Right-wingers often try to portray social democratic policies as somehow un-American. But social democracy is as American as sliced bread. The Social Security Act (1935), a national minimum wage (1938) and Medicare and Medicaid (1965) are all so-called “socialist” policies. So why’s ”socialism” bad?

Paul Krugman: (In regards to SCOTUS’s Slaughter decision), there’s comments that a future Democratic president could make extensive use of these new powers, but this Court is utterly partisan. The moment a Democrat takes office, it will instantly decide that he/she has almost no discretionary power.

SCOTUS’s rulings last week, a massive “expansion of presidential power” could “open the door to allowing presidents to fire at will not just agency leaders, but potentially lower-level government experts who have been protected by the Civil Service Reform Act since 1883,” NPR reported.

For months after he knocked down the East Wing, DJT insisted private donations would pay for the ballroom. But on June 16, WaPo reported that more than 3 weeks before DJT made that announcement, contractors gave him an estimate of $600 million for the project, more than half coming from taxpayers.

Last week, SCOTUS decided the Slaughter case in DJT’s favor. Now, even if elected members of Congress create agencies to protect our interests, the president can gut them and turn them to his purposes. Federal employees have been free from political interference for 150 years, but now, forget it!

Poll watch: More than half of Americans (52%) are planning a staycation instead of a traditional trip due to the rising costs of daily and travel expenses, according to Monster’s Staycation Summer Report. Out of 1,005 adults surveyed, nearly 2 in 5 workers (39%) are cutting back on travel expenses.

With most of SCOTUS’ latest rulings, it is clear that we have 6 people who are fundamentally hostile to democracy, fundamentally hostile to the modern world and determined to put the catastrophically bad leader that we currently have sitting in the White House in charge of everything.

My Monday morning moment of Zen …

Borowitz Report: Claiming that it “has to be some kind of record,” on Monday Donald J. Trump boasted about the “enormous” crowd size at his medical appointments. … According to estimates, the turnout at Trump’s most recent physical was far bigger than at his Great American State Fair.

Recent events, the failed war on Iran, the limited effects of DJT’s tariffs and Ukraine’s survival without our aid, have shown that America is now an inessential nation. DJT thought throwing America’s weight around would show the world our power. Instead, he made us weaker and the world knows it.

My Sunday morning thought …

To all Americans, regardless of your political persuasion, have a safe and happy 4th of July holiday, as we celebrate this country’s 250th birthday!

Paul Krugman: So how much has DJT enriched himself since returning to the White House about 500 days ago? The answer is certainly more than four billion dollars, … maybe five billion dollars. So it’s basically day after day of scandals as big or bigger than Teapot Dome.

DJT has redirected taxpayer money from national parks around the country to his own vanity projects, leaving the parks unable to make needed repairs or hire staff. DJT has also pulled National Park Service staff to D.C. even though he wants to cut staff by another 3,967 full-time employees, or 31%.

It’s Friday morning, which means it’s time for my billboard/sign of the week …

According to a Gallup poll released last month, fewer than half of Americans say they can afford health care. Since the Republicans cut SNAP funds in last July’s so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act, 4.7 million Americans have lost food assistance. We really are becoming a third-world country.

Last week, Stephen Miller told reporters: “This country doesn’t have a future if we don’t end birthright citizenship…. One way or another, this nation has to end birthright citizenship.” The once grand Republican Party has become a party of radical extremists, coalescing around white nationalism.

Even though he cancelled the bill signing ceremony, the ROAD to Housing Act may still be a victory for DJT, and the president may even claim credit for the effort to make housing more affordable. But he has yet to prove to the American people that he will build for them, and not just for himself.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: “If Watergate happened tomorrow, it would be like a 12-hour news story. The idea that it would have taken down a presidency is crazy.” V.P. JD Vance while promoting his new book at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library. Sadly, with the orange felon in office, this is sadly true!

Andy Borowitz: As DJT’s regime shreds the social safety net while enacting trillions of dollars in tax cuts for the wealthiest, anger has boiled over across the country. … Republicans may be about to learn an unpleasant lesson: you can ban teaching of history, but that won’t keep it from repeating.

Poll watch: High gas prices are causing “financial hardship” for 2/3 of American households (67%), according to a Gallup survey of 1,001 adults. And 17% of those experiencing hardship consider it “severe.” The results are comparable to 2022, when gas prices were “similarly high,” said Gallup.

Illustrating the degree to which DJT’s botched renovation of the Reflecting Pool has come to represent his botched war on Iran, as well as the degree to which Americans have turned against both, social media users have taken to calling the algae-choked reflecting pool the “Strait of Warm Ooze.”

QUOTE OF THE DAY: “There’s a lot of us that are absolutely fed up and will not support a party that betrays its voters and country.” Former Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene in an X post on why she’s joining political pundit Tucker Carlson in leaving the Republican Party. Wow!!!

Andy Borowitz: JD Vance flew into a rage last week after ChatGPT repeatedly recommended Barack Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran. Infuriated, Vance ordered the bot to stop praising Obama’s nuclear deal, so it responded, “Would you like me to explore his other landmark achievements, like The ACA?”

As DJT crumbles, it appears there is in the administration a drive to create unlimited power in the executive branch that will survive no matter who is in charge. That drive includes silencing political opponents while rewarding loyalists.

Paul Krugman: I would add that it may be especially hard for the Trumpists to make the case that things have turned around when they were never willing to admit that anything was wrong in the first place, insisting even as prices soared that we were living in a “golden age.”

My Monday morning moment of Zen …

A wide range of US commentators are calling the Iran/US MOU a “disaster” and saying the United States lost the war. Right-wing hardliner on Iran Mark Dubowitz said: “The actual MOU is deeply flawed. The administration needs to stop defending it beyond stating the truth,” to help in the midterms.”

QUOTE OF THE DAY: “May peace, respect and friendship prevail among all nations.” Iran’s soccer team in a handwritten note left in their World Cup dressing room after a 0-0 draw with Belgium.

My Sunday morning thought …

DJT says water will likely have to be removed from the Reflecting Pool to do “necessary repairs” - in other words, $16.4 million in taxpayer money will go down the drain. Give credit where it’s due though - this may become the first time DJT will have actually drained a swamp.

Statistic of the day - 770,000: The number of children no longer receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits after DJT’s signature OBBBA bill passed last year, according to the nonpartisan Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Children are increasingly “collateral damage.”

Musk is a “poster child” for a billionaire class that has “more dollars than we have the ability to count,” said Will Bunch at The Philadelphia Inquirer. The U.S.’s ultrarich continue to build unfathomable sums of wealth “even as thousands starve and his fellow Americans can’t pay the rent.”

DJT said people cut a “250 foot long gash” into the Reflecting Pool coating and “poured corrosive and destructive chemicals into the Pool.” He offered no evidence, but hydrogen peroxide, which workers have been dumping into the pool to kill the algae, can also be used as a paint remover.

Just a day after the Reflecting Pool filled with water, algae began to bloom in it. Experts noted that the darker bottom and the sealed seams meant the water would heat up faster than it had before and thus support more algae. Keeping in character though, DJT blamed it on make-believe “vandals”.

It’s Friday morning, which means it’s time for my billboard/sign of the week …

Throughout our history, those wanting to preserve a government that discriminates according to race, gender, religion, ability, and so on, have embraced the idea that true democracy requires skewing the vote toward the wealthy and white men. Today, those voices are, once again, gaining traction.

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA): “Before the war, the strait was open, Iran was being crushed by sanctions, and 13 service members were still alive. Now, 13 Americans are dead, families have paid billions at the pump, sanctions will be lifted, … This is the worst foreign policy blunder in decades.”

Andy Borowitz: In an astounding achievement for a first-time author, … Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei nabbed the #1 spot on the NY Times bestsellers list with a business book entitled “The Art of the Deal.” An advance excerpt from the book’s first chapter begins, “Rule #1: Only negotiate with morons.”

The WaPo reported last week that DJT’s administration had already approved tens of millions of taxpayer money for the White House ballroom project. With access to project summaries, they also showed that “the work was projected to rely heavily on taxpayer dollars from the moment it was announced.”

Paul Krugman: The vulgarity of the Trumpian elite … is a symptom of a collapse in values and norms that … may herald the end of the American experiment. In the words of philosopher Seneca about the rise and fall of the Roman Republic: “Increases are of sluggish growth, but the way to ruin is rapid.”

On June 11, Reuters reported that only 16% of Americans thought it was appropriate to hold UFC cage matches at the White House. Forty-six percent said it was inappropriate. Even among Republicans, only 31% thought it was appropriate. Of course, DJT could care less about what most Americans think!

The Kennedy Center’s Board obeyed the court order to take down DJT’s name, but they aren’t keeping Kennedy’s name visible. Currently, the portico facade is covered with a giant tarp thru which workers have created passageways to make the center’s doors accessible while keeping the signage covered.

Paul Krugman: The presidency is now more or less openly for sale. “Donald Trump,” writes Forbes, “has presided over the most lucrative presidency in history,” adding $4.2 billion to his personal wealth since regaining the White House.

DJT treats “any Democratic election victory” as “suspicious” even if it happens in “one of the most liberal cities in America,” said The NYT. His evidence-free assertions of vote-rigging in the LA mayor’s race are a preview of how he could greet any disappointing results for his party in November.

Andy Borowitz: Taking his milestone birthday in stride, last Sunday DJT told reporters, “I may be eighty, but I have the brain of a four-year-old. People who think I’m too old should take a look at this UFC fight,” he argued. “That’s an idea that could only come from a four-year-old’s mind.”

Last week, although complying with a judges order to remove DJT’s name from the outside of the Kennedy Center, workers weren’t allowed to take down the tarp covering the the portico wall. Currently, although an entryway through the tarp has been created, the public has not seen the restored facade.

My Monday morning moment of Zen …

Statistic of the day - $60 million: The cost of DJT’s UFC fight on the White House South Lawn last Sunday, according to a legal filing in a federal lawsuit against the National Park Service. Preparations required the effort of more than 7 federal agencies and hundreds of staff working on-site daily.

My Sunday morning thought …