On this day in 2015, President Barack Obama renamed America’s tallest peak in Alaska as Denali, its Native American name. In 2025, Donald Trump ordered the name changed back to Mt. McKinley, after the assassinated 25th president – another lover of tariffs.
Good morning, and Happy Monday as ever. Martin here, delighted to kick off your week. Please note that this week’s Madchester musical link is to the video for “Stinkin Thinkin,” a quality which might be said to apply to many of our subjects today.
First in ‘First Draft,’ we’ll take a look at the wholly absurd situation in which far-right provocateur and close Trump adviser Laura Loomer can abuse five prominent Black Democratic women in viciously racist terms, to absolute crickets from the media and Democratic establishment, leaving the strongest condemnation to no less than Marjorie Taylor Greene. Of course, our press and pols are busy, what with so many attacks to be mounted on Hasan Piker instead. Then we’ll turn to Donald Trump himself, and his hissy fit about Kristen Welker of NBC correctly saying he has had “some mixed results” with endorsements of late. There are also worrying developments to consider in Trump’s forever war with Iran, with missiles flying over the Strait of Hormuz once again.
We’re also happy to say that this week, ‘First Draft’ will be published without a paywall, so new readers can see what Zeteo brings to your table each weekday morning: reporting and opinion on all the news you need, on the political subjects that matter. Let’s get to it.
‘Who You Calling a Bitch?’
On Friday, the far-right activist and close Trump ally and adviser Laura Loomer treated the world to some foul racist invective, calling prominent Democrats Rep. Ilhan Omar, Rep. Ayanna Pressley, former Rep. Cori Bush, Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, and Florida Senate candidate Angie Nixon “ghetto Black bitches.”
Loomer said she didn’t care about being called racist, but she did seem to care when one target answered back.
“Girl,” Nixon posted, before reaching, effectively, for the campaign vernacular of our times. (See Abdul El-Sayed’s baiting of “beta” opponent Mike Rogers.)
“You ate dog food on camera,” Nixon wrote, about something Loomer definitely did. “In the words of Queen Latifah, ‘Who you calling a bitch?’
Loomer responded with more gutter racism: ‘I called you a ghetto bitch, because you are, Angie, and your record proves it. But, you speak Ebonics though, so maybe I need to bark at you and tug your leash and then you’ll finally understand.”
On Sunday, Nixon hit back, writing: “When referring to me, it’s [State] Representative Angie Nixon. However after November 3rd, YOU CAN CALL ME SENATOR!”
Loomer wrote: “Ok[ay] Shaniqua.”
Enter an unlikely defender. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the QAnon-spouting former MAGA congresswoman from Georgia with plenty of racism in her own record, took Loomer to task.
“I’m not a Democrat and I’m not supporting Angie Nixon, but the Republican Party and President Trump owns Laura Loomer and her nonstop vitriol,” Greene wrote. “This hateful, racists [sic], and demeaning rhetoric should not be tolerated. Ever. But they allow it and keep her in the inner circle.”
The Piss Artist Commonly Known as MTG went on to say Loomer’s racism would hurt Senator Ashley Moody, the Republican who will face Nixon in November, just as Loomer’s influence over Donald Trump has damaged the party already. Sticking to her current, politically convenient line of Trump apostasy, Greene said Republicans could win on “actual accomplishments for your voters and policy plans that will help Americans.” Good luck with that. But then she went back to safer ground, pointing to Loomer’s own failed congressional runs: “Voters proved twice that they reject her completely. When will the President and the Republican Party reject her and her hateful racists [sic] behavior? They refuse to[,] which tells you everything you need to know.”
Loomer went into overdrive, repeating her slur and using others, whining: “Why is anti-white racism ok[ay] but I’m not allowed to call a spade a spade.”
You had to say, MTG had a point. And so, turning to the press, did Mehdi:
“Serious question to every mainstream news network and newspaper in this country: how can you justify crazy obsessive coverage of Hasan Piker and just totally ignore much worse stuff like this from an actual presidential adviser?”
Loomer may not have an official title, and may have denied working for Trump in her exchange with Greene, but she very definitely is a close Trump adviser, having last year played a central role in his firing of six members of the National Security Council. Responding to the New York Times about that story, Trump denied it but also called Loomer a “great patriot.” This June, Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan provided a five-page account of the meeting that led to the firings. Their bestselling book, Regime Change, also includes another description of Loomer’s White House access, lunching and plotting with then-Attorney General Pam Bondi in the West Wing.
Loomer has more on her CV. She recently went after a transgender CIA officer in the White House intelligence directorate, who was soon removed. She has taken credit for the swift deportation last week of Milo Yiannopoulos, the British far-right provocateur with whom she fell out and for whose removal she long called.
Compared to all that, what is Hasan Piker? A leftist streamer who has made controversial statements, for example about 9/11, which he walked back, and who has seen those and other statements, for example about American Jews and Israel, and not much different than remarks by Hannah Arendt, willfully and widely misrepresented. Piker has appeared with Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Michigan, who is now being forced by his own party to distance himself from Piker and his views.
If it’s near-impossible to find a senior national journalist or indeed a senior national Democrat saying anything about Loomer’s abject racism about a candidate for Senate, two congresswomen, a former congresswoman and the first Black woman on the U.S. Supreme Court, it’s also near impossible to find a senior national journalist or a senior national Democrat not rushing to attack Piker, on social media or on TV:
But here we are. The president has a close ally and adviser who has called herself “a proud Islamophobe,” and who has described Islam as a “cancer on society” and Muslims as “savages.” We get why no one wants to talk about that, and would rather attack a prominent Muslim commentator and a prominent Muslim candidate, both of them stringent critics of Israel.
But, to repeat, Loomer has now called five prominent Black women “ghetto Black bitches,” and repeated and varied the slur. Isn’t that enough to stir up some sort of comment or action? Anything?
Bueller? Bueller? Bueller?… Loomer?
🇮🇷 Iran War Updates
Strait strikes: On Saturday, a tanker was struck in the Strait of Hormuz. On Sunday, U.S. forces hit Iranian rocket launchers on Larak Island in the first military action in a month, with AP citing an official who said Iranians were preparing to launch “rockets with sea mines.” Iran said fighters and civilians were killed and wounded, and promised to respond. U.S. forces in Jordan were attacked.
Slop press: Late Sunday, Trump posted to Truth Social AI videos and the message “Kharg Island being blown to smithereens!!! President DJT.” Echoing George W. Bush, who attacked Iraq, he also posted video of his golf drive.
Bombshell report: The Washington Post reported “several U.S. military leaders have advised Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that prolonging large-scale operations against Iran is unsustainable and risks weakening their ability to confront threats elsewhere.” Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell called the report a “crime.”
Ayatollah speaks: Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei said Muslim nations should “know your real enemy, understand its plans and confront it.”
Family affair: Yair Netanyahu, the son of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was “evacuated” from his home in Miami due to a “significant threat” to his life, Israel’s Shin Bet security agency said. Benjamin Netanyahu, whose forces have killed Iranian leaders’ family members, including Khamenei’s father, previously said Iran had tried to kill one of his sons.
Lebanon latest: The U.S. State Department said Iran-backed Hezbollah had to disarm before a peace process could be put into effect. Israel continued to ignore the ceasefire, with artillery and airstrikes in the south of the country.
‘Rebuke or Punishment’
In Wisconsin in June, NBC ‘Meet the Press’ host Kristen Welker struggled through a disastrous interview with Donald Trump, then pleaded with him not to stand up and walk out. Later, she said he’d agreed to sit down again.
So much for groveling. Sunday brought an outburst Welker’s way that brought to mind that tweet that gets trotted out once a week: “’I never thought leopards would eat MY face,’ sobs woman who voted for the Leopards Eating People’s Faces Party.”
On Truth Social, Trump said Welker would be “reported to the FCC for rebuke or punishment,” for the heinous sin of… saying Trump has of late achieved “some mixed results” in endorsing Republicans for Congress.
Welker was clearly correct. For the U.S. House, Trump picks Rep. Andy Ogles (Tennessee), Rep. Cory Mills and Catalina Lauf (Florida), and Amir Hassan (Michigan) were beaten. So were gubernatorial picks Mike Lindell (Minnesota), Burt Jones (Georgia), Rep. Randy Feenstra (Iowa), Pamela Evette (South Carolina), and Megan Degenfelder (Wisconsin).
Yes, Trump’s general record is strong. But even the high-profile wins he touted were not particularly comfortable. Last week, Trump dragged Lindsey Graham’s know-nothing sister, Darline, over the line in the South Carolina Senate primary and saw Mike Mazzei squeak the nomination for governor in Oklahoma.
Meaningful FCC “rebuke or punishment” for Welker is unlikely, however much Trump squeals about his pet FCC Chair, Brendan Carr, taking “this threat to our country very seriously.”
But Trump’s outburst did point to his very real threat to the press. As he bleated about “fake polls used by a crooked media,” reporters from the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and Bloomberg were being barred from the G20 meeting in North Carolina, while the Pentagon claimed a Washington Post report of military warnings about extending the Iran war was a criminal matter.
On Sunday, NBC said: “Kristen is one of the best in the business, and we stand by her.” It would have done better to call Trump out as the threat to free speech that he is.
🗞️ What You Need to Know
Bizarre interview: Speaking to GOP congressman turned Fox host Trey Gowdy, Trump talked Iran, the economy, and dream (golf) foursomes. He also confirmed he wants Republican voters to pretend he is on the ballot in November. Polling suggests that may be unwise.
ICE horror: Ten people described to the New York Times brutal deportations to Liberia, where they have no ties. Five said they were beaten for protesting. “They didn’t treat us like people, like human beings,” said Carlos Téllez-Sanchez, from Venezuela. “They can say or do anything to you and there’s nothing you can do.” CBS further reported the increase in such “third country” deportations.
Deport in a storm: Trump Border Czar Tom Homan all but admitted far-right provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos was swiftly deported and publicly shamed because even-further-right activist Laura Loomer told authorities the Briton overstayed his visa. Homan denied Yiannopoulos was deliberately spared detention in tough conditions.
Dem defers: Veteran Rep. James Clyburn told NBC Democrats should not prioritize impeaching Trump if they take back the House. “Our priority ought to be making housing, education, energy, healthcare affordable and accessible for all of our citizens,” he said. “Impeaching the president will not do that.”
Lying eyes: Mike Rogers, the GOP Senate candidate in Michigan, claimed in a fundraising email to have seen “the dead body of Osama bin Laden with my own eyes.” But in 2011, at the time of the raid that killed the al-Qaeda leader, Rogers, then chair of the House Intelligence Committee, told reporters he was informed of events the next day.
Epstein news: A Brazilian doctor whose wife publicly linked Donald and Melania Trump to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein fled Florida days before he was due to go on trial for allegedly conducting cosmetic procedures without a license. Joao Araujo said he was “a fugitive now. With honor.”
🚨 Watch Now!
Mehdi Challenges Hunter Biden on Gaza, the 2024 Election, Democrats, and His Own Regrets
By now, you’ve seen Hunter Biden everywhere – from NPR to the BBC to even Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens’ shows.
🌏 Anywhere But America
🇵🇸 Don’t forget Gaza: An Israeli strike killed two Palestinians, including a 3-year-old boy, and wounded several yesterday, while an attack today killed at least two others. José Andres, head of World Central Kitchen, addressed the Israeli officer who said he wasn’t sorry for directing the strike that killed seven of the aid group’s workers in April 2024. “There will never be any excuse for killing them,” Andres said.
🇵🇸 West Bank latest: Israeli settlers forcibly detained a British activist trying to protect a Palestinian village. Finn Joughlin’s lawyer said he would be deported.
🇺🇦🇷🇺 Deadly cost: The toll from the worst Russian attack this year rose to 38 with four missing, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said. The Friday strike hit a warehouse near Kyiv that stored ammunition, sparking explosions and fires.
🇨🇦 Off the charts: Google Maps kowtowed to Trump’s ridiculous trade war bullshit and childish executive order and changed Lake Ontario to Lake America.
🇻🇪 Oil grab: The Wall Street Journal described how U.S. companies refusing to play ball over Venezuelan oil after the removal of President Nicolás Maduro led Donald Trump to have the U.S. government take a direct stake instead.
🇨🇳🇳🇵New warning: Nepalese authorities warned of possible new flooding, days after flash floods caused by a fracturing glacier killed at least 900 people and left thousands more missing in Nepal and China.
🧠 Pop Quiz!
Donald Trump says he’s renamed Lake Ontario as Lake America. How much of Lake Ontario is in Canada?
Keep your eyes out for the answer below!
🙄 WTF?!
Far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir is campaigning with AI slop celebrating the starvation of Palestinians. Disgusting irony of the portly Ben-Gvir being shown looking trim and healthy? Noted.
🧠 Trivia answer: 54% is in Canada, and 46% in the U.S.
📺 Sunday Show Roundup
Confronted with Democratic Senator Chris Murphy’s claim that ICE is “arresting parents at school bus stops” in Connecticut, leaving children “alone [and] scared to death,” Trump Border Czar Tom Homan failed to issue any sort of denial. “Now, did they arrest somebody at a bus stop? I’m not aware of that,” he told CNN’s ‘State of the Union.’ “But ICE is out there to enforce law against those that have been ordered removed by a federal judge… there’s no safe harbor.” Homan also defended deportations of previously legal Haitian immigrants that a UN monitor called “insane.”
Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, 86 and in Congress 33 years, told NBC’s ‘Meet the Press’ he regretted advocating for Clarence Thomas during his 1991 Supreme Court confirmation process. “I have made mistakes in my life, and that’s one that I made, and I will own up to that mistake,” Clyburn said, considering Thomas’s far-right opinions and alleged rampant corruption. “I had no idea that Clarence Thomas would rebel the way he has against his own background and experiences,” Clyburn said, adding that he supports expanding the court.
Wearing a blazing red Canada soccer jersey, Ontario Premier Doug Ford told ABC’s ‘This Week’ that Donald Trump’s trade war will be “devastating on both countries but… definitely devastating on the U.S… A tariff on Canada is nothing more than a tax on American people, and it’s probably the worst move he could ever do.” For good measure, Ford added that Trump’s executive order to rename Lake Ontario as Lake America was “like something out of ‘Saturday Night Live.’”
🗓️ Mark Your Calendars
Monday, Aug. 31: House lawmakers return after a five-week vacation, with a government funding deadline just four weeks away, another week off due after Labor Day, and the Senate not back for two weeks. In Asheville, North Carolina, G20 finance ministers and central bank governors will meet. Vice President JD Vance is due to speak at a GOP campaign event in Sterling Heights, Michigan.
Tuesday, Sept. 1: Massachusetts holds congressional primaries, with all eyes on the Democratic Senate contest between Senator Ed Markey, 80, and Rep. Seth Moulton, 47. Markey has heavyweight progressive endorsements and leads in most polls.
Wednesday, Sept. 2: Ousted Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro faces a deadline to file a bid to dismiss his U.S. criminal case in New York.
Thursday, Sept. 3: A hearing is scheduled in federal court in Boston over Donald Trump’s ongoing attempts to restrict mail-in voting. In court in Washington, DC, a woman charged with vandalizing the World War II Memorial is scheduled to be arraigned.
ICYMI From Zeteo
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Laura Loomer is a big hypocrite in many ways. She, needs to learn to walk away.
If I may suggest...
Nashville "perennial band" LAMBCHOP (who is married to the head of Tennessee Democrats(!)) has a brand-new, ANTI-TRUMP album..."Punching the Clown" (Yes, the clown is Trump.)
I buy from Bandcamp, and here's where to find the album there. (If you don't know LAMBCHOP, you're in for a TREAT!)
https://lambchop.bandcamp.com/album/punching-the-clown