We’re on an emerging investigative story that we just learned about this morning. Ron DeSantis apparently came to Manhattan to have pizza with Tucker Carlson replacement Jesse Waters. You can see an image here from Axios.

There is a ballot initiative on track to go before New York voters next fall that, if approved, would codify abortion access and several other things, including LGBTQ rights, into the state constitution. While it is jarring to imagine a world in which such a protection would be necessary in very blue New York, it falls in line with efforts in other blue and purple — and even some red — states post-Dobbs, as the rogue Supreme Court signals that other privacy-related rights may also be at risk.

But New York Democrats are also taking political lessons from other states that have witnessed the energizing power of abortion for the party in elections since Roe’s overturning and are viewing the ballot measure as a tool to boost Democrats’ chances of retaking the House.

Let me share a few brief and general thoughts on today’s decision.

First, on its internal logic, the decision can appear compelling. But step back and you see that a specific class of Americans who were enslaved for two centuries and then mostly lived under a system of legal apartheid for another century somehow still remain largely excluded from social and economic preferment. And we’re told that the constitution not only bars the government from doing anything about that but also bars private institutions from attempting to do anything about that. Judged from that more holistic perspective it’s very hard to see how that can possibly be right whatever the internal logic of “color blindness.”

A new episode of The Josh Marshall Podcast is live! This week, Josh and Kate discuss the independent state legislature decision, an incriminating tape and House Freedom Caucus squabbling.

You can listen to the new episode of The Josh Marshall Podcast here (Note: recorded before today’s affirmative action ruling).

Much appreciation to those of you who stepped up in a big way in response to my post yesterday. One reader doubled his initial contribution, and several other readers also came forward with four-figure contributions.

Your substantial giving has pushed us close to the $400,000 mark. 

If we can get over that hump today, then we can spend next week sprinting toward $500,000 in the final stretch run. 

Keep it coming!

My colleague Kate Riga will do a better job explaining the nuances and particulars. For myself, I can only say this is no surprise. I think it affirms the point I made yesterday which is that to the degree there is any shift on the Court it is pulling back from giving SCOTUS goodies to every rightwinger who has an ideological hobbyhorse and servicing every electoral need of the Republican Party. The blowback and backlash may have made the costs of that bust-out jurisprudence a bit too high. Rather they’ll concentrate on the core stuff they really care about. And affirmative action has been one of the core half dozen or so things the conservative judicial movement has cared about for decades. They have the power and they’re gonna do it.

Each of you has a role to play in getting us over the $500,000 hump, but I want to home in on the heavy-hitters out there. We can’t do it without you, either. If you’re in a position to give into the four or five figures, we need you. We need you a lot. Click here. 

The oversaturation strategy continues.

For the last 24 hours or so Russian military bloggers have been claiming that Gen. Sergei Surovikin, who was at one time the top Russian general in Ukraine and is still one of the top commanders in the theater, had been arrested over his involvement in the Wagner Mutiny. This comes after The New York Times report yesterday that he had advance knowledge of the mutiny. But what gets claimed on these mil blogger Telegram channels means almost nothing. It’s a mix of the very most current information and complete nonsense, lies, propaganda, etc. It means almost nothing if you can’t distinguish one from another. But now the Moscow Times, which is a reputable publication, is reporting it too. But so far it’s only the Moscow Times.

I share this with you partly because it would be a very big deal if it happened but also to caution you that I don’t think we should yet treat it as quite totally confirmed. I also share it to give you a sense of the murkiness of the moment, in which potential arrests of some of the highest ranking military officers in the country may or may not have happened and no one seems to be quite sure.

We are just forty contributors away from 4,000 TPM Reader/contributors so far in this year’s TPM Journalism Fund drive. And we’re hoping to get to the $400,000 threshold today. I’ll try to keep these short. But if you can help us get there that would be quite wonderful. It truly takes about one minute. Click here.