Saturday, July 12, 2025
■ The Week in Review
"If President Trump will not even put America first when Israel murders American citizens, then this is truly an Israel First administration," said one U.S. group.
By Jessica Corbett • Jul 11, 2025
The Palestinian Authority's Ministry of Health and cousins of Sayfollah Musallat—also known as Saif al-Din Kamel Abdul Karim Musallat—said Friday that Israeli settlers beat the dual U.S.-Palestinian citizen to death while he was visiting family in the illegally occupied West Bank.
A spokesperson for the ministry, Annas Abu El Ezz, told Agence France-Press that 23-year-old Musallat "died after being severely beaten all over his body by settlers in the town of Sinjil, north of Ramallah, this afternoon."
Abdul Samad Abdul Aziz, from the nearby village of Al-Mazraa Al-Sharqiya, said that "the young man was injured and remained so for four hours. The [Israeli] army prevented us from reaching him and did not allow us to take him away."
"When we finally managed to reach him, he was taking his last breath," he added.
The Times of Israel reported that the "ministry later said a second man, 23-year-old Mohammad Shalabi, was fatally shot by settlers," and "there have been no arrests yet."
According to the Tel Aviv-based newspaper Haaretz, "The Israeli army said it was 'aware of reports' of the incident and that it was 'being looked into by the Shin Bet security service and Israel Police.'"
Zeteo's Prem Thakker spoke with two of Musallat's cousins, Fatmah Muhammad and another granted anonymity due to safety concerns. They said that he grew up in Port Charlotte, Florida, and arrived in June to visit family in the Palestinian town of al-Mazra'a ash-Sharqiya.
As Thakker detailed:
Muhammad described Musallat as "one of those kids that everyone loves" with a "beautiful heart," a "sweet, gentle kid, very genuine," everyone attests as funny and bright.
In Florida, he helped run a family ice cream shop, a place where his personality shone through, his family members said.
Muhammad and the other family source said that the entire Palestinian town where the family is from is devastated.
"There's no justice there. You can't call the police. You can't call the Israeli government. The murderers just get to walk away," Muhammad said.
Since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack, the Israel Defense Forces have killed over 57,800 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip—which has led to a genocide case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). During that time, IDF soldiers and Israeli settlers' sometimes deadly violence against Palestinians in the West Bank has also surged.
Additionally, despite the ICJ's July 2024 finding that Israel's occupation of Palestine is an illegal form of apartheid that must end as soon as possible, and Israeli settler colonization of the West Bank amounts to unlawful annexation, there are growing calls in Israel's government to formally annex the West Bank.
Musallat's death came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—a fugitive from the International Criminal Court accused of continuing the mass slaughter and starvation of Palestinians in Gaza to stay in power—returned to Israel after meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump and congressional leaders in Washington, D.C. this week.
Edward Ahmed Mitchell, national deputy director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy group in the United States, said in a Friday statement that "we strongly condemn these racist Israeli settlers, backed and enabled by the Netanyahu government, for beating an American citizen to death in the occupied West Bank."
"This murder is only the latest killing of an American citizen by illegal Israeli settlers or soldiers," he noted. "Every other murder of an American citizen has gone unpunished by the American government, which is why the Israeli government keeps wantonly killing American Palestinians and, of course, other Palestinians. If President Trump will not even put America first when Israel murders American citizens, then this is truly an Israel First administration."
According to Thakker: "Musallat is at least the seventh American killed in the West Bank, Gaza, or Lebanon since October 7, 2023, including six killed by Israeli forces. Earlier this week, Zeteo asked several Republican senators if they knew how many Americans had been killed by Israel in the last 21 months. None of them could answer."
"ICE is out of control," said one Democratic congresswoman. "This is not law enforcement. It is state violence."
By Brett Wilkins • Jul 11, 2025
A Mexican farmworker who reportedly fell from a greenhouse while trying to hide during a Trump administration raid on a Southern California farm has died from his injuries, the United Farm Workers union announced Friday.
Federal authorities including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, many clad in military-style gear, stormed farms in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties on Thursday to execute search warrants for undocumented people. At Glass House Farms in Camarillo—which grows state-legal cannabis as well as tomatoes and cucumbers—the invading agents were met with spirited resistance from hundreds of community members who rushed to the site in support of targeted workers. Federal officers responded by firing tear gas and less-lethal projectiles at crowds of protesters who were blocking area roadways in a bid to prevent arrests.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said that officers "arrested approximately 200 illegal aliens" from Glass House Farms and another farm in Carpinteria, Santa Barbara County, where protesters also descended, and were met with tear gas and pepper balls, according to local news outlets. DHS also said they found at least 10 immigrant children on the farm.
The Associated Press reported that a farmworker, identified as Jaime Alanís, phoned his wife in Mexico and told her about the raid in progress, saying he was hiding with other workers. Alanís fell from his hiding place and suffered broken neck, fractured skull, and a rupture in an artery that pumps blood to the brain, his niece Yesenia—who did not want to give her full name—told the AP.
"They told us he won't make it and to say goodbye," she said.
United Farm Workers (UFW) said Friday that "other workers, including U.S. citizens, remain unaccounted for."
"Our staff is on the ground supporting families," UFW said in a statement. "Many workers, including U.S. citizens, were held by federal authorities at the farm for eight hours or more. U.S. citizen workers report only being released after they were forced to delete photos and videos of the raid from their phones."
"UFW is also aware of reports of child labor on site," the union continued. "The UFW demands the immediate facilitation of independent legal representation for the minor workers, to protect them from further harm. Farmworkers are excluded from basic child labor laws."
"These violent and cruel federal actions terrorize American communities, disrupt the American food supply chain, threaten lives, and separate families," UFW added. "There is no city, state, or federal district where it is legal to terrorize and detain people for being brown and working in agriculture. These raids must stop immediately."
The raids appear to be ramping up, even before ICE receives an historic $46 billion funding infusion via the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act signed by President Donald Trump last week. Video footage posted on social media in recent days showed ICE officers and other federal agents arresting people in courthouses, a hospital, and marching through a suburban Utah neighborhood.
Democratic U.S. lawmakers were among those condemning the Trump administration's crackdown and mourning Alanís' death.
"A farmworker has died following a federal raid in Southern California. This is a heartbreaking and deeply troubling development," Congresswoman Norma Torres (D-Calif.) said on social media. "Immigrant communities deserve safety and dignity. I'm calling for a full investigation and accountability."
"Congresswoman Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.) said that "ICE is out of control."
"This is not law enforcement," she added. "It is state violence."
Some observers called on Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom—who has overseen several legal challenges to the Trump administration's crackdown on undocumented immigrants and protesters who defend them—to do more to help people targeted by ICE.
"If Newsom really cared about defending our state and our communities, he'd be on the line with other farmers by last night," Murshed Zaheed, a former U.S. Senate Democratic leadership staffer, said on the social media site Bluesky.
"I think everyone did an incredible job under the circumstances," U.S. President Donald Trump insisted.
By Brad Reed • Jul 11, 2025
U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday lashed out at a reporter who asked a pointed question about the government's response to the devastating floods in Texas that claimed the lives of more than 120 people, with over 170 still missing.
During a press event that also included Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a local reporter grilled the president about the timeliness of the emergency alerts sent out to people in the flooded region.
"Several families we've heard from are obviously upset because they say that those warnings, those alerts... didn't go out in time, and they also say that people could have been saved," the reporter said. "What do you say to those families?"
"I think everyone did an incredible job under the circumstances," Trump replied. "This was, I guess [Secretary of Homeland Security] Kristi [Noem] said, a 1 in 500, 1 in 1,000 years [event], and I just have admiration for the job that everybody did."
The president then proceeded to insult the reporter personally.
"Only a bad person would ask a question like that, to be honest with you," he said. "I don't know who you are but only a very evil person would ask a question like that."
ABC News reported earlier this week that flood alerts last weekend were not sent out to people in the affected area until 90 minutes after a local fireman first requested one. Additionally, reported ABC some residents didn't receive the flood alerts until six hours after the initial request was made.
Democrats in Congress this week also called for an investigation into whether Trump administration cuts to federal weather monitoring and emergency management agencies may have hindered the response to the Texas floods.
"The governor's action today demonstrates the absolute disdain Republicans have for working Missourians."
By Jake Johnson • Jul 11, 2025
Missouri's Republican governor on Thursday signed legislation repealing the paid sick leave portion of a ballot measure that the state's voters approved with nearly 60% support in the 2024 election.
The short-lived provision, which will officially be repealed on August 28, required Missouri employers to provide workers with an hour of paid sick time for every 30 hours of work. Businesses with 15 or more employees were required to provide up to 56 hours of earned paid sick time per year, and businesses with fewer than 15 employees were required to provide at least 40 hours of paid sick time.
The Missouri Budget Project estimated before its passage that the ballot measure's paid sick leave benefits would reach 728,000 private-sector workers in the state.
The bill that Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe signed Thursday, known as H.B. 567, also restricts increases in the state's minimum wage. The voter-approved initiative called for raising the state's minimum wage to $15 an hour in 2026 and indexing it to inflation thereafter. H.B. 567 eliminates the inflation adjustment.
The Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry, a business lobbying group, characterized H.B. 567 as its top legislative priority. The bill was led by state Rep. Sherri Gallick (R-62) and state Sen. Mike Bernskoetter (R-6).
Kehoe's Facebook post announcing his signature was deluged with comments from Missourians decrying the governor's decision to overturn the will of the public.
"We the people collected signatures," wrote one commenter. "We voted. And we passed Prop A into law. Remember you work for us. How dare you reverse the voice of your people?! The people you took an oath to serve."
Missouri Jobs With Justice, which helped lead the campaign for the ballot measure, said in a statement that "with Governor Kehoe's decision to sign H.B. 567 into law, workers will again face increased economic insecurity when balancing being sick with maintaining their job."
The group noted that Kehoe's support for repealing paid sick leave came after he "recently called a special session to approve spending millions of taxpayer dollars to subsidize billionaire-owned stadiums." On Thursday, Kehoe also signed legislation slashing the state's capital gains tax.
"Simply put, Missouri workers and their families do not deserve to see their newly earned paid sick leave stripped away," said Missouri Jobs With Justice. "Not only is this a slap in the face to workers asking for an opportunity to earn paid sick leave, it’s an insult to over 57% of Missourians who voted for Proposition A in November."
Throughout the process of pushing H.B. 567 through the Legislature, Missouri Republicans openly voiced contempt for voters who supported the paid sick leave and minimum wage initiative. One GOP lawmaker, state Rep. Mitch Boggs, said, "Of course the people voted for it."
"It'd be like asking your teenager if he wanted a checkbook," said Boggs.
State Rep. Ashley Aune (D-14), the Democratic leader in the Missouri House, said Thursday that "the governor's action today demonstrates the absolute disdain Republicans have for working Missourians."
"But in stripping workers of their legal right to earned sick leave," Aune added, "the governor and his allies have probably guaranteed this issue will be back on the ballot next year as a constitutional amendment that will place worker protections beyond their reach."
"The stated position here is that socialists cannot be part of the Democratic Party," said one commentator. "Does this hold for the socialist voters too?"
By Julia Conley • Jul 10, 2025
In an interview with CNN, former Congressman Dean Phillips was asked whether "there is room" for him and New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani in the Democratic Party—but progressive Rep. Summer Lee was among those saying on Thursday that Phillips' rejection of Mamdani was really about millions of Americans who have voted for candidates like him.
"These guys aren't just rejecting him, but the millions moved to electoral action by candidates like him," said Lee (D-Pa.) in response to Phillips' interview.
CNN's Omar Jimenez asked Phillips about the "big tent" philosophy often promoted by Democratic leaders who believe the party should welcome lawmakers and candidates who don't agree with every aspect of its platform—politicians like anti-choice Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) and former Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), who made millions of dollars from his coal business.
Jimenez asked whether Mamdani, a democratic socialist who stunned former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the party's leadership in the Democratic mayoral primary last month, should also be welcomed into the party's "big tent."
"The answer ultimately is no," said Phillips, who was one of the wealthiest members of Congress before he left office to run for president in a long-shot bid against former President Joe Biden in the 2024 race—losing his home state of Minnesota and garnering just 1.7% of the vote in South Carolina, falling behind author Marianne Williamson.
Phillips admitted that "most Americans share the same values" as Mamdani, who has advocated for fare-free public transit, universal free childcare, and city-run grocery stores to operate alongside private stores and provide low-cost essentials to working families.
But he claimed that while "differences of opinion, perspective, life story, politics, and experience" are beneficial to the Democratic Party, the presence of so-called "socialists" like Mamdani is not.
"The overwhelming majority of Americans want neither far-left or far-right politics," he said without citing any supporting evidence.
Phillips appeared confident that Democratic voters across the country would recoil from candidates like Mamdani—despite recent rallies in red districts where progressive Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), who both endorsed Mamdani, have drawn crowds of thousands of people in recent months during Sanders' Fighting Oligarchy Tour.
In addition to Mamdani's historic success in the Democratic primary—with more New Yorkers voting for him than in any other primary election in the history of the nation's largest city—numerous polls have shown that Americans back policies like those that powered his campaign.
A poll by Child Care for Every Family in 2023 found that 92% of parents with children under age 5 supported guaranteed, government-funded childcare, including 79% of Republican parents and 83% of independent parents.
Raising taxes for corporations and wealthy households is also broadly popular, with about 6 in 10 Americans supporting the proposal in a recent Pew Research poll.
And despite efforts by centrist Democrats and Republicans to portray Mamdani's platform as radical, programs like his fare-free bus proposal have already been implemented in cities like Kansas City, Raleigh, and Boston on three of the city's busiest bus routes.
"Maybe our big tent should have less millionaire nepo heirs and more fighters for the millions of working-class people," suggested Lee on Thursday.
Matt Bruenig of the People's Policy Project also condemned Phillips for suggesting Mamdani—and ostensibly the 565,639 New Yorkers who voted for him—have no place in the party.
"The stated position here is that socialists cannot be part of the Democratic Party," said Bruenig. "Does this hold for the socialist voters too? Should they also not vote for the party? Phillips is trying to radically shrink the party. Scary stuff."
"Centrists and other moderates are spending a nontrivial amount of national political energy being mad at Zohran," he added, "which could instead be spent on [President Donald] Trump and Republicans."
As Common Dreams reported Wednesday, the progressive advocacy group Our Revolution is circulating a petition that's garnered more than 30,000 signatures from people urging Democratic leaders like House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand—all New York Democrats who have yet to endorse their own party's mayoral candidate—not to "sabotage" Mamdani.
Despite Phillips' insistence that Mamdani doesn't belong in the party, the resistance in New York appeared to weaken a bit Thursday as Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.) endorsed the candidate.
"New Yorkers have spoken loud and clear," said Espaillat, who had previously backed Cuomo. "And as a lifelong Democrat, I'm endorsing the Democratic Party nominee."
Republicans plan to utilize a rare process called "rescission" to skirt Congress' power of the purse and illegally allow Trump to withhold hundreds of billions of dollars in federal funding to critical programs.
By Stephen Prager • Jul 10, 2025
The U.S. Senate will soon vote on whether President Donald Trump can claw back billions of dollars that have already been appropriated by Congress.
Last month, the House narrowly voted to allow Trump to rescind $9.4 billion in funds that were meant to fund global health initiatives—including AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis prevention—and public broadcasters like PBS and NPR.
It's far from the first time that this Republican-controlled Congress has voted on massive budget cuts, but progressive groups and some Democratic lawmakers say this vote has another frightening dimension to it.
These funds were among the more than $420 billion appropriated by Congress that Trump illegally impounded, or refused to spend, at the start of his term.
In a letter sent Wednesday to members of Congress, a coalition of more than 100 groups—including Public Citizen, the AFL-CIO, and Greenpeace—warned that by voting to approve these rescissions of federal funds, they would be giving Trump tacit approval to unconstitutionally take away Congress' authority to spend money.
"This rescissions proposal does not ask Congress, as required by the Impoundment Control Act, to approve the entirety of the federal spending that has been illegally frozen by the Trump administration," the letter notes. "The administration is merely trying to establish a veil of legitimacy while it continues unconstitutional actions that it began more than 100 days ago."
The groups went on to warn that allowing the president to unilaterally cut funding that he doesn't approve of "risks irreparable damage to the regular bipartisan appropriations process."
"Despite the political back-and-forth, Congress eventually reaches a bipartisan agreement on government funding every year, one way or another," they said. "The basis for that bipartisan agreement is that both parties must agree to compromises to achieve any of their goals. If a party with a political trifecta can simply rescind funding for the parts of appropriations bills they compromised on, they undermine congressional checks and balances and the basis for future bipartisan dealmaking on an already politically fraught process."
Under the Impoundment Control Act of 1974, presidents are forbidden from unilaterally refusing to spend funds. However, Congress is allowed to pass a "rescission" bill within 45 days of canceling them if the president requests it.
Trump would be the first president since Bill Clinton in 1999 to successfully have funds rescinded by Congress, and it would be the largest rescission in four decades.
But as the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities points out, there is a key difference: "The administration illegally impounded the funds at issue for months before proposing the [rescission] package" and that it is "unlawfully withholding much larger amounts of funding that it has not proposed for rescission."
According to a tracker created by the office of Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), who sit on the House and Senate appropriations committees, respectively, the Trump administration is blocking congressionally appropriated funds for programs including:
- Research into Alzheimer's disease, women's health, cancer, diabetes, and other illnesses;
- Natural disaster relief;
- School lunch assistance for children;
- Early childhood education through the Head Start Program; and
- Birth control and cancer screenings for over 800,000 patients
Russell Vought, the head of the White House's Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has openly indicated a desire to use rescission to cut all of this spending "without having to get an affirmative vote" from Congress.
According to The New York Times, Vought is planning to use an even more arcane and illegal maneuver known as "pocket rescission" to avoid spending the funds. As Tony Romm reported in June:
Under the emerging plan, the Trump administration would wait until closer to Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year, to formally ask lawmakers to claw back a set of funds it has targeted for cuts. Even if Congress fails to vote on the request, the president’s timing would trigger a law that freezes the money until it ultimately expires.
Some Senate Democrats have indicated they'd be willing to risk a government shutdown to prevent the rescission bill from passing.
In a letter published Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) wrote that the prospect of the rescissions bill passing had "grave implications."
"[I]t is absurd for [Republicans] to expect Democrats to act as business as usual and engage in a bipartisan appropriations process to fund the government, while they concurrently plot to pass a purely partisan rescissions bill to defund those same programs negotiated on a bipartisan basis behind the scenes," Schumer wrote.
Murray called out Vought directly on Wednesday at a markup session on the next round of bills in the Senate Appropriations Committee.
"For us to be able to work in a bipartisan way effectively, that requires us to work with each other. To not just write bipartisan funding bills—but to defend them from partisan cuts sought by the president and the OMB director," she said during her opening remarks. "We cannot allow bipartisan funding bills with partisan rescission packages. It will not work."
"The Trump administration's deportation goals will cause a major blow to the U.S. labor market," according to a new analysis by the Economic Policy Institute.
By Jake Johnson • Jul 10, 2025
If President Donald Trump succeeds at deporting millions of people over the next four years, his administration will be responsible for destroying millions of jobs and inflicting "immense pain" on both U.S.-born and immigrant workers.
That's according to a report published Thursday by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), which bases its analysis on the Trump administration's privately stated goal of deporting at least 1 million immigrants during the Republican president's first year back in the White House.
Should the administration achieve that deportation objective each year for the remainder of Trump's term, "there will be 3.3 million fewer employed immigrants and 2.6 million fewer employed U.S.-born workers at the end of that period," wrote EPI senior economist Ben Zipperer.
"Employment in the construction sector will drop sharply: U.S.-born construction employment will fall by 861,000, and immigrant employment will fall by 1.4 million," Zipperer wrote. In late May, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) publicly touted its arrest of more than 100 construction workers in Tallahassee, Florida.
The millions of deportations desired by Trump and his deputies would also "eliminate half a million childcare jobs," EPI estimated.
Every state in the U.S. would be impacted by the president's attack on immigrants, according to Zipperer's analysis, but California, Florida, New York, and Texas would be most heavily impacted.
"The Trump administration's deportation goals will cause a major blow to the U.S. labor market," Zipperer wrote, "squandering the full employment that the Trump administration inherited from the Biden administration and also causing immense pain to the millions of U.S.-born and immigrant workers who may lose their jobs."
The EPI analysis comes days after Trump signed into law a sprawling budget measure that includes $75 billion in additional funding over the next four years for ICE, an agency whose current annual budget is around $10 billion. The $75 billion figure includes nearly $30 million for enforcement and deportation.
Immigrant rights groups and analysts warned following the Republican legislation's passage that the massive boost in ICE funding would supercharge Trump's mass deportation machine.
"There is a question of how quickly ICE can build up its infrastructure and personnel using its newfound resources," Vox's Nicole Narea wrote Thursday. "But just days after the bill passed, the administration made a show of force at Los Angeles' MacArthur Park on Monday, with heavily armed immigration agents in tactical gear and military-style trucks showing up to arrest undocumented immigrants."
Trump's mass deportation efforts are already having an impact on the U.S. economy, according to top officials and recent employment data.
During congressional testimony last month, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell—against whom Trump frequently rails despite initially picking him for the job during his first White House term—said the president's draconian crackdown on immigration was "one of the reasons" for slowing U.S. economic growth.
Earlier this month, following the release of the June jobs report, labor economist Mark Regets told Forbes that "the data for the last five months indicate a serious fall in the number of immigrant workers."
"Despite growth in the unadjusted numbers, the U.S.-born labor force participation rate and the overall seasonally adjusted labor force total suggest that the loss of immigrant labor is not bringing more U.S.-born workers into the labor force," said Regets.
In a tacit admission that its mass deportation agenda is damaging employment in certain industries, the Trump administration reportedly instructed ICE officials last month to mostly pause raids on agricultural, hotel, and restaurant work sites.
DOG KILLER KRISTI NOEM WAS TOO BUSY TRYING ON COSTUMES & SOLICITING VOTES TO DO HER JOB!
IS THE DOG KILLER STILL CAVORTING WITH CORY LEWANDOWSKI?
THERE IS NO COMPETENT PERSON HEADING FEMA!
PEOPLE DIED DUE TO TRUMP & DOG KILLER NOEM INCOMPETENCE!
PRESIDENT BIDEN'S FEMA RESPONSE WOULD HAVE BEEN TO STAGE PERSONNEL & EQUIPMENT PRIOR TO THE DISASTER!
YOU SHOULD BE OUTRAGED!
Congressional Democrats want investigations "at every level of government of what went wrong" and to "stop the dismantling of federal agencies."
By Stephen Prager • Jul 10, 2025
U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem renewed her call Wednesday to "eliminate" the Federal Emergency Management Agency, calling it "slow to respond" to the deadly floods that have killed more than 120 people in Texas over the past week.
But that "slow" response was the direct result of a policy put in place by Noem herself, according to four FEMA officials who spoke to CNN.
Last month, the network reported on a new policy introduced by Noem that required any contract or grant above $100,000 to cross her desk for approval.
The administration billed the move as a way of "rooting out waste, fraud, [and] abuse." But multiple anonymous officials, including ones from FEMA, warned at the time that it could cause "massive delays" in cases of emergency, especially as hurricane season began to ramp up.
That appears to be what happened in Texas. According to the four officials who spoke to CNN, "FEMA ran into bureaucratic obstacles" as a result of this requirement. Compared to the billions that are typically required to respond to disasters, officials said $100,000 is essentially "pennies."
FEMA officials said they were left to ask for Noem's direct approval on virtually every action they took in response to the catastrophic flood, which created massive delays in deploying Urban Search and Rescue Teams.
The sources told CNN that "in the past, FEMA would have swiftly staged these teams, which are specifically trained for situations including catastrophic floods, closer to a disaster zone in anticipation of urgent requests."
Multiple sources said Noem waited until Monday to authorize the deployment of these search and rescue teams, more than 72 hours after the flooding began. Aerial imagery to aid in the search was also delayed waiting for Noem's approval.
On Wednesday, Noem used these very delays to justify her calls to disband FEMA entirely.
"Federal emergency management should be state and locally led, rather than how it has operated for decades," she said. "It has been slow to respond at the federal level. It's even been slower to get the resources to Americans in crisis, and that is why this entire agency needs to be eliminated as it exists today, and remade into a responsive agency."
President Donald Trump said last month he is in the process of beginning to "phase out" FEMA and that it would begin to "give out less money" to states and be directed out of the White House.
He first took a hatchet to FEMA back in February using the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which eliminated 2,000 permanent employees, one-third of its total staff.
DOG KILLER Noem has also boasted about using FEMA funds to carry out Trump's mass deportation crusade, including allocating hundreds of millions from the agency to build the so-called "Alligator Alcatraz" immigrant internment camp in Florida, as well as other detention facilities.
Before a House panel last month, former FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell noted that the administration's cuts have made it harder for FEMA to respond in disaster areas.
"It just slows down the entire response and delays the recovery process from starting," Criswell said. "If the state director asks for a resource, then FEMA needs to be able to quickly respond and mobilize that resource to come support whatever that is. They still need the staff that are going in there. And so when you have less people, you're going to have less ability to actually fill those senior roles."
The revelation that Noem's policy may have contributed to the slowdown has only amplified calls by congressional Democrats to investigate how Trump administration cuts to FEMA and other services like the National Weather Service may have contributed to the devastation.
"During disasters, every second matters," said Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas). "Noem must answer for this delay."
Congressman Greg Casar (D-Texas) said this disaster in his home state highlighted the need for federal agencies like FEMA.
"Year after year, Texans face deadlier fires, freezes, and floods." Casar said. "As we continue to support first responders and grieving families after the terrible flooding, we will need investigations at every level of government of what went wrong and what could save lives in future."
"We must stop the dismantling of federal agencies that are supposed to keep us safe from the next disaster," he added.
MARCO RUBIO: DEFENDING GENOCIDE!
One critic said Secretary of State Marco Rubio's "crude effort" to sanction Francesca Albanese "only serves to establish that the U.S. is an international outlaw."
By Brett Wilkins • Jul 9, 2025
Defenders of Palestine and the rule of law on Wednesday condemned Secretary of State Marco Rubio's announcement of sanctions targeting United Nations expert Francesca Albanese, one of the most outspoken critics of Israel's U.S.-backed genocidal war on the Gaza Strip.
In a post on the social media site X, Rubio said he is imposing sanctions on Albanese, the U.N. special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, "for her illegitimate and shameful efforts to prompt International Criminal Court action against U.S. and Israeli officials, companies, and executives."
"Albanese's campaign of political and economic warfare against the United States and Israel will no longer be tolerated," Rubio added. "We will always stand by our partners in their right to self-defense. The United States will continue to take whatever actions we deem necessary to respond to lawfare and protect our sovereignty and that of our allies."
"Mr. Rubio, with this post you have sealed your legacy as an enemy of international law and basic human decency."
Rubio's announcement came a day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—who is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza including murder and forced starvation—met with President Donald Trump and other U.S. officials in Washington, D.C.
Trump and the fugitive Israeli leader reportedly discussed plans for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza and a deal to secure the release of the 22 remaining living hostages believed to be held by Hamas and the bodies of over two dozen others.
The Trump administration previously sanctioned ICC officials including Prosecutor Karim Khan for issuing arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
Albanese has accused Israel of violating the Genocide Convention since early 2024. Last week, she asserted that "Israel is responsible for one of the cruelest genocides in modern history."
"The situation in the occupied Palestinian territory is apocalyptic," she said. "In Gaza, Palestinians continue to endure suffering beyond imagination."
Israel's 642-day assault and siege on Gaza—which is the subject of an ongoing International Court of Justice genocide case—has left more than 209,000 Palestinians dead, maimed, or missing, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, whose figures have been deemed accurate by Israeli military intelligence and peer-reviewed studies, at least two of which concluded the official death toll is likely an undercount.
U.N. experts, jurists, genocide scholars including numerous numerous Jews in Israel and around the world, national leaders, and human rights groups including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Jewish Voice for Peace, and CodePink are among those accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza.
Responding to Rubio's announcement, Amnesty International secretary general Agnès Callamard said on social media that "Francesca Albanese is working tirelessly to document and report on Israel's unlawful occupation, apartheid, and genocide, on the basis of international law."
"Governments around the world and all actors who believe in the rule-based order and international law must do everything in their power to mitigate and block the effect of the sanctions against Francesca Albanese and more generally to protect the work and independence of special rapporteurs," she added.
Medea Benjamin, co-founder of CodePink, highlighted the movement to nominate Albanese for the Nobel Peace Prize, which stands in stark contrast with Netanyahu's dubious nomination of Trump for the award.
U.S. human rights attorney Craig Mokhiber—who in October 2023 resigned from his U.N. post over what he called the world body's inaction in the face of "a genocide unfolding before our eyes"—accused Rubio of "a lawless, vile act."
"Your arrogance will catch up to you," Mokhiber added. "The impunity that you are enjoying now will be gone within a few years, and I am confident that you will be held accountable for your persecution of human rights defenders and for your violations of the human rights of countless people in the U.S. There are millions who will work to ensure it."
Laura Boldrini, a lawmaker from Albanese's native Italy and former U.N. human rights official, said on social media that Rubio's move is "a disgrace that cannot be ignored."
"Albanese's latest report, which lists the companies involved in the illegal annexation policies of the West Bank carried out by the Israeli government, has clearly hit the mark," she added. "It is no longer just a matter of political interests, but also economic ones. And this, for Netanyahu and Trump, is truly too much. Nothing and no one must disturb business: not even the denunciation of a genocide and the illegal occupation of another people's territories."
Arab American Institute founder James J. Zogby contended that Rubio's "crude effort to sanction U.N. human rights champion Francesca Albanese and the International Criminal Court only serves to establish that the U.S. is an international outlaw."
"Israel is violating international law and human rights, and the U.S. is enabling it," he added. "It's a disgrace."
Trita Parsi, co-founder and executive director of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, noted that the Trump administration this week removed al-Qaeda-linked militants who toppled the regime of longtime Syrian President Bashar al-Assad from the U.S. list of foreign terrorist organizations, but is sanctioning a U.N. human rights official.
"Let that sink in," Parsi said.
"Democratic leaders love to talk about unity—until a progressive wins," said one prominent backer.
By Brad Reed • Jul 9, 2025
Supporters of progressive New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani are putting pressure on reluctant centrist Democrats to fall in line and back his candidacy after he scored an upset win in last month's Democratic primary.
Progressive advocacy organization Our Revolution has gathered more than 30,000 signatures in a petition urging the Democratic political establishment to not sabotage Mamdani's candidacy by backing independent candidates such as incumbent Mayor Eric Adams or former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
The organization said Wednesday that it attempted to deliver the petition to the Manhattan offices of Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), who is one of many big-name Democrats in the state who have yet to back Mamdani's general election candidacy, but was denied access to the building by security.
"After multiple calls to both the NYC and D.C. offices, staff refused to accept the petition in person and directed organizers to submit it online—despite the urgent, NYC-specific nature of the issue," Our Revolution claimed.
The event was organized to draw attention to the double standard and disconnect between party leadership and grassroots voters, especially in races where big money interests—some with ties to the Democratic Party machinery and others without—work behind the scenes to push out progressives.
"Democratic leaders love to talk about unity—until a progressive wins," said Joseph Geevarghese, executive director of Our Revolution. "Every cycle, we're told to fall in line for the good of the party. Well, Zohran Mamdani is the nominee—and yet the establishment's silence is deafening. It's time for party leaders to live up to their own standards and stand with Zohran against these billionaire-funded attempts to undo the will of the voters."
The action was first reported by Politico, which also reports that a dozen chapters of progressive organizing group Indivisible are writing letters to Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul to urge them to get behind Mamdani.
"The party should be celebrating and analyzing this win as we prepare for the fight of our political lives in 2026," wrote Indivisible signatories. "At a time when Democrats have struggled to connect with voters and build credibility, supporting and learning from Mr. Mamdani's playbook is paramount."
Additionally, Politico reports that Jasmine Gripper, the co-director of the New York Working Families Party, is also urging the state's Democratic leadership to put aside their reservations and back the party's nominee. Gripper noted that Mamdani has won the endorsements of his fellow New York state assemblymembers from across the political spectrum, which should ease their concerns that his candidacy is out of the mainstream.
"The Mamdani tent is big enough for everyone," Gripper said. "Any leader who is serious about building a base of energized voters and wins would be smart to join us."
A poll released by political consulting firm Slingshot Strategies on Wednesday shows that Mamdani currently leads among voters, although that advantage could shrink should either Adams or Cuomo drop out of the race to endorse the other's candidacy.
Overall, the poll showed Mamdani scoring 35% of the vote, compared to 25% for Cuomo, 14% for Republican Curtis Sliwa, and just 11% for Adams. Mamdani also held the highest net favorability of the major candidates at +4 percentage points, whereas Cuomo was underwater by 2 percentage points and Adams had a net favorability of -34 percentage points.
"This bill isn't governance," said United Auto Workers president Shawn Fain. "This is a class war waged from Capitol Hill."
By Jake Johnson • Jul 9, 2025
After Republicans pushed their unpopular reconciliation package through Congress last week, U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson hailed the legislation as a step toward "a future where working Americans can feel relief."
But Shawn Fain, the president of the United Auto Workers (UAW), argued in an op-ed Tuesday for The Detroit News that such "hollow promises" are an attempt to obscure "a brutal agenda: stripping working-class people of security, dignity, and power while lining the pockets of billionaires" with trillions of dollars in tax breaks.
"The budget reconciliation bill that the Republicans just passed isn't just bad policy—it's a full-blown attack on America's working class," wrote Fain. "For the UAW and the millions of workers we represent, four core issues define what it means to live and work with dignity: a livable wage, affordable healthcare, retirement security, and time to enjoy life beyond the job. On every one of those fronts, this bill delivers nothing but setbacks."
Fain pointed specifically to the GOP law's more than $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid. Those cuts, combined with Republicans' refusal to extend Affordable Care Act subsidies that are set to lapse at the end of the year, are expected to strip health coverage from around 17 million Americans over the next decade, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
The UAW president also points to the Republican law's lesser-known attack on Medicare recipients. The legislation, which President Donald Trump signed into law late last week, would restrict enrollment in Medicare Savings Programs—potentially causing more than a million low-income seniors to lose access—and force more than $500 billion in automatic cuts to Medicare.
"These aren't numbers on a spreadsheet," Fain wrote. "These are real people losing access to lifesaving care."
"By passing this legislation, the government is telling working-class families they're on their own while billionaires get even more tax breaks."
While the Trump White House and congressional Republicans have tried to cast the budget law's tax provisions as worker-friendly—in some cases by outright lying about what's in the legislation—Fain noted that the law's limited deductions for tips and overtime will only benefit a small sliver of Americans, and only until 2028.
"On the other hand, many of the tax benefits in this bill for the wealthy are indefinite and have no expiration date," Fain wrote. "This is the same bait-and-switch the Trump administration used to sell its 2017 billionaire tax giveaway to the American people: small, temporary tax breaks for working people, with massive, long-term benefits for the wealthy and corporate America."
"This bill isn't governance. This is a class war waged from Capitol Hill," Fain continued. "It shifts the balance of power even further toward the billionaire class and hollows out the rights and dignity of labor. By passing this legislation, the government is telling working-class families they're on their own while billionaires get even more tax breaks."
"It's a total betrayal," he added.
Fain is among many prominent labor leaders who spoke out forcefully against the Republican budget measure and warned about its potentially catastrophic impact on millions of workers.
National Nurses United, the nation's largest nurses union, called the day of the bill's final passage one of "the darkest days in the history of U.S. healthcare."
"People will suffer and die because of the cuts in this legislation to fund tax cuts for billionaires—certainly in the short term and potentially for decades to come if nothing is done," the union said. "Lawmakers have effectively signed the death warrants for millions."
Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CIO, said that "every member of Congress who voted for this devastating bill picked the pockets of working people to hand billionaires a $5 trillion gift."
"But if the politicians who rammed through this shameful bill think they can sneak away without anyone knowing the damage they've done and the chaos they've created," said Shuler, "they don't know anything about the labor movement."
The nominees "took an oath to 'support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic,'" said retired Maj. Gen. Dennis Laich. "Through their actions, or inaction, they are violating that oath."
By Jessica Corbett • Jul 9, 2025
A network of former intelligence, military, and national security officials on Tuesday launched the Profiles in Cowardice Award and urged the public to vote for nominees who are "silent in the face of the country's descent into fascism," a march led by U.S. President Donald Trump.
"We are in a constitutional crisis," says the Eisenhower Media Network's (EMN) website for the award. "Trump is amassing power in the executive branch, ignoring Congress and the courts. Meanwhile, leaders who have sworn an oath to support and defend the Constitution are sitting on their hands."
The new honor is the inverse of the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award, created by the late president's family "to recognize and celebrate the quality of political courage that he admired most." This year's recipient is Trump's former vice president, Mike Pence, "for putting his life and career on the line to ensure the constitutional transfer of presidential power on January 6, 2021," when Trump incited an insurrection and his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol.
"We, the American people, are here to remind them of who they serve, and that it's time to do their constitutional duty by standing up to this administration and its authoritarian bent."
Nominees for the inaugural Profiles in Cowardice Award are former President George W. Bush, former Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), retired Gens. David Petraeus and Mark Milley, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Republican members of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
"The 'Profiles in Cowardice' Award was created to call out those weak souls who are failing to engage in efforts to keep our country from sleepwalking into fascism," said EMN's director, retired Maj. Gen. (ret.) Dennis Laich, in a statement.
"These leaders, both past and present, took an oath to 'support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic,'" he noted. "Through their actions, or inaction, they are violating that oath. We, the American people, are here to remind them of who they serve, and that it's time to do their constitutional duty by standing up to this administration and its authoritarian bent."
The public can vote at ProfilesInCowardice.org until August 1, after which the award will be presented to the winner "at the most inconvenient time possible," according to the website.
The site lays out why people were nominated as "cowards." For example, "Bush has a long and storied history of cowardice" and "is solidifying his legacy" by retreating rather than serving as a leader in the Republican Party and standing up to Trump.
In Congress, "Mace is a one-woman culture war content machine—exactly how the military-industrial complex and mainstream media like it," the site continues. Reed, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, "has chosen to push through Trump's agenda of unfettered militarism and confirm unqualified MAGA loyalists like Pete Hegseth," the defense secretary. Republicans on that committee also "rubber-stamped Pete Hegseth to cater to Trump and his blindly loyal MAGA cronies."
Among former military leaders, the site says, "Milley attempted to make a principled stand after the January 6th insurrection—but cowardice won out in the end," and Petraeus said at a conference that "the world was in for 'exciting times' under Trump."
"The Joint Chiefs of Staff are tasked with defending the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic," the site notes. "But as reckless U.S. military actions push the world closer to nuclear catastrophe, they've chosen silence over service. No resignations. No public warnings."
As for Blinken, who served under former President Joe Biden, "he ignored a flood of real-time reports detailing Israeli human rights violations—and now we know his public claims of 'working overtime' on cease-fires were outright lies," the site adds. "With American diplomacy in free fall, Blinken chose complicity and cover stories over truth and action."
Christian Sorenson, EMN's associate director, said that "it takes courage to do the right thing... It takes even more courage to do the right thing when the system itself fosters militarism and war profiteering."
"Targeting 'leaders' in the nation's capital, Profiles in Cowardice highlights the craven and the pushovers, as well as those who eagerly abet authoritarianism and nonstop war for personal and professional gain," Sorenson added. "Virtue and public service will arrive in D.C. one way or another. Profiles in Cowardice is part of that broader effort."
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