curated citations to news sources
[site access disrupted after May 28 Austin storms/power/Internet outages]
WSJ: Ukraine Still Isn’t Defeated
Daring drone raids on air bases deep inside Russia show Kyiv’s continuing will to fight.
JD Vance likes to say that Ukraine isn’t winning its war with Russia, which the Vice President seems to think is an argument for withdrawing U.S. military support. But if the will to fight is worth something, then Ukraine is still showing its mettle as it tries to repel the Kremlin’s designs for conquest.
Ukraine’s daring weekend drone attack on military bases deep inside Russia is a brilliant example of creativity and resolve. Ukraine sources say it was able to smuggle drones across Russia, fire them at close proximity to air bases, and destroy numerous aircraft. The planes reportedly included bombers that fire cruise missiles at Ukraine and some that can carry nuclear payloads.
It isn’t clear how many planes were destroyed, but there was enough damage that Russia’s defense ministry felt obliged to acknowledge the strikes. Bases were hit in Siberia and in the far Russian east.
(WSJ more…)
euronews: ‘Operation Spiderweb’: How Ukraine destroyed over a third of Russian bombers
Newsweek: Map Shows Russian Air Bases Hit in ‘Pearl Harbor’ Drone Raid
Daily Beast: Putin’s Whole Trump Strategy Is in Tatters After Epic Drone Humiliation
Adam Mockler: Zelenskyy Is Doing the Job Trump Can’t Handle
Ukraine just pulled off a massive strike deep in Russian territory, and didn’t tell the U.S. A year of planning. Dozens of bombers destroyed. Trump left completely in the dark.
M. Gessen: The Man Putin Couldn’t Kill
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Judd Legum: The war on poor kids
(Judd Legum more…)Politico: A surprising coalition of GOP senators holds all the megabill leverage
An ideologically diverse clutch of Republicans have found rare alignment — and significant leverage.
USA Today: ‘It’s completely unsustainable’: Republican lawmaker doubles down, knocks Trump tax bill
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Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – June 1, 2025
Even as government agents from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ramp up their arrests and confrontations, the lug nuts on the wheels of the White House bus continue to loosen.
…Trump also appears to be having trouble with the demands of governance. Yesterday, Courtney Kube, Carol E. Lee, Gordon Lubold, Dan De Luce, and Elyse Perlmutter-Gumbiner of NBC News reported that the director of national intelligence (DNI), Tulsi Gabbard, is trying to figure out how to change Trump’s intelligence briefings to hold his attention. She is apparently considering creating a video of the President’s Daily Brief (PDB) that’s made to look like a broadcast on the Fox News Channel. “The problem with Trump is that he doesn’t read,” one person with direct knowledge of the discussions told the reporters. “He’s on broadcast all the time.”
Since he took office on January 20, 2025, Trump has taken just 14 PDBs, or fewer than one a week on average. In the same period, President Barack Obama took 63, and President Joe Biden took 90.
(Heather Cox Richardson more…)
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Daily: Bill Clinton Steps Up And Defends Joe Biden From Media Smears
Former President Bill Clinton said that he saw no signs of a cognitive decline and thought that Biden was a good president.
Daily Beast: Bill Clinton Says Trump Is Paying ‘a Price’ for His Actions
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Bill McKibben: Meanwhile, back in the real world
It’s possible to become entirely transfixed by the weirdo show every underway in DC. Today’s installments: Donald Trump declares that Joe Biden was killed in 2020 and replaced by a robot clone, Donald Trump won’t read his intelligence briefings so they’re going to be turned into a private tv show with Fox-like anchors, Donald Trump…. We need to pay some attention to the madness, and I hope that everyone is registered to take part in a demonstration on No Kings Day June 14.
But staying constantly tuned in is debilitating (as Nina Simone would say, ‘Elon Musk made me lose my rest’), and we also need to pay some attention to the actual world around us, if only for the additional motivation to get to work.
(Bill McKibben more…)Dean Blundell: Trump’s QAnon Biden Clone Theory Is a Warning—And an Invitation to Violence
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Ruth Ann Crystal MD: COVID & Health News, 6/1/25
YLE: Covid summer and confusion, measles, cucumber recall, maternal health declining, and a curious MAHA report
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Law & Chaos: The Trump Administration Is Lawless. Judges Are Adapting.
A Maryland judge uses SCOTUS roadmap to issue preemptive relief.
Steve Vladeck: What District Court Critics Aren’t Telling You
The increasingly loud claim that district courts are abusing their powers by blocking Trump administration policies depends upon a series of indefensibly selective (and easily rebutted) arguments.
LAWdork: Enter June: Preparing for SCOTUS
Decisions this month will affect all of us. Here are the key cases. …
(LAWdork more…)
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404 Media: Teachers Are Not OK
AI, ChatGPT, and LLMs “have absolutely blown up what I try to accomplish with my teaching.”
Conversation: Is AI sparking a cognitive revolution that will lead to mediocrity and conformity?
The Industrial Revolution mechanized production. Today, there’s a similar risk with the automation of thought.
(Conversation more…)
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Hawaii News Now: New federal budget proposal cuts funding for Thirty Meter Telescope
(Hawaii News Now more…)
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EEAGLI: Five killer charts: Harvard under siege
- Foreign students now a quarter of Harvard’s roll
- Asian admit odds lag while peers surge
- Acceptance vanishes below a 3.5 GPA line
- Harvard Law School black student numbers crash
- Harvard stays richest but loses its growth crown
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Daily Beast: ICE Barbie’s List of ‘Sanctuary’ Cities Yanked After Furious Backlash
WALKING IT BACK
The pro-Trump National Sheriffs’ Association had called the list “arbitrary” and a betrayal.
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Noah Berlatsky: Tesla Takedown takes down Musk
Protest works.
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Ken Klippenstein: Trump’s Goodbye to Soft Power
President Trump’s commencement address at West Point contained a revelation that got eclipsed by his bizarre asides about short golfers and trophy wives (lol). He made it clear that the era of soft power is over.“The military’s job is to dominate any foe and annihilate any threat to America, anywhere, anytime in any place,” the President said to the graduating cadets at the U.S. Military Academy (commonly known as West Point).
“If the United States or its allies are ever threatened or attacked, the Army will obliterate our opponents with overwhelming strength and devastating force.”
(Ken Klippenstein more…)
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Intercept: Expect Trump’s Military Parade to Cost More Than the Army Says
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The massive military parade and related festivities planned for June 14 will cost an estimated $25 to $45 million, according to the Army. This is likely a significant underestimate due to many expenses that are unaccounted for – or will be billed later, such as damages to local infrastructure caused by armored vehicles. Members of Congress are already expressing outrage at what they see as a gross misuse of funds.“Trump squandering $45 million in taxpayer dollars on a military parade for his birthday is the epitome of government waste,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. “If the Trump Administration truly cared about celebrating the 250th anniversary of the Army, they would honor past and present soldiers and reinstate the thousands of veterans who they fired from the federal workforce — not throw away millions on an extravagant parade.”
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Borowitz: Mexico Renames the Liberty Bell the TACO Bell
Tracking the Lawsuits Against Trump’s Agenda
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