Ben (MEIDASTOUCH NEWS) notes above that Chum and his cronies are hiding injuries of troops in the Iran War. It shows a hostility to the truth and a disrespect of the troops. Its only one of the many ways in which Chump shows repeated disrespect for the troops. Jason Linkins (THE NEW REPUBLIC) reports:
If you want to get the unfiltered skinny on how the never-ending war with Iran is going, it’s written in the dust. Responsible Statecraft’s Trita Parsi reported this week that U.S. service members marooned in the Persian Gulf have been expressing themselves in messages fingered onto a dusty aircraft flap. The anonymous graffiti, which calls to mind the helmet scrawls of disgruntled soldiers in Vietnam, include “Operation Epstein Fury,” “Peace deal #64 incoming … ALL THIS FOR THE HOLY LAND,” and “Bibi’s cucks.” Sounds like things aren’t going so well! “I have no frame of reference, I can’t compare it to the sentiments of U.S. soldiers in previous conflicts,” Parsi wrote. “But I suspect these are new sentiments, or at least a new willingness to express them this openly and directly.”
Whether these sentiments are new is indeed unclear, but it’s not without a frame of reference. Trump has always been fairly explicit in his disrespect for the grunts who do most of the work—and all of the dying—in this racket that we call “war.” But only now is a seemingly unwinnable war bringing this all to a head. It’s no longer possible to pretend that the president doesn’t have boundless contempt for U.S. service members. They’re trapped in a war that was essentially kicked off to distract from all the other terrible news the Trump administration generates—or at least to turn attention away from the Epstein files. (Though if these dust etchings are any guide, Trump failed in this attempt to wag the dog.)
In recent weeks, this dynamic has been playing out on board the USS Abraham Lincoln, an aircraft carrier that has been on a nine-month deployment to support Trump’s war with Iran. Conditions on board the carrier have deteriorated to the point where some seamen have jumped overboard in an attempt to escape the misery. The crew has, for several weeks, been dealing with food shortages and grotesque sanitation issues. As TNR’s Hafiz Rashid reported, “In recent town hall meetings with military leaders, including acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao, things have gotten heated, with family members expressing fear and worry over mental health and the risk of self-harm for the ship’s personnel.”
As it happens, this trouble is not confined to the USS Lincoln: Crews on the USS Benfold, Carl Vinson, and Tripoli have also reported miserable conditions in recent weeks. Pete Hegseth, our self-styled “secretary of war,” has gone to great lengths to downplay and even deny these accounts, characterizing them as misrepresentations while covering up the reason the Lincoln, which is now finally coming home, wasn’t resupplied. The dust scribbles surfaced by Parsi tell a different story.
If anything, the story is an old one. There has always been good reason to question Trump’s respect for U.S. service members. As The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg reported in September of 2020, Trump canceled a visit to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery in Paris, questioning his senior aides as to why he should go to a cemetery full of “losers.” Per Goldberg, “In a separate conversation on the same trip, Trump referred to the more than 1,800 Marines who lost their lives at Belleau Wood as ‘suckers’ for getting killed.” All of this came about because he didn’t want to get his hair mussed in the rainy conditions. (Trump’s former chief of staff, John Kelly, would later confirm Goldberg’s reporting.)
And of course his efforts at destroying STARS AND STRIPES is his combined war on truth and the troops. ALJAZEERA notes, "The Pentagon has fired the editor-in-chief of the Stars and Stripes, a prominent United States military newspaper, as well as one of its top reporters." Filip Timotija (THE HILL) notes three people got fired, "The Pentagon fired the publisher, editor in chief and at least one reporter at Stars and Stripes, a historically independent military news outlet, Friday as the department has looked to reshape its coverage in recent months." BrieAnna J. Frank (USA TODAY) explains, "The firings come months after the Pentagon dismissed the newspaper's ombudsman, a position Congress established in 1991 to protect its editorial independence." Jennifer Jacobs and Kathryn Watson (CBS NEWS) remind, "Recently, Stars and Stripes, along with the Military Times, reported on challenging conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, writing that family members of service members aboard the aircraft carrier were concerned about their loved ones' mental health and risk of self-harm. Acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and President Trump downplayed or denied those reports, but the ship left the Middle East this week to begin the journey home to the U.S. after a nine-month deployment." Minho Kim (NEW YORK TIMES) report:
The Defense Department on Friday fired the publisher and the editor in chief of Stars and Stripes, a government-funded news outlet that reports on the U.S. military, according to a senior Pentagon official and the dismissed journalists.
The firings raised questions about the Pentagon’s willingness to ensure the editorial integrity of the publication that has reported extensively on difficulties faced by military communities as the war in Iran has dragged on. The terminations came about 10 days after Stars and Stripes journalists reported on hardships that Navy sailors were facing on the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln, the aircraft carrier whose deployment was extended to nine months amid the war.
On Friday, the Pentagon sent termination notices to Erik Slavin, the editor in chief, and Max Lederer, the publisher, who had announced his retirement earlier this week, citing conflict with the Pentagon leadership on the paper’s direction. Lara Korte, a Middle East correspondent at the news outlet, was also fired on Friday, according to the official and a post she made on social media.
Edward Helmore (GUARDIAN) notes how Chump and company have been 'bothered' by the news outlet:
The outlet’s reporting on the Lincoln, which is heading for port in San Diego after an extended deployment in the Middle East as part of the war in Iran that the Trump administration started in February alongside Israel, was published on 12 August, on the same day as similar reporting in the Navy Times.
Donald Trump subsequently dismissed concerns about conditions on Lincoln in part, with the president saying the crew’s deployment had been “not nearly long enough”.
The outlet’s reporting on the Lincoln is not the only issue to have placed Stars and Stripes in conflict with the Trump administration. Heralded as representing “the free thought and free expression of a free people”, it has sometimes had a contentious relationship with its primary sponsor before evidently reaching a boiling point during Trump’s second presidency.
The Trump-led Pentagon has been warring with the press that covers it, restricting access and demanding that journalists not seek confidential sources. That led to reporters turning in their access badges rather than acceding to those demands, setting the stage for an influx of rightwing media voices at the Pentagon and a legal battle.
Today on ALL THINGS CONSIDERED (NPR), Danielle Kurtzleben spoke with Lara Korte about her firing:
DANIELLE KURTZLEBEN, HOST:
This week, the Pentagon fired three people from Stars and Stripes, a government-funded outlet that covers the Defense Department. A reporter, the publisher and the editor in chief were given notice the department was terminating them. The firings are the latest in a series of moves by the military to exert greater control over the publication. Lara Korte covered the Middle East for Stars and Stripes. She joins us now from Germany, where she lives alongside members of the military. Welcome, Lara.
LARA KORTE: Thanks for having me, Danielle.
KURTZLEBEN: Sure. So tell us, when did you learn that Pentagon officials had fired you, and what was your reaction?
KORTE: Yeah. This happened yesterday, almost exactly 24 hours ago. We were working on putting out a story, a story I've been working on for a while now, and we got the notice in our emails. It came as a shock, to say the least. I'm still processing it, still, you know, trying to figure out what this all means. But, you know, we're staying positive.
KURTZLEBEN: Now, you wrote online that your firing was because of an interview you gave to CBS, along with editor-in-chief Erik Slavin. Let's listen to a portion of that interview.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "CBS SUNDAY MORNING")
KORTE: I'm working for Stars and Stripes, not for the Pentagon, not for any administration, not for any policymaker.
KURTZLEBEN: Why did those comments constitute a fireable offense in the eyes of the government?
KORTE: You know, per the separation notice, they said that that was insubordination. But from my point of view, I was just reaffirming what the Pentagon has already said in its own policies and what has been longstanding tradition that Stars and Stripes is editorially independent. We have been very fortunate that we do not have government control over the contents of our paper. And so by saying that I work for Stars and Stripes, I feel like I was simply asserting what the Pentagon itself has said.
KURTZLEBEN: Now, that CBS story itself was about other recent developments at Stars and Stripes, like the Pentagon rescinding a regulation that maintains the paper's independence earlier this year. Has the editorial climate at Stars and Stripes changed in recent months?
KORTE: You know, I said this in the CBS interview that I had not been stopped from reporting as I usually do. I've been a reporter for a long time now, and I was able to conduct my work in the same way that I've always conducted it at Stars and Stripes. There was nobody telling us what to write or what we couldn't write. As other people have said before me, I think that's really critical to earning the trust of our readers and the trust of the military community. So as far as I could see, nothing had changed at that point.
[. . .]
KURTZLEBEN: I want to ask about your reporting, because you've reported closely on how the Iran war has affected service members. What do you think your reporting revealed about this war that the public should know?
KORTE: Something that I have reported on pretty closely is the evacuation of military families and civilian employees attached to the Department of Defense out of Bahrain. There is a naval base in Bahrain that has families attached to it. It's the only base in the region where families are allowed to accompany their service members. And they were evacuated very quickly, and in some cases, in a really scary environment. I talked to parents who were hiding with their young toddlers for days in closets, listening to drones hit high-rises.
And now, you know, it's six months out, and they've been evacuated, and thank goodness they are safe. But, you know, now they're dealing with a situation where they don't really know where home is at. And I talked to a lot of them this week, and they basically expressed frustration about not knowing where they're going to live next. They also, you know, are struggling with the finances of this. One person told me that they fronted $40,000 at this point to pay for rental cars and Airbnbs, and that their kids are sleeping on the floor of temporary housing. These folks are really frustrated with the system and looking for answers from the Pentagon.
KURTZLEBEN: That's Lara Korte, who covered the Middle East for Stars and Stripes. She was fired on Friday by the Pentagon. Thank you so much, Lara.
That's only one of the stories being silenced in a lot of the media. The Iran War doesn't get the sort of coverage it should. In fact, Matt Gertz and Harrison Ray (MEDIA MATTERS) note:
Sean Hannity, an avid hawk and sycophant to President Donald Trump, had largely abandoned discussions of the floundering Iran war in recent weeks. But on Wednesday night, he engaged with the conflict on his Fox primetime show for the first time since late July — and lamented that Trump is not getting sufficient “credit” for his purported success there.
Trump’s administration has spent the past several months in negotiations premised around the U.S. giving Iran sufficient economic benefits to convince them to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, with the Iranian nuclear program that was theoretically the crux of Trump’s decision to launch the war in the first place relegated to nebulous future discussions. With those negotiations apparently going nowhere and Trump himself moving on from them, Hannity has decided to move straight to celebrating Trump’s purported victory.
“Under President Trump’s strong leadership, America is once again leading on the world stage,” Hannity introduced the segment. “By the way, it never gets credit — Iran will never have a nuclear weapon thanks to Donald Trump. Does anyone ever give him credit for that?” (Then-Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard submitted testimony in March that Iran had no nuclear enrichment capability, and a U.S. intelligence assessment reportedly found in May that the war had not affected “the time Iran would need to build a nuclear weapon.”)
Hannity claimed that “Iran has suffered yet another economic setback” via the United Arab Emirates’ announcement that it was cutting off trade ties, saying that Trump “expressed optimism over the situation with Iran” earlier that day. He then aired a clip in which Trump responded to a question about whether he planned to reopen stalled negotiations with Iran by saying: “Maybe at some point, but right now, I think the situation is so good, but maybe at some point. Look, it's very simple.”
The Fox host added, “They are breaking financially. But Iran is not the only regime that the president is holding to account. As he indicated, a meeting with North Korean supreme leader — he's back — little rocket man, Kim Jong-un could come later this year.”
Hannity did not explain how Trump was “holding to account” the North Korean regime by gifting its dictator with a personal meeting after ordering the curtailment of planned U.S.-South Korean joint naval exercises on the grounds that those exercises were “very insulting” to Kim, who the president said “likes me.”
On the Iran War, Robert Tait (GUARDIAN) observes:
[Jimmy] Carter’s fate nearly half a century ago may also be on the mind of Donald Trump as he prepares to embark upon a midterm election campaign over the coming months, while embroiled in a military struggle with Tehran. The Iranian regime is proving equally intractable to that faced by his Democratic predecessor.
Trump’s efforts to finish the war he started along with Israel almost six months ago, on 28 February, have foundered after a ceasefire agreement signed in June collapsed – leaving Iran in control of the strait of Hormuz, a waterway that was the conduit for one-fifth of the world’s oil supplies before the conflict.
The Iranian stranglehold has pushed up oil prices, stoked inflation and raised living costs in the US, all as Trump’s Republican party already faced an uphill struggle to retain control of US Congress in November’s midterm elections.
With public support for the war running low, polls show a majority of American voters believe they are worse off since Trump returned to office in January 2025. That indicator alone has echoes of Reagan’s famous question to voters during his 1980 presidential debate with Carter: “Are you better off than you were four years ago?”
REUTERS notes, "Iran has granted permission for a number of Iraqi oil tankers to pass through the Strait of Hormuz following repeated requests from Baghdad through various channels, Iran’s state news agency IRNA reported on Saturday." THE NATIONAL adds, "Iraqi President Nizar Amidi on Saturday said Iran had granted permission for several Iraqi oil tankers to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, after repeated requests from Baghdad as the waterway remained disrupted by the regional conflict." Stephen Quillen and Chris Hamill-Stewart (ALJAZEERA) note:
Chump also declared this week that he would launch an "economic D-Day" on Iran. What exactly does that mean? On today's MORNING EDTION (NPR), Scott Simon discussed this with Andy Gawthorpe:
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
The Treasury secretary also faced questions about the war in Iran this week after President Trump threatened an economic D-Day. Secretary Bessent said this will collapse the Iranian regime.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "SQUAWK ON THE STREET")
SCOTT BESSENT: We are going to all of our allies, and this is going to be the greatest coordinated economic isolation in the history of the world. And we are going to them and saying, you are either with us or against us. Do you want this murderous regime to end?
SIMON: That's Secretary Bessent on CNBC, and he promised more details on Monday. Andy Gawthorpe joins us now. He's a professor at Leiden University in the Netherlands, where he focuses on U.S. foreign policy. Professor, thanks so much for being with us.
ANDY GAWTHORPE: Thanks for having me on the show.
SIMON: The Iranian government survived decades of U.S. sanctions, and now several months of naval blockades. Are there any options for economic pressure left?
GAWTHORPE: Well, as you say, Scott, the Iranian government is already one of the most heavily sanctioned in the world. And a lot of outside analysts are skeptical that there's really much more marginal or incremental steps the U.S. government can take that are going to have a big impact on Iran. When we do hear the announcement tomorrow, it's likely that what it will contain is a lot of details about how the U.S. intends to pressure Iran's trading partners and the countries it does business with and financial transactions with to try to get them to crack down on Iranian business activity. And that's because the U.S. exercises a great deal of control over the international financial system. But that control isn't complete. And, you know, Iran is still finding ways to trade with other countries who operate outside of the U.S. financial system.
Now, the problem that a lot of analysts see with this is that those countries, particularly China, are not likely to be too keen to go along with this U.S. pressure, to give in to this U.S. pressure. So what the U.S. has here is not so much an economic problem as a diplomatic problem. How does it persuade Iran's trading partners to act against what they see as their own interests by cracking down further on the Iranian economy? And there's a lot of skepticism that really there's much mileage in this approach.
SIMON: Well, I mean - let me put it this bluntly - what's in it for them?
GAWTHORPE: Well, exactly. That's right. And if - I mean, often when Washington is faced with a situation like this, where a country says, hey, what's in it for us if we go along with this, then the response can be, well, if you don't go along, then we will punish you in some way. We will use our economic or military or diplomatic might to force you to do what we want.
But we've got to remember that the main country we're talking about here is China, a very, very powerful country, one with which the U.S. has a very complex relationship. Trump is currently trying to de-escalate economic and diplomatic tensions with China. So it seems unlikely that he's going to be willing to blow up that relationship for what ultimately would be a relatively small, marginal benefit in terms of doing economic harm to Iran.
Having set fire to the US economy and torched the international landscape, Chump now busies himself playing online troll. Daniel Hampton (RAW STORY) reports:
President Donald Trump tore into three of his most prominent MAGA-turned-critics — Tucker Carlson, Thomas Massie and Marjorie Taylor Greene — in a lengthy Truth Social post, reviving his feud with a breakaway faction openly plotting against him.
The post referenced an early-August gathering at Carlson's Maine lodge, where the former Fox host hosted Massie, Greene and others who reportedly urged him toward a 2028 presidential run. Carlson has vowed to help build a third party and stop backing the GOP.
Trump was unsparing.
"Tucker Carlson just met with Lightweight 'Former' Congressman, Thomas Massie, and Marjorie 'Traitor' Greene, LOSERS ALL!" he wrote, claiming Carlson's audience had "fallen through the floor" and branding him "a very Low I.Q. individual" who "could barely get out of College." Trump said Carlson wants to run for office but "should be required to take a cognitive test."
Pocharapon Neammanee (HUFFINGTON POST) notes the reply:
Massie noted on X that Trump’s post comes immediately after announcing what the congressman called a “disastrous beef policy” that triggered Republican backlash, and as the U.S. debt hit $40 trillion, in part due to the president-backed “One Big, Beautiful Bill.”
“He posted this because we are the three he should have listened to,” Massie concluded.
Again, he's wrecked the economy. Scott Neuman and Michael Levitt (NPR) report:
Last year, Ian Stamy took the state prize for his bumper soybean yield, coaxing an average of just over 100 bushels per acre from his operation in central Pennsylvania. It's a title he's eager to defend this year — and so far, things look promising.
Wading into a sea of soybeans to grab a stalk by its roots, he says the weather has improved, but last month's record heat wave has him a bit concerned.
"We've been doing everything we can to push a little harder and try a little harder to maintain high yields and see what we can get," he says.
A cow painted on the side of one of his barns is a throwback to his family's six generations of dairy farming, but in 2018, he reversed course. The economics of dairy just didn't work any longer, he says. Now he's all in on soybeans and corn and is excited about this fall's harvest. He acknowledges, though, that it's hard to predict yields until the combines start rolling.
Dry conditions aren't his only challenge this year. Stamy and other farmers NPR spoke to for this story say the cost of keeping a farm running — including fertilizer and diesel fuel for farm equipment — has risen sharply. Those higher costs come on top of President Trump's trade disputes, which have reduced agricultural exports to Canada and China. China, the world's biggest importer of soybeans, responded by turning to other suppliers, such as Brazil. In 2017, the South American country overtook the U.S. as the world's largest soybean producer, and now it supplies 65% of Beijing's needs.
Stamy, 38, who grows about 1,200 acres of soybeans, says price volatility has been "ridiculous" in the last two years. "You think you're heading in the right direction. … You're trying to look ahead at weather events and stuff like that. And then something else happens, bombing or war, and then it changes the whole game."
He doesn't explicitly hold Trump responsible for these challenges, but recent polling suggests that discontent among farmers — long a stalwart of the Make America Great Again coalition — is increasing.
In 2024, the country's farming-dependent counties overwhelming went for Trump. But in the following year, farm bankruptcies spiked across much of the country, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation.
In an April 2026 survey of 974 farmers in 44 states commissioned by Amato Advisors and conducted by Farm Journal, 78% said machinery and other key costs, including fertilizer, fuel, seed and chemicals, were among their top three concerns, and 94% said the war with Iran was increasing those costs. A total of 55% said federal policies over the previous year had hurt their operations, compared with just 19% who said they had helped.
Let's wind down with this from Senator Alex Padilla's office:
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee, Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and U.S. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) sounded the alarm on the Trump Administration’s unprecedented attacks on legal services for unaccompanied children, requesting the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Inspector General (IG) conduct a full investigation into the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) process for entering into agreements for legal services and how it plans to ensure children are adequately represented.
In a letter to the HHS Inspector General, the Senators raised concerns about the Trump Administration’s continued attempts to undermine essential legal services for unaccompanied children.
“On July 31, 2026, after a year and a half of repeated attempts to gut legal services for unaccompanied children, the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) allowed contracts for the provision of these services to expire. The agency appeared to have no clear plan to ensure that the over 25,000 children impacted by this expiration would have lawyers in their deportation proceedings,” wrote the Senators. “Instead, ORR has since hastily attempted to award contracts for legal services to political allies of the Trump Administration with few, if any, qualifications to provide such services—all amid a push by the Administration to deport these children. In addition, ORR appears to have provided sensitive personal information about children to new representation without any consultation with current counsel or the children themselves. This has led to a full blown crisis for vulnerable children, who should not have to represent themselves in deportation proceedings. We write to request that you immediately initiate an investigation into whether funds appropriated for legal services to unaccompanied children have been implemented in a manner that meets ORR’s legal obligations.”
“Congress has, on a bipartisan basis, made clear that unaccompanied children should not be forced to represent themselves in immigration court…” continued the Senators. “Despite these statutory protections, ORR has nevertheless taken drastic steps to gut legal representation for children.”
The Senators cited troubling reports of contracts with longstanding legal service providers expiring, current providers remaining in the dark, and new problematic contacts like those to Burke Law Group and Our Rescue.
“ORR’s collective actions seem designed to deprive unaccompanied children of adequate representation in deportation proceedings,” the Senators concluded. “Attempts by the Administration to expedite the deportation of these children by limiting their access to immigration counsel deserves urgent oversight.”
The Senators requested a formal investigation into ORR’s actions by the HHS Inspector General, to ensure compliance with the law.
Last week, Padilla joined his Democratic colleagues in demanding answers from the Trump Administration on its intent to award a no-bid contract to a Trump-aligned law firm with no apparent immigration law experience, allowing them to represent unaccompanied children who are in the care and custody of the ORR. Earlier this month, Padilla cosponsored the Fairness to Freedom Act of 2026, legislation that would guarantee the right to legal representation for all individuals facing deportation or immigration proceedings, even if they are unable to afford it.
Full letter is available here.
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The following sites updated:
