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Word

Via Honeybadger@NobodyButMe

 

Polls

 Newsweek - According to the Quantus survey of 1,000 registered voters, 47 percent of college-educated voters approve of Trump's job performance while 50 percent disapproved of his performance. The survey was conducted between July 14 and 16 and has a margin of error of +/- 3 percent. That is up from 42 percent in June, according to a Quantus poll with a comparable margin of error.

  New Republic -  Trump has failed to earn majority support for any major issue, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research published Thursday.

Approximately half of U.S. adults—49 percent—believe that Trump’s policies have “done more to hurt” them than help them since he returned to the White House, according to the survey. Twenty-two percent of that group reported that Trump’s policies have not made much of a difference in their lives, while just 27 percent—little more than a quarter—of the polled population responded that Trump had actually helped them.

 

Married couples declining in share of relationships

On the Marc Media - According to U.S. Census and Pew Research Center data, the share of married households has dropped below 50%, while unmarried couples living together continues to climb—projected to hit 16% by 2040. Among adults under 45, more have cohabited with a partner than ever tied the knot.

Family law attorney Sondra Douglas of Rockville, Maryland-based Stein Sperling says she’s seeing a sharp increase in couples—especially millennials and Gen Z—seeking legal protection as they build lives together without getting married.

“These are people in serious, committed relationships,” Douglas says. “They’re choosing not to marry right now, but they’re sharing homes, bank accounts, sometimes even kids. A cohabitation agreement protects both parties—because love alone doesn’t hold up in court.”

These agreements help couples:

• Split rent, bills, and debt fairly
• Protect against one partner’s bad credit or student loans
• Decide who keeps the dog, the couch, or the apartment after a breakup
• Handle estate planning issues like DNRs and healthcare decisions
  

Too many couples either skip this step—or download a free online template—only to discover it’s unenforceable. “A bad agreement can be worse than none at all,” Douglas warns.

Trump and Epstein

Washington Post -  Attorney General Pam Bondi said she will ask a federal court Friday to unseal more grand jury testimony in the sex-trafficking case against former financier Jeffrey Epstein, as she seeks to quell a growing political outcry over the Justice Department’s unfulfilled promise to release more details of the investigation.

But those sealed transcripts, which a judge must first agree to make public in a process that could take weeks, would constitute only a fraction of the evidence and investigative material that the FBI amassed during its years-long investigation. The transcripts are unlikely to fully satisfy Trump’s right-wing base, which continues to call for full transparency surrounding the investigation.

The full extent of what remains under wraps is unclear. Thousands of pages of documents related to the Epstein investigation have already been released through lawsuits, court filings, public records requests and the Justice Department’s prosecution of Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell.

Much of what remains, the Justice Department and FBI said in a joint memo last week, has been sealed by courts “to protect victims” and does “not expose any additional third-parties to allegations of illegal wrongdoing.”

A Timeline of What We Know About Trump and Epstein 

Mediaite -  Jack O’Donnell, the former president of Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, told CNN on Wednesday that he once reprimanded President Donald Trump in the 80s for bringing a 19-year-old into the casino with Jeffrey Epstein in the early hours of the morning.

“He frequently came down to Atlantic City, the two of them, to attend special events,” O’Donnell told CNN host Erin Burnett. “In my mind, it was his best friend, you know, from really the time I was there for four years.”....

O’Donnell said that while the commission decided to give Trump “a break” and not fine him for bringing a 19-year-old into the casino, they warned that the next time it would be different.

“They made me call him and I had to, believe it or not, read him the Riot Act about this action because they gave him a break,” said O’Donnell. “I had to call him and say, ‘Look, they’ve given you a break this time, but if this happens again, the fine is gonna be substantial and it’s gonna be on your head. And oh, by the way, it’s not gonna look good, you and this guy Epstein, coming down here with these young women.”

The Guardian - It was a friendship that spanned three different decades. To Donald Trump, Jeffrey Epstein was a “terrific guy”. Epstein believed himself to be Trump’s “closest friend”, and praised the future president as “charming”.

The relationship would eventually break down, the men falling out over a bidding war on a property in Florida. And after Epstein was convicted of child sex offences in 2008, Trump distanced himself from the financier, claiming he was “not a fan” and wondering, in recent days, why his supporters would “waste time and energy” on demanding that FBI and Department of Justice files on Epstein be released.

But photos, videos and anecdotes paint a picture of a close friendship, of two middle-aged men who repeatedly partied together both alone and with their partners, including with Melania Knauss, who would go on to become Trump’s third wife.

“I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy,” Trump told New York magazine in 2002. “He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.”

Trump’s insight into Epstein’s predilections would be proved true in macabre fashion, when Epstein was found guilty in 2008 of sexually abusing girls aged between 14 and 17 years old. When Epstein was charged with sex trafficking of minors, in 2019, Trump attempted to play down their relationship, insisting: “I knew him like everybody in Palm Beach knew him.” Trump said the pair had fallen out years earlier, and claimed: “I was not a fan of his.”

But during the 15 years that the men were friends, there were plenty of incidents that displayed Trump and Epstein’s closeness. More

NBC News -  President Donald Trump on Thursday denied writing a letter to Jeffrey Epstein more than two decades ago that reportedly included an outline of a naked woman and a "Donald" signature.

The denial came in response to a Wall Street Journal article that said Trump was among dozens of Epstein's associates enlisted by his then-confidant Ghislaine Maxwell to contribute to a collection of letters she planned to give him in a birthday album.

According to documents reviewed by the Journal, Trump’s letter featured several lines of typewritten text framed by what appeared to be a hand-drawn outline of a naked woman. The outline, according to the Journal, included details meant to depict the woman’s breast. Trump’s signature was drawn across the woman’s waist, meant to mimic the appearance of pubic hair.

 

Hundreds of Packages Pile Up Outside Woman’s Home

 NY Times -About a year ago, a single package appeared on Karen Holton’s porch in San Jose, Calif. She was bewildered; she had not ordered anything, and neither had her neighbors. So she dropped the package at U.P.S., and thought that was the end of it.

She was wrong.

“They kept coming,” Ms. Holton, 55, said in an interview on Friday.

It was just the beginning of a yearlong ordeal as the unintended recipient of misdirected Amazon returns.

Over months, an onslaught of cartons and boxes grew at the doorstep of Ms. Holton’s home, a single-family house on a corner lot, in stacks so high that she was unable to easily use her door or get to her mail.

“They were always put on my porch, or if the porch was too full, they would pile up outside,” she said. “It was hit and miss. A couple of weeks there were none. And then 10 in a week. No rhyme or reason to it.”

“I had to move them if I wanted to be able to use my porch or get into my house,” she said.

Eventually, she started to move them to the carport, and covered the boxes with a tarp, worried about rain, fire and rodents. The chaotic stacks of mismatched packages grew into musty walls so tall that she was unable to park there.

Occasionally, she opened a few, and pulled out what she described as “cheap” fake leather car seat covers.

At one point, she estimated that there were as many as 120 boxes sitting on her property.

Her ordeal as the recipient of e-commerce returns gone wrong was reported by ABC 7 of San Francisco, which portrayed it as a case study in how a seller based overseas — in this case an outfit called Liusandedian that sold car seat covers configured to fit various makes and models — can use any random address in the United States as the location for its returns.

 

Millions in eleven states told to stay inside

Newsweek - Heat-related warnings from the National Weather Service (NWS) were in effect for parts of 11 states on Friday morning, with officials advising residents in affected areas to keep out of the sun as hot temperatures and high humidity could trigger heat illnesses.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), extreme heat can lead to heat-related illnesses, especially in older adults, young children and those with chronic medical conditions.

Symptoms may include heavy sweating, muscle cramps, dizziness and nausea. The CDC says more than 700 people die each year in the U.S. because of extreme heat.

Additionally, rising temperatures can worsen ground-level ozone pollution, which presents additional health risks. Map of warned states

 

Meanwhile. . .

NY Times - CBS said that it was canceling “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” and retiring a late-night franchise that has existed for more than three decades. Colbert’s run — and “The Late Show” itself — will end in May. Read more

Health

 Axios - Health plans on the Affordable Care Act marketplaces are requesting their biggest premium hikes since 2018, in some cases over 30%, according to a new analysis from KFF.

The growing cost of care combined with the anticipated expiration of enhanced ACA premium subsidies and tariffs are driving the increase, according to insurers' preliminary filings with state regulators for 2026.

ACA premiums are on track to rise by a median 15% next year, based on 105 filings submitted across 19 states and D.C. that KFF examined.

• Thirty-two insurers anticipate a 10% to 15% increase in premiums. Another 24 insurers expect increases of 15% to 20%...

Marketplace enrollees who qualify for ACA premium subsidies typically won't feel the effects of annual premium increases, KFF notes....

Many Americans with employer-sponsored insurance will also see higher health care costs next year.

LGBTQ

988 Lifeline - The Trump administration on Thursday afternoon officially terminated the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline’s LGBTQ Youth Specialized Services program, which gave callers under age 25 the option to speak with LGBTQ-trained counselors.

“Everyone who contacts the 988 Lifeline will continue to receive access to skilled, caring, culturally competent crisis counselors who can help with suicidal, substance misuse, or mental health crises, or any other kind of emotional distress. Anyone who calls the Lifeline will continue to receive compassion and help,” the agency stated at the time.

The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline launched in July 2022, two years after President Donald Trump signed the National Suicide Hotline Designation Act, making 988 the universal number for the national suicide prevention line. The bipartisan legislation noted that LGBTQ youths “are more than 4 times more likely to contemplate suicide than their peers and stated that SAMHSA “must be equipped to provide specialized resources” to high-risk populations, including LGBTQ youths...

Nearly 1.5 million contacts were routed to the LGBTQ service since its launch, according to data available on the SAMHSA website.

Immigration

NBC News -  Nearly 79 million Medicaid enrollees’ personal information will be shared with federal immigration authorities as the Trump administration seeks to ramp up deportations.

US public broadcasters condemn Trump cuts

The Guardian - Public broadcast station leaders are condemning Donald Trump’s latest victory after the Senate approved a bill on Wednesday that will cancel all federal funding for public broadcasting programs including PBS and NPR.

Following the Senate’s decision to pass $9bn in spending cuts to public broadcasting as well as foreign aid, PBS president and CEO Paula Kerger saying that the Senate’s approval of the package “goes against the will of the American people”.

“These cuts will significantly impact all of our stations, but will be especially devastating to smaller stations and those serving large rural areas. Many of our stations which provide access to free unique local programming and emergency alerts will now be forced to make hard decisions in the weeks and months ahead,” Kerger said.

 

Word

Via Roshan Rinaldi

 

 

Via Thursday

Immigration

The Guardian - Medicaid officials have reportedly made an agreement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) to allow agents to examine a database of Americans’ personal information – including home addresses, social security numbers and ethnicities.

The data sharing agreement will allow Ice to find “the location of aliens”, according to an agreement obtained by the Associated Press. Medicaid is the nation’s single largest health insurer, providing coverage for 79 million low-income, disabled and elderly people.

“This is about the weaponization of data, full stop,” said Pramila Jayapal, a Democratic US representative from Washington state, who has worked extensively on US healthcare, in a statement on social media.

 

 

Exercise

 Study Finds 

• Increasing walking speed by 14 steps per minute boosted the odds of meaningful functional improvement in older adults with frailty.
• Participants who walked “as fast as they safely could” were nearly twice as likely to improve on a standard 6-minute walk test compared to those walking at a casual pace.
• These gains were linked to individual speed increases, not just being in the “intensive” exercise group.
• The findings suggest that tracking walking cadence with simple devices can guide personalized exercise plans in senior care.

Polls

AP News -   Only about one-quarter of U.S. adults say that President Donald Trump’s policies have helped them since he took office, according to a new poll that finds underwhelming marks for him on key issues, including the economy, immigration, government spending and health care.

In fact, the Republican president fails to earn majority approval on any of the issues included in the poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. He’s even slipped slightly since earlier this year on immigration, which has consistently been a strength for him in his second term.

And while a majority of Americans do see Trump as at least “somewhat” capable of getting things done following the passage of his sprawling budget bill, fewer believe he understands the problems facing people like them.

 MSN - Most Americans think President Donald Trump's administration is hiding information about accused sex-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein and give it poor marks on the issue after pledging to make public documents in the case, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found. The two-day poll, which closed Wednesday, showed 69% of respondents thought the federal government was hiding details about Epstein's clients, compared to 6% who disagreed and about one in four who said they weren't sure.

Newsweek - According to a CNN/SSRS survey, Trump's popularity has increased by 23 points since April with voters aged 50 to 64. The polling shows that this age group—who fall under Gen X, born 1965-1980—is the only demographic where Trump is enjoying a net positive approval rating.

Newsweek -  Support among President Donald Trump's voters for the U.S. providing military aid to Ukraine has increased over the past six months, according to a polling firm.  The Echelon Insights poll found a rise in the proportion of Trump supporters backing U.S. aid to Ukraine compared with when the president returned to the White House in January...Of the voters who backed Trump in the 2024 election, 49 percent either strongly or somewhat supported the move. In comparison, 36 percent either somewhat or strongly opposed it. 

 

 

 

Donald Trump has vein problem

BBC -  US President Donald Trump is suffering from a chronic vein condition, the White House announced on Thursday, after days of speculation regarding photographs showing bruising on the president's hand.

After recently experiencing swelling in his legs, Trump underwent a "comprehensive exam" including a diagnostic vascular study, according to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.

Leavitt said Trump's bruised hand was consistent with "tissue damage from frequent handshaking" while taking aspirin, which she said is "part of a standard cardio-vascular prevention regimen".

Trump, 79, has regularly touted his good health and once described himself as "the healthiest president that's ever lived".

 

Inflation

 New Republic - Inflation did come down for a few months after Trump entered office, from 3 percent in January to 2.3 percent in April. Since then, however, it’s been rising, and on Tuesday the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that in June the Consumer Price Index was back up to 2.7 percent, which is where it stood on Election Day. More alarmingly, inflation rose three times faster in June than it did in May, and the consensus among economic experts is that Trump’s tariffs are the reason.

 

Trump vs. Obama

Via Joe G

 

Donald Trump

 Tom Williams

Democrats

Home schooling

 The Guardian - In 2020, the number of Black households home schooling went from 3.3% to 16.1%, a five-fold increase between April and October of that year. Preliminary data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) in 2023 on home schooling showed that Black students and their families participated in virtual schooling at higher rates than other groups; future data collection on the state of home schooling and other education methods has now ended after the Trump administration gutted the NCES.

Home schooling is increasing in popularity among the general population.... and growing more diverse. The school choice movement, which encouraged parents to explore educational options for their children outside public school, has had a resurgence under Donald Trump, who has simultaneously escalated attacks on public education as well as diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives within classrooms. The Trump administration has threatened to withhold federal funding for schools that fail to eliminate their DEI planning. Last month, Trump also signed an executive order that instructs the dismantling of the Department of Education, a key campaign promise.

Home schooling laws vary from state to state, with a general lack of oversight, said Stewart. Only a handful of states, including Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts and Vermont, require home-schooled children to participate in standardized testing for assessment. Other states don’t even mandate that parents notify state officials if they unenroll their children from formal schooling.

The lack of regulations on home schooling is a double-edged sword, said experts. With more lax rules, families are able to teach and learn Afrocentric culturally-specific material without state interference, said Baker. But, extremists have also taken advantage of limited regulation. Home school materials, particularly from Christian publishers, have been known for teaching creationism versus evolution. Some home schooling material has described slave masters as “caregivers” for enslaved people and the practice of slavery as “Black immigration”. Rightwing material remains a baseline throughout home schooling education, with some parents sharing even more hateful material with their children. In February 2023, the Ohio department of education investigated a group of home schooling parents who reportedly dispersed pro-Nazi material in a local home schooling group.

Meanwhile. . .

Uber to buy at least 20,000 luxury robotaxis from Lucid

The Obamas talk about divorce rumors

“Don’t make me cry now.” Barack and Michelle Obama address divorce rumors for the first time.

New Fentanyl legislation

 Beehiv - President Trump signed the HALT Fentanyl Act into law during a ceremony at the White House... The bipartisan law permanently classifies all fentanyl-related substances (FRS) as Schedule I drugs and imposes stricter penalties for trafficking. Under the new law, possession of 100 grams or more of any fentanyl analogue now carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in federal prison....

Fentanyl and its chemical variants have become the leading cause of death in the United States for adults between the ages of 18 and 45. According to federal health data, over 75,000 Americans died from synthetic opioid-related overdoses in 2023. Fentanyl is often mixed with other drugs or sold in counterfeit pills, making it especially dangerous and difficult to detect.

Teachers in Red States Are Walking Away for Good

 New Republic - In the last school year, schools opened with an estimated 55,000 teaching vacancies, up from 36,000 in the year prior. More than 270,000 classrooms were staffed by individuals without full credentials. States like Utah, Nevada, Alabama, Louisiana, and Florida were the hardest hit, with Arizona leading at less than 44 teachers per 1,000 students.

Gone are the days of eager new recruits, ready to leap into the classroom. Nationwide, 79 percent of public schools reported difficulty hiring teachers last year....

And while low pay and job burnout remain key factors in their decision to quit the profession, teachers say they’re also simply afraid. Since President Donald Trump’s return to office, the Department of Education has launched an aggressive campaign against diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI, including targeted attacks on queer teachers. One executive order, “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling,” urges law enforcement to investigate anyone promoting “radical gender ideology.”....

 In a popular Reddit thread r/ELATeachers, dozens of pseudonymous educators expressed their fears. “I’m out. I can’t be in a place where my existence is a political statement,” commented one.

 

Contraception

Data: The Population Reference Bureau; Map: Erin Davis/Axios Visuals

Jeffrey Epstein

NBC - The Justice Department has fired federal prosecutor Maurene Comey, according to four sources familiar with the matter. Comey, who worked in the Southern District of New York, prosecuted Sean "Diddy" Combs and played a role in the prosecution of the late financier Jeffrey Epstein and his co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell. While it is not clear why Comey was fired, one source said that Article II of the Constitution, which establishes the executive power of the president, was cited.

Trump previously accused Comey's father, former FBI Director James Comey, as well as former Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama, of making up Epstein documents, without citing evidence. The Justice Department last week confirmed a criminal investigation of James Comey, though exactly what prompted that decision is unclear.

The latest firing comes as Trump is under intensifying political pressure from his MAGA base to release information related to the Epstein investigation. The president yesterday disavowed his supporters, calling them "weaklings" who have bought into "bull----" about Epstein, the convicted sex offender whose 2019 death by suicide has fueled conspiracy theories. His comments have also put MAGA-aligned media in a bind, with outlets and figures torn between the president and his base.  Full story

Community health centers face legal mess following Trump's anti-immigrant directive

Axios - Community health centers face a legal mess following the Trump administration's directive to restrict undocumented immigrants' access to their services.  The federally funded clinics are supposed to serve everyone — but now, only if they fulfill a citizenship requirement....

There's "a high level of confusion," said Louise McCarthy, CEO of the Community Clinic Association of Los Angeles County.  "We don't want to break any rules. We don't want to jeopardize our funding. We want to make sure that we can speak to our patients. ... But what can we tell them?"

The health centers serve more than 32 million people annually. But leaders told Axios they don't track patients' immigration status, let alone ask for proof of citizenship before providing care.

Nothing in last week's notice changes the underlying requirement in federal law that health centers must serve any resident in their designated service area, said Sara Rosenbaum, a professor emeritus of health law and policy at George Washington University. 

 Health center leaders say that for now they're seeking legal guidance, putting strapped clinic staff on the spot. They worry noncompliance could risk the loss of federal grants and benefits including discounted drugs and malpractice insurance — which could be a death knell for health centers. Read more

Senate votes to slash fudning for public broadcasting

Axios - At 2:30 a.m., the Senate passed President Trump's clawback of $9 billion in federal funding for PBS, NPR and foreign aid programs. The GOP's rescissions package takes back money that has already been appropriated by Congress and signed into law by the president.

It's a win for conservative fiscal hawks who wanted to follow on DOGE's work. Democrats fear the victory for the White House opens the door for more rescissions packages negating bipartisan spending deals.

Two Republicans — Susan Collins (Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) — voted with Democrats against the bill. 

The package now needs final approval from the House, which is facing a deadline tomorrow to get the measure to Trump.

NPR  - Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., noted that it has been over 30 years since a rescission package was passed.

China

Axios - President Trump has set a radical new course in the U.S.-China rivalry, ceding ground to Beijing in pursuit of a far narrower vision of America's role in the world... Six months into office, the Trump administration has hollowed out the machinery of American soft power and retreated from key arenas where the U.S. has sought to blunt China's rise.

Some of it is strategic: an "America First" rejection of the institutions and norms Trump officials view as bloated, failed or captured by a liberal foreign policy establishment.  But some of it, critics warn, is shortsighted — focused more on scoring domestic political points than sustaining the long-term foundations of American exceptionalism.

Voice of America — the U.S.-funded broadcaster long trusted to reach audiences inside authoritarian regimes — has gone dark in key regions after the Trump administration gutted its parent agency.

• Chinese state media is moving aggressively to fill the vacuum, expanding broadcasts in Nigeria, Thailand, Indonesia and other countries where VOA once saturated the airwaves, The Wall Street Journal reports....

 A new Pew Research poll of 25 countries found that China — not the U.S. — is now viewed as the world's leading economic power.  China's favorability in most countries polled by Pew has ticked upward, while America's global favorability has diminished significantly since Trump took office.  More