Tag: politics

Trump Trolls Times reporter again fishing for sources

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 8.1.2026

For a President who is so media savvy and friendly when it suits him the blogger can only continue to look on with dismay as Donald Trump assaults the First Amendment and crush the right to publish.

During his second term Trump’s Department of Justice has already issued subpoenas against The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post.

Does Trump seriously believe these mainstream media giants are standing idly by while its reporters are harassed by his DOJ? Thank goodness these publications are having none of it.

Excerpted from The New York Times 8.1.2026

Previously undisclosed subpoena, involving reporting on a failed 2019 SEAL Team 6 mission in North Korea, reflects the Trump’s expanding campaign to investigate leaks of what Trump labels secrets.

A freelance reporter has been fighting a subpoena from the Trump administration seeking to force him to reveal his sources for a New York Times article about a failed top secret mission in North Korea, according to people familiar with the matter.

Charlie Stadtlander, a spokesman for The Times, said in a statement that the subpoena to Matthew Cole was “part of the government’s escalating attacks on journalists, which should concern all Americans.” He added that the demand to disclose Mr. Cole’s sources “is another brazen and illegal attack from the administration designed to deny the public information of vital importance.”

The subpoena, which has not been previously disclosed, reflects the administration’s intensifying campaign to investigate leaks of government secrets by pressuring reporters to divulge their sources. Until President Trump began his second term, federal subpoenas to reporters were exceedingly rare.

In February, F.B.I. agents showed up at the New York home of the reporter, Matthew Cole, to deliver the grand jury subpoena, which was issued by prosecutors in Newport News, Va., according to the people familiar with the matter, who described the private conversations on the condition of anonymity.

The Times is providing a legal defense to Mr. Cole.

Trump jabs the media on Air Force One

The investigators are seeking his testimony about two years’ worth of information about Mr. Cole’s contacts and conversations, as they try to identify his sources for the article about the operation in North Korea, the people familiar with the matter said. It is unclear if the administration has also sought Mr. Cole’s phone and email data, as it has done in other cases.

Last fall, Mr. Cole, along with a staff reporter for The Times, Dave Philipps, revealed the details of a Navy SEAL Team 6 mission in 2019 that went awry. The article described how the SEAL members killed two or three unarmed North Koreans who appeared to have stumbled upon the mission, a classified operation to plant a secret eavesdropping device near the country’s coastline. The Times’s account, published in September, drew on interviews with two dozen people.

The article also noted that the Trump administration did not notify key members of Congress who oversee intelligence operations, before or after the mission, an omission that may have violated the law.

The Justice Department has not subpoenaed Mr. Philipps, according to people familiar with the matter. He declined to comment.

Mr. Cole disclosed more details of his reporting on his Substack newsletter, stating that despite learning about the mission in 2023, he waited for months before making calls to find out more given the sensitive nature of the reporting.

Top graphic by: Dave Whamond

Chile 9/11/73. Strategic Insight, Moral Myopia Shaped Kissinger

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 7.26.2026

Henry Kissinger has been dead nearly three years but his legacy of Machiavellian intrigue will long be remembered. Perhaps no more so than Chile where the Kissinger and Nixon sought to keep socialist Salvador Allende from gaining power.

TIME – after the coup – 9.24.1973

When that failed and a military coup eliminated President Allende on September 11, 1973 the American government aligned itself at the hip with the free market fascist leaning junta led by Augusto Pinochet.

Excerpted from Foreign Affairs Magazine – 12.3.2023 Timothy Naftali

The Nixon administration continued the policy started by President Kennedy of deploying covert action in Vietnam to prevent the socialist Salvatore Allende from ever becoming president of Chile

Kissinger and Nixon.

Never best friends. Just allies out of necessity

In September 1970, Henry Kissinger supervised the CIA’s efforts to arrange a military coup to prevent Allende, who had just received the largest number of votes in a national election, from becoming president that year. “I don’t see why we have to let a country go Marxist,” Kissinger announced to the board that recommended U.S. covert action to Nixon, “just because its people are irresponsible.” Known as “Track II,” this covert action failed to produce the desired outcome.

Three years later, there were no American puppet masters in the military coup, led by the brutal Augusto Pinochet, that brought down Allende. But Kissinger welcomed the result and refused to apply any pressure on the new, pro-U.S. regime to prevent human rights abuses—indeed, Kissinger did the opposite.

Chilean military guards detained political prisoners in the Santiago soccer stadium after the 9.11.1973 military coup

In June 1976, after Pinochet’s junta had detained thousands of innocent Chileans, torturing an estimated 30,000 and executing at least 2,200 of them, Kissinger told Pinochet in a private meeting, “My evaluation is that you are a victim of all left-wing groups around the world, and that your greatest sin was that you overthrew a government which was going communist.”

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/henry-kissinger-contradictions-america-secretary-state-tim-naftali

September 11, 1973. A Day of Shame for America. Sponsored Coup d’etat in Chile
Opening theme of 1982 film ‘Missing’, adapted from the book of the same title by Thomas Hauser. The controversial cinematic account of the deaths of two Americans Charles Horman and Frank Teruggi. Detained and executed by the Chilean military after the coup. Missing (1982 film) – Wikipedia

Top photo: La Moneda the presidential palace in Chile under attack during the September 11th 1973 Coup.

Using sweeping subpoenas Obama DOJ went after reporters

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 7.25.2026

The blogger was shocked, saddened and surprised to learn that President Barack Obama unleashed the Department of Justice to obtain “cellular, office and home telephone records of individual reporters and an editor” in 2013.

It’s of little consequence which Administration tries to stifle the Press. The fact of the matter is that the First Amendment is the bedrock of American democracy.

Excerpted from The Washington Post – May 13, 2013

https://wapo.st/4fBWmbm

Under sweeping subpoenas, Justice Department obtained AP phone records in leak investigation

In a sweeping and unusual move, the Justice Department secretly obtained two months’ worth of telephone records of journalists working for the Associated Press as part of a year-long investigation into the disclosure of classified information about a failed al-Qaeda plot last year.

The AP’s president said Monday that federal authorities obtained cellular, office and home telephone records of individual reporters and an editor; AP general office numbers in Washington, New York and Hartford, Conn.; and the main number for AP reporters covering Congress. He called the Justice Department’s actions a “massive and unprecedented intrusion” into newsgathering activities.

Six officials have been prosecuted, more than under all previous administrations combined.

The aggressive investigation into the possible disclosure of classified information to the AP is part of a pattern in which the Obama administration has pursued current and former government officials suspected of releasing secret material. Six officials have been prosecuted, more than under all previous administrations combined.

In a letter to Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., the AP’s president and chief executive, Gary B. Pruitt, said that the Justice Department sought information beyond what could be justified by any specific probe and demanded that the government return the phone records and destroy all copies.

“There can be no possible justification for such an overbroad collection of the telephone communications of The Associated Press and its reporters,” Pruitt wrote to Holder. “These records potentially reveal communications with confidential sources across all of the newsgathering activities undertaken by the AP during a two-month period, provide a road map to AP’s newsgathering operations, and disclose information about AP’s activities and operations that the government has no conceivable right to know.”

Obama administration was marked by lack of transparency, access.

Attacks on the Press in 2013: United States – Committee to Protect Journalists

As part of its investigations into earlier leaks, the Justice Department revealed it had secretly subpoenaed the phone records of nearly two dozen Associated Press telephone lines and the emails and phone records of Fox News reporter James Rosen. The two cases, and language in the Rosen subpoena that suggested the journalist could be criminally charged for receiving the information, provoked widespread criticism. The backlash resulted in the drafting of revised Justice Department guidelines on press subpoenas and a renewed debate in the Senate of a federal shield law that would allow journalists greater protection for their sources. As the debate moved forward in the Senate, a federal appeals court rejected an appeal by New York Times reporter James Risen in his long-term effort to protect a confidential source, setting up a likely Supreme Court showdown. 

Mayor Mamdani correctly labeled Bibi “war criminal.”

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 7.22.2026

The mainstream media is in a general uproar because New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani has correctly labeled Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu a “war criminal.”

If it was up to New York’s Mayor the Israeli Prime Minister would be arrested when he arrives for the United Nations general assembly meeting.

It’s easy to ignore reality. The Israeli military has slaughtered over 70,000 Palestinians in Gaza since October 7, 2023. In retaliation for the Hamas attack which resulted in the deaths of over 1300 people, mostly Israelis.

Netanyahu has been indicted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands. ICC arrest warrants for Israeli leaders – Wikipedia

On 21 November 2024, following an investigation of war crimes and crimes against humanity, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for two senior Israeli officials, Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, and Yoav Gallant, the former Minister of Defense of Israel, alleging responsibility for the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts during the Gaza war.[1][2] The warrant against Netanyahu is the first against the leader of a Western-backed democratic country for war crimes.[3][4][5]

Eventually, Netanyahu will have his day in Court. Regrettably, it won’t happen in the United States.

Excerpted from The New York Times – 7.22.2026

Mayor Zohran Mamdani recently disclosed that he was in “active conversation” with his legal team about whether he could make good on a campaign vow to arrest Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, should he set foot in New York City.

What the mayor neglected to say, in a wide-ranging interview with The New York Times last week, was that he had already been advised by lawyers that he had no authority to do so.

The International Criminal Court – International Criminal Court – Wikipedia

His declaration risked a rare public clash with his police commissioner, Jessica Tisch, whose pro-Israel stance runs counter to the mayor’s longstanding position.

Ms. Tisch had no intention of arresting Mr. Netanyahu, and the Police Department was ready to make that clear with a formal statement declaring that it lacked the authority to take such action. Lawyers agreed that such an arrest was not within the scope of the Police Department.

Top photo: War criminal Bibi Netanyahu with the Israeli military

Angry Prez 1st Amendment attack on nemesis NY Times

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 7.23.2026 UPDATED

THE FIRST AMENDMENT SURVIVES!!!

Daily Beast 7.23.2026
The First Amendment survives
Wall Street Journal – 7.23.2026
Wall Street Journal – 7.20.2026

Donald Trump lives in America in 2026. His attitude and actions are akin to Germany in the 1930’s.

While Trump is precluded from going as far as 1930’s Germany he is using his Department of Justice to intimidate and bully the media for exercising its First Amendment rights to publish.

This is a chilling assault on the foundation of 🇺🇸 American democracy

One of the first things the National Socialists did after assuming power in early 1933 was quash the free press. This action was followed by a series of book burnings.

The  Nazi book burnings  were a campaign conducted by the  German Student Union  (German:  Deutsche Studentenschaft,  DSt) to ceremonially  burn books  in  Nazi Germany  and  Austria  in the 1930s. The books targeted for burning were those viewed as being subversive or as representing ideologies opposed to  Nazism. These included books written by  Jewish,  half-Jewish,  communist,  socialist,  anarchist,  liberal,  pacifist, and  sexologist  authors among others.[1]  The initial books burned were those of  Karl Marx  and  Karl Kautsky,[2]&n bsp;but the burned books came to include other authors, including the works of  Albert Einstein,  Helen Keller,  H.G. Wells, and effectively any book incompatible with Nazi ideology. The first burning consisted mainly of LGBTQ books from the Institute of Sexual Research (Institut für Sexualwissenschaft)  founded by the pioneering Jewish sexologist  Magnus Hirschfeld  as the first medical center devoted to the study of gender and sexuality.[3]  In a campaign of  cultural genocide, books were also burned  en masse&n bsp;by the Nazis in  occupied territories  as well,  such as in Poland.[4] Nazi book burnings – Wikipedia

Donald Trump Is Tearing Up The First Amendment

The president is waging an across-the-board war against the First Amendment and its legal interpretations from the mid-20th century to today. – Huffington Post 3.13.2025

Excerpted from The New York Times – 7.20.2026

The Trump administration sought the phone records of several New York Times journalists and their relatives — including one reporter’s mother — in its effort to unmask the confidential sources who had provided information for articles about the security capabilities of President Trump’s new Air Force One jet.

The Justice Department told The Times late last week that it had issued subpoenas to third-party phone service providers seeking several journalists’ phone and text messaging records. That effort was in addition to the subpoenas issued on July 10  that sought to compel reporters  to testify before a federal grand jury.

The government’s actions amount to an extraordinarily aggressive and unorthodox attempt by the Trump administration to unearth the confidential sources of independent journalists whose reporting  had angered the president.

The additional subpoenas — which also sought information about calls and messages on the phones of two of the reporters’ spouses — were described in a  motion  filed on Saturday by lawyers for The Times, which is  seeking to quash the requests. The motion was unsealed on Monday morning by Judge Arun Subramanian of U.S. District Court in Manhattan.

The  First Amendment  (Amendment I) to the  United States Constitution&nbs p;prevents  Congress  from making laws respecting an  establishment of religion; prohibiting the  free exercise of religion; or abridging the  freedom of speech, the  freedom of the press, the  freedom of peaceable assembly  and the  right to petition  the government for redress of  grievances.[1]  It was adopted on December 15, 1791, as one of the ten amendments that constitute the  Bill of Rights. In the original draft of the Bill of Rights, what is now the First Amendment occupied third place. The first two articles were not ratified by the states, so the article on disestablishment and free speech ended up being first.[2][3]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution

Top drawing: Herblock in Washington Post June 1971 during Pentagon Papers First Amendment battle. The Nixon administration tried to enjoin the New York Times from publishing the history of the Vietnam War. The Supreme Court upheld the Times right to publish.

“A little bit of courage is all we lack. So, catch me if you can I’m going back.” The Byrds

Vietnam to Israel. WSJ follows American hegemony party line

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 7.16.2026

I am unsure what is more infuriating reading this WSJ editorial screed.

Standing by Israel despite its ongoing three year onslaught against the People of Gaza.

Or, relitigating the US involvement in Vietnam. An act of Washington stupidity which lay waste to Southeast Asia resulting in the deaths of 58,000 Americans. And hundreds of thousands of Asians.

Several bloody and bandaged soldiers ride on top of a tank used as a make-shift ambulance after the Battle of Hue in the Vietnam War, Hue, Vietnam, February 15, 1968. (Photo by John Olson/Getty Images)

Wall Street Journal editorial 7.16.2026

The vote by 103 House Democrats on Wednesday to block U.S. arms to Israel as it fights a multifront war is a shocking abandonment of an ally. It’s a sign of the rapid conquest of the Democratic Party by its anti-Israel wing, and it echoes another betrayal half a century ago—in Vietnam.

The measure to strip Israel of all aid—humanitarian and military, offensive and defensive—was offered by the isolationist Republican Thomas Massie of Kentucky. He was the only GOP member who voted for it, as it failed on the House floor, 314–104.

The shock is that nearly half of all Democrats voted for it. They included former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the second ranking Democrat in leadership, Katherine Clark of Massachusetts. Another 10 voted “present”—non-profiles in courage all. “It is clear that the status quo is not tenable,” Ms. Clark said in a statement before the vote. “We should not provide a blank check for military aid to any country that does not comply with U.S. law, interests, and values. The [Benjamin] Netanyahu government has failed to meet that standard.”

Israel has violated no U.S. laws we know of. As for U.S. interests, Israel is fighting by the side of the U.S. against Iran and fighting alone against Iran’s proxies that have killed Americans. The defense relationship with Israel is a U.S. military advantage that helps maintain America’s technological edge over adversaries. When Democrats are voting to abandon even Iron Dome missile defense, this is self-sabotage out of anti-Israel animus.

It’s one thing to oppose Mr. Trump’s war on Iran, but it’s a far more radical step to cut loose a steadfast ally. How is it a U.S. “value” to disarm an ally fighting against murderous enemies that fire rockets on civilian towns?

VIETNAM – APRIL 30: The Fall of Saigon in Vietnam on April 30, 1975 – The north-Vietnamese tanks cross Saigon on the way towards the Doc Lap palace. (Photo by Herve GLOAGUEN/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)

All of this echoes the sad denouement of the Vietnam War, when Democrats fought for years to cut off funds for South Vietnam, restricted U.S. aid, and denied its pleas for help in 1975. The North Vietnamese Communist offensive overran the South, sending more than a million “boat people” into the open ocean.

That is where the Democratic Party—and some parts of the far right—appear to be heading. It’s a telling sign that even Seth Moulton, often sensible on foreign policy, voted to disarm Israel as he competes in a Democratic Senate primary in Massachusetts. That’s where the party’s grassroots voters apparently are.

Some might dismiss the House vote as of no great account because everyone knew the Massie measure would fail. But the mistake is thinking that this is a one-time affair. The political momentum is growing against Israel, even if Israelis depose Prime Minister Netanyahu in their October election. This movement thinks Israel is evil while Palestinian terrorists are victims.

The party of Harry Truman, who recognized Israel in its time of founding crisis, is becoming the party of Zohran Mamdani. It’s a betrayal for the ages.

https://www.wsj.com/opinion/israel-arms-sales-house-democrats-katherine-clark-thomas-massie-cade897f?st=Pnbsue&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

Bully Donald Trump escalates his war on the First Amendment.

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 7.15.2026 UPDATED

New York Times – 7.15.2026
Washington Post – 7.11.2026

Donald Trump wants nothing more than to stamp out the First Amendment.

This wannabe dictator will use his final 925 days in the White House unleashing the Department of Justice and abusing the levers of presidential power to stifle, harass and prosecute his political enemies by any means necessary.

First it was former national security advisor John Bolton who published “The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir.” Bolton plead guilty to one charge against him and is looking at a 2.5M fine and five years prison time.

Trump uses his DOJ to get his Revenge six years later

Now Trump is going after The New York Times

The media world needs to rise up and defend the right to free speech without being intimidated and bullied.

Prior Restraint by Government – Herblock in the Washington Post 1971 Pentagon Papers – Wikipedia

Excerpted from The New York Times 7.10.2026

The Trump administration issued subpoenas on Friday to several journalists for The New York Times, after the news outlet reported this week on security concerns involving President Trump’s new Qatari-donated Air Force One.

The smirking bully Trump

The Times journalists who received subpoenas included Julian E. Barnes, Eric Lipton, Tyler Pager and Eric Schmitt, who reported on Wednesday that Mr. Trump had departed Turkey on the old Air Force One as a security precaution at the urging of the Secret Service. On Thursday, The Times reported that the new Air Force One, a Qatari-donated Boeing 747-8, lacked some of the advanced security features of the older aircraft, including antimissile capabilities. Both articles cited sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive security issues.

The subpoenas — which seek to force the reporters to testify before a federal grand jury in Manhattan on Wednesday — were an extraordinary escalation in President Trump’s efforts to threaten and intimidate independent news organizations.

In some cases, the subpoenas were delivered by federal agents who showed up at reporters’ homes.

The Times denounced the administration’s actions.

“The appearance of federal law enforcement agents on the doorstep of news reporters should shock the conscience of any American who believes in the Constitution and the press freedom it protects,” said David McCraw, The Times’s top newsroom lawyer, in a statement on Friday evening.

How do Germans cope with having Nazi grandparents?

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 7.10.2026

Adolf Hitler perished in his bunker in bombed out Berlin over 81 years ago as the Russian closed in.

Hitler may be long gone physically but his insane 12 year Third Reich lives on. No more so than in the hearts and minds of the German public. Memorialized worldwide in countless historical works, fiction recreations, movies and documentaries.

It’s no surprise that Deutsche Welle would ask the question, “How do Germans cope with having Nazi Grandparents?” Leave it to the bureaucratic Germans to make publicly available online the names of Nazi party members. There were over 8,000,000 members.

Excerpted from Deutsche Welle 7.9.2026

Germany is now regarded abroad as a world leader in how to confront a country’s dark past. There are 100,000 Stolpersteine (“stumbling stones”) embedded in streets to commemorate the victims of National Socialism, a Holocaust memorial stands in the heart of Berlin, and schools place a particular focus on the Nazi era.

Since millions of NSDAP membership cards have been made available online, many Germans have been surprised to discover that their ancestors weren’t always as innocent as family stories had led them to believe.

“I always thought of my grandfather as a left-wing unionist, and now he’s turned up in the NSDAP database,” Hanno Dannenfeldt told DW. It was always said in the family that his paternal grandfather had clean hands.

Now that the National Archives of the United States has published its collection of National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP) membership cards, Dannenfeldt is one of countless Germans eager to find out whether their relatives were members of the party that ruled Germany during the Nazi era from 1933 to 1945.

This has not been an easy task: The site is often inaccessible because of heavy traffic, and the user interface is difficult to navigate.

A German tool simplifies the search

The German weekly newspaper Die Zeit has developed a tool that simplifies the search. Users simply enter the name and perhaps the year and place of birth of a person — and the results appear immediately. These records are sure to be of interest to people in South America, as well: Many Nazis went into hiding there after World War II. However, a subscription is required to use the service.

What users find there can be painful. Often, it means suddenly looking at their families in a very different light. Memories of a loving grandfather who was always full of fun and energy can contrast sharply with evidence now presented in black and white that the very same grandfather was a member of the National Socialist Party.

After the war, few families spoke about the crimes of the Nazi era, let alone their own role in them. According to a study, more than two-thirds of Germans believe that their ancestors were not Nazis. Nearly 36% believe that their relatives were among the victims, and over 30% believe that their ancestors helped victims of the Nazis — for example, by hiding Jews.

But this can’t possibly be true. Only about 1% of Germans actively resisted. In 1945, one in five adult Germans was a member of the Nazi Party — which had a total of 8.5 million members — thereby lending their support, at least on paper, to that unjust system.

And yet, nationalism is on the rise in Germany again. The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party is gaining influence. Dannenfeldt wonders whether Germans might again embrace the justifications of the Nazi era. “Some people might think, ‘I’ll join the AfD and make a career for myself,’ he said. “When you realize that your own family didn’t put up much of a fight back then, it makes you think about just how great the danger is today, as well.” 

https://www.dw.com/en/how-do-germans-cope-with-having-nazi-grandparents/a-77886590

Nazi sentiment has always been widespread in America. Perhaps the most factual documentation is the Academy Award nominated “A Night at the Garden.” The Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden in 1937.

– Philip Roth The Plot Against America – Wikipedia

Republicans ‘Own Goal’ funds Planned Parenthood

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 7.4.2026

In World Cup terminology the only way to describe it is an “Own Goal” by the Republican Congress for its failure to pass an extension of an abortion defunding bill.

In World Cup terminology the only way to describe it is an “Own Goal” by the Republican Congress for its failure to pass an extension of an abortion defunding bill.

The best event on the Fourth of July for the blogger is to learn that Planned Parenthood funding has been restored.

The anti-choice crowd is in an uproar. Having fully expect their reactionary allies in Congress would continue to do their bidding.

Pro-choice advocates have fought hard and need to remain vigilant. The foes of a woman’s right to control her body are relentless.

Excerpted from Politico 7.4.2026

Planned Parenthood’s beleaguered network of clinics will regain access to hundreds of millions in Medicaid funding this weekend — the fallout of Republicans’ failure to pass an extension of the one-year defunding provision they approved last year.

Though Republicans pushed last year to include a decade-long or even permanent defunding of Planned Parenthood in their megabill, a ruling from the Senate parliamentarian forced them to scale back to a one-year measure. Anti-abortion activists — who warned at the time that the GOP would struggle to pass an extension in the lead-up to the midterms — have demanded in vain that Republican leadership ignore or fire the parliamentarian in order to get it done.

Nora Walsh-DeVries, the vice president of political and legislative affairs for Planned Parenthood, said the past year of defunding caused “irreparable damage” to many communities where access to health services is already scarce.

The group reported this week that two-thirds of the health center closures occurred in rural areas, medically underserved areas, or areas with shortages of health workers. Across the national network, there were 250,000 fewer visits compared to the year before. And while nearly a dozen progressive-leaning states where abortion is legal, including California, Illinois, New York, and Massachusetts, dug into state coffers to backfill some of the lost funding, red states that prohibit the procedure did not, resulting in the shuttering of many facilities that only provided non-abortion services like contraception and pelvic exams.

A rally partcipant holds up a sign during the Planned Parenthood Action Fund’s Stand with Texas Women Rally at Discovery Green in Houston, Texas. The Rally highlighted the abortion restriction bill, House Bill 2 being Pushed in Austin. The Parenthood Action Fund will held the rally in Houston as part of the statewide Stand with Texas Women tour. Tuesday, July 9, 2013, in Houston. ( Billy Smith II / Chronicle )

Starting July 5, clinics around the country can once again bill the federal program for reimbursement after providing non-abortion services, like birth control and screenings for sexually-transmitted infections, to low-income patients.

Though other funding threats loom, it’s a lifeline for the struggling organization, which has closed nearly 30 health centers nationwide that collectively served more than 40,000 patients since the defunding provision in the GOP’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act took effect in July 2025.

Leaders of the anti-abortion movement say the restoration of taxpayer resources to one of the right’s longtime nemeses is an even bigger blow to voters’ morale than their other grievances with the Trump administration, such as its inaction on abortion pills, because they view it as backsliding on something already achieved.

https://www.politico.com/news/2026/07/04/planned-parenthood-abortion-medicaid-congress-00985879

‘Mississippi Burning’ – You won’t see this cinema in the Trump era

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 6.30.2026

Mississippi Burning – Wikipedia

What’s happened to American edgy political film making? Hollywood has been cowed during the Trump regime and is afraid to speak of racism and violence on the screen.

The 1988 film ‘Mississippi Burning’ is the Hollywood telling of murders of three civil rights workers in Mississippi on June 21st 1964 and the subsequent investigation by the federal government.

‘Mississippi Burning’ is violent and political. Church burnings, lynchings and blatant racism.

The performance by Gene Hackman portraying a home grown FBI agent is arguably the strongest performance in the story of American racism and all its ugliness. Hackman was awarded the Silver Bear for best Actor at the 1989 Berlin Film Festival and was nominated for an Academy Award as best Actor.

The following clips from Mississippi Burning are vivid examples.

Murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner – Wikipedia

On June 21, 1964, three civil rights movement activists, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner, were murdered in Neshoba County, Mississippi by local members of the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. Earlier the same day they were arrested for speeding, and after being released were followed by local law enforcement and others affiliated with the authorities, all of whom were associated with the Klan.[1] After being followed for some time, the three were abducted by the group, brought to a secluded location, and shot and killed. They were then buried in an earthen dam. All three activists were associated with the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO) and its member organization, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). They had been working with the Freedom Summer campaign by attempting to register African Americans in Mississippi to vote.

Chaney was Black, and Goodman and Schwerner were both Jewish. The three men had traveled roughly 38 miles (61 km) north from Meridian, to the community of Longdale, Mississippi, to talk with congregation members of a Black church that had been burned; the church had been a center of community organization. The disappearance of the three men was initially investigated as a missing persons case. The burnt-out car the three were using was found parked near a swamp three days after their disappearance.[2][3] An extensive search of the area was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), local and state authorities, and 400 U.S. Navy sailors.[4] Their bodies were not discovered until seven weeks later, when authorities received a tip leading them to the remains of the three activists. During the investigation, it emerged that members of the Ku Klux Klan, the Neshoba County Sheriff’s Office, and the Philadelphia Police Department were involved in the incident.[1]

The murder of the activists sparked national outrage and an extensive federal investigation, filed as Mississippi Burning (MIBURN), which later became the title of a 1988 film loosely based on the events. In 1967, after the state government refused to prosecute those involved in the murders, the United States federal government stepped in and charged 18 individuals with civil rights violations. Seven were convicted and another pleaded guilty, and all received relatively minimal sentences. Outrage over the activists’ murder helped pass of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Forty-one years after the murders took place, one perpetrator, Edgar Ray Killen, was charged by the state of Mississippi for his part in the crimes, and in 2005 was convicted of three counts of manslaughter and was given a 60-year sentence.[5] On June 20, 2016, federal and state authorities officially closed the case. Killen died in prison in January 2018.

Smug and smiling in Mississippi – 1964