California Primary Results

A significant share of Aaron's attention on June 3 was drawn to the California primary results, which he found disappointing. He posted his own concern that the outcomes were "really not good for our chances long term," and followed the Steyer vs. Hilton governor's race closely as results came in, eventually concluding that it looked very hard for Steyer to pull ahead given the gap. He reposted others lamenting low youth turnout and the dominance of older, more conservative early votes, with one observer grimly noting that "all our problems are our own fault." Aaron's own post asked why everyone seemed to be ignoring what he saw as bad California results. His post on the race.

SCOTUS, Congress, and Democratic Politics

Aaron engaged heavily with several major political stories. He reposted sharp criticism of the Supreme Court's shadow docket ruling allowing Alabama to use a congressional map a lower court found was enacted with discriminatory intent — one legal observer called it "truly one of the worst things the court has done" in terms of both legitimacy and law. On the congressional side, Aaron reposted commentary praising the House War Powers vote on the Gaza conflict as a meaningful political signal — even if practically toothless — that Democrats had shed their fear of being labeled terrorist sympathizers. He also reposted criticism of Trump's imposition of political litmus tests on federal research grants, with a pointed note that a similar approach had already ended gender-affirming care for youth at most Medicaid-funded hospitals in blue states. The firing of Scott Pelley from CBS 60 Minutes drew his attention as well, with Aaron reposting analysis that Pelley's public statement was strategically designed to invite future leaks. SCOTUS Alabama ruling.

Other News and Cultural Notes

Aaron also reposted a few other items: a story about the Cornell University president who was caught on video contradicting his own account of a confrontation with a student, which Aaron flagged alongside the note that he had lied about the incident. The USDA's confirmation of deadly screwworm in U.S. cattle prompted a darkly humorous repost blaming Trump's policies. He reposted a thread on the Minnesota murders case, noting how it might have played out differently in a race-reversed scenario. And he reposted a lament about how COVID vaccine skepticism had robbed what should have been a "moon landing level triumph" of its cultural significance.