June 9, 2026

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.

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.” ~~~

~~~ 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 earlier: ~~~

~~~ 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.'” ~~~

     ~~~ 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. 

Trump Vows 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.'” 

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.

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.

Kudos to Randy Rainbow for this one. He out-Gilberts-and-Sullivans Gilbert and Sullivan: 

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If It's Tuesday, Americans Must Be Voting. Kellen Browning of the New York Times: “Voters in Maine will weigh in on one of the most consequential and high-profile Senate races in the country on Tuesday, when they are expected to cement a matchup between Senator Susan Collins, a vulnerable Republican, and Graham Platner, a scandal-plagued Democrat hoping to oust her. Their likely face-off in November could determine control of the Senate, and political observers will be watching this week’s result closely to see if Mr. Platner’s many controversies have dampened voter enthusiasm for his populist campaign pitch. Tuesday will also feature primary elections in South Carolina, Nevada and North Dakota."

Jonathan Edwards of the Washington Post: “The Kennedy Center on Monday removed ... Donald Trump’s name from its website, although the front of the venue still read: .The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.' The change came more than a week after a federal judge ruled the center’s board of trustees had illegally renamed the venue and ordered the restoration of its title, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. On Thursday, the center ordered staff to erase Trump’s name from official materials, giving them until this Friday to restore the website and make all other changes.” (Also linked yesterday.)

Jennifer Millman of NBC News 4 New York: "Sorry, Knicks fans: No Madison Square Garden watch party tonight. You won't even be able to walk close. The NYPD and U.S. Secret Service announced another spate of street closures and security measures in anticipation of ... Donald Trump's historic trip to the Knicks' NBA Finals game. No sitting president has ever attended an NBA Finals. And the security will be pretty historic, too. Starting at 4 p.m., 30th to 35th streets will be closed between Seventh and Eighth avenues. That means no vehicular traffic -- and no pedestrian traffic either." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Allison Detzel of MS NOW: Many Knicks fans are not happy that Trump and his security requirements are interfering with the game. “One fan said the president should be prepared for those unhappy with his visit to make their feelings heard during the game. 'Hey, let him come. We’re gonna boo the f[uck] up out of you, bro,' he said.” (Also linked yesterday.)~~~

~~~ Update: sadly, Trump jinxed the game for the Knicks, who lost to the Spurs, ending the Knicks' month-plus-long winning streak. But to borrow from Jimmy Kimmel, maybe Trump was rooting for the Spurs? It's what got him out of Vietnam. (Thanks to RAS for the link.) ~~~

~~~ Albert Samaha of the Washington Post: “ There was no announcement inside Madison Square Garden when ... Donald Trump arrived in a suite a few minutes before his hometown New York Knicks took on the San Antonio Spurs in Game 3 of the NBA Finals on Monday night. Then, midway through the national anthem, the screen at center court showed Trump’s face, and the crowd drowned out the song: 'Booooooooo!'... The jeers were louder than the Spurs had received when they took the floor — a collective roar from fans who had shown up hours before tip-off to inch through lines, funnel through fences and give themselves over to a security protocol that resembled an airport more than a sporting event, all to accommodate the first sitting president to attend an NBA Finals game. ” ~~~

     ~~~ But what did the out-of-touch, insane president* have to say about being so roundly booed in his hometown? Something out-of-touch and insane, of course: “Speaking to reporters after the game, Trump said he thought the reception he got from Knicks fans was 'amazing.... It was I think mostly cheers … It was loud and it was very enthusiastic,' he said.” An NBC News story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: As reasonable a person as I am (ha ha), I do believe I'd be a tad put out if I had to pay $5,000 to watch a ball game (that my team ultimately lost), then show up for the event an extra two hours early because an elderly man wanted to nap in the VIP box. ~~~

     ~~~ Evan Hurst of Wonkette: “It was a close game — 115 to 111! — but its conclusion was unfortunately foreordained, because Trump was there, and if he touches something, it loses.... Yes, 'sports' happened, there were technically 'reasons' the Knicks ultimately lost last night, involving 'balls' and 'baskets' and 'the score.'”   

~~~ Rachel Maddow opened her show last night showing New Yorkers giving Trump the finger as his limo passed by & booing Trump before the Knicks game got underway. She goes on to highlight other Trump scandals, like his attempt to undermine the California elections. And the intrepid explorers Jared & Ivanka's "discovery" (Land ho! Move over, Columbus!) of the tiny Albanian island/bird sanctuary of Sazan and the pink flamingo protests Javanka's purchase & development plans have engendered. You can watch this pirated copy here, or if it gets taken down, elsewhere on YouTube with a quick search for "Rachel Maddow." ~~~

     ~~~ Update: MS NOW just posted part of Maddow's opening segment where she shares the crowds' reactions to Trump & also discusses the brawl scheduled to take place June 14 on the White House lawn: ~~~ 

In Other Sports News, Joyce Vance reports that Judge Amit Mehta is moving at "lightning speed for a court" on the lawsuit requesting emergency relief from the White House lawn UFC cage fight scheduled to celebrate Trump's 80th birthday." Vance says she will keep abreast of the case & report updates.

Marie: Margaret Sullivan had the same reaction I did (see yesterday's Reality Chex) to the Times' reporting on the hissy-fit Trump threw when NBC News' Kristen Welker fact-checked him: “Trump — who talked over [Welker] boorishly for much of the interview — had no actual answer for [her] reasonable questions, so he resorted to insult and then abruptly walked out.... It was a shameful performance, and in some cases, the news media paid it little mind. The New York Times, for instance, gave the abrupt departure a single line in the eighth paragraph of its story about the interview: 'Mr. Trump eventually ended the wide-ranging interview after being repeatedly pressed by Ms. Welker about claiming, without evidence, that recent elections in California were rigged.'... The Washington Post, by contrast, gave prominent display to an article all about Trump’s temper tantrum.... It’s awful ... to see the president of the United States becoming so abusive and pushing lie after lie.” ~~~

     ~~~ Sullivan also provides this gift link to Lulu Garcia-Navarro's interview of Scott Pelley in the Times Magazine. I linked the report of the interview yesterday, but I did not provide a gift link. Sullivan recommends your reading the interview, and I recommend your reading Sullivan's post.

Anton Troianovski of the New York Times: Donald “Trump has defined his career in politics with displays of dominance and control. But in the Middle East, he faces a rolling crisis that keeps thwarting those impulses. On Sunday, Mr. Trump lashed out at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, telling The Financial Times that the Israeli leader 'won’t have any choice' but to accept a U.S.-negotiated deal with Iran. 'I call all the shots,' he said. But early Monday, Mr. Trump was still trying to rein in Mr. Netanyahu, writing on social media just after 5:30 a.m.: 'Israel and Iran must immediately stop “shooting.”’... Mr. Trump is grappling with his own version of the sort of Middle East military quagmire that beset his predecessors — and that he promised to avoid. (On Sunday, Mr. Trump tried to deny that he had ever made such a pledge, telling NBC News that 'I don’t like these endless wars' but also that 'this is not an endless war.') He won a tactical reprieve on Monday when Iran and Israel both said they would hold their fire after their first strikes on each other since April.”

Marie: When Donald Trump was floundering around looking for way to justify his "little excursion" into Iran, one he didn't mention was, "So my family & friends can make money." And major media, with the evidence in front of them, didn't mention that motivating factor, either. ~~~ 

~~~ Judd Legum of Popular Information: “... according to CBS News, the Trump administration is pursuing a plan to 'use Iranian assets to help U.S. Gulf allies recover from damage caused by Tehran’s regime during the Iran war.'... The initiative, Bloomberg reports, 'risks further chilling negotiations....' The move to divert Iran’s frozen assets to other nations highlights the acute conflict of interest between [Jared] Kushner’s dual role as a top negotiator for the Trump administration and the private equity manager of $6.2 billion in funds from foreign governments. Many of the potential top recipients of frozen Iranian assets — including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar — are also Kushner’s top investors at his private equity firm, Affinity Partners.... The idea that Kushner can repeatedly represent the United States in high stakes international negotiations and retain his status as a volunteer is not consistent with the Department of Justice’s longstanding interpretation of the law.... Coverage of the Trump administration’s plans to transfer Iranian assets in CBS News, Bloomberg, Reuters, Fortune, and CNBC did not include any discussion of Kushner’s dual role. This is part of a broader pattern of the media ignoring or downplaying his historic conflict of interest.”

Jonathan Swan & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: “For ... [Donald] Trump, any Democratic election victory is suspicious on its face.... 'Not possible for Spencer Pratt to have lost the L.A. runoffs after the big lead he had,' Mr. Trump wrote on social media on Monday. '3rd World Nation.' On election night last Tuesday, Mr. Pratt — the reality-television personality and Trump-endorsed Republican — led the progressive city councilwoman Nithya Raman for second place to advance to November’s mayoral runoff.... But as election officials spent the following week counting late-arriving mail ballots, which were disproportionately from Democrats, Ms. Raman edged ahead of Mr. Pratt. On Monday evening, The Associated Press said that she had indeed prevailed.... By baselessly framing Ms. Raman’s rise as a Democratic scam, Mr. Trump extended his long-running project to erode public faith in elections — and gave an unusually clear preview of how he could greet any disappointing results for his party in November, when control of Congress is at stake.” Related stories about the L.A. mayor race linked under “California” below.

Kyle Cheney of Politico: “A federal judge has blocked ... Donald Trump’s bid to slap a $100,000 fee on employers who seek to hire foreign workers for specialized roles, labeling the policy an unauthorized 'tax' that required congressional approval. U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin concluded that the president’s proposed payments for so-called H-1B visa applications, part of a September 2025 proclamation quickly implemented by the State Department and Department of Homeland Security, violated the separation of powers.” (Also linked yesterday.) The New York Times report is here.

George Chidi of the Guardian: “Donald Trump nominated Todd Blanche to serve permanently as attorney general on Monday, lining up his former personal lawyer to be the country’s ⁠top ⁠law ⁠enforcement officer.... Under Blanche, federal prosecutors have pursued a series of controversial actions, including the unveiling of criminal charges against James Comey, the former FBI director, representing an escalation of its investigation into former CIA director, John Brennan, and the removal of press releases about prosecutions of rioters who attacked the US Capitol on January 6. Blanche’s close personal connection to the president has been fodder for Democratic attacks.... As an important Trump ally in the department, Blanche also played a key role in the effort to create a $1.8bn secretive fund to compensate Trump’s allies, as part of the administration’s broader policy attacking the 'weaponization' of the justice department. Blanche also signed the justice department memo attached to the anti-weaponization settlement permanently blocking the IRS from auditing or pursuing past tax claims against ... [Donald] Trump, his sons, and the Trump Organization.” (Also linked yesterday.) The New York Times story is here. ~~~

~~~ All the President*'s Men. Meagan Vazquez of the Washington Post: “... Trump has selected fewer women to serve in these senior roles than during the same period of his first term. There also has been a historic amount of turnover among women in Trump’s Cabinet.... Every departure has been a woman — with a man chosen to replace each of them.”MB: Yes but, to be fair, the women Trump chose, when compared to the men he chose, are equally stupid, bigoted, cruel, mean-spirited & incompetent.

Speaking of all the president*'s men, Paul Krugman weaves together diverse facts & trends to demonstrate that "a combination of big money and fragile male egos drives Green Derangement Syndrome. And the same is true for both the Iran debacle and the refusal to learn from the catastrophe by turning to Ukraine." 

Of Course They Did. Molly Redden & Avi Asher-Schapiro of ProPublica: "Trump administration officials earlier this year killed a federal criminal investigation into the coal empire owned by Sen. Jim Justice, a Republican from West Virginia and a close ally of the president’s. The investigation examined potential criminal violations of the Clean Water Act by the multistate mining operations largely run by Justice’s son, Jay, according to current and former officials familiar with the matter. The criminal probe was a significant escalation in the yearslong effort to police serial pollution offenses by Virginia-based Southern Coal and dozens of affiliated mining operations controlled by the family. 

"In the past decade, Southern Coal and other Justice corporations have racked up tens of thousands of alleged violations of the Clean Water Act and have been sued repeatedly by state and federal prosecutors over their failure to properly follow environmental laws at their mining sites. The investigation shuttered by the Trump administration was a joint effort by prosecutors and investigators with the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Justice’s Environmental Crimes Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Western District of Virginia to probe whether the incessant violations of antipollution laws had risen to the level of criminal behavior, people familiar with the matter said. People familiar with the investigation told ProPublica that prosecutors believed they had a strong case." (Also linked yesterday.)

Raquel Uribe & Tara Prindiville of NBC News: “Vice President JD Vance announced Monday that he is referring Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and state Attorney General Keith Ellison — both Democrats — to the Justice Department for a criminal fraud investigation involving social services programs.... Vance wrote on X ... that his referral was prompted by a letter and a report from the Republican-led House Oversight Committee.... Vance was named head of the task force in February after ... Donald Trump announced a 'war on fraud' in his State of the Union address. Shortly after that announcement, Vance and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz said they were pausing federal Medicaid reimbursements to Minnesota.... The Justice Department launched a probe into Walz and Democratic Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey in January, alleging they conspired to impede federal immigration enforcement through public statements.”

Michelle Boorstein & Sammy Westfall of the Washington Post: “The Defense Department on Monday edited its new list of religious 'codes' for service members so that no group is labeled 'Christian' — drawing praise from Mormon lawmakers who were angered last week when their faith was categorized as outside of Christianity. On Friday, the Pentagon released a new, dramatically pared-down list of religious groups. It classified groups including Catholic, evangelical and Methodist, among others, with the tag: 'Christian.' The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was listed without the tag. After the outcry from several leaders who are members of the Mormon Church, the revised list simply states religious groups, without adding the tag 'Christian' to any.” (Also linked yesterday.) Politico's story is here. ~~~

~~~ Heather Cox Richardson incorporates the list editions into an essay on James Madison's belief that the new nation must protect freedom of conscience. She also hits on Sen. Mike Lee's (R-Utah) strenuous objections to the Pentagon's decision to characterize Mormons as non-Christians. Jennifer Welch voices a highly-partisan, but fairly accurate take on the Pentagon's recognized religions list. The segment on the LDS church begins at 1:53 minutes in.

“Grotesque Stupidity.” Ashifa Kassam of the Guardian (June 7): “The US defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, has been accused by historians and rights campaigners of 'grotesque stupidity' and desecrating the memory of the soldiers who stormed the beaches of Normandy after he sought to link immigration to the D-day anniversary, saying Europe was facing a different 'invasion' of its shores.... The English historian, author and television presenter Simon Schama described them as a 'special kind of loathsomeness: a blend of historical deafness, grotesque stupidity and comically ludicrous self-importance'.... Hours before Hegseth’s speech, the US vice-president, JD Vance, also waded into the matter with a social media post that blamed immigration for the killing of Henry Nowak, an 18-year-old British student stabbed in the UK. Nowak’s killer, a British-born Sikh, was convicted of murder and jailed for life with a minimum of 21 years.” ~~~

~~~ Grotesque Stupidity. Michael Shear of the New York Times: “The stabbing death of an 18-year-old college student in an English port city has become the latest flashpoint in a debate over policing, racism and Britain’s deteriorating relationship with the United States. Vice President JD Vance claimed in a social media post on Friday that the murder of Henry Nowak last year by Vickrum Digwa, 23, was evidence that 'European elites' had failed to oppose the 'politics of self-hatred and the mass invasion of migrants.'... Mr. Vance’s intervention has been met with a fierce response by British government officials, who noted that Mr. Digwa was not an immigrant. A spokesman for Prime Minister Keir Starmer accused Mr. Vance of trying to 'interfere in our democracy and seeking to stir up division on our streets.'”

Eric Schmitt, et al., of the New York Times: “A U.S. Army Apache helicopter gunship went down near the Strait of Hormuz on Monday, and the two crew members were safely rescued.... It was not immediately clear whether the Apache was shot down by Iranian fire, experienced mechanical failure or encountered some other problem.... The incident occurred after days in which hostilities in the region escalated and then ebbed, as Israel and Iran exchanged military strikes before stepping back, the latest example of the tenuous nature of the cease-fire.... [Donald] Trump told reporters early Tuesday that the crew members were fine. He did not provide further details, saying that a report on the incident would be issued soon.”

Andrew Ackerman of the Washington Post: “The Trump administration came to Washington last year seeking to shutter the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the watchdog agency that had survived industry anger, Republican opposition and years of legal challenges. A year in..., [after] courts blocked the administration’s attempts to lay off almost all of its staff..., a much smaller bureau is still standing and has been remade to advance the president’s political goals. The bureau has begun to probe a class of smaller, mostly nonprofit lenders that Russell Vought, the acting director of the bureau, has characterized as unduly 'woke.' On Friday, the bureau issued guidance that could make it harder for immigrants in the country illegally to obtain mortgages and credit cards. Meanwhile, the bureau’s public website invites consumers to complain if they have been refused service — or de-banked' — for political or religious reasons, reflecting a priority of the administration and its allies in the conservative movement and the crypto industry.”

Madeleine Ngo of the New York Times: “The Trump administration said on Monday that it was seeking to strip the citizenship of 17 immigrants, escalating its aggressive push to find and expel people who federal officials say improperly obtained U.S. citizenship. The Justice Department said it filed the denaturalization cases in district courts across the country, targeting people who were accused of concealing previous crimes or committing fraud during the naturalization process. Although denaturalization cases have been rare, the Trump administration has vowed to use every tool at its disposal to root out immigrants who it believes should be stripped of their status and removed from the country. The push to denaturalize more immigrants is also the latest sign that the administration is setting its sights on the legal immigration system, expanding the focus of its crackdown beyond people living in the country unlawfully.”

Ana Ley & Mark Bonamo of the New York Times: “Gov. Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey on Monday was allowed to visit Delaney Hall, a detention center in Newark that has drawn protests for two weeks after immigrants inside complained about inhumane living conditions. Ms. Sherrill described the visit as closely controlled and limited, and she said she was not permitted to meet with or speak directly with detainees. 'That is unacceptable,' Ms. Sherrill said in a prepared statement. Ms. Sherrill, a Democrat, said that she would continue to ask for a more thorough inspection of the center, including a visit by the state’s Department of Health. The New Jersey attorney general has sued the center’s operator, Geo Group, which is one of the largest private prison operators in the United States. The attorney general is asking that state health inspectors be given full access to the facility.”

Gregory Barber of the New York Times: An AI system solved a complex mathematical problem that a team of six mathematicians had been working on for two years. “Gauss is an artificial intelligence system built by Math, Inc., a California start-up. It had taken the team’s road map for formalizing [the solution] ... and completed it in just five days. While A.I. is popularly associated with stumbles in arithmetic (like ChatGPT’s meme-worthy failure to correctly count the number of R’s in the word strawberry), technology companies have poured vast resources into reasoning systems that can solve open math problems.... >For the thousands of graduate students in the United States currently envisioning their futures in pure math, and who learn the craft through many of the same skills and problems that A.I. is beginning to master, dire prognostications can be hard to avoid.... In early June, a global group of mathematicians published a declaration acknowledging the benefits of A.I. while also urging caution. The mathematicians are concerned about A.I. companies’ unwillingness to reveal basic insights into their methods, failure to properly credit human authors and eagerness to conflate mathematical prowess with the idea of machine superintelligence.”

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California. Los Angeles Mayoral Race. Shawn Hubler of the New York Times: “Nithya Raman, a progressive Democrat who has drawn comparisons to New York’s mayor, Zohran Mamdani, will face Mayor Karen Bass of Los Angeles in a two-person race in November, The Associated Press determined on Monday. Ms. Raman, 44, a City Council member and former Bass ally, was behind in the initial vote count but came back in later returns to edge out Spencer Pratt, a Republican reality TV star who lost his home in the 2025 wildfires that devastated Pacific Palisades, a wealthy coastal enclave. Mr. Pratt had jumped out to an early lead in a field of more than a dozen contenders, in part because Republicans, who make up about 15 percent of the city’s electorate, had coalesced behind him. But his margin shrank as ballots from thousands of liberals who voted closer to Election Day were processed.” The AP report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Melanie Mason, et al., of Politico: “Social media sites, particularly X, were awash with conspiracy theories about Nithya Raman’s surge since Election Day.... The cheating fixation persists, in no small part because it’s amplified by the most powerful man in the world. Trump said during an interview on Meet the Press on Sunday the California elections were rigged — as well as repeating his baseless claims about the 2020 presidential election being fraudulent — before he abruptly ended his interview with Kristen Welker and walked out. [Gov. Gavin] Newsom’s press office declared the outburst 'the most severe case of California Derangement Syndrome we’ve ever seen.'” ~~~

     ~~~ John Light of TPM: “The particularly Trumpy top federal prosecutor in Los Angeles, Bill Essayli, made his entrance into the fever swamps on Friday, noting that his office has 'multiple election fraud investigations underway' — though he did, in a separate social media post late that night, attempt to debunk a specific, absurd claim circulating online: that Pratt got 'zero votes' in one ballot drop.... And on Monday, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson opined that the election 'stinks to high heaven.'”

Texas Senate Race. An Unusual Endorsement. Stephen Neukam of NOTUS: “A Texas lawyer who helped lead Republican Ken Paxton’s defense during his 2023 impeachment trial is endorsing Democrat James Talarico in the state’s critical Senate race this November. Dan Cogdell, a Houston-based defense lawyer who represented the Texas attorney general in both the impeachment trial and a long-running securities fraud case, told NOTUS in a statement that his former client 'has lost sight of his core mission, which is to represent the people of Texas.... And unlike Ken, I believe to my core that James Talarico believes in unity over division and that he knows how to assemble not only Democrats, but Independents and Republicans, and we need that right now.'... Cogdell has donated a total of $6,500 to Paxton’s campaign last year and then gave $1,000 to Talarico’s campaign in March, according to campaign finance reports.” The New York Times story is here. (Also linked yesterday.