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From Sullivan0066:
- SilverAppleQueen celebrates the Fourth without feeling especially celebratory, in fact with a sense of foreboding, both for the nation and personally.
- PZ Myers likens this week’s holiday to a horrible sequel that betrays the entire premise of what had been a pretty good original. He canceled the Fourth of July at his house.
Key rejection:
And now, on the verge of our 250th anniversary, we have put the reins of power in the hands of a babbling loon who wants to deport anyone with a skin color less pasty than his own, who has just passed a bill that slashes the social safety net and enriches millionaires even more, all while his allies shred education and science in this country. - Infidel753 celebrates our almost quarter millennium of independence with what makes our nation different from most (has to do, in part, with a dedication to a proposition rather than ethnicity).
Key hope:
No upward curve is perfectly smooth. There have always been setbacks along the way — we’re living through one with the current presidential term, though not one of the more serious ones by historical standards. Yet the overall trend of that 249 years is clear. - Michael J Scott was less than enthusiastic about the 4th celebrations. For some of us, it may be the damage Republicans seem intent on doing to freedom, rights, and equal treatment. But also, like many of us, Michael loves his dog.
- Dave Dubya goes to the Supreme Court violation of the plainest of plain language in Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, creating and substituting a concept of presidential immunity not found in the Constitution. He wonders if the ultimate result will be the destruction of American democracy.
For the 4th, he contrasts the direction our level of freedom seems to be heading with that currently experienced in the country from which we declared our independence.
- Legal expert Imani Gandy watches as SCOTUS closes for the season, but not before giving Project 2025 two huge anti‑LGBTQ wins.
- The Borowitz Report covers the decision as the Supreme Court accidentally rules that the Supreme Court no longer exists.
Key alarm:
In a stunning case of unintended consequences, the six conservative Supreme Court justices inadvertently ruled that their jobs no longer exist, legal experts revealed on Monday. - In Letters from an American, historian Heather Cox Richardson reviews the massive transfer of revenue from those in poverty to those in fabulous wealth, with a huge increase in the ICE budget.
She contrasts the exclusive focus on the minor (which is to say misdemeanor) criminality of undocumented immigrants with the serious (which is to say felony) criminality of a president.
She sees a pattern with the Supreme Court gifting Trump legal immunity from lawless acts in office and the new funding by Congress of what has become a secret ICE police force, whose original legal mandate was purely to target foreign sponsored terrorism.
The sum is a series of giant advances toward authoritarianism.
Trump is enthusiastically traveling way beyond even those expanded boundaries.
Key legal precedent:
It was exactly a year ago today, on July 1, 2024, that the United States Supreme Court decided Donald J. Trump v. United States. The court’s majority overthrew the central premise of American democracy: that no one is above the law.Key additional step:
Today Alan Feuer and Adam Goldman of the New York Times reported that a former FBI agent, Jared Wise, who was charged with telling the January 6, 2021, rioters storming the Capitol to kill police officers, is working with the task force in the Justice Department set up as a way for President Trump to seek retribution against his political enemies.Key future aim:
Once a new system of detention facilities and ICE agents is established and the idea that a Republican president can legitimately attack his political opponents is accepted, a police state will be in place.The same analysis is now available in audio format, as Richardson narrates in podcast.
- Florida now boasts a new camp for arrested immigrants, reportedly to be surrounded by swamps and alligators.
As Trump tours Alligator Alcatraz, Laura Loomer (the Laura on whom Trump relies for policy advice) speculates, in cheerful hope, on how alligators might be fed future captives.
Journalist Arturo Dominguez clarifies just whom she is targeting, (and why):
I want you guys to understand something. There aren't 65 million immigrants in this country, but there are 65 million Latinos.
They're using the same language and tactics they once used against Black people and Indigenous people.
This is ethnic cleansing.
— Arturo Dominguez 🇨🇺🇺🇸 (@extremearturo.bsky.social) July 1, 2025 at 9:15 PM
- Juliet at Decoding Fox News listens as Fox hosts join in the humor, giggling at the future possibility of immigrants used as alligator bait at the new detention center.
Key historical point:
Folks at Fox News might not have realized they were echoing a dark and sinister past in the American south when Black Americans were once used as actual bait for alligators according to researchers at the Jim Crow Museum.More detail about the object of Fox hilarity is covered in her podcast version.
- The Propaganda Professor maintains a weekly list of stupid, well worth a glance.
But he presents a separate category for the Bubblegum Crucifix Award,
…this week’s award going to Laura Loomer (yeah, the same Loomer):
Key spiritual hatred:
So I think too, what’s gonna happen if we start witnessing synagogues and churches get firebombed by Black Lives Matter and antifa and Muslims, right? Like Palestinian rioters? Zohran Mamdani is gonna stand with those people… - Jason Linkins dives into the recent New York Democratic primary and sees the most important news, not in the winner, but in the guy who came in third, Brad Lander.
Key quality:
His willingness to put bigger matters ahead of his own near-term political aspirations cuts a huge contrast with Democratic members who grab political office only to play it safe and, in so doing, boost the broken status quo.Key view (quoting Brad Lander):
I don’t think the line right now is between progressives and moderates. I think the line is between fighters and fakers. - In Rural Missouri, our own Jess Piper meets with others working in rural political America and comes up with three messages Democrats should bring.
Key concerns:
As an experienced organizer, these are the three things I would talk about on repeat in rural communities: Medicaid and schools and jobs. - As Representative Derrick Van Orden actually gloats over the harm to hungry kids and to Medicaid recipients, our favorite Earth-Bound Misfit reacts with an after‑life prediction.
- @Silkgengar has Elizabeth Warren saying it about as crystal clear as it can get:
- Brian Beutler insists that Republican lies about Medicaid and, further, about preexisting conditions are disguised by a calendar trick but will hurt countless Americans after everyone has forgotten the warnings, or even who is to blame.
Key delay, by Trump:
He’ll carry the lie forward, and seek to discredit his critics, because, as written, the Medicaid cuts he’s lying about will not take effect until after next year’s midterm elections. For the day and week and month and year after the bill passes, most Medicaid beneficiaries won’t be displaced. Many of them won’t know what’s coming.
Then millions will lose their insurance en masse. - tengrain at Mock Paper Scissors begins with a Medicaid accusation:
Roger Marshall: "When they talk about people not being on Medicaid anymore, half of those people are on it because of fraud or some type of abuse of the system, the other half is because they're unwilling to work 20 hours a week."
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) June 30, 2025 at 3:13 PM
tengrain explains, ever so patiently, why that is a physical, financial, practical, mathematical, 100% for sure impossibility.
- At The Moderate Voice Robert A. Levine watches RFK jr fire pretty much anyone and everyone experienced with the science associated with vaccines. The logic is that, because they have knowledge in their field, they have a conflict of interest. He replaces them with anti‑vaccine kooks with no real experience.
- In Ant Farmer’s Almanac RFK Jr. explains how “This One Weird Trick Will Make America Healthy Again!”
- Aside from kids and those relying on Medicaid, there are others in the crosshairs.
In the wake of the Republican One Big Beautiful Bill, The Onion, goes into a grim sort of humor, reporting the average American’s retirement plan now involves Richard Gere falling for them after paying for sex.
- In Canadian satire, The Beaverton, Trump’s trade negotiations with Canada get complicated. The complications are pretty much on one side.
Key headline:
Trump ends trade talks with Canada, resumes trade talks with Canada, ends trade talks with Canada, demands to know which European country is Canada - Trump backs down (again) on his tariff schedule, and the markets bounce back upward.
A CNN host speculates on the obvious connection between the two.
Tommy Christopher follows the exchange as Trump melts down and CNN’s Abby Phillip responds with a bit of fun at Trump’s expense.
mr Trump (hi octane melt):
Ms. Phillip (low key answer):
- Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is angry as all hell at press examination of Trump’s war‑type actions in the Middle East. So Dave Columbo reviews the tirade and helpfully explains what a free press is supposed to do.
- In Hackwhackers, Donald Trump boasts that, on his orders, Iran’s nuclear ability has been obliterated. As the evidence trickles in, the primary obliteration is inflicted on Trump’s claims.
The result of this instance of poor impulse control may turn out to be more dangerous than is commonly reported.
- Disaffected and it Feels So Good listens to MAGA boasts about Trump’s bombing Iran…
…as the evidence keeps coming in that Trump’s bombing really bombed. Unnecessary and ineffective.
- driftglass reviews promises of peace in the Middle East that Trump made while targeting enthused Muslim voters, wondering how all that trust is doing now.
- North Carolina pastor John Pavlovitz watches Joe Biden at the memorial service for assassinated couple, Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and husband Mark, and misses having a human President.
Key national deficit:
I realized that amid the unthinkable criminality, staggering overreach, and human rights rollbacks we’re living through, perhaps the most tragic loss this nation has experienced, is that we have lost the reality of a president who, as Joe Biden has always done in challenging and painful moments: calls us to the best of who we are as a people, appeals to our better angels, and invites us to be agents of goodness.
It will be a long time until America can again look to its President for a compassionate response to other people’s pain; to see someone willing and capable of caring, weeping, and feeling. - Ted McLaughlin at jobsanger breaks down the data as most Americans regard Trump as a criminal but say he won’t be punished.
- It’s a new form of bribery hidden in plain sight.
News Corpse covers the latest as Paramount – owner of CBS – caves to Trump extortion, paying $16 million dollars to settle a lawsuit that was transparently bogus.
- M. Bouffant at Web of Evil has the links, contrasting owners of The Washington Post 54 years ago with today’s. Back then, Katharine Graham bravely stood up to presidential threats, defending the news organization. Today, Jeff Bezos willingly sells his soul, and that of the Post.
- Press cowardice is not endemic to the US. Scotties Playtime shows print media in Ireland covering an anti‑pride hate crime as a disruptive “prank”.
- Right Wing Watch brings us Pastor Joel Webbon to explain why only Christian men should hold office
- In The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser, Bruce notes that some Christians make it a point to carry the Bible to every worship service without ever having glanced at the contents.
Key Biblical practice:
Granted, after church, many of those Bibles will be returned to the front dash, back window, or underneath the seats of their automobiles. Some members “store” their Bibles in their car trunks — safe and secure, ready for the next Sunday.
What most members DON’T do is regularly read/study the Bible. In fact, most Evangelicals haven’t read the Bible through once, yet they are “people of the Book?”Key peril:
Here’s the most dangerous thing Evangelicals can do: READ THE BIBLE FROM COVER TO COVER. Take every book of the Bible as written. The Bible is not a univocal text. Careful readers of the Bible will quickly learn that it contradicts itself, justifies immoral behavior, and is littered with mistakes and errors. - CalicoJack in The Psy of Life is undergoing dramatic disruption in approaching retirement, associated financial anxiety, location, machines, and an important hobby. Jack makes it sound like terrifying, productive, worthwhile, possible fun.
- Julian Sanchez reviews George Orwell’s 1984, the horrible, extraordinarily well written book of totalitarian horror. In the end, the protagonist’s independent thought is surrendered to the authoritarian state.
Key hopeless ending:
He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother.Julian presents the addendum Orwell included as hidden in plain sight: not exactly a happy ending, but an ending with a touch of hope.
- @whiskeywhistle98 has strong opinions about helping her kids with math work:
- In Georgia baseball, The Savanna Bananas prove that intimidation and distraction through showmanship need not be restricted to pitching and fielding:
Not a bad weekend for thanking those who have served:
We can always rely on the internet for more wisdom:
the very best exercise of the week in religious bigotry.
2 responses to “Week of Freedom Celebration
Big Bad Bill, Medicaid Slashes, Tariff Costs, ICE Expansion (Budget Explosion), Immigrant Alligator Camp”
Wow, thanks for posting my July 4 Daily Dose! That was really a nice surprise!
I did have a nice time with my family but my sister told me to shut up about politics. She’s GOP all the way. All I did was say that nobody was going to notice the effects of the BBB until 2027, when they would forget about who enacted the bill.
Making family gatherings “politics free” is a way to make sure that everyone gets along & has a good time BUT it is also a way to make sure that nobody ever knows what’s really going on. Everyone stays in their own political zone & nobody ever hears about another view or another mindset.
Of course ~ people who have been watching FOX news for years are usually beyond hearing anything except right-wing propaganda but miracles do happen. I guess.
Thank you for linking Scottie’s, Burr! Great column for today. sigh