New York Times: “Most of the Mid-Atlantic remained under severe weather warnings early Tuesday morning, as a series of slow-moving storms unleashed heavy rains and flash flooding from New York to Virginia. The National Weather Service said the eastern seaboard would continue to experience heavy rainfall on Tuesday, likely causing disruptions to millions of commuters, especially in the New York area, which saw flash flooding overnight. Videos on social media showed commuters on New York’s subway clambering up stairs as water gushed down onto platforms. In New Jersey, one train station was completely flooded and impassable on Monday night. And news media filmed rescue crews coming to the aid of people stuck on flooded roads in Scotch Plains, N.J.” This is part of the pinned item in a liveblog.
To keep the Conversation going, please help me by linking news articles, opinion pieces and other political content in today's Comments section.
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Commencement ceremonies are joyous occasions, and Steve Carell made sure that was true this past weekend (mid-June) at Northwestern's commencement:
~~~ Carell's entire commencement speech was hilarious. The audio and video here isn't great, but I laughed till I cried.
CNN did a live telecast Saturday night (June 7) of the Broadway play "Good Night, and Good Luck," written by George Clooney and Grant Heslov, about legendary newsman Edward R. Murrow's effort to hold to account Sen. Joe McCarthy, "the junior senator from Wisconsin." Clooney plays Murrow. Here's Murrow himself with his famous take on McCarthy & McCarthyism, brief remarks that especially resonate today: ~~~
~~~ This article lists ways you still can watch the play.
New York Times: “The New York Times Company has agreed to license its editorial content to Amazon for use in the tech giant’s artificial intelligence platforms, the company said on Thursday. The multiyear agreement 'will bring Times editorial content to a variety of Amazon customer experiences,' the news organization said in a statement. Besides news articles, the agreement encompasses material from NYT Cooking, The Times’s food and recipe site, and The Athletic, which focuses on sports. This is The Times’s first licensing arrangement with a focus on generative A.I. technology. In 2023, The Times sued OpenAI and its partner, Microsoft, for copyright infringement, accusing the tech companies of using millions of articles published by The Times to train automated chatbots without any kind of compensation. OpenAI and Microsoft have rejected those accusations.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: I have no idea what this means for "the Amazon customer experience." Does it mean that if I don't have a NYT subscription but do have Amazon Prime I can read NYT content? And where, exactly, would I find that content? I don't know. I don't know.
Washington Post reporters asked three AI image generators what a beautiful woman looks like. "The Post found that they steer users toward a startlingly narrow vision of attractiveness. Prompted to show a 'beautiful woman,' all three tools generated thin women, without exception.... Her body looks like Barbie — slim hips, impossible waist, round breasts.... Just 2 percent of the images showed visible signs of aging. More than a third of the images had medium skin tones. But only nine percent had dark skin tones. Asked to show 'normal women,' the tools produced images that remained overwhelmingly thin.... However bias originates, The Post’s analysis found that popular image tools struggle to render realistic images of women outside the Western ideal." ~~~
~~~ Marie: The reporters seem to think they are calling out the AI programs for being unrealistic. But there's a lot about the "beautiful women" images they miss. I find these omissions remarkably sexist. For one thing, the reporters seem to think AI is a magical "thing" that self-generates. It isn't. It's programmed. It's programmed by boys, many of them incels who have little or no experience or insights beyond comic books and Internet porn of how to gauge female "beauty." As a result, the AI-generated women look like cartoons; that is, a lot like an air-brushed photo of Kristi Noem: globs of every kind of dark eye makeup, Scandinavian nose, Botox lips, slathered-on skin concealer/toner/etc. makeup, long dark hair and the aforementioned impossible Barbie body shape, including huge, round plastic breasts.
New York Times: “George Clooney’s Broadway debut, 'Good Night, and Good Luck,' has been one of the sensations of the 2024-25 theater season, breaking box office records and drawing packed houses of audiences eager to see the popular movie star in a timely drama about the importance of an independent press. Now the play will become much more widely available: CNN is planning a live broadcast of the penultimate performance, on June 7 at 7 p.m. Eastern. The performance will be preceded and followed by coverage of, and discussion about, the show and the state of journalism.”
No free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of his rights or possessions, or outlawed or exiled, or deprived of his standing in any other way, nor will we proceed with force against him, or send others to do so, except by the lawful judgment of his equals or by the law of the land. -- Magna Carta ~~~
~~~ New York Times: “Bought for $27.50 after World War II, the faint, water stained manuscript in the library of Harvard Law School had attracted relatively little attention since it arrived there in 1946. That is about to change. Two British academics, one of whom happened on the manuscript by chance, have discovered that it is an original 1300 version — not a copy, as long thought — of Magna Carta, the medieval document that helped establish some of the world’s most cherished liberties. It is one of just seven such documents from that date still in existence.... A 710-year-old version of Magna Carta was sold in 2007 for $21.3 million.... First issued in 1215, it put into writing a set of concessions won by rebellious barons from a recalcitrant King John of England — or Bad King John, as he became known in folklore. He later revoked the charter, but his son, Henry III, issued amended versions, the last one in 1225, and Henry’s son, Edward I, in turn confirmed the 1225 version in 1297 and again in 1300.”
NPR lists all of the 2025 Pulitzer Prize winners. Poynter lists the prizes awarded in journalism as well as the finalists in these categories.
Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.
Success is not final, failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts. — Anonymous
A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves. — Edward R. Murrow
Publisher & Editor: Marie Burns
I have a Bluesky account now. The URL ishttps://bsky.app/profile/marie-burns.bsky.social . When Reality Chex goes down, check my Bluesky page for whatever info I am able to report on the status of Reality Chex. If you can't access the URL, I found that I could Google Bluesky and ask for Marie Burns. Google will include links to accounts for people whose names are, at least in part, Maria Burns, so you'll have to tell Google you looking only for Marie.
Josh Hinkle & David Barer of KXAN Austin: “State and local officials are calling out federal forecasters amid deadly flooding in the Texas Hill Country over the extended Fourth of July weekend. The criticism comes, as funding cuts and staff shortages plague the National Weather Service and other emergency management agencies nationwide. Texas Department of Emergency Management Chief Nim Kidd told reporters Friday original forecasts from the National Weather Service predicted 4 to 8 inches of rain in that area, 'but the amount of rain that fell in this specific location was never in any of those forecasts.'... The area actually received a much more significant amount of rain that night, with NWS observed totals exceeding 10 inches just west of Kerrville, near where dozens were killed or remain missing – including several children at a summer camp.” ~~~
~~~ Update. Christopher Flavelle of the New York Times: “Crucial positions at the local offices of the National Weather Service were unfilled as severe rainfall inundated parts of Central Texas on Friday morning, prompting some experts to question whether staffing shortages made it harder for the forecasting agency to coordinate with local emergency managers as floodwaters rose. Texas officials appeared to blame the Weather Service for issuing forecasts on Wednesday that underestimated how much rain was coming. But former Weather Service officials said the forecasts were as good as could be expected, given the enormous levels of rainfall and the storm’s unusually abrupt escalation. The staffing shortages suggested a separate problem, those former officials said — the loss of experienced people who would typically have helped communicate with local authorities in the hours after flash flood warnings were issued overnight. The shortages are among the factors likely to be scrutinized as the death toll climbs from the floods. Separate questions have emerged about the preparedness of local communities, including Kerr County’s apparent lack of a local flood warning system. The county, roughly 50 miles northwest of San Antonio, is where many of the deaths occurred.” Read on. This is a gift link. ~~~
~~~ Marie: This is what to expect when "conservatives" govern. They start with the premise that all government is bad and that they should not pay for necessary services. So besides the staff shortages brought on by Chainsaw Elon & Trump's plan to wind down FEMA to useless, there's this from the Times story: "In an interview, Rob Kelly, the Kerr County judge and its most senior elected official, said the county did not have a warning system because such systems are expensive, and local residents are resistant to new spending." Gen. Russel L. Honoré, Retired, -- who led the military's response to Hurricane Katrina -- spoke on CNN yesterday. He said the Guadelupe River had a history of flooding. (See also this page.) So it isn't as if authorities had no idea that an effective warning system and evacuation plan were essential to the safety of vulnerable communities along the river and its tributaries. Still, the locals thought it was smart to vote for folks who would "keep taxes down" and for Trump (Kerr County: 77% Trump, 22%Harris, so +55), who prefers to spend tax dollars on his birthday parade, UFC fights on the White House lawn and deporting the grandma who hand-makes tortillas at the factory lunch truck than on emergency preparedness. Oh, did I mention that Starlink, Texas, home of the deposed DOGE king, is right nearby -- just 20 miles ESE of Austin? Starlink announced it is providing emergency Starlink mini kits to search & rescue teams, as in "horse bolted, close barn door."
In this BlueSky post, Judd Legum makes a list of major U.S. corporations that publicly endorsed Trump's bill. MB: Thanks to RAS for the link. The only one of the companies I consistently use is Comcast (Xfinity), and I'm about to cut the cord. I hope they ask why; I'll tell them because they support a Trump bill that makes poor people poorer and sicker.
Charlie Nash of Mediaite: “Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-WI) claimed on Thursday that a post celebrating that '18 million kids just lost school meals' and 17 million people 'lost health care' was made in error. After the Trump-backed 'Big Beautiful Bill' passed both the House and Senate, one social media user protested, '17 million people just lost health care. 18 million kids just lost school meals. 3 million Americans just lost food assistance.' Van Orden responded to the post, 'YES!'” MB: In error, my ass. Thanks to RAS for the link; RAS reminds us that Van Orden claimed recently that he and his GOP colleagues are super-responsible representatives of the people: “After a journalist suggested that ... Donald Trump was the deciding factor in Van Orden’s decision to vote in favor of the ... bill, the congressman protested, 'No, no, no..., the president of the United States didn’t give us an assignment. We’re not a bunch of little bitches around here. I’m a member of Congress that represent almost 800,000 Wisconsinites. Is that clear?'” Yes. And that representation means reveling in depriving millions of those constituents and their children of adequate food and health care.
~~~~~~~~~~
On Independence Day, Trump Signs Bill to Hurt Ordinary People:
The people are happy, they’re happy. -- Donald Trump, pronouncement on Independence Day ~~~
~~~ Chris Cameron of the New York Times: Donald “Trumpsigned a sweeping domestic policy bill into law on Friday, cementing a major political victory that was timed to take place during Independence Day celebrations. Accompanied by a flyover of B2 bombers, the same aircraft used in the recent bombing of Iran, Mr. Trump touted the massive tax cuts included in the bill and downplayed the unpopularity of the legislation in polls and the potential impact of spending cuts. 'The largest spending cut, and yet, you won’t even notice it,' Mr. Trump said while standing with the first lady, Melania Trump, on the balcony of the White House.... Mr. Trump highlighted a list of measures included in the enormous bill he believes are popular, singling out, for example, the expansion of the Child Tax Credit and a reduction in estate taxes. He spoke only in generalities about deep spending cuts to programs like Medicaid and food assistance.”
Brian Faler of Politico: “Special tax breaks for venture capitalists, Alaskan fisheries, spaceports, private schools, rum makers and others — together costing tens of billions of dollars — quietly caught a ride on Republicans’ sprawling domestic policy megabill.... There’s a $17 billion expansion of a little-known provision that enables venture capitalists to make a fortune tax-free. Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) won a carve-out for the oil and gas industry from a minimum tax on big corporations that was created during the Biden administration. There’s a $2 billion break important to the rum industry and, tangentially, Louisiana, said Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), a tax writer. 'We have the highest per capita intake of alcohol in the nation,' he said.... The bill includes an expansion of a little-known break that Silicon Valley investors have used to nix tax bills on tens and even hundreds of millions of dollars in earnings from Internet startups. Another spends $26 billion to create a new $1,700 credit for people who give to groups providing scholarships for children to attend private school.... There’s also a $1 billion provision allowing 'spaceports' — which the legislation defines as 'any facility located at or in close proximity to a launch site or reentry site' — to sell tax-exempt bonds, like airports. Sen. Ron Wyden, the chamber’s top Democratic tax writer, said in an X post that 'Trump’s wedding gift to [Jeff] Bezos and birthday gift to [Elon] Musk were tucked in the new budget bill.'”
Josh Kovensky of TPM: “All in all, the bill directs around $170 billion through 2029 to various forms of immigration enforcement, according to an analysis by the American Immigration Council and TPM’s own read of the legislation. ICE, responsible for enforcement, detentions, and removals, will oversee much of the spending. The picture is not so much of an expanded immigration enforcement system, but of an entirely new one.... At the same time, the bill adds only a modest number of immigration judges, capping the number at 800 starting in November 2028 — an increase from the current approximately 700.” ~~~
~~~ Timothy Snyder on Substack: “With the passage of Trump's death bill, we face the prospect of many great harms, including an archipelago of concentration camps across the United States. ['Undocumented' and 'denaturalized' people will be put to work for the government or private corporations]... The government is putting before us the temptation to cooperate in fascist dehumanization on a grand scale.... CEOs should now ... sign a pledge not to use labor from concentration camps.... Americans who shop, which means most of us, should avoid companies that employ labor from camps. Americans who invest should not invest in companies that use labor from concentration camps.”
Joseph McCarty of KIKN-TV (Sioux Falls): “A clinic in southwest Nebraska announced Wednesday that it is closing due to financial challenges, including anticipated Medicaid cuts. McCook-based Community Hospital said it is shutting down its clinic in Curtis, a town of about 900 people. The Curtis Medical Center has been in operation for more than 30 years.... The Nebraska Hospital Association has been pushing back against Medicaid cuts in the 'One Big Beautiful Bill' being considered in Congress.” According to Matt McDermott, who describes himself as a Democratic pollster, the clinic “is the only health care provider in the community.” (For a town of 900, that seems right.) Curtis is in Frontier County, a county that voted forTrump over Harris by 74 points. Thanks to RAS for the lead; the story all came together in a post byAnnie Laurie of Balloon Juice. (Also linked yesterday.)
Shannon Najmabadi of the Washington Post: “The Social Security Administration is telling people that federal income taxes on most recipients’ benefits will be eliminated under a recently passed tax and spending bill. But while more seniors will get a tax break, the message itself is confusing and could mislead Social Security recipients about the new policy, some tax and policy experts said.... Policy experts say the bill does not ax federal income taxes on Social Security benefits — though it does reduce some people’s taxes through the new deduction, which is set to expire after 2028. 'There is no provision in the budget bill that directly ‘eliminates’ or even reduces taxes on Social Security benefits,' said Howard Gleckman, senior fellow at the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center.... The new deduction wouldn’t help single Social Security beneficiaries younger than age 65, policy experts said.” The link is a gift link. See also commentary in yesterday's thread.
Ronda Kaysen of the New York Times: “Canadians have dramatically slowed their searches for homes in the United States in the wake of tariffs by the Trump administration, according to new data from Redfin.... In May, traffic from Canada on the home listing site fell by 26.4 percent from the same time a year ago, marking the fourth straight month of double-digit year over year declines in searches for homes in the United States. The pattern follows ... [Donald] Trump’s announcements to enact, pause and negotiate tariffs on the country. While there was a dip in overall traffic to the site during the same period, it was dwarfed by the drop from Canada, said Chen Zhao, the head of economics research for Redfin.”
Ken Dilanian & Ryan Reilly of NBC News: “The release of formerly classified FBI and CIA documents this week illustrates how ... Donald Trump’s appointees at both agencies are trying to use the levers of government to prop up his long-standing assertions that intelligence agencies conspired against him. The FBI released emails on Tuesday that purport to show an effort by the bureau’s leaders in 2020 to cover up a source’s claim that there was a Chinese plot to throw the presidential election to Joe Biden. In a statement to the Daily Mail, Trump’s FBI director, Kash Patel, said the emails reveal that bureau leaders 'chose to play politics and withhold key information from the American people.' And CIA Director John Ratcliffe released an internal agency analysis related to the 2020 electionthat he argued showed that Democratic appointees 'manipulated intelligence and silenced career professionals — all to get Trump.' Patel’s and Ratcliffe’s claims went beyond the information contained in the released documents. The documents do not describe definitive evidence that any official acted out of political motive or engaged in anything beyond the good-faith debate that is typical of the intelligence verification and analysis process.”
Jeff Gerstein & Kyle Cheney of Politico: “A federal judge denied a last-ditch bid for legal protection from eight men seeking to stave off deportation to South Sudan, saying the Supreme Court had given the final word on the matter two days earlier. U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy denied an emergency motion by the men to prevent the deportations to the war-torn African nation scheduled for later Friday evening. They are currently housed in a shipping container on a U.S. military base in Djibouti. Murphy’s decision came after a frenzied day in court by attorneys for the eight men, who initially filed an emergency petition in Washington, D.C., before a federal judge there sent the case back to Massachusetts. The July 4 drama came a day after the Supreme Court lifted an order by Murphy that had blocked the deportation. 'This Court interprets these Supreme Court orders as binding on this new petition,' Murphy said in a brief order, 'as Petitioners are now raising substantially similar claims, and therefore Petitioners motion is denied.'”
Pete Hegseth Is an Ignorant Bigot. Edda Fields-Black & Kate Larson in a Washington Post op-ed: “Defense Secretary Pete Hegsethhas ordered the Navy to consider removing [Harriet] Tubman’s name from the ship, alongside others named after former Supreme Court justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Thurgood Marshall.... Hegseth is seeking to reestablish 'warrior culture' in the military.... Many Americans know Tubman for her courage and sacrifice as conductor of the Underground Railroad, but fewer recognize her as a Civil War spy and military leader. Tubman was the first woman to lead a combat regiment during the Civil War, and in an opinion issued this year, the U.S. Army Office of the General Counsel acknowledged her as one of the few women who served as a soldier in the Civil War.... She was attached to Gen. Isaac Stevens’s headquarters and worked for Gens. Rufus Saxton and David Hunter, commanding a ring of Black men as spies, scouts and river pilots.... The Combahee Ferry Raid[, which she helped lead,] is now considered the largest and most successful slave rebellion in U.S. history.”
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Marie: I noticed this morning that the New York Times had a link on its front page to a story that said New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani identified himself as Asian and African-American on a college application. I didn't think that was remotely interesting since Mamdani is of Indian (i.e., Asian) heritage and was born in Africa (specifically, Uganda). However, it turns out the story is interesting -- in a "bad journalism" sort of way. Dan Moynihanmakes a compelling case against publishing the story at all, which came to the Times via a hack and a eugenics (racist) conspiracy theorist to whom the Times granted anonymity even though his identity is publicly-known. Most important, Mamdani did nothing wrong, IMO, by completing a university application as honestly as he could within the parameters the application provided. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Update. I see the Times has yet a second story on this fake scandal, this time reporting on reactions to the horror of a boy trying to fully complete a college application.
~~~~~~~~~~
Texas. The New York Timesliveblogged developments in the flood of the Guadalupe river: “Search and rescue teams were working throughout the night in Central Texas after flooding that began early Friday swept through a summer camp and homes, killing at least 24 people and leaving as many as 25 girls missing from the camp. The girls were at Camp Mystic along the Guadalupe River in Hunt, in Kerr County, according to the county sheriff.... An unknown number of other people were also missing, Kerr County said in an update on Friday night, citing the sheriff, Larry Leitha. The deadly flooding surprised many, including Texas officials, who said that some National Weather Service alerts had underestimated the risks. The most urgent alerts came in overnight, in the early hours of Friday.... The Texas National Guard made 237 rescues and evacuations using helicopters and rescue swimmers, Maj. Gen. Thomas M. Suelzer, the guard’s commander, said at a news conference Friday evening.... Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has activated the U.S. Coast Guard and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to help search for the missing, Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the agency, said on social media.”
The text of the Declaration of Independence is here. It's a good day to read it and reflect upon how many of the grievances against King George III we have against would-be King Donald. MB: Perhaps you think I'm being extreme. Then do read Charlie Savage's tale of "Donnie, Blondie and TikTok," linked below.
Marie: I don't think I'd take the history lesson below as gospel, but the birth of the United States certainly is more dependent on France than we acknowledge:
Trump Signs Extremely Unpopular Bill on Independence Day:
Joseph McCarty of KIKN-TV (Sioux Falls): “A clinic in southwest Nebraska announced Wednesday that it is closing due to financial challenges, including anticipated Medicaid cuts. McCook-based Community Hospital said it is shutting down its clinic in Curtis, a town of about 900 people. The Curtis Medical Center has been in operation for more than 30 years.... The Nebraska Hospital Association has been pushing back against Medicaid cuts in the 'One Big Beautiful Bill' being considered in Congress.” According to Matt McDermott, who describes himself as a Democratic pollster, the clinic “is the only health care provider in the community.” (For a town of 900, that seems right.) Curtis is in Frontier County, a county that voted forTrump over Harris by 74 points. Thanks to RAS for the lead; the story all came together in a post byAnnie Laurie of Balloon Juice.
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Marie: I noticed this morning that the New York Times had a link on its front page to a story that said New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani identified himself as Asian and African-American on a college application. I didn't think that was remotely interesting since Mamdani is of Indian (i.e., Asian) heritage and was born in Africa (specifically, Uganda). However, it turns out the story is interesting -- in a "bad journalism" sort of way. Dan Moynihanmakes a compelling case against publishing the story at all, which came to the Times via a hack and a eugenics (racist) conspiracy theorist to whom the Times granted anonymity even though his identity is publicly-known. Most important, Mamdani did nothing wrong, IMO, by completing a university application as honestly as he could within the parameters the application provided.
~~~~~~~~~~
Greg Grandin in a New York Times op-ed: “... what does it mean to be an American if armed, masked men can sweep anybody, citizen or not, off the street, forcing people into unmarked S.U.V.s — to be, if Mr. Trump has his way, disappeared to remote Louisiana or taken to a prison camp in El Salvador? Mr. Trump and operatives like [Stephen] Miller are waging a war not only on migrants but also on the concept of citizenship.... [John Quincy] Adams watched in despair at what he called the 'Anglo-Saxon, slaveholding exterminator of Indians' became a heroic national archetype.... When someone like Mr. Miller says 'America is for Americans,' the malice is palpable.... When the United States broke free of Colonial rule 249 years ago, it helped bring forth, as Adams said on a long-ago Fourth of July, modern principles of equality and justice. But it also conjured a backlash to those principles.... The ideologues at the core of Trumpism continue this tradition, imagining “America” as the heartland of a besieged Anglo-Saxonism. As in the 1840s, their shared fixation is Mexico.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: I seldom call this country "America," though if grammatical sense or expediency demands it, I will refer to U.S. citizens as "Americans." (And I cringe when I do it.) My reason for this has been to recognize Canada as part of "America" -- but not as part of the United States. Grandin's lesson is that I should be thinking of "Latin Americans," too, when I decline to call this country "America."
Donald Trump's Buffoonery Ruins Everything He Touches. Cat Zakrzewski, et al., of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trumpis trying to create the carnival-like atmosphere of state and world’s fairs to showcase next year’s celebration of the nation’s 250th birthday. Trump on Thursday returnedto the Iowa State Fairgrounds, a place that had little to do with the founding of the nation but one that has played a role in his political biography, to launch a year-long festival that will culminate on July 4, 2026. The centerpiece of that birthday celebration will be 'the Great American State Fair,' which Trump pitched to the crowd as 'an enormous year long nationwide celebration of our heritage.'... The effort, he said, is going to include a UFC fight on the grounds of the White House that will be overseen by Dana White, the chief executive of UFC and a longtime Trump supporter.... Trump also said that he would host nationally televised athletic competitions showcasing high school students from each state in an event he’s calling the 'Patriot Games,' [which RFKJ will oversee].” More on Trump's Iowa speech linked below.
The Absolute Power of King Donald. Charlie Savage of the New York Times: “Attorney General Pam Bondi told tech companies that they could lawfully violate a statute barring American companies from supporting TikTok based on a sweeping claim that ... [Donald] Trump has the constitutional power to set aside laws, newly disclosed documents show. In letters to companies like Apple and Google, Ms. Bondi wrote that Mr. Trump had decided that shutting down TikTok would interfere with his 'constitutional duties,' so the law banning the social media app must give way to his 'core presidential national security and foreign affairs powers.' The letters, which became public on Thursday via Freedom of Information Act lawsuits, portrayed Mr. Trump as having nullified the legal effects of a statute that Congress passed by large bipartisan majorities in 2024 and that the Supreme Court unanimously upheld.
“Shortly after being sworn in, Mr. Trump issued an executive order directing the Justice Department to suspend enforcement of the TikTok ban and has since repeatedly extended it.... Some legal experts consider Mr. Trump’s action — and in particular his order’s claim, which Ms. Bondi endorsed in her letters, that he has the power to enable companies to lawfully violate the statute — to be his starkest power grab.... Essentially, legal experts said, Mr. Trump is claiming a constitutional power to immunize private parties to commit otherwise illegal acts with impunity.... [Conservative] Jack Goldsmith ... [of] Harvard Law ... cited an 1838 Supreme Court case, involving a law about payments to government contractors, that says the Constitution does not give presidents the power to dispense with laws — a power that the British king used to have.”
Lydia DePillis of the New York Times: Donald “Trump said early Friday morning that he is set to resume a set of tariffs that he initially imposed in April on dozens of countries, before pausing them for 90 days to negotiate individual deals. Most of those deals have yet to materialize, and businesses in the United States have been left guessing what levies they would be expected to pay on virtually every imported product. Some of them could be even steeper than originally announced, Mr. Trump said in brief remarks to reporters at Andrews Air Force Base upon returning from a rally in Iowa on Thursday. 'So we’re going to start sending letters out to various countries starting tomorrow,' said Mr. Trump.... 'They’ll range in value from maybe 60 or 70 percent tariffs to 10 and 20 percent tariffs.' He said his administration would then send more letters each day until the end of the 90-day pause, on Wednesday, when he expected they would all be covered. Smaller countries would come toward the end, and duties would begin to be collected on Aug. 1.”
Matt Viser & Cat Zakrzewski of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trumpused a term many consider to be an antisemitic slur while referencing unscrupulous bankers during a campaign-style rally in Iowa on Thursday night, held to kick off a year-long celebration leading up to the nation’s 250th birthday. Trump deployed the language while touting the impacts of his signature legislation that had just passed Congress hours earlier. 'No death tax. No estate tax. No going to the banks and borrowing from, in some cases, a fine banker — and in some cases, shylocks and bad people,' he said. When asked about his use of the term after he got off Air Force One, he said that he has 'never heard that' the word could be considered antisemitic.” I believe him. He's an embarrassing ignoramus and a New Yorker, and is almost certainly unfamiliar with “The Merchant of Venice.” In 2014, Joe Biden used the same term and apologized for it. The Independent's story is here. ~~~
~~~ Trump Threatens to Use the (Absolute) Powers of the Presidency Against Mamdani. Brett Samuels of the Hill: Donald “Trump on Thursday used remarks in Iowa ahead of Independence Day to take aim atZohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for mayor in New York City who has become a favorite target of criticism for Republicans. 'This guy is a communist at the highest level, and he wants to destroy New York. I love New York and we’re not going to let him do that,' Trump said at an event in Des Moines. 'Generations of Americans before us did not shed their blood only so that we could surrender our country to Marxist lunatics on the eve of our 250th year,' Trump continued. 'As president of the United States, I’m proclaiming here and now that America is never going to be communist in any way, shape or form, and that includes New York City.'” MB: BTW, this was billed as a non-political presidential* event, and by “billed” here, that means you and I paid for the trip.
Two Meditations on the Same Theme: ~~~
(a) Jonathan Chait of the Atlantic: "... in a single day, Trump took or was revealed to have taken six shocking new assaults on liberal democracy. They would have been shocking, anyway, before he spent a decade bludgeoning our civic nerve endings to the point where these things now register as mere routine politics. [Tuesday] alone: 1. Trump floated the notion of arresting New York City Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani.... 2. Trump threatened to prosecute CNN for reporting on the existence of an app that allows users to alert one another to ICE activity.... 3. The president mused about the prospect of financially punishing Elon Musk for criticizing the Republican megabill.... 4... has appointed Jared L. Wise [-- charged with being a January 6 insurrectionist --] to the Justice Department’s Weaponization Working Group.... 5. The administration impounded $7 billion of Education Department funding for after-school and summer programs, English learners, teacher training, and other school functions.... 6. Paramount, the parent company of CBS, settled a groundless nuisance lawsuit Trump had filed against the CBS show 60 Minutes." Thank you to laura h. for this gift link. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
(b) Charlie Nash of Mediaite: “CNN aired the long list of people and groups that ... Donald Trumphad 'targeted in the past 48-72 hours' on Tuesday, including former ally Elon Musk, the nation of Japan, and CNN itself. 'The president’s insult parade is crowded tonight, attacking anyone who dares to speak out against him or his policies. Here’s some of the names that he’s targeted in just the last 48-72 hours,' began anchor Abby Phillip. Phillip then displayed a graphic which showed Musk, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), New York City Democratic mayoral candidateZohran Mamdani, CNN, Japan, AT&T, Israeli prosecutors, Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell, Canada, Forbes, Harvard University, 'Alligator Alcatraz' escapees, and former U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas beneath the caption, 'People and groups Trump has targeted in past 48-72 hours.'” Thank you to RAS for the link. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: It's clear that Chait gets it. Whether Phillip & others appreciate the breadth of the underlying project is less evident. But all this year, we have had many days as dangerous as the one Chait & Phillip cite. The cumulative effect and the ultimate goal of these steps is not mysterious.
Matthew Walther of the New York Times: “We have been advised to take Mr. Trump, if not literally, then at least seriously. I do not think we should extend him even that courtesy. We should see him not as a Caesarean figure set upon remaking the United States in his own image or an ideologue who has attempted to impose a coherent philosophical vision on our unruly public life, but as a somewhat hapless, distracted character, equally beholden to vast structural forces and to the limitations of his own personality.... Overpromise, underdeliver, change the subject. Mr. Trump is forever setting himself challenges and then becoming bored with them. He does not evolve. He flinches, recants, forgets, redirects. He discovers each time — freshly, dumbly — that this is not how power works.” MB: Walther advises us to laugh at Trump, and that we do. At the same time, we must not forget that in the course of his ignorant flailings, he -- with the help of a phalanx of accomplices -- is doing permanent damage to our quasi-democratic structure and to individuals here and abroad.
Amy MacKinnon & John Sakellariadis of Politico: “A CIA review released Wednesday is critical of how the agency arrived at the assessment that Russia sought to sway the 2016 election in favor of Donald Trump — but finds the overall conclusion was sound. The initial assessment, which has been condemned by Trump and his allies, was done too quickly and featured excessive involvement by intelligence agency leaders, according to the review commissioned by CIA Director John Ratcliffe. But the review did not call into question the conclusions of the assessment, finding that it exhibited 'strong adherence to tradecraft standards' and that its 'analytic rigor exceeded that of most IC assessments.'... The review ... did not take issue with [the] assessments that Putin was trying to damage [Hillary] Clinton’s chances.... After the review was released, Ratcliffe posted on X a characterization of the report that appeared to deviate from its findings. 'All the world can now see the truth: Brennan, Clapper and Comey manipulated intelligence and silenced career professionals — all to get Trump,' he wrote in one post. In a second, he said that the 2016 assessment was produced in a process that was 'atypical & corrupt.'” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: My theory about why Trump is so confused rests partly on the premise that he lies so much he can't tell the facts from his own fictions. But it also can be attributed to the premise that his allies lie to him to protect themselves. In this case, an investigation Trump's CIA director Ratcliffe commissioned found that Putin really did try to help Trump win the 2016 election. BUT, since Trump would hate that conclusion, Ratcliffe jumps on X to falsely claim the CIA & the FBI leaders were "corrupt" and "manipulated intelligence." Ratcliffe is no doubt confident that Trump will never read a big, long eight-page report, but a couple of tweets, sure.
Douglas MacMillan of the Washington Post: “The tax and spending bill passed by Congress on Thursday will triple federal funding for immigrant detention centers, setting the stage for a rapid expansion of these facilities and adding to concerns about the treatment of the growing numbers of immigrant detainees. Congress allocated $45 billion to spend locking up immigrants over the next four years — more than the government spent on detention during the Obama, Biden and first Trump administrations combined, federal data show. The bill also includes $46.5 billionfor building the wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and $6 billion for border technology and surveillance, along with other border security and immigration measures.... The detainee population is changing. As of June, about one-third of ICE detainees have never been charged with a criminal offense, and ICE is now arresting people with no criminal charges at a higher rate than people charged with crimes, according to Austin Kocher ... [of] Syracuse University....
“This year, ICE has already awarded new or expanded contracts to at least nine facilities owned by the Geo Group or CoreCivic, the two largest detention contractors, as well as contracts to companies that house immigrants in makeshift tent structures.... Immigrant rights advocates are imploring the government not to award more contracts to Geo and CoreCivic, companies they say have failed to provide safe accommodations and adequate medical care to detainees.... This week, ICE said it was sending some migrants to live in tents at an airstrip in the Everglades.” More on the Florida detention center linked below under "Florida.”
Emmanuel Martinez, et al., of the Washington Post: “The Trump administrationis increasingly targeting unauthorized immigrants with no criminal record as it ramps up arrests, a Washington Post analysis of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement data shows. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem often touts that ICE officers are arresting the 'worst of the worst.' But more than half of those removed from the country since Jan. 20 do not have a criminal conviction. What’s more, as arrests increase, the share of detained migrants with a criminal conviction has been dropping. DHS’s statistics office has stopped publishing monthly data on arrests and removals. But the Deportation Data Project, a team of lawyers and academics, worked with the UCLA Center for Immigration Law and Policy to file a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against ICE to obtain the new dataset.” ~~~
~~~ Woman Without a Country. Maria Paul of the Washington Post illustrates: “Ward Sakeik, a stateless woman of Palestinian descent, has lived in the U.S. since she was a child. She married an American earlier this year.... Under normal circumstances, Sakeik — a woman with no criminal record, who is married to a U.S. citizen and has been in the U.S. since she was 8 — would not be a target for deportation, said Ohio State University law professor César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández.... [But] the Trump administration had twice tried to deport Sakeik,” once after her husband had filed paperwork that should have led to her release, according to Sakeik's attorneys. Oh, and agents picked her up “on her way home from her honeymoon in the U.S. Virgin Islands.” IOW, she had not even left the U.S.
Ha Ha. "You Could Get a Tax Break"! Chris Hayes pointed to a New York Times interactive article designed to help the reader discover if s/he will get a tax break under the Trump Big Dump. Hayes put up a graphic of this series of yes-or-no questions (where "yes" is always the "correct" answer): "(1) Do you earn more than $500,000 a year? (2) Do you own a business? (3) Do you own or are you considering buying a firearm? (4) Are you a whaling captain or a fisher living in Alaska?" (Also linked yesterday.)
From the New York Times liveblog of developments Thursday in the trek to pass the GOP anti-American omnibus bill (also linked below): ~~~
Megan Mineiro: “Representative Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic leader, just broke the record for the longest House floor speech by speaking for 8 hours and 33 minutes. He breaks the record set by former Speaker Kevin McCarthy in 2021. Democrats are standing unified behind Jeffries, while on the Republican side of the chamber a few dozen members have started to filter back into their seats in anticipation of closing remarks by Speaker Mike Johnson before the final vote on the policy bill.”
Annie Karni & Megan Mineiro: “Democrats chant 'Hakeem! Hakeem!' as he finishes his record-breaking speech with the words: 'I yield back.' They are surrounding him on the House floor, cheering and lining up for embraces. He yielded after 8 hours and 45 minutes.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ The call-and-response in the wrap-up is classic:
Michael Gold, et al.: “The House on Thursday narrowly passed a sweeping bill to extend tax cuts and slash social safety net programs, capping Republicans’ chaotic monthslong slog to overcome deep rifts within their party and deliver ... [Donald] Trump’s domestic agenda. The final vote, 218 to 214, was mostly along party lines and came after Speaker Mike Johnson spent a frenzied day and night toiling to quell resistance in his own ranks that threatened until the very end to derail the president’s signature measure. With all but two Republicans in favor and Democrats uniformly opposed, the action cleared the bill for Mr. Trump’s signature, meeting the July 4 deadline he had demanded.” Here'sPolitico's story. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Amy Wang & Mariana Alfaro of the Washington Post: “Here are five notable things [Hakeem] Jeffries said in his attempt to delay the final vote.” ~~~
~~~ A Big, Bungled Bust of a Bill. Charlie Mahtesian of Politico: Donald Trump“is spending every last cent of his political capital on a bill marked by its lack of ambition and vision. It suggests real limits to the MAGA revolution, either because the coalition is inherently brittle or because of the stiff challenges Trump still faces in transforming the GOP, even as he utterly dominates it.... Much of the bill smacks of a reassertion of decades-old Republican policies and an embrace of party orthodoxy. It is easily caricatured as a giveaway to the wealthy that also slashes health care, a piñata for Democrats to bash and ride back to a House majority.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Republicans Always Chicken Out. Catie Edmondson of the New York Times: “In the days leading up to House passage of Republicans’ sweeping policy bill carrying ... [Donald] Trump’s agenda, members of the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus were unsparing in their criticism of the measure.... In the end, all of them voted for the bill, after an hourslong revolt that stretched from Wednesday night into early Thursday morning and ground the House floor to a halt. The legislation was unchanged, and while those who switched their positions to embrace it alluded to deals they had cut with Mr. Trump to address their concerns, it was not clear what, if any, commitments had been made or whether any would be fulfilled.... They weren’t the only ones. A bloc of more moderate House Republicans from politically competitive districts, many of whom had warned that the bill’s Medicaid cuts could hurt their constituents and suggested they could not stomach the legislation, ultimately voted 'yes.'” In the Senate, Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) & Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) both trashed the bill, then voted for it. ~~~
~~~ Steve Benen of MSNBC: Sen. Lisa "Murkowski effectively asked the Republican-led House not to pass the bill she had just voted for. 'My sincere hope is that this is not the final product,' she wrote online. 'This bill needs more work across chambers and is not ready for the president’s desk. We need to work together to get this right.'... [She also told reporters,] 'We do not have a perfect bill by any stretch of the imagination. My hope is that the House is going to look at this and recognize that we’re not there yet.' Not only did House Republican leaders ignore Murkowski’s appeals, they never even considered the possibility.... And that, of course, makes Murkowski’s decision look even worse.... Too many GOP lawmakers somehow convinced themselves that the party’s megabill had real merit and would deliver great results. Murkowski, however, knew better — and she chose to advance it anyway. History will not be kind.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: No, it will not. As others have noted, anyone who has paid the slightest attention to the House knows that body was not going to even try to "improve" the bill, not only because the House is a mess but also because any "improvements" made in the House would have had to go back to the Senate for another vote to reconcile the two versions of the bill. Murkowski could have used her considerable leverage in the Senate to make the bill "less bad." Instead, she decided getting a tax break for a few of Alaska's whaling captains was good enough. That's a stupid little bribe, not a concession forced by cannily emplying leverage.
Supremes Approve Torture. Or Worse. Adam Liptak & Mattathias Schwartz of the New York Times: “The Supreme Court on Thursday allowed the government to deport eight men who have spent more than a month held under guard on an American military base on Djibouti to South Sudan, granting a request from the Trump administration. An administration official said it would promptly send the men, who hail from countries around the world, to the war-torn nation. Neither the United States nor South Sudan has said what will happen to the men on their arrival.... In a filing by the migrants’ lawyers, an expert on South Sudan said it was likely that the men would by detained by the country’s security forces and then experience 'torture, or conditions that amount to torture,' at their hands....
In dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, said the ruling could have grave consequences. 'What the government wants to do, concretely,' Justice Sotomayor wrote, 'is send the eight noncitizens it illegally removed from the United States from Djibouti to South Sudan, where they will be turned over to the local authorities without regard for the likelihood that they will face torture or death.'... Justice Kagan, who dissented previously [in a directly related case], this time issued a concurring opinion. 'I do not see how a district court can compel compliance with an order that this court has stayed,' she wrote.... The men, who have all been convicted of serious crimes in the United States, have been detained at Camp Lemonnier, a military base.... Before coming to the United States, they hailed from Vietnam, South Korea, Mexico, Laos, Cuba and Myanmar. Just one is from South Sudan.” ~~~
~~~ Politico's story, by Josh Gerstein & Kyle Cheney, is here. The order, concurrence & dissent, via Politico, is here. Chris Geidner, the Law Dork, elaborates.
And now for another episode in our continuing series on how things are going for the January 6 "patriots" Trump pardoned. Earlier this week, we learned that one of them had been appointed to an important advisory position in Trump's DOJ: "His selection meant that a man who had urged violence against police officers was now responsible for the department’s official effort to exact revenge against those who had tried to hold the rioters accountable." Now this: ~~~
~~~ Alan Feuer of the New York Times: “A Tennessee man pardoned by ... [Donald] Trump for taking part in the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, has been sentenced to life in prison for hatching a separate plot to assassinate the law enforcement officers who investigated his role in the riot. The life term imposed on the man, Edward Kelley, came during a hearing on Wednesday in Federal District Court in Knoxville, Tenn. Mr. Kelley..., a former Marine..., was convicted at a trial there in November of charges that included conspiracy to murder federal employees and threatening federal agents.... He made a list of nearly 40 people who had been involved in his arrest or who had helped to search his home as part of the Jan. 6 investigation, targeting them for assassination, prosecutors said. Mr. Kelley also planned to attack an F.B.I. office in Knoxville, prosecutors said, using improvised explosive devices attached to vehicles and drones.”
Tom Jackman, et al., of the Washington Post: “Investigators in the fatal shooting of a congressional intern on a D.C. street this week have obtained a video recording that experts are working to enhance, hoping the footage will show enough of the attack to help authorities identify suspects, police said Thursday.... Police have said that several people got out of a car in the Shaw neighborhood of Northwest Washington, near the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, and opened fire on another group, wounding a woman and a teenager and killing Eric Tarpinian-Jachym, a 21-year-old intern in the office of Rep. Ron Estes (R-Kansas).... D.C. Police Chief Pamela A. Smith ... said Tarpinian-Jachym and the woman were innocent bystanders and not targets of the attack, while the wounded youth, a 16-year-old boy, 'was kind of engaged as part of the group' that was attacked.”
~~~~~~~~~~
Florida. Jennifer Bahney of the Raw Story: "New video showed a 'garden-variety South Florida summer rainstorm' flooding tents and drowning out Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) as he touted the 'Alligator Alcatrez' detention facility he claimed was ready to house deportees, according to The Miami Herald. Rain began shortly after ... Donald Trumpfinished up his tour of the Everglades facility that the White House claimed needed little security due to pythons and alligators surrounding it, the report said. 'The water seeped into the site — the one that earlier in day the state’s top emergency chief had boasted was ready to withstand the winds of a "high-end" Category 2 hurricane — and streamed all over electrical cables on the floor,' wrote reporters Syra Ortiz Blanes, Ana Ceballos, and Alex Harris." MB: The reason Republicans don't believe in government is that they screw up everything. (Also linked yesterday.)
~~~~~~~~~~
Israel/Palestine. Louisa Loveluck, et al., of the Washington Post: “The news that Marwan al-Sultanwas killed this week in an Israeli airstrike hit Gaza’s doctors like a thunderbolt. Through 20 months of war, the cardiologist had become one of the conflict’s main narrators, describing to the world again and again the horrific scenes in his wards, even as he battled to keep the lights on at the hospital he managed in the north.... Relatives of Sultan, the director of the Indonesian Hospital in Jabalya, said that the strike on Wednesday had targeted the Gaza City apartment where he was staying, also killing the doctor’s wife, sister, youngest daughter and his son-in-law. In a statement, the Israeli military said that it had struck a key terrorist from the Hamas terrorist organization,' but provided no more information.... Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has devastated the enclave’s health care system, damaging and destroying its clinics and hospitals, killing or detaining hundreds of medical workers and regularly preventing the entry of medicines and other critical supplies.”
Ukraine/Russia. David Stern of the Washington Post: “Heavy smoke choked central Kyiv on Friday after Russia launched its biggest aerial assault in its war against Ukraine, as Russian President Vladimir Putin showed no indication of wanting to end hostilities after a conversation with ... Donald Trump. Russian forces pummeled Ukraine with 539 drones and 11 missiles, with the 'main direction of the strike' targeting Kyiv, Ukraine’s air force said in a statement. That barrage surpassed the previous record, made Sunday.... Trump said that he was 'very disappointed' in his conversation with Putin on Thursday and that he did not think that the Russian leader wanted a ceasefire or an end to the three-year-old conflict.... This week the U.S. announced that it was reviewing its weapons supplies and pausing the delivery of several key weapons systems promised by the previous administration, including air defense.”
That Was Then. The contrasts between then and now are multiple & stark: ~~~
Ha Ha. You Could Get a Tax Break! Chris Hayes pointed to a New York Times interactive article designed to help the reader discover if s/he will get a tax break under the Trump Big Dump. Hayes put up a graphic of this series of yes-or-no questions (where "yes" is always the "correct" answer): "(1) Do you earn more than $500,000 a year? (2) Do you own a business? (3) Do you own or are you considering buying a firearm? (4) Are you a whaling captain or a fisher living in Alaska?"
From the New York Times liveblog of developments in the trek to pass the GOP anti-American omnibus bill (also linked below): ~~~
Megan Mineiro: “Representative Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic leader, just broke the record for the longest House floor speech by speaking for 8 hours and 33 minutes. He breaks the record set by former Speaker Kevin McCarthy in 2021. Democrats are standing unified behind Jeffries, while on the Republican side of the chamber a few dozen members have started to filter back into their seats in anticipation of closing remarks by Speaker Mike Johnson before the final vote on the policy bill.”
Annie Karni & Megan Minerio: “Democrats chant 'Hakeem! Hakeem!' as he finishes his record-breaking speech with the words: 'I yield back.' They are surrounding him on the House floor, cheering and lining up for embraces. He yielded after 8 hours and 45 minutes.” ~~~
~~~ The call-and-response in the wrap-up is classic:
Michael Gold, et al.: “The House on Thursday narrowly passed a sweeping bill to extend tax cuts and slash social safety net programs, capping Republicans’ chaotic monthslong slog to overcome deep rifts within their party and deliver ... [Donald] Trump’s domestic agenda. The final vote, 218 to 214, was mostly along party lines and came after Speaker Mike Johnson spent a frenzied day and night toiling to quell resistance in his own ranks that threatened until the very end to derail the president’s signature measure. With all but two Republicans in favor and Democrats uniformly opposed, the action cleared the bill for Mr. Trump’s signature, meeting the July 4 deadline he had demanded.” Here'sPolitico's story. ~~~
~~~ A Big, Bungled Bust. Charlie Mahtesian of Politico: Donald Trump“is spending every last cent of his political capital on a bill marked by its lack of ambition and vision. It suggests real limits to the MAGA revolution, either because the coalition is inherently brittle or because of the stiff challenges Trump still faces in transforming the GOP, even as he utterly dominates it.... Much of the bill smacks of a reassertion of decades-old Republican policies and an embrace of party orthodoxy. It is easily caricatured as a giveaway to the wealthy that also slashes health care, a piñata for Democrats to bash and ride back to a House majority.”
Florida. Jennifer Bahney of the Raw Story: "New video showed a 'garden-variety South Florida summer rainstorm' flooding tents and drowning out Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) as he touted the 'Alligator Alcatrez' detention facility he claimed was ready to house deportees, according to The Miami Herald. Rain began shortly after ... Donald Trump finished up his tour of the Everglades facility that the White House claimed needed little security due to pythons and alligators surrounding it, the report said. 'The water seeped into the site — the one that earlier in day the state’s top emergency chief had boasted was ready to withstand the winds of a "high-end" Category 2 hurricane — and streamed all over electrical cables on the floor,' wrote reporters Syra Ortiz Blanes, Ana Ceballos, and Alex Harris." MB: The reason Republicans don't believe in government is that they screw up everything.
Amy MacKinnon & John Sakellariadis of Politico: “A CIA review released Wednesday is critical of how the agency arrived at the assessment that Russia sought to sway the 2016 election in favor of Donald Trump — but finds the overall conclusion was sound. The initial assessment, which has been condemned by Trump and his allies, was done too quickly and featured excessive involvement by intelligence agency leaders, according to the review commissioned by CIA Director John Ratcliffe. But the review did not call into question the conclusions of the assessment, finding that it exhibited 'strong adherence to tradecraft standards' and that its 'analytic rigor exceeded that of most IC assessments.'... The review ... did not take issue with [the] assessments that Putin was trying to damage [Hillary] Clinton’s chances.... After the review was released, Ratcliffe posted on X a characterization of the report that appeared to deviate from its findings. 'All the world can now see the truth: Brennan, Clapper and Comey manipulated intelligence and silenced career professionals — all to get Trump,' he wrote in one post. In a second, he said that the 2016 assessment was produced in a process that was 'atypical & corrupt.'” ~~~
~~~ Marie: My theory about why Trump is so confused rests partly on the premise that he lies so much he can't tell the facts from his own fictions. But it also can be attributed to the premise that his allies lie to him to protect themselves. In this case, an investigation Trump's CIA director Ratcliffe commissioned found that Putin really did try to help Trump win the 2016 election. BUT, since Trump would hate that conclusion, Ratcliffe jumps on X to falsely claim the CIA & the FBI leaders were "corrupt" and "manipulated intelligence." Ratcliffe is no doubt confident that Trump will never read a big, long eight-page report, but a couple of tweets, sure.
Two Meditations on the Same Theme:
(a) Jonathan Chait of the Atlantic: "... in a single day, Trump took or was revealed to have taken six shocking new assaults on liberal democracy. They would have been shocking, anyway, before he spent a decade bludgeoning our civic nerve endings to the point where these things now register as mere routine politics. [Tuesday] alone: 1. Trump floated the notion of arresting New York City Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani.... 2. Trump threatened to prosecute CNN for reporting on the existence of an app that allows users to alert one another to ICE activity.... 3. The president mused about the prospect of financially punishing Elon Musk for criticizing the Republican megabill.... 4... has appointed Jared L. Wise [-- charged with being a January 6 insurrectionist --] to the Justice Department’s Weaponization Working Group.... 5. The administration impounded $7 billion of Education Department funding for after-school and summer programs, English learners, teacher training, and other school functions.... 6. Paramount, the parent company of CBS, settled a groundless nuisance lawsuit Trump had filed against the CBS show 60 Minutes." Thank you to laura h. for this gift link.
(b) Charlie Nash of Mediaite: “CNN aired the long list of people and groups that ... Donald Trumphad 'targeted in the past 48-72 hours' on Tuesday, including former ally Elon Musk, the nation of Japan, and CNN itself. 'The president’s insult parade is crowded tonight, attacking anyone who dares to speak out against him or his policies. Here’s some of the names that he’s targeted in just the last 48-72 hours,' began anchor Abby Phillip. Phillip then displayed a graphic which showed Musk, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), New York City Democratic mayoral candidateZohran Mamdani, CNN, Japan, AT&T, Israeli prosecutors, Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell, Canada, Forbes, Harvard University, 'Alligator Alcatraz' escapees, and former U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas beneath the caption, 'People and groups Trump has targeted in past 48-72 hours.'” Thank you to RAS for the link. ~~~
~~~ Marie: It's clear that Chait gets it. Whether Phillip & others appreciate the breadth of the underlying project is less evident. But all this year, we have had many days as dangerous as the one Chait & Phillip cite. The cumulative effect and the ultimate goal of these steps is not mysterious.
~~~~~~~~~~
All Through the Night. The New York Times liveblog for the Trump Travesty of the Week is here: “The House took its first step early Thursday toward a final vote on ... [Donald] Trump’s marquee domestic policy bill, after Republicans put down a revolt by conservative holdouts that had threatened to sink it. After a day and night of paralysis on the House floor, and haggling and uncertainty in the Capitol, Speaker Mike Johnson scored a preliminary victory in his bid to overcome resistance within his party when the House voted to allow the bill to come up for debate. The 219-to-213 vote suggested he had won the backing of recalcitrant Republicans whose resistance had stalled the measure, though the House still had to take a final vote to approve it.” The AP's liveblog is here. ~~~
~~~ Calen Razor of Politico: “House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffriesis blasting Republican colleagues over Medicaid as he issues extended remarks ahead of the final GOP megabill vote. Jeffries is utilizing his so-called magic minute to read off letters sent in by individuals in each state who rely on benefits that potentially hang in the balance as a result of the megabill’s provisions. After reading a story from Arizona and criticizing Rep. Juan Ciscomani (R-Ariz), Jeffries told the chamber: 'I’m still in the A section right now, so strap in.'... Jeffries said his goal in reading out these stories is to 'lift up the voices of everyday Americans all across the country.'
Nicholas Wu: “House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries’ marathon floor speech is stretching into its third hour as Democrats mount a last-ditch effort to stall the passage of Republicans’ megabill. Jeffries started speaking around 4:52 a.m. and read through stories from voters who could be impacted by the megabill’s cuts to social safety programs like Medicaid.... Democrats lack the votes to ultimately stop passage of the megabill, making the unlimited speaking time afforded to party leaders the last option for them to prolong passage of the GOP legislation.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: Jeffries was still going at 11:00 am ET Thursday.
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) reads the preamble to the Big Ugly Bill: ~~~
~~~ Trump Is Clueless, Part 1. Riley Rogerson & Reese Gorman of NOTUS: “... Trump still doesn’t seem to have a firm grasp about what his signature legislative achievement does. According to three sources with direct knowledge of the comments [to some GOP House members Wednesday], the president told Republicans at this meeting that there are three things Congress shouldn’t touch if they want to win elections: Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security. 'But we’re touching Medicaid in this bill,' one member responded to Trump, according to the three sources.” “Doesn't seem to have a firm grasp” is quite the understatement. Not only does the bill “touch” Medicaid & Medicare, there's this. ~~~
~~~ Trump Is Clueless, Part 2. Fatima Hussein of the AP: “... Donald Trump keeps saying that Republicans’ mega tax and spending cut legislation will eliminate taxes on federal Social Security benefits. It does not.” The article goes on to explain the changes to Social Security taxes the bill would make for some seniors.
~~~ The Bait-&-Switch Trick to Con the Suckers. Tony Romm, et al., of the New York Times: The Trump bill “provides its most generous tax breaks early on and reserves some of its most painful benefit cuts until after the 2026 midterm elections. The result is a bill that, if it becomes law, may generate bigger refunds for some taxpayers when they file their returns next spring, even as a series of significant changes to Medicaid and other aid programs loom as a future threat to the finances of poorer families. For ... [Donald] Trump, the staggered timelines underscore the political risks in his signature legislation.... To pay for the tax policies, which confer their greatest benefits on the wealthy, Republican lawmakers have looked to slash programs that are both popular and widely used, discomfiting even some within their own ranks.” The article outlines the timeline for when the various draconian provisions kick in. MB: A few days back, I mentioned hearing about this stunt, but this is the first time I've seen anything about it in writing. ~~~
~~~ Undoing Green Initiatives. Toluse Olorunnipa of the Washington Post: “Trump’s priority legislation ... aims to gut much of [President] Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, undermining the former president’s wager that he could insulate his economic legacy from a MAGA onslaught by spurring a wave of advanced manufacturing in red states. While Republicans faced a backlash when they tried to overturn former president Barack Obama’s signature health care law in 2017 — ultimately dooming Trump’s first major legislative push — there has been less public pushback as Biden’s climate legislation has advanced toward its demise.... As Republicans rush to try to pass Trump’s bill, hundreds of billions of dollars in green energy tax incentives for companies and consumers — created or expanded by Biden’s 2022 law — hang in the balance. Tax credits for wind turbines, solar panels, electric batteries and other forms of renewable energy are slated to be scaled back dramatically, forcing some companies to abandon their manufacturing projects.” ~~~
~~~ Conservative Charlie Sykesshreds Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) for her "cruelty, cowardice, betrayal, and hypocrisy." Kind of a pleasant read.
The Great American Griftorama. Russ Buettner of the New York Times: Donald Trump and his family's quite recent entry into the cryptocurrency business has made him “both a partner in several crypto ventures and, as president, crypto’s chief policy regulator, and he has signaled that he wants his administration to have a hands-off approach to digital currencies. Today, those moves are seen by Mr. Trump’s detractors as a money grab of historic proportions. But an analysis by The New York Times of thousands of pages of internal Trump Organization documents filed in one of the legal actions against him suggests a more urgent motivation for Mr. Trump’s behavior: a need, rather than simply a desire, for easy money to keep his empire intact.... The version of Mr. Trump’s business that he projects — a real estate development company that executes large, complex tasks — hasn’t existed for a nearly a decade, since the Trumps’ last two major construction projects failed to make money.
“Instead, Mr. Trump’s wealth is now built on monetizing the family name in new ways and, intentionally or not, the office of the presidency. It is an enterprise in pursuit of multimillion-dollar checks — from actual real estate developers, from cryptocurrency and social media enterprises run by others. It is also a business that hawks Trump-branded trinkets like watches and gold-toned mobile phones to the president’s passionate supporters.” Thank you to laura h. for this gift link. ~~~
~~~ Ben Protess, et al., of the New York Times: Donald “Trumphas long boasted of being a billionaire — even as journalists, accountants and the New York attorney general have cast doubt on just how many billions he is worth. Mr. Trump’s precise net worth is unknowable, partly because the Trump family business is a privately held company that discloses little about its financials. The president also derives some of his wealth from real estate, the value of which can be difficult to estimate. And some of his assets are shared with family members or business partners, making it tricky to untangle what portion belongs to him. Still, some of the president’s financial holdings — for example, those in the stock market and the cryptocurrency industry — are publicly known. And the annual financial disclosure that Mr. Trump must file as president offers a snapshot of the murkier elements of his business. It also lists his outstanding debts, including from a few recent legal judgments against him.
“Together, that information shows that Mr. Trump’s net worth has soared in the early months of his second term, mostly thanks to his crypto investments, suggesting that he might now be worth $10 billion or more. Yet a vast majority of that sum is not liquid. He would have to unload investments and sell his stakes in various ventures to realize much of that wealth. Here is a breakdown of what we know — and don’t know — about the president’s net worth.” Thank you to laura h. for this gift link.
Caving to Trump. Sarah Ellison & Jeremy Barr of the Washington Post: “The network of Edward R. Murrow, which stood against McCarthyism and once defined American broadcast journalism, was capitulating to White House pressure as its corporate owner sought approval for a lucrative merger.... On Tuesday, CBS’s parent company agreed to pay $16 million to settle a lawsuit over the network’s editing of a campaign interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris. The deal makes Paramount, which is attempting to complete an $8 billion sale to Skydance Media, the latest company to pay millions of dollars to Trump-aligned entities to avoidpunitive government action.... The ultimate outcome for Paramountremains uncertain, with Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr’s investigation into CBS News coverage still ongoing and no guarantee that regulatory pressure will subside, even if CBS capitulates to Trump’s demands.” ~~~
~~~ Erik Wemple of the Washington Post: “... the First Amendment withers ... when it’s not called into action under trying circumstances. That’s the sin of Paramount. Though lawyers for CBS News cited First Amendment protections in court filings [answering Donald Trump's frivolous lawsuit against CBS], Paramount caved prematurely and completely, leaving the impression that our legal protections may not have been equal to the task.... Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) has already called for an investigation into 'whether or not any anti-bribery laws were broken.'” MB: I suppose the neat thing about this case is that it highlights so many of Trump's bad traits: his false victimization syndrome, his greed and his disregard for the Constitution (despite taking an oath to uphold it). ~~~
~~~ Marie: Gosh, no mention anywhere here about how the Washington Post, owned and apparently operated by Jeff Bezos, is capitulating toTrump in order to help Bezos sell his spaceship stuff to the Trump administration. ~~~
Paramount may have closed this case, but it opened the door to the idea that the government should be the media’s editor in chief. -- Bob Corn-Revere, attorney at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression ~~~
~~~ Michael Grynbaum & David Enrich of the New York Times: “The humbling of a muscular journalistic organization — arguably the best-known brand in broadcast news — might have been unthinkable eight months ago, when Mr. Trump filed his $10 billion suit against CBS days before the presidential election. But Mr. Trump has now brought several major American institutions to heel. Ivy League universities and wealthy law firms have capitulated to a president who wields the levers of government as vehicles of retribution. Even before Mr. Trump took office, ABC News agreed to pay $16 million to settle a defamation case that the president filed against one of its anchors, George Stephanopoulos....” The link appears to be a gift link. ~~~
~~~ Alex Weprin of the Hollywood Reporter: “The midnight settlement between Paramount Global and ... Donald Trumpwas greeted by CBS News employees with what one called a reaction of 'disgust and relief.' Disgust, because universally within CBS News and at 60 Minutes, the lawsuit (which was about the editing of an interview the program conducted with former Vice President Kamala Harris) was perceived as baseless, and a multimillion-dollar settlement cut by corporate executives is seen as unwarranted. Relief because the months-long melodrama over the suit appears to be over (though there are still some big loose ends that need to be tied).... Nonetheless, the settlement 'threatens journalists’ ability to do their job reporting on powerful public figures,' the Writers Guild of America East said in a statement Wednesday. The WGAE represents many staffers on 60 Minutes.”
Yesterday, Akhilleus called bull on Trump's claim that the U.S. couldn't send weapons to Ukraine because we don't have enough. Here's Biden's National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan with the particulars on why Akhilleus is right: ~~~
~~~ Jake Sullivan in a New York Times op-ed: “On Tuesday, the White House confirmed that it has halted critical weapons deliveries to Ukraine, even though Ukraine remains under relentless Russian attack. This will only embolden Russia to continue its war, and make a just peace less likely. For months..., [Donald] Trump has played a cynical game. In front of the press, he threatens to impose new sanctions on the Russian economy. In private, he never follows through.... The White House suggests it is [halting weapons deliveries] because of concerns about U.S. military readiness. That explanation doesn’t stand up to scrutiny: U.S.A.I. deliveries — the main target of the pause — are sourced from procurement contracts, not from the Pentagon’s stockpiles, and are distinct from orders for the U.S. military. In this way, U.S.A.I. shipments are not unlike U.S. defense exports to any other country in the world. As for the limited remaining drawdown shipments, the Department of Defense has been using congressional funding to replace what it sends with newer munitions, which actually strengthens the U.S. military.... The tragedy of Mr. Trump’s approach is that it is still possible for Ukraine to achieve a just end to this war — with our help.” Emphasis added. ~~~
~~~ Washington PostEditors: “The Trump administration reportedly decided to freeze weapons shipments [to Ukraine] in early June, but the move came to light only this week.... In addition to the freeze, the Trump administration has not proposed to Congress any new military aid package for Ukraine.... But pausing deliveries of these crucial weapons systems to Ukraine now, when Russia is on the march, could have devastating and irreversible consequences. The United States, its European allies and the world will be less safe if Russia emerges victorious.... If Russia prevails in its war of aggression, it will not be because of lack of Ukrainian resolve. It will be because of American fecklessness.”
Helene Cooper of the New York Times: “The Pentagon’s chief spokesman, Sean Parnell, said on Wednesday that American and Israeli bombing campaigns set back Iran’s nuclear program by one to two years, the latest in a confusing series of shifting assessments of the damage the bombs inflicted on Iranian nuclear facilities. Earlier this week, the chief United Nations nuclear inspector said that Iran could be enriching uranium again in a 'matter of months,' even as ... [Donald] Trump continued to insist that the bombing had obliterated Tehran’s nuclear program.... Mr. Parnell was not presenting a formal Defense Department battle damage assessment on Wednesday.” MB: Parnell is a political appointee; Pete Hegseth appointed him to his job. If you'd like to know a little more about him, this is what the “Presidential Prayer Team” has to say about him. I would trust him as far as Donald Trump could throw him.
It is a dark time in the history of public health when political appointees overrule expert recommendations, pick and choose data to support their ideology, and use their position to advance personal agendas. -- Dr. Daniel Griffin, Columbia University infectious disease expert ~~~
⭐~~~ Christina Jewett of the New York Times: “The Food and Drug Administration’s top vaccine official rejected broad uses of two Covid vaccines, citing unknown risks or injuries despite assurances of safety from dozens of staff experts, newly released documents show. The decisions by the official, Dr. Vinay Prasad, the agency’s new chief medical and scientific officer, stunned agency veterans. Records show that the F.D.A.’s vaccine staff members had signed off on approving the Novavax vaccine, an alternative to mRNA shots and weeks later on the next-generation of the mRNA Covid shot by Moderna for anyone 12 and older. Dr. Prasad overruled those recommendations by the end of May and instead advised restricting the use of both Covid vaccines. He wrote in two memos that the threat from the virus had fallen and changed the risk-benefit balance of vaccinating healthy, younger people. The changes for the two vaccines aligned with the agency’s broader plan that limited the use of all Covid vaccines to people 65 and older. For those younger than 65, the F.D.A. rolled back eligibility for Covid vaccines to those with a medical condition that would put them at high risk.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: This of course puts everyone at greater risks, because millions of people who would have got the shot when it was free now will not do so, so they are more likely to get Covid and therefore more likely to spread it.
Maria Sacchetti, et al., of the Washington Post: “A federal judge in the District of Columbia on Wednesday barred the Trump administration from expelling asylum seekers from the United States, dealing a blow to the administration’s efforts to curtail crossings at the U.S. southern border. In a 128-page decision, U.S. District Judge Randolph D. Moss invalidated a proclamation that ... Donald Trump signed on his first day in office that declared an “invasion” on the border and invoked emergency presidential powers to deport migrants without allowing them to apply for asylum. Migrants and advocacy groups sued in February, saying federal law allows people to apply for the humanitarian protection no matter how they entered the United States. Moss stayed his ruling for 14 days pending a likely appeal from the Trump administration. But he wrote that the executive branch cannot create an 'alternative immigration system' that tramples on existing federal law....
“The Supreme Court, ruling last week on Trump’s attempts to end birthright citizenship, curtailed judges’ authority to issue the type of sweeping nationwide injunctions that have paused several administration policies while they were under legal review. But Moss, as part of his ruling Wednesday, certified all asylum seekers 'currently present in the United States' as a legal class, making his ruling applicable to most people who would be affected by Trump’s policy.”
Alan Feuer of the New York Times: “Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man who was wrongfully deported to El Salvador in March, was beaten, deprived of sleep and psychologically tortured during the nearly three months he spent in Salvadoran custody, according to court papers filed on Wednesday evening by his lawyers. The papers, filed in Federal District Court in Maryland, detailed a litany of horrors that Mr. Abrego Garcia’s lawyers said he suffered while being held at the so-called Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, one of El Salvador’s most notorious prisons. His lawyers said that he and 20 other Salvadoran men who were deported to the prison from the United States on March 15 were once made to kneel overnight 'with guards striking anyone who fell from exhaustion.' During the time he spent there, the lawyers said, Mr. Abrego Garcia was 'denied bathroom access and soiled himself.' He and other prisoners were confined to metal bunks with no mattresses in an overcrowded cell that had no windows, but was outfitted with bright lights that remained on 24 hours a day.” Politico's story is here. ~~~
~~~ The court papers filed by Abrego Garcia's attorneys are here, via the New York Times court. ~~~
~~~ Marie: Yestesday, Akhilleus was experiencing some sort of brain synapse issue that found him connecting Trump and the Hague's International Criminal Court. This was in relation to Trump's decision to renege on an agreement to send critically-needed weapons to Ukraine. (See also WashPo editorial, linked above.) My own synapses went right to the Hague on the El Salvador prison torture story. It's true the U.S. does not recognize the ICC, but that doesn't mean their officers can pick up Trump, Little Marco, Pam Blondie & KKKristi Barbie the next time each steps outside the U.S. of A.
They're Eating the Dogs. They're Eating the Cats. They're Eating Themselves. Sanjana Karanth of the Huffington Post: “Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem added another dehumanizing label on Tuesday to her list of descriptors meant to justify the rounding up of migrants: cannibals.... [At a roundtable following a tour of a Florida-state detention center in the Everglades, Noem] began telling a bizarre story about how U.S. marshals working with Immigration and Customs Enforcement told her they detained a cannibal and put him on a deportation flight.... 'And while they had him in his seat, he started to eat himself. And they had to get him off and get him medical attention,' she told reporters. 'These are the kind of deranged individuals that are on our streets in America, that we’re trying to target and get out of our country because they are so deranged they don’t belong here.'... On Friday, the secretary told the same anecdote to Jesse Waters on Fox News, saying the man was eating his own arm while shackled. 'That is what he did,' she said. 'He called himself a cannibal, ate other people and ate himself.' It should be strongly noted that there is no evidence supporting Noem’s anecdote.” Thanks to Jeanne for the lead, I guess. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: It does seem possible to me that among all the people the Trumpists are deporting, one was so stressed that he behaved in a bizarre manner. This is not a circumstance to use as an example of how horrible immigrants are; rather, it's a shameful example of how horrible the Trump deportation program is.
⭐Julia Frankel & Sam Mednick of the AP: “American contractors guarding aid distribution sites in Gaza are using live ammunition and stun grenades as hungry Palestinians scramble for food, according to accounts and videos obtained by The Associated Press. Two U.S. contractors, speaking to the AP on condition of anonymity because they were revealing their employers’ internal operations, said they were coming forward because they were disturbed by what they considered dangerous and irresponsible practices. They said the security staff hired were often unqualified, unvetted, heavily armed and seemed to have an open license to do whatever they wished. They said their colleagues regularly lobbed stun grenades and pepper spray in the direction of the Palestinians. One contractor said bullets were fired in all directions — in the air, into the ground and at times toward the Palestinians, recalling at least one instance where he thought someone had been hit.
“The testimonies from the contractors — combined with ... videos, internal reports and text messages obtained by the AP — offer a rare glimpse inside the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the newly created, secretive American organization backed by Israel to feed the Gaza Strip’s population. Last month, the U.S. government pledged $30 million for the group to continue operations — the first known U.S. donation to the group, whose other funding sources remain opaque. Journalists have been unable to access the GHF sites, located in Israeli military-controlled zones. The AP cannot independently verify the contractors’ stories.” Read on. These subcontractors think it's funny to take potshots at starving Palestinians and congratulate themselves when they hit someone. Your tax dollars are paying these cold-blooded barbarians.
Ben Sisario & Julia Jacobs of the New York Times: “Sean Combs, the hip-hop mogul who crafted a business empire around his personal brand, was convicted on Wednesday of transporting prostitutes to participate in his drug-fueled sex marathons, but acquitted of racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking, the most serious charges against him. Though Mr. Combs, 55, still faces a potential sentence of as much as 20 years in prison, he and his lawyers were jubilant after the acquittals on the more severe charges in an indictment that accused the famed producer of coercing women into unwanted sex with male prostitutes, aided by a team of pliant employees. Mr. Combs had faced a possible life sentence.... Hours later ... Judge Arun Subramanian ordered Mr. Combs, who has been held in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn since his September 2024 arrest, back to jail until his sentencing, which is still unscheduled. Mr. Combs’s lawyers had sought their client’s release.”
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Marie: Yesterday, I complained about this sentence in a NYT story by Tony Romm's about Trump's omnibus U.S. economic destruction bill: "That reality could undercut Republican lawmakers and ... [Donald] Trump, who insisted anew this week that their legislative vision would benefit the entire economy...." Yeah, when you tell big fat lies about a bill to make it sound as if the bill does the opposite of what it does, that could undercut you and your argument. I asked who taught reporters to write. RAS found the answer right away: ~~~
~~~ Mark Jacob of Stop the Presses: “... I’ve speculated about the existence of a 'euphemism desk' at the New York Times that sands off the sharp edges of Trumpism. Other news outlets are guilty of this weasel wording too, downplaying MAGA lies and criminality. I’ve broken down this trend into five categories[.]” Read on through. Jacob points to many examples you will recognize. MB: In fairness to the editors who established the euphemism desks at the NYT & elsewhere, they probably did so to avoid being slapped with a Trumpy lawsuit for factual reporting. By using a conditional verb like “could,” Romm (or his euphemism editor) is merely proposing a hypothetical, not stating outright that Trump & other Republicans are lying about the effects of the bill. (Also linked yesterday.)
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Idaho. Kim Bellware, et al., of the Washington Post: “Bryan Kohberger, a former criminology PhD student, pleaded guilty Wednesday to killing four University of Idaho students in a deal that removes the possibility of the death penalty. Kohberger’s admission at a Boise courthouse to the 2022 killings brings some closure to a case that captured international attention and became an obsession for some true-crime fans, spawning several books, a docuseries and dozens of news features. But the plea deal, which deeply divided the families of the victims, precludesa trial from taking place and leaves a slew of unanswered questions.”
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Iran. Erika Solomon & Sanam Mahoozi of the New York Times: “Iran’s president has enacted a law to suspend cooperation with the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, Iranian state media reported on Wednesday, in a move that will shut out international inspectors from overseeing the country’s contested nuclear program.” (Also linked yesterday.)
News Ledes
CNBC: “Job growth proved better than expected in June, as the labor market showed surprising resilience and likely taking a July interest rate cut off the table. Nonfarm payrolls increased a seasonally adjusted 147,000 for the month, higher than the estimate for 110,000 and just above the upwardly revised 144,000 in May, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Thursday. April’s tally also saw a small upward revision, now at 158,000 following an 11,000 increase.... Though the jobless rates fell [to 4.1%], it was due largely to a decrease in those working or looking for jobs.”
Washington Post: “A warehouse storing fireworks in Northern California exploded on Tuesday,leaving seven people missing and two injured as explosions continued intoWednesday evening, officials said. Dramatic video footage captured by KCRA 3 News, a Sacramento broadcaster, showed smoke pouring from the building’s roof before a massive explosion created a fireball that seemed to engulf much of the warehouse, accompanied by an echoing boom. Hundreds of fireworks appeared to be going off and were sparkling within the smoke. Photos of the aftermath showed multiple destroyed buildings and a large area covered in gray ash.”
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