Political News for August 11

Dear Everybody,

Here’s the news for August 11.

Today’s big story: Wheels Up on Food Truck One.  Trump secretly used a military jet to leave Turkey after last month’s NATO summit. The NY Times reports, “Top administration officials engaged in an elaborate deception to spirit President Trump out of Turkey during the NATO summit there last month, transporting him in a catering container to a military jet because of a threat against him and Air Force One from Iran, two senior U.S. officials said on Monday.” One of the facts exposed is this pretty big deal: “In this case, the threat led the White House to purposely mislead reporters assigned to cover Mr. Trump, leaving journalists to report that he was traveling on board a plane that was being used as a decoy.” So Trump was happy to let these people fly the plane he was not on, uninformed of the threat, and used as a decoys while he was safe. Since Trump is pretty consistent in his lying and putting himself before all others, this is another case of many that is emblematic of this corrupt administration.  My spirits are buoyed by the mental picture of Trump hiding in a ketchup-smeared food truck.  https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/10/us/politics/trump-plane-ruse.html

Three Weddings and Four Anchor Babies. The ACLU and others are urging a federal judge to block Trump’s attempted end-run around the Constitution with his birthright citizenship executive orders. Note that two of Trump’s wives were immigrants, and four of his children were born to immigrants.  Trump’s play here is a lot like when a first-grader says “But Mom says I can” to a cop.  https://www.reuters.com/world/aclu-other-groups-sue-block-trump-effort-curtail-birthright-citizenship-2026-08-11/

Heisenberg on Steroids.  The Justice Department sent 20 feds to monitor the Minnesota state primary election. In response, Minnesota is having people monitor the observers. I think the next step will be observers monitoring the observers monitoring the observers until it’s turtles all the way down.  https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/federal-observers-minnesota-primary-polling-places/

Tanking Truth.  Truth Social, the US version of Pravda, lost 36% of its stock value in the past 12 months.  In that same period, DJT stock has dropped from around $18 down to $9. (It was near $100 briefly near the beginning.) So people who invest in Trump do worse than the market. People who avoid vaccinations die at a higher rate than average. There’s probably a larger pattern or underlying relationship, but these things are pretty complicated. https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/8/11/800082690/business-and-economy/truth-social-continues-to-tank/

Troubled Water.   Lake Mead, the nation’s largest reservoir, continues its slide from Lake to Pond. At some point, Trump supporters might have to acknowledge that accessible fresh water is scarcer than it used to be. (See before and after pictures below).

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/09/us/lake-mead-water-level-record-low.html

Inside Strait Talk.  A new Middle East waterway chokepoint is under attack. Houthi forces attacked a commercial vessel in the Bab el-Mandeb strait. That strait is located southwest of the Strait of Hormuz, where the Red Sea connects to the Gulf of Aden, between Yemen and Djibouti. This puts even more pressure on international shipping. If I were a political cartoonist, I would show toddler Trump with a pile of Jenga blocks as he plays at making changes to a complex geopolitical system he understands about as well as my cat does. My cat is pretty smart. But still…  https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-905168

Just put it on their card.  The federal deficit is projected to be $2.1 trillion for fiscal year 2026. That’s even more than Trump grifted all year and it continues the cycle of growing deficits under GOP administrations. Bigly.  https://ground.news/article/federal-budget-deficit-on-track-to-surpass-2t-this-fiscal-year-as-spending-outpaces-revenue

Putin Missile Crisis.  Russia used North Korean missiles to attack Ukraine civilians. Ukraine continued its own deep-strike campaign, saying it attacked the Orsk oil refinery in Russia, more than 1,000 kilometers from Ukrainian territory. The Ukraine offensive has rewritten several rules of war, just in the last few years.  https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-war-north-korea-troops-missiles-7aff38d17dd195e63b7c55fc5a008c22

Today in History. In 1929 Babe Ruth became the first MLB player to hit 500 home runs.

Also on this day in 2014, Robin Williams died. I would so love to be in a parallel world where Robin Williams outlasted Donald Trump.

This is John Stith, www.neverend.com , filling in for Connie Willis through the 12th.

As Connie says, keep calm and carry on,

Lake Mead, 1995 and 2025