THERE ARE NO COMPETENT TRUMPISTS:

Two weeks after Gov. Ron DeSantis and the state's top election officials stood in a Broward County courtroom and announced the arrest of 20 people for voting illegally, the state's case is starting to fall apart. 

The announcement was the first initiative of the governor's Office of Election Crimes and Security, and it targeted people disqualified from voting because they've been convicted of murder or sexual assault. "They're going to pay the price for it,'' the governor promised. 

But in the face of a stream of conflicting messages coming from the governor and state elections officials and the prospect of no immediate fix to the state's confusing system for felons to regain their voting rights, advocates are urging those arrested to fight the charges. The Senate sponsor of the legislation that implemented the felons voting law has concluded "now a million dollar operation" of the Office of Elections Crimes and Security may ultimately produce no convictions.

The documents include an incident and homicide report by the Russian Investigative Committee's Military Investigations Department for the Black Sea Fleet regarding a June 19 incident in which three Russian soldiers were shot and killed and two others wounded in a gun battle with officers of the Federal Security Service (FSB), the successor agency to the KGB, at a bar in Kherson City, on the banks of the Dnieper River.

The city lies at the epicenter of an oblast that has been occupied by Russian forces since late February and which Ukraine yesterday appeared to launch operations to recapture. Details of that operation are hard to obtain, as Kyiv has announced a media blackout of ongoing military activities. But videos posted to social media show a series of Ukrainian artillery strikes on military installations, weapons and ammunition depots and key bridges have continued throughout the last 24 hours. In response, Russian air defenses have been activated throughout the oblast.

Kirill Stremousov, the Russian-appointed governor of Kherson, has fled the region and even recorded a video Tuesday from a hotel in Voronezh, Russia. Meanwhile, there have even been unconfirmed reports of gunfire in the Pivnichny and Tavriiske neighborhoods of Kherson.

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