Good morning. I’m Corinne Straight, and this is AlterNet America. Please take a moment to click the ❤️ and restack this post. The oligarchs’ platforms are trying to keep stories like the ones below from hitting your feeds, and this helps us break through.
The White House credited Donald Trump with preventing hurricanes. The Trump administration secretly flew a diplomat accused of possessing child sexual abuse material out of Britain without telling British police. A twice-convicted sex offender delivered the opening prayer at a rally for the Republican Senate nominee in North Carolina. And Senator Elizabeth Warren used a Taco Bell outbreak to expose how badly RFK Jr. has handled food safety.
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The man who once asked advisors whether the military could nuke a hurricane has now decided he can do it with his mind.
The White House communications team gave Trump credit for stopping hurricanes after an influencer posted that no hurricanes had formed in the Atlantic as of September 12, the first time that has occurred since 1941. The official account replied, “Thank you, President Trump!”
It should go without saying that there’s no evidence that Trump has anything to do with the quiet hurricane season. The weather is driven by El Niño, a climate pattern in which the surface winds weaken and shift direction, slowing tropical storms before they build intensity.
There *have *been tropical storms this season. Just two weeks ago, Tropical Storm Edouard made landfall in southeast Texas, where authorities had to rescue dozens of people from stranded cars, flooded homes, and an assisted living facility.
The Trump administration also eviscerated the federal government’s ability to respond to natural disasters. Former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem diverted FEMA funds to immigration operations before she was ousted and officials are pushing to withhold disaster grants from cities that refuse to get rid of their diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.
The party that accuses Democrats of running child trafficking rings just smuggled an accused child predator out of an allied country.
American officials secretly flew a US diplomat out of Britain last month after images of child sex abuse were allegedly found on his phone. They told British police only after the operation had been carried out.
The extraction was triggered by a U.S. investigation into the diplomat’s brother, who is based in America. Agents allegedly discovered the images at the suspect’s London address in Putney on August 25, and then arrested him despite not having the power to make arrests on British soil.
No charges have been announced in either country, and the diplomat’s name has not been released. British officials described the operation as having caused significant alarm at the highest levels of government, with discussions about it reaching the office of Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley.
It was the second time in recent months that the U.S. removed one of its personnel from Britain before they could face prosecution. Two months earlier, American fighter pilot Captain Jacob Wulfson was convicted of strangling a woman in Cambridge, but was tried by court martial on a U.S. air base and sentenced to just six months.
If you’re keeping count, this is the second story in today’s newsletter about a Republican event and a convicted sex offender.
Pastor Daimon L. King, a registered sex offender who has been convicted twice for incidents involving children, delivered the opening prayer at a recent campaign rally for Michael Whatley, the Republican Senate nominee in North Carolina. He asked God to bestow integrity and honesty on the event.
King, 60, was convicted in 1998 of statutory rape and indecent liberties with a 15-year-old student, and served nearly five years in prison. In 2010, he pleaded guilty to having sex with an underage female relative and served another three years. He is required under North Carolina law to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.
Whatley’s campaign said that he didn’t previously know of King, and that the event was organized by the Craven County Republican Party. But a video posted by the campaign itself shows King standing in the background and flashing a double thumbs-up while Trump’s Medicare administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz spoke.
This is not the first time that Whatley has been linked to a convicted sex offender during this campaign. Democrats have spent more than $2.3 million on ads featuring a photo of Whatley with Harvey L. West Jr., a former GOP district committee chair convicted of five counts of indecent liberties with a child and served six years in prison.
Taco Bell handled a food safety crisis better than the federal government. No further punchline required.
Most of what we know about how badly the federal government handled the largest Cyclospora outbreak in U.S. history comes from a letter Senator Elizabeth Warren sent to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Warren’s letter accused his department of a response so badly mismanaged that Taco Bell ended up giving consumers better guidance than the FDA or CDC.
Nearly 13,000 people across 21 states were sickened, 570 were hospitalized, and two died after an outbreak linked to shredded iceberg lettuce from Taylor Farms. Four days after Taco Bell pulled fresh produce from its menus in several states, the CDC was still linking the outbreak to an unknown source.
Warren noted that within 72 hours of public health officials alerting Taco Bell that it appeared to be linked to the outbreak, the lettuce in question was recalled nationwide. Meanwhile, the FDA linked the outbreak to Taylor Farms and even announced a lettuce sample had tested positive for Cyclospora before it suddenly withdrew the finding, claiming it was a false positive.
Taylor Farms has given heavily to conservative political organizations, including a $1 million contribution to a pro-Trump super PAC. Company representatives also met with White House officials during the outbreak, prompting Warren and House Oversight Committee ranking member Robert Garcia to seek records about whether the company had attempted to influence the investigation.
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** Ted Cruz Booed for Nine Straight Minutes on ESPN’s College GameDay.** Senator Ted Cruz was on ESPN’s College GameDay in Austin on Saturday to highlight college sports legislation before the Texas Longhorns faced top-ranked Ohio State. The crowd of Longhorns fans booed him the entire nine-minute interview, chanting “Ted, you suck” and “Get him off” so loud you could barely hear what he was saying. Cruz has long been one of the least popular politicians in his own state, drawing less than 20 percent of the vote on that campus in 2024. Cruz left before the start and the Longhorns came back from 20 down to defeat Ohio State, continuing a long tradition of things getting better after Ted Cruz leaves.
** Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin Files Challenge to State Abortion Restrictions.** Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin filed a lawsuit Thursday in Dane County Circuit Court arguing that the state constitution’s guarantee of liberty and the pursuit of happiness includes the right to an abortion. The suit targets two restrictions: one that limits abortion care to physicians and another that requires a 24-hour waiting period between a consultation and an abortion appointment. No Wisconsin court has ever ruled on the question, and the organization says a successful case would be a generational step forward for reproductive freedom.
** Federal Judge Orders ICE to Halt Construction of Gilroy Detention Center. **A federal judge in the Northern District of California on Friday granted a preliminary injunction halting construction of a planned detention facility by ICE near Gilroy in Santa Clara County. California Attorney General Rob Bonta and Santa Clara County sued in June, saying the Trump administration didn’t conduct the required environmental reviews or consult with state or local governments before breaking ground on the 24-acre site. A final decision on whether the project is legal is not expected until October.
Nashville Votes Unanimously to Rename Airport After Dolly Parton. The Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority voted 6-0 Friday to start the process of renaming Nashville International Airport after the late Dolly Parton, who died Aug. 25 at age 80 after a brief battle with cancer. The vote came after a Change.org petition garnered over 175,000 signatures, and a push from Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee. Once completed, Parton will be the first woman to have her name on one of the 50 busiest airports in the U.S. Parton once asked Tennessee lawmakers to forgo a proposal for a statue of her at the state Capitol, saying she hoped that could happen after she was gone.