Attorney General Merrick Garland has ordered a halt to all federal executions and directed the Department of Justice to review federal policy on the death penalty, saying that the death penalty is unjustly applied to Black people and other minorities and to poor people, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The announcement is a direct reversal of Trump Administration policy, which restarted federal executions after a two decade ban.  Trump pushed a rush of federal executions, with fourteen executions in the last seven months of Trump’s term, including three in his final week in office.

“New York City’s newest train model was unveiled in Brooklyn Thursday – and the faster cars will provide a ‘dramatic upgrade’ to subway services across the city, the MTA vowed. The R211s, built in Nebraska by Japanese manufacturer Kawasaki, will replace the 46-year-old R46 model in 2022, officials said. The new car comes equipped with modern signal tech that the MTA says allows faster train service. ‘This is a dramatic upgrade to our ability to really service New Yorkers with more capacity and more trains,’ MTA exec Janno Lieber said, before he and New York City Transit Authority officials whisked the cars off to a railyard in Coney Island for testing.”

“Keith Sylvan, 18, of the Upper West Side, stood outside the fence at Thursday’s event with about a dozen other rail fans. He told The Post he’d been following the R211’s development since design planning began nine years ago. ‘They look almost futuristic,’ Sylvan said. ‘They look like something straight out of the 21st century'” the New York Post reports on NYC’s newest subway car models and this kid who apparently forgot it isn’t still 1991 and it’s kind of weird to describe something that way when it is quite literally straight out of the 21st century.

Billionaire Richard Branson announced that the inaugural crewed flight of his space endeavor Virgin Galactic will take off July 11th, nine days prior to Jeff Bezos’ planned launch aboard the Blue Origin, and Branson will be aboard, the Associated Press reports.

While the Blue Origin launches in on a traditional rocket, the Virgin Galactic craft launches after release from a mother craft, an airplane that will release the craft about six miles above the Earth.  The mothership, known as White Knight Two, before the six-passenger SpaceShipTwo release and ascends to 55 miles altitude for about ten minutes.

Probably the shittiest thing about QAnon is that it turns people into paranoid conspiracy freaks even if they don’t believe in the QAnon conspiracy mythos itself. Like, here I am thinking “Wait, are the Republican governor and lawmakers of Missouri winking at the QAnon fans by calling this the Wayfair Bill, just to get them whipped up that they’re ‘taking action’ against an alleged front for the Clinton-Soros-Tom Hanks Satanic child sex trafficking cabal? I bet they are.” It took a minute or two before it fully dawned on me, and then “FUCK! I’m making up an imaginary conspiracy theory about hidden signs cynically aimed directly at believers in an imaginary conspiracy theory.”

And that my friends, is the true insidiousness of QAnon. It’s not enough that it sucks in so many wayward souls – impressionable, gullible people into its utter madness, it also sucks the somewhat less impressionable, gullible people – those of us self-tasked with observing and reporting on the madness. I’m here starting to “see the patterns within the patterns” in one of the most mundane workings of government and as such turning into the very evil which I seek to destroy.

Sure this will probably end up being noticed by the Q fans and it will probably be the subject of a shit ton of insane ramblings on their forums. That part’s a given. But that’s not the real question here. It’s whether or not Missouri Republicans intentionally and knowingly referenced one of QAnon’s greatest hits in an otherwise unremarkable piece of legislation, especially when calling it the “Amazon Bill” probably would’ve made it more recognizable? Would they really do that?

On second thought, fuck it. They probably did. Trust the plan.

Dominion Voting Systems has been granted a subpoena to obtain all the emails between Trump lawyer (who is suspended from practicing law) Rudy Giuliani and Fox News relating to Giuliani’s appearances on the propaganda network to promote his election fraud conspiracy.

According to Bloomberg News, Dominion is seeking the documents for its lawsuit against Fox News.  The company has a similar one against Giuliani.  Both suits allege the defendants intentionally defamed Dominion in their quest to overturn the results of the November 2020 presidential election which Donald Trump lost.

Similar subpoenas were sent to Kraken lawyer Sidney Powell and MyPillow founder Mike Lindell.  All three are being sued by Dominion for continuing to propagate false claims about Dominion’s trying to overturn the election, including claims that Dominion was run by foreign communists. 

NHC.NOAA.GOV: Tropical storm Elsa is rapidly gaining strength in the Atlantic Ocean as she heads into the Gulf of Mexico. The storm was upgraded from a potential tropical cyclone overnight and now has top sustained winds of 45 mph as she skates rapidly to the WNW at 29 mph. The 45 mph wind speed represents an increase of 10 mph over reports from yesterday.

The California woman caught on camera abusing a black teenage boy whom she claimed stole her cell phone, harassing the boy and his family in the lobby of a New York City hotel, has been charged with a hate crime and other charges by a New York County grand jury, NBC News reports.

In December in the lobby of the Arlo Soho, an upscale, boutique Manhattan hotel, Miya Ponsetto accused the 14-year-old son of jazz musician Keyon Harrold of stealing her iPhone.  She ranted that the boy should turn it over to him in an incident his father recorded on his phone.  Security cameras in the hotel later filmed Ponsetto trying to bear-hug Keyon Harrold Jr., in an attempt to throw him to the ground.

The phone was later found in an Uber Ponsetto had ridden in and was returned to her.  She had been charged earlier with attempted robbery, grand larceny, acting in a manner injurious to a child and two counts of attempted assault.  The county grand jury added two counts of unlawful imprisonment as a hate crime, aggravated harassment, and endangering the welfare of a child.  She pleaded not guilty.

Oddly, a statement from the Trump Organization on the 15-count indictment against company CFO Allen Weisselberg fails to argue a very salient point:  it doesn’t claim that Weisselberg or the company didn’t commit the crimes they’re accused of:

Allen Weisselberg is a loving and devoted husband, father and grandfather who has worked for the Trump Organization for 48 years  He is now being used by the Manhattan District Attorney as a pawn in a scorched earth attempt to harm the former President.  The District Attorney is bringing a case involving employee benefits that neither the IRS nor any other District Attorney would ever think of bringing. This is not justice; this is politics.

“House Republicans don’t want to touch the select committee on January 6 with a 10-foot pole. As Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy mulls whom to tap for a congressional investigation into the deadly US Capitol riot – and whether to appoint people at all – Republicans from across the conference are racing to show they have no interest in taking on a politically fraught assignment, particularly lawmakers in difficult reelection races. There’s even scant interest among the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach former President Donald Trump for inciting the deadly insurrection. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler of Washington issued multiple public statements: she told reporters she opposed the select panel and later put out a formal statement making crystal clear she wouldn’t serve on it if asked. New York Rep. John Katko, who brokered a bipartisan deal to establish an independent investigation that was blocked by Senate Republicans, said he has little appetite to participate in a ‘turbo-charged partisan exercise.'”

“Veteran Rep. Fred Upton of Michigan, meanwhile, quipped to CNN: It’s ‘not on my bucket list.’ Others were equally as blunt. ‘No,’ said Rep. David Valadao, a vulnerable California Republican who voted to impeach Trump and backed an independent commission. ‘Obviously, the politics of it is going to be very, very obvious, and that’s why I supported the commission,’ he said. The anxiety among some Republicans foreshadows what is shaping up to be a partisan brawl that could put a hefty target on their backs, either with constituents or with Trump himself – neither of whom GOP lawmakers are eager to cross. If they don’t sufficiently defend Trump, they are bound to invite outrage from the base. Yet if they deny the former President’s role in the attack on the Capitol, they will be cast as whitewashing history. So most Republicans would rather keep their heads down as the probe plays out in the House, especially those representing more moderate-leaning districts” CNN.

Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg and the Trump Organization itself were indicted on fifteen charges in a twenty-page indictment.  The highlights:

• The fifteen individual charges are:
  • Scheme to defraud in the first degree;
  • Conspiracy in the fourth degree;
  • Grand Larceny in the second degree;
  • Three counts of Criminal Tax Fraud in the third degree;
  • Criminal Tax Fraud in the fourth degree;
  • Four counts of Offering a False Instrument for Filing in the first degree; and
  • Four counts of Falsifying Business Records in the first degree.

Politico: “He’s one of Donald Trump’s most vociferous backers. But Tucker Carlson has told multiple people that he voted for pop star Kanye West last year instead. Shortly after the election, the Fox News host started telling some program guests that he had cast his ballot for West, according to two people familiar with those conversations. Given Carlson’s fierce on-air commentary in favor of Trump, the guests were left wondering if Carlson was serious or merely joking. ‘It’s his way of saying that he’s not just another Trumpette at Fox News like Sean Hannity,’ one of the sources said, referring to Carlson’s fellow primetime opinion host and reputed internal rival.”

“Other Carlson associates said the affinity between the two men – one a longtime conservative commentator who once wore a bowtie and moved seamlessly within liberal political and media circles, the other an eccentric music celebrity whose tumultuous relationship with Kim Kardashian recently ended in divorce – is real. Prior to the election, Carlson said he would vote for West, according to a third person who knows Carlson. ‘He and Kanye get along. They both regularly find themselves in the crosshairs. They’re both pro-life,’ this associate said.”

um what? pic.twitter.com/H9o7HV2XZF

— Jenna Ellis (@JennaEllisEsq) July 1, 2021

Trump CFO Allen Weisselberg  was charged with Grand Larceny in the Second Degree, a Class C felony, for failing to pay taxes on $1.7 million in income from the Trump Organization.  Weisselberg pleaded not guilty, and he was released on personal recognizance without bail.

The charges specify that through deception, Weisselberg avoided paying approximately $556,000 in federal taxes, $106,000 in state taxes and $245,000 in New York City taxes.

Assistant District Attorney Kerry Dunn told the court that today’s alleged criminal activity was “orchestrated by the most senior executives” of the Trump Organization.  “The Chief Financial Officer himself avoided taxes of $1.7 million dollars.”  He called it a sweeping and audacious illegal payment scheme.  “This case is not about politics; this investigation, which is ongoing, is proper.”

The charge can lead to a sentence ranging from probation or up to 15 years.  It is presumed that the charges relate to only taxes avoided on the state level.

Wally Funk, an 82-year-old New Mexico woman who was part of the Mercury 13 women who trained for space flight in the 1960s, will join Amazon founder Jeff Bezos on the maiden manned flight from his Blue Origin space company scheduled in late January, the BBC reports.

Funk was one of thirteen American women who were trained, through a privately funded project, using the same criteria and tests instituted to prepare the male Mercury Seven for space flight.  The Mercury 13 trainees were not sanctioned by NASA, they never met as a group, and they ultimately were never considered for a NASA mission.  It would be twenty years before the first American woman was launched into space as part of a NASA mission.

In a video posted online by Bezos in which he tells Funk she would be accompanying him into space, Funk says, “I can’t tell people watching how fabulous I feel to have been picked by Blue Origin to go on this trip.” 

Sans tie and belt, Trump CFO Allen Weisselberg was escorted into a New York courtroom where he will be formally indicted on as-yet unspecified charges relating to the Trump Organization.

“Former President Donald Trump’s team quietly launched a new social media platform on Thursday, billing it as an alternative to Big Tech sites. The platform, called GETTR, advertised its mission statement as ‘fighting cancel culture, promoting common sense, defending free speech, challenging social media monopolies, and creating a true marketplace of ideas.’ Trump’s former spokesman, Jason Miller, is leading the platform. A person familiar described the site as similar to Twitter.”

“Trump’s involvement with the project is unclear as is whether or not he will set up an account on GETTR and use it, though his proximity to Miller suggests that this may be the latest attempt to get him back in the churn of social media The former president has been looking for alternative ways to engage with his base online after having been booted off Twitter and suspended from Facebook after encouraging the Capitol rioters on January 6. And his prior effort to engage online – through the launch of a professional blog – ended quickly amid widespread ridicule and poor readership. GETTR is one of the highest-profile projects in a larger ecosystem of pro-MAGA tech and social media platforms that have blossomed on the right, largely fueled by a sense that Big Tech is attempting to silence conservative and pro-Trump ideology from being disseminated online. In recent months, it was widely reported that the Trump team was searching for a platform on which to re-establish his online presence, either by buying a company outright and rebranding it as his exclusive platform, or becoming a featured draw” – Politico.

Federal prosecutors have filed a motion with the Court to revoke the release of Thomas Robertson, a former Rocky Mount, Virginia police officer arrested in connection with the January 6th domestic terrorist attack on the Capitol, after they discovered that Robertson had purchased 34 guns on an online gun auction site and that he had built a pipe bomb.

According to the Roanoke Times, Robertson frequently sought to buy guns on the website GunBroker.com, that facilitates private sales of firearms.  As a condition of his release after his January arrest, Robertson was ordered to turn over all firearms in his possession and he was barred from possessing any firearms, ammunition or explosives; federal agents found eight guns in his house at the time of his arrest in January

However, between April 12th and May 15th, Robertson had purchased 14 guns, according to federal records.  When federal authorities raided his house Wednesday, they found a box labeled “booby trap” and containing a homemade pipe bomb.  They also found a loaded M4 rifle, two boxes of ammunition and two “spam cans” of ammo. 

Republicans will be hunted.

— Scott Adams (@ScottAdamsSays) July 1, 2020

Asked by a reporter if he believes Wyoming Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney has effectively left the GOP caucus because she accepted a seat on the special committee investigating the January 6th domestic terrorist attacks on the Capitol, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy reinforced the idea that Republicans hold partisan loyalty over what’s good for the nation.

“I was shocked that she would accept something from Speaker Pelosi,” McCarthy responded, confirming the Republicans’ role as a fierce opposition Party instead of one interested in governing.  “It would seem to me that since I didn’t hear from her, maybe she’s closer to her than us, I don’t know.”