News of the Week (June 29th, 2025)

Posted on June 29, 2025 by The Political Hat

 

News of the Week for June 29th, 2025


 

Abortion

Court Cases & Legislation

 

MPs vote to decriminalise women ending their own pregnancies in step towards abortion reform
Under current law in England and Wales, abortion is allowed up to the first 24 weeks of pregnancy

Garden State of Intimidation: ADF to Defend First Choice Pregnancy Centers Next SCOTUS Term
Does New Jersey really have nothing better to do than bully pro-lifers walking with women in Newark and other hot spots for women who feel like they have no choice but abortion?

States can block Medicaid money for health care at Planned Parenthood, the Supreme Court says
States can block the country’s biggest abortion provider, Planned Parenthood, from receiving Medicaid money for health services such as contraception and cancer screenings, the Supreme Court ruled on Thursday.

Gun Rights

 

The 9th Circuit Says California’s One-Per-Month Limit on Gun Purchases Is Unconstitutional
The appeals court concluded that the restriction impinges on the right to arms and is not consistent with the historical tradition of firearm regulation.

 

Hide the Decline

Environment &“Green Energy”

 

Of Course the Federal Government Should Sell a Bunch of Land
When Republicans talk about selling federal land, people’s minds immediately go to national parks and their unparalleled beauty. The government should not sell off any national parks, but it should absolutely sell off a bunch of land.

Not Green Enough? Berlin May Expropriate Your Business
In Berlin, those who fail to comply with the green agenda could lose their company. That is what the new legal framework promoted by the CDU and SPD in the German capital’s Senate stipulates. Under the label of Vergesellschaftungsrahmengesetz (framework law on collectivization), the coalition has agreed on an instrument that would allow the State to expropriate private companies if, in the opinion of the political authorities, they fail to meet climate goals or invest “too little” in the public interest.

 

Socialized Medicine

Government in Healthcare

 

‘Extremely disturbing and unethical’: new rules allow VA doctors to refuse to treat Democrats, unmarried veterans
Department of Veterans Affairs says the changes come in response to a Trump executive order ‘defending women’

CDC virus expert resigns after RFK Jr.’s purge of vaccine advisers
Fiona Havers, who oversaw CDC respiratory virus data, told colleagues she no longer had confidence the data would be used objectively to set vaccine policy.

U.K. House of Commons Narrowly Passes Assisted-Suicide Legislation
The House of Commons in the U.K. Parliament narrowly voted in favor of legalizing euthanasia on Friday. The bill now heads to the House of Lords, where it will be voted on or expire.

The Assisted-Suicide Danger Zone
The limited debate in the House of Commons was abysmal on Friday. Far too many members embraced killing the sick and elderly or opted out of taking any responsibility for standing up to the culture of death, which seeks to eliminate the bother of the sick and elderly. And others. We’re not too far away from rationalizing death for a panoply of challenges of life.

Getting ‘Dappy’ About Killing Mum
There was an especially creepy reaction to the vote in the House of Commons on Friday to legalize assisted suicide from Dame Esther Rantzen and her family. Suffering from cancer, the retired journalist — known for the long-running BBC series That’s Life — is a vocal advocate of assisted suicide, even though it may not come in time for her to make use of it in England.

Bill Cassidy Is Troubled by RFK Jr.’s Vaccine Panel Changes
Months after they met in a high-profile nomination battle, Senator Bill Cassidy (R., La.) is still dealing with the complications from Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s confirmation. As chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, Cassidy, a physician, cast the deciding vote in February to advance Kennedy’s nomination to the floor. Cassidy, however, is now worried that the advisory committee on vaccines that Kennedy recently purged and partially restaffed might not be prepared to issue recommendations.

Senate parliamentarian blocks Medicaid changes in “big, beautiful bill”
The Senate parliamentarian ruled out the Medicaid provider tax provision in the “one big, beautiful bill,” according to Senate Democrats.

The Obviously Sensible Medicaid Proposal That’s Roiling the Senate
As the Senate scrambles to vote on its version of Republicans’ sprawling “One Big, Beautiful Bill” over the weekend, the chamber has run into a problem worth approximately $250 billion. To help offset its planned tax cuts, the Senate Finance Committee included in its portion of the legislation a provision that would crack down on Medicaid provider taxes, a mechanism by which states transfer additional costs of their programs to the federal government. This week, however, the Senate parliamentarian ruled that the language of this change was not permissible under the rules of budget reconciliation, forcing Republicans to drop it from the bill.

War & Terror

 

Bunker Hill: The Battle That Made America Possible
For one bloody day, New England militia were the nation’s first army.

Iran Has Attacked America Via Proxy for Decades. By Supporting Israel, Trump Is Repaying the Favor
There is an active debate going on about the proper role of the U.S. in Israel’s conflict with Iran. Some people are supportive of the current U.S. approach of helping Israel but not directly engaging Iran offensively; others don’t think we should be supporting Israel at all. It’s the latter crowd that I’d like to respond to in this post — those who don’t think we should be defending Israel against missile attacks or supplying the Israelis with the bombs that are helping to make their campaign against Iran a success.

Tulsi and Tucker Get Thrown Under the MAGA Bus
Their denial about the reality of Iran’s nuclear program has opened a rift with Trump.

Fox News: Tulsi Gabbard Was Not Invited to Trump’s Camp David Meeting on Iran
Fox News offers an update regarding one of the topics discussed in today’s Morning Jolt, noting that U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard did not attend a Camp David meeting in which the president and his national security team discussed what we now know was an impending Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear program and ballistic missile launchers.

‘We Now Have Complete And Total Control’: Trump Confirms U.S. is Part of Conflict With Iran
President Donald Trump appeared to offer confirmation that the United States is now participating in Israel’s attack on Iran in a Tuesday social media post.

How the Israel-Iran war may develop
If Iran is losing a conventional conflict, there is a danger that it will resort to unconventional means of retaliation

Does Israel Have a Trick Up Its Sleeve to Take Out Fordow?
Israel can’t eliminate the threat from the Iranian nuclear program without taking out the Fordow site. Built into the side of a mountain near the city of Qom, the Fordow site is 262 to 295 feet underground.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem transported to DC-area hospital after allergic reaction, DHS says
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was transported by ambulance on Tuesday to a hospital in Washington, DC, after an allergic reaction, the Department of Homeland Security said.

All NATO members to hit 2% defense spending in 2025, Rutte says
All 32 NATO member states are on track to meet the alliance’s 2% GDP defense spending benchmark in 2025, Secretary General Mark Rutte said on June 17 at the G7 summit in Canada.

Many Nations Ready To Supply Iran With Their Nuclear Warheads: Top Putin Aide
Mr Araghchi has said that he will have ‘serious consultations’ with the Russian leader, hours after the United States entered the Iran-Israel conflict by striking three key Iranian nuclear sites last night.

Iran orders closure of Strait of Hormuz — putting one-fifth of world’s oil supply at risk
Iran’s parliament has voted to close the Strait of Hormuz, the vital shipping channel through which around 20% of the world’s daily oil flows. The move, which could block $1 billion in oil shipments per day, is likely to send oil prices soaring.

US inserts itself into Israel’s war with Iran, striking 3 Iranian nuclear sites
The United States struck three sites in Iran early Sunday, inserting itself into Israel’s war aimed at destroying the country’s nuclear program in a risky gambit to weaken a longtime foe despite fears of a wider regional conflict.

US unleashes deadly arsenal: How the strike on Iran’s nuclear sites took place
Attack combines B-2 bombers and bunker-busting MOP bombs alongside submarines launching 30 Tomahawk land-attack cruise missiles from about 450 kilometers (280 miles) away

Tulsi Gabbard Feels the Freeze
America’s “restrainers,” MAGA isolationists, and undisclosed Qatari influencers have all been having a rough go of it recently, as Donald Trump has vigorously backed Israel’s successful-to-date strikes on the Iranian regime’s nuclear program. American military might now stands squarely behind Israel and may yet participate in one form or another in any final strike against its hardest targets. And now the Trump administration’s most open (and sanctimonious) war skeptic has bent the knee.

The gates of Evin Prison
When the revolutionaries stormed the Bastille in July 1789, they freed all the prisoners held there — all seven of them, that is. My teacher Jeffrey Hart loved to point that out in his lectures on Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France.

Russia’s former president says countries are lining up to give Iran their nukes. Analysts are calling his bluff.
Russia’s former president, a top Putin aide, slammed the US for its strikes on Iran’s nuclear site. Among other claims, Dmitry Medvedev said other countries were ready to give their nukes to Iran. Nuclear analysts told BI that Medvedev’s claim was logistically and politically ridiculous.

Zelensky Assassination Plot Foiled: What to Know
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was the target of an assassination plot to be carried out by a Polish pensioner who had first been recruited by the Soviet Union decades ago, the head of the country’s internal security agency said.

The Confused and Complicated World of the Right’s Iran Strike Critics
To their chagrin, Trump showed that the selective use of force can achieve desirable outcomes and advance U.S. interests.

A well-intentioned Senate move against Russia is hopelessly messy
In theory, imposing even heavier sanctions on Russia is a good idea. Drubbing U.S. allies isn’t.

Fears over Iran’s missing 400kg of uranium
Satellite images show line of trucks at Fordow before strikes, with analysts suggesting materials were frantically moved

Trump claims Israel-Iran ceasefire is ‘in effect’ despite initial violations
U.S. President Donald Trump claims a ceasefire between Iran and Israel was “in effect” on Tuesday, after expressing deep frustration with both sides for violating the agreement he brokered.

The Son of the Last Shah Wants to Be the Next Leader of Iran
Reza Pahlavi has a famous name but whether he has enough support inside the country to rise to power is unclear.

Why Are Chinese Cargo Planes Flying into Iran, and What Are They Carrying?
Russia has warned the United States not to assist Israel in its strikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities or ballistic missile launchers. Because if there’s anything Vladimir Putin hates to see, it’s military aggression crossing international borders, right?

Senate GOP mocks Iran war predictions by Tucker Carlson
During a closed-door meeting Tuesday, Sen. Tom Cotton’s (R-Ark.) colleagues laughed as he listed off predictions by Tucker Carlson about what would happen in a war to stop Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.

Putin’s ‘Doomsday Radio’ spews out weird coded messages as NATO leaders meet
Russia’s ‘Doomsday Radio’ began broadcasting a series of cryptic messages as world leaders including Keir Starmer, Volodymyr Zelensky and Donald Trump met at a crucial NATO summit

Trump’s New Intelligence Problem
The ‘deep state’ abides, in a different form.

‘I don’t think there’s going to be a change,’ general says of US military presence in Europe
The top U.S. Army commander in Europe said Wednesday that he expects troop levels to hold steady on the Continent, even as the Pentagon aims to shift more assets to the Asia-Pacific region.

Rwanda, Congo sign peace deal in US to end fighting, attract investment
Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo signed a U.S.-brokered peace agreement on Friday, raising hopes for an end to fighting that has killed thousands and displaced hundreds of thousands more this year.

 

National

 

How the Minnesota Shootings Suspect Was Caught
A two-day manhunt ended Sunday night as police captured the suspect, Vance Boelter, in a field. No force was used.

New SCOTUS Leaks Reveal Secret Details About Justice Amy Coney Barrett
The FBI’s investigation into leaks at the Supreme Court hasn’t stopped new details from emerging about the fault lines that have developed between Justice Amy Coney Barrett and her fellow conservative justices.

Trump’s New Amnesty Would Cover About Two Million Illegal Immigrants
President Trump wants to deport illegal immigrants, but, paradoxically, he doesn’t want certain industries to lose illegal immigrant labor. As a result, DHS recently decided it would not conduct worksite investigations or operations on the agriculture, restaurant, and hotel industries.

N.Y. Court Holds Mayor Adams Likely Improperly “Negotiated Away Sanctuary City Protections for a Dismissal of His Ongoing Criminal Prosecution”
From New York trial court judge Mary Rosado’s opinion Thursday in Council of City of N.Y. v. Adams

Powerful Trump aide who’s in charge of vetting thousands of staffers still hasn’t been fully vetted himself
One of the most powerful men in the Trump administration, tasked with vetting thousands of staffers, hasn’t been fully vetted himself, The Post has learned.

Jury finds MyPillow founder defamed former employee for a leading voting equipment company
A federal jury in Colorado on Monday found that one of the nation’s most prominent election conspiracy theorists, MyPillow founder Mike Lindell, defamed a former employee for a leading voting equipment company after the 2020 presidential election.

California court upholds John Eastman’s disbarment for role in Trump 2020 plot
Eastman’s “false narrative” about the 2020 results undermined American elections and the legal system, the court wrote.

Supreme Court Rejects Constitutional Challenge to State Limits on Sex Transition Treatments for Minors
The Court’s majority avoids the larger question of whether laws targeting transgender individuals should be subject to heightened scrutiny, but Justice Barrett did not.

“Houston Housing Authority Cited over a Dozen Cases in a Legal Brief. Almost None of the Quotes Exist.”
The firm’s managing attorney “said in an email that because the court required the brief to be filed within a short timeframe, the quick turnaround ‘prevented our usual multi-attorney review.'”

Supreme Court on Loper Bright: Yeah, We Meant It
One of the big stories of last year’s Supreme Court term was the Loper Bright case, which overturned the Chevron doctrine and reasserted the power of courts to decide what the law means without having to defer to administrative agencies judging the scope of their own power.

Why longtime labor ally Dina Titus quietly helped kill efforts to unionize her office, ex-staff say
Former staffers of the dean of the Nevada congressional delegation said Titus created a toxic work environment and, they believe, violated federal ethics law.

Justice Dept. Leader Suggested Violating Court Orders, Whistle-Blower Says
Emil Bove III, a Trump judicial nominee, voiced his intent to disobey court orders as others stonewalled and misled judges, according to a complaint.

DOJ Whistleblower on Emil Bove’s ‘F*** You’ to Courts
A few weeks ago, I outlined my concerns about Emil Bove’s nomination to the Third Circuit. I have had nothing to say about the nomination since then. In part that’s because there had been no further evidence that would substantiate or dispel my concerns about Bove’s character and integrity. In part it’s because I figured the stakes are small: If my concerns are unsound, Bove would probably be a decent or even good appellate judge. If my concerns are sound, it’s arguably better to have him out of DOJ and in a position where he would have little opportunity or incentive to act on his worst impulses.

Norwegian tourist, 21, is barred from entering the US after ICE guards find meme showing JD Vance with a bald head on his phone
A Norwegian tourist claims he was harassed and refused entry to the US after immigration officers found a meme of JD Vance on his phone.

Anthropic Wins Right to Use Copyrighted Books to Train AI Models
Anthropic PBC convinced a California federal judge that using copyrighted books to train its generative AI models qualifies as fair use. Authors’ claims that the maker of the ‘Claude’ large language model infringed their copyrights by copying pirated books, though, will proceed toward trial.

Steve Bannon Mocks Fox News Host as ‘Tel Aviv Levin’ as MAGA Civil War Rages
Former White House strategist Steve Bannon has attacked Fox News host Mark Levin as the MAGA civil war gets even nastier.

Theory Proposing Three-Dimensional Time as the “Primary Fabric of Everything” Could Unify Quantum Physics and Gravity
A University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) scientist has proposed a “three-dimensional time” theory that replaces the traditional model of one dimension of time and three physical dimensions as the primary fabric of everything.

The Federalist Society isn’t going anywhere
Even as Donald Trump has fumed at the conservative legal group, it remains the most influential player in Republican judicial nominations.

Former Trump Ambassador Scott Brown launches bid to flip key battleground Senate seat from blue to red
Scott Brown launches Republican campaign in New Hampshire to flip key Democratic seat in 2026 race

Ron Paul: President Trump is unleashing a ‘Great Big Ugly Surveillance State’
On March 20, President Trump signed an executive order “Eliminating Information Silos.” The order directed heads of federal agencies to make sure officials designated by the president “have full and prompt access to all unclassified agency records, data, software systems, and information technology systems.” The executive order did not attract much attention until it was more recently revealed that the administration was working with tech company Palantir to create a database containing all information collected by all federal agencies on all US citizens.

Brown University book club promotes queer theory through marine biology memoir
Brown University’s LGBTQ Center promoted a ‘Lavender Reads’ event on social media, telling attendees that they would learn about sexuality, relationships, and survival through a discussion of a marine biology memoir. Brown’s Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology co-sponsored the event with the LGBTQ Center.

Tarrant GOP chair Bo French asks if Jews or Muslims are America’s ‘bigger threat’
Religious leaders and advocates were calling for the removal of Tarrant County GOP chair Bo French in response to a social media post they described as divisive and inflammatory.

Raw milk sold throughout southeastern Pa. recalled over contamination concerns
The Pa. Department of Agriculture is asking people to immediately discard Meadow View Jerseys brand raw milk that has been purchased since April 1, 2025, due to Campylobacter contamination.

 

Economy & Taxes

 

We Saw ‘Government Motors,’ Now Trump Has Created ‘U.S. Government Steel’
According to U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, the U.S. government is now a major shareholder in U.S. Steel.

DOGE Takes a Nibble Out of Big Government
Who’s shrinking whom?

The US Court of International Trade Made the Right Call
To hear Trump tell of it, the U.S. Court of International Trade’s decision striking down the tariffs he imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) was motivated by personal animus. It was just another case of biased left-wingers afflicted by Trump Derangement Syndrome engaging in judicial activism to stop him.

Retail sales fell 0.9% in May, worse than expected, as consumers pulled back
Retail sales declined 0.9%, even more than the 0.6% drop expected from the Dow Jones consensus. However, excluding a series of items such as auto dealers, building materials suppliers, gas stations and others, sales increased 0.4%. The pullback in retail sales came despite surveys showing that consumer sentiment actually increased in May.

Homebuilder sentiment nears pandemic low as economic uncertainty plagues consumers
Builder sentiment in June dropped 2 points from May to 32 on the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI). Anything below 50 is considered negative. Analysts had been expecting a slight improvement, given recent tariff negotiations and pullbacks by the Trump administration. This index has only seen a lower reading than June’s level twice since 2012.

Americans Pull Back From Restaurants by Most Since 2023
Spending at restaurants and bars slumped in May by the most in more than two years, underscoring how tariffs and geopolitical tensions are making consumers nervous about their finances.

The president of the AFL-CIO says she’s committed to the fight against Trump’s immigration policies
Liz Shuler knows she has a long summer ahead of her. Over the past week, the president of the AFL-CIO, which has more than 15 million members, has seen organized labor’s ongoing battle with the Trump administration come under an even brighter spotlight.

Tariffs cost Iowa businesses $90M in April, new report says, a 304% hike from 2024
Iowa importers paid $90 million in tariffs in April 2025, a 304% increase from April 2024. The report attributed the increase almost entirely to President Trump’s executive actions. The tariffs contribute to economic uncertainty, impacting soybean farmers and businesses like Cedar Ridge Distillery and Kinze Manufacturing.

Yes, Trump Just Nationalized U.S. Steel
At least by the United States’ own standards.

Nationalizing Steel Companies? What Is This, a Labour Government?
Jim Geraghty posted on Monday about the government takeover of U.S. Steel. Japanese firm Nippon Steel had offered to purchase the company, a deal that the shareholders of both companies approved. But politicians stepped in. First, Joe Biden blocked the sale entirely. Before the election, Trump said he would do the same. Now that he’s president, he has allowed the deal, but only in exchange for what can be described as nationalization.

US Ramps Up Deep-Sea Mining Efforts to Challenge China’s Control Over Critical Minerals
Trump’s executive order allowing the U.S. to develop offshore resources may be among the most important of his administration.

The Holy Grail of Automation: Now a Robot Can Unload a Truck
Technology breakthroughs are allowing DHL and other companies to automate the laborious, injury-prone work of loading and unloading

A Key Gauge Signals Waning Demand for US Dollar in $7.5 Trillion Market
A measure of demand in the $7.5-trillion-a-day foreign-exchange market is catching the attention of Wall Street, pointing to diminished appetite for the US dollar even during market turbulence that would otherwise send investors flocking to the greenback.

Republican Megabill Loses Dozens of Provisions to Senate Rules
Congressional Republicans had a tough weekend. The Senate parliamentarian, an official who advises members on following the chamber’s rules, determined that many provisions in their One Big Beautiful Bill Act did not qualify for budget reconciliation. Reconciliation is the process on which Republicans are relying to advance their megabill through the Senate. It would enable them to bypass the filibuster’s 60-vote threshold and instead advance the legislation with a bare majority.

Lutnick’s Sadness
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick joined the administration pile-on against Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, whose sin is not cutting interest rates. There are good arguments on both sides of the interest-rate question. Then there’s Lutnick’s argument.

The Umpteenth Demolition of Trump’s Trade Nonsense
Just as Joe Biden used ridiculous assertions to keep his voting base energized (e.g., that “systemic racism” throughout America required constant federal intervention), so does Donald Trump. His pronouncements regarding international trade are astoundingly ignorant, but they no doubt resonate with quite a few Americans who want to believe that we need a leader who will fight against “unfair” foreign trade.

How FedEx’s Fred Smith Changed the World
Frederick Wallace Smith was born in Mississippi in 1944 but grew up mostly in Memphis. His father was a successful businessman there, running a chain of restaurants and a bus line, but he died when Smith was four years old. He was mainly raised by his mother, Sally, and struggled with a hip disorder that forced him to walk with crutches while young.

The Tariff Costs Are Worse Than You Think
The Donald Trump administration’s recent bilateral trade deals are steps in the right direction, but they will not be enough to rescue American businesses and consumers from higher tariffs, compliance costs, and uncertainty.

‘Workers don’t trust either party’: Sherrod Brown-backed focus groups reveal economic pessimism
American voters are “extremely pessimistic” about the economy regardless of their age, gender or race, according to new research conducted by former Ohio Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown’s pro-worker group and shared first with Semafor.

Union Pushes To Extend $30 Minimum Wage to All Los Angeles Employees
Industry groups warn that a $30 wage rate already approved for hotel employees threatens to trigger an ‘economic tsunami.’

Power-Hungry and Petty: How Shawn Fain Runs the UAW
This is Dominic Pino filling in for Jim Geraghty. Audrey Fahlberg takes over tomorrow. For the latest on the New York City mayoral race, check out Jeff Blehar’s take here and Vincent Cannato’s explanation of how the city got to this point. New Yorkers ended up voting for the public menace.

Other Countries Have Fixed Their Social Security Programs
The annual Social Security trustees’ report came out this month, and it tells the same old story everybody knows: The program is financially unsustainable. Benefits are automatically scheduled to be cut by 23 percent in 2033, and Congress made an already bad situation slightly worse by passing a giveaway to government workers during the lame-duck session last year.

US first-quarter GDP revised lower on tepid consumer spending
The U.S. economy contracted a bit faster than previously thought in the first quarter amid tepid consumer spending, underscoring the distortions caused by the Trump administration’s aggressive tariffs on imported goods.

No love for the dollar as markets fret about Fed independence
A battered dollar is taking another beating as investors, unnerved by fresh signs of an erosion in U.S. central bank independence, waste no time in pushing the greenback back to its lowest levels in over three years.

Senate Banking Republicans propose scaled-back CFPB cut in new megabill plan
The Senate parliamentarian has not yet ruled on the new Banking text, meaning it is still subject to change.

A Social Security What-If
My American Enterprise Institute colleague Andrew Biggs uses the actual market returns of the last two decades to see where we would be had George W. Bush’s Social Security proposal became law.

Socialists Have a Very Different Idea of Tax Competition
Zohran Mamdani, the socialist Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City, has a very different idea from conservatives about what tax competition between jurisdictions means.

Senate advances massive bill for Trump’s agenda after GOP leaders sway holdouts
Republicans are trying to steer the 940-page domestic policy legislation through the Senate as they near a self-imposed July 4 deadline for passage.

 

International

Is Pursuing Regime Change in Iran Worth the Risk?
On the menu today: A busy night on the Iran front as President Trump urges Iranian citizens to evacuate Tehran and cuts short his trip to the G-7; the Iranian regime urges its people to “enjoy martyrdom”; Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that regime change isn’t the intended objective of the ongoing airstrikes and covert operations but may be a result of it; Ayatollah Khamenei is reportedly in a “difficult mental state” — I’ll bet he is!; and one particular administration official wasn’t invited to the big Camp David meeting in the run-up to the Israeli strikes. I’ll bet you can guess which one, with the benefit of hindsight.

As Venezuela’s currency crashes, Maduro locks up analysts, shuts down dollar trackers
Failing to revive an economy in free fall, Nicolás Maduro’s regime has now turned its sights on those who dare to describe the collapse. In recent weeks, authorities have detained economists, analysts and digital platform operators who publish independent financial data, intensifying a campaign of repression aimed at concealing Venezuela’s worsening economic crisis.

Cubans Shut Out by Trump Are Ditching Miami for Brazil’s Deep South
Cubans have long navigated perilous jungles or shark-infested waters to flee deprivation and repression and reach the US. But as the Trump administration closes America’s doors, migrants from the Caribbean island have forged a new escape route to Brazil’s deep south.

Trigger Warning: Here Comes a Trigger Warning!
A group of museums in the United Kingdom published a “Trigger Toolkit” that helps museums and other archival organizations approach “preventing, responding to and managing a triggering event within a training session.” In its glossary, the guidebook describes “trigger” as a term “first developed in the clinical context of PTSD” that now more broadly refers to a “stimulus which causes a painful, uncomfortable or traumatic memory to resurface.” The guide provides an expansive list of “common triggers” that includes “civil disasters,” “classism,” “climate emergency,” “debt,” “divorce,” “gambling,” “genomics,” “hateful language,” “immigration,” “policing,” “politics,” “transatlantic slave trade/colonialism,” “transphobia,” and “violence.” A “trigger warning,” according to the guide, can be appropriately conveyed in a variety of different formats, such as verbally disclosing forthcoming “sensitive information,” or mentioning such content in the subject line of an email (you know, for all those times you email out a PDF of Mein Kampf). When giving a presentation, you should have a warning before you switch to the slide with the “sensitive or triggering content,” and a document should have a warning in a bright contrastive color on the page immediately preceding the supposedly offensive material.

 

Opinion

 

Trump’s Apology Tour
And the good news it obscures

The Next Conservative Civil War Is Coming
Trump’s nomination of Emil Bove to be a federal judge has sparked a larger battle within the conservative legal movement.

The Woke Right
In 2018, some activists, appalled by woke nonsense being published by academic journals, submitted nonsensical research.

Somebody Please Take Away ‘Based’ Mike Lee’s Phone
A brief note: I’ll admit that I don’t know too much about Utah Senator Mike Lee. I certainly supported him in his primary challenge against the fossilized Bob Bennett back in the hazy days of 2010, as the more conservative option of the two. From that point onward, I, not being a Utahn myself, checked out and just assumed he would handle himself like most Utah Republicans do in public: with stolid dignity and the occasional dad joke about “funeral potatoes.”

America’s Political Violence Problem
Minnesota shootings appear to be the latest in a series of ideologically driven attacks.

Why Is Pam Bondi’s Justice Department Still Fighting Loper Bright?
You might have thought that Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo was a great and conclusive victory for conservatives, and one that would be eagerly embraced by MAGA Republicans eager to housebreak the administrative “deep state.” So, why is this administration’s Justice Department still defending the Loper Bright case?

It Pains Me to Say This: The Dodgers Acted Within the Law
The Los Angeles Dodgers, one of Major League Baseball’s most storied franchises, have done quite a few regrettable things in the last couple of years. National Review criticized the team in 2023 when it invited a troupe of drag queens who dressed up as nuns and mocked the Catholic faith at its “??LGBTQ+ Pride Night.”

TikTok: When the Next Dem POTUS Goes Outlaw, Thank Supine Republicans
For the third time, President Trump has lawlessly issued a 90-day reprieve on enforcement of the congressionally enacted, Supreme Court-approved 2024 law mandating that Tik-Tok be shut down unless it is divested of China-controlled ownership. The statute’s 270-day deadline for divestment fell on January 19, 2025, the day before Trump’s inauguration.

On Frederick Douglass, the Declaration of Independence, and Juneteenth
Lucas Morel and Jonathan White channel the insight and vision of Frederick Douglass.

Writings on Juneteenth, its Meaning, and its Significance for American Liberty
Compendium of links to my writings about the holiday celebrating the abolition of slavery.

Rediscovering Order in an Age of Populism
An existential identity crisis now grips the American right. A political movement once united by a commitment to limited government, moral order, and a robust defense of American ideals now appears fractured, its purpose clouded by populist grievances and ideological drift. The urgency of this moment demands a return to first principles, along with a reexamination of what conservatism means and what it seeks to achieve in an age marked by cultural upheaval and political polarization.

Why Magna Carta Still Matters
King John of England agreed to the provisions of the Magna Carta on June 15, 1215. We recently passed the 800-year anniversary of a perhaps almost as important event, Henry III’s 1225 reissuing of the agreement under his own free will.

The Horseshoe Coalition Against Israel on Iran
The ‘restrainer’ right and the progressives sound an awful lot alike on Israel and Iran — but they are on the margins.

A U.S. Attack on Iran Would Show the Limits of China’s Power
China, which depends on Iran for oil and to counter American influence, has a lot to lose from a wider war. But there’s not much it can do about it.

“Don’t Let the Propagandists Lie to You”
On March 18, 2025, Tucker Carlson tweeted, “It’s worth pointing out that a strike on the Iranian nuclear sites will almost certainly result in thousands of American deaths at bases throughout the Middle East, and cost the United States tens of billions of dollars. The cost of future acts of terrorism on American soil may be even higher. Those are the Pentagon’s own estimates. A bombing campaign against Iran will set off a war, and it will be America’s war.”

There Is No Trumpism
There’s just Trump.

Is New York City Doomed to Have a Socialist Mayor? No
As they say in public relations, no amount of advertising can sell a product if the dogs won’t eat the dog food.

Heck of a Job, New York City Democratic Establishment!
Since the winner of the New York City Democratic mayoral primary is the candidate most likely to win the general election, my deepest sympathies to New York, arguably the greatest city in the world. It had a good run. Billy Joel was just a little off in the timing when he envisioned the city’s decay, abandonment and destruction in “Miami 2017.” I look forward to the Jets relocating to Fairfax, Va.

Cracks in the Trump coalition? They won’t matter
Donald Trump’s coalition has always been a Frankenstein’s monster — stitched together from parts that were never meant to coexist.

How does free speech in America compare with the rest of the world? It turns out we’re pretty different from even other liberal democracies.
Our new video has the details.

Supreme Court sides with Trump administration on nationwide injunctions in birthright citizenship case
The Supreme Court on Friday granted the Trump administration’s request to partially pause rulings by three federal judges that had blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship – that is, the guarantee of citizenship to virtually anyone born in the United States. By a vote of 6-3, the justices repudiated the concept of universal or nationwide injunctions, which prohibit the government from enforcing a law or policy anywhere in the country. The justices did not, however, weigh in on the question at the center of the three lawsuits before the court: whether the birthright citizenship order itself is constitutional.

Universal Injunctions Are Dead — or Are They?
I am on assignment and will doubtless have much more another day on the reasoning and the inter-justice drama of today’s surprising decision in Trump v. CASA, Inc., in which Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote for all six conservative justices in ruling that universal injunctions are beyond the equitable powers of district courts.

A Golden State Victory for Common Sense
University of California faculty have defeated curricular radicalization—for now.

The Deep Ideological Origins of Critical Race Theory

These roots are, predominantly, in the Communist Theory of Karl Marx. Marx’s mid-19th century ideas were based on other ideas, however, particularly those of the German idealist G.W.F. Hegel and the French romantic Jean-Jacques Rousseau. In this lecture, Lindsay makes abundantly clear the relevance of these 18th and 19th century social theorists and philosophers to the Critical Race Theory plaguing the world today.

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