Happy Thursday from the country where an American defense contractor’s drone turned up near the site of a suspected covert CIA boat strike, Pentagon insiders are reportedly worried Trump could lower the nuclear threshold against Iran, and Greg Abbott has decided interstate extradition is apparently negotiable when the accused is a former ICE officer. Meanwhile, America’s debt crossed $40 trillion, millions of facial images were left exposed online, and North Korea responded to Trump scaling back military exercises by launching about ten ballistic missiles. Everybody remain calm. The adults appear to be arguing over who misplaced them.
Key Takeaways
A U.S. Contractor Drone Appeared Near a Suspected CIA Boat Strike
Flight data reviewed by Drop Site News placed a Shield AI V BAT drone roughly 500 meters from a burning Ecuadorian fishing boat hours after a March attack that the Washington Post later linked to a covert CIA operation. Shield AI did not respond to the outlet, and no drugs were found on the three fishing boats Drop Site investigated, so perhaps Congress could briefly interrupt whatever it is doing and ask what the hell happened.
Greg Abbott Is Refusing to Extradite a Former ICE Officer Charged in Minnesota
Minnesota sued Abbott after he refused to sign an extradition warrant for former ICE officer Christian Castro, who is charged with firing into an occupied Minneapolis home and is currently held in Texas. Legal scholar Steve Vladeck says federal law gives Abbott virtually no discretion here, because apparently Article IV forgot to include the Greg Abbott feelings exception.
Pentagon Sources Say Nuclear Escalation Against Iran Is Being Discussed
Raw America reports that unnamed Pentagon officials and Republican leaders have discussed the possibility that Trump could consider nuclear weapons against Iran, although former State Department official Joel Rubin told the outlet he doubts Trump would actually use them. This is not confirmation of a nuclear strike plan, but “officials hope the president is only pretending to be willing to start nuclear Armageddon” is not the reassuring sentence anyone ordered.
The National Debt Has Crossed $40 Trillion
Treasury data shows total federal debt has passed $40 trillion after growing under both Trump and Biden, driven by tax cuts, pandemic borrowing, federal spending, and rapidly increasing interest costs. America has officially reached the point where even the debt needs scientific notation.
Millions of Facial Images Were Exposed by a Reverse Lookup Service
WIRED reports that a face search service left millions of sensitive images exposed online, creating obvious opportunities for identity theft, impersonation, and AI powered scams. Nothing complements mass facial recognition quite like storing the faces with the cybersecurity equivalent of leaving the garage door open.
Trump’s Crime Victory Lap Leaves Out Some Extremely Relevant Facts
FactCheck.org confirms violent crime and murder fell sharply in 2025 but found Trump misleadingly credited his administration for a trend that had already begun during Biden’s presidency and exaggerated crime reductions in cities with National Guard deployments. Crime statistics apparently become trustworthy precisely when they begin complimenting Donald Trump.
North Korea Fired About Ten Ballistic Missiles After Trump Reduced Joint Exercises
North Korea launched roughly ten short range ballistic missiles one day after the United States and South Korea announced reductions to joint military exercises that Trump described partly in terms of his relationship with Kim Jong Un. Kim’s sister had already rejected the gesture, which is diplomatic language for thanks for the concession, here are some missiles.
Trump’s Ballroom Official Quietly Met With Putin’s People
Rodney Mims Cook Jr., chair of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts and a figure overseeing Trump’s White House ballroom project, received a diplomatic passport and met senior Russian officials during Putin’s economic forum in St. Petersburg. Secretary of State Marco Rubio previously said he was unaware of the trip, because apparently ballroom planning now requires both chandeliers and Kremlin diplomacy.
A Private Prison Company Will Face Trial Over an ICE Detainee’s Death
A federal judge ruled that a jury can hear claims against GEO Group after symptomatic employees entered an ICE detention center at least 47 times before medically vulnerable detainee Martin Vargas Arellano contracted COVID and later died. ICE formally released him while he was brain dead and comatose three days before his death, which makes the paperwork look cleaner without making anything about the story clean.
Hackers Are Targeting Industrial Control Systems That Run Critical Infrastructure
Federal agencies warned that threat actors are probing Siemens industrial controllers used across energy, water, manufacturing, chemical, agriculture, and commercial facilities while experimenting with AI generated exploitation tools. America’s infrastructure is apparently online, outdated, and being introduced to artificial intelligence by the worst possible people.
A Trans Former Sex Worker Has Made New Allegations About Lindsey Graham
Taylor Snider alleges she had a paid sexual encounter with the late Senator Lindsey Graham in 2015, but the account remains an allegation and has not been independently established by the reporting presented. The legitimate public interest is not someone’s sexuality but whether politicians privately engaged in conduct involving communities they publicly helped stigmatize.
Postcard Campaigns Are Mobilizing Voters Before the Midterms
The 50501 Movement highlights several volunteer campaigns using handwritten postcards to register and turn out voters in competitive states and congressional districts. Democracy occasionally requires complex litigation, but sometimes it requires a pen, sixty five cents, and spite.
Closing Kitty Thoughts
Today’s stories are about systems that become dangerous when nobody watches the people operating them.
Covert military programs. Nuclear decision making. Immigration detention. Facial recognition databases. Industrial control systems. Election administration. Even interstate extradition rules that were deliberately written so governors could not simply decide they disliked the request.
None of these safeguards are glamorous.
That is why they matter.
The guardrails of democracy are mostly boring laws, court filings, inspectors, cybersecurity updates, public records, journalists, and irritating citizens asking questions powerful people would prefer not to answer.
Be irritating.
Read the records. Back up the evidence. Protect the vote. Demand congressional oversight of covert operations. And if someone tells you a safeguard is merely bureaucratic red tape, look very carefully at what they want to do after they cut it.
Claws out. Receipts ready.
Featured Resisters and Resources
- Tommy Carstensen is a bioinformatician and data scientist whose website brings together interactive data projects, public records research, archival preservation, machine learning, and data visualization. His work demonstrates how computational tools can transform large and complicated datasets into searchable, visual, and more accessible research resources.
- Samaritans is a nonprofit organization that provides emotional support to people experiencing distress, loneliness, emotional difficulty, or suicidal thoughts. Founded in the United Kingdom, the organization is widely known for providing confidential, nonjudgmental listening services to people who need someone to talk to.
What We Are Watching Today
- 9:00 AM EDT
U.S. Senate Candidate Mike Rogers (R-MI) Holds Campaign Event - 9:30 AM EDT
Governor Candidate Rick Jackson (R-GA) Holds News Conference on Affordability Live - 10:00 AM EDT
Rep. Maggie Goodlander (D-NH) Campaign Endorsement Announcement Live - 10:00 AM EDT
U.S. House of Representatives Live - 11:30 AM EDT
U.S. Senate - 1:00 PM EDT
Freedom 250 Grand Prix Preview on Capitol Hill - 1:30 PM EDT
U.S. Senate Candidate Chris Pappas (D-NH) Campaign Endorsement Announcement - 4:00 PM EDT
President and First Lady Make Announcement of Fostering the Future Partnership - 6:30 PM EDT
U.S. Senate Candidate Sherrod Brown (D-OH) Holds Kick-Off Event in Toledo, OH
Today’s Call to Action
1. Read Today’s Resistance Survival Guides
2. Sign these Petitions and Send These Pre Written Letters
- End Trump’s Military Occupation of Washington, DC
- Stop Trump from holding disaster aid and democracy hostage
- Protect Voting Rights for Nursing Home Residents
- Sign and send a letter to your U.S. senators: Keep Donald Trump’s image and likeness off our currency.
- Sign and send a letter to your U.S. senators: Keep Donald Trump’s image and likeness off our currency.
- Please sign my petition denouncing Donald Trump for approving only 23% of disaster aid requests from blue states, compared to 89% for red states.
- Sign and submit an official comment opposing new proposals from the Trump administration to dismantle longstanding regulations around Head Start programs.
- Please add your name to my petition: It’s long past time that we elect the president by national popular vote. If Democrats win control of enough states after the 2026 to make this possible–and they are closer than you might think–they need to follow through. I will use your signature in coordination with partners to help make this happen.
- Sign and send a message to your U.S. senators urging them to put a stop to FEMA and DHS conditioning the release of disaster preparedness funds on states making changes to their election systems.
- Sign and send a petition your U.S. senators urging them to reject Donald Trump’s four nominees to the Postal Board of Governors.
3. Verify your voter registration status and help at least one other person check theirs
4. Save contact information for local legal aid and voting support organizations
5. Attend an Event
- What’s the Plan with Leah and Ezra Thursday, August 20 at 3:00 p.m. ET
- Join us on Tuesday, August 25 at 7:30 PM ET for Censorship 2.0: The Latest Trends in Book Banning.
6. Contact Your Lawmakers Directly
- Stop DHS Surveillance: Tell your lawmakers to demand hearings into DHS spying on protesters, unions, and political groups. Protect lawful First Amendment activity.
- Protect Voting Rights: Tell your lawmakers to oppose the SAVE America Act and its restrictive citizenship document requirements.
- Stop Unauthorized War: Tell your lawmakers to enforce the Iran War Powers Resolution and block funding for unauthorized military action.
7. Who Are We Boycotting This Week?
The People’s Union USA has placed these corporations on its permanent boycott list:
Buy only what you need. Support local businesses, independent sellers, and union shops whenever possible.
