0.3% of the water consumed by US golf courses last year

Mason's bulwark for free expression — 250 years old today. The Virginia Declaration of Rights, adopted June 12, 1776, borrowed its "bulwarks of liberty" phrasing from Cato's Letters (1721) and inspired Madison's first draft of (what would become) the First Amendment.

I'm unpersuaded that any of the attacks on drug boats has been justified (and if not justified, they're murder), but this one seems especially egregious.

That the U.S. military is losing the first war of the drone era while the television-trained defense secretary focuses on facial hair and push-ups is probably not a coincidence. theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0…

“You can’t shout fire in a crowded theater” may be America’s favorite bad free speech argument, and @WillAtFIRE agrees. In my book The War on Words, Nadine Strossen and I explain why it’s misquoted, obsolete, and historically embarrassing.

Government can punish assault, obstruction, and true threats. It cannot punish people for criticizing officers. There is no First Amendment exception for speech officials label “verbal assault.” That phrase should worry anyone who cares about protest rights.

RT @JessicaBRiedl: Senators elected this fall will be in office when the SocSec trust fund hits insolvency. So it *should* be a major campa…

RT @JessicaBRiedl: Regular reminder that non-citizen voting - which the SAVE Act is meant to address - is "virtually non-existent" even acc…

Texas cops fired dozens of tear gas grenades into an innocent woman's home. They smashed windows, wrecked her fence and drove through her front door. Her daughter's dog went deaf & blind. Then the city left her with the bill. Six years later, her saga is finally over. A thread.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the extraordinary outbursts of the President of the United States against female journalists... well, actually against journalists in general and journalism. But it feels like he saves his most childlike behavior and irrational language for female reporters, calling them all kinds of names that kids in kindergarten are given times out for. It’s stunning to me to witness such behavior from any leader, any CEO, any person of influence or importance. I’ve never witnessed someone like this raging, this weekend with @meetthepress host @kwelkernbc, just last week in the Oval Office with @cnn’s @kaitlancollins, calling women stupid or piggy, telling them to “smile”, calling them darling, demeaning their credibility. Every good man should denounce this behavior. Every person should be able to stand up for their colleagues and say “No more.” Imagine this man screaming like this at your daughter, your wife, your sister, your mother... would you stand for it? No, you wouldn’t! And neither should any of us. It’s unacceptable and undignified. Period. End of story.

Private Carlton Barrett was possibly the smallest man in his regiment. 5 feet 4 inches tall. 125 pounds. On the morning of June 6, 1944, he landed at Omaha Beach in neck-deep water, machine gun fire cutting the surface all around him. He made it to shore. Then he turned around and went back in. A soldier was drowning. Barrett pulled him out. Then another. Then another. For hours, under constant fire, this 125-pound man waded back into the surf again and again, pulling drowning men to safety and physically carrying the wounded to evacuation boats offshore. But he didn't stop there. He ran dispatches the full length of the fire-swept beach. He found soldiers paralyzed by shock and calmed them back into action. He appeared wherever the crisis was worst, doing whatever needed doing, treating rank and personal safety as irrelevant details. He did this for hours without stopping. His Medal of Honor citation says his courage had "an inestimable effect on his comrades." That is military understatement for: this small, anonymous man held that section of beach together through sheer force of will. He survived the war. His comrades later said his life darkened after he came home. He lived quietly and died in 1986 in California, largely unknown outside of military history circles. 5 feet 4 inches. 125 pounds. He went back in. Remember him.

This is unhinged. If a family member behaved this way, you'd worry about them. If a CEO behaved like this, the board would meet. He's living in an alternate reality and furious when a person won't indulge his fantasies.

Maybe because he literally just put an entirely unqualified political hatchet man in charge of the DNI — while we’re at war — and the only reason he could give was that he would look into the “stolen” election bullshit? He’s making hugely important decisions based on a lie. That seems worth paying attention to. He also tried to set up a compensation fund for people who, inspired by his promulgation of that lie, laid siege to the Capitol. Oh and the only legislation he cares about is all wrapped up in his delusions about how elections are stolen. I can keep coming up with reasons. But the fact that the president still thinks his lie should drive policy and personnel (several J6ers work in the administration) that makes it relevant, imho.

Today is the 82nd anniversary of D-Day – the Allied landings in Normandy, which significantly hastened the countdown to the Nazis' collapse in World War II. It is one of the most important moments of unity among the defenders of life in human history, and it was less than a year until the peoples’ aspiration for freedom and the hope of peace prevailed in May 1945. It happened then. We are working to make it happen again today. And although yesterday in Petersburg another cynical order to continue killing was issued for the army trying to destroy our freedom, history has seen this before. The Nazis also had their own hopes after D-Day. But freedom still wins. And even in the darkest circumstances, people find ways to come together to protect life. I thank all those who are now helping to protect the values that prevailed in World War II. I thank everyone who is defending life. Glory to Ukraine!

They show this speech on a loop in the museum at Normandy. It’s that good.

D-Day commemoration, Omaha Beach, June 6 2024 Zelensky arrived, the crowd applauded. And then this happened: 🇺🇸 veteran: You’re a saviour of the people Zelensky: No, no, you saved Europe 🇺🇸 veteran: My hero Zelensky: No, you are our hero 🇺🇸🇫🇷🇺🇦

The largest amphibious invasion in human history began in the dark. At dawn on June 6, 1944, nearly 7,000 vessels carrying 160,000 Allied troops closed in on the beaches of Normandy. Through courage and sacrifice, they secured a foothold in Nazi-occupied France and began the liberation of Western Europe. Today, we honor the heroes of D-Day.

The last living officer to fight on Omaha Beach, Major General John Raaen, 104. In 1944, right now, he wades ashore. “We landed at 7:50 a.m. where there were breakwaters and we had plenty of cover.” Even so, Raaen came under a “tremendous amount” of small arms fire from the nearby bluffs and several German strongpoints. There was “constant noise,” a ceaseless “roar.” Bullets cracked in the air, “pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, above you. The machine gun fire was absolutely continuous.” When I met Raaen back in 2018, he told me he could still hear the sound of those bullets snapping over his head, the wall of noise that greeted him as he waded ashore. He crossed Omaha Beach, moved up steep bluffs, reached Vierville sur Mer around noon then set up the 5th Rangers’ first command post in Normandy. His first, critical mission was to organize the relief of fellow Rangers, surrounded and fighting for their lives five miles away at Pointe du Hoc, having scaled vertiginous cliffs under fire. These men from the 2nd Ranger Battalion had carried out one of the now legendary feats of D Day, described by Omar Bradley as the “most dangerous mission”. See more: substack.com/@alexkershaw

D-Day commemoration at Omaha Beach, June 6, 2024. A D-Day veteran to Ukrainian President Zelensky: “You’re a savior of the people. My hero.” Zelensky: “No, no, you saved Europe. You are our hero.”

An appropriate post from Zelensky on the anniversary of D-Day. Nothing from Trump. Which is appropriate, since Zelensky is a fighter against tyranny, unlike Trump.