Source: Fox News
by Hugh Hewitt
“Extraordinarily gifted legislators in the United States Senate are rare. As preconditions to their effectiveness, they must accumulate both significant seniority in the body of 100, and the respect of their ever-changing 99 colleagues. It’s a small club — the United States Senate — and everyone knows who has got the ability and the respect to guide big lifts through the (intentionally) complicated process. Maine Sen. Susan Collins is one of the handful of senators who command the respect of her Republican Conference colleagues and most of the Democratic senators who actually care about making the country run well. That is why Collins is the chair of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee and is also one of the 17 senators on the critical Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. (Collins is also a member of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.)” (06/30/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/morning-glory-senator-susan-collins-nations-national-defense
Source: Checks & Balances
“The Justice Department is Broken. Here’s How We Fix It.” (06/30/26)
https://chkbal.substack.com/p/the-justice-department-is-broken
Source: spiked
by Andrew Tettenborn
“It’s all very well to say that the general law allows you to speak your mind, but that doesn’t mean very much if an employer can sack you for expressing a view they happen to disagree with. And it’s easy to forget that it isn’t a matter of just a few people. Lawyers, doctors, accountants, financial professionals, architects, chartered surveyors, chemists, physiotherapists, nurses, teachers, social workers – the list of those who have to watch carefully what they say because the regulator might come down on them if they step out of line is a long one. Furthermore, regulators can use these powers fairly drastically. Alleged Islamophobia, racism and sexism expressed online, or simply matters seen as offensive or contrary to a profession’s ‘values’, are common grounds for people being hit with severe professional penalties or being drummed out entirely.” (06/30/26)
https://archive.is/T2aKm
Source: Washington Post
“White House officials last year secretly awarded a no-bid contract worth up to $500 million for the construction of the East Wing ballroom in an unusual arrangement that sidestepped typical contracting procedures designed to control costs, according to a copy of the agreement obtained by The Washington Post. The White House routed the contract through the Executive Residence, the document shows, an office that is exempt from rules that require federal agencies to solicit competitive bids and disclose details to the public. … The confidential contract with Clark Construction, along with related correspondence and records obtained by The Post, reveal for the first time how the Trump administration bypassed norms last summer as it set the ballroom project in motion. … Trump has repeatedly claimed that the ballroom would be paid for by private donors and once said that Clark executives offered to build it for free.” (06/30/26)
https://archive.is/dyLsx
Source: Yascha Mounk
“Charles Fain Lehman on Why Cities Got Safer.” (06/30/26)
https://writing.yaschamounk.com/p/charles-fain-lehman
Source: Wired
by Alana Hope Levinson & Makena Kelly
“In a little over a month, Biden has amassed over 800,000 followers and materially changed his image—in part by giving hours-long, shockingly intimate interviews to independent media outlets like Channel 5, Armchair Expert, and Soft White Underbelly. He’s even talked to former foes like Candace Owens, who once called him a ‘degenerate that should be in prison.’ He’s fed the trolls—and everyone is eating.” (06/30/26)
https://archive.is/WGaxC
Source: CounterPunch
by Vijay Prashad
“On June 23, the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel released one of the most devastating reports ever produced by a UN investigative body on the Israeli genocide in Gaza. Its title is almost unbearable to read: The Essence of Childhood Has Been Destroyed. Behind the title lies an accusation of extraordinary gravity. The Commission concludes that Israeli authorities and security forces have deliberately targeted Palestinian children and that these actions amount to genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes in the Gaza Strip, alongside war crimes in the occupied West Bank.” (06/30/26)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/06/30/when-the-children-become-the-target/
Source: SFGate
“Scientists have stumbled on a rare dinosaur fossil from Antarctica, tucked away for decades in a drawer. The bone comes from the tail of a long-necked, plant-eating dinosaur called a titanosaur. Scientists haven’t yet identified the species it belongs to. It was discovered in 1985 during an expedition to Antarctica’s James Ross Island and collected by geologist Mike Thomson. Working with the British Antarctic Survey, Thomson was mapping the area’s rock layers and collected marine reptile fossils to help with future dating efforts. He recorded the find as a large reptile. Decades later, paleontologist Mark Evans spotted the bone in the British Antarctic Survey’s collections and wondered whether it might be a dinosaur. He and other researchers analyzed the shape of the bone and compared it to other more complete dinosaur remains, confirming their discovery. The findings were published on Monday in the journal Acta Palaeontologica Polonica.” (06/30/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/a-rare-dinosaur-fossil-from-antarctica-is-found-22325691.php
Source: Free Talk Live
“Sal and Wayne Quinn are holding it down this week while Mark is on the road. Kurt Walker Jr., the world’s first Bitcoin historian, joins the show to trace the full arc of crypto from David Chaum’s eCash in the nineties all the way through the block size wars, the Silk Road takedown, and the deliberate hijacking of Bitcoin by banking interests tied to Jeffrey Epstein, Blockstream, and the Bilderberg group.” (06/29/26)
https://soundcloud.com/freetalklive/samep9
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Nick Cleveland-Stout
“This lobbyist is touting his efforts to restrict Beijing’s influence by convincing states they need to restrict land purchases by immigrants.” (06/30/26)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/china-farmland-in-us/
