While You Were Looking for Little Green Men, You May Have Missed...

As Friday document dumps go, the release of the UFO Papers really deserves a place in the Pantheon of Really Quite Lame Distractions.

Heather Cox Richardson observes, “In case you’re wondering what kind of a news day it was, President Donald J. Trump announced that the ‘Department of War’ was releasing ‘Government files related to Alien and Extraterrestrial Life, Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, and Unidentified Flying Objects.’ The president posted: ‘Have Fun and Enjoy!’”

So, it’s worth walking through the some of the stories you have missed as you rifled through the files searching for ET.

Like this genuinely delicious bit about our part-time Secretary of Transportation: “Sean Duffy Filmed Reality Show Over Past Seven Months.”

My fellow Cheesehead, James Wigderson muses:

Somehow Duffy found time to make this five-part video series in between his official duties. Life must be very quiet at the Department of Transportation. You’d never know that an airline failed and went into bankruptcy because of high fuel costs. Or that airline passengers were recently stuck waiting in airports because TSA employees were not showing up to work when they went unpaid. Or that safety while flying has become a major concern again. Or that some idiot in the White House wants to build a giant, 250-foot triumphal arch in a flight path from Reagan National Airport.

But, alas, my friends that was hardly the worst of it. Happy Saturday.

NOTE: Now more than ever, we have to remind ourselves that we are not the crazy ones. This is the challenge of our times; and the fight of our generation.

Right now, fewer than 10 percent of our readers are paid subscribers. That’s okay, because this newsletter — and the podcasts — are free. But if you find what I do is worth something to you, I hope you will consider a subscription.

That comes to about 27 cents a day, less if you subscribe annually, for a daily dose of sanity. And both the dogs and I are immensely grateful for your generous support.

Meanwhile…

Vladimir Putin tries to pretend he won the war he’s losing with today’s rather pathetic parade. Observes Phillips O’Brien, “Here we are, more than 4 years after Putin launched his 3-day war to conquer Ukraine, and the Russian dictator can only risk standing outside in Red Square after being given permission by Volodymyr Zelensky.”

**

Toddlers are easily bored. Jonathan Lemire reports in The Atlantic: “Trump Is ‘Bored’ With the War He Started.” Which is kind of sad.

Trump is tired of the war, which has proved far more difficult and lasted far longer than he had expected. His party is warily watching rising gas prices and falling poll numbers. He doesn’t want to be bogged down in a Middle East conflict like some of his predecessors were. He doesn’t want it to upend his high-stakes summit next week in China. He is ready to move on.

The war, on the other hand, may have other ideas.

**

The butcher’s bill for Trump’s war? Justin Wolfers runs the number and concludes, that it “will cost hundreds of billions of dollars, and very possibly trillions.”

But what’s clear is that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is trying to obscure just how expensive this war will be.

The Pentagon’s stated number reflects only a narrow accounting of the tab that Operation Epic Fury is running up. It’s the price of the more than 2,000 Tomahawk and Patriot missiles already fired, the warplanes already flown and in some cases lost, and the rest of the gear already chewed through. It does not measure the true cost of the war — including the human toll. Russell Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, acknowledged as much when he told the House Budget Committee on April 15, “I don’t have a ballpark for you.”

I do. Since the start of the war, oil markets have been disrupted, and consumer confidence has cratered. The global economy is groaning, and military budgets are growing. The toll from this upheaval must be counted in lives disrupted, jobs lost, companies shut down (see: Spirit Airlines), and the income and output sacrificed. The less easily quantified costs — death, disability and mental health — could become much more dramatic should President Trump send troops into Iran, which still can’t be ruled out.

**

If you’re looking for some good news: “ABC accuses Trump administration of violating free speech rights.”

In the filing, the Disney-owned network blasted the federal government for creating a “chilling effect” on First Amendment freedoms with an investigation of whether “The View” broke a requirement that broadcast stations give equal time to political candidates for the same office.

The filing is Disney’s most pointed legal salvo against the Trump administration since the president returned to the White House last year and began sharply criticizing American broadcast networks over their on-air content.

**

More pushback: “Press Freedom Groups Accuse Larry Ellison of Promising Trump Admin He’d Fire CNN Anchors if He Acquires Warner Bros.”

Two press freedom groups are accusing Paramount Skydance owner Larry Ellison of promising “favors” to the Trump administration to win regulatory approval in its bid to take over CNN’s parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery.

Those favors allegedly include making “sweeping” staff changes at CNN, a network that President Donald Trump often bashes as “fake news.”

The groups, Freedom of the Press Foundation and Reporters Without Borders, own shares in Paramount Skydance, and sent a letter to the company’s chief legal officer Thursday demanding to see internal documents that could be related to Ellison’s alleged attempt to curry favor with the White House.

**

Why does Kash Patel still have a job? The Dispatch’s Nick Catoggio writes:

A Dispatch colleague cut to the heart of Patel’s persona when he described him this morning as “a frat boy sycophant trying to live it up as long as his dad keeps giving him the keys to the house in the Hamptons.” The man who calls himself “Ka$h” may or may not be the worst member of Trump’s Cabinet, but between his vacuous servility, adolescent antics, and horribly cringy habit of self-promotion, he’s assuredly the purest chud in this administration.

**

The Texas GOP is a dog’s breakfast of scandal and division. Ohio’s GOP just said, “Hold my beer.” — “Scandal rocks Ohio GOP as congressman attacks senator whose daughter has accused him of domestic abuse.”

The Ohio Republican Party is at the center of a shocking scandal stemming from Rep. Max Miller’s (R-OH) divorce from Emily Moreno, the daughter of Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH). The couple grabbed headlines this week as allegations of domestic abuse against Miller garnered renewed attention. Emily Moreno accused her ex-husband of burning her with hot water and inflicting other physical abuse over the past several years, including after their divorce in 2024.

Miller, who was previously accused of physical abuse by ex-girlfriend and former Trump press secretary Stephanie Grisham, vehemently denied the allegations on Thursday in a series of X posts in response to a Daily Mail story.

Welcome to the Endless Redistricting Wars

I know you’d like a hardy blast of hopium, but I’m not going to gloss over this: Democrats had a pretty rough week. Between the SCOTUS-inspired gerrymander of the South and Virginia’s Supreme Court overturning that states’ referendum, it’s pretty clear that the Trump-inspired GOP has won the map-rigging contest.

If you want a deeper dive, I suggest:

• Nate Cohn in the NYT: Republicans Are Building an Advantage in Redistricting. How Much Is It Worth?

• Chris Cillizza: “My 7 BIG takeaways from Virginia’s Supreme Court bombshell” (Spoiler: He still thinks the Dems are favored to win the House.)

• And, the day’s smartest take comes from Josh Barro, who writes, “The Redistricting Loss Means Democrats Must Moderate to Win.”

  Democrats do not need to move to the center on every issue. There are important policy areas where the progressive position is the popular one: abortion rights, protecting Medicare and Social Security, enhancing ACA subsidies, taxing the wealthy, opposing the war in Iran and more.

  But the unfavorable map makes it more important than ever for Democrats to get out of a mindset driven by wealthy progressive donors and the NGOs they fund and into the head of a typical swing voter who is angry about inflation and war under Trump, regretful of the end of Roe v. Wade, upset the rich are not paying their fair share, and concerned about the cost of healthcare and the security of old-age benefits; but also skeptical of Democrats’ willingness to fight crime and enforce immigration law, and seeing us as too obsessed with “identity” issues, too hostile to cheap energy, and nearly as disreputable as Republicans on inflation.

  These are the voters we need to win over to build a vote majority big enough to win on an unfavorable map.

Today’s Podcast: “How to be a Dissident”

Let me stipulate right at the top that I really loved this book. I found it inspiring… but also troubling. And we’ll get into that later.

On today’s “To the Contrary” podcast I sit down with author Gal Beckerman, a staff writer at The Atlantic and author of the new book, “How to Be a Dissident” — which is (in part) a step-by-step manual on how to stand athwart authoritarianism and say, “Stop!”

Subscribers can listen to an ad-free version right here… or you can watch on YouTube / Listen (and subscribe) on Apple/ Spotify / iHeart / RSS Feed

ICYMI: My Livestream with Tara Palmeri

We had a brief audio issue at the top, but Tara Palmeri and I quickly moved into a story that sounds like a spy thriller — and may be one of the biggest corruption scandals of our time.

We talk about Tara’s recent encounter with Acting AG Todd Blanche: “A Simple Question About Epstein Triggered Todd Blanche’s Security Detail,” but most of our conversation centered on her recent report: “EXCLUSIVE: John Kerry’s Uncomfortable Epstein Connection”

Finally, The Chronicles of My Xexit

Good write-up on my unceremoniousdeparture/cancellation from Twitter (X): “X Purges Charlie Sykes's Account After Critical Musk Article.”

Charlie Sykes, the veteran conservative radio host turned leading “Never Trump” figure, had a run-in with the moderators of Elon Musk’s X this week as he was locked out of his account and his recent posts were temporarily purged.

Mediaite reports that “As of Friday afternoon, some of Sykes’s tweets did appear to have been restored, but no new tweets have been posted.”

But I can’t see it.

Update: Because irony is dead, I got this email yesterday — two days after getting kicked off the site.

Saturday dogs

Saturday morning coffee with my lapdog.