The Hound | Aug. 28

Hi there,

It’s Friday. Trump signed an executive order Thursday to rename Lake Ontario "Lake America," declaring it "official, effective immediately." He told reporters he'd been "thinking about" the name change "for a long time" — then mused aloud about renaming the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans next. The tariffs driving this tantrum are already raising costs for Americans battered by the Iran war's economic ripple effects.

🖊️ Sign the petition to call on the media to stop covering Lake America as a quirky news item and start asking the harder question: what does it mean that the most powerful person on earth is spending executive energy renaming bodies of water?

This is not diplomacy. It is a man renaming a Great Lake because trade talks annoyed him — while a war drags on, prices climb, and democratic institutions erode. When asked what message the renaming sends, Trump said "no message" — and no journalist in the room pressed him further. The public deserves reporting that treats escalating delusion as the serious story it is.

In addition, reflecting on Dolly Parton’s fight for working women and the continuing blackout in Gary, Indiana.

Read about these, and more, with today’s stories:

Trump Orders Americans to Call Lake Ontario Lake America (Mother Jones)

Dolly Parton’s Fight for Working Women (The New Republic)

Gary, Indiana, Is America’s Latest Climate Victim (The American Prospect)

Trump rollback of US forest protections could accelerate extinction of 400 endangered species (The Guardian)

NASA is about to launch a space telescope that could change how we see the universe (NPR)

Trump Admin Said She Was Lying About Stillbirth in ICE Custody. New Evidence Points to Lack of Prenatal Care. (The Intercept)

Corpus Christi Withholds Water to Wetlands While Lifting Restrictions on Lawns (Inside Climate News)

Until next time,

Harry from The Hound

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