The Conversation -- June 24, 2024

Marie: Starting now, I will be mostly unavailable until late Tuesday. I may -- or may not -- be able to post some links during that period of time, but I won't be doing much.

Isabella Ramirez of Politico: "A Donald Trump spokesperson got into a tense exchange with CNN's Kasie Hunt over debate hosts Dana Bash and Jake Tapper on Monday morning -- just days before the former president is set to face off against President Joe Biden on the cable network this week. Hunt cut Karoline Leavitt's mic after an interview with the national press secretary on 'This Morning' aboutTrump's prep for Thursday's debate spiraled into an argument.... Leavitt called Bash and Tapper 'biased' and said Trump is 'knowingly going into a hostile environment.'... 'Ma'am, we're going to stop this interview if you're going to keep attacking my colleagues,' Hunt replied as the two spoke over each other."

Devlin Barrett & Perry Stein of the Washington Post: "U.S. District Judge Aileen M. Cannon dived into the minutiae of the Justice Department budget at a morning hearing about ... Donald Trump's indictment for allegedly mishandling classified documents.... Cannon showed a particular interest in how much special counsel appointments cost the government, at one point calling it a 'significant' amount of money, even though the totals represent a drop in the bucket of Justice Department spending.... Trump lawyer Emil Bove decried the proposal to limit Trump's ability to make such allegations, calling it 'a truly extraordinary effort to gag his ability to speak at a debate' and on the campaign trail.... Bove argued that the Justice Department had fundamentally erred by running a stand-alone special counsel investigation without sufficient oversight.... Cannon has shown an eagerness to delve into a host of legal issues raised by the defense, including some that are more commonly raised on appeal in other cases." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Cannon's inquiry into DOJ finances is preposterous. It's as if the Supremes heard a ridiculous claim of presidential immunity in a specific case that could be easily dismissed -- and instead pulled their chinny-chin-chins & opined that their decision would be so far-reaching and consequential it would be "a rule for the ages." Oh, wait. ~~~

~~~ ** That Time Trump Sneaked down to Mar-a-Lago. Katherine Faulders of ABC News: "A trip to Mar-a-Lago taken by ... Donald Trump that aides allegedly 'kept quiet' just weeks before FBI agents searched the property for classified materials in his possession raised suspicions among special counsel Jack Smith's team as a potential additional effort to obstruct the government's classified documents investigation, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News. The previously unreported visit, which allegedly took place July 10-12 in the summer of 2022, was raised in several interviews with witnesses..., as investigators sought to determine whether it was part of Trump's broader alleged effort to withhold the documents after receiving a subpoena demanding their return. At least one witness who worked closely with the former president recalled being told at the time of the trip that Trump was there 'checking on the boxes,' according to sources familiar...."

Lisa Mascaro of the AP: "Tom Jones and his American Accountability Foundation are digging into the backgrounds, social media posts and commentary of key high-ranking government employees, starting with the Department of Homeland Security. They're relying in part on tips from his network of conservative contacts, including workers. In a move that alarms some, they're preparing to publish the findings online. With a $100,000 grant from the Heritage Foundation, the goal is to post 100 names of government workers to a website this summer to show a potential new administration who might be standing in the way of a second-term Trump agenda -- and ripe for scrutiny, reclassifications, reassignments or firings.... The effort, focused on top career government officials who aren't appointees within the political structure, has stunned democracy experts and shocked the civil service community in what they compare with the red scare of McCarthyism."

Tom Sullivan of Hullabaloo caught up on a few of Trump's latest deranged musings. Thanks to RAS for the link.

** Texas. Kaitlin Sullivan & Jason Kane of NBC News: "A Texas law that banned abortions in early pregnancy is associated with a stark increase in infant and newborn deaths, a study published Monday in JAMA Pediatrics found.... Infant deaths in Texas rose by nearly 13% the year after SB8 was passed, from 1,985 in 2021 to 2,240 in 2022. During that same period, infant deaths rose by about 2% nationwide. Babies born with congenital anomalies also increased in Texas, by nearly 23%, but decreased by about3% nationwide. 'This is pointing to a causal effect of the policy; we didn't see this increase in infant deaths in other states,' said Alison Gemmill ... of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, who led the research."

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Lisa Rein of the Washington Post: "For decades, the Social Security Administration has denied thousands of people disability benefits by claiming they could find jobs that have all but vanished from the U.S. economy -- occupations like nut sorter, pneumatic tube operator and microfilm processor. On Monday, the agency will eliminate all but a handful of those unskilled jobs from a long-outdated database used to decide who gets benefits and who is denied, ending a practice that advocates have long decried as unfair and inaccurate. Commissioner Martin O'Malley's decision to jettison federal labor market data that was last updated 47 years ago follows a Washington Post investigation in December 2022 that revealed how the antiquated list of jobs was blocking many claimants who could not work from receiving vital monthly disability checks."

Drew Harwell of the Washington Post: "The U.S. Postal Service has shared information from thousands of Americans' letters and packages with law enforcement every year for the past decade, conveying the names, addresses and other details from the outside of boxes and envelopes without requiring a court order. Postal inspectors say they fulfill such requests only when mail monitoring can help find a fugitive or investigate a crime. But a decade's worth of records, provided exclusively to The Washington Post in response to a congressional probe, show Postal Service officials have received more than 60,000 requests from federal agents and police officers since 2015, and that they rarely say no.... The practice is legal, and the inspectors said they share only what they can see on the outside of the mail; the Fourth Amendment requires them to get a warrant to peek inside."

Presidential Race

Peter Alexander, et al., of NBC News: "The Biden campaign and its allies plan to hold 1,600 events and run a new slate of TV and digital advertisements ahead of Thursday's presidential debate, which they called 'one of the first moments ... where a larger slice of the American electorate' will tune in to the campaign, according to a new memo obtained first by NBC News. The events will include a nationwide mobilization of surrogates, events targeting groups the campaign sees as crucial to its coalition, like members of the LGBTQ community and college students, and 300 debate night watch parties.... [President] Biden is spending several days at Camp David preparing for Thursday's debate, including going toe-to-toe with his personal lawyer Bob Bauer, who is role-playing as Trump. Bauer also played Trump during debate preparation in 2020. Bauer is joined by a slew of Biden confidants who are working to prepare the president ahead of the debate, including former chief of staff Ron Klain, campaign chair Jennifer O'Malley Dillon and White House senior adviser Anita Dunn."

Jeffrey Sonnenfeld in a New York Times op-ed: "Recent headlines suggest that our nation's business leaders are embracing the presidential candidate Donald Trump.... That is far from the truth.... Mr. Trump continues to suffer from the lowest level of corporate support in the history of the Republican Party.... Not a single Fortune 100 chief executive has donated to the candidate so far this year, which indicates a major break from overwhelming business and executive support for Republican presidential candidates dating back over a century.... Their legitimate misgivings about [President] Biden are overwhelmed by worries about Mr. Trump, version 2024. Mr. Trump's primary conduits to the business community in his first term ... are gone, replaced by MAGA extremists and junior varsity opportunists.... Mr. Trump and his team are doubling down on some of his most anti-business instincts, including proposing draconian 10 percent tariffs on all imports; unorthodox monetary and fiscal policies, including stripping the Federal Reserve Board of its independence;... and devaluing the dollar -- all of which would drive inflation much higher."

Tom Boggioni of the Raw Story: "During an appearance on MSNBC on Sunday morning, a former executive vice president of the Trump Organization revealed that her former boss thought it was funny to make jokes about the Nazi ovens around Jewish employees. Speaking with host Ali Velshi, attorney Barbara Res, who worked for the former president for years before reportedly leaving because she refused to tolerate his 'explosive moods' any longer, was asked if the 'weird rants' he has been going on lately are something new.... [Res recalled] '... a time when we had just hired a residential manager, a German guy, and he [Trump] was bragging amongst executives about how great the guy was and he was a real gentleman and so neat and clean and then he looked at a couple of our executives who happen to be Jewish, and he said "Watch out for this guy, he sort of remembers the ovens," and then smiled.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: There was always something terribly wrong with Trump.

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Fenit Nirappil of the Washington Post: "State legislators and law enforcement are reinstating dormant laws that criminalize mask-wearing to penalize pro-Palestinin protesters who conceal their faces, raising concerns among covid-cautious Americans. Republican lawmakers in North Carolina are poised to overturn Gov. Roy Cooper's (D) recent veto of legislation to criminalize masking. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) said earlier this month she supports legislative efforts to ban masks on the subway, citing an incident where masked protesters on a train shouted, 'Raise your hands if you're a Zionist. This is your chance to get out.' Student protesters in Ohio, Texas and Florida have been threatened with arrest for covering their faces. Decades-old laws against masking -- often crafted in response to the hooded terror of the Ku Klux Klan -- are on the books in at least 18 states and D.C., according to the International Center for Not-For-Profit Law. Lawmakers in some areas passed legislation to create health exemptions during the coronavirus pandemic while other authorities vowed not to enforce the statutes."

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E.U. Adam Satariano & Tripp Mickle of the New York Times: "Apple is imposing unfair restrictions on developers of applications for its App Store in violation of a new European Union law meant to encourage competition in the tech industry, regulators in Brussels said on Monday. The charges further escalated a tussle between Apple, which says its products are designed in the best interest of customers, and E.U. regulators, who say the company is unfairly using its size and considerable resources to stifle competition."

Israel/Palestine, et al.

The New York Times' live updates of developments Monday in the Israel/Hamas war are here.

Michael Schwartz, et al., of CNN: "Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has defended his decision to go public about delays in the supply of weapons from the United States, saying months of private discussions did not yield any results.... Netanyahu claimed on Tuesday that the Biden administration was 'withholding weapons' in a video posted to X, claiming that Secretary of State Antony Blinken 'assured me that the administration is working day and night to remove these bottlenecks.' In response, US envoy Amos Hochstein told Netanyahu that his comments were 'unproductive' and 'more importantly, completely untrue.'... Amid the dispute, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Sunday reiterated the importance of Israel's relations with Washington ahead of a visit where he is scheduled to meet his US counterpart, Lloyd Austin, Blinken and other senior US officials. 'The United States is our most important and central ally. Our ties are crucial and perhaps more important than ever, at this time,' Gallant told reporters, according to a statement from the Israeli defense ministry."

Russia. Anton Troianovski & Ivan Nechepurenko of the New York Times: "Gunmen attacked synagogues and churches in two cities in southern Russia on Sunday, killing multiple police officers and a priest, in an apparently coordinated assault that underscored Russia's vulnerability to extremist violence. Officials said six of the gunmen were killed after shootouts in the two cities, Makhachkala and Derbent, in the predominantly Muslim region of Dagestan on the Caspian Sea. Wielding rifles and Molotov cocktails, they attacked a synagogue and a church in each of the two cities, according to the authorities and religious organizations."

The Conversation -- June 23, 2024

Presidential Race

Lisa Kashinsky of Politico: Donald Trump "couldn't stop talking about his upcoming [debate] against Joe Biden as he rallied in the president's adopted home turf of Philadelphia on Saturday night.... He mocked Biden for holing up behind closed doors at Camp David to prepare for the debate, suggesting the president would turn to illicit substances to boost his performance.... Trump ... claim[ed Biden] ... would get 'a shot in the ass' ahead of the bout ... and come on stage 'all jacked up.' He repeated, though indirectly, his claim that the president has used cocaine.... He disparaged CNN debate moderators Dana Bash and Jake Tapper, whom he called 'Fake Tapper.'... [Trump] has traded mock debates for a series of informal 'policy discussions' with senators, policy experts and other allies. And he has stayed on the campaign trail, hitting two events in two cities on Saturday alone."

One Sick Bastard. Marianne LeVine, et al., of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump expanded his portrayal of migrants as violent with a suggestion that they could be pitted in fights for entertainment. During a speech to Christian conservatives on Saturday afternoon, and again at a rally in Philadelphia that evening, Trump claimed that he told his friend Dana White, president of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, that he should start a spinoff competition featuring migrants.... At a post-fight news conference in Saudi Arabia later Saturday, White confirmed that Trump made the comments but said they were 'a joke.'... The remarks are part of Trump's broader pattern of using dehumanizing language when discussing immigrants...." A Politico story is here.

Yes, Trump Is Getting Worse. And It Sells. Josh Dawsey & Isaac Arnsdorf of the Washington Post: Donald Trump's "incendiary emails are part of a concerted strategy that has allowed the campaign to erase a financial lead that President Biden's campaign had opened up in recent months, according to people close to the former president who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak for the campaign. But experts in small-dollar fundraising say the solicitations are aggressive even by the standards of Trump's frequently hyperbolic and inflammatory language.... One person with knowledge of the pitches said donations increase any time Trump seems to be under attack or argues that he is being treated unfairly.... The Biden campaign condemned the messages, [in which Trump complained 'THEY WANT TO SENTENCE ME TO DEATH' by 'GUILLOTINE,'] as laying the groundwork for more violence."

Abraham Lincoln was literally shot in the head but okay. https://t.co/4Y1oMns5sP

— Brian Tyler Cohen (@briantylercohen) June 22, 2024

Meredith McGraw, et al., of Politico: "Trump keeps flip-flopping his policy positions after meeting with rich people." Like when he decided last week, after meeting with the Business Round Table, that immigrants with U.S. college degrees did not "poison the blood" of the country and had earned green cards along with their sheepskins. "Trump floated a similar idea during his 2016 campaign, saying at the time that forcing non-citizens to leave the U.S. shortly after graduating from college was 'ridiculous' and that they should have a path to citizenship. But once elected president, Trump reversed himself, restricting immigration and limiting visas for high-skilled professionals and employers.... [President] Biden revoked the order soon after taking office." MB: Do you brilliant business folks not realize that Trump can flip-flop again? (Also linked yesterday.)

What happens when you gather thousands of conspiracy theorists and gullible believers in Trumpy-QAnon lies? Ha ha ha. ~~~

~~~ At Least One Real Right-Wing Conspiracy! Yvonne Sanchez & Isaac Arnsdorf of the Washington Post: At a gathering in a Phoenix suburb, far-right Arizona delegates to the Republican National Convention plotted a coordinated release of Trump delegates, possibly out of fear that the "deep state" was controlling Donald Trump. "The exact purpose of the maneuver was not clear.... Whatever the goal, the Trump campaign rushed to head off the stunt and replace the delegates.... The fracas exposed the challenges of choreographing next month's convention in Milwaukee, where some 5,000 delegates and alternates will participate -- many of them inclined toward the falsehoods and baseless accusations that animate many of Trump's supporters.... Suspicions have circulated among Trump's supporters that covert saboteurs have somehow infiltrated their ranks." (Also linked yesterday.)

Book Report! Shawn McCreesh of the New York Times: "'Apprentice in Wonderland' [by Ramin Setoodeh], published Tuesday, depicts [Donald Trump] as a lonely and sometimes dotty man, longing for the days when he was still accepted by his fellow celebrities, even as he seems to crave political power.... 'He compares himself to Clint Eastwood and Marlon Brando, and sees himself in a lot of ways as an actor and a famous person,' said Mr. Setoodeh.... Talking about those simpler times, Mr. Trump slipped into a few moments of something approaching introspection, as when he accidentally admitted he 'lost the election' (though he quickly reversed himself to say 'when they said we lost')."

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Michigan. Carl Gibson of AlterNet: "Michigan state representative Neil Friske, who is a freshman Republican lawmaker representing a rural district in the northern part of the state, is now being held without bond, and potentially faces three felony charges. The Washington Post reported that Friske was arrested at approximately 3 AM Eastern Time on Thursday morning, following a 'late-night incident' involving a man with a gun chasing a woman, and potentially shots fired. While Friske hasn't yet been formally charged, police are reportedly requesting that prosecutors file charges of sexual assault, along with a separate assault charge and a gun charge.... Friske is one of the most conservative members of the lower chamber...." MB: Uh, where "conservative" means assaulting a woman, chasing her in the middle of the night and maybe shooting at her. Because what "conservative" really means is "white male power über alles."

New York. Hurubie Meko of the New York Times: "Columbia University placed three administrators on leave this week, a university spokesman said on Saturday. The moves came a little more than a week after images emerged showing the school officials sharing disparaging text messages during a panel discussion about antisemitism on campus. The panel, which focused on Jewish life on campus amid tensions over Israel's war in Gaza, occurred during a Columbia College reunion on May 31. The spokesman did not identify which officials were placed on leave, but The Washington Free Beacon, the website that first published the images, reported that they were Susan Chang-Kim, the vice dean and chief administrative officer; Cristen Kromm, the dean of undergraduate student life; and Matthew Patashnick, the associate dean for student and family support. Ms. Chang-Kim also exchanged texts during the event with Josef Sorett, the dean of Columbia College, [who is cooperating with investigators]." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The comments reported are no anti-Semitic, but they show complete disregard for the panelists. If you're a student who suspects university administrators don't care about your well-being, there's a good chance you're right.

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Israel/Palestine, et al. The New York Times' live updates of developments Sunday in the Israel/Hamas war are here.

News Ledes

New York Times: "The end of the unusually early heat wave that gripped much of the United States over the past seven days is in sight. But first, the country will need to endure another day, possibly two, of scorching hot temperatures in the Mid-Atlantic States and along the I-95 urban corridor on the East Coast. The National Weather Service predicts that the heat wave, which has more than 100 million people under heat advisory alerts, will last through early this upcoming week."

The New York Times yesterday liveblogged the Great American Heat Wave of June 2024. "On the first weekend of summer, a brutal heat wave took hold for a sixth consecutive day, continuing to scorch large swaths of the United States.... Heat-related emergency room visits spiked this week in regions of the United States that had been hit the hardest by the heat wave, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention."

The Conversation -- June 22, 2024

Meredith McGraw, et al., of Politico: "Trump keeps flip-flopping his policy positions after meeting with rich people. Like when he decided last week, after meeting with the Business Round Table, that immigrants with U.S. college degrees did not "poison the blood" of the country and had earned green cards along with their sheepskins. "Trump floated a similar idea during his 2016 campaign, saying at the time that forcing non-citizens to leave the U.S. shortly after graduating from college was 'ridiculous' and that they should have a path to citizenship. But once elected president, Trump reversed himself, restricting immigration and limiting visas for high-skilled professionals and employers.... [President] Biden revoked the order soon after taking office." MB: Do you brilliant business folks not realize that Trump can flip-flop again?

What happens when you gather thousands of conspiracy theorists and gullible believers in Trumpy-QAnon lies? Ha ha ha. ~~~

~~~ At Least One Real Right-Wing Conspiracy! Yvonne Sanchez & Isaac Arnsdorf of the Washington Post: At a gathering in a Phoenix suburb, far-right Arizona delegates to the Republican National Convention plotted a coordinated release of Trump delegates, possibly out of fear that the "deep state" was controlling Donald Trump. "The exact purpose of the maneuver was not clear.... Whatever the goal, the Trump campaign rushed to head off the stunt and replace the delegates.... The fracas exposed the challenges of choreographing next month's convention in Milwaukee, where some 5,000 delegates and alternates will participate -- many of them inclined toward the falsehoods and baseless accusations that animate many of Trump's supporters.... Suspicions have circulated among Trump's supporters that covert saboteurs have somehow infiltrated their ranks."

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When they censor any mention of Donald Trump's criminal convictions, they are essentially trying to ban a fact. I am not aware of any precedent where factual statements have been banned in our lifetime. -- Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.)

If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is because everything would be what it isn't. And contrariwise, what it is, it wouldn't be, and what it wouldn't be, it would. You see? -- Alice, Alice in Wonderland ~~~

~~~ A World of Their Own. Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "The history-making felony conviction of ... Donald J. Trump has raised some historic questions for the House's rules of decorum.... The Republicans who now hold the majority have used those rules to impose what is essentially a gag order against talking about Mr. Trump's hush-money payments to a porn actress or about the fact that he is a felon at all, notwithstanding that those assertions are ... the basis of a jury's guilty verdict. Doing so, they have declared, is a violation of House rules.... Perhaps the only place in the United States where people are barred from talking freely about Mr. Trump's crimes is the floor of what is often referred to as 'the people's House,' where Republicans have gone so far as to erase one such mention from the official record.... [BUT] Republicans have exempted themselves from that equal treatment standard when it comes to President Biden, whom they routinely accuse of criminal conduct despite having produced no evidence of any." (Also linked yesterday.)

National Crime Blotter

Jesse McKinley & Kate Christobek of the New York Times: "Prosecutors in Manhattan said on Friday that a judge should keep in place major elements of a gag order that was imposed on Donald J. Trump, citing dozens of death threats that have been made against officials connected to the case. The order, issued before Mr. Trump's Manhattan criminal trial began in mid-April, bars him from attacking witnesses, jurors, court staff and relatives of the judge who presided over the trial, Juan M. Merchan. Mr. Trump's lawyers have sought to have the orderlifted since Mr. Trump's conviction in late May. But in a 19-page filing on Friday, prosecutors argued that while Justice Merchan no longer needed to enforce the portion of the gag order relating to trial witnesses, he should keep in place the provisions protecting jurors, prosecutors, court staff and their families....

"Prosecutors said the threats were 'directly connected to defendant's dangerous rhetoric,' and cited several examples, including a post that depicted cross hairs 'on people involved in this case.' Others were homicidal messages directed at Mr. Bragg or his employees, including, 'We will kill you all' ... and 'Your life is done.' Four of the threats were referred for further investigation, according to the police affidavit." The NBC News report is here. (Also linked yesterday.)

Perry Stein of the Washington Post: "U.S. District Judge Aileen M. Cannon on Friday pressed the special counsel team prosecuting Donald Trump to explain Attorney General Merrick Garland's role in overseeing the classified-documents case and then criticized a lawyer on the team for being cagey with his response.... Based on the proceedings, it's unclear how Cannon will rule on the dismissal motion, but she acknowledged that precedent seems to support Garland's appointment of [special counsel Jack] Smith and that there would be a high legal bar for overturning it.... Next week, Cannon is scheduled to hear arguments on requests from prosecutors to restrict Trump from making any further incendiary claims that falsely suggest that FBI agents were 'complicit in a plot to assassinate him,' as well a motion from Trump's attorneys to disqualify the use at trial of audio notes that investigators obtained from one of his attorneys, Evan Corcoran." Politico's report is here.

Trumpity Doo-Dah. Edward Helmore of the Guardian: "The Missouri attorney general, Andrew Bailey [R], has confirmed that he is suing the state of New York for election interference and wrongful prosecution for bringing the Stormy Daniels hush-money case to a trial that saw Donald Trump convicted of 34 felonies.... Bailey claims the hush-money case was brought to smear the presumptive presidential nominee going into November's election and that New York's statute of limitations on falsification of business records, a misdemeanor, expired in 2019. But Bailey also told [Fox 'News'] that he recognized that any attempt by one state to sue another would probably go straight to the US supreme court." Thanks to RAS for the link. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Uh, the State of New York did not try Trump for violating a New York state records act. An entirely separate government entity -- Manhattan County -- tried Trump. One would think that an A.G. of any state would know the difference between a county and a state. I'm so confused.

John Fritze & Tierney Sneed of CNN: "Steve Bannon ... asked the Supreme Court on Friday to pause his prison sentence while he appeals his conviction for contempt of Congress. A federal appeals court on Thursday night rejected his bid to delay the start of his sentence." (Also linked yesterday.)

Danny Hakim & Jack Healy of the New York Times: "A Nevada judge on Friday threw out the state's case against the six Republicans who claimed to be presidential electors and tried to declare Donald J. Trump the winner of the 2020 election. The judge, Mary Kay Holthus, said that state prosecutors had chosen the wrong venue to file the case. John Sadler, a spokesman for Attorney General Aaron D. Ford, said, 'We disagree with the judge's decision and will be appealing immediately.'" The judge determined that the case should have been filed "up north" in the state capital, Carson City, where she has determined that most the allegedly illegal acts took place, rather than in Las Vegas, the locus of her court. The NBC News story is here. (Also linked yesterday.)

Frances Vinall of the Washington Post: "David DePape, who was sentenced to 30 years in prison on federal charges after he broke into Nancy Pelosi's San Francisco home and bludgeoned her husband [Paul Pelosi], was convicted Friday of five additional charges in a California court.... A [California] jury found DePape guilty of separate charges brought by California, including aggravated kidnapping, which mandates life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. DePape was also convicted of first-degree residential burglary; false imprisonment of an elder by violence or menace; threatening the life of a family member of a public official; and dissuading a witness by force or threat."

Presidential Race

Michael Scherer of the Washington Post: "President Biden quietly revealed his campaign's master strategy to defeat Donald Trump last month at a private fundraiser outside Seattle. 'When he lost in 2020, something snapped in him,' Biden said, a bumper sticker slogan he has been repeating ever since. The notion that the former president changed -- becoming more self-obsessed, more dangerous and more extreme -- has since been seeded throughout Biden's campaign, the result of months of polling, focus groups and ad testing, his advisers say. Independent Democratic groups that plan to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to help reelect Biden have come to similar conclusions in their own research, according to people familiar with that work who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the strategy." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I don't think it's true that "something snapped" in Trump. That suggests it's possible to pinpoint a moment or short span in time when Trump changed from marginally competent to deranged. Jamelle Bouie's assessment of progressive deterioration seems more correct: ~~~

~~~ Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times: "... with less than five months left before the election, [Donald Trump] is no more prepared for a second term than he was for a first. He may even be less prepared: less capable of organizing his thoughts, less able to speak with any coherence and less willing to do or learn anything that might help him overcome his deficiencies. Everything that made Trump a bad president the first time around promises to make him an even worse one in a second term.... Trump's authoritarian instincts -- his refusal to accept or even learn the rules of the constitutional system -- are a huge part of the reason he struggled in the job of president.... As [CBS newsman John] Dickerson writes, 'Trump is in rebellion against the presidency....'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Ramin Setoodeh, the author of a book on Trump's teevee show "The Apprentice" is making the book tour and opined the other day on MSNBC that Trump never really did any of his jobs -- businessman, tycoon, president, etc. Rather he just acted the parts. That's fair enough, but it's important to add that Trump isn't just a terrible actor; he also doesn't understand the jobs of the characters he's trying to play. A competent CEO doesn't relish saying "You're fired" to an employee; the CEO realizes that every firing is a failed hire. And a minimally competent president does few of the things that Trump made part of his daily White House schedule. His attempt to play president was an unintentional farce -- with consequences.

Jessica Piper & Madison Fernandez of Politico: "... Donald Trump's huge May fundraising haul erased President Joe Biden's longstanding cash advantage as the two gear up for a rematch. Trump's campaign had $116.6 million in the bank at the end of May, compared to $91.6 million for Biden." (Also linked yesterday.)

Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: "Named colloquially for the fanatical postal inspector Anthony Comstock, the 1873 [Comstock A]ct -- which is actually a set of anti-vice laws -- bans the mailing of 'obscene, lewd, lascivious, indecent, filthy or vile' material, including devices and substances used 'for producing abortion, or for any indecent or immoral purpose.' Though never repealed, it was, until recently, considered a dead letter, made moot by Supreme Court decisions on free speech, birth control and abortion. But with Roe overturned, some in Donald Trump's orbit see a chance to reanimate Comstock, using it to ban medication abortion -- and maybe surgical abortion as well -- without passing new federal legislation. The 920-page blueprint for a second Trump administration created by Project 2025 ... calls for enforcing Comstock's criminal prohibitions against using the mail -- widely understood to include common carriers like UPS and FedEx -- to provide or distribute abortion pills.... 'Believe them when they tell us what they want to do, because they will do it if they're given half a chance,' [Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.), a former Planned Parenthood official,] said."

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court ruled on Friday that the government may disarm a Texas man subject to a domestic violence order, limiting the sweep of its [2022] blockbuster decision that vastly expanded gun rights." Liptak doesn't say so (yet), but John Roberts wrote the 8-1 decision; Clarence Thomas dissented. Here's CNN's report. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Chris Geidner, Law Dork: "The decision was a not-so-subtle scaling-back of [Clarence] Thomas's 2022 decision in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen, despite that [Chief Justice John] Roberts insisted Friday's decision was only clarifying Bruen in light of the fact that, as he put it, 'some courts have misunderstood the methodology of our recent Second Amendment cases.'... Given [Thomas'] authorship of Bruen, his dissent on Friday is honestly the strongest evidence that Friday's decision was, indeed, a pulling back from Bruen. Beneath Roberts's opinion presenting a united front against Thomas's thinking, though, every justice in the majority, save for Justice Sam Alito, also wrote separately or joined one of the 49 pages of concurring opinions." MB: Maybe Sam alone did not write an opinion because he was otherwise tied up. ~~~

** Insufferable Sam, MIA. Shania Shelton of CNN: "Justice Samuel Alito was not present on Friday morning as the Supreme Court handed down opinions in the courtroom, the second day in a row he has been absent. Alito's absence, for which the Supreme Court has not provided an explanation, is unusual because it's the end of the term and the justices have issued nine opinions over the last two days." MB: Yeah, well, I'm thinking we're looking at what you could call a domestic issue here. Martha-Ann may be off her meds. Suppose she has locked Sam in the basement. Check the flag! Therein may lie a clue. (Also linked yesterday.)

Betsy Swan of Politico: "A surprising winner in the Supreme Court gun ruling [is] Hunter Biden.... The case decided Friday ... involved a provision of a federal gun-control law that bars people under domestic-violence restraining orders from having firearms. It's a sister provision to the drug-users prohibition that Biden was found guilty of violating.... [In his opinion,] Chief Justice John Roberts emphasized in his majority opinion that the justices were only greenlighting taking guns away from people who had first been deemed by a judge to pose a danger to others."

David Badash of AlterNet: "In a 6-3 decision along partisan lines the right-wing justices on the U.S. Supreme Court once again targeted the landmark 2015 Obergefell same-sex marriage decision, leading liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor to sound 'alarm bells' on marriage equality in her dissent a legal expert says, warning that they may try to 'roll it back.' The case involves Sandra Muñoz, a U.S. citizen who argued that the federal government's denial of a visa for her husband, who lives in El Salvador, deprives her of her constitutionally protected right to liberty. The right-wing majority in a decision written by Justice Amy Coney Barrett ruled: 'A citizen does not have a fundamental liberty interest in her noncitizen spouse being admitted to the country.'... [Sotomayor wrote,] '... The majority's holding will also extend to those couples who, like the Lovings and the Obergefells, depend on American law for their marriages' validity. Same-sex couples may be forced to relocate to countries that do not recognize same-sex marriage, or even those that criminalize homosexuality.... The constitutional right to marriage has deep roots.... The majority departs from longstanding precedent and gravely undervalues the right to marriage in the immigration context.'"

Elahe Izadi & Isaac Stanley-Becker of the Washington Post: "Robert Winnett, the British journalist recently tapped to become editor of The Washington Post later this year, will not take the job and will remain at the Daily Telegraph in London, according to a memo obtained by The Post on Friday.... Post CEO and publisher Will Lewis confirmed that Winnett had withdrawn from the position, relaying the news 'with regret' in a note to Post staff.... The announcement came after days of turmoil at The Post, triggered by the abrupt exit of executive editor Sally Buzbee as well as questions about the past practices of both Winnett and Lewis -- veterans of London newsrooms that operate by different rules than their American counterparts." MB: Gosh, Winnett never even had to pack. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times story is here. Its lede is a bit more forceful: "Robert Winnett, the editor selected to run The Washington Post, will not take up that position, after reports raised questions about his ties to unethical news gathering practices in Britain." (Also linked yesterday.)

** Robert Reich on his childhood friendship with Michael Schwerner, one of the three Freedom Riders beaten and murdered by members of the Klan, including a sheriff's deputy. The state of Mississippi refused to charge the assassins with murder.

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Florida. Patricia Mazzei of the New York Times: "... in a move that stunned arts and culture organizations, [Gov. Ron] DeSantis [R] vetoed the entirety of their grant funding -- about $32 million -- on June 12, leaving them scrambling to figure out how to offset the shortfall.... Mr. DeSantis ... gave no explanation for zeroing out the arts grants." MB: So either Gov. Phil I. Stein holds a general belief that art is for sissies or some artiste insulted him (maybe both). Donald Trump did not invent retribution; there are petty Republicans everywhere.

Louisiana. Rick Rojas, et al., of the New York Times: "Gov. Jeff Landry [R] wants his state to be at the forefront of a national movement to advance legislation with a Christian worldview.... He signed into law a mandate that the Ten Commandments be hung in every public classroom, demonstrating a new willingness for Louisiana to go where other states have not. Last month, Louisiana also became the first state to classify abortion pills as dangerous controlled substances.... The Christian political movement has been evident in debates across the country over transgender rights, school curriculums, in vitro fertilization and abortion." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The headline here is "Louisiana's Ten Commandments Law Signals a Broader Christian Agenda." But the movement is not especially Christian in its objectives. As with most religious teachers, the Jesus guy opposes bullying, most broadly expressed in the Sermon on the Mount: "So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets." The so-called Christian agenda is nothing if not bullying non-Christians to bow to Christian rules and requiring women and LGBTQ people to obey Christian men. Perhaps surprisingly, Jesus is quite ecumenical (see, for instance, the Parable of the Good Samaritan), pro-feminist (see, for instance, the Syro-Phoenecian woman who teaches Jesus a lesson) & undisturbed by "sinful" extra-marital sex (his healing of the Roman centurion's male sex slave and his acceptance of a prostitute [Luke 7]).

     ~~~ As for Louisiana's Ten Commandments law, the Gospels' Jesus would not be impressed: he was down to two: "Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." (Matthew 22)

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Vatican. Emma Bubola & Elisabetta Povoledo of the New York Times: "When reports spread that Pope Francis had used an offensive anti-gay slur while speaking to Italian bishops at a conference last month, many Catholics were both shocked and baffled. How could a pope known for his openness to and acceptance of L.G.B.T.Q. people use homophobic slang and caution prelates about admitting gay men into seminaries? But the question, and the apparent inconsistency in Francis' messaging, reflect the deep contradictions and tensions that underlie the Roman Catholic Church's and Francis' relationship to homosexuality. The church holds that 'homosexual tendencies' are 'intrinsically disordered.' When it comes to ordination, the church's guidelines state that people with 'deep-seated' gay tendencies should not become priests. Yet ordination has also long been a refuge of sorts for homosexual Catholic men, according to researchers and priests, who say that at least thousands of clergymen are gay, though only a few are public about their sexual orientation because of the stigma it still carries in the church."

News Lede

New York Times: "During the annual hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia, one of the most important events on the Muslim calendar, at least 450 people died under a scorching sun as they prayed at sacred sites around the holy city of Mecca. Amid maximum temperatures that ranged from 108 Fahrenheit to 120, according to preliminary data, and throngs of people, many passed out and needed medical care. The pilgrims, some who have saved their whole lives for the hajj, spend days walking and sleeping in tents during their journey to Mecca, the holiest city for Muslims. The hajj is one of Islam's five pillars, and all Muslims who are physically and financially able are obliged to embark on the pilgrimage. Indonesia has so far reported the most deaths, 199, and India has reported 98."