PROGRESSIVE PROGRESS: Notch more wins for the Democratic Socialists and progressives. The Democrats may be having their Tea Party moment similar to when a Republican breakaway movement took their party to the far right.

  In the contest for Senate, Florida State Representative Angie Nixon, an outspoken Democratic socialist whose campaign couldn’t afford television commercials, defeated the moderate Alex Vindman whose campaign had 16 times as much money. Nixon raised only $975,000.

  Nixon’s run in the fall will be a big test of Florida’s happiness with Donald Trump and the Republican party. The state has gone even more Republican in the Trump years.

  In Alaska’s open primary for the Senate, former state representative Mary Peltola advanced to the general election winning more votes than incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan. That’s one of a handful of races that could flip control of the Senate to Democrats.

THE HUMAN PRINTER: The focus of the press and the chattering classes of the internet have turned to Natalie Harp, the leggy blonde 35-year-old aide who is never more than a few feet from President Trump. The heat turned up when it was discovered that Trump left two members of his cabinet on board Air Force One in Turkey while the plane was under a terrorist threat, escaping to another plane along with Harp in a catering container.

  Harp is known as “the human printer” because she clings to Trump carrying a portable printer, handing him items of interest on paper the way he likes it. The NY Times says, “She supplies him with content she fishes out of the social media gutter (like the video he posted depicting the Obamas as apes) and provides him with a view from the world outside official Washington, of which he has always been mistrustful.”

  Harp never takes a day off and is seen with Trump every day. First lady Melania Trump was last seen in public with the President July 19^th at the World Cup final.

  How close Trump and Harp really are is a matter of speculation, and the speculation is rife. Harp credits Trump with saving her life from bone cancer when he signed a law in 2018 that made her eligible for experimental treatment.

  A letter she wrote to the president says; “I want things to always be right between us. I also know I’ve been distracted all week (forgetting to eat throughout the days, and even forgetting to sleep, and only catching a couple hours at a time).”

  She signed it,  “With all my heart, Natalie.”

CHECKBOOK GOVERNMENT: The US national debt is likely to hit $40 trillion this week, in part because of billions of dollars in lost revenue from President Donald Trump’s invalidated tariffs, and increased interest rates on Treasury bonds.

  The debt is up $6 trillion since Donald Trump took office for his second term.

  While the federal government has increased borrowing to pay the bills, government bonds are losing their allure as a safe bet because of inflation, rising debt around the world, and the war in Iran. The interest rates investors demand on 30-year US Treasury bonds  have hit their highest in 20 years while annual interest alone is $1 trillion.  

INFINITE SCROLL:

— President Trump plans to nominate Dr. Heidi Overton, a fierce opponent of abortion and an acolyte of the health secretary’s “Make America Healthy Again” agenda, to be commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration. She has denounced abortion as “corrosive” to women and called abortion pills “far more dangerous to women.” 

  As Trump signed his executive order intended to reduce and break up childhood vaccines, Overton said the order could help states recognize “gold standard” recommendations and limit vaccines required for school entry.

— South Carolina Sen. Darline Graham, who is filling the seat of her late brother Lindsey Graham, was booed at a political forum last night when she admitted that she doesn’t know anything about national security. “National security is not my thing, Graham said, “But I do support the military.”

— With its construction under court challenge, now before the Supreme Court, President Trump’s White House ballroom continues to rise with work going on 20 hours a day, 7 days a week. 

THE MOUSE ROARS: The ABC television network owned by the Walt Disney Company sued the Federal Communications Commission, accusing the agency of infringing on its First Amendment rights for political reasons to squelch free speech in its news and entertainment programming.

  The network asked a federal court to stop the FCC from imposing aggressive regulatory moves that the network says are an “existential threat” to its operations, including threatening the broadcast licenses of is eight television stations in major cities across the country. It’s a rare pushback by a major media organization fighting back against President Trump, who has successfully extracted multi-million payments from both ABC and CBS to settle his lawsuits against them.

  “This case boils down to a simple question: Can the administration use its control over the federal regulatory apparatus to punish a media organization for editorial decisions and news coverage it dislikes?” the lawsuit says. “Because the First Amendment provides a clear answer — of course not — this court’s intervention is necessary to stop the Federal Communications Commission’s extraordinary assault on free speech.”

THE SPIN RACK: Thirteen current and former Penn State University students were charged this week with running a major cocaine ring that largely sold its drugs on campus. A 14^th person, the father of one of the accused students, was charged with evidence tampering and hindering the investigation. — Minnesota is suing Texas to extradite a federal immigration agent accused of illegally shooting a man during a January enforcement operation in Minneapolis and later lying about what happened.

BELOW THE FOLD: As many as 173 people who witnessed the assassination of right wing organizer Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University nearly a year ago have filed for the state’s victim benefits.

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