“Senators are in Washington debating the so-called ‘big, beautiful bill.’ The spending package includes lowering [sic] federal taxes, increasing military and border security funding and cutting programs like Medicaid and food stamps. President Donald Trump is hoping to have the bill on his desk by Friday. The bill passed its first procedural vote, but it’s still unclear whether there is enough support for it to pass a final vote. … Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called for a marathon reading of the 940-page bill on the Senate floor, delaying a final vote.” [editor’s note: The bill does not lower taxes, because unless spending is lowered, taxes aren’t lowered. Borrowing money doesn’t lower taxes, it raises them (because it entails interest), while deferring payment until later – TLK] (06/30/25)
“‘John Marshall has made his decision’ regarding relations between the Cherokee Nation and the United States, US president Andrew Jackson supposedly said of the US Supreme Court’s chief justice in 1832. ‘Now let him enforce it!’That sentiment comes to mind when considering the Supreme Court’s June 27 decision in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton. The court ruled that the government of Texas doesn’t run afoul of the First Amendment by requiring websites to verify users’ ages if those sites serve content the regime deems ‘harmful to minors.’ … I’m a big fan of VPNs and other tools for circumventing government control of what we can access on the World Wide Web. I’m also old enough to remember the US government’s war on encryption in the 1990s. Short version for you youngsters: The government lost that war. Paxton and his co-belligerents will lose this one, too.” (06/29/25)
“On the face of it, 2025 looks like a banner year for crypto: Bitcoin hitting a record, an industry-boosting US president whose family is venturing headlong into the sector, and key legislation widely expected to be passed by Congress. But look beyond the bullish headlines and the rally in Bitcoin, and a vastly different landscape comes into view. Most of the so-called altcoins once touted as competitors to the original cryptoasset are nursing steep declines, with more than $300 billion of market value wiped out so far this year. … Bitcoin’s share of the total market value of cryptoassets has climbed by nine percentage points this year to 64%, the highest since January 2021, according to CoinMarketCap.” (06/30/25)
Source: Orange County Register
by John Whitehead & Nisha Whitehead
“While the U.S. wages war abroad—bombing Iran, escalating conflict, and staging a spectacle of power for political gain—a different kind of war is being waged here at home. This war at home is quieter but no less destructive. The casualties are not in distant deserts or foreign cities. They are our freedoms, our communities, and the Constitution itself. And the agents of this domestic war? Masked thugs. Unmarked vans. Raids. Roundups. … What ICE — an agency that increasingly resembles a modern-day Gestapo — is doing to immigrants today, it can and will do to citizens tomorrow: these are the early warning signs of a system already in motion.” (06/28/25)
“The Dalai Lama will address a major three-day gathering of Buddhist religious figures this week ahead of his 90th birthday, as his followers wait for the Tibetan spiritual leader to share details about his succession in a move that could irk China. Beijing views the Dalai Lama, who fled Tibet in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule, as a separatist and says it will choose his successor. The Dalai Lama has said his successor will be born outside China and urged his followers to reject anyone chosen by Beijing. Tibetan Buddhists hold that enlightened monks are reborn to carry forward their spiritual legacy. … He has previously said he could possibly reincarnate in India, where he lives in exile near the northern Himalayan town of Dharamshala. He was identified as the reincarnation of his predecessor when he was two.” (06/30/25)
“Socialism is a word with some heft on both the left and the right. Just as Republicans started calling themselves ‘populists’ and ‘nationalists’ and whatnot when they decided that they were sick of standing with Paul Ryan and preferred kneeling before Donald Trump (‘a matter of taste,’ as the secretary general of NATO might put it), some Democrats call themselves ‘socialists’ and join organizations such as the Democratic Socialists of America as a way of saying, ‘I hate Republicans more than Chuck Schumer does.’ Republicans sometimes use ‘socialist’ roughly the same way … but lately they just use it to mean ‘hated un-person’ …. However it is misused today, ‘socialism’ is a word with a meaning and a history, and I am just silly enough to continue to believe that these things still matter a little bit.” (06/27/25)
“Dozens of Palestinians died in several rounds of Israeli airstrikes from Friday night until Saturday morning, officials said. At least 44 people died in the Gaza Strip since dawn, hospital sources told Al Jazeera Arabic. The Guardian reported at least 62 people died in overnight strikes. … In a separate strike in southern Lebanon on Friday, Israel Defense Forces killed Hezbollah terrorist Hassan Muhammad Hammoudi, the military told the Jerusalem Post on Saturday night. Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun accused Israel of continually violating the U.S.-brokered cease-fire deal.” (06/28/25)
“‘Public interest’ media always sponsors a particular (state-approved) perspective at the expense of others. NPR’s voluntary donors can support a more ethical enterprise.” (06/27/25)
“Russia hit Ukraine with 537 drones and missiles overnight Sunday in Moscow’s largest attack of the war, the Ukrainian Air Force said. Ukraine shot down 475 of missiles and drones, the air force said, while one Ukrainian F-16 pilot was killed in the action. It was the largest assault the Kremlin has unleashed since the start of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s all-out invasion in early 2022. The Russian attack started Saturday evening and continued for more than six hours, Ukrainian officials said. … Kyiv on Saturday said a Ukrainian drone strike on the Kirovske airfield in Crimea destroyed several Russian helicopters and an air defense system.” (06/29/25)
