Our Fascist Idiocracy: MTG Sees the Iceberg Ahead, Flees MAGA Ship

Says Republicans in the House hate Trump

Democratic Wins Media: Marjorie Taylor Greene’s appearance on 60 Minutes was more revealing than anything she has said in Congress. It was the first real sign that something inside the MAGA movement has shifted. Greene is not a moderate Republican or a cautious institutionalist. She has been one of the most loyal and extreme defenders of Donald Trump. So when someone like her begins to pull away, it signals a deeper fracture.

Greene raised concerns about healthcare subsidies expiring and the harm that would cause for working families. These are valid points, but they do not reflect her record in Congress. Nothing about her ideology has softened. The more likely explanation is that she sees the political winds changing inside the far right and is trying to get ahead of a movement that no longer feels invincible.

The Independent: When asked if Republicans talk differently about Trump behind the scenes, Greene replied: “Yes.”

[…]

Greene Goes Full Rogue on ’60 Minutes’

“I watched many of my colleagues go from making fun of him, making fun of how he talks — making fun of me constantly for supporting him — to when he won the primary in 2024 they all started — excuse my language, Lesley, kissing his ass and decided to put on a MAGA hat for the first time.”

— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), on 60 Minutes.

Intercept: Boat Strike Survivors Clung to Wreckage for Some 45 Minutes Before U.S. Military Killed Them

45 Minutes

The Intercept: Two survivors clung to the wreckage of a vessel attacked by the U.S. military for roughly 45 minutes before a second strike killed them on September 2. After about three quarters of an hour, Adm. Frank Bradley, then head of Joint Special Operations Command, ordered a follow-up strike that killed the shipwrecked men.

Americans Don’t Trust the Government to Do What’s Right

17%

A new Pew Research poll finds just 17% of Americans now say they trust the federal government to do what is right “just about always” (2%) or “most of the time” (15%). Frustration has long been Americans’ dominant emotion toward the federal government and 49% say they feel frustrated. Another 26% say they are angry, and 23% say they are basically content.

Our Fascist Idiocracy: Secretary of War Crimes and the Fog of War

Throwing the scapegoat under the bus

Reason: “I did not personally see survivors,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said at a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday. “The thing was on fire. It exploded, there’s fire, there’s smoke….This is called the fog of war.”

Financial Times: Speaking during a televised cabinet meeting at the White House, Trump said the defence secretary was doing a “great job”, while Hegseth justified Washington’s military campaign against alleged drug boats. “Narco-terrorists know you can’t bring drugs through the water and eventually on land if necessary, to the American people. We will eliminate that threat,” he said.

The Independent: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Tuesday continued what appears to be a deliberate effort to blame a veteran naval officer for the order to launch a second missile strike on an alleged drug-running boat that killed two survivors of an earlier missile hit…

Hegseth added: “We always have the back of our commanders who are making decisions in difficult situations, and we do in this case and all these strikes, they’re making judgment calls and ensuring that they defend the American people. They’ve done the right things. We’ll keep doing that, and we have their backs.”

During a subsequent question-and-answer session with reporters, Hegseth acknowledged that he had given the order for the first missile hit on the boat but claimed he’d already left the room when Admiral Frank “Mitch” Bradley, the commanding officer who oversaw the mission carried out by the Naval Special Warfare Development Group, ordered a second missile fired on the wreckage.

[…]