“Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), vice chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, has been whipping Democratic support for an effectively clean reauthorization of the government’s warrantless spying program—or at least he was until Tuesday. On the news that President Trump was tapping Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Director Bill Pulte as acting director of national intelligence (DNI), Warner said in a statement that the appointment ‘speaks volumes about what this president expects from the nation’s top intelligence official,’ and warned of the dangers of politicizing intelligence work. ‘Americans have every reason to worry about what happens when the official charged with overseeing everything from counterterrorism to foreign election threats is chosen for his willingness to advance the president’s political agenda rather than his experience,’ Warner said.” (06/04/26)
“If you own property in California, you’re not safe. A new ballot measure will empower the state to confiscate a percentage of the assets of any resident, even though its initial provisions don’t communicate that intent. California’s ‘One-Time Wealth Tax for State-Funded Healthcare, Education, and Food Assistance Programs Initiative,’ which has already qualified for the November ballot, is even worse than it appears. It’s not as if appearances aren’t bad enough. The explicit intent of the initiative already chased at least six billionaires out of the state in 2025. … Just the departure of these six men has lowered the potential take from the wealth tax by an estimated $27 billion.” (06/03/26)
“In 21 conflicts around the world, sexual violence as a tactic of war ‘surged’ last year, according to a new United Nations report. Yet in only one conflict – the civil war in Sudan – such atrocities are ‘a defining feature’, used in fear campaigns between rival ethnic groups, as explicitly stated by perpetrators. In Africa’s third-largest country by area, preventing conflict-related sexual violence or helping survivors has been difficult. The civil war between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces, now in its fourth year, has yet to yield to international efforts to end it. Sudan has become the world’s most dire displacement crisis. ‘Many women and girls fleeing the conflict only sought help after reaching neighbouring countries,’ the report stated, ‘which underscores the importance of assistance in all phases of displacement.'” (06/02/26)
“‘Society cannot exist, unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere; and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without. It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things, that men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters.’ – Edmund Burke … Most men have never understood the point Burke made, which is why most men, down through history, have lived under government oppression. Americans, however, have absolutely no excuse for living under a tyranny like the Democratic Party is trying to establish. Our Founding Fathers constantly repeated the point so eloquently made by Burke: ‘Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.'” (06/03/26)
Source: Brennan Center for Justice
by Michael Waldman
“I’ve written that corruption is the sleeper issue of 2026. Well, it’s awake. And the issue may be bigger than I realized. That’s the implication of a new national poll released Tuesday by the Brennan Center. The survey was conducted in late April and early May, just before the president’s attempt to create a $1.8 billion slush fund to funnel taxpayer money to his political allies. The results are striking. More than 9 in 10 voters believe corruption is a big problem across politics and government. Large majorities view corruption as endemic and deeply embedded in government institutions, from the Supreme Court to Congress to the presidency. They are dejected about the fact that scandals continuously go without consequences and shocking revelations fail to produce reform. Margins are overwhelming among Democrats, Republicans, and independents.” (06/03/26)
“In a ruling Friday, District Judge Christopher Cooper ordered the cessation of all repair plans for the Kennedy Center and the removal of Trump’s name from the building within two weeks. It is a detailed and comprehensive opinion, but I believe Judge Cooper is wrong about halting the repairs. I previously expressed skepticism over the claim that the board could order such a change unilaterally. At that time, I raised the very issues that Judge Cooper cited in his rejection of the right to rename the center without congressional approval. I agree with the court on its standing decision, which is hardly a surprise given my past writings in favor of broader standing. However, the opinion becomes more challengeable when the court addresses the decision to close the center for two years to carry out major renovations.” (06/03/26)
Source: The American Prospect
by Jacob S Hacker, Zoltan Hajnal, G Agustin Markarian, & Mackenzie Lockhart
“It has been just one month since the 6-3 conservative majority on the Supreme Court effectively nullified Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA), making it lawful for states to draw congressional districts that systematically dilute the votes of Black and Latino Americans. Within hours, Southern states responded. Florida legislators passed a GOP gerrymander the day the decision was announced. Alabama moved to eliminate majority-minority districts even after primary-election votes had been cast, though an appellate court has temporarily blocked the state from proceeding. (UPDATE: The Supreme Court waved the gerrymandered map through last night.) In Tennessee, the district representing Memphis—majority-Black—was cracked into three, all now majority-white, all expected to turn red. By 2028, South Carolina will likely gerrymander out of existence the district that has elected the state’s only Black congressman, civil rights icon James Clyburn.” (06/03/26)
“So this is the moral abyss wokeness has dragged us into. A society where a dying teenage boy can be roughly handcuffed by cops because someone accused him of being racist. A hellish dystopia where the last thing a kid hears as he gasps his final breaths is a politically correct police officer reading him his rights. A nightmare world where not even the victim of a vicious stabbing can escape the haughty suspicion of the state’s DEI-trained goons. The cruel, lonely death of Henry Nowak has caused a storm here in the United Kingdom. It should send a shiver down your spine too — for it provides a chilling insight into the barbarism of wokeness. To see where the state’s embrace of critical race theory can lead, look no further than the horrors inflicted on poor Henry.” (06/03/26)
Source: In These Times
by Micah Herskind, Priscilla Grim & October Krausch
“New jail construction is quietly booming across the United States. Some may be surprised to learn that during the most intense jail-building years, from 1990 to 2005, a new facility opened every 10 days. There are nearly 2 million people presently caged in more than 6,000 correctional facilities across the country, including 1,566 state prisons and 3,116 local jails. Recent data shows that number has only grown, and the push to build new jails and prisons continues. Currently, a new $3 billion jail in Brooklyn is moving ahead, a $1.25 billion prison in Alabama is nearly complete and, among many others, lawmakers in Hawai’i are considering a new $1 billion mega-jail, a facility with more than 1,000 beds.” (06/02/26)
