REALITY BITES: President Biden is defying mounting calls within the Democratic party for him to quit the presidential race. As many as 30 members of the House and Senate have spoken up. From various reports it seems that allies and associates are also trying to be gentle in privately getting the message through. 

  The NY Times reports that some people in the Biden camp have privately told Democratic allies that his resolve has been shaken by the doubts of former speaker Nancy Pelosi, state polls showing that an Electoral College victory is growing remote, and a boycott by big donors.

  But the paper also says, “President Biden has been fuming at his Delaware beach house, increasingly resentful about what he sees as an orchestrated campaign to drive him out of the race and bitter toward some of those he once considered close, including his onetime running mate Barack Obama.”

 Vice President Kamala Harris is reported to have struggled in a conference call with 300 major donors to assure them that there’s nothing to worry about.

  Biden has been in isolation in Delaware with a case of Covid and says he will return to campaigning in the coming week. In a statement issued from The White House, Biden said he is eager to campaign again so that he can “continue exposing the threat of Donald Trump’s Project 2025 agenda while making the case for my own record.” 

  The President doesn’t see in himself what others say they see in him. … a man in decline who cannot spend another four years in the presidency.

  Michael Shear writes for the Times that some of Biden’s resistance is based on bitterness over having been pushed aside for the candidacy of Hillary Clinton in 2016. Shear writes that, “Those who have been close to him for years say that Mr. Biden’s response is a culmination of the regret, pride, anger and fear that has been building in him for at least the last decade.”

GUILTY AS PLANNED: In a shocking yet unsurprising ruling, a closed court in Russia found Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich guilty of espionage and sentenced him to 16 years in a high-security penal colony.

  The court said in a statement that, “the totality of the evidence presented to the court was sufficient to render a guilty verdict.” The evidence against Gershkovich … if there is any … has never been revealed.

  It’s the first espionage conviction of a Western reporter in modern Russia. Gershkovich could still be a pawn for barter in a Russian-American prisoner swap. Some Russia watchers say the rush to conviction indicates that the Russians want to make a trade.

CALL KEY OPERATOR: Computer systems around the world are recovering from a massive failure caused by a simple update in programming by the cyber security company CrowdStrike.

  The Windows update CrowdStrike sent to its customers on Thursday night crashed every computer it entered. “Your PC ran into a problem,” users were informed on screen. “It looks like Windows didn’t load correctly.” The backdrop was the color of a perfect sky known as the Blue Screen of Death.

  All around the world, airlines, banks, business, schools, governments and emergency service were hit with what some describe as the biggest information technology outage in history. Thousands of people have been stranded at airports and that’s just one problem. The mayor of Portland Oregon issued an emergency declaration because nothing is working.

  CrowdStrike is a little known company with a big footprint in computers. It has 8,000 employees.

  Computer operators and IT technicians were left facing the question of whether to go around and reboot every computer or wait for CrowdStrike to offer a solution.

 THE OBIT PAGE: Texas Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, the Democrat who was a major voice for racial justice and progressive causes for 30 years in the House, died on yesterday at 74. She had announced in June that she had pancreatic cancer.

  Among other accomplishments, Lee was the author and lead sponsor of the legislation in 2021 that established Juneteenth, commemorating the end of slavery in the US, as the first new federal holiday in 38 years.

  “You have an obligation to make sure that their concerns are heard, are answered,” she said in a 1999 interview with The New York Times. “I need to make a difference. I don’t have wealth to write a check. But maybe I can be a voice arguing consistently for change.”

THE SPIN RACK: Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in an interview with NPR that “we’re inside the 10-yard line” on Israel and Hamas reaching a ceasefire deal in Gaza. — Pro Football Hall of Famer Lawrence Taylor, 65, was arrested in Florida on a felony warrant for failing to report his residence change as a registered sex offender. Taylor had pleaded guilty in 2011 to patronizing an underage prostitute in New York.

BELOW THE FOLD: It’s been so hot this summer that beverages on Southwest airlines flights have been bursting at high altitude. Usually it’s the customers exploding about baggage fees.

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