Greetings! Kristi Noem has a new gig: The disgraced ex-Homeland Security boss is “special advisor” – whatever that means – to NovaRed Mining, a Canadian company involved in gold and copper excavation projects, according to The Hill.  Not sure what expertise Noem, a.k.a ICE Barbie, brings to the job other than as former MAGA insider and Trump administration cast member....Dept. of Sticks & Stones.  In an early morning Truth Social post, Donald Trump dubbed Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA), who has been bandied about as a potential candidate for a 2028 White House run,  as Os(jerk@)off.  What 12-year-old boy gave Trump that line?....Is this news? The Washington Free Beacon reported that state representative James Talarico (D-TX), who is 37 and single, shares a checking account with his mother.  Attacking Talarico’s masculinity has been a frequent right-wing talking point, employed to damage his run for the Senate. The Hill thinks that slime strategy might  tarnish Talarico enough to derail his campaign...The Reflecting Pool Blues:  So much for Trump’s much hyped efforts to spiff up iconic landmarks in the nation’s capital. The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, which was overhauled this spring by Trump in a  highly publicized initiative, just turned green from algae this week.  It’s now a sea of green after costing a pile of green bucks – reportedly north of $13 million. Trump must be turning red in anger over the humiliation of articles like this one in Politico....Try again! Apologies to anyone who was unable to access TheRighting’s donation page yesterday.  The server for my web hosting platform was down for about an hour just after I made my semi-annual fundraising appeal...If you keep reading, I’ll keep Righting. Howard

Greetings! Trump backs down. So says this Wall Street Journal editorial with an on-the-nose headline: Trump Stages an Iran Retreat. While the editors applaud him for damaging the country’s nuclear program, they nonetheless conclude, “(t)here’s no denying that Mr. Trump is retreating from his main goals as political pressure has built at home and finishing the job requires greater military risk”...I’m generally not a fan of Dana White, the Trump-loving entrepreneur and UFC CEO, but I give him credit for name-checking his fighter Josh Hokit for calling Michelle Obama “a man” Sunday night.  “I’m completely against saying nasty and false things about people’s families,” White wrote in a text message to Time magazine. “Everyone knows my position on free speech but I hate that kind of nonsense.”  Worth noting: Joe Rogan, who was interviewing Hokit when he dropped the slur, didn’t “address” the fighter’s remarks, according to Time...All eyes are on ABC’s “The View” today where VP JD Vance drops in to flog his new book Communion. It’s something of a special occasion because conservatives virtually never get the spotlight on the morning yakfest.  A NewsBusters analysis found that only two conservatives appeared on the program compared to 128 liberals in 2025.  Worth noting: NewsBusters described the female hosts of the show as the “cackling coven”...We interrupt this newsletter for my semi-annual fund-raising appeal. Please consider a donation to help keep TheRighting alive and well.  Your contribution will help pay for writers, original research and technical improvements to enhance the overall reader experience. And, most importantly, it will help amplify TheRighting’s pro-democracy voice in the MAGA resistance (visit the donation page.)...If you keep reading, I’ll keep Righting. Howard