The Commentariat -- June 5, 2021

Late Morning Update:

Katie Benner of the New York Times: "In Donald J. Trump's final weeks in office, Mark Meadows, his chief of staff, repeatedly pushed the Justice Department to investigate unfounded conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election, according to newly uncovered emails provided to Congress, portions of which were reviewed by The New York Times. In five emails sent during the last week of December and early January, Mr. Meadows asked Jeffrey A. Rosen, then the acting attorney general, to examine debunked claims of election fraud in New Mexico and an array of baseless conspiracies that held that Mr. Trump had been the actual victor. That included a fantastical theory that people in Italy had used military technology and satellites to remotely tamper with voting machines in the United States and switch votes for Mr. Trump to votes for Joseph R. Biden Jr. None of the emails show Mr. Rosen agreeing to open the investigations suggested by Mr. Meadows, and former officials and people close to him said that he did not do so.... But the communications between Mr. Meadows and Mr. Rosen ... show the increasingly urgent efforts by Mr. Trump and his allies during his last days in office to find some way to undermine, or even nullify, the election results while he still had control of the government." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Over there. It's the Venezuelans! No, it's the Chinese! No, it's the Italians! I'm surprised we haven't heard that those UFOs Navy pilots have been seeing zapped voting machines & turned real Trump votes to fake Biden votes.

Jeff Stein of the Washington Post: "Finance ministers for the G-7 advanced economies announced an accord that could reshape the tax obligations of multinational corporations around the world. The deal reached at the G-7 meeting in London Saturday by Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the U.S. is a major breakthrough for the Biden administration' efforts to enact a floor on the taxes paid by corporations worldwide.... 'The G-7 Finance Ministers have made a significant, unprecedented commitment today that provides tremendous momentum toward achieving a robust global minimum tax at a rate of at least 15 percent,' [Treasury Secretary Janet] Yellen, who led negotiations on behalf of the U.S., said in a statement."

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Saturday are here.

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Jeanna Smialek & Jim Tankersley of the New York Times: "With fresh data showing that American employers added jobs at a decent but unexceptional pace in May, President Biden on Friday emphasized that his administration would not try to extend enhanced unemployment benefits that Republicans have criticized as a key factor in fueling a labor shortage. The extent to which the extra $300 in weekly jobless benefits may be keeping workers sidelined is unclear. Some economists say insufficient child care and health concerns may be the main drivers behind Americans not seeking jobs.... The pace of hiring has been somewhat disappointing in recent months, and business complaints about worker shortages abound." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Can't imagine why, but a lot of people don't want to work in low-paying, dead-end jobs. They are pursuing other possibilities. ~~~

~~~ Jeff Cox of CNBC: "Job creation disappointed again in May, with nonfarm payrolls up what normally would be considered a solid 559,000 but still short of lofty expectations, the Labor Department reported Friday. Payrolls were expected to increase by 671,000, according to economists surveyed by Dow Jones." (Also linked yesterday.)

Tony Romm of the Washington Post: "The White House on Friday rejected a new counteroffer from Senate Republicans on funding for infrastructure reform, saying the party's latest proposal -- which included an additional $50 billion in spending -- marked a welcome move, but one that still falls far short of what President Biden is seeking. With billions of dollars still separating the two sides, the exchange capped off a week of tense negotiations that increasingly has left Democratic and GOP lawmakers unsure if they're going to be able to broker a bipartisan deal to improve the nation's roads, bridges, pipes, ports and Internet connections." Politico's story is here.

Julian Barnes of the New York Times: "The Biden administration is sounding increasingly urgent alarms about high-profile ransomware attacks that have caused widespread gas shortages, shut meat processing plants and paralyzed hospitals, as officials step up efforts to counter cyberthreats. Christopher A. Wray, the F.B.I. director, told The Wall Street Journal in an interview published Friday that the ransomware threat was comparable to the challenge of global terrorism in the days after the Sept. 11, 2001 attack." ~~~

~~~ Brian Fung & Geneva Sands of CNN: "Ransomware attackers gained access to Colonial Pipeline's computer networks in April using a compromised password, according to the company and a cybersecurity firm it hired -- leading to the deliberate shutdown of one of America's most important fuel distribution companies and the panic gas buying that ensued for days. The password had been linked to a disused virtual private networking account used for remote access, FireEye confirmed to CNN, and the account was not guarded by an extra layer of security known as multi-factor authentication."

Dino Grandoni & Darryl Fears of the Washington Post: "The Biden administration announced plans on Friday to reverse policies implemented under ... Donald Trump that weakened the Endangered Species Act, a half-century-old law credited with the recovery of the bald eagle, humpback whale, grizzly bear and dozens of other species. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service under President Biden are moving to undo much of the Trump administration's work that altered the ways habitats of plants and animals on the verge of extinction are kept from total collapse. The decision to bolster the federal government's power to protect vanishing plants and animals comes as the world finds itself in the midst of what United Nations scientists say is a worldwide decline in biodiversity that threatens to erode food systems and other key parts of the global economy."

Carl Hulse of the New York Times: "... Democrats are about to embark on a strategy to try to demonstrate to those reluctant colleagues -- and to the public at large -- that the filibuster is being abused by Senate Republicans.... The Senate had its first filibuster of the year last week when Republicans blocked a bipartisan House-passed measure to create an independent commission to investigate the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol.... At the same time, Republicans tied up a bipartisan measure intended to improve American competitiveness with China, even after they had had substantial input into the legislation.... That move made clear to many Democrats that Republicans will not cooperate even on bills they helped write.... [Majority Leader Chuck] Schumer said he intended to bring the filibuster showdown to a head beginning next week, by forcing votes on a series of measures that Republicans oppose, including one that was blocked by a Republican filibuster in 2014 that seeks to ensure that women and men receive the same pay for equal work.... The idea is to show Democrats refusing to change the filibuster rules that Republicans ... are going to stand in the way of legislation that has widespread support, and that the only way to win their adoption is by overturning the rules." ~~~

~~~ Dana Milbank of the Washington Post: "... there's no point in antagonizing [Joe Manchin], because Manchin isn't susceptible to pressure from the left: In West Virginia, where Donald Trump beat Biden by 39 points and where Manchin easily dispatched a progressive primary challenger in 2018, complaints from the left do him no harm.... Manchin is working to find 10 Republicans to support key voting-rights protections, overcoming this filibuster without abolishing the filibuster generally.... After the For the People Act fails [because Republicans filibuster it], the Senate should bring up its popular and unobjectionable provisions, one at a time.... If [Republicans filibuster each of these popular provisions], they will have proved themselves beyond all doubt to be acting in bad faith. And Manchin — who on Thursday night told CNN's Manu Raju that he wants to 'find a path forward' on voting rights and declined to rule out abolishing the filibuster -- should be first in line to rescind their powers of limitless sabotage."

Charlie Savage & Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "Donald F. McGahn II, the former White House counsel, answered detailed questions from Congress behind closed doors on Friday about ... Donald J. Trump's efforts to impede the Russia investigation. But Mr. McGahn provided few new revelations, according to people familiar with his testimony.... The interview by the House Judiciary Committee, attended by only a half dozen or so lawmakers on a summer Friday when Congress was on recess, was an anticlimactic conclusion to a saga that once dominated Capitol Hill.... Mr. McGahn will have up to a week to review a transcript for accuracy before it is made public. But the people said that he hewed closely to the account he had already given the special counsel, often telling committee lawyers that his recollections of events from four years ago were no longer sharp."

Ben Protess, et al., of the New York Times: "A senior finance executive at Donald J. Trump's family business has testified before a state grand jury in Manhattan as prosecutors ramp up their investigation of Mr. Trump and his company, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The executive, Jeffrey McConney, has long served as the Trump Organization's controller, making him one of a handful of high-ranking executives to oversee the company's finances. The testimony comes as the prosecutors have trained their focus on one of Mr. McConney's colleagues, Allen H. Weisselberg, the Trump Organization's long-serving chief financial officer. The prosecutors, who are working for the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., have examined the extent to which Mr. Trump handed out valuable benefits to Mr. Weisselberg's family and whether taxes were paid on those perks, The New York Times has reported.... The decision to subpoena Mr. McConney, who has worked at the company for nearly 35 years, suggests that the examination of Mr. Weisselberg's conduct has reached a new phase, with the grand jury hearing evidence about him." ABC News' story is here.

Mike Isaac & Sheera Frenkel of the New York Times: "Facebook said on Friday that Donald J. Trump's suspension from the service would last at least two years, keeping the former president off mainstream social media for the 2022 midterm elections, as the company also said it would end a policy of treating posts from politicians differently from those of other users. The social network said Mr. Trump would be eligible for reinstatement in January 2023, before the next presidential election. It will then look to experts to decide 'whether the risk to public safety has receded,' Facebook said. The company barred Mr. Trump from the service after he made comments on social media that rallied his supporters, who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, but it had not given a firm timeline about when or if the suspension would end." CNN's story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: If someone had told you ten years ago that a former U.S. president would be disqualified from using a site populated by the proud owners of cute kittens & parents of adorable children who take fun family vacations, you would have been mighty skeptical. Well, here we are.

Real Estate News. Bernard Condon of the AP: "Bargain hunters are swooping in to take advantage of prices in Trump buildings that have dropped to levels not seen in over a decade, a crash brokers attribute to a combination of the former president's polarizing image and the coronavirus pandemic. It's a stunning reversal for a brand that once lured the rich and famous willing to pay a premium to live in a building with Trump's gilded name on it. An Associated Press review ... found prices for some [Trump] condos and hotel rooms available for purchase have dropped by one-third or more. That's a plunge that outpaces drops in many similar buildings, leaving units for sale in Trump buildings to be had for hundreds of thousands to up to a million dollars less than they would have gone for years ago."

Isabelle Khurshudyan of the Washington Post: "Less than two weeks from a first face-to-face with President Biden in Geneva, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday criticized the U.S. prosecution of rioters who took part in the January attack on the Capitol, calling it an example of American 'double standards.'... 'These are not looters or thieves, these people came with political requests,' Putin said of the pro-Trump mobs that stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6." MB: Uh, considering Putin has Russians with "political requests" poisoned or shot, his comment is a bit of a "double standard" itself, isn't it?

Bob Brigham of the Raw Story: "Former Trump press secretary Kayleigh McEnany is jealous of the press coverage that Jen Psaki is receiving. McEnany listed her grievances after reports that photographer Annie Leibovitz was at the White House to photograph Psaki. 'Instead of the glowing profiles, there were hit pieces repeatedly, time and time again,' McEnany said on 'Outnumbered,' [a Fox 'News" show]. 'It's just so sad that you have a fawning press corps like this, a fawning media sycophantically covering members of the Biden administration,' McEnany said."

DOJ, FBI Unfamiliar with First Amendment

Charlie Savage & Katie Benner of the New York Times: "In the last weeks of the Trump administration and continuing under President Biden, the Justice Department fought a secret legal battle to obtain the email logs of four New York Times reporters in a hunt for their sources, a top lawyer for the newspaper said Friday night. While the Trump administration never informed The Times about the effort, the Biden administration continued waging the fight this year, telling a handful of top Times executives about it but imposing a gag order to shield it from public view, said the lawyer, David McCraw, who called the move unprecedented. The gag order prevented the executives from disclosing the government's efforts to seize the records even to the executive editor, Dean Baquet, and other newsroom leaders. Mr. McCraw said Friday that a federal court had lifted the order, which had been in effect since March 3, freeing him to reveal what had happened.... Mr. Baquet condemned both the Trump and Biden administrations for their actions, portraying the effort as an assault on the First Amendment." ~~~

~~~ Matt Zapotosky of the Washington Post: "The FBI earlier this year tried to obtain records associated with people who accessed an article on USA Today's website about the killing of two FBI agents as they tried to search a Florida apartment -- sparking a legal fight and once again fueling concerns that federal law enforcement is not following its own guidelines when seeking news outlets' data.... FBI agents sent the company a subpoena asking for records, including IP addresses and mobile identification information, of those who accessed a Feb. 2 article about the shooting during a 35-minute window that same day.... In a statement, USA Today publisher Maribel Perez Wadsworth said the organization would fight the demand for the materials.... Wadsworth ... said the news organization was particularly surprised to have received the subpoena because of Biden's comments [supporting journalists' rights]. 'The subpoena is also contrary to the Justice Department's own guidelines concerning the narrow circumstances in which subpoenas can be issued to the news media,' she said." Politico's story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The subpoena seems pretty alarming to me. I'm sure most of us have read or skimmed hundreds or even thousands of articles where the subject involved violent criminal conduct -- without our having any intention whatsoever of engaging in or supporting such activity. Yet the FBI seems to be viewing us readers as suspects in something.

Chris Mooney of the Washington Post: "Long before the era of fossil fuels, humans may have triggered a massive but mysterious 'carbon bomb' lurking beneath the Earth's surface, a new scientific study suggests.... The researchers, from France's Laboratory of Climate and Environmental Sciences and several other institutions across the globe, suggest that beginning well before the industrial era, the mass conversion of carbon-rich peatlands for agriculture could have added over 250 billion tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. That's the equivalent of more than seven years of current emissions from the burning of fossil fuels for energy.... In its normal state, peat slowly pulls carbon out of the atmosphere -- unless you disturb it. If a peatland is drained -- as has occurred for many centuries to promote agriculture, especially the planting of crops -- the ancient plant matter begins to decompose, and the carbon it contains joins with oxygen from the atmosphere. It is then emitted as carbon dioxide, the principal greenhouse warming gas."

The Pandemic, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Friday are here. (Also linked yesterday.)

Natasha Korecki & Sarah Owermohle of Politico: "For over a year, Anthony Fauci has been a bogeyman for conservatives, who have questioned his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic and accused him of quietly undermining ... Donald Trump. But those attacks took on a whole new level of vitriol this week, to the point that one social media analysis described it as highly misleading and at least one platform pulled down some posts, citing false content. It all stemmed from a tranche of Fauci's emails that were published as part of a Freedom of Information Act request filed by various news outlets. Within hours of publication, the hashtag #FauciLeaks was trending on Twitter, accusing the nation's top infectious disease doctor of lying under oath about the origins of Covid. It became a trending topic on Facebook too, where detractors added an inaccurate and more nefarious framing that the emails were secretly 'leaked.'... Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) ... quickly released Facebook ads demanding to 'fire Fauci' and requesting a campaign donation." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The whole idea here is to undermine not just Fauci, but science in general. I think the main reason for confederates' fear of science is that they can handle neither change nor nuance. Scientists give their best answers based on what is known at a given time; as new information comes in, scientists change their analyses. For dumbkopfs, it's much easier to steadfastly accept as a hard fact "the coronavirus is a hoax," even as their friends & family are dying from Covid-19. ~~~

     ~~~ BBC News: "The White House has defended the president's top coronavirus adviser, Dr Anthony Fauci, amid scrutiny of his recently released work emails. Dr Fauci has been the face of the nation's Covid-19 response, drawing both praise and criticism. 'I'm very confident in Dr Fauci,' President Joe Biden said on Friday." ~~~

~~~ Fauci Is the New Hillary. Mike Allen & Sam Baker of Axios: "President Trump plans to make Anthony Fauci a top target at upcoming rallies, using increased attention to the Wuhan lab-leak theory as a weapon against an official long viewed as more trustworthy.... Trump and conservative media have made Fauci an improbable face of the opposition, trying to give him the cartoon-villain status once accorded to former Sen. Harry Reid, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, or -- in Trump's case -- Hillary Clinton. Trump amped up his longtime Fauci rants yesterday in a statement calling for COVID reparations from China[.]"

Beyond the Beltway

Arizona. If You Do Something Stupid & Crazy Enough, Trump Might Call to Thank You. Amy Wang of the Washington Post: "ewly released emails sent to and from Arizona state senators reveal that ... Donald Trump and his lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani reached out personally to urge GOP officials there to move forward with a partisan recount of the 2020 election, despite a lack of evidence of widespread fraud or other issues.... 'I have been in numerous conversations with Rudy Guiliani [sic] over the past weeks trying to get this done,' [Arizona Senate President Karen] Fann wrote in the Dec. 28 message. 'I have the full support of him and a personal call from President Trump thanking us for pushing to prove any fraud.'"

** California. Yippee! Assault Rifles for One & All! Mike Ives of the New York Times: "A federal judge in California on Friday overturned the state's three-decade-old ban on assault weapons, which he called a 'failed experiment.'... California prohibited the sale of assault weapons in 1989. The law was challenged in a suit filed in 2019 against the state's attorney general by plaintiffs including James Miller, a California resident, and the San Diego County Gun Owners, a political action committee. The judge, Roger T. Benitez of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, wrote that sections of the state's penal code that defined assault weapons and restricted their use were 'hereby declared unconstitutional and shall be enjoined.' But the judge said he had granted a 30-day stay of the ruling at the request of Attorney General Rob Bonta, a move that would allow Mr. Bonta to appeal it.... In a statement late Friday, Gov. Gavin Newsom called the ruling 'a direct threat to public safety and the lives of innocent Californians.' Mr. Newsom also criticized the opening lines of Judge Benitez's decision, in which he wrote that, like a Swiss Army knife, the AR-15 assault rifle 'is a perfect combination of home defense weapon and homeland defense equipment.'" MB: Benitez is a Bush II appointee. An NBC News story is here.

Ohio. Meryl Kornfield & Andrea Salcedo of the Washington Post: "The head of an American Legion post in Ohio stepped down after he cut a veteran's microphone during a speech Monday referencing how Black people organized the earliest Memorial Day commemoration on record, according to the veterans group. Jim Garrison resigned after he was asked by Legion officials, the American Legion Department of Ohio said in a statement Friday. The veterans group said Garrison and Cindy Suchan, chair of the Memorial Day parade committee and president of the Hudson American Legion Auxiliary, decided to 'censor' retired Army Lt. Col. Barnard Kemter in a 'premeditated move. Kemter shared his Memorial Day speech in advance with Suchan, who asked him to remove a part of his speech, and he didn't, according to the department. 'They knew exactly when to turn the volume down and when to turn it back up,' the statement said.... The state Legion's department adjutant told the Akron Beacon Journal that Suchan was also asked to resign by Legion officials but has not." MB: Because, you know, she didn't do anything wrong.

Texas. Glenn Thrush of the New York Times: "Allen West, a transplanted one-term Florida congressman and right-wing provocateur, announced his resignation on Friday as chairman of the Texas Republican Party, possibly as a precursor to running for statewide office. Mr. West, a former Army officer who was forced to retire after firing a handgun near the head of a prisoner in Iraq, said at a news conference in Whitehouse, Texas, that he was considering running for office. 'Maybe something congressional,' he suggested. He had served in the job for less than a year. In that short time, Mr. West -- a Fox News fixture who attended an event in Dallas last month at which Michael T. Flynn ... suggested the United States could witness a military coup -- has earned a reputation for taking on Democrats and Republicans with equal aplomb. His spats with the state's governor, Greg Abbott, over the handling of the coronavirus pandemic and with Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick over gun legislation have led to speculation that he will mount a Trumpian challenge to one of them in the Republican primaries next March."

Way Beyond

Jeanne Mackenzie of BBC News: "For nearly three weeks Belgium's leading virologist has been living in a safehouse with his wife and 12-year-old son, guarded by security agents. While scientists across the world have come under attack throughout the pandemic, the threat to Prof Marc Van Ranst is more serious than most. He has been targeted by a far-right soldier, Jürgen Conings, who has a vendetta for virologists and Covid lockdowns. The military shooting instructor is on the run with a rocket launcher and a machine gun, and Belgian police cannot find him.... Police say Jürgen Conings left his barracks with a selection of heavy weapons, and headed straight for the virologist's home."

The Commentariat -- June 4, 2021

Late Morning Update:

Jeff Cox of CNBC: "Job creation disappointed again in May, with nonfarm payrolls up what normally would be considered a solid 559,000 but still short of lofty expectations, the Labor Department reported Friday. Payrolls were expected to increase by 671,000, according to economists surveyed by Dow Jones." MB: President Biden will speak about the jobs report this morning.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Friday are here.

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Seung Min Kim & Tony Romm of the Washington Post: "President Biden signaled at a private meeting on Wednesday that he would be open to significant revisions on the size of his infrastructure package and how it would be paid for in order win Republican backing, outlining a plan for about $1 trillion in new spending financed through tax changes that do not appear to raise the top corporate rate. While Biden has not abandoned his support for the tax increase generally, believing profitable companies must pay their fair share, the moves still mark a potential new concession in stalled talks over funding to improve the country's roads, bridges, pipes and ports.... In his meeting with the GOP's top negotiator, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), Biden raised the possibility he could take the proposed increase off the table in an attempt to broker a compromise.... The president still intends to seek the tax increase, [a] source said, meaning the White House could pursue the policy outside of infrastructure talks -- or in the case that bipartisan negotiations ultimately collapse." A USA Today story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) The New York Times' story is here.

Hans Nichols of Axios: "President Biden has decided against appointing his own commission to investigate the Jan. 6 insurrection and will instead increase pressure on Congress to establish a committee, White House officials tell Axios.... 'Congress was attacked on that day, and President Biden firmly agrees with Speaker Pelosi that Congress itself has a unique role and ability to carry out that investigation,' White House press secretary Jen Psaki tells Axios."

The Biden Way: Engage the Jackass. Tyler Pager & Jeff Stein of the Washington Post: "President Biden recently called former Treasury Secretary Lawrence H. Summers, a Democrat who has been openly critical of his economic agenda, to acknowledge Summers's concerns and ask him to explain his objections.... Summers has engaged in increasingly bitter disagreements with White House aides.... Summers -- a treasury secretary under President Bill Clinton, top economic adviser to President Barack Obama and former president of Harvard University -- is a prominent Democratic voice on economic matters. But he has also become a nemesis of the party's left flank, which sees him as representative of a misguided centrism that Democrats have moved beyond. Summers has been warning that Biden's $1.9 trillion stimulus package is too big and will overheat the economy...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Another Economist Looks at Biden's Budget Proposal. Paul Krugman of the New York Times: "... is trying to 'build back better' by taxing only the very affluent feasible? Is it wise? Could it be done more effectively? My answer is yes to the first two questions, if you assume -- as I think we should -- that given the political realities Biden needs to keep his ambitions fairly modest. The answer to the third is, it's complicated.... Biden's proposals are appropriate in their general thrust and probably don't have huge flaws in their details. My biggest concern isn't that he'll botch important issues, it is that Democrats in Congress -- some of whom are still far too deferential to moneyed interests -- will water down the things he's trying to do right."

John Wagner, et al., of the Washington Post: "Vice President Harris announced Thursday that the Biden administration is making available $1 billion in grants to improve high-speed Internet on tribal lands and argued that passage of an infrastructure proposal pending in Congress would help many others across the country who lack the benefits of broadband. The event follows President Biden's meeting at the White House on Wednesday with a key Republican negotiator on infrastructure." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Jeanne Whalen & Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post: "The Biden administration is expanding a Trump-era order that banned U.S. investment in Chinese companies that it said support China's military to include those selling surveillance technology, calling the entities a threat to U.S. interests and values. A new executive order set for release Thursday broadens prohibitions that the Donald Trump administration enacted and moves authority for the ban to the Treasury Department, from the Defense Department, to give it stronger legal grounding, senior administration officials said."

Amanda Macias & Christina Wilkie of CNBC: "The Biden administration is urging corporate executives and business leaders to take immediate steps to prepare for ransomware attacks, warning in a new memo that cybercriminals are shifting from stealing data to disrupting core operations. 'The threats are serious and they are increasing,' wrote Anne Neuberger, President Joe Biden's deputy national security advisor for cyber and emerging technology, in a June 2 memo obtained by CNBC from the White House. 'The private sector also has a critical responsibility to protect against these threats. All organizations must recognize that no company is safe from being targeted by ransomware, regardless of size or location,' Neuberger wrote." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) The New York Times story is here. ~~~

~~~ Brian Fung & Zachary Cohen of CNN: "The Justice Department signaled Thursday it plans to coordinate its anti-ransomware efforts with the same protocols as it does for terrorism, following a slew of cyberattacks that have disrupted key infrastructure sectors ranging from gasoline distribution to meatpacking. On Thursday, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco issued an internal memo directing US prosecutors to report all ransomware investigations they may be working on, in a move designed to better coordinate the US government's tracking of online criminals. The memo cites ransomware -- malicious software that seizes control of a computer until the victim pays a fee -- as an urgent threat to the nation's interests."

** Ira Shapiro, former counsel to Sen. Robert Byrd, Joe Manchin's predecessor, in a New York Times op-ed: "Senators must confront what has proved to be a debilitating obstacle: the legislative filibuster -- more precisely, the minimum 60-vote supermajority requirement for most legislation.... The filibuster should not shape the workings of the Senate, but the other way around. For Mr. Byrd and other senators of his era, the overriding goal was to ensure not that certain rules were respected above all else but that the Senate could deliver for the nation -- even if it meant reforming rules like the filibuster.... When the Senate was at its best -- from the 1960s through the 1980s -- it regularly had intensive debates and passed major legislation without filibusters. The Senate often approved landmark legislation with fewer than 60 votes...." (Emphasis added.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Manchin should be required to read every word of Shapiro's op-ed, chew them up & swallow them, a word at a time. (More seriously, he should meet with & debate Shapiro, who might be able to talk some sense into Filibuster Joe.) ~~~

~~~ Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: "... in red states, Trump's party, motivated by his big lie about his 2020 loss, is systematically changing electoral rules to make it harder for Democratic constituencies to vote and, should Democrats win anyway, easier for Republicans to overturn elections.... Republicans have an excellent chance of gerrymandering their way to control of the House in 2022, whether or not they increase their vote share.... Two Democratic senators, Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin, could save us by joining their colleagues in breaking the filibuster and passing new voting rights legislation. But they prefer not to.... 'The idea of the filibuster was created by those who came before us in the United States Senate to create comity and to encourage senators to find bipartisanship and work together,' [Sinema] said [Tuesday]. This is nonsense. The filibuster was created by mistake when the Senate, cleaning up its rule book in 1806, failed to include a provision to cut off debate.... The filibuster encouraged extremism, not comity: It was a favorite tool of pro-slavery senators before the Civil War and segregationists after it." Read on.

Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "U.S. prosecutors this week put a price tag on damage to the U.S. Capitol from the Jan. 6 breach -- $1.5 million so far -- and for the first time are asking defendants to cover some of the bill in plea offers, prosecutors and defense lawyers said.... Several defense attorneys said prosecutors with the U.S. attorney's office in Washington are seeking to require restitution of $2,000 in each felony case and $500 in each misdemeanor case." A plea agreement signed by Paul Hodgkins, who pleaded guilty to one felony count of obstructing a federal proceeding, said he agreed to pay $2,000 in partial restitution.

After Getting to Carnegie Hall, This Woman Had a Less Impressive Second Act. Tim Elfrink of the Washington Post: "When Audrey Ann Southard took the stage at Carnegie Hall in 2012, she belted out an opera aria.... When she stormed into the U.S. Capitol in January, the FBI said, her audience was the police officers defending the building.... 'Tell Pelosi we're coming for that b----,' video shows her screaming at officers, according to court documents. 'There's a hundred thousand of us, what's it going to be?' Southard later used a flagpole to shove a sergeant backward until he slammed his head into a statue, the FBI said, all while agitating the crowd behind her to 'push in here' as they sought to disrupt Congress as it certified President Biden's victory. Southard, a 52-year-old who the Tampa Bay Times reported works as a private music instructor in Florida, was charged this week with numerous counts connected to the deadly insurrection, including assaulting a federal employee." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Here's Audrey at Carnegie Hall. I'm far from being a qualified music critic, but I think her performance was pretty awful there, too.

Jamie Gangel & Donie O'Sullivan of CNN (June 2): "Online conversation among Trump supporters and QAnon followers on new and emerging social media platforms is creating concern on Capitol Hill that ... Donald Trump's continued perpetuation of the falsehood that the 2020 election was stolen could soon incite further violence, three congressional sources tell CNN.... Trump's comments to right-wing media outlets in recent weeks have played directly into the false belief among some of his supporters that he will be reinstated as president in the coming months.... In [a] May interview with a right-wing radio host, Trump falsely suggested the controversial Republican-led audit in Arizona and audits elsewhere would show he didn't lose the election. 'It's going to be a very interesting time in our country,' he said. 'How do you govern when you lost?'" (Emphasis added.)

Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "One of the undersold aspects of the Trump presidency isn't so much what he did while in office, but how much he elevated fringe figures like [Michael] Flynn who would never have set foot inside virtually any other president's orbit. With Trump now out of office, those figures' continued drift toward the fringe and the credibility Trump lent to them is surely one of the lasting impacts of his presidency.... As with Flynn, Trump reserved some of his most controversial pardons for people with ties to fringe elements of the conservative base." Blake asserts that these fringe characters are pulling the GOP even further rightward.

More News from the Most Corrupt Administration Evah: ~~~

~~~ Louie, Louie, Oh No. Matt Zapotosky & Jacob Bogage of the Washington Post: "The FBI is investigating Postmaster General Louis DeJoy in connection with campaign fundraising activity involving his former business, according to people familiar with the matter and a spokesman for DeJoy. FBI agents in recent weeks interviewed current and former employees of DeJoy and the business, asking questions about political contributions and company activities, these people said. Prosecutors also issued a subpoena to DeJoy himself for information, one of the people said.... n early September, The Washington Post published an extensive examination of how employees at DeJoy's former company, North Carolina-based New Breed Logistics, alleged they were pressured by DeJoy or his aides to attend political fundraisers or make contributions to Republican candidates, and then were paid back through bonuses. Such reimbursements could run afoul of state or federal laws, which prohibit 'straw-donor' schemes meant to allow wealthy donors to evade individual contribution limits and obscure the source of a candidate's money." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times story is here. As Katie Benner makes clear in her lede, DeJoy is being investigated for a crime, not a civil offense. Politico's story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Four for Four. Steve Benen of MSNBC: "In April 2017, the Republican National Committee issued a press release introducing the members of its finance team, which was responsible for helping raise money for Donald Trump and his party...: 'Today Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel and RNC Finance Chairman Steve Wynn announced additional members of the RNC's Finance leadership team:... "Elliott Broidy, Michael Cohen, and Louis DeJoy will serve as National Deputy Finance Chairmen...."' Steve Wynn ... was forced to resign from his RNC post following sexual misconduct allegations.... The Wall Street Journal reported last week that the Justice Department has also examined Wynn's 2017 efforts in support of Chinese officials.... Elliott Broidy, meanwhile, found himself at the center of multiple controversies, and pled guilty last fall to federal charges related to illegal lobbying. [Trump pardoned him.]... Michael Cohen ... was at the center of multiple Trump-related scandals, and was even sentenced to prison.... And as of this afternoon, Louis DeJoy, whose tenure as postmaster general has been controversial for all sorts of reasons, is also facing an ongoing FBI investigation."

Amy Wang of the Washington Post: "Former vice president Mike Pence said Thursday he has spoken with ... Donald Trump 'many times' since they left office in January and admitted that the two still do not 'see eye-to-eye' about the insurrection on Jan. 6, in which a pro-Trump mob overran the U.S. Capitol in a violent siege that resulted in five deaths -- and endangered the lives of Pence and his family. Pence acknowledged Thursday that Jan. 6 was 'a dark day' but also cast it as 'one tragic day' that Democrats were using to divide the GOP, in a speech ... in Manchester, N.H.... [But] he spent nearly 40 minutes Thursday lauding Trump and their administration's accomplishments and criticizing President Biden's first several months in office." Politico's story is here.

Rudy Sits on My Pillows. This is not an SNL spoof; it's really Rudy, it's a real ad, and we presume Rudy needed what My Pillow Guy paid him for this ass-felt endorsement: ~~~

~~~ Speaking of asses and their sleazy money-making endeavors, this Son-of-a-Trump must need the McKinleys, too. ~~~

~~~ Sean Neumann of People, republished in Yahoo! News: "Who wants a personalized video message from Donald Trump Jr.? Donald Trump's eldest son has joined Cameo.... The social media site ... lets users ... purchase videos from an array of ... personalities and influencers. Don Jr. is selling clips for $500 apiece. His bio says 'a portion of proceeds will be donated to Shadow Warriors Project' supporting military contractors, although it's not clear what percentage of the proceeds are being donated.... In video examples so far..., he has sent birthday messages, congratulations on engagements and anniversaries and thanked a veteran over the Memorial Day weekend. The videos also come with some self-promotion. In one clip, Don Jr. encouraged a couple who recently got engaged to celebrate their honeymoon at his family's private resorts and in multiple clips he slipped in false claims about his father's 2020 election loss and attacks President Joe Biden's family."

UFOs Are Still UFOs. Julian Barnes & Helene Cooper of the New York Times: "American intelligence officials have found no evidence that aerial phenomena witnessed by Navy pilots in recent years are alien spacecraft, but they still cannot explain the unusual movements that have mystified scientists and the military, according to senior administration officials briefed on the findings of a highly anticipated government report. The report determines that a vast majority of more than 120 incidents over the past two decades did not originate from any American military or other advanced U.S. government technology, the officials said. That determination would appear to eliminate the possibility that Navy pilots who reported seeing unexplained aircraft might have encountered programs the government meant to keep secret. But that is about the only conclusive finding in the classified intelligence report...."

Eric Geller & Josh Gerstein of Politico: "The Supreme Court has sharply curtailed the scope of the nation's main cybercrime law, limiting a tool that civil liberties advocates say federal prosecutors have abused by seeking prison time for minor computer misdeeds. The 6-3 decision handed down Thursday means federal prosecutors can no longer use the 1986 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act to charge people who misused databases they are otherwise entitled to access. The ruling comes six months after justices expressed concern that the government's sweeping interpretation of the law could place people in jeopardy for activities as mundane as checking social media on their work computers, with Justice Neil Gorsuch saying prosecutors' view risked 'making a federal criminal of us all.' In an unusual lineup, the court's three Trump appointees ... joined the court's three liberals to reject the Justice Department's interpretation of the statute." Amy Coney Barrett wrote the majority opinion.

Carol Rosenberg of the New York Times: "The military judge presiding in the death penalty case of a man accused of orchestrating the U.S.S. Cole bombing has agreed to consider information obtained during the man's torture by C.I.A. interrogators to support an argument in pretrial proceedings at Guantánamo Bay. Defense lawyers cast the decision as the first time that a military judge at the war court is publicly known to have agreed to consider information obtained through the C.I.A. torture of a prisoner, and on Thursday they asked a higher court to reverse it.... 'No court has ever sanctioned the use of torture in this way,' the defense lawyers wrote in their 20-page filing that asked a Pentagon panel, the U.S. Court of Military Commission Review, to intervene in the case against Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, a Saudi prisoner awaiting trial at Guantánamo Bay. 'No court has ever approved the government's use of torture as a tool in discovery litigation' or as 'a legitimate means of facilitating a court's interlocutory fact-finding.'"

David Mack of BuzzFeed News: "A former Treasury Department official was sentenced to six months in prison on Thursday after she admitted to providing highly confidential banking documents to a BuzzFeed News reporter. Natalie Mayflower Sours Edwards pleaded guilty in January 2020 to one count of conspiracy to make unauthorized disclosures of suspicious activity reports. These documents, known as SARs, are filed by banks to the federal government to alert authorities of potential criminal activity.... Speaking in court ahead of her sentence being handed down, Edwards said she had taken an oath to protect the American people and 'could not stand by aimlessly' when she saw corruption. But, she added, 'I do apologize for the disclosure of that information.'"

Elizabeth Dwoskin of the Washington Post: "Facebook plans to announce Friday that it will no longer automatically give politicians a pass when they break the company's hate speech rules, a major reversal after years of criticism that it was too deferential to powerful figures during the Trump presidency. Since the 2016 election, the company has applied a test to political speech that weighs the newsworthiness of the content against its propensity to cause harm. Now the company will throw out the first part of the test and will no longer consider newsworthiness as a factor.... But Facebook doesn't plan to end the newsworthiness exception entirely. In the cases where an exception is made, the company will now disclose it publicly...." The Verge's story is here.

The Pandemic, Ctd.

The Washington Post's live updates of Covid-19 developments Friday are here.

Zeke Miller of the AP: "President Joe Biden announced Thursday the U.S. will donate 75% of its unused COVID-19 vaccines to the U.N.-backed COVAX global vaccine sharing program, acting as more Americans have been vaccinated and global inequities have become more glaring. Of the first tranche of 25 million doses, the White House said about 19 million will go to COVAX, with approximately 6 million for South and Central America, 7 million for Asia and 5 million for Africa. The doses mark a substantial -- and immediate -- boost to the lagging COVAX effort, which to date has shared just 76 million doses with needy countries. Overall, the White House aims to share 80 million doses globally by the end of June, most through COVAX. But 25% of the nation's excess will be kept in reserve for emergencies and for the U.S. to share directly with allies and partners." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Beyond the Beltway

Minnesota. Deena Winter, et al., of the New York Times: "The bulldozers arrived before dawn on Thursday at the South Minneapolis intersection where the police killed George Floyd. Moving quickly, city workers in neon vests hauled away flowers, artwork and large cement barricades that have allowed the corner to serve as an ever-growing memorial to Mr. Floyd.... By the time hundreds of people began flocking to the scene in protest, many of the tributes at the intersection known as George Floyd Square were gone.... The city had put most of the items honoring Mr. Floyd into storage. The mayor and other city officials hoped that the effort would let traffic flow through the intersection again, allowing businesses to prosper and cutting down on the violence in the neighborhood. But demonstrators said that the unannounced action was disrespectful to Mr. Floyd's memory and that the city was trying to force people to move on from his killing." The (Minneapolis) Star Tribune report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Seems to me if you are looking for a stupid, insensitive way to dismantle a memorial, you should turn to Minneapolis' mayor & cohort.

Ohio. Local American Legion Cuts Mic so Colonel Couldn't Give Credit to Black Americans for Celebrating the First Memorial Day. Andrea Salcedo of the Washington Post: "Retired Army Lt. Col. Barnard Kemter was midway through his speech at a Memorial Day ceremony in an Ohio cemetery when he started discussing the role that freed Black enslaved people played in an early event honoring Civil War dead.... The disruption was no glitch. One of the event's organizers later admitted the audio had been deliberately turned down, telling the Akron Beacon Journal that Kemter's discussion of Black history 'was not relevant to our program for the day. We asked him to modify his speech, and he chose not to do that,' Cindy Suchan, president of the Hudson American Legion Auxiliary, told the Beacon Journal.... The Ohio American Legion said it is investigating the incident." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Kemter is 77 years old, served as a medic, and looks white to me. Not the picture of a "radical" BLM "rioter" his censors probably envision. But the very idea that lovely white people had gathered to celebrate a holiday started by Black people was just too much for them to handle. This is racism in its most petty form. I'm sure Cindy there thinks she's the paragon of civic engagement & a great credit to her community. With all due respect, she's an embarrassing pile of crap. ~~~

     ~~~ "White Fragility." Paul Campos in LG&$: "Just as was the case with the original complaints about PC culture, this is all a massive case of projection by the proponents of the original and still by far most dominant form of political correctness in this country, which is simply white supremacy in all its guises, overt and covert. That form of PC/Cancel Culture is based on the fundamental axiom that making a white person feel bad about being white is the very worst form of racism there is --in fact it's pretty much the only real form of racism that still exists...." Campos republishes much of the WashPo story. (Also linked yesterday.)

Washington State. Johnny Diaz of the New York Times: "Fifteen men were charged in connection with the alcohol-poisoning death of a Washington State University student, prosecutors said on Wednesday, after a yearlong police investigation into a fraternity pledging case from 2019. The men were members of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity when the student, a freshman named Samuel Martinez, died in 2019, according to Denis Tracy, the prosecutor for Whitman County. The men, now ages 20 to 23, were each charged with supplying liquor to minors, Mr. Tracy said in a statement.... The family of Mr. Martinez said in a statement ... it was 'deeply disappointed' that hazing charges were not filed. 'The Pullman Police Department allowed the statute of limitations for that charge to expire,' the family's statement said. 'That's despite the fact that Pullman police found substantial evidence of hazing that would have supported hazing charges.'"

The Commentariat -- June 3, 2021

Afternoon Update:

Zeke Miller of the AP: "President Joe Biden announced Thursday the U.S. will donate 75% of its unused COVID-19 vaccines to the U.N.-backed COVAX global vaccine sharing program, acting as more Americans have been vaccinated and global inequities have become more glaring. Of the first tranche of 25 million doses, the White House said about 19 million will go to COVAX, with approximately 6 million for South and Central America, 7 million for Asia and 5 million for Africa. The doses mark a substantial -- and immediate -- boost to the lagging COVAX effort, which to date has shared just 76 million doses with needy countries. Overall, the White House aims to share 80 million doses globally by the end of June, most through COVAX. But 25% of the nation's excess will be kept in reserve for emergencies and for the U.S. to share directly with allies and partners."

Seung Min Kim & Tony Romm of the Washington Post: "President Biden signaled at a private meeting on Wednesday that he would be open to significant revisions on the size of his infrastructure package and how it would be paid for in order win Republican backing, outlining a plan for about $1 trillion in new spending financed through tax changes that do not appear to raise the top corporate rate. While Biden has not abandoned his support for the tax increase generally, believing profitable companies must pay their fair share, the moves still mark a potential new concession in stalled talks over funding to improve the country's roads, bridges, pipes and ports.... In his meeting with the GOP's top negotiator, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), Biden raised the possibility he could take the proposed increase off the table in an attempt to broker a compromise.... The president still intends to seek the tax increase, [a] source said, meaning the White House could pursue the policy outside of infrastructure talks -- or in the case that bipartisan negotiations ultimately collapse." A USA Today story is here.

The Biden Way: Engage the Jackass. Tyler Pager & Jeff Stein of the Washington Post: "President Biden recently called former Treasury Secretary Lawrence H. Summers, a Democrat who has been openly critical of his economic agenda, to acknowledge Summers's concerns and ask him to explain his objections.... Summers has engaged in increasingly bitter disagreements with White House aides.... Summers -- a treasury secretary under President Bill Clinton, top economic adviser to President Barack Obama and former president of Harvard University -- is a prominent Democratic voice on economic matters. But he has also become a nemesis of the party's left flank, which sees him as representative of a misguided centrism that Democrats have moved beyond. Summers has been warning that Biden's $1.9 trillion stimulus package is too big and will overheat the economy...."

John Wagner, et al., of the Washington Post: "Vice President Harris announced Thursday that the Biden administration is making available $1 billion in grants to improve high-speed Internet on tribal lands and argued that passage of an infrastructure proposal pending in Congress would help many others across the country who lack the benefits of broadband. The event follows President Biden's meeting at the White House on Wednesday with a key Republican negotiator on infrastructure."

Jeanne Whalen & Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post: "The Biden administration is expanding a Trump-era order that banned U.S. investment in Chinese companies that it said support China's military to include those selling surveillance technology, calling the entities a threat to U.S. interests and values. A new executive order set for release Thursday broadens prohibitions that the Donald Trump administration enacted and moves authority for the ban to the Treasury Department, from the Defense Department, to give it stronger legal grounding, senior administration officials said."

Amanda Macias & Christina Wilkie of CNBC: "The Biden administration is urging corporate executives and business leaders to take immediate steps to prepare for ransomware attacks, warning in a new memo that cybercriminals are shifting from stealing data to disrupting core operations. 'The threats are serious and they are increasing,' wrote Anne Neuberger, President Joe Biden's deputy national security advisor for cyber and emerging technology, in a June 2 memo obtained by CNBC from the White House. 'The private sector also has a critical responsibility to protect against these threats. All organizations must recognize that no company is safe from being targeted by ransomware, regardless of size or location,' Neuberger wrote."

Ohio. Local American Legion Cuts Mic so Colonel Couldn't Give Credit to Black Americans for Celebrating the First Memorial Day. Andrea Salcedo of the Washington Post: "Retired Army Lt. Col. Barnard Kemter was midway through his speech at a Memorial Day ceremony in an Ohio cemetery when he started discussing the role that freed Black enslaved people played in an early event honoring Civil War dead.... The disruption was no glitch. One of the event's organizers later admitted the audio had been deliberately turned down, telling the Akron Beacon Journal that Kemter's discussion of Black history 'was not relevant to our program for the day. We asked him to modify his speech, and he chose not to do that,' Cindy Suchan, president of the Hudson American Legion Auxiliary, told the Beacon Journal.... The Ohio American Legion said it is investigating the incident." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Kemter is 77 years old, served as a medic, and looks white to me. Not the picture of a "radical" BLM "rioter" his censors probably envision. But the very idea that lovely white people had gathered to celebrate a holiday started by Black people was just too much for them to handle. This is racism in its most petty form. I'm sure Cindy there thinks she's the paragon of civic engagement & a great credit to her community. With all due respect, she's an embarrassing pile of crap. ~~~

     ~~~ "White Fragility." Paul Campos in LG&$: "Just as was the case with the original complaints about PC culture, this is all a massive case of projection by the proponents of the original and still by far most dominant form of political correctness in this country, which is simply white supremacy in all its guises, overt and covert. That form of PC/Cancel Culture is based on the fundamental axiom that making a white person feel bad about being white is the very worst form of racism there is -- in fact it's pretty much the only real form of racism that still exists...." Campos republishes much of the WashPo story.

More News from the Most Corrupt Administration Evah: ~~~

~~~ Louie, Louie, Oh No. Matt Zapotosky & Jacob Bogage of the Washington Post: "The FBI is investigating Postmaster General Louis DeJoy in connection with campaign fundraising activity involving his former business, according to people familiar with the matter and a spokesman for DeJoy. FBI agents in recent weeks interviewed current and former employees of DeJoy and the business, asking questions about political contributions and company activities, these people said. Prosecutors also issued a subpoena to DeJoy himself for information, one of the people said.... in early September, The Washington Post published an extensive examination of how employees at DeJoy's former company, North Carolina-based New Breed Logistics, alleged they were pressured by DeJoy or his aides to attend political fundraisers or make contributions to Republican candidates, and then were paid back through bonuses. Such reimbursements could run afoul of state or federal laws, which prohibit 'straw-donor' schemes meant to allow wealthy donors to evade individual contribution limits and obscure the source of a candidate's money." ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times story is here. As Katie Benner makes clear in her lede, DeJoy is being investigated for a crime, not a civil offense. Politico's story is here.

~~~~~~~~~~

Joe Goes Nuclear. Lara Seligman, et al., of Politico: "President Joe Biden ran on a platform opposing new nuclear weapons, but his first defense budget backs two controversial new projects put in motion by ... Donald Trump and also doubles down on the wholesale upgrade of all three legs of the arsenal. The decision to retain a low-yield warhead that was outfitted on submarine-launched ballistic missiles in 2019, and to initiate research into a new sea-launched cruise missile, has sparked an outcry from arms control advocates and the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, which is vowing a fight to reverse the momentum.... [Rep. Ro] Khanna [D-Calif.] and other Democrats are spoiling for a fight over nuclear funding in the coming months, including slashing money for a new fleet of intercontinental ballistic missiles and the new sea-launched missiles."

Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "Nearing a self-imposed deadline for a bipartisan infrastructure deal, President Biden met again on Wednesday with the lead Republican negotiator to try to resolve major differences over the size, structure and financing of an expansive public-works plan. The roughly hourlong meeting in the Oval Office between Mr. Biden and Senator Shelley Moore Capito, Republican of West Virginia, did not end with any public breakthroughs, but they agreed to continue their discussions on Friday."

Amanda Marcotte of Salon: President Biden "had some harsh words [Tuesday] for Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, whose support for the filibuster is preventing Senate Democrats from passing bills that would block Republican efforts to dismantle fair election systems.... As much as political Twitter would like to believe otherwise, shaming is not, in fact, an effective persuasion technique.... The only real hope that it works lays in the fact that Manchin and Sinema have spent months getting attention for being the holdouts. This likely means they can no longer bask in the ego boost from having the president and others cajole and plead for them to do the right thing.... But it's a troubling sign that Democrats are at the end of the line, seemingly short on strategies to save American democracy. Everything now depends on two people, both who seem unbelievably pigheaded and egotistical, to grow up and start acting like they care about the people who got them elected." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Psaki Says a Very Spicer Thing. Molly Nagle & Libby Cathey of ABC News: "White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Wednesday denied President Joe Biden was criticizing Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., during remarks the day before in Tulsa, when he jabbed that two Senate Democrats vote more with Republicans than they do their own party.... [In explaining why he could get his proposed legislation passed, Biden said,] 'Well, because Biden only has a majority of, effectively, four votes in the House and a tie in the Senate, with two members of the Senate who vote more with my Republican friends.'" MB: C'mon, Jen, you can do better.

Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough has effectively ruled that only one more automatic budget reconciliation is permissible this year, dealing a blow to Democrats who previously thought they would have two more chances to sidestep Republicans in advancing President Biden's agenda. MacDonough ruled that a revision to the 2021 budget resolution cannot be automatically discharged from the Senate Budget Committee, meaning Democrats would need at least one Republican on the 11-11 panel to vote with them." MB: Change the rule, ladies & gentlemen. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Charlie Savage & Katie Benner of the New York Times: "The Trump Justice Department secretly seized the phone records of four New York Times reporters spanning nearly four months in 2017 as part of a leak investigation, the Biden administration disclosed on Wednesday. It was the latest in a series of revelations about the Trump administration secretly obtaining reporters' communications records in an effort to uncover their sources. Last month, the Biden Justice Department disclosed Trump-era seizures of the phone logs of reporters who work for The Washington Post and the phone and email logs for a CNN reporter. Dean Baquet, the executive editor of The Times, condemned the action by the Trump administration.... Last month, after the disclosures about the seizures of communications records involving Post and CNN reporters, President Biden said he would not allow the department to take such a step during his administration...." Trump's DOJ seized phone records fro January 14 to April 30, 2017, "for four Times reporters: Matt Apuzzo, Adam Goldman, Eric Lichtblau and Michael S. Schmidt. The government also secured a court order to seize logs -- but not contents -- of their emails, it said, but 'no records were obtained.'" ~~~

     ~~~ MB: It's odd Jefferson Beauregard Sessions didn't know about the First Amendment. I checked, and freedom of the press appears in the Confederate Constitution, too. So JeffBo should have known about it.

To the Moon Venus, Alice. Christian Davenport of the Washington Post: "... on Wednesday, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said the space agency would set its sights on a world that has not received much attention in decades: Venus, the fiery mystery of a planet that is Earth's closest planetary neighbor. In an address at NASA headquarters, Nelson said the agency would send not one but two missions there in an effort hailed by scientists as long overdue. NASA has not sent a probe to Venus in more than 30 years.... Though Venus is 'hot, hellish and unforgiving' in NASA's words, it has 'so many characteristics similar to ours.'" MB: "Hot, hellish & unforigiving"? I predict the probes will discover that Venus once had a thriving humanoid culture, but the Venusites ignored climate change and it killed them all off.

Marc Caputo of Politico: "Federal prosecutors are examining whether Rep. Matt Gaetz obstructed justice during a phone call he had with a witness in the sex-crimes investigation of the Florida congressman, according to two sources familiar with the case. The witness in question was one of a handful of women who entered Gaetz's orbit via his one-time 'wingman,' former Seminole County, Fla., tax collector Joel Greenberg, who pleaded guilty last month to a host of crimes, including sex-trafficking a 17-year-old in 2017. The obstruction inquiry stems from a phone call the witness had with Gaetz's ex-girlfriend. At some point during the conversation, the ex-girlfriend patched Gaetz into the call, sources said. While it's unknown exactly what was said, the discussion on that call is central to whether prosecutors can charge Gaetz with obstructing justice, which makes it illegal to suggest that a witness in a criminal case lie or give misleading testimony. The witness later spoke with prosecutors...." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: For Matt, lying seems to be a way of life. So it's hardly surprising he might encourage others to lie for him, too. In his defense, if you lie every day as a matter of course, it's hard to notice when those lies might cross a line into criminality. Such nuance, you may know, is not Matt's thing.

Jennifer Bendery of the Huffington Post names "the 139 Republicans who lied, fueled an insurrection and then voted to cover it up.... Why would any U.S. senator or member of Congress oppose an independent commission to investigate what led to a deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol ― one aimed squarely at undermining American democracy and the peaceful transfer of power?... Most of these Republicans lied about the presidential election being stolen from Donald Trump. That lie helped motivate a white supremacist mob of Trump's supporters to smash their way into the Capitol ― some with plans to kill House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Vice President Mike Pence and others ― to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden's electoral win. Republicans >don't want a respected panel of experts publicly connecting these dots heading into the 2022 elections. They also don't want to get on Trump's bad side by supporting a commission that would show, in detail, how his lie incited an attack on democracy that left five people dead, hundreds of police officers injured and countless others traumatized. It gets uglier. Their party is counting on people to keep believing the lie."

Ben Leonard of Politico: "Former special counsel Robert Mueller will take part in a University of Virginia law school class covering his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and potential ties to the Trump campaign, the school announced Wednesday. Mueller, who graduated from the school in 1973, will lead "at least one class" of the course, which is being taught by three former senior Mueller team members, including deputy special counsel Aaron Zebley, according to a release from the school. The 'short' class, called 'The Mueller Report and the Role of the Special Counsel,' will be taught in person this fall." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Remember the Olive Oil! Chandelis Duster & Barbara Starr of CNN: "The US military has issued an apology after soldiers accidentally stormed a factory in Bulgaria that produces processing machinery for olive oil during a training exercise last month.... Bulgarian President Rumen Radev condemned the incident and said he expects there will be an investigation, CNN affiliate Nova TV reported Monday." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Shocking News! Trump Subpoenaed for Misplaced Comma. Elizabeth Dye of Above the Law: Eric Trump confirmed the existence of investigations into the Trump Organization, which he "runs," when he appeared on Sean Hannity's Fox "News" show Tuesday night: "'Listen, I'm on the receiving end of it every single day,' he said, almost tearing up in righteous indignation. 'My father gets subpoena after subpoena. We do as a family.'... 'They look for any single comma that's out of place.... Every single day my family is attacked.'" And, so, forth. MB: Oops! Now I'll be subpoenaed, too. Damned commas.

A Florida Man Lost His Job, His Home & His Mind. Josh Dawsey & Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump remains relentlessly focused on the false claim that the November election was stolen from him and is increasingly consumed with the notion that ballot reviews pushed by his supporters around the country could prove that he won, according to people familiar with his comments. Trump has rebuffed calls from some advisers to drop the matter, instead fixating on an ongoing Republican-commissioned audit in Arizona and plotting how to secure election reviews in other states, such as Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, New Hampshire and Georgia, according to advisers.... Trump's interest has been fueled by conversations he has had with an array of figures who have publicly touted false claims of election fraud.... Trump has become so fixated on the audits that he suggested recently to allies that their success could result in his return to the White House this year...." ~~~

~~~ Uneasy Lies the Head that Wore a Crown. My Pillow Guy Takes Credit for Trump's Soft Head. Will Sommer & Asawin Suebsaeng of the Daily Beast: "Donald Trump now has the notion in his head that he could return to the White House in August. But the twice-impeached former president isn't getting that idea from constitutional scholars or his attorneys. Instead, MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell apparently inspired him. 'If Trump is saying August, that is probably because he heard me say it publicly,' Lindell told The Daily Beast on Wednesday.... In the past few weeks..., [Trump has] claimed that a lot of 'highly respected' people -- who[m] Trump did not name -- have been saying it's possible [he'll be the sitting president by August]."

Donald Dumps Desk. Kevin Breuninger of CNBC: "Former President Donald Trump's blog -- a webpage where he shared statements after larger social media companies banned him from their platforms -- has been permanently shut down, his spokesman said Wednesday. The page 'From the Desk of Donald J. Trump' has been scrubbed from Trump's website after going live less than a month earlier." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Drew Harwell & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "Upset by reports from The Washington Post and other outlets highlighting its measly readership and concerns that it could detract from a social media platform he wants to launch later this year, Trump ordered his team Tuesday to put the blog out of its misery, advisers said." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Nicole Perlroth, et al., of the New York Times: "The perpetrators of a ransomware attack that shut down some operations at the world's largest meat processor this week was a Russian-based cybercriminal group known for its attacks on prominent American companies, the F.B.I. said Wednesday. The group, known as REvil, is one of the most prolific of the roughly 40 ransomware organizations that cybersecurity experts track and has been identified as responsible for a coordinated strike against operations in almost two dozen Texas cities in 2019. The group is among dozens of ransomware groups that enjoy safe harbor in Russia, where they are rarely arrested or extradited for their crimes. REvil, which stands for Ransomware Evil, is known as a 'ransomware as a service' organization, meaning it leases its ransomware to other criminals, even the technically inept.... Production began to resume at nine JBS beef plants in the United States on Wednesday.... Union officials said Wednesday that beef plants were operational but were not at full capacity yet."

Christina Goldbaum & William Rashbaum of the New York Times: "A hacking group believed to have links to the Chinese government penetrated [New York City's] Metropolitan Transportation Authority's computer systems in April, exposing vulnerabilities in a vast transportation network that carries millions of people every day, according to an M.T.A. document that outlined the breach. The hackers did not gain access to systems that control train cars and rider safety was not at risk, transit officials said, adding that the intrusion appeared to have done little, if any, damage."

The Pandemic, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Thursday are here. The Washington Post's live updates for Thursday are here.

NEW. Libby Cathey of ABC News: "President Joe Biden on Wednesday declared June a 'national month of action' to mobilize even more Americans to get vaccinated by July Fourth, in order to enjoy what he called 'a summer of freedom.' With the help of vaccinations, Biden said, Americans are headed into a summer vastly different from last year.... He also sent a warning. 'For all the progress we're making as a country, if you're unvaccinated, you are still at risk of getting seriously ill or dying or spreading disease to others,' he continued." Includes video.

Beyond the Beltway

Arizona. Christine Hauser of the New York Times: "Global headlines reflected the anger of death camp survivors and others after The Guardian published documents showing [Arizona] planned to return to the use of hydrogen cyanide, a gas associated with what the Nazis called Zyklon B."

California. Stanford U. Law School Suddenly Learns about First Amendment. Scott Lemieux in LG&$: "A 3L at Stanford Law sent out this very funny satirical flyer after the Trump/Hawley/Cruz/McCarthy Sedition Riots[.]... Alas, some dipshits in the [Standford Federalist Society] took some time off their complaints about CANCEL CULTURE to write a long whiny email to the authorities falsely claiming that the satirical poster was defamatory, which is currently preventing the student from graduating[.]... The real villains here are the Stanford administration for materially punishing a student for expressive acts protected by both California law and basic principles of free speech.... UPDATE: Stanford ultimately did the right thing, but for the Stanford Federalist Society the disgrace is permanent[.]" Stanford Law will now allow Nicholas Wallace, the student with the sense of humor, to graduate. Lemieux's post includes Wallace's flyer and extensively sites Slate stories on this immensely stupid incident.

Florida. Marisa Iati of the Washington Post: A Florida man in Palm Beach County is invoking the state's infamous "stand your ground" law to defend torturing and murdering ... an iguana. "Circuit Judge Jeffrey Dana Gillen on Friday rejected [the] argument, the South Florida Sun Sentinel first reported.... Green iguanas are considered an invasive species in Florida. State law allows people to 'humanely' kill them on private property -- a guideline generally interpreted to mean that the animal must die instantly and without suffering, the Sun Sentinel reported." The Florida man allegedly allegedly kicked, tossed and stepped on the iguana until it was near death. And no, this particular Palm Beach area Florida man is not the mass murderer you maybe thinking of.

Minnesota. Chauvin Murdered George Floyd Because "Broken System." Blake Montgomery of the Daily Beast: "Derek Chauvin, the white former Minneapolis police officer convicted of the murder of George Floyd, has requested a judge reduce his sentence to time served or probation. In a motion filed Wednesday, Chauvin's lawyers wrote, 'Mr. Chauvin asks the Court to look beyond its findings, to his background, his lack of criminal history, his amenability to probation, to the unusual facts of this case, and to his being a product of a "broken" system."'" MB: Uh, yeah, the system is broken, and Derek there was the system. You may have heard of "systemic racism," Derek. Whatever made you think it was okay to murder a Black man in broad daylight in front of numerous witnesses because the man might have committed a petty crime is no doubt a piece of systemic racism.

New Mexico. Running for Public Office Is Difficult. AP: "A New Mexico sheriff who is running for mayor of Albuquerque was interrupted while on stage at a campaign event by a flying drone with a sex toy attached to it and a man who punched him.... The Albuquerque Journal reported that a video posted on Facebook shows [Bernalillo County (includes Albuquerque) Sheriff Manuel] Gonzales [D] answering questions from the audience while standing on a stage at an events center when the drone bearing the sex toy started buzzing near the stage. A sheriff's office report said ... 20-year-old Kaelan Ashby Dreyer unsuccessfully tried to grab [the drone.] The report said Dreyer then turned his attention to Gonzales, swinging his fist and calling him a 'tyrant.' A deputy wrote that Dreyer punched Gonzales' hands and was then removed from the event by deputies."

New York. Marina Villeneuve of the AP: "Taxpayers are set to foot the bill for a $2.5 million contract for lawyers representing Gov. Andrew Cuomo's office in an ongoing federal investigation over his administration's handling of COVID-19 data in nursing homes, the governor said Wednesday.... The Department of Justice and state Attorney General's office have launched probes of such allegations, while the state Assembly judiciary committee's separate investigation is also considering whether there are grounds to impeach Cuomo."

South Dakota. Rae Yost of KELO (Sioux Falls): "A federal court has ruled there will be no Fourth of July fireworks at Mount Rushmore. Judge Roberto A. Lange said [Wednesday] in the ruling that ... the state did not meet requirements for him to rule in [Gov. Kristi] Noem [R] and the state’s favor. In a post on her Governor's Twitter Account, Noem said 'The Biden Administration cancelled South Dakota's Mount Rushmore Fireworks Celebration on completely arbitrary grounds. I am disappointed the court gave cover to this unlawful action with today's decision.'... Noem said in the Twitter post that her legal team will appeal in the pursuit of fireworks in 2022."

Way Beyond

Iran. Amir Vahdat & Jon Gambrell of the AP: "The largest warship in the Iranian navy caught fire and later sank Wednesday in the Gulf of Oman under unclear circumstances.... State media reported 400 sailors and trainee cadets on board fled the vessel, with 33 suffering injuries.... Meanwhile, a massive fire broke out Wednesday night at the oil refinery serving Iran's capital, sending thick plumes of black smoke over Tehran.... The fire Wednesday aboard the Kharg warship follows a series of mysterious explosions that began in 2019 targeting commercial ships in the Gulf of Oman. The U.S. Navy accused Iran of targeting the ships with limpet mines, timed explosives typically attached by divers to a vessel's hull." (Also linked yesterday.)

** Israel. Josef Federman of the AP: "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's opponents on Wednesday announced they have reached a deal to form a new governing coalition, paving the way for the ouster of the longtime Israeli leader. The dramatic announcement by opposition leader Yair Lapid and his main coalition partner, Naftali Bennett, came shortly before a midnight deadline and prevented the country from plunging into what would have been its fifth consecutive election in just over two years.... The agreement still needs to be approved by the Knesset, or parliament, in a vote that is expected to take place early next week. If it goes through, Lapid and a diverse array of partners that span the Israeli political spectrum will end the record-setting 12-year rule of Netanyahu. Netanyahu, desperate to remain in office while he fights corruption charges, is expected to do everything possible in the coming days to prevent the new coalition from taking power." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) The New York Times story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times is liveblogging developments in Israel's power struggle: "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signaled early Thursday that he would not go down without a struggle. He called on lawmakers to oppose 'this dangerous left-wing government.'"

U.K. David Pegg & Rob Evans of the Guardian: The Queen's courtiers banned 'coloured immigrants or foreigners' from serving in clerical roles in the royal household until at least the late 1960s, according to newly discovered documents that will reignite the debate over the British royal family and race. The documents also shed light on how Buckingham Palace negotiated controversial clauses -- that remain in place to this day -- exempting the Queen and her household from laws that prevent race and sex discrimination.... The Queen has remained personally exempted from those equality laws for more than four decades. The exemption has made it impossible for women or people from ethnic minorities working for her household to complain to the courts if they believe they have been discriminated against." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

News Lede

New York Times: "F. Lee Bailey, the theatrical criminal lawyer who invited juries into the twilight zone of reasonable doubt in defense of Patricia Hearst , O.J. Simpson, the Boston Strangler, the army commander at the My Lai Massacre in Vietnam and other notorious cases, died on Thursday in Atlanta. He was 87."