MISSED THIS!

This Weekend in Politics, Bulletin 142. Ron Filipkowski Jun 1 … Ukraine executed a brilliant attack inside Russia that was over a year in the planning, destroying a big chunk of the bombers used to launch cruise missiles at civilian population centers in Ukraine. Financial Times: “Ukraine's security service estimated that its attack caused more than $7 billion in damage, claiming 34% of Russia's strategic cruise missile carriers were hit.” … Kyiv Independent: “An operation by Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) using first-person-view (FPV) drones smuggled deep inside Russian and hidden inside trucks has hit 41 Russian heavy bombers at 4 airfields across the country. The operation — codenamed ‘Spider Web’ and a year-and-a-half in the planning — appears to have dealt a major blow to the aircraft Moscow uses to launch long-range missile attacks on Ukraine's cities.” … Ukraine military source: "The SBU first transported FPV drones to Russia, the drones were hidden under the roofs of mobile wooden cabins, already placed on trucks. Currently, more than 40 aircraft are known to have been hit, including the A-50, Tu-95 and Tu-22 M3.” … “Ukraine has long struggled to target the Russian bombers used to launch mass missile targets against Ukrainian cities, as Moscow has kept them out of range of weapons Kyiv has developed itself as well as those supplied by its Western allies. The use of FPV drones in such a way would mark just the latest stage in the ever-evolving and still relatively fledgling world on drone warfare. The attack was also likely highly cost effective — FPV drones can be bought for a just a few hundred dollars each but the cost of 41 heavy bombers runs into the billions.” … Zelensky: “Today, a brilliant operation was carried out — on enemy territory, targeting only military objectives, specifically the equipment used to strike Ukraine. Russia suffered significant losses — entirely justified and deserved. The preparation took over a year and a half. Planning, organisation, every detail was perfectly executed. It can be said with confidence that this was an absolutely unique operation. What’s most interesting, and this can now be stated publicly, is that the “office” of our operation on Russian territory was located directly next to FSB headquarters in one of their regions.” … “Not for a single second did we want this war. We offered the Russians a ceasefire. Since March 11, the US proposal for a full and unconditional ceasefire has been on the table. It was the Russians who chose to continue the war – even under conditions where the entire world is calling for an end to the killing. Pressure is truly needed, pressure on Russia that should bring it back to reality. Pressure through sanctions. Pressure from our forces. Pressure through diplomacy. All of it must work together.” … Two bridges were also reportedly blown up in the middle of the night inside Russia which caused two trains and several heavy trucks to crash. Russia called both of the incidents “terrorist attacks.” Kursk region governor Alexander Khinshtein: "Last night in the Zheleznogorsk district, a bridge collapsed while a freight locomotive was passing. Part of the train fell onto the road below the bridge.” … The Russian delegation arrived tonight in Turkey to resume peace negotiations with Ukraine tomorrow. Last time the Russians made a mockery of it, with the only thing coming out of it a limited prisoner exchange. Tomorrow should be interesting after what happened today. … Putin-lover and MAGA influencer Catturd had the sads after today’s attacks on Russia: “Zelensky doesn’t want peace.” … Multiple media outlets reported that Ukraine did not notify the US about the attack. Given the fact that this extremely high risk operation required the element of surprise with operatives behind enemy lines, there is simply no way that Ukraine can trust the people in the Trump admin to keep something like that a secret from Russia given the fact that this govt at the highest levels is populated by Putin apologists, appeasers, and outright fans. Reminder that we make these entire Weekend Bulletins available to fee subscribers while the first 30% of the daily Bulletins during the week are available to them. You can also post comments to these. The Bulletins averaged 387,950 reads each during the month of May. If you missed the last Bulletin it is here. Thank you for continuing to read and share these as it continues to grow! Meidas+ is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. … Trump fired another one of his senior nominees right before his confirmation hearing, this time NASA chief Jared Isaacman. Trump posted on Truth Social: “After a thorough review of prior associations, I am hereby withdrawing the nomination of Jared Isaacman to head NASA. I will soon announce a new Nominee who will be Mission aligned, and put America First in Space." … The move bewildered some of Trump’s closest supporters and allies who supported Isaacman. He was widely viewed as highly competent and bipartisan, and was sailing towards an easy confirmation. He made political contributions to Democrats in the past, but that had to be known to Trump’s team when he made the nomination several months ago. The NYT reported that was the reason, but it only takes 5 minutes to look that up on the internet so it’s not like it was top secret info. … Isaacman has been closely involved with Musk’s Space X company since 2021, taking trips to space in their rockets. He was chosen for the post based on Musk’s strong recommendation, so some are viewing this as a purge of Musk allies from the admin immediately following his departure. … Sen. Tim Sheehy (R-MT) made this post just hours before Trump pulled the nomination: “Astronaut and successful businessman Jared Isaacman was a strong choice by President Trump to lead NASA. I was proud to introduce Jared at his hearing and strongly oppose efforts to derail his nomination.” … Even Laura Loomer didn’t get it: “There is reason to believe that Isaacman may be facing retaliation because of his friendship with Musk. If so, this would suggest there is a coordinated hit job on Isaacman in an effort to damage ties between President Trump and Musk before the 2026 midterms. Is Trump aware of the ulterior motives by some individuals in the admin who have an interest in seeing Isaacman’s nomination pulled? Let me remind you who Jared Isaacman is. Yes, he has been a liberal in the past, but as it relates to MERIT and his knowledge of Space, his credentials are unmatched.” … Lincoln Project founder Rick Wilson: “I told you (Chief of Staff) Susie Wiles is settling all family business, and she’s adding Issacman to her trophy case, right next to Elon.” … MAGA podcaster Benny Johnson: “I just got off the phone with a powerful Republican Senator who is 100% MAGA. The Senator tells me Loomer’s reporting is true, and everyone is stunned by this. He said, ‘Isaacman would pass with +70 votes. He’s a spectacular nominee. This is completely out of the blue.’ Very strange.” … Musk showed up at Trump’s Oval Office press conference with a black eye on his last day on the job, leading many to speculate on the likely cause since nothing they tell us can ever be believed. It was curious that this happened one day after the story broke that Stephen Miller’s wife Katie was leaving the admin with Musk to be his personal assistant. … Musk’s story is that he was playing with son and he told him to punch him in the face: "And he did. Turns out even a five-year-old punching you in the face actually is..." then his voice trailed off and he never finished the sentence. … Because he looked and acted like he was quite obviously high as a kite on drugs, with his head lolling from side to side and glassy eyes rolling around in his head. Not for the first time. The NYT published a story on Friday that Musk used so much ketamine that he developed bladder problems. They also said he was a regular user of ecstasy and mushrooms and traveled during the campaign with a pill box. … Musk responded to the story on X: "To be clear, I am NOT taking drugs! The NYT was lying their ass off. I tried 'prescription' ketamine a few years ago and said so on X, so this not even news. It helps for getting out of dark mental holes, but haven't taken it since then." … I’m sure we all believe that. … A reporter asked Trump if he was aware of Musk’s regular drug use: "I wasn't." … CBS then got an interview with Musk, and when they asked him the first question about politics, Musk said he only wanted to talk about Mars: Q - I'm wondering what your thought is on the ban on foreign students, the proposal. I mean, you were one of those kids, right? Musk: Yeah. I mean, I think we wanna stick to, you know, the subject of the day, which is, like, spaceships, as opposed to, you know, presidential policy. "Oh, okay," I said. "I was told anything is good, but…" Musk: “No, well—no." … But minutes later, Musk lurched into talking about politics unprompted: "But my frank opinion of the govt is that, like, the govt is just, like, the DMV that got big, okay? So, when you say it like, 'Let's have the government do something,' you should think, 'Do you want the DMV to do it?'" … Maybe he’s not a drug addict. Because I’ve worked with thousands of drug addicts and they are a lot more coherent. … Musk rambled on: "And you know, it's not like I agree with everything the admin does. So it's like, I mean, I agree with much of what the admin does. But we have differences of opinion. You know, there are things that I don't entirely agree with. But it's difficult for me to bring that up in an interview because then it creates a bone of contention. So then, I'm a little stuck in a bind, where I'm like, well, I don't wanna, you know, speak up against the admin, but I also don't wanna take responsibility for everything this admin’s doing." … I’m not sure Musk will like this Pride Parade. … Trump bizarrely reposted an “article” from a deranged supporter that said Joe Biden was assassinated in 2020 after the election and Democratic leaders made a clone of him using robotics to appear as president publicly while they ran the govt behind the scenes. There was literally nothing else in the article beside the bizarre QAnon conspiracy theory. Trump never met a conspiracy theory he didn’t latch on to, but this was was weird even for him. … Even Fox did a story on this one, with the headline: “Trump shares post saying Biden was executed, replaced with clones.” … But the Sunday shows continued to ask questions today of Democrats about Biden’s alleged cognitive decline and Jake Tapper’s book. Sen. Rafael Warnock (D-GA) responded this way when pressed on it by NBC’s Kristen Welker: "Here's what we absolutely know about last year's election - it's over. And I'm going spend all of my energy focused on the task in front of us. They are literally trying to take healthcare away from children." … House Oversight Chair James Comer (R-KY) was on Fox talking about his new Biden hearings based on Tapper’s book: “If we can find information that would lead us to believe that Biden had no knowledge of those executive orders being signed in his name, then I think that the trump admin could get them thrown out in court. Then Trump would be able to execute his agenda a whole lot easier.” … NBC said that 4 sources told them DNI Tulsi Gabbard is looking at reconfiguring the President’s Daily Brief to look and feel like a Fox broadcast, thinking that is the only way to get him to participate since he doesn’t read. The PDB is created daily for the president, but Trump has only agreed to receive it 14 times since taking office - less than once a week. At this same point in their presidencies, Biden received 90 PDBs and Obama received 63. Trump in his first term received 55 by the end of May. … Trump backed off on his campaign promise of ‘No Tax on Social Security Benefits’. He posted the broken promise on Truth Social: “Like the other two, TIPS AND OVERTIME, No Tax on Social Security is being done also, but in a different form, a large deduction after which many will have no tax to pay. Thank you!” … WSJ reported that the “large deduction” Trump is talking about would allow a $4,000 tax deduction for seniors who are still working. Congressional Republicans rejected the original plan because it would result in $100 billion in lost revenue added to the huge losses in revenue from the other cuts, and this new version is estimated to result in an $18 billion loss. … Speaker Mike Johnson continues to lie by claiming their budget won’t explode the deficit. He claims that economic growth will be double that estimated by the non-partisan CBO, which would result in much greater revenue if true. He was asked on NBC why he agreed with CBO numbers when Dems held the House but now he doesn't: “This is very easy to explain. The CBO sometimes gets projections correct, but they always underestimate the growth that will be brought about by tax cuts and reductions in regulations.” … Treasury Sec Scott Bessent was asked on CBS about JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon predicting a debt market crisis if the current Republican budget is passed: “For his entire career, he's made predictions like this, fortunately none of them have come true. That's why he's a banker.” … Commerce Sec Howard Lutnick was asked on Fox why they promised 90 deals in 90 days two months ago and all we have is a weak and limited agreement with the UK: "You're gonna see over the next couple weeks, really first-class deals for the American worker." … Two weeks. … Economist Justin Wolfers: “On Tuesday, Kevin Hassett said ‘we'll probably see a few more trade deals, a few more deals even this week,’ and ‘there's some stuff very close to being finished, and it's up to the President.’ It's Sunday, and the score card says he got to zero.” … Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) on CBS: "I had a very good conversation with the president this week about tariffs. He did most of the talking, and we don't agree. Republicans used to be for lower taxes. Tariffs are a tax. So if you raise taxes on the private sector, that's not good for the private sector." … Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-MA) was asked on Fox about Harvard: “I think Harvard was 270th out of 270 for individual expression on campus. That needs to change. That is not going to change by Harvard, though, ceding to authoritarian bullying from the right, nor will it change by Harvard giving into progressive orthodoxies of the left. Harvard needs to be independent. All universities should be independent, truth-seeking institutions that do research and that train the next generation of leaders.” … Gabrielle Cuccia, OAN’s correspondent covering the Pentagon, says she was fired by the right-wing network because she openly criticized Pete Hegseth’s crackdown on press access at the Pentagon. Cuccia, who calls herself a ‘MAGA girl’: “I was asked to turn in my Pentagon badge to my bureau chief. This Admin, to my surprise, also locked the doors to the Pentagon Briefing room, a protocol that was never in place in prior Admins, and a door that is never locked for press at the WH. The Commander-in-Chief welcomes the hard questions. Why won’t Hegseth do the same?” … Hegseth has not conducted a single press briefing as Secretary. … Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA), who cast the deciding vote to confirm Hegseth despite his open hostility to women serving in the military, got serious backlash when she responded to a constituent at a town hall who was concerned about people with serious medical conditions losing Medicaid coverage, “Well, we are all going to die.” … Ernst then made it worse by posting a nasty, sarcastic “apology” video on social media: "I want to apologize for a statement that I made yesterday at my town hall. I made an incorrect assumption that everyone in the auditorium understood that yes we are all going to perish from this earth. I'm really, really glad I did not have to bring up the subject of the tooth fairy as well." … Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) responded to Ernst on CNN: "I think everybody in that audience knows they're going to die, they would just rather die in old age at 85 or 90 instead of dying at 40. And the reality is that when you lose your healthcare, you are much more at risk of early death." … Serial liar, Project 2025 author, and current Trump Budget Director Ross Vought on CNN: "No one will lose coverage as a result of this bill." … He then lied some more. Q - Is it fair to say that what you are doing now is in part enacting Project 2025? VOUGHT: “No, of course not.” … Bloomberg: “The CBO says that approximately 7,600,000 people will lose coverage as a result of the bill’s Medicaid cuts. An additional 1,800,000 will lose ACA exchange coverage due to cuts there. Failure to extend subsidy enhancements costs another 4,200,000 their insurance coverage.” … Journalist Aaron Rupar, who monitors Fox shows, noted this from host Maria Bartiromo’s popular Sunday morning show: “Final tally of mentions on Maria Bartiromo's show today: Medicaid - 0. Biden - 34.” … Murphy was also asked about Trump’s new crypto bill: "The problem is the existing version of that bill exempts the president from the ethics requirements. It says it's unethical for me to issue or market a stablecoin, but it's okay for the president to do it. That's not something any Democrat should vote for." … Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) talked about the midterms on CNN: "Every single public poll that has come out since the Trump presidency has had congressional Democrats winning the generic ballot. In fact, we know this is not simply speculative. In every single high-profile special election, Democrats have won. So the American people are being very clear and decisive in saying who they trust more to govern." … Jeffries was also asked about ICE entering Rep. Jerry Nadler’s office and handcuffing one of his staffers while falsely accusing him of harboring a migrant: “I think the admin is clearly trying to intimidate Democrats, in the same way that they’re trying to intimidate the country.” … MD Gov Wes Moore fueled more speculation about a run for president with a trip to SC to speak that the Democrats Blue Palmetto Dinner: “Gone are the days when we are the party of bureaucracy, multi-year studies, panels and college debate club rules. We must be the party of action.” … Politico: “SC has a track record of vaulting Democratic primary winners to the WH, and Moore’s premium speaking slot before the state’s well-connected party leaders does little to tamp down speculation he’s kicking the tires on an upcoming presidential bid. A person familiar with Moore’s schedule said he’s limiting the number of out-of-state invites he is accepting to focus on his role in MD. But the person stressed he plans to hit the campaign trail in VA and NJ — both of which hold statewide elections this fall.” … Journalist Glenn Greenwald became a MAGA darling after he published his anti-Biden book in 2020, followed by regular appearances on Fox on a variety of topics. He also appeared often on Tucker Carlson’s show where he routinely spreads Russian propaganda on Ukraine. He claims that he was banned by MSNBC because he criticized Rachel Maddow. So when a video was leaked on the internet this weekend showing him in a dress kissing with what appeared to be a male prostitute, MAGA struggled to process the scene. … Trump-pardoned felon and discredited ‘2000 Mules’ producer Dinesh D’Souza: “On the Glenn Greenwald video: Good news: It doesn’t discredit his work. He’s not a gay activist. His reporting and analysis stand on their merits. Bad news: It is a window into the gay lifestyle. It’s not the sanitized version we’ve gotten from Hollywood and the media.” … Right-wing talk show host Jason Whitlock posted this on X: “Serious, thoughtful replies only: Can you separate Glenn Greenwald's courageous journalism from his immoral, degenerate personal life? Is there scripture to guide us here? Please share. Thanks.” … Right-wing talk show host Robby Starbuck: “I have a few very simple things to say about the Glenn Greenwald issue. It’s not normal for a man to dress up in a maid costume to be humiliated by another man for pleasure. Debasement like this doesn’t come from a healthy mind. Good work doesn’t excuse that. Pray for him today.” … Right-wing talk show host Matt Walsh: “I would just like to point out that it was only a month ago that Glenn Greenwald attacked me and labeled me ‘morally deranged’ for arguing that gay couples should not adopt children. Safe to say I’ve been pretty well vindicated on this point.” … MAGA influencer Stepfanie Tyler: I’m so torn over this Glenn Greenwald stuff. On the one hand, I genuinely believe in personal liberty and privacy - consenting adults should be able to do whatever they want. Period. No victim, case closed. But on the other hand, something in me short-circuits when I see behavior that unhinged, and try to pretend it has zero bearing on someone’s mental model and worldview. I want to believe that you can be a brilliant, high-functioning journalist and also get filmed licking another man’s feet while wearing a maid costume, but somewhere deep in my gut, I just don’t buy it.” “I care about the kink itself—but because it suggests a way of relating to the world that feels off, because what you do in private still reveals what you believe about control, hierarchy, selfhood, reality—and that belief system doesn’t just disappear when you sit down to do journalist things. It’s not about kink-shaming, it’s about pattern recognition. Because at a certain point, the architecture of a person’s private compulsions has to leak into how they process truth, power, boundaries - meaning when someone’s private behavior looks like a direct collision with their public values I start to question the coordinates and for some reason no one really wants to say that out loud.”