Today in Politics, Bulletin 188. 8/8/25

… Trump fired his IRS Commissioner Billy Long just two months after he was confirmed as commissioner. Long, a former Republican congressman and staunch ally of Trump, will now be nominated as Ambassador to Iceland for his consolation prize. NYT reported that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will serve as acting commissioner until a permanent replacement is in place.

… NYT: “Long had been an unusual choice to lead the IRS. He did not have much background in tax policy beyond promoting a tax credit that the IRS has warned was riddled with fraud, and while he was in Congress he supported legislation calling for the abolition of the agency entirely.”

… Punchbowl’s Jake Sherman: “The wild thing about this is that the Senate spent precious time confirming Long, who had basically no qualifications to be IRS Commissioner. Republican senators defended him. Voted for him. And he got pushed out almost immediately.”

… Fox reports that the TX House has filed arrest warrants with a court in IL for TX Democratic Reps who fled to state to prevent a quorum to gerrymander the state: "The TX House seeks an order recognizing the Quorum Warrants as a public Act of the State of TX that is entitled to full faith and credit in IL, and requests that this Court issue civil warrants directing the appropriate IL law enforcement officials to effectuate the civil arrest of Respondents and coordinate with the Sergeant of Arms of the TX House and the Texas Dept of Public Safety to return them to TX.”

… TX Speaker of the House Dustin Burrows: "From day one, I have said that all options are on the table when it comes to making sure my colleagues who have fled the House return to fulfill their constitutional obligations. The members who fled have been given ample time and opportunity to return on their own accord, and because they have continued to refuse their responsibilities to their constituents and return to TX, the State has no choice but to pursue additional legal remedies to compel their return from other states."

… Rep. Blake Moore (R-UT) became the 2nd Republican Rep. to publicly oppose the Texas mid-decade gerrymander, joining NY Rep. Mike Lawler. To Salt Lake Tribune: “I do not agree with state efforts to redistrict mid-decade. It undermines established norms and gives blue states a glaring green light to do the same. Partisan gerrymandering is clearly done by both sides, but to allow this wildfire to spread mid-decade is a step too far.”

… Moore’s opposition is significant because he is part of House GOP leadership - currently the Republican Conference Chair. There are reports that many Republicans are prepared to oppose this who haven’t yet said anything publicly.

… Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-CA) became the 3rd to openly oppose the move by Texas, and announced that he is introducing a bill to ban mid-decade redistricting nationwide: "I’m calling on House leadership to give my bill a vote as soon as we return to session.”

… NBC’s Sahil Kapur: “Kiley sits in a swing district that may get nuked if California Dems redraw the map. The bigger question is whether Hill GOP leaders will support any limits on states; they have opposed this in the past and show no sign of changing their mind.”

… TX Democratic State Rep Vince Perez on Gov. Greg Abbott’s obsession with arresting TX Dems who left the state: “The governor's coordinating the Texas Department of Public Safety with the FBI, the president—this is really the type of coordination that could have been used when Texans needed it during the recent floods.”

… Republican strategist Alex Degrasse outlined their game-plan to steal elections on Steve Bannon’s show: “We got 3 things here. We got redistricting in TX, SC and other states. That’s one front. Second is the new census - that could fundamentally change American politics. And the 3rd front is the Voting Rights Act is up in the Supreme Court over race-based seats. So we’ve got these 3 vectors that could result in Democrats losing 42 seats in the House.”

… Charlie Kirk on Fox: “Trump announcing the new census, what that would do is also potentially subtract 20 electoral votes from Democrats in the electoral college system as congressional seat appropriation correlates to electoral college totals. We have a mandate and that mandate is that we want victory—victory for America means the defeat of the Democrat party as they are a permanent minority party.”

… Jennifer Jacobs with CBS: “Trump admin sent letter to Harvard University today notifying that it has failed to live up to its obligations on patents worth hundreds of millions. Howard Lutnick in a letter says failure to comply with Bayh-Dole Act allows federal govt the option to take ownership of a university’s patents. The letter gives Harvard a deadline of Sept 5 to respond.”

… NBC: “Federal prosecutors are in the early stages of an investigation into the office of NY AG Letitia James, who brought a civil fraud case against President Trump. The probe is focused on whether James' office caused a deprivation of legal rights under the color of law through its civil suits against Trump and his businesses as well as the NRA.”

… Spokesperson for James’ office: “Any weaponization of the justice system should disturb every American. We stand strongly behind our successful litigation against the Trump Organization and the National Rifle Association, and we will continue to stand up for New Yorkers’ rights.”

… NBC is reporting that crazy Ed Martin, whose nomination was pulled for DC US Attorney because there was no possible way he was going to be confirmed by the Senate, has now been appointed as special counsel to lead the criminal investigation of NY AG Letitia James for allegedly depriving Trump and NRA President Wayne LaPierre of their civil rights in separate prosecutions, and Sen. Adam Schiff for alleged mortgage fraud.

… Kristi Noem was on Fox complaining about how she was portrayed in the last South Park episode: “It’s so lazy to just constantly make fun of women for how they look. It’s only the liberals and the extremists who do that. If they wanted to criticize my job, go ahead and do that, but clearly they can’t. So they pick something petty like that.”

… Not only does her boss do that constantly, but every woman on social media knows that the first card MAGA neanderthals play to attack them is almost always misogynistic. That happens 1,000% more from right-wingers than anyone on the left.

… Noem was complaining about how they made her character look. Seems accurate to me.

… A local reporter in SC confronted Nancy Mace at her first campaign event for governor after she bragged about securing funding for a major highway exit in SC that she actually voted against. Mace: “You must be a raging leftist with that kind of questioning. I would say, as a woman, you might think about how you view other women and the way you treat other women with how you question them. The first female president is going to be a conservative woman, not someone like you.”

… Her campaign certainly will not be boring. Psychotic, yes. Boring, no.

… Former NewsBusters (right-wing site) founder and former GOP media consultant Matthew Sheffield gave his take on the NYT report about the Sydney Sweeney jeans ad: “Right-wing extremists like Libs of Tiktok and Charlie Kirk totally concocted the Sydney Sweeney ‘outrage.’ The supposed left-wing outrage at Sweeney never happened. Republicans made it up. Republicans have been inventing people to rage against for decades. The actual numbers show that almost no one was criticizing Sydney Sweeney for her American Eagle ad. But Libs of TikTok decided to pretend that lefties were angry. A story that was nothing became huge.”

… “This tactic, often called nutpicking, is a go-to strategy for RW media. I know this because I was in it for 15 years. Highlighting random people as supposed representatives of evilness or stupidity is the bit. Jesse Watters built his career on ridiculing bikini-clad women. I finally got tired of nutpicking once I realized that there are plenty of idiots across the political spectrum. But when I looked closer, I realized that Dems ignored their dummies. Republicans voted them into the highest offices.”

… “The only way Republicans win elections is ignorance. They can't govern. They have no reform ideas. They just slash and burn because they hate the idea of community and shared responsibility. We saw that with their anti-mask and vaccine obsessions during Covid. Reactionary Republicans have no affirmative ideas. They cannot build great things, only tear down what they cannot understand. This is why they love censorship and why they must lie constantly. They have to lie and cheat to win.”

… Speaking of that, right-wing podcaster Tomi Lahren was on Laura Ingraham’s Fox show complaining about the Gay Games being planned for 2030: “I went on their website and tried to find the sports. I thought there would be sports categories. But really what this is is a lot of arts and crafts, singing, cultural moments, togetherness. This is the gay community who doesn’t want to be equal they want to be special - we need our own separate thing. That’s what this is really all about.”

… CNN contributor Scott Jennings said now that former Superman actor Dean Cain has joined ICE, recruitment is going to take off: “Having someone like Dean Cain out touting it—It's going to help them recruit.”

… Podcaster Van Lathan responded: “It’s not 1995. No one gives a sad hell what Dean Cain thinks. Dean needs the $50,000 bonus - that’s what got him off the couch.”

… The Hill: “The White House is pressing the pause button on public tours as construction is set to begin within weeks for Trump’s new $200 million ballroom. Thousands of people visit the WH on free public tours. Last year, while announcing a revamped public tour route, then-first lady Jill Biden said more than 10,000 visitors came through the WH’s doors each week.”

… Melania Trump’s communications director Nicholas Clemens: “New tour bookings were paused proactively while a collaborative group of WH, Secret Service, National Park Service, and Executive Residence staff work to determine the best way to ensure public access to the WH as this project begins and for the duration of construction.”

… It appears the conflicting reports yesterday about whether Trump would meet with Putin first without Zelensky have been resolved and he will do what Putin wants - a meeting without Zelensky. Trump announced today that it will take place next Friday in Alaska.

… Is JD Vance going to show up for this so they can yell at Putin for indiscriminate bombings of civilian population centers, or is that kind of treatment only given to allies who fail to thank Trump sufficiently?

… There has been some reporting that Putin has wanted a face-to-face meeting alone with Trump for months because he thinks he can always get Trump to do what he wants in those situations.

… Ukraine war analyst Michael Mackay: “It’s Trump’s war. Russia put Trump in the WH to do exactly what he’s doing: blocking sanctions by the Senate and refusing to impose sanctions by executive authority. Under Putin puppet Trump, the US has broken with traditional allies and joined wrong side. Trump gave 2 weeks for Russia to observe a ceasefire. Then he gave 2 weeks again. Then he gave 50 days. Then he gave 10 days. After the latest arbitrary and meaningless deadline, Trump chickened out. Trump always chickens out. Russia continues to commit war crimes.”

… Epstein victim Annie Farmer told CNN that DOJ has completely abandoned the victims in the case to play politics and cover for Trump: “I wrote a letter to Deputy AG Todd Blanche saying these are my concerns about what's happening. And there has not been a response. I know speaking with other survivors in this case, I don’t think anyone has been contacted by DOJ.”

… Elon Musk complained on X that more people have been arrested for throwing dildos on the court at WNBA games than people in the Epstein Files.

… Reuters: “The US Air Force is denying early retirement to all transgender service members with between 15-18 years of military service, opting instead to force them out with no retirement benefits. These longer-serving transgender service members will have the same choice as more junior ones: quit or be forced out. Multiple service members had already been approved for early retirement, but those approvals were rescinded.”

… Shannon Minter of the National Center for LGBTQ Rights: “It’s devastating. This is just betrayal of a direct commitment made to these service members."

… AP: “Shannon Leary, a lawyer who represents LGBTQ+ people in employment discrimination cases, says she expects lawsuits to challenge Thursday’s decision: ‘It seems quite arbitrary on its face and cruel. These military members have dedicated their lives to serving our country.”

… Leary said she expects the other services to follow suit, forcing these service members out and denying them retirement benefits only a few years before they vest.

… Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI): “It was never about the bathrooms or the sports. It was always just to demonize and punish. These Americans have devoted their careers to keeping us safe, and they are getting screwed by their government.”

… Veterans advocate Fred Wellman: “This is utterly shameful. These men and women have all served with honor in the face of hate. Now they are being thrown out for pure bigotry. Disgusting.”

… CA Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis has dropped out of the race for California governor, and said will instead run for state treasurer. Her departure from the race along with Kamala Harris deciding not to run leaves the race wide open with former Rep. Katie Porter now leading the polls.

… Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi and other prominent Dems had endorsed Kounalakis, so they may back a new candidate or someone else already in the race. A new Emerson poll now has Katie Porter leading the field at 18%, with a huge chunk of voters (38%) still undecided.

This is my final Bulletin before my first vacation in 2 years. We are heading out to Quebec for the next 8 days - first to the Gaspe Peninsula, then across the St. Lawrence River on a car ferry to Saguenay, then finish in Lac Beauport in the woods a little north of Quebec City. We like to experience nature and local culture outside tourist bubbles, and that is certainly going to be this trip!

We also wanted to support our friends in Canada as they deal with Trump. If you missed yesterday’s Bulletin, you can find it here. They will resume Aug 18.

… NBC: “Restoring a memorial to the Confederacy that was removed from Arlington National Cemetery will cost roughly $10 million total, a US Army official said. SecDef Pete Hegseth announced the Pentagon would reinstall the memorial at Arlington less than 2 years after it was removed on the recommendation of an independent commission: “It never should have been taken down by woke lemmings. Unlike the