Greetings all. Our great candidate for US Senate from Iowa joins us today live at Noon ET. Join us by heading to the Hopium site right at noon so you don’t a miss a moment of our conversation with one of our very best candidates of the cycle…….
In my talk last week, With Ten Weeks To Go Dems Are Closing Strong And Trump Just Keeps F*cking Up, I said as bad things were for Trump they were likely to get worse. In the news over the past few days we are coming to see what worse looks like…….
Rising interest rates around the world are starting to do enormous damage not only to consumers but to government finances……
From the article:
A global sell-off in government bonds intensified on Tuesday, pushing up borrowing costs in some of the world’s largest economies to their highest in decades and rattling investors.
As rising oil prices compound worries about inflation, bond yields are testing fresh highs, squeezing government budgets and raising interest rates on a wide range of consumer and business loans. The yield on 10-year U.S. Treasury notes, perhaps the world’s most influential interest rate, reached its highest since January 2025, and the 30-year yield continued to hover around a two-decade high.
In other important bond markets, the yield on 10-year Japanese bonds climbed above 3 percent for the first time since 1996, the yield on 10-year British bonds reached their highest level since mid 2007 and 10-year German bonds hit levels last seen in 2011.
America’s rising borrowing costs have set off a battle between Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and bond investors, but the factors pushing up yields in the United States are also issues in other big markets. In many advanced economies, widening budget deficits, high debt levels and stubborn inflation have unnerved investors who believe that governments are either unable or unwilling to take steps to improve their fiscal situations.
A borrowing binge by technology companies to build artificial intelligence systems is another factor in rising yields. Companies have issued billions of dollars in bonds, swamping markets and pulling investors away from government debt.
“It’s a global story,” said Peter Schaffrik, a strategist at RBC Capital Markets in London.
One of the most pressing and unpredictable drivers of higher yields is the protracted war in Iran. As the United States and Iran renewed attacks recently, the price of oil and natural gas has began to climb again. Brent crude, the international oil benchmark, was higher again on Tuesday to above $90 a barrel, nearly 30 percent higher than prewar levels.
The jump in energy costs — the prices of refined fuels like gasoline and diesel have risen even faster — has increased expectations of accelerating inflation that could prompt central banks to raise the short-term interest rates they control. Higher fuel prices also add enormous costs to governments in Asia and Europe, which are big energy importers.
Government debt levels, in some cases, have already reached eye-watering levels. America’s gross national debt topped $40 trillion for the first time last month, or more than 120 percent of the size of the economy. In France, public debt exceeded 3.5 trillion euros (about $4 trillion), which is 117 percent of the size of its economy. In Japan, the government is spending heavily despite a public debt pile that is more than twice the size of its economy.
In the eyes of investors, many politicians don’t appear worried enough about these debt levels. Instead, investors see government plans that are not likely to shrink budget deficits.
For more on what steps Democrats must be taking now to put the US and global economies back on a sustainable path see my new interview with economist Rob Shapiro.
**Army Chief Resigns, Chaos Mounts, War Keeps Failing, Hegseth Must Go - **The leaks, the chaos, the failure - feels like we are coming to the end of Pete Hegseth’s historically terrible leadership of the Pentagon:
**Trump’s Approval Keeps Crashing Through Floors, Hitting New Bottoms - **From Navigator Research this am……
While Americans struggle with the economy, they are souring on Trump and his handling of the economy. Trump’s net approval is -21 (39% approve – 60% disapprove). His net economic approval is even more dismal, sitting at -29 (34% approve – 64% disapprove). Trump’s economic approval is at a new low in Navigator’s tracking. More than three-in-10 Republicans (31%) disapprove of Trump’s handling of the economy.
Gas prices (20% approve – 75% disapprove),
Grocery prices (20% approve – 74% disapprove),
Inflation and the cost of living (22% approve – 73% disapprove), and
Government spending and debt (27% approve – 66% disapprove).
Among those who voted for Trump in 2024 who now regret their vote (18%), the two most cited reasons were the war with Iran and his foreign policy decisions (45%) and prices and the cost of living under his leadership (43%). Similarly, when Trump regretters were asked in an open-ended question when they started to regret their vote for Trump, two of the most popular words used were “prices” and “war.”
Yesterday The Corrupt Idiot-In-Chief Rallied For Datacenters -LOLOLOLOLOLOL!!!!
Whistleblower Exposes Secret, Desperate, Extraordinarily Malevolent USPS Effort To Restrict Mail Ballots. Bond Villain Levels Of Evil Here - Breaking news from The NYT:
A U.S. Postal Service official has alleged that the agency is moving forward with a “secretive, rushed” effort to implement President Trump’s order exerting federal control over mail voting, despite a court order blocking those plans.
The official filed a whistle-blower report, published on Tuesday morning by the office of Senator Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut, asserting that the “risky and haphazard” implementation of Mr. Trump’s order could lead to a “catastrophic failure” in the mail ballot system ahead of this year’s midterm elections. The report said that the agency had planned to complete the new digital system overseeing mail ballots by Sept. 1.
“Potentially millions of American voters may not receive their mail-in ballot this election cycle in a timely manner, or at all,” the official said in the report, which was prepared with the assistance of Whistleblower Aid, a nonprofit group that represents people seeking to expose potential lawbreaking.
Speaking to reporters by phone on Monday, Mr. Blumenthal said of the report that “the main takeaway for me is that the Postal Service has designed a system to disenfranchise millions of Americans. One-third of all Americans cast their ballots by mail, and the U.S.P.S. puts all of their votes at risk.”
A Postal Service official declined to comment on the record.
Holy smokes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This news comes on the heels of this story from Wyoming:
FORT COLLINS, Colo. (AP) — Wyoming’s attorney general is investigating how two U.S. Department of Justice officials monitored poll workers and observed voters in the state’s most populous county during the Aug. 18 primary, a spokesperson for Republican Gov. Mark Gordon said Friday.
Gordon called the monitors’ behavior “a bit aggressive” and “irregular” in an otherwise routine meeting to confirm the election results in the mostly rural and Republican state.
“I feel very strongly about the federal government coming in and taking our guns. I don’t like that. I don’t like the federal government coming in and taking our votes, either,” Gordon said at the meeting Wednesday.
Gordon spokesperson Amy Edmonds on Friday confirmed the investigation by Attorney General Keith Kautz, who was appointed by the governor.
And this story from CNN:
The Department of Homeland Security is planning a surge in its efforts to investigate voter fraud in select states starting Tuesday, according to internal federal guidance reviewed by CNN.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has accelerated efforts to make the department a central force in President Donald Trump’s hunt for purported widespread election fraud. DHS has pushed states to share their voter rolls for audit and has vowed to withhold grant funding from those that refuse to adopt a broader set of election reforms.
The department has leaned for investigative work on one of its agencies — Homeland Security Investigations — an arm of Immigration and Customs Enforcement that typically tackles major crimes like human trafficking, drug smuggling and child exploitation. The agency has already surged an unprecedented number of agents to work on cases, including chasing down voter histories of people believed to be noncitizens who may have illegally voted or registered to vote.
Experts say there is no evidence that widespread voter fraud has occurred in recent elections.
Starting Tuesday, HSI is launching a “coordinated criminal voter fraud surge initiative to pursue investigative leads, conduct field interviews, and support timely prosecutorial review,” the guidance says.
Offices in nine states are expected to take investigative action from early September to mid-October, according to the guidance.
Those states include Washington, Wisconsin, Missouri, Georgia, California, Pennsylvania, Nevada, New York and Connecticut.The guidance’s reference to investigative steps is notable given the push comes as midterm elections get underway. Such “overt” investigatory actions while elections were approaching have historically been discouraged, under long-standing Justice Department policy limiting investigative actions could influence elections.
It’s clear now that a desperate, addled, terrified Trump is just going for it. That Blanche was rushed in to help enable all this incredible fuckery. National Democratic leaders are going to have to come together now and forge a united front against these illicit efforts now. We are doing our part here through our Evolving Battlefield project that is helping the state parties stand up their own unprecedented and comprehensive effort to protect our elections this fall and ensure a peaceful transfer of power in January.
One of the most important things we can do to protect our elections is to launch our own campaigns to get everyone you know to vote early. Learn more about why voting early is so important here and here. Here’s the bottom line:
Vote Early, but vote early in person or via drop box if you can. You can still vote by mail but try to get your ballot in as early as you can. Day 1 is best for all forms of voting - in person, drop box, mail. Just vote early everyone - it helps us win and makes it harder for them to cheat or disrupt the election.
I want to be very clear about all this crap from Trump - it is going to really hurt him with voters, and drive up our intensity. We need to use all this to push him further away from voters and cause a national stampede of early voters angrily protesting his historic betrayal of the country, our values, our democracy, us.
As his failure becomes more profound, he takes more desperate actions, which in turn pushes him further and further away from the electorate. Trump has created a vicious cycle for himself, one that if work hard can give us the election we all want to have this November. Which is why my friends it is……
Our daily mantra:
There is nothing Trump and MAGA wants more than for us to be fighting with each other and not with him. We have one job now - elect as many of these wonderful candidates running for the House and Senate as we can. It’s where our focus must be. It’s a year of opportunity for us across the country. We must seize it, together.
Yesterday was one of our biggest fundraising days of the year - let’s keep working it, fellow patriots!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
**Our Winning The House Campaign **- Donate | $1,160,100 raised, $1,250,000 goal (new stretch goal) | Donate to all twelve of our initial wave of House challengers with a single contribution split twelve ways | Get to know Jamie Ager (NC-11), Christina Bohannan (IA-01), Paige Cognetti (PA-08), Rebecca Cooke (WI-03), Elaine Luria (VA-02), Sean McCann (MI-04), Jo Mendoza (AZ-06), Chaz Molder (TN-05), Jonathan Nez (AZ-02), Janelle Stelson (PA-10), Shannon Taylor (VA-01), and Sarah Trone Garriott (IA-03) by watching our recently recorded Hopium interviews.
Friends, if these twelve courageous candidates win, the House will flip, even with Callais and their rancid mid-decade redistricting. So eyes on the prize here everyone!
Winning The Senate - $800,100 raised, $1,000,000 goal - Donate | This new fund splits a single donation to our six candidates must likely to flip a Senate seat this November - Sherrod Brown (OH), Roy Cooper (NC), Troy Jackson (ME), Mary Peltola (AK), James Talarico (TX), and Josh Turek (IA).
Our working total includes what we’ve raised for these six so far through direct donations to their campaigns. You can watch our interviews with each of these exciting candidates and/or contribute directly to any of them directly here.
**Winning The House - The Second Wave Fund **- Donate | $337,100 raised, $500,000 goal - We’ve launched a second House fund, one supporting candidates who’ve emerged from late, primaries and need a bit more help.
Our newly expanded list now features Rebecca Bennett (NJ-07), Bob Brooks (PA-07), Cait Conley (NY-17), Johnny Garcia (TX-35), Bob Harvie (PA-01), Dr. Richard Pan (CA-06), Denise Powell (NE-02), Bobby Pulido (TX-15), Manny Rutinel (CO-8), Dr. Amish Shah (AZ-01), Randy Villegas (CA-22), and Marni von Wilpert (CA-48).
A donation to the Second Wave Fund is split evenly among these twelve, and more as other worthy candidates emerge from their primaries. Our total above includes money we’ve raised for directly for each candidate. You can watch interviews with these great candidates here.
Winning The House - The Third Wave Fund - Donate | $27,100 raised, $500,000 goal | We’ve launched this new fund for candidates who have emerged even later from primaries and need a bit more help as we work to expand our map and go deeper into tough terrain. Our initial list - and it may grow - is Christina Hines (MI-10), Lindsay James (IA-02), Jake Johnson (MN-01), Jessica Killin (CO-5), Nancy Lacore (SC-01), and Brian Poindexter (OH-7).
*The “Winning” link in each state brings you to a page that includes interviews and more information a…
