Hackwhackers

Friday, June 5, 2026

Weekend Music Twofer

Happy 87th birthday tomorrow to Gary U.S. Bonds, of murky triple-tracked vocals fame on compelling dance tunes like "School Is Out," "New Orleans," and the two songs we're sharing today, 1961's "Quarter To Three," and 1962's "Dear Lady Twist." The saxophonist in Bonds' recordings is Gene Barge (a.k.a., "Daddy G") leader of "The Church Street Five" group which is referenced in Bonds' "Quarter To Three," as is "Daddy G" in The Dovell's "Bristol Stomp." Bonds made a bit of a comeback in the 80's with the help of admirer Bruce Springsteen, who knows a good thing when he hears it. Hope you enjoy.

Trump: Pulte Won't Get DNI Job Permanently

Following a revolt of MAGAt Senators, the deranged and vindictive Malignant Fascist declared that he wouldn't nominate his unfit hatchet man Bill Pulte to be permanent Director of National Intelligence. However, Pulte will remain as acting DNI until a nominee for the position is confirmed by the Senate, with plenty of time to conduct the MF's retribution campaign in his acting position. From NBC News:

"President Donald Trump said Thursday that his newly appointed acting director of national intelligence, Bill Pulte, will not take up the position permanently.
Trump made the remarks while speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, two days after appointing Pulte to the acting role, a move that prompted pushback from members of his own party.
'It’s an acting position. It’s not permanent,' Trump said. 'I don’t think he’d want to be permanent.'
Republicans criticized Pulte’s appointment to lead the nation’s spy agencies, citing his lack of national security and intelligence experience. [snip]
Still, the president said that Pulte, a Trump loyalist who had used his position as director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency to launch investigations into Trump’s perceived political foes, 'may find out some things about the rigged elections” while he serves as director of national intelligence.'" (our emphasis)

Former Senate majority leader and human - turtle hybrid, the cynical Sen. Mitch McConnell noted that the position requires a person with extensive national security experience, which Pulte lacks:

“Very few Senate-confirmable positions come with statutory eligibility requirements. There are good reasons why the Director of National Intelligence is one of them. Anyone performing this role of such immense public trust must have the extensive national security experience required by statute, and no nominee who falls short of this requirement will earn my vote.”

It's clear that the MF has no concern about someone with national security experience. It's likely that the MF will drag out his "search" for a permanent DNI, while the fanatically loyal Pulte remains acting and picks up the "rigged elections" canard that his disgraced predecessor Tulsi "Kremlin's Girl" Gabbard pursued in places like the Fulton Co., Georgia, board of elections. The Federal Vacancies Reform Act allows an acting political appointee to serve in a position requiring Senate approval for up to 210 days.

The Thug Slush Fund That Won't Die

Senate Republicans wanted to have it both ways yesterday in a marathon of votes on funding for an immigration "enforcement" bill. That's because it's a party of fascist weasels:

Senate Republicans have defeated the first attempts to kill President Donald Trump’s rioter slush fund with legislation.
The Senate voted against several proposals targeting the “Anti-Weaponization Fund” before passing a $70 billion bill to fund Trump’s immigration crackdown early Friday.
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said he’s not surprised Republicans aren’t taking any action against the controversial settlement fund.
“There’s only one rule here: In the end, he gets anything he wants,” Murphy told HuffPost, referring to Trump.
For a few hours on Thursday, it looked like Senate Republicans might actually vote for a motion by Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) to send an immigration funding bill back to a committee with instructions to outlaw the slush fund.

What was the fig leaf the Republicans used to remove funding for the MF's golden ballroom/bunker, but not outlaw the slush fund?

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche announced the settlement last month, then this week said the administration was actually “not moving forward with the fund” thanks in large part to backlash from Republican lawmakers. Blanche’s statement, uttered during a committee hearing, was all Republican senators needed to restart their immigration bill. Even though the president himself this week seemed to think the fund is still alive, some senators used Blanche’s statement to brush off questions.
“It’s a moot point,” Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) told HuffPost. “There is no fund.”

Everyone knows you can always take Epstein class consigliere Blanche's word to the bank (where he's keeping the Epstein-Trump files in a vault!).

What's important is that the cult leader still thinks there's a fund, and there's a $5 billion slush fund in the $70 billion bill that the MF's DHS loyal marionette "Markwaynes World" Mullin controls "at his discretion," so let's see if this turns out to be a cynical workaround to reward insurrectionists who attacked the Capitol and police.

The bill now goes to the even more craven and cultish House.

151 days until the mid-term elections.

(Photo: hold on, boys, the check may still be coming! / (Manuel Balce Ceneta, Associated Press)

Thursday, June 4, 2026

Today's Cartoons

(click on images to enlarge)

(Mike Luckovich, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

(Steve Greenberg, steve@greenberg-art.com)

(Matt Davies, Newsday)

(Matt Wuerker, Politico)

(Bill Bramhall, New York Daily News)

(Clay Jones, claytoonz.substack.com)

(Steve Sack, stevesack.substack.com)

(Adam Zyglis, The Buffalo News)

(Bill Day, caglecartoons.com; context here)

(Dave Whamond, caglecartoons.com, Canada)

(Gary Markstein, Creators.com)

(Tim Campbell, Tribune Content Agency)

(Matt Reuter, The New Yorker)

Skeets Of The Day

Operation ~~Epic~~ Epstein Fury: holding pattern, victory denied / war over --

“.. Iranian officials — perhaps calculating that the Republican president is reluctant to restart the bombardment after burning through key weapons systems — are showing no signs they’ll give in to new demands.” @apnews.com apnews.com/article/trum...

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— Carl Quintanilla (@carlquintanilla.bsky.social) June 4, 2026 at 7:47 AM

“Give me a victory.” Because that’s what war is all about for Trump.

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— Ron Filipkowski (@ronfilipkowski.bsky.social) June 4, 2026 at 7:47 AM

BREAKINGNEWS: Secretary Marco Rubio stated during a congressional hearing that the war with Iran is over. Here is Iran bombing US bases in Kuwait just hours later. We are being led by idiots and liars. 🚨
— JoanHaskins6 (@fusciacat.bsky.social) June 3, 2026 at 6:47 AM

Trump is angry that Congress wants to stop him from continuing to use the Iran war to enrich himself with his stock manipulation tactics

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— Adam Cohen (My Personal Views Only) (@axidentaliberal.bsky.social) June 4, 2026 at 9:45 AM

The criminal Malignant Fascist wants his criminal lawyer to be the next AG. Super. --

Trump found his Roy Cohn.

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— Khashoggi's Ghost (@urocklive1.bsky.social) June 3, 2026 at 11:15 PM

Todd Blanche Excused Bribery ... and Then Trump Gave Him a Promotion emptywheel.net/2026/06/04/t...

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— emptywheel (@emptywheel.bsky.social) June 4, 2026 at 6:56 AM

ICE's criminal abuses continue --

This is phenomenal photographic documentation of what is happening at Delaney Hall. This is America. Gift link. See the Clashes Between ICE and Protesters in New Jersey www.nytimes.com/2026/06/03/n...

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— Jeff (Gutenberg Parenthesis) Jarvis (@jeffjarvis.bsky.social) June 3, 2026 at 6:18 PM

The fact that health inspectors weren’t allowed in gives cause to shut it down. Force the confrontation. Private security is running the joint. Arrest them.

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— The Rude Pundit (@rudepundit.bsky.social) June 4, 2026 at 9:05 AM

“Illegal! You cannot intimidate voters. You’re in a polling place. Get the fuck out of here!” Trump’s ICE goons intimidating voters in California…

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— The Tennessee Holler (@thetnholler.bsky.social) June 4, 2026 at 8:14 AM

Bari "Bad News" Weiss dismantling "60 Minutes" / CBS News --

“the three remaining correspondents— Whitaker, Stahl, and Jon Wertheim—met Wednesday to discuss their futures at the venerable newsmagazine” That must have been some meeting…

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— @NewsJennifer (Jennifer Schulze) (@newsjennifer.bsky.social) June 3, 2026 at 10:34 PM

lol bsky.app/profile/ryan...

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— ryan cooper (@ryanlcooper.com) June 3, 2026 at 2:32 PM

Cattle going to get screwed. More incompetence from the MF's regime --

If screwworm is confirmed in Texas from the sample that was sent for analysis, I have a sneaking suspicion that the incompetent Brooke Rollins will be toast, keeping Trump’s rate of throwing women out of his Cabinet steady at 100%.
— Elizabeth Jacobs, PhD (@elizabethjacobs.bsky.social) June 3, 2026 at 8:22 PM

TX Ag Commissioner Sid Miller (R), lashed out at the USDA screwworm response after today’s suspected case, calling it a “slow, bureaucratic, and incomplete response that allowed the pest to advance unchecked through Mexico and reach American soil”. I don’t know, do y’all think he voted for Trump?

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— Elizabeth Jacobs, PhD (@elizabethjacobs.bsky.social) June 3, 2026 at 8:52 PM

Hope in Ohio --

Trump won Ohio by 11 points. A new Fox News poll finds he is currently underwater by 15 points. That's a 26-point swing state swing! Sheesh. Also Sherrod Brown is up but Vivek Ramaswamy is neck and neck for governor. www.foxnews.com/politics/fox...

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— Helen Kennedy (@helenkennedy.com) June 3, 2026 at 6:53 PM

We'd encourage him to sleep even more --

Trump’s foreign policy doctrine: “Speak softly and carry a memory foam pillow.”

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— 𝕊𝕦𝕟𝕕𝕒𝕖 𝔾𝕦𝕣𝕝 (@sundaedivine.lol) June 2, 2026 at 11:34 PM

QOTD: Broken Eggs

Recently, we posted commentary by Paul Krugman, Josh Marshall and Brian Beutler to the effect that America and Democrats can't go back to a status quo ante following the destruction and abnormality of the Malignant Fascist's coup on our democracy. Now, in a similar vein, Jamelle Bouie writes in the New York Effing Times that "America Broke Something When It Gave Trump A Second Chance":

... “Broken eggs can never be mended,” he [Abraham Lincoln] wrote in reference to the fate of slavery as the war carried on, “and the longer the breaking proceeds the more will be broken.”
Fort Sumter broke the Union and with it, slavery. Whatever the nation was or would be in the aftermath of the war, neither the nation nor its Constitution would protect, support or sanction human bondage.
You can think of this Trump administration as a similar state of affairs. The American people broke something when they gave Trump a second chance in office. And there is no going back to the Union as it was. If Democrats hope to lead the nation to any kind of recovery, much less renewal, they must understand and internalize this fact of the matter.
Broken eggs cannot be mended. To try to do so, to try to return to some notion of normality, is to court failure. Worse, it is to play a repeat of the last Democratic administration when, in pursuit of the familiar, the Democratic Party all but passed the baton back to reactionaries working toward something revolutionary.

We share the concern that the embedded establishment Democrats and their consultants currently playing catch-up to the will of the voters will misread what needs to be done, some of which Bouie, et al outline in their commentaries. That can't be allowed to happen, because if a new Democratic administration becomes an exercise in mending broken eggs, it's courting the kind of failure from which America will never recover. We need junkyard dogs, not cosseted schmoozers.

Trump To Nominate Blanche For Attorney General

The corrupt and mentally ill Malignant Fascist announced yesterday that he plans to nominate his former criminal defense lawyer, the lawless Todd Blanche for Attorney General. Blanche, now the acting AG, has pushed indictments of the MF's political opponents, devised the corrupt "slush fund" for the January 6 insurrectionists and cop assaulters, and given the MF and his crime family immunity from Federal tax fraud charges. From the Associated Press:

"President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he will nominate Todd Blanche to serve as attorney general, tapping his former personal lawyer who has aggressively pursued the Republican president’s agenda while leading the Justice Department in an acting role.
Trump said at a dinner at the White House that he plans to nominate Blanche formally on Thursday, according to a video of the event posted on social media by a White House aide.
'We are going to make him permanent attorney general,' Trump said at the Rose Garden event.
Blanche sought quickly to position himself as the favorite for the permanent job after Pam Bondi’s firing in April, accelerating investigations into Trump foes and announcing a nearly $1.8 billion fund meant to compensate the president’s allies for alleged political persecution. The proposed fund created a bipartisan firestorm that forced the Justice Department to scrap the idea earlier this week in an extraordinary about-face." (our emphasis)

Blanche was on the receiving end of angry push back from the Senate Republican caucus in a closed door meeting last week on the $1.8 billion insurrectionist slush fund. That indicator, and the fact that he's been evasive and hostile with Congress on his stonewalling of the remaining Epstein Trump files, would suggest that his nomination will be in trouble from the time it's formally presented to the Senate today. As with the MF's noxious placement of unqualified zealot hatchet man Bill Pulte in as Director of National Intelligence, the MF is showing his contempt for the law and "Justice" Department in nominating this corrupt sycophant as Attorney General.

(photo: The defense lawyer and his criminal client / Mark Peterson/Pool, AFP via Getty Images)

The Ballroom Bust And War Powers Symbolism (UPDATED)

Two late developments yesterday may indicate that there are just enough Republicans who, for varying reasons mostly involving voter wrath, are willing to buck the Malignant Fascist after a long, supine hibernation. First, the Senate.

Trump's Golden Ballroom / Bunker Bust

Senate Republicans have officially ditched an effort to fund President Donald Trump’s ballroom at the White House.

The fate of Trump’s gilded dining hall is now in legal limbo with likely no help coming from Capitol Hill.
Money for the Secret Service and the “East Wing Modernization Project” was omitted from a new version of Republicans’ bill Republicans announced Wednesday to fund immigration enforcement operations at the Department of Homeland Security.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) suggested there’s not much appetite for bringing the ballroom funding back.
“It’s not in here,” Thune told HuffPost, referring to the new bill. “I suspect if there’s something that people want to see get done there, they’d probably go through the appropriations process.”
There’s little chance Trump is getting ballroom money through the appropriations process, which is the normal way Congress writes bills funding government agencies. Regular appropriations bills require 60 votes to clear the Senate, and Republicans control just 53 seats, meaning they’d need at least seven Democrats to go along with a wildly unpopular Trump vanity project. Not much chance of that.
“Thanks to the outrage of the American people and hard-fought challenges by Senate Democrats, Senate Republicans finally gave up on funding Trump’s billionaire ballroom for now,” Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said Wednesday.
The ballroom billion had previously been included in an immigration bill going through a special “budget reconciliation” process that only takes 50 votes. The Senate parliamentarian said the provision couldn’t stay in the bill under the special budget rules. Republicans started reworking the provision, but then gave up and left town in a furor over Trump’s $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund.” [snip]
Trump started the ballroom project last year with the surprise wholesale demolition of the entire East Wing of the White House. He didn’t ask Congress, which has appropriated money for past major upgrades, and he didn’t ask the commissions set up to preserve historic architecture in the nation’s Capitol.
In March, a federal judge has said construction can’t continue unless Congress approves it, such as by appropriating funds, which is likely why the ballroom money suddenly appeared in the previous immigration bill. The next hearing in the case is on Friday. In the meantime, Trump has fumed from the sidelines, accusing the judge of jeopardizing security for all of America...

If, somehow, construction of the MF's golden ballroom / bunker continues despite these efforts, it must be among the first tasks of any Democratic administration to tear it down and restore to their previous state the East Wing and other public areas that he's vandalized.

Symbolic War Powers Resolution Passes In House

The House for the first time Wednesday approved a war powers resolution that would halt the U.S. military action against Iran, defying President Donald Trump as a handful of Republicans [4!] joined with Democrats to end the three-month-long conflict that has reordered politics at home and abroad.
House Speaker Mike Johnson had tried to prevent an outcome that would show the mounting opposition to the war, abruptly shutting down floor action two weeks ago when the resolution was on the verge of approval. But displeasure has only grown as the conflict drags on and as Trump struggles to negotiate a plan for peace.
The roll call Wednesday was 215-208, but next steps are uncertain. Trump would likely reject any measure from Congress to limit his commander-in-chief authority. Still, the tally, with four Republicans joining Democrats, was a rebuke of the president’s war strategy, and cheers erupted in the House chamber.
“This reckless and costly war of choice needs to end today,” House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York said earlier in the week.
“All we need are a handful of Republicans to join us and we can end this reckless and costly war of choice — a war that has cost the American taxpayer over $100 billion — that’s extraordinary — and left our country in a weaker position relative to Iran.” [snip]
The war powers resolution from the House would not immediately stop the war, but it would provide a symbolic if not legal step against further military action.
The resolution next goes to the Senate, where four Republican senators last month joined Democrats in advancing a similar measure to curtail the U.S. campaign against Iran. The Senate has yet to take a final vote to approve or reject its own war powers resolution. [snip]
The House is also voting Wednesday on another Democratic-led effort that would authorize U.S. support for Ukraine’s military operations as it battles Russia and to help reconstruct the war-torn country. The House this week is also expected to consider a war powers resolution to block U.S. action in Lebanon. [snip]
Under the war powers act, the White House has a 60-day window to seek approval from Congress for military action. The administration, however, has indicated that because a ceasefire has been declared in the current conflict in Iran, the hostilities have ceased.

The symbolism comes somewhat late, after months of the moron Malignant Fascist's incompetent bungling, soaring gas and commodity prices, a shaken world economy, and America's further isolation. The MF's regime has already declared a war powers resolution moot by virtue of their saying Operation ~~Epic~~ Epstein Fury is over, despite what everyone's lying eyes are telling them.

Next up, perhaps: forcing the immediate removal of über hatchetman Bill Pulte as acting as Director of National Intelligence?

UPDATE: Giving it a try.

Wednesday, June 3, 2026

Today's Cartoons

(click on images to enlarge)

(Jack Ohman, Tribune Content Agency)

(David Rowe, Financial Review, Australia)

(Nick Anderson, The Contrarian)

(Clay Bennett, Chattanooga Times Free Press)

(Sean Delonas, caglecartoons.com)

(Kevin Kallaugher, kaltoons.substack.com)

(Chris Britt, Creators.com)

(Jeff Koterba, caglecartoons.com)

(Bill Bramhall, New York Daily News)

(Michael de Adder, The Contrarian, Canada)

(Mike Stanfill, ragingpencils.com)

(Peter Steiner, plsteiner.com)

QOTD: The Bumbling Hatchet Man

The always readable and perceptive Nobel laureate Paul Krugman again gives us today's quote, commenting on the sinister appointment of MAGA fanatic and the Malignant Fascist's fiercely loyal hatchet man Bill Pulte to the Director of National Intelligence position. From his Substack post:

"Pulte is a bumbling hatchet man: so far none of his attempted lynchings have succeeded. But for Trump, willingness to engage in unethical behavior is all that matters.
What will Pulte do as America’s senior intelligence official? You might think that even someone like Trump, who has no desire to serve the national interest, who sees wars only as ways to enrich himself and distract from his domestic woes, would want accurate intelligence. After all, if you’re going to wag the dog, you don’t want the dog to bite back the way it has in Iran.
But Trump appears to have given up on governing — even governing aimed at consolidating his own power and legacy. He wants to punish everyone he imagines has wronged him but has lost all interest in making the government work, even for nefarious purposes. So he doesn’t need intelligence, just someone who will indulge his rage. And that will be Pulte’s job." (our emphasis)

Watch as Pulte discovers "domestic terrorism" among Dems and those that oppose his cult leader. His predecessor, the opportunistic Kremlin friend Tulsi Gabbard was bad enough, but we have a feeling we ain't seen nothing yet.

Skeets Of The Day

Operation ~~Epic~~ Epstein Fury / Epic FAIL / Bibi will let Trump know when it's over --

Ok, maybe we’re paying 50% more for gasoline, but at least Iran is rebuilding its nuclear program www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

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— Bill Grueskin (@bgrueskin.bsky.social) June 3, 2026 at 10:14 AM

NETANYAHU: 'IT'S NOT OVER'
— FinTwitter (@fintwitter.bsky.social) June 3, 2026 at 10:28 AM

The Trump slush fund that hasn't died yet --

BREAKING: Don't fall for what Blanche is suggesting - DOJ is NOT getting rid of the whole bogus slush fund deal; it's still giving Trump $1,776 billion AND still giving him (and family) a broad civil release of liability; all it is NOT doing is using the $1,776 to create a fund for J6ers and others.
— Andrew Weissmann (@weissmann.substack.com) June 2, 2026 at 5:31 PM

Sanewashing, truth-avoiding access media --

Please no one ask @jaketapper.bsky.social to talk too much about President "Bags Under My Eyes" barely having any public events these days and spending all night posting AI slop.

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— Bradley P. Moss (@bradmossesq.bsky.social) June 3, 2026 at 9:17 AM

Ellisons and Bari "Bad News" Weiss wreak havoc at See B.S. and "60 Minutes" --

Bari doing what she was paid $150 million to do: “new management has instructed me to inject falsehoods and bias into a politically sensitive story. I've been told to include assertions that are unverified…Finally, incompetence and unprofessionalism in the new management have wreaked havoc”

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— Josh Sternberg (@joshsternberg.com) June 3, 2026 at 8:09 AM

Corrupt Republican SCOTUS' egregious Jim Crow ruling --

This was a huge deal—flying below the radar because issued late at night in a shadow docket ruling

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— Rick Hasen (@rickhasen.bsky.social) June 3, 2026 at 9:07 AM

Completely agree with @rickhasen.bsky.social. After tonight’s decision, it isn’t just impossible to win a Voting Rights Act claim—it’s also impossible to win a *constitutional* claim against egregiously racist gerrymandering. The supermajority massively expanded Callais. electionlawblog.org?p=156541

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— Mark Joseph Stern (@mjsdc.bsky.social) June 2, 2026 at 10:33 PM

the death of 60 minutes and the rest of the VRA on the same night really brings home how the current conservative project is to kill the progress and ideals of the mid century
— Joshua Erlich (@joshuaerlich.bsky.social) June 2, 2026 at 10:44 PM

More Masters of the Universe news --

Wildly overcompensated CEOs, who shamelessly stooged for Trump, and are now firing employees en masse to justify their massive AI investments, are well positioned to become trusted political and moral leaders of the nation. Yeah, that's the ticket.

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— davidrlurie (@davidrlurie.com) June 3, 2026 at 8:49 AM

CNN: "AI drove the number of layoffs to the highest May total since 2020, back when covid had paralyzed the economy"

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) June 3, 2026 at 8:04 AM

Hiring the insurrectionists --

Why is an insurrectionist rioter handling counterterrorism while we’re at war? Or at all?

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— Tina Smith (@smith.senate.gov) June 3, 2026 at 10:28 AM

Ukraine hits Russian oil terminal nearly 700 miles away. Slava Ukraini! --

Footage shows Ukrainian long-range FP-1 strike drones plunging into targets at the St. Petersburg oil terminal. #Russia

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— NOELREPORTS (@noelreports.com) June 3, 2026 at 2:50 AM

Young at heart --

Ironically, Young Jr is the oldest Young in this photo.

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— silverwuffamute (@wuffaf.at) June 2, 2026 at 11:38 AM

Mid-Week Song

Yesterday, singer / songwriter Olivia Rodrigo performed her new single "The Cure" on BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge. It's from her new album, "you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love," scheduled to be released on June 12. Enjoy.

Preliminary Primary Notes

The guys at Electoral-vote.com stayed up last night and came up with some storylines from yesterday's primaries in six states. Here are a few highlights we've taken from four of those states, but for the fuller picture, please go to this link.

California

In the much-watched California gubernatorial election, things are still up in the air. With a shade over half the votes reported, Steve Hilton (R) has 27.6% of the vote, Xavier Becerra (D) has 25.5%, Tom Steyer (D) has 19.6% and Chad Bianco (R) has 11.3%. Bianco is done for; he barely won his home county (Riverside), and there's no way he can add enough votes to climb into second place. It will probably be Hilton and Becerra in the general, but there are enough votes still uncounted in Los Angeles and San Francisco that it's plausible for any two of the top three candidates to survive. [snip]
In the Los Angeles mayoral race, reality TV star Spencer Pratt (I, but really R) has 29.1% of the vote, while City Councilwoman Nithya Raman (I, but really D) has 21.6%. We can't find anyone who has a heat map of the race, so we can't tell where the missing votes are, but nobody has called it for Pratt, so the missing votes must be substantially from the southern and eastern portions of Los Angeles...

Iowa

As the polls predicted, the race to replace Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) will pit Rep. Ashley Hinson (R) against state Rep. Josh Turek (D). Turek is the more moderate of the two Democrats who were in the running, was most certainly the "establishment" candidate, and has shown himself to be a skilled campaigner.

It is, of course, more probable than not that the Senate race will go to the same party that wins the gubernatorial race. So, if there's a blue backlash in the Hawkeye State in November, then it could certainly propel both [Dem State Auditor Rob] Sand and Turek to victory. One interesting thing about the Senate race is that the Hinson campaign has outraised the Turek campaign about 2-to-1 (roughly $6 million to $3 million), but that obscures the fact that most of the super PAC money has flowed in Turek's direction. In particular, VoteVets spent just shy of $10 million to help Turek secure the nomination...

Montana

In pretty much every important swing-y contest, the Democrats got what they wanted yesterday. That includes the U.S. Senate race in Montana. On the Republican side, it's going to be Kurt Alme, who conspired with Sen. Steve Daines (R) to claim the nomination by gaming the paperwork-filing process. On the Democratic side, in a mild upset, it's going to be Air Force Lt. Col. Alani Bankhead, who beat the more experienced and somewhat better known Reilly Neill, a former state representative.

Bankhead, by all indications, is not a serious candidate. She did little campaigning, and raised a grand total of $15,240, of which she spent only $5,775 (by contrast, Neill raised $277,088). The reason that "not a serious candidate" is good news for the Democrats is that it is expected that Bankhead will either withdraw from the race, or will not spend much energy on campaigning. That will help clear the decks for the blue team's actual candidate, former University of Montana president Seth Bodnar (I). It is possible that between not having a (D) next to his name, Alme's undemocratic gamesmanship, and the unfriendly-to-Republicans political climate, Bodnar could attract enough independent and crossover votes to win this thing.

New Jersey

Yesterday, Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-NJ) communicated, through his staff, that he will be away from Washington even longer than expected (and he's already been gone-without-a-trace for 3 months). We wonder if we will ever find out what is wrong with him, such that it precludes him from even making a video or posting a photograph assuring the voters he (ostensibly) represents that he is OK.

The ideal opponent to face Kean, in the EVEN NJ-07, would probably be a moderate woman who is young and vigorous and a veteran. And that is who the Democrats will have, as Rebecca Bennett easily outclassed the other three contenders for the Democratic nomination, taking 45.5% of the vote, to 20% for her nearest competitor. Will Kean even be able to campaign? Will New Jersey voters insist that he explain himself, and why he's been absent? Will he have to drop out, and be replaced by GOP pooh-bahs in the Garden State? These are all questions that undoubtedly are giving NRCC Chair Rep. Richard Hudson (R-NC) ulcers right now.

We hope Republicans across the country are getting ulcers right now, too!

Turmoil At See B.S.

Veteran broadcast journalist and "60 Minutes" correspondent Scott Pelley's firing yesterday from the network he's worked at for decades is a sign of the growing authoritarianism in corporate media who seek to maintain the mentally disturbed Malignant Fascist in his good graces. The MF has made it clear time and again that he wants critics of him and his regime in the media and entertainment world stifled and fired. From the Associated Press:

"CBS News fired longtime “60 Minutes” correspondent Scott Pelley on Tuesday, a day after he reportedly said Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss was “murdering the show” and accused its new producer of having “slender qualifications” for the job.
The move deepened the turmoil at the nation’s most influential TV news program, days after a leadership overhaul.
Pelley, 68, criticized management Monday during a fiery staff meeting with Nick Bilton, the program’s new executive producer installed by Weiss last week, according to a detailed report on the Status website. [snip]
Pelley said in a statement that “60 Minutes” has lost its DNA under new management. He accused them of asking him to “inject falsehoods and bias” into his work, without sharing specific details."

When the Trumpist Ellison father / son duo's company Skydance bought Paramount and CBS with it, it followed a corrupt $16 million bribe to the MF to ensure the merger would go through the corrupt FCC, led by Brandon Carr, an MF cultist. The Ellisons are now trying to merge Skydance Paramount with Warner Bros. Discovery, subject to FCC approval. The Ellisons brought in right-wing pundit and contrarian Bari "Bari Bad News" Weiss as CBS News' editor in chief, giving her control over the iconic news magazine "60 Minutes." She has zero broadcast news experience, but her ideology aligns with the Ellisons, the MF, and Israel's right-wing regime.

The news organization is reported to be in turmoil after Weiss' takeover. We hope that Pelley's colleagues take note and have this firing as their "red line." Buying a network and trashing its independence, and trying to convert it into a mouthpiece for the MF's cult is a betrayal that they should all recoil from and act on.

BONUS: Read Scott Pelley's response to his firing here.

(photos: The MF and his cheerleader. Getty Images)