Just before the 20th anniversary of the impact of Hurricane Katrina, a group of current and former Federal Emergency Management Agency employees have signed an extraordinary letter warning America that we could be headed for a similar disaster. Not the hurricane itself, but the man-made disaster which followed, as George W. Bush's FEMA proved to be completely incompetent at disaster recovery in a big way. They even called their letter the "Katrina Declaration," to amplify their warning.

By week's end, all the people who publicly signed the letter were put on administrative leave. Most of the signatories did so anonymously, for precisely this reason -- they fully expected retaliation for blowing the whistle in public.

With Katrina, there was the lame excuse of: "Well, nobody could have seen this coming" to explain Bush and FEMA's inadequacies. This time around, there will be no such excuse. The Katrina Declaration lays out in great detail how the agency is being gutted of very experienced people and is being run by people with no experience in disaster relief at all. Elon Musk's chainsaw ripped away thousands of FEMA employees, and Kristi Noem has instituted policies which introduce massive delays in getting help to people who need it in a timely manner -- for no reason other than politics.

So as you see all the pictures on the news of what happened 20 years ago this week, just think: "It all could happen again -- very soon, in fact." And please take the time to read the Katrina Declaration in full, to understand the severity of the situation.

FEMA, of course, isn't the only federal department or agency where the most experienced people are either fleeing, being fired, or being sidelined for purely political reasons. The guy at the Pentagon who disagreed with Trump's rosy assessment of the results of bombing Iran's nuclear facility got the boot this week, for speaking truth to power. An expert on Russia at the C.I.A. was fired days after Trump's disastrous summit with Vladimir Putin (more on that summit in a moment).

The highest-profile political firings this week happened at the Federal Reserve and the Centers for Disease Control. Trump is trying to fire a Fed board member "for cause," even though he has no actual cause to do so (at least, as that word has been legally understood up until now). She is pushing back by suing the administration in court, and she's got a good chance of staying in her job -- but who knows what the Supreme Court will allow Trump to get away with?

R.F.K. Junior is purging the C.D.C. because they had the temerity to call him out for his dangerous anti-vaccination moves. There, not only the head of the C.D.C. was fired, but four other top officials walked out in protest as well (as other C.D.C. employees loudly applauded and handed them flowers, in appreciation).

R.F.K. Junior's war on vaccines continued this week, as he issued recommendations that will mean tens of millions of Americans may not be able to get COVID vaccine shots this year -- or even if they do manage to get one, they'll have to pay for it out of their own pocket because their insurer won't cover it. Next up is likely to be the childhood vaccine schedules, so parents beware.

Here are some excerpts from the resignation letter of the doctor who was in charge of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. He lays out why he can no longer serve in his position in scathing detail:

[A]fter much contemplation and reflection on recent developments and perspectives brought to light by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., I find that the views he and his staff have shared challenge my ability to continue in my current role at the agency and in the service of the health of the American people. Enough is enough.

. . .

I am unable to serve in an environment that treats CDC as a tool to generate policies and materials that do not reflect scientific reality and are designed to hurt rather than to improve the public's health.

. . .

The recent term of reference for the COVID vaccine work group... puts people of dubious intent and more dubious scientific rigor in charge of recommending vaccine policy to a director hamstrung and sidelined by an authoritarian leader. Their desire to please a political base will result in death and disability of vulnerable children and adults. Their base should be the people they serve not a political voting bloc.

. . .

We are seven months into the new administration, and no CDC subject matter expert from my Center has ever briefed the Secretary. I am not sure who the Secretary is listening to, but it is quite certainly not to us. Unvetted and conflicted outside organizations seem to be the sources HHS use over the gold standard science of CDC and other reputable sources. At a hearing, Secretary Kennedy said that Americans should not take medical advice from him. To the contrary, an appropriately briefed and inquisitive Secretary should be a source of health information for the people he serves. As it stands now, I must agree with him, that he should not be considered a source of accurate information.

R.F.K. Junior, as if to prove the point, this week "diagnosed" random children he had recently seen in passing while walking through airports, which was apparently based on his magic ability to identify problems through E.S.P. Or something. Donald Trump has put a total quack in charge of the nation's health, so it is no wonder that competent professionals working for him have reached the point where they just can't take it any more.

This has all added up to the biggest "brain drain" the federal government has ever experienced. Experts and scientists and analysts are fleeing, since their work is no longer respected or even wanted. Trump wants to hear what Trump wants to hear, and if you have facts that point to something he doesn't want to hear, then you'd better be real quiet about it -- because if you speak up, you will be summarily fired.

Just ask the head of the Social Security Administration's chief data officer. He blew the whistle on Musk's minions putting everyone's Social Security personal information on an unsecured server, and by week's end he was forced into an "involuntary resignation."

It's that Katrina Declaration writ large -- with more and more federal departments being hollowed out and neutered, what is left is simply not going to be up to the task when any sort of disaster hits -- be it economic, medical, meteorological, or geopolitical. The Trump administration is dismantling the train of government while it is speeding down the track, and some sort of trainwreck seems almost inevitable at this point. When the crisis hits, we're all going to look to the federal department responsible for addressing the problem, and the only ones left are going to be MAGA disciples with zero experience, and that's about it.

Meanwhile, Trump mused that "A lot of people are saying, 'Maybe we'd like a dictator,'" although he then modestly denied that he actually was a dictator. This was in the midst of a three-hour cabinet meeting that can only be described as a prolonged tongue-bath. The praise and sycophancy was off the charts, as usual. If Trump's not a dictator, he sure is doing a good job of pretending to be one, that's for sure.

Trump even celebrated Labor Day early, by attempting to strip Union rights from more federal employees. You just can't make this stuff up, folks.

Just like all dictators, Trump has turned the nation's Justice Department into his own office of vendettas. He threatened Chris Christie this week, because Christie said something on television he didn't like. John Bolton had his house and office raided by the F.B.I., for the same reason. Trump threatened two of the national broadcast television networks with the loss of their broadcast license, also because they weren't sufficiently full of praise for him. He threatened two major Democratic donors with a RICO investigation, just for good measure.

And, of course, Washington D.C. now resembles nothing more than an armed camp, after Trump flooded the city with soldiers -- who are apparently now so bored that they have been relegated to picking up trash. Trump has been threatening other cities with a military takeover as well, including Chicago and Baltimore. He is also trying to create a standing force of National Guard troops who would be ready to deploy into cities at a moment's notice.

Trump has long admired dictators elsewhere, of course. So much so that he cannot bring himself to get on the bad side of Vladimir Putin. Remember two weeks ago? The big summit meeting between the two leaders? That's when Trump caved on his demand for a ceasefire and stopped threatening any sort of consequences for Russia if it doesn't come to the table and start negotiating an end to their invasion of Ukraine. At the time, Trump told the world that unless Putin met with Volodymyr Zelenskyy within "two weeks," he would levy severe economic consequences on Russia. Well, it's now two weeks later, and the entire subject has been swept under the rug. Trump's new response is to shrug and say that maybe he'll just walk away from the whole problem.

Trump did slap a 50 percent tariff on India, ostensibly because it continues to buy Russian oil, but in reality because the country's leader won't lie about Trump being the guy who talked India and Pakistan into their own ceasefire. China buys more oil from Russia than India, but Trump hasn't even threatened to raise their tariffs as a result. And he certainly isn't threatening Russia with such sanctions -- because if he did then maybe Putin wouldn't be his best buddy anymore.

There is some good news to report, which has been mostly happening under the radar. It seems that the Justice Department isn't having much luck charging people who are arrested for protesting Trump, because grand juries are balking at the "throw the book at them" attitude. Call it "grand jury nullification" -- when the citizens who are tasked with indicting people for felonies refuse to do so because they don't believe whatever happened merits such charges. This is happening in Washington, and it also happened in Los Angeles, when Trump sent the troops in there as well.

In fact, they couldn't even indict a ham sandwich. Well, no -- that's not accurate, but it is fun to say since that's usually how grand juries are described. The prosecution is the only one who presents evidence and such a lopsided situation usually means that grand juries indict anyone, even the proverbial ham sandwich. But when the Justice Department tired to charge the guy who threw a footlong Subway sandwich (reportedly salami, not ham) in protest in Washington D.C. with a felony, the grand jury said no.

And two other bits of good news to end on -- a federal judge has ruled that Utah's House district map is unconstitutional, and that they need to go back and redraw it, which could result in a seat flipping to the Democrats. And just today the news broke that Iowa's Senator Joni Ernst will not be seeking re-election next year, which could (although it's a longshot) also mean a pickup opportunity for Democrats next November.

 

There's a right way and a wrong way to fight Donald Trump (more on that "wrong way" in a moment...).

The right way seems to be to make fun of him. Troll him mercilessly. Give him a taste of his own medicine.

Gavin Newsom deserves another Honorable Mention for doing just that. He's been trolling full steam ahead, copying Trump's unique social media style and getting under his skin in a way no other Democrat seems to be able to. Just in the past week alone, Newsom:

• unveiled his own line of "Make American Gavin Again" merchandise.
• told Trump that world leaders are laughing at him behind his back.
• responded to Trump once again falsely talking about "a valve" that controls all the water in California by asking Grok: "Do people with dementia repeat false things over and over again?" Not surprisingly, Grok agreed.
• ridiculed Trump for saying Newsom has some sort of "strange hand action," not by highlighting Trump's "air accordion" or dance moves, but instead by simply stating: "You really want to have the conversation about hands?"
• taunted red states for having far higher murder rates than California.

The thing about all this juvenile taunting? It works. Trump and the rightwing media echo chamber are seething at how Newsom is stealing Trump's style and attitude to fight back against him.

But we can't give Newsom the big award this week, because something happened in Iowa which was stunningly impressive. Democrat Catelin Drey won a special election to the state senate which will deny the Republicans from having a supermajority in the chamber. She won (by 10 points!) in a district that went for Trump by 20-plus points. And this is actually the second such senate special election Democrats have won this year, after winning one back in January in a district that also went for Trump by 20-plus points.

This is all newly relevant today, because of the news that Senator Joni Ernst will be stepping down and not running for re-election next year. This means the Senate seat will be open, and it is always easier to flip a seat when there is no incumbent. Iowa is still pretty red, but it at least gives Democrats there something to hope for when they're having such success flipping seats in special elections.

For providing that hope, both to Iowans and all other Democrats, Catelin Drey is easily our Most Impressive Democrat Of The Week this week.

[Iowa Senator-Elect Catelin Drey is not actually in office yet, so we cannot provide an official contact page for you to let her know you appreciate her efforts, sorry. Once she gets sworn in, her contact information will be available on the Iowa state senate official contact pages.]

 

Washington D.C.'s Mayor Muriel Bowser has a very tricky tightrope to walk with Donald Trump, after he flooded the city with National Guardsmen and tried to take over her police force. Since Washington is not a state nor is it part of a state, she does not have much freedom to challenge Trump, since he could always get even more heavy-handed with the federal District. So while it was disappointing to hear her offer some words of praise for Trump, we understand the political vise she finds herself in and can't give her the Most Disappointing Democrat Of The Week award for just trying to cope.

Instead, we turned our eyes to the recent meeting of the Democratic National Committee, where ActBlue apparently decided that what Democrats really need right now is a fight song.

No, really.

The reviews weren't good, as you might imagine:

"Major cringe"

"I've cringed so hard I've turned inside out"

"There is no way ChatGPT didn't write that"

There doesn't seem to be a video of the new fight song posted anywhere, which isn't too surprising as measured by the reviews. Reporter Dave Weigel did capture an image of one of the verses, at least, so here's just a taste of it for everyone:

D-E-M-S, we rise!
Stronger together, blue skies!
Lift your voice, we're bold and true,
Onward, Democrats -- we shine blue!

Now, look, we do understand that political conventions sometimes lead to some awfully cheesy presentations, but this seems above and beyond the usual picayune run-of-the-mill.

What Democrat, after the 2024 election and seven months of Trump's second term, is truly thinking to themself: "You know what Democrats really need to win back the hearts and minds of the voters? A rousing fight song! Yeah, that's the ticket!"

Sigh.

We find we agree with one former Obama appointee: "Nah, I'll stick with our old song."

Seriously, guys -- this is not helping. Democrats need to focus and they need to figure out how to win again. A cringeworthy fight song is not a good use of time (and/or money), period. For their misplaced efforts, ActBlue is our Most Disappointing Democrat Of The Week.

[Contact ActBlue on their contact page, to let them know what you think of their actions.]

 

Volume 810 (8/29/25)

Another mixed bag this week, although for once we did at least try to make them as short and snappy as possible.

Hope everyone has a great three-day weekend!

 

   Happy Labor Day!

A whole lot of Union members need to have this pointed out to them.

"Donald Trump, days away from the Labor Day weekend, signed an executive order to strip collective bargaining rights away from federal employees. Donald Trump is no friend of labor. He does not stand up for Union workers. He celebrated Labor Day by engaging in some Union-busting. Next time you meet a Union member who voted for Trump, you might want to ask them what they think about Trump now that he's showing his true colors."

 

   Know-nothings

Will history repeat itself?

"Twenty years ago, George W. Bush found out that appointing one of his know-nothing buddies to run FEMA was a huge mistake. The people of New Orleans suffered because of this decision. Fast-forward to today, when Donald Trump hasn't just appointed a know-nothing to run FEMA, he's appointed know-nothings to run just about everything in the federal government. What could possibly go wrong with that plan?"

 

   Neverending

As we wrote yesterday, Trump's two weeks are now up.

"The war in Ukraine will never end until Donald Trump grows a pair and starts using some leverage against Vladimir Putin. So... the war in Ukraine will never end, I guess."

 

   Quack, quack!

Speaking of know-nothings....

"Who would you rather have making all the important health decisions for the entire country -- a team of doctors and experts, or a total quack who said part of his brain was eaten by a worm?"

 

   Trump tax expands

People are going to start noticing this one right away.

"The 'Trump tax' just got a lot bigger, folks. Now pretty much anything you buy from another country is going to have a big fat tax slapped on it before they'll even deliver your package to you. People are going to have to pay a whole lot more than the price they saw on the internet when they clicked 'Buy,' that's for sure. But that's if the other country's post office will even deliver it, since dozens of countries around the world have just halted such shipments to America. So when you have to pay an extra 80 bucks, or when you try to order something and they tell you they don't ship to backwards countries like the U.S., you can thank Donald Trump for all the hassle, as the Trump tax just keeps getting bigger and bigger."

 

   Gargantuan waste

How much money was wasted?

"The state of Florida has announced that they're closing down their 'Alligator Alcatraz' concentration camp out in the Everglades after a federal judge ordered it shut down. So answer me this -- how much in taxpayer money was wasted on this gargantuan boondoggle? How much state money, and how much federal money was just poured down a toilet so Ron DeSantis and Donald Trump could strut around looking like tough guys? Precisely how many hundreds of millions of dollars was spent on this idiocy? Because I'd sure like to know."

 

   Cranio-rectal inversion

It's pretty easy to see why very few Republicans in Congress are still willing to do town hall meetings. Representative Mark Alford just held one in Missouri, and he faced a farmer who said he was "pissed at you." But one particular line went viral (after getting lots of applause from the crowd), which we thought was a good thing to close on this week, as we head into the Labor Day weekend.

You know nothing about what a working-class citizen does. You need to take your head out of Trump's ass and start doing your representation of us.

-- Chris Weigant

 

Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant

Cross-posted at: Democratic Underground