6.14 No Kings Day.
6.14 Sen. Mike Lee on X: “This is what happens. When Marxists don’t get their way,”
6.14 Brian Klass in The Atlantic: “Trump’s rhetorical incitements to violence extend to politicians too. He has called his political opponents “human scum.” Even more worrying are Trump’s endorsements of violence against specific Democrats. In 2016, he suggested that maybe there was something that “Second Amendment people” could do to deal with Hillary Clinton. In October 2022, when a QAnon disciple who had peddled Trump’s lies about the 2020 election attempted to assassinate then–Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi—and fractured the skull of her husband, Paul, with a hammer—Trump made light of the incident. (His son Donald Trump Jr. posted a photo on Instagram of a hammer and a pair of underwear like the ones Paul Pelosi had been wearing during the attempted murder, with the caption: “Got my Paul Pelosi Halloween costume ready.”) Less than a year later, Trump openly mused that Mark Milley, then the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, should be killed. When such language becomes normalized, deranged individuals may interpret rhetoric as marching orders. In 2018, Cesar Sayoc, a die-hard Trump supporter, mailed 16 pipe bombs to people who frequently appeared as targets in Trump’s tweets. (Nobody died, but only because Sayoc wasn’t skilled at making bombs.) In 2020, Trump tweeted that people should “LIBERATE MICHIGAN!” in response to its COVID policies. Thirteen days later, armed protesters entered the state capitol building. A right-wing plot to kidnap the governor, Gretchen Whitmer, was narrowly foiled months later. It also matters that Trump is one of the biggest vectors for spreading conspiracy theories and misinformation in the United States. When a major political figure disseminates lies about shadowy plots and treasonous acts carried out by the “human scum” on the other side of the aisle, that can increase the likelihood of violence. (Several followers of QAnon, which Trump has repeatedly amplified himself, have carried out political violence based on the conspiracy theory.)”
6.14 In Minnesota, Democratic former House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, were shot and killed in their Brooklyn Park home. Sen. John Hoffman, also a Democrat, and his wife, Yvette, were shot at their Champlin address, about 9 miles away. Authorities identified the suspected assassin as 57-year-old Vance Boelter, an executive at a private security company, and a a former member of the Governor’s Workforce Development Council.
6.12 Israel launches “a preemptive strike” on Iran’s nuclear program and military targets. The strikes kill four senior commanders, including the head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Trump urges Iran to “make a deal” with Israel “before it is too late.”
6.12 U.S. District Judge rules that Trump acted illegally in dispatching the National Guard. Appeals court then stays th decision until a hearing can be held on Tuesday.
6.12 After speaking out at a news conference by the homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, in Los Angeles, Senator Alex Padilla of California is manhandled, wrestled to the floor, and handcuffed.
6.12 Washington Post: “Before Trump took office, about 1 in 16 ICE detainees had no criminal charges or convictions. Now 1 in 4 don’t.”
6.12 Washington Post: “Since January 2024, Russian forces have seized less than 1 percent of Ukrainian territory — an area smaller than the state of Delaware. Russian forces have advanced an average of only approximately 50 meters per day in their offensive around Kupyansk, and approximately 135 meters per day in parts of Donetsk Oblast, where Russia has made its largest gains since January 2024. Russia has taken fewer than 1,800 square miles of new territory, an outcome that decisively falls short of Moscow’s objective to greatly expand its control of Ukrainian territory. Russian advances in some areas have been slower than Allied forces during the grueling World War I offensive in the Somme, a battle which became a byword for costly and futile military operations. For these marginal gains, Russia has paid an extraordinary price in blood and equipment. Russian fatalities in Ukraine now exceed the total number of Soviet and Russian soldiers killed in every war since World War II combined. By this summer, Russia will likely pass 1 million total military casualties.”
6.12 Wolf Hall, by Hilary Mantel
6.12 The Rangers trade Chris Kreider to the Ducks. With 883 regular-season games and 326 regular-season goals, he is the Rangers’ all-time leader in games played and goals. His 123 playoff games is most for any skater in franchise history, and his 48 playoff goals are 14 more than any other player.
6.11 Brian Wilson dies at 82.
6.10 Trump, on Biden, at Fort Bragg: “I’ve known this guy for a long time. He was never the sharpest bulb.”
6.10 Under orders from Trump, 700 Marines and 2000 National Guardsmen are deployed to Los Angeles after aggressive ICE raids prompt angry demonstrations. Gov. Gavin Newsom: “This brazen abuse of power by a sitting president inflamed a combustible situation, putting our people, our officers and even our National Guard at risk. That’s when the downward spiral began. . . He again chose escalation. He chose more force. He chose theatrics over public safety. … Democracy is under assault.”
6.9 Frederick Forsyth dies at 87.
6.9 Sly Stone dies at 82.
6.8 Tom Nichols in The Atlantic: “The American system of government was never meant to cope with a rogue president. Yet Trump is not unstoppable. Thwarting his authoritarianism will require restraint on the part of the public, some steely nerves on the part of state and local authorities, and vigilant action from national elected representatives, who should be stepping in to raise the alarm and to demand explanations about the president’s misuse of the military. As unsatisfying as it may be for some citizens to hear, the last thing anyone should do is take to the streets of Los Angeles and try to confront the military or any of California’s law-enforcement authorities. ICE is on a rampage, but physically assaulting or obstructing its agents—and thus causing a confrontation with the cops who have to protect them, whether those police officers like it or not—will provide precisely the pretext that some of the people in Trump’s White House are trying to create. The president and his coterie want people walking around taking selfies in gas clouds, waving Mexican flags, holding up traffic, and burning cars. Judging by reactions on social media and interviews on television, a lot of people seem to think such performances are heroic—which means they’re poised to give Trump’s enforcers what they’re hoping for. Be warned: Trump is expecting resistance. You will not be heroes. You will be the pretext.”
6.8 David Frum in The Atlantic: “Since Trump’s return to the presidency in January, many political observers have puzzled over a seeming paradox. On the one hand, Trump keeps doing corrupt and illegal things. If and when his party loses its majorities in Congress—and thus the ability to protect Trump from investigation and accountability—he will likely face severe legal danger. On the other hand, Trump is doing extreme and unpopular things that seem certain to doom his party’s majorities in the 2026 elections. Doesn’t Trump know that the midterms are coming? Why isn’t he more worried? This weekend’s events [deploying troops to quell disturbances in Los Angeles] suggest an answer. Trump knows full well that the midterms are coming. He is worried. But he might already be testing ways to protect himself that could end in subverting those elections’ integrity. So far, the results must be gratifying to him—and deeply ominous to anyone who hopes to preserve free and fair elections in the United States under this corrupt, authoritarian, and lawless presidency.
6.6 Washington Post: “Across the government, the Trump administration is scrambling to rehire many federal employees dismissed under DOGE’s staff-slashing initiatives after wiping out entire offices, in some cases imperiling key services such as weather forecasting and the drug approval process. . . .Trump officials are trying to recover not only people who were fired, but also thousands of experienced senior staffers who are opting for a voluntary exit as the administration rolls out a second resignation offer. . . .“They wanted to show they were gutting the government, but there was no thought about what parts might be worth keeping,” said one FDA staffer who was fired and rehired. “Now it feels like it was all just a game to them.”
6.5 Robert Reich: “That any of us have to care about the messy breakup of these two massive narcissists—and that they both individually wield such massive power—is an indictment of our political system and further proves the poisonous influence of Big Money on our democracy.”
6.5 Musk: “False, this bill was never shown to me even once and was passed in the dead of night so fast that almost no one in Congress could even read it! Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate. Such ingratitude.”
6.5 Trump: “Elon and I had a great relationship. I don’t know if we will anymore. . . .I’m very disappointed because Elon knew the inner workings of this bill better than almost anybody sitting here. Better than you people. He knew everything about it. He had no problem with it. All of a sudden he had a problem. And he only developed the problem when he found out that we’re going to have to cut the EV mandate, because that’s billions and billions of dollars.”
6.4 George Will in the Post: “Ukraine’s breathtaking ingenuity, the latest example of which destroyed or damaged dozens of Russia’s long-range bombers on bases 2,500 miles from Ukraine, is in the service of an unflagging valor reminiscent of Britain’s in 1940, when it was isolated and embattled, with the German army at the English Channel. Ukraine’s resilience is inconvenient for those Americans who are eager to proclaim that the geographically largest nation entirely within Europe is inevitably doomed to defeat, dismemberment and domination. Such Americans’ unseemly “realism” has them invested in, and even eager for, Ukraine’s disappearance from the map of European nations. Those Americans should remember Winston Churchill’s 1941 response to French military “realists” who had said in 1940 that Britain would soon have its neck wrung like a chicken. Said Churchill: “Some chicken. Some neck.” Today’s faux “realism” cannot fathom what is at stake in Ukraine. Michael Kimmage can. The director of the Wilson Center’s Kennan Institute, writing in Foreign Affairs, says Putin has “renormalized the idea of large-scale war as a means of territorial conquest.” Putin is, therefore, undoing a war aim enunciated before the United States entered World War II.”
6.3 Elon Musk on X: “This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination. Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.” Minutes later: “It will massively increase the already gigantic budget deficit to $2.5 trillion (!!!) and burden America citizens with crushingly unsustainable debt.” [That post appeared to confuse the annual deficit with the overall increase to the debt over 10 years.] Then: “In November next year, we fire all politicians who betrayed the American people.”
6.3 Adam Tooze in the Times: “The real issue is what happens, under Republican majorities, when the United States is at or close to full employment. The G.O.P.’s tax cuts of the early 2000s were egregious. But questions really began to be asked after the 2017 round, which saw deficits balloon even as unemployment continued to fall to record lows. The United States is a rich economy with a good credit rating. It can bear large debts. And there are many things that would be worth greater U.S. borrowing — green investments, or a huge push on child care and human capital. But America’s deficits aren’t driven by an expansive view of future investments. They are driven by the unwillingness of the richest Americans, who pay by far the most tax, to pay even the modest levels that would be necessary to fund America’s far-from-generous public sector. What makes the country unique is that even as the economy hums along and the wealthiest prosper as never before, a party calling itself conservative is actively conspiring to cut the sinews of the fiscal state. This isn’t normal. And markets are finally, slowly waking up to this fact. To be clear, the point is not that America today is Weimar, or Italy in the 1970s and 1980s. The situation is more puzzling and in some sense worse than that. Those societies, after all, were dealing with objectively difficult social and political crises. By contrast, our fiscal dilemmas today are gratuitous. It is not the historical antecedents, but the vertiginous novelty of this impasse that should give us pause.”
6.2 George Orwell: “Autobiography is only to be trusted when it reveals something disgraceful. A man who gives a good account of himself is probably lying, since any life when viewed from the inside is simply a series of defeats.”
6.2 Keith McNally in I Regret Almost Everything: “You’re never out of the woods with your own kids. Not even when you’re dead and buried.”
6.1 Ukraine’s Security Service, or SBU, launched “Operation Spiderweb,” simultaneously attacking four Russian airfields with drones. Reportedly, 41 airplanes were struck, and $7 billion worth of damage inflicted. The SBU said operatives smuggled the military quadcopters into Russia, later packing them into wooden house-like structures. These were then mounted on trucks, which were driven close to the airfields, where the drones were launched. The proximity and number of small attack drones appear to have given air defense crews little, if any, chance to respond. While details of the attack need to be independently confirmed, initial visual information suggests that this is “a stunning success for Ukraine’s special services,” said Justin Bronk, an influential air power expert at the Royal United Services Institute. “This attack is a window to future war,” said James Patton Rogers, a drone expert who’s the executive director of the Cornell Brooks Tech Policy Institute.