Tuesday, July 28, 2026

The Snapshot

Tuesday, July 28, 2026.  We are now in the sixth month of war with Iran and still no end in sight, Chump and Hegseth continue to try to juggle the numbers of service members injured and service members fallen, Epstein haunts Chump at a rally yesterday, the Tate brothers are predators linked to Chump and his son Barron, and much more. 




"There's no deal," Ben (MEIDASTOUCH NEWS) notes in the video above, "that's going to resolve Iran's threshold issues."  John Ismay (NEW YORK TIMES) observes:

Soon after the war began on Feb. 28, President Trump declared that Iran was “totally defeated and wants a deal.”

Then in March, Mr. Trump said the U.S. military would wrap up its campaign against Iran in two to three weeks. “We will be leaving very soon,” he said.

Now the conflict is entering its sixth month and a period of deep uncertainty. After nearly two weeks of attacks and counterattacks, Mr. Trump has held off a major escalation. But major issues between the two sides remain unsettled.

The cycles of fighting have resulted in staggering losses.

An estimated 1,700 Iranian civilians have been killed in airstrikes, which have devastated Iran’s infrastructure and deepened the country’s economic crisis.

Eighteen U.S. service members have died in the war, which the Pentagon estimates has cost $37.5 billion.


Stephen Collinson (CNN) offers:

President Donald Trump has arrived at yet another fork in the road on Iran. But each time he reaches such a point, his options only become more narrow and the costs of any course of action grow.

The Trump administration explained Sunday that a pause in air strikes — now up to three nights, after 13 straight nights of attacks — was meant to create space for diplomacy. But it also warned it was “locked and loaded” for another possible escalation.

There are some signs of diplomatic activity. Iran said it hosted talks with Oman at deputy foreign minister level in recent days. But there’s so far no sign the Islamic Republic will shift on its core demand, which caused the latest flare-up with the US: its insistence on controlling shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.

Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said in a televised press conference that no talks were currently taking place with the US and that Tehran “will never allow the United States to determine the timing of war and peace.”

Trump finds himself back in a familiar spot. He’s tried to coerce Iranian concessions with intensified attacks. But this plan is not working any better now than it did after the initial round of fighting. He could increase the pressure by deploying ground troops, a move that might take advantage of the US military edge. But this would risk significant US casualties in an already deeply unpopular war.

Nearly five months into a war he’d said would take a few weeks, Trump keeps trying to create maneuvering space against Tehran. But all the strategy seems to do is leave him with less room and worse choices.


Meanwhile, Marina Dunbar (GUARDIAN) notes that the Pentagon is attempting to cover up the injured and the dead:

The Pentagon updated its official war casualty database over the weekend, adding more than 140 wounded service members. The Defense Casualty Analysis System (DCAS) also introduced a new casualty category labeled “Overseas Operations” for personnel killed and wounded “starting July 7”.

According to the updated database, the official toll for the earlier phase of the US-Iran war, known as Operation Epic Fury, now stands at 14 service members killed and more than 400 wounded in action.

These figures have been a point of contention after the Pentagon previously reduced the totals from 18 deaths and 482 wounded that had been recorded just days earlier. 

The dispute comes after the collapse of the ceasefire with Iran and the resumption of near-daily airstrikes beginning on 6 July. Analysts and officials have questioned whether casualties from the renewed fighting should be counted separately from Operation Epic Fury, a move that would be unprecedented.

The Trump administration is seeking to classify the renewed military campaign as separate from Operation Epic Fury, the US military’s official name for the Iran conflict.


Chump cannot tell the truth.  His default position is always one of dishonesty.  He lies and then lies again.  And the American people are catching on to it and they are not happy with the never ending lies.  Martha McHardy (THE DAILY BEAST) notes:


A brutal new poll suggests Americans are losing patience with Donald Trump’s handling of his war on Iran.

According to a CBS News/YouGov survey of 2,193 adults, conducted July 22-24, 57 percent of Americans say they are frustrated by the war, which Trump launched without congressional authorization and has already cost the U.S. at least $37.5 billion.

Overall, 61 percent disapprove of Trump’s handling of the conflict, compared with just 39 percent who approve.

The findings also point to growing pessimism about the war’s direction.

Nearly two-thirds, 63 percent, believe the conflict is going badly for the United States, while 76 percent say it has been harder than Trump expected. Sixty percent think the president makes the situation in Iran sound better than it really is.

60% think Chump is making "the situation in Iran sound better than it really is." The American people have caught on to him.  



DOGE made no sense.  Lying that he's staying at war with Iran because they're going to make a nuclear bomb while at the same time giving the go-ahead to Saudi Arabia to go nuclear?  You look like an idiot and a liar and a corrupt piece of garbage.  

Last Friday, we noted:


At the heart of the conflict with Iran, Chump insists, is the nuclear capabilities of Iran.  Yet at the same time, he's announced the go-ahead for Saudi Arabia on nuclear. 





How may Iranians were among the hijackers on 9/11?

Oh, that's right: Zero. 

How many were from Saudi Arabia?

15.

Fifteen of the nineteen hijackers were from Saudi Arabia. 


President Trump went to war with Iran in part to force compliance with two longstanding American demands: Tehran must stop enriching nuclear fuel for at least two decades, and it must allow international inspectors to go anywhere and see anything to verify the country is not producing a bomb.

On Wednesday, Mr. Trump took the reverse approach to Saudi Arabia, its close ally in the region. To seal a deal for Westinghouse and other American companies to seize a big piece of the business in building two nuclear reactors on Saudi territory — and more to come — it opened the door to allowing the kingdom to begin enriching its own nuclear fuel after two years.

And it gave in to the kingdom’s demand that it not have to abide by an inspection agreement that applies to more than 140 other countries. Those rules, the Saudis said, are just too intrusive.

Now Mr. Trump will have to make the case to Congress, and to allies throughout the Middle East, that in loosening the nuclear standards for one close ally, he is not ushering in a new age of proliferation, especially in a region of the world already on fire. If the daily missile exchanges with Iran finally give way to resumed negotiations, there is no question Iran will seize on the concessions made to Riyadh and insist on the same.


Sunday, the editorial board of THE GUARDIAN waded in: 


Even as he threatened to escalate an unlawful war sold in part as preventing Iran from gaining a nuclear weapon, Donald Trump opened the door to proliferation in the region on Wednesday. The US announced that it had signed a deal with Saudi Arabia which would potentially allow the kingdom to enrich uranium in future and to avoid the fullest inspection rights for the international watchdog.

Experts have long warned that a civilian nuclear programme could create a path towards a nuclear-armed Riyadh. Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi crown prince and de facto leader, has said that if Tehran gets a nuclear weapon, “we will have to get one”. Concerns are magnified by the agreement’s terms. Washington previously argued that the “gold standard” was the United Arab Emirates’ agreement to permanently forgo enrichment and accept full monitoring by the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency. Weakening it sets a precedent that Russia or China could also cite in nuclear deals in future.


At some point, people are going to force Chump to answer about this move. 

Yesterday, Chump got confronted with his long term friendship with sex trafficker and pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.  Nicole Charky-Chami (RAW STORY) reports:

President Donald Trump lashed out at a protester screaming "pedophile protector!" while he was speaking in Michigan on Monday.

Trump was in the Great Lakes State to speak about the economy at the GM Proving Grounds in Milford when a demonstrator started heckling him from the crowd over his ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

 

MEIDASTOUCH NEWS offered video of the booing and heckling. 



Hafiz Rashid (THE NEW REPUBLIC) provides this context: 

In January, a worker in a Ford Motor Company factory in Dearborn, Michigan, yelled “pedophile protector” at Trump as he was touring the facility, prompting the president to mouth an expletive and give the worker the middle finger. Last month, a protester repeatedly shouted “pedophile” at Trump and gave him two middle fingers while he toured a Mack truck factory in Macungie, Pennsylvania.  

It’s highly doubtful that all the hecklers were Communists, and considering how unpopular Trump’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files has been with his supporters, they could have even been disgruntled MAGA devotees. Trump is only going to hear more protesters and hecklers calling him a pedophile for the rest of his life. 


Meanwhile, Howard Lutnick, Secretary of Commerce, has apparently been exposed in another lie about his relationship with Epstein.  Alexander Willis (RAW STORY) reports:


Jeffrey Epstein's relationship with a firm once run by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick may date back 11 years further than previously known, according to a newly unearthed document flagged by independent journalist Kaitlyn Pierce, who writes under the name Kait Justice.

Lutnick told The New York Post last year that he had cut off all ties with Epstein in 2005, but the Justice Department's release of Epstein-related files quickly contradicted that claim. The files showed Lutnick visited Epstein's private island in 2012 and that the two maintained contact through at least 2018.

Lutnick and Epstein were also discovered to have been “in business together as recently as 2014,” per CBS News, with the two of them both signing onto a deal to acquire stakes in a now-defunct technology company called Adfin.

Lutnick was explicitly asked by the House Oversight Committee in May whether he was aware of any other business dealings between Epstein and Cantor Fitzgerald, the financial services firm he once ran before handing off control to his sons after joining the Trump administration. Lutnick said, “to the best of my recollection,” there were no other business dealings between Epstein and Cantor.

Justice, while searching through millions of Epstein-related files, stumbled upon a telling FedEx invoice that she suggested may undercut that claim.

“I did not expect to find Epstein in Cantor’s records,” Justice wrote in a report published Monday on her Substack.

The invoice is dated July 27, 2001, and reveals that Darren Indyke – once Epstein’s personal lawyer – had sent an overnight envelope from Epstein’s office in New York City, New York, to a Robert F. Mace at Cantor Fitzgerald Securities, located on the 104th floor of the One World Trade Center. Mace was Cantor’s employment lawyer, and would be killed in the 9/11 attacks just 53 days after being sent the envelope from Epstein.

“The invoice clearly doesn’t tell us what the envelope contained, but it does place Epstein’s office in direct contact with Lutnick’s firm 11 years before the relationship Lutnick described to Congress supposedly began,” Justice wrote.

“Cantor’s customer and trading records could show whether Epstein or any of his companies had an account there, what they bought or sold through the firm and when the relationship actually began.”

 

Months ago, former Attorney General Bill Barr went on Tara Palmeri's YOUTUBE program.  And as he spoke, it was obvious -- at least to me -- that Barr was lying and covering something up.



So Barr's father hired Epstein decades ago (1974).  Hmm.  And an e-mail accuses Bill Barr of being present while Epstein raped a woman.  

Bill Barr has not been honest about Epstein. 

Barr is from Chump's first administration.  Pete Hegseth is from Chump's current administration.  Travis Gettys (RAW STORY) notes: 


Republican senators are increasingly voicing doubts about Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's leadership as the war with Iran stretches into its fifth month with no resolution in sight.

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) delivered the sharpest public rebuke, telling The Hill he no longer has confidence in President Donald Trump's Pentagon chief, describing him as erratic, insecure and inexperienced.

“I don’t have any confidence in him anymore," said Tillis, who is retiring. "I think he’s all over the place — he’s accelerating the retirement or forcing out some of the most distinguished leaders in the DOD that we have."

“I think he’s got a massive insecurity complex, he has a lack of experience in large organizations, he micromanages too much," Tillis added. "He’s lost my confidence."

A crisis of confidence is building within the Senate GOP conference, according to Tillis, with other senators likely just one incident away from speaking out themselves.

That sentiment was echoed privately by other Republicans.


Support dwindles for Hegseth.  


In other news, Moira Donegan (GUARDIAN) points out a silence: 


It’s not exactly strange that elements of the Magaverse have embraced Andrew Tate. What’s strange is that the Democrats do not seem interested in holding the Trump movement to account for it.

Andrew Tate, the misogynist influencer who is accused by numerous women around the world and now by British prosecutors of rape and strangulation, as well as assault, sex trafficking, possession of child abuse images and extreme pornography, and various other forms of gender violence and exploitation, was arrested in Miami last week, along with Tristan, his brother and sidekick. Or I should say, they were rearrested: the men were previously charged in Romania, where they were under house arrest until, following some conveniently timed diplomatic moves from the Trump administration, they were allowed to leave the country and resettled in the US. When asked if the Trump administration had secured their release from Romania back then, the Tates’ lawyer said: “Do the math. These guys are on the plane.” Now, finally, they are awaiting extradition to the UK, where they are dual citizens.

The Tate brothers have long made their living by making provocative, contemptuous statements about women online. But in June, the New Yorker’s Heidi Blake published a long investigation that centered not on what the Tates have said, but on what they’re said to have done – detailing a long and documented history of alleged sex trafficking, violence and sexual assault along with a disturbing pattern of police mismanagement, incompetence and indifference that allowed the men to go free. The Tates denied wrongdoing in that piece; their lawyer called the new British charges against them “garbage”. But if anyone thought the Tates’ misogynistic influencer career was mere bluster, the Blake investigation offered a formidable bit of counterevidence: she painted a picture of the men acting exactly the way that they talked.

In a world where people take misogyny as seriously as they claim to, the Tates would long ago have been ostracized, and condemned, for their hatefully sexist rhetoric and alleged violence against women. In this world, they got rich, and ingratiated themselves to powerful figures in the Republican party.

Tate is a natural fit on a Maga right that has served to unite its many different factions – from Christian conservatives to Silicon Valley eugenicists, to beer-chugging barstool denizens, conspiracy mongers, and the male hosts of multi-hour podcasts – around a foundation of male supremacy. Contempt for women is the uniting force on the American right, more uniform across the competing styles within the movement even than the hatred of immigration or devotion to the prerogatives of capital. Donald Trump cemented the presidency, after all, when he was revealed to have bragged about “grab[bing]” women “by the pussy” and still maintained his base of support. In the decade that followed, his domineering, narcissistic, vulgar style of masculinity, and the alternately belittling and hateful treatment of women that accompanies it, have come to be seen on the right as a feature, not a bug. Other men within the Maga movement now imitate Trump’s style of misogyny with a gleeful competitiveness; the coalition welcomes men who collect harems of women to breed their children, those who have been multiply accused of sexual abuse and those who decry our right to vote. Andrew Tate, in this milieu, is not an exception. He is the rule.

But just because Tate’s style of masculinity is popular on the right – in which sex is seen to elevate men’s status at women’s expense, in which women’s aspirations to education, skilled work, dignity, public participation, or even mere decency are mocked; and in which men’s mistreatment of women is the key way for them to gain the esteem of other men – does not mean that it is popular with the public. Tate’s version of vulgar, avowed, preening misogyny has a constituency of Republican politicians and unlikable teenage boys; it does not have a constituency among the majority of the American public.

Why are Democrats not making the Tates into symbols of Maga’s hateful and bizarre cultural project, of Trump’s personal alleged affinity for sexual misconduct, or of the antisocial, anti-democratic and anti-equality stances of the Maga movement?


Let's wind down with this from Senator Elizabeth Warren's office:


Feinberg was former head of private equity firm Cerberus; conflicts could be impacting military contracting decisions related to secretive $185 billion missile program

Text of Letter (PDF)

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC), wrote to Department of Defense (DoD) Deputy Secretary Stephen Feinberg pressing him on his conflicts of interest related to major DoD contracts. Senator Warren urged Feinberg to cut all ties with his former firm, Cerberus, recuse himself from any Cerberus-related matters for his entire time at DoD, and increase transparency of contracting decisions for the Golden Dome missile defense program at DoD.

Senator Warren has raised concerns with Secretary Feinberg continuing financial relationship with Cerberus, and that of his immediate family, and the fact that he had hired multiple key DoD staff with Cerberus ties. Mr. Feinberg has not yet provided a response. 

New reporting reveals Feinberg has “unprecedented control over the Pentagon’s vast procurement network, and a remarkable new ability to invest in defense companies with taxpayer dollars.” At least three companies reportedly linked to Cerberus have received Golden Dome contracts during Feinberg’s tenure. 

“These new reports make it even more important that you make the commitments that I asked of you in my April letter, and that you provide answers to my questions,” said Senator Warren. 

In addition to her requests for ethics commitments, Senator Warren asked Feinberg to share a list of Cerberus-backed or Cerberus-affiliated companies that have bid on the Golden Dome contract, explain DoD’s criteria for awarding Golden Dome contracts, and explain his role in awarding Golden Dome contracts. 

Senator Warren has led the fight to root out corruption and close the revolving door between government officials and the private sector:

  • In May 2026, Senators Warren (D-Mass.) and Scott (R-Fla.) introduced the Banning Lobbying And Safeguarding Trust (BLAST) Act, a bipartisan bill to impose a lifetime ban on lobbying by former members of Congress.
  • In April 2026, at a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Senator Warren (D-Mass.) pressed Secretary Hegseth on allegations that Trump administration officials are engaging in possible insider trading by placing bets on the Iran War through prediction markets.
  • In February 2026, Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Andy Kim (D-N.J.), along with Representatives Pat Ryan (D-N.Y.) and Deborah Ross (D-N.C.) pressed the Inspectors General (IGs) of 16 key agencies to open investigations into senior Trump officials who were recently lobbyists or “shadow lobbyists” and may be using their roles to benefit their former employers and clients.
  • In January 2026, Senators Warren (D-Mass.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), and Andy Kim (D-N.J.), pressed Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on potential conflicts of interest surrounding the awarding of multiple lucrative Department of Defense (DoD) contracts and loans to companies associated with President Donald Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr.
  • In December 2025, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Representative Chris Deluzio (D-Pa.) pressed the Trump administration to follow through on promises to limit defense companies stock buybacks and incentivize them to increase research and development spending.
  • In December 2025, Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) called for then-Attorney General Pam Bondi to recuse herself from the Department of Justice (DOJ)’s review of any Warner Bros. merger due to potential conflicts of interest related to her former employer, lobbying firm Ballard Partners.
  • In November 2025, Senator Warren (D-Mass.) wrote to Dr. Robert Kadlec, nominee to be Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear, Chemical, and Biological Defense Programs at the Department of Defense (DoD) with concerns over his past management failures and conflicts of interest during his time at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), where he served as Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services for Preparedness and Response (ASPR). Those allegations include exercising improper political pressure on career officials to financially benefit his former clients.
  • Senator Warren’s Department of Defense (DoD) Ethics and Anti-Corruption Act, with now-Senator Andy Kim (D-N.J.), would limit the influence of contractors on the military, constrain foreign influence on retired senior military officers, and assert greater transparency over contractors and their interaction with DoD.
  • In July 2025, Senators Warren (D-Mass.) and Rick Scott (R-Fla.), wrote to former Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin seeking an explanation and further information on his recent decision to start a strategic advisory firm. Austin had publicly promised Senator Warren during his 2021 confirmation process that he would not become a lobbyist after his government service ended.
  • In May 2025, Senator Warren (D-Mass.) wrote to Mr. Michael Obadal, nominee for Under Secretary of the Army, with concerns about his refusal to divest from major defense contractors. Obadal previously held between $250,000 and $500,000 in Anduril stock, and had refused to divest from ahead of his confirmation.
  • In March 2025, Senator Warren (D-Mass.), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, wrote to Mr. John Phelan, nominee to be Secretary of the Navy, with concerns regarding his “serious conflicts of interest,” given his financial investments in defense contractors. Senator Warren asked Mr. Phelan to make a number of commitments related to his conflicts of interest ahead of the committee vote on his nomination.
  • In March 2025, Senator Warren (D-Mass.) wrote to Deputy Defense Secretary Nominee Stephen Feinberg, urging him to recuse himself from all matters related to Ligado Networks. Mr. Feinberg’s private equity firm, Cerberus Capital Management, is heavily invested in Ligado, which has a pending $39 billion lawsuit against the Department of Defense (DoD) over highly sought-after telecommunications spectrum space that the military has said is “essential for its various satellite communications, radars and navigation systems” usage.
  • In December 2020, Senator Warren (D-Mass.) and Representative Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) reintroduced the Anti-Corruption & Public Integrity Act, to strengthen ethics laws and crack down on government officials’ conflicts of interest across the government.

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The following sites updated:




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