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Donald Trump is attacking the Supreme Court justices he appointed after they ruled against him. Donald Trump Jr. is facing a national security investigation over the Russian oligarch who bankrolled his wedding in the Bahamas. FBI Director Kash Patel defended the bureau’s decision to loosen hiring restrictions on applicants with histories of bestiality and prostitution. And pregnant women in ICE detention are miscarrying in shackles while the government fights to keep the details from ever becoming public.
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Trump Attacks His Own Justices After They Rule Against Him
Donald Trump appointed three Supreme Court justices and all he got was this lousy ruling.
Trump attacked his own Supreme Court appointees on Tuesday, calling them “merely a shell of their original selves” after all three of them joined a decision blocking his plan to restrict mail-in voting.
In March, Trump signed an executive order that would have required state election officials to provide approved voter lists to the Postal Service before it would deliver their mail-in ballots. The Supreme Court ruled against him Monday, saying election officials wouldn’t have enough time to comply.
None of the three justices Trump appointed during his first term dissented. Only Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas said they would have allowed the restrictions to take effect.
Trump responded the next day with a lengthy post on Truth Social in which he called the court’s rulings “some of the most destructive, hurtful, and damaging decisions in our Country’s history.” He said the justices were “costing the United States Trillions of Dollars with shockingly bad rulings” and accused certain justices of being “petrified” of Democrats.
Trump also cited the court’s rejections of his plans to limit birthright citizenship. He wrote that the decisions were so severe that it would not be “easily possible for our Country to recover or heal.” Don’t threaten us with a good time.
Trump Jr. Hit With National Security Probe Over Putin Ally’s Wedding Payments
Most people pay for their own weddings. Some people let their parents pay. Donald Trump Jr. let a friend of Vladimir Putin rent him an island.
Rep. Robert Garcia of California, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, has launched an investigation into Trump Jr. following a ProPublica report that Russian oligarch Umar Kremlev spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on his three-day wedding celebration in the Bahamas.
Garcia recently sent a letter to Trump Jr. calling the payments a serious national security concern. Garcia pointed out that he is not just the president’s son, but also a partner in an investment firm that collected more than $735 million in Pentagon contracts last year.
Garcia asked Trump Jr. whether he has an active security clearance, whether Kremlev had ever sought favorable treatment from the U.S. government, or whether he had told his defense contractors about the relationship. Trump Jr. doesn’t have to answer now, but if Democrats win back the House in November, Garcia will have the power to issue a subpoena.
FBI Director Kash Patel Defends Loosened Hiring Standards
There are now fewer things keeping you out of the FBI than keeping you out of a PetSmart.
FBI Director Kash Patel testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday to defend the bureau’s decision to lift a categorical hiring ban on applicants who had previously engaged in prostitution or bestiality.
Patel said the changes, which the FBI quietly issued this past spring, were designed to protect victims who had been forced into those acts. That sounds nice in theory, but the prostitution rule change doesn’t actually distinguish between trafficking survivors and people who paid for sex.
The FBI has lost hundreds of agents to firings, resignations, and retirements during Trump’s second term, and Patel said outdated hiring requirements were making it harder to replace them. Senate Democrats reminded him that the staffing crisis was created by the administration when it purged agents for political reasons.
The hearing lasted three hours, during which Sen. Dick Durbin called Patel the least qualified and most partisan FBI director in American history. Sen. Cory Booker called him an incompetent lackey who wouldn’t qualify to be an FBI agent, and compared him to an 18-year-old doing keg stands to get into a fraternity he could never join.
Pregnant Women in ICE Detention Are Suffering Miscarriages and Medical Neglect
Pro-life, unless the baby is going to be Brown.
The Guardian published a major investigation Tuesday into the treatment of pregnant women in ICE detention. Reporters found women miscarrying in shackles, going hours without medical care, and being sent back to their cells the same night they lose their pregnancies.
Between January 2025 and February 2026, the Department of Homeland Security deported 363 pregnant, postpartum, and nursing immigrants. Sixteen miscarriages were recorded in detention during that period. As of mid-February, 86 pregnant women remained in ICE custody, nine of them in their final trimester.
In Louisiana, one woman held in a detention center was taken to a hospital for severe abdominal pain and bleeding. Medical staff performed an invasive procedure without her consent and injected her with an unknown medication before telling her she had miscarried. In Vermont, ICE arrested another woman recovering from a miscarriage and held her for several nights at a field office without medical care.
The Guardian has been seeking the full figures since January 2026, after making a Freedom of Information Act request for records of miscarriages and live births in ICE custody from October 2024 onward. ICE acknowledged the request but has not released a single record, leading the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press to file a lawsuit.
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POSITIVE STORIES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED:
Judge Blocks Kennedy Center Board From Putting Trump’s Name on the Building. A federal judge on Tuesday blocked the Trump-friendly Kennedy Center board from affixing the president’s name to the building in any way. The board had voted in August to place “Restored and Renovated by President Donald J. Trump” on the facade and to name the grounds “President Donald J. Trump Plaza.” Judge Christopher Cooper already ruled in May that the board overstepped its authority when it unilaterally renamed the center after the president, and said the new version is no different.
Thomas Massie Introduces Articles of Impeachment Against Pete Hegseth. Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky took to the House floor on Tuesday to introduce eight articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Massie said Hegseth continues to abuse the power of his office by executing an unlawful order to impose hostilities against Iran without congressional authorization. He also cited military operations in Venezuela and Yemen that were not approved by Congress. Massie’s move comes after a group of House Democrats filed six articles of impeachment against Hegseth in April, most of which also focused on the Iran war.
Judge Blocks Rule Limiting How Long Foreign Students and Journalists Can Stay. U.S. District Judge F. Dennis Saylor in Boston on Monday blocked a new Department of Homeland Security rule that would have restricted how long foreign students and journalists could remain in the U.S. without applying for extensions. The rule would have put a four-year cap on F visas for international students and J visas for cultural exchange visitors, with even shorter limits on I visas for journalists. Saylor, who was appointed by George W. Bush, ruled that the DHS failed to engage with public concerns or consider less burdensome alternatives.
Ohio Wants to Turn 118 Acres Into Rare Wetland Preserve. Ross County, Ohio, is trying to buy 118 acres of land surrounding a rare wetland complex called Kinnikinnick Fen and Herron Downs. The property contains a water flow path that feeds directly into the wetland and acts as a natural buffer for the existing preserve and Kinnikinnick Creek. If the purchase goes through, the total protected habitat would grow to roughly 450 acres. The Herron family, which owns the land, has offered to donate their house and three additional acres to the park district if the state’s Clean Ohio program funds the acquisition.





It is so frustrating to hear about actions being taken against Patel, Hegseth, and Trump after months of violations of the Oath each took. Again and again, they have taken actions that are clearly in conflict with the Constitution, yet only words of displeasure have been expressed. It is always too little, too late. They commit ethical, moral, and legal acts, and everyone stands around with their hands in their pockets and bemoans how terrible it is. As we move closer to the midterms, I am sure more bills will be advanced and calls for investigations will ring out. Few democrats are standing up in opposition to the Trump Cartel. I can only surmise a lack of political courage based on their unwillingness to risk losing their lofty positions.
About the only thing we hear from our Congressional Representatives is the daily appeals for more money to buy TV time to rant and rave about how terrible the other guy is. We live in a world of the year-round begging of people who have already sold their integrity and honor to the highest bidder. Our system of government is suffering from the disease of cowardice and is a candidate for care in hospice.
The ultimate tragedy is that we, the people, are responsible. We have grown soft and complacent while enjoying the wealth and power in the American Age. We have failed to understand the value of history and the warnings it provides. As a retired teacher, I failed to convey those warnings clearly enough and often enough to my classes. My colleagues and I fell into the trap of avoiding the predictable heat that telling the truth produces. To the hundreds of kids who passed through my classes, I apologize. I saw those truths but failed to convey them adequately to you.