May 16, 2022

Evening Update:

Christina Jewitt of the New York Times: "The Food and Drug Administration on Monday reached an agreement with Abbott Laboratories on the steps needed to reopen the company's shuttered baby formula plant, which could begin to ease the shortage of infant formula that has frightened and exasperated parents nationwide. The F.D.A. must still grant approval, once the company has taken the steps, for production to resume at the plant in Sturgis, Mich. It has been shut down since February after several babies who had consumed formula that had been produced there fell ill and two died. Abbott described the agreement with the F.D.A. as a 'consent decree' and said it would require federal court approval. Once the agency permits the plant to reopen, the company said production could begin within about two weeks and could translate to more formula on shelves in six to eight weeks. The company said it will continue flying formula in from a plant in Ireland. It was unclear how soon the F.D.A. might approve the plant reopening. Abbott's plant has been offline since February, when the F.D.A. discovered a deadly bacteria, called cronobacter, while swabbing in and near production lines. Abbott disputed that characterization...." An ABC News story is here. ~~~

      ~~~ Marie: I'd still like to know why it took three months plus for Abbott to clean up its act. Who caused the delay?

~~~~~~~~~~

Wake Up & Smell the Stinkbugs. Jonathan Lemire of Politico: "To the frustration of many Democrats and some of his closest advisers, President Joe Biden has steadfastly spent more than a year in office insisting on trying to work across the aisle with Republicans. It's produced some notable legislative successes. But it's also been colored by a fair dose of in-your-face GOP obstructionism. Now, more than a year later, Biden no longer believes that most Republicans will eventually drop their fealty to Donald Trump and show a willingness to engage. He himself admitted he was wrong."

Margaret Sullivan of the Washington Post: "Since Jan. 6 of last year, a growing chorus of activists, historians and political commentators have spoken of 'democracy on the brink' or 'democracy in peril.' What they mean is that, thanks to a paranoid, delusional and potentially violent new strain in our nation's politics, Americans may not be able to count on future elections being conducted fairly -- or the results of fair elections being accepted. And at least some news organizations are taking heed.... [Alex] Koppelman underscored what we should all be clear about by now: that most of the Republican Party publicly touts the lie that Donald Trump won the 2020 election but that the vote was rigged and victory stolen from him."

     ~~~ Marie: In a column urging journalists to make clear the danger Republicans pose to democracy, it took her till Paragraph 8 to begin to finger Republicans. This isn't making anything "clear" to the average newspaper reader, who barely gets past the headline, which, BTW, in this case, isn't any more helpful: "Democracy is at stake in the midterms. The media must convey that."

Richard Luscombe of the Guardian: "The supreme court is 'dangerous to families and to freedoms in our country', Nancy Pelosi said on Sunday, as justices prepare to finalize a draft ruling stripping almost half a century of abortion rights in the US. The House speaker railed against conservative judges appointed by ... Donald Trump in an interview Sunday on CNN's State of the Union, in which she urged Democrats to keep their 'eye on the ball' to protect other freedoms she sees under threat. 'Beware in terms of marriage equality, beware in terms of other aspects,' she said. '... This is not just about terminating a pregnancy. This is about contraception, family planning.... This is a place where freedom and the kitchen table, issues of America's families, come together.'"

Gillian Brockell of the Washington Post "Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. calls himself an originalist, someone who thinks the Constitution should be interpreted only by how it would have been understood by the Founders when they wrote it." So Brockell examines what abortion was like when the Founders were founding. Notably, measures to abort an embryo or early-term fetus were not considered abortions at all; "... most religious and legal scholars at the time did not think 'ensoulment' began at the moment of conception but at the time of 'quickening' -- when a pregnant person can feel fetal movement, generally between 16 and 22 weeks." Abortion was common: "... most homes would have had a medical manual ... [that] included recipes for concoctions that could induce menses that had been 'blocked' or 'suppressed' -- a common way to refer to early pregnancy." Especially since poisoning was a common method, abortion was dangerous. Abortion also was not illegal anywhere in the U.S. until 1821: decades after the Founders wrote the Constitution. And even that law -- passed in response to a scandal in which a preacher poisoned his pregnant lover -- should be viewed as more of a "poison-control measure," a scholar argued. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Another thing that becomes clear from reading Brockell's report is that Alito heavily cherry-picked the historical record to support his false suggestion that abortion was commonly prohibited back in the day. Alito isn't just an anti-woman fanatic; he's a sneaky, prevaricating anti-woman fanatic.

Nebraska. Devan Cole of CNN: "Republican Gov. Pete Ricketts of Nebraska said Sunday that he will call a special session of his state's legislature to pass a total ban on abortion if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade this term. 'Nebraska is a pro-life state. I believe life begins at conception, and those are babies too,' Ricketts told CNN's Dana Bash ... when asked if he thought the state should require a young girl who was raped to carry the pregnancy to term. 'If Roe v. Wade, which is a horrible constitutional decision, gets overturned by the Supreme Court, which we're hopeful of, here in Nebraska, we're going to take further steps to protect those preborn babies.' 'Including in the case of rape or incest?' Bash asked. To which the governor replied: 'They're still babies, too. Yes.'"

The New York Times' live updates of developments Monday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "Russia appears to be shifting its immediate ambitions on the eastern front of its invasion of Ukraine, as battlefield setbacks and dwindling troop numbers drain its war effort. Instead of attempting to encircle large numbers of Ukrainian troops from Izium south to Donetsk City, Russia is likely now trying to complete a takeover of the Luhansk area in the south, according to the Institute for the Study of War.... Russia may have lost a third of the ground forces it committed to the war in Ukraine, British intelligence officials said on Sunday." ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live updates for Monday are here: "Russia called Finland and Sweden's moves toward joining NATO a 'mistake' that could have 'far-reaching consequences' -- as both Nordic nations dispatched troops to participate in large-scale exercises by the military alliance. Republican U.S. senators, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), visited Helsinki after meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky over the weekend. The U.S. Senate is expected to advance the approval of a $40 billion aid package for Ukraine on Monday, with a final vote as soon as Wednesday. The remaining authorized aid is set to run out Thursday." ~~~

     ~~~ The Guardian's live updates for Monday are here. The Guardian's "full report" is here.

John Hudson, et al., of the Washington Post: "Sweden's ruling party dropped the country's historic military nonalignment on Sunday and agreed to join NATO, shortly after Finland's leaders officially announced they would do the same. The moves were major steps in ending decades of military neutrality for the two Nordic nations, as Russia's invasion of Ukraine continued to dramatically shift security considerations in Europe. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said their accession would be a 'turning point for security' in Europe. 'Their membership in NATO would increase our shared security, demonstrate that NATO's door is open, and that aggression does not pay.'"~~~

     ~~~ Edward Wong & Anatoly Kurmanaev of the New York Times: Jens Stoltenberg, "the head of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, said Sunday that the security bloc would grant fast-track membership to Sweden and Finland, raising the pressure on Vladimir V. Putin, who justified his invasion of Ukraine by what he cast as the need to keep the military alliance away from Russia's borders."

When You've Lost the Bloggers.... Anton Troianovski & Marc Santora of the New York Times: "The destruction wreaked on a Russian battalion as it tried to cross a river in northeastern Ukraine last week is emerging as among the deadliest engagements of the war, with estimates based on publicly available evidence now suggesting that well over 400 Russian soldiers were killed or wounded. And as the scale of what happened comes into sharper focus, the disaster appears to be breaking through the Kremlin's tightly controlled information bubble. Perhaps most striking, the Russian battlefield failure is resonating with a stable of pro-Russian war bloggers -- some of whom are embedded with troops on the front line -- who have reliably posted to the social network Telegram with claims of Russian success and Ukrainian cowardice.... As the news of the losses at the [Donets R]iver crossing in Bilohorivka started to spread, some Russian bloggers did not appear to hold back in their criticism of what they said was incompetent leadership."

Nicholas Confessore & Karen Yourish of the New York Times: "At the extremes of American life, replacement theory -- the notion that Western elites, sometimes manipulated by Jews, want to 'replace' and disempower white Americans -- has become an engine of racist terror, helping inspire a wave of mass shootings in recent years and fueling the 2017 right-wing rally in Charlottesville, Va., that erupted in violence. But replacement theory, once confined to the digital fever swamps..., has gone mainstream. In sometimes more muted forms, the fear it crystallizes ... has become ... commonplace in the Republican Party -- spoken aloud at congressional hearings, echoed in Republican campaign advertisements and embraced by a growing array of right-wing candidates and media personalities. No public figure has promoted replacement theory more loudly or relentlessly than the Fox host Tucker Carlson, who has made elite-led demographic change a central theme of his show since joining Fox's prime-time lineup in 2016. A Times investigation published this month showed that in more than 400 episodes of his show, Mr. Carlson has amplified the notion that Democratic politicians and other assorted elites want to force demographic change through immigration, and his producers sometimes scoured his show's raw material from the same dark corners of the internet that the Buffalo suspect did." Read on. ~~~

~~~ Marianna Sotomayor of the Washington Post: "Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), the No. 3 House Republican, and other GOP lawmakers came under scrutiny Sunday for previously echoing the racist 'great replacement' theory that apparently inspired an 18-year-old who allegedly killed 10 people.... While Stefanik has not pushed the theory by name, she and other conservatives have echoed the tenets of the far-right ideology as part of anti-immigrant rhetoric that has fired up the Republican base.... It marks a rapid transformation for Stefanik, who has sought to firmly align herself with former president Donald Trump and his nativist 'Make America Great Again' agenda over the last year after she replaced Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) as GOP conference chair.... [In one 2021 ad, Stefanik's campaign committee wrote,] '[Democrats'] plan to grant amnesty to 11 MILLION illegal immigrants will overthrow our current electorate and create a permanent liberal majority in Washington.'... Other Republicans in Congress have been pushing the theory in more explicit terms. Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) ... said during a subcommittee hearing ... last year that many Americans believe 'we're replacing national-born American -- native-born Americans -- to permanently transform the political landscape of this very nation.' ... Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) ... [said] in a tweet [that Tucker Carlson] 'is CORRECT about Replacement Theory as he explains what is happening to America.'" ~~~

     ~~~ The Party of Racists. Cas Mudde of the Guardian: "There is no easy fix to dealing with far-right terror. But we should stop assuming Republicans can help, when they are part of the problem[.]... The Grand Old Party has become a far-right party that advances racist arguments in both implicit and explicit form.... Just a few days before the terrorist attack [in Buffalo], a poll showed that nearly half of Republicans believe the conspiracy theory.... [As for the terrorist himself,] there are few if any real 'lone wolves.' Far-right terrorists are part of a larger subculture, online and offline, which is connected to the broader conservative movement.... If [President] Biden and the Democrats really want to fight white supremacy, including institutional racism, they must do it without the Republican party." ~~~

~~~ Martha Hamilton & Aaron Wiener in the Washington Post: "... while the great replacement theory has inspired horrific violence in the past five years, it's a lot older than that. More than 70 years ago, a U.S. senator published a book warning of the same destruction of White civilization. Theodore G. Bilbo, a Democrat, had twice been governor of Mississippi before he served in the U.S. Senate from 1935 to 1947, when 'the growing intolerance among many whites toward public racism and anti-Semitism' led to his fall, according to an account in the Journal of Mississippi History.... Bilbo saw an existential threat in the growing ranks of American-born descendants of enslaved Africans. His solution? Ship them back.... 'A White America or a mongrel America -- you must take your choice!'... Bilbo's [political] career built on racism and anti-immigrant bigotry ... ended [when he died of cancer in 1947]. But the bigotry lingers on."

Ann Marimow of the Washington Post: "One federal appeals court judge in D.C. has hired only male law clerks for the past two decades. Another judge allegedly refused to speak to a staffer for weeks after a child-care emergency caused the assistant to depart work early one day.... These and other complaints appear in a confidential workplace survey conducted for the federal trial and appeals courts in the nation's capital, an institution regarded as a steppingstone to the Supreme Court. It details instances of gender discrimination, bullying and racial insensitivity, while underscoring the stark power imbalance between judges with life tenure and the assistants who depend on them for career advancement.... Current and former courthouse employees who acknowledged having witnessed misconduct described their reluctance\>to file formal complaints against their superiors...." MB: Worth noting: Merrick the Reluctant served as chief judge from 2013 to 2021, and -- as far as we know -- he did nothing to address these problems.

Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "When the Trump administration >assigned a prosecutor in 2019 to scour the Russia investigation for any wrongdoing..., Donald J. Trump stoked expectations among his supporters that the inquiry would find a 'deep state' conspiracy against him. Three years later, the team led by the special counsel, John H. Durham, on Monday will open the first trial in a case their investigation developed.... But rather than showing wrongdoing by the F.B.I., it is a case that portrays the bureau as a victim. The trial centers on whether Michael Sussmann, a cybersecurity lawyer with ties to Democrats, lied to the F.B.I. in September 2016, when he relayed suspicions about possible cyberconnections between Mr. Trump and Russia. The F.B.I. looked into the matter, which involved a server for the Kremlin-linked Alfa Bank, and decided it was unsubstantiated.... Mr. Sussmann had told an F.B.I. official that he was not acting on behalf of any client. Prosecutors contend he concealed that a technology executive and the Hillary Clinton campaign were his clients to make the allegations seem more credible."

Australian Exceptionalism. Damien Cave of the New York Times: "If the United States had the same Covid death rate as Australia, about 900,000 lives would have been saved.... At the milestone of one million deaths in the United States, the nations that did a better job of keeping people alive show what Americans could have done differently and what might still need to change.... Australia restricted travel and personal interaction until vaccinations were widely available, then maximized vaccine uptake, prioritizing people who were most vulnerable before gradually opening up the country again.... Dozens of interviews, along with survey data and scientific studies from around the world, point to a lifesaving trait that Australians displayed from the top of government to the hospital floor, and that Americans have shown they lack: trust, in science and institutions, but especially in one another."

"Uh, Well, No." Josephine Harvey of the Huffington Post: ">Anthony Fauci said Sunday he would not return to his position as chief White House medical adviser if Donald Trump was reelected president in 2024. The infectious disease expert was asked by CNN's Jim Acosta if he would have confidence in Trump's ability to deal with a public health emergency should Trump serve another term as president. 'Would you want to stay on in your post?' Acosta added. 'Uh, well, no,' Fauci said. 'To the second question.... The first question ... if you look at the history of what the response was during the administration, I think at best you could say at best it wasn't optimal. I think just history will speak for itself about that. I don't need to make any further comment on that. It's not productive.'"

Beyond the Beltway

Maryland. Tiffany May of the New York Times: "Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland announced late Sunday night that he was recovering from 'a minor stroke,' the second Democratic lawmaker to fall ill from the ailment this year. Mr. Van Hollen, 63, said in a statement posted on Twitter that he had been admitted to George Washington University Hospital, which is in the District of Columbia, 'after experiencing lightheadedness and acute neck pain' while delivering a speech. An angiogram showed that he had had a 'minor stroke in the form of a small venous tear' at the back of his head."

Pennsylvania Senate Race. Katie Glueck of the New York Times: "Lt. Gov. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, the front-runner for his state's Democratic Senate nomination, said on Sunday that he had had a stroke on Friday and was recovering.... The incident has kept him off the campaign trail for the final weekend before Tuesday's primary election in one of the nation's most closely watched Senate contests. It was unclear when he would return to in-person campaigning.... 'I'm well on my way to a full recovery,' [he said." The Guardian's report is here. ~~~

~~~ Pennsylvania, et al. Colby Itkowitz & Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: Three top candidates for statewide elections in Pennsylvania attended the "Stop the Steal" rally on January 6, 2021. "The trio are part of a phalanx of Republican candidates nationwide who ... strongly embraced Trump's false claims that the 2020 election was stolen.... Should the candidates win their elections, some would be in position to play a critical role in the administration of the presidential vote in 2024."

News Ledes

Washington Post: "Two months before Payton Gendron allegedly killed 10 people at a supermarket in Buffalo, he was confronted by a security guard at the store during a trip on which he compiled detailed plans of the location, according to a document posted online last month by a writer who identified himself as Gendron. 'I've seen you go in and out ,,, What are you doing?' the guard told Gendron on March 8, according to an account in the document. Gendron replied that he was 'collecting consensus data' before making excuses and leaving for his car, according to the account, adding: 'In hindsight that was a close call.'"

New York Times: "A Las Vegas man who the authorities say opened fire on a Taiwanese congregation at a Southern California church on Sunday -- killing one person and injuring five others before the pastor and congregants overpowered and hogtied him -- was motivated by hatred, the Orange County sheriff said on Monday. The suspect, David Chou, 68, a U.S. citizen who emigrated from China, was charged with murder and five felony counts of attempted murder for what Don Barnes, the sheriff, described at a news conference on Monday as a 'politically motivated hate incident' prompted by grievances against the Taiwanese community."

May 15, 2022

Ellie Silverman & Kyle Swenson of the Washington Post: "Protesters gathered in Washington and at hundreds of events across the country on Saturday, including in New York City, San Antonio and Los Angeles, to rally for abortion rights.... The liberal groups that organized Saturday's protests designed the events as a resounding message to leaders that the majority of Americans support upholding Roe. In Washington, generations -- from babies and children to mothers and grandmothers who say they've been protesting for the right to an abortion for far too long -- gathered on the National Mall to send it. They voiced anger over the wave of abortion bans and restrictions taking hold in states across the country." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) An AP report is here.

Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times takes on the Washington Post editors: "Having captured the court for their own ends, conservative legal elites have not been shy about their efforts to pressure the court to rule in their favor. Which is to say that in evaluating the recent protests, we have one important question to answer: Who has the right to speak directly to the Supreme Court? The elites who shape the court or the people who must live under it?" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Maureen Dowd of the New York Times: "There is an astonishing preponderance of Catholics on the Supreme Court -- six out of the nine justices, and a seventh, Neil Gorsuch, was raised as a Catholic and went to the same Jesuit boys' high school in a Maryland suburb that Brett Kavanaugh ... did, Georgetown Prep.... This Catholic feels an intense disquiet that Catholic doctrine may be shaping (or misshaping) the freedom and the future of millions of women, and men. There is a corona of religious fervor around the court, a churchly ethos that threatens to turn our whole country upside down.... Last year, at Thomas Aquinas College in California, Justice Samuel Alito fretted that there was growing cultural hostility toward Christianity and Catholicism. 'There is a real movement to suppress the expression of anything that opposes the secular orthodoxy,' he said. During her Supreme Court confirmation hearings, Amy Coney Barrett tried to reassure Democrats who were leery of her role as a 'handmaid' in a Christian group.... The group has a male-dominated hierarchy and a rigid view of sexuality reflecting conservative gender norms and rejecting openly gay men and women. Men, the group's decision makers, 'headed' their wives." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

The New York Times' live updates of developments Saturday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "Foreign ministers from NATO countries were set to finish a weekend of meetings in Berlin on Sunday, with their counterparts from Finland and Sweden present, amid vague Russian threats of retaliation over the suddenly very real prospect of the two Nordic countries joining the military alliance. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken arrived in Berlin on Saturday night for the talks, the latest example of how repercussions from Russia's invasion of Ukraine have undermined ... Vladimir V. Putin's war aims.... On the battlefields, Ukrainian forces reclaimed territory in the country's northeast on Saturday, driving Russian forces away from the city of Kharkiv and going on the offensive near the occupied town of Izium. Despite those gains, military and civilian leaders warned that the war was entering a new, slow-moving phase that could last a long time.... Turkey is working to negotiate a safe exit for the wounded Ukrainian soldiers sheltering in the bunkers of the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol. The situation there is growing more dire, with the remaining fighters surviving on dwindling rations." ~~~

     ~~~ Here's a New York Times summary of what happened Saturday.

The Washington Post's live updates of developments Sunday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "The UK's Ministry of Defense says Russia now looks to have suffered losses to a third of the ground combat force it committed in February, with the loss of equipment and low morale meaning it is unlikely to accelerate its rate of advance in the next month.

Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the minority leader, visited Ukraine on Saturday to meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky, leading the latest delegation of American lawmakers to the country as the United States deepens its commitment to Kyiv's fight against the Russian invasion. The surprise visit by Mr. McConnell, who was accompanied by three other Republican senators, comes as the Senate is working to pass a $40 billion emergency military and humanitarian aid package for Ukraine.... The trip, a rare international visit for Mr. McConnell, highlights the widespread bipartisan support for Ukraine in Washington...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Paul Kane of the Washington Post: Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) "is the only member of the House to hold a perfect 16-for-16 record opposing legislation to support Ukraine and oppose Russia, according to House records and a Democratic analysis provided to The Washington Post.... Little by little, however, with each proposal [to aid Ukraine], a few more Republicans would sign up [to oppose the legislation & resolutions]: eight Republicans opposed suspending trade privileges for Russia in mid-March; 17 Republicans opposed a resolution supporting Moldova, whose leaders fear their Ukraine-bordering nation could be Putin's next target; 19 opposed a similar resolution in support for Georgia.... [Massie's] views remain a minority, but his allies in this cause include some of the closest allies to Trump, who ... has espoused his own fondness for Putin." On Monday Trump, who once called him a 'third-rate grandstander,' endorsed Massie in the GOP primary." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Elisabetta Povoledo, et al., of the New York Times: "The Ukrainian rap and folk band Kalush Orchestra won the Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday, as European viewers and juries delivered a symbolic, pop culture endorsement of solidarity behind Ukraine in its defense against Russia's invasion."

Ron Lieber of the New York Times: We should stop talking about "student loan forgiveness" and apologize to the kids we've told to get a higher education, then saddled them with huge debt. "Among the 26 nations that the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development survey, only Britain has higher average tuition for public universities than the United States." Read on. MB: Lieber does an excellent job of shaming everybody from Joe Biden on down, but here's one thing he doesn't mention: banks aggressively pitch students to take out loans. I went back to get an advanced degree in the 1990s. I did not apply for a loan of any kind, as my tuition was free and I had a roof over my head. Nevertheless, the university obviously sold my name and address to banks because I received at least half-a-dozen letters from banks telling me they would send money. It's no wonder; lending money to students under government loan programs is a sure deal for banks because the government guarantees the loans.

Rachel Weiner of the Washington Post: Two 4th District Court of Appeals judges appointed by Donald Trump on a three-judge panel ruled that undocumented immigrants have fewer rights than American citizens. "An appeal to the full bench of 4th Circuit judges is likely.... Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg of the Legal Aid Justice Center, an immigrant rights group that filed a brief in favor of the detainees, called the decision 'a radical outlier' from other appellate courts.... 'The Biden Administration should not continue to press legal arguments that immigrants are somehow lesser 'persons' than U.S. citizens within the meaning of the Due Process Clause.'"

If you'd like to know more about Elon Musk, Marc Fisher and others wrote a long profile of the nasty bastard for the Washington Post.

Felix Salmon, now of Axios: "Elon Musk has agreed to pay $44 billion for Twitter, which is much more than it's worth. His actions indicate that he doesn't want to pay that much -- he still wants the company, just not at that price. So the big question in the markets is: Will he end up buying the company, and, if so, how much will he end up paying?" Salmon goes on to explain Musk's contractual obligations to Twitter and a few ways the contretemps might play out.

Beyond the Beltway

Pennsylvania Gubernatorial race. Zach Montellaro, et al., of Politico: "Pennsylvania state Sen. Doug Mastriano on Saturday landed the coveted endorsement of ... Donald Trump with days to go before the gubernatorial primary. The prospect of Trump's endorsement of Mastriano, a leading voice in the movement to overturn the 2020 election results and who was present at the Capitol during the Jan. 6 insurrection, had alarmed local and national Republicans concerned about his ability to win a general election.... Mastriano -- who also has ties to the QAnon conspiracy theory -- was already leading in the polls in the fractured primary, despite being well outspent on TV by candidates like former U.S. Attorney Bill McSwain and businessman David White.... Trump had been skeptical of Mastriano, according to another person familiar, but was impressed by his lead in the polls and focus on the 2020 election." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Way Beyond

U.A.E. Ben Hubbard of the New York Times: "Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan became the president of the United Arab Emirates on Saturday, formalizing the rise of a 61-year-old prince who has deftly wielded his country's oil wealth to become one of the most influential leaders in the Arab world and a close partner of the United States."

U.K. When Boris Was a Boy. David Segal of the New York Times: "Simon Kuper has written a book that captures Boris Johnson and other future Conservative politicians when they were ambitious and misbehaving [Oxford] undergrads, planning their rise to power.... The book profiles a group of future leaders at a moment when few outside elite circles knew their names, and it taxonomizes Oxford the way a nature documentary might explain predators and prey on the Serengeti Plain."

News Ledes

New York Times: "A gunman who opened fire inside a Southern California church on Sunday, killing one person and critically wounding four others, was overpowered by congregants who then hogtied him, preventing further bloodshed, the authorities said. The shooting occurred at 1:26 p.m. inside the Geneva Presbyterian Church in Laguna Woods, Calif., about 50 miles southeast of Los Angeles in a community largely made up of retirees and one that has a well-established Asian community. Most of the victims were of Taiwanese descent, though officials were still investigating if they had been targeted, said Carrie Braun, a spokeswoman for the Orange County Sheriff's Department." An AP report is here.

Washington Post: "The suspect in the Buffalo supermarket massacre purchased the primary weapon allegedly used in the shooting -- a used Bushmaster XM-15 semiautomatic rifle -- from a licensed dealer near his hometown but said he then illegally modified the gun so he could use a high-capacity magazine. The suspect, 18-year-old Payton S. Gendron, described how he amassed his arsenal in lengthy online postings that authorities believe he wrote in the weeks before the massacre on Saturday." ~~~

~~~ New York Times: Asked about his plans after graduation for a school project last spring, "Payton Gendron, a senior, said he wanted to commit a murder-suicide, according to a law enforcement official briefed on the matter. He claimed to be joking, the official said. But the state police were summoned to investigate and took Mr. Gendron, then 17, into custody on June 8 under a state mental health law, police officials said Sunday. He had a psychiatric evaluation in a hospital but was released within a couple of days.... Two weeks later, Mr. Gendron graduated and fell off investigators' radar. On Saturday..., authorities say he kill[ed] 10 people and wounding three others in one of the deadliest racist massacres in recent United States history." An AP story is here. ~~~

~~~ New York Times: "A teenage gunman entranced by a white supremacist ideology known as replacement theory opened fire at a supermarket in Buffalo[, New York,] on Saturday, methodically shooting and killing 10 people and injuring three more, almost all of them Black, in one of the deadliest racist massacres in recent American history. The authorities identified the gunman as 18-year-old Payton S. Gendron of Conklin, a small town in New York's rural Southern Tier. Mr. Gendron drove more than 200 miles to mount his attack, which he also livestreamed, the police said, a chilling video feed that appeared designed to promote his sinister agenda. Shortly after Mr. Gendron was captured, a manifesto believed to have been posted online by the gunman emerged, riddled with racist, anti-immigrant views that claimed white Americans were at risk of being replaced by people of color. In the video that appeared to have been captured by the camera affixed to his helmet, an anti-Black racial slur can be seen on the barrel of his weapon." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: This is the same white supremacist theory that poor little rich white boy Tucker Carlson has been promoting on Fox "News." Take him off the air. ~~~

     ~~~ Here's a statement from President Biden on the mass murder.

May 14, 2022

Afternoon Update

Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "Senator Mitch McConnell f Kentucky, the minority leader, visited Ukraine on Saturday to meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky, leading the latest delegation of American lawmakers to the country as the United States deepens its commitment to Kyiv's fight against the Russian invasion. The surprise visit by Mr. McConnell, who was accompanied by three other Republican senators, comes as the Senate is working to pass a $40 billion emergency military and humanitarian aid package for Ukraine.... The trip, a rare international visit for Mr. McConnell, highlights the widespread bipartisan support for Ukraine in Washington...."

Paul Kane of the Washington Post: Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) "is the only member of the House to hold a perfect 16-for-16 record opposing legislation to support Ukraine and oppose Russia, according to House records and a Democratic analysis provided to The Washington Post.... Little by little, however, with each proposal [to aid Ukraine], a few more Republicans would sign up [to oppose the legislation & resolutions]: eight Republicans opposed suspending trade privileges for Russia in mid-March; 17 Republicans opposed a resolution supporting Moldova, whose leaders fear their Ukraine-bordering nation could be Putin's next target; 19 opposed a similar resolution in support fo Georgia.... [Massie's] views remain a minority, but his allies in this cause include some of the closest allies to Trump, who ... has espoused his own fondness for Putin." On Monday Trump, who once called him a 'third-rate grandstander,' endorsed Massie in the GOP primary.”

Ellie Silverman & Kyle Swenson of the Washington Post: "Protesters gathered in Washington and at hundreds of events across the country on Saturday, including in New York City, San Antonio and Los Angeles, to rally for abortion rights.... The liberal groups that organized Saturday's protests designed the events as a resounding message to leaders that the majority of Americans support upholding Roe. In Washington, generations -- from babies and children to mothers and grandmothers who say they've been protesting for the right to an abortion for far too long -- gathered on the National Mall to send it. They voiced anger over the wave of abortion bans and restrictions taking hold in states across the country."

Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times takes on the Washington Post editors: "Having captured the court for their own ends, conservative legal elites have not been shy about their efforts to pressure the court to rule in their favor. Which is to say that in evaluating the recent protests, we have one important question to answer: Who has the right to speak directly to the Supreme Court? The elites who shape the court or the people who must live under it?"

Maureen Dowd of the New York Times: "There is an astonishing preponderance of Catholics on the Supreme Court -- six out of the nine justices, and a seventh, Neil Gorsuch, was raised as a Catholic and went to the same Jesuit boys' high school in a Maryland suburb that Brett Kavanaugh ... did, Georgetown Prep.... This Catholic feels an intense disquiet that Catholic doctrine may be shaping (or misshaping) the freedom and the future of millions of women, and men. There is a corona of religious fervor around the court, a churchly ethos that threatens to turn our whole country upside down.... Last year, at Thomas Aquinas College in California, Justice Samuel Alito fretted that there was growing cultural hostility toward Christianity and Catholicism. 'There is a real movement to suppress the expression of anything that opposes the secular orthodoxy,' he said. During her Supreme Court confirmation hearings, Amy Coney Barrett tried to reassure Democrats who were leery of her role as a 'handmaid' in a Christian group.... The group has a male-dominated hierarchy and a rigid view of sexuality reflecting conservative gender norms and rejecting openly gay men and women. Men, the group's decision makers, 'headed' their wives."

Zach Montellaro, et al., of Politico: "Pennsylvania state Sen. Doug Mastriano on Saturday landed the coveted endorsement of ... Donald Trump with days to go before the gubernatorial primary. The prospect of Trump's endorsement of Mastriano, a leading voice in the movement to overturn the 2020 election results and who was present at the Capitol during the Jan. 6 insurrection, had alarmed local and national Republicans concerned about his ability to win a general election.... Mastriano -- who also has ties to the QAnon conspiracy theory -- was already leading in the polls in the fractured primary, despite being well outspent on TV by candidates like former U.S. Attorney Bill McSwain and businessman David White.... Trump had been skeptical of Mastriano, according to another person familiar, but was impressed by his lead in the polls and focus on the 2020 election."

~~~~~~~~~~

Scott Wong of NBC News: "The House Judiciary Committee plans to hold a hearing next week on the 'implications' of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler confirmed to NBC News on Friday.... The hearing [-- scheduled for Wednesday at 10 am ET --] will 'expose the extremism of this leaked opinion -- it is literally undoing 50 years of precedent and signaling that they will go after other privacy rights. Nobody is safe,' Rep. Madeleine Dean, D-Pa., a Judiciary member and co-chair of the bipartisan Women's Caucus, said in an interview."

Dana Milbank of the Washington Post: Politicians' and the media's "small-bore response [to the leaked draft opinion] misses the radical change to society that Justice Samuel Alito and his co-conspirators are poised to ram down the throats of Americans. Their stunning action ... is upending who we are as a people.... Overturning Roe would be a shock to our way of life.... It took years (and a stolen seat or two) to build this destructive Supreme Court. The building backlash will have to be just as sustained."

Kate Riga of TPM: "At a Thursday night event at the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University, ['Justice' Samuel Alito] had harsh words for the two conservative justices who joined the majority in Bostock v. Clayton County. The 2020 opinion said that the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits sex-based discrimination, extends to gay and transgender workers. Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote the majority opinion, in which he was joined by the liberals and Chief Justice John Roberts. Speaking via a video feed Thursday, Alito called Gorsuch a 'colleague and friend,' but said that grounding the decision in the text of the 1964 law was 'in my view indefensible,' according to the Washington Post." Thanks to Forrest M. for the link. MB: Presumably, an attempt to overturn Bostock would fail, but that would depend upon Gorsuch, Roberts & the three justices appointed by Democrats sticking together. And nothing is certain now over there at Crazy Court.

In the Weird World of Clarence Thomas. Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The leak of a draft opinion has done irreparable damage to the Supreme Court, Justice Clarence Thomas said at a conference in Dallas on Friday night, adding that it had destroyed trust among the members of the court.... Justice Thomas said the left has adopted tactics that conservatives would not employ. 'You would never visit Supreme Court justices' houses when things didn't go our way,' he said. 'We didn't throw temper tantrums....' He added that conservatives have 'never trashed a Supreme Court nominee.'" Politico's report is here. MB: When things didn't go your way, Clarence, your wife went out to overturn a presidential election & foment an insurrection. And you might want to ask Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan & accused pedophile-enabler Ketanji Brown Jackson if "conservatives" had trashed them. And, gosh, I hope it doesn't upset you too much if we find out the leak was from your office.

Casey Parks of the Washington Post: "As the Supreme Court moves closer to potentially overturning Roe v. Wade, Democratic-led states have begun allocating money to increase access to abortion -- both for their own constituents and for people traveling from states where the procedure may soon become illegal. But critics say the efforts lack transparency. The problem, critics say, is no one knows exactly how Oregon[, for instance,] will spend the money."

What we are calling for is a total ban, no exceptions. We don't think abortion is ever necessary to save the life of the mother. -- Mark Sande of Pro-Life Wisconsin ~~~

How exactly is it "pro-life," Mark, to stand around and watch women die? -- Confused in New England ~~~

~~~ Looking for New Battles After the War Is Won. Ariana Cha & Emily Wax-Thibodeaux of the Washington Post: "Terminating a pregnancy to save a mother's life has long been accepted as a moral imperative by those on both sides of the abortion debate.... But now, with the U.S. Supreme Court potentially moving to overturn Roe..., emboldened conservatives in some states are pushing to narrow and in some cases eliminate such exceptions, arguing that they create loopholes that are easily exploited." MB: People like Mark there have made careers of advocating against abortion, and now they're at sixes & sevens to find new "causes." When your job and/or your favorite thing to do is on the line, a relatively small number of unnecessary deaths of women is a price well worth paying. It's hard to exaggerate what hateful, twisted reprobates these people are.

Matthew Chapman of the Raw Story: "On Friday, writing for The Atlantic, Canadian author Margaret Atwood -- author of the patriarchal dystopia 'The Handmaid's Tale' == said that the Supreme Court's impending decision to strike down Roe v. Wade creates the nightmarish world she was depicting.... Atwood ... [wrote] that she actually stopped writing the novel multiple times because she considered its premise to be too extreme to be taken seriously. 'Silly me,' she commented.... You can read more here. (Firewalled.) MB: The Handmaid's Tale was published in 1985. That, of course, was before any of the imbeciles who intend to vote to overturn Roe were on the Court. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

The New York Times' live updates of developments Saturday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "The foreign ministers of Finland and Sweden were scheduled to meet ... for an informal working dinner ... with their NATO counterparts in Germany on Saturday as both countries move toward joining the alliance and Western allies redouble their efforts to solidify their unity against Russia.... At the same time, Western nations' efforts to exact economic punishment on Russia's elite were closing in on those closest to President Vladimir V. Putin. Britain placed sanctions on his cousins, ex-wife and a former Olympic gymnast rumored to be his romantic partner.... Ukrainian forces further pushed the Russians away from the city of Kharkiv in the northeast on Friday. They appeared to win the battle there by waging a counteroffensive rivaling their earlier success in the capital, Kyiv, analysts said.... The Pentagon said that U.S. Army troops would be rotated in to replace the 10,500 additional forces the United States has sent to Europe to bolster NATO's eastern flank and the Baltics, a sign that the troop buildup could become permanent." ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live updates for Saturday are here: "'Very difficult negotiations' are ongoing for the 'next stage' of evacuations from the Azovstal steel plant and Mariupol, focused on medics and the seriously wounded, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday. Ukrainian forces have been holed up there for more than two months."

Eleanor Watson of CBS News: "Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke to his Russian counterpart, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, Friday for the first time since Russia initiated its invasion of Ukraine. According to a readout from the Pentagon, during the conversation with Shoigu, Austin 'urged an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine and emphasized the importance of maintaining lines of communication.'... A U.S. senior defense said the call lasted about an hour and confirmed that Austin had requested the call. Since mid-February, the Pentagon has consistently been reaching out for calls with Russian counterparts, but the Russians had previously shown no interest. It's unclear now why Shoigu agreed to Friday's call."

John Henley & Ruth Michaelson of the Guardian: "The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has cast doubt on Finnish and Swedish membership of Nato, saying he does not have a positive opinion of the two Nordic nations joining the military alliance after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.... Membership of Nato would require ratification by all existing members.... The comments appeared directed at the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which Turkey regards as a terrorist organisation, although they appeared to encompass the communities of Kurdish origin in Scandinavia as a whole.... Sweden has a large Kurdish diaspora, and prominent Swedish citizens of Kurdish origin currently include six members of parliament." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

AP: "WNBA star Brittney Griner had her pre-trial detention in Russia extended by one month Friday, her lawyer said. Alexander Boykov told The Associated Press he thinks the relatively short extension indicated that Griner's case would go to trial soon. The 31-year-old American basketball player has been in custody for nearly three months." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Psaki Has Left the Building. Brian Stelter of CNN: "Jen Psaki held her 224th and final briefing as White House press secretary on Friday afternoon.... Psaki's successor, Karine Jean-Pierre, confirmed on Friday that she will continue to hold regular briefings. Embedded in their remarks on Friday is a stark difference between presidents and parties. In about 16 months working on behalf of President Joe Biden, Psaki held a greater number of briefings than all of ... Donald Trump's press secretaries combined. The Trump-era total was 205...."

David McCabe & Cecilia Kang of the New York Times: "The confirmation of a third Democrat to the Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday broke a partisan deadlock at the agency.... With the F.T.C.'s new Democratic majority -- which came with the confirmation of Alvaro Bedoya, who becomes the fifth commissioner, in a slot that had been vacant since October -- [FTC chairwoman Lina] Khan's [D] allies and critics are watching to see if she pushes forward plans to address corporate power. That could include filing an antitrust lawsuit against Amazon, setting online privacy rules and tapping little-used agency powers to clip the wings of companies like Meta, Apple and Google."

Luke Broadwater & Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "The decision by the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol to issue subpoenas to five Republican members of Congress, including Representative Kevin McCarthy..., has sent a shock wave through Capitol Hill, heightening tensions in an already hostile environment and raising questions about the future of the inquiry and the institution itself.... In the House, subpoenas are almost never issued outside of the Ethics Committee, which is charged with investigating allegations of misconduct by members. But it is also exceedingly rare for lawmakers to refuse outright to cooperate with an investigation.... Mr. McCarthy has made no secret of his plans to retaliate against Democrats if Republicans win control of the House. He has named Representative Adam B. Schiff, a member of the committee, and Representative Eric Swalwell, both California Democrats, as potential targets."

Aaron Blake of the Washington Post runs down what some Trump aides -- Mike Esper, Bill Barr, John Bolton & Stephanie Grisham -- said before & after they quit/were fired from their jobs, and they fakey explanations of why they stayed silent till their books came out. Why, it's almost as if they did an awful lot of dissembling.

Alyssa Rosenberg of the Washington Post: "In the debate over how to address the widespread shortage of infant formula in the United States, some Republicans have advanced a novel -- and ugly -- idea: Take food from migrant babies in federal detention and give it to American children. Such a 'solution' is not only legally forbidden, it's morally reprehensible.... The implied proposal to starve some children to punish their parents should leave all decent people aghast.... It was bad enough when [Texas Gov. Greg] Abbott wanted to deny immigrant children schooling. This new statement is an implied endorsement of politically motivated starvation." MB: According to Chris Hayes of MSNBC, there are a few hundred babies in U.S. custody at the border, and three or four million U.S. babies who use formula. Starving a few hundred immigrant babies is not going to feed millions of American babies. The GOP/Fox "News" proposal is not just immoral and illegal; it is stupid. Oh, and a crime against humanity.

Michael Scherer & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "From Nebraska and Idaho to Pennsylvania and Georgia, Republicans have been actively campaigning -- or quietly maneuvering -- against [Donald] Trump's picks in a way that could undermine his sway over the party. One prominent example came Tuesday when Trump's endorsed candidate for Nebraska governor, Charles Herbster, lost in the GOP primary after significant opposition from Gov. Pete Ricketts (R).... In Pennsylvania, former Trump secretary of state Mike Pompeo and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), a strong Trump ally, are stumping for Senate candidate David McCormick ... -- even though Trump is backing candidate and television personality Mehmet Oz.... In his sharpest political challenge yet to Trump..., former vice president Mike Pence announced Friday that he would campaign for Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R), who is seeking reelection over Trump endorsee David Perdue. ~~~

     ~~~ Trumparithmetic. From the Scherer-Dawsey story: “'President Trump is already 58-1 this election season, and the power of his endorsement continues to propel candidates across the nation in a way no endorsement has before,' said Trump spokesman Taylor Budowich, referring to a win-loss record pushed by Trump that contains numerous unopposed candidates.... Trump has long been obsessed with his own endorsement win-loss record, often combining risk-taking endorsements with safer picks so that his percentage stays high." MB: If you run unopposed, do you throw yourself a victory party? Who concedes?

Kelvin Chan & Tom Krisher of the AP: "Elon Musk said Friday that his plan to buy Twitter is 'temporarily on hold,' raising fresh doubts about whether he'll proceed with the $44 billion acquisition. Musk tweeted that he wanted to pinpoint the number of spam and fake accounts on the social media platform. Musk has been vocal about his desire to clean up Twitter's problem with 'spam bots' that mimic real people and appeared to question whether the company was underreporting them. But Twitter has disclosed in regulatory filings that its bot estimates might be low for at least two years, leading some analysts to believe that Musk could be raising the issue as a reason to back out of the deal." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Adam Satariano & Lauren Hirsch of the New York Times: "First, in a pre-dawn tweet, Mr. Musk said the deal was on hold. He said he wanted more details about the volume of spam and fake accounts on the platform. Then, about two hours later, Mr. Musk tweeted again. He was 'still committed' to the acquisition, he said, without providing any more details." MB: The richest man in the world thinks it's ever so much fun to mess with people. Especially when it puts him back on the front page. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Grio: "'It is with great pleasure that I write to announce my appointment of Jelani Cobb as the next Dean of Columbia Journalism School,' Columbia University president Lee C. Bollinger said in an announcement released today. The appointment is effective Aug. 1. Cobb joined the faculty in 2016 as the Ira A. Lipman Professor of Journalism and Director of the Ira A. Lipman Center for Journalism and Civil and Human Rights. He previously served as an Associate Professor of History and Director of the Africana Studies Institute at the University of Connecticut. Since 2012, Cobb has worked as a contributor and a staff writer for The New Yorker."

Neil Lewis of the New York Times: "Robert C. McFarlane, a former decorated Marine officer who rose in civilian life to be President Ronald Reagan's national security adviser and then fell from grace in the Iran-contra scandal, died on Thursday in Lansing, Mich. He was 84."

Adam Cancryn of Politico: "A painful and foreboding reality is setting in for the White House as it enters a potentially dangerous stretch of the Covid fight: It may soon need to run its sprawling pandemic response on a shoestring budget. Just two months after the administration unveiled a nearly 100-page roadmap out of the crisis, doubts are growing about Congress' willingness to fund the nation's fight. It has forced Biden officials to debate deep cuts to their Covid operation and game out ways to keep the federal effort afloat on a month-by-month basis. Among the sacrifices being weighed are limiting access to its next generation of vaccines to only the highest-risk Americans...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I was trying to decide when to get my second booster: now, or in the fall, when the risk of contracting the virus is supposed to rise sharply. I guess I'll get it now.

Beyond the Beltway

Alabama. Rick Rojas of the New York Times: "A federal judge late Friday blocked portions of an Alabama law that prevent medical professionals from providing care that helps transgender children and teenagers transition, making it a felony offense that is punishable by up to 10 years in prison. The severity of the punishment == which also includes threats of criminal prosecution for parents and educators who support a child in transitioning -- has stood out even amid a wave of legislation [across the country].... In an order issued late Friday night, Judge Liles C. Burke of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama temporarily halted the state from enforcing parts of the law that make it a felony to prescribe hormones or puberty-blocking medication while the court challenge continued.... Medical professionals are still forbidden to perform gender-affirming surgical procedures on children."

Florida. Renzo Downey of Florida Politics: "Gov. Ron DeSantis has appointed Rep. Cord Byrd to be Florida's next Secretary of State. Byrd, a three-term Neptune Beach Republican, was rumored to be on the shortlist to replace outgoing Secretary of State Laurel Lee, who announced she would leave the administration Monday amid talk she would run for Congress.... When Byrd steps into his new office in the Department of State, he will inherit a legal challenge to Florida's congressional maps, which were drawn by DeSantis' office and passed by the Legislature during a Special Session. Byrd will also oversee the Primary Election on Aug. 23 and the General Election on Nov. 8, and the Department will implement the Office of Election Crimes and Security under his watch.... Byrd's appointment followed DeSantis' appointment of his wife, Esther Byrd, to the Board of Education in March.... She is known as a staunch supporter of ... Donald Trump who has made comments supportive of QAnon. After the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riots, Esther Byrd offered a defense of those 'peacefully protesting' certification of the 2020 Presidential Election while alluding to 'coming civil wars.'"

Georgia. Emma Brown & Amy Gardner of the Washington Post: "A former elections supervisor in rural Coffee County, Ga., has told The Washington Post that she opened her offices to a businessman active in the election-denier movement to help investigate results she did not trust in the weeks after ... Donald Trump's 2020 defeat. Trump had carried the conservative county by 40 points, but elections supervisor Misty Hampton said she remained suspicious of Joe Biden's win in Georgia. Hampton made a video that went viral soon after the election, claiming to show that Dominion Voting System machines, the ones used in her county, could be manipulated.... [When asked about the movements and activities of those she invited into her offices,] 'I'm not a babysitter,' she told The Post.... [The businessman, Scott Hall, brought a team of 'investigators' into the elections facility. According to an audio recording of a telephone conversation, he said the team] 'went in there and imaged every hard drive of every piece of equipment' and scanned ballots.... In the year and a half since the 2020 election, there has been steady drumbeat of revelations about alleged security breaches in local elections offices -- and a growing concern among experts that officials who are sympathetic to claims of vote-rigging might be persuaded to undermine election security in the name of protecting it."

Georgia. DWB, Ctd. Char Adams of NBC News: "Newly released body camera footage of Georgia sheriff's deputies stopping a majority-Black lacrosse team's bus shows the officers rifling through the players' personal items -- after the sheriff asserted the deputies did no such thing. Liberty County Sheriff William Bowman said in a statement Tuesday that deputies weren't racially profiling the women's lacrosse team for Delaware State University, a historically Black university, when they stopped the team's bus on April 20. He also said that 'no personal items on the bus or any person were searched.'... Footage obtained by the Delaware News Journal shows deputies going through several bags, digging through makeup, inspecting medicine, and even opening a wrapped gift.... University president Tony Allen wrote in a statement on Monday that he is 'incensed' by the incident and noted that 'nothing illegal was discovered in this search.'"

Montana ... or Maybe California??? Ben Lefebvre & Daniel Lippman of Politico: "Ryan Zinke, the former Trump Interior secretary now running for Congress again in Montana, has long faced questions about whether he lives in the state or in California. Now, new tax records uncovered by Politico show that Zinke's wife has designated the home she inherited years ago from her parents in Santa Barbara as her primary residence[, qualifying her for a $7,000 homeowner's tax exemption].... When Zinke filed his candidacy papers with the Federal Election Commission, he listed his family house in Whitefish, Montana, as his place of residence. But he and his wife have used Lola Zinke's home in Santa Barbara as a mailing address for fundraising invitations, Lola's own campaign contributions and a business contract his consulting firm filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.... There's nothing illegal about a candidate having a primary residence in one state and running for office in another."

Pennsylvania Primary Races. Timothy Evans of the Raw Story: "The Philadelphia Inquirer, perhaps the most influential and well-respected newspaper in Pennsylvania, says that after an in-depth look at Republican primary candidates for statewide office, it cannot endorse any one of them. The newspaper's editorial board wrote on Friday, 'With Pennsylvania voters headed to the polls Tuesday to choose the Republican and Democratic candidates for governor and U.S. Senate, it's as if the primaries are occurring on two different planets.' As evidence, the Inquirer cited responses to questionnaires it sent to GOP candidates asking the simple question 'who won the 2020 presidential election?... Only one candidate -- Jeff Bartos -- agreed to acknowledge reality,' it reports."

Texas. David Goodman of the New York Times: "The Texas Supreme Court ruled on Friday that investigations of parents with transgender children for possible child abuse could continue, after an emergency appeal by state officials including Gov. Greg Abbott. The ruling reversed an appeals court decision that had temporarily halted the inquiries statewide. But the court said that officials could not resume the investigation into the plaintiffs that had brought the lawsuit, a family and a doctor, acknowledging that the inquiry would cause 'irreparable harm' and leaving in place the injunction as their case proceeds to trial. In its 12-page opinion, the court found that the appeals court had 'abused its discretion' in issuing a statewide order at this point in the legal process." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Way Beyond

Israel/Palestine. New York Times: "Israeli police officers on Friday assaulted mourners at the funeral procession of a prominent Palestinian American journalist killed this week in the occupied West Bank, forcing pallbearers to nearly drop the coffin. Video showed police officers in Jerusalem beating and kicking pallbearers carrying the coffin that contained the body of the journalist, Shireen Abu Akleh, striking other mourners with batons, and forcing one man to the ground. During the commotion, the pallbearers were pushed backward, causing them to briefly lose control of one end of the coffin.... The incident at the funeral procession lasted for roughly a minute, and followed a tense standoff between paramilitary police and mourners in which at least one empty plastic bottle was thrown in the direction of the police." The article is part of a liveblog. The AP's report is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Ramon Vargas of the Guardian: "Joe Biden’s secretary of state has issued a statement condemning Israeli forces for their attack hours earlier on the funeral procession in Jerusalem of a Palestinian American journalist who was shot and killed this week. 'We are deeply troubled by the images of Israeli police intruding into the funeral procession of Palestinian American Shireen Abu Aqleh,' Antony Blinken's statement on his official Twitter account read. 'Every family deserves to lay their loved ones to rest in a dignified and unimpeded manner.'... When [the funeral procession] began walking toward the gates of St Joseph's Hospital, Israeli police officers, in an apparent bid to stop them proceeding by foot rather than taking the coffin by car, burst through the courtyard gates and charged at the crowd. Some beat pallbearers with batons and kicked them." ~~~

     ~~~ Robert Mackey of the Intercept has more details about the murder of Abu Aqleh and Israel's response.

Philippines. Rebecca Ratcliffe of the Guardian: "The glimpse of a possible Picasso in the home of Imelda Marcos seen during a visit by her son, Ferdinand 'Bongbong' Marcos Jr, after his election win has set off a flurry of speculation in the Philippines, where the family that once plundered billions is set to return to power. Marcos Jr, the son and namesake of the late dictator, won a landslide victory in Monday's presidential election, an outcome that has appalled those who survived his father's regime. Images released by the family showed Marcos Jr visiting the home of his mother, Imelda, who had displayed Picasso's Femme Couche VI (Reclining Woman VI), or a replica, above the sofa. It is unclear if the painting, one of eight targeted for seizure by anti-corruption authorities in 2014, is genuine, but the unexpected appearance of the nude in blues and greens ... has added to fears the family will use its now-increased power to brazenly further stifle efforts to recover ill-gotten wealth."

News Ledes

American Weekend. AP: "A gunman sporting a rifle and body armor opened fire in a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, killing at least 10 people before being taken into custody Saturday afternoon, law enforcement officials told The Associated Press. Details on the number of additional people shot at the Tops Friendly Market and their conditions weren't immediately available.... Investigators believe the man may have been livestreaming the shooting and were looking into whether he had posted a manifesto online, the official said. The official cautioned the investigation was in its preliminary stages and that authorities hadn't yet discerned a clear motive, but were investigating whether the shooting was racially motivated." ~~~

     ~~~ The story has been updated. New Lede: "A white 18-year-old wearing military gear and livestreaming with a helmet camera opened fire with a rifle at a supermarket in Buffalo, killing 10 people and wounding three others Saturday in what authorities described as 'racially motivateed violent extremism.' The gunman wore body armor and military-style clothing during the attack on mostly Black shoppers and workers at Tops Friendly Market. For at least two minutes, he broadcast the shooting live on the streaming platform Twitch before the service ended his transmission." ~~~

~~~ New York Times: "At least 17 people were wounded in a shooting in downtown Milwaukee on Friday night, blocks from the arena where an N.B.A. playoff game ended hours earlier, the police said. The Milwaukee Police Department said that there were no fatalities in the shooting, which happened around 11:09 p.m. in a popular nightlife area. The victims were between 15 and 47 years old and were all expected to survive, the police said."