Drudge Retort: The Other Side of the News
Wednesday, June 24, 2026

President Donald Trump dropped a bombshell this morning, canceling plans to sign a bipartisan landmark housing affordability bill until he gets action on his controversial elections overhaul legislation. He's expected to press senators at a GOP lunch today to pass the "SAVE America Act" by any means necessary.


The Army, Navy, and Air Force are once again requiring basic trainees to get vaccinated against influenza after the virus quickly swept through an Air Force base in Texas, sickening at least 222 recruits and hospitalizing four. The outbreak flared just two months after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth abandoned a decades-long requirement for flu shots.


The Air Force has re-implemented a flu shot requirement for trainees after more than 200 fell ill due to an outbreak at the Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio " just two months after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth dropped a vaccination mandate for the military. At the basic military training wing, hundreds of trainees, who are already more likely to get sick due to lower immune systems from physical, psychological and environmental stress, were exposed to the flu over the last three weeks, leading to a "localized" outbreak, ABC News reported last week. As of June 19, there had been 222 cases of the flu, Rep. Joaquin Castro, who represents the San Antonio area, said, while four had been hospitalized. It's a sharp increase from 159 cases and two hospitalizations a week earlier, ABC reports. It occurred after Hegseth dropped flu vaccine requirements for members of the military in April.


President Donald Trump canceled his plan to sign a bipartisan affordable housing bill on Wednesday in an effort to pressure his fellow Republicans to pass a long-stalled package of U.S. national voting restrictions that has aggravated party fissures and shown the limits of his power.


More than 4.7 million people nationwide have lost their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, also known as food stamps, since President Donald Trump's signature tax and spending law took effect last July, according to data through March from the U.S. Department of Agriculture " about 11% of participants.

Nowhere have the changes to America's second-largest social safety-net program taken hold as rapidly as in Arizona, where the number of SNAP recipients has fallen by about half, the steepest drop in the country.

That means lost benefits for more than 457,000 Arizonans, including nearly 196,000 children, according to DES data as of the end of May.


Gen. Chris Donahue, commander of U.S. Army Europe and Africa, submitted his paperwork to retire after a little over a year in his position, a Pentagon official told The Hill.

Read more


What did America learn from the war with Iran? In this After Action Review, we break down what went right, what went wrong, and what the United States needs to fix before the next major conflict. Operation Epic Fury showed that the U.S. can still dominate the battlefield: thousands of air missions, successful Patriot and THAAD intercepts, deep strikes against Iranian military infrastructure, effective cyber operations, combat search and rescue, and the successful use of lower-cost systems like APKWS and LUCAS drones. But the war also exposed serious problems: vulnerable bases, drone threats, limited allied support, unclear end states, the disruption of shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, weak information warfare at home, and America's ongoing struggle to win the narrative after it wins the fight. This is not about cheerleading or doomposting. It is an honest AAR: what worked, what failed, and what we should do better next time. Read more


Russia exploits African countries to bypass sanctions, loot mineral resources, and recruit mercenaries for its war against Ukraine, reported Andrii Cherniak from the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense (HUR).

The Africa Corps replaced the Wagner Group


An analysis published by the Israeli newspaper Maariv argues that NATO member Turkiye now poses a greater long-term challenge to Israel than Iran, citing Ankara's expanding military capabilities and growing defence industry.

1492: The Ottoman Empire gave refuge to Jews expelled from Spain and Portugal


Tuesday, June 23, 2026

Today, the Justice Department announced that eight North Texas Antifa Cell operatives were sentenced for their roles in rioting, using weapons and explosives, providing material support to terrorists, obstruction, and the attempted murder of an Alvarado police officer at the Prairieland Detention Center on July 4, 2025. This is the first sentencing of defendants affiliated with Antifa following President Donald J. Trump's executive order designating the group as a Domestic Terrorist Organization in September 2025. Benjamin Hanil Song, who was convicted of the attempted murder of a law enforcement officer, was sentenced to 100 years in prison. Together, the Prairieland terrorists received a combined sentence of 450 years in prison.


The SCOTUS opinions nobody's covering today are quietly rewriting who actually gets to enforce their rights in court. Read more


Sometimes an album can be successful upon release, but still not be fully appreciated until years later. Such is the case with Blue, Joni Mitchell's 1971 classic, released 55 years ago today. Read more


Job cuts at U.S. factories ran near their highest levels since the end of the global financial crisis in 2009 and the Covid-19 pandemic as worries grew over global demand and rising costs, S&P Global reported Tuesday. Manufacturers have indicated job cuts for three of the past four months as they seek to reduce headcount over costs and demand concerns.


  • Democratic candidate for the 13th CD Avila Chevalier: "I think so many New Yorkers are tired of waking up every single morning and seeing their tax dollars going towards a live-streamed genocide instead of being reinvested in their communities."
  • In the 10th CD, popular NYC Comptroller Brad Lander (D)-- a mensch as we say in NYC-- is challenging AIPAC darling Dan Goldman. Goldman, a fabulously wealthy brontosaurus with a net worth of $250m, did not endorse fellow Democrat Zohran Mamdani in the 2025 NYC mayoral race.
  • Quipped the effective new Mayor of NYC Zohran Mamdani (D): "I'll say that in our election last time around, I was lucky. I didn't have to compete with the Knicks' first championship; I didn't have to compete with the first World Cup."
    Status quo dinosaurs plaguing New York's politics


    UNICEF issued an alert on child killings in Gaza by the IDF. Spokesperson James Elder: "You sneeze near the Orange Line and you may well get shot. During a period supposedly defined by restraint and protection, a Palestinian child has been killed, on average, every single day for more than eight months. That is an absurd and devastating figure. Palestinian children were not killed in a warzone but rather in their homes, schools, while playing football, or fishing. They were shot, they were bombed, they were struck by quadcopters operated by the US-funded Israeli military."

    US complicity in this horror show


    On a remote beach near Esperance, Western Australia, two sick seabirds have brought the bird flu crisis to Australia. Testing has confirmed highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 in a brown skua and a giant petrel. Both are species of seabirds commonly found in the Southern Ocean.


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