June 28, 2022

Today is primary day in eight states, including Colorado & New York.

Afternoon Update:

The New York Times' live updates of Cassidy Hutchinson's startling testimony are here: Luke Broadwater: "... Donald J. Trump knew the crowd he amassed in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021, was armed and could turn violent, but wanted security precautions lifted because he said his supporters were not there to attack him, according to a junior White House aide who testified on Tuesday to the House committee investigating the attack. In extraordinary blow-by-blow testimony based on episodes she witnessed in the West Wing of the White House, Cassidy Hutchinson, an aide to Mark Meadows, the former chief of staff, revealed that the president had demanded to march to the Capitol with his supporters even as the riot was underway, at one point trying to grab the steering wheel of the presidential limo from a Secret Service agent when he was told he could not go.... As rioters stormed the Capitol, chanting 'Hang Mike Pence,' Mr. Trump endorsed the violence. Ms. Hutchinson testified that Mr. Meadows said of Mr. Trump, 'He doesn't want to do anything,' and 'He thinks Mike deserves it. He doesn't think they're doing anything wrong.'... Inside the White House, Mr. Trump became enraged when he learned that William P. Barr, the former attorney general, had publicly shot down his false allegations of a stolen election. He beat the table and threw dishes, splattering ketchup on the wall, Ms. Hutchinson said, adding that it was not the first time she had seen the president smash crockery in a rage." ~~~

~~~ Katie Benner: "Hutchinson provided many bombshells. The shocking description of Trump wrestling the Secret Service for control of his car on Jan. 6 so he could go to the Capitol. Portraying Meadows, her former boss, as a man who abdicated responsibility to the nation and hoped to be pardoned. And saying Trump knew that his supporters had dangerous weapons when he asked them to march on Congress.... Cheney says that Trump allies have been intimidating committee witnesses in messages that sound more like Mafia warnings than communications with a former president's aides. 'He wants me to let you know he's thinking about you. He knows you're loyal.'" ~~~

~~~ Maggie Haberman: "Trump, basically a one-man response team for himself, is going after Hutchinson on his social media site, Truth Social. He's using a familiar tack, that he hardly knows 'who this person, Cassidy Hutchinson, is.'" ~~~

~~~ Peter Baker: "To see a retired three-star general [Michael Flynn] who swore an oath to defend the country and the Constitution plead the Fifth when asked if he believed in the peaceful transfer of power in America is another stunning moment today." ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live updates are here. Politico's story, by Kyle Cheney & others, is here.

Danny Hakim & Richard Fausset of the New York Times: "Rudolph W. Giuliani has emerged as a central figure in a Georgia criminal investigation of efforts by Donald J. Trump and his allies to overturn his election loss in the state, with prosecutors questioning witnesses last week before a special grand jury about Mr. Giuliani's appearances before state legislative panels after the 2020 vote, the witnesses said. For Mr. Giuliani, the developments are the latest in a widening swath of trouble.... He also participated in a scheme to create slates of fake presidential electors in 2020 that is now the subject of an intensifying investigation by the Department of Justice.... The crux of his conduct [in Georgia] came during two hearings in December 2020, when Mr. Giuliani appeared before state legislative panels and spent hours peddling false conspiracy theories about secret suitcases of Democratic ballots and corrupted voting machines. He told members of the State House, 'You cannot possibly certify Georgia in good faith.'"

Glenn Thrush, et al., of the New York Times: "As the Justice Department expands its criminal investigation into the efforts to keep ... Donald J. Trump in office after his 2020 election loss, the critical job of pulling together some of its disparate strands has been given to an aggressive, if little-known, federal prosecutor named Thomas P. Windom. Since late last year, when he was detailed to the U.S. attorney's office in Washington, Mr. Windom, 44, has emerged as a key leader in one of the most complex, consequential and sensitive inquiries to have been taken on by the Justice Department in recent memory, and one that has kicked into higher gear over the past week with a raft of new subpoenas and other steps."

Supremes Again Rule Against Democracy, Black Americans. Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court on Tuesday reinstated a congressional voting map in Louisiana that a federal judge had said diluted the power of Black voters. The court's three liberal members dissented. The Supreme Court's brief order, which included no reasoning, blocked the judge's order and granted a petition seeking review in the case. The justices will, the order said, hold the Louisiana case while the court decides a similar one from Alabama in its next term."

Texas. Ariana Perez-Castells, et al., of the Texas Tribune: "Abortions up to about six weeks in pregnancy can resume at some clinics in Texas for now after a Harris County District Court judge granted a temporary restraining order that blocks an abortion ban that was in place before Roe v. Wade. In the ruling issued Tuesday, Judge Christine Weems ruled that the pre-Roe abortion ban 'is repealed and may not be enforced consistent with the due process guaranteed by the Texas constitution.'"

Boebert Unaware of First Amendment. Adela Suliman & Timothy Bella of the Washington Post: "Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), who faces a primary election Tuesday, says she is 'tired' of the U.S. separation of church and state, a long-standing concept stemming from a 'stinking letter' penned by one of the Founding Fathers. Speaking at a religious service Sunday in Colorado, she told worshipers: 'The church is supposed to direct the government. The government is not supposed to direct the church. That is not how our Founding Fathers intended it.' She added: 'I'm tired of this separation of church and state junk that's not in the Constitution. It was in a stinking letter, and it means nothing like what they say it does.'... Gwen Calais-Haase, a political scientist at Harvard University, told The Washington Post that Boebert's interpretation of the Constitution was 'false, misleading and dangerous.' Calais-Haase said she was 'extremely worried about the environment of misinformation that extremist politicians take advantage of for their own gains.'"

Hundreds of Auditors Cheated on Their Ethics Exams. Matthew Goldstein of the New York Times: "Ernst & Young, one of the world's largest auditing firms, has agreed to pay a $100 million fine after U.S. securities regulators found that hundreds of its auditors had cheated on various ethics exams they were required to obtain or maintain professional licenses -- and that the firm did not do enough to stop the practice. The penalty, announced Tuesday, is the largest ever imposed by the Securities and Exchange Commission against a firm in the auditing business, which occupies a unique ethical perch in the financial world. These firms are in charge of verifying the accuracy of companies' financial statements and issuing warnings to investors if they identify dubious accounting practices." MB: I don't suppose the Ernst & Young honchos can see the multiple ironies here.

Shayna Jacobs of the Washington Post: "Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted last year of trafficking young sexual abuse victims to financier Jeffrey Epstein over the course of a decade, on Tuesday was sentenced to 20 years in prison.... [Judge Alison] Nathan said she chose a prison term longer than what she believed the guidelines called for because it was 'important to note [Maxwell's] lack of acceptance of responsibility.'"

~~~~~~~~~~

** Luke Broadwater & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol on Monday abruptly scheduled a hearing for Tuesday afternoon to hear what the panel called 'recently obtained evidence' and take witness testimony, a surprise move that touched off a wave of speculation about a potential explosive revelation. The hearing is scheduled for 1 p.m. on Capitol Hill, according to a news release issued by the committee, in which it provided no other details about the session.... Pressed on the matter on Monday, aides declined to divulge what additional evidence they planned to present on Tuesday or who would be testifying." An AP story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Nicholas Wu, et al., of Politico: "The Jan. 6 select committee is set to hear from a onetime top aide to former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows on Tuesday, an abruptly scheduled hearing whose announcement riveted Washington. Cassidy Hutchinson will testify publicly, according to two people familiar with the committee's plans, after providing crucial testimony to the panel about significant exchanges among top Donald Trump's inner circle in the weeks before the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. Hutchinson replaced her attorney earlier this month as the select committee's hearings began; her former attorney was the Trump White House's chief ethics lawyer, and her new attorney is a longtime ally of former Attorney General Jeff Sessions.... It's unclear why the panel expedited Hutchinson's hearing, or whether she will appear alongside other significant witnesses."

** Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "Federal agents armed with a search warrant have seized the phone of John Eastman, a lawyer who advised ... Donald J. Trump on a key element of the effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election, according to a court filing by Mr. Eastman on Monday. The filing, a motion to recover property from the government, said that F.B.I. agents in New Mexico, acting on behalf of the Department of Justice's Office of the Inspector General, stopped Mr. Eastman as he was leaving a restaurant last Wednesday and seized his iPhone. A copy of the warrant included as an exhibit in Mr. Eastman's filing said that the phone would be taken to the inspector general's forensic lab in Northern Virginia. The seizure ... is the latest evidence that the Justice Department is intensifying its criminal investigation into the various strands of Mr. Trump's efforts to remain in power after he was defeated in his bid for re-election.... The seizure of Mr. Eastman's phone appears to have come on the same day that federal agents also seized the phone of Jeffrey Clark...." (Also linked yesterday.) A CNN report is here.

Hugo Lowell of the Guardian: "The House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol attack is closely focused on phone calls and conversations among Donald Trump's children and top aides captured by a documentary film-maker weeks before the 2020 election.... One part of [filmmaker Alex] Holder's testimony that particularly piqued the interest of the members of the select committee and chief investigative counsel Tim Heaphy was when he disclosed that he had managed to record discussions at [a] 29 September 2020 event.... On [that date]..., Steve Bannon said in an interview with HBO’s The Circus that the outcome of the 2020 election would be decided at the state level and eventually at the congressional certification on January 6.... Asked how he expects the election to end, Bannon said: 'Right before noon on the 20th, in a vote in the House, Trump will win the presidency.' The select committee believes that ideas such as Bannon's were communicated to advisors to Donald Jr and his fiancee, Kimberly Guilfoyle, even before the 2020 election.... What appears to interest the panel is whether Trump and his children had planned to somehow stop the certification of the election on January 6...."

Shawn Hubler & Mitch Smith of the New York Times: "The battle over abortion shifted to the states on Monday.... Conservatives in roughly half of the states [moved] swiftly to end or dramatically restrict reproductive rights, and liberals in about 20 more [scrambled] to preserve them.... Abortion rights advocates in Kentucky, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas sued on Monday to halt or delay bans on abortion after a similar court challenge was filed in Arizona over the weekend. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic moved to withdraw a federal court challenge to a ban in South Carolina, but apparently only so the organization could file a fresh challenge in state courts.... [In] Louisiana and Utah..., judges on Monday temporarily blocked enforcement of laws that would have banned abortion. Abortion rights advocates are coalescing around a strategy of asking courts for temporary injunctions that at the very least can allow abortions to proceed in the short term. One of Louisiana's three clinics already said on Monday that it would reopen."

California. Reis Thebault of the Washington Post: "California is poised to become one of the first states in the nation to explicitly enshrine the right to abortion and contraception in its constitution after lawmakers on Monday voted to advance a constitutional amendment, putting the issue on the November ballot. The amendment is part of a flurry of legislative efforts in liberal states aimed at solidifying reproductive rights in the aftermath of last week's Supreme Court decision striking down Roe v. Wade. California, which has advertised itself as a sanctuary for people seeking abortions, is trying to lead the way. The bill introducing the proposed amendment easily passed through the state's legislature, where Democrats hold a supermajority, and voters will now consider it during the general election. A wide majority of Californians have said they oppose overturning Roe, and the amendment is expected to pass."

Utah. Praveena Somasundaram of the Washington Post: "A judge in Utah granted a temporary restraining order to block the state's 'trigger ban' on Monday, allowing abortion services to resume immediately. Third District Judge Andrew Stone in Salt Lake City granted a 14-day restraining order in an emergency hearing requested by the Planned Parenthood Association of Utah (PPAU).... Utah's trigger ban, which the legislature passed in 2020, prohibits abortions with limited exceptions, such as if the procedure is necessary to prevent a pregnant person's death or if a person is pregnant as a result of incest or rape." (Also linked yesterday.)

Andrew Solender of Axios: "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Monday said she's preparing votes on a number of bills protecting abortion as well as codifying landmark Supreme Court decisions as a response to the court overturning Roe v. Wade.... In a 'Dear Colleague' letter to her caucus, Pelosi hinted at bills to respond to Justice Clarence Thomas' concurring opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson calling for the court to revisit landmark rulings protecting same-sex relationships, marriage equality and access to contraceptives.... Much of this legislation will likely go nowhere in the Senate, where 60 votes are needed to bypass the filibuster."

Yasmeen Abutaleb, et al. of the Washington Post: "To an increasingly vocal group of frustrated Democrats, activists and even members of Congress, [tepid] responses [to the Supreme Court' radicalism] by party leaders have been strikingly inadequate to meet a moment of crisis. They criticize the notion that it is on voters to turn out in November when they say Democrats are unwilling to push boundaries and upend the system in defense of hard-won civil liberties.... Progressive lawmakers, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), have outlined several actions they want to see Democrats embrace: Building abortion clinics on federal land. Funding people to seek abortions out of state. Limiting the Supreme Court's jurisdiction or expanding its membership. Ending the filibuster.... [President] Biden and his team have signaled discomfort with many of these ideas, particularly any far-reaching overhaul of the Supreme Court.... But many abortion rights supporters say Republicans have routinely broken the rules in recent years and benefited enormously from it...."

Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "The last institutionalists are the leaders of the Democratic party.... In part because its leaders have been on the job for so long -- [President] Biden has been in politics with limited interruption since 1973, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi since 1987 and Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer since 1981 -- they retain some obvious confidence that the system will work out its own kinks.... For younger Democrats, this is inexplicable. This is a generation that has been directly confronted with a number of dire threats: the growing effects of climate change, mass shootings in schools and the demonstrated dangers of domestic extremism.... That's probably been reinforced by a period of American politics in which ... Donald Trump and his allies have repeatedly targeted the solidity of those same institutions."

Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: Especially during election years, GOP elected officials, including Donald Trump in 2020, claimed that the Supreme Court would never overturn Roe v. Wade. "On the one hand, the Republican Party has pushed for it for decades; on the other, even as it has done so, plenty within its ranks have assured that it wasn't happening. The party seemed to want the benefits of the push with its base, without the consequences of the unpopular prospect with the broader electorate. It also knew that overturning Roe was a red line for some key abortion-rights-supporting GOP senators whose votes were needed to confirm the justices who would eventually overturn Roe." Blake cites examples. (Also linked yesterday.)

Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post thinks up some ways Susan Collins & Joe Manchin can make some substantive amends for the damage the have caused the country by voting to confirm Brett Kavanaugh. "... it is not politically or morally sufficient for Collins or Manchin to simply holler 'I was tricked!' when the rights of millions of Americans are at stake. Whether she was deceived, when a public official make an error so egregious, it is incumbent on her to fix the damage. If Collins refuses to do so, voters will draw the conclusion that she wasn't that surprised -- or that sorry -- that she enabled the destruction of women's fundamental right to reject forced birth." (Also linked yesterday.)

The Supreme Court has no power to enforce its decisions. It doesn't have an army. The only thing it has power to do is write PDFs and put them up on its website. -- Daniel Epps, U. of Washington ~~~

~~~ Peter Coy of the New York Times: "People on the losing end of Supreme Court decisions increasingly feel that justice is not being served. That's a scary situation for the high court, and for American democracy in general.... All the Supreme Court really has to go on is the public's acceptance of its rulings as legitimate.... [In the Dobbs case, overruling Roe v. Wade,] Justices Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor ... flatly [stated] in their dissent that the majority's decision 'undermines the court's legitimacy.'... For the losing side, the sting of the decision was made worse by [Mitch McConnell's manipulation of the Court's makeup].... That ... tore a hole in the fabric of democracy."

Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post: "You are now governed by a secretive and unaccountable junta in long black robes.... They want a country where women, once again, are at best second-class citizens.... Our rulers want a country in which guns are everywhere -- and the victims of those guns are seen as the price to be paid for a warped idea of 'freedom.'... The junta does not believe the nation's founders were serious about the separation of church and state.... Previous Supreme Court majorities have expanded the rights and opportunities of the marginalized.... The junta clearly sees these rights as suspect.... In the short term, the junta is willing for the United States to be more like the loose collection of sovereign states created by the Articles of Confederation than the strong union created by the Constitution.... The junta clearly wants to transform the whole country to suit its reactionary vision."

Michael Wines & Eliza Fawcett of the New York Times: "... a year after Attorney General Merrick B. Garland established the federal Election Threats Task Force, almost no one ... has faced punishment.... Only [one] has successfully concluded out of more than 1,000 it has evaluated. Public reports of prosecutions by state and local officials are equally sparse, despite an explosion of intimidating and even violent threats against election workers, largely since ... Donald J. Trump began spreading the lie that fraud cost him the 2020 presidential election.... The depth of election workers' fear was underscored in hearings this month by the congressional panel investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, assault at the U.S. Capitol.... [Some] experts say the lack of both action and transparency was undermining the principal goal of the task force -- to stop the epidemic of violent threats." (Also linked yesterday.)

Matthew Goldstein of the New York Times: "The public listing of ... Donald J. Trump's social media company took a fresh blow on Monday when the cash-rich shell company merging with Mr. Trump's company disclosed in a regulatory filing that a federal grand jury in New York recently issued subpoenas to the company and its directors. The grand jury subpoenas were issued within the past week, according to the filing by Digital World Acquisition Corporation, a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, that announced a merger with Trump Media & Technology Group in October. After the merger, Trump Media would assume Digital World's listing and trade as a public company. The disclosure by Digital World is the first indication that federal prosecutors in Manhattan have joined in the scrutiny of the merger between Digital World and Trump Media, which has been under investigation by financial regulators for months. The investigation threatens to further delay the completion of the merger, which would provide Mr. Trump's company and its social media platform, Truth Social, with up to $1.3 billion in capital, in addition to a stock market listing." (Also linked yesterday.)

What a Surprise! Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court ruled on Monday that a high school football coach had a constitutional right to pray at the 50-yard line after his team's games. The vote was 6 to 3, with the court's three liberal members in dissent. The case pitted the rights of government workers to free speech and the free exercise of their faith against the Constitution's prohibition of government endorsement of religion and the ability of public employers to regulate speech in the workplace. The decision was in tension with decades of Supreme Court precedents that forbade pressuring students to participate in religious activities. The case concerned Joseph Kennedy, an assistant coach at a public high school in Bremerton, Wash., near Seattle. For eight years, Mr. Kennedy routinely offered prayers after games, with students often joining him. He also led and participated in prayers in the locker room, a practice he later abandoned and did not defend in the Supreme Court." The AP's report is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Update. The Washington Post story, which is here, is topped by a photo of Kennedy kneeling in prayer, leaning on a football, in front of the Supreme Court building. According to the caption, this display of piety took place "after the Court heard arguments." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Kennedy's practice of Christianity directly contradicts Biblical teaching. One of the best-known parts of the New Testament is Matthew's Sermon on the Mount. In this sermon, Jesus teaches his followers how to pray. As a sort of preamble to his saying the Lord's Prayer -- the only prayer Jesus is credited with saying -- Jesus admonishes the crowd, "And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you." (Matthew 6:5) So the confederate Supremes' decision in this case is not just bad law; it's bad religion, too.

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court on Monday sided with two doctors convicted of illegally dispensing drugs without a legitimate medical purpose. The ruling was unanimous, though the justices disagreed on the precise rationale. They were united, however, in saying that prosecutors needed to prove more than that the doctors had violated objective standards. Justice Stephen G. Breyer, writing for six members of the court, said that, so long as doctors were authorized to dispense controlled substances, prosecutors 'must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant knew that he or she was acting in an unauthorized manner, or intended to do so.'... The Supreme Court sent the case back to the appeals courts to consider whether the juries in the two cases had been properly instructed and, if not, whether the errors were harmless."

Paul Krugman of the New York Times: "... over the past few days we've received even more reminders of just how extreme Republicans have become..... Where is this extremism coming from?... The Republican turn toward extremism began during the 1990s.... I think I've found [an historical precursor]: the rise of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s.... OK, the modern G.O.P. isn't as bad as the second K.K.K. But Republican extremism clearly draws much of its energy from the same sources. And because G.O.P. extremism is fed by resentment against the very things that, as I see it, truly make America great -- our diversity, our tolerance for difference -- it cannot be appeased or compromised with. It can only be defeated."

Marie: I consider myself to be a liberal, but a rather moderate, sensible liberal in touch with reality. Still, I have shocked myself over the past several years, beginning probably with Mitch McConnell's refusal to give the very moderate Merrick Garland a hearing, at some of the seemingly radical, alarmist things I have thought & written. My views & predictions have become more radical since the 2020 election. I sometimes stop and ask myself, "Do I really mean that?" Yet what also has surprised me over the last several months is that other reasonable opinionators have caught up with me. They are, at long last, expressing the same alarm I felt some seven years ago. Krugman notes in the column linked above, "Yet as Edward Luce of The Financial Times recently pointed out, 'at every juncture over last 20 years the America "alarmists" have been right.'"

Beyond the Beltway

New York. Jeffrey Mays of the New York Times: "A law that would have allowed noncitizens to vote in local elections in New York City was struck down on Monday by a State Supreme Court justice on Staten Island who said it violated the State Constitution. The measure, which was passed by the City Council in December, would have allowed more than 800,000 permanent legal residents and people with authorization to work in the United States to vote for offices such as mayor and City Council. But Justice Ralph J. Porzio ruled that the new law conflicted with constitutional guidelines and state law stating that only eligible citizens can vote. To give noncitizens a right to vote would require a referendum, the judge wrote.... Joshua A. Douglas, a professor at the University of Kentucky..., said he was surprised by the ruling because the State Constitution does not specify that only citizens can vote." Republicans challenged the ordinance.

New York. Akhilleus the Skeptic asserted in yesterday's thread that Rudy Giuliani may have ever-so slightly exaggerated the force of the slap on the back he got from a grocery clerk who accurately labeled Rudy a scumbag. I'll leave it to you to judge, but it looks to me as if the woman standing next to Rudy, who appears to be a friend of his, touched Rudy's back harder than did the grocery worker. Nevertheless, Rudy had the guy arrested because he thought the guy had shot him & would have knocked him down if Rudy hadn't been so fit. In my view, the worker appears to have simply tagged Rudy to make sure everyone knew who the scumbag was:

     ~~~ Related story linked yesterday. Marie: In additional interviews -- Rudy seems to have given quite a few interviews about being the victim of this horrendous violent crime -- Rudy said he "could have been killed" by that pat on the back and claimed "it hurt tremendously." When he learned the changes against the vicious perp had been downgraded & released from jail, he said he wasn't worried for himself because the Mafia already had threatened him, but he was worried this dangerous thug was free to come after "you" and beat you up. My advice: hide inside your house surrounded by an arsenal, and pray that's enough to fend off this savage young punk. ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Chelsia Marcius of the New York Times: "A grocery store worker accused of assaulting Rudolph W. Giuliani at a Staten Island supermarket on Sunday had the charges against him reduced after the emergence of video footage that appeared to show him patting Mr. Giuliani on the back with an open palm rather than striking him. The worker, Daniel Gill, had been charged with second-degree assault, a felony, in the immediate aftermath of the episode. Prosecutors later reduced the charges to third-degree assault, a misdemeanor, third-degree menacing and second-degree harassment.... The [original] complaint charging Mr. Gill says he hit Mr. Giuliani so hard that the blow resulted in 'substantial pain to the back and left side of his body' and caused Mr. Giuliani to stumble forward.... 'Our client merely patted Mr. Giuliani, who sustained nothing remotely resembling physical injuries, without malice to simply get his attention, as the video footage clearly showed,' [a] statement [from the Legal Aid Society, which represents Mr. Gill, said]."~~~

     ~~~ Marie: So good work, Akhilleus. ~~~

     ~~~ Dana Milbank of the Washington Post: "Not for the first time, Americans face a conundrum over whom to believe: Rudy Giuliani, or their own lying eyes?... The supermarket shenanigans, as captured in the video, resemble not in the slightest the preposterous tale of criminal brutality that Giuliani turned them into.... The progenitor of the 'big lie,' stripped of his law license for that, is now fibbing in the produce aisle.... Informed that authorities were downgrading the charges and releasing the worker, Giuliani declared that New York had become 'the wild, wild West' and that the employee posed a grave risk to public safety." Milbank recounts many of the ridiculous things Giuliani said about the non-incident.

Texas Horror. Arelis Hernández, et al., of the Washington Post: "The bodies of 46 migrants were found in the back of a sweltering tractor-trailer in San Antonio on Monday, the deadliest smuggling incident of its kind in U.S. history. The horrific incident comes amid a record influx of migrants across the U.S.-Mexico border, where authorities are on pace to record more than 2 million arrests during fiscal 2022. Rescuers pulled 16 people from the truck who were still alive and conscious, including four minors, San Antonio Fire Chief Charles Hood told reporters. They were taken for medical treatment. Three people have been taken into police custody, authorities said." The Texas Tribune story is here.

Virginia House Race. Azi Paybarah of the New York Times: "A Republican nominee in a closely watched House race in Virginia made bizarre and false comments about rape victims, saying in leaked audio recordings that she wouldn't be surprised if a woman's body prevents pregnancies from rape because 'it's not something that's happening organically,' and that the rapist is doing it 'quickly.' The nominee, Yesli Vega, a supervisor and sheriff's deputy in Prince William County, made the remarks at a campaign stop last month in Stafford County, according to Axios, which published the audio recordings on Monday." The Axios story is here. MB: Your guess is as good as mine about what this law enforcement officer means by "organic."It's hard to believe anyone can be so stupid. But there you go.

Way Beyond

Ukraine, et al.

The Washington Post's live updates of developments Tuesday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky again urged the United States to name Moscow a state sponsor of terrorism -- a designation that would trigger significant penalties -- after a Russian missile strike on a shopping mall in the central city of Kremenchuk killed at least 18 people.... Leaders of the Group of Seven nations, an assembly of economic powers, collectively condemned the strike as a war crime, and the U.N. Security Council is set to discuss the strike at a meeting on Tuesday.... In eastern Ukraine, Kyiv's troops are still holding back Russian forces in Lysychansk, the last Ukrainian foothold in the Luhansk region.... NATO leaders are gathering Tuesday for a summit in Madrid, as the transatlantic alliance seeks a long-term strategy for the war on its borders and for global issues such as soaring commodity prices. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced Monday that the Western military bloc will sharply increase the number of its high-readiness troops to 300,000.... Ukraine has received advanced multiple-launch rocket systems dispatched by Washington and appears to be employing them 'very well,' the Pentagon said. The trial of WNBA star Brittney Griner, who U.S. officials say is wrongfully detained in Russia, will begin July 1. She has been in custody on a drug charge for four months." ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times' live updates for Tuesday are here. CNN's live updates are here.

Russia Conducts Another Major Terrorist Attack on Ukrainians. Valerie Hopkins, et al., of the New York Times: "Hundreds of people were out shopping, chatting and meeting with friends in a shopping mall in central Ukraine on Monday, a rare moment of normalcy amid the horror of war. Then a Russian missile struck. The attack left at least 16 dead and at least 10 missing at the shopping mall, near a railway station in the industrial city of Kremenchuk, located in Ukraine's central Poltava region. 'People just burned alive,' Denys Monastyrskyi, Ukraine's interior minister, said in an interview. In four months of conflict characterized by indiscriminate violence, the strike was just the latest vivid and bloody example of Russia's willingness to target civilians at a nonmilitary site, with people going about their daily lives."

News Lede

New York Times: "An Amtrak train carrying more than 200 passengers crashed into a dump truck in rural Missouri on Monday, killing three people and injuring dozens, the authorities said. It was the second fatal accident involving the railroad service in two days. Two of the people killed were on the train, and the other was in the truck, the authorities said.... Eight cars and two locomotives derailed, Amtrak said, and most of the cars ended up on their sides.... The crash came one day after another Amtrak passenger train

June 27, 2022

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

** There will be a hearing of the January 6 House select committee tomorrow (Tuesday) at 12:00 noon 1:00 pm ET. The hearing was previously unannounced and the topic of the hearing at this time remains unannounced, MSNBC is reporting.

** Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "Federal agents armed with a search warrant have seized the phone of John Eastman, a lawyer who advised ... Donald J. Trump on a key element of the effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election, according to a court filing by Mr. Eastman on Monday. The filing, a motion to recover property from the government, said that F.B.I. agents in New Mexico, acting on behalf of the Department of Justice's Office of the Inspector General, stopped Mr. Eastman as he was leaving a restaurant last Wednesday and seized his iPhone. A copy of the warrant included as an exhibit in Mr. Eastman's filing said that the phone would be taken to the inspector general's forensic lab in Northern Virginia. The seizure ... is the latest evidence that the Justice Department is intensifying its criminal investigation into the various strands of Mr. Trump's efforts to remain in power after he was defeated.... The seizure of Mr. Eastman's phone appears to have come on the same day that federal agents also seized the phone of Jeffrey Clark...."

What a Surprise! Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court ruled on Monday that a high school football coach had a constitutional right to pray at the 50-yard line after his team's games. The vote was 6 to 3, with the court's three liberal members in dissent. The case pitted the rights of government workers to free speech and the free exercise of their faith against the Constitution's prohibition of government endorsement of religion and the ability of public employers to regulate speech in the workplace. The decision was in tension with decades of Supreme Court precedents that forbade pressuring students to participate in religious activities. The case concerned Joseph Kennedy, an assistant coach at a public high school in Bremerton, Wash., near Seattle. For eight years, Mr. Kennedy routinely offered prayers after games, with students often joining him. He also led and participated in prayers in the locker room, a practice he later abandoned and did not defend in the Supreme Court." The AP's report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Update. The Washington Post story, which is here, is topped by a photo of Kennedy kneeling in prayer, leaning on a football, in front of the Supreme Court building. According to the caption, this display of piety took place "after the Court heard arguments." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I do hope there are some Pastafarian coaches out there writing up their 50-yard-line prayers for the coming football season.

Akhilleus the Skeptic asserts in today's thread that Rudy Giuliani may have ever-so slightly exaggerated the force of the slap on the back he got from a grocery clerk who accurately labeled Rudy a scumbag. I'll leave it to you to judge, but it looks to me as if the woman standing next to Rudy, who appears to be a friend of his, touched Rudy's back harder than did the grocery worker. Nevertheless, Rudy had the guy arrested because he thought the guy had shot him & would have knocked him down if Rudy hadn't been so fit. In my view, the worker appears to have simply tagged Rudy to make sure everyone knew who the scumbag was:

     ~~~ Related story linked below.

Michael Wines & Eliza Fawcett of the New York Times: "... a year after Attorney General Merrick B. Garland established the federal Election Threats Task Force, almost no one ... has faced punishment.... Only [one] has successfully concluded out of more than 1,000 it has evaluated. Public reports of prosecutions by state and local officials are equally sparse, despite an explosion of intimidating and even violent threats against election workers, largely since ... Donald J. Trump began spreading the lie that fraud cost him the 2020 presidential election.... The depth of election workers' fear was underscored in hearings this month by the congressional panel investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, assault at the U.S. Capitol.... [Some] experts say the lack of both action and transparency was undermining the principal goal of the task force -- to stop the epidemic of violent threats."

Matthew Goldstein of the New York Times: "The public listing of ... Donald J. Trump’s social media company took a fresh blow on Monday when the cash-rich shell company merging with Mr. Trump's company disclosed in a regulatory filing that a federal grand jury in New York recently issued subpoenas to the company and its directors. The grand jury subpoenas were issued within the past week, according to the filing by Digital World Acquisition Corporation, a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, that announced a merger with Trump Media & Technology Group in October. After the merger, Trump Media would assume Digital World's listing and trade as a public company. The disclosure by Digital World is the first indication that federal prosecutors in Manhattan have joined in the scrutiny of the merger between Digital World and Trump Media, which has been under investigation by financial regulators for months. The investigation threatens to further delay the completion of the merger, which would provide Mr. Trump's company and its social media platform, Truth Social, with up to $1.3 billion in capital, in addition to a stock market listing."

Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post thinks up some ways Susan Collins & Joe Manchin can make some substantive amends for the damage the have caused the country by voting to confirm Brett Kavanaugh. "... it is not politically or morally sufficient for Collins or Manchin to simply holler 'I was tricked!' when the rights of millions of Americans are at stake. Whether she was deceived, when a public official make an error so egregious, it is incumbent on her to fix the damage. If Collins refuses to do so, voters will draw the conclusion that she wasn't that surprised -- or that sorry -- that she enabled the destruction of women's fundamental right to reject forced birth."

Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: Especially during election years, GOP elected officials, including Donald Trump in 2020, claimed that the Supreme Court would never overturn Roe v. Wade. "On the one hand, the Republican Party has pushed for it for decades; on the other, even as it has done so, plenty within its ranks have assured that it wasn't happening. The party seemed to want the benefits of the push with its base, without the consequences of the unpopular prospect with the broader electorate. It also knew that overturning Roe was a red line for some key abortion-rights-supporting GOP senators whose votes were needed to confirm the justices who would eventually overturn Roe." Blake cites examples.

Utah. Praveena Somasundaram of the Washington Post: "A judge in Utah granted a temporary restraining order to block the state's 'trigger ban' on Monday, allowing abortion services to resume immediately. Third District Judge Andrew Stone in Salt Lake City granted a 14-day restraining order in an emergency hearing requested by the Planned Parenthood Association of Utah (PPAU).... Utah's trigger ban, which the legislature passed in 2020, prohibits abortions with limited exceptions, such as if the procedure is necessary to prevent a pregnant person's death or if a person is pregnant as a result of incest or rape."

~~~~~~~~~~

Free States & Slave States and a New Underground Railroad. Jacob Bogage & Christopher Rowland of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court decision to strike down Roe v. Wade is expected to trigger new battles between states over abortion access, as women and advocates try to get around newly enacted bans by seeking the procedure out of state and using hard-to-trace medications. The fights promise to raise tensions between states in ways not seen since the era of slavery, experts say. Multiple states, including Arizona, Arkansas and Texas, have sought to stem the flow of abortion-inducing pills by making their shipment through the mail illegal. Republican lawmakers in Missouri are considering a bill that would prohibit Missouri residents from getting an abortion out of state as well as penalize out-of-state medical professionals.... Liberal governors and legislatures are erecting legal countermeasures.... The governors of Washington and Oregon joined [California Gov. Gavin] Newsom in declaring a West Coast 'commitment to reproductive freedom' citing the intention to pass more sweeping protections, including refusals to extradite people to states with abortion bans. And hours after the Supreme Court ruling, Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker (R), a moderate Republican, issued an executive order barring state officials from assisting investigations by other states of providers, advocates and patients who obtain abortion services." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The map has expanded, adding primarily Midwestern states to the Solid South, but the Supremes' decision to rescind a Constitutional right necessarily pits state against state. This will get much worse if Clarence Thomas & his Supreme cohort overturn more Constitutional rights and return more policy supremacy -- like environmental protections -- to the states. Ironically, these Supremes seem to be showing off their god-like power by forcing women to give birth against their will, but as they continue to whittle away federally-protected rights, they will discover that the Court itself, like the federal government as a whole, will have less and less influence. It will be "supreme" over a much-diminished landscape. If the nation is to be preserved -- and I'm not sure I care that it is -- then voters will have to elect Democrats, and Democrats will have to overcome their timidity & put an end to the tyranny of the Court's majority. ~~~

     ~~~ But That Is So Not Happening. Steve Peoples & Aaron Kessler of the AP: "A political shift is beginning to take hold across the U.S. as tens of thousands of suburban swing voters who helped fuel the Democratic Party's gains in recent years are becoming Republicans. More than 1 million voters across 43 states have switched to the Republican Party over the last year, according to voter registration data analyzed = by The Associated Press. The previously unreported number reflects a phenomenon that is playing out in virtually every region of the country -- Democratic and Republican states along with cities and small towns -- in the period since President Joe Biden replaced ... Donald Trump." ~~~

     ~~~ Stephen Marche in a Guardian op-ed: "The cracks in the foundations of the United States are widening, rapidly and on several fronts. The overturning of Roe v Wade has provoked a legitimacy crisis no matter what your politics.... The right wing has been imagining a civil war, publicly, since at least the Obama administration.... The leftwing American political class, incredibly, continues to cling to its defunct institutional ideals. Democrats under Biden have wasted the past two years on fictions of bipartisanship and forlorn hopes of some kind of restoration of American trust.... This divide isn't just American. As the forces of the world split between a liberal-democratic elite and authoritarian populists, the same asymmetry can be seen in the struggle everywhere.... Republican officials will use the supreme court, or whatever other political institutions they control, to push their agenda no matter how unpopular with the American people. Meanwhile, their calls for violence ... create a climate of rage that solidifies into regular physical assaults on their enemies."

The Tryranny of Trump Lives On. Jill Colvin of the AP: "The abortion decision marked the apex in a week that reinforced [Donald Trump]'s ongoing impact in Washington more than a year and a half after he exited the White House. A court that includes three Trump-appointed conservatives also decided to weaken restrictions on gun ownership. And across the street at the Capitol, which was ravaged by a mob of Trump supporters in the final days of his presidency in 2021, new details surfaced of his gross violations of democratic norms."

Reality Chek: Where Abortions Are Legal in Theory but Unavailable in Practice. Megan Messerly of Politico: "Clinics and abortion funds in Idaho, Mississippi, North Dakota and Wyoming -- four states that have rape or incest exceptions in their abortion bans -- told Politico that while the law may allow people to terminate their pregnancy in those instances, it will likely be easier to get patients across state lines for an abortion than try to clear the hurdles associated with obtaining one legally in their home state.... Clinics planning to move their operations across state lines might leave patients in their states with no providers willing to offer abortions in cases of rape and incest. Willing providers ... may be dissuaded for fear of prosecution. And patients might not want to go through with the abortion if their state requires them or their provider to report the rape or incest to police, as is the case in Idaho, Utah and Mississippi.... Abortion rights advocates warn that so few people will be able to take advantage of the exceptions that it will be as if they didn't exist."

Pam Belluck of the New York Times: "Abortion pills, already used in more than half of recent abortions in the U.S., are becoming even more sought-after in the aftermath of Roe v. Wade being overturned, and they will likely be at the center of the legal battles that are expected to unfold as about half the states ban abortion and others take steps to increase access. The method, known as medication abortion, is authorized by the Food and Drug Administration for use in the first 10 weeks of pregnancy. It involves taking two different drugs, 24 to 48 hours apart, to stop the development of a pregnancy and then to cause contractions similar to a miscarriage to expel the fetus, a process that usually causes bleeding similar to a heavy period.... The patient must participate in the consultation from a state that allows abortion, even if it simply involves being on the phone in a car just over the border.... Medication abortion is likely to provide significant enforcement challenges....Two [Biden administration] cabinet members [-- Merrick Garland & HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra --] swiftly released statements vowing to protect the right to take medicines that had been approved by the federal government."

Matthew Haag, et al., of the New York Times: "... this year's [gay pride march in Manhattan], for all its joyous celebrations, had taken on sudden urgency and heightened significance just two days after the United States Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion and signaled that the court could reconsider other liberties, including the 2015 decision that allowed same-sex marriage.... Planned Parenthood -- which event organizers decided to place at the head of the event after the decision to overturn Roe v. Wade -- led the way as the first groups rolled down Fifth Avenue to start the 52nd annual Pride March, the first in-person parade since 2019 because of the pandemic."

** Alito Doesn't Under the Constitution. Michele Goodwin of the U.C.-Irvine law school, in a New York Times op-ed, explains the 13th & 14th Amendments to the Supreme Misogynists: "Ending the forced sexual and reproductive servitude of Black girls and women was a critical part of the passage of the 13th and 14th Amendments. The overturning of Roe v. Wade reveals the Supreme Court's neglectful reading of the amendments that abolished slavery and guaranteed all people equal protection under the law. It means the erasure of Black women from the Constitution. Mandated, forced or compulsory pregnancy contravene enumerated rights in the Constitution, namely the 13th Amendment's prohibition against involuntary servitude and protection of bodily autonomy, as well as the 14th Amendment's defense of privacy and freedom.... The horrors inflicted on Black women during slavery, especially sexual violations and forced pregnancies, have been all but wiped from cultural and legal memory." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Goodwin's essay opened my eyes, too, because in my own experience, these Amendments are taught in such a way that women's rights & slaveholders' specific abuses of women are ignored. It is not surprising that the Supreme misogynists -- and that includes Lady Phony Barrett -- feel comfy in their blinders.

The New York Times' live updates of developments in the wake of the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade are here.

Fox Dumps on Trump. Mary Papenfuss of the Huffington Post: Fox News host Brian Kilmeade attacked Donald Trump on Sunday and said he has seen no evidence that proves the former president's claims of election fraud. Kilmeade joined the growing chorus of criticism from the staunchly Trump-supporting Fox News amid reports that owner Rupert Murdoch is turning his back on Trump in favor of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) for a possible White House run in 2024. Neither Trump nor DeSantis have announced that they're running.... Last Tuesday, Fox anchor Martha MacCallum called out the 'stunning' absence of proof to support Trump's election fraud claims during the hearing about the Jan. 6, 2021 attack. Two days later, Fox anchor Bret Baier praised the Republican election officials and members of Trump&'s own administration who stood up to his bogus election claims. Both The New York Post and The Wall Street Journal have also launched attacks on Trump in scathing editorials.... In an opinion piece in the Post, longtime Murdoch employee Piers Morgan called Trump an 'aging, raging gorilla who's become a whiny, democracy-defying bore.'"

Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "One week before scores of Proud Boys helped lead a pro-Trump mob in a violent assault on the Capitol last year, Enrique Tarrio, the chairman of the group, and some of his top lieutenants held a foul-mouthed video conference with a handpicked crew of members.... The team of several dozen trusted members was intended, Mr. Tarrio told his men, to bring a level of order and professionalism to the group's upcoming march in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021, that had, by his own account, been missing at earlier Proud Boys rallies in the city. Over nearly two hours, Mr. Tarrio and his leadership team -- many of whom have since been charged with seditious conspiracy -- gave the new recruits a series of directives: Adopt a defensive posture on Jan. 6, they were told. Keep the 'normies' -- or the normal protesters -- away from the Proud Boys' marching ranks. And obey police lines.... There was one overriding problem with the orders: None of them were actually followed when the Proud Boys stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6. Far from holding back, members of the far-right group played aggressive roles in several breaches at the Capitol, moving in coordination and often taking the lead in removing police barricades.... Lawyers for the Proud Boys say the recorded meeting is a key piece of exculpatory evidence...."

He's Ba-a-a-c-k! Stuart Thompson of the New York Times: "After more than a year of silence, the mysterious figure behind the QAnon conspiracy theory has reappeared. The figure, who is known only as Q, posted for the first time in over a year on Friday on 8kun, the anonymous message board where the account last appeared.'Shall we play the game again?' a post read in the account's typical cryptic style. The account that posted had a unique identifier used on previous Q posts. The posts ... signaled the ominous return of a figure whose conspiracy theories about an imaginary ring of elite sex traffickers marshaled support for ... Donald J. Trump. Message boards and Telegram channels devoted to QAnon lit up with the news, as followers speculated about the meaning of Q's return."

Beyond the Beltway

New York. Nick Visser of the Huffington Post: "A worker at a grocery store in New York was arrested after slapping Rudy Giuliani on the back and calling him a 'scumbag' during a campaign event Sunday for his son, a GOP candidate for governor. The incident, which was initially cast as an assault, was shared in video footage in the hours after the encounter at a ShopRite store on Staten Island. A man wearing a mask is seen walking by Giuliani before hitting him on the back with an outstretched hand. It's unclear how hard the man slapped the former New York City mayor, who looked surprised by the encounter but didn't seem to be physically reeling.... Giuliani quickly moved to label the incident as an assault and the man was taken into custody at the scene. 'All of the sudden I feel a shot on my back, like somebody shot me. I went forward but luckily I didn't fall down,' he recounted on The Curtis Silwa Show. 'Lucky I'm a 78-year-old in pretty good shape because if I wasn't I'd've hit the ground and probably cracked my skull.'"

Way Beyond

Ukraine, et al.

Martin Ferrer of the Guardian & Agencies: "Russia is poised to default on its debt for the first time since 1998, further alienating the country from the global financial system after sanctions imposed over its war in Ukraine. The country missed a deadline of Sunday night to meet a 30-day grace period on interest payments of $100m (£81.2m) on two eurobonds due originally on 27 May, Bloomberg reported on Monday morning. Some Taiwanese holders of Russian eurobonds said on Monday that they had not received interest payments due, two sources told Reuters."

Zeke Miller, et al., of the AP: "Leading economic powers conferred by video link with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday as they underscored their commitment to Ukraine for the long haul with plans to pursue a price cap on Russian oil, raise tariffs on Russian goods and impose other new sanctions. In addition, the U.S. was preparing to announce the purchase of an advanced surface-to-air missile system for Kyiv to help Ukraine fight back against Vladimir Putin's aggression.... [President] Biden is expected to announce the U.S, is purchasing NASAMS, a Norwegian-developed anti-aircraft system, to provide medium- to long-range defense, according to the person familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity."

The Washington Post's live updates of developments Monday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "Leaders from the Group of Seven, the world's wealthiest democracies, are gathered in Bavaria, Germany, and set to discuss on Monday the Russian invasion. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been invited to join and will participate remotely, according to the European Council. Russia hit the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, with a barrage of missile strikes on Sunday, in what was 'likely a direct response to Western leaders discussing aid to Ukraine' at the summit, analysts from the Institute for the Study of War said.... The same day, Russia defaulted on its foreign currency debt for the first time in more than a century.... Russia is attempting to draw Belarus more directly into the war, according to Ukrainian officials, who said Saturday marked the first time that Russia fired missiles from Belarusian airspace." ~~~

~~~ From a WashPo live update item: "In a conference call with reporters, a senior administration official said the G-7 leaders were still finalizing the details but were 'very close' to urgently directing their nation's relevant ministers to create a system to set a global price cap for Russian oil shipments to countries outside the European Union, the United Kingdom, the United States and the broader G-7. The goal here is to starve Russia, starve [... Vladimir] Putin, of his main source of cash and force down the price of Russian oil to help blunt the impact of Putin's war at the pump,' the official said, speaking anonymously...." ~~~

~~~ Jim Tankersley of the New York Times: "Leaders of the Group of 7 nations said Sunday they would stop buying gold from Moscow and discussed a new American proposal to undercut its oil revenues, even as Russian forces rained missiles on Kyiv for the first time in weeks. The dueling escalation underscored how the war in Ukraine has consumed global politics and the world economy. President Biden and the British government said members of the Group of 7 -- Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Britain and the United States -- would move on Tuesday to ban imports of Russian gold. Representatives for the assembled countries were also negotiating toward an agreement to buy Russian oil only at a steep discount. American officials see both the gold import ban and the possible oil price cap as ways to undercut key sources of revenue for Moscow's war effort and further isolate it from the international financial system.... Supporters of the [cheap oil] idea, among them some top economic officials in Ukraine, say it would lead other nations currently buying Russian oil at a discount, like India and China, to demand even lower prices from Moscow.... The plan could prove ineffective, particularly if the price cap is set too low."

The New York Times' live updates Monday of Russia's war on Ukraine are here. The Guardian's live updates for Monday are here. The Guardian's summary report is here.

Useless News. Ashley Parker, et al., of the Washington Post: "'Jackets on? Jackets off? Shall we take our clothes off?' Prime Minister Boris Johnson asked, ostensibly wondering how the leaders should dress for an unofficial photo before their lunch meeting began. 'We all have to show that we're tougher than Putin,' the British leader joked at the summit site in Schloss Elmau, Germany.... 'We're going to get the bare-chested horseback riding display,' quipped Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau...." The Hill's report is here. MB: As a personal point of preference, make that Trudeau Oui, Johnson Non, Non, Non.

U.K. A Prince, A Sheik & a Suitcase Full of Cash. Max Foster & Karen Smith of CNN: "Clarence House said Prince Charles received charitable donations and the correct processes were followed regarding those donations after a British newspaper reported the Prince of Wales once accepted a suitcase containing €1 million ($1.05 million) in cash from a Qatari politician. According to the Sunday Times, the suitcase containing €1 million in cash was one of three lots of cash he personally received, totaling €3 million, from former Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani between 2011 and 2015."

June 26, 2022

Afternoon Update:

Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "One week before scores of Proud Boys helped lead a pro-Trump mob in a violent assault on the Capitol last year, Enrique Tarrio, the chairman of the group, and some of his top lieutenants held a foul-mouthed video conference with a handpicked crew of members.... The team of several dozen trusted members was intended, Mr. Tarrio told his men, to bring a level of order and professionalism to the group's upcoming march in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021, that had, by his own account, been missing at earlier Proud Boys rallies in the city. Over nearly two hours, Mr. Tarrio and his leadership team -- many of whom have since been charged with seditious conspiracy -- gave the new recruits a series of directives: Adopt a defensive posture on Jan. 6, they were told. Keep the 'normies' -- or the normal protesters -- away from the Proud Boys' marching ranks. And obey police lines.... There was one overriding problem with the orders: None of them were actually followed when the Proud Boys stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6. Far from holding back, members of the far-right group played aggressive roles in several breaches at the Capitol, moving in coordination and often taking the lead in removing police barricades.... Lawyers for the Proud Boys say the recorded meeting is a key piece of exculpatory evidence...."

Stuart Thompson of the New York Times: "After more than a year of silence, the mysterious figure behind the QAnon conspiracy theory has reappeared. The figure, who is known only as Q, posted for the first time in over a year on Friday on 8kun, the anonymous message board where the account last appeared. 'Shall we play the game again?' a post read in the account's typical cryptic style. The account that posted had a unique identifier used on previous Q posts. The posts ... signaled the ominous return of a figure whose conspiracy theories about an imaginary ring of elite sex traffickers marshaled support for ... Donald J. Trump. Message boards and Telegram channels devoted to QAnon lit up with the news, as followers speculated about the meaning of Q's return."

~~~~~~~~~~

Six Privileged Bigots Complicated/Ruined the Lives of American Women. Quoctrung Bui, et al., of the New York Times: "At the start of the month, nearly all women in America lived within a few hours' drive of an abortion clinic. But with Roe v. Wade overturned, and the constitutional right to an abortion ended, clinics are quickly closing in huge swaths of the country. Now a new set of political fights will begin, playing out in state legislatures and courthouses across America. By the time they are done, a quarter of U.S. women of reproductive age could have to travel more than 200 miles to obtain a legal abortion. Under the farthest-reaching scenarios, that number could rise to nearly half. The longer the distance to the nearest clinic, the fewer women make the trip, research has shown.... Abortion may also become harder to obtain even in states where it remains legal, because clinics may be overwhelmed with out-of-state patients." Includes maps....

Caroline Kitchener of the Washington Post: "On the heels of their greatest victory, antiabortion activists are eager to capitalize on their momentum by enshrining constitutional abortion bans, pushing Congress to pass a national prohibition, blocking abortion pills, and limiting people's ability to get abortions across state lines. At the National Association of Christian Lawmakers conference in Branson, Mo., on Friday several dozen state legislators from across the country brainstormed ideas -- all in agreement that their wildly successful movement would not end with Roe v. Wade.... Former vice president Mike Pence and other GOP leaders have called for a national ban."

Karin Bruillard of the Washington Post: "In interviews, many Americans described alarm that a nation proud of its hard-won expansion of protections for people never acknowledged by its White, male founders had begun to feel more like an unfamiliar land where established rights may melt away in its highest court.... 'It's like we've woken up in the 1950s,' said Madison David, 26..., of Madison, Wis.... The majority opinion, written by Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., rested on the view that the individual liberties guaranteed by the 14th Amendment protect only rights that had 'deep roots' in states when it was ratified in 1868 - a time when abortion was prohibited in many states.... [Clarence] Thomas said precedents establishing rights to contraception, same-sex marriage and same-sex intimacy should be reconsidered. And the dissenting opinion, penned by the court's three liberals..., wrote [that those other rights], are 'all part of the same constitutional fabric,' noting that 19th century laws also did not protect the Supreme Court-recognized rights to interracial marriage or to not be sterilized without consent."

Silvia Foster-Frau of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court's ruling overturning a constitutional right to abortion sent fear through the LGBTQ community Friday, after the release of the decision set out potential targets: Supreme Court cases legalizing same-sex intimacy and marriage.... 'In future cases, we should reconsider all of this court's substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence and Obergefell,' [Clarence] Thomas said in his concurring opinion. 'We have a duty to "correct the error" established in those precedents.'... In the abortion ruling, Justice Samuel Alito argued any rights that are 'unenumerated' -- or not laid out --- in the Constitution can't be recognized as a fundamental right in the country unless they are 'deeply rooted in this Nation's history and tradition.'"; Read through. Heartbreaking.

Jonathan Weisman & Jasmine Ulloa of the New York Times: "Even as leaders of conservative advocacy groups celebrated a landmark victory on Friday [-- the Supreme Court's overturning Roe v. Wade --] decades in the making, they said that they were already gearing up for the next phase of the battle in statehouses and state Supreme Courts. Thirteen states have so-called trigger laws designed to effectively ban abortion in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade.... In many states, including Wisconsin, Ohio, Georgia and Florida, abortion's new battleground is decidedly unlevel, tilted by years of Republican efforts to gerrymander state legislatures while Democrats largely focused on federal politics. As abortion becomes illegal in half of the country, democratic self-governance may be nearly out of reach for some voters. By neutralizing federal rights and powers, the Supreme Court is turning states into battle zones. That goes beyond abortion and includes voting, immigration and civil rights. And if, as expected, the court restricts the federal government's ability to regulate carbon dioxide, state governments, stepping in for a gridlocked Congress, will be left to address climate change as well." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Do you know who your state legislators are? I don't. ~~~

     ~~~ What the Supremes are laying out, if Weisman & Ulloa's assessment is correct, is a sort of slow-rolling secession, a "revolution" where in most matters, states are not subject to federal law. As the extremist, right-wing Supreme Court and nincompoor-dominated state legislatures take over governance of the country, the nation as a whole is only going to slip further & further into third-world territory. I predict that one of those ways the country will become an unstable mess, is that it will descend into relative lawlessness. Not just criminals, but ordinary people, will simply decide that laws passed by bigots & nitwits are not worth obeying. People are just not going to accept abiding by laws stuck in the 1860s. Meanwhile, the name of our country -- United States -- has become cemented as a cruel irony.

Sam Alito Always Resented You Sexy Ladies. Charlie Savage of the New York Times: In, 1985, "In a memo offering advice on two pending cases that challenged state laws regulating abortion, [Samuel] Alito[, then a DoJ lawyer,] advocated focusing on [an] ... incremental argument [to address Roe]: The court should uphold the regulations as reasonable. That strategy would 'advance the goals of bringing about the eventual overruling of Roe v. Wade and, in the meantime, of mitigating its effects.'... Later that year, Mr. Alito ... [wrote,] 'I personally believe very strongly ... [that] the Constitution does not protect a right to an abortion.'... More than three decades later, Justice Alito has fulfilled that vision, cementing his place in history as the author of a consequential ruling overturning Roe, along with a 1992 precedent that reaffirmed that decision, Planned Parenthood v. Casey.... He slowly and patiently sought to chip away at abortion rights throughout his career before demolishing them in the majority opinion on Friday."

... the current majority's approach is itself a kind of undead constitutionalism -- one in which the dictates of the Constitution retrospectively shift with whatever Fox News happens to be furious about. -- Adam Serwer of the Atlantic ~~~

~~~ Scott Lemieux in LG&$: "Judges -- much less their clerks -- are not historians and have no ability to do real history. But they are capable of finding enough historical factoids to adorn every assertion that the Constitution enacted Mr. Tucker Carlson's most recent opening monologue. That's the only 'grand theory' of constitutional interpretation you need be aware of."

Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times: "The Constitution provides a number of paths by which Congress can restrain and discipline a rogue court. It can impeach and remove justices. It can increase or decrease the size of the court itself (at its inception, the Supreme Court had only six members). It can strip the court of its jurisdiction over certain issues or it can weaken its power of judicial review by requiring a supermajority of justices to sign off on any decision that overturns a law. Congress can also rebuke the court with legislation that simply cancels the decision in question.... [Yet] despite the arrogance of the current Supreme Court -- despite its almost total lack of democratic legitimacy -- there is little to no appetite within the Democratic Party for a fight over the nature of the court and its place in our constitutional system."

     ~~~ Marie: Yeah, and how about setting their salaries at $1/year?

Max Boot of the Washington Post: The founders were worried about the tyranny of the majority, but they also were concerned about the tyranny of the minority. "In Federalist No. 22, Alexander Hamilton warned that giving small states like Rhode Island or Delaware 'equal weight in the scale of power' with large states like 'Massachusetts, or Connecticut, or New York' violated the precepts of 'justice' and 'common-sense.' Hamilton's nightmare has become the reality of 21st-century America. We are living under minoritarian tyranny, with smaller states imposing their views on the larger through their disproportionate sway in the Senate and the electoral college -- and therefore on the Supreme Court.... Twenty-one states with fewer total people than California have 42 Senate seats.... It is hard for any disinterested observer to have any faith in what the right-wing justices are doing.... ~~~

"Conservatives can plausibly argue that liberal justices invented a constitutional right to abortion, but how is that different from what conservative justices have done in inventing an individual right to carry guns that is also nowhere to be found in the Constitution? The Supreme Court did not recognize an individual right to bear arms until 2008 -- 217 years after the Second Amendment was enacted expressly to protect 'well-regulated' state militia.... The majority conveniently favors state's rights on abortion but not on guns. It is obvious that the conservative justices ... are simply enacting their personal preferences, just as liberal justices ... do."~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Boot is a conservative. So what he doesn't write about is the essential difference between liberal & confederate prejudice: generally, the Court's liberals (and that has included some appointed by Republican presidents) lean toward expanding human rights and increasing public safety; i.e., providing that potential victims of violence can instead enjoy the Declaration's "inalienable rights" to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." The Court's right-wing extremists favor making life easier for mass murderers (mostly, but not exclusively, white guys) and making it harder for women, minorities & the poor.

David Savage of the New York Times: President "Biden returns to Europe on Saturday night at a moment when everything about the war [in Ukraine] is [difficult]. While Russia's oil exports have fallen precipitously, its revenues have actually been on the rise, a function of soaring fuel prices. After concentrating its efforts in Ukraine's south and east, Russia is making incremental but significant gains, as the Ukrainians, surrounded, begin to give up key cities: first Mariupol, and now, in the east, Sievierodonetsk. So Mr. Biden must prepare his allies for a grinding conflict -- a return to the 'long, twilight struggle' that President John F. Kennedy talked about during the Cold War -- amid shocks in the food and energy markets, and inflation on a scale few imagined six months ago. Not surprisingly, a few cracks are already emerging, as popular discontent, and coming elections, begin to worry allied leaders." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Donald Judd of CNN: "President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law the first major federal gun safety legislation passed in decades, marking a significant bipartisan breakthrough on one of the most contentious policy issues in Washington.... In his remarks Saturday, the President announced he'd host members of Congress who supported the landmark gun safety legislation at a White House event on July 11, following his return from Europe, to celebrate the new law with the families of gun violence victims. The package represents the most significant new federal legislation to address gun violence since the expired 10-year assault weapons ban of 1994 -- though it fails to ban any weapons and falls far short of what Biden and his party had advocated for, and polls show most Americans want to see." A New York Times report is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

Natasha Korecki of NBC News: "U.S. Rep. Mary Miller [R-Ill.] immediately drew fierce backlash on social media and elsewhere at a Saturday night rally with ... Donald Trump when she credited him for the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade calling it a 'victory for white life.'... [The crowd cheered.] 'You can clearly see she is reading off a piece of paper, she meant to say "right to life,"' Miller spokesman Isaiah Wartman said.... The statement unleashed a forceful rebuke on social media, likening Miller to a white supremacist and recalling her quoting Adolf Hitler on Jan. 6, 2021 -- the day a mob broke into the nation's Capitol. She later apologized.... The Trump rally drew thousands of people on Saturday...." MB: Sorry, Mary You're-So-White, you can pretend you're Elmer Fudd & pronounce your Rs as Ws, but a reasonable person would call that a Freudian slip.

Ryan Goodman, Norman Eisen & Barbara McQuade in a Washington Post op-ed: "For a number of the possible crimes the [January 6] committee has identified, it doesn't matter what Trump believed about the election. Focusing on that aspect misses the true test of criminal intent. He still had no legal right to use forged electoral certificates or to pressure election officials in Georgia to 'find 11,780 votes' that did not exist, or to engage in other extralegal means to try t hold onto power. That includes pressuring the vice president to assume powers he didn't have. State and federal criminal laws prohibit these things. Vigilante justice is against the law, even if you (wrongly) believe you are a victim." MB: IOW, if you believe "I wuz robbed," or even if you really wuz robbed, you cannot commit or participate in illegal acts to get what you think is a fair & just outcome.

Way Beyond the Beltway

Ukraine, et al. The Washington Post's live updates of developments Sunday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky remained defiant in the face of what military analysts called an 'abnormally large' barrage of nearly 50 Russian missile strikes across Ukraine on Saturday.... Moscow is closing in on the city of Lysychansk, on the bank of the Donets River opposite the strategically important city of Severodonetsk, which Russia captured last week in one of its biggest wins since it launched its offensive in Donbas nearly three months ago. If Lysychansk falls, it would give Russia almost complete control of the eastern Luhansk region."

Jim Tankersley of the New York Times: "The United States and other Group of 7 countries >will ban imports of gold from Russia, seeking to undercut a key source of revenue for Moscow as it wages war in Ukraine, President Biden said on Sunday as G7 leaders gathered in the Bavarian Alps.... A senior administration official told reporters that the move would be formally announced on Tuesday, and that it would help to further isolate Russia from the international financial system."

Norway. Henrik Libell & Mike Ives of the New York Times: "A 10-day Pride festival in Norway was cut short on Saturday after an early-morning shooting left two people dead and at least 10 others seriously wounded outside a popular gay club in downtown Oslo. The police are investigating the attack as an act of terrorism. The shooting, on a warm summer night that saw streets filled with revelers, came hours before Oslo was set to host big crowds for its first Pride parade since 2019. The event's organizers canceled the parade and the rest of the festival, which was to run through Monday, at the suggestion of the police." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)