Written
and recorded largely at her home on Martha's Vineyard, the album
showcases Simon's still instantly recognizable throaty, sultry vocals on
many of the 12 songs, including the stately "Maybe I Never Loved You"
(rumored to be about ex, James Taylor) and uplifting album closer, "Do
It Anyway."
The Oscar and
Grammy-winning Simon, famous for such hits as "Nobody Does It Better,"
"Anticipation," "Let the River Run" and "You Belong To Me," has been an
influence on women singers for decades, including Olivia Rodrigo, who
performed "You're So Vain" in Simon's honor at her 2022 Rock & Roll
Hall of Fame induction.
Courtney Love opened up about how she “almost died” from a health scare in 2019 after moving from Los Angeles to London.
In
an Instagram Reel shared on Friday, Aug. 14, the Hole musician told
fans she’d be taking a break from social media over the next few weeks
and addressed the status of her next album.
“A
lot of you are asking where my record is at. It’s done. It’s kind of
been done,” said Love, 62. “It’s a really good record. I put a lot into
it.”
She then detailed experiencing illness
after moving to London. While she didn’t share her diagnosis, Love
recalled how her body “exploded” and how she was in and out of the
hospital.
So let's move to another female artist, Madonna. She's having a huge moment right now with the success of CONFESSIONS II. Maria Sherman (AP) reports:
Madonna leads the 2026 MTV Video Music Award nominations, the network announced Tuesday.
The
pop superstar has been nominated in every decade of her musical career.
She has 19 competitive MTV VMA wins and in 1986 became the first solo
female artist to receive the Video Vanguard Award.
She
is up for 11 awards at this year's ceremony, including video, artist
and song of the year as well as best collaboration, dance, direction,
art direction, cinematography, editing, choreography and visual effects.
Speaking
of Swift: She follows Madonna with the second-most nominations, with
nine. If she takes home even one award, she will become the most-awarded
artist in VMA history.
When
Brandon Flowers lets his mind wander, he often imagines a Sliding Doors
version of his life, one where he didn’t form the Killers, write “Mr.
Brightside,” and spend the last quarter century fronting one of the
biggest bands on the planet. “My goal was once to be a valet [parking
attendant] at the Bellagio or the Wynn,” he says. “I thought that that
was the road that was laid before me. I can’t help but wonder now that
I’m 45 and my hip hurts and my knee hurts, what it would have been like
if I was running, chasing cars all day.”
“Look,
people are going to trash me if I say this,” he says, pausing for a
moment before he decides to follow through with the thought. “But
sometimes I see mechanics or something, and there’s a part of me that…I
romanticize it and I’m reaching for them. There’s a part of me that
wants that life for myself.”
That doesn’t mean
he’s going to disband the Killers and start parking or fixing cars for a
living. But his new solo record Thrasher, his first effort outside the
Killers in 11 years, shines a spotlight on people very close to him,
including his own siblings, and the difficult lives they navigated over
the years, roads he could have easily walked down himself in a slightly
alternate universe.
Tuesday, August 18, 20026. Chump and Hegseth fail our troops daily,
Democrats want answers, Todd Blanche isn't fit for the position of
Attorney General, and much more.
Operation Hot Air. That's what Chump and the administration have provided since the start of the Iran War. Scott Waldman (POLITICO) reports:
Energy SecretaryChris Wright says about 9 million barrels of oil are moving through the Strait of Hormuz every day.
But nonpartisan oil tanker trackers say it’s likely 7 million barrels at best, or more likely, closer to 5 million.
President
Donald Trump has repeatedly said that the oil is flowing freely through
the strait, which even before the war was a global energy chokepoint.
On Monday, he told reporters at the White House that the U.S. has total
control over the strait and that “we’re taking out millions of barrels
of oil a week.”
"The strait is open and the oil
prices are coming down, and they will continue to come down unless we
decide to do something more drastic than what we've been doing,” Trump
said.
But experts say the Trump
administration’s figures cannot be trusted because there’s no data that
shows that volume of oil is actually moving through the strait.
The
Trump administration chose this war, launched it without congressional
authorization, has repeatedly changed its definition of success and has
failed to define an achievable political end. It owns the strategic
failure. But bad strategy does not absolve military leaders of
responsibility for how military force has been employed.
Senior
military leaders must advise whether the administration’s objectives
can be achieved through force, design and adapt the campaign, protect
and supply the forces doing the fighting and tell civilian leaders when
an approach cannot succeed. We do not know what advice commanders
provided to civilian leadership in private, but we can evaluate the
campaign they planned and conducted.
American
forces have accomplished some extraordinary things. They destroyed much
of Iran’s conventional navy, operated extensively inside Iranian
airspace and struck thousands of targets with remarkable precision. That
performance deserves credit.
But Iran did not
need to defeat the U.S. conventionally. It needed to preserve enough
combat power to keep imposing costs. After five months of American
attacks, Iran remains capable of striking U.S. forces and disrupting
global commerce.
Iran has largely refused to
fight on America’s terms. It has dispersed and hidden its missiles and
drones, attacked U.S. bases and the logistics networks that support
American power, and used mines and shore-based weapons to threaten
commercial shipping.
U.S. military doctrine
identifies protection and sustainment as fundamental functions:
protecting forces and the bases, equipment and communications they rely
on, while ensuring they have the weapons and supplies to continue
fighting. The campaign has fallen far short in both.
At
Shuaiba port in Kuwait, an Iranian drone struck a tactical operations
center lacking overhead protection or a counter-drone system, killing
six American soldiers. CBS News reported that ground leaders used the
site despite a recommendation against it and that requests for
additional defenses went unfilled.
And the dishonesty coming from Chump and Hegseth only drags it out further.
Pete
Hegseth is known for his loose lips, for his efforts at playtime and
for being unfit to serve as Secretary of Defense. Even he knows he's
not fit which is why he tries to get people to call him Secretary of
War. He's failed the enlisted time and time again. He's fired
qualified generals. He's attacked trans troops. He's ridiculed those
serving under him as he pretends that he's the state of manhood and
masculinity when he has the body of a very lazy fourteen-year-old. What
kind of a person let's people serve on the USS LINCOLN without the
needed supplies and resources?
The tale of Donald Trump sneaking off Air Force One
in a catering truck captured public attention for many reasons. It was a
reminder that, for all his tough talk, the president harbors a sense of
fear. Hiding away in a glorified ice chest would also have been a blow
to the 80-year-old’s dignity. But the charade, which was first revealed
by the Washington Post, also gave us insight, as political scientist
Scott Lemieux wrote, “into who he considers his actual inner circle.”
Left behind
on the decoy plane were Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury
Secretary Scott Bessent, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen
Miller and other administration officials and aides. The only people
deemed worthy of saving from Iran’s reported threat were people whose
full-time jobs are tending the president’s body and, more importantly,
his ego: Natalie Harp, who writes Trump love letters, and whose main job is showing him flattering social media posts. Body man Walt Nauta. Dan Scavino, Trump’s former golf caddie. Oh yeah, and Pete Hegseth.
The
defense secretary’s inclusion on this list does not suggest he is an
especially well-regarded or important person, especially when other
prominent Cabinet members — not to mention White House reporters — were
left vulnerable to the rumored assassination threat.
On the contrary, his inclusion in Trump’s flock of flatterers is
another sign that Hegseth’s main skill is fluffing up the
narcissist-in-chief. It helps explain how Hegseth — unlike former
Cabinet members such as former Attorney General Pam Bondi or former
Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem, who recently lots their jobs — seems in
no danger of losing his job, even as his manifest incompetence is a big
part of the reason Trump is losing the war with Iran. He may be bad at
running the military, but Hegseth is good at lying to (and attacking)
the press and stroking his boss’s ego, which are the only skills that
count in Trump’s White House.
Recent news about
the ongoing disaster aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln is another reminder
of why Hegseth may indeed lead the highly competitive race to be the
most hated man in Washington. Both Stars and Stripes and the Military Times
reported that multiple service members had attempted to jump off the
aircraft carrier, which has been deployed for over eight months without
any real breaks. Sailors are reportedly “struggling with exhaustion and
declining morale, including reports of suicidal thoughts,” explained
Alison Bath of Stars and Stripes.
The details
coming from family members offer a chilling illustration of how little
regard Hegseth has for the actual well-being of service members, even as
he releases videos implying they have low testosterone levels or berates them for being “fat” or “beardos.” Sailors have reported being fed “rotten” food or barely being fed at all, and desperate family members have been begging the Navy for relief. The wife of one sailor told MS NOW’s Priya Sidhar
that the company is working 12-14 hour days and that her husband “said
that he was exhausted working on the flight deck.” He also raised safety
concerns with his superiors. “His prescription contact lenses had
expired,” Sidhar reported, “and he told his chain of command that he
couldn’t even see what he was doing, and he was worried about causing
accidents.”
Hegseth, though, is shrugging off the concerns, telling reporters
the issue is “completely misrepresented” and that the service members
have “everything we can provide them at every single moment.”
He
lies and then he lies some more. He denied the reports when they first
surfaced in April and, all these months later, he's still denying
them. Mike Nelson (THE i PAPER) explains:
At
the end of July, Sean Parnell, the chief spokesman for Secretary of War
Pete Hegseth and his rebranded Department of War, released a flashy
video on his social media platforms in which he announced: “The era of
putting public affairs on the back burner is over.” It was fitting, as
an indicator of how Parnell views his job and the larger conversation of
public affairs, that he spoke in the video from the podium of the
Pentagon press briefing room – speaking to an empty room without an
audience in a space where he rarely briefs the press, a departure from
the weekly briefings conducted by previous Department of Defence
spokespersons. Purely performative, purely for the image and, as the
young ones would say, “the vibes”.
Parnell’s
message behind the video was a jarring departure from reality. A
defence department so incredibly hostile to the press and so dishonest
in countering reports on its actions can’t really be seen as putting
public affairs front and centre. But the department appears focused on
public relations over everything – tightly controlling the image of the
influencer turned defence chief rather than presenting honest
information to the American public about what the military is doing. It
shouldn’t come as a surprise that Hegseth, a man whose primary
experience was as a news infotainment personality, defaults to what he
knows. Before becoming Secretary of Defence – later changed to
“Secretary of War” – Hegseth had never run anything larger than an
organisation of just over a hundred or so people. Now he leads the
single largest employer in the United States when accounting for the 1.3
million active duty service members, more than 750,000 reservists and
National Guard and an additional 750,000 civilians employed by the
department.
In fact, Hegseth has
more experience being a Fox News pundit and political advocate than
anything else. That’s not to knock these professions, merely to point
out that for much of Hegseth’s professional life, the mission has been
cultivating his image and “putting on a show”. From the earliest days of
his tenure at the Pentagon, his focus on controlling the narrative,
promoting his desired public image, and a strict, almost paranoid,
response to even the slightest perceived criticism have been a defining
part of his leadership. He hired close personal friends and advisers to
be part of his growing communications shop. He engaged in several
witch-hunts among senior department staff to determine who might be
providing unflattering details to the press. Often, these investigations
were launched into stories that didn’t represent threats to national
security, but were personally embarrassing or critical of Hegseth. He
used the department’s public affairs platforms primarily to release hype
videos in which he worked out with the elite units of which he was
never a part.
Hype
videos. Designed to make him seem more than he was, more than his
record is. Hype videos to make him a semi-star like the way he was when
he was a weekend on air for FOX "NEWS." Just a weekend on air. Never
Tucker or Greta or Bill. Forever the second (really third) string.
That's why he had to install a make up room in the Pentagon. Colin
Powell didn't need one, Donald Rumsfeld didn't need one, Chuck Hagel,
Leon Panetta, Lloyd Austin . . . None of the previous Secretaries of
Defense needed to put a beauty salon into the Pentagon until Pete showed
up. But his starry feet are still grounded, the Pentagon insists,
because Pete applies his own make up. He does. Make up he wears for
the camera and make up he wears in regular life.
He shows up before members of Congress made up. It usually covers his psoriasis -- usually. Travis Reed (THIRSTYY) reports on his meetings with some members of Congress:
Defense
Secretary Pete Hegseth is facing an unusual problem: some of the
sharpest criticism of his approach is now coming from his fellow
Republicans. Several GOP senators have objected to the Pentagon's
decision to exclude Democratic lawmakers from some classified briefings,
warning that the strategy could make it harder to build bipartisan
support for the administration's enormous defense agenda.
The
dispute comes as Hegseth promotes a historic $1.5 trillion defense
request for fiscal year 2027. While the administration is pursuing parts
of its spending agenda through reconciliation, lawmakers still face
major negotiations over defense funding. That makes the growing
Republican criticism particularly significant.
The
controversy centers on reports that Hegseth has repeatedly kept
Democrats out of certain classified discussions involving defense policy
and spending. Republicans, including Thom Tillis, Lisa Murkowski, and
Mike Rounds, have questioned whether excluding an entire party is a
sensible way to build congressional support.
Their
criticism does not amount to a Republican revolt against Hegseth.
Instead, it reflects concern from several senators that
national-security decisions and major defense investments require
cooperation across party lines, especially when Congress must eventually
consider legislation implementing them.
Senator
Thom Tillis of North Carolina has been particularly blunt. He argued
that Hegseth's decision to limit Democratic participation could
undermine the secretary's own efforts to secure support for his defense
priorities, especially when lawmakers need to understand the
administration's plans before deciding how to vote.
Tillis'
criticism highlights the practical problem facing Hegseth. Persuading
lawmakers to approve enormous military expenditures requires more than
speaking to supporters who already agree with the administration. It
also requires convincing lawmakers who may have serious questions about
strategy, spending, and oversight.
Adm.
Brad Cooper, the highest-ranking U.S. military commander in the Middle
East, wrapped up a 10-day regional tour with a stop on the aircraft
carrier that has spent nearly nine months at sea.
The
Lincoln has been stationed in the Middle East since January, playing a
key role in the U.S. war against Iran, including enforcing a blockade on
Iranian ports. It was initially deployed in the Pacific in November
2025.
It has now surpassed a record-breaking
240 consecutive days at sea. The prolonged deployment of carriers has
sparked growing concerns about the strain placed not only on the ships
themselves, but on the service members aboard. The Lincoln has about
5,000 service members.
Family members of those on board have reported their loved ones facing "appalling" conditions and food rationing.
"History
will record this deployment as one of the most operationally intense
and consequential of the modern era," Cooper said of the Lincoln strike
group in a statement released Saturday.
President Donald Trump dismissed reports of exhaustion during a press briefing in Maryland on Friday.
He bluntly stated that the uninterrupted deployment was “not nearly long enough.”
A combat veteran bites back
Those
remarks triggered a furious response. On Saturday, Democratic
Representative Seth Moulton, a former Marine, went on television to fire
back.
“Typical from a draft dodger, not a surprise,” Moulton told MS NOW.
He
argued the president ignores the troops. Moulton said Trump is “going
to spend his weekend at his luxury golf course, not thinking one bit
about the troops who he’s put in harm’s way for a war of choice that he
and Hegseth are losing.”
Hegseth and Chump's actions are drawing fire from many in Congress. Senator Patty Murray's office issued the following:
Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senator Patty Murray
(D-WA),Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, joined all
thirteen members of the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) minority
and the Democratic leader of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense
in sending a letter to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth demanding
answers about deteriorating conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln,
following reports that the aircraft carrier’s crew has endured food and
water shortages, broken plumbing, and mental health crises severe
enough that multiple sailors reportedly attempted to go overboard during
its record-setting deployment. The Lincoln has been at sea for
more than 250 days, including over 200 consecutive days without a port
call, the longest continuous deployment at sea for a U.S. aircraft
carrier in the modern era.
The Senators pressed Secretary Hegseth on his Department’s failure to
provide a clear timeline for the crew’s return and condemned his public
dismissal of the reports as “completely misrepresented,” as well as
President Trump’s remarks suggesting the Lincoln had not been
deployed “nearly long enough.” The Senators demanded detailed answers on
mental health and medical resources aboard the ship, the state of good
order and discipline, hygiene and food conditions, the full extent of
the reported man-overboard incident, and support being provided to
military families, along with a formal request for a bipartisan
congressional delegation to visit the ship.
In addition to Senator Murray, the letter was signed by the following
SASC members: Ranking Member Jack Reed (D-RI), Senator Jeanne Shaheen
(D-NH), Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Senator Richard Blumenthal
(D-CT), Senator Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA), Senator
Angus King (I-ME), Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Senator Gary Peters
(D-MI), Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Senator Jacky Rosen (D-NV),
Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ), and Senator Elissa Slotkin (D-MI). Senator
Chris Coons (D-DE), the Ranking Member of the Senate Appropriations
Subcommittee on Defense, also joined.
Full text of the letter is available HERE and below:
Dear Secretary Hegseth,
We write regarding the deployment of the USS Abraham Lincoln and
mounting evidence that conditions aboard the carrier have deteriorated
to the point that the safety and wellbeing of its crew could be
compromised. These are deeply troubling reports, and the American people
deserve honest answers.
The USS Lincoln departed San Diego on November 21, 2025. The ship has
now been deployed for more than 250 days, including over 200
consecutive days without a port call, setting a modern-day record for
continuous time at sea for a U.S. aircraft carrier. Family members of
the sailors and Marines serving aboard have received urgent messages
describing conditions that should alarm you, and everyone serving in a
position of leadership at the Pentagon, to include concerns about
exhaustion, food and water shortages, and mental health crises serious
enough that multiple sailors reportedly attempted to go overboard.
In response to these reports, you publicly stated that the conditions
aboard the carrier have been “completely misrepresented.” Even more
galling, when asked by reporters about the conditions on the Lincoln,
President Trump dismissed the concerns of the families and stated that
the Lincoln had not been deployed “nearly long enough.”
Our sailors and Marines signed up to serve and to be treated with
respect. They did not sign up to be kept at sea indefinitely with no
announced return date and, by multiple accounts, without reliable food,
hot water, or working plumbing. That is not how we treat the men and
women we ask to carry out this mission.
This situation was preventable, and the conditions aboard the Lincoln
are nearly identical to the issues faced by the USS Ford when it
conducted an extended deployment that ended earlier this year. The USS
Lincoln was redirected to the Middle East as the war with Iran began and
has remained there as that war has dragged on with no clear endpoint.
This is a symptom of poor planning by both you and the President and
exacerbated by the deeply unsound decision to start a war with Iran.
Open-ended deployments driven by an open-ended war have real
consequences for our servicemembers, and we are seeing those
consequences now.
Recent press reports indicate that the USS George Washington will be
deployed to the Middle East to relieve the USS Abraham Lincoln. While
that is welcome news, the Department’s mismanagement of carrier
deployments also means that the U.S. will not have an aircraft carrier
in the Pacific for the foreseeable future. However, ensuring the USS
Lincoln returns to port takes precedence, and it is incumbent on the
Department to inform Congress, and the families, on the plan and
timeline to get the crew home. Denial and defensiveness are not
acceptable responses. Congress and these families need accountability.
Given the seriousness of these reports, we request written answers to the following:
What is the current timeline for the USS Lincoln’s relief and return
to homeport, and what specific operational requirements are driving
continued extensions of this deployment?
Was the crew informed that the deployment could be extended
indefinitely? Have any members of the crew been changed out since the
beginning of this deployment, and if so, how many?
Has there been any degradation in the operational capability of the USS Lincoln or her airwing?
What mental health resources are being provided to the crew?
Have there been any suicides aboard the ship during this
deployment? How many instances of detected suicidal ideation or
attempted self-harm, including attempts to go overboard, has the
Department recorded?
What other medical resources are available aboard the ship, and are
resources sufficient to meet the crew’s needs given the length of this
deployment?
What chaplain resources are available to the crew, and have they been adequate to the scale of need aboard the ship?
What is the current state of good order and discipline aboard the USS Lincoln?
What is the hygiene and healthy food situation on board, including
the status of reported plumbing failures, water contamination, and food
shortages?
What is the extent of illness or injury aboard the ship, including
full details of the reported man-overboard incident and any other
similar incidents?
What is the state of the families of the sailors and Marines aboard
the USS Lincoln? What resources are being provided to them, and are they
being kept informed on a regular basis about the status of the
deployment and their loved ones’ wellbeing?
Will the Department authorize a bipartisan congressional delegation
to visit the Lincoln to conduct firsthand oversight of conditions aboard
the ship?
As the Secretary of Defense, you are accountable to the men and women
who serve our nation. It is time for you to demonstrate leadership,
rather than peddle excuses. The servicemembers we send into harm’s way
deserve nothing less.
GOP
Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska on Sunday called for congressional oversight
of the USS Abraham Lincoln amid reports of poor conditions on the
aircraft carrier.
“We should have oversight,”
Bacon said during an appearance on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” while adding
that the secretary of the Navy or its service chief should testify in
front of lawmakers. His statement adds to those of congressional
Democrats who have similarly pressed military officials for more answers
regarding how they’re supporting service members on extended
deployments.
Bacon, a retired Air Force
brigadier general and moderate Trump critic, also said that he had seen
service members experiencing mental health challenges when he was
stationed on an aircraft carrier in 1996. He noted that “we had a couple
members jump overboard and commit suicide” at the time, describing the
incidents as “terrible” and “sad.”
In the early morning hours, before the sun came up on Saturday Aug. 8, the Senate confirmedTodd Blanche
as the nation’s top law enforcement officer. But long before the vote,
Blanche’s comments inside and outside of the confirmation process
signaled an escalation of President Donald Trump’s anti-abortion
agenda.
In a now-deleted audio recording
with the White House Faith Office, Blanche outlined a plan to utilize
multiple agencies, including his Department of Justice and the Food and
Drug Administration, to end abortion access in all 50 states. Blanche
illustrated how these departments—which should work independently of the
White House in service to our collective health and safety—are blurring
lines in service to an agenda targeting abortion providers and
patients.
The
National Abortion Federation, which sets clinical standards for
abortion care and provides security and safety support for clinics
nationwide, knows firsthand the grave dangers when checks and balances
disappear within the federal government. Law enforcement is the only
mechanism of accountability our current system provides for people who
engage in violence and disruption at abortion clinics. While these
activities are illegal under the federal Freedom of Access to Clinical
Entrances (FACE) Act, the law is only as protective as the person in
charge of enforcing it.
Not only did Trump pardonviolators of the FACE Act, the DOJ has also paid them with tax dollars as a backwards form of restitution. Just last month, Paul Vaughn
received a Trump pardon and $1 million from the DOJ after staging a
blockade at a NAF member clinic in Tennessee. NAF is actively suing the
DOJ to stop more payouts of this kind. But the Trump-Blanche duo has
already sent a message with serious consequences.
Since Trump took office, NAF’s most recent Violence and Disruption report
showed a 113% increase in threats of death and harm. Clinic blockades
increased from one to six. While we know laws like the FACE Act are a
limited means to protect people, not only is the federal government
failing to meet these low bars, it's abusing the law to incentivize
violence. Blanche’s confirmation is part of a larger pattern of
involving law enforcement in pregnancy, including abortion care. That
should scare everyone no matter what you believe.
Todd Blanche just let the mask slip in real time, and the thud of
post-Watergate norms hitting the floor should echo straight through the
halls of Congress. Appearing on NBC's Meet the Press
with Kristen Welker, Donald Trump's former personal defense
attorney-turned-Attorney General didn’t bother with the traditional,
polite fiction of an isolated, impartial Department of Justice. Instead,
he stared down the camera lens and openly declared that absolute
independence is a bad idea, telling the country point-blank: "No, I'm
not going to pledge that, and no attorney general should ever pledge
that."
For
fifty years, the unwritten covenant of the nation's top law enforcement
post was that the Attorney General operates as a constitutional
firewall against West Wing vengeance. Blanche didn’t just tear down that
wall; he ground it to dust.
Cornered
on whether he would factor Donald Trump's personal feelings into
reviving dead cases, Blanche admitted "of course" he would. He’s not
hiding the ball anymore. He has recast the Justice Department not as an
independent watchdog of the people, but as an interactive policy desk
for the Oval Office, openly dismissing neutral oversight as a dangerous
administrative glitch.
This
marks a radical departure from everything the country learned from the
dark days of the Nixon administration. The post-Watergate consensus was
established specifically to ensure that the terrifying power of federal
law enforcement—the power to wiretap, to indict, to seize property, and
to strip citizens of their liberty—would never again be used as a
private blunt-force instrument for a president's political survival or
personal vendettas. By rejecting this consensus out loud, Blanche
signaled a return to an era where justice is defined entirely by
executive whim.
Singer-songwriter
Maria McKee is celebrating her 62nd birthday today, and fans of ’90s
movie soundtracks may remember her best for a song that became a major
international hit.
McKee was born Aug. 17,
1964, in Los Angeles, California. She first gained attention as the
frontwoman of the Los Angeles roots-rock band Lone Justice before
launching a solo career.
But it was a song written for a blockbuster movie that gave McKee her biggest commercial success.
In 1990, McKee recorded “Show Me Heaven” for the soundtrack to Days of Thunder, the Tom Cruise racing movie.
The
power ballad became a massive hit in the U.K., where it reached No. 1
and stayed there for four weeks. According to the Official Charts
Company, it remains McKee’s only U.K. No. 1 as a performer.
The
song debuted on the U.K. chart in September 1990 and reached the top
spot during the month. It ultimately spent 14 weeks on the chart,
including eight weeks in the Top 10.
I
remember Maria for her work with Lone Justice and for her solo career
which started with a strong self-titled debut album and then moved into
the first of many classics with YOU GOTTA SIN TO GET SAVED.
When
Carly Simon wrote “Coming Around Again” for the Heartburn soundtrack,
she had already spent more than a decade establishing herself as one of
the most prolific and popular singer-songwriters of her generation. But
in 1986, the song arrived at a pivotal time for the singer and marked an
era of resurgence in her career.
The song was
released as a single with Simon’s cover of the children’s nursery rhyme
“Itsy Bitsy Spider” as its B-side. Simon found inspiration in the
spider’s resilience, which reflected her own personal journey at the
time as well as Meryl Streep’s character in Heartburn.
Carly's
new album came out last Friday. I reviewed it Sunday "Kat's Korner: Carly Simon's COMES IN WAVES is a gift" and I'm still
amazed by it. It's really something. It's an adult album. Filled with
feelings and spirituality. It is one of her best and may just be her
best in fact.
Putting COMES IN WAVES to the side, here's my top ten of Carly Simon albums.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
“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.”
The father of a 20-year-old sailor aboard the USS Abraham Lincolnhas 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]
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.
