Steve Levitan, Hail Storm, Antoni Porowski, Minnesota, Steve Schmidt, The Meg, Bill Gates, Seth MacFarlane: HOT LINKS

CRAZY WEATHER OF THE DAY. A hail storm in Fort Collins, Colorado (warning: language).

SETH MACFARLANE. Family Guy creator donates $2.5 million to NPR after saying he’s embarrassed to work for Fox.

STEVE LEVITAN. Modern Family creator concurs, says he’ll leave Fox.

Let me officially join @SethMacFarlane in saying I’m disgusted to work at a company that has anything whatsoever to do with @FoxNews. This bullshit is the opposite of what #ModernFamily stands for. https://t.co/dnvIbgoIyA

— Steve Levitan (@SteveLevitan) June 19, 2018

I look forward to seeing #ModernFamily through to the end and then, sale or no sale, setting up shop elsewhere.

— Steve Levitan (@SteveLevitan) June 19, 2018

NYC. Separated girls from U.S. border spotted being escorted at 12:45 am to care center.

EXCLUSIVE: Children from the southern border are being brought to NYC after being separated from their families.
Overnight, @joshrobin captured video of unusual activity at a foster agency in East Harlem. #MorningsOn1 pic.twitter.com/WhiN27wb5T

— Spectrum News NY1 (@NY1) June 20, 2018

MEXICO. 3 gay rights activists shot to death. Mexican media: warning, graphic….

TRUMP’S TV CABINET. Trevor Noah’s WTF:

LAURA INGRAHAM. No advertiser fallout from calling child detention centers “summer camps”.

JOKER MEETS QUEEN. Trump to meet with Queen Elizabeth II: “It is not a state visit with all the pomp and ceremony that comes with that, so the pair would not necessarily need to meet. But ambassador Robert Wood Johnson said that while plans have not yet been finalised, they will involve the president meeting Her Majesty.”

BRAD PARSCALE. Trump campaign manager calls on Trump to fire Jeff Sessions. ‘The “IG report” Parscale referred to is the Department of Justice inspector general’s report that faulted then-FBI Director James Comey for violating protocol in publicly discussing the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s email and his handling of a related disclosure about information found on former Rep. Anthony Weiner’s laptop.’

Time to fire Sessions

End the Mueller investigation

You can’t obstruct something that was phony against you

The IG report gives @realDonaldTrump the truth to end it all.

— Brad Parscale (@parscale) June 19, 2018

OCTOBER SURPRISE. Giuliani said FBI asked him about it earlier this year: “That’s all they asked about. What was I talking about in terms of ‘surprise’? What was I talking about when I was talking about new information?”

MINNESOTA. Trump’s new electoral target. “Now, President Donald Trump, who finished fewer than 45,000 votes behind Hillary Clinton in Minnesota despite a threadbare effort that saw him visit the state only once, is intent on mining an urban-rural divide to capture the state in 2020.

AVOCADOS. Queer Eye’s Antoni Porowski responds to critics of his cooking ability.

MICHAEL COHEN. Trump lawyer ready to give info on Trump to Robert Mueller, according to ally: “He knows a lot of things about the President and he’s not averse to talking in the right situation,” one of Cohen’s New York friends who is in touch with him told CNN. “If they want information on Trump, he’s willing to give it.” Hires new attorney…

THE WALL. Trump threatens to shut down government over funding for border wall: “In a private meeting regarding the wall Monday, Trump fumed at senators and his own staff about the $1.6 billion the Senate is planning to send him this fall, according to two people familiar with the meeting. Trump wants the full $25 billion upfront and doesn’t understand why Congress is going to supply him funds in a piecemeal fashion — even though that’s how the spending process typically works. Vows to stand by House Republicans “1,000 percent”.

ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER. Cage politicians, not innocent kids.

The administration is right that we need to fix our immigration system. But if anybody is going to be in a cage while we wait for a comprehensive reform, let’s make it the politicians who don’t do their jobs in the cages, not innocent kids.

— Arnold (@Schwarzenegger) June 20, 2018

SHOES. Trump claims Canadians sneak shoes across the border to avoid tariffs: “The tariffs to get common items back into Canada are so high that they have to smuggle them in,” Trump said during remarks at the National Federation of Independent Business. “They buy shoes and they wear them. They scuff them up.”

NYT. Pride merchandise being manufactured in countries where gays are persecuted.

STEVE SCHMIDT. Top Republican strategist leaves party: “29 years and nine months ago I registered to vote and became a member of The Republican Party which was founded in 1854 to oppose slavery and stand for the dignity of human life. Today I renounce my membership in the Republican Party. It is fully the party of Trump. It is corrupt, indecent and immoral. With the exception of a few Governors like Baker, Hogan and Kasich it is filled with feckless cowards who disgrace and dishonor the legacies of the party’s greatest leaders…”

NYC. No more arrests for smoking weed in public.

We know there is a bigger discussion happening across the nation and at the state level on legalization of marijuana. But until that debate is resolved, we're doing what we can to make our city safer and fairer for all New Yorkers.

— Mayor Bill de Blasio (@NYCMayor) June 19, 2018

NOSTALGIC MOMENT OF THE DAY. Bill Gates and Warren Buffett sound off on the old days.