June 21st
Mark David
1) What Fathers Are Getting Right
On Father's Day, some personal reflection and some genuinely good news about the direction American dads are heading. Adam Kinzinger
I want to start today with something personal, then talk about some genuinely positive trends in American fatherhood.
I grew up lucky, and I know it. My dad was present. He was loving. He showed up. Not in the vague, aspirational way that phrase sometimes gets used. He actually, consistently showed up. He worked hard. He coached. He listened. He modeled something I did not have a name for at the time, but have spent a lot of years since trying to articulate: the idea that real strength is not loud, that it serves rather than demands, that it is measured not by what you take but by what you give.
He also ran nonprofits to help feed people who were hungry. Not because it built his brand or advanced a career. Because he believed it was the right thing to do, and he wanted his kids to grow up understanding that the people in your community are your neighbors, not your competition. I think about that a lot. I think about it especially now, in a political moment that tells men something very different about what strength is supposed to look like.
2) The Man Behind the Curtain Lincoln Square Media
MAGA’s version of masculinity is all about domination and grievance. The man marketing it can barely keep his eyes open. By Susan J. Demas
America has a masculinity problem, and it’s not the one Donald Trump is selling.
For decades, the definition of manly fitness for public office was fairly simple: military service. George H.W. Bush flew 58 combat missions in World War II. John McCain endured five years of torture in a North Vietnamese prison and refused early release. Even George W. Bush, who used his family connections to join the Texas National Guard, understood that military service was a baseline expectation if you wanted to be taken seriously as a commander-in-chief.
3) “Higher Ground” A Reason To Smile Dan Rather and Team Steady June 21st
We could all use a reminder that public service is a noble cause, that there are people who enter public life because they want to make others’ lives better, not their own. This week’s opening of the Barack Obama Presidential Center fits that bill and is our reason to smile.
At a time when our politics have become a blood sport, it is restorative to witness a celebration instead of a fight, joy in place of angst.
The star-studded dedication ceremony was capped off with a group of A-listers performing for the Obamas, three other former presidents and their spouses, and the rapt crowd. For the last number, Stevie Wonder was accompanied by John Legend, Jennifer Hudson, Bruce Springsteen, Common, Christina Aguilera, and Eddie Vedder, backed by The Roots on his classic, “Higher Ground.”
4) Who Won the Iran War? 10 Experts Explain NEWSWEEK
By Ellie Cook and Jesus Mesa
President Donald Trump has touted his war-ending deal with Iran as a "great agreement." Many have questioned whether the price of the nearly four-month war in the Middle East was too high and whether the U.S. has really come out on top.
The U.S. laid out several goals when it joined Israel with strikes against Iran on February 28. It succeeded in beating down Iran's conventional military power. But it did not fully achieve the White House's other stated objectives: eliminating the threat of Iranian nuclear weapons, regime change, dismantling Tehran's support for proxy groups and wiping out its ballistic missile capacity.
5) Detainees Moved Out of Alligator Alcatraz, ICE Confirms
The Trump administration said individuals were moved to ensure their safety during hurricane season. Environmental groups pursuing litigation over the site want more transparency. By Amy Green For Inside Climate News
Inmates have been moved out of Alligator Alcatraz, the Everglades migrant detention site, the Trump administration confirmed Wednesday to Inside Climate News.
“As we enter into hurricane season, ICE and the state of Florida have moved illegal aliens from the soft-sided facility,” according to a statement provided by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman. “For the safety of the illegal alien detainees, we transferred them to other facilities.”
For weeks, speculation has swirled amid reports the facility would close imminently. Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, has been funding the site using the state’s Emergency Preparedness and Response Fund, after issuing an executive order in 2023 declaring a state of emergency related to immigration. More than $6.5 billion has been disbursed from the fund since its establishment in 2022, the vast majority for hurricanes and other extreme weather events. Some $573 million has gone toward immigration, including Alligator Alcatraz.
6) The Death of Cheap Money: Inside the 2026 Bond Market Trap
With Treasury yields hitting their highest levels since 2007, the repricing of American debt is about to collide with a $30 trillion federal dark hole. “The Intellectualist by Brian Daitzman
Something important is happening in the bond market, and it is not as remote or technical as it sounds.
A bond is just a loan. When the United States government sells a Treasury bond, it is borrowing money. Investors give the government cash now, and the government promises to pay that money back later, with interest. The yield is the interest rate investors demand for making that loan.
When Treasury yields rise, the U.S. government has to pay more to borrow. That matters because Treasury yields help set the cost of borrowing across the American economy. They influence mortgage rates, business loans, car loans, credit markets, stock prices, and how much the federal government must spend on interest instead of everything else.
7) Sunday thought: 135 Days
Until we throw the bums out and limit Trump's reign of criminality, corruption, cruelty, and treachery Robert Reich
To you fathers, and to those of you who have or have had fathers, Happy Father’s Day.
For the next 135 days, our first and most important goal is to end Republican control of Congress, thereby limiting Trump’s reign of criminality, corruption, cruelty, and treachery.
This is a moral imperative for every one of us who believes in a decent society.
I know, I know — you’re exhausted. You’ve been doing everything you can to fight this regime — to protect the vulnerable, stop the bigotry, end the violence at home and abroad — and you feel worn out. I often feel the same.
But we have no choice. Trump is getting crazier and more dangerous by the day.
8) The Executive Order To Restrict Vote By Mail
Trump is still trying to suppress your vote by Joyce Vance
“Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance
Republican voters regularly use mail-in voting. Nearly one in five registered Republicans vote by mail. Trump himself uses it. But in his role as president, he has an almost pathological dislike for the practice. One in four Democrats votes by mail.
Data on who votes by mail suggests that many Americans like it and have confidence in it. For instance, States United reports that 40% of voters who are 65 and over vote by mail. And in 2024, 905,343 members of the military and Americans living abroad voted by mail.
Trump has defended casting his own ballots by mail, saying he did it “because I’m president” and “I had a lot of different things” to do. But when others do it, there is cheating. In essence, the attacks on voting by mail have become a convenient, if false, vehicle for keeping the voter fraud narrative Trump loves to push on the front burner.
9) VIDEO: What the Reflecting Pool Really Tells Us About Trump
Spoiler Alert: It's not just a pool problem. By Adam Kinzinger
Workers are scooping green slime out of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool with nets.
The blue coating is coming off the bottom. Less than two weeks after it reopened.
The cost just hit $14.7 million and it’s still climbing. That’s more than eight times what Trump promised. A no-bid contract to a company that had never done federal work before. A July 4th deadline that is now in serious jeopardy.
10) Humor we all need these days
These old childhood rules and traditions would shock parents today
The American Facts
11) Grand Prismatic Spring Yellowstone Oct 2026