Is congressional approval still a thing anymore? Asking for a friend.

“Precedented” times have finally arrived…and no, we don’t mean iPod minis and Viva la Juicy perfume are “in” again, unfortunately.

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Jun 23, 2025

Even Train Daddy can’t save us

Congrats to everyone who said they wished they lived in "precedented times.” The United States is involved in an illegal war in the Middle East that the President is lying to us about. Pretty “precedented”! At least for those of us who are old enough to remember where that meme of someone whispering to George W. Bush came from… This weekend, while I was starting my color-coded wedding planning spreadsheets, I was interrupted with a fun lil’ breaking news alert letting me know that Donald Trump had decided to bomb Iran, so I’m not sure if I care anymore about the differences between a plated dinner or family style. IDK, maybe we’ll just order a couple pizzas or something if the venues we looked at are even still around in a year and a half. But don’t worry, there is some good news – The Gilded Age is back!!! I suppose I should clarify that I mean the TV show, because the Gilded Age does seem to be making a comeback as well. Precedented times aren’t all they’re cracked up to be, but hey, at least we have Train Daddy to enjoy this time around.

Trump gets us involved in a war with Iran

I wonder if I’ll ever feel well-rested ever again… Early Sunday morning, the United States struck three sites in Iran aimed at destroying the country’s nuclear program, inserting itself into Israel’s war. Trump acted without congressional authorization (because why ask for permission when you could also not ask for forgiveness) and warned of additional strikes if Iran retaliated against the U.S. Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi tweeted that Tehran “reserves all options” to retaliate, soooo that’s cool. Trump is also now openly musing about the idea of “regime change ″ in Iran, despite members of his administration earlier indicating they wanted to restart diplomatic talks. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt says he was “simply raising a question” about dragging us all into WWIII. Read more.

Here are a few other things that have happened in the last 48 hours:

This morning, the Israeli military issued warnings that it will continue to attack military sites around Tehran. Tehran is a city of 10 million people, by the way (for context, New York City has a little over 8 million). Right now, there is an internet shutdown in the country, so it might be a little hard for civilians to hear these warnings and get to safety.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt approached new levels of North Korea-ness this morning when she told ABC News that Iran was an “imminent threat” and Donald Trump is the “first president with the guts to actually do something about it.”
Russia says it’s ready to help Iran.
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez floated the prospect of impeaching President Trump for striking Iran without explicit authorization from Congress, saying, “He has impulsively risked launching a war that may ensnare us for generations. It is absolutely and clearly grounds for impeachment.”
Oil prices are up due to all this, but there's no word on how it’ll affect the cost of eggs.

ICE continues to terrorize Americans

While Trump gets us embroiled in a foreign war, his homegrown secret police have been busy, and I can confirm that certain parts of cities in Southern California and around the country are like ghost towns with workers and customers too scared to leave their homes. Here are a few other headlines about our American Gestapo:

ICE detained a Marine Corps veteran’s wife who was still breastfeeding their baby at an immigration appointment. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in an emailed statement that the administration is “not going to ignore the rule of law.” Which is objectively a very funny statement to make in the context of uhhhh all of the laws that the Trump administration breaks constantly (see above war…)
A 19-year-old soccer star, Emerson Colindres, who was brought from Honduras to the US by his family when he was eight years old and was deported despite having no criminal record has spoken out about the ordeal, telling the Cincinnati news station WCPO, “the whole flight I was handcuffed like we’re some big criminals.”
A federal judge in Tennessee plans to order the release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, but ICE will likely take him into custody if that happens.
Columbia graduate student Mahmoud Khalil has finally been released on bail after spending 104 days in an ICE detention center in Louisiana and missing the birth of his child. He spoke to NPR about his experience and said, “It felt like kidnapping, to be honest. You have plainclothes agents in unmarked cars, not identifying themselves, claiming to have an arrest warrant that they did not show. At no point did I know where I was going.”

“Did you hear? Texas Governor Greg Abbott vetoed a ban on THC that his own Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick had been pushing for. Greg Abbott said puff puff do NOT pass.”

New Yorkers have got one more chance to not rank Andrew Cuomo

Early voting in New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary came to an end on Sunday, but if you missed your chance to vote early, you can vote on actual primary day, which is tomorrow, Tuesday, June 24th, from 6:00 am to 9:00 pm. As of Saturday, 305,896 New Yorkers had voted, which is more than double the number of early voting check-ins during the same period in 2021. And huge news!!! The final major independent poll before Primary Day shows that Queens Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani is ahead of former Governor Andrew Cuomo in the last round of a ranked-choice voting simulation. The survey of Democratic mayoral primary of early voters and likely voters from PIX11 News, Emerson College, and The Hill shows Mamdani winning in the final round, 52%, to Cuomo’s 48%. If you need a reminder, Andrew Cuomo sexually harassed 13 women and is still in the middle of several legal battles related to that. A spokesperson for Cuomo told PIX11 News that they are still confident of victory despite this poll, saying, “This is an outlier: Every other credible poll in this election — including two released last week — has shown Governor Cuomo with a double digit lead, which is exactly where this election will end tomorrow.” I don’t live in New York anymore, but for those of you who do, please don’t rank Cuomo! I have this crazy belief that sexually harassing people should disqualify you from positions of power. Read more.

ON OUR RADAR

Republicans are still trying to force a vote on their “big beautiful bill” by the July 4th recess, despite it being extremely unpopular and really bad!
A hazardous heat wave is coming for the Midwest and the East Coast today and tomorrow, with the National Weather Service saying temperatures will be in the triple-digits. Stay safe, everyone. If your workplace or home doesn’t have good air conditioning, it’s a good day to hit up your local movie theater and see Materialists several times in a row.
Despite the overturning of Roe v. Wade, a new report finds that the number of abortions in the U.S. rose in 2024, thanks mainly to a rise in telehealth prescriptions! It’s almost like making abortions illegal won’t stop people from seeking them…
The prosecution is expected to rest its case against Sean “Diddy” Combs today.
The crash dummies they use in car safety tests are still modeled after men’s bodies despite women being at higher risk of injury in frontal crashes. The one time it’s actually okay to call a woman a dummy…
Congrats @AOC! Thank you for your service.

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