Editor's Choice: Scroll below for our monthly blend of mainstream and alternative August 2026 news and views. See our News Reports section for coverage of earlier dates, months and years.

Editor's Note: Scroll below for Part 12of our monthly blend of mainstream and alternative Julye 2026 news and views, with clips beginning at Aug. 1 and extending in reverse chronological order. See our home page for more recent coverage during this unusually heavy news period.

Excerpts below are from the authors' words except for subheads and occasional "Editor's notes"

Aug. 19

Top Headlines

• The Parnas Perspective, Morning News and Commentary: Trump's Worst Election Night in Years, Graham's Debate Disaster, Canada Tariffs Paused, Harp's Brother Calls It an 'Obsession,'Aaron Parnas, right, Aug. 19, 2026. Last night delivered one of the roughest nights of Donald Trump’s political career: three more endorsed candidates down for the count, a Trump +18 district flipping blue, and an upset Senate primary win that has Democrats feeling genuinely bullish about November. Add in a senator who admitted on live TV she can’t speak to basic national security questions, new documents exposing just how tightly the FCC’s chairman is coordinating with the White House and Fox News, and the wildest six-word review of Trump-world loyalty you’ll read this month, and it’s a lot to get through. 
• Morning Shots via The Bulwark, Political Opinion: Disney Says No to the Lyin’ King, Bill Kristol and Andrew Egger, Aug. 19, 2026. Mirror mirror on the wall, will this lawsuit matter at all?

U.S. Courts, Law, Crime, Immigration, Rights, Justice 

U.S. Attorney General nominee Todd Blanche, currently acting attorney general and a former Trump criminal defense attorney before the president nominated him for Senate confirmation (Shown at U.S. Capitol on July 16, 2026).

• Civil Discourse, Opinion:The Washington Post Is Wrong About Todd Blanche And Presidential Power, Joyce Vance, right, Aug. 19, 2026. Jeff Bezos’ newspaper, The Washington Post, went all in on the unitary executive theory today. Ironic that the newspaper that revealed the Watergate scandal is willing to vest such absolute authority in the presidency, even as this administration’s corruption of power plays out in front of us every day. “Todd Blanche is right about DOJ ‘independence,’ like it or not,” the paper headlined its offering from the editorial board today. Someone seems to have decided that Blanche’s Sunday outing on Meet the Press merited cleanup on Aisle 9.

More On Middle East Wars

• New York Times, News Analysis:With Limited Options, Trump Tries Economic Pressure on Iran — Again, Steven Erlanger, Aug. 19, 2026. Iran has survived decades of sanctions. Faced with more, it is likely to escalate rather than surrender, analysts said.
• New York Times, How the U.S. Navy Is Helping Get Oil Through the Strait of Hormuz, Peter Eavis and John Ismay, Aug. 19, 2026. With Iran making ship traffic perilous, a U.S. operation offers a way out for some energy exports, stealthily shepherding tankers on dangerous journeys.
• New York Times, U.A.E. Halts Trade Ties With Iran and Says It Was Targeted With Missiles, Vivian Nereim and Ismaeel Naar, Aug. 19, 2026. The Emirates has long been a major trading hub for Iran, and analysts say it has been key to Iranian efforts to evade international sanctions, which the country denies.

More On U.S. Governance

• Foreign Policy Magazine, Opinion: The Top 10 Ways Trump Has Made America Weaker, Stephen M. Walt, Aug. 19, 2026. He’s been one of the most consequential presidents in U.S. history—in all the wrong ways.
• New York Times, U.S. Health Policy: A New mRNA Vaccine Could Prevent Melanoma From Returning, Carolyn Y. Johnson, Aug. 19, 2026. Moderna and Merck say the experimental vaccine prevented the return and spread of the cancer in high-risk melanoma patients.
• Robert Reich via Substack, Opinion: The Last Stand of the Corporate Democrats, Robert Reich, right, Aug. 19, 2026. Their reign is coming to an end. Most discussions about the Democratic Party in this election cycle focus on the remarkable rise of progressive Democrats (such as Florida state Rep. Angie Nixon, a democratic socialist who yesterday scored an upset win in the Democratic contest for the Florida Senate). An equally big story is the remarkable decline of corporate Democrats.

More On U.S. Elections, Politics, Governance

Former Representative Mary Peltola, a Democrat, and Senator Dan Sullivan, a Republican, will advance to the general election for an Alaska Senate sea (Reuters photo above left  by Kerry Tasker; New York Times photo by Eric Lee).

• New York Times, Peltola and Sullivan Advance in Crucial Alaska Senate Contest, Kellen Browning, Aug. 19, 2026. The Democratic former congresswoman and the incumbent Republican senator will face off in November. Whether a potential spoiler candidate with the same name as the senator qualifies alongside them has not been determined.
• New York Times, A Stunning Win for the Left in Florida: 6 Takeaways From Tuesday’s Primaries, Patricia Mazzei, Aug. 19, 2026. State Representative Angie Nixon, a progressive firebrand, defeated a moderate who dramatically out-raised her with grass-roots enthusiasm. Can it carry her to victory in November?
• New York Times, Florida could elect its first Black governor. He’s a Republican, Patricia Mazzei, Aug. 19, 2026. Representative Byron Donalds, who has long had Mr. Trump’s endorsement in the president’s adopted home state, crushed his rivals in the Republican primary for Florida governor. He has far out-raised the Democratic nominee, former Representative David Jolly, a former Republican.
• Hopium Chronicles, Advocacy and Opinion: A New Interview With David Jolly, Encouraging New Senate Polls, Fake Polls And The New Battlefield, Simon Rosenberg, right, Aug. 19, 2026.8 of 11,754  A few notes from the past few days…..Trump’s failed regime just keeps failing…I will have more to say about the results from Florida and other states last night in the coming days but a few highlights…Republicans were locked out of the Alaska Governor’s race last night as the top two candidates to emerge out of the all party primary were Democrats Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins and Tom Begich. This is good news for Mary Peltola. 

Congressional Scandals: Democrats

• Politico, Jimmy Gomez being investigated for 'sexual harassments and assault,' lawyers allege, Chris Marquette, Aug. 19, 2026. The statement from the attorneys Wednesday dispute the California Democrat's claims that his interactions with their client were consensual.
• Emptywheel, Analysis and Opinion: Donald Trump’s White House Declassified the Eric Swalwell File to Affect His Election, Emptywheel (Marcy Wheeler, right), Aug. 19, 2026. The most important date you need to know about the Eric Swalwell files (Swalwell investigative file, Fang informant file) that John Solomon oversold, again, the other day, are not the ones that show that Eric Swalwell was probably f______ a Chinese spy in the same time frame that he reportedly had a “fling” with then Congressional Intern Katie Waldman around 2014, nor that the investigation into whether Swalwell knowingly accepted foreign donations from Christine Fang lasted into the time he served on the Intelligence Committee.

Trump Team Obsessions, Oppressions, Corruption

• Emptywheel, Analysis and Opinion: Natalie Harp Is the Unsupervised Gatekeeper to the Man with the Nuclear Buttons, Emptywheel (Marcy Wheeler, right), Aug. 19, 2026. The first story I unpacked about Natalie Harp was this one, from Marc Caputo, who was and remains exceedingly well-connected with right wing Floridians (Though the first time I mentioned her discussed how unvetted her 2020 Convention speech to Trump was.)
• AlterNet America, Trump’s Beloved Aide Rode in a Car Trunk Rather Than Leave Him, Corinne Straight, Aug. 19, 2026. Most people who end up in the trunk of a car are trying to get out. In other news: Rep. Fine was caught rifling a stranger's mailbox;  the Trump admin. is building a 3,000-bed prison for children, and Trump-voting ranchers are fighting his Navy over grazing land.
• PoliticusUSA, News and Comment: Trump Gets Unleashed Outside The White House To Rant Like A Loon About Grass, Jason Easley, right,  Aug. 19, 2026. As his administration moves to steady the bond market and prevent an economic collapse, Trump went outside to deliver a deranged rant about grass while touring his White House vandalism.

Struggles For U.S. Democracy, Threats To U.S. Democracy

The Jewish sage Hillel: 

“If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?”

• The Contrarian, Opinion: MAGA’s Anti-democratic Assault Threatens American Jews, Jennifer Rubin, right, Aug. 19, 2026. Embracing shared democratic values is urgent. Last week’s horrendous attack at Central Synagogue underscores the scourge of antisemitism that has shaken American Jews to their core.
• Letters from an American, Historical Commentary: Aug. 18, 2026 [U.S. Women's voting rights history remembered], Heather Cox Richardson, right, Aug. 19, 2026. On August 18, 1920, the Tennessee legislature ratified the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution by a vote of 50 to 49. The deciding vote came from Harry T. Burn, who supported suffrage but was under pressure to vote no. His mother had urged him to vote yes despite the pressure. “I believe in full suffrage as a right,” he said. “I believe we had a moral and legal right to ratify. I know that a mother’s advice is always safest for her boy to follow, and my mother wanted me to vote for ratification.”

More News Roundups

• The Parnas Perspective, Evening News and Comment, Trump Sanctions ICC President Fearing War Crimes Warrant, Air Force Major Escalates Calls for Trump’s Removal, Debt Explodes, Aaron Parnas, right, Aug. 18., 2026. An active-duty Air Force major went on CNN and said he’s willing to be dishonorably discharged, lose his pay, and go to prison, rather than stay silent about the war in Iran. Major Jason Watson called Trump’s war “unconstitutional,” compared it to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and told viewers, “you do not have to be somebody special to take action and reject this government.” He’s now facing a military justice system that hasn’t confronted a case quite like this in years.

U.S. Economy, Inflation, Jobs, Markets

• Paul Krugman via Substack, Political-Economy Commentary: What Are Bond Markets Telling Us? Paul Krugman, right, Aug. 19, 2026. Interest rates are up — but don’t panic.

U.S. Media, Education, Sports, Religion

• Confront the Hate with Phil Williams, Opinion: As Local News Dies, White Nationalists See an Opening, Phil Williams, above, longtime television reporter in Nashville, TN, Aug. 19, 2026. At an invitation-only gathering in Italy, far-right leaders mapped out strategies to target rural America while local press coverage vanishes.
• Newsguy Blog via Substack with Steve Herman, More incoming fire at Stars & Stripes, Steve Herman, Aug. 18, 2026. Publisher suddenly retires after Pentagon appoints his “deputy” without prior consultation. The publisher of the Stars & Stripes today announced a sudden retirement, telling staff his philosophy of leadership and “understanding of the value and mission" of the newspaper differ in “fundamental ways” from the direction the Department of Defense wants to go in.
• Morning Shots via The Bulwark, Political Opinion:This Aggression Will Not Stand, Man, Sonny Bunch, Aug. 19, 2026. One of the more depressing responses to Trump 2.0 has been the cowardly way some in the media have responded to the president’s relentlessly bullying legal tactics. They’ve often chosen to settle rather than fight the president on cases that could easily be won, just to avoid regulatory hassles for the parent conglomerates of these media companies. But even some of the quislings seem to have had enough.