The Conversation -- June 8, 2025
The Washington Post is liveblogging Trump's Hot War on California: “Hundreds of service members arrived in Los Angeles on Sunday, part of the 2,000 California National Guard troops that ... Donald Trump has ordered into the city to intervene in protests against his administration’s immigration sweeps. California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) condemned the move, which a military legal expert said was escalatory because the state did not request assistance but notably did not involve the president invoking the Insurrection Act, which would allow service members under federal orders to perform law enforcement. The city was relatively calm Sunday compared to protests that began Friday after immigration raids in L.A. County swept up more than 100 detainees.” ~~~
~~~ The Los Angeles Times liveblog is here. Of course it's firewalled; I was able to call it up on a freebie, but I haven't tested to see whether or not I can get unlimited updates by refreshing the page.
~~~ Eric Thayer & Jake Offenhartz of the AP: “Members of the National Guard faced off with protesters in Los Angeles on Sunday, and tear gas was fired at a growing crowd that gathered outside a federal complex hours after the federal troops arrived in the city on ... Donald Trump’s orders. The confrontation broke out in front of the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles, as a group of demonstrators shouted insults at members of the guard lined shoulder to shoulder behind plastic riot shields. There did not appear to be any arrests.” ~~~
~~~ Chris Mirasola in Lawfare explains the law behind what Trump is doing to California: "... Donald Trump signed a Presidential Proclamation mobilizing 2,000 National Guard personnel to respond to protests against ICE immigration raids in Los Angeles. This is not an invocation of the Insurrection Act. Instead, the president has relied on a far more limited (though also quite old) theory of inherent presidential authority known as the protective power. In tandem with this theory of constitutional authority, the president has also relied on an emergency statutory authority, 10 U.S.C. 12406, to mobilize National Guard personnel to undertake the duties authorized under the protective power." ~~~
~~~ Marcy Wheeler: “It’s all a transparent confrontation used to invade a blue city. All this comes comes as the hours longshormen at LA ports work have dropped in half due to Trump’s trade war, and some of the workplaces ICE targeted were in the garment district, where actual manufacturing still occurs. In addition, Trump has promised to start cutting Federal grants to California, which led Gavin Newsom to point out that CA is a net donor to Federal taxes. This was a natural escalation stemming directly from Stephen Miller’s shrill tantrums demanding that ICE focus more on law-abiding undocumented people rather than the criminal aliens he lied about during the election.... This inital use of federal troops in a blue city should be understood as an effort to build pressure to help pass the bill. It should also be used as an example of the danger of passing the bill — the kind of authoritarianism that Miller intends to wield if the bill does pass.” ~~~
~~~ David Frum of the Atlantic: “Since Trump’s reelection, close observers of his presidency have feared a specific sequence of events that could play out ahead of midterm voting in 2026: Step 1: Use federal powers in ways to provoke some kind of made-for-TV disturbance — flames, smoke, loud noises, waving of foreign flags. Step 2: Invoke the disturbance to declare a state of emergency and deploy federal troops. Step 3: Seize control of local operations of government — policing in June 2025; voting in November 2026.... The methods Trump threatened in Los Angeles this weekend could be much more effective in November 2026 than the attempted civilian coup of January 2021.” Read the whole article; it isn't long. Thanks to laura h. for this gift link. ~~~
~~~ See also laura h.'s comment below on Tom Nichols' similar take on the Trumpists' playbook. ~~~
~~~ Update. This looks like a gift link to Nichols' column which I obtained from an outside source: “... Donald Trump is about to launch yet another assault on democracy, the Constitution, and American traditions of civil-military relations, this time in Los Angeles. Under a dubious legal rationale, he is activating 2,000 members of the National Guard to confront protests against actions by ICE, the immigration police who have used thuggish tactics against citizens and foreigners alike in the United States. By militarizing the situation in L.A., Trump is goading Americans more generally to take him on in the streets of their own cities, thus enabling his attacks on their constitutional freedoms. As I’ve listened to him and his advisers over the past several days, they seem almost eager for public violence that would justify the use of armed force against Americans.” Again, worth a full read. ~~~
~~~ Marie: Bear in mind that neither Frum nor Nichols is a sensationalist "sky-is-falling" liberal. Frum is a former speechwriter for Dubya, and Nichols has described himself as a "Never-Trump" conservative who taught at the Naval War College. They get Trump's tactics.
~~~ Steve M: "Right now, [Trump's] stormtroopers are deliberately provoking pro-immigrant protesters, which means that his administration is creating the unrest that his call-up of National Guard troops is meant to quell. Whether it was all planned this way or not, that's the formula that's working for Trump economically, and possibly in other areas: he stirs fears, then rides to the rescue, appearing to clean up a mess he made. [The 'clean-ups' improve Trump's poll numbers].... The Leninist slogan was 'The worse, the better.' The second Trump term has begun to operate on that principle. America isn't great again, and shows no signs of becoming great again, but the awfulness of current conditions appear to be why Trump's voters approve of what he's doing. See how hard he's fighting in the midst of all the chaos? He must really love us! But it's his chaos."
Joe DePaolo of Mediaite: “ABC News has reportedly suspended senior national correspondent Terry Moran over a deleted X post.... According to CNN’s Brian Stelter, ABC News said Sunday that Moran has been 'suspended pending further evaluation' following his post. 'The thing about Stephen Miller is not that he is the brains behind Trumpism,' Moran wrote in the deleted post. 'Yes, he is one of the people who conceptualizes the impulses of the Trumpist movement and translates them into policy. But that’s not what’s interesting about Miller. It’s not brains. It’s bile. Miller is a man who is richly endowed with the capacity for hatred. He’s a world-class hater. You can see this just by looking at him because you can see that his hatreds are his spiritual nourishment. He eats his hate. Trump is a world-class hater. But his hatred only a means to an end, and that end his his own glorification. That’s his spiritual nourishment.'” The New York Times story, by Michael Grynbaum, is here.
~~~~~~~~~
Eric Thayer & Morgan Lee of the AP: “Tear gas and smoke filled the air on the southern outskirts of Los Angeles on Saturday as confrontations between immigration authorities and demonstrators extended into a second day and top Trump administration officials vowed to prosecute anyone who interferes with enforcement. Border Patrol personnel in riot gear and gas masks stood guard outside an industrial park in the city of Paramount, deploying tear gas as bystanders and protesters gathered on medians and across the street. Some jeered at officers while recording the events on smartphones.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Jesus Jimenez, et al., of the New York Times: “The Trump administration said it planned to deploy the National Guard to Los Angeles on Saturday after federal immigration agents in riot gear squared off with hundreds of protesters for a second consecutive day.... California officials, including Mayor Karen Bass of Los Angeles and Gov. Gavin Newsom, both Democrats, condemned the raids. The governor took particular issue with the arrest on Friday of David Huerta, the president of the California chapter of the Service Employees International Union.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Yes, we do live in a fascist country: ~~~
~~~⭐Shawn Hubler & Laurel Rosenhall of the New York Times: Donald “Trump took extraordinary action on Saturday by calling up 2,000 National Guard troops to quell immigration protests in California, making rare use of federal powers and bypassing the authority of the state’s governor, Gavin Newsom. It is the first time since 1965 that a president has activated a state’s National Guard force without a request from that state’s governor, according to Elizabeth Goitein ... [of] the Brennan Center for Justice.... The last time was when President Lyndon B. Johnson sent troops to Alabama to protect civil rights demonstrators in 1965, she said. Mr. Newsom, a Democrat, immediately rebuked the president’s action. 'That move is purposefully inflammatory and will only escalate tensions,' Mr. Newsom said, adding that 'this is the wrong mission and will erode public trust.' Governors almost always control the deployment of National Guard troops in their states. But the directive signed by Mr. Trump cites '10 U.S.C. 12406,' referring to a specific provision within Title 10 of the U.S. Code on Armed Services. Part of that provision allows the federal deployment of National Guard forces if 'there is a rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States.'... Although some demonstrations have been unruly, local authorities in Los Angeles County did not indicate during the day that they needed federal assistance.” A Politico story is here. A related AP report is here. ~~~
~~~ Marie: When LBJ called in the National Guard, he did so to protect the people from their local government. Trump is calling up the Guard to protect the government from the people. And so we have our second Trump chiasmus in as many days. ~~~
~~~ Hegseth, Vance, Miller Are Euphoric. Sandra Stojanovic & Omar Younis of Reuters: "Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth warned that the Pentagon was prepared to mobilize active-duty troops 'if violence continues' in Los Angeles, saying the Marines at nearby Camp Pendleton were 'on high alert.'... Trump signed a presidential memorandum to deploy the National Guard troops to 'address the lawlessness that has been allowed to fester,' the White House said in a statement. Trump's border czar, Tom Homan, told Fox News that the National Guard would be deployed in Los Angeles on Saturday. California Governor Gavin Newsom ... posted on X that Trump was deploying the National Guard 'not because there is a shortage of law enforcement, but because they want a spectacle,' adding: 'Don't give them one. Never use violence. Speak out peacefully.' Newson said it was 'deranged behavior' for Hegseth to be 'threatening to deploy active-duty Marines on American soil against its own citizens.'... 'Insurrectionists carrying foreign flags are attacking immigration enforcement officers, while one half of America's political leadership has decided that border enforcement is evil,' Vice President JD Vance posted on X late on Saturday. Senior White House aide Stephen Miller, an immigration hardliner, described the protests as a 'violent insurrection.'" MB: This is a moment of unparalleled exhilaration for Drunk Pete, the Couch Humper & the Ghoul. ~~~
~~~ Lydia DePillus & Orlando Londoño of the New York Times: “The chaos that engulfed Los Angeles on Saturday began a day earlier when camouflage-clad federal agents rolled through the garment district in search of workers who they suspected of being undocumented immigrants.... [This] was not an isolated incident. Last week, at a student housing complex under construction in Tallahassee, Fla., masked immigration agents loaded dozens of migrants into buses headed to detention centers. In New Orleans, 15 people working on a flood control project were detained. And raids in San Diego and Massachusetts — in Martha’s Vineyard and the Berkshires — led to standoffs in recent days as bystanders angrily confronted federal agents who were taking workers into custody. The high-profile raids appeared to mark a new phase of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, in which officials say they will increasingly focus on workplaces — taking aim at the reason millions of people have illegally crossed the border for decades. That is an expansion from plans early in the administration to prioritize detaining hardened criminals and later to focus on hundreds of international students. 'You’re going to see more work site enforcement than you’ve ever seen in the history of this nation,' Thomas D. Homan, the White House border czar told reporters recently. 'We’re going to flood the zone.'” ~~~
~~~ Marie: IOW, the point is not to rid us of dangerous, threatening criminals. It is to rid us of people who are willing to stand in the noonday sun for a chance to do the work most citizens won't do. ~~~
~~~ Orlando Mayorquín & Jesus Jimenez of the New York Times: “Federal agents in tactical gear armed with military-style rifles threw flash-bang grenades to disperse an angry crowd near downtown Los Angeles on Friday as they conducted an immigration raid on a clothing wholesaler, the latest sign of tensions between protesters and law enforcement over raids carried out at stores, restaurants and court buildings.... The raid at the clothing wholesaler began about 9:15 a.m. in the Fashion District, less than two miles from Los Angeles City Hall. It was an extraordinary show of force. Dozens of federal agents wearing helmets and green camouflage arrived in two hulking armored trucks and other unmarked vehicles, and were soon approached by a crowd of immigrant activists and supporters. Some agents carried riot shields and others held rifles, as well as shotguns that appeared to be loaded with less-than-lethal ammunition.” The link appears to be a gift link. ~~~
~~~ How to Face Down a Tyrant. Robert Reich on Substack: “Trump’s action is extreme although technically legal.... Why is he doing it, and why now? Because Trump can’t stand to be humiliated — as he has been [re: several matters] in the last two weeks.... So ... like any bully, he tries to find another way to display his power — especially over people whom he doesn’t consider 'his' people.... Trump wants to escalate tensions.... We cannot be silent in the face of Trump’s dictatorial move. But we must not succumb to violence. What is needed is peaceful civil disobedience.... Americans who do not attempt to strike back, but who do what many of us did during the Civil Rights and anti-Vietnam War movements — peacefully but unambiguously reject tyranny.” ~~~
~~~ Josh Marshall of TPM: "We’re very clearly entering a moment of grave danger. My main thought about this is to remember – as we’ve said in other contexts – that the fight to preserve the American republic remains fundamentally one over public opinion. The President has a lot of power here for violence and mischief. But he’s not in charge of what people think about it...." ~~~
~~~ Digby has more from Marshall and others, including a skeet by Kara Swisher that would shut down the Trumpy Testosterone Theatrical Performance if the boys could be controlled. (MB: We're not hearing much from Kristi in all this, and we know she has the outfits for it. Maybe she and her get-away handbag were out dining over the weekend.)
Fascist Fathead Lashes Out Again. Amy Wang of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump on Saturday threatened 'very serious consequences' against Elon Musk if the tech billionaire and former adviser were to fund any Democratic candidates, the latest escalation in rhetoric in the messy breakup between the two former allies.... Trump told [NBC News on Saturday] that he assumed his relationship with Musk was over and also continued to insist, as he did in several interviews with media outlets Friday, that he was too busy to reach out to Musk.... 'I think it’s a very bad thing, because he’s very disrespectful. You could not disrespect the office of the president,' Trump told NBC News on Saturday.” The NBC News story is here. MB: Trump asserts that he himself is “the office of the president.” He's not an office; he's an ass. One does not disrespect the office when criticizing the person who is disgracing it. Indeed, in the very act of threatening to use the power of the presidency to harm someone for exercising his Constitutional right of free speech is deeply disrespectful to the office and is a violation of the oath of office.
Ben Rhodes in a New York Times op-ed: Donald “Trump has more than doubled his personal wealth since starting his 2024 election campaign. Billions of foreign dollars have flowed into his family’s real estate and crypto ventures. A plane that doubles as a 'palace in the sky' has been given for Mr. Trump’s use by the government of Qatar. It is easy to dismiss this as just a bigger and more brazen version of the self-dealing we saw during the first Trump term. But it poses a more fundamental danger. Our political system is being transformed into something that no longer serves the people. Indeed, the United States is seemingly becoming just another country with a corrupt strongman personalizing and profiting from power.... To build a movement powerful enough to push back on Mr. Trump’s self-dealing, Democrats must show people how it will affect their lives. The outrage isn’t just that the Trumps are getting richer...; it’s that your car payments and groceries will be more expensive because of tariffs, that you could lose your job if A.I. is unregulated and that the world will become more dangerous if there are no rules — only deals and the perpetual aggrandizement of the president’s ego.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: I imagine Trump would be a criminal even if he were intelligent and well-read, but maybe he would not be so obvious about it. I often miss some of the remarkably ignorant stuff Trump says, because I can't stand to watch his interviews and I rely a lot on print reporting. So I didn't know this: as almost an aside to her newsletter today, Heather Cox Richardson writes, “In late April, in an interview with Terry Moran of ABC News, Trump showed Moran that he had had a copy of the Declaration of Independence hung in the Oval Office.... Moran used Trump’s calling attention to the Declaration to ask a softball question. He asked Trump what the document that he had gone out of his way to hang in the Oval Office meant to him. Trump answered: 'Well, it means exactly what it says, it’s a declaration. A declaration of unity and love and respect, and it means a lot. And it’s something very special to our country.'” Clearly, Trump has read neither the Declaration itself (which isn't very long) nor anything about it. As a March 2025 AP story put it, “The document is among the new decor Trump has installed.” I'm surprised he hasn't had it gilded. (It is in a gold frame, but it's a plain gold frame; no Rococo shells and florals and leaves and swirly things.)
Borowitz Report: "In a bold attempt at high-stakes diplomacy, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy offered on Friday to broker a peace deal between Elon Musk and Donald J. Trump." (Also linked yesterday.) And this, via Borowitz: ~~~
The Coalition of the Gullible Is Fraying. Nate Cohn of the New York Times: “The long-awaited breakup between ... [Donald] Trump and Elon Musk was as personal and petty as anticipated, and yet it’s a sign of something much more than a conflict between two of the world’s most powerful and mercurial men. It’s a signal that Mr. Trump is not finding it easy to hold his populist conservative coalition together.... Mr. Trump won a second term with a much broader political coalition than the one that brought him to the presidency in 2016. He added millions of young and nonwhite voters to his base of older, white, working-class populists and stalwart Republicans. He also added considerable support from anti-woke and anti-establishment elites who previously backed Democrats.... Less than five months into Mr. Trump’s term, there are already indications that this broader coalition is fraying.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: I still think calling Trump a "populist" is ridiculous. A populist does things that the people -- i.e., certain voters -- think are in their interest. For instance, Mussolini made the trains run on time. George Wallace suppressed people of color. But Trump's "people" never asked to pay high (and volatile) tariffs and most didn't ask to get rid of the guys who framed their new houses or picked their vegetables. They didn't ask for in-your-face corruption. And they didn't ask for tax breaks for billionaires. They didn't ask to be kicked off of Medicaid or get dropped from Obamacare insurance. Trump's pitch might have been "populist," but his actual policies are largely anti-populist -- and therefore unpopular. that's why the Coalition of the Gullible will not hold.
Christian Davenport of the Washington Post: “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 ... Donald Trump threatened to cancel Space X’s contracts and Musk’s defiant response. Government officials were especially stunned after Musk responded to Trump with a salvo of his own: SpaceX would stop flying its Dragon spacecraft, a move that would leave the space agency with no way to transport its astronauts to the International Space Station. Musk later recanted his threat. But it alarmed officials at NASA, which entrusts SpaceX with the lives of its astronauts, and at the Pentagon, which relies heavily on the company to launch its most sensitive satellites.... The concerns are compounded by the fact that [SpaceX's] competitors have been slow to catch up, leaving SpaceX’s dominance largely unchallenged and the government with few options.” ~~~
~~~ Lucia Sang of CBS News: "Sen. Elizabeth Warren is asking Secretary of State Marco Rubio for information on the Trump administration's contingency plans if billionaire Elon Musk breaches his companies' current contracts with the U.S. amid the ongoing public fall out between him and ... [Donald] Trump. In a letter to Rubio as acting national security adviser..., the Massachusetts Democrat mentioned Mr. Trump's proposal to terminate Musk's government contracts and subsidies, which the world's richest man followed with a threat that SpaceX would 'begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately.' Musk has since walked back his threat. 'No petty social media fight between the president and a billionaire should jeopardize U.S. national security,' Warren said.... The senator [also] asked for information regarding the impact on U.S. agencies' satellite communications if Musk's Starlink is turned off. Additionally, she asked Rubio to provide any analysis that the Trump administration has conducted 'of its authorities and options under the Defense Production Act to address vendor lock, monopolies, or contractor refusal to meet national security needs.'"
Hey, Donald. It looks as if Elon and his Chinese friends -- to name a few -- are listening in on your calls. ~~~
~~~ Joseph Menn of the Washington Post: “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 DOGE personnel installed Musk’s Starlink internet service in the complex this year, three people familiar with the matter told The Washington Post. The people ... 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. The people said those managing the systems weren’t able to monitor such connections to stop sensitive information from leaving the complex or hackers from breaking in.... [A Starlink guest] WiFi network was still appearing on White House visitors’ phones this week.” (Also linked yesterday.)
What Happens When the Dogs Catch the Car. Glenn Thrush, et al., of the New York Times: Kash “Patel and [Dan] Bongino, partisan showmen placed in positions previously held by people with greater experience, earned their bona fides in Mr. Trump’s camp by promoting conspiracy theories, making promises of what they would accomplish under Mr. Trump when he returned to power based on fictional or exaggerated premises, pledging to reveal deep-state secrets and vowing swift vengeance on their enemies. It has now fallen on Mr. Patel, Mr. Bongino and Attorney General Pam Bondi to make good on the promises explicit and implied — or show how hard they are trying. But they are running what amounts to a conspiracy theory fulfillment center with unstocked shelves, critics say.... Mr. Trump himself campaigned on the spurious idea that immigrant criminals had invaded the United States like a foreign army.... He has flirted so often with the QAnon conspiracy theory, which falsely holds that prominent Democrats like Hillary Clinton are dangerous pedophiles, many followers still cannot fathom why Mrs. Clinton and other plotters are not in prison.”
John Hudson & Kate Brown of the Washington Post: “The chief executive of one of the world’s top consulting firms apologized to staff and admitted 'process failures' in the company’s decision to help design and run a controversial Israeli-backed group that supplanted the work of the United Nations to deliver aid to the Gaza Strip.... Christoph Schweizer, the CEO of Boston Consulting Group, said his company had fired two partners involved in the Israeli-American effort and launched a 'formal investigation' to ensure 'this does not happen again....' The apology letter is the latest fallout from the decision by Israel and the United States to bypass the U.N. and channel the delivery of essential aid through the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), an opaque entity that has limited aid delivery to a few distribution hubs overseen by U.S. private security contractors in coordination with the Israel Defense Forces.
“The GHF came under immediate criticism from the U.N. and aid groups, who expressed concerns about the independence of the program. Hours before the group began operations, the foundation’s executive director, Jake Wood, resigned, saying that its plans were inconsistent with 'humanitarian principles.' The rollout of the program has seen crowds of Palestinians come under gunfire while trying to collect food.... Nearly 50 Palestinians have reportedly been killed and 300 others wounded near the distribution center that Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the U.N. Palestinian relief agency, has called a 'death trap.'” ~~~
~~~ Marie: I did not realize how deeply involved the U.S. was in creating and maintaining this "death trap." Now I'm doubly horrified. Jake Wood and others have claimed that GHF is part of a policy that "forcibly dislocates or displaces the Palestinian population." So naturally, I'm thinking this is all part of Trump's Gaza Riviera con.
Chris Geidner, the Law Dork, on the Supremes' recent DOGE decisions: "On Friday afternoon, heading into the weekend, the U.S. Supreme Court told the Trump administration that the non-department Department of Government Efficiency can more or less do what it wants. In a pair of orders on the shadow docket, the court’s conservatives — over the objection of the liberal justices — allowed DOGE to access individualized, sensitive Social Security data for all Americans even as they prevented Americans from being able to access information about DOGE.... In the [second] case, the Supreme Court again granted the Trump administration’s request for a stay — and did so, again, over the objection of the liberal justices. This time, though, the conservative justices prevented access to DOGE’s data. This order came in a case brought by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), and it relates to whether DOGE is subject to public records requests under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) — or whether it is, in effect, exempted for now from such requests as a presidential record.... [The right-wing justices] made new law restricting the public’s access to our government by expanding the scope of insulation the president and executive branch receive from even the minimal scrutiny provided by FOIA." More on these rulings linked in yesterday's Conversation. ~~~
~~~ Scott Lemieux is incensed: “Just how authoritarian are the Republicans on the Supreme Court? The shadow docket knows[.]... 'If Trump wants to do it, it’s legal' is a kind of legal doctrine, I guess.” Worth reading Lemieux' whole post.
Paige Cunningham of the Washington Post: “Joe Biden’s doctor should have given him a cognitive test during his final year as president because of his age, Barack Obama’s former physician said in an interview, contending that the results would have helped the White House and the public understand whether Biden was up to serving another four years. A report by White House physician Kevin O’Connor in February 2024 didn’t include any mention of neurocognitive testing for the then-81-year-old Biden. Jeffrey Kuhlman, who held the same job under Obama and has called for cognitive testing for presidents and presidential candidates, said Biden would have benefited from such a test given his age.... Kuhlman also said the 2024 report merely assessed Biden’s health when it should have considered his fitness to serve in one of the most taxing jobs on the planet.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: I tend to agree with Kuhlman. However, he should have said in the same sentence, "Whoever has assessed Donald Trump to be fit to serve should lose his medical license." And I'm serious.
Leo Dominguez, et al., of the New York Times: “... the WorldPride parade on Saturday in Washington, D. C..., was part of the three-week WorldPride festival, one of the biggest celebrations for the L.G.B.T.Q. community in the world. Attendees were spotted carrying flags representing Finland, Iran, Spain and Britain.... The parade was heavy on security but far heavier on floats, with people marching along the route and throngs of partyers cheering them on from the sidelines. By late afternoon, some sidewalks were barely passable.... Amid the joy and celebration, there was still an undercurrent of anger and worry. The parade route wound its way to within less than a third of a mile of the White House, and ... [Donald] Trump’s moves to curb the rights of the L.G.B.T.Q. community weighed heavily on many paradegoers and prompted some not to attend at all.... The festival was due to conclude Sunday with a rally on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial followed by a march to the U.S. Capitol building.” Photos accompanying the story are awesome.
Tom Sullivan of Hullabaloo publishes these organizations' Web addresses so you can find a place near you (or not) to express yourself on No Kings Day. ~~~
No Kings Day, June 14th
The Resistance Lab
Choose Democracy
Indivisible: A Guide to Democracy on the Brink
You Have Power
Chop Wood, Carry Water
Thirty lonely but beautiful actions
Attending a Protest Surveillance Self-Defense
~~~~~~~~~~
Arkansas. Ben Brasch of the Washington Post: “A former Arkansas police chief who escaped from prison while serving time on murder and rape convictions was captured Friday after tracking dogs picked up his scent, officials said. Grant Hardin, who served in the top police job in Gateway, Arkansas, was found in Izard County, about a mile and a half from the facility he escaped on May 25, the Arkansas Department of Corrections said.... Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R) thanked law enforcement for the search and said Border Patrol helped capture Hardin.”
Texas. Edgar Sandoval of the New York Times: “Gina Ortiz Jones, a Filipino American who served as under secretary of the Air Force during the Biden administration, won a runoff election on Saturday to become the mayor of San Antonio, making her the first openly gay leader of the seventh-largest city in the country. Ms. Jones, 44, defeated Rolando Pablos, 57, a Mexican immigrant and former Texas secretary of state known for his close ties to Gov. Greg Abbott.... The election was a test of Latino sentiment after the dramatic shift of Hispanic voters toward Donald J. Trump in 2024. Kamala Harris handily won San Antonio, a Latino-majority city and Democratic stronghold, but Mr. Trump made significant gains in the city on his way to a 14-percentage-point victory in Texas.”
~~~~~~~~~~
Colombia. Julie Turkewitz, et al., of the New York Times: “A conservative Colombian senator, presidential hopeful and grandson of a former president was shot from behind at a campaign event on Saturday in the capital, Bogotá, according to his party. The shooting of the senator, Miguel Uribe Turbay, 39, by unknown perpetrators comes amid escalating political tension in the country as the country’s leftist president, Gustavo Petro, tries to push through changes to labor regulations that Mr. Uribe and other conservatives oppose. Conflict between armed groups also continues to plague the country, though mostly in the countryside.” ~~~
~~~ Frances Mao & Ian Aikman of BBC News: "A Colombian presidential candidate is in a critical condition after he was shot three times - reportedly twice in the head - at a campaign event in the capital, Bogotá. Miguel Uribe Turbay, a 39-year-old senator, was attacked while addressing supporters in a park on Saturday. Police arrested a 15-year-old suspect at the scene, the attorney general's office said."
Greenland/France. Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Oaf? Roger Cohen & Jeffrey Gettleman of the New York Times: “In a challenge to ... [Donald] Trump’s vow to take control of Greenland, President Emmanuel Macron of France will visit the enormous Arctic island on June 15 with the aim of 'contributing to the reinforcement of European sovereignty.' The French presidency announced the visit on Saturday, saying that Mr. Macron had accepted an invitation from Jens-Frederik Nielsen, Greenland’s prime minister, and Mette Frederiksen, the Danish prime minister, with whom it said Mr. Macron would discuss 'security in the North Atlantic and the Arctic.'... Mr. Macron, who has seen in the various provocations directed at Europe by the Trump administration an opportunity for European assertion of its power, will be the first foreign head of state to go to Greenland since Mr. Trump embarked on his annexation campaign this year.... The French announcement did not allude to Mr. Trump or the United States, but it was clear that the intent and symbolism of the visit is that Greenland, a vast and mineral-rich island, is not there for the taking on the whim of an American president. Early this year, France’s foreign minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, offered to send troops to help defend the island. Denmark demurred.”
Share Article
Reader Comments (21)
To experience a different sad - from the one t**** is provoking - a photo essay in The Atlantic by Alan Taylor
Oceans Awash in Plastic Waste
Get Back to Work
"Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA) says Republicans’ next goal is to kick seniors off Social Security: “Get off of Social Security. Get back into the workforce.”"
Science
"Scientists in Japan Develop Non-Toxic Plastic That Dissolves in Seawater Within Hours
Japanese scientists were thrilled to receive significant interest from the packaging industry over their new seawater-degradable plastic.
Breaking apart into nutritious compounds for ocean-borne bacteria in just 2 to 3 hours depending on the size and thickness, the invention could be a major solution to reducing plastic waste in the environment."
GI Rights Hotline
From last week's local paper. Not a sermon, exactly, but today is another Sunday and I did include one not-so-sly political reference.
Spring Break
It’s spring and time for a break. No, not on the beaches of California, Florida or Mexico, but a break from the political news to talk about the season.
This year’s spring has brought its typical mixed bag of weather, an off and on wet May, then a mostly clear and sunny Memorial weekend. By month’s end, the cilia, tulips, daffodils, and lilacs had had their day, but the grass, as it always does this time of year, still begs for frequent mowing.
Since the 1950’s, when my much shorter and younger legs pushed that big Lawn Boy mower through our Arlington yard, spring for me has always been mowing season. There were my parents’ and grandparents’ lawns in Arlington, and in my early teens the church’s lawn as well. Later there was the Big Lake lawn, followed by the one in Coupeville. For the last forty years, it’s been Skagit County mowing, the first cutting often a chore because the grass grew high before I had time to mow it. Many places over many years, all filling the spring air with the same sweet smell of freshly mown grass.
Along with the many lawns were the succession of gardens. The soil to prepare, the seeds to plant, the hoeing that never seemed to end, and finally the fresh vegetables that graced our tables, no matter where we were. This year will be no different. Some seeds are already in the ground, the tomato plants are set out, and the summer and fall harvests are not that far away.
But there is one big difference. While the grass and weeds grow just as fast and tall as ever, I’m now older and slower. Lawns that once took two hours to mow now take three, and the backyard dahlia patch I used to spade in less than two days, took much longer this year, even with the example that memories of my sturdy grandfather set, urging me along.
I can still see him, older then than I am now, turning his whole backyard vegetable garden by hand. He worked the sandy Arlington soil methodically for hours, as if an eighty-plus-year-old man spading a large garden were the most natural thing in the world.
From what I know of my grandfather’s early life on the Minnesota farm where he was raised, I’d guess that for him it was. For his immigrant family, hard work was the expectation. I heard (not from him, for he was a man of few words) that as a child he spent days clearing rocks, some the size of small boulders, from the land, loading them on a horse-drawn sled, then moving and stacking them in a large pile, unintentionally erecting a fitting monument to the hard work he early learned to do.
Though my grandfather, who was born decades before the first airplane took flight and died the year man landed on the Moon, is long gone, here in Skagit County I still see many workers in the fields, most members of ambitious, hard-working immigrant families much like his.
Thinking back on it now, spring and work may have been linked for me long before I pushed my first lawn mower. I remember having a child-sized set of wood-handled metal garden tools. Once while walking the four blocks to my grandparents’ house, miniature hoe in hand, I did a little gardening in a neighbor’s tulip bed. Because along with the uprooted weeds I’d also left a few tulip carcasses behind, I soon learned those neighbors were not a bit pleased with my work.
But there is far more to spring than unending toil. Spring is also a feast to the eye and ear. One colorful flower follows another. Rhododendrons are still in glorious bloom, and last week, as I stood next to the open door of my pickup, I was surprised by something suddenly landing on the cap I had just put on my head.
I stood still, wondering what it was. After a few moments, I slowly and carefully removed my cap, held it in front of me and saw the young robin that had chosen my red cap as a prime place to land. I thought it might have been injured, it sat so quietly, but it wasn’t. When I gave the cap a gentle flick, the robin gave a short “cheep” and flew away.
I couldn’t have asked for a nicer sign of spring, and for this one I didn’t have to do a lick of work.
@RAS: I'm going to be super-charitable & give Taskmaster Mike the benefit of the doubt. A small percentage of people who are on Social Security are not seniors but working-age people with disabilities. And I suppose a teeny percentage of them are malingerers who are actually able-bodied.
Republicans, you know, think -- or pretend to think -- that almost everybody on Medicaid is too lazy to work and Republicans can save trillions of taxpayer dollars by catching out the slackers. So it stands to reason that Mike S. Legree thinks the same of people receiving SSI disability payments. So MAYBE that's who he's talking about when he says he wants to get people on Social Security back in the workforce.
On the other hand, digby and Tyler Cohen might be right about Mike. He doesn't seem all that bright.
Independent
"Kash Patel dragged for ‘hit a cop, you’re going to jail’ threat to LA anti-ICE protesters: ‘Unless it’s for Trump’
Social media users were quick to point out the different stance taken by the administration in relation to the January 6 rioters – hundreds of whom were pardoned by President Trump"
What happens if protesters wore red hats during their protests? Maybe borrow their racist uncle's Trump 2028 t shirt for the confrontation. Would they shoot their bean bags and tear gas at people holding signs of Fat Hitler Rambo riding a dinosaur and holding a m16? Of course they will, but maybe they will hesitate for a second or maybe they won't add the extra three shots once they are already on the ground.
Marie,
We are going to need to replace all these day laborers with someone. And the kids won't be able to replace them all. Plus some of them are still in school during part of the day so gramps can fill in on the roofing crew or climb the ladder and pick some oranges while junior is being taught able the evil senile clone that stole the election with his technological trickery from the strong brave genius superman Donald the Pure.
David Frum, in The Atlantic believes
This is a dress rehearsal
"if the Trump-Hegseth threats have little purpose as law enforcement, they signify great purpose as political strategy. Since Trump’s reelection, close observers of his presidency have feared a specific sequence of events that could play out ahead of midterm voting in 2026:
Step 1: Use federal powers in ways to provoke some kind of made-for-TV disturbance—flames, smoke, loud noises, waving of foreign flags.
Step 2: Invoke the disturbance to declare a state of emergency and deploy federal troops.
Step 3: Seize control of local operations of government—policing in June 2025; voting in November 2026."
RAS,
Not to worry! Stalwart geniuses in the Party of Traitors have a solution for everything!
Medicare standing in the way of billionaire tax cuts? Send grandpa and granny back to work. Lazy moochers!
No one to fill those jobs formerly handed by hard working immigrants now deported, imprisoned, sent off to foreign gulags, or too afraid to work? No prob! Down in MAGA Wonderland, aka Florida, Go-go Boots Rhonda sez it’s time to rollback child labor restrictions..
Yeah! Eighth graders staying home to do schoolwork? To hell with that! Here’s a shovel kid. Start digging.
That lazy kid mooching off Medicaid? Not anymore. Take an aspirin kid, and have fun in the workhouse.
The nastiest, most inhuman villains in Dickens novels are put to shame by these mustache twirling black hatted sons of bitches.
Test.
Ken,
Many thanks for your meditation on spring. Your mention of cutting the grass brought back memories of pushing a hand mower through high grass as a kid. When I was a little older, several baseball buddies and myself rented power mowers so we could cut the grass on an overgrown, forgotten field. We had ourselves a fine patch of ground for games lasting weeks until the grass got high enough once again to lose a ball in the outfield rough.
Last night, I sat on the front porch with Rocket after a walk. We watched two deer come across the lawn. Rocket had long since learned the folly of trying to chase these fleet footed creatures, but he was still “dog” enough to give them a good bark, letting them know whose yard this was. They stopped long enough to give us a half interested head turn before prancing off.
I thought of a couple of passages from our old pal Ray Bradbury. One from “Dandelion Wine” where the old man wakes up to the sound of a lawn mower, recognizing it as a sound of summer, and later a moment in which he contemplates the way simple connections with the natural world, even the act of cutting the grass, allow us to reconnect with an inner world.
The contaminated, corrupt sludge spewing out of MAGA world on an hourly basis requires a reset now and then to maintain some semblance of normality. Terence Malick, in his astounding masterpiece “The Thin Red Line”, a film about American troops on Guadalcanal, has a shot of insects in the tall grass going about their business, largely unconcerned about the explosions of bodies and psyches around them.
The world goes on no matter what fat blobs like Donald Trump and ketamine befuddled bozos like Elon Musk throw at us. Life finds a way. It survived a giant meteor from space millions of years ago, and it will have no problem surviving narcissistic twits and Dickensian dickheads. We might not be so lucky, but it’s nice to remember that there’s more to our world than evil MAGAts.
And so, although it’s a bit past the month of maying (if only just), here’s something to make us smile (for a change).
Test
@Akhilleus: There's nothing sitting in my spam file.
Marie,
How about now?
It keeps saying the post has been received, or whatever it usually says when it supposedly has a comment.
This is my fifth try, so if this doesn’t work, I’ll just forget it.
for a somewhat different take on the evil doings brewing in Los Angeles, Tom Nichols, in The Atlantic, has "listened to [trump] and his advisers over the past several days, they seem almost eager for public violence that would justify the use of armed force against Americans. The president and the men and women around him are acting with great ambition in this moment, and they are likely hoping to achieve three goals in one dramatic action.
- First, they will turn America’s attention away from Trump’s many failures and inane feuds, and reestablish his campaign persona as a strongman who will brush aside the law if that’s what it takes to keep order in the streets.
- Second, ... as proof of concept for suppressing free elections in 2026 or 2028....Those are his toy soldiers[!]
- Third, Trump may be hoping to radicalize the citizen-soldiers drawn from the community who serve in the National Guard. (Seizing the California Guard is also a convenient way to humiliate California Governor Gavin Newsom and L.A. Mayor Karen Bass, with the president’s often-used narrative that liberals can’t control their own cities.)
....
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. "
@Akhilleus: Nope, nothing. Please send your comment to me @ constantweader@gmail.com and I'll log out and post it.
Sorry about this.
Trump has to distract from his record because he can't deliver for his constituencies.
I know I'm beating a dead nag, but I can't over how ignorant Trump is. Linking to another story about Terry Moran brought Trump's amazing stupidity to my own obsessive little mind once again.
In the wee hours this morning, I linked to a Heather Cox Richardson post that retold the story of Trump's boasting to Moran during an April interview that he had ordered the Declaration of Independence to hang in the Oval Office. (Trump may think he has the original; he doesn't.)
Richardson writes that "Moran used Trump’s calling attention to the Declaration to ask a softball question. He asked Trump what the document that he had gone out of his way to hang in the Oval Office meant to him. Trump answered: 'Well, it means exactly what it says, it’s a declaration. A declaration of unity and love and respect, and it means a lot. And it’s something very special to our country.'”
Here's what bugs me. Suppose you're a person who has no reason to know what's in the American Declaration of Independence. Maybe you come from, say, Indonesia or Belize. Wherever. Now suppose someone asks you, "What's the Declaration of Independence? Don't worry if you don't know; just make your best guess."
Under no circumstance are you going to say, "It's a declaration of unity and love and respect." (Even a thousand monkeys wouldn't type that.) You know what the word "independence" means, so you know a "Declaration of Independence" cannot be about unity and love. It's obviously about breaking up or breaking off from something or someone.
Why doesn't Trump know at least as much as a clueless person in Indonesia (or a thousand monkeys typing)? Why couldn't he make a more logical guess about what's in this foundational American document? I think the answer is -- Donald Trump is really stupid.
Kamala Harris on Los Angeles
Marie points out the stupidity of Fat Hitler’s response to a question about the meaning of the Declaration of Independence.
Yes. Trump is abysmally stupid about many things. But worse, in regards to our founding documents (the Declaration, the Constitution, the Federalist Papers), all of which is he is blindingly ignorant, he doesn’t care. He doesn’t give a single thought to any of them, and not just because he’s never read them (he hasn’t, and if he ever did skim them, he’d have zero comprehension about their meaning or import), it’s simply that he couldn’t care less about what’s in them or what they mean.
That random person from Indonesia would probably try to make a reasonable guess. Declaration of INDEPENDENCE? Hmmm…let’s see… it’s not about haircuts or pea soup, or peace, love, dove…maybe it’s about…the search for freedom? Independence?
For pretty much his entire life, this privileged blockhead has learned that he can just make shit up on the fly and no one will challenge him, so he doesn’t even bother with a reasonable guess. That would take effort, however minimal, and the great Donald has only time for himself, his money, other people’s money he might steal, and his narcissistic love of himself. So he just tosses out meaningless word salads.
Strikingly, the three words he comes up with are entirely anathema to him personally. Unity? Love? Respect? He loves himself, but hatred is much more his speed. His interest in unity is right up there with his concern for DEI. He is the great divider, the bringer of chaos and distrust. And respect? There likely has been fewer more disrespectful politicians in American history.
He clearly doesn’t even care if viewers or readers see through his bullshit. He—-doesn’t—care.
That’s it. But he gets away with it, time after time after time. So why should he fire up a single synapse not dedicated solely to his personal comfort, greed, desperate need for adulation, and constant search for revenge against perceived enemies?
The Declaration of Independence means less to fat Donald than the wrapper on his next Big Mac.