Stealth bombers carried bunker buster bombs (six 30,000 bunker busters) and dropped then on Iran when President Trump authorized this military strike without consulting Congress.
Senator Chris Van Hollen, Democrat of Maryland, framed the risks this way: “While we all agree that Iran must not have a nuclear weapon, Trump abandoned diplomatic efforts to achieve that goal and instead chose to unnecessarily endanger American lives, further threaten our armed forces in the region and risk pulling America into another long conflict in the Middle East. The U.S. intelligence community has repeatedly assessed that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon. There was more time for diplomacy to work.”
There are 40,000 U.S. troops in or near Iran. Has Trump thought about what happens to them now, or is this another ham-handed poorly-thought-out DOGE-style move?
It’s too soon to know the answer to that question, but we must hope and pray that the scientists and military minds left in Iran are not (still) capable of taking enriched uranium and building a bomb. At 9:25 a.m., from Tehran on CNN, an Iranian official described a populace that was previously quite fed up with its reigning administration, but, like all countries under attack, this action may change the Iranian public’s mind.
The quote from Senator Chris Van Hollen and the illustration are courtesy of the New York Times.
BEE GONE cover
The United States has had 47 Presidents. To the best of my memory, we have never had one who thrives on chaos and seeks to create it. Now we have one who is a divider, not a uniter. One late night host dubbed Donald J. Trump the King of Chaos.
Trump’s admiration for strong men (Russian, Turkish, North Korean) seems to know no bounds. His decisions ever since Trump 2.0 seem to be marching orders straight from Moscow. Nearly every one of the decisions from tariffs to ham-handed ICE deportation raids have been lauded on Russian state TV. Almost none of them have enhanced our standing in the world or made us more stable in any way.
I covered some of Trump’s rallies in 2016. I had covered every presidential caucus run in Iowa since 2000, but Trump’s rallies were the end of that, for me. It no longer felt safe. Crowds were encouraged to display hostility towards the Press, which is one of the first things a would-be dictator will attempt to do. Transparency, which the fourth estate provides via journalists staying on top of the story, is one of democracy’s safeguards. There are documented instances, at Trump rallies, when he would urge the crowd to turn against the press present. After the incident in Butler, Pennsylvania, press was singled out for abuse.
I came home from a Trump rally at the Davenport (Iowa) fairgrounds in the election of 2016 and announced that I was going back to reviewing movies. I was threatened only because I wore a Press badge.
Why?
“This isn’t fun any more,” I told my spouse.
It was not long after this that the Democrats moved their first-in-the-nation caucus voting to South Carolina, anyway, which meant Iowa would be All Republican, All the Time. That made the caucuses much less meaningful (and definitely less fun).
A New Political Era?
According to New Yorker writer Wallace-Wells, the recent Minneapolis assassination of one elected official, and the attempted assassination of another, confirm the arrival of a new political era, in which the expectation and the fear of political violence are endemic.
But is this threat of violence really new? I would submit that the expectation and the fear of political violence are, indeed, endemic, but this is not a “new era.” It’s more prevalent, perhaps, but it has been around seemingly forever.
For me, the fear of violence at a political rally, after sixteen years of attending them routinely without incident, was driven home in 2016 during the campaign for Trump 1.0. That was nearly ten years ago. The encouragement of such bad behavior started with Donald J. Trump—a man known for plenty of bad behavior of his own.
Gabby Giffords
There have been incidents involving violence or threats of violence at political gatherings before. On January 8, 2011, United States Representative Gabby Giffords and 18 others were shot during a constituent meeting held in a supermarket parking lot in Casas Adobes, Arizona, in the Tucson metropolitan area.
Six people were killed, including federal District Court Chief Judge John Roll; Gabe Zimmerman, one of Giffords’s staffers; and a nine-year-old girl, Christina-Taylor Green. Giffords was holding a meeting called “Congress on Your Corner” in the parking lot of a Safeway store when Jared Lee Loughner drew a pistol and shot her through the head at point-blank range before proceeding to fire on others.
I’ve recently written about the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr., Robert F. Kennedy. Certainly we all remember presidential assassinations going all the way back to Abraham Lincoln. Such political violence peaked, in my lifetime, in 1968, following JFK’s death in Texas on November 22, 1963. But it is most definitely true that political strife can turn deadly.
Trump’s effect on rising tension is to throw more lighter fluid on the fire. Not only does he not try to calm political turmoil. Instead, he seems to thrive on chaos, something that has been a hallmark of other autocratic dictators.
MINNESOTA MURDERER
Vance Boelter
The man suspected of killing a Minnesota lawmaker and wounding another was taken into custody after a two-day search. Vance Boelter was arrested Sunday evening, June 17, after two days on the loose following the shooting of former Democratic House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark. The couple were killed in their Brooklyn Park home early Saturday, June 16, 2025, in that northern Minneapolis suburbs. Sen. John Hoffman, also a Democrat, and his wife, Yvette, were injured at their Champlin home, about 9 miles away. Only good police work kept the tragedy from becoming much worse.
THE TRUMP EFFECT
The job of the Minnesota police could not have been helped by the fact that the past decade has seen the rise of an unstable environment around politics and law enforcement—one that arguably worsened on January 6th. On that date, MAGA faithful stormed the Capitol and Donald Trump celebrated the vigilantes who attacked the Capitol police force as “warriors.” Later, Trump pardoned the miscreants doing time for their decision to take the law into their own hands. There was little apparent thought or selectivity given to the pardons, which can also be said of ICE raids, immigrants deported, and DOGE targets. It’s always a poorly-thought-out and poorly executed slipshod undertaking, another hallmark of Trump 1.0 and Trump 2.0. We have become a kakistocracy.
Benjamin Wallace-Wells, dubbed the Minnesota shootings a dangerous trend in the June 17th “New Yorker,” specifically cited the impersonating of law enforcement officers. Said Wallace-Wells, “A new political era has arrived, in which the expectation and the fear of political violence are endemic.”
While I do not disagree with Wallace-Well’s statement, I do disagree that this is “a new political era.” We’ve been experiencing deaths of political figures in the United States all the way back to the Civil War era (Lincoln, again). What is “new” about the incidents, however, is that now we have a President who seems to revel in mayhem. One of his MAGA followers even posted inappropriate remarks following the Saturday killings, because that is what good MAGA followers do: glorify violence and seize any opportunity to repeat lies that their fearless leader has convinced them of using social media.
THE TRAGEDY
Around 2 A.M. on Saturday morning, operators manning emergency lines in the Minneapolis suburb of Champlin, according to a police report, got a call from someone who said that a masked man had come to their home “and then shot their parents.” When police and medics arrived, they discovered that the victims were a Democratic state senator named John Hoffman, and his wife, Yvette, who were alive, but badly injured.
A sergeant from the nearby city of Brooklyn Park, who had helped respond to the call, asked officers from his jurisdiction to check on the home of the Democratic state legislator Melissa Hortman, who was until recently the state House speaker. According to the Brooklyn Park police chief, Mark Bruley, when the officers arrived, at about 3:35 A.M., they saw a “vehicle that looked exactly like an S.U.V. squad car.” The vehicle was parked in the driveway with its emergency lights on. The front door was open. The officers saw a man dressed like a cop firing into it; he killed Hortman and her husband, Mark. The officers fired at the shooter—since identified as Vance Boelter, a fifty-seven-year-old evangelical Christian and MAGA Trump follower. A website of Boelter’s said that he was an ordained minister.
Boelter had a scattered work history. He had recently been employed by local funeral-service companies and also was trying to launch his security business, but a close friend of his said that his back-and-forth trips to Africa exhausted him, financially, and made steady employment and a steady income difficult. Boelter ran back into the house and escaped for close to 2 days. He was arrested on Sunday evening. He has been charged with federal murder, which carries the death penalty.
Impersonating an Officer
Who Boelter is, and the exact nature of his objectives and perceived grievances, may ultimately be less noteworthy than whom he pretended to be. Boelter’s motives aren’t yet clear, though he possessed what police have suggested may have been a target list of seventy individuals, many of whom are Democratic politicians. Just tonight (June 21st) a young man (25-year-old Trenton Abston) attempted to confront the Mayor of Memphis with a taser. The Mayor lived in a gated community with security, but Abston climbed over a brick wall to reach the Mayor’s door. The Governor of Michigan was also the target of a foiled kidnapping attempt.
A state legislator summoned to his or her door well after midnight may be wary about opening it, but he or she may be less reluctant if the person on the step is uniformed and there’s a cop car parked on the street. As it turns out, Boelter was driving an S.U.V. that he had outfitted for his security business. He made the deliberate decision to leave the emergency lights on.
It was very smart of the real Brooklyn Park police officers to suspect what was happening. Their quick reaction saved lives. At a news conference on Monday, June 16th, authorities in Minnesota revealed that Boelter had visited at least two other homes between Hoffman’s and Hortman’s. No one was home at one, and he seemed to have been scared away at the other.
ICE in Action
The politicization of law enforcement has acquired a new dimension during the immigration crackdowns. The Trump Administration has allowed its agents to disguise their identities or affiliations so that it is often unclear to detainees whose custody they are in, or under what authority. In Boston, in March federal agents arrested Rümeysa Öztürk, a Tufts University graduate student who had co-written a pro-Palestine op-ed in a campus newspaper. The agents were in plain clothes and masked.
Recently the White House deployed seven hundred marines to Los Angeles, purportedly to help quell the protests against immigration raids. Photos spread of them detaining a protester. Catherine Rampell, of the Washington Post, reported last week on an immigration raid targeting a landscaper working outside a boutique home-design business in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. Agents showed up in masks and tactical gear and refused to show IDs, warrants or even give the names of any criminals they were supposedly hunting. In the piece, Rampell spoke to the business’s co-owner, Linda Shafiroff. She said, “It could have been like a band of the Proud Boys or something.”
In each of these circumstances, the federal government is asking ordinary people to trust that those wearing uniforms are acting on behalf of the public, while also allowing them to shroud their identity and their mission, and pushing the boundaries of what law enforcement can do. It is hard to imagine a scenario more perfectly engineered for exploitation.
In February, a man wearing an ICE jacket at the Conservative Political Action Conference, outside Washington, D.C., admitted to a podcaster that he had no affiliation with the agency, but said of his jacket, “It’s $29.99 on Amazon. I would recommend buying a small, if you’re my size.”
In Philadelphia, police sought a man who had entered a car-repair shop wearing fake security apparel. He yelled “Immigration!,” which caused some employees to scatter. He then proceeded to tie up a worker and rob the business. By the end of March, the fake-ICE situation had grown sufficiently common in Southern California that the Los Angeles Times ran a feature titled “ICE impersonators and other scammers are on the rise: How to protect yourself.”
Some of these impersonators are scamming for money. Others, especially those harassing migrants, may be expressing solidarity with the President’s political aims. The leaky membrane that Trump has established between law enforcement and his own agenda does a disservice to the officers, many of whom are simply trying to do their jobs. It also makes their work more dangerous. The more lawless the government is, the easier it is for lawless individuals to impersonate officers. Also, the more likely it is that citizens will doubt that the real officers actually represent a legal authority.
This is a recipe for generalized mistrust. For citizens to know who an armed federal agent really is, and what authority he is operating under, should be part of even the most basic commitment to transparency. At a minimum, courts and politicians should pressure government agents to disclose their identities during raids and detentions, and to clarify where their authority begins and ends.
In California’s Central Valley, as immigration raids peaked, school attendance reportedly dropped by twenty-two per cent. Immigrants are frightened to keep appointments, attend church, or show up at work, in some cases, for fear the Steven Miller/Stephen Homan heavy hand of the law will be deployed in the same manner it was in throwing an elected member of Congress, Senator Padilla, to the floor and handcuffing him, because he attempted to ask Homeland Security Chief Kristy Noem a question at a public meeting.
On Saturday, at an anti-Trump No Kings protest in Salt Lake City, Utah, a man reportedly appeared to be crouching behind a wall, while carrying what looked like an AR-15-style rifle. Several armed people whom the police referred to as “peacekeepers” providing security for the protest—though whether this role was official or self-assigned was under investigation—pulled their own weapons and yelled. One fired at the man, managing to disarm him but killing a bystander.
SPILL-OVER EFFECT
Demonstrators in Davenport protested both the autocratic behavior of DJT and his ICE raids.
Sadly, the trickle-down theory that Republicans love, is in play again in the behaviors to which Trump has affixed his seal of approval. It is okay to discriminate against homosexuals, women, transgender individuals and people of color, because that is what attacks on DEI sanction. Anti-Semitism is up while evangelical group support the man who, right now, has put us on the verge of WWIII and unleashed Elon Musk and DOGE on nearly every government institution, ruining them and the careers of the public servants employed there.
Other Examples of Trickle-down Tump Deterioration
I am old enough to remember when air travel was a delight. You actually dressed up to eat your TV-dinner style entrée onboard. Then planes began to be hijacked, 9/11 happened, and now we all dread the TSA steps that bad behavior has doomed us to endure in order to fly at all.
In much the same vein, outdoor concerts were once great fun. Until they weren’t. People who remember the slaughter in Las Vegas at an open air concert think twice. It isn’t even safe to attend a Fourth of July Parade in broad daylight anymore. We learned that after a Fourth of July parade in a Chicago suburb.
Trump is, slowly but surely, undermining trust in elected officials and in government institutions that have functioned well for 250 years, but which are now struggling to function at all. (Some have been eliminated by presidential fiat.)
Trump’s Legacy
Trump’s legacy to America, among many things, is most damaging in regards to undermining good behavior, civility, trust in institutions and our leaders and the press (in addition to non-stop crass commercial capitalization while in (and off of) the Oval Office.)
The emoluments clause of the Constitution (Article 1, Section 9, Clause 8) has been completely disregarded. The Emoluments Clause of the U.S. Constitution is actually two clauses that restrict federal officials, especially the President, from receiving gifts, payments, or other benefits from foreign or domestic sources without Congressional consent. These clauses are designed to prevent corruption and undue influence on government officials by foreign powers or other entities.
Charging supplicants to attend his Mar-A-Lago bash recently and his unabashed greed in asking for a new Air Force One plane during his recent Middle East trip are just the tip of the iceberg. In Trump 1.0 foreign dignitaries knew that they should stay at Trump’s hotel if they wanted to do business with the executive branch. DJT has come out with tennis shoes, Bibles, with bitcoin and cheap gold cell phones, further sullying the office of the President of the United States. Why is Congress allowing this?
“The times, they are a-changing” and, so far, that is not a good thing.
Senator Jeff Merkley (D, OR).
Nato Ambassador Nominee is questioned by Oregon Senator Phil Merkley on March 4, 2025.
Jeff Merkley has been Oregon’s Senator since 2008.
From Wikipedia:
“In June 2018, Merkley received national attention when he attempted to visit a facility holding the children of jailed adults who had attempted to cross the border to seek asylum. Children were separated from their parents and placed in the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement. Merkley filmed his attempt to visit a facility in a former Walmart in Brownsville, Texas. He was denied entrance and the police were called and arrived as he continued to try to speak with the facility administrator. He commented in the film: “I think it’s unacceptable that a member of Congress is not being admitted to see what is happening to children whose families are applying for asylum. I decided to come out here, go up to the door and ask to be let in.” By midday the video had garnered more than one million viewers.[35]
trio of Elon Musk, Donald Trump and Peter Thiel
Has it ever occurred to you that Elon Musk, with his Starlink expertise, may well have “fixed” the vote for DJT in 2024? I’m sure it has. Certain irregularities were noted in some of the swing states. Investigation of this has been ongoing and a Substack writer has assembled the article below. If I could find the writer’s name, it would appear here. I filled in the blank for being on the receiving end of further articles, but the name of the actual investigator/writer was MIA, as far as I can tell. Maybe that is for purposes of safety. You either get credit or blame. If you’ve watched “Good Night and Good Luck” that showed recently on CNN, you know that speaking truth to power is the rule to protect our democracy.
Is the article below well-researched enough to be labeled as “truth?” You can be the judge of that. I’m not vouching for it or its writer, but I am sharing it, because it confirms the suspicions that many of us harbor about the 2024 presidential race.
Again, do your own further research and—if you find the name of this Substack writer—I’ll happily give full credit (or blame?) to that individual, but I was not quite ready to sign up for $55. I was ready to consider this individual’s thoughts on what may have happened. I still am. I’m not swearing on a stack of Bibles that this is the truth, but it certainly has a lot of food for thought.
So, chew on this.
****************
A Power Cord Becomes a Backdoor
In March 2021, Leonard Leo—the judicial kingmaker behind the modern conservative legal machine—sold a quiet Chicago company by the name of Tripp Lite for $1.65 billion. The buyer: Eaton Corporation, a global power infrastructure conglomerate that just happened to have a partnership with Peter Thiel’s Palantir.
To most, Tripp Lite was just a hardware brand—battery backups, surge protectors, power strips. But in America’s elections, Tripp Lite devices were something else entirely.
They are physically connected to ES&S central tabulators and Electionware servers, and Dominion tabulators and central servers across the country. And they aren’t dumb devices. They are smart UPS units—programmable, updatable, and capable of communicating directly with the election system via USB, serial port, or Ethernet.
ES&S systems, including central tabulators and Electionware servers, rely on Tripp Lite UPS devices. ES&S’s Electionware suite runs on Windows OS, which automatically trusts connected UPS hardware.
If Eaton pushed an update to those UPS units, it could have gained root-level access to the host tabulation environment—without ever modifying certified election software.
In Dominion’s Democracy Suite 5.17, the drivers for these UPS units are listed as “optional”—meaning they can be updated remotely without triggering certification requirements or oversight. Optional means unregulated. Unregulated means invisible. And invisible means perfect for infiltration
2024 VOTE
On Monday, an investigator’s story finally hit the news cycle: Pro V&V, one of only two federally accredited testing labs, approved sweeping last-minute updates to ES&S voting machines in the months leading up to the 2024 election—without independent testing, public disclosure, or full certification review.
These changes were labeled “de minimis”—a term meant for trivial tweaks. But they touched ballot scanners, altered reporting software, and modified audit files—yet were all rubber-stamped with no oversight.
That revelation is a shock to the public.
But for those who’ve been digging into the bizarre election data since November, this isn’t the headline—it’s the final piece to the puzzle. While Pro V&V was quietly updating equipment in plain sight, a parallel operation was unfolding behind the curtain—between tech giants and Donald Trump.
And it started with a long forgotten sale.
ELECTION FRAUD?
BallotProof: The Front-End for Scrubbing Democracy
Enter the ballot scrubbing platform BallotProof. Co-created by Ethan Shaotran, a longtime employee of Elon Musk and current DOGE employee, BallotProof was pitched as a transparency solution—an app to “verify” scanned ballot images and support election integrity.
With Palantir’s AI controlling the backend, and BallotProof cleaning the front, only one thing was missing: the signal to go live.
September 2024: Eaton and Musk Make It Official
Then came the final public breadcrumb:
In September 2024, Eaton formally partnered with Elon Musk.
The stated purpose? A vague, forward-looking collaboration focused on “grid resilience” and “next-generation communications.”
But buried in the partnership documents was this line:
“Exploring integration with Starlink’s emerging low-orbit DTC infrastructure for secure operational continuity.”
The Activation: Starlink Goes Direct-to-Cell
That signal came on October 30, 2024—just days before the election, Musk activated 265 brand new low Earth orbit (LEO) V2 Mini satellites, each equipped with Direct-to-Cell (DTC) technology capable of processing, routing, and manipulating real-time data, including voting data, through his satellite network.
DTC doesn’t require routers, towers, or a traditional SIM. It connects directly from satellite to any compatible device—including embedded modems in “air-gapped” voting systems, smart UPS units, or unsecured auxiliary hardware.
From that moment on:
– Commands could be sent from orbit
– Patch delivery became invisible to domestic monitors
– Compromised devices could be triggered remotely
This groundbreaking project that should have taken two-plus years to build, was completed in just under ten months.
Elon Musk boasts endlessly about everything he’s launching, building, buying—or even just thinking about—whether it’s real or not. But he pulls off one of the largest and fastest technological feats in modern day history… and says nothing? One might think that was kind of… “weird.”
Lasers From Space
Elon Musk.
According to New York Times reporting, on October 5—just before Starlink’s DTC activation—Musk texted a confidant:
“I’m feeling more optimistic after tonight. Tomorrow we unleash the anomaly in the matrix.”
Then, an hour later:
“This isn’t something on the chessboard, so they’ll be quite surprised. ‘Lasers’ from space.”
This wasn’t a theory. It was a full-scale operation. A systemic digital occupation—clean, credentialed, and remote-controlled.
The Outcome
Data that makes no statistical sense. A clean sweep in all seven swing states.
The fall of the Blue Wall. Eighty-eight counties flipped red—not one flipped blue.
Every victory landed just under the threshold that would trigger an automatic recount. Donald Trump outperformed expectations in down-ballot races with margins never before seen—while Kamala Harris simultaneously underperformed in those exact same areas.
If one were to accept these results at face value—Donald Trump, a 34-count convicted felon, supposedly outperformed Ronald Reagan. According to the co-founder of the Election Truth Alliance:
“These anomalies didn’t happen nationwide. They didn’t even happen across all voting methods—this just doesn’t reflect human voting behavior.”
They were concentrated.
Targeted.
Specific to swing states and Texas—and specific to Election Day voting.
And the supposed explanation? “Her policies were unpopular.”
Let’s think this through logically. We’re supposed to believe that in all the battleground states, Democratic voters were so disillusioned by Vice President Harris’s platform that they voted blue down ballot—but flipped to Trump at the top of the ticket?
Not in early voting.
Not by mail.
With exception to Nevada, only on Election Day.
And only after a certain threshold of ballots had been cast—where VP Harris’s numbers begin to diverge from her own party, and Trump’s suddenly begin to surge. As President Biden would say, “C’mon, man.”
In the world of election data analysis, there’s a term for that: vote-flipping algorithm.
Billionaires and Tech Giants Pulled Off the Crime of the Century
Why? There wasn’t just one reason—there were many.
Elon Musk himself hinted at the stakes: he faced the real possibility of a prison sentence if Trump lost. He launched his bid for Twitter—at $20 billion over market value—just 49 days after Putin invaded Ukraine. That alone should have raised every red flag. But when the ROI is $15 trillion in mineral rights tied to Ukraine losing the war and geopolitical deals Trump could green light, it wasn’t a loss—it was leverage.
It’s no secret Musk was in communication with Putin for over two years. He even granted Starlink access to Russian forces.
Then there’s Peter Thiel and the so-called “broligarchs”—tech billionaires who worship at the altar of shower-avoidant blogger Curtis Yarvin. They casually joke about “humane genocide for non-producers” and have long viewed democracy as a nuisance—an obstacle to their vision of hypercapitalism and themselves as the permanent ruling elite.
Well, what is the elimination of Medicaid if not “humane genocide”—and does anyone really wonder why his 40-year-old protégé and political rookie, JD Vance, is Vice President? With this technology in place, if the third-term legislation were to pass, it would hand Vance a minimum of twelve years at the helm of Thiel’s regime.
And of course, Donald Trump himself:
He spent a year telling his followers he didn’t need their votes—at one point stating,
“…in four years, you don’t have to vote again. We’ll have it fixed so good, you’re not gonna have to vote.”
Trump was facing eighty-eight felony indictments—he was desperate to avoid conviction and locked in a decades-long alliance with Vladimir Putin. An alliance that’s now impossible to ignore—look no further than his policy trail.
He froze aid to Ukraine and has threatened to place sanctions on them, while planning to lift sanctions off Russia. He openly campaigned for anti-EU candidates, and sided with Russia in multiple key United Nations votes related to the Ukraine conflict.
[Comments on the interview above]
(*Note that Elon testifies that DJT did not seem concerned about 2 so-called “assassination attempts,” one of which supposedly hit his ear, which, miraculously, healed almost overnight leaving no trace of such an injury.) Elon’s assertions about illegals being bussed to swing states are unverified and have no basis in fact. Conversely, Musk’s antagonistic attitude towards people of color, a product of his South African heritage, is well-documented as is that of his father before him. The purpose of “no ID to vote, says Musk, is “obviously” to influence elections when there are other viable explanations, but identification to vote has never been something that Democrats oppose. Elon lays out which 6 states need to be targeted late in the interview and note the many “obviously” affirmations, which are not “obvious” at all.
His admission that Pete Buttigieg did a good job is to his credit, but contentions that billionaires are “for sure” more in the Democratic camp are debatable. The attack on the media as biased is, again, a GOP and Russian staple. Court comments are also part of the Communist playbook. Elon worries that “everything is on the side of the Dems” and denigrates Kamala Harris’s candidacy, saying that nobody voted for her. (Kamala was part of the elected ticket in 2020.)
Late-in-the-interview comments about not becoming a one-party elite ruling class are ironic; that is exactly what Elon’s infusion of cash was intended to create. The fact that Elon Musk denigrates Harris, (who was a woman of great achievement prior to her election as VP), is also telling. He puts her down continuously while ignoring the “marionette” nature of DJT’s public remarks. Many of Trump’s public statements make no sense at all lately, so comparing the remarks of the two candidates word-for-word as to eloquence would be interesting.
Musk claims that billionaires are terrified that their support for Harris’s candidacy might come out, which seems to be simply his view, again unsupported by fact. Epstein’s name comes up late in the interview, which is interesting considering how he later announced that Trump’s name would appear on the Lolita Express rolls and that he was involved, which has been previously reported. “If Trump wins, we can do some housecleaning and shed light on things. Adhere to freedom of speech within the bounds of the law” are remarks made late in the interview, which is also ironic, as there has been little effort to stay within the bounds of the law but extreme efforts to do the opposite. Elon notes that he fears a Harris win would put “X”—which he had recently bought and which he had semi-ruined—out of business. He mentions a lawsuit against “X” regarding hiring permanent residents or citizens. He mentions a lawsuit against Space X for trying to hire asylum seekers. He also mentions Stalin’s chief enforcer, who is mentioned in the recent documentary “Mr. Nobody Against Putin.” Elon admits that he fears a Democratic majority might shut his businesses down. Obviously, he decided to back the candidate who would shine on his pursuits.
Elon’s remarks about freedom and opportunity open the door to interpretation about the freedom and opportunity that he has bought for himself and his own pursuits. Talk about “improving the liberty of Americans” ignores his future role as the DOGEfather, firing people willy-nilly with chainsaw tactics.
Musk’s remarks about over-regulation have merit, but doing away with all regulatory agencies is folly. “There are so many different regulatory agencies and so many different regulations that we won’t be able to get anything done.” Some truth in those remarks, but let’s not forget that the developer of the Titan ignored regulations in pursuit of deep-see tourism to the wreck of the “Titanic” and we all know how that ended (good documentary about it streaming now.) He also touches on vaccination. “I don’t enjoy hurting other people. I have a hard time imagining, ‘Why would someone do that?'” (This from the man who literally ruined many careers with his DOGE antics.)
“There’s a small % of Americans who have anger management issues that cause them to hurt other people. If you don’t incarcerate them, they will hurt other people.” This leads Musk to talk about empathy for the victims, rather than the perpetrators. In examining anger management issues, Musk might have looked closer to home to the man he supported who has been on an 8-year-long crusade for retribution and is now exercising his power as president to “punish” all who defied him. (The law firm where Kamala Harris’s husband worked was one target, among many).
There is an interesting Tucker Carlson reference to Minneapolis as being a nice city “pre George Floyd.” This was before Vance Boelter (on left) began systematically trying to wipe out all elected Democrats in the city in pre-dawn raids. Musk further decries the deterioration of modern American cities, which Carlson terms “ubiquitous.” Musk says, “I’ve got to lead by being compassionate” and then goes on a Trump-designated stampede to literally ruin the careers and lives of many in the sights of DOGE. (Shakes head.) Musk’s axe-murderer example is pretty far out and leads Tucker to call this “anti-civilization.” Movement to de-criminalize crime is brought up and seems to point most notably to the MAGA crowd that attacked the Capitol on January 6th and were subsequently found guilty, sentenced and then pardoned wholesale with no real attempt to pardon in any kind of reasonable, sensible, logical manner (which also seems to be true of most DOGE initiatives.)
Near the end of the interview, Musk comments on Europe, saying that the birth rate is declining (Musk has 14 kids by multiple women, one of whom is trans-gender and hates him) and that that needs to be addressed. He also rails against censorship in Europe. Those of us who reside in Austin are watching Musk’s assembling of a sort of harem of his offspring and their mothers, which isn’t going too well, so far. It is also designed to help with the housing shortage for new Tesla employees. He then begins talking about the decline of religion and the increasing secular nature of society. Work takes the place of religion, says Musk. (Someone please remind the GOP of the founding fathers wish that there be separation of church and state.) “For me, I’m culturally Christian but also went to a Hebrew pre-school. I didn’t fall for believing all of these religious stories. I try to understand as much as possible about reality. In physics you’re not supposed to believe everything absolutely. If your rocket is designed with physics in mind correctly it will get to orbit, or otherwise it will not.” (Lately, more “not” than “will”).
“We definitely went to the moon. How about Mars? It was a remarkable piece of technology for 1969 and it was an important ideological battle with Communism, because they couldn’t put a man on the moon and capitalism could.”
Kate, a No Kings protester in Davenport, Iowa on June 14, 2025.
Today, while dining in Iowa at an establishment known to be Trump-friendly, I witnessed parts of the Trump parade, despite my intention to ignore this $43 million DJT birthday celebration. The parade masqueraded as a celebration of the birthday of the U.S. Army, just as our rejection of centuries of Canadian friendship and alliance was attributed to the microscopically small amount of fentanyl that Donald Trump claimed was being smuggled across the Canadian border into the U.S.
Earlier in the day I attended the No Kings demonstration in Davenport, Iowa—one of hundreds of such demonstrations across the United States. There is no question that the many cities participating saw millions protesting the most destructive, divisive and disruptive presidency in history.
Kate, from California and Utah, served four years in the Marine Corps as a Corporal.
It was a surreal dining experience. We were bombarded with patriotic music (mostly country music) while dining, Lee Greenwood tunes cranked to the max. It was creepy, upon entering, to see a life-sized cut-out of Donald Trump.
Outside the restaurant stood a gigantic GOP elephant. A recruiting van and truck stood outside the door, urging patrons to help elect a convicted felon who doesn’t read briefings, plays more golf than any president in history, and has single-handedly visited more grief and disruption upon us, as a nation, than any of his 46 predecessors.
Davenport, Iowa, demonstrators on 6/14/2025.
And high on the list of those who have suffered the most are the farmers of this and every other Iowa county. When will minorities and those most affected wake up and see what this man is doing to them, while posing as some television version of a “manly man”? It’s absolutely bonkers to realize that those most negatively impacted by Trump have become his biggest champions. Based on what? His stint on TV as a successful businessman on “The Apprentice,” perhaps, despite his multiple bankruptcies and the truth.
Meanwhile—to add to the surreal nature of my day— while dining, a deluded Black commentator talked about how united we are as a country. W-H-A-A-T?
It was a stunning reminder of just how UNdivided we really are.
Police in L.A. were deploying flash bangs to dispel a protesting crowd.
Demonstrators in Davenport protested both the autocratic behavior of DJT and his ICE raids.
A madman in Minneapolis was shooting elected Democrats in cold blood.
Meanwhile, on Brady Street in Davenport, Iowa,—the 148th largest metropolitan area in the United States— protesters were waving signs against Trump, while motorists sped by and honked in support (some even waving signs of their own).
Across the Mississippi River in Schweibert Park (Rock Island, Illinois), an even larger turnout from the neighboring Democratic state, protested President Trump’s more outrageous actions.
Roughly 200 Davenport (Iowa) protestors gathered on June 14, 2025 on Brady Street.
Davenport had a population of 101,724 as of the 2020 census, making it Iowa’s third-most populous city, after Des Moines and Cedar Rapids.[5] It is the largest of the Quad Cities in Iowa and Illinois, a metropolitan area with a population of 384,324 and a combined statistical area population of 474,019.[6][7]
Moline, just across the Mississippi River, is the headquarters of John Deere, one of the most home-grown American companies, and one that DJT recently targeted for criticism because, like other successful American companies, it engages in outsourcing production to neighboring countries, like Canada and Mexico. My husband worked for Deere & Company for 40 years. I know this company well; I can’t think of a more “American” company, yet Trump recently lambasted it for its business practices, which mirror those of every successful modern company in America.
Lifesize DJT cut-out, Treehouse Lounge, Davenport, Iowa
At the No Kings demonstration on Brady Street I spoke with Kate, a Marine Corporal (for 4 years) who was among the youngest demonstraters present at age 35. As someone who protested at Berkeley in 1965 during the Mario Savio years, a child of the 60s, I have seen and participated in demonstrations against the Vietnam War. I stood up with my roommate as she married her Navy husband at China Lake, just prior to his being shipped off to war. As a young pregnant bride, I waited anxiously outside a draft office in Rock Island, Illinois, to see if my new husband, 1A on the draft list, was going to be sent to a war that even former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara grew to regret.
My observations following the demonstrations locally in the Heartland on June 14, 2025 are these:
GOP elephant statue, Treehouse Lounge
In order to rescue our country from the complete disregard for the Constitution that Donald J. Trump represents, my children and grandchildren are going to have to pick up the torch. Those of us who demonstrated in the sixties are with you, in spirit, but it’s up to you now.
- Contrary to the African American talking head on television during Donald Trump’s birthday parade, this is not a united country. The barely hidden racism, the misogyny, the anti-Semitism, the dislike of gays and transgender citizens: it’s always been there beneath the surface. Now the surface has become the new reality of the United States. Only threats from outside seem to unite us, as with 9/11. We must work to make a reality of the words of the Constitution about equality and the pursuit of happiness.
- We need to right the ship of state as quickly as possible. It will take decades to undo the damage inflicted by DOGE, as it is.
MAGA truck and van
MAGA van
I am ending this report on today’s No Kings demonstration in Davenport by repeating Robert F. Kennedy’s message to the country in Indianapolis after the assassination of Martin Luther King on April 4, 1968.
“What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence and lawlessness, but is love, and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or whether they be black. … let us dedicate ourselves to what the Greeks wrote so many years ago: to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world. Let us dedicate ourselves to that, and say a prayer for our country and for our people.“
And here are the words of Mario Savio, that are also food for thought:
horizon during drive
Today is Thursday and I drove from Chicago to the Quad Cities today.
There was extensive road work near Minooka and, again, about 58 miles from the Quad Cities on Interstate 80, but the drive was relatively uneventful.
I left Chicago at 2 p.m. and arrived home at 5:30 p.m., which is exactly the time frame anticipated. We decided to order Chik’ Fil A. In the twenty minutes my husband was gone picking up those sandwiches, it was announced that Israel had launched “preemptive” strikes against Iran. It also was announced that the strikes were the first of a wave of many and that Israeli citizens could expect retaliation.
You can’t convince me—(despite Marco Rubio’s protestations to the contrary)—that the United States didn’t know full well that Benjamin Netanyahu was going to strike Iran, aiming at nuclear facilities and other nuclear-related targets. The U.S. had made some progress in forging a nuclear agreement under John Kerry, but Trump tore up that agreement. Then the Trump administration began attempting to resurrect that dead agreement.
Ironically, there were supposedly talks scheduled for Sunday about limiting Iran’s reach for nuclear weapons. Sounds like those meetings will not be taking place now. Despite the presence of deep-underground Iranian nuclear facilities that will be difficult (if not impossible) to destroy from the air, perhaps there won’t be as much left to “regulate” after Israel unleashes another wave of bombings against its adversarial antagonistic neighbor.
How much DJT really anticipated ever getting such an Iranian arms agreement, with safeguards and inspections, is anybody’s guess. As for me, I suspect that letting Israel bomb Iran right now, when Iran is weakened by the Gaza conflict and Hamas (which is Iran-backed) is in disarray was probably something—much like Ben and Donnie agreeing that they could sure make a nice hotel strip out of the Gaza beach area—the two authoritarian leaders could agree on.
The leader of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, Gen. Hossein Salami, was confirmed dead, Iranian state television reported, a significant blow to Tehran’s governing theocracy and an immediate escalation of its long-simmering conflict with Israel.The chief of staff of Iranian armed forces, Gen. Mohammad Bagheri, was also confirmed dead by Iranian state television. Other top military officials and scientists were believed to have been killed. Some 200 Israeli aircraft took part in the operation, hitting about 100 targets, Israeli army chief spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin said. Over 100 drones were launched by Iran towards Israel, which the country was intercepting and warning the country’s occupants to remain vigilant. Schools and businesses were closed and other attacks were anticipated.
So, accept the United States’ denial that we had anything to do with the attacks on Iran if you want, but realize that our close relationship with Israel, intensified by the chummy friendship between Netanyahu and Trump—means that at least tacit approval of such a bombing occurred. It would be right in line with DJT’s usual ham-handed approach to diplomacy and everything else (*Cases in point: the removal of immigrants from the U.S. and/or the separation of infants from their mothers at the border during Trump 1.0). This complicit silent approval of the bombing of Iran by Israel goes right along with the chainsaw-wielding He-Man persona Trump wants to project, [while babbling incoherently and (probably) wearing adult diapers.]
Armed troops sent in by Mayor Daley during the Chicago riots of 1968, following the assassination of Martin Luther King.
One other late-breaking news flash: Trump has been ordered to return the National Guard to the command of the Governor of California, who did not ask for the guard to be sent in in the first place. U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer, an appointee of former President Clinton, temporarily blocked the president from deploying thousands of guardsmen to Los Angeles. The judge said Trump had exceeded his authority (you think?). An appeal was filed immediately and the case will probably go to the Supreme Court.
Armed troops sent in by Mayor Daley during the Chicago riots of 1968, following the assassination of Martin Luther King.
In a March 29th, 1968 editorial entitled “The Presidency,” in LIFE magazine, Hugh Sidey wrote, “There remain people who are wistful over what is happening, who feel that the United States Presidency is a marble relic to be placed high on a pedestal above the daily political clamor, to be revered and protected, never buffeted or soiled. But the Presidency is refined only in the process that chooses the man for the office. The Presidency is only as strong as the men who contend for it. It is visionary and responsive to the country’s needs only when natural political forces collide freely.
In politics, as in life, struggle often breeds character—to invoke a Lyndon Johnson maxim which he got from his mother…A lot of silly things have been said about not making this fight a personal one. But it has to be. The Presidency is a personal matter. The arguments in the end come down to how that single person will think and act….What is the most important task of the President: to pass legislation, as Lyndon Johnson has done, or to lift the hearts of the people as he has not. Or to do both.”
RFK assassination (1968)
Those Hugh Sidey words were written against the backdrop of a looming 1968 fight amongst the Democratic faithful, with Bobby Kennedy seeking to take the torch from the hands of the incumbent President. Johson would not announce that he would not seek nor would he accept his party’s nomination until March 31, 1968, two days after this editorial appeared.
Although Johnson confided to aides on several occasions that he might be forced to accept Kennedy in order to secure a victory over a moderate Republican ticket such as Nelson Rockefeller and George Romney,[215] Kennedy supporters attempted to force the issue by running a draft movement during the New Hampshire primary.[209] This movement gained momentum after Governor John W. King‘s endorsement and infuriated Johnson. Kennedy received 25,094 write in votes for vice president in New Hampshire, far surpassing Senator Hubert Humphrey, the eventual vice-presidential nominee.[216] The potential need for a Johnson–Kennedy ticket was ultimately eliminated by the Republican nomination of conservative Barry Goldwater. With Goldwater as his opponent, Johnson’s choice of vice president was all but irrelevant; opinion polls had revealed that, while Kennedy was an overwhelming first choice among Democrats, any choice made less than a 2% difference in a general election that already promised to be a landslide.[217
Surprisingly, one of Sidey’s observations in the “LIFE” piece was this: “There can be longer-range results of the upheaval. Some urban specialists predict that, because of the big political fight, the coming summer will be considerably cooler in the streets than it would have been without this legitimate outlet for dissent.” When I think back to the summer of ’68 and the condition of the streets that summer, I shake my head at the idea of “cooler in the streets.” It can be argued that the summer of ’68 was the worst summer in the streets that we have ever seen, illustrated by the Democratic convention in Chicago, which may have set the bar as low as any national event in history. Mayor Daley, too, used a heavy ham-handed approach to the protesters in Chicago’s streets. In Chicago itself, more than 48 hours of rioting left 11 Chicago citizens dead, 48 wounded by police gunfire, 90 policemen injured, and 2,150 people arrested.[3] Three miles of East Garfield Park and West Garfield Park on West Madison Street were left in a state of rubble [Perhaps only the insurrection of January 6, 2021, ranks higher in terms of political gatherings that went horribly awry.]
March 29, 1968 “LIFE” magazine.
Civil rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr., was fatally shot at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968, at 6:01 p.m. CST, not even a week after this Hugh Sidey opinion piece appeared. Robert F. Kennedy lived until June 6, 1968, just 39 more days after this “LIFE”editorial appeared. He was assassinated by Sirhan Sirhan after a triumphant victory winning the California and South Dakota primaries on June 4th, 1968. He would be shot at the Ambassador Hotel on June 5th at 12:15 a.m. and pronounced dead 25 hours later at Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles.
In Indianapolis, the day MLK (April 4, 1968) was shot, candidate RFK would give this impromptu speech:
“What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence and lawlessness, but is love, and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or whether they be black. … let us dedicate ourselves to what the Greeks wrote so many years ago: to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world. Let us dedicate ourselves to that, and say a prayer for our country and for our people.“[30]
I could not agree more with the sentiments in that RFK Indianapolis speech. Indianapolis did not have riots in its streets after this impromptu speech from RFK; many attribute that to Kennedy’s words.
Riots of ’68.
I would point out that intentionally inflaming conditions in the streets of Los Angeles—something that is happening now because the current President of the United States is, as Governor Gavin Newsom of California dubbed him in a CNN interview, “The King of Chaos,” is unbecoming to the office and the opposite of what a President has historically attempted to do in times of unrest. Rather than try to calm the crowd, DJT has attempted to rile it up, using chaos and threatened violence and fully armed active Marines and National Guard soldiers. To make matters even worse, he is shown grinning gleefully while trying on a championship belt of a violent fighting exhibition he attended the very night he was sending troops in that were not requested by the Governor of California and were not necessary. One hopes that we are not about to experience another Kent State incident, since the training of some of those who were sent in, fully armed, was questionable.
There is no insurrection in the streets of L.A., except the one that DJT is trying to create. As another said, it’s like an arsonist rushing in to quell the fire he started. While it is not in the nature of this particular malignant narcissist to read or to listen to what his elders and betters may say, since he tapped RFK, Jr., to be his Secretary of Health and Human Services, (despite RFK, Jr.’s complete lack of credentials for the job), I hope he re-reads Robert F. Kennedy Sr.’s words and takes heed, “Let us dedicated ourselves to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world. Let us dedicate ourselves to that, and say a prayer for our country and for our people.”
The House passed the budget bill that Donald J. Trump chooses to call the “big beautiful tax bill.” They passed it on to the Senate, which now has to decide whether to pass an unconscionable bill that will throw about 11 million people off Medicaid in order to give tax cuts to the richest percentage of the population. House Speaker Mike Johnson said, “We will “move it as quickly as our rules allow us,” setting up a possible floor vote next week for Congress to cut funding for (among others) NPR, PBS and USAID.
TRUMP’S LATEST TARGET
In the bitter war over the nation’s fiscal future, President Trump and his Republican allies have united around a new foe: the economists and budget experts who have warned about the costs of the party’s tax ambitions. Republican leaders have set about trying to discredit any hint of unfavorable accounting on their signature legislation as they race to enact it before the president’s self-imposed July 4th deadline.The estimate arrived on Wednesday projected that the sprawling bill endorsed by Mr. Trump could add about $2.4 trillion to the federal debt over the next decade.
The GOP faithful reserved their fiercest criticism for the Congressional Budget Office, a team of nonpartisan aides who helped to author the price check, which was issued on Wednesday. Mr. Trump and his advisers have tried to paint the budget office as historically inaccurate and overly political. Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a Republican economist who led the Congressional Budget Office from 2003 to 2005, characterized it this way: the GOP has opted to “shoot the messenger.”
Appearing on Fox News last week, Speaker Mike Johnson said the tax bill would deliver the “largest amount of savings in the history of government on planet Earth.” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent at one point likened the budget office and its methodology to the scandal-ridden, failed company Enron. Newt Gingrich, the former speaker of the House, said last month that it was a “fake budget office.”
All this in support of passing one of the most heartless budgets in recent memory, which even went after Big Bird in its pursuit of cuts, defunding such historically positive programs as “Sesame Street.” The USAID cuts not only undermined a program championed by former Republican President George W. Bush, it will directly contribute to the death of millions of children and adults in disadvantaged Third World countries which are losing programs like those aimed at curbing HIV and AIDS in African countries. The USAID program had been considered a positive success— one that did much good in the world. But doing good in the world does not seem to be a Republican priority for this administration. Quite the opposite.
BUDGET OFFICE REBUTTAL
Douglas W. Elmendorf, a Democratic economist who served as the director of the budget office from 2009 to 2015, said the nonpartisan experts were crucial for “bringing the best professional evidence to bear and laying out the consequences of policy choices to Congress as honestly as they can.”But the nature of its work — “predicting the future,” in the words of Mr. Elmendorf — also subjects the office and its peers to a fair amount of political risk.
In one high-profile example, the Joint Committee on Taxation discovered after Democrats adopted their signature legislation in 2022, the Inflation Reduction Act, that it would cost hundreds of billions of dollars more than anticipated. The discrepancy was largely due to greater demand for one of the bill’s components, a set of tax credits for electric vehicle purchases that President Joseph R. Biden Jr. offered on more generous terms than scorekeepers had anticipated. (Elon is said to be unhappy about the loss of this Biden-era incentive to buy electric vehicles.)
But Republicans seized on that mishap, seeing it as evidence of political bias in the budget office’s work. To wit: “If we as lawmakers have to make decisions based on C.B.O. and Joint Tax’s analysis, you betcha it better be right,” Mr. Smith charged at a hearing in February. “And it hasn’t been.”
ARGUMENTS: PRO/CON
Republicans also contend that congressional analysts fail to account for the ways that their new tax measure can unlock economic growth — and, in the process, generate higher tax revenues.By the White House’s estimation, the Republican tax proposal could raise output by as much as about 5 percent in the short term, compared with what might happen without the bill.
The White House analysis appeared to be premised in part on the bill extending a set of generous corporate tax deductions on a permanent basis, something that House Republicans did not actually propose. A White House spokesman did not respond to a request for comment. Using a different metric, congressional tax analysts found that Republicans’ specific changes to the tax code would increase the average growth rate in U.S. output by only 0.03 percent annually. That mirrored findings from many outside economists, including at Penn Wharton, which projected that the output would be just 0.4 percent higher by 2034. Asked about the estimate, Mr. Miran said last month that Penn Wharton had a “track record of being wrong.”
GOP VOICES SPEAK UP
“By trying to sort-of game the referee on these questions, members of Congress are going to miss the fundamental issue of whether this bill is an appropriate response, given where we are with the deficit and debt,” said Jonathan W. Burks, the executive vice president for economic policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center. Burks previously served Republicans including former Speaker Paul Ryan.
The Budget Lab at Yale, for example, found the Republican proposal could add $2.4 trillion to the debt by 2034. The Penn Wharton Budget Model estimated it would raise deficits by $2.8 trillion over a 10-year period. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonprofit public policy organization that supports deficit reduction, pegged the uncovered cost at $3.3 trillion over the next nine years.
All three organizations, which used different timelines, models and assumptions, found the bill would deliver meager gains in economic growth, which in turn would generate little in added revenues.Erica York, the vice president for federal tax policy at the Tax Foundation, which generally favors lower taxes, found the Republican bill would increase the debt by more than $2.5 trillion over the next 10 years.
“And when all the models are in unison — yes, this will increase the deficit; no, it will not do much for growth — it really doesn’t make sense to triple down on the strategy to blame the scorekeeper,” Ms. York added. “The legislation is the problem.”
Marc Goldwein, a senior vice president at the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, said revenues matched forecasts until the pandemic, later surging for reasons that included price inflation. Mr. Goldwein stressed that there was an urgent need for unbiased policy advice in Washington.“Without that,” he said, “you have chaos.”
MUSK SPEAKS ON “X”
There’s never much that I agree with Elon Musk about, but his assessment of DJT’s “big beautiful bill” is right on, for humanitarian reasons alone.
Said Musk in pronouncements on “X” (formerly Twitter) on Tuesday, Musk said that the “outrageous, pork-filled” spending bill will “massively increase the already gigantic budget deficit to $2.5 trillion (!!!) and burden America [sic] citizens with crushingly unsustainable debt”. “I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore. This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination,” “Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.” “Congress is making America bankrupt.” Musk’s subsequent posts laid out the reasoning for his opposition, suggesting that the spending and tax cuts proposed in the bill would balloon the US national debt.
“Even Elon Musk, who’s been part of the whole process, and is one of Trump’s buddies, said the bill is bad,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said. “We can imagine how bad this bill is.”
[From the BBC Report on the successful Ukrainian attacks on Russian airports.]
President Zelensky and military adviser
“It was an attack of astonishing ingenuity – unprecedented, broad, and 18 months in the making.
On 1 June more than 100 Ukrainian drones struck air bases deep inside Russia, targeting nuclear-capable long-range bombers.
The scale of the operation dubbed “Spider Web” became clear almost as soon as it began, with explosions reported across several time zones all over Russia – as far north as Murmansk above the Arctic Circle, and as far east as the Amur region, over 8,000km from Ukraine.
The Russian Defence Ministry confirmed the attacks had occurred in five regions of Russia – Murmansk, Irkutsk, Ivanovo, Ryazan and Amur – but stated planes had been damaged only in Murmansk and Irkutsk, while in other locations the attacks had been repelled.
In photos released shortly after the attack, Vasyl Maliuk, the head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), can be seen looking at a satellite map of airfields in which the bases in the locations listed by Russia are clearly identifiable.
THE OPERATION
The way the Ukrainians got the drones into Russia and close to airports sounds like a new twist on the Trojan Horse story.
Maliuk said the drones were smuggled into Russia inside wooden cabins mounted on the back of lorries and concealed below remotely operated detachable roofs.
The lorries were then apparently driven to locations near airbases by drivers who were seemingly unaware of their cargo; then, the drones were launched and set upon their targets.Videos circulating online show drones emerging from the roof of one of the vehicles involved. One lorry driver interviewed by Russian state outlet Ria Novosti said he and other drivers tried to knock down drones flying out of a lorry with rocks.
“They were in the back of the truck and we threw stones to keep them from flying up, to keep them pinned down,” he said. (Rumor is that the hapless drivers are getting medals, but one never knows.)
According to unverified reports by Russian Telegram channel Baza – which is known for its links to the security services – the drivers of the lorries from which the drones took off all told similar stories of being booked by businessmen to deliver wooden cabins in various locations around Russia. Some of them said they then received further instructions over the phone on where to park the lorries; when they did so, they were stunned to see drones fly out of them.
In a triumphant post shared on social media on Sunday night, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky – who directly supervised the operation – said 117 drones had been used in the daring attack that took “one year, six months and nine days” to prepare.He also said one of the targeted locations was right next to one of the offices of the FSB Russian security services.
Russia has said it has detained people in connection with the attack, although Zelensky stated the people who had helped facilitate the operation “were withdrawn from Russian territory… they are now safe”.
In a now-deleted Telegram post, local authorities from the city of Ust-Kut in the Irkutsk region said they were looking for a Ukrainian-born 37-year-old in connection with the drone attack on the Belaya military airfield.
THE DRONES
Ukrainian drones.
Images shared by the SBU show dozens of small black drones neatly stashed in wooden cabins inside a warehouse, which Russian military bloggers pinpointed to a location in Chelyabinsk.
Dr Steve Wright, a UK-based drone expert, told the BBC the drones used to hit Russian aircraft were simple quadcopters carrying relatively heavy payloads.
He added that what made this attack “quite extraordinary” was the ability to smuggle them into Russia and then launch and command them remotely – which he concluded had been achieved through a link relayed through a satellite or the internet. Zelensky said each of the 117 drones launched had its own pilot.
Dr Wright also suggested it was likely the drones were able to fly in using GPS but may have also overcome localised Russian jamming measures by manually piloting drones remotely.
Kyiv has not shared details on the origin of the drones, but since the start of the war Ukraine has become extremely efficient at manufacturing them – and it is possible the ones used in this operation were produced at home.
THE TARGETS
“Russia has had very tangible losses, and justifiably so,” said Zelensky in his nightly video address.
According to Ukraine, 41 strategic bombers were hit and “at least” 13 destroyed. Moscow has not confirmed any losses of aircraft beyond saying some planes had been damaged.
Videos verified by the BBC show damaged aircraft at the Olenegorsk air base in Murmansk and the Belaya air base in Irkutsk.
The strategic missile-carrying bombers targeted in the attack are thought to be – among others – the Tu-95, Tu-22 and Tu-160. Repairing them will be difficult and, because none are still in production, replacing them is impossible.
Radar satellite imagery shared by Capella Space reveals at least four badly damaged or destroyed Russian long-range bombers at Belaya airbase. This matches Ukrainian drone footage also showing an attack on a Tu-95 bomber.
“According to the laws and customs of war, we have worked out absolutely legitimate targets – military airfields and aircraft that bomb our peaceful cities,” said SBU head Vasyl Malyuk.
“The Sentry”
I reviewed films—long and short—at SXSW this past March, but missed “The Sentry,” from Director Jake Wachtel. “The Sentry” is going to play June 2-7 at SXSW London, followed by Raindance (6/18-6/27) and the Palm Springs Shortsfest (6/24-6/30) so, I received an offer to review this 17 minute 07 second genre-bending look at a secret agent in action in Cambodia.
JAKE WACHTEL
The director/writer of this refreshing look at the outcome of violence is American Director Jake Wachtel. Wachtel moved to Cambodia in 2015 to teach filmmaking for a year via Filmmakers Without Borders. (I’ve heard of Doctors Without Borders, but color me clueless on FWB). He now is headquartered in Phnom Penh and released a 2022 Buddhist science fiction film, “Karmalink” (1 hour and 41 minutes) that was one of the opening films for the Venice Film Festival.
Notes say that some of Wachtel’s students from his original filmmaking course appear in his films. Among his producers, are Sok Visal, who founded 802 Films and founded the record label Klap Ya Handz, part of the recovery of the arts from the days of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. Also mentioned was Alan R Milligan.
Wachtel is well on his way to providing us with short and long films that I will enjoy, as I did this one. Director of Photography Erik Brondbo and company worked wonders with the visual effects of a dead guy coming back to life and giving his killer an opportunity to reflect on his actions, which is the film’s finale.
VIOLENCE ON FILM
Mixed with the usual karate-style knock-‘em sock-em scene (from roughly 2’22” until 3 minutes) comes a comedy short with a serious theme buried beneath the laughs.
I’m not really much of a fan of action flicks where people pound each other into oblivion. It’s probably why I disliked “Bullet Train.” Even Charlize Theron performing all those stunts herself couldn’t make me want to watch “Atomic Blonde.” It has always bothered me that films glorify the death(s) of multiple victims and the implication is that we should, too. The worst example of that, recently, in a feature film, was Tom Hardy’s latest foray into action films entitled “Havoc.” (May I say, “Ugh?” Yes, I may, because this is my blog, and I was turned off by the random, wanton violence of that 2025 release.)
DANIEL RAYMONT
Daniel Raymont
But I do appreciate humor. The lead of “The Sentry” has made a career out of playing dark comedic roles. Lead actor Daniel Raymont appeared as the cab driver opposite Robin Williams and Mila Kunis in the 2014 film “The Angriest Man in Brooklyn” where he portrayed an Uzbek cab driver (a speaking part). Raymont has also been in “The Mosquito Coast,” “They Came At Night,” “Unbreakable Kimmie Schmidt,” “Bull,” “Rough Night” (opposite Paul W. Downs who is Jimmy on “Hacks” and co-wrote that film, which also starred Scarlett Johannson), “The Babyman,” and “Buzz Kill.”
In other words, this son of a Texas-born mother and a German/Argentinian father has been around, literally and figuratively speaking. Raymont currently splits his time between New York City and Mexico City, but has also lived in Washington, D.C., London, Maine, Boston, San Francisco and Los Angeles. You know he’s an unusually versatile performer when the “trivia” portion of his IMDB entry says: “Daniel has a degree in Anthropology and spent time living with the Lacandon Maya in Chiapas, Mexico.” His impressive command of accents emphasizes that he is a Renaissance Man for All Seasons.
Daniel has a wild head of hair, seems too old to be killing people using the martial arts (born in 1969—but let’s not forget that Liam Neeson is still at it), but has the right comic demeanor for this part. His mastery of accents and languages is impressive. After the 3 minutes where Secret Agent Blackwood (Raymont) kills two guards at a remote Cambodian outpost, we see him gradually develop a conscience about the fact that he has just killed two guards.
CAST
One of the guards is Termite (Phang Dora), who miraculously, in a ghostlike re-emergence, comes back from the grave and negotiates a deal with his killer to quit boring Blackwood with non-stop stories about his family, in exchange for $15,000 cash to be paid to his widow. Pay Termite’s wife and he’ll leave Blackwood alone. It’s a strange plot, but, somehow, it works. I had no difficulty believing that Termite is riding on the back of Agent Blackwood’s motorcycle, boring the bejesus out of him about his sick wife, his overbearing sister-in-law, his two kids, and the ice cream jingle that is stuck in his head and theirs.
Agent Blackwood is driven to distraction by Termite’s nattering and offers Termite money to go away and leave him alone. I honestly felt that Termite quit the negotiation process too soon, or he could have extorted more money from Agent Blackwood.
TEARING DOWN VS BUILDING UP
I liked the fact that, by the end of this 17 minute film, Agent Blackwood looks like he has developed a conscience. Killing people is such a waste, just as tearing down things is much easier than building them up. When you actually take a human life, it is an act not to be glorified, but to be condemned. But the movies don’t always see it that way. And, yes, I understand that it is dramatic and those of us sitting on our couch watching a streaming service or paying our money to watch “Mission Impossible” films expect there to be violence and death.
The different thing about this short is that my point-of-view about how tearing things down (and killing people) perhaps should not be glorified is put out there for thoughtful reflection. No, we won’t go without our action fight scenes and obligatory deaths. But could a lead character once in a while experience a moment of true remorse? That won’t happen if you’re a fan of DOGE or of Steve Bannon’s philosophy articulated in “American Dharma” (check out that Errol Morris interview on Prime Video). But it’s really a shame that film, in general, doesn’t give equal time to building things up and advocate more for NOT killing fellow humans, in addition to the non-stop diet of violence we are all subjected to on a daily basis. EQUAL TIME, PEOPLE, EQUAL TIME!
I enjoyed this short and will look for more from this team.
