June 1, 2026

Marie: I am going to be moving all summer long. I'm only moving two doors down, and I'm keeping both houses, but the move still involves my doing a lot of finishing work on the "new" house and moving a lot of furniture & what-all. As some of you may recall, I've already moved house once since I started Reality Chex in 2008, and this is a far less radical move than that one was. Still, I'm not going to be 100% concentrated on keeping up Reality Chex, though I'm going to give it the old college try. Rah rah.

Big News. But. It Ain't Over Till the Fat Man Sings. Marc Caputo of Axios: "The Trump administration plans to drop its controversial $1.8 billion 'weaponization' fund the president sought to compensate alleged victims of prosecutorial conduct under his predecessor, two senior administration officials told Axios. 'It's dead for now,' one of the sources said.... The White House's discussions about dropping the fund came after two federal judges weighed in against the fund on Friday.... 'The plan right now is to halt it. But the president likes the fund, he believes in it. So nothing is final until it's final,' one of the sources said." Update: Jackie Alemany of MS NOW has matched Caputo's reporting on this. ~~~

     ~~~ Update 2: From a New York Times liveblog covering Donald's Disasters of the Day: 

Tyler Pager, et al.: Donald “Trump is backing off his plan to establish a $1.8 billion fund to compensate people who claimed they were victims of unfair prosecution by the government, according to two people familiar with the president’s thinking. The people ... said he had been leaning for days toward scrapping the fund.... But as with all things involving Mr. Trump, he could still decide to reverse course, especially as he tracks media coverage of his decision. Another sign of Mr. Trump’s retreat came earlier on Monday, when the Justice Department said in a statement that it would abide by a federal judge’s temporary order not to proceed with any steps to activate the fund until at least June 12, when a hearing on the fund is scheduled.... Privately, some administration officials expressed relief that the judge’s ruling showed a way out of what most had seen as a mess of the Trump team’s own making.”

So First There's This. Kevin Breuninger of CNBC: “Iranian negotiators will stop exchanging messages with the U.S. through intermediaries, and Tehran will move to fully close the Strait of Hormuz, in retaliation for ongoing ceasefire violations, Iran’s state-affiliated news outlet Tasnim said Monday. The report, in a translated post on the social media site Telegram, homed in on Israel’s military operations in Lebanon against the Iran-backed militia Hezbollah. 'No dialogue will take place' until Israel fully withdraws from occupied areas in Lebanon and stops all attacks in both Lebanon and Gaza, per Tasnim. 'Also, the resistance front and Iran have resolved to completely block the Strait of Hormuz and activate other fronts including the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, in order to punish the Zionists and their supporters,' the report said.” ~~~

~~~ Then There's This. Literally, Fucking Literally, Bored of Peace. Kevin Breuninger of CNBC: “... Donald Trump on Monday shrugged off the possible collapse of peace negotiations with Iran, telling CNBC, 'I don’t care if they’re over, honestly.... I really don’t care. I couldn’t care less,' Trump told CNBC’s Eamon Javers in a phone interview midday Monday, saying he thought the protracted discussions 'started to get very boring.'” ~~~

     ~~~ This morning I made a joke headline about Trump's Board of Peace (which David Sanger referred to in his article). I guess Trump reads Reality Chex. ~~~

~~~ Frank Bruni of the New York Times argues that Trump's bluster is a pose: “... when he talks now about his willingness to suffer whatever political price he must to eliminate Iran as a nuclear threat, that’s not high-minded, farsighted, selfless leadership. (Have you met Trump?) It’s damage control. 'I don’t care about the midterms' is what you say when you may have botched them and are trying to alchemize incompetence into valor.... Beneath all that bluster and makeup, he’s sweating.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: More evidence of panic and night sweats: his tweeting obsession. I heard on the teevee today that last night and until 1:00 am ET this morning, Trump posted 70+ tweets. That's weird for anyone, much less the POTUS*. 

Only White Men Need Apply. Greg Jaffe & Kate Kelly of the New York Times: “In a move that disproportionately targets women and minority officers, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth recently blocked the promotions of at least seven Navy officers who had been selected by a board of senior Navy admirals. The net result of Mr. Hegseth’s intervention is a slate of 22 nominees to be one-star admirals that bears little resemblance to the broader force these officers will help lead. At least two of the officers removed by Mr. Hegseth from the promotion list are women and two are Black men. An additional three are white men. Mr. Hegseth’s actions ... appear to violate the rules governing a promotion system that is supposed to be apolitical and merit-based.... According to Pentagon rules, the defense secretary is only supposed to pull officers from the list for moral, mental, physical or professional failings that raise questions about the officers’ fitness to lead.... No female officers were included on the new one-star list, which was released publicly in late May, despite the fact that women make up about 21 percent of the active-duty Navy. The list appears to include only two nonwhite officers, even though sailors who identify as racial minorities make up about 38 percent of the active-duty Navy.”

Liars & the Lying Liars They Represent. Mattathias Schwartz of the New York Times: “... [in] several heated rulings ... in recent weeks [federal judges have] castigat[ed] the government’s lawyers for withholding information and making assertions that turned out to be at odds with the facts. The government lawyers whose honesty the judges have called into question are a mix of career civil servants, political appointees and newcomers brought in as the Justice Department makes a public hiring push to fill its depleted ranks. Their missteps in court come as the department’s leadership takes an unusually combative tone with judges who rule against them, and department lawyers try to balance judges’ demands against the often stubborn posture of the executive-branch clients they represent. But regardless, an increasing number of judges appear to be questioning the longtime assumption that Justice Department lawyers can be taken at their word, part of the 'presumption of regularity' that experts say allows federal courts to operate swiftly and smoothly.”

Devlin Barrett of the  New York Times: “Former F.B.I. officials are starting a group to help embattled bureau employees grapple with the Trump administration’s rapid efforts to reshape its agency, saying that the work force is under incredible strain under its director, Kash Patel. The group, called the F.B.I. Support Network, is an offshoot of the Justice Connection organization, made up of former Justice Department employees who offer legal, mental health or job search services to current agency employees.... 'There’s an incredible amount of tension inside the agency right now,' said Michael Mason, a former senior executive in the bureau. 'We want our colleagues who are still in the service of the F.B.I. to know there are people out here who recognize what is happening. People are being fired without any due process as the Justice Department is being weaponized in a way that is totally unfamiliar to those of us who served long and distinguished careers there.'”

Maine Senate Race. Alex Griffing of Mediaite: “MS NOW host Elise Jordan pulled no punches on Monday morning in hammering progressive Maine U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner. Jordan argued that Platner’s campaign has been a 'slow-motion train wreck' ever since his Nazi-linked tattoo was revealed.” MB: We should bear in mind that Jordan is a recovering Republican, so her opinion of Democrats can be taken with a grain of salt. Nevertheless, I think Sen. Cory Booker, whom Griffing also cites, is on the money in expressing his concerns. I would vote for Platner in the general election, but if I were an independent Mainer, I might vote for Collins as a far safer bet.

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. RIP, CBS News, Ctd. Michael Grynbaum & Benjamin Mullin of the New York Times: “CBS News faced a fresh wave of turmoil on Monday after Scott Pelley, the '60 Minutes' correspondent, laced into the show’s newly hired executive producer during a staff meeting and accused Bari Weiss, the network’s editor in chief, of “murdering” the longstanding Sunday news program. In an extraordinary exchange, Mr. Pelley, his newscaster’s baritone sometimes shaking in anger, told Nick Bilton, the new executive producer, that he had 'slender' qualifications for his new job and questioned the network’s commitment to the future of the program, according to a recording of the meeting obtained by The New York Times.” The link appears to be a gift link. See also Akhilleus' commentary below.~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Sabotage at Black Rock. Let's see now. The CBS News meeting began at 10 am ET. By early afternoon Monday, the New York Times had a story up and running about the content of the meeting, based on a recording of the meeting. Gosh, it almost seems as if the person who recorded the meeting couldn't run fast enough to get that recording to the New York Times. Do you think maybe, just maybe the "60 Minutes" staff is incensed at what Bari & the Suits are doing to the network's news department? Or maybe the wonderful Joan Cusack is working at CBS News now.

     ~~~ Looks like Joan ran the tape over to Oliver Darcy, too. (The article is firewalled, but you can read the first bit of it.) Update: Darcy broke the story.

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Bored of Peace. David Sanger of the New York Times: “In Ukraine, Gaza and now Iran..., [Donald] Trump’s early declarations of easy wins have given way to harsh reality.... Follow-through has never been Mr. Trump’s strong suit.... To some experts who have been playing a behind-the-scenes role in trying to spur negotiations [in the Russia-Ukraine war], the administration’s mistake has been relying too much on episodic phone calls or visits of special envoys, without the day-to-day engagement of traditional diplomacy to keep talks moving.... When I asked Mr. Trump, on his flight back home from China in the middle of May, why he thought resuming military action would bring him any closer to his political goals [in the Iran war]..., he erupted [and] called the Times, and me, 'treasonous.'” ~~~

~~~ Garrett Downs of CNBC: “The U.S. and Iran have yet to ink an agreement to end the war that has dragged on into its fourth month, with ... Donald Trump saying Saturday that he is in 'no hurry' to make a deal. Trump, in an interview with his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, on Fox News, said that he is pressing for a deal that would ensure Iran never acquires a nuclear weapon. And while he said he would prefer that the pact is reached quickly, he is not rushing the process. The president also threatened further military action if negotiations break down.”

Yan Zhuang of the New York Times: “The United States said on Sunday that it had conducted a round of 'self-defense strikes' on military targets in southern Iran over the weekend, the latest in a series of attacks over the past week. Less than an hour later, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps said that its forces had targeted a military base from which it said an American attack on a communications facility in southern Iran had originated. The Kuwaiti military said on social media early Monday that its air defenses were 'confronting hostile missile and drone attacks,' without saying where they had originated. Kuwait hosts U.S. military bases but it was not immediately clear if the attacks on Monday were connected to the US. or Iranian strikes. The exchanges may further complicate U.S.-Iranian negotiations over a potential framework for a deal to end the war.”

Peter Eavis & Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: “American forces in recent weeks have helped coordinate the passage of dozens of commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz, according to U.S. officials, even as travel through the waterway remains risky amid stalled negotiations to end the war with Iran. U.S. Central Command has guided around 70 commercial ships through the strait ... in the last three weeks, one of the officials said.... The officials declined to say what type of vessels were going through and what route they took, but one official indicated that at least one route was not close to the Iranian coastline. Ships passing near Iran without obtaining Iranian approval face the threat of an almost-certain attack by Iranian drones or missiles, U.S. officials said.”

MEANWHILE, Bibi Is Playing an Ancient Game of Chess in Which He Captures a Crusader Castle. This Is Not Helping Trump, Who Can Barely Play Checkers. Bassem Mroue, et al., of the AP: “Israeli troops have captured a strategic mountain topped with a Crusader-built castle in southern Lebanon in the deepest incursion into the country in more than a quarter-century, the military said Sunday, while U.S. Secretary of State spoke to Lebanese and Israeli leaders in an effort keep negotiations going. The taking of Beaufort castle, near the city of Nabatiyeh, followed days of airstrikes and intense fighting in nearby villages between Israeli troops and Hezbollah militants. The capture marked a major Israeli advance in the latest Israel-Hezbollah war, which began on March 2, when Hezbollah fired rockets into northern Israel two days after the U.S. and Israel attacked its main backer, Iran.”

Adriel Bettelheim & Peter Sullivan of Axios: Donald "Trump's medical checkups have turned into mini dramas pitting the public's right to know against a public figure's medical privacy — with a heavy overlay of political intrigue.... It took three days to release the findings [of his most recent checkup at Walter Reed], which arrived at 10:44pm ET on a Friday night. And while they were more comprehensive than some past readouts, the memo from White House physician Sean Barbabella didn't put to rest persistent questions about apparent bruising on Trump's hands, swollen ankles and his alertness during some public events.... Trump on Sunday bragged about how he'd aced a cognitive test during the checkup." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The Axios report notes that Trump has had four "publicly acknowledged medical checkup of his second term." According to Art Intel, Trump also says he has "aced" three cognitive tests during that time. (So maybe he flunked one??) This all seems remarkable inasmuch as Trump has a doctor on call 24/7. 

A Mad Man at the Top of an Oligarchy. Paul Krugman (podcast transcript): "The President of the United States is mentally ill.... We should ... ask what we can do about the powers, the interests, the system that put this horrifying person in a position of power.... People who did a lot to put him in power did so, knowing [he was crazy] — the billionaires who contributed vast sums of money to his campaign, the Supreme Court which gave him immunity back in 2024 — they all knew who they were doing this for.... Now, maybe, even they are getting a bit of cold feet as as he goes over the edge and as we’re starting to see ... what happens when you have a lunatic running the United States, a lunatic who has far more power than a previous president because all of the normal institutional safeguards have been short-circuited or dismantled.... Still..., [these people] continue to cover for him.... [This is] made possible by the fact that there is so much money in the hands of a few people, many of whom turn out, not too surprisingly, to be terrible, insensitive, anti-democratic people themselves."

Philip Kennicott of the Washington Post: “Social media erupted in celebrations Friday after a court ruled that the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts must remove Donald Trump’s name from its building and all its branding. The legal opinion, by U.S. District Judge Christopher R. Cooper, was clear, emphatic and ... it seemed to express exasperation at the administration’s thin and often ridiculous legal arguments.... Cooper’s ruling, however, doesn’t remove Trump from the picture, and the president responded to the legal setback with a series of lengthy, furious social media posts. There was a petulance and obsessive quality to these outbursts that went beyond even the bounds of his usual mania.... Trump remains (for now) the chair of the board and he is angry. Which means celebrations may be premature.The worst thing Trump could do right now is nothing, simply remain chair and let the center languish. He could decline to authorize budgets or renovations, leave the calendar empty or pocket plans for recovery. The center would be stuck in perpetual suspended animation.... 

“When the history of Trump’s second administration is written, the whole sorry Kennedy Center chapter will be key to understanding the chaos, cruelty and grotesque egotism of the president, as well as the bravery and determination of those who resisted and persevered under exceptionally difficult circumstances. The Trump takeover of the center was an early indicator of the president’s careless ambition, his contempt for precedent, decorum, symbols and nonpartisan institutions. His angry messages since the court ruling prove without a doubt what has been obvious all along: He never cared for the center, for the arts or culture. It was all about him, his name, his brand.”

     ~~~ Marie: There's something extraordinary going on here, and that is Kennicott's column itself. Kennicott is the art & architecture critic for the Post. That is, he has written this column as an employee of the Bezos Post, and Bezos' outfit has published it. The paper whose owner has surrendered his last ounce of dignity to Trump, who, as Paul Krugman reminds us (linked above), "just the other day..., said, oh, Trump is much more mature than he was in his first term, which is obviously a complete lie. That is not what Jeff Bezos thinks. And it’s telling you that he is still providing cover....". Yes, that paper, calls Trump ridiculous, maniacal, chaotic, cruel, grotesquely egotistical, petulant, obsessive and more. You don't have to be much of a sleuth to read between the lines and find that resistance to Trump remains robust within journalism, in the courts and among us -- the people who "erupted in celebrations" at Trump's defeat. 

Eileen Sullivan & Andrea Fuller of the New York Times: Donald “Trump’s upheaval of the federal government has led to an exodus of more than 10,000 lawyers since the beginning of 2025, a striking loss of legal talent.... Roughly one in five lawyers who worked in the government at the end of 2024 had left by March of this year.... Many of those looking for such work are flocking to the offices of Democratic state attorneys general and nonprofits that are challenging administration policies in the courts, boosting Mr. Trump’s opponents with seasoned lawyers.... Wariness of the Trump administration is also palpable inside law schools.... While federal agencies brought on about 3,200 lawyers since the beginning of 2025, departures still outpaced hiring.... The Justice Department, which employs more than a quarter of all government lawyers, saw the largest decline in raw numbers. But other agencies — including the Department of Education, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development — lost an even greater share of attorneys.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: So here's the sweet irony: Trump has hoisted himself on his own petard. His administration is losing lawsuits because the policies he must defend are so bad that the lawyers charged with defending them have decamped for the opposition, and an important element of the "deep state" he vowed to eliminate is now employed to defeat him. ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Trump responded to the NYT report on his failing social media platform, via the Hill: the New York Times “wrote a story today entitled, ‘Trump Administration Sees Striking Exodus of Legal Talent,’ as though that’s a bad thing, when actually, it’s very good.... The people that are leaving are Radical Left Deep State Lunatics, who are destroying our Country, and Weaponizing Government.... Many of them didn’t leave, but were fired! The Failing New York Times writes this, but makes it sound like it’s a terrible thing when actually, it’s just the opposite.... In many cases, they shouldn’t have been representing the U.S.A in the first place.”

Markwayne Is So Trumpy. Karoun Demirjian & Madeleine Ngo of the New York Times: “Travel industry and business leaders are denouncing a proposal by Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin to remove customs officers from airports in liberal cities, saying it would create havoc for travelers and jeopardize the travel economy at some of the nation’s largest ports of entry. The idea, which Mr. Mullin has floated on cable television interviews, is designed to punish so-called sanctuary cities that limit their cooperation with federal immigration authorities. Customs officers monitor goods flowing in and out of the country and must be on hand for international flights. Removing customs from airports would mean they cannot accept incoming international flights.... Last week, Sean P. Duffy, the transportation secretary, also told lawmakers that such a move would be ill-advised.... But as the criticism has mounted, Mr. Mullin has only dug in on the proposal. Mr. Mullin promoted the idea multiple times last week, saying in an interview with Fox News on Tuesday that the department was drawing up plans to withdraw officers who process international flights....”

Jim Alexrod of CBS News: "More than 6,300 children under 18, some as young as two months old, have been detained by federal immigration authorities during ... [Donald] Trump's second term. Nearly half have been detained at Dilley[, a detention center in South Texas]. Ninety-seven percent had no criminal record. 'It's the only place I can think of in America where we imprison young children who have done absolutely nothing wrong,' said Congressman Joaquin Castro [D-Texas]. 'Instead of treating them like asylum seekers who were vetted to come into the country, they're treating them like criminals.'" The report details the experiences of one family of asylum-seekers. MB: Normally, a news report includes a summary of responses or rebuttals from organizations or other entities which are named in the body of a story. But in this story, about the last half of this report consists of full responses from the DHS and CoreCivic (which operates the Dilley facility). So that's CBS News today, not yet a true subsidiary of Trump Media, Inc., but moving in that direction. 

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Hannah Knowles & Dan Merica of the Washington Post: “Democratic state leaders around the country have an unusual strategy to stymie ... Donald Trump’s $1.8 billion settlement fund for people who claim they were wrongly investigated by the government. Their plan: Tax the payouts at 100 percent. California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has endorsed the idea, saying, 'It’s an action we look forward to taking.' State legislators in New York and Wisconsin are crafting bills on the topic. And Democratic candidates are rallying behind the tactic in blue states.”

Minnesota GOP Honors Murderer. Graig Graziosi of the Independent: “The Minnesota Republican Party reportedly held a moment of silence for convicted murderer Derek Chauvin at its endorsement convention Saturday, which came just days after the sixth anniversary of George Floyd's death. Saturday’s proceedings began with a 10-second moment of silence for Chauvin, according to the Minnesota Reformer and a Minnesota lawmaker. Chauvin, a former Minneapolis police officer, was convicted of murdering Floyd in 2021 and was sentenced to a 21-year federal sentence and a 22.5-year state sentence.” MB: Chauvin is not merely a murderer. Wearing a police uniform, he murdered a Black man in broad daylight with cameras rollings. The murder energized the Black Lives Matter movement. Both symbolically and actually, Chauvin represented the state killing Black people with impunity. (Of course Chauvin was punished, likely to his surprise.) The Minnesota GOP is a white supremacist party that is no less reprehensible than the Ku Klux Klan. 

New Jersey. AP: “The mayor of Newark imposed a curfew early Sunday around an immigration detention center in New Jersey after a series of intense clashes between protesters and police. The curfew around Delaney Hall will be in place between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. until further notice, Mayor Ras Baraka said in a statement. The move came after another night of standoffs between law enforcement and demonstrators at the facility, as protesters could be seen in photographs and videos fighting over barricades as police used riot shields to push them back. A video posted on social media showed police on horseback marching into crowds.... New Jersey state police on Friday relieved federal immigration enforcement agents who had been facing off against protesters at the facility for days. In a statement Sunday morning, New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill said masked individuals attacked a barrier in a designated protest area set up by state police and were 'throwing projectiles, utilizing the barriers as weapons, and lighting tires on fire in the street.... These actions put both peaceful protestors and law enforcement in danger.'...”