Marcia's "Bye Nate Bargatze, screw you forever" went up about 2
weeks ago. I agree with her 100%. I had really loved Nate Bargatze --
check my past posts. But for him to be a Trumper? I'm so not
interested in him anymore. Here's a DAILY BEAST article about the fall out. In other news, last night was THE BET AWARDS. THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER serves up
a list of the winners. If you watched, you caught tributes to D'Angelo
and Clive Davis. Lauryn Hill was awarded the Living Legend Icon Award
and Queen Latifah, SZA, Doja Cat, Nas, Tems, Lizzo, Rapsody, Tanya
Blount, and The War and Treaty performed a tribute to Lauryn.
Towards
the end of the ceremony, a number of artists, including The War and
Treaty, Tanya Blount, Doechii, SZA, Tems, Doja Cat, Nas, Lizzo, Rapsody,
Queen Latifah and Hill’s children, performed a tribute to the
rapper-singer before she accepted the Living Legend Icon Award. Among
the other winners were Cardi B and Kendrick Lamar -- both won Best Hip
Hop Artist. Kendrick also won for best collaboration with Clipse on “Chains & Whips.”
A far-right agitator was warned to "keep running" after showing up outside the BET Awards last night.
Footage
shared on social media appears to show Jake Lang, a participant in the
2021 January 6 United States Capitol attack, for which he served four
years in prison, jumping at the back of a black truck as a person
repeatedly shouts, "Keep running," and someone else throws water on him.
In the video, Lang, wearing a bullet proof vest with the American flag,
can be seen alongside three other men as the truck drives away.
At
one point, a person throws a banner at him which promotes anti-Black
rhetoric - and he shows it to the camera while moving away from the
scene in Los Angeles. According to reports, Lang used racial slurs and
stereotypes to berate the attendees who later rallied with other locals
to force his retreat. The incident happened as celebrities gathered for
the BET Awards.
Harry Styles left fans a little worried after lying down at the end of his recent Wembley Stadium set.
The
"Aperture" singer, who is currently performing a 12-night residency at
the London venue, sparked some concern during his June 26 show, which
happened to take place in the middle of the city's record-breaking heat
wave.
In fan-captured footage from the
concert, Styles was doing one of his signature moves: spitting water
into the air like a whale, after closing out the show with "As It Was."
But instead of continuing on from there, Styles went to the ground,
lying on his back and appearing to choke on some of the water left in
his mouth.
After coughing for a
few seconds and then wiping some water from his eyes, Styles eventually
got back on his feet. He seemed to be just fine as he waved to fans,
getting back on track with closing out the concert.
It’s
difficult to imagine Madonna—a legend, and the epitome of
confidence—being jealous of anyone. But, in a rare confession ahead of
the July 3 release of Confessions II, the icon shared one fellow pop
diva she was “a little bit jealous” of.
That
woman? Kylie Minogue, Madonna shared in a new interview with Graham
Norton. Norton asked Madonna how her memorable T-shirt with Minogue’s
name on it—which the “Vogue” singer wore to the 2000 MTV Europe Music
Awards in Stockholm, Sweden—came about.
“I was in
my Western mode, rhinestoning everything, and I was trying to think of
singers that I’m slightly in love with,” Madonna said. “And so
naturally, I thought of Kylie and had a T-shirt made of her.”
Minogue
was present for part of the interview, and said after seeing the
T-shirt that she “probably just stopped shy of fainting. It was
amazing.”
“I was actually a little bit jealous of you,” Madonna chimed in, leading Norton to ask, “Why?”
“‘Cause
she was so cute,” Madonna responded. Referring to her ex-husband Guy
Ritchie, she continued, “I think my ex-husband at the time had a crush
on her. I was like, ‘I’ll never be as beautiful as Kylie!’”
Monday, June 29, 2026. Oil prices rise again, new negotiations take
place between Iran and the US, Chump's buddy Epstein remains in the news
cycle -- and the joke cycle, Chump's attempt to turn last week into a
250th celebration of himself did not work, and much more.
The
price of Brent crude, the global benchmark for oil, rose over 1 percent
on Monday to between $73 and $74 a barrel for September delivery, the
most actively traded contract. Prices remain near prewar levels, where
they returned last week after a series of declines.
West Texas Intermediate crude, the U.S. benchmark, rose 1.5 percent to around $70 a barrel.
What happened? Saturday, THE NEW YORK TIMES reported,
"U.S. forces carried out more airstrikes on Iran, calling them a
retaliation for an attack on an oil tanker. Iran’s military later said
it had attacked American targets in Bahrain and Kuwait." That was
today. The 'memo,' 'deal,' 'treaty' or 'chain letter' fell apart on
Friday. Kevin Reed (WSWS) reported:
The US launched a new round of strikes on Iran on Friday in the most
explicit indication yet that the recently signed Memorandum of
Understanding (MOU) has collapsed into an escalating and open conflict.
U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said its aircraft struck Iranian missile
and drone storage locations and coastal radar sites near the Strait of
Hormuz.
A report by Al Jazeera said the US strikes were near the
Iranian port of Sirik. Al Jazeera also reported that Iran said it had
“succeeded in neutralizing” the attack and pledged to retaliate in a
statement shared by the ISNA news agency. The statement said, “We
emphasize that this aggression will not go unanswered, and our response
will be swift and decisive at a time and place of our choosing.”
An
Iranian parliamentary security official, Ebrahim Azizi, accused
Washington of attacking “in the middle of negotiations once again” and
said the US president had shown no commitment to negotiation or
ceasefire principles.
According to other reports, the US strikes
were carried out in response to Iran’s launching of at least four
one-way attack drones at a commercial vessel on Thursday, with one drone
striking the ship’s upper deck and damaging it before the vessel
continued its course.
Following the exchange of fire, the US and Iran accused each other of violating the ceasefire agreement.
Centcom
said in a statement, "Iran was given a chance to honor the ceasefire
agreement but elected not to when its forces launched a one-way attack
drone that hit MT Kiku," a Panama-flagged tanker.
In response, it said, Centcom hit military equipment, communication systems, air defense sites and drone storage facilities.
In
the IRGC's statement, it said the US had attacked five coastal posts in
Iran under what it called "the pretext of the IRGC Navy confronting the
offending ship".
In
retaliation, the IRGC said it had launched ballistic missiles and
drones at "eight key pieces of infrastructure" at the Ali al-Salem base
in Kuwait and the Fifth Naval Fleet in Port Salman, Bahrain, "destroying
them".
ALJAZEERA noted, "Saturday’s renewed attacks are the latest indication that a Middle East
ceasefire, established as part of a June 17 memorandum of understanding
between the US and Iran, might be at breaking point." Optimism. Aime Williams (FINANCIAL TIMES) noted the attacks " further imperilling the fragile ceasefire agreement
struck between Washington and Tehran almost two weeks ago." While Benoit Faucon, Lara Selignman and Saleh al-Batati (THE WALL STREET JOURNAL) noted Saturday's attack was "the second wave of American attacks in as many days." Uwa Ede-Osifo (GUARDIAN) adds, "In a statement the IRGC vowed that any further aggression would be met
with a 'crushing response' and warned that violating the ceasefire would
result 'in the complete halt of all diplomatic processes'."
The U.S. and Iran
have agreed to halt attacks in the Strait of Hormuz and allow vessels
to move through freely, according to a U.S. official who spoke on the
condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing negotiations, as continued
hostilities threatened a two-week-old cease-fire. Iran has yet to
confirm an agreement.
The
agreement would bring calm to the crucial waterway, where renewed
skirmishing began last week after an attack on a cargo ship. U.S.
officials blamed Iran for the resumption of hostilities, saying it had
launched drone attacks on two vessels in the strait in recent days. Iran
has not claimed responsibility for those strikes, but on Sunday
reiterated its demand that vessels follow its designated routes in the
strait.
Earlier
in the day, the Iranian foreign minister declared that his country
alone had the authority to manage commercial traffic through the strait.
Talks
were slated to continue on the mechanics of putting into action a
memorandum of understanding between the United States and Iran that
produced the fragile cease-fire, according to the U.S. official. The
official declined to provide any specifics on when or where those talks
would occur.
Ben covers the latest for MEIDASTOUCH NEWS this morning.
That was Whitney Cummings last night at The Kennedy Center's honoring of Bill Maher.
Donald Chump was best friends with the late pedophile Jeffrey
Epstein. He's highly defensive of that relationship now and lies about
it all the time. Epstein came up on Sunday's MEET THE PRESS (NBC):
RYAN NOBLES:
Yeah.
Let’s talk now about the Epstein files. That’s been an issue that has
been very difficult for the Trump administration. President Trump’s
decision to move on from the Epstein files, that launched a series of
top secret meetings in the Situation Room. Maggie, what do those moments
reveal about how Trump’s top advisors handled that crisis?
MAGGIE HABERMAN:
So
you have to set this picture here, Ryan. This had been something that
top officials in the Trump government–JD Vance, Kash Patel, the FBI
director, Dan Bongino, the deputy FBI director—had spent years talking
about how there was a secret cabal of pedophiles. And once they were in
charge, they would open this up and make this visible. Trump, to be
fair, had never actually really quite gone that far. He had talked about
it more in 2015, but it kind of went away.
RYAN NOBLES:
He certainly didn’t reject it, though.
MAGGIE HABERMAN:
Yeah,
I mean, as he often does, he sort of leaves it as an option. And there
were a number of senior officials in Trump’s White House who didn’t
understand what a driving force this was for the MAGA base, for Trump’s
own base. Trump wanted nothing to do with any of this. He didn’t want
anything out. He was snapping at people who would talk about it. And
then he started attacking his own supporters and saying, “This is a
hoax.” So we write about a series of meetings in the White House
Situation Room, which is intended to deal with national security crises,
with foreign wars, you know, with sensitive matters, but not usually
matters about, you know, Epstein PR crisis comms. And there were several
of these, but we zeroed in on a few. These start, the ones we write
about, right after the White House has used all of its political capital
on the One Big Beautiful Bill, which you know, was what they would’ve
rather been talking about. Instead they find themselves–and it’s the top
levels of government. JD Vance, White House chief of staff, attorney
general, deputy attorney general, Kash Patel, you know, several lawyers.
And that’s, like, half the crew who were in some of these, talking
about how to get themselves out of this. And this goes on, and on, and
on. And all it does is allow a greater clamor among Trump’s supporters,
including this surreal meeting that we end up writing about, where they
were planning on putting out some public-facing website with things old
and new, and you know, they were discussing what universe it would be.
And then somebody had looked up in that mock website they were setting
up, Trump’s name. And up pops up this unverified, already public claim
with an allegation that Trump, you know, was made second-hand, but it
was about Trump. And that was sort of the end of that.
Ryan
Nobles was filling in for Kristen Welker. and speaking with Maggie
Haberman and Jonathan Swan about their new book REGIME CHANGE.: INSIDE
THE IMPERIAL PRESIDENCY OF DONALD TRUMP. In other Epstein news, Robert Davis (RAW STORY) notes:
President Donald Trump has had a hard time distancing himself from the Jeffrey Epstein saga, and a new development in the case might prove to be more of a headache than he wants, according to two legal experts.
Earlier this month, convicted sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein's assistant, Lesley Groff, testified before Congress
about her relationship with the disgraced financier and his crimes. The
transcripts of that interview were released late last week, and some of
the details Groff shared with investigators raised red flags for
attorneys Brian Kabateck and Shant Karnikian, who co-host the "Civil
Action" podcast on the Legal AF Network.
For instance, Kabateck pointed out in a new episode
on Sunday that Groff testified she began working for Epstein in 2001
and that Epstein and Trump were in contact for at least a decade. That
seems to contradict Trump's previous claim that he cut off communications with Epstein in 2004 or 2005, well before Trump became president, Kabateck noted.
Another
issue is that those dates extend beyond Epstein's 2008 felony
conviction for soliciting a minor, which is another "problematic" aspect
of the timeline, Kabateck said.
Friday,
the House Oversight Committee heard remarks from Leon Black behind
closed doors until Black decided to walk out mid-testimony. Jimmy Jenkins (BLOOMBERG NEWS) explains:
Billionaire investor Leon Black was issued two subpoenas by a
congressional committee and walked out early from voluntary testimony
regarding his relationship to late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Members of the House panel investigating Epstein clashed with Black
behind closed doors on Friday about non-disclosure agreements the Apollo
Global Management Inc. co-founder allegedly concluded with women.
The House Oversight Committee issued one subpoena requiring Black to
appear for a deposition on July 16, according to a statement from the
panel. The second subpoena requires him to produce NDAs to the
committee.
Black said in his opening statement to the committee that he never
abused women and wasn't blackmailed by Epstein, his longtime friend and
client. After questions about NDAs, Black left the meeting early,
something the chairman of the panel said he had never seen before.
The billionaire financier's abrupt exit from The House of
Representatives Oversight Committee session has shifted the focus from
his long-running ties to Jeffrey Epstein to the secrecy deals
investigators now believe could hold vital clues about the disgraced
financier's network.
Black voluntarily testified on Epstein's relationships with wealthy
and influential figures. His name is mentioned in files released by the
US Department of Justice. However, when committee members began the
inquiry about NDAs that may have been signed in connection with women
Black had relationships with, he stormed out.
Committee leaders
proceeded to approve subpoenas seeking copies of any relevant agreements
after Black's departure and required him to return for an on-camera
deposition under oath.
Democrats on the House Oversight Committee issued the following statement:
Washington, D.C. — Today, Rep. Robert Garcia,
Ranking Member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform,
released the following statement after Leon Black, billionaire and
primary client of Jeffrey Epstein, stormed out of his transcribed
interview with the Committee when asked about non-disclosure agreements.
“Leon Black had a chance to do the right thing and help us bring
justice to the survivors. Instead, he ran out of the room when he was
pressed for information about his non-disclosure agreements with women
and his relationship with survivors of Jeffrey Epstein. He has now been
subpoenaed and must provide real answers to the Committee. He will be
held accountable if he doesn’t comply with our investigation,” said Ranking Member Robert Garcia.
Leon Black had a longstanding relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.
Black was Epstein’s primary client, even after Epstein was convicted in
Florida of sex crimes. Black paid millions to women he engaged with
sexually, some of whom were also connected to Epstein. Black forced
women to sign strict non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) to keep them
quiet. He also paid $62.5 million to the U.S. Virgin Island to avoid
Epstein-related claims against him. Black paid Epstein $170 million for
“tax and estate work” and his name is mentioned hundreds of times in the
Epstein files.
###
And as the story continues to play out in the public, Adam Lynch notes:
Salon reports
the specter of Jeffrey Epstein appears to be looming over the
Republican Party as the GOP struggles to maintain it’s delicate House
and Senate majorities.
Republicans
have seized on Epstein’s ties to Democratic figures like former
President Bill Clinton, but it appears that Epstein lingers most heavily
over the party with a president whose name peppers the Epstein files,
and who worked so obviously to keep the files under wraps. Trump also labored to remove Republicans who favored exposing the Epstein files in Republican primaries.
This is giving Democrats an additional edge in a race that is already swinging heavily
away from Republicans who have failed to reign in President Donald
Trump’s various power grabs and his monetizing of the White House.
“The
revelations from the files further fueled the widespread, bipartisan
exasperation among voters with the wealthiest elites,” reports Salon.
“The Epstein issue, two Democratic pollsters told The 19th, is rare for
its high salience and far reach even among less politically engaged
voters — and for the high levels of bipartisan agreement on the need for
more action.”
Surveys
from Navigator Research and progressive pollster Data for Progress
buttress that argument, with both polls showing majorities of voters —
including a majority of Republicans — believe “there hasn’t been enough
accountability connected to Epstein’s crimes” and they want to see more
arrests and prosecutions. The March Navigator poll,
in particular, revealed the share of Americans who said they believed
Trump administration officials should resign over the Epstein matter
increased when they were informed about officials in other countries
being arrested, fired or forced to resign over their Epstein
connections.
In
1976, the US celebrated it's 250th anniversary and it id so with
national events and national gatherings. Not partisan ones. Chump did
not get 50% of the votes. He got 49%. And many Americans didn't vote.
His speeches at these supposed events to celebrate the 250th
anniversary are nothing but boasts from him about himself and attacks on
Americans who aren't MAGA. It's disgusting and it's perverted. That's
why people aren't turning out. Even some Republicans grasp that this
not how a nation celebrates its birth.
He's
not speaking of our 250 years, he's not speaking of anything but
himself. He gets in front of people and lies that two years ago we were
buried and that he's made us "hot" again and blah blah blah. He is not
an hour in our country's 250th anniversary. His importance does not
even register as one hour. But he continues to inflate himself and to
try to make everything about him. To do that, he has to insult others
because no one's praising him. Outside of the Cabinet meetings, he's
not getting praised. Only around the suck ups does he get praised.
He's
a failure. He's a Convicted Felon. He's someone who tried to
overthrow the republic on January 6, 2021. And he can't recognize those
who came before except to insult them because he is such a narcissist.
No salutes to any who came before -- not Lincoln, not Benjamin Franklin,
not Martin Luther King Jr., not Ida B. Wells -- no one.
Now
he's old, he's 80, but he's not 250 years old. So, no, celebrating
himself is not celebrating 250 years of our country's existence.
Donald Trump's Great American State Fair kicked off Friday on the National Mann in Washington, D.C. to bad weather, power outages, poor attendance, and, apparently, a Confederate flag problem.
This prompted plenty of responses from both attendees and people
watching from afar via social media. As one person put it, "This is
pathetic."
The New York Times reported
Saturday the fair is missing key traditional elements often present at
similar events (like butter sculptures, naturally), but there are
displays promoting Turning Point USA and a portrait of Donald Trump.
Footage from Saturday showed scarce attendance on the lawn.
Former
Congressman Adam Kinzinger, who served in Illinois from 2011 to 2023,
wrote on X, "Wow. Turns out people aren't very maga after all."
Vanilla Ice's performance at Freedom 250's Great
American State Fair was scrapped at the last minute on Friday, June 26,
as storms swept through Washington, D. C. Heavy rain fell near the stage
area before the 58-year-old was scheduled to perform, with very few
people turning out for the show. It comes after critics came up with a wild reason for the show to be canceled.
Tom Boggion (RAW STORY) observes, "The cancellation represents yet another failure for what has become a
disaster for the administration. Three days into the 16-day celebration,
Trump's fair has been wracked by artist boycotts, electrical failures, broken equipment, sparse attendance, and now a weather-canceled performance by a 1990s rap act that was supposed to salvage the event." Edith Olmsted (THE NEW REPUBLIC) notes the high prices:
President Donald Trump has made it clear he doesn’t care about high prices—even at his own Great American State Fair.
Attendees
at the first day of the president’s festival were disappointed to
discover that what few food options were actually open were far from
cheap.
USA Today reported that the only food stall open on Thursday sold turkey legs for $23—almost twice the price of the same offering
from a Disney theme park. The stall also offered smashburgers and giant
western sausage sandwiches for $20, and lemonade for a whopping $9.
The crowd beyond the gates is meager. Upon entry, the Ferris wheel
smacks you in the face—it’s not very big, but the slow-moving line
boasts the highest concentration of people anywhere on the Mall. One
couple toward the back tells me they’ve been waiting for 20 minutes
already and they haven’t even seen the ride run yet. (City Cast reported
around 6 PM Thursday night that the wheel had broken down due to
generator issues and was expected to be out of commission for an hour or
two. We reached out to Freedom 250 for specifics and are waiting to
hear back.) A few days ago, I might have been reluctant to hop on, given
how the administration’s last construction project resulted in a potentially toxic algae bloom in the Reflecting Pool. But recent reporting
confirmed the wheel was inspected both by DC safety officials and a
third-party company, so I am tempted to join the queue. No single
passengers are allowed, so I consider asking to join another group. A
beaming woman swimming in American flag apparel saunters past, and she
seems like she’d be a good time. I ask if she’s ridden yet. “No,” she
says firmly, gesturing at the enclosed gondolas. “It looks like a hot
box.” If she’s out, so am I.
[. . .]
An hour into my excursion, I have already been the subject of two
exorcism attempts and my constitution is starting to falter. There can’t
possibly be a better time for my lemonade. I step into the food hall,
where I see a single vendor: Express Hibachi, which is an unusual name
for a purveyor of personal pizzas and chicken Caesar salads. I skip the
dining and head straight for the beverage stand. At this moment, I
realize it’s all over: The only available lemonade is Minute Maid, sold
by the plastic bottle. Feeling bamboozled and stupid for believing that I
might find something beautiful at this garish perversion of an American
tradition, I consider purchasing three $14 Cutwaters and passing out in
the middle of the grass. But I already appear to be emanating a demonic
energy to my fellow fairgoers, so I settle on a $5 water. In the
meantime, another performer has taken the stage, a 14-year-old singer
named Reagan Oliver who has traveled here from Arkansas and croons a
sweetly timid rendition of “Delta Dawn.” Most of the attendees ignore
her, and only a few clap when she’s done.
A display at Washington, D.C.’s Great American State Fair has been taken down after an “unapproved image” drew criticism from some fairgoers.
CNN’s Gabe Cohen said the dustup occurred over an image of the Confederate flag at the booth representing North Carolina.
“People
who were here attending the state fair were surprised yesterday when
they walked into that booth, into the North Carolina pavilion, and found
that there were images of a Confederate flag projected on multiple
screens,” Cohen said, continuing:
I
will tell you, North Carolina is one of the states that did not send
official representatives. Their booth is actually being run by several
companies from North Carolina. And I spoke to a spokesperson for the
pavilion who told me that they became aware of an unapproved image in a
video that was displayed inside the pavilion on Friday. And they said,
quote, “As soon as we were made aware, we immediately removed the video
and began reviewing how it occurred.” So we still don’t know how that
image ended up there, but it certainly speaks to some of the concerns
that people have over this event.
And
again, we we still don’t know how that picture ended up in the North
Carolina pavilion, but we were in there a little earlier…and it clearly
has been taken down at this point, but even the governor’s office in
North Carolina immediately put out a statement and said, “This is not
the North Carolina that we love and we represent.” They had called
Freedom 250, the organization that put this together, demanded that be
taken off the screens. It seems, though, that the companies inside were
already notified and they were working to get it taken down.
The Confederate flag was first reported by Spectrum News’s Reuben Jones,
who wrote Friday, “I stopped by the North Carolina booth at the ‘Great
American State Fair’ on the National Mall today. The state decided not
to participate because of the high costs so the booth is sponsored by
private orgs.”
Let's wind down with this from Senator Ron Wyden's office:
Washington, D.C. — U.S.
Senator Ron Wyden said today he has joined Senate colleagues in
demanding answers from the Trump administration about its rushed
rehabilitation project of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
The lawmakers note that the issues facing the reflecting pool are not
simply maintenance concerns, but failures by the Department of the
Interior in project execution and government oversight.
"The American people deserve to know why the rehabilitation
project has failed and the corrective actions the Department is taking
to address this ongoing issue," the senators wrote to Department of the Interior Secretary Doug Burgum.
"Perhaps, most troubling, is that the reflecting pool now
will have to be drained again for additional repairs only weeks after
its completion," the senators continued. "If a project
this costly and of this magnitude cannot remain functional for an entire
month after its completion, serious questions must be raised regarding
the planning, execution, inspection process, and the Department's
acceptance of the completed work."
"Taxpayers deserve a full explanation of how these failures
occurred and who will be held accountable for correcting them," the
senators added.
The lawmakers concluded the letter by requesting answers by July 9 to the following:
Why did costs rise from $1.8 million to more than $14 million?
What funds were used for the project?
Who will pay for future repairs?
What was the Department's justification for awarding a no-bid contract?
Will the contractor be held accountable for the defects and failures?
What investigations have been conducted into the coating failures and algae bloom?
The letter was led by U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich, D-N.M.. In
addition to Wyden, the letter was signed by U.S. Senators Angus King,
I-Maine, Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, Alex Padilla, D-Calif., and Ruben
Gallego, D-Ariz.
For this 250th anniversary year
of the United States, pianist Lara Downes is on the road exploring the
nation's history through song. For her latest stop, she traveled to
Tryon, North Carolina, to talk with Pulitzer Prize-winning author
Salamishah Tillet about the subject of her upcoming biography. On a
bright sunny day, when the birds were singing, they met at the birth
home of singer, pianist and Civil Rights activist Nina Simone, and their
conversation focused on one Nina Simone song.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "I WISH I KNEW HOW IT WOULD FEEL TO BE FREE")
NINA SIMONE: (Singing) I wish I knew how it would feel to be free.
LARA DOWNES, BYLINE: I keep going back to this song, "I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free"...
SALAMISHAH TILLET: Yeah.
DOWNES: ...Because for me, it really is, like, a personal statement of liberation.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "I WISH I KNEW HOW IT WOULD FEEL TO BE FREE")
SIMONE: (Singing) I wish I could say all the things that I should say.
DOWNES:
For me, it's been very important to look at her legacy. I think for you
too 'cause we were talking about your journey from academia to writer
to, like, protagonist and freedom of self-expression.
TILLET:
She's a lot of different things at different moments in my own artistic
and political journey. The song, it's also a way of kind of marking the
Civil Rights Movement - right? - because Billy Taylor writes the song
in 1963 as an instrumental...
DOWNES: Right.
TILLET: ...For his daughter.
(SOUNDBITE OF BILLY TAYLOR'S "I WISH I KNEW HOW IT WOULD FEEL TO BE FREE")
TILLET:
That's, like, a really beautiful gift for your child. She represents
the possibilities of this battle. This is the generation that you're
actually fighting for to have freedoms that you didn't experience in
your own childhood.
DOWNES: It's very interesting now. You
know, I'm moving around the country, and I'm doing this big project that
is considering 250 years of American history through music.
TILLET: Yeah.
DOWNES:
And I'm working with all these young people, and I'm learning that they
don't know anymore who Nina Simone is. So then I have the challenge of
explaining her, and I find that the only way I can do that is say, here,
watch.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "I WISH I KNEW HOW IT WOULD FEEL TO BE FREE")
SIMONE: (Singing) Wish I knew how it would feel to be free.
DOWNES:
I played for them the video of Nina singing "I Wish I Knew How It Would
Feel To Be Free." It's Montreux in 1976. And it's a crazy performance.
She's full of rage, and she's full of pain. And she's also got this fire
in her belly, and there's no way not to experience this and have your
mind changed.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "I WISH I KNEW HOW IT WOULD FEEL TO BE FREE")
SIMONE:
(Singing) Free. Free. Free. Free. I'm free. And I'm not. Don't want to
be here (ph). And I shan't, but I'm still free. Believe in me.
TILLET:
And so what I love about this song, it's a really up-tempo song. And in
many ways, it's a song that's about lament, though. So the wish
fulfillment is freedom, but you haven't experienced it yourself. So I
wish I knew how it feels to be free. But the song itself is so upbeat
that you actually feel like you're experiencing some sense of it as
you're listening to it. So it's just a lot of complications, like...
DOWNES: That's what I'm talking about.
TILLET: Yeah.
DOWNES: All of those emotions that coexist, I think that's what those kids were responding to.
TILLET: Yeah.
DOWNES: But it's not just I wish I knew how it'd feel to be free. It's I wish I could give all the love that's in my heart.
TILLET: Yeah.
DOWNES: It's like, I am not allowed to be fully myself.
This is the performance that they were talking about.
For the first time in history, The Beatles have released a colourised video of their famous ‘All You Need Is Love’ performance.
The video was released for Global Beatles Day on June 25th, which is also the day in 1967 when The Beatles were Britain’s submission for Our World, delivering a debut of ‘All You Need Is Love’ from Abbey Road to 400 million people across the entire globe via satellite link.
John Lennon wrote the song specifically for the satellite broadcast,
aiming to bring as many people from around the world together for a few
minutes through the medium of song.
Ringo Starr later said of the song and Our World in Anthology,
“We were big enough to command an audience of that size, and it was for
love. It was for love and bloody peace. It was a fabulous time. I even
get excited now when I realise that’s what it was for: peace and love,
people putting flowers in guns.”
Now, for the first time, it has
been made available to watch in colour as The Beatles and Apple Corps
acknowledge Global Beatles Day for the first time.
The special day
was created by fan Faith Cohen in 2009, but it has taken almost 20
years for her campaign to receive the support from those it is intended
to celebrate.
In 1943, a future music icon was born in New York City. More than eight decades later, Carly Simon remains one of the defining singer-songwriters of her generation.
Simon
turns 83 on June 25, capping a career that has produced some of the
most enduring songs of the last half-century, including "Anticipation,"
"You're So Vain," "Mockingbird," "You Belong to Me" and the James Bond
classic "Nobody Does It Better."
Long
before "influencer" became part of the cultural vocabulary, Simon
embodied a free-spirited artistic style that earned her the nickname
"Boho Queen." In a 2005 profile, The Independent
described Simon as the "Boho Queen," a fitting title for an artist
whose flowing style, confessional songwriting and effortless cool helped
define the singer-songwriter movement of the 1970s.
Her breakthrough came
in 1971 when her self-titled debut album earned her the Grammy Award for
Best New Artist and introduced audiences to "That's the Way I've Always
Heard It Should Be." But it was 1972's No Secrets that transformed Simon into a superstar.
The
album spent five weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and featured
"You're So Vain," one of the decade's most memorable hits. The song
topped the Billboard Hot 100 for three weeks and sparked one of pop
music's longest-running mysteries as listeners debated the identity of
its subject. More than 50 years later, the song remains Simon's
signature recording and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in
2004.
Fifty-five
years ago, iconic singer-songwriter Carly Simon released "That's the
Way I've Always Heard It Should Be," a song that, despite never claiming
the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100, persevered as a definitive breakup anthem.
Released
in April 1971 as the lead single from her self-titled debut album,
"That's the Way I've Always Heard It Should Be" was a breakthrough
success. Even though the song never reached the absolute top position,
it thrived on the Hot 100. By July, the track peaked at No. 10, spending 17 weeks on the chart and marking a major milestone in her early career.
"That's
the Way I've Always Heard It Should Be" achieved significant commercial
triumph alongside its chart success. During its initial run, the track
sold over 400,000 copies in the U.S. alone—a major feat for a debut
project—and earned a Grammy Award nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal
Performance at the 14th Annual ceremony. Outside of the single's solo
success, the parent album eventually went on to be certified Gold by the
Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for its massive
commercial impact.
August 14th, Carly's new album COMES IN WAVES debuts. Meanwhile, her debut album has just been re-released on a new format. Joe Marchese (THE SECOND DISC) notes:
Last month, Rhino announced its newest batch of Quadio titles,
re-presenting vintage quadraphonic surround mixes on Blu-ray Audio
Discs. This time out, the label has turned its attention to four ‘70s
classics from three artists returning to the series (Carly Simon, Randy
Newman, Seals & Crofts) and one making his Quadio Blu-ray debut
(Mongo Santamaria). All four titles, also containing high-resolution
stereo mixes of the original album, are shipping now exclusively from Rhino.com.
Carly Simon’s self-titled debut album arrived on Elektra Records in
the spring of 1971, nestled in the label’s discography between
singer-songwriter Paul Siebel’s Jack-Knife Gypsy and folk band
Farquahr’s eponymous LP. Carly wasn’t quite a stranger to the music
business, having recorded three albums for the Kapp and Columbia labels
with her sister Lucy as The Simon Sisters, but her solo debut augured
for a major talent. She was signed by the label’s founder, Jac Holzman,
beginning an association with Elektra that would endure for the entirety
of the 1970s. Carly Simon, produced by
Eddie Kramer (Jimi Hendrix, Joe Cocker), introduced the
singer-songwriter’s distinctive and personal voice on songs including
the haunting hit single “That’s the Way I’ve Always Heard It Should Be”
(co-written with Jacob Brackman), the folk-rock-flavored “Alone,”
country-tinged “One More Time.” With “That’s the Way…,” Carly earned a
Grammy nomination and her first top ten hit – no small accomplishment
for what’s essentially an art song, beautifully crafted and intimately
performed. It takes on a new dimension in this thoughtful and
imaginative quadraphonic mix.
“That’s the Way” immediately makes an impression with strings and
piano in the rear channels, and Carly’s voice joined by drums in the
fronts. Though most of the album is mixed with piano and voice up
front, drums often extend to the rear channels where they’re joined by
background vocals and additional instrumentation such as steel guitar.
(Ed Freeman and Pat Rebillot are responsible for the striking string
charts throughout.) Guitars are beautifully spread on “Alone,” with
well-defined bass up front.
The quad mix brings out the details in “One More Time,” too, both in
Simon’s vocals and the twangy instrumentation. The choral section of
“The Best Thing” features one of the strongest uses of the quad
soundscape, both gentle and enveloping as the song marries
country-and-western and baroque textures. The mix cuts loose on “Just a
Sinner” with its prominent, front guitars; the rollicking “Rolling Down
the Hills” similarly sparkles in four channels. Carly Simon would
experience her commercial breakthrough two albums later with 1972’s No Secrets,
also the recipient of a strong quad mix (available on Rhino’s recent
Blu-ray Audio presentation), but this self-titled debut has never
sounded better or more powerful than in this pristine issue.
The year was 1981. Diana Ross sat across a negotiating table from
executives at RCA Records and signed a seven-year contract worth $20
million, the largest recording deal in the history of the music industry
at that moment. She had just walked away from Motown after two decades,
collected a $250,000 severance from Berry Gordy and decided, at 37,
that the next chapter of her career would be written entirely on her own
terms. Her first RCA album, "Why Do Fools Fall in Love," sold over a
million copies. The gamble worked. It almost always did with Diana Ross.
That
negotiation is not simply a data point in a long career. It is a window
into the commercial instinct that has made Ross one of the wealthiest
Black female entertainers in American history. She has never been the
loudest voice in any room. She has also rarely been the one who left
money on the table.
[. . .]
The late-career chapter of Diana Ross's financial story is, in its
own way, as remarkable as any deal she signed at the height of her
commercial power. In 2021, at 77, she released "Thank You," her first
album of original material in 19 years. It earned a Grammy nomination
for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album. In 2022, she received the Grammy
Lifetime Achievement Award as a solo artist, the second time she has
received the honor, having previously received it as a member of The
Supremes in 2023. She is the only woman in Grammy history to have been
honored in both categories.
She launched The Music Legacy Tour in
2023, followed by "Diana Ross: A Symphonic Celebration" in 2025, a
residency-style series built around her catalog with full symphony
orchestra accompaniment. In 2026, she launched "Diana in Motion," a new
series of concert engagements scheduled to run through the year. She is
81 years old and in her fifth consecutive active touring year.
The
touring income is material. A solo Diana Ross concert event in a
premium venue commands ticket prices that reflect her status as a living
monument to American popular music. A single evening at Carnegie Hall
or the Hollywood Bowl carries a gross ticket revenue in the hundreds of
thousands of dollars before production costs. A multi-city tour across
North America and Europe generates millions in gross revenue, of which
Ross takes a significant percentage as the headlining artist and her own
production company as the rights holder.
That's right, five years of touring. She and Bob Dylan have both been on the road since 2021. They change the title of their tours from time to time, but they have both been on the road performing for fice years straight.
Friday, June 26, 2026. Chump's partisan celebrations passed off as
national celebrations continue to underwhelm, his corruption is only
matched by his administration's, a member of Congress calls for the
impeachment of the Secretary of Labor, Health and Human Services
Secretary Junior is caught lying to Congress and attempting to use his
government position to influence whether candidates run for office or
not, Katie Phang wins in court on The Epstein Files, and much more.
Ben (MEIDASTOUCH NEWS) notes the failure that was Chump's MAGA State Fair yesterday.
One of the only nice things about downtown Washington, D.C.
is the fact that anyone can stroll freely through the Mall. Now that’s
been ended. To celebrate America, security fencing has been erected and
entry is restricted to a couple of access points that are manned by
heavily armed National Guard, Metro Police, Park Police, Capitol Police,
U.S. Marshals, Secret Service, TSA, and anyone else capable of carrying
a gun and doing seemingly nothing at all. All of this to access a space
that consists of: sod. The grass is nice. Unbroken by a single tree,
its greenness under the broiling sun is a nod to the golf course style
that is fascism’s highest aesthetic.
“When you walk around Washington, D.C.,” said Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, one of the night’s warmup acts, “not
only is it safe again. It’s beautiful again.” As she spoke, a line of
black-clad snipers were clearly visible on the roof of the Agriculture
Department headquarters across the street. Their rifles commanded the
entire field of sweltering sod. These square blocks of our nation’s
capitol, from 12th to 14th
street, have been made both safe and beautiful, simply by fencing them
off, filling them with soldiers, and redesigning them as a suburban
lawn. First, these blocks, and next, the world.
You might already know the humiliating backstory of this
entire event: first it was announced as a big concert, and then the
announced acts — all the way down to Milli Vanilli and Bret Michaels—pulled out in fear of public backlash, prompting a petulant President Donald Trump to declare that he would “take the place of these highly paid, Third Rate ‘Artists,’
and give a major speech, rallying the Country forward.” So the unlucky
planners of the event were forced to cobble together a show plausible
enough to satisfy the president’s ego, without the benefit of any
actual celebrities.
The resulting event leaned heavily on speeches by
second-tier members of the cabinet and music from the Marine Corps band,
giving it the air of a boss who threw a birthday party and required his
employees to attend. To honor the total capture of America’s
institutions by cronyist incompetence, Alexis Wilkins, the country
singer girlfriend of podcaster-turned-FBI Director Kash Patel, sung the
national anthem. Christopher Macchio, a Trumpian crooner, did a cruise
ship version of “Hallelujah.” The military band sent up uniformed singers and guitar players for karaoke-level covers of “Gloria” and “Walking on Sunshine.”
The whole thing felt like a show that might be inflicted
upon a desultory crowd of students at a reform school, forced by their
principal to listen to the hits of the past, with the threat of juvenile
hall looming over anyone who made a wisecrack.
Convicted Felon Donald Chump has surrounded himself with
crooks. Kristi Noem jetting around with her consort, Markwayne Mullen
now using the same luxury $70 million dollar Boeing 737 jet, Tom Homan taking a $500,000 bribe -- the list is
endless. And of course there's Junior. Junior has a long history of
ethical lapses and now a new one has emerged. Travis Gettys (RAW STORY) reports:
A
newly obtained audio recording shows that Health Secretary Robert F.
Kennedy Jr. personally pressured a Libertarian congressional candidate
in Iowa to abandon a competitive House race, urging him to step aside to
protect Republican control of Congress.
The Washington Post obtained
a recording of the 12-minute call in which Kennedy told Rick Stewart,
the Libertarian candidate in Iowa's 2nd Congressional District, that he
was acting as a "liaison" with the White House, and he warned that a
Democratic takeover of the House would derail President Donald Trump's
agenda and suggested he could help Stewart if he exited the race.
“I
can’t go into specifics because there’s legal prohibitions about that,”
Kennedy told Stewart in the June 11 call. “If it’s something that you
want to talk about, you know, you and I can talk about specifics.”
Stewart
said he interpreted the call as a clear, if carefully worded, attempt
at a quid pro quo. "He was very careful about the words that he used,
but the whole implication is: You help us, we'll help you," Stewart
said, adding that he has no intention of dropping out.
Marco
Battaglia, a Libertarian running in Iowa's 3rd District, said Kennedy
made a similar, unrecorded appeal to him on June 8, warning that the
House could flip to Democrats if Battaglia stayed in the race. Battaglia
said he rebuffed Kennedy, invoking the legacies of Kennedy's father and
uncle.
Government ethics experts said the confirmed recording bolsters concerns that Kennedy's calls may have violated federal law.
Danielle
Caputo of the Campaign Legal Center said federal officials should not
be "tipping the scales, behind the scenes" by pushing candidates to
withdraw, though she noted proving a Hatch Act violation could be
difficult. Stanley Brand, a Penn State law fellow, said Kennedy could
face exposure under separate criminal statutes barring officials from
using their authority to interfere with elections or offering benefits
in exchange for political activity.
Junior
has disgraced himself yet again. He and his trashy wife have squeezed
just about everything that they could out of his late father's name.
Now Junior is left exposed as the grifting con artist he always has been
and always will be.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told the Senate last year that a trip to
Samoa in 2019 right before a deadly measles outbreak had “nothing to do
with vaccines.” New evidence from The Guardiansuggests he may have lied.
In
emails between Kennedy’s team and Samoan officials, one of Kennedy’s
colleagues said they were on a “mission” to investigate the island’s
medical records. There had been a 10-month pause in vaccinations after
two infants died due to a tainted MMR vaccine, and anti-vaccine
activists gained interest in the island as a potential case study in the
health of vaccinated versus unvaccinated children.
“The mission involves health informatics evaluation from
medical record data from all hospitals and clinics in Samoa to evaluate
outcomes associated with the recent discontinuity in vaccinations,” Dr.
Michael Graven, who worked at Kennedy’s anti-vaccine group Children’s
Health Defense, wrote in a 2019 email. “Mr. Kennedy asked me to join
this mission as I have performed health informatics initiatives in 48
other countries over 40 years.”
This stands in direct
contrast with how Kennedy repeatedly described his work to the Senate.
In response to questioning from Senator Ron Wyden during his
confirmation hearings last year, Kennedy said, “I went there, nothing to
do with vaccines. I went there to produce a medical informatics system
with digitalized records in Samoa and make health delivery much more
efficient.”
Let's
move back to Chump and the Republicans meeting on Wednesday. Because
while Wednesday appeared to show some strength on the part of
Republicans, Thursday popped up and there were some who were brought on
to have their spines removed.
Even
by our fully debased standard of grading President Donald Trump on a
curve, yesterday was a rolling catastrophe of astonishing political
blunders. Not even the kind that seem like gaffes to normies but
energize his base with high-fiving celebrations of owning the libs. No,
Trump didn’t own the libs yesterday. The only person he owned was
himself. And yet, Senate Republicans remain submissive, even after
showing small flashes of fight.
Voters
of both parties are worried and stressed about housing costs and
affordability, so any sane politician would seize the opportunity for a
photo op of his support for a bipartisan housing bill. Instead, Trump,
who lives in a gilded penthouse and private golf club when he’s not in
residence rent-free at the White House, which he is needlessly renovating with taxpayer money,
unexpectedly cancelled a scheduled signing ceremony (via Truth Social,
of course), saying he would not sign the bill unless Senate Republicans
passed the SAVE America Act,
a voter suppression bill. Wow, this guy really knows how to negotiate,
doesn’t he? As any viewer of Schoolhouse Rock knows, the housing bill
will become law without his signature, and then he will have missed the
opportunity to show everyone how much he cares. Instead, he hands
Democrats an opportunity to show voters how much he only cares about his
delusions and conspiracy theories, and not about addressing their
struggles to afford housing.
Headlines
about Trump’s lunch with Senate Republicans yesterday were dominated by
the shouting matches, especially with Louisiana’s Bill Cassidy,
triggered by the tensions he has stoked with his own party, stemming
from his SAVE America Act demands, his anger
over the passage of the Iran war powers resolution, and other matters.
While such a confrontation seemed to mark a new era in Trump-GOP
relations, definitively declaring a turning point was perhaps premature.
Late last night the Senate, with Cassidy switching his position, votedagainst
another war powers resolution in a procedural vote GOP leadership
brought to the floor for the sole purpose of assuaging Trump after his
blow-up with Cassidy earlier in the day. According to the Washington
Post, Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) and John Barrasso (R-WY)
successfully pressed Cassidy to change his vote.
Following
his Capitol Hill showdown, Trump met with NATO Secretary General Mark
Rutte in the Oval Office, where he reprised his conspiracy theories
about his botched reflecting pool renovation, insisting
there is photographic proof of “thugs” vandalizing it. “They took razor
blades and they cut patches like that, 350 feet long. A lot of them are
like a foot, a foot, a foot. They cut the lining and there’s pictures
of the guy bending over. I don’t know if anybody saw that, but there are
pictures of the guy,” he said. Reporters, of course, have asked the
White House, the National Parks Service, and the Department of the
Interior to see these photos for themselves. This is not just a “Trump
claimed, without evidence” moment. Trump is just making stuff up — not
unprecedented for him, but notable because the reflecting pool debacle
is such a huge, visible, and easily comprehensible tale of corruption
and incompetence that it will prove much more difficult for him to
bulls[**]t his way out of it.
Chump's actions are making it very hard for Republicans up for re-election to make a case to voters. Adam Lynch notes:
Former GOP U.S. Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Penn.) lamented
before a CNN panel at how eagerly President Donald Trump appears to be
trying to ruin Republicans’ chances in November, even when he’s
allegedly campaigning on their behalf.
Dent was responding to a recent comment about Trump from U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, (R-La.) comparing Trump to a child.
Trump
allegedly called Cassidy a ‘lunatic,’ in a recent war of words, which
prompted Cassidy to tell reporters: “Can I imagine that the President
called me things that would be said on a school playground? I can
imagine [that]”
But Dent said Republicans like Cassidy appear
to be late in showing their feelings as the midterm elections begin to
close in on them, with the public growing ever more frustrated at
Trump’s economic policies and his unilateral attack on Iran, which
inflated U.S. fuel and food prices in time for November.
“If I
wanted to lose a midterm election, I would do the things the President
is doing,” said Dent. “I would steal defeat from the jaws of victory on
this Housing Bill. I would obsess over a ballroom. I would obsess on a
pond — the reflecting pool — and an arch. I would say ‘I don't care
about Americans’ financial condition. I mean it's as if he's trying to
deliberately undermine his own party's electoral prospects.”
An interview with a former Donald Trump voter
from Rolla, Missouri, has gone viral on social media. The woman spoke
about how hard life is for poor people today. The interview aired on the
news channel MS NOW. The reporter was speaking with residents about
their views ahead of the midterm elections.
The woman said she believes the president’s policies are harming financially struggling families.
“I’m not into politics, but I know what’s right and wrong,” she said.
The
reporter then asked her what was wrong with the country right now. She
explained that the president does not understand what it is like to be
poor.
“The way Trump is treating us. Treating
us poor people. I mean, it’s just bad because he has never been poor. He
has always had that gold spoon in his mouth,” she said.
Donald Trump’s political magic may be wearing off, as some of his most devoted supporters have turned their backs on him.
The
president’s MAGA movement appears to be shrinking month by month as job
approval ratings dip well below 40 percent in national polls.
More signs of Trump’s slipping grip on his supporters emerged at a White House event he heavily promoted and headlined.
[. . .]
Trump thought everyone would enjoy the over-the-top attractions and having him as a headliner but that was not the case.
Footage
shows people leaving early from the State Fair, as the president was in
the middle of giving his final remarks on stage on Wednesday night.
“America
is now the largest producer of oil and gas on earth, larger than Russia
and Saudi Arabia by far combined,” Trump could be heard saying as
scores of attendees walked away.
Even some MAGA hat
wearers were seen abandoning ship just 16 minutes into Trump’s address.
Clips of the exodus sparked widespread ridicule of the POTUS.
“HOLY
S–T. People are flooding the [exits] right in the middle of Trump’s
speech. It FINALLY happened. Even his supporters are over his
nonsensical blabbing,” read a second tweet.
So
who did Trump manage to book for his big event? Who was the big name
they managed to lock in? Well, it’s Kash Patel’s 27-year-old girlfriend.
Get excited everybody.
The FBI director’s
27-year-old girlfriend is a featured performer at Trump’s big
celebration, which I’m sure was thrilling news for all of these 6,000
people who are following her budding country music career on Spotify.
I’m sure they are absolutely delighted.
But it
turns out well-known musicians are not the only ones dropping out of
Trump’s big state fair. The website for the event says it will feature
more than 150 exhibits from all 50 states and territories. Sounds good,
right?
Only it turns out that some of America’s
states and territories are just as reluctant to participate in this
thing as Milli Vanilli or one half of Milli Vanilli, to be exact,
because several states have now also announced that they are pulling out
of this event, too. According to various news outlets, at least 10
states have dropped out and will not have exhibits at the event.
Trump couldn’t even get all 50 states of the United States of America to attend the Great American State Fair.
And
he can’t even deliver on the food he promised for this event, it turns
out, because yesterday “Axios” reported that a local D.C. sandwich shop
that appeared on the event’s vendor list said they never agreed to
participate in the fair at all. Again, this is — this is supposed to be
the kind of thing that is easy for a president. It’s the kind of — kind
of the presidential equivalent of a local politician showing up at a
ribbon cutting ceremony, but Donald Trump can’t even pull this off.
And
Jen was right. In fact, as Ben reported in the video at the top of the
snapshot, thee food situation was much worse because some vendors did
show up . . . only to have the power go out and food get ruined. And
the Ferris wheel wouldn't work.
How much of
our tax dollars were wasted on that garbage? And don't pretend you want
the nation to come together and to unify when you've got Sean Duffy on
stage cursing at liberals or Chump onstage insisting that two years ago
the country was the laughing stock and blah blah blah. This was a
partisan event. This was not about unity, it was not about America.
Glory
was being sought. But not for this country. Not for its founding.
Not for the hope of what it can be. Everyone on stage was present to
glorify the Convicted Felon.
And, no, you're
not going to get even half the country willing to go along with that as a
celebration of 250 years of existence.
The
Make America Healthy Again movement that helped sweep Donald Trump back
into the White House is fracturing over his betrayal on pesticides —
and MAHA activists are now threatening to stay away from Republicans in the upcoming midterm elections.
According to a report from MS NOW's Arielle Hixson, the Trump administration's decision to back Monsanto in the Supreme Court's Roundup
pesticide liability case is turning into a pivot point for the
administration. The company is fighting to shield itself from state
lawsuits claiming the herbicide should have carried cancer warnings. By
supporting Monsanto's legal team, Trump signaled whose side he's on—and
it's not the health-conscious base that carried him to victory.
According
to a report from MS NOW's Arielle Hixson, the Trump administration's
decision to back Monsanto in the Supreme Court's Roundup pesticide
liability case is turning into a pivot point for the administration. The
company is fighting to shield itself from state lawsuits claiming the
herbicide should have carried cancer warnings. By supporting Monsanto's
legal team, Trump signaled whose side he's on—and it's not the
health-conscious base that carried him to victory.
[. . .]
That
threat of voter disengagement represents a catastrophic risk to Trump
heading into 2026. MS NOW is reporting a Kaiser Family Foundation poll
found 41% of American adults support MAHA — voters who skew Republican
but whose loyalties are now visibly shaken.
Alexandra
Muñoz, a toxicologist working with the MAHA movement, warned that a
Monsanto victory would "strip accountability from a category of
chemicals that includes known carcinogens and could clear the way for
more hazardous pesticides to reach the market," according to the report.
Hannah
Dunning, the "Clean Clothing Chick," articulated the movement's
ultimatum, telling MS NOW, "If they want to be disrespectful to the
point where they're going to side with Big Chemical in the Supreme
Court, watch out for angry moms, because we're here; we're ready."
President Trump, facing a backlash from
supporters of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for allying
himself with the chemical industry, issued an executive order on Thursday aimed at reducing pesticides in the food supply and studying the health risks they pose.
The
order does not involve new federal funding, and does not call for new
regulations or legislation. Critics contended that it did little to
meaningfully address the consequences of pesticide use. Two White House
officials, speaking anonymously to preview the order before it was
announced, said it was timed to coincide with a dinner Mr. Trump was
hosting for farmers.
And it's not just independents, swing voters, Republicans and MAGA that Chump's losing, Nicole Charky-Chami (RAW STORY) reports even the tin foil hatters of QAnon are leaving Chump Land:
QAnon
believers have turned on President Donald Trump, and despite an attempt
from the White House to win them back, it has backfired among the
president's former allies, an analyst reported on Thursday.
Will Sommer, senior reporter at The Bulwark,
described how the Trump administration dropped a "bizarre QAnon-themed
social media campaign" this week. In posts on X, the White House used
slogans associated with QAnon, including “trust the plan” with a mock Q
design to try to promote Trump executive orders and references to
"quantum computing."
"There are several reasons why
QAnon believers are turning on Trump," Sommer wrote. "But the main
thrust boils down to this: After trying to block the release of the
Jeffrey Epstein files and failing to deliver deep-state arrests, some of
the movement’s dissatisfied stars think it’s a bit gauche, if not
insulting, that the president and his team are appropriating QAnon
culture."
QAnon John, a former movement personality, described the backlash over Trump's second administration and the online group.
“Now,
[sic] that Trump’s approval is in the toilet after endless broken
promises to the American people and blatantly Israel first policies,
they are using Q propaganda in a last ditch desperate attempt to reel
the deceived loyalists back in," he wrote.
Chump's reflecting pool nightmare continues but it's not the only damage he's physically done to the area. Vic Verbalaitis (DAILY BEAST) notes:
Yet another of President Donald Trump’s vanity projects has left a nasty scar on an iconic Washington, D.C. landmark.
The
White House South Lawn, the featured site of the president’s 80th
birthday bash, housed the 600-ton metal behemoth dubbed “The Claw” for
Trump’s birthday fight night, which ruined the historically pristine
green lawn in the process.
As can be seen in aerial
photos captured on Wednesday, workers have arrived to repair the grass
damaged by the UFC Freedom 250 event held on June 14.
[. . .]
Trump’s
other vanity projects, such as his botched Lincoln Memorial Reflecting
Pool renovation and his demolition of the White House East Wing to make
way for his $600 million ballroom, have irrevocably changed the historic
People’s House and its surrounding landmarks.
All
that money wasted on Chump's personal birthday. Corruption, corruption,
corruption. Chump can -- and does -- add to our national debt
constantly. He's just not very good when it comes to generating income
for the United States. Tristan Bove (FORTUNE) reports:
U.S.
colleges are dealing with plummeting international student enrollment,
and the consequences could go far beyond shrinking tuition revenue.
International
students have become less likely to pursue education in the U.S. since
President Donald Trump’s return to office. The administration has
introduced more restrictive anti-immigration policies, including
measures that explicitly target foreign-born students, and tightened rules about post-schooling employment for international graduates.
Last
fall, schools reported international student enrollment had dipped 17%,
according to NAFSA, an education nonprofit. Declining tuition spending
translated to $1.1 billion in lost revenue for universities, and almost
23,000 fewer jobs.
Those figures might just be a
drop in the bucket if international students end up permanently
absconding from U.S. schools. International enrollees disproportionately
pursue technical degrees, including in scientific, technology,
engineering, and mathematics domains, otherwise known as STEM. The
skills and the professions these lead to are cornerstones to U.S.
innovation and technological breakthroughs, which in turn bolster all
sorts of businesses and jobs. By cutting off those foreign-born grad
students and PhDs at the source, the U.S. risks gutting its own economy
years down the line.
That’s the finding of a paper
published Tuesday by researchers at the Peterson Institute for
International Economics. If the number of transplant STEM graduates
trained in the U.S. were to fall by a third over the next decade, the
blow to entrepreneurship, productivity, and business dynamism would claw
anywhere between $240 billion and $481 billion from the country’s GDP,
the paper found.
Whether it's the
White House lawn or the influx of money to the country from foreign
students, Chump destroys it all. He's a screw up, a loser, and always
has been.
Back
to his corrupt and criminal administration. The worst and the dimmest
that the nation has ever seen. Each one is a dirty joke. Linda
McMahon, for example, Linda's still part of the sex abuse case -- she
and her husband are accused of enabling the abuse of underage boys. The
most recent development in the case was a month ago. Max Everett (WRESTLING INC) reported:
Judge
James K. Bredar ordered that the plaintiffs in the Maryland lawsuit
against Vince McMahon, Linda McMahon, and WWE may continue under
anonymity for the time being.
The plaintiffs
sued the defendants, for their alleged role in covering up the child
sexual abuse they endured as WWE "ring boys" at the hands of senior
staff like Mel Phillips and Pat Patterson, under the Child Victims Act
of 2023 allowing historic child sexual abuse survivors to seek
reparation that had previously been unavailable to them.
While
the case is being litigated before a decision is made to go to trial,
the McMahons opposed an order granting the plaintiffs anonymity, citing
that they were unduly prejudiced as public figures while they went on
unknown to the public. The judge rejected those arguments and believed
that the risks are not great enough to outweigh the risk to the
plaintiffs if they were to have their identities known to the public.
Accused
of covering up sexual abuse of underage boys. And she's our Secretary
of Education. Not a lot of pride in the administration, is there? Well
she's in the news again and I guess anything's better than being
accused of being part of pedophile ring. Linda Jacobson (THE 74) reports:
Linda McMahon became the first U.S. education secretary to be the target of impeachment proceedings Thursday.
Rep.
Suzanne Bonamici, a member of the House education committee, filed
three articles of impeachment against McMahon, noting the secretary’s
“willful intent to unilaterally dismantle and eliminate the Department
of Education.”
[. . .]
The
resolution accuses McMahon of compromising the ability of the
department to fulfill its duties. That’s also the conclusion that the
department’s Inspector General reached in a report
released Wednesday detailing how the administration has slashed the
agency’s staff by 40% and canceled billions of dollars in grants and
contracts.
Miss Sassy
JD Vance is Vice President and part of the administration and deeply
corrupt and even more deeply stupid. Today on MS NOW's MORNING JOE,
they took on Vance's stupidity.
On Thursday, a federal judge based in Washington, D.C., ordered the
Justice Department to unredact additional pages of the Epstein files in a
suit brought by attorney and independent journalist Katie Phang.
The preliminary injunction orders redactions be removed in key
documents of interest in the files, including “at least eight email
exchanges with Mr. Epstein regarding a ‘torture video’ and sexual
activity with young women, including minors” as well as interviews with a
woman who said she was abused by President Trump as a minor.
“The Attorney General’s arguments are unpersuasive. First, Ms. Phang
has identified ‘some concrete consequences of not receiving the
information.’ She has identified ‘half a dozen stories she is currently
unable to report’ because the Attorney General has not disclosed the
information,” U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan wrote in a decision that also found Phang had a right to bring the case under the Administrative Procedures Act.
He also rebuffed the idea that Phang could have simply requested the
documents through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), noting that the
department itself had previously said the Epstein Files Transparency
Act “directed a much broader and less redacted release of the files than
would have been made under the FOIA. Certain exemptions which may have
been made under FOIA were not made” in the Epstein Act release.
The Justice Department must either produce the documents or “show cause” as to why they cannot comply.
Let's wind down with this from Senator Patty Murray's office:
The Wage Theft Prevention and Wage
Recovery Act would put money back in workers’ pockets by protecting
their right to fair pay, strengthening accountability for violations,
and improving recovery of stolen wages
One report estimates that roughly
$50 billion is being stolen from American workers via corporate wage
theft every year, potentially even more
Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray
(D-WA), a senior member and former chair of the Senate Committee on
Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), and U.S. Representatives
Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03), Ranking Member of the House
Appropriations Committee and Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human
Services, and Education, and Robert C. “Bobby” Scott (D-VA-03), Ranking
Member of the House Committee on Education and Workforce, reintroduced
their Wage Theft Prevention and Wage Recovery Act,
comprehensive legislation that puts hard-earned wages back in workers’
pockets and cracks down on employers who unfairly withhold wages from
their employees. The proposed legislation would give workers the right
to receive full compensation for the work they perform and receive
regular paystubs and final paychecks in a timely manner.
Each year, wage theft denies workers tens of billions of dollars in
pay they have earned as employers commit a variety of minimum wage,
overtime, off-the-clock, tip, and meal-break violations. Wage theft
violations are pervasive at many large corporations. In fiscal year 2025, the U.S. Department of Labor recovered more than $259 million in
stolen wages on behalf of workers—representing just a small fraction of
wages stolen nationwide. These illegal practices disproportionately
hurt low-wage workers—amplifying poverty and inequality in America. As
many as 35% of tipped workers, and 17% of low-wage workers generally, report being paid less than the prevailing local minimum wage in their state—denying workers $50 billion annually from minimum wage violations alone, potentially even more.
“Wage theft is the biggest form of theft in America—but right now
giant corporations are robbing workers blind,” said Senator Murray.
“Workers
are robbed of an estimated $50 billion every year, and this
administration’s answer has been to slash enforcement to the lowest
level on record and give the green light for employers to steal from
workers—so I’m doing something about it. Our bill guarantees workers the
full pay they’ve earned, strengthens accountability, and makes sure
stolen wages actually get recovered. You do the work, you earn the
pay—that’s a very basic contract we should expect every employer to
uphold.”
“Americans are living paycheck to paycheck,” said Congresswoman DeLauro. “Working
people are earning wages that have not kept pace with the cost of
living, and on top of that, our most vulnerable workers face the threat
of employers stealing or withholding their wages with little to no
consequence or ability to make themselves whole. This cannot stand—we
are in a cost-of-living crisis. Billionaires and corporations are
hoarding every cent they can from the working and middle-class which is
struggling to just break even under President Trump’s administration. I
am proud to partner with Senator Murray and Ranking Member Scott to
introduce legislation to end this theft and give workers the ability to
recoup their stolen wages. Americans deserve pay for all the hours they
work, including overtime and tips. The theft must end.”
“It is unacceptable that dishonest employers can steal
workers’ wages with little to no consequence. Each year, our most
vulnerable workers are cheated out of billions of dollars. We cannot
grow the middle class when we don’t even have adequate deterrents to
prevent wage theft,” said Ranking Member Scott. “Workers
and employers must be able to trust that our labor laws will hold
unscrupulous employers accountable for violating the law and help
workers recover the wages stolen from them. This bill would take
critical steps to help workers receive the full pay they’ve earned for
all hours worked, including overtime pay, and level the playing field
for law-abiding employers.”
Every day, workers across the country work long hours, expecting
proper compensation, only to have their employers withhold their wages.
While many employers act honestly and treat workers fairly, too many
others force their employees to work off the clock, refuse to pay the
minimum wage, deny them overtime pay after working more than 40 hours a
week, steal tips, and knowingly misclassify workers to avoid paying fair
wages.
The Wage Theft Prevention and Wage Recovery Act would
strengthen fundamental protections to help ensure workers receive the
full compensation they have earned and crack down on corporations that
subject workers to these abuses. Taking these steps will put money back
in workers’ pockets and help ensure our economy works better for all
Americans, not just the largest corporations and wealthiest few.
Specifically, the bill would help combat wage theft and improve wage recovery by:
Strengthening workers’ right to fair pay and improving employer accountability
Requires employers to pay all wages owed to an employee.
Currently, under federal law, workers can only recover wages at the
minimum wage or for overtime worked; for example, an employee may be
hired at $9.00 per hour, but would only have the right to recover $7.25
of every $9.00 she was owed. This bill would allow workers to recoup the
full compensation that employers have taken from them.
Increasing deterrence of and penalties for wage theft violations
Bolstering recovery of workers’ stolen wages
In the Senate, the legislation is cosponsored by Senators Tammy
Baldwin (D-WI), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Maria
Cantwell (D-WA), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Dick Durbin (D-IL), John
Fetterman (D-PA), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), John Hickenlooper (D-CO), Tim
Kaine (D-VA), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Ed Markey
(D-MA), Chris Murphy (D-CT), Alex Padilla (D-CA), Jack Reed (D-RI),
Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Adam Schiff (D-CA), Tina
Smith (D-MN), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Sheldon
Whitehouse (D-RI), and Ron Wyden (D-OR).
In the House, the legislation is cosponsored by Representatives
Suzanne Bonamici (OR-1), Nikki Budzinski (IL-13), Andre Carson (IN-7),
Mark DeSaulnier (CA-10), Dwight Evans (PA-3), Jahana Hayes (CT-5),
Eleanor Holmes Norton (DC), Ro Khanna (CA-17), Jim McGovern (MA-2),
LaMonica McIver (NJ-10), Ilhan Omar (MN-5), Andrea Salinas (OR-6), and
Mark Takano (CA-41).
The legislation is endorsed by AFL-CIO, Economic Policy Institute, National Employment Law Project, SEIU.
“EPI’s research has shown that employers steal billions of
dollars from workers’ paychecks each year — by misclassifying workers,
paying workers less than the minimum wage, stealing tips, or keeping
workers’ real hours off the books. Despite this, the federal agency
responsible for protecting workers’ paychecks lacks adequate staffing
and resources to investigate these violations at scale, and the
deterrent penalties in many cases are not strong enough to stop
employers from breaking the law in the first place. This bill would go a
long way towards cracking down on employers who violate the law,
ensuring workers have transparency to understand their rights, and
making sure that workers are able to get back the stolen wages they are
owed,” said Samantha Sanders, Director of Government Affairs and Advocacy at the Economic Policy Institute.
