Monday, August 17, 2026

Trump store closes as people have moved on

The grift runs out of steam.  Knoxville has a store closing: TRUMP SUPERSTORE.  Why is it closing?  Why do you think?  Lack of interest. Maria Villarroel (Irish Star) reports: 


A store in Tennessee dedicated to selling President Donald Trump’s merchandise will close due to a lack of interest.

The store, located along Interstate 40 near Knoxville, Tennessee, is selling its inventory at a 50 percent discount. The store’s owner, William “Bill” Hays, said the reason for its closure is due to a lack of customers.

Local media tried to spin it which made Hays angry.  He's not retiring.  It's lack of business. 

Likewise, an employee who identified himself as Dan said the store’s foot traffic had significantly decreased.
“No. That’s why we’re closing,” Dan told Slate, when asked if the store was closing due to Hays relocating. “We’re not busy anymore.”

What happened?  Lack of popularity.  

When asked why he believed the store’s popularity had dwindled, he said the president’s own approval ratings had plummeted and that people were struggling financially amid tariffs imposed by the administration and high gas prices driven by the conflict in Iran.

“People really are saying, ‘I don’t know if I’m going to do a full load of groceries or I’m going to put my electric bill on a credit card this month,” he said.

Chump's no longer popular or liked.  People are suffering.  That's what generally kills a grift, when people can no longer afford it. 

This is C.I.'s "The Snapshot:"


Monday, August 17, 2026.  Chump continues to weaponize the Justice Dept to go after his enemies, he continues the Iran War and continues to wreck the US economy, Todd Blanche goes live on NBC to sport his stupidity, the USS LINCOLN remains the scandal Chump and Hegseth can't cover up, and much more. 


What happens when you're not suited for diplomacy or problem solving but become president?

A clusterf**k as Ben (MEIDASTOUCH NEWS) explains this morning. 
 




Iran's planning retaliation and Moscow's creating new bases.  And Chump?  Chump's just a failed real estate mogul and faded TV personality in over his head. 


The United States and Iran on Monday missed their 60-day deadline to reach a deal to curtail Iran’s nuclear program under the terms of the cease-fire they agreed to in June, underlining the breakdown of a truce that President Trump promised would end the war.

Mr. Trump had announced the so-called memorandum of understanding between the two countries with great fanfare two months ago. But the short-lived agreement failed to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran effectively blockaded after Israel and the United States attacked in late February, or end a conflict that has entered its sixth month. 



The South Korean and United States militaries view their annual drills in South Korea as more critical than ever. The stakes have risen dramatically as North Korea has gained battlefield expertise with drones and modern warfare by deploying troops to support Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The summer exercise had barely begun on Monday when President Trump denounced it, dealing yet another blow to the seven-decade-old alliance between Washington and Seoul. Under Mr. Trump, bilateral relations have already come under immense strain from ​his punishing tariffs on South Korean exports.​ And his transactional diplomacy has frustrated South Korea, most recently when he appeared to put Saudi Arabia on the path to enriching nuclear fuel on its own soil, a demand Seoul has made for years.

In recent years, North Korea has ​not only expanded its nuclear arsenal but also repeatedly threatened ​to use it against South ​Korea, labeling its neighbor ​a “most ​hostile enemy.” Its leader, Kim Jong-un, has also forged a mutual defense treaty with Moscow, dispatching troops and​ weapons to ​support Russia’s war against Ukraine. Despite these escalations, Mr. Trump, in a social media post, characterized North Korea as “unthreatening and respectful” while boasting of his “very good relationship” with Mr. Kim.​


These are the actions of a US president?  From one who doesn't know his head from his ass. 

Giulia Carbonaro (NEWSWEEK) reports: 


President Donald Trump is asking Americans to accept paying higher gas prices as a patriotic trade-off as the country continues its war against Iran, even as a majority of U.S. adults want the conflict to end—and think the nation should have not gotten into it in the first place, according to polling.

National gas prices in the U.S. have shot up since the start of the war, as disruptions in production and supply due to the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz have caused oil prices to skyrocket.

After briefly falling for a week, national gas prices are now climbing again, reaching an average of $4.06 on Sunday, up from $3.94 a month ago and $3.14 a year ago, according to the American Automobile Association (AAA). That means gas prices are nearly 30 percent higher than they were a year ago.

That is more than a dollar higher than it was before the U.S. and Israel launched joint strikes on Iran on February 28, when the national average dipped just below $3, at $2.98. According to GasBuddy’s Patrick De Haan, it is also an unprecedented high for this time of the year.

Now he wants to talk to Americans?


He's never been clear on why he started the war-- he's offered one changing reason after another.  But what has remained firm is when and how he announced the war.  He did that on February 28th in a pre-recorded video that he released at 2:30 in the morning EST.


That's how he announced the war.  Not with a press conference.  Not with a live prime time address to the American people.  In a pre-taped video that he posted to social media at 2:30 am.  


He didn't take it seriously.  He didn't take his duties seriously.  And now the US remains trapped in this war of choice that is wrecking the US economy.

11 days shy of six months and he suddenly wants to talk to Americans about sacrifice?

But Americans aren't in the mood to listen to the sleazy con man.  Sarah-Jane Collins (THE DAILY BEAST) notes:

New polling shows more than half of voters think they are worse off now than when Joe Biden was president.

President Donald Trump has been battling unpopularity in the polls over his war in Iran and the rising cost of living, and this latest poll, conducted for the Financial Times, found that 53 percent of registered voters felt worse off financially today than they did on Jan. 19, 2025. 

Trump, 80, took office on Jan. 20, 2025.

Fifty seven percent of independents, and nearly a quarter of self-identified Republicans, also felt worse off under the current president, the polling by Focaldata found. The poll was conducted among 1,913 registered voters between Aug. 7 and Aug. 10. 

In a significant blow to longstanding Republican myth making, the poll found voters were more likely to say they trusted Democrats over Republicans to handle inflation and the cost of living.

 Chump has put the economy in the toilet, the American people are struggling with basic bills, he's started the Iran War and that's costing billions and costing lives.  And what's he focused on?  Glenn Thrush (NEW YORK TIMES) reports:


The U.S. attorney’s office in Chicago has spent the past year investigating a Democratic fund-raising firm once co-owned by the daughter of the judge in President Trump’s hush-money trial in New York, according to court filings and people familiar with the inquiry.

Last August, the U.S. attorney, Andrew S. Boutros of the Northern District of Illinois, directed Authentic Campaigns Inc. to turn over a broad range of internal communications with clients. They included former Vice President Kamala Harris, former President Joseph R. Biden Jr., Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York, Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, and the Democratic National Committee, according to a grand jury subpoena reviewed by The New York Times.

Loren Merchan, the daughter of Juan Merchan, a supreme court judge in Manhattan, was the firm’s vice president until late 2024 and was also on the list. The Merchan family has been a frequent target of Mr. Trump and his allies, who have made unsubstantiated claims that the judge was out to get him and that his daughter profited from accusations aired at the trial.

The trial ended with Mr. Trump’s conviction in 2024, in the midst of his campaign for a second term, on 34 felony counts stemming from his efforts to keep a porn star from publicizing her story of a liaison with him.


Are you getting why the country is in the toilet right now?  Chump can't see forward because he's so busy looking back.  And he's illegally using -- abusing -- the government to get them to go after the people who held him accountable.  


He was held accountable because he broke the law.  That's the reality.  He's a convict.  That's the reality.


And nothing he's going to do or any revenge he's going to try to work will change that.  


But in the meantime, instead of focusing on delivering for the American people, he's working his revenge scheme and abusing the government.   


If he wants to appeal his convictions, if he wants to relitigate, he needs to do that as a private citizen.  He is not allowed to, as president, abuse the government and the process.  Some people thought he was joking when he said he'd do one day of vengeance if re-elected.  But what's he's done instead is 565 days -- and counting -- of vengeance. 


And he's been allowed to do this, these illegal actions have been ignored and/or condoned by Republicans in Congress.  This is outrageous.  This is an abuse of office.  This is the sort of thing that, in a functioning government, leads to impeachment. 


But, as the confirmation of Todd Blanche to be Attorney General demonstrates, we don't have a functioning government. Sunday on MEET THE PRESS (NBC), Todd Blanche was on to sport his stupidity:


KRISTEN WELKER:

We appreciate you being here in person. As we just heard in your address to the Justice Department staff this week, you said you and the DOJ will, quote, “uphold the law without fear or favor.” You of course used to be President Trump’s former personal defense attorney. Can you pledge that the Justice Department will always act independently of the White House?

ATTORNEY GENERAL TODD BLANCHE:

Well, there’s a big difference between saying we will always do our job and investigate any case and act independently of the White House. No, I’m not going to pledge that. And no attorney general should ever pledge that. The President, I mean, if I were to pledge I will be independent of the White House, what that means is that if President Trump says, “I want the Department of Justice to go after every violent criminal in this country,” which is what he has said, what you’re saying to me is I should say, “No, sir, I’m not going to do it.” So I will act with integrity. Our prosecutors will act with integrity. We will prosecute without fear or any sort of favor. And that’s exactly what we’ve been doing. And that’s what every Department of Justice should do.


Does he understand what it means to act independently?  No, I don't believe he does. 


KRISTEN WELKER:

Well, I guess, big picture: If the president asks you to do something that you feel crosses an ethical or legal line, would you do it?

ATTORNEY GENERAL TODD BLANCHE:

The president will never ask me to do something unethical or legal — or illegal. He never has. He never will. And no, I swore to the constitution of the United States like every cabinet secretary has done and like every attorney general before me has done. And so this, this narrative that’s mostly pushed by the left and pushed by the media that the president’s going to pull me aside and ask me to do something illegal is completely a false narrative, not true, will not happen, and hasn’t happened.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Okay. Let’s delve into how you do see your tenure. You appeared with President Trump at the Nassau County Police Academy on Friday. You made some comments that did get a lot of attention. I want to play it and get your reaction on the other side. Take a look.

ATTORNEY GENERAL TODD BLANCHE:

My administration and my Department of Justice, if anybody touches a federal law enforcement officer in any way inappropriate, we will prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law.

KRISTEN WELKER:

And yet, Mr. Attorney General, on President Trump’s first day in office, as you know, he pardoned everyone who attacked the Capitol on January 6th, including 172 people who pleaded guilty to assaulting police officers. How is that consistent with your pledge to always protect law enforcement?

ATTORNEY GENERAL TODD BLANCHE:

There’s nothing inconsistent about that. The president’s pardon powers, any president’s pardon powers are not limited. So when I say and when this Department of Justice says and when the FBI says, like we’re saying, and every U.S. attorney is saying that if you assault law enforcement, we will prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law, that is absolutely what President Trump expects, absolutely what I expect of our prosecutors. And that’s completely separate from any president’s ability to pardon.

KRISTEN WELKER:

But he did the opposite of that effectively. I mean, on January 6th police officers were beaten with baseball bats and flagpoles. Do you believe it was wrong to pardon the people who assaulted police officers on January 6th given that you have vowed to protect law enforcement?

ATTORNEY GENERAL TODD BLANCHE:

Every attorney general vows to protect law enforcement including me. And so I’m not opining or in any way saying what President Trump did is wrong. Absolutely not. By the way, president–

KRISTEN WELKER:

Isn’t it inconsistent with what you said though?

ATTORNEY GENERAL TODD BLANCHE:

Absolutely not. There’s a difference–

KRISTEN WELKER:

Is it inconsistent with your pledge?

ATTORNEY GENERAL TODD BLANCHE:

No. There’s a difference, Kristen. We will prosecute anybody. If later a president chooses to pardon that individual, that is the president’s right under our constitution. Do not forget that a few days before President Trump pardoned the individuals associated and who had plead guilty to the conduct on January 6th, President Biden pardoned hundreds and hundreds of criminals, many of whom were quite violent. So that’s his right to do that just like it’s President Trump’s right to do that.

KRISTEN WELKER:

But what message does it send to police officers that people who assaulted them were pardoned?

ATTORNEY GENERAL TODD BLANCHE:

The message to police officers is consistent and the same every single day which is that we will protect you. And by the way, that’s a little bit interesting coming from a place where we see violent protests breaking out all over the country, in New Jersey, in Minneapolis, in Seattle and California. And instead of there being a full-throated defense by leadership on the Democrat side, on the Republican side, what you have is it’s as if we’re doing something wrong by saying we will protect law enforcement and we will prosecute those who assault law enforcement. We’re not.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Let’s on this issue of January 6th, your confirmation was actually held up over the so-called anti-weaponization fund. I just want to remind folks what that means. That would effectively pay people who felt they were in some ways wronged by the federal government and could have included people who attacked the Capitol on January 6th. You signed a document. You testified under oath that the fund is dead. But President Trump has said he wishes it weren’t. If the president asks you to revive the fund, will you tell him no?

ATTORNEY GENERAL TODD BLANCHE:

Well, the president has said it’s dead as well. So you can, and as the president has said that he very strongly believes that those that had this Department of Justice weaponized against them should be compensated, he’s going to continue to say that.

KRISTEN WELKER:

He said it’s up to you. He was just asked about it. He said effectively it’s up to you what to do about this.

ATTORNEY GENERAL TODD BLANCHE:

And I’ve said repeatedly it’s dead. And he has also said it’s dead. He said it in a cabinet meeting with the press there. And so I think it might be enjoyable for the media to continually ask me about whether the fund is really dead. And there is no fund. No money went from the treasury to any account. There were no commissioners established. And so there is no fund. There will be no fund. I’ve said it repeatedly. And the different angles coming almost every time I speak with the media, someone says, “Well, wait is it really dead?” And I say, “Yes, it is.” And then the next interview I give, somebody will say to me, “Is it really dead?” And I promise you I will say, “Yes, it is dead.”

KRISTEN WELKER:

So you’re saying you rule out ever reviving it. But just to be very clear, can you guarantee that under your Department of Justice anyone who attacked the Capitol on January 6th will not receive one dime of taxpayer money if they file a claim against the federal government?

ATTORNEY GENERAL TODD BLANCHE:

Well, anybody can file a claim against the federal government, not just anybody associated with January 6th. I’m not going to sit here and say on a news program whether a litigation that may or may not happen will result in money. I can’t do that. So what I will say is that there’s a process in place for decades where if somebody that believes they’ve been wronged or a tort has been committed against them by the federal government can seek redress. And, you know, beyond that, I’m not going to comment about hypotheticals and what will happen in any of those cases.

KRISTEN WELKER:

So potentially, they could get paid under another stream of government funding, but not the anti-weaponization fund–

ATTORNEY GENERAL TODD BLANCHE:

Well, I don’t know. When you say, “They could get paid,” what is their claim? Is it somebody who’s plead guilty–

KRISTEN WELKER:

The Justice Department’s judgment fund.

ATTORNEY GENERAL TODD BLANCHE:

No, no, no. So, right. But when you say, “They could get paid,” anybody who sues the federal government could get paid. It depends on the facts. It depends on the circumstances. It depends on what it’s alleged the government did. And so I don’t know the circumstances of any hypothetical case. And I’m not going to comment on a hypothetical case today. But there is a process in place where if you believe that you’ve had a tort committed against you by the government, whether it’s slipping on ice outside of a federal post office or a law enforcement officer assaulting you, you are allowed to seek compensation.



Is it any wonder that Chump's polling so poorly?   Sarah-Jane Collins (THE DAILY BEAST) notes:

New polling shows more than half of voters think they are worse off now than when Joe Biden was president.

President Donald Trump has been battling unpopularity in the polls over his war in Iran and the rising cost of living, and this latest poll, conducted for the Financial Times, found that 53 percent of registered voters felt worse off financially today than they did on Jan. 19, 2025. 

Trump, 80, took office on Jan. 20, 2025.

Fifty seven percent of independents, and nearly a quarter of self-identified Republicans, also felt worse off under the current president, the polling by Focaldata found. The poll was conducted among 1,913 registered voters between Aug. 7 and Aug. 10. 

In a significant blow to longstanding Republican myth making, the poll found voters were more likely to say they trusted Democrats over Republicans to handle inflation and the cost of living.


Service members on the USS LINCOLN do not have needed supplies, do not have needed food, have been on board for nine months and counting but Chump's busy trying to even the score instead of taking his punishment and learning from it.

Marco  Margaritoff (HUFFINGTON POST) reports: 


Retired Maj. General Randy Manner on Friday accused President Donald Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth of “spewing lies” about the reportedly deplorable conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln and its extended deployment in the Middle East.

Manner joined CNN following reports that U.S. military service members have tried to jump off the aircraft carrier amid an extended stay due to the Iran war.

Hegseth had claimed that the reports “misrepresented” the situation, and Trump had called the deployment “not nearly long enough.”

“I will tell you unequivocally that [in] all my 36 years of service, if any Navy chief or non-commissioned officer, or officer, or admiral, or general had ever said those kind of words, they would have been relieved within minutes, and I mean that literally,” Manner said about Trump.

He said, “It is totally inappropriate that the commander in chief of our military show continued disdain and disrespect for our military members and for their family. This is unacceptable, whether it’s talking about Gold Star mothers and fathers or … those young men and women.”


And Dan Gooding (NEWSWEEK) notes:


The father of a 20-year-old sailor aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln has condemned President Donald Trump’s war with Iran as a “forever war” and offered to take his son’s place as the aircraft carrier’s deployment stretches beyond 265 days.

Jefferson Kelly, of Cincinnati, Ohio, told Newsweek that his son had joined the Navy enthusiastically, hoping to serve his country and become an engineer, but after the Lincoln was sent to the Middle East, Kelly said the deployment became the realization of a fear he had carried since Trump’s return to the White House.

“I had a feeling that there’s going to be a forever war,” Kelly said. “If there’s going to be any issue, any kind of major engagement or war, they send the aircraft carriers… And that’s exactly what happened.”

Newsweek also spoke with the wife of a higher-ranking officer on board the vessel, who detailed how spouses had been trying to send care packages to the crew after reports of supplies running low and food deteriorating in the spring.

“Well, the care package took 2.5 months to get there. So that was concerning,” Ashley Rogers said. “Now the most recent communications, even with my husband, who snaps into military mode, he just does his job, even he sounds so just defeated, and he has a really hard time getting his guys to cooperate and do their jobs.”



Naval families with loved ones deployed for months on US warships amid the Iran war have reacted with fury to Donald Trump and the defense secretary Pete Hegseth’s dismissal of their concerns about the extreme pressures and dire conditions they are enduring.

The Guardian has talked to three naval families who have been following the physical and mental stresses bearing down on their relatives with mounting alarm. The families, with loved ones on board the USS Abraham Lincoln and USS Tripoli, all spoke anonymously for fear of retribution against their active duty relatives.

They spoke of insufficient nourishment that has led to close relatives losing 20-30lbs in weight since they were sent to the Middle East five months ago, leaving one sailor “emaciated”, according to his mother. They spoke also of low-quality drinking water and scarce mental health counseling and support despite the intense burden of being at sea for months on end without making land.

The USS Abraham Lincoln, an aircraft carrier with more than 5,000 sailors and marines onboard, has been at sea for nearly nine months, having begun its deployment in November. There have been reports of multiple suicide attempts including jumping overboard.

When Trump was asked on Friday whether naval families were worried about conditions on board, he replied: “No, they’re not.” He said that the Lincoln’s deployment, now in its ninth month, was “not nearly long enough”.


Let's wind down with this from Senator Patty Murray's office:


Murray and Murphy Blast Wasteful Spending, Demand Answers

Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senators Patty Murray (D-WA),Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, and Chris Murphy (D-CT), Ranking Member of the Homeland Security Subcommittee, wrote a letter to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Markwayne Mullin blasting DHS’ acquisition of 12 new planes—including 5 new luxury jets—and its plans to use those aircraft to ferry Trump administration officials around.

They also sent the letter to the DHS Inspector General, noting that the acquisition and use of the planes merits investigation by his office.

“It has come to our attention that the Department of Homeland Security is effectively running an in-house private jet service for Trump administration officials with a slew of new luxury jets and other airplanes it has acquired and begun providing to officials over the last year,” Murray and Murphy write to Mullin. “This includes providing jet services not only for DHS officials like yourself, but also for White House Border Czar Tom Homan, other administration officials, members of the first family, and even the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Kash Patel.”

The lawmakers blasted the wasteful use of funds and noted that the acquisitions of the planes is almost certainly unlawful, as well: “The Department’s purchase of these airplanes to shuttle administration officials around the globe demonstrates a remarkable disregard for American taxpayers who work hard and expect government officials to responsibly manage their tax dollars, not burn them on extravagant luxury jets. These acquisitions also raise serious legal concerns, as Congress has not provided the necessary legal authorization for DHS to purchase these planes, much less run a private jet service for government executives.”

Murray and Murphy write that Republicans in Congress have delivered over a quarter of a trillion dollars to DHS through two partisan reconciliation bills, but note that: “instead of using the staggering amount of funding provided to DHS to actually improve the lives of Americans by requiring basic compliance with the Fourth Amendment, acquiring and deploying body-worn cameras to every law enforcement officer in the field, mandating minimum officer identification, or properly training new hires, this administration has lit taxpayer dollars on fire by acquiring new and unnecessary planes to jet Trump officials around in extreme luxury.”

They ask for basic information about the acquisitions and plans for the planes and conclude by urging Secretary Mullin to sell the planes and work with Congress to steer the funds to more important priorities: “[W]e hope that you will sell off these unnecessary luxury jets and airplanes acquired by DHS and return the funding to American taxpayers. We would be happy to work with you and our colleagues in Congress to return those dollars to the Treasury and put them to better use making sure Americans can afford health care, rent, and groceries.”

Full text of the letter is available HERE and below:

Markwayne Mullin

Secretary

U.S. Department of Homeland Security

2707 Martin Luther King Jr. Ave., SE

Washington, D.C. 20528

Secretary Mullin,

It has come to our attention that the Department of Homeland Security (“Department” or “DHS”) is effectively running an in-house private jet service for Trump administration officials with a slew of new luxury jets and other airplanes it has acquired and begun providing to officials over the last year. This includes providing jet services not only for DHS officials like yourself, but also for White House Border Czar Tom Homan, other administration officials, members of the first family, and even the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Kash Patel. In total, DHS has acquired 12 new aircraft, including 5 extravagant new luxury jets, using funds provided in the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” (OBBBA). These jets were acquired and provided for officials’ use, even though no authorization was ever provided by Congress to buy any airplanes, much less to support executive travel.[1]

The Department’s purchase of these airplanes to shuttle administration officials around the globe demonstrates a remarkable disregard for American taxpayers who work hard and expect government officials to responsibly manage their tax dollars, not burn them on extravagant luxury jets. These acquisitions also raise serious legal concerns, as Congress has not provided the necessary legal authorization for DHS to purchase these planes, much less run a private jet service for government executives.[2]

Over the last year, Republicans in Congress have, on a party-line basis, delivered the Department a remarkable windfall totaling over a quarter of a trillion dollars outside of the annual appropriations process. Republicans first approved $190 billion for DHS in the OBBBA last summer. Then, after refusing to enact basic reforms to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Border Patrol following rampant abuses, including the killings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti, they voted to deliver DHS another $70 billion in funding this summer,[3] which was largely earmarked for ICE and Border Patrol and came with no strings attached.

But instead of using the staggering amount of funding provided to DHS to actually improve the lives of Americans by requiring basic compliance with the Fourth Amendment, acquiring and deploying body-worn cameras to every law enforcement officer in the field, mandating minimum officer identification, or properly training new hires, this administration has lit taxpayer dollars on fire by acquiring new and unnecessary planes to jet Trump officials around in extreme luxury that the vast majority of Americans will never experience.

For example, in the midst of last fall’s government shutdown, your predecessor spent nearly $200 million of OBBBA funds provided for the Coast Guard to acquire:

  • Two Gulfstream 700 luxury business jets, a model Gulfstream describes as “the pinnacle of business aviation excellence,” which boasts “the most spacious cabin in the industry.”[4] The jets were acquired despite the fact that DHS already owns two Gulfstream jets to support executive travel and despite the fact that DHS had never raised the need for any additional jets in any of its annual budget requests. The Department stole money that should have been used to support modernization of the Coast Guard’s fleet, meet operational needs, and improve military readiness to instead purchase two new luxury jets to shuttle the DHS Secretary and Deputy Secretary around the globe.

DHS also spent OBBBA funds provided for ICE to acquire 10 additional aircraft. To justify the purchases, DHS previously claimed they would all be used to support removal operations in some way.[5] Now, it says these planes are being used for the following purposes:

  • Two Gulfstream G650 luxury business jets, ultra-long-range aircraft that seat up to 15 passengers. One of the G650s has already been leased to the FBI for 12 months to support Director Patel’s travel—despite the fact that the FBI already has its own jets to support the Director’s travel. The other G650 is currently being retrofitted for deployment to support Border Czar Homan and undisclosed DHS officials’ travel, according to the Department.
  • One Boeing 737-8 MAX business jet, a modified ultra-luxury jet that DHS acquired fully equipped with a bedroom and other luxury amenities like a shower, kitchen, bar, and flatscreen TVs—amenities that even Air Force Two lacks. Despite these features, DHS claimed the jet would “serve dual missions—both as ICE deportation flights and for cabinet level travel.”[6] Now, DHS has informed us the bedroom is being removed, and the plane will remain in ICE’s ownership but be loaned to the Department of Defense (DOD) to fly undisclosed cabinet-level officials. It has also been reported the jet will be used to fly the First Lady around.[7]
  • Seven Boeing 737s, a commercial aircraft that can seat upwards of 200 passengers. DHS claims four of these aircraft will be used to support Congressional Delegations (CODELs) but has not provided information on why it is necessary or a permissible use of funds for DHS to purchase these aircraft. DHS states three of the aircraft will soon support ICE deportation flights. Top former DHS officials and industry experts have noted that these acquisitions waste tax dollars,[8] and we remain alarmed by how ICE may use these planes to support the administration’s lawless immigration enforcement campaign. One aviation industry executive said that: “It’s hard to see this as anything but a waste of public money.”[9]

The American people deserve a full accounting of this gross misuse of their tax dollars, and Congress needs more information to conduct sorely-needed oversight and to appropriately craft this coming year’s funding bill for the Department. The misuse of these funds also merits investigation by DHS’s Inspector General, and we have copied him on this letter to make him aware of our concerns.

Instead of extending tax credits to lower Americans’ health care costs or investing to help families afford child care and housing, Republicans in Congress chose to make historic cuts to health care and nutrition assistance in order to cut taxes for the ultra-rich and provide DHS with more money for immigration enforcement than the budget of nearly every military in the world. We fought Republicans’ backward legislation to supercharge DHS’s budget, but we believe every lawmaker should at minimum agree that Americans’ tax dollars should not be wasted on lavish new jets to shuttle DHS officials, the FBI director, and an undisclosed number of other Trump officials and family members around the globe in extraordinary comfort.

DHS has repeatedly noted that as Secretary you are focused on being “the best possible steward of taxpayer dollars.”[10] Accordingly, we ask that you furnish the information requested below, and we hope that you will sell off these unnecessary luxury jets and airplanes acquired by DHS and return the funding to American taxpayers. We would be happy to work with you and our colleagues in Congress to return those dollars to the Treasury and put them to better use making sure Americans can afford health care, rent, and groceries.

Please provide the following by August 26, 2026:

  • Contract details for the purchase of each plane;
  • Contracts for any/all retrofitting and missionization of each plane;
  • Cost analysis for the operations and maintenance of each plane for the life cycle of the plane;
  • Flight logs to date, including the names and titles of passengers, origination, destination, and purpose of travel;
  • A copy of the lease agreement with the FBI for the G650 jet;
  • A copy of the loan agreement with DOD for the Boeing 737-8 MAX business jet; and
  • The legal justifications for the purchase, operation, and maintenance, as well as planned uses, of these aircraft.

Sincerely,

###

Kat's "Kat's Korner: Carly Simon's COMES IN WAVES is a gift" went up earlier today.   The following sites updated: 



on No comments:

Friday, August 14, 2026

We found the law breaker illegally voting in elections

 Someone wake Donald Chump, we've found the law breaker who votes illegally in elections.  Her name is Michele Magadance Skinner.   Nick Hilden reports:


A Republican state senate candidate in Wisconsin is facing accusations of multistate voting after records emerged indicating that she voted in both Wisconsin and Georgia in recent years. According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, online voting records show that Republican candidate Michele Magadance Skinner “voted absentee in Wisconsin in the Nov. 3, 2020, general election. Then, just 15 days later, she registered to vote in Georgia using the address of her family's four bedroom lake house in the town of Dawsonville,” Wisconsin.

As the Sentinel reports, “Records show Skinner voted on Jan. 5, 2021, in Georgia's high-stakes federal runoff election. That month, Sen. Raphael Warnock and Sen. Jon Ossoff, both Democrats, won Georgia's U.S. Senate runoff elections, giving Democrats control of the U.S. Senate. In order to register to vote in Georgia, a person needs to be a U.S. citizen, a legal resident of the county, not be serving a sentence for a felony conviction involving moral turpitude, and not have been found mentally incompetent by a judge.”

Skinner went on to vote in Wisconsin the following year, in the April 5, 2022 spring election. She cast her ballot in person at the Washington Town Hall in Eau Claire, according to records. She has continued to vote in Wisconsin elections ever since.

According to the Sentinel, “Under state law, a person can no longer vote in Wisconsin once they permanently move to another state or vote there. At that point, one can vote in Wisconsin again only by re-establishing residency, which requires living at a Wisconsin address for at least 28 consecutive days before an election.”

Intentional voter fraud.  Arrest her, Chump, arrest her. 

This is C.I.'s "The Snapshot:"


Friday, August 14, 2026. Chump's more focused on taking bribes than he is on the needs of the American people, Chump and Hegseth's USS LINCOLN problem gets worse, assault survivors don't trust Chump or his administration (and shouldn't), the Tate brothers' ties to Chump and his family, Homeland Security enriched a friend of Kristi Noem's with a no-bid contract for $464 million, and much more. 




Let's start with Chump's latest nonsense.  Alex Woodward (INDEPENDENT) reports that the joke that is the Kennedy Center Board is again saying Chump's name will go on the building:

The board voted, again, to close the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts for renovations as part of a plan announced by the president earlier this year, which was blocked by a federal judge and is tied up in ongoing litigation. That plan included putting Trump’s name on the white marble facade, in front of the name of the assassinated former president, by renaming the venue The Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.

But under the resolution approved by the board Thursday, Trump’s name will appear on the building to thank the president for the multi-million dollar renovations. An inscription will read “Restored and Renovated by President Donald J. Trump” — directly below the sign.


No, it would be restored and renovated by the American people who are the taxpayers footing the bill.  Chump's possibly doing a task on a list.  He's not doing anything else and he doesn't need his name on it.  Back to Woodward's article: 

“This morning’s decision to close the Center and the surprise agenda item to put Donald Trump’s name back on the building was more of the same,” said Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty, who is suing to stop the building’s closure and Trump-led renovations. “This latest development is a transparent effort to circumvent the Court’s ruling, and flies in the face of the statutes that Congress passed.”


The courts and the law?  There's no respect for either on the part of Chump or anyone else serving in the administration.  


Todd Blanche was sworn in as Attorney General of the United States earlier this week — by Emil Bove, because of course — and today he addressed the DOJ workforce with a message that can be summarized as: ignore everything you have seen with your own eyes for the last 18 months.

“I promise you that I will lead this department with integrity,” Blanche told the tens of thousands of prosecutors, law enforcement officers, and support staff he now oversees. “I promise you that I will focus on our core mission which is to uphold the rule of law fairly and impartially, to keep this great country safe and to protect the rights of every citizen in this country.”

Okay… well let’s just recap Blanche’s tenure at the DOJ as the Deputy AG and Acting AG, shall we? Blanche declared it the president’s “right and duty” to direct criminal investigations of his political enemies, he introduced himself as Trump’s lawyer at his own confirmation hearing, he presided over the departure of 16,000 DOJ employees — including career prosecutors fired for refusing to lie in court, is accused by former colleagues of breaking his oath to the Constitution, and created a $1.8 billion slush fund to compensate Trump allies (which nearly tanked his confirmation to the AG post). Integrity!
There was also this, delivered with apparent sincerity, “We will always respect the role of the judiciary.” This from a man confirmed in an administration that has talked an unending amount of smack about federal judges and watched the threats against judges skyrocket. Under Blanche’s leadership, the DOJ has been found to have made arguments federal judges across the political spectrum have described as “pretextual,” “disingenuous,” and “bad faith.” Blanche added, perhaps anticipating the obvious follow-up, “We’re not going to be intimidated out of enforcing the law.” Sure. That’s what’s been happening… intimidation… by the judges?


Chump and his corrupt cronies are happy to waste your tax dollars but they won't even do their jobs.  They'll take that money but they won't do their jobs.   They'll spend the money -- giving contracts to their friends as they wallow in corruption -- for things that are not needed and then whine that they need more money.


That's Jen Psaki from last night on MS NOW talking about the exclusive report by David A. Fahrenthold, Andrea Fuller, Julie Tate, Nicholas Nehamas and Hamed Aleaziz (NEW YORK TIMES) which found more wasted tax dollars by Homeland Security: :

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 the F.B.I. director, Kash Patel, according to a letter to the department sent Wednesday by top Democrats on the Senate Appropriations Committee.

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, as reported earlier by CNN. 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 idled planes highlight the risks of that approach. The agency rushed headlong to spend nearly half a billion dollars, only to end up with planes it did not fly.

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.


That is the administration.  They are not honest brokers.  They are not good stewards of the tax dollars.  They waste them, they steer no-bid contracts to their friends and cronies.  They wallow in the corruption.  They do everything but their actual jobs. 


The Secretary of Defense is supposed to be the advocate for the service members.  Pete Hegseth doesn't care about the service members unless it is to hector them about beards and their weight.  

That's how you end up with the scandal of the USS LINCOLN -- where for months service members on the vessel have not had adequate supplies -- from toothpaste to food -- and where for months they have been at sea  over 200 days now. Hegseth's not doing his job.  


Today on MORNING JOE , Joe addressed Hegseth's failures noting that "while Pete Hegseth dithers America bleeds readiness." 



"The promises have been made, the promises have been broken," Joe notes.  


Democratic senators have begun raising concerns about the extended deployment of the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln, amid reports about poor living conditions and a lack of downtime for the crew after more than eight and a half months at sea.

The Lincoln, a San Diego-based aircraft carrier with a crew of about 5,000 sailors, is supporting U.S. operations in the Middle East against Iran.

In a letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Hung Cao, the acting Navy secretary, Senator Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut, described a list of reported problems on the ship.

“There have been widespread reports of shortages of basic supplies, water contamination, plumbing issues, deteriorating mental health, deck safety concerns and disruptions in the mail system, which have caused many care packages in route to the ship to be lost in transit for months,” he wrote about the problems, many of which were reported earlier by Navy Times and Stars and Stripes.


Last night , Lawrence O'Donnell highlighted these failures by Chump and Hegseth on his MS NOW program.  In fact, Lawrence highlighted a ton of failures by this administration. 



What has Chump accomplished in his second term as president?  Not much.  Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff, Brad Heath and Kristina Cooke (REUTERS) report: 


The Trump administration has repeatedly said the fight against sex trafficking is one of its top priorities.

But investigations have stalled and prosecutions declined in the past six months because of staffing shortages, funding cuts, immigration enforcement and growing distrust of the government among victims, according to Reuters interviews with 25 former prosecutors, current agents and victims’ advocates, and a review of federal court records.
"You can't say something is a priority and then not provide the resources to make that happen,” said Jacqueline Kelley, a former federal prosecutor in New York who led the prosecution of rapper and actor Sean "Diddy" Combs, who was accused of sex trafficking and convicted on two counts of transportation for prostitution.
Federal sex-trafficking charges have dropped this year to the slowest pace since 2010. The Justice Department charged 73 people through June, about 22% lower than the number of people charged during the first half of the past three years, court records show.

Charges for related crimes also declined. The DOJ charged 1,230 people child pornography violations through June, 3% less than average for the same months over the past three years. It charged 318 people with violating the Mann Act, which targets interstate prostitution, 18% less than average.

These drops reflect a larger shift in federal law enforcement priorities under President Donald Trump, who has slashed agency budgets and mandated a focus on deportations. People charged with crimes unrelated to immigration – everything from tax evasion to drug trafficking – dropped 7% through June to about 22,000, according to the court records.
The findings come just as Congress has confirmed Trump nominee Todd Blanche as Attorney General in a 50-to-49 vote with two Republicans defecting. His candidacy faced a bipartisan backlash over the handling of documents related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and a transfer to a minimum-security prison granted to his accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, shortly after Blanche personally interviewed her.

Yes, Blanche and Chump have sent the message that sex crimes don't matter. Why would anyone trust them?  Ghislaine Maxwell is in Club Fed now.  She was in a lower security prison and yet she made nice with Blanche and he moved her to a minimum security prison -- one she was not qualified -- due to the crimes she was convicted of -- to be in.  And then he lies about it over and over.  When he bothers to answer questions about the transfer.  

They've brought no charges against any of the other perps exposed in the Epstein files.  


Every minute of every day, Liz Stein has to relive the worst thing that’s ever happened to her. She does it during news interviews and when meeting lawmakers on Capitol Hill to demand justice for herself and other survivors of the late disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

And she’s had to do it throughout the attorney general confirmation process for Todd Blanche, a man who rose from being President Donald Trump’s criminal defense lawyer to the top official overseeing the U.S. Department of Justice. Blanche has served as deputy attorney general, the No. 2 at DOJ, since March 2025. He then became acting attorney general in April after Trump fired his predecessor, Pam Bondi, and officially nominated him to oversee the department in June.

Since that time, Stein and her fellow survivors have consistently urged senators to vote against Blanche’s confirmation, arguing that he has shown no urgency or concern with expanding the Epstein investigation. Despite some initial pushback from two Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Blanche cleared that first hurdle to advance to a full Senate vote, in part by meeting with survivors — something he’d previously declined to do.

Republican Sens. Susan Collins, who is in a tough re-election race in Maine, and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska then announced that they would join Democrats in voting against Blanche, raising the tension heading into the final vote. With last-minute support from GOP Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, the Senate confirmed Blanche, 50-49, early Saturday morning.

Stein told The 19th that just last year she felt momentum toward accountability growing, driven by public outrage from across the political spectrum and the Epstein survivors’ decision to step into the national spotlight as a unified group calling for transparency. However, Blanche’s confirmation crystalizes another feeling for Stein: “It feels like the DOJ is weaponizing this case for political reasons, and it feels like we’re the pawns being used in that game,” she told The 19th.
That momentum feels stagnant for now, Stein said, but she wants people to know that it won’t be a deterrent. “I think that every attempt the Department of Justice has made to make us go away has not worked,” she said. “We’re not going away.”
"I think that every attempt the Department of Justice has made to make us go away has not worked."  And Epstein survivors see this as do survivors of other sex trafficking.  It's why the US 'Justice' Dept is a dirty joke.

Why would anyone trust Blanche or Chump?

But in MAGA land, Chump's a hero.  In his first term, they did their own media and they lied.  Chump was doing this and that and stopping sex trafficking.  Then when his first term was over, the same crazed 'media' was saying that Joe Biden or Hillary Clinton or someone else was about to be arrested for sex trafficking.  This carried through 2024.  And despite the fact that Chump never delivered on sex trafficking while in office and despite the fact that after leaving the White House he didn't deliver -- and was not installed as that 'media' would insist every other month was about to happen -- they still believed it. 

They're crazy.

The rest of us aren't.  And we can look and we can see that Chump is a predator and that's why he hangs out with predators.  We know that he's not going to help stop sex trafficking because, as he told Marjorie Taylor Greene, his friends could get hurt.

And his friends include the Tate brothers.  From Tuesday's ALL THINGS CONSIDERED (NPR):

JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:

Andrew Tate is fighting extradition to the U.K. The star of the so-called manosphere and his brother Tristan are charged with crimes that include rape and human trafficking. Their extradition is playing out in federal court, but it's also testing the political ties that Tate has built in the U.S. NPR's Bill Chappell reports.

BILL CHAPPELL, BYLINE: Here's Andrew Tate two years ago, speaking outside a courtroom in Romania.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

ANDREW TATE: I'm very close to the Trump family. I know them well.

CHAPPELL: Very close with the Trump family. In fact, Tate said he'd recently spoken to Barron Trump, the president's youngest son. Tate also teamed up with Donald Trump Jr. to promote a MAGA crypto coin. At the time, Tate was facing charges in Romania related to his lucrative webcam porn business. He denies these charges too, which also include rape and trafficking. Tate has millions of followers online, where he preaches male dominance and money-making schemes. His fans include people who work in the U.S. government.

JARED HOLT: The Tate brothers have friends on Capitol Hill.

CHAPPELL: That's Jared Holt, a senior researcher at Open Measures, a company that monitors online extremism and disinformation.

HOLT: You know, there's people in the Trump administration that have cozied up to them before, people in the MAGA movement that have cozied up to them before, certainly.

[. . .]

CHAPPELL: But does that support go both ways? Andrew Tate seemed to think so in 2025. After President Trump took office, he said, quote, "the Tates will be free." And there were signs the new Trump administration might help him.

(SOUNDBITE OF PODCAST, "THE BENNY SHOW")

ALINA HABBA: I admire you. I admire what you're doing.

CHAPPELL: That's Alina Habba talking to Tate days before Trump was sworn in. Habba was Trump's personal lawyer who went on to work in his administration. She joined Tate on an episode of conservative influencer Benny Johnson's podcast. At the time, Tate was still in Romania under a travel ban.

(SOUNDBITE OF PODCAST, "THE BENNY SHOW")

HABBA: I'm right there with you. And yeah, you're good. If you're in the States, I got your back.

CHAPPELL: One month later, the Tates were in the U.S. They flew to Florida after Romania lifted its travel ban. That day, reporters asked Trump if his administration played a role.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I don't know. You're saying he's on a plane right now?

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: He's back. They already did.

TRUMP: Yeah. I just know nothing about it.

The Tate brothers?  They also have ties to Barron Chump.  THE EVOLVE EDITORS note: 

The latest developments have renewed interest in reports linking Barron Trump to the Tate brothers. According to The New York Times, Barron and Andrew Tate reportedly spoke during a video call in 2024. Barron has never publicly addressed the reported connection.
The controversy has also reached Capitol Hill. Rep. Yassmin Ansari called on the House Oversight Committee to investigate the Trump family's alleged communications with the Tate brothers. She also urged the committee to seek testimony from Barron regarding any knowledge he may have had about the case or the brothers' legal proceedings.


"Recent reporting and public disclosures raise extremely grave national security, diplomatic, and ethical concerns about whether political networks in the President’s orbit, including members of his family, and other public officials leveraged their influence to shield these two men who are facing grave criminal indictments on human trafficking, s----l assault, and exploitation of minors, among other appalling offenses," Ansari wrote in a letter to House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer.

The Chump family can generally be found where ever predators gather.  And that's something survivors register.  

Just like people register Bari Weiss killed a 60 MINUTES segment on Epstein by firing the reporter Sharyn Alfonsi.  She had worked on a segment about the finances and, as part of the segment, interviewed Senator Ron Wyden.   Tara Dublin (RAW STORY) reports:

Among the multiple bombshells that dropped in DC this month, there’s one extra big one that we can’t allow to get lost in the raging garbage fire news cycle Trump somehow created so that no one would trust anything they heard from the media.

Sen. Ron “Chutzpah” Wyden (D-OR, and my Senator, hence my nickname for him) released his highly anticipated report on the Senate Finance Committee’s four-year investigation into the American and Russian banks tied to Jeffrey Epstein’s international sex trafficking ring. The 67-page report specifically focuses on the failure of the Wall Street banks to blow the whistle on Epstein’s financial crimes, with one bank going as far as helping Epstein hide certain transactions to avoid suspicion.
Titled “Looking the Other Way: How Wall Street Banks Enabled Jeffrey Epstein’s Sex Trafficking,” the report exposes how top bankers shielded Epstein from federal scrutiny by delaying the reporting of suspicious financial activity to the U.S. government, likely in violation of federal anti-money-laundering laws. It includes new details about the extent of suspicious activity reported by Deutsche Bank after Epstein’s death, new details from bank reports filed about suspicious transfers to Epstein through accounts at Bank of America, and names top officials at JPMorgan Chase and other banks who were responsible for reporting Epstein’s shady activities to the government but instead protected Epstein to gain access to his Rolodex of billionaires.

Sen. Wyden’s Epstein investigation first began in 2022, with an inquiry into the sex trafficker’s “absurdly priced” tax planning for multi-billionaire and Trump crony Leon Black, the co-founder of Apollo Global Management.
[. . .]
The Trump administration has declined to investigate over 4,700 wire transfers totaling nearly $1.1 billion, as Sen. Wyden detailed in this Twitter thread in November 2025.
The report goes on to reveal that the banks and Epstein’s estate have paid $900 million to settle Epstein-related lawsuits while refusing to cooperate with Sen. Wyden’s investigation. Also non-compliant is Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who has obstructed access to Treasury’s own Epstein Files (which most Americans don’t even know exist) not just to Sen. Wyden, but to the House Oversight Committee and its Republican Chairman, Rep. James Comer (R-KY) as well.

Along with Bari Weiss, you can add outgoing Senator Marsha Blackburn to the list of people impeding Senator Wyden's work.  Sarah Grace Taylor (NASHVILLE BANNER) reports:

A new report by Senate Democrats claims that Sen. Marsha Blackburn refused to help subpoena financial records related to Jeffrey Epstein. 

The report by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon), released last week, suggested that major banks including JPMorganChase, Bank of America and Deutsche Bank failed to report concerns about Epstein’s financial transactions from as far back as 2002 until after the millionaire financier was arrested on sex trafficking charges in 2019. 

“I said from the start that if you want to get to the bottom of the Jeffrey Epstein cover-up, you had to follow the money,” Wyden said in a statement accompanying the report.

“This report is a ready-made roadmap for prosecutors, investigators and members of Congress to finally start holding the Epstein class accountable,” he continued. 

In the report, Blackburn — Tennessee’s senior senator and the Republican nominee for governor — is accused of ignoring efforts by Senate Democrats to subpoena these banks, despite her public calls for transparency in the Epstein case and punitive justice for sex offenders. 

Wyden, a ranking member and former chair of the Senate Finance Committee, says he repeatedly went to Blackburn’s staff from 2024-2025 to ask for her help as a Republican committee member to subpoena Epstein bank records “as Blackburn had long been an outspoken proponent of increased transparency with relation to Jeffrey Epstein,” but her office declined. 



Turning to the economy and the war, Paul Krugman notes:

Donald Trump is not a well man. He is, unfortunately, also President, which means that we all pay a price for his inability to accept reality. Notably, while he insists that he has “total control over the Strait of Hormuz,” shipments of oil through the Strait will remain minimal unless Trump can find a way to smuggle oil out in catering carts — or until he makes a deal with Iran. And we won’t have such a deal until he faces up to the reality that he lost his war of choice.

The Hormuz closure means, in turn, that oil prices — which briefly fell most of the way back to prewar levels on hopes that a deal was really coming — will remain high for the foreseeable future. Here’s the price of Brent crude:

But here’s the puzzle: Why aren’t oil prices even higher? They were over $100 a barrel before markets began betting on an end to the war, so why aren’t they back above $100 again? Also, why are they “only” about $25 a barrel above prewar levels, when many analysts — myself included — suggested that they might go much higher?

A large part of the answer is that oil prices actually are higher — if you look at the right numbers.

[. . .]

So while the price of a barrel of crude is up around $25, the price of the products refined from that barrel is up about 25+35=60 dollars per barrel, putting it in the range of middle of the road predictions of what would happen as a result of a long-term Hormuz closure.


The Chump economy.  He's destroyed the economy.  People suffer while he lines his pockets with bribes.  Or says he's suing the US government for $10 billion.  It's all about lining his pockets.  Let's note this from Senator Elizabeth Warren's office:

Gift to Trump “reinforces that foreign corporate special interests can…buy lucrative tariff exemptions simply by showering President Trump with shiny gifts…[and] could also raise serious legal questions under federal criminal law”

Text of Letter (PDF)

Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) pressed Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC) and David Gotlib Luxury Cufflinks, over the decision to gift President Trump an 18-karat gold, diamond-encrusted ring shortly before the Trump administration announced tariff exemptions on European diamonds.  

AWDC’s lavish gift came just weeks before the Trump administration exempted European natural diamonds from Section 301 tariffs, making Belgium’s diamond industry the only major one with zero-percent tariff access to the U.S. market. 

“[T]he circumstances surrounding the European diamond industry’s exemptions raise troubling new questions about foreign corporate interests potentially buying special favors from President Trump with lavish gifts—or in the case of the gold ring, what appears to be a cartoonish bribe,” wrote the senators. 

In February, after the Supreme Court struck down President Trump’s International Emergency Economic Power Act (IEEPA) tariffs, the Trump administration quickly replaced them with other authorities. This change erased a September 2025 zero-percent tariff exemption AWDC had pushed for and had hailed as a “tremendous boost” for its business. AWDC acknowledged it faced a “significant decline” in Belgian diamond exports to the US following the Supreme Court decision. 

On June 28, 2026, at an America 250 celebration in Brussels, the AWDC President presented U.S. Ambassador to Belgium Bill White with a watch-sized, 18-karat gold ring with 321 diamonds, 56 sapphires, 13 emeralds, six rubies, and two diamond “T” emblems, to be delivered to President Trump. AWDC explicitly linked the gift to trade issues, stating that the company commissioned the ring to “celebrate that enduring relationship” with the Antwerp diamond sector’s “most important trading partner for generations.”

Then, on July 24, 2026, the Trump administration officially exempted European natural diamonds from the latest tariffs, restoring the Belgian diamond industry’s zero-percent tariff access to the U.S. market. AWDC’s status as a public-private partnership with the Belgian government means President Trump may be required to give up the ring under the Foreign Emoluments Clause. 

“[P]resenting a gift of this magnitude could still play directly into President Trump’s well-established affinity for shiny gifts,” wrote the lawmakers, referencing the pattern of corporate executives using flattery and gifts to secure lucrative exemptions to the administration’s tariff rules. In the second Trump administration, Apple, NVIDIA, and Rolex have all seemingly secured favorable treatment after gifting President Trump lavish gifts or donating money to his inauguration.

“At best, your [gift to]… President Trump amidst high-stakes tariff decisions creates the glaring appearance of impropriety. At worst, it reinforces that foreign corporate special interests can…buy lucrative tariff exemptions simply by showering President Trump with shiny gifts,” said the lawmakers. 

“If your gift implicates federal bribery law, you or the officials responsible for it could be subject to criminal penalties…we write to request more information about your attempts to influence Trump Administration officials,” the lawmakers concluded. 

The senators pressed AWDC to explain its apparent influence over the tariff exemptions and detail any communications the company had with administration officials leading up to the exemption announcement by August 24, 2026. 

Senator Warren has long conducted oversight on the Trump family’s apparent attempts to profit from their government roles: 

  • In August 2026, Senators Warren, Blumenthal, and Kim probed Korean company Base Group’s mysterious $2 million payment to President Trump while under a trade-related investigation by the Trump administration, raising concerns about pay-to-play politics and bribery. In a new letter to Base Group Chairman Kim Sung-jip, the lawmakers pressed the company for answers on the suspiciously-timed payment.
  • In July 2026, Senators Warren and Blumenthal, along with Representative Stansbury, opened an investigation into reports that Softbank Group’s (Softbank) recently donated $50 million to the Trump Presidential Library — the largest publicly disclosed contribution to the Library and a possible attempt to curry political favor.
  • In March 2026, Senator Warren released a new response from the Department of Defense (DoD) indicating that there are no effective processes in place to prevent possible conflicts of interest and corruption involving President Donald Trump’s family and the Department’s awarding of defense contracts. In a new letter, she and Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) pressed Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on this failure and pushed for answers regarding Trump’s sons’ latest investment in Powerus, a drone company.
  • In September 2025, Senator Warren pressed the CEO of Rolex on why the company invited President Trump to be Rolex’s guest at the finals of the U.S. Open Tennis Championship earlier this month — just weeks after President Trump announced 39 percent tariffs on Swiss imports.
  • In July 2025, Senator Warren pushed the CEOs of Amazon, Meta, Tesla, Apple, and Alphabet, on their attempts to secure billion-dollar tax handouts paid for by ripping away health care coverage, food assistance, and other services from millions of American families.
  • In May 2025, Senator Warren wrote to Pilgrim’s Pride and JBS USA (the parent company of Pilgrim’s Pride), pushing them to explain Pilgrim’s Pride $5 million donation to the Trump-Vance Inaugural Committee, the single largest donation — bigger than Amazon, Meta, and Google’s donations combined.
  • In April 2025, Senator Warren pressed Tim Cook about reports that spoke with Trump administration officials to win an exemption to Trump’s China tariffs, worth billions of dollars for Apple.
  • In April 2025, on the 100th day of the second Trump administration, Senator Warren read 100 reports of corruption from President Trump’s term into the Congressional record, pointing to all the ways President Trump and his family have used the presidency to enrich themselves, give favors to donors, and made it more difficult to hold him accountable for corruption.

###

That's what he's done, Mr. Corruption, he's lined his pockets, taken bribes, created wealth for himself while he leaves Americans struggling to buy groceries, struggling to pay for gasoline.  Graig Graziosi (INDEPENDENT) reports: 


Gas prices on Wednesday hit their highest-ever price for this point in the year according to GasBuddy.

Patrick De Haan, the head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, reported in a post on X that gas prices have never gone above $4 per gallon after August 12 in any year.

On Wednesday morning, the average fuel price was just over $4 per gallon. The last time fuel cost nearly that much around mid-August was in 2022 when the national average gas price was $3.98 per gallon.
Gas prices have remained high for the majority of the year thanks to President Donald Trump’s ongoing war in Iran. Despite Trump's promises that fuel prices will "drop like a rock" once the war ends — and his frequent claims the the war has effectively ended and that Iran's military is destroyed while the U.S. controls the Strait of Hormuz — prices have continued to climb.


And the climbing price?  Doesn't bother him at all.  The needs of the American people are not his concern.  His concern is how to keep the private jet that Qatar gifted him with.  That's what he's concerned about.  Not how Americans are going to put food on the table, but on how many bribes he can take before he has to leave office.  Harry J. Holzer (THE HILL) offers:

Last week’s jobs report from the Department of Labor created shock waves in the U.S. Instead of showing 80,000 new jobs, as economists expected, payrolls in the U.S. declined by 23,000 in July. And payroll growth for May and June were revised downward by a combined 100,000. To our surprise, the U.S. has apparently returned to the flat job growth we saw in 2025.



Let's wind down with this from Senator Patty Murray's office:

Murray and Murphy Blast Wasteful Spending, Demand Answers

Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senators Patty Murray (D-WA),Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, and Chris Murphy (D-CT), Ranking Member of the Homeland Security Subcommittee, wrote a letter to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Markwayne Mullin blasting DHS’ acquisition of 12 new planes—including 5 new luxury jets—and its plans to use those aircraft to ferry Trump administration officials around.

They also sent the letter to the DHS Inspector General, noting that the acquisition and use of the planes merits investigation by his office.

“It has come to our attention that the Department of Homeland Security is effectively running an in-house private jet service for Trump administration officials with a slew of new luxury jets and other airplanes it has acquired and begun providing to officials over the last year,” Murray and Murphy write to Mullin. “This includes providing jet services not only for DHS officials like yourself, but also for White House Border Czar Tom Homan, other administration officials, members of the first family, and even the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Kash Patel.”

The lawmakers blasted the wasteful use of funds and noted that the acquisitions of the planes is almost certainly unlawful, as well: “The Department’s purchase of these airplanes to shuttle administration officials around the globe demonstrates a remarkable disregard for American taxpayers who work hard and expect government officials to responsibly manage their tax dollars, not burn them on extravagant luxury jets. These acquisitions also raise serious legal concerns, as Congress has not provided the necessary legal authorization for DHS to purchase these planes, much less run a private jet service for government executives.”

Murray and Murphy write that Republicans in Congress have delivered over a quarter of a trillion dollars to DHS through two partisan reconciliation bills, but note that: “instead of using the staggering amount of funding provided to DHS to actually improve the lives of Americans by requiring basic compliance with the Fourth Amendment, acquiring and deploying body-worn cameras to every law enforcement officer in the field, mandating minimum officer identification, or properly training new hires, this administration has lit taxpayer dollars on fire by acquiring new and unnecessary planes to jet Trump officials around in extreme luxury.”

They ask for basic information about the acquisitions and plans for the planes and conclude by urging Secretary Mullin to sell the planes and work with Congress to steer the funds to more important priorities: “[W]e hope that you will sell off these unnecessary luxury jets and airplanes acquired by DHS and return the funding to American taxpayers. We would be happy to work with you and our colleagues in Congress to return those dollars to the Treasury and put them to better use making sure Americans can afford health care, rent, and groceries.”

Full text of the letter is available HERE and below:

Markwayne Mullin

Secretary

U.S. Department of Homeland Security

2707 Martin Luther King Jr. Ave., SE

Washington, D.C. 20528

Secretary Mullin,

It has come to our attention that the Department of Homeland Security (“Department” or “DHS”) is effectively running an in-house private jet service for Trump administration officials with a slew of new luxury jets and other airplanes it has acquired and begun providing to officials over the last year. This includes providing jet services not only for DHS officials like yourself, but also for White House Border Czar Tom Homan, other administration officials, members of the first family, and even the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Kash Patel. In total, DHS has acquired 12 new aircraft, including 5 extravagant new luxury jets, using funds provided in the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” (OBBBA). These jets were acquired and provided for officials’ use, even though no authorization was ever provided by Congress to buy any airplanes, much less to support executive travel.[1]

The Department’s purchase of these airplanes to shuttle administration officials around the globe demonstrates a remarkable disregard for American taxpayers who work hard and expect government officials to responsibly manage their tax dollars, not burn them on extravagant luxury jets. These acquisitions also raise serious legal concerns, as Congress has not provided the necessary legal authorization for DHS to purchase these planes, much less run a private jet service for government executives.[2]

Over the last year, Republicans in Congress have, on a party-line basis, delivered the Department a remarkable windfall totaling over a quarter of a trillion dollars outside of the annual appropriations process. Republicans first approved $190 billion for DHS in the OBBBA last summer. Then, after refusing to enact basic reforms to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Border Patrol following rampant abuses, including the killings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti, they voted to deliver DHS another $70 billion in funding this summer,[3] which was largely earmarked for ICE and Border Patrol and came with no strings attached.

But instead of using the staggering amount of funding provided to DHS to actually improve the lives of Americans by requiring basic compliance with the Fourth Amendment, acquiring and deploying body-worn cameras to every law enforcement officer in the field, mandating minimum officer identification, or properly training new hires, this administration has lit taxpayer dollars on fire by acquiring new and unnecessary planes to jet Trump officials around in extreme luxury that the vast majority of Americans will never experience.

For example, in the midst of last fall’s government shutdown, your predecessor spent nearly $200 million of OBBBA funds provided for the Coast Guard to acquire:

  • Two Gulfstream 700 luxury business jets, a model Gulfstream describes as “the pinnacle of business aviation excellence,” which boasts “the most spacious cabin in the industry.”[4] The jets were acquired despite the fact that DHS already owns two Gulfstream jets to support executive travel and despite the fact that DHS had never raised the need for any additional jets in any of its annual budget requests. The Department stole money that should have been used to support modernization of the Coast Guard’s fleet, meet operational needs, and improve military readiness to instead purchase two new luxury jets to shuttle the DHS Secretary and Deputy Secretary around the globe.

DHS also spent OBBBA funds provided for ICE to acquire 10 additional aircraft. To justify the purchases, DHS previously claimed they would all be used to support removal operations in some way.[5] Now, it says these planes are being used for the following purposes:

  • Two Gulfstream G650 luxury business jets, ultra-long-range aircraft that seat up to 15 passengers. One of the G650s has already been leased to the FBI for 12 months to support Director Patel’s travel—despite the fact that the FBI already has its own jets to support the Director’s travel. The other G650 is currently being retrofitted for deployment to support Border Czar Homan and undisclosed DHS officials’ travel, according to the Department.
  • One Boeing 737-8 MAX business jet, a modified ultra-luxury jet that DHS acquired fully equipped with a bedroom and other luxury amenities like a shower, kitchen, bar, and flatscreen TVs—amenities that even Air Force Two lacks. Despite these features, DHS claimed the jet would “serve dual missions—both as ICE deportation flights and for cabinet level travel.”[6] Now, DHS has informed us the bedroom is being removed, and the plane will remain in ICE’s ownership but be loaned to the Department of Defense (DOD) to fly undisclosed cabinet-level officials. It has also been reported the jet will be used to fly the First Lady around.[7]
  • Seven Boeing 737s, a commercial aircraft that can seat upwards of 200 passengers. DHS claims four of these aircraft will be used to support Congressional Delegations (CODELs) but has not provided information on why it is necessary or a permissible use of funds for DHS to purchase these aircraft. DHS states three of the aircraft will soon support ICE deportation flights. Top former DHS officials and industry experts have noted that these acquisitions waste tax dollars,[8] and we remain alarmed by how ICE may use these planes to support the administration’s lawless immigration enforcement campaign. One aviation industry executive said that: “It’s hard to see this as anything but a waste of public money.”[9]

The American people deserve a full accounting of this gross misuse of their tax dollars, and Congress needs more information to conduct sorely-needed oversight and to appropriately craft this coming year’s funding bill for the Department. The misuse of these funds also merits investigation by DHS’s Inspector General, and we have copied him on this letter to make him aware of our concerns.

Instead of extending tax credits to lower Americans’ health care costs or investing to help families afford child care and housing, Republicans in Congress chose to make historic cuts to health care and nutrition assistance in order to cut taxes for the ultra-rich and provide DHS with more money for immigration enforcement than the budget of nearly every military in the world. We fought Republicans’ backward legislation to supercharge DHS’s budget, but we believe every lawmaker should at minimum agree that Americans’ tax dollars should not be wasted on lavish new jets to shuttle DHS officials, the FBI director, and an undisclosed number of other Trump officials and family members around the globe in extraordinary comfort.

DHS has repeatedly noted that as Secretary you are focused on being “the best possible steward of taxpayer dollars.”[10] Accordingly, we ask that you furnish the information requested below, and we hope that you will sell off these unnecessary luxury jets and airplanes acquired by DHS and return the funding to American taxpayers. We would be happy to work with you and our colleagues in Congress to return those dollars to the Treasury and put them to better use making sure Americans can afford health care, rent, and groceries.

Please provide the following by August 26, 2026:

  • Contract details for the purchase of each plane;
  • Contracts for any/all retrofitting and missionization of each plane;
  • Cost analysis for the operations and maintenance of each plane for the life cycle of the plane;
  • Flight logs to date, including the names and titles of passengers, origination, destination, and purpose of travel;
  • A copy of the lease agreement with the FBI for the G650 jet;
  • A copy of the loan agreement with DOD for the Boeing 737-8 MAX business jet; and
  • The legal justifications for the purchase, operation, and maintenance, as well as planned uses, of these aircraft.

Sincerely,

###




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