Wait - what ?

Stonekettle Station

Jim Wright 

A Federal Appeals Court ruled today that Trump MUST have Congressional approval in order to proceed with construction of his White House ballroom.

Trump was ordered to HALT all construction until he gets that congressional approval or until he wins an appeal with the Supreme Court.

The ruling says: “Whether or not a massive ballroom should be constructed is for Congress to decide and is not a matter for Executive self-help" and “This holding has nothing at all to do with whether the proposed ballroom is desirable, or not, as a matter of policy. This ruling does not even necessarily mean that the Defendants may not ultimately construct the ballroom. What it does mean is that the Defendants may not do so during the district court’s expeditious litigation without securing Congress’s authorization, as the Constitution and laws require.”

As the Constitutional and the laws require.

This black-and-white long-exposure photograph, captured by photographer Rodney Harvey at the historic Dumas Tunnel in Clark County, Missouri, visually interprets local folklore surrounding a spectral headless woman

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“Oh thank God. I can’t imagine explaining “sleep” to someone who had never heard of it. Hey, I’m going to fall unconscious and hallucinate for a while. By the way, I spend a third of my time doing this. And if I can’t do it for a while, I go insane and eventually die. No need for concern.”

Latest on Reflecting Pool Debacle:

The falsely-charged “vandal” has just filed an important motion in the case after the U.S. Attorney dismissed his felony charges “without prejudice” — meaning they could charge him again.

That dismissal “without prejudice” I’d say was a mistake, as it teed up this motion, to dismiss his charges “with prejudice” so he cannot be charged again. That response was foreseeable, and now the defense lawyers have pounced.

They pounced hard, with LOTS of evidence the government had about the “botched” installation BEFORE the charges were brought, rebutting the claim that it was a big surprise to DOJ’s prosecutors. Even that a contractor cut the lining with a knife!

They asked for access to the grand jury transcript, arguing that there was so much prosecutorial misconduct in the case that it justified the opportunity to look for further misconduct by prosecutors in the grand jury.

They alleged ethics violations by Pirro and her office, both in what she said in the press about the case and in the conduct of the case, as “bad faith” and “politically motivated.” That’s a harsh challenge, but well-founded.

The record of misconduct in this case clearly justifies further inquiry. This is no “Hail Mary.” Pirro is now caught between two fires: the fire of Trump’s incontinent rage, and the fire of judicial proceedings into professional misconduct.

“Reason cannot check a racing pulse by demanding that it act differently. Nor can it fill an empty heart.”

On this date August 6th in the year 1965 The Voting Rights Act, a landmark piece of federal legislation in the United States that prohibits racial discrimination in voting was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson during the height of the American Civil Rights Movement.

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LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

August 6, 2026

Heather Cox Richardson

Aug 07, 2026

Sixty-one years ago, on August 6, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act. The need for the law was explained in its full title: “An Act to enforce the fifteenth amendment to the Constitution, and for other purposes.”

In the wake of the Civil War, Americans tried to create a new nation in which the law treated Black men and white men as equals. In 1865 they ratified the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, outlawing enslavement except as punishment for crimes. In 1868 they adjusted the Constitution again, guaranteeing that anyone born or naturalized in the United States—except certain Indigenous Americans—was a citizen, opening up suffrage to Black men. In 1870, after Georgia legislators expelled their newly seated Black colleagues, Americans defended the right of Black men to vote by adding that right to the Constitution.

All three of those amendments—the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth—gave Congress the power to enforce them. In 1870, Congress established the Department of Justice to do just that. Reactionary white southerners had been using state laws, and the unwillingness of state judges and juries to protect Black Americans from white gangs and cheating employers, to keep Black people subservient. White men organized as the Ku Klux Klan to terrorize Black men and to keep them and their white allies from voting to change that system. In 1870 the federal government stepped in to protect Black rights and prosecute members of the Ku Klux Klan.

With federal power now behind the Constitutional protection of equality, threatening jail for those who violated the law, white opponents of Black voting changed their argument against it.

In 1871 they began to say that they had no problem with Black men voting on racial grounds; their objection to Black voting was that Black men, just out of enslavement, were poor and uneducated. They were voting for lawmakers who promised them public services, like roads and schools, that could only be paid for with tax levies.

The idea that Black voters were socialists—they actually used that term in 1871—meant that white northerners who had fought to replace the hierarchical society of the Old South with a society based on equality began to change their tune. They looked the other way as white men kept Black men from voting, first with terrorism and then with grandfather clauses that cut out Black men without mentioning race by permitting a man to vote if his grandfather had voted, literacy tests in which white registrars got to decide who passed, poll taxes, and so on. States also cut up districts unevenly to favor the Democrats, who ran an all-white, segregationist party. By 1880 the South was solidly Democratic, and it would remain so until 1964.

Southern states always held elections. It was just foreordained that Democrats would win them.

Black Americans never accepted this state of affairs, but their opposition did not gain powerful national traction until after World War II.

During that war, Americans from all walks of life had turned out to defeat fascism, a government system based on the idea that some people are better than others. Americans defended democracy and, for all that Black Americans fought in segregated units, and that race riots broke out in cities across the country during the war years, and that the government interned Japanese Americans, lawmakers began to recognize that the nation could not effectively define itself as a democracy if Black and Brown people lived in substandard housing, received substandard educations, could not advance from menial jobs, and could not vote to change any of those circumstances.

Meanwhile, Black Americans and people of color who had fought for the nation overseas brought home their determination to be treated equally, especially as the financial collapse of European nations loosened their grip on their former African and Asian colonies and launched new nations.

Those interested in advancing Black rights turned, once again, to the federal government to overrule discriminatory state laws. Spurred by lawyers Thurgood Marshall and Constance Baker Motley, judges used the due process clause and the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to argue that the protections in the Bill of Rights applied to the states, that is, the states could not deprive any American of equality. In 1954 the Supreme Court under Chief Justice Earl Warren, the Republican former governor of California, used this doctrine when it handed down the Brown v. Board of Education decision declaring segregated schools unconstitutional.

White reactionaries responded with violence, but Black Americans continued to stand up for their rights. In 1957 and 1960, under pressure from Republican president Dwight Eisenhower, Congress passed civil rights acts designed to empower the federal government to enforce the laws protecting Black voting.

In 1961 the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO) began intensive efforts to register voters and to organize communities to support political change. Because only 6.7% of Black Mississippians were registered, Mississippi became a focal point, and in the “Freedom Summer” of 1964, organized under Bob Moses, volunteers set out to register voters. On June 21, Ku Klux Klan members, at least one of whom was a law enforcement officer, murdered organizers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner near Philadelphia, Mississippi, and, when discovered, laughed at the idea they would be punished for the murders.

That year, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which strengthened voting rights. When Black Americans still couldn’t register to vote, on March 7, 1965, in Selma, Alabama, marchers set out for Montgomery to demonstrate that they were being kept from registering. Law enforcement officers on horseback met them with clubs on the Edmund Pettus Bridge. The officers beat the marchers, fracturing the skull of young John Lewis (who would go on to serve 17 terms in Congress).

On March 15, President Johnson called for Congress to pass legislation defending Americans’ right to vote. It did. And on this day in 1965, the Voting Rights Act became law. It became such a fundamental part of our legal system that Congress repeatedly reauthorized it, by large margins, as recently as 2006.

But in the 2013 Shelby County v. Holder decision, the Supreme Court under Chief Justice John Roberts struck down the provision of the law requiring that states with histories of voter discrimination get approval from the Department of Justice before they changed their voting laws. Immediately, the legislatures of those states, now dominated by Republicans, began to pass measures to suppress voting by Democrats and, by extension, people of color. In the wake of the 2020 election, Republican-dominated states increased the rate of voter suppression, and on July 1, 2021, the Supreme Court permitted such suppression with the Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee decision.

On April 29 of this year, the Supreme Court continued the assault on the Voting Rights Act. In Louisiana v. Callais it rejected the longstanding interpretation that sometimes, in order to guarantee Black representation in government, states have had to create districts that are made up primarily of Black Americans. By a vote of 6–3, with the right-wing justices in the majority, the Supreme Court in April declared Louisiana’s construction of a majority-minority district unconstitutional under the Fifteenth Amendment. It was, they said, an unconstitutional racial gerrymander.

A 2024 study by the Brennan Center of nearly a billion vote records over 14 years showed that the racial voting gap is growing almost twice as fast in places that used to be covered by the preclearance requirement. Another recent study showed that in Alabama, the gap between white and Black voter turnout in the 2024 election was the highest since at least 2008. If nonwhite voters in Alabama had voted at the same rate as white voters, more than 200,000 additional ballots would have been cast.

In 1957, when he was Senate majority leader, Lyndon Johnson called for the protection of Black voting, saying: “This right to vote is the basic right without which all others are meaningless. It gives people, people as individuals, control over their own destinies.”

Upon signing the Voting Rights Act in 1965, he said to the American people: “I pledge you that we will not delay, or we will not hesitate, or we will not turn aside until Americans of every race and color and origin in this country have the same right as all others to share in the process of democracy.”

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

Stonekettle Station

Jim Wright 

The Jobs Report is ... not great.

23,000 jobs unexpectedly lost in July and it's like to be revised down even further. Even Fox News couldn't spin that as good news...

Well, not at first, I mean.

But then, Maria Bartiromo: "23,000 jobs lost in July. Yep. And we also have revisions actually for June and other additions. Do you have those numbers, Lauren?"

Lauren Simonetti: "Revisions for June down by 37,000, May down by 66,000. Combined, 103,000 fewer jobs created in the months of May and June, Maria."

Bartiromo: "Yeah, and this is all about, the market reaction today is all about, what this means for the Federal Reserve. Louis Navellier, how do you wanna allocate capital in this environment where once again we're talking about Goldilocks, a Goldilocks macro story?"

Louis (an investment banker): "Yeah, you know, the last I looked, facts, that was forecasting, um, 47.4% annual earning growth for the S&P this year, but was before Palantir's blowout results. So, we might, might hit 50% earnings growth on the S&P. Right now. That's unbelievable. And you just can't ignore all these good earnings."

146,000 jobs lost over the last three months, cost of living up, cost of groceries up, cost of oil and gas up, cost of energy up, inflation up, but, hey! You just can't ignore all these good earnings!

It's a Goldilocks story, folks!

But wait, it gets even better.

They brought on Kevin Hassett, Trump's director of the National Economic Council, and his perpetual condescending smirk to explain to all us stupids how we actually GAINED jobs:

Hassett: "Yeah, uh, so the strength is what we've seen before, construction workers, uh, manufacturing workers, and so on. Uh, the weakest in this number were really just two things, government workers and, uh, uh, a sort of rebounded from all the employment we got from the World Cup, cause the World Cup was ending. So, uh, if you throw out the World Cup and the government workers, we actually had a number that was about a 100,000...

Got that? If you just throw out all the job losses, you actually GAIN jobs, see? Trump Math!

Meanwhile in an Interview Wednesday, Trump said:

GOP's criminal referral of Dr. Fauci to DOJ endangers us all.

August 7, 2026

Robert B. Hubbell

Senate Republicans on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee referred Dr. Anthony Fauci to the DOJ for contempt of Congress. That cynical, reckless action endangers us all. In the end, Dr. Fauci will prevail in any proceeding based on his invocation of the Fifth Amendment. Republicans don’t care. They want to make Dr. Fauci suffer the expense, stress, and public vilification inherent in a baseless prosecution.

The lesson for public health officials facing future pandemics is clear: Steer clear of leadership positions during health emergencies, because any action that might be contested by conspiracy theorists could result in criminal prosecution.

Dr. Fauci is an American hero. He helped navigate the US through two of the most consequential public health crises of the last century. Every American owes him a debt of gratitude. He is not perfect and has been subject to intense criticism over his long career for his management of the HIV/AIDs epidemic and the Covid pandemic, even as he successfully helped the US overcome both of those crises. But leaders on the front lines of unfolding public health emergencies make judgments that, in retrospect, may not have been optimal or even correct. But if we teach our public health officials that the punishment for a disputed professional judgment is criminal prosecution, we will be at the mercy of conspiracy theorists and deadly microbes that don’t care about political ideology.

I have been surprised by the split in opinion in the legal and public health press over Dr. Fauci’s invocation of the Fifth Amendment. It was the only sane thing to do. His main inquisitor on the Senate Homeland Security Committee, Rand Paul, has repeatedly called for Dr. Fauci to be jailed over congressional testimony. The hearing before the Senate committee was nothing more than a perjury trap designed to fabricate baseless criminal charges against Dr. Fauci for testifying truthfully.

Some commentators have suggested that Dr. Fauci should have taken the opportunity to defend his actions and those of the federal government in managing the Covid pandemic, reasoning that he has been granted a pardon by President Biden. But that pardon would not protect Dr. Fauci, who could still face state criminal charges for his role as a federal public health official. Indeed, by Thursday, at least three state attorneys general had issued subpoenas to Dr. Fauci. See The Hill, State AGs probe Anthony Fauci’s COVID-19 guidance, profits.

Reader Ethan F. wrote the following in an email today:

[T]he Biden pardon extended only to potential Federal crimes. It is not a stretch to imagine that some crazy prosecutor in a red state would contort himself or herself into finding that some of Fauci’s recommendations during the pandemic violated the State civil rights of said State’s citizens. When I was State criminal court judge, I was confronted on a few occasions with an immunized witness who refused to testify because of potential federal incrimination. I had to accept the refusal. It was not up to me to inquire as to how that would be.

As I said, Dr. Fauci will prevail in any proceeding based on his invocation of the Fifth Amendment under these circumstances. Indeed, if US Attorney Jeanine Pirro attempts to prosecute Dr. Fauci for contempt of Congress, that action will be added to her disbarment proceeding. Trump is ready to fire Pirro in any event, so she may not have to worry about seeking an indictment against Dr. Fauci. See The Guardian, Trump again rebukes Jeanine Pirro over reflecting pool ‘vandalism’ case | Donald Trump | The Guardian

Republicans on the Senate committee also suggested that Dr. Fauci waived his Fifth Amendment rights by giving an opening statement—in which he advised the committee that he would be invoking his Fifth Amendment rights! Again, reader Ethan F. writes:

[T] he Republicans on the committee assert that Fauci waived the Fifth by giving an opening statement. But Fauci did not address the substance of any potential testimony. He simply explained that he was invoking the Fifth. That was simply part of his invocation of the Fifth. There is no magic formula for how one invokes the Fifth, only a need to include the basic principles.

The surrender of public health policy to conspiracy theorists and political vendettas makes us all less safe. And now, they are coming for our children and grandchildren. Trump plans to sign an executive order in the next week that will attempt to change the childhood vaccination schedule based on Robert Kennedy’s anti-vaccine propaganda. See Washington Post, White House drafting order on vaccines, autism despite pollsters’ warnings.

If there is a legitimate public health debate over a link between vaccination schedules and autism (and all reliable studies conclude there is not, Ann. of Intern. Med. (2019)), the two people in the US most unqualified to decide that question are Donald Trump and Robert Kennedy. Thankfully, the public does not trust their scientific expertise—which is why issuing an executive order on childhood vaccination schedules is yet another reason to vote against Republicans in the midterm elections. See KFF Health, KFF Polling on Health Information and Trust (Showing that only 34% of Americans trust Robert Kennedy and only 24% trust Donald Trump on health information.)

Trump and his Republican minions are playing with the health of the American people. It has taken the largest measles outbreak in 35 years for Kennedy to finally unequivocally recommend that parents vaccinate their children against measles. See Irish Times, In remarkable about-turn, US health secretary RFK Jr tells families to vaccinate children.

But it is too late to make basic public health recommendations after a communicable disease has defeated herd immunity. Such advice must be given before the crisis. And the threat to prosecute Dr. Fauci makes it less likely that public health officials will give such advice in the future.

Trump issues two new executive orders limiting birthright citizenship.

After losing in the Supreme Court, Trump is once again trying to limit birthright citizenship. See NYTimes, Trump Signs Executive Orders Targeting Birthright Citizenship (Gift article.) In the most recent iteration of his unconstitutional plan, Trump is limiting “birthright tourism” and birthright citizenship to the children of diplomats.

Trump is simply trying to throw red meat to his base. So-called birthright tourism is effectively zero in the US, which currently has a birthrate of 3.6 million per year. Births to tourists range from 5,000 to 10,000 per year. See Kreisberg, A. N. and Chin, N. D. (2026) The-Demographic-Composition-of-Birth-Tourism-in-the-United-States. The US Solicitor General told the Supreme Court that he did not know how many “birthright tourism” births there were each year.

Trump’s executive order can only be implemented by cross-examining inbound overseas tourists (who need a visa) about their pregnancy status—another reason why future potential visitors to the US may decide to visit another country. Tourism to the US declined by 5.5% from 2024 to 2025 as Trump’s anti-immigrant policies took effect. Preliminary data for 2026 overseas tourism indicate that the decline in tourism is continuing. For May 2026 (the most recent data available), international air passenger travel to the US was down by 6.5% compared to May 2025. See US Dept. of Commerce, May 2026 International Air Passenger Travel

Trump and Steven Miller are trying to limit birthright citizenship to create a campaign issue for the midterms. As usual, they haven’t a clue about the Constitution or how the American public is reacting to their race-baiting policies. See Reuters (April 26, 2026), As US high court prepares ruling, Americans oppose ending birthright citizenship, Reuters/Ipsos poll finds (64% of Americans oppose ending birthright citizenship; even 36% of Republicans oppose ending birthright citizenship)

Iran’s plan to exclude US and Israeli ships from transiting the Strait of Hormuz.

Ugh. The latest report regarding Iran’s plans for the Strait of Hormuz is not good. See NPR, Iran moves to ban U.S., Israeli ships from Hormuz, charge toll. Iran and Oman have been negotiating over control of the Strait of Hormuz. Trump has been touting those negotiations as paving the way for peace in the Middle East. But reporting on August 6 suggests the opposite.

Per NPR,

Iran’s parliament is reviewing a plan to ban ships linked to the U.S., Israel and other “hostile countries” from transiting the Strait of Hormuz until Tehran is compensated for war damage, according to Iranian state media.

The plan would impose fees of up to 7% of cargo value on commercial vessels that pass through the strait. It would also fine ships 20% of cargo if they violate Iran’s conditions.

Per NPR, the US disputes Iran’s characterization of negotiations between Iran and Oman, negotiations that do not include the US. Under those circumstances, it is difficult to see how the US can dispute the characterization of negotiations by the parties to the negotiations.

If the Iranian state media reports are accurate, then the US and Iran are nowhere close to a deal to end the US war against Iran. That is bad news for Trump, but also bad news for the world and the American people, who are paying the price for Trump’s incompetence and ignorance.

Trump to Deregulate Head Start in an effort to destroy the program.

The New York Times reports that the Trump administration has plans to deregulate the Head Start program in a way that will effectively destroy it. See NYTimes, Trump Administration to Deregulate Head Start, Antipoverty Program Created Under R.F.K. Jr.’s Uncle. (Gift article).

The plans outlined by the NYTimes are heartbreaking. Head Start is one of the most consequential anti-poverty programs in American history. Per the Times,

The proposed plan, detailed in earlier reporting by The New York Times, would remove most of Head Start’s 133 pages of federal requirements for math and literacy curricula, class sizes, medical screenings, home visits. Even a requirement that children brush their teeth after meals would end. . . . Critics say the changes will gut the core components of a singular institution that has served 30 million young children with high classroom standards and more health and antipoverty services than most states provide.

In effect, the planned changes will strip Head Start of the educational and health services that help lift children out of poverty.

The proposed changes will be published in the Federal Register on August 12 and will be open for public comment for 60 days. I will report back on how to submit comments—but keep an eye on Jessica Craven’s newsletter (Chop Wood, Carry Water), which is always the first to report on how to take action.

Concluding Thoughts.

Every story in today’s edition should reinforce the urgency of our task in reclaiming democracy. The federal government has been captured by malevolent, ignorant, and incompetent actors who are actively harming our republic and the American people. We do not have the luxury of engaging in half-measures or incrementalism. Trump and MAGA are dismantling our government at an alarming rate. We must respond with equal vigor and determination. The good news is that the grassroots movement is already doing so. The fruit of their efforts is evident in recent elections, where Democratic candidates calling for bold action are upsetting the “go along to get along” status quo.

National Geographic image of the day! :: A visit by Charles Lindbergh by Pacific and Atlantic Photos, England, 1927.

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I am on the edge of the crowd, at the periphery; but I belong to it, I am attached to it by one of my extremities, a hand or foot. I know that the periphery is the only place I can be, that I would die if I let myself be drawn into the center of the fray, but just as certainly if I let go of the crowd. This is not an easy position to stay in, it is even very difficult to hold, for these beings are in constant motion and their movements are unpredictable and follow no rhythm. They swirl, go north, then suddenly east; none of the individuals in the crowd remains in the same place in relation to the others. So I too am in perpetual motion; all this demands a high level of tension, but it gives me a feeling of violent, almost vertiginous, happiness.” A very good schizo dream. To be fully a part of the crowd and at the same time completely outside it, removed from it: to be on the edge…

“How often I have wished time with you was / More than dreams my mind keeps, though any real / Time with you seemed a dream, too. Between us / Time meant everything yet nothing—the seal / For an empty tomb when we had to part, / Some sense of timelessness together. Still, / There’s no need to roll a stone from this soul, / For eternity won’t matter without your heart / To save my own. And the world that waits will / Never offer enough beauty to hold / My attention or affection as you / Do. Now time’s all wrong; each day’s a year, each / Year a lifetime, yet there’s no life without / Your breath to breathe, eyes to see, heart to be.”

1962

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Loss

The breaking news swept through Atlanta like wildfire: An airplane crash in Paris had claimed the lives of 121 of Atlanta’s most respected citizens.

Radio and television stations began broadcasting the news around 7:50 a.m., but the tragedy’s full impact wasn’t felt until about 10 a.m. Many residents were on the way to church or were awakened by distressing calls from overseas.

As noon approached, flags were lowered to half-mast in Atlanta, signaling a city in mourning. The magnitude of the loss, both in human life and the cultural void left behind, was unprecedented. Atlanta was no stranger to tragedy, but not since the Winecoff hotel fire in 1946, where 119 souls were lost, had the city witnessed such a calamity.

Newspapers scrambled to pay tribute. The Atlanta Journal printed its first extra edition since the death of Margaret Mitchell, author of Gone with the Wind. The irony was hard to miss; among those lost in the crash was one of the Atlanta Journal’s editors, Margaret Turner. Margaret’s last column, which had been published days before the crash spoke excitedly about the cultural tour, but now served as a haunting reminder of the loss.

“I don’t act, anyway. The stuff is all injected as we go along. My pictures are made without script or written directions of any kind.”

Buster Keaton

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“As I go clowning my sentimental way into eternity, wrestling with all my problems of estrangement and communion, sincerity and simulation, ambition and acquiescence, I shuttle between worrying whether I matter at all and whether anything else matters but me.” Stephen Fry