The many ways Trump is trying to tip the scales for the midterms

Trump targets not just Georgia’s vote, but also trust in elections

“Big win for Republicans:” US Supreme Court strikes down limits on campaign spending

At Trump’s direction, federal agencies are abandoning discrimination cases

Actual racism is invisible to Sam Alito, because it’s just his own worldview

MAGA Rep blames fearmongering by abortion-rights advocates for delay accessing abortion she helped ban in Florida

Epstein victim and Trump accuser living in fear of retaliation, relative says

Judge Sullivan orders Blanche to obey Epstein disclosure law

About a third of federal appellate judges are now Trump appointees

He moved a box of leftist zines. MAGA’s favorite judge just gave him 30 years.

Marco Rubio personally authorized detention of an immigrant who criticized a politician Trump likes

Man arrested for playing Darth Vader’s theme music at National Guard troops scores settlement

US Supreme Court decides not to shit on birthright citizenship in blow to Trump agenda

US Supreme Court benches trans athletes

How the Supreme Court decision upends life for thousands of migrants

US Secretary of State warns if you transact with Cuban Institute of Friendship with the People, ‘you will be sanctioned, prosecuted or deported from our country’

‘Kind of miracle solution’: How Paris is harnessing the Seine to replace air-con

In Massachusetts, parked EVs will start feeding the grid this summer

Trump has pulled in at least $2-billion, so far, since returning to the White House

Trump’s moneymaking run: unrivaled in Presidential history

Nearly a million investors lost a total of $3.8-billion on Trump crypto coin

MAGA base stays quiet after Trump reports billions in personal gains

Trump family rakes in cash from Middle East deals

Trump bought hundreds of stocks the day before pausing tariffs, which caused stock market rally

Trump Jr.’s ‘Amazon of guns’ could make millions under new proposed firearm rule

Trump pardons violators of the Clean Air Act and a major donor

Trump cajoles FIFA into reversing US player’s World Cup suspension

Brendan Carr and the Trump FCC hid their communications with dodgy DOGE Bros

Court lets National Parks keep removing signs on slavery, climate

John Roberts believes in the unitary executive, except for when it might crash his investment portfolio

JD Vance brags about being able to do lots of Watergates, compares himself to Nixon

Trump wants a list of all American spies

Immigrant arrests surge to 10,000 in 5 days as ICE clamps down

Video shows ICE lying about charges, again

ICE plans to deport Colorado priest despite poor health and threats to safety in Uganda

ICE’s private prison contractor wants police-style immunity

ICE detention center contractor endangered detainees, destroyed homicide evidence

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy praises Elon Musk’s boondoggle tunnels

Republican Congresscritter goes full wingnut at MKULTRA hearing

Peter Thiel in Aspen: The pope is ‘working for the Chinese Communists’

Sam Alito takes unusual step of whining from the bench after getting called out for lazy hackery

Left-wing insurgent Melat Kiros ousts 15-term Congresswoman in Colorado

Colorado’s Democratic Governor fires officials who opposed freeing election denier

AOC calls for forced ‘break up’ of big tech to protect consumers

US Air Force engineer charged with sawing down Flock surveillance cameras receives thousands of dollars from supporters across the country

5 people sue unidentified Border Patrol agents over use of tear gas, unlawful detention during Midway Blitz

US service member arrested at Capitol after calling for Trump’s impeachment

Calls for killing of Trump at funeral of Iran supreme leader Ali Khamenei

Supreme Court decides not to destroy the First Amendment just yet

Judge orders New Brunswick Today to remove video and bars it from further reporting on school matters

Online age verification law could kill whistleblowing

Wikipedia is battling for the soul of the internet

Independent journalist Desiree Townsend has, seemingly alone, been digging into what’s actually been happening with McConnell since he disappeared weeks ago

Thin-skinned Palantir loses its bid to bully a Swiss magazine into publishing its rebuttals to embarrassing reporting

Surprise: CBS News ‘ombudsman’ has been a useless Trump lackey

Fox News ignored Trump’s pardons of health care fraudsters while promoting his administration’s efforts to fight health care fraud

Declaration of Independence was originally printed in two languages: English and German

Whoops! Military reverses course on flu vaccine requirements after soldiers got sick

Parents will be able to enroll newborns in Trump swindle at the hospital

Trump regime rolls back dozens of gun regulations

Trump regime wants to end federal requirement that autonomous vehicles come equipped with a brake pedal or lever

This cell feeds, grows and reproduces. And it’s man-made.

FIU moves to discipline 7 students for silent protest on immigration policies

White House report brands Smithsonian leadership as radical activists who can’t be trusted

Princeton lied about climate change to get oil money

Inside the egg price-fixing scandal that spiked American grocery bills

Elon Musk on MacKenzie Scott giving away $26 billion of her fortune: ‘Sadly,’ it makes the world a worse place

U.S. to overhaul radiation safety rules to spur nuclear expansion

Grieving relatives still seeking answers as US normalizes murder on the high seas

The scandal over a revised Gaza death toll is actually an attack on journalism

[2024] Israel’s policy in Gaza: shoot kids in the head

Companies are making Claude and Codex talk like cavemen to stop AI’s soaring costs

Voters turn to AI before casting their ballots

Pro-censorship lawyers got caught citing fake cases. Their corrected brief had more fake cases.

German court says Google is liable for false claims in its AI overviews because they are its own words

Norway imposes near ban on AI in elementary school

AI altering meaning of users’ drafts on issues from abortion to climate, study finds

Trump’s DOJ said police reform was “factually unjustified.” A new report shows that’s bullshit.

California cops keep arresting black security guard for carrying gun he had a valid permit to carry

Florida man sues after police chase over stolen car leaves him disabled for life

Atlanta cop’s paycheck will be garnished every month until he pays $21-million in damages for paralyzing unarmed, elderly black man

Indiana deputy kills 10-year-old disabled daughter, avoids charges, keeps job

Reno police made thousands of unlawful arrests using face ID, suit says

New Jersey police officer accused of sexually assaulting an intoxicated, handcuffed woman in his patrol car pleads guilty to a reduced charge

New York deputy charged with multiple counts of rape of a minor

Ohio mother dies after 30 hours in custody

Cleveland voted to kill its Flock camera network. They have remained on, with police still using them.

Tennessee deputy accused of raping woman during traffic stop

Tennessee NAACP calling for justice following man’s death days after being bitten by Clarksville police dog

Former chief of town’s famously corrupt now-disbanded police department surrenders Texas peace officer license as felony charges are dropped

The ‘doomsday’ glacier is collapsing, with huge consequences for the future of the planet

Extreme heat isn’t the only climate impact shocking scientists

The world’s oceans are warming at a record-breaking pace

Europe’s heatwave linked to 1,300 deaths, WHO says, as Germany hits record 41.7C

Scientists say current US heat wave ‘virtually impossible’ without climate change

California is spending $11-billion to widen a Bay Area freeway that might be underwater by the time the project is finished

Village facing ‘existential’ threat from climate change

San Francisco Archdiocese settles molestation suits for $395M

New Mexico Catholic school teacher pleads guilty to sexually abusing student

Oregon: Church childcare helper arrested for sexually abusing young girls

Rhode Island: Revived abuse law triggers 34 lawsuits against the Roman Catholic Church on first day

Texas pastor arrested, charged with child sex crimes, officials say

Wisconsin priest defrocked after being charged with child sex crimes

In 2020, something near the center of the Milky Way switched on and off six times in radio waves, then disappeared from every follow-up search in X-rays and infrared — leaving astronomers with only the name ASKAP J173608.2−321635 and the possibility of an entirely new kind of object.

The fuckers are ruining baseball, too

Woman finds 200 speakers screaming on Mount Shasta

Wilford Lloyd Baumes
creator of The Love Boat

Victoria Cruz
trans activist

Kelly Davis
rock’n’roller and reporter

Michelle DuBarry
drag star

Robert Kimball
Broadway show tunes

Ed King
black people should have rights

Tom Ligon
actor, Bang the Drum Slowly

Martha Lillard
polio

Abdul Ahad Momand
Afghan cosmonaut

Kjell Nilsson
actor, The Pirate Movie

Brian Potter
song writer, “One Tin Soldier”

Justin Richards
writer, Doctor Who

Lobga Rangzen
did it for Tibet

Mike Wallace
historian, Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898

Victor Willis
rock’n’roller, The Village People

Nothing will meaningfully improve
until billionaires fear for their lives.

7/6/2026

News always and only from reliable sources, and I decide what’s reliable — no right-wing bullshit, no Substack because fuck Nazis, and no RawStory, Newsweek, or other clickbait sites. Written news is preferred; video links will be rare, and damned near never to videos where the reporter sits, stands, or strolls in front of a camera — that’s show biz, not news.

If you’re blocked from reading anything linked above, please send an email, and I’ll reply with the article’s complete text, via my computer’s fine ad-blockers and paywall-vaulters.

Logo illustration by Jeff Meyer. Tip ‘o the hat to the Anderson Valley Advertiser, Daily Grail, Voenix Rising, What Not’s, Jamie Zawinski, and anywhere else I’ve stolen links, illustrations, or inspiration.

Special thanks to Linden Arden, Becky Jo, Joey Jo Jo & John the Basket emeritus, the aforementioned Mr Meyer, Dave S, Name Withheld, and always extra special thanks to my lovely late Stephanie, who gave me 21 years and proved that the world isn’t always shitty.

And Now the News

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Mom’s 90-something and in a lot of pain, with a hairline fracture of her whatchamacallit after a recent fall. She’s wobbly walking, and can’t stand from bed or a chair without help. Her memory flickers, though, and she forgets that she can’t stand without walking.

She lives with my sister Katrina, who dedicates every day to tending to Mom — making sure she takes her meds, eats three meals, and gets to the toilet in time, and cleaning her up when Mom doesn’t get to the toilet in time.

I’m at their house every day, helping Mom but mostly helping Katrina by giving her a few hours’ break. Once or twice a month, Katrina takes a night off, and I sleep in the recliner in the living room, making sure Mom takes her meds, eats three meals, and gets to the toilet in time, and cleaning her up when Mom doesn’t get to the toilet in time.

She’s accustomed to having Katrina tend to her diapers and messes, but when I’m there instead, Mom’s amusingly shy about accepting my help, cuz, you know, I’m a guy. She’ll spend half an hour in the bathroom, trying to get her wet diapers off, wiping herself down, then struggling to pull up clean diapers, when I could do it all for her in five minutes, and do a tidier job. Nope. Mom only asks for my help in the bathroom when she’s exhausted.

Last weekend was one of my sleepovers, and it went fairly well, with only one diaper disaster. For most of the weekend, Mom read her book, or sang hymns with me, and there’s very nearly nothing to tell about it that I haven’t told already, except for this moment from Sunday morning:

Sitting in her wheelchair in the living room, Mom eyed an article of clothing that had been tossed across the couch, and said, “I’m cold, give me that green sweater, please.”

Mom owns two green sweaters, but this wasn’t one of them, wasn’t a sweater at all. It was my shirt, which I’d peeled off earlier, while I’d been dealing with Mom’s diapers. Wanted to keep the shirt clean-ish, and I’d been walking around ever since in just my t-shirt and britches.

“That’s my shirt,” I ‘splained. “It’s probably too big for you.”

“Let’s find out,” she said, so I handed her my shirt, and helped her pull it over her pinstriped aqua-marine and American Flag blue blouse. Mom always wears color-coordinated clothes, and owns bins full of brightly-colored shirts, pants, sweaters, socks, shoes, and hair ribbons, which she mixes and matches eccentrically. Even now, in her final days, she dresses in brilliant but stylish colors every morning, all of it purchased at thrift stores.

I’m 6XL and she’s a small, so the shirt was baggy on Mom, which actually made it work as a sweater. It kept her a little warmer for half an hour or so, until without warning she barfed on it.

“Sorry,” she said. “I thought it was just gonna be a burp.”

After making certain she was feeling OK (“Never felt better,” she said, “except for the endless back pain”), I wiped most of her puke off my shirt, or into it. I’d been prepping a load of laundry anyway, so I tossed the shirt in with her wet sheets and soiled pants, and fetched Mom’s green sweater for her to wear.

A few hours later, I put the green shirt on, fresh and staticky from the dryer. Mom read her book in her wheelchair and I read mine on the couch, until I fell asleep. When I woke, a puddle of my drool and the Snickers bar I’d been eating were melted into that same green shirt, so I peeled it off again and washed it in a load by itself.

It’s all only fair, really. How many thousand times did Mom change my diapers when I needed it? Now I change hers, when she lets me.

And there’s no such thing as clean clothes; only clothes that are temporarily not dirty. Watching my green shirt tumble alone in the dryer was proof, almost literally, that what goes around comes around.

7/6/2026

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our 87th weekly open mike

Let’s see what happens when your host (me) has nothing to say. Step right up, speak your mind, tell a story, sing a song, whatever.

7/4/2026

Anything goes

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