No Kings Day shall have an expected attendance of 20,000 in St. Paul, at the Capitol.

 And it will be a dissatisfaction day event, primarily,  as PiPress reports Friday, for the Saturday June 14 event: 

Local organizers expect 20,000 or more Minnesotans will be joining a nationwide No Kings movement to protest President Donald Trump’s policies on Saturday.

Protesters will be rallying at the Minnesota Capitol for the event, which is part of a web of demonstrations around the country to counter Trump’s $25 million to $45 million military parade planned for the same day. [...]

Demonstrators will assemble at 11 a.m. at St. Paul College and begin marching to the Minnesota Capitol at noon, according to organizers including Indivisible Twin Cities, MN50501, Women’s March Minnesota and MN AFL-CIO labor unions.

Lisa Erbes is the co-leader of Indivisible Twin Cities. Erbes said the No Kings organizers want to bring awareness to Trump’s actions that they believe are unconstitutional and authoritarian. Speakers at the event will cover topics such as Medicaid cuts, racial justice, immigration concerns and ICE raids.

“Our goal is to send the message loud and clear that Americans do not want to live under a king or under fascism or a dictatorship,” Erbes said.

Forty other No Kings events will be happening Saturday in Minnesota, according to Ann Treacy, Women’s March Minnesota board member.

“We’re trying to get large numbers, we’re trying to get a place where we can all feel solidarity together, as well as show people this is how we feel,” Treacy said. “What we do want to see is more of the Constitution being held to, more of due process, more transparency, more democracy.”

[...] Gov. Tim Walz, Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, Attorney General Keith Ellison and civil rights attorney Nekima Levy Armstrong will speak at the event.

There is a DFL leaning of the event, although dissatisfied Republicans and independents will be welcome, if decently behaved. It is not a confrontational style planned, although clearly a confrontational statement is intended. Look at the title. Look at the Constitution. No Kings. 

While MSM covers the Israeli Iran events, EmptyWheel has a post about tomorrow's planned "NO KINGS DAY" protests nationwide.

 Link

Israel attacks Iran. Trump warns Iran more might be coming. JD days ago went to Montana to secretly meet the Murdochs, and possibly others.

 Reports are online at multiple sources, where readers can find detail.

Of interest, this, from yesterday, where Crabgrass has no WSJ access beyond the paywall:

Israel could strike Iran within days, US and Israeli officials say - WSJ

NEWS | 06/12/2025 23:12:33 GMT | By Lallalit Srijandorn

---

So, WSJ had advanced notice? Making this more interesting. Possibly JD gave the Murdochs advanced notice, and possibly they traded investments, and possibly not. There should be some record.

And here on Friday the 13th, it happened, as the WSJ speculated, and tomorrow there's a U.S. Army anniversary, Flag Day. What a world.

UPDATE: AJ has its own reporting while much else online is carrying AP news services.

RT reports:

I gave Iran chance after chance – Trump

Despite the Israeli strikes, the US president has urged Tehran to comply with Washington’s demands over its nuclear program “before it is too late”

FURTHER; The last paragraph of an AP item Strib carried -

In a sign of the far-reaching implications of the emerging conflict, Israel’s main airport was closed and benchmark Brent crude spiked on news of the attack, rising nearly 8% before retreating slightly.

It would be worthwhile if somebody in MSM or elsewhere tried to ferret out any Administration or Congressional oil futures trading activity, including staffers and Trump family members, prior to the Israeli attack. Insiders are insiders because of inside information, and it is doubtful whether this happened without some knowledge among the spook and foreign policy community, including Congressional committees. What did Jake Sullivan know and when did he know it. He had a portfolio in the Biden administration, but he's an outsider now, but possibly still talks to people and has not, to Crabgrass knowledge, had his security clearance pulled. Tentacles abound.

What failed as a too-late October surprise last election year has been infused with new life by Elon posting and scrubbing a Trump-Epstein tweet allegation. James Carville is trying to get it to grow legs this time. Might it give Kash Patal a cred headache?

Setting things up, Daily Beast, as noted on election's eve, plus or minus mere days published:

Epstein Showed Me Photos of Trump with Topless Young Women Sitting in His Lap, Claims Author

 

Hugh Dougherty 

Executive Editor

Updated Nov. 1 2024 3:45AM EDT Published Oct. 31 2024 5:50PM EDT 

Jeffrey Epstein showed off photos of Donald Trump with “topless young women” sitting in his lap, the controversial author Michael Wolff has alleged.

[...] They were taken in the “late ’90s” at Epstein’s Palm Beach home, where he victimized dozens of underage girls along with his procurer, Ghislaine Maxwell, Wolff said. 

Wolff alleged that they were in Epstein’s safe, which the FBI seized when they raided his homes in New York and Palm Beach in July 2019. The massive haul of evidence taken by the feds has never been made public—and while prosecutors disclosed after the raid that they had “hundreds of photos of girls and young women,” they have never offered any more details of them.

 “And in some of the pictures, they’re sitting in his lap. I mean, and, and then there’s one I especially remember where there’s a stain, a telltale stain and on the front of Trump’s pants, and the girls are pointing at him and laughing.” Trump separated from his second wife Marla Maples in 1997 and began dating his third wife, Melania, in 1998.

Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump were friends in the 1990s. Now Michael Wolff says that at the time, Trump partied with "topless young women" at Epstein's home.

The Trump campaign hit back at Wolff for the claims, calling him “disgraced.” A campaign spokesperson said in a statement to the Beast, “Michael Wolff is a disgraced writer who routinely fabricates lies in order to sell fiction books because he clearly has no morals or ethics. 

“He waited until days before the election to make outlandish false smears all in an effort to engage in blatant election interference on behalf of Kamala Harris. He’s a failed journalist that is resorting to lying for attention 

Sources in the Trump camp claimed that he had severed his relationship with Epstein when he learned of allegations that he was a sex trafficker and pointed to his quote: “I was not a fan of Jeffrey Epstein. And you watched people yesterday saying that I threw him out of a club. I didn’t want anything to do with him. That was many, many years ago.” 

That's the story. Trump's sued others for defamation and Trump has not sued Wolff.

Carville, here. Days ago. After Elon's tweet show. In that video, Carville references a video of Wolff on camera making the claim, here, mere days before Carville published. Carville seemed careful to phrase the story as allegations, and then some "if true" future guesswork. Etc. View the videos.

None of this is a Crabgrass breaking story. It is a recount of publishing by others.

If true: The FBI might have seized the photos, or they might have been placed elsewhere by Epstein before his latest apprehension and unusual death. Or they might never have been if Wolff is misrecollecting. Being dead, Jeffrey is unavailable to testify should litigation arise, and the law has rules applicable for such situations.

So, a swearing contest between Wolff and Trump, unless the FBI has the goods and if subpoenaed in litigation Patel gives honest disclosure. Who knows? Unless Trump sues.

 What does Elon know, and when did he know it?

UPDATE: Somewhere in the video Carville referenced "Polaroid or something" is recalled to have been mentioned by Wolff. If Polaroid, and not deteriorated, they could be proven as not recent AI doctored things, and dated, or so it would be hoped. It could be a point of contention - NOT ME, or DOCTORED IMAGE allegations would be less credible, should Patal's FBI produce something, if it comes to that.

Trump has the option of denial without litigating it. Lame? Sure, but Donald's done and said things before. Or the whole thing blows over.

FURTHER: It seems Wolff is placed to try, should he choose to, a suit claiming he was defamed by the Trump team's denial language, if claiming it is untrue. In the course of any such litigation, the underlying truth of what Wolff has alleged and repeated might be at issue, with the FBI conceivably holding and producing by subpoena evidence, or not. The statute of limitations for defamation tort, wherever, a case could be filed, should not have run since November 2024. The ball's in Wolff's court.

FURTHER: Web search.

Noting Mr. Trump's bozo big beautiful ego trip, for only a few multimillion dollars of your public money.

Link. What else did you expect, Malania and JD's spouse taking part? You ask too much. See if you spot JD and Stephen Miller among the mavens. Barron.

So long, folks.

JD chats with Glenn Beck, and gives a naval academy speech. Busy man, on small things. But what's he said?

The Beck thing is long, so the mid-item unredacted quote is too. Starting with JD talking:

 

If we see Germans do something incredibly offensive to American values, I think Americans are going to recoil a little bit at that. You know, I went to Germany very recently, very briefly, Glenn. 

Just to visit the troops and say, hello.

And I was hearing from Germans during that very brief visit on the ground, saying that they were worried about free speech policies in their own country.

Well, if we have 38,000 troops there and we're living amongst the Germans, we're literally defending their country.

I think you can expect Americans to at least express some negative opinions about some of the free speech policies they're seeing in Europe.

And, Glenn, you know this as well as anybody. Things that start in Europe. Sometimes come over to America. The same way that things that start in America, make their ways to Europe.

The kind of social media censorship that we've seen in western Europe.

It will -- it's already made its way to the United States. That's the story of the Biden administration, silencing people on social media.

So we will be very protective of American interests when it comes to things like social media regulation.

We want to promote free speech. We don't want our European friends telling social media companies that they have to silence Christians, or silence conservatives.

GLENN: Right.

J.D.: And I think there will be that friction over the next ten years. It's not that we're not friends. But there is a disagreement you didn't see ten years ago.

GLENN: Right. So they've decided they will not pursue being a leader in AI. But they will make all the rules. How confident are you, that we are in a -- a winning position here on AI?

It is advancing so rapidly. And the things that I hear that come out of China, it's either another way hipped. It's all a paper tiger. Or they're way ahead. Where are we, do you think, on AI and, you know, AGI.

J.D.: Well, I think that we're ahead, Glenn. But nobody -- nobody says that we're way ahead, should be believed. You know, in artificial intelligence, six months is a lifetime. Twelve months is a generation. We're probably 12 months, maybe two years ahead of where the Chinese are, when it comes to critical hardware, when it comes to necessary infrastructure. When it comes to the engineering talent. But that is not very far ahead at all. And we're really going to have to invest a lot in developing America's next generation of scientists. Glenn, we're going to have to make sure that our hardware companies, that we stop regulating them to death. That our energy infrastructure. That we stop regulating them to death. Because if we allow the Chinese to catch up. We may never ever have an edge on China in this space again.

And I think for a lot of people, artificial intelligence is a chat bot. It's something that maybe helps a college student write a paper.

No, no, no. The artificial intelligence that I'm worried about, Glenn, is the kind of intelligence that helps them develop next generation weapons. It helps their rockets and missiles hit their target, and 99 percent more accurate than the weapons that use artificial intelligence. They're just massive defense technology implications of this.

That it's kind of like, what would have happened, if the English Army had faulted the Americans in the Revolutionary War, and we had M-16s and they had muskets.

We don't want to be on our battlefield of the future and have -- you know, we have the muskets, and the Chinese have the M-16s. I think AI is the critical part of staying ahead of the Communist Chinese.

And it's something, look, we're very focused on. We have a great guy. It's David Sacks in the administration who is leading this effort. But it's full pedal to the metal, Glenn. We have to constantly be innovating and staying ahead of the game. We can't follow the European lead of regulating. We want America to innovate, and that's what we're doing.

GLENN: I spoke to the president a couple weeks ago. And, you know, I was going to ask him about nuclear energy. And he just volunteered. I said, what about energy with AI?

And he went to say, you know, we're talking about making them their own -- you know, their own utilities. And they can build it. We can clear, even if they want nuclear power plants. That didn't print.

I mean, I thought that was one of the bigger headlines of my lifetime. And nobody seemed to pick that up, or care about that.

And we do lose, if we don't have these power plants. Are we -- what are we doing to accelerate?

I mean, they need 99 percent of our power by 2028.

99 percent of the power that's currently being made.

We need power plants.

J.D.: Yeah. You're a smart guy, Glenn. Because I don't know what else the President said during that interview, but I doubt it's as important as that point.

GLENN: Nothing.

J.D.: This is a critical issue. And, yes, what we've done. We've had Lee Zeldin's EPA, and all of our environmental folks look at how we cut through the red tape. And make it possible. Because the market would do this. Right?

These companies would like to do that.is.

But it's the environmental bureaucrats that have told them, you can't really attach any power plant off-grid to a pure, you know, artificial intelligence hardware facility. We're tearing down those regulations and making it possible again.

And then, of course, Glenn, part of this is not just building these facilities, but it's powering them with the fuel that we need. And the president -- you hear this term, all of the above.

The President has really said, we're all of the above.

GLENN: Have to be.

J.D.: We're lowering the regulations on coal. We're powering the natural gas folks.

Petroleum, obviously, nuclear.

Like, this is a president who said, all power that we have, we need to put it into this prospect. And, Glenn, one important point on this. You look at a chart of electric degeneration, the People's Republic of China versus the United States.

GLENN: Uh-huh.

J.D.: Four years ago, we blew them out of the water. Right now, the PRC is producing about three times as much electricity as we are. And we flatlined in the last 20 years. That innovation. That development.

That's got to change. We've got to be producing more power for the next wave of innovation. 

It's maybe the most important part of the puzzle.

Okay. Elon's and other AI will have little local ill-regulated nukes. NIMBY shout-out. Watch Out!

And coal? And the Europeans don't like Nazi-talk but we are better on that.

And the Chinese. There always are the Chinese. If we need a scapegoat, they're there and on the verge.

The academy speech here's my YouTube link. Forty minutes. Didn't bother watchng, but you're in charge of your own time. Hope he said wise and trenchent things. Doubt it.

 Talking to Glenn Beck, wherever he's gone to, and a commencement speech to military people.

JD's out there, but seeming to not be pumping iron over the BB Bill stuff. Or the manufactured spat between money/power as Elon and Trump are phrased by too much of the media.

Just stuff. Glenn Beck had his fifteen minutes of fame, but he's not the hot topic today. 

But little nukes, every server farm having a shot of installing whatever? Great idea, maybe. Just NIMBY. A lot of other back yards are out there, Wyoming or whatever.

Trump and JD are necessary for this nation and so are likely, in balance, good for the nation, but deep reflection is needed to believe that.

 Readership recently has been high in Vietnam.

That is interesting because Vietnam, the stepping into the void France left was coinciedent with Kennedy being killed. It was the start of what now is Trump's administration playing out.

Policeman for the world, bankroller for the world is no longer viable.

Debt is real and the percent of the federal annual payments going out the door that debt service represents is substantial.

Trump and JD represent saying the nation has to change. And there's something there.

The tariff war is simply a needed readjustment. The Ukraine war and NATO being at odds is primarily a European situation that Europe needs to resolve. The economic engines of the U.S. and of China differ, and India has its own massive population relative to our nation, as well as a border situation with Pakistan. One those two nation need to work out, and the U.S. and Europe are not key there.

Climate truth is what it is.

We as a nation are not in decline as much as we are in the process of yielding power and looking at what is best domestic policy. The existing fiction of cutting taxes on wealth while running up debt is not prosperity, but bad policy, if not pure madness. We are a multi-national world, and the economy of the United States is a major part of that story.

But not the full story. We are not exceptional as we were when World War II ended, and we suffered no domestic loss while prospering by funding those at war. We had a plan to rebuild things which has now lived too long. What we do next is major, and being realistic with Europe and China are things the Trump election makes us face.

Bernie makes us face who we could be, and Trump has us facing his notions which are popular with a major segment of the voting public.

We are in flux, and the position here is that Bernie is right. That does not include his total support of the auto workers union, as one example. During the time before Japan was addmtted to the U.S. auto market the auto industry ownership and the unions were produciong junk cars and excluding competition. Automation loomed, and the cowardly way out was to let the Japanese automate and compete, and produce a better positioned competitive product. A market solution without comflict here because what was being done was not transparent.

Now AI can replace the pencil pushers and the sparse real jobs in ,manufacturing as we move to where leisure and having less become things that need attention. Drug use and depression and Angst are ways of dealing with more leisure and fewer toys, and we should welcome having more time of our own.

Politics needs to adjust, and the Biden - Harris -Clyburn - Pelosi machine is tired and worn.

Musk leaves, saying the tariff war as was started and ongoing is stupid, thus calling Trump stupid, and being exited for it. Where the nation goes is to be learned, but Trump pushed the problem into sight.

We see, over time, and the Chinese should not want war anymore than us thinking it an option.

Patience helps.