Iowa Shock

Plus: Mamdani's 2-K plans, bed bugs at the USDA, and more...

Primary results trickle in: We have nothing useful out of California yet—current mayor Karen Bass has advanced in her bid for reelection, but it's not clear who she'll be up against in the general, possibly Spencer Pratt; Republican Steve Hilton and Democrat Xavier Becerra are leading the results for governor. What we do have is an interesting upset in Iowa.

Republican Rep. Randy Feenstra, who was endorsed by President Donald Trump, lost his primary in the race for governor to Zach Lahn, a conservative farmer who was endorsed by former U.S. Rep. Steve King (R–Iowa), who has personal beef with Feenstra.

"Iowa leans red and backed Trump by 13 percentage points in 2024, but Democrats think they can make the race unusually competitive this year with a strong candidate and a backlash to Trump's second term," reports The Washington Post. "The Republican nominee for governor will face Iowa State Auditor Rob Sand, who ran unopposed in the Democratic primary." There is, of course, always the temptation to extrapolate from a single political outcome; it remains to be seen how normal American voters will react to Trump-endorsed candidates. Is Trump still a kingmaker? When November rolls around, we'll learn more.

As for this race, Feenstra kind of phoned in his campaign, and Lahn was able to work the MAHA ("Make America Healthy Again") angle—an RFK-esque brand of Trumpism, but somewhat distinct from full MAGA. So Lahn's victory in Iowa probably shouldn't be read as a total repudiation of Trump.

"Feenstra's defeat makes him the highest-profile candidate endorsed by Mr. Trump to lose a Republican primary race in years—perhaps since Luther Strange, an appointed senator in Alabama, fell to Roy Moore in a 2017 special election primary," notes The New York Times. "Mr. Moore went on to lose the general election to Doug Jones, a Democrat."

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Scenes from New York: Yesterday, Mayor Zohran Mamdani went down to Rockaway Beach (coincidentally, my old stomping grounds) to announce he'd be expanding the city's daycare program to cover 2-K—that is, "free" preschool for 2-year-olds—in addition to 3-K, which is already universally provided. (Nothing is ever free; more on that later.)

A limited number of spots (2,000 total) will be available for toddlers in School Districts 6, 10, 18, 23, and 27, so: Washington Heights, Inwood, Fordham, Kingsbridge, Canarsie, Brownsville, Ocean Hill, Ozone Park, and the Rockaways. These are all poorer neighborhoods in far north Manhattan, the Bronx, east Brooklyn, and south Queens. These spots will mostly be full-day, so from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., and the program is slated to expand over the next four years to cover the remaining roughly 48,000 2-year-olds who might want a spot.

Of course, the real Mamdani goal is not just to expand to 2-year-olds, but to cover every child in New York City from 6 weeks of life onward—at extraordinary cost to taxpayers. What this ends up being, in many cases, is a handout from the well-off to the well-off; but note how Mamdani's 2-K announcement tries to subliminally plant the idea in New Yorkers' heads, by prioritizing the poor neighborhoods, that actually it's just a necessary resource for the city's struggling working-class families.

More of my reporting on New York's childcare system and the socialists' dream of universal everything:

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QUICK HITS

• Florida tries suing ChatGPT's maker, OpenAI. "Sam Altman and ChatGPT have chosen the AI race over the safety and security of our kids. They have chosen profit over public safety, and we're not going to stand for it here in Florida," said the state's attorney general, James Uthmeier, at a press conference earlier this week. I don't anticipate this going especially far.
• Huge advances in pancreatic cancer treatment: "Daraxonrasib hit every marker important to doctors and patients. The drug doubled survival time and kept tumors from growing for twice as long compared to conventional chemotherapy," reports Bloomberg. "Even better, people taking the drug had about five more months before their quality of life deteriorated compared to those on chemotherapy. And because daraxonrasib is a pill, patients are spared the burden of going to a facility and being tethered to an IV pump. For a cancer known for its brutal progression, those things—being able to receive care at home, having more quality time—truly matter."
• There's a bed bug infestation at the USDA:

Incredible scoop from @EricM_Katz https://t.co/ZiuwwYKgge pic.twitter.com/yxAFlTBymZ

— Jeff Stein (@jstein_star) June 2, 2026

• I've noticed this too:

Something I've noticed quite a bit is that we have this ongoing subtle expansion of the service economy but it's often sort of intermingled with the healthcare economy. Every 6 months I will discover some sort of new-to-me profession (recent examples: Occupational Therapist,… https://t.co/B5A5atL9vC

— Scarlet Astrorum (@ScarletAstrorum) June 2, 2026

Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

We have nothing useful out of California yet...

Reagan was somewhat useful.

[Fist of Etiquette]

...current mayor Karen Bass has advanced in her bid for reelection...

She's on fire!

[Ska]

Man, remember the old NBA Jams arcade game?

[Rev Arthur L kuckland (5-30-24 banana republic day)]

Wow with no examples the Iowa reporting is completely useless

[JesseAz (RIP CK)]

Reason has hundreds of articles on George Floyd, pushing the cant breathe narrative while ignoring the drug use and likely cause of death (original medical examiner claim) of an OD.

They've been silent on cops handcuffing a white British citizen who literally couldn't breathe due to being stabbed. Likely due monitor hurting their open borders demands.

https://legalinsurrection.com/2026/06/henry-nowak-killing-highlights-two-tier-standard-on-identity-policing-and-justice-in-britain/

Video from the scene, which has sparked fury in the UK, shows Henry Nowak, 18, repeatedly telling police officers “I can’t breathe” after being stabbed with an 8-inch blade in an unprovoked attack in Southampton, England, according to authorities.

I bet reason has an article against the British protests before they have one against the British DEI and immigration policies.

[Mike Parsons]

"Restore Britain pounces..."

[But SkyNet is a Private Company]

This

[Vernon Depner]

It's too late to restore Britain. It's gone.

[Don't look at me! ( Is the war over yet?)]

In 2019, there were about 150,000 people working in autism therapy.
Six years later, there were 654,000—more than the number of people who work in mining and logging, or telecommunications, or at the US Postal Service.

I bet they are all Somalians.

[Chuck P. (Now with less Sarc more snark)]

Yup. This is pure graft.

[Mike Parsons]

wait for the NYC daycare grift to start. its going to be catastrophic

[Ska]

The grift will be cheaper than the future lawsuits.

[Vernon Depner]

The level of corruption in this country protects us from nationalizing medical care. If we set up a National Health Service in the USA, it would be looted to the bare walls within months. Politicians know that.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Republican Rep. Randy Feenstra, who was endorsed by President Donald Trump, lost his primary...

Defeenstrated. (Feel free to use that.)

[Fist of Etiquette]

Of course, the real Mamdani goal is not just to expand to 2-year-olds, but to cover every child in New York City from 6 weeks of life onward—at extraordinary cost to taxpayers.

State indoctrination always ends up very expensive.

[But SkyNet is a Private Company]

They want to raise your kids. You can already lose them if you try to unlearn their programming. Soon, you will be arrested.

[JesseAz (RIP CK)]

So much of the outrage and political power of the left still comes from media activists pushing false narratives. Globe and Mail finally admits they were wrong on the Canadian mass Graves story. Most of media refuses. Despite the civil liberties abused due to the media driven story.

https://thefederalist.com/2026/06/02/canada-needs-a-real-reckoning-for-the-mass-graves-hoax/

We see the same issues with reason.

But in 2021, evidence and actual reporting didn’t matter, and the hoax was simply reported as fact. The outrage that followed was immediate and forceful. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who sought to make this Canada’s very own “George Floyd incident,” ordered flags lowered to half-mast at all federal buildings “to honour the 215 children whose lives were taken at the former Kamloops residential school” — as if the children had been murdered by Catholic nuns.
...
In the meantime, vigilante violence broke out across the country. Dozens of Catholic churches were set ablaze by arsonists or vandalized in the wake of the Kamloops story, including historic churches that belonged to indigenous congregations, as well as churches that had no connection whatsoever to the residential schools. The ones that weren’t burned to the ground often had “charge the priests” scrawled in red paint on the walls. Trudeau said nothing. Most local authorities said nothing. The executive director of the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association posted on X, “Burn it all down.”
..
Ironically, while this anti-Catholic hysteria unfolded there was an effort underway to criminalize dissent on the question of the residential schools. Indigenous rights activists demanded a law criminalizing what they called “residential school denialism” and categorizing it as hate speech.

We see the same behaviors against conservatives now. Democrats pushing for death and re-education of their enemies. Arson and assassination attempts. And Jacob sullum pushing the same bullshit narratives

[Mike Parsons]

This one was in the same realm as Russia gate. It was so fervently pushed, by so many, for so long, that it was taken as basically religious dogma by party faithful.

And similar to russiagate as well, now that its been thoroughly debunked, the retraction is on page 15 in small print, where no one will see it, and theyll go on thinking the narrative true.

We just had one of the spergtards the other day on here doing the "Trump is a Russian plant" schtick that made me think it was 2016 again.

The grave hoaxes had the same effect. Lefty headline readers still think the mass graves were real and talk about it like we havent seen it debunked at all. The propaganda worked as intended

[JesseAz (RIP CK)]

Yeah. Canadian government is still continuing to push charges against those who deny it.

[Vernon Depner]

Children die. In the not too distant past, they died much more frequently. When large numbers of children were gathered together in one place, quite a few of them died there. Nothing to see here.

[TrickyVic (old school)]

""We see the same behaviors against conservatives now.""

Now? Where have you been for the last decade?

[JesseAz (RIP CK)]

Fair.

[Spiritus Mundi]

The lies were so well crafted, they even made up ages of the 'victims':

"We had a knowing in our community that we were able to verify," said the band's chief, Rosanne Casimir.

"Some were as young as three years old," she continued, asserting "the final resting place of these children" was in the Kamloops Indian Residential School.

[JesseAz (RIP CK)]

The Justice Department announced Tuesday that two foreign researchers with the National Institutes of Health have been charged with conspiracy to smuggle monkeypox into the United States and giving false statements to federal law enforcement.
. ..
The two men, who worked at the NIH's Rocky Mountain Laboratory in Montana, claimed the case contained diagnostics and testing equipment, but a subsequent investigation by CBP and the FBI revealed it contained 113 vials in Styrofoam coolers. The FBI has tested 20 of the vials so far and 17 have contained deactivated monkeypox virus.

“These NIH experts apparently broke our laws by smuggling viral pathogens on a packed commercial airplane from an outbreak in the Republic of Congo," United States Attorney Jerome Gorgon said in a statement. "Let that sink in."

https://justthenews.com/government/federal-agencies/doj-charges-foreign-nationals-working-nih-smuggling-monkeypox-us-lying

[Rev Arthur L kuckland (5-30-24 banana republic day)]

The article says 2 men so are they chinks or muzzies?

[Vernon Depner]

Montana men.

[Spiritus Mundi]

The department accused 53-year-old Vincent Munster, a citizen of the Netherlands, and 38-year-old Claude Kwe, a citizen of Cameroon,

[Rev Arthur L kuckland (5-30-24 banana republic day)]

Daraxonrasib hit every marker important to doctors and patients. The drug doubled survival time and kept tumors from growing for twice as long compared to conventional chemotherapy,"

Unfortunately Trump said it look like a great drug and a promising drug, so naturally all of the beaurocrats banned it

[Vernon Depner]

I would just go ahead and check out rather than be gravely ill for five more months.

[JesseAz (RIP CK)]

While Reason fights against restitution for conservative lawfare they are largely ignoring the growing movement of socialism abd communism. Sorry, they call it inefficient.

https://www.cnn.com/2026/06/01/politics/kfile-ny-13-darializa-avila-chevalier-deleted-tweets-defund-abolish-police-prisons-deportations?Date=20260601

Darializa Avila Chevalier, a democratic socialist congressional candidate endorsed by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, deleted a previous Twitter account that included thousands of posts and reposts expressing support for abolishing police, prisons and borders, as well as seizing private property and nationalizing major industries and calling into question Israel’s right to exist.

[JesseAz (RIP CK)]

Stanford caught engaged in money laundering with china to hide donations from CCP connected donations. Using pass through orgs to hide source of donations.

https://stanfordreview.org/investigation-stanford-receives-chinese-state-linked-donations-2/

[JesseAz (RIP CK)]

If there was one thing you'd think a libertarian magazine would be pushing strongly it would be the uncovering and investigations into fraud. Some estimates out it at 1T a year in federal program fraud.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/fraud-game-worn-kobe-bryant-sneakers-ferraris-taxpayer-funds/

Sadly crickets.

[Rev Arthur L kuckland (5-30-24 banana republic day)]

Reason is a globalist diversity is our strength outlet. Go to spiked if you want libritarian

[JesseAz (RIP CK)]

No duh. Glad reason didnt fall for it. Oh wait...

former senior intelligence community official under President Barack Obama reported concerns earlier this year that the Hunter Biden laptop letter signed by 51 former intelligence officials in 2020 bore characteristics “consistent with coordinated intelligence deception operations,” according to a memo the ex-official submitted to the intelligence community inspector general.

https://justthenews.com/accountability/political-ethics/ex-obama-intel-official-referred-hunter-biden-letter-over-concerns

[Rev Arthur L kuckland (5-30-24 banana republic day)]

Also hunter Biden is a gifted artist. It is odd that no one buys his art anymore

[JesseAz (RIP CK)]

Woman brings cameras and eats woth detainees in Delaney Hall who media was pushing a Hunger Strike story. Glad reason didnt fall for it. Oh wait..

https://redstate.com/nick-arama/2026/06/02/homan-and-gop-rep-destroy-dem-propaganda-on-delaney-hall-ice-facility-n2202947

The detention center uses the same cafeteria services as event halls and sports stadiums. Easy to confirm with simple research. But they fell for it.

[Quicktown Brix]

That should read "Homan brings cameras and eats with detainees in Delaney Hall who media was pushing a Hunger Strike story." in case anyone thought it was a private citizen's narrative and not the state's narrative being pushed here.

[JesseAz (RIP CK)]

Maines own Nazi goes with the Massie strategy.

Graham Platner for Senate
@grahamformaine
Susan Collins's latest financial report just came out.

A staggering one-third of her money raised this quarter came directly from AIPAC.

Senator Collins is bought and paid for by Benjamin Netanyahu, and she votes accordingly.

Of course he is terrible at math. Why he is a socialist.

Emily Zanotti
@emzanotti
They clearly don’t teach decimal points at Platner’s five-figure-a-year prep school. Collins raised $10M. AIPAC donated $350K. That is…not one third of her money.

[JesseAz (RIP CK)]

ADL weighs in.

ADL
@ADL
You can disagree with AIPAC and the policies it supports or oppose the presence of money in politics completely. But claiming that American officials who receive support from an American organization composed of Americans citizens are "bought and paid for by Benjamin Netanyahu" invokes classic antisemitic rhetoric.

Such accusations call up the age-old dual loyalty trope that casts Jewish Americans as more loyal to Israel than their own country. This hateful undermines their civic credibility and marginalizes their voices in public life.

[Rev Arthur L kuckland (5-30-24 banana republic day)]

Nazi hates jews? Really? Jesse, your loosing your fastball

[Mike Parsons]

""free" preschool for 2-year-olds—in addition to 3-K"

We dont have pre-K in my state until kids are 4. This isn't pre school, nor does the 2 year old need it. The kid needs its parents.

This is the state raising your kids for you.

[TrickyVic (old school)]

This is the state raising your kids for you.

Deserves repeating.

[Chuck P. (Now with less Sarc more snark)]

Yes, and that is the goal. Marginalize the role of the family in the life of the child.

[Vernon Depner]

Stop subsidizing the reproduction of indigent unmarried women.

[Medulla Oblongata]

Scenes from NYC:

Mamdani breaks promise, pays bribes to do the right thing on class-size law

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/mamdani-breaks-promise-pays-bribes-to-do-the-right-thing-on-class-size-law/ar-AA24Ila8

Insane: Mayor Zohran Mamdani has to bribe the city teachers union so that it will OK the Legislature delaying the impact of the noxious class-size law to help him balance his budget.

This deal not only exposes how closely state lawmakers guard the interests of the United Federation of Teachers, its details reveal how perverse that law truly is.

[Rev Arthur L kuckland (5-30-24 banana republic day)]

New law, for every student that isn't reading at grade level the adult paid to be in the room looses 1% of its pay

[Ska]

"isn't reading at grade level"

"looses 1%"

*facepalm*

Sorry, the lose/loose misspelling drives me up a fucking wall. I see it spelled wrong more often than spelled right.

[TrickyVic (old school)]

If Citizens United is overturned. A law should be passed to keep union money out of politics.

""to help him balance his budget.""

He also is deferring pension payments for four years.

[Adans smith]

'Teaching' 2 year old kindergarten will be a very shitty job.

[Mike Parsons]

ripe for 'learing center' level fraud as well

[Fist of Etiquette]

Sam Altman and ChatGPT have chosen the AI race over the safety and security of our kids. They have chosen profit over public safety, and we're not going to stand for it here in Florida...

No particular fan of Altman but does this hackneyed spiel still work on people?

[Medulla Oblongata]

All lives matter, right? Nope, skin color is the most important thing.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/the-police-have-been-failing-white-victims-for-decades/ar-AA24IAN4

The police have been failing white victims for decades

The deaths of Henry Nowak and George Floyd share unsettling parallels: arrested by officers who put them in handcuffs as they told them “I can’t breathe”, dying in front of the people who should have assisted them. Only one, however, triggered a sudden desire in Westminster’s establishment parties to reform the British state.

[Rev Arthur L kuckland (5-30-24 banana republic day)]

For the record Floyd said he couldn't breath while he was in his car

[Mike Parsons]

Turns out when you house a few speedballs of meth and enough fent to kill a horse, you may go into fulminant heart failure and pulmonary edema from it.

[Rev Arthur L kuckland (5-30-24 banana republic day)]

*cue music
The more you know

[Fist of Etiquette]

The drug doubled survival time and kept tumors from growing for twice as long compared to conventional chemotherapy...

Anything to avoid releasing an actual cure.

[Rev Arthur L kuckland (5-30-24 banana republic day)]

Think of how far cancer research would be if the US didn't waste time money and brain power finding a treatment for aids, the desires that would be ended by fags not being headonists

[Fist of Etiquette]

There's a bed bug infestation at the USDA...

SLEEP AT HOME YOU LAZY FUCKS

[Medulla Oblongata]

Remove SAT requirements from college admission, sounds like a great idea, what could possibly go wrong?

https://www.wsj.com/us-news/education/university-california-sat-requirement-reinstate-c3e32712?mod=hp_lead_pos10

University of California Professors Are Begging Schools to Reinstate the SAT

Open letter cites ‘severe preparation deficits’ among incoming students

More than 1,100 University of California math and science professors are urging UC regents to reinstate college-entrance exams, saying that unprepared students are lowering academic standards and draining teaching resources.

The request, delivered in a two-page letter last week, cites a sharp decline in readiness among students studying science, technology, engineering and math. Nearly one-third of students taking first-semester calculus at UC Berkeley “displayed severe preparation deficits,” the letter said.

[Mike Parsons]

getting really tired of the same old 'stupid leftist policy had the exact consequences everyone said it would but was called racist for'

[Medulla Oblongata]

California getting what they ask for, good and hard.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/california-gas-prices-set-to-rise-again-but-gavin-newsom-says-voters-made-the-call-back-in-2018/ar-AA24HShd

Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) has defended the California gas tax as the national average fuel cost in the U.S. continues to remain above $4/gallon amid the Iran war.

Newsom Defends California Gas Tax

In a post on the social media platform X on Tuesday, Newsom’s official Press Office handle quoted a post by the tabloid New York Post, which claimed that California had hiked gas prices again.

“Totally FALSE story,” the Press Office said, adding that the state’s gas tax increases “automatically” every year to “adjust for inflation.” The post also said that the decision was voted on by California’s voters before Newsom took office. “California voters said so back in 2018,” the post said.

“If you are going to cover the golden state, at least learn the laws first…or reach out ahead of time,” the post said. The New York Post report had cited a notice from the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration that outlined excise tax on gas would increase to $0.634/gallon from July 1st, 2026.

Notably, California charges an excise tax of $0.60/gallon of gas, as well as a state sales tax of $0.10/gallon, according to data shared by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). The U.S. also levies a federal tax of $0.18/gallon that is uniform across the 50 states.

[Spiritus Mundi]

...make the race unusually competitive this year with a strong candidate and a backlash to Trump's second term," reports The Washington Post.

Is there really blacklash, or is this just framing by people who hate Trump? Looks like wishcasting propoganda from the commies at WaPo.

[Spiritus Mundi]

From the why I need an AR and 30 round magazines department:

Paul Krugman calls for purging his political enemies.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/politics/government/columnist-attacked-by-trump-calls-for-de-magafication-of-us-similar-to-de-nazification-of-germany/ar-AA24AiRx

And the liberal media framing this as 'he was attacked by Trump' is priceless.