The launcher should launch Minecraft. Neither the older versions nor the more recent ones are functioning as of yesterday (11/8) evening. They worked fine in the morning.

What actually happened was...: I logged in, logged out and logged in again. I clicked the green play button. The immediate reaction was to get a big red banner in the upper right corner that said Minecraft is unable to launch—changing to the most recent release does nothing.

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Open the launcher
2. Click play on Minecraft Java Screen
3. See permanent "..." on the green button and a quick flash of the earlier mentioned red banner.