The Jefferson County Funeral Directors and Morticians Association hosted a hearse procession to stand against violence in the community. https://www.wvtm13.com/article/funeral-directors-hold-stop-the-violence-procession-and-rally/40427844

At first blush, the Supreme Court’s decision striking down Roe v. Wade doesn’t have much to do with the startling revelations produced by the Jan. 6 select committee.

Thanks, then, to Donald Trump for helping us get quickly to second blush: The ex-president himself seems to understand that the two are linked in a profound way, going well beyond the coincidence that not one but two monumental stories came crashing down near-simultaneously.

Both stories move the national debate into arenas in which tactics that Trump has used so often and so skillfully in the past are far less likely to be effective. These tactics include denial, distraction and counter-accusation — all harnessed to the reality that modern political culture has trouble distinguishing big matters from small or staying focused on any matter for very long.

This time seems different because both subjects are qualitatively different. Trump’s own words suggest he knows it.

He has complained publicly that pro-Trump House Republicans erred in boycotting the committee, leaving no one on the panel to defend him or dilute the impact of a well-documented and devastating narrative about his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. He has also let it be known, in ways he evidently expected to be publicized, that he fears the overturning of Roe will have a negative political rebound for Republicans.

Skepticism is warranted for any predictions that this or that controversy spells doom for Trump. There have been countless such controversies and predictions in the seven years since he first announced he was running for president and began his domination of national discourse.

But there is a specific way the Jan. 6 revelations, and even more so the Roe v. Wade repeal are different than scores of earlier uproars and obsessions. Both represent clear forks in the road on matters of fundamental national policy. People are being asked to walk one path or the other, with a vivid awareness that to walk down one path or the other will have large and lasting consequences for the nation, and even for themselves as individuals.

This was not true for most of the controversies of the Trump years. It was often said—usually as a metaphor but increasingly as a literal comparison—that Trump and Trumpism put the nation in a “new Civil War.”

Most times, the comparison failed. As in modern times, the actual Civil War was a time when large swaths of Americans looked at each other with mutual incomprehension and contempt. At the time, however, no one was in doubt about the question at hand: One side believed slavery was a positive good that should be extended as the nation grew with new states; the other believed slavery was an evil institution that should not be extended into new but instead placed on a path to gradual extinction. And so, as Lincoln said in his second inaugural address, the war came.

The same is true of …read more

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/06/30/trump-is-in-trouble-and-he-knows-it-00043378

Never in nearly 42 years in Congress has Rep. Chris Smith had a primary quite like his last — when he spent the final weeks getting bombarded by angry constituents who felt he crossed President Donald Trump.

The New Jersey Republican won renomination with his lowest primary vote share ever, after he voted to create a bipartisan commission to investigate the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. And his opponent seized on it, stoking an angry and anti-incumbent mood sweeping through Republican primaries around the country.

Republican members from Utah to Texas to South Dakota who also voted for the Jan. 6 commission have had a similar experience, marking an especially intense primary season for the GOP. The bottom has dropped out for the Republicans who did support a Jan. 6 investigation: They are running 13 points weaker than their average colleague in their primaries, according to a POLITICO analysis of 2022 primary results so far.

But even Republicans who didn’t take that vote are running into stronger primary opposition than in the last midterm, the analysis shows. The average incumbent House Republican pulled 88 percent support in party primaries four years ago. That’s dropped this year to 75 percent for GOP members who didn’t vote for the Jan. 6 commission — and cratered to 62 percent for the incumbents who did back it.

Altogether, the numbers paint a portrait of an angry base sending a message to its ambassadors in Washington: Don’t step out of line, or else.

“Simply being an incumbent puts you in those crosshairs,” said Rep. John Curtis (R-Utah).

POLITICO’s analysis averaged results of all of the completed vote counts in House GOP primaries so far this year.

The current House Select Committee on Jan. 6, which has grabbed the spotlight with televised hearings this month, is not the commission that 35 House Republicans supported. That proposed investigative body died in the Senate, but that nuance is often lost on voters — and ignored by opponents eager to exploit an angry GOP electorate looking to punish any whiff of disloyalty to Trump.

“The irony is the commission that I voted for would have avoided this current commission,” said Rep. Blake Moore (R-Utah), who won his primary — but, with votes still being tallied, has less than 60 percent support from GOP voters. “My challenger looks at this as an opportunity, thinking he can disingenuously persuade people otherwise. It’s just not accurate.”

Five of the 35 Republican members who voted for that investigation had primaries on Tuesday night. One, Rep. Michael Guest (R-Miss.), prevailed after being forced into a runoff in which his opponent continued to weaponize the commission vote. Another, Rep. Rodney Davis (R-Ill.), lost to Rep. Mary Miller (R-Ill.) in a redistricting-created clash where Miller leaned heavily on Davis’s Jan. 6 vote.

The stats for the commission voters are stark. Heading into Tuesday’s primaries, more than half (eight out of 15) of the members who voted for the Jan. 6 commission got less than 60 percent of the vote in a GOP primary — dangerous territory for …read more

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/06/30/republicans-jan-6-probe-primaries-backlash-00043242

“Big Tim” Sullivan was in great form on the day he cajoled fellow state senators into approving a landmark New York gun law, the one that the US Supreme Court has now overturned some 111 years later.

…read more

https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/30/opinions/new-york-gun-law-second-ammendment-moses/index.html

Ukrainian officials are exploring the possibility of debt restructuring as the war-ravaged country’s funding options are at risk of running out, according to three people familiar with the discussions … https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-06-30/ukraine-considering-debt-restructuring-options-as-payments-loom

The latest round of job cuts at Chinese tech giants comes even as Beijing signals an easing of its regulatory campaign against the tech sector. …read more

https://www.wsj.com/articles/tencent-bytedance-implement-fresh-layoffs-amid-chinas-economic-pains-11656590596?mod=pls_whats_news_us_business_f

The Washington Capitals have promoted Emily Engel-Natzke to NHL video coordinator, the team announced Thursday. She is now the first full-time female coach in league history. Engel-Natzke’s resume … https://www.cbssports.com/nhl/news/washington-capitals-hire-emily-engel-natzke-as-first-full-time-female-coach-in-nhl-history/

More than 20 years after first starring opposite each other on the big screen, Julia Roberts and George Clooney are reuniting at the movies again.

     

…read more

http://rssfeeds.usatoday.com/~/701037062/0/usatoday-newstopstories~George-Clooney-and-Julia-Roberts-reunite-in-romcom-Ticket-to-Paradise-Watch-the-trailer/

A panel chaired by the former Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has released an update on the status of recommendations for the $23 trillion U.S. government debt market. …read more

https://www.wsj.com/articles/geithner-says-feds-rate-pivot-highlights-need-for-treasury-market-fixes-11656595800?mod=pls_whats_news_us_business_f

Michael Flynn, the former three-star general and Trump’s national security advisor, waited a minute and a half before pleading the 5th when asked whether the violence on January 6th was justified. Here’s his history.

…read more

https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2022/06/30/micahel-flynn-pleads-5th-january-6-testimony-cillizza-the-point-orig.cnn