The Conversation -- June 2, 2025
Ben Brasch, et al., of the Washington Post: "The man accused of attacking an event organized by a Jewish group, injuring 12 people, faces a federal hate crime charge and several felonies, including attempted murder charges. Authorities said they are investigating the incident as a targeted act of terrorism. Mohammed Sabry Soliman, 45, yelled 'Free Palestine' as he used a makeshift flamethrower and tossed an incendiary device into the crowd at the Colorado pedestrian mall, where there was an event calling for the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza, police said Sunday, citing witness accounts. Law enforcement recovered 16 unused molotov cocktails after the incident, authorities said during a news conference Monday. A criminal complaint said Soliman 'specifically targeted the "Zionist Group" that had gathered in Boulder, having learned about the group from an online search,' and that he had been planning the attack for a year.... The attack quickly became a flash point on the right over immigration, as the Department of Homeland Security said Soliman entered the country on a B-2 tourist visa in August 2022. The visa expired in February 2023, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said, though Soliman applied for asylum in September 2022." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Of course the right is emphasizing the fact that Soliman is an immigrant, though it's not clear to me that he is here illegally since the courts can't seem to decide for sure, for sure if someone who has applied for asylum is here legally or illegally. BUT I heard on the news that Soliman had attempted to get a gun for this attack but was not able to purchase one because he is not a citizen. So for me, the lesson is that -- as terrible and sickening as his crimes were (one of his victims reportedly was an 88-year-old Holocaust survivor) -- this nutter would have killed a lot of innocent people had he had access to a firearm. He's a living advertisement for strict gun laws. Lives were saved because a lunatic was not permitted to obtain a gun.
Deciding Not to Decide. Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court announced on Monday that it would not hear a major Second Amendment challenge to a Maryland law banning semiautomatic rifles like the AR-15. As is the court's practice, its brief order gave no reasons. The move, over the objections of three conservative justices, let the ban stand and reflected the court's intermittent engagement with gun rights. It has issued only three significant Second Amendment decisions since recognizing an individual right to own guns in 2008. The Maryland law was enacted in 2013 in response to the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut the previous year. It banned many semiautomatic rifles and imposed a 10-round limit on gun magazines. In dissent, Justice Clarence Thomas said the court should have considered the question, which the justices have repeatedly declined to resolve....
"Justices Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Neil M. Gorsuch said they too would have heard the case but did not provide reasons. Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, who could have supplied the fourth vote needed to add the case to the court's docket, issued a statement saying the question was significant and could soon warrant review but that he hoped additional opinions from lower courts could assist the justices on the issue. He wrote that the Supreme Court 'should and presumably will address the AR-15 issue soon, in the next term or two.'
Friends of the Court, Not of Trump. Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "A powerful sign that [Donald] Trump's tariff-driven trade war is at risk came in a friend-of-the-court brief filed in April by a coalition that included many prominent conservative and libertarian lawyers, scholars and former officials. The brief was also a signal of a deepening rift between Mr. Trump and the conservative legal movement, one that burst into public view last week with the president's attacks on the Federalist Society, whose leaders helped pick the judges and justices he nominated in his first term. Among the people who signed the brief in the tariffs case was Richard Epstein, who teaches at New York University and is an influential libertarian legal scholar. 'You have to understand that the conservative movement is now, as an intellectual movement, consistently anti-Trump on most issues,' he said." ~~~
~~~ You can read the brief here, via the (right-wing) Hoover Institution. The caption includes a list of the amici.
Sheera Frenkel & Aaron Krolik of the New York Times [May 30]: In March..., [Donald] Trump signed an executive order calling for the federal government to share data across agencies, raising questions over whether he might compile a master list of personal information on Americans that could give him untold surveillance power. Mr. Trump has not publicly talked about the effort since. But behind the scenes, officials have quietly put technological building blocks into place to enable his plan. In particular, they have turned to one company: Palantir, the data analysis and technology firm.... Palantir's selection as a chief vendor for the project was driven by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency.... At least three DOGE members formerly worked a Palantir, while two others had worked at companies funded by Peter Thiel, an investor and a founder of Palantir.... The Trump administration has already sought access to hundreds of data points on citizens and others through government databases, including their bank account numbers, the amount of their student debt, their medical claims and any disability status. Mr. Trump could potentially use such information to advance his political agenda by policing immigrants and punishing critics, Democratic lawmakers and critics have said." This is a gift link via RAS. ~~~
~~~ In today's Comments, laura h. points us to this BlueSky thread by a user called Dittie who aggregates reports on said Peter Thiel. It looks as if Thiel may be one tech bro billionaire who has been able to maintain his popularity with Trump and the lackeys in his Cabinet of Deplorables.
Will Lockett, an independent journalist, on Substack: "After nine test flights, [SpaceX] still [hasn't] figured out how to prevent Starship from blowing up or disintegrating.... We will look back at this period in history and realise that letting a billionaire's ego drive innovation -- rather than as part of a collective effort, as seen with Apollo and the Saturn V --was a grave mistake." Thanks to laura h. for the link. ~~~
~~~ Marie: I have no idea whether or not Lockett is correct in all of his particulars. But at least on the surface, it seems obvious to a layperson that entrusting the "adolescent" (see Matt Bai column, linked below) billionaire designer of the ugly, dysfunctional Cybertruck with billions of taxpayer dollars to develop a huge spaceship was not a good idea. Maybe we should cut our $7,000,000,000 (yeah, all those zeroes) losses and look for Plan B, which might require the application of some of the caution we've seen coming from those boring, plodding government engineers.
Joni Ernst, if you want to know how a real Republican senator handles a bully GOP president*, take a lesson from your colleague Lisa Murkowski. Like you, Murkowski is afraid of Trump (she has said so), but unlike you, she stands up to him. You may boast you know how to make pigs squeal, but when it comes to the one in the White House ~~~
~~~ you kinda make me think of a fat ole sow rolling around in your own shit. ~~~
~~~Catie Edmondson of the New York Times: "Senator Lisa Murkowski was listing all the ways that ... [Donald] Trump's efforts to slash the federal governmen had harmed Alaska, from the funding freezes on programs the state depends on to the layoffs of federal workers who live there, when she delivered something of an understatement. 'It's a challenging time right now,' she recently told a crowd at a state infrastructure conference here in the state's largest city. 'I could use nice words about it -- but I don't.' At a time when the Republican Congress has grown increasingly deferential to Mr. Trump, Ms. Murkowski has veered in the opposite direction from her party, using sharp words and her vote on the Senate floor to push back on him and his administration time and again." MB: Needless to say, I disagree with a lot of Murkowski's policy prescriptions. I would. But I respect her for being one of the few GOP senators who has the fortitude to stand up to a bully who is threatening her constituents -- and her.
If you'd like to watch Ukrainian drones blow up Russian planes deep inside Russia, BBC runs some footage obtained from Ukraine and social media. Thanks to Marcie Jones of Wonkette for the lead: ~~~
~~~~~~~~~~
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.(Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Update. Zolan Kanno-Youngs of the New York Times: "... [Donald] Trump shared an outlandish conspiracy theory on social media on Saturday night saying former President Joseph R. Biden had been 'executed in 2020' and replaced by a robotic clone, the latest example of the president amplifying dark, false material to his millions of followers.... The White House did not respond to requests for comment on the post about Mr. Biden, whom Mr. Trump has targeted for criticism almost daily since the start of his second term.... Mr. Trump has long had a penchant for sharing debunked or baseless theories online, but his embrace of conspiracies is not limited to social media. He has also elevated false claims inside the White House and surrounded himself with cabinet officials promoting such theories." ~~~
~~~ 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 useless White House press corps must hammer Trump with questions about why he reposted this crap, what is his evidence, is the evidence official, will Kash Patel be discussing Biden's demise and/or doesn't a POTUS, have a responsibility not to spread baseless conspiracy theories, etc.
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." (Also linked yesterday.)~~~
~~~ 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.
Trump's Trade Wars, Ctd. Keith Bradsher of the New York Times: "Two decades ago, factories in Indiana that turned rare earth metals into magnets moved production to China -- just as demand for the magnets was starting to soar for everything from cars and semiconductors to fighter jets and robots. The United States is now reckoning with the cost of losing that supply chain. The Chinese government abruptly halted exports of rare earth magnets to any country on April 4 as part of its trade war with the United States. American officials had expected that China would relax its restrictions on the magnets as part of the trade truce the two countries reached in mid-May. But on Friday..., [Donald] Trump suggested that China had continued to limit access. Now, American and European companies are running out of the magnets. American automakers are the hardest hit, with executives warning that production at factories across the Midwest and South could be cut back in the coming days and weeks."
Hannah Natanson of the Washington Post: "... layers of new red tape are plaguing federal staffers throughout the government under the second Trump administration, stymieing work and delaying simple transactions.... Many of the new hurdles, federal workers said, stem from changes imposed by the U.S. DOGE Service, Elon Musk's cost-cutting team, which burst into government promising to eradicate waste, fraud and abuse and trim staff and spending.... Many federal workers said DOGE has in many ways had the opposite effect. DOGE's intense scrutiny of federal spending is forcing employees to spend hours justifying even the most basic purchases. New rules mandating review and approval by political appointees are leaving thousands of contracts and projects on ice for months. Large-scale firings spearheaded by DOGE have cut support offices -- especially IT shops -- that assisted federal workers with issues ranging from glitching computers to broken desk chairs. And the piecemeal reassignment of staff is causing significant lags in work in some agencies, notably Social Security, as inexperienced workers adjust to new roles. Meanwhile, most everyone, across every agency, is dealing with fallout from new policies or executive orders -- even as colleagues continue to resign or retire, increasing the workload for those who remain." ~~~
~~~ Marie: These are unmeasured -- and largely unmeasurable -- costs of the Musk/Trump chainsaw effect. This is why I want to scream when I read Musk's smug, victim-blaming excuses for his spectacular failure. Like this one: "The federal bureaucracy situation is much worse than I realized. I thought there were problems, but it sure is an uphill battle trying to improve things in D.C., to say the least. Musk never had the slightest idea of what he was doing. Not. The. Slightest. Dissertations will be written on his ignorant stampede across the federal government. Even a natural disaster would have been less destructive: people can rebuild -- and rebuild more sensibly -- after a hurricane or an earthquake, but Trump is forbidding any rebuilding, much less sensible rebuilding. ~~~
Matt Bai of the Washington Post: "As Elon Musk departs Washington, his mood resembles his Cybertruck: ugly and adolescent.... [In a Washington Post interview, he whined] that DOGE became a 'whipping boy' in Washington because it was trying to create such sweeping change.... Musk might comfort himself with this fairy tale, but no one else should believe or promote it. The reality is that he failed not because his ambitions were too grand, but because they were so pathetically small.... He did not have a plan for the budget, nor did he even seem to understand it. He did not have in mind any wild innovations.... No, Musk seemed motivated to do only one thing with DOGE: terrorize the federal workforce.... Musk's only Big Idea for his brigade of former interns was to fire as many people as he could, in as humiliating a way as possible.... DOGE has earned the distinction of being the first in a long line of reform initiatives to actually make the problem worse. And not just because its cuts, by one estimate, actually cost the government $135 billion."
V.A. Censors Doctors. Aaron Glantz of the Guardian: "Senior officials at the US Department of Veterans Affairs have ordered that VA physicians and scientists not publish in medical journals or speak with the public without first seeking clearance from political appointees of Donald Trump.... The edict, laid down in emails on Friday by Curt Cashour, the VA's assistant secretary for public and intergovernmental affairs, and John Bartrum, a senior adviser to VA secretary Doug Collins, came hours after the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine published a perspective co-authored by two pulmonologists who work for the VA in Texas. The article warned that cancelled contracts, layoffs and a planned staff reduction of 80,000 employees in the nation's largest integrated healthcare system jeopardizes the health of a million veterans seeking help for conditions linked to toxic exposure -- ranging from Vietnam veterans exposed to Agent Orange to veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan who developed cancer after being exposed to smoke from piles of flaming toxic waste.... VA workers and veterans advocates say Friday's warnings fit a pattern of censorship by the Trump administration, which critics say is waging a 'war on science'."
Keeping America ... Polluted. Evan Halper & Jake Spring of the Washington Post: "... last month..., the Trump administration reversed [Michigan]'s plan to retire an aging power plant, forcing it to remain open and continue burning coal. Michigan and the plant's operator have mounds of evidence that closing the 63-year-old J.H. Campbell plant on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan won't create a shortage of electricity. But the Trump administration ... claim[ed] the Midwest is overly dependent on intermittent wind and solar power. Energy Secretary Chris Wright exercised rarely used federal authority to block the closure, which had been scheduled for May 31. His order requires the plant to continue operating for three more months -- and possibly longer. The move will collectively increase electric bills for ratepayers in the Midwest by tens of millions of dollars, according to Michigan officials. More broadly, it was seen as an opening salvo in ... Donald Trump's effort to reverse America's transition to clean energy and restore the nation's dependence on burning fossil fuels. The administration's strategy includes using federal power to overturn the plans of local utilities and regulators." ~~~
~~~ Marie: The perversity of the Trumpies knows no bounds.
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." (Also linked yesterday.)~~~
~~~ 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.
As a newly-graduated Harvard student talks to a reporter about divisiveness at the Cambridge, Mass., school, watch the right side of the screen: ~~~
~~~~~~~~~~
Colorado. Yan Zhuang of the New York Times: "... authorities said they were investigating an attack in Boulder, Colo., on Sunday as an act of terrorism, after a man used a 'makeshift flamethrower' to attack demonstrators honoring Israeli hostages in Gaza. Eight people were hospitalized with burns and other injuries, and two of them were in serious condition, officials said. Witnesses said the man threw an incendiary device into the crowd in a downtown pedestrian mall, according to the authorities. The suspect, identified as Mohamed Sabry Soliman of Colorado Springs, yelled 'Free Palestine' during the attack, the witnesses said. Mr. Soliman, 45, was booked on multiple charges in the Boulder County Jail." A Colorado Public Radio report is here.
Oklahoma. Audra Burch & Breena Kerr of the New York Times: "The Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921, one of the most horrific episodes of racial violence in U.S. history, killed up to 300 Black residents and destroyed a neighborhood. More than a century later, the city's mayor announced a $105 million reparations package on Sunday, the first large-scale plan committing funds to address the impact of the atrocity. Monroe Nichols, the first Black mayor of Tulsa, unveiled the sweeping project, named Road to Repair. It is intended to chip away at enduring disparities caused by the massacre and its aftermath in the Greenwood neighborhood and the wider North Tulsa community in Tulsa, Okla. The centerpiece of the project is the creation of the Greenwood Trust, a private charitable trust, with the goal of securing $105 million in assets -- including private contributions, property transfers and possible public funding -- by next spring, the 105th anniversary of the attack."
Tennessee. The Secret Suitor. Holly Bailey of the Washington Post: "... last summer, Memphis landed ... [its] largest corporate investment in a generation -- a 'transformative' development for a place that has struggled to convince outsiders of its continued potential.... Then came the mic drop...: The city's surprise suitor was Elon Musk. The tech billionaire had chosen a long-vacant appliance factory on the city's south side to be the site of a multibillion-dollar supercomputer that would power his foray into the intense race to develop the world's most sophisticated artificial intelligence model. Musk;s plan to launch xAI's supercomputer was immediately viewed with suspicion and, in some cases, anger by residents who criticized the secrecy around the project and its environmental impact. They questioned how the massive data center's appetite for power would affect Memphis's vulnerable electric grid, already prone to sustained blackouts.... The billionaire's divisive reputation has only added to the controversy over xAI in Memphis. Critics have accused the company of skirting environmental laws with its use of dozens of temporary gas turbines to power its supercomputer, now branded as Colossus. A county health board is weighing whether to approve permits for some of those turbines, while opponents are pushing for Musk to simply take his business elsewhere."
~~~~~~~~~~
Canada. Ian Austen of the New York Times: "On Sunday, a month after it marked the 355th anniversary of its founding, the [Hudson Bay Company] ... is permanently closing its 80 department stores throughout Canada. The company was much more than just a retailer and the last traditional, full-line department store chain in Canada. In 1670, Britain, which claimed part of present-day Canada, set up the company as a fur trader and granted it a vast stretch of territory equal to what is about a third of Canada, without asking the Indigenous people whose land it was."
Israel/Palestine, et al. 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. (Also linked yesterday.) The AP's report is here.
Poland. Andrew Higgins of the New York Times: "A nationalist who is hostile to Poland's centrist government has eked out a narrow win in a runoff election for the presidency, delivering a severe setback to Prime Minister Donald Tusk, according to official results released on Monday. The winner, Karol Nawrocki, a historian and former boxer who is backed by Poland's previous governing party, Law and Justice, captured 50.9 percent of the vote on Sunday, adding momentum to a right-wing populist movement in Europe.... [Donald] Trump had endorsed Mr. Nawrocki before the election. He came out just ahead of Rafal Trzaskowski, the liberal mayor of Warsaw, who was supported by Mr. Tusk's party, Civic Platform. Mr. Trzaskowski had 49.1 percent of the vote. That outcome leaves Poland bitterly divided with two power centers -- the government and the presidency -- pulling in opposite directions." The AP's report is here.
Ukraine/Russia, et al. 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.'" The NBC News report is here. See also Patrick's comment yesterday. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: Now, I would say this was an absolutely essential aspect of Ukraine's plan: ~~~
~~~ Tara Suter of the Hill: "An administration official told NewsNation's Tanya Noury that [Donald Trump] was not given a heads-up about the drone attack that a Ukrainian security official alleged destroyed more than 40 planes well within Russian territory, according to The Associated Press." ~~~
~~~ Max Boot of the Washington Post: "The Ukrainians rewrote the rules of warfare again on Sunday. The Russian high command must have been as shocked as the Americans were in 1941 when the Ukrainians carried out a surprise attack against five Russian air bases located far from the front -- two of them thousands of miles away in the Russian Far North and Siberia. The Ukrainian intelligence service, known as the SBU, managed to sneak large numbers of drones deep inside Russia in wooden cabins transported by truck, then launch them by remote control. President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed that Operation Spiderweb, as the Ukrainians are calling it, destroyed or disabled a third of the bombers Russia has been using to launch long-range cruise missiles against Ukraine.... Militaries [throughout the world] that thought they had secured their air bases with electrified fences and guard posts will now have to reckon with the threat from the skies posed by cheap, ubiquitous drones that can be easily modified for military use.... The front lines remain stalemated, and the Ukrainians are making up for their manpower deficit by developing a world-leading drone industry." -37-
Share Article 