Finally – A MAGA holds a town hall (8 minutes):

You can tell by his shrug to the audience at the beginning of his answer on immigration he really doesn’t care what they think. Like all elected MAGAs his only concern is what one orange man cares. That is who he is playing to. I don’t know if MAGAs have minders like CBS now has, but when they cower in fear to the orange man do they need a minder?

It is August and a time of change. The state fair starts Thursday. This is always the topping to summer in Iowa. When it winds up it is back to school time and all that that entails. August usually brings changes in the weather as humidities and temperatures lower a bit as crops are readied for harvest.

Friday was the Gaelic festival of Lughnasadh – the beginning of the harvest season. We will see days get markedly shorter and the air gets crisper and drier. This holiday is celebrated by Celtic folks. The changes in the weather patterns definitely applies here in Iowa.

Yet again, what a week. It feels like the wheels are starting to fall off the wagon.

A) Friday was jobs report day for July. Was it a good report or a bad report?

B) Besides the jobs report for July, job numbers were also revised for May and June. Were those revisions good or bad?

C) Also Friday was the first day of near universal what imposed by the US?

D) Some state fair questions you say? Do you know where and when Iowa’s first state fair was held?

E) This has been a rough summer for old celebrity deaths. What former college mathematics professor and writer and performer of great satirical songs passed last weekend at 97?

F) A self professed compass of moral turpitude what Oklahoma elected official was caught watching pornography on is office TV during an official meeting?

G) What state’s legislature is currently in a special session to ever further gerrymander its congressional districts?

H) Bowing to the authoritarian: What museum revised its exhibition on impeachment to remove reference to the current Felon in the White House?

I) State Fair – Name three other cities where the fair was held before finally landing in Des Moines in 1878?

J) Let’s buy some votes! A recent MAGA scheme involves sending ‘rebate’ checks to Americans from money raised from what?

K) Thanks to a memo from the Office Personnel Management last week, federal workers can now promote their what at work?

L) Critics around the world are charging Israelis are using what inhumane practice as a weapon in their war in Gaza?

M) The largest state fair based on daily attendance is the state fair for what state?

N) A man who killed four people in a midtown Manhattan (NYC) building Monday was targeting what organization?

O) An 8.8 magnitude earthquake – believed to be the biggest ever recorded – took place in what country last week?

P) A man at a Walmart in what Michigan resort city was charged with stabbing 11 customers last week?

Q) The Felon In the White House is trying to repeal the legal basis undergirding what cabinet agency?

R) The latest university to bow to the Felon In the White House is what?

S) July 30, 1975 – fifty years ago last Wednesday – was the last known sighting of what notorious labor leader?

T) What is the percentage of people who attend Iowa’s state fair compared to Iowa’s population approximately?

BONUS) Cecile Dionne died this week at age 91. Her claim to fame was for being a member of what unlikely group?

In another shocking finding, Kamala Harris never met Jeffrey Epstein. – Andy Borowitz

This just simply makes me laugh every time I see it:

Answers:

A) a bad report. Only 73,000 jobs created about 25% below the expected 100,000

B) really bad – June was revised down from 147,000 to 14,000 and May revised down from 144,000 to 19,000

C) Tariffs

D) The first state fair was in Fairfield in 1854

E) Tom Lehrer. “Vatican Rag” anybody?

F) Ryan Walters – Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction

G) Texas 

H) The Smithsonian. Do you remember the George Orwell quote on controlling the past?

I) Muscatine, Oskaloosa, Iowa City, Dubuque, Burlington, Clinton, Keokuk and Cedar Rapids.

J) Tariffs. But tariffs were also supposed to replace the huge tax cuts for the rich. Remember tariffs are a type of sales tax

K) religion – that should make for great workplace camaraderie

L) Starvation

M) Minnesota – I believe Iowa is second

N) the NFL – he claimed he had CTE from playing football as a youth

O) Russia on the Kamchatka peninsula 

P) Traverse City

Q) the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency

R) Brown University

S) Jimmy Hoffa

T) about 36% 

BONUS) Cecile was one of the Dionne quintuplets (all girls) born in Canada in May of 1934.  At the time they were the only known surviving quints. One sister still survives. I was unable to post a picture of the quints. You can see a picture of them at the link.

That “OBAMA TREASON” story melted away faster than ice cubes in an oven. –Alex Cole