The Commentariat -- July 2, 2021

Sean Sullivan & Anne Gearan of the Washington Post: "During his trip to a grief-stricken stretch of Florida beachfront on Thursday, [President] Biden summoned two defining features of his political identity: empathy and bipartisanship.... The visit in many ways marked a return of norms and expectations for a president in times of national crisis after the awkward and sometimes ham-handed responses of ... Donald Trump. Where Trump often kept his distance from suffering and seemed to prefer focusing on strength, Biden spent hours addressing the emotionally fraught tragedy on Thursday." The AP's story is here.

Pete Williams of NBC News: "Attorney General Merrick Garland ordered a temporary stop Thursday to scheduling further federal executions. In a memo to senior officials, he said serious concerns have arisen about the arbitrariness of capital punishment, its disparate impact on people of color, and 'the troubling number of exonerations' in death penalty cases." The Washington Post's report is here. The Attorney General's memorandum is here.

Amy Goldstein of the Washington Post: "The Biden administration issued rules Thursday to shield Americans from large, unexpected medical bills after patients wind up in emergency rooms or receive other care they did not realize lay outside their insurance networks. The rules, to begin in January, are the first in a series of coordinated steps that four federal agencies are required to take to set in motion a law Congress adopted last year to protect health-care consumers against a practice known as surprise billing. Thursday's rules spell out that, if a health plan provides for any emergency services, those services must be covered without requiring permission from an insurer ahead of time. And ... patients cannot be billed ... for the difference between what the hospital charges and what an insurance company pays for out-of-network care."

Dan Lamothe of the Washington Post: "The U.S. military has vacated its most significant airfield in Afghanistan, three defense officials said, underscoring that the Pentagon expects to complete its withdrawal from the country within days after 20 years of war. The departure from Bagram air base, about 45 miles north of Kabul, ends the U.S. military presence at Afghanistan's most significant airfield. It has long been used to launch strike aircraft against the Taliban and other militant groups, and was once the headquarters for U.S. Special Operations troops in the war."

Mike Lillis of the Hill: "Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has named Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) to serve on the select committee investigating the attack on the Capitol by a mob of pro-Trump supporters.... House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) will serve as the select panel's leader. Pelosi's other Democratic picks include Administration Committee Chairwoman Zoe Lofgren (Calif.), Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (Calif.), Pete Aguilar (Calif.), Stephanie Murphy (Fla.), Jamie Raskin (Md.) and Elaine Luria (Va.)." Update: The Washington Post's story, by Felicia Sonmez & Marianna Sotomayor is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ MEANWHILE. Jamie Gangel of CNN: "House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy on Wednesday issued a blanket threat during a meeting with freshmen members of his caucus that he would strip any Republican member of their committee assignments if they accept an offer from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to serve on the select committee to investigate the January 6 insurrection, according to two GOP sources with knowledge of the matter." MB: So we'll see if Kevin strips Cheney of her committee assignments, while he leaves reprobates like alleged sex offender Matt Gaetz & confirmed white supremacist Paul Gosar on House committees. (Also linked yesterday.)

Jeff Stein of the Washington Post: "The federal deficit will hit $3 trillion in 2021 for the second consecutive year, primarily because of the national spending blitz in response to the coronavirus pandemic, the Congressional Budget Office said Thursday. The deficit represents a slight decrease from last year but is triple that of 2019, and amounts to one of the biggest imbalances between federal spending and revenue in American history, the nonpartisan budget office said. But the CBO also projected faster-than-expected economic growth, with unemployment falling more sharply than previously predicted...."

A Bad Day for Democracy

Harper Neidig of the Hill: "The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that a California regulation requiring nonprofits to disclose their donors to state officials is unconstitutional. The court sided with a pair of conservative groups challenging the disclosure requirement in a 6-3 split along ideological lines. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opinion, ruling that the disclosure regulations have a chilling effect on donors' First Amendment rights." The New York Times report, by Adam Liptak, is here. (Also linked yesterday.)

John Kruzel of the Hill: “The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that a pair of Republican-backed Arizona voting restrictions do not run afoul of federal law, rejecting a Democratic challenge and dealing a blow to voting rights advocates.... One Arizona policy at issue in Thursday's case requires provisional ballots cast in the wrong precinct to be discarded. The second measure makes it illegal for most third parties to deliver ballots for others, a practice critics refer to as 'ballot harvesting.'... Developing." MB: According to CNN, the decision was 6-3, with the more liberal justices dissenting. Update: The New York Times report, by Adam Liptak, is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

What is tragic here is that the Court has (once again) rewritten -- in order to weaken -- a law that stands as a monument to America's greatness and protects against its lowest impulses. What is tragic is that the court undermined a law designed to end discrimination in voting. I respectfully disagree. -- Justice Elena Kagan, dissent in Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee

~~~ Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "Justice Elena Kagan ripped her conservative colleagues on the Supreme Court on Thursday in a blistering 41-page dissent, accusing them of ignoring the legislative intent of the 1965 Voting Rights Act as well as the high court's own precedents. Kagan's fiery dissenting opinion in a voting rights case, which was joined by the two other liberal members of the court, Justices Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor, accused her conservative colleagues of undermining Section 2 of the landmark Voting Rights Act and tragically weakening what she called 'a statute that stands as a monument to America's greatness.' 'Never has a statute done more to advance the nation's highest ideals. And few laws are more vital in the current moment. Yet in the last decade, this court has treated no statute worse,' she wrote, in what is likely to become a rallying cry for Democratic lawmakers and progressive activists pushing for election reform laws, including the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, in Congress." ~~~

~~~ ** President Joe Biden, in a statement: "I am deeply disappointed in today's decision by the United States Supreme Court that undercuts the Voting Rights Act, and upholds what Justice Kagan called 'a significant race-based disparity in voting opportunities.' In a span of just eight years, the Court has now done severe damage to two of the most important provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 -- a law that took years of struggle and strife to secure. After all we have been through to deliver the promise of this Nation to all Americans, we should be fully enforcing voting rights laws, not weakening them. Yet this decision comes just over a week after Senate Republicans blocked even a debate -- even consideration -- of the For the People Act that would have protected the right to vote from action by Republican legislators in states across the country.... Democracy is on the line."

~~~ A Court "Hostile to American Democracy." Richard Hasen, in a New York Times op-ed: "In two disturbing rulings closing out the Supreme Court's term, the court's six-justice conservative majority, over the loud protests of its three-liberal minority, has shown itself hostile to American democracy.... The court is putting our democratic form of government at risk not only in these two decisions but in its overall course over the past few decades.... Rather than focus on whether a law has a disparate impact on minority voters, as Justice Elena Kagan urged in her dissent, the court [in the Arizona voting rights case] put a huge thumb on the scale in favor of restrictive state voting rules.... Minority voters have a high burden: They must show that the state has imposed more than the 'usual burdens of voting.'... If you put the [two] ... cases together, the court is making it easier for states to pass repressive voting laws and easier for undisclosed donors and big money to influence election outcomes.&" ~~~

~~~ E.J. Dionne of the Washington Post: "You wonder if July 1, 2021, might come to be known as Oligarchy Day.... The decisions in both cases could have been written by the Republican National Committee, attorneys for the Koch brothers and advocates of voter suppression.... The conservative justices also showed -- yet again -- that the right's oft-stated commitment to 'states' rights' is situational. Arizona was free to make it harder to vote, but California was not free to let citizens know who is financing entities enmeshed in their state's politics.... [For] senators still reluctant to overturn or reform the Senate's filibuster rules[, t]heir choice really is between defending the filibuster and defending democracy.... Court enlargement must now be on the agenda of anyone who cares about protecting voting rights and our increasingly fragile system of self-rule." ~~~

~~~ Steve M.: "... there are two kinds of Republicans: those who want to steal elections by any means necessary, including by means of embarrassingly implausible stunts like the January 6 riot and the Arizona audit, and those who want to steal election the [s]ubtle way, by creating a legal framework that favors the GOP at every turn while retaining the appearance of fairness and impartiality, at least to those who aren't paying close attention. Donald Trump and MAGA Nation belong in the former category, while many Republican officeholders, including the Republicans who refused to 'find' votes for Trump after Election Day 2020 or otherwise reject Joe Biden's obvious victory, belong in the latter category. The Republicans on the Supreme Court belong in that category too. They want the GOP to win every future election just as much as Trump and his crew do, but they want the GOP victories to have the patina of legitimacy. Hence today's decisions and the ones that came before them." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Exactly. Jim Crow lives! I heard Sherrilyn Ifill, director of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, say today that the Supremes had taken the U.S. back to pre-1965, when the country was not a true democracy because so many Americans were excluded from voting. And that's where Johnny & the Dwarfs have taken us by gutting the transformational Voting Rights Act. Moreover, Alito's decision not only specifically sanctions Trump's "big lie" -- Alito writes about how the Arizona law ensures against "voter fraud" -- it also provides a legal excuse for all the nutcases who stormed the Capitol (and who will make similar forays in the future). Yes, yes, violence is a shame, but those ole boys who delayed certification of the Electoral College vote were fighting for a certain kind of "democracy" where the "real winner" is determined by a particular genre of voter. When the majority of Republicans tell pollsters Biden "stole" the election, what many of them mean is that too many Black votes counted.

** Ben Protess, et al., of the New York Times: "The Trump Organization, the real estate business that catapulted Donald J. Trump to tabloid fame, television riches and ultimately the White House, was charged Thursday with fraud and tax crimes in connection with what prosecutors said was a 15-year-long scheme to compensate a top executive off the books. The Manhattan district attorney's office, which has been conducting the investigation, also accused the executive, Allen H. Weisselberg, Mr. Trump's long-serving and trusted chief financial officer, of avoiding taxes on $1.7 million in income. He faced grand larceny, tax fraud and other charges. The charges were revealed at an arraignment in State Supreme Court in Manhattan for the Trump Organization and Mr. Weisselberg. More details about the allegations were set to be laid out in an indictment to be unsealed after the court proceeding." This is an update of a story linked yesterday.

Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump has offered to give House Democrats a peek at financial statements related to his complex business empire from before his 2016 presidential bid and eight years of contracts with his accounting firm, but refused to divulge more sensitive source data or internal communications, his lawyers told a federal judge Thursday. The disclosure of the offer, made in late June in unsuccessful court-ordered mediation, came as Trump urged a federal judge in Washington to end a stalemate and toss out a 2019 House subpoena for eight years of his financial records, calling the congressional demand unconstitutional and unenforceable.... Douglas Letter, general counsel for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), said Trump lawyers' in mediation 'never offered to produce a single document.' Instead they proposed that a handful of committee aides and lawmakers view a small sample of records in private; take notes instead of copy or photograph them; and keep the information confidential to the committee, Letter said. He called the limitations on reviewing complex and voluminous financial data 'ridiculous.'... U.S. District Judge Amit P. Mehta ... promised to 'work very hard to get everyone an expedited decision,' saying he knew any ruling would be appealed."

Beyond the Beltway

California. Jeremy White of Politico: "California's elections chief certified the gubernatorial recall Thursday, setting up a likely mid-September election to consider whether Gov. Gavin Newsom should remain in office. It officially marks the state's second-ever gubernatorial recall after the 2003 ouster of then-Gov. Gray Davis, whom voters replaced with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger."

Accidents can happen. -- Ross Pietro, building inspector at a Miami Shores dog track building that collapsed in 1997 ~~~

~~~ Florida. Frances Robles of the New York Times: "Ross Prieto, the chief building official in Surfside, Fla..., told residents of Champlain Towers South [in 2018] that their building appeared to be sound nearly three years before its deadly collapse last week.... The city of Doral, where Mr. Prieto has worked as a consulting building engineer since May, announced this week that Mr. Prieto was on leave for undisclosed reasons, and that it was reviewing the eight projects he had worked on in that city.... Mr. Prieto, 54, who has a master's degree in construction management, has more than 25 years of experience as a building and roofing inspector in at least six South Florida cities, including Miami, Miami Beach and Hialeah."

News Ledes

CNBC: "Job growth leaped higher in June as businesses looked to keep up with a rapidly recovering U.S. economy, the Labor Department reported Friday. Nonfarm payrolls increased 850,000 for the month, compared to the Dow Jones estimate of 706,000 and better than the upwardly revised 583,000 in May. The unemployment rate, however, rose to 5.9% against the 5.6% expectation."

The New York Times is liveblogging developments today in the Surfside, Florida, condominium collapse.

The Commentariat -- July 1, 2021

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Ben Protess, et al., of the New York Times: "The Trump Organization, the real estate business that catapulted Donald J. Trump to tabloid fame, television riches and ultimately the White House, was charged Thursday with fraud and tax crimes in connection with what prosecutors said was a 15-year-long scheme to compensate a top executive off the books. The Manhattan district attorney's office, which has been conducting the investigation, also accused the executive, Allen H. Weisselberg, Mr. Trump's long-serving and trusted chief financial officer, of avoiding taxes on $1.7 million in income. He faced grand larceny, tax fraud and other charges. The charges were revealed at an arraignment in State Supreme Court in Manhattan for the Trump Organization and Mr. Weisselberg. More details about the allegations were set to be laid out in an indictment to be unsealed after the court proceeding." This is an update of a story linked below.

Mike Lillis of the Hill: "Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has named Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) to serve on the select committee investigating the attack on the Capitol by a mob of pro-Trump supporters.... House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) will serve as the select panel's leader. Pelosi's other Democratic picks include Administration Committee Chairwoman Zoe Lofgren (Calif.), Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (Calif.), Pete Aguilar (Calif.), Stephanie Murphy (Fla.), Jamie Raskin (Md.) and Elaine Luria (Va.)." Update: The Washington Post's story, by Felicia Sonmez & Marianna Sotomayor is here. ~~~

     ~~~ MEANWHILE. Jamie Gangel of CNN: "House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy on Wednesday issued a blanket threat during a meeting with freshmen members of his caucus that he would strip any Republican member of their committee assignments if they accept an offer from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to serve on the select committee to investigate the January 6 insurrection, according to two GOP sources with knowledge of the matter." MB: We'll see if Kevin strips Cheney of her committee assignments, while he leaves reprobates like alleged sex offender Matt Gaetz & confirmed white supremacist Paul Gosar on House committees.

A Bad Day for Democracy ~~~

Harper Neidig of the Hill: "The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that a California regulation requiring nonprofits to disclose their donors to state officials is unconstitutional. The court sided with a pair of conservative groups challenging the disclosure requirement in a 6-3 split along ideological lines. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opinion, ruling that the disclosure regulations have a chilling effect on donors' First Amendment rights." Update: The New York Times report, by Adam Liptak, is here.

John Kruzel of the Hill: "The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that a pair of Republican-backed Arizona voting restrictions do not run afoul of federal law, rejecting a Democratic challenge and dealing a blow to voting rights advocates.... One Arizona policy at issue in Thursday's case requires provisional ballots cast in the wrong precinct to be discarded. The second measure makes it illegal for most third parties to deliver ballots for others, a practice critics refer to as 'ballot harvesting.'... Developing." MB: According to CNN, the decision was 6-3, with the more liberal justices dissenting. Update: The New York Times report, by Adam Liptak, is here.

~~~~~~~~~~

Trump Org & CFO indicted. Weisselberg surrenders; stories linked below.

Another Whopper from Joe's Big Book of Tall Tales. Daniel Dale of CNN: "On Tuesday, President Joe Biden repeated a vivid story he has been telling since at least his 2020 presidential campaign. Biden's story serves to illustrate both his connection with average workers and his fondness for Amtrak.... The story details a conversation he claims to have had with a particular Amtrak conductor as he was boarding a train as vice president. But the story could not possibly be true -- as some conservative media outlets pointed out.... [The conductor] had been dead for more than a year -- and had been retired for more than two decades -- before the earliest moment [in 2015] they could conceivably have had the supposed conversation Biden keeps describing."

Christopher Cadelago, et al., of Politico: "The handling of [Vice President Harris's] border visit was the latest chaotic moment for a staff that's quickly become mired in them. Harris' team is experiencing low morale, porous lines of communication and diminished trust among aides and senior officials. Much of the frustration internally is directed at Tina Flournoy, Harris' chief of staff, a veteran of Democratic politics who began working for her earlier this year. In interviews, 22 current and former vice presidential aides, administration officials and associates of Harris and Biden described a tense and at times dour office atmosphere. Aides and allies said Flournoy, in an apparent effort to protect Harris, has instead created an insular environment where ideas are ignored or met with harsh dismissals and decisions are dragged out. Often, they said, she refuses to take responsibility for delicate issues and blames staffers for the negative results that ensue."

If You're Still Waiting for That Tax Refund.... Jeff Stein of the Washington Post: "The Internal Revenue Service closed the most recent filing season with more than 35 million in unprocessed tax returns, as the agency's backlog grew markedly amid a crush of challenges related to the pandemic and economic relief efforts, a government watchdog said Wednesday. Erin Collins, the National Taxpayer Advocate, said in her report that about 17 million paper tax returns are still waiting to be processed and approximately 16 million additional returns have been placed on hold because they require further review manually. Another 2.7 million amended tax returns have not been processed. This backlog represents a four-fold increase from 2019 -- the most recent year before coronavirus -- when the IRS closed its filing season with only 7.4 million unprocessed returns, according to the report. These numbers reflect the IRS backlog as of May, and the agency may have made progress reducing it since then." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Rachel Siegel of the Washington Post: "The inspector general overseeing the Federal Housing Finance Agency resigned Tuesday, two months after a scathing watchdog report alleged that she abused her authority, retaliated against employees and blocked an investigation into her conduct. In April, an investigation by a special panel -- known as the Integrity Committee -- sent a report to the White House about Laura Wertheimer, the inspector general overseeing FHFA, who was nominated by President Barack Obama in 2014. The report noted years of complaints against Wertheimer and other staff members, and it ultimately concluded that 'misconduct of this nature warrants consideration of substantial disciplinary action, up to and including removal.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

Capitalism Is Awesome, Ctd. Hiroko Tabuchi of the New York Times: A "veteran oil-industry lobbyist was told he was meeting with a recruiter. But the video call, which was secretly recorded, was part of an elaborate sting operation by an individual working for the environmental group Greenpeace UK. During the call, Keith McCoy, a senior director of federal relations for Exxon Mobil, described how the oil and gas giant targeted a number of influential United States senators in an effort to weaken climate action in President Biden's flagship infrastructure plan. That plan now contains few of the ambitious ideas initially proposed by Mr. Biden to cut the burning of fossil fuels, the main driver of climate change. Mr. McCoy also said on the recording that Exxon's support for a tax on carbon dioxide was 'a great talking point' for the oil company, but that he believes the tax will never happen. He also said that the company has in the past aggressively fought climate science through 'shadow groups.'... On the video call recorded by Greenpeace, Mr. McCoy defended the company&'s efforts to mislead the public on climate change...." ~~~

~~~ "Climate Crimes." Chris McGreal of the Guardian: "To investigate the lengths of the oil and gas industry's deceptions -- and the disastrous consequences for communities across the country -- the Guardian is launching a year-long series tracking the unprecedented efforts to hold the fossil fuel industry to account. The legal process is expected to take years. Cities in California filed the first lawsuits back in 2017, and they have been tied down by disputes over jurisdiction, with the oil companies fighting with limited success to get them moved from state to federal courts where they think the law is more favorable. But climate activists see opportunities long before verdicts are rendered in the US. The legal process is expected to add to already damning revelations of the energy giants' closely held secrets. If history is a guide, those developments could in turn alter public opinion in favor of regulations that the oil and gas companies spent years fighting off. A string of other recent victories for climate activists already points to a shift in the industry's power."

Karoun Demirjian of the Washington Post: "The House voted Wednesday to form a select committee tasked with investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol with nearly all Republicans opposing the legislation -- a sign of the political challenges that face Democrats as they attempt to probe why thousands of ... Donald Trump's supporters laid siege to the U.S. Capitol complex. The 220 to 190 party-line vote stands in contrast to a vote in May, when 35 House Republicans joined Democrats to back creation of an independent commission to examine the attack. But while many House Republicans were willing to embrace an outside panel of experts evenly weighted between GOP and Democratic appointees, most were wary of a select committee that would be firmly in the control of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's handpicked participants.... Only two of the 211 House Republicans voted in favor of creating the panel -- Reps. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), both of whom were among the 10 Republicans who voted to impeach ... Donald Trump in January.... Pelosi (D-Calif.) designed the select committee to have 13 members, only five of whom would be appointed 'after consultation with the minority leader,' Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.)." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Three Stooges Plan Investigation of NSA; Hilarity to Ensue. Caroline Vakil of the Hill: "Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) announced on Wednesday that he asked Rep. Devin Nunes, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, to look into allegations that the National Security Agency (NSA) was spying on Fox News host Tucker Carlson<." MB: This looks like a great opportunity for Devin to perform a reprise of his midnight foray into the White House bushes.

Paul Kane of the Washington Post: "Early in his tenure, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) took decisive action against a Republican who embraced racist views. 'I've watched on the other side that they do not take action when their members say something like this. Action will be taken,' McCarthy said in a January 2019 interview on CBS, outlining his plan to strip Steve King, an Iowa Republican, of his committee assignments. Two-and-a-half years later, McCarthy has ceded that moral high ground in policing his own caucus. Instead, he has adopted something best called whataboutism: Anytime a Republican does something wrong, he points to a Democrat who's gone unpunished by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)."

Zachary Cohen & Geneva Sands of CNN: "Department of Homeland Security officials are warning that the same sort of rhetoric and false narratives that fueled the January 6 attack on the US Capitol could lead to more violence this summer by right-wing extremists. A growing belief among some Donald Trump supporters that the former President will be reinstated in August, coupled with relaxed Covid-19 restrictions, has DHS officials concerned that online rhetoric and threats could translate into actual violence in the coming months as more people are out and in public places. The August theory is essentially a recycled version of other false narratives pushed by Trump and his allies leading up to and after January 6, prompting familiar rhetoric from those who remain in denial about his 2020 election loss. But the concern is significant enough that DHS issued two warnings in the past week about the potential for violence this summer."

** New York Times: "In the six months since an angry pro-Trump mob stormed the U.S. Capitol, immense efforts have been made not only to find the rioters and hold them accountable, but also ... to dig into the details of Jan. 6 and slowly piece together what actually happened that day.... And while Republicans in Congress blocked the formation of a blue-ribbon bipartisan committee, House Democrats are poised to appoint a smaller select committee. Even now, however, Republican politicians and their allies in the media are still playing down the most brazen attack on a seat of power in modern American history. Some ... have accused the F.B.I. of planning the attack in what they have described -- wildly -- as a false-flag operation.... The Times's Visual Investigations team spent several months reviewing thousands of videos.... What we have come up with is a 40-minute panoramic take on Jan. 6, the most complete visual depiction of the Capitol riot to date." The article then outlines what it calls "some of the major revelations." Well-worth carving out 40 minutes to watch it. Supersize it. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Spencer Hsu & Rachel Weiner of the Washington Post: "More than a dozen arrests in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot were announced or unsealed Wednesday, revealing charges against alleged supporters of extremist right-wing groups including the Oath Keepers, Proud Boys and Boogaloo Bois, and individuals accused of attacking the property of news media. The arrests ranked among the most made public in a single day and came as an alleged Oath Keepers member [Mark Grods] reached an unexpected plea deal with prosecutors in the largest conspiracy case brought against those accused of obstructing Congress as it met to confirm the 2020 election results." ~~~

~~~ Zoe Tillman of BuzzFeed News: "A member of the alleged Oath Keepers conspiracy who cut a deal with prosecutors will admit he stashed guns at a Virginia hotel as part of preparations for demonstrations at the Capitol on Jan. 6. Mark Grods is set to plead guilty on Wednesday afternoon to two felony counts for conspiracy and obstructing Congress. Grods will confirm the government's long-standing allegation that members of the Oath Keepers who came to Washington, DC, to oppose Congress's certification of the election were prepared for violence and arranged to store firearms outside of the city that could be brought in on short notice." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Ryan Reilly of the Huffington Post: "As the unprecedented probe [to track down January 6 insurrectionists] reshapes the federal government's approach to domestic terrorism, Justice Department officials announced last week they had cleared the benchmark of 500 arrests.... [Attorney General Merrick] Garland ... said DOJ's efforts were 'not possible without the continued assistance of the American public.' Much of that assistance has come from people who personally knew Capitol suspects.... But there's a whole other batch of Capitol defendants who ended up on the FBI's radar thanks to the work of someone they&'d never met: anonymous online sleuths who tracked down the digital breadcrumbs that Capitol suspects had often unknowingly sprinkled across the internet. They call themselves sedition hunters, and they have receipts. They're members of a loosely affiliated network of motivated individuals and pop-up volunteer organizations with names like Deep State Dogs and Capitol Terrorists Exposers that developed after the Jan. 6 attack to identify the Trump supporters who organized the Capitol riot and brutalized the law enforcement officers protecting the building." Reilly goes on to describe some of the sedition hunters & their methods.

How Biden Won. Ruth Igielnik, et al., of the Pew Research Center: "A number of factors determined the composition of the 2020 electorate and explain how it delivered Biden a victory.... Overall, there were shifts in presidential candidate support among some key groups between 2016 and 2020, notably suburban voters and independents. On balance, these shifts helped Biden a little more than Trump.... Biden made gains with suburban voters.... Trump made gains among Hispanic voters.... Apart from the small shift among Hispanic voters, Joe Biden's electoral coalition looked much like Hillary Clinton's, with Black, Hispanic and Asian voters and those of other races casting about four-in-ten of his votes.... Biden made gains with men, while Trump improved among women, narrowing the gender gap.... Biden improved over Clinton among White non-college voters.... Biden grew his support with some religious groups while Trump held his ground.... After decades of constituting the majority of voters, Baby Boomers and members of the Silent Generation made up less than half of the electorate in 2020 (44%), falling below the 52% they constituted in both 2016 and 2018."

** Weisselberg Surrenders. Ben Protess, et al., of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump's long-serving chief financial officer, Allen H. Weisselberg, surrendered on Thursday to the Manhattan district attorney's office as he and the Trump Organization prepared to face charges in connection with a tax investigation, people with knowledge of the matter said. The exact charges were not yet known.... Mr. Weisselberg, accompanied by his lawyer, Mary E. Mulligan, walked into the Lower Manhattan building that houses the criminal courts and the district attorney's office about 6:20 a.m. He is expected to appear in court in the afternoon along with representatives of the Trump Organization." ~~~

~~~ ** Shayna Jacobs, et al., of the Washington Post: "A grand jury in Manhattan filed criminal indictments Wednesday against former president Donald Trump's company and its longtime chief financial officer, according to two people familiar with the indictments. The indictments against the Trump Organization and its CFO, Allen Weisselberg, will remain sealed until Thursday afternoon, leaving the specific charges against them unclear. Earlier Wednesday, people familiar with the case said the charges were related to allegations of unpaid taxes on benefits for Trump Organization executives. Weisselberg is expected to surrender Thursday morning at the office of Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. (D), two people familiar with the plan said. He is expected to be arraigned later in the day in front of a state court judge. The Trump Organization will also be arraigned, represented in court by one of its attorneys." ~~~

~~~ Adam Reiss, et al., of NBC News have confirmed the Washington Post story in this update of an NBC News story linked here yesterday. ~~~

~~~ Michael Rothfeld, et al., of the New York Times profile Allen Weisselberg. "Interviews with 18 current and former associates of Mr. Weisselberg, as well as a review of legal filings, financial records and other documents, paint a portrait of a man whose unflinching devotion to Mr. Trump will now be put to the test." The story has been updated . ~~~

~~~ So many thanks to Ken W. for reminding us, in today's Comments, of this gem (albeit Hillary was speaking of Trump's personal federal income tax, but as we would say in the South, "same difference"):

More Bad News for the Trumpster. Cat Zakrzewski of the Washington Post: "A federal judge on Wednesday blocked a Florida law that would penalize social media companies for blocking a politician's posts, a blow to conservatives' efforts to respond to Facebook and other websites' suspension of ... Donald Trump. The law was due to go into effect Thursday, but in issuing a preliminary injunction, U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle of the Northern District of Florida suggested that the law would be found unconstitutional. 'The plaintiffs are likely to prevail on the merits of their claim that these statutes violate the First Amendment,' Hinkle wrote. 'There is nothing that could be severed and survive.'" An NBC News report is here.

Tyler Pager of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump traveled to the U.S.-Mexico border ... Wednesday for a trip billed as an opportunity to assail President Biden on immigration -- an issue core to Trump's political identity and one Republicans view as a weakness for Democrats. But Trump often got sidetracked from the day's message, instead launching into grievance-filled rants.... Trump did not fully ignore the issue of immigration -- he just mainly focused on himself."

Graham Bowley of the New York Times: "Bill Cosby had his conviction for sexual assault overturned by a Pennsylvania appeals court on Wednesday, a decision that will set free a man whose case had represented the first high-profile sexual assault trial to unfold in the aftermath of the #MeToo movement. Three years into the prison sentence of three to 10 years he has served at a maximum-security facility outside Philadelphia, the 7-member Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled Mr. Cosby, 83, had been denied a fair trial in 2018. The ruling upended the legal case against Mr. Cosby brought by prosecutors in Pennsylvania that began with his arrest in 2015 on charges of drugging and sexually assaulting a woman at his home in the Philadelphia suburbs eleven years earlier." The AP's story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Robert McFadden of the New York Times: "Donald H. Rumsfeld , the secretary of defense for Presidents Gerald R. Ford and George W. Bush, who presided over America's Cold War strategies in the 1970s and, in the new world of terrorism decades later, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, died on Tuesday at his home in Taos, N.M. He was 88." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Spencer Ackerman of the Daily Beast: "he only thing tragic about the death of Donald Rumsfeld is that it didn't occur in an Iraqi prison.... Rumsfeld escaped the consequences of decisions he made that ensured a violent, frightening end for hundreds of thousands of people. An actuarial table of the deaths for which Donald Rumsfeld is responsible is difficult to assemble. In part, that's a consequence of his policy, as defense secretary from 2001 to 2006, not to compile or release body counts, a PR strategy learned after disclosing the tolls eroded support for the Vietnam War. As a final obliteration, we cannot know, let alone name, all the dead." Firewalled.

The Pandemic, Ctd.

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

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Wednesday are here: "The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday stood by advice that people fully vaccinated against the coronavirus do not need to wear masks in most situations, but added that there are instances where local authorities might impose more stringent measures to protect the unvaccinated. The comments came after the World Health Organization recently reiterated longstanding guidance that everyone, vaccinated or not, wear masks and take other precautions, following a global surge in infections of the highly contagious Delta variant." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I did attend events over the weekend where I did not wear a mask and where I was in close contact with people from around the country, so I'm wearing a mask for the next few weeks when I go out in order to protect other people in case I'm a carrier.

David Lim of Politico: "The Biden administration is rethinking its approach to Covid-19 testing as the pandemic enters an uncertain phase -- one in which new infections have dropped to the lowest level since the spring of 2020, but the highly contagious Delta variant is driving fresh outbreaks. Federal health officials, along with testing labs and test makers, are weighing how to implement the lessons they have learned from this pandemic to prepare for the next one. That includes what types of government incentives could help keep companies prepared to quickly develop tests in the face of a new emergency, and whether to stockpile key testing supplies. The administration also recently retooled the leadership of its Covid-19 testing and diagnostic workgroup."

Fenit Nirappil of the Washington Post: "Los Angeles County public health authorities are urging unvaccinated and vaccinated people alike to don masks again inside restaurants, stores and other public indoor spaces because of the growing threat posed by the more contagious delta variant of the novel coronavirus. The high-profile move by the county of 10 million marks an abrupt shift in tone after states and localities have dropped most mask mandates and social distancing requirements in recent weeks. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in mid-May rescinded almost all masking recommendations for fully vaccinated people." The article is free to nonsubscribers. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Wisconsin. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Editors: "COVID-19 is still killing people in Wisconsin -- nearly all of them people who have not been fully vaccinated, state health officials say. And that's why Ron Johnson's news conference Monday was so disheartening.... Instead of encouraging more people to get vaccinated so we can be rid of this plague once and for all, Johnson has chosen to use his taxpayer-financed megaphone to draw attention to a vanishingly small number of people who believe they suffered a serious side effect. And he has continued to cast doubts aboutscience, research, masks and other public health measures while promoting 'cures' with no evidence behind them. He is the most irresponsible representative of Wisconsin citizens since the infamous Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy in the 1950s."

Beyond the Beltway

Charles Pierce of Esquire on South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem's plan to send the state's National Guard on a privately-funded excursion to patrol the U.S.-Mexico border. Pierce cites a Military Times article that reports that the governors of Arkansas, Florida & Nebraska have all pledged to send law enforcement officers to beef up border security. "... using that money essentially to rent out another state's National Guard as a private army for a political stunt to benefit the Republican Party and the future political plans of the governor of South Dakota is one very long step down a road that other republics have traveled, never to be seen again.... Here we have a cabal of Republican governors using their law-enforcement apparatus -- and now, their National Guard troops -- in a coordinated exercise in political gamesmanship, if not outright sabotage.... What's to prevent this band of ghouls from putting this kind of thing together to take more, ah, 'active' measures against the administration in the future? The last time governors decided to use their states' military as an argument in national politics, people wound up ducking behind things in Fort Sumter.... Biden should federalize the South Dakota National Guard immediately and then order it to stay where it is." Firewalled. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Pierce is right. The WashPo may think "democracy dies in darkness," but when democracy ultimately fails, it's usually right out in the sunlight. Donald Trump used the military for his personal political gain, but "his generals" prevented some of his worst-laid plans. By contrast, nobody is stopping Kristi or the other Republican governors from executing their plans to employ troops & other law enforcement officers to promote their political agendas. It doesn't matter much that they're starting down this road by planning to aim their guns at foreign nationals yearning to be free. What matters is that people in positions of power have switched from criticizing federal policies to taking matters into their own hands. And those hands are holding grenades.

Florida. Beth Reinhard, et al., of the Washington Post: "The president of the board of the Florida condominium that collapsed last week resigned in 2019, partly in frustration over what she saw as the sluggish response to an engineer's report that identified major structural damage the previous year. Anette Goldstein was among five members of the seven-member board to resign in two weeks that fall, according to minutes from an Oct. 3 meeting, at a time when the condo association in Surfside was consumed by contentious debate about the multimillion-dollar repairs.... Debate over the cost and scope of the work, along with turnover on the volunteer board, dragged out preparations for the repairs for three years, according to previously unpublished correspondence, condo board minutes and other records kept by the homeowners association." ~~~

~~~ Mike Baker & Kimiko de Freytas-Tamura of the New York Times: "The deferred maintenance and inadequate savings at the Champlain Towers building are common dilemmas at condo associations across the country, where volunteer board members, sometimes with little expertise in financing or maintenance, find themselves dealing with vicious infighting with their neighbors and pressure to keep dues low.... A vast majority of states do not require condo boards to maintain robust reserves to help pay for those items when they come due.... Industry leaders and some states have long pressed condos and other homeowners' associations to have robust reserve funds in order to avoid consternation and procrastination when a big bill is coming due. But with little voluntary progress, a move to reshape state laws has gained momentum in recent months."

New York. Katie Glueck of the New York Times: "A day after New York City's Board of Elections sowed confusion in the Democratic mayoral primary by releasing new tallies and then retracting them, it issued a new preliminary tally of votes suggesting that the race between Eric Adams, the primary night leader, and his two closest rivals had tightened significantly. According to Wednesday's nonbinding tally, Mr. Adams led Kathryn Garcia by just 14,755 votes, a margin of around 2 percentage points, in the final round. Maya Wiley, who came in second place in the initial vote count, barely trailed Ms. Garcia after the preliminary elimination rounds were completed: Fewer than 350 votes separated the two. But in reality, all of those candidates remain in contention, and those numbers could be scrambled again as the city's Board of Elections tabulates ranked-choice outcomes that will include roughly 125,000 Democratic absentee ballots, with a fuller result not expected until mid-July."

North Carolina. Katie Robertson of the New York Times: "The University of North Carolina's board of trustees voted on Wednesday to grant tenure to the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones, ending a dispute that had stretched on for more than a month. Nine board members voted in favor of tenure for Ms. Hannah-Jones and four against during a special meeting on the campus in Chapel Hill, which some trustees attended via Zoom.... Ms. Hannah-Jones, a correspondent for The New York Times Magazine who earned a master's degree from U.N.C. in 2003, had accepted a position as the Knight Chair in Race and Investigative Journalism at the university's Hussman School of Journalism and was expected to start July 1." NPR's story is here.

Way Beyond

Canada. Leyland Cecco of the Guardian: "A First Nations community in western Canada has discovered the remains of nearly 200 people on the grounds of a former residential school, adding to the growing tally of unmarked graves across the country. The Lower Kootenay Band said on Wednesday that ground-penetrating radar had revealed 182 human remains at St Eugene's Mission residential school, near the city of Cranbrook, British Columbia. Some of the remains were buried in shallow graves only three and four feet deep.... From the 19th century until the 1990s, more than 150,000 Indigenous children were forced to attend state-funded schools in [a] campaign to forcibly assimilate them into Canadian society. Abuse was rife at the schools where thousands of children died of disease, neglect and other causes." ~~~

~~~ Ian Austen & Vjosa Isai of the New York Times: "Pope Francis will meet with Indigenous leaders later this year to discuss coming to Canada to apologize for the church's role in operating schools that abused and forcibly assimilated generations of Indigenous children, a step toward resolving the grievances of survivors and Indigenous communities, the head of Canada's largest Indigenous organization said on Wednesday. In a statement, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops said that the pope will meet separately at the Vatican with the representatives of Canada's three biggest Indigenous groups -- the First Nations, the Métis and the Inuit -- during a four-day series of meetings in December that will culminate in a joint session with all three."

News Ledes

CNBC: "Initial filings for unemployment insurance fell sharply last week, indicating continued improvement in the U.S. jobs market, the Labor Department reported Thursday. First-time jobless claims totaled 364,000 for the week ended June 26, compared to the 390,000 Dow Jones estimate. That marked a new pandemic-era low and a decline of 51,000 from the previous week. The last time there were fewer claims was the week of March 14, 2020, just before the worst of the economic damage hit."

The Washington Post's live updates of developments in the Surfside, Florida, condominium collapse are here. ~~~

~~~ Hill: "Video footage taken from the scene of the condominium building that collapsed last week in Surfside, Fla. shows water pouring into the garage and debris on the floor just minutes before the building gave way, ABC affiliate WLS reports. Adriana Sarmiento told WLS she and her husband were swimming in the pool at a nearby resort while on vacation when they heard a loud noise coming from the Champlain Tower South building. They went to investigate what they heard and saw concrete debris littering the garage and water rushing in from the ceiling." Includes brief video clip. ~~~

~~~ The New York Times is liveblogging developments in the Surfside, Florida condominium collapse: “President Biden will resume his role as consoler in chief on Thursday by traveling to Florida, where workers continue to comb through the rubble of the Champlain Towers South condo complex one week after the building partially collapsed, killing at least 18 people and leaving 145 unaccounted for." ~~~

~~~ Marie: Say, you know who else is planning an event not too far away? Zac Anderson of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune: "... Donald Trump's Sarasota rally scheduled for Saturday is moving ahead despite a report that Gov. Ron DeSantis' office asked for the event to be postponed while the governor responds to the mass casualty event in Surfside." Sarasota is on Florida's west coast.

Washington Post: "A bomb truck with the Los Angeles Police Department exploded Wednesday night after officers removed explosives from a home where, earlier in the day, they had seized thousands of pounds of illegal fireworks. The blast left nearby cars flipped onto their sides and sent more than a dozen people to the hospital. At least 17 people -- 10 law enforcement personnel and seven community members -- were hurt when a truck transporting the materials exploded about 6:40 p.m. The bomb squad was called to remove about 40 'Coca-Cola can-sized' improvised explosive devices, LAPD Chief Michel R. Moore said in a news conference late Wednesday night. None of the injuries are life-threatening, Moore said.... Something went wrong ... in what Moore called a 'total catastrophic failure of that containment vehicle.'"

The Commentariat -- June 30, 2021

Afternoon Update:

Robert McFadden of the New York Times: "Donald H. Rumsfeld, the secretary of defense for Presidents Gerald R. Ford and George W. Bush, who presided over America's Cold War strategies in the 1970s and, in the new world of terrorism decades later, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, died on Tuesday at his home in Taos, N.M. He was 88.... A full obituary will appear soon."

Karoun Demirjian of the Washington Post: "The House voted Wednesday to form a select committee tasked with investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol with nearly all Republicans opposing the legislation -- a sign of the political challenges that face Democrats as they attempt to probe why thousands of ... Donald Trump's supporters laid siege to the U.S. Capitol complex. The 220 to 190 party-line vote stands in contrast to a vote in May, when 35 House Republicans joined Democrats to back creation of an independent commission to examine the attack. But while many House Republicans were willing to embrace an outside panel of experts evenly weighted between GOP and Democratic appointees, most were wary of a select committee that would be firmly in the control of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's handpicked participants.... Only two of the 211 House Republicans voted in favor of creating the panel -- Reps. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), both of whom were among the 10 Republicans who voted to impeach ... Donald Trump in January.... Pelosi (D-Calif.) designed the select committee to have 13 members, only five of whom would be appointed 'after consultation with the minority leader,' Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.)."

New York Times: "In the six months since an angry pro-Trump mob stormed the U.S. Capitol, immense efforts have been made not only to find the rioters and hold them accountable, but also ... to dig into the details of Jan. 6 and slowly piece together what actually happened that day.... And while Republicans in Congress blocked the formation of a blue-ribbon bipartisan committee, House Democrats are poised to appoint a smaller select committee. Even now, however, Republican politicians and their allies in the media are still playing down the most brazen attack on a seat of power in modern American history. Some ... have accused the F.B.I. of planning the attack in what they have described -- wildly -- as a false-flag operation.... The Times's Visual Investigations team spent several months reviewing thousands of videos.... What we have come up with is a 40-minute panoramic take on Jan. 6, the most complete visual depiction of the Capitol riot to date." The article then outlines what it calls "some of the major revelations." ~~~

~~~ Zoe Tillman of BuzzFeed News: "A member of the alleged Oath Keepers conspiracy who cut a deal with prosecutors will admit he stashed guns at a Virginia hotel as part of preparations for demonstrations at the Capitol on Jan. 6. Mark Grods is set to plead guilty on Wednesday afternoon to two felony counts for conspiracy and obstructing Congress. Grods will confirm the government's long-standing allegation that members of the Oath Keepers who came to Washington, DC, to oppose Congress's certification of the election were prepared for violence and arranged to store firearms outside of the city that could be brought in on short notice."

If You're Still Waiting for That Tax Refund.... Jeff Stein of the Washington Post: "The Internal Revenue Service closed the most recent filing season with more than 35 million in unprocessed tax returns, as the agency's backlog grew markedly amid a crush of challenges related to the pandemic and economic relief efforts, a government watchdog said Wednesday. Erin Collins, the National Taxpayer Advocate, said in her report that about 17 million paper tax returns are still waiting to be processed and approximately 16 million additional returns have been placed on hold because they require further review manually. Another 2.7 million amended tax returns have not been processed. This backlog represents a four-fold increase from 2019 -- the most recent year before coronavirus -- when the IRS closed its filing season with only 7.4 million unprocessed returns, according to the report. These numbers reflect the IRS backlog as of May, and the agency may have made progress reducing it since then."

Rachel Siegel of the Washington Post: "The inspector general overseeing the Federal Housing Finance Agency resigned Tuesday, two months after a scathing watchdog report alleged that she abused her authority, retaliated against employees and blocked an investigation into her conduct. In April, an investigation by a special panel -- known as the Integrity Committee -- sent a report to the White House about Laura Wertheimer, the inspector general overseeing FHFA, who was nominated by President Barack Obama in 2014. The report noted years of complaints against Wertheimer and other staff members, and it ultimately concluded that 'misconduct of this nature warrants consideration of substantial disciplinary action, up to and including removal.'"

Adam Reiss, et al., of NBC News: "The Manhattan District Attorney's Office is expected to charge the Trump Organization with tax-related crimes on Thursday, two representatives of the company told NBC News.... It is not clear whether the company's chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, will also be charged Thursday." ~~~

~~~ So many thanks to Ken W. for reminding us, in today's Comments, of this gem (albeit Hillary was speaking of Trump's personal federal income tax, but as we would say in the South, "same difference"):

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Wednesday are here: "The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday stood by advice that people fully vaccinated against the coronavirus do not need to wear masks in most situations, but added that there are instances where local authorities might impose more stringent measures to protect the unvaccinated. The comments came after the World Health Organization recently reiterated longstanding guidance that everyone, vaccinated or not, wear masks and take other precautions, following a global surge in infections of the highly contagious Delta variant." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I did attend events over the weekend where I did not wear a mask and where I was in close contact with people from around the country, so I'm wearing a mask for the next few weeks when I go out in order to protect other people in case I'm a carrier.

Fenit Nirappil of the Washington Post: "Los Angeles County public health authorities are urging unvaccinated and vaccinated people alike to don masks again inside restaurants, stores and other public indoor spaces because of the growing threat posed by the more contagious delta variant of the novel coronavirus. The high-profile move by the county of 10 million marks an abrupt shift in tone after states and localities have dropped most mask mandates and social distancing requirements in recent weeks. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in mid-May rescinded almost all masking recommendations for fully vaccinated people." The article is free to nonsubscribers.

Graham Bowley of the New York Times: "Bill Cosby had his conviction for sexual assault overturned by a Pennsylvania appeals court on Wednesday, a decision that will set free a man whose case had represented the first high-profile sexual assault trial to unfold in the aftermath of the #MeToo movement. Three years into the prison sentence of three to 10 years he has served at a maximum-security facility outside Philadelphia, the 7-member Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled Mr. Cosby, 83, had been denied a fair trial in 2018. The ruling upended the legal case against Mr. Cosby brought by prosecutors in Pennsylvania that began with his arrest in 2015 on charges of drugging and sexually assaulting a woman at his home in the Philadelphia suburbs eleven years earlier." The AP's story is here.

~~~~~~~~~~

Kate Sullivan of CNN: "President Joe Biden argued in Wisconsin on Tuesday that the bipartisan infrastructure proposal he agreed to last week would benefit working and middle-class families around the country.... Biden said: 'This is a generational investment, a generational investment to modernize our infrastructure, creating millions of good-paying jobs ... and positions America to compete with the rest of the world in the 21st century....' The speech is Biden's first time pitching the bipartisan infrastructure proposal to the American people since nearly derailing the deal in off-the-cuff remarks last week.... The President stressed the safety aspect of his plan, and said the US has one of the highest road fatality rates of anywhere in the industrial world. He paused for a moment and then said, 'I lost a wife and daughter and almost lost two sons.'... Biden laid out the specific ways the plan would benefit those in Wisconsin, including replacing all of Milwaukee's lead water service lines, bringing high-speed internet to the 82,000 children in Wisconsin ... and help address the 1,000 bridges in Wisconsin rated structurally deficient. He touted how the plan would also deploy 35,000 electric buses to school districts and create half a million electric vehicle charging stations around the nation."

Maeve Sheehey of Politico: "President Joe Biden [and Dr. Jill Biden] will visit Surfside, Fla., on Thursday following the collapse of a condo building in the coastal suburb, a departure from the White House's position a day earlier that the president had no immediate plans to visit the site of the disaster.... The president spoke with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis the day after the building collapse to offer support for the area. That day, Biden also approved an emergency declaration for Florida."

Kate Bennett of CNN: "It is back en vogue for the first lady to be back in Vogue. After a four year hiatus of first ladies gracing the cover of the fashion magazine, Jill Biden is on the August issue, which goes on sale on July 20.... A first lady in the pages of Vogue, or on the cover, has -- for the last several decades -- become an American publishing tradition; almost every modern first lady has been photographed for the magazine. The exception was Melania Trump, whose tenure in the White House was tied to the controversies of ... Donald Trump. There have been conflicting arguments as to which side -- Trump's or Vogue editor in chief Anna Wintour's -- was responsible for keeping Trump, a former model, from being featured. Neither spoke of it publicly, but Wintour was vocal about her thoughts on Donald Trump, using her editorial note in the March 2020 issue of Vogue to endorse Biden for president, pointing to the 45th President's 'dishonesty,' and 'shocking lack of empathy.'" MB: Ironically, Melanie was the only First Lady who ever worked as a model, and no one doubts she would have made for a glamorous Vogue cover. (Also linked yesterday.)

Julia Preston in Politico Magazine: "... the Biden administration, with little public fanfare, is working on plans for an organized review of thousands of cases of people who say they were unjustly deported in recent years, senior officials in charge of immigration said. The officials say that many deportations, especially under Trump, were unduly harsh, with little law enforcement benefit. They are working to devise a system to reconsider cases of immigrants who were removed despite strong ties to the United States. Legal scholars said a process that resulted in returns of significant numbers of deported people would be highly unusual in American immigration law." MB: Yeah but Trump.

Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "Rushing to help Afghans who face retribution for working alongside American troops in their home country, the House voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to speed up the process that would allow them to immigrate to the United States. With the American military in the final phases of withdrawing from Afghanistan after nearly 20 years of war, more than 18,000 Afghans who have worked for the United States as interpreters, drivers, engineers, security guards and embassy clerks are stuck in a bureaucratic morass after applying for Special Immigrant Visas, available to people who face threats because of work for the U.S. government.... The measure, passed 366 to 46, would waive a requirement for applicants to undergo medical examinations in Afghanistan before qualifying, instead allowing them to do so after entering the United States." MB: It boggles the mind that 46 members of Congress thought it was a really bad idea to help these Afghans who have helped the U.S.

John Wagner of the Washington Post: "The House on Tuesday passed legislation to remove statues of Confederate leaders from the U.S. Capitol and replace the bust of Roger B. Taney, the U.S. chief justice who wrote the 1857 Supreme Court decision that said people of African descent are not U.S. citizens. The vote was 285 to 120, with 67 Republicans joining Democrats in backing the measure. A similar bill passed the House last year on a 305-to-113 vote but did not advance in the Senate, then controlled by Republicans. Upon reintroducing the bill this year, House Majority Whip James E. Clyburn (D-S.C.) pointed to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, during which some supporters of ... Donald Trump carried Confederate flags.... The legislation would replace the bust of Taney ... with one of Thurgood Marshall, the first Black member of the Supreme Court.... The legislation faces challenges in the evenly divided Senate where it would have to overcome the 60-vote filibuster threshold." (This is an update of a story linked yesterday.) Politico's story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Perhaps the reason Mitch would not bring the measure to the Senate floor last year was that the Capitol bust of Taney bears a striking resemblance to ... Mitch. Anyway, I see no reason to keep a bunch of cold marble statues of dead Confederates around when there are living, breathing, racist confederate specimens roaming those same halls. ~~~

~~~ Paul Gosar Is Even Worse Than You Thought. Aiden McLaughlin of Mediaite: "Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) is holding a fundraiser with Nick Fuentes, an online commentator who has achieved a following as an open anti-Semite, Holocaust denier, and white supremacist. A flyer posted to a Telegram account linked to Fuentes promoted a July fundraiser with the ardently pro-Trump congressman.... Fuentes is a virulent anti-Semite who has denied the Holocaust, defended racial segregation and called for the killing of 'globalists at CNN'. He also spoke at the infamous Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville in 2017.... 'Not sure why anyone is freaking out,' [Gosar] said [in a tweet]." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Marianna Sotomayor of the Washington Post: "Rep. Paul A. Gosar (R-Ariz.) on Tuesday denied that he plans to attend a fundraiser this week with a group that promotes white nationalist ideas, despite an invitation for the event circulating online that features the congressman and Nick Fuentes, a far-right operative who leads America First. Gosar has previously attended events with Fuentes and appeared to defend the fundraiser in a tweet Monday night...."

Jordain Carney of the Hill: "Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) said on Tuesday that he's supportive of going forward with a larger, Democratic-only infrastructure bill but that it shouldn't be linked to a separate bipartisan framework. Manchin, during an interview with MSNBC, said that he had been assuming since 'day one' that Democrats would have to use reconciliation, a budget process that allows them to bypass a 60-vote legislative filibuster, to pass a larger infrastructure bill because Republicans don't want to make changes to the 2017 tax bill."

Kara Scannell, et al., of CNN: "New York prosecutors investigating the Trump Organization are scrutinizing cash bonuses as part of their focus on whether the company failed to pay taxes on benefits provided to some of its employees, people familiar with the matter say. The interest in cash payments, which has not been previously reported, is part of investigators' look at whether executives and the company failed to pay appropriate taxes on benefits, including school tuition, cars and rent-free apartments, the people said. It's not clear who received the bonuses or how much they totaled."

** Because Everything They Did Was Corrupt. Desmond Butler of the Washington Post: "In February 2017, weeks after ... Donald Trump selected him to be agriculture secretary, [Sonny] Perdue's company bought a small grain plant in South Carolina from one of the biggest agricultural corporations in America. Had anyone noticed, it would have prompted questions ahead of his confirmation, a period when most nominees lie low and avoid potential controversy. The former governor of Georgia did not disclose the deal -- there was no legal requirement to do so. An examination of public records ... has found that the agricultural company, Archer-Daniels-Midland (ADM), sold the land at a small fraction of its estimated value just as it stood to benefit from a friendly secretary of agriculture.... Danny Brown, the former president of [Perdue's former company] AGrowStar, confirmed negotiations began in late 2015. But Brown said ADM wanted $4 million for the plant -- 16 times what Perdue's company ultimately paid for it.... 'This stinks to high heaven,' said Julie O'Sullivan, a Georgetown University law professor and former federal prosecutor. 'It deserves a prosecutor's attention.'..." Emphasis added. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Both Perdue & ADM have histories of participating in shady transactions, as Butler reports. And, yes, while he was Ag Secretary, Perdue helped out ADM. A lot. Sometimes at your expense. In picture accompanying the article, Sonny is pictured laughing with some ADM employees at an ag show. I'd like to see the big grin wiped off his face -- and his big ass tightly encased in an orange jumpsuit.

Lori Aratani of the Washington Post: "United Airlines announced a deal Tuesday for its largest airplane order amid a continuing rebound in air travel: 270 new aircraft, including 200 Boeing 737 Max jets and 70 A321neos built by Airbus. The order is a boost for Boeing's 737 Max aircraft and the largest since the Federal Aviation Administration certified they were safe after they were grounded following fatal crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia. At the end of March, Southwest Airlines announced it would order 100 Max jets. With its latest order, United expects to add more than 500 new aircraft to its fleet in the coming years, with 40 expected to arrive in 2022; 138 in 2023 and as many as 350 in 2024. While airlines have struggled during the pandemic, passenger counts have risen significantly in recent weeks as coronavirus caseloads fall and Americans spend more time traveling." (Also linked yesterday.)

David Bauder of the AP: "The New York City Commission on Human Rights has fined Fox News $1 million, the largest penalty in its history, for violations of laws protecting against sexua harassment and job retaliation. As part of a settlement agreement announced Tuesday, Fox also agreed to mandate anti-harassment training for its New York-based staff and contributors and to temporarily drop a policy requiring people who allege misconduct to enter into binding arbitration. The penalty stems from an investigation that began in 2017 following several reports of what the commission called 'rampant abuse' at the popular news and opinion outlet."

NSA Refutes Tucker's Self-Aggrandizing Fake Grievance. Mychael Schnell of the Hill: "The National Security Agency (NSA) on Tuesday rejected claims made by Fox News host Tucker Carlson that the agency was monitoring his electronic communications and seeking to leak them in an effort to take his show off the air, calling the allegations 'not true.' 'Tucker Carlson has never been an intelligence target of the Agency and the NSA has never had any plans to try to take his program off the air,' the NSA wrote in a statement shared on its Twitter page. 'NSA has a foreign intelligence mission. We target foreign powers to generate insights on foreign activities that could harm the United States. With limited exceptions (e.g. an emergency), NSA may not target a US citizen without a court order that explicitly authorizes the targeting,' the agency added. The Fox personality on Monday had alleged that the Biden administration was 'spying' on him in an attempt to 'take this show off the air,' declaring that his show had 'confirmed' the claim. He said the 'war on terror is now being waged against American citizens,' adding that he heard from a 'whistleblower from within the U.S. government' that the NSA was monitoring his show's communications."

Master Class: How to Write a "Dear Leader" Letter. Michelle Cottle of the New York Times: "... Donald Trump recently accused three Wisconsin Republican leaders of 'working hard to cover up election corruption' as he continued pushing lies about the November presidential vote. Mr. Trump delights in turning his fire on members of his party who he feels are being insufficiently servile. Many promptly prostrate themselves; a few shrug it off. Then there is State Senate President Chris Kapenga of Wisconsin, one of the Republicans singled out by Mr. Trump. He responded to the former president with a letter that approaches North Korean-style levels of Dear Leader obsequiousness.... Mr. Kapenga's missive ... provides a valuable master class in the art of Trump sycophancy. The text of the letter below has been annotated for instructional purposes." MB: Kapenga's letter is hilarious ... in a pathetic way. Cottle's notes are helpful. If it all sounds a tad familiar, it may be because you remember the preambles to Trump's Cabinet meetings.

The Pandemic, Ctd.

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

Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court voted 5 to 4 on Tuesday night to leave in place the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's ban on evictions, imposed to combat the coronavirus pandemic and prevent homelessness. The ban has just been extended another month, until the end of July, and the Biden administration said it will end then.... At the Supreme Court, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. joined fellow conservative Brett M. Kavanaugh and liberal Justices Stephen G. Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan to keep the stay in place." Politico's story is here. MB: Young Justice I. Like Beer is proving to be much less cruel than Neil Gorsuch., not to mention the lovely Amy, Sam, & Clarence, none of whom gives a damn if you can't pay the rent. ~~~

Aya Elamroussi of CNN: "With the Delta variant accounting for more than a quarter of Covid-19 cases, Dr. Anthony Fauci warns there could soon be 'two Americas' -- one where most people are vaccinated and another where low vaccination rates could lead to spikes in cases." MB: There already are "two Americas," one that is Trumpy and one that has a greater percentage of normal people. It is Trumpy America where the virus will maintain its hold.

Beyond the Beltway

Arizona Backfire. Marc Caputo of Politico: "When Arizona Republicans first pushed for a partisan audit of the 2020 presidential ballots cast in the Phoenix metropolitan area, they argued that they needed to know if any irregularities or fraud caused President Trump to lose this rapidly evolving swing state. But the audit itself could be damaging Republican prospects, according to a new Bendixen & Amandi International poll, which shows roughly half of Arizona voters oppose the recount effort. In addition, a narrow majority favors President Biden in a 2024 rematch against Trump. The news isn't entirely promising for Democrats, however: A majority of voters don't think Biden should run for a second term. (Also linked yesterday.)

Florida. Jon Swaine, et al., of the Washington Post: "A Washington Post examination of video and images from the deadly collapse of a high-rise apartment building outside Miami -- along with interviews with structural engineers, a key witness and an investigator -- deepens questions about whether existing damage to a deck in the pool area contributed to the disaster. A resident told The Post that minutes before Champlain Towers South in Surfside came down, she noticed that a section of the pool deck and a street-level parking area had collapsed into the parking garage below. The husband of another resident has said that his wife, who has not been seen since the disaster, made a similar observation in a telephone call shortly before the collapse. An engineer in 2018 found 'major structural damage' in the pool deck area caused by what he said was a flaw that limited water drainage.... Allyn E. Kilsheimer, a veteran engineer hired by Surfside to investigate the collapse, told The Post that such a failure could have set off a wider catastrophe."

New York. Katie Glueck of the New York Times: "A new tally of votes in the New York City Democratic mayoral primary suggested that the race between Eric Adams, the primary night leader, and his two closest rivals had tightened significantly, plunging the closely watched contest into a period of fresh uncertainty. A week after Mr. Adams, the Brooklyn borough president, notched a substantial lead among those who voted in person last Tuesday or during the early voting period, a preliminary counting of ranked-choice preferences released on Tuesday showed him ahead by a much narrower margin in the city's first ranked-choice mayoral election. According to Tuesday’s unofficial tally, Mr. Adams leads Kathryn Garcia by just 15,908 votes, a margin of less than two percentage points, in the final round. Maya Wiley, who came in second place in the initial vote count, was in third place after the elimination rounds were completed." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ ** Update of the story linked above. What a Mess. "The New York City mayor's race plunged into chaos on Tuesday night when the city Board of Elections released a new tally of votes in the Democratic mayoral primary, and then removed the tabulations from its website after citing a 'discrepancy.' The results released earlier in the day had suggested that the race between Eric Adams and his two closest rivals had tightened significantly. But just a few hours after releasing the preliminary results, the elections board issued a cryptic tweet revealing a 'discrepancy' in the report, saying that it was working with its 'technical staff to identify where the discrepancy occurred.' By Tuesday evening, the tabulations had been taken down, replaced by a new advisory that the ranked-choice results would be available 'starting on June 30.' Then, around 10:30 p.m., the board finally released a statement, explaining that it had failed to remove sample ballot images used to test its ranked-choice voting software. When the board ran the program, it counted 'both test and election night results, producing approximately 135,000 additional records,' the statement said. The ranked-choice numbers, it said, would be tabulated again.... The Board of Elections ... has long been plagued by dysfunction and nepotism...." An AP story is here.

New York. Sad. Martin Pengelly of the Guardian: "Andrew Giuliani, son of former New York mayor-cum-Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, received no votes in a poll of state Republican leaders about the party's next choice for governor of New York state. The poll was not binding but it indicated that Lee Zeldin, a Long Island congressman, is the presumptive Republican nominee to challenge Andrew Cuomo next year. It will likely be seen as an embarrassment to Giuliani, whose bid for governor ... has largely traded off his famous surname more than any meaningful experience of practical politics." MB: But, but Andy often golfed with the former POTUS*.

** South Dakota/Texas. Noem Turns National Guard Troops into Trumpy Mercenaries. Alex Horton of the Washington Post: "South Dakota Gov. Kristi L. Noem (R) will deploy up to 50 National Guard troops to the southern U.S. border, her office said Tuesday, with a highly unusual caveat -- the mission will be funded by a 'private donation' from an out-of-state GOP megadonor billionaire. The Guard members will deploy in response to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's plea to augment border security with law enforcement resources from other states, Noem's office said in a statement. Like Abbott (R), Noem is a close ally of former president Donald Trump, whose focus on illegal immigration spurred his controversial deployment of military personnel to the U.S.-Mexico border and remains a pillar of the Republican Party's political platform.... Privately funding a military mission is an affront to civilian oversight of the armed forces, said military and oversight experts, describing the move -- a Republican governor sending troops to a Republican-led state, paid for by a Republican donor -- as likely unprecedented and unethical." A USA Today story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I find this shocking. Noem is using military troops under her command for strictly political purposes. As Horton explains, troops under Noem's command "are permitted to act in law enforcement capacities, which is forbidden for Guard members serving on federal mobilization." The Guard troops currently at the border act under federal orders, which means they cannot perform police duties.

Way Beyond

Ethiopia. Declan Walsh of the New York Times: "It had been eight months since the government of Ethiopia mounted an offensive in the country's Tigray region, unleashing civil war, atrocities and famine in Africa's second most populous country, and creating what is now one of the world's worst humanitarian crises. More than 1.7 million people have been displaced, and as many as 900,000 are suffering from famine, according to U.S. officials. But on Monday, Ethiopian troops suddenly withdrew from Mekelle, the capital city of Tigray, as well as other towns in the region, ahead of advancing Tigrayan fighters. The fall of Mekelle signaled a turning point in a war that has plunged Ethiopia into chaos and threatened to destabilize the wider Horn of Africa region. It was also a stunning blow to the authority of the country's leader, Abiy Ahmed, who won the Nobel peace prize in 2019 and a year later gambled his power and reputation on what he said would be a brief, decisive campaign to bring the restive Tigray region under control." A related AP story is here.

News Ledes

The New York Times is live-updating developments in the condo collapse near Miami Beach, Florida. Related stories in today's Commentariat. ~~~

~~~ Washington Post: "The Miami-Dade Fire Department has at least two robots in its arsenal that the Massachusetts-based robotics company Teledyne Flir overnighted to assist with the Surfside, Fla., rescue effort. The gadgets are designed to operate where it is nearly impossible for humans to go. 'They can also go where humans shouldn’t go,' said Tom Frost, Teledyne Flir's vice president of unmanned ground systems. 'In a collapse situation like this, the pile is structurally unsound and constantly vulnerable to shifting. It's much safer to have a robot crawl deeper into a void than to have a person crawling into that void.'... One of its microrobots can be tossed onto unstable rubble and will then roll into crevices humans cannot see or fit into. The company also sent a 50-pound automated machine with an arm to pick up and move around objects."

AP: "A sweltering heat wave that has settled over western Canada for several days is believed to be a contributing factor in dozens of sudden-death calls received by police in the Vancouver area, authorities said Tuesday. Cpl. Mike Kalanj of Burnaby Royal Canadian Mounted Police said the detachment responded to 25 sudden-death calls in a 24-hour period starting Monday. The deaths are still under investigation and many of the deceased were seniors, he said." ~~~

~~~ CNN: "More than 230 deaths have been reported in British Columbia since Friday as a historic heat wave brought record-high temperatures, officials said Tuesday. The province's chief coroner called it an 'unprecedented time.'" ~~~

~~~ Marie: It's hot here in the Northeast, too. A big group of kids was playing in the park across the street from me, so the Fire Department came out & turned its nozzle to a fine spray so the kids can play under the hose.