Metro: IDF kills women and children in Gaza beachfront café bombing

Israel unleashed one of its largest bombardments in weeks, killing at least 58 people, including a cafe filled with 20 people.

Women, children and one journalist were killed while in a beachfront cafe in Gaza City, according to medics on the ground.

The cafe was one of the few businesses to continue operating – at extremely diminished capacity – during the 20-month war, serving as a gathering spot for residents seeking internet access and a place to charge their phones.

Videos circulating on social media showed bloodied and disfigured bodies on the ground and the wounded being carried away in blankets.

The Trump regime tries to suppress the truth about this genocide and attempts to deport any Palestinian immigrants who oppose this genocide.

Whatever it takes, this genocide must end and will end.

MSNBC: The Trump admin is going after Maryland courts for doing exactly what courts are supposed to do

The suit challenges a May 28 order issued by the district’s chief judge concerning the handling of habeas corpus petitions.

In a move more characteristic of a 17th-century English king than a 21st-century American president, the Trump administration last week filed a lawsuit against every sitting federal judge in the state of Maryland.

The charge? That one judge’s attempt to preserve due process for individuals challenging their deportations is disrupting the president’s immigration policies. This unprecedented lawsuit is a dangerous attack on an independent judiciary and escalates the ongoing struggle between the executive and judicial branches. And it brings America one step closer to a constitutional crisis.

On Tuesday, the Justice Department filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of the U.S. government and the Department of Homeland Security in U.S. District Court in Maryland against all 15 active and senior-status judges in that district, as well as the district’s clerk of court. The suit challenges a May 28 order issued by the district’s chief judge concerning the handling of habeas corpus petitions — legal actions that contest the government’s detention of individuals as unlawful.

The May 28 order expressly addresses the “recent influx” of habeas petitions concerning people subject to deportation, an influx triggered by the administration’s aggressive immigration policies. DHS is trying to move quickly to deport people whom it has identified as illegal aliens; in response, many detainees are filing lawsuits to block those deportations. DHS is proceeding with deportation before courts can hear the cases, and judges are scrambling to manage what the May 28 order describes as “hurried and frustrated hearings” in which “clear and concrete information about the location and status of the [detainees] is elusive.” To ensure that detainees are afforded due process — the U.S. Constitution guarantees due process to all “persons” in the United States, not just “citizens” — the May 28 order prohibits the government from deporting a prisoner for two days after a habeas petition is filed, giving the presiding judge time to review the case.

Several appellate courts have similar standing orders.

But here, the administration has taken the extraordinary step, apparently for the first time in our nation’s history, of pre-emptively suing all the judges responsible for implementing a ruling it claims is unlawful.

This lawsuit is not about immigration policy. It is a frontal assault on judicial authority, raising separation of powers principles that predate the ratification of the U.S. Constitution.

This attempted power grab should alarm anyone who values our constitutional framework.

https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/trump-doj-suing-marylands-federal-judges-rcna215771

Daily Beast: John Oliver Dismantles MAGA’s Best Defense of Trump Budget Bill

The late-night host argued why the Trump administration’s claims make no sense.

As the U.S. Senate continued to debate late into the night Sunday over President Donald J. Trump’s massive tax and spending bill, John Oliver poked massive holes in claims by the president and his Republican loyalists.

In Oliver’s monologue during his final episode of Last Week Tonight before his annual summer break, the Emmy-winning HBO host played clips of House Speaker Mike Johnson alleging on Meet The Press that the bill actually “strengthens Medicaid for the people who actually need it and deserve it,” a talking point echoed by, among others, Kansas Republican Sen. Roger Mitchell on Newsmax. Trump, for his part, said in a February interview with Sean Hannity while sitting alongside Elon Musk that: “Medicare, Medicaid, none of that stuff is going to be touched.”

“But there’s a few problems there,” Oliver said. “Starting with the fact that following through with a promise not to touch something has never exactly been one of Trump’s strong suits. Also the math just doesn’t support those claims.”

Oliver cited congressional budget analysis estimating more than 16 million Americans would become uninsured by 2034 should Congress pass Trump’s bill, and that rural hospitals and community services also would lose their funding as a result.

The Republican bill, which would still need to go through reconciliation procedures with the House should it pass the Senate, would force low-income Medicaid recipients to prove they’d worked, volunteered or attended school for 80 hours a month. Oliver cited a November 2024 report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, however, that found two-thirds of people on Medicaid already work, while most of the remainder are busy in school, functioning as family caretakers or living with a disability.

“And yet Republicans won’t stop painting lurid scenarios of Medicaid freeloaders,” Oliver said. 

https://www.thedailybeast.com/john-oliver-dismantles-magas-best-defense-of-trump-budget-bill

Kansas City Star: Trump Media Suffers $400M Loss — Announces Buyback

Trump Media & Technology Group, which runs Truth Social and trades as DJT, has reported a $400.9 million net loss and a 12% revenue drop for 2024. 

Shares of Trump Media have risen over 2% following the announcement, but the stock has declined 46% in value over the year.A

A loser over the long term, like everything else Trump (6 bankruptcies, 34 felony convictions) has done.

https://www.newsbreak.com/the-kansas-city-star-1592484/4083395730625-trump-media-suffers-400m-loss-announces-buyback

NBC News: Debate over ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ detention center a personal one for members of Miccosukee and Seminole tribes

The homes of Miccosukee and Seminole people, as well as their ceremonial sites, surround the detention center on three sides.

The constant rumbling of passing dump trucks drowns out the once familiar chirping of birds at the family home of Mae’anna Osceola-Hart in Everglades National Park.

“It’s all-day, all-night truck noise,” says the 21-year-old photographer who describes herself as part Miccosukee and part Seminole, two Florida tribes at the heart of the debate over the detention center known as “Alligator Alcatraz.”

The homes of Miccosukee and Seminole people, as well as their ceremonial sites, surround the detention center on three sides.

Osceola-Hart’s great-grandfather Wild Bill Osceola fought against the development of an airport at the same site where the ICE facility’s construction is now underway.

In 1968, authorities in Dade County, now known as Miami-Dade County, began building the Big Cypress Jetport on land the Miccosukees used for ceremonial practices. The Dade County Port Authority referred to the project as the “world’s largest airport,” with six runways designed to handle large jets, and officials were quoted as calling the environmental and tribal leaders who opposed it “butterfly chasers.”

The airport became a flashpoint for resistance, but in 1969, a coalition including Osceola-Hart’s great-grandfather, fellow tribesmen and conservationists persuaded Florida Gov. Claude R. Kirk Jr. that the airport would damage the Everglades. He ordered construction be stopped. One runway, approximately 10,000 feet in length, was left behind as a training ground for pilots.

Osceola-Hart is proud of her great-grandfather’s efforts to stop the 1960s development, but she is disappointed the Miccosukees lost land they considered sacred. “We got kicked out of ceremonial grounds,” she says.

Finding a safe place to live has been an ongoing battle for the tribes in Florida. Seminoles retreated into the Everglades after the Seminole wars ended in 1858.

Leaders of both tribes are constantly advocating for the preservation of the national park’s wildlife and vegetation, but they don’t have authority over how the land is used.

“It’s a long, fraught battle,” says William “Popeye” Osceola, secretary of the Miccosukee Tribe, describing how tribes are constantly fighting for rights over the land they have lived on for more than a century.

William Osceola tells young members of his tribe to stay engaged to protect their rights. “Some of these fights, they come in different forms, but it’s still the same fight.” he said.

Osceola-Hart agrees. “This is history repeating itself,” she says.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/alligator-alcatraz-detention-center-personal-rcna215824

Fort Worth Star-Telegram: Major Increase in Non-Criminal Detainees by ICE

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has reported an 800% rise in non-criminal detainees since President Donald Trump took office, reaching a record 51,302 by early June. Only 30% of those detained were convicted criminals. The data suggests immigration enforcement is increasingly targeting non-criminal offenses, which has fueled criticism from Democratic leaders.

Former ICE Director Sarah Saldaña said, “This push on numbers — exclusive of whether or not the job is being done right — is very concerning.”

Saldaña added, “You’re going to have people who are being pushed to the limit, who in a rush may not get things right, including information on a person’s status.”

After Trump took office, the number of non-criminal detainees rose sharply to 7,781. Presently, only four in ten individuals detained by ICE are convicted criminals, marking a 20 percent decline since January.

ICE operations have remained largely under the radar as enforcement has ramped up under the Trump administration. Internal records show only 10% of detainees were convicted of serious crimes, raising concerns about misclassification.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/major-increase-in-non-criminal-detainees-by-ice/ss-AA1HEBfp

Closer to the Edge: Alligator Auschwitz

Trump built a concentration camp in the Everglades, filled it with tents, barbed wire, and migrants — then laughed about the alligators guarding it.

Donald Trump stood in the middle of a swamp and laughed about who might die there. He didn’t whisper. He didn’t slip up. He smiled for the cameras, gestured like a stand-up comic, and offered survival tips to migrants facing heatstroke and armed guards: “Don’t run in a straight line. Run like this. Your chances go up about one percent.” That’s the punchline. That’s the policy. That’s the sound of a dictator test-marketing genocide as a joke, to see if the country still flinches. And the crowd? They laughed. They always laugh.

Alligator Auschwitz isn’t hyperbole. It’s location-specific horror. It’s a mass detention facility in the Everglades, surrounded by barbed wire and alligators, built in eight days with no due process, no air-conditioning, no press access, and no shame. The people inside are dehydrated, afraid, and invisible. The man who built it treats it like a tourist attraction. He called it “professional.” He called it “beautiful.” He called the alligators “officers” who don’t need to be paid. This is not immigration enforcement. This is fascism with a swamp aesthetic — cruelty as spectacle, stripped of pretense, staged for applause.

There are no live feeds. No outside monitors. No civilian oversight. There is heat. There are guards with AR-15s. There are 5,000 beds and not a single guarantee of due process. Detainees are locked inside tents where the temperature regularly tops 100°F. If they’re sick, they wait. If they’re injured, they pray. If they try to escape, they run through terrain where the president of the United States fantasizes about gators doing the job of bullets. And we’re supposed to treat this as politics. As news. As just another item in the news cycle. But this isn’t a policy dispute. It’s a moral collapse.

Trump knows exactly what he’s doing. He built a concentration camp with branding. He took the iconography of American wilderness — swamps, gators, razor wire — and turned it into a prison so brutal, so theatrical, that it becomes part of the campaign. It is the campaign. Alligator Alcatraz isn’t just a facility. It’s a commercial. A threat. A fantasy. And the only reason more people aren’t calling it Alligator Auschwitz is because they’re too afraid of the implications — of what it means to admit that America is already back in the business of building camps.

When the media says “controversial,” they mean “unthinkable but happening.” When they say “deterrent,” they mean “torture as a warning shot.” And when they say “joke,” they’re pretending there’s still a line to be crossed. But there is no line. There is a swamp. And in it, thousands of people are vanishing behind a wall of heat, isolation, and performative indifference. This is the kind of place that future generations look back on and ask, “How did no one stop it?” And the only honest answer is: we didn’t want to believe it was real.

It is real. It is here. And it is happening in our name.

This is Alligator Auschwitz. And if we don’t call it what it is now, history will — with blood in its mouth..

https://www.closertotheedge.net/p/alligator-auschwitz

Newsweek: Trump admin shares meme of ICE alligators outside Florida prison

The Trump regime’s Carnival of Cruelty continues!

The Department of Homeland Security has shared an apparently AI-generated meme depicting alligators as ICE agents outside of a Florida detention center.

“Alligator Alcatraz” is a new migrant detention center being developed on a remote airstrip in the Everglades. The facility aims to house up to 5,000 detainees and uses the area’s natural isolation and wildlife as part of its security measures.

“Coming soon!” DHS said in a post on X.

The remote facility is expected to cost Florida approximately $450 million annually to operate. The proposal comes as President Donald Trump‘s administration looks to conduct what it describes as the largest mass deportation operation in U.S. history.

Critics say that the center’s remote location and rapid deployment raise ethical and legal questions about the treatment of migrants, transparency, and due process. Supporters say the project is a cost-efficient step to handle increased immigration enforcement.

The image shared by DHS shows alligators wearing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) baseball caps outside the fences of the detention center.

The meme and plans have sparked outrage from critics over inhumane conditions and concerns from environmental groups.

“A horrendous lack of humanity,” Georgetown lecturer Brett Bruen, who served as director of global engagement during the Obama administration, said in a post on X.

Former CIA officer Christopher Burgess described the post as “Disgusting.”

https://www.newsweek.com/trump-admin-meme-ice-alligator-alcatraz-florida-2092148

Daily Beast: Trump Celebrates Civil War Win With Brutal Message to GOP

Donald Trump is once again reminding Republicans where disloyalty gets you.

The president celebrated on Sunday night shortly after GOP Senator Thom Tillis announced he would not seek re-election next year. A day earlier, the North Carolina Republican had voted against advancing Trump’s signature spending package—the so-called “big, beautiful bill”—incurring the president’s wrath. Trump quickly slammed Tillis in Truth Social posts and threatened to back a primary challenger.

“Great News! “Senator” Thom Tillis will not be seeking reelection,” Trump wrote on Truth Social after Tillis bowed out.

In a follow-up post, Trump suggested that Republicans who oppose his legislative priorities could pay a political price.

Given Trump’s nosediving approval ratings, coupled with the millions losing benefits, e.g. healthcare coverage, thanks to the Big Fat Ugly Bill, the 2026 midterms are expect to be a major rout of Republicans.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-celebrates-civil-war-win-with-brutal-message-to-gop

Mediaite: WATCH: Trump Suggests He’ll Pressure CNN/NYT Reporters to Give Up Their Sources On Iran Strike Stories — And Then Prosecute the Leakers

President Donald Trump is suggesting his administration will pressure reporters into giving up sources on their recent stories on the impact of the military strike on Iran — and then potentially prosecuting those sources.

In an interview on Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures, anchor Maria Bartiromo asked Trump about a social media post on Thursday in which he wrote: “The Democrats are the ones who leaked the information on the PERFECT FLIGHT to the Nuclear Sites in Iran. They should be prosecuted!”

“They should be prosecuted,” Trump said again — in the Fox News interview which was taped on Friday and aired on Sunday.

“Who specifically?” Bartiromo asked.

“You can find out,” Trump said. “If they wanted, they could find out easily.”

The president has repeatedly come down on CNN and The New York Times in recent days for breaking stories on the impact of last Saturday’s attack on Iran — even threatening to sue them over reporting he has called “unpatriotic.” Both outlets reported on preliminary intelligence assessments which found that the damage of the strikes were far less than the president claimed.

Trump has repeatedly insisted three Iranian nuclear sites were “obliterated.” The preliminary intelligence assessment from the Defense Intelligence Agency said the bombings only set Iran’s nuclear program back a few months.

Trump went on to explain how he would go about finding out the leakers.

“You go up and tell the reporter, ‘national security, who gave it?’” Trump said. “You have to do that. And I suspect we’ll be doing things like that.”

And I suspect the media response will be, “Go fuck yourself.” Trump was publicly applauding himself as the great victor and strategist, when in fact the bombings that he ordered were an abysmal flop.