Mayhem

retweeting...mostly

[Robert Reich @RBReich]

If we want to clean up Trump’s mess and prevent future Trumps from taking power, we must make major changes to our broken political system.

Here are the 10 reforms necessary to get anything done.

[Jake Sherman @JakeSherman]

Trump wants $350 billion for the Pentagon in reconciliation 3.0. Not $67 billion. Plus SAVE America Act.

SAVE cannot go in reconciliation. House Republican leaders have been focused on a $4B fund to incentivize states to conduct voter ID/citizenship checks. That's clearly not enough for Trump at the moment.

On the Pentagon funding: That's a lot. There will be a fight over offsets.

Can House Republicans pass a budget to unlock this process? Can Senate Republicans

24 legislative days before Election Day.

[Steve Rattner @SteveRattner]

Job growth has been uneven since Trump's reelection.

The Sun Belt has continued to boom while the DC area has been hit hard by DOGE cuts.

The industrial (and agricultural) Midwest is also struggling from the fallout from tariffs and the Iran War.

[Jürgen Nauditt 🇩🇪🇺🇦 @jurgen_nauditt]

"In June, we surpassed the $1.3 billion mark in aid to Ukraine, and I anticipate that we will spend another $200 million or so this year," said American businessman and philanthropist Howard Buffett.

Further statements from the businessman, who has consistently supported Ukraine throughout the full-scale war:

War is hell. The second year passes, then the third, and it seems as though the end is just around the corner. But sometimes, that isn't the case. And of course, we are now talking about the fifth year of the war. For me, it was a kind of personal test. I felt that we simply had to stand by Ukraine—out of respect for our principles, our values, and what we believe in.

My father always told me: "You can't do good business with a bad person." And the problem is: Putin is more than just a bad person. He is a murderer, a terrorist, and a criminal. How are you supposed to negotiate with someone like that?

When peace comes, the US and Europe will have to do far more than they promised in 1994. Ukraine needs real security guarantees.

I want peace. But I want a peace that guarantees Ukraine's long-term success and the safety of my friends in that country.

Ukraine has shown more courage than any other country I have ever seen.

Ukraine is devoting the majority of its resources to the war effort, protecting the population, and repelling the aggression of a state that essentially seeks to commit genocide against an entire people. When you are fighting a war like this, there simply aren't enough funds left to meet the needs of everyone in the country. That is why we can help solve some of these problems.

We have provided 560 million meals, the majority of which were delivered directly to the front lines.
I remember driving from Kharkiv to Borova in the spring of 2023 and passing through villages that had been razed to the ground. They were destroyed. It is hard to put into words. People have lost everything.

As terrible as this war is, Ukraine is evolving into a country known to the entire world. People who previously couldn't point to Ukraine on a map now know exactly where it is. Ukraine will emerge as one of the world's leading nations when it comes to freedom and democracy.

Having friends in Ukraine who live in a completely different reality means a great deal. This is also linked to the danger people there face every day. When I say goodbye to someone and say, "See you on my next trip," the reply is: "I hope so. We are at war."

[The Washington Post @washingtonpost]

Detainees at a California ICE facility say they are overcharged for commonly used items, including soda, coffee and feminine hygiene products.

See a comparison of their costs to the nearest Walmart: https://t.co/kZSdur4Bc3

[Daniel Dale @ddale8]

For the many-th time, Trump's "$19.2 trillion" figure is a lie.

New foreign direct investment in the US - to acquire, create or expand businesses - was $232 billion in 2025. (Source: https://t.co/ooDwrAHoTK.) The White House's own website claims there've been $10.6 trillion (not $19.2 trillion) in "major investment announcements" this Trump term - and even that's a wild exaggeration that includes vague pledges, vague statements that aren't even pledges, and pledges about *trade between the US and other countries* rather than investment in the US.

Previous fact check from when Trump was claiming it was $17 trillion: https://t.co/yaAEApwIzy https://t.co/gA34TQep93

[NBC News @NBCNews]

An Afghan national who fought alongside U.S. forces has died from an allergic reaction while in ICE custody, one day after he was detained for deportation proceedings, his death certificate shows. https://t.co/cdUXugVq2O

[KyivPost @KyivPost]

Ukraine has received a major air defense assistance package from Canada, Zelensky said.

The president did not specify what exactly was delivered but said additional equipment is already on its way to Ukraine.

[CBS News @CBSNews]

France's President Emmanuel Macron is safe after two bombs exploded outside the hotel where he spent the night in Damascus, Syria on Tuesday, the French presidential palace said. Video shows one of the blasts and smoke rising from the hotel afterward.

Macron had left the hotel when the blasts took place, and he was with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa in his presidential palace. Syrian state TV said 18 people were wounded, including four police officers. https://t.co/hCMMyTKTUU

[Headquarters @HQNewsNow]

Q: Is the missile defense system going to be handed over to a third party as part of any deal with F-35s?

Trump: What does that mean?

Q: Is it going to be handed over to a third party?

Trump: What is a third party?

Q: Do you have concerns about the Russian missile defense system?

Trump: I have no concerns at all about anything

[Mike Young @micyoung75]

Norway pays entry level cashiers and gas station attendants over 20 dollars an hour, plus five weeks vacation, a pension, and a year of combined parental leave. A Harvard economist told Kristof the U.S. ran a similar model from the 1940s through the 1960s: strong unions, expanding education, an early experiment with universal child care. Then America changed course, and Kristof's explanation for why is specific rather than vague: safety net programs got recast as handouts for Black Americans, the welfare queen caricature did real political work, and the coalition supporting broad investment in workers came apart along racial lines instead of economic ones.

Kristof frames this through his own rural Oregon hometown, where mills closed, meth arrived, and three childhood friends died homeless. He says plainly he thinks they'd have survived being born into Norway's safety net instead.

The same story plays out in Indiana counties that lost manufacturing and never fully replaced it. It's the road not taken, with a body count attached to the version we picked instead.

[The Associated Press @AP]

President Trump said the U.S. will lift sanctions on Turkey that were issued after Ankara purchased a Russian missile defense system that led to the country being kicked out of the F-35 fighter jet program. https://t.co/kIpIJZ1TTb

[Roger Parloff @rparloff]

Tension between Trump & the Smithsonian's chief began on a museum tour, as they passed an exhibit on the Dutch role in the slave trade, & Trump's only comment was, "You know they love me in the Netherlands."
By @maggieNYT & @jonathanvswan
https://t.co/1gsQ91AYuq

[Molly Jong-Fast @MollyJongFast]

In the months leading up to Jeffrey Epstein’s arrest on federal sex trafficking charges on July 6, 2019, a small U.S. Virgin Islands bank he owned that had employed no one and laid dormant for years suddenly came alive. A flurry of transactions totaling more than $20 million passed through the bank named Southern Country International from April to early July that year, according to a Miami Herald investigation based on the recently released documents by the U.S. Justice Department.

Read more at: https://t.co/buSJHR2sb5

[Samantha Handler @sn_handler]

NEWS: Supreme Court Justices will testify before the House Appropriations Committee on July 14.

Justices last appeared before House members in 2019.

[Orla Joelsen @OJoelsen]

Greenland citizen here,

Trump is lying. Greenland is not surrounded by Chinese or Russian ships.

[OSINTdefender @sentdefender]

Several explosive devices detonated this morning in the Syrian capital of Damascus, close to the Four Season Hotel where French President Emmanuel Macron is currently staying, resulting in injuries to at least 18 people though no fatalities, according to Syria’s Interior Ministry. Macron was not present at the hotel when the blasts occurred, instead being at the Presidential Palace for a meeting with Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa.

[Ron Filipkowski @RonFilipkowski]

So now millions of football fans around the world view the US as cheaters who used political corruption to influence FIFA and we lose anyway. So much winning. When’s the next war?

[Acyn @Acyn]

Another picture from REUTERS/Evan Vucci of children sitting through Trump’s remarks in the Oval Office.

[The Washington Post @washingtonpost]

Air Force Major Jason Watson’s demonstration on the U.S. Capitol’s steps followed a year of deliberation about how public he should be with his views. He said he weighed the impact on his family against his conviction that U.S. democracy is at risk. https://t.co/0JglnzVuSu