curated citations to news sources
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WSJ: Elon Musk Calls Trump Megabill a ‘Disgusting Abomination’
Billionaire sides with GOP critics who say measure doesn’t cut spending enough
Former White House cost-cutting czar Elon Musk called President Trump’s “big, beautiful” tax and spending package a “disgusting abomination,” stepping up his criticism just as the Senate is trying to quickly pass the measure and get it signed into law by July 4.
“Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it,” said Musk, in comments on his X social-media platform. Musk, who left the administration last week, called the package a “massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill.”
NY Times: Republican Policy Bill Would Add $2.4 Trillion to Debt, Budget Office Says
The estimate from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office is all but certain to inflame an already intense debate inside the G.O.P. about the fiscal consequences of their bill to enact President Trump’s agenda.
AXIOS: Four reasons Musk attacked Trump’s “big beautiful bill”
- The legislation cuts the electric vehicle tax credit that helps car makers like Musk’s Tesla.
- Musk was working at the White House as what’s called a “special government employee,” and he had discussed trying to stay in that role beyond the 130-day time limit set by statute for the unpaid advisory position. But ultimately, White House officials said he couldn’t keep serving in that capacity.
- Musk also wanted the Federal Aviation Administration to use his Starlink satellite system for national air traffic control, the sources said. But the administration balked at it because of the appearance of a conflict of interest and for technological reasons. “You can’t have air traffic control just run off satellites,” the second source said.
- The final straw for Musk appeared to come Saturday night, when Trump abruptly announced he was withdrawing the nomination of Jared Isaacman, a Musk ally, to be NASA administrator.
Borowitz: Elon Loses Again!
Seekin Alpha: Rare Earths And The Trade War
It’s not being publicly advertised, but access to rare earths is playing an outsized role in resurgent U.S.-China trade tensions. Following last month’s détente in Geneva, it was apparently agreed that both sides would roll back retaliatory tariffs imposed since April 2, but there has been disagreement over export controls and sector-specific levies. China appears to be keeping in place a strict approvals process on rare earths that are used in everything from commercial vehicles to military equipment, while the U.S. has increased tariffs on steel and aluminum to 50%.
(Seeking Alpha more…)
Politico: Trump officials delayed farm trade report over deficit forecast
Administration officials blocked publication of written analysis that normally accompanies the report because they disliked what it said about the deficit.
Barron’s: US Private Sector Hiring Sharply Slows, Drawing Trump Ire
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articulo66: Marco Rubio intenta negociar con Bukele para devolver a EE.UU. a joven venezolano deportado por error a El Salvador
(articulo66 more…)
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Rebecca Solnit: Notes on the Varieties of Resistance
On November 6, 2024, and after, it became clear to me that a lot of organizations addressing climate and human rights had made plans for what to do if Trump won, and of course Daniel Hunter had already published his soon-to-go viral article on what to do if Trump wins. Which means that the resistance to Trump Round Two was already in place before the election. But I’m on book tour in Europe and doing lots of interviews and onstage conversations and it seems like Europeans have the impression that no one in the US is resisting the Trump Administration.That is, first of all, a sign of lack of coverage of the most familiar form of resistance, protest, and that lack is a chronic problem for people understanding the present, the past, and the possibilities. The public doesn’t see them because the press doesn’t cover them very well. I think the press is dismissive toward protests and nonviolent action because of the assumption that demonstrations and protests and even movements don’t do much of anything, from the habit of disconnecting where change begins from where it ends.
(Rebecca Solnit more…)Liz Dye: Will courts let TACO steal tariff power from Congress?
The early returns aren’t promising for Tariff Man.
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Bulwark: The Myth of Trumpian Deterrence
He says Russia wouldn’t have attacked Ukraine if he were president. But Russia keeps attacking Ukraine.
Noah Smith: How Chinese drones could defeat America
A Ukrainian drone attack shows our extreme vulnerability.
Let me tell you a story about World War 2. In 1940, before the entry of the U.S. and the USSR into the war, Britain was fighting alone against Germany and Italy. Despite being massively outnumbered and outgunned, the British managed to pull off a spectacular naval victory, using innovative new technology.
…The great battleships — the invincible masters of the sea in previous wars — were suddenly helpless against the swarm of tiny aircraft.
…OK, so there’s your old WW2 parable, with a clear moral to the story: Don’t ignore technological revolutions. Now fast-forward to 2025. We may just have witnessed something akin to a modern Battle of Taranto.
…The American military is much better than the Russian military, but it’s ultimately not that different — it’s built around a bunch of big, expensive, heavy “platforms” like aircraft carriers, jet planes, and tanks. Each F-22 stealth fighter, still widely considered the best plane in the sky, cost about $350 million to build. A Ford-class aircraft carrier costs about $13 billion each. An M1A1 Abrams tank costs more than $4 million, and so on.
That’s the amount of value that will be destroyed every time a cheap plastic battery-powered Chinese drone takes out an expensive piece of American hardware in a war over Taiwan, or the South China Sea, or Xi Jinping waking up in a bad mood — not including, of course, the lives of whatever Americans happen to be inside the hardware when it gets destroyed. Except the true value lost will be much higher, since — like Japan in World War 2, or Russia now — the U.S. now has extremely limited defense manufacturing capacity, and thus won’t be able to easily replace what it loses.
As you read this, military planners all over the world are scrambling to come up with defenses against the kind of raid that Ukraine just carried out. Dozens of container ships arrive in American ports from China every day, each with thousands of containers. The containers on the ships then get unloaded and sent by road and rail to destinations all over the country. Imagine a hundred of those containers suddenly blossoming into swarms of drones, taking out huge chunks of America’s multi-trillion-dollar air force and navy in a few minutes.
(Noah Smith more…)Boing Boing: Ukraine used open-source drone software to wreck Russian bombers
…It got the job done with ArduPilot, an open-source software package more often used by hobbyists.
WSJ: Ukraine’s Drone Strike Is a Warning—for the U.S.
WSJ: Inside the Ukrainian Drone Operation That Devastated Russia’s Bomber Fleet
WSJ analysis reveals how Ukraine used homegrown tech and old-school spycraft in the attack
Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – June 3, 2025
On June 1, Ukrainian forces struck deep inside Russia in “Operation Spider Web.” One hundred and seventeen drones, each operated by its own pilot, hit airfields in five regions. Ukraine says the drones hit 41 strategic bombers that had been attacking Ukrainian cities and destroyed at least 13 of them. Russia does not have the industrial capabilities to replace them.
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) head Vasyl Malyuk emphasized that military airfields and the aircraft that are bombing Ukraine are “absolutely legitimate targets…[a]ccording to the laws and customs of war.” The SBU estimates the drones did $7 billion of damage, hitting 34% of the aircraft that delivered cruise missiles.
The operation took more than 18 months of planning. It apparently involved sending trucks loaded with wooden cabins that had detachable roofs that could be opened remotely. Unsuspecting truck drivers hauled the cabins to locations near airbases, where the drones launched.
Once the drones were in the air, the vehicles carrying the cabins exploded. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said the people who helped with the operation from within Russia had been withdrawn and “are now safe.”
Russia denied that the damage was that extensive, but there is no doubt that the attack was a significant blow to Russia’s war effort, demonstrating as it does that Ukraine can bring the war home. As Kateryna Bonder of the Washington, D.C., think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies notes, June 1 was Military Transport Aviation Day in Russia, a significant holiday for the armed forces. Russian president Vladimir Putin frequently ties operations to significant dates—as when he hosted a number of American lawmakers in Moscow on July 4, 2018—and the choice of this date for an attack on military aircraft threw that habit back at him.
(Heather Cox Richardson more…)
Reuters: Medvedev says Russia seeks victory, not compromise, in talks with Ukraine
Kyiv Independent: ‘Rare moment of honesty’ — US Senator Graham says Medvedev’s comments show Russia not ‘interested in peace’
Newsweek: Steve Bannon Says Lindsey Graham Should Be Arrested Over Ukraine Support
Tag24: Trump envoy slams Ukraine’s dramatic attack on Russian bombers: “Unacceptable”
This Day in History: The U-505, a submarine from Hitler’s deadly fleet, is captured
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After the surrendered German survivors were picked up from the U-boat (all but one lived), Lt. (junior grade) Albert L. David led a group of nine men down the hatch of the U-505, salvaging the U-boat and recovering invaluable code books and papers that were used by Allied forces to help in code-breaking.
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Daily: Donald Trump Jr. Admits Felon Dad Turned To Crypto Because Banks Wouldn’t Loan Them Money
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Bulwark: It Sure Looks Like Pete Hegseth Misled Joni Ernst
THE SENATE CONFIRMED Pete Hegseth as secretary of defense in January after a rocky nomination process. The former Fox host’s long list of alleged wrongdoings and improprieties, including accusations of sexual abuse and heavy drinking, didn’t seem to bother too many Republicans. But there were a few who did show concern. In the end, Hegseth managed to win them over, and one of his tactics for doing so was to promise one particularly concerned Republican—Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa)—that after assuming his new role, he would appoint a “senior official dedicated to sexual assault prevention.”
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But nearly six months into the job, it appears that Hegseth has made no such appointment.
(Bulwark more…)Jeff Tiedrich: no gay boat for the Navy, because what if it turns all the other boats gay
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Daily Kos: Trump team makes ridiculous—and racist—demands of schools
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ars Technica: Trump is forcing states to funnel grant money to Starlink, Senate Democrats say
Overhaul of $42 billion program could delay deployment for years, Democrats warn
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NY Times: Iran-U.S. Nuclear Talks: What’s at Stake?
A new proposal by the Trump administration would allow Iran to continue enriching uranium at low levels while a broader arrangement is worked out.
After weeks of tense negotiations aimed at preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, the Trump administration has offered a concession that may open a path to a compromise.
…In his first term, Mr. Trump pulled the United States out of an agreement negotiated under President Barack Obama that had similarly sought to keep Iran from producing a nuclear bomb.
(NY Times more…)Reuters: Iran’s Khamenei dismisses US nuclear proposal, vows to keep enriching uranium
AXIOS: Iran rejects any nuclear deal that makes its program reliant on other countries
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YLE: Covid vaccines for pregnancy and babies: Sorting fact from chaos
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404 Media: The IRS Tax Filing Software TurboTax Is Trying to Kill Just Got Open Sourced
Direct File has been open sourced, and its creators have left government to continue working on the “future of tax filing.”
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Law & Crime: ‘Off-with-his-head edict’: Ex-DHS official calls for investigation into Trump’s ‘unprecedented’ order targeting him for criticizing the president
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Atlantic: The Secret History of Trump’s Private Cellphone
(Atlantic more…)
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NY Times: China Really Wants to Attract Talented Scientists. Trump Just Helped.
Even before the U.S. threatened to bar international students and besieged universities, China’s huge spending campaign on the sciences was bearing fruit.
Tracking the Lawsuits Against Trump’s Agenda
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