Extra, Extra
Start the Steal: “By any measure, the F.B.I.’s search of an election center in Fulton County, Ga., last week was extraordinary. Agents seized truckloads of 2020 ballots, as President Trump harnessed the levers of government to not only buttress his false claims of widespread voter fraud, but also to try to build a criminal case against those he believes wronged him. What happened the next day was in some ways even more unusual.” NYT (Gift Article): Trump Had Unusual Call With F.B.I. Agents After Election Center Search. Remember, this isn’t about a past election. It’s about the next one. This from Trump today: “The Republicans should say, we should take over the voting in at least 15 places. The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting. We have states that I won that show I didn’t win. You’re gonna see something in Georgia.” Why the urgency to “take over” voting in a lot of places? I’ll answer that with another question from the WSJ (Gift Article): How does a Republican lose by 14 points in a safe conservative Texas state Senate seat that President Trump carried by 17 points in 2024? A Texas Election Jolt to the GOP.
+ Crossing Another Threshold: “Gaza’s Rafah border crossing with Egypt reopened on Monday for limited traffic, a key step as the Israeli-Hamas ceasefire moves ahead.”
+ Docket Locket: “In November of 2024, two weeks after voters returned President Donald Trump to office, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. summoned employees of the U.S. Supreme Court for an unusual announcement. Facing them in a grand conference room beneath ornate chandeliers, he requested they each sign a nondisclosure agreement promising to keep the court’s inner workings secret.” NYT (Gift Article): How the Supreme Court Secretly Made Itself Even More Secretive.
+ Gram Jam: Bad Bunny and Kendrick Lamar were among the big winners at this year’s Grammys. As you’d imagine, things got political during the speeches. Trump didn’t like the show and threatened to sue Trevor Noah. In related news, yes, the dress that Chappell Roan wore to the Grammys was hanging from her nipples. Here’s how that works. Speaking of hanging on by a thread, Trump says Kennedy Center is closing for 2 years. (I guess you could say the Melania doc really brought down the house…)
+ Alcarazzmatazz: “We are watching Michael Jordan in 1992, Tiger Woods in 2000, Secretariat in 1973. The job is not done, the résumé is still evolving, and the records are not yet theirs. But our eyes do not deceive us.” In other words, Carlos Alcaraz, now the youngest player ever to achieve a career grand slam, is really good.
+ Bomb Balm: NPR: At a clown school near Paris, failure is the lesson. “For decades, students at the Ecole Philippe Gaulier have been paying to bomb onstage. The goal isn’t laughs — it’s learning how to take the humiliation and keep going.” (Sounds oddly similar to newsletter writing…)
