News You Can Use – The Rest Of The Story – July 3, 2025
Deportations! Crops rotting in fields! Assault on Women! Job Losses! Devalued Dollar! We Are NOT Germany! Defending Our Country!!! Read All About It Here! - Share, Restack, Get the Word Out All Over!
I am listening to Rep. Hakeem Jeffries as he speaks live on the House Floor as I write this!
Remembering How We Got Here! Independence Day 1776! - https://www.plano88.org/o/phmes/article/305711
Hi Everyone!
For the past few days I have been watching Congress throughout my waking hours to see how the Big Ugly Bill is doing. I was hopeful, then dashed, then hopeful, then dashed, then hopeful, then dashed. You would think at my age, 64, and all I have seen in those 64 years in the U.S. and on this planet, that I would have changed from a ‘glass half full kind of gal’ to an ‘empty glass',’ especially in light of drumpf being re-elected. I wonder just how much our educational system has failed us to see that there are this many ignorant people living in this country, at least 29% of the voting public or tragically, 50 million people.
BUT, through all of this, I am still a “glass half full” Pollyanna and still look for the positives, the bright spots, and best of all, the holes in the fence that show light and an ability to get out of whatever horror that might be plaguing my life or the world around me. I have spent my life honing my skills at addressing obstacles and blockages and have proven repeatedly that things CAN be done by going over, around, or through anything or anyone that stood in my way.
I read something this morning that tugged at my heartstrings. I am not an immigrant. I do not receive SNAP. I am not on Medicaid. I am not a Veteran. I am in the beginnings of what may be considered elderly, but I do not live in a nursing home and my parents have both passed. My children are grown up and living on their own. I no longer have a wage-paying job. I am a retiree very shortly to be forced onto Medicare (it’s not a choice).
But, my heart hurts for the families who are being deported. My stomach churns for the hungry children who have less power than any adults. I have had to use SNAP and Medicaid for short periods in my past when I needed help and thankfully it was there, so I want it to be there for others. I am part of a larger military family with my old man having spent 20 years in the Navy and my daughter serving 4 years in the Navy, my son-in-law served in the Marines. All of our Veterans, and brave people deserve to be taken care of having seen and been a part of things they cannot unsee, having their lives and their futures disrupted. Nothing is too much for our Veterans who have protected this country.
I am retired now, but I had some really awesome jobs in my long career that started when I was 17. Life with its ups and downs carried me from starting out as a truck stop waitress and a grocery store checker to a college instructor, an author, and substantial experiences in the technology field. Last year I walked away for my own health. It is distressing that the jobs are bleeding out in this country yet again, something I have not seen since GW Bush was president. It sickens me what I am seeing in this Country.
So, I am here! I am watching, listening, and reporting because all of everyone matters to me even if I am not directly involved. I will fight for this country until I can no longer fight so everyone can have what I had. Saving our democracy is the hill I am willing to die on. We may be losing some of the battles, but we are going to win the war.
What Keeps Me Going?
There are 347 million people in this Country. 174 million of them are registered voters. 50 million of those are MAGAs or right wing hard liners. That means that only 14% of the population in this country, 21% are adults, favor the noisy drumpf and his hateful, destructive, vindictive rhetoric over 124 million voters who do not. Even with 6 million voters staying home, that still leaves 118 million voters who can turn the tide.
We all have considered that drumpf is planning on stopping any future elections. He has said as much. “Vote for me and you will never have to vote again.” He wants that to happen and we know that his MAGA oligarchs who are now running this Country are undoubtedly planning to stop the next election. Since you and I suspect that drumpf is planning to stop the next election or all future elections, WE all have to realize that so are all the people who work for us who have power and can stop him from another front. They are working every day to prepare should election interference come up on our plates.
We may be the last line of defense against the attempted destruction of our democracy, but there are other front lines that are holding. Yes, we have lost a few battles and the Mainstream media delights in elevating the negative to get ratings and money, and because they are too scared to speak the truth. But we have also won and won a lot.
I relish the small wins, because they add up. Wins like getting Kilmar Abrego Garcia back to the U.S. and then the judge realizing that if he were released waiting a bogus trial, he would be grabbed and deported to parts unknown has been stopped. The fact that the policy allowing drumpf and his idiots to ignore contempt of court rulings, if a judge is ever brave enough to so rule, and that you and I can file a federal lawsuit without posting a multi-million dollar bond has been removed from the budget bill. Maine taking drumpf to court and winning on all fronts without caving or capitulating. And there is more, lots more. 96% of all lawsuits have been won in our favor and he might waffle and ignore them to begin with, but his people are caving.
We have lost the “R” party. There is no coming back if, and they probably will, pass the Big Ugly Bill today. One of the “R’s” said yesterday that regardless of the Medicaid cuts, which he says start in 3 years – but is not true – some start 2026 and others will be rolled in over the next 3 years, so much can happen in Congress in the next 3 years. That is true, but not true. What I mean by that is that Congress is the slowest to act of any government body and are so fractured, mostly in the “R” party, but also in the “D” party that it is nearly impossible to get anything done without a marvelous person that can bring them all together, like Biden, who got more bi-partisan legislation passed in his meager 4 years than any other President.
So, today, while Congress is battling it out in DC, I am going to report some news that has been going on around us for the past few days. I am also going to monitor Congress as long as I am awake today and may send out breaking news later on.
Crops Are Rotting In The Fields
ICE Raids on US Farms Leaves Crops Rotting
So much for deporting “criminals!” ICE, hiding behind masks and hiring private goons to support their raids, is raiding everything everywhere. Tom Homan has said that once that Big Ugly Bill passes, ICE is going to ramp up their raids to a level that no one will expect. He claims there are 5,000 ICE agents and 21 million or more criminals, terrorists, and illegals running loose in this country. Anyone with any common sense knows these numbers are not true. It is a fact that 50% of the people arrested are just hard working people with families who just want to work and live a life here, but there is no path to a green card or citizenship for them. That is one thing that needs to be fixed. If you are working a job, then you should be given some type of work permit, if only temporary, while you go through the process of something more permanent.
“One Mexican farm supervisor, who asked not to be named, was overseeing a field being prepared for planting strawberries last week. Usually he would have 300 workers, he said. On this day he had just 80. Another supervisor at a different farm said he usually has 80 workers in a field, but that day he had just 17.”
So, the crops are rotting in the fields. Food is not going to be delivered to grocery stores. Rotting crops mean empty produce shelves some time this summer or fall as this years’ crops are significantly smaller than before. All because homan, noem, rubio, miller, and drumpf hate people who are not white, who were not born here, and are not male. They in my considered opinion just hate people period. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/01/ice-raids-crops-california-farms?CMP=oth_b-aplnews_d-1
Your Money Will NOT Buy As Much Any More – Thanks To drumpf
While drumpf has been destroying our economy, he has also been devaluing our dollar around the world. How? Between inflation, the tariffs, and the astronomical spending bill that will carpet bomb the National debt and blow it up to well over 50 Trillion dollars in the next 10 years, drumpf has managed to cause the value of the dollar to drop by 50%, the highest drop in over 50 years in this Country. “Investors have fled U.S. dollars out of fear inflation could devalue the currency, especially as Congress has moved forward with a large spending bill set to worsen a decades-long trend of ballooning U.S. debt, analysts said.”
I am suspicious that drumpf’s reasoning to devalue the dollar is to prop up the fake and mirage currency called “crypto” which can be traded in larger quantities and have a higher value between the wealthy than trading in dollars.
At today’s prices, if I owned crypto, my retirement income would give me less than 1 whole crypto coin. I would have 0.03 of 1 whole crypto coin. Can you see how crypto currency, one is not real, and two is a fun toy for the rich to play with? It will NOT work as a Country’s currency.
So how will the devaluation of the dollar impact you and me? We will be able to buy less with our dollar. There will be less to buy because of joblessness, deportations, food scarcity, tariffs and fewer imports, and businesses closing shop. What we will have available to us will cost more as prices rise and heartless companies price gouge because they can. All of this becomes a vicious circle where each impact exacerbates the others. “The potential surge in the price of imports could compound the inflation risk posed by tariffs, analysts said, but the dollar-related price hike would hit just about every import entering the U.S.” And as we all know, tariffs are a sales tax added onto the price of what we buy and that WE pay, not other countries, WE pay. So we are paying our own Country for the privilege of being able to buy goods from other countries. Other countries are NOT paying anything to sell their goods here. That Is A Lie! https://abcnews.go.com/Business/us-dollar-off-worst-start-50-years-matters/story?id=123369364
The Jobs Report – What’s Up With That?
Yesterday it was all over the news that the private sector lost 33,000 jobs in June, but the overall jobs report was 147,000 new jobs. This may look like a gain, but when the total job losses since the beginning of the year is over half a million, we are just slowly regaining jobs that were lost since drumpf started destroying our economy with tariffs claiming he inherited a “mess” and was “fixing it” – “fixing it by destroying it?” Who does he think he is kidding? (I know, the MAGAs.)
In June 2024, there were 206,000 jobs created. In June of 2025, there were 147,000 jobs created. That looks like a contraction, not a “fix” or an expansion. According to LinkedIn, “Total Job Losses Combined, the total number of job losses in the U.S. since the start of 2025 exceeds 550,000. This marks one of the most significant employment contractions in recent years.”
“Federal Workforce Reductions Under the Trump administration's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), over 275,000 federal civil service positions have been affected through layoffs, buyouts, or early retirements.” - So when we see our services impacted, this is why. We are not being allowed to have our tax dollars spent as we chose when we elected our representatives. Nope! drumpf actually believes that money is his and he can spend it on what he wants to spend it on and can withhold it from States that paid it in. There will be a comeuppance over this alone - but also all the other heinous acts he has been perpetuating on our population. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/stark-start-2025-over-half-million-jobs-lost-us-lawrence-dantzler-ii-irnxc/
Microsoft announced this week that it is laying off an additional 9,000 workers. That may be a small portion of their workforce, but these are people and there are no new jobs for these people to go to unless they want to take the jobs of the undocumented immigrants who are being rounded up like lost cattle in the wilderness and deported leaving crops to rot in the fields. I do not see every unemployed person rushing to the agricultural sector to fill these positions. https://apnews.com/article/microsoft-layoffs-xbox-f44079957b12370f72e24edebe9fcc6b
Immigration, Deportations, Denaturalization, & Comparison to Germany
Much is said about drumpf following the Hitler playbook into gulags, concentration camps, death, and genocide. These were the horrors in Germany from 1933 to 1945. Justice Sotomayor has even issued a warning that no one is safe. Whether we are or we are not, we must be prepared even when we are scared. Courage is not the absence of fear, but taking action in the face of it. So, as I have been saying, Don’t Be Scared – Be Prepared!
Also realize that America is not Germany. Let’s compare the U.S. to Germany. The German population was about 65 million people in 1933 when Hitler started rounding up the Jews. These people were spread across a land mass of 138,067 square miles. In 1945 when the war was over, the population in Germany as a whole was approximately 70 million split between East Germany and West Germany, where there was a wall built.
When the Nazis took over, very few people in Germany owned guns and especially not Jews. Hitler immediately tightened up gun laws for the general population and took guns away from people.
The U.S. population is currently over 347 million people spread across 3.8 million square miles with high mountains, canyons, forests, caves, caverns, and many other hidey-holes. In the U.S. today there are an estimated 393 million guns in private homes and the gun laws, at least for now, are being loosened so that people can have more destructive weapons privately. No effort has yet been made to indicate that this government is going to round up the guns.
I am not saying it is not possible for the U.S. to end up like Germany. But, the circumstances here are very different and we have a very diverse bunch of people to “round up!” and more than a majority of them are not going to go willingly, give up guns willingly, roll over and go quietly and willingly. This is NOT Germany even if drumpf and his goons are playacting as if it were and the media is trying to scare us into believing we are doomed to the same fate.
For every day that we are not “rounded up” and carted off, we have another day to fight back as a whole group, not as individuals. We have to stick together. I am thinking that many people will probably die before it is all over. I do not have a crystal ball to know just exactly how this will play out. But drumpf is NO hitler, and the U.S. is NOT Germany!
We must keep rallying and railing against the injustices and violation of rights to our fellow Americans who are being rounded up, who are being incarcerated, who are being deported. These rallies are happening in every state. I watched a video from Colorado this morning where people are peacefully rallying at ICE detention centers and they are there daily.
Today is a brand new day and we have another opportunity to make our voices heard in numbers that drumpf and his goons have never seen before. Remember that 1500 insurrectionists nearly overtook the Capitol building and might have succeeded if they had not been called off in the end. Can you envision millions of determined people turning out to peacefully protest the assault on the American way of life?
The Assault On Women
Yesterday, I responded to a clearly MAGA momma infiltrating Pete Buttigieg’s substack with her MAGA nonsense screaming talking points about Medicaid and how people want Medicaid, they can “just get a job,” a sentiment today forced on all of us by nancy mace. Add that to join ernst’s “everybody is going to die,” mcconnell’s, “get over it,” and vance’s “die quietly” please! and you have a whole lot of horrible people who need to go!
Elsewhere it came up whether women in general would be more likely to stand up to drumpf. My answer in general is “yes!” especially those raised in the 60’s and beyond, and some raised in decades prior!
This country was built not only on the labor of many diverse cultures, but also on the backs of pioneer women of all cultures and diversity who had to forge the rivers, shoot the bears, coyotes, wolves, and other lethal critters. We come from strong bloodlines and the women of today are outspoken, independent, strong and able, and many are not willing to step aside. Just think what we can do when we have everything to lose.
And just some food for thought about the women in this country and the mothers who will not buy into this assault on everything we are, everything we want to become, the future of our Country.
It will be necessary to indoctrinate the children and drumpf, abbot, desantis, and others are trying to do that. But it will take an entire generation, plus, and the entire country being indoctrinated to breed male dominance into the little boys and subservience into the little girls.
There are more than 170 million women in the U.S. with approximately 15 million MAGA women who may or may not be willing to be breeding stock for their MAGA dominant men. Many of the other 155 million women own weapons, know martial arts, are willing to die for freedom just like the men will fight back and sacrifice everything to protect their children, their homes, their lives, and this Country.
It is far past time for us to stand up and make our voices heard. We are NOT about to tell our little girls they have to be mothers, wives, servants. My mother actually tried that on me, and I absolutely refused to be any of those things (though I have children and I was married) but I have 3 Bachelor’s degrees and a Master’s degree. I had a full career in Education and a full career in the Tech Industry. I wouldn’t be writing to you now if I were 1) afraid; 2) unprepared; 3) willing to make this the hill I am willing to die on literally.
My daughter is of a like mind and so is my sister and her daughter-in-law, and I know many other strong and determined women who will not roll over and give in. Put us all together and we make a force to be reckoned with. I am “woman” hear me roar!!!
My Comments
We have been hearing all about the lawsuits, the deportations and ICE raids, the Big Ugly Bill, and it just keeps coming. We all know and feel that it is going to get worse before it gets better. I believe we will weather this category 5 hurricane and be able to rebuild anything that was destroyed. It may take generations, but we can do this.
While people are going around with their hair on fire we all have to remember that every single thing that drumpf and noem and homan and bondi and rubio and hegseth can get on camera, the more they can elevate it hoping to scare and intimidate people. We have to keep in mind what our “reality” is and what the “reality” is all around us. We are NOT Germany! We are NOT docile and unable, unarmed, or ignorant. We are NOT scared! We MUST keep organizing, sharing, spreading the word, gathering, speaking out as a large and fully throated crowd of people that is so large even the WORLD cannot ignore us.
We won this Country over in 1776 with muskets, lead balls and no standing army. We can keep it with 393 million guns and even 75 million, if not 150 million or more determined people. People will need to wake up to the threat and not feel “placated” when some little trinket is thrown into the crowd (3 years of piddly tax breaks that are not really for all of us and have caps - read the fine print). I hope you and many others will join us or have joined us. We need everyone to fight back in order to win.
Don’t Be Scared, Be Prepared!
So, let’s take back our Country, shall we?
On July 17th, March in Peace. Act in Power.
https://goodtroubleliveson.org/?SQF_SOURCE=50501
Money Out Of Politics Movement – Rally – July 27th!
Join us in Washington, D.C., or your state capital, alongside 2 million Americans demanding real reform.
https://moneyoutofpolitics.org/about-us/
Get Into “GOOD” Trouble – Every Day, A Sit In – Join Us In Washington, DC!
Check out more on the website: https://democracycalendar.org/event/mayday-24-7-national-mall-sit-in/2025-10-28/
Please Stay Engaged, Keep Learning, Keep Thinking Outside The Box
We all know how critical it is to stay engaged, stay together, speak together, rally together, write together, call together, and keep up the pressure everywhere all at once. There are a lot of us, so we can share the responsibilities, thus exerting more pressure than any one of us could do alone, or any small group. We can do this! We Are Democracy! We Are The People!
Keep Going to Rallies – Joining Groups – Attending Meetings – Speaking Up!
Events & Rallies! Groups You Can Join
https://events.pol-rev.com
Best Schedule of Upcoming Events!
https://www.fiftyfifty.one/
https://indivisible.org/
https://front.moveon.org/about/
https://moneyoutofpolitics.org/
https://www.change.org/
Rallies & Events In Your Area
https://www.mobilize.us/events/rally/
Keep Boycotting – We Can Withhold Money Too!
Goods & Products Price tracker – Compliments of CBS!
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/price-tracker/
I say Boycott ALL THE TIME! Hold onto your Wallets!
Look at these links for more information:
https://www.goodsuniteus.com
https://www.publicsquare.com/
Boycott Target Every Day! No Stops!!
More Boycotts Coming
McDonald's: June 24-30
Independence Day boycott: July 4
Keep Pounding on Congress!
Call the Capitol Building: (202) 224-3121
Try out 5 Calls App from your App Store to Assist!
Who are my Congressional Leaders in Washington, DC?
https://www.congress.gov/members/find-your-member
Who are my State and Local Leaders?
https://pluralpolicy.com/find-your-legislator/
Contact Hakeem Jeffries
Comments from the American People
https://democraticleader.house.gov/contact
Contact Former Presidents: - look for them on Social Media too!
https://uk.usembassy.gov/our-relationship/contacting-former-presidents/
President Joe Biden: Look on Social Media
President Barack Obama: www.barackobama.com/contact
President George W. Bush: info@georgewbushlibrary.com
President Bill Clinton: 212-348-8882
Contact the White House - 202-456-1414
comments@whitehouse.gov.
Contact the Supreme Court - 202-479-3000
https://www.supremecourt.gov/contact/contact_pio.aspx
AARP - 1 (888) 687-2277
Contact the DNC
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Contact the DCCC - (202) 863-1500
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1-888-606-1023
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Content comment! As always great summary and I appreciate your hopefulness. Above all maga wants us to despair and give up and above all we must remain stronger, get bigger and be louder (in a peaceful way!..just more voices raised in songs of protest). I am very much like you in that the budget will not impact me directly too much except a reduction in disposable income..I don’t have much but it will be reduced meaning I can’t buy as much stuff which when multiplied by millions means less sales, less local sales tases, fewer employees needed and so on..great way to grow the economy. I don’t have any military family so I don’t face those losses and/or potential losses.
I beg to differ with your comment about trump thinking our taxes are his money..they are his money now that the GOP has crowned him king. They only do what he asks with the money, we have no say, so for now it’s his. And yes this is taxation without representation.
I especially appreciate your comments about the crops rotting in the fields and feel we need a lot more reporting on that. I wish the mainstream media would quit wasting time covering what every Congressman/woman/senator says every day…we all knew they’d pass the budget bill, and there’s not much sense in reporting anything trump says since it changes from day to day. But I don’t think crops rotting in the fields changes every day except to get worse. Are there any issues yet with nursing homes being understaffed? Where is the construction industry being impacted because they can’t find workers? These are issues that impact most of us…most of us probably are not building a new home, but in areas hit by natural disasters, there may be many folks still wanting to have their roofs rebuilt (and maybe bemoaning they will not be getting any fema money to help, but then again they all voted for that…not much sympathy from me).
And finally, many thanks for the recognition of the part women have played in, well almost everything good that has ever happened. There will always be the noems and bondis but there are a whole lot more of us than them and we need to stick together and fight for out rights.
I will make another comment about the content of your post but I want to say/ask this seperately. As they say if you want something done as a busy person. so it seems to me if you want to find out something reliable ask a busy smart person who knows stuff…so I’m asking you!!…. Ben M on MTN posted about how scared his inlaws are in California to even go out to get groceries or go to church (let alone go to work). So I was wondering if there are reliable, efficient organizations that are doing something to help. Like a safe meals on wheels program or a travelling priest? And beyond that is there any organization that is working on developing safe ways to get these incredibly hard working honest people out of America and to a nation where they are needed and will be appreciated. I don’t like to use wheat production as an example because I don’t think many migrants are involved in that, but it seems to me Canada and other nations will be increasing their wheat production and will need more workers. I’m sure there are other agricultural enterprises like the strawberry farming that Canada and/or Aurstalia and or Brazil will up production in any may need good workers…is there an organization working on developing a system to get the workers there. And even get them back “home” to their nation or origin when the harvesting season is over if their home is safe. I know we have a worker shortage here in America, but I don’t know about other nations, and again, it just seems to me other nations are going to increase their level of production as mot nations will stop buying stuff from us so they will need workers. And maybe not..just as it does not make sense for manufacturers to start building plants here in case the Dems take over in 2026 and then tariffs are undone and we go back to purchasing less costly things from everywhere else and don’t need the plants here in the US since it just costs more to produce anything here, maybe other nations won’t increase production a lot. But I think Canada has already made deals with other nations for wheat so they may be increasing their wheat production since they know they will have long term reliable buyers. Anyway any thoughts/info you have about any way we can support our immigrant families I’d love to know. I can’t do much but if there are things we can do, then collectively we can do a lot…sort of like the World Central Kitchen.