curated citations to news sources
Bill Nelson: In the Quest to Shrink NASA, Trump Forgets National Security
Mr. Nelson, a former Democratic senator from Florida, was the administrator of NASA from 2021 to 2025
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The Trump administration’s proposal to cut NASA to the bone — including a nearly 50 percent reduction in science funding — jeopardizes the country’s pursuit of discovery and undermines capabilities that are essential in an era when rivals are advancing in terrestrial and extraterrestrial arenas. Far from a bold vision for American leadership, the administration has presented Congress with a blueprint for falling catastrophically behind on space exploration just as China and other nations are surging ahead.
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But this isn’t just about the race to shape humanity’s future as a multiplanetary species. It’s about threats that are already here, as we witnessed over a year ago at Langley. In places like Ukraine and the Middle East, we’re witnessing the dawn of autonomous drone strikes as a new paradigm of war — launched from hidden compartments, capable of punching through even the most sophisticated air defenses. Against this backdrop are reports of Chinese-owned companies purchasing farmland near U.S. military bases — at least 350,000 acres in 27 states — raising urgent questions about espionage and threats not just to military installations, but also critical systems like energy grids. A strong civilian space program doesn’t just advance technologies needed to detect these threats, but also helps ensure supremacy over the skies and in orbit.
(Bill Nelson more…)
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Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – June 28, 2025
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After forcing changes to the measure through challenges accepted by the Senate parliamentarian, Democrats tonight called out Republicans for releasing the new bill in the middle of last night and then trying to call a vote on it in the middle of tonight. They are demanding that the entire 940-page bill be read on the Senate floor.As the Republican attempt to hide the budget reconciliation bill suggests, it is enormously unpopular.
In 1890, the Republicans forced through Congress a similarly unpopular measure: the McKinley Tariff, the law President Donald Trump has spoken of as a model for his economic policies. Like today’s budget reconciliation bill, the McKinley Tariff skewed the country’s economy even more strongly toward the very wealthy, putting more money in the pockets of the richest Americans at the expense of the poorest.
The McKinley Tariff passed in a chaotic congressional session in May 1890, with members shouting amendments, yelling objections, and talking over one another. All Democrats voted against the measure, and when it passed in the House, Republicans cheered and clapped at their victory. “You may rejoice now,” a Democrat yelled across the aisle, “but next November you’ll mourn.”
Democrats were right. In the November 1890 midterm elections, angry voters repudiated the Republican Party, giving the Democrats a two-to-one majority in the House and preserving Republican control of the Senate only because three Republican senators had voted against the tariff.
(Heather Cox Richardson more…)
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Atlantic: ‘I’m Not Quite Sure How to Respond to This Presentation’
The discomfiting spectacle of RFK Jr.’s new vaccine-advisory committee
(Atlantic more…)
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Reuters: U.S. strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites set up “cat-and-mouse” hunt for missing uranium
CNN: UN nuclear watchdog chief says Iran could again begin enriching uranium in ‘matter of months’
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Jamelle Bouie: We Know Exactly Where the Supreme Court’s Change of Heart Has Come From
The heart of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s dissent in Trump v. CASA is that the Constitution does not permit the exercise of arbitrary power and is certainly not a document that gives to any single individual the authority to rewrite the law.
…It is hard to know for certain whether the Republican majority understands the legal world it’s building and the power it has given to the president. My view, like Jackson’s, is that it is laying the groundwork for the exercise of arbitrary power, unaccountable save for the next election — an American-style presidential dictatorship.
(Jamelle Bouie more…)Allison Gill: John Roberts: “I Never Thought the Leopards Would Eat *My* Judiciary”
The chief justice who handed an oligarch a crown is once again surprised by the consequences of his own actions
(Allison Gill more…)Rebecca Solnit: “An Existential Threat to the Rule of Law” (Some Notes on the Supreme Court and the War on Immigrants)
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After a lifetime in a relatively predictable country, one governed by norms as well as laws set down in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, all bets are off as to what will happen next, both with what the Trump junta does and what civil society does. We make the future in the present with how we show up or don’t, and while that’s always true, it’s never been more urgently so.
(Rebecca Solnit more…)
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Closer to the Edge: No flowers for fascists
You don’t have to serve seditionists. You don’t have to bake cakes for coup apologists. You’re allowed to say no. And it’s time you did.
(Closer to the Edge more…)
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Jess Piper: Three Messages Democrats Should Bring to Rural America
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A study by the University of New Hampshire stated:How much would a small incremental change of plus or minus 3 percent in support in rural areas over 2020 levels influence the outcome of the 2024 election? Enough to make the difference between victory and defeat in several of the battleground states.
We could have made a massive difference in 2024 if we could have turned out just 3% more Democratic voters in rural areas across the country.
…As an experienced organizer, these are the three things I would talk about on repeat in rural communities: Medicaid and schools and jobs.
…There will be some who will read this post and be ready with the statement: why even try in rural areas? They always vote against their self-interest.
…Missouri, like many GOP-dominated states, isn’t red. It is uncontested.
(Jess Piper more…)
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Closer to the Edge: The court that watches porn so you don’t have to
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Here’s where the ruling jumps the shark and lands right in the clown tank. Because Texas’s new law mimics old Supreme Court language about what is and isn’t protected sexual expression, judges now have to do what their predecessors did in the ‘70s: watch porn and decide if it’s “serious.”You can’t make this up. Judges may be required to screen porn and determine whether it has “serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value… for minors.” Not adults—minors. Imagine the federal court transcript: …
(Closer to the Edge more…)
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Citizen Watch Report: ICE and border agents use explosives to break into LA home of US citizen while she was inside with her two children
On June 27, 2025, federal agents with U.S. Customs and Border Protection conducted a pre-dawn raid on a home in Huntington Park, California. They used explosives to breach the front door and windows while a woman and her two young children were inside.The agents were searching for Jorge Sierra-Hernandez, who was not present at the time. He was later arrested elsewhere. The woman inside, Jenny Ramirez, said she was not informed who the agents were looking for and described the raid as violent and terrifying. She told Univision, “They just exploded my window and door. They didn’t identify who they were looking for”.
(Citizen Watch Report more…)NBC4: Video shows federal agents blast their way into Huntington Park home
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Thom Hartmann: Chapter 10: The impact of tax policy on the American Dream
Tracking the Lawsuits Against Trump’s Agenda
Project 2025 Tracker
DOGE Tracker
ProPublica: Elon Musk’s Demolition Crew
Wired: 6 Tools for Tracking the Trump Administration’s Attacks on Civil Liberties
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