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THIS DAY IN HISTORY June 6 1944 D-Day: Allies storm Normandy’s coast Codenamed Operation Overlord, D-Day began on June 6, 1944. read more Sponsored Content by REVCONTENT Arts & Entertainment 1998 “Sex and the City” premieres on HBO 1971 “The Ed Sullivan Show” airs for the very last time 1933 First drive-in movie theater opens Asian History 1981 Train derails in India, killing hundreds 1984 Indian army storms Golden Temple Black History 1966 Civil rights activist James Meredith shot Civil War 1865 Outlaw William Quantrill dies in military prison after being shot by Union soldiers Crime 1997 A teenaged mother gives birth and murders her baby at the prom Natural Disasters & Environment 1889 The Great Seattle Fire U.S. Government and Politics 1856 Sitting president Franklin Pierce denied his party’s nomination for reelection U.S. Presidents 1833 President Jackson rides the Iron Horse Vietnam War 1964 U.S. reconnaissance jet shot down over Laos World War I 1918 Battle of Belleau Wood begins

Routine date night becomes real-life rom-com when Virginia man takes over drive-in movie screen for surprise proposal to his girlfriend. (More) A father's heartfelt message to his daughter's new husband turns a wedding reception into a tearjerker. (More, w/video) Wisconsin trooper adopts kitten he saved after it was thrown out of a moving vehicle. (More) A 21-year-old audience member at "La La Land" concert steps in for sick pianist and helps save the show. (More, w/video) Second-grade teacher's end-of-year tradition sends students into summer with their heads held high. (More, w/video) "I love this memory of my mom. She was Filipina and they have a saying, 'Amoy Awraw,' meaning you smell like the sun. I would hear this from her after coming in from playing outside as a kid. It was like her way of saying that I must’ve had fun while playing. I think of this and her after being outside working in the yard or garden." — Jennifer C. in Washougal, Washington "I grew up in India, a child of missionary parents. When I graduated from high school at age 16, I flew to America for college. In those days, people dressed up to fly. My dear sacrificial, frugal mother used my Dad's suit to repurpose it for a little suit for me, and I will never forget that frugality, love, and sacrifice (of both my mother and Daddy). MANY such experiences were mine with her as my magnificent, amazing mother. She absolutely filled my heart and always loved very sacrificially." — Mardi B. in Macon, Georgia "I had always prepared a gourmet dinner for my mom on Mother's Day. I would usually get the day off work so I could prep all day, creating a multitude of special dishes. The year she died (in March 2012, after a long illness), I scheduled myself to work that Mother's Day to keep myself busy and without reminders of my mom. My daughter unexpectedly dropped by work that afternoon with flowers and a pair of Wonder Woman-emblazoned sneakers. Her thoughtfulness on a day that I had dreaded was a bright spot—and I still have the sneakers!" — Jill P. in Brea, California

Scientists have edited the DNA of early human embryos with a new level of precision for the first time, using an upgraded gene-editing technology that avoids the unintended damage seen in earlier versions. The development suggests it may one day be possible to correct disease-causing mutations before birth. The work, led by scientists from Columbia University, was conducted on lab-grown embryos intended for research, not for implantation. It builds on CRISPR-Cas9, a tool that works like molecular scissors, snipping DNA at targeted locations to remove or replace faulty genes (visualize how it works). A newer approach—base editing—allows scientists to swap individual DNA letters without fully cutting the strand. The refinement can reduce mutations that occur during DNA repair and could open the door to treating diseases caused by single-letter genetic errors, such as sickle cell. The breakthrough heightens concerns about using the gene-editing technology to enhance traits. In 2019, a Chinese scientist was sentenced to prison for secretly editing embryos to make them HIV-resistant in the first known case of gene-edited babies (w/audio).

Putin rejects Zelenskyy’s offer to meet and reaffirms Ukraine war aims Russian president describes Ukrainian counterpart’s letter as rude and says he sees no point in face-to-face talks https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jun/05/putin-rejects-zelenskyys-offer-to-meet-and-reaffirms-ukraine-war-aims? ps:The only one rude is putin!!!!!!!!!!

Starmer suggests US ‘trying to interfere in our democracy’ over Nowak claims Prime minister’s office responds after JD Vance blames British teenager’s death on mass migration https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/jun/05/keir-starmer-questions-henry-nowak-case-two-tier-policing-claim?

Kuwait and Bahrain targeted by Iran after exchange of fire with US Iran attacks American bases in Gulf states after Washington shoots down drones and strikes Iranian radar sites https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jun/06/us-says-iran-radar-sites-struck-and-drones-intercepted-in-latest-threat-to-fragile-ceasefire?

Armenia heads to polls amid Russian pressure and threat of ‘Ukrainian scenario’ Relationship between Vladimir Putin and traditional ally has slowly unravelled under current PM Nikol Pashinyan https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jun/06/russia-putin-armenia-election?

If you were drafted during the American Civil War, you could legally pay someone else $300 to go in your place. James

Access to Closely Guarded Secrets View in browser On January 6, 2021, 19-year-old Elias Irizarry was among the members of a violent mob that broke into the U.S. Capitol and attempted to overturn the recent presidential election. He was convicted of trespassing on government grounds, and videos from that day show him entering through a window with a metal pole in his hand. Now he may have access to sensitive national-security information as an employee of the Department of Defense. As part of his deal with then-President Biden’s Justice Department, Irizarry pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor charge of entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, and was sentenced to 14 days in jail. But as with almost all of the other January 6ers, he was fully pardoned on Donald Trump’s return to office last year. The Washington Post reported this week that Irizarry, now 25, works at the Pentagon’s Special Operations and Low Intensity Conflict office. He’s been tasked with guarding the country against terrorist threats—but he himself participated in an attack on the U.S. government just over five years ago. His trajectory aligns with Trump’s ongoing effort to reframe the January 6 insurrectionists as “patriots” acting in support of a righteous cause, and reflects the White House’s tendency to reward illegal actions performed in the service of the president and his agenda. At the time of the riot, Irizarry was a freshman at the Citadel, a public military college in South Carolina. He was suspended from school after his guilty plea; after he apologized for his involvement in the riot at his 2023 sentencing, he reapplied and was accepted. The judge even wrote him a recommendation letter. Irizarry ran for Congress in 2024, and his campaign website explained that he’d “truly seen the good, the bad, and the ugly of America.” (He lost in the Republican primary, although he did capture 28 percent of the vote.) But does the fact that Irizarry apologized, and that a DOD spokesperson says that he believes Irizarry is qualified, mean that he should have access to the nation’s most closely guarded secrets? Part of the reason government jobs are so coveted is that many careers in public service are rewarded with stability, pensions, and other benefits. These positions can come with immense responsibility—and although it’s unclear what Irizarry’s motivations are for taking this particular role, his hiring is part of a concerning trend. He isn’t the first January 6 defendant to hold a position in the Trump administration: Jared Wise, who was caught on tape encouraging insurrectionists to “kill” Capitol Police officers, was until recently an employee of the Department of Justice. He resigned because he believed that he couldn’t “fully expose the abuses by the FBI and DOJ against J6 defendants” from within the federal government. A former FBI agent himself, Wise was hired specifically for the DOJ’s Weaponization Working Group, which was formed to investigate supposed abuses of prosecutorial power during the Biden administration. (My colleague Quinta Jurecic has argued that the project has unintentionally thrown light on the Trump administration’s own abuses.) One major concern over Irizarry’s job: his security clearance. All positions in the Special Operations and Low Intensity Conflict office require top-secret clearance, according to The Washington Post, which is typically granted only after a rigorous vetting process. (The Pentagon did not respond to my questions about the specifics of Irizarry’s role.) In part because Americans with security clearances can be targets for foreign agents, they’re routinely advised to watch for “insider threats”—red flags among co-workers who could potentially mishandle classified information, voluntarily or under duress. One of those tells, as my colleague Tom Nichols has written, is hostility to the U.S. government. Prosecutors alleged that, in the months after January 6, Irizarry sent texts to another rioter about potentially joining Russia’s military if America’s wouldn’t accept him. The Trump administration is still trying to paper over the history of January 6. In November of last year, Trump also announced mostly symbolic pardons for the election deniers who plotted to keep him in office. A month later, Trump pardoned Tina Peters, the Colorado county clerk who was convicted of election interference in 2024. The order didn’t carry legal signifiance—convicted only at the state level, Peters was technically beyond the president’s reach—but eventually, Colorado’s Democratic governor, Jared Polis, did what Trump couldn’t, commuting Peters’s prison sentence. Immediately following her release, she went on Steve Bannon’s podcast and suggested that she was jailed for exposing a Democratic plot to steal the election. The decision to pardon those involved in January 6, and to give some of the insurrectionists jobs in government, sends the message that crimes can be forgiven as long as they serve the aims of those in power. Government agencies cultivate public trust in part by demonstrating that they’re hiring the right people; not so long ago, Irizarry would have been an active security risk. In this administration, loyalty is the qualification that matters most. Related: Donald Trump wants you to forget this happened. Republican leaders once thought January 6 was “tragic.”

Democrat Xavier Becerra advances to general election in race for California governor SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Democrat Xavier Becerra advanced to the general election for California governor Friday after pitching himself as an experienced choice to lead the nation’s most populous state and succeed Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom. https://apnews.com/article/california-governor-election-primary-2026-98b2b4dcca6813c3ffeb9754bd09805d?

Stocks slump as Big Tech sinks and a strong May jobs report boosts odds for higher interest rates The U.S. stock market had its worst day since October Friday as a sell-off in big technology companies weighed down the broader market and a strong jobs report boosted expectations that the Federal Reserve will be forced to hike interest rates at some point this year. https://apnews.com/article/stocks-markets-iran-oil-trump-b5e10863b81cb1d6399f688ad8885c46?

World Cup turf When the tournament starts next week, the players will have their eyes on the ball. John Trey Rogers will be focused on the grass beneath their feet, which took him six years to get just right.

Gloves come off Big banks aren’t pulling any punches in their fight with the crypto industry — Jamie Dimon just described a fellow financier as “full of sh*t.” With regulation coming up for a Senate vote, the long-simmering tensions are boiling over.

Space station leak Five astronauts were forced to seek shelter aboard a spacecraft attached to the International Space Station as their crewmates attempted to repair a leak. The Russian space agency Roscosmos said the situation does not pose a safety threat.

💼 The U.S. economy added 172,000 jobs in May, while the unemployment rate held at 4.3%, confirming that the economy is gaining momentum despite the economic fallout from the Iran war, Axios' Courtenay Brown reports.

Trump's team convenes nuclear experts President Trump's envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner traveled to the national lab in Oak Ridge, Tenn., yesterday for consultations with a team of technical experts that could play a role in nuclear negotiations with Iran, Axios' Barak Ravid and Colin Demarest have learned. ☢️ Why it matters: The White House is trying to reach a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Iran to end the war and begin in-depth nuclear negotiations, and wants to have experts at the ready should those talks be launched. 🇺🇸🇮🇷 The U.S. and Iran are still at odds on several details of the MOU, according to U.S. officials and regional sources involved in the mediation. The sources characterized the negotiations as in their final stretch, but it remains unclear whether agreement will ultimately be reached. A U.S. official told Axios: "This meeting in Oak Ridge doesn't mean that a deal is going to happen, but it is a sign that the negotiations are in a very serious phase and that there is a good chance to get it done, and we want to be prepared." The intrigue: Axios was alerted yesterday that Witkoff had made an unannounced trip to eastern Tennessee. Two U.S. officials later confirmed he and Kushner were visiting Energy Department facilities at Oak Ridge. Some of the country's foremost experts in uranium processing and centrifuge technology are based at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Y-12 National Security Complex. The White House and the National Nuclear Security Administration declined to comment. 👀 What to watch: U.S. officials say the White House has been getting positive indications from the Iran negotiators but believe there are internal divisions in Tehran over how to proceed.

🎁 Johnson's bonus points Values show the Democratic gain needed in every district to reach 218 seats. Data: Axios analysis of data from The Downballot, MIT Election Lab and Dave's Redistricting App; Chart: Andrew Pantazi/Axios Republican-led states have redrawn enough congressional districts to force Democrats to outperform their 2024 national results by nearly 5 percentage points if they want to retake the majority in the 2026 midterms. Why it matters: Speaker Mike Johnson's majority has been on a razor edge for years. But the math from redistricting gives him just a little more buffer. Democrats need to flip three seats to win the House, assuming vacancies return to the parties that last held them. Democrats have an almost 6-point advantage over Republicans on the generic congressional ballot as of today, according to polling aggregator FiftyPlusOne. By the numbers: Harris carried 205 House districts before redistricting but would win just 200 under the new maps. Democrats need 218 to win a majority. Trump beat Harris by 1.5 points nationally. She needed a roughly 3.4-point national margin to carry a majority of districts. Across the 10 states that redistricted, Democrats held 80 seats in 2024 to Republicans' 101. Just to hold that ground, Democrats would need to outrun Harris' margin by 10.5 points. Yes, but: The pro-Republican tilt is real, but not historically extreme. Harvard Law professor Nicholas Stephanopoulos tells us the current GOP skew is "not remotely as bad" as the post-2010 maps, when Republicans' aggressive gerrymanders met few Democratic offsets. In 2012, Democrats needed about a 5.6-point national win to control the House. The median district backed Romney by 1.7 points even as Obama won nationally by 3.9. The bottom line: Candidate quality, turnout, money, scandals and the national mood still decide races, but pro-GOP redistricting gives Republicans a head start. — Andrew Pantazi

😬 Tanked by Trump Senate Majority Leader John Thune accused Democrats of taking a "terribly irresponsible position" by voting against a FISA extension, but he'll still need their help to pass legislation next week. ‼️ Why it matters: The Senate's struggle to extend FISA is increasingly tied to President Trump's decision to name FHFA director Bill Pulte as acting director of national intelligence. Republican senators have openly questioned Pulte's qualifications, but they have spent the week arguing that his appointment should be kept separate from the debate over FISA reauthorization. Democrats have brushed aside Thune's warnings that blocking an extension is a "really risky strategy." "We'll take another run at it. We're gonna need some help from Democrats, obviously," Thune told reporters. Section 702 surveillance authorities could lapse next week. The Senate has so far failed to pass a reauthorization measure, and some House Republicans have little interest in another short-term extension. 🛟 Zoom in: Thune suggested that rescuing FISA may require help not only from Democrats, but also from the White House. Trump's declaration that Pulte is not his permanent choice for DNI has done little to ease Democratic concerns about his appointment. Thune said Pulte's role is "something the administration will have to consider" and "Democrats will have to think about." "But next week it gets real," he said. 🛑 Between the lines: Even if GOP leaders find a way to get Democrats on board, Speaker Mike Johnson still faces resistance from his own members. Concessions, like a three-year central bank digital currency ban, haven't been enough to satisfy conservatives, who want harsher warrant requirements. Johnson likely won't have the two-thirds support needed to move the bill under suspension, and some on his right flank are already threatening the rule vote. What's next: GOP leaders are viewing another short-term extension of the program as an increasingly likely outcome. It would be Congress' third extension of the program, a prospect that's testing the patience of some House Republicans. "We grow weary of these short-term extensions," Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.) told us. — Hans Nichols and Kate Santaliz

A federal judge strikes down Trump administration immigration policy affecting 39 countries BOSTON (AP) — A federal judge on Friday struck down a Trump administration policy enacted after the shooting of two National Guard members that made it harder for immigrants from dozens of countries to stay and enter the U.S. https://apnews.com/article/trump-immigration-asylum-citizenship-10591d120e5cb13da736d9eeb06757c8? US threatens to reconsider role in Bosnia and Herzegovina amid rift with Europe US embassy in Sarajevo made threat after European states refused to back its preferred High Representative candidate https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jun/06/us-threatens-to-reconsider-role-in-bosnia-and-herzegovina-amid-rift-with-europe?

A few years ago, a tornado ripped through our small town. From the air, its trail of twisted tree trunks and roofless houses could be followed for miles. The damage was not confined to the initial scar: puffs of insulation and other trash were left hanging from trees and power lines, metal roofing wrapped around fence posts. Whole stands of trees had to be bulldozed and trucked away because toxic substances could not be untangled from the branches. https://atoday.org/direct-hits-and-secondary-damage-from-child-sexual-molestation/

Virginia man gets life in prison for double murder scheme in affair with au pair FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) — A Virginia man who was having an affair with the family’s au pair was sentenced Friday to life in prison without parole for the murder of his wife and a man who was lured to the couple’s home as a fall guy. https://apnews.com/article/au-pair-affair-murder-sentence-brendan-banfield-b28c0b8d57a0faac3a7264b210b86e63?

Trump Lawyers Make Stunning Refusal in $10B Court Battle The president is unwilling to prove the core allegation in one of his lawsuits. Donald Trump’s lawyers are refusing to hand over any financial information about the president as part of his $10 billion lawsuit against the BBC. Trump is suing the publicly funded British broadcaster, claiming it defamed him by “intentionally, maliciously, and deceptively” editing two parts of his Jan. 6, 2021, speech to make it seem as though he had encouraged his supporters to storm the Capitol. The complaint focuses on a segment of the BBC’s Panorama program, which spliced together Trump saying, “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol” and “fight like hell, if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not gonna have a country anymore,” despite the two remarks actually being made nearly an hour apart. Even though the president is seeking $10 billion in damages over claims that the BBC program damaged “the value of his brand, properties and businesses,” Trump’s lawyers have not handed over any documents to prove it, the Financial Times reported. As part of the discovery process, the BBC subpoenaed the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust, which holds the president’s business interests and assets, in order to determine the financial impact of the Panorama documentary, which first aired in October 2024. Court filings from the trust’s legal team, which also represents Trump in the suit, said it had made “multiple objections” to requests for financial documents, accusing the BBC of carrying out a “fishing expedition” and arguing “that, as a non-party, it need not substantively respond.” Trump’s legal team also said the 30-day timeline sought by the BBC to produce “tens of thousands of documents from hundreds of non-parties” was “unreasonable” and “improper,” according to the filing seen by the Financial Times. The BBC said there “appears to be a flat refusal” by the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust—which is managed by the president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr.—to provide any “financial information under subpoena,” despite arguing that the BBC damaged “the value of his brand, properties, and businesses.” According to the FT, Trump has not turned over any documentation as part of his $10 billion lawsuit, whereas the BBC has produced more than 45,000 documents during discovery. The BBC has apologized to Trump for the editing of the Panorama documentary but has called for the suit to be dismissed. The broadcaster’s legal team argued that, because Trump won the 2024 election soon after the program aired, he “cannot plausibly claim that the documentary harmed his reputation.”In previous court submissions, the BBC noted that more than 100 defendants charged in connection with the Jan. 6 Capitol riot told courts that they interpreted Trump’s speech as a “call to action.” In a statement to the FT, a spokesperson for Trump’s legal team said the BBC must be held liable for “intentionally and maliciously defaming” the president by “distorting and manipulating his speech.” “No amount of attempted legal maneuvers can change that fact,” the spokesperson added. “President Trump will continue to hold accountable the BBC and all those who traffic in fake news.” The lawsuit is scheduled to go to trial in February 2027 if the BBC’s motion to dismiss is unsuccessful. The Daily Beast has contacted Trump’s legal team and the BBC’s legal team for comment. https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-lawyers-make-stunning-refusal-in-10b-court-battle/?

What Everyone Is Getting Wrong About the Turmoil at ‘60 Minutes’ Even a broken clock is right twice a day, you might say. This column is being republished with permission from its original home on Substack. For more from Chris Cillizza, subscribe here. News that CBS anchor Scott Pelley had slammed new “60 Minutes” executive producer Nick Bilton—and CBS News boss Bari Weiss—in an all-hands meeting earlier this week landed like, well, a bombshell report from the long-running news show itself. The New York Times described it as an “extraordinary exchange,” with Pelley questioning Bilton’s qualifications and alleging that Weiss was intent on “murdering” ‘60 Minutes’ entirely. Pelley was subsequently fired by the network. The reaction among the media class was immediate—and almost entirely unified: Pelley was a hero. He was standing up to the attempts by Weiss and Bilton to turn ‘60 Minutes’ and, more broadly, CBS, into an arm of the Trump administration. Social media was quickly filled with encomiums to Pelley and his “courage.” The narrative was set: Pelley is standing up for capital “J” journalism, which Bilton and Weiss are actively trying to destroy in the name of kissing Donald Trump’s ass. (David Ellison, who owns CBS News and its parent company Paramount, is friendly with President Donald Trump and he has, since having taken over the network, at a minimum, moved aggressively to be less openly confrontational with the president.) But that rush to crown Pelley is not only misguided, I’d argue—and it totally misses the real point here. Before I make my case, let me offer a few caveats: I do not know Pelley, Weiss or Bilton. I truly have no rooting interest here. I am also a giant fan of ‘60 Minutes.” My parents watched it every Sunday night when I was a kid. Since I got into journalism, my admiration for what they do has only grown. And yes, ‘60 Minutes’ is, by all accounts, a bright spot in the CBS News universe. Its most recent season averaged more than 9 million viewers—a 9% increase over the previous year. (Though, of course, the question of whether CBS News makes money for the broader network is more complicated.) Oh, and I am not trying to get a job at CBS either. I love my life as an independent journalist. I just re-signed my contributor deal at NewsNation. If CBS offered me a job tomorrow, I couldn’t—and wouldn’t—take it! But here’s the thing: I don’t think Pelley is a hero. Nor do I agree with those screaming that any attempt to change ‘60 Minutes’ is proof positive that Bilton or Weiss is trying to “murder” it. Pelley has every right to voice his dissatisfaction with the decision by Weiss to jettison the show’s former executive producer (as well as a decent chunk of the staff) in order to bring in Bilton and a new regime. But is an all-hands meeting really the time and place to do it? Especially considering this reporting from CNN’s Brian Stelter, which claims Weiss and Bilton had sought a private meeting with Pelley, and he turned them down. Seen in the most pro-Pelley light, his choice to confront Bilton and Weiss in an all-hands gathering was a way to make his point as big and brightly as possible. Huddling behind closed doors with the bosses wouldn’t properly convey his upset over the restructuring. But what if Pelley chose to do his “truth to power” thing not in hopes of actually changing anything but rather as a way to make it as performative as possible—in a content age in which performative emotion is absolute gold? I mean, you can’t blast both your immediate boss and your big boss and expect to keep your job. And I would assume Pelley knew that going in! The immediate leak of the audio of Pelley’s remarks to seemingly every media reporter suggests to me that this latter—and admittedly more cynical—explanation has real plausibility. Then there’s the core of Pelley’s criticism of Bilton and Weiss: That they don’t have sufficient “broadcast news” experience to do the job well/right. There is no doubt that neither Weiss nor Bilton has the sort of resume that people who have traditionally held these roles at networks have possessed. They haven’t spent their lives in the world of TV production. And, at times, that’s shown—like when CBS News didn’t get its evening news anchor, Tony Doukopil, a visa to get into China to cover Trump’s visit there. But there is also no doubt that broadcast news—and cable TV news—is a dying product. The average age of a CBS News viewer is 62! NBC News is 57. ABC News is a “youthful” 55. That’s a problem. Because unless science figures out a way to get us all to live until we are 150, the reality is that the main clientele for what CBS News is offering—yes, including ‘60 Minutes’ — is, quite literally, dying off. Which is why I found myself vigorously nodding my head to the defense Bilton offered on Monday amid the Pelley barrage: “Broadcast is an ice cube that is melting.” No one—presumably not even Pelley—thinks that the solution to what ails big media is more of the same. Yes, ‘60 Minutes’ still works! But for how long? Doesn’t it make sense to look at your flagship products and ask, “How are we going to make this product continue to work amid massive disruption in how people want to consume content?” To me, the answer is very obvious. Which is why Pelley’s criticism rings false. If I was Ellison—or anyone who owns a legacy media brand—I would want people in the decision-making room who aren’t old hands. No amount of expertise in how to make great-looking broadcast TV shows or put together a whiz-bang front page of the print newspaper is going to reverse the steep decline of people who consume their content that way. This doesn’t mean, of course, that you throw the baby out with the bathwater. CBS News still needs to make broadcast TV! You can’t get rid of everyone who is an expert in that space. But, again, the fact that neither Weiss nor Bilton has experience in making TV seems to me more an asset than a detriment. CBS News (and every other legacy outlet) has to figure out new ways to reach people on new platforms. Why not have people—like Weiss!—who has done that? The changes in how people consume content and the sort of content they want to consume is fundamental. It’s never going back to the way it was. That sort of massive change requires a re-examination of how we do everything. My personal writing hero, Stephen King, said it best in his amazing book “On Writing”: “Kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric little scribbler’s heart, kill your darlings.” We’ve reached the “kill your darlings” stage of legacy media. Now the only question is what we do about it. And doing the same old things—or slight variations on the same old things—ain’t going to work. https://www.thedailybeast.com/what-everyone-is-getting-wrong-about-the-turmoil-at-60-minutes/?

Whistleblower Exposes Trump Goons’ Jaw-Dropping Social Security Plot The plan involved exploiting a database known as the “Death Master File.” A Trump administration whistleblower says officials plotted to declare 2.7 million living individuals dead to push immigrants out of the country. The scheme would have used the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) “Death Master File,” a database that flags the deceased, to wipe people off the financial grid, cutting off their pay, bank accounts, credit and benefits, the Washington Post reports. Tech broligarch Elon Musk, who spearheaded the Trump administration’s controversial cost-cutting DOGE initiative last year, had pushed to bend the agency’s records to President Donald Trump’s deportation agenda, the newspaper notes. The SSA had separately marked 6,100 immigrants as dead last year in an earlier, smaller push. Jeremiah Schofield, a career official at the SSA who helped run the agency’s IT modernization before leaving in October, said the plans crystallized on a single conference call last year. A DOGE official, he said, laid out the goal bluntly: pile on enough hardship that immigrants either fled the country or walked into a field office for help and got arrested. Schofield described it as “one of the most disappointing calls I’ve been in in my 25-year career,” and has now detailed the plan in a 49-page disclosure to the Senate Finance Committee and the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, reviewed by the Post. The Department of Homeland Security allegedly handed the list of 2.7 million names over to SSA in late April 2025. Schofield pulled a sample of 25 to check it and found many were, in fact, alive. The group turned up U.S. citizens, green card holders, teens, and elderly people, including a widow receiving survivor benefits. He said he could not confirm the alleged links to crime or terrorism that the DHS had cited in its materials. The agency’s own attorneys had cautioned that wrongly listing the living as deceased risked breaking federal law. Schofield said he declined to take part. The SSA says the plan was never executed. A spokesperson said the agency “did not add a list of 2.7 million names to the Death Master File.” Three DOGE members—Antonio Gracias, Jon Koval and Payton Rehling—turned up at the agency’s Maryland headquarters that February and called themselves volunteers, Schofield said. Alex Spiro, a lawyer for Gracias, told the Post that his client knew nothing of the proposal to declare 2.7 million people deceased. Koval and Rehling did not reply to the Post. The effort traced to two April 2025 memos from then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to then-acting commissioner Leland Dudek. Dudek told the Post he had heard the legal warnings and rebranded the file by trading the label “death” for “ineligible”—“death is a state of ineligibility,” he reasoned. The disclosure has infuriated Senate Democrats. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts called it “an illegal attempt by DOGE to weaponize Social Security,” and Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal said the episode showed an administration intent on making people suffer, immigrants most of all. Both have now sent letters to the SSA and to the trio of ex-DOGE officials. A DHS spokeswoman did not address the plan but defended sharing data between agencies. White House spokeswoman Liz Huston sidestepped the questions, instead promoting a Trump tax break for seniors. “President Trump will always protect and strengthen Social Security,” Huston told the Daily Beast. “President Trump proudly delivered No Tax on Social Security for nearly every senior in America despite every single Democrat in Congress voting against it.” The administration acknowledged in court papers last month that it had revoked DOGE’s data access at the start of the year and would not be reinstating it. The Daily Beast contacted the DHS and the SSA for comment. “Under President Trump’s leadership, the government is finally doing what it should have all along—sharing information across the federal government to solve problems,” a DHS spokesman said. “Biden not only allowed millions of illegal aliens to flood into our country, but he lost them through incompetence and improper processing. “Information sharing across agencies is essential to identify who is in our country, including violent criminals, determine what public safety and terror threats may exist so we can neutralize them, and identify what public benefits these aliens are using at taxpayer expense.” The SSA did not immediately respond. https://www.thedailybeast.com/whistleblower-exposes-how-trump-admin-plotted-to-mark-27-million-living-social-security-recipients-as-dead/?

Trump Wins Fight to Blow $125 Million on ‘Dumbest Thing Ever’ Republicans have given Trump a symbolic trophy. Republicans have handed President Trump a win in one of his more eyebrow-raising vanity projects, a push to rename the Pentagon that Democrats say will cost up to $125 million and accomplish absolutely nothing. The House Armed Services Committee voted along party lines to permanently rename the Department of Defense the Department of War, tucking the measure into the annual defense policy bill during a marathon late-night session. The move codifies an executive order Trump signed last fall, resurrecting a name the U.S. military bureaucracy last used in the 1940s. Representative Adam Smith, of Washington and the committee’s top Democrat, was forthright in his assessment of the effort. “One of the dumbest things that has been done by this administration,” he said. “It’s semantic nonsense at a time when we have a lot of substantive arguments.” The amendment was introduced by Republican Representative Ronny Jackson of Texas, a hard-line Trump ally, who framed the rebrand in soaring terms. “Restoring the name Department of War sends an unmistakable signal to the world,” Jackson said. “Deterrence only works when adversaries believe America is willing to fight and win to secure its interests.” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who has already taken to calling himself secretary of war, celebrated the vote on social media. “The Department of War will officially be restored soon,” he posted. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that a full renaming could run as high as $125 million—a number that landed badly with Democrats already furious over the bill’s $1 trillion overall price tag and what they described as a lack of meaningful guardrails around the nearly 100-day war with Iran. Democrat Representative Pat Ryan of New York, one of a dozen Democrats who voted against the broader bill, did not mince words. “It’s performative bulls--t,” he said. “I think ending on that performative note summed up the whole situation.” The broader National Defense Authorization Act—now carrying the renaming provision—cleared the committee in a bipartisan 44-12 vote, though the dozen Democratic no votes made it the panel’s most partisan such vote in years. The name change still faces a steep climb. The Pentagon’s legal name remains the Department of Defense until both chambers of Congress sign off, and the Senate—where Democratic votes are needed to advance most legislation—is expected to resist. https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-wins-fight-to-blow-125-million-on-dumbest-thing-ever/? ps:So pathetic!!!!!