AN EXISTENTIAL THREAT TO THEIR POWER, MONEY, AND SELF-IMPORTANCE MAYBE:

I’D MISSED THIS FROM BEEGE YESTERDAY: On Serving Your Country: Gratitude. “Years later – it doesn’t matter how many – the tears still come. The memories flood back, the choking starts, and dear God, if only you could see them for one second more.”

ANALYSIS: TRUE.

Republicans have a little more than a year to accomplish what they were sent to DC to do, before they return home to campaign for reelection.

“But campaign on what?” is the question they seem happy not to ask themselves.

BLUE CITY BLUES: Denver mayor points finger at Trump after $250M shortfall brings hiring freezes, furloughs.

The city and county of Denver plans on hiring freezes and furloughs as it projects $250 million in revenue shortfalls over the next couple years.

Denver Mayor Mike Johnston, a Democrat, laid some of the blame on the Trump administration for the municipality’s budget woes in a fiscal update given on Thursday.

“The economic downturn and volatility brought on by President Trump is a major challenge facing Denver,” Johnston said in a written statement. “This uncertainty, coupled with declining revenues and significant growth in the cost of city government over the past decade, require us to immediately address the city’s structural budget deficit while protecting essential services and positioning Denver for economic growth in 2026 and beyond.”

The city projects a $50 million revenue gap for the remainder of this year and a $200 million shortfall in 2026.

Johnston explained the growth of city government is “unsustainable,” nearly doubling in size over the last 12 years while costs have increased 83% and revenue has grown by 75%, leaving an 8% difference.

Sounds like you have a spending problem, Mr. Mayor, not a Trump problem.

NO MATTER HOW MUCH YOU DESPISE THE MEDIA…: Now We Know the Real Reason Tapper and Thompson Wrote About Biden. “Sure enough, the pivot is already underway. This week, while being interviewed by Wolf Blitzer, Tapper made it clear the book is less about reflecting on the media’s failure to vet Biden—but a call to arms to pivot directly to Trump.”

“Sure, we lied about Biden for years, but now that we’ve made a non-apology tour, you can totally trust us on Trump,” is quite the flex.

DON’T FORGET THE DRONES AND MISSILES! Trump says US wants to make tanks, not T-shirts.

President Donald Trump said on Sunday his tariff policy was aimed at promoting the domestic manufacturing of tanks and technology products, not sneakers and T-shirts.

Speaking to reporters before boarding Air Force One in New Jersey, Trump said he agreed with comments from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on April 29 that the US does not necessarily need a “booming textile industry” – comments that drew criticism from the National Council of Textile Organizations.

“We’re not looking to make sneakers and T-shirts. We want to make military equipment. We want to make big things. We want to make, do the AI thing,” Trump said.

T-shirts are nice, but the “big things” are necessities.

#METOO: Seattle Cops Have Finally Had it Up to HERE With the City.

The Seattle Police Officers Guild (SPOG) said on X Saturday night that they don’t have “the proper staffing to handle any more of these demonstrations that turn into mass arrests.”

They also warned that “this city lacks the political will to allow police to use the necessary tools to hold back criminal mobs to protect life and property.”

Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell said in a statement that the city “is proud of our reputation as a welcoming, inclusive city for LGBTQ+ communities, and we stand with our trans neighbors when they face bigotry and injustice.”

“Today’s far-right rally was held here for this very reason – to provoke a reaction by promoting beliefs that are inherently opposed to our city’s values, in the heart of Seattle’s most prominent LGBTQ+ neighborhood.”

Why, yes, that was a provocative location for a MayDayUSA rally — and entirely the city’s fault.

Much more at the link.

THEY HAD TO DESTROY DEMOCRACY IN ORDER TO SAVE IT: Biden Aide Admits Staff Did ‘Undemocratic Things’ Because Trump Was ‘Existential Threat To Democracy.’

The revelation came during an appearance by Axios reporter Alex Thompson on “Fox News Sunday” with Shannon Bream, where he discussed insider accounts from his reporting on the Biden administration. Thompson described a mindset inside the White House — one in which unelected aides saw themselves as the real decision makers while shielding Biden from scrutiny and managing the presidency behind the scenes.

“If you believe — and I think a lot of these people do sincerely believe — that Donald Trump was and is an existential threat to democracy, you can rationalize anything, including sometimes doing undemocratic things,” Thompson said.

Thompson also cited a quote from his reporting in which a longtime Biden aide openly admitted the president “just had to win, and then he could disappear for four years.”

They wanted unaccountable power for four years, and got it — democracy be damned.

SKYNET SLOUCHES TOWARD THE BAY AREA TO BE BORN:

AI researchers are essentially doing gain-of-function here, without much in the way of supervision or clear consequences.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Just Checking, Leftoids, Genocide Is Cool Now, Right? “To the far left, victimhood is more exalted than a trans kid in a New York City school. But to anyone possessing even a hint of sanity, trans loons, like Gazans, aren’t being ‘genocided.’ If anything, they walk on water.”

WELCOME TO THE REAL WORLD: Gen Z wants work to be fulfilling and flexible — and they don’t like deadlines.

Students need to learn workplace etiquette and expectations, says Shannon Anderson, a sociology professor at Roanoke College in Virginia, who teaches a course to prepare students for internships. When schools went remote, high school teachers were urged to let students turn in work late, and some college professors are still giving “grace,” Anderson says. So, “when somebody comes in and says, ‘You have to get things in by the deadline,’ they feel angry.” And they don’t realize employees can’t just grant themselves a “self-care day.”

Gen Zers want “to be included in decision-making, kept informed, given personalized attention, provided flexibility in the work schedule, given a clear growth path, provided an opportunity for work-life balance, and to be part of an organization that does good,” according to a 2024 study by Wake Forest’s Patrick Sweeney and colleagues. Young workers have “to earn their stripes” before being listened to, employers tell Sweeney.

I’m so old, I remember when college prepared young people for real-world work environments.

TRUE:

Related:

Also related: The Suicide of Expertise.

DAVID SOLWAY: Mark Carney’s Plan for Canada. “Clearly, as Canada grows poorer Carney grows richer. There seems to be a reciprocal relation between the two phenomena. The average Canadian family paid nearly half its 2022 aggregate income in taxes, rising another 2.7 percent as of 2025. When it comes to taxes, especially Canada’s turbo-tax load, including value-added, carbon, excise and Harmonized Sales Tax (HST), the citizen’s loss is the treasury’s gain, whereas Carney’s gain is the treasury’s loss. Carney is a net-zero fanatic, but his business practices, investments and corporate deals ensure maximum net-yield. In other words, it’s net-zero for Canada, net-infinity for Carney. That is the essence of the prime minister’s fiscal calculations.”