August 5, 2026

Marie: Here are a couple of stories I meant to link earlier today -- and didn't:

(1) Tyler Pager, et al., of the New York Times: purport to have the inside story on Jeanine Pirro's meeting with Pool Scums Donald Trump & Interior Secretary Doug Burgum: “After about an hour of intense back-and-forth, Ms. Pirro emerged with her job intact, for now. Speaking to reporters during a trip to the West Coast on Tuesday evening, Mr. Trump said he had told Ms. Pirro he was 'not happy' with her filing and was still weighing her future. 'I haven’t made a determination,' he said when asked if Ms. Pirro’s job was safe. During the meeting on Monday, Ms. Pirro, her voice raised at times, directly confronted Mr. Burgum, accusing him of misleading the president. She made the case that Mr. Burgum had promoted a self-serving cover story to conceal his own missteps.... This account, based on interviews with several people with knowledge of the events, demonstrated a core truth of Mr. Trump’s second term: Anyone willing to contradict the president is in trouble, even if the dissenter happens to be a family friend who has faithfully executed his prosecutorial agenda over the years.” The link is a gift link. 

(2) "Neither of the Above" Wins GOP Congressional Primary Race. Diana Paulsen & Elise Spenner of ABC News: "A candidate who dropped out of Michigan's 8th Congressional District race nearly a month ago and has done no fundraising will be the Republican nominee after he defeated favorite Amir Hassan, who was endorsed by ... Donald Trump in June. Thomas J. Smith, a retired engineer who exited the race in mid-July, pulled in 50% of the vote in Tuesday’s Republican primary and was projected to win the race as of Wednesday morning, according to the Associated Press. Though Smith suspended his campaign weeks ago and backed a third candidate, Al Lemmo, his name remained on the ballot.... Hassan is the first Trump-endorsed congressional candidate to lose this cycle."

Kate Kelly of the New York Times: “A military helicopter carrying ... [Donald] Trump came within less than a mile of a passenger jet above Washington on Tuesday after garbled communications between his crew and air traffic controllers in Ronald Reagan National Airport’s tower delayed the controllers from clearing nearby air traffic, according to two people familiar with federal officials’ initial assessment. The incident occurred shortly after 2:30 p.m. as Mr. Trump was flying to Joint Base Andrews from the White House on the initial leg of a planned trip to Los Angeles. Before taking off, the crew of Marine One ... made three attempts to warn controllers in the National Airport tower that they were three minutes away from taking off.... The communications appeared not to have been heard by the controller, and the helicopter advanced. That put it in the flight path of an Envoy Air passenger jet, a haunting situation after a tragic collision between a military helicopter and a passenger jet in the Washington airspace last year....

“Since July, Mr. Trump has been flying in and out of the Ellipse, a public park south of the White House, because the area on the White House South Lawn from which Marine One typically operates has been closed for the construction of a new helipad. That change has upended the routine in airspace that was already one of the country’s most complex, requiring a constant and elaborate dance among military aircraft, civilian helicopters and passenger jets for three major airports.” The link is a gift link. 

Lying, Racist Conspiracy Theorist Weighs in on Michigan Senate Primary. Gregory Svirnovskiy of Politico: “... Donald Trump panned Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed in a social media post, calling the progressive Democrat a 'Communist, who is not liked in Detroit,' while alleging without evidence rampant voter fraud in the state. 'Wayne County (Detroit) in Michigan is one of the most corrupt voting areas in the United States, if not the World,' Trump wrote on Truth Social Wednesday. 'It is strictly Third World! Miracles happen in Wayne County, including more votes being cast than there are voters, by a lot.... The Radical Left Socialist has a real shot, and don’t discount all of those fake mail-in ballots that will ‘surprisingly’ show up at the last moment....Get ready for another Rigged Election.'” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I don't know why the DOJ sent elections "observers" to Wayne County if they can't do anything to stop the "corrupt ... Third World" (read "criminal Black") voters. 

Adam Entous of the New York Times: “The C.I.A. has secretly established a Cuba task force, setting in motion plans for a more concerted campaign to pressure the Cuban government to make the economic, political and leadership changes demanded by ... [Donald] Trump, according to people briefed on the action. The creation of the task force will allow the agency to quickly direct more financial, human and technical resources at Cuba, they said. The task force has begun adding case officers who recruit and manage spies, intelligence analysts, officers who conduct cyberoperations and officers who specialize in covert influence operations, the people said. In 1960, the C.I.A. established an earlier Cuba task force, whose members oversaw the failed, agency-backed invasion of Cuba the next year known as the Bay of Pigs.... The new task force['s] mandate is ... to create fissures among the Cuban political elite, in hope of pressuring the Cubans to replace perceived anti-American hard-liners with more practical leaders more amenable to Mr. Trump’s demands.” The link is a gift link. ~~~

      ~~~ Marie: I'm 81 years old. All of my life, the U.S. has been screwing up its relationship with Cuba (with the exception of a short time during President Obama's administration). Why should that change now? As for the Bay of Pigs, I was personally involved in the cover-up of a certain aspect of the invasion, even though I was too naive to figure out what I was doing. (I later read about my part in a national news magazine.) 

Coincidence. Early this morning I wrote, "If Mike Johnson says some words in a forest and they mean nothing, does he make a sound?" ~~~ 

~~~ Elon Drops Some Trash on the Moon. Kenneth Chang of the New York Times: “If a rocket stage crashes into the moon and no one sees it, did it really crash? A discarded upper stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket slammed into the surface of the moon around 2:35 a.m. Eastern time on Wednesday at a speed of 5,400 miles per hour. However, it appears no one has yet reported any obvious signs of the impact.... No one was able to directly see or photograph the collision.” The link is a gift link.

Marie: Digby provides a transcript of remarks Donald Trump made in regard to Jeanine Pirro's dropping the malicious prosecution of Davey Hearn. The transcript does have typos. (Trump did not say "mandalism," for instance; he said "vandalism.") But even assuming the transcript has errors, it's close enough to accurate to convey Trump's inability to make his case in a clear manner on a matter that has obsessed him. During the course of his little soliloquy, he gets confused. He cannot form complete sentences. He lies. ("Biden spent $58 million. Barack Hussein Obama spent much more than that." According to Art Intel, Biden spent $1.4MM; Obama spent about $35MM). He jumps from topic to topic; he cannot remember common words like "videos" or "videotapes" ("we have photographs [or] tapes, like moving cameras, right? We have them where people are on the side, cutting it with a box knife." Thanks to RAS for the link to the transcript. You can watch President* Fuzzymuddle's oral presentation here.

Sex, Lies & Money. Mostly Money. As akaWendy points out in today's Comments, Heather Cox Richardson's latest "letter" is worth a read: "Observers note that the story of Trump wanting immunity from IRS audits and the revelation that his bank activity mirrored that of money launderers might well be the same story." Wendy also provides a gift link to a 2018 Atlantic story by Natasha Bertrand, which outlines some the money laundering suspicions and ties to organized crime. IMO, the reason Trump talks like a mobster is that he is a mobster. The fraudulent little indiscretions that Alvin Bragg & New York State attorneys general Eric Schneiderman & Tish James were able to catch Trump in are blips on the big screen of international hoohah this guy and his family engage in. The fact that Trump has never been held accountable for any major financial crimes is, well, odd. But we do know he's fine with hush money payments. 

     ~~~ See also Sen. Cory Booker's remarks at yesterday's Judiciary Committee hearing. Booker was (literally) spitting mad at "a president that we know is a tax cheat" and a committee that is granting him immunity from prosecution for tax cheating. 

~~~~~~~~~~ 

Primary Elections 

Arizona. Gubernatorial General Election. Sejal Govindarao, et al., of the New York Times: “Gov. Katie Hobbs of Arizona, a vulnerable Democrat running for re-election, plans to tap a longtime Republican and former mayor of a Phoenix suburb to serve as her running mate, according to two people familiar with the decision. John Giles, a former mayor of Mesa, Ariz., is expected to be announced in the coming days as Ms. Hobbs’s lieutenant governor nominee. Neither Ms. Hobbs nor her campaign would confirm the choice, and nothing is final until an announcement. But the apparent pick is a nod to bipartisanship in a campaign that will pit Ms. Hobbs, a low-key Democrat, against Representative Andy Biggs, a fiercely partisan Republican with ... [Donald] Trump’s endorsement. Ms. Hobbs’s narrow victory four years ago was secured with the backing of moderate Republicans and independent voters who have recoiled against hard-line Republican nominees in each of the last two election cycles.” The link is a gift link.

Kansas. Gubernatorial Race. Mitch Smith of the New York Times: “Republican voters selected Ty Masterson, the influential leader of the Kansas Senate, as their nominee for governor on Tuesday, The Associated Press said. Mr. Masterson, who was endorsed by ... [Donald] Trump, will have perhaps the best chance of any Republican nationally to flip a Democratic-held governorship in November. Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat with a unique political brand, is barred by law from seeking a third term.... Mr. Masterson emerged from a large Republican primary field that included the businessman Philip Sarnecki, Insurance Commissioner Vicki Schmidt and Secretary of State Scott Schwab. Former Gov. Jeff Colyer dropped out of the primary after Mr. Trump endorsed Mr. Masterson.Voters in the Democratic primary nominated State Senator Cindy Holscher, The A.P. said. Ms. Kelly had endorsed a different candidate.” The link is a gift link. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: It's a shame Mr. Masterson did not seek out a Hollywood career, because he could have got steady employment as the slick villain in many a thriller/slasher movie & teevee series. I do know better than to judge people by their appearances. That said, the photo of Masterson accompanying the article shows him more-or-less in repose; even still, he cannot hide the cocky, conniving sneer behind a contrived bland demeanor. I don't care if his hobby is rescuing kittens or writing nursery rhymes, he creeps me out.

Senate Race. Katie Glueck of the New York Times: “The Rev. Adam Hamilton, the pastor of the largest United Methodist congregation in the country, won the Democratic nomination for Senate in Kansas on Tuesday, according to The Associated Press, setting up a long-shot challenge to Senator Roger Marshall, a Republican, in the general election. The state has not sent a Democrat to the U.S. Senate in nearly 100 years, and Kansas is not a serious factor in Democrats’ hopes to try to retake the Senate.... But Kansas is not as right-wing as some of its neighbors. Its popular two-term governor, Laura Kelly, is a Democrat, as is one of its four representatives in the U.S. House, Representative Sharice Davids. In 2022, voters resoundingly decided against removing the right to abortion from the State Constitution. And more recently, Kansas farmers were hit hard by the Trump administration’s tariffs.” The link is a gift link.

Ballot Issue. Kate Zernike of the New York Times: “Kansas voters on Tuesday rejected a ballot measure that would have required state Supreme Court justices to be popularly elected rather than appointed by the governor, dealing another setback to Republican lawmakers trying to overturn a decision that established a constitutional right to abortion. That ruling in 2019 has preserved Kansas as a significant abortion provider for women in a wide swath of middle-American states that banned abortion after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. The Republican-controlled Legislature put the amendment on Tuesday’s ballot, arguing that the court had repeatedly failed to represent the will of the state’s voters.... But Republican leaders made clear to anti-abortion groups that the measure was mainly aimed at abortion.” The link is a gift link. An NBC News report is here.

Michigan. Democratic Senate Primary. At 3:30 am ET, and still at 6:30 am ET, too close to call. BUT ~~~

     ~~~ Henry Gomez of NBC News: "Abdul El-Sayed has won Michigan’s slugfest of a Democratic Senate primary, NBC News projects, clinching the nomination in a close race over Rep. Haley Stevens and establishing a Midwest beachhead for a progressive left on the march this midterm cycle. El-Sayed overcame a nearly $65 million onslaught of outside money and an establishment that had rallied around Stevens. Popular Gov. Gretchen Whitmer endorsed Stevens late last month — a move seen as a last-ditch effort to stop a rising El-Sayed.  El-Sayed, a former public health official, goes on to face former Rep. Mike Rogers, who claimed the Republican nomination without opposition Tuesday. Their race in November is expected to be one of the most competitive in the country, and it could determine which party controls the Senate."

Gubernatorial Race. Mitch Smith of the New York Times: “Jocelyn Benson, who has cultivated a national profile during two terms as Michigan’s secretary of state, on Tuesday won the Democratic nomination for governor, The Associated Press said. Ms. Benson is expected to face a competitive general election race as she aims to keep the governorship in Democratic hands. She will face Representative John James, whose congressional district is based in suburban Detroit, and who won the Republican primary on Tuesday, according to The A.P. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, the Democratic incumbent, was barred by term limits from seeking re-election.” The link is a gift link. ~~~

     ~~~ Here's the NBC News story on John James' victory. 

House Race. Bayliss Wagner & Evan Gorelick of the New York Times: “A grass-roots organizer and climate activist prevailed in the Democratic primary for a battleground House district in Michigan on Tuesday, according to The Associated Press, scoring another victory for the party’s progressive wing in a district pivotal for the fight to control Congress. The organizer, William Lawrence, 35, a co-founder of the Sunrise Movement, a youth-led environmental group, defeated two more moderate candidates to advance to the general election against Representative Tom Barrett, a first-term Republican who is one of the more vulnerable Republican incumbents. Backed by Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Mr. Lawrence centered his campaign on opposing data centers, increasing taxes on billionaires and passing legislation for universal health care. He also said he would end arms sales to Israel.

“The Lansing-area district in central Michigan, the Seventh Congressional, is one of only 18 House seats rated as tossups by the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.... Some Democrats worried that the two moderate candidates, Matt Maasdam and Bridget Brink, would split the vote and that Mr. Lawrence’s views would pave the way for Mr. Barrett, an Army veteran who flipped the district in 2024, to win re-election. With more than half the vote tallied, the two moderate candidates combined accounted for a majority of the vote.” The link is a gift link.

Missouri. Kellen Browning of the New York Times: “Representative Wesley Bell of Missouri, a moderate pro-Israel Democrat, fended off a primary challenge from a former congresswoman and democratic socialist on Tuesday, according to The Associated Press.... Former Representative Cori Bush, Mr. Bell’s predecessor in the St. Louis district, had hoped to add to the high-profile victories that socialists have notched over Democratic incumbents this year in New York City and Denver.... Mr. Bell, a former prosecuting attorney and city councilman..., rose to prominence after the 2014 protests in Ferguson, Mo., which erupted after a white police officer fatally shot Michael Brown, an unarmed Black teenager. In 2018, Mr. Bell ousted the county prosecutor who declined to indict the officer. In 2024, amid a backlash against progressive politics, Mr. Bell took on Ms. Bush, a member of the so-called Squad — a group of progressive congresswomen of color — and an outspoken critic of Israel’s war in Gaza. He defeated her in the Democratic primary, but since then, Democratic voters have shifted toward Ms. Bush’s tough stance on Israel, which gave her confidence in a potential comeback.” The link is a gift link. A Politico item is here.

⭐Ballot Issue. The How-Stupid-Do-You-Think-We-Are? Amendment. Kate Zernike of the New York Times: “Missouri voters on Tuesday rejected an attempt by the Republican-controlled Legislature to make it harder to pass citizen-sponsored amendments to the state’s constitution, preserving a tool that voters across the country have relied on to pass laws their legislatures would not. The Legislature ... had pushed back after voters approved citizen-sponsored amendments that expanded Medicaid, legalized marijuana and sports betting, established a right to abortion, raised the minimum wage and required paid sick leave. The measure would have amended the state’s constitution to require a majority in each of the state’s eight congressional districts, rather than a simple majority statewide, to pass citizen-sponsored amendments. That would have been the highest threshold in any of the 18 states that allow citizen groups to place constitutional amendments on the ballot. Opponents of the measure ... said that under the measure, an amendment could win the support of 95 percent of the state’s voters but still fail, based on recent voter tallies. None of the four amendments Missouri voters have passed since 2020 have won in all congressional districts. The higher threshold would not have applied to amendments placed on the ballot by the Legislature; those would have continued to require a simple majority to pass.” The link is a gift link. 

Related. Aaron Pellish of Politico: "Missouri Republicans’ new gerrymander eliminating a Democratic seat is all but certain to be in place for this November’s elections — and into the future — after the state’s GOP secretary of state blocked Democrats from forcing a statewide referendum on the issue. Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins announced Tuesday afternoon that he was rejecting Democrats’ petition to include the referendum on this fall’s ballot just hours ahead of the Tuesday 5 p.m. deadline to make a determination on the petition. Democrats submitted their petition more than eight months ago.... Hoskins ... argu[ed] the referendum violated the state’s constitution. Preliminary records released by Hoskins’ office indicated the referendum had received enough valid signatures to be verified and approved for the ballot under Missouri law.... The referendum’s Democratic backers have said they will sue Hoskins.... But the compressed timeframe significantly diminishes the chance that Democrats can force Missouri’s election to revert back to the old map in November because of the lack of time to run new primaries.”

DOJ Steps Up Voter Suppression Program in Michigan. Trevor Drew of WPBN Michigan: "The U.S. Department of Justice is monitoring polling sites in four Michigan cities Tuesday as voters cast ballots in the state's primary election.The department said staff from its Civil Rights Division and the U.S. Attorney's offices for Michigan's Eastern and Western districts are monitoring polling locations in Detroit, Hamtramck, Lansing and East Lansing." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Despite what you think about statistics, sometimes they tell a story. Here's a statistical story about those four Michigan cities Deathly White Todd Blanche picked out to "monitor" because "transparency" and "voting rights": (a) Detroit: 75% of the residents are Black; 11% are white; the mayor is a Democrat; (b) Hamtramck: first Muslim majority population in the U.S.; 40% of residents are foreign-born; (c) Lansing: almost half the population is non-White; the mayor is a Democrat; (d) East Lansing: although the population is 73% white, the city is the home of Michigan State & has not elected a Republican mayor since 1993. The population of Michigan as a whole is 75% to 70% White. How about that?

The Incredible Shrinking Bully. Steve Hendrix & Anthony Faiola of the Washington Post: “When ... Donald Trump strode into the Rose Garden in April 2025 brandishing a poster board of tariff hikes, the world leaped as if a fire alarm had gone off.... Sixteen months later, the flabbergasting threats keep piling up — to weaponize trade, annex Canada, seize Greenland, abandon NATO, annihilate Iran — but the alarm bells have gone quiet. World leaders are slower to rattle as they’ve seen the president increasingly fenced in by courts, rebuffed by Congress and strung along by Tehran — his ultimatums evaporating and poll numbers sinking.... Abroad, most consequently, Iran refuses to bend under American bombs and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, and Russian President Vladimir Putin persists in his war in Ukraine. Europe met Trump’s recently renewed demands for Greenland with a collective sigh, and trading partners have shrugged off the latest tariffs.”

Michael Crowley of the New York Times: Donald “Trump’s angry claim on Monday that Iran was being 'unbelievably duplicitous' in its dealings with the United States was just the latest sign of his struggle to understand his rivals in Tehran. Mr. Trump considers himself a master of sizing up and exploiting his adversaries. But Iran’s leaders have baffled him. 'All they do is make me angry,' he told reporters last week.... Mr. Trump is hardly the first U.S. president who has struggled to read Iran.... Most have come up short; some have been burned badly. A rare exception is President Barack Obama, whose 2015 nuclear deal with Iran was a 20-month diplomatic effort.” The link is a gift link. MB: It is hardly surprising that a narcissist like Donald Trump whose only interest is Donald Trump cannot understand people who are more dedicated to carrying out “a mission from God” than the Blues Brothers.

Dan Diamond & Peter Stevenson of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump has directed contractors to redo weeks of work on his planned White House helipad, frustrated with its appearance and questioning whether the slope of the White House lawn needs to be changed.... Trump has made the helipad a priority, ordering that work begun in June be completed by a state visit [by China's president Xi Jinping] in September, but was dissatisfied with the results.... The White House’s South Lawn, where the helipad is being built, slants downward. Trump has expressed a desire for a landing pad that sits level with the horizon, prompting contractors to disassemble their work and consider whether to start by changing the lawn itself, the people said. Photographs obtained by The Washington Post on Tuesday show how contractors have taken apart their work, including a 100-foot-wide granite presidential seal that was beginning to take shape last week.” Here's a gift link to a New York Times story. (Also linked yesterday.) 

Ha Ha. D.C. U.S. Attorney Boozy Boxwine thinks Donald Trump cares about facts & evidence. ~~~

~~~ No, That Large White Box She Was Hauling Around Was Not Full of Gallo Merlot. Sarah Lynch & Jennifer Jacobs of CBS News: "The top federal prosecutor in the nation's capital carted a box full of evidence to the White House on Monday, in a bid to prove to ... [Donald] Trump that the damage to the Reflecting Pool was caused by shoddy construction and not by vandals, sources familiar with the matter told CBS News on Tuesday. U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro ... made the case in a sometimes heated private meeting in the Oval Office Monday, hours after Mr. Trump had publicly rebuked her for dropping criminal charges against Olympic canoeist David Hearn. She was later photographed leaving the White House carting a large white box and other bags, which sources said contained all of the evidence collected from the Interior Department that exculpated Hearn and several others from criminal vandalism." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Tom Nichols of the Atlantic: Donald Trump's “rant yesterday about the Reflecting Pool (speaking of things that don’t hold water) was a warning that the president has encased himself in the hard amber of irrationality that inevitably surrounds authoritarian leaders. He has become detached from reality — and that detachment is extremely dangerous. The Reflecting Pool mess is different from other Trump obsessions because it reveals just how immune to evidence and logic his beliefs have become, even when a trusted lieutenant wheels an entire box of supporting evidence into the Oval Office. In Trump’s world, nothing is ever innocent. If something went wrong, the fault must lie with Americans conspiring against him, not with a contractor who did shabby work.” Thank you to akaWendy for this gift link. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Nichols adds valuable context to Trump's behavior. However, where he writes, “Irrational, in this sense, does not mean 'stupid,' or 'incompetent,' or 'psychotic,'” I disagree with him. It's true that irrational doesn't mean stupid or incompetent, but Trump is stupid and incompetent, so that could be clarified. More to the point, I think irrational does mean psychotic, or at least neurotic. To me, the difference between sanity and insanity hinges on whether or not a person can cope in the real (i.e., rational) world. Of course there are many reasons that people can't cope, usually for finite lengths of time, for valid or "situational" reasons -- like a sudden, unexpected change in circumstances. These "reactive" unstable moments aren't indicators of stark, staring madness, IMO. But Trump can't cope with anything, ever. He has to make up -- or be provided with -- a fable to explain every setback for which he bears even partial responsibility. And that mental disability, that inability to receive facts and admit mistakes -- which has described Trump's behavior for decades, and which appears to have increasingly overwhelmed him -- is crazy. Neurotic? Psychotic? I don't know. But crazy, yes. Twenty-fifth Amendment crazy? Yes. ~~~

~~~ Jasmine Golden & Liam Bowman of the Washington Post: “In a court filing Tuesday, attorneys for David Hearn pushed back against the Justice Department’s move to dismiss the charge against their client 'without prejudice,' which would allow the department to prosecute him later. Lawyers Norm Eisen, Mary Dohrmann and Steve Levin wrote that recent attacks by ... Donald Trump and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum against the decision to drop the case raise concerns that Trump could push to revive the prosecution. The department 'has repeatedly demonstrated its willingness to seek or reinstate criminal charges to satisfy the President, irrespective of the law or facts,' the attorneys wrote.... The attorneys also asked for grand jury records related to the case.” The AP's report is here. ~~~

~~~ Liam Bowman & Jasmine Golden of the Washington Post: Veterinarian  “Sophie Dennison-Gibby was one of three defendants charged with a misdemeanor related to Reflecting Pool damage. The charges were all dropped.... When she visited the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in June and noticed what appeared to be trash floating in the water, her first instinct, she said, was to remove it to help local wildlife.... Dennison-Gibby said Trump’s comments against her and others accused of damaging the Reflecting Pool, including threatening jail time, made her feel 'sick.' 'To be called out by the most powerful person in the world, the president of the United States, and called a sick, violent vandal when all I had done was pick up a piece of trash was awful,' Dennison-Gibby said. A native of Portsmouth, England, she moved to the United States in 2004 and was naturalized in 2014, she said. 'The whole experience has just been so heartbreaking. I chose this country. I’ve been naturalized here for 12 years,' Dennison-Gibby said.”  

Theodoric Meyer, et al., of the Washington Post: “The Pentagon’s deployment of National Guard troops to Washington, D.C., is set to cost an additional $1.4 billion through the end of the Trump administration, according to information provided to Congress and reviewed by The Washington Post. The estimate, which encompasses October 2026 through January 2029, adds to the hundreds of millions of dollars spent on the mission to date. While the administration has not disclosed the full cost of the mission so far, the new figure represents the most comprehensive accounting yet of ... Donald Trump’s unprecedented use of the military to patrol the nation’s capital — an operation fiercely criticized by many Democrats and civil liberty advocates.” Thanks to RAS for the link. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Criticize? Criticize? What's to criticize? Well, there is this: ~~~

~~~ Kate Lonsdorf of NPR: "Anna King was sitting on a bench [on the] afternoon [of May 8] outside her home on a busy street in Washington, D.C., scrolling on her phone when three National Guard members entered her front gate, confronted her and pushed her to the ground.... King, a retired U.S. Army captain who served in Iraq and earned both a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star, can be heard [on a Ring security recording] telling the three male guard members...[,] 'You have absolutely no authority to detain me.'... The three Idaho National Guard members grab King and wrestle her to the ground. You can hear King yelling 'Get off of me!' and coughing, while two of the troops tighten the zip ties on her hands. Now, the ACLU of the District of Columbia and the private law firm Levy Firestone Muse have filed a federal tort claim against the Idaho National Guard on King's behalf.... King's attorneys say that they believe she was approached by the guard because she has been a vocal critic of their deployment in the city for months, hanging large signs outside her house with messages like 'Occupation: Troops Out' and 'National Guard Stop Being So Embarrassing.'" (Also linked yesterday.) The Independent has a story here.

Nicole Norman of Politico: “An armed suspect was arrested late Sunday afternoon at Trump National Golf Course in Rancho Palos Verdes just days before the ... Donald Trump’s fundraiser [was] set to be held there, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said Tuesday. The man, identified as 38-year-old Jeanine John Taele, was observed by plainclothes federal agents taking photographs and videos and appearing to monitor security-planning activity. Once he was detained in a parking lot on the golf course, deputies found a 16-round magazine in his pocket, the advisory from the sheriff’s department said. In a subsequent search of his car, investigators said, they also recovered a loaded pistol and an additional loaded magazine. Sheriff’s detectives and FBI agents executed a search on his home in the Southern California city of Downey on Monday, where they said they found more firearms, ammunition, body armor, multiple notebooks containing 'concerning statements' and two radio signal devices.”

A Very CBS Story. Jennifer Jacobs & Kristin Brown of CBS News: "The White House on Wednesday declassified information claiming the FBI opened an investigation into whether ... [Donald] Trump was acting as an asset for Russia when he fired FBI Director James Comey, a theory an administration official said was not backed up by evidence. The official said the investigation, known as Oxford Comma, was a subcomponent of Crossfire Hurricane, the FBI probe into potential collusion between the 2016 Trump campaign and the Russian government — an investigation that has long drawn Mr. Trump's ire.... The case was marked sensitive, which is generally done to keep a case off the books from other agents, the official said.Oxford Comma was eventually rolled into Special Counsel Robert Mueller's larger probe into Mr. Trump, the official said, and was later found not to have any merit when the rest of the Mueller investigation was closed down.... The official said[,] 'The short of it is, almost everything in the FBI's possession at that point had debunked or ruled out that Trump or his campaign was colluding with Russia at that time.'" MB: I've noticed that Jennifer Jacobs has managed to write quite a number of credible stories since CBS News has been, ah, under new management, but this looks like stenography to me. Just sayin'.

Claire Brown of the New York Times: “An appeals court on Tuesday handed a victory to a group of federal grant recipients that the Trump administration has prevented from spending billions of dollars in climate funding for over a year. In a split decision, 10 judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld an earlier injunction that said the Environmental Protection Agency could not terminate $20 billion in climate grants, and that the recipients should have access to the funds as their case proceeds. If the E.P.A. does not appeal the decision to the Supreme Court in the next seven days, the judgment will effectively reinstate much of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, a Biden-era 'green bank' initiative that supports low-cost loans and investments for renewable energy projects across the country.” The link is a gift link. (Also linked yesterday.)

Chris Marquette of Politico: “Todd Blanche took a major step toward confirmation as attorney general Tuesday after the Senate Judiciary Committee voted 12-10 on party lines to advance his nomination, likely setting up a final vote within days.” (Also linked yesterday.)

~~~ The New York Times liveblogged developments in the Senate Judiciary Committee's vote to advance Donald Trump's nomination of his lawyer Todd Blanche to be attorney general. The link is a gift link. The Democrats on the committee have been magnificent. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Here's Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.): ~~~

~~~ Update. Chris Marquette of Politico: “Sen. Susan Collins said Tuesday she will vote against Todd Blanche’s confirmation as attorney general. The Maine Republican ... said in a statement she would oppose Blanche, citing 'several actions that have further eroded the Department’s independence.' She specifically mentioned his role in a controversial IRS settlement with ... Donald Trump and over having 'promised an anti-abortion organization that he would seek to prohibit the mailing of abortion medication to women nationwide.'” MB: Since Republicans can afford to lose only two votes here, this must mean Thune has secured all the votes he needs to confirm Blanche. (Also linked yesterday.) 

Today’s epilogue diminishes the gravity of that day, denigrates the work of the prosecutors and law enforcement officers who secured these convictions, and excuses criminal acts that caused a centuries-long pillar of our democracy — the peaceful transfer of presidential power — to buckle.... If it is [the prosecutors'] view that the public interest is served by surrendering convictions for crimes against the country to the gloss of an enduring public record, then that is an assessment to which this court must yield. -- Judge Amit Mehta, order dismissing criminal charges against eight Oath Keepers ~~~

~~~ Add This to Blanche's Many Disqualifying Transgressions. Alan Feuer of the New York Times: “A federal judge expressed deep regret on Tuesday as he granted a request by the Justice Department to throw out criminal charges against eight members of the far-right Oath Keepers militia who were charged with seditious conspiracy for the central role they played in the storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The move by the judge, Amit P. Mehta, came less than a month after one of his colleagues in Federal District Court in Washington made a similarly pained decision to dismiss Jan. 6-related charges against five members of another far-right group, the Proud Boys, who also played a key part in the Capitol attack. The twin rulings, which both judges made claiming that their hands were tied by the law, amounted to a final erasure of the vast investigation into Jan. 6, the largest criminal inquiry undertaken in the Justice Department’s 156-year history. Confessing that he wished for 'a different ending,' Judge Mehta blasted the Justice Department’s request for a dismissal in the case, saying it bestowed 'unearned grace' on the Oath Keepers defendants — including on their leader Stewart Rhodes — 'by wiping their records clean.'” The link is a gift link. 

Karen DeYoung & Marina Dias of the Washington Post: “The Trump administration revoked the visa of Brazil’s ambassador to Washington, the latest flash point in a deepening dispute between the United States and Latin America’s biggest and richest country. A senior State Department official told reporters in a background briefing that it was a 'reciprocal' action because Brazil has not approved ... Donald Trump’s nominee as ambassador to Brasília — former Florida House speaker Daniel Perez.”

Yo, Akhilleus. I could have done without learning that "First Lady Melania Trump will be the subject of a new Amazon Prime docuseries, senior adviser Marc Beckman announced Tuesday, following Amazon MGM Studios’ documentary film Melania, released earlier this year." (Mediaite link.) In yesterday's Comments, Akhilleus had some, well, rather derogatory things to say about both Miss Melanie and her "senior advisor." I had never heard of Beckman, so I Googled him, only to learn that he had something to do with producing the "Matt Gaetz Show" and that he describes himself on his Linkedin page as the "exclusive senior advisor to First Lady Melania Trump." Really, Marc? "Exclusive"? Melanie doesn't have any other "senior advisors?" Okay, maybe "exclusive" in a Corey Lewandowski/ICE Barbie sort of way (I saw one posed photo of Beckman that made him out to be good-looking), but otherwise, you are so not "exclusive." 

Ana Ley & Mark Bonamo of the New York Times: “Relatives of a Salvadoran immigrant who died after being held at a troubled detention center in Newark gathered outside a church on Tuesday pleading for answers about the circumstances that led to the man’s death. Edwin Lopez-Cornejo, 41, was taken from the Delaney Hall detention center to University Hospital in Newark, where he was pronounced dead on Saturday. His family members appeared before news cameras on Tuesday to demand that state officials investigate Mr. Lopez-Cornejo’s death. They also called for the closure of Delaney Hall and for the release of detainees held there. Mr. Lopez-Cornejo’s mother, Maria Cornejo, said in a phone interview on Tuesday morning that she did not understand why he had died and said that federal immigration officials had refused to provide his medical records to the family. Mr. Lopez-Cornejo is survived by a 12-year-old daughter, his mother said.” The link is a gift link. 

Apoorva Mandavilli, et al., of the New York Times: “The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has linked six additional states to a large outbreak of cyclosporiasis associated with iceberg lettuce, according to a C.D.C. official familiar with the investigation. The agency has now confirmed cases tied to the outbreak in Arkansas, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire and North Carolina, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to disclose confidential information. The additions bring the tally of affected states to 15. The C.D.C. plans to set up a formal response team this week to contend with the outbreak, the official said.” The link is a gift link. 

Scott Horsley of NPR: "A report from Senate Democrats says big U.S. banks had concerns for years about money moves made by Jeffrey Epstein — but largely kept those worries to themselves until after Epstein was arrested on sex-trafficking charges in 2019. The report from Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee, which was released by Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, says more than a dozen bankers at JPMorganChase, Bank of America and Deutsche Bank were aware of suspicious transactions Epstein made as far back as 2002." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ David Gilmour of Mediaite: “Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) has claimed that a 60 Minutes investigation into Jeffrey Epstein’s banking relationships, for which he was interviewed, never aired following the exit of veteran correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi as part of the show’s staffing upheaval.... Alfonsi departed the network while publicly criticizing its leadership and, particularly, editor-in-chief Bari Weiss over her decision to stall the release of a different report....” (Also linked yesterday.)

Marie: You deserve this week's Political Speechwriter's Meaningless Statement Award if you can come up with a string of discernible words that is more mealy-mouthed than Bible Mike's ~~~  

~~~ Mia McCarthy of Politico: “Speaker Mike Johnson broke days of silence on explosive allegations of domestic abuse by Rep. Max Miller, calling for investigations to play out as Miller’s former father-in-law, a GOP senator, calls him unfit for office and Republican operatives fret about losing his Ohio House seat. 'I haven’t spoken to Max about this in the last few days. Of course, I will,' Johnson said in an interview for Politico’s 'The Conversation' with Dasha Burns. 'There’s all sorts of domestic events going on with 435 members of Congress all the time, it’s not my business to get engaged in it.' Pressed on the severity of the claims against Miller — which include holding a gun to the head of his ex-wife, Emily Moreno, and breaking the collarbone of his daughter — Johnson called the allegations 'serious' but said he would let an Ethics Committee investigation run its course.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: "Broke his silence"? If Mike Johnson says some words in a forest and they mean nothing, does he make a sound? I didn't think anybody could make me miss Kevin McCarthy. But Mikey? Well.

~~~~~~~~~~ 

California. Livia Albeck-Ripka, et al., of the New York Times: “The deadly blaze that devastated the Altadena neighborhood in Los Angeles County early last year was ignited by a transmission tower belonging to the utility company Southern California Edison, fire officials said in a report released on Tuesday. The county’s fire department said the blaze, which killed 19 people and destroyed more than 9,400 buildings, was started by electrical sparks coming off the tower, according to a joint investigation by the department and Cal Fire, the state’s firefighting agency. The tower was out of service at the time. Though Edison had previously acknowledged that its equipment most likely started the blaze, known as the Eaton fire, the cause had not been officially confirmed.” The link is a gift link. 

North Carolina House Race. Kate Santaliz of Axios: "Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-N.C.) dropped his re-election bid early Wednesday after the House Ethics Committee concluded he violated House rules over sexual harassment and creating a hostile work environment, and recommended his censure.... Pressure has been mounting on Edwards to step aside since the Ethics Committee released its report Monday, amid mounting concerns that Democrats could flip his seat in November. 'After much prayer and reflection, I've decided to withdraw from my re-election campaign. I will complete my current term,' Edwards wrote in a 3:32 a.m. ET post on X." MB: Maybe Edwards should have done some praying and reflecting before succumbed to the devilish temptation to sexually harass young staffers. 

     ~~~ Update: The New York Times report is here; the link is a gift link.  

~~~~~~~~~~  

Ukraine/Russia. Marc Santora of the New York Times: “Russia launched a blistering ballistic missile attack on Kyiv and its suburbs before dawn on Wednesday, killing at least 17 people and wounding dozens more, Ukrainian officials said, as Moscow takes advantage of Kyiv’s depleted air defenses.... It was the third major attack on the capital in a week as Ukraine runs desperately low on interceptor missiles for its Patriot batteries, the only reliable defense against Russia’s most sophisticated missiles. 'Ballistic missile interceptors could have saved the lives of those killed today,' President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said in a statement.... .It is very important that our partners understand that delays in supplying them, or an unwillingness to provide antiballistic systems, lead directly to such horrific casualties and destruction..” The link is a gift link.