"This gets at the fundamental dysfunction of Republican politics today. According to both Trump and his defenders, any misfortunes he encounters are the fault of others. He is blameless. His every wrong is right." thedispatch.com/newsletter/gfi… "This is the lie in every Trump controversy from the Access Hollywood tape to his two impeachments and everything in between. Take a step back and look at the fundamentals of the pro-Trump arguments in nearly all of these chapters. Trump violates norms and the immediate...."

"The narrative that the 2024 [Taiwanese] presidential election is a choice between peace and war is likely to reemerge as the dominant narrative in the mid to long term." understandingwar.org/backgrounder/c… "The CCP used a recent report about U.S. evacuation plans for Taiwan to advance [dis]information operations that aim to degrade United States-Taiwan security cooperation."

"The Republican National Committee is struggling to reassert its dominance over a party that has lost all respect for its organizational apparatus." nationalreview.com/corner/treat-t… "This week, former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson’s presidential campaign reached out to the RNC with the request that it amend one of its primary qualifications for candidates seeking to participate in sanctioned debates: the demand that participants sign a pledge in...."

"The notion that, through persistence, personal agency & dedication, the remaining vestiges of institutional [ethnic] discrimination in America are obstacles that minority citizens can overcome is one to which the nation’s 1st [Mulatto] president objects." nationalreview.com/corner/obamas-… “'There’s a long history of African-American or other minority candidates within the Republican Party who will validate America and say, ‘Everything’s great, and we can make it,’' said Barack Obama...."

https://twitter.com/AlexThomp/status/1669370199324147717?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1669370199324147717%7Ctwgr%5Ead47988f87b11483bbb5430f9c45e62a606479e8%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fnypost.com%2F2023%2F06%2F15%2Fobama-bashes-nikki-haley-and-tim-scott-on-race-relations-long-list-of-minority-candidates-in-gop-who-say-everything-is-great%2F

"The former president’s latest indictment shows why he is so uniquely ill-suited to reining in the federal bureaucracy."

Which he never, ever had any intention of doing anyway. He wanted to acquire it instead. nationalreview.com/2023/06/trump-… "Iwonder if I can prevail upon the nation’s many multidimensional-chess players to tell me, a mere dilettante of the 2D game, which variant of strategic dexterity this bewildering little incident is supposed to represent." nytimes.com/article/trump-…

"Explaining away his lawlessness by claiming he *is* the law." plus.thebulwark.com/p/from-justify… "In Donald Trump's four years as president, the Republican party became increasingly authoritarian through a simple formula: Each time Trump crossed a line — firing people who investigated him, usurping the power to appropriate money [just like Joe Biden], extorting a...."

"Why isn’t this the golden age of assassinations?" thedispatch.com/article/charis… "One of the generally unspoken assumptions of the gun control movement is that changes in firearms technology drive changes in gun-wielding behavior — that, at least in some part, we have the kind of gun-related violence we have today because of the kinds of firearms we have...."

"On Wednesday, Democrats in control of the Senate Judiciary Committee [thanks to Donald Trump] convened a subcommittee hearing [that] amounted to a publicity campaign for legislation sponsored by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse...." nationalreview.com/corner/republi… "....the Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal & Transparency (SCERT) Act, which evades constitutional proscriptions on bills of attainder only via careful legislative language. In essence, the bill is a Democrat-sponsored effort to target, anathematize & neuter Justice Clarence Thomas."

"For Democrat and ]MAGA] partisans alike, COVID-19’s origins have little political use." nationalreview.com/2023/06/when-t… "An informed reader will likely look at this incomplete but highly indicative set of data and conclude that the pandemic that stole years of his life, stultified his children’s development, restricted his access to his loved ones, and maybe even took them from him was...."

"One might also take a look at the imagery of the Wagner mercenary group...." plus.thebulwark.com/p/ukrainian-tr… "....which has a Totenkopf-like skull in one of its logos...." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wagner_Gr…

"Sources within the U.S. government say that three of the earliest people to become infected with SARS-CoV-2 were Ben Hu, Yu Ping, and Yan Zhu. All were members of the Wuhan lab suspected to have leaked the pandemic virus." public.substack.com/p/first-people… "Way back in the closing days of the Trump administration, the U.S. State Department published a 'fact sheet' declaring...." 2017-2021.state.gov/fact-sheet-act…

"Defending him is morally reprehensible — and a political liability." thedispatch.com/article/the-go… "The evidence is compelling and overwhelming. While Trump deserves a proper defense, no serious person who has read the indictment and lived through the last eight years believes he is innocent."

Infuriatingly, there are far too few serious people left in this country.

"1. Lebanese Hezbollah provided drone training for Iranian-backed militias in eastern Syria. Iranian-backed militias could use these drones to support efforts to expel U.S. forces from Syria." understandingwar.org/backgrounder/i… "2. Lebanese Hezbollah and Fatemiyoun militants conducted a military exercise in central Syria, likely to signal their ability to attack U.S. forces in Syria."

"Hey, remember when the conventional wisdom about the Bud Light boycott was that it was a minor, online-activist-driven controversy that would have few if any real-world effects? Good times, good times...." nationalreview.com/corner/hey-rem… "I’m so old, I can remember when I was being told 'protests are febrile and storms often pass as rapidly as they have erupted.' You know, in late April." ft.com/content/3a84b2…

"A California bill, AB 957, would require family courts to interpret a child’s 'health, safety, and welfare' to 'include a parent’s [sexual mutilation of their gender dysphoric child] for the purpose of custody disputes." nationalreview.com/2023/06/califo… "The bill, which has already passed the State assembly, was sponsored by Assembly member Lori Wilson, who [sexually mutilated] her own child, and who would like to see similar laws enacted in every State. It is of a piece with last year’s trans-tourism bill, encouraging...."