Paul C Lustgarten @PLustgarten

#BREAKING: Legendary #Maddow: “You know, you live long enough, you realize that there are some days, there are some times, when the bill comes due. You know, you’ve done things in the past, perhaps ill advised, things you kinda knew at the time weren’t a good idea, and sometimes you are able to skate by for a little while, you get away with that stuff for a little while, but eventually you learn in this life, that the bill comes due. We’re having one of those times in the news right now. So for example, when we as a country elected this president, he decided in his infinite wisdom, that he would immediately allow his top campaign donor @elonmusk, to cut whole swaths of US government capacity based on nothing but Elon Musk’s own say so, and his gut feelings. So things that took decades if not generations to build up, some of these things the gold standard government capacity for the whole world, President Donald Trump just said hey, you’re my top campaign donor, as far as I’m concerned, that gives you the right to sledgehammer the US government to your heart’s content. I don’t care, you enjoy yourself. And that is how thousands of subject matter experts, and forest rangers and specialist lawyers, and prosecutors, and scientists, and and and, it’s how all these people lost their jobs and their careers in the US government. But it’s also how we as a country lost things like say a project that had been funded, that was shovel ready, expertly planned, much needed, ready to go, a project to build FIRE BREAKS in the Superior National Forest in Minnesota. Elon Musk and Donald Trump did not care enough or were not bright enough to understand what a project like that might conceivably be for, and so they [killed] it…Trump in his wisdom literally stopped funding last year for the shovel ready project to build fire breaks in the Superior National Forest in Minnesota, so there would be less to burn, so it would be EASIER to fight any fire that did break out…He and Elon Musk stopped the funding of that project and so now, the bill has come due. The Superior National Forest in Minnesota, as we speak, is on fire. Thank you DOGE. Thank you Donald Trump…”🙄🤦‍♀️

🔥 @jamestalarico: “The only minority destroying America is billionaires: Trans people aren’t taking away our healthcare. Muslims aren’t defunding our schools. Immigrants aren’t cutting taxes for themselves + their rich friends… It’s billionaires & their puppet politicians.”

"It's irresponsible for someone who has 240 million followers to propagate things that are simply not true." - .@TheEconomist Editor-In-Chief @zannymb on her wide-ranging interview with Elon Musk. @SquawkCNBC (2026)

I am deeply appalled and angry to see “Firework” used on the @WhiteHouse TikTok account as a backing track for video footage of military strikes. I did not approve this, I was not asked, and I absolutely do not condone it. I wrote this song to be an anthem of hope, healing, and inner strength for people going through their darkest personal moments. To see a message of self-worth and upliftment weaponized to soundtrack destruction and violence is a complete violation of everything my song stands for. My music is for bringing people together, not celebrating warfare.

Judge Sullivan has given acting AG Todd Blanche 5 days to produce unredacted versions of some Epstein Files documents & proof that the reasons given for making the redactions were true. Here’s what’s significant about that: joycevance.substack.com/p/an-important…

A retired Air Force colonel named Matt Orlando just beat a sitting Republican for mayor of Chandler, Arizona. By 17 points. In a seat the GOP thought was safe. This is what the ground shifting looks like. 👇 dworkinsubstack.com/p/great-news-f…

The law should be: If the doctor is recommending it, it should be ILLEGAL for the insurance companies to deny it without appealing to a board of physicians. NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND

Remember how Republicans went totally batshit when Lloyd Austin took three days to notify the White House about his emergency hospitalization - but when it’s been 41 days & we’re still not sure if Mitch McConnell is alive - the silence is deafening.

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Last week OMB Director Vought lied to my face when he said they don’t use politics in funding decisions. Now we have proof. In court, the Trump admin admits they based decisions on who the states voted for President. That’s a disgusting abuse of power.

The New York Times @nytimes

5 days ago

Breaking News: Federal officials acknowledged in court documents that they canceled grants to states that didn’t vote for President Trump in 2024. nyti.ms/4pIbybQ

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I'll tell you why people despise Elon: It's because he punches DOWN. He's the wealthiest man on the planet, he has a quarter billion Twitter followers (mostly botted, for sure), and he uses his immense power and influence to punch down. He deprived poor kids around the world of food, resulting in thousands of deaths. He hired a bunch of snot-nosed kids who cut and slashed and didn't have a clue what they were doing, f*cked shit up, and have not an ounce of remorse for what they did. He stirs up alarmist racial animus -- he loves to post videos of Black and White people fighting, trying to frame it as a race war that's happening now. It's not. He claims he's not racist because he f*cks a woman of color. Racists LOVE to lean on that bullshit. You know who else f*cked women of color? SLAVE OWNERS. You think THEY weren't racist? And you know what? He and his family lived a privileged life as white South Africans under apartheid. Look it up. If I had Elon's wealth, I would have already solved world hunger, and had more money left over than my great grandkids could spend in 20 lifetimes. I would be a damn HERO. I'd solve homelessness too. But that thin-skinned jackass used his wealth to basically curate the world's largest echo chamber to feed his goddamn ego with his groveling, soulless Muskite fans. He's trump with way more money and a slightly larger vocabulary. This woman did a GREAT job interviewing Elon. She skewered him, triggered the hell out of Mr. Moneybags. The guy who "doesn't care," he did the old "No, YOU are" arguing method. Real mature. He couldn't stand that this woman, who he looked at as beneath him, had the audacity not to quiver and bow to his pseudo "greatness." He's a fucking TRILLIONAIRE whose cuts directly caused the deaths of THOUSANDS of third world children. When I was a kid, and was about to throw away uneaten food, my Mom would say "Do you know how many kids are starving in Africa?" As a kid, I was expected to have more empathy for starving kids in Africa THAN THE RICHEST MAN ON THE PLANET has. He shouldn't do these interviews any more, not if he doesn't want to be completely reviled. He looks like a jackass. And it makes NO sense: his cars, the Tesla, were meant to appeal to people like me, the Libs, the progressives, people who actually believe that climate change is a thing! What does he do? Antagonizes the majority of us, having us look at other EVs like the Rivian or whatever. And I don't give a shit if Space Karen sees this. He's been crushing my signal strength ever since he bought this app, despite his declaring the return of so-called "free speech." The world's worst secret is that he's been propping up right wing accounts and throttling the rest of us. Honestly, I saw this video earlier today, and I barely skimmed over it. I haven't normally paid much attention to what he does. I don't follow him on Twitter, and didn't even care about his interview. But what struck me was how smug and entitled he was in the interview, like he couldn't believe she was talking to him like that. And then I remembered how all those kids died because of him. Anyway, THIS is how you interview power: be fearless, unafraid, come prepared with facts, push them all the way back. Elon looked like he wanted to jump out of his chair and hit that woman. BRAVO to her. We need more journalists like her. And f*ck the Epstein class.

Six months after the killing of her son, Alex Pretti, his mother is sharing a heartbreaking message about the grief she says has only deepened with time. In an emotional post marking the six-month anniversary of Alex’s death, she writes that no one has been held accountable and says her family has never received an apology or even a single phone call from government officials, hospital personnel, or the Minneapolis Police Department. At the same time, she expressed profound gratitude for the overwhelming support her family has received from people around the world, urging others to continue speaking out and never forget what Alex stood for. Her full statement: “Today marks the six-month anniversary of Alex’s murder. No-one has been held accountable, no apologies, not a single phone call from any governmental official, hospital personnel, or the Mpls police dept. Six-months of pain, a roller-coaster of trauma over and over. Every time another a death, another mention, a picture, a tribute, a sorrow so deep. I wonder how to move forward. Will I ever get over this loss and this pain? Will I ever be able to enjoy life again? How does one live knowing that I have no power to change what has happened? And yet the out-reach not only from Minnesota, but from around the world has been nothing less than spectacular. Every card, every gift, every heartfelt letter has been read, touched, held, and cherished by us all. The kindness you’ve all shown us is beyond words. Please never forget Alex and what he believed in ~ equality and peace for all. I will remember the things that made you, you. It will never take your memory. As long as I’m here, you will never be forgotten. For all you asking what you can do. Continue this fight. Never give up your right to speak out, protect your neighbor, your community and don’t forget to spend time with those you love…”

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Last year, the Trump Administration delayed a $10 million grant meant for thinning out ~4,000 acres of dense, dry areas in the Superior National Forest. Most of the work never started. Now, it’s on fire. This is the cost of Elon Musk and the actions of DOGE. washingtonpost.com/weather/2026/0…

50 percent tariff against Canada in a move that Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman notes is not only “almost surely illegal,” but is the same “terrible mistake” that pushed the U.S. into the Great Depression. Krugman argues that “this really is a temper tantrum, in the sense that there’s no strategy here. The new tariffs will hurt American consumers, and nobody expects them to extract any concessions from Canadians who are only getting more outraged at the United States.” What’s more, argues Krugman, it degrades the U.S. relationship with vital partners. As he writes, “Canada should be, and used to be, America’s greatest friend in the world. We share essential political and moral values with our northern neighbor. For the most part we even share a common language, eh? And Canadians viewed us very favorably until Trump began his tariffs and threats. Now we’re viewed less favorably than China.” Based on all this, Krugman’s conclusion is grim: “I don’t see a golden age. I see an America that has become an ineffectual bully, sicker, poorer, and riven by political extremism, with no friends anywhere in the world.”

We CANNOT forget about the Epstein Files.     The Trump Administration is working hard to distract you and brush the Files aside. Yet, here is what Todd Blanche, the most powerful lawyer in the country, had to say to survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s sickening sexual abuse:    “There’s something that they want that I don’t think I can give them, which is some form of justice... maybe we could do a prosecution at some point. I don’t know.”    His DOJ botched the release of the Epstein Files, exposing victims’ personal information and IMAGES, while failing to fully investigate the powerful people around Epstein.     Blanche refused to meet with survivors for months. When he finally did, survivors said he showed “no remorse” for exposing their private information and responded to them with interruptions, deflections, and condescension.    These women survived horrific abuse. Then the DOJ failed to protect them, failed to treat them with dignity, and now appears unwilling to deliver the justice they have spent years demanding.    It’s vile. There is no other word for it besides vile.     The Trump Administration wants you distracted because distraction protects the powerful.    Do not give it to them.    Do not look away. Do not move on. Do not let them bury the Epstein Files.

It appears Energy Secretary Chris Wright was being less than truthful when he told me his department canceled billions in clean energy grants based "on merits and unrelated to politics." Apparently a clear and direct falsehood while testifying before Congress. Court documents filed this month show the Trump Administration terminated 283 grants “based solely” on whether the state voted for Kamala Harris in 2024 and had two Democratic senators. All the grants they cut sat in a state that backed Kamala Harris and has two Democratic senators. Meanwhile, every grant in a Trump state was left alone. This was never about waste. It was political revenge, carried out with billions of taxpayer dollars. I offered an amendment in April to make this exact abuse illegal, and every single Republican on the committee voted against it. Now the Administration has confessed in court to exactly what it denied before Congress. They didn’t tell the truth to Congress, weaponized taxpayer dollars, and punished Americans for exercising their right to vote. My Republican colleagues enabled them. That is corruption. And there must be consequences.

Handy guide.

I watched Trump’s speech at the Correspondents’ Dinner last night. It’s hard to articulate how sad it made me. Sad and embarrassed and exhausted. Here is the thing about a man who is a joke. He can’t tell one. People think humor is a talent. It isn’t. It’s a capacity. To make someone laugh you have to be able to laugh at yourself, and to laugh at yourself you have to step outside of yourself and see what everyone else sees. For one second you have to be just another person in the room. Most people can do this by the time they are nine years old. He has never once managed it. Not in fifty years of cameras. Not for a second. That is not a quirk. It is a symptom. The muscle that lets you tell a joke is the same one that lets you feel what another person feels. A man who cannot survive being laughed at cannot imagine being anyone but himself. He will only ever be generous when it is photographed. He will only ever be kind when it is filmed. There is a name for it. So he stood up there and did what he always does. He hit down. He made jokes about people’s weight. He made jokes about their intelligence. He made jokes about how women look. He read out the names of people he doesn’t like, and mocked them. Always mocking. And when no one laughed he blamed his speech writers. The cruelty dressed as humor has worn so thin. And for the 30% of you still in the cult who will inevitably call me a crackhead and blame it all on my Dad, all I can say is please, for the love of God, open your eyes. Wake the fuck up. Have some dignity. Have some pride. Joe Biden wasn’t standing at that podium last night. Donald Trump was. And at the end of it he put on a red hat that said Trump 2028 and told the room he was running again. No one laughed because everyone knows he has no intention of leaving. Just another joke at our expense.

Epstein survivor Dani Bensky: You can’t say that you want to make sure sex offenders and sex traffickers are behind bars and then vote for him. Every vote for Blanche is really a vote against survivors. If Thom Tillis wants to call, I’m happy to talk to him. We’ve been trying to get in touch

#BREAKING: Alex Witt: “[Congressman] Raskin demanding the administration release emails from #Epstein alleging they suggest he acted as an unregistered foreign agent for countries including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Israel and Russia, while attempting to leverage his past relationship with President Trump. What are the national security implications of Epstein possibly having ties to foreign leaders, and if Democrats take control of the House, could they launch a probe into Epstein’s foreign activity?” 😳 Rep Lieu: “Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche is an unethical law breaking partisan hack. I hope the Senate does not confirm him. He is hiding information from the Epstein files from Congress and the American people. He needs to disclose everything about Jeffrey Epstein as required by law, including this newly discovered information that Jeffrey Epstein may have been tied to foreign intelligence agencies and worked on behalf of countries like Russia and Saudi Arabia.”😳

BREAKING: A federal judge has just ordered Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to hand over the unredacted Epstein Files emails and documents for the court’s private review in MeidasTouch host Katie Phang’s lawsuit. In a new order, U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan directed the Justice Department to produce the unredacted records in camera (for the judge’s eyes only) by July 30, along with documentation backing up DOJ’s claims that the names and other information it blacked out are, in fact, the categories of people it says they are. That’s significant because the court isn’t simply accepting the government’s representations at face value. Judge Sullivan is requiring the DOJ to prove its redactions are justified by reviewing the underlying records himself. In other words—they’re not buying what the DOJ is selling!! Katie Phang said that while the judge denied her request to be present during the in-chambers review, she said it was “worth the ask.” This is another important step in the legal battle over the Epstein Files and whether the Justice Department has properly withheld information from the public. Thank you, Katie! Remember to subscribe to her YouTube channel for all the updates: YouTube.com/@katiephangnews

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