President Trump pledged to give every US citizen a $5,000 dividend Wednesday if Republicans keep the House and Senate after the midterm elections.
“Here is my promise: If the Republicans win the House of Representatives and the United States Senate, both of them, because of our economic, tremendous economic success …. I will issue a dividend to every adult citizen in the United States of America for $5,000,” Trump said at the GOP midterm convention in Dallas.
The president said the so-called “Trump dividend” money must be spent in the US.
However Trump’s promise would not only require congressional approval, it would likely spike inflation. With just under 270 million adults living in the U.S., Trump’s $5,000 handout would lead to a budget blowout of up to $1.3 trillion, blowing out America’s existing $1.8 trillion annual budget deficit.
The current U.S. debt is around $40 trillion.
Speaking on Fox News, host Bret Baier raised the $1.3 trillion cost with Vice President JD Vance.
Baier suggested “critics” would say “the president is bribing voters to vote for Republicans... and he is bankrupting the country because the debt is huge and inflation would come back if this comes to play.”
Now get a load of JD's reply, it is a doozy...
Vance called the $5,000 “fundamentally a dividend for American workers” and said it could be funded by revenues raised by U.S. tariffs.
So... who pays for the tariffs? We do.
So, in Republican logic... we get taxed so they can give us our money back... minus shipping and handling charges.
Besides the fuzzy logic, there is also the issue of vote buying!
A big blue presence has vanished from the landscape of Washington DC.
On Wednesday a crew removed a 24-foot-tall metal sculpture called Blue, by Joel Shapiro, from the grounds of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Our family turned out to say goodbye.
Blue is a giant stick figure with what seems to be four limbs, standing on what might be one leg, while the other is lifted. To walk, to leap, to dance? The upper-most limbs, which look like arms, are extended. To welcome, twirl, swing or sway?
The work was installed on that part of the Kennedy Center's grounds called The REACH, which opened in 2019. I've always thought it seemed an artful fit in that place, which before the Center became a source of controversy during the Trump presidency, abounded just about every night with music, dance, and all kinds of shows — available to the public for free.
[...]
But Josef Palermo, who was let go this past March as curator of visual arts and special programming at the Kennedy Center, told the New York Times this week that Blue had been "targeted early on" for removal by the Trump administration, which might have seen something else in the sculpture. Well, isn't "seeing something else" art?
This reminds me of the communist countries of old... where only proletariat art was allowed. Maybe if it was red and not blue? The Atlantic magazine wrote,
Shapiro—one of the most important American sculptors of his generation—died last summer. He spent decades coaxing human gesture and emotion from the austere geometry of minimalism. His abstract shapes and forms have strong personalities. They lie in wait for their audience, then suddenly come alive.
But the Kommissar didn't like it.
Josef Palermo was the Kennedy Center's first-ever Curator of Visual Arts and was not replaced.
Mr. Palermo's background included:
A working artist and arts producer
Cofounder of VESTIBULE, an interdisciplinary artists' collective/collaborative
Service on the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities
The new Kennedy Center is being run by people whose professional backgrounds are not in the arts. Their qualifications are in politics, diplomacy, communications, facilities, construction, and operations. At the same time, Trump's allies have taken control of the board.
The contrast with the previous leadership is striking.
The old board was bipartisan, with substantial representation from the worlds of business, philanthropy, government, and the arts. The new board has a much stronger political connection to Trump.
Just look at some of the new board members:
Donald Trump — president of the United States and now board chair.
Susie Wiles — Trump's White House chief of staff.
Dan Scavino — Trump's deputy chief of staff.
Usha Vance — wife of Vice President JD Vance.
Allison Lutnick — wife of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
John Falconetti — businessman and Trump supporter.
Cheri Summerall — Trump appointee.
Trump filled the board with some real art aficionados!
No, I am not talking about newer laws like the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 or the Insurrection Act of 1807. Those don't really address polling places. But even before those, there was:
The Act of February 25, 1865, commonly called the “Troops at the Polls” Act.
A polling place is the one room in America where the government has to wait outside.
Congress wrote this rule in the middle of the Civil War, and it has stayed on the books for 161 years because every generation since understood the danger. Federal law makes it a crime for any officer of the military, or any person in the civil service of the United States, to order, bring, keep, or control troops or armed men at any place where a general or special election is held. The only exception covers force needed to repel armed enemies of the United States. Break that law and you face up to five years in prison and a permanent ban from holding federal office.
Read those words again. Armed men in the civil service of the United States. That is ICE.
In 1909 Congress went back and removed a second exception that had allowed troops to “keep the peace at the polls.” Lawmakers deleted it because they understood that a president who wants soldiers at the ballot box will always find a disturbance to point at. They closed the loophole on purpose, and it has stayed closed for 117 years.
So, if the "Donald" sends troops, he will be breaking a 161-year-old law that was designed to prevent just that!
"NO MORE SELLING BOMBARDIER IN THE UNITED STATES! Their products aren't good enough! If they want our Market, they must build here, and stop treating America like a 'piggybank.'
CBS New reported that is what Trump wrote on Truth Social!
But in reality...
In a statement on Monday following Mr. Trump's post, Bombardier sought to underline its contributions to the American economy, saying it accounts for "tens of thousands of jobs across the United States."
Bombardier said it has workers in 20 U.S. states and plants in Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Kansas, New Jersey, Texas and Washington, D.C. The company's supply chain also comprises 2,800 U.S. companies in 47 states, according to Bombardier.
"Bombardier values its great partnership with American companies and its U.S. employees. Our plan is to continue to invest in our people, our customers and the communities in which we operate across the country," the company said.
A labor union representing machinists and aerospace workers said on Tuesday that it opposes any move to bar Bombardier from selling aircraft in the U.S.
"Anything that undermines the stability and continued growth of these jobs is counterproductive to protecting workers and strengthening the aerospace industry in both the United States and Canada," the IAM union said in a statement. "The war on workers in the United States, Canada and elsewhere must come to an end."
I think this is really scary that Trump is making policy without knowing the facts! And it's not just Trump, but his entire staff! Not one of them even thought to google it to see if they had any plants here.
I think that's a serious problem in policymaking when the White House staff doesn't appear to have questioned the policy. It means a sweeping economic threat may have been formulated around an incomplete understanding of the company being targeted. That doesn't bode well for the administration!
President Donald Trump’s profanity-laced Easter Sunday social media post threatening to bomb civilian infrastructure in Iran led some Democratic lawmakers to call for his removal via the 25th Amendment.
Trump wrote on Truth Social, spelling out the f-word: “Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the F—–’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell – JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah. President DONALD J. TRUMP.”
Reacting to Trump’s post, Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., wrote on X, “If I were in Trump’s Cabinet, I would spend Easter calling constitutional lawyers about the 25th Amendment. This is completely, utterly unhinged. He’s already killed thousands. He’s going to kill thousands more.”
Other Democrats including U.S. Reps. Yassamin Ansari of Arizona and Melanie Stansbury of New Mexico also called for using the amendment to remove Trump.
But you know what? Congress can jaw about this all they want! It is JD Vance and the Cabinet who can only initiate a “25”! However, there might be another way around the roadblock, and that is Congress cannot initiate Section 4 itself, but the text does allow Congress to create another body by law that could participate in the Section 4 process. Something like a special impeachment commission, but it needs backbone to do it.
Section four authorizes the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet, or the vice president and a majority of an “other body” created by Congress, to declare a president “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.” Doing so would elevate the vice president to acting president.
Notice it doesn’t say “Congress.”
So how likely is the Cabinet and the VP to start the ball rolling?
Well the amendment says "unable to discharge the powers and duties" that is a high bar to meet! It doesn’t mean if the president making bad decisions, it doesn’t mean if the president if the president is unpopular, or breaking the law.
But on the other hand, impeachment can be for corruption! Abuse of power, obstruction, political retaliation, and election interference nad I think they could find something on Trump that fits those categories. However, it takes one more thing, Congress with a backbone.
One of the things a new administrator has to do is set priorities, and the new head of Homeland Security set his to making the eagle look to the right.
The shift comes as Markwayne Mullin warns of Islamic terrorists joining with Mexican cartels, rising drone attacks
By Max Bacall Fox News
September 7, 2026
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin revealed on "The Sunday Briefing" that DHS is changing its seal, which depicts an eagle holding a palm leaf in one talon and a bundle of arrows in the other. The new seal will show the eagle facing toward the arrows rather than the palm, a symbolic shift Mullin said reflects the department’s daily fight against threats to the country.
Ahead of the 25th anniversary of 9/11, Mullin declared that the department is "at war every single day" against bad actors targeting the United States, from Islamic terrorists to drug cartels.
Stop right there! How much is it going to cost? How much is it going to cost to change all their signs and letterheads? Just think of all the signs on the podiums!
When the Secretary of Defense ordered his vanity name change, it cost according to CBS News, a whopping 125 million dollars for the rebrand!
Secretary Markwayne Mullin is spending millions to do this so the freaking bird is looking toward the f... ing right!
One of the things about Trump is that he is so predictable! The state of New Mexico voted Democratic last election, so on Trump's radar, it became a fair target. One of the things that could be getting under Trump's collar is...
New Mexico Epstein commission releases report on investigation so far
Commission announces 4 new subpoenas to state agencies, Santa Fe-area spa
Source NM
By Julia Goldberg
August 5, 2026
The chair of a New Mexico House investigatory subcommittee created to probe the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s activities in the state acknowledged Wednesday its first report does not contain major revelations or final findings.
[...]
“In the seven years since Jeffrey Epstein died, in the two decades since his crimes first drew attention of law enforcement, no government, federal, state, or local, has ever compiled an account of what he did in New Mexico,” Romero said. “There are some court records that tell pieces of the story in other states’ cases for other states’ victims, but there has never been an official narrative for New Mexico. This report is the first.”
This is what got Trump worried. So what does Trump do?
The president posted repeatedly on social media over the weekend, and New Mexico Democrats leaped to respond to the ones about their state.
NBC News
By Scott Wong and Megan Shannon
Sept. 7, 2026
New Mexico Democratic leaders are aggressively pushing back on President Donald Trump’s social media posts about renaming the state of New Mexico as “New America.”
“New Mexico’s name isn’t up for debate — it’s been ours since before the United States existed,” New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, said in a post on X featuring an image of the state labeled with “New Mexico.” “While the President tries to distract Americans from his disastrous war in Iran, the price of gas —and everything else — keeps rising.
So why is he doing this?
Well, from what I can figure out, it is for a few reasons:
The most obvious reason is that it is a blue state.
It is also Trump's classic strategy: if you can't win, baffle them with BS by creating a manufactured crisis and a political smokescreen."
Lastly, it is to rally his base. His MAGA base is cheering him on!
P.S. The state's criminal investigation into child sex trafficking, the state accuses the federal government of stonewalling and blocking the state’s active criminal investigation!
Trump is worried about what will come out in the investigations, so this is a distraction.
I was growing up, they didn’t test you for any learning disorders. I was labeled a “slow learner,” “dull,” “backward,” and “underachiever.”
Electronics was a godsend… it was so orderly and logical. I got all the way through college, just squeaking by… no one ever questioned why.
I went to grad school for my MSW and one of my professors’ day jobs was to evaluate convicted persons before they got incarcerated. When he handed back my midterm exam, he said, “See me after class!” Yikes… I must have bombed the midterm!
He asked if I had ever been evaluated for a learning disorder.
All it took was for him to see my writing on those 10 questions to see what I had been struggling with all my life.
You know that this blog is about the intersections of trans stuff and politics, so what’s political about this post?
Well, Trump, RFK Jr., and company all are saying learning disorders like ADHD, ADD, and ASD are a new phenomenon. They blame it on chemical food additives, preservatives, ultra-processed foods, and stuff like artificial food dyes.
Well, folks… it is the name that is new. It is the realization that it is a disorder of the brain… not laziness. Not “slow learners,” and not all the other things that they called it. It has always been here; we just called it different names.
Now we have the government and conspiracists pushing all these quack reasons for this epidemic of learning disorders, but they have been here all along, just without the names. Just like us.
Here is what top officials within the administration or the military have said about the potential of sending troops or federal officers to polling locations:
Mullin says ICE officers could be at polling places in specific circumstances. The law says they can’t be
Concerns about immigration authorities being dispatched to polling places partly stem from Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin’s decision earlier this year to deploy Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to airports during a government shutdown. While immigration authorities have long had a presence and enforced immigration laws at airports, the large-scale deployment of ICE officers to assist with security and lines was a new development.
It also spurred concern about whether polling places could be next, especially given the administration’s broader crusade against what it claims — without evidence — is widespread voter fraud by immigrants in the country illegally.
“These are all tools of how the president is trying to think about a much larger plan, which is, if you cannot hold onto power through democratic elections, then adjust democratic elections,” Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat, told CNN in March.
Asked by reporters last week whether ICE officers could be sent to polling locations in November, Mullin left open the possibility that they could be under specific circumstances.
Doesn't this answer give you a warm fuzzy feeling?
In a letter responding to Sen. Elissa Slotkin, a Michigan Democrat who asked military leaders to commit to not sending troops to the polls, Caine wrote the military has “no plans” to send federal military personnel or federalized National Guard troops to voting locations.
“Likewise, the Joint Force has no plans to use such personnel to seize ballots, voting machines, or other election-related material,” wrote Caine, who is the nation’s highest-ranking military officer.
Notice the wording... “no plans” but that doesn't rule out sending
The Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law wrote;
Preventing Voter Intimidation by Federal Agents at the Polls Any deployment that intimidates voters or interferes with elections would be illegal. Should one occur, officials and civil society are prepared to challenge illegal acts so that voting can proceed uninterrupted.
In May, when President Trump was asked whether he would send National Guard troops or Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers to polling locations during the midterm elections, he responded that he would “do anything necessary to make sure we have honest elections; we have to have honest elections.” Several of his officials and allies have made similar comments in recent weeks and months. While no public information suggests that the federal government currently plans to deploy armed law enforcement agents to the polls in November, these statements appear designed to sow fear among voters.
Despite the implied threat, the law is clear: Sending armed federal agents, including those from ICE, to election sites is illegal. Federal law and many states’ laws prohibit not only armed federal agents at polling sites, but also interference in elections or voter intimidation by any officials or private citizens. More important, using these tactics would be a flagrant attempt to hold on to power through force and intimidation and an affront to free and fair elections. Yet, given the Trump administration’s pattern of flouting rules and engaging in plainly illegal and unethical conduct, including attempting to overturn a valid election, we must take this threat seriously.
The law reads...
Whoever, being an officer of the Army or Navy, or other person in the civil, military, or naval service of the United States, orders, brings, keeps, or has under his authority or control any troops or armed men at any place where a general or special election is held, unless such force be necessary to repel armed enemies of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both; and be disqualified from holding any office of honor, profit, or trust under the United States.
As the old saying goes... "May you live in interesting times!"
The cottage condo next to mine just sold for $529,000! It was on the market all year, but it seems that $1 million-plus “cottages” are really flying off the shelves.
There are two separate trends that have caught my eye. The first was a $2.9 million new “cottage” (more on the price later). I didn’t even have to look for it—it was a monster! Built entirely of glass, it sits between two traditional story-and-a-half cottages featuring cedar shingles and white trim (anywhere else, it would simply be considered a “home”). The third floor is entirely glass—I mean, floor-to-ceiling glass walls! It’s very striking; you can see people sitting around inside, probably entertaining guests over cocktails.
From what I heard, they tore down the old cedar-shingle house and built that monster in its place. The neighbors are none too pleased, as the three-story building blocks their view of Cape Cod Bay. The town never needed height limits before, but now people are coming in and building these massive structures.
Another monster was built on a sand cliff in the Cape Cod National Seashore (CCNS). Now, both the town and the CCNS have strict building restrictions. The new owner tore down the old cottage and wanted to build a $5 million home overlooking the bay and Provincetown—a beautiful location! The town and the CCNS said no, as it violated the building restrictions tied to the property. I believe the CCNS argument was that it was built too close to the edge of a 100-foot cliff and would inevitably tumble into the sea.
The owner took them to court and won! A few years later, sure enough, the house was right on the edge of the cliff, poised to slide into the sea. They wanted to put in erosion controls, but the town and the CCNS said no, arguing that the controls would disrupt the natural movement of sand along the coast and cause problems in other areas. So, what did they do? They did what many wealthy people do: They sued and won!
Then, the owners sold it for over $5 million! In less than a year, the new owners found their $5,000,000 little cottage literally on the brink of the cliff. So now they are suing—no, get this—the bank for giving them the $5,000,000 loan, claiming the lender must have been crazy to approve it!
The second trend is the result of a “K-shaped” economy. Million-dollar-plus cottages are selling like hotcakes, but properties like my neighbor’s don’t sell easily. Millionaires are snapping up the monster cottages, while smaller cottages like mine—with only 600 square feet—are considered dogs. They are completely pricing out middle-income buyers.
One immediate result of my neighbor’s sale is that the tax assessors are going to look at it as the new baseline, meaning the assessed value of my cottage just went up. Higher taxes for me!
This isn’t new. My brother lived in Maine and was a real estate agent. What we saw there were family farms being sold off just to pay the taxes. People had no choice with their land; the farms simply weren’t making enough money to cover the skyrocketing taxes. You can’t blame them for selling either—when someone waves a couple of million dollars in your face, you take the money and run!
Maine was looking into ways to save family farms, one of which was freezing taxes at the last sale price. Late last month, I wrote about the changing character of Provincetown going the way of “Fire Island” in New York.
What we are finding is that the character of these towns is changing, too. A night out on the town is skyrocketing; instead of spending $30 or $40, it is now $50 or $60. As a result, upscale stores and restaurants are driving out local establishments.
When I first went to P’town in the ’50s and ’60s, it was what my father called a bohemian town. Walking down Commercial Street, you could find artists willing to paint your portrait. By the 2000s, they were nowhere to be found. There used to be street vendors and Ellie, who would “sing for a buck,” along with mimes. But it all ended with Ellie.
I know a photographer for the local newspapers who had to leave because he couldn’t find housing. In Truro, there was a long, drawn-out court fight over low-income and seasonal housing—yet these are often the very same people who complain about a lack of staffing!
The character of the coast is changing. When I was growing up in the fifties, my mother’s aunt had a cottage on a New Hampshire lake that we visited every August. Growing up in the ’50s and ’60s, I knew plenty of neighbors who had summer cottages. The middle class could afford cottages back then on the Cape or the Connecticut shore, but now the middle class has been priced out. Even renting a cottage is out of reach; an average Cape Cod cottage rental costs about $3,400 per week during the peak summer season! And you better believe that in four or five years, I might just look at renting out or selling my cottage and taking the money and running.
The good news is that the next-door cottage sold for half a million dollars. The bad news is that my taxes are going up! All up and down the coast, people are taking the money and running.
When I was proofreading with the AI and afterwards I ask it about improvements and thoughts, it replied:
I think the trend you’re describing is absolutely real, but I’d characterize it a little differently than simply “coastal property is skyrocketing.”
What’s happening on Cape Cod is more interesting: coastal property is becoming a luxury asset rather than ordinary housing.
The numbers support the basic observation. The median single-family sale price on Cape Cod was about $790,000 in 2025, compared with $765,000 in 2024. And in June 2026, the median reached $825,000.
But the really important statistic for your essay is this: 36% of Cape Cod's housing units are classified as seasonal, recreational, or occasional use. The state also estimates that about 5,800 year-round homes were converted to seasonal use between 2009 and 2019.
That's exactly the phenomenon you're describing anecdotally.
And there's an important twist
Your observation about the $1 million-plus houses is particularly interesting because the market isn't simply saying “everything is expensive.”
The latest Cape Cod market data show strong demand for homes under $1 million, while $1 million-plus properties actually take longer to sell on average. In Q1 2026, homes below $1 million had a median 34.4 days on market, versus 77 days for homes at $1 million and above.
