A political summer of smoke and mirrors to say nothing of congressional evacuations.
ON FIRE
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A political summer of smoke and mirrors to say nothing of congressional evacuations.
Comments are closed.
Back in the days before anyone had ever heard of climate change, Nat King Cole had a hit song that extolled āthose lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer.ā
Well, our summer is indeed hazy and the number of fires burning in the Pacific Northwestās forests and grasslands is certainly crazy, but itās hard to be comfortably lazy if you are worried about gagging on smoke or wondering if you need to evacuate your campsite, cabin or even your home.
I just returned from an extended vacation, first in Paris, where the heat was exceeding records and the air was scented with smoke from fires not too distant, and then at Lake Chelan where the smoke from encroaching wildfires got so thick that my family, friends and I opted for an early exit, much like George Clooney who was forced to skedaddle from his fire-threatened home in France.
And, now, as uncontrolled blazes continue to threaten homes in Spokane, shifting winds are sending a choking haze to Seattle from the east side of the state. As folks in New York City, Chicago and Paris have learned this summer, it does not matter if you are in an urban area far away from the nearest burning forest. Smoke travels beyond borders and city limits.
Yes, summer is all about school vacations and family trips to lakes and mountains and national parks. Itās a season of bikinis, beers and books at the beach. But, with a warming planet, summer is also, increasingly, a season of hazy yellow skies, burning throats, hacking coughs and, in the case of those under the direct threat of fire, a season of fear — fear that life might not ever be the same again.
[David Horsey’s Substack is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.]
from National Interagency Fire Center
evacuations in Congress
https://apnews.com/projects/2026-congressional-retirements-tracker/
Lawmakers are announcing they are not running for reelection earlier than usual, putting Congress on track for a record number of new faces next year, according to an Associated Press analysis
AT A GLANCE
15% of Congress will not return to their seats next year
12 U.S. Senators
68 U.S. Representatives
Latest updates
Aug. 5
Rep. Chuck Edwards, R-N.C., drops his reelection bid two days after the House Ethics Committee recommended that he be censured.
Aug. 5
Progressive challenger state Rep. Donavan McKinney ousts incumbent Rep. Shri Thanedar, D-Mich., in Michiganās 13th District primary.
July 21
Rep. Cleo Fields, D-La., announces he would not seek reelection in his newly redrawn Louisiana district and will instead run for state Senate.
It’s starting to look like an exodus.
Out of 535 voting members of Congress, 80 incumbents will not return to their seats next term. This is the highest number at this point in the calendar since President Barack Obamaās administration, according to an Associated Press analysis of congressional turnover going back to 2013.
Some are seeking other offices, while others are retiring after decades of service. A few members are departing instead of running in unfamiliar districts after their stateās leaders redrew the boundaries during an unusual flurry of redistricting.
In the U.S. House, 68 current representatives ā 29 Democrats and 39 Republicans ā will not be back next term, as of Aug. 6, 2026. That total includes those who have announced their retirement or lost renomination, and excludes the 13 members who resigned or died this term and whose seats will be filled before the November general election.
In the U.S. Senate, 12 are not seeking reelection in 2026, have lost their primaries or are planning to leave their seats when the new Congress is seated in January 2027. The majority are retiring and one has opted out of reelection to run for another office. Not included in those 12 are an additional four who resigned to join the Trump administration or died in office, and another three who ran for other offices before the end of their terms. Those three will only vacate their seats if they win the other offices.
GOP DEPARTURES
The presidentās party usually loses congressional seats in midterm elections. In recent years, thatās meant more members of the party in power have headed for the exits.
During the 115th Congress, which spanned the first two years of President Donald Trumpās first term, almost two-thirds of retiring House members were Republicans. Four years later, when President Joe Biden was in office and Democrats controlled Congress, more than half of the retiring House members ahead of the 2022 midterms were Democrats.
House turnover by party
Departing members of current 119th Congress:
Democrats 29
Republicans 39
212 total Democrats 219 Republicans Majority
Note: Includes four vacant seats; independent representatives are included with their party caucus
The trend continues this cycle as President Donald Trump and Republican leadership try to preserve a narrow majority in both the House and the Senate. In each chamber of Congress, around two-thirds of outgoing members are Republicans.
Senate turnover by party
Departing members of current 119th Congress:
Democrats 4
Republicans 9
47 total Democrats 53 Republicans Majority
Note: Independent senators are included with their party caucus
RECORD TURNOVER
Whatās more unusual is when these congresspeople are announcing their plans.
Dozens of House seats are being vacated
Announcement dates for representatives who do not seek reelection, including those who retire, run for a different office or lose their primary election
Members of the current Congress have announced departure plans earlier than in years past. In the first half of 2025, 15 representatives announced plans to leave the House. In the previous decade, an average of nine representatives announced retirements in the first six months of a term.
During the same period last year, eight senators announced their retirements. In the last six congresses, no more than eight senators in a single term opted out of returning, let alone within the first six months.
And with primaries underway, more incumbents could lose their seats. Already, 10 members have lost renomination, ensuring they will not be returning to Congress next year. [continues]
Protest Song Calling Out The Cowardly Republicans In Congress
Republican Retirement Party. Ok, where’s our guest of honor?
Mike Luckovich
Republican Congressional Retirements
Jimmy Margulies
EERIE SIMILARITIES WILDFIRE TRUMP COMPARISON
by Ingrid Rice [Ingrid Rice is a self-syndicated Canadian political cartoonist. Email Ingrid at iricecartoonist@shaw.ca.]
88 Days To Go: Will Voters Dump Trumpism. Live at 11…
Details in chatroom today, but here’s what I did with AI this morning on midterm probabilities. We extrapolated Cook and Sabato stats into an overall prediction, which turned out to be fairly close to the prediction markets.
PROGRAMMING NOTE: Our daily Digital Diner podcast airs 11-Noon ET on YouTube. ENTER Chatroom Here. WATCH Current Replay Here.
What is Actually Clicking: August 6, 2026
These are the stories driving the most traffic right nowānot necessarily the stories we think you should read, and not always the most recent.
— Human Prompted and Edited. Machine Drafted (Gemini Pro). Sign Up Here to receive daily briefs.
These men installed a 10′ Iran War participation trophy for Trump outside the Minnesota Capital Building. May need to go get a pic of this!
More in chat today, but guess what — now that the voter purge deadline has passed we know: Trump’s Voter Purge project was a total failure.
Voter rights groups managed to stop every effort except two (and one of those is pending):
Virginia ~1,600 flagged for non-citizenship (approved by state supreme court)
Alabama ~3,200 flagged for non-citizenship (currently stayed pending court review)
New Bedford Whaling Museum
Great website and you too can get this T-Shirt
Craig,
A sign post for some of the people who drop in on the live cast
robotās probabilities seem accurate from what iāve heard but even if Dems ātakeā the Senate, one of them will Manchin/Synema it, probably Fetterman
Whatever is most craven, fetterman will seek it out.
Schweinhund
eh he just knows his electorate
heās very PA
The online idiot left likes to talk like they understand the dynamics everywhere. They donāt even understand the dynamics in their own goddamn party, never mind individual states and individual regions within those states
heās just pro Israel and the online extremists have decided whether you like it or not youāre not allowed to be a liberal AND pro israel
Because of basement dwellers
This aināt about his electorate, this is about a probably-one-term-anyway not being a pig-dog, and he failed it.
he could still put on a pair of pants though seriously
outside of North and Central Philly and Central Pittsburgh like Carville said Pennsylvania is still fucking Pennsyltucky
itās even worse than it used to be, these Palookas are acting like they were born and bred in the south
gettin to be regoddamndiculous
Libs should jump for joy they got a pro-LGBT senator out of that state
instead theyāll complain, as they do
āIran participation trophyā
today’s meme…
their grandpaws wereā¦
Pants? Nahhhh.
Today in the Diner…
DOJ 0-for-20 on Voter Purges: 2026 Rigged Midterm Myth Busted
Federal courts shoot down DOJ voter roll purges as deadline passes.
The Department of Justice is officially 0-for-20 in federal court lawsuits aimed at seizing state voter files to execute massive purging operations. With the federal deadline passing this week, the long-feared attempt by Donald Trump and the DOJ to manipulate the 2026 midterm elections has effectively collapsed into administrative incompetence. Mark Elias and the Democracy Docket team successfully blocked every single legal maneuver, leaving federal officials with nothing to show for their efforts except a tiny purge in Virginia.
Meanwhile, the wider political landscape continues to unravel. Senate Majority Leader John Thune remains locked in an intense stalemate with Donald Trump over the SAVE Act and defense spending bills, while Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth faces mounting panic at the Pentagon as the U.S. rapidly exhausts its missile stockpiles. Over at the FBI, Director Kash Patel raises national security alarms by suggesting direct liaison exchanges with Russia and China. In candidate news, Hawaii Democratic contender Cyril Basin faces a million-dollar bail after a violent beach confrontation, while Texas Senate candidate James Talarico continues his upward surge against Mike Rogers in the latest polling numbers.
Live Chat: https://trailmix.cc/chat
Website: https://trailmix.cc
Alerts: https://trailmix.cc/alerts
00:00 Intro
00:08 DOJ 0-for-20 Defeat on Voter Rolls
07:38 Cyril Basin Beach Arrest in Hawaii
09:48 Marjorie Taylor Greene Cameo News
12:15 FBI Epstein Files and Donald Trump
17:07 John Thune Battles SAVE Act
19:09 Pete Hegseth Pentagon Bomb Shortage
20:15 Kash Patel Russia China FBI Plan
22:14 Florida Hanging Chads vs Paper Ballots
38:40 Ferris Bueller C-SPAN Compilation
48:15 Universal Healthcare vs Taxes Debate
52:56 Intel Stock Takeover Controversy
58:15 James Talarico Leads Mike Rogers
— Human Prompted and Edited. Machine Drafted. (Gemini Pro)
oh well, Iāll let my guard down since robot says so
you should remind robot in your prompt that weāre talking about the guy who is looking for 11,780 votes
My loathing and disdain for Rand Paul had subsided in recent months. He has reignited it again.
Amen to Bernie.
meme #2…
Buy a MTG Cameo:
š½ļø From today’s Digital Diner menu
https://www.mediaite.com/politics/jasmine-crockett-dumps-cold-water-on-james-talaricos-texas-polling-surge-looks-like-status-quo/
Jasmine Crockett Dumps Cold Water on James Talaricoās Texas Polling Surge: āLooks Like Status Quoā
āRight now, neither one are investing, which tells me that their internals are saying the same thing. So it looks like status quo. I wonāt get on the ground to really start to feel it until maybe end of September, October, as I start to dig into which races Iām going to help out in, the races that I really feel like we can win.ā
Axios reported:
The private theory among top Republican officials has long been that Paxton, while scandal-plagued, doesnāt have the kind of problems that money shouldnāt be able to solve. The plan is to drive up Talaricoās negatives with Texas-sized ad buys and wait for GOP voters to come home.
*Is it too far from Election Day to do the big spend? Whatever Talarico spends, the TX billionaires will feed the Paxton propaganda machine. Maybe just hanging back a bit to see how the Repugz will play things.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2026/08/04/judge-dismisses-jan-6-seditious-conspiracy-charges-against-oath-keepers/
Judge dismisses Jan. 6 seditious conspiracy charges against Oath Keepers
In a written ruling Tuesday, [Judge] Mehta said he was dismissing the Oath Keepersā charges reluctantly at the request of the Justice Department. He criticized prosecutors for claiming in a court filing that wiping out the most serious convictions from the Jan. 6 riot was in the public interest.
A federal judge on Tuesday agreed to dismiss the seditious-conspiracy case against the leader of the Oath Keepers, Stewart Rhodes, and seven other members of the extremist group who planned to storm the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
The ruling by U.S. District Judge Amit P. Mehta is the last step in the legal process to wipe out penalties from the Jan. 6 riot, cementing President Donald Trumpās bid to unravel the largest federal investigation in U.S. history.
Mehta had sentenced Rhodes to 18 years in prison and imposed lesser prison terms on other top Oath Keepers who were convicted at jury trials. Trump commuted those prison sentences on his first day in office last year, and he pardoned more than 1,500 rioters.
The Justice Department, Mehta said, was simply bestowing the ringleaders behind the riot āunearned grace by wiping their records cleanā after juries found them guilty of committing ācrimes against the United States itself.ā
āThe government does not say that the charges were legally deficient or that the evidence presented is insufficient to sustain Defendantsā convictions,ā Mehta wrote. āIt confesses to no prosecutorial misconduct, nor does it assert any denial or compromise of a defendantās rights.ā
*Hmmm, assuaging any concerns tRUMPās paramilitary troops might have about doing the job on Election Day? Sounds like Judge Mehta did this under duress. The DOJ is mobbed up like the rest of the government under tRUMP.
https://www.texastribune.org/2026/08/05/texas-senate-james-talarico-election-law-residency-ken-paxton/
Texas state Rep. James Talarico voted in five elections using his parentsā address after purchasing a home for himself nearby, a practice that may have violated state voting laws, ProPublica and The Texas Tribune found.
This comes weeks after Talarico accused Attorney General Ken Paxton, his opponent in the race for U.S. Senate, of voter fraud for similar actions. The news organizations reported in July that Paxton voted using an address where his estranged wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton, said he hasnāt lived for two years.
*So, thatās a wash, except Republicans are always ārules for thee, but not for me.ā
Paxton has made eradicating voter fraud a cornerstone of his time in office by advocating strict enforcement of the law, including in cases against voters who allegedly used false addresses when casting ballots. Paxtonās campaign has said he is a ālawful, registered Texas voterā but has repeatedly declined to answer detailed questions about his residency and voting history.
Piecing together Talaricoās voting history is more difficult than it is for Paxton. Talarico, unlike the attorney general, redacts his address on the Travis County voter rolls under a state law that allows some public officials to shield personal information for safety reasons. But unredacted records Talaricoās campaign provided the newsrooms show that he listed his parentsā address on his voter registration in November 2021.
He purchased a home in June 2022 but did not change his voter registration address until September 2024, the news organizationsā review of Travis County records shows. The new address is redacted, but Talaricoās campaign previously told the newsrooms that he currently lives and is registered to vote at the north Austin home he owns.
The world now knows that āAmerican exceptionalismā was just marketing.
Our adversaries now know that our military might is greatly diminished (except fore the big nukes).
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/exclusive-under-patel-fbi-forges-100232686.html
Exclusive-Under Patel, FBI forges unprecedented law enforcement ties with China, Russia
– FBI Director Kash Patel says he has forged new law enforcement partnerships with China and Russia, two longtime U.S. rivals, over the past year in hopes of gaining allies in combating transnational crime including fentanyl, cyber fraud and child sexual exploitation.
*Ummm, the number of Republicans charged with child SA is wildā¦and release the EPSTEIN files.
U.S. officials have long portrayed Russia and China as exporters of crime instead of potential allies in combating it, not to mention sources of espionage aimed at American interests worldwide.
https://uomod.com/maga-pedophiles/
And itās not just the mouth-breathing red hats you see at tRUMP rallies, its law enforcement, teachers, judges, and the whole Christo-fascist, hee-haw gang.
https://newchristianright.com/
*The woman-hating, Islamic-fearing, pseudo-alpha, Christo-fascists are looking ahead, to what happens after tRUMP.
*Oh, and theyāre having a convention in the DFW metroplex shortly after the midterms.
https://newchristianright.com/conference/
https://www.star-telegram.com/news/politics-government/article316781904.html
*If you canāt clear your schedule for the āThereās no hate like Christian loveā carnival in November, you can you to ātRUMP is a loserā in September.
The Republican convention will be Sept. 9-10 at Dallas’ American Airlines Center. An estimated 20,000 people will be in attendance.
Republican National Committee Chairman Joe Gruters deemed it a “Trumpapalooza” that will build momentum in the runup to the Nov. 3 midterm election. The tight U.S. Senate race between Republican Ken Paxton and Democrat James Talarico will be at the top of the ticket.
MT Greensleeves message:
From one political laugh riot to another: Happy Birthday
Bernie and Carville, 2 old men without an original idea in their brain. And haven’t for at least 30 years. That would be 60 for Bernie, he is still stuck in the 60’s.
The Democratic party would be way ahead if they would just retire to the old folks rockin’ chair and STFU.
Jack
FYI, Tennessee’s primaries are today.
I was hoping the Michigan numbers would not be this brutal for Democrats but here it goes…
Even if Sayed wins over 100% of the 726,000 people who voted for Haley Stevens on Tuesday (and adds them to his own base of 741,000 voters), that leaves him over 1.2 million votes short of the target needed to beat the vote total Rogers got in the 2024 Senate general election.
Another sign for how much he needs to wake up the “sleeping giant” of eligible non-voters to make up the difference. Also shoes how much he needs Haley.
Anon
Situation normal
Right before 9/11. The timing of the Repug klan rally lacks subtlety. Gotta whip up the Islamophobia.
Weird that the Christo-fascist carnival in November is in Las Colinas, since that sounds a little to spicy for the mayonnaise boys. Also, the Irving/Las Colinas area is the most internationally-diverse area in Texas.
At any rate, GRINDR is gonna be busy during both events.
Ivy, loved your Prevagen comment – never understood the idea that a substance originally found in an organism that literally has no brain is supposed to make mine sharper.
He means āgreatest conā
Pog š¤£
lol 1.2 million dude
he needs 1.200,000 +1 of non-voters that donāt give a fuck?
write off that seat
I actually like El Sayed, too bad heās running a state full of trumpers
and too bad Tallarico is running in a state full of Nazis
Bernie speaks the truth Jack, I wouldnāt put him in the same class as Carville
Carvilleās analysis is frequently accurate but heās not helping anything by just going on CNN and bitching about progressives
hate the new tiktok style of everything
lol that is so Dems
Hmmm…. wonder what they vote for?
Well, they sure donāt vote for whatās best for they themselves, as shown in the clip of the MAGAt who pays taxes but doesnāt want healthcare (or an education) in return.
Stupidity should be painful, or more precisely, willful ignorance.
Bernie aināt necessarily right about everything but heās right about Carville at this time.
And hell, , old serpent head is a hero, but all that crew has had their chances, what they done Wiffum?
So now they need to move.
What have non-progressives won lately?
Well, damn, I hope Schumer donāt send me a letter.
bernie is kinda right about everything
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trumps-new-cdc-head-said-abortion-surveillance-will-be-a-critical-focus_n_6a74a3f9e4b04fcbf74d8720
Trumpās New CDC Head Said āAbortion Surveillanceā Will Be A Critical Focus
There is no evidence that states are purposefully misclassifying abortion data to the CDC.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) asked Schwartz if she would commit to collecting better data on abortions, pointing to the CDCās annual report of how many abortions are done each year in the U.S. The data program is voluntary, meaning some states like California, Maryland and New Jersey choose to not report annual abortion numbers to the federal agency. However, 44 states currently have some form of required reporting system for abortion care.
āAbortion surveillance is absolutely a critical component of what the CDC is currently doing,ā Schwartz responded.
āI also want to make sure that certain states are not conflating emergency services and hiding abortions in that emergency services case definition,ā she added. āWe need to make sure weāre pulling out true abortions and making sure that weāre really having clear case definitions regarding abortions so the data is actually accurate.ā
There is no evidence that states are purposefully misclassifying abortion care when reporting statistics to the CDC. The implication that certain states are hiding abortion services behind the label of emergency care services is particularly egregious given that many women have died or nearly died after physicians denied them miscarriage care due to state-level abortion bans.
*Fascism is a deadly virus.
Bernie, AOC, Mamdaniā¦to be continued, I hope.
Will the podcast bros and Tucker Carlson not being on board with the war and the economy do anything to at least keep some from voting for Republicans, even if they wonāt vote Dem?
Slow down folks, I’m not finished. working on a Substack about all of this, but waiting for precinct totals I need from Michigan Secretary of State office.
I started the above with worst case for Democrats in Michigan. Now for the other side:
Mike Rogers’ 2.7 million votes in 2024 is likely not a baseline for this November. Probably more like an inflated ceiling driven by a top-of-the-ticket presidential turnout machine. Today, Trump sits on a dismal 39% approval rating in MI. If we apply a historically standard 20% midterm drop-off penalty, Rogers’ realistic ceiling plummets to a maximum 2.15 million votes.
If Abdul El-Sayed combines his base with a majority of Haley Stevens’ voters, his absolute rock-bottom floor is 1.47 million.
But once you factor in the natural general election surge of reliable Democrats who will traditionally show up in November, his baseline automatically bumps to above 1.95 million.
Suddenly, that “impossible” 1.2 million vote deficit completely vanishes. Against Rogers’ deflated midterm ceiling, El-Sayed needs less than 200,000 additional votes.
There are roughly 3.1 million eligible non-voters and infrequent voters in Michigan. To bridge the gap, El-Sayed doesn’t need a miracleāhe only needs to turn out about 6.5% of them.
I’ll assess that potential when I get the precinct level turnout numbers I’m monitoring to gauge his appeal to them, and then I can finish my Substack article on this.
The rich people hate Bernie because they know he is right
https://www.cnn.com/2026/08/06/politics/senate-vote-fauci-contempt-doj?cid=external-feeds_iluminar_msn
Paulās office plans to hand-deliver the referral to federal authorities shortly after the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee narrowly voted along party lines to hold Fauci in contempt, arguing that he could not rely on his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination to avoid answering lawmakersā questions.
The move sets up a high-stakes legal and political test for the Trump administration, which now must decide whether to bring charges against Fauci despite deep uncertainty over whether such a case could succeed in court.
āIt doesnāt have to go to the House, doesnāt have to be signed by the president, and really doesnāt have to go before the Senate,ā Paul said Thursday of his referral. The majority had voted āto refer this, so that will be accomplished today,ā he said.
Paul is seeking to speed through the process, bypassing a full Senate vote on contempt, in a break with longstanding precedent that some legal experts warned could undercut the governmentās ability to bring charges against Fauci.
The move opens the committee to a number of options to proceed.
According to the resolution the committee passed, Vice President JD Vance, in his constitutional role as president of the Senate, would now need to sign off on circumventing the rules before the Justice Department can decide whether to prosecute.
At the same time, Paul has said he believes he can transmit his recommendation directly to Justice officials, even as he left the door open to a full Senate vote at some point in the future.
āThere is some precedent for doing it that way, and it still may be done that way,ā he said of the potential for a vote on the Senate floor, which would require some Democrats to join Republicans to hit the 60-vote threshold needed for passage.
Legal experts cautioned thereās little guarantee that the contempt charges will succeed, saying they will likely instead kick off a lengthy court battle over the limits of Fauciās Fifth Amendment rights.
*Called Rantās office; his show trial does nothing to help with the price of food, healthcare, or get us out of the war BiBi dragged tRUMP into illegallyā¦and I got it all in within the 10-second recording time; his office is letting everything go to voicemail.
What I hope and surely expect the El-Sayed campaign does will be deep research on exactly where these infrequent voters are and knock their doors down until they submit. They need at least 6.5% of them, and only 12.57 weeks left to do it.
But like me they are waiting for precinct level turnout numbers from Tuesday. and like me they’re probably impatient that elections office has not done that yet.
These progressives fascinate me as a political science experiment. Usually the game is to identify traditional voters for voter contact. (Of course that actually creates more non-voters, considering that voter contact is the biggest reason people vote).
But this crowd actually has an incentive and a possible opportunity to do just the opposite: go find the people who aren’t voting. If decades of voter contact research is correct, and the personal contact really drives thar vote, it might just work.
2024 turnout was a surprisingly high percentage of eligibles, youāre not beating that for midterms
Well, the incels who listened to Rogan voted AGAINST a black woman. Will they be repeat voters? As Jamie mentioned the other day, some of us have been in the habit of voting (in primaries, run-offs, and general elections).
The anti-Israel sentiment is much stronger now. Blame the MSM for not covering it, and skewing it pro-Israel when they did cover the mass murder of Palestinians.
Also, the economy is in the sh/tter and the Republicans have taken us into an unwinable, unnecessary, and illegal war.
This is what Beshear was arguing, we’re better off with the seat vacant. SNAP cuts just failed because McConnell wasn’t there… POLITICO
Exactly, Anonābecause overall midterm turnout will naturally drop from 2024 levels, Mike Rogers’ 2.7 million vote target drops right along with it. I’ll fold that into the article.
https://fightbacknews.org/articles/board-meeting-erupts-in-protest-after-st-paul-extends-contract-with-israeli
*Hmm, did Iran target MN to show Israelās weakness? Did Israel do it to make it look like Iran was targeting the US? Are the water supply attacks a test for a larger scale attack to bring Americans to their knees before Election Day, or as a false flag to create a national emergency and call out the troops or call off the voting? How many of the other targets used an Israeli cyber firm?
The Saint Paul Board of Water Commissioners, which governs the public water utility for the city and surrounding suburbs, voted on July 14 to renew Israeli tech company Waterfall Security Solutionsā contract for five years, after an hours-long public hearing.
Women Against Military Madness (WAMM) mobilized for the meeting, and over 50 people turned up to give testimony against the contract renewal.
WAMM opposes the Saint Paul Water Boardās contract with Waterfall because it works hand in hand with the Israeli military. The long-running Twin Cities anti-war group believes public tax dollars shouldnāt be used to do business with a company complicit in and enabling Israeli apartheid.
Zionists also showed up to pressure for the contractās renewal. They held signs like āBDS is a special kind of hate,ā āDonāt play politics with our waterā and āGaza is not a genocide.ā Many pro-Waterfall speakers conflated Judaism with Zionism and claimed that canceling Waterfallās contract would be antisemitic.
***
Since last May, the Committee to Cut the Waterfall Contract has been
trying to persuade the Saint Paul Board of Water Commissioners to end a
cyber security contract with an Israeli company, Waterfall Security
Solutions.
in re the fauci fuss, if congress wants to really get to the bottom of something whatever happened to their use of the Immunity Statute (18 U.S.C. Ā§ 6002): Allows a witness to be compelled to testify before Congress, a joint committee, or a committee/subcommittee if they refuse on Fifth Amendment grounds. The statute requires that no testimony or information derived from it may be used in any criminal case except for perjury, false statements, or failure to comply with the order LII / Legal Information Institute.
and this argument
Kastigar v. United States (1972): The Supreme Court upheld such immunity statutes, finding they are a rational accommodation between the Fifth Amendmentās self-incrimination protection and Congressās legitimate need to compel testimony LII / Legal Information Institute
well also fold in then that libdems (here and elsewhere) speculated trump would suppress turnout in 2024 and were dead wrong, your āalito surgeā never materialized
Alito surge did materialize Anon, young female turnout for Dems was up, but Trump’s young male “Rogan” surge got him to a 1.5 pt margin of victory
0 for 20. Trump’s scheme to purge state voter rolls totally failed. And he just ran out of time. A spectacular win for Democracy!
Guess he heard they couldn’t cut SNAP benefits today without him…
Breaking: Sen. Mitch McConnell has been discharged from rehab center šØ
Cook Report/Sabato math:
ā¶
Combined numbers give Democrats a 75% shot at taking the House, Senate: 45%.
lol
Theyāll be wheeling him in next week wearing the drool bib.
McConnelās last words will be āfuck the children praise Jesusā
Anon, that surprising and crucial turnout of young white male low-propensity voters for Trump was the first time I’ve seen infrequent voter outreach actually work. So the question now is whether it can be done by the other side.
https://www.texastribune.org/2026/08/05/texas-senate-james-talarico-economic-agenda-ken-paxton/
James Talarico rolls out economic agenda that takes aim at āfalse Gospel of trickle-down economicsā
āWe have an affordability crisis because we have a corruption crisis,ā Talarico said during a nearly 30-minute speech to an audience of 1,300 people in Arlington.
āItās time for us to come together across these manufactured divisions, to take on the people at the top who have been screwing us over for far too long,ā Talarico said. āThat is the movement that we are building here in Texas. This is not a politics of fear. This is not a politics of division. This is a politics of unity, a politics of friendship, a politics of love. This new kind of politics can change our state. It can change our country.ā
Throughout his campaign, Talarico has stuck to a populist economic message that links rising costs to billionaire political influence and an economy he says is tilted in favor of the ultrawealthy over working people. Wednesdayās address kicked off a monthlong tour to promote his first detailed rollout of his proposals to reverse course, under the banner of what he is calling the āNew American Dream.ā
ā¦Paxton cast Washington, the Biden administration and regulations as the culprit for high prices, Talarico took aim at an economy corrupted by ābillionaire megadonors and their puppet politiciansā as the root cause.
āRepublicans and some Democrats sold the false Gospel of trickle-down economics: that the best way to grow the economy is to let the rich get richer and forget about everybody else,ā he said. āTrickle-down economics isnāt a theory. Itās theft.ā
*Ha! Todayās Extreme Mortman was right on point with that Ben Stein clip. Bueller? Anyone?
Discharged from rehab? Do we have actual proof of life?
Scene 1: Say heās out of rehab.
Scene 2: Say he relapsed and died.
ps – If heās alive itās because he received TAXPAYER-FUNDED HEALTHCARE!
*A portion of this eveningās email from Talarico:
āThe top 1% put the American Dream behind a paywall.
I just kicked off my New American Dream tour, and one thing is true across this state ā in big cities and small towns, in red areas and blue areas ā everyone is struggling. No matter how hard Texans work ā no matter how much they save, sacrifice, and stretch ā the ends never seem to meet.
This āaffordability crisisā isnāt something that happened in the last five years. Itās been fifty years in the making.
Fifty years ago, a corporate lawyer named Lewis Powell circulated a memo around DC ā a blueprint for how corporations could amass political power and rig the system for themselves.
The Powell Memo outlined a strategy: unite corporate special interests, privilege corporate perspectives in the media, appoint sympathetic judges to the courts, and buy politicians on both sides of the aisle.
And it worked.
Republicans and Democrats alike sold the false Gospel of trickle-down economics: that the best way to grow the economy is to let the rich get richer and forget about everyone else. Someday, somehow, they told us, the gains would trickle down to the rest of us.
Trickle-down economics isnāt a theory. Itās theft.
And it stole the American Dream from us.
Today, we have an economy that rewards wealth instead of work.
We need a New American Dream for todayās economy, for todayās families, for todayās energy, for todayās technology ā for all of us to be able to live a good life we can afford.
We need to support American workers and small businesses, and to make the kinds of investments ā in education, healthcare, infrastructure, and industry ā that built the largest, strongest middle class in the history of the world.
We need to raise the minimum wage and expand overtime pay ā so that working people can share in the wealth they create.
We need to address the debt crises ā personal and national ā holding working people back and stealing from future generations.
We need to protect programs like Medicare and Social Security to ensure every American can have a comfortable and dignified retirement.
And we need to close tax loopholes for billionaires ā and crack down on data centers and establish an AI dividend to ensure that AI doesnāt become the next arena where billionaires write the rules for the rest of us.
The people at the top are scared of this New American Dream.
Theyāre going to claim this new dream is radical. Theyāre going to claim itās extreme. Theyāre going to claim weāre socialists, or communists, or whatever sounds scariest in a headline.
And weāll say: Is that the best you can do?
These are the same old scare tactics. The same old politics of the past. The names theyāll call us only reveal how small their dreams are.
The people at the top want this to be a contest of names because they know theyāll lose a contest of ideas.
Both the math and the past make it clear: A country that takes care of its people grows faster than a country that abandons them.
If youāre struggling to afford your groceries; if youāre struggling to afford gas; if youāre struggling to afford housing, childcare, and prescription drugs ā the things you need to surviveā¦
Itās not because youāre lazy. Itās not because you made bad choices. Itās because the system has been rigged against you by billionaire mega-donors and corrupt politicians like Ken Paxton.ā
you call it infrequent voter outreach. I call it losing the culture.
and it wasnāt that surprising, we saw Trump doing two-bit podcasts and Kamala repeating the same canned talking points in safe venues
and the polling was spot on not this phony +19 nonsense
Have those pollsters folded their operations yet?
what was the one you said that was 13 off? Gilcrest group?
Glengariff Group
lol, their motto is āGood research is not partisan. Good research is accurate.ā
or not
Anon, we have been over this many times. a poll several days out from an election is not a prediction. It is just telling us what’s in the field that day. Those Michigan polls were not daily trackers. I don’t think anyone was doing those publicly. They are very expensive. Voter shifts after polls have left the field are not uncommon these days.
omg stop
ā¤ļø
A poll A WEEK OUT that is 19 points off and if you could only hear my inflection right now
I will go over many times that there is no value in such a thing and it borders on irresponsibility to report these things if theyāre that inaccurate
https://www.texastribune.org/2026/08/06/texas-state-fair-dallas-gun-ban-paxton-appeals-court-ruling/
Appeals court rejects Attorney General Ken Paxtonās effort to overturn Texas State Fair gun ban.
The fair banned firearms in 2024 after a shooting at Fair Park.
Dozens of Texas House Republicans pushed back against the policy, saying that it makes the event āless safe.ā Paxton quickly sued to overturn the restrictions, before withdrawing a 2016 legal opinion he issued that gave private nonprofits the ability to ban firearms on land they lease from a city.
But Paxtonās effort has suffered multiple defeats in courts.
In 2024, the Texas Supreme Court denied his emergency filing to block the fairās policy. The following year, a Dallas County district court granted the city of Dallas and the State Fair summary judgment and dismissed the case.
The Dallas Morning News reported last month that the State Fair is planning to ban guns at this yearās event.
An all-Republican Texas appeals court has delivered another blow to Attorney General Ken Paxtonās challenge of the State Fairās firearms ban, just over a month before the annual weekslong event returns to Dallas.
In his 2024 lawsuit against the city and the private nonprofit that operates the fair, Paxton argued that the policy violated a state law that bars local governments from limiting guns in most public spaces. The event takes place at Fair Park, which the city owns and leases to the fair organizer.
On Thursday, the three justices on the 15th Court of Appeals unanimously affirmed a lower courtās rejection of Paxtonās argument. In particular, their ruling held that the state law only applies to the conduct of government entities, while nodding at the cityās consistent position that it has no role in making or overseeing the fairās policy.
*A few decades ago, I was at the TX State Fair when a stampede of folks ran out of the Cotton Bowl; I almost got trampled. Someone inside had a gun. We then rode the giant Ferris wheel (thereās Mortman, again!) while the police chopper circled the Cotton Bowl. I also know somebody who saw someone get stabbed right in front of her at the TX State Fair several years earlier. Not a good area. Warning: Fair Park and downtown Dallas and Oak Cliff š¬
if you wanna call a poll āa snapshotā months out
FINE
your rationale seems to be that itās OBVIOUS that 18%, and i am laughing audibly right now at the absurdity, changed their minds seven days later
ok sure
Or maybe
These pollsters are shit
there were no game changers in that week. He didnāt get more or less Muslim, Stevens didnāt get more or less establishment, nothing changed
Not sure polls can be accurate like they could years ago. Good samples died out with landlines and caller ID.
Folks are different, too.
Lying for kicks and giggles.
It seems that Nate Silver (I think) had a bad poll maybe 20 years-ago, and nowā¦too many polls.
Everyone wants to leave a bad Yelp review.
Hmmm, thatās essentially what Iām doing when I call Congress sometimes, if itās not about a pending vote.
Anon, the last minute endorsers first events with Haley (Whitmer in suburbs, Clyburn in Detroit), the audio of his sexist trashing of Haley, and the final weekend saturation of TV ads against him — all of that came after pollsters had left the field. Hopefully the Abdul team is busy learning lessons about why Haley got this last-minute surge, not writing it off as bad polls.That many polls showing the same thing suggests something happened in the field after the surveys were done.
The Trump anchor:
š½ļø From today’s Digital Diner menu
I dispute your timeline, but I am content to leave it there š«”
wait no
āsuggests something happened in the field after the surveys were doneā
sure
OR
what i said
and what could possibly happen that no one even knows that changed it 15+ points
that doesnāt even make sense
Craig – The ads here featured Dumbass & the word āwokeā quite often. To a certain clientele, Orange Adolf isnāt a glitch; heās a feature.
https://www.ketv.com/article/minneapolis-control-center-outage-delays-midwest-flights/73369885
So, now a power outage at a control center in MINNESOTA has shut down air travel in the upper Midwest. Hmmm. š¤
compost tea
Last conspiracy theory of the night (probably):
The polls were right, there was high-jinx with the voting machines, but they didnāt cheat by enough.
MSM hasnāt covered MuskRatās rocket making a mess on the Moon. š¤
i doubt hijinks, i think the pollsters are just bad
media has an incentive to defend them cuz itās easy content
Anon – RFKJ would drink it, ya know.
Finally got my 2nd cucumber! So many blossoms on cukes & squash, but not much to show for it. Tomatoes doing well. Let one blush a little too much and a 4-legged critter had a taste. Now using peppermint mouthwash/soap/hot pepper spray in addition to the garlic/soap/hot pepper spray.
Jack – That solar mole scarer is still working.
You can doubt, but you donāt knowā¦just like I donāt know.
i shared a fig with the birds today š¤·
*Ha! tRUMP getting roasted by a marshmallow.
I just don’t think it’s helpful to the campaign to dismiss what was obviously a last-minute Haley surge among blue collar, Black and suburban voters. Better to spend time understanding that and how to fix it, instead of blaming pollsters and ballot tampering.
āobviously a last-minute Haley surgeā
thatās an assumption
I was saying last week that maybe āthe base is too leftā, but maybe that was based on bullshit information from incompetent pollsters
and I didnāt say āballot tamperingā, but I wouldnāt dismiss poll manipulation oooh
maybe the base isnāt too left and the online left is too loud and the pollsters are over compensating
Youāre welcome
ā¶
Iām giving the milk away for free here
on a different note, Tallaricoās comms team is fantastic, sincerely
It would be cool if he could pull it off
Anon: I see your point. The media feeds on the loud online left and right extremes and the polls which exist to feed those orgs. A circular firing squad. I don’t find much to trust these days.
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