Alligator Alcatraz 🤮 🐊 😱 ✡️🌻😱 🤮 🐊  

🐊 🐊 🐊 :  Yesterday was quite a day.  The Senate narrowly approved a tax bill that will take health care away from somewhere around 17 million people, deprive food assistance to three to four million, and add around $3.3 trillion to the national debt in order to extend tax cuts that largely benefit the richest among us while Trump went to the Florida Everglades to celebrate the opening of the state’s new Alligator Alcatraz migrant detention center where, while checking out the cages that will house up to 5000 human beings, he joked “we’re going to teach them (the migrants) how to run away from an alligator if they escape prison.” As to the tax bill, three Republican Senators, Maine’s Susan Collins, North Carolina’s Thom Tillis, and Kentucky’s Rand Paul voted against its passage with the “wavering” Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski signing on after negotiating the addition of a few provisions that benefit her state. Those additions include a provision delaying food aid cuts that was crafted to benefit Alaska, the promise of “massive revenues from oil and gas drilling leases,” and victories on clean energy credits, the last being particularly ironic given the oil and gas leases. After providing her crucial vote, the hypocritical Murkowski called the bill awful and asked her House colleagues to make it better before sending it to Trump’s desk for his signature.  It’s hard to miss that by providing the crucial yes vote, Murkowski gave Susan Collins, who is up for reelection in swingy Maine during the 2026 midterms, the space to vote no. The bill is now back in the House where the usual cast of characters, including the Freedom Caucus’ deficit hawks and the faux moderates from swing districts, are expected to moan and groan and threaten to vote no, before ultimately signing on.  It’s not just that the bill immorally and dangerously increases income disparity beyond sustainable levels, it also supports environment damaging fossil fuels including coal while making clean energy alternatives less financially viable while also throwing reproductive health under the bus by eliminating Medicaid funding for institutions like Planned Parenthood.  As to those Alligator Alley cages, they bring to mind Nazi concentration camp barracks. In his book Hitler’s Willing Executioners, Daniel Goldhagen wrote that ordinary Germans were complicit in the Holocaust because despite their post war assertions otherwise, they knew. Given how much more access we have to news, we can’t deny knowing about places like Alligator Alcatraz and the round up of fathers, mothers and children, people who aren’t violent criminals but who are far easier to round up than those who are, by Trump and his henchmen.  It’s sickening and since we know, we are all complicit.

Midterm Madness: Eric’ s wife Lara who passed on running the last time a North Carolina Senate seat opened up and then was passed over for the Florida Senate seat that opened up when Marco Rubio became Secretary of State is expected to become the Republican’s candidate for the seat being vacated by the retiring Thom Tillis.  She lives in Florida but so does Tommy Tuberville and that didn’t prevent him from becoming Alabama’s Senator so while inconvenient that residency thing is seen as a hurdle that can be overcome particularly for those named Trump.  Democrat Colin Allred who lost to Texas Senator Ted Cruz in 2024 announced that he’s running again. Allred is hoping that current Republican Senator John Cornyn loses his primary to Trumpy Attorney General Ken Paxton, who might be easier for him to beat than the much-dissed Cruz.  It’s not just Allred; reports are that frequent candidate Beto O’Rourke is also considering throwing his hat into the race.  Elon Musk who spent more than $290 million to get Trump elected is bigly mad about the Big Ugly Bill that just passed the Senate.  It’s not just the increase in the deficit that has him rattled; he’s shocked and dismayed that the bill favors fossil fuels at the expense of clean energy because somehow, he missed the many times that Trump called for more coal and dissed windmills and that “unreliable” sun. Musk is right because sometimes even horrible people are right. He’s now threatening to fund candidates who oppose those who voted for the bill.  In response, Trump is once again threatening Musk’s many government contracts and also suggesting that he might strip away his citizenship.  Given that Trump’s administration is talking about stripping citizenship from some naturalized citizens he could mean it.  Has anyone checked on Melania lately? Or Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, a beneficiary of birthright citizenship?

Lawsuits:  Trump has dropped his lawsuit against Iowa pollster Ann Selzer and the Des Moines Register.  He’d accused them of violating Iowa’s consumer fraud laws, claiming that Selzer’s poll had been intentionally wrong.  Sadly, Selzer’s poll had been way off the mark, but her error was neither fraudulent nor intentional.  Unfortunately, last night it was announced that CBS parent Paramount Global has agreed to settle Trump’s “voter interference” lawsuit for $16 million.  The lawsuit was over the editing of 60 Minute’s interview of Kamala Harris. The editing was legitimate, but Paramount needs government approval to move forward with its merger with Skydance Media and coughing up cash to Trump rather than seeking the higher moral ground was what it felt it had to do to move forward.  Trump who launched a perfume line earlier this week is all about enriching himself.  Hawking $399 gold sneakers and $249 bottles of perfume is tacky; extorting major media companies, horrifying and another one of those things, like caging migrants in swampy locales, that moves us away from Democracy into the clutches of autocracy.  

Fog:  Yesterday, Trump tweeted that Israel has agreed to the "necessary conditions" to finalize a 60-day ceasefire in Gaza whatever that means. It takes two to tango and so far, there’s been no response from Hamas who Trump has “urged” to follow suit.  Also, with the focus on the tax bill and 🐊 🐊 🐊, the Trump administration cancelled the delivery of lots of promised weaponry to Ukraine.  Maybe agreed to on another one of Trump’s midnight calls to Moscow?  Happy independence day 🎆, enjoy it while it lasts.

#BringThemAllHomeNow