Law, Power, and Justice

LIFE AND NEWS NOTES FROM A CHILDLESS (CHILD-FREE) CAT LADY WORKING AWAY IN ONE OF THE SUB-BASEMENTS OF THE MINISTRY OF SNARK

Friday 12 June 2026

NEWS NOTES

· Trump has once again canceled Iranian strikes (Thank God.)

· Article by Anne Applebaum, “Ukraine is not losing. Russia is not winning.” The Atlantic.

· Ukraine has hit refineries depots and pipelines, fuel supplies to Crimea, sparking a fuel crisis on the Russian-held Peninsula (AP News). Drone strikes have already disrupted Russian supply routes in Crimea. While isolating Crimea is feasible, analysts say, pushing back Russian forces would need ground offensive. Mid-range strikes inside Russian controlled territory has “cut supplies to its front line- bringing their advance to a near standstill last month. Weakened air defences, opening the way for longer-range strikes that have destroyed oil infrastructure and arms manufacturing deep inside Russia.”

· (Reuters, 6/12/26). Ukraine’s drone commander wants to cut Crimea off from Russia.

· Attorneys for the man accused of killing Charlie Kirk wanted prosecutors punished for making a public statement about findings about bullet fragments found in the body. Defense attorneys had claimed that the preliminary finding by ballistics experts who could not immediately match the bullet fragments with the gun Robinson used, should result in Robinson’s possible exoneration, or at least an agreement not to seek the death penalty. (AP News 6/12/26). Yesterday, there was a report that Robinson plead guilty in exchange for the agreement not to be charged with the death penalty.

· “Task and Purpose” reports that it would take 1,200 troops to take Kharg Island and more to hold it. (Note: Trump has said that he doesn’t think Americans “have the stomach for it.”)

· (NYT, 6/12/26) Calling it the “homelessness industrial complex” officials with HUD immediately suspended funding for an agency the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority which has received almost $1 billion in federal money over the past five years.

NOTES ABOUT THE COMING COUP

· (NYT, 6/12/26) The Justice Department is pushing the limits of its power over state elections. (Note: The Republicans cannot afford to lose the mid-terms and they will do anything, anything to prevent it.)

· (NYT, 6/12/26) The postal service “has proposed a new rule that would allow it to refuse to deliver mail ballots in states that don’t turn over voter rolls to the federal government.”

· (CNN, 6/12/26) $750,000 to ecacuate one woman who had been exposed to the new virus.

· (NYT, 6/12/26) The Culture of Big Law Firms, elite involvement with Jeffrey Epstein. Epstein gave them what they wanted, and they wanted business. Kathy Ruemmler, formerly part of the Obama legal team, ignored Epstein’s 2008 conviction for procuring a minor for prestitution and solicitation of prostitution. “…that tells you everything you need to know about how unreliable and corroded the legal world has become.” Ruemmler evidently thought, after looking into Epstein’s case, that the deal not to prosecute federally and the later lenient treatment Epstein received indicated that the charger against him were not that sound. (Note: But it was in her interests to believe that. She stood to make an enormous among of money for herself and her firm from a deal set upby Epstein with Bill Gates. Epstein got something out of it as well. Ms. Ruemmler’s reputation helped him work his way back into respectability. He told friends she was “an arch feminist who is my great defender.” She also assumed that lawyers like Alan Dershowitz and Kenneth Starr would never work for someone truly guilty of the crimes with which Epstein was charged.

· Three more articles about the Epstein files “How the Elite behave When no One is Watching,” “The Epstein Files Should Never Have Been Released,” and “Now We Know What all those people Got from Epstein.” (NYT, 6/12/26)

LIFE NOTES

It’s almost six in the morning and I’ve been up for three hours. Popsicle Pete shared the bed with me for most of those hours, foiling all plans that Sam had of getting on the day bed and snuggling up. The day bed in the library where I often work, has been designated as the adult cat bed. No gangster babies allowed. But, even Pete has limits. As soon as I turned on the television to find out the details of Trump deciding to spend $750,000 to get some woman off a boat after she had been exposed to this new Ebola virus, he retreated to Chair 3.