Do We Really Want Ron DeSantis in Charge of Pandemic Policy?
Plus: Putin’s Antisemitic Freakout
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CHARLIE SYKES: Gagging Trump
SECRET POD 🎧: Mitt Romney and the Hollow Men 🔐
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JILL D. LAWRENCE: Do We Really Want a President DeSantis Setting COVID Policy?
THERE ARE COUNTLESS REASONS WHY Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis should not get anywhere near the Oval Office. Maybe the latest outrage will cut through the fog of tribal war. I speak, of course, of the governor and his seriously strange surgeon general telling Floridians that they should not get the new COVID shot unless they’re over 65. This is a matter of life and death for all of us, and yet DeSantis is using it as a strategy to “regain his middle-finger bona fides” in the 2024 Republican primary race, as political and legal analyst Jay Kuo puts it.
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JAXON WASHBURN: Mass Starvation Impending in the Caucasus.
ABOUT 120,000 ETHNIC ARMENIANS face impending genocide via blockade and starvation in the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh (also known as Artsakh)—a crisis directly caused by the authoritarian machinations of Azerbaijan and its leader, President Ilham Aliyev, in the wake of the country’s 2020 conflict with the Republic of Armenia. Time is running out to avoid a man-made famine. Former prosecutor of the International Criminal Court Luis Moreno Ocampo estimates that “without immediate dramatic change, this group of Armenians will be destroyed in a few weeks.”
CATHY YOUNG: Putin’s Antisemitic Freakout.
THIS MONTH, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT and indicted war criminal Vladimir Putin offered up some bizarre musings on Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky and his Jewish heritage. After a clearly orchestrated setup question from Russian TV propagandist Pavel Zarubin—“Western leaders keep lecturing Russia, what kind of Nazism can there be in Ukraine when it has a Jewish leader?”
🚨OVERTIME🚨
Happy Monday… Let’s start with a heartbreaking story: Jennifer Wexton’s retirement. The moderate-ish VA Dem has Parkinson’s, and for those who know how tough it can be, more bad news came. The kicker here? Brutal.
But have hope… For every brutal kicker, there’s a genuinely funny lede.
Since it’s back to school season… Here’s the GOP report card on Ukraine. (And here’s a new ad from Republicans for Ukraine airing on Sunday shows and around the next GOP debate.)
Shining a light… On Timex’s Indiglo.
If you have seen an F-35 in the woods… please contact the US Marines.
I was promised impeachment… I went on Politicology last week and it was a blast.
Life… As the last fire lookout.
Meanwhile, in Missouri… State legislators are having book burnings, with flame throwers. A Redditor observes: "The fact that this state is run by the lettered highway people is why we are going nowhere."
And up north… The Canadian PM just implicated India in a political assassination.
Hunter Biden Sues I.R.S… Saying Disclosures by Agents Violated His Privacy.
Her students reported her for a lesson on race... Can she trust them again?
Next level cosplay… “The Jones Act Enforcer.”
A must listen… Rep. Adam Smith on mental health. The amount of candor here is off the charts refreshing.
“How far are you willing to go to save kids?” The Tim Ballard story takes a dark turn.
A veteran started a gun shop… Then, a buddy came to him seeking help: He asked him to keep his guns.
You know who isn’t confident in Democracy? White Republicans.
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