Progressives for a Democratic Republic - PDR

Progressives for a Democratic Republic - PDR Helping to elect progressives to office and empowering the people through education, organization, and mobilization at the grassroots level.

Promoting the Political Revolution by helping to elect progressives and empowering the people through education, organization, and mobilization at the grassroots level.

Tulsi Gabbard wasn’t qualified to run America’s intelligence agencies.So Trump replaced her with the guy who runs Fannie...
06/02/2026

Tulsi Gabbard wasn’t qualified to run America’s intelligence agencies.

So Trump replaced her with the guy who runs Fannie Mae.

Trump announced Tuesday morning on Truth Social that Bill Pulte — the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency and chairman of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — will serve as acting director of national intelligence, replacing Tulsi Gabbard. 

Trump’s justification for putting a housing finance official in charge of all 18 U.S. intelligence agencies during an active war with Iran:

“He has deep experience managing the most sensitive matters in America, the safety and soundness of the Markets, and over 10 Trillion Dollars at Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac.” 

Mortgage markets. That’s the qualification. To oversee the CIA, NSA, and every other intelligence agency while the U.S. is bombing Iran and negotiating a nuclear deal.

Pulte will keep all his current positions simultaneously — running the Federal Housing Finance Agency, chairing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, AND serving as acting director of national intelligence. 

Here’s what Pulte actually did at the FHFA:

He used his position to make criminal referrals against Trump’s political enemies — including New York Attorney General Letitia James, Senator Adam Schiff, and Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook. He went after Fed Chair Jerome Powell for not cutting interest rates fast enough for Trump. He has been described as a “megaphone” for Trump’s political retribution — not a housing regulator. 

It is unclear what national security expertise Pulte has. He has been a frequent guest on Air Force One. 

That’s it. That’s the qualification. He rides on the plane.

Day 94 of the Iran war. Peace talks collapsed yesterday. Oil prices surging. And the person now overseeing every American intelligence agency got the job because he’s loyal and rides on Air Force One.

📌 Source: AP / NBC News / Click On Detroit / U.S. News

Bernie Sanders just summed up November in three sentences.“California voters have an important moral decision in Novembe...
06/02/2026

Bernie Sanders just summed up November in three sentences.

“California voters have an important moral decision in November. Will the 200 California billionaires, who got richer under Trump, begin paying their fair share through a one-time 5% wealth tax, or will millions lose their healthcare because of Trump’s cuts? The choice is clear.”

Here’s the context behind that choice:

Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill cuts Medicaid by hundreds of billions of dollars. The people who lose coverage aren’t abstractions — they’re people like my mother, who waited so long for Medi-Cal that her optic nerve was destroyed and she went blind in her left eye. Because the system made her wait. Because the money was somewhere else.

It was with 200 California billionaires who got richer under Trump. It was in $188 billion sent to Ukraine. It was in $18 billion in military aid to Israel. It was in a UFC cage on the White House lawn.

A one-time 5% wealth tax on 200 billionaires — people whose net worth grew by tens of billions under Trump’s tax cuts — could fund healthcare for millions of Californians who are about to lose it.

200 people. Versus millions.

Bernie’s right. The choice is clear.

📌 Source: / X

This morning Marco Rubio walks into Congress to answer for a war that has now lasted 94 days — for the first time.Secret...
06/02/2026

This morning Marco Rubio walks into Congress to answer for a war that has now lasted 94 days — for the first time.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is set to face back-to-back hearings before House and Senate committees Tuesday — his first appearance before Congress since the Iran war began on February 28. While the official subject is the State Department’s annual budget request, the focus will quickly shift to the already unsteady ceasefire between Washington and Tehran. 

Here’s what members of Congress should ask him:

You told reporters in February that the timing of U.S. strikes was guided by Israel’s plans to attack Iran. Then you said that statement was false. Then the President said “If anything, I might have forced Israel’s hand.” Which is it?

You said in March the war would end “within weeks, not months.” It has been over three months. The ceasefire has been violated repeatedly by both sides. Iran just suspended peace talks entirely — citing Israel’s bombing of Lebanon as a precondition violation.

Cabinet members including Rubio have defended Trump’s decision to launch the conflict despite years of promises not to engage in “forever wars” in the Middle East. 

The same Rubio who in 2016 warned that military intervention in the Middle East without an exit strategy would be catastrophic. The same Rubio who is now defending a war launched without congressional authorization, without a clear legal basis, and without a plan for what comes next.

Thirteen U.S. service members have been killed. Thousands of people across Iran and Lebanon are dead. Gas is above $4. The Strait of Hormuz has been closed for over three months. And Iran suspended talks yesterday after Israel bombed Beirut. 

Today Rubio has to look Congress in the eye and explain all of it.

We’ll be watching.

📌 Source: AP / Click On Detroit / TIME Magazine

Pete Hegseth just blocked eight Navy officers from promotion. Two women. Two Black men. Selected by a board of senior ad...
06/02/2026

Pete Hegseth just blocked eight Navy officers from promotion. Two women. Two Black men. Selected by a board of senior admirals who spent careers evaluating military merit.

Then he tried to slip in his own guy — who had been passed over for promotion multiple times.

Hegseth blocked the promotions of at least seven Navy officers selected by a board of senior Navy admirals — in a move that disproportionately targeted women and minority officers. At least two women and two Black men were removed from the promotion list, along with three white men. 

At the same time, Hegseth is trying to promote at least one member of his inner circle who was previously passed over for promotion several times. 

Since taking office, Hegseth has fired or sidelined nearly three dozen senior military officers. Nearly 60% of the senior officers Hegseth has fired are female or Black, according to Sen. Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee. 

The Pentagon’s response? They said promotions are based on merit — then called the New York Times “failing” for reporting it.

Let’s be clear about what’s actually happening here. A board of senior Navy admirals — people who have spent their careers evaluating combat readiness, leadership, and military performance — selected these officers for promotion. Hegseth overruled them. Not because of performance reviews. Not because of conduct violations. Because they are women and Black men serving in a military he has called “woke.”

At West Point just last week, Hegseth told graduates: “Diversity is not our strength. Unity is our strength” — while attacking previous military leaders as “woke and weak.” 

We are in an active war with Iran. U.S. service members are being targeted by Iranian missiles. And the man running the Pentagon is spending his time purging women and Black officers from promotion lists — while trying to install his own loyalist who couldn’t earn a promotion on merit.

This is not an anti-DEI policy. This is discrimination — wearing a uniform.

📌 Source: WSJ / NYT / Philadelphia Inquirer / The Independent

Trump’s own party just blew up his entire legislative agenda — over his own slush fund.Senate Republicans returned to Wa...
06/02/2026

Trump’s own party just blew up his entire legislative agenda — over his own slush fund.

Senate Republicans returned to Washington Monday after defiantly leaving town 10 days ago without passing Trump’s $70 billion immigration enforcement funding bill — saying they still don’t have the votes and won’t move forward until the White House completely kills the $1.776 billion Anti-Weaponization Fund. 

Trump had demanded the immigration package land on his desk by June 1. That deadline was missed. The fund — which critics call a slush fund to pay out Trump’s political allies — derailed the entire bill. 

Here’s what Republican senators are actually saying:

Sen. Susan Collins — who faces a tough reelection in November — said flatly: “I do not support the weaponization fund as it has been described. I do not believe individuals convicted of violence against police officers on January 6th should be entitled to reimbursement of their legal fees.” 

Sen. Mitch McConnell — the former Senate Majority Leader — called the fund “utterly stupid, morally wrong.” 

Many senators told CNN they need the fund completely dead — not “kicked down the road” — before they vote on anything else. 

When a reporter asked Trump directly whether he had lost control of Senate Republicans, his answer was stunning:

“I don’t know. I really don’t know. I can tell you, I only do what’s right.” 

The president of the United States doesn’t know if he controls his own party’s Senate majority.

The fund is “dead for now.” The immigration bill is stalled. The June 1 deadline is blown. Mitch McConnell called it morally wrong. Susan Collins won’t vote for it. And Trump says he doesn’t know what’s happening.

This is what a second-term collapse looks like — not from Democrats. From his own people.

📌 Source: CNN / Politico / Philadelphia Inquirer / Washington Post

Trump announced the “most consequential International Body in History” in January. It has held one meeting. Its reconstr...
06/02/2026

Trump announced the “most consequential International Body in History” in January. It has held one meeting. Its reconstruction fund is empty. And it has never met again.

At the World Economic Forum in Davos in January, Trump signed the Board of Peace charter and announced $5 billion in pledges toward rebuilding Gaza — calling it “the most consequential International Body in History” and saying it was his “honor to serve as its Chairman.” 

Today the Board of Peace’s official Gaza reconstruction fund has no money in it. Despite member countries pledging billions of dollars, not a single dollar has been deposited. 

The Gaza Executive Board — which is supposed to report to Trump’s Board of Peace and includes Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff — has not held a single meeting yet. 

Here’s why:

Israel still controls over 60% of the Gaza Strip including all entry and exit points. At least 910 people have been killed since the ceasefire went into effect. Netanyahu this week publicly ordered seizure of 70% of Gaza — violating the ceasefire terms the Board of Peace was built around. 

Major European nations have shunned the board entirely. The reconstruction fund operates through a JPMorgan account with no independent transparency requirements. 

Palestinian journalist Bisan Owda, reporting from inside Gaza, put it plainly: “For us, it doesn’t look like a peace deal. It looks like a trap.” 

Gaza is not being rebuilt. It is being seized. Netanyahu said so himself on camera this week — “First 70%, we’ll start with that” — while Jared Kushner’s board hasn’t held a single meeting and the reconstruction fund sits empty in a JPMorgan account with no oversight.

77% of Gaza’s population faces acute food insecurity right now. The UN has documented ethnic cleansing. And the “most consequential International Body in History” has achieved nothing.

Because it was never designed to. It was designed to give Israel’s land seizure a diplomatic cover story.

📌 Source: Washington Post / Euronews / NPR / Carnegie Endowment / Truthout

“Russia has targeted Ukraine's power supply and infrastructure in a war now more than four years old, while Ukraine has ...
06/02/2026

“Russia has targeted Ukraine's power supply and infrastructure in a war now more than four years old, while Ukraine has stepped up attacks this year on Russian oil facilities. Both deny targeting civilians.

Last week, the Kremlin warned that it intended ‘systematic strikes’ on targets in Kyiv in response to a drone attack on a dormitory in Ukraine's Russian-held region of ​Luhansk, which killed 21. Ukraine denied the attack.”

Excerpt From
“At least 9 dead, dozens wounded as Russia launches major attack across Ukraine”
Reuters
Reuters

They spilled 30 gallons of fuel on the National Mall. Then blamed “vandals.”More than 30 gallons of fuel spilled onto th...
06/02/2026

They spilled 30 gallons of fuel on the National Mall. Then blamed “vandals.”

More than 30 gallons of fuel spilled onto the National Mall from generators used during the Trump administration’s “Rededicate 250” prayer event on May 17 — seeping into underground cisterns that collect rainwater used to irrigate the Mall. Four cisterns, each holding up to 250,000 gallons, sit beneath the National Mall. 

Freedom 250 — the public-private partnership created by the Trump administration to organize America’s 250th anniversary celebrations — blamed “vandalism,” claiming their equipment was “repeatedly targeted by vandals” and that the fuel leak was the result of “tampering.” 

NBC News observed an environmental remediation company’s mobile command center and more than a dozen cleanup trailers on the Mall Monday morning.

It is unclear whether Freedom 250 will be held liable for cleanup costs. National Park Service guidelines require commercial liability insurance as part of the permit for events of this size — but whether that insurance covers this incident has not been confirmed. 

The spill adds to serious doubt about the future of the Mall’s grass — already under strain from the sheer number of high-foot-traffic events planned there in the coming weeks, including the Great American State Fair, Fourth of July celebrations, a UFC fight, and an IndyCar race in August. 

Let’s recap what Trump’s America 250th birthday celebration has done to the people’s public spaces so far:

The Rose Garden — gone, redesigned to look like Mar-a-Lago. The East Wing — demolished for a private ballroom. The Kennedy Center — his name ordered removed by a federal judge. And now the National Mall — 30 gallons of fuel in the irrigation system, with “vandals” to blame.

The people’s house. The people’s lawn. The people’s Mall.

All of it — treated like a venue for rent.

📌 Source: NBC News

“Anthropic, maker of the chatbot Claude, said Monday that it had filed confidential paperwork with federal regulators in...
06/02/2026

“Anthropic, maker of the chatbot Claude, said Monday that it had filed confidential paperwork with federal regulators in preparation for selling its stock to the public.

The company is expected to be one of three trillion-dollar debuts on the stock market this year, along with Elon Musk’s rocket and AI venture SpaceX and OpenAI, maker of ChatGPT. SpaceX filed to go public in April and OpenAI is expected to do so soon. (The Washington Post has a content partnership with OpenAI.)”

Excerpt From
“The AI boom could be heading to millions of 401(k)s as Anthropic files for IPO”
Ian Duncan
The Washington Post

It’s dead. The $1.8 billion slush fund Trump built for himself — killed in less than a month.A senior administration off...
06/01/2026

It’s dead. The $1.8 billion slush fund Trump built for himself — killed in less than a month.

A senior administration official confirmed Monday: “It’s dead for now.” The DOJ’s $1.8 billion Anti-Weaponization Fund — created through a secret settlement between Trump and his own IRS, engineered by his former personal defense attorney Todd Blanche as acting Attorney General — is being scrapped. 

Here’s what killed it — in order:

Senate Republicans revolted publicly and privately — an unusually intense backlash from members of Trump’s own party who called it a slush fund for his political allies. 

Two federal judges blocked it on the same day Friday — one issuing an injunction, another ordering Trump to answer “grievous” fraud allegations raised by 35 bipartisan former federal judges who said the court was deceived. 

Senate Majority Leader John Thune called for the fund to be dropped. Speaker Mike Johnson met with Trump directly over Republican concerns. The administration finally folded. 

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer wasn’t satisfied: “A promise from Trump is worthless. If Trump and Republicans are truly abandoning this corrupt scheme, they should have zero problem banning it in law.” 

He’s right to be skeptical. Trump himself “likes the fund” and “believes in it” — with one official warning that “nothing is final until it’s final.” 

This fund would have: banned the IRS from ever auditing Trump or his family again, paid out nearly $2 billion to his political allies, and shielded him from future civil investigations — all arranged by his own former defense lawyer acting as the nation’s top law enforcement officer.

The courts said no. His own party said no. 35 bipartisan judges called it fraud on the court.

Today it collapsed. But Schumer is right — get it in writing.

📌 Source: CNBC / Bloomberg / Al Jazeera / CBS News

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