.

“As an adjudicated insurrectionist, Trump is an illegitimate president according to Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, and therefore every official act as president will be illegitimate.”

–Mike Zonta, co-editor of OccupySF.net

The 14th Amendment states: “No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any state legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any state, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may, by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.”

Call your Congressperson and your U.S. Senators at (202) 224-3121

Fox host shouts down Dem over married women losing their vote: ‘What’s the problem?’

Matthew Chapman

June 18, 2026 (RawStory.com)

Fox host shouts down Dem over married women losing their vote: 'What's the problem?'

A Fox Business segment on Thursday morning devolved into shouting as anchor Maria Bartiromo tried to talk over the objections of Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) to certain provisions of the SAVE America Act, the controversial Trump-backed legislation that would put extreme new restrictions on voting rights and effectively give the Department of Homeland Security oversight of state voting rolls.

Khanna focused on the fact that under the terms of the law, married women who had legal name changes would face significant obstacles to voting because they can’t use the name on their birth certificate to verify their citizenship — but Bartiromo, who is known for embracing conspiracy theories on air, didn’t see any issue with this.

” Elections have been lost by a couple of votes,” said Bartiromo heatedly. “So just to say, oh, [the fraud is] not a lot, that’s not an answer, sir.”

ALSO READ: Fury as fourth postal worker dies at flagship USPS facility that has no phones

“But people have been fearmongering that when it’s not an issue in the election, and the reality is you have cases of people who are married, you want them if they’ve changed their name to have to prove with their birth certificate?” said Khanna.

“What’s the problem?” Bartiromo said, talking over him. “Yes. Get your birth certificate. You can’t vote if you’re not an American citizen.”

The SAVE America Act has no path to passage in the Senate, where it cannot overcome the 60-vote cloture threshold to defeat a Democratic filibuster.

Trump has spent months demanding Republicans either tack the bill onto some other must-pass measure or do away with the filibuster entirely to get it through, neither of which has support from the Senate GOP. The disagreement has caused a growing rift between Trump and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD).

Privately, a number of Republicans are sick of debating the legislation and want Trump to let them move on from it.

America celebrates its 250th birthday

Obama Foundation Streamed live on Jun 18, 2026 Livestream of the Grand Opening Ceremony of the Obama Presidential Center on June 18, 2026 in Chicago, IL. Featuring speeches from President Barack Obama, Michelle Obama and performances by Bruce Springsteen, Christina Aguilera, Common, Eddie Vedder, Guitars Over Guns, Illinois Army National Color Guard, Jennifer Hudson, John Legend, Marc Anthony, Stevie Wonder, Tems, The Roots, U2’s Bono and The Edge,. and Uniting Voices Chicago An invocation led by Pastor Joel Hunter and Joshua DuBois. Remarks and special appearances from Marsai Martin, Marty Nesbitt, and Valerie Jarrett.

Your Power in Action: What You Can Do Today

People Power United

The movement for freedom over fascism, progress, and power to the people starts here.

The View Turns JD Vance Into A Couch Cushion

“50 people have died in ICE custody. There are 6,200 children who are being held in places like Dilley Detention Center….”

Host of The View

The Rational National Jun 16, 2026 Vice President JD Vance’s appearance on The View did not go well for him. Merch: http://TheRationalNational.com/merch Patreon: http://TheRationalNational.com/Join YouTube membership:    / @therationalnational  

Why cities go socialist

June 19, 2026 (Prospect.org)

MEYERSON ON TAP

Why cities go socialist

Here comes a generation of DSA big-city mayors.In the course of my roughly three-quarters-of-a-century-long life, I’ve lived in just three cities: Los Angeles, New York, and Washington, D.C. By year’s end, there’s a decent chance that all three of those cities will have a socialist mayor.

Just to be clear, despite the fact that I’ve been an avowed democratic socialist in all three cities—for all of my adult life, in fact—I’m claiming no credit for their new socialist proclivities.

Yesterday, the candidate running second in Tuesday’s D.C. Democratic mayoral primary conceded the race to the front-runner, city council and DSA member Janeese Lewis George. With three-quarters of the ballots counted, Lewis George has a 53 percent to 37 percent lead over the second-place finisher. (If she falls beneath 50 percent, the tabulators have to tally the results of the ranked-choice voting, but so far, she’s held steady at 53 percent and is sure to win even if her first-choice votes drop below 50 percent.)

As at least 90 percent of D.C. voters invariably cast their ballots for Democrats in partisan November runoffs, Lewis George is assured of becoming D.C.’s next mayor.
As such, she’ll join New York’s Zohran Mamdani as a socialist atop city government—and as a candidate whose victory was made possible, in significant part, by the precinct walking and phone-banking of DSA members. That said, Lewis George’s ability to govern effectively will lag Mamdani’s, as D.C. is still under the sway of federal control, which Donald Trump will only intensify once a socialist is nominally in power. (For that matter, New York City was compelled to cede the power to enact taxes to New York state during its near-bankruptcy in the 1970s, an impediment to local control that Mamdani has been forced to navigate.)
In Los Angeles, the results of this month’s mayoral jungle primary pit DSA and city council member Nithya Raman against incumbent mayor Karen Bass in the November runoff. It’s not actually clear that Raman, if elected, would govern in a way that’s any more socialistic than the way Bass has been governing. Bass has brought her left values and her long history as a progressive community organizer to her subsequent political career (Speaker of the State Assembly, chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, and four years as mayor), and Raman was one of her leading allies on the city council. Raman’s three council colleagues who are also DSA members have endorsed Bass for re-election—as did Raman until it became clear that Bass, though widely unpopular ever since she was out of the country when fires swept the Pacific Palisades, would run effectively unopposed for re-election unless Raman jumped in. Los Angeles DSA has yet to endorse Raman, as it’s dissatisfied with her decisions to keep funding the police and limiting the scope of the city’s tax on the sale of high-value properties.

But the only real reason why Raman is a DSA member and Bass is not is generational. Raman is 44; Bass is 72. When Bass was young, there was no viable socialist movement in the United States and most of the New Deal’s guardrails against capitalism running amok were still in place. Raman came of age when capitalism’s amok-ness was plain for all politically and economically sentient to see, and when Bernie Sanders had put democratic socialism on the American political map. When Bass was Raman’s current age, DSA had roughly 5,000 members and didn’t play in big-city elections. Today, it has about 100,000 members—enough to make it a player in any number of cities.

But Mamdani’s, Lewis George’s, and Raman’s political base isn’t confined to DSA members. DSA had 10,000 members pounding the pavement for Mamdani in last year’s mayoral election, but they comprised just 10 percent of the total number of Zohran’s volunteers. In that sense, DSA is just the tip of the spear of urban Gen Z and millennial voters—those young enough to be shelved in jobs for which they’re both overqualified and underpaid, and to be locked out of homeowning. The two issues that both Mamdani and Lewis George most stressed were making child care and homes affordable: issues that all but define the politics of young city residents, issues that highlight the market failures of current American capitalism and the need for higher taxes on the wealthy to provide badly needed social necessities.
Which is why the future of most American big cities—most certainly, those that attract younger residents—is likely to be social democratic and often run by avowed socialists. The Bernies, Mamdanis, and AOCs won’t be the Democratic Party’s lonesome ends; they’ll be the party’s urban wing. The sooner the Democrats understand that—and the sooner they embrace many of that wing’s policies, however they choose to label them (and themselves)—the better.
Harold Meyerson
Editor at Large

Failing ‘Moral Test,’ Newsom Rejects Compromise 2% Wealth Tax on California Billionaires

California Billionaire Tax Act supporters

Attendees cheer during an event supporting the California Billionaire Tax Act on February 18, 2026 in Los Angeles.

 (Photo by Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images)

“I want a Democratic party that will stand for the working class,” said Rep. Ro Khanna, a supporter of taxing billionaire wealth. “Whose side are you on?”

Jake Johnson

Jun 19, 2026 (CommonDreams.org)

California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday refused to budge from his opposition to a proposed wealth tax on the Golden State’s billionaires, swiftly dismissing a union-led coalition’s effort to compromise by reducing its desired 5% rate by more than half.

In a letter to Newsom on Thursday, the Billionaire Tax Now coalition urged the governor and likely 2028 presidential candidate to support a “2% wealth tax on the state’s richest 200 billionaires.” The coalition’s demand came hours after organizers announced that they had collected enough signatures to get their proposed one-time, 5% tax on billionaire wealth on California’s ballot in November.

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Newsom’s office made clear that the governor, who has been outspoken in his opposition to the proposed 5% wealth tax, would not support the compromise offer.

“The governor has been clear that he is strongly opposed to a California-only wealth tax,” Tara Gallegos, a spokesperson for Newsom, said in a statement. “Changing the tax rate doesn’t change this measure’s fundamental flaws that harm working Californians.”

The Billionaire Tax Now coalition on Thursday offered to withdraw its popular ballot initiative calling for a one-time 5% levy on California billionaires’ wealth if Newsom agreed to throw his weight behind legislation enacting a 2% wealth tax instead. Organizers and supporters say a tax on the vast fortunes of the state’s wealthiest residents would help avert a looming healthcare disaster spurred by federal Medicaid cuts that President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans passed last summer.

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“California is home to more billionaires than any state in the nation,” the coalition wrote in its letter to Newsom on Thursday. “Their wealth has grown a staggering 212% in the last six years alone to more than $2.2 trillion dollars. A 2% one-time tax on that accumulated wealth is modest by any objective measure, especially if it means keeping emergency rooms open and saving patient lives. It’s more than appropriate at a moment when every other Californian is being asked by Sacramento to sacrifice.”

“We need you to stand up against one of Trump’s worst and deadliest domestic policy blunders yet—the cuts to California healthcare contained in the ‘One Big Beautiful Bill,’” the coalition added. “Let’s save patient lives together.”

US Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), a Silicon Valley representative who has supported the proposed wealth tax in the face of angry billionaire backlash, expressed support for the 2% compromise offer in a social media post on Thursday, noting that “250 billionaires own half of California GDP.”

“Taxing them at 2% would save healthcare for millions. Healthcare workers have already compromised from 5%,” Khanna wrote. “I want a Democratic party that will stand for the working class. This is a moral test for our party. Whose side are you on?”

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Jake Johnson

Jake Johnson is a senior editor and staff writer for Common Dreams.

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Pro-Democracy Coalition Plans Mass Mobilization to Counter Trump-Centered 250th Birthday

Organizers with the Next250 initiative

Organizers with the Next250 initiative are seen at an event ahead of the coalition’s mass mobilization planned for June 27, 2026 in Washington, DC. 

(Photo by Next250)

The Next250 coalition is focused on building a future in the US in which Americans declare their “interdependence” and work together to secure economic justice and an inclusive democracy.

Julia Conley

Jun 19, 2026 (CommonDreams.org)

With the 250th anniversary of the United States’ independence approaching, much of the planned celebration has been centered not on highlights of the country’s history, the communities that changed the nation by demanding progress on voting and civil rights, or how far the US has come since the Declaration of Independence was signed.

Instead, President Donald Trump has increasingly placed himself and his own views on American history at the center of the semiquincentennial celebration—insisting on a “Freedom 250” UFC fight on the White House lawn, arranging for his own image to appear on US passports and commemorative gold coin, calling himself “the Number One Attraction anywhere in the World” as he stepped in to headline the Great American State Fair after numerous performers dropped out, and using taxpayer dollars earmarked for the 250th birthday to hold an event devoted to the absurd and ahistorical claim that the US was founded as a Christian nation.

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Ahead of the official “Freedom 250” events planned for July 4, a coalition of progressive groups—including One Fair Wage, Workers Center for Racial Justice, the Council on American Islamic Relations, and Jews for Racial and Economic Justice—are mobilizing to direct the country’s attention away from Trump, Christian nationalism, and even the country’s history and its independence—and toward a future in which Americans celebrate their “interdependence.”

“Interdependence means recognizing that our lives, communities, and futures are connected,” reads the Next250 coalition’s website. “It means understanding that none of us are free, safe, or thriving alone, and that the well-being of our communities, democracy, environment, and future generations depends on how we care for one another now.”

On June 27, a week before Independence Day, people from across the US are planning to attend a national mobilization in Washington, DC where the coalition will “reckon with our nation’s history and simultaneously declare a shared vision for the future of the country.”

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The event will amplify the Declaration of Interdependence, a document that focuses on the “collective destiny” of everyone in the US.

“We are one nation, interdependent, woven together by the strength of our ideals, our shared history, and the extraordinary land we live on—stewarded since time immemorial by Indigenous nations whose sovereignty and leadership continue today,” reads the declaration. “We can bring this vision to life only by recognizing our common destiny, honoring our shared humanity, and working together.”

“Today, too many people in the United States are struggling to meet their basic needs, while a tiny few have more money than nations,” the document continues. “Too many of us are feeling disconnected from our neighbors, have lost faith in government, and are longing for community. People do not feel safe from violence. Wildfires, floods, and extreme weather are destroying whole communities. We join together in our shared values to carve a path toward a better future for ourselves and each other.”

The declaration pledges to look ahead and build a nation where:

  • All people are treated with dignity and respect;
  • Everyone feels safe in every community;
  • Access to clean, green spaces is abundant;
  • Every person who works earns a living wage and benefits that allows families work-life balance.

The mass mobilization planned for June 27 has been years in the making. Key organizers—including political activists Linda Sarsour and Carmen Perez-Jordan and One Fair Wage president Saru Jayaraman—have gathered inspiration for the gathering and the declaration from communities across the country at town halls in Hartford, Detroit, and New York City, as well as “listening sessions” in dozens of states.

The town halls, like the event planned for the 27th, have included music and art exhibitions as well discussions about a more inclusive and democratic future for the US.

The organizers, Sarsour told Common Dreams, “really tried to use the themes, the words that came out of those listening sessions, and to develop this Declaration of Interdependence.”

“What it really reaffirmed for me personally and for the folks that were involved is that majority of people agree on very fundamental universal values and principles,” Sarsour added. “People want safety. People want dignity. People want to thrive. People are tired of just the survival mode.”

The coalition found that “living wages” were an issue that people across the country “fundamentally agree on.”

“Everyone, regardless of political party, regardless of where you live in the country, no one wants to work three jobs to support their families,” said Sarsour. “So this idea of economic justice and living wages is actually a universal principle and value that people hold in this country.”

A majority of Americans also agree on “sensible gun reform,” she told Common Dreams, and—despite Trump’s insistence that the climate crisis is a “scam,” most people in the US do not agree with him. Widespread agreement has also been found when it comes to reproductive rights, with voters in red states like Kansas and Kentucky voting in favor of protecting abortion access in recent years after the Supreme Court’s right-wing majority overturned Roe v. Wade.

“I think that when you have conversations about universal values, the question is like, ‘What do you think your neighbors want?’” said Sarsour. “And I think everyone is like, ‘Yeah, of course, why wouldn’t my neighbor want to also make a living wage? Why wouldn’t my neighbor also want to have access to healthcare?’ It’s just, we just never give the opportunity to our people to, to think about these things or ask them, prompt them on these questions about others.”

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Julia Conley

Julia Conley is a senior editor and staff writer for Common Dreams.

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UN Experts Demands Nations ‘Break Their Silence’ as Trump, Hegseth Murder 3 More People at Sea

Surveillance footage shows a boat bombed by US Southern Command

Surveillance footage shows a boat bombed by US Southern Command in the eastern Pacific Ocean on June 18, 2026. 

(Photo: @Southcom/X)

The Trump administration has killed at least 211 people by bombing boats in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean since last September.

Julia Conley

Jun 19, 2026 (CommonDreams.org)

As US senators pushed the Department of Defense to release unedited footage of the boat bombings the Trump administration has carried out in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean since last September, US Southern Command on Thursday announced that it had killed three more people in the operation that some international law experts have said amounts to mass murder and an extrajudicial killing spree.

As with the other announcements of boat bombings, at least 65 of which the US has now carried out, Southern Command released no evidence Thursday night of its claim that the vessel it bombed was “operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations,” “engaged in narco-trafficking operations,” or that the three people killed were “narco-terrorists.”

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Victims of the previous boat bombings have included fishermen and other people who had no involvement with drug trafficking, according to legal complaints filed by families.

Ben Saul, the United Nations special rapporteur on human rights and counterterrorism, called on international governments to “break their silence and jointly condemn these murders,” noting that the death toll of the administration’s operation is now at least 211 people.

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Some international officials, including French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot and Colombian President Gustavo Petro, have strongly denounced the boat bombings and accused Trump of breaking international law. Some countries have ended or dialed back intelligence sharing with the US. But human rights groups have called on the international community to take a unified stance against the boat strikes.

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“Sick of hearing, ‘I didn’t know those boat strikes are still happening. Silence leaves the impression that this is somehow OK,” said Adam Isacson of the Washington Office on Latin America on Thursday, adding that the US Coast Guard had called off its search for two survivors of an earlier boat bombing this week, potentially bringing the total death toll to 213.

President Donald Trump has claimed the US is engaged in an “armed conflict” with cartels in Latin America and has said the boat bombing campaign is aimed at stopping illegal drugs like fentanyl from flowing into the US. According to the US State Department’s 2025 report on international narcotics control, Mexico is the “only significant source of illicit fentanyl and fentanyl analogues significantly affecting the United States,” with the drug mainly entering the US via the southern border.

In an analysis of Customs and Border Protection data in April, Isacson emphasized that the lethal boat strikes have not stopped drugs from entering the US.

Even if the administration were targeting drug traffickers as it claims, bombing vessels involved in the drug trade is a violation of international laws protecting civilians from military force. Since the US is not officially engaged in an armed conflict with drug cartels, the accused “narco-terrorists” the Trump administration has killed have all been civilians.

Legal experts also say that US Southern Command’s killing of survivors of initial strikes by bombing them again, would also be war crimes in an armed conflict.

Earlier this week, after another boat bombing that killed at least one person, Saul called for “those who ordered and carried out these crimes to be investigated, prosecuted, and punished, in line with international law.”

On June 24, the ACLU and the Center for Constitutional Rights are set to argue before the US District Court for the Southern District of New York for the immediate release of a secret legal memo authored by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, which the Trump administration has repeatedly claimed gives the president and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth the authority to kill people at sea.

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.

Julia Conley

Julia Conley is a senior editor and staff writer for Common Dreams.

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