"After ordering the occupation of DC, Trump threatened to send federal troops to NYC, Baltimore and Oakland"

 

…The real criminals in DC today, who are dangers to the Republic worthy of sending SEAL Team Six to suppress, are the lobbyists for the tobacco, financial, oil, insurance, coal, nuclear, Pharma, and weapons industries (not to mention AIPAC) who have corrupted our political system and profited from using the federal government to inflict death and misery around the globe. Trump is using racial stereotypes to scare his 70+ demographic on Fox News and manufacture a crisis that doesn’t exist so that he can use his Praetorian Guard to shield and distract attention from those who are looting the public estate for private gain.

+ Meet the people in charge of the feds seizing control of DC…

+ The one thing the founders of the Republic feared even more than slave rebellions and tribal uprisings was the kind of standing army Trump has now sent into DC:

“A standing army is one of the greatest mischiefs that can possibly happen.” – James Madison

“The Army is a dangerous instrument to play with.” – George Washington

“Standing Armies are dangerous to liberty.” – Alexander Hamilton

+ Cities whose violent crime rate is higher than DC’s…

Memphis, Tennessee
Kansas City, Missouri
Springfield, Missouri
Alexandria, Louisiana
New Orleans, Louisiana
Monroe, Louisiana
Pueblo, Colorado
Anniston, Alabama
Little Rock, Arkansas
Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
Birmingham, Alabama
Atlantic City, New Jersey
Camden, New Jersey
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Louisville, Kentucky
Indianapolis, Indiana
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Cincinnati, Ohio

+ After ordering the occupation of DC, Trump threatened to send federal troops to NYC, Baltimore and Oakland: “They’re so far gone. This will go further. We’re starting very strongly with DC.” By the way, crime in DC is at historic lows…

+ DC Mayor Muriel Bowser:  “I think I speak for all Americans — we don’t believe it’s legal to use the American military against American citizens on American soil.”

+ Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott’s response to Trump’s threat to impose a military occupation of DC, NYC, Oakland and Baltimore: “I think it’s very notable that each and every one of the cities called out by the President has a black mayor, and most of those cities are seeing historic lows in violent crime. In Baltimore, we have the fewest number of homicides through this date on record. That’s 50 years, a 50-year low. Maybe we are too far gone. Too far gone from the broken right-wing policies of zero tolerance policing and all the things that did not make our city safer for all those many years. The president could learn a lot from us. Instead of throwing things at us…”

+ How badly did Reconstruction fail DC? A city with one of the country’s largest and most vibrant black populations, whose residents have never enjoyed the full rights and protections of people living in states, is now under occupation by a military led by a man who is renaming Army bases after Confederate generals.

+ Rep. Troy Downing, the Republican from Montana, on Trump’s takeover of DC: “Hopefully this is a harbinger of what we see in these liberally run cities across the country … We need to send in the troops, which is exactly what we’re doing.”

+ Memo to Troy Downing: Since Illinois adopted bail reform, violent and property crimes have dropped below pre-COVID levels and failure-to-appear rates have also declined–the exact opposite of what the lock-em-up critics predicted.

+ The GOP wants to ethnically cleanse Southeast DC, the way the Israelis have Gaza…Bennie Johnson: “Entire neighborhoods, probably, need to be emptied, need to be bulldozed.”

+ Of course, the ethnic cleansing of DC has been taking place for decades, with the real estate industry as the driving force. When Jerome picked me up from the sidewalk along H Street in 1981, the black population of DC was 445,154 (70% of the District’s population). Now it’s less than 280,000 (41%). Blacks are being forced out of one of America’s greatest Black cities by economic predation and political policy. 

+ Since military personnel commit crimes at a rate higher than the civilian population (one recent study showed one-third of vets with an arrest record compared to one-fifth of the general population), Trump’s flooding DC with National Guard troops seems likely to actually end up increasing the crime rate.

+ In all of the video footage of Trump’s military occupation of DC, I haven’t seen one foot patrol or armored personnel carrier traverse K Street, which probably has more criminals, swindlers & mass killers per linear foot than any other street in the US, perhaps the entire planet…

+ During a White House press briefing, Benny Johnson asked: “Will the president consider giving the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Big Balls?” Karoline Leavitt: “I haven’t spoken to him about that, but perhaps it’s something that he would consider.”

+ Trump during his press conference on sending the National Guard to patrol DC: “It’s embarrassing for me to be up here. I’m going to see Putin. I’m going to Russia on Friday. I don’t want to be up here talking about how dirty and disgusting this once beautiful capital was.” (He’s actually going to Alaska, but maybe if he visits Sarah Palin, he’ll be able to see Russia from her house.)…

-Jeffrey St. Clair, CounterPunch

 

War Crimes Against Those Who Risk Everything to Tell the Truth

 

As noted in Truthout and other media, this week, Israel openly acknowledged assassinating Anas al-Sharif, the 28-year-old Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist hailed as “the voice of Gaza.” An Israeli airstrike deliberately targeted Anas al-Sharif and five of his Al Jazeera colleagues—staff and freelancers—while they sought refuge in a tent designated for journalists outside Al-Shifa Hospital.

Killing journalists is not a “tragic mistake”; it is a calculated act of terror against those who dare to bear witness. He made clear through his fearless reporting the horrors of genocide. He showed that Israel’s policy of forced starvation is not a byproduct of war; it is a deliberate policy, an ancient weapon wielded with modern precision against a trapped and desperate people. He also showed the fierce resistance on the part of Palestinians refusing to surrender to attempts to by Israel to exterminate them

As Amnesty International notes: "The targeted killing of Anas al-Sharif and five other journalists on Sunday means at least 242 Palestinian journalists have been killed by Israeli forces since the beginning of October 2023. No conflict in modern history has seen a higher number of journalists killed. The intentional targeting and killing of journalists is a war crime. As is the strategy of Israeli authorities that wants to stop its war crimes from being exposed and those responsible being brought to justice."

Netanyahu’s fascist politics thrive on these crimes. They are not aberrations; they are the scaffolding upon which his right-wing regime stands. The bombing of homes, the silencing of cameras, the reduction of children to statistics, these are the tools of a political order that measures its success in erasures, ethnic and racial cleansing, and a unfathomable politics of disposability--as we saw in Augusto Pinochet's Chile, Nazi Germany, and other fascist regimes.

And when confronted with the evidence, Netanyahu once again offers the cameras the smirk, the shrug, the arrogance of a man devoid of any moral responsibility, while spewing endlessly the blatant lies that cover up unimaginable war crimes-committed no less as a designated war criminal.

What we are witnessing with the indiscriminate killing of thousands women and children in Gaza are not signs of reckless military operations, accidental deaths, Hamas induced defense actions, but declarations of power, genocidal madness; reminders that in this machinery of annihilation, not only are the bodies of Palestinian people under siege and subject to ethnic cleansing, but that truth itself is a target.

In Gaza and the West Bank, the project is not merely to occupy land, but to obliterate a people’s memory, dignity, and claim to justice. It is a war on the possibility of history itself, waged with the confidence of those who believe they will never be held to account. This is the essence of fascism: the conviction that some lives are disposable, some voices intolerable, and some crimes untouchable.

-Henry Giroux

"Sickening. Shameful. And in the end, useless"

 

Sickening. Shameful. And in the end, useless. Those were the words that came to mind when we watched the Alaska Summit unfold. On our screens, a blood-soaked dictator and war criminal received a royal welcome in the land of the free — as his attack drones headed for [Ukrainian] cities.

In the lead-up to the meeting in Alaska, U.S. President Donald Trump declared he wanted a “ceasefire today” and that his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin would face “severe consequences” if he didn't go for it.

Yet after a 2.5-hour closed-door meeting, Trump and Putin emerged to share… nothing. “Progress” was made and some “understanding” reached, but the two didn’t come to an agreement on “the most significant point” — clearly, Ukraine.

Trump didn’t get what he wanted. But Putin? He sure did. From the moment he stepped off the plane on U.S. soil, the Russian dictator was beaming. No longer an international pariah, he was finally getting accepted – and respected — by the leader of the free world. Trump’s predecessor once called Putin a murderer; Trump offered him a king’s welcome.

Trump greeted Putin with a red carpet, warm handshakes, a flyover of U.S. bombers, and a backseat limo ride. The chummy display stood in stark contrast to Trump’s hostile reception of Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office six months ago. Ukraine’s president endured a public shaming. Russia’s was pampered. Both episodes were disgraceful.

Trump seemed to believe that a warm meeting could appease Putin and make a ceasefire more likely. But there’s a lesson Trump still hasn’t learned: The Russian leader doesn’t really make deals — he takes. He takes what is offered to him and then takes some more — he keeps taking until stopped by force. That is the Russian art of the deal.

Trump fails to grasp that Putin isn’t transactional about Ukraine — he is messianic. He wants Ukraine for Russia, period. For Putin and his inner circle, Ukraine’s independence is an accident, and they are correcting it.

The Russian delegation made no effort to hide their mockery of the talks. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov arrived in Alaska wearing a USSR sweatshirt — bluntly asserting Russia’s claim on Ukraine. Kremlin journalists wrote about how they were served chicken Kyiv on the government plane to Alaska — a not-so-subtle hint that Ukraine was “cooked.” The Russians clearly never took the “peace talks” seriously.

And there was another reason behind Putin’s grin in Alaska. The Russian dictator was gloating because of how unsettling the meeting was for all U.S. allies, far beyond Ukraine. It sent a discomfiting signal to the viewers across the pond. And strategically, undermining the transatlantic alliance is an even more important Russian objective than taking control of Ukraine.

Putin returns from the Alaska Summit with a win — but not a sweeping victory he could have had. If the two presidents failed to reach an agreement, it means that, despite all the chumminess on display, Trump didn’t approve of Russia’s absurd demands for Ukraine — demands that amount to Kyiv’s capitulation.

Trump said he hopes to see Putin again soon. If the U.S. president doesn’t want to hand the next meeting to Russia as well, he needs to let Ukraine join the table. And he must position himself as an ally of Ukraine, not as a referee between two fighting sides.

Only then might we avoid another scene in which the leader of the free world indulges a bloody dictator — in the name of 340 million Americans. After all, agreements with Russia don’t live long. But the images of the U.S. military honor guards kneeling to roll out the red carpet for a murderer? Those will last. And no one will remember this meeting longer — or more vividly — than Ukrainians.

-The Kyiv Independent

Vlad gets red carpet, and Trump gets Epstein off the front pages. A submissive, groveling, obsequious Donald Trump was humiliated yesterday afternoon by Russia’s President Vladimir Putin. The American president, accused by multiple women and teenage girls of raping or sexually assaulting them, joined the indicted war criminal and Russian president who has kidnapped over 100,000 children from Ukraine and sold most of them into God-only-knows-what in Russia. It was a disgusting, pathetic display of the moral collapse that is Donald Trump. 

As Senator Richard Blumenthal said: “[M]y stomach turned when I heard the president of the United States characterize Vladimir Putin as his fabulously good friend. Vladimir Putin is a war criminal. He has directed soldiers to kill women and children and bury them in mass graves. He’s kidnapped children as we speak. The reality on the ground is that people are bleeding and dying all around Ukraine because Putin is continuing to bomb them. 

And at the front, he’s continuing to pummel the brave Ukrainian soldiers who are defending the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, the town of Pokrovsk.” But Trump did succeed in getting Jeffrey Epstein off the front pages for several days. Will a discussion of the possibility that Trump was joining Epstein in raping young girls return to media prominence? Or has Trump succeeded in making it “old news”? Meanwhile, Putin gets a status boost all around the world as America is once again placed in the gutter by Donald Trump.

-Thom Hartmann

 

"We’ve seen this movie before. So has Putin. But this isn’t Monty Python."

 

...Who among us hasn’t dealt with someone like this? Conceited, intolerant, blind to the obvious, and, when tested, inept but dangerous. Sometimes I feel as if I am watching a version of [Monty Python and the Holy Grail] when President Donald Trump faces a geopolitical security issue. But he doesn’t remind me of King Arthur.

Over the past several weeks, Trump has been flailing to draw attention away from the Jeffrey Epstein story. Whether proclaiming success on tariffs or suggesting President Barack Obama committed treason, none of it stuck.

Then on July 28 former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev posted on social media that Trump’s latest threat—to end the war in Ukraine through ultimatums—was itself “a step towards war.” In response, Trump said on Truth Social the comments were “highly provocative” and declared that he had ordered two U.S. nuclear submarines to be “positioned in the appropriate regions.”

John Bolton, the short-lived national security adviser for the first Trump administration, warned that this was reckless escalation. At the hands of past commanders in chief, such a declaration would be an appropriate concern.

But we’re being led by someone who applies news coverage as much as geopolitical reality to national security decisions. To Trump, warnings of miscalculation are meaningless. Or as the Black Knight reacts when King Arthur severs his other arm: “Just a flesh wound.”

To Russia and China, Trump’s braggadocio is less threat than parody. Who cares if he moved any submarines? The United States has about two dozen submarines on patrol at any one time, including those armed with submarine-launched cruise missiles that can strike from nearly 1,000 miles away and ballistic missile subs, or “boomers,” that can hit targets over 4,000 miles out.

Russian President Vladimir Putin knows this. His spokesman in response said as much, “In this case, it is obvious that American submarines are already on combat duty.” China knows it. So does NATO. So do America’s allies across the Pacific.

Trump’s announcement wasn’t about military leverage. It wasn’t even serious strategic signaling. It was a tired rhetorical tool now applied to a political-military confrontation—chest-pounding designed to look like action. And it came from someone who clearly does not know how the U.S. Navy operates.

Just as the Black Knight errs in the Monty Python movie, Trump mistakes bravado for deterrence, bluster for backbone. But Putin has seen this performance before. And in some cases, first hand—in Hamburg, Danang, Helsinki, Buenos Aires. He’s not alarmed. He might well be thinking what Arthur says out loud when the armless Black Knight claims to be invincible: “You’re a looney.”

Putin had a near-perfect record of calling the bluffs from Trump in his first term and from Joe Biden when it comes to Ukraine. Nothing Trump 48 has done as commander in chief has led Putin to take pause. Not his Truth Social pleas of “Vladimir, STOP!” Not the 50-day ultimatum threatening tariffs. Not when the ultimatum was dropped to a 10-day deadline.

Trump’s direct use of military force in his second term probably hasn’t bolstered his credibility as a bold warrior to give an adversary such as Russia or China pause. Trump’s air strikes in the spring against the Houthi targets in Yemen were briefly intense, quickly declared a success, and followed by a ceasefire with little strategic impact.

The White House touted the strikes in June on Iran’s nuclear weapons facilities as proof of resolve. But the operation was carried out after an Israeli air campaign of more than a week had left Iran with no air defense or escalatory leverage. It was low-risk. Medvedev has said so much. In the same social media post noted earlier, he was blunt: Russia isn’t Iran.

Trump’s pattern is clear: He punches down, never up. When escalation carries real consequences—when the target can respond in kind—he hesitates, blusters, or declares victory before the fight begins. For Beijing, watching how Trump calibrates risk offers clues about how he might react to a crisis over Taiwan. The signal isn’t strength. It’s selectivity.

So where are we now? Russia strikes on civilian targets in Ukraine have gone unabated. Instead of ordering punitive tariffs—set to take effect within days barring a ceasefire—to be imposed immediately, Trump ignored the economic threat. Instead, he sought out an audience with Putin, scheduled for today.

As I see it, Putin today is staring at a shamed opponent—much like King Arthur, who asks the limbless Black Knight, “What are you going to do, bleed on me?” For his part, Trump is now raving about having arranged another meeting—what the White House is now describing as a “listening exercise” but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says s a "personal victory" for Putin.

This is where Trump’s understanding of intimidation becomes a liability. He knows how to look dangerous. But in statecraft, looking dangerous isn’t enough. You have to be credible, and you have to be coherent. If your adversaries know you bluff compulsively, they stop believing your threats—even when you mean them.

And Putin has no reason to be wary of Trump. He knows Trump will arrive at the meeting in the same shape as the Black Knight, who at the end of the joust is reduced to just a head and torso and declares: “All right, we’ll call it a draw.”

Showmanship works until it doesn’t. And once it stops working, every future threat—even a legitimate one—gets discounted. Like the Black Knight, Trump keeps taunting after the fight has moved on: “Running away, eh?... Come back here and take what’s coming to you!”

 

Brian O’Neill, a retired senior executive from the CIA and National Counterterrorism Center, is an instructor on strategic intelligence at Georgia Tech. His Safehouse Briefing Substack looks at what’s ahead in global security, geopolitics, and national strategy.

---

The Contrarian is reader-supported. To receive new posts, enable our work, help with litigation efforts, and keep this opposition movement alive and engaged, please consider joining the fight by becoming a paid subscriber.

 

"This isn’t just about protecting Trump, it’s about protecting the system that lets Epstein thrive"

 

The real scandal isn’t that Donald Trump’s name appears in the Epstein files. Everyone with a functioning brain and an internet connection already assumed that. The man’s long, sordid friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, beauty pageants, private parties, “younger side” quotes, and all, has been public knowledge for decades. What’s breaking through now, like cracks in a dam, is something far more damning:

The cover-up is the crime, and it runs deeper than anyone imagined.

Thanks to The Wall Street Journal, we now know what Trump knew and when he knew it. Back in May, Attorney General Pam Bondi and her deputy Todd Blanche, both handpicked loyalists, sat down with Trump in the White House and told him point-blank: his name appears multiple times in the Epstein documents. Not once. Not vaguely. Multiple times.

Weeks later, the Department of Justice, under Bondi’s leadership, announced it would not release the full Epstein files to the public. This, after Bondi herself had previously boasted that she had “truckloads” of Epstein documents sitting on her desk, ready to be reviewed. Transparency? That evaporated the moment Trump’s name was confirmed in the stack.

Trump, of course, did what Trump always does: he lied. In July, asked whether Bondi had told him his name appeared in the files, he replied, “No, no,” with all the empty confidence of a man who’s been gaslighting his way out of scandal since the ‘80s. He then pivoted into a word salad about Comey, Obama, Biden, and the “Russia hoax,” trying to drag every past boogeyman into the flames with him.

But now Bondi and Blanche themselves have confirmed the briefing happened. So the president lied, again, on camera. And then tried to sue The Wall Street Journal for reporting a truth he had already privately acknowledged.

That’s just the beginning of the cover-up.

The DOJ filed a weak, doomed-to-fail motion to unseal grand jury records, knowing full well that their reasoning, “public interest” wouldn’t meet the legal threshold. Judge Robin Rosenberg rejected it, correctly noting that the DOJ hadn’t attached the request to an active judicial proceeding. In other words, they wanted the appearance of transparency without the risk of actual disclosure.

Meanwhile, Maxwell’s legal team has entered the chat opposing the release of those same transcripts while simultaneously negotiating with the DOJ in a possible bid for clemency. Her lawyer even released a statement thanking Trump for his “commitment to uncovering the truth,” which might be the most shamelessly transactional quote of the decade.

But Bondi’s fingerprints on this mess go back further than her recent U-turn. As Florida’s attorney general during the fallout from Epstein’s original non-prosecution agreement, she never lifted a finger to challenge the 2008 deal that let Epstein walk with a wrist slap. That infamous arrangement, negotiated by then–U.S. Attorney Alex Acosta, let Epstein plead guilty to state charges, serve just 13 months (with work release), and secured federal immunity not only for Epstein but for any unnamed “co-conspirators.” Bondi’s office, fully aware of the sweetheart terms, declined to pursue any state-level challenge.

Years later, she joined Trump’s administration as AG, the same Trump who rewarded Acosta with a Cabinet post during his first term, naming him Labor Secretary. The message was clear: protect the predator, and you’ll be promoted.

And let’s not forget who just got fired: Maurene Comey, daughter of James Comey and a key prosecutor in the Epstein and Maxwell cases. Coincidence? Sure. Just like it’s a coincidence that the DOJ’s memo now insists Epstein had no “client list,” no conspiracy, and definitely wasn’t murdered, while key evidence remains sealed and new court filings are deliberately designed to go nowhere.

And then there’s the now-infamous Sharpie birthday letter to Epstein, where Trump allegedly drew a naked woman and signed his name below the waist. Trump insists it’s not his “language,” even though he’s been caught on video using the word “enigma” (a key term from the letter) repeatedly. And never mind that this is the same man who once bragged about walking in on teenage girls changing at his pageants, because of course he doesn’t doodle.

This isn’t just about Trump being in the files. It’s about the staggering number of high-ranking officials, media figures, judges, and legal enablers willing to twist themselves into knots to make sure no one ever sees what’s in those files.

It’s about the sudden walk backs, the contradictory statements, the theatrical lawsuits, the sleight-of-hand filings. It’s about how this machine of power, not just political, but cultural, financial, and judicial, is circling the wagons around a man whose connection to Epstein is not just alleged, but documented.

The public backlash is growing, even among Trump’s own base. The same MAGA faithful who once flooded message boards with conspiracy theories about Epstein and the “client list” are now grappling with the reality that their guy may be the one holding the match over the pile of sealed documents. Elon Musk said as much. So did Sean Hannity, in his own passive-aggressive Fox News way. But the truth keeps coming, and still, the walls hold, for now.

This isn’t just about protecting Trump, it’s about protecting the system that lets Epstein thrive. The donors. The CEOs. The foreign royalty. The financiers. The judges. The enablers. The media figures who knew but didn’t say. The government officials who sat on files. The ones who showed up to the parties, cashed the checks, and looked the other way.

It was never about one man. It’s about the network that feeds off secrecy, silence, and the calculated degradation of the vulnerable. The only thing worse than what Trump might’ve done is the cold, coordinated effort to keep the public from ever knowing.

So yes, Trump’s name is in the Epstein files. But that’s not the biggest bombshell. The real story is how many people in high places were willing to burn down truth, law, and decency to keep it hidden.

Follow me at marygeddry.substack.com and @magixarc.bsky.social

#EpsteinFiles #PamBondi #AlexAcosta #DOJ

"Time is running out on the American experiment"

 

The deployment of FBI agents and National Guard forces to Washington D.C., and the (temporary) takeover of the Metropolitan Police Department—based on a non-existent dystopian crime epidemic (following the deployment of federal troops to Los Angeles, based on a related lie that illegal immigrants were menacing the city)—signifies we have by any definition attained the status of a police state.

Arriving atop the weight of Donald Trump’s weaponization of the Justice Department to investigate and prosecute his opponents—specifically Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Cal.), New York Attorney General Tish James, Judge Hannah Dugan, Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.), and former Trump aides Chris Krebs and Miles Taylor—we have crossed a legal Rubicon, one in which federal prosecutors could be refashioning into presidential inquisitors and the military into a roving band of shock troops.

“Trump’s use of the National Guard to subjugate local policing in Washington, D.C., comes straight out of a dictator’s playbook. Trump is preying upon people’s fears to mask another authoritarian power grab,” said Center for American Progress CEO Neera Tanden in a written statement. She stressed:

“Sending troops unnecessarily into an American city is a dangerous attack on the concept of local policing and distracts from the fact that his tariffs are hamstringing our economy and that his Justice Department is refusing to release the Epstein files as he’s long promised.”

Basing such unprecedented action on the blatant lie that crime in D.C. is soaring underscores that our democracy is under assault. To write this off as a “distraction” misses the danger of the moment; the potential for unbridled deployment of the military for domestic policing.

The notion that FBI and National Guard are required to round up fourteen-year-olds is preposterous, but Trump is playing on a well-worn racial stereotype just as he did in his infamous Central Park 5 screed: he is summoning the public to be afraid of young black and brown men.

As Sen. Andy Kim of New Jersey noted, “Trump's federalization of the DC Metro Police Department and deployment of the National Guard is an attempt to gaslight the American people so he can seize more power. It will do nothing to make us safer.”

Other Democrats, including the attorney general of D.C. Brian Schwalb, highlighted the “unprecedented, unnecessary, and unlawful” nature of the maneuver. Rep. Don Breyer (D-Va.) wrote “Donald Trump has personally incited more crime in Washington DC than perhaps anyone else living. . . . Trump’s announcement is an unserious and unacceptable publicity stunt.”

Unfortunately, Mayor Muriel Bowser’s mealy-mouthed response failed to demonstrate the leadership D.C. residents need. Worse, she met with Attorney General Pam Bondi, who praised the meeting as being “productive.” Legitimizing and earning kudos from a wannabe autocrat are inimical to preserving democracy and the rule of law.

Negotiating and complying with tyranny is never an acceptable option. It seems D.C. will have to rely on other voices to protect the city; pro-democracy voices beyond the limits of the capital must carry the torch for democracy and the rule of law to prevent the militarization of policing across the country. Meanwhile, the New York Times reported:

Several Democrats have said they plan to introduce bills or legislation to address Trump’s announcement. Representative Jamie Raskin, whose Maryland district includes Washington suburbs, said he would introduce a resolution to “reverse this plainly ridiculous state of local emergency” and restore local control to D.C.’s government.

Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton, D.C.’s non voting delegate, and Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland said they would reintroduce bills that would repeal the president’s authority to take temporary control of the D.C. police and give the city’s mayor authority over the D.C. National Guard.

We should take no solace from realization that Trump has not truly “federalized” D.C. (as home rule is protected by statute). Nor has he actually indicted his enemies (yet). But there is no guarantee he will stop short of these steps. Indeed, in the case of D.C., Trump specified this is a test case for other Democratic-run cities (including Los Angeles, New York, Oakland, and Baltimore) with Black mayors and a significant percentage of minority residents.

Even if the deployed forces do nothing, Trump’s D.C. move, including takeover of a municipal police department, is dangerous, threatens the rule of law, and bring us closer to a police state in which the military act on false pretenses to intimidate Trump’s foes. 

In flexing his muscles in defiance of facts (Who ya going to believe: me or the FBI’s crime statistics?), democratic norms, and the law (e.g., pursuing frivolous vengeance against his opponents) he is telling us he will not be constrained by reality or law, . He will make up facts at will and defy all restraints. In other words, he will be the dictator he promised to be on Day One, and has aspiring to be ever since.

Furthermore, as Trump has destroyed the Department of Justice’s credibility and integrity; its lawyers are now compelled to make junk arguments in defense of illegal actions and sidestep, if not violate, court orders. Likewise, he has sullied the image of the FBI, which is dragooned into serving as his Praetorian Guard and forced to disregard their oaths of office and professional obligations.

The Contrarian contributor Asha Rangappa, a former FBI special agent, notes that honorable, decent, competent FBI employees already have been fired or left. She writes:

For the last one hundred years, we have trusted the Justice Department and the President to prioritize these values, along with adherence to the rule of law, in lieu of enshrining them into law (Director Webster apparently tried to get Congress to establish a legislative charter for the Bureau, to no avail). Well, we now have a director who doesn’t value these things. And we have a President who doesn’t either.

The FBI, she argues, is “morphing, 117 years later, into the kind of nightmare national police force that Congress and the public feared the Bureau could turn into when it was first created in 1908, and which Director Webster and every other director made their mission not to let happen.”

Trump’s rule of terror, lawlessness, lies, and self-enrichment is only gaining steam. He does not bother to disguise his actions; the MAGA party does not dare cross him. With each passing day, we are getting closer and closer to embodying the characteristics of an authoritarian thugocracy.

The only solution is fighting everything, everywhere, all at once. Litigation may not always succeed, but both lawsuits, political action, and community engagement are essential to peaceful, mass organization and an overwhelming defeat for MAGA in 2026. Time is running out on the American experiment.

-Jennifer Rubin, The Contrarian

 

"The real numbers prove Trump is making us poorer and less productive—all the while feathering his own (garishly gold) nest"

“All new numbers,” boasted Donald Trump last week in the Oval Office, showing off brightly colored charts, the economic equivalent of the Sharpie-edited hurricane map from his first term. Whatever “data” (unpublished and unverified, the press duly noted) they rely on, Trump’s “new numbers” (like “alternate facts”) cannot be taken seriously. The real numbers don’t lie.

Trump’s firing of the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics followed by the amateur Oval Office show-and-tell were feeble attempts to cover up his economic failure. He has also tried changing the topic (e.g., making wild threats to investigate enemies; or suggesting grandiose plans to Trumpify the White House with a massive, gaudy ballroom more fitting for one of his bankrupted casinos). He has tried throwing red meat to his base (e.g., “disappearing” and abusing immigrants). However, his tactics are failing. He won’t fool the public suffering under his regime.

Trump vowed to lower prices. Instead, his tariffs (i.e. consumer taxes) will cost the average American family $2400 per year. Meanwhile, tariffs and the threat on inflation have prevented the Federal Reserve from lowering rates, costing billions in higher interest rates while slowing growth.

In addition, if Trump and his MAGA congressional allies allow the subsidies for the Affordable Care Act to expire, many American Families will be hit again:

A family of three earning $110,000 a year and enrolled in a silver ACA plan — which usually comes with moderate monthly premiums — could see their monthly cost jump from $779 this year to $1,446 in 2026 when the enhanced subsidies expire, according to KFF. If insurers raise premiums by 15%, the monthly bill could climb even higher, to $1,662.

Thanks to the big, ugly bill, energy costs will escalate. “Wholesale electricity prices will increase 19 percent by 2030 and 61 percent by 2035; wholesale electricity costs will balloon 56 percent and electricity rates paid by consumers will increase between 9-16 percent by 2035,” according to a nonpartisan think tank. “Household energy costs will increase $160 annually by 2030.” And to boot, the economy will lose 770,000 jobs by 2030.

But all this pain, Trump told us, would help create manufacturing jobs! (Donald Trump has an abnormal attachment to the 1950’s economy, although automation has shrunk this sector of the labor market). Nevertheless, the only thing Trump has yet created is uncertainty.

Despite his wild promises, The Wall Street Journal reported: “Economic activity tied to manufacturing has shrunk for most of Trump’s second term.” The outlook is bleak:

From March to July, U.S. manufacturing activity contracted, according to the Institute for Supply Management’s monthly survey. The Manufacturing PMI last registered at 48, below the 50 score that differentiates growth and decline.

The effective average tariff rate on all imported goods now stands at roughly 18% versus 2.3% last year, the highest levels since the 1930s. . .. The sector lost a total of about 26,000 jobs in May and June, and another preliminary estimate of 11,000 jobs in July.

Empty promises from major companies and foreign countries to invest in the U.S. may fool Trump, but few others. It is hard to increase manufacturing with heavy tariffs on aluminum, steel, copper, and other component parts. Credible economists explain that the tariffs are almost certainly not going to result in re-shoring manufacturing. 

For one thing, “the unpredictability of Trump’s trade wars still makes it impossible for companies to decide on big capital commitments, like moving a factory from Asia to the U.S.” Consumers are also uneasy, reducing demand for big-ticket items.

To recap: Trump’s policies are dramatically raising key household costs, including healthcare, while job growth has ground to a standstill, interest rates are frozen, and the manufacturing sector is bleeding jobs. A foreign power could not have devastated the economy this effectively.

And matters will get much worse if Trump so unsettles the international economic system that capital takes flight from the U.S. and U.S. dollar loses its status as the world’s reserve currency. As Ryan Cooper put it:

How is the world supposed to trust a nation degenerate enough to elect an ultra-corrupt lunatic who is tearing up the global trade system designed by and for America itself—twice? If Trump is willing to threaten wars of conquest against two separate NATO allies (Canada and Denmark), who knows who else he might sanction? ….

It’s not so much Trump’s deficits that are the core of the problem, but rather how his election and behavior have shaken global faith in America itself.

Trump’s cruel, chaotic, and counterproductive immigration policies only deepen our economic troubles. His economic illiteracy and the efforts to divert our focus make things worse. Depriving America of productive workers and consumers (and the taxes they pay into Social Security and Medicare) is a recipe for shrinking the economy, driving up prices, and expanding the debt. Moreover, with each new city he targets, Trump touches off an economic meltdown.

According to a study put out by the University of California at Merced, the ICE raids caused a drop of 3.1% in the state workforce. This amounts to “roughly 465,000 fewer Californians reporting having worked during the week of escalated immigration enforcement.” Another study estimated California was looking at a $275B loss to its economy. That’s the sort of wreckage one might expect from a pandemic (Trump 1.0), not from the deliberate policies of the president.

Virtually every dictatorial, vengeful move Trump undertakes, even if not directed at the economy, will likely weaken our already fragile system.

· Retract hundreds of millions in funding, grants, and other research contracts at universities and bar foreign students from attending? The U.S. will lose its scientific, medical, and technological edge, allowing China to dominate international markets.

· Hire a crackpot vaccine skeptic to head the Department of Health and Human Services? Our cutting-edge mRNA research goes down the drain, and the risks of another paralyzing pandemic rise—with devastating impact on the economy.

· Let DOGE mindlessly slash government programs? Our air-traffic control system deteriorates and our weather service early warning network collapses.

· Bully allies and move toward a police state? Foreign tourism dwindles and international fans may stay away from the World Cup and Olympics, at the cost of billions of dollars.

Trump’s erratic, authoritarian reign of terror and cruelty damages democracy, destroys communities, and inflicts pain on Americans. But his lunacy makes his economic performance that much worse.

So let’s dispense with any further discussion of “new numbers.” The real numbers prove Trump is making us poorer and less productive—all the while feathering his own (garishly gold) nest.

The Contrarian is reader-supported. To join us in the fight to oppose tyranny—in the court of law and court of public opinion—please join our community as a free or paid subscriber.

 

"If you're dreading the end of Windows 10 in October, you're not alone"

 

One man from San Diego is taking Microsoft to court over its choice to discontinue Windows 10, claiming that Microsoft is forcing people to buy new devices and attempting to "monopolize the generative AI market." The plaintiff, Lawrence Klein, argues that Microsoft should continue supporting Windows 10, free of charge, until Windows 10 users make up 10% or less of all Windows users.

Klein's complaint, filed in San Diego, states, "Microsoft’s stratagem was to use its dominant position in the OS market to achieve a dominant position in the market for generative AI. It did this by forcing customers to purchase new devices (or face financial repercussions if they did not) and running Windows 11, thereby ensuring a large user base that would access this product by default."

The complaint goes on to highlight the risks of discontinuing Windows 10: "With only three months until support ends for Windows 10, it is likely that many millions of users will not buy new devices or pay for extended support. These users—some of whom are businesses storing sensitive consumer data—will be at a heightened risk of a cyberattack or other data security incident, a reality of which Microsoft is well aware."

According to Klein's complaint, as of April 2025 Windows 10 users account for approximately 52.94% of all Windows users. While Windows 11 adoption is on the rise, it was only over the past year or so that it started to really gain ground, most likely because of Microsoft's push to remind everyone that it's discontinuing Windows 10 in October.

While Microsoft is technically offering "free" upgrades to Windows 11 for current Windows 10 users, accessibility is dependent on your hardware. Klein's complaint estimates that some 240 million or more devices will become obsolete in October simply because they don't meet the hardware requirements to upgrade to Windows 11. Forcing people to throw away those devices just to buy new ones capable of running Windows 11 would result in a massive amount of e-waste that could be reduced if people could continue safely using Windows 10.

Klein describes Microsoft's push to force Windows 11 adoption as "a campaign to get consumers to ditch their older but perfectly functional Windows 10 devices and purchase Copilot+ PCs capable of running Microsoft’s AI software."

His complaint points out how unusual this strategy is even by Microsoft's own standards. Historically, Microsoft has allowed 7 to 8 years for people to transition from one version of Windows to the next, but in this case is forcing that switch to happen only 4 years after releasing Windows 11.

Klein even takes aim at the reasons for slow adoption, stating, "Windows 11 is wildly unpopular, and absent the forced obsolescence, many Windows users simply would not upgrade to Windows 11. Windows 11 does not present many enticing features that warrant an upgrade, and consumers do not find the new interface appealing. Microsoft has been unwilling to take consumer preference into account when designing or updating Windows 11 because as the dominant firm in the OS market it does not have to."

To address all of these issues, Klein is requesting that the court step in to ensure Microsoft ends misleading advertising around Windows 10, clearly discloses the consequences of discontinuing support for Windows 10, and communicates transparently about alternative security options for those who want to continue using Windows 10.

Klein's team is also asking the court to require Microsoft to continue Windows 10 updates at no additional cost until usage drops below 10% of all Windows users. For his own part, Klein is only asking for attorney's fees.

This case likely won't get resolved either way before October 14, when Windows 10 support officially ends. Microsoft isn't going to give up easily on this one, either, so Klein and his attorneys are likely in for a challenging legal battle.

                                                              ******

End of support for Windows 10 is October 14, 2025

If you're among the millions of users still on Windows 10 and concerned about the upcoming end of support (October 14, 2025), here's a breakdown of your options: 

1. Upgrade to Windows 11 (Recommended)

Free Upgrade: If your PC meets the minimum system requirements for Windows 11, you can upgrade for free through Windows Update.

Benefits: Windows 11 offers enhanced security, a refreshed interface, and new features.

Check Compatibility: Use the free PC Health Check app to see if your device is eligible for the upgrade.

Backup Data: It's recommended to back up your files, photos, and settings before upgrading, according to Microsoft Support. 

2. Utilize the Extended Security Update (ESU) program

Temporary Security: If upgrading to Windows 11 isn't immediately feasible (e.g., due to hardware incompatibility or needing more time to prepare), you can enroll in the Windows 10 ESU program for a year of continued security updates until October 13, 2026.

Cost: The ESU program costs $30 for individuals, but you might be eligible for free enrollment options like syncing PC settings to OneDrive or redeeming 1,000 Microsoft Rewards points.

Limitations: ESU only provides security updates; it doesn't include technical support, feature updates, or design change requests. 

3. Purchase a new Windows 11 PC

Modern Computing Experience: This is an excellent option if your current device doesn't meet Windows 11's requirements or you desire a new device with enhanced performance and features.

Explore Options: Microsoft and its partners offer a wide range of new PCs equipped with Windows 11. 

4. Switch to a different operating system (Alternative)

Consider Linux: For users with older hardware incompatible with Windows 11, switching to a Linux distribution like Zorin OS or Ubuntu can be a viable option, providing a secure and potentially faster experience on older machines.

Learn More: ZDNET highlights that Linux can give old computers a new life.

Test Before Committing: You can try out different Linux distros on a virtual machine to get comfortable with the interface before migrating your primary system. 

Risks of Continuing with Unsupported Windows 10: Using Windows 10 after October 14, 2025, without ESU enrollment, exposes your PC to security vulnerabilities, potential malware, and lack of technical support.

Microsoft Account for ESU: To enroll in the consumer ESU program, you will need to sign in with a Microsoft account, regardless of whether you choose the paid or free options.

Office Suite Compatibility: Support for non-subscription versions of Office (2016 and 2019) will end with Windows 10, according to Microsoft Support. 

In essence, Microsoft strongly encourages users to upgrade to Windows 11 for the best and most secure computing experience. If that's not immediately possible, enrolling in the ESU program provides a temporary solution to maintain security, but planning a migration path to a supported operating system remains critical. 

 

A Tough Week for the Rule of Law

 

I don’t want to depress everyone, but I believe in being a realist. And it hasn’t been a great week in America. Here’s just a partial list of things within the scope of our law/politics lens that have happened:

• Trump’s Justice Department is on a revenge-fueled spate of new activities. According to people who “could not publicly discuss details of the investigation and spoke to The Associated Press on Friday on the condition of anonymity,” Pam Bondi has assigned Ed Martin, the failed DC-U.S. Attorney nominee who now works in Main Justice (although he has no prior prosecutorial experience), to oversee criminal mortgage fraud investigations into New York AG Tish James and California Senator Adam Schiff.
• DOJ policy prohibits disclosing investigations, except in very limited situations, for reasons we’ve discussed over the years. The apparent use of anonymous cutouts to inform the public that two Democratic political figures who have, coincidentally, tangled with Trump are being investigated is a rank effort to tarnish their reputations. (And so reminiscent of Trump, who has repeatedly asked for investigations to be announced—for example, in his call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that led to his first impeachment, or his request that DOJ announce an investigation into voter fraud following the 2020 election so he could take it from there.)
• If these cases were viable, you’d expect to see them being investigated by the offices where alleged crimes occurred. DOJ also seems to be investigating James’ investigation into Trump—the one that resulted in his criminal convictions in New York state court. Her lawyer, Abbe Lowell, called it “the most blatant and desperate example of this administration carrying out the president’s political retribution campaign.” Schiff’s attorney, Preet Bharara (who, full disclosure, I co-host Cafe’s Insider Podcast with), attacked the allegations against the Senator as “transparently false, stale, and long debunked,” and called Martin “brazenly partisan.” None of this is normal.

• Usually, the government is extremely slow to respond to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, and frequently, the answer is that the information is privileged and can’t be disclosed. So when employees at American embassies in Denmark and Greenland were directed to provide information that could be used in a FOIA request—including both official and personal communications involving Donald Trump’s crazy proposal that Greenland should become part of the U.S., Trump Jr.’s one-day visit to Greenland, and any communications containing the name “Trump”—there was concern that some kind of loyalty purge was underway. This is not normal.
• A 2-1 decision in the D.C. Circuit has deprived Judge Boasberg of jurisdiction to proceed with his inquiry into whether Trump administration officials should be held in criminal contempt for violating his orders and sending 130 Venezuelan men to CECOT prison in El Salvador in March. The two judges in the majority, Gregory Katsas and Neomi Rao, are both Trump appointees to a court that has long been a feeder court to the U.S. Supreme Court. That decision could be reheard by the entire circuit sitting en banc, or an appeal to SCOTUS could be attempted.
• But for now, the contempt proceeding—this is the case where the government’s best has been that they didn’t have to comply with the Judge’s order because their planes were out of U.S. airspace before he entered it in writing—will end without additional action against government lawyers. The dissenting judge, Obama appointee Cornelia Pillard, wrote that the majority’s decision was legally unjustified and “a grave disservice” to Judge Boasberg, who the Trump administration has gone after with an ethics complaint.
• Federal judges should not whitewash the government’s disgraceful behavior in the case involving the deportees, unless they intend to cede all the power of the Article III branch of government, the judiciary, to the Article II branch, the presidency. It’s the judiciary’s job to sanction any party that violates court orders, including the White House, and if they won’t, there is no one else who can.
• Craziness in Texas continues, with the aggressive political use of redistricting. Shortly after Texas Democratic state legislators left the state for places like Illinois in hopes of denying Republicans the opportunity to pass a plan that would gerrymander the state’s congressional map and produce more Republican members of Congress in the 2026 election, the state's Republican attorney general, Ken Paxton, went to court to try to remove some of them from office.
• This is rank political maneuvering, from the gerrymandering effort itself to the jostling over which Texas politician can be the toughest on the Democrats. Paxton can’t decide if he hates Democrat Beto O’Rourke or Republican Senator John Cornyn more. All of this looks like a beauty pageant designed to see who can win Donald Trump’s vote for a turn in the national limelight.

There is so much more. For one thing, Ghislaine Maxwell, convicted child sexual predator, is in a prison camp in a minimum-security environment instead of in prison where she belongs. Sex offenders don’t qualify for these camp facilities, and it’s a slap in the face to victims. The administration controls Maxwell’s conditions of confinement, which means Donald Trump can decide where she is held. She’s learned the lesson. Her improved circumstances are not only not normal for a sex offender, but they violate Bureau of Prisons regulations. Her move would have required a waiver from someone very high up in the Justice Department. No confirmation yet on who that was. The bottom line is that this administration continues to cross over red lines that signal a functioning democracy.

There’s a lot to keep track of and, as we’ve discussed before, it can get overwhelming. Right now, it’s a full-time job just trying to keep up with the headlines. We are doing our best here, and we’ll continue to do that.

But it was jarring, given all the news today, to walk through La Guardia airport where everything felt…normal. We can lose this democracy if we don’t fight for it.

In order to resist what Trump is doing in our country, you need to be informed; you need to know what’s at stake. Even in a week like this one, when it’s gut-wrenching to try and take in what the Trump administration is doing, it’s our duty to witness it, to share what we learn with others, to resist, to refuse to give up.

We’ll keep doing that. We are not fighting the fight to preserve democracy alone; we are doing it in the company of other patriots—true patriots, not fake ones. Every small step we take counts. Some weeks are going to be difficult and full of bad news, but other weeks, if we persevere, will be ones where we make progress. Don’t give up.

In times like these, knowledge truly is power. Subscribe to Civil Discourse and get clear, reliable insight into the law and politics shaping our future—so you’re not in the dark when it matters the most.

We’re in this together,

-Joyce Vance

 

Wildfire smoke is like smoking half a pack a day. Here's how to protect yourself

 

Smoke from Canadian wildfires continued to prompt air quality alerts Monday in the Northeast U.S. as well as the Upper Midwest. Michigan saw a statewide air quality advisory on Monday, and while Minnesota is seeing some relief, the wildfire smoke is persisting in Wisconsin and spreading across New York, Vermont and Maine.

Canada is experiencing its second-worst wildfire season on record, according to government data. There have been nearly 4,000 fires recorded already this calendar year. Exposure to wildfire smoke is a growing health problem across the country, as human-caused climate change increases the risk and intensity of wildfires and the smoke that can drift thousands of miles downwind from them.

Here's what you need to know about the health risks — and how to protect yourself.

The health risks of breathing wildfire smoke

May-Lin Wilgus, a pulmonologist and professor at UCLA, compares breathing wildfire smoke to smoking cigarettes — a lot of cigarettes. Scientists track air quality with the air quality index, or AQI, which incorporates different pollution sources like ozone and fine particulates. Many scientists don't think there's a "safe" AQI level because the measurement doesn't capture many harmful pollutants, but under 50 is often considered acceptable. Higher numbers indicate more health-damaging pollution in the air.

 Monday, August 4, the AQI in Detroit was at least 159. On a smoky day, when AQI levels reach 100 to 200, "the exposure to the fine particulate matter, the air pollution, is similar to smoking a quarter to half a pack a day," Wilgus says.

That exposure takes a toll on a healthy person. But it is particularly harmful for those with preexisting health issues, Wilgus adds. Emergency room visits for respiratory issues like asthma and COPD increase dramatically during wildfire smoke events, as much as doubling in some cases. During the Canadian wildfires in 2023, when smoke wafted across much of the U.S., emergency room visits for asthma increased by nearly 20%.

Smoke exposure can also worsen other medical conditions. Emergency departments see more cardiovascular related visits after smoky days. And a growing body of research suggests smoke exposure is linked to long-term impacts such as a higher risk of developing dementia.

Overall, air quality has improved in the U.S. over the past 20 years, says Tarik Benmarhnia, a climate and health scientist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego. But wildfire smoke is erasing many of those gains.

"Just maybe like 10 years ago, wildfire was an exceptional issue. It was something that happens once in a lifetime for most people," he says. But climate change has increased the chance of wildfires across many parts of the country and the intensity of many of the burns themselves and the smoke they produce. "This is unfortunately not the first one and not the last one the people in Los Angeles are going to be experiencing," Benmarhnia says.

Life Kit explains.

The dangers of breathing wildfire smoke 

Wildfires burn at extremely high temperatures, which makes their ash more toxic than other pollution, such as car exhaust. But in many cases, including during these ongoing fires, it's not just trees and organic matter that burn. Homes, cars and other materials go up in flames, too, adding potentially harmful particles to the pollution load.

"It's just a toxic soup," says Lisa Miller, a wildfire smoke expert at the University of California, Davis. "Think of all the synthetic fibers that are present in your living room — in your couch, in your carpet, in your clothes. All those things can be particularly toxic" if they go up in smoke, she says.

Higher risks for some people

Wildfire smoke is hazardous for everyone, but it's especially dangerous for some people, including children and older adults, pregnant people and anyone with preexisting health problems.

First responders and firefighters are exposed to the worst of the smoke. A 2019 study found that heavy, repeated smoke exposure among wildland firefighters is linked with higher risks of lung cancer and cardiovascular disease. Children can be especially vulnerable, doctors say, because they breathe in more air — and therefore more smoke — relative to their body size.

Pregnant people should also take care, says Miller. There's growing evidence that wildfire smoke exposure is linked with higher chances of preterm birth and lower birth weights, an outcome sometimes linked with health issues later in life. Older people and those with preexisting health problems like heart issues are also at higher risk. The Shots Blog breaks down advice for how to protect people who are more at risk from wildfire smoke.

How to protect yourself from wildfire smoke 

"If you can smell smoke, those are times to limit your exposure as much as possible," says Wilgus. She says the best way to protect yourself is to leave the area and get outside the range of the wildfire smoke, if possible.

If that's not an option, she suggests staying indoors with the windows tightly shut. Limit your physical activity. Run an air filter if you have one. If you have to go outside, consider wearing an N95 mask, which effectively blocks most tiny particles from getting into your lungs if worn correctly.

No level of exposure to wildfire smoke is completely safe, says Miller. But toxicologists have a saying, she says: "The dose makes the poison. It's about how much, and how long, you're exposed." That means everything you can do to limit the dose, she says, helps protect you.

Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect the current wildfire smoke conditions in the U.S. The original story was published Jan. 8, 2025.

For more tips, check out Life Kit's guide.

NPR, by Alejandra Borunda & Julia Simon