BLUSTER BOMBS: Announcing further strikes on Iranian targets near the Strait of Hormuz, President Trump on his Truth Social threatened: “If the failed Nation of Iran retaliates for this very justified attack, they will be hit again at a much harder and higher level, but it will not be the biggest attack of them all, that is waiting in the wings and, when it is over, there will be very little left of the Islamic Republic of Iran!”

He’s made big threats before, declared victory before, and Iran is still in business, still in the fight.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps said in statements that it had responded to US strikes launching missiles against an American military base in Jordan and military equipment warehouses in Iraq.

Iran said the US strikes had it a wedding, killing four people and wounding 53.

The spokesman for Iran’s foreign ministry said on social media that, “Iran will respond to these savage crimes with firmness.”

US Central Command said it had struck Iranian air defense sites, radar systems, maritime assets and facilities, mine laying capabilities and communications sites.

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RESIGNED TO IT: After clashing with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth over the firings of senior military leaders in line for promotion, Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll, the service’s top civilian leader, resigned yesterday.

The NY Times has described the military as “rudderless” in the midst of war with Iran because of Hegseth’s elimination of senior combat-experienced leaders. The Army, for instance, has not had a chief of staff since April when Gen. Randy George was fired.

Driscoll met personally with President Trump to hand in his resignation and discuss the military situation. Trump is described as having been surprised when Driscoll told him about the situation in the Pentagon.

BAD RAP: Thirty years after rap star Tupac Shakur was gunned down in Las Vegas, former Los Angeles gangster Duane Davis, 63, was convicted of murder by his own words. It took the jury only about three hours to find Davis guilty of first-degree murder.

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WASHED AWAY: Unable to identify many of the remains, Nepal has begun mass burials of the dead from last week’s flood. There is little hope of finding all the bodies in the flood rubble and some of the remains cannot be identified. The number of those written off as dead is likely to rise.

Nepal now says 900 people are dead and 4700 missing. Hundreds of workers are believed to be trapped inside Nepal’s hydropower tunnels.

China says that on its side of the Nepal-Tibet border at least 261 foreign citizens from 23 countries are among the hundreds missing in Tibet.

The foreigners missing in Tibet include 104 Nepalis, 49 Indians, 33 Latvians, 18 Americans, and 15 British citizens, according to Xinhua, China’s state news agency.

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BLACK GOLD: The Trump administration reached a deal to take control of 65 billion barrels of Venezuelan oil reserves, almost as much as all the proven reserves in the US, the world’s biggest oil producer.

President Trump crowed on his social media that it is “THE BIGGEST OIL DEAL IN WORLD HISTORY!” He claimed this will happen at no cost to American taxpayers and it “will substantially lower Gas Prices for all Americans, long into the future, while helping to continue to set Venezuela on a course toward Tremendous Success and Great Prosperity.”

Venezuela’s president, Delcy Rodríguez, said in a statement that the deal involved the development of 17 oil fields, more than $100 billion in investments, and projected taxes of $209 billion for Venezuela’s strapped government.

While this may benefit Venezuela in the long run, it appears that Trump has made the country into a vassal state since the military capture of the dictator Nicolás Maduro in January. Trump has been open about his desire to take oil from Venezuela. There’s a belief among many American officials that Venezuelan oil was stolen from US companies when the industry was nationalized.

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AFTER THE FLOOD: Several hundred people are dead and as many as 1400 missing after that massive flash flood that swept through rivers bordering China and Tibet.

In Nepal, about 900 people including 500 foreign visitors … Americans among them … are unaccounted for. The region is a popular destination for trekkers, religious pilgrims, and other tourists because of high-altitude beauty.

In China, state media reports that at least 558 people are missing in Tibet’s Gyirong County, including 260 foreigners.

The flood was triggered by a collapsing glacier and resulting landslide. The wave appeared to be 50 or 60 feet high as it hit some buildings

Survivors have described a wave of mud, boulders, and debris sweeping away homes, whole villages, and families. Geologists have observed that the flood created a lake that could continue to fill until it bursts its unstable banks, triggering another flood.

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TRADE WAR !!!: Canada announced retaliatory tariffs as high as 50 percent on hundreds of American products, following the collapse of trade talks that triggered punishing tariffs levied by the Trump administration.

Canada says it will collect tariffs of 50, 25, and 15 percent on about 700 American products beginning September 8^th, including a doubling of tariffs on American steel and aluminum to 50 percent. The goods on Canada’s tariff list range from kitchen rolls of aluminum foil to locomotive engines and steel bridges, much of them mirroring the exports and their $20 billion value being tariffed by Trump.

In an online snit Trump declared that, “Canada has been ‘Ripping Off’ the U.S.A. for decades.” He also wrote that, “I deal with many countries, and Canada is easily the most difficult and unreasonable.” Not Russia, China, Israel, or North Korea … but Canada. Trump posted about “my very good relationship with Kim Jong Un, of North Korea,” who we point out is building missiles capable of reaching California.

Continuing his America First tirade, Trump also said, “The United States is giving serious consideration to changing the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America in that we don’t expect to doing much business with Ontario any longer.”

It’s not the “United States” considering that, it’s Trump.

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MAILING IT IN: The Supreme Court’s conservative majority voted to allow the administration to proceed with plans to enforce President Trump’s executive order restricting mail-in voting as the country moves toward the mid-term elections and a lawsuit to block the order wends its way through lower courts.

The court majority found that the Trump administration was “likely to suffer irreparable harm” unless the justices lifted a freeze that had been imposed by lower courts. They said that the states suing to block implementation of Trump’s order could not demonstrate that they’ve been harmed by rules that have yet to take effect.

Complicating matters, Trump’s order says the US Postal Service must help decide which voters would be eligible to vote by mail, but there’s also a separate lower court injunction that prevents the postal service from implementing that. The Postal Service said yesterday that it would “not take actions to implement the rule specifically for the 2026 election” unless the Supreme Court ruled in the administration’s favor.

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WRITTEN IN PENCIL: Trade talks between Canada and the US broke down over the weekend triggering stiff new tariffs on Canadian goods, causing Prime Minister Mark Carney to say Canada is “at war” with the United States and that his country will retaliate “dollar for dollar.”

Carney said he suspended talks because the American negotiators introduced last-minute terms that were “unfair, uneconomic and called into question the reliability of any deal.” He followed that with a speech saying, “We’ve recognized from the start that America has changed. We recognize that sometimes, its signature is written in pencil.”

The collapse came Friday only hours after President Trump claimed a deal was close. Then yesterday he posted on his social media that, “Canada wants the benefits of being a State, without being one!!!”

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THE WAR ROOM: Unable to bring Iran to its knees with bombing and threats of further bombing to send it back to the Stone Age, President Trump now says he will impose nuclear economic sanctions on the country he can’t defeat.

The President posted on his Truth Social that: “Therefore, today, I am announcing the MOST CRUSHING ECONOMIC OPERATION EVER TAKEN AGAINST ANY COUNTRY! This will be Economic Warfare and Isolation on an unprecedented scale.”

Of course, this being Trump, it will be economic warfare like nobody’s ever seen before. He went on to threaten any country that helps or gives Iran an economic lifeline. Trump bragged; “This will be an ECONOMIC D-DAY, and we need all of our Allies to stand with the United States of America to isolate, and defeat, the Iran threat. These maniacs are on the ropes, and these HISTORIC MEASURES will cripple them and their ability to project terror worldwide. IRAN WILL NEVER HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON.”

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PROGRESSIVE PROGRESS: Notch more wins for the Democratic Socialists and progressives. The Democrats may be having their Tea Party moment similar to when a Republican breakaway movement took their party to the far right.

In the contest for Senate, Florida State Representative Angie Nixon, an outspoken Democratic socialist whose campaign couldn’t afford television commercials, defeated the moderate Alex Vindman whose campaign had 16 times as much money. Nixon raised only $975,000.

Nixon’s run in the fall will be a big test of Florida’s happiness with Donald Trump and the Republican party. The state has gone even more Republican in the Trump years.

In Alaska’s open primary for the Senate, former state representative Mary Peltola advanced to the general election winning more votes than incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan. That’s one of a handful of races that could flip control of the Senate to Democrats.

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August 18, 2026
Vol. 15, No. 2354

THE WAR ROOM: The so-called truce with Iran in which the gunfire never stopped expired yesterday, leaving President Trump with a war he’s claimed to have won without being able to end it.

Trump is fighting for control of the Strait of Hormuz, the channel for 20 percent of the world’s oil, while trying to restore the Middle…

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DICTATOR FIRENDLY: President Trump announced on his Truth Social that he ordered the Pentagon to scale back military exercises with South Korea because they are expensive and send a message to North Korea “that is totally inappropriate and hostile, to a Country that, as long as Donald J. Trump has been President, has been unthreatening and respectful.”

It was too late to totally cancel the exercises that started today. Trump said his order is “Based on my very good relationship with Kim Jong Un, of North Korea” but also that South Korea refused to help with his war against Iran.

North Korea has not been complacent under Trump. They have expanded their nuclear arsenal and threatened to use it against South ​Korea, calling it ​a “most ​hostile enemy.”

TALK, TALK: Presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner met with representatives of Hamas in Egypt yesterday in hopes of forging ahead with President Trump’s plans for peace in Gaza.

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August 15, 2026
Vol. 15, No. 2352

GUILTY AS CHARGED: Twenty-eight-year-old Luigi Mangione pleaded guilty yesterday to federal charges of interstate stalking resulting in the death of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, who Mangione admitted shooting with a gun he made on a 3-D printer.

“I shot Mr. Thompson in Manhattan,” Mangione told the judge in his al…

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AT SEA: Some members of Congress say they are increasingly concerned about the crew of the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln as it approaches nine months on deployment following a report that a member of the crew jumped overboard. The crewman was rescued after about an hour.

There’s growing concern about the mental health of the crew and reports of multiple crew members attempting to jump. The ship has had no port calls, no opportunities for the crew of 5,000 to get off. Sailors have said food is in low supply and terrible.

In a letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut wrote that, “There have been widespread reports of shortages of basic supplies, water contamination, plumbing issues, deteriorating mental health, deck safety concerns and disruptions in the mail system, which have caused many care packages in route to the ship to be lost in transit for months.”

Democratic Rep. Mike Levin of California posted on social media that the Lincoln had “[m]oldy showers, broken toilets, no hot water for weeks, meals that came down to half a cup of rice and two tortillas,” and that the ship’s store is “out of soap, deodorant, and toothpaste.”

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CAREER PLANNING: The pundit class is scrutinizing the announcement by New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez that she’s going to have her eggs frozen and that she has broken up with her long-term boyfriend Riley Roberts.

This comes amidst increasing speculation that Ocasio-Cortez, commonly referred to as “AOC,” is angling to run for president in 2028. She is one of the lightning rods of the progressive movement.

The decision to be open about her personal life is taken as an indicator that she’s preparing for the microscopic examination that comes with running for or being president.

The 36-year-old AOC in recent days has also distanced herself from the “woke” language movement that was successfully weaponized against liberals by President Trump and his MAGA crusade. Moving to the middle is another sign of aspirations.

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IT’S POLITICAL: Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan won the Democratic primary race for Senate, another win for a progressive defeating a centrist congresswoman in the latest victory for the party’s left wing.

But in Wisconsin the progressive Francesca Hong lost to the more moderate David Crowley to win the Democratic nomination for governor.

On the Republican side, Minnesota House Speaker Lisa Demuth beat MyPillow founder and Trump loyalist Mike Lindell to win the state’s Republican primary for governor.

Lindsey Graham’s sister, Darline Graham, who is finishing out her late brother’s term as senator from South Carolina with no prior experience in politics, qualified yesterday for the runoff to win the Republican party’s nomination.

Amy Klobuchar, the powerful four-term senator, won Tuesday’s Democratic primary race for governor of Minnesota to succeed Tim Walz, whose hopes were crippled by a giant welfare fraud scandal.

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August 11, 2026
Vol. 15, No. 2348

DR. TRUMP PRESCRIBES: President Trump yesterday signed an executive order calling for American children to be immunized against fewer diseases with a longer schedule of shots.

He offered no medical evidence to suggest the change.

The order recommends immunizing children against 11 diseases, rather than the 17 currently reco…

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CRAZY IS AS CRAZY DOES: Nothing seems urgent this morning so we are going to mostly take the morning off.

But we thought we would share that the President of the United States, who presides over a war he started and can’t end, is still hawking his story that the failure of the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool renovation is the result of vandalism, not shoddy work by a company that didn’t know what it was doing in a rush to meet a July 4^th deadline, as determined by the Justice Department.

Charges of vandalism against a handful of people arrested just for being curious about floating pieces of blue bottom coating have been dropped.

There is no failure or responsibility in the world of Donald Trump, only blame and escape. Ove the weekend President Donald J. Trump posted the following:

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STOP THE DANCE: A federal appeals panel in a scolding opinion yesterday voted two to one to stop construction on President Trump’s White House ballroom.

The court said in its decision that, “Each president is a temporary tenant, not the owner, of the White House and its executive residence.”

In a further putdown to the president, they also said, “We are aware of no instance in American history in which a president unilaterally and using privately collected funds demolished substantial portions of the white house that congress authorized to be built and American taxpayers paid

For. Until now.”

Trump published a screed on his social media calling the project a desperately needed military center … not a ballroom. As the ballroom project has come under attack, Trump has tried to sell it as a necessity of national security with a bunker complex underneath and a military drone port on the roof. He doesn’t talk about dancing and dining with world leaders.

Trump yesterday posted an illustration of his drone port with the message, “This great and very important military asset sits atop the heavily protected Ballroom at the White House. It provides National Security for Washington, D.C., and will protect future Presidents!!!”

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IT’S POLITICAL: Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski announced she will vote against confirming Todd Blanche to the position of attorney general.

While Blanche serves as acting attorney general, Murkowski said in a social media post that, “The politicization—even weaponization—of the Department did not start with this administration but has accelerated during it.”

Murkowski joins Maine Republican Susan Collins saying she will vote down the Blanche nomination. In the absence of Mitch McConnell, the deciding vote is left to Bill Cassidy of Louisiana.

Murkowski said, “The country needs an Attorney General who will check the worst impulses of this administration.”

CONTEMPT: In a strictly partisan vote the Senate Homeland Security Committee found former NIH director Dr. Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress for pleading the 5thAmendment to their questions last week.

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