Guardian Headline - AOC endorses progressive Democrat in closely watched Michigan race for US Senate seat Abdul El-Sayed, backed by Bernie Sanders, leads polls ahead of Haley Stevens and Mallory McMorrow in primary

In part - 

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has thrown her support behind Abdul El-Sayed, the doctor and progressive Democrat seeking the party’s nomination in Michigan’s closely watched US Senate race. 

 [...] 

The prevailing candidate will represent the party in November’s US midterm elections, with Democrats looking to flip control of the House of Representatives and the Senate, away from Republicans. Obtaining a majority in the upper chamber is widely considered to be the tougher challenge, and retaining seats like Michigan is seen as critical to Democrats’ wider bid to regain control of the Senate.

El-Sayed’s populist economic platform includes banning tax incentives for companies such as Amazon, imposing new taxes on billionaires, eliminating medical debt and strengthening anti-monopoly laws to curb corporate price-gouging. He has also called for an end to “blank check” military aid to Israel and other countries.

Ocasio-Cortez’s endorsement marks her first in a competitive US Senate primary during this midterm cycle. However, it is not her first time endorsing the progressive candidate. In 2018, fresh off her upset over Representative Joe Crowley in the New York House primary, Ocasio-Cortez traveled to Michigan to boost El-Sayed in his long-shot bid for governor. He lost the race to Democrat Gretchen Whitmer.

El-Sayed welcomed the support, writing on X: “AOC has spent her career taking on the powerful on behalf of everyday people, and she has shown all of us what courageous, smart, values-driven leadership looks like. I’m deeply honored to earn her endorsement. Onward to victory.”

So far, NewYork, Colorado and the midwest are showing penetration into status quo Dem political middle road inner party yuck. Reform will happen, or not, now or later. Hope endures. Medicare for all could happen in my lifetime. May I live so long.

Minnesota has an August primary, so it will be as it is, no trend setting. 

Nazi unhappiness with a Minnesota pardon earns a, "Fuck You."

 Homeland Security Nazis have gone ballistic because a cancer-fighting Hmong man was pardoned by the Minnesota Pardon Board, frustrating a deportation effort. The Pardon Board is a body requiring unanimous agreement among three members, the Governor, the Attorney General, and the Chief Justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court. The Nazis wanted to deport him over the State crime he committed. The pardon frustrated that. The Board was, decades ago, created over citizen unrest over pardon power exercise by a past Governor then empowered to solely make pardon decisions. So, the State's decision the Nazis do not like had that solid multi-official basis to it. (And Nazi is a personal Crabgrass description judgment, the ICE goons are not officially Nazi, just mirroring that status in ICE leadership, mood and mode of operation.)

 The Hmong are with us because of the recruitment role they had as fighters for the CIA secret Laos war during Vietnam. The Ho Chi Minh trail went in Laos and Cambodia parallel to the Vietnam west border. The secret war was primarily to impede traffic on the trail. And to fight the Red Scare in Laos. They were a highlands people, an isolated culture at the time, and the Laotian War ran for years. It is documented on the web for any reader wanting to research it. A General Vang was the leader of the Hmong war forces during the time. He was part of the refugee bloc settled into Minnesota and the Hmong have, to use Emmer's term, assimilated.

St. Paul, MN, has a Hmong mayor. While is Seattle a home I'd occupied was sold from an estate during a crazy pricing period for a bit ovre a million dollars to a Hmong hospital emergency room physician. The Hmong in their population segment still practice organic agriculture and nationwide are regular farmers' market vendors. That part of their original Laotian culture remains.

After the Vietnam exodus reporting from time to time was about Thai refugee camps. That was the Hmong warrior families before the nation realized responsibility for making them refugees via The War, and had the conscience to allow them to emigrate here.

A similar story applies to the Somali emigration to the US. After the US embassy bombings in Africa the CIA was tasked with tracking down two key al Quada bombing masterminds who'd fled to Somalia. The Somali Americans Emmer trashes were the one clan that was willing to cooperate with the CIA, and the two perps were hunted down and are no longer alive. Cooperation with the CIA was not a popular thing and a Somali majority at the time was hostile to the segment that emigrated to the US. 

They had a culture left behind, as did the Hmong, and are assimilating as an entire community, with their start on that process being decades later than the Hmong. 

Back to the Hmong and assimilation needing understanding - Years earlier closer after the abandonment of Vietnam by the nation, a housing bloc in Seattle housing recent Hmong immigrants encountered scrutiny when the Hmong group there were growing opium poppies, a normal traditional medicine in their culture. No big SNAFU, it was a simple telling them it was not allowed stateside. They conformed. It made the newspapers, and the story can be found on the web, even as it is decades old. But assimilation is the main story, and Mr. Emmer can take his Somali hate and shove it.

Also, assimilation is not an instant thing, habits take time to change. But, Bottom Line, Americans are Americans, and those of refugee backgrounds of recruitment bu and service for the CIA and have encountered homeland grief over it are owed something, the CIA cannot simply be allowed to discard its service providers as no longer of value after the CIA effort has failed. These are human being groups that put themselves at a disadvantage, for CIA pranks and fronts, and we as a nation accept tnem slowly into citizenship and prosperity, electing a mayor, med school grads, etc.

And then -- there is Mr. Emmer. Mr. Short Fuse and hate-'em as a politically charged decision Emmer. Wishing we in MN CD6, had better, we presently do not. But will.

________________UPDATE______________

This is the Trump administration specifically targeting Tim Walz. See: here and here.

Do they fear Walz as a potential 2028 presidential candidate, as more genuine and less a stiff than JD?  Or are they aiming to divert attention from Trump failures and Epstein, or possibly just unable to restrain themselves while the war loss consequences are working out unfavorably to Trump/JD?

___________FURTHER UPDATE___________

Rickey Chandee. May 4, 2026.

FURTHER: Compare those at-risk humanitarian pardons, to the genesis of their grief:

 

In the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s rejection of Donald Trump’s effort to end  birthright citizenship via executive order — a blatantly unconstitutional effort that should have been immediately rebuked by the court — right-wingers descended into a full-blown ethnonationalist frenzy that ventured into outright eugenics. 

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, himself the descendant of European refugees from 20th-century pogroms and the Holocaust, told Fox News that the Trump administration would be taking “a hard look” at banning all pregnant women from entering the country. 

Miller, the architect of Trump’s most draconian and inhumane immigration policies, complained to Fox News that “people from all over the world from third-world nations — nations that on their own would have never invented the wheel, let alone modern technology, let alone medicine, let alone air travel — they can just come into the country, have a baby, and then that baby is automatically a citizen?”

“The baby can sit on a jury when he turns eighteen, and sit in judgment of you, and sit in judgment of me,” a hysterical Miller railed to host Jesse Watters. 

The entire world in one sense does sits in judgment of that hate filled person.

That individual caused all the pardon board special effort to save a few from the intense insensible hate Stephen Miller emanates, even without speaking.

Salon, a year ago - 

ICE agents stake out immigration hearings for people with refugee status and round up people here with work or student visas for minor offenses like speeding tickets, all to get the numbers up. But these actions were not enough for Miller.

"Why aren’t you at Home Depot? Why aren’t you at 7-Eleven?” he reportedly screamed at ICE officials. One ICE leader protested that the agency's lead, Tom Homan, said they're supposed to be going after criminals, not people who are just working everyday jobs. Miller reportedly hit the ceiling, furious that arrests aren't widespread and indiscriminate. Trump has repeatedly implied he was only targeting criminals, but as Charles Davis reported at Salon, that conflicts with his promise of "mass deportations." Undocumented immigrants commit crimes at far lower rates than native-born Americans. The expansive efforts to find and arrest immigrants in California, which kicked off the protests, appear to be a direct reaction to Miller's orders to grab as many people as possible, regardless of innocence. 

For Miller, the goal of "mass deportations" has never been about law and order, but about the fantasy of a white America.

But Miller doesn't seem to care about crime. Or, perhaps he thinks having darker skin should be a crime. For Miller, the goal of "mass deportations" has never been about law and order, but about the fantasy of a white America. His desire to deport his way to racial homogeneity has always been not only deeply immoral, but pretty much impossible. His impotence shouldn't breed complacency, however. As the violence in Los Angeles shows, petty rage can lead to all manner of evils. 

Ask Tom Emmer about Miller. Crabgrass expects Emmer would say, "A nice guy." And then talk to you about crypto. 

 

A story with coverage at several outlets, MSN coverage chosen here, title - '3 white dudes?' Stephen A Smith gobsmacked by LA Lakers' top players all being white

 https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nba/3-white-dudes-stephen-a-smith-gobsmacked-by-la-lakers-top-players-all-being-white/ar-AA27132E

Reacting to the Lakers’ recent moves, Smith argued Wednesday that the Lakers had no chance of winning a championship because their top three players were white.

Smith said:

Where the hell the Los Angeles Lakers think they’re going with a bunch of white dudes? Your three top players are white dudes? Really? This ain’t golf! This ain’t baseball! Hell, it ain’t even soccer! What do y’all think this is? This is basketball!

In NBA history, when have you seen your three most prominent players on a basketball team all be white, and that takes you to the promised land? Somebody got to say it, so I’m saying it! This is basketball. I’m not complaining. I’m simply making the point. The Los Angeles Lakers, you ain’t going anywhere being led by three white dudes in today’s generation of basketball!

Smith went on to praise the Lakers’ white players, emphasizing that he still believed they were good. He did, however, accuse Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka of turning the team into “white central.”

 In Minnesota, this resonates, back before sports were integrated likely is when an NBA team was champion with three white guys as leading players. The Minneapolis Lakers won, back before team ownership greed moved the team to LA, when the name "Lakers" made sense in the land of 10,000 lakes.

The superstar then was center George Mican, who played wearing specacles, which is of interest too in Minnesota because of Olivia Miles rookie WNBA player tearing up the league this season while also wearing spectacles while playing. Crabgrass memory is that Jabbar wore protective goggles after too many fingers to the eyes, and Rambis was the other big league player remembered as using eye glasses. Other than those two between Mican and Miles, contact lenses seem to hold use among visually impaired high school, college and big league players.

Back to Stephan A. Smith. He's right. The NBA, like the NFL but more so features top talent being black players, disproportionately so. But there is a prejudice there, as many "black" players are of mixed race ancestry, just as Tiger Woods has been noted as an outstanding African-American golfer, while not termed an Asian-American golfer. But aside from Smith's complaint, the main feature is the three-point shot changing the game these days, and Larry Bird, whiteness and all, arguably was the best three shooter of all time. If not the best player, best trash talker. Bird had all the skills aside from highlight dunking.

And where will LeBron land with his parting ways with the Lakers? It would be his 24th year, and you hope he signs a guaranteed two-year contract, wherever he goes.

And some college players make more money then if they went pro, now that nil and transfer portal have changed the college game. Miles has a foot in the portal movement, having played an extra college year after transferring her way into the new more lucretive WNBA contract this season. Playing on a far better contract than had she gone pro last year.

And, yes. The rest of the world cares more about FIFA. But  --- your blog and you can post anything you want to is the way of the web.   

UPDATE: Smith actually should remember the Celtic championship days, where Bird, McHale and Danny Ainge started. He's not too young to have missed it and not too old to have forgotten. Parrish and DJ were facilitator players but the three white guys were top scorers and starters. The three played real minutes. But your center and point guard are crucial, your shooting guard less so. Thus I can cut Smith some slack. Even with his Laker bias clouding his acknowledgement of Celtic ball being a character defect.

 

Embargo on certain chips to China, and news of enforcement efforts to halt leakage.

https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2026/06/30/taiwan-authorities-raid-super-micro-offices-in-expanding-investigation-of-nvidia-ai-chip-smuggling-to-china/ 

Taiwanese government agencies conducted raids on Super Micro offices and several local affiliated companies as part of an ongoing investigation into suspected illegal exports of Nvidia AI chips to China.

Bloomberg reports that Taiwanese prosecutors expanded their crackdown on technology smuggling operations with coordinated raids targeting Super Micro Computer and its business partners. The Keelung District Prosecutors Office announced that investigators searched the residences of six individuals and facilities belonging to three affiliated companies on Monday. According to a person familiar with the situation who requested anonymity, Super Micro’s Taiwan office was among the locations targeted in the operation.

The raids represent a significant escalation of Taiwan’s first major public enforcement action against AI chip diversion to China, following years of pressure from the United States to play a more active role in preventing Chinese access to advanced semiconductor technology. The United States has maintained strict export controls on cutting-edge components, including Nvidia AI chips, due to concerns that such hardware could enhance Beijing’s military capabilities. The vast majority of these advanced chips are manufactured in Taiwan.

Super Micro issued a statement confirming its cooperation with Taiwanese authorities. “Super Micro is committed to protecting our advanced technologies and intellectual property,” the company stated. “Super Micro products continued to be targeted in these matters, and we continue to cooperate with law enforcement and government officials in Taiwan and other jurisdictions in which we operate to ensure our technology is distributed as lawfully intended.” 

Under current Taiwanese law, exporting AI chips to China does not constitute a criminal offense. Local authorities can warn potential sellers about possible violations of US regulations, but the only legal recourse available through Taiwan’s court system involves charging suspected smugglers with violations of other existing local laws. Taiwan is now considering legislation that would criminalize such exports directly, providing prosecutors with additional tools to combat illicit technology trade. 

So, Bloomberg's story, but Bloomberg is paywalled, so Brietbart, no paywall, gets Crabgrass coverage. For readers to whom "Supermicro" is a new mention, this link. 

That was a early returned item from search = Elon Musk xai memphis use of super micro hardware

Supermicro is not a small player, and it's product focus goes with those AI noise farms that nobody wants in their back yard, and which Musk after his SpaceX cash grab now talks of suitable for placement in space orbit. 

The status of the US trade compact with Canada and Mexico receives Brietbart coverage.

 https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2026/07/01/u-s-declines-to-renew-trade-pact-with-mexico-and-canada/

 

United States Trade Representative (USTR) Jamieson Greer said in a written statement:

The Agreement between the United States of America, the  United Mexican States, and Canada (USMCA or “Agreement”) requires the USMCA Free Trade Commission, composed of government representatives of each Party, to conduct a joint review of the Agreement on July 1, 2026. In accordance with the Agreement, the United States, Mexico, and Canada met virtually today to discuss the operation of the USMCA. The United States did not agree to renew the USMCA in its current form. As a result, the USMCA is not renewed. The United States will continue to engage with Mexico and Canada to address the Agreement’s shortcomings and our trade deficits with these countries. However, the Agreement remains in force pending resolution of these issues or until the Agreement’s termination. As previously announced, the United States will meet with Mexico the week of July 20 for a third round of bilateral negotiations related to the USMCA joint review.

Wednesday’s decision means that the USMCA will stay in effect for another ten years, given that no member withdraws from the trade pact. However, it also means that yearly trade negotiations could result.

A senior administration official said that Trump “chose not to rubber stamp a USMCA renewal without addressing existing issues.”

“In other words, the United States did not agree to renew the USMCA in its current form. So, as a result, the USMCA is not renewed.”

The official said that the president’s primary concern relates to America’s trade deficits with Canada and Mexico.

[highlighting added] The story is one that will grow legs as detail emerges. 

 

 

I do not mean to be a critic, but *** Of course I am one. I will jump on a Columbia Journalism Review item. but I will start with Brietbart coverage.

 Brietbart is a site I check from time to time because they often post things others ignore. It is where I discovered a thread -

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2026/07/01/im-going-help-build-third-party-tucker-carlson-drops-political-bombshell/

It's not a bombshell and I doubted there'd be much coverage elsewhere. There was some.

search = tucker carlson third party

MSN carrying Newsweek coverage - beginning paragraphs -

Tucker Carlson escalated his break with President Donald Trump and the Republican Party on Wednesday, as he announced he’s working to launch a new political party aimed at voters who no longer feel represented by either major party.

“I’m going to help build a third party,” Carlson told the Columbia Journalism Review. “There should be a good-faith effort to figure out what benefits the country.”

The move comes just weeks after the former Fox News host declared there was “no chance” he would support the GOP in the 2026 midterm elections.

“How could I or any American voter support a political party that’s not loyal to the United States. That puts the interests of a foreign country above those of its own citizens,” Carlson said last month. “It’s not possible to vote for people like that, and I’m not going to.”

The conservative commentator has spent recent months criticizing Trump’s foreign policy, particularly the administration’s military action against Iran, arguing that the president has abandoned the “America First” principles that helped propel him to office. Those disagreements have widened into a broader rejection of the GOP, with Carlson saying he no longer sees the party as representing his political values.

I fault that for not saying "Israel" in those paragraphs where my view of traditional journalism is of a who, what, where, when, how and perhaps, why analysis. Up front that way. Why conditional, as that can get editorial, even where choosing a person to quote on "why". And CJR is put in italics, no link. If it's your primary thing, link to it.

However, Brietbart did link, early in these opening paragraphs -

Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson said he plans to help build a third political party, claiming the country’s leaders have stopped focusing on the needs of ordinary Americans.

Speaking with the Columbia Journalism Review, Carlson said he believes there should be a “good-faith effort” to create a political movement centered on improving life for Americans rather than fighting over foreign conflicts.

“I’m going to help build a third party. There should be a good-faith effort to figure out what benefits the country,” Carlson said. “I mean, if you make $60,000 a year, you’re degraded. Your life expectancy has gone down, and the promise of your children’s lives is likely gone. No one seems to care. It’s not even a factor.”

He also criticized what he sees as Washington’s focus on overseas issues instead of domestic problems.

I followed the CJR link, and urge readers to not do so unless they prefer very leisurely reads. My complaint - way too long to get to things, while edtorializing in the headline in a belittling way. 

The Interview

‘All I Have Is the Power to Talk and Be Heard’

Tucker Carlson on pitying Donald Trump, never listening to podcasts, and planning a new political party—while selling you nicotine pouches. 

July 1, 2026 By Amos Barshad

You can see what Yahoo does, here and here. MSN also carries a NYPost thing, that outlet being Murdoch, so akin to Breitbart. Next quote, from the Yahoo carry of an Independent original -

Tucker Carlson and Marjorie Taylor Greene have both said they are working on plans for new political parties, following their high profile splits with the Republican Party.

Both Carlson and Green have turned from former Trump allies to frequent critics, claiming the president is not delivering on his 'America First' promises. However, despite abandoning the GOP they have made clear they have no intention of becoming Democrats.

Carlson lifted the lid on his desire to "help build a third party" to the Columbia Journalism Review, published July 1.​

"There should be a good-faith effort to figure out what benefits the country," he said.​ "I mean, if you make sixty thousand dollars a year, you're degraded.

"Your life expectancy has gone down, and the promise of your children's lives is likely gone. No one seems to care.

So, an America First theme, and links at the start. The search return early items did not include NYT or WaPo, or Guardian. Limited coverage, that way. Breitbart was the first item giving me that Tucker news, so back to it's terse coverage:

Despite saying he wants to help build a new political party, Carlson said he has no plans to run for office himself.

“I don’t want to be a candidate,” he said.

Carlson did not provide details about what the proposed third party would look like or when any formal effort to organize it might begin.

Carlson rejected the idea that he is ‘strategically” positioning himself against traditional conservative media, saying his editorial decisions are driven by instinct rather than strategy.

[...] When asked if he still speaks with President Donald Trump, Carlson said he has cut off contact with Trump since the conflict with Iran began.

“I haven’t spoken to him since the regime-change war began. I’m not interested in talking to him. I feel sorry for him. He’s not a man in charge of his own life at this point,” Carlson said.

Carlson distanced himself from the Republican Party during the Israel-Iran conflict, saying in June he could no longer support a party that, in his view, puts the interests of a foreign country ahead of those of American citizens. He also criticized the Trump administration for focusing on the Middle East instead of strengthening ties with Canada, which he called the United States’ closest and most important ally.

So, clearly an isolationist viewpoint. The CRJ interview item did mention Israel, but had only one use of "military," not related to size, direction, or budget.

It seems that an America First budget aimed at making lives better needs to look at money. Otherwise, what? Guns and butter, after all. Cutting Eisenhower's military industrial complex, and downsizing military academy enrollment cannot be irrelevant. The personnel kicking the can down the road come from the academies and Brigham Young ROTC, and know each other and left hand helps right per the revolving door of retired generals in the complex, flexing.

So unless such isolationist third party meandering touches reform, in a real sense and not by hand waving, it's DOA. If arriving, which is a real question.

It seems a divergent distraction from the populist progressive growth going under the Democratic Socialist approach - America First, but sensible about it, and having actual policy points such as Medicare For All.

BOTTOM LINE: Tucker is unlikely to find a coallition for a conservative isolationist approach, corporatist in mood, and unlikely to be the igniting fuse of one. As in, it ain't going to happen. Meanwhile, populist progressives are on the move, and favored for the future here at Crabgrass.

If Tucker and MTG find themselves allies and a conservative isolationist corporatist third party gets ballot access, I will believe it real, but until then, NO.

Distraction from real reform oriented growth on the move would seem to be a propagandist direction against the Mamdani effect, an aim to kill. 

 

Telling us the unfortunate truth we already feel, but with specifics, and facts do matter. Mattering more than hollow pompous rhetoric.

 

https://www.citizen.org/news/corporate-political-spending-surges-to-record-shattering-levels/

The executive summary for the report begins:

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Nearly one third of all corporate political spending on elections since the 2010 Citizens United decision has occurred in the current election cycle – months before the general election, a new report from Public Citizen finds. 

Since the U.S. Supreme Court greenlit direct corporate spending to influence election outcomes in 2010, corporations have spent $1.58 billion on federal elections. In the 2026 election cycle alone, they have spent $517 million, a figure sure to soar as the November general election approaches (these totals reference disclosed political spending, not any contributions from Dark Money organizations that keep donors secret).

The 2026 cycle spending already far exceeds the $461 million corporate spending during the 2024 presidential cycle. Driving this unprecedented surge of political spending are crypto, Big Tech and online betting corporations. Altogether, those three sectors are responsible for 57 percent of the corporate spending in the 2026 midterms. The new corporate spending is going primarily to corporate supremacist super PACs, which, unlike most super PACs, prioritize the interests of specific corporate sectors over either major political party or any particular candidate. 

The report, “The Rise of Corporate Supremacist Super PACs,” also finds that the biggest beneficiary of corporate contributions besides the industry-prioritizing super PACs is the Trump-aligned MAGA Inc. MAGA Inc. received $120.6 million in direct contributions from corporations including Crypto.com, Energy Transfer Partners, UnitedHealthcare, and Reynold’s American. 

“A decade and a half after Citizens United, corporations are starting to spend on politics like never before,” said Rick Claypool, Research Director at Public Citizen and author of the report. “Crypto corporations shattered norms against corporate spending in elections last cycle and now many others are following suit – and still more are sure to follow.” 

 [... bolding in orininal]

This is truth. Not obsequious jingoist crap you get from Speaker Johnson, to where it gets so deep ***

See coverage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjyiW9x0_A8 

That is Democrach Now! July 1, headline coverage - go to minute 7:45 and continue onward from there.