June 12, 2022

Afternoon Update:

The Prairie Dog Exception. In my state, they use [assault rifles] to shoot prairie dogs and, you know, other types of varmints. And so I think there are legitimate reasons why people would want to have them. -- Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), Minority Whip ~~~

~~~ Ten GOP Senators Realize They're on the Wrong Side of Public Opinion. Emily Cochrane & Annie Karni of the New York Times: "Senate negotiators announced on Sunday they had agreed on a bipartisan outline for a narrow set of gun safety measures with sufficient support to move through the evenly divided chamber, a significant step toward ending a yearslong congressional impasse on the issue. The plan, endorsed by 10 Republicans and 10 Democrats, would include funding for mental health resources, boosting school safety and grants for states to implement so-called red flag laws that allow authorities to confiscate guns from people deemed to be dangerous. It would also expand the nation's background check system to include juvenile records for any prospective gun buyer under the age of 21. Most notably, it includes a provision to address what is known as the 'boyfriend loophole,' which would prohibit dating partners -- not just spouses -- from owning guns if they had been convicted of domestic violence. The framework says that convicted domestic violence abusers and individuals subject to domestic violence restraining orders would be included in criminal background checks. The outline, which has yet to be finalized, falls far short of the sprawling reforms that President Biden, gun control activists and a majority of congressional Democrats have long championed, excluding a ban on assault weapons. And it is nowhere near as sweeping as a package of gun measures passed nearly along party lines in the House last week...." Politico's story is here.

Daniella Diaz of CNN: "Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Democrat who is on the House select committee investigating the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, said Sunday he believes Attorney General Merrick Garland knows 'what's at stake here' when it comes to a possible indictment of ... Donald Trump from the Department of Justice.... Rep. Adam Schiff, another Democratic member of the select committee, went a step further Sunday, saying he believes the DOJ should investigate potential criminal activity from Trump as it relates to January 6. 'I would like to see the Justice Department investigate any credible allegation of criminal activity on the part of Donald Trump or anyone else,' he said on ABC's 'This Week.'"

Brad Dress of the Hill: "Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) on Sunday said former President Trump is 'politically, morally responsible' for the Jan. 6 riot last year and called for Republicans to do some 'soul-searching' after the attack on the U.S. Capitol. Hutchinson told 'Fox News Sunday' guest host Bret Baier that while he did not believe Trump was criminally responsible for Jan. 6, he does think the former president shares blame for the insurrection. 'Trump is politically, morally responsible for much of what has happened, but in terms of criminal liability, I think the committee has a long way to go to establish that,' the governor said of the House select panel investigating Jan. 6." See also Patrick's comment below.

Emma Brown & Amy Gardner of the Washington Post: "A cybersecurity executive who has aided efforts by election deniers to investigate the 2020 vote said in a recent court document that he had 'forensically examined' the voting system used in Coffee County, Ga. The assertion by executive Benjamin Cotton that he examined the county's voting system is the strongest indication yet that the security of election equipment there may have been compromised following Donald Trump's loss.... In May, The Washington Post reported that former county elections official Misty Hampton had opened her offices to a man who was active in the election-denier movement to help investigate after the 2020 vote. Recounting the incident to The Post, Hampton said she did not know what the man, bail bond business owner Scott Hall, and his team did in her office.... [Cotton did not] explain how he gained access to voting system data from Coffee or provide evidence of his examination...."

The New York Times' live updates of developments Sunday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here.

Marie: Of course I never heard of John Cena. He's a wrestler & an actor, it turns out, and a mensch: ~~~

Misha, a non-verbal teen with Down’s Syndrome, didn’t understand why his family had to flee Mariupol this year.

To placate him, his mother told him they were travelling to meet John Cena.

Cena heard… and went to Amsterdam to oblige.

Just brilliant. pic.twitter.com/vix2OhkXZs

— Gavan Reilly (@gavreilly) June 11, 2022

~~~~~~~~~~

The Case Against Donald Trump: Opening Arguments. Peter Baker & Katie Benner of the New York Times: "For two hours on Thursday night, the House committee investigating the Capitol attack detailed what it called Mr. Trump's 'illegal and 'unconstitutional' seven-part plan to prevent the transfer of power. The panel invoked the Justice Department, citing charges of seditious conspiracy filed against some of the attackers, and seemed to be laying out a road map for Attorney General Merrick B. Garland to their central target[: Donald Trump]. Several former prosecutors and veteran lawyers said afterward that the hearing offered the makings of a credible criminal case for conspiracy to commit fraud or obstruction of the work of Congress. In presenting her summary of the evidence, Representative Liz Cheney, Republican of Wyoming and the committee's vice chairwoman, demonstrated that Mr. Trump was told repeatedly by his own advisers that he had lost the election yet repeatedly lied to the country by claiming it had been stolen. He pressured state and federal officials, members of Congress and even his own vice president to disregard vote tallies in key states. And he encouraged the mob led by extremist groups like the Proud Boys while making no serious effort to stop the attack once it began.... A Justice Department spokesman said Mr. Garland watched the hearing but would not elaborate." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Baker & Benner describe the case as "haunting" Donald Trump. But I would say it's a case that haunts the nation. Trump lacks the awareness to be "haunted." See also Maureen Dowd's column, linked below.

Betsy Swan & Kyle Cheney of Politico: "A day before a mob of Donald Trump supporters smashed their way into the Capitol to disrupt the transfer of presidential power, then-Vice President Mike Pence's top lawyer [wrote] a fateful memo. In the three-page document, attorney Greg Jacob concluded that if Pence were to embrace Trump's demand that he single-handedly block or delay the counting of electoral votes on Jan. 6, he would be breaking multiple provisions of the Electoral Count Act, the law that has governed the transfer of power since 1887. Such a move, Jacob concluded, would assuredly fail in court. Or worse, he said, the courts would refuse to get involved and leave America in an unprecedented political crisis.... Jacob is scheduled to testify publicly Thursday to the Jan. 6 select committee about Pence's decision to resist Trump's pressure campaign. The panel declined to comment on Jacob's memo. The memo informed Pence's ultimate decision to rebuff pressure from Trump to reverse the outcome of the election." Includes copy of Jacob's memo. ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times story, by Maggie Haberman, is here.

Maureen Dowd of the New York Times: "It never for a moment crossed Donald Trump's mind that an American president committing sedition would be a debilitating, corrosive thing for the country. It was just another way for the Emperor of Chaos to burnish his title.... In his dystopian Inaugural speech, Trump promised to end 'American carnage.' Instead, he delivered it. Now he needs to be held accountable for his attempted coup -- and not just in the court of public opinion."

Theo Zenou in the Washington Post: In 1955, a "group of seven intellectuals published ... an essay collection, ... [titled] 'The New American Right'... [which] has never looked more prescient.... The authors wrote that far-right activists who wrapped themselves in the American flag actually posed a grave threat to the country's core principles. In the name of protecting U.S. democracy, they warned, the radical right would employ the language and methods of authoritarianism.... [Sociologist Daniel] Bell's team of academics revised 'The New American Right' and rereleased it in 1963 as 'The Radical Right.' It would become a must-read for students of modern American history.... [The radical right] blasted free elections and the peaceful transfer of power, lamented the independence of the judiciary and opposed civil rights.... They posed as conservatives but in truth were authoritarians with a nihilistic urge to watch the world burn.... They lived amid what their successors would come to call 'alternative facts.'" ~~~

~~~ Sarah Bailey of the Washington Post: "Over the past year, parental rights have become a popular cause as Republicans have assailed pandemic measures and the teaching of gender and race in schools.... For Christian home-school advocates..., it's a long-awaited payoff.... Besides laying a foundation for the current wave of parental rights-related policies, conservative Christian home-school advocates are also taking an active role in making these policies law." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: What seems to have happened here is that Republicans, who have never had any policy principles beyond "just say no," continue to flail around looking for some "defining" principles. They have always found these "principles" in extremist movements, from Barry Goldwater's "extremism in defense of liberty" to Newt Gingrich's "Contract for America" to Donald Trump's white nationalism. The lunatics will always be with us. The fight to overcome them is a war without end.

Michael Wines, et al., of the New York Times: "... thousands of protesters rallied against gun violence on Saturday in Washington, D.C., and in cities across the country. With their signs, chants and mere presence, they condemned the drumbeat of mass shootings in the United States and renewed a call -- so far, a futile one -- for federal legislation to limit the use of the military-style weapons that have made many of them possible. Many vowed to fight the inaction at the polls. 'I'll be taking your thoughts and prayers to the ballot box,' read a sign carried by Maria Vorel, 67, who demonstrated at the Washington Monument.... The demonstrations [were] organized by [the student group] March for Our Lives...." ~~~

     ~~~ An NBC News report is here. A Washington Post report is here. A Texas Tribune report is here.

Death Comes to the Archbishop. Rick Rojas & Josh Peck of the New York Times: "The day after an 18-year-old gunman massacred 21 students and teachers at an elementary school [in Uvalde, Texas.]..., Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller [of San Antonio, Texas,] ... made a spontaneous and impassioned appeal to some of the many reporters who had swarmed into Uvalde: The nation must overhaul its gun laws, limiting access to weapons designed to maximize carnage and suffering, he said. It must also abandon what he described as an unsettling cultural embrace of violence these weapons represented.... Since the attack, the archbishop, whose vast domain of roughly 796,000 Catholics includes Uvalde, has emerged as one of the most visible and vocal gun control advocates in South Texas. He has delivered sermons, spoken at public gatherings, appeared on national television, and given interviews to local and international journalists."

Sharon LaFraniere of the New York Times: "Moderna's coronavirus vaccine for children under 6 is effective in preventing symptomatic infection without causing worrisome side effects, the Food and Drug Administration said on Friday night. Advisers to the F.D.A. are scheduled to meet next week to decide whether to recommend that the agency grant Moderna's request for emergency authorization of its vaccine for children ages 6 months to 17 years. They will also consider an application from Pfizer and its German partner, BioNTech, to clear its pediatric vaccine for children under 5. The F.D.A. is expected to release its analysis of Pfizer's application on Monday."

Beyond the Beltway

Idaho. Daniel Walters of the New York Times: "Dozens of members of a white supremacist group were arrested on Saturday in Idaho before they could act on plans to riot at a local Pride event, the police said. After receiving a tip from a concerned citizen, the police detained and charged 31 people who belonged to a far-right group known as Patriot Front, said Lee White, the chief of the Coeur d'Alene Police Department, at a news conference. They are being charged with conspiracy to riot, a misdemeanor, he said.... 'And they were all dressed like a small army,' Sheriff [Bob] Norris said.... The Anti-Defamation League, which tracks extremist organizations and hate crimes, describes Patriot Front as a Texas-based white supremacist group that formed when members of another white supremacist group, Vanguard America, broke off after the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017. The members arrested had come to Idaho from several states, the police said, including Texas, Utah, Colorado, South Dakota, Illinois, Wyoming, Washington, Oregon and Virginia." An AP report is here.

Way Beyond

Ukraine, et al.

The Washington Post's live updates of developments Sunday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "Fighting in the streets of Severodonetsk continues, with Ukrainian officials claiming Saturday that their forces still controlled a third of the city and a Moscow-backed local official saying Russian troops had encircled hundreds of Ukrainian fighters at a chemical plant.... Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky noted the 'fierce street battles' taking place in Severodonetsk in his nightly address and said that, with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen's visit to Kyiv on Saturday to discuss Ukraine's E.U. candidacy, 'the final phase of the big diplomatic marathon' had begun. A recommendation from the commission on Ukraine's status is expected next week.... Zelensky on Saturday responded to reports that Russian passports were being handed out in the Russian-controlled city of Kherson, saying, 'It looked like not a queue to get a passport, but an attempt to get a ticket to flee.'... Speaking at the Shangri-La Dialogue, China's defense minister appeared to play down his country's support of Moscow and said it had never given weapons to Russia in its war against Ukraine." ~~~

     ~~~ The Guardian's live updates for Sunday are here.

The New York Times' summary of Saturday's developments in Russia's war on Ukraine are here.

Dan Lamothe & Claire Parker of the Washington Post: "Russia is likely to seize control of the entire Luhansk region of Ukraine within a few weeks, a senior U.S. defense official said, as Ukraine sustains heavy casualties and its supplies of ammunition dwindle. Such a move would leave Russia short of its war aims of capturing all of Luhansk and Donetsk, which together make up the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine. But it would still amount to a win for Russian forces and create a new de facto front line that could last for some time."

David Keyton & John Leicester of the AP: "Ukrainian and British officials warned Saturday that Russian forces are relying on weapons able to cause mass casualties as they try to make headway in capturing eastern Ukraine and fierce, prolonged fighting depletes resources on both sides. Russian bombers have likely been launching heavy 1960s-era anti-ship missiles in Ukraine, the U.K. Defense Ministry said. The Kh-22 missiles were primarily designed to destroy aircraft carriers using a nuclear warhead. When used in ground attacks with conventional warheads, they 'are highly inaccurate and therefore can cause severe collateral damage and casualties,' the ministry said."

France. Sylvie Corbet of the AP: "French voters are choosing lawmakers in a parliamentary election Sunday as President Emmanuel Macron seeks to secure his majority while under growing threat from a leftist coalition. More than 6,000 candidates, ranging in age from 18 to 92, are running for 577 seats in the National Assembly in the first round of the election. Those who receive the most votes will advance to the decisive second round on June 19. Following Macron's reelection in May, his centrist coalition is seeking an absolute majority that would enable it to implement his campaign promises, which include tax cuts and raising the retirement age from 62 to 65."

June 11, 2022

Maggie Haberman & Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "In the first of six planned public hearings, the [January 6] committee presented a detailed case against Mr. Trump and the rioters who stormed the Capitol and delayed the congressional certification of the Electoral College results.... The committee's next hearing is scheduled for Monday, where the panel plans to lay out how Mr. Trump and his allies stoked the 'Big Lie' that the election had been stolen. Two more hearings are scheduled for next week -- one on Wednesday about the attempt at the Justice Department to oust the acting attorney general, and another on Thursday about the pressure campaign on Mr. Pence to block or delay certification of the electoral vote count."

The Hearing as TV Drama. James Poniewozik of the New York Times: "The first night of the congressional Jan. 6 hearings ... was deadly serious reality, offering a panorama and a terrifying close-up of a real nightmare: The attempt, through violence, to effectively end American democracy by overturning the will of the voters and keeping ... Donald J. Trump installed in an office that he lost.... What we saw in this first installment was impressive: a well-crafted, passionate and disciplined two-hour opening act. It made the committee's case in miniature, that the attack on the Capitol was no spontaneous outburst but rather the 'culmination of an attempted coup,' in the words of the committee chairman, Representative Bennie Thompson, Democrat of Mississippi. And it promised, tantalizingly, to flesh out the larger plot with fine detail and an expansive cast.... The broadcast's structure ... recalled 2022's most ubiquitous TV format: The true-crime and true-scandal limited series." ~~~

     ~~~ John Koblin of the New York Times: "An audience of at least 20 million people watched the first prime-time hearing of the House Select Committee's investigation into the Jan. 6 attack on Thursday night, according to Nielsen. By scheduling a congressional hearing for 8 to 10 p.m., committee members and Democrats were hoping to make the case to the biggest audience possible. ABC, CBS and NBC pre-empted their prime-time programming and went into special-report mode to cover it live.... Viewers who tuned in mostly stuck around for the entire congressional proceeding.... Fox's counterprogramming efforts drew an average audience of three million, which is just about normal."

Dominick Mastrangelo & Rebecca Beitsch of the Hill: "A former top editor at Fox News said on Friday that he has been called to testify next week before the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Chris Stirewalt, who was ousted from the network following the 2020 presidential election and is now a political editor at NewsNation, said the committee had requested his testimony during its next hearing on Monday.... Stirewalt was part of the team at Fox News that made the decision to call Arizona for Joe Biden on election night 2020, a move that infuriated former President Trump and his top aides, some of whom reportedly complained directly to Fox leadership about the relatively early race call." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

AP: The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol siege ... will hear live testimony on Wednesday from the highest levels of the late-Trump-era Department of Justice == acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen; his top deputy, Richard Donoghue; and Steven Engel, the former head of the department's Office of Legal Counsel -- according to a person familiar with the situation and granted anonymity to discuss their appearances."

Trump Blasts Ivanka. Kristen Holmes of CNN: "A day after the House January 6 committee revealed previously unseen video of ... Donald Trump's daughter and senior adviser, Ivanka Trump, saying she accepted then-Attorney General Bill Barr's statement that the Justice Department found no fraud sufficient to overturn the election, the former President is responding... 'Ivanka Trump was not involved in looking at, or studying, Election results. She had long since checked out and was, in my opinion, only trying to be respectful to Bill Barr and his position as Attorney General (he sucked!),' Trump wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: “Pushing back on his daughter's comments was only one way in which Mr. Trump assailed the hearing.... He denied having responded approvingly to the 'Hang Mike Pence!' chants.... 'I NEVER said, or even thought of saying, "Hang Mike Pence,"' Mr. Trump wrote on [his] social media site. 'This is either a made up story by somebody looking to become a star, or FAKE NEWS!'... In another post on the site, Mr. Trump described the committee as a 'totally partisan, POLITICAL WITCH HUNT!' And in two other posts, he attacked Mr. Barr, calling him a 'coward,' 'weak and frightened,' 'stupid' and 'scared stiff of being impeached.'" Haberman points out, the committee did not claim Trump said "Hang Mike Pence!"' rather, he reportedly said Pence 'deserves it.'" MB: So that was a non-denial denial. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: According to the WashPo story by Harwell & Oremus, linked next, "On Trump's fledgling Twitter clone, Truth Social, he posted a dozen messages after the hearing, criticizing it for showing 'only negative footage' of the brutal siege." Uh, what exactly would be "positive footage" of a bloody siege of the Capitol?

Drew Harwell & Will Oremus of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump's supporters scrambled to defend him online in the hours after the Jan. 6 committee's hearings began, seeking to sow doubt about his involvement via the same social media channels that had captured clear evidence linking him to the Capitol assault.... [The response] underscored how the social media landscape has shifted in the 17 months since Trump was suspended by the leading online platforms for his role in fanning the violent attempts to overturn Joe Biden's election as president. For the most part, Trump and some of his most ardent backers were relegated to smaller platforms as they sought to respond.... Trump had used Twitter aggressively to rally his supporters to overturn what he falsely labeled a fraudulent election.... [But] is Truth Social account has about 3 million followers, or less than 4 percent of the 88 million Twitter followers he had before his ban."

Philip Bump of the Washington Post has some thoughts on Fox "News" "coverage" of Thursday's Jan. 6 committee hearing: "The hearing began just as Tucker Carlson's show kicked off, and few people in America have been more energetically engaged than Carlson in casting the Jan. 6 riot as not worthy of discussion. Or as largely innocuous, save for some vandalism. Or maybe it's a government false flag aimed at casting Republicans as racists or something. Rhetorical consistency is not Carlson's strength, but that is happily for him not a limitation for his job." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Betsy Swan of Politico: "In the days before the electoral college certification, then-Vice President Mike Pence's legal team laid out that they found most of the Trump campaign's assertions of election fraud minor or unverifiable according to a previously unseen memo obtained by Politico.... The National Archives and Records Administration provided the memo to the select committee, according to a person familiar with the document. The 10-page memo ... notes that ... alleged procedural violations worried Pence's team, but that the actual accusations of voter fraud were mostly unpersuasive.... Marc Short, Pence's chief of staff at the White House, told Politico that the memo accurately reflects the thinking of the vice president's team." MB: This is the pence team's version of Bill Barr's "bullshit" testimony.

Guardian: "Rudy Giuliani has been hit with ethics charges over baseless claims he made about the 2020 presidential election being stolen while serving as an attorney for Donald Trump. The charges were filed on Friday by the District of Columbia office that polices attorneys for ethical misconduct.The DC office of disciplinary counsel alleges that Giuliani, who is a member of the DC bar, made baseless claims in federal court filings about the results of the 2020 presidential election in Pennsylvania. The charges were filed with the District of Columbia court of appeals board on professional responsibility."

Ginni Blasts Emails. Emma Brown of the Washington Post: "Virginia 'Ginni' Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, pressed 29 Republican state lawmakers in Arizona -- 27 more than previously known -- to set aside Joe Biden's popular vote victory and 'choose' presidential electors, according to emails obtained by The Washington Post.... On Nov. 9, she sent identical emails to 20 members of the Arizona House and seven Arizona state senators. That represents more than half of the Republican members of the state legislature at the time. The message, just days after media organizations called the race for Biden in Arizona and nationwide, urged lawmakers to 'stand strong in the face of political and media pressure' and claimed that the responsibility to choose electors was 'yours and yours alone.'... On Dec. 13, the day before members of the electoral college were slated to cast their votes and seal Biden's victory, Thomas emailed 22 House members and one senator. 'Before you choose your state's Electors ... consider what will happen to the nation we all love if you don't stand up and lead,' the email said." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: If you read way down the page, you'll find that a pal of Ginni & Clarence's says that the email Ginni sent to Arizona legislators in December was a form letter that "thousands" of people had signed. Maybe so, but Ginni has a law degree & she has that legal expert husband of hers sitting right there in the den watching old 8-track porn movies or whatever. You would think she would know better than to be giving legal advice (and the emails do that) to strangers, especially when that advice is bullocks.

Dan Morse of the Washington Post provides some new details on how Nicholas Roske abandoned his plan to murder Justice Brett Kavanaugh, then turn the gun on himself. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Biden and leaders of Latin American countries signed a new agreement on Friday to confront the consequences of mass migration, making specific numerical pledges to allow more people fleeing political and economic strife to cross their borders. The agreement, called the Los Angeles Declaration on Migration and Protection, commits the United States to taking 20,000 refugees from Latin America during the next two years, a threefold increase, according to White House officials. Mr. Biden also pledged to increase the number of seasonal worker visas from Central America and Haiti by 11,500." ~~~

~~~ Cleve Wootson & Seung Min Kim of the Washington Post: "President Biden offered his vision for a flourishing democratic Western Hemisphere before dozens of delegations Thursday, but he quickly faced pushback from leaders upset that Biden had excluded a trio of authoritarian regimes from the summit.... John Briceño, the prime minister of Belize, said the summit belongs to 'all of the Americas' and that it was 'inexcusable' that some countries were barred from attending.... 'We definitely would have wished for a different Summit of the Americas. The silence of those who are absent is calling to us,' [Argentine President Alberto] Fernández said, proposing that the host country not exclude nations from future summits.... The question of democracy's future in many ways hung over the conference. While Biden shut out Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela, some of the leaders he did invite, such as Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, have themselves been accused of anti-democratic actions."

Zeke Miller of the AP: "The Biden administration is lifting its requirement that international air travelers to the U.S. take a COVID-19 test within a day before boarding their flights, easing one of the last remaining government mandates meant to contain the spread of the coronavirus. A senior administration official said Friday that the mandate will expire Sunday at 12:01 a.m. EDT, adding that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention determined it is no longer necessary." (Also linked yesterday.)

Beyond the Beltway

Missouri. Weird News. Ramon Vargas of the Guardian: "The insurance giant Geico must give more than $5m to a woman who had sex with a motorist in his car and contracted a sexually transmitted disease, a Missouri appellate court ruled.... Geico can still go to the state supreme court to seek a reprieve, and may get a more favorable ruling in a related federal case. The plaintiff -- identified in court records as 'MO' -- alleged that in 2017, during sexual encounters in a 2014 Hyundai Genesis, her boyfriend infected her with a virus that causes genital warts. The woman accused the man of acting negligently and argued that the Geico policy which insured the car should cover her 'injuries and losses' from the disease." MB: BUT. Good news for the carrier of her homeowner's policy.

Texas. Nick Miroff, et al., of the Washington Post: "Much is still unclear about how the [Uvalde] massacre unfolded.... But the design of the classroom doors significantly added to the challenge officers were facing, according to experts and officials briefed on what happened. As teachers and their students were bleeding, and children called 911 to plead for help, agents and officers who had been told the doors were locked struggled to locate keys and the tools to force their way in, officials have said.... Curtis S. Lavarello, executive director of the School Safety Advocacy Council, said ... authorities have to have a way to quickly open [secure doors] -- and should practice doing so during safety drills." The article also suggests that the police had to wait a long time for someone to bring them anti-ballistic shields. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: That "had been told the doors were locked" clause may be significant. According to a NYT report linked here several days ago, a teacher inside the classroom struggled to find her key, & by the time she found it, the gunman had entered the room. Did he take time to get the key and lock the door? He was a crazed lunatic, so that's sort of hard to imagine. David Goodman, the NYT's Houston Bureau Chief, said last night on MSNBC that while the police loitered in the hall waiting for an hour for someone to unlock the classroom door, it may have been unlocked all the time. Tests of other classroom doors at the school, Goodman said, showed that the locks didn't secure the doors.

Texas. Julian Mark of the Washington Post: In late 1980, police found "... the bodies of a young couple [in the Houston area].... It appeared that the man had been beaten to death and that the woman had been strangled. For decades, the bodies went unidentified, until last year when DNA analysis identified the remains as those of [Tina Gail Linn Clouse and Harold Dean Clouse Jr]. What puzzled their family members after the discovery, however, were the whereabouts of the couple's infant, Holly, who had gone missing with Tina and Harold in 1980. On Thursday, the Texas Attorney General's Office announced that Holly, now 42 and a married mother of five, has been found living in Oklahoma, the [Houston] Chronicle reported. She was adopted after being left at a church by two members of a nomadic religious group, officials said. Her adoptive parents are not suspected of any wrongdoing, according to investigators."

Way Beyond

Ukraine, et al.

Siobhán O'Grady, et al., of the Washington Post: "The euphoria that accompanied Ukraine's unforeseen early victories against bumbling Russian troops is fading as Moscow adapts its tactics, recovers its stride and asserts its overwhelming firepower against heavily outgunned Ukrainian forces. Newly promised Western weapons systems are arriving, but too slowly and in insufficient quantities to prevent incremental but inexorable Russian gains in the eastern Donbas region of Ukraine, which is now the focus of the fight. The Ukrainians are still fighting back, but they are running out of ammunition and suffering casualties at a far higher rate than in the initial stages of the war. Around 200 Ukrainian soldiers are now being killed every day, up from 100 late last month, an aide to President Volodymyr Zelensky told the BBC on Friday.... The Russians are still making mistakes and are also losing men and equipment, albeit at a lesser rate than in the first months of the conflict.... But the overall trajectory of the war has unmistakably shifted away from one of unexpectedly dismal Russian failures and tilted in favor of Russia as the demonstrably stronger force."

The New York Times' live updates of developments Saturday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "On the ground in eastern Ukraine ... 'very fierce fighting' continued to rage, reducing cities and communities to charred ruins, the country's president, Volodymyr Zelensky, said in his nightly address. Ukrainians' ability to ward off Russian troops is becoming more limited because of their unmatched weaponry and a rapidly dwindling supply of ammunition for their Soviet-era artillery.... McDonald's restaurants are reopening in Russia this weekend, but without the Golden Arches. After the American fast-food giant pulled out this spring to protest ... Vladimir V. Putin's invasion of Ukraine, a Siberian oil mogul bought its 840 Russian stores. There are signs that a partisan insurgency is executing strikes in Russian-controlled territory.... Russia is struggling to provide basic services to people living in its occupied territories in Ukraine, Britain's Defense Ministry said on Friday.... Western governments on Friday condemned the death sentences that court in a Russian-occupied area of eastern Ukraine gave to two Britons and a Moroccan." ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live updates for Saturday are here: "Ukraine, on the brink of losing the eastern region of Luhansk to Russia, is warning that its outgunned military desperately needs faster Western arms deliveries. Moscow's relentless shelling campaign 'wants to destroy every city' in the eastern Donbas region, President Volodymyr Zelensky said, as his government said Ukraine could only respond with about one artillery round for every 10 fired by Russia. In the latest sign of the humanitarian catastrophe in the east, a regional official said the Ice Palace, a sports complex in the city of Severodonetsk that had served as a relief center, was destroyed. Russian forces now control most of the city although fighting still gripped the streets of the key battleground, the Luhansk governor said Saturday." ~~~

     ~~~ The Guardian's live updates for Saturday are here: (at 08:32) "Speaking at a fundraising reception in Los Angeles on Friday, [President Biden] said ... Volodymyr Zelenskiy, 'didn't want to hear' America's warnings of a Russian invasion, AFP reports. Joe Biden ... reportedly said a lot of people thought he was exaggerating[.]"

Bolivia. Megan Janetsky & María Trigo of the New York Times: "Jeanine Añez, the former president of Bolivia, was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Friday following accusations that she illegally took over the presidency after the resignation of her predecessor, Evo Morales. The trial, the latest chapter in Bolivia's long-running political turmoil, has raised concerns that the country's leaders are using the courts to target political adversaries, and that the sentencing represents a larger democratic crisis in the small South American country and across the region." A Reuters story, via the Guardian, is here.

June 10, 2022

Afternoon Update:

Dominick Mastrangelo & Rebecca Beitsch of the Hill: "A former top editor at Fox News said on Friday that he has been called to testify next week before the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Chris Stirewalt, who was ousted from the network following the 2020 presidential election and is now a political editor at NewsNation, said the committee had requested his testimony during its next hearing on Monday.... Stirewalt was part of the team at Fox News that made the decision to call Arizona for Joe Biden on election night 2020, a move that infuriated former President Trump and his top aides, some of whom reportedly complained directly to Fox leadership about the relatively early race call."

MSNBC is reporting on-air that Jeffrey Rosen, Trump's acting attorney general, who refused to go along with Trump's scheme to decertify electors in states Biden narrowly won, has agreed to testify before the House committee on January 6. Speaking of fake elector schemes: ~~~

~~~ Ginni Blasts Emails. Emma Brown of the Washington Post: "Virginia 'Ginni' Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, pressed 29 Republican state lawmakers in Arizona -- 27 more than previously known -- to set aside Joe Biden's popular vote victory and 'choose' presidential electors, according to emails obtained by The Washington Post.... On Nov. 9, she sent identical emails to 20 members of the Arizona House and seven Arizona state senators. That represents more than half of the Republican members of the state legislature at the time. The message, just days after media organizations called the race for Biden in Arizona and nationwide, urged lawmakers to 'stand strong in the face of political and media pressure' and claimed that the responsibility to choose electors was 'yours and yours alone.'... On Dec. 13, the day before members of the electoral college were slated to cast their votes and seal Biden's victory, Thomas emailed 22 House members and one senator. 'Before you choose your state's Electors ... consider what will happen to the nation we all love if you don't stand up and lead,' the email said."

Trump Blasts Ivanka. Kristen Holmes of CNN: "A day after the House January 6 committee revealed previously unseen video of ... Donald Trump's daughter and senior adviser, Ivanka Trump, saying she accepted then-Attorney General Bill Barr's statement that the Justice Department found no fraud sufficient to overturn the election, the former President is responding... 'Ivanka Trump was not involved in looking at, or studying, Election results. She had long since checked out and was, in my opinion, only trying to be respectful to Bill Barr and his position as Attorney General (he sucked!),' Trump wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social."

Philip Bump of the Washington Post has some thoughts on Fox "News" "coverage" of Thursday's Jan. 6 committee hearing: "The hearing began just as Tucker Carlson's show kicked off, and few people in America have been more energetically engaged than Carlson in casting the Jan. 6 riot as not worthy of discussion. Or as largely innocuous, save for some vandalism. Or maybe it's a government false flag aimed at casting Republicans as racists or something. Rhetorical consistency is not Carlson's strength, but that is happily for him not a limitation for his job."

Dan Morse of the Washington Post provides some new details on how Nicholas Roske abandoned his plan to murder Justice Brett Kavanaugh, then turn the gun on himself.

Zeke Miller of the AP: "The Biden administration is lifting its requirement that international air travelers to the U.S. take a COVID-19 test within a day before boarding their flights, easing one of the last remaining government mandates meant to contain the spread of the coronavirus. A senior administration official said Friday that the mandate will expire Sunday at 12:01 a.m. EDT, adding that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention determined it is no longer necessary."

~~~~~~~~~~

Marie: I don't know about you, but I feel just gutted. ~~~

The violence was no accident. It represents Trump's last stand, most desperate chance to halt the transfer of power. -- Rep. Bennie Thompson (R-Miss.), Chair of the House January 6 committee ~~~

~~~ Peter Baker of the New York Times: "In the entire 246-year history of the United States, there was surely never a more damning indictment presented against an American president than outlined on Thursday night in a cavernous congressional hearing room where the future of democracy felt on the line.... The case against Donald J. Trump mounted by the bipartisan House committee investigating the ... attack on the Capitol described not just a rogue president but a would-be autocrat willing to shred the Constitution to hang onto power at all costs.... Most incriminating were the words of Mr. Trump's own advisers and appointees, played over video.... [Rep. Liz] Ms. Cheney [R-Wy.] pulled together the committee's central findings in relentless, prosecutorial fashion.... Ms. Cheney ... reported that in the wake of the Jan. 6 attack, members of Mr. Trump's own cabinet discussed invoking the 25th Amendment to remove the president from office.... And she noted that while [Mike] Pence repeatedly took action to summon help to stop the mob on Jan. 6, the president himself made no such effort. Instead, his White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, tried to convince Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to pretend that Mr. Trump was actively involved.... As she previewed the story that will be told in the weeks to come, Ms. Cheney all but wrote the script for [Attorney General Merrick] Garland." ~~~

~~~ Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: "Thursday's prime-time congressional hearing -- the first from the select House committee established to investigate the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol -- was like none Capitol Hill had ever seen. Far from a dry examination of established facts or a bare-knuckle partisan throwdown, the presentation Thursday was carefully calibrated to tell a story.... After House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) moved to strike some Republican appointees to the special committee, Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) opted to pull out entirely. So while most congressional hearings on sharply partisan matters give viewers competing arguments on the matter at hand, [Chair Bennie] Thompson, [Vice Chair Liz] Cheney and their fellow panel members were free to weave a seamless narrative....

Capitol Police officer Caroline Edwards recounted her harrowing experience on Jan. 6 as one of the first cops overrun on the Capitol's West Front.... Her appearance Thursday -- blond, blue-eyed and perfectly composed -- stood in devastating contrast to video shown moments later, of a rioter savagely flinging her into a concrete staircase and knocking her unconscious. Edwards described coming to, getting up and rejoining the fight, later finding herself behind a battle line watching a 'war scene' unfold. 'I was slipping in people's blood,' she said. 'It was carnage. It was chaos.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Let us pause to acknowledge that we own Kevin McCarthy our thanks. It was his stupid moves, first to oppose a bipartisan commission, then to select dunderheads like Jim Jordan for the committee, then to pull out altogether, that allowed for this extraordinary hearing to go forward unfettered by the harangues of the insurrection's defenders & apologists. ~~~

     ~~~ An AP story, by Farnoush Amiri, on Caroline Edwards' testimony is here.

Jan. 6 was the culmination of an attempted coup, a brazen attempt, as one rioter put it shortly after Jan. 6, to overthrow the government. The violence was no accident. -- Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), committee hearing Thursday ~~~

~~~ Lisa Mascaro, et al., of the AP: "The House panel investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol laid the blame firmly on Donald Trump Thursday night, saying the assault was hardly spontaneous but an 'attempted coup' and a direct result of the defeated president's effort to overturn the 2020 election. With a never-before-seen 12-minute video of extremist groups leading the deadly siege and startling testimony from Trump's most inner circle, the 1/6 committee provided gripping detail in contending that Trump's repeated lies about election fraud and his public effort to stop Joe Biden's victory led to the attack and imperiled American democracy[.]"

The New York Times is live-updating the hearing of the January 6 committee here: "The Democratic and Republican leaders of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, riot began laying out on Thursday evening what they described as a methodical conspiracy, led and coordinated by ... Donald J. Trump, to remain in power, which culminated in the worst attack on the Capitol since 1814. The committee's chairman, Representative Bennie Thompson, Democrat of Mississippi, and its vice chairman, Liz Cheney, Republican of Wyoming, used a multimedia presentation that relied on the videotaped testimony of Trump loyalists, including the former attorney general, William P. Barr, the former president's daughter Ivanka Trump, and a longtime aide and spokesman Jason Miller." ~~~

     ~~~ ABC News' live updates are here.

The video timeline of the attack, which was presented at the hearing:

Rep. Liz Cheney's opening remarks, which laid out the committee's case:

I say this to my Republican colleagues who are defending the indefensible. There will come a day when Donald Trump is gone, but your dishonor will remain. --Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wy.), opening statement ~~~

~~~ Dana Milbank of the Washington Post: Liz Cheney "outlined for the country, and for history, two contrasting stories about the bloody insurrection. One was a tale of honor and duty. Officials in the Justice Department and White House, to a greater extent than was previously known, confronted Trump about his election lies and repeatedly threatened to resign if he followed through with his darkest impulses. The other was a tale of brutality and deceit by Trump and a small band of loyalists. They knew he had lost, and yet, as Cheney put it, 'Trump oversaw and coordinated a sophisticated, seven-part plan to overturn the presidential election and prevent the transfer of presidential power.'... 'Aware of the rioters' chants to hang Mike Pence, the president responded with this sentiment, quote, "Maybe our supporters have the right idea." Mike Pence, quote, "deserves it."'"

Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "In brief video clips, Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump appeared [via video clips] in the first of a half-dozen public hearings held by the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.... In his video he was pressed by Representative Liz Cheney ... about whether he was aware that the White House counsel, Pat A. Cipollone, had been threatening to resign because Mr. Trump was making increasingly outlandish efforts to stay in power.... [Kushner said] that he knew that Mr. Cipollone and 'the team were always saying, "Oh we are going to resign, we are not going to be there if this happens, if that happens." So I kind of took it up to just be whining, to be honest with you.'... Mr. Kushner's words enraged Mr. Cipollone’s former colleagues, many of whom traded messages as they complained to reporters and one another ... that the former president's son-in-law was 'arrogant.'.... According to more than a half-dozen former Trump advisers..., neither [Ivanka nor Jared] made much of an effort to pull Mr. Trump away from his obsession with staying in power. Instead, they left that task to the paid staff, who in turn kept waiting for the family to intervene more aggressively."

Emily Brooks & Rebecca Beitsch of the Hill: "Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) was one of 'multiple' GOP lawmakers who asked President Trump for pardons given their roles in seeking to unwind the 2020 election results, the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol said in its first hearing Thursday night.... 'As you will see, Representative Perry contacted the White House in the weeks after January 6th to seek a presidential pardon. Multiple other Republican congressmen also sought presidential pardons for their roles in attempting to overturn the 2020 election,' [Rep. Liz] Cheney said. Perry's office forcefully denied the allegation....'Laughable, ludicrous, and a thoroughly soulless lie,' [Perry's spokesman] told The Hill." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: After the hearing, Manu Raju of CNN said on-air that he had spoken to committee chair Bennie Thompson, who said the committee had the receipts -- which they would present in a future hearing -- on Perry and others. On MSNBC, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), a committee member & former prosecutor, said that requesting a preemptive pardon was evidence of consciousness of guilt.

MEANWHILE. Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha Ha. Igor Derysh of Salon: "Fox News was the only news network not to carry the first day of the Jan. 6 committee hearings as its hosts repeatedly trashed the two-hour hearing without providing their audience any of the content.... At one point, as the committee showed damning footage of the violence in the Capitol, Fox News cut away from its side graphic showing the hearing to a panned-out shot of the hearing room.... 'This is the only hour on an American news channel that will not be carrying their propaganda live,' [Tucker] Carlson said. 'They are lying and we are not going to help them do it. What we will do instead is try to tell you the truth.'... "Fox is desperate to keep its viewers from switching to another channel and seeing the hearing in real time,' [Media Matters' Matt] Gertz tweeted.... Sean Hannity also did not air any of the hearing, describing it as the 'dullest, the most boring -- there's absolutely nothing new -- multi-hour Democratic fundraiser masquerading as a Jan. 6 hearing.' After the hearing wrapped up, Hannity declared that the 'one person that looks good is Donald Trump.'"

Betsy Swan of Politico: "Cassidy Hutchinson -- a top aide to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows during the Trump era — has parted ways with her lawyer and brought on new representation. Her new lawyer, Jody Hunt of Alston Bird, confirmed the move to Politico. The change in counsel signals an increased willingness from Hutchinson to cooperate fully with the Jan. 6 select committee's probe, according to a person familiar with her thinking. The panel has signaled that it views her as a key witness. Hutchinson's former attorney, Stefan Passantino, has deep Trump World connections. Her new lawyer, Jody Hunt, is a longtime close ally of Jeff Sessions and served as his chief of staff when the former attorney general enraged Trump by recusing from the Russia probe." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Michael Balsamo of the AP: "In a court filing, the Justice Department alleged that [Trump economic advisor Peter] Navarro lied to the judge and to members of the media by claiming he was told he couldn't call a lawyer and that he was denied food and water while being held for several hours after his arrest on Friday.... [An] The FBI report said Navarro was given a bottle of water, chocolate, nuts and dried fruits about an hour after he was arrested at the airport. Navarro 'was asked if he wanted anything else to eat or drink which he declined,' the report said." While still at the airport where Navarro was arrested, the FBI report said agents offered to call Navarro's attorney for him. However, Navarro told the judge he did not have an attorney. Appearing later on Tucker Carlson's show, Navarro said, "Next thing I know, I'm in leg irons, handcuffs and strip-searched.... People do not want to sit in solitary confinement in leg irons, denied food, denied water, denied an attorney...." ~~~

     ~~~ Kyle Cheney, et al., of Politico: "Former Trump administration official Peter Navarro called the FBI agents who arrested him 'Nazis,' according to Justice Department documents filed Thursday in court accusing Navarro of repeatedly lying about the conditions of his arrest.... 'NAVARRO made statements to the effect that the arresting agents were "kind Nazis' and "how could you live with yourselves?"'" The FBI report mentions that Navarro was handcuffed, but makes no mention of placing him in leg irons, which Navarro has asserted they did.

Bryan Schott of the Salt Lake Tribune: "Leaked text messages between Utah Sen. Mike Lee and former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows suggest Lee was a participant in the plot to keep Donald Trump in office, a charge Lee vehemently disputes. Recently released court documents could prove problematic for Lee's defense.... His text messages with [White House Chief of Staff Mark] Meadows make repeated references to alternate electors in the run-up to Jan. 6.... On December 8, Lee texted Meadows, 'If a very small handful of states were to have their legislatures appoint alternative slates of delegates, there could be a path.'... On Jan. 3, 2021, Lee texted Meadows several times, stressing the need for action by state legislators. 'Everything changes, of course, if the swing states submit competing slates of electors pursuant to state law, Lee wrote in one message. 'Again, all of this could change if the states in question certified Trump electors pursuant to state law,' Lee texted later. The next day, Lee texted Meadows, claiming he was 'spending 14 hours a day' working on electoral objections.... Lee has repeatedly claimed he was [merely] investigating 'rumors' that states were considering appointing Trump electors...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Robert Snell, et al., of the Detroit News: "FBI agents arrested [Michigan] Republican gubernatorial candidate Ryan Kelley on misdemeanor charges related to the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. The arrest and search unfolding at Kelley's home in Allendale add more uncertainty to a chaotic race for governor that has seen several Republican candidates blocked from the ballot for submitting fraudulent nominating petition signatures. Kelley, 40, is expected to make an initial appearance later Thursday in federal court in Grand Rapids. Prosecutors filed four charges against Kelley.... Federal court records describe Kelley as being an active participant in the riot, climbing onto portions of the Capitol, encouraging yelling, gesturing to participants and removing a covering from a temporary structure outside the Capitol.... Kelley unwittingly helped FBI investigators by wearing identical clothing to various rallies and marches in the first few months of the pandemic in 2020." Read on. MB: Besides needing a more extensive wardrobe, the guy is a real nutjob. I just hope his arrest today doesn't mean he'll have to miss watching the Jan. 6 hearing tonight. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Update. The Washington Post report, by Spencer Hsu & others, is here: "Kelley was released from custody Thursday afternoon after a brief initial appearance in federal court before U.S. Magistrate Judge Sally J. Berens of Grand Rapids, Mich." MB: So my worries yesterday, that he would miss watching his traitorist self in teevee footage Thursday night, have been allayed.

Ryan Reilly of NBC News: "A D.C. chiropractor who stormed the halls of Congress on Jan. 6 was arrested on federal charges Wednesday as FBI special agents descended on his office just blocks from the Capitol. A source familiar with the case confirmed to NBC News the arrest of David Walls-Kaufman of the Capitol Hill Chiropractic Center.... Walls-Kaufman faces four misdemeanor charges in connection with the Jan. 6 attack.... The FBI affidavit in Walls-Kaufman's case includes surveillance images that the bureau snapped of the chiropractor in October. The FBI said he was spotted on 'approximately nine different U.S. Capitol security cameras, and approximately twenty Metropolitan Police Department body worn cameras on January 6, 2021.'" MB: That guy should have been realigning his head instead of other people's bones.

Elliott Spagat & Chris Megherian of the AP: "President Joe Biden and other Western Hemisphere leaders are set to announce on Friday what is being billed as a roadmap for countries to host large numbers of migrants and refugees. 'The Los Angeles Declaration' is perhaps the biggest achievement of the Summit of the Americas.... A set of principles to be announced Friday on the summit's final day includes legal pathways to enter countries, aid to communities most affected by migration, humane border management and coordinated emergency responses, according to a senior U.S. official who briefed reporters ahead of an official announcement. It is a blueprint already being followed to a large extent by Colombia and Ecuador, whose right-leaning leaders were warmly greeted at the summit for welcoming many of the 6 million people who have left Venezuela in recent years.”

Amanda Seitz of the AP: "White nationalists and supremacists, on accounts often run by young men, are building thriving, macho communities across social media platforms like Instagram, Telegram and TikTok, evading detection with coded hashtags and innuendo. Their snarky memes and trendy videos are riling up thousands of followers on divisive issues, like abortion, guns, immigration and LGTBQ rights. The Department of Homeland Security warned Tuesday that such skewed framing of the subjects could drive extremists to violently attack public places across the U.S. in the coming months. These type of threats and racist ideology have become so commonplace on social media that it's nearly impossible for law enforcement to separate internet ramblings from dangerous, potentially violent people, Michael German, who infiltrated white supremacy groups as an FBI agent, told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday."

Child Sacrifice. GOP Voters: Guns Are More Important than Children. Philip Bump of the Washington Post: In a recent Marist poll, "Respondents were asked which they felt was more important: protecting gun rights or controlling gun violence.... Overall, Americans were more likely to say that controlling gun violence is more important, 59 to 35 percent. Among gun owners, as you might expect, protecting gun rights was the majority position, although only barely.... Democrats said that controlling gun violence was more important by a nearly 90-point margin. Independents said the same, more narrowly. Among Republicans, though, more than two-thirds said protecting gun ownership was more important -- a higher level of support than even among gun owners themselves." Emphasis added.

Marie's Sports Report. Tariq Panja of the New York Times: "The PGA Tour on Thursday said it had suspended the 17 players who have taken part in the first event of the Saudi-backed LIV Golf tour, a move that punished the rebel pros but also seemed aimed at dissuading further defections. In a memo sent to his membership, the PGA Tour's commissioner, Jay Monahan, said those golfers who teed off in the first LIV Golf event, which began Thursday outside London, were 'no longer eligible to participate' in events on the American-based tour or any of its affiliated tours. He also vowed to apply the same suspension to any pro who joins one of the rival tour's coming events. Ahead of the event at the Centurion Club, the majority of players who had signed on with LIV Golf, including Dustin Johnson, Louis Oosthuizen, Kevin Na and Sergio García, said they had resigned from the PGA Tour, perhaps to avoid a suspension or lifetime ban. But Monahan's letter said they faced excommunication anyway." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)"

Max Tani of Politico: "The Washington Post has fired Felicia Sonmez after the well-known reporter complained publicly about a perceived lack of institutional willingness to confront misogynistic treatment of female staffers. Sonmez's firing comes days after the paper suspended a fellow reporter, Dave Weigel, for a month after he retweeted a crude joke about women. Sonmez was highly critical of Weigel for the tweet, prompting WaPo Executive Editor Sally Buzbee to put out a memo encouraging staff members to treat one another with respect and kindness, including on social media platforms, and reminding staff that criticizing fellow employees was a violation of company policies.... But the infighting continued to spill out into public view from there." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Here's the Washington Post's story, by Paul Schwartzman & Jeremy Barr.

Adam Taylor of the Washington Post: "A team of scientists convened by the World Health Organization to better understand the origins of the coronavirus pandemic and possible future outbreaks has said a theory that the virus could have escaped from a laboratory needs 'further investigations.' However, in a report released Thursday, the WHO-backed team said it had not received any new data that would allow it to better evaluate that theory. Members of the group from Brazil, China and Russia objected to the calls for further investigation into the 'lab leak' theory. The report also said that available data suggests SARS-CoV-2 had a zoonotic origin, which means it spread between animals in a natural setting, but that neither the animal that infected humans nor the place where this infection occurred could be identified." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Beyond the Beltway

Louisiana. Jim Mustian & Jake Bleiberg of the AP: "The U.S. Justice Department is opening a sweeping civil rights investigation into the Louisiana State Police amid mounting evidence that the agency has a pattern of looking the other way in the face of beatings of mostly Black men, including the deadly 2019 arrest of Ronald Greene. The federal 'pattern-or-practice' probe announced Thursday followed an Associated Press investigation that found Greene's arrest was among at least a dozen cases over the past decade in which state police troopers or their bosses ignored or concealed evidence of beatings, deflected blame and impeded efforts to root out misconduct. Dozens of current and former troopers said the beatings were countenanced by a culture of impunity, nepotism and, in some cases, outright racism."

Montana Congressional Race. Hannah Knowles of the Washington Post: "Ryan Zinke, a former Trump administration official, is projected to win the GOP nomination for Montana's new U.S. House district, according to the Associated Press. Zinke, the Interior Department secretary during the Trump presidency, won the Republican nomination with Donald Trump's endorsement despite charges that he wasn't as conservative as some of the other candidates and that his wife's primary residence is in California. He will be heavily favored to win in November in a state Trump won by 16 points in 2020.... A former Navy SEAL officer and state senator, Zinke previously represented Montana in the House from 2015 to 2017, when he joined the Trump administration. He resigned as secretary of the Interior Department in December 2018 under pressure from the White House during probes into alleged misconduct in office. The Interior Department's inspector general had recently referred an inquiry to the Justice Department, which ultimately declined to bring charges. In a report released this year, the inspector general found that Zinke broke ethics rules while participating in real estate negotiations and lied to an ethics official."

New York Congressional Race. Nichols Fandos of the New York Times: "Carl P. Paladino, a Republican running for a House seat in Western New York, praised Adolf Hitler last year for inspiring his followers, describing the fascist dictator as 'the kind of leader we need today.'... 'He would get up there screaming these epithets and these people were just, they were hypnotized by him,' he said in [a radio] interview, resurfaced by the left-leaning watchdog group Media Matters. 'I guess, I guess that's the kind of leader we need today. We need somebody inspirational. We need somebody that is a doer.'" Paladino says he does not "support" Hitler.

Pennsylvania Senate Race. Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court on Thursday cleared the way for Pennsylvania to count mail-in primary ballots received by the Election Day deadline but lacked a state-required handwritten date on the return envelope. There are relatively few 'undated' ballots, though they could make a difference in tight races. But the sense of urgency surrounding the Supreme Court's action diminished last week, when Republican Senate candidate David McCormick conceded to rival Mehmet Oz. McCormick, who trailed Oz by less than 1,000 votes, sued to have the votes counted, and Pennsylvania's commonwealth court agreed. But there were not enough of the ballots to make a difference, McCormick decided.... The Supreme Court case also involves a judicial candidate in Lehigh County, who says counting the ballots threatens his lead in a close election. Three justices -- Clarence Thomas, Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Neil M. Gorsuch -- noted their dissents from the court's order."

Texas. David Goodman of the New York Times: "Heavily armed officers delayed confronting a gunman in Uvalde, Texas, for more than an hour even though supervisors at the scene had been told that some trapped with him in two elementary school classrooms needed medical treatment, a new review of video footage and other investigative material shows. Instead, the documents show, they waited for protective equipment to lower the risk to law enforcement officers.... There is no question that some of the victims were still alive and in desperate need of medical attention. One teacher died in an ambulance. Three children died at nearby hospitals, according to the documents." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: It doesn't take a genius or someone with police training to figure out that after a gunman has been heard firing shots into a classroom full of children, there will be some wounded and in need of medical attention. Besides, waiting for body armor sounds to me like a made-up excuse. According to previous reports, when the Border Patrol went in, they did so carrying ballistic shields. So at least some of the officers loitering in the hallway already had protective gear. ~~~

~~~ James Barragán & Zach Despart of the Texas Tribune: "Criticized by law enforcement experts for slowness in taking out the shooter, Pete Arredondo described an agonizing wait for a key that would work. In an interview with The Texas Tribune, he said he hadn't spoken out sooner because he didn't want to compound his hometown's grief or point blame.... When keys arrived, he tried dozens of them, but one by one they failed to work.... Texas Department of Public Safety officials and news outlets have reported that the shooter fired his gun at least two more times as police waited in the hallway outside the classrooms for more than an hour.... [Arredondo] said he never considered himself the scene's incident commander and did not give any instruction that police should not attempt to breach the building.... [Experts] said by running into the school with no key and no radios and failing to take charge of the situation, the chief appears to have contributed to a chaotic approach in which officers deployed inappropriate tactics, adopted a defensive posture, failed to coordinate their actions, and wasted precious time as students and teachers remained trapped in two classrooms with a gunman who continued to fire his rifle."

Way Beyond

Ukraine, et al.

The New York Times' live updates of developments Friday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "As his military suffers heavy losses in eastern Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky and other Ukrainian leaders are stepping up their pleas for the quick delivery of heavy weapons to help them in the current battles and for deeper political integration into Europe for a greater sense of security when the war is over.... A day after ... Vladimir V. Putin compared himself to the 18th-century czar, Peter the Great, saying that he was engaged in a similar struggle to win back lands he sees as rightfully Russian, Mr. Zelensky said it was time to listen to the current Russian leader's threats and act swiftly.... Two Britons and a Moroccan who fought for Ukraine were sentenced to death on Thursday by a court in Russian-held eastern territory, the Russian news agency Interfax reported. The men were accused of being mercenaries." ~~~

     ~~~ Here's the New York Times' summary of developments Thursday.

News Lede

CNBC: "Inflation accelerated further in May, with prices rising 8.6% from a year ago for the fastest increase since December 1981, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. The consumer price index, a wide-ranging measure of goods and services prices, increased even more than the 8.3% Dow Jones estimate. Excluding volatile food and energy prices, so-called core CPI was up 6%, slightly higher than the 5.9% estimate. On a monthly basis, headline CPI was up 1% while core rose 0.6%, compared with respective estimates of 0.7% and 0.5%."