It’s Thursday…
Shitshow’s public schedule for…
Thursday News Dump…
Senate Republicans once again prove they are in a cult.
Yesterday, Puddle waddled his way to lunch with Senate Republicans. By all accounts, it wasn’t exactly a family-friendly lunch. It was more like an episode of Family Feud, except everyone already knew the correct answer was “Whatever Daddy wants.”
Fast forward to last night. Several Senate Republicans who had dared to vote in favor of a non-binding resolution rebuking Puddle’s decision to bomb Iran suddenly changed their votes. Apparently, yesterday’s lunch served a healthy helping of public humiliation, and by evening they were eager to reassure Daddy they were still loyal members of the cult.
As in, the House already passed a bipartisan Iran powers resolution rebuking Trump and his war, and the Senate passed it too, earlier this week.
— Jennifer Bendery (@jbendery) June 25, 2026
And then Senate Republicans put this other resolution on the floor last night and were like, sorry if that other vote made you mad.
They rejected this war powers resolution, 47-50.
— Jennifer Bendery (@jbendery) June 25, 2026
Four Republicans voted YES earlier this week.
On this vote:
Cassidy flipped his vote to NO.
Rand Paul voted PRESENT.
Murkowski and Collins remained YES.
Two missed the vote: Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.)
For some clarity:
— Jennifer Bendery (@jbendery) June 25, 2026
The measure that passed the House + Senate is a concurrent resolution (i.e. not legally binding, expresses sentiments of Congress, doesn't need Trump's signature.)
The one that failed is a joint resolution (i.e. it would be legally binding if it passed.)
Mission accomplished. Having reminded everyone who was really in charge, their Daddy headed to Lies Social to publicly humiliate a room full of grown men who immediately thanked him for the privilege.
Yesterday’s lunch wasn’t just about Iran. Puddle also spent part of it twisting arms over the SAVE Act.
That timing makes the Postmaster General’s testimony yesterday even more interesting. He told lawmakers that under the administration’s proposed rule, the Postal Service would not deliver mail-in ballots in states that fail to provide a master list of registered voters.
New York Times (06/24/2026):
Postmaster General David Steiner said at a Senate hearing on Wednesday that under a new proposed rule, the Postal Service would not deliver mail-in ballots in states that decline to hand over sensitive data about voters to the federal government.
The Postal Service’s proposed rule was released this month and is in line with President Trump’s March executive order intended to restrict voting by mail. That order, which faces multiple court challenges, seeks to create state-by-state lists of citizens to help determine who is eligible to vote and calls on the Postal Service not to distribute mail ballots to those not on state lists.
Earlier this year, Mr. Steiner told The New York Times that the Postal Service would defer to the courts on the legality of Mr. Trump’s executive order and that the service would “absolutely” continue to deliver mail-in ballots.
[snip]
He was asked by Senator Gary Peters of Michigan, the committee’s top Democrat: “If a state refuses to turn their absentee voter list over to the federal government, will the Postal Service still mail their ballots under this proposal rule?”
“Under our proposed regulation, no,” Mr. Steiner responded.
Mr. Steiner reaffirmed at the hearing that the Postal Service would follow any court orders governing voting by mail.
Withholding some mail services in states where voters rely heavily on mail balloting could affect millions of Americans.
[snip]
The Postal Service’s proposed rule appears to establish broad authority for the agency to intervene in the vote-by-mail process. It proposes that Postal Service employees screen mail-in ballots for eligibility using lists of voters provided by the states, and it requires states to adhere to new design rules for the ballots.
[snip]
The regulation is currently in a 30-day public-comment period that started earlier this month. The executive order calls on the Postal Service to issue a final rule by the end of July.
New York Times (06/24/2026).
The exchange between Senator Gary Peters of Michigan and the Postmaster General is 6 minutes and 12 seconds long.
Speaking of Puddle’s executive order attempting to federalize elections…
ABC News (06/24/2026):
A federal judge on Wednesday permanently blocked the Trump administration from enforcing an executive order signed last year that required proof of citizenship to register to vote and demanded mail-in ballots be received by Election Day.
Judge Denise Casper ruled that the president lacks the authority to oversee elections and rejected the Trump administration’s unsupported claims of “widespread illegal voting, discrimination, fraud, and other forms of malfeasance and error.”
“While the Constitution vests the President with ‘executive Power’ and commands him to ‘take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed,’ it does not grant the President any specific powers over elections,” Judge Casper wrote.
[snip]
In a 59-page ruling issued Wednesday, Judge Casper made that decision permanent on largely the same legal basis as her decision last year. In addition to finding that Trump overstepped his authority with the order, the judge said the Department of Justice failed to demonstrate the alleged fraud that purportedly justified the order, and the policy would have disenfranchised thousands.
“There is no evidence in this record of widespread ‘illegal voting, discrimination, fraud, and other forms of malfeasance and error’ within American elections, which the Executive Order purports to safeguard against,” she wrote.
[snip]
Multiple lawsuits are challenging Trump’s second executive order on voting that attempted to create a national database of approved voters, and earlier this week, a judge blocked an attempt to use an immigration database to check voter rolls. Judges across the country have also rejected the Department of Justice’s attempt to obtain state voter rolls.
ABC News (06/24/2026).
NBC News (06/25/2026):
A federal judge on Thursday blocked the implementation of key parts of President Donald Trump’s executive order on mail voting, declaring the plans to intervene in state-run elections unconstitutional.
Trump’s March executive order directed the creation of federal lists of voters and asked the Postal Service to only deliver mail ballots to certain people on those lists.
The ruling to stop enforcing the executive order came from U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani in Boston, an appointee of former President Barack Obama.
The decision is a blow to Trump, though an expected one, ahead of this fall’s midterm elections. Election experts have said they anticipated the order would be blocked because the Constitution gives control over election administration to the states.
NBC News (06/25/2026).
And now for something completely different… because apparently this week wasn’t weird enough.
Secretary of State Marco “I have so many jobs, I suck at them all” Rubio met with UAE President Sheikh MBZ. Rubio shared a photo from the working lunch, and reporters quickly noticed Puddle’s son-in-law was sitting next to him.
Trump's son-in-law, Michael Boulos, sits next to Rubio in this meeting in UAE with Sheikh MBZ, the country's leader. Boulos is a businessman who has no official post (his father has one). He visited UAE in May 2025 with Trump for a business event. pic.twitter.com/JhoALOoP9H
— Edward Wong (@ewong) June 24, 2026
Asked how come the son-in-law was in a working lunch meeting, Rubio says well, his brother lives here and I’m good friends with him so we were having a catch-up.
Two last things…
While working as a poll worker Tuesday, Paigelynne Gonyea received a call from ICE agents about an Instagram post she made in January. Rather than meet them outside alone, she invited the agents into the polling place for the conversation.
.@syracusedotcom reports two ICE agents tracked down a woman *inside a polling place* yesterday to demand that she take down an Insta post in which she named Jonathan Ross as the man who shot & killed Renee Good (after the Star Tribune identified Ross). https://t.co/WIB1hbqx5W
— Taniel (@Taniel) June 25, 2026
I originally read this on Syracuse.com before they slammed the paywall shut. Thankfully, Yahoo! News picked it up.
Paigelynne Gonyea, a poll worker in Syracuse, New York, said she received a phone call Tuesday from two ICE agents asking to meet with her. Not wanting to meet with them alone, she invited them into her work. “I’ve seen the news, especially in Minnesota,” she said. “And I didn’t want anything to happen to me at all.”
The ICE agents arrived with copies of her social media posts and driver’s license, and handed her a warning notice alerting her that they were investigating her for allegedly threatening ICE personnel. “They tried to scare me into signing it while I was working,” she said. The agents told her to “remove and/or discontinue” the behavior, according to the notice, which Gonyea shared on Instagram.
Yahoo! News.com. 06/25/2026.
She believes the investigation was prompted after she shared a news article in January identifying Jonathan Ross, the ICE agent who shot and killed Renee Good. “I think today is a great day for Jonathan to be indicted,” she wrote in the caption.
Gonyea did not believe that her post or caption qualified as doxxing. “I didn’t dox his personal information, such as address, phone number,” she told Syracuse.com.
Milk Carton Tom has finally answered his door.
Tom Kean, the congressman who has been absent from Washington since March, answered the door of his New Jersey home on Wednesday.https://t.co/u1Px2YUN4p
— The New York Times (@nytimes) June 25, 2026
Representative Thomas Kean Jr., who has been missing from Washington for nearly four months with little explanation, is back home in New Jersey.
He could be seen from the street on Wednesday evening, standing in a brightly lit front room of his Westfield home just before 8:45 p.m.
“It’s good to see you,” he said after a reporter for The New York Times rang his doorbell. He was wearing a dark suit and a red tie. “I’ll talk to you next week,” he said. “Thank you.”
Mr. Kean’s wife, Rhonda, stood in the background, smiling pleasantly. He declined additional comment and closed the door.
[snip]
A spokesman for Mr. Kean, Harrison Neely, said last week that the congressman was expected to return to Washington on June 30. He declined to say how long Mr. Kean had been home or to offer any additional details about the congressman’s long absence.
“He will be fully transparent on the 30th,” Mr. Neely wrote in a text message.
New York Times. 06/24/2026.
