Dear Everybody:
The coverage of the Cowardly Trump and the Catering Truck is being superseded in the news, but that’s only because he now has an even worse scandal to deal with–the horrific conditions on the US aircraft carriers in the Middle East:
–Reports have been surfacing over the last couple of months of terrible conditions on board American ships in the Gulf region–not enough food or water, no milk, no meat, no clean clothes, broken toilets, no way to wash clothes, no shore leave whatsoever, etc. And now they’re reaching critical mass as the families and friends of service people aboard are reporting that some of the sailors have suffered “mental health episodes” and tried to jump overboard.
–Although the focus has been on the aircraft carrier, the ABRAHAM LINCOLN, other aircraft carriers are reporting similar problems and so are destroyers and other Navy ships in the region.
–One parent reported that the ship’s water system went down and no one could shower or wash their clothes. Toilets backed up and overflowed, leaving “half a foot of human waste across restroom floors used by around 200 sailors at any given time.”
–Another person reported the USS George H.W. Bush has “virtually no food, water or soap…They’ve been out at sea for 136 days with no end in sight. Morale is low and everyone is miserable. It’s heartbreaking.”
–And another said the crew is exhausted, getting no days off, running on only a few hours of sleep, and that the ship’s leadership doesn’t care about the sailors. “I am sharing this because these sailors need someone to speak for them. They are exhausted and feel like they are not being heard and they desperately need help.”
–There are tons of Instagram posts of skimpy and/or disgusting looking meals, human waste flooding the bathrooms, no showers, impossible living conditions, and at least three sailors who jumped overboard. The sailors have been deployed for over seven months with no shore leave amid rapidly deteriorating conditions. They are exhausted, and there is no end in sight. (They’ve been at sea since November 2025. They were supposed to return to the US in May.)
–At least three sailors and possibly more have jumped overboard. One sailor who attempted suicide was in the water over an hour. His wife was not notified until four days after it happened.
What’s making this into a MAJOR SCANDAL is the responses of Hegseth and Trump:
–Even though the Navy Times and Stars and Stripes have reported on the conditions and the attempted suicides, Secretary of Defense Hegseth denied it all, saying the conditions have been “completely misrepresented.” Hegseth: “We make sure every ship, every crew, every captain has everything we can provide them at every single moment.”
–The Pentagon’s response to these horror stories is to be furious at Meidas Touch and others for breaking the story and at the families and friends of sailors on the USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN for spilling the beans. They are determined to get revenge on all of them. (Note: This is the Trump administration’s response to everything–kill the messenger.)
–Reporter: “The family members of US service members are concerned about the conditions on the USS Lincoln.” Trump: “No, they’re not.” Reporter: “Has the deployment gone on too long?” Trump: “No, no, no. Not nearly long enough.”
–TrumpsTaxes; “Just a gobsmackingly bad answer that will propel this story deeper into scandal.”
–Ordinary Dissident: “This clip alone would sink a normal President.”
–White House Correspondent Vaughn Hillyard: “The president is disputing the fact that families of service members on the USS Lincoln are concerned about their loved ones. He should talk to his Navy Secretary who was confronted by those families face to face a week ago.”
–Governor Newsom: “The 5,000 sailors and Marines who deployed from San Diego aboard the USS Lincoln have been at sea long past the original May return date. Trump couldn’t care less about the brave service members he is jeopardizing with his failed war with Iran. The cruelty is off the charts.”
–Jason Miciak: “A floating bucket of filth is the clear signal of Trump’s incompetence.”
–Susan Seaman: “When I heard what was happening to the USS Abraham Lincoln, I felt like my hate for this administration had doubled. And I did not know that was even possible.”
–Aaron Rupar: “I do think we need to face facts that the US military is in terrible shape and it will continue to get worse under the present leadership. This is in some ways the greatest scandal in US history.”
–Daily Kos: “We’re so lucky to have a Secretary of War who understands that if you pump ’em full enough of testosterone, warfighters don’t need food at all.”
–LAMJ: “We literally need to rescue them.”
In Trump dementia/madness news:
–Trump signed an executive order demanding that all US aircraft carriers remove their electromagnetic catapult systems and go back to steam catapults.
–The Wall Street Journal says this is a move Navy officials have fought for years, ever since Trump told the Navy in a 2017 interview to go back to “goddamn steam.”
–Trump: “Billions of dollars more they spent on electric catapults, and they’re not good. They’re not nearly as good. Too complex.”
–Trump: “When we build aircraft carriers, it’s steam for the catapults and it’s hydraulic for the elevators. We’ll never have a problem.”
–If they do this, carrier readiness will be affected and so will national security. It will seriously imperil the US’s technical superiority. The change would require extensive ship redesign (they would have to tear out the current carrier launch system, which is integral to the design of the Ford class of aircraft carriers) and significant costs (billions of dollars), and would create scheduling and integration risks.
–There are no steam catapults available since they are not being built anymore, (BECAUSE THEY’RE OBSOLETE!) but this is a Trump hobbyhorse. He’s been wanting to do this forever.
–Angry: “I don’t understand the logic in scrapping the electromagnetic aircraft launch system and neither do the navy personnel who operate these carriers. Just changing shit for no reason.”
–Dona Dickinson: “Because he doesn’t understand how ANYTHING works AND he thinks he’s a genius due to his uncle at MIT. This combination of flaws has led to his innumerable bad decisions that are fucking up everything from wind turbines to reflecting pools.”
–Dem Senator Mark Kelly: “I’ve launched off the front of aircraft carriers hundreds of times, have a master’s degree in aeronautical engineering, and am a test pilot, and even I wouldn’t suggest to the Navy how to engineer specific systems on its ships. Donald Trump should stick to what he knows best–ballrooms, bankruptcy, and bullshit.”
–Ron Filipkowski: “While struggling with the Reflecting Pool, Trump now takes his talents to aircraft carrier engineering.”
–Lens on the World: “Steam, the future of America’s power!”
–Ron Filipkowski: “Based on what I have learned from Trump about windmills over the years, I can’t think of anyone better to redesign America’s aircraft carriers.”
–We have now definitely reached “Grandpa’s wearing his underwear on his head” stage.
–And now this morning we learned that Trump wants to move the military tower (the island) that acts as a command center for the aircraft carrier so that it looks more like the aircraft carriers which were in service during World War II. (Forward into the past!)
In other Trump dementia/madness news:
–Trump says after Iran is defeated, he’s going to declare the Strait of Hormuz a territory of the United States.
–George Conway: “A person who can say this without believing it is a psychopath. A person who can say this and believe it is psychotic. Either way, he’s beyond unfit for any office of public trust.”
–Swanky Samm III: “I don’t think that’s his dementia talking. He believes anything and everything is his to take–without asking, without permission, without consideration, without regret. He has conducted himself in such a manner his entire life.”
–(Note: I keep thinking that at SOME POINT, people are going to have to notice that these things Trump is doing are completely INSANE and say, “NO MORE.” But I thought that when he tore down the East Wing and when he shot people in the street and when he tried to blame an Olympic athlete for his own messing up of the Reflecting Pool and when he put huge banners of himself up on government buildings and put his name on the Kennedy Center and when he sent his goons to take over the Capitol! I know it’s coming, but when, oh, Lord, when???)
In Epstein/Trump news:
–The investigation into former Prince Andrew is yielding more and more really bad stuff about Andrew’s relationship with Epstein. People knew that Andrew was involved with Epstein, but now it’s being revealed that he basically WORKED FOR Epstein.
–Emails show Epstein telling Prince Andrew what to do through his aide David Stern, and treating Andrew like he was his lackey. Stern: “Prince Andrew in Silicon Valley on 25 and 26 June. anyone you want him to see?” Epstein: “Yes. Steve Sinofsky (Microsoft executive.)” And this one: Epstein: “Have Prince Andrew invite Barclay CEO Jes Staley to the palace, etc.”
–Three weeks after Prince Andrew claimed he broke it off with Epstein (saying he needed to see him in person to do it as a matter of honor, he forwarded Epstein a confidential brief on gold and investment opportunities in Afghan’s Helmand Province.
–Tina Brown: “The Epstein files are like an archaeological dig that keeps yielding new veins of awfulness from the same protagonists.”
In other Epstein/Trump news:
–Trump’s filter is getting worse and worse by the day, and I think pretty soon Trump will be out and out confessing what he did to those little girls.
–Here’s what he said yesterday at his rally yesterday: “Every day I come to the White House people are thanking me. ‘Thank you, sir! Thank you! Thank you, sir!’ Now, those young, beautiful girls. Those young, beautiful girls in the White House, you know, they come in. Now I’m not supposed to say beautiful, but what the hell! These young, these gorgeous, beautiful girls, they want to be safe, and they come. ‘Mr. President, may I speak to you.’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Thank you, sir, thank you.’”
–Aaron Rupar: “Epstein’s best friend says what?”
In Cracks in the Dam news:
–Trump people are definitely starting to abandon the sinking ship that is Trump’s White House, and it’s not just Karoline Leavitt.
–White House counsel David Warrington left and so did deputy press secretary Abigail Jackson, and now Marco Rubio’s most senior aide on the National Security Council, Andy Baker, is stepping down.
–Jim Acosta: “The rats are starting to jump ship.”
In scientific news;
–Today in 1979 the astronomers at Big Ear Radio Observatory received a sustained and very loud burst of radio waves called the “Wow” signal, the most famous unexplained candidate for an alien message ever recorded. It got its name from the note astronomer Jerry Ehrman scrawled next to it on the computer printout.
–The signal lasted 72 seconds, the full amount of time the observatory could receive a signal from one spot. It came from the direction of the constellation Sagittarius and was narrow-band and sharp, with a frequency of 1420 MHz, the natural frequency of hydrogen, which is considered the best frequency for sending a message through the universe. Its narrow band ruled out nearly all natural phenomena.
–According to SETI, other explanations (besides a message from extraterrestrials) include a transient astrophysical phenomenon amplified in a process called “superradianance”, such as a rare energy flare from a cold hydrogen cloud triggered by a bright star source like a magnetar.
–The signal has never been repeated, even though (as you can imagine) astronomers have kept telescopes trained ever since on the spot it came from.
–The “wow signal” has appeared in lots of science fiction, including the 2nd season premiere of THE X-FILES called “Little Green Men.”
In other news:
–A 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck the Flores Sea off the coast of Indonesia.
–CBS News’s Matt Gutman (the first person Bari Weiss hired as on-air talent for the new Trumpian network) is being sued for sexual harassment by field producer Samira Said.
–Todd Blanche not only attended a rally for a Republican candidate, but spoke at it in a blatant violation of the Hatch Act. (This is the country’s top law enforcement officer, remember.) He found time to attend the rally, but DIDN’T HAVE TIME to attend a DC court hearing on the Epstein files.
In good news:
–A federal judge blocked Trump’s order to require the Postal Service to check names of everyone supposed to receive a mail-in ballot against a list of those legally registered to vote before sending out the ballots. The judge ruled that the order is illegal in all 50 states and that THE PRESIDENT HAS NO POWER TO REGULATE ELECTIONS.
–A federal court dismissed a DOJ lawsuit trying to get hold of Nevada’s voter rolls. This is Trump’s 22nd straight loss on this issue.
–A Nebraska court rejected the Republican National Committee’s lawsuit seeking to block US citizens abroad from voting in Nebraska. The case was dismissed with prejudice, which means they can’t file again.
Today marks the day THE WIZARD OF OZ premiered in Los Angeles and changed the language forever. I mean, how would we ever do without “You and your little dog, too” and “There’s no place like home,” and “Lions and tigers and bears, oh, my!” and “Surrender Dorothy!” and “I’m melting, I’m melting!” and “Are you a good witch or a bad witch?” And especially “I’ve got a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore” and “Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain,” which come in handy nearly every day.”
Best comment of the day, from Peggy Hendrickson: “This situation is a travesty. The entire Iranian escapade is a display of massive ignorance and abuse of power. These people had NO IDEA how to even HAVE a war. They don’t even keep an inventory of US munitions.”
Keep calm and carry on,
Connie Willis
