Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

White supremacy is terrorism.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

Relentless negativity is not a sign that you are more realistic.

When we show up, we win.

The republican ‘Pastor’ of the House is an odious authoritarian little creep.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

Quote tweet friends, screenshot enemies.

Second rate reporter says what?

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

Trump should be leading, not lying.

The line between political reporting and fan fiction continues to blur.

You passed on an opportunity to be offended? What are you even doing here?

Democracy cannot function without a free press.

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

GOP baffled that ‘we don’t care if you die’ is not a winning slogan.

If you don’t believe freedom is for everybody, then the thing you love isn’t freedom, it is privilege.

There are a lot more evil idiots than evil geniuses.

The National Guard is not Batman.

People identifying as christian while ignoring christ and his teachings is a strange thing indeed.

Fight for a just cause, love your fellow man, live a good life.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

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War for Ukraine Day 1,200: Another Long Night & Early Morning of Russian Drone Swarms

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Painting by NEIVANMADE. It has a white background an in the center are Soldiers in green doing air defense by firing at incoming Russian missiles in the upper right. The missiles are red and yellow. In the upper left, written in green, is the text: "SAVE THE BRAVEST PEOPLE IN THE WORLD!" Below the Soldiers, also written in green, is "SUPPORT FOR KHARKIV"

(Image by NEIVANMADE)

The cost:

Ukrainian artist 0lha_art visualized this heart-wrenching moment. Eternal memory to the fallen.

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— Olena Halushka (@halushka.bsky.social) June 8, 2025 at 2:10 PM

Air raid alerts are up over 3/4 of Ukraine, including parts of western Ukraine, as of 2:30 AM local time in Ukraine/7:30 PM EDT. As of 3:00 AM local time/8:00 PM EDT, the air raid alert maps are showing MiG-31Ks (Foxhounds), as well as what’s left of Russia’s other strategic fixed wings, up over western Russia and the air raid alerts have been extended to all of Ukraine. The K in MiG 31K stands for 47M2 Kinzhal hypersonic missiles as they are the Foxhound variant designed to carry and fire them.

Here it goes. 😒 bloodthirsty neighbors are bombing us again

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— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) June 8, 2025 at 6:55 PM

Monitoring channels warn that tonight, russia may launch yet another massive combined attack on Ukraine with 400–500 drones and dozens of missiles.

What will they call it “retribution” for this time — Ukraine’s very existence?

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— Iryna Voichuk (@irynavoichuk.bsky.social) June 8, 2025 at 2:51 PM

Last night Big R asked:

My thoughts every time I review one of Adam’s updates (for which I am very grateful) are always complicated and confused. With the understanding that I’m sort of thinking out loud, I wonder about the following things:

1) Ukraine has all these successes; shooting down and destroying or damaging expensive aircraft, preventing drone and missile attacks from being even worse terrorist attacks than they are, and now more and more being aggressive with their own drone warfare. Are these successes completely disconnected from tactical reality, or are they creating strategic environments for future success at halting and reversing Russian advances?

2) Speaking of Ukrainian air defense, while every strike and every loss is a tragedy, I’m wondering how attacks that cause as much property damage as we see take so few lives. Is it just the magnificence of Ukrainian emergency response? Or are the Russians screwing up their attempts at terrorism? (For the sake of completeness, a third low-probability option: Russian drone operator units are pulling their punches because they see the horror of the orders they’ve been given; drones are flying with little to no explosive.)

3) Earlier in the war these updates often included maps of current front line placements and movement. Have those gone away, or are they not as useful as the war transitions into a more stand-off posture, or is this one of the things that’s been tossed by the wayside because you’re working way too hard?

Let’s take these in order:

  1.  No, the successes are tactical reality within Ukraine’s theater strategy and campaign plan and their overall strategy for withstanding Russia’s genocidal re-invasion. Moreover, they are adaptations – branches and sequels – to the existing plans as the Ukrainians are able to bring their own new advances in military tech online or something else changes.
  2. The Ukrainians have gotten very good at getting the air raid alerts up and getting their people into hardened shelters. I highly doubt the Russian drone operators are tanking their own efforts.
  3.  One of the reasons the map use fell of was the switch to using Bluesky. Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense’s Bluesky account was up and down for about three weeks, then went down, and I’ve just not checked to see if it’s back. Chuck Pfarrar hasn’t skeeted in six months. Illia Ponomarenko has gone back to X/Twitter. Another reason is I got tired of being yelled at in the comments by people with no experience reading maps prepared by and for military personnel that the maps were wrong or misleading because they didn’t understand what was being visualized on the maps. The final reason is, as Jay mentioned in his answer to your question, that the front lines are not moving much. I’ve seen some reporting that Russians may be in trouble with their own salient in Kursk, but right now maps will obscure more than they clarify as things look static day to day despite all the activity. I’ll poke around and see if I can find someone who posts maps that I’m comfortable with.

I’ve posted a few of the early released clips from President Zelenskyy’s interview with ABC News. Here’s the full video of the interview:

Here is President Zelenskyy’s address from earlier today. Video below, English transcript after the jump.

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We Have A Balloon Juice Angel (!) for the High School Students & PA Supreme Court Race

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Update 2:  Almost Retired’s Angel Match is complete, and we met our $25,000 goal for The Civics Center!  The $25k we raised brought in $35,000 in external matches, for a total of $60k for this group.  We are the little engine that could.  Thank you all!

Update:  frosty’s Angel Match is complete, but we have another Angel Match from Almost Retired.  Details in the comments.

frosty has stepped forward once again with an Angel Match!

Note from frosty

I hate to see this stall out and lose the $5,000 external match. This is my state* and it’s going to hit close to home if we lose.

* Actually, Commonwealth, for all you pedants out there.

Matching up to $50 per person for a total of $500!  That means that frosty matches your $50 turns, turning it into $100.  Then the external match matches the $100, for a total of $200.  ($25 = $100, $10 = $40, $5 = $20)

That’s 4x matching, assuming we hit the $5k goal to get the external match!  

We can do this, right?

The PA Supreme Court Race Is Every Bit As Important as the One In Wisconsin

The United States Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit (LIVE AUDIO)

Why do these retention races matter so much?

  • This is not your typical judicial retention election, where we can blithely say that judges are almost always retained, so no big deal.
  • The Rs have mounted a very aggressive campaign to turn out MAGA to vote NO, and everything is on the line in PA in this election.
  • If we don’t keep these 3 Supreme Court seats, I don’t want it to be because we didn’t try hard enough, or because we didn’t realize what the consequences of a loss would be.

If Dems don’t retain the seats

  • Republicans will likely retain control of the court well into the 2030s.
  • Voting rights will be undermined; thousands of ballots will no longer be opened.
  • Return to brutal  gerrymandering of legislative and congressional districts.
  • Good public education? Who needs that?
  • There will be nothing to hold back the MAGA agenda.

If we win, the Democrats will likely retain control of the court well into the 2030s.

This is a win-win.  Even if the worst happens and the Dems don’t retain their seats, we will have helped register TONS of young voters who are likely to remain engaged in the political process – and they can vote in 2026 and 2028, and every election in between.

 

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Touchwood Open Thread: Whining Calling for A Savior

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Where Is Barack Obama? The “audacity of hope” presidency has given way to the fierce lethargy of semi-retirement, @markleibovich.bsky.social writes.

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— The Atlantic (@theatlantic.com) June 8, 2025 at 8:45 AM

Way I see it, it would nice if President Obama would step up to lead the resistance, but that’s not his way, and it’s certainly no longer his job. But when ‘elite’ white boys survey the wreckage they’ve made, their first impulse is to demand someone else clean it up… and they don’t think their moms want to deal with the current Oval Office Occupation. Lebovich has a reputation as a point man for the ‘vibes’ political media, so… [gift link]

… Trump has begun his second term with a continuous spree of democracy-shaking, economy-quaking, norm-obliterating action. And Obama, true to form, has remained carefully above it all. He picks his spots, which seldom involve Trump. In March, he celebrated the anniversary of the Affordable Care Act and posted his annual NCAA basketball brackets. In April, he sent out an Easter message and mourned the death of the pope. In May, he welcomed His Holiness Pope Leo XIV (“a fellow Chicagoan”) and sent prayers to Joe Biden following his prostate-cancer diagnosis.

No matter how brazen Trump becomes, the most effective communicator in the Democratic Party continues to opt for minimal communication. His “audacity of hope” presidency has given way to the fierce lethargy of semi-retirement.

Obama occasionally dips into politics with brief and unmemorable statements, or sporadic fundraising emails (subject: “Barack Obama wants to meet you. Yes you.”). He praised his law-school alma mater, Harvard, for “rejecting an unlawful and ham-handed attempt” by the White House “to stifle academic freedom.” He criticized a Republican bill that would threaten health care for millions. He touted a liberal judge who was running for a crucial seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court. When called upon, he can still deliver a top-notch campaign spiel, donor pitch, convention speech, or eulogy…

In normal times, no one would deny Obama these diversions. He performed the world’s most stressful job for eight years, served his country, made his history, and deserved to kick back and do the usual ex-president things: start a foundation, build a library, make unspeakable amounts of money.

But the inevitable Trump-era counterpoint is that these are not normal times. And Obama’s detachment feels jarringly incongruous with the desperation of his longtime admirers—even more so given Trump’s assaults on what Obama achieved in office. It would be one thing if Obama had disappeared after leaving the White House, maybe taking up painting like George W. Bush. The problem is that Obama still very much has a public profile—one that screams comfort and nonchalance at a time when so many other Americans are terrified…

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Fighting for Justice in Pennsylvania

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The PA Supreme Court Race Is Every Bit As Important as the One In Wisconsin

The United States Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit (LIVE AUDIO)

  • This is not your typical judicial retention election, where we can blithely say that judges are almost always retained, so no big deal.
  • The Rs have mounted a very aggressive campaign to turn out MAGA to vote NO, and everything is on the line in PA in this election.
  • If we don’t keep these 3 Supreme Court seats, I don’t want it to be because we didn’t try hard enough, or because we didn’t realize what the consequences of a loss would be.

So I want to share some important information, courtesy of RevRick.

The Pennsylvania Judiciary is composed of three appellate courts, the Commonwealth Court, the Superior Court, and the Supreme Court, plus the Court of Common Pleas, which are the trial courts in the Commonwealth, and Magistrate courts. The Supreme Court is the court of final appeal and is composed of seven justices. Its rulings are binding as law in the Commonwealth.

Judicial elections occur in odd-number years for the three appellate courts and the Court of Common Pleas and are for ten year terms. In case of vacancies, the Governor may appoint a justice, subject to confirmation by the Senate. Judges may run for an unlimited number of ten-year terms, subject to a mandatory retirement age of 75. After the initial competitive election, judges may run for reelection by a “yes” or “no” vote.

Pennsylvania has experienced the disastrous consequences of elections in adverse circumstances.

In 2010, the Republicans achieved complete control of the governorship, the legislature, and the Supreme Court. With this control, the GOP was able to make brutally gerrymandered legislative and Congressional districts and pass all sorts of laws undermining rights and public education. And with the Supreme Court in their partisan favor, they were assured that their handiwork would not be undone.

In 2015, thanks to retirements creating vacancies, the Democrats were able to gain control of the Supreme Court. The three justices elected that year will be up for retention. These three justices control the balance of power on the Supreme Court.

If they win, the Democrats will likely retain control of the court well into the 2030s.

I suspect that the corollary is true:  If the Rs win, it seems likely that they will retain control of the court until well into the 2030s.

Reminder: the good folks at The Civics Center found us a $5k  external match for any donation of any amount – if we reach our goal.

As soon as we hit our goal for the final $5k, the external donor will match it.

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Steve Vladeck on Federalizing the National Guard

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I don’t have much to add here, except to share information and link to the source.  While not at all surprising, this is a distressing turn of events.  He is dancing on a very dangerous line.

I. What Trump Did (and Didn’t) Do

There are a lot of misunderstandings and misinformation out there about what Trump has and hasn’t done, and given that I’ve covered these topics before, it seemed worth a quick explainer on why this move is a big deal—but why it also is not as drastic an escalation (or abuse) as many had feared, at least not yet.

The TL;DR here is that Trump has not (yet) invoked the Insurrection Act, which means that the 2000 additional troops that will soon be brought to bear will not be allowed to engage in ordinary law enforcement activities without violating a different law—the Posse Comitatus Act. All that these troops will be able to do is provide a form of force protection and other logistical support for ICE personnel. Whether that, in turn, leads to further escalation is the bigger issue (and, indeed, may be the very purpose of their deployment). But at least as I’m writing this, we’re not there yet.

II. Why the Memorandum is Still Alarming…

That said, there are still at least three reasons to be deeply concerned about President Trump’s (hasty) actions on Saturday night:

First, there is the obvious concern that, even as they are doing nothing more than “protecting” ICE officers discharging federal functions, these federalized troops will end up using force—in response to real or imagined violence or threats of violence against those officers. In other words, there’s the very real possibility that having federal troops on the ground will only raise the risk of escalating violence—not decrease it.

Second, and related, there is the possibility that that’s a feature, and not a bug—that this is meant as a precursor, with federalizing a modest number of National Guard troops today invoked, some time later, as a justification for more aggressive responses to anti-ICE protests, including, perhaps invocation of the Insurrection Act. In other words, it’s possible that this step is meant to both be and look modest so that, if and when it “fails,” the government can invoke its failure as a basis for a more aggressive domestic deployment of troops. What happens in and around Los Angeles in the next few days will have a lot to say about this.

Third, and perhaps most significantly, as I wrote in April, “domestic use of the military can nevertheless be corrosive—to the morale of the troops involved, all of a sudden, in policing their own; to the relationship between local/state governments and the federal government; and to the broader relationship between the military and civil society.” Even uses of the military for relatively modest purposes can have those corrosive effects—especially where, as here, it seems so transparently in service of the President’s policy agenda, and not necessarily the need to restore law and order on the streets of America’s second largest city.

Even as someone who thinks the federal government has both the constitutional and statutory authority to override local and state governments when it comes to law and order (see, e.g., President Eisenhower sending troops into Little Rock to enforce Brown), it seems to me that there is something deeply pernicious about invoking any of these authorities except in circumstances in which their necessity is a matter of consensus beyond the President’s political supporters. The law may well allow President Trump to do what he did Saturday night. But just because something is legal does not mean that it is wise—for the present or future of our Republic.

A lot depends on what happens next. For now, the key takeaways are that there really isn’t much that these federalized National Guard troops will be able to do—and that this might be the very reason why this is the step the President is taking tonight, rather than something even more aggressive.

THE MEMO.

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War for Ukraine Day 1,199: Putin & Russia Continue to Unload on Kharkiv

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Painting by NEIVANMADE. It has a white background an in the center are Soldiers in green doing air defense by firing at incoming Russian missiles in the upper right. The missiles are red and yellow. In the upper left, written in green, is the text: "SAVE THE BRAVEST PEOPLE IN THE WORLD!" Below the Soldiers, also written in green, is "SUPPORT FOR KHARKIV"

(Image by NEIVANMADE)

I am still fried – it has been a very busy, not bad just busy – six weeks or so and I’m still trying to ai my ki. So I’m just going to run through the basics again tonight.

Russia followed on from last night’s attack, hit Kharkiv with glide bombs today:

WARNING!! WARNING!! GRAPHIC IMAGERY!! WARNING!! WARNING!!

The death toll in today’s Russian glide bomb attack on Kharkiv has risen to two. Two more people are in critical condition, and doctors are fighting for their lives.

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— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) June 7, 2025 at 4:12 PM

The woman who was killed was the newly appointed director of the children’s railway. This is terrorism.

Inaction is complicity.

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— Olena Halushka (@halushka.bsky.social) June 7, 2025 at 1:09 PM

16 people have been injured in Kharkiv due to Russian glide bomb strikes, including a 14-year-old boy. 1 person was also killed.

The attack damaged a children’s railway building and a private residence.

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— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) June 7, 2025 at 12:37 PM

ALL CLEAR!!!!

More on this and the butcher’s bill from last night after the jump.

President Zelenskyy addressed Trump’s remarks about Ukraine’s defense against Russia’s genocidal re-invasion being like two kids fighting:

We are not kids who are fighting in the park. Putin is a murderer who came to this park to kill the kids – Zelenskyy 🫳 🎤

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— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) June 7, 2025 at 1:41 PM

Here is President Zelenskyy’s address from earlier today. Video below, English transcript after the jump.

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TL, DR Good Read: ‘The Newest MAGA Intellectual Hero Was Denounced as a Total Crackpot’

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A SparkNotes version of the latest Very Serious Right-Wing Thought Leader spotlight, because the New Yorker takes far too many words, unlike Mr Charles P. Pierce for Esquire:

I can’t do better than James Fallows’s assessment of Curtis Yarvin, the Caesarist Internet crank who has a grip on many members of the techno-Right, including the vice president of the United States of America, J. Divan Vance, and who also seems to be a dumb person’s idea of a smart person, if the dumb person is playing Dungeons & Dragons while watching Gladiator on mushrooms. Yarvin is the subject of a fine profile by Ava Kofman in the current issue of The New Yorker. In a thread on Bluesky, Fallows calls Yarvin a “barroom savant.”

If you’ve lived in a small town, you know the character of the “barroom savant.” Knows the inside story on everything. Knows what “they” are covering up. Tells you that he (always “he”) tested into Mensa. But never went mainstream. Feels sorry for you if you believe what “they” say. And what books you need to read to blow your mind. And did I forget, he has a “genius IQ?” We’ve met this guy before…

To circle back to the start, guy high on his own supply of the virtues of the “high IQ”—as individuals, and as breeding stock. My sample-size of interviewees is limited but over the years have had first-hand exposure to: One [professor] in college. One [professor] in grad school. Nine or ten people I’ve interviewed and written about. Each of whom was a Nobel laureate. Strangely, none talked about their own IQ, or anyone else’s. But this guy does. As Trump does too! I give you, the intellectual leader of Thiel, Vance, Miller, and the MAGA era! (I was tempted to say, “We call it The Aristocrats.”)

C’mon, Fallows. Unleash that inner blogger!

Kofman’s piece is a treasure trove of empowered lunacy spooned out by Yarvin into the hungry mouths of America’s techno-oligarchs—most of whom have a lot more money than sense, as Rod Stewart once sang. He first came to their attention when he was blogging as one Mencius Moldbug and dropped a 120,000-word dung-bomb onto the innocent Intertoobz…

Yarvin also quoted The Matrix in his screed, which is the kind of dead giveaway that a fondness for Atlas Shrugged used to mean. This manner of thinking always will find suckers. The problems always come, however, when they find suckers with money, and Yarvin struck the motherlode…

Deep in the piece, we discover that Yarvin’s flight from political sensibility began with, of all things, disillusionment when he discovered that swift boating John Kerry wasn’t enough to derail his 2004 presidential campaign. Also, Kofman gets major points for describing Yarvin’s crackpottery as being “surrealized” by the Trump administration. The Triumph of the Swill.

TL, DR Good Read: <em>‘The Newest MAGA Intellectual Hero Was Denounced as a Total Crackpot’</em>Post + Comments (116)