Five minutes into “The Wizard of Oz,” Dorothy Gale, played by Judy Garland, fails to garner the sympathy of her aunt and uncle after an altercation between her dog and their unpleasant neighbor. Auntie Em tells Dorothy to “find yourself a place where you won’t get into any trouble.”

That trouble-free place, it turns out, was not on the dusty Kansas farm where she lived. It was over the proverbial rainbow. Garland then launched into what has become one of the most recognized and beloved songs ever written.

The 1939 Academy Award-winning “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” is our reason to smile as we get ready to watch this year’s Oscars.

Twenty-five years ago this week, Garland’s rendition was voted Song of the Century in a poll conducted by the Recording Industry Association of America, the National Endowment for the Arts, and Scholastic Inc. The ballad was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame as well as the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress.

“Somewhere Over the Rainbow” became Garland’s signature song. She continued to perform it for 30 years, just as she did for the film, saying she wanted it to remain true to Dorothy’s character and the song’s message. That message, imagining a better future in an uncertain world, still resonates. It can sometimes feel impossible, but I believe it is what will get us through.

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Dan

It would be easy to say the president grossly miscalculated the Iranians’ ability to withstand war, but that assumes he calculated anything at all. This is a war executed on a whim, and Donald Trump could lose it.

The United States and Iran are playing an extraordinarily expensive game of chicken, and right now Iran is winning.

Trump may eventually retreat while claiming “victory,” but the hardliners in Tehran remain in control. They will demand concessions from the president before they stop attacks across the Middle East and allow ships to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, that narrow stretch of ocean that has a chokehold on the world economy.

While the White House doesn’t seem to have a coherent plan to fight this war, or how to end it, Iran does: inflict economic, political, and military pain until Trump utters “uncle.” They are doing a good job of it so far.

The Americans and Israelis continue to bomb Iran with no articulated endgame.

On Thursday, we awoke to images of two Iraqi tankers set ablaze by Iran in the Persian Gulf. For those of us who have watched and covered the region for years, it was a nightmare long feared, and it now means Iran and its radical clerics are calling the shots.

Don’t think so?

As we near the two-week mark, Iran has shut down the oil industry in the Gulf, causing global economic panic. On Thursday, we heard from the new ayatollah, Mojtaba Khamenei, son of the slain leader, who conceded nothing. In a statement, he vowed to keep the Strait of Hormuz closed, through which 20 percent of the world’s oil passes, as well as a host of petroleum-based products like plastics and fertilizer.

Iran is also reportedly mining the strait with explosives while successfully firing on U.S. warships and regional oil tankers. Seventeen U.S. military installations have been hit, as well as embassies in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Dubai.

“Get ready for oil to be $200 a barrel, because the oil price depends on regional security, which you have destabilized,” Iran’s military commander Ebrahim Zolfaqari said, ostensibly to Trump.

The International Energy Agency (IEA), a 32-country coalition including the United States, called this “the largest supply disruption in the history of the global oil market.” Even after the IEA agreed to release 400 million barrels of crude oil, prices continue to rise.

Analysts aren’t buying Trump’s assertion that prices will “drop very rapidly when this is over.”

Diane Swonk, Chief Economist for professional services firm, KPMG, told Bloomberg News that even if the war ends in a month, disruptions to the supply chain will take far longer to resolve. She described the situation as “similar in scope, not as bad, but similar to what we saw during the pandemic when everything shut down.”

While targeting the Gulf’s energy infrastructure, Iran is also engaging in cyber warfare. An Iranian hacker group took responsibility for a cyberattack on a medical tech company based in Michigan.

Trump is trying back-channel diplomacy, but two offers for a ceasefire from U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff have been rejected by Iran.

Iran’s current leadership remains intact and not at risk of imminent demise, according to Reuters. The Iranian military may have been severely damaged but has not been stopped by days of bombardment by the U.S. and Israeli militaries. None of this sounds like “winning.”

What about Trump’s plan? Pod Save America’s headline Thursday perfectly encapsulates his schizophrenic objectives: “Trump Says War Over, Vows to Keep Fighting.”

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Those diametrically opposed sentiments were again relayed during his rambling, hour-plus rally in Kentucky on Wednesday evening.

At one point he said, “We got to finish the job, right?” Minutes later he boasted, “Let me tell you, we’ve won … In the first hour it was over.” And yet, the U.S. military is still engaged in high-cost combat.

In the first seven days of the war, the Defense Department spent $11.3 billion, according to The New York Times. And odds are they will be on the Hill asking for more in the coming weeks. This, despite getting a $153 billion bonus from Trump’s summer spending bill, on top of its $900 billion annual budget, its biggest ever.

Trump is also losing the public relations war.

After he suggested Iran was responsible for the missile strike that killed a school full of Iranian children, a Pentagon report said no, the U.S. was at fault. With that knowledge, a reporter asked Trump if he now takes responsibility for the attack. Trump answered, “I don’t know about it.” Khamenei apparently does, and has vowed to avenge “the blood of the martyrs.”

In a puzzling social media post on Thursday, Trump wrote, “The United States is the largest Oil Producer in the World, by far, so when oil prices go up, we make a lot of money.” Who is the “we?” Yes, he and his billionaire buddies are making out like bandits, but most of the world will suffer mightily.

Here we are, nearly two weeks in, and what Americans know about this war comes down to this: It’s costing 60 cents a gallon more to fill up the family car. Next week, it will likely cost even more.

And it’s not just gasoline. Mortgage rates are climbing again. And investors are blaming the war for jittery markets.

Then there is the Pentagon, which like the rest of the Trump administration, is less than transparent and often thin-skinned.

On Wednesday, the Department of Defense had to revise its number of wounded from fewer than a dozen to at least 140, after Reuters reported 150 U.S. soldiers have been hurt, in addition to the seven who have been killed.

But perhaps most absurdly, the U.S. military command has banned photographers from Pentagon briefings after Pete Hegseth’s staff thought photos of the secretary were “unflattering.” At least we know where their priorities are. Three of the photos they don’t approve of are above.

Whenever this unconstitutional, unpopular, and unnecessary war inevitably ends, Trump’s domestic problems will be waiting for him. He will have to face a growing list of questions about the all-but-forgotten Epstein files. He will have to contend with rising prices while he rambles from speech to speech on his “affordability tour.” And he will have to placate Republicans fighting for their political lives.

Meanwhile, we say a prayer for all American servicemembers in harm’s way. We wish them a safe return.

There is so much to tell in this story. As independent journalists, we attempt to consolidate what we believe to be the most accurate information and present a narrative that paints a clear picture of a perilous time. To remain steady we all must be informed.

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Dan

For decades, Iran’s radical regimes have been a problem for Western governments. Many U.S. presidents — Republican and Democrat — had the opportunity to unleash what this president has. None did so because they believed it was not in the best interest of American or global security.

Ronald Reagan, for instance, sent the then-ayatollah a birthday cake and eventually some of the best U.S. weapons. He was trying to strike a deal, not start a war. Every American president since then has worked to avoid war with Iran. Until the 47th.

George W. Bush made a strategic mistake of historic consequences when he chose to invade Iraq. During that war, some within his administration argued that the United States should, “while we’re at it,” defeat Iran militarily. At least President Bush did not compound his error by taking that advice.

Donald Trump’s unprovoked war is causing massive disruption in the oil industry. Iran has all but closed the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20 percent of the world’s oil travels. Because oil producers in the Persian Gulf can’t move their product, many have shut down production. Much of the world’s fertilizer, which feeds crops on every continent, also travels through the strait.

Oil topped $100 a barrel over the weekend, and energy analysts predict it could go to $150 quickly. What does that mean for you? No one is dismissing the possibility that gasoline could reach $5 a gallon.

The spike will affect every commodity that travels by truck, train, ship, or plane. But don’t worry. “If they rise they rise,” the billionaire president said with a shrug. On Sunday he went further, claiming a “short-term” rise in prices is a “very small price to pay” for global safety and security.

Only Trump is so sanguine.

Politico is calling it “the largest oil disruption in market history.”

“Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has ground to a virtual halt, unleashing the most severe energy crisis since the 1970s and threatening the global economy,” says the Wall Street Journal.

“In the whole written history of the strait, it has never been closed, ever. To me, it was not just the worst-case scenario. It was an unthinkable scenario,” Natasha Kaneva, an oil analyst for JPMorgan Chase, told the Journal.

And while every American is already paying more at the pump — and soon will pay more for many other things — the president is quietly plotting ways to get more of your money to enrich himself.

July 4, 2026 marks the 250th anniversary or the semiquincentennial of the Declaration of Independence. To commemorate the longest-running uninterrupted modern democracy in the world, the Trump administration is planning a months-long celebration that includes a parade, a fair on the National Mall, a prayer event and a roster of “Ultimate Fighting Championship” events on the South Lawn of the White House.

But that’s just the opening. Here comes the grift.

According to the news site NOTUS, on Friday, the Trump Organization filed multiple trademark applications with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. They are trademarking the image and name ‘Trump 250’ as well as several variations, which means Donald Trump will profit from America’s 250th birthday.

The Trump Organization plans to make and sell bumper stickers, tote bags, cups, clothing, and golf balls, depriving the U.S. Treasury of any money made from ‘Trump 250’ products.

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In a separate but equally appalling filing, the Kennedy Center board of directors is seeking a trademark for ‘The Trump Kennedy Center’ logo. It plans to make souvenirs, including earbuds, binoculars, electric fans, wallets, luggage tags, Christmas tree ornaments, and other merchandise. One guess as to who will benefit financially from the sale of a ‘Trump Kennedy Center’ hoodie.

Trump’s outrageous behavior is not limited to his efforts to bilk the American public. This week, it once again extends to his attempt to rewrite history in his favor.

In the wee hours of Saturday morning, with no fanfare, two staff members from the Architect of the Capitol mounted a bronze plaque honoring law enforcement officers who defended the U.S. Capitol on January 6 from a Trump-incited mob. The only other person present was a Washington Post reporter.

On January 6, 2021, members of the D.C. police, the U.S. Secret Service, the U.S. Capitol Police, the National Guard, and the Maryland and Virginia state police protected the building, a symbol of American democracy. They also protected hundreds of members of Congress inside the Capitol building from insurrectionists.

During the ensuing riot, police were beaten, tear-gassed, taunted and knocked unconscious. One hundred-forty officers were injured and another suffered two strokes, dying the following day. Four died by suicide within months of the insurrection.

The memorial, the first official marker of the January 6 riots, dedicated to these brave men and women reads: “On behalf of a grateful Congress, this plaque honors the extraordinary individuals who bravely protected and defended this symbol of democracy on January 6, 2021. Their heroism will never be forgotten.”

In March 2022, the House and Senate passed a law requiring that a plaque be installed on the west front of the Capitol, where the worst fighting occurred. They had a year to do it. March 2023 came and went. Congress ignored its own deadline.

The cause of the long-delayed installation can be laid at the feet of Trump lapdog and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, whose spokesperson said the project was “not implementable.”

In January, Senators Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Jeff Merkley (D-OR) pushed for a resolution ordering the display of the plaque on the Senate side of the Capitol until a permanent location could be found. It was decided by unanimous consent.

Johnson’s illegal inaction is just the latest in a list of Trump administration efforts to whitewash the insurrection that attempted to overturn a free and fair election. The president has tried to reframe it as a “day of love.”

Last January 6, the fifth anniversary of the riot, the Trump administration unveiled a new website strewn with falsehoods about that day, shamelessly blaming the Capitol Police for turning “a peaceful demonstration into chaos.”

Lest we forget, one of Trump’s first acts as president was to pardon almost 1,600 insurrectionists, regardless of the severity of their crimes. Since then, close to three dozen have been rearrested for crimes ranging from child molestation to homicide, according to Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

Unlike most historical markers, future generations will be left to guess what happened at the Capitol that day. Here’s an idea: when Trump is gone, update the plaque with the facts, especially who inspired the insurrection.

Meanwhile, the war of choice — not of necessity — started by this president rages on.

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Happy Sunday! This week’s reason to smile is one of those toe-tapping, infectious, high-energy songs that you may not know the words to, but by the second verse, you’re singing along just the same. It is John Denver’s celebration of all things country, “Thank God I’m a Country Boy.”

The song was written by John Martin Sommers, a member of Denver’s band, in December 1973. Denver recorded it 52 years ago today. It simultaneously reached number one on the country charts as well as the Hot 100.

The song is a classic Texas two-step, which may account for why it makes you feel like getting up to swing your partner. You can feel the audience buy-in during this live performance, driven by Denver’s joyful vocals and his fast-paced fiddle, replacing his ubiquitous guitar.

Denver was one of the most popular and best-selling country and folk singer-songwriters of the 1970s. AllMusic has called him “among the most beloved entertainers of his era.”

Thank God for John Denver and I too am thankful for growing up a country boy.

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In one of the most overdue moves of Donald Trump’s second term, the president decided he’s had enough of Kristi Noem. The Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security was fired Thursday and will be replaced by Republican Senator Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma.

Trump, who has filled his Cabinet with dangerous and unqualified toadies, has been loath to get rid of any of them. It’s quite an accomplishment to be the first.

Trump announced the move on social media and made it sound as if Noem received a promotion: “The current Secretary, Kristi Noem, who has served us well, and has had numerous and spectacular results (especially on the Border!), will be moving to be Special Envoy for The Shield of the Americas, our new Security Initiative in the Western Hemisphere we are announcing on Saturday in Doral, Florida. I thank Kristi for her service at ‘Homeland.’”

After months of terrible decisions and controversy, it was Noem’s grilling on the Hill this week that decided her fate.

On Tuesday, Republicans, yes Republicans, questioned the wisdom of spending $220 million on an advertising campaign that prominently featured Noem. Many of those millions were given to a company with close ties to her.

“The president approved ahead of time you spending $220 million running TV ads across the country in which you are featured prominently?” Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) asked. She answered yes.

That got the president’s attention. Several news outlets reported Trump was “furious” with Noem and called senators to deny he knew about the ads.

Noem tried to save herself by telling the committee that the ads had been effective, to which Kennedy shot back, “effective in building your name recognition.”

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Questions about the self-aggrandizing ads were just the beginning of a bad day.

She was chastised by members of both parties for acquiring three multimillion-dollar private jets, one outfitted with a private bedroom.

She was admonished for lowering hiring and training standards for new immigration agents to such an extent that recruits were reportedly struggling with basic literacy and physical fitness.

But what really sank her ship was immigration — Trump’s self-proclaimed signature issue that became an embarrassment and a tragedy after federal agents killed two Americans in Minneapolis.

Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, whose state also dealt with unwanted and unwarranted ICE raids, said of Noem on social media, “Here’s your legacy: Corruption and chaos. Parents and children tear gassed. Moms and nurses, U.S. citizens, getting shot in the face. Now that you’re gone, don’t think you just get to walk away. I guarantee you, you will still be held accountable.”

And let’s not forget that the government is partially shut down because of her agency. It is so poorly run that Democrats refuse to allow funding without changes.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer applauded Noem’s removal but said the issues at DHS go beyond the secretary.

“The problems at ICE transcend any one individual. ... It goes beyond any one person,” he said Thursday. “You need to straighten out the whole agency. The rot there is deep.”

Who’s next? We’ve heard from many of you with suggestions. The list is long.

There’s Attorney General Pam Bondi, of course, who has been in Trump’s sights for months because she’s been unable to get convictions (or even indictments) on any of Trump’s prosecutorial fantasy wish list. And because of the botched release of the Epstein Files.

Speaking of which, he could go with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who is in the files, including evidence he visited Epstein’s island, after saying he’d cut ties with the convicted sex offender.

Bondi and Lutnick have been subpoenaed to testify before Congress — suddenly a precarious proposition for job security in the Trump administration.

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The last time Texas elected a Democrat to the Senate we were all much younger. The year was 1988. The internet was in its infancy. Cell phones weren’t yet a thing, and Lloyd Bentsen became the junior senator from Texas. In the ensuing thirty-eight years, Texas turned deep red and Republicans occupied both of the state’s Senate seats.

Now, it may be the actions of a Republican president that finally end the Democrats’ drought.

James Talarico, a 36-year-old Texas state lawmaker, won the Democratic Primary on Tuesday, defeating Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett. That was mildly surprising, but here’s the stunner.

In total, 100,000 more Democrats voted in the Texas primary than Republicans. Compared to the 2024 Senate primary, more than twice as many Democrats voted yesterday. That is rare in the Lone Star State. Not since 1970 have so many people voted in a Democratic midterm primary, according to CNN.

It’s safe to say Democrats in Texas are more enthusiastic than they’ve been in several election cycles. Couple that with anger, disillusionment, and just plain exhaustion with our messy political system, and you see what can happen.

Make no mistake, Texas is still a deeply red state, and flipping it will be harder than nailing Jell-O to a tree, but anger at Donald Trump over immigration, the economy, and now a war of choice is doing his party no favors. Gasoline is up nationwide by more than 20 cents a gallon this week.

As primary voters in Texas, North Carolina, and Arkansas went to the polls on Tuesday, Trump and his loyalists were offering different reasons for attacking Iran. His wishy-washy justifications, lack of an exit strategy, and escalating retaliation by Iran are the latest developments that may hurt Republicans’ chances of holding on to their thin majorities in Congress come November.

Trump’s inability to clearly articulate his rationale for the war is evidence that there may be another motive, one he doesn’t want to own. On Monday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio made matters worse.

Rubio said Trump chose to strike Iran because there was “an imminent threat.” He went on to explain that the U.S. acted “in a defensive way,” because ,“we knew that there was going to be an Israeli action.” So, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is calling the shots?

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“Rubio’s comments are a record-scratch moment. He said what most guessed was the case. That he said out loud this is a sea change in foreign policy. There will be massive calls for a walk back,” Mike Cernovich, a MAGA political commentator, wrote on social media.

Trump tried to do some of that walking back. When asked if Israel pushed him to strike first, he denied it. “If anything, I might have forced Israel’s hand,” he told reporters.

At this point in most presidential terms, the president is laser-focused on the midterm elections, to either increase his party’s numbers in the House and Senate or, in Trump’s case, stem the predicted losses. But Trump doesn’t seem interested in helping his own cause. While his base is ever loyal, it is not big enough to hold onto the House or maybe even the Senate.

You would think he’d be in full-on campaign mode, stumping for candidates, selling his domestic agenda, touting affordability policy initiatives. Instead, he is starting foreign wars, snatching foreign leaders, terrorizing American cities, and dodging and suppressing anything related to the Epstein files, all while the government is partially shut down for a second time.

Texas is an indication that voters are paying attention to all the craziness, not to mention his forgotten promises.

Talarico beat Crockett by seven points. The candidates, while both progressive, offered vastly different styles: a classic campaigner who often reaches across the aisle while quoting the Bible, versus a firebrand and former public defender who has relentlessly battled the Trump administration.

“The people of our state gave this country a little bit of hope. And a little bit of hope is a dangerous thing,” Talarico said early Wednesday morning.

Crockett vowed to work with Talarico to flip the Senate seat. “Texas is primed to turn blue and we must remain united because this is bigger than any one person. This is about the future of all 30 million Texans and getting America back on track. With the primary behind us, Democrats must rally around our nominees and win,” she said in a statement.

The Republican race was not so clear cut. The most expensive primary race in American electoral history just got more so. Incumbent Senator John Cornyn narrowly beat his opponent, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, but neither got the requisite 50% to avoid a runoff.

For the next 80 days, Cornyn and Paxton will be throwing punches at each other and money at the race, all while trying to curry Trump’s favor to secure an endorsement. Trump says he will endorse one of the two and ask the other to drop out before the runoff. Meanwhile, Talarico will be waiting and watching as the Republicans tear each other apart.

One last note about Texas. Yesterday’s primary revealed more evidence that Trump’s favor with Latino voters may be fleeting. Democratic turnout in the heavily Latino Rio Grande Valley was up, and far larger than Republican turnout.

In North Carolina, the Senate race is set with the two expected candidates, former Democratic governor Roy Cooper and former Republican National Committee chair Michael Whatley. It is a seat the Democrats think they can take.

What is of special interest about Tuesday’s North Carolina primary is that once again many more Democrats voted than Republicans. This time the gap was more than 200,000 votes.

One last Senate race to keep an eye on is one in Montana. On Tuesday, former Green Beret, Rhodes Scholar, and University of Montana president Seth Bodnar entered the race as an independent, saying both parties have failed the American people.

“The American Dream is getting crushed, and both parties are to blame. They pit us against each other, while they line their own pockets,” Bodnar said in a video launching his campaign. It is a shrewd strategy at a time when three-fourths of Americans polled disapprove of Congress.

Primaries tend not to be predictive of general elections. What we can take away from Tuesday is that right now Democrats have an enthusiasm advantage. Many Americans are desperate to be able to do something to stop Trump’s authoritarian takeover of the country.

“If the election were today….” Ah, but it isn’t. Anyone who has covered elections for a while learns that in politics overnight is a long time, and a week is forever. Which is to say that Democrats can be encouraged by the latest primary returns, but it would be a mistake to read too much into them.

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One of the most solemn responsibilities of this president, or any president, is to explain to the American people why he is sending our military into harm’s way. And just as important is to explain why and how our service members were killed in the line of duty.

Donald Trump has failed in both of those duties since he started a war of choice with Iran three days ago.

After failing to address the nation as every president has done since it became technologically possible, the president finally spoke on camera for just six minutes on Monday. It was a rambling preamble to an already planned White House event.

In remarks insulting to the intelligence of anyone following the events of the past three days, not to mention to the families of military members killed, Trump oddly segued from talk of honoring those who died to the curtains in the East Room of the White House and ballroom construction.

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Among the most troublesome things about Trump’s despotic regime is all we don’t know.

The need for credible information about the war in Iran can not be overstated, and yet we are getting almost nothing from the White House and an administration not known for its truthfulness. How can we believe a word they say when the agenda has long been freewheeling falsehoods?

The paltry communications from Trump and the Department of Defense have been scattershot and contradictory.

Instead of a live address, shortly after hostilities began, Trump posted an 8-minute authoritarian-esque video on his own social media platform from Mar-a-Lago. This way, reporters couldn’t question his motives live. A second short video followed and was no more enlightening.

The White House did not send proxies to the Sunday morning talk shows to make the case for war. The famously available president did not hold a press gaggle on Air Force One on the way back to Washington from Palm Beach, nor did he answer shouted questions as he entered the White House on Sunday night.

The president did take quick calls from more than a dozen reporters, spinning different narratives, sometimes to the same people. On one of those calls with reporters from The New York Times he laid out three competing options for an Iranian endgame.

At one point he recommended complete regime change, saying the Iranian people should overthrow their government. “That’s going to be up to them about whether or not they do. They’ve been talking about it for years, so now they’ll obviously have an opportunity.”

He also suggested the Iranian military hand over their weapons to the Iranian people.

He then said he would remove the leaders but keep the government, à la Venezuela. “What we did in Venezuela, I think, is the perfect, the perfect scenario,” Trump said. So regime realignment but not change? He went on to say there are “three very good choices,” to take over for Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader who was assassinated early Sunday.

Later, he had to amend that suggestion. “The attack was so successful it knocked out most of the candidates,” he told Jonathan Karl of ABC News in another phone call. “It’s not going to be anybody that we were thinking of because they are all dead. Second or third place is dead.”

None of these options was accompanied by an executable plan.

Early Monday morning, video surfaced of an American F-15E fighter jet crashing in Kuwait. U.S. Central Command said it and two additional F-15s were mistakenly downed by Kuwaiti air defenses and that the six pilots ejected safely. This explanation rings hollow considering the sophisticated technology onboard the aircraft. But that’s all anyone is saying.

At 8 o’clock Monday morning, more than two days after the aggressive bombardment of Iran began, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and General Dan Caine, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, held the administration’s first press conference. But remember, this is the new Pentagon press pool, where MAGA-friendly reporters who submit pre-selected questions are usually favored.

“Hegseth repeatedly scolded the new Pentagon reporters (all from friendly outlets) who asked about the strategy in Iran. Which explains why he doesn’t hold briefings: he doesn’t believe Americans deserve to know what the U.S. military is doing,” Aidan McLaughlin of Vanity Fair wrote on social media.

While Hegseth was gaslighting the American people, the media was reporting the first U.S. casualties. “We didn’t start this war,” he demanded, and emphatically stated, with no evidence, that the reason the U.S. attacked Iran is because they were building nuclear weapons.

As of this writing, six American servicemen have been killed and five seriously wounded. Trump responded by saying, “Sadly, there will likely be more before it ends. That’s the way it is.”

No, Mr. President, that’s the way you have decided it is.

The death toll for the Iranians is far worse. American and Israeli forces have killed scores of Iranian civilians, including 115 children when a girl’s elementary school was bombed.

The possibility for a full-blown regional war is acute. Iran’s retaliation has been swift and widespread.

They have attacked U.S. targets in ten countries including Qatar, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates. Iranian missiles have hit an oil refinery in Saudi Arabia, the main airport in Kuwait, the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet and a British air force base in Cyprus. Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed terrorist group has launched missiles into Israel from neighboring Lebanon.

A lack of information breeds chaos and fear. A new CNN poll indicates that nearly six in ten Americans disapprove of the decision to go to war with Iran. Financial markets are down, and energy prices are surging. You will soon see the price of war at the pump.

Making no effort to quell fears or calm markets, Trump said the airstrikes could continue for four to five more weeks and told CNN “the big wave” is yet to come, though some reports question whether the U.S. has enough defensive weapons to sustain such a prolonged campaign. If he ever took questions from reporters in good faith, one might ask, “how is it possible that we could launch a war unprepared?”

This self-proclaimed “peace president” has ordered more strikes against other countries than any modern American leader. In just over a year he has attacked seven sovereign nations. The White House insists that Trump always exhausts diplomacy before attacking, though his brand of diplomacy looks a lot like ultimatum theater.

In the ultimate “ends justify the means” scenario, Trump believes the path to peace is paved with violence and force. About this new Iran war, the explanations are weak, the contradictions abundant, and they come from a regime that has proven to be untrustworthy in matters of life and death.

Citizens would do well to keep in mind the old saying, “The first casualty of war is the truth.”

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During a German bombing raid of London 82 years ago today, Irene Daltrey gave birth to a baby boy. Her son became rock legend Roger Daltrey, whose powerful voice and charismatic stage presence made The Who one of the most influential bands of the 20th century. Daltrey is this week’s reason to smile.

Almost every major music award and accolade has been bestowed on Daltrey and his bandmates — Pete Townshend, Keith Moon, and John Entwistle. In addition to winning multiple Grammys, the band was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Daltrey and Townshend were given Kennedy Center Honors, and Daltrey was included on Rolling Stone’s list of 100 greatest singers. Most recently, he was knighted by King Charles III.

The Who had numerous hit songs, but we chose “My Generation” to highlight because it captures the exuberance and revolutionary spirit of the 1960s. Maybe it will inspire that feeling in young (and old) people today.

A few years back, I had the good fortune to interview Daltrey. When I asked him to pinpoint the moment he went from aspiring singer to rock star, he said it was The Who’s performance at Woodstock in 1969 that cemented their place in the rock music pantheon.

“We were a well known band, in this country and in Britain and Europe. And we’d had hit records. But Woodstock, the whole event of Woodstock, just captured people’s imaginations. It became stuff of legends. It was that one event after which life changed greatly,” Daltrey said.

As a founding member of the British Invasion, Daltrey was on the front lines of a new musical genre. “The great thing about rock and roll is that we were inventing it as we went along. It was all made on the hoof. Whatever we wanted to do, we did,” he told me.

Most people might think that headlining the Super Bowl halftime show at age 65 would be a great swan song. Not Daltrey, who once said he would never retire. And it appears he meant it. The Who is currently on a farewell tour.

I asked him how he keeps his voice concert-ready. “I do work at it,” he explained. “I have to be fit to sing our songs, Pete’s songs. It’s all about the words. What I’m really proud of is that you can listen to any Who record. You’ll hear every word.”

Happy birthday, Sir Roger!

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One man has made the decision to attack one of the most dangerous countries in the world. No congressional approval. No appeal to the American people. No explanation. No justification.

That man has commanded American service men and women to fight a war against Iran. And make no mistake, this is war — not a legally declared war, but one chosen by a president who promised to end foreign wars, not start them.

The U.S. military is following the orders of their commander in chief. And it is our patriotic duty to support our troops. It is also patriotic to question those in power. Why are we at war? Why now? What does victory look like? How will we know we have won, if we do? What is the exit strategy? Is there an endgame?

Those and a hundred of other questions come to mind today as we are glued to our computers, phones, and televisions, hoping for any information and praying for those in harm’s way.

The continuing airstrikes on Iran are a massive, multipronged assault in full partnership with Israel. This operation is unlike the tactical, one-day bombing of the country’s nuclear sites last June. After that attack, Trump declared Iran’s nuclear capabilities “obliterated.” Now he is claiming, just seven months later, that the Iranians are again a nuclear threat.

Where is the evidence? Neither Congress nor the American people have been shown any.

The president released an eight minute video on social media in the wee hours of the morning announcing the bombing raid, but little else has come from Mar-a-Lago, where Trump is spending the weekend. An address to the American people was planned, then canceled.

With little information from the Pentagon, The New York Times is relying on the Iranian state news agency for details. Using satellite imagery, the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) believes the joint U.S.-Israeli bombing campaign hit 14 cities inside Iran, with multiple sites in the capital, Tehran.

In a Saturday morning interview with the Washington Post, Trump said the principal objective of the attack was “freedom” for the Iranian people. But then it became about regime change when reports emerged that Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had been killed.

Unsurprisingly, Iran retaliated with missile strikes against Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia, so far.

Trump, not a man known for forward thinking or grasping consequences, has declared war on a country about which he knows little. Nor do we as a people, as a country, know much either.

The most pressing question right now is, do the president and those around him know what they are doing?

With that in mind, it is worth repeating to ourselves that it is our patriotic duty as citizens to support our troops, seamen, and airmen, and their families. But it is also our responsibility to keep asking the tough questions.

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The president knows if Democrats retake one or both houses of Congress in the midterms, it’s game over for Trump 2.0. An opposition Congress would use its innumerable powers to check the Trump agenda, and, perhaps more frightening to him, spend the second half of his term investigating the deep corruption of the first half.

Donald Trump doesn’t want you to vote, especially if you’re a Democrat. It’s becoming increasingly obvious he will do anything to keep eligible Americans away from the polls.

The president has hinted at taking executive action around this issue in the past few months, but for the first time, new reporting reveals an actual plan to take away our most cherished right.

Trump’s latest gambit: direct White House lawyers to find a legal avenue to take control of the upcoming midterm elections, according to the cable network MS NOW. One ploy he is said to be considering is issuing an executive order requiring proof of citizenship to register and a photo ID to vote.

Since he can’t bend the Senate to his will to pass the SAVE Act, the most restrictive voter-suppression bill in American history, Trump reportedly is actively looking for another avenue to unilaterally assert control over U.S. elections.

Trump and the White House counsel’s office will be looking for a long time. The Constitution is clear: Article I states that administration of elections belongs to the states. And any changes to voting laws must pass through the Congress.

There is a second constitutional issue. IDs such as passports and driver’s licenses cost money. You can’t charge Americans to vote. I witnessed the effect of poll taxes designed to keep Black Americans from voting in the Deep South. The poll tax was banned by the 24th Amendment in 1964.

Trump’s own lawyers know the legal realities and warn that whatever they come up with will likely be struck down, according to White House officials who spoke with MS NOW.

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According to the Washington Post, a 17-page draft executive order is being circulated throughout the White House. The EO’s premise is to claim a national emergency precipitated by the allegations that China tried to interfere with the 2020 election.

It is mighty convenient that Trump’s perpetual claims of 2020 election fraud, which have been debunked over and over again, are the crux of this latest scheme. As far as Chinese interference goes… A 2021 intelligence review found that China considered trying to influence the election but never actually did. There is no hard evidence the Chinese had anything to do with the election.

We have plenty of problems in America, but voter fraud is not one of them. Republicans and Democrats, conservatives and progressives have investigated the possibility extensively. No credible review ever found widespread election fraud or anything more than a few cases among millions of votes cast.

The Brookings Institution, a centrist think tank, decided to dive into the election integrity issue. To do so it used data collected by the Heritage Foundation, the far-right think tank that authored “Project 2025.”

Brookings found that no election outcome in the U.S. has been altered by fraud. In Pennsylvania, for example, researching 32 elections over three decades, a grand total of 39 cases of fraud were found of the 100 million votes cast. That works out to .000039%. No system is perfectly safe, but U.S. elections are pretty close.

Getting people to worry about a problem that doesn’t exist is classic Trump. “They want to cheat. They have cheated. And their policy is so bad that the only way they can get elected is to cheat. And we’re going to stop it,” Trump said of Democrats during his speech on Tuesday. Does he understand the old saying, “The pot calling the kettle black?”

During the run-up to the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump repeatedly tried to sow seeds of doubt about the integrity of the election. “Those involved in unscrupulous behavior will be sought out, caught, and prosecuted at levels, unfortunately, never seen before in our Country,” he wrote on social media.

Miraculously, when he won, all talk of voter fraud ceased.

Now, about the premise that requiring proof of citizenship to register and ID to vote will hurt Democrats and help Republicans. During non-presidential elections, voter turnout drops considerably. In low-turnout elections Democrats historically do better than Republicans.

But Trump is like a dog with a bone when he gets an idea into his head. So no one is going to convince him otherwise.

In an interview with Newsmax after Tuesday’s State of the Union address, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson said, “If we lose the midterms, heaven forbid, it would be the end of the Trump presidency in a real effect.”

For many Americans, the reaction to that statement would be, “From his lips to God’s ear.”

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Before Donald Trump tries to convince you otherwise on Tuesday night, the state of our union is appalling. That’s not just me saying so; a majority of the American people say so too.

If you believe the polls — and they are remarkably consistent on this — this president is in a lot of trouble. He’s underwater on every issue, especially the economy, and his disapproval rating is hovering around 60%.

It is difficult to understand why roughly 40% of the American people are still buying the unrelenting nonsense and lies coming from this White House. But we’ve seen it before. During Richard Nixon’s final days in office, his approval rating was in the low 30s. Even criminal presidents can count on an unwavering base of support.

So, can Trump go lower? Yes. And he will only have himself to blame, though he seems to be incapable of such introspection.

Even after the Supreme Court handed him a seismic defeat on tariffs on Friday, he has not acquiesced. Instead of shifting gears, Trump is performing his signature move: the double down.

Trump immediately announced he plans to impose a 10% global tariff under a different statute than the one the Court recently struck down. In true Trump fashion, he quickly upped it to a 15% tariff across-the-board. Like the old ones, these new tariffs will be challenged in court.

Polls suggest that many Americans are paying close attention to tariffs, Trump’s signature economic policy, blaming him and the tariffs for rising prices everywhere. Many Republicans running in November breathed a sign of relief after the Supreme Court decision, but that relief will likely be short-lived.

Matthew Bartlett, a Republican strategist and former Trump State Department official, thinks the president can’t see the ocean for the waves. “It’s very possible that the Supreme Court just threw Trump’s economy a life preserver, and the president is refusing it and demanding an anchor. These tariffs economically have not played well into the affordability narrative,” he told Politico.

Ah, that pesky affordability narrative. President Joe Biden ran into the same problem. On paper, the economy looks good. But no matter how well the stock market is doing, or GDP is growing, if you can’t afford to put a proper dinner on the table or buy medicine for your kids, it is meaningless.

What was made manifestly clear in the 2024 presidential election, Americans vote with their pocketbooks in mind, not their stock portfolios.

Friday’s Supreme Court decision was more than a possible life preserver for Trump. It was one for the history books, for several reasons.

In the 6-3 decision, Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Neil Gorsuch, both appointed by the president, joined Chief Justice John Roberts and the Court’s three liberal justices in rejecting the Trump tariffs. It was one of the first times the Court displayed judicial independence and imposed a real check on Trump’s blatant power grab, directing him to stay in his constitutional lane.

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For the first time during Trump’s second term, the Court issued a merits decision, one that was based solely on the legality of the president’s executive actions.

This striking rebuke of the president is a 180-degree turn from what has essentially been a rubber stamp for many of Trump’s policies. Is the Court actually turning a corner? Perhaps.

Friday’s ruling came two months after the Court’s decision in Trump v. Illinois, where it denied the Trump administration’s request to stay a lower court injunction, blocking the federal deployment of National Guard troops in Illinois.

Though no decision has been issued yet, during oral arguments in Trump v. Cook, a case challenging Trump’s firing of Federal Reserve Board governor Lisa Cook, most of the justices seem skeptical of the government’s arguments.

Justice Neil Gorsuch, appointed by Trump in 2017, has been described by the Los Angeles Times as “a wild card,” who tends “to go his own way.” On Friday, he sided with the majority while also writing a concurring opinion, in which he took his fellow conservative justices to task for their dissent.

In the dissenting opinion, Justice Brett Kavanaugh claimed that, “Presidents have long been granted substantial discretion over tariffs.”

Gorsuch disagreed, pointing to the founding of our country. “Americans fought the Revolution in no small part because they believed that only their elected representatives (not the King, not even Parliament) possessed authority to tax them… Americans later codified these beliefs in the Constitution,” he wrote.

He went on, “For those who think it important for the nation to impose more tariffs, I understand that today’s decision will be disappointing. All I can offer them is that most major decisions affecting the rights and responsibilities of the American people (including the duty to pay taxes and tariffs) are funneled through the legislative process for a reason.”

It is about time someone reminded Congress of its constitutional duties. Trump’s executive overreach can be stopped, as demonstrated by this Supreme Court decision. It will take more decisions like this one and more members of Congress stepping up and telling the president no. Their jobs, and our country, depend on it.

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The song “Stand by Me” by Ben E. King was a huge hit when it was released in 1961. It found a second life in the late 1980s when it appeared on the soundtrack of “Stand by Me,” a film directed by Rob Reiner. Twenty-six years after the song was released, it topped the charts for a second time. And 39 years later, it is our reason to smile.

King, a rhythm and blues singer-songwriter, was the lead singer of The Drifters, one of the most prolific hit-makers in the early days of popular music. Their songs included, “Under the Boardwalk,” “Save the Last Dance for Me,” and “Up on the Roof.” But not “Stand by Me.” King recorded and released it as a solo hit after the Drifters passed on it.

The song isn’t just popular at weddings and graduation parties. It is numbered among the Recording Industry Association of America’s 25 Songs of the Century. The original recording was inducted into the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress, which called it “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.” There are 400 known recordings of the song by a diverse set of singers from John Lennon to Tracy Chapman. Even Muhammad Ali recorded a version for the B-side of 45 he released.

The song is so beloved because its lyrics convey a comforting message of friendship and support. The melody is timeless and its iconic rhythmic bass line is instantly recognizable.

It may not surprise you that the song’s simple lyrics have biblical origins. “Stand by Me” was inspired by a gospel hymn of the same name, which in turn was based on Psalm 46: “Therefore, will not we fear, though the Earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea.”

The song reminds us all of the importance of finding strength in others during hard times, that we are all in this together.

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It’s safe to say Iran has not been on anyone’s radar recently, except, apparently, the president’s. Many, if not most, Americans have no idea the U.S. military is about to launch an attack on Iran, much less the reason why.

Donald Trump, who rarely keeps even his most inane ideas to himself, said little publicly about a war. One of his few recent comments came on Thursday when he said “bad things will happen” if Iran doesn’t make a deal on its nuclear program within the next ten days.

While we all were paying attention to the increasingly disturbing revelations coming out of the Epstein files and Trump’s attempts to subvert the midterm elections, the president was quietly amassing a vast naval force in the Middle East, ready to attack Iran as soon as Saturday.

The aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford, the largest warship ever built, is on its way to the Persian Gulf to join an existing fleet that includes another aircraft carrier, guided-missile destroyers, littoral combat ships, and submarines. The armada is stationed throughout the region, in the Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz, the Arabian Sea, the Red Sea, and the Mediterranean Sea.

This is the largest military buildup in the region since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. It could sustain a prolonged air war, unlike the one-and-done attack on Iran’s nuclear facility in June. “The number of fighter planes, aerial refuelers and surveillance planes that have arrived over the past three to four days is immense… It’s staggering,” Politico’s Paul McLeary wrote.

What’s also staggering is the White House’s almost complete black out of information about a possible war. Back on January 27 Trump did hint at what was to come, “There’s a beautiful armada, floating beautifully toward Iran right now.”

To be clear, the president cannot declare war. The Constitution gives that power to Congress. But when has the Constitution stopped this president from doing whatever he wants?

There is a lot more Trump has not done in the run-up to the possible attack on Iran. He has not informed Congress. He has not trotted out his national security team to explain why the U.S. needs to strike Iran now. He has not outlined what will happen after the strike. He has not explained what success would look like. Most importantly, he has not addressed the American people.

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One of the most serious and somber decisions a president makes is when to send U.S. forces into battle. That decision comes with the obligation of explanation. The president apparently doesn’t think he is required to explain himself, nor does he believe he needs the consent of the American people.

Trump claims to be hoping for a diplomatic solution (a solution to what problem exactly?). American-Iranian diplomacy is tepid at best. The two sides met in Geneva earlier this week, reportedly to discuss Iran’s uranium enrichment program. According to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, there has been “a little bit of progress.” But the two sides are “still very far apart on some issues.”

Although neither the president nor the White House has articulated why, we can make some educated guesses: to finally destroy Iran’s nuclear program (though Trump declared it obliterated after the strike in June); to decimate Iran’s extensive missile force; or kill Iran’s military and political leaders, which would precipitate regime change.

According to CNN, the notoriously capricious Trump has been polling advisors, allies, and his friends at Fox “News” for advice. He could be bluffing, though moving a massive armada across the world would be a very expensive bluff.

And the risks are enormous.

Unlike the one-day strike on Iran’s nuclear facility in June or the quick capture of former Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro, a war with Iran could escalate into a protracted regional conflict. Russia and China are allied with Iran and militia groups throughout the Middle East have long been financed by Tehran. Think Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, and Hamas in Gaza.

War would mean a high likelihood of American casualties and the capture of U.S. service members. Faced with those realities, how long would Americans stomach a conflict with an unexplained purpose?

If an American strike results in the killing of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, what is the plan? Who would replace him? It could leave a power vacuum that potentially would be worse than Khamenei.

Before a shot is fired, markets are already jittery at the prospect of war in the oil-rich region, with crude oil prices spiking. A rise in gasoline prices won’t be far behind.

Trump, whose poll numbers are already anemic, could deplete his isolationist MAGA base, which tolerated the Maduro capture and the one-and-done strike on Iran. An unprovoked and prolonged campaign in Iran would not go over well with folks who backed Trump because he promised not to get involved in foreign wars.

Trump’s massive naval buildup could result in one particularly worrisome unintended consequence. The fleet is so large and the possibility of catastrophic damage so great, the Iranians could decide they have nothing to lose. A desperate opponent has little incentive to show restraint.

Iran, of course, is not Venezuela. The country has a strategic and sizable arsenal of small and medium-range missiles that could cause serious damage to US bases, ships, and allies.

Khamenei took to social media to saber-rattle himself. “The US President constantly says that the US has sent a warship toward Iran. Of course, a warship is a dangerous piece of military hardware. However, more dangerous than that warship is the weapon that can send that warship to the bottom of the sea.” This post was accompanied by an AI-generated image of the USS Gerald R. Ford in an ocean grave.

Iran could also close the Strait of Hormuz, which would cripple the movement of oil in the Persian Gulf. Additionally, it could activate proxy terrorist cells across the globe.

“Iran’s military would likely shift into a form of suicidal aggression, launching whatever capabilities remain at its disposal before they are destroyed,” wrote Ali Bakir, a professor of international affairs at Qatar University.

Trump’s opaque approach to war may protect him in the short run from having to explain himself. In the long run, what he does about Iran and how he does it will weigh heavily on his legacy… and on our future.

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We’re here today to help out an old colleague call out blatant censorship and support the First Amendment. Late-night host Stephen Colbert found himself hard up against CBS lawyers on Monday. In an attempt to cozy up to the Trump administration, the network tried to stop Colbert from doing an interview Monday night.

When you read why, you’ll understand the reason everyone needs to see it.

CBS brass insisted Colbert cancel a guest scheduled for that night’s broadcast of “The Late Show.” Not only was Colbert to tell Texas State Representative James Talarico, a Democrat running for U.S. Senate, he was no longer invited to appear, Colbert was ordered not to talk about why the interview was canceled, nor was he to mention Talarico’s name or show his face.

Colbert didn’t take kindly to CBS’s bashing of free speech. So he ignored his bosses. At the start of Monday’s show, Colbert discussed the attempted censorship for six minutes, saying “Talarico” as often as possible. He did adhere to one command. Colbert didn’t show Talarico’s face, instead he used a photo of a look-alike. Colbert is a comedian after all.

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As Colbert explained, this all happened because the Federal Communications Commission issued a letter in January saying it was considering changes to the equal time rule. The rule requires that broadcasts featuring political candidates must offer equal time to their opponents if requested. But news programs, late-night and daytime talk shows, and radio have long been exempt from the rule.

It is laughable to think Fox’s line-up of hosts are being instructed to cancel guests. No, Brendan Carr, the FCC chairman, is and has been targeting programming unflattering to Donald Trump.

Monday’s Colbert-FCC kerfuffle was not the first. Under pressure from Trump, Paramount, CBS’s parent company, announced last summer it was canceling “The Late Show.” Colbert’s last broadcast is scheduled to air at the end of May. It cited financial reasons, which is curious since “The Late Show” is the most watched show in late-night, averaging 2.5 million viewers per night.

Carr also persuaded Disney/ABC to suspend late-night host Jimmy Kimmel and put “The View” on notice for its interview with Talarico. Trump himself said Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers, two other late-night hosts, are next on the list.

The FCC has jurisdiction over broadcast television and radio, but not over streaming or cable outlets — a convenient loophole that Colbert used to his advantage. After the Monday broadcast concluded, he did interview Talarico. His team then uploaded it to “The Late Show” YouTube channel. Here it is:

As of this writing on Tuesday afternoon, Colbert’s interview of Talarico, which streamed on YouTube, as well as X, TikTok and Instagram, has been viewed well over 15 million times. That’s six times more views than if CBS had simply let Colbert interview the Texan on the broadcast.

What’s really going on here? Two things: First, Paramount Global is in a knockdown fight with Netflix to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery. The last thing Paramount needs is to get on the bad side of the guy (Trump) making the decision about the Warner Bros. deal. Second, Republicans think Talarico would be tougher to beat than Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett, his primary opponent. So they wanted to deny him a national platform.

Whatever the intent, the Republican strategy has backfired badly. As Talarico said, Trump is worried Democrats will flip Texas.

A tip of the Stetson to Mr. Colbert for standing up and speaking out.

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November 3 is 260 days away. Between now and then, no story is more consequential to the survival of our republic than Donald Trump’s efforts to subvert the midterm elections. These biennial contests have long been viewed as an interesting political exercise about the popularity of the president and his administration’s policies.

If only things were still so innocent and uncomplicated. The current president is applying maximum pressure trying to ensure the election keeps Republicans in power, whatever the cost to our democracy.

The latest misadventure by Trump and his minions was on Friday when Kristi Noem, the oft-criticized Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, made it clear she believes her agency should be involved in election integrity, claiming she has the authority to find “vulnerabilities” in the election system to make sure they are “run correctly.”

The last thing this country needs is ICE agents or DHS involved in elections. Noem was in Arizona when she made these remarks, speaking to election deniers about the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act.

The SAVE Act, which passed the House on Thursday, includes a provision that requires a photo ID to vote and one that would mandate people to prove their citizenship by producing a birth certificate or passport when registering to vote. According to the Brennan Center for Justice, 21 million Americans, or 9% of the voting public, lack easy access to these documents, and half of Americans don’t even possess a passport.

Young voters and people of color, who tend to vote Democratic, would be disproportionately affected by this requirement. Women who change their last names when they marry would face new hurdles when registering since the name on their birth certificate would not match current identification. Eighty-five percent of married women take their husband’s name or hyphenate.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said there is currently no pathway to passage of the SAVE Act in the Senate, deliberately avoiding calls for elimination of the filibuster. That didn’t sit well with Trump, who took to social media in a huff. “There will be Voter I.D. for the Midterm Elections, whether approved by Congress or not!” he wrote. Whether it is constitutional or not.

Trump’s unyielding election denialism and his ever-increasing menu of illegal maneuvers to subvert the election come not from any evidence that U.S. elections are rife with fraud but from his inability to admit he lost in 2020. His tacit understanding is that Republicans will lose big in November— and that it will be his fault.

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New polling in the wake of Alex Pretti’s killing at the hands of federal agents and recent, disturbing revelations in the Epstein files shows Trump’s approval rating average has hit an all-time low. He is currently 15 points underwater and less popular than Joe Biden was at this point in his presidency.

The fact that midterm elections tend to be referenda on a president’s policies does not bode well for Republicans’ chances in November. Trump’s approval on his top agenda items, immigration enforcement and the economy, are also underwater.

Historically, when a sitting president’s approval is above 50% he should expect to lose a handful of House seats in the midterm elections. The loss of three seats in 2026 would result in the Democrats retaking the majority.

When a president’s approval dips below 50%, the predictions are far worse. Trump, who hasn’t been at or above 50% approval for more than a year, may lose at least 32 congressional seats, according to an analysis by Gallup.

According to Democracy Docket’s Marc Elias, Trump’s election subversion timeline is right on schedule. First, he lies about voting and fraud, which he has been doing since Day One of his second term. When that loses steam, he tries to gain traction by going to the courts. When those cases inevitably fail, as they have almost every time since he started this practice in 2016, he resorts to abusing executive power. This is roughly where we’ve been and where we are.

Since he can’t win in a court of law, he makes his case in the court of public opinion. Unfortunately, he has achieved significantly more success there.

It is worth mentioning that Trump had no problem with the 2016 or 2024 presidential election results, the ones he won. Only the results of 2020 remain in doubt in his mind.

But he has done a masterful job conning millions of people into believing that one election was rigged — this despite mountains of evidence that it was free and fair, according to multiple independent organizations including the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank and the University of Maryland Center for Democracy. Even the far-right Heritage Foundation’s own data shows fewer than 100 noncitizens have voted since 1982!

But lack of evidence has never stopped this president.

A frustrating paradox of our current political state is that democratic mechanisms are being used to undermine democracy itself. Political scientists Steven Levitsky and Lucan Way call Trump’s form of governance “competitive authoritarianism,” a hybrid regime where democratic institutions — elections, the courts, the media — still exist but are forcibly skewed in favor of those in power, tipping the scales so they may remain in power.

Election subversion is one tactic of “competitive authoritarianism.” It is used to legally hold onto power by corrupting elections to prevent the true winner from taking office. It allows for elections to take place, while supplying a patina of legitimacy. Think Hungary and Viktor Orbán, Recep Erdoğan in Turkey, or Venezuela under Hugo Chávez.

For a man who claims to be worried about the safety of our elections Trump has a dangerous way of showing it. He dismantled the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which helped states keep our elections safe, especially from the increased threat of cyber attacks. He fired or sidelined election security personnel. He threatened to prosecute election officials in states where he didn’t like the outcome in 2020.

He demanded voter files from all 50 states and the District of Columbia in order to purge legitimate voters from the rolls, which he has no authority to do. Twenty-four states, including some red states, have not complied. So he took them to court, unsuccessfully so far.

He is now promising an executive order that would require photo identification to vote and ban mail-in ballots. He seems undeterred by the fact that he issued a similar order last March and was blocked by a federal court.

Recent election wins by Democrats, low approval ratings, and defeats in court are fueling Trump’s increasingly desperate attempts to find ways to manipulate the system to guarantee Republicans wins in November.

This election is shaping up to be one of the most consequential of my lifetime. The very foundation of our constitutional republic, based on the principles of freedom and democracy, is at stake.

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“Everyday People” is a protest song wrapped in joy. The sunny pop song admonishes without anger, suggesting we celebrate our differences. It is a message many people need to hear right now.

The song was released 57 years ago this weekend and became Sly and the Family Stone’s first No. 1 hit. It is this week’s reason to smile.

The rock-pop-funk band emerged from the Bay Area in 1968, preaching a message of peace and equity. Sly and the Family Stone was the first racially integrated band in rock history. Their hit, “Everyday People,” reflected their ethos.

Musically and lyrically, the song uses a variety of techniques to deliver its theme of inclusivity. The use of the cadence of the playground taunt “na na-na boo boo” mocks the futility of hating each other for being who we are. The song also includes the lyric “Different strokes for different folks,” cementing it as a well-known catchphrase.

We have chosen a more recent version of the song to share because it perfectly embodies the very message the song is meant to convey.

Playing for Change, a multimedia music project featuring musicians and singers from around the globe, produced this video. The mission of Playing for Change is to connect the world through music. Through its foundation, it provides music and art programs for children in underserved communities in 17 countries.

Playing for Change’s “Everyday People” features students alongside artists who teach and inspire them, including Jack Johnson, Jason Mraz, Paula Abdul, Misty Copeland, Yo-Yo Ma, Elizabeth Banks, Keb’ Mo’, Josh Groban, and others.

We hope it brings a smile to your Sunday.

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Our nation’s capital city is dotted with monuments to honor the most revered historical figures — think Washington, Lincoln, and Jefferson. Suddenly, the landscape is littered with a self-aggrandizing celebration of the current occupant of the White House, brought to you by the man himself.

Federal buildings are now festooned with three-story-high banners of Donald Trump’s shadowy face. These taxpayer-funded pieces of propaganda are just one example of Trump’s self-glorification. They would be right at home in the North Korean capital, and are gaudy enough to make Saddam Hussein blush.

For all his bluster, Trump is a deeply insecure man. His penchant for self-promotion — slapping his name on everything from whiskey glasses to apartment buildings — has long been his over-compensating brand strategy. When an avowed narcissist wants to sell something, it makes sense that he prominently emblazons items with his visage or moniker in a large, all-caps font.

Trump has tried, and in many cases succeeded, in naming things that rightfully belong to the American people or renaming things meant to honor others. In some cases, he has done so illegally. The amount of energy he exerts to stroke his own ego rather than help the American people should be astonishing, but it no longer engenders the outrage it deserves because it has become commonplace.

In December, the White House announced that the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts would be renamed the Donald J. Trump Kennedy Center. The very next day, the new name was already affixed to the building’s marble facade. Trump’s handpicked Board of Trustees voted for the rebrand, even though changing the name is supposed to take an act of Congress. But Trump has repeatedly shown disdain for Congress and any power it might wield to stymie him.

Also in December, Trump added his name to the U.S. Institute of Peace, an independent nonprofit established and funded by Congress. A State Department statement said the update was a tribute to the “greatest dealmaker in our nation’s history.”

Recently, the Pentagon announced it was developing a new fighter jet called the F-47, in honor of the 47th president, as well as a new class of battleship named for Trump and bedecked with an image of the president with his fist raised.

According to Forbes, the battleships would be the biggest warships constructed in the United States since WWII. And that’s a problem. “Big and overarmed behemoths have been obsolete in warfare for many decades,” according to the Los Angeles Times.

The president should be focused on righting the ship, rather than naming one.

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Trump likes to put his name on almost anything, especially on things that help people financially, an obvious reminder of who is responsible for providing the perk. During the 2020 presidential election, Trump pushed to get his name on the stimulus checks sent to millions of Americans.

This month, Trump added his name to a new online prescription drug platform, TrumpRx,a search tool to (ostensibly) find lower-priced medications.

The recently rolled out Trump Accounts are a children’s savings and investment program that parents can apply for using IRS Form 4547. In case you were wondering, that’s not an arbitrary number. If approved, the federal government deposits $1,000 in the account, which can be accessed when the child turns 18.

The government is currently accepting applications for the Trump Gold Card, essentially a bribe to fast-track immigration processing. Applicants pay a $15,000 fee to start the process and then $1 million if approved. The card is not theoretical. It is an actual plastic gold-colored card, adorned with Trump’s likeness, a bald eagle, and the Statue of Liberty.

In November, the Department of the Interior unveiled the 2026 America the Beautiful National Park Pass. It includes side-by-side images of Trump and George Washington, despite a law that requires the pass to feature the winner of an annual photo competition held by the National Park Foundation. Conservation groups are suing the administration, calling the move “the most ego-driven action yet.” Remarkably, not even close.

The Treasury Department is making plans for a Trump $1 coin, which would have his face stamped on it, even though federal law prohibits living persons from appearing on currency and coins. The 1866 Act of Congress was put in place to avoid the appearance of a monarchy. “King” Trump isn’t bothered by acts of Congress.

Trump’s need to rename all he sees in his honor is seeping even beyond U.S. borders. The newly named Trump Route of International Peace and Prosperity is a U.S.-brokered, 27-mile stretch of highway through Armenia into Azerbaijan. This act of transactional diplomacy by Trump is a conspicuous effort to remind leaders in the region of his reach.

Trump doesn’t just want this name on credit cards and electronic bank accounts. His ego requires even grander gestures.

In November, he put pressure on the owners of the Washington Commanders football franchise to name the team’s new stadium for him. Just days after floating the idea, Trump attended a Commanders game where he was roundly booed. No decision has been made about the stadium’s name, which won’t be completed until 2030.

His most audacious ultimatum yet came last week. Trump froze federal funding for a desperately needed tunnel under the Hudson River connecting New York and New Jersey. The president told New York Senator Chuck Schumer that he would un-freeze the money if Schumer would back Trump’s bid to rename New York’s Penn Station and Washington’s Dulles International Airport after himself, while he’s still in office!

When asked about the demand for the name changes, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said, “Why not?”

In an effort to stop — or at least slow — Trump’s renaming steamroll, Senator Bernie Sanders and two Democratic senators introduced the “Stop Executive Renaming for Vanity and Ego (SERVE) Act,” which would prohibit naming federal buildings after sitting presidents.

“It’s no secret that President Trump is undermining democracy and moving this country toward authoritarianism. Part of that strategy is to create the myth of the ‘Great Leader’ by naming public buildings after himself, something that dictators have done throughout history,” Sanders said in a statement.

In 1975, President Gerald Ford vetoed a bill that would have renamed a federal building in his hometown of Grand Rapids, Michigan, after him. Ford vetoed the bill because he believed that federal buildings should not be named for sitting presidents, establishing a precedent against the practice rather than accepting a personal honor — a precedent the current president is hellbent on upending.

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There once was a time in this country when accountability mattered. The very thought of associating with, much less maintaining a close friendship with a known sex offender would be career ending — or something close to that. Politicians would have been embarrassed, even ashamed, of their actions.

Today? Not so much. Allegations are swept under an ever-growing rug. Names are redacted not for the victims, but for the victimizers.

But some governments do still care about common decency. We’re seeing from them what it was once like in the United States: significant repercussions for those with close ties to Jeffrey Epstein. The largest Epstein file drop to date on January 30 sent heads rolling across Europe.

On Sunday, Morgan McSweeney, chief of staff to U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, resigned because of his close ties to Peter Mandelson. Mandelson served as Britain’s U.S. ambassador until last September, when he was fired by longtime ally, Starmer, after the first batch of Epstein files disclosed a long association.

In one correspondence from Mandelson to Epstein, Mandelson hailed his friend’s release from jail after his conviction for procuring a child for prostitution as “liberation day.”

McSweeney recommended Mandelson for the diplomatic post. “The decision to appoint Peter Mandelson was wrong. He has damaged our party, our country and trust in politics itself…. When asked, I advised the prime minister to make that appointment, and I take full responsibility for that advice,” McSweeney said in a statement.

McSweeney’s resignation came just days after the latest Epstein files showed that Mandelson may have shared sensitive British government documents with Epstein between 2009 and 2010. U.K. police are investigating Mandelson for alleged misconduct in public office. Pressure is building for Starmer to resign over the scandal.

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, once known as Prince Andrew and brother of King Charles, was recently stripped of his royal title because of his association with Epstein. He is now, once again, under scrutiny. London police are “assessing claims” that Andrew leaked official British trade documents to Epstein in 2010.

The British government isn’t the only one holding members of the Epstein cabal accountable.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said his government is opening an investigation into possible links between Epstein and Russian intelligence. “More and more leads, more and more information, and more and more commentary in the global press all relate to the suspicion that this unprecedented pedophilia scandal was co-organized by Russian intelligence services,” Tusk said last week.

A national security adviser to the Slovakian prime minister resigned over texts he shared with Epstein about diplomatic issues, dinner dates, and inappropriate conversations about young women.

Joanna Rubinstein, a Swedish United Nations official who visited Epstein’s island in 2012, resigned last week.

Norway’s economic crimes unit is investigating former Prime Minister Thorbjørn Jagland’s relationship with Epstein.

In France, Jack Lang, a former cultural minister, and his daughter are being investigated for their financial ties to Epstein. They are accused of “laundering of aggravated tax-fraud proceeds.”

The French are also looking into illegal activities at Elon Musk’s social media company X. Last week, French police raided X’s offices in Paris as part of an investigation into allegations that the platform is disseminating child pornography and deepfakes. But in the U.S., Musk’s ties to Epstein have been brushed aside.

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Since the latest file dump, a few members of Congress seem to have finally located their spines.

Today, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnik faced bipartisan calls for his resignation after multiple appearances in the files. “Lutnick’s lies about his business dealings with a convicted child sex offender, raise serious concerns about his judgement and ethics. Lutnick has no business being our Commerce Secretary, and he should resign immediately,” Senator Adam Schiff (D-CA) said in a statement.

Also today, the House Oversight Committee deposed Ghislaine Maxwell, the only one of Epstein’s immediate associates to be convicted of a crime. She was sentenced to 20 years in prison for conspiring with Epstein to sexually abuse minors. Unsurprisingly, she pleaded the Fifth.

Maxwell is a longtime friend of the president. After a July meeting with Todd Blanche, Trump’s former personal attorney and current Deputy Attorney General, she was moved to a minimum-security prison and reportedly given perks, such as access to a computer. Her silence today sent a message to Trump, one made clear by her attorney.

“Ms. Maxwell is prepared to speak fully and honestly if granted clemency by President Trump. Only she can provide the complete account. Some may not like what they hear, but the truth matters. For example, both President Trump and President Clinton are innocent of any wrongdoing,” David Oscar Markus said in a statement.

Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-NM) was present for the abbreviated deposition of Maxwell.

“We know that there are more than three dozen associates, family members and individuals directly associated with Donald Trump in those files… The United States government is engaged in an active cover-up of the largest sex-trafficking scandal and influence pedaling scandal in the history of the United States. And Donald Trump is right at the center of it,” Stansbury said.

Although Trump’s justice department did partially comply with the Epstein Files Transparency Act, they were late in doing so, not all files were released, and the ones that were have been heavily, and some likely erroneously, redacted.

One email to Epstein with the sender’s name redacted said, “Thank you for a fun night… Your littlest girl was a little naughty.” Only the victim’s names were supposed to be withheld.

When the files were made public the Department of Justice told Congress they would have access to the 3.5 million documents in their original, unredacted state. Today members of the House went to the DOJ to review a small portion of them. They were not allowed to bring recording devices, but they could take notes.

“What I saw today was that there were lots of examples of people’s names being redacted when they were not victims,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) said, calling some of the redactions “suspicious and baffling.”

“I think that the DOJ has been in a cover-up mode for many months… There’s no way you run a billion-dollar international child sex trafficking ring with just two people committing crimes,” he continued.

Trump has long proclaimed his innocence in all things Epstein, despite his name appearing in the files 38,000 times, according to a review by The New York Times. This doesn’t mean the president is guilty of anything, but it does, to say the least, justify deep suspicion and further investigation.

The whole sordid saga of the Epstein files seems less about justice for the victims and more about how American men in power are able to manipulate the system to stay there.

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Joni Mitchell, the Canadian-American singer-songwriter, is considered one of the all-time greats, and I agree. She effortlessly mixes folk, pop, jazz, and rock, blending them with her ethereal voice. She has been praised for her intimate lyrics and distinctive compositions. Mitchell is our reason to smile.

Twenty-six years ago today, she released the album “Both Sides Now.” It included beautifully orchestrated covers of jazz standards and reimagined versions of two of her biggest hits, “A Case of You” and “Both Sides Now.”

More than 30 years after releasing “Both Sides Now” on her “Clouds” album, she re-recorded the song with a full orchestra, but brought the key down to suit her new alto range.

I am partial to her original, stripped-down version of the song, in her clear soprano, accompanied by only a guitar. This version was recorded in 1970 at the Isle of Wight Festival.

Let us know which you prefer.

The multiple Grammy winner said she was inspired to write the song by a passage in a Saul Bellow novel, which she was reading during a flight.

“I put down the book, looked out the window and saw clouds too, and I immediately started writing the song. I had no idea that the song would become as popular as it did.”

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Donald Trump knows his party will probably lose one, if not both, houses of Congress in November. He could do something politically rational to help his cause, such as removing the remaining 2,300 ICE agents from the streets of Minneapolis, or lifting tariffs, or restoring Obamacare subsidies to lower health insurance costs.

Since his is very much a “me” not a “we” presidency, none of that will happen. Making the lives of the American people better doesn’t seem to be in his wheelhouse.

Holding on to majorities in the House and the Senate is the only way Trump will be able to continue trampling the Constitution. It is also the only way to ensure Trump and his cabinet aren’t investigated, impeached, and removed.

Historically, the party in power loses seats in the midterms. With a thin Republican majority in the House and wildly unpopular policies, Democrats regaining control is almost a certainty. The Senate, long thought a longshot, is now a possibility.

Trump has known for some time that Republican prospects for the midterms are bleak. He also knows his unceasing and erroneous refrain that American elections are rigged and hordes of undocumented immigrants vote illegally are tired, old lies.

In July, he demanded that Texas undergo an unorthodox, mid-decade redistricting that could net five Republican House seats in November. California countered with a redistricting plan of its own, which was upheld by the Supreme Court on Wednesday, only adding to the president’s alarm. He has tried to strong-arm a number of other states into partisan gerrymandering, with less success.

So, if he can’t gain enough seats by redrawing congressional maps and disenfranchising millions of people, how about trashing the Constitution? On Monday, Trump told Dan Bongino, current podcaster and former FBI deputy director, “We should take over the voting, the voting in at least many, 15 places. The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting.”

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First, a short review of how elections work in this country. Article I, Section 4, Clause 1 of the Constitution states, “The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof…”

The Founding Fathers decentralized the American voting system to prevent the concentration of power and safeguard against tyranny. It took almost 250 years to test the bounds of that constitutional tenet. Make no mistake: it is being tested now.

It is a sign of these unprecedented times that we even have to explain who runs elections, that we need to protect this constitutional guarantee against presidential overreach.

In his ever-increasing need to double down on a terrible idea — this one also illegal — Trump reiterated it on Tuesday. “If you think about it, a state is an agent for the federal government in elections. I don’t know why the federal government doesn’t do them anyway.” His lack of a basic understanding of how our government operates is, once again, shocking.

As one might imagine, this scheme didn’t go over well with lawmakers, including some Republican lawmakers. “I’m not in favor of federalizing elections, no. I think that’s a constitutional issue,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters. Even Trump’s biggest enabler, House Speaker Mike Johnson said no. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer was a bit more direct, calling the move “outlandishly illegal.”

If federalizing the election process won’t work, Steve Bannon, one of Trump’s most trusted advisers, has another plan. He is setting the stage for chaos and intimidation on Election Day. On Tuesday, he announced, “We’re going to have ICE surround the polls come November. We’ll never again allow an election to be stolen.”

Trump has also toyed with the idea of calling off the midterms, which he can’t do legally. But he can use ICE to block and deter voters. And he could use the Department of Justice to seize ballots and take over vote counting. He has also threatened to decertify voting machines. None of these moves would be justified, but lack of justification has never stopped him.

Last week, the FBI seized Fulton County, Georgia’s 2020 election ballots. Fulton County includes Atlanta. In 2020, Trump lost Georgia, even after two recounts. He then tried to lean on the Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to overturn the election. So why seize these documents now?

Since nothing can or should be done about the 2020 results, the only reason for this unprecedented action now is to set the stage for 2026.

The DOJ has demanded unredacted voter files from all 50 states. Twenty-three states and the District of Columbia have not complied. No surprise, Trump & Co. are suing them. Like most of their suits, it isn’t going well. On January 15, a U.S. district court found that the Justice Department’s demands for states’ voter data violated federal privacy laws.

Voter files are a critical weapon for voter suppression and election subversion. They can be used to purge voters. As we know, the DOJ doesn’t need a valid reason to do such a thing.

Trump has made no secret of his plans to thwart, question, and/or subvert the 2026 midterms. Democratic Secretaries of State are the best bulwark against this effort. They are currently strategizing in group calls and gaming out how to stop him.

“Part of that’s a litigation response, part of that is a communications response, part of that is a purely administrative response. But we’re planning out what we would do if certain things happen,” Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon told Democracy Docket.

A lot of people, including federal prosecutors, FBI agents, and judges, would have to be complicit in Trump’s illegal schemes for him to succeed.

Anyone who really cares about the country should be paying close attention. November’s midterm elections are shaping up to be a fight not just at the ballot box, but for democracy itself.

Steady is free, but to support my team’s efforts to protect our democracy through the power of independent journalism, we’d appreciate it if you would consider joining as a paid subscriber. It keeps Steady sustainable and accessible for all.

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Stay Steady,
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