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Jennifer Rubin: Removing Trump is the only way to get rid of real ‘waste, fraud, and abuse’

Donald Trump and his minions endlessly rail about “waste, fraud, and abuse” in the federal government. Meanwhile, he and his regime are the most prodigious generators of “waste, fraud, and abuse” in American history.

First and foremost, no president has ever used his office to rack up anything close to the estimated $5B Trump has hauled in for himself, selling everything from tacky gold sneakers to crypto. He has mastered the art of trading on access and enticing foreigners to pony up big bucks (and even an airplane). The most pro-corruption president in history also has stopped enforcement of foreign corruption, crypto fraud and other white collar crimes.

Beyond all that, in just over nine months the MAGA regime has been more egregious in its misuse of taxpayers’ money than any administration in memory.

Flying top brass into Quantico, Va., to hear an obnoxiously partisan pep talk from Defense Secretary (and wrinkle warrior) Pete Hegseth and Trump: $6M. That qualifies as both waste and abuse (i.e., politicizing the military).

Multiple unnecessary and unconstitutional deployments of national guard around the country (which have triggered adverse court rulings, costing a fortune in taxpayer-funded legal fees): 2/3 of a billion dollars. …
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Robert Reich: They’re calling it a “Hate America” Rally

Rubbish. We’re rallying on Saturday because we LOVE America

You know Trump Republicans are worried when they slam a planned protest — more than a week before it occurs.

Last Friday, Speaker Mike Johnson described this coming Saturday’s No Kings rally as the “hate-America” rally that would draw “the pro-Hamas wing” and “the antifa people.”
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So what is the White House worried about? Why are they trying to discredit the rally before it’s even occurred?

Because it’s likely to be even larger than the first No Kings rally — which was the largest demonstration against Trump since his return to the Oval Office.
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Trump’s power depends on maintaining the illusion that he’s all-powerful, and that most Americans (apart from those he and his lapdogs label “pro-Hamas,” “terrorists,” and “antifa”) adore him.
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Brian Bengs: Rules for Thee but not for Me? I Prefer Rules for We.

We should treat healthcare tax credits like Congress treats billionaire & corporate tax cuts

As I was walking my dogs on the trails near my home yesterday, a “Eureka” moment gave a common-sense solution to solve the government shutdown, preserve regular folks’ access to healthcare, and budget problems all at once!

Let me start by acknowledging that South Dakota’s Senators Mike Rounds and John Thune actually deserve credit for this idea. Applying their inscrutable logic to help out working families should get strong support across the political spectrum. I don’t need the spotlight for the idea, I just don’t want to see millions of Americans lose healthcare coverage due to price increases.

Simply put, let’s treat Washington’s Medicaid and Affordable Care Act (ACA) healthcare cuts the same way Mike Rounds and his “fiscally responsible” colleagues in Washington treats tax giveaways for billionaires and corporations: If we’re paying for it now, we can afford it next year.

In order to understand this idea, it’s important to break down the political context over the past 8 years. I can’t help it, it’s the professor in me. Washington’s typical strategy is to confuse regular folks by overcomplicating simple concepts and oversimplifying complicated concepts, so it helps to be thorough.
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American Prospect: Trump Labor Department Says His Immigration Raids Are Causing a Food Crisis

The Department of Labor’s new rule cutting farmworker wages bluntly states that souped-up immigration enforcement has devastated the agricultural workforce and created a significant “risk of supply shock-induced food shortages,” according to a document filed in the Federal Register last week. The document also indicates that American workers are simply not interested in and do not have the skills to perform agricultural jobs, at odds with Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins’s claim that the farm workforce will soon be 100 percent American.

“The near total cessation of the inflow of illegal aliens combined with the lack of an available legal workforce, results in significant disruptions to production costs and threatening the stability of domestic food production and prices for U.S consumers,” the document says, adding that “this threat will grow” given new federal funding for immigration enforcement under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
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Moneywise: The US now has more unemployed workers than job openings for the 1st time since April 2021 — why this single ‘turning point’ signals trouble ahead

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Axios notes that just three years ago, Americans revelled in a job market that offered a greater than 2:1 ratio of jobs to unemployed people. “As of July, that ratio has fallen to 0.99”.

According to Reuters, many economists blame the Trump tariffs for cooling the labor market, with Wells Fargo senior economist Sarah House telling the outlet that her firm expects “the slower pace of consumer spending and cost pressures related to tariffs will keep the pressure on businesses to look for cost savings where they can, including their workforce”.
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Gulf News: Crypto’s dirty secret: How mining it is hurting the planet — and farms

Bitcoin’s energy use per dollar generated now exceeds that of mining copper or gold

Every Bitcoin transaction has to be validated through a process called “mining,” where thousands of computers compete to solve mathematical puzzles. The first to solve it adds a block to the blockchain and earns a reward.

The catch: this process devours electricity. According to UN University’s 2025 report, Bitcoin’s energy use per dollar generated now exceeds that of mining copper or gold. The study found that for every dollar of Bitcoin created between 2020 and 2021, around $0.35 worth of environmental damage occurred — more than most metals or industrial products.

Much of the electricity powering these “mines” comes from coal- or gas-fired plants, especially in countries with cheap power. That means more greenhouse gases — and fine-particle air pollution — are released into the atmosphere.
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Water is another overlooked casualty. Mining farms need massive cooling systems to prevent overheating. Whether drawn from rivers, desalination plants, or power-station cooling systems, that water use adds up — and competes with agriculture in regions already facing scarcity.
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Investigations found that some farmers were running illegal mining operations inside agricultural facilities, tapping subsidised electricity intended for irrigation and cooling. Officials warned that such practices damage soil quality, risk electrical fires, and undermine food-security goals.
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Jess Piper: Silencing Mockingbirds

Reading is resistance

“Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.”

~Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird

I was in my classroom, and it must have been second or third hour because I remember I was hungry — we hadn’t had lunch yet, and I was running too late that morning to grab breakfast. I was reading a short chapter from To Kill a Mockingbird aloud to my 8th graders.

Most liked it so far.

My Principal walked in for an observation and noticed we were reading a novel, and then proceeded to walk right back out…he stood at the door for a second and told me to visit his office after school.

If you think being summoned to the Principal’s office as a child is terrifying, you should be summoned as a teacher.

A shiver went down my spine.
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BBC: Renewables overtake coal as world’s biggest source of electricity

Renewable energy overtook coal as the world’s leading source of electricity in the first half of this year – a historic first, according to new data from the global energy think tank Ember.

Electricity demand is growing around the world but the growth in solar and wind was so strong it met 100% of the extra electricity demand, even helping drive a slight decline in coal and gas use.

However, Ember says the headlines mask a mixed global picture.

Developing countries, especially China, led the clean energy charge but richer nations including the US and EU relied more than before on planet-warming fossil fuels for electricity generation.
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Robert Reich: The Mad King’s Television

When over the weekend federal Judge Karin Immergut (a Trump appointee) blocked Trump from deploying Oregon’s National Guard to Portland, Trump said she “should be ashamed of herself” because “Portland is burning to the ground.”

Trump promptly ordered the California National Guard to Portland.

Apart from the obvious question of how Trump can so blatantly defy a federal judge, there’s a deeper puzzle here. Where did he get the idea Portland is burning to the ground?

Nine days ago, when Trump first threatened to send troops to Portland, Oregon’s governor, Tina Kotek, told him there was no reason. “He thinks there are elements here creating an insurrection,” Kotek said after her call with Trump. “I told him there is no insurrection here and that we have this under control.”

Trump responded to Kotek this way:

“I said, ‘Well wait a minute, am I watching things on television that are different from what’s happening? … They are literally attacking and there are fires all over the place … it looks like terrible.”

Why the factual discrepancy between what Governor Kotek told Trump about Portland and what he believed was happening there?

In the suit seeking an injunction to stop Trump from sending troops to Portland, which Judge Immergut granted, the state of Oregon alleged that Trump relied on videoclips from Portland protests over the murder of George Floyd that took place in 2020.
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Jason Easley: Inept Republican Senate Majority Leader Demands Democrats Reopen Government He Controls

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) demanded that Democrats reopen the federal government that he and his party control.

The difference between John Thune and Mitch McConnell as Senate Majority Leader is that McConnell refuses to sell out the Senate’s independence to Trump. Thune abandoned the Senate’s status as part of a coequal branch of the government.

Republicans keep trying to blame Democrats for the government shutdown when poll after poll shows that their strategy is not working, but since this is what Trump told them to do, Republicans keep failing.
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Sen. Thune could announce today that he is bringing the Senate back into session tomorrow to vote to change the rules to require 51 votes to pass the House CR.

Thune can do that, and he could do it very easily, because Republicans have total control of the federal government.

This is a Republican shutdown.
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