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Sean Manaea has looked better during his recent resurgence, but he was afforded a cushion Sunday and utilized it.

Jennifer Aniston’s go-to workout actually blew my mind (and my core).

As part of her efforts to get back to a familiar place, Cori Close has gone overseas. The UCLA women’s basketball coach on Sunday imported an international prospect in Lina Jerkovic, a 5-foot-9 Slovenian guard who could accelerate the Bruins’ attempt to repeat as national champions. Jerkovic has shown significant promise on the international stage,...

You could almost feel sorry for Joe Biden when he crashed his wife Jill’s debut book talk in New York last week.

Platner Has Fundraising Surge After NYT Exposé, Which Is Bad News For Nervous Democrats

Graham Platner raised $200,000 in a single day on Friday, pulling in donations from more than 5,000 supporters, averaging $40 each. For a party trying to win back the Senate, it should be cause for celebration, but for Democrats trying to quietly push him toward the exit, it is a disaster.

The money came pouring in just hours after the New York Times published a damaging account based on interviews with several of Platner's former girlfriends. The timing made everything worse. The Times story days after Platner reportedly assured Democratic allies that nothing further would surface. The report described "unsettling" behavior, including an allegation from Lyndsey Fifield, a GOP operative, who claimed Platner bragged about having a Nazi tattoo and grabbed her by the shoulders. Platner denied any physical abuse and said he was unaware of the Nazi connection to the now-covered tattoo. The only thing he would concede to is being a bad boyfriend during a period when he was using alcohol to cope after returning from combat.

In addition to the fundraising, Platner's campaign released an internal poll from Public Policy Polling this week showing him with a 4-point lead over Collins. While that may seem like a positive development, analyst Nate Silver was skeptical, noting the results are "not super reassuring given that internal polls typically exaggerate their candidate's standing by 4 points or so." A campaign releasing its own polling in the middle of a scandal is usually a sign of pressure, not confidence.

Despite Platner’s fundraising boon, he has lost some support.

“I pulled my endorsement of Graham Platner because the information that has come to light at this point is inexcusable," liberal activist Cheyenne Hunt said on CNN.

"From comments on Reddit that excuse rape to now multiple allegations from a number of women that detail behaviors that are just grotesque, from demonstrably poor judgment to physical altercations, emotional abuse, psychological abuse, it's disqualifying for someone seeking to hold higher office, and we have to do what is right, even when it is politically and electorally inconvenient."

Meanwhile, Democrats in Washington are struggling to figure out how to handle Platner’s candidacy.

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) repeatedly dodged questions about whether he supports Platner, recycling the phrase "We're going to beat Susan Collins and take back the Senate" each time reporters pressed him. Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) declined to endorse Platner during an awkward CNN interview. 

The problem for Democrats is simple.

A candidate who can bank $200,000 in an afternoon, even amid allegations this serious, has little incentive to listen to nervous party leaders.

Platner told MSNBC's Chris Hayes on Thursday, hours after the Times story dropped, that he had not once considered stepping aside. "No, not once," he said, when Hayes asked whether he had thought about dropping out. Earlier in the same interview, Platner tried to contextualize the allegations by framing them as a byproduct of the trauma he brought home from war. "In this piece, there's a lot about my struggling, not being a good boyfriend, certainly self-medicating with alcohol, and I've been very upfront since the beginning of this campaign that that was a pretty dark period of my life after I came back from my combat service," he said.

Democrats had mapped out a straightforward path to flipping Maine, the most important state in their plan to win control of the U.S. Senate: The race was supposed to function as a referendum on Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), a longtime incumbent whose brand of moderate Republicanism has always made her a target. That strategy is now in tatters. "There is dramatically higher concern about losing Maine now across the caucus than there was before the stories broke," a senior Democratic Senate aide told Politico. "Everyone realizes that without Maine, the path to taking back the Senate is impossible." The aide added, "Everyone is apoplectic."

Democratic strategist Joel Payne diagnosed the problem with uncomfortable precision. "There's no way he's going to win a referendum on himself," Payne told The Hill. "He's got to make sure that when Maine voters go to the ballot, they ask, 'Am I really comfortable with Susan Collins for another six years?'" He acknowledged the campaign had failed to keep that frame intact. "They've lost the thread on that," Payne added.

None of this appears to be moving Platner. He rallied supporters in Bar Harbor ahead of Tuesday's primary, signaling that his base remains energized even as the party apparatus quietly panics around him.

That enthusiasm is exactly what makes this such a clean trap for Democrats. They cannot force him out. They cannot openly abandon him without handing Republicans a gift. And every day he stays in the race, the question Maine voters will answer in November shifts further away from Susan Collins and closer to Graham Platner. His donors just made sure he understands he does not need the party's permission to stay. And if more damaging information comes out, and there’s every reason to believe it will, the party may be stuck with a candidate who cannot win an election critical to their strategy for flipping the Senate.

Tyler Durden Sun, 06/07/2026 - 22:45

The Spurs got a true New York welcome outside their hotel Sunday. 

All eyes are on Victor Wembanyama. But all ears are on De’Aaron Fox, with the Spurs trailing 2-0 in the NBA Finals.

Some have waited 53 years for this moment. Some have waited their entire lives.

Experts warned of delays after the venue’s hospitality workforce overwhelmingly backed a strike authorization just days before kickoff.

The singer's daughter is is pursuing a career in musical theater.

The singer's daughter is is pursuing a career in musical theater.

As Knicks coach Mike Brown and his players spoke to the media Sunday ahead of Game 3 of the NBA Finals, rapper Fat Joe sat in the back of the room.

Questions Are Piling Up Fast As Pratt Suddenly Loses Second Place In LA Mayoral Vote

Update (2200ET): In a stunning shift, 9 days after the actual election day, LA City Councilmember Nithya Raman has suddenly overtaken former reality TV star Spencer Pratt for second place in the Los Angeles mayoral primary race on Sunday, the latest election results show.

"It's not the people who vote that count, it's the people who count the votes." - Stalin https://t.co/G3iT14i3gI pic.twitter.com/hwRJP8kmff

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) June 8, 2026

With 83.2% of the expected vote in, Democratic incumbent Mayor Karen Bass, who NBC News projected on election night will advance to the November runoff, maintained her lead with 250,871 votes, or 34.68%, according to the updated vote tally released by the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk on Sunday afternoon. Raman has 27.12% of the ballots counted so far, surpassing Pratt, who has 26.69%. She is now ahead of him by 3,113 votes.

Although no news outlet has projected which candidate will face Bass in November, Bass' campaign released a statement following Sunday's drop, referring to Raman as the mayor's "general election opponent."

Spencer Pratt took to social media:

"A net swing of more than 43,000 votes since Tuesday.."

43,000, huh? Where have I seen that number before...?

Probably nothing. 🤷 https://t.co/W2E3k6PHyR pic.twitter.com/ZfzHCy9enb

— Spencer Pratt (@spencerpratt) June 8, 2026

This post on X summed up the general farce well...

"How did a blue city only increase votes for Nithya by mail, without increasing votes for Karen Bass? This is fraud"

Don't forget, "democracy" itself is at stake here...

Remember everyone…we are still in the lead, and we’ve got allllllll the way til July 6th to keep counting. They’re not the only ones who know where to find votes 😉 pic.twitter.com/rqgIcwUtGZ

— Spencer Pratt (@spencerpratt) June 7, 2026 What a fucking joke!!!

*  *  *

Spencer Pratt entered election night with momentum, a measurable polling advantage, and what looked like a path to one of the two runoff spots in the Los Angeles mayoral race. Days later, the outcome is still unknown, and Pratt's path to the runoff is narrowing fast. Late-arriving mail-in ballots have methodically eroded his margin over Nithya Raman, and the trajectory has prompted pointed questions about how California counts its votes and who benefits when the process drags on for weeks.

California's jungle primary structure allows two candidates from the same party to advance to the general election, and it is widely believed that Democrats intentionally designed this system to ensure Republicans would be shut out of general elections. If Raman overtakes Pratt, the November ballot will feature two Democrats, freezing out the candidate who ran as the race's most prominent outsider voice on crime and homelessness in a city that has become a symbol of both.

As of the latest available count, Pratt's lead over Raman sits at just over 7,000 votes, a margin of under one percent, with roughly 22 percent of ballots still waiting to be counted. Pre-election polls had Pratt leading Raman by three to four points, and the expectation was that he would advance to the November runoff.

The gap between those projections and the current count grows harder to square with each new ballot drop. In the most recent batch, Raman pulled approximately 40 percent of the vote, compared with Pratt's 18 percent. Even Democratic incumbent Karen Bass, the race's front-runner, captured only 33 percent of that same drop. The remaining candidates split what was left.

The slow-rolling count and the bizarre trend of Raman getting the lead over all candidates in the mail-in vote have drawn national attention.

And former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), is blaming Gov. Gavin Newsom. "The question to the rest of the world is what happened to California elections? Well, I'll tell you, it's Gavin Newsom," McCarthy said on Fox News' Sunday Morning Futures. "When Gavin Newsom was elected governor of California, you knew who was elected in a day to two days. Now it takes more than weeks, almost a month."

He continued, "Gavin changed a number of election laws in which you want to see is what did he do and why did he cause it?" He went further on the structural shifts that preceded the current chaos. "We had cut off voter registration 30 days before the election. That helps the registrars to know who's going to vote and the candidates. Now we have same day voter, and you don't have to show ID. Gavin changed the rules where he mails ballots to everyone. So he took away the choice to Californians to vote in person or to vote absentee. Everybody gets mailed a ballot. But he didn't clean up the rolls. So that raises doubt in people's minds."

That doubt has found a louder audience online. Robby Starbuck posted a breakdown on X that laid out the ballot-drop pattern in stark visual terms.

Spencer Pratt is likely going to be overtaken by far left Nithya Raman today. This graph shows the count on Election Day through last night.

Nithya did this by suddenly winning 1st in every new ballot drop.

North Korean "elections" have more self respect. Even they'd find it absurd for 3rd to suddenly jump to 1st place in every ballot drop DAYS after an election. It's just ludicrous. pic.twitter.com/fL0nU5k8Ma

— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) June 7, 2026

Starbuck followed that with another post on Sunday morning that demonstrates just how unlikely it is that Raman would be performing so well in the mail-in ballots.

ChatGPT can't find a single example of a 3rd place candidate surging, days AFTER Election Day, to overtake 2nd place.

It couldn't find 1 example in all of American history. That's what's happening with Nithya Raman & Spencer Pratt.

Los Angeles has 3rd world country elections.

— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) June 7, 2026

Mail-ins arriving before Election Day:

Bass: 38.1%
Pratt: 27.9%
Raman: 20%

Mail-ins arriving after Election Day:

Raman: 37% (+17% surge)

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) June 7, 2026

Elon Musk entered the conversation by pointing to what he sees as the underlying mechanism. "The reason ID is banned in California (and New York) elections is to enable large-scale fraud," Musk wrote on X, replying to Starbuck's post. "When you combine no ID and mail-in voting, fraud is de facto legalized."

Voters watched Pratt finish a solid second in the polls and on election night, then saw that lead steadily shrink as waves of late-arriving ballots were added to the count. When a state with California's resources still can't produce timely, transparent results in one of the nation's most closely watched elections, skepticism is inevitable.

If Pratt ultimately loses a runoff spot, it will become yet another flashpoint in the growing national debate over whether Americans can trust how elections are conducted and counted.

Tyler Durden Sun, 06/07/2026 - 22:10

The quake struck 8 miles southwest of General Santos city, with potential tsunami waves up to 10 feet high for the Philippines.

The RHORI star finally found out about the video of her husband and his alleged mistress in tonight's episode.

Mallorie also threatened to "punch a motherf--er in the face" after some of her friends labeled Rasit a "terrorist" because he comes from a Muslim country.

Mallorie also threatened to "punch a motherf--er in the face" after some of her friends labeled Rasit a "terrorist" because he comes from a Muslim country.

Turns out Louis isn't the only vampire Lestat's texting

Israel struck several military targets in Iran on Sunday, hours after the Islamic Republic launched a barrage of missiles at the Jewish State.

Ex-CIA Official Accused Of Inventing Secret Spy Program To Amass $40 Million Gold Hoard

In one of the most insane allegations in recent U.S. intelligence history, a former senior CIA official stands accused of creating an entirely fictitious highly classified program - a "black box" special access program framed as vital continuity-of-government planning - to siphon millions of dollars in government funds for personal enrichment. The result: a personal hoard of 303 one-kilogram gold bars worth more than $40 million, roughly $2 million in cash, and 35 luxury watches discovered during an FBI raid on his Virginia home.

David J. Rush is seen in his booking photo. (Alexandria Sheriff's Office/AP) The Arrest and the Hoard

David J. Rush, a 49-year-old former senior executive in the CIA's Directorate of Science and Technology (DS&T), was arrested on May 19, 2026, following the May 18 search of his Ashburn, Virginia, residence. He faces a single federal charge of theft of public money, stemming from approximately $77,000 in fraudulent military leave pay he allegedly obtained by lying about his Navy status after an honorable discharge in 2015.

The case has sent shockwaves through the U.S. intelligence community and exposed profound questions about internal controls, personnel vetting, and the risks of extreme compartmentalization in America's most sensitive programs.

303 one-kilogram gold bars worth more than $40 million were recovered from Rush's home.

The Alleged Scheme: A Fake "Special Access Program"

According to people familiar with the ongoing criminal investigation cited by the Washington Post, Rush did not simply steal assets outright. He allegedly constructed an elaborate fiction: a phony Special Access Program (SAP) - one of the government's most tightly controlled classification compartments.

What Is a Special Access Program?

SAPs are highly compartmented programs that require specific "read-in" authorization. Even personnel with Top Secret/SCI clearance cannot access them without explicit need-to-know approval. They are designed to protect the nation's most sensitive operations.

Rush reportedly "read in" two colleagues to this sham program, effectively enlisting them - possibly without their full knowledge - and insulating the operation from normal scrutiny. He allegedly persuaded one colleague to transfer millions of dollars into the program through a fraudulent government contract that he "made up."

The fake program was framed around continuity of government (COG) operations - highly classified plans to ensure the federal government can continue functioning during catastrophic events such as nuclear war, major natural disasters, or other national emergencies. These plans involve presidential succession, secure relocation of leadership, and other doomsday measures.

Rush allegedly used this cover story to justify requests for large quantities of gold bullion and foreign currency, ostensibly for operational or post-catastrophe needs. A defense contractor was reportedly convinced to purchase substantial amounts of gold under this pretext.

"He made up a contract." - Person familiar with the investigation, The Washington Post

A Web of Lies: Fabricated Credentials

The gold scheme is only part of the story. Federal investigators allege Rush built his entire CIA career on a foundation of falsehoods spanning nearly two decades.

Rush claimed to hold a bachelor’s degree from Clemson University and a master’s degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, in addition to presenting himself as a Navy pilot who had completed training at the Naval Test Pilot School and other advanced military aviation programs. In reality, he had enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1997 as an information systems technician, was commissioned as an officer in the Navy Reserve in 2004, and served until receiving an honorable discharge as a lieutenant in 2015. Federal investigators found no record that Rush had ever attended Clemson University or Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, nor any documentation supporting his claims of pilot training or the other elite military credentials he listed on employment and security clearance forms.

These fabrications apparently survived multiple background reinvestigations, polygraph examinations, and the rigorous vetting required for TS/SCI access and senior positions. Former CIA officers have described the process as a "full-on colonoscopy." The failure has stunned many in the intelligence community.

Rush worked in the CIA's Directorate of Science and Technology, responsible for developing technical tools and capabilities for espionage. He reportedly had involvement in one of the U.S. government's most sensitive intelligence-gathering programs - so compartmented that only a handful of officials and lawmakers were aware of its existence.

Details of this real program remain highly classified. U.S. officials warned that disclosure could jeopardize ongoing operations.

This raises serious questions: How could one individual create a new SAP without apparent superior approval? Were the two colleagues he read into the fake program aware it was fraudulent? Why did internal financial and oversight controls fail to flag the large, unusual requests for gold and currency?

George Bush Center for Intelligence - Wikipedia Tyler Durden Sun, 06/07/2026 - 21:35