“Most of us were blissfully unaware of one of the potentially dire consequences of the recent trade wars with China: a shortage of rare-earth magnets, which are a critical component of car engines, smartphones and military weapons systems. China’s April export ban on magnets and six rare-earth elements was payback for President Trump’s tariff hikes. It threatened to cripple automotive production lines and risk national security. China has a near-monopoly on these crucial resources, which is a frightening reality in today’s interconnected world. But two can play that game, and the Trump administration swiftly matched Chinese aggression with some potent weapons from our own trade arsenal after trade talks last month in Geneva failed to resolve the issue.” [editor’s note: Devine remains blissfully unaware of the real world – TLK] (06/11/25)
“A New York judge declared a mistrial on a rape charge in Harvey Weinstein’s sex crimes trial after one juror refused to continue deliberations over an alleged attack in 2013 on actress Jessica Mann. The jury had found Weinstein guilty of one count of sexual assault and not guilty of another count on Wednesday, but kept deliberating about a final rape charge. Thursday’s mistrial comes after Weinstein’s earlier sex crimes conviction in the state was overturned last year, leading to new charges last September. A panel of seven female and five male jurors deliberated for six days in the six-week trial before one juror declined to continue discussions.” (06/12/25)
“A teenage girl with a rare form of epilepsy won a unanimous Supreme Court ruling on Thursday that’s expected to make it easier for families of children with disabilities to sue schools over access to education. he girl’s family says that her Minnesota school district didn’t do enough to make sure she has the disability accommodations she needs to learn, including failing to provide adequate instruction in the evening when her seizures are less frequent. But lower courts ruled against the family’s claim for damages, despite finding the school had fallen short. That’s because courts in that part of the country required plaintiffs to show schools used ‘bad faith or gross misjudgment,’ a higher legal standard than most disability discrimination claims. The family appealed to the Supreme Court.” (06/12/25)
“On Friday, the Trump administration began its brutal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids in Los Angeles with a clear target: workers. All told, over 40 immigrants were arrested, including Home Depot employees snatched from company parking lots and roughly two dozen garment workers detained at an Ambiance Apparel warehouse. By the day’s end, ICE had also detained David Huerta, the president of SEIU California …. To discuss how the abduction of garment workers can be seen as an effort to prevent immigrants from organizing, and how the labor movement can work to respond to ICE’s aggression, In These Times spoke with Marissa Nuncio, Director of the Garment Worker Center in the heart of the Fashion District, who explained that the protests have become ‘a lightning bolt moment where the realities of our government, the realities of exploitation and of repression are [being] revealed’.” (06/11/25)
“When Donald Trump ran for president a second time, Democrats repeatedly cried that he would dismantle and disrupt ‘democratic norms.’ Trump certainly is an unconventional president. But I’ve found no evidence that he is, as charged, destroying democracy. Instead, I see Democrats, much of the mainstream media and other progressives downplaying and even excusing violent protests, illegal [sic] immigration and other actions that threaten [sic] Americans’ security. … Take, for example, the storylines involving Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who entered the United States illegally [sic] and who is accused of affiliation with a violent gang. The Trump administration was harshly criticized for wrongly deporting Abrego Garcia without due process. He is now back in the United States and faces human trafficking charges. Where are the acknowledgments from progressives and the news media that perhaps this isn’t a person we want to remain in the United States, after all?” (06/11/25)
Source: Brennan Center for Justice
by Michael Waldman
“For years, we have warned against the danger of an unchecked president turning the military against American civilians. In an extraordinary show of force, President Trump has federalized 4,000 members of the California National Guard and deployed 300 of them, in addition to deploying 700 Marines, to quell protests in the Los Angeles area. All over the objections of Gov. Gavin Newsom. Why this abrupt, camera-ready escalation? … Trump’s administration is spoiling for a fight. It pops out emergency declarations like a Pez dispenser. It is also relying on flimsy legal justifications, as my colleagues have pointed out. Presidents have deployed troops to control civil unrest only 30 times before in U.S. history. The Posse Comitatus Act generally prohibits federal troops from engaging in civilian law enforcement. Soldiers are trained to defeat an enemy, not to de-escalate protests.” (06/10/25)
“South Korea’s military says it has suspended its loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts across the border to North Korea, as part of a bid to ‘restore trust’ between the countries. The move comes a week after the country elected its new president Lee Jae-myung, who had campaigned on improving inter-Korean ties. Pyongyang considers the loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts an act of war and has threatened to blow them up in the past. They were paused for six years but resumed in June last year in response to Pyongyang’s campaign of sending rubbish-filled balloons across the border to the South. In recent years, the broadcasts have included news from both Koreas and abroad as well as information on democracy and life in the South. Ties between North and South Korea had deteriorated under previous president Yoon Suk Yeol, who was more hawkish towards Pyongyang.” (06/11/25)
Source: Fox News
by US Senator Ruben Gallego (D-AZ)
“When I visited St. Johns, Arizona – population 3,417 – last month, I wasn’t just stopping in a quiet town on the edge of Apache County. I was visiting a community that could help unleash the next era of American energy. With the right investment, St. Johns could be home to one of the nation’s first small modular reactors, also known as SMRs, which are the next generation nuclear technology designed for safety, flexibility, and cost efficiency. But today, as our need for energy security grows, Congress is moving in the opposite direction by undermining bipartisan progress on nuclear power when we need it most. Even President Donald Trump’s administration has endorsed a nuclear ‘renaissance.’ So why are Republicans in Congress advancing legislation that would slash support for the very technologies he is championing?” (06/11/25)
“An Oklahoma appeals court on Wednesday ordered a stay of execution to be lifted for a man on death row, clearing the way for him to receive a lethal injection for killing a Tulsa woman in 1999. John Fitzgerald Hanson, 61, has been scheduled to be put to death Thursday, but a district court judge temporarily halted the execution this week after Hanson’s attorneys argued he didn’t receive a fair clemency hearing before the state’s Pardon and Parole Board. The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals ordered that temporary stay of execution be lifted. Hanson’s attorneys had argued the 3-2 vote against recommending clemency was tainted because one of the members of the board had worked for the same district attorney’s office that prosecuted his case. The Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office maintained the district court judge didn’t have the authority to issue a stay of execution.” (06/11/25)
“The military is in the streets of Los Angeles. That image alone (armed National Guard troops deployed by a sitting president against the will of local officials) should shake this country to its core. But it is not happening in isolation. It is part of a coordinated and escalating assault on democracy itself. All while, in the backdrop, Congress is advancing a budget deal that expands military and ICE funding while slashing Medicaid and nutritional assistance for millions of working-class families. And on Saturday, Trump will stage a military parade in Washington, D.C. — a grotesque celebration of state power at the very moment it is being used to crush dissent and consolidate control. This is not a metaphor.” (06/11/25)
