Monday 17 August 2026

BOOKS YOU NEED TO READ

Unger, Craig (2024) Den of Spies: Reagan, Carter, and the Secret History of the Treason That Stole the White House. Boston and New York: Mariner Books.

Reagan “had No authority. To negotiate with Iran before he took the oath of office. And Iran would not have released the hostages without some communication with Team Reagan. But they did release the hostages. And yet, despite the self-evident nature of that anomaly Americans still responded, like an audience of young children who had been bewitched and bewildered by a magician’s sleight of hand and reflexively rejected. That took place in full view of the general public, in plain sight.”

ART: GAUGUIN

During the four years Paul Gauguin and his mother lived in Peru everything was big and beautiful. Everything about the city was dramatic. He slept with a little Negress and his sister. Just before they left Lima, he tried to rape one of his cousins, at the ripe old age of seven. Years later, he bragged about it to Mette.

NEWS NOTES:

ISRAEL

ARTICLE: Sharir Aug, Moran (8/15/26) “Naama Lazimi is the superstar of the Israeli left, and she wants power.” Haaretz.

LIFE AND NEWS NOTES

· Naama Lazimi is identified by Haaretz as the “No. 1 female target of the right’s poison machine.”

· Member of the Democrats party. Some in the Democrats party advocate extending a hand to the Arab parties.

· The Right win has branded her as a radical and an anarchist.

· Lazimi says, “Decades of Netanyahu have wreaked havoc on Israeli society.” He “went to hide in a bunker on the day of our worst national disaster and who looks out only for himself…” “The younger generation on the left doesn’t know what it’s like to be in power.”

· Lazimi: “The Zionism they’ve brought here is a Distorted Zionism. Zionism… means equal rights for everyone who lives in the country. As far as I’m concerned, the mistreatment of Arab society, not only Bedouin society, is something that runs counter to Zionism.”

· Civil servants deny that there is data “regarding (Haredi) educational institutions that don’t teach the core curriculum.” She says.

· She describes the final week of the Knesset as a week of plunder and disgrace. “members of the Finance Committee are asked to approve changes to the budget: Dozens and even hundreds of millions of shekels for purposes such as an additional allocation for the prime minister’s residence. An additional funding for security for Netanyahu’s family. Additional funding for the prime minister’s plane wing of Zion. Additional funding for Ron Dermer’s ministry, even though the ministry was shut down long ago.” (quote from article)

· She has called Likud a “criminal organization.”

· “Netanyahu has already decided that he’s a dictator, and he behaves according to the codes of a dictator…..He is the state, and the state is Netanyahu. That’s the worldview.”

NAMES

ARTICLE: “Eight ministers, lawmakers wanted to leave Netsnuahu’s Likud for Otzma Yehudit, Ben-Gvir reveals. The Jerusalem Post.

Names and Parties:

· Itamar Ben-Gvir, National Security Minister

· Otzma Yehudit, political party

· Likud, political party of Netanyahu

· Benzalel Smotrich, politician of Religious Zionist Party.

SETTLER VIOLENCE

ARTICLE: Krauss, Joseph (8/15/26) “There’s a reason why Israel has done little to rein in settler violence. It’s not just Netanyahu. AP News

· The Israeli military is refusing to remove settlers threatening Palestinians in their homes in the West Bank. This time, one of the homeowners is a Palestinian American living in Ohio.

· U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee referred to the settlers as “terrorists.”

· AP News referred to them as “the tip of the spear” of a movement” supported by successive Israeli governments and “supercharged” by Netanyahu aimed at “cementing Israeli rule over the territory and preventing the establishment of a Palestinian state.”

· The Israeli government has built 150 settlements and some over 500,000 Jewish settlers live in the West Bank which was captured in the 1967 Mideast war.

· Netanyahu has boasted of establishing over 100 new settlements.

· Most of the international community views the settlements as illegal and an obstacle to peace.

· “The roughly 3,000,000 Palestinians in the West Bank live under Israeli military rule, with the Palestinian Authority exercising limited autonomy in population centers. Israel’s military operates in all parts of the territory, and Palestinians suspected of militancy can be held without charge for months or years under. It’s known as administrative detention.”

· Israel’s Defense Minister, Israel Katz, said in 2024 that Israelis would no longer be subject to Administrative detention and recently announced that he would be transferring law enforcement among settlers to the Israeli police. The military’s role, he said, was to fight “Palestinian terrorism,” not “chase after boys on the hills.”

· “That would cement the status quo of what are already largely separate legal systems For Jews and Palestinians in the West Bank, which major human rights groups say amounts to apartheid. Something Israel denies.”

· “The Israeli police. Are overseen by National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir. Himself a hard line settler who has been convicted 8 times for offenses that include supporting a terrorist organization. He was a defense attorney for Jewish extremists before entering politics.”

· “Settler violence intensified after…Oct 7, 2023..The following year, the Biden administration imposed sanctions on settlers and Israeli organizations accused of violence.” Western nations have announced sanctions against Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, accusing them of “inciting extremist violence” toward Palestinians.

· Trump rescinded the U.S. sanctions at the start of his second term. He also appointed Huckabee as ambassador. Huckabee is a “staunch supporter of Israeli settlements.”

· Netanyahu needs the support of Ben Gvir and Smotrich in the coming elections. Netanyahu’s main opponent, Gadi Eisenkot is against plans to annex the West Bank. Another leading rival of Netanyahu, Naftali Bennett, had condemned the violence saying “it amounts to terrorism by a minority.” But when he was in office his administration approved thousands of additional settler homes.

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LIFE NOTES

Short Change is helping me work this morning. Mike’s brother came over and several of the cats migrated upstairs to get out of the way of the strange person who had arrived. Short Change seized the bed and leaned up against me.

I love working with a cat beside me and since Hiram Bernard died, I have felt very lonely and deprived. It is a treat to have a cat editor up here lending support, warmth, and affection.

Short Change even let me clean out his ears (he has lots of wax) and cut a few of his nails. He is now stretched out on Mike’s side of the bed. What a sweetie he is.

Short Change, in case you wondered, is named after a lyric in a Tom Waits song – “Short Change got rained on with his own .38.”

He is one of four kittens we adopted some seven years ago. His mother brought them to us as soon as they were old enough to eat solid food and beautiful as they were, we could not find homes for them. We did everything – we advertised on Facebook and Craig’s list, we put up leaflets, we even left leaflets in bars and restaurants. But the “no Kill Shelter” in town had over 60 kittens up for adoption at the same time and we had tough competition.

So, we kept them all, which left us with their mother, Myra, their faither, Errol Flynn, their uncle Jake da Mouth and the four kittens – Short Change, Nicki D., Alva Edison, and Cool Mustard.

It’s interesting, though, having an entire family of cats. Cats don’t usually get to grow up with their entire nuclear family. They play together, sleep together in one big pile, and still obey their mother. One of them (usually Nicki D.) almost always is sleeping with her. It’s still a family.

Have a good day, or as good as you can with Trump in office.

Christina

Sunday 16 August 2026

MORNING SUMMER SHORTS

· On Sunday, Ukraine launched hundreds of drones across Russia. It was one of the largest aerial attacks of the war (AP News).

· A Spanish fighter jet shot down a drone that had entered Romanian airspace (AP News)

· The Wall Street Journal blames the problems of low morale in the U.S. Navy on the Democrats (note: Of course). (Wall Street Journal)

· “Gulf leaders worry the president is unable to manage the diplomacy necessary to secure peace with Iran…(The Washington Post)

· Putin threatens to retaliate if the West targets its “shadow fleet” (AP News)

· A large-scale Ukrainian attack struck industrial infrastructure in Russia’s southwestern Samara region (AP News, see map)

· “Ukraine’s military command said its forces liberated 26 settlements in a push around. Oleksandrvka in southeastern Ukraine, in an operation that ran for more than six months. The Institute for the Study of War Analysts framed the operation as evidence Ukraine can still mount coordinated, mechanized counterattacks after more than four years of largely static fighting.” (EruoNews)

NEWS NOTES

UKRAINE: MILITARY SHUFFLE

ARTICLE: d’Istria, Thomas (8/15/26) “Zelensky regains control after a month of political crisis.” Le Monde

· Protests of Zelensky’s firing of Federov are losing momentum, but Zelensky’s move to replace him is still seen as a serious political mistake.

· Zelensky dismissed the young defense minister, 35-year-0ld Mykhailo Fedorov on July 15. “Appointed only six months earlier, Fedorov had already been credited with notable successes in Ukraine’s drone warfare and with reforming a ministry long seen as disorganized and plagued by corruption.

· Protestors filled the streets changing “Federov. Federov. Federov. “A month later. The authorities seem to have brought the crisis under control. Zelensky notably managed to ease tension by firing Oleksandr Syrsky, The former commander in chief of the armed forces and replacing him…. Fedorov, meanwhile, remains without a post.”

· “The first challenge? was to explain why he had decided to dismiss a minister who was just beginning to prove himself. The stated reason of mounting tensions between Federov and Syrsky convinced few.”

· “Sources interviewed pointed instead to a combination of factors.” (1) The reforms implemented by Federov for arms procurement upset some defense industry leaders and generals. Tensions also arose with military command over control of resources. This created an “influential coalition of Federov’s adversaries in President Zelensky’s inner circle,” said political scientist Volodymyr Frsenko. (2) FEderov’s growing media profile, clashed with a political system tightly centered around the president.

· Federov was outraged by his removal and held a press conference that “resembled a mutiny” according to Le Monde. He gave his first interview with a periodical which has strained relationships with Zelensky, Ukrainska Pravda.

· Le Monde calls it all a “crisis of his own making.”

· (Note: Verkhovna Rada is Ukraine’s Parliament).

· “Fedorov’s popularity has risen sharply since the start of the crisis, while Zelinsky’s has dropped, according to several polls conducted in recent weeks.” Minimum. Minimum.

ARTICLE: Chemin, Ariane (7/22/26) “Zelensky forced to dismiss Oleksandr Syrsky, Ukraine’s armed forces chief. (Le Monde)

· Instead of “Federov” being repeatedly chanted by protesters in Ukraine, in July 2026 signs all over Ukraine were saying “Syrsky resign,” “Had enough of the old guard,” “Syrsky you’re the devil, “Syrsky out.”

· Zeleneky triggered the political crisis himself by unexpectedly appointing a new prime minister, Serji Lpretslu in mid-July.

· Fedorov was appointed six months earlier to modernize the military. Normally discreet, Fedorov took to the political arena “testing his popularity and firming up his ambitions.”

· Drapaty, the new commander in chief was born in Ukraine and “in some ways represents a synthesis of the two visions of the army…he favors more modern military command methods yet also commands respect among the more traditional senior officers. A

ARTICLE: Chemin, Ariane (8/17/26) “Zelensky sparks Ukraine political crisis with cabinet reshuffle.” Le Monde

· Serhiy Koretsky, 48, is the country’s new prime minister. He will have to prepare Ukraine for its fifth winter of war.

· Fedorov made way for Yevhenii Khmara

· “Fedorov had built a network of new military technology firms vital for holding the front, and his term coincided with the launch of drone programs enabling medium and long range missiles strikes inside Russia and military operations to isolate occupied Crimea.”

· Some of Zelensky’s observers attributed the president’s decision to An obsession “with not letting anyone stand out and his constat drive to ‘consolidate his power.” Others attribute the change to Zelensky and others’ drive to “break with the remnants of Soviet-era culture still deeply rooted in many administrative layers and the army.”

· “This is not just a conflict between two people, but more broadly between two approaches, even 2 generations, said Oleskander Marisko, chair of the parliamentary foreign affairs committee. Fedorov has become a kind of symbolic figure of the possible Ukrainian victory thanks to drone warfare, added the MP from the presidential party, explaining the groundswell of support. Many believe he paid the price for pushing reforms in a ministry known for its opacity and for targeting corruption networks.”

· “The New York Times. Merezko suggested Fedorov may have threatened the. Trust of certain people who had benefited from the Defense Ministry for years. For months, he had observed the campaign against Fedorov by various groups, including old guard generals and military contractors, on influential Telegram channels and in parliament.

BOOKS YOU SHOULD READ

Unger, Craig (2024) Den of Spies: Reagan, Carter, and the Secret History of the Treason That Stole the White House. Boston and New York: Mariner Books.

Then, suddenly after the story appears, it was discredited. First, Newsweek ran three major stories saying that the October Surprise never happened. The New Republic and the Washington Post piled on. Anyone who believed the story was a “conspiratorialist.” Two Congressional investigations fizzled. Craig Unger, who continued covering the story was ostracized. He was then sued for $10 million dollars. Friends and editors refused to return telephone calls. The story was reported, then unreported. Just like that.

Unger spent decades on the story. “I could not unsee the hidden mechanisms of power that were really orchestrating these events. A vitally important chapter in contemporary Americans history was been erased and discredited…” Almost entirely Americans believed the cover-up.

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LIFE NOTES

The cats are all back inside from their morning walk and curled up in one bed or the other taking their mid-day nap. Jake da Mouth (big black and white) is getting more and more bossy as he gets older. All he has to do it to dip his head a little bit while staring at someone, and they back off. He’s definitely the top cat and knows it. He almost never jumps anybody. He doesn’t have to. All he has to do it lower his head an inch and they retreat. This happened with Eddie twice this morning.

The male dominance hierarchy is an interesting thing to behold.

LIFE AND NEWS NOTES FROM AN OVEREDUCATED, CHILDLESS ELDERLY LADY (ACCORDING TO j. F…ING D. VANCE) WORKING AWAY IN ONE OF THE SUB-BASEMENTS OF THE MINISTRY OF SNARK

Wednesday 12 August 2026

The DSA candidate lost the primary for nomination for governor in Wisconsin. Joe Scarborough is gloating. Crowley (the winner) issued a statement that is the same old Democrat shit. He will be running against a Republican who voted against certifying the 2020 election.

One race and the DSA candidate lost by a small margin and Morning Joe is going to go on about it all morning long. They are terrified by the DSA.

Ousted dictator Bashar al-Assad had been sentenced to death in absentia in Syria.

Tensions in the West Bank increased and resulted in a rare settler-army confrontation near Qusra. The army tried to dispurse settlers from a West Bank outpost set up directly in front of Palestinian homes. The army later withdrew without clearing the settlers. This comes amid a sharp increase in settler land seizures ad attacks on Palestinians.

Netanyahu’s government has spearheaded a rapid expansion of settlements in the territory. The West Bank, territory Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war, is home to some three million Palestinians and 500,000 settlers.

NEWS NOTES

UKRAINE

ARTICLE: Novikov, Illia (8/12/26) “An overnight Ukrainian blitz damages Russia’s Black Sea naval stronghold…” AP News.

· Ukrainian anti-ship missiles and drones blitzed a major Russian naval base on the Black Sea coast overnight. It was the last major stronghold of the Russian fleet in the Black Sea.

· Ukraine has limited the once-dominant Black Sea navy.

· Zelensky says that Putin is planning “an additional rapid mobilization of several hundred thousand Russians by the end of the year.

Thursday 13 August 2026

ARTICLE: Cole, Brendan (AUGUST) “How 500,000 new Russian soldiers could shape Ukraine war.” Newsweek.

· Zelensky maintains that these men will be called up after Russians have voted September 18 to 20.

· By Kyiv’s counting Russia has lost 131,000 killed and 93,000 wounded this year alone. Those losses fall heavily on the professionals like drone operators. Cole writes that a “conscript pulled from a provincial town and handed a gun” is not a professional, but a body.

· It may prolong the war but not alter its outcome.

· (Note: Front line charity, Hope for Ukraine.)

· “Ukraine’s commander-in-chief, Oleksandr Syrskyi, says Russia is now paying more than 1,000 casualties for every square mile of territory it seizes in Donetsk.”

Friday 14 August 2026

News Shorts:

NEWS AND LIFE NOTES FROM AN OVER-EDUCATED, CHILDLESS ELDERLY LADY (ACCORDING TO JD VANCE) WRITING AWAY IN ONE OF THE SUB-BASEMENTS OF THE MINISTRY OF SNARK.

· Immigration agencies are detaining more than 50 military spouses and parents.

· In a military exercise in Germany earlier this year, U.S. Army troops faced off against Ukrainian drone operators. It didn’t go well for the Americans.

ARTICLE: de Cordoba, Jose (8/14/26) “Cuba throws a birthday bash for Fidel as his legacy lies in ruins.” Wall Street Journal.

· The story line here is this: The Communist Cuban government tries to celebrate Fidel when he has ruined the country.”

· The collapse of the energy grid is blamed on Castro and his policies, when the United States is responsible for the island not having any power. The United States has waged a protracted war against Cuba since 1959.

· A quote from a day laborer: “They are honoring the man who killed the country.”

· Another analyst interviewed was quoted as saying it was an example of “political necrophilia.”

· A retired Cuban ambassador said: “You will hear people say this would not be happening if Fidel were alive.”

· There are no statues of Castro in Cuba, no streets named after him, or government buildings. This is due to a prohibition he imposed shortly after the overthrow of Fulgencio Batista in 1959.

ARTICLE: Moinian, Nazee (8/14/26) “Washington’s four wrong assumptions about the Iran war.” The Wall Street Journal.

· Four false assumptions about Iran:

· (1) The regime is a rational actor weighing costs and benefits. Iran is sustained by ideological conviction as much as calculation and “ordinary compromise feel(s) like apostasy, not prudence.”

· (2) There is a fixed pain threshold at which the regime will break. Perhaps so, but Washington is impatient. There may be a fixed pain threshold at which the government will break, but Washington can’t wait for it.

· (3) Battlefield losses become negotiating losses. But, America’s history of success with battlefield wins involves ground-won victories, not air campaigns alone. Even in Kosovo, where NATO prevailed through air power alone, this came about only when ground invasion looked imminent.

· (4) Domestic unrest weakens a government’s hand abroad. “Iran’s Islamic penal code treats domestic unrest as moharebeh, or “waging war against God” an offense that can be punished by death. In January, this standard was expanded to vandalizing public property. “A regime willing to kill its citizens by the thousand has demonstrated that it an absorb and inflict a great deal of pain…”

· “Tehran is wounded, not exhausted.”

11 AUGUST 2026

2028 ELECTION:

ARTICLE: Riccardi, Nicholas and Tom Beaumont (8/11/26) “What to watch Tuesday…” AP News.

State Representative Francesca Hong is a Democratic Socialist and front-runner for the party’s nomination for governor in Wisconsin.

In Minnesota, Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan is running for the nomination for an open seat against centrist Democratic Rep. Angie Craig.

Hong supported defunding the police in 2020, but has sine disavowed. The stakes are high for the Democrats nationally. Winning control of the GOP controlled legislature would give them a chance to redraw Wisconsin’s map to counter the edge the GOP built up in this year’s mid-decade redistricting. “Without that, their path to a House majority in 2028 becomes challenging.”

“Democrats will also likely need to win Wisconsin to retake the White House in 2028, and the governor will have a key role in certifying the winner of the election. In 2020, Trump tried to claim Wisconsin despite it being won by Joe Biden. Only to be blocked in part by Evers. Tiffany, who has been endorsed by Trump, supported the president’s attempt to overturn the election.” (Note: This is what we’re depending on? Jesus).

SHORTS:

· While telling everyone he was on Air Force 1, Trump secretly flew from Turkey on another military aircraft. He left the White House press pool on Air Force 1 as a decoy. What a guy.

· ICE has tried to up its arrest numbers by arresting academics at airports and even setting up a checkpoint at a popular creek in a National Forest where families picnic. What guys?

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BOOKS YOU OUGHT TO READ

Unger, Craig (2024) “Den of Spies: Reagan, Carter, and the Secret History of the Treason that Stole the white House.”

“If the hostages were released before the election, the thinking went, the ensuing patriotic fervor would give President Jimmy Carter such a big bounce in the polls that he would beat Reagan. But if the hostages were still incarcerated, voters would see Carter as a weak and impotent president who allowed America to be humiliated. As a result, Reagan Bush campaign manager William Casey engineered a secret deal whereby Iran agreed to release the hostages, but only after the November elections had taken place.

ART

GAUGUIN

Hanson, Lawrence and Elizabeth (1954) “Noble Savage: The Life of Paul Gauguin.”

In 1873, when Paul Guiguin met Mette Gad, soon to be his wife, he was still working as a stock broker. He had a promising position. A brown, red mustache. And a complexion like his manner that was hearty and coarse. His nose, a great beak broken at the bridge, jutted from the long space between brow and mouth with the arrogance of a pirate chief. Mette was confronted with a lover once romantic and successful.

It could be argued that Gauguin should have told her that the stock brokering was temporary, but he did not. And, she was facing at home a diminished income and constant family quarrelling.

Gauguin looked perfect. He was not.

LIFE WITH CATS

I often think we should tell people we run a cat shelter because we do. It’s just that the cat shelter, now occupied by nine cats, is our house. It almost always smells like cats no matter how hard we work at making it smell like vanilla. But, at some point after they kept turning up at our doorstep, we decided that we loved our cats more than we loved our furniture and our house and friends who had delicate noses (besides we could always meet them at a restaurant). As one of our vets said once when we told him that the can standing in front of him was the last cat: “Once a feeder, always a feeder.”

Dr. christina j johns

LIFE AND NEWS NOTES

Sunday 9 August 2026

Oh, boy. It’s around 9 AM and Sam has just caught one of our little Robins, so infrequently seen in the neighborhood. Sam caught him first, then when Mike told him to drop it, Eddie swooped in and picked him up and ran with him. I hate this.

We hate this and try to keep them from killing anything, even the lizards. I will walk around the yard begging, “Sam, please, let’s let him go home?” It rarely does any good.

They can never understand why we aren’t pleased as punch over the new kill. But, especially a robin. There just aren’t that many of them anymore.

Life with cats. They are predators and they cannot help themselves even if they are not hungry. After a few minutes of Mike telling me about it, I said: “That’s enough. I can’t take anymore.”

We decided to allow Eddie to go outside even though he technically wasn’t supposed to according to the vet. He still has a few days to go after his tooth removal/surgery. Cats.

ARTICLE: Brown, Eliot and Vladimir Karaj (8/9/26) “The suspected gangster causing headaches for Kushner’s Albania deal. The Wall Street Journal.

· In a plan that typifies the Trump way of doing business, Jared Kushner announced two years ago that he was going to build a Mediterranean resort of land local residents used to plant vegetables. But, what did he care?

· The villagers contended that the land had been stolen from them by a notorious drug trafficker, Arthur Shehu. The residents wrote to Kushner and told him they were locked in more then two years of court disputes and urged the developers not to proceed. The site, they wrote is “owned by the village and its residents.”

· Kushner paid Shehu over $120 million for the land earlier this year. They paid well over $240 million for land to private landowners including Shehu. Shehu’s money from the sale has been frozen.

RUSSIA

ARTICLE: Gazis, Olivia (8/7/26) “U.S. intelligence agencies warn Putin could test NATO by authorizing provocative actions.” CBS News.

· This is a change from only a few months ago.

SHORTS

Netanyahu rejects Trump’s plan to disarm Hamas.

Iran Holding firm to strait, steers Trump back to June deal where frozen assets and economic sanctions are on the table.

DSA members are giving interviews on right-wing media.

LIFE AND NEWS NOTES FROM AN ELDERLY OVER-EDUCATED (AS PER J. D. VANCE) CILDLESS CAT LADY WORKING AWAY IN ONE OF THE SUB-BASEMENTS O THE MILISTRY OF SNARK.

Thursday 6 August 2026

They are trying to hold Fauci in contempt of Congress this morning. And, the government evidently is telling people that if they join the military, their families won’t be deported. First of all I don’t even think this is true. Second, this is not the best way to recruit quality soldiers. Good God. Every morning, I say this: “Good God.”

Alva Edison is home from the vet minus one tooth. Mike said he sat in his lap on the staircase this morning, but he’s still very skitzy. Poor Eddy, life is just so perplexing for him. We hope we are going to be able to get him to eat something today.

Since Eddie can’t go outside, nobody can go outside and they are all very unhappy about the change in their morning routine. Sam has been with me in the bedroom almost all morning, watching the squirrels and the birds at the feeder. Earlier he was wild because he couldn’t go outside, literally bouncing off the walls and the chairs.

ARTICLE: Volz, Duston (8/5/26) “Hacks on U.S. water supply follow years of warnings and neglect.” New York Times

LIFE AND NEWS NOTES FROM AN OVEREDUCATED CHILDLESS (PER J. F…ING D. VANCE) CAT LADY BEAVERING AWAY IN ONE OF THE SUB-BASEMENTS OF THE MINISTRY OF SNARK

· (Note: Donald Trump blamed the hacking of the water system in Minnesota on the governor rather than foreign hackers.)

· The Biden administration proposed creating stronger cyber security guidelines to safeguard the nation’s water supply. “Many municipalities lacked even basic protections, and the computers that monitor and adjust water quality…were easy-to-find targets for a would-be intruder.”

· Republican-led states and industry groups sued to block the enforcement and the EPA rescinded he order.

· In 2023 a few weeks after the efforts were blocked, a small town in Pennsylvania disclosed that “a hacking group tied to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps briefly took control of equipment used to adjust water pressure.”

· Last week at least seven states reported incidents which, in some cases, degraded water operations.

ARTICLE: Jimison, Robert (8/5/26) “Why congress wants a closer U.S.-Israel defense partnership. New York Times.

· In the annual defense policy bill, there is a proposal which lays the groundwork for “melding U.S. and Israeli defense and intelligence capabilities in profound ways that some critics find alarming.”

· As lawmakers are becoming increasingly more hostile to sending money to Israel, this shift undertakes a “far more integrated defense and technology partnership built around legally mandated defense industrial cooperation between the two nations.”

· Critics argue that this effectively allows Israel’s military to become intertwined with the Pentagon.

· The proposal gives control of sensitive U.S. defense matters to a foreign nation.

· Chris Van Hollen called the proposal “jaw-dropping.” The government can always choose to enter into a joint production agreement, but this mandates it.

· Thomas Massie of Kentucky, a Republican, has called the provision “a betrayal of American sovereignty.”

ARTICLE: Goldmacher, Shane (8/6/26) “Moderate democrats prepare for ‘war’ against an ascendent left.” The New York Times.

· A centrist Democratic group, Third Way, is planning a $15 million effort to discredit democratic socialism. (Note: Great, just great. Why when it’s us, it’s time to work together, but when it’s them that’s losing, we are organizing efforts to “discredit.”) Jonathan Cowan, president of Third Way called it a “war.”

ARTICLE: Entous, Adam (8/5/26) “CIA sets up secret Cuba task force as Trump pressures Havana.” The New York Times.

· The task force aimed is aimed at “creating fissures among the Cuban political elite.” (Note: Quote from article.) It is intended to “allow the agency to quickly direct more financial, human and technical resources at Cuba,” according to the NYT.

· This is part of a more concerted campaign to pressure the Cuban government to make changes demanded by Trump.

· The task force is, according to the Times, “adding case officers who recruit and manage spies, intelligence analysts, officers who conduct cyberoperations and officers who specialize in…influence operations.”

· The CIA organized another secret task force in 1960 which orchestrated the Bay of Pigs.

· “Cuba has long been the target of the CIA’s efforts at espionage, subversion and destabilization, including terrorism,” said deputy foreign minister Carlos Fernandez de Cossio. “And yet the state Department has the audacity to call Cuba a threat for exercising its right to legitimate self-defense.”

· This may represent a “protracted covert campaign” according to the Times.

· “The intelligence will help the US military update its options for potential military action against Cuba if Mr. Trump opts to go that route.”

TRUMP: ADMINISTRATION

ARTICLE: Khardori, Ankush (7/31/26) “There are so many reasons to reject Tod Blanche. Here’s another one.” The New York Times.

· Blanche has targeted Trump’s political enemies, and over seen an exodus of some of the most experienced of the Justice Department’s lawyers, and to top that, he is “also embarrassingly bad at lawyering.”

· The Justice Department’s credibility and legitimacy is draining with the courts and with the public. Lawyers with the Justice Department have had to correct factual misrepresentations apologize for failing to meet deadlines and retract their own legal positions.

· Jeanine Pirro released a “juvenile video” taunting a man they accused of assault for throwing a sandwich at a federal agent. They failed to convict the man.

· They have filed court documents filled with Trumpian flourishes, arbitrary capitalizations and references to “Trump Derangement Syndrome.” One lawyer was found to have been improperly appointed. One judge criticized the government for a “disturbing pattern of profound investigative missteps.”

· In another case, prosecutors were forced to drop charges when the judge learned that they manipulated the grand jury process.

· The Times called them “basic factual legal and professional errors; sloppy and unprofessional legal filings; the public taunting of criminal defendants” have all damaged the department’s reputation.

· Grand juries are refusing to return indictments, a once unthinkable problem. The phrase “indict a ham sandwich” comes to mind.

· “Mr. Blanche and other senior Justice Department officials have proved willing to cut legal and ethnical corners to please the White House.””

· “Mr. Blanche is no star. He’s not even a very good lawyer.”

ARTICLE: Cohn, Nate (8/5/26) “El-Sayed got a big win for the left. Can it win like this nationally?” The New York Times.

· In this article in the New York Times, the author points out that the victory was “narrow.” But, if you look at the amount of money invested by the center Democratic-establishment crew, it is impressive indeed.

· Ed-Sayed won in areas where there were more young voters, well-educated liberals and Muslim voters. Ms. Stevens, however, son a “coalition of majority black areas, high-income voters, Jewish voters, older voters and rural white working-class areas.”

· Sayed failed to win in working-class Black areas and most white working-class rural parts of Michigan where “progressives ague that a populist economic message can resonate.”

· The narrowness of the coalition is supposed to be a worry.

·

Wednesday 5 August 2026

We just came back from taking Eddie to the vet to have his teeth cleaned. What a ruckus. The cats were everywhere, saying “What’s up?” “Mom, why are you up?” “Why is everybody walking so fast?” “What did Eddie do?” “You’re taking him away without even giving him a last supper?” “Why are you walking towards me?” And I spilled cat food all over the floor. Every time they started eating, something would happen and they would scatter.

Eddie is our autistic cat. My friend Mitzi says he’s definitely “on the spectrum.” She was an elementary school teacher, so she should know. Another reason we know is that we knew his father, who was Jake’s brother. Jake and his brother showed up at our house, tall and lanky, needing food.

We fed them, but if you even opened the door, they scattered and disappeared. We wound up with Jake because right before we left on a vacation, Jake showed up with a facial abscess. I told the cat sitter to try to trap him and take him to the vet. Amazingly, he did, and Jake got fixed up. We thought we’d never see him again, but we did. His brother came around now and then after that, I suppose not wanting to be trapped himself.

Jake came closer and finally let me pet him, and then he quickly moved onto the front porch. But we had fixed him when we took him in to take care of the abscess, and he domesticated quickly But, Elrod (what we named the brother) didn’t. He was still out there roaming and fighting. He even got into a terrible fight with Errol Flynn one of our cats.

Nobody seemed to like Elrod except his brother Jake. He had a strange look in his eyes all the time, squirrely, I suppose is the right term. And Eddie has that same look.

We know Eddie is his son because he looks exactly like Elrod, the exact same markings. None of the other kittens have that marking and none of them are autistic. So, have I convinced you yet?

So, when we take Eddie to the vet, I have to try to convince them that even though he is enormous and in as good a shape as an athlete, he won’t bite and he won’t scratch, he just needs some extra reassurance because he’s just a little bit confused all the time.

So, we left him. I hate leaving them at the vet. I want to sit in the waiting room, even if it’s hours, but they frown on that, so we will have to wait for the phone call telling us he’s out of surgery. They are going to do some blood work as well to make sure his kidneys are working fine. There’s some blood indicator that is a little bit over normal. Being a parent is a thankless job.

It’s almost 10 AM, and the Michigan race is still too close to call. El-Sayed is supposed to be on Morning Joe this morning. Joe and the dreadful Mika are nowhere to be seen. Strange.

I’m watching the recording of Morning Joe and El-Sayed is next. It’s just after 7 AM on the recording.

He is being called the “likely nominee” by the desk at MSNow. $70 million dollars was spent against him. Good God. El Sayed wants money out of politics, Medicare for all. You got me already. He’s got a great class line. A lot of Republicans think he will be easy to beat. He’s running against Mike Rogers.

El-Sayed says that Rogers served special interests, pharmaceutical interests. “He never saw a corporate dollar he didn’t use.” “You actually have to stand for something.” Why is Rogers supporting Trump on the Iran war? El-Sayed supports abolishing ICE, got me there. You can’t reform or retrain an agency like that. “You have to start from scratch.” Supports making Medicare whole, including visual and dental. The power of “big medicine” is what’s holding us back. We need to get money out of politics.

APIAC spent a lot of money against El-Sayed. Unconditional foreign aid is not acceptable. “I believe in international law.” “Israel has conducted a genocide.” “…treat Israel the way we treat any other country.” We have to follow our own laws, the Leahy laws, with all countries.

Divisions in the Party. How are the fences mended? “We’re against the way that outside money can buy politicians.” Take our democracy back from huge corporations.

NEWS NOTES

EL-SAYED WINS PRIMARY FOR SENATE SEAT IN MICHIGAN.

LIFE AND NEWS NOTES

· Collective bargaining rights for everybody.

· Universal healthcare

· Abolish ICE

Artile: Cappelletti, Joey et. al., (8/5/26) “Abdul El-Sayed wins Michigan Senate primary in major victory for Democratic’ progressive wing.” AP News.

· The news media is calling this a “bruising primary.” El Sayed is a former health official campaigning on an end of aid to Israel, and campaign finance reform. He has support from Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez.

· Sen. Chris Van Hollen, another progressive leader called it a “wakeup call to the Washington Democratic establishment.”

· Democrats consider Michigan a must-win if they are to flip control of the Senate this year. Stevens, El-Sayed’s competition, benefited from the largest investment in a race ever from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

· El-Sayed says he is not a Democratic Socialist but received support from some of the group’s members.

· One of the voters interviewed said that he voted for El-Sayed because is willing to fight a party “on the road to an oligarchy and authoritarianism.”

ARTICLE: Somasundaram, Praveena (8/5/26) “Takeaways from a big primary night…” Washington Post.

· In Michigan’s 7^th Congressional District, voters chose a progressive over two centrist candidates. William Lawrence, Sunrise Movement co-founder, said in a statement: People are “…tire of Silicon Valley billionaires and D.C. insider determining the future of our towns and our country…..They want an unbought representative who isn’t afraid to stand p to leaders of both parties and fight for working people.”

· In Michigan’s 13^th District a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, Donavan McKinney, won.