Politico: “Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance has indicated he does not currently plan to charge the Trump Organization with crimes related to allegations of ‘hush money’ payments and real estate value manipulations, according to a personal lawyer for Donald Trump. Ronald Fischetti, a New York attorney who represents the former president, said on Monday that in a meeting last week, he asked Vance’s team for details on charges they were considering.”

“According to Fischetti, members of Vance’s team said they were considering bringing charges against the Trump Organization and its individual employees related to alleged failures to pay taxes on corporate benefits and perks. It has been widely reported that those perks included cars and apartments and appear to only involve a small number of executives. ‘We asked, ‘Is there anything else?’’ Fischetti told Politico. ‘They said, ‘No.’’ “It’s crazy that that’s all they had,” he added.”

“Tropical Storm Danny formed Monday afternoon off South Carolina’s coast, and forecasters said the storm is expected to race inland over the U.S. Southeast while dumping several inches of rain in some spots. The fourth named storm of the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season formed close to South Carolina’s coast and had top sustained winds of 40 mph (65kph) with higher guests at midafternoon. The National Hurricane Center in Miami said the storm was located at 3 p.m. about 60 miles (95 kilometers) east-southeast of Beaufort, South Carolina. The storm was headed to the west-northwest at 16 mph (26 kph) and was expected to dump several inches of rain on some parts of South Carolina and Georgia on its trek inland” the AP reports.

To our knowledge The National Hurricane Center – the government agency responsible for tracking, monitoring, and naming Atlantic and Eastern Pacific tropical cyclones – does not have a policy of dropping informal names to more proper ones when the storms mature and reach hurricane strength, but it should be a thing. For example say, “Tropical Storm Frankie” and “Tropical Storm Maggie” should be upgraded to “Hurricane Francis” and “Hurricane Margaret”, respectively, so citizens in their paths are inclined to take them more seriously and prepare accordingly.

The only potential hurdle is the ordinal alphabetical nature of the naming system, so for example a situation where “Tropical Storm Liz” needs to be upgraded to “Hurricane Elizabeth” would obviously screw things up since the National Hurricane System would be backtracking, so they should think ahead and make sure when they pick an informal name that the formal version begins with the same letter. So “Bobby” is a no, but “Robby” is fine, because “Robert”. “Willy”: yes. “Billy”: No.

On Monday, a Pennsylvania Trump fan named Sandy Pomeroy Weyer was arrested and charged with obstructing Congress and unlawfully demonstrating inside the US Capitol. Weyer’s case is noteworthy for how she screamed “FUCKING TRAITOR, GET THE FUCK OUT” at a female New York Times photographer, Erin Schaff, as Schaff was being assaulted by other rioters and that Weyer travelled to DC on a bus provided by MAGA scumbag Pennsylvania State Senator Doug Mastriano (whose own involvement in the Capitol riot is damn suspicious). Weyer also is described as a “Mastriano groupie” in a tweet showing her in the crowd at a one of the marginally less stupid post election press events, the ‘hearing’ in Gettysburg on November 25th where Jenna Ellis held her iPhone up to the microphone as Trump ‘called-in’ to the conference.

True to form for a MAGA shithead, despite Weyer’s charging affidavit explaining in great detail how she did in fact witness violence toward the NYT photographer Schaff, it shows he denying she saw any violence take place: “On or about on January 6, 2021, and January 7, 2021, Weyer’s account had the following chat exchange with Facebook user C.H.: From C.H.: ‘Sandy lost your live feed. FBI on the way. Here are some pictures. The Patriot in the office is in Pelosi chair. Not a good thing for the majority of us that wanted a peaceful protest.’ Sandy Pomeroy Weyer: ‘I didn’t see any Trump supporters rioting or being violent. Now that doesn’t mean that didn’t happen but I only saw Patriots that are sick and tired of being lied to and having the vote stolen from us. We may have broken through the barricades and the doors to the Capitol…but I know that my group was not violent or rioting and I didn’t see any other Patriots rioting or being violent.'”

Politico: “It could have upended the Wisconsin Republican Party’s annual convention, given Donald Trump’s hold on the GOP. Just as the state party gathered this past weekend, Trump issued a statement tearing into the state Assembly speaker, Robin Vos, and two other Republican lawmakers for doing too little to promote his election conspiracies. But in a rare setback for his post-presidential interventions in the GOP, Trump in Wisconsin appeared to shoot a blank. When Vos and Devin LeMahieu, the state’s Senate majority leader, took the stage on Saturday in front of some of the party’s most fervent pro-Trump activists, it was as though Trump had said nothing at all. There were no boos. Vos drew applause. Convention-goers dismissed an effort to censure him. In Wisconsin at least, Trump failed to set off the same intra-party chaos that has marked his efforts elsewhere. Worse for him, despite the former president’s harsh personal criticism, there were signs his comments were dismissed with a roll of the eyes.”

“‘I just think it’s been going on for so long that people are kind of tired of it,’ said Tony Kurtz, a GOP assemblyman from rural Juneau County, which went for Trump last year by nearly 30 percentage points. For more than seven months since he lost the election, Trump has engaged in a crusade against Republicans who crossed him, an effort he invigorated with a rally in Ohio on Saturday, where he traveled to campaign against Rep. Anthony Gonzalez, who voted to impeach him earlier this year. In most cases, the Republican base has responded zealously. But here, at a convention center attached to a water park, the lack of interest from the rank-and-file suggested some of the first, tentative signs of weariness of Trump’s smash-mouth political act… But unlike in states like Georgia and Arizona, there wasn’t widespread interest in purging the state’s Assembly speaker for it – a departure from Trump’s dominion over the Republican Party’s apparatus in the states. ‘That’s Wisconsin for you,’ said Helmut Fritz, a delegate from Milwaukee who sits on the state party’s credentials committee. ‘Trump isn’t the dictator.'”

A Trump source present for the weekend contacted me disputing this, and said @GOPChairwoman is focused on 2022 and bringing the party together.

What is the truth, Ronna? https://t.co/ovJKkiOdbb

— Jenna Ellis (@JennaEllisEsq) June 28, 2021

“Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell called on Democrats to back off their plans to tie a bipartisan infrastructure deal to a larger bill filled with their priorities, warning that both efforts could collapse if they carry through with their plans. The call by the Kentucky Republican was the clearest sign yet that the Senate GOP may try to deny Democrats the 60 votes they need to pass a bipartisan plan unless they abruptly change tactics. At an event in Kentucky on Monday, McConnell said when asked about the bipartisan deal, ‘I think it’s fair to say I’d like to see us get there and I do think the only way we can get there is to delink the two issues. They are really separate issues.'”

“The comments from the minority leader come after President Joe Biden on Saturday tried to walk back earlier remarks when he said he wouldn’t sign a bipartisan bill on infrastructure unless it came paired with a reconciliation proposal, which Democrats could pass without Republican votes. The initial remark from Biden met with a flurry of criticism from Republicans, and it now remains to be seen if the bipartisan deal can recover. McConnell said in a statement on Monday that Biden ‘appropriately delinked’ the two issues, but went on to say that he is ‘calling on President Biden to engage Leader Schumer and Speaker Pelosi and make sure they follow his lead.’ McConnell added that if that does not happen then ‘President Biden’s walk-back of his veto threat would be a hollow gesture.’ The remarks focus a spotlight on congressional Democratic leaders who are trying hard to thread the needle on infrastructure while balancing demands from moderate and progressive factions within the party. Pelosi said last week that the House won’t take up the bipartisan infrastructure bill until the Senate passes a larger, more sweeping infrastructure package through budget reconciliation” – CNN.

Our efforts to expose the bigoted view and dangerous conspiracy theories spread by right-wing activists has now resulted in @YouTube banning our channel and removing thousands of our videos. We attempted to appeal this decision, and YouTube rejected it. pic.twitter.com/74Rfi31uQe

— Right Wing Watch (@RightWingWatch) June 28, 2021

This hits a raw nerve, as Jack and I are both very familiar with YouTube’s dumbassery and inability to understand the distinction between reporting on and exposing hateful/propagandistic MAGA garbage and propagating it, each of us having our channels that we use for for National Zero suspended at least once for content violations (mine was a video of Trump talking to reporters in January) so we feel Right Wing Watch’s pain. This is obviously worse for them, having a dedicated channel with more than 60,000 subscribers and thousands of videos documenting more than a decade of right wing extremism, whereas Jack and I use YouTube solely for embeds here on National Zero. YouTube needs to get their shit together and be answerable to these appeals.

That being said, if this kind of collateral damage is the cost of effective moderation against fascist and racist conspiracy bullshit on YouTube and elsewhere then I believe it’s ultimately worth paying. I’d rather have to start a new National Zero channel every now and then to host my videos than have QAnon and anti-vaxx bullshit polluting YouTube and radicalizing people every day.

UPDATE 7:15 PM EDT 6/28/21: Right Wing Watch reports YouTube lifted the ban and restored their channel Monday afternoon following a social media outcry. “I strongly suspect Right Wing Watch was targeted in a mass reporting effort by far right groups, and whoever handled this at YouTube was either absurdly clueless, or complicit” said some guitarist/activist dude Charles Johnson on Twitter, which is probably correct given RWW has undoubtedly made themselves quite a few enemies over the the years. Miserable, vengeful enemies at that.

New York Times: “There was a strange Covid-19 pattern in the U.S. for much of this spring. The virus was not spreading any faster in communities with low vaccination rates than in those with high vaccination rates. How could this have been? There were probably a few reasons. Many less vaccinated areas were in the South, where warm spring weather allowed people to socialize in the relative safety of the outdoors. Natural immunity might also have played a role – because people who have already had this coronavirus have at least some degree of protection against it… But the pandemic is not over. Covid remains a serious threat to unvaccinated adults, especially those middle-aged or older. And now the surprising trends from the spring may be coming to an end: Cases have begun to rise more rapidly in communities with lower vaccination rates.”

“The places with the lowest vaccination rates tend to be heavily Republican. In an average U.S. county that voted for Donald Trump, only 34 percent of people are fully vaccinated, according to New York Times data. In an average county that voted for Joe Biden, the share is 45 percent (and the share that has received at least one shot is higher). No wonder, then, that the number of new cases keeps falling in Biden counties, while it has begun to rise in Trump counties… Many Republican voters have not taken the disease very seriously and also have irrational fears about the vaccines. It’s too early to know whether the recent trends will continue and cases will continue to rise in communities with low vaccination rates. But further increases do seem to be the most likely scenario, based on the experience with Delta in other countries where it is already widespread. Worldwide, cases have risen in recent days, after having fallen for most of the past two months. Vaccination is how this pandemic ends. And the Delta variant seems to be raising the human cost of vaccine skepticism.”

New Yorkers – call 311 to anonymously report the use, delivery or sale of fireworks. If you see something dangerous, call 911. Fireworks are ILLEGAL in New York City. Be #FDNYSmart – leave fireworks to the professionals. pic.twitter.com/OZ3MlrEdtw

— FDNY (@FDNY) June 28, 2021

Mother Jones: “The inauguration probe was launched last year by Karl Racine, the attorney general of Washington, DC. He has alleged that Trump’s inauguration committee misused charitable funds to enrich the Trump family. As Racine put it, the lawsuit maintains ‘that the Inaugural Committee, a nonprofit corporation, coordinated with the Trump family to grossly overpay for event space in the Trump International Hotel… The Committee also improperly used non-profit funds to throw a private party [at the Trump Hotel] for the Trump family costing several hundred thousand dollars.’ In short, the attorney general accused the Trump gang of major grifting, and he is seeking to recover the money paid to the Trump Hotel so those funds can be used for real charitable purposes.”

“During a December 1 deposition – in which she swore to tell the truth – Ivanka Trump, the eldest daughter of Donald Trump who was an executive at the Trump Organization before becoming a White House adviser to her father, was asked if she had any ‘involvement in the process of planning the inauguration.’ She replied, ‘I really didn’t have an involvement.’ Ivanka testified that if her ‘opinion was solicited’ regarding an inauguration event, she ‘would give feedback to my father or to anyone who asked my perspective or opinion.’ And that was as far as her participation went. But this wasn’t accurate, according to the documents, which indicate she was part of the decision-making for various aspects of the inauguration, including even the menus for events.”

“When Georgia canceled over 534,000 voter registrations in 2017, Joyce Bailey of Snellville was among those swept up in the largest removal of inactive registrations in U.S. history. But Bailey, who works in a metro Atlanta school system, was able to restore her registration and vote in the 2020 presidential election. Bailey is one of nearly 44,000 voters who lost their registrations four years ago but re-registered and cast a ballot in November’s election, according to a comparison of cancellations lists and voter history data by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.”

“As Georgia election officials plan to cancel 102,000 registrations this summer, Bailey’s experience shows how registration cancellations, called voter ‘purges’ by their critics, take away the ability to vote but aren’t necessarily permanent. Eligible voters who realize they were canceled can re-register and vote. Those who don’t re-register would be left out of elections. ‘I wanted my voice to be heard and my vote to be counted. I thought it was time to get a new change,’ said Bailey, who previously hadn’t voted since 2008. ‘I did not vote for a while, so I did register.’ Voter registrations can be canceled in Georgia after voters move or don’t participate in elections for several years. Cancellations occur every other year as required by Georgia law to remove ineligible or infrequent voters, an effort to keep up-to-date voter lists. Some of those who re-registered after 2017, such as Bailey, were removed under Georgia’s ‘use it or lose it’ law. Under the law, voters are labeled ‘inactive’ if they fail to participate in elections for five years, then their registrations are voided if they miss the next two general elections” – Atlanta-Journal Constitution.

“The United States on Monday will begin shipping its first doses of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine abroad as part of the Biden administration’s pledge to donate millions of vaccine doses to other countries, a White House official told CNN. The first of 2 million Pfizer vaccine doses will be shipped to Peru on Monday, the official said, as part of President Joe Biden’s initial commitment to share 80 million doses of the US’ vaccine supply with the world. Biden has since reached a deal with Pfizer to buy for the world an additional 500 million doses over the next two years.”

“The doses are expected to arrive in Peru this week and are being shared directly from the US on a bilateral basis. The US on Monday will also ship 2.5 million doses of the Moderna vaccine to Pakistan through COVAX, the World Health Organization-run global vaccination program, the official said. Biden has vowed to allocate 80 million doses of the US’ vaccine supply to other countries by the end of June, with 75% flowing through COVAX and the remainder prioritizing countries dealing with surges as well as Western Hemisphere neighbors and other regional priorities” CNN reports.

Meanwhile the election’s aftermath is still a shitshow there, as socialist Pedro Castillo’s 44,000 vote lead still holds up perilously amidst MAGA-ish autocrat Keiko Fujimori’s relentless “Stop the Steal” campaign and legal challenges. The “National Elections Jury” reconvenes Monday to continue the review, but no real signs yet of serious momentum building for an overturn of the result. Best of luck to Señor Castillo, and thoughts and prayers for Ivanka Fujimori.

Reuters: “Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven resigned on Monday, handing the speaker of its split parliament the task of finding a new government to deal with the continuing COVID-19 pandemic. Lofven had faced a deadline of midnight on Monday to either step down or call a snap election after losing a June 21 confidence vote when the Left Party withdrew its support. ‘I have requested to be dismissed as prime minister,’ Lofven told a news conference, admitting defeat in his efforts to find fresh support from lawmakers that might have secured his reappointment. ‘It is the most difficult political decision I have ever taken.’ Speaker Andreas Norlen will now have up to four attempts to find a new prime minister with enough backing from parliament. If he fails, a snap election must be called. Any new administration will be a short one, as regular polls must be held in September 2022. ‘With one year left until the election, and an ongoing pandemic, a snap election is not the best thing for Sweden,’ Social Democrat leader Lofven said on Monday. ‘We can’t use our time for political games.'”

On the question of “How responsible do you believe each of the following are for the events that led to a group of people attacking police and breaking into the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.?” with “Democrats in Congress” as the option, 32% of Republican voters picked “Very Responsible” and another 20% went with “Somewhat Responsible” in the newest Politico/Morning Consult poll.

Another 41% say Joe Biden is to blame, which further confirms that whole “Look what you made me do” abusive-relationship dynamic is alive and well in the twisted minds of MAGA Land.

Axios: “Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, repeatedly blew up at President Trump over how to handle last summer’s racial-justice protests, The Wall Street Journal’s Michael Bender writes in his forthcoming book, ‘Frankly, We Did Win This Election.’ The backdrop: Trump wanted to invoke the Insurrection Act and put Milley in charge of a scorched-earth military campaign to suppress protests that had spiraled into riots in several cities. Milley – now a GOP villain for his testimony last week on critical race theory – pushed back, Bender writes in a passage Axios is reporting for the first time:”

“Seated in the Situation Room with [Attorney General Bill] Barr, Milley, and [Secretary of Defense Mark] Esper, Trump exaggerated claims about the violence and alarmed officials … by announcing he’d just put Milley ‘in charge.’ Privately, Milley confronted Trump about his role. He was an adviser, and not in command. But Trump had had enough. ‘I said you’re in fucking charge!’ Trump shouted at him. ‘Well, I’m not in charge!’ Milley yelled back. ‘You can’t fucking talk to me like that!’ Trump said. … ‘Goddamnit,’ Milley said to others. ‘There’s a room full of lawyers here. Will someone inform him of my legal responsibilities?’ ‘He’s right, Mr. President,’ Barr said. ‘The general is right.’ Asked for a response, Trump told Jonathan Swan through an aide: ‘This is totally fake news, it never ever happened. I’m not a fan of Gen. Milley, but I never had an argument with him and the whole thing is false. He never talked back to me. Michael Bender never asked me about it and it’s totally fake news.’ Trump later added: ‘If Gen. Milley had yelled at me, I would have fired him.'”

On Monday, New York Magazine published an excerpt of “Landslide”, the third insider book about the Trump president from Fire and Fury author Michael Wolff. Here’s a few for the lowlight reel:

Trump on his fanbase: “The president often expressed puzzlement over who these people were with their low-rent ‘trailer camp’ bearing and their ‘get-ups,’ once joking that he should have invested in a chain of tattoo parlors and shaking his head about ‘the great unwashed’… The fan base had always been peculiar to him. For most politicians, vox populi is a pretty remote concept, one brought home only with polling, press, and elections. Trump’s regular and, during some periods, nearly constant performances at stadium rallies gave him a greater direct route and connection to his base than any politician in the modern television age. It was adulation on a par with that of a pop star – a massive pop star. Stars like him needed fans, but this did not mean that a fan was not a strange thing to be. The more devoted the fan, the odder the fan. Like any megastar, Trump saw his fans from a far distance out. Certainly, there was no personal connection. A star could not assume responsibility for his fans, could he?”

About the inchoate Parler deal: “Trump representatives, working with Trump-family members, had approached Parler, the social network backed by Bob Mercer and his daughter Rebekah, far-right exponents and large Trump contributors. They had floated a proposition that Trump, after he left office, become an active member of Parler, moving much of his social-media activity there from Twitter. In return, Trump would receive 40 percent of Parler’s gross revenues and the service would ban anyone who spoke negatively about him. Parler was balking only at this last condition.”

On January 6th: “‘It wasn’t until later in the three o’clock hour that Trump seemed to begin the transition from seeing the mob as people protesting the election – defending him so he would defend them – to seeing them as ‘not our people.’ Therefore, he bore no responsibility for them.'”

“So is this gonna be a wait until september bunch of bullshit….wtf…I am sick of this …we were robbed right in front of our faces. And everyone knows it…”

– The current top comment on The Gateway Pundit article “[Arizona State] Senator Karen Fann Tells Reporters She Will NOT Be Releasing Audit Counts on Monday“, posted early Monday.

Politico: “Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is on a collision course with the most powerful man in the GOP: Donald Trump. DeSantis is crisscrossing the country to deliver red-meat speeches. Iowa leaders begged him to visit. He just beat Trump in a key straw poll. And now the popular governor is getting close to overshadowing the former president in the 2024 presidential sweepstakes. All of that could be dangerous for DeSantis’ political health, as Trump continues to ponder a new bid for the White House and remains capable of kneecapping any Republican he sees as a threat.”

“‘It makes it difficult to openly start campaigning as [Trump] at least contemplates running again,’ said Saul Anuzis, former chair of the Republican Party of Michigan, cautioning it’s still ‘early’ in the election cycle. ‘It keeps activists on the sidelines.’ DeSantis, who has the benefit of claiming he’s just running for reelection, continues to gain accolades for opening up Florida during the coronavirus pandemic sooner than most large states. His frequent appearances on Fox News put him in the national spotlight almost nightly. Last weekend, DeSantis beat Trump 74-71 in the annual Western Conservative Summit’s straw poll in Denver – results that surprised even organizers of the summit. Last year, Trump won the same straw poll with nearly 95 percent support. The governor’s backers say he is aware of the dangers of appearing to rise too quickly. One Republican consultant close to the governor, who spoke on condition of anonymity to speak freely about DeSantis and Trump, said the governor is ‘very wary’ of eliciting the former president’s rage. ‘He will take measures so that Trump won’t get mad at him, but believe me, the more successful you are, with Trump, sometimes makes it worse,’ the consultant said.”

The District of Columbia Attorney General’s office plans on questioning a number people close to Donald Trump Jr. as part of its investigation into potential illegal activity undertaken by Donald Trump Sr.’s 2017 inauguration committee, the Daily Beast reports.

Allen Weisselberg, the CFO of the Trump Organization, was also integrally involved in the inauguration celebration, which raised the most money for any inaugural in history but was mocked for its sparsity of big talent celebrities with any name recognition.  The inaugural parade featured high school bands and a convoy of tractors.  The night’s entertainment “starred” piano performers popular on YouTube, one-hit wonder Lee Greenwood, and Toby Keith.

Investigators are also interested in questioning Gentry Beach, a Texas financier who served on the inauguration committee and was a college friend of Don Jr.; and Kara Hanley, a Trump Organization executive assistant who reportedly worked for Don Jr. and who made arrangement for the inauguration.