More Than Five Things June 30 - July 6, 2025
“everybody knows that the weather is extremely difficult to predict." Kristi Noem
Some 11 or so of the girls at the camp that were missing have been rescued, but other reports speak of an increased number of children dead, don’t know if from the camp just now 82 total people dead, still climbing. 10 of those missing girls from the Mystic Camp are still being searched for. 850 people have been rescued.
--For the People of the U.S.: An Attack on the Rule of Law Including Due Process and Civil Liberties
The Eight
The Djibouti eight have arrived in South Sudan. While supposedly the U.S. has notice from the government of South Sudan that the men will not be tortured, how would we ever know? Even if they are not immediately incarcerated, left to their own in this country of kidnapping, murder, gun violence, near civil war, how will eight men with no knowledge of the language and customs, lacking money, relations or friends, survive? South Sudan is a country that the U.S. State Department advises against travel to due to “crime, kidnapping, and armed conflict.”
“This was a win for the rule of law, safety and security of the American people,” said Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin in a statement Saturday announcing the men’s arrival in South Sudan, a chaotic country in danger once more of collapsing into civil war.”
No, no its not. It’s exactly the opposite. A judge ordered they receive the due process they were not given before they left. The Supreme Court decided that no one has to get due process when deported to a third-party country.
There will be more now. Will you be one of them?
And the Trump administration will, as they have here, insist that these men were convicted of heinous crimes. But they have served their sentences. Regardless, the constitution guarantees due process.
The Supreme Court said, no, no it doesn’t
We are here.
Deregulation
According to the Washington Post the United States Department of Labor will slash 60 or more regulations. Included are:
The elimination of overtime and minimum wage protections for home health care workers
Union organizing rights for migrant farmworkers here on H-2A work visas.
Reporting requirements for employers on musculoskeletal injuries
Changing rules giving labor officials ability to penalize employers who fail to maintain safe workplace.
Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer said she is proud that they are “eliminating unnecessary regulations that stifle growth and limit opportunity.”
This is “President Donald Trump’s promise to ‘restore American prosperity.’”
(During her confirmation process Teamsters President Sean O’Brien lobbied heavily for his confirmation.)
—For Loyal Subjects of Trump: Impunity
Abrego Garcia’s Lawyers Like Frankel During World War II
In his book, “The Dual State: A Contribution to the Theory of Dictatorship” Ernst Frankel wrote of his experiences as a Jewish lawyer in the Courts of Germany during World War II. He said that after a while, he realized that he could best serve his clients by getting them judged guilty. Yes, judged guilty, because if they were judged innocent the Secret Police would arrive and disappear them.
Now, in the case of Abrego Garcia, the immigrant whisked off by admitted administration ‘mistake’ to a torture prison in El Salvador despite a judge’s order not to, is now in federal court on charges of smuggling immigrants within the U.S. The judge ordered his release while awaiting trial but at a hearing to establish the conditions of his release his lawyer’s argued, after earlier fighting for his release, that they wanted him kept in custody for his own protection. They were afraid that if released, he would be whisked away by ICE (our own secret police) and deported to a third-party country before anyone knew it happened. The Supreme Court has recently ruled that immigrants may be deported to third-party countries in violation of their due process rights.
So, we are here. The actions of the Trump administration, the Supreme Court and our Secret Police—ICE have colluded to make attorneys realize that what they advocate for might, if won, send their clients into the hands of the Secret Police, just like Frankel’s realization during World War II in a German court.
Political Appointees Overroad Career Staff Limiting Approvals of Covid-19 Shots
Novavax (April 1) and Moderna were on track to receive permanent approval as Covid-19 vaccines. Staff (30) concluded they were safe and effective. Clinical trials tested the shots in thousands of people.
But Dr. Prasad wrote that there could still be a problem, as yet unseen, that might make their use too risky.
Then, according to records released by the FDA political appointees overrode career staff. Doctor Prasad wrote an “center director override memo.” That is written when the decision of career experts is overridden by top officials.
A made-up puffery statement was given by spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services about Dr. Prasad’s decision. “He evaluated the totality of the evidence and made a judgment rooted in gold-standard science,” he said. “That’s not political — it’s what principled leadership looks like.”
However, experts in infectious diseases and vaccines, after reading all the reports and Prasad’s statements said that Prasad did not weigh well-documented harmful effect from Covid-19 like long Covid and post Covid lung, heart and blood clotting problems. (Is failing to weigh in these things “gold standard science”?)
Novavax is not an mRNA vaccine, Moderna is.
Novavax
Novavax’s application was for approval for anyone over 12 years old. It had been approved for emergency use during the pandemic. This application would make it a permanent approval.
The approval it received, due to interference by political appointees including Dr. Vina Prasad, was for use only by seniors age 65 and older and other’s high risk. He had doubts about the veracity of Novavax’s submitted data and said that the Covid-19 risk of severe disease had dropped therefore changing the “benefit risk calculation in non-high-risk individuals.”
He cited safety concerns that he said, "fundamentally alters the benefit-risk calculation in non-high-risk individuals." “Even rare vaccination-related harms, both known and unknown, now have a higher chance of outweighing potential benefits in non-high-risk populations," Prasad wrote.
(So, maybe someday, another harm from the vaccine, a vaccine-related injury not yet discovered, will appear so we should not vaccinate those younger than 65 right now just in case? What distorted, twisted reasoning is this?)
“It is a dark time in the history of public health when political appointees overrule expert recommendations, pick and choose data to support their ideology, and use their position to advance personal agendas,” said Dr. Daniel Griffin, an infectious disease expert at Columbia University.
Dr. Prasad replaced Dr. Peter Marks longtime head of the center regulating vaccines and biologics who left after Kennedy became Secretary. Prasad is now the FDA chief medical and scientific officer as well. (Trump has now established a history of adding multiple top jobs to one individual who is loyal to him, regardless their ability to handle two important and time-consuming critical jobs.)
Moderna
Similar judgements approving this vaccine for those 12 and over were overridden for similar reasons.
Modern has redeveloped its vaccine, calling it mNexspike, and the dose is one-fifth of the original. Tested against the original in a study of 11,000 people it was found even more effective.
Protection For Everyone Else
According to the New York Times, if those under 65 and not at high-risk, want a shot they may find a doctor who will write an off-label prescription.
In this case, the shots may or may not be covered by insurance.
Slave Labor Coming to a Detention Center Near You?
Heather Cox Richardson always has good information and ideas in her Substack. On July 5 she gave three of them. The potential for slave labor again in the U.S., ICE potential hiring of armed thugs, and a lawsuit to end the National Firearms Act.
First, she expounds on Timothy Snyder’s warning that all the concentration camps Trump has called for and now funds with the Big Ugly Betrayal Bill could become the sites of slave labor.
Snyder, a renowned expert on past authoritarian regimes and author of “On Tyranny” says that incarcerated workers in the U.S., like those in similar detention camps in other countries could be offered to employers on special terms. And please note that Trump has been preaching he’s working on a way to put workers back in the fields and businesses by putting them under the authority of those hiring them. (“owner responsibility” as Trump has said. Slavery, Snyder says)
Is that legal? is it constitutional?
The Thirteenth Amendment permits enslavement “as punishment for a crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted.”
This was and is the basis for various systems:
Chain gangs (and others), where it permitted employers to pay the fines of incarcerated and own their labor until the debts were paid. Employers used and abused these workers.
According to the nonpartisan Economic Policy Institute, 1.2 million are incarcerated in state and federal prisons. Almost 800,000 work in the facility or in government-run business (call centers, firefighting). A few (3%) work for private sector employers. All earn very low pay.
Militarization of ICE
Richardson also introduces the ideas of Harvard sociologist Theda Skocpol. She says that since state and local government control police powers, American scholars thought that was protection against a police state.
However, the “massive militarization of ICE” including the potential of hiring masked street agents to do whatever they are told against whom ever. (Immigrants, citizens.) is chipping away at that purported protection.
And who is to say that some of those masked men now grabbing people of the street and refusing to identify themselves aren’t already untrained and unrestrained militia or street gang members, known organized anti-democracy groups such as Proud Boys, One Percenters etc.?
“One Big Beautiful Lawsuit” To End National Firearms Act
Shortly after Trump signed his Big Ugly Betrayal Bill into law, pro-gun organizations including Gun Owners of America (GOA), Gun Owners Foundation (GOF), Palmetto State Armory (PSA), the Firearms Regulatory Accountability Coalition (FRAC), Silencer Shop (SS), and B & T USA (B&T) filed a lawsuit claiming that the 1934 National Fire Arms Act (NFA) is unconstitutional.
NFA regulates machine guns, short-barrel guns, silencers and Any Other Weapons (AOWs) by imposing a tax on them. (The Supreme Court ruled on previous challenges to the NFA that it is constitutional because it was a tax, not a gun control law.)
According to impactguns.com AOWs “are restricted firearms under the NFA act of 1936 but can generally be purchased in most states and can still be manufactured today for sale to civilians. The most popular AOW's today are short-barreled, or "sawed off", non-shouldered shotguns”.
Now, in the Big Ugly Betrayal Bill, tax on many of the taxed items of the NFA have been placed at zero. No tax, no tax law, GOA says and since it remains now as a gun control law, its unconstitutional. (You may have heard that the tax on suppressors was reduced from $200 to $0 as a whim provision granted to one congressman. Nope, it was the beginning to the end of the NFA.)
Almost as alarming, GOA also reveals that it has been working with congress towards a repeal of the NFA since November 2024. While they fought for a total end to the NFA, congress ultimately reduced it to the elimination of taxes on some of the items covered by the NFA. (The bill reduced the NFA’s $200 excise tax to $0 on suppressors, short-barreled rifles, short-barreled shotguns, and any other weapon AOWs.
GOA says that the NFA’s registration mandates violate the Second Amendment. They are an unconstitutional overreach of federal power
Foreign Policy
Russia Recognizes Taliban Rule in Afghanistan
Russia takes Taliban off its list of outlawed organizations then is first to recognize Taliban rule in Afghanistan. Russia says that will produce "productive bilateral cooperation," Russia believes their recognition of Afghanistan was needed to help stabilize the country. Alternatively, some say, Russia may be after Afghanistan’s rare earth mines and deposits.
Afghanistan's Foreign Ministry called it a great step, a “good example for other countries”.
China welcomed the news.
The United State supported the previous Afghanistan government for two decades and with billions of dollars for police salaries, hospitals, schools, and weapons. After withdrawal from Afghanistan, that support ended. The Taliban took charge, the U.S. stopped provided financial support.
At first the Taliban promised a moderate interpretation is Islamic law but has not followed through. Girls have no right or access to education after the sixth grade. Women cannot work at most jobs, nor frequent public places like parks and gyms. Public floggings are enforced and the country shelters terrorists.
ICE Wins
The Big Ugly Betrayal Bill gives $170.7 billion into immigration enforcement. That’s more than the military budgets of all but 15 countries.
$51.6 Billion for ‘the wall’ on the border (3X what was spent during Trump’s first term.)
$45 Billion for detention facilities for ICE (increase of 265% to the annual budget)
$29.9 Billion for ICE enforcement (3X ICE’s annual budget)
This is slated to double the number of detention beds available and hire thousands of more agents.
Trump stopped flow of immigrants at border. People say he did it by making claims for asylum illegal. If there is no legal way to come here, to apply for asylum most people won’t come. But there have been many who came before knowledge was widespread about asylum. U.S. law and international laws require that there must be a way for people to apply for asylum. There is no guarantee that they will be granted asylum. (In the United States there are not enough immigration judges and the wait for judgement on asylum claims can take years.) No law has been passed, as yet, in the United States to nullify the right of people to claim asylum.
For the first five months of Trumps administration Latin American countries have actually received fewer deportees from the United States. In Mexico, Guatemala and Columbia, the number dropped more than 30% as compared to the same five months last year. In Mexico, newly built shelters due to anticipation of more deportee stood near empty.
Experts say that this is due to fewer people coming across the border. New arrivals are easier to round up and easier to deport than those who have been here for years. Current U.S. law allows those in the country for a very short period of time can be returned to their home country without immigration court review.
Others say that this is due to the number of immigration agents, detention facility capacity and planes available.
However, the rate may be picking up. Deportation flights around the world have increased from 125 in April to 190 in May.
Another issue is that the Department of Homeland Security’s statistics office no longer publishes monthly data.
Spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin told The Washington Post that more than 239,000 migrants had been deported since Trump took office.
If this includes both Border Patrol and ICE detainees, its much lower than the 342,060 from February through June last year.
Famous Mexican Boxer Arrested and Will Be Deported
Boxer Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., arrested for overstaying his visa and lying on a green card application may be deported back to Mexico or extradited to Mexico where he faces organized crime charges.
Chavez is suspected in Mexico of having an affiliation with the Sinaloa Cartel that is blamed for a significant portion of Mexico’s drug violence. Mexico issued an arrest warrant for Chavez in March 2023 in an investigation of organized crime and arms trafficking allegations. On Thursday Mexico initiated extradition proceedings.
He has battled drug addiction and been arrested for drunk driving, gun and drug charges. He claims to be sober at this time.
Chavez’s father, Julio César Chávez, is a member of the International Boxing Hall of Fame.
Chavez is due in court Monday in connection with prior gun possession charges.
Alligator Alcatraz
This newly constructed in eight days and recently opened detention center, build in the Everglades has already flooded once, may not meet hurricane codes and is not officially approved or funded by the federal government.
It is built of a tent covered chain linked fence frame and can hold 3,000 or more detainees and requires a 100 member staff. It has portable showers and portable toilets.
State lawmakers say that they didn’t know it was going to be built. The work was done in secret and after the end of the legislative session.
Hurricane Ready?
This is the beginning of the hurricane season. Kevin Guthrie, Florida’s emergency management director says that its aluminum frame structure is rated for winds of 110 miles per hour. (a Category 2 hurricane has winds at that speed.) And, he says that there is an evacuation plan in case a major storm threatens. No plan is as yet available for review.)
Wonder what happens to the tent in winds that high?
The area is rated as a High-Velocity Hurricane Zone. Local code requires windows, doors and eaves have lab-tested wind resistant design.
From the Washington Post - “The 110 mile an hour wind design hasn’t existed in Florida since Hurricane Andrew in 1992,” said Anthony Abbate, a professor and director of the MetroLAB in the School of Architecture at Florida Atlantic University. “Nowhere in the state of Florida is 110 acceptable, according to the Florida building code.”
The location is one previously intended to be a mega-airport in the 1960s but stopped by environmentalists and indigenous tribes. (The only thing that remained was a runway.) The area is in the Florida Everglades, surrounded by the Big Cypress National Preserve, and next to the Everglades National Park which is part of a $25 Billion Everglades restoration project.
Durland Fish, a professor emeritus of epidemiology at the Yale University School of Public Health published a paper in 2024 on research he did in the Everglades about mosquito-borne diseases there. They included viruses that can cause “neurological damage, including encephalitis, or inflammation of the brain.”
“There’s no treatment for these,” Fish said.
There are chemical sprays for mosquitos though.
There’s a Lawsuit for That
In a suit against the state and the federal government and Miami-Dade County environmentalists seek to halt the use of the site.
Among their complaints they fear that the widespread spraying to kill mosquitos would kill of other insects and animals in federally protected wetlands.
They also state the facility is very inaccessible to lawyers, family members and oversight. (Just recently a Democratic congressional delegation went to the site for an oversight inspection and was refused entry. In Florida statues, federal and state legislators have statutory authority to inspect prisons and detention facilities. It’s a “blatant abuse of power and an attempt to conceal human rights violations from the public eye.” the delegation from Congress said.
Deputy Director of the Florida Immigrant Coalition Renata Bozzetto, “So the location being so remote and isolated is a problem. Being in an environmentally fragile ecosystem is a problem. Being constructed with temporary materials will be catastrophic in case of a hurricane.”
Although one arm of the Trump administration says that this is an entirely Florida funded and operated center and there is no federal involvement or responsibility, the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHA) Noem said that FEMA will reimburse Florida for the first year of the detention center’s operation.
And Florida is doing so under “state emergency authority and delegation of federal authority to implement immigration functions.”
--Reconstruction of The Economy
Weaponization of the Budget Process to Align with Administration Policy
This week Congress passed Trump’s Big Ugly Betrayal Bill under Reconciliation (only a majority vote required). Its provisions align with administration Policy.
Are Figures Correct?
According to the Washington Post “Budget strains, survey gaps and political pressure fuel uncertainty over key measures of inflation, jobs and growth.” There is anxiety about “the integrity of certain government benchmarks, the crucial data points that help the Federal Reserve assess the economy’s health and guide interest rate decisions.”
Problems such as falling response rates to government surveys, pandemic driven seasonal quirks and budget strains make it hard to collect reliable data. Some agencies staff are therefore relying on statistical estimates rather than hard data and that my make volatile inflation readings.
This is not a new thing. Budget constraints in the past have reduced in-person visits, follow-ups, field training and travel. Things that experts say are needed for quality results.
What is news is that
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) said due to staffing shortages in some cities it is surveying fewer outlets for the consumer price index (that’s the most widely used benchmark for inflation)'.
BLS is discontinuing the calculation and publishing of wholesale pricing data on hundreds of products in the producer price index.
The Trump administration disbanded a pair of technical advisory committees used to develop data.
The Presidents’ next year budget wants to reduce the BLS $700 million budget by 8%.
During congressional testimony “Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell warned lawmakers he didn’t want to see a decline in U.S. gold-standard statistics.”
“I would not want anyone to think the data have deteriorated to a point where it’s difficult for us to understand the economy,” Powell said, “But the direction of travel is concerning.”
In addition, the Trump administration calls major benchmarks flawed and wants to change them. These benchmarks are used by Washington policy makers, businesses, investors and consumers in decision making as to hiring, spending and borrowings. When data is not reliable, decision making can be flawed.
For example, Commerce Secretary Lutrick wants to change the way economic growth is measured.
Commentary
Nine Senate Democrats warned of consequences when inflation data is inaccurate or incomplete. Led by Senator Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) they said that inflation data is used for cost-of-living adjustments for Social Security recipients’ policymaking at the Federal Reserve, payments on roughly $2 trillion in inflation-indexed Treasury bonds, tax brackets and numerous private-sector contracts, and for wage increases in collective bargaining agreements.
San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly “We have so many sources of information that we have ways of checking, so I feel comfortable with the data so far,”
“Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, said the quality of U.S. economic data is becoming increasingly shaky just as the country faces major shifts from trade, immigration and other policy changes — a time when better investment in data is needed.”
Warning Signs
Mark Zandi also said that there were “95,000 downward revisions announced last month, to job gains in April and March, an outsize number of revisions that could be at least partly driven by ongoing strains at the Labor Department.”
“There’s no smoking gun, yet, but there is smoke,” he said.
--Attacks On Science, History, Truth
Biden Climate Law ‘boosted’ Red States
Some say that the Trump administration “aims to gut much of Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act”. Others that Biden thought he could keep his economic legacy by promoting a wave of advanced manufacturing in red states.
Deputy Director of the National Economic Council Bharat Ramamurti helped shape the Biden policy, has commented on the failure of the policy. Speaking about the Trump and MAGA rejection of project funding by attacking the Biden law said, “I probably underestimated the extent to which the well-being of both your constituents and your local business community has gone by the wayside in comparison to toeing the ideological line.”
The Trump legislation threatens to phase out or repeal projects provided to 400 large factories. The tax credits and incentives, a least $132 billion in investment and 120,000 new jobs may be halted or stalled.
Of the 20 congressional districted that were going to receive the largest investments from the Inflation Reduction Act’s Advanced Manufacturing Production Tax Credit, 17 are Republican. Those districts representative all voted to support the Trump reconciliation bill.
3/4 of the clean energy manufacturing investments announced are in Republican districts. Planned energy investments, tens of billions of dollars’ worth are at risk as are billions in consumer tax credits for purchasing energy-saving products such as appliances, solar panels, heat pumps and electric vehicles.
Tax credits for clean energy projects (nuclear, geothermal plants, battery factories) are eliminated for projects not begun by mid-2026 or operational by the end of 2027.
Some projects will be halted in planning.
Climate Change: If you Don’t Study it it doesn’t exist
“A $15 million federal grant was supposed to help scientists better understand how the warming climate is harming plants and animals, setting many on paths toward extinction. But the Trump administration shelved it earlier this year, miring the research in a holding pattern.”
Unknown as yet, is the proposed “zeroing out climate research funding for 2026” part of the Big Ugly Betrayal law?
Already, knowledge of Trump administration budget proposals has limited research.
According to arstechnica.com multiple U.S. agencies have cancelled subscriptions to the magazine “Nature.” A USDA spokesperson said that it "has cancelled all contracts and subscriptions to Springer Nature. The journal [sic] is exorbitantly expensive and is not a good use of taxpayer funds." A government spending database also shows the Department of Energy (DOE) has dropped contracts with the publisher. US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which oversees the NIH, said: "All contracts with Springer Nature are terminated or no longer active. Precious taxpayer dollars should be [sic] not be used on unused subscriptions to junk science."
The site where scientists posted about U.S. weather related trends and global temperatures and explained climate phenomena (El Nino, etc.) -Climate.gov - was taken down.
UPI reports that the U.S. Global change Research Program web site hosting detailed and congressionally mandated reports on the impact of climate change on American life, as well as the National Climate Assessment (sea-level rise, wildlife risks etc.) was taken down, and the organization no longer exists.
The White House says that it is acting to “correct decades of federal actions prioritizing climate over “clean American energy,” and in the process “jeopardizing our economic and national security.”
At the same time Europe and China investments in solar and wind energy are growing.
National Weather Service and the TX Floods
No one knows for sure whether the reductions in National Weather Service staffing caused by the Trump administration had anything to do with the perceived lack of response by local government to warnings, or any lack of timely warning, if true, from the local National Weather Service offices.
Meanwhile the official administration response to questions is:
“And the National Weather Service has indicated that, with that and NOAA, that we needed to renew this ancient system that has been left in place with the federal government for many, many years."
“The National Weather Service offices nearest to the central Texas floods were well-staffed and forecasters issued timely warnings, a union representative told NBC News today.”
“we will do all we can to fix those kinds of things that may have felt like a failure to you and to your community members," "But we know that everybody wants more warning time and that’s why we’re working to upgrade the technologies have been neglected by far too long."
TX offices near two flooded areas are short on staff.
Legislative Director for the National Weather Service Employees Organization Tom Fahy said that the nearby office, the San Antonio/Austin office is down six employees from its normal 26. While it has 11 staff meteorologists it does not have a permanent science officer or warning coordination meteorologist. The San Angelo office is short four staff members. It lacks a permanent top leadership person and has no senior hydrologist.
“that’s a problem,” Fahy said. “Hydrologists analyze stream flow and play a key role in flood response.”
At least 15 Kerr County children died. The top elected county leader Judge Rob Kelly spent the morning at a funeral home.
“When you see that many small body bags, it’s just, I can’t even begin to explain it,” Kelly said in an interview with The Washington Post.
--Congress
175 Democrats File Amicus Brief in NAACP Lawsuit to Stop Closure of Education Department
According to ABC Sen. Elizabeth Warren wrote, “The law couldn't be clearer: the president does not have the authority to unilaterally abolish the Department of Education,” “Donald Trump is not a king, and he cannot single-handedly cut off access to education for students across this country.”
Warren was joined in the Amicus brief by Reps. Jamie Raskin, Bobby Scott and Rosa DeLauro -- the ranking members of the House’s Education and Judiciary committees as well as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, more than 20 Senate Democrats, and more than 150 other members of the House Democratic caucus.
Raskin said “President Donald Trump and Education Secretary Linda McMahon can’t abolish the agency without congressional approval.”
“Congress created the Department of Education to ensure that every student in America could obtain a high-quality, free public-school education,” Raskin wrote in a statement. “This is the right of every citizen and an essential democratic safeguard against political tyranny,” he said.
The NAACP lawsuit noted that in March downsizing the department through a workforce reduction that slashed nearly half the agency’s staff and other measures like terminating statutory grant programs -- “violates the separation of powers and lacks constitutional authority.”
Recently the NAACP, the National Education Association (NEA), and other groups filed a motion for preliminary injunction with the U.S. District Court in the District of Maryland. They argue that the recent decision to pause $6 billion of congressionally appropriated education programs requires the judge to do so.
“The motion seeks a remedy for the serious harm that the Trump Administration has inflicted on students, educators, schools, and colleges and universities, and asks the Court to direct the Department to fulfill its statutory obligations to students nationwide,” an NEA statement said. The NEA represents more than 3 million educators.
Courts have blocked some efforts to dismantle the department. One of those cases, from Massachusetts is expected to be heard by the Supreme Court. The case is about the status of the firing of 2000 employes.
Department of Education Secretary McMahon says that critical functions of the department remain. She says services like educations for students with disabilities, could be moved to other agencies. Others say that that possibility is just a slight of hand to mask the real purpose, the end to guaranteed education for all children in the United States.
The Amicus brief is part of Warren’s larger Save Our Schools campaign, "Taking that away from our kids so that a handful of billionaires can be even richer is just plain ugly, and I will fight it with everything I've got."
Weaponization of the Army and National Guard
200 Marines to Florida, to Help ICE
Purportedly they will only have case management duties such as providing logistical support like vehicle maintenance and will help process detainees at ICE facilities. Duties like “inputting biographical and detention data in Department of Homeland Security data systems”, said Becky Farmer, a Northern Command spokeswoman.
U.S. Northern Command said that “Marine Wing Support Squadron 272 will “focus on administrative and logistical tasks” and are “specifically prohibited from direct contact with individuals in ICE custody or involvement in any aspect of the custody chain.”
Earlier, Department of Defense Secretary Hegseth announced the support of 700 military personnel for ICE support in Florida, Louisiana and Texas.
--Nominations and Confirmations
Trump’s nomination for Assistant Secretary of Information for the Department of Veteran’s Affairs, Alan Boehme has been withdrawn.
Boehme has 30 years of experience in enterprise IT architecture, strategy and cloud technologies. He previously worked as Chief Technology Officer for the H&M Group, a fashion and design company, as Global CTO, VP of IT Services and VP IT Innovation at Proctor & Gamble and in leadership positions in information and innovation at Coca Cola, including Global CTO.
Executive Message transmitted by the President to the Senate on June
30, 2025 withdrawing from further Senate consideration the following
nomination:
ALAN BOEHME, OF CALIFORNIA, TO BE AN ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF
VETERANS AFFAIRS (INFORMATION AND TECHNOLOGY), VICE KURT D.
DELBENE, RESIGNED, WHICH WAS SENT TO THE SENATE ON JUNE 16,
2025.--The People - Resistance
A Response to Terror: New Immigrants Right Groups
There have always been immigrant rights groups.
Faced with an explosion of violations of immigrant rights, and the terror that that promulgates, new groups are joining the fight.
As reported by the New York Times:
They are “hyperlocal and focused on responding to federal actions.”
Activists say that ICE’s violent apprehensions of immigrant workers and longtime community members fuel their growth.
Their efforts quickly corroborate the presence of immigration officers, document apprehensions that might otherwise go unnoticed. Residents near to the sites of apprehensions often join them. And they spread the word on social media about people being detained.
The Trump administration is not happy. They attempt to “cast many actions of immigrant rights lawyers and activists — from protests to know-your-rights presentations — as enabling illegal immigration and threatening to national security.” There are investigations in the House.
In Colorado, Homeland Security official said “social media posts from the immigrant rights network in Denver allowed an undocumented man wanted in Italy for child sexual assault to escape.” In Maryland, activists and residents are said to have caused tense face-offs when they accused Baltimore police officers of cooperation with ICE.
How One Organization Responds
LUCE Immigrant Justice Network of Massachusetts, got a call “woman being kidnapped.”
When they arrived at the location the streets were empty. So, they knocked on doors and ended up with a home security camera video. That video, which has since racked up millions of views, shows agents of Homeland Security surrounding Rumeysa Ozturk and whisking her off in an unmarked car. She is the Turkish citizen and doctoral student at Tufts University who was detained for six weeks for co-authoring an article in the Tufts student newspaper.
Are They Using Violence
“We are not trying to use violence,” said Ron Gochez, the leader of Unión del Barrio, a group that has been organizing protests in Los Angeles. “We don’t want to use violence, but what is happening to our community is completely violent.”
Techniques
Many of the organizations are using techniques from the civil rights movements of the 1960s. Back then older immigrant advocacy and Latino civil rights groups adopted tactics from the Black Panthers to monitor police brutality and protect against racial and ethnic profiling.
Some of the older groups moved on to become established institutions with connections in D.C.
The newer groups are decentralized, use encrypted channels for communications with each other and hold virtual meetings.
Some have joined forces with more established organizations forming a statewide network. Together they trained as many as 4,000 volunteers on how to confirm or dispel rumors of raids and to teach residents their rights.
South of Portland, Oregon, one group mobilized hundreds to protest ICE raids by using texts only.
In North Hollywood, California, Immigo grew from a tiny group to one that now counts four paid staffers and 800 volunteers. The paid staff work with Latino students and influencers and even online clothing brands to spread its reach. The volunteers say they will rush to verify reported ICE sightings.
“The idea is to get folks to patrol their own neighborhood because it’s more efficient that way,” said Magy Mendez, the group’s founder.
In Arizona, similar rapid response networks are growing. In the past, when former sheriff of Maricopa County was in power they organized “barrio defense” committees to fight his crack down on illegal immigration. They helped each other to prepare for raids. To plan help for each other to care for children if parents were detained.
Arpaio is gone but now they are holding weekly trainings.
51 Caskets
Repairers of the Breach, a “a national organization that trains moral leaders and builds social justice movements that are rooted in a framework that uplifts our deepest moral and constitutional values.” They are leading “Moral Mondays” this summer.
Moral Mondays, originated by Bishop William J. Barber II, in 2013 “is a protest movement that centers impacted people, people of faith, and moral leaders who hold elected leaders and government accountable to enact a moral agenda that responds to the urgent needs of the poor.”
On June 30 in D.C., they displayed 51 caskets one for each thousand who will die after the passing of Trump’s Big Ugly Betrayal Bill which threatens health coverage and care of those on Medicare and Medicaid.
They held a public hearing on the steps of the Supreme Court where those most impacted testimonies were heard.
Bishop William Barber II, CEO of Repairers of the Breach explained on MSNBC’s Morning Joe show.
“People are coming out, braving heat in a lot of these cases just to get lawmakers to understand what the impact is going to be for them; an impact that’s not Republican or Democrat. It’s just on people. It’s just life,” Barber said.
” More than 51,000 people, according to studies at Yale will die in the first year of this bill because it is a policy murder, a policy violence; this bill is morally indefensible and cuts more than 60 million people from healthcare unnecessarily just to give money to greedy and wealthy who don’t need it.”
Its not just the lack of insurance that can kill. Where rural hospitals close due to the law’s reduction in Medicaid/Medicare funding, anybody, not just those who rely on Medicaid or Medicare may be too far from the nearest hospital to reach lifesaiving help. For example, if you have a heart attack, they say that there is a “Golden Hour” if you receive medical care within that hour, you have a much better chance of recovery. If you do not you could die. If rural hospitals close, many, many more people will need longer than an hour to get to the next nearest hospital.
breachrepairers.org
According to Scriptsnews.com the Yale University scientists projected these deaths would be due to lack of insurance, failure to extend the ACA's enhanced premium tax credits and changes to nursing home staffing rules. According to Scriptsnews.com “the research team used peer-reviewed studies that looked at how insurance coverage, access to prescription drug subsidies and nursing home staffing levels relate to overall death rates. Those estimates were combined with population loss projections released by the Congressional Budget Office in May 2025.”
Researchers were from Yale School of Public Health and the University of Pennsylvania Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics. They sent their report in a letter to Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Sen. Ron Wyden and Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Ranking Member Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Public Lands Sale Forced Out of Big Ugly Betrayal Bill by
Americans Fought Off This Awful Idea in Trump’s Bill guest essay By Terry Tempest Williams in the New York Times
Ms. Williams is a writer who lives in southeastern Utah.
I tried condensing her essay, tried summing it up in a few words. But could not.
This is not the full essay, but it does provide a good part of its sentiment.
“A provision proposed by Senator Mike Lee of Utah in the Republicans’ budget reconciliation bill that would have required the Bureau of Land Management to sell as much as 1.225 million acres of public lands is dead. It died when Mr. Lee raised a white flag in defeat. It died because, in addition to Democrats, four Republican senators from Montana and Idaho refused to vote for it. It died because five Republican House representatives from Western states said it was a “poison pill.” And it died because over 100 conservation groups and public lands advocates, as well as hunters, anglers, ranchers, recreationists and right-wing influencers said no.”
“Lee claimed: “disposing of our public lands was a way to address the housing crisis. But that was a ruse; housing experts have said it wouldn’t have made a dent in the problem. What the senator wanted was to establish a precedent — to normalize selling off our public lands to generate cash to pay for tax cuts. Open that door, and the open space of democracy closes.”
“In an outpouring of opposition, members of Congress learned once again that if they don’t support public lands, they risk being voted out of office, especially in the American West. What we saw was collective outrage fueled by love — energy we must nurture and draw on in the months and years to come.”
“These lands are an inheritance of all Americans that is shared with the world. They are ancestral lands of tribal nations that have been prayed over for eons.”
“He disregarded Native people who were not offered first right of refusal to bid on them. Public lands house many of their cultural sacred sites and hold their medicines for ceremonies, lands where the songs of their ancestors can still be heard on the wind.”
“Public lands are our public commons, breathing spaces in a country that is increasingly holding its breath. There we are free to roam and wander and believe in what we see: rock, water, sky; pronghorn in sagebrush, eagles in flight, a night sky of stars above a silhouette of mountains. These are places of peace and renewal, where landscapes of beauty become landscapes of our imaginations. We stand before a giant sequoia and remember the size of our hearts instead of the weight of our egos.”
“If we allow these lands to be developed in the name of profits, we will lose the wide open spaces that define us as Americans.”
Arrested for Handing Out Face Shields at LA protest
According to the Washington Post “The face shields, which guard against irritants and debris, were handed out to demonstrators protesting the Trump administration’s immigration raids.” Alejandro Orellana, 29, is charged with conspiracy to aid and abet civil disorders.
The indictment and arrest were swift. On June 9, prosecutors said, Orellana drove his pickup with the bed full of foxes containing face shield to downtown Los Angeles and distributed them to protestors. He was arrested on June 12 (“This is the kind of item used by violent agitators to enable them to resist law enforcement and to engage in violence and/or vandalism,” the criminal complaint said) and indicted on Wednesday, July 2nd.
Prosecutors said those who got them used them while they committed “acts to obstruct, impede, and interfere with law enforcement officers,”
Masks were distributed after the protest had been declared an unlawful assembly the indictment said. Orellana could face up to five years in prison.
U.S. Attorney Bilal “Bill” Essayli, “He was handing them out in downtown L.A. to people who were dressed similarly to those who were committing violence,” “They were dressed from gear, top to bottom.”
Some of the protesters who took the face shields wore backpacks that might have contained rocks and fireworks, Essayli said.
“There’s no legitimate reason why a peaceful protester needs a face shield,” Essayli said. “Law enforcement officers will only release projectiles if demonstrators remain in the area after an unlawful assembly is declared — a point at which a protester is a “rioter” or “in violation of state law,” Essayli added.
(According to Politico Essayli “charged David Huerta, one of California’s most powerful union leaders, with felony conspiracy for allegedly impeding an ICE arrest by participating in a protest. On Thursday, he stood by as California Sen. Alex Padilla was handcuffed and forced to the ground at a press conference hosted by Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem.”)
Protesters supporting Orellana gathered Thursday outside the courthouse where Orellana appeared for his arraignment
His trial is scheduled for August 26.
Corruption
Alligator Alcatraz Construction and Merch
No one knows if anyone corruptly financially benefits from the building, staffing and use of the new detention camp. However, there are several websites now selling Alligator Alcatraz merchandise. Anyone can purchase coffee mugs, t-shirts, barbeque aprons, hats, bumper stickers, and buttons.
Alligator Alcatraz – 4LibertyShop ap4libertyshop.com/collections/alligator-Alcatraz
Republican Party
PACs
Campaigns
Even Florida’s Attorney General James Uthmeier has his own shop,
secure.winred.com/james-uthmeier-for-ag/storefront/
I haven’t found any at trumpstore.com where official trump merchandise is sold, yet. If a Trump runs for office, what do you bet?
Corruption Poem
The plane, the plane.
The Influence game.
Meme coins for dinner and White House Tour
Signal chats are insecure.
Trump sons using their name to grift.
Enemies lauded, allies stiffed.
The new golf courses, new palatial hotels.
Previous administration parallels.
Alligator Alcatraz merchandise
Hats and T-shirts, aren’t they nice?
Florida’s top Cop has a shop and yet
If a Trump runs for office what’ do you bet?
Farm and business workers may soon be slaves
Trump, his own way to hell paves.