Day: June 18, 2025
Even Trump’s Base Opposes War with Iran
16%
An Economist/YouGov poll found that only 16% of U.S. adults and less than a quarter of Republicans think the U.S. should get involved in the conflict between Iran and Israel. Trump voters are even less enthusiastic than Republicans as a whole. Only 19% of 2024 Trump voters support U.S. involvement.
A Decade of Trumpism
“Conventional political analyses do not come close to describing the way our world has been turned on its head. Yes, the GOP lost its spine and its balls; Democrats flailed; the electorate realigned. The enter>tainment wing of the GOP routed the establishment. Much of the rest of the media has been enshittified. … But that really doesn’t capture the velocity or the scope of the transformation. It’s not just our politics. America has become dumber, crueler, crazier, and more violent. To much of the rest of the world, we have become unrecognizable.”
— Charlie Sykes
Ungrateful States of America
So Trump’s new rules mean the Veterans Administration
Can deny care based on political party affiliation.
Hey, Democrat vets,
Here’s what you get:
No treatment AND discrimination from an ungrateful nation.
Our Fascist Idiocracy: June 18, 2025 Chopping block edition
American birthright on the block. The Wilderness Society is warning that the Senate’s Reconciliation bill for Trump’s Big Ugly Budget boondoggle will make “250+ million acres of public lands eligible for sale. “It puts 16 million acres of public land in California up for sale.SFGAte reports that, “Those vulnerable parcels of land include areas adjacent to Yosemite National Park, Mount Shasta, Big Sur and Lake Tahoe.”
The bill is the brainchild of MAGA Utah Sen. Mike Lee, who made news over his cruel gaslighting attempt to recast the MAGA terrorist murderer in Minnesota as a liberal by tweeting, “This is what happens When Marxists don’t get their way.”
Whisky Pete on the block? Trump is reportedly furious with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth for failing to deliver a North Korea-style military parade on the American Dear Leader’s birthday. The New Republic reports that he allegedly “reamed out” Hegseth over the spectacle — which was advertised as a celebration of the Army’s 250th anniversary but conveniently fell on Trump’s birthday — as well as the soldiers who took part in it, according to biographer Michael Wolff.
Off with her head? According to The Independent: Trump is ‘losing confidence’ in Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard as he mulls removing her entire office, senior official says” President reportedly angered by intelligence chief’s social media warning against “warmongers” placing the world “on the brink of nuclear annihilation.” Here’s more on Tulsi’s dire warning, in case you missed it.
Off with their masks. California lawmakers have introduced legislation to ban law enforcement officers, including Trump’s MAGA ICE goons, from wearing masks. The law would also require officers to wear identifying information. ABC News reports:
A pair of lawmakers in California are seeking to ban law enforcement officers in the state from wearing face coverings, amid protests in Los Angeles against the Trump administration’s immigration policies. State Sens. Scott Wiener and Jesse Arreguin — Democratic lawmakers from San Francisco and Oakland, respectively — announced Monday that they would be filing SB 627 to ban local, state and federal law enforcement from covering their faces when interacting with the public. The legislation, dubbed the No Secret Police Act, would also require law enforcement officers to wear identifying information, Wiener wrote in a post on X. “Secret police behavior tanks trust & must end,” Wiener wrote.
