James Downie

It’s cool how every Republican president’s second term is a series of life-changing catastrophes. I personally love living through those

Senate delays August recess for now as Trump presses for more confirmations A stalemate over the pace of confirmations has delayed the Senate’s yearly August recess for now as President Donald Trump declares that his nominees “should NOT BE FORCED TO WAIT.”

A big showdown has been happening in the Senate this week. Some Democrats have been fighting! 😱😱🎉🎉🎉

Thread. An explainer of what just happened, and what will happen after the Senate returns from recess.

In short: we must continue to push D Sens to fight.
Go to summer town halls!

1/10

lots of examples on bsky rn about messy citations in the DOE report - a few authors I talked to for my piece also noticed typos/bad citations for little details (eg a paper pubbed 2020 being cited as 2021)/bad links etc. unclear if it’s AI or just messy work (or both!)

Before Ingrassia was admitted to the bar, he reportedly pretended to be a lawyer for more than a year (while "representing" the Tate brothers): www.dailydot.com/viral-politi... (from @noturtlesoup17.bsky.social)

(That's not directed at @swin24.bsky.social btw, just adding context on Miller now vs eight years ago.)

Miller's (and Vought's) influence stems in no small part from the fact that neither Trump nor anyone else in that WH gives a shit about policy.* That wouldn't be the case in any Dem WH. Heck, it wasn't even the case in the first Trump WH!

*with the exception of tariffs, to everyone's detriment

Mellon Foundation The Mellon Foundation makes grants to actively unlock the power in the arts and humanities that helps connect us all.

“American Academy of Arts&Sciences reports 96.3% of humanities grads age 23-32 fully employed. Earnings in humanitiess comparable to social/life sciences, job satisfaction levels too. A serious mismatch bw actual employment for hum grads +general perception."
www.mellon.org/voices/human...

More than four out of five Americans, 83%, said they were concerned about the cost of groceries, with 46% saying they were very concerned. Some 47% said they were worried about being able to pay their rent or mortgage, 64% said they were worried about affording an unexpected medical expense. About 48% said they believed they would have trouble affording an unexpected $500 bill without borrowing. One in four said it would be "very difficult" A quarter of those surveyed said they spent at least three hours a day worrying about their finances and ability to afford basic necessities. Another 25% of respondents said they or someone in their household had skipped meals in the past year in order to make ends meet, and 26% said they had fallen behind on their monthly bills over the past year.

Fuck the stock market reports, this is what real life is like

It has been the honor of my life to serve as Commissioner of BLS alongside the many dedicated civil servants tasked with measuring a vast and dynamic economy. It is vital and important work and I thank them for their service to this nation.

"He's a piece of shit, but let's get the political science stuff out of the way," Steven told me when I asked if he thought support of Tesla could be considered apolitical. "Elon Musk has platformed white supremacists and antisemites on X. He got rid of all the moderation. He put back accounts that were clearly neo-Nazis. He's changed algorithms to promote that type of hate. Him and DOGE did massive cuts in the government, including our civil services. He's cut cancer research. Did I mention he was a giant piece of shit?" "He's cut our aid to Africa, which Will result, without exaggeration, in millions of women and children and innocent people dying. Millions," he said. "I'm not a big fan of people who give the Hitler salute. I mean, I'm kind of fussy like that. He gave it twice at Trump's inauguration," he continued. "He's a Nazi. And he cheats at video games. You have another question?"

lol at this response to a “man on the street” interview with protestors at the Tesla diner

I think this is extraordinary: the most recent Democratic Presidential nominee thinks our political system is broken and not strong enough to defend our most fundamental principles.

We have to understand that this crisis is bigger than one person, or one party--it's the entire system.

Former FBI agent Mike Feinberg:

“When I last looked at the issue…there were not a ton of vacancies at the Club Fed category of prisons.”

“The fact that she’s getting some sort of preferential treatment to presumably jump the line..makes the hairs on the back of one’s neck stick up a little bit.”

*gestures at the Tates*

*gestures at the Pauls*

what more needs to be said?

Lemme just say if President Bernie Sanders had unilaterally imposed, by executive fiat, hundreds of billions of new taxes, personally browbeat executives about job cuts and investments and then fired the head of BLS, the Chamber of Commerce and the business orgs would not be sitting idly by.

1 DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE 1,129,585 $33,810,090 $29.93 2 DSCC 930,744 $17,851,692 $19.18 3 ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ FOR CONGRESS 736,389 $14,936,945 $20.28 4 DCCC 720,197 $15,655,794 $21.74 5 DEMOCRATIC ACTION 704,122 $13,527,711 $19.21 6 PROGRESSIVE TURNOUT PROJECT 675,784 $10,639,379 $15.74 7 JON OSSOFF FOR SENATE 613,893 $16,312,427 $26.57 8 FRIENDS OF BERNIE SANDERS 513,506 $15,649,550 $30.48 9 FRIENDS OF CHRIS MURPHY 366,422 $10,153,038 $27.71

Via Tim Tagaris: @aoc.bsky.social "had more individual, small-dollar donations on ActBlue over the first 6 months of 2025 than the entire DCCC."

The family of Virginia Giuffre responds to the Maxwell prison move: "President Trump has sent a clear message today: Pedophiles deserve preferential treatment and their victims do not matter."

Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump I was just informed that our Country’s “Jobs Numbers” are being produced by a Biden Appointee, Dr. Erika McEntarfer, the Commissioner of Labor Statistics, who faked the Jobs Numbers before the Election to try and boost Kamala’s chances of Victory. This is the same Bureau of Labor Statistics that overstated the Jobs Growth in March 2024 by approximately 818,000 and, then again, right before the 2024 Presidential Election, in August and September, by 112,000. These were Records — No one can be that wrong? We need accurate Jobs Numbers. I have directed my Team to fire this Biden Political Appointee, IMMEDIATELY. She will be replaced with someone much more competent and qualified. Important numbers like this must be fair and accurate, they can’t be manipulated for political purposes. McEntarfer said there were only 73,000 Jobs added (a shock!) but, more importantly, that a major mistake was made by them, 258,000 Jobs downward, in the prior two months. Similar things happened in the first part of the year, always to the negative. The Economy is BOOMING under “TRUMP” despite a Fed that also plays games, this time with Interest Rates, where they lowered them twice, and substantially, just before the Presidential Election, I assume in the hopes of getting “Kamala” elected – How did that work out? Jerome “Too Late” Powell should also be put “out to pasture.” Thank you for your attention to this matter!

Okay you can officially get ready for an attempt to cook the books.

The FoxNews.com version of this is weird even by their standards:
– Paragraphs 1-16: Look at these emails!!!
– Paragraph 17: The Durham annex says the emails were in fact "a composite of several emails that were obtained through Russian intelligence hacking."
– Paragraphs 18-end: But these emails!!!

‘Clinton Plan’ Emails Were Likely Made by Russian Spies, New Documents Show

‘Clinton Plan’ Emails Were Likely Made by Russian Spies, Declassified Report Shows

An annex to the Durham special counsel report was the latest in a series of disclosures about the Russia inquiry, as the Trump team seeks to distract from the Epstein files

gift link:
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/31/u...

Senate committee endorses NIH budget increase, rebuking Trump administration’s proposed 40% cut Senators from both parties endorsed a $400 million increase to the budget of the National Institutes of Health on Thursday

More good news:

"Senators from both parties endorsed a $400 million *increase* to the budget of the NIH on Thursday, in an Appropriations Committee vote that represents a clear rebuke of President Trump’s plan to dramatically reduce the agency’s spending."
www.statnews.com/2025/07/31/n...

RFK Jr. warned about giving the government your data. Now he wants it. The Health and Human Services secretary's pivot on wearables is a case study in how conspiracy extremists rebrand themselves once in positions of power.

RFK Jr. used to warn about a government takeover of our data. He said wearables and their tech were part of a plot to surveil us, enabled tyranny, caused cancer, and turned users into “permanent consumers” to Big Tech.

Now, he'd like your data, please.
www.msnbc.com/opinion/anal...

I'm no messaging guru, but "While you struggled with food prices, Trump built himself and his billionaire buddies a $200 million ballroom" seems like a bad contrast for Republicans.

People, I'm begging you: If you post a screenshot of a paragraph from an article, AT LEAST include a link to the article.

Reporters asking Trump about sex trafficking while he’s standing there next to Triple H who probably has experience practicing his “here’s how I look when someone brings up another guy sex trafficking” face in the mirror for 100 hours

The family’s attorney will join me tonight.

Several interesting (though hardly surprising) findings here from Equis and DfP.

The first indication that this was going to happen was that it was reported by Michael Wolff

Unnoticed Whistle-Blower Document Alarms Justice Department Veterans

Holy shit. The Justice Department's inspector general "received, but did not act upon, a potentially explosive set of allegations" against Emil Bove "for more than two months."

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/31/u...

@wyden.senate.gov on a press call just now: "There has been a concerted effort by the Trump administration to play down" that the Treasury Department could release the files it has.

Wyden on press call now calling for a cui bono investigation of Epstein’s work as a financier for billionaires and millionaires.