Not That Kind of Introspection!
Plus: Tensions in the Middle East, another terrible Boeing crash, intimacy coordinators, and more...
David Hogg gets the boot: "David Hogg, the young vice chair of the Democratic National Committee who divided the party over his plans to intervene in primary races against sitting Democratic lawmakers, said that he would step aside from his prominent post after the party voted to force him to run again on Wednesday," reports The New York Times. Hogg, 25, first rose to prominence as a gun control activist after surviving the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida, in 2018. "It is clear that there is a fundamental disagreement about the role of a Vice Chair," wrote Hogg, detailing his reasons for quitting (following what was essentially an ouster), "and it's OK to have disagreements. What isn't OK is allowing this to remain our focus when there is so much more we need to be focused on."
Some of the criticism of Hogg has centered around his involvement in the group Leaders We Deserve, which essentially seeks to primary the old and out-of-touch within the Democratic party, supporting young scrappy progressive upstarts who might want to run for office. ("A few members of the old-school Democratic establishment are pissed at me for calling us weak," wrote Hogg in a recent fundraising email.)
Heresy!
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"Last month a DNC panel found that Hogg and Vice Chair Malcolm Kenyatta were not properly elected earlier this year because their election ran afoul of gender-diversity rules," reports The Washington Post. And Hogg's recent comments on Real Time with Bill Maher surely didn't help his case: "What I think happened last election is younger men—they would rather vote for somebody who they don't completely agree with, they don't feel judged by than somebody who they do agree with, that they feel like they have to walk on eggshells around constantly because they're going to be judged or ostracized or excommunicated." (No lies detected.) He then mentioned that young dudes just want to "get laid and have fun." If the idea is to win the approval of the DNC scolds, Hogg is going about it in the absolute worst way possible. (As for the DNC panel's decision, Hogg commented,"I don't even know if it makes sense for us to have the gender balance rule anymore in this day and age, because I want to focus on whoever's just best at the job.")
In other words, a Democratic Party ostensibly focused on the need for course correction, self-reflection, and finding "the next Joe Rogan, but for the left" got mad at Hogg for being a normal dude willing to say the obvious, and for having fresh ideas that challenged the establishment's stranglehold.
Iran doubles down: A watchdog arm for the United Nations (U.N.) censured Iran over its nuclear program. So Iran's authorities decided to announce that they are opening up a new uranium enrichment facility.
"The vote [of the International Atomic Energy Agency board] was called over Iran's repeated refusal over the last six years to explain the presence of undeclared nuclear material in Iran," reports The Wall Street Journal. But Iran's actions show just how antagonistic it's willing to be, and just how limited the U.N. is in actually being able to enforce much of anything.
Tensions are rising, more broadly, in the Middle East, and it's a little hard to tell what discrete indicators mean in fullness. The U.S. government ordered certain staff to depart its embassy in Baghdad, Iraq, and started letting families of service members leave the region. The State Department has started letting certain government employees leave Bahrain and Kuwait.
"Well they are being moved out because it could be a dangerous place," President Donald Trump told reporters in Washington when asked about these decisions. "We've given notice to move out and we'll see what happens."
"They [Iran] can't have a nuclear weapon, very simple," he added. "We're not going to allow that."
In the recent past, Trump has held talks with Tehran to try to hammer out a nuclear deal, even going so far as to pressure Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to strike Iran's nuclear sites as it would threaten a deal. But lately, Trump has sounded bearish that actual progress will be made. And Israel appears to possibly readying to strike Iran, according to American and European officials.
Scenes from New York: "Right now, only one person in all of New York State can remove New York City's mayor from office—Gov. Kathy Hochul," reports The New York Times. "A commission appointed by the City Council says that 5,126,009 other people should have a say. That is the total number of registered voters in New York City. Last week, the commission suggested creating a new legal option to kick out a mayor—a ballot proposition to decide whether the Council should be given the authority to begin removal proceedings."
Of course, this isn't to say voters—some massive percentage of whom might be trying to elect a socialist this time around—would necessarily use their veto power well, per se. But this approach does sound more democratic than the status quo.
QUICK HITS
- Bryan Bedford, the president's nominee to lead the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), will get grilled by senators this morning. The FAA is facing air traffic control issues and several high-profile safety incidents, so this confirmation hearing is a big deal. Bedford has experience running regional commercial airlines and currently serves as president and CEO for Republic Airways.
- Boeing, which reached a deal with the U.S. Department of Justice last month to avoid criminal responsibility for the crashes of its aircraft in 2018 and 2019 that killed a total of 346 people, has another disaster on its hands: A plane carrying 242 people, taking off from Ahmedabad, India, and headed to London, crashed shortly after takeoff. "In April 2024, the Federal Aviation Administration said it was investigating claims made by a Boeing engineer who said that sections of the fuselage of the 787 Dreamliner"—the plane that crashed in India—were improperly fastened together and could break apart mid-flight after thousands of trips," reports The New York Times. "Boeing said at the time it had done extensive testing on the Dreamliner and 'determined that this is not an immediate safety of flight issue.'"
- "President Donald Trump said he intended to send letters to trading partners in the next one to two weeks setting unilateral tariff rates, ahead of a July 9 deadline to reimpose higher duties on dozens of economies," reports Bloomberg. "We're going to be sending letters out in about a week and a half, two weeks, to countries, telling them what the deal is," Trump told reporters yesterday.
- Kilmar Abrego Garcia's lawyers have asked a judge to release the man as he awaits trial.
- On the backlash against intimacy coordinators in Hollywood.
