Good morning. I’m Corinne Straight, and this is AlterNet America.
The Supreme Court just handed Trump the power to overhaul mail-in voting months before the midterms. JD Vance “accidentally” referred to Canada as a state. The State Department is preparing the largest mass visa revocation in American history. And an Air Force major who called for Trump’s impeachment on the Capitol steps has been hit with ten criminal charges.
Before we dive in, a brief request to keep independent media alive, because it’s the entire reason we’re here. You’re reading this because you know the billionaire-owned cable networks and newspapers will never give you the full story. And we’re only able to cover these stories the way they need to be covered because we don’t answer to a MAGA oligarch. But we’ll be honest: that can only happen if enough of our readers believe in independent journalism enough to fund it. An AlterNet America subscription costs just 22 cents a day. That’s less than a cup of coffee. And your subscription allows us to keep telling the truth without fear of censorship by a wealthy owner or corporate parent. If that matters to you, please subscribe now.
The same people who delivered your neighbor’s mail to you for six months are now in charge of who gets a ballot.
The Supreme Court ruled Monday that Trump can implement an executive order restricting mail-in ballots. The ruling lifts a lower court injunction that had blocked the changes, putting election officials under an impossible deadline ahead of the midterms.
The March-signed order requires states to provide names and addresses of all voters receiving a mail ballot. The Postal Service would then compile that data into what it calls “Mail-In and Absentee Participation Lists” and share them with federal law enforcement.
The Postal Service would only deliver ballots to voters in states that comply. Those that refuse to submit their voter data would have their mail ballots rejected entirely.
Trump has opposed mail-in voting for years, claiming without evidence that it contributes to fraud. One in three Americans voted by mail in 2024, and Trump himself has voted by mail at least five times, most recently in Florida’s August primary.
Sponsored Kalshi poll: South Carolina Republican Senate special primary winner?
JD Vance has a law degree from Yale and wants you to believe he forgot Canada is a country.
Vice President JD Vance was in Brewer, Maine, on Monday campaigning for a Republican House candidate when he “accidentally” referred to Canada as a state. “We have to remember, Canada is a state,” Vance said before pausing. “Sorry, Freudian slip. That was actually an accident.”
The slip came just hours after Trump posted on Truth Social that Canada “will be treated like a state no longer,” and later in the day referred to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney as “governor.”
Vance went on to accuse Canada of underinvesting in its military, claiming the country “quite literally would get invaded by a foreign country were it not for the umbrella of protection provided by the United States of America.” He then compared Canada’s trade policies to China’s, calling the two countries the worst in the world on trade.
Vance also told the audience he wanted to send a message to Canada’s prime minister to “stop taking advantage of the people of Maine.” Maine’s entire GDP is smaller than the city of Toronto’s, but sure.
If the State Department processed passport renewals the way it processes revocations, you’d have yours in an hour.
The Trump administration is preparing to revoke the business and tourism visas of up to 200,000 asylum seekers. It would be the largest single mass revocation of visas in American history.
Anyone who entered the country on a B1 or B2 visa in the past ten years and then filed for asylum could have their visa revoked. State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott confirmed the plan but declined to provide a number, saying the process would be “ongoing” and “done on a rolling basis.”
The revocations would not result in immediate deportation. Most of those with pending asylum cases would be recategorized, but would lose their legal status as business or tourist.
Under Rubio’s leadership, the State Department has revoked more than 95,000 visas, including over 8,000 belonging to international students. Rubio has said publicly that he revokes visas every day, many for activism, and has described pro-Palestine student protestors as “lunatics.”
The rest of the quote was “at some point I hope we run out because we’ve gotten rid of all of them.”
The First Amendment protects your right to call the president whatever you want, unless you are one of the people the president sends to war.
Air Force Major Jason Watson, who was arrested on the steps of the U.S. Capitol on July 1 while calling for Trump’s impeachment, was officially charged Monday with ten criminal offenses under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. The charges include three violations of Article 88 for “contemptuous” remarks about the president, five violations of Article 92 for disobeying orders, and two violations of Article 133 for conduct unbecoming an officer.
The Article 88 charges are connected to Watson’s June interview with a Substack newsletter called Defenders of our Republic, his protest in uniform at the Capitol, and an August 17 interview with CNN. Watson has been in pretrial confinement since August 18, and his attorney has said he faces significant jail time.
The most recent Article 88 conviction came in 2021, when Marine Corps Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller pleaded guilty to contempt of officials and other charges after publishing social media videos criticizing the Biden administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan. Scheller was sentenced to a $5,000 pay forfeiture and resigned from the Marine Corps without a pension.
The Trump administration has since appointed Scheller to serve as a senior adviser to the Pentagon’s undersecretary for personnel and readiness, so the punishment for insulting the president depends entirely on which president you insult.
Right-wing billionaires are quietly gobbling up more media outlets, while smaller outlets unable to keep up shut down on a nearly daily basis. If left unchecked, the rich and well-connected get to do their dirt in the dark and escape all accountability. But AlterNet America doesn’t answer to them. We only answer to you, and that means we can cover these stories the way they need to be covered. But our editorial independence is only possible with the support of our paying subscribers.
If you’re still reading, that means you found this newsletter valuable. Now we need you to make your support official by upgrading your free subscription to a paying one.** It only costs 22 cents a day, and ensures AlterNet America will be able to continue working exclusively for you instead of a billionaire or corporate owner. Please subscribe or upgrade now.**
Thanks for reading, and we’ll see you tonight.
Ontario Premier Tells Trump to “Kiss My Ass,” Threatens to Cut Off American Electricity. Ontario Premier Doug Ford told a radio station Monday morning that Trump could “kiss my ass” after the president threatened more tariffs on Canadian auto and steel. Then, he told the Associated Press he would be willing to cut off electricity and critical minerals to the United States if the trade war heats up, noting Ontario powers about 1.5 million homes and businesses in Michigan, New York and Minnesota. Ford said that Ronald Reagan would be “throwing up” over Trump’s tariff policies, and if Trump keeps trying to dismantle Canadian manufacturing, “he better have a pack of batteries.”
MacKenzie Scott’s Donations Help Erase $40 Billion in Medical Debt. Jeff Bezos’s ex-wife MacKenzie Scott has donated more than $100 million to the nonprofit Undue Medical Debt, which has now erased over $40 billion in medical debt for nearly 30 million people across all 50 states. The organization buys bundled medical debt from hospitals and collection agencies for pennies on the dollar and then forgives it, so every dollar donated wipes out around $100 in real debt. Since splitting from Bezos in 2019, Scott has donated more than $19 billion. Meanwhile, Jeff owns the Washington Post.
Federal Judge Upholds Massachusetts Law Requiring Gun Owners to Be 21. A federal judge has thrown out an NRA-backed lawsuit challenging a Massachusetts law that requires people to be 21 to possess a handgun or a semi-automatic firearm. In his decision, Judge George O’Toole said the plaintiffs’ argument that the age limit made the Second Amendment a “second-class right” confused regulation with elimination. The decision was based on a founding-era legal precedent called the infancy doctrine, which recognized the authority to limit minors’ access to guns, and pointed to similar rulings in Florida and Colorado. The NRA said the founders would not have supported age restrictions on gun ownership. Bold statement to make about a generation that also limited the right to vote to white male property owners over 21.
Fridge-Free Vaccine Passes First Human Trial, Raising Hopes for Remote Communities. Scientists in Britain have successfully tested in people for the first time a vaccine for tetanus-diphtheria that does not need refrigeration and can remain stable for up to two years at 86 degrees Fahrenheit. Most vaccines need to be kept between 36 and 46 degrees Fahrenheit from factory to arm, a requirement that leaves remote areas vulnerable. The new technology is based on “resurrection plants” from southern Africa that can survive extreme drought with the help of a sugar called trehalose. The reformulated vaccine was tested in a clinical trial on 60 adults and was found to be similar in safety and immune response to two approved vaccines. A larger trial of 160 people is due to begin in the next few months.
