The Full Belmonte, 5/16/2024
Durham Finds Fault With F.B.I. Over Russia Inquiry
The special counsel’s final report nevertheless did not produce blockbuster revelations of politically motivated misconduct, as Donald J. Trump and his allies had suggested it would.
By Charlie Savage, Glenn Thrush, Adam Goldman and Katie Benner
“John H. Durham, the Trump-era special counsel who for four years has pursued a politically fraught investigation into the Russia inquiry, accused the F.B.I. of having ‘discounted or willfully ignored material information’ that countered the narrative of collusion between Donald J. Trump and Russia in a final report made public on Monday.
Mr. Durham’s 306-page report revealed little substantial new information about the inquiry, known as Crossfire Hurricane, and it failed to produce the kinds of blockbuster revelations accusing the bureau of politically motivated misconduct that former President Donald J. Trump and his allies suggested Mr. Durham would uncover.
Instead, the report — released without substantive comment or any redactions by Attorney General Merrick B. Garland — largely recounted previously exposed flaws in the inquiry, while concluding that the F.B.I. suffered from confirmation bias and a ‘lack of analytical rigor’ as it pursued leads about Mr. Trump’s ties to Russia….” Read more at New York Times
DeSantis signs bill to defund DEI programs at Florida’s public colleges
“Joining a national wave of conservative attacks on programs that promote diversity in higher education, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed a bill into law Monday to defund such efforts at the state’s public colleges and limit how race can be discussed in many courses.
Critics of the new law worry it is trampling on academic freedom and could hurt efforts they say are critical to serving increasingly diverse student populations. But DeSantis and other opponents of diversity, equity and inclusion programs say they reinforce racial divisions and promote liberal orthodoxy.
‘If you look at the way this has actually been implemented across the country, DEI is better viewed as standing for discrimination, exclusion and indoctrination,’ DeSantis said at a news conference at New College of Florida in Sarasota. ‘And that has no place in our public institutions. This bill says the whole experiment with DEI is coming to an end in the state of Florida.’
DeSantis, who is expected to launch a bid for the White House, has made ‘culture war’ issues a major focus as governor.
Florida’s new law joins legislation in 19 other states where lawmakers have targeted diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs, according to a tracking project from the Chronicle of Higher Education.
Under the new law, Florida’s public colleges are prohibited from spending state or federal money on DEI efforts. These programs often assist colleges in increasing student and faculty diversity, which can apply to race and ethnicity, as well as sexual orientation, religion and socioeconomic status. The bill does not prohibit colleges from spending money on such programs if they are required by federal law.
The law also forbids public colleges from offering general education courses — which are part of the required curriculum for all college students — that ‘distort significant historical events,’ teach ‘identity politics,’ or are ‘based on theories that systemic racism, sexism, oppression, or privilege are inherent in the institutions of the United States and were created to maintain social, political, or economic inequities.’
DeSantis said students who want to study ‘niche subjects,’ such as critical race theory, ought to look elsewhere. ‘Florida’s getting out of that game,’ he said. ‘If you want to do things like gender ideology, go to Berkeley.’
Students can still major in areas such as African American studies and gender studies. But the legislation has inspired concerns that professors will be limited in how they teach those courses — whether they’re part of the general education curriculum or not. For example, the law requires the university system’s Board of Governors to review programs and curriculums on its campuses, identifying any that run afoul of the banned concepts.
The Florida legislation has been met with backlash at both the state and national level, where higher-education experts and First Amendment advocates say the state is trampling on academic freedom. They say the law will have an immediate chilling effect on faculty members, who may avoid covering controversial subjects altogether.
“It’s basically state-mandated censorship, which has no place in a democracy,” Irene Mulvey, president of the American Association of University Professors, said in a recent interview with The Washington Post.
Mulvey called the bill in Florida and other legislation like it a ‘dog whistle appeal’ to the conservative base, and part of a ‘coordinated campaign to maintain White supremacy.’
The governor held the bill signing on the campus of New College of Florida, a public liberal arts college where DeSantis recently appointed a group of conservative trustees. Eliminating New College’s DEI office was among the newly constituted board’s first orders of business.
The signing ceremony drew protesters, whose chants could be heard inside the event space. Christopher Rufo, one of the new trustees, spoke during the event, deriding the demonstrators for what he called their ‘kindergarten-level protests.’ Rufo is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank, where he co-wrote model anti-DEI legislation.
‘Florida’s farmers and waitresses and truck drivers should not be subsidizing a permanent bureaucracy of left-wing activists who hate them and hate their values,’ said Rufo, a Georgetown University graduate who lives in the Seattle area.
Targeting higher education
Bills targeting college DEI programs in other states have also drawn opposition from students and faculty. In Texas last week, some students waited up to 19 hours for a chance to testify against a bill that would ban DEI offices, the Austin American-Statesman reported. Students said DEI offices offered critical resources for underrepresented minorities and first-generation students, who may need customized help navigating college life.
At the same time, conservatives say the influence of DEI offices has led to the creation of litmus tests for faculty members, who may be required to sign statements committing to diversity. The University of Wisconsin’s system president recently told lawmakers that the university would do away with any such statements.
A spate of new laws have been passed in recent years that shape or ban discussions about race or gender at the K-12 level, but eight states, including Florida, now have “educational gag orders” that apply to higher education, according to Jeremy Young, a program director at PEN America, a nonprofit group that advocates free expression.
‘The focus on higher ed has accelerated,’ Young said.
The first wave of such legislation targeting ‘divisive concepts’ came in 2021 with laws in Idaho, Iowa and Oklahoma, Young said.
It is fine for lawmakers to set standards for public colleges, such as a civics requirement for students, said Joe Cohn, a First Amendment lawyer. But banning ideas is a different matter. ‘The case law is clear that the government can’t select certain ideas that it dislikes and ban them from college classrooms,’ said Cohn, legislative and policy director at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression.
Florida’s efforts to limit concepts covered in college classrooms have already been met with opposition in court. In November, a federal judge blocked the state from enforcing portions of the so-called Stop WOKE Act that restricted what professors could teach.
Nationally, faculty members say, they are concerned about lawmakers making it easier to retaliate against professors for their ideas. A bill in Texas targeting tenure, for example, has been met with fierce opposition.
Florida’s new law states that a personnel decision, such as dismissal, cannot be appealed beyond the university president. That would eliminate opportunities to dispute such actions through arbitration, which is commonly used today, said Andrew Gothard, the president of the United Faculty of Florida, a union representing professors and other groups.
‘They’re trying to stop faculty from having any ability to protest being targeted for their political viewpoints,’ Gothard said.
DeSantis said Monday he would like to see presidents and trustees, rather than a ‘cabal of faculty,’ empowered to run the universities. The state’s public college governing boards are mostly DeSantis’s political appointees or people with deep ties to the Republican Party. Two recently appointed college presidents include Ben Sasse, a former Republican U.S. senator, who leads the University of Florida; and Richard Corcoran, DeSantis’s former education commissioner, who was named interim president of New College after the governor’s board shake-up.” [Washington Post]
After school shooting, Tennessee governor signs bill to shield gun firms further against lawsuits
By JONATHAN MATTISE
FILE - Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee responds to questions during a news conference Tuesday, April 11, 2023, in Nashville, Tenn. The Republican Lee says he plans to call the Tennessee's legislature into special session in August to consider ways to further tighten Tennessee's gun laws. (AP Photo/George Walker IV, File)
“NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has signed off on additional protections for gun and ammunition dealers, manufacturers and sellers against lawsuits within a bill that lawmakers passed after a deadly school shooting in March.
The Republican governor quietly signed the legislation Thursday. Its provisions kick in on July 1.
The state Senate gave final passage to the bill in mid-April, just weeks after the March 27 shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville that killed six people, including three 9-year-olds. The House had passed it before the shooting.
Lee’s choice to sign the bill comes as he keeps pushing for the same Republican lawmakers, who hold supermajorities in the House and Senate, to pass a proposal that aims to keep guns away from people who could harm themselves or others. Lee plans to call lawmakers back into an August special session that aims ‘to strengthen public safety and preserve constitutional rights’ after they adjourned last month without taking up his ‘temporary mental health order of protection’ proposal. His office hasn’t released the parameters of what version of that proposal, or others, will be considered in the session yet….” Read more at AP News
Staff Members Attacked With Bat at Congressman’s Virginia Office
Two people were hospitalized after the attack at the Fairfax office of Representative Gerald E. Connolly, a Democrat. A man was in custody, the police said.
By Luke Broadwater, Remy Tumin and Stephanie Lai
“A man armed with a baseball bat and demanding to see Representative Gerald E. Connolly, Democrat of Virginia, attacked and injured two staff aides in a rampage inside the congressman’s Fairfax, Va., office, the latest episode in a surge of political violence across the country.
Xuan Kha Tran Pham, 49, of Fairfax, was facing charges for one count of felony aggravated malicious wounding and one count of malicious wounding, according to the Fairfax City Police Department. He was being held without bond.
Police said they had not yet identified a motive, and Capitol Police said in a statement that the suspect was not known to them.
Sgt. Lisa Gardner, a spokeswoman for the Fairfax City Police, said at a news conference on Monday afternoon that the assailant walked into Mr. Connolly’s office after 10:30 a.m. with what appeared to be a metal baseball bat and struck two staff members in the upper body….” Read more at New York Times
3 People Killed and 6 Injured in New Mexico Shooting
The shooter, an 18-year-old, was killed by the police, the authorities said. Two police officers were among the injured.
By Livia Albeck-Ripka and April Rubin
“An 18-year-old gunman fired indiscriminately while roaming a residential street in Farmington, N.M., on Monday morning, killing three people before the police arrived and killed the suspect, the authorities said. Six other people, including two officers, were injured.
The authorities received several reports of shots fired near Dustin Avenue and Ute Street just before 11 a.m., Chief Steve Hebbe of the Farmington Police Department said in a video statement released on Monday night, adding that the rampage appeared to be ‘purely random.’
Chief Hebbe said that the gunman, whom he did not name, had used at least three different weapons, including an ‘AR-style rifle,’ a gun commonly used in mass shootings, as he roamed through the neighborhood, randomly firing ‘at whatever entered his head to shoot at’ including at least six houses and three cars.
Officers located the shooter in the 700 block of North Dustin Avenue, Chief Hebbe said, where they shot and killed him….” Read more at New York Times
Cambodia Disqualifies Main Opposition Party Ahead of Election
Prime Minister Hun Sen, whose grip on power has lasted 38 years, has said he wants his son to succeed him, laying the groundwork for a new political dynasty.
By Seth Mydans
“For the second consecutive parliamentary election, Cambodia has disqualified the country’s main opposition party, eliminating the only credible challenge to the ruling party of Prime Minister Hun Sen.
The country’s National Election Commission on Monday refused to register the party, the Candlelight Party, for a general election scheduled in July, saying it had failed to file required paperwork and was therefore ineligible to take part in the contest.
Mr. Hun Sen’s Cambodian People’s Party currently holds all 125 seats in Parliament after government-controlled courts dissolved its main challenger, the Cambodian National Rescue Party, or C.N.R.P., before the 2018 election. The Candlelight Party, with many of the same members, took its place.
Opposition party members said they would appeal the Election Commission ruling. After the C.N.R.P. was dissolved in 2017, Mr. Hun Sen has moved on several fronts to neutralize the remaining opposition. Government-controlled courts convicted about 100 opposition figures of treason and other charges, jailing some and prompting several of its leaders to flee into exile….” Read more at New York Times
At 81, Martha Stewart Is the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue Cover Star
The domestic diva talks about shedding her inhibitions, and (most of) her clothes, for the cover shoot.
May 15, 2023
It’s useless to try to pigeonhole Martha Stewart. Decorously entertaining homemaker-slash-lifestyle guru, television personality, publisher, canny entrepreneur-turned-white-collar criminal, Snoop Dogg’s unlikely BFF — these are labels she spins, or drops when it suits her, as adroitly as a juggler.
Resisting attempts to peg or malign her, Ms. Stewart has survived, even thrived, “not as a Superwoman,” as Joan Didion once put it, “but as an Everywoman.”
But now, at 81, she seems intent on shrugging off that label as well, swapping her “domestic goddess” persona for something a little saucier: badass Martha, a hottie who, it would seem, will shuck her inhibitions as lightly as an ear of corn.
In recent months, Ms. Stewart has teased her four million Instagram followers with goofily seductive, demiclad snaps of herself. She promoted her partnership with Green Mountain Coffeewearing an apron, halter-style, over what seemed to be nothing at all. She baited her fans, pouting suggestively at the edge of her pool. And she followed those antics with a naughty throwback, her 1996 Spy magazine cover, a siren on a seashell, knees hugged to her chest to cover her nudity.