Arms and the Man: Stewart Rhodes, the founder and leader of the Oath Keepers with the pirate’s eye patch, was sentenced yesterday to 18 years in federal prison for seditious conspiracy in connection with the January 6th Capitol insurrection. It is the longest sentence handed down so far to the more than 500 people charged in the riot.

  In a defiant pre-sentencing statement he said, “I am a political prisoner,” blaming the news media for demonizing the Oath Keepers, and comparing himself to the  Soviet-era dissident Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. 

  Judge Amit Mehta wasn’t having it. “You, sir,” Mehta said, “present an ongoing threat and a peril to this country, to the Republic and the very fabric of our democracy.”

  Also sentenced yesterday was Kelly Meggs, leader of the Oath Keepers Florida chapter, who sent up for 12 years. 

  Evidence and testimony in the trial detailed the Oath Keepers’ violent plot to overturn President Biden’s election and keep then-President Donald Trump in the White House. Seditious conspiracy occurs when two or more people plot to “overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force” those people who legitimately hold power in the US government. 

  Judge Mehta told Rhodes he was not a political prisoner, that he was going to prison  because he had “prepared to take up arms and foment revolution” simply because he didn’t like the results of the election.

It’s Political: White House officials and Republican lawmakers tell reporters they are closing in on a deal that would raise the debt limit for two years while capping federal spending on everything but the military and veterans for the same period. They are pushing to avoid a possible June 1^st default on federal debt and obligations. 

 The deal, if it makes it, would allow Republicans to say they are reducing federal spending while keeping military spending level, and allow Democrats to say they shielded most domestic programs from significant cuts.

Anchors Aweigh: The death of a Navy SEAL in training has led to a  damning report that says the grueling SEAL selection course became so tough that it pushed recruits to dangerous exhaustion, causing higher numbers to drop out or resort to stimulant drugs to keep up.

  The report says “a near perfect storm” of problems at the Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL course, known as BUD/S, injured many trainees, sent some to the hospital, and left one dead. The report concludes in officialese that,

“The investigation revealed a degree of complacency and insufficient attentiveness to a wide range of important inputs meant to keep the students safe.” 

  The Navy finally woke up after Seaman Kyle Mullen, suffered pneumonia and other ailments during the course’s notorious “Hell Week” and ultimately died.

Moving Man: Employees working for Donald Trump moved boxes containing classified documents at Mar-a-Lago a day before FBI agents armed with a subpoena came looking for them a year ago, The Washington Post reports.

  Prosecutors now look at that as a possible act of obstruction, which would compound Trump’s legal troubles, The Post Reports.

  The paper says prosecutors have gathered evidence indicating that Trump sometimes kept classified documents openly in his office and occasionally  showed them to people not authorized to see them.

  Trump has repeatedly said the documents were “automatically” declassified when he took them to Florida, although that’s just not at all the way the system works.   

The War Room: Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of Russia’s Wagner Group private army in a recent interview called for “total war” against Ukraine. “The most likely scenario for us in a special operation would not be a good one,” Prigozhin said in a profanity-laced interview with a pro-Kremlin political observer published on Telegram.  He was using the Putin euphemism “special operation” for the current state of war.

  “We are in such a condition that we could lose Russia,” Prigozhin said, offering no explanation  for how that could happen. He posited that, “We have to prepare for a very hard war that will result in hundreds of thousands of casualties.” Prigozhin said the Kremlin needs to declare martial law and a new wave of mobilization, while forcing “everyone possible” into ammunition production. “We must stop building new roads and infrastructure facilities and work only for the war, to live for a few years in the image of North Korea,” he said. 

  Some of  Prigozhin’s critics inside Russia say he’s playing a dangerous game, pushing his ideas and influence even though he’s not the man ultimately in charge.

The Obit Page: Pete Brown, the British Beat poet who wrote lyrics for the rock band Cream, including the hits “White Room,” “I Feel Free” and “Sunshine of Your Love,” has died at home in England at age 82.

  He was recruited to write by Ginger Baker, the band’s drummer.

  Brown told the culture website Please Kill Me that “White Room” was inspired by an actual white room he had lived in. “I had been semi-destitute, a semi-bum, living on people’s floors, and eventually I began to earn some money from songwriting, and the white room was the first place I moved into,” 

The Spin Rack: The presidential campaign of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says it raised $8.2 million, a very respectable number, within 24 hours of his declaration that he’s running. — CNN announced that it will host a Republican town hall on June 7^th  with former  Vice President Mike Pence, who’s a possible candidate for president. — San Francisco, a hotspot for drag shows, has announced its first ever “Drag Laureate.” In Montana, Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte signed a law banning drag story hours for children at public schools and libraries.  

Below the Fold: The Supreme Court sided with a 94-year-old woman who sued Minnesota county after it sold her condo for $40,000 to recover $15,000 in back taxes and kept the remaining $25,000. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote,” The taxpayer must render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, but not more.” 

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