It’s been twenty years since Hurricane Katrina killed 1,800 people and devastated a region, so there will be many reflections on the water that flooded New Orleans. Mark F. Bonner and Mathew D. Sanders take a look at another deluge: The money that flooded into the area after the waters receded. "Most Americans soon moved on, but the federal government did something extraordinary: It committed more than $140 billion toward the region’s recovery. Adjusted for inflation, that’s more than was spent on the post-World War II Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe or for the rebuilding of Lower Manhattan after the Sept. 11 attacks. It remains the largest post-disaster domestic recovery effort in U.S. history." Those kind of resources should have given hope to residents to that NOLA would once again live up to its motto, Laissez les bons temps rouler. But while the money rolled in, the good times didn't. "What instead emerged was the uncomfortable truth that America isn’t good at long-term recovery. If the reconstruction of Lower Manhattan and the Marshall Plan are hailed as triumphs of American exceptionalism, then the response to Katrina belongs in a darker corner of U.S. history: the Afghanistan or Vietnam of rebuilding — painful, expensive and, ultimately, a failure. It is now a cautionary tale for every place in America that will one day face its own disaster." NYT (Gift Article): The $140 Billion Failure We Don’t Talk About.
+ Of course, the most vital initial ingredients of any disaster relief are empathy, decency, and a concern for other human beings. Those traits are out of favor these days. DHS moves to bar aid groups from serving undocumented immigrants. "Several disaster-assistance groups, FEMA employees and emergency management experts said the new requirements in the department’s fiscal 2025 aid contracts would make it harder for nonprofits to help the most vulnerable Americans in the aftermath of a disaster."
+ A large group of FEMA employees sent a letter to Congress "warning that the Trump administration had gutted the nation’s ability to handle hurricanes, floods and other extreme weather disasters." The response from the administration was to further gut the nation's ability to handle hurricanes, floods and other extreme weather disasters. FEMA Suspends Staff Who Signed a Letter Criticizing Trump. With these guys, the only thing less popular than empathy and decency is the truth.
2
No Good Deed Goes Unpunished
Letitia James, Adam Schiff, Lisa Cook... all of these Trump enemies are being hit by the administration with charges (at least on social media) of mortgage fraud. This is not a coincidence. Josh Marshall explains how the process all starts with Bill Pulte, Trump’s Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. A MAGA Warrior Is Rifling Through Your Mortgage Paperwork. "The process goes like this. Pulte clearly has a Trump enemies list. Whether he gets directed explicitly by the White House or just knows on his own what’s wanted really doesn’t matter. He sifts through everyone’s mortgage records, finds something that he claims is evidence of fraud and immediately makes a referral to the DOJ. Now it’s a 'federal investigation.' From there he heads on to Twitter and announces that James or Cook or Schiff is guilty of mortgage fraud and under investigation. He goes beyond that and starts selectively releasing documents on Twitter or making claims about their guilt. We tend to think of the weaponization of federal government power as mostly centering on the Justice Department. But as you can see here, that’s hardly the case. It is a glaring example of the rules of the road under the second Trump administration. All the powers of the state are unleashed against the people who displease the president. Full stop."
+ LA Times (Gift Article): A Trump donor, now a regulator, leads effort to accuse president's foes of mortgage fraud.
3
Again
"An assailant fired a rifle through the windows of a Catholic church in Minneapolis where students were celebrating their first Mass of the new school year on Wednesday, killing an 8-year-old and a 10-year-old in the pews and injuring 17 others." Here's the latest from NYT and NBC.
+ Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey: "You cannot put into words the gravity, tragedy or absolute pain of this moment ... Don't just say this is about thoughts and prayers right now. These kids were literally praying."
4
Rake America Great Again
"None of the cases Reuters reviewed involved someone being charged with a violent offense." Reuters: Inside Trump's DC crackdown: Swarms of agents and arrests for minor offenses. It's all a show.
+ WaPo (Gift Article): National Guard troops deployed in D.C. add sanitation, landscaping duties. "As they raked, specks of dirt and mulch floated upward into early morning sunbeams, an idyllic image starkly at odds with the president’s portrayal of Washington as a violent, lawless dystopia. The assignment was atypical for these troops, who more often are called on to respond to emergencies or deploy overseas, and it left some questioning if landscaping should be a military mission at all."
+ Trump extends control over Washington by taking management of Union Station away from Amtrak. (Maybe someone forgot to water the plants.)
5
Extra, Extra
We Need to Talk About the Sycophant in the Room: "In President Donald Trump’s longest on-camera appearance of his second term, he soaked up credit from his Cabinet as he moved to assert personal dominance over more and more aspects of American life. The president is saving whale populations on the East Coast, one Cabinet secretary said. University leaders are calling to discuss campus culture thanks to his pressure, said another. Debris from the Los Angeles wildfires was cleared in record time thanks to his executive order, declared a third. And a pregnant reporter’s unborn baby is safer thanks to the federal takeover of D.C. policing, she told the president." In 3-hour televised Cabinet meeting, Trump soaks up flattery. (As a matter of personal sanity preservation, I never watch these sick displays. Sadly, the same is not true of the rest of the world. They are watching. And they recognize this behavior all too well.)
+ Go Pound Sandwich: "The grand jury’s rejection of the felony charge was a remarkable failure by the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington and the second time in recent days that a majority of grand jurors refused to vote to indict a person accused of felony assault on a federal agent. It also amounted to a sharp rebuke by a panel of ordinary citizens against the prosecutors assigned to bring charges against people arrested after President Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops and federal agents to fight crime and patrol the city’s streets." Prosecutors Fail to Secure Indictment Against Man Who Threw Sandwich at Federal Agent. (Never bring a ketchup-thrower to a sandwich throwing fight.)
+ Herd Stupidity: "The Food and Drug Administration approved the next round of Covid shots for the fall — but only for a smaller, high-risk group of people ... Prior to this change, the CDC recommended Covid shots for everyone 6 months and older."
+ Greenland Rover: "Denmark has summoned a senior American diplomat to demand an explanation after claims that figures connected to the Trump administration had infiltrated Greenland to conduct 'covert influence operations.'"
+ Cracker Backer : Trump said he’s ended 10 wars. The Cracker Barrel logo wars makes it 11.
+ Smoking Hot: A new study "suggests that moderate increases in cumulative heatwave exposure increase a person’s biological age — to an extent comparable to regular smoking or alcohol consumption."
+ Dormitory Glory: "This year, the National Retail Federation projects that American families will spend $12.8 billion on college-residence furnishings, up from a projected $6.7 billion in 2019. The jump isn’t just due to individuals spending more, an NRF spokesperson told me; a greater number of people are also choosing to buy dorm decor in the first place ... The era of peak dorm decor is here." The Atlantic (Gift Article): How Parents Hijacked the College Dorm. (My son just headed off to his second year of college with one new sheet from Target.) Another thing more common in dorms these days? Pets.
+ KPop Demon Hunter Gatherers: "The animated movie about a Korean girls band battling invaders from the underworld is now the most watched Netflix original film of all time, with 236 million views in 10 weeks. Nobody with children is surprised."How ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ Became Netflix’s Most Watched Movie Ever.
6
Bottom of the News
The Josh Pit: "The stats show how rapidly this shift is occurring. Before the three current Josh governors were elected — all since 2022 — no Josh had served as governor since 1895, according to data from the National Governors Association. In Congress, where five Joshes currently serve, only about two dozen congressmen or senators were named Josh prior to 2017." It's the golden age of Josh.
+ A couple of awesome photo collections: Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2025 – the best pictures so far. And, "this year marks the 80th anniversary of the eye-catching Tomatina festival in which people fling overripe tomatoes at each other." (This is actually how televised cabinet meetings should look.)
Dear Mr Pell,
May I suggest that news about the Trump administration be "titled" as NEWS OF THE BOTTOM
Jean-Ollivier, writing from France
Thanks for including my "How Parents Hijacked The Dorm Room" story!