June Edvenson

Attorney, writer, consultant, poet. Following international law, U.S. and Norway relations, arts, culture, literature, my dog & the weather in Norway.

[June Edvenson @pelicanposts]

This prospective law is really dangerous: basically it would put money given to Israel NOT in Congress's authority to decide but directly into a main Defense Dept budget so Trump could decide how much to give Israel, where & when. That's unconstitutional! @RuleOfLaw_Proj @CNN

[Occupy Democrats @OccupyDemocrats]

BREAKING: LEADERSHIP! Sen. Chris Van Hollen demands that Congress REMOVE the borderline treasonous provisions in the defense bill that would entwine the U.S. military with Israel.

This man is one hell of a fighter...

"Today, I led 11 of my Senate colleagues in calling on House & Senate leadership to strip the upcoming defense bill of provisions that MANDATE defense & intelligence cooperation with Israel — including one advanced by Netanyahu himself," Van Hollen wrote on X.

He reshared a video from July in which he outlined the problems in detail—

"A little while ago, I got off the Senate floor, where I urged my colleagues to vote no tomorrow to advance the National Defense Authorization Bill," said the senator. "And I gave three reasons..."

"One, it's a bloated budget to a Pentagon that continues to fail to pass an audit. Number two, no restraints on Trump's illegal war against Iran, essentially giving a green light to that illegal war that's been disastrous for the American people."

"But there are two provisions that have gotten very little attention, that are kind of crawling through quietly. Both have to do with greater support to the government of Israel," Van Hollen explained. "One of them is a provision Netanyahu has taken credit for pushing, which would require more joint defense cooperation between the United States and Israel."

Netanyahu has indeed been pushing for this measure and it's easy to see why. The American people have soured on Israel as an ally thanks to the atrocities in Gaza. We don't want to see our tax dollars flowing overseas to kill innocent Palestinians. Recognizing that shifting opinions mean their blank check days are over, Israel wants to mutate America's support into a more opaque, yet no less lethal, form. They want to mandate a deep entanglement of our countries, using our national-security apparatus to secure their own interests.

"We know from our own experience that Israel has previously vetoed our ability to act in our own national security interests when we wanted to send some weapon systems to Ukraine that had been co-produced with Israel," said Van Hollen. "And Israel blocked us from doing it."

"Another provision requires, mandates, that the U.S. government share more intelligence with the government of Israel," he went on. "Look, we can share intelligence with the government of Israel or any other government when we want. Why would the United States Congress order the executive branch to share more intelligence, regardless of what the government of Israel is doing? Why would we be doing that? We shouldn't."

"It's not in our national security interests to do it. We can always choose, on a case-by-case basis, to do whatever we want. Let's not mandate it," he concluded.

We commend Senator Van Hollen for taking a stand on this issue. This country has suffered enough from Israel First politicians choosing that foreign country's priorities over what's best for Americans.

Van Hollen's name has been bubbling up amongst the Democratic base since the blue tsunami, with many calling for him to challenge Chuck Schumer for the Senate Majority Leadership. He says he “hasn’t shut the door" on the possibility.

What do you think?

Please ❤️ and share if you support Senator Van Hollen!

[Chuck Schumer @SenSchumer]

I’m actually referring to your 30,000 stock trades (more than all Members of Congress combined), your Qatari-gifted luxury jet, your crypto scams, your Truth Social pay to play scheme, your billionaire-funded ballroom, your insurrectionist slush fund, and your pardons for big donors—just to name a few. 

Senate Democrats will ban stock trading for all Members of Congress and White House officials, and hold you and your administration accountable for all the ways your rampant corruption has made life more expensive for families.

[Annie @AnnieForTruth]

Why is Jared Kushner leading peace talks between Russia and Ukraine? He is not an elected official, nor is he a career diplomat with decades of experience negotiating wars and international security agreements. This is the job of the Secretary of State, NOT Trump’s son-in-law, the Secretary of Grift. Kushner is only there to negotiate lucrative business deals for he and the Trumps. 🤬

[Tammy Duckworth @SenDuckworth]

Trump's cuts have already put many VA hospitals in crisis mode, delaying treatments and even urgent operations to Veterans in need.

Then just yesterday, House Republicans voted for the largest cut to VA benefits in history.

We will not let them leave our heroes behind.

[June Edvenson @pelicanposts]

Thanks, Jeff. Folks, it's about how INSANE Trump's been in just the last 24 hours!? Geez, we don't need to stand for this! @cnn @DNC @SenateDems @HouseDemocrats Let’s all point and laugh at the panicking imbecile in the Oval Bordello, by @itsJeffTiedrich https://t.co/PYlku3HOXg

[Republicans against Trump @RpsAgainstTrump]

The new Congress needs to investigate this immediately. We need to know who ordered these restrictions and whether the Trump administration or anyone else used Starlink to pressure Ukraine into surrendering to Putin. This is outrageous. There must be consequences.

[Annie @AnnieForTruth]

Trump stiffs every city that hosts his rallies so why is this a surprise? 🙄 A group of Dallas City Council members are demanding answers about who approved an $800,000 Republican midterm convention in September without requiring an upfront deposit. https://t.co/lCnmIoOUe7

[June Edvenson @pelicanposts]

@gtconway3d I know sarcasm is almost unavoidable, but at a time like this, just say the truth?… and then say it again and again (3 times at least). Then tell people what you told them. -a variation on one of my law school professors’ favorite admonitions to us.

[William Hastings @WillyPete300]

@JayinKyiv The weakness, duplicity, corruption, and incompetence of the Trump administration gives Putin hope. Putin having hope costs lives. We should be crushing any hope that he has left, not keeping it alive.

[Jay in Kyiv @JayinKyiv]

Amid the US cutting both Ukraine's air defenses and Starlink to Ukraine’s frontline troops, the American President's multi-billionaire son in law arrives from Moscow to tell Zelensky how much money everyone will make if only he will hand his country to the Russians.

The filthy kleptocrat continues pushing Zelensky to focus on phantom offers of money, with "The potential for Ukraine is incredible"

[June Edvenson @pelicanposts]

Unbelievable what an out of touch sociopathic narcissist this guy is!

[Ed Krassenstein @EdKrassen]

Trump on his approval rating:

“They compared myself, Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan, and Lincoln was at 8%, Reagan was at 14%, and I was at 56% or something like that. So I think my approval rating is good."

He didn't name the poll.

[Ron Filipkowski @RonFilipkowski]

These two clowns proud of their Russian Olympic jackets while Russia bombs civilians every day. What a disgrace.

[Michael McFaul @McFaul]

NATO has never attacked the Soviet Union or Russia.

Ukraine has never threatened Russian security.

Putin calling for new security guarantees for Russia is complete nonsense.

Before he launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine, many -- including me -- suggested reforms for enhancing European security. He rejected them. He wanted war instead.

[Mike Levin @MikeLevin]

This new Reuters report is stunning.

A week before the U.S. captured Venezuela's leader, JD Vance reportedly met at a private Montana ski club with John Addison, an oil trader who had given $300,000 to help elect Vance to the Senate in 2022. Vance allegedly asked how fast Venezuela's oil could be sold if America took control of it.

Both men deny the meeting.

Flight records show their planes parked together that day.

Two days after the Venezuela operation, Energy Secretary Chris Wright called Addison and offered his company, Vitol, the job of selling Venezuela's oil. There was no public bidding. Vitol and one rival have since made hundreds of millions of dollars.

Addison and his wife also gave $7 million to help elect Trump, and he now chairs a board advising Secretary Wright.

Congress has a duty to act.

We should bring Secretary Wright, Vitol, and Addison in to testify under oath. We should demand the phone records, emails, and flight logs. We should find out whether anyone got a heads-up about a military operation. And we should require open, competitive bidding before any company profits from our foreign policy.

If nothing was wrong, let’s see the records.
https://t.co/wUddI1206p

[George Conway ⚖️🇺🇸 @gtconway3d]

An excerpt from my @BulwarkOnline podcast yesterday in which (a) I gave my thoughts about the demise of Trump (namely, buckle up, because he’s nuts and he ain’t quite done yet) and (b) I interview a great lawyer who’s started a fantastic private group that’s going to put together criminal cases against the bad guys and serve them up to prosecutors.

It has been a big hit on YouTube thus far, but you can also listen to it on Apple Podcasts and Spotify as well:

https://t.co/ivyu0SSv7m

https://t.co/RGWGWYOpjH

[June Edvenson @pelicanposts]

Calling all veterans: Read this great sum-up of some of the worst crap the GOP's been doing to Americans! @VoteVets @VetVoiceFound @DeptVetAffairs @cnn Republicans hate our veterans — and no one hates them more than Preznit Fuckwit, by @itsJeffTiedrich https://t.co/BwhgsZeGth

[Amy McGrath @AmyMcGrathKY]

Trump’s 90,000-square-foot ballroom is nearly the size of TWO football playing fields.

The ballroom, the arch—these aren’t monuments one man gets to impose on America. National monuments should reflect national consensus, not one man’s ego.

And that’s exactly why they won’t outlast him.

[CantStopPoppin @CantStopPoppin]

For anyone who hasn't heard about this yet: ICE showed up at the front door of Dr. Ann Lawani in Lodi, California, while she was still in her pajamas, shackled her at the wrists, waist, and ankles, and shipped her all the way to a detention center in Louisiana.

She’s a frontline nurse who worked through the worst of COVID, directs the master's nursing program at the University of San Francisco (overseeing 230+ nursing students), and takes care of her 83-year-old dad.

When her family and lawyer tried to find out where she was taken, ICE’s online locator came back with "0 results." It turns out ICE quietly changed its policy the day before her arrest to stop listing thousands of detainees in the public database, so her family had no idea where she was for days while she was bounced from Stockton to Bakersfield to El Paso to Louisiana.

DHS put out a statement claiming she had a 2013 removal order, but they conveniently left out that on the *exact same day* in 2013, an immigration judge granted her Withholding of Removal blocking her deportation to Nigeria because she faced persecution there.

She has zero criminal record, has checked in with ICE for 13 years, and has a valid federal work permit through 2029. Because they legally can't send her to Nigeria, Rep. Josh Harder says ICE has been trying to quietly deport her to an undisclosed third country behind her lawyer's back.

Full write-up and breakdown of what happened here:
https://t.co/cu2O8Gz0Md

Support independent coverage & frontline updates:
https://t.co/cRnzhrQHyV

[June Edvenson @pelicanposts]

Democrats have to work with the lame duck Congress to STOP all these Trumper federal judge appointments they’re trying to RAM through before January’s new Congress comes in! @nytimes https://t.co/20Q5XwsVnF

[Acyn @Acyn]

Raskin: Well, AOC and I have a $50 gift ban bill, which has been on the back burner for years under the Republicans.

In Congress, we are all governed by a $50 gift ban. And we can’t accept anything much more than a baseball cap. And most people are scared to do that. We just don’t take gifts.

Meantime, at the Supreme Court, they’re collecting hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars in so-called gifts from people who have a tremendous interest in the work of the Supreme Court. They take trips around the world. They take luxury vacations. They get, in Justice Thomas’s case, a $400,000 recreational vehicle, a motor coach.

I think Justice Thomas also picked up private school tuition for a great-nephew. I mean, just outrageous things. Members of Congress would go to jail for any of those things, and they’re just doing it.

So the $50 gift ban applies to Congress. It theoretically applies also to people in the executive branch, and it must apply to people in the judiciary, in the Supreme Court

[James Tate @JamesTate121]

Now this is what I want to hear. 👏👏👏