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The New York Times lists Emmy winners. The AP has an overview story here.

New York Times: “Hvaldimir, a beluga whale who had captured the public’s imagination since 2019 after he was spotted wearing a harness seemingly designed for a camera, was found dead on Saturday in Norway, according to a nonprofit that worked to protect the whale.... [Hvaldimir] was wearing a harness that identified it as “equipment” from St. Petersburg. There also appeared to be a camera mount. Some wondered if the whale was on a Russian reconnaissance mission. Russia has never claimed ownership of the whale. If Hvaldimir was a spy, he was an exceptionally friendly one. The whale showed signs of domestication, and was comfortable around people. He remained in busier waters than are typical for belugas....” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Oh, Lord, do not let Bobby Kennedy, Jr., near that carcass. ~~~

     ~~~ AP Update: “There’s no evidence that a well-known beluga whale that lived off Norway’s coast and whose harness ignited speculation it was a Russian spy was shot to death last month as claimed by animal rights groups, Norwegian police said Monday.... Police said that the Norwegian Veterinary Institute conducted a preliminary autopsy on the animal, which was become known as 'Hvaldimir,' combining the Norwegian word for whale — hval — and the first name of Russian President Vladimir Putin. 'There are no findings from the autopsy that indicate that Hvaldimir has been shot,' police said in a statement.”

New York Times: Botswana's “President Mokgweetsi Masisi grinned as he lifted the diamond, a 2,492-carat stone that is the biggest diamond unearthed in more than a century and the second-largest ever found, according to the Vancouver-based mining operator Lucara, which owns the mine where it was found. This exceptional discovery could bring back the luster of the natural diamond mining industry, mining companies and experts say. The diamond was discovered in the same relatively small mine in northeastern Botswana that has produced several of the largest such stones in living memory. Such gemstones typically surface as a result of volcanic activity.... The diamond will likely sell in the range of tens of millions of dollars....”

Click on photo to enlarge.

~~~ Guardian: "On a distant reef 16,000km from Paris, surfer Gabriel Medina has given Olympic viewers one of the most memorable images of the Games yet, with an airborne celebration so well poised it looked too good to be true. The Brazilian took off a thundering wave at Teahupo’o in Tahiti on Monday, emerging from a barrelling section before soaring into the air and appearing to settle on a Pacific cloud, pointing to the sky with biblical serenity, his movements mirrored precisely by his surfboard. The shot was taken by Agence France-Presse photographer Jérôme Brouillet, who said “the conditions were perfect, the waves were taller than we expected”. He took the photo while aboard a boat nearby, capturing the surreal image with such accuracy that at first some suspected Photoshop or AI." 

Washington Post: “'Mary Cassatt at Work' is a large and mostly satisfying exhibition devoted to the career of the great American artist beloved for her sensitive and often sentimental views of family life. The 'at work' in the title of the Philadelphia Museum of Art show references the curators’ interest in Cassatt’s pioneering effort to establish herself as a professional artist within a male-dominated field. Throughout the show, which includes some 130 paintings, pastels, prints and drawings, the wall text and the art on view stresses Cassatt’s fixation on art as a career rather than a pastime.... Mary Cassatt at Work is on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art through Sept. 8. philamuseum.org”

New York Times: “Bob Newhart, who died on Thursday at the age of 94, has been such a beloved giant of popular culture for so long that it’s easy to forget how unlikely it was that he became one of the founding fathers of stand-up comedy. Before basically inventing the hit stand-up special, with the 1960 Grammy-winning album 'The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart' — that doesn’t even count his pay-per-view event broadcast on Canadian television that some cite as the first filmed special — he was a soft-spoken accountant who had never done a set in a nightclub. That he made a classic with so little preparation is one of the great miracles in the history of comedy.... Bob Newhart holds up. In fact, it’s hard to think of a stand-up from that era who is a better argument against the commonplace idea that comedy does not age well.”

Washington Post: “An early Titian masterpiece — once looted by Napolean’s troops and a part of royal collections for centuries — caused a stir when it was stolen from the home of a British marquess in 1995. Seven years later, it was found inside an unassuming white and blue plastic bag at a bus stop in southwest London by an art detective, and returned. This week, the oil painting 'The Rest on the Flight into Egypt' sold for more than $22 million at Christie’s. It was a record for the Renaissance artist, whom museums describe as the greatest painter of 16th-century Venice. Ahead of the sale in April, the auction house billed it as 'the most important work by Titian to come to the auction market in more than a generation.'”

Washington Post: The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., which houses the world's largest collection of Shakespeare material, has undergone a major renovation. "The change to the building is pervasive, both subtle and transformational."

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Friday
Jul012022

July 1, 2022

Afternoon Update:

Peter Baker of the New York Times: "President Biden announced on Friday that he will present the Presidential Medal of Freedom next week to 17 leaders from the worlds of politics, civil rights, sports, business, education and entertainment, including the Olympic gymnast Simone Biles, the actor Denzel Washington and the first American to receive a Covid-19 vaccine. The recipients, the first of his presidency, include a variety of barrier-breaking figures familiar to many Americans as well as prominent political veterans Mr. Biden has known over the years. The list includes three posthumous award recipients: Steve Jobs, the pioneering co-founder of Apple; John McCain, the longtime Republican senator and two-time presidential candidate; and Richard Trumka, the A.F.L.-C.I.O. president and Democratic power broker." ~~~

     ~~~ Here's the list of recipients, via the White House.

Isaac Arnsdorf, et al., of the Washington Post: "Toward the end of 2020..., Donald Trump began raising a new idea with aides: that he would personally lead a march to the Capitol on the following Jan. 6. Trump brought it up repeatedly with key advisers in the Oval Office, according to a person who talked with him about it. The president told others he wanted a dramatic, made-for-TV moment that could pressure Republican lawmakers to support his demand to throw out the electoral college results showing that Joe Biden had defeated him, the person said.... But ... several of his advisers doubted he meant it or didn't take the suggestion seriously.... As a result, the White House staff never turned Trump's stated desires into concrete plans.... This account of Trump's ceaseless plotting to join the mob at the Capitol on Jan. 6 is based on committee testimony and evidence as well as 15 former officials, aides, law enforcement officials and others...." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: What comes out from this report is that top staff considered Trump a blowhard given to braggadocio whom they could manipulate into behaving more presidenty. After the stroll to St. John's Church & the show-drive when he was deathly-ill with Covid, they should have known better. But then again, there may have been numerous other wild Trump "proposals," of which we are not aware, that they had thwarted. ~~~

~~~ Noah Gray & Zachary Cohen of CNN: "... Donald Trump angrily demanded to go to the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, and berated his protective detail when he didn't get his way, according to two Secret Service sources who say they heard about the incident from multiple agents, including the driver of the presidential SUV where it occurred. The sources tell CNN that stories circulated about the incident -- including details that are similar to how former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson described it to the House select committee investigating January 6 -- in the months immediately afterward the US Capitol attack.... Like Hutchinson, one source, a longtime Secret Service employee, told CNN that the agents relaying the story ... that the former President said something similar to: 'I'm the f**king President of the United States, you can't tell me what to do.' The source said he originally heard that kind of language was used shortly after the incident. 'He had sort of lunged forward -- it was unclear from the conversations I had that he actually made physical contact, but he might have. I don't know,' the source said. 'Nobody said Trump assaulted him; they said he tried to lunge over the seat.'... The source added that agents often recounted stories of Trump's fits of anger, including the former President throwing and breaking things."

Colby Hall of Mediaite: "Rudy Giuliani insisted on Twitter that Cassidy Hutchinson was 'never present' when he asked ... Donald Trump when he asked for a pardon, and then deleted it."

New Zealand. Trump Supporters Designated Terrorist Group. Daniel Victor of the New York Times: "New Zealand has declared the Proud Boys, the far-right American group that played a key role in the deadly storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, to be a terrorist organization, making it illegal for New Zealanders to participate in or support its activities. There was no evidence that the group was operating in New Zealand, but its activity has been observed in Australia and Canada, which designated the group a terrorist organization last year. New Zealand's prime minister can designate groups terrorist entities if they have carried out at least one terrorist act, and the government believed the Proud Boys' involvement in the Jan. 6 attack was 'consistent with the definition of a terrorist act,' it said in a statement from June 20."

Oliver O'Connell of the Independent, reprinted in Yahoo! News: "Donald Trump Jr. ... [referred] to ... Cassidy Hutchinson as a 'coffee girl'.... Mr Trump Jr posted on Truth Social: 'It's pretty surreal watching the CNNs of the world still pretending that there aren't multiple actual witnesses willing to testify that the fake bombshell hearsay testimony they're salivating over isn't demonstrably false and that their dream witness/coffee girl perjured herself!'." MB: Missed this yesterday. Please see Akhilleus' comment below, which expresses my sentiments, too. Junior is so fucking clueless that he doesn't understand that he's nothing compared to Hutchinson. Junior is so stupid he couldn't even get a job as a coffee boy in his daddy's White House, a job which Patrick points out goes to "mess boys," young men who are no doubt also smarter & more competent than Junior. Moreover, quite a few of well-known coffee boys in the White House -- like Mark Meadows, Pat Cipollone & Tony Ornato -- did enjoy confiding in Hutchinson.

~~~~~~~~~~

While you were getting ready to celebrate so-called "Independence Day," the Supremes stepped up their plot to take away Americans' independence.

** Supremes Join Plot to Overturn 2024 Presidential Election. AND More. Adam Liptak & Nick Corasaniti of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court announced on Thursday that it would hear a case that could radically reshape how federal elections are conducted by giving state legislatures independent power, not subject to review by state courts, to set election rules in conflict with state constitutions. The case has the potential to affect many aspects of the 2024 election, including by giving the justices power to influence the presidential race if disputes arise over how state courts interpret state election laws. In taking up the case, the court could upend nearly every facet of the American electoral process, allowing state legislatures to set new rules, regulations and districts on federal elections with few checks against overreach, and potentially create a chaotic system with differing rules and voting eligibility for presidential elections.... Protections against partisan gerrymandering established through the state courts could essentially vanish. The ability to challenge new voting laws at the state level could be reduced. And the theory underpinning the case could open the door to state legislatures sending their own slates of electors.... Four justices have already expressed at least tentative support for the doctrine, making a decision accepting it more than plausible." Emphasis added. An NPR report is here.

Nice Lady Voluntarily Enters Den of Vipers. Annie Karni of the New York Times: "Ketanji Brown Jackson took the judicial oath just after noon on Thursday, becoming the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court.... She is replacing Justice Stephen G. Breyer, 83, who stepped down with the conclusion of the court's current term. Justice Jackson took both a constitutional oath, administered by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., and a judicial oath, administered by Justice Breyer, making her the nation's 116th justice and sixth woman to serve on the nation's highest court. The brief swearing-in ceremony took place in the West Conference Room at the Supreme Court, before a small gathering of Judge Jackson's family, including her two daughters. Her husband, Dr. Patrick G. Jackson, held the two Bibles on which she swore: a family Bible and a King James Version that is the property of the court." ~~~

     ~~~ Jacob Fischler of the Louisiana Illuminator: "Jackson's husband, Patrick, held two Bibles upon which Jackson swore her oath. One was a family edition and one had been donated to the court in 1906 by Justice John Marshall Harlan, the only justice to dissent in the infamous Plessy v. Ferguson case that upheld racial segregation." ~~~

We're killing the planet. Let's see how the Supreme confederates deal with that life-threatening emergency: ~~~

~~~ New York Times: "The Supreme Court on Thursday limited the Environmental Protection Agency's ability to regulate carbon emissions from power plants, dealing a blow to the Biden administration's efforts to address climate change.The vote was 6 to 3, with the court's three liberal justices in dissent, saying that the majority had stripped the E.P.A. of 'the power to respond to the most pressing environmental challenge of our time.' The ruling appeared to curtail the agency's ability to regulate the energy sector, limiting it to measures like emission controls at individual power plants and, unless Congress acts, ruling out more ambitious approaches like a cap-and-trade system at a time when experts are issuing increasingly dire warnings about the quickening pace of global warming." This is part of a liveblog. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's story is here. (Also linked yesterday.) A CNN story, by Ella Nilson, discusses the impact of the ruling. ~~~

     ~~~ Patrick Parenteau in Informed Comment: "The ruling doesn't take away the EPA's power to regulate carbon emissions from power plants, but it makes federal action harder by requiring the agency to show that Congress has charged it to act -- in an area where Congress has consistently failed to act. The Clean Power Plan, the policy at the heart of the ruling, never took effect because the court blocked it in 2016, and the EPA now plans to develop a new policy instead. Nonetheless, the court went out of its way to strike it down in this case and reject the agency's interpretation of what the Clean Air Act permitted." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: What I gathered from remarks Neal Katyal made on MSNBC was that Roberts' rationale for the finding was that the Clean Air Act did not make clear that the Environmental Protection Agency was supposed to, you know, protect the environment.

Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled for the Biden administration on a controversial immigration policy, saying it had the authority to reverse a Trump-era policy that requires asylum seekers to remain in Mexico while their cases are reviewed in U.S. courts. The vote was 5 to 4, with Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. writing for himself and Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, and the court's three liberals, Stephen G. Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan." (Also linked yesterday.)

Thomas, Gorsuch & Alito Don't Let Facts Get in Their Way. Adam Edelman & Aria Bendix of NBC News: "In a sharply worded dissent, Justice Clarence Thomas expressed support Thursday for a debunked claim that all Covid vaccines are made with cells from 'aborted children.' His dissent came in a decision by the Supreme Court to not take up a legal challenge by New York health care workers who opposed the state's vaccine mandate on religious grounds.... Pfizer and Moderna used fetal cell lines early in their Covid vaccine development to test the efficacy of their formulas, as other vaccines have in the past. The fetal tissue used in these processes came from elective abortions that happened decades ago. But the cells have since replicated many times, so none of the original tissue is involved in the making of modern vaccines. So it is not true that Covid vaccines are manufactured using fetal cell lines, nor do they contain any aborted cells.... Writing for the three dissenters, himself and Justices Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch, Thomas nevertheless cited the debunked claim."

Ann Telnaes of the Washington Post draws a picture of the Supremes' "crisis of legitmacy."

Brett Samuels of the Hill: "President Biden on Thursday said the Senate should carve out an exception to the 60-vote filibuster to codify abortion rights after the Supreme Court overturned the precedent set by Roe v. Wade. 'The most important thing to be clear about is I believe we have to codify Roe v. Wade in the law, and the way to do that is to make sure the Congress votes to do that,' Biden said at a press conference at the NATO summit in Spain. 'And if the filibuster gets in the way, it's like voting rights, it should be we provide an exception for this, requiring an exception to the filibuster for this action to deal with the Supreme Court decision,' Biden added." MB: Not mentioned in Samuels' report, but Biden also said he thought the filibuster should be abandoned to pass legislation guaranteeing other privacy rights -- which is to say those rights that Clarence Thomas thought it would be a good idea to "revisit": gay rights, gay marriage rights, contraceptive rights. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Biden on Thursday condemned what he called the 'outrageous behavior' of the Supreme Court in deciding to overturn Roe v. Wade and said for the first time that he supported ending the filibuster to protect a woman's right to an abortion." (Also linked yesterday.)

Florida. Patricia Mazzei of the New York Times: "In a welcome but likely brief victory for supporters of abortion rights, a judge in Florida blocked a state law banning abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy on Thursday, the latest in a flurry of activity in state courts and legislatures following the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. The Florida law, scheduled to take effect on Friday, violates privacy protections in the State Constitution, ruled Judge John C. Cooper of the Second Judicial Circuit Court in Tallahassee, handing a defeat to Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, who enacted the restrictions in April."

Wisconsin. Hannah Knowles of the Washington Post: "Wisconsin -- where a law from 1849 now bans almost all abortions -- will be a revealing test case that encapsulates many of the political forces charging an explosive national debate.... [Gov. Tony] Evers [D] and Attorney General Josh Kaul (D), who is also seeking reelection, announced a lawsuit this week to block enforcement of the ban, arguing that the 173-year-old law has 'fallen into disuse' and that more recent legislation barring abortion after the point of fetal viability should take precedence..... At a GOP gubernatorial debate this week, candidates enthusiastically endorsed the state's law from the 19th century, which allows abortions only to save a mother's life and makes no exceptions for rape or incest. Doctors who perform the procedure could face up to six years in prison and $10,000 in fines.: ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: You have to give Republicans some credit for convincing silly people that embryos or even microscopic zygotes are "little babies" and Jesus loves them. I wonder if the best thing to do might be to ask, "How do you know this is God's will and not the Devil's?"


Trump Crime Family Pays for, Chooses Witnesses' Lawyers. Luke Broadwater, et al., of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump's political organization and his allies have paid for or promised to finance the legal fees of more than a dozen witnesses called in the congressional investigation into the Jan. 6 attack, raising legal and ethical questions about whether the former president may be influencing testimony with a direct bearing on him. The arrangement drew new scrutiny this week after Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide in his White House, made an explosive appearance before the House panel, providing damning new details about Mr. Trump's actions and statements on the day of the deadly riot. She did so after firing a lawyer who had been recommended to her by two of Mr. Trump's former aides and paid for by his political action committee, and hiring new counsel. Under the representation of the new lawyer, Jody Hunt, Ms. Hutchinson sat for a fourth interview with the committee in which she divulged more revelations and agreed to come forward publicly to testify to them.... Ms. Hutchinson has told the Jan. 6 committee that she was among the witnesses who have been contacted by people around Mr. Trump suggesting that they would be better off if they remained loyal to the former president.... Mr. Trump claimed that Ms. Hutchinson's new lawyer could have prompted her to make false statements. 'Her story totally changed!' he complained on his social media site...." ~~~

Rosalind Helderman, et al., of the Washington Post: "Evidence across multiple state, federal and congressional investigations points to a similar pattern: [Donald] Trump and his close allies privately shower potential witnesses with flattery and attention, extending vague assurances that staying loyal to Trump would be better than crossing him. Meanwhile, Trump publicly blasts those who offer testimony against him in bluntly personal terms, offering a clear example to others of the consequences of stepping out of line. 'Donald Trump never changes his playbook,' [former Trump lawyer Michael] Cohen said in an interview. 'He behaves like a mob boss, and these messages are fashioned in that style. Giving an order without giving the order. No fingerprints attached.'... At Tuesday's [January 6 committee] hearing..., [Liz] Cheney said [a witness] told the committee about receiving phone calls indicating that Trump reads transcripts and 'to keep that in mind' during interviews with the committee." The witness who received the calls was Cassidy Hutchinson. ~~~

~~~ Betsy Swan & Kyle Cheney of Politico: "The Jan. 6 select committee publicly pointed to two communications this week as potential evidence of Trump-world's efforts to influence witness testimony -- without revealing their origin. Both were detailed to the panel by Cassidy Hutchinson, according to a person familiar with the last of her four depositions. Hutchinson told the committee [during her final deposition], on the eve of her earlier March 7 deposition, an intermediary for former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows contacted her to say that her former boss valued her loyalty.... Ben Williamson, a spokesperson for Meadows, provided the following statement to Politico: 'No one from Meadows' camp, himself or otherwise, has ever attempted to intimidate or shape Ms. Hutchinson's testimony to the committee. Any phone call or message she is describing is at best deeply misleading.'" ~~~

~~~ Ken Meyer of Mediaite: Speaking on CNN, former Trump official Alyssa Farah ... "said that [Cassidy] Hutchinson contacted her before the hearing, and she told Farah, 'there's more I want to share with the committee' than what she had before in her previous depositions. 'A couple months ago, I put her in touch with Congresswoman Cheney, Farah said. '[Hutchinson] got a new lawyer and that's how this testimony came about.'... [Farah said that] Hutchinson's original legal representative was 'someone who had been in the White House counsel's office,' and 'still aligned with Trump World' when she gave her first interviews to the committee."

Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "An agent who also served as Donald Trump's deputy chief of staff, Anthony M. Ornato, reportedly disputes [Cassidy] Hutchinson's testimony. The dispute has set up the unusual prospect of Secret Service agents testifying to the Jan. 6 committee.... This is hardly the first time Ornato has denied an account of a key White House conversation. It's now happened in at least three high-profile occasions. And that calls his denials into question, say former Trump aides who stand by Hutchinson. One of them flat-out said Ornato lied in one of his previous denials. But another top White House aide involved in a previously disputed conversation is vouching for Ornato." The most important dispute concerned the attempt to remove Mike Pence from the Capitol on January 6, 2021. Pence refused to leave.

Lucien Bruggeman & Josh Margolin of ABC News: "A former White House aide's stunning testimony before the House panel investigating the Capitol attack indicated that the U.S. Secret Service may have had advanced warning of the potential for violence at the Capitol, raising new questions about the agency's planning ahead of the riot and actions taken by agents on Jan. 6.... In [Cassidy] Hutchinson's telling, the agency ... was aware that among the throngs headed to Washington were some who were planning to carry a variety of weapons and military gear, and were seeking to target members of Congress and breach the Capitol building. If so, the Secret Service apparently failed to coordinate effectively with law enforcement partners, the public, or congressional leaders to strengthen the security posture -- and instead ferried a number of people under their protection [-- Mike Pence, Karen Pence & Kamala Harris --] to the Capitol complex with little more than their personal security details." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Gosh, it sounds as if the Secret Service regarded the Pences & Harris as expendable, but not Donald Trump.

Brahm Resnik of 12 News Phoenix: "The FBI has subpoenaed records from the Republican leader of Arizona's state Senate as well as another GOP senator, as part of a federal investigation into ... Donald Trump's pressure campaign on state-level officials after the 2020 election. A spokeswoman for Senate President Karen Fann of Prescott confirmed the subpoena.... Public records obtained after the election show Fann had numerous contacts with Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani. Fann told one constituent in a December 2020 email that she had 'spoken with Mayor Giuliani at least six times over the past two weeks.' Fann told another constituent she had received 'a personal call from President Trump thanking us for pushing to prove any fraud.' State Sen. Kelly Townsend of Mesa told 12 News she was complying with an FBI subpoena for copies of communications with Trump's lawyers. Townsend said her staff had gone through all her emails and was sending them in."

Marie: I'm having an Emily Litella moment. Earlier this week, I linked to a story that asserted that a million Americans had switched their voter registrations from Democratic to Republican. Never mind. ~~~

~~~ Elliott Morris in a Substack essay: "On Monday, the Associated Press reported that 'More than 1 million voters across 43 states have switched to the Republican Party over the last year, according to voter registration data... A political shift is beginning to take hold across the U.S. as tens of thousands of suburban swing voters who helped fuel the Democratic Party's gains in recent years are becoming Republicans.'... The reported shift is not actually real.... The authors [of the AP analysis] misused voter file data, conflating estimates of party ID with real changes in registration. The error was fixed by other analysts who find parity in party-switching since 2020[.]... Catalist [-- a voter file company --] writes, 'we do not find anything in this analysis that would support the conclusion that current changes in voter registrations should be a worrying sign for Democrats.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I checked the AP story just now (8:00 am ET), and the AP has issued neither a correction nor a we-stand-by-our-reporting statement. So I leave it to you to decide what that means.

Beyond the Beltway

Texas. It Wasn't Slavery; It Was "Involuntary Relocation." Brian Lopez of the Texas Tribune: "A group of Texas educators have proposed to the Texas State Board of Education that slavery should be taught as 'involuntary relocation' during second grade social studies instruction, but board members have asked them to reconsider the phrasing, according to the state board's chair. 'The board -- with unanimous consent -- directed the work group to revisit that specific language,' Keven Ellis, chair of the Texas State Board of Education said in a statement issued late Thursday. The working group of nine educators, including a professor at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, is one of many such groups advising the state education board to make curriculum changes. This summer, the board will consider updates to social studies instruction a year after lawmakers passed a law to keep topics that make students 'feel discomfort' out of Texas classrooms. The board will have a final vote on the curriculum in November." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I'm certainly not an expert on children's language development skills, but somehow I don't think most seven-year-olds know what "involuntary" and "relocation" mean. "Slavery"? Yeah, probably. And that's the point, isn't it?

Way Beyond

Ukraine, et al.

The New York Times' live updates of developments Friday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here. ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live updates for Friday are here: "At least 18 people were killed and 31 injured when a Russian strike hit a residential building and a recreation center in the Odessa region, Ukrainian officials said early Friday.... U.S. officials and experts on Russia's legal system say they expect [U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner's trial] to be a show trial, with a guilty verdict all but certain.... Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed his country has started exporting electricity to Europe, in an effort to help the continent reduce its reliance on Russian gas."

~~~ Is It a "Show" Trial if It's Held in Secret? Robyn Dixon & Mary Ilyushina of the Washington Post: "A Moscow court on Friday barred media from covering the trial of American WNBA star Brittney Griner on drug charges that could see her sentenced to 10 years in prison if convicted. The court did say that five journalists will be allowed into the room by the end of the hearing. Griner arrived at the courtroom in the Moscow suburb of Khimki to face charges that she was carrying vape cartridges containing 'a significant amount' of hashish oil in her baggage at a Moscow airport in February, a week before Russia's invasion of Ukraine." ~~~

~~~ Michael Crowley of the New York Times: "... the Kremlin appears interested in linking [the' fates [of American basketball star Brittney Griner & notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout], in a potential deal with the Biden administration that would free both. The vast disparity between the cases of Brittney Griner and Viktor Bout highlights the extreme difficulty President Biden would face if he sought a prisoner exchange to free Ms. Griner, the detained W.N.B.A. player, from detention in Moscow. The Biden administration, reluctant to create an incentive for the arrest or abduction of Americans abroad, would be hard-pressed to justify the release of a villainous figure like Mr. Bout," who is serving a 25-year sentence in the U.S. for conspiring to sell arms to people planning to kill Americans.

Marc Santora & Ivan Nechepurenko of the New York Times: "Russian troops have withdrawn from Snake Island in the Black Sea after repeated assaults by Ukrainian forces, a move that is a setback for Moscow's forces and possibly undermines their control over vital shipping lanes for grain in the Black Sea. The retreat came after sustained Ukrainian attacks -- including with powerful, newly arrived Western weapons -- made it impossible for Russian forces to hold the island, a small speck of land 20 miles off the coast of Odesa that has played an outsized role throughout the war." (Also linked yesterday.)

News Lede

New York Times: "Two law enforcement officers were killed and four other officers were shot on Thursday night after a man barricaded in his home opened fire with a rifle in Allen, Ky., a rural town so small that it lacks its own police force, the authorities said. The Kentucky State Police, which is investigating the shooting, said that another person who is not an officer had also been shot during the episode and that a police dog had been struck and killed. An additional officer sustained an injury unrelated to gunfire, Capt. Paul Blanton of the Kentucky State Police said in an interview.... The police arrested Lance P. Storz, 49, who faces several charges, including murder, attempted murder, and assault on a service animal, according to an arrest citation."

Comments Off

Reader Comments (6)

Isn't it ironic that we now have the first Black woman to sit on the S.C. at the same time that the Court itself is falling apart. One step up, six steps down.Throw in the President of the United States (and this united thingy too, might fall apart) who is critical of this Court and proclaims it outright and we gots trouble–--with a big T and a mighty E for the kind of energy needed to quell this over-reach of power.

July 1, 2022 | Unregistered CommenterP.D. Pepe

Here's what Jamal Greene (professor st Columbia Law School) has to say about "rights."

"Greene’s argument is that in America, for specific reasons rooted in our ugly past, the way we think about rights has gone terribly awry. We don’t do constitutional law the way other countries do it. Rather, we recognize too few rights, and we protect them too strongly. That’s created a race to get everything ruled as a right, because once it’s a right, it’s unassailable. And that’s made the stakes of our constitutional conflicts too high. “If only one side can win, it might as well be mine,” Greene writes. “Conflict over rights can encourage us to take aim at our political opponents instead of speaking to them. And we shoot to kill.”

July 1, 2022 | Unregistered CommenterP.D. Pepe

Oh, not to worry, it’s just the help…

It’s both embarrassing and telling that Junior, in trying to discredit the highly damaging testimony about daddy’s depraved indifference to human life, as well as his intemperate treatment of White House china (they should have bought Corelle with such a whiny baby in the house; that shit is unbreakable) refers now to Cassidy Hutchinson as nothing more than a “coffee girl”.

This is the ignorant bigotry of a lazy piece of shit who has grown up in pampered luxury, had everything handed to him, and believes daddy’s money automatically makes him the kind of superior person who can insult those who work for a living by demeaning them with references to their unexalted economic and supposedly uninfluential status.

Junior, no surprise, must not be much of a reader. How many British murder mysteries have been solved by interviewing the household domestics? What the kitchen maid saw through the keyhole would stand staid Victorian hairdos straight up in the air. And by the way, even if she was “just the coffee girl”, such an assertion in no way invalidates her testimony. If he thinks it does, he’s stupider than I already believe him to be.

But Junior, also no surprise, is an ignorant putz. Otherwise he’d know that daddy’s pants steamer (Hope Hicks) no doubt knows where plenty of bodies were buried, and daddy’s golf club guy (Dan Scavino) no doubt helped bury some of them.

But not Junior. He and his imbecile brother and Princess Ivanka were too busy drinking the coffee and assuming superior airs resulting from not a single ounce of deserved status beyond being born to a rich asshole to notice that there were other people in the room when daddy was plotting his overthrow of the government, and smashing the china.

Coffee, no matter the quantity or strength, could never awaken Junior from the self-satisfied stupor of the idiot minor celebrity spawn.

July 1, 2022 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

And, if Jr paid attention, he would know that the West Wing uses "mess boys" for coffee. They work in the White House Mess (which is a dining refectory-thing, not a wrecked creation of the Orange Infant.)

July 1, 2022 | Unregistered CommenterPatrick

@Akhilleus - while I agree with your comment, I can testify from personal experience that Corelle dinner plates can shatter if dropped on a tile floor, which is why we now only have 7.

July 1, 2022 | Unregistered Commenterjoynone

@joynone: That is my experience with Corelle, too. The Corelle I bought in the early 1960s is now long gone, largely because I lived in houses with slab foundations and had little children. I hasten to add that the children did not throw the dishes around a la Trump, but they did drop the dinner plates on the floor occasionally, and the plates shattered into many little glass pieces. That's why I recommended Chinet -- a paper product (but a "high-end" paper product!) -- to anyone planning to invite Trump & Melanie over for a meal.

July 1, 2022 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns
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