The Conversation -- June 20, 2024

** Charlie Savage & Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "Shortly after Judge Aileen M. Cannon drew the assignment in June 2023 to oversee ... Donald J. Trump's classified documents case, two more experienced colleagues on the federal bench in Florida urged her to pass it up and hand it off to another jurist, according to two people briefed on the conversations. The judges who approached Judge Cannon -- including the chief judge in the Southern District of Florida, Cecilia M. Altonaga -- each asked her to consider whether it would be better if she were to decline the high-profile case, allowing it to go to another judge, the two people said. But Judge Cannon, who was appointed by Mr. Trump, wanted to keep the case and refused the judges' entreaties. Her assignment raised eyebrows because she has scant trial experience and had previously shown unusual favor to Mr. Trump by intervening in a way that helped him in the criminal investigation that led to his indictment, only to be reversed in a sharply critical rebuke by a conservative appeals court panel. The extraordinary and previously undisclosed effort by Judge Cannon's colleagues to persuade her to step aside adds another dimension to the increasing criticism of how she has gone on to handle the case.... Ultimately, Judge Cannon is not subject to the authority of her district court elders." Read on. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Right from the get-go, I was urging the district's chief judge to tell Judge Aileen to step aide as she had bit off more than she could chew. Turns out the chief judge tried, but Aileen wouldn't hear of it. Now, Roger Stone is suggesting he just might have Aileen's home phone number and he knows she's about to dismiss the charges against Trump. (Story linked below.) Maybe Roger's not just blowing smoke.

Are You Better Off Now Than You Were Four Years Ago? Chris Hayes reminded us last night that today -- June 20 -- is the fourth anniversary of Donald Trump's first infamous "super-spreader" rally. Politico (Oct. 31, 2020): "... Donald Trump's campaign rallies between June and September may have caused some 30,000 coronavirus infections and more than 700 deaths, according to a new study by Stanford University economists." One victim of the June 20, 2020, rally "which saw at least eight Trump advance team staffers in attendance test positive for coronavirus," was Herman Cain, a former GOP presidential candidate who died in late July 2020. "He was a very special person, and I got to know him very well," [Trump] said, "And unfortunately he passed away from a thing called the China virus."

Anthony Faiola & Stefano Pitrelli of the Washington Post: "Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, the former Vatican ambassador to the United States and the pope's most ardent internal critic..., has called Pope Francis a liberal 'servant of Satan,' demanded his resignation and suggested the Vatican's Swiss Guards arrest the 87-year-old pontiff. Now, after receiving years of withering verbal attacks, Francis appears to have struck back against ... Viganò.... The Vatican's disciplinary body, the Dicastery of the Doctrine of the Faith, issued a formal decree, made public by Viganò on Thursday, assigning the senior cleric to a penal canon trial. The charges: the 'crime of schism' and 'denial of the legitimacy of Pope Francis.' Such trials are exceedingly rare, and the move underscores a recent effort by the Vatican to take more formal action against a gaggle of archconservatives who have sought to undermine Francis's papacy from the inside. Conviction could lead to Viganò's defrocking and excommunication."

Abbie VanSickle of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a tax on foreign income that helped finance the tax cuts ... Donald J. Trump imposed in 2017 in a case that many experts had cautioned could undercut the nation's tax system. The vote was 7 to 2, with Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh writing the majority opinion. He was joined by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., and the court's three liberals. Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote a concurring opinion, joined by Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., and Justice Clarence Thomas dissented, joined by Justice Neil M. Gorsuch.... In the majority opinion, Justice Kavanaugh wrote that the tax fell within the authority of Congress under the Constitution. Many tax experts had warned that striking down the tax could have wide repercussions. Such a move could have threatened to fundamentally change how income is defined, block efforts to tax billionaires' wealth and undermine enforcement for all sorts of other taxes, which amount to billions in revenue for the government." A CNN report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: My question: does Gorsuch earn an all-expenses-paid luxury vacation for siding with Clarence & the Billionaires?

Joe's New Deal CCC. Kate Yoder of Grist: "Within weeks, the nation will deploy 9,000 people to begin restoring landscapes, erecting solar panels, and taking other steps to help guide the country toward a cleaner, greener future. The first of those workers were inducted into the American Climate Corps on Tuesday during a virtual event from the White House. Their swearing-in marks another step forward for the Biden administration's ambitious climate agenda. The program, which President Joe Biden announced within days of taking office in 2021, is a modern version of the Climate Conservation Corps, the New Deal-era project that put 3 million men to work planting trees and building national parks." Thanks to RAS for the link. MB: The New Deal CCC was the "Civilian Conservation Corps."

Lara Jakes of the New York Times: "Mark Rutte, the departing prime minister of the Netherlands who has guided more than $3 billion in Dutch military support to Ukraine since 2022, on Thursday clinched the last assurance he needed to become NATO's next secretary general. On Thursday, President Klaus Iohannis of Romania dropped his bid to lead NATO, making it all but certain that Mr. Rutte, 57, would be formally elected to a four-year term at the helm of the Atlantic alliance. That could take place as soon as next week, ahead of a high-level NATO summit in Washington in July. The Netherlands is a founding member, and Mr. Rutte would be the fourth Dutch official to become the organization's top diplomat."

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Justin Grieser of the Washington Post: "Summer is arriving a bit earlier than usual this year.... Thursday's summer solstice -- the longest day and shortest night of the year in the Northern Hemisphere -- is the earliest in 228 years, since 1796, when George Washington was president.... In most years, the summer solstice occurs on June 21. That's when Earth's North Pole reaches its maximum tilt toward the sun, and the sun appears at its northernmost point directly over the Tropic of Cancer, 23.5 degrees north of Earth's equator.... The main reason for the early solstice is that human calendars aren't perfect.... During leap years such as 2024, the solstices and equinoxes occur about 18 hours and 11 minutes earlier than the previous year. Then, during successive non-leap years, the seasons begin 0.24219 days later than the previous year (approximately 5 hours and 49 minutes)."

Kelsey Ables of the Washington Post: "Protesters sprayed part of Stonehenge with orange paint Wednesday, calling on the British government to take action on climate change a day before thousands are expected to flock to the 5,000-year-old site in southern England to celebrate the summer solstice. A video shared Wednesday by Just Stop Oil, the environmental activist group responsible, shows two people running toward the monument and unleashing the orange paint. People nearby shout 'No' and 'Stop him,' as others try to pull the protesters away." MB: Defacing the past to save the future??? Damned outrageous. ~~~

Will Steakin of ABC News: "In recent weeks, House Ethics Committee investigators have conducted a string of interviews behind closed doors with numerous women who were witnesses in the yearslong Justice Department sex trafficking investigation into Rep. Matt Gaetz, multiple sources familiar with the committee's work tell ABC News.... One woman, who ABC News is not identifying, told the committee that a payment from Gaetz was for sex, while others have said they were paid to attend parties that Gaetz also attended and that featured drugs and sex, multiple sources told ABC News." (Also linked yesterday.)

Presidential Race

Kara Voght of the Washington Post: Jill Biden is back on the campaign trail, currently working the senior circuit: "As campaign audiences go, the Seniors for Biden-Harris event was the right kind of venue for the wife of America's oldest-ever president to gin up excitement for a potential second term for her husband. The roughly 200 attendees, in various stages of graying, listened attentively in rows of chairs -- or, occasionally, wheelchairs and scooters. Jane Fonda, the 86-year-old actor and activist who's practically synonymous with graceful aging, had introduced the first lady.... Republicans' attacks on the president's age are an effort to 'devalue our wisdom and dismiss our experience,' [Biden] said. Trump's flirtations with cutting seniors' entitlement programs threaten 'the Social Security we've earned.'... Over five stops in four states -- Wisconsin, Minnesota, Nevada and Arizona -- Biden preached that 'age is a gift.'... That 'Joe isn't just one of the most effective presidents of our lives in spite of his age, but because of it!'"

Shawn McCreesh of the New York Times: At a rally in Racine, Wisconsin, Tuesday, Donald Trump was thinking out loud about his upcoming debate with President Biden. "He repeatedly mused about the potential scenarios, lowering expectations that he would dominate Mr. Biden and then, as if he couldn't help himself, raising them again.... Mr. Trump, 78, has spent months casting the 81-year-old Mr. Biden as a husk of a man who can barely walk or formulate complete sentences.... If [Biden should do well in the debate], it's only because Mr. Biden will be 'pumped up,' he told his followers, suggesting that the president would hoover up a pile of cocaine beforehand.... [Also, Trump claimed] he'll be up against multiple adversaries at once -- not just Mr. Biden but both of CNN's moderators, Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, who, Mr. Trump added, were constitutionally incapable of treating him fairly. 'I'll be debating three people instead of one half of a person,' he said."

David Edwards of the Raw Story: "Roger Stone ... revealed a plan to have the former president re-take the White House with the help of judges who are prepared to act despite the election results. Liberal journalist Lauren Windsor caught Stone revealing the plan on an undercover video. 'At least this time when they do it, you have a lawyer and a judge -- his home phone number standing by -- so you can stop it,' Stone explained in the video. 'We made no preparations last time, none ... There are technical, legal steps that we have to take to try and have a more honest election. We're not there yet, but there's things that can be done.'... Stone suggested to Windsor's colleague, Ally Sammarco, that U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon would soon dismiss the charges against Trump for allegedly mishandling classified documents." (Also linked yesterday.)

Michael Podhorzer in Weekend Reading: "By shielding Donald Trump from standing trial before a jury in two of his felony cases, Trump's three appointments to the Supreme Court, along with the even more MAGA Justices Alito and Thomas and Judge Aileen Cannon, have already irreparably interfered in the 2024 election. Most importantly, when we finally do get the immunity ruling in the days or more likely weeks ahead, it will set the stage for a historic crisis. We will face an irreconcilable showdown between the normal operation of the criminal justice system (which should find Trump in pretrial and trial proceedings for his January 6th crimes over the next five months) and the normal functioning of presidential elections (which should find him campaigning full-time during those months)." Emphasis original.

Leah Litman in a New York Times op-ed: "For those looking for the hidden hand of politics in what the Supreme Court does, there's plenty of reason for suspicion on Donald Trump's as-yet-undecided immunity case given its urgency.... Every passing day further delays a potential trial on charges related to Mr. Trump's efforts to remain in office after losing the 2020 election and his role in the events that led to the storming of the Capitol; indeed, at this point, even if the court rules that Mr. Trump has limited or no immunity, it is unlikly a verdict will be delivered before the election.... Mr. Trump's lawyers put together a set of arguments that are so outlandish they shouldn't take much time to dispatch.... In 1974, [when Richard Nixon claimed he was immune from a subpoena by the special prosecutor]..., [the t]otal elapsed time [from when the case reached the Supreme Court]: 54 days." Nixon lost, 8-0. MB: Litman doesn't put it this way, but Jack Smith brought the immunity case before the Supremes on December 11, 2023: six months or 192 days ago.

Josh Gerstein of Politico: "A rift is emerging among the Supreme Court's conservatives -- and it could thwart the court's recent march to expand gun rights. On one side is the court's oldest and most conservative justice, Clarence Thomas. On the other is its youngest member, Amy Coney Barrett.... If the court adheres to a strict history-centric approach, as Thomas favors, it will likely strike down a federal law denying firearms to people under domestic violence restraining orders. But Barrett recently foreshadowed that she is distancing herself from that approach. If she breaks with Thomas in the gun case, known as United States v. Rahimi, and if she can persuade at least one other conservative justice to join her, they could align with the court's three liberals to uphold the gun control law.... The dispute over the historical approach -- part of a legal philosophy known as originalism -- also could have implications for Donald Trump's pending bid to have the high court declare him immune from prosecution...." ~~~

     ~~~ digby is cautiously optimistic. "This fight is breaking down to Thomas, Alito and Gorsuch vs Barret[t] while Roberts and Kavanaugh are being 'cagey.'... Barret[t] used to be all-in on 'originalism' but she seems to have changed her mind. (It would have been nice if she could have done that before Dobbs...)... In that weird trademark case last week over a t-shirt that said 'Trump so small,' ... [Barrett wrote], '... 'In my view, the Court's laser-like focus on the history of this single restriction misses the forest for the trees.... I see no reason to proceed based on pedigree rather than principle.'"

Corporations are people, my friend. And, like people, they can be two-faced. Judd Legum & others at Popular Information list 25 corporations that promote support for the LGBTQ community at the same time they have made donations that total $18 million since the last election to virulently anti-gay politicians.

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Anna Isaac & Stephanie Kirchgaessner of the Guardian: "Will Lewis, the Washington Post publisher, advised Boris Johnson and senior officials at 10 Downing Street to 'clean up' their phones in the midst of a Covid-era political scandal, according to claims by three people familiar with the operations.... The advice is alleged to have been given in December 2021 and January 2022 as top officials were under scrutiny for potential violations of pandemic restrictions, a scandal which was known as 'Partygate'. The claims suggest Lewis's advice contradicted an email sent to staff at No 10 in December 2021 which instructed them not to destroy any material that could be relevant to an investigation into the flagrant breaking of Covid lockdown rules by Johnson and officials who worked for him.... Lewis, the sources alleged, made some of the requests personally as he was carrying out work as an informal adviser to Johnson from late 2021 to July 2022." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Sorry, Will, you cannot simultaneously be a journalist and a government advisor. These jobs are mutually-exclusive.

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Louisiana. Rick Rojas of the New York Times: "Gov. Jeff Landry signed legislation on Wednesday requiring the display of the Ten Commandments in every public classroom in Louisiana, making the state the only one with such a mandate and reigniting the debate over how porous the boundary between church and state should be. Critics, including the American Civil Liberties Union and the Freedom From Religion Foundation, vowed a legal fight against the law they deemed 'blatantly unconstitutional.' But it is a battle that proponents are prepared, and in many ways, eager, to take on.... 'If you want to respect the rule of law,' [Landry] said, 'you've got to start from the original law giver, which was Moses.'" The AP's report is here. MB: ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I hate to tell Jeffy, but Moses is a fictional character. Also, too, I wonder if the Louisiana law makes clear which version of the Ten Commandments is to be posted. There are three. The only one that actually describes the listicle as the Ten Commandments is one that contains orders like, "you shall not boil a goat in its mother's milk." (Exodus 34) See also yesterday's Comments. Forrest M. doesn't seem all that worried about the new law inasmuch as he's not so sure Louisiana schoolchildren can read. I checked, and sure enough, Louisiana rated 47th among the states in education. Oh, but it has the worst crime rate. So maybe it would be a good idea, after all, to read the "shall not steal/shall not kill" commandments to the kiddies.

New Jersey. Nick Corasaniti & Tracey Tully of the New York Times: "New Jersey's senior U.S. senator ison trial, charged with taking bribes in exchange for political favors. A federal judge has declared the state's method of conducting primary elections fundamentally unfair. And on Monday New Jersey's attorney general charged one of the state's most formidable Democratic power brokers with racketeering. A state famous for explosive political prosecutions like Abscam, Bridgegate and Bid Rig has over the past year lived up to a reputation for scandal that has left six in 10 residents convinced that New Jersey's politicians are either somewhat or very corrupt.... But there are also signs that recent political upheaval might offer a history-changing silver lining: a tipping point that leads to change.... This month, running on a platform of 'restoring integrity' to New Jersey politics, [Rep. Andy] Kim, [N.J.,] 41, won the Democratic nomination with 75 percent of the vote." A judge-ordered redesign of New Jersey ballots will remove the edge ballot placement gave to party favorites.

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Israel/Palestine, et al.

The New York Times' live updates of developments Thursday in the Israel/Hamas war are here.

Blinken: Bibi Makes up Stuff. Miles Herszenhorn of Politico: "Secretary of State Antony Blinken said U.S. military assistance to Israel is 'moving as it normally would' aside from one delayed shipment of bombs, after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused the Biden administration of withholding weapons. Netanyahu had earlier slammed the Biden administration in a video posted on X Tuesday morning directly addressing Blinken.... Blinken and the White House later denied that the administration is blocking any military assistance with the exception of a shipment containing 1,800 to 2,000-pound bombs that President Joe Biden had paused in early May over concerns that they would be used in urban areas and cause civilian casualties." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Don't Piss off Big Joe. Barak Ravid in Axios: "The White House canceled a high-level U.S.-Israel meeting on Iran that was scheduled for Thursday after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a video on Tuesday claiming the U.S. was withholding military aid, two U.S. officials tell Axios.... President Biden's top advisers were enraged by the video -- a message U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein delivered personally to Netanyahu in a meeting hours after it was published, two U.S. and Israeli sources say. Then the White House decided to go a step farther by canceling Thursday's meeting." (Also linked yesterday.)

Russia/Vietnam/North Korea. Sui-Lee Wee of the New York Times: "President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia wrapped up a state visit to one ally, North Korea, and moved on to another, Vietnam, arriving early Thursday hoping to shore up crucial partnerships in the region as he wages a protracted war in Ukraine. Mr. Putin's war in Ukraine has left him isolated from the West, and his need for munitions to fight that war has pushed him closer to North Korea and its leader, Kim Jong-un. The two leaders have bonded over their common historical opponent, the United States, and on Wednesday revived a Cold War-era mutual defense pledge between their nations. In Vietnam, by contrast, Mr. Putin met with officials who have recently forged deeper bonds with Washington. But Moscow has long been Hanoi's main source of weapons, and Mr. Putin is keen to hold on to that position."

News Ledes

New York Times: "Donald Sutherland, whose ability to both charm and unsettle, both reassure and repulse, was amply displayed in scores of film roles as diverse as a laid-back battlefield surgeon in 'M*A*S*H,' a ruthless Nazi spy in 'Eye of the Needle,' a soulful father in 'Ordinary People' and a strutting fascist in '1900,' has died. He was 88.... Across six decades, starting in the early 1960s, he appeared in nearly 200 films and television shows -- some years he was in as many as half a dozen movies. His chameleon-like ability to be endearing in one role, menacing in another and just plain odd in yet a third appealed to directors, among them Federico Fellini, Robert Altman, Bernardo Bertolucci and Oliver Stone."

New York Times: "Two fast-moving wildfires in Southern New Mexico that have killed two people, prompted the evacuation of thousands of people and scorched more than 23,000 acres continued to burn out of control on Wednesday, officials said, and it was unclear when firefighters might gain some control. The wildfires, named the South Fork and Salt fires, began earlier this week amid sweltering temperatures, and shifts in the weather on Wednesday may further complicate efforts to contain them. The South Fork fire, the larger of the two wildfires, has burned more than 16,000 acres and destroyed 1,400 structures, according to the Southwest Area Incident Management Team."

New York Times: "From the Midwest to the northern tip of Maine, millions of Americans sweltered under a springtime heat wave on Wednesday that stifled the Eastern portion of the United States for a third consecutive day. As the heat wave moved east, the Northeast felt the brunt of the conditions, stemming from a high-pressure system called a heat dome that scorched the Great Lakes region earlier this week." ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times is liveblogging developments here.

CNN is liveblogging North American weather and weather-related disasters, including Tropical Storm Alberto, which made landfall in Mexico.

The Conversation -- June 19, 2024

David Edwards of the Raw Story: "Roger Stone, a longtime adviser to Donald Trump, revealed a plan to have the former president re-take the White House with the help of judges who are prepared to act despite the election results. Liberal journalist Lauren Windsor caught Stone revealing the plan on an undercover video. 'At least this time when they do it, you have a lawyer and a judge -- his home phone number standing by -- so you can stop it,' Stone explained i the video. 'We made no preparations last time, none ... There are technical, legal steps that we have to take to try and have a more honest election. We're not there yet, but there's things that can be done.'... Stone suggested to Windsor's colleague, Ally Sammarco, that U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon would soon dismiss the charges against Trump for allegedly mishandling classified documents."

Will Steakin of ABC News: "In recent weeks, House Ethics Committee investigators have conducted a string of interviews behind closed doors with numerous women who were witnesses in the yearslong Justice Department sex trafficking investigation into Rep. Matt Gaetz, multiple sources familiar with the committee's work tell ABC News.... One woman, who ABC News is not identifying, told the committee that a payment from Gaetz was for sex, while others have said they were paid to attend parties that Gaetz also attended and that featured drugs and sex, multiple sources told ABC News."

Blinken: Bibi Makes up Stuff. Miles Herszenhorn of Politico: "Secretary of State Antony Blinken said U.S. military assistance to Israel is 'moving as it normally would' aside from one delayed shipment of bombs, after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused the Biden administration of withholding weapons. Netanyahu had earlier slammed the Biden administration in a video posted on X Tuesday morning directly addressing Blinken.... Blinken and the White House later denied that the administration is blocking any military assistance with the exception of a shipment containing 1,800 to 2,000-pound bombs that President Joe Biden had paused in early May over concerns that they would be used in urban areas and cause civilian casualties."~~~

     ~~~ Don't Piss off Big Joe. Barak Ravid in Axios: "The White House canceled a high-level U.S.-Israel meeting on Iran that was scheduled for Thursday after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a video on Tuesday claiming the U.S. was withholding military aid, two U.S. officials tell Axios.... President Biden's top advisers were enraged by the video -- a message U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein delivered personally to Netanyahu in a meeting hours after it was published, two U.S. and Israeli sources say. Then the White House decided to go a step farther by canceling Thursday's meeting."

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Miriam Jordan of the New York Times: "President Biden on Tuesday announced an initiative that could be life-changing for hundreds of thousands of undocumented young adults, known as Dreamers, whose ability to live and work in the United States has long been tied to a temporary immigration program that has been on life support. The new directive will enable many beneficiaries of an Obama-era program known as DACA, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, to swiftly receive employer-sponsored work visas for the first time. Eventually, the young immigrants could apply through their employers for green cards, or permanent lawful residency. The new policy is one of two new immigration measures the administration announced on Tuesday. It means that a generation of young people who entered the country illegally as children will no longer be dependent on whether the DACA program, implemented as a temporary fix in 2012 and ensnared ever since in complex litigation, survives or dies."

Jazmine Ulloa of the New York Times: President "Biden on Tuesday drew cheers and several standing ovations from a room of about 200 people, including congressional Democrats and immigrant-rights leaders from across the country, as he unveiled an order expanding legal protections for undocumented spouses of American citizens. He evoked [former President] Obama's powerful moment by announcing it at an event commemorating the anniversary of the former president's 2012 executive action for young immigrants, framing his proposal as a way to keep families together.... 'We can both secure the border and provide legal pathways for families,' [Mr. Biden said]."

The Party of Mass Murderers, Ctd. Sahil Kapur & Frank Thorp of NBC News: "Senate Democrats sought to pass legislation Tuesday banning bump stocks for firearms after the Supreme Court overruled a previous ban, but a single Republican objected on behalf of his party, effectively stalling the bill. Backed by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., sought 'unanimous consent' to pass his BUMP Act that would prohibit the devices, which modify semi-automatic weapons to fire bullets more quickly.... The bill was met with an objection from Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., blocking it from moving forward. The objection was backed by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and many other Republican senators, marking a turnaround after many of them championed a bump stock ban imposed by the Trump administration after the Las Vegas massacre." (Also linked yesterday.)

Jacqueline Alemany of the Washington Post: "The House Ethics Committee is still investigating allegations against Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), including that he may have engaged in sexual misconduct and illegal drug use, and accepted improper gifts. It has opened up new lines of inquiry into the Florida lawmaker, according to a statement released by the bipartisan panel on Tuesday. The 10-member committee, which rarely discloses information about ongoing investigations, clarified the status of its review of Gaetz in the lengthy statement.... The committee detailed the new avenues of investigation, including whether Gaetz 'dispensed special privileges and favors to individuals with whom he had a personal relationship, and sought to obstruct government investigations of his conduct.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

National Crime Blotter

Kevin Breuninger of CNBC: "New York's highest court on Tuesday dismissed ... Donald Trump's appeal of the gag order in his criminal hush money trial. The New York Court of Appeals in a brief decision declined to hear Trump's bid 'upon the ground that no substantial constitutional question is directly involved.' The decision means Trump's gag order, which bars him from speaking about jurors, witnesses and other parties involved in the Manhattan Supreme Court case, remains in effect. Trump's attorneys have also asked Judge Juan Merchan, who presided over the trial, to terminate the gag order because the trial is over. The Manhattan District Attorney's office, however, urged Merchan to keep the restrictions in place, at least until after a sentencing hearing is held and certain post-trial motions are resolved." (Also linked yesterday.)

Danny Hakim & Jack Healy of the New York Times: "Boris Epshteyn, who oversees Donald J. Trump's sprawling legal team, pleaded not guilty to nine felony charges on Tuesday in Arizona's election interference case.... Mr. Epshteyn has held onto his baseless assertions that the election was stolen and has not wavered in his support for Mr. Trump. By contrast, he was arraigned on Tuesday along with Jenna Ellis, a lawyer and Trump adviser who was among the former president's staunchest defenders after the 2020 election, but who has since expressed regret.... An attorney for Ms. Ellis also pleaded not guilty on her behalf on Tuesday.... One of the fake Arizona electors, a businessman and former Senate candidate named James Lamon, was also arraigned on Tuesday.... [His attorney] entered a not guilty plea on Mr. Lamon's behalf on Tuesday." (Also linked yesterday.)

Keith Alexander of the Washington Post: "The District's law licensing committee for the D.C. Court of Appeals has recommended suspending the law license of Hunter Biden, roughly a week after he was convicted on felony gun charges in Delaware. Biden has been licensed to practice law in the nation's capital since 2007, registered under his full name, Robert H. Biden."

Presidential Race

Marie: Yesterday, I heard on the teevee that over this past weekend, Trump had again railed against mail-in voting. I thought that was weird, because it was widely reported in April that Trump had got over that. In fact, he posted on his social media site, "ABSENTEE VOTING, EARLY VOTING, AND ELECTION DAY VOTING ARE ALL GOOD OPTIONS. REPUBLICANS MUST MAKE A PLAN, REGISTER, AND VOTE!" Well, now I understand the flip-flop-flip: ~~~

~~~ Josephine Harvey of the Huffington Post: "An author who interviewed Donald Trump extensively after his departure from the White House said the former president demonstrated 'severe memory issues' during their meetings. Ramin Setoodeh, a co-editor-in-chief at Variety, appeared on MSNBC's 'Morning Joe' Monday to discuss his new book, 'Apprentice in Wonderland.'... The author said he and Trump spoke for an hour in May 2021. A few months later, when he returned to Trump Tower in Manhattan for another interview, Trump 'had this vacant look on his face,' he added. 'He had no recollection of our lengthy interview that we had, and he wasn't doing a lot of interviews at that time,' he continued." ~~~

     ~~~ Ed Mazza of the Huffington Post: "Ramin Setoodeh, who interviewed Trump six times after he left office in 2021, told CNN's Kaitlan Collins that there were points during those sessions when Trump seemed to think he still had some presidential powers. 'There was one day where he told me he needed to go upstairs to deal with Afghanistan, even though he clearly didn't,' he said.... 'He confidently told me, and declared, that Joan Rivers voted for him when he ran for president [in 2016],' Setoodeh said. 'And Joan Rivers died in 2014.'... 'He goes from one story to the next. He struggles with the chronology of events. He seems very upset that he wasn't respected by certain celebrities in the White House. And then he'd go to a story about "The Apprentice,"' he said.... The Trump campaign has denied the allegations of cognitive issues, and said Trump didn't remember Setoodeh because he is 'a nobody and insignificant' and 'never made an impression.'"

Change of Venue to "Horrible" City. Michael Gold of the New York Times: "When Republicans gather in Milwaukee next month to nominate him for president, Donald J. Trump planned to stay not in the convention's host city but at a Trump hotel in Chicago, some 90 miles away, according to three people briefed on the former president's logistics. That changed midafternoon on Tuesday, after reporters for The Times and an ABC affiliate in Chicago contacted his campaign for comment. Mr. Trump now intends to stay in Milwaukee, two of the people briefed on his logistics said. The change avoids a perceived slight to the largest city in Wisconsin, a vital battleground state. Mr. Trump has been on the defensive about his views on Milwaukee since news outlets reported last week that he called it a 'horrible' city in a private meeting with House Republicans in Washington." (Also linked yesterday.)

Zoe Richards of NBC News: "... Donald Trump on Tuesday said that business executives and shareholder representatives should 'be 100% behind' him or face termination. The former president referred to an excerpt from an article in The Wall Street Journal which claimed that corporations would benefit again if he is re-elected in November. 'Business Executives and Shareholder Representatives should be 100% behind Donald Trump! Anybody that's not should be FIRED for incompetence!,' the former president wrote in a post on his social media website...." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: For business executives who haven't figured it out already, this is a warning that supporting Trump because he may lower their personal and corporate taxes is shortsighted & possibly self-defeating. He is just as likely to pressure their companies to fire them if they don't continue to kiss ass to Trump's satisfaction.

Are You Better Off Now Than You Were Four Years Ago? Let's Check: New York Times, June 18, 2020: "The Congressional Budget Office projected on Monday that the pandemic would inflict a devastating long-term blow on the United States economy, costing $7.9 trillion over the next decade. Without adjusting for inflation, the agency said, the pandemic would cost $16 trillion over the next 10 years. The estimates were an official tally of the damage from the crisis, reflecting expectations of dampened consumer spending and business investment in the years to come." MB: Turns out that -- so far, at least -- the projection is far too pessimistic, but only because President Biden and Congressional Democrats poured money on the problem. (Also linked yesterday.)

Orlando Mayorquin of the New York Times: "Robert Morris, the founder of a Texas megachurch and a faith adviser to the Trump White House, has resigned from his job as its senior pastor, the church said on Tuesday, days after he was accused of sexually abusing a child in the 1980s." MB: As we know, Trump has always surrounded himself with all the best people. ~~~

     ~~~ Amanda Marcotte of Salon: "Morris is ... the leader of one of the largest and most influential megachurches in the country.... Evangelicals have declared themselves the avatars of sexual morality..., [but] sex has never really been the issue with evangelicals. It's more about 'the performance of gender' and maintaining a rigid gender hierarchy. While right-wing Christians talk a lot about 'purity,' that expectation only applies to women.... The problem with expecting women -- or in so many cases, underage girls -- to bear the responsibility for maintaining 'purity' is that it directly conflicts with another mandate placed on women in evangelical circles: total submission.... It seems that the evangelical world pretty much agrees with Trump, who once told CNN that, 'fortunately,' men have long been allowed to get away with sexual assault."

Turns out there's a worse teevee stock-market tipster than Jim Cramer: ~~~

~~~ When Selling Short Is a Double Entendre. Kerry Breen of CBS News: "A former CNBC analyst who ended up on the FBI's Most Wanted list for white-collar crimes was arrested over the weekend after being charged with defrauding investors, federal prosecutors announced Monday. James Arthur McDonald, 52, of California, was a frequent guest on CNBC and the CEO and chief investment officer of the companies Hercules Investments LLC and Index Strategy Advisors Inc. According to an indictment from a federal grand jury, McDonald allegedly lost tens of millions of dollars of Hercules client money after adopting a risky short position that 'effectively bet against the health of the United States economy in the aftermath of the U.S. presidential election' in late 2020, Justice Department officials said in a news release. The predicted market decline did not happen, causing clients to lose between $30 and $40 million.... In early 2021, McDonald allegedly solicited millions of dollars in funds from investors.... He allegedly misrepresented how the funds would be used ... and failed to disclose the investment company's losses the previous year.... McDonald also allegedly ... sent clients ... false account statements that misrepresented how much money was in their accounts. McDonald became a fugitive in late 2021 when he failed to appear before the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, prosecutors said." (Also linked yesterday.)

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Elahe Izadi of the Washington Post: "Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos sought to reassure its journalists Tuesday with his first direct outreach to The Post newsroom since the abrupt exit of its executive editor and a swirl of questions about the journalism standards of some newly appointed executives. 'You have my full commitment on maintaining the quality, ethics, and standards we all believe in,' he wrote to about a dozen senior editors in an email, which quickly leaked to reporters who shared it on social media. The message represents the owner's most public comment since William Lewis, the company's publisher and CEO of five months, announced top editor Sally Buzbee departure and a dramatic newsroom reorganization two weeks ago."

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Tuesday's Primary Results

New York Times reporters liveblogged Tuesday's primary election results. Here are some of their entries:

Catie Edmondson: "Representative Tom Cole, the veteran Oklahoma Republican and chairman of the powerful Appropriations Committee, fended off a primary challenge on Tuesday from a well-funded right-wing businessman, putting him on track to win a 12th term."

Jonathan Weisman: "Suhas Subramanyam, a state senator in suburban Loudoun County, Va., narrowly won the Democratic primary in a House district in Northern Virginia on Tuesday, according to The Associated Press, after perhaps the ugliest primary of the 2024 election season so far. Mr. Subramanyam's victory over 11 other Democratic candidates in the contest to succeed a retiring Democratic representative, Jennifer Wexton, is likely to be a relief for national Democrats who had watched anxiously as another front-runner in the race, State Representative Dan Helmer, faced calls to drop out over an accusation of sexual harassment."

Jonathan Weisman: "Yevgeny Vindman, who along with his twin brother helped expose ... Donald J. Trump's attempts to strong-arm Ukraine into digging up dirt on Joseph R. Biden Jr., won his Democratic primary on Tuesday, according to The Associated Press. He will run in the fall to represent the Virginia district of Representative Abigail Spanberger, who is retiring. Mr. Vindman, who goes by Eugene, had no governing experience, a point his Democratic competitors made in the primary for Virginia's Seventh Congressional District. But his name recognition, along with that of his identical twin, Alexander Vindman, helped him raise over $5 million, more than the rest of the field combined." ~~~

     ~~~ Ryan Reilly of NBC News: "A convicted Jan. 6 defendant from Georgia who served 20 days in prison for his actions during the attack on the U.S. Capitol lost a Republican primary runoff for a House seat in Georgia, The Associated Press projects. Charles Hand III, or Chuck Hand, was defeated by former Trump administration official Wayne Johnson as they vied to face Democratic Rep. Sanford Bishop in the general election in the solidly blue district. The two candidates advanced to a runoff after neither won a majority of the vote in the initial May primary."

     ~~~ Laura Vozella & Chris Suarez of the Washington Post: "House Freedom Caucus Chairman Bob Good was locked in a tight Republican primary in deep-red central Virginia late Tuesday with John J. McGuire III, a state senator whose bid to oust his fellow hard-liner drew support from ... Donald Trump and establishment forces."

California. Noam Scheiber of the New York Times: "A California labor regulator said on Tuesday that it had fined Amazon nearly $6 million for thousands of violations of a safety law that took effect in 2022. The measure, known as the Warehouse Quotas Law, lets employees request written explanations of any productivity quotas that apply to them, as well as explanations of any discipline they may face in failing to meet the quotas. The state labor commissioner's office said Amazon violated the law more than 59,000 times at two Southern California warehouses between October and March. The system that Amazon used in the two warehouses 'is exactly the kind of system that the Warehouse Quotas Law was put in place to prevent,' the labor commissioner, Lilia García-Brower, said in a statement."

Vermont. Serious Waste of Delicious Green Mountain Spring Water. Gloria Oladipo of the Guardian: "A Vermont lawmaker was compelled to apologize publicly after being caught on video pouring water into her colleague's work bag multiple times across several months. The bizarre behavior is allegedly a part of a campaign of harassment that one legislator aimed at another who represents the same district [Bennington] in the Green Mountain state, independent outlet Seven Days first reported. The Republican representative, Mary Morrissey, 67, confessed to dumping water in the bag of the Democratic legislator Jim Carroll, 62. She later apologized during a Vermont state house session on Monday, Boston.com reported.... For weeks, Carroll secretly recorded footage of his backpack to catch the person in the act." (Also linked yesterday.)

Virginia House Race. Annie Karni of the New York Times: A Congressional primary race between Rep. Bob Good, leader of the House Freedom Caucus, & state senator John McGuire for "has splintered the MAGA movement and the G.O.P. itself and highlighted the shifting alliances, personal feuds and chaotic maneuvering that have come to define the party as much as any ideological or policy position.... There is scant difference between the two hard-right candidates on the issues.... Mr. Trump turned against Mr. Good after he backed Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida over him in the Republican presidential primary.... In a recent video for Mr. McGuire's campaign, Mr. Trump told Virginia voters that Mr. Good 'will stab you in the back like he did me.'" MB: All very sad, I'm sure. (Also linked yesterday.)

Indiana Gubernatorial Race. Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: The MAGA party is eating its own in Indiana where U.S. Sen. Mike Braun (R) is running for governor But the state convention refused to select Braun's preference for a running mate. Instead, they picked a Christian nationalist pastor Micah Beckwith who "said that God had told him: 'Micah, I sent those riots to Washington. What you saw yesterday was my hand at work.' He's said that the 'progressive left has taken over the Republican Party in Indiana,' and promised that if he wins, he'll be a thorn in the side to the governor.... The divide within the Republican Party, in Indiana as elsewhere, isn't really between moderates and conservatives, because almost everyone involved is very right-wing. It is, rather, between people who know how to work within the existing system, and outsiders who want to overturn it." MB: Again, we're very sad about this. (Also linked yesterday.)

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Israel/Palestine, et al.

The New York Times' live updates of developments Wednesday in the Israel/Hamas war are here.

Helene Cooper & Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: "The $230 million temporary pier that the U.S. military built on short notice to rush humanitarian aid to Gaza has largely failed in its mission, aid organizations say, and will probably end operations weeks earlier than originally expected. In the month since it was attached to the shoreline, the pier has been in service only about 10 days. The rest of the time, it was being repaired after rough seas broke it apart, detached to avoid further damage or paused because of security concerns. The pier was never meant to be more than a stopgap measure while the Biden administration pushed Israel to allow more food and other supplies into Gaza through land routes, a far more efficient way to deliver relief. But even the modest goals for the pier are likely to fall short, some American military officials say."

Russia/North Korea

Michelle Lee of the Washington Post: "North Korean leader Kim Jong Un assured Russian President Vladimir Putin of his 'full support and solidarity for the Russian government, army and people' in the war in Ukraine, as the two leaders began talks in Pyongyang filled with exhortations about their 'fiery friendship.' Kim did not elaborate on what that support might look like but the remarks, reported by Russian media in Pyongyang, will fuel concerns the outcast leaders of two heavily-sanctioned states will use this visit to deepen their military partnership."

Choe Sang-Hun of the New York Times: "President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia ​met with North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-un, in his first visit to the country in nearly a quarter-century on​ Wednesday, as the two autocrats vowed to build a joint front against ​the United States and ​deepen bilateral ties that Washington fears will include more arms trade. Mr. Putin is the first major head of state to visit North Korea since the pandemic, highlighting ​its importance to Russia: It is one of the few​ like-minded countries able and willing to supply Moscow with badly needed conventional weapons for its war in Ukraine."

Paul Sonne of the New York Times: "President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has arrived in North Korea according to Russian state media, visiting for the first time in 24 years after vowing to bring ties with Pyongyang to new heights and jointly rebuff what he called the 'global neocolonial dictatorship' of the United States. The North's leader, Kim Jong-un, met the Russian president on the airport tarmac early Wednesday local time, Russian state news agencies reported. Mr. Putin arrived in the dead of night, descending from his airplane to a red carpet lined by uniformed guards to embrace the waiting North Korean leader, video later released by the Kremlin showed. Mr. Kim ushered Mr. Putin into a Russian-made Aurus limousine that he had received from him last year." (Also linked yesterday.)

Adela Suliman & Natalia Abbakumova of the Washington Post: "A Russian court on Wednesday sentenced an American soldier to three years and nine months in a penal colony after finding him guilty of theft and threatening to kill a local resident, Russian state media reported. Prosecutors said U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Gordon Black, 34, was accused of stealing 10,000 rubles ($120) from his Russian girlfriend and grabbing her by the neck, Interfax reported. The sentencing took place in a court in the city of Vladivostok, in Russia's far east. Black met Alexandra Vashchuk in South Korea, where he was stationed until April, and began a romantic relationship with her. After she returned to Russia without him, he followed her there without notifying his commanders or getting permission. He was arrested and detained in the country in May on criminal misconduct charges."

News Ledes

** New York Times: "Willie Mays, the spirited center fielder whose brilliance at the plate, in the field and on the basepaths for the Giants led many to call him the greatest all-around player in baseball history, died on Tuesday in Palo Alto, Calif. He was 93. Larry Baer, the president and chief executive of the Giants, said Mays, the oldest living member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, died in an assisted living facility. Mays compiled extraordinary statistics in 22 National League seasons with the Giants in New York and San Francisco and a brief return to New York with the Mets, preceded by a 1948 stint in the Negro leagues. He hit 660 career home runs and had 3,293 hits and a .301 career batting average. But he did more than personify the complete ballplayer. An exuberant style of play and an effervescent personality made Mays one of the game's, and America's, most charismatic figures...."

New York Times: "Two wildfires in Southern New Mexico that destroyed 1,400 structures, consumed over 20,000 acres and forced the evacuations of thousands of people were still burning out of control on Tuesday night as firefighters struggled to contain them, the authorities said."

The Conversation -- June 18, 2024

The Party of Mass Murderers, Ctd. Sahil Kapur & Frank Thorp of NBC News: "Senate Democrats sought to pass legislation Tuesday banning bump stocks for firearms after the Supreme Court overruled a previous ban, but a single Republican objected on behalf of his party, effectively stalling the bill. Backed by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., sought 'unanimous consent' to pass his BUMP Act that would prohibit the devices, which modify semi-automatic weapons to fire bullets more quickly.... The bill was met with an objection from Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., blocking it from moving forward. The objection was backed by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and many other Republican senators, marking a turnaround after many of them championed a bump stock ban imposed by the Trump administration after the Las Vegas massacre."

Turns out there's a worse teevee stock-market tipster than Jim Cramer: ~~~

~~~ When Selling Short Is a Double Entendre. Kerry Breen of CBS News: "A former CNBC analyst who ended up on the FBI's Most Wanted list for white-collar crimes was arrested over the weekend after being charged with defrauding investors, federal prosecutors announced Monday. James Arthur McDonald, 52, of California, was a frequent guest on CNBC and the CEO and chief investment officer of the companies Hercules Investments LLC and Index Strategy Advisors Inc. According to an indictment from a federal grand jury, McDonald allegedly lost tens of millions of dollars of Hercules client money after adopting a risky short position that 'effectively bet against the health of the United States economy in the aftermath of the U.S. presidential election' in late 2020, Justice Department officials said in a news release. The predicted market decline did not happen, causing clients to lose between $30 and $40 million.... In early 2021, McDonald allegedly solicited millions of dollars in funds from investors.... He allegedly misrepresented how the funds would be used ... and failed to disclose the investment company's losses the previous year.... McDonald also allegedly ... sent clients ... false account statements that misrepresented how much money was in their accounts. McDonald became a fugitive in late 2021 when he failed to appear before the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, prosecutors said."

Kevin Breuninger of CNBC: "New York's highest court on Tuesday dismissed ... Donald Trump's appeal of the gag order in his criminal hush money trial. The New York Court of Appeals in a brief decision declined to hear Trump's bid 'upon the ground that no substantial constitutional question is directly involved.' The decision means Trump's gag order, which bars him from speaking about jurors, witnesses and other parties involved in the Manhattan Supreme Court case, remains in effect. Trump's attorneys have also asked Judge Juan Merchan, who presided over the trial, to terminate the gag order because the trial is over. The Manhattan District Attorney's office, however, urged Merchan to keep the restrictions in place, at least until after a sentencing hearing is held and certain post-trial motions are resolved."

Danny Hakim & Jack Healy of the New York Times: "Boris Epshteyn, who oversees Donald J. Trump's sprawling legal team, pleaded not guilty to nine felony charges on Tuesday in Arizona's election interference case.... Mr. Epshteyn has held onto his baseless assertions that the election was stolen and has not wavered in his support for Mr. Trump.... He was arraigned on Tuesday along with Jenna Ellis, a lawyer and Trump adviser who was among the former president's staunchest defenders after the 2020 election, but who has since expressed regret.... An attorney for Ms. Ellis also pleaded not guilty on her behalf on Tuesday.... One of the fake Arizona electors, a businessman and former Senate candidate named James Lamon, was also arraigned on Tuesday.... [His attorney]entered a not guilty plea on Mr. Lamon's behalf...."

Change of Venue to "Horrible" City. Michael Gold of the New York Times: "When Republicans gather in Milwaukee next month to nominate him for president, Donald J. Trump planned to stay not in the convention's host city but at a Trump hotel in Chicago, some 90 miles away, according to three people briefed on the former president's logistics. That changed midafternoon on Tuesday, after reporters for The Times and an ABC affiliate in Chicago contacted his campaign for comment. Mr. Trump now intends to stay in Milwaukee, two of the people briefed on his logistics said. The change avoids a perceived slight to the largest city in Wisconsin, a vital battleground state. Mr. Trump has been on the defensive about his views on Milwaukee since news outlets reported last week that he called it a 'horrible' city in a private meeting with House Republicans in Washington."

Jacqueline Alemany of the Washington Post: "The House Ethics Committee is still investigating allegations against Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), including that he may have engaged in sexual misconduct and illegal drug use, and accepted improper gifts. It has opened up new lines of inquiry into the Florida lawmaker, according to a statement released by the bipartisan panel on Tuesday. The 10-member committee, which rarely discloses information about ongoing investigations, clarified the status of its review of Gaetz in the lengthy statement.... The committee detailed the new avenues of investigation, including whether Gaetz 'dispensed special privileges and favors to individuals with whom he had a personal relationship, and sought to obstruct government investigations of his conduct.'"

Serious Waste of Delicious Green Mountain Spring Water.. Gloria Oladipo of the Guardian: "A Vermont lawmaker was compelled to apologize publicly after being caught on video pouring water into her colleague's work bag multiple times across several months. The bizarre behavior is allegedly a part of a campaign of harassment that one legislator aimed at another who represents the same district [Bennington]..., independent outlet Seven Days first reported. The Republican representative, Mary Morrissey, 67, confessed to dumping water in the bag of the Democratic legislator Jim Carroll, 62. She later apologized during a Vermont state house session on Monday, Boston.com reported.... For weeks, Carroll secretly recorded footage of his backpack to catch the person in the act."

Virginia House Race. Annie Karni of the New York Times: A Congressional primary race between Rep. Bob Good, leader of the House Freedom Caucus, & state senator John McGuire for "has splintered the MAGA movement and the G.O.P. itself and highlighted the shifting alliances, personal feuds and chaotic maneuvering that have come to define the party as much as any ideological or policy position.... There is scant difference between the two hard-right candidates on the issues.... Mr. Trump turned against Mr. Good after he backed Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida over him in the Republican presidential primary.... In a recent video for Mr. McGuire's campaign, Mr. Trump told Virginia voters that Mr. Good 'will stab you in the back like he did me.'" MB: All very sad, I'm sure.

Indiana Gubernatorial Race. Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: The MAGA party is eating its own in Indiana where U.S. Sen. Mike Braun (R) is running for governor. But the state convention refused to select Braun's preference for a running mate. Instead, they picked a Christian nationalist pastor named Micah Beckwith who "said that God had told him: 'Micah, I sent those riots to Washington. What you saw yesterday was my hand at work.' He's said that the 'progressive left has taken over the Republican Party in Indiana,' and promised that if he wins, he'll be a thorn in the side to the governor.... The divide within the Republican Party, in Indiana as elsewhere, isn't really between moderates and conservatives, because almost everyone involved is very right-wing. It is, rather, between people who know how to work within the existing system, and outsiders who want to overturn it." MB: Again, we're very sad about this.

Are You Better Off Now Than You Were Four Years Ago? Let's Check: New York Times, June 18, 2020: "The Congressional Budget Office projected on Monday that the pandemic would inflict a devastating long-term blow on the United States economy, costing $7.9 trillion over the next decade. Without adjusting for inflation, the agency said, the pandemic would cost $16 trillion over the next 10 years. The estimates were an official tally of the damage from the crisis, reflecting expectations of dampened consumer spending and business investment in the years to come." MB: Turns out that -- so far, at least -- the projection is far too pessimistic, but only because President Biden and Congressional Democrats poured money on the problem.

Russia. Paul Sonne of the New York Times: "President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has arrived in North Korea, according to Russian state media, visiting for the first time in 24 years after vowing to bring ties with Pyongyang to new heights and jointly rebuff what he called the 'global neocolonial dictatorship' of the United States. The North's leader, Kim Jong-un, met the Russian president on the airport tarmac early Wednesday local time, Russian state news agencies reported. Mr. Putin arrived in the dead of night, descending from his airplane to a red carpet lined by uniformed guards to embrace the waiting North Korean leader, video later released by the Kremlin showed. Mr. Kim ushered Mr. Putin into a Russian-made Aurus limousine that he had received from him last year."

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Zolan Kanno-Youngs, et al., of the New York Times: "President Biden on Tuesday announced sweeping new protections for hundreds of thousands of immigrants who have been living in the United States illegally for years but are married to American citizens. Under the new policy, some 500,000 undocumented spouses will be shielded from deportation and given a pathway to citizenship and the ability to work legally in the United States. It is one of the most presidential actions to protect immigrants in more than a decade. Mr Biden will celebrate the program during a White House ceremony on Tuesday marking the 12-year anniversary of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, which protects people who came to the United States as children from deportation."

Erica Green of the New York Times: "President Biden and the NATO secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, announced on Monday that a record number of allies were meeting their military spending commitments as the two leaders sought to present a robust and unwavering response to Russia's war in Ukraine. Mr. Biden and Mr. Stoltenberg met ahead of the annual NATO summit next month in Washington, where member countries are expected to discuss additional measures to help secure long-term security, funding and eventual membership for Ukraine. Mr. Stoltenberg announced on Monday that NATO was prepared to take on a larger role in Ukraine's security in the meantime."

Julie Weil of the Washington Post: "The Biden administration plans to stop businesses and wealthy individuals from manipulating the value of assets in arcane ways such as using the same assets over and over to lower their taxes. High-end business partnerships like hedge funds and wealthy individuals such as real estate investors have inappropriately used labyrinthine structures to shield tens of billions of dollars from taxation, Treasury Department officials said Monday as they vowed to crack down on the practice. They announced several steps to address a tax planning strategy known as basis shifting, in which complex business partnerships can move assets from one entity to another on paper for no reason other than to avoid taxes.... Shutting down inappropriate basis shifting could increase tax collections from partnerships by at least $5 billion a year over the next decade." The AP's story is here.

Manuela Andreoni of the New York Times: "Dozens of environmental, labor and health care groups banded together on Monday to file a petition to push the Federal Emergency Management Agency to declare extreme heat and wildfire smoke as 'major disasters,' like floods and tornadoes. The petition is a major push to get the federal government to help states and local communities that are straining under the growing costs of climate change. If accepted, the petition could unlock FEMA funds to help localities prepare for heat waves and wildfire smoke by building cooling centers or installing air filtration systems in schools. The agency could also help during emergencies by paying for water distribution, health screenings for vulnerable people and increased electricity use." The Hill's story is here.

Noam Scheiber of the New York Times: "... on Monday..., members of the Amazon Labor Union, the only union formally representing Amazon warehouse workers in the United States, voted overwhelmingly to affiliate with the 1.3-million-member International Brotherhood of Teamsters. The vote was overseen by the Amazon union. The A.L.U. scored a surprise victory in an election at a Staten Island warehouse in 2022. But it has yet to begin bargaining with Amazon, which continues to contest the election outcome. Leaders of both unions said the affiliation agreement would put them in a better position to challenge Amazon and would provide the A.L.U. with more money and staff support.... The Teamsters are ramping up their efforts to organize Amazon workers nationwide." MB: Yes but, this could take money away from Jeff Bezos.

Charles Davis of Salon: "In a June 16 filing, [24 Republicans state attorneys general] ask[ed Judge Aileen] Cannon to grant them permission to intervene in Trump's [documents] case, claiming the former president's freedom to slander law enforcement is sacrosanct.... Bradley Moss, a criminal defense attorney who specializes in national security issues, told Salon that Cannon should not even be wasting the court's time by considering arguments from outside parties.... 'The influx of amicus briefs in this case is unheard of and largely the result of Judge Cannon's decision to allow everyone under the sun to chime in on a criminal matter,' Moss said. 'This should be a simple legal issue to resolve over modification to bail conditions. It does not require input from the peanut gallery.'"

Zachary Wolf of CNN: "Steve Bannon ... used the language of war to fire up a conservative gathering over the weekend, promising to remake the US government and completely deconstruct the FBI. Comparing the presidential campaign to the D-Day invasion, Bannon encouraged a cheering crowd at the Turning Point Action convention in Detroit to see themselves as filling the positions of fallen soldiers in an assault. 'Are you prepared to leave it all on the battlefield in 2024?' he asked of Turning Point activists. 'It's very simple: victory or death!' he later added." ~~~

     ~~~ Rachel Maddow played a bit of Bannon's speech last night, and it was gross. As Maddow said, Republicans aren't engaged in politics anymore; rather, they are competing to take power by force. ~~~

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California. Yan Zhuang of the New York Times: "A United States Secret Service agent was robbed at gunpoint in Southern California over the weekend, on the same night that President Joe Biden was in Los Angeles for a re-election fund-raiser, the authorities said on Monday.... Upon arriving at [a residential] development [in Orange County] -- a former military base -- the police discovered that the victim was a Secret Service agent whose bag had been stolen at gunpoint, the statement said. During the robbery, an agent fired a gun, the police added. The suspected robbery occurred on the same night that Mr. Biden was in downtown Los Angeles for a star-studded re-election fund-raiser with former President Barack Obama." The AP story is here.

New Jersey Is Still New Jersey. Tracey Tully of the New York Times: "George E. Norcross III, an insurance executive who for decades has been one New Jersey's most powerful Democratic kingmakers, was charged on Monday with racketeering in what prosecutors say was a 12-year scheme that involved his brother, his lawyer and a former mayor of Camden, N.J. The 13-count indictment unsealed by New Jersey's attorney general, Matthew J. Platkin, accused Mr. Norcross and five co-defendants of unlawfully obtaining property and property rights along Camden's waterfront, fraudulently collecting millions of dollars in government-issued tax breaks and influencing government officials.... The indictment accuses Mr. Norcross of bullying rival developers who were also trying to capitalize on a push to revitalize the waterfront in Camden, a poor city outside Philadelphia long plagued by violent crime....

"Mr. Norcross's brother, Philip A. Norcross, the chief executive of a Camden-based law firm, and the city's former mayor, Dana L. Redd, were also charged with racketeering in the first degree, a crime punishable by up to 20 years in prison. On Monday afternoon, George Norcross, 68, who now lives in Florida, showed up, uninvited, to a news conference Mr. Platkin held in Trenton, N.J. Dressed in a suit and loafers without socks, he stared from the front row of the room as the attorney general described the charges contained in a 111-page indictment. Mr. Norcross's team of lawyers and at least one co-defendant, William Tambussi, a lawyer who has represented Mr. Norcross and the city of Camden, sat behind him." Politico's story is here.

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Israel/Palestine, et al.

The New York Times' live updates of developments Tuesday in the Israel/Hamas war are here.

Robert Jimison of the New York Times: "A Biden administration plan to sell $18 billion worth of F-15 fighter jets to Israel is moving forward after two top Democratic holdouts in Congress signed off on the deal, according to multiple people familiar with the sale. Representative Gregory W. Meeks of New York, the top Democrat on the Foreign Affairs Committee, who had publicly opposed the transfer by citing Israel's tactics during its campaign in Gaza, has lifted his hold on the deal, one of the largest U.S. arms sales to Israel in years. Mr. Meeks said that the sale would take years to deliver and that he supported the Biden administration's plans to hold up the sale of other munitions."

Patrick Kingsley, et al., of the New York Times: "The Israeli military said on Monday that it had paused operations during daylight hours in parts of the southern Gaza Strip, as a new policy announced a day earlier appeared to take hold, along with cautious hopes that it would allow more food and other goods to reach desperate civilians.... But aid agencies warned that other restrictions on movement, as well as lawlessness in the territory, would still make it difficult to meet the dire needs of Gazans struggling to survive after eight months of war."

AP: "Israeli officials say Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dissolved the influential War Cabinet that was tasked with steering the war in Gaza. The three-person War Cabinet was dissolved a week after Benny Gantz, a popular opposition lawmaker and former military chief, quit Netanyahu's governing coalition in frustration over how the war was being handled. In the early days of the war, Gantz demanded a small Cabinet with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant be formed as a way to sideline far-right lawmakers in Netanyahu's government." (Also linked yesterday.)

News Ledes

New York Times: "A heat wave that is expected to punish much of the country before week's end enveloped the Midwest [Monday], leaving the region scorched and sweltering.... Chicago and Cook County designated cooling centers throughout the region in existing senior centers, libraries and athletic facilities, giving the more than five million residents of Cook County a place to rest if they had nowhere to go.... The heat is moving quickly to the Northeast. Meteorologists said the temperatures would peak on Thursday or Friday, with heat indexes exceeding 100 degrees in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York and Connecticut." A CNN report is here.

New York Times: "Anouk Aimée, the French film actress who became an international sex symbol as the aloof, enigmatic and sensual star of Claude Lelouch's 1966 romance 'A Man and a Woman,' died on Tuesday at 92."