This weekend, it’ll be 250 years since the Declaration of Independence, but mourning seems more appropriate than celebration. Going to a parade, a fireworks show, anything to seriously celebrate America in 2026 would be an obscenity.
Of course, patriotism has always been bullshit, but I used to go along with it for a few hours on the 4th, telling myself that for all its faults, America was better than a few short decades ago. More people had more rights, and the stupid wars have been shorter since Vietnam — I could celebrate that, and have.
Can’t do it this year, though. America has become mask-off ugliness, 24/7. I’ll celebrate when we the people can finally stand together in joy at the news of Donald Trump’s death, preferably by accident — I’m hoping he’ll tumble head-over-heels down the boarding stairs for his new Qatar-gifted Air Force One, cracking his skull on a step or handrail.
Until that glorious day, let me recommend this hard-hitting look at political violence in the USA — it’s one of the finest essays I’ve read in mainstream media.
Excerpt: If you are reading this, sweaty with the worry that I am “normalizing” or “justifying” political violence, consider that I am only asking why you find so many forms of political violence so normal, so justifiable, so adequately met with well, it’s a shame, of course, while the specter of old radicals looms like a nightmare. Sometimes you must stand athwart history, yelling Are you fucking serious? Is it only that you get used to that stench of American life after a while? Is it worth it?
AND NOW THE NEWS #611
Monday,
June 29, 2026
Texas anti-ICE protesters convicted of terrorism charges sentenced to at least 50 years in prison
If this isn’t promptly overturned, then anyone opposing Trump and fascism can be judged a terrorist.
Excerpt: Since the charges in the case, the government has brought a number of similar prosecutions against activists. Earlier this month, prosecutors filed criminal conspiracy charges against 15 activists in Minneapolis who allegedly interfered with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in performing their duties. A federal jury in Spokane, Washington, found three protesters guilty of conspiracy for participating in a 2025 protest at an ICE facility. A similar case in Chicago against protesters fell apart after it was revealed there was misconduct before grand jurors.
Trump pays North Dakota millions for helping crush pipeline protests
Postmaster General confirms plan to refuse delivery of mail ballots under proposed rule
Trump’s DOJ struggles to show evidence of widespread voter fraud, since there is none
Support builds on the right for prosecuting women who get abortions
Despite state bans, abortions have almost doubled. The reason? Pills via telehealth.
Best news of the week — we can never have enough abortions. Abortions for any woman who wants one, and children for any woman who wants one.
Trump administration targets disability integration mandate in DOJ memo
Supreme Court bars lawsuit after prison guards shaved inmate’s dreadlocks
Excerpt: When Mr. Landor reported for a five-month sentence for drug possession in Louisiana, he had not cut his hair for almost two decades, in keeping with his faith. His dreadlocks fell nearly to his knees.
Four months into his term, in 2020, he was transferred to a new prison. He carried with him a copy of a 2017 legal opinion that held that inmates must be allowed to keep their dreadlocks under a federal law protecting prisoners’ religious freedom.
When he pulled out a copy of that decision, a guard threw it in the trash, according to court documents he filed in a later lawsuit.
Two guards then handcuffed Mr. Landor to a chair and forcibly shaved him bald.
Me again: Six of nine on the Supreme Court belong on the other side of the courtroom.
A look inside the welcome bags planned for white South African refugees
Excerpt: They will get an Android tablet, an American flag and copies of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence. They will also receive a packet of literature that provides a sanitized, Trump-approved view of American and South African history, one that criticizes racial equity and civil rights laws and promotes claims of discrimination against white people.
Another ICE threat visit: How did agents track down this critic on his vacation?
Dude sent ICE Director an email comparing him to a Nazi, so DHS agents stalked him, and gave his wife a letter warning of criminal prosecution. Which sounds sorta like something Nazis would do.
Immigration attorney stopped and searched at airport, told by DHS he was on ‘watch list’
For the 4th time, Trump regime illegally pays to have wind farms canceled
Supreme Court takes sledgehammer to much of federal government’s regulatory structure
Welp, that’s the end of independent, non-political government agencies. If America had an opposition party (we don’t), and if we’re allowed free elections and a sane President at some future date, perhaps the new President will fire six Supreme Court justices. Doing so would be no more unConstitutional than today’s rulings.
White House secretly swayed board meant to stop civil service politicization
Trump was indicted under the Espionage Act. Why can’t we read the report?
Excerpt: Three years ago this month, the Justice Department indicted Donald Trump under the Espionage Act for concealing and refusing to return classified documents after his departure from the White House. Mr. Trump hasn’t had to face trial, and he hasn’t had to fully account to the public for his actions, either.
The Justice Department abandoned the case against Mr. Trump after he won the 2024 election, citing a longstanding departmental policy against prosecuting sitting presidents. Since Mr. Trump returned to the White House, the Justice Department has worked hand in glove with his current lawyers to suppress the department’s report about its investigation of his actions. Judge Aileen Cannon of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, a Trump appointee who presided over Mr. Trump’s case, has issued an order prohibiting the Justice Department from disseminating the report — and effectively prohibiting Jack Smith, the special counsel who wrote it, from speaking about it publicly or even testifying about it to Congress.
A super El Niño threatens disaster. Trump is, of course, handling it recklessly.
Trump cut a billion-dollar mining deal. His sons stand to profit.
Trump starts arresting people because his Reflecting Pool makeover is just algae and peeling paint
‘I lost everything’: Orlando resident returns home after months in ICE custody
This victim of the Secret Police had a pending Green Carp application, and special permission from the government to travel to Egypt for his father’s funeral. ICE kidnapped him, held him in an American gulag, and kept him from medical care for his kidney disease.
ICE agents put us in ‘execution’-style line after we were picked up at N.J. protest, vet says
Death rate for ICE detainees has skyrocketed under Trump
‘It’s just so wrong’: Haitians in Ohio reel from Supreme Court’s Temporary Protected Status ruling
FEMA official who claimed he once teleported to a Waffle House is leaving
Teleportation could be a valuable tool in an emergency, so FEMA should offer this man a raise and try to keep him.
JD Vance says Nixon’s Watergate scandal would be ‘12-hour news story’ today
Nixon wasn’t corrupt enough to merit even a job interview in the Trump regime.
GOP urges Democrats to tone down rhetoric used to quote President verbatim
Buttigieg says he was separated from his children after ‘swatting’ tip
Excerpt: That night, the twins slept at their grandparents’ house. The authorities required them to sit alone for the interviews with the CPS workers, as is common during such investigations.
Me again: Being forced to “sit alone” with CPS staffers is pretty rough for a kid, and if CPS “requires” it without first requiring some damned evidence, that’s a form of child abuse.
Cops warn CEO bodyguards that Luigi Mangione Fever could spark class war
Cops are full of shit. Class War has been happening for centuries, but the rich bastards have all the money, laws, and police.
Prisoners at a North Carolina jail overpower staff and seize control of the facility
How many ways can the media avoid reporting that cops killed a baby?
Trump Says he’s ‘preparing lawsuits against ABC for false reporting’
Remember when ABC paid Trump a $16-million bribe? How’s that working out for ’em?
The View asks its audience for help in battle with FCC
This is surreal — The View is inane chitchat that barely qualifies as journalism, but Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar are too edgy for Trump & the Republicans.
Former NOAA employees revive climate site shut by Trump regime
People fired over Charlie Kirk posts get big payouts for First Amendment retaliation
But the people who did the firing face no repercussions.
5 million have dropped ACA insurance after Trump and the Republicans let prices skyrocket
Trump administration orders US health programs to move away from overdose prevention
Supreme Court rejects lawsuit alleging Roundup weedkiller caused cancer
Roundup causes cancer. Not sure when or whether that fact that was scientifically quantified, but there were reports of Roundup sickening people as early as the 1990s.
Inside the CDC’s mad scramble to meet Kennedy’s demands
Texas public school students will be required to read the Bible
Not sure there’s anything covert about it.
It’s hard to estimate how many people Elon Musk has killed, but it’s lots
Elon Musk’s feud with Delaware may transform Corporate America
Excerpt: Why Delaware? Under our system of government, corporate oversight was left to the states, and in time it became permissible for a company based in one state to register its business in another. Pint-size Delaware, with the incentives it offered, proved to be an especially popular choice. These days, it is the legal domicile for two-thirds of the companies in the Fortune 500. Including limited liability companies, or L.L.C.s, there are more than two million business entities incorporated in Delaware, which is more than double the number of people.
As suspected, the ‘Trump Phone’ is just a cheap overseas knockoff with some garish yellow paint
MacKenzie Scott alone drove a third of U.S. mega-giving as total donations hit a record
Other than who she was once willing to pork, Ms Scott seems cool and all, and cooler still if she cuts me a check, but the media’s endless adulation for billionaires is almost as evil as the very concept of billionaires. Wealth of that magnitude is invariably stolen, so instead of lauding billionaires who play philanthropist, let’s try a 100% tax on any human’s net worth that exceeds one billion dollars.
Another gambling scandal hits the NBA
Israel deliberately targeted Palestinian children in Gaza, U.N. commission says
US unveils new sanctions against Cuba
Tesla on autopilot crashed into Texas home, killing one
AI companies are trying to seize control of elections
Excerpt: With trillions of dollars on the line, it should come as no surprise that tech companies are spending gobs of cash on the upcoming US midterm elections. What is surprising is the scale of electoral financing, as certain newly-founded AI super PACs are now spending more on candidates than the candidates are spending on themselves.
Data center that vowed to avoid Colorado River water is now suing for 260 million gallons per year
DuckDuckGo, unable to resist the pull of AI, mistakenly claims Trump died of rabies
We’re only starting to grasp the pitfalls of using AI at work
America’s time capsule for 2276 includes futuristic predictions from Claude
Innocent driver, 74, killed in Southern California DUI police pursuit crash
California: ICE arrests at county jails far more frequent than official reports show
Innocent driver killed, 3 arrested after DC police chase driver of stolen vehicle into wreck
A court found conditions at Louisiana’s prison farm unconstitutional. It let them continue anyway.
Louisiana sheriff retires after pleading guilty to beating podcaster who often criticized him
Maine deputies identify inmate who died at county jail hours after booking
Maryland cops chase suspected drug dealer into fatal wreck
He provided security to 3 New Jersey Governors. Then he snapped.
Excerpt: Police officials in Washington Township did not return calls from The Times for this article. Commanders in Franklin Township, which was temporarily taken over by the Hunterdon County prosecutor’s office in the aftermath of the killings, declined to comment.
New York jail guard admits sexually assaulting inmate
Texas: Tarrant County officials pretend to investigate in-custody death at local jail
European heatwave is worst ever and impossible without climate crisis, scientists say
Paris funeral homes overwhelmed after record heatwave
Interior Department moves to relax rules for drilling on public lands
Hospitals in England declare critical incidents as machines and IT fail in heat
Justice Department makes it easier to bypass pollution controls on pickups
Climate change and biodiversity decline reshapes bird biology
Former Las Vegas youth pastor dies days after being charged in wife’s fatal fall
2 Philadelphia pastors charged with child sexual abuse and pornography offenses
The enslaved woman who sued for freedom and emancipated herself
Pretty sure this is an article I’d like to read, but it’s formatted so you have to scroll forever to keep reading one paragraph at a time, and it freezes my browser after each half-acre of scroll-downs. It’s illustrated, and the pictures are the star, with so few words (at least before the recurring freezes) it feels like I’m reading a comic book for 2nd-graders when I thought I was reading the New York fucking Times. Is this format somehow an improvement over the traditional journalistic method where one paragraph precedes the next paragraph, without scrolling so much my index finger gets blisters?
“Why is there so much punishment in this life?”
Public transit is not “coming back” … It’s doing something better.
John Oliver goes to Chuck E Cheese
Ange Armato
baseballer, Rockford Peaches
Paul Avery
actor, Superman (1978)
Ann Blyth
actress, Mildred Pierce (1945)
David Clayton-Thomas
rock’n’roller, Blood Sweat & Tears
Clive Davis
pop music as a business
Khadijah Farrakhan
Nation of Islam
Tom Hensley
rock’n’roller, sessions superstar
Humberto Morales
forgotten person
Ronnie Morris
forgotten person
Mark Simmons
forgotten person
Mark Singer
journalist, The New Yorker
Oliver Tree
musician & comedian
Ramiro Valdes
hero of the revolution
Al Worthington
baseballer who quit for moral reasons
Nothing will meaningfully improve
until billionaires fear for their lives.
6/29/2026
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, Jeff 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.
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.
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