[guest post by Dana]

Let’s go! Happy 4th of July weekend!

First news item

Russian birth tourism welcome in Trump’s own backyard and properties:

While Trump rails against U.S.-born children of undocumented immigrants, his Florida properties have become a playground for birth tourists from Russia’s upper crust. The Daily Beast has discovered several companies are advertising rentals in Trump properties to expectant Russian parents. While the Trump Organization does not directly profit from subleases of privately owned condos, it does benefit from Russian patronage of the nearby Trump International Beach Resort.

. . .

Birth tourism is a booming industry thanks to the growing middle- and upper-class in Russia and China. These families have no plans to work in the U.S. or pay U.S. taxes as their child grows. Rather, U.S. citizenship is an extra security blanket that the wealthy give themselves after months-long vacations on Miami’s beaches. It also gives their kids a shot at financial aid at U.S. schools and easier access to jobs in the U.S.

About Trump’s position on birth tourism for non-White people:

On the campaign trail, he argued that children born to undocumented parents don’t have a legal right to citizenship.

“I don’t think they have American citizenship and if you speak to some very, very good lawyers—and I know some will disagree, but many of them agree with me—and you’re going to find they do not have American citizenship,” Trump told Bill O’Reilly. “We have to start a process where we take back our country. Our country is going to hell.”

He railed against people he said came over from Mexico for a short time period, to give birth.

“Many lawyers are saying that’s not the way it is in terms of this,” Trump said. “They are saying it is not going to hold up in court. It will have to be tested but they say it will not hold up in court.”

Second news item
Reflecting pool insanity:

In recent weeks, as Donald Trump’s renovation project at the Reflecting Pool became an embarrassing fiasco, the president settled on a curious strategy to deflect blame. He contended “vandals” had secretly attacked the pool, and it was their intervention, rather than his incompetence, that ruined the Republican’s triumph.

In the days that followed, the president and his administration made a variety of claims about these alleged criminals, whose existence was in doubt, though one name was confirmed: David Hearn, who represented the United States in three Olympics as a canoeist, acknowledged that he’d received a citation.

Hearn recently told MS NOW’s Chris Hayes that he’d touched a piece of peeling blue paint toward the end of a bike ride.

“I didn’t think I’d done anything wrong, so I had no reason to think I was going to be arrested … and kind of before I knew it, I was being handcuffed,” Hearn said, adding that he made no effort to tear the pool’s coating.

His lawyer, Norm Eisen, soon after told The New York Times, “It is not a crime in America to touch water.”

Sadly for Eisen’s client:

Evidently, Trump’s Justice Department came to a different conclusion. On Thursday afternoon, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro. . .announced that Hearn has been charged with one felony count of destruction of property in D.C. Superior Court.

According to the former Fox News host, who said at a press conference that she would not discuss any details about collected evidence, Hearn engaged in a “violent effort” and “willfully destroyed” public property with his bare hands. Pirro added that the defendant, if convicted, faces up to 10 years in prison.

Insanity.

Lawyers’ statement:

“Davey Hearn is innocent. These charges are outrageous and should be alarming to every American. This indictment reflects the administration’s effort to shift blame for their own failures.”

Third news item

This is not targeting military installations or infrastructure :

Waves of Russian missiles and strike drones pummeled Kyiv overnight on July 2, just hours after President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that Russia was preparing another large-scale attack against Ukraine.

At least 30 people have been killed and 91, Kyiv City Military Administration Head Tymur Tkachenko said. Ukraine’s State Emergency Service (DSNS) added that search and rescue operations were ongoing at several sites including a partially collapsed multi-story residential building in the Darnitskyi District. The death toll may rise further.

Later on July 2, despite widespread destruction and civilian casualties, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov claimed Russian forces had targeted only “military or quasi-military targets,” adding that Russian leader Vladimir Putin had been briefed on the attack.

Russia continues its targeting of civilian areas, including homes.

It’s still true: If Ukraine surrenders, there is no more Ukraine. If Russia surrenders, the war is over.

Fourth news item

Totally unsurprising:

Democrats on the House Natural Resources Committee released an explosive report alleging that a shell company created by President Donald Trump’s White House took at least $100 million in public funds relating to U.S. semiquincentennial celebrations.

Democrats on the House Natural Resources Committee released an explosive report alleging that a shell company created by President Donald Trump’s White House took at least $100 million in public funds relating to U.S. semiquincentennial celebrations.

Details:

HAYES: I want people to understand this. There’s this kind of really insidious bait and switch. So, there’s America250, which was statutorily created. Here’s an announcement from August 1st, 2024, that announces President Bush and Obama, first ladies as honorary national co-chairs. And then [Trump White House officials] come in, and you say in the report they “first attempted to bend America250,” which was like the real commission that was going to do this, “to its purposes, demanding spectacles focused on promoting [President] Trump rather than the country while forcing partisan content, campaign-style fundraisers and favored contractors. When America250 would not yield, the White House created a replacement, Freedom 250. LLC.” So they have created a parallel organization they control that’s now basically running the celebration?

HUFFMAN: Absolutely. They sidelined America250. They siphoned off at least $100 million of public money into this shell company. They housed it within a trusted charity that has been working with the Department of the Interior for 50 years, the National Park Foundation. That was to confuse people, but also–

HAYES: Ohhhhh.

HUFFMAN: –to give them the benefit of total secrecy so that they could proceed to award themselves huge, no-bid contracts, to have all of this radical, partisan, and religious programming as part of Freedom 250 and, of course, to enrich Donald Trump himself in several cases.

HAYES: This is a crazy detail from your report. So, according to sources familiar with the matter, prospective donors and sponsors, right? People, you’re raising money. You’re saying, “Oh, I want to give. I love America and I want to celebrate the 250th anniversary.” They’ve “been told by the administration they do not have a ‘green light’ to donate to America250… donors who intended to donate to America250 were instead given wire instructions with Freedom 250’s banking information, including its routing number and account number. Meaning, you’re strongly suggesting that donors who wanted to donate to the actual commission, the actual organization, were given the routing number of the parallel Trump-controlled one without their knowledge?

HUFFMAN: We have this from whistleblowers, and we are going to continue following through on this investigation. It’s an open investigation, but if that proves up, it has all the hallmarks of wire fraud.

Fifth news item

Former pardon attorney’s warnings:

Removing career experts like me harms the Department’s ability to fulfill its vital mission of upholding the rule of law, and it makes America less safe. What has happened to the pardon process since my firing is just one example.

Though the President has absolute discretion with respect to pardons under the Constitution, for over 130 years the Justice Department has been charged with ensuring that the pardon power is not used recklessly, corruptly, or in other ways that are detrimental to the integrity of the justice system. Under federal regulations, the Pardon Attorney is charged with rigorously vetting applications for executive clemency and making recommendations in accordance with a detailed set of guidelines codified in the Justice Manual. By regulation, the Pardon Attorney’s recommendations are submitted “through the Deputy Attorney General,” who then exercises “such discretion and authority as is appropriate and necessary for the handling and transmittal of such recommendations to the President.” 28 C.F.R. § 0.36.

To guard against politicization of the pardon power, the position of Pardon Attorney has traditionally been reserved for a career expert. However, the job is now filled by Ed Martin, a political operative who failed to win confirmation as U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia.

Neither Mr. Blanche nor Mr. Martin has imposed any discipline on executive clemency. The lack of vetting has resulted in staggering rates of recidivism among recent clemency recipients—including at least 14 charged with sex crimes or offenses involving child sexual abuse material, and at least six with domestic violence crimes.[6] Crime victims have been deprived of over a billion dollars in restitution owed as a result of pardons.[7] A pay-to-play pardon system has developed that has advantaged the wealthy and well-connected.[8]

Read the whole thing.

Have a great weekend.

—Dana

[guest post by Dana]

Homeland Security released this statement on Monday:

“Over the weekend, while Americans attended the Great American State Fair and enjoyed their summer weekends, the men and women of ICE were hard at work arresting criminal illegal aliens convicted for homicide, child sexual abuse, assault, rape, and drug trafficking,” said Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis. “Under President Trump and Secretary Mullin, ICE will continue to protect Americans by arresting and removing criminal illegal aliens from our country.”

Accompanying the report are photos of 15 individuals arrested. As identified, they would qualify as criminals of the worst kind. Most were found to have been involved in crimes against children. I am not sorry to see them detained.

However, we know that it is not simply the violent criminals that Trump is going after. In fact, according to an investigation by ABC News, less than 5% of those arrested by ICE had a violent felony conviction. Additionally:

Recent government and independent data indicates that nearly 73% of detainees have no criminal convictions at all, while the remainder largely face pending charges, immigration violations, or nonviolent offenses like traffic and drug infractions.

And then there is now the story of the little nun who was arrested by ICE while walking to Sunday Mass:

A Catholic nun who was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers while walking to Sunday Mass in South Texas has been released after intervention from members of Congress, officials said.

Sister Leticia “Letty” Ugboaja was detained June 28 as she walked to Our Lady of Sorrows Church in McAllen, Texas, to attend Mass, according to the Catholic Diocese of Brownsville. Brenda Riojas, a spokesperson for the diocese, confirmed to USA TODAY on July 1 that Ugboaja was released from custody on the evening of June 28.

A Republican member of Congress, Rep. Monica de la Cruz, spoke with Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, and was able to secure Ugboaja‘s release. Fellow Democrats were also active in seeking Ugboaja‘a release.

Republican Del La Cruz would like to see common sense and discretion used when detaining individuals:

“As I have repeatedly said, our immigration enforcement should target violent criminals,” de la Cruz said in a post on Facebook. “A Catholic nun on her way to church is not a threat to our community.”

Given that we’ve seen ICE arrest American citizens (and murder them), immigrants with valid paperwork allowing them to be in the U.S., and even children born here, why not go after an untapped community: nuns. After all, Trump is demanding that the arrest numbers increase:

Federal immigration officials have detained more than 10,000 people in the last five days, a major surge that has stemmed from a push within Immigration and Customs Enforcement to increase arrest rates.

Agency leaders in recent days ordered top ICE officials to focus more of their officers’ efforts on picking up immigrants they want to deport, according to documents obtained by The New York Times and interviews with federal officials. ICE officers have arrested people at check-ins with immigration authorities, during traffic stops and on the street. The push has apparently yielded results, with recent arrest numbers roughly doubling from the 1,000 picked up each day earlier this year.

ICE officials were told that the White House wanted an increase in arrests, according to three officials with knowledge of the conversations. One of the officials said that it was unclear how long the pace could continue, but that ICE officials had been told that 2,000 arrests a day was the new standard for enforcement.

—Dana

[guest post by Dana]

Trump: "We're gonna declassify almost everything … I told [Bill Pulte], 'You can declassify whatever you want.'" pic.twitter.com/D3Qcnxqqzm

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 1, 2026

Bill Pulte is a personal friend of Donald Trump’s, and is the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. He has no national security experience, yet succeeded Tulsi Gabbard as the acting director of National Intelligence. And now, according to Trump, he has free rein in deciding what can be declassified. The president’s casual regard for America’s national security cannot be overstated. His cavalier attitude and directive should be of major concern to everyone on left and right side of the political aisle, to those in Congress, and to those focused on our nation’s security. But I suspect it won’t raise much of a red flag. Unfortunately, we are now seemingly numb to the administrative ignorance that rules our politics.

Anyway, I think it’s safe to say that anything that might implicate Trump will not be declassified. Including the Epstein files.

—Dana

[guest post by Dana]

Of course they are:

[T]he White House is discussing a possible announcement of presidential pardons as a centerpiece of the nation’s semiquincentennial celebrations over the Fourth of July weekend, according to 14 people familiar with the conversations. The idea has been described as “250 pardons for 250 years,” an initiative that would put one of the most politically fraught constitutional powers at the forefront of the country’s birthday festivities.

Apparently, internal polling shows that this plan could benefit Trump.

Advocates for the plan say that it would both underscore the president’s singular authority and reinforce an image he has long sought to cultivate: “Trump the merciful,” as a person close to the White House described it to us recently. Meanwhile, the prospect of a mass pardon has set off an international frenzy of lobbying and dealmaking, in which even slight proximity to the president can be monetized.

If Trump approves the plan, a list of 250 names has already been compiled for him.

Additionally, let’s not forget that there is money to be made from executing the plan. A lot of money:

“It is general knowledge in our practice that for $2 million, you can have a pardon,” one prominent white-collar defense attorney told me. “The clients come to us and tell us, I’ve been told I need to go hire this specific person, and [then] I will get a pardon.” Liz Oyer, who was the Justice Department’s Pardon Attorney under Biden and during the initial months of Trump’s second term, wrote to us that “Donald Trump has turned the pardon process into the Hunger Games.” Leavitt told us that the president “finds it detestable that anyone would even attempt to profit off pardons.”

We spoke with multiple people loosely affiliated with the Trump administration who had been approached in recent weeks by lawyers seeking pardons for clients as part of any Independence Day announcement. These people said they were told that they would make millions if they would use their connections to help facilitate the conversations necessary for a pardon—despite, in many cases, having no prior legal or lobbying experience. Most said that $1 million to $2 million was the going rate, though they were aware of clients offering many times that for more challenging cases. . .

P.S. Consider that convicted pedophile and sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell could be on the “250 for 250” list. Certainly her legal team has been involved in lobbying the administration for a pardon. . .

—Dana

[guest post by Dana]

A quick look at a few Supreme Court decisions from Monday:

The Supreme Court handed President Donald Trump a significant win Monday by allowing him to remove the leaders of once-independent federal agencies at will, toppling a 1935 precedent in the process that could reorder the way the government functions.

At the same time, the court made it far harder for this or future presidents to remove members of the Federal Reserve — blocking the Trump administration. . .from ending the tenure of Fed Governor Lisa Cook over contested allegations of mortgage fraud.

. . .Trump sought to fire critics within the government despite federal laws that protected them by requiring a president to show cause — such as malfeasance — before booting them from office.

Meanwhile, the court dealt Trump a personal defeat, *letting stand the verdict against him for sexually abusing and defaming former magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll. By declining to hear Trump’s appeal, the court paved the way for Carroll to collect $5 million in damages.

In a separate ruling, the justices also allowed states to collect and count mail-in ballots that arrive after Election Day, a decision that comes as Trump lobbies Congress to limit mail voting and pass a voter ID law.

*This is so good:

Carroll’s lawyer, Robbie Kaplan, characterized what the decision means like this: “Today’s Supreme Court decision affirms once and for all the jury’s unanimous verdict that President Donald J. Trump sexually assaulted and defamed E. Jean Carroll. His multiple efforts to appeal that verdict have all failed and today’s ruling ends his quest to avoid accountability for his actions.” That’s what it’s all about: Accountability. And it’s finally arrived on Trump’s doorstep.

You can find more details on the Court’s decisions at SCOTUSblog.

UPDATE:

Supreme Court upholds birthright citizenship on constitutional grounds:

Children born to parents who are in the U.S. unlawfully or temporarily are “subject to the jurisdiction” of the U.S., Roberts writes. “Under the Constitution, they are citizens at birth.”

The opinion is here.

—Dana

[guest post by Dana]

Let me tell you what just got reported, because you will not believe it until you see it laid out.

The Trump administration cut a billion-dollar tungsten deal with Kazakhstan. Tungsten is the metal we need for missile warheads, fighter jets, and computer chips. Trump himself got…

— Mike Levin (@MikeLevin) June 28, 2026

From the report:

When Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick met with Kazakhstan’s president at the St. Regis Hotel last September in New York, President Trump jumped in by phone as the men sealed a deal on a top priority for Washington.

During the call, Mr. Trump and his team won an agreement from the Kazakh leader to give a little-known American company access to one of the world’s largest untapped reserves of tungsten, a metal that the United States desperately needs for the production of missile warheads, fighter jets, computer chips and other critical goods.

Ahead of the deal, the Trump administration approved preliminary applications for as much as $1.6 billion in federal financing for the American company, now called Kaz Resources, which plans to break ground on the project in rural Kazakhstan.

It was not only Mr. Trump and Mr. Lutnick who saw an opportunity.

Their sons were soon doing business with partners in a deal that their fathers were negotiating, continuing a pattern of self-enrichment in the second Trump administration that has few precedents in American history.

I’m sure it’s only a happy coincidence that the sons of the president and his commerce secretary were part of the deal involving their fathers, right?

Anyway, here’s more of the report on this perfectly acceptable deal:

Within weeks of the St. Regis negotiations, investors with a firm called Dominari Securities, which is housed at Trump Tower in New York and partly owned by the president’s two eldest sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, joined with other partners to take a 20 percent stake in a corporate entity related to the Kazakhstan project.

Around the same time, Cantor Fitzgerald, an investment company controlled by Mr. Lutnick’s family and overseen by his sons Brandon and Kyle Lutnick, helped one of the lead investors working with Dominari on the Kazakh deal raise $210 million in new capital for a related entity. Such rounds of fund-raising typically net Cantor millions of dollars in fees.

Six days after the investment involving the Trump and Lutnick sons, the deal was signed. There was no public notice at the time.

This is not the first mining deal made tied to either the Lutnick family and/or Trump family. In fact, the NYT did the heavy lifting and identified 14 such deals:

One or both families have financial ties to at least 14 companies that are actively working with the federal government on critical mining deals, including the Kazakhstan project. . .

From Mike Levin’s explainer posted above the report, he reminds us:

The total federal funding flowing toward those (14) companies tops $8.9 billion.

This is your tax money.

It is supposed to secure our supply chains and protect our troops, not pad the portfolios of the President’s children and the Commerce Secretary’s children.

P.S. Crying “But Hunter Biden!” means nothing. Or any kind of “but,” for that matter.

—Dana

[guest post by Dana]

Let’s go!

First news item

Supreme Court rules for Trump:

The Supreme Court’s conservative majority delivered President Donald Trump a pair of significant affirmations of his immigration policy Thursday, paving the way for the administration to effectively remove more than 1 million people from the US and keep many others from entering in the first place.

The decisions, both of which were written by conservative Justice Samuel Alito over scathing dissents from the court’s three liberals, will have a sweeping impact on asylum claims at the US border and on a program known as Temporary Protected Status, a form of humanitarian relief that allows beneficiaries to live and work in the country legally.

. . .

The court sided with Trump on Temporary Protected Status by essentially ruling that courts have no business deciding the issue in the first place. . .

In another 6-3 opinion authored by Alito, the court blessed the controversial asylum policy known as “metering.”

It enables federal agents stationed at the border to turn back asylum seekers before they ever step foot on US soil, frustrating their ability to be formally inspected by officials — the first step in a winding process that could eventually result in them being granted asylum.

Second news item

President Zelensky is holding the cards:

Russian air defenses intercepted 660 Ukrainian drones in a major nighttime attack on 12 Russian regions as well as the Russia-held Crimean peninsula, the Black Sea and the Azov Sea, Russia’s Defense Ministry said Friday.

It appeared to be one of the biggest drone attacks on Russia and the illegally annexed Crimea since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than four years ago. The previous biggest Ukrainian attack over the past year was 556 drones on May 17.

In an effort to turn the tables on Russia’s grinding war of attrition, Ukrainian long-range drones have for months been battering targets, including oil production and energy facilities, behind the front line and deep inside Russia. The campaign has choked Russian fuel supplies and military deliveries, stalling Russia’s efforts on the battlefield, Western officials and analysts say, and heaped pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Note :

The major attack came hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on X that he had ordered “a 40-day influence operation,” believed to mean an escalation of attacks, aimed at “compelling (Russia) to end the war” after U.S. peace efforts over the past year yielded no breakthrough.

Meanwhile, even Trump, for the moment, is singing a different tune:

Q: Mr. President, you like winners. You think Zelenskyy is winning right now?

Trump: Well, no matter how you look at it, he's doing pretty well. He's holding his own. Look, you have to say he's courageous. He's got great equipment, but he's got great men. He's got fighters.

🤷‍♀️ pic.twitter.com/8K1Tn1kIEo

— Kate from Kharkiv (@BohuslavskaKate) June 24, 2026

Third news item

Texas pushing the envelope:

The Texas education board will vote Friday on a required reading list for more than 5 million public school students that includes Bible passages, widening conservative efforts to push Christian teachings in U.S. classrooms.

The proposal in Texas — which would mandate literary works such as Charles Dickens’ “Great Expectations” alongside parables from the New Testament — has been closely followed by education observers who say it appears to be the first of its kind in the nation.

If approved by the Texas State Board of Education, which is controlled by Republicans, the reading list would take effect in 2030.

Texas, which educates roughly 1 in 10 of the nation’s public school students, has been at the forefront of a charge by conservatives to incorporate more religion into classrooms. The state already allows public schools to hire chaplains to counsel students, mandates the display of the Ten Commandments in classrooms and has approved an optional Bible-infused curriculum.

Fourth news item

:

Massie: "I think it's ironic that we control the House, Senate, Supreme Court, and the White House, and we're yelling 'election fraud'? I mean, we won all the damn elections." pic.twitter.com/dynY1dbEjs

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 26, 2026

Fifth news item

Heh. Couldn’t have happened to a nicer group of human right abusers:

Iran’s head coach Amir Ghalenoei says he will not address “things that do not exist” as his team prepares to play Egypt in the Pride Match in Seattle.

Local organisers have designated the game as a Pride Match because it falls on the Friday before Pride Weekend, which celebrates diversity and the LGBTQ+ community.

Drag performances and Pride watch parties are planned across the city while rainbow flags – a symbol of LGBTQ+ pride, diversity, and social inclusion – will fly inside the stadium.
Despite complaints from Iran and Egypt, countries where homosexuality is illegal, the event will still take place.

Both teams say they are purely focused on football, with both coaches avoiding questions about gay pride at their news conferences before the match, which kicks off at 04:00 BST on Saturday.
“We are here to play football, not for other things,” Ghalenoei said. “As for things that are forbidden in our religion and do not exist, we do not want to talk about them. We only talk about the match, football and the beauty of the game.”

Have a great weekend.

—Dana

[guest post by Dana]

The stage was set for what should have been a bipartisan celebration as the housing bill was going to be signed. Instead, the president surprised everyone by canceling the event:

Today’s Housing News Conference and Signing is hereby cancelled until such time as we pass the desperately needed SAVE AMERICA ACT, which I consider to be a National Emergency. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DJT

The housing bill included an institutional investment ban, as approximately 2% of available housing has been snapped up by Wall Street investors rather than families. Trump has been focused on pushing this specific part of the bill.

However, compared to the housing bill, Trump views the SAVE ACT of vital importance, while the housing package is of “minor importance”.

The SAVE ACT includes the following requirements:

A Valid ID Before Registering to Vote in a Federal Election
Proof of Citizenship
No Mail-in Ballots (Except for Illness, Disability, Military or Travel)

The SAVE America ACT will direct states to remove non-citizens from the voter rolls.

Anyway:

🚨BREAKING NEWS: Speaker MIKE JOHNSON said he will meet with President DONALD TRUMP tomorrow in a bid to figure out, well, everything.

Housing, SAVE, etc.

Floor is frozen bc of the save America act. June 24, 2026

We’ll see what tomorrow brings.

—Dana

[guest post by Dana]

From Axios:

House Democrats were left stunned on Tuesday night after two of their colleagues — including the chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus — lost primaries to left-wing challengers.

Why it matters: The New York primary results are poised to double the bloc of Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) in Congress, something that is not sitting well with some moderates.

The winning candidates had been endorsed by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdami.

Moderate Democrats were left stunned at the results:

“People who do not support the DSA wring their hands at cocktail parties, while the DSA is organizing,” Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-N.Y.), the co-chair of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, told Axios.

Another centrist House Democrat, speaking on the condition of anonymity to offer candid analysis, called the results an “earthquake” and a “huge defeat” for Democratic leadership.

“It was a tough night,” said Rep. Greg Meeks (D-N.Y.), a close ally of leadership and the chair of the Queens County Democratic Party, told Axios.

Where does this leave the moderate, old-school Dems? Worried:

The centrist House Democrat who spoke anonymously predicted the sudden influx of democratic socialists will be a “migraine” for leadership come 2027.

“Calling it a headache is an understatement,” the lawmaker said.

“Holy sh*t,” said a second senior House Democrat. “Buckle up.”

Note: Sen. Bernie Sanders on last night’s socialist wins:

Together, we are creating a grassroots progressive movement that will defeat the Oligarchs.

—Dana

[guest post by Dana]

I know, I know. What’s new.

From the report:

In the coming weeks, the United States plans to provide a welcome gift to white South Africans entering the United States as refugees.

They will get an Android tablet, an American flag and copies of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence. They will also receive a packet of literature that provides a sanitized, Trump-approved view of American and South African history, one that criticizes racial equity and civil rights laws and promotes claims of discrimination against white people.

The welcome bags include a report commissioned by Mr. Trump during his first term that downplays the role of slavery in the country’s founding, and a children’s book accusing South Africa’s government of “favoring the Black population.”

(Clearly the Trump administration, or I should say Trump, wishes there had been no civil rights movement in the United States. Unbelievable that he continues to say the quiet part out loud and no one bats an eye.)

Along with the above-mentioned items, as well as items from Prager U , there is also a personal letter from the Department of Health and Human Services, which states:

“The Trump administration understands America’s immigration system must put the U.S. citizen first, and only welcome in those who will assimilate into the American way of life and preserve our borders, language, culture, traditions and ideals,” Mr. Adams wrote in the letter, which was obtained by The Times. “To welcome you to America and help you accustomate to our heritage, we have provided various educational resources to support your day-to-day life and expand your knowledge of American history and values.”

(Ironic, given that America’s aboriginal people faced a genocide by refugees who fled religious or political persecution by the British crown.)

Anyway, in January 2026, Trump placed a travel ban on 60 countries and a pause on refugees:

Countries with full restrictions and entry limitations: Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Burma (Myanmar), Burundi, Chad, the Republic of the Congo, Cuba, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Laos, Libya, Mali, Niger, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Togo, Turkmenistan, Venezuela, and Yemen, as well as people with travel documents issued by the Palestinian Authority.

Countries with partial restrictions and entry limitations: Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Benin, Cote d’Ivoire, Dominica, Gabon, The Gambia, Malawi, Mauritania, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania, Tonga, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

(I guess it’s not as if any of these citizens are facing threats to their lives as are the white people from South Africa, eh?)

Bottom line: If you’re black or brown, too bad, so sad.

The South African government clarified the status of whites leaving their homeland:

[T]he government says they shouldn’t be classified as refugees fleeing persecution.

“The assertion that white Afrikaners, in particular, endure systemic persecution is entirely without foundation,” South African foreign ministry spokesperson Chrispin Phiri said in a statement to The Associated Press on Wednesday.

—Dana