The source of all power in Trump’s Washington.

It’s worth noting that last week represented a sustained attack on the concept of sovereignty. Not just the sovereignty of Indigenous nations, mind you, but a White House plenary command that runs over any nation (or for that matter, any institution.)

There are a lot of issues to pick from as evidence. Here are three: Demanding that Canada only sign trade deals with other nations on U.S. terms. Or sending masked DHS agents into a tribal nation. Or the THE BIGGEST OIL DEAL IN WORLD HISTORY" in Venezuela.

And the dismissal of sovereignty will continue because this week, the Treasury Secretary is meeting with G-20 nations and will increase demand other nations support the Iran war, especially the economic war. Or else.

Of course the flaw in all of this is that sovereignty has a longer shelf life than one president. Each of these infractions can be undone. And will be.

Canada picked sovereignty over trade in its dealings with the United States.

From the South China Morning Post:

“Negotiations between the US and Canada broke down late Friday, with both sides accusing each other of adding unreasonable last-minute demands. Walking away from the negotiating table, Canada said that the US had introduced, among other measures, efforts to restrict its authority to make independent trade agreements.

“This is clearly a reference to China,” said John Gong, a professor at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing.

“He noted that Canada had “stood firm” on the position that its relations with third countries were a matter of national sovereignty.

“This is certainly beneficial for China-Canada trade,” Gong added, noting that China could, for example, purchase more oil from Canada.”

There are other ramifications of the Canadian trade dispute are unfolding.

Over the weekend, on, of course, Truth Social, the president said turned up the rhetoric, calling Canada “the worst.”

“They’ve been ripping us off for decades, and it’s going to stop. This should have happened long ago with other Presidents, just as stopping Iran should have happened long ago,” Trump he posted.

And, it’s important to remember, that despite the nasty talk, the increased back and forth tariffs only represent about 5 percent of the trade. That’s because Canadian trade is that critical — and if there really was a total break, then gas prices would probably top $10 a gallon and electricity prices would go through the roof (or be totally cut off from the Northeast.)

And the “one-sided” trade that Trump so hates is only that way because of energy. On most products and services, the U.S. sells more to Canada than it buys. Here in Idaho, for example, last year some $1.8 billion was exported (almost 40 percent of everything Idaho sells to anyone) and we purchased $1.2 billion worth of goods and services.

And another key agricultural trade item, fertilizer (significant when there’s already a shortage because of the Iran war).

Zions Bank economist Robert Spendlove told the Idaho Press:

“When turning to history, the trade war in the lead up to the Great Depression presents on analog for the employment of wide-reaching tariffs, and Spendlove said the outcomes are “both bad.”

“Either we see higher inflation,” Spendlove said. “Or we see decreased economic activity.”

Another story that shows the impact of this trade on the region was published in The Washington Post, reporting about a farmer on the Blackfeet Nation who needs machine parts from across the border.

The White House reponse:

“Asked about the tribe’s litigation and concerns, White House spokesman Kush Desai wrote in an emailed statement that “the reality is that decades of lopsided trade arrangements have undermined workers, farmers, and business across America.” He added that Trump is “committed to the prosperity and wellbeing of every American, and that includes Native American communities.”

Then there was the direct attack on the Tohono O’odham Nation.

From Cronkite News Service about the Department of Homeland Security sending mask agents into a tribal nation. Secretary Markwayne Mullin did not negotiate. Or consult. He sent a military force.

“Agents from Customs and Border Protection and the Bureau of Indian Affairs entered the Tohono O’odham Nation at 4 a.m. on Tuesday to prevent tribal authorities from blocking contractors, according to a statement issued that day by the Nation.

“Jason Nichols, like Mullin a member of the Cherokee Nation, called the incursion by masked agents a “step backward” in federal-tribal relations – and surprising, given Mullin’s “knowledge on the importance of tribal sovereignty.”

The former mayor of Tahlequah, Oklahoma, was Mullin’s Democratic opponent in 2018 when he won a U.S. House seat. He was dubious about Mullin’s preparation for the homeland security post, he said, but had been relatively impressed with his performance on border policy until this incident.

“What I’m hoping for is that they take a deep breath, you know, take one step back,” Nichols said, referring to Mullin’s department. He called for “substantive consultation with the tribe, because I do think the tribes have proven to be willing and even eager partners.”

“Indeed, the Tohono O’odham have long cooperated with the federal government on border security, though the Nation has also strongly opposed wall construction. One all-Native American unit of Immigration and Customs Enforcement called the Shadow Wolves patrols the Sonoran desert from its base on the Nation.

“The Tohono O’odham has members and communities on both sides. Its land spans 62 miles of the border west of Nogales.”

And it’s a similar narrative involving Venezuela’s oil. The headline in “Energy Now” is particularly telling.

“Trump Announces Sweeping US Grab for Control of Venezuela’s Vast Oil Reserves.”

“The arrangement potentially places approximately one-fifth of Venezuela’s vast reserves under majority U.S. control, although Trump provided few details about precisely what “control” means or how the agreement will be structured.

“The administration is betting that American companies can help rebuild Venezuela’s badly damaged energy industry, increase the supply of heavy crude to U.S. refineries and ultimately place downward pressure on American gasoline prices.

“Venezuela possesses the world’s largest proven oil reserves but currently produces only about 1.25 million barrels per day—far below its historical output and enormous geological potential. Years of underinvestment, political interference, deteriorating infrastructure, operational mismanagement and international sanctions have severely weakened the country’s production capacity.”

The no-bid “deal” is supposed to be a good one for both countries. Only it’s details have not been released, so you’ll have to take the word of an administration that only believes in itself.

Subscribe now

Monday Newsrime

US Post Office says ballots were lost

(Why do we think they were really tossed?)

compared to 2024 a higher rejection rate

So let’s vote early and determine our fate!

Subscribe now

The mail box is open for election business.

The Trump administration’s attempt to limit or eliminate mail-in voting has hit another obstacle. A federal court in Boston has issued a temporary restraining order preventing the U.S. Post Office from implementing its new “final” rules. A hearing will be held Sept. 3, 2026.

“That rule would assign USPS an unprecedented and illegal gatekeeping role in the administration of mail voting, and jeopardize the delivery of mail-in ballots to many voters,” said a news release from the Brennan Center for Justice.

“Today, the court agreed that plaintiff organizations were likely to succeed in their claims that USPS lacked the authority to issue the final rule and that the final rule unconstitutionally imposed election requirements on the states. Noting that the “record continues to lack any evidence regarding fraudulent absentee or mail-in voting,” the Court emphasized, “USPS’s interest in correcting an unsubstantiated problem through likely unconstitutional means is dwarfed by the overwhelming risk of pervasive disenfranchisement of citizens who need access to mail ballots in order to vote.” In light of this immediate and irreparable harm, the Court granted emergency relief, ordering defendants to take no steps to prepare, implement, or enforce several sections of the final rule for 14 days. In the interim, the parties will fully brief the plaintiff organizations’ request for a preliminary injunction. A hearing on that motion has been set for Sept 3, 2026.”

The Trump administration is in a deep hole here. Not only is constitutional law against them — counties and states run elections, not the U.S. Post Office — but the clock has run out. Several states are dropping military and overseas ballots next week. That means there is really not enough time to implement a post office oversight framework, even if it was legal. And again, it’s not.

And how is this all supposed to work? The technology where the post office matches “citizen” lists with eligible voters is impossible. Just last month President Trump said that the government had discovered 250,000 non-citizens on the voting rolls in Nevada. Only the number was later corrected to 16,000. This week that explosive allegation was significanly downgraded again, this time identifying 185 voters.

And even that 185 number is questionable.

NPR:

“Nevada asked for more information on that smaller group of 185 voters, and the data points used to match them to noncitizens. DHS declined to provide that. The agency did say it still had more than 14,000 Nevada voters that "need additional review," and it also provided the state with a list of more than 6,000 voter IDs the agency said were "higher confidence" matches but had yet to be reviewed.”

The midterm election cannot get here soon enough.

Weekend Newsrime

Data centers redefine what we share

as 70 percent of us say: “Don’t you dare!”

Few jobs, too much water, and that damn hum

Our fears about artificial intelligence aren’t dumb

Subscribe now

Magical Millie helps families talk about vaccines.

Magical Millie’s Courageous Journey is a coloring book published by the Urban Indian Health Institute in Seattle that explains vaccines to kids.

“When the appointment was over, her mom wrapped her in a warm hug. ‘You were so brave, Millie,’ Mom said. Millie smiled her heart swelling with pride. ‘I feel strong, like the warriors Grandma is always talking about. Taking care of myself means I can take care of others — and that makes me a warrior, too.’”

That should be the story’s end. Except we live in an era when the government itself is spreading misinformation about vaccines.

Abigail Echo-Hawk, Pawnee, is the author of the coloring book, Magical Millie’s Courageous Journey. The book includes a schedule for vaccines and a glossary explaining the terms that a parent should know.

On August 10th President Donald J. Trump signed an executive order to “spread out” the immunization schedule for children. The president is matching the vaccine nonsense that has so defined the career of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

From the scientific journal Nature:

The 10 August order calls for children to be vaccinated against fewer diseases than they currently are, and it recommends that combination shots, starting with the one for measles, mumps and rubella — commonly known as the MMR vaccine — be split into individual jabs that are spread out over time.

The order is “not in any sense grounded in science”, says Paul Offit, a viral immunologist and director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in Pennsylvania.

And here is one of the crazy parts: There is not a single dose vaccine currently licensed for measles, mumps or rubella. It will have to be created, tested, and then made available.

The science (again from Nature).

“Previous research has shown that combined vaccines against multiple diseases can increase population-level immunity and decrease health-care costs, because families can visit the clinic fewer times to receive fewer shots, says Mark Jit, a health economist at New York University. For example, the proportion of people vaccinated against diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis and a bacterial infection called haemophilus influenzae type b increased by 8% in Belgium after the country introduced a jab that combined all four shots into one.

“In 2006, a research team reported that when combined jabs are available, children are, on average, immunized against diseases at a younger age. This means that children are protected earlier in life, rather than having to wait for separate jabs, Jit says. For diseases that spread quickly, such as measles, a delay of even a few months “can make a whole world of difference” in terms of whether kids get sick, he says.”

Says, does? A changing story from RFK but the actions of the agency are consistent.

Dr. Franklin’s mistake

Five years ago a Public Health pharmacist, Commander Aimee Young, promoted vaccines on the Indian Health Service web page.

“Vaccine hesitancy is used to describe the reluctance or refusal of patients or caregivers to vaccinate despite the availability of vaccines. This is not a new concern, and remains among the top 10 threats globally . Hesitancy has been around since the times of Benjamin Franklin, who lost one of his sons to smallpox in 1736 and publicly regretted not having him inoculated. The scientific understanding of how vaccines work, better ways of stimulating immunity through vaccines that are scientifically tested, and the safe manufacturing of vaccines have made tremendous progress since that time. Yet, nearly 300 years later, we are still talking about vaccine hesitancy.

“Research has shown that health decisions, such as to receive or to not receive a vaccine, are highly influenced by social and cultural factors, such as politics, past experiences with the health care system, family history, and balancing important public health concerns with individual rights.”

Another IHS post that same year promised a “golden age” for vaccines. Dr. Scott Hamstra, wrote:

“Let me tell you why I’m excited, hopeful and optimistic in 2021 despite the COVID-19 pandemic. Why? It’s because of the major advances in vaccine technology over the past 30 years. Progress has been so dramatic that it is safe to say we have entered the “golden age” of vaccines.”

Politics? Social and cultural factors? The very words that fit messages from Donald J. Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as they make vaccine hesitancy an official public policy.

If you search for “vaccines” on the Indian Health Service web page you get a list of agency officials who work on vaccines, but there’s no schedule, promotion or explanations. There are no Magic Millies.

ProPublica reported last year about the agency’s “stark turn.”

But this year, as Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a vaccine critic, has put his stamp on federal immunization policy, IHS’ public messaging on vaccines has taken a stark turn.

In internal emails obtained by ProPublica, IHS officials have flagged terms such as “immunizations” and “vaccines” for additional scrutiny, deeming them risky “buzzwords” that require approval from agency public information officers to be used in social media posts, pamphlets and presentations for patients.

And if you search for vaccine information on the IHS web site — there is nothing new. There is a chilling atmosphere to even talk about vaccines.

Again, ProPublica.

“ProPublica didn’t want their names used, concerned it could endanger their jobs. One physician said the new IHS restrictions on vaccine-related speech factored into her decision to leave the agency this year.

“I can’t keep people safe,” she said in an interview just before she quit. “I don’t have any of the words anymore to say anything I need to say.”

I am not bound by any funding concerns and it’s unlikely I will have a “job” again so I can say this flat out: Vaccines work and we should not be setting up a generation of young people for needless deaths. The phrase “unvaccinated” next to a death report is a damning indictment.

Then again, that last paragraph should not be controversial. But as ProPublica pointed in the federal government today using the word “vaccine” is risky.

Then and now

IHS page promoting vaccines in 2018.

The search for vaccine today on IHS pages.

A short history

In 1968, there were 152,000 kids with mumps. Then by the early 2000s only a few cases. Today mumps is again on the rise.

A piece by Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health:

“This executive order echoes previous efforts from the administration to reshape the American vaccine landscape, including the dismissal of all members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices—the group of experts that develops vaccine recommendations—and issuing new recommendations to drop routine vaccinations for flu, COVID-19, rotavirus, and others. Both of these changes were halted by a federal judge in early 2026. This latest effort to alter the immunization schedule did not come with any new evidence on vaccines.”

I was thinking about the practical application of the Trump executive order, breaking up vaccine doses into single shots. That means trying to get more appointments in an Indian Health System where scheduling is not easy because of staffing shortages. More parents are confused by the mixed messages and might just give up. That would be a mistake.

Johns Hopkins conclusion:

“Vaccination shouldn’t be political, but we live in a time when there’s all kinds of signaling about health positions based on politics. This order is a great example of why that can be very dangerous.”

The story of measles is especially important now. Two people have died this month in Pennsylvania and the CDC reports there are 2,777 “confirmed” cases (so that number is probably much higher) while all of last year there were 2,289 cases. Some 94 percent of those cases involved “unvaccinated” or “unknown” status.

Vaccination works.

Here’s the kicker is this, from the Associated Press:

In November, international health officials will meet to determine if the U.S. and Mexico have lost their measles-free status. The U.S. eliminated local measles spread in 2000 by maintaining high vaccination rates, which have fallen in recent years to below the 95% coverage needed to prevent outbreaks.

The United States in 2000 was declared “measles free” because there were so few cases that resulted from the high rate of vaccination.

Indian Country has two additional major problems. First, we don’t have as much data as we need (How many people are vaccinated regularly? How about staff?). But from those regions where do have good data, we know there is a lower rate of vaccination. That leaves communities vulnerable.

Tribal Health, an Arizona enterprise, reports on its web page:

“2025 has seen the biggest measles outbreak in the U.S since 1992. 165 people have been hospitalized; 3 have died.

“Most of the 2025 cases involve unvaccinated patients – and unfortunately, Native communities often have lower vaccination rates than the overall U.S. population. There are a few reasons for this and they’re reasons that play a role in many Indigenous health barriers: unreliable transportation, living an hour or more from the nearest clinic, and high provider turnover and shortages. Families that want to keep children vaccinated on schedule may not get the information they need and or be able to visit a clinic when the right resources are there.

“So it’s not surprising that some state statistics, including from South Dakota and Montana, show that Native Americans are less likely than white children to be vaccinated on schedule. The national measles vaccination rate is significantly lower for Native Americans who use the mostly rural Indian Health Service. About 76% of children 16 to 27 months old had gotten the first shot, according to data collected by the agency during recent patient visits at 156 clinics. That’s a 10- percentage-point drop from a decade earlier.”

Then infectious diseases have a long, deadly history in tribal communities. Every once in a while I read through the agency reports of the Bureau of Indian Affairs from decades ago. A 1923 report from Fort Hall, Idaho, shows infections and death from what are now preventable diseases, ranging from influenza to measles and mumps.

The agency doctor, Henry Wheeler, described himself as a “humiliated physician” when he turned in his illness and mortality reports.

“It has been out of management for the benefit of the sick so long that we have ceased to call it a hospital. The medical report said there were two hospitals, one at the school, and other at the agency. But the school hospital had no nurse so it closed. More and more people have given up and sought medical treatment in town. Others chose not to go, no matter the reason. The doctor said a real hospital would be expensive but the current set up he dismissed as a ‘white elephant.’

“The constant demand for a hospital there was many times greater than ever it was here, and yet the elephant was permitted to die from starvation for the reason that it cost so much to keep.”

Fort Hall agency report to the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1923.

Of course the counter story is that the Indian Health Service is no longer the only game in town.

Tribal health departments and clinics are promoting the heck out of vaccines. Billboards across the Navajo Nation, for example, are urging people to get their annual vaccinations.

Across the country, there are drive through vaccine clinics. Immunization days. And back to school shots in August are a great start.

One of my favorite things about the Alaska Federation of Natives meeting in October is a vaccination booth where you can quickly get up to date.

And there’s always Magic Millie.

Share

Today’s Newsrime

A tribal holiday for the elder, Dolly?

Hmm. A fitting tribute, not just folly

Songs and stories for us to chew

every step of the way, we will always love you

Subscribe now

Haines Junction where the Alaska Highway meets the Haines Highway in the Yukon. The only roads to Alaska’s Hyder and Skagway are in the Yukon Territory.

Today is a good day to catch up on a lot of politics. Let’s start in Alaska — where the trade war with Canada could be another boost to Mary Peltola’s Senate candidacy. (To me: This is a lot more important than the issues of distraction, such as internal campaign politics or how many Dan Sullivan’s are running for the Senate.)

I been fortunate to have experienced the drive north to Alaska twice. This is one of those “bucket” list things to do because the road is so beautiful. (We counted more than a hundred bears at one point, plus mountain sheep, elk, bison, and a gray wolf.) It’s also mostly Canadian. Then of course, because Alaska only borders Canada, not the lower 48 states.

Alaska’s trade with Canada is central to the state’s economy.

Here is the data:

— Alaska exports $633 million in goods to Canada annually.

— Alaska imports $1.3 billion in goods from Canada annually.

Major exports include minerals, metals, ores ($435 million), fish and seafood ($77 million), and fuel oil ($62 million). More than 20,000 Alaskan jobs are linked to Canadian trade. Many essential cargo shipments and road connections to the Lower 48 travel directly through Canadian territory, such as British Columbia and the Yukon Territory.

Earlier this year the Alaska Legislature enacted a resolution that specifically rejected the idea of Canada as a U.S. state and called for the end of tariffs (and any trade war.)

From the Alaska Beacon:

“The purpose of HJR 11 is to remind Alaskans that we have an important relationship with Canadians, those shared values of Arctic partners, our relationship as good neighbors, and keeping our partnership with Canada alive isn’t just good policy, it’s critical to the way we live,” she said.

“Parts of Alaska are unconnected to each other without a trip through Canada. Fresh produce, dairy products and other perishable goods are shipped to Alaska via Canada.

“Alaska Natives and Canadian First Nations are connected across the border, the resolution notes, and even the region’s sports teams compete together. The resolution observes that curling teams in Whitehorse and Fairbanks have been playing against each other for decades.”

Now the politics. Sen. Lisa Murkowski in April described the relationship:

“In Alaska, this relationship matters. We share more than 1,538 miles of border with Canada – some of our communities share schools and churches. Our best-known road is the Alcan (Alaska-Canada) Highway. We are friends, neighbors, partners, and allies when it comes to our economies, our mutual defense, our cultures, and, yes, our trade.

”Like any relationship, there are certainly areas for improvement. I support the President’s efforts to block the flow of fentanyl in our country, but we should remember the old saying that the U.S. and Canada are ‘neighbors by geography, and friends by choice.’ In that same spirit, I’m certain we can find a better way to mutually secure our borders and address fentanyl trafficking than by starting a trade war.”

Now that the trade war has been started, the incumbent U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan will have to walk the line between supporting the Trump administration or Alaskan jobs. Then he’s not alone. The same division will pop up in other states with Senate contests where Canada is the top trading partner. That would be: Maine, Montana, Idaho, Ohio, Minnesota … and more. At least thirty-two states rank Canada as their largest trading partner. The White House is doubling-down on its attacks on Canada.

“Canada has been ripping off the United States for decades — and President Donald J. Trump is done letting them get away with it. Last week, the U.S. offered Canada the most preferential market access of any country on Earth, with deep cuts on steel, aluminum, autos, lumber, and more. Instead of partnership, Canada chose unreasonable demands, walk-backs, and flat-out rejection.”

Then the Trump administration is starting the tariffs on January 1st — after the midterm elections. So the full cost won’t impact voters immediately.

That said, as Politico points out: “Republicans were already nervous about November. Then Trump restarted his trade war.”

“Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) said in an interview Tuesday he’d spoken this week with the small farmers and ranchers who would bear the brunt of Trump’s beef import holiday.

“I think it could hurt us at the polls,” he said. “That’s a very strong group.”

“The beef imports have jolted races in Iowa, where GOP Rep. Ashley Hinson, who is running to succeed retiring Sen. Joni Ernst, said in a social media post that the imports were “a bad idea” that would create “more uncertainty and instability for our farmers.”

Subscribe now

Today’s Newsrime

Recall the story about noncitizens voting?

A quarter of a million in Nevada, so we’re quoting

Officials say now it's 185, a number so much smaller

and even that figure isn’t a confirmed collar

Subscribe now

Supreme Court’s wait-and-see plan.

There are now 70 days ahead until the next general Election Day. That’s 70 days we can expect more chaos, confusion, and repeated (but stupid) attempts to thwart democracy. What makes this era particularly troubling is that you have to take time to sort out the news.

Yesterday it was this headline from the Associated Press: “Supreme Court sides with Trump administration on mail voting restrictions ahead of midterms.”

The story’s first three paragraphs.

“The Supreme Court opened a path Monday for possible implementation of President Donald Trump’s executive order restricting mail-in voting, though it remains unclear how much can be put in place before the fast-approaching midterm elections.

“The decision leaves room for additional court challenges that could further slow Trump’s order, and other similar cases have already been filed. The U.S. Postal Service laid out how it would implement the order last week, but time is running short to impose major changes. North Carolina is sending out ballots Sept. 4 overseas and to military voters, and other states will quickly follow suit in just a few weeks.

“The Supreme Court’s conservative majority didn’t decide the legality of Trump’s order, instead ruling that states who sued did not have the legal right to challenge it.”

This story is full of weasel words and phrases. (Words that hedge what’s really being said.) Possible. Unclear. Time is running short. How much? Nonsense. Chaos. Confusion. Ok, the last three words were not found in the story, but the sentiment is there.

First let’s be clear what the Supreme Court did. It said that states don’t have standing to sue until the Post Office formally issues rules to implement the Trump executive order on mail-in voting.

The following statement can be attributed to counsel and Plaintiffs in League of Women Voters Massachusetts v. Trump:

“We’re disappointed by this interim ruling by the Supreme Court in the separate but related case brought by certain states. However, the district court’s order in our case blocking USPS from proceeding with the Rule remains in place, and we will fight to keep it that way or to secure new relief. It is important to note that today’s ruling only addresses the timing of the state plaintiffs’ challenge. It does not affect any voters’ ability to cast a mail ballot. The Supreme Court did not rule on the merits of the executive order, and made clear: ‘If the Postal Service’s final rule harms the States, they may challenge that rule.’”

“Voting rights organizations like the plaintiffs in this case have experienced first-hand the significant confusion that President Trump’s executive order is causing right now. With the November election right around the corner, nonpartisan voting rights groups should be fully engaged in the vital work of educating all eligible voters to prepare to cast their ballots. Instead, plaintiffs and similar organizations are scrambling to understand how the rules may change while fielding inquiries from voters who rely on mail ballots and who are confused and fearful about how they will exercise their right to vote.”

The court said wait because there are no rule changes to judge. That means status quo. Nothing changes.

The problem for Trump and his election disruption scheme is that he has run out of time. Ballots will be dropped in the mail beginning next week. Next week! We are past the point where there’s even a logical route to reworking the rules. All any state has to say is “too late.”

This particular election disruption scheme is done.

Not that Trump won’t try again. And his team will keep pushing — and the post office might even try to implement something — but the mechanics have moved past the “best by” date.

“Significant confusion” is a tactic. The goal here is not a restructuring of mail-in voting around some mythical, sanitized citizen list (run by no less a partisan than Markwayne Mullin); the Trump ideal is chaos. The antidote is voting.

Subscribe now

Today’s Newsrime

Tell the World: Trump has spoken

Trading with Iran is now broken

Only China is the largest player

a strategic interest to be the stayer

Subscribe now

How does any nation make a deal with a president who ten minutes later might change the rules, the deal itself? The answer is you can’t.

Kinew said in The Mirror newspaper.

“Everybody knows the American president by now, he’s erratic, he’s irresponsible, and he’s not to be trusted. And this is the person that we were supposed to make a deal with, and we’re going to make additional concessions for it. That’s why I say you can’t make a good deal with a bad person, because who’s to say it’s not going to be undone?”

There’s so much wrong here. Canada is the United States’ second largest trading partner (Mexico is first). And, like Mexico, the trade routes are older than the United States.

There was a Shoshone trade network that operated for thousands of years; artifacts have been found with trade items from 13,000 years ago, including buffalo, flint, shells, and what we today would call crafts. Free trade.

Canada, or Rupert’s Land, warped that broader trade network into its fur trade. This is when colonial powers took everything and left only a few crumbs behind. This was another era of obscene profits and wealth. (The first Crypto?) Starting in 1670, Hudson’s Bay Company (the company that went out of business last year after its bankruptcy) was the orginal extraction company, acquiring fur by any means for London and Paris fashion houses.

The first U.S. and Canada Trade War was in 1846 when the Treaty of Oregon ended all Canadian operations in the Pacific Northwest.

James R. Gibson, a Canadian geographer, wrote in Farming the Frontier: The Agricultural Opening of the Oregon Country 1786-1846 “

The Oregon Treaty was not a fair compromise; there was no division of the ‘Oregon triangle’ [the disputed lands in Washington state], all of which went to the United States....Canadians have valid reasons for regretting and even resenting the Oregon settlement, since the British claim to the territory north of the Columbia-Snake-Clearwater river system was at least as good as, if not better than, that of the United States on the grounds of discovery, exploration, and settlement, and since the future Canadian Dominion was deprived of any harbour on Puget Sound....Canadians should not forget that they were dispossessed of part of their rightful Columbia heritage, a heritage whose economic potential in general and agricultural possibilities in particular were initially and successfully demonstrated by the Hudson’s Bay Company. They should also remember that whenever it is tritely declared that Canada and the United States share the longest undefended border in the world, it is so mainly because the stronger American republic won its northern boundary disputes at the expense of its weaker neighbour, just as it southern boundary was gained at the expense of a weaker Mexico.

This time which neighbor is weaker is harder to define. The U.S. projects wealth and power — but Canada is holding a lot of cards in this trade dispute.

First: The public fight over tariffs, what’s in the news, is just a small part of the trade, only about 5 percent. What’s not even on the table? Energy. Fish. Fertilizer. Critical minerals. You know, things WE need.

But that means Canada still has leverage. Bigly.

From Canada’s Energy Regulator: (Footnotes removed)

Canada and the United States (U.S.) share a highly connected energy system. This 2025 summary of Canada’s trade at the national level shows these connections.

A network of dozens of pipelines transport crude oil, natural gas, natural gas liquids (NGLs), and refined petroleum products (RPPs) between Canada and the U.S. along with fleets of rail, marine, and freight vehicles. Additionally, 86 international power lines move electricity between provinces and U.S. states.

• Exports of crude oil, RPPs, natural gas and NGLs to the U.S. totaled $157.5 billion for the Canadian economy in 2025 , representing 20.2% of Canada’s total goods exported globally.

• Imports of crude oil, RPPs, natural gas, and NGLs from the U.S. amounted to $34.4 billion in 2025 (Figure 1), accounting for 4.4% of Canada’s total goods imported globally.

• In 2025, electricity exports to the U.S. were valued at $3.3 billion, representing 0.4% of total goods exported from Canada to all countries. Electricity imports from the U.S. were valued at $1.4 billion, representing 0.2% of total goods imported into Canada from all countries.

• In 2025, Canada provided 63.4% of the crude oil and close to 100% of the natural gas imported by the U.S. Canada also supplied 24.9% of the RPPs and 97.9% of the NGLs imported by the U.S.

• Canada was the source of 81.3% of the electricity imported by the U.S in 2025.

That’s a lot of leverage. And, on top of that, Canada is one of the most reliable international purchasers of U.S. Treasury bonds. The money that pays for our budget deficit. Canada doesn’t even have to sell its bonds — it could just stop buying new debt.

Of course President Bad Man has an answer for that, too. He said Friday about the bond market: “The yields have come back up since [Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s initial intervention in the bond market],” a reporter reminded the president. “Have you talked to him about another type of intervention? Is that something he will be doing?”

Trump replied, “We have many types of intervention. That’s one. The ultimate intervention is our military, and if we have to use that, we will.”

How does the military sell bonds? The answer is it can’t.

Subscribe now

Monday’s Newsrime

Gotta love conservative election themes

Public support for data centers? In their dreams

Trump says as a mayor he’d be all in

That's an idea impossible to spin

Subscribe now

Tucson mural

Happy Friday. Tucson today. Headed back north this weekend. Since I am on the road, a short note.

Interesting piece from Vox on why this is the moment (at least post-Trump) for Medicare for All.

“The affordability and availability of healthcare is emerging as a top concern for Americans, with some recent surveys ranking it easily as the top concern. Voters are upset with rising costs, and federal cuts to Medicaid and Obamacare subsidies threaten to leave millions more uninsured.

“Progressive candidates, who have won major primaries this cycle, have been eager to offer Medicare-for-all as a solution. Polling suggests there is broad support for the idea, even if most American voters aren’t sure what the phrase means in practice.

Vox points out this is an issue that has divided Democrats. Even now: Would-be Speaker Hakeem Jeffries sends mixed signals. He told NBC’s Meet the Press that Medicare for All is “not legislation that I am currently cosponsoring or that I support.”

But the practical aspect of politics may override any legislative hesitancy. In the coming months — and especially next year — more Americans are either going to lose health care coverage because of cost or new rules (that’s both private insurance and Medicaid.) The big problem for Democrats is that some advocates for Medicare for All want both private insurance and the government plan. The problem is how do you prevent the private companies from keeping sick people out of their insurance pools (making their insurance less costly than government). A successful Medicare for All plan would best work with lots of young, healthy people buying into the plan (the people who really don’t need comprehensive health insurance).

The Republicans in the election year will focus on catastrophic health insurance. That’s already growing in popularity, roughly 4 in 10 people buy high deductible on Affordable Care Act plans.

What could be the driving force for what ever is next is the budget concerns. A universal health care plan of some kind is a lever that could help reduce the federal budget deficit. (A study last month estimated that universal health care could save nearly 20 percent of federal spending and save 114,000 lives.)

It doesn’t hurt that Abdul El-Sayed is making this the center of his campaign in Michigan for the U.S. Senate.

I literally wrote the book on Medicare for All. And I am the only candidate for the U.S. Senate in Michigan running to guarantee healthcare for every single American. No one should have to choose between getting the care they need or going into debt in the richest, most powerful country in the world. I will fight to expand Medicare to cover all necessary healthcare, including vision, dental, and hearing, and extend it to every single American from cradle to grave without premiums, copays, or deductibles. Medicare should be automatic, for everyone, and accepted everywhere. Medicare for All does not have to ban additional private insurance through unions or employers, although Medicare for All should make those choices redundant and unnecessary.

I will write this over and over again. The failure of our health care system is American Exceptionalism. We spend the most money on health care — by far — and get less of a return than every other industrial nation. It’s time.

Subscribe now

Today’s Newsrime

ICE has agents playing as domestic spies

Showing up at meetings in a friendly guise

such distaste for nose rings & they/them

suggesting protestors engage in mayhem

Subscribe now

The U.S.Treasury is buying old debt with new debt.

A short, but important note today. Actions going on in the outside world seem far away from Indian Country. Few people at home are watching every move in the “markets” or thinking about the cost of a treasury bond. But these are messed up times — and it’s eventually going to hit tribal communities hard.

Yesterday the federal government passed another debt marker, $40 trillion. To put this in perspective: The Indian Health Service budget is north of $8 billion. The interest on the debt — now the second largest federal spending category — is at $1.17 trillion (a number that jumps every time interest rates go up).

The federal debt works like this. Debt is sold to investors as bonds at interest rates set by the market (how many buyers are out there, when we know the US is selling). Usually U.S. Treasury notes are considered super-safe and so investors are willing to take less interest than lending to other countries or companies.

But what if there are not enough buyers? That’s started to happen. Investors are demanding more pay from interest in exchange for their loans, this is the yield. (When interest rates go up, the price of bonds fall.)

A couple of more things to think about.

First: It’s a global problem. The war in Iran is worrying bond investors, so much so that investors are concerned about debt from every major country. (In fact the latest crisis started with Japanese bonds because that country’s debt is 240 percent of its entire economy.) And, second, because this is sovereign debt — money owed to a government — the borrower, that is the government, can change the rules of the loan or even print more money. (Exchanging the burden of debt for inflation.)

This is where we enter the World of Shenanigans. President Donald Trump was asked by reporters if there is a problem in the bond market. Trump said nope, everything is fine. But next door at the Treasury Department, Secretary Scott Bessent “purchased” long term debt (with borrowed money no less) in order to drive down the yield on new debt.

It’s like paying one credit card with another (even though it might cost more) because the payment due date is later in the month. Buying time with rented money.

What really concerns me is that this is the beginning of a make-believe financial structure. I expect the Trump administration will shift some of the debt that’s now in dollars to a crypto currency (probably one that they own.) That’s building a new house of cards that will collapse.

Back to Indian Country: Increased debt (and debt repayments) will hit every aspect of federal spending (except, of course, taxes on the wealthy). It lead again to austerity measures that shrink government services (at the very time we need those services).

After Trump this $40 trillion in debt will leave a mess that will have to be cleaned up. Not sure how we do that when the political landscape is so toxic.

Something fun

Gotta love Minnesota humor. After the primary, the Republican candidate Michelle Tafoya went on a conservative media channel and said Minnesota’s politics were too much.

“Minnesotans are exhausted, and John, quite frankly, they’re embarrassed. I have talked to hundreds of voters in Minnesota who have told me, ‘Gosh, I went on vacation this summer. I didn’t want to tell people where I was from because it’s embarrassing.’

That led to a social media wave of Tafoya being “unMinnesota.”

But that negative morphed. The twist is people are using social media to talk about how Peggy Flanagan is “so Minnesota.” This is fun — and politics at its best.

Peggy Flanagan is so Minnesotan she’s used a credit card to scrape ice off her windshield.

Peggy Flanagan is so Minnesotan she actually likes lutefisk.

Peggy Flanagan is so Minnesotan that she still has Dayton’s bags folded up in the cabinet above her refrigerator.

Peggy Flanagan is SO Minnesotan she pronounces bones "bOHHnes"

Peggy Flanagan is so Minnesotan she pronounced Mahtomedi correctly on her very first try.

You get the idea.

Today’s Newsrime

The Pillow Guy lost on Minnesota’s ballot

But election denying is his personal pallet

And even though he lost election by a lot

he demands a recount (that will prove squat)

Subscribe now

Alaska Public Media:

Peltola, who served as Alaska’s lone U.S. House representative from September 2022 to January 2025, led the Senate race with almost 48% of the vote.

Republican Sen. Dan S. Sullivan, who has held the seat since 2015, was in second with more than 43%.

At Peltola’s watch party at 49th State Brewing in downtown Anchorage, the crowd cheered as the national cable news networks showed the Alaska results.

She took the stage early in the evening and said just one member of Alaska’s delegation to Congress is working for the state — a reference to Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a moderate Republican who sometimes breaks party ranks.

At 48 percent, Peltola is who is Yup’ik, has a real shot at hitting 50 percent, plus one by November. That would keep Ranked Choice Voting out of the picture. But even with RCV she looks strong because she could easily be a second choice from voters that pick one of the other two challengers to Sen. Sullivan.

One of the ways that the Top Four primary has evolved in Alaska stems from game theory. This could really take place in the governor’s race where candidates could withdraw and support someone they think has a better shot. (Candidates are supposed to decide by August 31.)

Bernadette Wilson, a member of the Naknek Native Village Council, is philosophically opposed to Ranked Choice Voting and has said she will withdraw in favor of another Republican.

Alaska Public Media:

The top four candidates in the nonpartisan blanket primary will advance to the general election in November. For now, those are:

• Democrat Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins with 21.8%

• Democrat Tom Begich with 20.0%

• Republican Bernadette Wilson with 10.6%

• Republican Dave Bronson with 8.5%

  The race for the House is a much longer shot. Bill Hill, Dena'ina Athabascan from Naknek, was a distant second to incumbent Rep. Nick Begich. Then even that race has a path, albeit a stretch. If you add up the votes from the Top Four Democratic challenger, that still only reaches 43 percent.

  Election summary from the Anchorage Daily News.

  Finally, the biggest winner of the night was campaign finance reform. Alaskans by a wide margin want less money in politics.

  Alaska Public Media:

  Early results show Alaskans approving a ballot measure seeking to reinstate limits on individual campaign contributions by a roughly 3-to-1 margin, according to the Alaska Division of Elections.

  Currently, Alaska has no limit on individual campaign contributions thanks to a federal appeals court ruling in 2021 that declared the state’s voter-approved $500-per-year limit unconstitutionally low. Candidates have taken advantage in the years since, with politicians of all political stripes taking five- and six-figure donations from contributors within Alaska and Outside.

  The ballot measure would set the limit on individual contributions to candidates at $2,000 per two-year election cycle and raise a limit on contributions by political groups to $4,000. Those limits would be adjusted for inflation once a decade in an effort to withstand court scrutiny.

  Today’s Newsrime

Early reports are coming through:

Data Centers could flip Texas blue

Governor’s support bonds rural folk

those voters are eager to give him a poke

Subscribe now

From last year’s Alaska Federation of Natives meeting in Anchorage.

Good morning from Arizona. Here for a week (113 degrees, why?)

Today is the Alaska top four primary. As well as Wyoming and Florida’s more conventional primaries.

What am I watching in Alaska?

First: How big an early vote? This is pretty much a question for every primary because it’s the antidote to any election shenanigangs by the Trump administration. KTUU reports this is already a record year for early vote.

KTUU:

The new high: 21,956 ballots. It surpasses 2022’s record at 18,267.

The record turnout has also meant long lines for voters at the midtown mall polling place, who told Alaska’s News Source the line was upwards of an hour.

Second: Which candidates for governor will come the top 4. This is specially important for Meda Dewitt — an independent candidate and Tlingit — because if she is successful she can build a campaign around being the second choice. In a Ranked Choice Voting system that’s a strategy that can win. (If no candidate reaches 50 percent plus one, then voters’ second and third choices are weighed until someone does reach that majority tally.)

Third: How close is Mary Peltola to 50 percent? This is an imperfect measure but in a multi-candidate primary, this could show how strong she is going into November. Remember in November, if she hits 50 percent plus one, she’s elected to the United States Senate. A recent Data For Progress poll and Ranked Choice Voting simulation shows what Peltola’s path looks like:

For the U.S. Senate race, we set up a hypothetical, four-candidate, ranked choice general election ballot — featuring Mary Peltola, incumbent Senator Dan Sullivan, Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., a retired Petersburg teacher who shares the incumbent's name, and Gerald Heikes, a frequent candidate in past Alaska elections — in an attempt to understand the effect that Sullivan Jr. and a minor candidate like Heikes might have on the ranked choice general election. In the first round, Peltola leads with 47% to Sen. Sullivan's 41%.

In the simulated final round, Peltola leads Sen. Sullivan 53% to 47%.

Fourth: What kind of problems surface? Again a question for every primary, every election. (And then what can be done to fix those problems before November.)

Wyoming elections from WyoFile:

Wondering how much is at stake in today’s election? By the end of the night, Wyomingites may have a pretty good idea who their next governor, secretary of state, schools superintendent, U.S. Senator and U.S. representative will be. Republicans so dominate Wyoming politics that whoever wins today will be the overwhelming favorite in November. (In 2018, for example, the AP called the governor’s race for then-candidate Mark Gordon minutes after the polls closed.)

Tonight could also decide who will control the statehouse for the next two years. Right now, the hard-line Wyoming Freedom Caucus controls the House, but a more traditional (or more moderate, depending on how you look at it) faction of the GOP controls the Senate. During this year’s legislative session, the Senate defeated many of the House’s more aggressive budget cuts to the University of Wyoming and the Wyoming Business Council. So today’s primary could have a huge influence on how those institutions and others fare financially over the next few years.

And The New York Times on Florida and a special election in California.

Florida’s freshly gerrymandered congressional map will play host to primaries that will challenge two Democratic incumbents and test the party’s insurgent left wing.

And voters in Northern California will choose a replacement for former Representative Eric Swalwell, who resigned in the spring after allegations of sexual misconduct.

Subscribe now

Today’s Newsrime

Americans: It’s OK to pay more for gas

says the president with so much sass

It’s a small price for Trump’s favorite war

(Will someone tell him the real score?)

Subscribe now

Is she a Democratic Socialist? This is a question that Peggy has had to answer more than once. Her response is that she’s “DFL all the way.”

I bet not one of the reporters who heard that answer have any idea about the depth of that history. First, the trivia: Why are there two state parties that maintain their own regional flavors, Minnesota’s Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party and North Dakota’s Democratic Nonpartisan League?

This is the ideal entry point into an exploration of socialism, progressivism, and communism in America and Indian Country.

These labels are tossed about in our current political debate without any context, as if they come from the Soviet Union instead of North Dakota. (And you can bet we will hear chants of “communism” in just about every Republican commercial between now and November.) So let’s look at the history instead of the slogans.

Basically, the way I see it, citizens across the United States rejected the consumption, corruption and the stupid tariffs from the Gilded Age and sought out alternatives that were more fair.

April 1910 newspaper cartoon. (Source: Chicago Daily Socialist)

The Progressive Era followed, and that included urban socialism, such as the election of Mayor Emil Seidel in Milwaukee in 1910. One of his creations is the idea of a city public works department (still used today). He expanded parks, required health and safety regulations, and promoted clean government. Critics even dubbed that era’s as sewer socialism because it included so many infrastructure projects. (Infrastructure projects that later became a hallmark of the New Deal and Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Democratic Party.)

Then (kinda familiar today) the Democratic and Republican parties pulled out the stops to defeat socialist Seidel, even running a joint campaign. In 1912 Seidel earned more voters than he did in 1910, but he lost to the Democratic-Republican candidate, a local physician. He later ran with Eugene V. Debbs as the Socialist Party’s vice presidential candidate.

A similar political debate was taking place in rural communities. And that’s where the story intersects with Minnesota and North Dakota (and other states where farming was important.)

Arthur Townley was born in rural Minnesota and moved to Colorado and then North Dakota to farm along with his brother.

Prairie Public picks up the story:

“After facing failures in Colorado and North Dakota, he turned to politics. He joined the Socialist Party, where he found success due to his organizational and oratorical skills, but his abrasive nature eventually led to his expulsion from the party. He then had to find a new outlet for his political ambitions.

In 1915, Townley and A.E. Brown founded the Farmers Nonpartisan Political League of North Dakota, or NPL. By 1918, the organization had grown to 200,000 members and had gained control of the state. The party was plagued by accusations of socialist policies and fraud. In 1921, a special election led to the recall of NPL Governor Lynn Frazier.

Townley never ran for office himself, preferring to work behind the scenes as an organizer.

The federal government indicted Townley and he was convicted in 1922 on charges of discouraging enlistment during World War I.

Those anti-war socialists (again a historical rhyme).

Nonetheless Townley’s NPL had influence in several states and led to the formation of a Farmer-Labor Party in Minnesota.

Minnesota Historical Society archives

From the Minnesota Historical Society:

“The Farmer-Labor Party of Minnesota was the most successful third party in the United States. During its existence it compiled a string of victories remarkable for a third party. It won five of nine elections for the Senate, four of thirteen for governor, and twenty-six of ninety-six for the House. In all statewide elections its candidates finished lower than second only once. In congressional contests its strongholds were the northern, western, and central sections of the state. Its strongest victories came in 1932, 1934, and especially 1936, when it controlled the governorship, the state house of representatives, both seats in the U.S. Senate, and five of the state’s ten House seats.”

Mayor Humphrey supporting Harry S Truman at the Democratic Convention (Library of Congress)

The merger with the Democrats came in 1944 led by a young politician named Hubert Humphrey.

Once again larger issues were at play. The Nazis has been defeated and the Truman administration was unwilling to support socialist and communist efforts to rebuild Europe in order to block the Soviet Union. That message didn’t play well in Minneapolis.

The Minnesota Post:

“In 1946, Humphrey, newly elected as mayor of Minneapolis, went to the state DFL convention hoping that the left-wing group was just one more faction that needed to be accommodated in the DFL’s “big tent.” But that did not happen.

“The Minneapolis mayor was scheduled to give the keynote address at the conclave held in a downtown St. Paul hotel. When he entered the convention hall, he did not receive the hero’s welcome that he had expected. Instead, he was met with boos, hisses and catcalls calling him a “fascist” and a “warmonger.”

“I had arrived at the convention recalling my central role and success at the 1944 fusion convention, self-satisfied as the leading elected DFLer in the state, and suddenly there were boos. I never got to make my speech,” Humphrey would later recall.”

Two years later Humphrey worked to defeat the socialist-wing of the DFL. Again, from the Minnesota Post:

“After the 1946 convention, Humphrey finally came to accept the fact that his consensus-building skills were not sufficient to heal the breach in the DFL. Now, without hesitation, he jumped into the fight to crush the left wing. “We had lost control,” Humphrey acknowledged. “The war was over. The Soviet Union has taken its stand against the United States. All the spirit of friendship and unity had vanished. The local comrades had switched their tactics from being loving, gentle, kind unifiers into being ornery, obstreperous, mean dividers and conquerors.”

The irony today is that we see Humphrey as the Happy Warrior and a crusader for liberal causes, civil rights, social welfare. Yet, at the same time, he was so fervently anti-communist that he undermined some of the brilliant ideas that he supported.

Red Progressives

Where was Indian Country during the progressive era? That’s a complicated question because some of the early socialist leaders favored assimilation (and all that came with that policy, such as boarding schools.) As in other moments, so much of this was defined by what else was going on across the country.

Ned Blackhawk’s in his fabulous book, “The Rediscovery of America,” explains the thinking. “Assimilation was also referred to as ‘Americanization’ and it motivated other movements during the Progressive Era as the United States received millions of non-Protestant and non-Anglican immigrants reformers sought to Americanize both immigrant and Indigenous communities. In the case of the latter, this meant that reservations were not conceived of as the autonomous sovereign homeland that Native nations knew them to be, but as communities requiring new familiar social structures in the case of immigrants housing and educational reformer proposed.”

Blackhawk wrote that the “Rerformers believe that Indian familiar structures were insufficient for raising children. Additionally, because the occupied lands communally, Native nations were thought to practice primitive forms of land management and needed to adopt an ethos of private property dismantling reservations removing children of far away schools and establishing property ownership as a path decision to find this era.”

But the progressive movement was also re-shaped from Indian Country. The 1911 meeting of what became the Society for American Indians. That group wanted “all progressive movements to this end” know that two key elements of any policy ought to be citizenship (this was before the Snyder Act) and some form of tribal self-determination (lots of debates about what democracy should be in tribal communities).

Today support for tribal sovereignty has become a core principle of every progressive, socialist party platform.

In 1928, the report, “Problems of Indian Administration,” or the Meriam Report focused on the failure of effective government. That’s because the Gilded Age was all about making money, not building a country. And any social welfare activity was best left to churches, churches that were free to operate on tribal lands as they saw fit. Or leave it to the Indian field agents who sometimes ran criminal enterprises in tribal communities.

Historian Floyd O’Neil said the progressive era was a renewed respect for nature — national parks were created, trails and forests opened — but that did not include Indians. “At the beginning of the century the American Indian was considered the vanishing American … it soon became apparent that the vanishing Americans were not vanishing; those that administered Indian affairs noted increases in population.”

And the public, led by the socialists and progressives, made the case for the government’s role a policy that was near opposite of a conservative framework. There was an emphasis on community over profit. (One of the first tribes to enact the Indian Organization Act, the Confederated Tribes of Salish Kootenai in Montana was able to block the theft of lands by the robber barons of the Copper Kings and Montana Power.)

John Collier’s leadership at the Bureau of Indian Affairs was expressly considered as being communist. (There’s a whole history of American Indians on the other side of the socialist divide, including support for fascism. I’ll save that for another day.) Alice Lee Jemison, Seneca, said in 1937 the Bureau of Indian Affairs was requiring Native American childeren to read Communist literature, including “New Russia’s Primer.” She said that tribes were becoming “little reservation Soviets.”

That narrative remains part of the debate. Interior Secretary James Watt said in 1983: “If you want an example of the failure of socialism, don't go to Russia—come to America and go to the Indian reservations.”

And, expect more of that during this election season, as Republicans continue to brand many candidates as “one of the most radical socialist Senate candidates on the map.”

The legacy beyond elections

What’s missing from the political discourse about communism and socialism is how many of the innovations that are considered normal now started in this era. You can go down the list from public schools to Social Security. The problem is those on the right are always chipping away at these social welfare programs and then replacing them with socialism for the rich.

We do have a lot of socialism for the rich. The destruction of Bears Ears as a national monument is a good example. Fossil fuel and uranium companies get to tap into a national resource — not the public good — to make a few individuals a lot of money.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies is keeping a list of Trump’s socialism via “equity investments.”

“The Trump administration has marked a significant shift in U.S. industrial policy. In addition to providing subsidies such as loans and grants, the Trump administration, in its second term, is now acquiring equity stakes in private companies in sectors deemed critical to national security. The U.S. government is now a direct shareholder in private companies, moving beyond traditional market-based approaches to competitiveness that have marked U.S. policy in the postwar period.

“So far, $10 billion in federal funds has been committed in exchange for equity stakes in private firms, although most of that sum is associated with the “investment” in Intel.”

Another piece by the Brown Political Review focuses on issues that impact Indian Country, such as the renewed production of coal (when market forces are saying “hell, no.”)

“Fossil fuel subsidies are even worse, by both size and utility metrics. There is no point trying to quantify the total cost. To break down the government’s exact burden through both direct and indirect subsidies, like environmental costs, health costs, consumer purchasing assistance costs, etc., would take a lifetime. It’s a mess.

“For simplicity, let’s just consider coal: an industry that academics at large have agreed is so unprofitable, and so full of externalities, that it’s beyond the point of economic reason. If this isn’t convincing enough, the private market has also shown clear signs of disbelief in coal’s future, evidenced by the fact that financiers and insurers are running in the opposite direction. When big corporates abandon something, you know there’s really no money left in it. In complete contradiction of this reality, as of 2017, the US government was still providing over $1 billion in fiscal support every year. This number also fails to capture consumption-facing subsidies, which are those that bring down the price of electricity. In effect, the government pays the coal industry because their product is too expensive. In 2017, these types of subsidies added another $718 million to the government bill.”

Just last week legislation was introduced in the Senate to make it easier to export Montana coal to Japan and South Korea. The bill would give the Crow Nation equity in exchange for a future coal reserve project. This is socialism, the parties involved won’t have as many expensive regulations. There will be cheaper coal to sell in a world where free markets don’t want any coal.

Who’s the most radical socialist Senator on the map now?

Subscribe now

Share

Reprise: The Future of Coal

Today’s Newsrime

Says the CEO who’s all wet:

Flock’s 120,000 cameras are no threat

False arrests at a terrifying scale

Big Brother wearing a private veil

Subscribe now

Next up: Alaska’s Top Four

Alaska’s primary is unusual. And I think a good model for the rest of the country. Not that there are not quirks (more on that later). On Tuesday four candidates from any party (or even not a party) will advance to the general election and in the fall, the Ranked Choice Voting process.

Voters have a lot of choices. There are 17 candidates for governor, two of them are Alaska Native.

What we know: Alaskans are voting early. This from the Alaska Story.

“Alaskans are voting early in numbers far ahead of the pace set during the 2024 primary, an indication that voters are highly engaged in this year’s election. It’s also a warning to campaigns that their supporters cannot afford to take the Aug. 18 primary for granted.

“As of Tuesday, Aug. 11, the Alaska Division of Elections had received 10,078 early votes. At the same point before the 2024 primary — eight days before Election Day of that year — the division had received only 4,298.

“That means early voting this year is running nearly 5,800 ballots ahead of the 2024 pace. It represents an increase of approximately 135%, with this year’s total already reaching 235% of the number recorded at the comparable point two years ago.

“The comparison is especially notable because 2024 was a presidential election year, which typically attracts greater voter excitement and attention. Yet Alaskans are casting ballots much earlier and at a considerably faster rate in the 2026 primary.”

Voting early has been one of the messages in the Alaska Federation of Natives Power of the Native Vote campaign:

“The Alaska Native community is the most powerful voting bloc in the state. Why? Because we have the numbers. Our people make up approximately 20% of the state’s general population. If we vote early (in-person or by mail) or on Election Day, we can determine the direction of Alaska.”

Who’s not running for governor?

Two Alaska Native candidates are running in that group of 17, Republican Bernadette Wilson and independent Meda Dewitt.

KYUK’s profile of Wilson:

“… Wilson is not new to Alaska politics. She’s advocated for conservative causes through work on Republican political campaigns, served as the Alaska director for Americans for Prosperity, and held the interim director position on the conservative think tank, the Alaska Policy Forum.

“Wilson said that she’s tired of excuses from Alaska’s politicians on solving issues from the Permanent Fund dividend and education, to fisheries and the proposed gas line.

“Wilson has family ties to Bristol Bay as a Naknek Native Village Council member, but was raised in Anchorage, where she is majority owner of the garbage company Denali Disposal.”

Wilson is against the Ranked Choice Voting system and her campaign says she is one of the main sponsors of the amendment to repeal Alaska’s voting system. She is Aleut and a member of the Naknek Native Village Council.

Meda DeWitt is Tlingit (Lingít) and a traditional healer, educator, and political organizer from the Naanyaa.aayí clan with roots in Wrangell and Yakutat. She led the unsuccessful 2019 campaign to recall Gov. Mike Dunlevy.

A profile of DeWitt and her running mate, Chris Steere, published last wek in the Nome Nugget:

DeWitt describes their campaign as “Alaskans first” focused. “We don’t have to buy into the national party politics and the squabbles and things, and we don’t have to take direct orders from party leaders and that are out of the state,” she said. “We are both Alaska Native, and we are very committed to the state and having a viable future and a viable present for our children and communities.”
DeWitt’s top priorities are centered around creating a sustainable, self-sufficient Alaska, an approach she calls “holistic.” More specifically, she wants to return manufacturing and food production to Alaska, invest in education that enables Alaskans to work in-state and reduce fuel costs by refining fuel here.
She wants to close the so-called S corporation loophole, which would have companies licensed as S corporations or limited liability companies to pay corporate income tax for profits earned inside Alaska. She wants to keep production and manufacturing in-state. “That means that the dollars are made here and spent here and circulate here. There’s so much money that leaves out of the state. It’s just absolutely ridiculous,” she said.
“It is the most important thing: ending corporate welfare, making the extractive industries pay their due taxes, and by hiring Alaskan workers, that money recirculates back into the economy instead of just leaving with the resources,” added Steere.

This is why a top four primary makes sense to me. There is a wide range of candidates, Democrats, Republicans, independents, and it’s the voters (not the money) that gets to sort through this list and come up with four “maybe” candidates for governor. Then between August and November those four will have plenty of time to make their case for election.

Subscribe now

Moving on to the Senate.

Mary Peltola, Yup’ik, should advance to the general election along with incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan. The other two spots could be interesting. The Anchorage Daily News reported that millons of dollars are being spent to promote “fringe” candidates that could draw voters away from Peltola or Sullivan.

This is the quirky part. Noise. (This is not a lot of money. Spending in Minnesota’s Democratic primary topped $51 million.)

The thing to watch for is how close Peltola (or for that matter, Sullivan) get to 51 percent. Alaska Survey Research’s latest report shows support for Peltola at 51 percent and Sullivan at 49 percent. If that happens in November, there is no Ranked Choice Voting. Fifty percent, plus one, wins.

And in the House

Like in the Senate race, the two top candidates are the incumbent Republican, Rep. Nick Begich III, and the Democratic challenger Bill Hill. Hill is Dena’ina Athabascan.

The Alaska Current says Hill is running behind at this point.

Alaska’s primary election is less than a week away, but independent congressional candidate Bill Hill’s campaign is already looking ahead to the general election—and they like what they’re seeing.

New polling of the race for Alaska’s lone seat in the US House shows Hill is within the margin of error of freshman Republican US Rep. Nick Begich III, with plenty of room to grow in terms of name recognition. The polling was conducted by Democratic polling firm GBAO, which contacted 500 likely voters between Aug. 3 and 5, with a self-reported margin of error of 4.4%, and shared first with the Alaska Current.

In a head-to-head race, the poll found Begich currently leads Hill 46%-42%.

Hill, a former educator and commercial fisherman who is Alaska Native, is the lone serious contender in the race after Democratic candidate Matt Schultz exited the race in July.

Subscribe now

Weekend Newsrime

Navy ships are too complex these days

So President Trump ordered take aways

Replace the catapults, bring back the steam

What's next the Merrimack? Is that the dream?

Thanks for reading. Have a great weekend.

Subscribe now

A few things I learned: Policy makers continue to see the federal Indian Health Service the same way they did in the 1950s, a federal managed “program,” instead of a complex health delivery system that is mostly run by tribes and nonprofits.

So how should we pay for that different IHS?

I am part of that answer. I am older, 69 today. I have Medicare. I carry supplemental insurance. I bring resources into an Indian health clinic with me, adding to the what’s possible.

That’s exactly why a framework of universal insurance is so important as we build the what’s next. The Indian health system has always been a delivery system, not health insurance.

A few tribes have figured that out and purchase insurance for members either directly or through sponsorship programs. They key is thinking about a mechanism for insurance coverage.

As the country debates — re-litigates — health care it’s important to look at the data.

Government insurance programs, like Medicare and Medicaid, are mostly more efficient than private insurance. But it’s also true that these programs were designed for another time.

It’s like looking at the Indian Health Service and seeing a federal government operated delivery system instead of one where nearly 80 percent of all health programs are managed by tribal nations or nonprofits.

Of course what makes this all complicated is the original mistake, tying health care to work. It made sense at the time, but the nature of work has changed dramatically from payroll employees to independent contractors and gig workers. Not to mention those folks whose wealth comes from investments or company stock options. We need a better alternative to pay for any health insurance, including Medicare for All. It’s time for smarter taxes.

A July study by Yale scholars says a single-payer health care system would save the U.S. more than $1 trillion and some 114,000 lives every year. (There is a good summary of the study posted by Scientific American.

The premise from the study (footnotes removed):

The United States spends more on health care than any other nation, an estimated US$5.3 trillion in 2024, equivalent to nearly one fifth of gross domestic product. Yet a greater share of the US population is exposed to the financial and clinical consequences of inadequate coverage than in comparable high-income countries. In 2024, approximately 27.5 million Americans lacked health insurance, while tens of millions more were underinsured, struggling under deductibles and cost-sharing requirements that placed necessary care beyond financial reach. Despite its extraordinary level of expenditure, the United States continues to trail its peers in life expectancy, preventable mortality, and other major measures of population health. Exceptionally high spending, incomplete coverage, and comparatively poor health outcomes therefore remain defining features of the US health-care system and reflect the substantial human and economic toll of maintaining the status quo.

That toll is rising as recent coverage gains are being reversed. The current US system relies on a patchwork of subsidies to facilitate enrollment by seniors and low-income people into insurance plans that they could otherwise not afford. These subsidies have been rolled back or blocked by a series of Congressional decisions in 2025 and 2026, with approximately five million people anticipated to lose coverage and many seniors moving from fully insured to underinsured. After a decade in which uninsurance declined, the gap between what Americans pay for health care and what they receive in return is widening once again.

Against this backdrop, single-payer universal coverage, as proposed in the Medicare for All Act, ^remains the most comprehensive alternative to the current system

The key point to me is that we already spend more than any other country in the world on health care. Yet we don’t get the same level of service.

The focus on the economics is important because fixing health care spending is the key to lowering the now unsustainable deficit.

Yale:

US national health expenditure in 2024 was US$5278.6 billion. Under a single-payer universal health care system, we estimate that national health expenditure would become US$4237.4 billion, a reduction of US$1041.2 billion, or 19.7% of current spending

But wait! Conservatives argue that will result in long lines and bureaucratic decision making. (As if insurance companies now are not bureaucratic.) They point to the UK’s National Health Service as an example. Sometimes they point to the IHS.

But national insurance, Medicare for All, is neither of those. Another country to think about is France and its universal insurance.

From The Conversation:

“When it comes to paying for medical care, France has a simple system: it is a country where you are covered by health insurance from birth. All legal residents are automatically registered with the health insurance system and, therefore, receive free healthcare for the most serious conditions, or care that is largely reimbursed within the compulsory health insurance scheme and covered by top-up insurance plans.”

France has private doctors, and public health institutions.

“Like in the United States, France has public hospitals, private clinics and private non-profit clinics. All 31 of France’s university hospitals are state-funded.

“France does, however have a higher percentage of private (for-profit) hospitals than the United States. In 2024, 33% of clinics in France were private compared to 20% in the US.

“In France, private practice physicians are free to set up practice wherever they wish and are paid on a fee-for-service basis. In the majority of cases, doctors’ fees are set by the national health insurance system and are much lower than in the United States: 30 euros for a visit with a general practitioner in France, $150 (€129) in the United States.”

This will be an issue in the next Congress. Many of the candidates running on the Democratic side — including Peggy Flanagan — have made Medicare For All central to their campaigns.

It’s time. This is the American exceptionalism we don’t talk enough about. Why are we the only industrial nation on the planet to not have universal health care?

Subscribe now

Today’s Newsrime

There’s a new story about Bears Ears

a mining executive shouted his cheers

Days before he made a secret trade

so eager to profit from uranium grade

Share

Minnesota has spoken: Peggy Flanagan earned more votes — 411,000 plus — than all of the Republicans combined in their Senate primary. As I wrote, after the Democrat-Farmers-Labor convention, she owns the inside track to the United States Senate.

A few other thoughts about Tuesday night’s primary. The media loves a theme, a story it can tell about the national implications from an election. For months it’s been a rejection of Trumpism. Then, the rise of the socialists. Last night it was, how the left was stopped.

The Wall Street Journal is a good example of what many reporters and TV pundits said:

Headine: “Left-Wing Surge Stalls in Wisconsin as Francesca Hong Narrowly Loses

“Democratic socialist led in recent polls, but Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley beat back a progressive groundswell”

“Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley narrowly won the Democratic nomination for governor in this battleground state, upsetting Democratic socialist Francesca Hong and delivering a significant blow to the party’s insurgent far-left flank.

“Hong, who led in polls ahead of Tuesday’s primary, had the backing of many progressives and the socialist left. But she lacked support from some of the movement’s top national names.

“Boosted by a late endorsement from Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, Crowley was declared the winner by the Associated Press. With 98% of the expected vote tallied, he led Hong, 39.8% to 39.4%, the AP reported.

“The unexpectedly close race is the latest evidence that an intraparty fight among Democrats is far from over. Last week, Abdul El-Sayed narrowly defeated Rep. Haley Stevens in a divisive and costly Democratic Senate primary in Michigan that saw progressives claim one of their biggest victories to date.

“But the tight margins in Wisconsin and Michigan indicate that while the far left appeared to be surging, many voters still believe a more centrist approach is Democrats’ best hope to win competitive general elections.

“There are a lot of people who are scared,” Crowley told The Wall Street Journal the day before the primary. “She is a self-proclaimed socialist. There are a lot of people worried about not just this party, but this country moving in that direction.”

It’s funny. A day ago those same writers were linking Peggy Flanagan to that socialist wave. But her win was so convincing that, well, that narrative no longer works.

It’s sometimes boring to say but David Crowley ran a good, come from behind campaign. Hong made some mistakes late, enough to convince enough voters not this time. None of that says anything about the policy choices that the two candidates promoted. It was retail politics. Local issues. Oh, so boring, if you want a narrative frame.

What should be the national story, the bird’s eye view of that primary night? The failure of big money. As I wrote a couple of weeks ago:

Most people who read my newsletter think of Peggy Flanagan’s campaign for the Senate in historic terms. She is a citizen of the White Earth Nation and there has never been a Native American woman elected to that chamber ever. It’s long past time for that to happen in a representative democracy.

But others see Flanagan as a threat and are willing to spend a lot of money to make sure she doesn’t make that history.

It’s not uncommon for U.S. Senate races to cost millions of dollars. But in Minnesota, spending records are being shattered in a primary election, already topping $12 million. The most expensive Minnesota primary ever. And most of that money is trying to make sure that Peggy Flanagan does not win the DFL Primary next month.

The cool thing is the reasons are ideological.

If you want an ideological story, a narrative to remember for August 11th, this is it. Big Money lost: Angie Craig outspent Flanagan four-to-one. The crypto and the prediction market investors, as well as the allies of AIPAC will have to rethink their strategies across the country because what they’ve been doing is not working.

Here is what was published today in the Times of Israel:

JTA — Minnesota Lieutenant Gov. Peggy Flanagan, a progressive who says she would reject AIPAC’s money and accuses Israel of committing genocide, trounced Rep. Angie Craig in the state’s Democratic primary for US Senate on Tuesday.

A pro-Israel candidate in the seat Craig is vacating also went down to Matt Little, a more progressive Israel-critical candidate.

Flanagan beat out Craig 60%-40% with 96 percent of votes counted. She is expected to win the general election in November.

Of course the problem with obscene spending in politics is bigger than just one election night. As the Brennan Center points out:

“The campaign finance system is broken. Super PACs and shadowy nonprofits give enormous sway to the super-wealthy and big corporations. The Brennan Center is working to build a better system, pushing for public financing that matches small donations with public money, and regulations to eliminate illegal foreign spending. And we are waging a long-term fight to overturn misguided Supreme Court rulings that weaken crucial protections.”

That’s it. And election reform is right up there with judicial reform.

Today’s Newsrime

What’s important for the Supreme Court?

An independent review for every tort

But Justice Alito has millions at stake

those fossil fuels his fortune makes

Subscribe now

Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan (campaign photo)

Live posting, 7 pm Mountain Daylight.

A decade ago I wrote this about Peggy Flanagan and a possible run for Congress. The headline was “Sometimes the starts do align.”

“Flanagan also has the ideal background for this job. She’s been an organizer working on social justice issues for more than a decade. More than that: She teaches other people how to win campaigns and elections for Wellstone Action and The Management Center (an organization working for social change). She was executive director of the Children’s Defense Fund-Minnesota.

“And, if that’s not enough, she knows how to win a special election. She was elected to the Minnesota House in 2015 when Rep. Ryan Winkler moved out of the country. She jumped into the race early, ran unopposed, and earned 96.4 percent of the vote.

Ten years later and our imaginations are stretched. Peggy went from the state legislature to the office of Lt. Governor of Minnesota. And tonight? Sky is the limit.

Peggy Flanagan represents aspirational politics. Not just the idea of winning, but the step by step methodology of what our world could look like if we work together (this comes from her community organizing and her work with Wellstone Action.)

Waiting for the first batch of returns …

A twist on polling

I’m fond of Strength in Numbers, a Substack by G. Elliott Morris. A post today has an interesting angle on the progressive - centrist split in the Democratic Party.

“After my column last Friday, my friend Alexander, a political science PhD, texted me to say he thinks this anti-system thing “could be big and a distinct overlooked factor.” But he wondered how much of it could have just been fervent opposition to the Trump administration and to current Republican policies. That wouldn’t be a standing disposition about how American democracy works (or doesn’t) for a person, so much as their reaction to the particular person in office today.”

This is exactly where I am. I think we need major structural reform. Does that look like DSA? Sometimes. But not always. There are significant changes we need to make because the country requires them (universal health care, for example.)

Early returns

It’s early but The New York Times shows Peggy Flanagan with an early lead, 53.7 percent to 44.7 percent with only one percent returns.

Watching television flatten Peggy Flanagan as the “progressive” and Angie Craig as the “moderate” is such media nonsense. We are talking about two candidates who have both held elective office for years; they differ on some key issues.

Open seat 2

AP has called Minnesota’s DFL primary for governor for Amy Klobuchar. Early returns show her north of 89 percent of the vote. (That means another US Senate seat could open up if Klobuchar goes on to win the governorship.)

Dakota County

Rep. Angie Craig represents suburban areas around Minneapolis, including parts of Dakota County. Normally that would favor the state’s representative in Congress over a challenger, even one that’s one statewide. So far tonight that’s not the case. The New York Times shows Flanagan with a slight lead there, 49.6 percent to 49.2 percent.

And it’s interesting that Minnesota’s 2nd congressional district — the seat that Angie Craig now holds — was just called for “another progressive win” by Matt Little. This is another seat where the American Israel Pubic Affairs Committee spent a lot of money on the candidate who lost.

The American Prospect said yesterday:

“There is a clear favored candidate for pro-Israel groups in the race—Dr. Matt Klein—and he’s getting millions of dollars in funding to try to snag the seat. But super PACs spending for another candidate have past ties to pro-Israel groups in their own right, and a third candidate is trying to capitalize on that vulnerability.”

The story was headlined: Super PACs Find It Hard to Shake Partnerships With AIPAC; In Minnesota’s Second Congressional District, pro-Israel groups are spending millions on Matt Klein.

About right.

Subscribe now

AP call for Minnesota Senate

Well, on the Republican side. Michele Tafoya, a former N.F.L. sideline TV reporter, will be the GOP candidate for the Senate in November.

Early map

The early maps from The New York Times, counties just barely showing resuts, show deep blue on the map for Peggy Flanagan. Duluth, for example, is at 70 percent for the Lt. Gov. But that’s only with one percent of the vote.

Hit the refresh

How fun is this? Checking multiple news sites, voting reports, hitting that refresh button to see if there is anything new.

A quarter of the vote is in, nearly 200,000 counted, and Peggy Flanagan has an eight point lead, roughly 53 percent to 45 percent. (Pretty soon math will take over because you can figure how many votes Angie Craig would need, and where, to pull off an upset. Every new vote total shrinks that possibility.)

Better with two!

When Deb Haaland and Sharice Davids wons seats in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2018 it became clear right away that two was much better than one. It’s not easy to break a glass ceilings — and having a partner in the chamber means a lot.

I wrote this for ICT in 2018:

“You really see the "what's next?" when the candidates meet with young people. Think about this: The next generation of Native American girls will grow up knowing that being a member of Congress is a possibility, even a career path. This is the new normal.”

That tracks tonight. Peggy Flanagan moves one more step toward making a Senate seat expected, something that’s always been done.

And if all goes well, she won’t be alone in the chamber. She will be joined by Mary Peltola from Alaska.

This has been a long path. The late Ada Deer, who first ran for Congress in 1982, told National Public Radio:

“We need to understand the severe underrepresentation of women in the Congress. There are two senators out of 100, there are 29 women out of 435. And all of us will bring diversity of perspectives, diversity of experiences, and with my election, we will get a woman, an American Indian, an educator, a social worker, a leader, an activist. And we all have perspectives on the issues.”

The math

I suspect we are nearing a call for Peggy Flanagan. Hennepin County is always slow to report (less than one percent so far) but with Dakota County essentially a split — 49 percent for Craig, 49 percent for Flanagan, there are not many places where should make up such a deficit. Hennepin is Minneapolis.

Peggy’s strength there and in the northern counties was a door-closer.

Decision Desk said any vote reports from Hennepin County is the last data point needed before a call is mad. (Less than a thousand votes have been reported in the state’s largest county, including Minneapolis.)

Subscribe now

History: Peggy Flanagan wins DFL primary for U.S. Senate

And there we have it: NBC made the call. Peggy Flanagan with a convincing win over Angie Craig and virtually unlimited campaign spending.

If elected, she will be the first Indigenous woman to serve.

I’d like to take issue today with the news reports coming from those states. It’s a good example of how the media is missing the story. Instead of nuance, we get labels. Progressives versus centrists. It’s a framework that misses so much of what’s going on. We should be asking: What are the policies being debated on the campaign trail? (And for readers from Indian Country, how are those policies different for our Indigenous candidates?)

A decade ago (a little longer, actually) I was writing about the two Republican parties and how it made governing more difficult. First the Tea Party, and then MAGA, took the Republican division and forced unity.

This is what I wrote for ICT in 2016:

“So conservative Republicans and the more establishment Republicans stuck together and figured out how to cooperate. What complicates this story now is that Donald Trump is from neither camp. He’s not an ideological conservative. And he’s certainly not establishment. He’s Donald Trump. Period. He gives voice to people who think politics and governance has failed them. If you need a label, the Tea Party works as well as anything.

“This uneasy, three-way Republican coalition survived for so long because there was no where else to go. The Tea Party didn’t want to create a new entity. They took over the party. Establishment Republicans figured they had better go along because, well, the most important thing is winning elections (and a nod to party unity).”

The division among Democrats will also forge a coalition because there is no where else to go (without election reform).

At some point we can debate policies. There will not be unanimity but we might find consensus.

On the campaign trail, Peggy Flanagan, White Earth Nation, said something recently that strikes at this growing division, the corporatization of the country.

“It is big corporations, it’s special interests who are putting their thumb on the scale in our elections across the country … And it’s not just Republicans. It’s Democrats, too.”

How do we get money out of politics? That should be the policy question, not the labels that the media projects.

Stay tuned. I will post later tonight when I see some numbers.

Subscribe now

What happens when you attack a sovereign land for oil?

William Walker was a American physician, lawyer, and journalist who championed the criminal enterprise known as the ‘filibuster.’ (Library of Congress)

There is another use for the word “filibuster.” In the 1850s it was used to describe American mercenaries who attempted to take over Central American nations.

The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History published: The Filibuster King: The Strange Career of William Walker, the Most Dangerous International Criminal of the Nineteenth Century.

“This aggressive expansionism gave rise to a strange phenomenon known as filibustering. Filibusters were independent adventurers who launched freelance invasions of foreign countries, usually aiming to annex them to the United States. The decade before the Civil War saw the great flowering of filibustering. In 1850 and 1851, for example, scores of Americans landed in Cuba in disastrous forays.

“The restless Walker decided to become the greatest filibuster of them all. In 1853, he invaded Mexico with a handful of men, and barely escaped alive. The United States government tried him for violating the neutrality act, which prohibited private citizens from warring against foreign nations. But a jury in turbulent San Francisco swiftly exonerated him, turning his failure into a personal (if not military) triumph.”

Walker was eventually tried in Honduras where he was charged with “filibusterism” and executed by a firing squad.

What makes this story relevant is that “filibustering” is what’s taking place in Greenland where a Texas oil company is setting up a criminal drilling operation without approval of that nation’s government.

From the France 24 news site:

“A Texas oil company that wants to extract what could amount to billions of barrels of oil from East Greenland’s Arctic basin has crossed a red line before even starting to drill.

“In a statement issued on July 30, Greenland’s mineral resources authority said it had become aware that Greenland Energy – a Texas oil company founded last year – had transferred drilling equipment ashore on a remote stretch of the island’s eastern coast.

“All future logistical matters must be advised and approved by the mineral resources authority – before they are carried out,” the government said.

“Greenland Energy has claimed that $1 trillion in crude oil may lie beneath the Jameson Land region. The firm thus announced plans to spend $60 million drilling two exploratory wells to find out.”

More evidence that the United States is led by a mob boss. This is an international crime (and of all things, this act could lead to a war within NATO because Greenland and Denmark are members, as is the United States.)

It’s not just Greenland. The Trump administration’s ambitions in Cuba follow this script as well.

Then consider what’s next. The Filibuster movement failed. From the official U.S. Department of State historian:

“Filibustering and official U.S. diplomacy were equally unsuccessful in acquiring permanent and significant territorial gains, and also tended to incite local antagonism against U.S. actions in the region.”

You think?

Share

Today’s Newsrime

The vaccination protocol was based on facts

except that’s not how this administration acts

‘bad things happen in too many cases’

Only there’s no evidence covering those bases

Subscribe now

This was not the weekend I expected. Lots of family and friends in town for the Shoshone-Bannock Festival. I was eager to visit, walk around, and enjoy a range of Indigenous foods. (I always smile when thinking about mutton stands this far north.)

Only a little bug had a different idea.

Two “bites?” on one ankle, and a third on my other ankle. By Saturday afternoon there were welts, swelling, itching, and pain. By Sunday my left ankle was covered with a large boil (and for once, I went to the doctor).

The culprit, most likely anyway, is a blister beetle. It looks very much like the stink bug we always joke about. But this beetle is no joke. They don’t bite or sting but release a toxin called cantharidin. I have no idea this happened. Oh, well, onward.

Minnesota to Alaska

Minnesota’s DFL primary is Tuesday, watching closely the Senate race between Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, White Earth Nation, and Rep. Angie Craig. This is a huge money race where the moderates — read: pro-Israeli government lobby and now the crypto world — spending lots of money. All told more than $70 million has been spent trying to win this one Senate race. Most of that money is not going to Flanagan.

Polls have shown Flanagan with a strong lead. But Cook Political Report is now saying, not so fast. There’s a not of “noise” in the race. (And fears because pollsters missed Michigan’s shift.)

Peggy’s messages, though, have been spot on. She’s talking about affordability issues in a practical way. Voters have a reason to make sure and cast their ballot for Flanagan.

Yesterday on CBS’ Face the Nation, Sen. Bernie Sanders weighed in:

“I think it’s going to be a tight race. I hope very much that Peggy wins. I think what we’re seeing in Minnesota, Margaret, in Michigan, and all across this country, is that people understand that we’re living with an economy that is rigged. You have working families, 60 percent of our people, living paycheck to paycheck. People can’t afford groceries, housing, healthcare, basic necessities of life.”

Much has been made about the split between progressives (including Democratic Socialists) and centrists. I think it’s nonsense. Labels don’t mean as much as the policy choices we must make in the months and years ahead. (Rebuilding a post Trump country.)

I think now is the time, for example, for a universal health care plan, such as Medicare for All. That’s definitely Peggy’s pitch. It’s time to make history in Minnesota.

I am planning on live posting Tuesday night after results start coming in.

Now, Alaska.

One of the reasons we have a progressive-centrist fight in the Democratic party — and to a lesser extent, a MAGA-traditional Republican fight — is that this country’s framework is built around two parties. (It’s not in the Constitution, mind you, just a practice.)

But Alaska voters figured this out with an initiative creating a top-four primary, followed by Ranked Choice Voting in order to reach a majority of 50-percent, plus one.

This makes so much sense. Because different ideological strains from progressives to MAGA still have a place on the November ballot. Voter decide by ranking candidates by preference (first choice, second choice, etc.)

Of course the forces of regression want to do away with Alaska’s voting system. Amendment 2 would repeal Ranked Choice Voting, the top 4 primary, and the strict limits on campaign spending.

Yup. There are folks who champion the broken election system that was (closed, party primary, followed by hold your nose and vote for the lesser of two evils).

From the Anchorage Daily News:

Tech billionaire Elon Musk has given $1.5 million to a group supporting the repeal of Alaska’s voting system, according to a report filed with the state Friday.

Ballot Measure 2, which will appear on the November ballot, seeks to repeal Alaska’s ranked choice voting method, along with open primaries and campaign finance laws that were themselves adopted by ballot measure in 2020.

Musk gave $1.5 million last month to the Aurora Action Network, a Wisconsin-based political action committee that has already collected contributions from numerous billionaire megadonors, including Dick Uihlein, Jeff Yass, Timothy Mellon and Hilcorp owner Jeffery Hildebrand. Aurora Action Network then gave the repeal campaign $1 million in late July.

Musk’s contribution, which make up a sizable share of the repeal campaign’s fundraising, could prove pivotal for the future of Alaska’s elections.

The ballot measure would revert Alaska to closed partisan primaries and pick-one general elections. It would also eliminate campaign finance laws that enable Alaska voters to know when big spenders like Musk give money to Alaska campaigns.

Alaskan Native voters, and its leaders, have benefited from the Alaska way of voting. It made possible Mary Peltola’s election to Congress four years ago and in this election there are Native candidates ready to sweep the board.

To wit:

Mary Peltola, Yu’pik, running for U.S. Senate.

Bill Hill, Dena’ina Athabascan, a candidate for U.S. House.

And, Meda Dewitt, Tlingit, is seeking the governor’s office.

Alaska’s primary is August 18th.

Back to Amendment 2.

Alaska is alone, at least at the state level, in implementing this innovative election method. And the last attempt at repeal failed by under a thousand votes.

The Alaska Native community is among the strongest supporters of Ranked Choice Voting.

First Alaskans Institute:

“Self-determination begins with having a vote by ensuring every voter can support the candidates they believe in and by providing transparency about the sources of election spending. These are important protections that strengthen trust in our democracy. Ballot Measure 2 would eliminate both, moving Alaska in the wrong direction,” said Roy Apagruk Agloinga, President and CEO of FAI.

“FAI joins a growing coalition of Alaska Native organizations, business leaders, and voters across the political spectrum in opposing Ballot Measure 2 ahead of the November election.”

Monday’s Newsrime

Imagine how historians will teach the Iran war:

A president who doesn’t know the score

He posts a warning blast, a threat for today

pretending those words have any sway

Subscribe now

Fort Hall evening from my front porch. I am wondering when I started wearing the bottom of my trousers rolled.

My late father taught me the best retirement lesson decades ago. When he first retired — he was then in his late 50s — he went right back to work, but with a twist. He operated heavy equipment and there was always someone interested in hiring him for a road, a ditch, or another project. When he’d get a call about a job, he’d ask, “does it pay Davis-Bacon?” If the answer was no, he’d decline.

Davis-Bacon is a 1931 law that requires “prevailing wages” on mostly federal works, a bump that was significantly higher than most hourly wages paid for construction.

That is the essence of retirement, semi-retirement, or what ever it’s called. You reach a point in life when you get to choose what to do with your time. (I guess that’s why I get up and write nearly every morning.)

There is no one retirement path. Some people choose a vacation, some help their children with babysitting and other duties, and many more older people still have a traditional job. In fact, that’s growing. The percentage of older workers (55 and up) has increased from 15 percent of the workforce to 23 percent over the last two decades.

My parents and grandparents didn’t think about work the same way I do because they had pensions, a paycheck forever. That’s mostly gone for my generation. I have one pension, and it’s certainly not enough income to pay bills. Like most in my generation, I have some savings and receive Social Security. I turn 69 years old next week.

Now let’s zoom out and think about policy. The greatest lie in public discourse is that there is a Social Security Trust Fund that’s running out of money. It’s a story told by government, the press, and it’s accepted as fact.

A story from the PBS News Hour fits that narrative:

“Americans’ Social Security benefits will have to be cut by roughly a quarter in six years due to depleted funds, according to a June 9 report from the Social Security Board of Trustees. That’s months sooner than the group had estimated in 2025.

“For years, the trustees and experts have been warning about Social Security’s unstable financial footing. An aging population, low birth rates and worsening income inequality have driven the program to pay out more in benefits than it takes in from taxes.

“The program has been paying out more in benefits, more than it takes in in revenues, and that creates the financing gap that can’t go on forever,” said Shai Akabas, vice president of economic policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center.”

So why is it a lie? The trust fund is an accounting gimmick. It basically is an IOU from one part of the government to another. And we are nearing the point (2034) when the fiction of a trust fund is being exposed because there’s not enough money coming in to even pretend that the government “buys” all of its trust fund bonds from our payroll taxes.

The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal think tank, describes the trust fund this way:

“Social Security is largely a “pay as you go” program, meaning today’s benefits are funded primarily by the payroll taxes collected from today’s workers. For over three decades, however, Social Security collected more in payroll taxes and other income than it paid in benefits and other expenses, and the Treasury invested the surplus in interest-bearing Treasury securities, ultimately reaching a total of $2.9 trillion in trust fund reserves. In 2021 Social Security began redeeming those reserves to help pay benefits. Payroll taxes from current workers will continue to pay for the bulk of benefits. The trust fund reserves will make up the difference between income and costs until the reserves are depleted. At that point, Social Security’s income will still be able to pay roughly 81 percent of promised benefits — even in the unlikely event that policymakers fail to act.”

The solution, then, is that we need re-engineer the system and be honest that it’s a “pay as you go” operation. Then the question shifts: What will it take to support the promises made from one generation to another?

Ah, but that’s the question where things get tricky. First: Social Security and Medicare (mostly health care for older people) are two programs that have a great history and work well. Social Security is the most successful anti-poverty program in the history of the federal government.

Again from the CBPP:

“Social Security reduces poverty dramatically among older adults in every state as well as Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico. Without Social Security, the poverty rate for those age 65 and over would meet or exceed 40 percent in nearly one-third of states; with Social Security, it is less than 10 percent in nearly two-thirds of states. Social Security lifts more than 1 million older adults above the poverty line in Florida, California, and Texas, and over half a million in New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Michigan, Illinois, and Georgia.”

Indian Country has unique challenges when it comes to both Social Security and Medicare (roughly 10 percent of the population is 65 years or older.) That’s a smaller percentage than the general population (partly because our population is so young and partly because our death rates are higher). Yet there is a lot we don’t know because so many surveys about Social Security lump American Indians and Alaska Natives into the “other” category. That includes the anti-poverty material researched by the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities. We need better funded research. Period.

What makes the idea of a trust fund work is that it put spending on automatic pilot. If you turn 65, Medicare is there for you. Same for Social Security, when you hit the right age, the money is there. The lie makes it work.

But most of our social safety net programs — including those that largely serve Native Americans — are based on appropriations (except Medicaid. That’s automatic, too, because it forces states to pick up part of the cost). Every year there’s a fight over the money. So programs for younger people, get smaller, while so-called Trust Funds continue to grow as the population ages.

How do we get out of this fiction? That’s a problem. Young people have a right to be mad that they are paying more in federal taxes and getting less in services. Older people argue that we have paid all our lives, and so now it’s our turn. (And we vote. And there more of us.)

I do think there is a way out of this imbalance. (But it’s really hard to do when the political discourse is so harsh in the Trump era.) We need more taxes, spread out across all higher income groups. Most people in this country now pay more in payroll taxes than we do in income taxes. The payroll taxes pay for Social Security, Medicare (and Medicaid). And yet this is the part of the tax code that is based on the types of jobs that are shrinking, not growing (those wage-based jobs.) And it’s a flat tax that’s capped at $168,000. Lifting that cap and changing the definition of work will do a lot to bolster the pay as you go approach to Social Security and Medicare.

The bigger problem is structural. There are more older people (and our numbers continue to grow higher) than ever and fewer workers. We need to rethink the system — both spending and taxes — that is based on that demographic shift.

The fastest way to do this — and it should be the demand in this election and the next — is to finally enact universal healthcare. We have waited too long while other countries have moved forward.

The U.S. already spends more on health care than any other country in the world. Yet we don’t get the same level of service as found in other industrial nations.

A study by the medical journal, The Lancet, a few years ago figured that universal health care would result in 13 percent less federal spending.

“The entire system could be funded with less financial outlay than is currently incurred by employers and households through healthcare premiums, as well as existing government allocations. This shift to single-payer healthcare would provide the greatest relief to lower-income households. Furthermore, we estimate that ensuring healthcare access for all Americans would save over 68,000 lives and 1.73 million life-years every year.”

If you look around the world, there are only two ways to structure universal health care. You can nationalize medicine, along the lines of the United Kingdom, or you can nationalize insurance (the most common setup). One variation of the insurance side solution is Medicare for All. This is an idea that should be in the cards because it gets to that problem of sharing federal benefits across all age groups.

Meanwhile in Congress, there are renewed fights about Social Security. Democrats, the bravest of all, are asking for a committee to look into this problem. And Republicans are hoping to recast Social Security as a scam, a Ponzi scheme. (This is why that fiction of a “trust fund” matters, because it makes it easy to dismiss as a scheme instead of a program that should be funded by taxes.)

Wisconsin’s Senator Ron Johnson said as much yesterday: “We extracted money from taxpayers, we spent the money, it’s gone. It got paid out to earlier investors, because it wasn’t set up as an investment fund. You’ll not solve this problem if you’re not willing to recognize how grossly mismanaged Social Security was for decades.”

The Democrats should propose something. Go forward. And to the Republicans, it’s never been a Ponzi scheme. It’s always been pay as you go, so that means “yes” to those taxes that you so hate.

Subscribe now

Weekend Newsrime

Trump keeps the Supreme Court at bay

‘Very unfair decision’ will end a ‘different way’

So birthright citizenship has a new hedge

White House ignores the Constitutional pledge

Share

Senate Democrats are asking every Trump nominee a question about the 2020 election, “who won?” The point is to get on the record willful ignorance.

It should be the same for the climate. Every nominee should be asked about how they view global warming and what is their proposed policy response.

Of course there won’t be answers. Like the election question, there’s no satisfactory response that will serve President Trump’s commandment (the climate “hoax” or “scam”) yet the conditions that we see every day continue to deteriorate.

News stories about the fires in the Pacific Northwest are consistent, citing the long drought and the changing climate.

Grist is a good example:

“(Betsy) Robertson, a communications director for the Red Cross, is from Washington, and has been with the organization for 10 years. She has seen communities devastated by wildfires before. But never like this.

“The scale of homes destroyed and lives changed forever – this is a new level,” she said. “We are bracing ourselves for seasons like this getting worse and worse, and starting earlier and going later.”

Then, on the other hand, the Interior Department’s US Wildland Fire Service has a different take about this season’s fire challenges. No mention of climate change. In February the Secretary of the Interior said at a conference that climate change is “unsettled science.”

“It was based on the idea that somehow the existential threat to the world was a degree of [temperature] change in the year 2100,” Burgum said. “People say, ‘Oh, it’s settled science. We can’t have a discussion about whether these forecasts may or may not be accurate, or there may or may not be cause and effect.’”

Of course the science — and nearly every climate scientist disagrees.

A peer-reviewed study posted today by World Weather Attribution looked at the fires this summer in Canada (but the results would be similar for the Pacific Northwests and the tragedy on tribal lands and Spokane.) The headline: “Climate change means extreme fire seasons in Canada are here to stay”

The study found:

Indigenous communities and wildland firefighters face heightened physical and mental health impacts from wildfires. Indigenous communities are overrepresented in wildfire areas, while remote locations and limited transportation routes have made evacuations more difficult. Successive wildfires have made long-term recovery between disasters more difficult. Beyond physical impacts, repeated evacuations and displacement can disrupt access to hunting grounds, traditional foods and cultural practices.

And …

Sustaining an effective response through the remainder of the fire season will require continued interagency coordination, flexible deployment of personnel and equipment across jurisdictions, and sufficient surge capacity to respond to new large fires without compromising ongoing operations. Adaptation to increasing wildfire risk requires an integrated risk management approach and can include incorporating future fire risk into timber harvest allocations, improving forest resilience after fires occur by diversifying with less flammable tree species, as well as strengthening early warning systems and implementing multi-risk zoning for land use and development planning that can have multiple benefits. Integrating First Nation’s knowledge and experience strengthens risk assessment, preparedness and response.

Of course this is impossible when the agencies involved maintain there is no climate change. So planning for what does not exist is impossible. This is backwards. It costs far more to rebuild than to plan ahead.

Subscribe now

Paul Natonabah’s legacy

Paul Natonabah was a visual storyteller and all-around good human. Many nights at the Navajo Times (when it was a daily) Paul would be in the production room, probably past deadline, fixing one of the waxed headlines because it was a bit crooked. Or he would swap photos because there was one just a little bit better. Craft.

A favorite story about Paul: A B-52 bomber had crashed near Kayenta and we headed up from Window Rock in the early hours of the morning. Twoish, threeish, something like that when we arrived. Outside of town, we hit a road block. And just in front of us was a TV news crew from Phoenix. I remember thinking, “damn, how’d they get here so fast?”

When it was our turn at the road block, a Navajo police officer asked the driver Paul in Navajo, where was he going?

Paul didn’t say a word. A beat. Two. Then just before the officer asked again, Paul pointed “that way.”

The road block came down — and we passed. It was the only answer that would have worked. (I recalled Paul pointing with his lips, but he later told me he just pointed.)

We then hiked to the site of the crash and reported what we saw.

I wrote this a few years later:

It was an adventure. And one of the key decisions I made was I told Natonabah to shoot pictures as fast as he could and then give me the film. I then rolled up the film in my jacket hood, out of view. After we were there a bit, FBI agents showed up. Their first order of business was to let us know this was a military scene and that Natonabah’s camera would have to be confiscated temporarily.

But I had the film. The next day the photograph was on the front page of the Arizona Republic and in newspapers around the world via both the Associated Press and United Press International. Every image was credited to Natonabah and the Navajo Times. On that day, the Navajo Times Today was the best newspaper in the country.

And Paul had the byline.

—30—

Today’s Newsrime

COVID conspiracy is old and fresh

as Republicans seek a pound of flesh

Asking (again) that Dr. Fauci go to jail

while they campaign on a fanciful tale

Subscribe now

How do Democrats see themselves in the days ahead? It’s a question that’s been asked, and answered, several times during this primary season. Only the answers are different every time.

Rep. Sharice Davids, Ho Chunk, easily won her primary in Kansas by a margin that blew away expectations (86 percent, last count). Her primary opponent, Sarah Preu, ran as a progressive, saying that Davids was now too centrist and too pro-Israel. Voters did not agree.

Meanwhile in Michigan, the progressive candidate, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, won the Senate primary over Representative Haley Stevens, the centrist in that race. This is another story that shows that the future of the Democratic Party remains up for grabs for lots of reasons.

Yet in primaries for that state’s house seats both progressives and centrists won.

From ICT:

Sean McCann, Citizen Potawatomi Nation, won in the Democratic primary for Michigan’s Fourth Congressional District. McCann faced another Potawatomi, Diop Harris of the Nottawaseppi Huron Band of Potawatomi.

The Associated Press called the race with 34 percent of votes tallied. McCann earned 63.6 percent of the votes tallied, with Harris garnering 36.4 percent.

McCann is a Michigan state senator and represents the establishment. Yet in another district, Sunrise Movement co-founder Will Lawrence won the nomination in a hotly contested district.

From NBC News:

Lawrence won support from an array of prominent progressives and outside groups, and a mysterious super PAC spent more than $1 million in the race’s final weeks to boost him and tear Maasdam down. The spending raised concerns among some Democrats that Republicans might be boosting Lawrence because they think he’ll be easier to beat in the general election.

So much of this election debate is structural. Voters in different states will reach different conclusions. (That old Will Rogers’ line still holds true: “I am not a member of any organized political party. I am a Democrat.”)

But are the progressives, Democratic Socialists, a different party? Are they Democrats?

Of course. They have to be. Even though the Constitution did not create political parties, the system is designed for only two parties (except for Alaska) to be competitive.

But that structure continues to break apart. Just yesterday another party nominee, Julian Beaudion, dropped his bid in South Dakota for the U.S. Senate and cleared the board for independent Brian Bengs to take on GOP Sen. Mike Rounds this fall. Having an “I” on the ballot seems like an easier sell in conservative states than posting that “D.”

The divisions in the Democratic Party — and the work that can be done in a future governing coalition — are not unique to this time or even a political party. The Republicans went through this after the Tea Party movement (until Trump redefined that party.) And even Indian Country has the same divisions, even if we don’t talk about it.

Between now and Labor Day there will be more primary wins for both the establishment and the progressives. What does that tell us? That after November, the challenge is to focus on what can be done, not on the labels that carry any candidate onto a ballot. That’s a dream of the possible.

Other election night winners this primary, reported by ICT.

Subscribe now

The Department of Injustice

Are there enough Republicans to tank Todd Blanche’s nomination for Attorney General? It might be. Maine Sen. Susan Collins said she will vote no and Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski is on the fence. (Look for those special deals headed for Alaska.) Two other senators, Utah’s John Curtis and Louisiana’s Bill Cassidy are publicly uncommitted.

Blanche can only lose two unless Mitch McConnell is suddenly is brought back to Senate life.

A “yes” vote for Blanche affirms the corruption of the mob president because it will codify Trump’s raid on the Treasury with a blanket tax pardon.

From The New York Times:

Donald J. Trump paid $750 in federal income taxes the year he won the presidency. In his first year in the White House, he paid another $750.

He had paid no income taxes at all in 10 of the previous 15 years — largely because he reported losing much more money than he made.

As the president wages a re-election campaign that polls say he is in danger of losing, his finances are under stress, beset by losses and hundreds of millions of dollars in debt coming due that he has personally guaranteed. Also hanging over him is a decade-long audit battle with the Internal Revenue Service over the legitimacy of a $72.9 million tax refund that he claimed, and received, after declaring huge losses. An adverse ruling could cost him more than $100 million.

And that “settlement” includes his family. Such a deal.

There is a also a new political question for Blanche: Can the federal government ban abortion rights nationwide?

The Hill (and others are reporting) about a private call to anti-abortion groups.

“On a private call last week hosted by the White House Faith Office, Blanche told the religious group Intercessors for America that moves to undo the Biden administration’s efforts to protect abortion are “taking longer than we want.”

“But Blanche assured them that the Justice Department (DOJ) is “working hand-in-hand” with federal health agencies, the White House and President Trump’s team “to get permanent solutions so the Dobbs decision becomes permanent in every single state.”

Subscribe now

Today’s Newsrime

Here’s the summer break we need:

Dog surfing showcases best of breed

Hop on the board and be quick

Catch the wave and do your trick!

Share