From The Hill
President Trump’s second attempt to restrict birthright citizenship tees up another legal battle over the meaning of the 14th Amendment. The administration designed Trump’s new orders more narrowly in hopes of withstanding legal scrutiny, but the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Democratic-led states are already signaling they’ll bring them to the courts. Here’s what to…
From The Hill
The push to charge former COVID czar Anthony Fauci with contempt of Congress is full of pitfalls for prosecutors, should the Justice Department choose to take up the case. The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee approved the criminal referral Thursday, arguing that Fauci’s assertion of his Fifth Amendment rights 111 times during a…
Jason Isbell’s “Something to Love” is the song of summers past and summers to come.
From The New Yorker
The début novelist behind “Yesteryear” on researching trad wives, wading into the discourse, and Anne Hathaway’s plans to adapt her best-seller for the screen.
From The New Yorker
“This is the last of the prosecutions seeking to hold accountable those responsible for the events of January 6. That book is now closed,” U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta wrote in his opinion last week as he “reluctantly” dismissed charges in the last eight criminal cases against Jan. 6 rioters.
They, along with six others, were the only Capitol rioters or conspirators not fully pardoned by President Donald Trump on the day he retook office. (On that day, Trump commuted their sentences instead.)
Because Trump’s Justice Department filed a motion to dismiss the cases against Stewart Rhodes and his fellow Oath Keepers, Mehta had to oblige. But not before he wrote: “Today’s epilogue diminishes the gravity of that day, denigrates the work of the prosecutors and law enforcement officers who secured these convictions, and excuses criminal acts that caused a centuries-long pillar of our democracy — the peaceful transfer of presidential power — to buckle.”
It’s a remarkable and tragic conclusion. The final chapter of Trump’s Big Lie began with his victory in 2024, and this dismissal almost certainly marks its culmination: The anti-democracy thugs won, decisively.
The system barely held on Jan. 6, but it hasn’t held since. And the next time MAGA Republicans lose a national election, they’re in a much better position to successfully pull off the coup that only narrowly failed.
Since Trump issued his mass clemency, at least 97 of the roughly 1,500 pardoned rioters (about 1 in 16) have been arrested, prosecuted or convicted for other crimes, according to a June 2026 Lawfare study. At least 14 of those “have been charged with sex crimes or crimes related to child sexual abuse material (CSAM), and at least six have faced domestic violence charges,” Lawfare’s Katherine Pompilio noted.
The MAGA mob that chanted “Hang Mike Pence” and “Where’s Nancy?” was, for a brief moment, almost universally reviled, even by many Republicans. So despicable was the rioters’ brutally violent rampage that MAGA created conspiracy theories claiming they were antifa supersoldier crisis actors. But soon enough, Trump’s supporters simply embraced the people he called “beautiful,” because MAGA is a cult of personality and believes whatever Trump tells it to believe.
It’s often said by those who’d excuse or downplay Jan. 6 that “the system held,” but far too many people look at the assault as little more than a populist riot that got out of hand. Rather, Jan. 6 was merely the loudest day of Trump’s monthslong self-coup attempt after losing a free and fair election.
The Senate had the chance to hold Trump accountable and prevent what should have been an unthinkable political comeback for an unabashed demagogic criminal. But the “World’s Greatest Deliberative Body” — that ultimate of powerful institutions — did not convict him at his second impeachment, weeks after he left office in 2021. Then-Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell gave a bravura speech putting the entire blame for Jan. 6 on Trump and eviscerating his self-coup attempt, which he said would put American democracy into a “death spiral.” Yet McConnell — who could have easily whipped the nine additional votes needed to convict — voted to acquit, saying the courts would handle Trump. Over the next four years, both federal and state court systems failed to hold Trump accountable.
The system barely held on Jan. 6, but it hasn’t held since. And the next time MAGA Republicans lose a national election, they’re in a much better position to successfully pull off the coup that only narrowly failed.
Think about institutions that held the line on Jan. 6: the vice presidency, the DOJ, the FBI, Congress. They’re all now under the direct authority of election-denying Trump loyalists.
And you can add to those ranks a growing number of Big Lie boosters who now have authority over state and local elections. The New York Times, citing an analysis of data from the Voting Rights Lab, reported last week that nearly 100 election deniers across the country “oversee or help administer elections in counties across the nation where competitive House and Senate races will determine control of Congress.” The Times reported that these people “have either publicly espoused false conspiracy theories that Mr. Trump won the 2020 election or that American elections are rife with fraud, or taken direct action to support those theories.”
On Jan. 5, 2021, America was still a place with a hundred-years-old tradition of peacefully transferring power. But a rage-addicted narcissist — trained by his mentor Roy Cohn to “never admit guilt” and “just deny everything and fight” — ended that tradition because he couldn’t accept being rejected by Americans.
It was a terrible systemic failure that Trump wasn’t convicted at his second impeachment. Just as consequential is the fact that his trials for election tampering in Georgia and in federal court — as well as for allegedly hoarding documents, some classified — never concluded. With the last Jan. 6 cases now swept into the dustbin of history — and belief in Trump’s Big Lie now codified as a MAGA professional prerequisite — it’s hard to argue that America’s institutions truly held the line. It’s even harder to believe they will the next time.
The post Jan. 6 officially ended with this judge’s dismissal — proving the system did not hold appeared first on MS NOW.
From MS Now.
Amid this week’s headlines about flatlining jobs numbers, confirmation votes and the Strait of Hormuz, conservatives on social media (including the vice president of the United States) sniped at each other over an entirely different topic: the humble burrito.
The ongoing imbroglio is part of a broader question for conservatives: A year and a half into Trump’s second term, what should they tell voters increasingly unhappy about rising inflation and sluggish job growth? For many Republicans, including the president, the answer is “Stuff it.”
At least some Republicans and conservatives are admitting the price of food is higher than many Americans can comfortably digest.
Earlier this week, a spokesperson for Turning Point USA, the conservative advocacy organization focusing on younger Americans, raised the issue of inflation in a way any college student — or, really, anyone — could understand: the price of Mexican food. “One of our TPUSA college students gave me his take on affordability: ‘A burrito shouldn’t cost $20,’ TPUSA spokesman Andrew Kolvet tweeted. “It just feels like basic things cost too much.”
The problem is not inflation or affordability, responded a number of conservatives. It’s lazy — and young — Americans, who are refusing to cook or take responsibility for their own finances. “Stop whining, get a job, eat Ramen like the rest of us did in college,” tweeted Rep. Dan Crenshaw. Commentator Ben Shapiro, seemingly under the impression the student was looking for a handout, wrote, “We have enough problems as a country without insane expectations that the government is going to provide us with gourmet-quality burritos.”
Washington Post columnist Marc Thiessen echoed Crenshaw’s dietary advice: “When I graduated I lived on ramen noodles, had two roommates, and worked two jobs. I didn’t whine about affordability, I worked hard so I could one day afford a better life.” As if on cue, Fox Business ran a segment decrying Gen Z’s supposed proclivity for spending on “little treats.”
This is unlikely to be a palatable message at the ballot box, and at least some Republicans and conservatives are admitting the price of food is higher than many Americans can stomach. “How about young families with kids who are struggling to afford groceries because prices have doubled in 10 years while wages haven’t?” Christine Pushaw, a prominent aide to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, replied to Crenshaw. UnHerd editor Sohrab Ahmari pointed the finger of blame straight at the president. “[T]his is what happens when commentators refuse to be honest about the consequences of their preferred policies — in this case, the inflationary effects caused by President Trump’s war with Iran.” Even Vice President JD Vance chimed in to criticize Thiessen.
Despite the vice president’s comments, the denial is coming straight from the top. Trump has claimed he’s brought down prices “incredibly” and has called the affordability crisis a “con job” and a “hoax.” His Cabinet members and political supporters follow his lead. On Tuesday morning, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC’s Squawk Box that not only is he “sick” of hearing about a “K-shaped economy” — the term for economic gains going disproportionately to the wealthiest people — but it is also untrue. “I can say here definitively, the K-shaped economy is over, and we’re seeing a more of a C economy, where the lower wage earners are finally calling it back.”
There’s little question Trump and his enablers are responsible for the current round of inflation.
Well, we Americans are “sick” of the nation’s economic situation too. Gallup’s regular polling recently found that “Americans remain broadly pessimistic about the economy,” while Glassdoor’s monthly polling revealed that employee confidence is at record lows. The July jobs report, released Friday, showed that Americans are hardly imagining things: The economy shed 23,000 jobs last month, and estimates for May and June were also revised down by 103,000 jobs. The labor force participation rate continues to fall in the face of weak demand for workers. And wage growth continues to trail inflation.
No wonder that, when The New York Times asked the Treasury Department what data Bessent based his assessment on, the newspaper didn’t even receive the courtesy of a response.
In fact, there’s little question Trump and his enablers are responsible for the current round of inflation. It’s not just the ongoing war with Iran. As I pointed out last month, the Trump administration has resisted cracking down on monopolies that dominate markets and raise prices, allowing corporations ranging from airlines to healthcare companies to greedily raise prices and degrade services to juice their own profits.
Meanwhile, the stock market hit a record high this week, and corporate profits are soaring, further strengthening the winners of the K-shaped economy. As the right debated whether people should stuff their own burritos, the Wall Street Journal reported that a $100 hot dog stuffed with caviar sold out at Formula One’s Miami Grand Prix and the Miami Open tennis games. That should give everyone food for thought.
The $20 burrito joins avocado toast and fancy coffee in the long list of spending boogeymen used to wave away complaints about the cost of living. Think of it this way: Americans are begging for financial relief, not financial scolding. Telling those who think the price of burritos is increasingly too much to stuff it is not just politically unappetizing; it’s also offensive and tasteless.
The post A ‘$20 burrito’ debate shows the right’s struggles with Trump’s economy appeared first on MS NOW.
From MS Now.
The 25 states that have sued the Trump administration over its latest effort to impose tariffs on dozens of countries correctly pointed out that the claim that those countries haven’t sufficiently cracked down on goods made with forced labor is the administration’s pretext to reimpose tariffs the Supreme Court struck down.
On top of that, the Trump administration’s claim that tariffs are needed to punish those 59 countries and the European Union, which it says are too permissive of forced labor, is also hypocritical. I write this from Texas, a state that has kept me incarcerated for nearly three decades and is one of the country’s biggest beneficiaries of forced labor.
Texas, a state that has kept me incarcerated for nearly three decades, is one of the country’s biggest beneficiaries of forced labor.
I have seen guards attack a man for his refusal to chop grass. I have seen countless others pepper sprayed for refusing to perform work details. Some of my college classmates were expelled from religious and educational programs for failing to show up for prison-mandated work. On any given day, nearly 2 million people are behind bars in this country. More than half of them, approximately 1.2 million, are held in state or federal prisons, where work is compulsory.
The Constitution’s 13th Amendment, which Congress ratified in 1865, abolished slavery except as punishment for a crime. That exception continues to be exploited by individual states and by corporations. Prison administrators nationwide have legally used incarcerated people for forced labor, both for prison operations and for-profit purposes. More than two years ago, The Associated Press launched a series that traced forced prison labor to the supply chains of some of the country’s most prominent companies.
If President Donald Trump’s attempt to impose tariffs on those other countries were really motivated by an opposition to forced labor, then we would expect him to show concern for people forced into labor in the United States. But there’s no indication that he cares.
In May, a federal judge in neighboring Louisiana agreed with four people incarcerated at the Louisiana State Penitentiary that the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections had acted “with deliberate indifference to the health and safety of incarcerated persons” forced to work that prison’s “farm line,” but the judge said a 5th Circuit ruling that made it harder to prove a case of cruel and unusual punishment meant he couldn’t grant the plaintiffs any relief. Trump would object to that ruling if the idea of forced labor offended him.
Prisons nationwide are using forced labor to grow crops or to manufacture products like furniture and textiles. Angola, as the Louisiana State Penitentiary is more commonly known, used to be a plantation worked by enslaved Africans and their descendants, and as a farm, it is almost entirely self-sustaining. According to a recent statistic, 74% of the incarcerated men at Angola are Black. Men on the prison’s “farm line” earn nothing the first three years. After that point, they can earn 2 to 4 cents an hour.
That’s more than people incarcerated here in Texas get. According to the Prison Policy Initiative, we’re one of five states — Alabama, Arkansas, Florida and Georgia are the others — where incarcerated people forced to work get nothing. Of the states that do pay, according to that group, incarcerated people get 86 cents to $3.45 per day.
Men on the prison’s “farm line” earn nothing the first three years. After that point, they can earn 2 to 4 cents an hour.
In 2019, according to a report from the American Civil Liberties Union and the Global Human Rights Clinic, state prisons in Texas had at least 121,167 incarcerated workers assigned to duties related to agriculture, maintenance, food service, laundry and other unit support details.
That report found that these workers are often forced to perform their mandatory job requirements in substandard and hazardous work conditions. Again, for zero pay.
Those assigned to agribusiness operations harvest some of the same crops — like cotton — that enslaved people once did. They work under an armed guard on horseback, following the “same marching orders as their predecessors,’ the Texas Observer reported.
In 2022 alone, Texas prisons raked in $58 million from sales of industrial products — such as soap and stainless steel tables — produced through forced labor. That sum was completely separate from the reported $51 million in earnings that same year from agriculture.
Incarcerated workers have a long history of inhumane treatment for any type of work stoppage. In 1908, Frank Pinkard received 39 lashes after refusing to continue digging a ditch in Texas. Other incarcerated workers were killed for disobeying work orders, according to historian Robert Perkinson, author of “Texas Tough: The Rise of America’s Prison Empire.”
A freshman’s dorm mattress at Mississippi State University. A Georgia Medicaid patient’s eyeglasses. The goalpost padding at Bauxite High School in Arkansas. The burn ban flag at the Boerne Fire Department in Texas Hill Country.All of them were made by people incarcerated in American prisons.
— The Marshall Project (@themarshallproject.org) 2026-07-10T17:47:09.615Z
Today, incarcerated workers are threatened with all types of punishment for failing to perform job assignments. In multiple states, the punishment is indefinite, long-term placement in solitary confinement, which requires confiscation of all personal property. Privileges like family visitation, telephone calls or the good-time credits needed for release can be stripped away. Commissary, entertainment and recreational access can be suspended.
Incarcerated individuals in Florida are informed in their orientation handbook that they do not have the option to refuse work assignments. Oregon’s Constitution mandates 40-hour work weeks for everyone incarcerated. Refusing to work in Illinois could cost an incarcerated person access to warm food.
Even by Trump’s “do as I say, not as I do” standards, the hypocrisy of him turning a blind eye to the forced labor all around him while declaring a need to make other countries do better is galling.
If tariffs are an appropriate response to countries looking away from forced labor, then other countries would be justified in placing tariffs on us.
The post How Trump’s professed opposition to forced labor sounds to those of us in prison appeared first on MS NOW.
From MS Now.
Shop Vogue’s guide to the best tennis sweaters, dresses, sneakers, and accessories to ace your U.S. Open style.
Source: Vogue
A string of buzzy releases that were rumored to be heading to the Lido now won’t be. Here’s why.
Source: Vogue
Chicago Sky guard DiJonai Carrington is ejected from her side’s defeat by Indiana Fever for committing a hard foul, before taking to social media to post “white privilege”.
Source: BBC.
Meanwhile, Iran has made new demands about the restart of negotiations and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, and the Pentagon is pressing the U.S. defense industry to accelerate production of weapons.
(Image credit: Vahid Salemi)
Source: NPR.
A large-scale operation is in place as authorities prepare to extradite the suspected crime boss.
Source: BBC.
