Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
So, do you guys think we have a big enough reach that we can get the NO Kings event to be called the “No Kings, TACO Don” Event?
Anybody signed up or planning to attend an event?
Open thread.
No Kings – Are You Signed Up for an Event? (Open Thread)Post + Comments (53)
From CBO:
• 11.8 million lose coverage due to One Big Beautiful Bill provisions
• 16M fewer w/ coverage in 2034 when incorporating the 4.2M expected coverage loss from expiration of enhanced ACA subsidies
That's a 57% ↑ in # of uninsured compared to June 2024 current policy projection
— Loren Adler (@lorenadler.bsky.social) June 4, 2025 at 3:08 PM
Who needs health insurance as those tax cuts will stop your heart attackPost + Comments (48)
Good point from Harold Meyerson at the American Prospect:
… Initially, before Trump’s re-election, the festivities were to be chiefly confined to the National Mall. There were to be—are still to be, in fact—soldiers dressed in the garb and carrying the weapons used in all of the nation’s wars, beginning with the Revolution and concluding with I’m not sure what. (Afghanistan? Syria? Yemen? Will there be someone carrying a drone?) Some of those wars were clearly what we call “good wars”—the Civil War and World War II most particularly. (Of course, Pete Hegseth or somebody like him might decide that we need to celebrate the traitors of the Confederacy, too.)…
Does that mean that the passing troops should be applauded or booed depending on which war they’re dressed to recreate? Of course not, since none of the troops doing the recreating, and, for that matter, none of the long-departed troops who really fought those wars had any say in the decisions to start them, much less any say in how they were conducted…
A niche sect that calls itself the Freedom Road Socialist Organization is helping coordinate a demonstration for that day. According to the application for a permit that the coalition submitted to the National Park Service, “A military parade celebrating Trump and the Army is an outrageous insult to the American people. What really makes America great is its working people.”
This requires parsing. The Army’s initial plan was not for a parade at all. Trump’s plan in his first term for a procession of Abrams tanks and Bradley Fighting Vehicles chugging down Constitution Avenue was nixed because the damage such heavy vehicles would do to the road surface would have cost perhaps $90 million. But this time, a parade there will be, due to Trump’s infatuation with such displays, his hostility to D.C. (which apparently extends to its roads), and his thinking it a grand way to reflect and celebrate not so much our power but his. The soldiers doing the marching, however, will be drawn from the very same “working people” whom the protest coalition celebrates. And even if our military, particularly under Trump, may be sent to dubious battles, the soldiers will have no say in that. Besides, this is not only a display of our current prowess but a commemoration of our past deployments, which, as I noted above, have ranged from the heroic (World War II and the Civil War) to the disgraceful (Mexico, the tribes, the Philippines, Vietnam, Iraq, etc.). But in none of these conflicts, both the good and the evil, were the soldiers the ones who decided they should be there.
So any counterdemonstration on June 14 needs to target very carefully, as whatever they do will reflect on the broad American left. I’d suggest focusing on Trump’s potential to start god-awful conflicts. He’s already squandered hundreds of millions of dollars in drones and fighter jets in a senseless slap fight with the Houthis in Yemen. For that matter, he’s resurrected the domestic suppression we saw during World War I without there even being a war on which to hang it (hence, his malign misclassification of Venezuelan refugees and immigrants as an “invasion”). I’d suggest focusing not just on the president but also on the Fox network stooge he placed atop our military. And while there always are generals and admirals whose political beliefs descend straight from Attila’s, the fact is that most of our top officers tried to keep Trump from running amok during his first term, and some of them have yet to be purged today.
So how about: Army, sí; Trump, no! The Army can go either way; with Trump, there is no trajectory but down.
Open Thread: Concerning The Flaghumper’s ParadePost + Comments (69)
Decades ago, I worked at the University vet school. I loved it. I got to see cows hanging out in the field on my way into work in the morning. I got to see horses and cows walking down the halls of the large animal clinic. I got to see all manner of small animals in the small animal clinic.
One of the large animal vets had this cartoon on his door. Two columns: the ailment on the left, and the treatment on the right.
Colic shoot the horse
Broken leg shoot the horse
and so on.
It seemed kind funny at the time.
I was reminded of that cartoon today every time I read the news.
Joni Ernst Everybody dies.
No NOAA staffing at night Everybody dies.
I didn’t know there was a hurricane season. Everybody dies.
Kidnap an innocent man, put him in danger. Everybody dies.
Shrug. Everybody dies. It might be funny if it wasn’t so fucking senseless and sad.
It’s reminding me of the rebellious bumper sticker about Ma Bell, that someone had made up locally, in the classic blue and white colors. It said: “We don’t care. We don’t have to.” He put them on every phone company vehicle in the lot overnight. I’m not really into vandalism, but that was fun.
That’s the motto of this maladministration.
In my experience, people trust their weather people on TV, even if they get the weather wrong! Good on this fellow. The video is less than 3 minutes. He’s sticking his neck out, so the least we can do is watch it.
He is modeling this for everyone.
We all need to use our voices in whatever circles where we are trusted.
Open thread.
I meant to post this earlier, but life got in the way: As you’ve probably heard, the Trump admin is trying to make it easier to replace qualified civil servants with MAGA kooks, but we, the public, have an opportunity to push back. Comments on a proposed rule change to reclassify civil servants are open until June 7th. You can comment under your own name or anonymously.
The proposed rule change is from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and is misleadingly titled “Improving Performance, Accountability and Responsiveness in the Civil Service.” In plain terms, the right-wing ideologues currently running OPM want to reclassify federal employees so they can fire career civil servants, including scientists, and replace them with Trumpers.
It’s a power grab that is part of the Project 2025 agenda. You can read the rule change proposal here and leave a comment using the tab at the top of that site. There are currently nearly 30K comments, and from my brief perusal of them, I can tell some right-wing outfit did a cattle call because there are numerous identical comments that praise this power grab as a way to end the “Deep State.”
The quacks and ideologues Trump put in charge of federal agencies have already vandalized U.S. scientific leadership and innovation. The damage is done even if the U.S. ultimately rejects the latest insanity and fascism and restores research funding.
To paraphrase someone on Bluesky,* it’s like when an arsonist burns down a forest. You can plant new trees, but you have to nurture them for years, even decades, to replace what was wantonly destroyed. The proposed rule change is another bucket of accelerant for the arsonists.
Anyway, comment if you’re so inclined and have a moment. Every little bit helps.
Open thread!
*ETA: It’s from a Bluesky post from Katie Mack’s account here.
It’s been a long day, I’m fried, so I’m just going to run through the basics.
We are going to start with the exciting news about the Kerch Bridge.
🌉/1. Ukraine’s Security Service Hits Crimean Bridge in Underwater Sabotage Operation
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has carried out a new special operation targeting the Crimean Bridge—its third successful strike on the structure, this time using underwater explosives.
— 🦋Special Kherson Cat🐈🇺🇦 (@specialkhersoncat.bsky.social) June 3, 2025 at 7:20 AM
/2. The operation, which had been in planning for several months, involved placing explosives on the underwater supports of the bridge. At 4:44 a.m., the first device was detonated. The blast caused significant structural damage to the base of the bridge, using the equivalent of 1,100 kg of TNT.
— 🦋Special Kherson Cat🐈🇺🇦 (@specialkhersoncat.bsky.social) June 3, 2025 at 7:22 AM
/3. The bridge is now in a critical condition, according to preliminary assessments.
SBU chief Lieutenant General Vasyl Maliuk personally oversaw and coordinated the operation. He stated that the bridge remains a legitimate military target due to its use by Russian forces for logistical support.
— 🦋Special Kherson Cat🐈🇺🇦 (@specialkhersoncat.bsky.social) June 3, 2025 at 7:22 AM
/4. Location where SBU planted underwater explosive device on one of the pillars of the Crimean bridge. (45.3092354, 36.5047376)
— 🦋Special Kherson Cat🐈🇺🇦 (@specialkhersoncat.bsky.social) June 3, 2025 at 7:23 AM
/5. Underwater structure of the Crimean bridge.
— 🦋Special Kherson Cat🐈🇺🇦 (@specialkhersoncat.bsky.social) June 3, 2025 at 7:25 AM
Remember the definition of a center of gravity from my Sunday night post:
A center of gravity is defined as:
The source of power that provides moral or physical strength, freedom of action, or will to act. Also called COG.
COGs have the following characteristics:
- A source of leverage
- Allows or enhances freedom of movement
- Can endanger one’s own COGs
Centers of gravity can also be the morale of a state and society, including it’s resilience. It can also be the morale and resilience of a state’s and society’s leadership. The strike on the Kerch Bridge, like the strikes on Russian strategic fixed wing aircraft, is not just negatively affecting Russia’s military or societal freedom of movement, and in the case of the strategic aviation a COG that endangers Ukraine’s own COGs, it is also intended to negatively affect Putin and Russia’s will to act. And in the case of Putin, so enrage him that he makes such a significant mistake that it provides Ukraine with a key opportunity.
I expect we’ll see more strikes as I think it is likely that what we’re seeing are the phases in a phased operation of a larger campaign plan:
Phasing is a way to organize and conduct a complex joint operation in manageable parts. The phases are unique for each operation or campaign as a tool to integrate and synchronize related activities, thereby enhancing C2 to improve flexibility and unity of effort during execution…Phases in a contingency plan are sequential, but during execution there are often some simultaneous and overlapping activities between the phases. In a campaign, a phase can consist of one or more operations in varying scope, scale, and geographic location; while within an operation, a phase normally consists of several subordinate tasks, or a series of related activities. (JP 5-0, Joint Planning, p. IV-37)
Now we wait to see what happens next.
Here is President Zelenskyy’s address from earlier today. Video below, English transcript after the jump.
Despite online outrage, the California state track meet was mostly just a track meet defector.com/despite-onli…
— Defector (@defector.com) June 2, 2025 at 8:53 PM
The always insightful Diana Moskovitz, at Defector – “Despite Online Outrage, The California State Track Meet Was Mostly Just A Track Meet”:
Jurupa Valley High School’s AB Hernandez won first place in girls high jump and triple jump on Saturday night at the California Interscholastic Federation’s State Track & Field Championships. She also took second place in girls long jump, making it overall a great performance for the high school junior. After each win, Hernandez took the podium, received her medal, and smiled for photos along with her fellow competitors. She looked happy, because most people do after they win. As the sun sunk lower in the sky and the late afternoon turned into night, it would look to a casual observer watching on a livestream, which I did, like a typical high school track meet: The national anthem was played, there was a reminder about good sportsmanship, high school athletes competed in various disciplines, upcoming events were called out on the loudspeaker, and parents and friends cheered in the stands…
Though Hernandez has competed for years with the support of her local community, when two women began making noise online complaining about her being allowed to compete, they got a lot of attention and eventually caught Donald Trump’s eye. He issued a statement Tuesday about Hernandez, filled with inaccuracies, saying she was unbeatable (she has lost before) and had won everything (again, she has lost before). That same day, CIF issued its own statement, saying it would launch a pilot program to allow any cisgender female athlete who missed out on qualifying due to a transgender female athlete to compete anyway. Those new rules were also why on Saturday, every time Hernandez won a medal, she had to share the podium with someone else as a co-medalist.
The new rules also did nothing to assuage the people dead set on stopping Hernandez… Even though Hernandez had followed all the CIF rules in place, that did little to stop the anti-trans sentiments. On Friday, during qualifications, an airplane flew over the stadium carrying a banner that read “No boys in girls sports!”
The same reporter who got the video of the banner, Haley Sawyer, estimated the number of protestors there Friday at “roughly 10.”
You read that right—10. California is the largest state by population in the entire country with nearly 40 million people. Sure, some people have to work, some people are busy with childcare, or too frail to travel, or they’re students who have to study. But the math is the math. Out of a state with nearly 40 million people, just about 10 were so angry about Hernandez competing that they showed up at Veterans Memorial Stadium in Clovis, Fresno County. That’s the same Fresno County that has an estimated population of more than 1 million, is nearly equidistant to the state’s two biggest metro areas, and is easily accessible by car…
What those railing against Hernandez know is that in today’s decentralized information ecosystem, anger online wins and so their yelling must be covered, even though few protestors came. Meanwhile, the single biggest source of complaints about discrimination to the U.S. Department of Education are from disabled students who said they had been denied help they needed or felt mistreated, not people complaining about trans athletes. Data also shows the biggest danger posed to all high school athletes, regardless of gender, is dying of sudden cardiac arrest, not competing against trans athletes. Having emergency action plans and installing AEDs in high schools would save more lives, but little is said about this online compared to the trans athlete furor.
Despite it all, the actual athletes seemed pretty chill and normal on Saturday as I monitored from the live stream and watched the press coverage roll in. They are athletes, after all, and they know how to block out noise. It’s all smiles in the Associated Press photos. Wilson High School senior Loren Webster, who came in first in the long jump, told the Times as much, saying, “It wasn’t any other person I was worried about. I knew what I was capable of. I can’t control the uncontrollable.” Long Beach Poly High School senior Jillene Wetteland, who also took first in the high jump, told the Chronicle, “I love both of the people I tied with.” And River City High School senior Brooke White, who came in second on the long jump, said to the same reporter that it was an honor to share her podium with Hernandez…