What A Day: What Prigoz around comes around

I think I speak for everyone when I say: Uh…what???
 

• On Friday, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of Russia’s mercenary Wagner group, began posting a mutiny with a post on social media questioning the Kremlin’s motives and specifically accusing Russian Defense Minister Sergei Khogiu of ordering deadly airstrikes on his Wagner troops. Just after midnight, Russian security services denounced Prigozhin on state media, and the country’s main intelligence agency opened an investigation into him for armed rebellion. But words turned to action on Saturday morning, when Wagner forces took the city of Rostov-on-Don with little resistance. Prigozhin posted a video from the region’s military headquarters.
   

• Shortly thereafter, Wagner forces pushed north towards Moscow, again meeting little resistance along the way, and appeared to have shot down a number of Russian aircrafts. Putin made a televised address on Saturday morning, condemning “actions that split our unity” and those behind the rebellion whom he assured would be punished, while not identifying Prigozhin by name.
   

• For months, Prigozhin had made his dissatisfaction with the Russian military leadership increasingly explicit. Prigozhin has accused the Russian military brass of botching the war and using his mercenaries as cannon fodder for the front lines. The man loves to pop off on social media with seemingly no regard for consequence, an especially shocking predilection considering Russian President Vladimir Putin’s track record of killing dissenters. Normal Russian citizens fear criticizing the war publicly—Prigozhin went onto the internet and told millions of Russians the war was launched on false pretenses.

On one hand, the mutiny ended almost as soon as it began; on the other hand, the fact that it got off the ground at all has seemingly undermined Russia’s already weak military cohesion.  
 

• Prigozhin posted an 11-minute audio message on Saturday detailing that he had ordered the rebellion after the Russian military killed about 30 Wagner troops in a missile strike, but added that his fighters had abruptly halted their campaign to avoid bloodshed. He also made sure to state that his campaign was not a coup, saying, “We went as a demonstration of protest, not to overthrow the government...” Prigozhin said he was leaving for Belarus as part of a deal brokered by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, where Wagner operations could continue.
   

• On Monday, Putin delivered another televised address, thanking mercenary and military commanders for avoiding fatalities during the uprising. He vowed to honor his promise to allow Wagner forces to either relocate to Belarus, take up with the Russian defense ministry, or return to their families. The address was an attempt by Putin to reassert his whole dictator thing after the mutiny exposed gaping holes in his command and control. 

Prigozhin’s little weekend of insurrection was the most significant challenge to Vladimir Putin in his 23 years as supreme leader of Russia, raising questions about the precariousness of the government, and the severity of internal divisions over Putin’s handling of Russia’s war in Ukraine. Furthermore, it was a challenge made by not a left-wing dissident but a longtime Putin loyalist. Not bad for a former hotdog vendor.

Pride is about fighting the freaks, but also just… the fact that being gay and trans and even bi is a great time, and this is America so we’re celebrating that by making stupid memes and buying stuff. All Pride month long, you can shop from some of our favorite queer-owned businesses and authors at Crooked’s Little Gay Pop-Up Shop in the Crooked Store. Support the LGBTQ community while you browse a Crooked-curated selection of cool shit, like spices from Diaspora & Co, kids books Ron DeSantis has probably already banned, and much more.
 

Head to crooked.com/store to shop the pop-up all month long.

In the 1990s, the Supreme Court began allowing corporations to argue that federally regulated products or services should be excluded from lawsuits alleging that they violated state laws, based on a doctrine known as preemption. A pair of SCOTUS rulings in 2011 and 2013 barred lawsuits against generic drugmakers envisioned by state laws that enabled claims over defects or failure to warn consumers about potential dangers. The justices argued that such claims were preempted by federal regulations. A Reuters analysis revealed that judges rule to weaken or kill lawsuits alleging death or injuries caused by corporate negligence or defective products in about two-thirds of cases, and the preemption defense disproportionately protects the pharmaceutical industry. The Supreme Court’s ban on certain lawsuits against generic-drug manufacturers has sweeping consequences, because generics account for 91 percent of all prescriptions in the United States. This problem has been particularly deadly in the case of the generic version of Singulair, one of the best-selling drugs in American history. The maker of the allergy and asthma medication, Merck, also makes the generic version, which has been linked to over 80 reports of suicide, and thousands more reports of psychiatric side-effects. The FDA did not issue a “black box” warning label on the medication until 2020. Corporate preemption defenses are now common across multiple federally regulated industries, including train operators like Norfolk Southern, which are at the center of dozens of lawsuits arising from multiple catastrophic train derailments.

The Supreme Court dismissed a case on Monday brought by Democratic members of the House Oversight Committee over the Trump administration’s refusal to turn over business records related to Trump’s (now thankfully defunct) hotel in Washington, DC. 

The Court also left in place a decision that allows more than 230 men to sue Ohio State University over sexual abuse by a university doctor between 1978-1998. The university failed to act against Dr. Richard Strauss despite repeated complaints from his earliest days working for the school. 

Trump-appointed judge Aileen Cannon, who is overseeing the criminal prosecution of the disgraced former president, has denied a pre-trial request from the government to file a list of 84 witnesses against Trump under seal. The government could still persuade her to reverse her initial ruling, but if not, good luck to those 84 witnesses!

Starbucks workers at dozens of locations held strikes on Sunday over accusations by the union that managers at several American stores removed Pride Month decorations. 

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. posted a shirtless video from the Gold’s Gym of Venice Beach with the caption, “Getting in shape for my debates with President Biden.” Very cool, normal guy. 

Disgraced former president Donald Trump has begun diverting funds from his PAC and presidential campaign to pay for his mounting, astronomical legal fees. Grifter’s gonna grift!

In other unsurprising news, Trump’s latest indictment on federal criminal charges has only increased his lead in the 2024 GOP field according to new national polls.

Looks like ProPublica’s discovery of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s undisclosed gifts was just the tip of the iceberg. Alito has a vast investment portfolio, and in the past he has recused himself from cases posing potential conflicts of interest. But his rulings on environmental matters dovetail nicely with his financial interests, particularly as they relate to fossil fuels. In 2022, Alito’s wife leased a 160-acre plot of land to Citizen Energy III to see if it would generate oil and gas. As part of the deal, Citizen Energy agreed to pay Alito’s wife 3/16ths of all oil and gas profits derived from the land. One year later, Alito wrote the majority decision for Sackett vs. EPA, in which the justices dramatically scaled back the Clean Water Act, the latest ruling in the Roberts Court’s sordid history of undermining the EPA in favor of fossil fuel and other business interests. Call me crazy but directly profiting from fossil fuel profits seems…relevant to environmental rulings!

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Louisiana’s congressional map will be redrawn fairly after the Supreme Court dismissed an appeal from the state legislature, which sought to unlawfully diluted the influence of Black voters.

Delaware State Sen. Sarah McBride (D-DE) is running for Congress. If elected, she will be the first transgender member of the House of Representatives. 

The Biden administration announced more than $42 billion in new federal funding for high-speed internet expansion projects on Monday.  

Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA) has introduced a House resolution to expel Rep. George Santos (R-NY) for, you know, all of the fraud.