn billions in federal loans and contracts since the start of the second Trump administration.The appointments by the US defense secretary not only appear to increase the influence of rightwing ideologues, autonomous weapons manufacturers, and one-time clients of authoritarian states on the world’s most powerful arsenal, but to potentially put the financial interests of the US president’s family at the heart of setting US strategic priorities.” Thanks to RAS for the link. MB: Gosh, I sure hope Pete is getting a cut. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: RAS linked this Guardian report nearly a full day ago, but I was unable to get to it till this morning. This is one among many examples of why you'll be doing yourself a favor to check out the Comments.

Jeremy Roebuck & Olivia George of the Washington Post: “A former top official at the Southern Poverty Law Center was indicted Wednesday on fraud charges, an escalation of the Justice Department’s ongoing case against the storied civil rights organization. Federal prosecutors accused Heidi Beirich, an expert on political extremism and a former director of the nonprofit’s intelligence project, of overseeing payments to informants working undercover in a variety of hate groups. Beirich, 59, of Palm Springs, California, was allegedly involved in a romantic relationship with one of those informants and diverted at least $140,000 to a joint bank account they shared and used to pay their personal living expenses, according to a superseding indictment unsealed in federal court in Montgomery, Alabama. A lawyer for Beirich denounced the charges — which include counts of wire fraud, money laundering conspiracy and conspiracy to provide false statements to banks — as an attempt by the Trump administration to 'silence political opponents.' He vowed she would fight the case.”

What if you bought a bunch of flying machines, but didn't get around to hiring any pilots to get those suckers off the ground? ~~

David Fahrenthold, et al., of the New York Times: “Starting last fall, the Department of Homeland Security spent $464 million on a no-bid contract to buy 10 used airplanes from a firm in Northern Virginia. That was an enormous price tag, but the department said it had no time to consider other offers. The planes were needed urgently for deportation flights. But since then, the department has barely used this new fleet — for deportations, or anything else. Three of the aircraft are luxury business jets. Just months after acquiring them, the department sought to loan or lease two to other agencies, including one for the use of F.B.I. director Kash Patel.... The other seven are older Boeing 737 passenger jets, which the government has left parked at an airport in Lake Charles, La., for months at a time. An internal government document, obtained by The New York Times, said the agency did not have the staff necessary to operate them....

“The acquisitions were part of a surge of rushed contracts handed out recently by the Homeland Security Department, which has repeatedly used the need for 'urgency' to bypass regular contracting procedures. The contract also illuminated a broader trend within the second Trump administration: no-bid contracts awarded to people with connections to Mr. Trump or his cabinet secretaries. The company that received this contract, Daedalus Aviation Corporation, is led by a chairman who had donated to a political committee supporting the previous Homeland Security Secretary, Kristi Noem.” The link is a gift link.

"Suffer the Little Children." Sergio Martínez-Beltrán of NPR: "The Trump administration has awarded a controversial anti-human trafficking organization a no-bid $158 million contract to provide legal services to unaccompanied migrant children, according to a notice posted Friday by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Utah-based Our Rescue, previously known as Operation Underground Railroad, says it helps law enforcement perform sting operations to catch human traffickers and rescue survivors. It's unclear if it has immigration lawyers on its staff.... Our Rescue did not immediately return NPR's request for comment. The group was founded by activist Tim Ballard, who was the subject of the 2023 film Sound of Freedom. The movie ... was heavily promoted in conservative media as QAnon conspiracies flourished. Within months of the film's release, however, Ballard faced accusations of sexual exploitation himself. He has repeatedly denied them, but was quietly removed from the group. It's now headed by CEO Derek Benner, who previously worked for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement." ~~~

     ~~~ Anat Shenker-Osorio in Public Notice has more background. It's all so sickening! 

Madeleine Ngo & Shaila Dewan of the New York Times: “The Trump administration plans to spend millions of dollars equipping immigration officers with gloves that can deliver electric shocks. The Department of Homeland Security described the gloves as a 'de-escalation device,' but critics have expressed alarm over equipping immigration agents with another tool that they say could actually escalate their use of force. The plans have also drawn concern from some former Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials who have questioned use of the gloves against people accused of violating immigration laws, which are mostly civil offenses.... The G.L.O.V.E. is relatively new and untested; it has not been widely adopted by police departments, and some policing experts had not even heard of it before the news of the ICE contract broke.” The link is a gift link. (Also linked yesterday.) MB: I linked a Hill story on this earlier Wednesday. ~~~

~~~ Madaleine Rubin of the New York Times: “A federal agent on Monday brandished a gun at a Virginia woman who had shouted at him, according to videos of the encounter, the latest in a string of clashes between immigration agents and drivers. The woman, Carolina Molina, 36, said in an interview that around 3 p.m. on Monday, several Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents surrounded her car in a shopping center in Falls Church, Va., after she had yelled at them as they detained people on a sidewalk nearby. Ms. Molina had pulled into a parking spot and backed out and was driving through the center when agents encircled her, blocking her vehicle by parking cars behind and in front of her, a dashboard video shows. The agents repeatedly accused her of trying to run them over with her car and threatened to arrest her. But in videos captured from several angles, there is no indication that Ms. Molina had tried to harm the agents.... The agency did not provide any videos of the encounter or events leading up to it. Ms. Molina, whose videos do not capture events outside the shopping center, was not detained and has not been criminally charged.” The link is a gift link. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ So now I guess the question is, can this guy point his gun at a lady in a car AND simultaneously shock her repeatedly with an electric glove? I would say "yes," but one must factor in his occupation: he is not a well-trained street thug (as far as we know) but an ICE or CPB officer, so he may not have the intelligence, celerity and dexterity to do two things at once.  

Madaleine Rubin of the New York Times: “An Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor battery charge on Wednesday for throwing an activist to the ground near Chicago last year during the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in the region. A judge in Cook County, Ill., sentenced the agent, Adam Saracco, to 12 months of supervision on Wednesday and ordered him not to have contact with the activist he had clashed with, Robert Held.... At a gas station in Brookfield, Ill., Mr. Held was filming Mr. Saracco when Mr. Saracco approached him. Mr. Saracco took Mr. Held’s phone and threw him to the ground. Mr. Saracco was off duty at the time and was getting gas after leaving a nearby immigration detention center. Mr. Held said he did not sustain any injuries. It was not clear whether Mr. Saracco was still employed by ICE.” The link is a gift link.

Ana Ley & Pranav Baskar of the New York Times: “A Guatemalan immigrant who had been taken to a troubled detention center in Newark last month experienced a medical emergency and died after having been transferred to a hospital, federal officials said on Wednesday. The man, Jose Chajon-Raxon, is the third immigrant to have died after being detained at the center, known as Delaney Hall, which reopened in May 2025 as part of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. Mr. Chajon-Raxon had been arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and then taken to Delaney Hall on July 18.... The next day, a nurse saw him experiencing what appeared to be a seizure, the statement said. Medical workers were summoned, and Mr. Chajon-Raxon was taken to a hospital....” The link is a gift link. (Also linked yesterday.)

A Man Without a Country: Real-Life Horror Story, Sponsored by Donald Trump. Nicholas Casey of the New York Times Magazine on what happened to one man who came from Cuba to the U.S. as a child in 1980, but never became a U.S. citizen, at least partly because he has a gang-related criminal record which he earned as a teenager. He is now sitting in a “maximum-security prison [in Eswatini, formerly Swaziland] with nowhere to go. No charges against him. No way to appeal his predicament. No sign that he will ever be freed. Cuba has not signaled any willingness to take him, and Mosquera says he has no desire to go there. Eswatini will not release him from prison, even though he served his time in the United States and committed no crime in Africa.... The Trump administration has put [a growing number of people] into a global administrative limbo. For more than a year, it has been offering millions of dollars — often without disclosing the payments — to foreign governments to take immigrants the United States was having trouble deporting to their countries of origin. This includes not only people with criminal pasts ... but also deportees who were under court protections not to be returned to their homelands because they faced threats there.”

Andrew Solender of Axios: "House Democrats who have comfortably held their seats for decades are suddenly finding the ground shifting beneath their feet as primary voters revolt against the party's old guard. The anti-establishment revolution that has swept Democratic primaries this year is poised to drastically alter the makeup of the party caucus and Congress as a whole." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: If you will recall, when Republican primary voters "revolted" in 2010, they did so by voting in a bunch of uninformed, usually racist, radical-right dimwits in the form of Tea Party "patriots." While it's true that Democratic voters are ushering in candidates who pledge (and have plans) to address systemic problems that the voters face, these candidates are hoping to make changes that make life better for all "ordinary" Americans. And what's the matter with that? It does seem that people who vote in Democratic primaries make better choices than do those who vote in Republican primaries. Just saying. See also yesterday's thread, where Ken W. & Akhilleus comment on "Dems in Disarray" reporting.

Dustin Gardiner of Politico: “Nancy Pelosi said those close to Joe Biden during his reelection campaign should have shared what they knew about his mental acuity — and confirmed she had private conversations with him about her polling concerns. 'I do think that those who did know should have acted upon that information. Whoever knew,' Pelosi, the former House speaker said at Politico’s The California Agenda: Sacramento Summit on Tuesday. 'There was staff saying the family knew. The family said the staff.'” MB: Interesting & informative.

Marie's Sports Report. Under New Ownership. Again. Dan Woike of the Athletic/New York Times: “Only 14 months after agreeing to purchase the Lakers at a record-setting $10 billion valuation, Mark Walter is selling the team to Bob Iger, the former Disney CEO, and Joshua Kushner. The deal would value the Lakers at $12.5 billion, according to a source with knowledge of the sale who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it publicly. Kushner has a minority stake in the Miami Heat and is the younger brother of Jared Kushner..., Donald Trump’s son-in-law....& Kushner, who previously owned a minority share of the Memphis Grizzlies, is a central figure in the ongoing global soccer controversy around FIFA president Gianni Infantino’s plan to sell a stake in FIFA’s competitions to private investors, including Kushner’s Thrive Eternal, for $4.2 billion.... The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and the Securities and Exchange Commission have been investigating insurance companies owned by Walter.” The link is a gift link. The ESPN report, which broke news of the pending sale, is here. ~~~

     ~~~ RAS suggested in yesterday's Comments that there just might be a connection between Walter's decision to sell (to Kushner?) & those federal investigations.

~~~~~~~~~~

Ohio. Alexei Koseff of the Washington Post: “Rep. Max Miller’s ex-wife filed a federal civil rights lawsuit Wednesday against the Ohio Republican and his attorney, alleging that they 'recklessly published' a nude image of Miller’s 2-year-old daughter online. The claim stems from a live stream Miller hosted this month to defend himself against charges of domestic violence by his ex-wife, Emily Moreno. In an attempt to support his assertion that Moreno made up the allegations, Miller released a trove of documents through a publicly accessible Dropbox account. In her lawsuit, Moreno says the folder included a picture of their daughter in which her genitalia was visible, and which remained available for anyone to download for 23 hours.”

~~~~~~~~~~

Greenland. Tom Burgis of the Guardian: “Greenland authorities have forced a US oil company connected to Donald Trump to postpone drilling wells in the Arctic territory, defying claims by the US president’s envoy that Americans could be extracting crude by next year. Amid Trump’s imperialist threats, tensions have been rising on Greenland’s eastern coast after the oil company brought drilling equipment ashore in July without permission, drawing a 'strong warning' from the government.”

Israel. David Halbfinger, et al., of the New York Times: “Two Palestinian families have been trapped since Sunday inside their homes on a rocky West Bank hillside by a group of violent Israeli settlers, who set up a tent in the front yard of one of the houses. Residents say about 10 to 15 settlers have been attacking them around the clock, throwing stones and an ax. Early Wednesday morning, after news of the siege began to draw news attention, the Israeli army’s commander for the West Bank, Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth, showed up in the village of Qusra and listened as one of the families described how the settlers had been terrorizing them since January. Outside, his soldiers tried to disperse the settlers with tear gas. Yet, by 10:20 a.m., videos from security cameras show, the soldiers had left. Soon after, residents said, the settlers resumed their attacks.... The army’s initial retreat and broader struggle to contend with settler violence cast a spotlight on the increasingly chaotic situation in the West Bank, where hundreds of Israeli settlers have been terrorizing Palestinians with near-impunity all year.” The link is a gift link. (Also linked yesterday.)

Russia/Ukraine. Marc Santora of the New York Times: Russia is waging a “campaign targeting cargo vessels that has halted nearly all shipping in and out of Odesa, Ukraine’s most crucial link to the world economy. Coming at the start of the harvest season, the Russian campaign in Ukraine, which is a major producer of grains like wheat, corn and barley, could throw global food supply chains into turmoil. In 2022, during the first months of the full-scale war, Russia established a blockade of Ukrainian ports, causing a spike in global food prices and placing an estimated 70 million people at increased risk of acute food insecurity. The Russian strikes are the latest chapter in a long-running battle over the Black Sea and the adjacent Sea of Azov. New weapons that allow for precision targeting at great distances have made slow-moving cargo vessels easy targets. In June and July, Russian forces attacked at least 50 cargo ships, according to Ukrainian officials, killing more than 30 civilians. Ukraine has also systematically targeted Russian-linked tankers and cargo vessels.” The link is a gift link. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Santora's lede (you'll have to go to the report to read it) is remarkably, perhaps purposely, Chekhovian. Here's how Chekhov's famous story "The Lady with the Dog" begins: "It was said that a new person had appeared on the sea-front: a lady with a little dog. Dmitri Dmitritch Gurov, who had by then been a fortnight at Yalta, and so was fairly at home there, had begun to take an interest in new arrivals. Sitting in Verney's pavilion, he saw, walking on the sea-front, a fair-haired young lady of medium height, wearing a béret; a white Pomeranian dog was running behind her." ~~~

     ~~~ Tom Chivers of Semafor: "Ukraine reportedly halted attacks on a Russian port after a request from US Vice President JD Vance. Kyiv’s repeated strikes on tankers in Novorossiysk had alarmed Washington, which feared they would further destabilize already strained oil markets and hurt US oil majors, the Financial Times reported."