What’s Buried in Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill?”
We unpack some of the most dangerous policies House Republicans just approved. Plus: A shocking antisemitic attack. Trump's trade war is back on. A personal reflection. And our first news quiz!
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This has been a harrowing news week.
There are countless important stories right now, but two rise to the top. First, we break down provisions buried in Trump's tax cut bill that, if passed, would radically reshape how America functions — and expand executive power in ways that deserve scrutiny.
Also today, we report on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the murder of two Jewish people in Washington, DC — targeted because of their Jewish identity. I want to begin with a few personal reflections.
This is the hardest topic to cover in digital media. The internet rewards outrage, punishes nuance, and emboldens hate. And this particular conflict is layered with historical trauma, competing narratives, misinformation, and strategic distortion — often lost on those new to the conversation.
The suffering of Palestinian civilians is unconscionable. It is a moral imperative that aid reaches them immediately. Children are dying of malnutrition. That is intolerable. Many people are rightfully horrified by images from Gaza and frustrated with what they see as insufficient action to protect civilians. These concerns deserve to be heard and addressed.
At the same time, the flattening of Israel into a one-dimensional villain — stripped of history, internal dissent, and complexity — is not just misleading; it's dangerous. Overheated rhetoric, often unmoored from fact or nuance, is fueling real-world consequences. This week, it became murder.
I've been cautious in how I report on this online. Any mention of Israel or Gaza can trigger a flood of rage — irrational, personal, and often frightening. And whatever I say, someone will insist I've said too much or not enough.
To those who claim the anger is directed only at Israel — not Jews — I want to share this:
I grew up attending synagogue in Los Angeles. As a kid, security was minimal — a single guard stationed outside, mostly to assist elderly congregants. But in the early '90s, everything changed. Concrete barricades appeared. Metal detectors, armed guards, bag checks, and car searches became part of the routine.
There was no specific threat. What changed was the Intifada — and the rise of Hamas. A conflict an ocean away made our synagogue in Los Angeles, California a target.
Not because we were Israelis. Because we were Jews.
So when people say, "We don't hate Jews, just Israel," it can feel painfully disconnected from reality—especially when Jews outside Israel are being attacked, and even killed, simply for showing up in Jewish spaces.
The need to get aid to Palestinians in Gaza is urgent and undeniable. The history of this region, though, is long, complex, and deeply contested. These realities are not mutually exclusive. Recognizing both is part of what it means to stay informed, engaged, and humane in a fractured world.
There is room for disagreement and debate. But what we need more of—especially now—is a willingness to listen, to hold complexity, and to engage with curiosity rather than certainty, recognizing that in a place where every stone holds multiple histories, there's always more to understand.
For paid subscribers, we end with a news quiz.
Here Are Your Headlines:
Pandora’s Bill: House Republicans managed to pass Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” yesterday, 215–214. Two Republicans voted no, one voted present, and one missed the vote because he fell asleep during the late-night vote. We’ve covered many of the harmful policies in this legislation, which will increase taxes on working class Americans and kick millions off Medicaid and food assistance while providing tax cuts for millionaires, gun silencers, and auto loans. But there’s plenty of provisions buried in this 1,116-page bill that you might not have even heard of that could seriously damage our democracy. We’ve unearthed a few here:
Tying Justice’s Hands: In Section 70302 is a policy that would block courts from enforcing injunctions or restraining orders on government officials unless the plaintiff pays a bond. “The new rule would be so broad,” the Campaign Legal Center explains, “it could allow any government actor to escape being held accountable for violating court rulings.” It even applies retroactively, effectively making hundreds of court orders unenforceable — orders like, say, those issued against the administration for packing dozens of immigrants onto plane flights out of the country in violation of court orders. This is “an effort by the Trump administration to negate one of the few checks that exist on its powers,” UC Berkeley’s law school dean warned.
Drill, Baby, Drill: Buried in Section 80121 is a clause that effectively prohibits courts from challenging drilling, mining, or development, no matter the environmental cost — including cancelling ongoing and pending lawsuits against such actions. “No court shall have jurisdiction to review any action taken” by federal, state, or municipal agencies to issue leases, biological opinions, and other similar, potentially environmentally destructive actions, the Act proclaims. And in case you’re wondering, the bill also allows for more leasing of public lands for drilling, mining, and logging, and reduces the royalties companies have to pay to extract oil, gas, and coal.
Reducing Regulation: Sections 51001 and 52001 defund regulatory and oversight bodies, including the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Public Company Accounting Oversight Board. Both of these agencies were created after major financial crises; the CFPB has recovered tens of billions of dollars in compensation for consumers and the PCAOB has “played a major role in the general absence of large-scale US accounting failures” since its creation in the early 2000s, according to an accounting professor.
Time Out: Sections 30051 and 30061 dramatically limit the ability of the Education Secretary to issue new rules and regulations. The Secretary would essentially be forbidden from doing anything that either increases costs for the federal government or is “economically significant.” They would also be prohibited from regulating based on “gainful employment,” a Biden-era policy that Trump’s Education Department last week asked the administration to keep. You can read more about it here.
Banning Regulation Altogether: Section 43201 imposes a 10-year ban on enforcement of any state and local law regulating artificial intelligence. That includes prohibiting enforcement of rules on using AI in political campaigns. In other words, this means “a decade of false information” flooding the airwaves and internet, according to the Campaign Legal Center, fatally undermining already weakened trust in our elections. So much for opposing fake news.
Weakening Federal Government: Section 90004 would allow new federal hires to become at-will employees, meaning they can be fired “without notice or right to appeal” for “no cause at all.” This is a step toward reinstating Schedule F, an executive order Trump issued in October 2020 — and Biden quickly revoked — that would effectively give the president the power to replace civil servants with loyalists. Trump has already taken actions to reclassify 50,000 federal employees under Schedule F, which aligns with the Heritage Foundation’s call to fire tens of thousands of federal employees and potentially replace them with conservative activists. “We’re talking about destroying political power,” the Foundation’s president said in 2024. Civil servants “have blocked conservative innovation, so we want them out of there.”
What’s Next: The bill now goes to the Senate, where lawmakers will debate potential changes. You can contact your Senator by looking up their contact information here.
Trump’s budget is a “Mugging Conducted by the 1 Percent Against the Rest of Us.” That’s how left-leaning Truthout headlines its coverage of the GOP budget legislation. Here’s another headline: “Democrats say budget plan would mean loss of health insurance.” Do you think that’s from an outlet on the right or the left? You can find out by going to Ground News. Their app and website curate news stories from local, national and international sources. I use Ground News to quickly and consistently understand how stories I care about are framed by outlets across the political spectrum and to surface stories I might not find otherwise. GroundNews is offering the News Not Noise community 40% off their all-access vantage subscription plan — that's just $5/month. To subscribe, go to GroundNews.com/NNN.
Heartbreak in DC: A suspect has been charged with killing two young people outside an event sponsored by the American Jewish Committee and held at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington DC. The victims were shot while leaving the young Jewish leaders and diplomats event which was focused on “finding practical solutions to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.” The suspect is on video shouting “free, free Palestine” after shooting the victims, and later told law enforcement he “did it for Gaza,” according to an FBI affidavit. “The brutal and tragic irony that such an event … was targeted for more violence is heartbreaking,” stated IsraAID, one of the organizations that headlined the event.
The Victims: Yaron Lischinsky, 30, and Sarah Milgrim, 26, were colleagues at the Israeli Embassy in DC — and a couple. According to Israel’s ambassador to the US, they were days away from a trip to Jerusalem, where Lischinsky planned to propose. He’d already bought the ring. Milgrim was Jewish and American, raised in Kansas where she once appeared in this news story after an antisemitic attack at her high school. Lischinsky, born in Germany, came from an interfaith family — his parents were Jewish and Christian. The suspect had no way of knowing they were employees of the Israeli embassy; instead they were seemingly targeted because they attended a Jewish event at a Jewish museum. The fact that they worked for peace did not shield them from hate.
The Suspect: 31-year-old Elias Rodriguez was charged with murdering the young couple, as well as multiple other felony offenses that could result in the death penalty if he’s convicted. He reportedly purchased his handgun legally and even carried it with him in checked baggage on a flight from Chicago to Reagan National Airport in Virginia. Rodriguez initially entered the event but “was escorted out,” according to the Israeli ambassador. He then waited until people started leaving the building before shooting at them, eventually firing his weapon 21 times. Three people were able to get away. Lischinsky and Milgrim, tragically, did not.
The Motive: Rodriguez was not on the police’s radar, nor did he appear in a search of crime databases, according to law enforcement. He’s been connected with the far-left Party for Socialism and Liberation, but the group insists that association “ended in 2017,” stating “we have nothing to do with this shooting and do not support it.”
What’s Next: Rodriguez’s actions will be investigated “as a hate crime and a crime of terrorism,” the US Attorney for DC said yesterday. As a reminder, that’s Jeanine Pirro, a former Fox News host who was denounced by her own network multiple times for bigoted statements and participating in a Trump rally.
The Reactions: The American Jewish Committee, which hosted the event, said in a statement that the two victims attended “to talk about finding humanity in a world full of hate” and called the murder a “shocking, unacceptable crime that is, tragically, not isolated.” It joined 40 other Jewish organizations asking the federal government to support more hate crime reporting and increased security at Jewish institutions. FBI data from 2024 found hate crimes against Jews have spiked 63% since 2023. Though Jewish Americans are 2% of the population, they were the target of 15% of the nation’s hate crimes and 63% of all “religion based crimes” in 2023. A separate study found that hate crimes against US muslims rose 18% last year.
In Gaza: “Desperately needed aid is finally trickling in” to Gaza, according to the World Food Program. According to the BBC, around 130 trucks have entered the Strip, with 160,000 pallets — enough to fill 9,000 trucks — waiting at the border. Dozens of trucks have been looted by armed gangs and desperate crowds. Locals report “continuous bombing,” and the Israeli military reported hitting “over 75 targets” this morning. On Wednesday, Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu held a bizarre press conference in which he made a series of false claims about Hamas, Qatar, and who was attacked on October 7. He also said one of Israel’s conditions for ending the war in Gaza is now the implementation of Trump’s “brilliant” plan to relocate the Palestinians living there to other countries — possibly Libya. The US Embassy in Libya has denied this is in the works and multiple European leaders have rejected any forced relocation of Palestinians as a major violation of international law. Netanyahu’s leadership is straining Israel’s system of checks and balances so dramatically, its judiciary today issued an order blocking him from naming a top national security official; Netanyahu — testing the limits of his official power — said he will defy the court.
Other Breaking News:
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