President Trump's envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner traveled to the national lab in Oak Ridge, Tennessee on Thursday for consultations with a team of technical experts that could play a role in nuclear negotiations with Iran. www.axios.com/2026/06/05/i...

For years, Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general, has been waging war on Democratic and Latino-led groups over “election integrity”…. Now it is personal and could help determine his own political future. www.nytimes.com/2026/06/06/u...

As the scandal-ridden Republican Ken Paxton locks arms with Trump, his opponent Democrat James Talarico wants to remind voters who is actually on the ballot. www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...

The Kennedy Center’s general counsel has ordered staff to remove President Trump’s name from the building by June 12, according to a memo obtained by CNN, in order to comply with a recent court order. www.cnn.com/2026/06/04/p...

The U.S. military has killed 200+ people in strikes on boats in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific in the last nine months in what legal experts and former military lawyers broadly agree constitute illegal military orders that service members should refuse to follow. www.usatoday.com/story/news/p...

The Houston Chronicle has endorsed James Talarico for US Senate. The editorial board called the decision "an easy call,” declaring: “Texans deserve better than Ken Paxton’s moral rot.” www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/endo...

Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs spoke on behalf of Marsha Blackburn’s campaign for governor at the Washington County Federated Republican Women's Club meeting in Johnson City, praising her conservative record. johnsoncitypress.com/photo-single...

A Murfreesboro woman who left a voicemail with U.S. Sen. and gubernatorial candidate Marsha Blackburn saying she would shoot her on national TV has pleaded guilty. www.tennessean.com/story/news/c...

Marsha Blackburn claims Metro Nashville budget contains funds for “a pro-illegal alien” group. She alerts House Speaker Cameron Sexton. www.nashvillescene.com/news/pithint...

MIXED GARDEN SHOTS:]

Scott MacFarlane at the Kennedy Center: There are cameras nearby, ready for the moment they literally chisel Trump’s name off.

ICE claims it’s going after the “worst of the worst” immigrant criminals. But the government’s own data indicates that people with criminal convictions account for just a fraction of the detainees at the Newark center, Delaney Hall. www.nytimes.com/2026/06/06/n...

Cartoon by Matt Wuerker

This just in: Tennessee’s House and Senate Republican leaders are the legislature’s most effective lawmakers, according to a new report. It’s only fitting since they get just about everything they want, not necessarily what we need. tennesseelookout.com/2026/06/05/s...

Cartoon by Monte Wolverton

Ben Sessoms/CHATTANOOGA TIMES: The long-term sustainability of Hamilton County Schools is in jeopardy … until we have the political will to prioritize the well-being of our teachers and students — of our future. www.timesfreepress.com/news/2026/ju...

Department of Defense has reduced the number of recognized religions, faiths and belief systems from more than 200 all the way to 31. Mickey Weinstein of Military Religious Freedom Foundation sees this as “getting closer and closer to Christian nationalism.” www.usatoday.com/story/news/p...

The panel that banned Alex Haley’s “Roots” in Knox County schools was following an absurd state law. The county superintendent overrode, although his authority to take that action is in question. So, the school board is asking lawmakers to revise the law. www.knoxnews.com/story/news/e...

Cartoon by Nick Anderson

Former attorney general, Pam Bondi, says expected replacement, Todd Blanche, was in charge of controversial release of Epstein files. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

The ACLU and National Immigration Law Center on Thursday filed a legal challenge to a new Tennessee law that makes it a crime for immigrants without legal status to enter or remain in the state. www.newsfromthestates.com/article/laws...

Tennessee Republicans watch Nashville's FY27 budget closely for violations of new state immigration laws. www.nashvillescene.com/news/pithint...

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) shared moving words in support of trans youth during a Senate hearing on gender-affirming care.... youtu.be/qchd75WJ-vY?... via @YouTube

Albania is erupting for the second consecutive day in angry mass protests against the Kushner land seizure deal worth $4 billion.

The idea for Tennessee’s “Nuclear Family Month” proclamation seems to have originated with an East Tennessee State University student, now an organizer for Turning Point USA. www.semafor.com/article/06/0...

Cartoon by Bill Bramhall

Intercessors for America, a network of pro-Trump prayer warriors that works closely with the White House, is celebrating the Trump administration’s refusal to acknowledge Pride Month—celebrated in the U.S. in June. www.peoplefor.org/rightwingwat...

HQ NEWS: “Rep Ogles just accidentally exposed how nakedly homophobic Republicans still are in 2026… Ogles deleted the tweet and embarrassingly tried to blame a staffer for his own fuck-up.” #Pinocchiogles www.headquarters.news/p/what-maga-...

The Trump administration with its religious right allies has prepared — at taxpayer expense — a new Christian nationalist propaganda documentary, “ By Dawn’s Early Light.” It claims Christians are being persecuted by their government. www.peoplefor.org/rightwingwat...

You see how little this administration cares about you, my fellow Americans….

What was surprising and troubling is that Republicans attacked not Talarico’s record or past rhetoric, but his masculinity. thehill.com/opinion/camp...

A veteran Lone Star State strategist forecasts a midterm win for Democrat James Talarico, believing political winds could swing deep red Texas blue. www.vanityfair.com/story/texas-...

Walz: Let's be very clear, this president is a failure at business except when he got elected to office and can use corruption…

The Obama Presidential Center in Chicago's Jackson Park is officially opening its campus and museum to the public on June 19, 2026.

Commuters on I-24 (Nashville) may have noticed a new billboard offering to help people extricate themselves from the Make America Great Again movement. www.nashvillescene.com/news/citylim...

Commuters on I-24 (Nashville) may have noticed a new billboard offering to help people extricate themselves from the Make America Great Again movement. www.nashvillescene.com/news/citylim...

Paul Rosenzweig, a Homeland Security attorney under President George W. Bush, says President Donald Trump has undermined the "American Peace" so badly that longtime allies now "distrust" and even "fear" the U.S. www.alternet.org/trump-nato-e...

Sonja Shaw, a right-wing school board president, came in first in the race for State Superintendent of Public Instruction in the recent election in California and is heading for a run-off against Richard Berrara, also a school board president…. dianeravitch.net/2026/06/05/c...

Sen. Marsha Blackburn claims that Democrats are a threat to ICE.

 youtu.be/jBNAU_4Lv2c?... via @YouTube

At least 97 of the more than 1,500 Capitol rioters pardoned by Donald Trump have since been arrested for, charged with, or convicted of crimes unrelated to Jan. 6. www.thedailybeast.com/trump-jan-6-...

Senate Republicans overcame deep internal divisions to pass a massive $70 billion immigration enforcement package early Friday, delivering a major political win to President Donald Trump. It also rejected an amendment to kill Trump’s 1.8 billion “slush fund.” www.cnn.com/2026/06/04/p...

The Department of Defense is substantially reducing the number of religions it officially recognizes, reportedly excluding a number of non-Christian faiths. religionnews.com/2026/06/04/d...

Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) is under fire again about his Florida residency as he runs for governor in Alabama. While his campaign put out new documents to prove his residency, it inadvertently exposed him to two possible crimes. www.alternet.org/tommy-tuberv...

Two top Tennessee Republicans [Blackburn and Sexton] are objecting to a funding request by Nashville’s mayor for an immigrant rights group, saying it could violate the state’s anti-sanctuary city law. tennesseelookout.com/briefs/tenne...

As the Supreme Court changes its views on what is permissible, new policies are injecting religion into the school day, religion is popping up all over the place. www.washingtonpost.com/education/20...

Sen. Marsha Blackburn is concerned about an expenditure in Metro Nashville’s proposed budget for immigration advocacy. House Speaker Cameron Sexton says it might violate state’s new anti-immigration laws. He's watching closely. www.tennessean.com/story/news/p...

Republicans keep insinuating that James Talarico can’t match Ken Paxton’s manliness. 19thnews.org/2026/05/texa...

There’s been a lot of talk in this race about what makes a "real man." A man does what’s right when no one is watching. He upholds his commitments to his family and neighbors. He doesn’t lie, cheat, & steal his way through life. Real men serve others. Weak men serve themselves.

A recent appointee to a sensitive counterterrorism job in the Defense Department was filmed during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot as he moved through restricted grounds and climbed through a broken window, holding a metal pole, to enter the U.S. Capitol. www.washingtonpost.com/investigatio...

Trump has a cache of James Talarico/Alfred E. Neuman posters to distribute.