What many don’t realize is that being poor is often expensive.

That sounds backwards because it is. Common sense suggests that people with the least money should pay the least. Instead, many of the systems that shape modern life often produce the opposite result. The people with the greatest financial stability receive the lowest interest rates, the best financing terms, the strongest rewards programs, and the most flexibility. Meanwhile, people with the least margin often face higher fees, higher borrowing costs, larger deposits, and fewer options.

The result is a phenomenon economists sometimes call the “poverty premium”: the hidden surcharge attached to financial instability.

It appears in places most people rarely notice until they experience it themselves. A family with savings can absorb a surprise car repair. A family without savings may turn to credit cards, payday loans, or delayed payments that trigger additional costs. A homeowner with strong credit secures favorable financing. A renter with damaged credit pays larger deposits and faces more barriers. Someone with cash can buy in bulk and lower their costs over time. Someone living paycheck to paycheck often pays more per unit simply because they cannot afford to purchase larger quantities.

The product is the same.

The price is not.

That distinction matters because poverty is frequently discussed as an income problem when it is also an access problem. Access to affordable banking. Access to credit. Access to transportation. Access to housing. Access to opportunity itself.

When access disappears, costs begin to accumulate.

The Cost of Running Out of Margin

One of the most overlooked concepts in personal finance is margin.

Margin is not wealth. It is breathing room.

It is the ability to absorb a surprise without immediately entering crisis mode. A flat tire becomes an inconvenience instead of a catastrophe. A medical bill becomes stressful instead of financially devastating. A temporary setback remains temporary.

Many of the penalties associated with poverty begin when margin disappears.

A paycheck arrives a day late. A utility bill processes a day early. An account overdrafts by twenty dollars. What started as a small shortage quickly becomes a much larger problem through fees and penalties. The same pattern repeats throughout the economy. Late fees increase balances. Higher balances become debt. Debt affects credit. Credit affects borrowing costs. Borrowing costs affect future opportunities.

The original problem may have lasted a few days.

The consequences can last years.

That is what makes the poverty premium so frustrating. It is not usually one catastrophic event. It is a thousand smaller costs compounding over time.

An Old Problem Wearing Modern Clothes

The poverty premium is not new.

America has a long history of systems that profit from financial vulnerability.

After the Civil War, many sharecroppers found themselves trapped in cycles of debt that became nearly impossible to escape. Company towns created environments where employers controlled not only jobs but housing, stores, and essential services. Redlining restricted access to mortgages and investment opportunities for entire communities, limiting wealth creation across generations.

The details differed.

The pattern remained familiar.

People with fewer options often paid more for access to opportunity.

As financial systems evolved, new versions of the same dynamic emerged. Banking deserts left communities without traditional financial institutions. Payday lenders and check-cashing businesses expanded to fill gaps in service. Credit scoring systems became increasingly influential in determining access to housing, lending, insurance, and even employment opportunities.

Each development had its own rationale.

Collectively, they reinforced a larger reality: financial instability became expensive.

The Business of Risk

Defenders of the current system often point to risk.

Banks price risk.

Insurers price risk.

Landlords price risk.

Lenders price risk.

In many cases, they are correct.

Risk assessment serves legitimate purposes. Financial institutions need ways to evaluate the likelihood that loans will be repaid. Property owners need mechanisms to protect against loss. Insurance companies need methods for determining premiums.

The problem emerges when risk pricing creates outcomes that make recovery more difficult.

A person experiences a layoff, medical emergency, divorce, or family crisis. Their credit deteriorates. Borrowing becomes more expensive. Housing becomes harder to obtain. Insurance costs rise. Deposits increase. Financial flexibility shrinks.

The system sees a higher-risk customer.

The customer experiences a higher cost of living.

And sometimes those higher costs make it harder to recover from the event that created the risk in the first place.

At that point, the system is no longer simply measuring risk.

It is helping create it.

The Everyday Tax on Being Broke

Most Americans do not experience the poverty premium as an abstract economic theory.

They experience it through ordinary life.

A family with extra money buys groceries in bulk and lowers its cost per item. A family without extra cash purchases smaller quantities and pays more.

Someone with savings replaces a failing water heater before major damage occurs. Someone without savings delays repairs until the problem becomes significantly more expensive.

A driver with financial reserves fixes a vehicle immediately. A driver without reserves postpones maintenance, increasing the likelihood of larger repairs and missed work.

The same pattern appears in healthcare. Minor problems become major problems because treatment is delayed. Not because people do not care about their health, but because they lack the margin necessary to address issues early.

The poverty premium often works through timing.

The people with the least ability to absorb surprises face the greatest consequences when surprises occur.

Opportunity Versus Profit

One of the most important questions raised by the poverty premium is whether our systems are designed primarily to create opportunity or to maximize revenue.

Those goals are not always aligned.

A payday lender can be profitable without creating long-term opportunity.

An overdraft fee can generate revenue without helping a customer recover.

A rent-to-own agreement can be profitable while simultaneously making wealth-building more difficult.

Profit and value are not identical concepts.

That distinction matters because most Americans are not asking for guaranteed success. They are not asking for guaranteed wealth, guaranteed homes, or guaranteed outcomes.

They are asking for a fair shot.

They are asking for systems that make recovery possible rather than systems that profit from setbacks.

The Goal Is Not Comfort

Conversations about poverty often become trapped between two extremes.

One side argues that personal responsibility is the only factor that matters. The other sometimes acts as though individual choices matter very little.

Reality is more complicated.

Personal responsibility matters.

Work ethic matters.

Discipline matters.

Good decisions matter.

But systems matter too.

The question is not whether people should be responsible for their choices. The question is whether a system should make recovery harder than failure.

Too often, the answer appears to be yes.

That is where reform becomes important. Expanding access to affordable banking, improving housing affordability, supporting safer lending alternatives, strengthening consumer protections, and creating realistic paths to financial recovery are not acts of charity.

They are investments in opportunity.

Stop Making Poverty More Expensive

The most important lesson of the poverty premium is not that life is unfair.

People already know life is unfair.

The lesson is that many of our systems actively amplify that unfairness.

A society committed to opportunity should be asking whether financial hardship needs to carry so many additional penalties. It should be asking why people who are already struggling often face higher costs for the same products, services, and opportunities available to everyone else.

The goal is not to eliminate responsibility.

The goal is not to make poverty comfortable.

The goal is not to guarantee outcomes.

The goal is simpler.

Stop making poverty more expensive.

Because if hard work is supposed to be the pathway to a better life, we should stop charging people extra for trying to climb the ladder.

Opportunity is difficult enough to reach without paying a surcharge for every rung.

https://progressiveindiana.net

SUMMARY:

Broadcasting through a summer storm, Rev. Tony Alexander and Pastor David W. Greene Sr. open with a brief celebration: last week’s advance warning about the planned Northwestway Park takeover worked, and the park had a safe, family-friendly weekend. That good news is immediately paired with a new alert — a social media-organized takeover is now planned for Skateland on Glen Arm Road on the west side. The bulk of the program pivots to a sustained, data-driven indictment of Indiana’s record under decades of Republican supermajority rule, anchored by a Purdue University quality-of-life study ranking Indiana 46th out of 50 states. Both hosts connect the dots from defunded youth programs (PAL Club, OK Program, IMPD Cares) and charter school expansion to the park takeover problem — arguing that cuts to prevention always produce the very public safety crises politicians then use to demand more police. Caller Imhotep phones in from Atlanta, where he is attending FIFA World Cup events with young people, and draws a direct line from Dr. King’s “beloved community” to the anti-DEI funding cuts ravaging nonprofits. Callers Tony and Guy add personal testimony and political framing. The program closes with a direct message to Indiana Democratic candidates: stop playing footsies with Republicans and make them own Indiana’s dismal rankings on foreclosures, education, and quality of life heading into November.

WHAT’S INSIDE

00:00:00 Station ID and program open

- Pastor Greene offers opening prayer, asking specifically for the safety of those affected by the storm.

00:03:04 Northwestway Park success -- and the next takeover threat

- Rev. Alexander reports that last week’s on-air warning about the planned Northwestway Park takeover had its intended effect: the park had a safe, family-friendly weekend with no incident.

- A new social media-organized “takeover” is now planned for this Saturday at Skateland on Glen Arm Road on the west side of Indianapolis.

- Both hosts repeat the message: young people are welcome to come enjoy themselves, but the community will not allow a repeat of the chaos pattern.

- Pastor Greene notes that parents may assume the skating rink is safe and need to be warned; takeover events attract people from across the city, and it only takes one encounter to escalate.

00:07:02 Gerrelian Ragland and Pain to Progress -- community filling the gap

- Rev. Alexander directly addresses Gerrelian in the Facebook chat, calling on the community to keep the environment safe.

- Pastor Greene highlights Gerrelian’s youth program Pain to Progress, along with Anthony Hampton’s south-side sports programming, as examples of community members filling the void left by defunded city programs.

- Programs that have been cut or defunded: PAL Club, the OK Program (targeting African American males), IMPD Cares. These are now being replaced piecemeal by community volunteers with no stable funding.

- Pastor Greene’s call to city-county councilors: fund programs like Pain to Progress directly. A pizza party costs money. Poverty is real. Prevention is cheaper than reaction.

00:08:42 The PAL Club, the OK Program, and what was lost

- Pastor Greene details the value of programs like the PAL Club: they gave young people non-threatening contact with police officers, building relationships before any arrest or crisis interaction.

- The OK Program specifically targeted African American males and operated alongside IMPD Cares. Both are gone.

- Pastor Greene: people today say “I’m a product of the PAL Club -- it saved my life.” The concept works. It will come back eventually, possibly under a different name like Pain to Progress, but it needs real funding to operate at scale.

- Rev. Alexander adds: cuts aren’t limited to PAL Club -- DEI rollbacks and anti-poverty program eliminations are sweeping away the CYO, charter schools lack extracurricular activities, and the entire ecosystem of youth development is being stripped at the federal, state, and local levels simultaneously.

00:15:10 Prevention vs. incarceration -- the false economy of cuts

- Pastor Greene: cutting youth programs while expecting public safety is a contradiction. What are 13-, 14-, 15-, 16-year-olds doing this summer if not at home twiddling their thumbs?

- You can’t police your way out of it -- IMPD doesn’t have enough officers to cover every corner, every garage, every park, every event.

- Tourism, downtown sporting events, the city’s reputation -- all of it is at risk if you keep cutting prevention and then express surprise when something goes wrong.

- Denise in the Facebook chat: it’s a vicious cycle -- F-grade schools get defunded, which feeds the street pipeline, which produces the public safety crisis that gets blamed on parents.

00:19:34 Break toss and framing the second segment

- Rev. Alexander previews the second segment: connecting the dots between what’s happening at the federal level and what Republicans have done in Indiana specifically.

- Imhotep is first in the call queue when they return.

00:21:23 Caller Imhotep -- FIFA in Atlanta, King’s beloved community, and the $300 billion question

- Imhotep calls from Atlanta, where he has brought young people to attend FIFA World Cup events; notes heavy DEA and ATF security presence has kept things in order, with only a minor crowd incident at State Farm Arena involving local streamer Tysonette.

- Connects the show’s discussion to the Georgia governor’s race: Keisha Lance Bottoms is running on free textbooks, free junior college, free first two years of four-year college, and mandatory job training for released prisoners; the Republican candidate offers none of that.

- Visited the King Center the previous day with the young people he brought; shed a tear reading Dr. King’s vision of the beloved community -- which he argues is exactly antithetical to anti-DEI funding cuts, school defunding, and nonprofit slashing.

- Closes with the $300 billion figure: federal money is going to reparations for Trump’s war on Iran, while that same amount could fund all American college students, all trade schools, and five years of health care.

00:25:34 Post-Imhotep -- Connecting federal cuts to Indiana’s Republican record

- Rev. Alexander: Imhotep’s point is federal, but it’s happening right here in Indiana too -- and with the Republican State Delegate Convention coming up this weekend, this is the moment to make the connection explicit.

- Rev. Alexander names the data: Indiana is #1 in foreclosures (worst in the country), 45th in education, leads in Black unemployment, and ranked 46th in quality of life by a Purdue University study from June 2025.

- This happened under a Republican supermajority -- through Daniels, Holcomb, Braun, and Pence -- and Indiana Democratic candidates need to be saying that clearly, not playing footsies with Republicans.

00:30:52 Pastor Greene -- Make them own it; Behning and the education numbers

- Pastor Greene: you can’t have different facts. Purdue’s numbers are what they are. Representative Bob Behning has chaired the House Education Committee while Indiana’s education ranking has fallen -- make him own it.

- The Republican majority passed the policies that produced these results. No Democratic candidate can credibly be blamed for Indiana’s foreclosure crisis or its education standing -- Democrats haven’t had the votes.

- Indiana Republicans won’t break with Trump because he’ll primary them. There’s no backbone in the current Congress. Democrats must be bold enough to stand on the facts and make Republicans answer for them.

00:36:32 The Republican State Delegate Convention preview

- Rev. Alexander: the Republican delegation meets this week. Sen. Jim Banks has already signaled who he’s backing for Secretary of State -- someone most Hoosiers don’t know -- and Republicans will fall in line regardless.

- That’s the difference: Republicans unify behind whoever their machine picks. Democrats need to learn that discipline for November.

00:37:04 Caller Tony -- Growing up in Gary, the bookmobile, and what’s being lost

- Tony, 62, grew up in Gary in a single-parent household with three sisters. His family relied entirely on publicly funded programs: the bookmobile (a mobile library that parked in his neighborhood), summer programs, and free school lunch.

- Those programs gave him his love of reading and shaped his childhood positively. Hearing that all of it is being cut breaks his heart for his grandchildren’s generation.

- Rev. Alexander: Indiana is 45th in education. IPS has been dismantled over 20 years. Charter schools lack extracurriculars. A new education commission chaired by the Indianapolis mayor is forming while public school funding is being stripped.

00:41:10 Caller Guy -- Follow the money; trickle-down vs. bubble-up

- Guy: it’s simple -- follow the money. Conservatives believe in trickle-down economics (wealth flows down from the top); progressives believe in bubble-up (investment in the masses builds upward).

- The money going to Iran is going to contractors -- and look at who those contractors are connected to. This is the same pattern as the Iraq reconstruction era: war and foreign expenditure enriches the already-connected.

- Investment in people is the best investment. The conservative framework says it believes that too, but the budget doesn’t reflect it.

00:43:19 Closing argument -- Indiana under Republican rule

- Rev. Alexander reframes Guy’s point: every dollar in this federal government flows to Friends of Trump or Family of Trump. Democratic candidates should run on that at every level.

- Indiana is last or near-last in foreclosures, education, quality of life, and Black unemployment. Republicans have been in charge. Connect the dots. Stop being scared. Make them own it.

- Pastor Greene: the Purdue data is not opinion -- it’s fact. Child care, education, health care -- Republicans own the results. Democratic candidates need the guts to say so clearly.

- Rev. Alexander closes: Purdue said Indiana is 46th in quality of life. Republicans have been leading Indiana. The question for November is whether voters want to continue down that road.

- Juneteenth reminder: coming up this weekend. Don’t forget your history.

00:47:57 Station close

https://concernedclergy.org

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https://progressiveindiana.net

Some people celebrate Pride Month. Some people criticize it. Others ask why it still exists at all. Social media fills with familiar questions: Why isn’t there a straight Pride Month? Haven’t we already achieved equality? Why are we still talking about this?

By now, most of us could probably predict the arguments before they happen.

What strikes me is that these conversations often focus on the wrong question.

The real question isn’t why Pride Month still exists. The real question is whether we’ve forgotten why it started.

Pride Month was never primarily about celebrating being different. At its core, it has always been about remembering why millions of Americans had to fight for the opportunity to be treated the same as everyone else.

That distinction matters because history has a way of fading faster than we think.

For younger Americans, the world can look very different than it did for previous generations. Many grew up in a country where same-sex marriage was legal, where openly LGBTQIA+ public figures were commonplace, and where visibility became part of mainstream culture. That’s not a criticism. It’s evidence that society changes.

But there are people alive today who remember a very different reality.

They remember when being openly gay could cost someone a job. When it could cost housing, damage careers, strain family relationships, or make someone a target for harassment and violence. They remember when entire segments of the population were expected to remain silent about who they were simply to avoid consequences.

That history isn’t buried in a textbook. It isn’t ancient history.

It’s living memory.

Whether you’re conservative, liberal, progressive, moderate, libertarian, or simply exhausted by politics altogether, history matters. When we forget why movements began, we often forget what problems they were trying to solve in the first place.

Now, I know some people reading this don’t agree with every aspect of modern LGBTQIA+ activism. That’s okay. Democracy isn’t supposed to be a loyalty test. People can disagree about organizations, policies, political strategies, or cultural debates. In a healthy society, disagreement is inevitable.

What shouldn’t be controversial is something much simpler.

Every American deserves to live without fear of discrimination, harassment, violence, or being treated as less than human.

That shouldn’t be the ceiling.

That should be the floor.

And honestly, that’s where I approach this issue. Not from a partisan perspective, but from the perspective of basic dignity.

Over the years, I’ve learned that most people want remarkably similar things from life. They want meaningful work. They want people who love them. They want friendship, family, stability, security, and the opportunity to build a life that matters to them.

They’re not nearly as different as politics often suggests.

That’s one reason Pride Month continues to matter. It reminds us that there were people who spent decades fighting for opportunities many Americans take for granted. The ability to hold a partner’s hand in public. To get married. To serve openly. To build a family. To exist honestly without constantly calculating whether being yourself might carry consequences.

Those victories didn’t happen automatically. They happened because people pushed for them.

The word “pride” itself is often misunderstood. Some hear it and think arrogance, celebration, or self-congratulation. Historically, however, pride meant something very different.

It was the opposite of shame.

For generations, LGBTQIA+ Americans were told they should be ashamed of who they were, who they loved, or how they existed in the world. Pride emerged as a response to that message. It was a way of saying that no one should have to hate themselves simply to make other people comfortable.

You don’t have to agree with every modern political debate to understand why that message resonated.

In fact, I would argue the lesson extends far beyond any one community. Nobody should have to apologize for existing.

Nobody.

If you’ve followed Hold ‘em Accountable for any length of time, you know I spend a lot of time talking about accountability. Government should be accountable. Corporations should be accountable. Political parties should be accountable. Activists and media organizations should be accountable.

But accountability only works if we remember something equally important: people are human beings before they are political categories.

That’s one reason our current political climate feels so exhausting. Too often, we’ve replaced curiosity with assumptions and disagreement with suspicion. We have become increasingly comfortable arguing about people instead of talking to them.

Democracy requires something better.

It requires the ability to disagree while still recognizing each other’s humanity.

Pride Month doesn’t require anyone to abandon their faith, change their values, or agree with every political argument taking place in America. At its core, it asks something much simpler. It asks us to recognize that people whose experiences differ from our own are still our neighbors, coworkers, friends, and fellow citizens.

That’s not a radical idea.

That’s citizenship.

It’s also personal.

Most people know me as a retired Marine, a husband, a father, and a guy who spends entirely too much time reading legislation and yelling at spreadsheets. What most people don’t know is that I’m also intersex. It rarely comes up because it isn’t the defining feature of my life. It’s simply one part of who I am.

But it serves as a useful reminder.

Human beings are often far more complicated than the categories we place them in.

Many of the people affected by these conversations don’t look the way others expect them to look. They don’t fit neatly into political stereotypes. They are veterans, teachers, business owners, parents, healthcare workers, neighbors, and friends.

Often, they’re people you’ve known for years without ever realizing it.

That’s another reason visibility matters.

Not because everyone must agree on every issue, but because understanding becomes much harder when entire groups of people remain invisible.

Pride Month isn’t a declaration that America is perfect. It isn’t proof that every debate has been settled. It isn’t an announcement that everyone suddenly agrees.

It’s a reminder.

A reminder that progress often happens because ordinary people decide that exclusion, discrimination, and fear are not acceptable ways to treat their neighbors. A reminder that rights are rarely inevitable. A reminder that freedoms we inherit were often secured through struggles we never personally experienced.

Every generation inherits victories it didn’t have to fight for.

The danger is that inherited victories can start to feel permanent. They can start to feel inevitable. We forget how difficult they were to achieve because we’ve only known the world that came afterward.

That’s why remembering matters.

History matters.

Dignity matters.

Visibility matters.

And perhaps most importantly, humanity matters.

Whether you’re celebrating Pride Month or simply observing it from a distance, it’s worth remembering that every person you encounter is carrying a story you probably know very little about. The more we remember that, the healthier our communities become.

The goal was never perfection.

The goal was always dignity.

That’s why Pride Month still matters.

HoosLeft: https://hoosleft.us

SUMMARY:

In this candid — and at time

s raw — conversation, Scott sits down with Joseph Baughman — Vincennes resident, democratic socialist, Christian, and recently withdrawn Democratic candidate for Indiana Senate District 39 — to examine what happens when a working-class candidate with no institutional support, no donor network, and very little money in the bank tries to run for office in one of Indiana’s most gerrymandered rural Senate districts. Baughman walks through the structural barriers that greet candidates who don’t come from money, the cold shoulder he received from roughly half the county Democratic parties in his six-county district, the advice from a party representative to take lobbyist money and vote however he wanted — an ethical line he couldn’t cross — and why he ultimately stepped aside. The conversation broadens into a wider diagnosis: the Democratic Party’s hollowing-out of its state and local infrastructure since the Obama era, its retreat from rural and religious voters, and how Trumpism filled that vacuum by speaking a language the party abandoned. Baughman closes with a call rooted in his prairie socialist faith: help somebody today.

WHAT’S INSIDE:

00:00:21 Introduction: The DLCC, Senate District 39, and Tonight’s Guest

- The DLCC announced investment in 11 Indiana state house races to break the GOP supermajority, but no comparable effort exists on the Senate side — where districts are even more gerrymandered.

- Republicans spent millions in the Indiana Senate primary alone; Trump-endorsed MAGA candidates ousted seven incumbents who voted against the congressional redistricting gambit, with two others retiring rather than face the primary.

- Eric Bassler’s retirement in SD-39 opened the seat; Jeff Ellington — former state rep, Trump-endorsed — won a three-way primary. Joseph Baughman, a democratic socialist from Vincennes, filed to run against him but has since withdrawn, leaving Democrats scrambling before the July 6th deadline.

00:02:29 Support the Show

- HoosLeft and Progressive Indiana Network don’t paywall content or charge candidates — listener support at progressiveindiana.net ($5/month or $50/year) is what sustains the project.

- Social handles: @hoosleft.us on Bluesky, Instagram, and Threads; @HoosLeft on Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube; PIN is @PINIndiana on Bluesky and TikTok.

00:04:09 Guest Introduction: Joseph Baughman

- Baughman was born in Sullivan, lived in Linton for a time, and recently moved to Vincennes — embedded in SW Indiana for generations, with children and grandchildren staying in the area.

- He describes himself simply as a common man — anybody you’d want to meet.

00:05:14 Why He Ran: Watching the Vulnerable Get Left Behind

- Baughman decided to run because of what he was seeing at both the federal and state level: neighbors being displaced, the homeless and those without healthcare being attacked on a daily basis.

- He concluded that something had to be done and that something required a top-down approach — and since nobody else was stepping up for the open seat, he decided it had to be him.

- He’d been considering a run for a year or two before filing, and when the moment felt right, he committed.

00:07:23 The Campaign Experience: Filing, Barriers, and the Cost of Running

- Senate candidates must file in person at the statehouse — for a Vincennes resident, that’s an all-day trip to Indianapolis, requiring time off work that not everyone can afford.

- Scott identifies this as one of many ways the system filters out a certain class of candidate — those without the financial cushion to absorb the hidden costs of running.

- Scott notes from his own experience running HoosLeft and working full-time that he can’t comprehend how candidates with small children juggle work, family, and a campaign simultaneously — the logistical burden alone is disqualifying for many people who could bring an invaluable perspective to government.

00:09:53 The Self-Selecting Nature of Electoral Politics

- A state legislator’s salary is $33,000 a year for a part-time job running roughly January through March or April — not a livable wage on its own, which means candidates need another income source regardless.

- The people who run for $33,000/year jobs, Baughman observes, are mostly people who already have institutional money, family money, or other financial backing — the system self-selects for the already-comfortable.

- Scott notes the parallel at the congressional level: Jefferson Shreve, approaching billionaire status, can treat a $174,000 congressional salary as an afterthought — the structural incentives push wealth upward through every level of government.

00:13:01 Technical Difficulties Interlude

- Brief audio dropout prompts Scott to reconnect — Joe’s cat also makes an cameo appearance.

00:14:11 Fundraising Reality: $687 Against a $30,000-$50,000 Target

- Baughman ran his entire campaign on $687. The standard guidance for a Senate candidate to be taken seriously is between $30,000 and $50,000 — a gap he had no realistic path to close.

- The Democratic Party provided no financial assistance — a stark contrast, Baughman says, from the party infrastructure he grew up with in the ‘80s and ‘90s, when the state party helped with flyers and basic organizing.

- In a six-county district, he describes the party structure as “six separate heads of a beast” — county parties operating independently with no coordinating role from the district chair to onboard or connect new candidates.

00:17:48 If You’re Not Wealthy, You Have to Know Wealthy People

- Scott frames the catch: if you can’t self-fund $30,000–$50,000, you tap your extended network — but that only works if your network includes people with money.

- Baughman’s network is working people. His neighbors are trying to keep food on the table, not fund campaigns — in a district where 38% of residents are struggling by any income measure, that’s not a personal failure, it’s math.

- Campaign contributions aren’t a basic necessity when people are cancelling subscriptions to keep up with utilities and food.

00:19:06 38% of Hoosiers Struggling: The Donor Class and the Utility Company Problem

- A United Way of Indiana study released that week found 38% of Hoosier households struggling with basic necessities — a statistic that matches what Baughman sees in his own neighborhood: people knocking on his door offering to mow his entire lawn for $10 to put a little extra food on the table for their kids.

- Scott connects the dots: utility companies are among the biggest campaign contributors in Indiana — to Republicans mostly, but Democrats too — and the self-reinforcing cycle of fundraising removes legislators from exactly the constituents they’re supposed to represent.

- Scott argues the distance is structural, not incidental: once in Indianapolis, legislators mingle with elites and lobbyists who schmooze them into policies detrimental to the average working Hoosier — and the fundraising system ensures they arrived already removed from the people they’re supposed to represent.

00:22:13 Eat With Them, Take Their Money: The Advice That Broke the Camel’s Back

- A party representative told Baughman directly: eat with the lobbyists, take their money, laugh with them, and vote however you want.

- Baughman couldn’t reconcile that ethically — and points out the advice applies to citizens too: taking constituent money and voting however you want is the same logic, just with a different donor class.

- This was a significant factor in his decision to withdraw — he couldn’t campaign on integrity while being advised to perform it selectively.

00:24:29 The Beau Bayh Parallel: Donor Class Capture at Every Level

- Scott raises the Beau Bayh Secretary of State race as the statewide parallel: major contributions from school choice advocates and private equity firms with interests before the office, with the establishment defense being that you need money to win and can dine with donors without being beholden.

- Scott argues the data backs it up: the donor class gets their way consistently, and it’s systemic from the statehouse to Congress. Baughman agrees — it’s a systemic issue all the way to the top.

- Baughman says he simply couldn’t do it — and wishes someone had warned him about this dynamic before he filed.

00:26:20 Corporate Democrats, Coronations, and the Socialist Label

- Baughman argues that corporate Democrats are entrenched within the party, and that the Bayh SOS campaign was effectively a coronation — something that burned him and contributed to his decision to run in the first place.

- As an openly declared democratic socialist from day one, Baughman took a double hit: institutional resistance from party structures and personal resistance from lifelong neighbors who couldn’t pull the trigger for a socialist.

- Despite that, he’s proud of the votes he received — and notes the party has shown him more outreach since he withdrew than during his entire campaign.

00:28:08 County Party Cold Shoulders and the 50/50 Split

- About half the county parties in SD-39’s six-county footprint gave Baughman the cold shoulder; three reached out and made suggestions, including one Sullivan chair who has known him his whole life.

- Two county party leaders were genuinely supportive and progressive-minded — people he hopes to call friends. One county was just getting started and couldn’t offer much. One actively shunned him. One never reached out at all.

- The district chair, in Baughman’s view, should have played a coordinating role — giving candidates a contact list, making introductions, helping them navigate the county party structure — and that simply didn’t happen.

00:30:13 Don’t Come Around Here: How Party Gatekeeping Blocks Progressive Candidates

- Scott frames the systemic problem: candidates can’t build contacts in a district if local Democratic parties won’t tell them when meetings are happening or won’t let them speak.

- The ask isn’t money — it’s a neutral platform, a room, an introduction. When that’s withheld, the message is clear: we don’t like what you’re going to say, here’s someone more palatable instead.

- Baughman confirms this pattern directly — one individual in his district wasn’t actively against him but made clear he would not offer vocal support.

00:32:45 Tone It Down: Being Told to Hide the Democratic Socialist Label

- The same party representative who advised him to take lobbyist money also told Baughman he was too far left and needed to move toward the center — specifically because of his $19/hour minimum wage proposal.

- The Economic Policy Institute and MIT’s living wage calculator both support a $19/hour floor for Indiana as a bare minimum — a position Baughman describes as not even enough to really live in the rural areas, let alone urban ones.

- Scott’s frustration: Democrats habitually negotiate from the center, giving away half the farm before they start. The socialist brand may not fly in rural Indiana — but neither does the Democratic brand, so the timidity isn’t buying anything.

00:35:36 Ellington Uncontested and the Scramble for a Replacement Candidate

- With Baughman’s withdrawal, Jeff Ellington is currently uncontested in November. Scott describes him as a Trump-endorsed candidate who owns a horse farm outside Bloomington and is terrible on policy.

- The party had touted leaving no senate seat without a candidate this cycle — Baughman’s departure puts that commitment to the test with a July 6th filing deadline.

- Baughman has signed his withdrawal in front of a notary and sent it in; he expects the party has someone in the wings and says he will fully support whoever takes his spot — he’s not taking his ball and going home.

00:38:23 The Bombshell Candidate Question: Where Were They in January?

- The 8th district chair hinted at having a “bombshell candidate” ready to step in — which raises an obvious question: if they existed, why weren’t they recruited before the filing deadline?

- Baughman says he filed a week before the deadline and explicitly said in public remarks that he hoped someone else would step up so he didn’t have to.

- The episode illustrates a broader failure of candidate recruitment infrastructure: waiting until a vacancy is created rather than building a pipeline.

00:40:44 Indiana Rural Summit: The One Institution That Actually Helped

- Both Scott and Baughman praise Indiana Rural Summit — led by Michelle Higgs — as the one organization that provided meaningful, practical support to rural candidates.

- Getting connected to Indiana Rural Summit made a significant difference for Baughman, coming from a starting point of essentially nothing in terms of campaign infrastructure or guidance.

- The contrast with the formal party apparatus is stark: a nonprofit did more for candidate development than the official party structure.

00:42:03 Faith and Socialism: How They Inform Each Other

- Baughman’s faith and his socialism are inseparable — each informs the other. His faith says help the migrant, the widow, the poor; lift up your fellow man. Socialism says the same: no man is better than any other, every man’s worth is due.

- He’s not a Marxist — the red scare imagery of armies marching through Moscow is not what he is. He’s a Midwest prairie socialist in the tradition of Eugene Debs, Dorothy Day, and the Catholic Worker Movement.

- The message was hard to communicate in rural SW Indiana, where the word “socialist” carries a reflexive Cold War connotation that bears no resemblance to the tradition he’s actually drawing from.

00:44:13 Eugene Debs, Dorothy Day, and Midwest Prairie Socialism

- Baughman situates himself explicitly in the Debs tradition — Indiana’s own — and in the Catholic Worker Movement’s model of direct service and structural critique combined.

- This is not a cosmopolitan or academic socialism; it is rooted in the rural Midwest’s own history of labor organizing and social gospel Christianity.

- The challenge is that this tradition has been buried under decades of Cold War framing that the right still deploys effectively.

00:45:52 Christian Nationalism vs. the Gospels: What Jesus Actually Said

- Scott asks how Micah Beckwith and Christian nationalists arrive at their theology from a Gospel that is explicitly about caring for the least of these and the difficulty of the wealthy entering heaven.

- Baughman’s answer: it’s not Christianity. It’s the same nationalism that fascists taught in the 1930s — the idea that the greatest will win — which is the complete antithesis of anything Christ taught. In every sermon, the least of these are the greatest.

- Scott: Christian nationalists don’t quote the Gospels. They quote Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, and Revelation — they read the beginning, got bored, and skipped to the end.

00:47:44 Christianity as Brand Identity: The Bias Feedback Loop

- Baughman spent about 20 years ago as a lay minister in the United Methodist Church, working in ecumenical circles — which gave him insight into how many Christians have never actually read the Bible and rely entirely on what they’re told on Sunday.

- When the person delivering that message has bad intentions, the message has bad intentions — and the bias feedback loop means the more people hear it and believe it, the more it hardens. Stepping out of it destroys their reality.

- Scott’s formulation: for a lot of American Christians, Christianity has become a brand identity — something you call yourself, not something you do. Certainly not living the way Jesus described.

00:49:08 Is There a Place for Rural Christian Socialists in Indiana?

- Scott — a secular Democrat — argues the party has largely retreated from religious language at exactly the wrong time, ceding that ground to the right entirely.

- He names politicians who speak Christian fluently and effectively: Senator Warnock, Pete Buttigieg, James Talarico, Andy Beshear — none of them socialists, but all of them demonstrating that the Social Gospel is available to the left as a genuine political language.

- Baughman agrees the party has no coherent rural messaging strategy and is allowing someone else to co-opt messaging to a constituency they should easily hold. The Democratic Party was the working man’s party — and stopped acting like it.

00:51:49 How Democrats Lost the Rural Working Class — and Who Picked It Up

- Scott asks whether the Obama backlash and racism explain the rural shift — Baughman pushes back: Indiana went for Obama, and there was genuine excitement for him even in rural areas.

- Baughman’s diagnosis: somewhere along the line, both parties stopped talking to the working class and stopped speaking their language. The Republican Party and Trumpism picked up that mantle and captivated those voters by speaking it — however cynically.

- It wasn’t Obama personally. It was a longer drift by both parties away from working-class economic language, and the right filled the vacuum.

00:53:30 Bottom Up: The IndyStar Piece and the Hollowing of the Party

- An IndyStar piece arguing that winning at the top of the ticket lifts the rest of the party prompts Scott’s counter: it has to be bottom up, and Democrats lost that plot during the Obama era by focusing on the presidential race and letting the state and local apparatus hollow out.

- Baughman agrees — the lack of state-level infrastructure genuinely surprised him. He does credit Teresa Kendall as someone who gets it and operates bottom-up, pounding the pavement the way it should be done.

- The party needs to listen to more people like her.

00:55:04 What’s Next for Joseph Baughman

- Baughman isn’t done serving his community — he’s assessing where the need is greatest right now.

- He mentions the possibility of working with Saint Francis Xavier Parish in Vincennes to get neighbors the direct help they’re coming to his door to ask for.

- His closing statement, offered simply: help somebody today.

00:56:32 Outro

On this week’s edition of HoosLeft This Week, Scott Aaron Rogers is joined by Democratic State House District 81 candidate Sharon Wight and political commentator Reece Axel Adams for a two-hour tour through another week that rewrote itself daily. The panel opens on Iran — where a peace deal keeps being announced and immediately contradicted by new airstrikes, with Netanyahu’s government making clear it has no intention of being bound by any US-Iran agreement — before turning to the economy, where inflation hit a three-year high and Trump responded by saying “I love the inflation,” even as 38% of Hoosier households can’t afford basic necessities and Elon Musk became the world’s first trillionaire on the back of a wildly overvalued SpaceX IPO that will soon land in millions of Americans’ 401(k)s. The show then covers Musk’s role in stoking anti-immigrant riots in Northern Ireland, the administration’s exclusive six-month streak of admitting only white South African refugees, and the House’s $70 billion blank check to ICE — before pivoting to the intersection of politics and sports: a World Cup already disrupted by Trump’s travel ban and a UFC fight staged on the White House South Lawn to celebrate Trump’s 80th birthday. From there, the show addresses Trump pulling Bill Pulte’s DNI nomination in favor of Jay Clayton; Bill Gates’ House Oversight testimony on his Epstein relationship and the Haberman/Swan book detailing Situation Room panic over the files; Indiana’s school funding crisis, the IU Indianapolis lecturer fired for showing a white supremacy pyramid, and the state’s $8-billion-plus data center tax giveaway, with Madison County’s moratorium vote as a rare counter-example; Indiana’s proposed primary closure and the voter registration purge of naturalized citizens; primary results from Nevada, North Dakota, South Carolina, Maine (Graham Platner’s win), and updates from California (Nithya Raman comes from behind in LA and Becerra to face Hilton). We finish with a look at media consolidation, capitlal punishment, and climate — including the Alabama nitrogen gas death penalty case, Minnesota assassin Vance Boelter’s guilty plea , Indiana’s secret execution policy, another Hoosier tornado outbreak, Lake Mead drying up, and alarming new research on the collapse of an important ocean current.

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

00:00:33 — Intro: Welcome, Housekeeping & Guest Introductions

00:05:37 — Iran “Deal” Watch: Escalation, Kharg Island Threats, and Charlie Brown’s Football

00:15:50 — Economy: Inflation at a 3-Year High, Hoosier Farm Losses, and Musk’s Trillion-Dollar Bubble

00:28:01 — Musk, Belfast Riots, White Afrikaner Refugees, and the $70 Billion ICE Blank Check

00:39:50 — World Cup, Trump’s UFC Birthday Party, Bread & Circuses

00:46:35 — Bill Pulte Out, Jay Clayton In: The DNI Nomination Shuffle

00:52:22 — Epstein: Bill Gates Testifies, the Haberman/Swan Book, and Lesley Groff

01:01:35 — Indiana Schools: IPS Referendum, IU East Charter School, and the Pyramid of White Supremacy

01:10:10 — Data Centers: Indiana’s $8 Billion Giveaway, DC Blox, Eagle Creek, and Madison County’s Moratorium

01:19:27 — Indiana Elections: Closed Primaries, Voter Registration Purges, and Diego Morales

01:25:38 — Tuesday Primaries: Nevada, North Dakota, South Carolina, Maine, and California Results

01:37:31 — Media: Trump Storms Off Meet the Press, and the Paramount/Warner Bros. Merger

01:44:02 — Capital Punishment: Alabama Nitrogen Gas Ruling, Vance Boelter’s Plea, and Indiana’s Secret Executions

01:50:41 — Climate: Indiana’s 30 Tornadoes, Lake Mead Crisis, and the AMOC Cold Blob

01:57:42 — Outro: Guest Plugs and Sign-Off

IN DEPTH:

Iran War

• Sun: Iran fires missiles at Israel after Beirut attack ‘crossed all red lines’ (Al Jazeera)

  • Iran launched a ballistic missile barrage at Israel Sunday night, targeting the Ramat David airbase, after Israel struck Beirut’s southern suburbs killing at least two civilians — the IRGC called it “a warning” and threatened broader attacks on “all American-Zionist targets” if strikes continue.

  • Israel’s military said it intercepted all missiles; Trump immediately called Netanyahu to tell him not to retaliate, saying “each of them had their fun” and warning that a counter-strike would blow up the Iran peace deal he says is nearly done.

  • A senior US official told Israeli media “we’re not in this” regarding any new escalation — a significant signal that US backing for Israeli military action has limits.

  • Iran’s top negotiator threatened to halt peace talks entirely and move to “direct confrontation” if ceasefire violations continue — putting the US-Iran deal in serious jeopardy over Israeli actions the US cannot fully control.

• Mon: Israel and Iran step back from renewed conflict after Trump calls for halt (Guardian)

  • Israel and Iran stepped back from full escalation Monday after Trump demanded they stop — but Netanyahu vowed to respond “with force” to any future attack, and Israel struck Iranian petrochemical and air defense sites across multiple cities.

  • Trump warned Netanyahu: “Bibi, you better be careful, or you will be on your own very soon.”

  • The Houthis fired missiles at Israel and threatened to block Red Sea shipping — potentially closing both major oil chokepoints simultaneously.

  • Oil spiked 5% on the exchange before easing; Iran’s demands remain unchanged: Lebanon ceasefire, frozen assets, Hormuz management, delayed nuclear talks.

  • One analyst’s read on Israel’s escalation: Netanyahu sent Washington a message that no Iran deal flies if it ignores Israeli interests — Israel can always “overturn the table.”

• Tue: US and Iran launch airstrikes after Trump blames Tehran for downing Army helicopter (AP)

  • An Army Apache helicopter went down near the Strait of Hormuz after colliding with an Iranian drone — both crew members were rescued uninjured in what the military says is the first-ever drone boat rescue at sea.

  • Trump blamed Iran and launched airstrikes on air defense, radar, and ground control sites; Iran retaliated with attacks on Bahrain, Kuwait, and reportedly Jordan, further shredding the April ceasefire.

  • Whether the collision was intentional or accidental remains under investigation — Iran called it a hazard of operating near their territory and told US forces to “leave our region if you want to be safe.”

  • This escalation comes one day after Israel and Iran exchanged fire for the first time since the ceasefire, and as peace talks remain deadlocked over Iran’s refusal to surrender its enriched uranium and the US refusal to unfreeze assets pre-deal.

• Wed: US launches new strikes on Iran, which fires back at Gulf states (AP)

  • The US launched a second round of airstrikes on Iran overnight — the third exchange of fire this week — hitting surveillance, communications, and air defense sites across Tehran, Bandar Abbas, and southern Iran; Iran responded with strikes on Bahrain, Kuwait, and Jordan.

  • Trump revealed a “secret mission” to sneak oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz at night, aided by destruction of Iranian radar — claiming over 100 million barrels have slipped through, though the military gave no confirmation of the figure.

  • The US also disabled an eighth merchant vessel, the M/T Settebello, firing into its engine room as it attempted to breach the blockade — India says three of its sailors are missing.

  • Oil hit $93 a barrel, up more than 25% since the war began; Iran’s UN envoy told the Security Council the country “has never negotiated under threats and will never submit to pressure.”

  • A Qatari delegation arrived in Tehran for mediation talks even as the strikes continued — both sides appear to want a deal but can’t sell the necessary concessions at home.

• Thu: Trump calls off latest threats to strike Iran, cites breakthrough in talks to end the war (AP)

  • Trump announced a “great settlement of the war with Iran” Thursday afternoon — hours after threatening to hit Iran “VERY HARD TONIGHT” and seize control of its oil industry — saying a ceasefire extension is nearly finalized “over the next few days.”

  • Iran’s Foreign Ministry said mediators are active but “nothing has been finalized” and contradictions in the US position have caused turbulence — a notably cool response to Trump’s victory lap.

  • Trump’s threat to seize Kharg Island, through which 90% of Iranian oil exports pass, lasted only hours before he told Fox News: “I don’t know that America has the stomach for it, to be honest.”

  • The US disabled its ninth merchant vessel enforcing the blockade — and India confirmed three of its sailors were killed when the US struck the M/T Settebello Tuesday, drawing condemnation from the International Maritime Organization.

  • Netanyahu’s office said explicitly that Israel is not a party to the emerging US-Iran agreement — a significant signal given that Iranian demands include an end to the Lebanon fighting Israel has no intention of stopping.

• Fri: US and Iran have agreed to wording of a deal to end their war, Pakistan’s prime minister says (AP)

  • Pakistan’s PM Sharif says the US and Iran have agreed to final text of a deal ending the war “on all fronts, including Lebanon” — Iran’s FM Araghchi called it the closest peace has ever been, and Trump shared Araghchi’s post approvingly.

  • Key terms reportedly include: beginning removal/destruction of Iran’s enriched uranium (nuclear details finalized within 60 days after signing), reopening the Strait of Hormuz, phased sanctions relief, and unfreezing Iranian assets — though Iran wants to keep charging ships tolls to transit the strait, which the US calls illegal.

  • Even as the deal was announced, US Central Command said it intercepted Iranian attack drones targeting ships in the strait late Friday — underscoring how fragile this remains. The deal is being brokered primarily by Pakistan with Saudi, Turkish, Egyptian, and Qatari backing; a signing ceremony is expected within days.

  • Israel is explicitly not part of the deal — Netanyahu says he and Trump agree Iran can’t have nukes, but Israel’s defense minister warned Israel could act independently and won’t withdraw from Lebanon, Syria, Gaza, or West Bank refugee camp zones it occupies.

  • Sun: Iran war live: Trump says deal to be signed today; Israel hits south Beirut (Al Jazeera)

    • US President Donald Trump says a deal to stop the war on Iran could be signed as early as Sunday. Tehran has disputed the timeline but says the signing could happen in the “coming days”.

    • Israel has renewed air attacks on the southern suburbs of Lebanon’s capital, Beirut, despite a “ceasefire”.

    • Latest Israeli attack on Beirut could be ‘huge setback’ for deal

  • Israel Front

    • Amnesty accuses Israel’s government of ‘ethnic cleansing’ of Palestinians from the West Bank (AP)

      • Amnesty International released a 149-page report accusing Israel of carrying out state-sanctioned “ethnic cleansing” of Palestinians from the West Bank, arguing the forced displacement is government policy — not just rogue settler violence.

      • The numbers are stark: over 100 West Bank villages fully or partially emptied since January 2023; 212 of at least 363 illegal settler outposts created since October 2023; settlers have taken control of roughly 12.5% of West Bank territory Palestinians can no longer safely access.

      • Netanyahu’s coalition is dominated by settler leaders actively pushing formal annexation — the Knesset recently made the death penalty the default punishment for West Bank Palestinians convicted of killing Israelis.

      • Israel did not immediately respond to the report; it has previously dismissed such accusations as reflecting bias against it.

Economy

• Trump says ‘I love the inflation’ as annual rate jumps to a 3-year high (NBC)

  • Annual inflation hit 4.2% in May — the highest since early 2023 — with real wages falling 0.7% year-over-year, the largest decline since February 2023. Inflation is now outpacing wage growth for the second consecutive month.

  • Trump’s response: “You know what I really love? I love the inflation. You know why? Because as soon as this war is over, it’s going to come down like a rock.”

  • He later claimed he was taken out of context — what he loved was that inflation wasn’t higher. His own speaker backed him up while acknowledging gas prices “are still a pain point.”

  • The political damage is already done: 68% of Americans disapprove of Trump’s handling of inflation, and Trump’s approval hit a second-term low in April with the economy as voters’ top concern.

• Indiana Angle:

  • Indiana farmers have lost $607M from China trade dispute, new report shows (FOX59)

    • A new North Dakota State University study finds Indiana farmers lost roughly $607 million in agricultural exports during the latest US-China trade dispute — the 9th-hardest-hit state nationally.

    • Soybeans took by far the largest national hit ($6.8 billion of the $14.9 billion total loss from March 2025 to February 2026), followed by beef ($1.3B), cotton ($1.3B), tree nuts ($964M), and corn ($333M).

    • Indiana’s soybean and corn farmers have been hit hardest in-state — consistent with earlier reporting on soybean losses last September — and researchers say the impact hasn’t let up.

  • More than 1 million Hoosiers can’t afford basic necessities, United Way report finds (WFIE)

    • A new United Way of Indiana report finds 38% of Hoosier households — over 1 million — can’t afford basic necessities, with costs again outpacing inflation.

    • The 2024 ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Constrained and Employed) Essentials Index puts the minimum cost to live in Indiana for a family of four (two adults, an infant, a preschooler) at $74,028 — more than double the federal poverty level of $31,200, which the report calls outdated since its 1960s methodology hasn’t been updated.

    • The racial disparity is stark: 55% of Black households and 43% of Hispanic and multicultural households fall below the ALICE threshold, compared to 36% of white households.

    • These are working families — United Way’s framing: “ALICE families are the backbone of our communities — the caregivers, delivery drivers and essential workers we rely on every day.”

• What Elon Musk’s trillion means in real terms (AP)

  • Elon Musk became the world’s first trillionaire Friday, with Forbes putting his net worth at $1.1 trillion after SpaceX’s market debut — up from $342 billion last year and $195 billion in 2024.

  • For scale: $1 trillion divided among everyone on Earth would be about $122 per person; it’s more than double South Africa’s entire GDP; it would buy roughly 2.5 million median-priced US homes, or at Friday’s gas prices, over 243 billion gallons of fuel — more than the US used in all of last year.

  • The combined net worth of the next four richest people on Earth — Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Bezos, and Larry Ellison — totals about $1.05 trillion, still less than Musk alone.

• The SpaceX IPO Fraud: Truly Out of This World. (UNFTR)

  • SpaceX lists on Nasdaq June 12 at $135/share, valuing the company at $1.77 trillion — the largest IPO in US history, raising roughly $74.4 billion.

  • Morningstar put fair value at $780 billion, 56% below the IPO price. The space segment posted a $657 million operating loss in 2025; the connectivity segment (Starlink) is profitable – $11 billion in revenue with $4.4 billion to the bottom line, though the average revenue for a Nasdaq 100 listed company is somewhere between $30–$35 billion. The AI segment (Grok/xAI) spent $9.5 billion to generate $3.2 billion in revenue, with operating losses widening 307% year-over-year.

  • The S-1 claims a $28.5 trillion total addressable market — comparable to total US GDP — with $22.7 trillion of that attributed to “enterprise AI applications” that don’t currently generate revenue.

  • Musk secured a Nasdaq “fast entry rule” letting SpaceX join the Nasdaq 100 in 15 trading days instead of up to a year, meaning index funds (and many 401(k)s) will hold the stock passively. Early insiders — including a16z, a Saudi prince, and Jack Dorsey — can begin selling 20% of their stakes after the first earnings call.

  • The risk factors section includes admissions that several of the claimed markets (lunar economy, Mars transport, orbital AI compute at scale) “do not exist today,” and that Grok faces an active FTC child-safety inquiry and a GDPR investigation in Ireland.

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ICE/Immigration

• Not just the US: Elon Musk under fire for stoking anti-immigrant riots in Belfast (NBC)

  • A second night of anti-immigrant riots in Belfast saw masked men torch houses and vehicles hunting for anyone they believed to be an immigrant — sparked by a brutal stabbing of a local man (now in a coma, having lost an eye) by a Sudanese national charged with attempted murder.

  • Elon Musk repeatedly amplified the unrest on X, posting “Murderous migrants beheading innocent people in their home town is what’s making people angry, not ‘social media’!” and reposting claims that Starmer “hates white people” alongside an image of the Black suspect captioned “millions must go.”

  • Northern Ireland’s first minister condemned “the Elon Musks of this world... sitting comfy in their homes, orchestrating hate and tension”; 12 officers were injured and 16 people arrested.

  • The victim’s own family asked people not to exploit the attack for political violence, stressing migrants’ “valuable contribution” to society — and a migration researcher noted Northern Ireland’s minority population (3.4%) is far below the UK average (18.3%), undercutting the riots’ premise.

• US Accepts Only White Refugees For Sixth Consecutive Month (Mother Jones)

  • Since October 1, 2025, the US has admitted 6,668 refugees — 6,665 of them white South Africans, three from Afghanistan, zero from anywhere else — for six consecutive months.

  • The annual refugee cap was cut to 7,500, down from Biden’s 125,000 limit, with a September presidential memo directing that admissions “shall primarily be among Afrikaners.”

  • The administration is spending an estimated $100 million to resettle an additional 10,000 white South Africans, citing an “emergency refugee situation” — while simultaneously cutting aid to South Africa and blocking refugees from everywhere else on earth.

• Tom Homan threatens to flood New York City with ICE agents: ‘More than you have ever seen’ (Independent)

  • Homan threatened to flood NYC with more ICE agents “than you’ve ever seen” in retaliation for New York’s new sanctuary provisions — timing it as the city hosts the NBA Finals and World Cup.

  • New York’s new law bars local police from cooperating with ICE, prohibits agents from entering state property without a warrant, and bans masked agents in public interactions.

  • Hochul’s warning to the administration: “If they come here with a surge in ICE, there won’t be a Republican standing in this state.”

  • Context: the White House pulled back from exactly this kind of surge earlier this year after ICE fatally shot two Minnesota protesters in January — Kristi Noem was fired shortly after.

• House Republicans approve $70bn bill for Trump’s immigration crackdown (Guardian)

  • The House passed the Secure America Act 214-212, sending Trump a $70 billion bill funding ICE, CBP, and DHS through September 2029 — ending a 75-day DHS shutdown that began after federal agents killed two US citizens in Minneapolis.

  • Democrats unanimously opposed it; Jeffries called it “a blank check to ICE without any guardrails, any oversight, any accountability.”

  • The bill was stripped of $1 billion for Trump’s White House ballroom after the Senate parliamentarian ruled it couldn’t be included under budget reconciliation — and Democrats’ attempt to block J6 rioters from receiving anti-weaponization fund payouts was voted down just before final passage.

Sports

• A warm World Cup welcome? U.S. immigration policies have chilling effect (NPR)

  • Trump’s immigration policies are already disrupting the World Cup: a decorated Somali referee was denied entry at Miami with no explanation, an Iraqi team photographer was turned away at O’Hare, Iran’s team was barred from staying overnight in the US and forced to base in Tijuana, and over 40 Moroccan fan association members with tickets and hotel bookings were denied visas.

  • Four World Cup nations — Iran, Haiti, Côte d’Ivoire, and Senegal — are on the US travel ban list; 19 countries have had all visa issuances suspended entirely.

  • FIFA’s response was essentially a shrug: “A host government ultimately determines who receives a visa.” One sports politics professor called it raising “the surrender flag.”

  • The US opening match at SoFi Stadium this Friday still hasn’t sold out — a striking signal for the host nation’s flagship game.

• Plaintiffs call UFC 250 event a ‘volcano of corruption’ in bid to halt White House fights (MSNOW)

  • Plaintiffs suing to block this weekend’s UFC fights on the White House South Lawn called the event a “volcano of corruption,” citing million-dollar VIP packages, branding rights near the Lincoln Memorial, and an exclusive Paramount Plus streaming deal — Paramount Skydance being run by Trump allies Larry and David Ellison.

  • The lawsuit notes Trump reportedly bought stock in UFC’s parent company this spring and stands to benefit directly from what would be the first private, for-profit sporting event ever held on White House grounds.

  • The event coincides with Trump’s 80th birthday Sunday: a Friday press conference at the Lincoln Memorial, a Saturday weigh-in at the Ellipse with a Zac Brown Band concert, and seven UFC matches on the South Lawn Sunday in a structure built for the event called “the Claw.”

  • The administration calls the suit meritless and the timing “inexcusable” given the event was announced nearly a year ago — arguing plaintiffs lack standing and are seeking out things to be offended by. A judge has not yet ruled.

• Trump Family, UFC Selling $12,000 ‘Freedom 250’-Themed Coins Ahead Of White House Fight Night (HuffPost)

  • The Trump Organization — run by sons Eric and Donald Jr. — is partnering with UFC to sell “Freedom 250” commemorative coins ranging from roughly $250 to $12,000, featuring Trump’s face and signature alongside Dana White’s portrait, timed to drop just before Sunday’s White House fight card.

  • Trump Coins claims the Trump Organization doesn’t manufacture or sell the medallions, though how much the family financially benefits from the “partnership” remains unclear.

  • This comes as Trump separately bought stock in UFC’s parent company ahead of an event airing on a streaming platform run by a Trump-aligned CEO — while gas prices climb and economic optimism craters amid the Iran war.

Trump Pulls Pulte

• Trump nominates Jay Clayton as top US intelligence official after pushback on Bill Pulte (Guardian)

  • Trump nominated Jay Clayton — former SEC chair turned Manhattan US attorney — as permanent DNI, after widespread bipartisan criticism of the Bill Pulte appointment. Like Pulte, Clayton has zero operational intelligence experience.

  • The pressure was real: Section 702 of FISA, the post-9/11 warrantless surveillance authority, lapses Friday, and the House just failed to pass a short-term extension amid the Pulte controversy.

  • Senate Intel vice-chair Mark Warner called Clayton “capable” but said the Senate won’t move on FISA until Pulte is guaranteed out of the acting DNI role entirely. Schumer was blunter: “Pulte has to go. He cannot be in the DNI role.”

  • Worth a note for opposition research: Clayton’s SEC nomination drew scrutiny over his Wall Street conflicts, including defending Deutsche Bank in a Russian oligarch sanctions-evasion case settled for $425 million ten days into Trump’s first term.

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Epstein

• Bill Gates appears for Jeffrey Epstein interview. Here’s what we know (PBS)

  • Bill Gates testified before House Oversight Wednesday, appearing in DOJ Epstein documents more than 3,000 times — his name keeps surfacing alongside an even more startling figure: his friend and Gates Foundation adviser Boris Nikolic appears more than 14,000 times.

  • Gates says he met Epstein in 2011 — after Epstein had already pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution from a minor — and maintains the relationship was purely about Epstein’s promised philanthropy connections, calling it a “grave error in judgment.”

  • The files include Epstein emails referencing Gates’s affairs and an “std,” allegedly written to pressure Gates into staying engaged with him. Gates told staff the affairs were with two Russian women and unrelated to Epstein’s network; he says he cut Epstein off in December 2014 once he realized “Epstein would never deliver” on the philanthropy promises.

  • Melinda French Gates has separately described meeting Epstein once: “He was abhorrent. He was evil personified. I had nightmares about it afterward.” The Gates Foundation has commissioned an external review of its past engagement with Epstein.

• Inside Trump team’s Epstein files fumble: Situation room meetings, rushing out influencer binders and MAGA divided (Independent)

  • A new Haberman/Swan book describes the chaos behind the February 2025 White House influencer briefing, where Bondi’s staff distributed unvetted Epstein files binders — and within pages, an official found Trump’s name. Aides reportedly rushed influencers out under an embargo, but they’d already been photographed leaving with the binders.

  • The book describes a furious confrontation where then-FBI deputy director Dan Bongino told Bondi she’d “fucked this thing up from the start” over the DOJ’s “nothing to see here” memo — then stormed out of a Situation Room meeting after refusing to back the administration’s response plan, though he ultimately stayed on.

  • Vance reportedly led a separate Situation Room meeting where he called the situation “a huge problem,” privately pushed for full document release, and worried about losing young male voters over it — while the WSJ’s bawdy Trump-Epstein birthday card story broke mid-meeting (Trump’s $10 billion defamation suit over that story was later dismissed).

  • Trump personally called Charlie Kirk to scold him after a Turning Point event turned into an “Epstein grievance fest” — Kirk announced he was “done talking about Epstein” the next day.

  • White House response: spokeswoman Abigail Jackson says Trump has been “totally exonerated” and has “done more for Epstein’s victims than anyone before him.”

• Group of Epstein survivors announce opposition to Todd Blanche’s attorney general nomination (CNN)

  • 19 Epstein survivors publicly opposed Todd Blanche’s AG nomination, citing his participation in Situation Room meetings where the administration treated the files release as “a reputational problem, rather than an opportunity to pursue investigative leads.”

  • Their statement was blunt: “Blanche failed to deliver transparency, and he has gravely failed survivors. This is failing upward, plain and simple.”

  • DOJ has released about 3 million files compelled by Congress — but roughly 3 million more remain unreleased, and Bondi has been unable to fully explain why.

  • House Oversight Chair Comer — a Republican — says he’ll ask Blanche to testify in July and met privately with about a dozen survivors this week, who told him some witness testimony has been inaccurate and pushed for sworn, recorded interviews going forward.

• What the Epstein files say about Lesley Groff, his long time assistant (NewsNation)

  • Lesley Groff — Epstein’s longtime executive assistant, mentioned over 130,000 times in the DOJ files and more than anyone else — testified before the House Oversight Committee Tuesday as part of its ongoing Epstein investigation.

  • Groff worked for Epstein for nearly two decades, continuing even after his 2008 felony conviction for soliciting a minor; documents show she coordinated scheduling of “massages” and was described in a DOJ memo as helping facilitate meetings on Epstein’s behalf.

  • Epstein survivor Danielle Bensky told NewsNation that Groff was the point of contact for most victims in the 2000s — scheduling calls and texts — and questions whether Groff could have been unaware of what she was arranging: “I sincerely don’t know how it would be possible to be that oblivious.”

  • Groff has not been charged with any crime — her attorney says she cooperated fully with investigators and was never considered a co-conspirator; she was also named in Epstein’s 2007 non-prosecution agreement shielding potential co-conspirators from charges.

  • The DOJ files show Groff arranged for girls to be picked up from high schools to give Epstein “massages” — victims ranged from approximately 14 to 17 years old, with most being 15 or 16 when recruited.

Education

• Why Indiana school districts are rushing to put tax referendums on the November ballot (WFYI)

  • Indiana voters could face 40-50 school tax referendums on the November ballot — far more than usual — driven by two 2025 state law changes: SEA 1’s property tax deduction increases that will drain an estimated $338 million from school districts by 2028, and a new rule limiting referendum votes to November general elections in even years only.

  • Some districts face genuine cuts, not just slower growth — one school finance official says districts in some areas could receive less property tax revenue in 2029 than they got in 2025, “a real meaningful cut” in an inflationary environment.

  • Carmel Clay Schools is staring down a $15 million annual gap starting 2027 and may need to cut 197 staff positions if voters don’t approve a new rate.

  • A new complication: school board members can now declare party affiliation, and superintendents expect organized anti-referendum campaigns — Lt. Gov. Beckwith already campaigned against Avon’s referendum last year, and that playbook is likely to scale up this fall.

• Indianapolis homeowners and educators split over new property tax plan for IPS, charter schools (WFYI)

  • Indianapolis Public Schools faces a $40 million deficit as its 2018 operating referendum expires this year — the new mayor-appointed Indianapolis Public Education Corporation board must decide on a new property tax referendum rate for the November ballot, ranging from roughly the current rate up to nearly triple it.

  • For a $200,000 home, that means a monthly tax increase of $3 to $25; one homeowner testified his IPS-area property taxes have gone from $4,000 to $13,500 over 23 years — “We are being taxed out of our homes.”

  • A school principal offered the counterweight: “When resources are reduced, it isn’t the spreadsheet that feels the impact, it’s the child” — her school is already filling gaps in food security and mental health alongside academics.

  • The IPEC board votes June 22; if approved by voters in November, the revenue would be shared between IPS and charter schools within the district boundary — a notable provision given the ongoing tension between traditional public schools and the charter sector.

• IU East set to launch public charter school, local superintendent raises concerns (IPM)

  • Indiana University East is launching a public charter “microschool” on its Richmond campus this fall, expecting 65 students in its first cohort — with freshmen taking traditional high school courses and juniors eventually earning college credit alongside IU East students.

  • The local public school superintendent pushed back: losing even 50 students costs his district roughly $350,000 and means cutting teachers — and IU East never consulted local school corporations before announcing the plan.

  • IU East acknowledged the communication failure but is moving forward anyway.

• IU lecturer investigated for intellectual diversity won’t be reappointed (IPM)

  • An IU Indianapolis social work lecturer investigated last year for showing a “pyramid of white supremacy” graphic in class — which lists “Make America Great Again” as a form of covert white supremacy — will not be reappointed after June 30.

  • The investigation was triggered by an anonymous student complaint under Indiana’s intellectual diversity law; Adams was removed from her class, placed under observation when she returned, and put on a 30-day improvement plan she calls “absurd” given standard 90-day minimums.

  • IU says the non-reappointment followed a performance review unrelated to the intellectual diversity sanction; Adams denies the specific conduct cited and says she was never given dates for the allegedly missed classes.

  • The University Alliance for Racial Justice is calling on IU to “publicly account for the role outside political pressure played in this case.”

Data Centers

• Indiana Discloses Massive Data Center Tax Break Costs, thanks to Watchdog Agitation (Good Jobs First)

  • ‘Indiana just disclosed taxpayers are losing over $655 million through these exemptions, according to WTHR-TV. Most of that – $611 million combined for 2024 and 2025 – is going to one corporate giant: Amazon.’

• Map: Which States Are Giving Biggest Tax Breaks for Data Centers (Newsweek)

  • ‘Despite Washington and Texas leading in the number of subsidized data center projects, Indiana provided the largest known subsidy package, with an estimated $8.2 billion in incentives tied to Amazon Data Services, per Good Jobs First.’

• This contaminated site is ground zero in data center fight. Would it help Irvington? (IndyStar)

  • A $2 billion, three-building data center campus proposed for Indianapolis’s Irvington neighborhood — on a contaminated former Ford plant brownfield — is dividing the community ahead of a June 11 Metropolitan Development Commission hearing.

  • The developer’s pitch: the contaminated site can’t be used for housing or parks anyway, it’ll generate five to seven times more tax revenue than other industrial uses, and construction will employ up to 600 union workers at peak — though only about three dozen permanent jobs at full buildout.

  • The neighborhood’s objection: water consumption, diesel generator noise and pollution near an elementary school, grid strain, and a pattern of development that benefits investors while the community’s actual needs — a grocery store, the shuttered Ransburg YMCA, Irvington Plaza — go unaddressed.

  • The split between the two councilors captures the broader Indiana data center debate in miniature

    • ‘Councilor Andy Nielsen, who represents Irvington, told IndyStar June 9 that he opposes the data center plan after feedback from neighbors and his own survey of 250 residents that showed about 80% of respondents in opposition.’

    • ‘Councilor Michael-Paul Hart, whose east-side District 20 narrowly includes the site in the Thunderbird Commerce Center, said he’s remaining neutral as he bargains for stronger community benefits from the developer.’

• East Indy resident files ethics complaint against councilor (WTHR)

  • An Indianapolis east side resident has filed an ethics complaint against City-County Councilor Michael-Paul Hart (R-District 20), alleging he failed to properly disclose his outside employment on required annual ethics forms.

  • Hart listed tech company SHI International as his employer in 2025, but when asked how much the company received from the city, wrote “check with ISA” — and the following year answered “unknown.” City records show SHI held a $6 million contract with the city’s Information Services Agency running through 2027.

  • The complaint comes amid a contentious hearing over a proposed DC Blox data center in Irvington, which Hart’s district would host — raising conflict-of-interest questions the councilor has declined to address, saying he needs to consult his caucus attorney.

  • Hart has not been found in violation of any ethics rules; the complainant says she wouldn’t have filed if he’d simply filled out the disclosure forms correctly.

• What Indy residents want in new Eagle Creek Reservoir water deal (Mirror Indy)

  • Indianapolis residents are pushing back on the city’s planned one-year extension of its Eagle Creek Reservoir water withdrawal contract with Citizens Energy Group, which expires July 1 — the Board of Public Works votes June 24.

  • The core fear: Citizens’ separate deal with Lebanon Utilities to supply the Boone County LEAP data center district could draw down the reservoir, leaving less drinking water for Indianapolis and harming the fish and bird populations that depend on stable water levels.

  • The current 1971 agreement caps withdrawals at 19.8 million gallons per day, with DPW able to approve variances — Citizens says that’s happened only once, during a June 2012 drought – the city’s driest on record at just 0.09 inches of rain.

  • The city hired an outside hydrologist to review the contract and LEAP’s potential impact before negotiating a new deal — but residents want enforceable protections now: an online withdrawal-tracking dashboard, extension of the drought ordinance to Lebanon, and guarantees that outside deals don’t override Indianapolis’s water priority.

• Madison County Planning Commission voted to send a proposed moratorium on data centers to the County Council (IPR)

  • In an 8-1 vote, the Madison County Planning Commission voted to send the data center moratorium to the County Council who will make the ultimate decision

  • The proposed moratorium would halt the development of any data centers for 6 months

    • According to County Attorney Jeff Graham, there have not yet been any proposals for a data center in Madison County

  • The meeting was standing room only, with most attendees supporting the moratorium and only a few opposed – including Rob Sparks, Executive Director of the Madison County Economic Development Corporation

  • One of the people who spoke in favor of the moratorium was Luke Fields who said: “As somebody who is looking to purchase a home within the next two years and currently looking at Anderson for that, looking at Madison County for that, if we end up with these data centers, for us personally that’s going to change.”

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Elections

• Indiana Angle

  • Closed primaries are in vogue with Indiana Republicans. But what would they look like? (ICC)

    • The Copenhaver recount fight over three votes in SD-23 has reignited the push to close Indiana’s primaries — a bill is already being drafted for next session, and a new coalition claims nearly 3,000 signatures.

    • The irony: Gov. Braun himself repeatedly voted in Democratic primaries before running as a Republican, explaining he did so because Democrats dominated local races in Dubois County — exactly the behavior closed-primary advocates want to ban.

    • A political science professor put the real motivation plainly: “In today’s politics, these rules changes are intended to help the party proposing them win the next election.”

    • Crossover voting has a long history in Indiana — including a 2024 billboard campaign urging Democrats to pull Republican ballots — and research on Rush Limbaugh’s 2008 “Operation Chaos” found it had no measurable effect on outcomes anyway.

  • Indiana rejects or cancels voter registration for 1,625 Hoosiers who are immigrants (WFYI)

    • Indiana has rejected or canceled voter registrations for more than 62% of immigrant Hoosiers flagged under a 2025 proof-of-citizenship law — 1,625 people purged out of 2,602 cases processed, including people whose notices were returned by the postal service as undeliverable.

    • The law flags anyone who used a temporary credential number on their registration application, then gives them 30 days to produce a birth certificate, passport, or naturalization papers — documents naturalized citizens have already attested to under penalty of perjury on their registration forms.

    • Voting rights groups have filed for a preliminary injunction; the state hasn’t even filed a response yet.

    • Indiana Secretary of State Diego Morales — himself a naturalized citizen — has been an enthusiastic supporter, posting “we have ZERO problems showing proof of citizenship.”

• Talarico lands endorsement from lawyer who defended Paxton in impeachment, securities fraud cases (Texas Tribune)

  • Ken Paxton’s own impeachment defense lawyer, Dan Cogdell, endorsed Democrat James Talarico for the Texas Senate seat — saying Paxton “has lost sight of his core mission” representing Texans.

  • The Paxton camp’s dismissal: Cogdell is a Democrat who voted in the 2024 Democratic primary — though he also donated $6,500 to Paxton’s Senate campaign before switching to Talarico.

  • Polling shows Talarico with a narrow lead — a genuinely rare sight for a Democrat in a Texas statewide race.

• Tuesday Primaries

  • Nevada

    • Jim Hartman: Nevada primary results and analysis (Nevada Appeal)

      • Trump-endorsed David Flippo won the Nevada CD-2 Republican primary over former State Sen. James Settelmeyer — who had the endorsement of Gov. Joe Lombardo, setting up what Democrats see as their best-ever chance to flip the seat. Flippo is a carpetbagger who rented a Reno house to run in a district where he doesn’t live, lost two previous primaries in other districts, and ran on anti-immigrant and anti-transgender themes. His opponent, former Assembly Majority Leader Teresa Benitez-Thompson, is considered a long shot in a district with a significant Republican registration advantage, but Democrats are encouraged by the matchup.

  • North Dakota

    • 6 incumbent North Dakota lawmakers ousted in GOP primary (ND Monitor)

      • Six Republican incumbents lost primary challenges in North Dakota Tuesday, including two of the legislature’s most prominent culture warriors — Rep. Jeff Hoverson, who sponsored a bill requiring Ten Commandments displays in schools, and Rep. Bill Tveit, who led efforts to ban all-gender bathrooms, push a book ban (vetoed by the governor), and urged the Supreme Court to overturn same-sex marriage.

      • Notably, Gov. Kelly Armstrong — who vetoed the book ban — donated to the campaigns of candidates who defeated Hoverson and Tveit, suggesting the establishment is quietly pushing back against the most extreme culture war legislation.

      • One Republican incumbent, Rep. Eric Murphy, lost after introducing a bill to soften North Dakota’s abortion ban — it failed 87-6, but was enough to draw a primary challenge from an anti-abortion group-backed candidate who beat him.

  • South Carolina

    • Nancy Mace loses GOP primary for South Carolina governor (Politico)

      • Nancy Mace failed to make the South Carolina GOP gubernatorial runoff — ending her political career as she had given up her House seat to run and told Politico she won’t go back to Congress.

      • Trump’s late endorsement of Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette, paired with millions in negative ads, was enough to sink her; Mace acknowledged she forfeited any chance at Trump’s support by helping force the Epstein files release.

      • Evette and AG Alan Wilson advance to a June 23 runoff; with her remaining months in the House unencumbered by reelection concerns, Mace could still cause problems for Trump’s legislative agenda on her way out the door.

    • US Sen. Lindsey Graham defeats 5 GOP challengers to face Dr. Annie Andrews in November (SC Daily Gazette)

      • Lindsey Graham crushed five GOP challengers with 58% of the vote, avoiding a runoff for the third time in his Senate career — he’ll face Democrat Annie Andrews in November in a state that hasn’t sent a Democrat to the Senate in 28 years.

      • Graham’s best-funded opponent tried to blame him personally for the Iran war, arguing Graham’s decade-long advocacy for striking Iran directly influenced Trump’s decision — a charge Graham’s alliance with Trump made difficult to fully deflect.

      • If re-elected, Graham could chair the Senate Judiciary Committee again — he thanked Trump for his endorsement, saying, “I’ll wake up every morning and go to bed every night working with President Trump to put judges on the court.”

  • Maine

    • Graham Platner wins Democratic nomination to challenge Susan Collins in November (Maine Public)

      • Graham Platner won the Maine Democratic Senate primary Tuesday night despite a week of damaging revelations, earning the right to challenge Susan Collins in November in a race that could determine Senate control.

      • Platner addressed the controversies directly: “This is the state that raised me and this is the state that saved me. I’m still far from perfect, but every day I wake up and try to be a little bit better.”

      • Gov. Janet Mills finished second despite suspending her campaign in April — some of her surrogates have vowed not to vote for Platner, underscoring how fractured Maine Democrats remain heading into November.

      • Collins has beaten every Democratic challenger since 1996; her strategy this cycle — same as 2020 — is emphasizing federal funding deliverables over ideology, while Democrats try to shackle her to Trump.

• California results trickle in

  • How Nithya Raman went from last-minute candidate to the L.A. mayor runoff (LA Times)

    • City Councilmember Nithya Raman beat Spencer Pratt for the second LA mayoral runoff spot, closing a gap that had Pratt ahead on election night as late mail ballots — skewing younger and more progressive — came in.

    • Raman spent 115 days doing nearly 100 community events while Pratt chased Fox News, Joe Rogan, and Alex Jones appearances — the internet hype didn’t translate to actual LA voter rolls.

    • The November race is Bass vs. Raman: an incumbent mayor with a rough record on homelessness and the Palisades fire against a progressive council member running on basic competence — “A city that works.”

  • Election update: Republican Steve Hilton to face Becerra in November (CalMatters)

    • Steve Hilton advances to face Becerra in November, ending Tom Steyer’s bid after he spent $215 million of his own money — Steyer’s concession statement: he didn’t blame Californians who “just couldn’t stomach voting for a billionaire.”

    • The race is now a traditional partisan matchup — Becerra is heavily favored in a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans nearly 2-to-1 and Trump’s approval is deeply underwater.

    • Hilton’s signature promise is eliminating income tax on the first $100,000 in earnings and cutting a third of state spending — without explaining how he’d get any of it through a Democratic legislative supermajority.

Media

• Trump rejects idea that Iran betrays his ‘no new wars’ campaign message (NPR)

  • Trump told Meet the Press he never “guaranteed” no new wars: “I didn’t promise anything. I don’t like endless wars. This is not an endless war. We’ve been doing this for three months.”

  • He also contradicted himself — claiming US strikes “obliterated” Iranian nuclear sites while simultaneously saying stopping Iran’s nuclear program was why the war was necessary.

  • On the anti-weaponization fund: Trump called it “a great idea” and said he’d be “disappointed” if it wasn’t approved — directly contradicting his own DOJ’s announcement that it was dead.

  • On California: Trump grew increasingly agitated as Welker pressed him for actual evidence of fraud, eventually calling her “crooked,” ripping off his mic, and walking out — telling her “Thank you, darling” on the way.

• Justice Department Approves Paramount’s Warner Bros. Discovery Takeover Without Any Strings Attached (Variety)

  • The Justice Department approved the $111 billion Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger Friday with no conditions, no divestitures, and no concessions — clearing a major regulatory hurdle for the deal that would combine CBS, Paramount+, and Paramount Pictures with HBO, CNN, Warner Bros., and more.

  • The combined entity would anticipate over $6 billion in cost savings — industry shorthand for massive layoffs — and has already drawn opposition from more than 5,500 Hollywood professionals including Robert De Niro, Pedro Pascal, Florence Pugh, and Joaquin Phoenix.

  • The deal isn’t done yet: California AG Rob Bonta has signaled potential state-level antitrust litigation, the EU is investigating foreign investment by Saudi, Qatari, and Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth funds fronting $24 billion, and the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority opened its own probe Tuesday.

  • Sen. Elizabeth Warren: “This is terrible news for every American who doesn’t want Trump-aligned billionaires to control what they watch and how much they pay. This fight isn’t over.”

Crime & Punishment

• Judge says she doesn’t believe ‘anti-weaponization’ fund is dead; extends order blocking it (CNN)

  • A federal judge indefinitely blocked Trump’s $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization fund” Friday, saying she doesn’t believe it’s truly dead — citing the fact that neither Blanche nor anyone else has said so under oath, the settlement establishing it hasn’t been rescinded, and Trump himself has signaled he still wants it.

  • The judge gave DOJ one week to submit a sworn, unambiguous statement from a top official that the fund is permanently dead — if she gets that, she may dismiss the case as moot.

  • Her bottom line: “When the President of the United States says he wants something to happen, that’s a pretty good indicator there will be an incentive and motive to make it happen.”

  • A DC judge took the opposite approach Wednesday, taking DOJ at its word that the fund is dead — but warned: “Don’t play possum with this court.

• US federal judge blocks Alabama from executing man by nitrogen gas (Guardian)

  • A federal judge permanently blocked Alabama from executing Jeffery Lee by nitrogen gas two days before his scheduled execution, ruling the method violates the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment — Alabama is appealing.

  • The 11th Circuit had already reversed a lower court ruling that nitrogen gas was constitutional, finding it presents a “substantial risk of serious harm — severe pain over and above death itself.”

  • The case has an additional troubling layer: Lee was originally sentenced to life without parole by a jury, but a judge overrode the jury and sentenced him to death — a practice Alabama later banned, but only for future cases.

  • Context: the first US nitrogen gas execution in 2024 took 22 minutes, with a witness describing the condemned man thrashing in a way unlike anything seen in four previous executions.

• Vance Boelter avoids death penalty by pleading guilty to murdering Minnesota Democrat and her husband (Independent)

  • Vance Boelter pleaded guilty Thursday to assassinating Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark, and shooting state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife Yvette — avoiding the death penalty under a plea deal with federal prosecutors.

  • He showed up disguised as a police officer in a fake squad car in the early hours of June 14, 2025; he confirmed under questioning that he pressed a gun to Hortman’s head and fired. The Hortmans’ dog was so badly injured it had to be euthanized.

  • Prosecutors have called the attacks political but a handwritten confession letter to FBI Director Kash Patel referenced a vague “investigation,” sometimes tied to COVID vaccines — friends described Boelter as an evangelical conservative struggling to find work.

  • John Hoffman’s lawsuit says he’ll likely never fully recover use of his arm and hand and has permanent digestive and urinary damage; Yvette has permanent physical weakness; their daughter, who witnessed the attack and called 911, suffered severe psychological trauma. Boelter still faces state charges.

• Indiana Angle: Indiana remains one of two states not to allow media at executions (IndyStar)

  • Indiana is one of only two states — along with Wyoming — that bar journalists from witnessing executions, a policy a federal appeals court upheld 2-1 last week after media outlets including the AP, Indiana Capital Chronicle, and IndyStar sued on First Amendment grounds.

  • The state resumed executions in December 2024 after a 15-year pause and has since executed three men; journalists can only attend if personally invited by the condemned as one of five permitted guests.

  • The dissent’s warning: “By shielding most executive branch proceedings from public oversight, our court grants officials a license to operate without accountability. This repudiates the First Amendment’s foundations.”

  • Context worth noting: Indiana spent $1.175 million on lethal injection drugs for a single execution — and in neighboring Tennessee, a man recently subjected to a “botched” execution was described by his attorney as experiencing significant blood loss and pain, with an ACLU attorney calling it “torture.”

Climate

• Indiana Angle:

  • At least 9 tornadoes hit Indiana during nighttime storms; at least 4 injured (WRTV)

    • At least nine tornadoes touched down across Indiana Thursday night, injuring at least four people — from northwest Indiana’s Lake and Porter counties to Wabash, Elkhart, Jay County, and Randolph County.

    • The strongest tornado hit Wabash at 110 mph, traveling nearly five miles through the city, shifting a manufactured home off its foundation and destroying outbuildings; the Elkhart tornado peaked at 115 mph.

    • In Merrillville, at least one person was injured and roughly 200 buildings were damaged, including Andrean Catholic High School.

  • Confirmed tornado count for Indiana is now up to 11 from the storms Thursday evening. (WISHTV FB)

  • April 30: Indiana has had 19 tornadoes in 2026 so far. (Indiana Weather Network)

    • That brings us up to at least 30 so far this year

    • Annual average is 22 tornadoes

• Lake Mead nearing ‘system crash’ as experts warn a ‘world of hurt’ could be coming for some states (Independent)

  • Water experts are warning that Lake Mead and Lake Powell are approaching a “system crash” — levels at which they lose their ability to store water and instead just pass it through, eliminating any buffer during drought years.

  • Lake Mead currently sits at 1,049 feet; the critical threshold is 975 feet — and a Trump administration decision to reduce releases from Lake Powell could drop Mead 28 feet below its previous record low by July 2027.

  • A system crash wouldn’t immediately dry up taps in Las Vegas, Phoenix, or Southern California — those cities have backup supplies — but agricultural users and rural communities without alternatives “could be in a world of hurt.”

  • One water law professor on the administration’s emergency measures already taken: “They’ve already shot that bullet, and you can’t unshoot it.”

• The Atlantic’s ‘Cold Blob’ Could Change Weather Across America (Newsweek)

  • New research in Geophysical Research Letters finds the North Atlantic “cold blob” — a persistent patch of unusually cool water south of Greenland — is most likely caused by a weakening Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, the ocean current system that regulates temperatures across the Atlantic region.

  • For the US, a weakening AMOC could mean rising sea levels along the Northeast coast — one study estimated it may already account for 20-50% of increased flood days since 2005 — as well as shifts in storm tracks and rainfall patterns.

  • The study does not predict imminent collapse, but adds to growing evidence the system is already changing as Greenland melt pours freshwater into the North Atlantic, disrupting the density differences that keep the circulation moving.

• Background: Why Fears Are Growing Over the Fate of a Key Atlantic Current (Yale E360)

  • A leading AMOC researcher who spent 35 years on the subject now puts the odds of collapse at “more likely than not” — up from 5% when he started. A new study constraining climate models with real-world data finds AMOC could weaken by 50% by 2100, which would “very likely” push us past the tipping point.

  • The truly alarming detail: even if collapse doesn’t come until the 2200s, the tipping point beyond which it becomes inevitable could arrive within decades — and once the AMOC shuts down, it doesn’t restart. The Atlantic locks into a new stable “off” state for centuries.

  • Iceland declared AMOC collapse a national security threat in November 2025.

  • The consequences of full collapse: Europe faces catastrophic cooling and drought, global monsoons weaken, and the Southern Ocean releases stored carbon — accelerating warming everywhere else.

They might glance at the monthly premium. They might look at the deductible once, immediately regret it, and move on with their lives. But almost nobody sits down on a Saturday afternoon and decides to spend their free time studying coverage determinations, network restrictions, or the appeals process for specialist care.

That’s not why people buy insurance.

People buy insurance because they believe they are purchasing protection. They are buying peace of mind. They are buying the promise that if something goes wrong, they will not have to face it alone.

Then something goes wrong.

Not because they were irresponsible. Not because they made a mistake. Because they are human, and human beings get sick. They get injured. They develop chronic conditions. They receive frightening diagnoses. They experience mental health crises. They wake up one morning and discover that life has other plans.

That moment is difficult enough on its own.

The treatment plan. The tests. The medications. The specialist appointments. The uncertainty. The fear.

In most developed countries, that would be the beginning of the challenge.

In America, it is often the beginning of a second one.

Because after the diagnosis comes the paperwork.

Prior authorizations. Coverage determinations. Medical necessity reviews. Network restrictions. Appeals processes. Claim denials. Partial approvals. Surprise bills. Endless phone calls. Entire conversations conducted in a language that somehow manages to be both highly technical and completely opaque.

That is the moment many Americans discover one of the most expensive truths in modern healthcare:

Having insurance and getting care are not always the same thing.

The doctor recommends a treatment. The insurance company wants additional review.

The specialist prescribes a medication. The insurance company suggests trying something else first.

The hospital says you’re covered. Three weeks later, a bill arrives that looks large enough to finance a used pickup truck.

None of this feels like the protection people thought they were buying.

And that growing gap between expectation and reality helps explain why healthcare has become one of the most emotionally charged issues in American life.

The Promise of Insurance

At its core, insurance is not a complicated idea.

People contribute money into a shared pool. Most remain healthy. Some become sick. The pool helps cover the cost.

The concept is older than modern healthcare itself. Communities, religious organizations, and mutual aid societies have been spreading risk for centuries. The principle is simple because the reality it addresses is simple: bad luck is easier to survive when you are not facing it alone.

That was the original promise of health insurance.

Not perfect care. Not unlimited care. Protection.

The promise was never that people would avoid illness. The promise was that illness would not automatically become financial ruin.

For much of the twentieth century, Americans largely accepted that bargain. Insurance was not always easy to navigate, but most people believed it served a straightforward purpose. If something bad happened, it would help.

Today, that confidence feels increasingly fragile.

Ask people how they feel about their insurance and listen carefully to the language they use.

“I hope this is covered.”

“I hope this doctor is in network.”

“I hope the medication gets approved.”

“I hope they don’t deny the claim.”

Notice the word that appears repeatedly.

Hope.

Insurance was supposed to reduce uncertainty. For many Americans, it now feels like a second layer of uncertainty placed on top of the medical problem itself.

The Accidental System

One reason healthcare feels so complicated is because nobody actually designed the system we have today.

It evolved.

The foundations of modern health insurance emerged during the Great Depression, when hospitals needed financial stability and patients needed protection from growing medical costs. Early programs like Blue Cross and Blue Shield helped create predictable payment structures that benefited both providers and patients.

Then World War II changed everything.

Federal wage controls prevented employers from competing for workers through higher salaries. Instead, businesses began offering benefits, including health insurance. Workers liked the arrangement, and government tax policies encouraged it further.

A temporary wartime solution became a permanent feature of American life.

Over time, Medicare and Medicaid expanded access for seniors and low-income Americans. Private insurance continued growing through employers. Hospital systems expanded. Pharmaceutical companies grew. Specialist care became more advanced. Medical technology improved dramatically.

Each decision made sense in isolation.

Collectively, they produced one of the most complex healthcare systems in the world.

The result is a system supported by employers, insurers, hospitals, physicians, pharmaceutical companies, regulators, and government programs, all operating within overlapping layers of incentives and bureaucracy.

For decades, people tolerated that complexity because they still felt protected.

Eventually, that began to change.

When Insurance Became Permission

Insurance companies perform legitimate functions. They negotiate prices. They build provider networks. They spread risk. They help make medical care financially accessible for millions of Americans.

But insurance companies are also businesses.

And businesses manage costs.

That reality creates the central tension of modern healthcare.

The patient asks a simple question:

“How do I get better?”

The insurer often asks a different one:

“How do we manage costs?”

Neither question is unreasonable.

The problem is that they do not always point in the same direction.

That tension becomes most visible through prior authorization. In theory, prior authorization helps prevent unnecessary treatment and controls costs. In practice, it often means a physician recommends care and an insurance company decides whether it agrees.

Sometimes that review process works exactly as intended.

Sometimes it delays treatment for weeks or months.

Sometimes patients find themselves appealing decisions while dealing with the very illness that required treatment in the first place. Entire departments now exist within medical practices simply to navigate insurance approvals and administrative requirements. That fact alone should tell us something about the system we have created.

The same pattern appears in provider networks, coverage determinations, and appeals processes.

What frustrates patients is not simply the cost.

It is the unpredictability.

People can plan for expenses.

What they struggle to plan for is uncertainty.

The Cost of Being Sick

Medical debt remains one of the most common forms of debt carried by American households. Millions of people who have insurance still find themselves struggling with healthcare-related costs.

That reality changes how people interact with the healthcare system.

Some delay appointments.

Some postpone testing.

Some skip medications.

Some avoid specialists.

Not because they believe their health is unimportant, but because they are trying to manage competing financial realities.

The decision often becomes painfully familiar:

Do I schedule the procedure?

Do I pay the rent?

Do I refill the prescription?

Do I keep the money in savings in case something worse happens later?

These are not healthcare decisions.

They are survival decisions.

Mental health presents another challenge. Americans have made significant progress in reducing the stigma surrounding depression, anxiety, PTSD, trauma, and other mental health conditions. Yet access remains uneven. Finding providers, determining coverage, navigating networks, and locating available appointments can feel like a second obstacle course layered on top of the condition itself.

The contradiction is difficult to ignore.

We encourage people to seek help, then hand them a system that often makes finding help unnecessarily difficult.

The Business of Healthcare

Healthcare is not the only complicated industry in America.

But it may be the only one where customers rarely want to be customers.

Nobody shops for cancer.

Nobody plans a heart attack.

Nobody schedules a chronic illness around quarterly earnings reports.

That distinction matters because healthcare operates differently than most markets.

The customer is not purchasing a luxury item.

The customer is trying to get their life back.

Yet as healthcare organizations grew larger, administrative systems expanded alongside them. Insurers became larger. Hospital systems consolidated. Pharmaceutical companies grew. Bureaucracies multiplied.

Every large institution develops a survival instinct. It seeks efficiency, predictability, and financial stability.

Those goals are entirely rational.

The challenge is that illness is rarely efficient, predictable, or financially convenient.

Patients experience healthcare as a deeply personal event.

Organizations often experience it as a process.

That disconnect sits at the center of much of the public’s frustration.

Rebuilding Trust

Healthcare is one of the most complicated policy challenges in America.

There is no single reform that fixes everything.

But some improvements are remarkably straightforward.

Patients should understand what is covered before treatment, not after the bill arrives.

Administrative complexity should be reduced wherever possible.

Prior authorization should facilitate care, not obstruct it.

Mental health access should be treated as healthcare access.

Transparency should become the rule rather than the exception.

Most importantly, policymakers should evaluate reforms through a simple question:

Does this help patients get the care they need?

If the answer is yes, we are probably moving in the right direction.

If the answer is no, we should ask why.

A Diagnosis Is Hard Enough

The biggest mistake Americans make when discussing healthcare is forgetting what illness actually feels like.

When you’re healthy, healthcare is a policy debate.

When you’re sick, it becomes your life.

A diagnosis brings fear, uncertainty, stress, exhaustion, and sometimes grief. Patients are already carrying enough before they encounter a maze of paperwork, approvals, denials, and billing disputes.

The system should not become a second illness.

Most Americans are not asking for special treatment. They are not asking for perfection. They are not asking for miracles.

They are asking for something simpler.

They want a healthcare system that treats them like a patient instead of a claim number.

Because the purpose of healthcare was never paperwork.

It was never bureaucracy.

It was never denial management.

It was care.

And if people are paying for protection, they should not spend their most vulnerable moments wondering whether that protection will arrive when they need it most.

A diagnosis is hard enough.

The system should not make it harder.

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https://progressiveindiana.net

SUMMARY:

With summer underway and a Democratic state convention just behind them, Rev. Tony Alexander and Pastor David W. Greene Sr. open this week’s program on two urgent fronts: the state of the Indiana Democratic Party in the aftermath of the Secretary of State convention vote, and a gathering threat to public safety at Northwestway Park on Indianapolis’s northwest side. On the political front, both hosts dissect the convention outcome — Beau Bayh over Blythe Potter — and the immediate backlash from some Potter supporters threatening to sit out November, tracing the dysfunction back to a chronic leadership vacuum within the state and Marion County Democratic Party. Caller Marilyn provides a sharp firsthand account of bureaucratic neglect in the state’s disability services system, which both hosts connect directly to low voter turnout and the failure to hold elected officials accountable. The second half of the program focuses on a social-media-organized “Motion Party” takeover announced for Northwestway Park the coming Saturday — a flash event that follows a weapons-brandishing incident the previous Friday — raising alarms about park safety, IMPD staffing shortfalls, vanishing park ranger funding, and the mayor’s silence. Both hosts close with a call for proactive city leadership before a crisis forces reactive finger-pointing.

WHAT’S INSIDE

00:00:00 Station ID and program open

- Rev. Alexander previews the evening’s two topics: the Indiana Democratic state convention outcome and park safety heading into summer.

- Pastor Greene joins; offers opening prayer.

00:02:48 Indiana Democratic convention recap -- Bayh wins, party fractures

- Rev. Alexander reports on the Democratic state convention: over 2,300 of roughly 2,500 delegates attended; State Treasurer and Comptroller nominations were uncontested formalities; all the heat was in the Secretary of State race between Blythe Potter and Beau Bayh.

- Immediately after Bayh won, the room split — many Potter supporters publicly declaring they won’t support Bayh in November. Rev. Alexander urges Democrats to reconsider given the stakes of the Secretary of State race.

- Pastor Greene: the fracturing traces back to how the process was run -- Marion County, as the largest delegation, needed to model transparency and fairness from the start to earn trust on the back end.

00:05:51 Leadership vacuum in the Indiana Democratic Party

- Pastor Greene: without transparency and accountability going in, there can be no trust coming out. The party cannot unite for a blue wave if people feel the process was tilted.

- Rev. Alexander: Indiana Democrats have no single public-facing leader -- only a collection of silos. Township leaders, city-county councilors, reps, senators -- each running their own kingdom, none galvanizing the whole.

- Pastor Greene agrees: fresh leadership is required. The current leaders have not delivered on the two fundamentals -- raising money and turning out voters -- and should step aside.

- Both hosts: this didn’t get broken in one election and won’t be fixed in one. Transparency and accountability must come first; trust follows.

00:13:23 Indiana needs Democratic mayors supported, not picked off

- Rev. Alexander: the urgency isn’t just November -- Democrat mayors in Terre Haute, Evansville, Muncie, and other Indiana cities need coordinated party support now, or they’ll be picked off one by one.

- Instead of spending party money on travel, send resources directly to those local organizations to empower them with the same playbook.

- Pastor Greene: the current leadership cannot bring about the unity needed. The party has been intentionally kept divided by those who benefit from the chaos. Who can unify? That question has to be answered honestly -- and asked: when did Indiana Democrats last win a statewide election?

00:17:21 Convention aftermath -- room splits, SOS stakes

- Rev. Alexander: the room split almost literally the moment the SOS vote was called, echoing the division visible on Facebook in real time. Despite the disappointment, he urges Democrats not to give up -- the Secretary of State position is too critical.

- Pastor Greene: Morales has been egregious with taxpayer money; his own party may not even nominate him. The Concerned Clergy raised the unifying-message question during delegate training -- now they’ve seen the answer play out.

- Republicans, by contrast, will close ranks the moment their convention produces a nominee. Democrats must do the same.

00:21:41 Caller Marilyn -- Disability services crisis and congressional accountability

- Marilyn, legal guardian of a severely disabled 43-year-old nephew with the cognitive level of a 6-year-old, calls to describe the state’s attempt to eliminate his 24-hour care -- not because he doesn’t need it, but because the state won’t pay for it.

- She contacted Rep. André Carson’s office for help; his office redirected her directly back to the very agency that had already denied her nephew’s claim.

- Her broader point: elected officials give auto-generated responses to constituent calls, cannot be reached, and face no accountability. Both parties have proven indifferent to people’s actual needs.

00:24:24 Post-Marilyn discussion -- Funding cuts and the voting imperative

- Rev. Alexander: Marilyn’s experience is not isolated -- organizations like Noble of Indiana are losing funding that serves people in exactly her nephew’s situation, as are programs for disabled children statewide.

- Pastor Greene: CICOA (Central Indiana Council on Aging) is on the cut list for seniors; FSSA announced a six-month freeze on autism support applications just the prior week. These cuts happen because the party in power can -- low voter turnout lets them.

- Rev. Alexander: elected officials in the minority should be shouting these cuts from every bullhorn and billboard. The public doesn’t know what’s being cut. Silence is a failure of transparency.

00:29:31 Northwestway Park -- Background and the takeover threat

- Rev. Alexander introduces the park safety topic: spoke earlier that day with the IMPD Northwest District commander and the Northwestway Park manager.

- Northwestway Park -- trails, soccer fields, splash park, picnic areas -- has seen an uptick of incidents; the previous Friday saw two people brandishing weapons before officers dispersed a crowd.

- A “Motion Party” has been announced on social media for Saturday, June 13th at 2 p.m. at Northwestway Park -- $5 cover, promoted on Instagram, drawing expected crowds from across the city.

- Pastor Greene: his daughter lives near the park; he’s been getting calls. Cuts to park programming, predicted years ago to cause exactly this, have now arrived.

00:36:00 The Motion Party -- What’s coming and why it’s dangerous

- Rev. Alexander details the social media flyer: the date is barely visible, the event is branded as a “Motion Party,” it mirrors the spinning and flash-mob patterns seen across the city.

- Pastor Greene: youth coming from all sides of town with unresolved school conflicts, in a permitless carry state, in summer heat -- this is not a question of if something goes wrong, but when.

- Community presence alone won’t stop it; the problem recurs the next Saturday at a different park. A city-wide solution is needed, not a one-off response.

- Rev. Alexander: IMPD Northwest District commander is already stretched -- the city is budgeting for 2,000 officers but only has about 1,200. Park ranger funding is also being cut.

00:42:07 Mayor’s accountability and the summer youth employment pipeline

- Rev. Alexander: the responsibility falls on the mayor. City parks are city property. But there’s no public plan, no designated point person, and budget season is likely to bring cuts, not investment.

- When something goes wrong, Chief Terry or the current chief explains it after the fact -- the mayor is absent from the proactive conversation.

- Rev. Alexander raises a secondary issue: parks have historically been entry-level employers for teens (lifeguards, maintenance). Staffing shortages have already forced some parks to close for seasons. Community-driven events like Mike Epps’s park initiatives are filling the gap where sustained city investment should be.

- Pastor Greene: the mayor or his designee needs to own this, name a solution, and get ahead of it -- not wait for a shooting to assign blame.

00:45:22 Imhotep in the chat -- Closing the loop on Northwestway

- Rev. Alexander responds to Imhotep’s question in the Facebook chat: yes, the Motion Party is this Saturday, June 13th; Riverside Park’s regular events continue separately on Sundays.

- Indy Parks and the IMPD Northwest District are now aware of Saturday’s planned takeover; both hosts hope the advance notice sends a signal to would-be disruptors.

- Rev. Alexander: the community values Northwestway Park as a resource -- families, walkers, soccer players -- and will not allow it to be taken over and abandoned.

- Pastor Greene closes: the city must be at the table. Leadership has to step up before the crisis, not just show up to assign blame after it.

00:49:54 Program close

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HoosLeft: https://hoosleft.us

Kate-Lynn Holley Campaign Site: https://votekateforstate.com

SUMMARY:

In this wide-ranging conversation, Scott sits down with Kate-Lynn Holley — mom, small business owner, realtor, former professional wrestler, and Democratic candidate for Indiana’s 6th State Senate District — for a portrait of a candidate whose biography is as unconventional as her pitch. A Lake County native who spent time in foster care, graduated into the Great Recession, fought her way from a wrestling ring in a church gym up to WWE Monday Night RAW, and used that paycheck to fund real estate school, Holley brings a working-class authenticity to a district that stretches nearly two hours from suburban Crown Point down through Newton and Benton Counties. The conversation covers her three-part campaign platform — A Roof. A Table. A Future. We look into the housing crisis, amplified in her area by NIPSCO rate hikes and Illinois cash buyers; her case for medical cannabis as economic infrastructure for struggling family farmers; the data center tax abatement giveaway she calls out in plain terms; a mobile-clinic approach to rural healthcare deserts; and a nuanced examination of the role of school vouchers. It ends with Holley’s most direct argument: that Democrats have an authenticity problem, not a policy problem, and that the real fight has always been the top versus the bottom — not left versus right.

WHAT’S INSIDE:

00:00:21 Introduction and Support the Show

- Scott introduces Kate-Lynn Holley as a mom, small business owner, lifelong NW Indiana resident, and former professional wrestler who used WWE earnings to pay for real estate school.

- HoosLeft and Progressive Indiana Network don’t paywall content — listener support at progressiveindiana.net keeps the project going.

- Social handles: @hoosleft.us on Bluesky, Instagram, and Threads; @HoosLeft on Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube; PIN is @PINIndiana on Bluesky and TikTok — @progressiveindiananetwork everywhere else.

00:03:07 Guest Introduction: Kate-Lynn Holley

- Scott describes Holley’s background and notes he missed her speech at the Indiana Democratic Convention the prior Saturday — calls her a bright and charismatic presence on social media.

00:04:22 Who Is Kate-Lynn Holley? Lake County Origins and Foster Care

- Holley grew up in densely packed, low-income neighborhoods in Lake County and spent time in foster care, born into a conservative religious family she always felt different from.

- Her defining attitude: turn tragedies into triumphs, be scrappy, and never let circumstances define her psyche.

- After graduating in 2006 she started college for musical theater, then stepped directly into the Great Recession and minimum wage jobs.

00:06:35 From Steak ‘n Shake to the Ring: How Wrestling Found Her

- A high school friend from musical theater came into the Steak ‘n Shake where Holley was working overnight, mentioned a wrestling show, and offhandedly invited her to try out.

- She said yes, trained at a church with a wrestling ring, put in her dues, and worked simultaneously at NorthShore Health Centers — a federally funded clinic where she got her first look at how hard healthcare access was for working people in her area.

00:08:24 WWE Raw, Bayley and Sasha Banks, and Paying for Real Estate School

- WWE “extra talent” are local wrestlers brought in when needed; Holley had already worked security-guard bump spots when she was asked to job for Bayley and Sasha Banks in a tag team match during the launch of the women’s tag division.

- Her strategy with her partner (a stranger): keep it simple, just show you know how to take a bump — it worked, and they got on-screen time, which paid more.

- She used that money to enroll in real estate school — another example of taking every opportunity presented, recognizing her privilege in being able to do so.

00:10:33 Musical Theater, Wrestling, and the Intersection of Performance and Politics

- Holley’s musical theater background transferred directly: in wrestling a persona is called a gimmick; in theater it’s your character — she already knew how to build one and connect with a crowd.

- The physicality of wrestling is like choreography; “selling” a punch came naturally from acting training. She survived, she says, merely out of spite.

- When a skeptic early in her campaign said “what does a pro wrestler know about politics,” her response: if you don’t understand how wrestling and politics intersect, you understand neither.

00:12:37 Wrestling, Trump, and How to Actually Captivate a Crowd

- Scott recommends The Ringmaster by Josie Reisman and argues that Monday Night Raw is a better model for political speechmaking than Obama’s lofty oratory — the room-reading, the crowd energy, the improvisation.

- Holley agrees: she has an unquantifiable “it” — people have always been magnetized to her, strangers ask her for help in stores — and says the ability to read a room’s vibe and pull out what people actually care about is what makes her effective as a candidate.

- COVID ended her wrestling career ahead of schedule — she had trips to London, Texas, and Las Vegas booked when the pandemic hit. She had one final match last August because her daughter wanted to see her wrestle.

00:16:14 The Lemon Rice Realtor: How a TikTok Niche Was Born

- Trying to generate real estate leads organically on social media, Holley decided to showcase why she loves being a “Region Rat” — the affectionate local term for NW Indiana natives.

- She started reviewing lemon rice soup locations on TikTok, not expecting much; the first video got strong reception, she kept going, and some videos reached 26K views despite modest follower counts.

- The niche worked because NW Indiana people are passionate about their local restaurants and food culture — it also aligned with her commitment to promoting local and small business.

00:18:38 What Is Lemon Rice Soup? The Greek Steel Town Origin Story

- Lemon rice soup is a regional adaptation of avgolemono, the classic Greek egg-lemon soup, brought to NW Indiana by Greek immigrants who came to work the steel mills during the steel boom.

- When the mills slowed, those families opened restaurants and avgolemono became the soup of the day — over generations it evolved into the region’s own version, thickened with flour instead of eggs, like Tex-Mex is to Mexican food.

- It exists almost exclusively in NW Indiana and is a point of genuine local pride and passionate opinion.

00:20:39 The Lemon Rice Rankings: Crown Point, Merrillville, Highland, and Schererville

- Holley has developed a three-category rating system: most chickeny, most lemony, and most balanced.

- In Lake County: The Great Greek Mediterranean Grill in Crown Point for most chickeny; Cafe Stelios on Broadway in Merrillville for most balanced; Round the Clock in Highland for most lemony — the Highland location notably different from the Schererville location.

- Scott’s personal attachment: Sophia’s House of Pancakes in Highland. Holley’s verdict: great for breakfast, weak soup.

00:22:07 The District: Gerrymandering, South Lake County, and the Rural Stretch

- Indiana’s 6th Senate District is, in Holley’s words, “gerrymandered as hell” — South Lake County (Winfield, Crown Point, Cedar Lake, Dyer, Lowell, Leroy) plus West Jasper County (DeMotte, Fair Oaks, Rensselaer, Remington, Egypt), all of Newton County, and all of Benton County.

- Driving from the top of the district to the bottom takes nearly two hours and crosses a time zone.

- The design intentionally splits communities of interest — Dyer and Benton County have very little in common.

00:23:40 Hidden Gems: Goodland, Beaver Fest, and Firefighter BBQ

- Holley recently closed a deal in Goodland, Indiana and discovered it has charming local gems including The Harvest Hangout — a cafe with an attached enclosed sensory play area for kids.

- She ran a 5K at the Beaver Fest in Morocco, Indiana (named for historic Beaver Township), and attended a smoked meats festival where local firefighters ran the grill.

- Campaign life means constant food — she jokes her waistline may not survive fair season, with elephant ears at the top of her fried dough ranking.

00:25:39 Campaign Slogan: A Roof, A Table, A Future

- Scott introduces the three pillars of Holley’s campaign platform — housing, economic security, and education — and frames the conversation around the affordability crisis facing NW Indiana families.

00:26:35 The Housing Crisis: 2006 vs. 2026 and What’s Actually Different

- Holley graduated June 6, 2006 — exactly 20 years before Saturday’s Democratic convention — and walked into a housing crisis both times.

- The 2008 crisis was caused by fraudulent lending; the current one is driven by debt load (student loans, medical debt), stagnant wages, and utility costs — particularly NIPSCO’s rates, which have in some cases tripled.

- Safeguards against predatory lending now exist, but they can’t fix the math when workers can’t qualify for mortgages or afford monthly costs after they’ve closed.

00:28:45 NIPSCO, Illinois Cash Buyers, and How NW Indiana Got Priced Out

- NW Indiana’s proximity to Illinois — which has higher taxes — drove a COVID-era wave of Illinois buyers who sold their homes at a profit and threw cash overages at Indiana properties to win bids.

- A $500K house with $20K cash over asking comps at $520K; multiply that across an entire summer and prices compounded rapidly. In 2020-2021, NW Indiana housing prices jumped 8% when the historical norm is 2.5%; homes that sold for $350K became worth $700K.

- More buyers than inventory, combined with tariff-driven material cost increases, means NAR’s push to let builders build faster is a band-aid: townhomes at $350K are useless to families approved for $250K.

00:31:32 What the State Could Be Doing: Red Tape, Builder Accountability, and the Real Problem

- The Republican supermajority’s housing bill focused on reducing red tape and permitting speed — a “smidge of a start,” Holley says — but without holding builders accountable to pass savings on to consumers, it just becomes extra margin.

- The real issue isn’t units, it’s affordability: private equity is driving prices up, utilities are unmanageable, and the monthly payment is the barrier — not the down payment.

- Indiana already has a decent down payment assistance program (up to 6% of purchase price for qualifying buyers) but that doesn’t help when the monthly number doesn’t work.

00:33:25 Medical Cannabis as Economic Policy: Farming, Revenue, and Rate Buydowns

- Holley supports legalizing medical marijuana — not because she partakes, but as a businessperson watching Indiana hemorrhage revenue to Illinois, Michigan, and Kentucky.

- Her proposal: offer medical cannabis growing contracts to non-corporate family farmers first, giving struggling agricultural land a new cash crop and keeping that revenue in Indiana.

- A portion of cannabis tax revenue could fund mortgage rate buydowns — buying down interest rates for the life of a loan or 10 years would make monthly payments workable and get people into homes the current market is locking them out of.

00:35:13 Data Centers, Dying Farms, and Who Bears the Cost

- The data center land rush in rural Indiana isn’t happening in a vacuum: farmers whose land has been devalued by decades of bad agricultural policy are getting offers they can’t refuse, and Holley doesn’t blame them.

- The problem isn’t the farmers selling — it’s the legislation that made farming so unviable that selling to a data center is the rational choice.

- Fix the underlying agricultural economics and you remove the desperation that makes these land grabs so easy.

00:36:59 The Zillow Analogy: AI Isn’t Going Anywhere, So Make Indiana Get Paid

- Holley uses Zillow as an analogy: real estate agents who complain about Zillow now should have fought it 10-15 years ago when it was still buildable. Same with AI and data centers — the window to stop it has passed.

- Her position isn’t pro-data center or anti-data center — it’s that if they’re coming anyway, Indiana must stop giving away the one advantage it has (cheap land and cheap labor) through tax abatements that will outlive the legislators who passed them.

- At a Jasper County Amazon data center pitch, she told the presenter directly: Indiana already offers the cheapest labor and land in the region — we don’t need to throw in a tax abatement on top. The competitor-cities argument doesn’t hold up when you understand land economics.

00:39:01 Finland’s Underground Data Centers and the Energy Opportunity We’re Ignoring

- Finland has built underground data centers that use the earth’s natural cooling to reduce water consumption, and convert waste heat into energy for residents — a model that’s both environmentally sound and economically productive.

- Holley raised this at the Amazon pitch meeting and was told the technology is “four years off.” Her response: she’s fine waiting four years, and also, it already exists in Finland.

- The deeper point: allowing industry to drive the process means communities never get to ask these questions — that’s the cost of deregulation.

00:41:15 Healthcare: Not a Luxury Item — Personal Stakes and the Local 150 Clinic Model

- Holley grew up on Medicaid, WIC, and other programs now being cut — she didn’t choose her circumstances, and the least society can do is give people a fair shot at living a full and healthy life.

- Her husband’s Local 150 operating engineers union provides access to a free comprehensive health clinic — lab, mental health, chiropractic — and she describes the quality of care (30-minute appointments, root-cause medicine) as transformative.

- Medicare for All would require federal action; at the state level, Holley’s focus is on expanding access to the kinds of clinic models that actually work.

00:44:34 Rural Healthcare Deserts: No OB-GYN in Benton County and the Mobile Clinic Idea

- Benton County has no OB-GYN — and Indiana’s infant mortality rate is getting worse, not better, particularly in rural areas where preventive care is simply unavailable.

- NorthShore Health Centers (where Holley once worked) can’t easily expand to rural counties because Medicaid reimbursement cuts — and even private insurance underpayment — are already squeezing existing operations.

- Her near-term idea: redirect a portion of the medical budget to fund a scheduled mobile clinic circuit, getting federally qualified health center services into rural communities on a fixed weekly schedule as a bridge until permanent facilities can be established.

00:47:37 Education: Vouchers Have Their Place, But the Income Cap Has to Come Back

- Holley is a public education supporter and a product of it — but she’s not a reflexive voucher opponent. Her analogy: home births have their place for the right candidate; vouchers have their place for the right family.

- The voucher program was originally designed as a scholarship mechanism for gifted students from low-income backgrounds who needed access to enhanced private school options — a program Holley herself would have benefited from.

- The problem is the income cap was removed, turning the program from targeted scholarship into a broad subsidy for families already paying private school tuition — and eroding the public school funding base in the process.

00:51:22 The Real Voucher Problem: Who’s Actually Benefiting and What It Does to Public Schools

- Removing the income cap means a family paying $20K/year in private school tuition now gets $10K of public money — even if they could already afford it, and even as private school costs have risen while wages haven’t.

- Holley could see reinstating a realistic income cap that tracks actual wages and school pricing — not abolishing vouchers, but regulating them so they serve their original purpose.

- The Eric Andre meme, per Scott: Republicans kneecap public schools and then point at them and ask why they’re underperforming. Public school students would perform just as well as private school students with smaller class sizes and adequate funding.

00:54:06 Democrats’ Branding Problem and the Wrestling Parallel

- Scott frames the question through wrestling: nWo, WCW, Stone Cold vs. McMahon — is there a space for Democrats in rural areas to run against their own party brand as an effective connecting strategy?

- Holley’s answer: there’s nothing kayfabe about it — she genuinely is critical of the Democratic Party, and hasn’t always voted Democrat. The political spectrum shifted so far right that she found herself on the left by staying put.

- She argues it’s healthy to criticize something you love — and that the far right’s refusal to do so with Trump is the pathology, not a model.

00:56:31 Authenticity, Kayfabe, and Why Kate-Lynn Criticizes Her Own Party

- Democrats have an authenticity problem, not a policy problem. Trump caught on because people perceived him as saying what was on his mind — the same quality Holley says draws people to her.

- She goes into conversations with rural conservatives as a human being first — her liberal heart says everyone matters, let me hear what they have to say — and she thinks too many very-left Democrats have zero chill, which closes doors before conversations can start.

- People are beginning to leave the right as kitchen-table issues like gas prices hit home; demonizing them on the way out ensures they don’t land on the Democratic side. She invokes Jesus breaking bread with the Pharisees: you can disagree with someone and still show up.

00:59:24 It’s the Top vs. the Bottom, Not Left vs. Right

- Holley’s core argument: billionaires have figured out that pitting left against right keeps working people divided and unable to protect their rights. The real axis is top versus bottom.

- America is 250 years old — practically a teenager — and what we’re experiencing is the limit-testing, angsty phase of a young nation. Getting to 500 years requires learning to be stronger together.

- The path forward: find common ground, civilly debate disagreements, and keep the main focus on who actually benefits from our division.

01:02:35 Where to Find Kate-Lynn Holley and How to Help

- TikTok, Instagram, Facebook: @VoteKateForState; website: votekateforstate.com.

- Out-of-district supporters can phone bank from home (pants optional but recommended) or contribute whatever they can — she’s grassroots, and even small dollars help fund canvassing materials.

- Sharing, liking, and engaging with her content helps grow the movement even if you can’t give money.

ActBlue: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/votekateforstate

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HOOSLEFT THIS WEEK — June 7, 2026

Show Notes

On this week’s edition of HoosLeft This Week, Scott Aaron Rogers is joined by Samantha Douglas (The Black Briefing) and Brandon Clark (Social Society) for a sprawling two-hour tour through a week that felt like a month. The panel opens on the Iran war — a ceasefire in name only, with U.S. and Iranian forces continuing to exchange fire across the region while Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared the conflict “over” and the House passed a war powers resolution — before drilling into the Indiana economic fallout, including Governor Mike Braun’s 30-day gas tax holiday costing the state $140 million a month it claims not to have for childcare. From there the show covers Braun’s Pride-baiting “Nuclear Family Month” proclamation and the Christian nationalist circus at the Pentagon under Pete Hegseth, including his Great Replacement-themed D-Day speech in France; the nomination of wholly unqualified Bill Pulte as DNI; and the Indiana Democratic state convention’s selection of Beau Bayh as Secretary of State nominee — a result the panel dissects at length, with both Douglas and Rogers signaling they may vote for Lincoln Party candidate Greg Ballard in protest. The back half of the show takes on Tuesday’s multi-state primaries and the hit-job rollout against Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner; the Epstein file saga, Pam Bondi’s non-sworn congressional testimony, and Trump’s appointment of Leon Black’s son to run the government’s largest overseas investment firm; the death of the anti-weaponization slush fund and the Stephen Buyer pardon; the privatized horror show of ICE detention at Delaney Hall; Indiana’s childcare crisis and a deep dive on trickle-down economic failure; public health threats from coal subsidies to Ebola to screwworms to Google’s mosquito-sterilization gambit; the data center fight in Shelbyville and Indianapolis; the firing of Scott Pelley from 60 Minutes by Bari Weiss; and the Chicago Bears’ advancing plans to relocate to Hammond, Indiana — a stadium deal Scott, a Bears fan, calls an unconscionable giveaway of public funds.

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

00:00:34 — Intro: Welcome, Housekeeping & Guest Introductions

00:03:41 — The Iran “Ceasefire”: Fire, Bombings, and the War Powers Resolution

00:12:18 — Nuclear Family Month, Andy Ogles, and Christian Nationalist Bigotry

00:18:19 — Hegseth’s Pentagon: D-Day Speech, DEI Purge, and Press Ban

00:26:22 — Bill Pulte and the Weaponization of National Intelligence

00:32:38 — Indiana Electoral Politics: The Secretary of State Race and the Bayh Convention

00:48:51 — Tuesday’s Primaries: New Jersey, Iowa, New Mexico, Montana, and California

00:55:46 — Maine Senate Preview: The Platner Controversy

01:02:03 — Epstein Update: Bondi Testimony, Blanche, and the Ben Black Appointment

01:08:28 — A Miasma of Corruption: Buyer Pardon, Weaponization Fund, and Diego Morales

01:15:10 — Immigration Enforcement, ICE Detention, and the GEO Group

01:21:21 — Indiana Childcare Crisis and the Economics of Trickle-Down Failure

01:28:36 — Public Health: Coal, Ebola, Screwworms, and Google’s Mosquito Gambit

01:37:56 — Data Centers, Shelbyville, and Organized Labor’s Shortsighted Bet

01:44:13 — CBS, Bari Weiss, Scott Pelley, and the Myth of the Liberal Media

01:50:08 — Bears to Hammond? Public Stadium Subsidies and the Indiana Sweetheart Deal

01:55:05 — Outro: Plugs, Upcoming Shows, and Sign-Off

IN DEPTH:

Iran War

• ‘A shock to all Lebanese’: Israel sends a message as it takes ancient fort (Guardian)

  • Israel seized Beaufort Castle on Sunday — a thousand-year-old hilltop fortress in south Lebanon — for the first time in 26 years, raising the Israeli flag and the Golani Brigade flag over a site that symbolizes Lebanese resistance and the memory of Israel’s 18-year occupation.

  • Israeli soldiers used white phosphorus as a smoke screen for the advance, then shared footage of themselves walking the castle’s ramparts set to a Fairuz song — a deliberate psychological message to the Lebanese people.

  • Defense Minister Israel Katz announced Monday that Israel would resume striking Beirut, sending residents who had just returned home six weeks ago fleeing again — highways choked with cars, WhatsApp chats full of “here we go again.”

  • The city of Tyre was hammered with airstrikes Sunday, leaving smoking craters where residential buildings stood; civil defense was ordered to evacuate before the bombing began.

• “You’re fucking crazy”: Trump fumes at Netanyahu in call on Lebanon (Axios)

  • Trump exploded at Netanyahu in an expletive-laden phone call Monday, telling him “You’re fucking crazy. You’d be in prison if it weren’t for me. I’m saving your ass. Everybody hates you now. Everybody hates Israel because of this.”

  • The blowup was driven by Netanyahu’s Lebanon escalation threatening to torpedo the Iran negotiations — Iran had already warned it would abandon talks over Israel’s actions in Lebanon.

  • Trump also objected specifically to Israel knocking down entire buildings to take out a single Hezbollah commander and killing large numbers of civilians in the process.

  • After being “steamrolled” according to US officials, Netanyahu publicly released a statement saying Israel’s position “remains the same” — but Israel quietly dropped its plans to strike Beirut.

  • One of Trump’s worst calls with Netanyahu since returning to office, per US officials — though the two have had tense calls before while still coordinating closely on Iran.

• Monday - US bombs Iranian military sites, then downs missiles Tehran fired at troops in Kuwait (AP)

  • The US bombed radar and drone sites in Iran over the weekend after Tehran shot down an American MQ-1 drone; Iran responded by firing ballistic missiles at US troops in Kuwait, which the US shot down — no Americans hurt.

  • Ship traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has collapsed to 36 ships in the past week, down from 130+ per day before the war; the closure is now threatening global food supplies, since the Gulf produces 30% of the world’s traded chemical fertilizers.

  • Trump claimed Monday that Israel and Hezbollah had agreed to scale back their fighting — then moments later Israel warned its northern residents to take cover from incoming missile launches from Lebanon.

  • Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson summed up the state of negotiations bluntly: “We are negotiating in an atmosphere of mistrust.”

• Tue: U.S., Iran Trade Heavy Fire in Persian Gulf, Testing Fragile Ceasefire (WSJ)

  • The US disabled an oil tanker called the Lexi with a Hellfire missile to its engine room as it attempted to breach the blockade and load Iranian crude at Kharg Island — triggering the most intense exchange of fire in months.

  • Iran responded with drone attacks on civilian mariners in the Persian Gulf, then fired ballistic missiles at US bases in both Kuwait and Bahrain; all were intercepted or fell short, with no American casualties.

  • Despite the exchanges, CENTCOM maintained the ceasefire is technically still “ongoing” — a designation that’s becoming increasingly difficult to defend with a straight face.

  • Diplomacy remains completely stalled; the WSJ notes this is among the most intense fighting since the ceasefire began in April, with both sides continuing to skirmish while refraining from a full resumption of war.

• Wed: Iran war is over, Rubio says, as strikes continue (France 24)

  • Rubio told the House Foreign Affairs Committee that the war with Iran is “over” — defining victory as destroying Iran’s defense industrial base, missile launchers, drone stockpiles, air force, and navy — even as Iran struck Kuwait’s airport the same day, killing one person and wounding 63.

  • Rep. Sara Jacobs cut to it: “You can change the name of the operation. It doesn’t change the fact that the Strait’s still closed, and my service members are still in harm’s way.”

  • On negotiations: Rubio said Iran’s highly enriched uranium is “clearly addressed” in papers exchanged between the two sides — but Iran still hasn’t given “final sign off” and is demanding $12 billion in unfrozen assets before engaging substantively on its nuclear program.

• Wed: House passes war powers resolution directing Trump to end hostilities with Iran (NPR)

  • The House passed a war powers resolution directing Trump to end hostilities with Iran 215-208, with four Republicans joining Democrats — the clearest congressional rebuke yet of the war, more than 90 days in.

  • The four Republicans: Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Tom Barrett of Michigan, Warren Davidson of Ohio, and Thomas Massie of Kentucky. Fitzpatrick’s reasoning: “We’re past the 60 days. You either follow the law or you change the law. You can’t violate the law.”

  • The vote is largely symbolic — the Senate hasn’t scheduled a final vote, and Trump would almost certainly veto it even if it passed — but signals his support is eroding even within his own party.

  • Republican leaders had already tried to run out the clock by sending members home early two weeks ago when it looked like the resolution had the votes — it passed anyway.

  • In a separate vote, six Republicans joined Democrats to advance Ukraine aid, setting up a final passage vote.

• Fri: US strikes Iranian radar sites; Kuwait comes under attack (Al Jazeera)

  • The latest Iran flare-up escalated to Kuwait and Bahrain simultaneously — air raid sirens activated in both countries, with Kuwait’s military actively intercepting missiles and drones and Bahrain residents urged to seek shelter.

  • The US struck Iranian coastal surveillance radar sites on Qeshm Island and at Goruk, shot down four Iranian drones near the Strait, and disabled the oil tanker Lexi with a Hellfire missile — all within the same exchange.

  • An Iran analyst put the strategic tension plainly: Tehran sees the Strait as its primary point of leverage and will not relinquish control — while the US needs it open to declare any kind of victory.

  • A notable wrinkle for next week: Iran’s footballers have been issued US visas for the World Cup, with their opening match against New Zealand in Los Angeles on June 15 — while their country and the US are actively exchanging fire.

• Sat: Iran accuses U.S. of violating ceasefire after both sides exchange strikes as stalemate continues in peace talks (CBS)

  • Iran’s adviser to the supreme leader told CNN talks are “at a deadlock” and “the ball is in Trump’s court” — Iran wants billions in frozen assets unfrozen as a “test America must pass” before any further progress.

  • Iran has formally suspended talks “through mediators,” though Pakistan’s interior minister flew to Tehran Saturday, suggesting back-channel contact continues.

  • The Treasury Department plans to use frozen Iranian assets to help US Gulf allies — Kuwait, Bahrain, UAE — pay for damage caused by Iran during the war, a move that will further complicate any deal.

  • Trump on why there’s no deal yet: Iran is “proud” and it’s “a very hard thing for them.” On the war’s end: “It’s either finished with a piece of paper, or finished a more difficult way.”

  • Lebanon’s prime minister and president both publicly accused Iran of using Lebanon as a bargaining chip — the Lebanese president told Hezbollah directly: “The Lebanese people are not your people.”

  • The UN World Food Programme confirmed that 45 million people are now falling into acute food insecurity as a result of the war and $100/barrel oil — a scenario it warned about in March that is now unfolding.

• Indiana Angle: Braun continues gas tax suspension. How long can the state afford it? (IPM)

  • Gov. Braun extended Indiana’s gas tax suspension for another 30 days, keeping a 62.5 cents-per-gallon break in place that’s given Indiana the lowest gas prices in the nation at $3.59 average — down from $4.26 nationally.

  • The suspension is costing the state roughly $140 million per month, which INDOT says it can cover with reserves for now — but Braun acknowledged “long-term road funding is an issue the legislature is going to have to take up.”

  • Braun previously said he could only extend 60 days; he’s now claiming the emergency statute allows up to 120 days without legislative action — after which a special session would be required, which he indicated is unlikely.

  • Senate Minority Leader Shelli Yoder cut to the chase: “We should be asking why families are being put in this position in the first place. Effective leadership means addressing the root causes of rising costs, not just reacting after Hoosiers have already been left paying the bill.”

Christian Nationalism

• Gov. Braun proclaims June ‘Nuclear Family Month’ (IndyStar)

  • Gov. Braun declared June “Nuclear Family Month” in Indiana, defining the nuclear family as “one husband, one wife, and any biological, adopted, or fostered children” and calling it “God’s design for the family structure.”

  • The proclamation’s second section then quietly drops adopted and fostered children, asserting that “children living with their married, biological parents have better physical and emotional well-being” — without citing any evidence.

  • Though it doesn’t mention Pride Month, the timing was not subtle — social media response was overwhelmingly negative and awash in rainbow emojis.

  • Indiana joins Tennessee, Arkansas, and Utah in offering Republican governors’ counter-programming to Pride Month, though notably Arkansas and Utah’s “Fidelity Month” proclamations didn’t explicitly limit the definition to heterosexual couples.

• GOP Rep. Andy Ogles deletes homophobic social media post, blames staffer (NBC)

  • Tennessee GOP Rep. Andy Ogles posted from his official congressional account: “Homosexuality has no place in America. Happy Nuclear Family Month.” — then deleted it and blamed a staffer.

  • The blowback was bipartisan: Rep. Mike Lawler called it “idiotic,” House Majority Leader Scalise called it “reprehensible,” and even Ted Cruz told TMZ that “for all of recorded history, homosexuals have been part of humanity.”

  • Worth the context: a 2026 Gallup poll found Republican support for same-sex marriage has dropped from 55% in 2021 to 37% — Ogles is out of step even with that trend by going this far.

  • This is the same congressman who declared earlier this year that “Muslims don’t belong in American society” — also to bipartisan backlash.

• Religious freedom org calls out teacher-led Bible study at Indiana school (IndyStar)

  • The Freedom From Religion Foundation called out Mooresville High School after a choir teacher publicly announced he was leading a Friday morning Bible study program called BetterMan for about 40 male students — a clear First Amendment violation, as teachers must remain non-participatory in student religious clubs.

  • The teacher’s own Facebook post made the problem plain: “God has opened several doors for me at the high school, and I am excited to be able to lead these young men.”

  • The district met with the teacher and issued guidance on constitutional limits, but notably declined to say whether the club is still operating or has been transferred to student leadership.

  • Ironic footnote: the Indiana State Teachers Association named the same teacher its Hoosier Educator of the Year last year.

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Trump Cabinet

• DoD

  • Pentagon drops 180 religions from its recognized faiths list (Independent)

    • The Pentagon is dropping roughly 180 faiths from its officially recognized list — cutting from 211 to 31 — eliminating recognition for Atheists, Pagans, Wiccans, Druids, Humanists, Unitarian Universalists, and dozens of other belief systems while retaining mainstream Christian denominations, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Sikhism.

    • A former Army chaplain called it “a tragedy and travesty” and a violation of the First Amendment: “The free exercise of religion for everybody — that’s what I was buying into.”

    • Hegseth’s justification: the old list had “ballooned” and was “impractical,” with most service members using only six codes. Critics note the 180 eliminated codes include many actively practiced faiths, not just obscure ones.

  • Pentagon defends banning reporters from press office by turning it into a classified room: ‘Journalists no longer permitted’ (WaPo)

    • The Pentagon designated its press office a classified Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility, banning journalists from a space that was previously an open room where reporters could walk up to public affairs officers’ desks without an escort.

    • The stated reason: Hegseth’s speechwriters were moved into the office and need access to classified networks — a bureaucratic shuffle that conveniently eliminates informal press access.

    • Notably, neither Hegseth nor his staff have continued the tradition of off-camera gaggles with reporters — in stark contrast to both Rubio at State and Trump at the White House, who maintain regular press access.

    • The move is the latest front in a months-long legal war: journalists mass-surrendered credentials in October over Hegseth’s press rules, a federal judge struck down key provisions in March, and the New York Times has now sued the Pentagon twice.

  • Pete Hegseth blocks promotions of Black and women military officers in latest anti-DEI push (Independent)

    • Hegseth blocked at least eight Navy captains from promotion to one-star admiral, targeting two women, two Black men, and three white men — apparently based on past participation in diversity-related events, some dating back decades.

    • One officer was flagged because she served as a “diversity liaison officer” twenty years ago to help the Navy recruit and retain women and minorities — now apparently a career-ending offense.

    • The resulting promotion list contains only two nonwhite officers out of 22 nominees, despite minorities making up 38% of the Navy; zero women appear on the list despite women comprising 21% of the service.

    • Hegseth is simultaneously trying to elevate a Navy SEAL from his inner circle who has been repeatedly passed over for promotion through normal channels — the definition of the politicized promotions he claims to oppose.

  • Hegseth attacks Europe over migration with beach ‘invasion’ D-Day speech (BBC)

    • Hegseth used a D-Day anniversary speech at the Normandy American Cemetery to attack European immigration policy, comparing migrant arrivals by boat to the Nazi-occupied beaches stormed by Allied forces in 1944 — “Beaches in Spain, in Italy, in Greece and Bulgaria. Boats and men arrive. When will European capitals do something about that invasion?”

    • This follows JD Vance invoking a British stabbing victim the day before to call for “righteous anger” against migration — prompting Downing Street to condemn “people trying to interfere in our democracy.”

    • Worth noting: Channel crossings to the UK are actually down 38% compared to the same period last year — context the administration omitted.

  • Appeals court panel rules that transgender troops were illegally barred from U.S. military service (PBS)

    • A divided DC Circuit appeals court panel ruled Monday that Trump’s transgender military ban illegally bars troops from service, largely upholding a lower court’s finding that the policy likely violates constitutional rights.

    • The majority wrote the policy “appears to be driven by the bare desire to harm a politically unpopular group” — strong language from a federal appeals court.

    • The ruling is narrowed to currently serving transgender troops, not those seeking to enlist, and won’t take effect immediately — the administration can seek full appeals court review.

    • The Supreme Court had already allowed the ban to take effect last year while litigation continues, so the legal fight is far from over.

• ODNI

  • Trump’s intel pick delights MAGA and shocks nation’s spies (Politico)

    • Trump named Bill Pulte — the Federal Housing Finance Agency director with zero known intelligence background — as acting Director of National Intelligence, replacing Tulsi Gabbard who announced she’s leaving at the end of June.

    • The Pulte DNI appointment is now threatening a separate priority: bipartisan FISA reauthorization talks, which must be completed before the law expires at the end of next week.

    • Steve Bannon’s summary: “It’s a middle finger to the Senate. A fuck you to the Deep State.” A retired 26-year CIA veteran called it a signal that the DNI will be “fully weaponized in support of going after Trump’s political enemies.”

    • Even Republicans were openly skeptical: Cornyn said he saw “no evidence of his qualifications,” Cassidy called him “not very qualified,” and Tillis said he didn’t know Pulte had any national security experience at all.

    • The CIA has already reduced its contributions to intelligence assessments produced by ODNI, including on the Iran war — a sign of how badly the relationship between the two agencies has deteriorated under Trump.

    • ODNI was created after 9/11 to coordinate intelligence across 18 agencies; putting a housing official in charge of it is, in the words of one former CIA executive, deepening concern that it is “shifting from an intelligence management organization toward a political instrument.”

  • Trump claims Bill Pulte will investigate ‘rigged elections’ in temporary intelligence role (Guardian)

    • Trump confirmed Pulte’s DNI role is temporary — then immediately told reporters Pulte “may find out some things about the rigged elections, etc, etc” — openly stating the nation’s top intelligence post will be used to pursue Trump’s election fraud conspiracies.

    • Hours earlier, Trump alleged without evidence that Democrats were cheating in California’s primaries and claimed the LA US attorney’s office was investigating; that office declined to comment.

    • Mitch McConnell, without naming Pulte, made his position clear: “Anyone performing this role must have the extensive national security experience required by statute, and no nominee who falls short of this requirement will earn my vote.”

    • Senate Majority Leader Thune: “We don’t need a weaponized national intelligence director. We need professionals here.”

Elections

• Indiana Angle:

  • Can a social media post nullify your vote? Indiana recount tests obscure law (IndyStar)

    • A Trump-backed primary challenger who lost by three votes to Sen. Spencer Deery is trying to invalidate votes based on voters’ Facebook posts and newspaper interviews — arguing their public comments prove they voted illegally as crossover Democrats in the Republican primary.

    • The law she’s invoking is so obscure that election experts, advocates, and even the Secretary of State’s office say they’ve rarely or never seen it enforced — and the state’s own election division counsel says challenges must be made at the polls before a ballot is cast, not after.

    • Deery’s campaign called it “sore-loser syndrome” and “a fishing expedition”

    • MADVoters’ Amy Courtney flagged the broader implication: “The real question is whether we want a government spending time and energy monitoring our social media statements and inspecting our private votes.”

• Indiana Senate’s No. 2 Republican steps down from post after split from Bray (ICC)

  • Indiana Senate Majority Floor Leader Chris Garten resigned his leadership post Thursday, citing a lack of “unequivocal support” for the current strategic direction — setting up a potential challenge to Senate President Pro Tem Rodric Bray, whom Trump vowed to “take out” over his opposition to congressional redistricting.

  • Garten was on Trump’s side of the redistricting fight; Bray was not — and six anti-redistricting Republican senators were defeated in the May primary, shifting the caucus’s center of gravity toward the Trump-aligned faction.

  • Garten didn’t announce a Bray challenge directly, but his letter signaled he intends to “further advance the conservative principles that separate Indiana from the rest” — leadership code for “watch this space.”

  • Republicans hold a 40-10 Senate supermajority but won’t formally select leadership until after November, with at least nine current GOP senators not returning for the 2027 session.

• Beau Bayh defeats Blythe Potter for Democratic secretary of state nomination (ICC)

  • Beau Bayh won the Indiana Democratic secretary of state nomination at Saturday’s state convention, defeating Iraq War veteran Blythe Potter 61%-39% — positioning the son and grandson of two US senators as Democrats’ best shot at a statewide office in more than a decade.

  • Bayh entered with a massive fundraising advantage — $1.9 million on hand versus Potter’s $66,600 — and centered his campaign on an independent audit of an office he says has been damaged by Morales’s corruption and no-bid contracting scandals.

  • Democrats also formally nominated Jessica Bailey for comptroller and Coumba Kebe for treasurer, both uncontested.

  • Convention Chair Robin Winston emphasized that — regardless of the nominee — members of Indiana’s Democratic Party “are more alike than we are unalike.” He pointed, for example, to the party’s cohesion on civil liberties for immigrants, Hoosiers’ access to healthcare, better working conditions for teachers and support for union jobs. “Our job and our fight is not in this room,” he told delegates.

• Later this summer:

  • Supreme Court allows Alabama to use 2023 congressional map in August special primary (Alabama Reflector)

    • The Supreme Court’s 6-3 conservative majority reversed the lower court Tuesday evening, allowing Alabama to use its intentionally racially discriminatory 2023 congressional map in the August special primary — overruling two separate federal court findings that the map was drawn to dilute Black votes.

    • Justice Sotomayor’s dissent was withering: “The majority chooses a chaotic election held under a never-before-used map that intentionally discriminates against Black Alabamians. I respectfully dissent.”

    • The NAACP Legal Defense Fund’s attorney called it “shameless,” warning it opens the door for states to “deliberately and openly discriminate against Black voters without fear of any consequence.”

    • The practical chaos: voter rolls locked Tuesday, giving election officials less than a day to reassign voters in 14 counties — implementing a map that had never been used before in any election.

  • GOP Sen. Dan Sullivan draws an unusual opponent in Alaska’s primary — and he’s not happy about it (AP)

    • Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan is furious that another Republican named Dan Sullivan has qualified for Alaska’s August primary ballot — accusing Democrats and the Mary Peltola campaign of orchestrating a dirty trick to sow voter confusion. Both deny involvement.

    • In Alaska’s top-four primary system, the second Dan Sullivan doesn’t need to win — just siphon enough votes from the incumbent to potentially knock him out of the top four before ranked-choice voting even begins.

    • The challenger’s own website leans into the confusion, promising voters “a Sullivan that actually stands up for Alaska.”

    • The NRSC is threatening legal action; the incumbent senator, dropping an expletive for emphasis, called it “an insult” to Alaskans.

• Tuesday Primaries

  • California

    • Tech billionaires are spending unprecedented sums in California races. Experts say it’s the tip of the iceberg (Guardian)

      • Tech billionaires have poured hundreds of millions into California’s primary races, with Google co-founder Sergey Brin leading at $82 million — mostly to block a ballot measure that would tax billionaires to fund education, food assistance, and healthcare.

      • Google and Meta jointly funded a $10 million Super PAC targeting state legislature races; crypto mogul Chris Larsen spread $26 million across a dozen campaigns; the tech industry spent $39 million lobbying California alone in 2025 — more than oil and gas.

      • Their chosen gubernatorial candidate, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, raised nearly $50 million from Silicon Valley executives but is polling at just 4% — suggesting money can’t always manufacture a candidate.

      • A UC Berkeley public policy professor’s warning: “What we’re seeing now is just the tip of the iceberg” — sophisticated political donors use dark money entities that don’t show up in campaign finance filings.

      • Crypto mogul Larsen’s stated goal captures the strategy plainly: “We’re going to work on taking out those people who are not working for the people of California” — meaning organized labor’s allies in the legislature

    • US attorney opens investigations into California’s elections, sends prosecutor to LA vote center (AP)

      • Trump’s LA US Attorney opened “multiple election fraud investigations” into California’s primary and sent a prosecutor to the LA County ballot tabulation center — triggered by Trump’s baseless claims that Democrats are “rigging” the count as late mail ballots favor Democratic candidates.

      • AP makes the mechanics plain: Democrats vote by mail and held ballots late, so Republican totals peak on election night and shrink as counting continues — that’s math, not fraud.

      • Even Trump’s own preferred gubernatorial candidate, Steve Hilton, admitted his team has “seen nothing that seems illegal” and nothing that “would warrant legal action.”

      • The pattern is clear: Trump is using the DOJ to pressure a state whose vote-counting process he doesn’t like, having already sent observers to California during last fall’s special election.

    • Democrat Xavier Becerra advances to November race for California governor (CalMatters)

      • Former HHS Secretary and California AG Xavier Becerra has secured a spot in the November governor’s race, leading with ~27% — with Trump-backed Republican Steve Hilton close behind and Democrat Tom Steyer still potentially threatening to take the second slot as millions of mail ballots remain uncounted.

      • If it’s Becerra vs. Hilton in November, Becerra is heavily favored — California Democrats outnumber Republicans nearly 2-to-1 and Trump’s approval is deeply underwater in the state. A Becerra vs. Steyer finish would be a bruising intra-Democratic battle supercharged by Steyer’s personal fortune.

      • If elected, Becerra would be the first Latino to win the California governorship by election in more than a century.

      • Becerra’s rise was unexpected — he was polling in single digits until frontrunner Eric Swalwell imploded, and party chair Rusty Hicks was publicly pressuring him to drop out just weeks ago.

  • New Jersey

    • Rebecca Bennett wins Dem primary, will challenge Rep. Tom Kean Jr. in November (NJ Monitor)

      • Former Navy helicopter pilot Rebecca Bennett won the Democratic primary in NJ-7, setting up a competitive fall race against GOP Rep. Tom Kean Jr. in a seat Democrats held for two terms before losing it in 2022.

      • The race is expected to be close, fueled by Democratic energy over the Iran war and economic downturn — but complicated by a wild card: Kean has been absent from Congress since early March due to an undisclosed illness and has not been seen in public since.

      • Kean was unopposed in the GOP primary and held no victory celebration Tuesday.

    • Adam Hamawy wins crowded Dem primary in 12th District (NJ Monitor)

      • Princeton plastic surgeon and Army combat veteran Adam Hamawy won a 12-candidate Democratic primary in NJ-12, succeeding retiring Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman — the first Black woman to represent New Jersey in Congress.

      • Hamawy carried endorsements from Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, and Sen. Tammy Duckworth — who backed him in part because he helped save her life in Iraq in 2004 when both were serving.

      • The seat is considered safe Democratic — the district votes D by more than 2 to 1 — making Hamawy the likely next congressman from NJ-12.

  • Iowa

    • Rep. Josh Turek wins U.S. Senate primary race against Sen. Zach Wahls, AP projects (Iowa Capital Dispatch)

      • Iowa state Rep. Josh Turek won the Democratic Senate primary over state Sen. Zach Wahls, setting up a fall race against Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson for the open seat vacated by Joni Ernst.

      • Turek ran as the more moderate candidate, touting a 2024 win in the reddest Democratic-held state legislative district and carrying the endorsement of former Sen. Tom Harkin, who held the seat before Ernst.

      • Most forecasters rate the seat as likely Republican — Hinson locked up Trump’s endorsement early and won her primary easily.

      • The general election framing is already set: Hinson’s campaign immediately tied Turek to Chuck Schumer, calling him “a rubber stamp for radical leftists.”

    • MAHA candidate beats Trump’s choice in Republican primary for Iowa governor (PBS)

      • MAHA-backed farmer and businessman Zach Lahn upset Trump’s chosen candidate, Rep. Randy Feenstra, in Iowa’s Republican gubernatorial primary — a rare electoral defeat for Trump and a breakthrough moment for RFK Jr.’s Make America Healthy Again movement.

      • Lahn campaigned on regenerative farming, opposing corporate agricultural consolidation, and banning pesticide liability shields — explicitly calling out Iowa’s “fastest growing cancer rate in the world” and tying it to chemical runoff and corporate ag dominance.

      • The MAHA movement had been growing frustrated with Trump’s EPA for defending glyphosate and shielding pesticide companies from lawsuits — Lahn’s win is their shot across the bow at the administration’s own base.

      • Democrats see an opening: State Auditor Rob Sand, the lone Democrat holding statewide office, is sitting on $18 million and has been honing a moderate message since running unopposed in his primary.

  • New Mexico

    • Deb Haaland wins New Mexico Democratic race for governor (Source NM)

      • Former Interior Secretary Deb Haaland — the first Native American to serve in a presidential cabinet — easily won the New Mexico Democratic gubernatorial primary over Bernalillo County DA Sam Bregman, with the AP calling it within 30 minutes of polls closing.

      • She’ll face the winner of a three-way Republican primary, with former Rio Rancho Mayor Gregg Hull leading at 48% as results came in.

      • New Mexico is a blue-leaning state, and Haaland enters the general with strong national Democratic backing and significant name recognition from her time in Congress and the Biden cabinet.

  • Montana

    • What we know about Montana’s 2026 primary election results (Montana Free Press)

      • In the Senate race, Kurt Alme (R) and Air Force veteran Alani Bankhead (D) won their primaries; independent Seth Bodnar, former University of Montana president, is collecting signatures to appear in November — making it a potential three-way race.

      • In MT-01, conservative radio host Aaron Flint won the Republican primary; former smokejumper Sam Forstag won the Democratic nod in what’s considered Democrats’ best pickup opportunity in the state.

      • The bigger story is the Montana GOP civil war: hard-right candidates backed by the state party crushed most moderate Republican incumbents in legislative primaries, with margins of 20-47 points — the faction that tried to work with Democrats on Medicaid expansion was largely wiped out.

      • Two exceptions: centrist Rep. Llew Jones survived by 6 points and Rep. George Nikolakakos won by nearly 40 — but they appear to be the outliers in a night that swung the 2027 Legislature sharply rightward.

• Next Week: Maine

  • Democrats fret Graham Platner could cost them — and not just in Maine (Politico)

    • Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner — all but certain to be Democrats’ nominee against Susan Collins — is facing a new scandal: reports that he exchanged sexual texts with women while married, adding to previous controversies over offensive Reddit posts and a tattoo resembling a Nazi symbol.

    • Democratic strategists are increasingly nervous, with one calling him “an albatross” who “is going to lose” — noting that Collins has survived multiple strong challengers and that Maine’s swing voters decide in the final two weeks.

    • The stakes are enormous: Collins is the only Republican senator up for reelection in a state Harris won in 2024 — if Democrats can’t flip Maine, their Senate majority path runs through Iowa or Texas.

    • Despite the hand-wringing, Platner’s campaign says Saturday — the day the sexting story broke — was his highest digital fundraising day, and he’s polling at 76% in next Tuesday’s primary.

    • One person close to the suspended Mills campaign: “This is kind of where we thought this was all going. We tried to say something about it, but nobody wanted to listen.”

  • New allegations against Graham Platner unnerve Democrats in key Maine Senate race (SAN)

    • The Platner situation has escalated further: the NYT published accounts from former girlfriends describing him as volatile, “toxic,” emotionally difficult, and at times physically threatening — with one source saying he knew what his Nazi-linked tattoo meant when he got it.

    • One of those women has since publicly accused the Times of “misleading” her and “betraying” her trust — muddying the water further days before the June 9 primary.

    • A Democratic Senate aide put the stakes plainly: “There is dramatically higher concern about losing Maine now across the caucus than there was before the stories broke. Everyone realizes that without Maine the path to taking back the Senate is impossible.”

    • Republican-aligned group One Nation has already pledged an additional $3 million for Collins, with a new ad targeting Platner’s veteran supporters — the exact constituency he’d need to flip.

    • DNC member Robert Zimmerman’s warning: “Democrats who defend him sound like Republicans defending Donald Trump after the Access Hollywood tape.”

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Epstein

• Bondi punts blame for the Epstein files to Todd Blanche (Politico)

  • Fired AG Pam Bondi told Congress that Todd Blanche — now Trump’s pick to permanently lead DOJ — “supervised the entire process” of releasing the Epstein files, repeatedly deflecting responsibility for the botched, delayed, and incomplete redactions onto her likely successor.

  • The timing is brutal: Bondi’s transcript dropped the day after Trump announced Blanche’s nomination, giving Senate Democrats and some Republicans fresh ammunition to demand Blanche testify before his confirmation.

  • Bondi refused to discuss any conversations she had with Trump — including reports that she told him he was mentioned in the Epstein files — with DOJ’s Harmeet Dhillon shutting down those questions as privileged executive communications.

  • Bondi’s appearance wasn’t even under oath — House Oversight Chair James Comer downgraded it from a deposition to a voluntary transcribed interview after she was fired, meaning she faced no legal consequences for incomplete answers.

• Bondi invoked privilege, declined to answer questions about interactions with Trump about Epstein files (ABC)

  • Bondi refused to say whether Trump directed any DOJ actions on the Epstein files, or whether she informed him his name appeared in them before Congress mandated their release — invoking privilege on all conversations with the president.

  • Bondi acknowledged the DOJ improperly released victim names and identifying information, while defending the overall process as a “Herculean task” managed with “very little error.”

  • Bondi said she had no role in the July 2025 FBI-DOJ memo that declared there was no “client list” and no further disclosures were warranted — pinning that entirely on Blanche, then walking it back by calling him “one of the most highly ethical individuals I know.”

  • On Maxwell: “She should die in prison. She was a monster, just like Jeffrey Epstein.”

  • Blanche has said the DOJ is not investigating Epstein or his associates — while more than a dozen survivors say neither he nor Bondi has ever contacted them.

• House committee refers duo for criminal prosecution after hearing from Epstein survivors (Independent)

  • The Trump administration’s posture throughout: Acting AG Blanche has told Fox News the Epstein files “should not be part of anything going forward” at DOJ — while more than a dozen survivors say neither Blanche nor Bondi has ever reached out to them, contradicting Blanche’s congressional testimony.

  • The House Oversight Committee referred former Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine and celebrity hairstylist Frédéric Fekkai to the DOJ for criminal prosecution after Epstein’s former assistant Sarah Kellen accused both men of sexually assaulting her in separate incidents.

  • Kellen’s testimony described Epstein as having groomed, abused, and psychologically dominated her for nearly 20 years — and Maxwell as “mean and belittling,” calling Kellen “her slave” and “piglet” while facilitating Epstein’s crimes.

  • Kellen said she met Trump once for “maybe five minutes” at Mar-a-Lago in 2002 or 2003 and made no accusations against him; she also recalled meeting Clinton, Gates, Prince Andrew, and Leon Black without accusing any of them of wrongdoing.

• Trump appointee leading $205bn US agency had personal ties to Epstein, emails show (Guardian)

  • Trump appointed Ben Black — son of Apollo Global Management founder Leon Black, Epstein’s highest-paying client at $170 million — to lead the Development Finance Corporation, the US government’s largest overseas investment arm, now with a $205 billion lending cap after Congress tripled it.

  • DOJ records from Epstein’s correspondence show Ben Black invested in the same company as Epstein, Epstein attended his 30th birthday, advised him on an $11.5 million townhouse purchase, and helped a woman in his network compose messages to Black — who she said kissed her the following day.

  • Black’s lawyers deny any personal relationship with Epstein; DFC staff described discovering their boss in the Epstein files and said morale collapsed: “This is such a joke.”

  • Trump has now appointed at least four men with known Epstein ties to federal office, including Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick — who sits on DFC’s board alongside Black.

Corruption

• “Totally unacceptable”: Pence calls slush fund for Jan. 6 rioters “deeply offensive” (Salon)

  • Mike Pence — who was inside the Capitol as the mob tried to hunt him down — called the anti-weaponization fund “totally unacceptable” and “deeply offensive,” demanding Trump “drop the idea entirely.” Trump, for the record, previously shrugged off threats to Pence’s life on January 6 with “so what?”

• Trump administration is scrapping $1.8B fund meant to compensate president’s allies, Blanche says (AP)

  • The anti-weaponization fund is dead. Acting AG Blanche told a House hearing Tuesday: “We are not moving forward with the fund, period.” When asked if that meant ever: “Correct.”

  • The rare Trump administration capitulation came after Senate Republicans held the Homeland Security spending bill hostage over the fund, refusing to pass immigration enforcement funding until the White House backed down.

  • The $1.776 billion fund — created two weeks ago as part of Trump’s IRS lawsuit settlement — was frozen by a federal judge, lambasted by both parties, and became a legislative grenade that threatened to blow up key White House priorities.

  • Still unresolved: whether scrapping the fund also means walking back the IRS settlement provision permanently shielding Trump and his family from future tax audits.

• Senate begins voting on funding immigration enforcement after Trump’s settlement fund is dropped (AP)

  • The Senate voted 53-46 to begin debate on the $70 billion ICE and Border Patrol funding bill — but hours after Acting AG Blanche declared the anti-weaponization fund dead “period,” Trump told reporters at the White House “I love it. I think it’s so important” and wouldn’t say whether it was dead or just on hold.

  • That created an immediate problem: Democrats announced they’d force amendment votes to ban the fund permanently, and even Sen. Thom Tillis is offering a Republican amendment to put Blanche’s promise in writing.

  • The $1 billion in White House security funding — including for Trump’s ballroom — was stripped from the bill to help it move forward.

  • Bottom line on GOP unity: Thune was asked if Republicans would hold together on the immigration bill. His answer: “We’ll find out.”

• Indiana Angle:

  • Trump issues pardon to former Republican congressman convicted of insider trading (AP)

    • Trump pardoned former Indiana Republican Congressman Stephen Buyer, who served nearly two years in prison for insider trading on a $26.5 billion T-Mobile/Sprint merger and a separate acquisition deal — convicted of crimes he committed as a lobbyist after leaving office.

    • The pardon was justified by more than 40 former Republican members of Congress claiming Buyer was “targeted by the deep state” because of his role as a House prosecutor at Bill Clinton’s impeachment trial — a stretch that strains credulity given the convictions were secured under Trump’s own first term DOJ appointees.

    • The Supreme Court had rejected Buyer’s appeal without comment just weeks before the pardon was issued.

    • Buyer served Indiana’s 5th, then 4th District, over an 18 year career in Congress

  • Background - President Trump’s Pardons: An Embarrassment of Riches (Cato)

    • In his first year back, Trump issued 166 individual pardons plus the mass J6 pardon — eight times Biden’s rate — forgiving more than $1.5 billion in criminal debts owed to victims and government treasuries, compared to roughly $680,000 under Biden.

    • Cato’s analysis identifies a pattern of apparent pay-to-play: Trevor Milton donated $1.8 million to Trump’s campaign before getting a pardon that wiped out $660 million in restitution; Changpeng Zhao brokered a $2 billion crypto investment with Trump’s sons before his pardon; Paul Walczak’s mother paid $1 million to dine at Mar-a-Lago before his tax fraud pardon.

    • Trump also made history by issuing the nation’s first-ever pardon to a corporation.

    • The Buyer pardon fits squarely into the piece’s fifth category: pardons for campaign supporters and political allies who “stretched or broke the law.”

  • New records spotlight $90K restitution fund payment to donor, nearly $500K in raises under Morales (ICC)

    • Morales’ office paid $90,000 from Indiana’s Securities Restitution Fund — meant to compensate fraud victims — to Maverick Quantum, a Texas AI software company whose CEO has donated $55,000 to Morales’ campaign and $20,000 to Braun’s; the contract was awarded without competitive bidding.

    • The payment appears to be the only vendor disbursement from the restitution fund since at least 2020 — every other payment during that period went to actual fraud victims.

    • Two months after Morales pledged “fiscal restraint” and “virtually flat staffing” to the State Budget Committee, his office quietly approved $493,000 in raises for 79 employees — while other state employees received no raises two years running.

    • The raises included 27-28% bumps for two senior staffers: Morales’ 2022 campaign manager and the chief of staff who later became the center of the noncitizen voter registration controversy.

Immigration -> Incarceration

• Indiana Angle:

  • Indiana attorney general readies new immigration biz enforcement powers (ICC)

    • Indiana AG Todd Rokita is gearing up to enforce a new state law — effective July 1 — that bans employers from knowingly hiring unauthorized workers and gives his office power to seek court-ordered suspension or permanent revocation of a business’s operating license.

    • Rokita says he’ll prioritize tips from ICE, the federal Department of Labor, and local law enforcement — but will also screen out complaints that appear to be competitors ratting each other out for business reasons.

    • Businesses that can show they used e-Verify or industry best practices will have some protection; Rokita’s office is also finalizing a data-sharing agreement with the US Department of Labor to track compliance.

  • Following more devastating fires at Indiana’s oldest prison, IDOC commissioner says ‘It’s obvious something else should have been done’ (WTHR)

    • Following WTHR’s “Burned Alive” investigation, Indiana’s oldest prison has seen two more catastrophic fires: Adam Schafer lost both arms and a leg to fourth-degree burns covering 65% of his body; Cameron Sifrer suffered third-degree burns over 80% of his body and lost the tips of all his fingers.

    • IDOC Commissioner Lloyd Arnold admitted bluntly: “It’s obvious something else should have been done” — then outlined nearly $1 million in emergency fixes including cutting power to D-cellhouse cells, adding fire watches, repainting with non-combustible paint, and replacing flammable mattresses.

    • Live fire testing showed why the fires are so deadly: current prison mattresses are fully consumed in 13 minutes, raising cell temperatures to 345 degrees. A fire-resistant foam mattress under identical conditions barely charred — IDOC is now ordering 3,000 for the prison and plans to replace all 27,000+ inmate mattresses statewide at a cost of $4.6 million.

    • Indiana State Prison, built in 1860, has no fire sprinklers and is exempt from modern fire codes — and Arnold says it’s staying open because the state needs the beds.

• The Delaney Hall Strikers Are Hitting GEO Group Where It Hurts (Mother Jones)

  • The Delaney Hall labor strike is now nearly two weeks old and near-unanimous — detained people have stopped cleaning, cooking, doing laundry, and cutting hair, causing the facility to become “really dirty” and “smell like feces” as GEO Group lacks actual paid staff to do those jobs.

  • GEO Group’s own detainee handbook makes the economics plain: kitchen workers earn $4/day, laundry and barbershop workers $3, everyone else $1 — wages unchanged since 1950, when they were pegged to the Geneva Convention standard for prisoners of war. A pair of shoes at the commissary costs $24.28 — several weeks’ wages.

  • The handbook also lists “encouraging others to participate in a work stoppage” as a “high offense” punishable by disciplinary transfer, isolation, or criminal proceedings — meaning the strike itself is technically punishable under facility rules.

  • Members of at least 12 unions — including the Teamsters and American Federation of Teachers — picketed outside this week; Gov. Sherrill announced $12 million in new legal aid funding for detainees on day 13 of the strike.

• ‘Hey, Mikie, WTF?’: New Jersey governor facing outrage over attacks on Delaney Hall protesters (Guardian)

  • Gov. Sherrill is now facing outrage from her own supporters over Delaney Hall — state police she deployed in riot gear arrested dozens of protesters, hospitalized some, pulled a news crew from their vehicle exposing them to teargas, and held journalists for a full day.

  • Inside the facility, ICE pepper-sprayed hunger strikers, sending some to the hospital; GEO Group confirmed “chemical agents” were used.

  • Some wins: all pregnant detainees released, visitation resuming, Newark lifted the curfew, and Sherrill announced $12 million in legal aid — but organizers say none of it addresses the core demands, and at least one progressive group that backed Sherrill is now calling for her resignation.

• ICE will stop reporting deaths of newly released detainees (ABC)

  • ICE quietly ended its policy of reporting deaths of former detainees that occur within 30 days of release — calling it “common sense” since the person is no longer in custody.

  • The timing is notable: 49 people have died in ICE custody since Trump’s second term began, making the first 14 months of this administration the deadliest period for the federal detention system in recent years outside of the COVID pandemic.

  • Under the Biden policy, post-release deaths within 30 days were still tracked and reported. That limited window of accountability is now gone entirely.

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Childcare

• Report: 80% of eligible low-income children not served by state’s subsidized childcare programs (ICC)

  • Even after a $200 million state infusion, Indiana’s subsidized childcare programs will serve less than 20% of eligible low-income children by year’s end — leaving roughly 250,000+ kids whose families qualify without access.

  • The programs had been closed to new enrollees since December 2024 after a cash flow crisis where enrollment costs exceeded sustainable funding by $225 million; only 43,000 of 300,000 eligible children were enrolled as of February.

  • Even hitting the target enrollment of 57,000 by end of 2026 still leaves 20,000+ children on the waitlist — and the $200 million doesn’t cover the full cost of the new vouchers over their average 2.5-year lifespan.

  • Indiana’s total childcare spending ranked 38th among states in 2025 — but its per-child spending ranked 9th, suggesting the problem is scale, not efficiency.

• State drafts childcare regulations governor says will boost affordability (ICC)

  • Indiana is proposing to lower childcare qualification requirements in the name of affordability — center directors would no longer need bachelor’s degrees, lead caregivers would only need a high school diploma, and lower-level caregivers wouldn’t need to have completed high school at all.

  • Other proposed rollbacks: eliminating required lists of learning activities like art, literacy, math, and science; loosening rules on sleeping surfaces and diaper-changing tables; dropping several required safety postings; and allowing parents to request vaccine exemptions.

  • The state frames it as reducing “administrative burdens” — critics would note Indiana already serves less than 20% of eligible low-income children and ranks 38th in total childcare spending, so the answer to the affordability crisis is being proposed as lower standards, not more investment.

Public Health

• Trump taps defense funding for Indiana coal upgrades (ICC)

  • Trump invoked the Defense Production Act to direct $700 million in defense and energy funding to coal plants nationwide, including Indiana’s Merom Generating Station in Sullivan County — framed as an affordability measure despite having no impact on the oil prices driving current energy costs.

  • The article notes flatly: “The coal-focused changes won’t impact oil prices that have surged since Trump launched war with Iran.”

  • Trump’s DOE has already been forcing NIPSCO and CenterPoint to keep aging Indiana coal plants running past their planned retirement dates — moves the utilities say are costing them, and ultimately Indiana ratepayers, hundreds of millions of dollars.

• Background: How Uneconomic Coal Plants Hurt our Health — and Drive Up Healthcare Costs (RMI)

  • RMI research found that uneconomic coal plants — those running when cheaper energy sources are available — cost US communities $13-$26 billion annually in health costs, roughly 13 times what ratepayers pay for the electricity itself.

  • Between 2015 and 2023, those emissions are estimated to have caused 16,661 premature deaths, 19,565 emergency room visits, over 50,000 new asthma cases, and more than 3 billion lost school days nationwide.

  • The Midwest — Indiana’s region — has among the highest health impacts in the country, due to coal plants located near densely populated areas.

• Ebola outbreak spreading in Africa is ‘likely far worse’ than official figures suggest: IRC (ABC)

  • The IRC warns the DRC Ebola outbreak is “likely far worse” than official figures suggest — only 20% of contacts are being traced, meaning health authorities are largely flying blind on new transmission chains.

  • The outbreak may have been spreading undetected since before March — up to three months before it was officially confirmed in mid-May — with diagnostic shortages and testing backlogs further obscuring the true scale.

  • At least nine travel-related cases have already reached Uganda, with one death; the IRC fears spread to Burundi and South Sudan.

  • A critical complication: there is no approved vaccine for this strain — the Bundibugyo virus — though CEPI has urgently activated development of three candidates from IAVI, Moderna, and Oxford.

• Scientists charged with smuggling deactivated mpox virus into US (USA Today)

  • Two NIH researchers at Montana’s Rocky Mountain Biosafety Level 4 laboratory were charged with smuggling 113 vials — 17 containing deactivated mpox virus — from Congo on a packed commercial Delta flight, then lying to customs agents who asked what was in the large black case they were carrying.

  • The researchers, Vincent Munster and Claude Kwe, were stopped in January at Detroit Metro Airport after a flight originating in Brazzaville, Congo, where an mpox outbreak was actively occurring.

  • The deactivated virus poses no infection risk, but the method of transport — a commercial airliner with no biosafety precautions — is what prompted charges; both face up to five years in prison.

Tech

• The US Has a Plan to Combat Screwworm. It Involves a Lot More Flies (Wired)

  • Flesh-eating New World screwworm has been confirmed in a Texas calf — the first US case since the pest was eradicated here in 1966, after breaking through the Darién Gap barrier that had kept it contained to Central America.

  • Before eradication, screwworms killed hundreds of thousands of US cattle annually — and with the US herd already at a 75-year low, a new outbreak could devastate beef prices and the broader agricultural economy.

  • The USDA needs 400 million sterile flies per week to beat it back; they can currently only produce 100 million per week, with a Mexican facility coming online this summer and a $750 million Texas facility not ready until November 2027.

  • Since 2023, there have been at least 2,070 human cases in Mexico and Central America — it can infect people, not just livestock.

• Debugging: Google requests permission to release 32m mosquitoes in California and Florida (Guardian)

  • Google has asked the EPA for permission to release up to 32 million sterile male mosquitoes in California and Florida over two years, as part of its “Debug” program to suppress disease-spreading mosquito populations.

  • The method: male mosquitoes infected with a naturally occurring bacteria called wolbachia can’t produce viable offspring with wild females — shrinking the population each generation without pesticides.

  • It’s already working: Singapore achieved 80-90% suppression of the target mosquito species and a 70%+ reduction in dengue cases after 6-12 months of releases.

  • The public comment period ends June 5; the EPA will then decide whether to approve the experimental use permit.

• Indiana Tech:

  • Caught on camera: Shelbyville mayor insinuates citizens opposing data centers are poor renters in ‘sh***y houses’ (FOX59)

    • Shelbyville Mayor Scott Furgeson was caught on camera telling a group of women that “No Data Centers” yard signs only appear in “sh***y houses” — and when corrected that they’re working-class homes, doubled down: “Most of them are rentals so… very, very unkempt.”

    • His non-apology statement said he “regrets that his choice of words may have caused offense” and claimed he was only referring to property maintenance, not people’s character.

    • The city council approved a plan to turn 429 acres of Shelbyville farmland into an 11-building data center complex in April — over the objections of more than 2,000 petition signers and a room full of angry constituents.

    • The contempt on display fits a pattern across central Indiana: community leaders approving billion-dollar data center projects while dismissing or ignoring the public opposition to them.

  • Indianapolis City-County Council adopts proposal to remove councilors’ home addresses from public disclosure statements (FOX59)

    • The Indianapolis City-County Council voted to remove councilors’ home addresses from required public ethics disclosure forms, one month after shots were fired into the home of Councilor Ron Gibson — who had supported the controversial Martindale-Brightwood data center — with a “no data centers” note left on his doorstep.

Media

• 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley accuses Bari Weiss of ‘murdering’ show (Guardian)

  • Veteran 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley confronted CBS management in a staff meeting Monday, saying of Bari Weiss: “She’s murdering 60 Minutes. She was brought in to kill it and is doing exactly that.” The assembled staff gave him a standing ovation.

  • Fired correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi — whose El Salvador prison segment Weiss shelved — said “the wall between editorial independence and corporate interest at CBS is being methodically torn down.”

  • Fired correspondent Cecilia Vega went further, alleging “efforts to insert political bias into our stories” and calling it “censorship, both imposed and self-driven — dangerous for the show and dangerous for democracy.”

  • Pelley’s future at the show is now in question, though the network is reportedly making overtures to keep him

• Scott Pelley Fired From ‘60 Minutes’ Following Explosive Showdown With New Boss (HuffPost)

  • Scott Pelley was fired from 60 Minutes on Tuesday, the day after he publicly called Bari Weiss a murderer of the show — summoned into a meeting with Weiss, new EP Nick Bilton, CBS News president Tom Cibrowski, and an HR rep.

  • Bilton’s termination email called Monday’s all-hands confrontation “an ambush” and “a performative display of hostility,” saying Pelley had “hijacked” his first staff meeting to “disparage me, my qualifications, and my intentions.”

  • Pelley told the Times before being fired that he’d been pressured to insert bias into his stories, calling “the collapse of values at the top” untenable — and afterward: “I have been in combat in Afghanistan. I have been in combat in Iraq. I have been in the war zone in Ukraine multiple times, risking my life because of my devotion to the broadcast.”

  • Current and former CBS staffers sent a letter to Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison warning that the firings “put the legacy of 60 Minutes in jeopardy”; former EP Bill Owens, who left over editorial independence concerns, said he “couldn’t be prouder” of Pelley.

Sports

• It’s Indiana: Bears’ board of directors votes to push stadium to Hammond (Sun-Times)

  • The Chicago Bears’ board of directors voted to advance their stadium development project in Hammond, Indiana — the most concrete step yet toward the team leaving Illinois after a five-year stadium saga.

  • Indiana lured them with a sweetheart deal: the Bears keep all stadium revenue, contribute $2 billion, and can buy the stadium back for $1 after 40 years when Indiana taxpayers have paid off the bonds.

  • Gov. Braun celebrated with a reference to the ‘85 Bears defense; Illinois officials insist it’s not over, noting the Bears don’t even have a final Hammond site yet — but the clock is ticking if construction is to start next spring for a 2031 opening.

  • A league source said there is “still a lot of ballgame left to play” for Illinois — if the state can find a way to give the Bears property tax certainty on their 326-acre Arlington Heights site, that option stays alive. The Bears’ statement pointedly did not say Illinois was off the table, and Bears officials told Illinois lawmakers they looked forward to continuing to work together.

That expectation became one of the defining features of the American middle class. Parents passed it to their children. Schools reinforced it. Politicians campaigned on it. Employers relied on it. The assumption was straightforward: if you kept your side of the bargain, the economy would keep its side as well.

Today, millions of Americans are beginning to question whether that bargain still exists.

The defining economic story of modern America is not that people stopped working. Americans are working. In many cases, they are working more than ever. They are putting in overtime, taking second jobs, driving rideshare services after hours, delivering food on weekends, and piecing together income from multiple sources. Yet despite that effort, many households find themselves living paycheck to paycheck, postponing major purchases, and worrying that a single unexpected expense could throw their finances into crisis.

What has changed is not the willingness to work. What has changed is the relationship between work and stability.

For much of the twentieth century, that relationship was stronger than it is today. America was far from perfect, and many communities were excluded from economic opportunity because of race, gender, geography, and discrimination. Those realities cannot be ignored. Yet it is also true that millions of working families experienced a period in which economic growth felt personal. As businesses expanded and productivity increased, workers generally shared in those gains. A factory worker could often support a family. A teacher could buy a home. A veteran returning from military service could reasonably expect to build a stable life.

The system had flaws, but the math generally worked.

That distinction matters because many modern economic debates are really arguments about changing mathematics. Older generations often describe experiences that were entirely real: working through college, purchasing a home in their twenties, raising families on a single income, and retiring with predictable pensions. Younger generations hear those stories and often feel as though they are being measured against a standard that no longer exists. The disagreement is less about work ethic than it is about economic context.

Over the last fifty years, the American economy continued producing extraordinary wealth. Productivity rose. Technology transformed nearly every industry. Businesses became more efficient, and corporate profits expanded. The economy did not stop growing. The question is why so many workers increasingly felt disconnected from that growth.

The answer begins with a gradual shift that received far less public attention than it deserved: economic risk moved.

The Great Risk Transfer

One of the most important economic developments of the last half-century was not the disappearance of prosperity but the redistribution of responsibility for uncertainty. For much of the postwar era, large institutions absorbed a significant share of economic risk. Employers provided pensions. Healthcare costs consumed a smaller share of household budgets. College tuition was more affordable. Housing costs remained more closely aligned with wages.

Over time, that balance changed.

Retirement provides one of the clearest examples. For decades, many workers expected pensions that provided predictable income after leaving the workforce. Those plans did not eliminate risk, but they distributed it differently. As pensions largely gave way to 401(k) plans and other defined-contribution systems, more responsibility shifted onto individual workers. The risk did not disappear. It simply moved.

The same pattern emerged throughout the economy. Healthcare became increasingly tied to employment, making layoffs more financially devastating and job changes more complicated. Housing costs began rising faster than wages in many communities. Higher education became dramatically more expensive. Childcare costs climbed. Insurance premiums increased. Utility bills consumed larger portions of household budgets.

Viewed individually, each change seemed manageable. Viewed collectively, they transformed the financial lives of millions of Americans.

The result is that many workers no longer feel poor, but they no longer feel secure either. Economic anxiety today is often less about poverty than fragility. Many households appear financially stable until a medical emergency, a layoff, a major car repair, a roof replacement, or a significant rent increase arrives. For an increasing number of families, a single unexpected event is enough to create a crisis.

That reality helps explain why so many Americans feel trapped despite working hard. They are not necessarily falling behind because they are irresponsible. They are struggling because the margin for error has become remarkably thin.

The Cost of Existing

The pressure facing working families today does not come from a single source. It comes from nearly every direction at once.

If housing costs rise but healthcare remains affordable, families can adjust. If healthcare costs rise but childcare remains manageable, families can adapt. If groceries become more expensive while housing remains stable, households can often find ways to compensate.

The challenge facing many Americans today is that nearly every major expense category has become more expensive simultaneously.

Housing consumes larger shares of income. Healthcare remains costly even for insured families. Childcare rivals mortgage payments in some communities. Higher education often requires decades of repayment. Utilities, insurance, transportation, and food costs continue rising.

The result is a population increasingly focused on maintenance rather than advancement. Many Americans are no longer asking how to get ahead. They are asking how to keep up.

That distinction matters because societies behave differently when people feel they are building toward something than when they feel they are simply trying to stay afloat. A population focused on opportunity tends to be optimistic. A population focused on survival tends to be anxious.

And anxiety has consequences.

Why People Are Angry

Economic insecurity rarely stays confined to household budgets. Eventually, it becomes political.

When people begin to believe that effort no longer produces stability, trust starts to erode. Trust in institutions. Trust in leaders. Trust in businesses. Trust in expertise. Trust in the future itself.

This helps explain why so many political movements across the ideological spectrum increasingly share a common theme: frustration with institutions. Whether the issue is housing, healthcare, trade, immigration, education, or corporate power, many Americans feel that the people making decisions are insulated from the consequences of those decisions.

Hardship alone does not destroy public confidence. Americans have endured recessions, wars, natural disasters, and economic downturns before.

What undermines confidence is the feeling that the rules no longer make sense.

People become frustrated when they do everything they were told to do and still feel stuck. They become skeptical when economic growth is constantly celebrated while their own financial circumstances remain fragile. They become angry when they hear statistics describing prosperity while their lived experience tells a different story.

That anger is not always rational. It is not always directed at the right targets. But it is understandable.

People are not simply asking for more money.

They are asking whether the system still works.

Rebuilding Stability

Reasonable people can disagree about solutions. They can debate housing policy, healthcare reform, labor protections, tax structures, workforce development, educational investment, and retirement security.

Those debates matter.

But before discussing solutions, it is necessary to acknowledge the problem honestly.

The problem is not that Americans stopped working. The problem is that many Americans no longer believe work provides a meaningful path toward stability.

A full-time job does not need to guarantee wealth. It does not need to guarantee success. It does not need to guarantee happiness.

It should, however, provide a fighting chance.

A fighting chance to build a home. A fighting chance to raise a family. A fighting chance to retire with dignity. A fighting chance to believe tomorrow can be better than today.

That is not a progressive idea. It is not a conservative idea. It is not even a partisan idea.

It is the foundation of the American promise.

If millions of Americans no longer believe that promise applies to them, the question is not whether workers have changed.

The question is whether the system has.

Because workers are still showing up.

The least we can do is make sure the math works.

https://progressiveindiana.net

SUMMARY:

In a dense, two-topic hour, Rev. Tony Alexander and Pastor David W. Greene Sr. open with a sharp response to Indiana Lt. Governor Micah Beckwith's public call to normalize hate speech and his characterization of Islam as a "demonic death cult." Pastor Greene details a press release issued jointly with the Baptist Ministries Alliance and the General Missionary Baptist Convention demanding Governor Mike Braun formally retract Beckwith's remarks, and announces a multi-faith Religious Freedom Summit at the Statehouse the following Thursday. Callers Imhotep and Tim engage on the theme of media bias and Black community self-determination before Rev. Alexander pivots to a rant on Trump administration anti-DEI policy and the unqualified nomination of Bill Pulte to lead the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. The second half of the program focuses on the upcoming Indiana Democratic state convention, where delegates will nominate candidates for Secretary of State, State Treasurer, and State Comptroller. Rev. Alexander and Pastor Greene parse Senator J.D. Ford's last-minute endorsement of Beau Bayh over Blythe Potter, express concern about the chaos it is sowing among progressives, and detail a candidate forum convened by the Concerned Clergy coalition to probe both SOS candidates on voter access, Black community engagement, and accountability -- framing the Secretary of State race as one of the most consequential on the November ballot.

WHAT’S INSIDE

00:00:00 Station ID and program open

- Rev. Alexander previews the evening’s two topics: fireworks in the Democratic Secretary of State race, and Lt. Governor Beckwith’s call to promote hate.

- Pastor Greene joins; offers opening prayer.

00:03:17 Lt. Governor Beckwith’s hate speech and the Concerned Clergy response

- Rev. Alexander describes Lt. Governor Micah Beckwith’s public statement calling for Americans to be given “permission to hate” and his characterization of Islam as a demonic death cult -- framed as inconsistent with his professed Christian faith.

- Pastor Greene details a press release crafted jointly with the Baptist Ministries Alliance (Dr. Wayne Moore), Dr. Clyde Posey, and the General Missionary Baptist Convention, demanding Governor Braun publicly retract Beckwith’s remarks.

- Both hosts note this is not Beckwith’s first offense -- he previously referred to African Americans as “three-fifths of a person” -- and that the governor has responded with silence in both instances.

- Pastor Greene: the call to hate is a moral issue, not a partisan one; the response is coming from Democrats and Republicans alike.

00:07:12 Religious Freedom Summit announcement and governor’s non-response

- Pastor Greene announces a multi-faith Religious Freedom Summit at the Indiana Statehouse Thursday at noon, organized with Sen. Fady Qaddoura, bringing together participants across faiths and races.

- The three formal asks from the Concerned Clergy coalition: a public retraction of Beckwith’s statements, a reaffirmation of commitment to religious liberty and dignity for all Hoosiers, and a clear statement that hate-filled rhetoric has no place in state leadership.

- Governor Braun has not responded as of airtime; both hosts tie his silence to his own plans to put Turning Point USA clubs in Indiana schools and his political interest in not alienating Beckwith as a future competitor.

00:10:13 Beckwith’s pattern of behavior and political motivation

- Rev. Alexander: Beckwith’s demeanor at public events -- smug, taunting, dismissive of concerns -- mirrors the behavior of Indianapolis City-County Councilor Gibson at the data center meeting; it’s a calculated performance, not incidental.

- Both hosts speculate Beckwith is positioning himself for a higher profile ahead of the Republican convention and potentially a future run against Braun.

- Pastor Greene: regardless of the motive, you can’t let someone holler fire in a movie theater. It must be called out, especially by the governor.

00:14:23 Caller Imhotep -- Universal moral code, media silence on dissent, and Palestine

- Imhotep argues every faith tradition shares a common core -- do unto others -- making Beckwith’s worldview antithetical to all faith, not just Christianity.

- Notes that white ministers are actively speaking out against Beckwith-style rhetoric on social media but are invisible to mainstream media.

- Closes with a pointed observation about Arab American voters in Michigan who boycotted Kamala Harris over Palestine: given what has since happened there and the rise of figures like Beckwith, he argues that abstention had real consequences.

00:17:00 Post-Imhotep discussion -- Beckwith as political performance

- Rev. Alexander affirms Imhotep’s thesis on media conditioning and draws a direct comparison between Beckwith’s conduct and the Councilor Gibson data center incident -- same playbook, different venue.

- Pastor Greene: Beckwith’s escalating rhetoric will continue unless addressed; notes Braun’s self-interest in not denouncing his lieutenant governor.

- Denise posts in the chat asking whether there was a call for Beckwith to step down; Pastor Greene clarifies the formal ask stopped at retraction, though he notes public pressure may eventually push further.

00:20:15 Rev. Alexander’s rant -- DEI dismantling and the DNI nomination

- Rev. Alexander pivots to a rant on the Trump administration’s anti-DEI campaign -- cutting any program that an AI search flagged for the phrase “diversity, equity, inclusion” -- while simultaneously appointing unqualified loyalists.

- Highlights the nomination of Bill Pulte to head the Office of the Director of National Intelligence: no security experience, no intelligence agency background, no law enforcement history.

- Raises the implicit contradiction: a president who claims to have been shot at and survived multiple close calls is putting someone with zero security credentials in charge of national intelligence.

- Closes the loop on the staged-assassination-attempt conspiracy theory circulating online and why Trump’s failure to tighten security makes it harder to dismiss.

00:26:30 Caller Tim -- Stop complaining, pool resources, vote

- Tim urges the Black community to stop focusing energy on racist rhetoric and instead adopt the model of Asian Americans: pool resources, invest in each other, put the right people in office.

- Recommends Black churches purchase land around their buildings and generate revenue by renting facilities six days a week to sustain their missions.

- Rev. Alexander and Pastor Greene affirm the voting imperative while pushing back gently: sharing information isn’t complaining, it’s how you help people vote wisely -- politicians win by deceiving voters, so you have to arm people with facts.

00:30:39 Accountability for elected officials -- both parties

- Rev. Alexander: voting isn’t enough if you then excuse whatever your candidate does in office. Accountability must follow the win.

- Pastor Greene: Trump didn’t campaign on tariffs, war with Iran, or rising gas prices -- he won on a different message and then governed another way. Voters have to be discerning, not loyal.

- Both hosts agree: whoever the next Secretary of State is, the Concerned Clergy will hold them to what they said.

00:32:06 Indiana Democratic convention preview -- SOS, Treasurer, Comptroller

- Rev. Alexander lays out the stakes: the Democratic convention that Saturday will nominate candidates for Secretary of State, State Treasurer, and State Comptroller (formerly the Auditor). The Republican convention will do the same.

- On the Republican side: the question is whether incumbent Diego Morales -- who has faced significant opposition from within his own party -- survives. Former Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard is also in the Secretary of State race as an independent.

- Democratic delegates: hundreds coming from Marion County alone, approximately 2,500 statewide. Results expected Saturday evening.

- Treasurer and Comptroller candidates are running unopposed; only the Secretary of State race is competitive on the Democratic side.

00:33:53 Senator J.D. Ford’s endorsement of Beau Bayh

- Rev. Alexander: Senator J.D. Ford -- who had explicitly said he was staying out of the Secretary of State primary -- endorsed Beau Bayh just days before the convention vote, creating immediate backlash from progressives who supported both Ford and Potter.

- Pastor Greene: the timing is the problem. Jumping in four days out after saying you’re staying neutral sends mixed signals and creates chaos at exactly the wrong moment for party unity.

- Both hosts note comments on Councilor Jesse Brown’s Facebook page -- the top comment reads “Y’all made this a war” -- indicating the endorsement is deepening fissures that will be hard to close after the convention.

- Pastor Greene: he doesn’t believe Ford acted arbitrarily; there’s something behind it they don’t know yet, and it may not be a satisfying answer for those offended. The distraction pulls focus away from Ford’s real opponent -- Republican Victoria Spartz.

00:38:19 Concerned Clergy’s candidate forum with Potter and Bayh

- Pastor Greene details a candidate forum convened by the Concerned Clergy, Baptist Ministries Alliance, and General Missionary Baptist State Convention of Indiana, with both Secretary of State candidates -- Blythe Potter and Beau Bayh.

- Questions focused specifically on the Black community: voter access and protection, Black community outreach strategy, staffing diversity, Black-owned business engagement via the SOS business registration function.

- Context: current SOS Diego Morales has already provided Indiana voter data to the federal government; the next SOS will face immediate federal pressure.

- Both candidates’ responses recorded; Pastor Greene expects the winner to appear on the Concerned Clergy program multiple times to be held accountable to their commitments.

00:43:47 Why the Secretary of State race matters more than ever

- Rev. Alexander: the SOS controls voting -- and voting is under more direct attack than at any point in memory, from executive orders on mail-in ballots to the threat of ICE presence at polling places.

- Pastor Greene: ICE at the polls will deter not just Latino voters but Black voters who avoid any law enforcement presence. Indiana’s already-low voter turnout cannot absorb that kind of intimidation.

- Rev. Alexander invokes the Trump-Raffensperger call: Trump didn’t call the governor of Georgia after losing in 2020 -- he called the Secretary of State. That office controls whether votes get found or not.

- Pastor Greene names the coalition present at the candidate forum: Dr. Posey (General Missionary Baptist of Indiana), Dr. Moore (Baptist Ministries Alliance), Dr. Clyde, and himself -- meeting at Purpose of Life Church.

00:48:26 Post-forum fallout -- J.D. Ford endorsement revisited

- Rev. Alexander: the Ford endorsement of Bayh has already surfaced in comments on Councilor Jesse Brown’s page as evidence that Democrats are “making this a war” -- poisoning the well for post-convention unity.

- Pastor Greene: whoever wins on Saturday, the real opponent is the GOP. Every distraction from that fight is a gift to the Republican side.

- Both hosts close with a call to watch Saturday’s results and a promise to report out more details next week.

00:55:15 Program close

https://concernedclergy.org

https://www.facebook.com/ClergyIndyhttps://www.facebook.com/ClergyIndy

https://progressiveindiana.net

HoosLeft: https://hoosleft.us

Sanders Campaign Site: https://davidsandersindiana.com/

SUMMARY:

In this return visit to the HoosLeft Podcast, Scott welcomes Dr. David Sanders — Purdue University biology professor, 10-year West Lafayette City Councilor, and Democratic candidate for Indiana State Senate District 23 -- to cover two interconnected crises: the ongoing retreat from global public health infrastructure under an anti-science federal administration, and the accelerating threat to Indiana’s water supply posed by the IEDC’s water-hungry economic development agenda. Sanders draws on his decades of Ebola research and bioweapons nonproliferation work to argue for scientific literacy in government, then walks through the successful Stop the Water Steal campaign that beat back the IEDC’s plan to drain Wabash River aquifers for the LEAP Innovation District — and explains why that fight is far from over, with Eagle Creek Reservoir now in the crosshairs, SK Hynix eyeing those same aquifers for its new West Lafayette packaging plant, and the IEDC’s corruption — documented in the IndyStar’s “Three Kings” reporting — making the case for abolishing the agency outright.

WHAT’S INSIDE:

00:00:00 Introduction and Support the Show

- Scott introduces tonight’s episode as a return visit from one of his earliest guests, framing the conversation around a problem that has only grown since they last spoke.

- HoosLeft and Progressive Indiana Network don’t paywall content or charge candidates — listener support at progressiveindiana.net is what keeps the project going.

- Social handles: @hoosleft.us on Bluesky, Instagram, and Threads; @HoosLeft on Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube; PIN is @PINIndiana on Bluesky and TikTok, @progressiveindiananetwork everywhere else.

00:03:33 Guest Introduction: Dr. David Sanders

- Scott welcomes Sanders back as a long-time ally and early guest, flagging that a full candidate policy interview with Derrick Holder is coming later in the campaign season.

00:04:10 Sanders Bio Part 1: Purdue, Ebola Research, and Bioweapons Nonproliferation

- Sanders has taught in Purdue’s Department of Biological Sciences for 30 years, specializing in how viruses enter cells; he holds patents on gene therapy vectors and has done significant Ebola research.

- He worked with the Defense Threat Reduction Agency’s Biological Weapons Proliferation Prevention Program, including a visit to the formerly secret Soviet bioweapons lab Vector in Siberia — one of only two places on earth that still holds live smallpox virus.

- The program’s goal was to keep former Soviet scientists gainfully employed so they wouldn’t sell their expertise to what the State Department called “Third Nations” (Iraq, Iran, North Korea) or terrorist organizations — a Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction outgrowth that Putin eventually killed as he consolidated power.

00:06:09 Sanders Bio Part 2: City Council and Community Work

- Sanders has served on West Lafayette City Council for 10 years, working on issues including government surveillance, environmental protection, and making the city welcoming to its large international community.

- He’s also worked on quality-of-life issues like trails and bike infrastructure — trying to make West Lafayette a well-rounded community that serves all of its people.

00:08:19 Should We Be Worried About Ebola? Individual Risk and Hospital Preparedness

- Sanders’ direct answer: the individual risk of acquiring Ebola in the U.S. is extremely low; the real danger is to hospital workers treating an exposed patient, as seen in Dallas in 2014.

- Sanders was researching Ebola before 9/11, when almost no one else in the country was; that expertise led to a 6 a.m. CNN call after the Dallas nurses’ infection.

- His position, which differed from the CDC’s at the time: every hospital should be able to recognize an Ebola case, but treatment should happen at specialized regional centers — because proper use of personal protective equipment requires intensive, specialized training.

00:10:43 The CNN Story: How Sanders Pushed the Regional Treatment Center Model

- Sanders recounts being put on CNN opposite a physician who initially took the opposite position — every hospital should be able to treat Ebola — only to reverse course on the 7 a.m. segment.

- The regional treatment center model was subsequently adopted as U.S. policy, and Sanders credits the willingness of officials to listen to a well-reasoned argument as the reason it worked.

- He uses the story as an illustration of what scientific knowledge in a legislator can actually accomplish: not just commentary, but durable policy change.

00:12:48 RFK, Anti-Science Governance, and the Case for Global Public Health Engagement

- With RFK Jr. leading HHS, Sanders argues the U.S. has become an anti-science administration at exactly the wrong moment — and that pulling back from international Ebola engagement leaves us less prepared for the next outbreak.

- After the 2014 outbreak, Sanders called for building healthcare infrastructure in affected African countries so hospital workers wouldn’t be endangered; that investment never happened at the scale needed.

- The larger lesson: public health is a societal, not individual, issue — and with global travel and rising population density, every outbreak should be treated as a training exercise for the next pandemic.

00:15:58 Transition: From Global Health Crisis to Indiana’s Water Crisis

- Scott bridges from infectious disease to water: both are public health issues, both are being mismanaged, and both are being made worse by the current political environment.

00:16:43 The LEAP Pipeline Plan: How It Started and Why It Was Wrong

- The LEAP Innovation District was sited in Boone County near Lebanon with essentially no local water supply -- IEDC either didn’t know or didn’t care, planning to solve the water problem later.

- The proposed solution: a multi-billion dollar pipeline to pump water from Wabash River aquifers in Tippecanoe County, roughly 25 miles, to supply the development’s water-intensive manufacturers including Lilly’s pharmaceutical plant.

- Sanders’ scientific objection: those aquifers are near a toxic waste dump; pumping water out would draw toxins into the aquifer system and potentially into the Wabash River itself.

00:18:30 The IEDC’s Mission Creep and the Secrecy Behind the Pipeline

- The IEDC was created by Mitch Daniels to replace the Department of Commerce and recruit businesses to Indiana — a reasonable starting point that metastasized into a real estate corporation, tax abatement authority, and tax-collecting entity by 2022.

- All of the LEAP planning — land acquisition, pipeline routing, annexation to Lebanon -- was done in complete secrecy, with no public transparency or community notice.

- The state legislature enabled all of it; when Sanders first raised the alarm, every advisor told him it was a done deal and a city councilor couldn’t do anything about it.

00:20:01 Stop the Water Steal: How Sanders Organized the Community Response

- Sanders rejected the “done deal” framing, spoke out publicly at a meeting, and was immediately flooded with calls and texts from concerned residents — confirming this was not just his concern.

- He drafted a resolution opposing the pipeline, found a co-sponsor, passed it unanimously, and it became the template for roughly 18 similar resolutions across Indiana — mostly from Wabash River communities.

- The effort was bipartisan from the start, even in counties with all-Republican commissioners: the water issue united people across the political spectrum in a way nothing had in Tippecanoe County for decades.

00:22:25 What Stopped the Pipeline — and What It Proved About Grassroots Power

- It wasn’t the legislature that stopped the pipeline — legislation didn’t do it. It was the political pressure and media attention generated by Stop the Water Steal and allied organizations.

- The scale of the threatened draw was enormous: semiconductor manufacturing plants can use up to 100 million gallons per day — dwarfing even the water demands of data centers or Lilly.

- After Tippecanoe County organized effectively, IEDC pivoted to Eagle Creek Reservoir in Indianapolis — and Sanders has been in contact with Eagle Creek advocates who want to replicate the model.

00:24:04 Home Rule, State Preemption, and the IEDC’s War on Local Communities

- Sanders argues that home rule — the right of communities to make their own laws — is a unifying issue across the political spectrum, and that the state legislature’s repeated preemption of local authority (on environmental rules, puppy mills, and more) is the core problem.

- The IEDC functions as the mechanism of state imposition: it overrides community objections, hands out tax abatements, and operates with no meaningful accountability to affected residents.

- Sanders calls for abolishing the IEDC entirely — not reforming it — citing the IndyStar’s “Three Kings” reporting, which revealed that IEDC figures directed roughly $180 million to corporations they were personally connected to.

00:27:11 The Tax Abatement Contradiction and the Burden on Working People

- Scott lays out the contradiction: Indiana recruits companies to pay taxes here, then gives them tax abatements so they don’t — shifting the fiscal burden onto workers and residents rather than the corporations themselves.

- The abatements are presented as economic development but function as corporate welfare, often given to companies that were going to come anyway.

00:28:33 Eagle Creek Reservoir: The IEDC’s Next Target and Lessons for Indianapolis

- The IEDC, LEAP, Lebanon Utilities, and Citizens Energy were secretly negotiating a water deal for Eagle Creek before any Indianapolis residents knew about it — the same pattern of secrecy used in Tippecanoe County.

- Scott notes that 21 of 25 Indianapolis City-County Councilors signed a letter opposing the plan — a strong bipartisan rebuke that echoes the Tippecanoe resolution campaign.

- Sanders’ intelligence: at least one semiconductor company that had been eyeing the LEAP District has already walked away because the water supply issue remains unresolved.

00:30:19 Advice to Eagle Creek Organizers: See the IEDC as the Common Enemy

- Don’t let anyone convince you it’s a done deal. Stop the Water Steal didn’t guarantee a win — they just refused to accept defeat — and they succeeded.

- Organize broadly: write to all legislators and all candidates, not just your own representatives, and unite with groups across the state facing similar IEDC-driven disruptions.

- The key insight: data centers, carbon sequestration pipelines, water diversions, and semiconductor plants are all the same fight — the IEDC is the common thread, and that’s where pressure must be directed.

00:32:33 Whack-a-Mole: How the IEDC Targets Black Neighborhoods and Rural Communities

- Scott observes that IEDC projects consistently land in predominantly Black Indianapolis neighborhoods and rural communities — the least organized, most vulnerable areas — because that’s what happens when you play defense project-by-project.

- Sanders adds that both groups are being treated with contempt by the Republican supermajority: rural areas that vote Republican aren’t getting broadband, healthcare, or economic investment — just corporate playgrounds.

- The urban-rural divide that defines so much of American politics is actually a potential bridge here: both communities are being exploited by the same actors.

00:35:05 Devil’s Advocate: Governor Braun’s Water Reassurances and Sanders’ Rebuttal

- Scott presents Braun’s argument: the water is treated and returned, so the concern is overblown.

- Sanders’ response: wastewater treatment was built for microbiological threats, not the chemical challenges posed by modern manufacturing — PFAS, microplastics, and the proprietary chemicals used in semiconductor processes that we don’t even have full disclosure on.

- Data centers technically could recycle their water in closed systems, but there’s no requirement that they do, and many don’t.

00:37:21 Water Treatment, PFAS, and the Unknown Chemicals of Semiconductor Manufacturing

- The IEDC assured Tippecanoe County residents that transferring water from one watershed to another was fine — but there is no ecologist or scientist who would endorse cross-watershed diversion as safe practice.

- The semiconductor industry uses proprietary chemical processes that aren’t publicly disclosed; treating that return water is genuinely complex and unresolved science.

- Sanders’ broader objection isn’t alarmism — it’s that the lack of transparency from both corporations and government agencies makes informed evaluation impossible.

00:39:19 Arrogant Planning, the Great Lakes Gaffe, and the Return of the Bald Eagle

- The head of the IEDC during the pipeline fight told critics that as long as there’s water in the Great Lakes, there’s no problem — apparently unaware that the Great Lakes are not connected to the Wabash River watershed.

- Sanders contrasts that ignorance with a hopeful environmental story: bald eagles have returned to perch over the Wabash River near West Lafayette, something he hadn’t seen in his 30 years there — evidence that the river’s recovery from DDT and industrial contamination is real.

- The DDT lesson: corporations assured the public those chemicals were safe too, and it took community organizing and public scientific pressure to change course — the same dynamic playing out now.

00:41:52 Why the Legislature Needs a Scientist: Sanders Makes the Case

- Sanders argues that most issues facing society today — agriculture, genetic engineering, infectious disease, child mortality, healthcare infrastructure — have a scientific or technological basis that legislators need to understand firsthand, even if the solutions are political.

- He doesn’t claim the legislature needs to be all scientists; he argues it needs at least one person who can evaluate what government agencies and corporations are actually generating in terms of data.

- One of Stop the Water Steal’s underappreciated assets was its network of scientific experts — contacts Sanders still maintains and can deploy in the legislature.

00:44:10 Move Fast and Break Things: Corporate Hubris and the DDT Lesson

- Scott names the underlying attitude: Silicon Valley’s “move fast and break things” ethos applied to industrial development, with investors demanding returns now and consequences to be dealt with later — by someone else.

- The DDT contamination of the Wabash took decades to partially remediate; the corporations responsible were long gone.

- The parallel to current IEDC-driven development is direct: no long-term environmental planning, no accountability, no clawback provisions.

00:45:38 SK Hynix in West Lafayette: The Packaging Plant, the Rezoning Fight, and PRF’s Role

- SK Hynix’s West Lafayette facility is a chip packaging plant — less water-intensive than full semiconductor fabrication, but still using more water than all residential customers in West Lafayette combined; it’s eyeing the same Wabash aquifers.

- The city council rezoning fight lasted past 1 a.m., with overwhelming community opposition — and when asked what chemicals would be used, SK Hynix’s representatives said only “copper and alcohol,” an answer Sanders calls completely inadequate.

- The facility was sited in a residential neighborhood rather than the abundant open land in Tippecanoe County because the Purdue Research Foundation — which owned that specific land — wanted the financial proceeds; the Area Plan Commission had already voted against the rezoning, making the council’s approval an unprecedented override.

00:49:37 The Three Kings: IEDC Corruption, Chad Pittman, and the PRF Revolving Door

- The IndyStar’s “Three Kings” investigation documented that IEDC insiders directed approximately $180 million to corporations they were personally connected to — including one king writing a funding request letter from his own outside organization to himself at the IEDC.

- Chad Pittman, named as one of the Three Kings, is now the head of the Purdue Research Foundation — connecting the IEDC corruption story directly to the SK Hynix siting decision.

- Sanders calls it a revolving door of public money serving private interests, and says the fact that PRF continues to be run by someone implicated in that reporting is indefensible.

00:52:47 The Military-Industrial Angle: CHIPS Act, Crane, and PRF’s Defense Contractor Focus

- Scott notes the CHIPS and Science Act’s national security rationale — reshoring semiconductor manufacturing away from China and Taiwan — and flags Purdue’s position within that ecosystem alongside the Applied Research Institute and the Crane Naval Warfare Center.

- Sanders confirms: PRF has recruited almost exclusively military contractors — Rolls-Royce and Saab, which both exited the consumer vehicle business long ago and now primarily make aircraft engines and military equipment.

- Sanders isn’t opposed to national defense, but argues that a university conducting all its industrial recruitment in secret and focusing almost entirely on military contractors represents a lack of balance and a betrayal of the public-good mission.

00:54:51 Rolls-Royce, Saab, Tax Abatements, and Corporate Welfare Without Clawbacks

- Rolls-Royce was involved in the largest corporate bribery scandal in UK history, with U.S. involvement as well — not exactly a vetted partner for a public university.

- These corporations received tax abatements at levels out of proportion to the rest of the country, despite the fact that they were going to come to Purdue anyway — meaning the abatements were pure corporate welfare.

- The lack of clawback provisions is the tell: without them, corporations can pull up stakes before their tax abatement periods expire, as has happened repeatedly. Sanders points to Foxconn in Wisconsin as the cautionary tale, and argues that investing in existing Indiana businesses and entrepreneurs would produce better economic returns.

00:59:22 How to Support Dr. David Sanders and Follow-Up Campaign Notes

- The Republican primary for this seat saw $3 million spent on negative ads that Sanders says contained outright falsehoods about both candidates — meaning whoever emerges will have enormous resources.

- Follow the money: Sanders says donors supporting his opponents include corporations promoting carbon sequestration in Indiana; he’s running on small-dollar, citizen fundraising only.

Thanks again to Dr. Sanders for joining us. You can find out more about his campaign for State Senate at his campaign website https://davidsandersindiana.com. You can donate using his ActBlue page here: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/david-sanders-for-indiana-1 and follow him on social media at the following:

https://www.facebook.com/SandersforIndianaSenate

https://www.instagram.com/davidfordistrict23/

https://x.com/davidsandersrep

https://bsky.app/profile/davidsanderssci.bsky.social

On this week’s episode, host Scott Aaron Rogers is joined by Democratic Secretary of State candidate Blythe Potter and Hancock County Democratic Party vice chair Chuck Gill for a wide-ranging conversation covering a month’s worth of compounding crises. The panel works through the whiplash of the Iran ceasefire negotiations — from the prospect of a 60-day memorandum of understanding to Trump’s weekend backpedaling — alongside Israel’s expanding military operations in Lebanon and Gaza, a Russian drone strike on Romanian soil that tested NATO’s resolve, and the mounting economic fallout of the Iran war, including 3.8% inflation, diesel topping six dollars a gallon, and an AI-inflated stock market Andrew Ross Sorkin says is headed for a crash. From there the show turns to Pope Leo XIV’s landmark encyclical *Magnifica Humanitas* and its call to subject artificial intelligence to human and moral limits, before pivoting to Indiana Lieutenant Governor Micah Beckwith’s declaration that Islam is a “demonic death cult” and the disgust it produced even within his own party. The back half of the show covers the hunger strike and protests at Delaney Hall ICE detention facility in Newark, the Trump DOJ’s subpoenas of Reddit and X users who criticized ICE, the administration’s $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization” slush fund for January 6th defendants, the gutting of *60 Minutes* under CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss, Ken Paxton’s Republican Senate primary win in Texas and what it means for Democrat James Talarico’s chances in November, and a raft of Indiana stories: the Martindale-Brightwood clergy demanding Mayor Hogsett halt the MetroBlox data center project, the LEAP District water conflict of interest, the Cummins AI theft verdict, Diego Morales’s implosion ahead of the Republican SOS convention, the naming of Jessica Bailey and Coumba Kebe as Democratic candidates for comptroller and treasurer, the Gary gun lawsuit dying after 27 years, and criminal charges against the New Chicago police chief.

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

00:00:34 Intro

00:04:12 Iran: Deal or No Deal?

00:13:28 Lebanon, Gaza, and the Greater Israel Project

00:21:01 Ukraine, Romania, and the NATO Question

00:27:39 Economic Fallout: Inflation, Energy, and the AI Bubble

00:34:07 Indiana Under Pressure: Property Taxes, Marijuana, and Republican Half-Measures

00:39:04 Pope Leo XIV and *Magnifica Humanitas*

00:46:15 Micah Beckwith’s Anti-Muslim Remarks

00:52:43 Immigration: Delaney Hall, Sanctuary Cities, and Administrative Ethnic Cleansing

01:06:38 Crossroads Commons of Salem — Sponsor

01:07:38 DOJ Weaponization: Carroll, Reddit Subpoenas, and the J6 Slush Fund

01:23:32 Surveillance, Data Centers, and Anti-Tech “Extremism”

01:34:03 Indiana Data Centers: NIPSCO, LEAP District, and the Eagle Creek Conflict

01:38:03 60 Minutes, Bari Weiss, and the Consolidation of Media

01:41:09 Texas: Ken Paxton Wins, James Talarico’s Path

01:47:53 Indiana Politics: Morales Implodes, Convention Slates Set

01:53:04 Northwest Indiana: Gary Gun Lawsuit, New Chicago Police Corruption

01:58:08 Outro

IN DEPTH:

War on Multiple Fronts

• This Week in Iran

  • Monday

    • Trump says ‘mandatory’ for Muslim nations involved in Iran deal to join Abraham Accords (Times of Israel)

      • Trump is demanding six Muslim-majority nations — Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt, and Jordan — sign the Abraham Accords as a condition of any Iran nuclear deal.

      • Saudi Arabia’s response: normalization with Israel only happens with an “irreversible pathway” to Palestinian statehood — a flat no for now.

      • When Trump pitched the idea to those leaders on a call, the response was dead silence. Trump literally asked if they were still on the line.

      • Israeli officials are alarmed by the emerging deal, warning it doesn’t address Iran’s nukes, missiles, or proxies — just a 60-day ceasefire extension that gives Tehran time to recover.

      • Trump is floating the idea of Iran itself eventually joining the Abraham Accords — a nation sworn to Israel’s destruction.

    • US military launches strikes on southern Iran amid talks in Qatar (Al Jazeera)

      • The US launched “self-defense” strikes on southern Iran — missile launch sites and boats attempting to lay mines — even as Iranian negotiators were sitting down in Doha for peace talks.

      • Several IRGC personnel were killed; Iranian sources say the IRGC had targeted a vessel at sea before the US struck.

      • A ceasefire has technically been in place since April 8, but skirmishes have continued throughout — Trump has previously declined to call them ceasefire violations.

      • Iran’s top negotiators, including Foreign Minister Araghchi, were in Qatar for talks Trump called “proceeding nicely” — the strikes may derail them.

      • Iran’s foreign ministry says progress has been made but no deal is imminent, and notably says nuclear program discussions are not even on the table yet — just ending the war.

  • Tuesday

    • Iran accuses U.S. of violating ceasefire and threatens retaliation after new strikes (NBC)

      • Iran formally accused the US of a “clear ceasefire violation” and threatened retaliation, while the IRGC claimed to have shot down an MQ-9 drone and driven off an F-35.

      • US officials say the strikes were a direct response to 24 hours of Iranian missile, drone, and small boat activity near the Strait of Hormuz — including surface-to-air missile launches while US aircraft were in the area.

      • Despite the flareup, Secretary of State Rubio told reporters in India a deal could be done in “a couple of days” — down to “disagreements over a word, a sentence.”

      • The framework on the table: a memorandum of understanding ending the war and reopening Hormuz, followed by 60 days to negotiate a full peace deal — with unfreezing Iranian assets in Qatar as a key Iranian demand.

  • Wednesday

    • US military conducts another strike against Iran after Trump says Iran is ‘negotiating on fumes’ (AP)

      • US forces shot down four Iranian attack drones near Hormuz on Wednesday and struck a ground control station in Bandar Abbas that was about to launch a fifth.

      • Trump called Iran “negotiating on fumes” while insisting the midterms won’t rush him — “I don’t care about the midterms” — though the political pressure is clearly there.

    • U.S. military accuses Iran of ceasefire violation after Kuwait comes under missile attack (PBS)

      • Iran fired missiles at Kuwait — home to US Army Central’s forward HQ — in retaliation for the Wednesday drone strikes, with the US calling it an “egregious ceasefire violation.”

      • Kuwait’s air defenses intercepted the incoming missiles and drones; Kuwait’s Foreign Ministry condemned Iran for “blatant aggression.”

      • Both sides keep accusing each other of ceasefire violations and trading strikes all week — but neither has returned to full-scale war and negotiations continue.

    • Trump threatens to ‘blow up’ Oman amid talks over strait of Hormuz (Guardian)

      • Trump threatened to “blow up” Oman — a US ally and key war mediator — if it doesn’t “behave,” in a casual aside at his Cabinet meeting.

      • The threat came after reports that Iran is pushing Oman to jointly charge tolls on ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has blockaded since late February.

      • Trump was unequivocal: no one controls the strait — “Nobody’s going to control it. We’re going to watch over it.”

  • Thursday

    • Scoop: U.S. and Iran reach deal but need Trump’s final approval, officials say (Axios)

      • US and Iranian negotiators have agreed on terms for a 60-day MOU to extend the ceasefire and launch nuclear talks — but Trump hasn’t signed off yet, and Iran hasn’t formally confirmed acceptance.

      • Key terms: unrestricted Strait of Hormuz shipping, Iran removes all mines within 30 days, US lifts its naval blockade proportionally, some sanctions waivers allowing Iran to sell oil, and an Iranian commitment not to pursue a nuclear weapon.

      • The thorniest issues — how to dispose of Iran’s highly enriched uranium and what enrichment Iran can keep — are punted to negotiations during the 60-day window, along with sanctions relief and frozen assets.

      • The MOU also states the Israel-Hezbollah war in Lebanon would end — a provision that has already caused “at least one tense discussion” between Trump and Netanyahu.

  • Friday

    • Guess What Jared Kushner Tried to Include in Iran Peace Deal? (TNR)

      • Iran demanded reparations for war destruction, putting the price tag at $300 billion — and Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, both real estate investors, apparently pitched promoting real estate projects and an investment fund for Tehran as part of any peace deal.

      • The optics are brutal: Kushner is already under investigation for cashing in on foreign investment funds, and the right spent years screaming about Obama unfreezing $1.7 billion for Iran — Trump’s guys are now floating a check nearly 200 times that size.

  • Deal or no Deal?

    • Iran official says Trump is stalling talks with ‘excessive demands’ as wait for breakthrough continues (NBC)

      • Trump held a Situation Room meeting Friday to make a “final determination” on the deal — and walked out saying nothing.

      • A senior Arab mediator told NBC the deal was actually closed in Doha three days ago: “now everyone is playing a game of chicken and egg.”

      • Iran is calling US demands “excessive” and accusing Trump of “betraying diplomacy for the third time.”

      • Iran’s foreign ministry reiterated Friday that nuclear issues aren’t even being discussed yet — just ending the war.

    • Trump tightens terms on Iran war deal, US media say (Al Jazeera)

      • Trump sent the Iran deal framework back with toughened terms — particularly around nuclear material — and US officials say it could take up to a week for Iran to respond, with one official saying, “They’re literally in caves, and they’re not using email.”

      • Iran’s chief negotiator Ghalibaf was blunt on Sunday: “There is no trust in the enemy’s words and promises. Our only criterion is to achieve tangible results before we fulfill our commitments.”

      • Meanwhile, Iran’s military reasserted control over the Strait of Hormuz, warning foreign vessels they would be targeted if they didn’t comply with Iranian regulations — hardly the posture of a side ready to sign.

    • Republican lawmakers warn of ‘disastrous mistake’ as Trump nears deal with Iran (Guardian)

      • Republican hawks — Wicker, Graham, Cruz, Cotton, and Pompeo — are openly panning the emerging deal, with Cruz warning that an Iran still enriching uranium, receiving billions, and controlling Hormuz would be a “disastrous mistake.”

      • Lindsey Graham asked the quiet part loud: if Iran can still terrorize the strait and threaten Gulf oil infrastructure after all this, “it makes one wonder why the war started to begin with.”

      • Pompeo called the terms “not remotely America First” and compared them directly to Obama’s 2015 nuclear deal — the one Trump spent years trashing.

      • Trump tried to walk back his own “largely negotiated” claim after the blowback, insisting nobody had seen the deal and it “isn’t even fully negotiated yet” — then told critics not to listen to “losers.”

      • Graham then did a full 180 within hours, calling Trump’s Abraham Accords pitch “brilliant” — a reminder of how fast MAGA spines straighten when the boss pushes back.

    • Ro Khanna Urges Fellow Democrats to Stop Trying to Out Hawk Trump on Iran War (Common Dreams)

      • Rep. Ro Khanna is calling out fellow Democrats for attacking Trump from the right on Iran, accusing colleagues of essentially telling Trump to “go blow up more things” rather than supporting a negotiated end to a war that has killed over 3,400 Iranians.

      • Sens. Booker and Murphy and Rep. Wasserman Schultz have all condemned the emerging deal for being too soft — echoing Republican hawk talking points about unfreezing Iranian assets and leaving the nuclear program unresolved.

      • Worth noting: Booker has taken over $800,000 from pro-Israel groups including AIPAC; Wasserman Schultz over $1.4 million.

      • A March Pew poll found nearly 90% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents said Trump was wrong to go to war with Iran — making the hawk caucus badly out of step with its own base.

      • Khanna’s counter-argument: Democrats should be the anti-war party, support the negotiation, and stop goading Trump into more conflict — a position historian Stephen Wertheim called what “the vast majority of Democrats believe, but too few of their leaders say.”

• The Israeli Angle

  • Monday

    • Israel pounds Lebanon with fresh air strikes, vows to ‘crush’ Hezbollah (France 24)

      • Netanyahu ordered a major escalation in Lebanon, vowing to “crush” Hezbollah despite the April ceasefire — Israeli strikes hit southern Lebanon, the Bekaa Valley, and suburbs of Beirut.

      • Far-right Finance Minister Smotrich called for 10 Beirut buildings to fall for every drone strike; Ben Gvir demanded “intensive warfare” and pushing north beyond the Litani River.

      • Lebanon and Israel are still at the negotiating table in Washington, but Hezbollah leader Qassem refuses direct talks and won’t disarm — Rubio accused him of trying to “plunge Lebanon back into chaos.”

  • Tuesday

    • Israeli Strikes in Southern Lebanon Kill at Least 31 People (Democracy Now)

      • Israeli strikes killed at least 31 people and wounded 40 in southern Lebanon on Tuesday alone — over 120 airstrikes in a single day, one of the heaviest bombardments in weeks.

      • Israeli troops have begun operating beyond the “Yellow Line,” pushing deeper into Lebanese territory despite the April ceasefire.

      • Over a million Lebanese have been displaced since March 2; more than 3,100 have been killed in Israeli attacks.

  • Thursday

    • Netanyahu says he told IDF to seize 70% of Gaza, well beyond terms of truce (Times of Israel)

      • Netanyahu ordered the IDF to seize 70% of Gaza — already beyond the 53% permitted under the October ceasefire — and when an audience member shouted that Israel should take “100%,” Netanyahu replied: “First 70%. We’ll start with that.”

      • Israeli-backed militias are functioning as shock troops along the yellow line, forcing Palestinian civilians out at gunpoint — and are now being equipped with heavy military drones, likely supplied by Israel.

      • Defense Minister Israel Katz confirmed the endgame: “voluntary migration” — what human rights groups call ethnic cleansing by making Gaza uninhabitable.

      • One analyst’s assessment: ceasefire negotiations with Hamas are effectively over, and the US fallback plan is to let Israel “deal with” anyone remaining in the Hamas zone “as they want.”

  • Friday

    • Netanyahu confirms troops crossed Litani, as Pentagon hosts Israeli-Lebanon security talks (Times of Israel)

      • Netanyahu confirmed Israeli troops crossed the Litani River — long considered the benchmark for pushing Hezbollah north — while also striking Beirut and the Bekaa Valley simultaneously.

      • Since the April 16 Lebanon “ceasefire,” 55 children have been killed and 212 wounded; UNICEF called last week’s toll of 15 dead children “staggering.”

      • WHO reports 608 deaths and 1,774 injuries in Lebanon from April 17 to May 22 alone, with 16 hospitals and 13 primary healthcare centers damaged and three hospitals closed entirely.

      • Israeli strikes have hit or come dangerously close to multiple UNESCO World Heritage sites, including the ruins of Tyre and Beaufort Castle — Lebanon’s culture minister says they constitute potential violations of the 1954 Hague Convention.

• Russia-Ukraine

  • Russia uses hypersonic Oreshnik missile in mass attack on Kyiv (AP)

    • Russia hit Kyiv with a mass attack Sunday — 600 drones and 90 missiles — killing at least 2 and wounding 83, damaging residential buildings, schools, and areas near government offices.

    • For only the third time in the war, Russia deployed the Oreshnik hypersonic ballistic missile, striking the city of Bila Tserkva in the Kyiv region — a weapon capable of carrying nuclear warheads.

    • Russia framed it as retaliation for a Ukrainian drone strike on a college dormitory in Russian-occupied Luhansk that killed 21 people.

    • Ukraine’s air defenses intercepted 549 of 600 drones and 55 of 90 missiles — a strong performance, but the sheer volume of the attack overwhelmed full coverage.

  • Russia warns foreign nationals to leave Kyiv after large attack (The Hill)

    • Russia followed up the Kyiv attack by warning all foreign nationals — including diplomatic personnel — to leave the city immediately, threatening further strikes on “decision-making centres and command posts.”

    • Zelenskyy said the US has made no progress on expanding anti-ballistic missile production, and Ukraine is now trying to accelerate development of its own capabilities in Europe.

    • Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov held a call Monday covering both Ukraine and Iran — no details on substance.

  • Russian drone targeting Ukraine hits apartment building in Romania, injuring 2, officials say (AP)

    • A Russian Geran-2 drone targeting Ukraine went astray and struck an apartment building in Galați, Romania Friday — a NATO member — injuring two people and sparking a fire.

    • Romania expelled the Russian consul and closed the consulate in response; Romanian President Dan confirmed the drone’s trajectory through Ukraine into Romanian airspace.

    • Putin, asked about it in Kazakhstan, claimed no one can determine the drone’s origin — Romanian officials identified it as Russian with full trajectory data.

    • NATO expressed “absolute solidarity” but took no formal action; the EU is drafting a 21st sanctions package against Moscow.

  • Putin adviser warns EU after drone hits Romania: ‘The peaceful sleep is over’ (The Hill)

    • Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chair of Russia’s Security Council and former Russian president, responded to the Romania drone strike with a direct threat to EU citizens: “Your authorities have unilaterally entered into a war with Russia. The peaceful sleep is over. But you know who to ask why.”

    • Earlier in the week, Medvedev had mocked the EU’s decision to keep diplomats in Kyiv despite Russia’s evacuation warnings: “Apparently they’ve got diplomats to spare and need to trim the headcount.”

    • NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte called Russia’s behavior “reckless” and reaffirmed the alliance’s commitment to defend every inch of allied territory — but again, no formal action beyond condemnation.

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Economic Fallout

• US munitions depleted by Iran war will take years to restore (CSIS)

  • The Iran war burned through US munitions at a staggering rate — over 1,000 Tomahawks, 1,100+ JASSMs, and up to 1,430 Patriot interceptors — creating a multi-year window of vulnerability, particularly for a potential Western Pacific conflict with China.

  • Tomahawks won’t be back to prewar levels until late 2030; THAAD and Patriot until mid-2029 — and that’s assuming production ramps up as planned.

  • The problem isn’t money — it’s time. Complex missile systems take years to build, and no amount of emergency funding fixes a 34-month production lead time.

  • Allied orders from Japan, Australia, Saudi Arabia, and others are now competing with US restocking needs, already creating “bilateral friction” that will persist for years.

• US inflation rose at fastest pace in three years in April as Iran war hikes up prices (Guardian)

  • US inflation hit 3.8% in April — fastest pace in three years — driven by energy prices from the Iran war; gasoline is up more than 50% since the war started in late February.

  • Real household income fell for the third straight month, consumer spending growth is slowing, and the personal savings rate dropped to 2.6% — lowest since June 2022 — as Americans drain savings to cover costs.

  • The Fed is now eyeing rate hikes, not cuts — the opposite of what Trump has been demanding, and a direct collision course with his newly installed Fed chair Kevin Warsh.

  • GDP growth for Q1 was revised down to 1.6%; economists expect consumers to pull back further as tax refund cushions run out and war uncertainty persists.

• Why a peace deal with Iran won’t save the economy from energy-market chaos this summer (Business Insider)

  • Even if a peace deal is signed tomorrow, energy experts say oil markets won’t normalize for at least three months minimum — shippers and insurers need to regain confidence the Strait is safe before reconfiguring traffic.

  • The US is drawing on reserves, not experiencing true shortages yet — but one analyst estimates US buffer crude stores run out around July 4, at which point actual fuel shortages begin.

  • Jet fuel goes first: Goldman Sachs warns European commercial jet fuel inventories could fall below critical levels by June, with flight cancellations likely through the summer travel season.

  • Diesel is already at $6+ per gallon nationally, working its way into the cost of virtually every consumer product; one firm predicts oil could surpass its 2008 peak of $150 a barrel.

• CNBC Host Tells ’60 Minutes’ Top CEOs Are ‘Very Scared’ to Criticize Donald Trump (Yahoo Finance)

  • CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin told 60 Minutes that most American CEOs are “very scared” to criticize Trump — worried about regulatory retaliation, blocked mergers, and agency interference.

  • Sorkin, who was promoting a book about the 1929 crash, was blunt: “We will have a crash. I just can’t tell you when, and I can’t tell you how deep.”

• Indiana Angle

  • Braun pitches more property tax relief for older Hoosiers (Axios)

    • Gov. Braun signed HEA 1210, giving totally disabled veterans a 100% property tax deduction on their primary residence, returning an estimated $46.2 million annually to veterans statewide.

    • Braun signaled this is just the start, floating additional relief for Hoosiers over 65 and homeowners who’ve paid off their mortgages — “Once you paid your mortgage off, why should you then have a fixed cost?”

    • Worth watching: last year’s property tax reform is already projected to cost cities, towns, and school districts up to $1.8 billion over three years, with cuts to services and staffing already underway.

  • Rokita wants to block federal marijuana shift (ICC)

    • Indiana AG Todd Rokita joined Nebraska and Louisiana in a federal lawsuit to block the DEA’s move to reclassify marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III, calling the rulemaking “arbitrary, capricious, and an abuse of discretion.”

    • Indiana is one of only 10 states with no medical or recreational marijuana — but the political winds may be shifting: GOP state Sen. Mike Bohacek is drafting 2027 medical marijuana legislation, and Gov. Braun has signaled openness to broader discussions.

    • Rokita is fighting his own governor’s direction on this one.

Religion

• Trump lashes out at Pope Leo again over Iran (Independent)

  • Donald Trump criticized Pope Leo XIV regarding Iran’s nuclear program, asserting that the country must be nuclear-free.

  • Trump reshared a social media post from Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, who had attended a prayer with Pope Leo at the Vatican.

  • In his comment, Trump suggested someone should inform the Pope that the Chicago Mayor is “useless” and that Iran cannot have nuclear weapons.

  • This marks another instance of disagreement between Trump and Pope Leo concerning Iran, following Trump’s earlier accusation that the pontiff was “endangering Catholics” by supporting Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

  • Pope Leo responded by emphasizing the Church’s mission to preach peace and its long-standing, clear opposition to all nuclear weapons.

• Pope Leo’s ‘Magnifica humanitas’: AI must serve humanity not concentrate power (Vatican News)

  • Pope Leo XIV released his first encyclical, Magnifica humanitas, on the 135th anniversary of Rerum novarum — framing AI as the defining social justice challenge of our time.

  • Core argument: AI is not inherently evil, but “technology is never neutral” — it takes on the character of those who build, fund, and control it, and must not be concentrated in the hands of a few.

  • The Pope called for AI to be “disarmed” — stripped of military, economic, and cognitive dominance — and warned that “there is no algorithm that can make war morally acceptable.”

  • On migration: how a society treats migrants is a “litmus test” for whether its sense of justice is driven by fear or fraternity — a direct implicit rebuke of current US and European policy.

  • On work: AI must not force workers to adapt to machines — machines must serve workers, not the reverse — and technology-driven unemployment in the name of profit is unacceptable.

  • On war: the “just war” theory must be overcome entirely in favor of dialogue and diplomacy, and any leader using armed conflict to distract from domestic problems is engaging in “irresponsible Realpolitik.”

• Pope Leo XIV makes historic apology for Vatican’s role in legitimizing slavery (AP)

  • Pope Leo XIV made a historic apology in the encyclical for the Vatican’s direct role in legitimizing slavery — not just Christians’ participation, but specific 15th-century papal bulls that gave European sovereigns explicit authority to conquer, subjugate, and enslave “infidels.”

  • This is a first: previous popes apologized for Christian involvement in the slave trade generally, but no pope had ever acknowledged the institutional Vatican role or apologized for it specifically.

  • Leo’s own family history makes this personal — genealogical research by Henry Louis Gates Jr. found 17 of Leo’s American ancestors were Black, and his family tree includes both enslaved people and slaveholders.

  • Leo framed the apology as inseparable from the encyclical’s AI theme: the Church must condemn digital-age trafficking and exploitation now, “if we want to avoid the need to ask for pardon again in the future.”

• Idolatry:

  • Treasury Department prepares $250 bill with Trump’s face on it (NPR)

    • The Treasury Department is preparing a $250 bill featuring Trump’s face, contingent on Congress changing a law that currently prohibits living presidents from appearing on currency — which hasn’t happened since 1866.

    • Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent held up a draft mockup at the White House briefing room, insisting they’d “stick to the law” — while making clear they’re ready to print the moment Congress acts.

    • It’s part of a broader self-branding blitz: Trump’s signature on all new currency, his face on commemorative passports and coins, his name on the Kennedy Center and the US Institute of Peace, and a banner over the Justice Department.

• Religion in Indiana

  • Lt. Gov. Beckwith: “I hate Islam.” (WFYI)

  • National Muslim group condemns Micah Beckwith after he calls Islam ‘demonic’ (IndyStar)

    • Indiana Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith declared “I hate Islam, it’s a demonic death cult” on a Christian streaming show, adding that people need “permission to hate again”

    • His FlashPoint appearance was on televangelist Kenneth Copeland’s network, where he argued some hatred is “necessary” because “God hates certain things in the Bible” — and claimed jihadists are working with Marxists to tear down society, without elaborating.

    • CAIR warned Beckwith is using his office to legitimize violence against Muslims, noting the comments came on the heels of a recent attack on a San Diego mosque; CAIR recorded a record number of anti-Muslim bias complaints in 2025.

    • Even Republican state Sen. Spencer Deery pushed back, saying rhetoric like this from Indiana’s second-highest official “makes the first impossible” when it comes to religious freedom.

    • Beckwith’s office declined to apologize, framing it as a defense of “one nation under God” — this is the same Lt. Gov. who last year called the three-fifths compromise a “great move.”

    • Beckwith’s “apology” on the close of Eid: “I hope you all become Christian.” With a heart emoji.

Immigration

• ICE agents pepper-spray protesters, N.J. senator in clash outside Delaney Hall in Newark (NJ.com)

  • ICE agents pepper-sprayed protesters — and US Sen. Andy Kim — outside Delaney Hall detention center in Newark on Memorial Day, as demonstrators protested inhumane conditions during a detainee hunger strike.

  • Kim, who had physically positioned himself between protesters and agents, described detainees telling him about a pregnant woman denied OB-GYN care, a woman who miscarried with no medical support, and an 18-year-old high school senior separated from her mother.

  • DHS called it a “political stunt,” denied any hunger strike or poor conditions, and blamed Kim for getting pepper-sprayed — while ICE described the US senator and protesters as “rioters.”

  • Members of Congress have explicit legal authority to conduct oversight visits of detention facilities; Kim said he had to personally call DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin just to get inside.

• ‘We are not criminals’: protests erupt as hunger strike rocks New Jersey ICE jail (Guardian)

  • Between 300 and 400 detainees are participating in the strike, demanding edible food — detainees reported finding worms in their meals — plus working ventilation, medical care, and movement on their immigration cases.

  • The facility has a grim track record: a Haitian man died there in December, detainees pushed down a wall and four escaped last June, and Newark’s mayor was arrested outside it last May.

  • A released detainee told the Guardian: “If they freed us, we wouldn’t generate profit for this business.”

  • At least seven journalists were pepper-sprayed by ICE agents during Tuesday night’s clashes; one protester was tased in the back while fleeing, went rigid, and was carried into the facility.

  • Delaney Hall is run by GEO Group, one of the largest private prison companies in the US, on a 15-year ICE contract. Detainees performing cooking, cleaning, and laundry work are paid as little as $1 an hour.

• Newark mayor orders curfew around Delaney Hall as protesters, police clash (The Hill)

  • Newark Mayor Ras Baraka imposed a nightly curfew in a half-mile radius around Delaney Hall after protesters lit tires on fire, threw projectiles, and used barriers as weapons against Newark and New Jersey State Police.

  • Gov. Sherrill and DHS Secretary Mullin found rare common ground — Sherrill deployed state police to maintain order, and DHS celebrated the crackdown on social media with all-caps triumphalism: “WE WON’T BACK DOWN.”

  • The situation has significantly escalated from where it started — what began as a hunger strike over inhumane conditions has now resulted by Sunday in a government-imposed curfew, street closures, and DHS celebrating “securing” the area around a detention facility on American soil.

• Elizabeth Warren Has Some Questions for the Private Prison Executive Running ICE (Mother Jones)

  • Trump’s new acting ICE director, David Venturella, appointed May 12, spent more than a decade as a GEO Group executive — the same private prison company running Delaney Hall — where he made at least $6 million and negotiated major federal contracts.

  • GEO Group is having its best year ever: $520 million in new annual revenues from ICE contracts in 2025, “the largest amount of new business” in company history — and Venturella now sits on the other side of the table negotiating those contracts.

  • Sen. Elizabeth Warren is demanding Venturella recuse himself from all matters that could benefit GEO Group and make his ethics disclosures public, writing: “Americans should not have to wonder whether ICE enforcement priorities are being driven by the financial interests of politically connected detention contractors.”

• ‘Dire’ conditions at ICE facility severely violate human rights, lawsuit claims (Guardian)

  • The ACLU, ACLU of Texas, and Human Rights Watch filed the first lawsuit against Camp East Montana — the largest immigration detention facility in the US, a sprawling desert tent camp on Fort Bliss — alleging beatings by guards, sexual harassment during pat-downs, solitary confinement, rotten food, measles and tuberculosis outbreaks, and three deaths in less than a year.

  • Only 20% of those detained have any criminal background — the lawsuit argues the cruelty is “by design,” meant to terrorize immigrants into abandoning their legal claims.

  • A Cameroonian plaintiff who said he had survived torture in Africa stated: “I never thought I would experience such severely violent treatment by guards here in the United States of America.”

  • ICE has simultaneously gutted the watchdog agencies meant to monitor detention conditions and is blocking members of Congress from conducting legally authorized oversight visits.

• Trump’s DoJ sues four states for denying ICE agents undercover license plates (Guardian)

  • The Trump DOJ sued Maine, Massachusetts, Oregon, and Washington state for refusing to issue undercover license plates to ICE agents, arguing the states discriminate against federal law enforcement.

  • Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey’s response was blunt: “We are not going to use state resources to help ICE operate in secret, and without accountability.”

• Trump team is ‘drawing up’ plans to stop international flights to some Democratic cities (Independent)

  • DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin threatened to halt processing of international flights into sanctuary cities — including Newark, Boston, Chicago, LA, New York, Seattle, and San Francisco — as retaliation for local non-cooperation with ICE.

  • The timing is particularly reckless: tens of millions of tourists are expected to flood into the US next month for the FIFA World Cup, with games at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey — one of the targeted cities.

  • The US Travel Association warned the move would have “devastating consequences” for the travel industry and communities dependent on international visitors.

• New USCIS Memo May Force Most Green Card Applicants to Apply from Abroad, Causing Chaos and Confusion (American Immigration Council)

  • A new USCIS memo quietly reframes green card applications filed inside the US as “extraordinary discretionary relief” — effectively forcing hundreds of thousands of legal applicants to leave the country and apply from abroad.

  • The catch: leaving the US triggers multi-year re-entry bars for many applicants, meaning complying with the new policy could permanently destroy their cases and separate them from their US citizen family members.

  • Some applicants — including abuse survivors on Special Immigrant Juvenile Status — have no consular processing option at all; others are nationals of 75 countries where the State Department has indefinitely paused immigrant visa processing.

  • USCIS has issued conflicting guidance and hasn’t clarified whether the new standard applies to already-pending applications — attorneys are already reporting clients being asked to demonstrate “extraordinary circumstances” mid-process.

  • Bottom line: this isn’t about undocumented immigrants — in FY2023, over 600,000 people adjusted status from inside the US legally. This memo puts all of them at risk.

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Weaponization

• Actual Weaponization

  • Trump DOJ Seeks Names of Social Media Users Critical of ICE (Mediaite)

    • Trump DOJ, via US Attorney Jeanine Pirro, subpoenaed Reddit and X for the names, addresses, and bank information of users who posted criticism of ICE — part of a criminal investigation, though neither user was told what crime they’re suspected of.

    • The users only found out about the probe from the social media companies, not the DOJ; their attorneys call it “a bad faith attempt to unmask” dissenters rather than a legitimate criminal investigation.

    • The DOJ’s pattern: start with an administrative summons, then escalate to a grand jury subpoena — both signed by the same prosecutor, both directing records delivered to an ICE office.

    • Reddit is fighting back; X did not respond to comment requests.

  • Tracking retaliatory use of arrests, prosecutions, and investigations by the Trump administration (Protect Democracy)

    • The tracker documents 22 cases of alleged retaliatory DOJ investigations, arrests, or prosecutions since January 2025, targeting figures including James Comey, John Bolton, Adam Schiff, NY AG Letitia James, Fed Chair Jerome Powell, Sen. Mark Kelly, the Southern Poverty Law Center, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, and others — often preceded by direct public threats from Trump himself.

    • Several cases have already collapsed: the grand jury refused to indict the former military lawmakers, Jeanine Pirro dropped the Powell investigation, charges against Kat Abughazaleh were fully dismissed, and the Letitia James indictment was thrown out for unlawful appointment of the prosecutor.

    • Comey was indicted a second time — this time for allegedly threatening the president via a social media post featuring seashells arranged in the pattern “8647.” His lead prosecutor has since stepped down.

  • Justice Department launches a criminal investigation into Trump accuser E. Jean Carroll (CNN)

    • The DOJ launched a criminal perjury investigation into E. Jean Carroll, 82 — the woman who won $88 million in judgments against Trump for sexual abuse and defamation — focused on a 2022 deposition statement that she received no outside funding for her lawsuit, before it emerged that billionaire Reid Hoffman had covered some legal fees.

    • The probe was referred to federal prosecutors in Chicago — notably not New York where the deposition occurred — apparently because Hoffman has a nonprofit based there.

    • Acting AG Todd Blanche had to recuse himself because he was one of Trump’s personal attorneys on the Carroll appeals.

    • One day after CNN published the story, the US Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois said his office had “never opened” such an investigation — sources then reaffirmed it to CNN anyway, suggesting internal DOJ confusion or deliberate misdirection.

    • Carroll’s jury awards — $5 million for sexual abuse, $83 million for defamation — are both under appeal, with the Supreme Court having deferred its decision on whether to take up the case twelve times.

  • Federal inquiry into E Jean Carroll part of investigation into Reid Hoffman non-profit (Guardian)

    • The real target appears to be Reid Hoffman’s nonprofit, American Future Republic, with the investigation involving potential money-laundering conspiracy and obstruction — Carroll herself is reportedly not the subject.

    • This fits a clear pattern: the DOJ filed similar money-laundering conspiracy charges against the Southern Poverty Law Center in April — charges legal experts called flimsy — and has also pushed prosecutors to crack down on a George Soros-backed nonprofit. The DOJ is systematically targeting major Democratic donors’ organizations.

  • Trump says judge who ruled against him on Kennedy Center ‘should be brought up on charges’ (Independent)

    • A federal judge blocked Trump’s Kennedy Center renaming and renovation plans, ruling that only Congress — not Trump’s hand-picked board — can change the name of the Kennedy Center.

    • Trump responded with a 700-word Truth Social screed demanding the judge be “IMPEACHED,” accusing him of ruling against Trump because “his wife probably told him to do so,” and threatening that the Kennedy Center “will soon be closed, probably never to open again.”

    • Worth noting who’s on that “distinguished board” that unanimously voted to add Trump’s name: White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scovino, JD Vance’s wife, Howard Lutnick’s wife, and Trump himself.

    • More than a dozen major acts have already canceled Kennedy Center performances since the renaming.

• What They Call ‘Weaponization’

  • Capitol rioters clamor for payouts from Trump’s new ‘anti-weaponization’ fund despite backlash (AP)

    • Trump created a $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization” fund — originally tied to an IRS lawsuit over the leak of his tax returns — and January 6 rioters who pleaded guilty under oath to storming the Capitol are now lining up to claim taxpayer money from it.

    • Nearly 1,600 people were charged with Capitol riot-related crimes; over 1,200 were convicted before Trump issued mass pardons, including members of far-right extremist groups who plotted to violently keep Trump in power.

    • Acting AG Todd Blanche refused to rule out payments to violent J6 defendants, punting all decisions to five commissioners — none of whom have been named yet — while a federal judge has already frozen the fund and at least three lawsuits are challenging it.

    • One pardoned J6 attorney is already charging fellow rioters a 10% cut to file claims on their behalf — even though no application process exists. A Michigan fake elector declared “I want vengeance and I want retribution.” A Texas man sentenced to seven years for storming the Capitol with a metal tomahawk called it “payback.”

    • One rioter who rejected both the pardon and the payout said it best: “We weren’t innocently persecuted just because of who we are. We were persecuted for committing criminal behavior in the Capitol of the United States.”

  • Judge pauses Trump administration’s ‘anti-weaponization’ fund (Politico)

    • A federal judge has frozen the anti-weaponization fund, blocking any payments until at least a June 12 hearing — ruling urgently because she feared cash could start flowing before the legal challenge played out.

    • Even Senate Republicans are furious: Sen. Ted Cruz said colleagues were yelling at Acting AG Blanche in a closed-door meeting, calling the fund “foolish” and politically toxic ahead of the midterms.

    • The DOJ responded by accusing the judge of acting on “policy preferences” rather than law — the same playbook Trump uses every time a court rules against him.

  • Judge reopens Trump’s IRS suit to examine $1.8bn settlement with justice department (Guardian)

    • Different judge — this is Miami Judge Kathleen Williams, an Obama appointee, who reopened Trump’s original IRS lawsuit. The freeze we just covered was from Judge Leonie Brinkema in Virginia. Two separate courts, two separate legal challenges.

    • A bipartisan group of 35 former federal judges urged Judge Williams to reopen Trump’s IRS case, arguing the settlement “is a product of collusion and is itself a fraud on the court.”

    • The core allegation: Trump used his own lawsuit against his own government to obtain unlawful private benefits — including a provision permanently shielding the Trump family from future IRS audits, signed only by Acting AG Blanche.

    • Williams could ultimately compel DOJ officials, including Blanche, to testify about how the settlement was reached and who it actually benefits.

    • Bonus irony: former Trump attorney Michael Cohen says he’ll apply for the anti-weaponization fund, arguing he suffered “identical” persecution to those who inspired it.

Media/Tech

• US Law Enforcement Warns of ‘Anti-Tech Extremism’ as AI Hatred Grows (Wired)

  • DHS, the FBI, and 80 fusion centers are now surveilling a new domestic threat category: “anti-tech violent extremism” — a term that doesn’t exist in any public DHS or FBI threat guide and is broad enough to sweep in peaceful data center protesters and AI skeptics.

  • Trump’s National Security Presidential Memo 7 instructs DOJ to target anyone holding “anti-American,” “anti-Christian,” and “anti-capitalism” beliefs — the surveillance apparatus is being explicitly directed by White House ideology.

  • Fusion centers are monitoring Tesla Takedown protests, town hall meetings where residents oppose local data centers, and a progressive nonprofit video about data center impacts — none involving any violence.

  • A private intelligence contractor flagged a More Perfect Union video about data center harms to residents as a potential threat — the video contained no advocacy for violence whatsoever.

  • The expert whose work is circulating in fusion centers warns: “Anti-technology violence is unacceptable, but it should not be used as an excuse to securitize AI and silence those critical of its current trajectory.”

• New Intel Bureau Eyes AI Data Center Critics (Ken Klippenstein)

  • Congress now has its own intelligence agency — the Capitol Police Intelligence Services Bureau, created after January 6 — and it’s producing threat reports about data center critics and distributing them to fusion centers nationwide, despite admitting in the same report that “the US Capitol Police is not investigating any data center-motivated threats to Members of Congress.”

  • The trigger for the report appears to be a shooting at the home of an Indianapolis city councilman who supported a local data center project — a real incident, but one without an arrest or confirmed motive.

  • A Gallup poll this month found seven in ten Americans oppose local data center construction — making “anti-tech extremism” a surveillance category that potentially covers the majority of the US public.

• Shake Up at ‘60 Minutes’ as CBS News Ousts Executive Producer Tanya Simon, Correspondents Cecilia Vega, Sharyn Alfonsi; Taps Nick Bilton to Run Newsmagazine (Variety)

  • CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss ousted 60 Minutes’ two senior executive producers and two veteran correspondents, replacing them with Nick Bilton — a former NYT tech columnist with no TV production experience — as only the fifth leader in the show’s nearly 60-season history.

  • The shake-up follows Paramount’s $16 million settlement with Trump to end a lawsuit over the Kamala Harris interview — a deal made while seeking regulatory approval for its Skydance sale, which drove out two senior CBS executives who said they could no longer resist corporate pressure to placate the White House.

  • Weiss previously held a completed 60 Minutes segment about migrants sent to El Salvador — after it had already been publicly promoted — demanding additional Trump administration comment in what staffers saw as an attempt to soften a story unfavorable to the administration.

  • Under Weiss, both CBS Mornings and the revamped CBS Evening News have lost viewers; staffers fear a 60 Minutes overhaul will alienate the loyal Sunday audience that generates over $200 million in annual ad revenue.

• Indiana Tech

  • ‘It’s going to be an eyesore’ | Clergy take stand against Metrobloks data center, call on Mayor Hogsett to stop project (WTHR)

    • Clergy from Martindale-Brightwood — a historically Black neighborhood on Indianapolis’s near northeast side — are demanding Mayor Hogsett stop the Metrobloks data center project, a 70-foot-tall, 150,000-square-foot facility at 25th and Sherman.

    • Their concerns: rising utility costs for residents and churches, noise, and the sheer size of the structure in their neighborhood — plus public incentive dollars going to a project the community never wanted.

    • Hogsett has repeatedly refused to meet with the clergy, passing them off to lower-level city staff; the city is now hiding behind pending litigation as its reason for silence.

    • Opponents have filed a civil complaint for judicial review of the zoning approval process — the project has cleared all legislative hurdles but the legal fight isn’t over.

  • Cummins to pay $23M to California AI company for misappropriating trade secrets (WFYI)

    • A Delaware jury ordered Columbus, Indiana-based Cummins Inc. to pay $23 million to California AI firm C3 AI after finding Cummins secretly hired a team in India to replicate C3’s proprietary fuel-efficiency AI application.

    • Cummins was caught when a staffer was accidentally copied on an internal email revealing the plan — and when confronted, was forced to admit it.

    • C3 had originally sought between $500 million and $1 billion; Cummins says it “disagrees with the outcome” but respects the process.

  • Data centers need a lot of energy. Some turn to fossil fuels for power (IndyStar)

    • Indiana is in the middle of a hyperscale data center gold rush — Meta, Google, Microsoft, and Amazon are building massive facilities across the state, with single data centers requiring as much electricity as the entire city of Indianapolis.

    • The energy answer so far is largely fossil fuels: NIPSCO is building two new natural gas plants totaling 2,600 megawatts and just cut a deal to purchase power from the Merom coal plant in Sullivan County — a facility that was supposed to retire in 2023.

    • Utility plans are often buried in regulatory filings or kept secret entirely: in Lebanon, Meta is building a $10 billion, 1,000 megawatt facility already under construction, and the local cooperative has provided virtually no information about how it will be powered.

    • One exception: AES Indiana is partially powering a Google facility with solar and battery storage, and Meta’s Duke Energy data center in Jeffersonville runs on carbon-free power.

  • City may delay Eagle Creek reservoir negotiations to study LEAP impact (IndyStar)

    • Indianapolis is likely to extend its water use agreement with Citizens Energy Group by one year rather than renegotiate now, giving the city time to study how the LEAP district’s water demands may impact Eagle Creek Reservoir.

    • The concern: Citizens plans to transport up to 25 million gallons of water a day to Lebanon’s LEAP district, and treated wastewater from LEAP would be discharged back into the reservoir — with the current contract containing no limits on pollutant levels from that discharge.

    • Environmental advocates are worried about impacts on Eagle Creek Park’s migrating bird habitat, which depends on the reservoir’s mudflats — and a $108,000 study has been commissioned to examine the full consequences before any long-term contract is signed.

  • Indianapolis hired hydrologist with LEAP district ties (Mirror Indy)

    • Indianapolis hired hydrologist Jack Wittman to study Eagle Creek Reservoir’s water capacity for the new Citizens Energy contract — but Wittman previously worked for the firm that conducted the 2023 study concluding there was enough water to establish the LEAP district in the first place.

    • The Board of Public Works approved the $108,000 contract on a narrow 4-3 vote over conflict-of-interest objections from residents and board members.

    • DPW’s defense: it’s hard to find a water expert in Indiana who hasn’t worked with Citizens Energy or the LEAP district — which is either a reasonable explanation or a damning indictment of how incestuous Indiana’s water policy world is, depending on your perspective.

    • Residents won’t get a chance to comment on Wittman’s findings before the city uses them to negotiate a new 50-year contract.

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Elections

• Texas Run-offs

  • Ken Paxton defeats John Cornyn for U.S. Senate GOP nomination (Texas Tribune)

    • Ken Paxton — indicted for felony securities fraud and impeached by his own party for corruption — just defeated four-term incumbent Sen. John Cornyn in the Texas GOP primary runoff, becoming the first challenger to unseat a sitting Texas senator from his own party since 1970.

    • Trump’s last-minute endorsement sealed it; Cornyn outspent Paxton nearly nine to one and still lost — a stark demonstration that MAGA loyalty now outweighs money, incumbency, and institutional support.

    • Cook Political Report immediately shifted Texas from “likely” to “lean” Republican — Democrats’ preferred opponent is now the nominee, and Talarico has significantly outraised Paxton.

    • Cornyn’s two cardinal sins in Trump’s eyes: casting doubt on Trump’s electability in 2023 and voting for a bipartisan gun safety bill after Uvalde.

    • The GOP establishment’s own attacks on Paxton — tens of millions spent calling his behavior “repulsive and disgusting” — now become opposition research for Talarico’s general election campaign.

  • Menefee ousts Al Green

    • Procrypto super PAC lauds Green’s loss (The Hill)

      • Pro-crypto super PAC Fairshake spent $6.5 million to oust Rep. Al Green in the Texas Democratic primary runoff — and succeeded, with Green losing to Rep. Christian Menefee by a 70-30 margin.

      • Green had voted against both major crypto bills this session, including the GENIUS Act stablecoin bill Trump signed into law; Fairshake called him “the first Democratic incumbent this cycle to lose his seat” due to “anti-crypto hostility.”

      • Fairshake initially pledged $1.5 million and ended up spending more than four times that — a preview of how aggressively the crypto industry intends to shape Congress.

    • AIPAC Celebrates ‘Anti-Israel’ Al Green Losing Primary (Newsweek)

      • AIPAC also celebrated Green’s defeat, posting congratulations to Menefee while describing Green as “one of the most outspoken anti-Israel voices in Congress” — a post seen over 400,000 times on X.

      • Green had opposed certain military aid measures to Israel and supported Palestinian statehood efforts, making him a target for both the crypto and pro-Israel lobbying industries simultaneously.

      • Bottom line: a 20-year incumbent was taken out by a combination of Republican redistricting, $6.5 million in crypto PAC money, and AIPAC opposition — a case study in how outside money and foreign policy litmus tests are reshaping Democratic primaries.

• Federal judges block Alabama’s use of 2023 congressional map (AL Reflector)

  • A federal three-judge panel blocked Alabama from using its 2023 congressional map, ruling it was deliberately drawn to dilute Black voters — even after the Supreme Court’s recent Callais decision weakened the Voting Rights Act.

  • The judges called out Alabama’s own contradiction: the state argued partisan intent in 2026, but the record contained zero evidence of partisan motive and lawmakers were explicitly warned the map would dilute Black votes before passing it anyway.

  • Alabama immediately appealed to the Supreme Court; Gov. Ivey, AG Marshall, and the Secretary of State all vowed to fight — while the House Speaker called the judges “activists handing Democrats victories in the courtroom.”

  • Ballots already cast in four congressional districts will be voided under Alabama law, adding chaos to an election cycle the state itself scrambled by calling a special primary for August.

• Effort to redraw SC voting lines fails amid record start to early voting (SC Daily Gazette)

  • South Carolina Republicans killed their own Trump-backed redistricting bill after record early voting turnout made it politically untenable — 26,000 people voted by noon on the first day, more than the entire first day of 2024 early voting.

  • The map, drawn by the National Republican Redistricting Trust in Washington and handed to the legislature with just 7 minutes and 40 seconds of testimony, would have redrawn Rep. Jim Clyburn out of the district he’s represented since 1992.

  • A conservative Republican senator delivered the killing blow: “Neither my conscience nor my common sense will allow me to stop an election underway. The deadline is past. Voting has begun.”

  • Senate Majority Leader Massey — who opposed the effort throughout — warned his colleagues plainly: “People will vote when they’re angry, and I think what we’re seeing today is that we’ve made some people mad.”

• Indiana Elections

  • Morales lashes back over loss of Indiana secretary of state race support (ICC)

    • Indiana Secretary of State Diego Morales is in freefall ahead of the June 20 Republican state convention — Sen. Jim Banks and AG Todd Rokita pulled their endorsements, State Treasurer Daniel Elliott called for his resignation, and his campaign spokesman quit.

    • The trigger: a late entry into the race by Max Engling, a Banks Senate staffer, the day before the filing deadline — widely seen as a party establishment move to push Morales out.

    • Morales is blaming his troubles on supporting Trump’s Indiana redistricting push — conveniently ignoring that Banks and Rokita were among the loudest supporters of that same push. Morales called Elliott a “close ally” of Senate President Pro Tem Rod Bray.

    • The underlying controversy involves Morales hiring a chief of staff who had been registered to vote as a noncitizen years before joining his office — she never voted, the registration was canceled in 2013, and she has since left.

  • Indiana Dems announce treasurer, comptroller candidates (ICC)

    • Indiana Democrats will nominate Porter County Clerk Jessica Bailey for comptroller and Noblesville consultant Coumba Kebe for treasurer at their June 6 convention in Indianapolis — both running unopposed.

    • Bailey is a two-term clerk with national election administration awards; Kebe is a first-generation American and healthcare advocate who just lost a primary bid for HD-29.

    • Both frame their candidacies around the same theme: after years of one-party Republican control, Hoosiers deserve independent financial oversight.

    • The Secretary of State race remains contested on the Democratic side between Beau Bayh and Blythe Potter.

  • Chair of Indiana’s Libertarian Party to lead national party (WFYI)

    • Indianapolis’s Evan McMahon, who has chaired Indiana’s Libertarian Party since 2021, was elected national chair of the Libertarian Party at a convention in Grand Rapids last weekend — a notable rise for Indiana’s third party, which has maintained automatic ballot access in the state since 1994.

NWI

• Gary’s 27-year lawsuit against gun industry dies with Indiana Supreme Court decision (IPM)

  • The Indiana Supreme Court voted 4-1 to let die Gary’s 27-year lawsuit against gun manufacturers — effectively ending the case after Republican legislators passed five separate laws over 25 years specifically designed to kill it.

  • The 2024 law that finished it off stripped cities of the right to sue gun makers, handing that authority exclusively to AG Todd Rokita — who used it to seek the lawsuit’s dismissal and then celebrated the result.

  • Brady President Kris Brown put it plainly: “The gun industry defendants got the legislators whose campaigns they fund to pass five separate laws over 25 years to end legitimate lawsuits like Gary’s.”

• Details revealed after New Chicago police chief arrested, charged with multiple felonies (NBC5)

  • New Chicago Police Chief Earl Mayo faces eight felony charges after allegedly stealing a gun seized as evidence in a criminal case, altering its tracing information, and selling it to a pawn shop in Hobart — then asking a fellow officer to buy it back and retrieve suppressed firearms from his home.

  • A second person, Tanika Roshawn Borders of Merrillville, faces charges for allegedly trying to buy back the gun from the pawn shop and attempting to destroy vials of veterinary-grade anabolic steroids belonging to Mayo.

  • New Chicago — a town of about 1,900 — has placed Mayo on administrative leave, with Lake County police taking over policing duties.

  • Mayo’s father, Indiana State Police Major Jerry Williams, is currently running for Lake County Sheriff.

    ---

If a company raises prices too aggressively, customers leave. If service declines, competitors step in. Competition disciplines bad behavior and rewards companies that serve consumers well.

That logic applies to most industries.

Electricity is different.

For the overwhelming majority of Hoosiers, there is no meaningful choice when it comes to electricity. Your provider is largely determined by where you live. You do not comparison shop. You do not negotiate. You do not threaten to take your business elsewhere. Your electric company is assigned to you in much the same way your school district or ZIP code is assigned.

Most people do not realize how unusual that arrangement is because utility monopolies have become so normal that they fade into the background. We notice them only when the bill arrives.

And lately, people have been noticing.

Across Indiana, households are opening electric bills that seem to rise faster than wages, faster than inflation, and certainly faster than anyone’s sense of control over the process. The frustration is understandable. Electricity is no longer a convenience. It is a necessity.

A century ago, electricity was a luxury. Today it powers nearly every aspect of modern life. Refrigerators preserve food. Air conditioning protects vulnerable people during dangerous heat waves. Medical devices depend on uninterrupted power. Remote work, internet access, education, and basic economic participation all require reliable electricity.

Modern life is built on the assumption that power will be available whenever we flip a switch.

That reality explains why utility monopolies were allowed to exist in the first place.

The original bargain was relatively straightforward. Building electrical infrastructure is enormously expensive. Running multiple competing sets of poles, wires, substations, and transmission systems through every community would be inefficient and costly. Rather than duplicate infrastructure, governments granted utilities exclusive service territories.

In return, those monopolies would accept public oversight.

Utilities would receive guaranteed customers. The public would receive reliable service, reasonable rates, and regulatory accountability.

For decades, that arrangement largely succeeded. Electricity expanded into rural communities, infrastructure improved, and the United States built one of the most reliable electric systems in the world.

The challenge is that monopoly systems require constant oversight. Without competition, accountability becomes the only meaningful check on power.

And that is where many consumers believe the system has drifted.

Today, utility regulation operates inside a maze of rate cases, infrastructure recovery mechanisms, fuel adjustment clauses, transmission riders, and regulatory proceedings that most people never see. The average customer interacts with the system only once a month through a bill that often seems increasingly difficult to understand.

Part of that complexity reflects legitimate realities. Maintaining power plants is expensive. Storm recovery costs money. Aging infrastructure requires investment. The electrical grid faces growing pressure from population growth, industrial expansion, artificial intelligence, and the rapid construction of energy-intensive data centers.

These are real costs.

The question is not whether investments should be made.

The question is who bears the cost, who receives the benefit, and how those decisions are made.

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In Indiana, many of those decisions ultimately pass through the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission. The commission reviews rate requests, infrastructure investments, and regulatory filings that can directly affect what consumers pay each month.

Its members are appointed rather than elected. While commissioners are selected through a structured nomination and confirmation process, most Hoosiers have little direct connection to the individuals making decisions that affect one of the most essential services in their lives.

That distance creates a problem.

Most consumers do not attend utility hearings. Most do not read regulatory filings. Most do not know when major rate cases are being debated. Meanwhile, utility companies employ teams of attorneys, consultants, lobbyists, and policy specialists whose full-time job is participating in those discussions.

The result is a growing perception that the system speaks fluently to itself while ordinary people struggle to understand the conversation.

That perception becomes especially powerful during periods of economic strain.

Families already facing higher housing costs, insurance premiums, grocery prices, and childcare expenses often experience utility increases as one more unavoidable burden. Unlike discretionary spending, electricity cannot simply be eliminated from the household budget. Few people can realistically choose to stop cooling their homes during a July heat wave or powering medical equipment because rates increased.

That is why utility frustrations feel different from frustrations with most other industries.

People can postpone buying a new television. They cannot realistically opt out of electricity.

As energy demand continues growing and infrastructure investments accelerate, that tension is likely to become even more visible. Indiana is actively competing for major industrial projects, including data centers that require enormous amounts of electricity. New infrastructure will be needed to support that growth.

The question policymakers must answer is whether the public can trust the systems making those decisions.

Trust depends on transparency. It depends on consumers understanding why costs are rising, who approved them, and what benefits they should expect in return. It depends on regulatory processes that feel accessible rather than impenetrable.

Most importantly, it depends on remembering the original bargain.

Utility companies were granted monopoly power because electricity is essential. That arrangement only works if public accountability remains stronger than the monopoly itself.

Because this debate is not really about electricity.

It is about power.

Who has it. Who benefits from it. And whether ordinary people still have a meaningful voice in the systems they depend on every single day.

https://progressiveindiana.net

SUMMARY:

Back after a one-week technical hiatus, Rev. Tony Alexander and Pastor David W. Greene Sr. anchor the hour around a double-barreled critique of racial disparity in how youth misbehavior is covered and prosecuted in Central Indiana. The first half examines a Mill Stream (Noblesville High School) article about Hamilton County fight clubs and spinout gatherings, contrasting the sympathetic economic framing the article applies to white suburban teens with the blame-and-curfew response routinely directed at Black youth in Marion County. Callers Joyce, Mayhem, Moteph, Deanna, and Reverend Phillips each add perspective on parental responsibility, media bias, and the double standard in criminal justice outcomes. The second half pivots to Indiana Democratic Party organizing: Rev. Alexander and Pastor Greene argue that Marion County Democrats are in structural disarray -- unable to run effective PC meetings, let alone mobilize for November -- while Boone and Hamilton County Democratic precinct committees are already a year into door-knocking, voter ID, and blue-wave training. Both hosts close with a direct warning that Marion County leadership must get organized or be held accountable when Indiana fails to ride a national Democratic wave.

WHAT’S INSIDE

00:00:00 Station ID and program open

- Rev. Alexander opens with Substack/Progressive Indiana Network replay information and previews the evening’s topics: Democratic conventions, delegate decisions, and racial disparities in how youth misbehavior is addressed.

- Pastor Greene joins, offers opening prayer.

00:03:29 Hamilton County fight clubs -- The Mill Stream article

- Rev. Alexander introduces a Mill Stream (Noblesville High School newspaper) article titled “The Cost of Community is Inconvenient,” covering fight clubs and teen mob gatherings at Sonic and other Hamilton County businesses.

- Article attributes the behavior to economic hardship -- teens can’t afford bowling alleys or movies -- a framing neither host has ever seen applied to similar activity in Marion County.

- Pastor Greene notes Hamilton County officials will likely suppress coverage; in Marion County, identical behavior would lead local news.

00:07:07 Double standard in narrative framing -- curfews, parents, and the article’s spin

- Pastor Greene observes that when Marion County youth misbehave, media asks “where are the parents?” and talks curfews; the Mill Stream piece never mentions parents at all.

- Rev. Alexander reads additional article passages arguing businesses, adults, and teens are all “suffering” -- language he has never seen used to describe similar incidents involving Black youth.

- Rev. Alexander: the narrative frame set at the top of an article determines the entire direction of the discussion -- starting with economic hardship leads to movie ticket subsidies, not accountability.

00:11:19 Hamilton County wealth data and the cyberbullying factor

- Pastor Greene: the article’s economic hardship framing doesn’t hold up -- Westfield, Noblesville, and Carmel data show household incomes and property values roughly three times Marion County’s.

- Both hosts note the Mill Stream’s author appears to be a Noblesville High School student, which may explain why parental accountability is absent from the piece.

- Pastor Greene: cyberbullying spans all communities and income levels and is a key driver of the fighting; resources alone won’t fix it. He expects Hamilton County to fund recreational solutions that won’t address the root cause.

- Rev. Alexander: social media connects youth across county lines -- everyone is chasing the same trends -- making the behavior universal even as the framing remains racially bifurcated.

00:18:22 Caller Joyce -- Racial double standard in parental blame

- Joyce argues the tried-and-true solution is mobilizing churches, which already have brick-and-mortar facilities, to create positive programming for young people.

- Cites her experience at Church’s Chicken giving honor roll and perfect attendance coupons as a model for bringing parents and youth into positive spaces; criticizes gatekeeping as an obstacle to youth investment.

- Rev. Alexander: in every discussion of Black youth on this station, parents are immediately implicated; this article about Hamilton County teens never goes there.

- Pastor Greene: Hamilton County will likely throw money at recreational resources, which won’t solve the underlying cyberbullying dynamic -- and the IBJ or IndyStar would never have framed a Marion County version of this story the same way.

00:25:35 Caller Mayhem -- Hamilton County hypocrisy and Section 8

- Mayhem argues Hamilton County teens regularly come to Marion County to cause trouble and return home, yet Hamilton County dodges scrutiny.

- Points out that Section 8 housing exists in Hamilton County too, contradicting its public image.

- Concedes both communities cover up bad behavior, but says Marion County’s is uniquely exposed and prosecuted while Hamilton County’s is buried.

00:27:36 Caller Moteph -- Media thesis, Lawrence Hill incident, and the cover-up pattern

- Moteph clarifies the show’s thesis: the question is not whether bad behavior exists, but how differently it is covered and adjudicated by county and race.

- Cites a recent incident at a Lawrence Hill public park where a Black workout group doing nothing wrong was forced out -- contrasted with how Hamilton County youth destructiveness is handled.

- Shares firsthand knowledge of Hamilton County cover-ups including a wealthy family’s teens hospitalized for substance abuse with no public reporting.

- Invokes Malcolm X’s quote on media conditioning communities to hate the oppressed and love the oppressor.

00:31:03 Caller Deanna -- Personal testimony: parental sacrifice as the solution

- Deanna shares a personal story: after losing a stepchild to violence, she moved, left a relationship, homeschooled her children, took a major pay cut, and relocated outside Indianapolis.

- Reports her children are off anxiety medication and healing; credits setting firm boundaries, including with extended family.

- Rev. Alexander and Pastor Greene affirm her testimony while noting her sacrifices are not options available to all Marion County parents.

00:33:37 Criminal justice disparities and transition to second segment

- Pastor Greene summarizes: Hamilton County has more money to spend on solutions, spins the problem differently, and faces no pressure to implement curfews.

- Rev. Alexander ties it together: the same offense -- drugs, violence, spinning, fight clubs -- will be handled as a misdemeanor with diversion in Hamilton County and as a felony in Marion County. Bail, bond, and sentencing all differ by geography and race.

- Rev. Alexander previews the second-half topic: Marion County Democratic Party organization heading into November.

00:37:38 Caller Reverend Phillips -- Justice system reform

- Reverend Phillips calls for better training, focus, and oversight of the justice system, arguing those in authority need more willingness to correct bad behavior rather than deferring to credentials.

- Call drops before he can complete his full point.

00:39:40 Marion County Democratic Party in disarray

- Rev. Alexander argues Marion County Democrats must organize now -- post-primary, pre-convention -- with delegate decisions on Secretary of State and other positions coming up.

- Reports that a recent PC meeting was chaotic and left newly elected precinct committee members confused and demoralized rather than energized.

- Pastor Greene: a blue wave doesn’t happen by accident. Marion County has been hearing calls for new Democratic Party leadership for months; people are frustrated that some PC candidates couldn’t get on the ballot.

00:43:46 Obama precedent and the stakes for statewide Democrats

- Rev. Alexander and Pastor Greene push back on a Facebook commenter’s fatalism (”Indiana is and will always be red”), citing Obama’s 2008 Indiana win as proof a blue wave is achievable.

- Pastor Greene: a Black woman is now running for Indiana State Treasurer; she cannot win without massive Marion County turnout. Same logic applies to Secretary of State and other statewide races.

- Pastor Greene: Marion County Democrats who are already registered must be activated to vote -- registration alone means nothing; boots-on-the-ground PC work is the mechanism.

00:47:48 What Marion County PCs need to do differently

- Rev. Alexander: resources alone aren’t enough -- you need strategy. Marion County Democratic clubs are siloed and inconsistent.

- Pastor Greene contrasts Marion County’s dysfunction with Boone and Hamilton County Democratic PCs, who spent the past year knocking doors, listening to voters, and feeding intelligence back to the party -- not just campaigning for individual candidates.

- Those counties ran training sessions, filled vacancies, and built a coordinated blue-wave infrastructure; Marion County has done none of this.

00:50:56 Direct call to action -- Marion County Democrats on notice

- Rev. Alexander: PCs are supposed to carry out exactly this mission -- the Democrat handbook says so. Marion County is spending its energy bickering instead of organizing.

- Pastor Greene: the chaos persists because some insiders benefit from it -- gatekeeping PC appointments, tolerating vacancies, keeping newly elected members confused. That has to end.

- Both hosts close with a direct warning: if Indiana misses a blue wave that reaches surrounding states, those responsible will and should be held accountable. You can’t pick up your ball and go home because your primary candidate lost.

https://concernedclergy.org

https://www.facebook.com/ClergyIndyhttps://www.facebook.com/ClergyIndy

https://progressiveindiana.net

HoosLeft: https://hoosleft.us

Blythe Potter Campaign Site: https://www.blythepotter.com/

SUMMARY:

Scott sits down with Blythe Potter, the progressive grassroots candidate running for Indiana Secretary of State at the 2026 Democratic State Convention. With the June 6th convention less than two weeks away, Potter makes the case for why her background — as a rural small business owner, Army veteran, Johnson County precinct chair, and Democratic Party organizer — uniquely qualifies her for an office she says has been badly neglected. The conversation covers the full sweep of her platform: modernizing the state’s outdated business registration and campaign finance systems, creating a comprehensive voter ballot guide, reaching disenfranchised and non-voting Hoosiers, and building the kind of authentic grassroots infrastructure that top-down, big-money Democratic campaigns have failed to create. Potter also addresses the criticisms that have dogged her campaign — the “influencer” label, questions about her political history, her upside-down flag protest photo, and the online behavior of her supporters — while making a pointed argument that she is the more electable candidate in a crowded general election field, not despite running differently, but because of it.

WHAT’S INSIDE:

0:00 — Intro and Support Ask

- Scott frames the Secretary of State race: Beau Bayh (name recognition, donor network tied to right-wing money) vs. Blythe Potter (grassroots, progressive, all-92-county campaign).

3:45 — Check-In: How’s the Campaign Feeling Heading Into the Convention?

- Potter says she’s ready — describes the past year-plus as a long haul and says she’s excited for June 6th.

- Scott opens with a provocation: Indiana’s credential-heavy political class (Rokita, Pence, Spartz, Donnelly, Young, Banks — all attorneys) has consistently failed the state; maybe it’s time to try something different.

- Potter: an MBA in conscious capitalism is directly applicable to this office — it’s about serving stakeholders, not just shareholders.

- She argues lived experience in Indiana communities is an undervalued and uncredentialed form of expertise.

6:40 — The Business Side of the Secretary of State’s Office

- Scott notes the office’s dual mandate: voting administration and business services.

- Potter confirms the INBiz and campaign finance systems are nearly 30 years old; they’re not mobile-friendly and create real barriers for young entrepreneurs.

- She calls out the contradiction of Indiana’s “business-friendly” reputation: the state consistently delivers for large corporations (TIF districts, abatements, PPP windfalls) while leaving small business owners behind.

- As a Bargersville small business owner, she’s been an end user of these broken systems — she had to go to SCORE, SBA, and ISBDC resources that INBiz buries.

11:28 — Are You a Serious Candidate? Do You Have a Plan?

- Scott raises the “influencer, no plan” criticism circulating online.

- Potter answers by cataloguing her commitment: hired a babysitter to be here, missing her daughter’s recital for the convention, invested her own money.

- She’s run for municipal office twice, won her 2024 Johnson County town council primary as a Democrat in a red county with no elected Democrats.

- She’s a two-time elected precinct chair, state delegate in ‘24 and ‘26, and a national delegate — the only candidate in this race who can say that.

- She distinguishes between when she became active in party politics (2023) vs. how long she’s held progressive values; debunks the “only been a Democrat for three years” rumor as originating from an estranged ex-sister-in-law.

16:36 — Rural Communities and the Non-Voter Problem

- Potter has worked with the Indiana Rural Summit and studied rural organizing models from Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Montana.

- She describes the condescension rural communities face from the political class

- Scott raises the VAN problem: canvassing tools only target known past voters, creating a self-reinforcing loop that never reaches the disaffected.

- Potter’s largest untapped voter bloc: non-voters. Her campaign has a ground game ready for them starting June 7th.

- She talks about the real economic barriers to voting: can’t get off work, can’t afford childcare, standing in line at 5 a.m. isn’t an option. She’s lived these realities.

21:24 — The Ballot Book: Potter’s Signature Policy Proposal

- Scott credits Potter as an early proponent of the voter ballot guide concept — other states have these, Indiana doesn’t.

- The ballot book would be comprehensive: when and where to vote, how to register, what every office does, county party social media handles, and space for candidates to submit brief statements.

- Both digital and physical versions, funded through HAVA grants or other mechanisms — Potter rejects the “no money for that” excuse from officials who’ve funded trips to Hungary and luxury SUVs.

- She wants the Secretary of State to be a democracy cheerleader — visible, proactive, drawing people into the process — not just an administrator.

- Indiana’s metrics are bad across the board; the state desperately needs someone to advocate for it.

26:33 — The Copycats: Ballard and the Republican Field

- Scott notes that Greg Ballard’s new Lincoln Party has essentially adopted Potter’s platform without attribution.

- Potter says that’s “pretty rich” — to watch a veteran politician arrive without a platform and lift hers — while acknowledging other states already do this.

- Scott maps the crowded Republican field: Morales (staying in despite GOP revolt), Jim Banks staffer Max Engling (Banks/Rokita-endorsed), Dave Shelton (Knox County moderate), Jamie Reitenour (perennial Christian nationalist candidate); plus a Libertarian and potentially a Socialist on the ballot — setting up what could be a five-way race.

- Potter’s response: every Republican in this race is complicit in getting Indiana here — including Ballard, who was a Republican himself until a few weeks ago.

- She’ll take any of them: “I know my platform is better.”

32:25 — The Upside-Down Flag Photo

- Scott raises the criticism: Potter has been photographed at No Kings protests in military uniform, holding an inverted flag — Republicans will use this to paint her as a radical.

- Potter says it was intentional. She went to a war she didn’t want to fight, and some Democratic representatives (ahem, Evan Bayh)voted to send her.

- The inverted flag is a recognized signal of national distress. She wanted people — especially other veterans — to see it and reckon with how bad things actually are.

- She describes herself as an introvert who overcame that to run statewide, because she believes the stakes are that serious.

- Scott draws the contrast: Democrats who won’t stand for anything vs. a candidate who takes visible stands and accepts the consequences.

34:45 — Electability, Values, and the “Electable” Trap

- Scott’s argument: Indiana Democrats have been psyching themselves out for 20 years — voting for who they think can win rather than who reflects their values — and losing anyway.

- Potter cites Glenda Ritz and Ballard’s outfunded Indianapolis mayoral win as evidence grassroots campaigns can compete.

- She tried the “moderate centrist kumbaya” approach in smaller municipal races — it didn’t work. Authenticity does.

- She argues the party needs to campaign differently: talk to people, listen, pivot when necessary, and build sustainable infrastructure that down-ballot candidates can replicate.

36:59 — The Halloween Photos and “Former Republican” Attacks

- Potter’s ex-sister-in-law has been spreading the “only a Democrat for three years” story; the Halloween photos in question are five years old — and include a Ruth Bader Ginsburg costume and a COVID mask.

- She grew up Republican in a rural red community — that’s just what you were — and it took coming home from Iraq in 2006, getting divorced, losing her insurance, and moving back in with her mom to become the lightbulb moment.

- Realizing she was the kind of person her former self dismissed as “living off the government” shifted her worldview.

- She welcomes the critique: knowing both sides makes her more electable and gives her credibility with voters who’ve never considered a Democrat.

42:43 — Donors, Labels, and the Internal Democratic Divide

- Scott: calling yourself a Democrat while taking money from Republican mega-donors and working for Republican mega-donors renders the label meaningless.

- Potter: stating publicly available factual information isn’t a campaign attack — it’s accountability, and the expectation that we don’t do that is exactly what’s not working.

- She defends her largest donor, Kathleen: a Hoosier who managed a Chuck E. Cheese, pulled a Republican ballot in 2024 because there were no down-ballot Democrats in her rural primary — not a MAGA donor.

- Potter’s total from her largest donor is still less than her opponent’s largest single donor.

- She calls on supporters to tone down the online heat: she wants to win on her merits — trustworthy, good plan, showing up — not because someone else is bad.

46:15 — Money, Kamala, and Why This Could Go National

- Scott: Kamala Harris spent $1.5 billion and lost because she didn’t stand for something that inspired people. Couch-sitters, not Republicans, are the real opposition.

- Potter: she was a Kamala delegate and hated her refusal to call Gaza a genocide — and that kind of moral ambiguity costs you the youth vote.

- She argues a genuine grassroots win in Indiana could have national resonance and unlock national fundraising. Post-convention, the money will come.

- Her team has already financially supported the Indiana House and Senate Caucus, county parties, and down-ballot candidates — with very little money.

48:14 — Online Passion, Party Resistance, and What’s Been Most Rewarding

- Scott asks about supporters’ sometimes-pointed online behavior — Potter threads the needle: she fought for free speech in the Army, and people are scared and angry. That’s real. But she’s asked people to dial it back.

- On frustrations: she expected systemic barriers (women in politics always face them), but she didn’t expect her own party’s organizational resistance — leadership diverting visibility and support, not all 92 county parties letting her in the door.

- She’s lost friends over this race.

- The most gratifying part: this all started as a party-building project — visit every county party, spotlight them on social media, give people a list of all 92 county parties and Young Dems handles. The campaign grew organically out of that.

55:53 — Closing Message to Delegates

- Potter: if you haven’t heard from her, that’s not intentional — as of this evening, she will have called or left voicemails for every delegate she has a number for.

- She’s in this for the long haul regardless of the outcome — she needs a state her daughter and stepdaughters can grow old in.

- She has a paid team, a strategy, and a different kind of campaign — one that honors where voters actually are, not where consultants think they should be.

- Outro: HoosLeft This Week returns Sunday with Potter as a panelist, joined by Hancock County Democratic Party Vice Chair Chuck Gill — an Army vet and a Navy vet.

Backyard grills flare to life. Coolers crack open. Patio speakers hum with classic rock and country songs about freedom. Furniture stores promise “blowout savings.” Car dealerships drape flags over pickup trucks like patriotism comes with financing options and 3.9% APR.

And somewhere in all of that noise, America risks forgetting what this day actually is.

Memorial Day is not Veterans Day.
It is not Armed Forces Day.
It is not simply “support the troops” with a ribbon magnet on the back of an SUV.

Memorial Day is sacred.

It is the day we stop and acknowledge that there are Americans who never came home.

Not someday.
Not after retirement.
Not after one last deployment.
Never.

There are mothers who answered the door and watched their entire future collapse in a single conversation. There are children who grew up learning about their parent through folded flags, old photographs, and stories told in trembling voices at kitchen tables. There are spouses who still instinctively reach across the bed years later only to remember the silence waiting there.

That is the true cost of war.

And most Americans will never fully understand it because most Americans have never had to carry it.

As a retired Marine, I can tell you something uncomfortable but true: the cost of your Memorial Day barbecue is higher than you could ever imagine.

Not financially. Spiritually.

I have known many men and women whom I called brother and sister who never made it home. I carry their names in my soul. Some were taken suddenly by war itself. Others survived the battlefield physically but never truly escaped it mentally. Their bodies came home. Parts of them did not.

And that is something this country needs to talk about more honestly.

Memorial Day is not just about those who died on the hallowed grounds of France, Germany, the Pacific Islands, Iraq, Afghanistan, Kosovo, or Beirut. It is also about those who returned carrying invisible wounds so heavy they eventually checked out early. The war followed them home and refused to leave.

We honor the fallen.
But we should also remember the ones who fought for years afterward in silence.

The truth is that war does not always end when the shooting stops.

Somebody paid for your freedom with birthdays they never got to celebrate. With anniversaries they never reached. With children they never watched grow up. With futures erased before they had the chance to become memories.

That debt cannot be measured in dollars.

It cannot be repaid with a sale at Lowe’s or a patriotic Facebook graphic posted between vacation photos.

It can only be honored.

And honoring it means more than saying “thank you for your service” while rushing toward the potato salad.

It means remembering that war is not a movie. It is not a campaign slogan. It is not something to cheer for from the comfort of a recliner while other families absorb the consequences.

The young men and women buried beneath rows of white stones at places like Arlington were not statistics. They were people. Loud people. Funny people. Imperfect people. People with favorite songs and bad jokes and dreams for the future. People who thought they still had time.

Then history called their number.

And now the rest of us inherit the responsibility to remember them properly.

Not performatively.
Not seasonally.
Not only when it is politically convenient.

But honestly.

This country has become very good at celebrating freedom while becoming increasingly disconnected from the sacrifice that sustains it. We wave flags at football games while forgetting the unbearable silence carried by Gold Star families long after the parades end.

Memorial Day should make us uncomfortable at least a little.

It should interrupt us.

It should force us to pause between the burgers and fireworks and ask ourselves whether we are building a country worthy of the people who died defending it.

Because remembrance without reflection becomes ritual.
And ritual without meaning becomes theater.

So yes, gather with your family. Laugh loudly. Eat too much. Enjoy the life others never got the chance to finish living.

But before you do, take a moment.

Speak their names if you know them. Visit the cemetery. Teach your children why the flags are there. Sit quietly for thirty seconds and understand that somebody, somewhere, gave up everything so you could experience ordinary moments in peace.

That is Memorial Day.

Not the sales.
Not the cookouts.
Not the long weekend.

The sacrifice.

And the sacred obligation to never let this nation forget the people who paid its highest price

Check out last week’s piece on the fossil fuel execs supporting Bayh here.

The week before, we looked the school privatization champion dropping big money on Beau here.

Previously, we detailed Bayh’s ties to the Israel lobby right here.

And before that, we examined Beau’s relationship with the private equity industry here..

So, Who is The “Epstein Class” ?

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) coined a phrase every Hoosier should memorize: the “Epstein class.”

His definition is simple, “[r]ich and powerful people who feel entitled to use that wealth to be above the law.”

Not charged. Not convicted. Entitled. It’s a mindset. The belief that money buys immunity, that influence erases consequences, and that the rules apply to everyone except you.

Marc Rowan is a charter member of that class. He’s a billionaire, AIPAC mega-donor, who gave $1 million to the Trump Victory super PAC in 2020 and is the CEO of Apollo Global Management. Rowan had breakfast at Jeffrey Epstein’s townhouse. He sued a coastal town into submission. He turned a university into a political weapon. And now Donald Trump has him helping to rebuild Gaza through the Board of Peace (think: an Ali Baba version of the UN), complete with data centers Rowan’s own firm just financed.

Rowan is the Epstein class, full stop.

In January, Marc Rowan donated $25,000 to Beau Bayh’s campaign for Indiana Secretary of State.

Here, dear reader, is why that should worry you.

The Montauk Playbook

In the 2010s, Rowan wanted a waterfront restaurant in Montauk, New York. The locals didn’t. So he sued the town nine times. Nine. He buried them in legal fees until they broke.

That’s how the Epstein class operates. You don’t persuade. You don’t compromise. You write a check to a law firm and wait for the little people to run out of money.

The UPenn Playbook

Rowan gave his alma mater $50 million. Then demanded control. When pro-Palestine encampments and speech sparked controversy on college campuses nationwide, Rowan saw an opening. He and his donor network—the same ones who fund Republican representatives Elise Stefanik and Indiana’s own Jim Banks—turned up the heat. The university president resigned.

That’s not philanthropy. That’s a donor revolt disguised as principle.

The Gaza Playbook

After the election, Trump appointed Rowan to the Board of Peace (think: an Alibaba version of the UN) tasked with rebuilding Gaza. The plan includes industrial zones for data centers. Meanwhile, Apollo Global has poured $3.5 billion into AI chips for Elon Musk and controls a major data center company.

Pause and think about that for a moment, dear reader. A man helping draft a reconstruction plan stands to profit from building data centers there. In a war zone. Without Palestinian input.

That’s not statesmanship. That’s a conflict of interest the size of the Mediterranean.

The Epstein Class Has a Hoosier Franchise & His Name is Beau Bayh

You might think Marc Rowan’s exploits are a New York problem. They’re not. Two threads connect him directly to Hoosiers.

First, public pensions.

If you’re a teacher, a firefighter, a police officer, or any public employee in Indiana, your pension is likely invested with Apollo Global Management. And Apollo is now being sued by its own shareholders. The lawsuit, filed in federal court, alleges that Rowan and disgraced Apollo founder Leon Black made false statements about their communications with the late convicted sex-offender, Jeffrey Epstein. According to the complaint, Rowan forwarded internal tax documents to Epstein and met with him at his Manhattan townhouse and all while Apollo publicly insisted that, “[n]either Marc Rowan nor anyone else at Apollo (excluding Leon Black) had either a business or personal relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.”

The stock fell. Your retirement took a hit. Even the American Federation of Teachers is calling for a federal investigation into Apollo’s Epstein ties, while Indiana’s candidate for Secretary of State keeps the donation.

Second, and more directly: Beau Bayh took $25,000 from Marc Rowan while promising to bring “trust” and “accountability” back to the Secretary of State’s office.

Let’s be clear about what that office actually does.

The Indiana Secretary of State oversees our elections and certifies our votes. They register every business operating in the state. They run the auto division which licenses and regulates every car dealer in your town. And perhaps most critically for this story, they oversee the securities division, the cops on the beat for Indiana’s investment industry.

That means the Secretary of State has the power to investigate, fine, or license the very firms managing Hoosiers’ retirement money—including Apollo Global Management, the firm that pays Beau’s father a seven-figure salary. As I’ve documented in detail, this isn’t the first time Beau Bayh’s donors have raised alarms. You and I both know, dear reader, that Beau knows private equity, the Israel Lobby, school privatization, and fossil fuels. We’ve covered the whole pattern.

So here we have a candidate for an office that regulates private equity firms and took $25,000 from the CEO of a private equity firm. A CEO who: sued a small town into silence, bullied a university into submission, is helping rebuild Gaza for his own profit, and whose firm is now being sued for allegedly lying about Jeffrey Epstein.

When asked about the Rowan donation, Beau Bayh said he and his donors may disagree on plenty—but, somehow, all agree on restoring “trust and accountability.”

And I’ve got some oceanfront property in Gary to sell you.

So what exactly does Beau think that money is buying? And who exactly does he think is dumb enough to buy that focus group tested answer?

The Choice Before the Delegates

Beau Bayh can prove the Epstein class wrong. He can return the $25,000. He can say, plainly, that Indiana’s Secretary of State does not take donations from people who act like the law does not apply to them.

His current strategy??? Keep the check and pray the spin holds. Inshallah.

The problem with that strategy is that Hoosiers aren’t stupid, we notice the snake oil being sold to us. We notice when our pensions get tied up in Epstein-adjacent lawsuits. We notice when our property taxes go up while billionaires write checks to buy influence. And we notice when a candidate for the state’s top ethics office cashes a check from the Epstein class.

Beau Bayh had a choice. He still has a choice.

What’s it going to be? Only Beau knows…

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Scott is joined by singer-songwriter and Porter County Recorder candidate Leslie Nuss Bamesberger and Bloomington activist and graduate student Bryce Greene for a packed two-hour episode covering a week that had almost everything. The national segment moves through the white supremacist attack on the Islamic Center of San Diego, the sputtering Iran war and its chaotic Israel dimension, the Trump administration’s escalating pressure on Cuba, a week of staggering domestic corruption, the Ebola outbreak in the Congo, and the week’s primary results across six states — including Thomas Massie’s AIPAC-funded ouster in Kentucky and Chris Rabb’s progressive triumph in Philadelphia. The panel also digs into the DNC’s botched autopsy release, the stolen election theory circulating around Elon Musk and Starlink, and the Epstein files — including Sarah Kellen’s House testimony and new reporting on the Zorro Ranch communications infrastructure. The final 35 minutes turns to Indiana: Republican implosion in the Secretary of State’s race, Todd Rokita’s latest shenanigans, Indiana’s mixed education numbers, and a growing backlash against data center development in Indianapolis.

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

00:00:00 Welcome and introduction

00:02:00 Social media and support plug; guest introductions

00:04:02 San Diego mosque attack — white supremacy, incel ideology, and congressional rhetoric

00:11:53 War in Iran — aircraft losses, War Powers votes, Trump’s “peace deal”

00:16:39 Israel angle — Ahmadinejad regime-change plot, Netanyahu tensions, Ben-Gvir flotilla video, sexual abuse allegations

00:23:57 Cuba — Raúl Castro indictment, carrier group, Starlink aid offer, invasion fears

00:31:41 Trump corruption — insider trading disclosures, the $1.776B Anti-Weaponization slush fund, Senate Republican revolt

00:39:20 Ebola outbreak — Bundibugyo virus, Congo response gaps, USAID cuts, RFK Jr. and MAHA kooks

00:45:34 Tuesday primaries — Georgia, Alabama, Kentucky (Massie defeat), AIPAC money

00:55:51 Idaho, Texas, Oregon, Pennsylvania — Rabb’s progressive upset, Shapiro’s national positioning

01:01:26 DNC autopsy — Gaza omission, Martin’s failures, and Dan Pfeiffer call for his ouster

01:09:17 Ashley St. Clair and the 2024 stolen election theory — Musk texts, Tripp Lite, Starlink DTC satellites, North Carolina precinct data

01:17:22 Epstein — Sarah Kellen testimony, Frédéric Fekkai, Philip Levine, Patrick Demarchelier; on Zorro Ranch infrastructure

01:25:28 PSA — Crossroads Commons, Salem, Indiana

01:26:04 Indiana elections — DLCC investment, Two GOP recounts, Banks and Rokita abandon Morales

01:32:56 Rokita roundup — price gouging investigation; “86” First Amendment case; transgender birth record interventions; “Don’t Say Gay” expansion push

01:40:01 Indiana education — reading recovery rankings; charter school study and ’s critique; IPS board vacancies

01:47:30 Carmel and Fishers ranked top places to live — and what the rankings ignore

01:50:41 Braun’s National Guard military police force — Rep. Matt Pierce’s warning

01:53:27 Data centers — Indianapolis moratorium resolution; DC Blox east side proposal; community opposition

01:58:51 Closing remarks, guest info, upcoming PIN programming

IN DEPTH:

San Diego Mosque Shooting

• What to know about a deadly attack by teen gunmen on a San Diego mosque (AP)

• San Diego mosque shooters met online and left writings expressing hate, FBI says (AP)

  • Two white supremacist teens attacked the Islamic Center of San Diego, killing three men before dying by suicide

  • The suspects — aged 17 and 18 — met online, called themselves “Sons of Tarrant,” a reference to the 2019 Christchurch mosque shooter who killed 51

  • Writings included calls to “exterminate” Muslims, Nazi symbols, and broad hatred toward Jews, LGBTQ+, Black people, and both political parties

  • 30+ guns, ammunition, and a crossbow recovered from two residences; investigators still probing whether broader plans existed

  • Security guard Amin Abdullah shot back and triggered lockdown before being killed — likely saved 140 children steps away

  • Other victims Mansour Kaziha and Nadir Awad drew the gunmen away from the building before being killed in the parking lot

  • Imam noted the mosque was accustomed to hate mail and drive-by harassment — but nothing like this

• San Diego mosque attack follows surge in public anti-Islam rhetoric (WaPo)

  • Attack follows a documented surge in public anti-Islam rhetoric from elected officials

  • Rep. Andrew Ogles (TN): “Muslims don’t belong in American society” — posted on X in March

  • Rep. Randy Fine (FL): compared Muslims unfavorably to dogs — February

  • Sen. Tommy Tuberville (AL): “radical Muslims” are coming to “destroy the West” — January, on the Senate floor

  • Muslim leaders said the attack “did not occur in a vacuum” — directly linking congressional rhetoric to the shooting

  • The day before the attack, Trump headlined a White House-backed Christian nationalist prayer festival on the National Mall

  • String of recent attacks on houses of worship: Detroit synagogue (truck ram + fire), Michigan LDS church (4 killed), Minneapolis Catholic church (2 children killed)

  • Jewish Federations lobbying Congress for $1 billion in security funding for faith institutions nationwide

• Male Supremacism and Misogyny Was Central to the San Diego Mosque Shooting. Why Did So Much Coverage Miss It? (Ms)

  • Mainstream coverage largely missed the central role of male supremacism and misogyny in the shooters’ manifestos

  • Both cite the 2014 Santa Barbara sorority attack, the 1989 Montreal Polytechnique massacre, and the 2011 Norway youth camp attack as inspirations

  • One manifesto coins the term “MisanthropistCEL” and glorifies mass killers as “incel saints”; one shooter self-identified as a misogynist and had been active in incel online communities since 2022

  • Manifesto progression: starts with antisemitism → moves to misogyny (”after the Jew, the most evil creature is the woman”) → then Islamophobia, anti-immigrant, anti-Black, anti-LGBTQ rhetoric

  • Shooters also identified as accelerationists — seeking to hasten societal collapse through violence

  • Pattern mirrors 2011 Norway massacre coverage, which similarly underreported the antifeminist ideology driving the attack

  • Analysts warn: misogyny isn’t a side note — it’s structurally intertwined with white supremacist and other extremist violence

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War in the Middle East

• Monday: Trump says he’s postponing ‘scheduled attack of Iran tomorrow’ at Middle East leaders’ request (CNBC)

  • Trump announced via Truth Social he was calling off a “scheduled attack on Iran” set for Tuesday, May 19

  • Leaders of Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE personally asked him to hold off, saying a deal was close

  • Military still on standby — Hegseth and Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. Dan Caine ordered to be ready for “full, large scale assault on a moment’s notice”

  • Trump’s stated red line: no nuclear weapons for Iran

  • The U.S. and Iran remain in a military and economic stalemate over the Strait of Hormuz, with dueling blockades choking global oil shipping

  • A ceasefire technically remains in effect but has been repeatedly violated — Trump called it “on life support” last week

  • Notable: Hegseth was in Kentucky attending a campaign rally against Rep. Thomas Massie while all this was unfolding

• Tuesday: US Senate votes to advance resolution to curb Trump’s Iran war powers (Guardian)

  • Senate voted 50-47 to advance a war powers resolution requiring Trump to get congressional authorization to continue the Iran war

  • First time the chamber has advanced the bill — eighth attempt since the conflict began in February

  • Four Republicans broke ranks: Bill Cassidy (fresh off a Trump-endorsed primary loss), Lisa Murkowski, Rand Paul, and Susan Collins

  • Cassidy’s statement: Congress has been “left in the dark” on Operation Epic Fury — no authorization can be justified without clarity

  • John Fetterman was the sole Democrat to vote against it

  • Still just the first step — Trump would almost certainly veto even if it passes both chambers

  • Democrats framing it as a pressure campaign: “Republicans are starting to crack” — Schumer

• Thursday: GOP leaders abruptly cancel House vote on Iran war powers, shielding Trump from rebuke (CNN)

  • House GOP leaders abruptly canceled a scheduled war powers resolution vote Thursday when it became clear they were about to lose due to absences

  • Resolution introduced by Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY) would have required Trump to end the Iran conflict without congressional authorization

  • Democratic leaders: House Republicans are “a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Trump administration”

  • Meeks: “They knew it was going to pass, and as a result they cheated” — vote now pushed to early June after Memorial Day recess

  • Trump meanwhile claims the Iran war is “very popular” — a CNN poll shows 77% of Americans, including a majority of Republicans, say his policies have increased their cost of living

• Friday: Congressional report tallies 42 US aircraft lost or damaged in Operation Epic Fury (Military Times)

  • Congressional Research Service tallied 42 U.S. aircraft lost or damaged in Operation Epic Fury — the most complete public accounting yet, since the Pentagon hasn’t done its own

  • Six crew members killed when a KC-135 tanker went down over western Iraq March 12 — the only confirmed U.S. fatalities on the list

  • Drones took the hardest hit: 25 of 42 losses were unmanned aircraft, mostly MQ-9 Reapers (each of which cost over $30M)

  • Cost of the war has climbed to $29 billion — up from $25 billion just two weeks earlier — and doesn’t include base repair costs

  • Notable gaps: the report likely undercounts helicopter losses, and omits several Army special operations aircraft deliberately destroyed on the ground inside Iran

• Saturday: Trump says peace deal with Iran is imminent (Politico)

  • Trump announced Saturday a peace deal is “largely negotiated” — would include reopening the Strait of Hormuz; details still being finalized

  • Key terms remain unresolved: no confirmation the deal includes limits on Iran’s nuclear program, missiles, or proxy activity

  • Trump also confirmed a call with Netanyahu that “went very well” — notable given their reported tensions all week

  • Hard-line GOP pushback immediate: Graham, Wicker, and conservative media figures warned a deal that lets Iran survive would undo everything Operation Epic Fury accomplished

• Israel Front

  • The Trump Administration’s Iran Plan Is Even Crazier Than We Thought (TNR)

    • NYT reported that the U.S. and Israel attempted to install Mahmoud Ahmadinejad — Holocaust denier, called for Israel to be “wiped off the map” — as Iran’s post-war leader

    • Plan: an airstrike was meant to kill Ahmadinejad’s guards and “free” him; he was injured instead and “became disillusioned with the regime change plan”

    • Ahmadinejad had met with Israeli representatives in Guatemala and Hungary between 2023 and 2025

    • Operation was primarily Mossad-driven; U.S. signed off shortly before execution — and apparently saw him as analogous to how they handled Maduro in Venezuela

    • Bottom line: the U.S. and Israel went to war with no clear idea what government they’d accept in Tehran — and their best answer was a guy who spent years calling for their destruction

  • Wednesday: Trump says Netanyahu will ‘do whatever I want’ on Iran after pair said to hold tense call (Times of Israel)

    • Trump claimed Netanyahu “will do whatever I want” — one day after a reportedly tense call where the two disagreed on Iran diplomacy

    • Netanyahu wanted continued military pressure to destroy Iran’s infrastructure; Trump was pursuing a Qatar/Pakistan-brokered framework for a ceasefire and 30-day negotiation window

    • IRGC warned that if strikes resume, the conflict “will spread far beyond the region” — and claimed Iran hasn’t yet deployed its full capabilities

    • Pakistan’s interior minister made a second trip to Tehran in one week as mediator; China’s Xi called resumed hostilities “inadvisable”

  • Wednesday: Outrage over Israel’s Ben-Gvir flotilla abuse video (Al Jazeera)

    • Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir posted a video of himself taunting zip-tied flotilla activists on their knees in “stress positions” as Israel’s national anthem played

    • 430+ activists from 46 countries were seized in international waters when Israel intercepted the latest Gaza-bound aid flotilla

    • Global backlash: Italy, France, Netherlands, and Canada summoned Israeli ambassadors; even Netanyahu and U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee rebuked Ben-Gvir

    • Ben-Gvir is a convicted racist with ties to the outlawed Kach terrorist organization — and he controls Israel’s Border Police

  • Freed Gaza Flotilla Activists Report Sexual Abuse, Rape in Israeli Custody (Haaretz)

    • Released flotilla activists report beatings, tasing, sleep deprivation, and at least 15 documented cases of sexual abuse — including allegations of rape and forcible penetration with a firearm

    • Abuse allegedly concentrated on one Israeli naval vessel converted into a makeshift prison with shipping containers and barbed wire; activists held without water, blankets, or basic conditions for two days

    • Israel’s prison service flatly denied all allegations; Reuters could not independently verify them

    • Rome prosecutors opened investigations into kidnapping, torture, and sexual assault; Germany and France reported activists returned with injuries requiring medical attention

Cuba

• US charges Raúl Castro with murder as Trump escalates pressure on Cuba (Reuters)

  • U.S. charged 94-year-old Raúl Castro with murder over the 1996 shootdown of two Cuban exile planes over international waters — four counts of murder, conspiracy, and aircraft destruction

  • No extradition expected; acting AG Blanche suggested Castro would face charges “by his own will or by another way”

  • Follows the January capture of Venezuelan President Maduro — part of a broader Trump/Rubio push for regime change across Latin America

  • Rubio simultaneously offered Cuba $100 million in aid while the U.S. maintains a de facto fuel blockade causing power outages across the island — Cuban foreign minister called it cynical

• Cubans outraged at US charges against Raúl Castro as fears of military strikes grow (Guardian)

  • Cubans across the political spectrum are outraged — even those who’d lost faith in their own government are showing up to protest the indictment

  • Military strike fears are real on the ground: Havana residents are nervously asking who their neighbors are, knowing proximity to government officials makes them a target

  • The buildup has been weeks in the making: surveillance flights, an aircraft carrier group entering the Caribbean, CIA director landing in Havana, and intelligence reports (of disputed credibility) claiming Cuba possesses drones

  • Context the indictment omits: Brothers to the Rescue had been deliberately provoking Cuba for years — buzzing Havana, dropping leaflets — and Fidel Castro had repeatedly warned Washington to rein them in before the shootdown

  • Rubio’s $100M aid offer widely seen as sophisticated regime-change bait — targeting Cuban resentment of military elites who have generators while civilians endure 22-hour blackouts

  • A Canadian nickel mining company with major Cuban holdings is reportedly in talks to hand control to a former Trump adviser — a preview, one European businessman said, of “the barefaced corruption that would accompany any US control over Cuba”

• Cuba Girds for Invasion as Trump Launches Raúl Castro Indictment Amid Punishing Blockade (Drop Site)

  • The “intelligence” that Cuba had 300 Iranian drones was leaked to Axios — buried in the article was that any attack plans were purely defensive, contingent on a U.S. strike first

  • Cuba’s military is badly degraded — fewer than two dozen serviceable aircraft, outdated navy — but its asymmetric “People’s War” doctrine assigns wartime roles to every able-bodied adult

  • The $100M aid offer is largely contingent on accepting Starlink devices — the same destabilization tool used ahead of the Iran war

  • Cuba’s infant mortality rate has nearly doubled since 2018; surgeries postponed for 100,000 patients including 12,000 children — researchers attribute it directly to U.S. sanctions

  • Previous U.S. aid shipments via the Catholic Church — meant for Hurricane Melissa victims — still haven’t been fully delivered

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Corruption

• The smoking guns in Trump’s new financial disclosure (Popular Information)

  • Last week, Trump filed a 113-page document cataloging his stock purchases in 2026.

  • Missed required 45-day disclosure deadlines on many trades; fined $200

  • Trump bought up to $215K in Thermo Fisher stock in the weeks before — then he toured their facility and publicly praised them

  • Bought up to $5M in Apple stock before he lauded Tim Cook in a Kentucky speech; up to $7.2M in Apple total during March alone

  • Bought Micron stock, then called it “one of the hottest companies” on Fox News the next day

  • Told a Georgia crowd to “go out and buy a Dell computer” nine days after buying at least $1M in Dell stock

  • Multiple trades marked “UNSOLICITED” — undermining the White House claim that an independent advisor controls everything

• US government agrees to drop tax claims against Trump in broadening of IRS lawsuit settlement (AP)

  • U.S. permanently dropped all existing tax claims against Trump, his sons, and the Trump Organization as part of the IRS lawsuit settlement

  • Addendum signed by acting AG Blanche declares the government “forever barred and precluded” from examining Trump, his family, and affiliates — DOJ claims it only covers existing audits, not future ones

  • A former IRS commissioner said he’d never seen the government agree in advance to permanently forgo examination of previously filed returns for a specific person

• Trump Just Gave Himself a $1.8 Billion Slush Fund to Reward His Friends (Mother Jones)

  • Trump dropped his $10B IRS lawsuit in exchange for a settlement that created the $1.776B “Anti-Weaponization Fund” — paid for by taxpayers

  • Fund is controlled by a five-member commission appointed by the AG; Trump can remove any member — effectively no independent oversight

  • Quarterly reports go only to the AG, not Congress or the public — who gets paid and how much may never be fully disclosed

  • House Democrats called it a “collusive lawsuit” settled collusively to produce a slush fund — noting no sitting president has ever sued the government he leads for taxpayer money

• Leaked IRS Memo Proves How Blatant Trump’s Slush Fund Theft Really Is (TNR)

  • IRS’s own lawyers wanted to fight Trump’s lawsuit — their memo noted it was filed two years past the legal deadline, and that the leaker was a Booz Allen contractor, not an IRS employee

  • DOJ, run by Trump’s former personal lawyer Todd Blanche, ignored the memo and settled anyway

  • At a Senate hearing, Blanche couldn’t commit to barring Jan. 6 rioters from the fund — including one pardoned Jan. 6er who was subsequently convicted of child molestation and allegedly tried to bribe his victims with anticipated fund payouts

  • Blanche also couldn’t name the commissioners, couldn’t say who would choose them, and claimed Trump had no influence over the process — senators weren’t buying it

• ‘Incredibly hostile’ GOP senators hammer Todd Blanche in closed-door meeting: report (Raw Story)

  • Blanche’s closed-door meeting with Senate Republicans on the fund lasted nearly two hours and was described as a “s---show”

  • Sen. Thom Tillis called it “stupid on stilts” and “tyranny”

  • Per CNN’s Raju: “all” GOP senators voiced opposition — “hardly any came to its defense”

  • Republicans also warned the fund could derail their priority immigration/reconciliation bill

• Controversy over Trump ballroom and $1.8B ‘slush fund’ sends Senate running from the Hill in GOP revolt (Independent)

  • Senate Republicans fled DC without voting on ICE funding — the slush fund demand was the primary holdup

  • Mitch McConnell: “The nation’s top law enforcement official is asking for a slush fund to pay people who assault cops? Utterly stupid, morally wrong”

  • Leadership didn’t have 51 votes; even Tuberville called it a “curveball”

  • Trump’s $1 billion ballroom security ask — stripped from the bill by the Senate parliamentarian — added to the dysfunction

  • House canceled its own Friday votes minutes after the Senate punted

• Fascists use corrupt, clientelist relationships to consolidate power, enforce ideological conformity, and control the economy

  • State-sanctioned monopolies: think of Trump’s relationships with the business elite

  • Party-state fusion: see DOGE and the large-scale purging of non-MAGA government employees

  • Quid Pro Quo Privilege: members of the public and lower-tier civil servants receive tangible benefits for loyalty. We are here.

  • Co-opting the culture: think of MAGA aligned media, UFC, Indycar; Kennedy Center takeover

Ebola Outbreak

• What to know about the Bundibugyo virus, a species of Ebola causing an outbreak in Congo (AP)

• Residents burn an Ebola treatment center in Congo as anger grows over the outbreak (AP)

  • Bundibugyo virus — a rare Ebola strain with no vaccine or treatment — has killed 160+ suspected dead, 671 suspected cases in Congo; WHO says real numbers are almost certainly higher

  • Outbreak likely began months ago but spread undetected because health authorities were testing for the wrong Ebola strain

  • Now spread across three provinces and into Uganda — covering a 500km range

  • Mortality rate estimated at 30%+; healthcare workers and family caregivers are highest risk

  • Public health response falls back to basics: contact tracing, isolation, protective equipment, safe burial practices

  • Locals burned an Ebola treatment center after being blocked from retrieving a friend’s body for burial — safe burial protocols clash directly with local funeral customs

  • Response severely hampered: weak health infrastructure further degraded by international aid cuts, 920,000 internally-displaced people in the epicenter, with active ISIS-linked militant attacks in the same area

  • No vaccine or treatment available; earliest candidate is 6-9 months out

  • U.S. restricting travelers from Congo, Uganda, and South Sudan; Americans must route through Dulles for screening

• This Ebola outbreak raises questions about when it all began — and the U.S. response (NPR)

  • CDC only learned of the outbreak on May 14 — one day before it was officially announced — after hundreds of cases had already accumulated; a former CDC official called that “weird”

  • U.S. humanitarian funding in Congo dropped ~80% under Trump — from $900M+ to $179M — gutting the informal disease surveillance networks that aid workers provided in conflict zones

  • USAID’s Congo mission was shuttered entirely last year, eliminating on-the-ground disease intel capacity

  • U.S. withdrawal from WHO has shrunk WHO’s international emergency division — compounding the detection gap

  • At least one American aid worker infected; six more high-risk exposures — being transferred to Germany for treatment

  • State Department denied aid cuts affected the response; CDC’s incident manager deflected when asked directly whether funding cuts caused the delay

• Meanwhile, these are the kind of people leading US public health agencies:

  • Feds Blame Ebola as They Refuse to Bring Back Wrongly Deported Woman (TNR)

    • DHS deported Colombian immigrant Adriana Zapata, 55, to Congo — a country she has no ties to — a 2024 court order barred her return to Colombia due to documented torture by an abusive ex-partner with police connections

    • She has serious untreated medical conditions including severe vascular disease; Congolese officials said at the time of deportation they couldn’t care for her

    • A federal judge ordered her return; DHS responded by claiming they couldn’t find her — despite her address appearing in prior court filings and being shared in court the day before

    • When that failed, DHS cited the Ebola outbreak as justification for ignoring the court order — even though she’s in Kinshasa, which has no cases, and was deported before the outbreak was announced

  • RFK Jr fires leaders of group that sets guidelines for preventive healthcare (Guardian)

    • RFK Jr. fired the two chairs of the US Preventive Services Task Force — the panel that determines what preventive care insurance must cover for free, including mammograms and colonoscopies

    • No reason given in the termination letters; Kennedy told Congress last month he was reforming the “lackadaisical” panel

    • HHS had already largely sidelined the taskforce over the past year — postponing meetings and leaving cervical cancer screening updates and maternal depression guidelines in limbo

    • Health advocates fear Kennedy will replace expert members with political appointees, as he did with the vaccine advisory committee

  • MAHA’s latest conspiracy? Blaming Bill Gates for spike in tick bites (Independent)

    • Tick-related ER visits have hit their highest level in nearly a decade — the real cause is warmer winters, habitat changes, and reduced wildlife diversity

    • MAHA Moms Coalition is promoting a debunked conspiracy that Bill Gates bred and released ticks carrying alpha-gal syndrome to drive consumers toward plant-based meat — a theory fact-checked and disproven in 2023

    • A separate conspiracy blames Pfizer for planting ticks to create demand for their Lyme disease vaccine — which was actually announced before the tick surge and targets a bacterial protein, not mRNA

    • RFK Jr. himself previously said he “probably” promoted the Plum Island bioweapons origin theory for Lyme disease

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Tuesday Primaries

• Big wins, surprises and signals from Georgia’s primary night (AJC)

  • J6er Chuck Hand wins SD15 primary

    • Sentenced to 20 days in jail and 6 months probation for illegally demonstrating at Capitol

    • Ran for US House in ‘24

  • Another Trump enemy falls as Brad Raffensperger loses Georgia primary (Politico)

    • Brad Raffensperger — who defended Georgia’s 2020 results against Trump’s pressure — finished 3rd in the GOP gubernatorial primary

    • MAGA billionaire Rick Jackson ($65M self-funded) and Trump-endorsed Lt. Gov. Burt Jones ($28M) advanced to a runoff with 32.5% and 38.4% respectively

    • Both are courting the same MAGA base — runoff will test Trump’s endorsement power against Jackson’s cash

    • Georgia AG Chris Carr, another anti-overturn Republican, also failed to advance — old-school Georgia GOP is effectively finished

  • Former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms wins Democratic nomination for Georgia governor (GA Recorder)

    • Keisha Lance Bottoms won the Democratic gubernatorial nomination outright — no runoff needed

    • No Black person, no woman, and no former Atlanta mayor has ever been elected Georgia governor; Democrats haven’t won the office since 1998

    • She’ll face either Jones or Jackson in the general, with Republicans having already outspent Democrats by roughly $100 million to almost nothing

  • Bethel, Warren hang on to Georgia Supreme Court seats (GA Recorder)

    • Two Republican-appointed Georgia Supreme Court justices survived Democratic-backed challengers — Sarah Warren won comfortably; Charlie Bethel barely held on with 51.1%

    • Challengers Fmr. State Sen. Jen Jordan and personal injury attorney Miracle Rankin were backed by Planned Parenthood and reproductive rights groups; incumbents had Kemp and evangelical organizations behind them

    • Bethel’s near-loss signals real vulnerability on the court despite the nonpartisan ballot

  • Mike Collins and Derek Dooley head to runoff in Georgia Senate GOP race (Politico)

    • Trump-endorsed Congressman Collins led with 40.5%

    • Kemp-endorsed former football coach Dooley finished 2nd with 30%

    • Sets up a proxy fight between Trump and Gov. Kemp; Trump’s endorsement in the runoff could be decisive

    • Meanwhile Ossoff sits on $31 million and counting, watching Republicans burn through resources fighting each other

• Alabama

  • Tuberville, Jones advance to November face off for Alabama governor (Montgomery Advertiser)

    • Tuberville wins the GOP primary easily, setting up a November rematch against former Democratic Sen. Doug Jones — who lost to Tuberville by 20 points in 2020

    • Kay Ivey is term-limited out, making this the first open governor’s race in years — and Tuberville enters as a heavy favorite in deep-red Alabama

    • Jones won the Democratic nomination with 73%; his platform centers on Medicaid expansion, early voting, a state lottery, and IVF protections

  • Steve Marshall concedes in U.S. Senate race; Barry Moore, Jared Hudson go to GOP runoff (AL Reflector)

    • Trump-endorsed Rep. Barry Moore led with 40% but fell short of 50%; former Navy SEAL Jared Hudson edged out AG Steve Marshall for second — Moore and Hudson head to a June 16 runoff

    • Marshall conceded Wednesday after finishing ~5,000 votes behind Hudson despite raising $1.4 million

    • Moore had Trump’s endorsement and Club for Growth backing; Hudson ran strong in Jefferson and Tuscaloosa counties

  • Alabama’s ‘ghost’ congressional primary: What you need to know about the special election (AL.com)

    • Supreme Court’s 6-3 ruling in Louisiana v. Callais reinstated Alabama’s previously invalidated maps, gutting VRA Section 2 protections across the South

    • Alabama voided its May 19 congressional primaries in four districts (AL-1, AL-2, AL-6, AL-7) before results were even released — first time since the 1800s; special elections set for August 11 with no runoff, plurality wins

    • All other May 19 races — governor, U.S. Senate, statewide offices — count normally; congressional runoffs go June 17

    • The new maps convert AL-2 from a majority-Black Democratic seat (currently held by Rep. Shomari Figures) to a majority-white Republican-leaning district

• Kentucky

  • Trump picks off Massie in Kentucky (Politico)

    • Trump ousted seven-term Rep. Thomas Massie in Kentucky’s 4th District — defeated by Trump-endorsed former Navy SEAL Ed Gallrein in what became the most expensive intraparty House primary on record ($33M+ in ad spending)

    • Massie’s sins: voted against Trump’s tax-and-spending package, supported Iran war powers limits, and helped lead the bipartisan push to release the Epstein files

    • AIPAC-linked super PACs spent $9M+ against Massie; a Trump operative PAC spent nearly $7M more — outside money proved decisive

    • Defeat silences Trump’s loudest remaining Republican congressional critic and sends a clear warning to any remaining dissenters

  • Trump-backed Andy Barr wins GOP nomination for Mitch McConnell’s Senate seat in Kentucky (NBC)

    • Trump-endorsed Rep. Andy Barr won the GOP nomination for Mitch McConnell’s retiring Senate seat, defeating former state AG Daniel Cameron

    • Trump cleared the field by endorsing Barr and convincing businessman Nate Morris — who had Vance’s backing and strong MAGA ties — to drop out in exchange for an ambassadorship

    • Barr is a heavy favorite in November; Kentucky hasn’t elected a Democratic senator since 1992

    • Democratic nominee is Charles Booker, a two-time Senate candidate

• Idaho

  • Nine Idaho Republican lawmakers lose primary election, including some who pushed for budget cuts (Idaho Capital Sun)

    • Nine Republican incumbent legislators lost their primaries in Idaho — five of them members of the “Gang of Eight,” a conservative bloc that pushed steep spending cuts during a session marked by a budget shortfall

    • The budget committee vice chair also lost his seat — voters appear to be punishing the austerity caucus

    • Gov. Brad Little survived an eight-way primary; incumbent congressional Republicans all held on

    • Idaho Democrats fielded candidates in all 35 legislative districts and all statewide and federal races — double their 2022 numbers and up significantly from 2024

• Next Week: Texas

  • Trump’s endorsement of Ken Paxton over John Cornyn roils Texas Senate race (The Hill)

    • Trump endorsed scandal-plagued AG Ken Paxton over incumbent Sen. John Cornyn in the May 26 Texas GOP runoff — catching Senate leadership off guard and putting the seat in play

    • Cornyn has a massive money advantage ($20M vs. $5M in runoff spending) but Trump’s endorsement may be decisive; polls show Paxton tied with Democrat James Talarico vs. Cornyn’s slim lead

    • Murkowski warned the Senate majority is now in “jeopardy”; a Republican strategist told The Hill Trump’s leverage over Senate leadership “is now pretty much gone”

• Oregon

  • Oregon voters decisive as they reject gas tax, renominate Drazan (OPB)

    • Christine Drazan won the GOP gubernatorial nomination, setting up a rematch against Democratic incumbent Gov. Tina Kotek — who beat her by 4 points in 2022

    • Oregon voters rejected a gas tax measure 80-20 — the Iran war has driven Oregon gas prices up 35% in the past year, making any new fuel taxes a non-starter

    • Drazan is notably avoiding any public mention of Trump; Kotek is making him the centerpiece of her general election argument

• Pennsylvania

  • Pennsylvania’s Democratic Gov. Shapiro wins his primary, as do his endorsed candidates (PBS)

    • Shapiro ran uncontested, went 3-for-3 with his endorsed candidates in three key swing congressional districts — targeting seats held by Reps. Scott Perry, Brian Fitzpatrick, and Ryan Mackenzie

    • Shapiro is framing his reelection around flipping the state legislature Democratic for the first time in 30+ years — promising to fund mass transit, build housing, and codify abortion rights if he gets a Democratic majority

    • He’s positioning himself as a national accountability figure against Trump, with 2028 White House talk already swirling around him

  • Progressive Rabb wins 3rd District race with boosts from ‘the squad’ and local grassroots activism (WHYY)

    • State Rep. Chris Rabb upset early favorite Sharif Street in Philadelphia’s 3rd Congressional District, winning ~45% to Street’s under 30% — backed by AOC, the Squad, Philly DSA, and the Working Families Party

    • Rabb was the only candidate calling for an end to U.S. aid to Israel and the only one willing to use the word “genocide” — a key differentiator in the race

    • Street’s concession framed it as a wake-up call: “There was a movement called ‘Reclaim’ — they wanted to reclaim their party”

    • The win is a direct rebuke of the Democratic establishment — 3rd-place Ala Stanford was hand-picked by incumbent Dwight Evans to succeed him, and Street had the most institutional support

  • Primary results spell the end for four PA House incumbents (City & State PA)

    • Four Pennsylvania House incumbents lost their primaries — three Democrats, one Republican

    • Most notable: Greg Vitali, a 33-year Democratic incumbent and environmental policy veteran, lost 62-38 to Haverford Township Commissioner Judy Trombetta

    • Republican Bud Cook lost by double digits to a pro-DOGE challenger; freshman Democratic Rep. Ana Tiburcio, just months into her first term, lost 56-44 to an Allentown city councilmember

DNC Autopsy

• Facing intense internal pressure, DNC releases postelection autopsy that criticizes Kamala Harris (AP)

  • DNC released a 192-page 2024 autopsy — concluding Harris “wrote off rural America,” failed to hit Trump with sufficient negative firepower, and that Democrats’ messaging is too focused on reason and winning arguments “even in cycles when the electorate is defined by rage”

  • Report notably omits Biden’s decision to seek reelection, the rushed Harris substitution, and the Gaza divide — AOC called the Gaza omission “notable” and declined to back Martin’s leadership when asked directly

  • Martin sat on the report for months, released it with annotations calling its own findings “incomplete and unsubstantiated,” and then disowned it: “I am not proud of this product; it does not meet my standards”

  • The report’s primary author -– Paul Rivera, a friend of Martin’s — was quietly fired the same day it was released

  • Democratic operatives furious — not just at the findings, but at the timing: the party spent a day relitigating 2024 instead of hammering Trump on Iran, prices, and the ballroom slush fund

  • Dan Pfeiffer: “It’s hard to imagine anyone handling anything worse. He is not the right person to lead the DNC at this time”

• Why the DNC autopsy report matters (Amanda Litman)

  • Litman’s bottom line: the report is garbage — Rivera never gathered all relevant data, didn’t record interviews, couldn’t be fact-checked, and omitted Biden’s age, Gaza, Tim Walz, TikTok, and YouTube entirely

  • Martin’s real failure wasn’t the bad report — it was getting a bad report back and not fixing it, not holding the author accountable, and then spending five months gaslighting people who asked about it

  • The DNC currently has negative $3 million cash on hand — Martin is failing at the most basic function of the job before the autopsy scandal even started

  • Litman’s core argument: the rules governing how the 2028 primary gets run are being written right now — and after this, no one will trust Martin to oversee that process fairly

  • “We should not settle for mediocre men enabling other mediocre men to fail to the top” — Martin needs to go

Stolen Election?

• Ex-MAGA influencer shares election conspiracy theory involving Elon Musk (Raw Story)

  • Caveat: Ashley St. Clair is a motivated source — she’s had a bitter public falling out with Musk, alleges he cut her child support for “disobedience” and spent fewer than four hours with their child in its first year

  • She claims Musk told her personally that he knew Trump won hours before the AP called the race at 5:34 a.m. on November 6

  • She alleges Musk possessed “real-time data” on elections through secretive satellite technology

  • She says Musk shared internal America PAC data with her that raised questions about how he obtained election information not available through standard door-knocking operations

• The Gap in How America Detects Election Fraud I Found in the Epstein Files (Downwind of Truth)

  • What’s documented: Musk texted a confidant on October 5, 2024 about unleashing “the anomaly in the matrix” through “lasers from space” that was “not something on the chessboard” — the NYT verified those texts; St. Clair says he told her the same thing in person

  • What’s documented: Epstein’s recovered files show him recruiting NSA-trained mathematicians specializing in wavelet analysis — the exact mathematical technique whose output is literally called “an anomaly in a matrix” — while simultaneously advising on the satellite project that became Starlink and maintaining direct contact with Musk

  • What’s documented: Tripp Lite — whose battery backup units are physically connected to vote tabulation servers across the country — was transferred to Eaton Corporation through Leonard Leo’s dark money network; Eaton then partnered with Peter Thiel’s Palantir; Starlink’s Direct-to-Cell satellites were emergency-authorized in swing states six days before the election and 265 new DTC-capable satellites were activated October 30

  • What’s alleged but unproven: that this infrastructure was used to push unaudited firmware updates through battery backup devices into vote counting servers, shifting presidential totals without touching down-ballot races

  • What the data shows — but doesn’t prove: precinct-level analysis in North Carolina found Trump outperformed other Republicans by 5.5% while Harris underperformed other Democrats by 1.8%, with the gap larger in Election Day counts than early votes — exactly the pattern the theory would predict, though researchers like Mebane caution most anomalies may be ticket-splitters

  • What Justice says would prove or disprove it: a paper ballot hand count, an independent wavelet analysis of precinct data, forensic examination of battery backup firmware, and Starlink’s DTC connection logs from the election window — none of which has been done

Epstein

• Former Epstein assistant Sarah Kellen testified before the House committee. Here’s what we know (PBS)

  • Epstein’s former personal assistant Sarah Kellen testified in a closed-door House Oversight deposition — describing herself as a survivor, not an accomplice: “I was a literal indentured slave. I had zero power or authority”

  • Kellen says the federal government branded her a criminal in the 2007 non-prosecution agreement without ever once contacting her — she didn’t know her name was in the document until it became public two years later

  • Committee chair Comer said members of both parties were split on whether to view Kellen as survivor or accomplice — but noted DOJ treated her as an aid to prosecution, not a co-conspirator

  • She reportedly named three previously unnamed men who had sexually abused her during the testimony.

• Here is who Epstein’s longtime assistant accused of sexual abuse (CNN)

  • Frédéric Fekkai: celebrity hairstylist with a long documented relationship with Epstein — used his apartments, asked him for business help, was described by Maxwell as “friendly, very friendly” with Epstein; Kellen alleges he assaulted her in a Hawaii hotel room in the early 2000s before she even met Epstein; his rep flatly denies it

  • Philip Levine: former Miami Beach mayor and failed 2018 gubernatorial candidate; Epstein files show years of contact with both Epstein and Maxwell — Levine wrote Epstein after his release from jail saying “you are a great guy”; Maxwell says Levine introduced her to Bill Clinton and called them “very good friends”; Kellen alleges he assaulted her at an Epstein/Maxwell rental in St. Tropez; Levine previously said he only met Epstein “a few times” and regrets it

  • Patrick Demarchelier: French fashion photographer, died 2022; Kellen testified he introduced her to Epstein — characterizing him as a scout for Victoria’s Secret models; she alleges he exposed himself to her; no direct connection to Epstein appears in the DOJ files, and he cannot respond to the allegations

  • None of the three have been charged; Comer called Kellen’s testimony “by far the most substantive and productive interview” the committee has conducted

• Jeffrey Epstein Was CIA. The Communications Network at Zorro Ranch Proves It. (The Pugilist)

  • What’s documented:

    • Epstein rejected cheap gigabit fiber for Zorro Ranch and instead chose a 27-mile encrypted military-grade microwave link to Sandia Crest — dismissing bandwidth twice because, Valdes-Rodriguez argues, he wasn’t moving large files, he was transmitting something specific and covert

    • The contractor who built it — Future Technologies Venture — specializes in “mission-critical connectivity” for government and military environments, and now holds a $151B Missile Defense Agency contract under the Golden Dome initiative

    • The system connected to a satellite earth station with direct-to-orbit uplink capability, authorized under an active FCC license — creating an untraceable data path from Zorro Ranch to anywhere on Earth

    • Donald Barr — father of AG William Barr, who oversaw Epstein’s custody and death — served in the OSS and hired the teenage, degree-less Epstein to teach math at Dalton School in 1973

    • Henry Singleton, OSS veteran and defense contractor who built missile guidance systems, owned the neighboring ranch and was Epstein’s first-choice relay point; his son appears in Epstein’s black book

    • The FCC licenses for Epstein’s encrypted microwave network are still active under new ownership — Donald and Mary Catherine Huffines, who secretly met with Russian officials in 2018 to help deliver a Trump letter to Putin and negotiate the release of Russian spy Maria Butina; Huffines is currently running for Texas comptroller with Trump’s endorsement

  • What she concludes but hasn’t proven:

    • Epstein was a multigenerational CIA asset, identified and cultivated by Barr Sr. possibly as young as age ten

    • The network running through Epstein had simultaneous American, Israeli, and Russian intelligence components — and protected itself across administrations through the children of its founders

    • The full Epstein files have never been released precisely because they would expose this network, not merely the abuse

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Indiana Elections

• Dems Get a Boost

  • National Democratic group aims to help break GOP’s Indiana House supermajority (IndyStar)

    • The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee — the national party arm dedicated to flipping state legislative chambers — is targeting 11 Indiana House races, including five in central Indiana, marking the first time national Democrats have invested at this level in the statehouse

    • Democrats need to flip just four seats to break the Republican supermajority, which would give them the ability to deny quorum on controversial bills

    • Most competitive races: HD-25 (R-Cash vs. D-Stoner — separated by 60 votes in 2024), HD-62 (R-Hall defended by just 2 points), HD-71 (D-Dant Chesser defended by 3 points)

    • Hamilton County seats HD-24 (R-Hunter Smith vs. D-Rachael Bleicher) and HD-39 (R-Danny Lopez vs. D-Lindsay Gramlich) are among the targets — reflecting continued Democratic hopes in Indianapolis suburbs going purple

    • Democrats are playing both offense and defense — some targets are seats they already hold by razor-thin margins, others are pickup opportunities in districts that trended close last cycle

• Republican Recounts

  • Trump-backed candidate seeks recount in Indiana Senate race with 3-vote margin (ICC)

    • Trump-backed Paula Copenhaver — a staffer to Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith — has filed for a recount after losing to Sen. Spencer Deery by just three votes in the SD-23 Republican primary

    • Copenhaver claims 14 Democrats or self-identified progressives crossed over to vote in the open Republican primary for Deery, who was targeted by Trump for voting against the congressional redistricting plan

    • Deery’s response: “Our state and country are ill-served anytime a candidate refuses to accept the will of the voters” — a notable line coming from a Republican

    • Recount could drag into July given the six-county district; Copenhaver’s attorneys want to depose the 14 identified voters, arguing they waived ballot secrecy by publicly disclosing their votes on social media

  • Challenger seeks recount of 15-vote loss to Republican Sen. Liz Brown (ICC)

    • Sen. Liz Brown’s challenger Darren Vogt — a Jim Banks staffer also backed by AG Todd Rokita — filed for a recount after losing SD-15 by just 15 votes; technical glitches in Allen County left preliminary tallies incomplete until the day after the primary

    • Brown, who is Trump-endorsed and voted FOR the redistricting bill, turned it around on her opponents: “Is Jim Banks funding this, or is Rokita trying one final tactic to rid the Senate of its most independent conservative voice?”

• GOP Secretary of State’s Race

  • GOP secretary of state race scrambled as US Sen. Banks’ staffer enters (ICC)

    • Jim Banks’ senior staffer Max Engling entered the Republican secretary of state race just one month before the June 20 convention — despite Banks having endorsed incumbent Diego Morales just two months earlier

    • David Shelton — Knox County Clerk and year-long candidate who has criticized Morales’ conduct in office — called Engling “just another amateur wanting a job he has no qualifications for” and said Banks is clearly abandoning Morales: “They’re cutting bait on Diego”

    • Engling previously ran for Indiana’s 5th Congressional District in 2024, finishing third with under 10% — before that he was an aide to Kevin McCarthy

  • Morales refuses to drop out after Banks, Rokita withdraw support in GOP secretary of state race (ICC)

    • Banks and Rokita jointly withdrew their endorsements of Morales and backed Engling — Banks citing a specific scandal: a former Morales staffer, allegedly a non-citizen, was registered to vote using a temporary driver’s license

    • Rokita personally called Morales and asked him to drop out; Morales refused — “The decision belongs in the hands and only the hands of Republican convention delegates”

    • Morales has faced a string of controversies: a taxpayer-funded vehicle, unexplained international travel, and no-bid contracts for donors

    • Most of Indiana’s Republican congressional delegation lined up behind Engling; Shelton — who has been running for a year — called it “political scrambling and backroom pressure campaigns”

  • Braun says he’s neutral in turbulent GOP Indiana secretary of state race (ICC)

    • State Treasurer Daniel Elliott became the latest Republican to break with Morales — calling on him to resign as secretary of state entirely, not just drop out of the race

    • Braun stayed neutral, noting he never endorsed Morales to begin with — pointedly adding “whenever you try to intervene and say this or that, I don’t like that”

    • Full November field shaping up: Republican convention (June 20) features Morales, Engling, Shelton, and Reitenour; Democratic convention (June 6) is Beau Bayh vs. Army veteran Blythe Potter; former GOP Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard running as Lincoln Party; Libertarian Lauri Shillings also on the ballot

Rokita Fuckery

• 30 major fuel retailers under investigation for price gouging in Indiana (ICC)

  • Rokita’s office is formally investigating 30 major fuel retailers for price gouging following Gov. Braun’s April energy emergency, which suspended both the 7% gasoline sales tax and the 36-cents-a-gallon excise tax through June 7

  • 170+ consumer complaints received; investigators are comparing retail prices to wholesale costs seven days before and after the April 8 executive order

  • AG’s office built a public dashboard tracking prices at 4,600 Indiana gas stations — INFuelWatch.com — so consumers can check prices and file complaints directly

• SHADES OF COMEY CASE: ACLU says Indiana man did not threaten state officials by posting ‘86’ on social media (Indiana Citizen)

  • Rokita’s office sent an investigator to a Monroe County man’s home to warn him he could be indicted — for posting “86” on the Facebook pages of Rokita, Lt. Gov. Beckwith, and Sen. Banks

  • The ACLU filed suit, arguing “86” is standard slang for “remove” or “get rid of” — not a threat — and that the door-step visit by a badge-carrying investigator is textbook First Amendment intimidation

  • The visit was recorded by a door camera; the investigator explicitly invoked the indictment (by Trump’s DOJ) of former FBI Director James Comey: “If Comey was indicted, we could easily indict you over this today”

  • Rokita’s response: called the ACLU “anti-American,” “deranged,” and running a “communist” mission — and vowed to drain their bank account in court

• Indiana is trying to undo court-approved birth record changes for transgender people (WFYI)

  • Rokita’s office has been intervening in closed, sometimes sealed court cases — cases the state was never a party to — to reverse judge-approved gender marker changes on birth certificates for transgender Hoosiers

  • At least nine cases confirmed; in one instance Rokita intervened a full year after the judge ruled; his office won’t say how many interventions it has pursued or how many it has reversed

  • Indianapolis resident Rhye Carroll had her case sealed and closed in October 2025, updated all her documents, and booked an overseas trip — then learned in April that Rokita had reopened her case and is seeking to reverse the order

  • The legal hook: Braun’s March 2025 executive order directing state agencies to enforce a “biological binary” — which prompted the health department to stop processing gender marker changes entirely and forward all requests to Rokita’s office instead

• Rokita wants ‘teeth’ for Indiana ban on human sexuality content (ICC)

  • After the ACLU dropped its challenge to Indiana’s “Don’t Say Gay” law — which bans human sexuality instruction for preschool through third grade — Rokita declared victory and immediately called for expanding the ban to every grade

  • Rokita now says he doesn’t trust the Department of Education to enforce the law and wants lawmakers to give it more “teeth” — his benchmark for comparison: the 14 teachers who lost licenses this year after criminal convictions

  • ACLU: “Vague censorship laws chill speech and leave educators questioning how to serve their students” — the organization dropped the suit after losing at the Seventh Circuit but says its concerns remain

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Education

• Indiana’s reading recovery ranks sixth in national report (ICC)

  • Indiana ranked 6th in reading recovery — but the average Hoosier student is still 0.31 grade equivalents behind 2019 levels; the 6th place ranking just means we’re losing less badly than most states

  • Math is worse: Indiana ranked 29th, still half a grade level below 2019, with researchers citing constantly shifting state standards, eroding teacher licensing requirements, and mass mid-year teacher departures

  • The “learning recession” started nationally in 2013 — seven years before the pandemic; Across the US, eighth graders are now at their lowest scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress since 1990

  • Harvard researcher: “The pandemic was the mudslide that followed seven years of erosion”

• Indiana charters edged traditional public schools in academic gains after COVID, study says (Chalkbeat)

  • A Brown University study found Indiana charter school students posted greater academic gains post-COVID than traditional public school peers — with the gap growing each year from 2021-22 through 2023-24

  • Gains were most pronounced for Black and Hispanic students and the lowest-performing and economically disadvantaged — groups that charter advocates will tout heavily

  • Key caveat: the study is still undergoing peer review, researchers haven’t yet determined why charters outperformed, and the analysis excluded rural students almost entirely due to the lack of charters there

  • Important questions about methodology and context (Wildstyle Paschall)

    • The innovation charter schools are NOT performing better, the study doesn’t seem to mention it

    • Even Chalkbeat doesn’t calculate White students data because of data suppression

    • Many schools changed grade levels and charter schools opened and closed making direct comparisons complicated

    • Award winning Indy charter schools have been caught TARGETING students using incredibly high discipline to push out special needs children

    • BOTH IPS, innovation charters and independent charters as a whole are NOT meeting the state average and the “success” gap between any of them is SMALL

• Allissa Impink gave up her IPS board seat so voters could fill it. Majority of spots now on November ballot (WFYI)

  • IPS board member Allissa Impink resigned effective June 15 — timing it deliberately before the June 18 filing deadline so voters, not the board, choose her replacement through 2028

  • Combined with three expiring seats and another vacancy, five of seven IPS board seats will be on the November ballot — the first under Indiana’s new partisan school board election law

  • The stakes couldn’t be higher: IPS faces a $40 million cash deficit, an expiring operating referendum, and a state-created body (IPEC) that has already stripped the elected board of control over buildings, transportation, and property tax levying

Quality of Life

• Carmel, Fishers named top 2 places to live in country by U.S. News & World Report (WTHR)

  • U.S. News & World Report ranked Carmel #1 and Fishers #2 on its 2026-27 “Best Places to Live in the U.S.” list — with Noblesville at #18 and Greenwood at #26

  • The rankings evaluate value, desirability, job market, and quality of life across 850+ cities

  • Worth noting: these are among the wealthiest, whitest, most politically homogeneous suburbs in the state — the rankings measure amenities, not equity

  • So yeah, top places to live…

    • Unless you’re a trans person who wants to live their life openly

    • Unless you’re a woman who needs access to abortion care

    • Unless you’re the kind of person who doesn’t want to live in a…

Militarized Police State

• National Guard says first members of new military police force ready for deployment (WRTV)

  • Braun signed a law creating a designated military police response force within the Indiana National Guard — the governor alone can deploy it anytime he believes civilian agencies are “overwhelmed,” with no requirement that local officials request it

  • The first 40 National Guard MPs have completed a supplemental Indiana law enforcement training course — but critics note it’s a workshop, not the full academy curriculum required of civilian officers

  • Rep. Matt Pierce’s warning: this opens the door for a governor who doesn’t like a particular mayor or local officials to deploy military police into urban communities without their consent — a dynamic already playing out at the federal level under Trump in D.C.

  • Braun and the bill’s author say coordination with local law enforcement would happen “as a matter of course” — but that coordination is not legally required

Data Centers

• Here’s how Indy plans to regulate data centers (Mirror Indy)

  • Indianapolis City-County Council on May 4 unanimously passed a resolution calling for a pause on new data center approvals until the city can adopt new zoning regulations — but it’s purely symbolic, the Metropolitan Development Commission doesn’t have to comply, and a Republican councilor called it “political theater”

  • Proposed zoning regulations are expected to be discussed over the coming months and would cap noise at 65 decibels and require developers to submit water management, electrical capacity, and noise mitigation plans — but critics say it doesn’t touch health and environmental concerns

  • Two data centers already approved this year: a $500M complex in the Martindale-Brightwood neighborhood and an 18-football-field-sized facility in Decatur Township; about a dozen Indiana counties have issued moratoriums, with Marshall County going further with a permanent ban

• Residents push back on a $2 billion data center proposal on Indy’s east side (WFYI)

  • Georgia-based DC Blox wants to build a $2 billion, three-building data center campus on Indy’s east side — a former Ford factory brownfield — using up to 78 megawatts of electricity (about as much as a city the size of Muncie or Anderson) and 56 backup generators

  • Dozens of residents showed up with “Block DC Blox” signs, raising concerns about noise, water use, power grid strain, and the health risks of digging up contaminated soil on a brownfield site

  • Critical procedural detail: because DC Blox filed for a variance rather than a rezoning, the City-County Council has no veto — opponents must convince the Metropolitan Development Commission directly at the June 11 hearing or the project moves forward

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