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In It to Win It
In It to Win It's Journal
In It to Win It's Journal
June 23, 2026
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/06/23/senate-votes-halt-iran-war-00972648
Senate votes to halt Iran war despite Trump's push for peace deal
The Senate on Tuesday voted to cut off the U.S. military campaign against Iran, handing a fresh loss to President Donald Trump despite his attempts to convince lawmakers and the public that a deal to end the war is at hand.
Four Republicans broke ranks to help approve a resolution to block further military action unless it is green-lighted by Congress.
The war powers measure is largely symbolic the resolution cleared Tuesday doesnt go to the president to sign or veto. But the bipartisan 50-48 vote is a damaging milestone for the Trump administration: Both the Senate and House have now weighed in against the Middle East conflict thats stretched on for more than 100 days. The same measure passed the House in early June after months of close calls.
Four Republicans broke ranks to help approve a resolution to block further military action unless it is green-lighted by Congress.
The war powers measure is largely symbolic the resolution cleared Tuesday doesnt go to the president to sign or veto. But the bipartisan 50-48 vote is a damaging milestone for the Trump administration: Both the Senate and House have now weighed in against the Middle East conflict thats stretched on for more than 100 days. The same measure passed the House in early June after months of close calls.
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/06/23/senate-votes-halt-iran-war-00972648
June 23, 2026
This administration needs guardrails. That starts with a congress that will do their jobs. Help me stop the chaos by flipping the Senate!
@PoliticsGirl - We Gotta Flip The Senate
This administration needs guardrails. That starts with a congress that will do their jobs. Help me stop the chaos by flipping the Senate!
June 23, 2026
The SCOTUS opinions nobody's covering today are quietly rewriting who actually gets to enforce their rights in court. Leah and Kate break down what just happened and why it matters.
The SCOTUS Opinions Nobody Covered Today Are Quietly Gutting YOUR Rights - Strict Scrutiny Podcast
The SCOTUS opinions nobody's covering today are quietly rewriting who actually gets to enforce their rights in court. Leah and Kate break down what just happened and why it matters.
June 23, 2026
This week, guest host Melissa Murray, host of Crooked Medias Strict Scrutiny podcast is joined by Erin Ryan, co-host of Crooked Medias Hysteria.
They juxtapose the Obama Presidential Center opening with Trumps UFC event celebrating his 80th birthday, and talk about the two very different visions of our country that those events (and their attendants) represent. They also touch on Trumps dismal approval ratings, the biggest takeaways from primary battles in states like New York and Georgia, the positive vibes at the World Cup, and why the right just cant move on from attacking pride month.
Chapters:
0:00 Intro
0:42 Obama Presidential Center
8:00 Obama's Library, Trump's UFC 250, and Two Very Different Americas
10:05 Ad Break
13:05 MAGA, Polls & the National Mood
26:16 Ad Break
29:02 Iran, Primaries & the Midterms
41:00 Georgia Redistricting & Protest
50:44 Ad Break
52:51 World Cup & NYC Politics
1:01:10 Pride Month & Gender Politics
1:11:41 Learn & Do More: Read the Constitution
1:22:27 Outro
The Real Reason Obama Stays Quiet in the Trump Era (w/ Melissa Murray and Erin Ryan)
This week, guest host Melissa Murray, host of Crooked Medias Strict Scrutiny podcast is joined by Erin Ryan, co-host of Crooked Medias Hysteria.
They juxtapose the Obama Presidential Center opening with Trumps UFC event celebrating his 80th birthday, and talk about the two very different visions of our country that those events (and their attendants) represent. They also touch on Trumps dismal approval ratings, the biggest takeaways from primary battles in states like New York and Georgia, the positive vibes at the World Cup, and why the right just cant move on from attacking pride month.
Chapters:
0:00 Intro
0:42 Obama Presidential Center
8:00 Obama's Library, Trump's UFC 250, and Two Very Different Americas
10:05 Ad Break
13:05 MAGA, Polls & the National Mood
26:16 Ad Break
29:02 Iran, Primaries & the Midterms
41:00 Georgia Redistricting & Protest
50:44 Ad Break
52:51 World Cup & NYC Politics
1:01:10 Pride Month & Gender Politics
1:11:41 Learn & Do More: Read the Constitution
1:22:27 Outro
June 21, 2026
DACA renewal delays fuel worries Trump is quietly undermining 'Dreamers'
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/06/20/daca-delays-dreamers-uscis-00968561Concerns are mounting on Capitol Hill and among immigration advocates that the Trump administration is quietly gutting a landmark program allowing unauthorized immigrants who came to the U.S. as children to stay, work and study legally in the United States.
A major immigrant rights advocacy group recently documented in a study that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is taking months longer on average to renew legal protections for recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, often referred to as Dreamers.
Those delays are causing some supporters of the program on Capitol Hill to worry the Trump administration is weaponizing bureaucracy to undermine DACA. In floor speeches and on social media last week, prominent Democrats accused the Trump administration of targeting DACA recipients unfairly as part of the White Houses immigration crackdown.
I cant see how its not intentional, Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), one of the main legislative champions for the DACA program, said in a brief interview. In previous years, wed get maybe a dozen cases in which DACA recipients were left waiting for long stretches of time for their work permits to be approved. Now, Padilla notes, its in the hundreds.
On the other side of the aisle, Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.) said she had serious concerns about the slowdown in processing.
A major immigrant rights advocacy group recently documented in a study that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is taking months longer on average to renew legal protections for recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, often referred to as Dreamers.
Those delays are causing some supporters of the program on Capitol Hill to worry the Trump administration is weaponizing bureaucracy to undermine DACA. In floor speeches and on social media last week, prominent Democrats accused the Trump administration of targeting DACA recipients unfairly as part of the White Houses immigration crackdown.
I cant see how its not intentional, Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), one of the main legislative champions for the DACA program, said in a brief interview. In previous years, wed get maybe a dozen cases in which DACA recipients were left waiting for long stretches of time for their work permits to be approved. Now, Padilla notes, its in the hundreds.
On the other side of the aisle, Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.) said she had serious concerns about the slowdown in processing.
June 20, 2026
https://balleralert.com/trump-elon-musk-spacex-wildlife-refuge-land/
Trump Handed Elon Musk's SpaceX 700 Acres of Endangered Wildlife Refuge and Called It Conservation
Trump handed Elon Musk more than 700 acres of a protected Texas wildlife refuge, and the federal agency that gave it away is calling the move conservation. The land sits inside the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge, home to endangered animals and sacred to the Indigenous people who have lived alongside it for generations, and now it is being cleared for the worlds first trillionaire to launch more rockets.
The deal runs through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which approved a land swap that moves roughly 712 acres of the wildlife refuge into SpaceXs hands. In exchange, SpaceX hands the government about 683 acres it owns elsewhere in Cameron County, some of it sitting as far as 20 miles from the refuge. On paper it is a trade. In practice the public is giving up irreplaceable protected coastline so a private rocket company can expand a launch site it already built on top of wetlands. The acreage has been reported as high as 775 in some documents, but the number everyone agrees on is more than 700.
What lives on that land is the whole point. The wildlife refuge shelters two endangered wild cats, the ocelot and the jaguarundi, along with the aplomado falcon, sea turtles, and migratory birds that move through one of the last intact wildlife corridors on the Gulf Coast. The area is also a designated National Historic Landmark, and it is sacred ground to the Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe of Texas, whose tribal chair has said the government is allowing the destruction of their lands and ecosystems in pursuit of space ventures. This is not empty scrubland. It is one of the most ecologically and culturally loaded stretches of coast in the country.
The timing makes it worse. Elon Musk just became the first trillionaire in human history, riding the largest public offering the stock market has ever seen for SpaceX. Days later, the same man is being handed hundreds of acres of a public wildlife refuge at no real cost to him. A government that tells working families there is never enough money for housing or healthcare found 700 acres of protected habitat to give a man who could buy the entire state several times over. The optics are not subtle, and neither is the transfer.
The deal runs through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which approved a land swap that moves roughly 712 acres of the wildlife refuge into SpaceXs hands. In exchange, SpaceX hands the government about 683 acres it owns elsewhere in Cameron County, some of it sitting as far as 20 miles from the refuge. On paper it is a trade. In practice the public is giving up irreplaceable protected coastline so a private rocket company can expand a launch site it already built on top of wetlands. The acreage has been reported as high as 775 in some documents, but the number everyone agrees on is more than 700.
What lives on that land is the whole point. The wildlife refuge shelters two endangered wild cats, the ocelot and the jaguarundi, along with the aplomado falcon, sea turtles, and migratory birds that move through one of the last intact wildlife corridors on the Gulf Coast. The area is also a designated National Historic Landmark, and it is sacred ground to the Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe of Texas, whose tribal chair has said the government is allowing the destruction of their lands and ecosystems in pursuit of space ventures. This is not empty scrubland. It is one of the most ecologically and culturally loaded stretches of coast in the country.
The timing makes it worse. Elon Musk just became the first trillionaire in human history, riding the largest public offering the stock market has ever seen for SpaceX. Days later, the same man is being handed hundreds of acres of a public wildlife refuge at no real cost to him. A government that tells working families there is never enough money for housing or healthcare found 700 acres of protected habitat to give a man who could buy the entire state several times over. The optics are not subtle, and neither is the transfer.
https://balleralert.com/trump-elon-musk-spacex-wildlife-refuge-land/
June 19, 2026
Jon, Lovett, Tommy, and Dan record from Chicago after the dedication ceremony of the Obama Presidential Center, reacting to Barack and Michelle Obama's speeches, what it felt like to walk through the museum for the first time, and what lessons Democrats in the Trump era can take from Obama. Then, they react to the emerging details of Donald Trump's MOU with Iran, which he signed at the Palace of Versailles, JD Vance's efforts to seem like a normal person during his book tour, and why the algae in the Reflecting Pool is such an apt metaphor for Trump's presidency.
CHAPTERS
0:00 - Obama Presidential Center Opening
16:43 - Ad Break
19:15 - President Obamas Speech
25:06 - Michelle Obamas Speech
35:18 - Ad Break
38:27 - Tenuous Iran News
51:54 - Ad Break
52:52 - JD Vances Book Tour
57:57 - Reflecting Pool Algae
Breaking Down Trump's TERRIBLE Deal with Iran - Pod Save America
Jon, Lovett, Tommy, and Dan record from Chicago after the dedication ceremony of the Obama Presidential Center, reacting to Barack and Michelle Obama's speeches, what it felt like to walk through the museum for the first time, and what lessons Democrats in the Trump era can take from Obama. Then, they react to the emerging details of Donald Trump's MOU with Iran, which he signed at the Palace of Versailles, JD Vance's efforts to seem like a normal person during his book tour, and why the algae in the Reflecting Pool is such an apt metaphor for Trump's presidency.
CHAPTERS
0:00 - Obama Presidential Center Opening
16:43 - Ad Break
19:15 - President Obamas Speech
25:06 - Michelle Obamas Speech
35:18 - Ad Break
38:27 - Tenuous Iran News
51:54 - Ad Break
52:52 - JD Vances Book Tour
57:57 - Reflecting Pool Algae
June 19, 2026
https://x.com/Haleaziz/status/2067654501377466475
ICE Spent $700 Million on 7 Warehouses. Now It Wants to Get Rid of Them.
Gift Link
NYT
The idea was meant to supercharge President Trumps mass deportation plan.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement would purchase more than a dozen empty warehouses across the United States to massively expand its capacity to detain people deemed to be in the country illegally, which in turn would spike deportations. A year into Mr. Trumps term, it had bought 11 facilities at a cost of $1 billion.
But in a major turnabout, the agency is planning to offload seven warehouses purchased for more than $700 million by either giving them to other federal agencies or selling them outright, according to documents obtained by The New York Times.
The decision to sharply scale back the warehouse plan is a rejection of a signature initiative under the previous homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, who pushed the boundaries of what the government can do to aggressively round up potential deportees. The new secretary, Markwayne Mullin, who had privately expressed skepticism about the plan, has said publicly that he wants the agency to be quieter about how it carries out immigration enforcement.
From Day 1, D.H.S. has remained singularly focused on removing the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens from the United States and is always evaluating the best methods to do so, the Homeland Security Department said in a statement for this article. These heinous criminals, once arrested, should be removed at lightning speed, not housed on American soil at the taxpayers expense. D.H.S. is moving swiftly to utilize EXISTING detention space with our state and county partners.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement would purchase more than a dozen empty warehouses across the United States to massively expand its capacity to detain people deemed to be in the country illegally, which in turn would spike deportations. A year into Mr. Trumps term, it had bought 11 facilities at a cost of $1 billion.
But in a major turnabout, the agency is planning to offload seven warehouses purchased for more than $700 million by either giving them to other federal agencies or selling them outright, according to documents obtained by The New York Times.
The decision to sharply scale back the warehouse plan is a rejection of a signature initiative under the previous homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, who pushed the boundaries of what the government can do to aggressively round up potential deportees. The new secretary, Markwayne Mullin, who had privately expressed skepticism about the plan, has said publicly that he wants the agency to be quieter about how it carries out immigration enforcement.
From Day 1, D.H.S. has remained singularly focused on removing the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens from the United States and is always evaluating the best methods to do so, the Homeland Security Department said in a statement for this article. These heinous criminals, once arrested, should be removed at lightning speed, not housed on American soil at the taxpayers expense. D.H.S. is moving swiftly to utilize EXISTING detention space with our state and county partners.
https://x.com/Haleaziz/status/2067654501377466475
June 18, 2026
I thought oligarchy meant Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg. But those guys are just the tip of the iceberg. I had no idea what a massive phenomenon oligarchy really is.
- VIDEO CHAPTERS -
0:00 The Briefcase
6:30 Defense
14:20 The Maze
21:32 The Army
24:10 The Pyramid
31:23 The Gilded Age
36:29 Source Code
42:36 Now What
Oligarchy is worse than you think - Johnny Harris
I thought oligarchy meant Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg. But those guys are just the tip of the iceberg. I had no idea what a massive phenomenon oligarchy really is.
- VIDEO CHAPTERS -
0:00 The Briefcase
6:30 Defense
14:20 The Maze
21:32 The Army
24:10 The Pyramid
31:23 The Gilded Age
36:29 Source Code
42:36 Now What
June 17, 2026
Author Melissa Murray discusses their book "The U.S. Constitution" at Politics and Prose bookstore in Washington, D.C.
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Trump Indictments comes a beautiful, accessible guide on how to read the US Constitution.
Think of this as the US Constitution explained by Americas favorite law professor, Melissa Murray. On her podcast, Strict Scrutiny, Murray and her cohosts, Kate Shaw and Leah Litman, provide in-depth, accessible, and irreverent analysis of the Supreme Court and its cases, culture, and personalities.
On that podcast, on MSNOWwhere she is a frequent contributorin opinion pieces, and when providing commentary as she did in a recent New York Times piece on Justice Brown Jackson, Murray spends an awful lot of time demystifying laws for everyone else. In this book, she tackles one of the founding American documents: the Constitution. Each amendment will be annotated with some historical context provided, as well as examples of how it is relevant to our present day.
Melissa Murray is the Frederick I. and Grace Stokes Professor of Law at New York Universitys School of Law. She is the coauthor of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Trump Indictments: The Historic Charging Documents with Commentary, cohost of a top-ranked podcast, Strict Scrutinywhich is about the Supreme Court and the legal culture that surrounds itand a regular commentator on MSNBC.
Murray is in conversation with Eric Holder, a civil rights leader who is chairman of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee. He served as the eighty-second attorney general of the United States under President Barack Obama, the first African American to hold that office. Now a senior counsel at Covington & Burling, he lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife, Dr. Sharon Malone, and they have three children. He is the author of Our Unfinished March: The Violent Past and Imperiled Future of the Vote-A History, a Crisis, a Plan.
Author Talk: Melissa Murray -- The U.S. Constitution - with Eric Holder
Author Melissa Murray discusses their book "The U.S. Constitution" at Politics and Prose bookstore in Washington, D.C.
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Trump Indictments comes a beautiful, accessible guide on how to read the US Constitution.
Think of this as the US Constitution explained by Americas favorite law professor, Melissa Murray. On her podcast, Strict Scrutiny, Murray and her cohosts, Kate Shaw and Leah Litman, provide in-depth, accessible, and irreverent analysis of the Supreme Court and its cases, culture, and personalities.
On that podcast, on MSNOWwhere she is a frequent contributorin opinion pieces, and when providing commentary as she did in a recent New York Times piece on Justice Brown Jackson, Murray spends an awful lot of time demystifying laws for everyone else. In this book, she tackles one of the founding American documents: the Constitution. Each amendment will be annotated with some historical context provided, as well as examples of how it is relevant to our present day.
Melissa Murray is the Frederick I. and Grace Stokes Professor of Law at New York Universitys School of Law. She is the coauthor of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Trump Indictments: The Historic Charging Documents with Commentary, cohost of a top-ranked podcast, Strict Scrutinywhich is about the Supreme Court and the legal culture that surrounds itand a regular commentator on MSNBC.
Murray is in conversation with Eric Holder, a civil rights leader who is chairman of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee. He served as the eighty-second attorney general of the United States under President Barack Obama, the first African American to hold that office. Now a senior counsel at Covington & Burling, he lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife, Dr. Sharon Malone, and they have three children. He is the author of Our Unfinished March: The Violent Past and Imperiled Future of the Vote-A History, a Crisis, a Plan.
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