Dear Everybody:
The big news today is that Virginia passed its redistricting measure, approving a map which gives Democrats a chance at four more House seats:
--The measure, which altered the state constitution, gives Democrats an electoral advantage in 10 of the state’s 11 House districts. (Democrats formerly controlled six of those seats.)
--The measure was a response to Texas’s redistricting making five Democratic districts GOP-leaning which Republicans pushed through last year without allowing voters to vote on the measure, and now Republicans are FURIOUS that Democrats dared to do what they did. No fair! They called it "an egregious power grab" even though Virginians got to vote on it.
--Indivisible; "Trump thought he could steal the midterms by making MAGA minions rig the House maps. They thought blue states would sit back anddo nothing. We proved them wrong. Thank you to VA indivisibles and organizers across the commonwealth for this huge win and your commitment to protecting our democracy."
--Christopher Webb: "The right gambled, tried to rig the election, and now it’s excuses and tears. Thanks for everything, Virginia."
--Heather Delaney Reese: "THANK YOU, VIRGINIA!!! (phew.)"
--Trump posted: "A RIGGED ELECTION TOOK PLACE IN THE GREAT COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA! All day long Republicans were winning, the Spirit was unbelievable, until the very end when, of course, there was a massive ‘Mail in Ballot Drop!’ Where have I heard that before--and the Democrats eked out another Crooked Victory! Six to five goes ten to one, and yet the Presidential election in November was very close to a 50-50 split. In addition to everything else, the language on the Referendum was purposefully unintelligible and deceptive. As everyone knows, I am an extraordinarily brilliant person, and even I had no idea what the hell they were talking about in the Referendum, and neither do they! Let’s see if the Courts will fix this travesty of ‘Justice.’ President DONALD J. TRUMP." (Note: I thought you won in a landslide. Also, I loved, "As everyone knows, I am an extraordinarily brilliant person."
--And immediately after that, a GOP-appointed Virginia judge struck down the redistricting amendment in full, ruling it unconstitutional and "void from the start," and thus invalidating yesterday’s vote. AG Jay Jones says he will immediately file an appeal.
--MuellerSheWrote: "This is a pause, not a defeat."
In war with Iran news:
--The Wall Street Journal’s headline kind of said it all as far as where we are in the war: "The Iranians Take Trump for a Sucker."
--Trump reacted with fury, lashing out at the paper and calling the author of the article "an idiot!"
--Yesterday Trump said the ceasefire would continue indefinitely until Iran came up with a negotiating proposal. Today he said he didn’t mean indefinitely, he meant 3 to 5 days and then he was going to start bombing them again. A senior American official said, "Trump is ready to give another 3 to 5 days of ceasefire to allow the Iranians to regroup. This is not going to be an open and unlimited ceasefire."
--In a scary development, Lindsey Graham posted: "I had a very good call this morning with POTUS and SecWar Pete hegseth about the way forward regarding the Iran conflict."
--Ron Filipkowski: "The most accurate indicator that something bad is about to happen."
--CNN reported that Iran won’t participate in negotiations because of "contradictory messages, contradictory behaviors, and unacceptable actions by the American side."
--Palmer Report: "Trump, contrary to the title of that wretched book, ART OF THE DEAL, may be the worst deal maker in the history of the country. I could make a better deal than he could. You could make a better deal than he. My CAT could make a better deal than he."
--Trump: "Iran is collapsing finally! They want the Strait of Hormuz opened immediately! Starving for cash! Losing 500 million dollars a day. Military and politicians complaining they are not getting paid. SOS!!!"
--That was just one of dozens of crazy posts last night and today. Trump trashed the media, trashed Obama and his nuclear deal, and claimed he is winning the war "by a lot.’ He made a "naughty and nice" list of US allies and lashed out at the conservative Supreme Court justices.
--Ron Filipkowski: "I’m sure Trump has put the US in a very strong bargaining position by issuing two ultimatums with hard deadlines only to back down both times after Iran called his bluff."
--Adam Cochran noted that there was another suspiciously timed market selloff right before Trump’s statement extending the ceasefire indefinitely.
--Middle East expert Danny Citrinowitz: "The events of the past 24 hours highlight the strategic response the US has placed itself in. While Washington retains the ability to escalate militarily in the near term, the big question is what such escalation would actually achieve besides significant disruption to the global economy."
--The cost of Brent Crude (the standard for oil) was back over $100 dollars a barrel.
In They’re Trying to Kill Us news:
--Pete Hegseth announced the military is ending the mandate requiring the flu vaccine for all servicepeople. He called the mandate an "absurd, overreaching" order that serves only to "weaken our war-fighting capabilities. But we will not force you, because your body, your faith, and your convictions are not negotiable."
--A number of people pointed out what could potentially go wrong with this new decision, particularly on ships at sea, with half the crew down with the flu, or in elite fighting groups like pilots or the Navy Seals. Or, say, during wars. Like the one we’re in now.
--Global affairs analyst Olga Nesterova: "Make this make sense. Spanish flu. Someone should google it."
--Adam Serwer: "Nothing has killed more soldiers in the history of humanity than disease. While worst is a more complicated question, Hegseth is absolutely the dumbest Secretary of Defense the US has ever had."
--Microbiologist Sarah Beatty: "Not surprising from someone who openly refuses to wash his hands because he doesn’t believe in germs."
--Andre Green: "Vaccination is LITERALLY the key to how Washington beat the Brits in the Revolutionary War." (Washington ordered all his troops to be vaccinated against smallpox.)
--MaryNYC: "Hegseth blamed Biden for the military flu vaccine mandate. The flu shot’s been required since 1945. Joe Biden was 3 years old in 1945."
--Jamie Pisilelli: "I guess he never heard of the 1918 pandemic. Started amongst American soldiers at Fort Riley, Kansas. In the end it killed more American soldiers than the Germans had. 64 thousand died from the flu, 53 thousand were killed in action. Abject, imbecilic stupidity is the hallmark of this administration."
In Kash Patel news:
--Right after Kash Patel filed his defamation lawsuit against the Atlantic, he lost a different defamation case he had filed against Frank Figliuzzi for saying Patel "reportedly" has been "visible at nightclubs far more" than at FBI headquarters. The court found that Patel had failed to successfully allege a claim for defamation.
--Kash Patel then gave a press conference. It did not go well: Question: "Can you say definitively that you have not been intoxicated or absent during your tenure as FBI director?" Patel: "I can say unequivocally I never listen to the fake news media."
--Question: "Can you explain the computer log in issue? Your lawsuit contends you were not able to log in--" Patel: "Survey--how many of you people believe that’s true?" Question: "Did you communicate that you thought you were fired?" Patel: "It never happened. You are lying." Question: "The lawsuit says the opposite."
--He denied he had ever been locked out of his computer, even though it says right there in the lawsuit, "Director Patel had a routine tech problem logging onto a government system which was quickly fixed." Patel: I was never locked out of my systems."
--Dem Rep Jim McGovern: "Even before I heard he drank, he was a national security concern."
In Epstein/Trump news:
--Ghislaine Maxwell sent a USB drive to the DOJ to support her appeal.
--Captain America: "MAXWELL: "Release me or else!"
--Diane Murray: "In other words, psychopath GM reminded the Trumps how much dirt she has on them both, and that she’s getting impatient about that pardon she’s been promised."
--Some people are saying this is why Melania Trump gave that press conference last week, that she knew Maxwell was going to do this and was trying to get out ahead of it. There’s speculation that Maxwell could have damaging information about Melania’s connection to Epstein and about how Melania got her passport.
--Sherry: "Here it is! The reason why Melania made that statement."
--T Rogers: "How does a federal prisoner have "a USB stick?"
--Braintruste: "Word on the street is it’s blackmail. Extortion, blackmail--in this ‘administration’ either works."
--Time2Resist: "Look for Blanche to say, ‘Nothing to see here, move along..."
--That is, in fact, what the DOJ did say, calling the materials on the USB drive "duplicative" and "meritless" and asking for time until June 5 to file a government response.
--But they also argued that the documents are fact and document intensive, which led to calls for it to be made public and for FOIA requests to be filed.
--Oversight Dems posted: "Convicted sex criminal Ghislaine Maxwell socialized with Melania from Palm Beach to Manhattan. Emails revealed in the Epstein files show that the two communicated. Today the DOJ is still hiding nearly half the files. Why? What’s being hidden? Oversight Dems will find out."
--Then later today, Maxwell said she will testify under oath before the House Oversight Committee, (she has previously invoked her Fifth Amendment rights), but only if she is granted clemency. Only Trump can pardon her, but apparently some of the Republicans on the committee are in favor of giving her a pardon. Chairman Jim Comer would not say which Republicans.
--StopTheIdiocracy: "Everyone who votes to pardon her should be thrown in prison for the same amount of time she is supposed to serve."
--Dem Rep Robert Garcia said the Democrats on the committee collectively oppose a pardon for Maxwell. "If the DOJ or Oversight Republicans are out there trying to negotiate some sort of pardon that is...not only a huge slap in the face to this investigation, to anyone, to the American public. It’s a part of a massive coverup."
--( Note: The good news in this is that it might be a sign that Maxwell thinks Trump is on his way out and she’d better get her pardon while the getting’s good.)
In Holy War news:
--Trump read the Bible from the Oval Office today as part of a week-long GOP project to read the entire Bible aloud. (No Democrats need apply.)
--Trump read Second Chronicles (or as he would say, Two Chronicles) 7:14: "If my people...will humble themselves...then I will hear from heaven...and will heal their land."
--(Note: This is God speaking, which seems entirely appropriate given Trump’s opinion of himself.)
--USMC Vet M-3-7: "He’s reading it as though they are his words to us, telling the people of the world what will happen to them if they don’t follow him and do as he instructs them and how glorious it will be for them if they do. I don’t think that passage was selected by accident."
In scientific news:
--NASA’s Curiosity Rover has detected organic molecules on Mars, including chemicals widely considered to be building blocks for the origin of life on Mars.
--Another new NASA telescope and space observatory, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, has been fully assembled and is now being tested. It will be launched this fall. NASA says, "The images it captures will be so large there is not a screen in existence large enough to show them. Roman will give the Earth a new atlas of the universe."
In other news:
--Todd Blanche and Trump’s DOJ submitted and then rescinded a subpoena for John Brennan to testify before a grand jury. They also rescinded a number of other subpoenas related to the case.
--Dem Rep David Scott, a Georgia Democrat, died today at age 80. He was the first Black chairman of the House Agriculture Committee. He had represented Georgia’s 13th District since 2002 and was in the middle of a re-election campaign for a 13th term.
--Alan Dershowitz announced that he is switching to the Republican Party and becoming a Republican, which everybody already thought he was. Dershowitz was a long-time lawyer for Trump and appeared repeatedly in the Epstein files. He admitted he had flown on Epstein’s plane and that he had had a massage at Epstein’s house, but he said he had kept his underpants on.
In good news:
--The SAVE Act has died in the Senate, with the measure tabled indefinitely, which means it can’t be acted on before the midterms.
--422 new independent bookshops opened in 2025, up 31% from 2024.
--A circuit court upheld the ban on machine guns.
Best nickname of the day, for Kash Patel: "J. Edgar Boozer."
Most ironic comment of the day, from GOP Senator Roger Marshall, who was supposedly talking about negotiating with the Iranians but was really talking about the US negotiating team: "It’s really hard to negotiate with these irrational, emotional religious zealots."
Best comment of the day, from Paul Waldman on the midterms: "The difference between 2018 and 2026 is that not only has Trump become an even more repellent personality, his actions have made everything worse. In fact, it’s hard to imagine what more Trump could do to enrage the electorate and ensure his party’s defeat in November?"
--Dr. Who: "I’m sure he’ll think of something."
Keep calm and carry on,
Connie Willis