Saturday Evening

Enjoy 

Grand Old Police Blotter

Nice detail:

Republican in South Carolina arrested over distribution of child sexual abuse material

RJ May, who used screen name ‘joebidennnn69’, charged with 10 counts and ordered to remain jailed until his trial

 

Assassination

Away from the computer at the moment (phone only), but a Minnesota state rep (Melissa Hortman)  and her husband were killed and a state senator was also shot.  Democrats.

Protest

I was glad to see Padilla say this and promote it.

I encourage everyone to consider attending one of the many demonstrations planned for tomorrow across the country. Show up. Demand accountability. Peacefully protest. Find the rally closest to you: NoKings.org

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— Alex Padilla (@alex-padilla4ca.bsky.social) June 13, 2025 at 9:29 PM

There's an element of "HOW DARE THEY TREAT A SENATOR LIKE THAT?" which is valid, but also suggests it's OK for them to treat others like that. The right lesson is that if they are treating a senator like that, they are treating everyone else like that. The genius brain lesson is that almost all "violence" at protests is caused by law enforcement.

Most elected Dems hate protest because they think it's unpoular and they know "Jake Tapper" will make them responsible for everything that happens. A not-usual-suspect telling people to go protest is a positive development, in the "Is Our Senators Learning?" sense.

Morning

Slacker Saturday.

Happy Hour

Get happy

Good Luck, Austin

The issue here actually isn't the "child" (dummy) rushing across the road, it's that the Tesla doesn't recognize the Stop sign on the bus.

Tesla’s driverless “robotaxis” could launch in Austin as soon as June 22. But a demo in Austin today showed a Tesla, manually driven to test its Full Self-Driving system, failed to stop for a child-sized dummy at a school bus—and hit it. @cbsaustin pic.twitter.com/RskFc6fjKC

— Abigail Velez (@velez_tx) June 12, 2025

People Gotta Eat

Obviously I don't sympathize with their task, but I suspect most of these people can't afford this shit, either.

The 4,000 California National Guard soldiers who President Donald Trump surged into Los Angeles remain unpaid due to delays in issuing official activation orders, leaving compensation and benefits in limbo.

According to more than a dozen Guardsmen across four units who spoke to Military.com, none has received formal activation orders, the critical paperwork that not only authorizes their duty status, but also unlocks pay, Tricare health benefits and eligibility for Department of Veterans Affairs services. Without those orders, troops remain in a legal and administrative limbo.

"Legal limbo" could mean a lot of things, lads, better be careful!

Just Do

Want to wrap yourself in the flag? Just do it. Have a great powerpoint plan to defeat Sauron? Either show it to the world or don't, but don't boast about it like it's your girlfriend in Canada!

Don't monologue your cunning plans to convince voters to vote for you in order to impress journalists. Just do it!

Lunch

eat

Alpha Energy

 

It is 2004... It is 2006... It is 2012... It is 2026...

Democrats’ newest approach to win back voters is a fresh embrace of the nation’s oldest symbol.

Two days ahead of Flag Day, when President Donald Trump’s military parade will run through the streets of Washington, Democratic Reps. Pat Ryan (D-N.Y.) and Chris Deluzio (D-Pa.) fanned out Thursday afternoon to give a gift to their colleagues to unite them.

Of course with added Alpha Energy Swears:

It’s a message that a beleaguered party hopes resonates in the 90 percent of counties that shifted to Republicans last November. Or, as Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) put it earlier this year, it’s time for Democrats to “fucking retake the flag.”

Scoops From The Past

I regularly think about this scoop from Newsweek, in 2004.

(Iran has no border with Israel and they did not have menacing tanks at this nonexistent border)

Real Men Go To Tehran

Years ago I was invited to an event at the Center for America Progress.  It was a Bush State of the Union speech watching event.  I believe it was the infamous Manimal speech.  Anyway, I was on a panel with Sam Seder and a couple of other people.  We did some Q&A, made some jokes during the speech, etc.

One of the questions put to the panel was something like, "What's your greatest fear/concern [in politics, not zombies or whatever]?"

I think my answer was "President Brownback."  One of my copanelists (not Sam Seder and also not someone whose normal beat was "foreign policy") said, "nuclear Iran."

This was 19 years ago.

Anyway.

As far as I know, this person is no longer in The Discourse, so no need to name them (plus this is from memory and I don't like attributing things to people by name from memory).

Morning

Funky Friday.

Thursday Night

Rock on.

Self-Preservation

I dunno, guys, I don’t think it is too crazy to be alarmed that senators aren't willing to use the obvious tools genuinely available to them in response to an attack on their own.

They don't have magic wands, but they do have some tools.

And if they prove me wrong, great, but...

Seems Bad

Goons dragged out Senator Padilla and pushed him to the floor just for asking a question at a press conference, and this is what Noem had to say:

Kristi Noem: "We are not going away. We are staying here to liberate the city from the socialists and the burdensome leadership that this governor and that this mayor have placed on this country and what they have tried to insert into the city." Sen. Alex Padilla is then forcibly removed!

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— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona.bsky.social) June 12, 2025 at 7:06 PM

I'm sure California has some state laws about attempts to overthrow the government. Maybe it's time for Newsom to start dusting those off. Maybe it's time for Chuck to grind the Senate to a halt... hahaha whatever.

Alpha Energy

She's got a plan.

“We know the Lions are going to the Super Bowl this year because they have a good defense and a good offense, right?” Slotkin, referring to Detroit’s NFL team, told an audience of roughly 400 people at a town hall forum.

“So we have to be able to do both,” Slotkin added. “We have a strong defense, but then you’ve got to have a vision, an alternative vision, to what is being provided to us every day. And that is the charge of the next generation of leaders in the Democratic Party.”

She keeps saying how tough she is without actually doing it.

She also has thrown herself into advocating for a robust takedown of the president’s agenda.

“I wrote a war plan,” the former CIA analyst and Pentagon aide told her audience here last week, “of how to contain and defeat Trump — a 17-page PowerPoint.”

Can we see it? No.

Lansing — U.S. Sen. Elissa Slotkin, a Democrat from Holly, told a crowd in mid-Michigan Friday night that her party owes the public an "alternative vision" for the country's future and she's developing a plan she hopes to unveil in the coming weeks.

Soon! Can't fucking wait.

"I wrote a war plan of how to contain and defeat Trump, a 17-page PowerPoint ... just like ... I used to do at the Pentagon," said Slotkin, who previously worked in national security. "We used to do war planning.

"And it's about being rigorous and ruthless about our priorities. Part of the plan is about having an alternative vision."

Slotkin said that the vision will be about protecting the middle class and dealing with artificial intelligence's impact on the economy and education. It will also detail what Democrats would do if they had control of Washington, D.C., she said.

She thinks making PowerPoints in the Pentagon makes her a fighting troop.

There is always a chance my cynicism will be proven to be misguided!

It's Tariff Day, Again

Bessent says Trump will likely keep pausing the tariffs, though I can't keep track of precisely which tariffs these are.

Or maybe not!

Trump said Wednesday he would be willing to extend a July 8 deadline for finishing trade talks with countries before higher U.S. levies take effect, but that the extensions may not be necessary.

“I would, but I don’t think we’re going to have that necessity. We made a great deal with China,” Trump told reporters. “We’re dealing with Japan, we’re dealing with South Korea. We’re dealing with a lot of them. So we’re going to be sending letters out, in about a week and a half, two weeks, to countries, telling them what the deal is, like I did with EU.”

And the big beautiful deal with China just takes us back to where we were.

It remains unclear whether the truce will hold — or crumble like one struck in May did. Even if the agreement does prove durable, its big accomplishment appears to be merely returning the countries to a status quo from several months ago, before President Trump provoked tensions with China in early April by ramping up tariffs on goods it produces.

I was amused that this story fronts the critics. I'm not saying that's bad practice, just highlighting that it is a choice.

I Guess He Got Some Phone Calls

He's inclined to believe it because he's a big racist, and inclined to be happy to deport lots of brown people for the same reason, but I do think Miller's been feeding him nonsense about millions of criminals for years. 

Liberals, mostly, aren't the ones hiring undocumented workers.

If the Dems can't run with this one...

Leading From Behind

Is he unpopular enough, yet?

Thirty-eight percent of voters approve of the way Donald Trump is handling his job as president, while 54 percent disapprove. In Quinnipiac University's April 9 poll, 41 percent approved, while 53 percent disapproved.

Is this unpopular enough, yet?

Voters were asked about Trump's handling of seven issues...

immigration issues: 43 percent approve, 54 percent disapprove, with 3 percent not offering an opinion; deportations: 40 percent approve, 56 percent disapprove, with 4 percent not offering an opinion;

It isn't an Alpha Energy move to stay relatively quiet on something until everyone has already turned against it.

"Pro-Vaccine Groups"

Proof they will "both sides" anything.

Thursday Is New Jobless Day

I suspect this is starting to get "interesting" again.

248K new lucky duckies celebrating their funemployment.

Morning

Thirsty Thursday

Wednesday Night

Rock on.

Happy Hour

Get happy

Very Serious

People who claim they are about to create Computer God are given a more respectful hearing than people who say, in response, "lol, no."

But It Wasn't Designed For That

A fair response  - which I have seen! - to an Atari 2600 beating Chat GPT at chess is that ChatGPT wasn't designed for that. That's the point! It isn't designed for most of the things people think it can do, and that companies are claiming it can do!

ChatGPT might be great for responding to emails or quick-drafting a document, but it's not quite ready to take on the world's chess prodigies—or indeed, chess-playing consoles from 50 years ago. In a unique experiment, an engineer pitted the latest ChatGPT 4o model against his Atari 2600's chess engine on the beginner difficulty level, and ChatGPT got handily defeated, eventually conceding.

Sure, Jan

You can just start laughing at anyone who doesn't recognize this as the con that it is.

At one point in the essay, Altman claimed that next year, in 2026, the world will “likely see the arrival of [AI] systems that can figure out novel insights.” While this is somewhat vague, OpenAI executives have recently indicated that the company is focused on getting AI models to come up with new, interesting ideas about the world.

I'm sure for it will come up with some impressive freshman dorm bong hit philosophy that it stole from a 1995 Usenet post.

The Only Time I Was Rooting For Trump

Though I am sad it didn't last longer.

NJ Gov. Primary

I don't really know anything about the winner, Sherrill, but Gottheimer sucks so I am glad he lost (4th place!).

What A Moran

Unsurprisingly, ABC got rid of Terry Moran.  I am very curious if he knew this was likely and just said, "fuck it," or if he was surprised.

As I said, if he didn't know, then he really doesn't understand his own profession.  If he did, good for him!

Morning

Go

Happy Hour

Get happy

I Like A Man Who Knows What He Stands For, Even When I Don't Agree With Him

Or something else

In 2024, Future Forward solicited hundreds of ads for Harris from dozens of Democratic ad makers, then whittled them down to produce those it found the most effective. In charge of the whittling process—and thus, the methodology for whether an ad was “effective” or not—was consulting firm Blue Rose Research, run by David Shor, the ever-ascendant pollster with Sam Bankman-Fried ties. Shor is the key theorist behind “popularism,” the idea that Democrats should exclusively talk about the parts of their agenda that poll well.

Shor’s theory of politics, then, had at its disposal the largest pool of funds in the history of elections, raised to win the most consequential race in the history of elections. Controversially, the group plunged almost all of its record-breaking budget into ads and analytics, and almost nothing into door-to-door field campaigning. It produced message-testing surveys, conducted deep analytics, cross-referenced the trusted data, then backwards-engineered what it determined to be “popular,” in order to make its candidate appear supportive of whatever it was currently optimal to appear supportive of. The result was that the Democrats, and Harris in particular, displayed their best selves, with scientifically engineered precision, in the messages with the greatest financial backing in 2024.

Maybe Mr. Tapper Can Look Into This

 click to embiggen as always

Afternoon

Busy with some stuff. Prepping for a thing I have to do tomorrow.

Lunch

eat

You Can't Do It, My Friends

Even with one teleoperator per vehicle (lol), you can't do safety interventions at driving speed.

Self-driving vehicle developers don’t usually love talking about “teleoperation”—when a human guides or drives robot cars remotely. It can feel like a dirty secret. Shouldn’t an autonomous vehicle operate, well, autonomously?

But experts say teleoperations are, at least right now, a critical part of any robot taxi service, including Tesla's Robotaxi. The tech, though impressive, is still in development, and the autonomous systems still need humans to guide them through less-common and especially sticky road situations. Plus, a bedrock principle of safety engineering is that every system needs a backup—doubly so for new robotic ones that involve two-ton EVs driving themselves on public roads.

All of these companies have had teleoperation, but there is a difference between nudging a car that has pulled over and taking over at 30mph.

Guests

Amazing shitheads.

“We got alerts that ICE was staying in some of the hotels here in Pasadena,” said Jose Madera, director of the Pasadena Community Job Center. “Organizers and community members went around to verify, and we identified that in the AC Hotel, the Westin and in Hotel Dena, there were immigration agents. In the AC hotel, we got word from a staff member that the agents were staying here and questioning the workers–the workers that were cleaning their rooms, the workers that were making their food. They were questioning them and asking for their ID and in a very aggressive way. So that's why our community organizers came here to say we don't want ICE here. We brought elected officials and urged them to not let any ICE agents here.”

Game It Out

After Trump's election, there was a lot of wishcasting in the press about how there would no "resistance" this time. Everyone agreed on the group chat, apparently (I could never quite figure out where this was coming from).

One doesn't have to hold the Dems responsible for what is happening - they are not in charge, I understand that - to see that they aren't very good at gaming out the likelihood of things spinning out of control, the likelihood of people in their communities protesting against their friends and family being snatched away.

"How do we respond when this happens" should have been on the flowchart back in January. I do not think it was.

Morning

too many of these

Monday Night

Rock on.

Morale

Probably super high.

President Donald Trump’s rush to deploy California National Guard troops to Los Angeles has left dozens of soldiers without adequate sleeping arrangements, forced to pack together in one or more federal buildings, resting on the floors of what appear to be basements or loading docks, the Chronicle has learned.

Oh No

He probably got tired of overnight enraged Ketamine emails telling him to make it work gooder.

The head of engineering for Optimus, Tesla’s humanoid robot division, left the company on Friday. Milan Kovac announced his departure on X, insisting that it “will not change a thing” about the company’s plans, which, as of March, meant building thousands of robots this year alone.

Or maybe (if he never naturalized) didn't want to deal with a hostile visa system anymore.

Everyone's Too Intimidated By His Alpha Energy

Probably.

WASHINGTON — The White House is looking for a new chief of staff and several senior advisers to support Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth after a series of missteps that have shaken confidence in his leadership, but it has so far found no suitable takers, according to four current and former administration officials and a Republican congressional aide.

Top Defense Department jobs, including the defense secretary’s chief of staff, are normally considered prestigious and typically attract multiple qualified candidates. But at least three people have already turned down potential roles under Hegseth, according to a former U.S. official, the defense official and a person familiar with the matter.

Lunch

 eat

Some Humor

fake:

real:
 

This Reminds Me Of The Time Sarah Huckabee Sanders Was Politely Asked To Leave A Restaurant

I regularly make that joke in response into various abuses of the public by the state. The point is we saw how political journalists can be motivated to expresss outrage (and outrage which won't get them fired). One of their own - in this particular case, Maggie Haberman's close conspirator, I mean "source" - experienced extremely mild social sanction and it was treated as an injustice most foul.

A journalist's job isn't to hold the powerful accountable, you see, it's their job to ensure the public behaves appropriately. It's their job to ensure the public behaves appropriately towards "them."

An addtional issue with the Sanders incident specifically is that part of DC political culture is that spokespeople are just doing their jobs, that they don't set policy, so it is unfair to hold them responsible for it. Maybe it's OK to protest politicians themselves, but not the people who work for them, even the highest profile ones.

The "cruelty" of the public angers you, but not the cruelty of the state?

Is This Normally How We Refer To People Being Kidnapped In International Waters

BREAKING: A Gaza-bound aid boat carrying Greta Thunberg and other activists has been diverted to Israel, Israel's Foreign Ministry says. https://t.co/M6n5hpVdOe

— The Associated Press (@AP) June 9, 2025

Morning

Monday.

What A Moran

The license to speak freely for certain types of journalists is selective and asymmetric, but if Moran didn't know this would get him yanked (which it did) - and he may have! - then he has precisely zero understanding of the politics of his profession.

Even Cat Turd Abandoned Him

I know it doesn't make any difference in the end, but Trump giving Musk the "loser" treatment is the only brief joy I could ever get out of this administration.

Trump said "no" when asked by NBC's Kristen Welker if he'd like to repair his relationship with Elon Musk. "I think it's a shame that he's so depressed and so heartbroken."

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) June 8, 2025

Among other things, Musk believed his little website fan club would choose him and they did not.

Woke Bill Kristol

I don't trust most of the "NeverTrumpers" - many are just grifters and most of the rest are just Republicans who don't like Trump. 

Not liking Trump is basically the lowest bar possible and I don't feel the need to applaud anyone for tripping over it. And then there's Bill Kristol, who I think is Actually Good now.

The military isn’t being employed to carry out an immigration policy. The immigration policy, and especially the way the administration is choosing to carry it out, is an excuse to call out the military.

— Bill Kristol (@billkristolbulwark.bsky.social) June 8, 2025 at 4:00 AM

Eric Lipton Needs To Have A Chat With The NYT Editorial Board

A few weeks ago, NYT reporter Eric Lipton was chastizing people about the proper use of "corruption" - adopting the John Roberts definition as if it was a universal one.

Corruption requires explict quid pro quo. It is not corrupt to take an action that aligns with the interest of a person who gives you a gift, unless the official action was in direct response to that gift--a bribe. Terms matter. Accuracy and fairness matters. Regardless of what social media wants.

— Eric Lipton NYT (@ericlipton.nytimes.com) May 12, 2025 at 2:02 PM

Stupid people on social media!

Maybe he should have a chat with the editorial board at his paper, which has a slightly broader view.

The self-enrichment of the second Trump administration is different from old-fashioned corruption. There is no evidence that Mr. Trump has received direct bribes, nor is it clear that he has agreed to specific policy changes in exchange for cash. Nonetheless, he is presiding over a culture of corruption. He and his family have created several ways for people to enrich them — and government policy then changes in ways that benefit those who have helped the Trumps profit. Often Mr. Trump does not even try to hide the situation. As the historian Matthew Dallek recently put it, “Trump is the most brazenly corrupt national politician in modern times, and his openness about it is sui generis.” He is proud of his avarice, wearing it as a sign of success and savvy.

Though even here, since when is "old-fashioned corruption" merely taking bribes? How are these provincial hicks from New York City ruling our discourse? Watch one mafia movie challenge.

Morning

Sunday Funday

Saturday Night

Rock on.

America's Worst "Public Intellectuals"

Steven Pinker.

Friendless and Alone

Oh no.

‘We Are Taking Away Elon’s Friends’

Team Trump is serious about getting revenge on turncoat Musk — and that starts with a MAGA popularity contest imposed by the White House

Oh no.

NASA and Pentagon officials moved swiftly this past week to urge competitors to Elon Musk’s SpaceX to more quickly develop alternative rockets and spacecraft after President Donald Trump threatened to cancel Space X’s contracts and Musk’s defiant response.

If only any of them had listened to me years ago. Nobody listens to Atrios.

Seems Bad

Probably is.

Elon Musk’s team at the U.S. DOGE Service and allies in the Trump administration ignored White House communications experts worried about potential security breaches when they installed Musk’s Starlink internet service in the complex this year, three people familiar with the matter told The Washington Post.

The people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive issues, said those who were managing White House communications systems were not informed in advance when DOGE representatives went to the roof of the adjacent Eisenhower Executive Office Building in February to install a terminal connecting users in the complex to Starlink satellites, which are owned by Musk’s private SpaceX rocket company.

Welp

Quite the anti-defamation league we have.

Jonathan Greenblatt, the Anti-Defamation League CEO, repeatedly compared pro-Palestinian student protesters to Islamist terrorists in comments to Republican attorneys general and said the left harbored the “real deal threat” to Jews.

...

“There is a throughline from Occupy Wall Street to BLM to ‘defund the police’ to ‘River to the Sea,’” he added, referring to the Black Lives Matter movement launched last decade ago to protest police violence. “They are the same people, these are the same kind of nihilists.”

Median Age Of Cable News Viewers Is About 68

I honestly wonder what they understand when they hear this.

Morning

Slacker Saturday

Friday Night

Rock on.

Happy Hour

Friday edition

Okay That's Pretty Good

The right jokes are good!

Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) sarcastically highlighted President Trump and billionaire Elon Musk’s apparent rift over the “big, beautiful” spending bill during a hearing Wednesday by posing the question: What will happen to the teen tech wunderkind infamously known as “Big Balls”?

“Now that the national divorce is happening … who’s gonna get ‘Big Balls’?” Moskowitz asked during a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing. “I’m worried about him. The children always get caught in the middle.”

“If he’s out there, I just want him to know we are rooting for him,” the Florida Democrat added, referring to himself as “also a child of divorce.”

Personalities

I find it slightly interesting that Trump is able to keep his cool while continuing to trash Musk, while Musk is just continuing to go insane on that website he owns.

Musk is the classic narcissist, while Trump actually has some broader awareness of his image that persists.

Only slightly interesting.

Eyeball Emoji

Is Mr. Miller still in the cuck chair?

MEET THE MILLERS: Inside the White House, frustration at Katie Miller is widespread. Miller, the wife of White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller and former DOGE spokesperson, is now working for Musk directly, Playbook has learned. But apparently, the arrangement isn’t altogether new. “What drove people here crazy was Katie Miller, and the fact that she was on Elon’s payroll the whole time she was an [special government employee] here,” one administration official tells Playbook. “And, like … who was she looking out for?” (Miller did not return Playbook’s text messages when asked for comment.)

What, exactly, is "Elon's payroll"? I mean, Elon personally, some business entity he controls, etc...

The Academy

One can't boycott every bad actor, but if I still had anything to do with academia, Columbia would be #1 and the University of Michigan #2 on the list.

The University of Michigan is using private, undercover investigators to surveil pro-Palestinian campus groups, including trailing them on and off campus, furtively recording them and eavesdropping on their conversations, the Guardian has learned.

The surveillance appears to largely be an intimidation tactic, five students who have been followed, recorded or eavesdropped on said. The undercover investigators have cursed at students, threatened them and in one case drove a car at a student who had to jump out of the way, according to student accounts and video footage shared with the Guardian.

Slop

Aside from this specific issue, people everywhere are asking LLMs to do things that even its most optimistic (but reasonably honest, which isn't most of them) boosters would tell you they aren't designed to do. They can't perform this task because it just can't! It is not surprising that it doesn't.

The code, using outdated and inexpensive AI models, produced results with glaring mistakes. For instance, it hallucinated the size of contracts, frequently misreading them and inflating their value. It concluded more than a thousand were each worth $34 million, when in fact some were for as little as $35,000.

The DOGE AI tool flagged more than 2,000 contracts for “munching.” It’s unclear how many have been or are on track to be canceled — the Trump administration’s decisions on VA contracts have largely been a black box. The VA uses contractors for many reasons, including to support hospitals, research and other services aimed at caring for ailing veterans.

Then the question is whether the people using it know this and don't care if they just believe that Spicy Clippy is God (the person here appears to be a dumbass).

Sahil Lavingia, the programmer enlisted by DOGE, which was then run by Elon Musk, acknowledged flaws in the code.

“I think that mistakes were made,” said Lavingia, who worked at DOGE for nearly two months. “I’m sure mistakes were made. Mistakes are always made. I would never recommend someone run my code and do what it says. It’s like that ‘Office’ episode where Steve Carell drives into the lake because Google Maps says drive into the lake. Do not drive into the lake.”

Nobody should do what I told spicy clippy to tell them to do! lol dumbasses. Mistakes were made.

How Friedmanesque

The delusion of many self-important people is that most of the country agrees with "me" but somehow something (partisanship!) is preventing the will of the people from being enacted.

Two billionaires will never entertain the notion that to the extent that this is true  - not the supermajority consensus, but the blocking of the will of the people - it is largely because of, you know, the distorting effects of "their" money.

Morning

Every day.

Stonk

 I was busy this afternoon so I missed most of the fun. Still catching up!

The Girls Are Fighting

MILITARY SERVICE

People all across the political spectrum propose versions of this regularly, and the simplest answer is that the military does not want to babysit a bunch of people who have no interest in being there.

America's Worst Newspaper

That fucking newspaper.

I Don't Support What They're Doing, HOWEVER...

Conceding your opponents are right, basically, just going about it the wrong way, is smart Alpha Energy messaging.

“I was in the Pentagon. I was in the CIA before,” says Slotkin. “It's too hard to fire people who are not performing…The way DOGE is doing it is the dumbest, most astrategic way to do things. But I don’t disagree with the concept that we need to do different things.“ pic.twitter.com/7iW4prTmpV

— Alex Bronzini-Vender (@alexbronzini) June 4, 2025

Lunch

eat

It's Trade Talk Day, Again...

Neverending.

President Donald Trump said Thursday that trade officials from the U.S. and China will be meeting soon at a to-be-determined location.

Trump said the upcoming talks were agreed upon during his lengthy phone call with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The “very good” call between the two leaders lasted approximately 90 minutes and focused “almost entirely” on trade, Trump said on Truth Social.

It “resulted in a very positive conclusion for both Countries,” Trump wrote.

Sure, Mr. Zero Sum.

We Got This

Longtime readers of this very fine blog should remember that my basic position, always, is "the Democrats kinda suck, but they're what we have to work with." Sometimes they suck quite a bit less! Sometimes a lot more!

If Chuck Schumer spending his time making a facebook grandpa video opposing any Iran deal doesn't convince you that we have a bit of a leadership problem, I suppose nothing will.

I Have More Alpha Energy Than The Average Blogger

Slotkin keeps boasting about her Alpha Energy. She is the Elon Musk of  Dem senators.

“We just sort of lost some alpha energy,” says Elissa Slotkin. She says she has “some more of that than the average Democrat.” pic.twitter.com/m95x1P3BvB

— Alex Bronzini-Vender (@alexbronzini) June 4, 2025

Morning

I hope you all replenished your Alpha Energy.

Happy Hour

To absent friends.

RIP Jeffraham Prestonian

Longtime community member JP passed away overnight. It's always quite upsetting when a regular passes.  In my mind he was here from the beginning of the blog. I'm sure that wasn't day one, precisely, but I don't remember the place without him.

Online communities are strange places, where you know lots of people both quite well and not at all.  I know many of you actually knew him well, not just in the "online" sense, and someone from the community submitted this for a remembrance, which seemed fitting to me:

Our dear friend, Jeff Preston, aka Jeffraham died in his sleep on the morning of June 4, 2025, just 17 days short of his 62nd birthday.

Jeffraham was the free spirited heart and soul of our blog. He took care of anyone who needed help, especially his beloved roomie, SIL. He never failed to make us laugh. He was passionate about guitars, scooters, music, and especially cats. He loved people; his time at Bananastan made this evident. He had a kind word and a smile for everyone.

He has been one of my very best friends for two decades now. Right now, there's a Jeffraham sized  hole in all of our hearts.

Safe journey, dear friend.

“Only in our dreams are we free. The rest of the time we need wages.”

― Terry Pratchett, Wyrd Sisters

I'll add one more thing. JP will live on forever in this blog, like a little ghost. I don't know why this happened, but at some point he got stuck in the machine.  

When you write/edit a post in blogger's CMS, you can hit the preview button to see how it will look on the site.  When I do this, the post appears with precisely one disqus comment. Every time.

We All Gotta Eat

There is a place in politics for talented mercenaries, but in DC too many of the people who get ahead are the ones who always have their eye on the next career move and who are much more concerned with the next, bigger paycheck.

Soulless grifters aren't going to save us.  Was Jean-Pierre good at her job?  Did she succeed at any aspect of her job - informing the press, informing the public, and, yes, making her boss look good?  

Welp

People get mad at The Left, but every iteration of above-it-all centrism is much more damaging to The Democrats, especially from someone like this.

Lunch

eat

The End Of The Biden Boom

The official (real or fake?) numbers come out Friday, but this is the standard estimate from a payroll company. It only include private sector jobs, so Friday (if real!) could be even worse!

Private sector job creation slowed to a near-standstill in May, hitting its lowest level in more than two years as signs emerged of a weakening labor market, payrolls processing firm ADP reported Wednesday.

Payrolls increased just 37,000 for the month, below the downwardly revised 60,000 in April and the Dow Jones forecast for 110,000. It was the lowest monthly job total from the ADP count since March 2023.

Will Get Worse

There will be a bunch of economists loudly professing that all the data is sound because they know how professional those agencies are, and then they will get quieter and quieter.

Trump administration officials delayed and redacted a government forecast because it predicts an increase in the nation’s trade deficit in farm goods later this year, according to two people familiar with the matter.

That isn't because economists think Trumpers are good, it's because they think economists are good.

Buy or Sell

I don't even know anymore.

Morning

Time to start the party.

Tuesday Night

Rock on.

Happy Hour

Get happy

Coyote

"The Market" has fully decided that TACO is true even as Trump is continuing to increase tariffs and...

Needs More Cats

Didn't see it on the program.

Sales of subscriptions for the coming season of programming at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts are down by about $1.6 million, or roughly 36 percent, compared with last year.

By this point in 2024, the center had generated $4,413,147 in revenue from selling subscriptions to its theater, dance, classical and other seasons of performances. This year, it has generated $2,656,524 as of June 1, plus $155,243 from a new mix-and-match package, according to internal data obtained by The Washington Post.

Certain types of things are going to have a liberal-leaning customer base. I'm sure Trump doesn't care about the finances, but MAGA isn't going to fill the seats of most things that hit a venue like that.

Is It Elon's Fault

Apparently!

At air traffic control towers at two dozen West Coast airports, officials are unable to easily pay to have the windows washed and shades cleaned, said a Federal Aviation Administration employee. A DOGE-ordered overhaul of the payments system means FAA staffers must write statements justifying all expenditures, the employee said — not just for window-washing, but also elevator maintenance and even pens and pencils, the employee said. Purchase orders that used to take 15 or 20 minutes to fill out now consume 1 or 2 hours for each tower.

“These are things that people don’t think about, but clean windows are crucial for controllers,” the employee said. Because he is so often busy with purchase justifications, he has fallen behind on landscaping, fire alarm safety and pest control, all of which are “staples in the air traffic towers,” he said.

Better solve this one, Mr. Duffy, because when the planes go down they're going to blame you anyway!

Abundance

A good piece on the new cool fad.

tl;dr If your whole thing is about breaking through impediments, it's a bit fishy if you are incorrectly identifying those impediments.

...paywall, everything is behind the paywall now. There are always ways around them, but you have to find those ways yourselves. Here's a taste:

The abundance agenda has the virtue of not demanding any significant showdown with capital or corporate power. If all that is standing between here and a progressive utopia is a change in the “political culture” of liberalism, as Klein and Thompson say, we’re in luck. All we have to do is change a couple minds, flip the switch from FRET to BUILD, and let the good times roll.

But the abundance vision is smaller than it purports to be, myopic about power, and flattering to those who have it. It is satisfying — and convenient — to imagine the obstruction is all coming from inside the house, from wokesters and lawyers. The real impediments, however, are simultaneously more banal and more formidable. In the White House, Ramamurti tells me, “the biggest obstacle to fast, decisive, ambitious government action was the Administrative Procedure Act,” which was passed in 1946 at the behest of nervous anti–New Deal businessmen to check the public sector’s wartime economic powers. Time and time again, Ramamurti says, it was fear of lawsuits filed by corporate interests under the APA that thwarted government action.

Lunch

Eat

Mechanical Turks Everywhere

Amazing stuff.

Builder.ai, once touted as a revolutionary AI startup backed by Microsoft, has collapsed into insolvency after revelations that its flagship no-code development platform was powered not by artificial intelligence—but by 700 human engineers in India.

The company marketed its platform as being driven by an AI assistant named “Natasha,” which could supposedly assemble software applications like Lego bricks. But recent reports and commentary have revealed that behind the scenes, customer requests were manually fulfilled by developers, not machines.

Kitchen Table Issues

Is this one coming in strong in the polling?

If TACO Trump is already folding on Iran, the American people need to know about it.

No side deals. pic.twitter.com/T4gnekrGhT

— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) June 2, 2025

Schumer tried to kill Obama's deal with Iran, so he's consistent!

Fema

This isn't GENIUS HI IQ knowledge that he's lacking, this is basic living-in-society stuff.

WASHINGTON, June 2 (Reuters) - Staff of the Federal Emergency Management Agency were left baffled on Monday after the head of the U.S. disaster agency said he had not been aware the country has a hurricane season, according to four sources familiar with the situation.

I usually don't point to people's university credentials, but...

Morning

late start

Happy Hour

Get happy

Call Me. Please?

Flop sweat time.

June 2 (Reuters) - The Trump administration wants countries to provide their best offer on trade negotiations by Wednesday as officials seek to accelerate talks with multiple partners ahead of a self-imposed deadline in just five weeks, according to a draft letter to negotiating partners seen by Reuters.

I'm sure even the dates changing is convincing countries that this administration is serious, operating in good faith, and intending to stick to any agreements.

They also might be assuming the courts will throw all of them out soon. 

Seems Bad

I know at some level they want to break everything, but also at some level I think some of "they" (I recognize there is not one unified entity) think that they can break everything but also have it remain whole.  They are a bit like children who don't understand that a lot of work is required to keep them fed and alive, that it doesn't just happen.

When Kevin Heatley took over as superintendent of Crater Lake National Park in January, he was excited to oversee one of Oregon’s most iconic sites, whose stunning vistas and volcanic formations attract roughly half a million visitors each year.

But after less than five months on the job, Heatley hung up his ranger’s uniform Friday, citing the Trump administration’s staffing cuts at the National Park Service as a major reason for his decision to take a buyout offer.

Excellent Plan, Sir

I think it's fair to say that the US made some bad choices over the years because it was too wedded to "free trade" and allergic to thinking about "industrial policy," even though you have one even if you don't bother to think it through or call it that.

So, yes, the idea that one way or another you should maintain a domestic steel industry is not crazy, and the kind of thing lefties would argue over the years.

But randomly changing the tariff number every few weeks whenever gramps gets bored is not a well-thought-out comprehensive industrial policy that is likely to achieve any sensible goals.

But while the inflationary impact on U.S. domestic prices is widely expected to be severe, the effect in Europe will be more mixed, according to analysts — with some buyers and manufacturers able to benefit from lower prices.

“This was an absolute surprise. Already steel prices in the U.S. are higher than anywhere else, and it is a net importer which needs to have volumes coming in. All this does is raise prices there,” Josh Spoores, head of steel Americas analysis at CRU, told CNBC on Monday.

Lunch

Eat

Oh Really

If only there were months and months and months of trancripts of this guy answering questions...

Speaking to the Trump 100 podcast, Matthew Miller, who, as a state department spokesman, was the voice and face of the US government's foreign policy under Mr Biden, revealed disagreements, tensions and challenges within the former administration. In the wide-ranging conversation, he said: • It was "without a doubt true that Israel has committed war crimes"; • That Israeli soldiers were not being "held accountable"; • That there were "disagreements all along the way" about how to handle policy; • And that he "would have wanted to have a better candidate" than Mr Biden for the 2024 election.

As for this:

"Look, one of the things about being a spokesperson is you're not a spokesperson for yourself. You are a spokesperson for the president, the administration, and you espouse the positions of the administration. And when you're not in the administration, you can just give your own opinions."

Or you could resign, free yourself.

You see, when I was lying about war crimes, I was just following orders, as good employees do.

Welp

The favorite of political journalists, and not just because they all have his personal number.

Hope Greta and her friends can swim!https://t.co/Noab4QyJtV

— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) June 1, 2025

Is Lindsey really suggesting Israel would kill Greta Thunberg? Unhinged antisemitic stuff there.

WE WILL NEVER STOP FIGHTING FOR YOU!!!

You gotta be able to stick up for yourselves, guys, or seem to.

[Dana Bash]: Now, I know you previously warned that the administration charging members of Congress was a -- quote -- "red line." What are you doing now that the red line you talked about has apparently been crossed?

JEFFRIES: Well, let me make clear that the House is a separate and co-equal branch of government, the Congress. We don't work for Donald Trump. We don't work for the administration. We don't work for Elon Musk. We work for the American people.

And we have a responsibility to serve as a check and balance on an out-of-control executive branch. That's the constitutional blueprint that was given to us by the framers of the United States democracy that we have inherited over the last few centuries. And so we're going to continue to undertake our congressional responsibility, notwithstanding efforts by the Trump administration to try to intimidate Democrats.

It's unfortunate that our Republican colleagues continue to be nothing more than rubber stamps for Trump's reckless and extreme agenda. And the American people, I think, will ultimately reject that next year, when we will take back control of the House of Representatives.

In the meantime, in terms of how we will respond to what Trump and the administration has endeavored to do, we will make that decision in a time, place, and manner of our choosing. But the response will be continuous and it will meet the moment that is required.

Giving off "can't even manage to write a sternly worded letter" vibes. 

A problem with people enabling the promotion of their protégés is the key skill of a protégé is sucking up.

The best defense you can make of Jeffries is that he's wonderful at all the other more hidden parts of his job. Skeptical, but let's pretend. Still, KEEP HIM THE FUCK OFF TELEVISION.

Morning

Late start

Boom Boom

All this is way above my pay grade, but for your consideration.

Ukraine has carried out large-scale drone strikes against several airbases deep inside Russia, destroying multiple combat planes, according to the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU).

The operation, dubbed “Spiderweb,” comes on the eve of expected peace talks in Istanbul between Russia and Ukraine, and involved the most ambitious simultaneous strikes on Russian airbases carried out by Ukraine since the war began.

An SBU source said that Russian bombers were “burning en masse” at four airbases hundreds of miles apart, adding that drones had been launched from trucks inside Russia.

Sunday Afternoon

Be best.

Good Day To Stay Home, Austinites

I know that it is hardly news that I am skeptical about whatever Elon's latest is, but I'm *really* skeptical about the robotaxi launch. I suspect it will be hilariously bad!

May 28 (Reuters) - Tesla (TSLA.O), opens new tab is poised to begin its long-awaited robotaxi service in Austin on June 12, Bloomberg News reported, opens new tab on Wednesday, citing a person familiar with the matter.

Buzzwords Of A Past Era

Some of you oldheads remember when people would blather on about "moral clarity" (a thing I possess) and condemn "moral relativism" and "whataboutery" (forms of degenerate sophistry you engage in).
  
Anyway, just throwing that out there.

Morning

Sunday funday

Saturday Night

Rock on.

Saturday Afternoon

Enjoy

The Clue Is Here

I mean, you don't "neogtiate" with bad faith people who are trying to resegregate society and who don't believe deals are are binding.

In turn, a White House official said the administration is relaying to the leaders that “the money simply cannot and will not flow unabated as it has been – and that the universities are incubators of discrimination and the taxpayer cannot support that.”

These conversations come as the administration is investigating dozens of other schools, and as some school leadership comes to Washington.

The White House is looking to strike a deal with a high-profile school, said the first source, who is involved in the higher education response.

“They want a name-brand university to make a deal like the law firms made a deal that covers not just antisemitism and protests, but DEI and intellectual diversity,” this person said.

There will always be too many innocent victims, but any institution that signs on deserves to collapse into the Earth, along with the law firms.

Sure Why Not

Nobody is going to be making big plans based on the ever-changing whims of the mad king. Big international firms hedge against currency exchange risk. There's no way to take out insurance on this shit.

President Donald Trump announced Friday that he would set tariffs on steel imported into the United States at 50%, double their current rate.

Morning

Slacker Saturday.

Friday Night

Rock on.

Happy Hour

Friday edition.

Bad China

Between Trump's incoherent pudding brain, and the general stupidity of those around him, I have no idea what they "want" from China.

Rest in Piss, Bernie Kerik

Yet another example of our glorious news media having a habit of creating "heroes" out of complete shitheads.

Lunch

eat

Likely More Than Fetterman

Get'em.

EXCLUSIVE: Mahmoud Khalil Alleges the Trump Admin and Pro-Israel Groups Coordinated to Target Him

A FOIA request obtained by Zeteo demands the government provide details of its communications about Khalil with several doxxing groups, a Columbia alumni chat, and Sens. Fetterman and Cruz.

Special K

Money can't buy you bladder function.

As Elon Musk became one of Donald J. Trump’s closest allies last year, leading raucous rallies and donating about $275 million to help him win the presidency, he was also using drugs far more intensely than previously known, according to people familiar with his activities.

Mr. Musk’s drug consumption went well beyond occasional use. He told people he was taking so much ketamine, a powerful anesthetic, that it was affecting his bladder, a known effect of chronic use. He took Ecstasy and psychedelic mushrooms. And he traveled with a daily medication box that held about 20 pills, including ones with the markings of the stimulant Adderall, according to a photo of the box and people who have seen it.

Sounds like a problem! There are some obvious points to be made here about security clearances and low level staffers who panic about the "did you ever try marijuana" quuestion, but maybe we can just ponder this for the moment.

Starting out as "a little bit of fun" he said his 20-year addiction nearly killed him.

"It feels like someone's setting fire to your insides," he said.

...

Because of the impact on his bladder, he said he had ended up sleeping in the bath to be closer to the toilet.

"As soon as I fell asleep I'd be back up again to go to the toilet so there was just no sleep involved," he said.

"I've had to lie in the bath and try to get a couple of hours before I'm back up again to go to the toilet because my bladder was so shrunken."

I wonder if Stephen was familiar with Musk's activities.

Stopped Clock

Frankenstein is the monster

Actually, Frankenstein is the name of the creature's creator.

Right, Frankenstein is the monster.

Morning

Good morning all you sleazebag haters of America.

Liberated Once Again

Smell the tariff freedom.

Gold Standard For Science

Some people use LLMs and know that it's cheating but don't care. Some use it because they truly believe there's a genius behind the curtain and I am sure all these guys, who presumably used it for this,are the latter.

Concerning

 Let this sink in.

The back-to-back failures have hampered Starship's development and put a tighter clock on the vehicle's expected operational start. NASA has contracted SpaceX to develop Starship as the lunar lander for the agency's Artemis 3 mission to return astronauts to the surface of the moon. That mission is slated to launch sometime in 2027. Before then, SpaceX has to land at least one uncrewed Starship on the moon and then successfully launch it back into lunar orbit. So far, Starship has not yet completed one full orbit of Earth.

With even odds I'd bet the entirety of the vast Eschaton World Industries fortune on that moon thing not happening. 

Lunch

eat

Welp

I suspect the Elon/Trump messy breakup is somewhat Kayfabe.

A White House official, who requested anonymity to talk about the change, confirmed that Musk was leaving.

Musk’s departure comes one day after he criticized the centerpiece of Trump’s legislative agenda, saying he was “disappointed” by what the president calls his “big beautiful bill.”

The legislation includes a mix of tax cuts and enhanced immigration enforcement. While speaking to CBS, Musk described it as a “massive spending bill” that increases the federal deficit and “undermines the work” of his Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE.

However...

CNN also reported Wednesday that Katie Miller, a top adviser and spokesperson for DOGE, has left her position and is now working with Musk, according to three sources familiar with the matter. She did not respond to a request for comment sent to her White House email, which still appeared to be functioning. A separate White House spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

...

Still, Musk’s relationship with the Millers has become a subject of great intrigue in Washington as DOGE continues to wreak havoc on the federal government. Little is known about how often they interact outside of work and how the relationship grew over the late stages of the campaign into the transition.

“If you can find out anything about Stephen Miller’s social life, I don’t wanna know the answer,” says a longtime Republican operative who knows the couple personally. |

“Stephen and Katie are very attentive to [Musk],” the Republican who referred to Stephen as “prime minister” tells WIRED. There’s also only one audience which truly matters, they say: “He’s got a forgiving audience: the audience of one, and all of us around him.”

America's Worst Humans

Gavin Newsom.

No More Liberation

It was fun for awhile.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal court on Wednesday blocked President Donald Trump from imposing sweeping tariffs on imports under an emergency-powers law, swiftly throwing into doubt Trump’s signature set of economic policies that have rattled global financial markets, frustrated trade partners and raised broader fears about inflation intensifying and the economy slumping.

I was rooting for the lines to go down, so I am a bit disappointed.

Morning

Thirsty Thursday

Happy Hour

Doesn't seem to make people happy 

Biff Gets Biffed

 

Welp

Just in: Texas' former solicitor general has left the AG's office amid sex misconduct allegations and a lawsuit outlining his apparent, months of detailed disclosures to colleagues about his sexual obsession with watching an asteroid anally rape the agency's No. 2 attorney in front of his kids.

— Robert Downen (@robertdownen.bsky.social) May 28, 2025 at 3:35 PM

I am being dead serious. Judd Stone allegedly talked about this asteroid fantasy so often that the agency's No. 2, Brent Webster, discussed it with him and, later fearing for his and his family's safety, consulted with other top officials in the AG's office.

[image or embed]

— Robert Downen (@robertdownen.bsky.social) May 28, 2025 at 3:43 PM

Our Sister Organization

I suspect "journalists against journalism," something which is already less rare than you would think from hearing them talk about themselves, will become quite common.

Lunch

eat

Can. Will?

 Well...

California has already announced that it will sue to maintain its waiver, charging that the Senate had no authority to overturn it. But the Senate operates largely on precedent, and now that the parliamentarian has been disregarded on this point, virtually any action the executive branch takes could be construed as a rule, and therefore subject to fast-track congressional review.

For this reason, Democrats could subject the Senate to time-consuming resolution votes repeatedly, to such a degree that the Senate would not have time to do anything else for the rest of this session of Congress. In other words, Democrats could respond to the waiver vote by paralyzing the Senate, and stopping the giant Trump tax bill from ever reaching the floor.

Georgia State University assistant professor and former House Oversight Committee staffer Todd Phillips laid this out in a Prospect piece earlier this month. Any 30 senators can force a CRA resolution onto the floor, with a required ten hours of debate time. These resolutions would need the president’s signature, and nearly all of them wouldn’t even get the Republican votes necessary to pass the Senate. But according to Senate procedure, they have to be dealt with if enough senators force them onto the floor. They must be debated and voted upon ahead of other Senate business if brought up for consideration. This means that Democrats can tie up the Senate floor for upwards of ten hours with any single CRA resolution.

Starship

It is all above my pay grade, but I have read a few convincing things that assert that Musk's rocket, which is intended to carry humans, is doomed for that purpose.  They might get some successful launches, but you you need a bit of reliability to put humans in it.

Elon Did Another Boom Boom

It would be funny except:

Starship HLS (Human Landing System) is a lunar lander variant of the Starship spacecraft that is slated to transfer astronauts from a lunar orbit to the surface of the Moon and back. It is being designed and built by SpaceX under the Human Landing System contract to NASA as a critical element of NASA's Artemis program to land a crew on the Moon.

And that was before the Trump/Doge era! Just billions given to this grifter. 

Many boombooms to come:

Morning

Boom

Tuesday Night

Rock on.

Happy Hour

Get happy.

Nationalizing The Means Of Production

Comrade Trump

Following his statement Friday, Trump on Sunday told reporters that U.S. Steel will be “controlled by the United States, otherwise I wouldn’t make the deal” and that “it’s an investment and it’s a partial ownership, but it’ll be controlled by the U.S.A.” 

McCormick described the U.S. government’s veto as a “golden share” and suggested that the idea was Nippon Steel’s proposal.

Sure Why Not

Really do not come to the US.

The Trump administration has ordered US embassies worldwide to immediately stop scheduling visa interviews for foreign students as it prepares to implement comprehensive social media screening for all international applicants.

They're gonna ask Grok if you ever said a bad thing about Trump or Israel, or a good thing about Biden, or mocked Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals.

Boom Boom

What I love about "Starship" launches as that every time they blow up, every journalist who covers it quickly types, "Oh that's good actually, they love it when they blow up, they get lots of data which is really important."

British officials told the U.S. they are concerned about the safety of SpaceX’s plans to fly its next Starship rocket over British territories in the Caribbean, where debris fell earlier this year after two of the company’s rockets exploded, according to documents reviewed by ProPublica.

The worries from the U.K. government, detailed in a letter to a top American diplomat on Wednesday, follow the Federal Aviation Administration’s decision last week to grant SpaceX’s request for a fivefold increase in the number of Starship launches allowed this year, from five to 25. Growing the number of launches of the most powerful rocket ever built is a priority for SpaceX head Elon Musk, who is also one of President Donald Trump’s closest advisers.

Of particular concern to British officials is the public’s safety in the British Virgin Islands, Anguilla and the Turks and Caicos Islands — all of which could face debris risk from Starship 9.

Exaggeration, of course, but, really, have some self-respect.

Scheduled explosion is tonight! Maybe this time they won't get that data they love so much! Anything is possible.

Lunch

Eat

There's A Little Yellow Man In My Head

Amazing paranoia in Hegseth-land.

The White House has lost confidence in a Pentagon leak investigation that Pete Hegseth used to justify firing three top aides last month, after advisers were told that the aides had supposedly been outed by an illegal warrantless National Security Agency (NSA) wiretap.

The extraordinary explanation alarmed the advisers, who also raised it with people close to JD Vance, because such a wiretap would almost certainly be unconstitutional and an even bigger scandal than a number of leaks.

But the advisers found the claim to be untrue and complained that they were being fed dubious information by Hegseth’s personal lawyer, Tim Parlatore, who had been tasked with overseeing the investigation.

Seems Bad

As long as "being detained instead of just being told to get on a flight back" is a possibility, this is just going to get worse.

European airlines are freezing their transatlantic growth and pulling back from major U.S. cities like New York, Miami, Los Angeles, and Chicago as they redirect flights to Canada, Mexico, Brazil and Caribbean, where bookings are rising and demand is outpacing the American market. Carriers including Lufthansa, British Airways, Air France, KLM, Iberia, and SAS have adjusted their summer schedules to reflect shifting traveler priorities, with more passengers opting for destinations that offer smoother entry, better seasonal deals, and fewer political complications. The changes mark a clear retreat from the U.S. at a time when international sentiment is cooling and alternative routes are proving far more profitable.

Being denied entry, sucks, too, but a tiny thing compared to being thrown into a cell for months.

As long as (as seems to be the case) various quotas are being pushed on agents, the situation won't improve.

A Big Deal

I do think more people should know that DOGE basically stole a building, acted like a conquering army, and a judge made them give it back.

We love to see it.

[image or embed]

— Marisa Kabas (@marisakabas.bsky.social) May 27, 2025 at 1:26 AM

I don't think all political problems are solved by people knowing the facts more, and I definitely don't think "knowing the facts more" is best achieved by consuming the supposedly smart people's news media, but I also don't think most people know shit like this is happening!

Morning

Holiday weekend over. A thing I had to do this morning was canceled. That snow day feeling!

Happy Hour

get happy

Holiday Afternoon

enjoy

RIP Charlie Rangel

A fixture in the Politics Show for much of my life.

Lunch

eat

It's Tariff Day, Again

Everybody in the circle went long on European stocks today, I'm sure.

Donald Trump has announced that he will pause his threatened 50% tariffs on the European Union until 9 July, after a “very nice call” with EU chief Ursula von der Leyen.

Do The Right Thing

One thing about it being MAY, 2025 is you don't actually have to run every decision through the focus group.

This may have been a tactical mistake. Because now Democratic lawmakers are planning to make a series of public visits to private detention centers in their states starting as early as next week, according to House Democrats and aides who spoke to The Bulwark. The idea is to put a spotlight on the Trump administration’s manipulation of the justice system, attacks on institutions, and targeting of political dissent. But Trump himself created the opening. Because by targeting McIver, he turned the detention visits into a question of congressional oversight.

“Every member of Congress should go visit within the next ten days a private detention center,” Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Illinois) told me, emphasizing the fact that lawmakers have the legal right to conduct oversight of detention centers. “We are not going to stand for this intimidation of members of Congress, and coming after members of Congress to intimidate them so they don’t do oversight.”

I'm not quite sure this is the right way to thread that needle, precisely, but it's something. If they can't even stand up for themselves (Congressional perogative), they certainly can't stand up for you! So do that, at least!

Primaries

Everybody has precisely the same view on primarying candidates: it is good if I prefer the challenger to the incumbent. House members generally won't support primaries against other House members, likewise Senate, but otherwise there is no taboo against it except the ones people make up when convenient.

“Squad” member Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez would trounce Sen. Chuck Schumer in a primary – as the Democratic leader is “bleeding support” from his party and Jewish voters, a stunning new poll found.

Socialist Ocasio-Cortez leads five-term incumbent Schumer by a 54%-33% among likely Democratic voters in the Big Apple, according to the poll conducted by Honan Strategy Group for the Jewish Voters Action Network.

Pelosi endorsed Joe Kennedy when she was Speaker! Think what you want about it, just don't embrace any fake rules.