Saturday, July 04, 2026

Madonna, Jim Kerr, Chrissie Hynde

Jade Delgado (OUT) ranks all of Madonna's studio albums. Hugh McIntyre (FORBES) reports:

Madonna is officially back with her new album, Confessions II. The sequel to her 20-plus-year-old Grammy-winning set Confessions on a Dance Floor has been hyped for months, and the pop icon has been doling out singles from the set throughout 2026.

The full-length is Madonna's first in more than seven years – Madame X dropped in June 2019 – and that stretch marks the longest gap between traditional studio LPs for the singer. Confessions II becomes an immediate bestseller all around the world, and dominates iTunes tallies in a number of nations, including Madonna's home country of the United States.

Confessions II stands out as the most exciting release this Friday (July 3). Each Friday begins a new tracking week in the global music industry, and it is the day when most major stars deliver songs and albums. Confessions II marks the only major debut inside the top 10 on the iTunes Top Albums chart, which ranks the bestselling collections of any length and genre on what is often considered the most important sales platform in the largest music market in the world.

Confessions II immediately soared to No. 1 on the iTunes Top Albums ranking the moment it was released. Impressively, Madonna fills the loftiest two spaces on the rundown with slightly different versions of Confessions II. Landing in second place is Confessions II: Icon Edition, which includes one bonus track titled "Hot Sauce."

I've got to listen to CONFESSIONS II.  I'm hoping to review it this weekend.  In the meantime, Jim Kerr is the lead singer of Simple Minds whose biggest hit was "Don't You Forget About Me."    He writes about his ex Chrissie Hynde at THE QUIETUS: 


Obviously, Chrissie Hynde is very special to me but long before I met her, and long after I’ve been divorced from her, I was and am a huge fan. Chrissie is the real deal and you’d see that whenever you went to her gigs in America. Dylan would come, Springsteen would come, Tom Petty would come and she’d be so nonchalant about it all. She wouldn’t give them any more attention than if Joe the mechanic was coming.

I had a crush on Chrissie from when she used to write for the NME, before we even knew that she could make music. She was the first punk writer that I personally remember. In those days she’d go and see Thin Lizzy, who were number one in the charts at the time and say stuff like: "Who are these turkeys?" while at the same time telling you how great Al Green was or how great Iggy Pop was. She was just such a no-bullshit type person. We’d hear about her being drunk somewhere or other and making an arse of herself then it was a case of, "Oh ha ha, Chrissie Hynde’s putting a band together. This’ll be a laugh."

But Jesus Christ, when I heard ‘Stop Your Sobbing’ – a cover version obviously – I just wasn’t prepared for that voice. Then when her debut album came I thought: "How can they arrive like that, fully-formed?" The Pretenders is an amazing story in itself because as we know, after two albums, she lost half the band – two guys who were every bit as much of the sound of The Pretenders as Chrissie was – and the whole thing was very much on the rocks. Then she came fighting back with Learning To Crawl. 


Still on Chrissie,  Casey Cooper-Fiske (THE SCOTTISH HERALD) notes: 


Chrissie Hynde: On Canvas will open at the Harvey And Woodd art gallery in Dundee on August 1 and run until August 28, and will be made up of the musician turned artist’s portraiture, still life, and abstraction work.

The exhibition will feature 25 paintings, and follows previous exhibitions such as Hynde Sight, which opened at Kensington’s Cromwell Place in 2024, before moving to Harvey And Woodd in Edinburgh in 2025, evolving into Hynde Sight II.

The 74-year-old American singer has seen her artwork displayed around the world for the past eight years, and has even graced the sleeve of her 2019 Valve Bone Woe album of cover versions. 


Closing with C.I.'s "The Snapshot:"


Friday, July 3, 2026.  Chump's greed and corruption are on full display, ICE arrested a nun on her way to church this week, Chump's ordered ICE to ramp up arrests, his failing state fair turns out to be another corrupt fraud, and much more. 





Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian prime minister and billionaire mogul who died in 2023, is often considered to have set the mold for President Trump with his mastery of the news media, gilded taste and, above all, legislative maneuvers that drew accusations of conflicts of interest.

Mr. Berlusconi passed laws that appeared tailor-made to protect and benefit his family’s vast business empire. And his annual earning disclosures showed he had been paid tens of millions of dollars while serving as prime minister.

This week, new financial disclosures suggested that Mr. Trump has broken that mold by making at least $2.2 billion in his first year back in the White House, including about $1.4 billion from his family’s cryptocurrency businesses.

Mr. Trump’s profits are a haul once unimaginable for any leader of a liberal democracy, particularly a sitting American president. No modern Western leader has ever publicly disclosed such big windfalls while in office.

The Trump family’s earnings, experts said, have moved him into an echelon of enrichment more associated with strongmen in Russia and Turkey.

His gains were all the more striking because the United States has long positioned itself as a standard-bearer for financial regulation, anti-graft measures and the rule of law. Yet his cryptocurrency earnings highlight an unusually glaring conflict: As president, Mr. Trump oversees the regulation of an industry that, as a businessman, he also greatly profits from.



The typical American has suffered a major decline in wealth since the start of the decade, even as the United States has continued to create millionaires at a remarkable pace, according to UBS’ Global Wealth Report 2026.
UBS found that inflation-adjusted median wealth per adult in the U.S. fell significantly between 2020 and 2025, while average wealth per adult increased, underscoring a growing divide between households in the middle and those at the top of the wealth ladder.


That's the typical American.  Not the typical crooked American.  This isn't Donald Chump, you understand.  He's been grifting like crazy -- so much so that he took in two billion dollars last year.  Two billion dollars.  Casey Tolan, Isabelle Chapman and Kevin Liptak (CNN) report:

As President Donald Trump’s wealth has soared since retaking office, a new financial disclosure shows his two premier Florida resorts have also delivered record-breaking surges in revenue – a potent illustration of how Trump’s personal business and presidential politics overlap.
Trump has visited the properties, Mar-a-Lago and Trump National Doral, more than two dozen times since the beginning of last year, hosting million-dollar-per-plate fundraising dinners, feting foreign dignitaries and welcoming GOP galas as industry leaders and political groups have scrambled to book their own events there as well.

Trump has also supercharged the money coming from Mar-a-Lago by raising the membership initiation fee to $1 million shortly before his reelection. The lavish resort is conducive to impromptu conversations with the president, who often dines on the patio at night, according to people familiar with the club.

Some ethics experts described the confluence of politics and profit as a blatant opportunity for special interests to get a direct line to Trump.

“People are going to Mar-a-Lago because they want proximity to the president,” said Robert Weissman, the co-president of Public Citizen, a consumer rights advocacy group. “A whisper in the president’s ear is worth an awful lot – more than what they’re paying to get in the door.”



And how are people reacting to this news.  Emily Davies (NEW YORK TIMES) notes:

President Trump’s $2.2 billion in personal earnings during his presidency has been met largely with silence from his MAGA base, which has been increasingly willing to revolt against policies they view as an abandonment of his promises to put everyday Americans first.

Far-right members of Congress, prominent media pundits and grass-roots activists have criticized Mr. Trump’s war with Iran and openly broken ranks to demand the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files. They have accused him of prioritizing his own interests over the needs of the voters who elected him to office.

But few far-right voices aligned with Mr. Trump have criticized him over the scale of his personal haul, reported this week, or the conflict inherent in his status as a major cryptocurrency industry operator and its top policymaker.

First off, not every supporter of Chump is being quiet.  Second of all, the amount is stunning.  The  amount of money this crook has taken in is stunning.  I'd say give it a few more days and then see if grassroots activists on the right are still silent.  Members of Congress?  On the right?  On the right most of them -- the majority of them -- have been silent this whole time on what Chump's doing and what he's done.  Don't look for them to lead.  





But the average person who supported Chump?  Look for them to awaken.  A few already have processed it.  



Two people who voted for Donald Trump in 2024 have blasted the president for how much he has enriched himself while in office.

The two individuals were interviewed by MS Now’s Laura Barrón-López about their reaction to the revelation that Trump’s income soared by $2.2 billion in 2025, including more than $1.4 billion from his family’s cryptocurrency ventures.
Speaking at the sparsely attended Great American State Fair in Washington, D.C., Barrón-López asked whether it is “appropriate” for the president to make so much money while in the White House.

“I actually don’t, no. I don’t think that’s appropriate,” one man, whose name was not given, replied. “If you’re in office, take your salary. Your investments are in the hands of third parties that you don’t have influence over.”
A woman standing next to him added, “I think you should just concentrate on being the president. I think he has enough money already.”

After playing the clip, Deadline: White House host Nicolle Wallace repeated the woman’s belief that Trump “has enough money already.”

“I do too, but those folks are people who voted for Donald Trump 18 months ago,” Wallace said.
Trump, who has an estimated net worth of more than $6 billion, made improving the economy and tackling the cost-of-living crisis two of his main 2024 campaign promises.

However, the 80-year-old president has only exacerbated the financial hardships facing millions of Americans during his second term because of policies such as his sweeping tariffs and the war in Iran, which sent gas prices soaring.



In a segment that aired on Morning Joe on Thursday, several Florida residents who had voted for Trump were asked about the disclosures, and every one was unhappy with how much the president has profited.

“That’s very frustrating to actually hear that. And like I said, I don’t do the politics and stuff, but to hear that come from another American that, you know, is not getting $2 million put in their pocket,” Olivia Danielle told the MS NOW reporter.

“$2 billion,” the reporter corrected.
Stunned, she added: “$2 billion, $2 million, $2 trillion – you know, that’s a lot of money. You know, that’s a lot of money. And that would help out a lot of people around here, a lot of homeless people. You could open shelters. You could really help somebody out with that.”

“Somebody’s making money on the side. It’s not me. That’s all I got to say,” MAGA voter Allen Warfield said.

“Is it frustrating?” the reporter pressed.

He replied: “It’s frustrating that you see your president getting richer and richer, and the middle class is getting poorer, and that’s about it.”

One MAGA voter at a gas station, Jerry Lepore, told the network: “Life in America right now, the economy is tough. People are struggling, you know, and hopefully it’ll change.”

Another man, Kevin Chavez, raged at Trump more specifically: “He definitely made lots of promises and he made them seem like they were going to come a lot quicker, faster than they actually were to ever come or ever will come.”


Today on MS NOW's MORNING JOE, they noted Chump's advocating for inside information. 



This is not a one day story.  The amount is mind boggling, the sweep is grandiose.  It's something that will be absorbed.  






Not all of Chump's get rich grifts pans out  Angelina Velasquez (ATLANTA BLACK STAR NEWS) reports:

Namesake products like the God Bless the USA Bible, which retails for $99, dipped in revenue, decreasing from $1.306 million to $208,486 following a year of his bizarre Bible references.

On multiple occasions, Trump rambled off twisted verses from the revered text. His flub from a decade earlier resurfaced in 2025. He inaccurately boasted, “Proverbs, the chapter ‘never bend to envy.’ I’ve had that thing all of my life where people are bending to envy.”
The Trump Sneakers and fragrances profits also decreased from $2.5 million to $67,634.



The economy.  Chump's tanked it.  Trina noted last night: 


That reads like a slap in the face to Chump because it is one.  This lower number is a rebuke to all the lies he continues to tell about the economy which has not recovered.  Our economy was in recovery -- when Joe Biden was president.  But Chump has destroyed the economy and doesn't want to take credit for doing that.  He will lie to steal credit for every and any success in the world but when it comes to owning blame, the  little weasel never wants his earned credit. 


What's she talking about?  The jobs report that just came out for the month of June.  


There was more bad news for Donald Trump on Thursday morning as the new jobs report revealed dismal growth, leading MS NOW’s Stephanie Ruhle to raise a new red flag for the president’s embattled administration.

Appearing on “Morning Joe,“ Ruhle, a former Wall Street executive, noted that only 57,000 new jobs were created — a far cry from the 115,000 expected by economists.
Speaking with host Jonathan Lemire, who warned, “We've seen downward revisions for the last two months,” Ruhle first explained that Trump should not expect a rate decrease from the Fed as the job market remains stagnant.

She later elaborated, “People cannot afford to get their lives started; they cannot afford the basic things they need to work to get to work, a place to live, a decent job that's an issue —we're talking about a jobs number that's almost half of what we expected."


Donald Trump was dealt a brutal pre-4th of July blow when the jobs report showed weaker-than-expected growth, with Americans souring on the president for his handling of the economy.

The U.S. added only 57,000 jobs in June, less than half of what forecasters had anticipated. Economists had expected 115,000 jobs added last month.

Matthew Robinson (NEWSWEEK) points out, "The unemployment rate edged down to 4.2 percent from 4.3 percent in May, though economists noted that the decline was driven largely by fewer people participating in the labor force rather than a surge in hiring."  Sean Williams (THE MOTLEY FOOL) weighs in with:

 Inflation is the proverbial torpedo that can sink Wall Street's ship, and we appear to have entered the next phase of Trumpflation.

To preface this discussion, a modest level of inflation is normal and healthy for the U.S. economy. But when prices rise quickly or move beyond subjective "modest" levels, it can upend the economy and/or the stock market. As of May 2026, U.S. inflation is at a three-year high.

The bulk of this year's inflationary surge has been driven by two decisions from President Donald Trump (i.e., "Trumpflation"). The first policy, implementing sweeping global tariffs, has placed modest upward pressure on prices for select goods.
However, the primary catalyst behind inflation's jump from 2.4% in February to 4.2% in May is the Trump-led Iran war. Shortly after the president approved military operations against Iran, the latter closed the Strait of Hormuz to commercial vessels. This action crippled the daily flow of approximately 20 million barrels of petroleum liquids.
The reaction in energy markets was impossible to miss, with gas prices climbing at the fastest pace in over three decades and diesel prices rising by an even steeper percentage.

Yes, Chump worked hard to destroy this economy.  Under President Joe Biden, the economy was recovering from the pandemic and it was the envy of the world.  Chump trashed it on the campaign trail and promised to fix it all on day one.  Instead he destroyed the economy with his tariffs (which were a tax on Americans) and then his war of choice on Iran.  People are struggling.  They're not like him doing insider trading.  They're struggling   


ICE?  It has not gone away, it's just flown under the radar of late.  Armando Garcia (ABC NEWS) reports:

Questions about why ICE arrested a nun continue to grow after her release from custody. 
The Catholic Diocese of Brownsville said that on Sunday, Sister Leticia Ugboaja was detained by agents as she was walking to attend mass at Our Lady of Sorrows Church in McAllen, Texas.
Sister Ugboaja, a Nigerian national, is a registered nurse at South Texas Health System and was a certified nursing assistant at health center in Edinburg, Texas, for 10 years, the Diocese said in a press release. She's part of the Daughters of Mary Mother of Mercy congregation and volunteers as a minister at Our Lady of Sorrows Church. 
Sister Ugboaja was released the same day she was detained, according to Rep. Monica De La Cruz, a Republican, who initially posted on Facebook that her office was working with DHS to "resolve Sister Letty's detainment as quickly as possible."
In a statement, the Catholic Diocese of Brownsville said: "At this time, we are continuing to gather information regarding the circumstances that led to Sister Leticia's detainment and the manner in which she was detained."
[. . .]
Bishop Daniel E. Flores condemned the arrest. 

"Sister Letty is a well-known source of goodness and hope in our community, and I am grateful she has been released. There are many questions remaining about the circumstances surrounding Sister Letty's arrest and detention," Bishop Flores said in a statement. 

"For now, it is clear that Homeland Security enforcement protocols that make it possible for a religious sister, or anyone, to be detained and handcuffed while peacefully walking to Church on a Sunday morning are wildly disturbing and need to be reformed," he added. 


Covering the same story, Thao Nguyen (USA TODAY) notes:

The Diocese of Brownsville said Ugboaja is part of the Daughters of Mary Mother of Mercy congregation, which is headquartered in Nigeria. She volunteers as an Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion at Our Lady of Sorrows Church and is a registered nurse at South Texas Health System's McAllen Medical Center.
Before volunteering at the church, Ugboaja worked for a decade as a certified nursing assistant at DHR Health in Edinburg, Texas, according to the diocese.
[. . .]
As news of Ugboaja's detention spread, members of southern Texas’ congressional delegation called for her release. Rep. Monica de la Cruz, a Republican, said June 28 that her office was working with the DHS to secure Ugboaja's release as quickly as possible.
"As I have repeatedly said, our immigration enforcement should target violent criminals," de la Cruz said in a post on Facebook. "A Catholic nun on her way to church is not a threat to our community."
Later that day, de la Cruz announced that Ugboaja would be released after discussions with Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin.
"I just got off the phone with Secretary Mullin. I'm pleased to announce that Sister Letty will be coming home," de la Cruz said in a post on Facebook. "My office worked closely with the Department of Homeland Security, and I'm grateful they acted to resolve this quickly."
Democratic Reps. Henry Cuellar, Vicente Gonzalez and Joaquin Castro also criticized Ugboaja's arrest. Cuellar had demanded that Ugboaja be released and said he was in contact with federal officials about the nun's arrest.



Donald Trump has quietly ordered a surge in immigration arrests that has seen more than 10,000 people detained in just five days.

The clampdown marks a change of gear for a president, 80, whose high-profile enforcement operations last year descended into chaos and bloodshed. Border Patrol and ICE agents shot at least 14 people between September 2025 and February 2026, among them two U.S. citizens killed in Minneapolis.

They were Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old mother shot dead by ICE agent Jonathan Ross on Jan. 7, and Alex Pretti, also 37, and a VA intensive care nurse, who was thrown to the ground and shot by Border Patrol agents at a protest weeks later.
Agency leaders have now ordered top ICE officials to throw more of their officers into rounding up immigrants marked for deportation, according to the New York Times, which obtained internal documents and spoke to federal officials. The White House wanted more arrests, three officials with knowledge of the conversations told the paper. They were told 2,000 detentions a day was the new benchmark.

According to its own figures, that appears to have worked. Daily arrest numbers have roughly doubled from the 1,000 picked up each day earlier this year. Agents have seized people at routine immigration check-ins, during traffic stops, and out on the street.



Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have reportedly been instructed to set a new standard of at least 2,000 daily arrests. The number of people in ICE detention has also climbed to more than 63,000, adding thousands of detainees to the nation’s sprawling network of prison-like facilities.

The operations do not appear to be part of any surge, such as operations of militarized officers into Democratic-led cities, after Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin entered office earlier this year hoping to keep the agency out of the headlines as he fulfills the president’s mandate to deport 1 million people a year.

But the latest wave of arrests has already come under intense scrutiny from immigration lawyers as well as Democratic and Republican lawmakers. A 56-year-old Catholic nun in Texas left a detention center in tears after she was arrested on the way to Sunday mass, and several arrests inside an immigration courthouse in New York City this week appear to have violated court orders that struck down the Trump administration’s policy of picking up immigrants the moment they leave their hearings.

How's Chump's State Fair working out?  Not so good. 

 





They're covering US House Rep Jared Huffman's statements and the new report he's overseen.  This is the press release his office issued yesterday: 

Washington, D.C. – Today, House Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) released a new 55-page report following months of investigative work by Committee Democrats exposing how Donald Trump hijacked what was supposed to be a unifying, non-political celebration of our country's 250th birthday and made it all about him – his vanity projects, his political and religious agenda, his business ventures, and his cronies who gorged on public funds under cover of a shadow corporation shielded from public scrutiny.

The report, "From Vanity to Insanity: How the White House Cheated the American People Out of Their 250th Birthday," traces how the machinery Congress built for a national commemoration that would be above politics was commandeered, over a period of months, into an apparatus for raising and spending money in service of the President's ego, political agenda, and personal financial interests.

Watch Ranking Member Huffman discuss the report's findings.

“Donald Trump’s hijacking of America's 250th birthday will go down as one of the most corrupt, brazen abuses of public trust in presidential history, even by the dubious standards of this administration. As our country prepared to celebrate a milestone that belongs to every American, Trump and his operatives launched a hostile takeover of the bipartisan commission established by Congress to lead the celebration. When that failed, they sidelined the commission, siphoned its resources, and infiltrated a beloved national charity under cover of a shadow corporation that shielded them from public scrutiny. Then they proceeded to deceive donors, solicit foreign money, sell access to the President, award no-bid contracts to Trump loyalists, harvest Americans’ personal data, and push a white-washed, Christian nationalist version of history,” said Ranking Member Jared Huffman (D-Calif).

“But they didn’t account for us. Over the past year, our investigation has pursued the truth about the machinations, schemes and abuses of trust they’ve tried to hide. We’ve uncovered extensive evidence of corruption, self-enrichmentand potential crimes. The Republican majority in Congress, which has far more investigative tools and power than we do, could have joined us in conducting serious oversight and demanding answers. Instead, they’ve used their power to shield the individuals and entities involved.

“The American people deserve to know the truth about how the official national celebration of our country’s 250th anniversary was stolen, along with a large – and so far unaccounted for – sum of their taxpayer dollars. So, today – against the obstruction and resistance of our Republican colleagues – we are dragging this fiasco out of the shadows and shining a bright light on the corruption and fraud surrounding Freedom 250. We can’t stop from tarnishing the country’s July 4th celebration, but we can stop it from ever happening again – we can protect the next government program, the next fund, the next thing that's supposed to work for all of us, from being exploited and misused this way. That’s why we must confront this grift and corruption now. From our earliest days, America has stood for government by the people, not powerful tyrants. We will fight to keep it that way.”

When the nonpartisan, congressionally chartered America250 Commission refused to bend to the President's demands, the White House built a replacement - Freedom 250 LLC – and declared it the central platform for the national celebration. The White House lodged this shadow organization inside the National Park Foundation so it could exploit the credibility and donor relationships of a beloved public charity while operating outside the transparency rules Congress wrote into law for the commission.

Key Findings

  • The President put himself at the center of the nation's birthday. Trump issued an executive order making himself and the Vice President Chair and Vice Chair of a White House task force, then staged his own birthday as a national event twice: the Army's 250th military parade on June 14, 2025, and a UFC fight on the White House South Lawn on June 14, 2026, run under the Freedom 250 banner.
  • The White House built Freedom 250 on deceit. Musical performers, among others, were misled about programming and connections to Trump’s political machine. Fundraisers may have misled donors who intended to support America250 and handed them Freedom 250's banking information, routing contributions meant for the nonpartisan foundation to the President's substitute entity instead. The report finds that, if true, this could constitute wire fraud and charitable solicitation fraud under federal and District of Columbia law.
  • Freedom 250 sold access to the President and courted foreign money in America's name. The organization circulated sponsorship packages starting at $500,000 and climbing above $10 million, backed by a "historic photo opportunity" with President Trump. Its CEO solicited foreign governments, corporations, and individuals at the World Economic Forum in Davos to fund the President’s priorities. If foreign funds reach the President's vanity projects, the report finds the conduct would clearly violate the Constitution's Foreign Emoluments Clause.
  • Trump and his operatives cashed in. Event Strategies, Inc., the firm that helped plan the January 6th rally, has collected tens of millions in federal contracts connected to the anniversary, including a master contract worth up to $100 million. Trump traded in the stock of companies that donated to Freedom 250 and staged a White House UFC fight that shamelessly promoted his own investments and business ventures. Freedom 250's event registration process was run through Campaign Nucleus, the firm founded by Trump campaign operative Brad Parscale, which uses artificial intelligence to score visitors and target "persuadable" voters. Thousands of unwitting fans handed over their personal information at a free FIFA World Cup Fan Zone on the National Mall. Freedom 250’s official merchandise is sold by the Trump campaign’s official merchandise vendor, Ace Specialties, and agencies have purchased the merchandise and required employees to wear it.
  • The White House imposed a false, Christian nationalist history. Federally funded "Freedom Trucks" carried revisionism and outright falsehoods to schoolchildren, including an AI rendering of George Washington claiming, "our rights are a gift from God," a statement Washington is not documented to have made. The Interior Department also urged employees to wear Freedom 250 pins and threatened discipline against those who refused the pin, which anonymous employees took to calling their "Vichy pin," a reference to World War II-era lapel pins that served as loyalty and propaganda badges.
  • Freedom 250 created a blueprint for corruption. The report concludes Freedom 250 is "a blueprint, not a one-time abuse," already test-driven at the Department of Agriculture, where the administration steered companies with business before the government to donate through a conservation charity into a fund the Secretary controls.


The investigation drew on confidential disclosures from sources interviewed by Committee Democrats, internal Freedom 250 documents and talking points obtained by the Committee, sworn testimony from two Committee hearings, and written responses from the National Park Foundation and the National Forest Foundation.

Republicans on the Committee refused to conduct any oversight to hold the administration accountable, even when Democrats repeatedly raised evidence of wrongdoing at Republicans’ own hearing entitled, “All in for America250: Public-Private Partnerships Supporting America’s Semiquincentennial on our Public Lands.” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum testified he was "not aware of the final decisionmaker" behind Freedom 250, and the Department has refused to provide that information since.

Read the full report here.

 
Chump's state fair has been a huge failure.  OK reports:


The Great American State Fair has already dealt with thin crowds, power problems, canceled performers and weather delays. Now it has anti-Trump graffiti inside one of its state exhibits.

Photos taken at the National Mall event showed “8647” scrawled onto a Cadillac-themed installation inside the Texas pavilion, part of the broader America250 celebrations leading up to the nation’s 250th anniversary. The exhibit, called “Let’s Texas,” was designed to showcase the state’s culture and identity.

The number sequence is widely read in political contexts as “86 47,” a coded message suggesting the removal of Donald Trump, the 47th president.


But that's not all.  Like everything else about Chump, it just gets worse.  DC is expected to have a heatwave and Rhian Lubin (INDEPENDENT) reported yesterday, "Air conditioning units reportedly failed at some exhibits at President Donald Trump’s Great American State Fair in Washington, D.C., as temperatures hit a sweltering 100 degrees.  It is the latest setback for Trump’s fair, a weeks-long celebration of America’s 250th birthday on the National Mall, amid lackluster crowds and musicians dropping out of performances."  But apparently he's now focused solely on Saturday's speech -- specifically the turnout he'll have.  Cheyenne Ubiera (IRISH STAR) reports: 


White House aides are reportedly worried about the turnout for President Donald Trump's July 4th address after he was infuriated by the crowd during his Great American State Fair.

The president promised that his July 4th rally on the National Mall would be the "most unforgettable birthday party any country has ever seen." But some inside his White House aren't sure how many people will actually show up.
Trump had a lackluster attendance during his speech on the mall last week, which infuriated the president behind the scenes. Following the address were days of scattered crowds and incidents at the Great American State Fair. It comes just days after JD Vance committed a huge national security breach after viewers spotted a tiny detail in a photo.
Discussing the crowd size fears, a White House official told CNN: "I’m really not sure who thought this was a good idea. I do not understand why we are doing this so late." The president will speak at 9.45 pm on Saturday.
Trump was reportedly livid over the small crowd at his campaign-style speech last week, according to two sources familiar with the matter. His remarks were thrown together after nearly every musical act backed out over the state fair's ties to MAGA.



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

On Friday, Trump admin cancelled vast majority of grants awarded to communities nationwide to prevent teen pregnancy

Washington, D.C. — Today, Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, led a letter to Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. blasting his recent decision to terminate nearly all Teen Pregnancy Prevention (TPP) Program grants—and calling on him to immediately reinstate the funding for over 50 grantees nationwide.

“We write to express our outrage over your recent decision to terminate the vast majority of Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program grants, which will deprive teens across the U.S. of vital resources and threaten to unwind decades of progress made in reducing teen pregnancy,” write the senators. “These grants, which were canceled in the middle of their five-year project period, supported evidence-based programs that worked to prevent teen pregnancy and behavioral risk factors underlying teen pregnancy, as is required by law.”

In their letter, the lawmakers note that teen pregnancy in the U.S. has been on a steady decline for decades, thanks in part to successful programs like TPP: “For the last 35 years, the teen birth rate has been declining. According to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the teenage birth rate fell by 7% in 2025, reaching another historic low.”

The senators explain that Congress has appropriated $101 million in fiscal year 2026 for the explicit purpose of making grants to support “medically accurate and age appropriate programs that reduce teen pregnancy,” and state that these cancellations ignore congressional intent for the program, perhaps because the administration simply disagrees with the program’s goals. “[A]llies of the president have increasingly suggested that declining teen birth rates are a ‘problem,’” the senators write. “It appears this administration may agree with that assessment as you cancel funding for these proven programs.”

“We demand that you immediately reverse course and reinstate funding for established grantees of the TPP Program, who are midway through their grants and doing essential work to prevent teen pregnancy,” the lawmakers conclude.

Joining Senator Murray in sending the letter were U.S. Senators Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Ed Markey (D-MA), Jack Reed (D-RI), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Adam Schiff (D-CA), Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), Tina Smith (D-MN), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA).

The full letter is available HERE and below:

Dear Secretary Kennedy:

We write to express our outrage over your recent decision to terminate the vast majority of Teen Pregnancy Prevention (TPP) Program grants, which will deprive teens across the U.S. of vital resources and threaten to unwind decades of progress made in reducing teen pregnancy. These grants, which were canceled in the middle of their five-year project period, supported evidence-based programs that worked to prevent teen pregnancy and behavioral risk factors underlying teen pregnancy, as is required by law. This decision to cancel 53 of 66 existing grants follows a pattern of actions the Trump Administration has taken to undermine access to comprehensive reproductive healthcare and put the health and wellbeing of our young people at risk. We call on you to immediately reinstate funding for these grantees who have a proven track record of working to uphold the goals of the program in accordance with the law. 

For the last 35 years, the teen birth rate has been declining. According to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the teenage birth rate fell by 7% in 2025, reaching another historic low. In 1991, the number of babies born to mothers ages 15 to 19 was more than five times higher than it is today. Evidence suggests that these declines are driven by several factors, including the use of more effective forms of contraception, greater access to information about pregnancy prevention, and a decline in teen sexual activity, which the TPP Program has supported.

The very goal of the TPP Program when it was established in 2010 was to support evidence-driven practices that would reduce teen pregnancy, with the majority of funds directed to programs with models whose effectiveness at preventing teen pregnancy had been demonstrated through rigorous evaluation, known as “Tier 1”, and a smaller portion of funds for the development and testing of new prevention programs, or “Tier 2,” which helps to grow the list of approved Tier 1 curricula.

The bipartisan law that most recently appropriated funding for the program in fiscal year 2026 reiterated the program’s goals—providing $101 million for “making competitive contracts and grants to public and private entities to fund medically accurate and age appropriate programs that reduce teen pregnancy” with 75 percent of funds directed toward “replicating programs that have been proven effective through rigorous evaluation to reduce teenage pregnancy, behavioral risk factors underlying teenage pregnancy, or other associated risk factors.”

These grants were awarded to state and local health departments, universities, and community organizations across America, like the Boys & Girls Club. These are organizations that know exactly how to reach young people to provide them with the information they need to make smart decisions about their health and futures.

We know that both Trump Administrations have long sought to destroy the TPP Program. President Trump’s fiscal year 2026 budget proposed to eliminate it, as did his prior budgets, and in 2017, the Trump Administration attempted to cancel every TPP Program grant, a decision that was ultimately struck down by the courts. Now, however, allies of the president have increasingly suggested that declining teen birth rates are a “problem.” It appears this administration may agree with that assessment as you cancel funding for these proven programs. Your decision to terminate this funding squarely aligns with your department’s established pattern of rejecting evidence and science, ignoring Congressional intent, and undermining the ability of people to make their own healthcare decisions.

We demand that you immediately reverse course and reinstate funding for established grantees of the TPP Program, who are midway through their grants and doing essential work to prevent teen pregnancy. 

Sincerely,

###



The following sites -- plus Ruth's "Chump's vast corruption," Rebecca's "ridiculous jared polis and another strong episode of general hospital" and Mike's "Miss Sassy JD Vance" -- updated:

Posted by at

Thursday, July 02, 2026

Bryan Adams, Lionel Richie, Diana Ross, Steve Miller Band, Madonna

Some interesting news.  Etan Vlessing (HOLLYWOOD REPORTER) notes:


Bryan Adams has released a Donald Trump protest song, "51st State," timed for Canada Day, the nation's birthday on July 1.

The single, released to YouTube and other social media platforms by the legendary Canadian rocker, celebrates unity among Canadians in the face of  the U.S. president making repeated taunts about Canada becoming a 51st U.S. state and launching a cross-border tariff war.
[. . .]
Elsewhere, former Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau mocked Trump's 2024 "governor" trash talk in the documentary, Rivals: 4 Nations Face-Off, about the historic 2025 international hockey tournament between teams for Canada and the U.S.A.. Additionally, comedian Mike Myers wore a "Never 51" jersey in a TV ad alongside Canadian prime minister Mark Carney and mocked the idea of Canada joining the United States on an appearance on Saturday Night Live.

Good for Bryan.  He was part of Northern Lights along with Joni Mitchell, Cory Hart, Neil Young and others.  They were for Canada what USA for Africa was for the United States.  USA for Africa was Diana Ross, Bruce Springsteen, Tina Turner, Stevie Wonder, Dionne Warwick, Cyndi Lauper, Ray Charles and others were as the supergroup recording "We Are The World."  Northern Lights recorded the charity single "Tears Are Not Enough." I'm thinking a Northern Lights type project needs to be done again, an anthem telling Chump to back the hell off with his talk about turning Canada into a US state.  Make a huge message.  As it is, Bryan's started the ball rolling and good for him for doing that. 

Meanwhile Taijuan Moorman (USA TODAY) provides an update on Lionel Richie:

Lionel Richie is back on stage after a health scare.

The Grammy-winning singer made his return in Pittsburgh on his Sing a Song All Night Long Tour with Earth, Wind & Fire on Tuesday, June 30, in better spirits after cutting his tour opener short in Minnesota and postponing two concerts in Chicago and Columbus, Ohio.
Videos posted by fans on YouTube showed the "All Night Long" singer up and about. While playing his hit "Dancing on the Ceiling" – which he had previously performed while sitting on a step on stage – the 77-year-old singer walked across the stage and told the crowd, "When your vitamin pill kicks in, you're going to dance on the ceiling!" He performed the entire song standing.
Richie's return comes after the singer admitted to "feeling dizzy" halfway through his set on June 24 in St. Paul, Minnesota, per the Minnesota Star Tribune. "When you're feeling dizzy, sit your ass down," he said, adding he'd never performed his 1986 hit "Dancing on the Ceiling" seated.

That is good news.  I'm happy he's back on tour and doing well.  And Lionel was, of course, part of USA for Africa -- and co-wrote "We Are The World."  

Lionel's biggest hit was the duet "Endless Love" with Diana Ross.  Diana's noted in press release:

TJ Maxx has unveiled its new brand platform and integrated campaign, ‘Never Uniform, Always You’, helmed by four iconic women, Diana Ross, Mindy Kaling, Ilona Maher, and Chloe Flower, each styled head-to-toe in TJ Maxx looks that spotlight their originality.

At a time when fashion can feel uniform or prescribed, TJ Maxx is celebrating women who lead with self-assured originality in every part of their lives, using fashion as one of many ways to show the world who they are. This campaign inspires confidence, magnetism, and style, showcasing the power of originality to encourage viewers to do the same. TJ Maxx ensures that originality is always within reach with high-quality fashion at a great value.

Developed in partnership with Ogilvy, the campaign is supported by a multi-channel media strategy across linear TV, streaming /digital video, and social.

Mindy Kaling said, “I’ve been most successful when I take creative risks and try to do things that are true to me and really original to my voice. I'm proud to be part of TJ Maxx's 'Never Uniform. Always You.' campaign, it celebrates the confidence to stay true to yourself instead of following the crowd."

Ilona Maher said, "I've definitely felt pressure to tone it down or fit into one box, but I've learned that's not where the magic happens. That's what I love about TJ Maxx's 'Never Uniform. Always You.' It's about celebrating individuality in a culture that can make us feel like we're all supposed to be the same.

Chloe Flower said, “You can only go so far as an artist trying to conform to something. You have to be true to yourself. That's why partnering with TJ Maxx feels so meaningful to me. 'Never Uniform. Always You.' resonates deeply because originality comes from having the courage to create your own path."

Diana Ross said, “It’s fun to find something that feels authentically you! Always intend to be an original.”



The Steve Miller Band is behind some of the biggest rock hits in music. Take, for example, “Jet Airliner,” “Fly Like an Eagle,” “The Joker,” and “Take the Money and Run.” But, it was “Abracadabra,” released in May of 1982, that almost didn’t make the band’s impressive catalog had it not been for a chance encounter with the one and only, Diana Ross. 
Before the band recorded the psychedelic song, Steve Miller, who wrote the “Abracadabra” lyrics by himself, experienced a bit of writer’s block, according to American Songwriter. The outlet, which sourced Vulture, shared that Miller described the original layout of the song as having a gypsy-blues style arrangement set to “bad lyrics.” 
However, all that changed when he ran into Ross on a ski slope in Sun Valley, Idaho, which sparked a memory for him. The moment found him recalling the time the Steve Miller Band performed on the once-popular variety show Hullabaloo, on the same night as Ross and her musical group, The Supremes. 
“Abracadabra” was this piece of music that I wrote on this classical guitar. It was just something I’d sit and pick up the guitar ….I wrote the worst lyrics in the world…,” Miller further explained during an interview with AXS TV. “I went home, and I said to myself, ‘How would The Supremes do this song?’ And, I wrote ‘Abracadabra’ in 12 minutes. I just sat down, and it just all came together. I was thinking about that old black magic, and I went ‘Abracadabra’ and [I thought about] how The Supremes would go,’ I want to reach out and grab ya.’”



Singer, actress, and entertainment icon Diana Ross will bring her celebrated catalog to the Santa Barbara Bowl on Thursday, August 27, for an evening spanning more than six decades of music history. Tickets go on sale Friday, June 5, at 10 a.m.

From her early years as the voice of The Supremes to her chart-dominating solo career, Ross has helped define the sound of popular music with hits including “Baby Love,” “Stop! In the Name of Love,” “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” “I’m Coming Out,” and “Endless Love.”

A Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee as a member of The Supremes, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award recipient, and Presidential Medal of Freedom honoree, she has influenced generations of artists while remaining a commanding live performer known for her elegance, charisma, and unmistakable voice.

At 82, Ross continues to tour internationally, drawing audiences eager to revisit the Motown classics and solo favorites that have become woven into the fabric of American music. Her Santa Barbara Bowl appearance promises a career-spanning set filled with nostalgia, powerhouse vocals, and the kind of star presence that few artists can match. For more information, see sbbowl.com



At BILLBOARD, Katie Bain ranks the 12 tracks on Madonna's new album (due out in a few hours). 


Closing with C.I.'s "The Snapshot:"


Thursday, July 2, 2026.  Chump's greed is on full display as Americans struggle with the economy he broke, Republicans struggle for voters, Democrats struggle to explain some basics, and much more. 





"The American people realize how badly this administration is screwing them over," Ben notes on this morning's MEIDASTOUCH.

Let's note two things we noted at the top of yesterday's snapshot because they warrant continued attention.   Ben Protess, Andrea Fuller, Eric Lipton and David Yaffe-Bellany (NEW YORK TIMES) report:

President Trump reaped a stunning windfall in his first year back in the White House, including about $1.4 billion from his family’s cryptocurrency businesses, a new filing shows.

All told, the president pulled in at least $2.2 billion, a figure that includes other parts of his vast holdings, such as his real estate assets. That compares to a minimum of $622 million his enterprises pulled in for all of 2024, before he returned to the presidency.

One of his biggest hauls in 2025 came when an investment firm tied to the United Arab Emirates bought nearly half of the Trump family’s main crypto company, World Liberty Financial, a transaction that blurred the line between foreign policy and private enterprise.



President Lyndon B. Johnson’s wife owned a profitable radio station. George W. Bush was on the board of an oil company while his father was in the White House. And Hunter Biden was paid by a Ukrainian natural gas company while his father was vice president.

But never before in American history has there been anything like Donald J. Trump, a president who in his first year back in office has collected about $1.4 billion in new revenues from cryptocurrency businesses that directly benefited from his actions as president, a financial disclosure report made public on Tuesday shows.

Overall, Mr. Trump’s revenue in 2025 jumped to at least $2.2 billion, compared with a minimum of $622 million in 2024 before he returned to office.

“It is completely unprecedented,” said Megan Gorman, a tax attorney and the author of a recent book, “All the Presidents’ Money,” that studied the history of presidential wealth dating back 250 years.

Generally, throughout history, Ms. Gorman and other historians said, American presidents have taken actions to try to separate themselves from corporate entanglements that might create conflicts.

“Public office, if anything, was a source of debt, not a source of revenue,” said Lindsay M. Chervinsky, a historian and the executive director of the George Washington Presidential Library at Mount Vernon.

Mr. Trump and his family have done the opposite, creating new business ventures that are profiting from actions Mr. Trump has taken since he returned to the White House.

Those include the pardon Mr. Trump issued in October to Changpeng Zhao, the richest man in crypto, who founded the company Binance, which has been a critical business partner to the Trump family’s own crypto venture. They also include legislation that Mr. Trump signed last July to promote a form of cryptocurrency called stablecoins, four months after his family-backed firm introduced its own stablecoin.














On his gilded and grifted ways,  Farrah Tomazin (DAILY BEAST) reports: 

Donald Trump has taken a maiden flight on his new Qatari-gifted luxury jet while brushing aside questions about how much taxpayers spent converting the Boeing 747 into the new Air Force One.
The president showed off the new plane before boarding it to North Dakota for his latest America 250 celebration at the dedication of the Theodore Roosevelt Library.
However, when asked directly about the cost to American taxpayers, Trump avoided offering a figure, insisting the cost was “very little relative to what it would cost if we did it a different way” while emphasizing that the aircraft itself had been “a gift.”
[. . .]
The Air Force has previously said it spent less than $400 million modifying the plane for presidential use, including installing secure communications and defensive systems, though officials have declined to provide a full public accounting of the classified security upgrades. Critics have argued the true long-term cost could be significantly higher.

This is all enough to make a person nervous.  And Ed Mazza (HUFFINGTON POST) argues it's made Chump very nervous:
 
President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced a first-ever “midterm convention” for the Republican Party, which will be held in September in Dallas. 
But critics on social media said it sounded like a desperate move given his plunging popularity in the polls and growing signs that the GOP will lose their majorities in the House and possibly even the Senate. 
Even states once considered safe red territory now appear to be in play, with a New York Times/Siena poll this week showing the race for a U.S. Senate seat in Texas is a dead heat. Democratic candidate James Talarico and Trump’s hand-picked Republican candidate, scandal-plagued state Attorney General Ken Paxton are both at 47%. 



Chump and his planners have been woefully out of touch with the country.  And with midterms in November, minutes away, that's not a good sign.  What else isn't a good sign?  GOP reps in Congress who live to appear out of touch.  Max Rego (THE HILL) reports: 

Despite a sizeable number of Americans expressing financial concerns, Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas) boasted Tuesday of his plans to eat lobster tails and rib-eye steak this Fourth of July weekend. 
“Affordability — what are you talking about?” Nehls told reporter Pablo Manríquez on the Capitol steps, when the latter asked him how House Republicans can convince their constituents they are fighting to make life more affordable.
“Over the fourth, I’m going to get me a couple of big lobster tails, I’m going to get me some nice rib-eyes. I’m going to sit in my backyard with my family [and] my neighbors, and we’re going to be enjoying the fourth, celebrating 250 years, the birthday [of America],” the Texas Republican added.
[. . .]
When another reporter asked him whether Americans living “paycheck to paycheck” can afford to eat the same food he plans to, Nehls wondered if those people “work as hard as I do.”

Don't worry about voting him out of office, he's not seeking re-election.  For obvious reasons. And Chump's there helping to tank his own party as well.  Stephanie Kaloi (MEDIAITE) reports:


Former White House spokesperson Sarah Matthews, who worked for President Donald Trump from June 2020 to January 2021, says it “seems” her former employer “is doing everything in his power to tank Republican chances in the midterms.”
In a segment on MS NOW, Matthews explained to correspondent Antonia Hylton that Trump’s fixation on the SAVE America Act could cost him, and the Republican Party, dearly this fall.
“I think that if President Trump was doing everything in his power to tank Republicans’ chances in the midterms, he wouldn’t be doing anything differently,” she said. “That’s what it seems like. It seems like he does not care about the party, which he never has, to be fair. He has never cared about what is good for the betterment of the Republican Party. He has only ever cared about himself and accumulating as much power as possible.”


And, you could argue, he's never cared about the American people, only about himself.  That would explain a new poll. Anna Commander (NEWSWEEK) reports: 

A majority of Americans say President Donald Trump has not paid attention to the issues that matter most to them, according to a new poll from The Economist/YouGov released Tuesday, as the president promoted a new Republican midterm convention aimed at energizing GOP supporters ahead of the 2026 elections.
On Tuesday, Trump announced on Truth Social that Republicans will hold what he called the party’s first-ever national midterm convention in Dallas on September 9 and 10. He described the gathering as a “truly Historic Event” celebrating the “Great American Comeback” and said it would showcase achievements under the America First agenda, while promising “lots of Great Entertainment” and “a RALLY like none other!”
Meanwhile, the survey released on Tuesday found that 60 percent of respondents believe Trump “hasn’t paid attention to the most important problems” facing the country, underscoring persistent concerns about his priorities as his administration pushes ahead with a slate of initiatives, including foreign affairs decisions amid turmoil with Iran and as the country prepares to celebrate its 250th anniversary.
The findings come as Trump has drawn criticism this week for seemingly dismissing the nation’s housing bill. Speaking to reporters Monday, the president brushed aside legislation aimed at addressing soaring housing costs, calling it “a big yawn.”

And yesterday's NEW YORK TIMES report by  about the 2.2 billion Chump's raked in throughout 2025 via grifting and corruption isn't helping people see him as a friend who understands their economic struggles.  Marco Margaritoff (HUFFINGTON POST) notes some criticism of Chump over that grifting:

Former Trump White House attorney Ty Cobb on Tuesday called out President Donald Trump over his $1.2 billion in earnings from cryptocurrency ventures since returning to the White House in 2025, calling it “the greatest onslaught of corruption in the history of mankind.”

Cobb appeared on CNN following the release of a financial disclosure document showing Trump earned $594,263,944 from his family’s World Liberty Financial cryptocurrency firm and $635,068,835 from the CIC Digital LLC company that marketed his $TRUMP meme coin.
“I don’t believe so,” Cobb told “OutFront” host Erin Burnett when asked if he thinks it’s legal.

He continued, “Certainly, I don’t think it was contemplated by the Founders when they created the emoluments clause. I do think that one of the line items, of course, is the commemorative coins, several hundred million dollars of income related to those coins.”

Cobb went on to ponder how this could be “anything other than trading on his image and likeness,” noting this violates the 1787 clause designed to prevent federal officials from being corrupted, influenced or enriched from external entities, and calling crypto a “slimy industry.”


Americans under Chump are starving for the truth -- one of the many things Chump cannot provide.  That's among the reasons why  REGIME CHANGE is a huge hit.  Bill Barrow (AP) reports 


It turns out readers still want to learn more about President Donald Trump after all.
“Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump,” the latest book on the Trump presidency, written by political journalists Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, has sold more than 300,000 copies in its opening week, according to publisher Simon & Schuster.
They’re the kind of sales that numerous works about Trump reached during his first term, but had been rare during his second term. Publishers had speculated that the public had tired of Trump books, believing there was little left to know.
The total figures include preorders, print book sales, ebooks, and e-audiobooks and orders that have yet to be fulfilled because of demand, the publishing house said. Simon & Schuster said the book is into its third hard copy printing, with 200,000 copies on order, after it sold out quickly in bookstores and on Amazon. It's the best first-week clip of any hardcover nonfiction book in 2026.


Andrew Stanton (NEWSWEEK) reports on Democrats' chances to take over the Senate in the midterms:

Democrats and Republicans are engaged in a close race for control of the Senate in the 2026 midterm elections, according to a new poll from The New York Times, which showed single-digit races in six GOP-held states Democrats must win in November to flip the chamber.
Historically, the party in the White House loses seats in the midterms, so Democrats are optimistic about their chances of reclaiming a House majority. But their Senate map is tougher. Republicans currently hold a 53-47 majority in the Senate, and Democrats have few easy targets this year and must win seats in states that backed President Donald Trump by double digits to flip the Senate.
The poll from the Times, Siena University and the Portland Press Herald suggested that several key Senate races are close, about four months out from the election. Other polls and prediction markets similarly show a tight race.

Ed Kilgore (THE INTELLIGENCER) reports:

Last month, there was immense excitement on the left when outspoken progressives (two of them members of the Democratic Socialists of America) won three congressional primaries and a host of down-ballot races in New York. Losers included two entrenched incumbents, one of them the chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, and their backers, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and AIPAC-aligned donors. While some activists immediately leaped to predictions that the uprising would go national, others noted New York’s unique political culture and emphasized the local influence of Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who is a national celebrity but not yet a national power broker.
But after Colorado’s June 30 primaries, there’s evidence that the ideological and generational ferment that was so evident in New York is bubbling up elsewhere. Most strikingly, 29-year-old DSA member Melat Kiros knocked off 15-term incumbent congresswoman Diana DeGuette in Denver’s deep-blue First Congressional District. Kiros first received national attention in 2023 when a law firm fired her for publishing an open letter questioning Israel’s legitimacy as a Zionist state. She overcame heavy late spending on DeGuette’s behalf by AIPAC-funded and Silicon Valley groups. The incumbent wasn’t exactly a “centrist”; she’s a long-time co-sponsor of Medicare for All legislation and is best known for her fiery defense of reproductive rights. So to some extent, Kiros’s win represented a generic “change” sentiment; she wasn’t even born when DeGuette first went to Congress. But at her victory celebration, where celebrity socialist influencer Hasan Piker appeared, Kiros was quick to claim affiliation with a national movement, PBS reported:
“We are winning from coast to coast,” Kiros said to an ecstatic audience and the blast of air horns. “We are taking back our party and our country!”
Though it was clearly a less ideological contest, Colorado progressives also cheered state attorney general Phil Weiser’s landslide win over three-term U.S. Senator Michael Bennet in the state’s gubernatorial primary (incumbent Democrat Jared Polis was term-limited). Weiser shrewdly played the anti-Trump resistance card, citing his many lawsuits against the Trump administration in contrast to Bennet’s relatively conciliatory record in the Senate, as NBC News noted:
Weiser, who is in his second term as attorney general, gained traction as the two candidates traded attacks over their anti-Trump credentials in a race in which there was little daylight between them on policy. Both have pushed affordability, housing and environmental issues as top priorities, as well as fighting Trump’s immigration agenda.
Weiser has attacked Bennet for having voted to confirm several of Trump’s Cabinet nominees as a member of the Senate and has cast him as a Washington insider.


Notice, though, where the left won and where it did not.

Every one of those victories came in a safe Democratic seat, where the November election is likely a formality.

The one genuinely competitive race on the board—Colorado’s 8th, the state’s only toss-up—went to Manny Rutinel, a more conventional Democrat backed by Latino-outreach groups and tech donors.

That seat has flipped in each of its two elections; a Democrat won it by around 1,600 votes in 2022, and Republican Gabe Evans took it by fewer than 2,500 in 2024.

It is exactly the kind of district that decides House majorities, and it did not reward a factional candidate.

The progressive left has proved it can beat Democratic incumbents. The open question is whether it can produce politicians who become national figures, their reach and reputation growing beyond the districts that elected them.





Attorney General Phil Weiser won comfortably in the gubernatorial primary over Bennet, who had been considered the heavy frontrunner until recently. Weiser isn’t much more liberal than Bennet but positioned himself as more anti-Trump. He hammered Bennet for his votes to confirm several of Trump’s executive branch nominees last year and won the backing of the state’s Indivisible chapter.
It’s normal to have multiple candidates seeking an open governorship (incumbent Jared Polis is term-limited), so Weiser’s decision to take on Bennet wasn’t unusual or surprising. But House Democratic incumbents rarely face strong primary challenges, and Democratic senators almost never do. And it’s not as if Hickenlooper or DeGette are Joe Manchin–style centrists. They strongly backed Joe Biden’s agenda and have opposed most of Trump’s. DeGette is a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. While neither of them has been a leading critic of Israel, they haven’t been vocally pro-Israel like Representative Dan Goldman, who was defeated last week in New York.
So why did DeGette and Hickenlooper get primary challengers, and why were those challenges so popular with voters? How did a man (Bennet) who has voted against nearly all of Trump’s proposals in Washington lose a contest over who would be the most anti-Trump?
For the same reasons Mamdani won the Democratic primary in New York last year, Graham Platner won in Maine earlier this year, Abdul El-Sayed has surged in Michigan Senate polls, and other progressive candidates are gaining ground and winning around the country. Democratic voters are mad at party leaders for not defeating Trump in 2024 and then last year having to be coaxed by the base into aggressively opposing him. They are also curious if newer politicians will do a better job than those from the party establishment in fighting MAGA. Those two factors provide an opening for challenges to incumbents and frontrunners, even those with fairly liberal voting records.

Perry writes that. He appears to forget that Janet Mills repeatedly stood up to Chump -- even to his face.




You can't just throw junk together in an essay and ignore facts and expect anyone to be impressed with your 'hot' take.  Enough on thought pieces that are half-thought out -- if that.  Eric Garcia (INDEPENDENT) puts some actual thought into the election results:

There are plenty of parallels to that era and today, and not just because Kiros, a barista and attorney, beat a long-time entrenched incumbent in much the same way that AOC, a democratic socialist and bartender, took out the chairman of the House Democratic caucus in 2018.

She came to Washington flanked by Reps. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), who formed what would become “the Squad” of progressives in Congress.

And just like back then, Republicans hope to paint Democrats in swing districts with the same socialist brush from these deep-blue districts.

Rep. Richard Hudson (R-N.C.), chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, told The Independent that the most important quality for any race is candidate quality and whether someone fits their district.

“And that's why we have the advantage, because we have really good candidates that fit their districts, and the Democrats have had these crazy primaries where they've all tried to out-Mamdani each other, and they’ve ended up with extreme candidates,” he said.





The race, however, has broader implications for the future of left-wing politics in the U.S., with Kiros’ victory putting to rest any notion that the progressive wave sweeping across the country might be limited to New York City.
The progressive victory in Denver, however, also means that a potential Democratic majority in the House is likely to feature a majority-making coalition of left-wing progressives. As it stands, there are two DSA-endorsed members of Congress, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-NY, and Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich. After this year’s election, there is almost certain to be five, due to the wins in Colorado and New York alone. The coalition on the Democratic Party’s left wing, however, will be significantly larger, though its exact size depends on how the group is counted.



We've noted that Socialist doesn't need to be treated like a dirty word.  We've noted that if AOC has any hope of a presidential campaign in the Democratic Party primary in 2028, people need to stop hiding.  Ave and I called out the very bad book by which refused to note Socialists.  On the right, it could and did name Libertarians and MAGAs and GOPers and you name it.  But everyone on the left was a Democrat or else not noted.  It's like how Amy Goodman brought on all those Democratic Socialists to trash Kamala Harris when Kamala was running for the presidency but never noted that these guests weren't Democrats, they were the word that the left would not mention back then . . . socialists. 


Ava and I noted this silence -- from our side (the left) -- on Socialists in February of last year with "Media: OWNED finds Eoin Higgins owned by bad journalism:"



There are all these characters in the book which is another problem.  


You encounter Republicans and Libertarians and MAGA and even the Tea Party.  


And then?  


And then you have the left.  Such as, on page 134, when he writes of being part of "a group of lefty writers."  Socialists.  That's what he's talking about on that page.  He notes a left "environmentalist" in the book -- a Socialist.  He writes of the genocide in Gaza insisting that the "left" was all basically on the same side ("The left was more or less opposed to the war, but the conflict quickly exposed a split on the right.") 


Is that what he heard in the echo chamber bubble he lives in?  For the record, we are opposed to the ongoing genocide and have been throughout.  But we're not so stupid that we think that is the uniform opinion on our side.  For example, October 30th -- days before the US presidential election -- Linley Sanders (AP) reported on the latest AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll:


But there’s a big partisan split on whether the Israeli government bears “a lot” of responsibility for the war’s escalation. About 6 in 10 Democrats say they do — similar to the share of Democrats who say Hamas bears “a lot” of responsibility — while only about one-quarter of Republicans say the Israeli government bears “a lot” of responsibility.


Six in ten is not 100%, it's barely over half.  


But damned if the media ecosystem that Eoin hails from -- FAIR, THE NATION, COMMON DREAMS, etc, etc -- hasn't misled everyone on that reality.  


In a really poorly written section about leftists brought on FOX "NEWS" (made even worse by his desperation to name check another friend), he notes that the network brings on two types -- the ineffectual (think Alan Colmes) who is seen as ridiculous and then the Glenn Greenwald types who are there to insult the left.


We wish it would have been better written book  but we also wish he had the nerve to go beyond finger pointing at the other side.  What he's describing -- the fake assery of FOX "NEWS" when it comes to the left --  is what the media eco-system he hails from does over and over.  In fact, that's what DEMOCRACY NOW! did every day from the start of August through October 30th when covering Kamala Harris.


They brought on Socialists to lie and attack.  And the biggest lie there was that they were Democrats.  Even Democrats don't like Kamala, they insisted with their coverage thereby achieving Amy Goodman's intent to suppress turnout for Kamala.


That lie also helped them attack Kamala constantly regarding Gaza.  Again, the lie was -- and continues to be in Higgins' book -- that the left was of one mind on Gaza.  But, as polling demonstrated, that was never the case for the Democratic Party's members.  Kamala had to navigate a tight rope but that reality was ignored as Amy Goodman repeatedly brought on Uncommitted to tell their lies -- frequently, the biggest one being that they were Democrats.  They were, in fact, Socialists (and one Communist).  Long before Eoin finished his book, we were pointing out here that DN! was using the FOX "NEWS" model. 


It takes a lot of nerve and a lot of hypocrisy to rightly attack Glenn Greenwald for his lies, distortions and FOX-ification while you not only refuse to do the same with your own peers but, in fact, also applaud them in the book -- Naomi Klein (a Socialist whose pro-Kamala message on DN! was hold your nose and vote for her -- again, the messaging from DN! was that even Democrats did not support Kamala), Adam H. Johnson, Branko Marcetic and so many more Socialists. 


We don't like Glenn, we have called him out here for years.  But when the left does what we call out in Glenn, we call out the left.  And when we say that we call out the left, we mean we call out Democrats, we call out Socialists, we call out Communists and we call out Greens.


Not only does Eoin refuse to do that, he can't even type the word "Socialist."  Political closets run deep.  And political closet cases worked overtime to defeat Kamala so we're in no mood to play and pretend this is some deep and important book.


It's trite and superficial.  The scope is beyond the page length.  It's 'finding' are generic and self-fulfilling.  Doesn't make them necessarily wrong but does reduce this allegedly important book to nothing more than a basic primer good only for someone brand new to the topic.

There are all these characters in the book which is another problem.  


You encounter Republicans and Libertarians and MAGA and even the Tea Party.  


And then?  


And then you have the left.  Such as, on page 134, when he writes of being part of "a group of lefty writers."  Socialists.  That's what he's talking about on that page.  He notes a left "environmentalist" in the book -- a Socialist.  He writes of the genocide in Gaza insisting that the "left" was all basically on the same side ("The left was more or less opposed to the war, but the conflict quickly exposed a split on the right.") 


Is that what he heard in the echo chamber bubble he lives in?  For the record, we are opposed to the ongoing genocide and have been throughout.  But we're not so stupid that we think that is the uniform opinion on our side.  For example, October 30th -- days before the US presidential election -- Linley Sanders (AP) reported on the latest AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll:


But there’s a big partisan split on whether the Israeli government bears “a lot” of responsibility for the war’s escalation. About 6 in 10 Democrats say they do — similar to the share of Democrats who say Hamas bears “a lot” of responsibility — while only about one-quarter of Republicans say the Israeli government bears “a lot” of responsibility.


Six in ten is not 100%, it's barely over half.  


But damned if the media ecosystem that Eoin hails from -- FAIR, THE NATION, COMMON DREAMS, etc, etc -- hasn't misled everyone on that reality.  


In a really poorly written section about leftists brought on FOX "NEWS" (made even worse by his desperation to name check another friend), he notes that the network brings on two types -- the ineffectual (think Alan Colmes) who is seen as ridiculous and then the Glenn Greenwald types who are there to insult the left.


We wish it would have been better written book  but we also wish he had the nerve to go beyond finger pointing at the other side.  What he's describing -- the fake assery of FOX "NEWS" when it comes to the left --  is what the media eco-system he hails from does over and over.  In fact, that's what DEMOCRACY NOW! did every day from the start of August through October 30th when covering Kamala Harris.


They brought on Socialists to lie and attack.  And the biggest lie there was that they were Democrats.  Even Democrats don't like Kamala, they insisted with their coverage thereby achieving Amy Goodman's intent to suppress turnout for Kamala.


That lie also helped them attack Kamala constantly regarding Gaza.  Again, the lie was -- and continues to be in Higgins' book -- that the left was of one mind on Gaza.  But, as polling demonstrated, that was never the case for the Democratic Party's members.  Kamala had to navigate a tight rope but that reality was ignored as Amy Goodman repeatedly brought on Uncommitted to tell their lies -- frequently, the biggest one being that they were Democrats.  They were, in fact, Socialists (and one Communist).  Long before Eoin finished his book, we were pointing out here that DN! was using the FOX "NEWS" model. 


It takes a lot of nerve and a lot of hypocrisy to rightly attack Glenn Greenwald for his lies, distortions and FOX-ification while you not only refuse to do the same with your own peers but, in fact, also applaud them in the book -- Naomi Klein (a Socialist whose pro-Kamala message on DN! was hold your nose and vote for her -- again, the messaging from DN! was that even Democrats did not support Kamala), Adam H. Johnson, Branko Marcetic and so many more Socialists. 


We don't like Glenn, we have called him out here for years.  But when the left does what we call out in Glenn, we call out the left.  And when we say that we call out the left, we mean we call out Democrats, we call out Socialists, we call out Communists and we call out Greens.


Not only does Eoin refuse to do that, he can't even type the word "Socialist."  Political closets run deep.  And political closet cases worked overtime to defeat Kamala so we're in no mood to play and pretend this is some deep and important book.


It's trite and superficial.  The scope is beyond the page length.  It's 'finding' are generic and self-fulfilling.  Doesn't make them necessarily wrong but does reduce this allegedly important book to nothing more than a basic primer good only for someone brand new to the topic.

It's a year later and the MSM can now use the term "Socialist."  However, lefty media remains skittish.  More to the point, the point we made repeatedly was that AOC may run for president.  If she does, we should have a working knowledge of Democratic Socialism in place before she announces her run.  To educate the country on DS and AOC at the same time is expecting a bit much.

But where are the articles from the left about Democratic Socialism?  

It's left to the MSM to cover this topic.  For example, Eliza Collins and James Fanelli (WALL STREET JOURNAL) explain:

The nationwide group consists of chapters in all 50 states and counts more than 100,000 members. The group, which is often referred to as the DSA, says that it thinks “working people should run both the economy and society democratically to meet human needs, not to make profits for a few.” It describes itself as a political and activist organization, but not a party.

The DSA’s origins date to the 1970s, but its membership grew by the thousands when the group mobilized around the 2016 presidential campaign of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. While Sanders lost that campaign and a subsequent 2020 bid, his movement was the first warning sign to a Democratic establishment that voters were looking for change.
Over the past decade, the DSA has continued to gain members to varying degrees around the country, though its biggest strides have been in urban areas. The New York City chapter has been one of the most successful in growing membership and cultivating viable candidates.

After Kiros’s victory Tuesday, chants of, “DSA, DSA!” could be heard at her watch party.
While Sanders has long called himself a Democratic socialist and in many ways is seen as the leader of the new progressive movement, he isn’t an actual member of DSA, according to a spokesman.

Sanders spent much of his career as a gadfly within the Democratic Party, which he caucuses with despite being an independent. But following his 2016 bid, the progressive movement has grown—taking along many who consider themselves Democratic socialists, for whom Sanders has become a philosophical chieftain.
In 2019, Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, both Democratic socialists, were part of a small group of progressives who came into Congress with much fanfare, while also triggering panic from Democratic leadership. Both had been inspired by Sanders. In the next Congress, the group of socialists or progressives who are ideologically aligned is expected to be much bigger.
Many of its candidates have called for or Palestinian self-determination, pushed for increased taxes on the wealthy and universal healthcare.

Mamdani focused his mayoral run on the high cost of living in New York City, saying he wanted to expand free universal child care, make city buses free and freeze rents for cash-strapped New Yorkers. After taking office, he urged state lawmakers to increase tax rates on high-income earners and businesses. While he didn’t get those levies, his advocacy had an impact: Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and the state legislature recently approved a pied-à-terre tax on luxury second homes in New York City.
In the recent primaries, DSA candidates have also attacked incumbents over their ties to the powerful pro-Israel lobbying group the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a strategy that resonated with voters who have grown disaffected by the war in Gaza.

Are we going to do our job and address Democratic Socialism or not?  If AOC is the nominee in 2028, that's going to be a little late to start addressing the topic.  

Let's wind down with this from Senator Elizabeth Warren's office:

Cloud of corruption surrounds Trump’s fundraising for library, ballroom, and other projects

Softbank reportedly made largest publicly disclosed contribution to Trump Presidential Library just before President Trump weakened an executive order regulating the AI industry

Text of Letter (PDF)

Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), along with Representative Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.), 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. 

“The Trump Administration is the most corrupt in the nation’s history, and one apparent nexus of that corruption has been tens of millions of dollars that have been given by corporate interests to the President’s pet projects including his gold-encrusted ballroom,” wrote the lawmakers. 

On May 22, 2026, Politico reported that SoftBank Group had donated $50 million to President Trump’s Presidential Library project, making it the largest publicly reported contribution to the Library. The donation followed a December 2024 Softbank announcement that it would invest $100 billion in the United States during President Trump’s second term. On March 11, 2026, the Federal Trade Commission also greenlit Softbank’s $4 billion acquisition of DigitalBridge, a data center investment firm. 

The $50 million donation came before President Trump weakened an executive order regulating the AI industry. Softbank is “one of the largest AI investors in the world,” raising questions as to whether the donation was an attempt to buy political favors. The reported donation is the largest publicly disclosed contribution to the Trump Presidential Library to date. 

Softbank has previously contributed to the Presidential Libraries of Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, but only after the Presidents had left office. This time, reports indicated that Softbank quietly made the contribution while President Trump is in office, and before any presidential library has been constructed.  

“These circumstances [under which the donation was made] raise concerns about the potential for bribery and whether donors are seeking favorable treatment from the Trump Administration through contributions that personally benefit a sitting President,” wrote the lawmakers. 

The lawmakers asked the Softbank CEO, Mr. Masayoshi Son, to explain the company’s decision to contribute and whether it was made in exchange for any promises by the Trump administration. 

Senator Warren has led the fight to prevent the Trump family from using the Trump Presidential Library for corrupt pay-to-play deals: 

  • In April 2026, Senators Warren (D-Mass.) and Blumenthal (D-Conn.), along with Representative Stansbury (D-N.M.), released new responses from Big Tech CEOs indicating that they have no public explanation for where as much as $63 million in settlement money to Donald Trump’s now-dissolved Presidential Library fund has gone. The lawmakers followed up with a new letter to President Donald Trump pressing for answers to solve the ongoing mystery of the missing millions.
  • In March 2026, Senators Warren (D-Mass.) and Blumenthal (D-Conn.), along with Representative Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.), pressed ABC, Meta, X, and Paramount on their settlements with President Donald Trump, in which the companies promised to donate as much as $63 million to President Trump’s future Presidential Library.
  • In July 2025, Senators Warren (D-Mass.) and Blumenthal (D-Conn.), along with Representatives Moskowitz (D-Fla.), Raskin (D-Md.), and Stansbury (D-N.M.) unveiled the Presidential Library Anti-Corruption Act to close loopholes that allow presidential libraries to be used as tools for corruption and bribery.
  • In July 2025, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) released a new report exposing how companies, special interests, and foreign governments may be pledging donations to President Trump’s future Presidential Library as a corrupt tool to secure favorable outcomes from his administration.

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