The Conversation -- June 1, 2025
As a newly-graduated Harvard student talks to a reporter about divisiveness at the Cambridge, Mass., school, watch the right side of the screen: ~~~
Maria Varenikova, et al., of the New York Times: “Ukraine on Sunday launched one of its broadest assaults of the war against air bases inside Russia, a coordinated operation that targeted sites from eastern Siberia to Russia’s western border and that left several Russian aircraft in flames. The Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian airfields came as Kyiv suffered a damaging blow of its own on Sunday, with Russia striking a Ukrainian military training base and killing at least 12 soldiers. The day’s violence showed that the fighting between the two adversaries was only escalating even as they were expected to sit down for another round of cease-fire negotiations on Monday in Istanbul. Russian forces have quickened the pace of their advances in Ukraine and bombarded Ukrainian cities....
“An official in Ukraine’s security services ... said that Ukrainian officers had secretly transported drones into Russian territory on trucks and launched them from those vehicles.... President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said on social media that planning for the operation had begun a year and a half ago, and that those involved in the attacks had been withdrawn from Russia before they took place. He called the results of the assault 'absolutely brilliant.'” See also Patrick's comment below.
Miriam Berger, et al., of the Washington Post: “At least 31 people were killed Sunday morning in southern Gaza, according to the Strip’s Health Ministry, when Israeli troops opened fire on crowds making their way to collect aid from a new distribution mechanism backed by Israel and the United States that has been marred by chaos and violence since it began operating last week. More than 170 others were wounded Sunday in the Rafah shooting, officials said, marking the deadliest incident yet as Palestinians desperately scramble for food despite the danger.” MB: Can anyone think of a justification for starving civilians, then luring them to food distribution sites, then gunning them down as they made their way toward the food trucks? The U.S. may not be supporting the operation, but we are supporting those who are carrying it out.
Maggie Haberman & Ryan Mac of the New York Times: “In announcing his decision to withdraw the nomination of Jared Isaacman, a billionaire entrepreneur, to run NASA on Saturday..., [Donald] Trump cited a review of his 'prior associations,' a veiled reference to donations Mr. Isaacman had made to Democrats. But those donations were old news. While Mr. Trump privately told advisers in recent days that he was surprised to learn of Mr. Isaacman’s contributions and that he had not been told of them previously, he and his team were briefed about them during the presidential transition in late 2024, before Mr. Isaacman’s nomination, according to two people with knowledge of the events. One of those people said Mr. Isaacman, who had already been approved by a Senate committee and was headed to a confirmation vote this week, directly told Mr. Trump about those donations when they met in person weeks after the 2024 election.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: Isaacman is a Musk protégé, so maybe this is one of Trump's ways of getting back at Musk. But it could also be an indicator that as he declines, he is becoming more paranoid and more vindictive, so he can no longer abide anyone who had any past connection to Democrats.
Mariana Alfaro of the Washington Post: “Speaking at a town hall in Butler County, Iowa, on Friday, [Sen. Joni] Ernst [R-Iowa] was explaining how the bill would affect Medicaid eligibility when one audience member yelled out that individuals who lost coverage because of the cuts could die. 'Well, we all are going to die,' Ernst replied as the crowd groaned.... While outrage at Ernst’s glib comment was immediate, on Saturday, the senator doubled down with a sarcastic response shared on Instagram. 'I made an incorrect assumption that everyone in the auditorium understood that, yes, we are all going to perish from this earth,' she said in a video filmed in what appeared to be a cemetery. 'So I apologize, and I’m really, really glad that I did not have to bring up the subject of the tooth fairy as well.' She then added: 'For those that would like to see eternal and everlasting life, I encourage you to embrace my Lord and savior Jesus Christ.' Her comments come as Senate Republicans are set to begin [on a measured that] ... would slash spending on social safety net programs by more than $1 trillion over 10 years.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: Embrace this, Joni. -- What do you believe your lord and savior would think of your cutting programs to help children, the sick and the poor? Check your Bible, you flaming hypocrite.
James Gordon of the Daily Mail: "... Donald Trump shared a bizarre theory on social media Saturday night that suggested Joe Biden died in 2020 and has since been replaced by a 'clone.' The Truth Social post, which has since gone viral, stated bluntly that the former president of the United States had somehow been dead for years while still in office. 'There is no #JoeBiden - executed in 2020. #Biden clones doubles & robotic engineered soulless mindless entities are what you see,' wrote the user named llijh. '#Democrats dont know the difference.'" Thanks to Victoria B. for the lead.
~~~ Marie: The POTUS* has a responsibility to tamp down this crap, not to amplify it. If Joe (or his clone, I guess) had spread a ridiculous rumor like this about Trump, calls for his removal from office would have been deafening and incessant. In case you think this is the usual Daily Mail nonsense, Victoria found the story on the (firewalled) Daily Beast, and here's Mediaite's story. The usually useless White House press corps must hammer Trump with questions about why he reposted this theory, what is his evidence, is the evidence official, wll Kash Patel be discussing Biden's demise and/or doesn't a POTUS, have a responsibility not to spread baseless conspiracy theories, etc.
~~~~~~~~~~
Heather Cox Richardson celebrates Sen. Margaret Chase Smith's (R-Maine) “Declaration of Conscience,” which Smith delivered during her Senate-floor condemnation of McCarthyism (with Joe McCarthy sitting behind her). Richardson reprises remarks by Sen. Angus King (I-Maine), Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) & Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), who echo Smith's sentiments when addressing the current state of affairs.
When Two Million Dollars Is Not Enough. Jonathan Swan, et al., of the New York Times: Donald “Trump on Saturday said that he planned to withdraw his nomination of Jared Isaacman, a billionaire entrepreneur and close associate of Elon Musk’s, to be the next NASA administrator, days before Mr. Isaacman’s expected confirmation to the role by the Senate. Mr. Trump in recent days told associates he intended to yank Mr. Isaacman’s nomination after being told that he had donated to prominent Democrats.... The U-turn was the latest example of how Mr. Trump uses loyalty as a key criterion for top administration roles, and came at a fraught moment for the space agency.... The Trump administration’s budget proposal for 2026 seeks to slice the space agency’s budget by one-quarter, lay off thousands of employees and end financing for a slew of current and future missions.... Installing Mr. Isaacman, 42, at NASA was one of the biggest benefits that Mr. Musk had pulled off for himself.... Mr. Isaacman had already been approved by the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee with a 19-to-9 vote.... He was scheduled to be confirmed by the full Senate next week.Mr. Isaacman, a pilot who has privately flown to space twice with SpaceX, ingratiated himself with the president by giving $2 million to Mr. Trump’s inaugural committee.” The Guardian's story is here.
Wait. Who's Vicious? Ty Roush of Forbes: “... Donald Trump on Friday said not to 'feel so sorry' for former President Joe Biden, who announced a cancer diagnosis earlier this month, and criticized Biden as 'vicious' — just over a week after Trump and other Republicans suggested Biden may have hidden his illness from the public. Trump, who spoke in the Oval Office on Friday..., [said,] '[Biden’s] been a sort of moderate person over his lifetime.... Not a smart person, but a somewhat vicious person, I will say. If you feel sorry for him, don't feel so sorry, because he's vicious. What he did with his political opponent and all of the people that he hurt — he hurt a lot of people, Biden, so I really don't feel sorry for him.'” Thanks to Akhilleus for the link. See also his commentary yesterday. (Also linked yesterday.)
Army Sez Trump's Birthday Parade Could Do $16MM in Damages to D.C. Streets. Courtney Kube, et al., of NBC News: “The cost to repair Washington, D.C., streets after the upcoming military parade celebrating the Army’s 250th anniversary could cost as much as $16 million, according to U.S. military officials. That’s part of an estimated $45 million total cost for the June 14 military parade, which coincides with ... Donald Trump’s 79th birthday. The cost estimates have fluctuated as planning continues. In an interview with NBC News’ 'Meet the Press' earlier this month, the president defended the cost of the parade, calling it 'peanuts compared to the value of doing it.'”
Marco Can't Handle the Truth. Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times: “While testifying before Congress, [Marco] Rubio claimed that the Trump administration’s dismantling of the United States Agency for International Development had not cost any lives. 'No children are dying on my watch,' he asserted. At another point in the hearing, he broadened his statement to include adults as well: 'No one has died because of U.S.A.I.D.' This is ludicrous: The only debate is whether to measure the dead in the thousands, tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands. So Representative Brad Sherman, a California Democrat, challenged Rubio, citing reporting overseas by me and by Reuters of individuals who died as a result of the shutdown of American humanitarian aid. 'That’s a lie,' Rubio said. 'False.'... While nobody knows the true number — partly because the cancellation of programs means that no one is counting the dead — the flat denial of any deaths at all is preposterous. Rubio chooses not to make the argument that I believe is Trump’s true position: We want tax cuts (disproportionately benefiting the rich), so we need to cut funds in the budget from people who are so marginalized that they can’t complain.”
Papers, Please. Jeremy Roebuck & Marianne LeVine of the Washington Post: “The Justice Department is wielding a little-known law to criminally charge unauthorized immigrants who have failed to register their presence in the country, threatening them with potential jail time and fines under a new Trump administration initiative. The first prosecutions came just days after authorities on April 11 resurrected a federal registration requirement, used during World War II, to meet the goals of an executive order from ... Donald Trump. Administration officials described the regulation, which mandates that people 14 and older provide fingerprints and home addresses, as a national security precaution that will allow authorities to more closely track the whereabouts of millions of immigrants in the United States. But the Justice Department’s early attempts to win convictions against those who fail to register have faced skepticism and defeats before some federal judges.... In an order May 19 dismissing charges against five migrants in Louisiana, U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael B. North wrote that there was 'no evidence that any of these defendants knew they were required to register … and even if they had, until very recently, there was no mechanism for [them] to do so.'”
Giselle Ewing of Politico: After DHS officers “briefly detained a staff member in Rep. Jerry Nadler’s (D-N.Y.) Manhattan office [Wednesday]..., Nadler slammed both DHS and ... Donald Trump in a statement Saturday afternoon for demonstrating 'aggressive and heavy-handed tactics' and 'sowing chaos' not only in his district, but across the country, as the Trump administration escalates its crackdown on immigration.... The New York representative also cautioned that the incident showed a 'deeply troubling disregard for proper legal boundaries,' and warned that 'if this can happen in a Member of Congress’s office, it can happen to anyone — and it is happening.' But the DHS maintained in a statement — issued earlier on Saturday — that its Federal Protective Service officers showed up at Nadler’s office to 'conduct a security check' because they were 'concerned about the safety of the federal employees in the office' after hearing reports of 'incidents' nearby. The statement did not mention the issue of 'harboring rioters' that the officer referred to in the video. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment Saturday afternoon.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: If you were wondering whether the DHS might lie about its officers' tactics, there's your answer.
Marie: One of several problems with appointing judges-for-life: most forget -- if they ever knew -- how to factor in the realities of the lives of ordinary people: ~~~
I was a stranger and you invited me in.... Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me. -- Jesus, Olivet Discourse, Matthew 25:35 & 40
~~~ Hamed Aleaziz of the New York Times: “... two new Supreme Court decisions have left [more than half a million asylum-seekers] open to deportation, an abrupt turn for a population that has been able to remain in the country by using legal pathways for people facing war and political turmoil at home.... Now, with their protections revoked while legal challenges move through lower courts, many immigrants have found themselves in a vulnerable position. Because so many of them have shared detailed information with the government, including addresses, biometrics and the names of their sponsors, they could be easy to track down at a moment when the Trump administration is looking for ways to deport people quickly.... The court gutted two [immigration] programs in the last couple of weeks, humanitarian parole and Temporary Protected Status, which together have shielded more than a half-million people from deportation. The decisions were unsigned and gave no reasoning, which is typical of emergency proceedings.” MB: And all this is so a megalomaniac can show his xenophobic, racist base that he's tough on strangers. ~~~
Get out! -- Trump, Supremes
I don’t think it’s fair. They didn’t come illegally. Where are they going to go now? -- Reasonable person Johane Chevrin, New Jersey nurse ~~~
~~~ Sarah Mervosh & Mark Bonamo of the New York Times: “Now, tens of thousands of immigrants who only recently fled instability in their home countries and thought they had found a temporary legal refuge in the United States are facing a daunting, new dilemma. Where to go from here?... The largest number of recipients in the program are from Haiti, where gangs are terrorizing the country and have taken over the capital, Port-au-Prince.” ~~~
~~~ Alexandra Marquez & Lindsay Good of NBC News: “A federal judge on Friday blocked the Trump administration from revoking the temporary protected status of roughly 5,000 Venezuelans who are in the U.S., despite Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s February decision to terminate a Biden-era extension of the program. U.S. District Judge Edward E. Chen in San Francisco ruled Friday that thousands of Venezuelans who received paperwork extending their protected status during a brief period earlier this year could keep it. That period began when then-Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas extended protected status for Venezuelans in January and ended when Noem terminated it in February. Chen wrote that if their paperwork has their protected status ending in October 2026, those Venezuelans should not be eligible for deportation while the case is ongoing.... It’s the latest decision in a legal saga that could affect around 350,000 Venezuelans who in 2023 were granted the right to temporarily live and work in the U.S.... Earlier this month, in a two-paragraph order, the United States’ highest court allowed the Trump administration to revoke TPS for Venezuelans despite the ongoing case.”
Presidential Race 2028. Katie Glueck of the New York Times: Governors Wes Moore (Md.) and Tim Walz (Minn.) attended Rep. Jim Clyburn's (S.C.) annual fish fry Friday night, indicating that the presidential nominating marathon is now underway. ~~~
~~~ Steve Karnowski & Meg Kinnard of the AP: “Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz sought to energize activists at a Democratic state convention in South Carolina.... Walz ... keynoted the South Carolina gathering in Columbia, traditionally a showcase for national-level Democrats and White House hopefuls. Speaking to convention delegates for more than half an hour, Walz ... called on his fellow Democrats to have the courage to stand up to the 'bully' in the White House. 'Maybe it’s time for us to be a little meaner,' Walz said, to applause from the crowd. 'When it’s a bully like Donald Trump, you bully the s—- out of him. ... This is a ... cruel man.' It was Walz’s third set of large-scale remarks in less than 24 hours for Walz, who, along with Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, spoke Friday night at the party’s fundraising dinner, as well as an after-party fish fry hosted by Rep. Jim Clyburn.”
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@Akhilleus: There are no comments from you in my spam file for June 1.
How ‘bout now?
Now?
Nope, it's not working.
It seems to be working now.
@Akhilleus: Nope. The last spam comments I have from you is one from yesterday, which I de-spammed yesterday after you let me know about it.
Just e-mail me your comment(s), I'll log out and pretend I'm you and see if I can get your comment(s) to take.
P.S. @Forrest: I don't have any of your comments in my spam file.
Trump Shares Unhinged Conspiracy Theory that Biden is a Robot Clone, in a repost on Truth Social (via Daily Beast)
https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trump-shares-bonkers-conspiracy-theory-about-joe-biden-being-replaced-by-clones/
They make you pay for standing up to Fat Hitler and his goons, one way or another…
Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-NJ), who has been hit with several phony federal charges for “assaulting” heavily armed ICE goons while being unarmed herself, finds herself under assault by the MAGA mob, threats of violence that she takes seriously enough to have a staffer monitor Fox “News”. as an early warning system letting her know when MAGA state TV sics the crazies on her by depicting her as an enemy of the state, Trump hater, traitor, or whatever else they can make up about her.
Fat Hitler wants you to know that even if you beat his phony legal claims, his bug-eyed MAGA mob will still come after you.
This used to be stuff you’d see only in dictatorships and chaos ridden broken states. Now it’s a regular feature of life in Fatty’s Amerika.
Working now, I guess…
Conspiracies
"President Donald Trump spread a bonkers conspiracy theory that former President Joe Biden was killed in 2020 and replaced by clones.
Late Saturday night on Truth Social, Trump shared a post from another user which asserted that Biden had been secretly assassinated and that the country was being run, for the entirety of Biden’s term in office, by “robotic engineered soulless mindless entities.”"
Attacking Children
"Donald Trump released yet another deranged statement on Tuesday, demanding that a transgender high school student be barred from participating in the California state track and field championships, which are scheduled to be held this weekend in Clovis, Calif. The inane thoughts that make their way from Trump’s obviously diminished mind onto his Playskool social media platform should not demand the attention of any right-thinking Americans, and yet in this case the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) snapped to attention, rewriting its qualification rules in an attempt to appease those behind what’s become a national hate campaign directed at a 16-year-old high school student.
Here we are once again confronted by a central truth about the people who lead these anti-trans campaigns in sports, which is that although they are first and foremost hateful bigots, they are also huge fucking losers. Sports serves many valuable purposes: Creating a place where someone like Hernandez can find community, camaraderie, and comfort in her body is a big one, but so is teaching kids and young adults how to deal with failure. The freaks who make it their mission to antagonize Hernandez and other trans athletes always claim to be acting out of a duty to fairness. Anyone who has ever played or seriously engaged with sports knows, however, that “fairness” is often the first word out of the mouth of a loser. There is always, always something “unfair” for the loser to latch onto and turn into an excuse."
Let's Go Taco
Bubbles
"President Trump irritated that his team didn’t tell him about ‘TACO,’ sources say
There was a reason for President Donald Trump’s particularly scathing response when a reporter asked him Wednesday about a new term coined about the president’s tariffs: TACO, or Trump Always Chickens Out.
He had not yet heard the term, according to a senior White House official who acknowledged to CNN that the president was caught off guard. Trump had said as much at the time, saying “I’ve never heard that” before calling it the “nastiest question.”"
Tariff Truck
Someone enjoys the evil Rubio, Musk and Trump have unleashed around the world.
3rd test???
Randy Rainbow, sings Trump Derangement Syndrome to the tune of That's Entertainment. TDS
Wow! Ukraine snuck dozens of drones deep into the Russian rodina, in flatbed trucks carrying pre-fab wooden "houses" with false roofs. The roofs opened remotely, drones flew out being "flown" by operators and directly attacked Russian long-range ALCM bombers on the aprons at four major strategic bases.
Russia suffered huge aircraft loss. These aircraft are (were) part of Russia's delivery of deluges of missiles against Ukrainian cities, part of Russia's terror strategy.
https://crooksandliars.com/2025/06/ukraine-cripples-russias-strategic-bomber
Joni was right, but isn't there also something about "thou shall not kill" somewhere? I don't think it was the tooth fairy that said it.
Medicaid and USAID withdrawal does kill people, and the R's are their executioners.
Some are apparently proud of it.
Senator Joni's heartless idiocy reminded of Al Capp's Joanie Phoanie, his mean and wrong-headed take on Joan Baez. Capp was then a vocal supporter of the Vietnam War and hated those hippie peaceniks. It was one of the signs of his senescence. As I remember, he died soon thereafter.