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Even Fox News struggled to put a positive spin on a dismal July jobs report, as the U.S. economy lost 23,000 jobs that month.

“Again, a disappointing jobs report,” Fox Business’s Lauren Simonetti said on Morning’s with Maria on Friday. “DOW Futures way up, doubling where they were before.”

“23,000 jobs lost in the month of July,” Maria Bartiromo continued before turning to investor Louis Navellier. “Louis, you wanted a weak report and you got it. Was this too weak?”

Many of the jobs lost were in local government and leisure and hospitality—real jobs that real people who are already dealing with slowed wages and rising inflation work. Instead of focusing on their material reality, Navellier framed the weak jobs report as good because massive corporations like Palantir were still benefitting.

“When Palantir announced their earnings, they basically had record earnings by decreasing their sales force,” he said. “So there’s this AI productivity boom underway … this is great news, that’s why the market’s up … so this is great news. Obviously a lot of people disappeared from the workforce.”

The rest of the segment continued to ignore the real world implications of 23,000 lost jobs in the month of July, especially paired with high gas prices and tariff-based inflation. And while the unemployment rate fell 0.1 percent, that is due to people leaving the workforce entirely, not getting new jobs.

President Trump, ever-sensitive to negative jobs reports, has yet to comment.

LMAO -- Maria Bartiromo and company pivoted *instantly* from "this is a disappointing jobs report" to "this is great news. It's why the market is up." pic.twitter.com/u1uHrTKiOr

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 7, 2026

SpaceX and Tesla are building a massive semiconductor fab in Texas that will depend on natural gas power plants, not Tesla solar panels.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth recently told Congress that the US government has spent an estimated $37.5 billion to date on the Iran war and requested an additional $67 billion in emergency funding. 

But there are several hidden costs that don’t factor into Hegseth’s accounting—ones that the rest of us are actually paying.

Produced by David Ritsher

The most obvious example is increased fuel prices. As of this writing, Americans have already paid more than $75 billion in additional gasoline and diesel costs—more than $570 per household—since the war began, according to a live tracker from Brown University’s Climate Solutions Lab.

The jump in fuel prices has raised the cost of airline tickets, and delivery fees for Amazon, UPS, FedEx and the US Postal Service have gone up as much as 8 percent. Because trucks carry more than 70 percent of goods in the US, higher diesel prices affect almost everything on store shelves, including groceries.

Oil is used to make plastics and petrochemicals, so higher prices are already starting to work their way into the cost of everything from stuffed animals, diapers, and baby wipes to crayons, bottled water, soft drinks, and clothing.

And because K-12 schools in the US spend more than $8 billion a year on energy—their second-largest expense after teacher salaries—rising utility costs will likely strain already-stressed public schools.

The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has also caused the price of fertilizer to skyrocket. About 70 percent of US farmers said they were unable to afford all the fertilizer they need, according to a survey by the American Farm Bureau Federation. In the US, that will likely eventually mean higher food prices. In other parts of the world, the UN is warning that the war in Iran is driving historic levels of global hunger. The head of the World Food Programme recently said the organization is being forced to “take from the hungry to give to the starving.”

Of course, the impact of the cost in human life is incalculable. At least 18 US service members have been killed and more than 100 wounded. In Iran alone, human rights groups have documented at least 1,700 civilian deaths, with the regional toll likely thousands more.

Ultimately, the cost of the war doesn’t end when the last shot is fired. Veterans will draw care and disability payments for decades. Historically, these costs don’t peak until 30 to 40 years after a war ends. Meanwhile, US weapons stockpiles will need replenishing and American facilities in the Middle East—damages to which are reportedly more extensive than the Trump administration has acknowledged—will need to be rebuilt. 

Taken all together, $37.5 billion isn’t anywhere near a final number. It’s more like a down payment—one that all of us are making.

A Scottish NHS trust is investigating a data breach concerning the medical records of a nine-year-old girl who died earlier this week and was named publicly for the first time on Wednesday after a man was charged with her death. The alleged breach occurred at Ninewells Hospital in Arbroath, and reportedly involved staff members accessing the girl’s medical records without authorization or clinical need. A spokesperson for NHS Tayside, which oversees Ninewells Hospital, said: “NHS Tayside is currently investigating the circumstances of an alleged data breach which happened in a working clinical area where staff access patient information. “As a matter of governance, any data protection breach would be recorded and investigated by NHS Tayside and, where appropriate, reported to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). It would not be appropriate for us to comment further on individual staffing matters." NHS Tayside did not respond to questions about the nature of the accessed data nor who is thought to be behind the intrusion. Medical records in the UK are protected by the UK GDPR, contained in the Data Protection Act 2018 as well as several common law confidentiality rules. NHS staff are only allowed to access patient information where there is a legitimate clinical or other work-related need. A 35-year-old man whom police say was known to the child, was arrested and appeared in court on August 5 over the death of Minnie Merriman. The man issued no plea at Forfar Sheriff Court on the day of his arrest and has been remanded in custody. Merriman was found in Elliot Industrial Estate at approximately 0002 on Monday, August 3, with serious injuries. The young girl was then taken to Ninewells Hospital in Dundee, where she later died. Police Scotland said that they are not currently looking for anyone else in connection with her death. Other members of Merriman’s family, who are from West Yorkshire and were camping nearby, are being supported by specialists. A family statement, released through Police Scotland, read: “We are devastated with the loss of our beloved, absolutely incredible, beautiful and brave Minnie Moo. Our family asks that our privacy is respected at this extremely difficult time." Detective Inspector Mike Ness of Police Scotland’s major investigation team said: "Our thoughts remain with everyone affected by these events, especially Minnie's family. "A police presence will remain in the area while our enquiries continue. "Anyone with any concerns, or information, should approach these officers or contact Police Scotland on 101, quoting incident number 0008 of Monday, 3 August 2026." ®

Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski announced Friday that she would not support acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s nomination to permanently take on the role.

Murkowski laid out her concerns that, as head of the Department of Justice, Blanche would fail to check the Trump administration’s “worst impulses.”

“The politicization—even weaponization—of the Department did not start with this administration but has accelerated during it,” she wrote in a statement. “I take issue with the handling of the release of the Epstein files; the sweeping immunity protections granted to the President, his family, and their businesses; the statements that have been made to anti-abortion groups; and the repeated targeting of individuals ranging from former administration staff to sitting U.S. Senators.”

Then Murkowski called Blanche’s bluff about Donald Trump’s so-called “anti-weaponization fund.” The Alaska Republican claimed that the money was clearly headed for January 6 rioters, and was “only off the table because this nomination is pending and the Senate has leverage.”

“Once we vote, that will end, and there is no telling what the future holds,” she wrote.

Murkowski joins Maine Senator Susan Collins in opposing Blanche’s nomination. Now, all eyes are on Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, whose vote could sink Blanche’s confirmation. Cassidy has voiced his concerns about lawfare at the Department of Justice, and been an outspoken critic of Trump’s $1.8 billion slush fund. Blanche met with Murkowski and Cassidy on Capitol Hill Wednesday, but it was clearly not enough to convince at least Murkowski.

If Cassidy refuses to support Blanche before the August recess, he would still continue to serve as acting Attorney General. But the failure would represent a major blow to Trump’s grip on Republicans.

The Trump administration just managed to combine two of its favorite things into one horrifying Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup of Garbage: hurting migrant children and showering unqualified cronies with taxpayer dollars. And unsurprisingly, everyone except those cronies is going to come out far, far worse. Meet Texas-based Burke Law Group, which now has $150 million to represent unaccompanied…

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An endorsement from President Donald Trump wasn’t enough for Republican Representative Andy Ogles, who lost his primary election in Tennessee Thursday night.

Former state agricultural commissioner Charlie Hatcher, who won endorsements from Tennessee Governor Bill Lee, former Governor Bill Haslam, and other Republicans such as former Trump Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, was able to take advantage of better fundraising and ad spending. 

But a key factor in the race was Tennessee’s newly redrawn congressional districts, which state Republicans pushed through after the Supreme Court’s April ruling gutting the Voting Rights Act. Tennessee used to have one majority-Black district, its 9th congressional district, but that was broken apart and absorbed into the state’s other majority-Republican districts, including Ogles’s 5th district. In Thursday’s primary, 82 percent of the district’s voters were newly added.  

Ogles has faced a myriad of scandals and controversies in office. He claimed earlier this year that “Muslims don’t belong in American society,” he’s faced ethics concerns over how he handled campaign funds, he’s lied about his college education, and he raised money to build a garden for his stillborn child that was never built. 

Two years ago, the FBI even executed a search warrant on Ogles related to his financial misdeeds, seizing his phone in the process. In May this year, however, Trump’s Department of Justice signaled that it was wrapping up the probe, doing Ogles a solid in time for the midterms. Ultimately, it didn’t win Ogles any favors from his new constituents, who sent him packing. 

Here’s what’s happening on Santa Cruz County roads this morning…

▼︎ new incidents

Road incidents as of 6 a.m. on August 7

• Highway 9 at Cascade Avenue in the San Lorenzo Valley has one-way traffic due to ongoing work. This closure is expected to last until Aug. 31.
   
• Alternating lanes are closed on Highway 9 at Riverdale Park in the San Lorenzo Valley because of bridge work. The closure is expected to last until April 30, 2027.

Disclosure: Traffic incidents are partially generated by artificial intelligence. We are constantly working to improve the accuracy and quality of our AI-generated content. However, there may still be errors or inaccuracies. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us.

The post Friday morning traffic: Highway 9 lane closures in San Lorenzo Valley appeared first on Lookout Santa Cruz.

Conservatives who have long pushed for Medicaid work requirements often said vulnerable people would get a pass. But the federal government’s list of exemptions left off homeless people. By Katheryn Houghton for KFF Tywon Pugh has seizures that make it hard to find and keep a job. “They called me a ‘liability to the job site,’” Pugh said, recalling the words of his manager when…

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Microsoft is killing Live chat in Teams about 18 months after launch as it seeks to "focus investments on newer customer engagement and communication experiences." The service will be retired on October 5, when customer messages will stop reaching Teams. Microsoft blocked new setups on August 6 and told users to remove the widget from their websites before retirement. Any remaining instances will be hidden afterward. Live chat was a relatively simple feature available with the Teams versions of Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Standard, and Premium. Companies embedded a chat widget on their websites, and messages from visitors were routed to a support team in Teams. Administrators could specify business hours and assign up to 25 users to handle conversations. Existing customer data and Teams channels will remain available, but no new conversations, escalations, or interactions will be possible. Microsoft pointed customers toward Dynamics 365 Contact Center with Live Chat and Copilot Studio's contact center AI tools instead. In March 2025, it was all going to be very different as Microsoft trumpeted the service's arrival. Brenna Robinson, General Manager, Microsoft 365 & Copilot, Small and Medium Business, wrote: "Today we're excited to take that customer experience to a new level with the introduction of live chat in Microsoft Teams – a faster and more engaging way for you to connect with your customers." Robinson has since become Microsoft's General Manager for AI Business Solutions. Live chat, meanwhile, has been wheeled into the Raiders of the Lost Ark-style warehouse where Microsoft stores everything that once seemed like a good idea. Microsoft has axed several Teams services over the last few months. In February, it announced the end of Teams live events, replaced by a Teams "events experience." The Teams Together mode, which placed users in a virtual meeting space, was also ditched. Live chat is another casualty of Microsoft's efforts to tidy Teams' unwieldy collection of features. The company has not elaborated on those "newer customer engagement and communication experiences," although its recommendation of Copilot Studio means AI is already waiting in the wings. ®

A cartoon by David Horsey. Related | Wildfire veterans fear federal tactics, extreme fires could put crews at risk…

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TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 is built around one question: How do you build an enduring company in the AI era? Our programming and speaker lineup reflect that.

Meta's total fine has raked up to $942 million in this case

US defense and aerospace supplier IEH Corporation 'fessed up that a criminal managed to break into its Microsoft 365 mailbox in a filing with regulators. In a Form 8-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday, IEH said one of its staffers fell for a phishing scam that gave an attacker access to its M365 environment. The attacker "impersonated a prospective business contact" and sent the employee what appeared to be a genuine Microsoft sharing link. The accompanying fake login page duly harvested the victim's M365 credentials. "The threat actor gained access to mailbox contents, including email messages, attachments, customer communications, purchase orders, engineering-related documentation, and potentially export-controlled technical information," IEH said in the SEC filing [PDF]. IEH said it had found "no evidence" that the information was copied or exfiltrated, although it was accessible to the intruder during the "compromise period." IEH said it discovered the intrusion on August 4 but did not disclose when the compromised account was first accessed or how long the intruder remained inside. "The account was secured, malicious mailbox rules were disabled, evidence was preserved, and corrective actions are underway," it said. "Following containment and investigation activities, the company initiated a review of account security controls and authentication protections applicable to Microsoft 365 services." The incident has not disrupted operations, and IEH does not expect it to have a material impact, although the investigation continues. The absence of detected exfiltration does not mean the intruder merely browsed the inbox and left. Compromised mailboxes can be used to monitor communications, impersonate employees, redirect payments, or prepare follow-on attacks, while data theft is not always visible in Microsoft 365 logs. There is not enough information to attribute the attack. IEH's work for defense and aerospace customers could make it an attractive espionage target, but ordinary cybercriminals also compromise mailboxes for fraud and data theft. Both Russia and China have been caught snooping around US orgs for defense-related information in the past year, although there is nothing to suggest either was behind the attack on IEH. Brooklyn-based IEH makes hyperboloid connectors designed for harsh and high-stress environments. Its components are used in printed circuit boards, medical devices, commercial aircraft, fighter jets, missiles, satellites, and other systems. Some of the high profile US programs that use IEH's hyperboloid connectors include the PATRIOT air-defense system, AMRAAM, THAAD, the APKWS precision-guided rocket, and the MARK-48 torpedo. ®

This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.

The German energy company RWE has reached a $1.22 billion deal with the US government to relinquish its offshore wind leases and instead redirect funds towards fossil fuel investments.

The agreement marks the fifth deal the Donald Trump administration has struck with energy companies, offering payouts in exchange for abandoning renewable energy projects and redirecting investment towards fossil fuels.

This latest deal takes it to almost $4 billion of taxpayer money spent on killing offshore wind projects.

Announcing the deal with the US Interior Department on Thursday, RWE said it had agreed to give up its offshore wind leases off the coasts of New York, California, and Louisiana. “After careful consideration, it was determined there is no path forward to permit these projects in the US for the foreseeable future,” the company said, referring to the leases it initially secured with a “long-term commitment to develop offshore wind capacity.”

The administration has also spent up to $1.1 billion to boost coal, which critics say is “fattening the wallets of his cronies.”

RWE paid $1.1 billion for its New York lease in a 2022 auction held by the Biden administration, while its leases in Louisiana and California cost a combined $163 million, Reuters reports.

“The settlement resolves RWE US Offshore’s legal claims and provides $1.22 billion in settlement funds,” RWE continued, adding that the deal would allow it to “direct resources toward energy projects that can be advanced with certainty.”

As part of the agreement, RWE will spend $900 million to acquire a 16 percent stake in an unnamed Louisiana liquified natural gas (LNG) project. The company said the settlement proceeds would be used to fund construction of the terminal.

RWE has also signed a $300 million turbine reservation agreement under which it will develop a pipeline of 15 natural gas peaker plants across the country.

The interior secretary, Doug Burgum, hailed the deal, saying on Thursday: “We welcome RWE’s agreement and voluntary investment in projects that strengthen our nation’s energy security, provide dependable baseload power, and help keep electricity affordable for hardworking Americans today while supporting our country’s long-term energy future.”

The RWE agreement appears to be the largest deal the Trump administration has struck with an energy company to kill clean energy projects. Earlier agreements with other companies, including TotalEnergies and Duke Energy, amounted to $2.7 billion in taxpayer money.

Following the Trump administration’s $928 million deal with French energy company TotalEnergies to cancel its offshore wind lease off the coast of New York, seven states, including New York, sued the administration over what the New York attorney general, Letitia James, described as a “sham deal” and “illegal agreement.”

The administration has also spent up to $1.1 billion to boost coal, a move critics argue is “fattening the wallets of his cronies” while raising working Americans’ energy bills, particularly as the US’s war on Iran drives up fuel prices.

At the same time, the federal government is seeking to slash public input periods for fossil fuel drilling on federal lands while shifting more of the financial risks of cleanup to taxpayers.

Meanwhile, a report released last fall by the Environmental Integrity Project found that every fully operational LNG facility in the US had violated federal pollution limits in recent years.

According to the nonprofit research organization, violations included the discharge of illegal amounts of bacteria, zinc, oil, and other pollutants into waterways, as well as failures of terminal managers to submit monitoring reports for waterway discharge.

In 2019, Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) denounced a “stealth anti-immigration campaign” by the first Trump administration. Through a combination of high-profile policy changes like the travel ban on foreigners from Muslim-majority countries and less visible administrative tweaks, a report from the senator comprehensively documented that the Republican president “surreptitiously remade” the immigration system to fulfill a “perverse vision that erases the existence of immigrants in the United States.”

As it turns out, that was only the beginning. Now, seven years later, the second Trump administration has expanded those “under the radar” attacks against the entire US immigration system, as the senator again details in a follow-up report shared exclusively with Mother Jones. Those efforts, the report says, have “destabilized lawful presence, expanded enforcement, and reengineered adjudication to accelerate and prioritize removal.”

“This report shines a light on Trump’s cruel project to dismantle due process, strip immigrants of their lawful status, and turn our immigration courts into deportation machines,” Sen. Markey told Mother Jones. “The Trump administration must be held accountable for its attacks on our immigrant neighbors.”

The report reveals an administration that is pulling all levers to completely reorient the immigration system—including the elements that had been intended to support immigrants. The sweeping goal appears to be destabilizing the lives of noncitizens in the United States and boosting deportations. “Refugee admissions have effectively stalled, humanitarian protections have been withdrawn or narrowed, work authorization has become more tenuous, and avenues to secure or retain lawful status have grown increasingly uncertain,” the report reads.

The Trump administration has not only stripped the legal status of hundreds of thousands of immigrants, but it has also made the process of seeking lawful status and even citizenship more burdensome and riskier. (Not to mention the ongoing crusade to undermine birthright citizenship.) For instance, last August, the Department of Homeland Security’s agency in charge of visas and immigration benefits rolled out a policy expanding the “good moral character” standard requirement for citizenship applicants, a requirement that introduced more subjectivity and unpredictability into the process.

Another approach with sweeping consequences with which the administration is changing the playing field can be seen in the politicization of the immigration courts, which are part of the Department of Justice. In addition to firing more than 100 immigration judges and replacing them with temporarily assigned military lawyers, the administration has transformed the make-up of the Board of Immigration Appeals, which reviews judges’ decisions. This body, in turn, has issued precedent-setting rulings that restrict immigrants’ access to due process and relief from deportation.

Even without formal legislative changes and while ostensibly keeping protections on the books, Sen. Markey concludes, President Donald Trump has nonetheless managed to create “not an openly dismantled immigration system, but one transformed from within, appearing legally intact” in which “individuals are not only more likely to become vulnerable to enforcement, but less able to avoid or defend against it.”

Peak summer flavors are on full display across Santa Cruz County, from Luna’s Borikén Bites’ vibrant Puerto Rican comfort food to a tomato-forward BLT at Other Brother Beer Co. and crispy fried green tomatoes at Pretty Good Advice.

A US healthcare software provider has admitted that hackers may have made off with sensitive data belonging to 3.8 million people, making it the largest healthcare breach reported to regulators so far this year. The attack dates to last October, when Ohio-based medical software maker Unlimited Technology Systems (UTS) detected someone poking around its commercial datacenter. The company disclosed the breach in July but did not initially say how many people were affected. The scale is now clearer. According to the US Department of Health and Human Services' breach portal, the incident affected the protected health information of 3,803,750 people. In a notification letter filed with the Iowa attorney general, UTS said an unauthorized actor may have copied personal information from its systems between October 5 and 10, 2025. Depending on the individual, the haul may include names, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, home and email addresses, phone numbers, and other demographic information. The potentially stolen files also contained medical and insurance data, including policy numbers, claims and benefits information, patient balances, medical record numbers, dates of service, and diagnoses. UTS said the stolen files may also have contained scans of driving licenses and other government IDs, insurance cards, and patient intake forms. There were some limits to the exposure. UTS said the files did not contain complete medical records, medical images, credit card numbers, or bank account details. After detecting the intrusion, UTS called in a forensic security firm, notified law enforcement, and began determining which files the intruder had accessed. It hasn't publicly named whoever was behind the attack or explained how they got into the datacenter in the first place. The company said it is unaware of any attempted or actual misuse of the compromised information. Affected individuals are being offered 24 months of credit monitoring and identity protection services. At 3.8 million people, UTS overtakes the 3.4 million-person TriZetto Provider Solutions incident as the largest healthcare data breach reported to HHS so far in 2026. For an attacker looking to collect millions of healthcare records in one hit, it seems going after the companies that manage the data can be rather more efficient than knocking on hospital doors one at a time. ®

With just three months until Election Day, the field for Watsonville’s four open city council seats is coming into focus.

Voters in four of the council’s seven districts — 3, 4, 5 and 7 — might recognize a few of the names on the Nov. 3 ballot, as past major players in Watsonville politics are looking to return to public service after taking time off. 

ELECTION 2026: Read more Lookout coverage here

At least two of the four districts are shaping up to be contested races – Districts 5 and 7. Candidates have until 5 p.m. Friday to submit paperwork to run for a city council seat. 

Political newcomer Angel Zuniga is throwing his hat in the ring for the District 5 city council seat. The district encompasses central Watsonville, which includes a portion of Freedom Boulevard, Main Street and the Struve and Watsonville sloughs. 

Zuniga will face off against incumbent Casey Clark, who was elected to the seat in 2022. 

The winner of this race will not only represent this district, but will also step into the role of mayor in 2027. Watsonville has a rotating mayor system. Each calendar year, a new mayor is rotated in order of council district. Clark currently serves as the vice mayor. 

Clark, a state-licensed administrator for adult residential facilities helping adults with developmental disabilities, told Lookout that he wants to get projects that got off the ground during his first term “across the finish line.” 

He added that he and his colleagues on the city council are on the same page when it comes to prioritizing projects — such as infrastructure and replacing every streetlight in the city — that will help build a solid foundation for Watsonville to flourish.

Watsonville City Councilmember Casey Clark in a March 2024 council meeting. Credit: Kevin Painchaud / Lookout Santa Cruz

In 2022, Zuniga and Clark would have faced off for the seat, but Zuniga did not submit his candidate paperwork by the deadline to appear on the ballot that year. 

Zuniga did not immediately respond to Lookout’s request for comment. 

In District 7, two familiar names will be on the ballot in November: Nancy Bilicich and Ed Acosta. The neighborhood encompasses the eastern corner of the city, including Beck Street, Lake Avenue and Vermont Street. This area is also home to Pajaro Village, one of the largest senior communities in Watsonville. 

Bilicich and Acosta are vying to replace Councilmember Ari Parker, who will be terming out of her seat at the end of the year after being in public office for eight years. 

Bilicich, a lifelong educator, is hoping to return to a seat she represented for nine years. She was originally appointed to replace the late Dale Skillicorn in 2009 and then went on to serve two four-year terms. 

She told Lookout that she’s running again after current elected officials and community members encouraged her to run for office again. “I just thought, why not give it a shot? Let the people vote, you know,” she said. 

Similar to Clark, there are projects such as the ongoing repairs to the Pajaro River levee that Bilicich wants to see completed. 

• Nancy Bilicich (left) is running to replace Ari Parker in representing District 7 on the Watsonville City Council. Credit: Kevin Painchaud / Lookout Santa Cruz
• Ed Acosta, who ran for county supervisor in 2022, is running to represent District 7 on the Watsonville City Council this year. Credit: Contributed

Acosta, a Watsonville native, is an agricultural manager and currently serves as a trustee for the Santa Cruz County Board of Education. Last summer, he resigned from representing District 7 on the city’s planning commission after serving for many years. In 2022, Acosta ran an unsuccessful bid for the District 4 County Supervisor seat. 

Acosta did not respond to Lookout’s request for comment by time of publication. 

City Councilmembers Maria Orozco and Kristal Salcido, who represent Districts 3 and 4, respectively, are so far running unopposed in their bids for a second term. Both were elected in 2022 and served as mayor in their first term. 

Lookout will update this list if more candidates submit their paperwork by Friday’s 5 p.m. deadline.

Have something to say? Lookout welcomes letters to the editor, within our policies, from readers. Guidelines here.

The post Who’s running for Watsonville City Council? Four district races begin to take shape appeared first on Lookout Santa Cruz.

The following is a lightly edited transcript of the August 7 episode of The Daily Blast podcast. Listen to it here.

Greg Sargent: This is The Daily Blast from The New Republic, produced and presented by the DSR Network. I’m your host, Greg Sargent.

Officials are leaking word that Donald Trump is privately raging at Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, claiming he’s been misled about shortages in munitions that are now apparently limiting his options in Iran. Trump then went out on Truth Social and exploded in wild fury all over again. Meanwhile, other leaks indicate that he’s feeling very sensitive about his failures on Iran, to the point of feeling humiliated.

The careful reader of these stories will note that the only thing that isn’t discussed by Trump and his top advisors is whether Trump himself bears any responsibility for what’s happening on his watch. And these new follies really expose the perils of personalist rule—the perils of having a government that’s geared solely to satisfying the whims and corrupt interests of one man. So we’re talking about all of it with one of our go-to people on Trumpian narcissism, Salon’s Amanda Marcotte. Amanda, always good to have you on.

Amanda Marcotte: Thanks for having me.

Sargent: So The Washington Post reports that at Camp David this week, Trump’s anger boiled over. He demanded that Hegseth explain these munitions shortages that have now kicked in. Trump vented that he thought it had all been “fixed.”

Amanda, this might explain why Trump recently canceled a planned attack on Iran. He claimed the cancellation was because of progress in negotiations on the Strait of Hormuz, the idea being that Iran was so terrified of him that they’re meekly agreeing to negotiate, so he benevolently called off the strikes.

It really looks as if the truth is much darker—that Trump doesn’t know what the hell’s going on inside his own government.

Marcotte: Whenever Trump says that there’s a deal imminent, I just tune it out at this point, because that just has never been true. But it’s clear that he either didn’t think through the idea that if you throw a bunch of bombs, that means you have fewer bombs to throw next time, or he was lied to by his advisors. In neither case is it a good look, because in neither case does he show even an ounce of what being a leader is about.

Sargent: I think you actually get an important point there with this idea about him not understanding that if you use bombs, you have fewer bombs. Because he really does believe that he’s in a position of limitless strength. He thinks America has unlimited power, but by that he actually means he has unlimited power, because he couldn’t possibly be weak in any way.

And so you can really see how he goes from there to not really paying close attention to little details like what the war that he started is doing to our weapons stockpiles, right?

Marcotte: Yeah, he has a very childish vision of what American military might is, which is, we definitely have a large military, one of the biggest and most expensive in the world, but it’s not limitless. And crucially, as we found out in Iran, it’s not unlimited in its ability to just crush enemies.

There’s a reason that we’ve never had a war with Iran before. And I wish it was just that everyone was more peaceable. But it’s also that military experts recognize that just throwing bombs at a situation is not the same thing as fixing it.

Sargent: Well, there’s another funny detail in the Post story. It says this, quote: “Hegseth defended himself and blamed his deputy for the shortages and for not ensuring Trump was fully apprised of the issue.”

Amanda, Hegseth has to blame someone below him for the fact that Trump was not on top of the situation enough to know what the hell was happening. At no point can anyone say, why doesn’t the president of the United States know what his own war is doing to our ammunition stockpiles? What do you think of that?

Marcotte: This is something that I find super fascinating, and the examples are endless. It’s the paradox of MAGA, right? Which is, on one hand, they all worship Donald Trump as this almighty leader who knows everything and can do everything and is the greatest leader of all time and blah, blah, blah.

Also, he can’t ever be expected to know anything, be responsible for anything, et cetera. Like, he’s blameless always. He is like a baby.

Sargent: Yeah, absolutely. Well, Trump goes out and he erupts on Truth Social over all this reporting. He says, quote: “The fake news is spreading false and completely unfounded rumors. Their fake reporting is treasonous.” Trump also says the U.S. has “massive” amounts of munitions, whereas all the reporting indicates shortages. And Trump even claims the leakers are now being “hunted.”

Amanda, I just think it’s funny how Trump’s child brain associates small munitions piles with a weak presidency. So he knows he must instantly say our munitions stockpiles are very, very big, which he thinks will show that he’s very, very strong. And also, when he says that the reporting is treasonous, like, he really means that anyone who dares to humiliate him is committing treason. Isn’t that what he really means?

Marcotte: Yeah, because he wants to believe he is the state. He’s said as much in many ways, right? And so he’s often conflated insults to himself with crimes or treason or betrayal and unpatriotism, et cetera, et cetera. And it’s kind of, in a lot of ways, he’s just the most predictable person in the world. What is always continuingly amazing to me is all the people that elect to be in his pathway, because you could just say no. You don’t have to work for the man.

Sargent: I think what it goes to is the core of what’s happening with MAGA in a broader sense right now. A lot of these people, I think, saw Trump win in 2024 and thought that something very big and decisive had happened in the world, right?

That he had essentially ushered in some sort of permanent and deep and important shift in American culture, that MAGA was the way of the future, that America was becoming, whatever MAGA envisions America being, and that being around Trump sort of guaranteed them, I guess, a high position in the hierarchy of MAGA, right? The firmament of MAGA going forward.

Not coincidentally, because he is such a weak and pathetic figure, all of that turns out to have been a ridiculous overread. And now they’re all like those cartoon characters who run off of a cliff and then look down and realize there’s nothing under them anymore.

Marcotte: Yeah. So I recently covered this, writing about Markwayne Mullin, but there’s been a lot of political science research that points to why there’s so many mediocre and incompetent people in authoritarian regimes. And it is because they’re the kind of people that can’t get this job in any other way, right?

Donald Trump only values loyalty and the willingness to flatter him. And so a lot of people who would never—I mean, on no planet would Pete Hegseth be the defense secretary for a competent president. Like, the man was a weekend Fox News host. He’s never been a high-ranking military official at all. He knows nothing. But because he knows how to flatter Trump, and it’s kind of his only skill, he’s got this high-ranking position that in no other universe would he ever have.

And you can just go down the list, you know. Pam Bondi was probably one of the more competent people, but even she was never going to be attorney general. Kash Patel, I mean, come on. And Markwayne Mullin, I mean, the guy pretends he was a UFC fighter. There’s no other universe where these people would have these jobs.

And so I think they convinced themselves that MAGA is here to stay, because the alternative—looking in the mirror and realizing they’re taking this job because they know this is their only pathway to success—is kind of a really painful admission, right? They all need therapy, lots and lots of therapy.

Sargent: What does the political science say about this and authoritarian regimes? I’m definitely interested in that.

Marcotte: Yeah, so I’ve got this—it was covered in May in The New York Times. It was data drawing on an extraordinary data set, I’m quoting, “from Argentina’s dirty war in the 1970s and ‘80s,” and it suggests that there’s a lot of incentive for lower- and mid-level officials to violate professional obligations, fundamental norms, and even basic morality.

And, like, TLDR, the people that are willing to do the bad things are often people that recognize they were never going to get a promotion otherwise. Whereas people who were promoted on their own merit are the kind of people who say, no, I’m not going to break the law, no, I’m not going to commit these crimes on your behalf.

And so I think we’re seeing this play out at the top ranks of the Trump administration, which is a lot of people who are incompetent, and their only pathway to success is through slavish devotion to this moron. And there was no other way for them to get there. So they’re willing to make those compromises.

Sargent: It’s almost like there’s a contract or a deal of sorts, right? Donald Trump knows that he can get certain types of people to relentlessly do his bidding once he kind of co-opts them into his cult. So he picks them because he recognizes in them a certain weakness of character and willingness to do whatever it takes to kind of be in the chosen charmed circle.

He’s really kind of very canny at that. Let’s give him some credit here, right? This is something Donald Trump is good at. He is perceptive about people almost in an animal-like way, isn’t he?

Marcotte: Yeah, probably because he recognizes himself in this, right? He is the person who is incompetent and has only ever succeeded in life because he was willing to break rules, lie, cheat, use deception, because he knows that he can’t actually succeed on his merits. And so I think he recognizes that in other people.

I do want to flag, though—I think we’re actually more [hopeful] than we were like a year ago or even more. We are in a much better position when it comes to these folks. Because I think that, to your point, they realize there’s no ground underneath them. And we’re starting to see a lot more Trump officials wonder if it’s worth it.

Like, if they’re going to face consequences for doing illegal, criminal, or otherwise terrible acts for him. Jeanine Pirro being a really good example. I mean, at the end of the day, she was unwilling to falsify evidence and perjure herself in front of a federal judge just to please the boss, because she knows that this isn’t going to last forever, and she’s worried about prison or disbarment.

Sargent: Well, on that score, The Atlantic reports on more leaks from inside, this time on Trump’s sense of humiliation. According to these sources, one reason he’s been raging so violently over the Reflecting Pool fiasco is precisely that the Iran debacle has been going so badly for him, and he feels humiliated, according to this report. And so you’ve got to wonder—the people who are inside and around him all the time, this almost gets at the paradox of MAGA.

They are supposed to treat him, and do, I guess, on some level see him as this real tribune of the people, this world historical figure who has done to liberal America what nobody else could ever do. No one else would have dared do it, right? And he crushed liberal America the way he has. And yet they’re seeing him pathetically rage and whine right in front of them about things like the Reflecting Pool, and making stuff up about the munitions, and refusing to take responsibility for everything. How do you think they square that in their own heads?

Marcotte: I think a lot of them really have decided that Trump has this kind of genius, this reality TV show thing that he’s got going on, where he’s able to project this might and power and brilliance and all these other things by using the trappings of it, in the way that he was able to do so on The Apprentice and other things like that.

I mean, he is very good at using imagery to create the illusion of things that aren’t there. And the Reflecting Pool is a really good example of where that fixation goes. Because his view was, I can fail as a president, but if the Reflecting Pool looks nice and the pictures look nice, it will get enough people to believe the lies, right?

It’s just—I mean, in a lot of ways, it’s not the most brilliant insight in the world. I mean, all authoritarian propaganda sort of works on this Potemkin village ideology. But I think a lot of the people that have cleaved onto him believe that he is just a master at it. And so when they see him obsessing over image over reality, they too are like, this is the way, this is the way. Because again, they also know they’re incompetent. So they benefit if they can believe that faking it is the same thing as making it.

Sargent: Yeah, and I think they look at him as someone who has been able to accomplish something that no other Republican has been able to accomplish, right? This crushing of liberal America that I’m talking about. And the marshalling of imagery, fascist imagery—well, George Bush had “mission accomplished,” and they had reality is what we say it is, and so forth. They had the American empire and all that.

But Trump really has taken it to a more fascistic level. And on some very profound level inside these people around him, that’s the thing that they respect. And that’s the source of his power over them—that he’s willing to go full fascist, basically.

Marcotte: Yeah, and your point about triggering the liberals is really, really important here, because we cannot underestimate how much these people are motivated by this bitter, sad, angry resentment about liberals that laugh at them. And so, to your point, like, the thing about the Bush administration is they really did try to do the propaganda in kind of the old-school style, where it looked mighty, it looked amazing in a lot of ways.

Whereas Trump actually uses, like, gross AI art and UFC fights at the White House and stuff that is sort of designed to be so crass that it will cause pearl-clutching in liberal circles. And so it is a little like spitting in the face of, you know—I think in their mind they are the guys in Animal House making the dean look bad, right? To age myself on my references there.

Sargent: There’s really a lot of signs, as you pointed out, that the MAGA paradox isn’t sustaining itself in the minds even of some people around him. Can you talk about why the MAGA paradox, on some level, might be beset by such deep contradictions that it’s going to just eventually crack up, sort of inevitably at some point?

Marcotte: Yeah, I think a lot of these people have a lot of practice squaring what is hard for us to square. And, in part, to be very feminist about it, it’s patriarchal, right? Male authority flows from God and isn’t justified by competence. You’re supposed to put all your faith and trust in the leader simply because he is your patriarch, not because he’s earned it in some way. So I think they have a lot of practice.

And Donald Trump has taken advantage of this, right? He’s the leader. So what he says goes, and it’s not to be questioned. And in fact, the fact that he’s so bad at this is excused away every day.

But he is the president of a democratic system, which is just a different system, where there’s accountability. And I think a lot of us are frustrated because there hasn’t been enough accountability. And with the immunity, he’s not going to get enough accountability.

But at the end of the day, these systems depend on some buy-in from the public. And that faith is really being eroded pretty quickly, because most people—they voted, they actually feel like they have a role to play in this, and they want to see results from their leaders, not just, trust me, you know, on my word, and what I say goes, and never question dear leader.

Sargent: I want to close on an optimistic note about that, then, because I think that a lot of these people around Trump, and Trump very much himself, and the more fascistic advisors like Stephen Miller, really counted on the public being a lot more pliable. And I think that the polls actually rattle them very deeply, even though they project all this outward confidence that they’re made up and all that. The polls really have shaken the MAGA paradox to its core, because it shows that his power is extremely limited, right?

Because just to go back to what we were saying before, a big source of the power was this idea that he had kind of tapped into some very deep source that would enable him to do what no other Republican president had been able to do before, which is march the country into fascism. And the vehemence of the rejection of all that, I think, shakes up the situation very profoundly, and shows, I think, real democratic resilience as well. What do you think of all that?

Marcotte: Yeah, I think that one thing that a lot of these people really did fully believe in their heart of hearts is that the only true persuasion is violence and power. And that if you just pound somebody hard enough, they will submit. It is interesting, because a lot of them have evidence in their personal lives that that’s not true, but the faith just never was wavering.

And so I do think they had this view that, A, they’d get in by tricking people into electing them, and then once in, they’d just pound us into submission. And as I often say to my friends who roll their eyes at me, we’re Americans, goddammit. It doesn’t work like that.

I think this is just generally true of the human condition—people tend to resist more than authoritarians think they will. But especially this country, with its long, long tradition of believing of ourselves as a democracy, of people who are independent thinkers.

Sargent: Well, we’ve gotten very far afield from Donald Trump raging at Pete Hegseth, but I think that’s really the essence of it. Amanda Marcotte, always a great pleasure to talk to you. Thanks so much for coming on.

Marcotte: Thanks for having me.