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The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Clifford Gibson

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Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features St. Louis blues guitarist Clifford Gibson. Enjoy!

^{Clifford Gibson - Don't Put That Thing On Me}

"I'd like to teach Iraq about Democracy because we're so experienced with it. First they should know that after 100 years they should free their slaves. Then after 150 years they should give their women the right to vote. Oh, and of course when they start it all they should begin with some genocide and ethnic cleansing."

-- Kurt Vonnegut

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News and Opinion

They’re Still Pushing The Ethnic Cleansing Of Gaza

Israel is still pushing for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza. They keep trying different angles and rebranding it under different names, but the end goal has remained the same since October 2023: the removal of all Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.

From The Times of Israel:

“Israel is seeking to revive its moribund plan for the voluntary migration of Gazans out of the Strip, and has rebranded it in an effort to soften the blanket international opposition to it, Channel 13 news reports, citing unnamed Israeli officials.

“Security agencies have in recent days been told to abandon the “voluntary migration” title due to the global opposition, and it will from now on be officially referred to as a ‘plan for free movement,’ the report says.

“The network cites officials familiar with ties with countries that could potentially receive Gazans as voicing optimism that the terminology change will persuade them to drop their current refusal to cooperate with the plan, and recruit other countries.

“A senior Israeli official is quoted as saying Jerusalem wants as many Gazans as possible to leave the Strip, viewing this as contributing to any future plan implemented in the territory.”

Report: Israel Reviving Gaza Ethnic Cleansing Plan, Rebranding It as ‘Free Movement Plan’
Israeli media reported that Israel wants as many Palestinians removed from Gaza as possible#Gaza #Israel #Palestinians https://t.co/iLzk6LjRdp

— Antiwar.com (@Antiwarcom) June 28, 2026

From the early months of the Gaza holocaust, Israel apologists had been referring to the ethnic cleansing agenda as a plan for the “voluntary migration” of Gaza’s inhabitants. This framing conveniently ignored the fact that you cannot destroy a populated area and deliberately make it uninhabitable and then say the inhabitants of that area are leaving “voluntarily”.

According to a Haaretz report that was published last week, Israel’s new National Security Council chief convened a meeting of top national security officials to discuss the issue of “encouraging the voluntary emigration” of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.

And now they’re rebranding the initiative as “a plan of free movement”, which is just so fucking Israeli. They never stop doing the evil thing, they just play around with the words people say about it, like how Israel’s Foreign Ministry announced last year that it was going to stop referring to its propaganda operations as “hasbara” due to the public revulsion that has developed around that label. They never say “It’s time to stop doing the things that cause people to hate us,” they just say “It’s time for a rebrand.”

And to be clear, the mass displacement of Palestinians in Gaza is already well underway. Israel now controls more than 60 percent of Gaza, and the IDF has been instructed to expand it to 70 percent. The survivors of the genocide have already been shifted and concentrated into a steadily shrinking thirty some-odd percent of the Strip, while Israel attempts diplomatic maneuvers to persuade foreign states to take them in.

Benjamin Netanyahu has directed Israel's military to take more of Gaza, saying he will "start" by seizing 70 per cent of the Palestinian territory.https://t.co/hhTShTZ33e

— AWPR (@WarPowersReform) May 29, 2026

Israel’s mass atrocities in Gaza have always been about ethnic cleansing, from the very beginning. Within days of Israel’s assault on Gaza in October 2023, Israel’s Intelligence Ministry was circulating a plan for the entire population of Gaza to be moved to the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt, and an Israeli think tank had drawn up a strategy for the “relocation and final settlement of the entire Gaza population.”

They had these plans locked and loaded and ready to go because the elimination of Palestinians from the Palestinian territories has always been the goal.

Israel has been scheming to purge the Palestinians from the enclave and relocate them to other countries for generations. There’s a 1970 article from Life Magazine talking about how the Israelis see relocating Palestinians from Gaza to the Sinai Peninsula as the only viable path to peace, adding that “The problem is that the people of Gaza don’t want to go.”

Life Magazine, June 1970.

"The Israelis have been debating the plan... moving the bulk of the Palestinians [in Gaza] to the ... Sinai Peninsula. The problem is that the people of Gaza don't want to go." pic.twitter.com/D41zPy6To0

— Louis Allday (@Louis_Allday) April 29, 2025

In a 2002 article for The Guardian titled “A new exodus for the Middle East?”, Israeli historian Benny Morris writes that the agenda to “transfer” Palestinians to other countries has existed for as long as modern Zionism:

“The idea of transfer is as old as modern Zionism and has accompanied its evolution and praxis during the past century. And driving it was an iron logic: There could be no viable Jewish state in all or part of Palestine unless there was a mass displacement of Arab inhabitants, who opposed its emergence and would constitute an active or potential fifth column in its midst. This logic was understood, and enunciated, before and during 1948, by Zionist, Arab and British leaders and officials.

“As early as 1895, Theodor Herzl, the prophet and founder of Zionism, wrote in his diary in anticipation of the establishment of the Jewish state: ‘We shall try to spirit the penniless [Arab] population across the border by procuring employment for it in the transit countries, while denying it any employment in our country … The removal of the poor must be carried out discreetly and circumspectly.’”

So Israel was founded on the premise that the country’s previous inhabitants need to be eliminated in some way.

That’s all this has ever been about.

It was never about October 7.

It was never about Hamas.

It was never about hostages.

It was never about terrorism.

It was never about self-defense.

It was never about any of the countless excuses the hasbarists and imperial spinmeisters have offered up over the last three years to justify Israel’s monstrous abuses.

It was only ever about eliminating Palestinians because of their ethnicity and replacing them with Jews.

Anyone who tells you otherwise is lying.

Col Douglas Macgregor: Trump Sabotaging his own Iran Deal

Smotrich Says Israel Has Plans Drawn Up To Establish Three Jewish Settlements in Gaza, Waiting for Netanyahu’s OK

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Monday that the Israeli government has plans drawn up to establish three Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip and is just waiting for approval from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The settlements, which would clearly be illegal under international law, are being planned by the Israeli Defense Ministry’s Settlement Administration, a body created under Smotrich, who also holds a position in the Defense Ministry, in 2023.

Smotrich said the administration has “completed the groundwork to establish three settlements in the north Gaza area” and called on Netanyahu to “give the approval” in order to “complete the mission and restore true security for the residents of the south.”

Israeli military officials said last week that the IDF now controls 70% of Gaza, a violation of the US-backed ceasefire deal, which left Israeli troops occupying about 53% of the Palestinian territory. The deal explicitly stated that Israel couldn’t take any more territory if Hamas fulfilled its obligations under the agreement, which the group did by releasing all remaining Israeli hostages and retrieving the bodies of the deceased Israelis.

Prof. John Mearsheimer : Making Sense of Iran’s Victory

Trump claims Iran has agreed to hold peace talks in Doha after recent clashes

Donald Trump has claimed that Iran has agreed to hold talks in Doha after the US and Tehran traded fire in the strait of Hormuz this weekend, threatening the collapse of a ceasefire meant to keep the strait open and pave the way for peace talks. In a terse post on Truth Social, the US president claimed the meetings would take place in the Qatari capital, as US media reported that the two sides had agreed to halt strikes after tit-for-tat attacks that once again cut off shipping through the crucial waterway.

Trump wrote: “IRAN HAS REQUESTED A MEETING. IT WILL TAKE PLACE TOMORROW IN DOHA! President DJT.”

But on Monday night, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Esmail Baghaei, said US officials’ trip to Doha had nothing to do with the Iranian delegation visiting the city, adding: “We have not yet entered the stage of negotiating a final agreement … Over the coming days, we will not have any negotiation meetings with the US side at any level.”

Trump’s announcement came after Iran on Saturday targeted a cargo ship in the strait in a drone attack, leading US Central Command (Centcom) to launch retaliatory strikes against Iranian “military surveillance infrastructure, communication systems, air defense sites, drone storage facilities and minelayer capabilities”. Iran’s Islamic ⁠Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) then said on Sunday it ⁠had launched a joint missile and drone ⁠operation targeting ​eight US military ‌sites in ‌Kuwait and Bahrain.

With the deal faltering, the White House stepped in to seek an off-ramp from the resuming hostilities, even as the specifics of who will hold control over the strait and whether Iran can charge fees for passage in the future remains unclear. Agence France-Presse reported that commercial ships had virtually ceased using the Omani southern corridor through the strait after civilian ships were struck on Thursday and then again on Saturday. Iran has warned ships transiting through the waterway that they must receive approval from Tehran. Ships have continued travelling through the Iranian-approved northern corridor.

The so-called peace deal is insane

Congress to Vote on New Lebanon War Powers Resolution as Israel’s Occupation Threatens to Blow Up Iran-US Peace Deal

As Israel’s continued assault on Lebanon threatens to derail peace negotiations between the Trump administration and Iran, the US House of Representatives is expected to hold another vote on Tuesday on a war powers resolution that could halt American support for Israel’s attacks.

H.Con.Res. 108, introduced in early June by Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), would direct President Donald Trump to halt US military involvement in “hostilities” connected to Israel’s attacks on Lebanon, which have killed more than 4,000 people and led to the forced displacement of more than 1.2 million residents.

It is the second such resolution to be put to a vote in the House this month. H.Con.Res. 84, also introduced by Tlaib, was shot down after Democratic leadership declined to endorse it—since it did not include a carve-out allowing the US to continue coordinating actions against Hezbollah with the Lebanese military—but still received support from 91 Democrats, plus Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.).

Lebanon War Powers Resolution VOTE #2 in US House will take place TOMORROW!, Tues. 6/30

Vote comes as Israel continues to bomb & occupy Lebanon

Vote #1 got 90+ Democrats — this version is backed by Dem leadership

End ALL US participation in Israel's war in Lebanon! https://t.co/tOYaQhzCdn pic.twitter.com/Bt1vlUcuEN

— Just Foreign Policy (@justfp) June 29, 2026

The new resolution, which has the support of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), Whip Katherine Clark (D-Mass.), and Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.), is expected to fare even better. The anti-war group Just Foreign Policy told Common Dreams that between 160 and 210 Democrats could now vote in favor of the measure.

Even in the best-case scenario, this would still require at least seven GOP defectors in addition to Massie. But Erik Sperling, Just Foreign Policy’s executive director, said the fact that the vote was happening at all was still tremendously significant.

“This is only the second vote [to halt US military action in] Lebanon on the floor of Congress in history,” he said. “It was already one of the most significant things imaginable that we’d even have a vote on it, much less have two in a month.”

Adding to the significance is the fact that Israel’s actions in Lebanon have become the primary obstacle to Trump’s efforts to end the war in Iran.

The memorandum of understanding signed earlier this month calls for a halt to military operations “on all fronts,” including Lebanon, and the Iranian delegation has repeatedly insisted that there is no deal without an Israeli withdrawal.

Last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu doubled down on his defiance of the agreement, stating that Israel would not withdraw “as long as I am prime minister.” Defense Minister Israel Katz added there had been “no American demand for Israel to withdraw.”

This is despite Trump’s public and private fuming at Israel for derailing his desperate efforts to back out of the conflict, which is deathly unpopular among the American public and which he has warned will cause “global economic catastrophe” if allowed to drag on much longer.

Israel and Lebanon agreed to another US-brokered framework on Friday that is supposed to set up a path for the Lebanese army to take over so-called “pilot zones” in southern Lebanon that are currently controlled by Israel. But in order for Israel to fully withdraw, it has demanded that Hezbollah fully disarm, which the group has said it will not do.

On the ground, there is little sign the deal is being implemented. Since Friday, Israel has conducted several strikes both inside the occupation zone and outside of it against what it said were Hezbollah militants.

While members of House Democratic leadership have said that the US is “not currently engaged in hostilities in Lebanon,” supporters of Tlaib’s measure have noted that even without boots on the ground, the US is intimately involved in Israel’s attacks. Trump has reportedly given a “green light” to multiple operations, and Israel has extensively relied on US intelligence.

Janet Abou-Elias, a researcher at the Democratizing Foreign Policy Project at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, told Common Dreams earlier this month that ending US coordination with Israel would significantly hamper its ability to continue its occupation of Lebanon.

With Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei reiterating on Monday that an end to Israel’s occupation of Lebanon was an “essential prerequisite” for an end to the war with the US, the anti-war coalition on Capitol Hill has said the urgency of passing Tlaib’s resolution is only continuing to grow.

“This vote is effectively a proxy vote on the Iran deal,” Sperling said. “Any member who genuinely wants a negotiated end to the Iran conflict should be voting yes. Members who vote no are functionally prioritizing continued Israeli operations in Lebanon over the prospects of a deal.”

Iran NOT DONE: Robert Pape WARNS Economic Pain Looms

Katz Says Israel Could Be Back at War With Iran ‘Tomorrow’

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Monday that the Israeli military was ready to restart the war against Iran and that it could happen as soon as “tomorrow.”

Katz vowed that Israel would bomb Beirut’s southern suburb of Dahiyeh if Hezbollah rockets were fired into northern Israel and that the IDF was prepared to respond if that prompted Iranian attacks on northern Israel.

“There is no reality in which Israel will not respond to an Iranian attack,” Katz said, according to Israel Hayom. “The equation stands – rocket fire on Israeli communities means an immediate assault on the Dahiyeh. “The possibility exists that Iran will attack Israel not only in response to strikes in the Dahieh. We could find ourselves at war with Iran tomorrow.” The Israeli minister said that a second potential scenario that would lead to a renewed war with Iran would be if President Trump decides to restart the bombing campaign.

Worth a full read. Here's a snippet to get you started:

For the 250th, US Congress Plans to Surrender Sovereignty

The United States Congress, on the very eve of the 250th anniversary of our Declaration of Independence from Great Britain, is preparing to formally diminish American independence and sovereignty through a proposed merger and long-term integration of executive functions throughout the government, coordinated by the Department of Defense.

Treacherous provisions in the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) mandate that the U.S. State Department, the U.S. Commerce Department and the heads of other relevant federal departments and agencies cooperate with their Israeli counterparts for the purpose of consolidating U.S. and Israeli military activities in order to align efforts and avoid duplication.

The greatest threat to American sovereignty rarely arrives wearing the uniform of a foreign army. It often arrives through the complacency, expediency, or poor judgment of elected officials who fail to recognize the long-term consequences of the powers they surrender.

Whether motivated by political convenience, misplaced loyalty, or simple inattention, such actions can erode constitutional self-government just as surely as deliberate acts of betrayal.

No foreign nation, regardless of whether it is Israel, Britain, Canada, France or Japan, should be integrated into permanent executive, military, technological, intelligence, and research structures in a manner that diminishes American sovereignty and democratic accountability.

The Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) recently identified Israel as a counterintelligence threat.

Under ordinary circumstances, such a finding would prompt heightened scrutiny, caution and congressional oversight.

Instead, Congress has continued advancing provisions in the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that would deepen military, technological and strategic integration between the United States and Israel.

Journalists Set the Record Straight After Musk Claims ‘Not a Single’ Child Died From DOGE’s USAID Cuts

As Elon Musk continues to claim that “not a single” child has died as a result of his foreign aid cuts at the beginning of the second Trump administration, journalists—including ones who witnessed the consequences of the policy firsthand—are correcting the record.

Since being called out by Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), who cited a journal’s projection that 4.5 million children under 5 could die by 2030 as a result of the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) sudden termination of most of the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) programs—including an 88% cut to children’s health aid awards—last year, the newly minted trillionaire has repeatedly asserted that the claim that he is responsible for the deaths of kids is “a total lie.”

“There is not even a single dead child!” Musk wrote on his social media platform X last Monday. “If there were, it would be worldwide headline news!”

Multiple journalists have been quick to respond that, in fact, the deaths of children and other people directly attributed to the termination of USAID programs by the agency he headed have been widely documented by major news outlets.

“Independent analyses estimate that your actions to dismantle USAID and drastically reduce lifesaving foreign aid have already killed 700,000 people,” wrote Atul Gawande, the former USAID global health chief and longtime New Yorker writer, who cited models from Boston University epidemiologist Brooke Nichols.

Jane Sunday, 15 months old, died of malnutrition in Kakuma, Kenya after the USAID closure and aid cuts slashed refugee food rations and severe malnutrition treatment. https://t.co/Isbu12tVo5 pic.twitter.com/5CcYvyYqqu

— Atul Gawande (@Atul_Gawande) June 25, 2026

In a lengthy thread posted on Thursday, Gawande cited nearly two-dozen examples in which news outlets named people who died as a direct result of cuts to health programs they relied upon.

These are just a few of the numerous other examples cited by Gawande, who added that part of the reason verifying deaths has been challenging is that DOGE’s cuts also “destroyed” USAID’s data and auditing systems, which meant that figures and overall mortality effects would take another year to fully tally.

However, he said he and a team of reporters had already compiled individual reports of more than 1,200 people whose deaths can be directly attributed to the cuts.

Elon, I can give you many, many names of people who have died because of your aid cuts.:
*Yamah Freeman was a 23-year-old woman who died in childbirth because you stopped paying for the diesel for ambulances in her part of Liberia. I talked to her parents and sister in their…

— Nicholas Kristof (@NickKristof) June 29, 2026

Even after being presented with direct evidence to the contrary, Musk continued to insist on Sunday that critics of his cuts to USAID “cannot cite a single name of someone who died out of the ‘millions’ they falsely claim have died. Not a single name!”

New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, whose reporting on the impacts of the sudden aid cuts was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize, responded that he could give Musk a list of “many, many names of people who have died because of your aid cuts

He issued a “challenge” to Musk: “Come with me on a reporting trip, and we’ll talk to these moms and dads, and you’ll see the dying children themselves. I think if you see the kids whose lives are at stake, maybe you’ll change your mind.”

US supreme court rules geofence warrants require constitutional privacy protections

The US supreme court has ruled that law enforcement’s use of sprawling warrants that sweep up smartphone location data requires privacy protections under the fourth amendment, in a boost to critics who view their use as an unconstitutional dragnet. Justice Elena Kagan wrote the majority opinion, which held that the sensitive data scooped up by “geofence warrants” counts as a fourth amendment search, and offers individuals a “reasonable expectation of privacy”, even if they may be in a public area.

“An individual has a reasonable expectation of privacy in records about his cell phone’s location, and police intrude on that constitutionally protected interest when they demand the information – even though for only a limited time, and from a third-party tech company,” Kagan wrote. The judges ruled 6-3 in Chatrie v US, against the government, in a case that has been widely viewed as a test of how privacy rights translate into a new digital era.

The use of geofence warrants is widespread, and gives law enforcement agencies the power to compel tech companies to hand over sensitive cell phone data from people at or near crime scenes. The warrants allow police and the FBI to collect this information from individuals within the radius of a virtual “fence” during a particular timeframe. But they are not restricted to requesting data for precise targets.

The Chatrie case focuses on local police’s pursuit of an armed bank robber in Richmond, Virginia. He fled with $195,000. Law enforcement tracked Okello Chatrie down through their use of geofence warrants. Chatrie had opted in to an optional Google “location history” feature that documented his location every few minutes. He was eventually sentenced to 12 years in prison, after pleading guilty. Chatrie’s lawyers argued that this search was overly broad and violated his fourth amendment rights, which protects individuals from “unreasonable search and seizure”. Lawyers said that police’s use of geofence warrants amounted to an official “search” under the fourth amendment, and didn’t meet the constitution’s requirements for one.

The government had argued that accessing only a short amount of cellphone location information means this tactic does not count as a fourth amendment search and accordingly, should not be afforded the same privacy protections. But the judges in the majority disagreed. The judges in the majority opinion also wrote that the government’s characterization of generating location history as a voluntary choice is “meritless”. They suggested that people aren’t choosing to share private information with third parties and the government “just by doing the ordinary thing cellphone users do”. “The point of carrying smartphones is to use what is on them,” including the apps and services they provide – many of which use location data to customize a user’s experience, they said.

US supreme court upholds law to count mail-in ballots arriving after election day

The US supreme court sided against national Republicans and Donald Trump’s administration to allow mail-in ballots that arrive after election day to be counted, upholding the law in more than a dozen states. The Republican National Committee (RNC) had challenged a Mississippi state law allowing mailed ballots to be counted if they arrive within five business days of election day, so long as they were postmarked by election day.

“Nothing in the federal election-day statutes requires ballots to be received by election day,” the conservative justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote in the 5-4 opinion. Barrett joined Chief Justice John Roberts and the three liberal justices – Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson – in delivering the majority opinion. Justices Samuel Alito wrote a dissenting opinion, which Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch joined and Brett Kavanaugh joined in part.

The decision to side against the president and Republican party is seen as a surprise after other supreme court decisions this term have upended election processes. The court decided earlier this term to allow Louisiana to effectively dismantle the Voting Rights Act, depriving Black voters of their ability to elect members of Congress of their choosing and setting off a frenzy of gerrymandering across the south.

The new decision will maintain state laws that allow ballots postmarked by election day to be counted later, affirming the role of states in setting election laws. Fourteen states, Washington DC and three US territories have similar laws that allow for late-arriving ballots to be counted.

Supreme court denies Alan Dershowitz bid to revive $300m lawsuit against CNN

The US supreme court has turned down a request by former Harvard University law professor Alan Dershowitz to revive a $300m defamation lawsuit filed against CNN over the network’s coverage of remarks he made while defending Donald Trump during one of the president’s first-term impeachments.

In a notice on Monday, the majority declined to take up the constitutional law attorney’s case in a brief, unexplained order that left in place the legal standards for public figures who claim defamation. Conservative justices Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas dissented on the decision, calling on the supreme court to reconsider those standards.

Dershowitz, 87, sued CNN in 2020, alleging that the outlet slandered and libeled him through its editing of a comment he made to the Senate while defending Trump during one of his impeachment trials. He claimed the revision made it falsely appear that he “had lost his mind”.

The lawsuit centered around a question by US senator Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, over whether an allegation that Trump wanted to trade Ukrainian political favors in return for US military aid could be considered grounds for convicting the president at his impeachment trial and removing him from office. Dershowitz responded: “The only thing that would make a quid pro quo unlawful is if the quo were somehow illegal.”

He said that CNN only played an ensuing remark to Cruz: “Every public official that I know believes that his election is in the public interest – and, mostly, they are right. Your election is in the public interest, and if the president does something which he believes will help him get elected in the public interest, that cannot be the kind of quid pro quo that results in impeachment.” Dershowitz contended that by playing the second comment, CNN made it appear that he was arguing a president could avoid impeachment for illegal acts as long as he believed his re-election was in the nation’s best interest. A lower court tossed out Dershowitz’s lawsuit, finding that he had not shown CNN acted with “actual malice” in its reporting.

Precedent? Who needs that when you have ideologues?

Outcry over supreme court decision to grant Trump power to fire agency chiefs

As a reality TV show host, Donald Trump rose to fame with the catchphrase: “You’re fired!”. On Monday, the US supreme court handed him – and all future presidents – the power to fire leaders of independent agencies or commissions, overturning 90 years of court precedent curbing executive power. While Trump celebrated the decision on Truth Social as a “big win”, labor advocates, unions, and consumer advocacy groups criticized the supreme court decision on the case, Trump v Slaughter, and warned of the long-term impacts for democracy in the US. Rebecca Slaughter, the Federal Trade Commissioner fired last March, said she was “profoundly disappointed about today’s decision” during a press call.

“There’s no sugar-coating Slaughter. It’s an enormously important ruling (far more important than the other three decisions handed down today). It’s a huge win for Trump/the executive. And it’s going to have massive ramifications for the functioning of the government long after Trump is gone,” wrote Stephen Vladeck, a Georgetown Law professor.

Trump has already fired several leaders of independent agencies during his second presidential term. He fired National Labor Relations Board member Gwynne Wilcox, the first Black woman to serve on the agency’s board; Susan Tsui Grundmann, one of three board members at the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA); Erika McEntarfer, the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics; and Deirdre Hamilton, a member of the National Mediation Board. But it was his firing of Slaughter that led to the supreme court ruling. Slaughter said in a statement that she was fired “because I have a voice. And he [Trump] is afraid of what I’ll tell the American people.”

Trump also fired another Democratic commissioner at the Federal Trade Commission, Alvaro Bedoya. No cause was given for justifying the firings, other than noting their “continued service on the FTC is inconsistent with [the Trump] administration’s priorities”.

The ruling overturns Humphrey’s Executor, a 1935 ruling that the US constitution did not grant “illimitable power of removal” to the president and protected independent agency staff from potential political attacks from the president. That case was triggered by Franklin Roosevelt’s attempt to fire William Humphrey, a Republican commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission. “As Justice Sotomayor recognized in dissent, today’s decision abandons nearly a century of settled constitutional understanding and replaces it with a loyalty test,” said Gary DiBianco, co-founder of the pro bono litigation corps Lawyers for Good Government.

The decision will leave Trump and any future president in far greater control of independent agencies. “In short, our authoritarian president was just handed the keys to be even more authoritarian, and the long-term consequences will no doubt be disastrous,” said Rachel Rossi, the president of Alliance for Justice, a progressive judicial advocacy group, in a statement on the ruling.

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Fired for Palestine Protest, Melat Kiros Now on Cusp of Congresss

Backlash from centrist Democrats as democratic socialist candidates sweep primaries

After a string of Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) primary victories, the loudest response from much of the Democratic establishment’s old guard was not reconciliation, but escalation. Over the last few days, prominent party figures have moved away from unifying under a “blue no matter who” banner to push for a more formal break with their left flank, and said the moment may have arrived for Democrats to confront their more socialist wing.

“I actually do think it’s time for Democrats to talk the S-word: schism,” James Carville, the veteran Democratic strategist and former Bill Clinton adviser, said on his podcast. He added that some DSA-aligned candidates “have no place in the Democratic party” and, of the broader coalition: “I’m not in that fucking political party.”

The recent results in New York City were the latest in a run of DSA-aligned wins that have spanned the primary calendar. Earlier this cycle, progressives claimed victories in Maine, New Jersey, California and Philadelphia, where state representative Chris Rabb won a congressional primary in May, and more elections just around the corner. The DSA has endorsed about 150 candidates this cycle, according to an analysis by the Washington Examiner, with 35 either winning primaries or advancing without opposition, in races stretching across Oregon, California, Georgia, Pennsylvania and New York.

Rahm Emanuel, the former Chicago mayor and White House chief of staff, offered a structural diagnosis. “What the socialist wing has decided to do is turn blue districts, dark blue,” he told CNN, arguing that Democrats had broadly “lost the plot” by becoming mired in niche concerns rather than mainstream US priorities. Former New York governor David Paterson warned on 77 WABC radio that the party risked something more fundamental than an electoral setback. “We’d better get that message and turn it around before we become extinct,” he said.

The data, however, offers a more complicated picture of where the Democratic base actually stands. A Fox News poll in March showed that 49% of all registered voters, including 72% of Democrats and 60% of independents, described capitalism as working “not very” or “not at all” well. CNN data analyst Harry Enten pointed to a poll from Marquette Law School that found the DSA now holds higher favorability than sitting congressional Democrats, from Democratic voters and leaners themselves. In his segment, Enten summarized it by saying: “Simply put, they’re more popular than the Democrats currently in charge.”

SURPRISE! Dem Base LOVES Socialist Candidates

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Trump officials to slash public input on fossil fuel drilling on federal lands

The Trump administration is attempting to shrink public comment periods for fossil fuel leasing on federal land while shifting the financial risks of cleanup to taxpayers and allowing for more planet-warming emissions. It’s part of a broader effort to dismantle public input processes and save polluting companies money, advocates say. “By ignoring public comment [requirements] while propping up companies,” said Alexa Dietrich, research director at the science advocacy organization Union of Concerned Scientists, “they’re really attacking democracy in a very clear way.”

The interior department said this week it wants to loosen two Biden-era regulations governing oil and gas drilling on national public lands. One would dramatically lower the fees that firms must pay for future cleanup costs before drilling; the second could allow companies to release more methane, a potent planet-warming pollutant.

The changes would also mean the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) – part of the interior department – would no longer be required to assess whether swaths of land proposed for oil and gas leasing have high potential for conflict with other resources such as wildlife habitat. And the proposal would slash the public’s ability to weigh in on oil and gas permitting.

Currently, the BLM must give the public 30 days to weigh in on which tracts of land will be made available in a lease sale. Officials must also draft National Environmental Policy Act documents for each sale, providing an additional comment period of no less than 30 days. Once notice for a lease sale is published, BLM must provide a 30-day “protest period” to allow for additional public input,” amounting to at least 90 days of public participation in total.

If the revisions are finalized, the need for those first two public comment periods would be eliminated completely, and protest periods would last just 10 days instead of 30. That would mean the public would not be able to weigh in on environmental reviews before they are finalized, said Wendy Park, a senior attorney at the national environmental advocacy non-profit Center for Biological Diversity. “A 10-day protest period is also insufficient for the public to weigh in when there can be dozens of lease parcels in a single lease sale, each with unique resource concerns,” she said. “It’s crucial for the public to be able to have time to raise concerns about specific resources on the ground, especially because BLM staff are not oftentimes necessarily familiar with conditions on the ground and what the effects might be of their decisions.”

Five Americans die every hour from toxic vehicle emissions

Roughly five Americans die every hour due to exposure to toxic road vehicle pollution, a new study has found. It’s the latest warning showing fossil-fueled transit is a major driver of mortality. In 2024 alone, the study found, more 41,800 premature deaths in the US were attributable to road pollution. “Transportation emissions have real, everyday impacts on the health and safety of communities we live in and represent,” said Paul Jones III, the transportation planner at the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance, a network of grassroots community-based groups which reviewed the new research.

The analysis from the non-profit research group International Council on Clean Transportation quantified the emissions from producing and consuming fuel for auto vehicles, using measurements collected via sensors by the group in partnership with the UK-based Fia Foundation. They then calculated the health impacts of that pollution using methods established by scholars.

Polls show a growing share of Americans are concerned about exposure to environmental toxins and would support more stringent regulations from federal officials. “At a time when many Americans are concerned about the impact of environmental toxins on their families’ health, public health authorities can’t afford to overlook the impact of vehicle pollution on mortality and respiratory health outcomes,” said Lingzhi Jin, a senior researcher at the International Council on Clean Transportation, in a statement.

The research also found that the US has more new pediatric asthma cases attributable to vehicle pollution annually than any other country. In 2024, US children accounted for one in 10 new pediatric asthma cases attributable to vehicle pollution globally.

Strong aftershock terrifies Venezuelans days after devastating twin quakes

A strong aftershock has rattled northern Venezuela, sending terrified residents racing on to the streets five days after the twin earthquakes that killed 1,719 people, left tens of thousands missing and triggered a growing humanitarian emergency.

The aftershock early on Monday – which the US Geological Survey measured at a magnitude of 4.6 – shook the capital, Caracas, and the devastated port city of La Guaira, where rescue crews are still hoping to pull as many survivors as possible from the rubble. Colombia’s geological survey put the aftershock’s magnitude at 5.1.

Although Jorge Rodríguez, the leader of the Venezuelan national assembly, said there were no immediate reports of new damage, the trembling earth and sounding of quake sirens brought fresh panic to Caracas and La Guaira.

“I was asleep when the shaking woke me up. It felt almost as strong as Wednesday’s earthquake, even though I hadn’t felt the other aftershocks,” said Amarelis Mendoza, a resident of El Hatillo in Caracas.

In the hardest-hit areas of the capital – including Altamira and San Bernardino – people poured on to the streets from the makeshift shelters where they had been staying. Many have been sleeping outside apartment buildings or in tents pitched along sidewalks, fearing further collapses. Several lines of the Caracas metro were shut down again over concerns that additional aftershocks could further damage already weakened infrastructure.

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Also of Interest

Here are some articles of interest, some of which defied fair-use abstraction.

The only logical outcome of a completely irrational war

Iran War: Axios Reports US, Iran Agree to Ceasefire Within Ceasefire, Doha Meeting on Strait of Hormuz as Iran Stands Up US on Technical Talks; Ship Transits Fall; Reports of Big US Buildup; Israel Attacks in Lebanon Continue

War On Iran: – Iran’s Negotiators Are Under Pressure

Democrats and Trump Are in Sync on Iran

Palestine Activist, Jailed as ‘Terrorist,’ Speaks Out

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Russia War Situation & A Possible EU/Russia War

Luigi Mangione’s federal trial now scheduled for January 2027 to not clash with state case

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A Little Night Music

Clifford Gibson - Ice And Snow Blues

Clifford Gibson - Hard-Headed Blues

Clifford Gibson - She's Got Jordan River In Her Hips

Clifford Gibson - She Rolls It Slow

Clifford Gibson - Tired of Being Mistreated, Pt. 1

Clifford Gibson - Levee Camp Moan

Clifford Gibson - Bad Luck Dice

Clifford Gibson - Brooklyn Blues

Clifford Gibson - Jive Me Blues

Clifford Gibson - Sneaky Groundhog

Clifford Gibson - Let Me Be Your Sidetrack (Take 2)

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