Do you know why the founding
fathers were so pissed off at King George?
July 3, 2026
Tucker Carlson
Headline USA - Popular podcast host Tucker Carlson has long dismissed questions about whether he would ever seek public office. But this week, he hinted at a major political move, though don’t expect to see his name on the ballot.
Speaking with the Columbia Journalism Review in an interview published Wednesday, Carlson said he plans to “help build a third party,” just months after publicly breaking with President Donald Trump over the U.S.’s involvement in the Israel-Iran war.
“I’m going to help build a third party. There should be a good-faith effort to figure out what benefits the country,” Carlson said. During the same interview, Carlson insisted that he still has no interest in seeking public office.
JD Vance
Headline USA - JD Vance pulled in as much as $7.4 million during 2025 from royalties on his bestselling book combined with returns from investments and his venture capital enterprise, the Wall Street Journal reported after reviewing his most recent financial disclosure. The vice president keeps drawing considerable sums from “Hillbilly Elegy” while also profiting from a portfolio that includes real estate holdings and exchange traded funds, Tuesday’s federal filing showed.
Word
Katty Kay - Thomas Jefferson had finished his draft
of the Declaration of Independence, but then had to sit in a boiling hot room
for the entire day, while 50 of his peers critiqued his writing. He apparently
hated it and later wrote of how the other men had "mangled" his words.
Governor Newsom's different stands on billionaire tax
Deep
State Tribunal - Governor Gavin Newsom called for a
federal “true minimum tax on billionaires,” saying the richest should at least
pay the same tax rate as their workers. He set a threshold at $100 million in
wealth. He also urged restoring corporate rates to pre-2017 levels and closing
a practice where the wealthy borrow against stock portfolios without triggering
taxes on gains. He paired this with a push to tighten inheritance rules to curb
what he called a looming aristocracy.
…. Newsom
opposes a California ballot initiative that would charge a one-time 5% tax on
residents with over $1 billion in net worth, payable starting in 2027. The
state’s nonpartisan review says the measure could raise tens of billions but
might cut future income tax revenue if high earners leave. Newsom argues a
national approach is harder to dodge than a state tax. That stance invites
charges of mixed messages and political maneuvering from critics on both sides. Newsom has warned that some billionaires
already left California over the proposal, taking tax payments with them.
Meanwhile. ...
MS NOW - Trump is scheduled to fly to South
Dakota on the $400 million jet gifted by the government of Qatar, just
one high-profile part of the grubbiest presidential cash grab in 250 years of
American history. He is clearly pleased that the plane was ready in time for
the country’s semiquincentennial celebration.
NPR - Swimply, an Airbnb-style company, is letting people rent out pools and other private spaces, such as tennis and basketball courts. The company says private pool reservations have topped 275,000 this year, up 50% from last year. |
Climate change
The
Guardian - The scorching heat blanketing much of
the US this week would have been “virtually impossible” if not for the climate
crisis, researchers have found, warning that the high temperatures could
threaten Independence Day celebrations and World Cup matches this weekend.
“The climate
the country has today is fundamentally different to the one it had when the
founding fathers signed the Declaration of Independence,” said Theodore
Keeping, extreme weather and wildfire researcher at Imperial College London, in
a press release.
The analysis
from World Weather Attribution, an international consortium of climate
researchers, comes as a high-pressure system, or heat dome, brings hot and
humid conditions to a large swath of the central and eastern United States, as
well as southern parts of Canada.
….The mercury
is expected to soar in the US capital of Washington DC, as thousands gather to
celebrate the 250th anniversary of the country.
World Cup
matches will also be affected. France’s match against Paraguay in Philadelphia
on Saturday is expected to see levels of extreme heat that a global players’
union has previously said should trigger the delay or postponement of games,
and a Miami game between Cape Verde and Argentina scheduled the day before is
also expected to be played in potentially dangerous heat and humidity.
It’s an urgent
warning showing that the world must immediately begin the swift drawdown of
greenhouse gas pollution, said Friederike Otto, professor of climate science at
the Centre for Environmental Policy at Imperial College London, in the release.
“When a
historic Fourth of July celebration is disrupted, and World Cup matches are
played in conditions that are unsafe for players and fans, it shouldn’t take
another scientific study to wake people up,” she said.
“Climate change
is here; it’s already impacting the things we enjoy in our everyday lives, and
it will continue to get worse the longer we drag out the inevitable transition
to net zero emissions.”
The Guardian - The scorching heat blanketing much of the US this week would have been “virtually impossible” if not for the climate crisis, researchers have found, warning that the high temperatures could threaten Independence Day celebrations and World Cup matches this weekend.
“The climate the country has today is fundamentally different to the one it had when the founding fathers signed the Declaration of Independence,” said Theodore Keeping, extreme weather and wildfire researcher at Imperial College London, in a press release.
The analysis from World Weather Attribution, an international consortium of climate researchers, comes as a high-pressure system, or heat dome, brings hot and humid conditions to a large swath of the central and eastern United States, as well as southern parts of Canada.
….The mercury is expected to soar in the US capital of Washington DC, as thousands gather to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the country.
World Cup matches will also be affected. France’s match against Paraguay in Philadelphia on Saturday is expected to see levels of extreme heat that a global players’ union has previously said should trigger the delay or postponement of games, and a Miami game between Cape Verde and Argentina scheduled the day before is also expected to be played in potentially dangerous heat and humidity.
It’s an urgent warning showing that the world must immediately begin the swift drawdown of greenhouse gas pollution, said Friederike Otto, professor of climate science at the Centre for Environmental Policy at Imperial College London, in the release.
“When a historic Fourth of July celebration is disrupted, and World Cup matches are played in conditions that are unsafe for players and fans, it shouldn’t take another scientific study to wake people up,” she said.
“Climate change is here; it’s already impacting the things we enjoy in our everyday lives, and it will continue to get worse the longer we drag out the inevitable transition to net zero emissions.”
NPR - It’s still unclear what will happen in Washington, D.C., where President Trump has made the anniversary a major focus. NPR's Anastasia Tsioulcas tells Up First. Capitol Police said they'll decide this morning whether the public can attend the Capitol Fourth concert and fireworks. Forecasts call for temperatures near 102 degrees, with a heat index as high as 113. A couple of days ago, Trump mentioned at a public event that he plans to deliver a “really long” speech on the night of the Fourth, when it is expected to be nearly as hot as it will be during the day.
Donald Trump
Alternet - Former Special Counsel Jack Smith told MS NOW in a Thursday interview that he’s lter of classified documents and his actions surrounding the January 6, 2021 Capitol attack.
“After the
Supreme Court grants Donald Trump immunity you filed a superseding indictment.
You’re still ready to bring the case to trial, right?” asked MS NOW anchor
Nicole Wallace.
“Yeah.
Correct,” Smith confirmed without hesitation.
“… We did what geasoning of it, but we looked at the evidence we could no longer use and the evidence we could use … and in this particular case a lot of the evidence was him in his role as a candidate anood prosecutors do and what you’re supposed to do. … we didn’t agree with the [court’s] rd we felt we could go for it.”
Smith added
that Trump’s chances of being prosecuted and convicted are still very good if
his research is presented before a court of law.
July 2, 2026
Donald Trump
Donald Trump: I see my two beautiful sons sitting
there. I think I'm going to give one medal of honor to myself, one to them, and
we'll have a threesome. I'll pick out one of the two. I'll give them the congressional medal of
honor for something. For their genius in hunting and I’ll get one for taking on
Russia, Russia, Russia.
Polls
Independent
- A Reuters/Ipsos survey indicates that 80% of
Americans intend to celebrate July 4th this year. This includes 91% of
Republicans, 76% of Democrats, and 74% of independents. However, one in five
Americans will not be celebrating, and just over half – 57% – primarily see the
day as a break from work or an opportunity to spend time with friends and
family, or simply as another day.
Traditional
festivities remain popular, with 48% of the country planning to attend a
cookout. 16% will prepare red, white, and blue-themed food, drinks, or
desserts. Fireworks displays are also a key part of the holiday for many, with
34% planning to attend a show and 18% intending to set off fireworks
themselves.
Displaying
patriotic symbols is common, as 41% of respondents said they would have an
American flag or bunting outside their homes. This figure rose to 64% among
Republicans, who were also more likely to display the flag regularly throughout
the year compared to independents or Democrats.
Immigrant arrests surge
NY
Times - 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.
Climate change
The
Guardian - New
data released on Tuesday showed the first six months of the year were the
hottest ever measured for parts of eight western states.
That data
arrives as a potentially record-breaking heatwave is underway in the east. The
National Weather Service expects temperatures over the 4 July holiday weekend
to approach all time highs from Washington DC to New York with sweltering heat
indexes topping 115F (46C).
This week’s
intense heatwave will affect more than 100 million Americans and will be
intensified by the growing influence of El Niño and a massive drought affecting
45 states. A similarly intense heatwave in recent days pushed temperatures to
their highest-ever level in France, Germany and Denmark, resulting in hundreds
of deaths across Europe.
Across the
western US, numerous wildfires have broken – including in the mountains of
Colorado where a dearth of winter snows remain after a record-warm start to the
year.
“Our communities are feeling the firsthand impacts of severe drought and imminent fire danger,” Jared Polis, the Colorado governor, said at a wildfire briefing on Monday.
Health
Nearly 450,000 New Yorkers are losing health coverage on July 1. They
are among the millions of people expected to become uninsured over the next
year because of federal changes to Medicaid funding. —TIME
Mail in voting
The Guardian - In a judicial setback for Donald Trump and his administration, a federal judge blocked a proposed restriction on mail-in voting across the US. Judge Emmet Sullivan of the US district court for the District of Columbia ruled that a US Postal Service plan to deny ballots to voters in states that did not turn over their voter rolls to the federal government should not proceed.
The ruling bars the postal service from enforcing an executive order issued by Trump in March that called for sweeping changes to the administration of elections nationwide.
Anthony Ashton, the senior associate general counsel at the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said “This ruling is a critical step in protecting the rights of voters. The proposed USPS changes would have created unnecessary and unlawful barriers, in direct violation of the USPS’s mandate to prioritize election mail. Those barriers could have disproportionately harmed Black voters, who are more likely to rely on mail voting due to longstanding inequities in access.”
Our profit making president
The
Congressional Insider - Trump disclosed over $1.44 billion in crypto income in
2025, including $635 million from meme coins and $500 million from World
Liberty Financial token sales.
The Supreme
Court’s 2024 ruling in Trump v. United States gives presidents broad immunity
from criminal prosecution for official acts — and bars official acts from being
used as evidence even in cases involving private conduct.
Some legal
commentators argue the ruling could complicate investigations that involve both
official presidential actions and private business activities.
A key legal gap
remains: Trump’s crypto ventures appear to be private business activities, not
official presidential acts — meaning the immunity ruling may not directly
protect them.
President
Trump’s financial disclosure for 2025 showed more than $1.44 billion in
cryptocurrency income. That includes roughly $635 million tied to “Trump meme
coins” and about $500 million from token sales through World Liberty Financial.
A separate deal between World Liberty Financial and a company called Alt5 Sigma
generated around $500 million more, with the president and his family listed as
beneficiaries. The scale of the reported earnings has intensified debate over
conflicts of interest and the separation between public office and private
business.
Trump’s sons
helped co-found World Liberty Financial. The company received $1.5 billion
worth of tokens, giving the Trump family a direct financial stake in the
venture’s success. A CNBC report found that some investors in the Alt5 Sigma
deal suffered steep losses, even as the Trump family profited. Critics on both
the left and right have raised concerns about whether a sitting president
should be able to run profit-generating businesses that could be influenced by
his own policy decisions
Alternet
- The
Wall Street Journal reports that not only did President Donald Trump make a
cool $1 billion off his connections to the White House, he managed to do it in
a way that made his MAGA fans and supporters catch the short end of the
grifting stick.
Morten
Christensen made a big bet on digital tokens sold by the Trump family’s World
Liberty Financial (WLF) last year, hoping that a surge in value might be enough
to help him retire. But the WSJ reports the value of those tokens instead
tanked.
“While
Christensen and many like him lost big, the president made a fortune, netting
$800 million from that crypto project, according to a financial disclosure he
filed this week.
“In crypto,
people say a game is a game,” said Christensen, a digital-asset entrepreneur.
“He played a better game than I did.”
Others were
much less generous over their losses.
“My investment
is trash now,” one user said of their WLF tokens.
"People
backed Trump because they believed he would fight for them and were hoodwinked
into thinking he cared about the working classes who brought him into power,”
said a longtime Republican activist familiar with grassroots sentiment among
Trump's MAGA base. “Seeing billions tied to crypto makes some loyal supporters
uncomfortable and most of them have no idea what crypto is, let alone have the
resources to invest in it. They feel this isn't public service anymore."
“The president
raked in cash by issuing new assets — World Liberty tokens and memecoins. But
those who bought them at high prices had to suffer as their value went belly
up, part of a wider crash in crypto,” reports WSJ. “Political followers and
crypto true believers who bought into the Trump brand were left holding the
bag. A crypto summer for the president was a crypto winter for them.”
MS
Now - Since
their father won a second term, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump — President
Donald Trump’s two eldest sons, neither of whom hold official roles in the
administration — have become linked to investments in at least 10 companies
with military applications. Those firms have collectively received about $3.7
billion in federal funds since the start of the second Trump administration,
according to an MS NOW review of public records. Three hit record levels of
Defense Department funding within the last year.
July 1, 2026
Polls
NY
Times - Republicans
are defending seats in Alaska, Iowa, Maine, North Carolina, Ohio and Texas as
they try to maintain their majority. Democrats are competitive in all six
states - but not leading in enough to take the chamber.
….Democrats
face an uphill battle to win control of the Senate but have pulled within
striking distance of enough Republican-held seats to put the majority in play
this fall, according to new New York Times/Siena polls in six Senate
battleground states.
Republicans are
hampered by the unpopularity of President Trump and his diminished standing on
the economy, while most of the Democratic candidates are so far running ahead
of their party's own struggling brand, the polls show.
Winning the
Senate remains a stiff challenge for Democrats. Republicans hold 53 seats,
meaning that Democrats would need to flip at least four seats while defending
all of their own vulnerable ones.
The Times/Siena
polls looked at the six states that are considered to be the Democratic Party's
best shots at flipping Republican-held seats: Alaska, Iowa, Maine, North
Carolina, Ohio and Texas. The surveys found that while all six states are close
enough to be competitive, if the election were held today Republicans would be
favored in enough states to keep control of the Senate.
NPR - Even though
nearly one-third of Americans say they are concerned about the direction the
U.S. is headed, the
majority say they're "proud" or "very proud" to be an
American, according to the latest NPR/PBS News/Marist poll. Close to half of
Americans believe the country has strayed significantly from the nation's
founding principles. The way Americans feel about the country's current state
is largely split along partisan, gender and generational lines. The survey of
1,340 respondents was conducted in early June and has a margin of error of +/-
3.0 percentage points, meaning results could be about three points higher or
lower. NPR followed up with several participants to gather their thoughts about
America ahead of the 250th anniversary. Read more about what they had to say.
Donald Trump
The
Hill - President
Trump on Wednesday distanced himself from his recently released personal
financial disclosures showing more than $1 billion in revenue from
cryptocurrency sales and other ventures. “I don’t get involved in my personal.
We have funds that run my money,” Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews,
Md., ahead of his trip to North Dakota, when asked what message the disclosures
send to average Americans.
….Trump went on
to say the financial institutions that handle his personal finances create a
“blind account,” and he “purposefully” does not speak to anyone involved in
handling those funds.
“They invest my
money. I don’t talk to them. I don’t even speak to them,” he said during the
gaggle. “So, I have many people, I don’t know what they call them, closed
accounts or something, you put their money and that’s it. I don’t talk to them.
They’re big institutions, and they run it.”
…Trump’s
personal financial disclosures released on Tuesday showed he raked in more than
$500 million from the cryptocurrency venture he co-founded with his sons Eric
Trump and Donald Trump Jr., who were seen with the president as he took
questions on Wednesday.
The 25th Amendment
🇺🇸 UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION
25th Amendment, Section 4
“If the Congress [...] determines by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the President shall [not] resume the powers and duties of his office.”
Middle East
The Nation - Just two weeks after it was signed, the
memorandum of understanding between Iran and the United States to wind down
Donald Trump’s feckless war is in such serious trouble that diplomats are now
gathered in Qatar trying to contain the damage. This, like all the other
follies associated with this purblind imperial errand, was an entirely
foreseeable development: the agreement-in-process seeks to secure the reopening
of the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for near-total American capitulation on
decades of policy red lines for the United States, from the empowerment of
regional proxies for Iran to the continued development of ballistic missiles
and ongoing nuclear-enrichment initiatives.
Climate change
Washington
Post - A heat dome was strengthening above the
Ohio Valley early Wednesday, with more than 150 million Americans covered by
heat alerts from the National Weather Service.
This sprawling area of hot air will soon move eastward and spend
Thursday to Saturday squarely over the Mid-Atlantic, sending temperatures
toward 105 degrees there, and breaking records from Florida to Maine.
So far, the
most intense heat and humidity from this weather system have occurred in areas
where such conditions aren’t common. On Tuesday, parts of the Midwest
experienced higher humidity than some of the world’s muggiest places. Stretches
of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin experienced humidity that
rivaled or even exceeded that of Dubai, a notoriously humid city on the Persian
Gulf.
Demcratic socialists
Alternet - In one of the most notable upsets of the Democratic primaries so far, Democratic Socialist Melat Kiros, 29, yesterday won the nomination over incumbent Rep. Diana DeGette to represent Colorado’s hotly-contested First Congressional District...
Democratic Socialist elected officials now include U.S. representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib (both elected in 2018), New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani and Seattle mayor Katie Wilson (both elected in 2025). Democratic Socialist Janeese Lewis George is set to follow as mayor of Washington, D.C....
Colorado’s DeGette has held her seat for nearly 30 years. Kiros was born the same year DeGette was first elected to Congress. Kiros is poised to become the first Gen Z woman elected to Congress. Her win in the solidly blue district that makes up most of Denver means Kiros is likely headed to Washington next year.
Kiros is a fighter who understands what’s worth fighting for, and expresses it clearly. “The thing is, fighting Trump is just one piece of the problem. Trump is not the cause,” Kiros said during a debate earlier this month. “He’s a symptom of a system that is broken and has been broken for a really long time because our party has failed to understand the role that they need to take in getting money out of our politics.”
A former lawyer and Ph.D. candidate, Kiros easily presents herself as a politician for the working class. Her family immigrated to Denver from Ethiopia when she was a baby.
Kiros has never before run for elected office, but she won support from a range of voters with a message of fundamental reform of the American system.
June 30, 2026
Ford recalls 741,000 vehicles
Independent - Ford is initiating a
recall of over 741,000 vehicles across the U.S. due to a critical transmission
defect that could compromise the park system, significantly elevating the risk
of a crash or injury.
The
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has detailed
that the recall encompasses specific Ford
F-150, Lincoln Aviator, Ford Explorer, Lincoln Navigator, and Ford
Expedition models manufactured between 2018 and 2021.
According to the report, affected vehicles may experience
the temporary engagement of their transmission parking pawl while in motion,
particularly when certain shifts are commanded. This can lead to damage to
components of the park system. Should this damage occur, the transmission's
ability to securely hold the vehicle when in "park" – especially if
the parking brake is not engaged – could be impaired. This potential for
unintended movement poses a serious safety hazard.
Number of billionaires up 13%
Guardian
- The number of billionaires in
the world has jumped by 13% to a record 3,302 people, new figures show, as the
super-rich accumulate wealth at an accelerating rate.
Billionaires’ wealth grew by 25% on average in the year
ended in April, compared with a 10.8% rise in average personal wealth around
the world, the Swiss bank UBS found.
There were 18 people who had amassed wealth between $50bn and
$100bn, with a further 19 people who were worth more than $100bn. Of these
people, 15 were based in the US.
James Mazeau, an economist at the bank, said billionaires
had benefited from the AI boom in the stock market.
“Most [billionaire] wealth is tied to listed companies,” he
said. “So part of the rise is due to equity markets.”
….The millionaire class has also been rapidly expanding,
according to UBS, which found the global millionaire population reached more
than 57.5 million last year…
The US, where more than 440,000 people became millionaires
for the first time, made up almost half of the growth in 2025. \
Word
Robert Reich - Today’s Supreme Court decision ending the independence of independent regulatory agencies, and directly overruling a Court precedent, was justified by a pernicious idea advocated by the conservative Supreme Court majority — that the framers of the Constitution envisioned a so-called “unified executive.” In fact, the framers central focus was to prevent a United States president from becoming too powerful — like the king they were displacing — so they could not have sought a strong, centralized executive branch.
Supremes screw democracy again
NY
Times - The Supreme Court lifted limits on Tuesday on how much political parties
can spend on advertising and other expenses in coordination with candidates. The 6-to-3 decision, divided along
ideological lines, is a major victory for Republicans and could undercut one of
the Democrats’ financial advantages going into the midterms.
The question before the justices was whether current federal
limits on such spending — called coordinated party expenditures — violate the
First Amendment. During oral arguments, Noel J. Francisco, a lawyer for the
National Republican Senatorial Committee, which brought the legal challenge,
told the justices that such limits were “at war” with previous decisions by the
court that have found that restricting how money can be spent in politics
amounts to limiting speech.
…. In dissent, Justice Elena Kagan wrote that the ruling was
a recipe for corruption, allowing donors to skirt contribution caps to
candidates. “With no limits on coordinated expenditures,” she wrote, “the party
can serve as the candidate’s checking account.”
She said that the upshot of the court’s campaign finance
decisions was “a legal regime increasingly unable to stop political corruption,
and thus to preserve our institutions’ democratic legitimacy.”
Supreme Court to consider assault weapon ban
NBC
News - The Supreme Court agreed
to decide whether states and local governments can ban semiautomatic rifles
like the AR-15, which are popular among gun enthusiasts but have also been used
in high-profile mass shootings.
The court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority that
generally backs gun rights, will hear challenges to laws in Connecticut and
Cook County, Illinois, which covers the Chicago area. The two combined cases
will be argued and decided in the court’s next term, which starts in October.
Born in US? You're a citizen
NBC
News - Delivering a major blow to President
Donald Trump, the Supreme Court on Tuesday blocked his contentious attempt to
limit citizenship at birth for those born on U.S. soil. The court, divided 6-3,
ruled that the executive order Trump issued Jan. 20, 2025, the first day of his
second term, was unlawful. Five justices said the order fell foul of the
Constitution’s 14th Amendment, which has long been interpreted to bestow birthright
citizenship on almost anyone born in the United States. One justice,
conservative Brett Kavanaugh, said the order violated federal law but not the
Constitution.
It is the third
significant Supreme Court loss for Trump in recent months, following the
February ruling that invalidated his sweeping tariffs and Monday’s decision
that barred him from immediately firing Lisa Cook from the Federal Reserve.
Supreme Court upholds transgender athlete bans
The Hill - The Supreme Court ruled states can bar transgender girls from competing on girls' and women's school sports teams, upholding bans in Idaho and West Virginia on Tuesday in a decision set to impact similar laws passed in more than half the country. Writing for the majority, Justice Brett Kavanaugh rejected arguments that transgender athlete restrictions unconstitutionally discriminate on the basis of sex or gender identity.
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