SO MUCH WINNING: America’s First Black Billionaire Gives Trump an ‘A+,’ Says Dems Are Moving ‘Too Far Left.’

D.D. HARRIMAN, CALL YOUR OFFICE: Virgin Galactic to become first public spaceflight company.

UGH: The House NDAA Puts the Mighty U.S. Military at Risk.

The biggest disparity to be reconciled is the $13.4 billion dollar difference in topline spending. The Senate authorized $746.4 billion, while the House provides only $733 billion. While both represent increases from the 2019 defense budget, the higher number is needed if the Pentagon is to rebuild readiness and prepare adequately for a great-power competition, as described in the National Defense Strategy.

The bipartisan National Defense Strategy Commission, former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Joseph Dunford, and others have advised that implementing the strategy will require annual defense spending increases of 3-5 percent above inflation. The Senate bill would meet that target, growing the defense budget by 4.2 percent. The House bill provides only 2.4 percent growth.

Amendments pending in the House could split conferees even further apart.

For example, multiple amendments appear to try to shift the Pentagon’s focus from defense of the nation to defense of the environment. One would ratchet up the renewable energy mandate for defense installations. Another would assign Space Force the task of monitoring climate change. There are more amendments along these lines.

But of course.

CHANGE: Airbus Poised to Overtake Boeing as Biggest Plane Maker.

The U.S. aerospace giant’s best-selling MAX has been barred by safety regulators from flying passengers for almost four months, far longer than Boeing, its investors and airlines expected. Consumers have expressed misgivings about getting on the plane again, and a dearth of new sales to carriers has helped drain about $50 billion from Boeing’s market value since it peaked in March.

The company’s delivery slump has reverberated across an aerospace industry that had been enjoying an unprecedented decadelong boom. Some suppliers have been forced to trim output and idle staff, while airlines have had to cancel thousands of flights and seek compensation from the plane maker.

More than 150 undelivered MAX jets are parked at sites around the U.S., along with the 380 in airlines’ hands that were grounded by regulators in March.

Ouch.

UGH: Trump Labor Sec. Alex Acosta Defends DOJ Epstein Deal As Dems Demand Resignation.

ICK: Jeffrey Epstein Underage Sex Trafficking Indictment Roundup.

JOSH KRAUSHAAR: For Some, a Presidential Campaign Is No Résumé Builder.

My former governor:

John Hickenlooper

It’s tough to put an accomplished two-term governor on this list, but Hickenlooper has stepped on his bipartisan legacy in Colorado with his lackluster bid for the presidency.

The first sign things aren’t going as planned? When your home-state protégé, Sen. Michael Bennet, decides to run for president with a similar campaign message—despite your presence in the field. Bennet, while not yet catching fire, has raised nearly three times the campaign cash of his mentor.

The second? Suffering the indignity of not being recognized at the first Democratic debate, having to remind security that he actually was a candidate.

The third? Not being able to defend capitalism in his campaign kickoff despite his great success as a brewpub-founding entrepreneur. If there was a lane for Hickenlooper, it was as a free-market-defending Democratic moderate. By failing to define himself that way from the beginning, he lost his best opportunity.

Hickenlooper is still running, but much of his original campaign team has left. He raised less than most serious Senate candidates in the last fundraising quarter. A very winnable Senate race would have been a worthy capstone to his career. Now it looks like he’s headed to an early retirement instead.

Plus, Beto O’Rourke, Kirsten Gillibrand, and Tim Ryan at the link. Lots of ego and bad decisionmaking on display.

RENATO MARIOTTI: How Jeffrey Epstein Helped Make the Case Against Him.

Mr. Epstein can be prosecuted by the Southern District of New York because his agreement was with the United States attorney’s office for the Southern District of Florida. As New York federal prosecutors noted, the agreement does not bind other offices. In fact, Justice Department policy prevents United States attorney’s offices from making agreements that limit other offices.

In most cases, that is not an issue. Prosecutors can bring charges only in jurisdictions where the crime occurred, and typically, if they cut a deal after a long investigation, another office is unlikely to investigate the same crime later.

What Mr. Epstein’s lawyers did not count on was investigative reporting 12 years later that shined a new light on his alleged widespread sexual abuse of minors. The reporting, in The Miami Herald, led to outrage that his deal was unlawfully concealed from victims. The deal is now being reviewed by the Justice Department for misconduct. The questions surrounding that agreement, and the heinous nature of the crimes he is charged with, justified this indictment years later.

Mr. Epstein will not be able to stop the new charges from going forward. There is no statute of limitation in cases like this, and because he was never charged with a federal offense, there is no double jeopardy issue.

Better late than never.

OH MY: Vanity Fair: Trump Knew Jeffrey Epstein Had Incriminating Photos of Bill Clinton.

SAD: Amy McGrath Brings Trump Derangement Syndrome to Kentucky Senate Race.

MIDDLE EAST: Netanyahu warns Iran about range of new F-35 fighter.

“Iran has recently threatened to destroy Israel, and it should remember that these planes can reach anywhere in the Middle East, including Iran as well as Syria,” Netanyahu said.

The prime minister appeared to answer a comment last week from Iranian parliamentarian Mojtaba Zolnour. Amid growing tensions between Iran and the United States, Zolnour said any attack against Tehran would impact Israel as well.

“If the U.S. attack us, only half an hour will remain of Israel’s lifespan,” Zolnour said.

LAST MONTH: Khamenei Fires Air Force Chief over Israeli F-35 Deep Penetration of Iran’s Sky.

PRICE, MEET DEMAND: Minimum wage bill could eliminate 1.3 million jobs, CBO says.

LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: Media White Knights for Mueller, Discredited Steele Dossier. “A (Obama-appointed) New York judge has denied the Department of Justice request to change the attorneys who are working on the dumpster fire citizenship question on the census. The judge said the change request was denied because it was ‘patently deficient’ and provides no ‘satisfactory reasons.’ This is an unusual move but if you are a hyper-politicized judge intent on blocking and obstructing everything your specified political opponent does, it does makes perfect sense. That’s what is going on here, they are trying to drag out the clock since the census question issue needs to be resolved because of printing deadlines.”

BUT THE NARRATIVE! Majority of Hispanic voters approve of citizenship question on U.S. census.

ONLY FIVE? Five Money-Pit Projects The U.S. Air Force Can Do Without. “With so many investment needs burdening their budget, you’d think Air Force planners would grasp the urgency of staying focused on what really matters. Well, guess again. “

CYBERSECURITY: Zoom Vulnerability on Mac Lets Anyone Instantly Turn on Your Webcam. Here’s the Fix.

I don’t bother with a laptop anymore, but I have to keep a webcam installed on my desktop Mac for conference calls and BillWhittle.com. So I installed a fix that will protect you even from undetected threats.

WOW: Australian surgeons restore hand and arm function to paralysed patients.

WHY LET THE FACTS GET IN THE WAY OF A USEFUL NARRATIVE? Seattle’s ‘Hate Crime Epidemic That Never Was.’

COCAINE MITCH:

EUGENE VOLOKH WEIGHS IN ON THE TWITTER DECISION: Government-Run Fora on Private Platforms, in the @RealDonaldTrump User Blocking Controversy.

Twitter is a private entity, which isn’t bound by the First Amendment. (Whether Congress could constitutionally impose some sort of constraints on Twitter’s banning users is a separate matter; so far, Congress hasn’t.) President Trump is a government official, and his actions are potentially constrained by the First Amendment.

One can argue that he’s running the account in his individual capacity; but once the court concludes that he’s acting as an official, and not just as a politician, the First Amendment does apply to him. And if the blocking were done on a government entity’s account, such as an account run by a school board, a police department, or a city council, then the First Amendment would even more clearly apply.

Nor should it matter that President Trump is using private property for his speech. A city council, for instance, is barred by the First Amendment from kicking speakers out of an open comment period based on their viewpoints. (It has no constitutional obligation to set up such a period, but many city councils choose to.) And that remains so even if the city council decides to meet in a privately owned building that the owner has let it use for the occasion.

Lots to chew on here. Read the whole thing.

TOMORROW’S HEADLINES TODAY: Trump Giving Cancer to Migrants.

BREAKING: Appeals Court Rules Trump Can’t Block Annoying Twitter Users. “A 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision essentially guts Twitter’s sometimes abusive Terms of Service, whether the court realizes that or not.”

UPDATE: If Trump Doesn’t Get to Block People on Twitter, Why Should AOC? Everyone knows that the rules are different for Trump in the Courts of Appeals.

I BLAME THE DEMOCRATS’ CONSTANT HARPING ON A SOLID ECONOMY: Poll: Many feeling vulnerable despite economic gains.

CHARLES LIPSON: Jeffrey Epstein’s Lolita Express and the art of unequal justice.

The billionaire financier was already convicted of similar crimes in 2008 and received a very light sentence. Epstein’s plea bargain ended the earlier investigation before any of his friends were implicated. That won’t happen again. The floodlights are on this one.

In 2008, the prosecution negotiated the plea deal while it kept victims in the dark. The underage girls Epstein exploited were not notified in advance about the agreement or allowed to object. A federal judge recently ruled the case was mishandled and the victims should have been heard.

The old case resonates today, not only because the new charges echo the old ones but because the US attorney in charge then, Alex Acosta, is now secretary of labor. The unusual deal had to be approved in Washington, though it is still unclear which Department of Justice officials gave it the green light or why. We’ll undoubtedly learn more about the old case as the new one unfolds.

One thing is certain about the new charges. They will not proceed quietly through the courts, away from inquiring eyes. This time, they are front-page news. The DoJ has already devoted serious attention to them, and they won’t be interested in a backroom deal.

Good.

ANALYSIS: TRUE. California Earthquakes Can’t Do As Much Damage As Progressive, Blue State Government.

See also: