Trump and explosive diarrhea

How very fitting.

A big problem for trust in government is that high-quality governance is usually invisible. When the various agencies designed to protect the American people from all manner of threats are working perfectly, most potential disasters are detected and prevented before they happen. A lot of highly trained government workers do diligent and difficult work for little pay and less recognition, heading off crisis after crisis, and the ignorant swing-voting layman assumes that all his tax dollars are being squandered.

So one hopes that the voting public is learning a hard—or I should say watery—lesson about how important good government is, by way of the manifold consequences of Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and Robert Kennedy hacking away at American state capacity. The latest consequence can be heard in the groaning emanating from thousands of bathrooms across the country: the worst cyclosporiasis outbreak in American history. It deserves a name, so I’m calling it the MAHA Trots. - The American Prospect

Of course Trump is politicizing disaster aid

I suppose one could argue that red states’ need is vastly greater, as their governance is so incompetent and corrupt. But that’s clearly not what this is about.

Lawmakers are condemning President Donald Trump for politicizing disaster aid after he denied Democratic-led Rhode Island’s request for blizzard recovery assistance last week while approving millions in funds for Republican-leaning states.

In a series of Truth Social posts on June 30, Trump announced more than $846 million in disaster aid to states that voted for him in the 2024 presidential election. Such aid — granted in response to several extreme weather-related disasters, including wildfires, severe storms, and flooding — is generally approved by presidents and administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on a nonpartisan basis.

According to an Urban Institute analysis examining disaster aid approvals since Trump began his second term in office, over 84 percent of requests from states that voted for him in the 2024 election have received approvals, while only 41 percent of requests from states that voted for Democratic candidate Kamala Harris have been approved. Red states also appear to receive approvals twice as fast as blue states do, the analysis found. - Truthout

SNAP taken from 776,000 kids and counting

Trumpers are f*ckng proud of this.

As a House committee debated President Donald Trump’s signature domestic policy bill last year, Republican backers repeatedly emphasized that its changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as food stamps, wouldn’t affect vulnerable people…

But nearly a year after the measure was signed into law, the number of children receiving food assistance has plummeted by at least 776,000, according to a ProPublica analysis. At least 12 states break down program participation by age, and of the 1,670,011 people who are no longer receiving benefits in those states, 776,134, or 46%, were children. - ProPublica

Trump oil lease sale is a pitiful bust

On a related note, Big Oil hasn't for the most part been doing what Trump wants in Venezuela. (The linked article's good, though the headline's misleading.)

The oil lease sale on (June 5) raised just $3.7 million, resulting in five leases between two small Alaskan companies, according to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). That’s less than the price of some Manhattan penthouses. While previous, successful lease sales in other BLM-managed areas of Alaska, New Mexico, and Texas suggested the oil industry remained interested in drilling on public lands, Big Oil snubbed this sale.

Environmental organizations and some Democratic lawmakers celebrated the blow to the Trump administration’s fossil-fuel-focused “Unleash American Energy” agenda. Still, they warned that the new leasing threatens to destroy globally significant wildlife habitat. - Gizmodo

Stock market and consumer sentiment diverge more than ever

Well, since consumer sentiment has been measured, anyway. This is not at all surprising.

Multiple polls and surveys released in recent days have shown US consumer sentiment cratering—and all the while, the US stock market keeps hitting record highs.

…up until around 2020, consumer sentiment matched stock market performance closely, although there was a large divergence between the two leading up to the 2008 financial crisis, where stocks briefly outperformed consumer sentiment before crashing downward as the housing bubble burst.

But throughout the last six years, the graphic shows, the S&P 500 has produced an almost continuous upward surge even as consumer sentiment spirals downward.

“Absolutely incredible,” commented Kobeissi Letter. “Over the last six years, the S&P 500 has risen +130% while US Consumer Sentiment has collapsed by -55%, to its lowest since data began in 1952. We are witnessing the formation of the biggest wealth divide in modern history.” - Common Dreams

More ICE cruelty to detainees

Conditions in facilities are no secret. And there’s this:

On October 3, 2025, the Trump administration abruptly stopped paying third-parties for medical care provided to detainees in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Third-party providers are used to provide “medically necessary” care including “dialysis, prenatal care, oncology, [and] chemotherapy,” according to ICE…

The decision to stop reimbursing third parties for the medical care of ICE detainees has coincided with a significant spike in deaths, according to data released by the agency.

From 2018 to 2024, the average number of people who died in ICE custody annually was 8.9. That includes a spike in 2020 related to the onset of the COVID pandemic. In 2025, 33 people died in ICE custody, including 12 after the medical reimbursements stopped.

The trend is accelerating. In the first four months of 2026, 18 people have died in ICE custody. Since ICE stopped medical reimbursements on October 3, 2025, people have been dying in ICE custody at a rate of 51.7 people annually. This is more than five times the death rate before the policy was implemented. - Popular Information

The Trump administration is set to royally mess up fighting wildfires

Ignoring science, again. That is, people with egos easily ten times the size of their intellects rejecting what they don’t understand and therefore fear.

As the U.S. wildfire season approaches, experts warn it could be one of the worst in recent memory. This will also be the first season managed by the Trump administration’s U.S. Wildland Fire Service, and the agency is pursuing a risky fire management strategy…

“We will enter this season with the presumption of a full suppression strategy applied to every wildfire under DOI management,” (Interior Secretary Doug) Burgum reportedly wrote in the April 8 memorandum, emphasizing a responsibility to protect communities, landscapes, habitat, and critical infrastructure…

The scientific consensus on full suppression fire management is that it is unsustainable and counterproductive in fire-adapted regions like the American West, the Great Plains, and the Southeast. Research has shown that immediately extinguishing smaller fires that don’t threaten life or property—rather than letting them burn under careful management—sets the stage for more severe, hazardous fires to ignite in that area. - Gizmodo

Just one way that Trump screws farmers

Hopefully at least some in the farm economy will take reality checks like this to heart.

Many farmers work on the thinnest margins, fighting to stay profitable. Some, looking to cut costs on electricity, turn to the federal government for a little extra cash to help them install solar panels on top of barns, grain elevators, or offices. Others turn to commercial renewable energy leases as both an alternative income stream and a way to put fallow land to work.

Within the first year of President Trump’s second term, two federal programs critical to the growth of solar energy production — REAP and the clean energy tax credit — have been rolled back. To document how those policy changes are affecting farmers, The Associated Press and Grist analyzed data on both commercial-scale solar projects and small-scale rural energy development across the country. They found that, so far this fiscal year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture hasn’t awarded a dollar in rural energy grants or loan guarantees. Reporters contacted roughly a quarter of the nearly 300 developers that have proposed projects on agricultural land in the last two years, and found that they are either preparing their businesses to do future projects without federal support, or have already lost millions in investment because of the administration’s new tax credit policies. - Grist

Millions are losing SNAP benefits

But who cares if poor people, and their kids, go hungry, right? We’re exulting in the glories of Trump’s America!

Millions of low-income Americans have already lost access to federal food assistance following enactment of the Republican budget law signed by President Donald Trump on July 4, 2025, according to new analysis examining changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

Data published by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities shows SNAP participation fell by 6 percent between July 2025 and December 2025, representing 2.5 million fewer people receiving benefits nationwide. The decline occurred shortly after Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, also identified as H.R. 1, into law.

Researchers say participation may continue to fall as states modify eligibility procedures and administrative policies in response to the law’s funding changes and program requirements. According to CBPP, “we estimate that 4 million people in a typical month will lose out” on SNAP benefits once the law’s provisions are fully implemented. - Nation of Change

The worst president ever for veterans

If Trump's not already there it's just a matter of time. And not much time at that. This is on top of what's happening with VA health care.

Just as President Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress were warned would happen, close to 100,000 US veterans are currently behind on their mortgage payments or are in the process of foreclosure as a result of the White House’s decision to shut down a Department of Veterans Affairs program that helped people with VA-backed home loans when they were behind on their monthly payments.

As NPR reported (April 2), more than 10,000 have already lost their homes, nearly a year after the Trump administration abruptly did away with the VA Servicing Purchase (VASP) program. - Common Dreams

The Trump administration keeps failing farmers

Their motives are always suspect, certainly, but mostly it’s just sheer incompetence. There are likely still plenty of people in the Labor Department who could get this done, but that’s not being allowed to happen.

In June, as the Trump administration faced backlash from farmers and agriculture officials over its mass deportation effort stripping farms of employees, Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer presented a solution: the new Office of Immigration Policy.

The office would slash red tape, including easing the process for farmers to access workers on temporary labor visas. Instead of jumping through hoops with three government agencies, employers would apply through a single portal, Chavez-DeRemer promised…

But about eight months after the new office was created, the Labor Department is struggling to deliver on its stated goals, according to internal emails obtained by Investigate Midwest through a public records request. - Investigate Midwest

Another corporate "win" courtesy of Trump

And at the expense of the biosphere, and therefore everyone, whether they realize it or not.

U.S. President Donald Trump issued a proclamation on Feb. 6 to open a marine protected area off the northeastern U.S. to commercial fishing, in his latest move to deregulate the country’s waters and fisheries.

The Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, a 12,725-square-kilometer (4,913-square-mile) area roughly 209 km (130 mi) southeast of Cape Cod, is home to deep-sea corals and sponges, whale sharks and a variety of marine mammals…

“This Monument supports amazing species from the seafloor to the sea surface, and we see evidence of that during every aerial survey,” Jessica Redfern, an associate vice president at the New England Aquarium, a Boston-based nonprofit, said in a statement. “Removing protections for Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument puts these species at risk.”

…The fates of the four other marine national monuments are also in limbo. In April, Trump issued a proclamation to open up most of the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument, an area larger than the state of Texas, to commercial fishing. A federal judge blocked that reopening in August, but the case is ongoing. - Mongabay

Trump Rx is just another Trump con

Upon examination, it’s little different from anything else with Trump’s name on it. More here.

As a primary care physician who has spent decades helping patients navigate the byzantine complexities of our healthcare system, I researched the new White House unveiling of the self-referential TrumpRx (ew) with a mix of hope and concern. President Trump proclaimed it “one of the most transformative healthcare initiatives of all time,” promising Americans dramatic discounts on prescription medications. But after examining the platform this morning and reviewing independent analyses, I’m deeply skeptical that this initiative will meaningfully help my patients—and worried it may actually harm them…

But here’s the first thing that concerns me: these astronomical discount percentages are calculated against list prices, the sticker prices that virtually no one actually pays. It’s like a car dealership advertising 30% off MSRP when the real negotiated price was always going to be much lower. This mathematical sleight-of-hand creates the illusion of historic savings while obscuring what patients truly pay through insurance copays or existing discount programs, which is often much lower already.

Perhaps most troubling is what multiple independent analyses have revealed: approximately half of the 43 drugs featured on TrumpRx already have significantly cheaper generic alternatives available elsewhere. - Daily Kos

Farmers are taking a big hit from Trump policies

This is being underreported in “legacy” media, of course.

A large group of agriculture experts warned that US farms are taking a financial beating thanks to President Donald Trump’s global trade war.

In a letter sent to the chairs and ranking members of the House and Senate Agriculture Committees on Tuesday, the experts warned of a potential “widespread collapse of American agriculture and our rural communities” caused in no small part by Trump administration policies.

The letter’s signatories—which include former leaders of American agricultural commodity and biofuels associations, farm leaders, and former USDA officials—pointed to Trump’s tariffs on imported goods and his mass deportation policies as particularly harmful.

“It is clear that the current administration’s actions, along with congressional inaction,” the letter states, “have increased costs for farm inputs, disrupted overseas and domestic markets, denied agriculture its reliable labor pool, and defunded critical [agricultural] research and staffing.” - Common Dreams

Some decent news on EV charging

Despite Trump’s efforts to kill anything that’s not disastrous for the climate.

Last year brought a torrent of bad news for the U.S. electric vehicle industry. The Trump administration pushed Republicans in Congress to cancel Biden-era EV tax credits and revoke states’ rights to set clean-car mandates. The White House moved to weaken vehicle fuel-economy standards. And it froze billions of dollars in federal EV-charging grants — although legal challenges have since unlocked $5 billion of that money.

Despite the upheaval, U.S. public charging networks had a growth spurt last year, according to a report released (Jan. 28) by data analytics firm Paren. And the new chargers are working more reliably and being used more heavily than ever — a sign the country is matching charging supply to demand.

The nation’s public fast-charging network expanded by 30% over the course of 2025, adding 18,041 ports, according to Paren. That’s up from the 13,970 fast-charging ports deployed in 2024, and way up from the 5,313 installed in 2021. - Canary Media

Trump loves deep sea mining, and that’s not good

Presumably there will be lawsuits over this, and maybe some action by state legislators (especially in Hawai’i), and we’ll see how things go.

The Trump administration is supporting a new and highly destructive deep-sea mining (DSM) industry in our ocean, despite immense environmental risks and broad international opposition. Early in his second term, President Trump issued an executive order directing agencies to fast-track deep-sea mining in both U.S. and international waters. Since then, and for the first time ever, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) officially initiated the process of leasing for deep-sea mining offshore American Samoa and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI). BOEM also plans to initiate minerals leasing offshore Virginia. Meanwhile, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is advancing an application for an exploration license in the Pacific Ocean southeast of Hawai‘i and may soon advance an application for a permit to mine in the same area.

By fast-tracking deep-sea mining, the administration is leading a race to the bottom. The deep sea is the largest and least-explored habitat on earth. Humans know very little about it, yet we do know that DSM would likely cause significant and irreparable harm to deep-sea habitats over huge areas, including the destruction of the seafloor and the ecosystems it supports. The discharge of mining waste would result in sediment plumes that could spread for hundreds of miles. - NRDC

Apparently there’s no such thing as a corporate criminal

Unless he profits at the Trump family’s expense, I suppose.

Since taking office, the Trump administration has canceled or halted a total of 159 enforcement actions against 166 corporations, according to a report from Public Citizen released (January 15). As a result of this retreat, at least 18 corporations accused of lawbreaking avoided paying a total of $3.1 billion in penalties for misconduct…

Public Citizen’s report found that corporations with close ties to Trump and the administration are benefiting from canceled and frozen enforcement. More than 30 made donations to fund Trump’s inauguration or White House ballroom. Seventeen have revolving door or insider connections with the administration. Twelve hired lobbyists who are closely allied with the administration. Ten have business relationships with Trump’s private companies. And nine made political contributions backing Trump’s presidential campaign. - Public Citizen

The private sector takeover of disaster recovery

This has been going on for a while. But it’s accelerating now.

But even before President Donald Trump took office with an eye toward diminishing the agency, recovery funds couldn’t keep up with victims’ needs. Now, as the administration slashes FEMA funding, withholds aid, and puts more of the onus of recovery onto individual states, victim-assistance organizations feel that they’ve been left totally unprepared, with too few case managers to go around. All of these issues are likely to grow more severe in the coming year, as a review board appointed to reform the agency prepares to make its recommendations…

The private sector’s creeping influence over disaster recovery has been noted since at least 2007, when Naomi Klein published The Shock Doctrine, the book that injected the term “disaster capitalism” into a broader lexicon. But as climate change accelerates and hammers the United States with more billion-dollar catastrophes than ever before, privatization has become more common — and complicated. Private interests can quickly mobilize huge volunteer networks, giving campaigns, and rebuilding efforts in the wake of extreme weather. But, whatever their intentions, such measures are a consequence — and sometimes a cause — of the corrosion of public institutions originally intended to safeguard Americans. - Grist

Radiation's no big deal, including for women and kids

Or so Trump and his minions believe. Which makes the nuclear industry very happy.

A May 23 executive order from President Trump will now transform the stated mission of NRC from safety regulator to industry enabler, and in fact, NRC mission wording has been changed to say that nuclear power “benefits” society, despite the evidence to the contrary given the often serious health impacts of all nuclear power-related operations. This mission shift has sparked alarm among experts and safety advocates who argue that abandoning core principles of radiation protection will further endanger communities, sacrifice vulnerable populations, and increase the nuclear industry’s grip on energy policy…

But this request has put the NRC in an untenable position for two reasons. First, the NRC itself reaffirmed use of the LNT model in 2022. Second, contemporary health research has confirmed that LNT already underestimates cancer risk at lower doses in about half of cases.

These findings are particularly striking because they were based on studies of nuclear workers, a part of the adult population and predominantly male that research has shown are at less risk from radiation exposure. Therefore, these studies do not adequately reflect the heightened vulnerabilities of women, children, and pregnancy to cancer or other radiation-associated diseases. - Beyond Nuclear

States can make up for some Trump cuts

Even some of the reddest states are doing so, believe it or not. Which isn't to suggest that the federal cuts shouldn't be reversed, at the earliest opportunity.

In March, the Trump administration pulled the rug on $1 billion in funds for the Local Food for Schools (LFS) and Local Food Purchase Assistance (LFPA) programs. The two programs provided funding to schools and food pantries to purchase fresh fruits, vegetables and meats from local farmers.

For the farmers, schools, community organizations and tribal nations involved, the programs were a win-win situation. Small farmers earned reliable income through government contracts. Schools could provide children with fresh, local and oftentimes organic produce that would usually be out of budget for a school cafeteria…

Nineteen states operate farm to school food purchase programs similar to LFS. After the federal program was cut in March, states, including Vermont, Connecticut, Alabama, Oklahoma and Minnesota stepped in to increase their funding. - Barn Raiser