The Commentariat -- July 9, 2021

Late Morning Update:

David McCabe & Cecilia Kang of the New York Times: "President Biden on Friday will encourage federal agencies to crack down on the way major tech companies grow through mergers and gain a competitive advantage by leveraging reams of consumer data, as part of a larger executive order aimed at dispersing corporate consolidation throughout the economy. The executive order includes several measures specifically targeting big tech companies like Google, Facebook, Apple and Amazon, people with knowledge of its contents said."

Maria Sacchetti of the Washington Post: "U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement will no longer detain most pregnant, nursing and postpartum women for deportation, reversing a Trump-era rule that permitted officials to jail thousands of immigrants in those circumstances, according to a new policy to be released Friday. ICE's new policy is even more expansive than it was during the Obama era, when President Biden was vice president. The Obama administration generally exempted pregnant women from immigration detention, but the Biden administration is also including women who gave birth within the prior year and those who are nursing, which could last longer than a year." The Hill's story is here.

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

Fear of "Needle Nazis." Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "It has been three days since President Biden announced an initiative to send people door-to-door trying to get more people vaccinated, and Republicans and their conservative media allies have wasted no time turning those door-knockers into terrifying straw men.... Republican members of Congress and conservative talkers have wrongly pitched the effort as forced vaccination -- even repeatedly invoking the Nazis -- and lodged baseless suggestions that it would be done using illegally obtained medical information. Others have suggested it's something akin to government coercion or even a precursor to gun confiscation.... [After] Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) ... compar[ed] the effort to 'medical brown shirts showing up at their door ordering vaccinations.'..., Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) took to Twitter the next day to offer her own Nazi comparison, labeling the door-knockers 'needle Nazis.'... Fox News host Tucker Carlson also wrongly pitched this effort as being about forcing vaccinations." ~~~

     ~~~ See also related story re: Missouri governor linked under "The Pandemic, Ctd."

Jack Jenkins of Religion News Service: In the U.S., "white Christians ... have expanded their share of the population, particularly white mainline Protestants. That group sits at 16.4%, an increase from 13% in 2016, whereas white evangelicals ... now represent about 14.5% of the population, down from a peak of 23% in 2006. White Catholics now hover around 11.7%, up from a 2018 low of 10.9%.... The percentage of white Christians ticked up overall, rising from 42% in 2018 to 44% in 2020.... Even with these small gains, however, white Christians have shrunk dramatically as a proportion of the population over the past few decades, having represented 54% of the population as recently as 2006.... Religiously unaffiliated Americans, or 'nones' in religion demography parlance, have lost ground, making up just 23% of the country. The complex group -- which includes atheists, agnostics and some people who say they pray daily but don't claim a specific faith tradition -- peaked at 25.5% of the population in 2018." ~~~

~~~ ** Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: "The presidency of George W. Bush may have been the high point of the modern Christian right’s influence in America.... But the evangelicals who thought they were about to take over America were destined for disappointment.... From this fact derives much of our country's cultural conflict. It helps explain not just the rise of Donald Trump, but also the growth of QAnon and even the escalating conflagration over critical race theory.... QAnon is essentially a millenarian movement, with Trump taking the place of Jesus.... [As for those who are anti-C.R.T.,] the idea that public schools are corrupting children by leading them away from a providential understanding of American history has deep roots in white evangelical culture.... I was frightened by the religious right in its triumphant phase. But it turns out that the movement is just as dangerous in decline.... It didn't take long for the cocky optimism of Generation Joshua to give way to the nihilism of the Jan. 6 insurrectionists. If they can't own the country, they're ready to defile it."

Steve Thompson & Amy Wang of the Washington Post: "Attorneys general in four states are looking into the online fundraising practices of both major political parties.... The practices being examined include the use of pre-checked boxes that lock in recurring donations from political donors who may not intend to sign up for more than one contribution, according to an April 29 letter included in a court filing Wednesday by WinRed, a fundraising platform for GOP committees and campaigns. WinRed is asking the U.S. District Court in Minnesota to stop the investigations by the attorneys general of Minnesota, Connecticut, Maryland and New York, arguing that consumer protection statutes that the attorneys general may try to enforce are preempted by federal law. Identical letters were sent to WinRed and ActBlue, a fundraising platform for Democrats, according to a person familiar with the inquiry...."

The New York Times' live updates of developments in Haiti Friday are here: "Two Americans arrested in connection with the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse of Haiti this week said that they were not in the room when he was killed and that they had worked only as translators for the hit squad, a Haitian judge said on Friday. Clément Noël, a judge who is involved with the investigation and who interviewed both men soon after their arrest, said that neither was injured in the assault."

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John Wagner, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Biden said Thursday that the country had accomplished its objectives in Afghanistan of killing Osama bin Laden and undercutting al-Qaeda's ability to launch more attacks on the United States as he defended his decision to bring a 20-year war to an end. Biden, during a White House speech, was defiant in the face of gains by the Taliban since he announced a planned U.S. troop withdrawal in April and said the Afghan people needed to dictate their own future. 'We did not go to Afghanistan to nation-build,' Biden said.... 'I will not send another generation of Americans to war in Afghanistan with no reasonable expectation of achieving a different outcome.'... Biden also pledged to evacuate thousands of interpreters who served alongside troops in Afghanistan, as well as their families." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

Jonathan Lemire, et al., of the AP: "Facing a call to 'save American democracy,' the Biden administration on Thursday unveiled new efforts to help protect voting rights amid growing complaints from civil rights activists and other Democrats that the White House has not done enough to fight attempts by Republican-led state legislatures to restrict access to the ballot. President Joe Biden met with civil rights leaders in the West Wing, while Vice President Kamala Harris announced $25 million in new spending by the Democratic National Committee to support efforts to protect voting access ahead of the 2022 midterm elections.... The president last week told reporters that he planned on 'speaking extensively' on voting rights and that he would be 'going on the road on this issue.' So far, a major speech has not happened and a trip has not occurred, leading to rising frustration from those in his own party who view the GOP crackdown on voting rights as an existential threat to both Democrats and democracy." ~~~

~~~ Matt Viser of the Washington Post: "Several top civil rights leaders, in what was described as a 'a very candid, no-holds-barred meeting' that stretched nearly two hours, urged President Biden on Thursday to take more assertive action to combat Republican efforts to change voting laws around the country. While several of the civil rights leaders described Biden as one of their allies, they also pressed him to do more, speak louder and make voting rights a central priority. Their exasperation with waiting on Washington to act was evident as they also pledged to embark on 'a summer of activism, a summer of getting back in the streets,' evoking the 1960s movement that helped lead to the Voting Rights Act."

Josh Gerstein & Kyle Cheney of Politico: "The Justice Department has agreed to pay $6.1 million to a technology contractor to create a massive database of videos, photographs, documents and social media posts related to the Capitol riot as part of the process of turning relevant evidence over to defense attorneys for the more than 500 people facing criminal charges in the Jan. 6 events, according to a court filing and government records. To take on the daunting task, the federal government has turned to Deloitte Financial Advisory Services, a firm prosecutors called 'a litigation support vendor with extensive experience providing complex litigation technology services.' Prosecutors are trying to organize thousands of hours of body-worn camera footage, closed-circuit surveillance camera footage, more than a million social media videos, data from phones and email accounts, and the responses to more than 6,000 grand jury subpoenas, according to a court filing Thursday."

William Booth & Rachel Weiner of the Washington Post: "Should he be convicted of espionage in Virginia federal court, the United States has offered that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange could serve his sentence in Australia, a British court said Wednesday. The assurance came as the Justice Department seeks to extradite Assange from London, where he is currently in custody. A judge in Britain blocked his transfer to the United States in January, ruling that he was at extreme risk of suicide and might not be protected from harming himself in a federal prison. Now, the United States has been granted an appeal before Britain's High Court, on the grounds that the lower-court judge did not hear assurances of how Assange would be treated in American custody.... Should he serve time in a U.S. facility, the government pledged that Assange would not be held in total isolation or imprisoned at a 'Supermax' facility in Colorado."

Jeff Stein, et al., of the Washington Post: "Congressional Democrats and Republicans have agreed to increase funding for the Internal Revenue Service so that the agency can bring in more tax revenue, hoping the money can help pay down some of the infrastructure package's expected price tag. The early contours of the infrastructure blueprint have won the White House's support, but the IRS provision in particular is drawing opposition from well-funded conservative groups, which are strongly opposed to expanding the reach of a tax-collection agency that they long have alleged is politically motivated.... They are preparing a letter that warns Republicans should not negotiate with the White House unless they agree to 'no additional funding for the Internal Revenue Service.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Rebecca Robbins & Pam Belluck of the New York Times: "Under fire for approving a questionable drug for all Alzheime's patients, the Food and Drug Administration on Thursday greatly narrowed its previous recommendation and is now suggesting that only those with mild memory or thinking problems should receive it. The reversal, highly unusual for a drug that has been available for only a few weeks, is likely to reduce the approximate number of Americans who are eligible for the treatment to 1.5 million from six million. The approval of Aduhelm early last month was one of the most contentious F.D.A. decisions in years."

Jan Hoffman of the New York Times: "Fifteen states have reached an agreement with Purdue Pharma, the maker of the prescription painkiller OxyContin, that would pave the way toward a $4.5 billion settlement of thousands of opioid cases. The states decided late Wednesday to drop their opposition to Purdue's bankruptcy reorganization plan, in exchange for a release of millions of documents and an additional $50 million from members of the Sackler family, the company's owners. The agreement was contained in a late-night filing by a mediator in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in White Plains, N.Y. The settlement extracts concessions that will be added to a comprehensive proposal now being voted upon by more than 3,000 plaintiffs, including cities, counties, tribes and states, who sought to hold Purdue and its owners responsible for their role in the opioid epidemic. More than 500,000 Americans have died from overdoses of prescription and illegal opioids." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Oh, Lordy, Don't Tell the Kids about the 3/5ths Provision. Greg Sargent of the Washington Post: "Sen. Tom Cotton is calling for the firing of a U.S. Air Force Academy professor after she admitted to discussing critical race theory with cadets. But even a cursory look at the Arkansas Republican's slimy argument shows how full of holes it really is. This episode sheds light on a larger absurdity about this whole debate. Republicans keep telling us the mere discussion of such topics risks weakening our country.... Cotton and other Republicans are unloading over this op-ed piece in The Post by Lynne Chandler García, an associate professor of political science at the Air Force Academy. In it, García says she teaches critical race theory as an 'academic framework' to analyze the fact that the founding and its documents harbored a 'duality' between ideals of equality and realities of inequality and slavery.... This is all anodyne stuff. The idea that the founding harbored that 'duality' doesn't seem controversial.... What makes this so ridiculous is that generally speaking, such self-scrutiny is something you want institutions to undertake." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: If that so-called professor were worth her salt, she'd be leading an Air Force cadets all-male a capella glee club in heartfelt renditions of "Dixie" and "Swanee Ribber." Still longing for de old plantation.

Even Trump's Adversaries Are Grifters. Kevin Draper of the New York Times: "Michael Avenatti, the lawyer who rose to national prominence while representing the pornographic film actress Stormy Daniels in her lawsuits against ... Donald J. Trump, was sentenced on Thursday to two and a half years in prison and three years of supervised release by Judge Paul G. Gardephe in federal court in Manhattan. Avenatti was convicted in February 2020 of trying to extort more than $20 million from the apparel giant Nike, but his sentencing was delayed because of the coronavirus pandemic." Aventatti fought back tears as he told the judge how sorry he was. CNBC's report is here. It has Avenatti "weeping." MB: "But more than anything else I'm sorry for myself...."

The Wall Street Journal publishes an adaptation from Michael Bender's book about the last days of Trump's presidency*. I've linked the page, but of course it's subscriber-firewalled. If you can't access it from this link, you might be able to get it via Google, as I did.

After This ~~~

~~~ This. Lachlan Markay of Axios: "Toyota has announced it will cease donations to Republicans who objected to the certification of President Biden's electoral college victory.... The company revealed its decision, first reported by the Detroit News, in a statement on Thursday, saying it understood that its PAC's donations to those objectors, which far outpaced those of any other company, 'troubled some stakeholders.' Toyota's statement came less than two weeks after Axios reported the Japanese automaker donated $55,000 to 37 election objectors, the most of any corporate PAC by a significant margin." The Washington Post's story, by Amy Wang, is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Sky Palma of the Raw Story: "This Thursday, the anti-Trump conservative PAC Lincoln Project released a new ad targeting Toyota for being part of a string of corporations 'lavishing massive campaign donations on Republicans who tried to overturn the 2020 election and who now seek to cover up the January 6th attack on the Capitol.'... Toyota announced on the same day the ad was released that it will stop contributing to members of Congress who opposed the election certification." ~~~

~~~ BUT. Karl Evers-Hillstrom of the Hill: "Six months after the Capitol attack, only a small number of powerful corporations have made good on their pledge to suspend PAC donations to the 147 Republican lawmakers who voted against certifying the 2020 election results. Among the 10 biggest corporate PAC donors that pledged to pause their contributions to election objectors, Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Verizon have followed through on their promises, according to the most recent Federal Election Commission filings. Other top PACs that vowed to withhold contributions, such as AT&T, Comcast, General Electric, Home Depot, Pfizer and Walmart, have been bankrolling party committees or leadership PACs that can easily funnel campaign cash to election objectors. Those company PACs have not made direct donations to the lawmakers" campaigns."

Clothilde Goujard of Politico: "Violent videos and misinformation are amplified by YouTube's algorithm, despite the company's rules meant to limit their spread, according to a Mozilla Foundation report published July 7. The foundation -- a nonprofit that advocates on privacy issues -- found 71 percent of all videos that volunteers reported as disturbing were recommended by the video-sharing platform's algorithm. They included conspiracies about 9/11 and the coronavirus pandemic, as well as the promotion of white supremacy. Researchers also found that people in non-English speaking countries were more likely to encounter videos they considered disturbing, indicating that YouTube's efforts to better police its platforms have been uneven." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Apparently it depends a lot upon what you usually search for. When I call up YouTube, as I do daily, I get Biden speeches & tours of tiny houses built by environmentalists. Not much violence there.

The Pandemic, Ctd.

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

Li Cohen of CBS News: "Pfizer announced on Thursday that its COVID vaccine booster shot could further protect individuals from 'all currently known variants' of COVID-19 -- including the highly transmittable Delta variant. The booster shot is currently undergoing trials, the company said, and has shown 'encouraging clinical trial data in a small number of participants in our study.'"

Lauren Aratani of the Guardian: "More than nine out of 10 Americans who died from Covid-19 in the US in June were unvaccinated, according to Dr Anthony Fauci -- a statistic that health officials say is especially concerning given the prevalence of vaccine hesitancy in some regions and the rise of the Delta variant.... Cases are rising in nearly half the states as low vaccination rates are being met with the more transmissible and severe Delta or B.1.617.2, variant, identified in India in December 2020. Vaccinations administered in the US have shown to be effective against the Delta variant, though it poses serious risks to those who remain unvaccinated. The variant is already the dominant strain of Covid-19 in the country, accounting for more than 50% of all new US cases and up to 80% of cases in some regions, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data released Tuesday." ~~~

~~~ SO ... Missouri. Heather Hollingsworth of the AP: "... Missouri Gov. Mike Parson said he doesn't want government employees going door-to-door in his state to urge people to get vaccinated, even as a COVID-19 outbreak overwhelms some hospitals. Missouri asked for help last week from newly formed federal 'surge response' teams as it combats an influx of cases that public health officials are blaming on fast-spreading delta variant and deep-seated concerns about the vaccine. After President Joe Biden mentioned the possibility of door-to-door promotion of the vaccine, Parson tweeted: 'I have directed our health department to let the federal government know that sending government employees or agents door-to-door to compel vaccination would NOT be an effective OR a welcome strategy in Missouri!'... 'We know there's a vast number of people that is hesitant to take the vaccine,' Parson said. 'That is what we all should be working together trying to find a solution to get more vaccine in more people's arms, not trying to force people to take it. Not trying to scare them into it....'... Jeffrey Zeints, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, said Thursday that the best people to promote vaccinations are 'local trusted messengers' like doctors, faith leaders and community leaders, who may go door to door."

Japan. Ben Dooley of the New York Times: "Olympic organizers said on Thursday that they would bar spectators from most events at the Games scheduled to open in two weeks, a decision that followed the declaration of a new state of emergency in Tokyo in response to a sudden spike in coronavirus cases. Officials have long insisted that they can hold the Tokyo Games safely amid a pandemic. Last month, they announced that they would allow domestic spectators at the events despite public fears that the Games could become a petri dish for new variants of the virus." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Beyond the Beltway

Florida. Bobby Calvan & Steven Sloan of the AP: In the wake of the Surfside condominium collapse tragedy, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) tones down the Trumpiness. Sometimes.

Minnesota. Holly Bailey of the Washington Post: "Prosecutors challenged an assertion from the judge who oversaw Derek Chauvin's murder trial that the children who witnessed George Floyd's killing weren't traumatized by the event and therefore did not factor that into his sentencing decision. In a letter made public Thursday, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison asked Hennepin County District Judge Peter A. Cahill to amend a June 25 memo detailing his decision to sentence Chauvin to 22½ years in prison for Floyd's murder. In the memo, Cahill said he found no evidence of trauma among four young girls who witnessed the killing and ultimately didn't take that into account when determining Chauvin's jail time. 'The state expressly does not request that the court modify any part of (the) defendant's 22.5-year sentence for the murder of George Floyd,' Ellison wrote. But Ellison pressed Cahill to 'correct the public record' and amend his analysis to 'more accurately reflect the experiences' of the children who witnessed the killing and later testified at trial to 'prevent potentially causing further harm by discounting the trauma suffered by these young girls.'" The Hill's story is here.

Way Beyond

Haiti. Tom Phillips, et al., of the Guardian: "A heavily armed commando unit that assassinated Haiti's president, Jovenel Moïse, was composed of 26 Colombians and two Haitian Americans, authorities have said, as the hunt goes on for the masterminds of the killing.... Authorities tracked the suspected assassins on Wednesday to a house near the scene of the crime in Petionville, a northern, hillside suburb of the capital, Port-au-Prince. A firefight lasted late into the night and authorities detained a number of suspects on Thursday. Police chief Charles Leon paraded 17 men before journalists at a news conference late on Thursday, showing a number of Colombian passports plus assault rifles, machetes, walkie-talkies and materials including bolt cutters and hammers."

~~~ Jacqueline Charles & Michael Wilner of the Miami Herald: "Two South Florida men have been arrested in connection with the assassination of Haiti President Jovenel Moïse, along with 15 Colombian nationals, Haiti police said Thursday night. James Solages, 35, of Fort Lauderdale, was identified as one of the assailants by Mathias Pierre, a minister in charge of Haitian elections. Solages, originally from Haiti, is an American citizen, Pierre said.... Pierre identified a second man arrested in the assassination as Joseph Vincent, 55, from the Miami area. Vincent, originally from Haiti, is also a U.S. citizen, Pierre said."

~~~ Widlore Merancourt, et al., of the Washington Post: "A U.S. citizen of Haitian descent has been arrested in connection with the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse, a senior official here said Thursday. James Solages, a U.S. citizen, is among the six people arrested so far in Moïse's killing, according to Mathias Pierre, Haiti's minister of elections and inter-party relations. Pierre told The Washington Post that at least one other detainee is also believed to be a Haitian American. Four other suspects have been killed, authorities have said." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Constant Méheut, et al., of the New York Times: "The political storm in Haiti intensified on Thursday as two competing prime ministers claimed the right to run the country, setting up an extraordinary power struggle over who had the legal authority to govern after the brazen assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in his home the day before. Haiti's interim prime minister, Claude Joseph, says he has taken command of the police and the army, declaring a 'state of siege' that essentially put the country under martial law. But constitutional experts questioned his right to impose it, and his claim to power was quickly challenged by a rival. Two days before his death, Mr. Moïse had appointed a new prime minister, Ariel Henry, a neurosurgeon who was supposed to take up the role this week and told a local newspaper that he was the rightful prime minister instead."

~~~ The New York Times' live updates of developments in Haiti Thursday are here: "Two American citizens are among at least 15 people detained in the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse Haitian officials said Thursday night as they paraded the suspects before the news media and asserted that 'foreigners' had been involved in the brazen attack."

News Lede

Weather Channel: "Tropical Storm Elsa is spreading heavy rain, gusty winds and the threat of a few tornadoes up the East Coast through Friday.... Elsa is located about 5 miles east of Atlantic City, New Jersey, as of early Friday morning." MB: It's already spreading heavy rain in New Hampshire at 7:30 am ET.

The Commentariat -- July 8, 2021

Afternoon Update:

John Wagner, et al., of the Washington Post: “President Biden said Thursday that the country had accomplished its objectives in Afghanistan of killing Osama bin Laden and undercutting al-Qaeda’s ability to launch more attacks on the United States as he defended his decision to bring a 20-year war to an end. Biden, during a White House speech, was defiant in the face of gains by the Taliban since he announced a planned U.S. troop withdrawal in April and said the Afghan people needed to dictate their own future. 'We did not go to Afghanistan to nation-build,' Biden said.... 'I will not send another generation of Americans to war in Afghanistan with no reasonable expectation of achieving a different outcome.'... Biden also pledged to evacuate thousands of interpreters who served alongside troops in Afghanistan, as well as their families.” ~~~

Widlore Merancourt, et al., of the Washington Post: "A U.S. citizen of Haitian descent has been arrested in connection with the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse, a senior official here said Thursday. James Solages, a U.S. citizen, is among the six people arrested so far in Moïse’s killing, according to Mathias Pierre, Haiti’s minister of elections and inter-party relations. Pierre told The Washington Post that at least one other detainee is also believed to be a Haitian American. Four other suspects have been killed, authorities have said."

Jeff Stein, et al., of the Washington Post: “Congressional Democrats and Republicans have agreed to increase funding for the Internal Revenue Service so that the agency can bring in more tax revenue, hoping the money can help pay down some of the infrastructure package’s expected price tag. The early contours of the infrastructure blueprint have won the White House’s support, but the IRS provision in particular is drawing opposition from well-funded conservative groups, which are strongly opposed to expanding the reach of a tax-collection agency that they long have alleged is politically motivated.... They are preparing a letter that warns Republicans should not negotiate with the White House unless they agree to 'no additional funding for the Internal Revenue Service.'”

Jan Hoffman of the New York Times: "Fifteen states have reached an agreement with Purdue Pharma, the maker of the prescription painkiller OxyContin, that would pave the way toward a $4.5 billion settlement of thousands of opioid cases. The states decided late Wednesday to drop their opposition to Purdue’s bankruptcy reorganization plan, in exchange for a release of millions of documents and an additional $50 million from members of the Sackler family, the company’s owners. The agreement was contained in a late-night filing by a mediator in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in White Plains, N.Y. The settlement extracts concessions that will be added to a comprehensive proposal now being voted upon by more than 3,000 plaintiffs, including cities, counties, tribes and states, who sought to hold Purdue and its owners responsible for their role in the opioid epidemic. More than 500,000 Americans have died from overdoses of prescription and illegal opioids."

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

Ben Dooley of the New York Times: "Olympic organizers said on Thursday that they would bar spectators from most events at the Games scheduled to open in two weeks, a decision that followed the declaration of a new state of emergency in Tokyo in response to a sudden spike in coronavirus cases. Officials have long insisted that they can hold the Tokyo Games safely amid a pandemic. Last month, they announced that they would allow domestic spectators at the events despite public fears that the Games could become a petri dish for new variants of the virus."

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Cleve Wootson of the Washington Post: "President Biden said Wednesday that his focus remains on his administration’s expansive efforts to invest in programs that touch many facets of American life, not just the bipartisan infrastructure agreement that has spent weeks in the spotlight. Biden toured McHenry County College [in Crystal Lake, Illinois], which has a workforce development plan and on-site child-care facility, two programs that exemplify cornerstones of his American Families Plan.... In the opening minutes of his remarks at the community college, which is a 90-minute drive northwest of Chicago, Biden lauded the work of the legislative group that had forged a framework for a compromise on infrastructure. But the president spent the bulk of the half-hour speech stressing that much more needs to be done."

David Sanger & Nicole Perlroth of the New York Times: “President Biden emerged from a Situation Room meeting with his top cybersecurity advisers on Wednesday to declare that he 'will deliver' a response to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia for the wave of ransomware attacks hitting American companies, after hearing a series of options about how he could disrupt the extortion efforts. Mr. Biden’s vague statement, delivered as he was departing for a trip, left it unclear whether he was planning another verbal warning to Mr. Putin — similar to the one he issued three weeks ago during a one-on-one summit in Geneva — or would move ahead with more aggressive options to dismantle the infrastructure used by Russian-language criminal groups.” The AP's story is here.

Libby Cathey of ABC News: "President Joe Biden taunted Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Wednesday for having acknowledged his home state of Kentucky will receive money from the Biden administration-backed American Rescue Plan -- despite McConnell not having voted for it.... ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Cecilia Vega asked the president about remarks McConnell made Tuesday on his infrastructure packages.... 'Mitch McConnell loves our programs,' the president said with a smile.... 'Have you seen what Mitch McConnell said? He told me he wasn't going to get a single vote in order to allow me to get, with the help of everybody here, that $1.9 trillion ... program for economic growth,' he said. 'Look it up, man. He's bragging about it in Kentucky. It's a great thing for Kentucky, it's getting $4 billion to help poor -- it's amazing,' Biden added, mimicking McConnell and gesturing widely. In fact, McConnell at an event on Tuesday in his home state did talk about the American Rescue Plan. 'So you're gonna get a lot more money. I didn't vote for it...," he said. 'My advice to members of the legislatures and other public officials is spend it wisely, because hopefully this windfall doesn't come around again.'"

Neil Irwin of the New York Times: “This week, the White House is planning to release an executive order focused on competition policy. People familiar with the order say one section has several provisions aimed at increasing competition in the labor market. The order will encourage the Federal Trade Commission to ban or limit noncompete agreements, which employers have increasingly used in recent years to try to hamper workers’ ability to quit for a better job. It encourages the F.T.C. to ban 'unnecessary' occupational licensing restrictions, which can make finding new work harder, especially across state lines. And it encourages the F.T.C. and Justice Department to further restrict the ability of employers to share information on worker pay in ways that might amount to collusion. More broadly, the executive order encourages antitrust regulators to consider how mergers might contribute to so-called monopsony — conditions in which workers have few choices of where to work and therefore lack leverage to negotiate higher wages or better benefits.” (Also linked yesterday.)

Lara Seligman of Politico: "The U.S. military's withdrawal from Afghanistan is essentially complete, despite President Joe Biden's comments last week that American troops will leave by late August, according to two U.S. officials.... The U.S. currently has roughly 600 troops in Afghanistan, most of whom are Marine Corps and Army personnel providing security at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, the person said. The rest of the 600 will be based at the Kabul's Hamid Karzai International Airport, said another U.S. official with direct knowledge of the discussions. All of those troops are expected to remain after the pullout is officially complete, The Associated Press first reported last month. Besides the security troops, the only U.S. military personnel left to withdraw by the Sept. 11 deadline Biden set in May are Gen. Scott Miller, the commander of U.S. Forces-Afghanistan, and a handful of staff, the two officials said."

Luz Lazo of the Washington Post: "Amtrak has signed a mammoth contract with manufacturing company Siemens Mobility for 83 new train sets, part of a $7.3 billion plan to upgrade its rolling stock over the next decade. Under the plan announced Wednesday, Amtrak will replace nearly 40 percent of its rail car fleet by 2031 and invest $2 billion in facilities upgrades systemwide. The oldest cars in Amtrak’s fleet would be taken off the rails after five decades of service. The deal marks one of the railroad’s biggest investments in its 50 years of operation and comes as the company is pursuing an ambitious $75 billion expansion to bring trains to dozens of cities and towns across the nation."

Mark Berman of the Washington Post: “The Air Force was mostly responsible for the 2017 massacre at a Sutherland Springs, Tex., church because it failed to submit records to federal law enforcement that could have prevented the attacker from buying guns, a judge determined this week. The gunman, former airman Devin Kelley, was convicted of domestic assault years before he opened fire during Sunday morning services, killing more than two dozen people. That military conviction would have prevented him from passing the background check for buying guns, but the Air Force never submitted his criminal record or fingerprints to the FBI despite having 'an obligation — and multiple opportunities' to do so, according to U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez.... Kelley joined the Air Force in 2010.... He was given a bad-conduct discharge in 2014 after being convicted of attacking his wife and stepson and sentenced to 12 months of confinement.... In breaking down liability, Rodriguez apportioned 60 percent to parts of the Air Force and the remaining 40 percent to the gunman.”

Jim Mustian of the AP: "The FBI is taking the unusual step of ordering a new look at the autopsy of Black motorist Ronald Greene to consider evidence not provided after his 2019 death, including graphic body camera video of Louisiana state troopers stunning, punching and dragging him after a high-speed chase. The re-examined autopsy is part of a federal civil rights investigation that has taken on new urgency in the nearly two months since The Associated Press obtained and published the video of Greene’s arrest. Federal prosecutors also met with his family last month and made clear they plan to present the case to a grand jury by the summer’s end."

Sarah Ellison of the Washington Post reports on Natalie Mayflower Sours Edwards, the whistleblower who leaked 2,000 federal government documents to BuzzFeed News journalist Jason Leopold. “Edwards — known to her friends as 'May' — is largely unknown and mostly forgotten. She is scheduled to report to the Bureau of Prisons in August [to serve a six-month sentence], and no celebrities are clamoring about the injustice on Twitter.”

Insurrectionist/Teacher Thought It Was All a Kids' Game. Jordan Williams of the Hill: "The FBI seized a 'fully constructed' Lego set of the U.S. Capitol from the home of an alleged insurrectionist. Prosecutors detailed the finding in a court document for Robert Morss, who was arrested on June 11 at his home in Glenshaw, Pa.... The Pittsburg Post-Gazette previously reported that Morss was a substitute social studies teacher.... He faces nine charges in connection to the riots, including assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers or employees; civil disorder; robbery of the personal property of the United States and obstruction of an official proceeding." (Also linked yesterday.) 

Felicia Sonmez of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump on Wednesday declared that a police officer defending lawmakers and the Capitol on Jan. 6 had 'no reason' to shoot an individual involved in the attack and echoed calls from the far right for the officer to be publicly named.... In April, a U.S. Capitol Police officer was cleared of criminal wrongdoing for fatally shooting Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt as she attempted to breach a set of doors deep in the Capitol during the January siege.... Some conservatives have sought to turn Babbitt into a martyr.... Trump ... declared, without evidence, that he knows 'exactly' who the officer is.” ~~~

     ~~~ Brad Reed of the Raw Story: "New York Magazine columnist Jonathan Chait describes Trump's willingness to embrace Babbitt as a martyr as a 'chilling' development that he believes shows the former president is coming around to supporting the deadly riot waged by his followers to stop the certification of the 2020 election.... Although Trump at least tried to distance himself from the riot shortly after it occurred, Chait argues that he's been emboldened to embrace it because the Republican Party failed to expunge him from its ranks. 'By throwing himself behind this message, Trump is endorsing the most radical interpretation of his presidency,' he concludes. 'January 6 was not a minor misstep after a successful era, as fans like Mike Pence and Lindsey Graham now say. It was the heroic culmination of a righteous uprising.' Read the whole column here." (Firewalled.)

     ~~~ Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "Early in the morning of May 29, [as people around the nation protested the murder of George Floyd, Donald Trump tweeted,] 'Any difficulty and we will assume control..., but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts.'... Concerned about the unrest [that night], the president’s protective detail moved him into a bunker inside the White House, a precautionary measure that Trump would later claim involved nothing more than a tour. (This was not true.)... '[N]obody came close to breaching the fence' outside the White House, Trump [said]. 'If they had they would have been greeted with the most vicious dogs, and most ominous weapons, I have ever seen. That’s when people would have been really badly hurt, at least.'... This, at its heart, is Trump’s view of justice. Those on his side are exempt from accountability for their actions. Those on the other side, however, most be dealt with harshly — more harshly than the law allows.... This is precisely what the American legal system is supposed to uproot, this idea that culpability for a crime should be colored by political belief or political allegiance.”

Former Guy Sues Social Media.  Cat Zakrzewski & Rachel Lerman of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump on Wednesday filed class-action lawsuits targeting Facebook, Google and Twitter and their CEOs, escalating his long-running battle with the companies following their suspensions of his accounts. The suits were filed in the Southern District of Florida, and Trump said at a news conference in Bedminster, N.J., that they would call for the court to issue an order blocking the companies’ alleged censorship of the American people.... The suits allege that the companies violated Trump’s First Amendment rights in suspending his accounts and argues that Facebook, in particular, no longer should be considered a private company but 'a state actor' whose actions are constrained by First Amendment restrictions on government limitations on free speech. Traditionally, the First Amendment is thought to constrain only government actions, not those of private companies. It also called for the court to strike down Section 230, a decades-old Internet law that protects tech companies from lawsuits over content moderation decisions.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Zoe Tillman of BuzzFeed News: "... Donald Trump’s latest attempt at getting back on mainstream social media platforms came in the form of lawsuits on Wednesday against Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube — each featuring a series of claims that multiple courts, including the US Supreme Court, have rebuffed.... The US Supreme Court and federal appeals and district courts have repeatedly rejected efforts to classify social media platforms as state actors.... In [a 2019] opinion by Justice Brett Kavanaugh — one of Trump’s nominees — the court found that the First Amendment didn’t apply to the operator of public access channels that had suspended producers over content.... [Trump is] also claiming, without evidence, that the companies were coerced by Democrats in Congress who threatened to strip them of Section 230 immunity if they didn’t restrict conservative speech and that Section 230 itself represents a government endorsement of unconstitutional censorship." Et-cetera. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: There are a number of reasons Trump is bringing these frivolous suits now. One, he thinks anyone or any entity who rebuffs him or knocks him is "unfair." Two, the suits take the focus away from the real cases against his company & its CEO Allen Weisselberg. Three ~~~

     ~~~ Grifters Gotta Grift. Paul Waldman of the Washington Post: Donald Trump's lawsuit against the big social media companies is “puny and pathetic. Perhaps because of his company’s struggles, Trump is returning to his roots as a small-time grifter, desperate to draw attention to himself and willing to do just about anything to grab a few extra bucks.... His complaint against Facebook — presumably prepared by actual lawyers, hard as that may be to believe — claims that it 'rises beyond that of a private company to that of a state actor....' It goes on to use the word 'unconstitutional' again and again to describe Facebook’s decisions, despite the fact that only government action is or isn’t constitutional.... As soon as Trump announced the suit, fundraising texts were blasted out to his supporters.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Somehow, after all these years, I managed to miss Trump's piss-in-a-bottle scam. Waldman enlightens us: “For much of his career, there has been no scam too small for him to pull and no product too cheesy for him to hawk, whether it was steaks or ties or vodka or vitamins. That last one involved people sending in a urine test, after which they’d receive a package of vitamins supposedly tuned to their unique metabolism. You can guess how it ended.” (Worth clicking on the link here to the STAT article, too.)

We're All the Big Grifter's Marks. David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump’s golf club in Bedminster, N.J., charged the Secret Service nearly $10,200 for guest rooms used by his protective detail during Trump’s first month at the club this summer, newly released spending records show. The records — released by the Secret Service in response to a public-records request — show that the ex-president has continued a habit he began in first days of his presidency: charging rent to the agency that protects his life.... In all, Trump’s company charged the government more than $2.5 million during his presidency, according to a Post analysis of federal spending records."

Rachel Weiner of the Washington Post: “The D.C. Court of Appeals has temporarily barred Rudolph W. Giuliani from practicing law, following a similar decision in New York. A committee of judges in New York determined last month that Giuliani was unfit to keep practicing law after he 'communicated demonstrably false and misleading statements to courts, lawmakers and the public at large' while representing ... Donald Trump and the Trump campaign in connection with their efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. A day after the ruling, disciplinary counsel in D.C. recommended suspending Giuliani’s license in D.C. until the New York case is resolved. On Wednesday the D.C. Court of Appeals agreed.” CNN's story is here.

Nicholas Kulish of the New York Times: “If over the next two years [Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates] can’t find a way to work together following their planned divorce, Mr. Gates will [take over their charitable foundation].... 'They have agreed that if after two years either one of them decides that they cannot continue to work together, Melinda will resign as co-chair and trustee,' [foundation CEO Mark] Suzman said in a message on Wednesday to employees of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. If that happened, he added, Ms. French Gates 'would receive personal resources from Bill for her philanthropic work' separate from the foundation’s endowment. The money at stake underscores the strange mix of public significance — in global health, poverty reduction and gender equality, among other important areas — and private affairs that attends any move made by the first couple of philanthropy, even after the announcement of their split. The foundation plans to add trustees outside their close circle, a step toward better governance that philanthropy experts had urged for years.”

What Climate Change? Henry Fountain of the New York Times: “Last month was the warmest June on record in North America, researchers said Wednesday, confirming the suspicions of millions of people who endured some of the hottest temperatures ever experienced on the continent. The Copernicus Climate Change Service, an agency supported by the European Union, said that average surface temperatures for June in North America were about one-quarter of a degree Fahrenheit (0.15 of a degree Celsius) higher than the average for June 2012, the previous record-holder.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Henry Fountain of the New York Times: "The extraordinary heat wave that scorched the Pacific Northwest last week would almost certainly not have occurred without global warming, an international team of climate researchers said Wednesday. Temperatures were so extreme — including readings of 116 degrees Fahrenheit in Portland, Ore., and a Canadian record of 121 in British Columbia — that the researchers had difficulty saying just how rare the heat wave was. But they estimated that in any given year there was only a 0.1 percent chance of such an intense heat wave occurring."

The Pandemic, Ctd.

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

Beyond the Beltway

Arizona. Yvonne Sanchez of the Arizona Republic: “Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs on Wednesday asked Attorney General Mark Brnovich to open a criminal investigation into possible efforts by ... Donald Trump and his allies to influence Maricopa County supervisors as the ballots were still being tallied. Hobbs said some of the communications 'involve clear efforts to induce supervisors to refuse to comply with their duties,' which could violate Arizona law. She cited The Arizona Republic’s reporting last week on text messages and voicemails from the White House, Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, and Arizona Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward to the Republican members of the Board of Supervisors. 'The reporting also includes firsthand statements from the victims of this potential crime,' Hobbs said. She cited at least one potential felony charge under Arizona law.... Hobbs, a Democrat, is running for governor next year.... Brnovich, a Republican, is running for the U.S. Senate next year.... Late Wednesday, Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., called on U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland to examine the possibility of 'an extremely serious crime' in what Gallago called a 'pressure campaign' exerted by the Trump campaign and party officials.”

Georgia. Pamela Kirkland & Sara Murray of CNN: "A federal court judge on Wednesday denied a motion to stop the implementation of parts of Georgia's new voting law, ahead of state legislature runoff elections next week. In the ruling, US District Judge J. P. Boulee declined to block parts of SB202, saying the timing of the request presents a problem with runoff elections already ongoing and would change rules for elections that are already underway. The runoffs for two Georgia House seats are set for July 13." Boulee is a Trump appointee.

Minnesota. Timothy Bella of the Washington Post: "Darnella Frazier, the teenager whose cellphone footage of Derek Chauvin murdering George Floyd last year sparked a racial reckoning in the United States, said Tuesday that her uncle was killed in a car crash involving a Minneapolis police vehicle that was pursuing a robbery suspect. Leneal Lamont Frazier, 40, was in his car when it was struck by Minneapolis police while they were in a high-speed chase with another vehicle on the north side of the city. The victim, who was later identified by Darnella Frazier as her uncle, was not being pursued by police, authorities said." (Also linked yesterday.)

New York. Dana Rubinstein, et al., of the New York Times: "Kathryn Garcia and Maya D. Wiley, who ran muscular campaigns to become the first female mayor of New York City, acknowledged on Wednesday that their bids had fallen short, conceding to Eric Adams in the Democratic primary." (Also linked yesterday.)

Way Beyond 

Haiti. The New York Times' live updates Thursday of development in Haiti's political crisis are here. ~~~

~~~ The New York Times is live-updating of developments in Haiti after the assassination of the country's president, Jovenel Moïse. (Also linked yesterday.) The New York Times' full story is here. ~~~

~~~ Evens Sanon & Danica Coto of the AP: "Haiti’s police chief says four suspected killers of President Jovenel Moïse have been fatally shot by police and two others arrested in an apparent hostage-taking situation. Léon Charles said late Wednesday that three police officers held hostage were freed. The killing of Moïse early Wednesday, and the wounding of his wife, was sure to bring more chaos to the unstable Caribbean country already beset by gang violence, soaring inflation and protests by opposition supporters who accused Moïse of increasing authoritarianism."

South Africa. John Eligon of the New York Times: "Jacob Zuma, the former president of South Africa, was taken into custody on Wednesday to begin serving a 15-month prison sentence, capping a stunning downfall for a once-lauded freedom fighter who battled the apartheid regime alongside Nelson Mandela. The Constitutional Court, the nation’s highest judicial body, ordered Mr. Zuma’s imprisonment last month after finding him guilty of contempt for failing to appear before a commission investigating corruption accusations that tainted his tenure as the nation’s leader from 2009 to 2018."

The Commentariat -- July 7, 2021

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

The New York Times is live-updating of developments in Haiti after the assassination of the country's president, Jovenel Moïse.

New York. Dana Rubinstein, et al., of the New York Times: "Kathryn Garcia and Maya D. Wiley, who ran muscular campaigns to become the first female mayor of New York City, acknowledged on Wednesday that their bids had fallen short, conceding to Eric Adams in the Democratic primary."

Insurrectionist/Teacher Thought It Was All a Kids' Game. Jordan Williams of the Hill: "The FBI seized a 'fully constructed' Lego set of the U.S. Capitol from the home of an alleged insurrectionist. Prosecutors detailed the finding in a court document for Robert Morss, who was arrested on June 11 at his home in Glenshaw, Pa.... The Pittsburg Post-Gazette previously reported that Morss was a substitute social studies teacher.... He faces nine charges in connection to the riots, including assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers or employees; civil disorder; robbery of the personal property of the United States and obstruction of an official proceeding.

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

Neil Irwin of the New York Times: "This week, the White House is planning to release an executive order focused on competition policy. People familiar with the order say one section has several provisions aimed at increasing competition in the labor market. The order will encourage the Federal Trade Commission to ban or limit noncompete agreements, which employers have increasingly used in recent years to try to hamper workers' ability to quit for a better job. It encourages the F.T.C. to ban 'unnecessary' occupational licensing restrictions, which can make finding new work harder, especially across state lines. And it encourages the F.T.C. and Justice Department to further restrict the ability of employers to share information on worker pay in ways that might amount to collusion. More broadly, the executive order encourages antitrust regulators to consider how mergers might contribute to so-called monopsony -- conditions in which workers have few choices of where to work an therefore lack leverage to negotiate higher wages or better benefits."

Timothy Bella of the Washington Post: "Darnella Frazier, the teenager whose cellphone footage of Derek Chauvin murdering George Floyd last year sparked a racial reckoning in the United States, said Tuesday that her uncle was killed in a car crash involving a Minneapolis police vehicle that was pursuing a robbery suspect. Leneal Lamont Frazier, 40, was in his car when it was struck by Minneapolis police while they were in a high-speed chase with another vehicle on the north side of the city. The victim, who was later identified by Darnella Frazier as her uncle, was not being pursued by police, authorities said."

What Climate Change? Henry Fountain of the New York Times: "Last month was the warmest June on record in North America, researchers said Wednesday, confirming the suspicions of millions of people who endured some of the hottest temperatures ever experienced on the continent. The Copernicus Climate Change Service, an agency supported by the European Union, said that average surface temperatures for June in North America were about one-quarter of a degree Fahrenheit (0.15 of a degree Celsius) higher than the average for June 2012, the previous record-holder."

Former Guy Sues Social Media. Cat Zakrzewski & Rachel Lerman of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump on Wednesday filed class-action lawsuits targeting Facebook, Google and Twitter and their CEOs, escalating his long-running battle with the companies following their suspensions of his accounts. The suits were filed in the Southern District of Florida, and Trump said at a news conference in Bedminster, N.J., that they would call for the court to issue an order blocking the companies' alleged censorship of the American people.... The suits allege that the companies violated Trump's First Amendment rights in suspending his accounts and argues that Facebook, in particular, no longer should be considered a private company but 'a state actor' whose actions are constrained by First Amendment restrictions on government limitations on free speech. Traditionally, the First Amendment is thought to constrain only government actions, not those of private companies. It also called for the court to strike down Section 230, a decades-old Internet law that protects tech companies from lawsuits over content moderation decisions."

~~~~~~~~~~

Kelly Hooper of Politico: "President Joe Biden on Tuesday encouraged Americans to stand up to the 'lies' that led to the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and called for a bipartisan effort to investigate what happened on Jan. 6." ~~~

~~~ President Joe Biden in a statement "on the Six-Month Anniversary of the January 6th Insurrection on the Capitol. Not even during the Civil War did insurrectionists breach our Capitol, the citadel of our democracy. But six months ago today, insurrectionists did. They launched a violent and deadly assault on the people's house, on the people's representatives, and on the Capitol police sworn to protect them, as our duly elected Congress carried out the sacred ritual of our republic and certified the Electoral College vote.... It posed an existential crisis and a test of whether our democracy could survive -- a sad reminder that there is nothing guaranteed about our democracy."

DOJ Press Release: "Attorney General Merrick B. Garland [Tuesday] afternoon met with U.S. Capitol Police officers who defended the Capitol on January 6^th, and with Department of Justice employees who have worked tirelessly to hold accountable those who attacked the Capitol six months ago today."

About That $10BB Contract Trump Mucked Up. Kate Conger & David Sanger of the New York Times: "The Defense Department said on Tuesday that it would not go forward with a lucrative cloud-computing contract that had become the subject of a contentious legal battle amid claims of interference by the Trump administration. The Pentagon had warned Congress in January that it might walk away from the contract if a federal court agreed to consider whether ... Donald J. Trump interfered in a process that awarded the $10 billion contract to Microsoft over its tech rival Amazon, saying that the question would result in lengthy litigation and untenable delays. The Defense Department said in a news release on Tuesday that the contract for the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure, known as JEDI, 'no longer meets its needs,' but it said it would solicit bids from Amazon and Microsoft on future cloud-computing contracts." The AP's story is here.

It's Okay for an Elected Federal Official to Incite an Insurrection. Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) has asked to be dismissed from a federal lawsuit alleging that he incited the Jan. 6 mob assault on the U.S. Capitol, claiming that he can't be held liable because he was acting as a federal employee while challenging the 2020 election results in a fiery speech just before the riot began. Brooks said in a motion Friday that he should be dropped as a defendant or represented by the Justice Department in the case, filed March 5 by Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.).... U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta in Washington on Monday directed the Justice Department and Swalwell to respond to Brooks's claims.... In his filing Friday, Brooks invoked a 1988 law that protects federal employees from personal liability while acting within the scope of their office or employment."

Help! FBI Press Release: "The FBI's Washington Field Office has released 11 new videos of suspects in violent assaults on federal officers during the riots at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, and is seeking the public's help to identify them. The 11 new videos depict suspects seen forcefully attacking law enforcement officers. Investigating the violent assaults on law enforcement officers committed during the January 6 attack on the Capitol has been a priority for the FBI. With the assistance of hundreds of thousands of tips from the American people, the FBI has arrested more than 500 individuals who took part in the Capitol riots. Of those, more than 100 were arrested for assaulting law enforcement officers. However, some of the most violent offenders have yet to be identified, including the 11 individuals seen assaulting officers in the video footage we are releasing today." Includes videos.

Rachel Weiner & Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "After storming the Capitol on Jan. 6, a Northern Virginia man began forming his own militia-like group in the D.C. suburbs and building up a supply of explosives under the guise of a Bible study group, according to federal prosecutors. Fi Duong, 27, appeared in court Friday and was released to home confinement pending trial, over the objections of prosecutors who sought stricter terms. According to the court record, at the time of his arrest he had several guns, including an AK-47, and the material to make 50 molotov cocktails. Details of the case -- one of the first if not the first in which the government publicly disclosed it had someone undercover to continue monitoring a Jan. 6 defendant -- were made public Tuesday."

Another Bad Hair Day for Matt. Matt Dixon of Politico: "A key figure in the ongoing federal sex-crime investigation into Rep. Matt Gaetz is seeking to delay his sentencing as he continues to cooperate with prosecutors. Joel Greenberg, a former Seminole County tax collector who in May pleaded guilty to sex trafficking and corruption-related charges, requested in a motion filed Tuesday a delay in his sentencing, which is scheduled for August 19. Prosecutors are not opposing the motion, court records show."

Stupidest Senator News. Em Steck, et al., of CNN: "Sen. Ron Johnson insisted again last week that he is not a climate change denier, but CNN's KFile found video of him from just weeks earlier telling a Republican group that it is 'bullsh*t.' 'I don't know about you guys, but I think climate change is -- as Lord Monckton said -- bullsh*t,' the Wisconsin Republican said, without uttering the expletive but mouthing it, and referring to British conservative climate change denier Lord Christopher Monckton. 'By the way, it is.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: My father taught us a repetitive poem, which I took to be an ethnic slur once I learned what ethnic slurs were. It's titled, "Yon Yonson," and to say it properly you have to use an offensively dimwitty fake Swedish accent. In its more appropriate iteration -- with only one letter changed -- it would go like this: "My name is Ron Yonson, I live in Wisconsin. I work in a lumber yard there. The people I meet when I walk down the street, They say 'What's your name?' And I say: My name is Ron Yonson ... (repeated again and again)."

Inexcusable Habits Die Hard. Felicia Sonmez of the Washington Post: "Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) on Tuesday used a Nazi-era comparison in opposing the Biden administration's push to encourage all Americans to get vaccinated against the coronavirus, calling the individuals leading those efforts 'medical brown shirts.' Members of the paramilitary organization that helped Hitler and the Nazi Party rise to power were known as 'brownshirts.' Greene's remarks, made in a tweet, came weeks after she visited the Holocaust Museum and apologized for previously comparing coronavirus face-mask policies to the Nazi practice of labeling Jews with Star of David badges." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The odd thing is that Margie knows Nazis are bad, but she doesn't seem to recognize that her own supporters, like the Three Percenters, are the U.S. groups that most closely resemble (and try to emulate) the brownshirts, or that urging people to save their own lives by getting vaccinated is not even remotely akin to using force to put down opposing political groups. Now, there is one guy who does not acknowledge that Nazis are bad ~~~

~~~ Martin Pengelly of the Guardian: "On a visit to Europe to mark the 100th anniversary of the end of the first world war, Donald Trump insisted to his then chief of staff, John Kelly: 'Well, Hitler did a lot of good things.' The remark from the former US president on the 2018 trip, which reportedly 'stunned' Kelly, a retired US Marine Corps general, is reported in a new book by Michael Bender of the Wall Street Journal.... Bender reports that Trump made the remark during an impromptu history lesson in which Kelly 'reminded the president which countries were on which side during the conflict' and 'connected the dots from the first world war to the second world war and all of Hitler's atrocities'.... Bender says unnamed sources reported that Kelly 'told the president that he was wrong, but Trump was undeterred', emphasizing German economic recovery under Hitler during the 1930s." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I guess I'm not as "stunned" as Kelly was. First, Trump is a famous ignoramus. Second, Donald is Fred Trump's son, and I'll bet Fred had a high regard for Hitler. A lot of Germans & German-Americans did, even after WWII & the Holocaust. Trump, like some of his followers, is a neo-Nazi.

The Company He Keeps. David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post: "A friend and golfing partner of ... Donald Trump -- who gained notoriety for using that friendship to lobby Trump's administration -- was charged with indecent assault last week in Pennsylvania on allegations he groped one of his dental patients, according to court documents. Albert Hazzouri Jr., a 65-year-old dentist from Scranton, Pa., is best known for a 2017 note he wrote Trump, using stationery from Trump's own Mar-a-Lago Club, to push a proposal for an oversight committee on dental spending. The note, which addressed Trump as 'Dear King,' came to symbolize the way that Trump blended business with government, giving his customers and friends an audience to lobby for their private causes. In charging documents filed last week, police said Hazzouri had groped a female patient after a dental procedure in May."

Nicole Perlroth & David Sanger of the New York Times: "Russian hackers are accused of breaching a contractor for the Republican National Committee last week, around the same time that Russian cybercriminals launched the single largest global ransomware attack on record, incidents that are testing the red lines set by President Biden during his high-stakes summit with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia last month.... Early indications were that the culprit [in the R.N.C. hack] was Russia's S.V.R. intelligence agency, according to investigators in the case."

White Girl Out. Ben Strauss of the Washington Post: "ESPN announced Tuesday that Rachel Nichols [White girl] will not be part of the network's NBA Finals coverage as a sideline reporter. The announcement came two days after the New York Times published an audio recording of Nichols making disparaging comments about colleague [Black sports commentator] Maria Taylor. Nichols was scheduled to be the sideline reporter for the Finals, which begin Tuesday night, but she will be replaced by NBA reporter Malika Andrews [Black sports reporter].

The Pandemic, Ctd.

Felicia Sonmez, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Biden outlined several strategies Tuesday to persuade more Americans to get vaccinated against the coronavirus, including 'door-to-door outreach' in targeted communities and stepped-up efforts to get vaccine to primary-care doctors and pediatricians who can encourage adolescents to get shots as they head back to school or get ready for fall sports. 'It's a year of hard-fought progress. We can't get complacent now. The best thing you can do to protect yourself and your family and the people you care about the most is get vaccinated,' Biden said in remarks at the White House complex on the federal government's coronavirus response, after falling shy of his self-imposed July 4 deadline for 70 percent of U.S. adults to have received at least one vaccination shot. White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters Tuesday that by the end of the week, nearly 160 million people in the United States will be fully vaccinated." This is part of the Post's live updates of Biden's activities. ~~~

~~~ David Smith of the Guardian: "Joe Biden has warned that the Delta variant of the coronavirus now makes up half of cases in many areas of the US and pledged to deploy federal 'surge response teams' to help local officials stop the spread. The president spoke on Tuesday after narrowly missing his self-imposed target of 70% of American adults receiving at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine by Independence Day on 4 July. Although he noted that coronavirus cases and deaths are down 90% since January, Biden urged younger adults in particular to get vaccinated as the Delta variant, already raging across the world, threatens to become the dominant one in America. 'Our fight against this virus is not over,' he said in public remarks after a briefing by the White House Covid-19 response team."

Max Boot of the Washington Post: "The Biden administration, in cooperation with the states, has done a superb job of rolling out the vaccines.... The problem is that a significant percentage of the country refuses to get vaccinated. While young people and African Americans exhibit vaccine hesitancy, the most problematic group by far is Republicans. According to a new Post-ABC News poll, 86 percent of Democrats have gotten at least one vaccine shot, compared with only 45 percent of Republicans. Forty-seven percent of Republicans say they likely won't get vaccinated, compared with only 6 percent of Democrats. The states that have the lowest vaccination rates -- Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Wyoming -- are all Republican redoubts.... Republicans have fallen victim to a virulent strain of misinformation circulating in the right-wing echo chamber." Boot cites disinformation circulated by Reps. Marjorie Green, Tim Massey (Ky.) & Sen. Ron Johnson & Fox "News."

Beyond the Beltway

Maryland. Justin Moyer of the Washington Post: "A 76-year-old woman who was taken back into custody last month after not answering calls during a computer class ... was ordered released Tuesday. After serving 16 years in federal facilities for dealing heroin, Gwen Levi moved to Baltimore to live with her 94-year-old mother, build relationships with her sons and grandchildren, and volunteer at prisoner-advocacy organizations as she searched for a job. She was one of about 4,500 prisoners allowed to serve their sentences at home as the coronavirus swept through federal prisons, killing 240 prisoners and four Federal Bureau of Prisons staff members. Her release, however, was revoked after she attended a computer word-processing class in Baltimore on June 12 and didn't return calls from officials monitoring her.... Her case drew attention after reports on former inmates who might have to go back to prison when the pandemic ends."

New York. The New York Times is liveblogging New York City ranked-choice mayoral election results here: "Eric Adams had a lead of one percentage point over his nearest rival, Kathryn Garcia, in the race for the Democratic mayoral nomination in New York City, according to a new count on Tuesday that included tens of thousands of absentee ballots. With most absentee votes now slated to be accounted for, Mr. Adams led Ms. Garcia by 8,426 votes in the Democratic mayoral primary, the city's first mayoral contest to be determined by ranked-choice voting. Maya Wiley, who emerged late in the primary as a left-wing standard-bearer, ended up in third place in the tally released on Tuesday. She had come in second place in the initial count of in-person ballots cast on Primary Day and during the early vote period." ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Karen Matthews of the AP: "Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams has won the Democratic primary for mayor of New York City after appealing to the political center and promising to strike the right balance between fighting crime and ending racial injustice in policing."

North Carolina. Lauren Lumpkin & Nick Anderson of the Washington Post: "Journalists Nikole Hannah-Jones and Ta-Nehisi Coates are joining Howard University's faculty, school officials announced Tuesday in a major recruiting victory for the private institution in the nation's capital. It was a simultaneous setback for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to lose Hannah-Jones after a long and remarkably contentious effort to recruit her. The surprising development came less than a week after trustees for UNC-Chapel Hill voted to award tenure to Hannah-Jones. Initially, the public university hired her as a professor without the job-protection status. But its board of trustees approved tenure for her on Wednesday, after faculty members and students at Chapel Hill protested that she had been mistreated." A Huffington Post story is here. (Also linked yesterday.)

News Lede

The New York Times' live updates of developments in the Surfside, Florida, condominium collapse are here: "The elite crews searching the pulverized steel and smashed concrete that was the Champlain Towers South would shift their focus to recovery efforts, officials said on Wednesday, acknowledging after nearly two weeks that survivors would not be found."