July 2 2024
Beryl; immunity; Bannon; lumber; terror alert at military bases; Chinese spy bases in Cuba
FLASH Hurricane Beryl Strengthens to Cat 5
1 ELECTION 2024 Supreme Court rules President has immunity for official acts
2 ELECTION 2024 Divergent reactions to right-winger Steve Bannon’s jailing reveals split American infoscape
3 Lumber prices tumble as leading US economic indicators blink yellow
4 US bases in Europe raise terror alert level
5 Expansion of Chinese spy bases in Cuba raises alarm
7/2/1937 Amelia Earhart disappears
see ad astra on x @greg_loving
FLASH Hurricane Beryl Strengthens to Cat 5
Article Source: NYT
1 ELECTION 2024 Supreme Court rules President has immunity for official acts
The Supreme Court dealt a major blow to Donald Trump’s prosecution on charges he sought to subvert the 2020 election, ruling 6-3 Monday that former presidents enjoy sweeping immunity for their acts while in office. The president “may not be prosecuted for exercising his core constitutional powers,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the court, and “is entitled, at a minimum, to a presumptive immunity from prosecution for all his official acts.” The outcome broke along partisan lines, with five Republican-appointed justices joining Roberts on Trump’s side, while three named by Democratic presidents dissented. Roberts said that without such expansive immunity from future prosecution, presidents might hesitate from bold action to further the nation’s interests. To rule otherwise could forever create “an executive branch that cannibalizes itself, with each successive President free to prosecute his predecessors, yet unable to boldly and fearlessly carry out his duties for fear that he may be next,” he wrote, joined by Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and, apart from one element of the decision, Amy Coney Barrett.
Article Source: WSJ
2 ELECTION 2024 Divergent reactions to right-winger Steve Bannon’s jailing reveals split American infoscape
Stephen K. Bannon may have been obliged to report to federal prison on Monday, but he wasn’t going to let that get in the way of putting on an eye-catching, fiercely defiant grand finale. Mr. Bannon, a longtime adviser to former President Donald J. Trump, spent the morning live-casting his popular podcast, “War Room,” from various locations around Danbury, Conn., near the site of the low-security facility where he’ll spend the next months in confinement. Cheered on by flag-waving supporters, members of Congress and other allies, he spent his final hours of liberty repeatedly poking a rhetorical finger in the eye of the Justice Department and the Biden administration.
Mr. Bannon lost his last-ditch bid to avoid incarceration on Friday after the Supreme Court denied a request to postpone the sentence while he appealed a jury verdict that found him guilty of contempt for refusing to appear for a deposition before the House committee investigating Jan. 6 and for defying a subpoena for documents from the committee.
not everyone is sure that Mr. Bannon’s absence — in the critical final months of the presidential race — won’t leave a mark. Mr. Bannon ran Mr. Trump’s successful 2016 campaign during its final months, and although he has no official role this time, he speaks frequently with Mr. Trump and several of his top advisers about political matters. Most recently, Mr. Bannon said, he and Mr. Trump discussed strategy going into last week’s debate with President Biden.
“This is a big political blow,” said Mike Davis, a former congressional aide and lawyer who has become one of Mr. Trump’s top surrogates on legal issues. “Steve Bannon is by far the intellectual leader and the general for the MAGA movement and can’t be replaced.”
NYT
Biden’s abysmal debate performance has made it clearer than ever that they’re not going to win the White House by hook, and so crook is all they have left. Specifically, we see a Biden regime desperate to throw its most effective political enemies in prison. Just the day after Biden’s abysmal debate performance, Biden seems to suggest “there’s a time for that” in response to a crowd’s chant to lock up Trump. Trump is, of course, not the only threat to the Biden regime that the Deep State is desperate to lock up. Steve Bannon also has a target on his back, and it looks like he will be going to prison next Monday. Indeed, the Supreme Court denied Bannon’s plea to remain out of prison pending the decision on his appeal.
Revolver News
Article Source: NYT, Revolver News
3 Lumber prices tumble as leading US economic indicators blink yellow
Lumber prices have tumbled into building season, a sign that residential construction and home-improvement markets are buckling under high borrowing costs. The price of two-by-fours, which skyrocketed during the pandemic, is a reliable leading indicator for the housing market. Lately it is flashing caution. Lumber futures shed 3% Friday to end at $452.50 per thousand board feet, down 27% since mid-March. Wood has piled up in the market and pushed cash prices even lower.
Article Source: WSJ
4 US bases in Europe raise terror alert level
Several US military bases across Europe were put on a heightened state of alert over the weekend, with the level of force protection raised to its second-highest state amid concerns that a terrorist attack could target US military personnel or facilities, according to two US officials. The bases, including the US Army garrison in Stuttgart, Germany where US European Command is headquartered, raised their alert level to Force Protection Condition “Charlie” on Sunday, the officials said. The garrison announced that a number of services would be closed or curtailed, and youth centers had cancelled off-post field trips. Other facilities in Germany such as Ramstein Air Base urged service members to “remain vigilant” on social media. That status “applies when an incident occurs or intelligence is received indicating some form of terrorist action or targeting against personnel or facilities is likely,” according to the US Army. One of the US officials, who is stationed at a base in Europe, told CNN they haven’t seen this threat level “in at least 10 years,” and said it usually means the military has received an “active-reliable threat.”
Article Source: CNN
5 Expansion of Chinese spy bases in Cuba raises alarm
Images captured from space show the growth of Cuba’s electronic eavesdropping stations that are believed to be linked to China, including new construction at a previously unreported site about 70 miles from the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, according to a new report. The study from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank, follows reporting last year by The Wall Street Journal that China and Cuba were negotiating closer defense and intelligence ties, including establishing a new joint military training facility on the island and an eavesdropping facility. At the time, the Journal reported that Cuba and China were already jointly operating eavesdropping stations on the island, according to U.S. officials, who didn’t disclose their locations. It couldn’t be determined which, if any, of those are included in the sites covered by the CSIS report. The concern about the stations, former officials and analysts say, is that China is using Cuba’s geographical proximity to the southeastern U.S. to scoop up sensitive electronic communications from American military bases, space-launch facilities, and military and commercial shipping.
Article Source: WSJ
7/2/1937 Amelia Earhart disappears
Sources
1. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/01/world/americas/hurricane-beryl-grenada-carriacou.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=c-cb
2. https://www.wsj.com/us-news/law/donald-trump-immunity-supreme-court-ruling-7ce6415b
3. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/01/us/politics/steve-bannon-podcast-prison.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=c-cb; https://revolver.news/2024/07/bannon-goes-full-heavy-metal-heads-to-the-gulag-with-both-fingers-in-the-air-j6ers-mad-respect-and-one-last-request/
4. https://www.wsj.com/finance/commodities-futures/lumber-prices-housing-market-31944c27?mod=hp_lead_pos6
5. https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/30/politics/us-military-bases-europe-alert/index.html
6. https://www.wsj.com/politics/national-security/china-cuba-suspected-spy-bases-da1d6ec9?st=x9i5bpajducj08i&reflink=article_copyURL_share
Thanks for reading!
