“Three people were killed and five were shot during a graduation party in Kendall, Florida, early Sunday, according to the Miami-Dade Police Department,” reports NBC News. “A graduation party was wrapping up at a local strip mall when two vehicles, a dark colored Chevy Malibu and a white Toyota Camry, pulled into the parking lot and began firing on the crowd, said Miami-Dade Police Department Director Freddy Ramirez.”

“Researchers have demonstrated “giant flexoelectricity” in soft elastomers that could improve robot movement range and make self-powered pacemakers a real possibility. In a paper published this month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, scientists from the University of Houston and Air Force Research Laboratory explain how to engineer ostensibly ordinary substances like silicone rubber into an electric powerhouse,” reports ScienceDaily.com.

Image of since-deleted tweet from Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.

https://youtu.be/wMQCLW_vhxs

Lara Trump, current daughter-in-law of Donald Trump and current wife of Ewic Trump, announced during Donald’s speech before the North Carolina Republican Party that she will not seek the open 2022 state Senate seat.

A native of North Carolina and a former entertainment news television producer, Lara Trump had been dipping her foot into the pool to test the waters, which likely turned out to be rather chilly to another political neophyte taking a national seat.  She did not, however, rule out a run for office in the future.

Everything Donald Trump said and did during his Saturday speech at the North Carolina state Republican convention exemplifies why he will be an influencer in GOP politics, likely for the rest of his life (even perhaps into a jail term he could face).

Trump’s speech was just a K-Tel compilation of the golden oldies:  fear the immigrants streaming over the border; only *I* can save the nation; the altered history of his handling of the coronavirus pandemic; and the stoking of the ever present GOP fear of The Other.

That’s why Trump will always be a figure in Republican politics:  he feed the basic nature of that Republicans need to keep their base alive.  He tells them that nothing is their fault (China is responsible for Trump’s failure to address the virus).  He tells them that everything someone else did was actually their accomplishments (like the vaccine distribution).  And that what you read about history is wrong and only he knows the truth (like he had the greatest economic growth in history).

A good cult must have a faultless leader, and Trump meets that definition not because he was actually faultless, but simply that he *acts* like he’s faultless.  This allows the GOP faithful to hold him up for generations as the ideal leader who did nothing wrong–because HE said so.

https://youtu.be/Sf16zuTZ_bw

Recently, a conservative commentator asserted that state borders were fluid and should be changed.  (“Can you really have a state, though, if you don’t have borders?” Donald Trump would ask.)  In The American Mind, right-wing columnist Michael Anton suggested splitting off conservative areas of states from liberal urban centers, thinking this makes perfect sense but not considering the poor economic performance of GOP-dominated areas.

Besides, as Blues never tire of reminding us, aren’t we Reds poor, weak, and dumb? Who wants such dross as fellow citizens? Imagine (say) Virginia’s glorious future without all those retrograde hicks getting in the way of NoVa’s progressive utopian vision.

Of course, Anton only wants to do this in states that have a Democratic majority so the new conservative states can get Senate seats:  California, Illinois, New York, and Virginia. 

The Georgia Republican state convention opened with state Party leader Republican Governor Brian Kemp getting booed and Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger being censured for doing his job under the law of the state.

CNN reports that member of the state GOP were furious with Kemp and Raffensperger for not supporting Donald Trump’s “Big Lie” about debunked election fraud claims.  In the last election cycle, Georgia went to Democrat Joe Biden for president and elected two Democratic Senators, one in a special election.

Raffensperger was censured for “dereliction of his Constitutional duty” and also cite others, including Lt. Governor Geoff Duncan and state Attorney General Christopher Carr, both Republicans, for abetting Raffensperger in upholding the election laws of the state and not succumbing to political pressure, although they did not phrase it that way.

Democratic Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers announced Saturday that he will seek a second term as the state’s governor, ending speculation about the 69-year-old’s plans for the end of his first term in 2022, the Associated Press reports.

Evers said one of the key reasons he’s running for reelection is to serve as a blocker to the radical agenda promoted by the Republican-dominated state legilature, who have tried to push through everything from voter suppression to anti-choice laws.

“Even though I haven’t played much hockey, I have come to appreciate the role of being a goalie,” Evers told the AP.

https://youtu.be/-LwdxF5Sm4U

Summary of speech:  see any Trump speech from the 2020 campaign.

Firefighters are currently battling a 2nd Alarm Recycling Yard Fire near 35th Ave & Lincoln. Please avoid the area. pic.twitter.com/GJh8VnALIj

— Phoenix Fire Dept. (@PHXFire) June 5, 2021

The Phoenix Fire Department later updated the notice to state that a 6th alarm had been issued and more than 150 firefighters were on the scene.

The leader of an American Legion post in Hudson, Ohio resigned Friday in the wake of outrage following the decision made either by him or the leader of the post’s auxiliary to mute the microphone of their Memorial Day ceremony keynote speaker who was talking about the origins of holiday stemming from freed black slaves honoring Union dead, USA Today reports.

Retired Army Lt. Col. Barnard Kemter was talking about how freed slaves in Charleston, South Carolina honored slain Union soldiers by placing flags on their graves weeks after the Civil War ended when his microphone cut out.  Kemter continued giving the speech, projecting his voice using what he called his “Army voice.”  After he finished  mentioning the Black history, the mic worked again.

It was later revealed that either Hudson Lee-Bishop American Legion Post 464 adjudant Jim Garrison or Cindy Suchan, chair of the Memorial Day Parade committee and president of the Hudson American Legion Auxiliary, lowered the volume on the mic.  Garrison was asked to resign his post and his membership in the American Legion.

Karen Gibson, the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms, said in an interview that she’s more concerned with a successful cyberattack on the Capitol than another domestic terrorist attack like the one that struck the Capitol January 6th, Politico reports.

“Our networks … have attempted intrusions every single day. And so, cybersecurity for me is a much greater concern than the prospect of thousands of people storming the West Terrace,” Gibson said in an interviewed aired Saturday on CNN.

The US has been beset by a series of cyberattacks by foreign actors, primarily coming in the form of ransomware attacks on some parts of critical national infrastructure like pipelines, that have impacted primarily private companies, although one attack hit a software platform used by federal and state agencies. 

Magawa, an African giant pouched rat, has retired after spending the last five years searching for unexploded landmines and other military ordinance in Cambodia, a nation challenged live weapons estimated to be in the millions scattered across the countryside.

According to the Washington Post, Magawa, which means “courage” in one of the Cambodian tribal languages, was awarded a gold medal for bravery in September by the British equivalent of the ASPCA in what was likely one of the most adorable medal-presenting ceremonies in history.  Previously, only dogs have been so honored.

With more than 70 detections under his belt, Magawa is one of the most successful graduates of a program run by the Belgian APOPO group to teach small animals how to detected unexploded ordinance.  The small size of the African giant pouched rat, just three pounds, is too light to trigger most mines, which require eleven pounds of pressure to explode. 

https://youtu.be/RSywCJdHSd4

In an appearance on Steve Bannon’s podcast Friday, Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton–who’s in a fight to keep his job with George P. Bush, both of whom are wooing Donald Trump’s endorsement–said that he filed a dozen lawsuits fighting mail-in voting in 2020 to ensure Texas stayed a Trump state.

“Royal Caribbean International will no longer require any of its cruise passengers to be vaccinated for COVID-19 as it had previously planned to. In a press release Friday announcing cruises for sale on eight of its ships from U.S. ports this summer, starting with Freedom of the Seas from PortMiami on July 2, the company said it will recommend passengers get the COVID-19 vaccine, but not require it. The announcement is a reversal from previous statements and vaccine protocols the company submitted to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last month that said it would require all passengers at least 18 years old and older to be vaccinated,” the Miami-Herald reports.

Carey Jon Walden, a Marine veteran from Kansas City, Missouri, gave the FBI a detailed accounting of how he breached the walls of the Capitol on January 6th, including signing off on photos he took of himself that day, in what appears to be the most helpful confession the FBI has received from an insurrectionist.

According to the FBI’s filing with the Court, Walden uses the photos and video he took to detail his actions during the January 6th attack on the Capitol, telling the interviewing agent that he went into the building through a broken window and took photos and video when he got inside.

“I walked in a 15 SQ FT, area, witch [sic] there were police in a line guarding a passage way. I took pictures and video. I did not break anything,” Walden wrote in what reads almost like an essay from a schoolboy on “What I Did During My Field Trip.” “The police were present and I was not asked to leave. I fist bumped and ‘Devil horned’ the swat line. I left after about 5 minutes.”

For the delegates at the #NCGOPCONVENTION, vote Susan Mills for Vice-Chairman of the @NCGOP.

No sideshow involved – Susan Mills is the real deal. #womenfortrump #ncgop #MAGA pic.twitter.com/DMcIBGOMWf

— Women for Trump (@WomenforTrump) June 5, 2021

Maybe we’re overthinking this one, but there’s something telling about a women’s Republican group (that shouldn’t even really exist anymore seeing as how their guy lost re-election, never mind if it should’ve existed at all) still calling it the North Carolina Republican Party Vice-Chairman when they’re endorsing a woman – and one of their organization’s own state gauleiters for the role, no less. At least they got it right in the actual letter and just left it as chair.

The US Department of Justice vowed that it will no longer seek journalists’ phone and email records while investigating government leaks as additional information about Trump’s efforts to silence the New York Times becomes public.

According to the Associated Press, Justice officials have said that they will implement a new departmental policy barring the practice of getting a court order to obtain reporters’ communications so they can uncover the source of information leaks from inside the Administration.  The practice has met with stiff resistance from journalists and civil rights advocates after it was revealed that the Trump administration had sought records from reporters with the New York Times, the Washington Post and CNN in an effort to determine the sources of stories from inside the White House, and effort to “reverse engineer” contacts based on who the reporters talked to.

Law enforcement officials will still be able to obtain subpoenas for a journalist’s records if that individual is suspected of committing a crime in violation of standard “press shield” norms.

While business news pundits are predicting a wave of “revenge spending” from Americans who have been cooped up during the pandemic, it’s also likely that many Americans will become much more careful when it comes to handling their finances. While many Americans are eager to return to “normal” pre-pandemic lifestyles, a substantial number of Americans are reporting feelings of “reopening anxiety“, which often includes simply not being interested in spending as much time going out in public or hanging out with family and friends. Also, while many Americans did suffer economic  hardship as a result of pandemic shutdowns, others were lucky enough to keep working the entire time, and between a substantial reduction in elective spending, and multiple rounds of stimulus checks, they’re more flush than they’ve been in years.