A Silent Musical

We all know what happened earlier this year when House Republicans and Leader Mike Johnson blew up the border bill negotiated by a bipartisan group of senators at Trump's behest. Negotiations stalled on that along with a host of other issues such as Ukraine aid, but they did finally manage to get the Ukraine aid passed along with funding for Israel and Taiwan. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer was asked about all of that during an interview last month as reported by Politico: After finally getting 70 votes for a $95 billion aid package, including $60 billion for Ukraine, the two leaders now must work together to force the House to move — a task that could prove impossible.

I remember when today was Decoration Day, was observed the 30th of May, & involved honoring the graves of the Union war dead. Now it's a three-day weekend for driving your ATV all over nature & ruining the environment, or buying a mattress. No wonder people hate America. That said, let's see if we can find anything worth reading. Claytoonz at the Glibertarian Convention. Actual memory from Heather Cox Richardson. Meanwhile, the Amazon Post, from LAWdork. Half Empty at Juanita Jean's brings comedy relief. By M.

Chances are, you’re disgusted and appalled by the corruption and extremism of Supreme Court Justices Alito and Thomas. But imagine having them as colleagues! CNN reported that Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, one of the three liberals on the Court, told an audience at Harvard University on Friday, “There are days that I’ve come to my office after an announcement of a case and closed my door and cried.” She also said, ominously, “And there are likely to be more.” CNN noted that high-profile cases, such as Donald Trump’s claim of immunity from his election subversion case and two major abortion cases are yet to come from the Court this term. But Sotomayor also spoke of the need for all of us to keep fighting in the face of despair. More from CNN: “There are moments when I’m deeply, deeply sad,” she said at Harvard.

Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup xAI has raised $6 billion to accelerate its challenge to his former allies at OpenAI. The Series B round, announced in a blog post on May 26, comes less than a year after xAI’s debut and marks one of the bigger investments in the nascent field of developing AI tools.

Moon Alert: Avoid shopping or making important decisions from 3:45 p.m. to 5 p.m. EDT today (12:45 p.m. to 2 p.m. PDT). After that, the Moon moves from Capricorn into Aquarius. It’s Memorial Day. Happy Birthday for Monday, May 27, 2024: You are perceptive, creative and energetic. You are also gentle and philosophical.

Thai activist-turned-lawmaker Chonthicha “Lookkate” Jangrew—a prominent figure of the country’s pro-democracy movement and a member of the Move Forward Party that galvanized the public during last year’s parliamentary elections—was sentenced on Monday to two years in prison for royal defamation related to her involvement in a 2021 demonstration. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Lookkate, who was recently included in TIME’s list of Next Generation Leaders, which published in print also on Monday, denies the charge and has filed an appeal.