;)
November 22, 2022
Afternoon Update:
Charlie Savage & Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "A federal appeals court panel signaled on Tuesday that it is likely to end a review of a trove of government documents seized this summer from ... Donald J. Trump, a move that would greatly free up an investigation into his handling of the material. At a 40-minute hearing in Atlanta, the three-member panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit seemed to embrace the Justice Department's position that a federal judge had acted improperly two months ago when she ordered an independent arbiter to review the documents taken from Mr. Trump's Florida compound, Mar-a- Lago. Through their questions, the panel expressed concern that Judge Aileen M. Cannon, who appointed the so-called special master, had acted without precedent by ordering a review of the seized material. The panel also suggested that Judge Cannon, who was appointed by Mr. Trump, had overstepped by inserting herself into the case.... During the proceeding in Atlanta, all of the judges on the panel, two of whom were Trump appointees, appeared to support the Justice Department's overarching argument that Judge Cannon's appointment of the special master and her efforts to keep the government from using the documents seized from Mr. Trump were highly unusual and wrongly decided."
Eugene Scott of the Washington Post: "Anthony S. Fauci, the nation's leading infectious-disease expert, who has served under seven presidents, used his valedictory at the White House podium on Tuesday to urge Americans to get updated coronavirus booster shots.Fauci, 81, has announced he will leave government service next month, stepping down as President Biden's top medical adviser and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which he has led for 38 years."
Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court on Tuesday denied ... Donald Trump's efforts to block the release of his tax records to a congressional committee that has sought the information for years.The court's order means that the Treasury Department may quickly hand over six years of tax records from Trump and some of his companies to the House Ways and Means Committee. There were no recorded dissents in the court's order.... Time is not on the side of Democrats who run the committee. The demands for the records will almost surely expire in January, when Republicans take control of the House as a result of the recent midterm elections.... Last month, the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit declined to review earlier rulings finding that lawmakers are entitled to the documents in the long-running legal battle. That court also refused to put the release of the papers on hold while Trump's lawyers sought Supreme Court review. But Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., the justice designated to hear emergency orders from that court, stopped the release Nov. 1, requesting more briefing and giving the high court more time to act."
Insurrectionist-in-Chief. Christopher Cadelago & Daniel Lippman of Politico: "When Donald Trump plunged into the 2024 presidential race last week at his Mar-a-Lago club..., among [the attendees were] ... those sympathetic to or even a part of the riot on the Capitol on January 6. A Politico review of social media posts of the Mar-a-Lago guests, as well as encounters at the venue, revealed at least six who were in Washington the day of Trump's speech and the insurrection. Some of them marched on the Capitol.... Trump refrained from mentioning Jan. 6 during his presidential bid announcement. But the inclusion of those who were in Washington on Jan. 6 at his Mar-a-Lago event underscores how closely linked he remains to the melee that unfolded that day. Rather than isolating and ostracizing Jan. 6 figures, Trump's team has kept them in the fold, even promising pardons for those who were there.... Elijah Schaffer, who attended Trump's campaign launch..., is seen [in a newly-released video] filming himself in [Speaker Nancy] Pelosi's office mirror and appears to be saying, '... We have, we are occupying the Capitol building.'"
Holly Bailey & Matthew Brown of the Washington Post: "After months of failed legal challenges, Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) appeared Tuesday before a special grand jury investigating efforts by ... Donald Trump and his allies to overturn Trump's 2020 election loss in Georgia, the latest high-profile witness in a probe that is believed to be nearing conclusion.... Graham's testimony followed an extended legal challenge to block his appearance that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which this month declined to overturn lower court rulings requiring him to appear.... Trump personally urged [Georgia Secretary of State Brad] Raffensperger to 'find' enough votes to overturn his defeat in the state.... Raffensperger ... told The Washington Post he felt pressured by other Republicans, including Graham, who he said echoed Trump's claims about voting irregularities in the state. He claimed that Graham, on one call, appeared to be asking him to find a way to set aside legally cast ballots."
Marc Fisher, et al., of the Washington Post on how the shooting inside Club Q in Colorado Springs, Colorado, unfolded: "In a matter of seconds -- probably less than a minute, the city's police chief said -- [a] man with [a] rifle shot and killed five people. At least 18 others were injured.... The shooter started firing right after he walked in and kept shooting as he walked deeper into the club, witnesses said. He didn't say anything.... People were running for their lives....
"Somewhere in the chaos, an unarmed patron grabbed hold of the shooter and 'acted so courageously as to remove a handgun from his waist and use that handgun to subdue him,' hitting the gunman in the head with the weapon, Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers told The Washington Post on Monday. 'This person is a real hero.' The hero was Richard Fierro, who went to Club Q with his family to celebrate a friend's birthday and watch the drag show, which included a performance by his 22-year-old daughter's best friend. When he heard the shots, Fierro hit the floor, then saw the shooter. 'I ran across the bar, grabbed the guy from the back and pulled him down and pinned him against the stairs,' Fierro told The Washington Post on Monday.... 'He went for his weapon, and I grabbed his handgun,' Fierro said. Fierro said he ordered a young man to 'Kick him! Move the AR! Then I just started hitting him ... The back of his head was my target.'... Fierro had the shooter pinned to the floor when police entered the club.>
Georgia. Voters Win; Raffensperger & Confederates Lose in Voting Restriction Case. Maggie Astor of the New York Times: "Early voting will be allowed on Saturday in Georgia's runoff election for Senate after an appeals court rejected an argument that state law forbade it. In a brief ruling on Monday, the Georgia Court of Appeals declined a request from the state to halt a ruling made by a Fulton County judge on Friday, which found voting on Saturday permissible. It is up to individual counties whether to actually offer early voting that day. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, argued that early voting was not allowed that day under Georgia law, which bars it on the second Saturday before an election if the preceding Thursday or Friday are state holidays. Thursday is Thanksgiving, and Friday is a Georgia holiday that once honored Robert E. Lee, the Confederate general. The runoff between Senator Raphael Warnock, a Democrat, and his Republican challenger, Herschel Walker, is on Dec. 6, and Georgia law requires five days of early voting from Monday, Nov. 28, through Friday, Dec. 2. Counties are allowed, but not required, to offer up to three additional days of early voting, and some -- including Fulton County, which includes Atlanta and is a Democratic stronghold -- planned to offer Saturday, Nov. 26."
Qatar. Leo Sands of the Washington Post: "Soccer fans wearing the rainbow, a symbol of LGBTQ inclusivity, have said they were refused entry into World Cup stadiums and confronted by members of the public to remove the emblem, despite assurances from FIFA, soccer's governing body, that visitors would be allowed to express their identities during the tournament in Qatar."
~~~~~~~~~~~
Travis Andrews of the Washington Post: "Moments after President Biden pardoned Chocolate and Chip, two hefty gobblers from a couple states south, they let out loud, ecstasy-filled gobbles that resounded throughout the Rose Garden ceremony -- but declined to make further comment. Theirs were not the only animal cries punctuating Monday's ceremony, as a (presumably) salivating Commander, Biden's German shepherd, watched from the White House's second-floor balcony and occasionally let loose a commanding woof. Sorry, Commander, you're a good boy, but these turkeys are free." ~~~
~~~ Here's the White House transcript, as delivered, of President Biden's remarks, complete with dad jokes.
Carl Hulse of the New York Times: "With Republicans on track to assume control of the House next year, progressive groups that have been bracing for that prospect for months are rolling out a coordinated campaign to counter the new majority as soon it takes charge in January. Under the umbrella of an initiative called Courage for America, progressive activists plan to establish a war room, begin media campaigns, hold events in targeted congressional districts and conduct other activities to emphasize what they see as the harms of Republican policies and counter the G.O.P.'s efforts to hamstring and tarnish the Biden administration with a barrage of investigations." ~~~
~~~ Paul Krugman of the New York Times: "... the G.O.P. won't help govern America. It will, in fact, almost surely do what it can to undermine governance. And Democrats, in turn, need to do whatever they can both to thwart political sabotage and to make the would-be saboteurs pay a price.... The good news is that Democrats can, as The Washington Post's Greg Sargent puts it, 'crazyproof' policy during the lame duck session, raising the debt limit high enough that it won't be a problem and locking in sufficient aid for Ukraine to get through the many months of war that surely lie ahead.... Beyond that, Democrats can and should hammer Republicans for their extremism, for focusing on disruption and fake scandals rather than trying to improve Americans' lives."
Devlin Barrett & Perry Stein of the Washington Post: "Newly appointed special counsel Jack Smith continues to work remotely from Europe as he assembles a team, finds office space, and takes over two high-stakes investigations into ... Donald Trump -- complex cases that officials insist will not be delayed by Smith's appointment, even as they also said they do not know when he will return to the United States. Smith, a war crimes prosecutor at the International Criminal Court at The Hague, injured his leg in a recent bicycle accident and is recovering from surgery.... A court filing Monday said Smith has reviewed arguments in a months-long court fight between the Justice Department and Trump's lawyers over papers seized in the FBI's Aug. 8 search of Mar-a-Lago." CNN's report is here.
Hugo Lowell of the Guardian: "The US justice department is scheduled to ask a court on Tuesday to void the special master review examining documents seized from Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence and make the materials available to the criminal investigation surrounding the former president. The hearing is particularly consequential for Trump: should he lose, it could mark the end of the special master process on which he has relied to delay, and gain more insight into, the investigation surrounding his potential mishandling of national security information. In a 40-page brief filed in advance of an expedited afternoon hearing in the 11th circuit court of appeals, the department argued that Trump should never have been able to get an independent arbiter because the federal judge who granted the request misapplied a four-part legal test in making her judgment."
Jonah Bromwich, et al., of the New York Times: "Manhattan prosecutors rested their case in the tax fraud trial of Donald J. Trump's family business on Monday without calling a witness they had previously planned to question, an indication of confidence after the company's longtime chief financial officer testified last week. The former chief financial officer, Allen H. Weisselberg, strengthened the prosecution's hand as he admitted to his participation in a tax scheme that the company, the Trump Organization, is also charged with.... Donald Bender, who for years was an outside accountant for Mr. Trump and the company..., works for the accounting firm Mazars USA, [and] has been cooperating with prosecutors since at least last year. Last week, [prosecutors] said in court that they expected to call Mr. Bender, but reversed that plan. The Trump Organization's lawyers indicated Monday morning that they plan to call him as a defense witness instead." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) The Guardian's report is here.
Jonah Bromwich, et al., of the New York Times: "The Manhattan district attorney's office has moved to jump-start its criminal investigation into Donald J. Trump, according to people with knowledge of the matter, seeking to breathe new life into an inquiry that once seemed to have reached a dead end. Under the new district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg, the prosecutors have returned to the long-running investigation's original focus: a hush-money payment to a porn star [Stormy Daniels] who said she had an affair with Mr. Trump.... For Mr. Bragg, the hush-money developments suggest the first signs of progress since he took office at the beginning of the year, when he balked at indicting Mr. Trump in connection with his business practices." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: Michael Cohen has been wondering for a long time why he went to jail for the illegal payment to Daniels when he made the payment at Trump's behest & Trump repaid him. Maybe Bragg finally has begun to wonder about that, too.
Bill Barr in Common Sense: "It is painfully clear from his track record in both the 2020 election and the 2022 midterms that Donald Trump is neither capable of forging [a] winning coalition or delivering the decisive and durable victory required. Trump's extraordinarily divisive actions since losing in 2020 are not those of someone capable of leading a party, much less a country.... Trump's willingness to destroy the party if he does not get his way is not based on principle, but on his own supreme narcissism. His egoism makes him unable to think of a political party as anything but an extension of himself -- a cult of personality." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Whitney Wild of CNN: "The Justice Department has determined that the death of a US Capitol Police officer by suicide in the days following the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol occurred in the line of duty and qualifies for line-of-duty death benefits, the officer's family said in a statement Monday. Capitol Police Officer Howard Liebengood died by suicide on January 9, 2021.... Liebengood's widow recounted in an open letter how he was ordered to remain on duty 'practically around the clock' for three days after the Capitol attack, and how he was 'severely sleep deprived' before his January 9 suicide."
Kyle Cheney of Politico: "A Pennsylvania woman who joined a mob in Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office suite on Jan. 6, 2021, was convicted Monday for impeding police officers trying to defend the Capitol. After three days of deliberation, jurors convicted Riley Williams, 23, of six charges, including two felonies: participating in a civil disorder and impeding officers who tried to clear the Capitol Rotunda. But the jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict on two of the central charges in the case: whether Williams 'aided and abetted' in the theft of a laptop from Pelosi's office that the speaker used to make Zoom calls amid the Covid pandemic, and obstruction of Congress' Jan. 6 proceeding -- a felony that carries a 20-year maximum penalty."
Ryan Reilly of NBC News: "For the first time in at least a decade, a jury is set to deliberate federal seditious conspiracy charges, weighing the government's case against members of the far-right Oath Keepers organization who prosecutors say plotted to oppose the peaceful transfer of power by force in the lead-up to the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.... After hearing from the government last week and from the defendants' attorneys on Friday and Monday, federal prosecutors got the last word during rebuttal before the case went to the jury late Monday."
Lauren Gurley of the Washington Post: "One of the largest railroad unions narrowly voted to reject a contract deal brokered by the White House, bringing the country once again closer to a rail strike that could paralyze much of the economy ahead of the holidays, union officials announced on Monday. The union representing roughly 28,000 rail conductors, SMART Transportation Division, voted the deal down by 50.9 percent, the union said. The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, which represents engineers, announced on Monday that 53.5 percent of members voted to ratify the deal. These unions represent 57,000 workers and are the largest and most politically powerful of the 12 rail unions in contract discussions." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Elon Was Always a Dick. Ryan Mac & Jack Ewing of the New York Times: "Over the years, [Elon] Musk has developed a playbook for managing his companies -- including Tesla and the rocket manufacturer SpaceX -- through periods of pain, employing shock treatment and alarmism and pushing his workers and himself to put aside their families and friends to spend all their energy on his mission. At Twitter, Mr. Musk has used many of those same tactics to upend the social media company in just a few weeks.... The similarities between Mr. Musk's approach to Twitter and what he did at Tesla and SpaceX are evident, added Tammy Madsen, a management professor at Santa Clara University.... 'At Tesla and SpaceX, the approach has always been high risk, high reward,' Dr. Madsen said. 'Twitter has been high risk, but the question is: What is the reward that comes out of it?'"
Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: "The massacre this past weekend at Club Q, an L.G.B.T.Q. club in Colorado Springs, was at once shocking and entirely predictable, like terrorist attacks on synagogues and abortion clinics.... In recent years, the right has become increasingly fixated on all-ages drag shows, part of a growing moral panic about children being 'groomed' into gender nonconformity. Club Q hosted a drag show on Saturday night and had an all-ages drag brunch scheduled for Sunday.... The language of 'grooming' recapitulated old homophobic tropes about gay people recruiting children, while also playing into the newer delusions of QAnon, which holds that elite liberals are part of a sprawling satanic child abuse ring.... It's been clear for some time that there are people willing to act on such ideas. Just last month, a man in a red baseball cap firebombed a Tulsa doughnut shop that had hosted a drag event.... Now that a mass shooting has drawn attention to the danger of the right's dehumanizing language, many of those who have demagogued about trans kids and drag queens are painting themselves as victims."
Marie: If you are of a certain age, you will remember where you were & what you did 59 years ago today.
Beyond the Beltway
Alabama. Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs of the New York Times: "Alabama's governor issued a sweeping order on Monday suspending all executions in the state and ordering a review of Alabama's execution process following a series of problems delivering lethal injection drugs this year. The move by Gov. Kay Ivey, a Republican, comes four days after prison officials said they had been unable to insert one of two intravenous lines into Kenneth Eugene Smith before his death warrant expired at midnight. That episode was the third time this year in which Alabama executioners failed to reach a death row prisoner's veins and the second time in less than two months that the problems forced the state to call off an execution. Ms. Ivey said she had asked the state's attorney general to withdraw Alabama's two pending requests for execution dates and seek no more until the investigation is over. She ... also said that ...'legal tactics and criminals hijacking the system' were responsible for the problems." MB: By this, Ivey apparently meant she blamed last-minute appeals. Don't think Kaye has gone soft on the death penalty. She hasn't. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
California. Stephanie Lai of the New York Times: "Representative David Valadao, Republican of California, won re-election on Monday, according to The Associated Press, managing to survive politically after his vote to impeach ... Donald J. Trump, a move that cost some of his Republican colleagues their seats. Mr. Valadao defeated Rudy Salas, a Democratic state assemblyman, in a competitive district in the Central Valley that became more difficult for Republicans after newly drawn boundaries tilted it more to the left. The outcome was decided nearly two weeks after Election Day, with Mr. Valadao leading by more than three percentage points." The AP's story is here.
Oregon. Way Better than Pardoning Turkeys. Andrew Selsky of the AP: "Gov. Kate Brown announced Monday she is pardoning an estimated 45,000 people convicted of simple possession of marijuana, a month after President Joe Biden did the same under federal law. 'No one deserves to be forever saddled with the impacts of a conviction for simple possession of marijuana -- a crime that is no longer on the books in Oregon,' said Brown, who is also forgiving more than $14 million in unpaid fines and fees. Biden has been calling on governors to issue pardons for those convicted of state marijuana offenses, which reflect the vast majority of marijuana possession cases. Biden's pardon applies to those convicted under federal law and thousands convicted in the District of Columbia. In recent months, the governors of Colorado, Nevada, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Washington state have taken steps to grant pardons to those with low-level marijuana convictions, according to the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, or NORML."
Virginia. Ian Shapira of the Washington Post: "Ever since Virginia Military Institute began rolling out new diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives last year, a fierce and well-funded group of conservative alumni has been attacking the efforts to make VMI more welcoming to women and minorities. Now the mostly White alumni group has turned its sights on a new target: the first Black superintendent at the nation's oldest state-supported military college. Some alumni have raised questions about what VMI is paying retired Army Maj. Gen. Cedric T. Wins, while others have called for him to be fired -- suggestions that have outraged his supporters. Wins, 59, who graduated from VMI in 1985 after starring on the basketball team, was chosen to lead the college two years ago amid a state-ordered investigation into alleged racism on the Lexington, Va., campus. The investigation concluded that VMI has long tolerated a 'racist and sexist culture' and must change. But at a school where cadets fought and died for the Confederacy, resistance to change was immediate and intense. 'This is about a bunch of rich, older White guys who are losing power,' said Chuck Rogerson, 61, a White retired Army colonel who roomed with Wins during their four years together at VMI." ~~~
~~~ Marie: As Rogerson suggests, these are not "conservative alumni." They're racist, sexist, useless old assholes, and the Post should clearly identify them as such.
Way Beyond
Ukraine, et al. The New York Times' live updates of developments Tuesday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here. The Guardian's live updates are here. The Guardian's summary report is here. ~~~
~~~ The Washington Post's live briefings for Tuesday are here: "Ukrainians gathered Monday to commemorate a protest movement that began in November 2013 and led to the removal of a pro-Moscow president. The so-called Maidan revolution was followed by a proxy war with Russia, which was a precursor to the current conflict. President Volodymyr Zelensky used the occasion to elevate the spirits of his people, who have faced nearly nine months of brutal warfare and are in the onset of winter.... The situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, which has faced heavy shelling, continues to alarm international leaders.... Russian authorities set up 'pseudo-law enforcement agencies' in several buildings in Kherson during their occupation, where they allegedly illegally detained and tortured people, according to Ukrainian investigators.... Systemic damage from a barrage of Russian strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure is now so severe that Zelensky is urging residents and businesses to be 'very frugal' and spread out their power consumption across the day to avoid outages during peak periods."
Share Article 
