JENNIFER MATTSON , Fast Company; No Kings Day: June 14 protests set to be biggest yet, will counter Trump military parade in locations nationwide. Here’s what to know
"June 14 is shaping up to be a big day, with millions of Americans expected to take to the streets in an event dubbed “No Kings Day,” which organizers have said will likely be the largest single-day turnout of the anti-Trump, pro-democracy protest movement since President Donald Trump took office for a second term in January.
Organizers expect 1,800 rallies will take place on Saturday for “a nationwide day of defiance” in every state and major city across the country—except Washington, D.C., as to avoid clashes with the Army’s 250th anniversary celebrations, which will be held that day in the nation’s capital (more on that below).
In a statement to Fast Company, the No Kings organizers described their event as “peaceful, organized, and united.” They added: “Make it clear: We don’t do kings in this country.”"
Andrew Feinberg, The Independent ; Trump threatens protesters who rain on his military parade Saturday ‘will be met with very big force’
"President Donald Trump on Tuesday threatened to forcibly put down any protests that spoil the military parade he has ordered up for his birthday on Saturday to coincide with the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army’s founding during the American Revolutionary War.
Speaking in the Oval Office following an impromptu event to discuss forest management ahead of the upcoming summer wildfire season, Trump was riffing on what he described as violent excesses by protesters who’ve been demonstrating against Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in Los Angeles when he was asked about the possibility of protests against the June 14 parade.
The president said it would be an “amazing day” and cited the “tanks ... planes ... all sorts of things” that will be on display during the spectacle, which is ostensibly meant to mark the Army’s semiquincentennial.
He also compared the parade, which breaks from the American tradition that largely eschews militaristic or jingoistic displays of the sort routinely seen in authoritarian countries, to European celebrations of the end of the Second World War.
“We won the war, and we're the only country that didn't celebrate it, and we're going to be celebrating big on Saturday. We're going to have a lot of and if there's any protest that wants to come out, they will be met with very big force,” Trump said."
Professor, Department of Leadership and Human Resource Management, Northumbria University, Newcastle , The Conversation; Shoemaker Clarks is turning 200. Its Quaker roots made it a pioneer of ethical business
"The Quakers – more formally known as the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) – have a history of nearly 400 years in Britain and the US. While Quakerism has Christian foundations, Quakers also emphasise moral commitments to peace, truth, integrity, simplicity and equality – the five testimonies in Quaker theology. These came to define how Quakers approach the world, and their businesses.
As early Quakers were deemed radical and challenged the established church, they became persecuted by the state during the 17th century. They were excluded from political and public life, as well as from universities. Perhaps as a direct consequence, Quakers became highly active entrepreneurs and came to dominate many industries through a combination of their testimonies and outward entrepreneurial action.
This led to the reputation that Quaker firms had for trustworthiness and integrity. Their impact was perhaps so acute as to represent a distinctive form of ethical entrepreneurship."
WILLIAM KRISTOL, ANDREW EGGER, AND
, The Bulwark; RFK Jr. Is as Bad as We All Imagined: If it walks like a quack, talks like a quack, and quacks like a quack."In an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, Kennedy launched his latest offensive against America’s vaccines, announcing he had fired all seventeen members of the Centers for Disease Control’s Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP). Kennedy, a dyed-in-the-wool anti-vax activist, said in an accompanying statement that the move had been necessary to “reestablish public confidence in vaccine science” and to rid the committee of “any specific pro- or anti-vaccine agenda.” He said he would appoint replacements, presumably before the ACIP’s next meeting, which is scheduled to begin in two weeks.
The ACIP’s influence on federal health policy is enormous. As the CDC’s institutional brain trust for best-in-class vaccine science, it issues guidance that shapes federal policy for recommended vaccine schedules, including which vaccines should be administered to children. (Notwithstanding Kennedy’s odd assertion that the committee had “never recommended against a vaccine,” the ACIP does not authorize new vaccines for public use, a responsibility that belongs to the Food and Drug Administration.)
How important is the ACIP? Important enough that Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Republican and a doctor, made it his line in the sand for supporting Kennedy’s nomination as secretary of health and human services—a nomination he could have derailed. In announcing his decision to vote yes on Kennedy, Cassidy said the nominee had committed to him that he would maintain the ACIP “without changes.”
In response to yesterday’s news, Cassidy blandly noted “the fear that the ACIP will be filled up with people who know nothing about vaccines except suspicion” and lamely promised to “continue to talk with [Kennedy] to ensure this is not the case.”
NATHANIEL WEIXEL , The Hill; RFK Jr. fires CDC’s independent vaccine advisors
"Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he is removing every member of the independent panel advising the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on vaccines, an unprecedented escalation in his quest to reshape the agency.
In a Wall Street Journal op-ed released Monday, Kennedy said the move was necessary to restore faith in vaccines.
“A clean sweep is needed to re-establish public confidence in vaccine science,” Kennedy wrote.
“The public must know that unbiased science—evaluated through a transparent process and insulated from conflicts of interest—guides the recommendations of our health agencies,” Kennedy said in a subsequent statement.
Kennedy said removing every member of the panel will give the Trump administration an opportunity to appoint its own members. Kennedy has long accused ACIP members of having conflicts of interest, sparking concern among vaccine advocates that he would seek to install members who are far more skeptical of approving new vaccines."
Sam Tobin, Reuters; Lawyers face sanctions for citing fake cases with AI, warns UK judge
"Lawyers who use artificial intelligence to cite non-existent cases can be held in contempt of court or even face criminal charges, London's High Court warned on Friday, in the latest example of generative AI leading lawyers astray.
A senior judge lambasted lawyers in two cases who apparently used AI tools when preparing written arguments, which referred to fake case law, and called on regulators and industry leaders to ensure lawyers know their ethical obligations.
"There are serious implications for the administration of justice and public confidence in the justice system if artificial intelligence is misused," Judge Victoria Sharp said in a written ruling...
She added that "in the most egregious cases, deliberately placing false material before the court with the intention of interfering with the administration of justice amounts to the common law criminal offence of perverting the course of justice"."
Robin Pogrebin Graham Bowley and Zachary Small, The New York Times; In Challenge to Trump, Smithsonian Says It Controls Personnel Decisions
"In a challenge to President Trump, the Smithsonian said on Monday that it retained the power over personnel decisions, a statement that came in the wake of the president’s announcement that he was firing Kim Sajet, the director of the National Portrait Gallery.
“All personnel decisions are made by and subject to the direction of the secretary, with oversight by the board,” said a statement from the Smithsonian, which oversees that museum and 20 others, as well as libraries, research centers and the National Zoo. “Lonnie G. Bunch, the secretary, has the support of the Board of Regents in his authority and management of the Smithsonian.”
The statement came hours after the Board of Regents, including Vice President JD Vance, discussed the president’s announcement at a quarterly meeting...
The fight over Ms. Sajet’s tenure has further complicated matters for Mr. Bunch, who was already under pressure to navigate a recognition of presidential power while defending the institution’s autonomy. Created by Congress as a trust to be administered by the board and the secretary, the institution receives two-thirds of its $1 billion in annual funding from the federal government.
The Smithsonian’s silence after Mr. Trump’s announcement about Ms. Sajet, the first woman to lead the National Portrait Gallery, appeared to signal a reluctance to challenge the president. But the board on Monday reacted in a way that, if not a complete statement of support for Ms. Sajet, was a clear effort by the institution to reassert its autonomy."
Bernard Marr , Forbes; 5 Dangerous Myths About AI Ethics You Shouldn’t Believe
At the end of the day, AI is a tool. AI ethics can be thought of as the safety warning you get in big letters at the front of any user manual, setting out some firm dos and don’ts about using it.
Using AI almost always involves making ethical choices. In a business setting, understanding the many ways it can affect people and culture means we have the best information for making those choices.
It’s a subject there's still a lot of confusion around, not least involving who is responsible and who should be ensuring this gets done. So here are five common misconceptions I come across involving the ethics of generative AI and machine learning."
Anne Ford , American Libraries; Newsmaker: Brewster Kahle
"How has the work of the Internet Archive been affected since Trump took office?
Well, the biggest effect has been getting a lot of attention for what we do. We spend a lot of time on Democracy’s Library, which is a name for collecting all the born-digital and digitized publications of government at the federal, state, and municipal levels. There’s been so much attention about all of the [digital] takedowns that we’ve received lots and lots of volunteer help toward collecting not only web assets but also databases that are being removed from government websites. It’s all hands on deck.
And you just launched a new YouTube channel.
Yes, we unveiled our next-generation microfiche scanning as part of our Democracy’s Library project, because a lot of .gov sites are on microfiche, and people don’t want to use microfiche anymore. Fortunately, the US government in its early era was pro–access to information and made government documents public domain. So we put out a YouTube livestream of the microfiche being digitized.
What would you like to see libraries and librarians do during this challenging time?
We need libraries to have at least as good rights in the digital world as we have in the physical world. There’s an upcoming website [from the Internet Archive and others] called the Four Digital Rights of Libraries, and that is something libraries can sign onto as institutions. [The website will launch during the Association of European Research Libraries’ LIBER 2025 Conference in Lausanne, Switzerland, July 2-4.]
People generally don’t know that libraries, in this digital era, are prevented from buying any ebooks or MP3s. They are not allowed by the publishers to have them. They spend and spend and spend, but they don’t end up owning anything. They’re not building collections. So the publishers can change or delete anything at any time, and they do. In their dream case, libraries will never own anything ever again. This is a structural attack on libraries. You don’t need to be a deep historian to know what happens to libraries. They’re actively destroyed by the powerful.
So let’s spend [our collection budgets] buying ebooks, buying music, buying material from small publishers or anybody [else] that will actually sell to us. Make it so we are building our own collections, not this licensing thing where these books disappear.
That’s a big ask. But the great thing about that will be that our libraries start buying things from small publishers, where most of the money goes back to the authors, not stopping with the big multinational publishers. Let’s build a system that works for more players than just big corporations that make a habit of suing libraries."
David Kirp, The Guardian; Stop bending the knee to Trump: it’s time for anticipatory noncompliance
"Fearing Hurricane Donald, a host of universities, law firms, newspapers, public schools and Fortune 500 companies have rushed to do his bidding, bowing before he even comes calling. Other institutions cower, in hopes that they will go unnoticed.
But this behavior, which social scientists call “anticipatory compliance”, smoothes the way to autocracy because it gives the Trump regime unlimited power without his having to lift a finger. Halting autocracy in its tracks demands a counter-strategy – let’s call it anticipatory noncompliance...
Restoring democracy is no easy task, for it is infinitely easier to destroy than rebuild. It will take a years-long fight that deploys an arsenal of tactics, ranging from mass demonstrations and consumer boycotts to litigation and political organizing. It’s grueling work, but if autocracy is to be defeated there’s no option. “Not everything that is faced can be changed; but nothing can be changed until it is faced,” observed James Baldwin, in a 1962 New York Times article. A half-century later, that message still rings true."
Philip Kennicott , The Washington Post; The Smithsonian faces an existential crisis. The world is watching.
"The Smithsonian has a long and sadly craven history of caving to critics, including making changes to exhibitions after pressure from activists and members of Congress. Former Smithsonian secretary G. Wayne Clough censored an NPG exhibition of portraiture featuring LGBT people in 2010, after pressure from conservative Christian activists. Clough forced museum curators to remove a single video, by the gay artist and AIDS activist David Wojnarowicz, which actually made the exhibition more popular when it traveled to Brooklyn and Tacoma, Washington.
The precedent for that intrusion on editorial independence had been established at least since 1995, when the National Air and Space Museum censored an exhibition about the Enola Gay, the plane that dropped the first atomic bomb. The Enola Gay controversy, which centered on some veterans’ opposition to an evenhanded curatorial discussion of why the bomb was dropped and whether it was necessary, damaged the institution, but it also helped foster widespread and lasting resistance to censorship and content meddling throughout the organization.
But those examples were mere brush fires compared with the destruction that would follow a new precedent, the right of the president of the United States to dictate hiring and content. Trump’s ongoing efforts to assert control over the performing arts, museum sector and the larger American historical narrative have been audacious and destructive. Subscriptions sales at the Kennedy Center are down some 36 percent from last year, and community arts and humanities groups around the country are suffering from the loss of small but essential grants from organizations including the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Institute of Museum and Library Services."
Mo Rocca , CBS News Sunday Morning; "O for a muse of fire": The modern appeal of Shakespeare
"Dowd says it's fitting that the Folger is located in the nation's capital: "Outside in the garden, there's a silvery statue of Puck from 'Midsummers Night's Dream,' and the line, 'Lord, what fools these mortals be,' and it faces the Capitol. And there's never been a more apt description of politics in Washington than that."
In fact, Dowd says, Shakespeare was a cultural father figure to America's earliest leaders. "The Founding Fathers were very steeped in Shakespeare," she said. "Thomas Jefferson advised people to read Shakespeare from the time it got dark 'til the time they went to bed."
John Adams read Shakespeare to better understand the dark side of power, and how to protect against it. "The Founding Fathers definitely used it to form the Republic," she said.
Dowd herself cites the Bard in her new collection, "Notorious," just as she has in her column ever since 1995, when Bill Clinton was president. "Clinton just is such a classic Shakespeare character because he just had this tragic flaw of recklessness," Dowd said.
She compared Vice President Dick Cheney to Iago, preying on the insecurities of George W. Bush's Othello … Barack Obama to Hamlet, for his hesitancy and indecisiveness … and as for Joe Biden? "If Joe Biden had read 'King Lear,' he would've realized the dangers of the gerontocracy, and you really should not cling to power and suffocate the younger people who are coming along," Dowd said.
And then there's the current commander-in-chief: "Donald Trump reminds me of several different plays. He's kind of like late Lear, howling at the moon. He's also like Julius Caesar in a republic, but trying to grab the crown and think of himself as an emperor," Dowd said."
; Corruption Has Flooded America. The Dams Are Breaking.
"President Trump has more than doubled his personal wealth since starting his 2024 election campaign. Billions of foreign dollars have flowed into his family’s real estate and crypto ventures. A plane that doubles as a “palace in the sky” has been given for Mr. Trump’s use by the government of Qatar.
It is easy to dismiss this as just a bigger and more brazen version of the self-dealing we saw during the first Trump term. But it poses a more fundamental danger. Our political system is being transformed into something that no longer serves the people. Indeed, the United States is seemingly becoming just another country with a corrupt strongman personalizing and profiting from power...
Corruption is a powerful tool, but it is not popular. To build a movement powerful enough to push back on Mr. Trump’s self-dealing, Democrats must show people how it will affect their lives."
AP; Judge says administration can dismantle the Institute of Museum and Library Services
"A federal judge on Friday denied a request by the American Library Association to halt the Trump administration’s further dismantling of an agency that funds and promotes libraries across the country, saying that recent court decisions suggested his court lacked jurisdiction to hear the matter.
U.S. District Judge Richard Leon had previously agreed to temporarily block the Republican administration, saying that plaintiffs were likely to show that Trump doesn’t have the legal authority to unilaterally shutter the Institute of Museum and Library Services, which was created by Congress.
But in Friday’s ruling, Leon wrote that as much as the “Court laments the Executive Branch’s efforts to cut off this lifeline for libraries and museums,” recent court decisions suggested that the case should be heard in a separate court dedicated to contractual claims."
Nicholas Kristof , The New York Times; Hope After Trump
"Authoritarians surround themselves with sycophants, so that no one warns them when they proclaim dumb policies that tank the economy. Free from oversight, they yield to dissolution and corruption...
In recent years alone, look at what has happened to some of the most prominent authoritarians around the world. In Brazil, the Supreme Court in March ordered former President Jair Bolsonaro to stand trial on charges of discussing a coup to stay in office. And in Hungary, Orban’s party is now lagging in some opinion polls.
In the Philippines, Duterte targeted the brave journalist Maria Ressa, who faced up to 34 years in prison for committing journalism. But now Ressa has a Nobel Peace Prize and is free while Duterte is in a prison cell in The Hague, facing charges of crimes against humanity before the International Criminal Court.
I caught up recently with Ressa, and her line to Americans is: “If you’re depressed now, think of the Philippines” — and find hope...
Domestically, the United States is showing resilience...
If Filipinos can win back their country, then surely we Americans can as well. Given the enormous stakes, this is a time for a rebirth of liberal patriotism. So don’t emigrate, friends; stay and fight for your country’s future. And the world’s."
The Editorial Board, The New York Times; A Comprehensive Accounting of Trump’s Culture of Corruption
"The message seemed obvious enough: People who make Mr. Trump richer regularly receive favorable treatment from the government he runs.
The cryptocurrency industry is perhaps the starkest example of the culture of corruption in his second term. He and his relatives directly benefit from the sale of their cryptocurrency by receiving a cut of the investment. Even if the price of the coins later falls and investors lose money, the Trumps can continue to benefit by receiving a commission on future sales. Forbes magazine estimates that he made about $1 billion in cryptocurrency in the past nine months, about one-sixth of his net worth...
The self-enrichment of the second Trump administration is different from old-fashioned corruption. There is no evidence that Mr. Trump has received direct bribes, nor is it clear that he has agreed to specific policy changes in exchange for cash. Nonetheless, he is presiding over a culture of corruption. He and his family have created several ways for people to enrich them — and government policy then changes in ways that benefit those who have helped the Trumps profit. Often Mr. Trump does not even try to hide the situation. As the historian Matthew Dallek recently put it, “Trump is the most brazenly corrupt national politician in modern times, and his openness about it is sui generis.” He is proud of his avarice, wearing it as a sign of success and savvy.
This culture is part of Mr. Trump’s larger efforts to weaken American democracy and turn the federal government into an extension of himself. He has pushed the interests of the American people to the side, in favor of his personal interests. His actions reduce an already shaky public faith in government. By using the power of the people for personal gain, he degrades that power for any other purpose. He stains the reputation of the United States, which has long stood out as a place where confidence in the rule of law fosters confidence in the economy and financial markets. This country was not previously known as an executive kleptocracy."
Dana Milbank , The Washington Post; They are not good at this: Nearly five months into Trump’s new reign of error, his administration’s mistakes are multiplying.
"Nearly five months into this reign of error, the mistakes are multiplying. It becomes more obvious each week that Trump and his aides are just not good at this governing thing...Nick Robins-Early , The Guardian; The Trump-Musk feud shows danger of handing the keys of power to one person
"While the ongoing episode had the tenor of sensational reality TV, the fight between Trump and Musk once again exposed the danger of putting key public goods in the hands of private companies controlled by erratic billionaires. It highlighted how something like space travel, once a vaunted and collective national enterprise, can now be almost entirely derailed by the emotional whims of a single person.
Musk and Trump’s partnership had already fueled months of concern about corruption and calls for investigations into the Tesla CEO’s use of his position in government to benefit his companies. The breakup has highlighted another risk of Musk’s deep ties with the government, where the services that he provides can now become collateral damage in interpersonal disputes. Tens of billions of dollars hang in the balance of their fight.
The messy, public way that the clash has played out also serves as a reminder of how unpredictable their decision-making can be. Musk’s vow to sideline SpaceX’s spacecraft and his reversal, without which the US would have immediately been prevented from reaching the International Space Station (ISS), appeared, for instance, as an emotional lash-out amid a string of other insults against Trump, and it was nearly impossible to discern whether he was serious."
CBS; Former Librarian of Congress Dr. Carla Hayden speaks out about her firing by Trump
"In this preview of an interview with national correspondent Robert Costa to be broadcast on "CBS Sunday Morning" June 8, Dr. Carla Hayden, the former Librarian of Congress fired by President Trump last month, talks for the first time about her abrupt dismissal, and the challenges facing her former institution – and libraries nationwide."
Jessica Wakeman , The Assembly; Pride Cometh Before The Fall
"Anti-gay activists had launched the Hide the Pride campaign a few years earlier. It’s a national effort encouraging people to disappear LGBTQ materials in public libraries during Pride Month so others cannot borrow them. In Burnsville, participants carried the crusade well beyond June. Edwards said they were still finding LGBTQ books hidden throughout the library for the next year...
Librarians also noticed that five people who weren’t regular patrons had borrowed an unusually large number of books on LGBTQ subjects—another Hide the Pride tactic. “It really made me sad,” said Edwards, who has worked at the branch for seven years. “Mostly because they were trying to hide things from people who might need them, and doing it out of some misguided sense of morality.” ...
Each branch strives to provide materials that meet the needs of its patrons. And for nearly a decade, all four AMY branches assembled Pride Month displays. While there have been complaints in other counties in the past, AMY Director Amber Westall Briggs said she was able to alleviate concerns after speaking with local leaders. Additionally, branch’s obscenity guidelines are posted on its website.
Briggs said librarians use a concept called “mirrors and windows,” which is the idea that children should “have a mirror in which the book reflects themselves, so that they see themselves and their family and their community, and then also a window so they can see a completely different cultural experience.”
“Our collections represent the community that we are a part of, but they also have to be diversified to represent a larger world,” Briggs explained. “That’s what a library is.”"
J. David McSwane , ProPublica; Dismissed by DEI: Trump’s Purge Made Black Women With Stable Federal Jobs an “Easy Target”
"Her experience is part of a largely untold story unfolding as Trump dismantles civil rights and inclusion programs across government: Many of those being forced out, like Crowner, are Black women who spent decades building a career of government service, only to see those careers shattered in a sudden purge.
ProPublica interviewed Crowner and two other career civil servants, all Black women, who are among the hundreds of fired federal employees represented in a legal action brought against the Trump administration. Filed in March with the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board by legal teams including the Washington branch of the American Civil Liberties Union, the case contends the administration violated the First Amendment rights of employees by targeting them for holding views perceived as contrary to the Trump 2.0 doctrine.
What has received less attention is the suit’s claim that the administration also violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. They claim the DEI purge disproportionately affected those who aren’t white men."
Madeleine Speed , Financial Times; Ben & Jerry’s co-founder accuses corporate America of appeasement over DEI
"Ben & Jerry’s co-founder Ben Cohen said corporate America’s retreat from efforts to boost diversity and inclusion amounted to “appeasement”, as the campaigning businessman claimed consumers cared more than ever about corporate “purpose”.
Companies ranging from Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, to Walt Disney and McDonald’s, have scaled back diversity targets or policies under pressure from US President Donald Trump, who is waging war on “illegal and immoral” diversity, equity and inclusion programmes.
Cohen told the Financial Times in an interview that he saw the widespread corporate retreats as “appeasement” that “just encourages bullies”. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
The Ben & Jerry’s co-founder added that the backtracking was indicative that while companies were notionally doing DEI they “didn’t really believe in it”."
Isaac Stanley-Becker , The Atlantic; The Trump Administration Is Spending $2 Million to Figure Out Whether DEI Causes Plane Crashes
"The FAA’s parent agency agreed in March to spend as much as $2.1 million on an investigation into DEI policies and their impact on recent safety incidents. To conduct that investigation, the Trump administration has turned to Alex Spiro, a former prosecutor and a prominent defense attorney who has represented Elon Musk, among other billionaires and celebrities.
I obtained the “scope of work” document for Spiro’s investigation, which is marked “privileged” and “confidential” and has not been previously reported. It shows how the president’s musings—his accusations, he said at the time, were based on “very strong opinions and ideas”—translate into taxpayer-funded government action. It also reveals the cost of the administration’s fixation on DEI at a time when the FAA is struggling to hire and retain air-traffic controllers, linchpins of aviation safety, and when Sean Duffy, the transportation secretary, is seeking funds to overhaul the country’s antiquated air-traffic-control system. Recent radar outages at Newark Liberty International Airport have caused severe flight delays and spotlighted just how deep technology and staffing problems run.
The investigation by Spiro, a partner at the elite firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, is due to conclude soon, a person familiar with the dynamics told me, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the confidentiality of the work. Contrary to what Trump may hope, it’s not expected to find that programs aimed at ensuring representation for women and people of color are responsible for this year’s string of aviation disasters, including the January crash at Reagan airport, which killed 67 people and prompted Trump’s tirade against DEI."
