June 10, 2026

Elections Results.

California Gubernatorial Race. Lauren Rosenhall of the New York Times: “Steve Hilton, a Republican former Fox News host who was endorsed by ... [Donald] Trump, has secured the second spot in the November general election for California governor, The Associated Press determined on Tuesday. He will face Xavier Becerra, a Democrat who served in the Biden administration. The candidates survived an unprecedented barrage of spending for a California governor’s race. Tom Steyer, a billionaire who ran as a progressive Democrat, devoted more than $216 million of his personal fortune toward his primary campaign, finishing third.” The AP report is here. (Also linked yesterday.)

California Congressional Race. Kellen Browning of the New York Times: “Randy Villegas, a political scientist and school board trustee backed by progressives including Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, advanced in a high-profile primary in a battleground Central Valley House district, according to The Associated Press. Democrats view the district as crucial to their efforts to regain control of Congress this fall. In the general election, Mr. Villegas will face Representative David Valadao, a vulnerable but battle-tested Republican who has survived many past attempts to oust him. Democrats are eager to test the new lines they drew in Mr. Valadao’s Bakersfield-area district last year to make it even more competitive; they are also bullish about their ability to win back Latino voters.”

California Congressional Race. Jennifer Medina of the New York Times: “Representative Kevin Kiley, a former Republican who changed his registration and became an independent earlier this year, will face Richard Pan, a former Democratic state senator, in California’s newly redrawn Sixth Congressional District this fall. Mr. Kiley and Mr. Pan were the top vote-getters in a seven-way open primary, according to The Associated Press. The new district includes the City of Sacramento and is widely considered to be favorable for Democrats. Mr. Kiley was first elected to the House in 2022 to represent a more rural stretch of Northern California.”

Maine Senate Race. Kellen Browning of the New York Times: “Graham Platner, the military veteran and first-time candidate whose populist message resonated with voters in Maine, prevailed over the state’s governor to win the Democratic primary for Senate on Tuesday. Now, he will face Senator Susan Collins, a vulnerable Republican incumbent, in one of the most consequential races in the country this fall. Mr. Platner’s campaign has survived a series of scandals about his personal life, which Republicans began highlighting within minutes of his victory. And he used his speech Tuesday night to cast Ms. Collins as a tool of a political establishment that has let Maine down.... 

“On Tuesday, Mr. Platner attempted to shift the focus to his general-election matchup with Ms. Collins, a battle-tested incumbent, while also acknowledging his stumbles. In a fiery speech, he said that members of the political establishment 'keep looking for that one story, that one headline, that one moment in my life that they can define the campaign by.... In trying so hard to understand me, they failed to understand that this is not about me at all. This is a movement about us, about the far too many, working far too hard and struggling far too much.” An NBC News report is here.

Marie: With 81% of the vote counted, Platner led with 72.% of the vote. (NYT link.)

Nevada Gubernatorial Race. Reis Thebault of the New York Times: “Aaron Ford, the attorney general of Nevada, won the Democratic nomination for governor of the state on Tuesday, according to The Associated Press. His victory sets up a showdown with one of the country’s most vulnerable incumbent governors, Joe Lombardo, a Republican. Mr. Ford faced a primary challenge from Alexis Hill, a commissioner from Nevada’s second most populous county, Washoe, but he consistently maintained a wide lead in polling, fund-raising and endorsements. He declined to debate Ms. Hill and instead focused on a prospective contest with Mr. Lombardo and the state’s struggling economy. In Nevada, a critical and politically volatile battleground, voters have not hesitated to oust incumbents, especially during tough financial times.”

South Carolina House Race. Nick Corasaniti & Bayliss Wagner of the New York Times: “Nancy Lacore, a former Navy admiral who was fired by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, advanced to a Democratic primary runoff for the First Congressional District of South Carolina, according to The Associated Press. Also advancing to a runoff against Ms. Lacore is Mac Deford, a Coast Guard veteran who was previously the general counsel for the town of Hilton Head Island. Whoever wins the runoff on June 23 will face a daunting task in the fall: flipping a seat currently held by a Republican, Representative Nancy Mace, who ran unsuccessfully for governor instead of seeking re-election. The coastal district was redrawn in 2021 to be more reliably Republican.... But Ms. Lacore has a higher-than-average profile for a political newcomer. Last August, she was fired by Mr. Hegseth after 35 years in the Navy. She has said she was given no cause for the firing, which came at a time when Mr. Hegseth was removing military officials who had delivered intelligence assessments that angered ... [Donald] Trump.” Politico's report centers on Mace's loss.

South Carolina Senate Race. Patricia Mazzei of the New York Times: “Senator Lindsey Graham won the Republican primary in South Carolina, according to The Associated Press, after staving off a challenge on Tuesday in a crowded election that had threatened to force him into a runoff. Mr. Graham, a four-term incumbent, defeated five other candidates, including Mark Lynch, a Greenville businessman who put millions of dollars of his own money into the campaign. South Carolina is a solidly Republican stronghold, and Mr. Graham will be favored to win re-election in November against the Democratic nominee, Dr. Annie Andrews, a pediatrician.... Mr. Graham is the rare Republican who was able to get into Mr. Trump’s good graces despite having strongly criticized him in the 2016 presidential election. But the senator remains unpopular with many members of Mr. Trump’s MAGA base, who sometimes boo him when he shows up at the president’s rallies.” Politico's report is here.

The New York Times is liveblogging updates in the Iran War. From the pinned item at 8:15 am ET: Donald “Trump issued a new threat against Iran on Wednesday after U.S. and Iranian forces traded strikes across the Middle East, potentially upending a fragile cease-fire. 'They’ve taken too long to negotiate a deal that would have been great for them, now they will have to pay the price!!!' Mr. Trump wrote on social media. He made the comments hours after the U.S. military said its jets hit Iranian targets, describing the strikes as a 'proportional response' to an attack on an American Apache helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz on Monday. Iran has not admitted or denied downing the helicopter. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps said the American strikes were conducted 'under false premises.' In retaliation, Iran said it launched attack drones against U.S. naval targets in Bahrain, and fired missiles at American military facilities in Jordan.... A spokesman for Iran’s foreign ministry said the attacks undermined diplomatic efforts to end the war and that negotiations could not advance without 'a minimum level of conducive conditions,' according to Mehr, a semiofficial Iranian news agency.” ~~~

~~~ It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like a Forever War. Jon Gambrell of the AP: “The United States launched airstrikes early Wednesday against Iran after blaming Tehran for the crash of an American attack helicopter, prompting new attacks from Iran and further widening the retaliatory strikes that threaten to derail talks to end to the war. Iran launched attacks on sites in Bahrain, Kuwait, which both sounded alerts and fired air defenses in response. Jordan also reported shooting down five missiles that Iran shot at an air base hosting U.S. forces. Since the U.S. and Israel started the war with attacks on Iran on Feb. 28, the conflict has shaken the global economy, driven up energy prices around the world and made many basics, including food, more expensive.” ~~~

     ~~~ Trump Vowed to Escalate War with Iran. Jon Gambrell, et al., of the AP: “... Donald Trump blamed Iran for shooting down a U.S. Army helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday and said the United States must respond to the attack.... Trump said in a social media post that military officials told him 'the Iranians shot down one of our highly sophisticated Apache Helicopters.'” (Also linked yesterday.) MB: Have any of those crack White House reporters asked Trump how a military he “obliterated” was able to down a U.S. helicopter? In an area the U.S. Navy is “protecting”? ~~~

     ~~~ Trump Posts “West Wing” Clip to Justify Strikes. Dan Diamond ;of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump on Tuesday night appeared to defend his latest military strikes on Iran by posting a short clip from 'The West Wing.'... 'Let the word ring forth from this time and this place, gentlemen — you kill an American, any American, we don’t come back with a proportional response. We come back with total disaster!' the fictional president [Jed Bartlet] says. Trump posted the 'West Wing' clip twice on his Truth Social platform, in one case alongside a post from U.S. Central Command announcing the strikes on Iran. Trump did not share other scenes from the episode, which concludes with Bartlet opting for the proportional response he initially dismissed after realizing that carrying out a 'disproportional response' would lead to many civilian deaths.”   

Oh, gosh, somebody alerted "Law & Order SVU" detectives attending the Spurs/Knicks game Monday night: "tell them there's a sex criminal in the building." Thanks to RAS for the link. (Also linked yesterday.)

Maggie Haberman & Jonathan Swan of the New York Times in an article adapted from their forthcoming book “Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump”: “On July 17, 2025, at around 6 o’clock in the evening..., [Donald] Trump’s top officials filed into the White House Situation Room.... [They] had gathered — without him — to figure out how to gain some measure of control over ... the Epstein files.... The president’s desperate attempts to kill the story had failed. His team now ... needed a gesture of transparency to appease an increasingly angry base, but also a way to convey the message that the president was sympathetic to his supporters’ concerns. Which itself was a problem, because he clearly wasn’t.”  The link is a gift link. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I find this meeting extremely weird. This is a closed-door, top-secret meeting about a problem created by the POTUS*. Why didn't Trump attend the meeting? Conducting the meeting without him is a tacit acknowledgment by all the attendees that they are conspiring to protect a man who is too volatile, incompetent and/or senile to protect himself. And those Cabinet meetings where everybody tells the sleeping POTUS* what a wonderful job he is doing are also part of grand conspiracy to hoodwink the public. When Katie Rogers of the New York Times covers for Trump (see June 8 and June 9 Reality Chex pages), she makes the NYT part of the conspiracy, too. Hillary Clinton's "vast right-wing conspiracy" sounded like a joke way back when. But I don't think it was a joke then, and I know it isn't now.   

Todd the Trumpity Toady. Glenn Thrush of the New York Times: “When he was the Justice Department’s No. 2 official, Todd Blanche ejected his subordinate Ed Martin, then the leader of the agency’s 'anti-weaponization' task force [and a top Trump revenge enabler], from offices on the fourth floor at headquarters to a satellite site an 18-minute Uber ride across town.... [The ouster] seemed to feed into a narrative, which flourished and faded in the early days of the administration, that Mr. Blanche, a former federal prosecutor, would at least try to mitigate Mr. Trump’s excesses and caprices.... [Nobody thinks so now.] Even before [former AG Pam] Bondi’s abrupt removal, Mr. Blanche had been working with her on a spree of investigative actions intended to demonstrate progress to an impatient White House.... His record, both as Ms. Bondi’s No. 2 and as acting attorney general, has been one of loyalty to Mr. Trump. He has shown time and again a willingness to execute West Wing demands, even when he viewed them as politically unwise or destined to fail in court. His signature, often literally, is on every major action the department has taken.” ~~~

~~~ Heather Cox Richardson also takes a look at Blanche's stellar career at or near the top of the DOJ. ~~~

Nobody Trusts Todd. Alan Feuer of the New York Times: “Lawyers challenging the Trump administration’s plan to create a $1.8 billion fund to compensate people claiming to have been unfairly prosecuted by the government expressed deep skepticism on Tuesday that the proposal was truly dead, even though the Justice Department has repeatedly vowed to drop the measure. One set of lawyers, representing the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, filed court papers questioning the department’s trustworthiness and doubling down on their request to a federal judge in Washington to stop the fund from being set up. A second set of lawyers, representing a former prosecutor who was fired by the Trump administration after working on the investigation of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, asked a federal judge in Virginia to force the Justice Department to answer the critical question of whether the White House had 'actually abandoned' its plans to create the fund. The twin moves underscored the lingering doubts that have surrounded the Justice Department’s promises that the fund will indeed be killed.”

This Is an International Crime. Patricia Cohen of the New York Times: “Fifteen years ago, the world’s billionaires collectively had $4.5 trillion. By 2024, their wealth had more than tripled to $14.2 trillion. Now, their combined wealth totals $20.1 trillion — an amount that is equivalent to nearly a fifth of the entire world’s total yearly output. The stunning figures — calculated by the French economist Gabriel Zucman, director of the International Tax Observatory, a research organization funded by the European Union — reveal more than a surprisingly rapid increase in the concentration of wealth at the tippy top. They also reflect a series of important global trends: the growing dominance of a few technology companies leading artificial intelligence development; the shrinking slice of the economic pie that goes to workers; and a deepening inequality that will be handed down to the next generation.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ The story linked above is illustrated by the story linked below. ~~~ 

~~~ akaWendy found a fine background story that adds a great deal of depth to the article by Judd Legum, which I linked yesterday: ~~~

~~~ Get to Know an Oligarch. Casey Michel in Mother Jones, adapted from his soon-to-be published book: Jared Kushner “has made an art of cashing in on his foreign relationships, which, for those partners, are also paying off as never before.... Even Rep. James Comer, a Kentucky Republican who led the charge against Hunter Biden, was taken aback: Kushner’s Saudi funding arrangements, he said, 'crossed the line of ethics,' and when a consultant close to Kushner called and asked him to tone down his criticism, Comer said he instructed the intermediary 'to tell Kushner to fuck off.'” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: To become a billionaire in Trump's America, you don't have to be very bright and you don't have to be very accomplished. You do have to be willing to use the power of the U.S. government to leverage your position against rivals & others. It's as if a consortium of states got together and backed Vito Corleone to the point that he was able to present to his opponents offers they couldn't refuse. If you admire people because they're rich, because they're self-made men, stop it. It's more like they're made men. ~~~

~~~ Joshua Kaplan, et al., of ProPublica: Earlier this year, "an obscure Texas startup called America First Refining announced that it had received a nine-figure investment from [an Indian energy empire own by the Ambani family].... The deal puzzled numerous energy investors familiar with the project.... The company is run by a serial entrepreneur with a history of bankruptcy and lawsuits alleging fraud. After more than a decade of failed attempts to raise money, blown deadlines and rebrands, it had been floundering. [At the same time, Donald Trump had targeted the Ambani's company with his tariffs.] America First Refining’s unexpected breakthrough came after it forged a previously unreported relationship with [Donald] Trump Jr., who secretly acquired a stake in the startup.... The new details reveal the role the president’s son has played in a theme of Trump’s second term: overseas investors with interests before the administration putting money into the Trump family’s business interests. ~~~

~~~ Mike Pearl of Gizmodo: “According to [a] Reuters ... analysis, The Trump family has been able to 'generate at least $2.3 billion in profit from investors since Trump retook the presidency,' while losses for the approximately one million people who put their money in Trump-related crypto investments 'totaled $2.3 billion at the end of April.'” 

~~~ Detaining the Worst of the Worst. Jacob Soboroff, et al., of MS NOW: "Since the Trump administration entered the White House last year, at least 500 babies and toddlers have spent some of [the] pivotal time [for intellectural and emotional development] in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.... That number is 10 times higher than it was in the previous 12 months under former President Joe Biden.... Parents in ICE detention have complained of substandard conditions that frequently left their young children sick, isolated and regressing in their physical and intellectual development." ~~~

~~~ They Really Don't Know What They're Doing. Jacey Fortin of the New York Times: “The country’s largest immigration detention center opened so hastily in Texas last year that it failed to meet national standards for safety and security and has wasted millions of dollars on unnecessary services, according to a federal report released on Tuesday. The facility, called Camp East Montana, which is at the Fort Bliss military base in El Paso, was rushed to completion in 2025 to make space for the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign and has been mired in controversy ever since. Many of the migrants at Camp East Montana, which can hold around 5,000 detainees, have described harrowing conditions, and three people have since died there.The Army awarded and administered a $1.3 billion contract to open the center last August, according to the report released on Tuesday by the Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan agency that helps Congress keep track of federal spending. It handed contract administration duties to Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in October.”

Catie Edmondson of the New York Times: “The House on Tuesday narrowly passed Republicans’ $70 billion immigration enforcement bill, as the G.O.P. banded together to steer around unified Democratic opposition and send ... [Donald] Trump legislation to fund his deportation crackdown through the end of his term. The vote was 214 to 212 along party lines, with every Democrat opposed. The action capped a tempestuous and dysfunctional journey to push through the multiyear bill to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection. Republicans did so using a maneuver that was never supposed to be employed for routine spending, after Democrats refused to fund the agencies unless changes were made following the fatal shooting of two Americans by federal immigration officers in Minneapolis. Its passage was a major victory for Republican leaders in Congress, who had toiled for weeks to unite their conference around legislation that Mr. Trump had demanded they pass, and that G.OP. lawmakers were eager to advance.”

Jennifer Scholtes & Katherine Tully-McManus of Politico: “The end result is the enactment of supercharged budgets for both agencies [ICE & Border Patrol] — and the guarantee that they will be funded beyond the end of Trump’s presidency.” 

Olivia Diaz of the New York Times: “The House on Tuesday approved a Democratic bill aiming to fast-track contract negotiations between employers and newly created unions, after 20 Republicans defied their leaders to force it to the floor and push it to passage. The measure, which passed on a 230-to-193 vote, faces a slim chance in the Senate and would be all but certain to be vetoed by ... [Donald] Trump even if it were to reach his desk. Still, the vote was the latest reflection of Speaker Mike Johnson’s weak hold on his narrow majority, whose members have steered around him time and again and teamed with Democrats to win passage of legislation that he has toiled to block. On Tuesday, a sizable bloc of Republicans, including several from competitive districts who are slogging through tough re-election fights, joined with Democrats to push through a pro-union bill. It would impose an initial 90-day deadline on contract negotiations for new unions and their employers, along with paths to mediation and arbitration if the parties reach an impasse.” Politico has an item here.

Meredith Hill of Politico: "A key U.S. spy law remains on track to expire at the end of the week after Speaker Mike Johnson met Tuesday with ... Donald Trump about the future of a key section of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Trump indicated in the private White House meeting that he’s not inclined to appease Democrats and pave the way for a FISA extension by nominating a permanent director of national intelligence to succeed Bill Pulte, the acting director he installed last week....” MB: Evidently, Pulte is very important to Trump's midterm elections strategy.

More Sports News. 

ESPN News Service: "Somali referee Omar Artan was denied entry into the United States after getting selected to officiate at the World Cup. U.S. Customs and Border Protection confirmed Monday that a Somali national who was planning to referee in the World Cup had been denied entry after arriving to Miami International Airport from Istanbul on Saturday. The CBP statement didn't mention the person by name, but FIFA later confirmed it was Artan, who was the only World Cup referee from Somalia." Thanks to RAS for the link. MB: So what if it's Africa? You have to send the White people. Especially the persecuted ones. (Also linked yesterday.) 

UFL to Control White House Grounds Sunday. Scott Nover of the Washington Post: “The White House press corps won’t be allowed on White House grounds Sunday because of a UFC fight being hosted on the South Lawn, according to an email sent by the White House Correspondents’ Association .... Weijia Jiang, the association’s president, told members in an email that only the White House press poolers — the designated journalists who follow the president on behalf of various news outlets when he is in locations that cannot accommodate a larger group — will be allowed on White House grounds unless UFC gives them press credentials.” 

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd.

Let's see if we can find an illustration of why monopolies and billionaires are bad for democracy: ~~~ 

~~~ Ariel Zilber of the New York Post: "CBS News boss Bari Weiss is likely to gain editorial oversight of CNN if and when Paramount Skydance’s acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery is approved, according to a report. Paramount executives are said to have held preliminary discussions with several candidates who would come in and run the business-side operations next to Weiss while she continues to oversee  editorial." ~~~

~~~ Oh, Don't Worry; Everything Will be Roses & Rainbows. Benjamin Mullin & Michael Grynbaum of the New York Times: “David Ellison, the chief executive of Paramount, promised to respect the editorial independence of '60 Minutes' in a call with Lesley Stahl, one of the show’s correspondents, she told The New York Times on Tuesday. The call to Ms. Stahl, made on Sunday, was one of the first signs that Mr. Ellison was personally taking steps to calm the turmoil at the news network after the firing of the show’s leadership and several of its star correspondents. The overhaul, overseen by Bari Weiss, the network’s editor in chief, was met with a rebuke from Scott Pelley, a star correspondent at '60 Minutes' who has since been fired.... [Stahl], Bill Whitaker and Jon Wertheim, the remaining stars of the program, had agonized about whether to stay in the aftermath of the staff changes and Mr. Pelley’s firing. But in a letter to the show’s staff Friday, they concluded that they had to remain at the show because they didn’t 'want to see ‘60 Minutes’ die.'” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Does Stahl get a bonus or what for peddling this crap? Of course, she has always been on the establishment team. Like that time she noticed the sitting POTUS, Ronald Reagan, exhibited symptoms of dementia and she didn't bother to report it.

Your Not-Trump Report. In a fascinating docu-music-video, Jimmy Kevin & Kira re-enact Peter, Paul & Mary's performance of a first draft of Bob Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind." You can see right here why Dylan won the Nobel Prize for Literature: ~~~