The Cowards of Congress Fleeing: 2026 Midterms Edition

Update: Thanks again to Batocchio for sharing this blog at Crooks & Liars for the Mike's Blog Round-up! You you can, please do me a favor. A friend of mine from my writing circles, Sarah E. Glenn, passed away. If you can see your way to buying one of her works, and if you like it recommending it to others, would be a great way to remember her. Thank you.

You'd think with a serious midterms election cycle upcoming that the incumbent Republicans would present themselves during the last two months of their terms as competent serious legislators, doing the work of the People in order to impress their voters back home.

Instead, the House Republican leadership under Mike "What Spine?" Johnson are folding up camp and scurrying into their hidey-holes to avoid any last-minute hot potatoes they don't want left in their laps (via Lisa Mascaro at AP News):

Speaker Mike Johnson is closing up the House early, sending lawmakers home Wednesday to campaign for the midterm elections after what he claims is the most productive Congress in decades.

But not without a scathing rebuke from GOP Rep. Thomas Massie for all the unfinished business.

Massie’s resolution to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over the war in Iran and his bipartisan effort to force the release of more files in the Jeffrey Epstein investigation are all being left behind, blocked from votes.

“We’re calling off Congress? And we’re in the majority?” Massie railed from the House floor.

“I’m trying to get justice for the Epstein survivors,” he said. “I’m trying to stop a war.”

It's been noted before - starting back after the 2022 midterm results - that this is the weakest, narrowest party majority in the House in decades - and it didn't get better in 2024 when trump's coattails were worthless  - where the Republicans had between two to five seats of wiggle room at any time to get any of their wingnut agendas passed.

As a result, in spite of Speaker Johnson's big lie of "most productive Congress in decades," this has actually been one of the least productive (it's the 119th session, with only 2% of enacted bills), with a sizable number of bills getting through - including a "Release the Epstein Files" package that trump and the party leadership never wanted passed - without Johnson's control.

Johnson is refusing to keep the House open to avoid not only Massie's attempts to hold trump and his corrupt administration accountable - something that might actually benefit House Republicans in the elections as the polling suggest voters are very angry about the corruption and trump's failures - but to avoid any further embarrassments of his failure to keep his own house - metaphorical and literal - in check. He'd rather shut down, declare victory, and pretend in the million-dollar ad campaigns flooding the media markets that "ALL IS WELL".

This is just further proof that the Republican Party is not serious about doing their jobs. They'd rather take the annual six-figure salaries and goof off at fundraiser parties than serve the public trust. They'd rather hide from the disasters consuming the American voting base - the high inflation, the failed Iran/Middle East wars that a majority of Americans clearly want to end, the terrifying increase of poisoned food/water, the spread of more disease - than do anything to fix any of that.

For the LOVE OF GOD, VOTERS. Vote Democratic: at least THEY want to do the damn job and fix things.

One Sentence Observation About the Obvious Corrupt Connections Between trump's Crime Family and the Russians

Donald Trump Jr.’s Bahamas Wedding Was Secretly Bankrolled by Russian Oligarch Close to Putin (read the article)

Considering absolutely every single fucking public revelation of donald trump and his kids - especially donnie junior - taking money and hiding - poorly - every fucking corrupt deal we've seen that's on a scale far worse than anything Hunter Biden ever did, can we at last accept the reality that donald trump has had, is having, will have betrayed the United States to Russia every fucking single chance he gets.

Are We Winning Yet? Nope.

trump's war on Reality Iran took a nasty turn this weekend when the quagmire expanded and made things worse (via the AP Newswire at NPR):

Yemen 's Iranian-backed Houthi rebels captured the island of Mayun at the entrance of the Red Sea, a key alternative for shipping Saudi oil and other exports since Iran has been targeting vessels in the Strait of Hormuz.

The island's seizure was confirmed by a senior military official with Yemen's internationally recognized government and a Houthi official. Both spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to journalists.

About 12% of the world's goods are typically shipped through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait at the southern end of the Red Sea. It's especially important to Saudi Arabia, a key U.S. ally.

Combined with the possible shutdown of another trade route, Iran's allies in Iraq punched Saudi Arabia at another key chokepoint:

Saudi Arabia said Friday it had shut down a major, cross-country oil pipeline as a "precautionary measure" following attacks the day before. The Saudi Energy Ministry did not say who carried out the attacks.

The East-West pipeline has been vital to Saudi Arabia continuing oil exports in the months since the Iran war has disrupted shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.

In a statement early Saturday, the Iraqi government said Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi ordered an investigation into the operations command in Maysan province and dismissed its commander after authorities determined that attacks targeting Saudi Arabia were launched from a site in the province.

Based on other reports I've seen on social media, the Houthis had been considered a "non-factor" the past month and that the Saudis had them contained. Now, the insurgents pulled off a Tet Offensive of their own, demonstrating how vulnerable the global trade markets still are and giving trump and his regional allies huge black eyes (via Barak Ravid at Axios):

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) called President Trump twice Thursday, urging him to launch strikes against the Houthis as the Iran-backed group closed in on a vital Red Sea chokepoint, two U.S. officials told Axios.

Trump declined, and U.S. officials stressed the administration has no plans to intervene directly against the Houthis for now...

The midterms are coming, trump - or at least his handlers - has come to realize that any further escalation on his part in the region would only anger the voters here at home opposed to his unsanctioned war, and hurt the Republicans' chances of keeping both parts of Congress. So trump is doing as little as possible - publicly at least - while claiming 'victory' and 'we're winning' in spite of the facts.

Gasoline prices are fluctuating here in the U.S. for now for regular consumption, but diesel - the fuel needed for trucks and transportation - has skyrocketed, meaning costs are going up for goods everywhere in the next week or so. These Houthi raids are also underscoring how little control the United States has in the Middle East after decades of mishandling the Global War on Terror.

trump started a war he can't finish, based off of wars that Bush the Lesser couldn't finish, which couldn't get finished by Obama or Biden because they inherited these messes and there were no good answers for any of it.

The Attack on the Midterms Began This Weekend

There is a lot of other craziness going on to report, but this from last week's trump-Fuhrer Fest ought to horrify people (via Hafiz Rashid at New Republic):

President Trump led his fans in a bizarre pledge at the Republican midterm convention in Dallas Thursday night.

“Please raise your right hand. I pledge, to the greatest president in the history of the United States, that loves us so much he can’t even breathe, that I will go out with my family, my friends, I’ll do it any way, I don’t care if I’m registered or not, I’m gonna try and cheat like hell like they do, there’s never been bigger cheaters, they don’t care. I am gonna go out and I’m going to get my friends and family and we are going to vote on November 3rd, or we are going to vote before that!” Trump had the whole crowd repeat after him.

It was blatant, cultlike behavior, and Trump’s MAGA base seemed to eat it up. The “cheat like hell” line proves that Trump’s rants about election fraud have always been self-serving, as he doesn’t care about any laws as long as he wins...

As much as this echoes every fascist rally where Dear Leader demands fealty from his devoted cultists, this is more terrifying because trump is directly attacking the upcoming midterm voting turnout. trump is basically encouraging his MAGA base "to cheat", either by rigging fake votes or disrupting the real ones trying to take place.

And it's all based on big fat lies. trump accuses Democrats of cheating, but in every attempt by election deniers - not just trump these past ten years, but an army of Far Right agitators that have been claiming voter fraud before him - to prove mass voter fraud, they've never proven it.

What Republicans call "cheating" is that there are groups allowed to vote they don't want to vote. Republicans know they're politically in the minority - there are more registered Democrats than registered Republican nationwide - so they want to cull the Democratic advantages as much as possible. It fits well into their conservative world view that only they - mostly propertied rich white males - should have the power to vote, a power that's been diluted down since they opened up the vote to all white males, then the vote to Black (and Latino, and Asian) males, then the vote to women, then the vote to college kids. The Far Right looks at all those voters - a good number of them skewing Democratic - and calls it "cheating" because there's no other way they can contend with that.

So trump has gotten his mob - arguably the same assholes who rioted for him when he committed insurrection back on January 6th 2021 - riled up to view the Democrats as "cheaters" on his say-so, with no evidence but with every bit of anger and venom he can stir up in them.

The risks to voter safety at the polls this November have gone up. It doesn't help that trump will likely use ICE agents to raid precincts in key states to disrupt turnout, use the Postal Service to shut down mail-in ballots (which ironically hurts Republican turnout), and use the FBI to raid elections offices to steal ballots like they do in third-world countries.

Stay safe. Plan ahead. Vote early if you have to (it's unlikely they'll send ICE to early ballot locations where too many white people will witness it). And defend your constitutional power to vote, everybody.

Trying to Find Some Peace On a Tragic Anniversary

Back in 2020 I dreaded the possibility of donald trump still being President for the 20th anniversary of the tragic 9/11 attacks. I didn't realize then he could return for the 25th anniversary and the risks of him messing that all up with his self-aggrandizing me-me-me bullshit.

The good news is that the New York City remembrances make it a policy preventing people from speaking during the memorial services, denying trump the chance to turn a somber gathering into a twisted celebration of his own "greatness".

So he did it instead during an earlier event this week, during which he invented a new 'heroic' story for himself being at Ground Zero; when in fact he was in New Jersey watching the devastation from a distance - later lying that he witnessed Muslim residents cheering the attacks - and going on talk shows to brag about how he now owned the tallest building in Manhattan (which also was a lie, and the worst time to brag about that).

All that rage I'd normally have at this shitgibbon, well I'm letting it out now and then stepping away.

Today, I would rather encourage the various readers of this blog to find some peace within yourselves, find some good things to do for others this day and even this weekend, and try to revel in the small joys and calm comforts we can achieve for ourselves and each other.

Stay safe.

Desperate to Buy Off the Voters (and Cheap, Too)

Update: thanks as always to Steve in Manhattan over at Crooks & Liars including this article for Mike's Blog Round-Up! Good luck everyone, stay safe, and for the LOVE OF GOD throw every Republican crook out of office this midterms!

I didn't watch trump at his midterm egofest last night, but I saw the responses. Gods, he's never been subtle but even this reeks of desperation (via George Chidi at the Guardian(US)):

Donald Trump’s promise of a $5,000 “Trump dividend” for every US citizen if Republicans retain control of the US Congress in November’s midterm elections has sparked incredulity and accusations of bribery.

“If the Republicans win, you win with us and you get $5,000,” Trump said during the unprecedented Republican midterm convention in Dallas. “It will be called the Trump dividend.”

It comes amid extreme concern over the US national debt, which exceeded $40tn for the first time in August.

Even other Republicans questioned it (although they'll likely promote it with grins painted on their faces when trump insists).

Speaking to Politico, Chip Roy, the Republican US representative from Texas, sounded skeptical. “Well – I would like to know how they would plan to pay for … back of envelope … well over $1tn,” he said.

In the moments after Trump made the announcement, Marc Goldwein of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget wrote on X that “this would cost about $1.2 TRILLION in just one year. That’s more than ALL THREE ROUNDS of COVID relief checks, despite no recessions. The result would be a huge spike in the deficit, and almost certainly in the inflation rate.”

The US has roughly 240 million adult citizens, suggesting the cost of $1.2tn. The federal government spent about $7tn in fiscal year 2025, with about $2tn taken on as debt.

And the funny thing is? The average American household - which depends on what expenses they're carrying from mortgages to bills to medical expenses and outstanding college loans - has around $105,000 in personal debts (note: under normal circumstances I'd be dealing with around $52,000 in debt right now. My dad - with his financial acumen - helped pay off my mortgage last year before he died. Millions of others don't get that kind of help). A meager $5,000 dividend bribe to vote for the party putting us most into debt in the first place is too cheap a payoff to be of any good to anybody.

And it is a bribe trump offers: We'll only get the money "IF" the Republicans win the 2026 midterms that was already looking like a certain Democratic Blue Wave. Everybody - including the MAGA punditry - saw it for what it is (via Malcolm Ferguson at New Republic):

“We should note though, it is not the first time he has promised a cash payment like this,” the (Fox News) network clarified shortly after Trump’s speech. “He promised Americans $2,000 rebates during his tariff policy when that was enacted, but after court challenges to the tariffs themselves, those $2,000 checks so far have not materialized.” 

Fox hosts laid these concerns at the feet of Vice President JD Vance. 

“You do the quick math, that’s about $1.3 trillion,” Brett Baier told Vance. “I can hear the critics’ heads exploding. They’re saying out loud, I guarantee you: ‘The president is bribing voters to vote for Republicans to take over the House. And then he’s bankrupting the country because the deficit debt is huge, and inflation would come back if this comes into play.’ So how do you answer those criticisms?”

Vance tried to defend it by claiming we'd get the money from other countries through trump's trade wars:

“What the president’s talking about is fundamentally a dividend for American workers. We’re taking in an extraordinary amount of revenue because the president of the United States is actually standing up to both foreign companies, but also foreign countries who’ve been taking advantage of America’s workers for pretty much my entire life,” Vance said, referring to tariffs.

In reality, the revenue brought in by Trump’s tariffs, under $500 billion, would not cover a $5,000 check for every American, which would cost $1.2 trillion. 

It’s obvious at this point that Trump’s first inclination when his back is against the wall is to dangle money in front of the masses. He’s promised cash payments multiple times, including $2,000 stimulus checks for the “tariff dividend,” a $5,000 stimulus check for the bygone “DOGE dividend,” and $1,000 checks for the Affordable Care Act. None of those ever materialized. 

Republicans, by the way, already control Congress. If Trump wanted to make this a reality, he could have by now.

If trump really wants to flip the majority of American voters - angry as hell towards a Republican-controlled government that's wrecking everything from Washington landmarks to our public schools - he would reverse course on his ruinous tariffs policies, end the fighting in Iran and the bombing of fishermen across South and Central America, stop a violent and unnecessary deportation program disrupting our communities, and apologize to voters on bended knee. Of course, trump can never admit he is wrong any anything so that will never happen.

Instead - as the corrupt con artist bastard he is - trump can only offer bribes in clear violation of the law. Social media is rampant with posts of critics pointing to the laws in the US Code trump is openly breaking:

There are at least two provisions in the U.S. Code that make it illegal to offer or accept a $5,000 "GOP Dividend" for voting. Both the offerer (Donald Trump) and the accepter (good luck with that!) are liable for fines and jail time.

[image or embed]

— Mrs. Betty Bowers (@mrsbettybowers.bsky.social) September 10, 2026 at 11:19 AM

Just in case Mrs Betty Bowers' skeet disappears,
here is the screenshot

If you want the link to the Code for 18USC s597  and 52USC s10307c here you go. Even the offer of the payment to change votes is illegal even if the payment never goes through.

It is enraging that the corrupt Republican-controlled Supreme Court ruled that a sitting president can't be charged with crimes. trump is so crooked and reckless he believes - no, worse, he knows - the law won't touch him. However; if enough voters show up this November midterms to flip both the House AND the Senate to supermajority Democratic control (it's possible for the Senate, but EVERY seat has to flip to pull it off) these are impeachable offenses, and we can kick trump's corrupt ass out of the White House he does not deserve.

You want motivation to vote, America? VOTE THE REPUBLICAN CROOKS OUT and IMPEACH trump. That is far more valuable than that cheap-ass $5,000 bribe.

trump Himself IS the Derangement Syndrome

Wanted to share this Michael Tomasky article at the New Republic I read a few days ago:

The Venezuela announcement tracks with a very well-worn pattern. Trump raves that the deal in question is the greatest in the annals of history. It will deliver scarcely imaginable benefits. It will cost nothing. And it all happened because of Trump’s genius.

It’s been a lie every time. The tariffs were going to help farmers. Nope: Farmers are furious at Trump, giving Democrats their first potential political opening in rural America in ages. The tariffs were going to allow for elimination of the income tax. Remember that one? The war in Iran was going to take a month. The Reflecting Pool, ruined by Trump’s predecessors, was going to be thing of unparalleled beauty.

It’s tempting to call these lies, and they surely were in the sense that Trump just says everything he does is the greatest without the slightest bit of analysis or conscience entering into the equation. But they’re not just lies. They’re delusions. And delusions, in a way, are even worse than lies.

Why? Because while a liar can change course, a delusional person cannot. Trump is sitting in the mid-to-low 30s in approval. If he were merely a liar, he could try to correct course and do some things differently. He could realize, for example, that the war he started has been a disaster and is massively unpopular and, without exactly admitting it directly, sue for peace and cut his losses. A liar can acknowledge, eventually, that maybe he screwed up a little on the Reflecting Pool.

But a delusionist can do none of those things because the delusionist can’t accept that he’s done anything wrong. And he surrounds himself with people who understand that their only real job, whatever their actual specific responsibilities may be, is to keep the delusions alive and the Emperor happy.

So: A normal president two months out from what’s shaping up as a devastating midterm election would try to do things a little differently. I’m not sure in this case what exactly that would be; releasing some of the petroleum reserve, bringing beef producers to the White House and pressing them to lower prices for a period. Anyway that’s Trump’s problem, not mine. The point is that he won’t do these things because he doesn’t think anything is wrong. In fact, his plan right now is to make himself the centerpiece of the GOP’s midterm message, and to that end he will reportedly redirect part of a $400 million kitty to “television advertisements about his own record.”

That record is delulu. He mocks affordability. He says the bad polls are fake. He blames everything on Joe Biden. He tells people the economy is roaring, everybody says so (yes, everybody at Mar-a-Lago probably does say so). He boasts, as he did at that rally 10 or so days ago, that the last 19 months have been the greatest first 19 months of any administration in history.

His aides must echo every word of this palaver or risk censure or termination. Ditto Republican elected officials, as Salazar no doubt learned swiftly and loudly after her first tweet. And ditto Republican office seekers, like the Senate candidate in Minnesota (net worth: between $17 and $33 million) who says people concerned about gas prices should “take one less trip to Starbucks.”

The GOP lives in a cocoon, woven by the gossamer threads of Trump’s fantasia. Reality does not penetrate it. It’s funny to watch. But it’s tragic because it’s affecting people’s lives. People are struggling and suffering. But to say that in the Emperor’s presence is to prove only that you’re a deep-stater or a stooge or a RINO.

So, no—none of this is fixable. The economy will get worse. More and more innocent people, very much including children, will be rounded up and held in detention centers in the kind of hideous conditions we associate with a right- (or hard-left-) wing dictatorship, not the United States of America. The jaw-dropping corruption will continue and will get worse and more desperate, as indeed it has nearly every month of this administration so far. The attempts to rig and steal the midterms will only get more blatant. And next year, the hideous aspects of the Big Ugly Bill, the ones they intentionally delayed until after the midterms, will kick in, like the massive Medicaid cuts, and poor people and those in nursing homes, among many others, will suffer even more...

All trump knows is the con: Selling junk as though it's gold and profiting from the suckers who buy into it. The thing is, the con he's selling his himself: As a Great Businessman, As a Great Leader, As a Great Dealmaker, etc. That's the junk he's selling, and it's costing the rest of the world dearly.

Tomasky is bringing this all up in the context of that big Midterm Rally (tm) trump is hosting in Dallas this coming week. It's rare for a political party to hold a convention in an off-presidential election cycle - at least in the modern era, maybe back in the 1800s before the telegraph and telephone they had to meet more often to stay organized - to promote themselves, but for trump any rally is where he gets to rave and rant about himself with the delusion that the rest of the world is applauding him.

Granted, the Far Right media outlets - which now includes the broken CBS News - will try to offer wall-to-wall coverage, but the haters are likely to tune out, and the disgruntled Republican voters back home are likely going to be busy at their city halls fighting to stop another data center getting built in their neighborhoods. I don't believe trump's last set of nationally televised appearances were all that good in the ratings (trump of course will insist they were "great"), and I doubt he'll get many viewers for this.

As much as Tomasky argues that the Republican elected officials are stuck pandering to trump's delusions, it's already out there that many of the GOP candidates this midterm are avoiding this Rally (tm) like the plague. trump's approval numbers are so terrible that getting associated with him - especially in districts and states hammered hard by his tariffs and migrant deportations - is toxic. They'll support everything trump is saying when they appear on the Sunday talk shows because they know he's watching, but they dare not stand next to him for any unwanted photo ops.

trump himself doesn't care for the damage he's inflicting on others, even the ones supposedly on his side of the fence. All he cares about is branding himself the Greatest Who Ever Lived while planning to bulldoze down most of Washington DC to get his garish ugly monuments to himself built.

There's your derangement syndrome, Beltway Media. I hope you're happy.

Addendum: As I worked on this, Tomasky did a follow-up article at TNR about the potential Blue Wave coming this midterms in spite of trump and the GOP's efforts to rig the election. We can hope... and we SHOULD turn out in droves to make that Blue Wave flip the House AND Senate this November. Want to break trump's delusions? Defeat him.

A Flock of Protests

This isn't just happening in Florida, but I figure I should start in my home state (via David Ingram with NBC News):

Florida’s state transportation office on Monday revoked the ability of local police to put license plate readers on state highways, as a nationwide backlash continued to gain steam against Flock Safety and other makers of surveillance cameras.

Will Watts, the chief operating officer of the Florida Department of Transportation, informed local law enforcement agencies in a one-page memo that the department was revoking all previously issued approvals for license plate readers (LPRs) in state “rights-of-way,” or the strip of land that’s next to or part of a state road.

Watts cited a “recent exponential increase” in deployments of law enforcement cameras, as well as “concerning reports of misuse, data privacy concerns, and surveillance schemes” that he said merit immediate action “to preserve Floridians’ sovereignty and quality of life.”

If you've paid attention along the sides of the highways, you might notice these thin black poles on portable mounts with cameras atop them. Unlike the CCTV cameras you'd see at traffic intersections - or the street corners of urban communities - these are cheap, easy to place, and even easier to abuse by law enforcement bullies stalking their exes or other women that caught their eye. Ingram's report provides an example of "a Kentucky police officer was arrested after authorities said he used the Flock system more than 2,000 times to track his ex-girlfriend."

They're investigating cops in Chicago who abused the data for their personal use. A cop in Texas got fired for using Flock to track his ex-wife. A cop is charged in Louisville KY for using Flock to stalk a woman for months.

Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes is in full effect here, kids.

As Ingram notes, the use and abuse of this new technology - tied into AI, and reaching further into personal privacy data than any previous tech our law enforcement ever wielded - has caught the attention and anger of thousands of fellow Americans:

NBC News has identified 50 areas across the country where Flock cameras have been damaged, spray-painted, smashed or cut down in acts of vandalism since 2024, while some drivers have sued Flock and organized themselves into a proposed class action.

Tim Swarens over at USA Today delves more into the legal concerns:

Unlike old-fashioned surveillance cameras, information gleaned from images captured by Flock cameras – including time, date and place – is stored as searchable text in databases. Law enforcement agencies can then mine the data without a warrant. 

The American Civil Liberties Union says the cameras can even record the bumper stickers slapped on the back of your car. Think about the First Amendment implications of that uninvited interaction with government snoops.

Invasion of privacy concerns have ostensibly motivated vandals across the country to sabotage the cameras. And while I don’t condone breaking the law, I do understand the opposition to unwelcome government surveillance...

Proponents of the cameras say they help police capture dangerous fugitives, stop car thefts and reduce other crimes.

But there is a necessary tension between public safety and our constitutional rights, including the right to privacy. We restrict law enforcement agencies’ power for good reason... 

News stories have cropped up across the country about misuse of the cameras. In 2025, police in Lenexa, Kansas, were accused of using the city’s license plate readers to track the movements of a man who wrote a guest column for the Kansas City Star criticizing the police department...

In February, police in Sherwood, Arkansas pulled over a couple after a Flock camera erroneously identified their vehicle as stolen. The couple was held at gunpoint, with their infant in the vehicle, before officers realized their error...

As much as the technology is cutting edge, the AI used by these cameras is still raw - AI is meant to learn - and prone to mistakes/errors/outright fabrications. We're running the risk of cops reacting to the wrong crimes and towards innocent people. We've had the risk of these same cops abusing their authority to harass and bully others, but now with these cameras and AI they can behave even worse.

I don't condom damaging or destroying any Flock cameras you see out there. But if you ever come across one, take the time to slow down well enough that you can flip the bird at the SOBs as you drive by.