Source: Associated Press
“Senate Republicans hauled President Donald Trump’s big tax breaks and spending cuts bill to passage Tuesday by the narrowest of margins, pushing past opposition from Democrats and their own GOP ranks after a turbulent overnight session. The outcome capped an unusually tense weekend of work [sic] at the Capitol, the president’s signature legislative priority teetering on the edge of approval or collapse. In the end that tally was 50-50, with Vice President JD Vance casting the tie-breaking vote. Three Republican senators — Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Susan Collins of Maine and Rand Paul of Kentucky — joined all Democrats in voting against it. … The package now goes back to the House, where Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana had warned senators not to overhaul what his chamber had already approved. But the Senate did make changes, particularly to Medicaid, risking more problems ahead.” (07/01/25)
https://apnews.com/article/congress-tax-cuts-trump-big-bill-bf3f94471b13db3e5d50f0cd1f8fe793
Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp
“We’re going to set up a system. We’re going to make you pay for that system. We’re going to force you to put your kids into that system unless you can ALSO afford to pay for an alternative system. But then we’re going to allow a heckler’s veto on anything in that system that anyone with the money and friends to get a case before the Supreme Court may happen to dislike. Because the thing they dislike, THAT’s the problem. No, the system is the problem. The right to direct the upbringing of one’s children entails the obligation to bear the costs of bringing up one’s children. The system itself violates parents’ rights to direct the upbringing of their children AND forces them to bear the costs of that violation, making them less able to afford the costs of whatever upbringing they might prefer.” (07/01/25)
https://thegarrisoncenter.org/archives/19726
Source: Bloomberg
“The Trump administration is halting the transfer of artillery rounds and air defenses to Ukraine, depriving the country of much-needed weapons as it endures stepped-up missile and drone attacks from Russia. The White House confirmed a Politico report on the stoppage, which said the move came after a review of US munitions stockpiles and amid concerns they had fallen too low. The move was spearheaded by Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby, Politico said. Colby has long argued that the US is overextended abroad militarily, and has joined Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in repeatedly saying that European allies should assume greater responsibility for the continent’s security, including the defense of Ukraine. … Among the weapons that are being paused are 155mm artillery shells, Stinger shoulder-fired missiles, Patriots and Hellfire missiles, PBS Newshour’s Nick Schiffrin reported.” (07/01/25)
https://archive.is/M8JqT
Source: JimBovard.com
by James Bovard
“On Friday, the Supreme Court clobbered perhaps America’s most aggressive and intolerant LGBTQ+ school indoctrination program. By a vote of 6 to 3 in the case of Mahmoud v.Taylor, the court upheld parents’ right to exempt their children from biased sex and gender lessons that violated their religious values. The court’s ruling is a bitter reminder that public education is the most expensive ‘gift’ that most Americans will ever receive. … The Supreme Court made the right call in upholding parents’ right to opt-out their kids. But how did government schools ever become so arrogant as to claim a right to determine what each child thought about personal, moral, and religious issues? The power of government schools remains a dire threat to parents, children, and to the future of liberty.” [editor’s note: SCOTUS didn’t strike a blow against indoctrination; it just weighed in on the PARTICULAR CONTENT of that indoctrination. Only separation of school and state accomplishes the former – TLK] (06/30/25)
https://jimbovard.com/blog/2025/06/30/scotus-strikes-a-blow-against-public-school-indoctrination-of-young-children/
Source: TradingView
“Bitcoin, the leading cryptocurrency, has scored the highest quarterly close ever of $107,149 on the Bitstamp exchange. The BTC price was up by nearly 30% in the second quarter of the year after declining by 11.6% during the first quarter. … Last month, Bitcoin was up by a relatively modest 2.4%. This marked the third consecutive month in the green for the leading cryptocurrency. It added 14.11% and 11.11% in April and May, respectively. In May, Bitcoin reached its current all-time high of $112,000.” (07/01/25)
https://www.tradingview.com/news/u_today:aba6a3ff7094b:0-bitcoin-btc-logs-highest-quarterly-close-ever/
Source: The Hill
by Merrill Matthews
“President Trump’s economists, and sometimes Trump himself, often remind me of the late TV celebrity Art Linkletter, who used to have a segment on his television variety show called ‘Kids Say the Darndest Things.’ Linkletter would ask children questions, and some of their responses were inadvertently hilarious, which shocked Linkletter and made his audience laugh. That’s increasingly what we’re seeing from some of Trump’s economists when they try to defend the president’s tariff and trade policies. Take, for example, Stephen Miran, the head of Trump’s Council of Economic Advisers. The Harvard-trained economist recently tried to explain to Politico reporter Victoria Guida why the president’s tariff policies could result in little or no price increases for U.S. consumers and businesses.” (07/01/25)
https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/5378198-trump-tariffs-economists-defense/
Source: Variety
“The jury in the ongoing Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs trial has reached a verdict on four of the five counts in his federal case, with deliberations on the outstanding racketeering charge expected to continue [Wednesday]. Jurors reached a partial verdict late on Tuesday afternoon and are deadlocked on the racketeering charge. At 4:05 p.m., the jury notified Judge Arun Subramanian that a consensus had been reached on two counts of sex trafficking and another two on transportation to engage in prostitution. The jury’s ruling on the four counts will not be announced until they decide on the fifth.” (07/01/25)
https://variety.com/2025/music/news/diddy-partial-verdict-explained-1236445580/
Source: Liberal Currents
by Alan Elrod
“Am I a citizen? Right now, the answer is pretty simple: yes. I am adopted, though I was born in North Carolina. I assume both of my birth parents were citizens, and know that my adoptive parents are citizens. But my adoption was closed, which, as I’ll explain, means I have severely limited means of accessing information about my biological family or details about my birth. With the Supreme Court ruling against universal injunctions and the Trump administration’s signal that they see it as a green light to pursue their agenda, including further attacks on citizenship rights, the answer to my question now seems somewhat less clear. … Domestic and international adoptees face different considerations, but both have reason to be concerned about their status if the Trump administration continues its assault on the definition and regulation of citizenship.” (07/01/25)
https://www.liberalcurrents.com/adoption-belonging-and-the-question-of-citizenship/
Source: New York Post
by staff
“Zohran Mamdani isn’t a socialist in name only; he’d truly love to turn New York into a ‘socialist utopia’ — first, by doing away with billionaires. As he put it Sunday: ‘I don’t think that we should have billionaires.’ Let’s be clear here: Most billionaires earned their wealth by providing goods and services that enough other people wanted so much that they freely paid that much for them. The world is enormously better off with PCs and iPhones, thanks to billionaire Steve Jobs and Apple. Yes, the odd Alexander Soros may just be spending inherited wealth, but Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk et al have enriched humanity far more than themselves. Mamdani may be confused by guilt over his own inherited privilege, or perhaps he figures he makes up for it by crusading for ‘equality.'” (06/30/25)
https://nypost.com/2025/06/30/opinion/zohran-mamdanis-dream-of-no-billionaires-fits-his-goal-make-everyone-live-equally-in-misery/
Source: CBS News
“A notorious drug cartel enlisted a hacker who was able to infiltrate phone data and Mexico City’s surveillance cameras to help track and kill FBI informants, the U.S. Justice Department has revealed. The 2018 operation was disclosed Thursday in a 47-page audit by the Justice Department Inspector General, outlining the FBI’s ‘efforts to mitigate the effects of ubiquitous technical surveillance.’ … The report urged the FBI to conduct an enterprise-wide threat assessment to determine where the agency is most vulnerable.” (07/01/25)
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/sinaloa-cartel-hacker-phone-data-cameras-track-kill-fbi-informants-doj/