DL Open Thread: Wednesday, June 4, 2025

Oh, Just Shut Up.  Some House Rethugs ‘Regret’ Voting For Big Beautiful Boondoggle:

It turns out that the sprawling legislation to advance tax and spending cuts and to cement much of President Trump’s domestic agenda included a raft of provisions that drew little notice or debate on the House floor. And now, Republicans who rallied behind the bill are claiming buyer’s remorse about measures they swear they did not know were included.

Last week, Representative Mike Flood of Nebraska admitted during a town hall meeting in his district that he did not know that the bill would limit judges’ power to hold people in contempt for violating court orders. He would not have voted for the measure, he said, if he had realized.

And as lawmakers returned to Washington on Tuesday after their weeklong break, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia said that she had been unaware that the mega-bill she voted for would block states from regulating artificial intelligence for a decade.

Gotta Say, Didn’t See These Ukraine Drone Strikes Coming…don’t think Putin did either:

At least 13 aircraft were damaged in Ukraine’s attack Sunday on military bases deep inside Russia, according to a Washington Post review of verified video and satellite imagery.

The damaged planes included at least eight Tu-95 bombers, long-range aircraft capable of carrying nuclear weapons, experts said. These planes have been frequently used in Russia’s aerial campaign against Ukraine, according to Will Goodhind, a geospatial analyst at Contested Ground, a research project that uses satellite imagery to track armed conflict.

“As a Soviet-era aircraft, they are no longer in production and cannot be replaced,” Goodhind said. “Some estimates indicate that Russia has only 50 operational TU-95 in service, meaning that the loss of even a handful would be keenly felt.”

The assault was planned over the course of 18 months and involved drones that were sneaked into Russia and placed near key runways. They were concealed inside trucks and beneath the roofs of mobile houses before being activated remotely. Ukrainian officials claimed the operation, code-named “Spiderweb,” destroyed 12 Russian aircraft and hit 41 in total, including A-50, Tu-95, Tu-22, M3 and Tu-160 models.

I’m not a military history guy (nor a ‘war’ guy, for that matter), but these attacks may well deserve a place in military history.

Musk Vs. Trump:  A ‘Work’ Or A ‘Shoot’?  Pro rasslin’ terms, for the uninitiated.  A ‘work’ is a scripted angle, a ‘shoot’ is when it’s real.  With that out of the way:

I don’t have more than speculation on what these two guys are thinking or feeling. But the White House took a big swipe at Musk by canning Musk’s handpicked NASA chief the day after his cringey departure ceremony. That action both took something valuable away from Musk and treated him with a very public disrespect. So while Musk is clearly trying to undo the ocean of brand damage he brought on himself and his companies, I don’t think the White House is playing along and trying to help with that project. I think they’re really trying to show him who’s boss, a classic example of Trumpian dominance politics.

But here’s the thing. Both of these guys have very big weapons each can use against the other. Musk can invest money against the GOP budget bill or GOP incumbents. Meanwhile, Trump can start canceling all those contracts Musk handed out to himself and his friends while he was running DOGE. Neither of those things has happened. Until it does, none of this really seems in earnest. Musk can whine. And it will get some headlines. But I don’t think they really care about his whining.

Perhaps a Ketamine On A Pole match to settle things?  Better yet, a ‘two-ladder’ match.  Musk goes after the Ketamine, Trump desperately climbs for his adult diapers (I’d hate to be underneath, holding the ladder steady, for that one).

How Long Until TACOCat Rescinds This One?:

The US has doubled tariffs on foreign steel and aluminum imports to 50%, pressing ahead in the face of criticism from key trading partners with a measure that Donald Trump says is intended to revive the American industry.

After imposing and rapidly lifting tariffs on much of the world, only to reduce them, Trump last week refocused on the global steel and aluminum markets – and the dominance of China.

Trump signed an executive order formalizing the move on Tuesday. Higher tariffs “will more effectively counter foreign countries that continue to offload low-priced, excess steel and aluminum in the United States market and thereby undercut the competitiveness of the United States steel and aluminum industries”, the order said.

Mexico’s economy minister Marcelo Ebrard reiterated that the tariffs were unsustainable and unfair, especially given that Mexico imports more steel from the US than it exports there.

“It makes no sense for the United States to levy a tariff on a product in which you have a surplus,” he said, adding that Mexico would on Friday seek an exemption from the increase.

Gee, Someone Reads This Blog:

House Speaker Melissa Minor-Brown and Sen. Nicole Poore will host a June 5 community town hall to discuss recent Delaware City Refinery incidents.

The two New Castle Democrats said on June 3 in a joint statement that they are planning legislation to strengthen penalties and ensure support for communities impacted by industrial pollution.

Oh, on June 3, they claim they are ‘planning legislation to’ blahblahblah.  You know, because the refinery just started polluting.

Just asking–did anyone see Kevin Caneco‘s name mentioned in the press release?  Didn’t think so.  In what passes for their minds, the one person addressing this issue doesn’t (or shouldn’t) exist.  Call it what it is–two out-of-touch legislators trying to make it look like they’re doing something.  Which they are: political damage control.

I’ll have another article up soon (eventually?) about the just-completed state budget bill.

What do you want to talk about?