August 20, 2026

Marie: A few days ago, the New York Times started giving me unlimited license to share links. I thought that was great and I merrily began sharing every NYT story I linked. But yesterday I found an email from the Times announcing their generous addition to my subscription with this qualifier: "To read articles you share, recipients simply need a free Times account." I checked with Art Intel to find out what "a free times account" was. According to Art, it is "a basic, no-cost profile on the New York Times that requires only an email address." So it seems you have to register with the New York Times, which almost certainly means they'll bombard you with a lot of annoying emails, in order to access the "gift links." If you do NOT have a paid subscription, please let me know what your experience is with these supposed gift links I've been dolling out. I don't want to be pretending I'm sharing accessible links when I'm not. Thank you. You can answer in the Comments or at marieburns2022@gmail.com .  

The Trump and Co. Money Managers Report. Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: “America’s gross national debt topped $40 trillion for the first time on Wednesday, an ominous milestone for an economy that sits on a shaky fiscal foundation after decades of borrowing to pay for the rising costs of the military, social safety net programs and ... [Donald] Trump’s tax cuts. This year alone, the United States is on track to borrow more than $2 trillion to help pay for its obligations, including spending on the war in Iran and the sweeping tax cuts that Republicans enacted in 2025. Soaring interest payments to investors who have purchased America’s debt now make up about half of that red ink, pushing the United States into a deeper financial hole.... The inability of lawmakers to confront the debt comes with long-term risks. While the United States remains the world’s largest economy, its mounting debt load could lead investors to demand higher interest rates for U.S. bonds or raise questions about the nation’s creditworthiness, which could erode confidence in the dollar as the world’s reserve currency.... [Mr.] Trump has promised to restore fiscal order, yet many of his policies have only exacerbated America’s financial woes.” The link is a gift link. CNBC's report is here. ~~~

Aruni Soni of the New York Times: “Investors are worried about the amount of debt the government has piled up, and bond yields are one key indicator showing this. Yields, or interest rates, on the 30-year Treasury rose above 5.3 percent — a nearly two-decade high — fueled by anxiety over the war in Iran, inflation, unstable government deficits and rampant spending on artificial intelligence.” The link is a gift link. ~~~

~~~ David Lynch of the Washington Post: “Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent acted Wednesday to head off a potentially destabilizing rise in government borrowing costs, doubling to $4 billion the size of a planned buyback of public debt. The move caused the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond, which influences business and consumer loan rates, to fall one day after it reached its highest mark in nearly 20 years.Wednesday’s announcement marks the second time this month that Bessent has waded into financial markets to discourage investors from dumping Treasurys. In early August, the former currency trader intervened to support the sagging Japanese yen amid fears that Tokyo might otherwise sell its Treasurys and use the proceeds to buttress its own currency.” ~~~

~~~ Mohamed El-Erian in a New York Times op-ed: “The interest rates the United States has to pay for the bonds it sells to fund the government have been surging. This was once a niche obsession of financial markets, but it is swiftly evolving into a much broader issue, with implications that extend far beyond the immediate pain of steeper borrowing costs for households. Already, it has prompted the Treasury Department to intervene more forcefully in this key global market. This is no ordinary bond-market sell-off. It’s being driven by forces unlike those of the recent past. And if it persists, it could mark the beginning of a structural economic shift more enduring and more globally consequential than most previous episodes of market volatility. The leap in the cost of borrowing has been breathtaking.” The link is a gift link. ~~~

~~~ Colby Smith of the New York Times: “An increasing number of officials at the Federal Reserve are growing impatient about the lack of progress in getting inflation under control, leading several policymakers to support raising interest rates in July, according to minutes from last month’s gathering. Policymakers voted 9 to 3 in favor of holding rates steady.... The discussion at the latest meeting, a record of which was released on Wednesday, centered on inflation, which has overshot the Fed’s 2 percent target for five years. Fresh price pressures stemming from the war with Iran, surging investments tied to the artificial intelligence boom and ... [Donald] Trump’s tariffs have pushed it even further out of reach. Several participants at the meeting supported higher rates, the minutes said, given their view that 'price pressures appeared broad based' and that the Fed’s current policy settings were not helping to tame inflation. Of that cohort, a few specified that raising rates in July would 'likely help forestall the need for a steeper and potentially more costly sequence of tightening moves at a later stage.'” The link is a gift link.

⭐Here's The Krugman's Guide to the Trump Galaxy. Just read it. Or watch the podcast (included). 

So Much Losing. Jesse Bidgood of the New York Times: “Mr. Trump sees himself as a kingmaker who can elevate a candidate above the pack. That was not what happened on Tuesday night in Florida’s 19th Congressional District. There, the president picked Catalina Lauf, a Florida transplant aligned with the Make America Healthy Again movement, only to see her lose to a local media mogul, Jim Schwartzel. His seal of approval was also not enough to prop up Representative Cory Mills of Florida, whose campaign for re-election foundered under a cloud of investigations involving his treatment of women.... One more loyalist, Representative Andy Ogles of Tennessee, lost his bid for re-election this month... In Wyoming on Tuesday night, a rancher and veterinarian who promised to lower the temperature of the state’s intraparty brawls beat a Trump-backed candidate.... Last week, the election denier Mike Lindell fell short in his Trump-supported bid to be the Republican nominee for governor in Minnesota. Earlier in the summer, candidates whom Trump endorsed faltered in governor’s races in Iowa and Georgia. His initial pick for governor lost in South Carolina, too.” The link is a gift link. ~~~

~~~ So if Trump is losing at the ballot box, what can he do? ~~~ 

~~~ New York Times Editors Update Their Autocracy Index: “The surest sign of democratic collapse is the unwillingness of an elected political party to leave office.... The shift often starts slowly but can ultimately end in autocracy.... [Donald] Trump has taken worrisome steps down this path.... He has directed Republican-run states to enact newly gerrymandered maps to increase the chances that Republicans maintain control of Congress even if they receive fewer votes this year. He has tried to pass legislation that could keep many eligible voters from voting. And he has sent signals that he may use the power of the federal government to disallow legitimate ballots this fall. On July 16, Mr. Trump took the remarkable step of giving a prime-time White House address devoted to lies and misleading statements about voter fraud.... His extended attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election should make clear that the threat is real.” The link is a gift link.

Hansi Lo Wang & Jude Joffe-Block of NPR: "A highly unusual Census Bureau report that ... [Donald] Trump is using to reup dubious claims of widespread illegal voting by non-U.S. citizens has ties to a Trump-aligned think tank.... In a social media post Tuesday, Trump claimed that the bureau's initial analysis of more than 128 million voter records 'proves that over 24,000 Noncitizens voted illegally' in the 2020 presidential election and that the final number will 'explode' after the statistical agency finishes checking over 32 million more voter records. The unauthored, seven-page report says it draws on a 2020 commercial voter file and various federal administrative records, but data and election experts say the report is questionable in its methodology and conclusions. Work on the analysis was not conducted by career civil servants at the Census Bureau, and the team behind it included individuals affiliated with the America First Policy Institute...." 

Wherein President* W. Recking Ball wanders around the White House grounds boasting about granite that would last a million years (???): ~~~

~~~ Dan Diamond of the Washington Post: “...  for 20 minutes on Wednesday morning, [the] problems [Donald Trump should be addressing] were mostly set aside as [he] delighted in one of his favorite roles: showing off new White House construction. The president took reporters on a tour of his planned helipad, which workers have been constructing around-the-clock on the White House’s South Lawn.... [He also talked about the lawn.] Grass has a life like humans have a life, Trump said, thanking ScottsMiracle-Gro for making a donation of new sod and pointing out fresh topsoil. 'If you’re grass, you’re very happy.' He also shared his continued frustration over efforts to block his planned ballroom, with the Supreme Court now weighing whether to side with lower courts and temporarily halt construction beginning Friday.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ A clip from the tour is embedded below. A longer version is here: ~~~

If the Kennedy Center must remove Trump's name, it damned well will drop Kennedy's name, too: ~~~  

~~~ The Great Tarp of Vengeance. Jonathan Edwards of the Washington Post: “The Kennedy Center tarp is here to stay for the foreseeable future. The center’s leaders said Tuesday that they have kept a tarp-covered scaffolding up for more than two months so that crews can conduct water testing and make structural repairs to the front portico’s roof overhang. The scaffolding was originally erected on June 12 to comply with a federal judge’s order that ... Donald Trump's name be removed from the center’s facade. The tarped scaffolding has sat virtually unused ever since, blocking nearly all of the center’s Trump-less title. Lawyers for Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), the ex officio member of the center’s board who sued to get the president’s name removed, called the center’s explanation a pretext to effectively redact John F. Kennedy’s name and thwart Congress’s intent to memorialize him.”

Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times: “The principal aim of ... [Donald] Trump’s second term is revenge.... Revenge shapes the president’s priorities, drives his actions and structures the decisions of his government. Nowhere is this more apparent than when Trump turns the weight of the federal government against those Americans who defy his will [like Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia and David Hearn].... There is no observable national interest at work in the crusades against Abrego Garcia or Hearn. These are personal crusades, shaped entirely by Trump’s grievances, his desire for revenge, his insatiable need to soothe his own psychic wounds.... With the terrible power of the United States at his fingertips, it is frightening to contemplate what he might do to save his fragile sense of self.” The link is a gift link.

Chris Cameron of the New York Times: Donald “Trump issued his latest threat in the war with Iran, vowing on Wednesday to impose 'tremendous economic consequences' on countries that do business with Iran. Mr. Trump did not specify in his social media post what actions he would take.... Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned last week of 'never before seen' measures to pressure Iran.” The link is a gift link. ~~~

     ~~~ Filip Timotija & Sarah Davis of the Hill: Donald “Trump announced Wednesday evening the 'MOST CRUSHING ECONOMIC OPERATION EVER' against Iran amid negotiations to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a major oil trading waterway that has been effectively closed since early March. 'This will be Economic Warfare and Isolation on an unprecedented scale,' the president wrote on Truth Social. Trump said any nation that works to 'provide any type of lifeline to Iran' will be hit with 'TREMENDOUS Economic Consequences' from the U.S. 'Oil smuggling, swap lines, cash transfers, exchange houses, ship registries, front companies — It all needs to stop NOW. You know who you are,' the president wrote.”

Peter Eavis & John Ismay of the New York Times: “... since May, the U.S. military has played a crucial role in getting millions of barrels of oil through the [Strait of Hormuz], helping to keep oil prices from rising further. The operation stealthily shepherds tankers through the southern part of the strait on routes close to Oman. Iran effectively controls which ships go through its side of the strait, opposite Oman. Before the war, about 15 million barrels of crude oil a day went through the Strait of Hormuz. In July, tankers using U.S. protected routes transported around five million barrels of oil daily out of the Persian Gulf, according to analysts.... But the U.S. effort ... has come at a cost. The U.S. military is deploying significant resources to get a limited amount of oil through the strait — something it did not have to do before the war, when tankers sailed freely through the waterway.” The link is a gift link. An Axios report is here.

That Was Stupid. Eric Schmitt & Helene Cooper of the New York Times: “On ... [Donald] Trump’s orders, the Pentagon curtailed this year’s [military] exercises [with South Korea] and scaled back some live-fire components of the drill, which were already underway. Current and former military officials say the move is likely to undercut U.S. military readiness in the region at a time when allies are questioning the Trump administration’s commitment to longstanding partnerships and countering China. The president’s decision is also unlikely to affect the person he hoped to sway: North Korea’s dictator, Kim Jong-un.” The link is a gift link. ~~~

~~~ Phelim Kine of Politico: “... Donald Trump said this week he is cutting back joint military exercises with South Korea, and announced Wednesday that he will meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un later this year. That is pushing countries in the region to accelerate their defense spending and forge alternate partnerships.... Trump’s move 'resonates not just in Korea but across the entire Indo-Pacific because everyone’s wondering whether or not their relationship with the United States is as unstable as the Koreans’,' said Ian Brzezinski, who served ... under President George W. Bush.” ~~~

~~~ Jesse Johnson of the Japan Times: “Pyongyang fired off a barrage of short-range ballistic missiles on Thursday, Tokyo and Seoul said, just hours after ... Donald Trump claimed he would meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un later this year.... But Kim’s powerful sister appeared to pour cold water on Trump’s push for reengagement. In a report carried by state-run media Thursday, Kim Yo Jong said pointedly that she was 'not aware' of Trump’s claim that he was in communication with her brother, while also labeling the U.S. president’s order earlier this week to scale down joint military exercises with South Korea as 'one unworthy of comment.'”

“The First Lady of the Pentagon.” Elisabeth Bumiller of the New York Times: “There has never been a Pentagon spouse quite like Jennifer Hegseth. In May she was in camouflage shorts and a sweat-drenched T-shirt that said 'This Is War' working out with sailors, Marines and her husband, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, on the deck of the U.S.S. Boxer in Singapore. In June she and six of the couple’s seven children accompanied Mr. Hegseth to the D-Day commemoration in Normandy, where a Defense Department promotional video with a swelling, cinematic soundtrack captured husband and wife walking arm in arm on Omaha Beach. The imagery seemed to cast her as the first lady of the Pentagon. Last year ... she was included in a group Signal chat in which Mr. Hegseth shared attack plans for U.S. warplanes targeting the Houthis in Yemen. This month she ... [became] chair of the President’s Military Spouse Commission, an unpaid position aimed at improving the lives of military families.... 

“Mrs. Hegseth was for years Mr. Hegseth’s producer at Fox News as he built a broadcast career. Now, seven years into their marriage, she is his most influential adviser and his de facto producer at the Pentagon. She has prepped him for appearances, sat in on his meetings with journalists, interviewed potential members of his staff and brainstormed ideas for the Defense Department videos he — and sometimes she — appears in.” The link is a gift link. MB: And for all her efforts, the poor bastard is still an incompetent, arrogant, stupid loser.

Jake Traylor & Jacqueline Alemany of MS NOW: "... Donald Trump’s closest aide, Natalie Harp, declined multiple times over more than a year to seek a routine security clearance normally obtained by West Wing staffers to work at the White House.... After concerns mounted among the White House counsel’s office and security officials, the president himself intervened, and Harp in recent months filled out the forms to launch a formal federal background investigation and received the clearance, one ...[person] said. The lack of a security clearance is one of several red flags raised about Harp internally by Trump’s top aides since he returned to the White House in January 2025. Harp operates unusually close to the president and filters much of the information Trump sees on a daily basis.... One national security official voiced concern that Harp’s proximity to the president — in the West Wing and his residence — gives her access to the most sensitive information around Trump, more than nearly all other senior White House officials." ~~~

He wants to build his ballroom and travel with Natalie on their apparently defenseless flying palace gifted by the Emir of Qatar. -- Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.), at a rally Sunday ~~~ 

~~~ Scott Lemieux in LG&$: "It is simultaneously true that [Sen. Jon] Ossoff said nothing even remotely misogynist and that Republicans pretending to care about politicians who demean women are exhibiting farcical levels of bad faith." ~~~

     ~~~ Adam Gabbatt of the Guardian provides all the background necessary on Ossoff's one-off and Republicans' over-the-top mock umbrage taken. ~~~

     ~~~ Heather Cox Richardson not only serves up the background on Ossoff's Natalie comment, she highlights the other Trump disasters Ossoff ticked off in his brief appraisal of the man who "doesn't want to do the job."

Maxine Joselow of the New York Times: “The Trump administration has taken a series of extraordinary steps to attack California’s position as a national leader in environmental protection, enlisting at least a half-dozen federal agencies to undermine the state’s efforts to pivot away from fossil fuels.... Because of its market muscle as the world’s fourth largest economy, California’s environmental regulations have influenced the manufacturers of automobiles and other consumer goods. And its green policies have spread to some other states in what’s known as the 'California effect.' But ... [Donald] Trump has marshaled the full power of the federal government to clamp down on the state’s climate initiatives. He has been vocal in his contempt for Gov. Gavin Newsom of California.... Mr. Newsom, a loud and pointed critic of Mr. Trump, pledged soon after the 2024 election to insulate California’s environmental policies from a second Trump administration — perhaps making the state an inviting target for a president who has been using government levers to punish perceived enemies.” The link is a gift link. 

Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: “During the first year of Mr. Trump’s second term, his approach to dealing with federal inspectors general, who are supposed to be apolitical, was to fire them and slash funding for their offices. But since the mass firings, the president has appointed some government watchdogs with overtly political backgrounds. And they have directed their investigations toward allegations of fraud at the state level, instead of targeting the agencies within the administration that they are supposed to scrutinize.... Alarmed over the Trump administration’s botched repairs of the Reflecting Pool and the president’s attempt to falsely blame the failures on left-wing vandals, Democratic lawmakers urged the Interior Department’s inspector general to investigate. The Trump administration’s response was to insert a right-wing operative [-- Dennis Kirk --] to take over the office.... [Mr.] Kirk was among the authors of Project 2025.... Anthony D’Esposito is a former Republican congressman who Mr. Trump named inspector general for the Labor Department. But, instead of scrutinizing his own agency [as is required by law], he has said publicly that he is working 'side by side' with the administrator of the department to find fraud in the states.” The link is a gift link.

~~~ It's almost impossible to keep up with Trump's despicable perversions of the law. Here's another illegal Project 2025-approved undertaking: ~~~  

~~~ The Slaughterhouse Scheme. Dave Philipps of the New York Times: “An examination of government records by The New York Times found that all over the country the Bureau of Land Management, the agency in charge of protecting wild horses, is quietly selling thousands of horses.... Slaughtering wild horses is illegal, but the bureau’s actions create a loophole that enables people to get mustangs on the cheap and then quickly resell them to be exported alive, processed into cuts of meat and sold abroad. Livestock inspection records show mustangs sold by the government soon ended up on trucks bound for slaughter plants in Canada. The U.S. government’s sales of wild horses were once rare, but started to rise after ... [Donald] Trump took office. In 2025, they more than doubled to 3,700 horses, according to bureau records.... The government can spend more than $3,000 to capture a mustang and bring it to market, but sells each for as little as $25.... 'The B.L.M. is using sales in a way that was never intended by the law to send young, healthy wild horses into the slaughter pipeline,' said Patricia Miller ... of American Wild Horse Conservation.” The link is a gift link.

Cassidy Steals Collins' Trademark “Concern.” Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: “The chairman of the Senate health committee on Wednesday expressed 'strong concerns' about ... [Donald] Trump’s nominee to lead the Food and Drug Administration, criticizing her support of what he called a 'nonsensical vaccine executive order' issued last week. '“That alone is almost disqualifying,' the chairman, Senator Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican, wrote on social media. The senator made his comments hours after Mr. Trump announced he had nominated Dr. Heidi Overton, a White House domestic policy official, to fill the vacancy left by Dr. Marty Makary, who resigned from the F.D.A. in May. Mr. Cassidy’s post was an immediate signal that Dr. Overton could face trouble getting confirmed.” The link is a gift link. MB: Okay, “strong concerns” are more masculine than Collins' girly “concerns.” But almost disqualified? There's your weasel word. ~~~

     ~~~ Lauren Gardner, et al., of Politico: “Without the support of Cassidy, who’s frequently pushed back on vaccine policies championed by Trump and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., it would be nearly impossible for her to become commissioner. Cassidy could deny her the committee vote she needs, or simply join Democrats in voting her down there. The Senate would then never get the chance to consider her.” MB: Oh, don't worry. Cassidy is a medical miracle: his arm is so twistable, it's been featured in the New England Journal of Medicine. (Okay, that might be a lie, but you get the point.)

Michael Shear of the New York Times: “Prince Harry, his wife, Meghan, and their children are moving back to Britain in the upcoming weeks, according to two people familiar with their decision. The move comes six years after they left for the United States amid a clash with other members of the royal family. The surprise announcement ends a self-imposed exile for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.... Prince Harry was stripped of his honorary military titles and royal patronage appointments in 2021, more than a year after announcing that he and his wife would 'step back' from their official duties. The yearslong feud continued across the Atlantic as Harry wrote a tell-all book, 'Spare'; the couple gave an interview to Oprah Winfrey; and several efforts at reconciliation failed. For years, Harry accused Buckingham Palace of preventing his family’s return to Britain by refusing to provide them with armed protection. King Charles III was informed of the decision on Sunday, one of the people said, adding that the family’s move was not discussed when the duke and duchess visited Britain and met with the king this summer. There will be no change in Harry and Meghan’s status as non-working royals, and they will remain as private individuals while they reside in Britain, both of the people said.” The link is a gift link. (Also linked yesterday.) 

~~~~~~~~~~ 

Minnesota Gubernatorial Race. Comic Relief. Kyla Guilfoil & Joe Kottke of NBC News: "Mike Lindell, a fierce Trump ally and the founder of MyPillow, says he’s willing to foot the bill for a full recount in Minnesota’s GOP primary for governor — a race he lost this month by 11 percentage points. In a brief phone call with NBC News on Wednesday, Lindell said that he had hired his own team to begin investigating the Aug. 11 Republican primary, which NBC News projects state House Speaker Lisa Demuth won, and that he had reached out to the Minnesota secretary of state’s office to ask for a cost estimate for a recount."

Missouri Congressional Races. Madaleine Rubin of the New York Times: “A judge in Missouri ruled Wednesday that the state’s newly drawn congressional map could be used in the November elections, handing Republicans a win in a monthslong battle over redistricting. Judge Daniel Green of the Circuit Court of Cole County, which includes the state’s capital, Jefferson City, shot down an attempt to subject the new map, which favors Republicans, to a statewide vote in November. The judge sided with Denny Hoskins, the secretary of state, who had argued that Missouri’s Constitution does not allow a referendum on congressional redistricting and that altering districts now could disrupt midterm elections.” The link is a gift link.