<New York Federal Reserve Bank>
Suggested Soundtrack: "Freeze" (The Models), 1977
The other case allows the Trump regime to end Temporary Protected Status for Haitians and Syrians fleeing murderous conditions in their countries. (Both remain on State Department lists warning Americans "not to travel there for any reason due to ongoing danger," as Politico reports). More than a million people face potential deportation, unless they find some other means of gaining legal status.
Perhaps the regime will look at scrubbing the famous closing words inscribed on the Statute of Liberty ("I lift my lamp beside the golden door"), now that it's effectively slammed shut. Both decisions played out along the predictable 6-3 divide, which inspired starkly differing responses. The six right-wing Justices blandly asserted mere technical grounds for their reasoning, while Justice Elena Kagan's dissent included every major recent example of Trump's racial invective -- from his infamous "shithole countries" comment, to his henchman Vance's 2024 campaign lie about Haitians cannibalizing cats and dogs.
Kagan's actions undoubtedly reflected a desire to draw a contrast between the majority's assertions, and the racial hostility emboldened by the likes of Trump, Vance, and their fan club, who didn't waste any time baring their fangs -- such as rightist commentator Megyn Kelly ("We don't care if you're offended. Get out. Go home. Go back to f#cking Haiti."), or Katie Miller, the equally vile other half of Trump's odious chief aide, Stephen Miller ("Great news for the dogs and cats of Springfield [Ohio]").
You can read the links below -- which will undoubtedly invoke varying states of angst, depression, and rage, if not a fresh injection of PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) -- and draw the appropriate conclusions.
You want to draw a line
Suggested Soundtrack: "Freeze" (The Models), 1977
Last week will likely go down as the single most horrific one of the Trump Restoration. On Tuesday (6/23), we saw a man sentenced to 30 years for moving a box of anarchist-related 'zines after a protest, with equally imposing terms handed to his cohorts (30-100 years), all stemming from actions criticizing the Trump regime.
On Wednesday and Thursday (6/24-25), we watched a handful of Republicans abruptly reverse their stands on a largely symbolic war powers resolution, and continue kowtowing to the Orange Bully, because -- well, he might find some way to hurt them. And they don't have any other ideas, except to continue indulging his every whim, even if reduces the country to a smoking dumpster fire.
On Wednesday and Thursday (6/24-25), we watched a handful of Republicans abruptly reverse their stands on a largely symbolic war powers resolution, and continue kowtowing to the Orange Bully, because -- well, he might find some way to hurt them. And they don't have any other ideas, except to continue indulging his every whim, even if reduces the country to a smoking dumpster fire.
Also, on Thursday (6/25), we witnessed the Extreme Court, or the Supremacy Court (a far more accurate term than its present moniker, the Supreme Court), hand the Trump regime two major immigration victories. In one case, the court ruled that agents can physically turn back asylum seekers at the US-Mexico border, even if that person -- as Justice Sonia Sotomayor noted, in her blistering, 35-page dissent -- arrives at a station with adequate resources to review their claim, or strongly fear that they'll be persecuted, or killed, after their enforced return.
The other case allows the Trump regime to end Temporary Protected Status for Haitians and Syrians fleeing murderous conditions in their countries. (Both remain on State Department lists warning Americans "not to travel there for any reason due to ongoing danger," as Politico reports). More than a million people face potential deportation, unless they find some other means of gaining legal status.
Perhaps the regime will look at scrubbing the famous closing words inscribed on the Statute of Liberty ("I lift my lamp beside the golden door"), now that it's effectively slammed shut. Both decisions played out along the predictable 6-3 divide, which inspired starkly differing responses. The six right-wing Justices blandly asserted mere technical grounds for their reasoning, while Justice Elena Kagan's dissent included every major recent example of Trump's racial invective -- from his infamous "shithole countries" comment, to his henchman Vance's 2024 campaign lie about Haitians cannibalizing cats and dogs.
Kagan's actions undoubtedly reflected a desire to draw a contrast between the majority's assertions, and the racial hostility emboldened by the likes of Trump, Vance, and their fan club, who didn't waste any time baring their fangs -- such as rightist commentator Megyn Kelly ("We don't care if you're offended. Get out. Go home. Go back to f#cking Haiti."), or Katie Miller, the equally vile other half of Trump's odious chief aide, Stephen Miller ("Great news for the dogs and cats of Springfield [Ohio]").
Equally striking is the posture of Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who adopted two Haitian children, and never misses a photo op with them. By joining the majority opinion, she consigns some 350,000 of their countrymen and women to uncertain fates, at best -- or certain death, at worst. It's the type of compartmentalized thinking that's reminiscent of Revolutionary War-era slave holders -- including many of the Founders -- who happily freed people whom they felt warmly about, or considered exceptional workers, while leaving others forever trapped in servitude.
We also noticed, as the week finally ended, the groundswell of outrage surrounding the US "Justice" Department's unsettling memo, suggesting that states no longer need to follow the so-called Olmstead precedent -- in which a different Supreme Court, in a different era, upheld the rights of persons with disabilities to live independently, in their own communities (1999).
The memo's emergence coincides with the Texas v. Kennedy lawsuit, in which six states (AK, FL, LA, MO, MT, TX) are challenging Section 504, an important cornerstone of disability rights. Briefly, it bars treating people differently, due to their disability; requires including them in programs, and make reasonable accommodations, if requested and, most importantly, mandates that communities offer programs and services beyond mere custodial environments, like institutions (emphasis: ours).
We also noticed, as the week finally ended, the groundswell of outrage surrounding the US "Justice" Department's unsettling memo, suggesting that states no longer need to follow the so-called Olmstead precedent -- in which a different Supreme Court, in a different era, upheld the rights of persons with disabilities to live independently, in their own communities (1999).
The memo's emergence coincides with the Texas v. Kennedy lawsuit, in which six states (AK, FL, LA, MO, MT, TX) are challenging Section 504, an important cornerstone of disability rights. Briefly, it bars treating people differently, due to their disability; requires including them in programs, and make reasonable accommodations, if requested and, most importantly, mandates that communities offer programs and services beyond mere custodial environments, like institutions (emphasis: ours).
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to connect these dots, should this latest make-believe case catch the Extreme Court's ear -- presumably, so its six enablers can rubber stamp this latest ghastly idea, one driven by the Olmstead memo's author (see link below). Of course, upending Olmstead is an idea that figures prominently in Project 2025, The Handbook From Hell, a status that needs no further elaboration.
You can read the links below -- which will undoubtedly invoke varying states of angst, depression, and rage, if not a fresh injection of PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) -- and draw the appropriate conclusions.
Suffice to say that we find ourselves in an existential struggle for our lives, along with basic civil rights, human decency, and sanity -- to a degree that seemed unimaginable, in previous times. It's the reason, undoubtedly, for the attitudes captured in the latest survey posted by the Federal Reserve of New York (above), one of many entities tasked with tracking the public mood.
What's noteworthy are the two "bookend" statistics, as we'll call them. As of May 2026, 43.6% of the participants reported being worse off financially than a year ago, or double pre-pandemic-era levels, as you'll see (20% or below). Additionally, 36% expect to be significantly worse off next year, a mark that's also twice pre-pandemic levels.
So much for the idea of prices going down on "day one," as the Orange Bully phrased it, but rocketing inflation -- coupled with go-go finance that only enriches Trump, Musk, Bezos, and their allies, plus lack of purchasing power, strangled by decades of flat wages -- aren't the only reasons for all the collective gloom that we're feeling.
What's noteworthy are the two "bookend" statistics, as we'll call them. As of May 2026, 43.6% of the participants reported being worse off financially than a year ago, or double pre-pandemic-era levels, as you'll see (20% or below). Additionally, 36% expect to be significantly worse off next year, a mark that's also twice pre-pandemic levels.
So much for the idea of prices going down on "day one," as the Orange Bully phrased it, but rocketing inflation -- coupled with go-go finance that only enriches Trump, Musk, Bezos, and their allies, plus lack of purchasing power, strangled by decades of flat wages -- aren't the only reasons for all the collective gloom that we're feeling.
Call it a general sentiment that someone else rigged the game, before we ever showed up; that naked feral capitalism, in all its untamed, and unabashed selfishness, yields a zero-sum game for our standards of living, such as they are; that an imperial, fanatical, and downright monarchial mindset, as we see in the Olmstead memo, has seized the imagination of the ruling classes.
Call it any or all of these things, as you wish. But make no mistake, take no comfort from the perfunctory assurances that they're already dangling out to deceive us ("It's just temporary"; "It's only a memo, not a law"; "It won't really affect you"), before they slam down the hammer, yet again. We know what they're doing, why they're doing it, and what they're all about.
Needless to say, it's all extremely taxing. It's difficult to live with the feeling of another shoe, always ready to drop; in some ways, the current feels like the climax Werner Herzog's film, Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979, when (spoiler alert) Count Dracula succeeds in spreading the plague, and van Helsing ends up being arrested for his murder by the hero, Jonathan Harker -- now unmasked as a vampire.
There was ample reason during the Revolutionary War for Thomas Paine to declare, "These are the times that try men's souls," and last week fully fit that particular bill. That being said, what's worth fighting is also worth waiting for. However slowly the winds of change may blow, at some point, they do shift -- leaving open another window of opportunity. Our job is to be ready, when it finally arrives -- hopefully sooner, rather than later. --The Reckoner
Call it any or all of these things, as you wish. But make no mistake, take no comfort from the perfunctory assurances that they're already dangling out to deceive us ("It's just temporary"; "It's only a memo, not a law"; "It won't really affect you"), before they slam down the hammer, yet again. We know what they're doing, why they're doing it, and what they're all about.
Needless to say, it's all extremely taxing. It's difficult to live with the feeling of another shoe, always ready to drop; in some ways, the current feels like the climax Werner Herzog's film, Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979, when (spoiler alert) Count Dracula succeeds in spreading the plague, and van Helsing ends up being arrested for his murder by the hero, Jonathan Harker -- now unmasked as a vampire.
There was ample reason during the Revolutionary War for Thomas Paine to declare, "These are the times that try men's souls," and last week fully fit that particular bill. That being said, what's worth fighting is also worth waiting for. However slowly the winds of change may blow, at some point, they do shift -- leaving open another window of opportunity. Our job is to be ready, when it finally arrives -- hopefully sooner, rather than later. --The Reckoner
Links To Go (Ring The Bell Anew,
And Raise The Spirit Of Paul Revere):
Associated Press: Senate Republicans
Reject War Powers Resolution...:
https://apnews.com/article/senate-republicans-trump-vote-reject-war-powers-0f1fa8189c275188a71ed02cc8c3270d
CNN: Supreme Court Gives Trump
Major Wins On Two Immigration Cases:
https://www.cnn.com/2026/06/25/politics/live-news/supreme-court-issues-opinions
And Raise The Spirit Of Paul Revere):
Associated Press: Senate Republicans
Reject War Powers Resolution...:
https://apnews.com/article/senate-republicans-trump-vote-reject-war-powers-0f1fa8189c275188a71ed02cc8c3270d
CNN: Supreme Court Gives Trump
Major Wins On Two Immigration Cases:
https://www.cnn.com/2026/06/25/politics/live-news/supreme-court-issues-opinions
Common Dreams: "Criminalizing Dissent":
Alarm Grows Over Extreme Sentences...:
Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund:
Texas v. Kennedy: What It Is...:
https://dredf.org/protect-504/
Disability Belongs:
States Continue Legal Attack On Section 504:
https://www.disabilitybelongs.org/2026/04/texas-v-kennedy-action-update/
Politico: Supreme Court Allows Trump
To End Temporary Protections...:
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/06/25/supreme-court-temporary-protected-status-ruling-00975658
Texas v. Kennedy: What It Is...:
https://dredf.org/protect-504/
Disability Belongs:
States Continue Legal Attack On Section 504:
https://www.disabilitybelongs.org/2026/04/texas-v-kennedy-action-update/
Politico: Supreme Court Allows Trump
To End Temporary Protections...:
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/06/25/supreme-court-temporary-protected-status-ruling-00975658
The Independent:
Trump Aide Stephen Miller's Wife Resurfaces Claim...:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/katie-miller-tps-ohio-hatians-trump-b3003364.html
Trump Aide Stephen Miller's Wife Resurfaces Claim...:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/katie-miller-tps-ohio-hatians-trump-b3003364.html
The Models: Freeze
The Models: Punk 77 Page:
You want to draw a line
between right and wrong
This revolution's been going too long
You think they're gonna let you play
This revolution's been going too long
You think they're gonna let you play
You better think again,
Hear what they say, because...
I'm talking about a freeze
I said, I'm talking about a freeze,
Yeah, get down on your knees...
I'm talking about a freeze
They're putting on the squeeze
I'm talking about a freeze, oh, yeah...
<The Models: "Freeze," 1977>
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