November 6, 2022

Peter Baker & Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "Taking the stage to roaring applause and blaring music [in Philadelphia last night, President] Biden and [President] Obama joined hands with Josh Shapiro, the Democratic candidate in the Pennsylvania governor's race, and John Fetterman, the Democrat running for a Senate seat. Mr. Biden, who spoke first, hailed the legacy of Mr. Obama, whom he called 'a great president, a historic president -- I'm proud to say, a dear friend.'... On Saturday, Mr. Biden spoke in fiery bursts, lacing into his predecessor, Donald J. Trump, and Republicans. Describing the election as a battle between two vastly different agendas, he said that 'character is on the ballot' and warned that Republicans would try to roll back America's safety net programs if they won power in Washington.... Each addresses in his own way the threat they see in a passel of election deniers loyal to Mr. Trump taking power in the midterm elections.... With his can-you-believe-this tone, no one skewers the other side with sarcasm quite like Mr. Obama." A Politico story, which also devotes some ink to Trump, is here.

Maureen Dowd of the New York Times: "Much to our national shame, it looks like ... over-the-top and way, way, way out-of-the mainstream Republicans -- and the formerly normie and now creepy Republicans who have bent the knee to the wackos out of political expediency -- are going to be running the House, maybe the Senate and certainly some states, perhaps even some that Joe Biden won two years ago. And it looks as if Kevin McCarthy will finally realize his goal of becoming speaker, but when he speaks, it will be Marjorie Taylor Greene, Jim Jordan and Lauren Boebert doing the spewing. It will be like the devil growling through Linda Blair in 'The Exorcist' -- except it will be our heads spinning.... These extreme Republicans don't have a plan. Their only idea is to get in, make trouble for President Biden, drag Hunter into the dock, start a bunch of stupid investigations, shut down the government, abandon Ukraine and hold the debt limit hostage." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Here's something I missed when it happened. From the Guardian: "Earlier this year, [Rep. Lauren] Boebert [R-Colo.] hinted that Jesus may have prevented his crucifixion if he had owned AR-15 rifles. 'How many AR-15s do you think Jesus would have had?' Boebert asked a crowd at a Christian event in Colorado. 'Well, he didn't have enough to keep his government from killing him.'" Maybe the most amazing part of Boebert's gun-weilding Jesus is that she understand absolutely nothing about what she claims is her own religion. All of Christian theology hangs upon the crucifixion story. The crucifixion is not an aberration; it is essential to the faith. ~~~

     ~~~ Here's Matthew's fairly succinct explanation (Chap. 26). As Jesus' enemies come to the Garden of Gethsemane to seize Jesus & denounce him before Pontius Pilate, one of Jesus' followers took out his sword & cut off the ear of an attacker. Jesus admonishes his sword-wielding follower: "Put your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?" I doubt the legions of angels would have come strapped with AR-15s, but you get the point. Unfortunately, Boebert does not. And that's my Sunday sermon.

Florida Governor. Ron DeSantis adds some verses to Genesis, & wouldn't you know it? They're all about DeSantis. Jared Gans of the Hill: "'And on the eighth day, God looked down on his planned paradise and said, "I need a protector." So God made a fighter,' DeSantis's ad begins. The ad shows pictures of DeSantis meeting with officials and civilians while serving as governor. It describes a series of traits God 'said' he needs in someone, including a willingness to 'travel thousands of miles for no other reason than to serve the people, to save their jobs, their livelihoods, their liberty, their happiness.'"

Virginia House. Meagan Flynn of the Washington Post: "Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), the GOP&'s most vocal critic against Trumpian politics' threats to democracy, has endorsed Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.) over Spanberger's Republican challenger in one of Virginia's most consequential races this year, transcending party lines to push for the vulnerable Democrat days before the election. In a statement to The Washington Post, Cheney acknowledged that she and Spanberger have policy differences, but said she was 'honored' to back Spanberger, describing her as a lawmaker 'dedicated to working across the aisle to find solutions' while criticizing her Donald Trump-backed Republican opponent, Yesli Vega, >a member of the Prince William County Board of Supervisors."

Danny Hakim & Alexandra Berzon of the New York Times: "Because elections in America are more fraught than ever, the scrutiny of ballot counting now starts well before Election Day, and the legal challenges have already begun. The Republican Party and allied groups, many seized by Donald J. Trump's falsehoods about fraud in elections, are training monitors around the country to spot what they see as irregularities at absentee ballot counting centers. The monitors are told to take copious notes, which could be useful for potential court challenges, raising the prospect of a replay in state and local elections of Mr. Trump's attempt to use the courts to overturn his loss two years ago. The activity has not produced reports of major disruptions or problems."

Lies And the Lying Liars

Cecilia Kang of the New York Times: "Voting-related falsehoods and rumors are flourishing across social media in the final stretch before Election Day on Tuesday. Much of the misinformation and conspiracy theories, which are swirling on Facebook, Twitter and other platforms, builds on familiar and unsubstantiated narratives spread about the 2020 presidential election. They include debunked claims of meddling with voting equipment, falsehoods about fraudulent ballots, alleged malfeasance by elections officials and unsubstantiated rumors about mail-in voting. Many of the posts are outright falsehoods, while others appear intended to simply raise doubts and undermine confidence in voting.... Here are some of the most widespread falsehoods and rumors related to voting." ~~~

Adam Gabbatt of the Guardian: "Ballot boxes being stuffed. 'BlueAnon'. Men in underpants. Every Democratic candidate: a 'complete weirdo psychopath'. To dive into Truth Social, Donald Trump's Twitter-but-for-conspiracy-theorists social media platform, is to enter a world where all of the above are real topics of debate, breathlessly discussed by Trump-backing Republicans and anonymous rightwing provocateurs. Truth Social has always been a platform for lies and obfuscations; about the 2020 election, the Democratic party, vaccines, Hunter Biden. But with less than a week before the election, the platform and its users have become even more unhinged. The site, formed as Trump's alternative to Twitter after he was banned from that platform in the wake of the January 6 insurrection, is awash with false theories about how the Democratic party is attempting to manipulate the midterm vote, false claims about the attack on Paul Pelosi, Nancy Pelosi's husband, and false accusations about Democratic candidates themselves." ~~~

~~~ Republicans Can't Handle the Truth -- That a Brutal Attack is their Fault:

Annie Karni, et al., of the New York Times: "Within hours of the brutal attack last month on Paul Pelosi, the husband of the speaker of the House, activists and media outlets on the right began circulating groundless claims -- nearly all of them sinister, and many homophobic -- casting doubt on what had happened. Some Republican officials quickly joined in, rushing to suggest that the bludgeoning of an octogenarian by a suspect obsessed with right-wing conspiracy theories was something else altogether, dismissing it as an inside job, a lover's quarrel or worse. The misinformation came from all levels of Republican politics. A U.S. senator [Ted Cruz] circulated the view that 'none of us will ever know' what really happened at the Pelosis; San Francisco home. A senior Republican congressman [Clay Higgins (La.)] referred to the attacker as a 'nudist hippie male prostitute,' baselessly asserting that the suspect had a personal relationship with Mr. Pelosi.... Donald J. Trump questioned whether the attack might have been staged. The world's richest man [Elon Musk] helped amplify the stories. But none of it was true." ~~~

~~~ Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Paul Farhi of the Washington Post: "NBC News reporter Miguel Almaguer had what seemed like a scoop on Friday about an intruder&'s attack last week on Paul Pelosi. The curious new details he presented on the 'Today' show quickly went viral on right-wing sites and social media accounts.... Much of Almaguer's account was inaccurate, based on flawed information provided by a source who was unnamed in the report.... [NBC News] said Almaguer was incorrect when he reported that the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) gave police no indication he was in danger when he answered the door. In fact, San Francisco police have said that Pelosi was struggling with the intruder, David DePape, when they first saw him. But before NBC News' hasty removal of the video from its website -- accompanied by a vague note that the story 'did not meet NBC News reporting standards' -- it spawned a sinister new narrative ... [that] fed the unfounded speculation and conspiracy theories that have been swirling around the incident ever since the Oct. 28 home-invasion assault."

** Trump's DHS Falsely Accused 100s -- or 1,000s -- of Americans of Terrorism. Dell Cameron of Gizmodo: "The Department of Homeland Security launched a failed operation that ensnared hundreds, if not thousands, of U.S. protesters in what new documents show was as a sweeping, power-hungry effort before the 2020 election to bolster ... Donald Trump's spurious claims about a 'terrorist organization' he accused his Democratic rivals of supporting. An internal investigative report, made public this month by Sen. Ron Wyden, a Democrat of Oregon, details the findings of DHS lawyers concerning a previously undisclosed effort by Trump's acting secretary of homeland security, Chad Wolf, to amass secret dossiers on Americans in Portland attending anti-racism protests in summer 2020 sparked by the police murder of Minneapolis father George Floyd. The report describes attempts by top officials to link protesters to an imaginary terrorist plot in an apparent effort to boost Trump's reelection odds, raising concerns now about the ability of a sitting president to co-opt billions of dollars' worth of domestic intelligence assets for their own political gain." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Most of Trump's lies are terrible, but targeting real people, many of them Black people -- abducting them, arresting them, charging them, accessing their financial records, & developing "dossiers" on them -- is right out of the Brown Shirt handbook. Comparing Trump's tactics to Hitler's is well past the false argumentum ad Hitlerum. It was real.

Way Beyond the Beltway

Ukraine, et al. The New York Times' live updates of developments Sunday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here. The Guardian's live updates are here. ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live briefings for Sunday are here: "The United States is pushing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to reconsider his stance against negotiating with Russian President Vladimir Putin, The Washington Post reports. The effort is intended as a means to maintain international support, not necessarily to induce bargaining between the warring nations. Meanwhile, Iran acknowledged publicly for the first time that it had given Russia deadly drones -- albeit, it said, before the Kremlin's full-scale invasion began in February. Zelensky called Tehran's statement a 'confession' after weeks of attacks from Iranian Shahed drones.... More than 800,000 tons of food left three Black Sea ports during the week ending on Saturday, Zelensky said. The ships are on their way to Africa, China and the Middle East."

News Lede

New York Times: The Houston Astros won the World Series.

November 5, 2022

Dan Diamond of the Washington Post: "A bill to permanently ... [end daylight savings time] has been stalled in Congress for more than seven months, as lawmakers trade jabs over whether the Senate should have passed the legislation at all. House officials say they've been deluged by voters with split opinions and warnings from sleep specialists who insist that adopting permanent standard time instead would be healthier, and congressional leaders admit they just don't know what to do.... [Frank] Pallone [D-NJ], who chairs the House Energy and Commerce committee that oversees time-change policies, also said he's wary of repeating Congress' previous attempt to institute year-round daylight saving time nearly 50 years ago, which was quickly repealed amid widespread reports that darker winter mornings led to more car accidents and drearier moods.... There is little chance of the legislation being advanced during the lame-duck period that follows next week's election, congressional aides said."

Sadly, much of the news is about the Biggest Jerk & his friends. I just ignored it earlier in the day, but I guess these are things you might want to know.

Michael Bender & Haley Johnson of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump is expected to announce a third White House campaign soon after the midterms, possibly as soon as the week of Nov. 14, according to people familiar with the planning. Advisors cautioned that no final decisions had been made and that the former president could change his mind on the details. The potential announcement date was first reported by Axios. Mr. Trump has been eager to launch a new campaign, in part to shield himself from a stream of investigations, including some focused on his attempts to cling to power after losing the 2020 election." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Glenn Thrush of the New York Times: "The Justice Department hopes to reach a decision on whether to bring charges against ... Donald J. Trump before the 2024 campaign heats up, and is considering appointing a special counsel to oversee investigations of him if he runs again, according to people familiar with the situation.The department is investigating Mr. Trump's role in the efforts to reverse the outcome of the 2020 election and the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, and his retention of sensitive government documents at his residence and resort in Florida. It has made no decision in either case.... "CNN's report is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Delay, Delay. Jacqueline Alemany of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump will have an additional week to meet the deadline to turn over documents to the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. 'We have received correspondence from the former President and his counsel in connection with the Select Committee's subpoena,' Chairman Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.) and Vice Chair Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) said in a joint statement Friday evening. 'We have informed the former President's counsel that he must begin producing records no later than next week and he remains under subpoena for deposition testimony starting on November 14th.'" The Guardian's report is here.

Annie Grayer & Zachary Cohen of CNN: "The House January 6 select committee is getting a window into ... Donald Trump's motorcade on the day of the US Capitol attack, interviewing on Friday the Secret Service agent who was in the lead car on January 6 and scheduling testimony from the driver of Trump's presidential vehicle as soon as next week, multiple sources tell CNN." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

The Thief-in-Chief. Jacqueline Alemany & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "Congressional investigators are looking for dozens of pricey mementos gifted to ... Donald Trump and his family members by foreign governments.... The House Oversight Committee has asked for help in locating the items from the National Archives, which is among the agencies charged with keeping presidential gifts.... The eclectic list ranges from golf clubs given to Trump by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to a 2018 World Cup soccer ball gifted by Russian President Vladimir Putin, a gold-plated collar of Horus ... given by Egypt's president, a large painting of Trump from the president of El Salvador, and a $6,400 collar of King Abdulaziz al Saud, a ceremonial honor from Saudi Arabia.... The dozens of gifts are worth in sum an estimated $50,000 or more.... The committee has asked the archives to check whether the gifts are among the items transferred there from the White House at the end of Trump's presidency as required by law.... The Foreign Gifts and Decorations Act ... prohibits presidents and other government officials from personally keeping gifts from foreigners worth more than $415 unless they pay for them." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Can anyone doubt that Trump considers these baubles "mine, all mine"?

Tom Jackman & Rachel Weiner of the Washington Post: "Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes took the stand in federal court Friday in an attempt to convince a jury of Washington, D.C., residents that he committed no crime when members of his group went into the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Rhodes asserted his belief -- unsupported by courts -- that the 2020 presidential election was 'unconstitutional,' because of pandemic-related changes made to voting procedures in some states. 'That made it invalid,' Rhodes said. But he also sought to downplay the Oath Keepers' desire for violence. He contrasted his group with the Proud Boys, another far-right organization, saying they 'want to go and street fight' while the Oath Keepers preferred to 'stay calm.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Dareh Gregorian of NBC News: "... Donald Trump’s longtime friend and former fundraiser, Tom Barrack, was found not guilty Friday of charges that he acted as an unregistered foreign agent for the United Arab Emirates during the Trump administration and then lied to the FBI about those contacts. The jury deliberated for about two days in federal court in Brooklyn, New York, before voting to acquit Barrack, who prosecutors alleged had traded on his decades-long friendship with Trump to 'illegally provide' UAE officials with access to -- and inside information on -- the Trump White House and his 2016 presidential campaign." The Washington Post's story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Kate Conger, et al., of the New York Times: "When the ax came down at Twitter on Friday, it did not fall smoothly.... Some learned they were unemployed in the middle of their night.... [Some found out] when their email accounts were shut off late Thursday.... [At one product meeting, a] ... worker was locked out of the company's systems during the call.... By early Friday, the scale of the layoffs ... was becoming clear: Roughly half of the company's work force, or about 3,700 jobs, had been eliminated.... The cuts hit across many divisions, including the engineering and machine learning teams, the trust and safety teams that manage content moderation, and the sales and advertising departments.... On Friday, [Elon] Musk addressed Twitter's layoffs while speaking at an investment conference in New York. He said the cuts were needed because 'Twitter was having pretty serious revenue challenges and cost challenges' before the deal [he made to buy the company], which have been made worse by 'activist groups pressuring major advertisers to stop spending money on Twitter.'" The Verge's story is here. MB: I knew it! Musk isn't a cruel, avaricious billionaire. The whole callous middle-of-the-night layoffs thing is the liberals' fault. ~~~

~~~ Ah, Chaos Was of the Essence of the Scheme. Drew Harwell, et al., of the Washington Post: "Devastating cuts to Twitter's workforce on Friday, four days before the midterm elections, are fueling anxieties among political campaigns and election offices that have counted on the social network's staff to help them combat violent threats and viral lies. The mass layoffs Friday gutted teams devoted to combating election misinformation.... The layoffs included a number of people who were scheduled to be on call this weekend and early next week to monitor for signs of foreign disinformation, spam and other problematic content around the election.... As of Friday morning, employee access to internal tools used for content moderation continued to be restricted, limiting staff's ability to respond to misinformation.... A representative from one of the national party committees said they are seeing hours-long delays in responses from their contacts at Twitter, raising fears of the toll workplace chaos and sudden terminations is taking on the platform's ability to quickly react to developments." An NBC News story is here. ~~~

~~~ Twitter Trends Hate-Speech & Bigotry. Jason Koebler of Vice: "'The Jews' is trending on Twitter, and its algorithm has selected Ye as a 'Top' person to follow while Elon Musk fires roughly half of the company's staff, including many of its policy experts and content moderators. Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, recently had his Twitter access limited after saying he would go 'death con 3' on 'JEWISH PEOPLE,' and has been dropped by the vast majority of his business partners after repeatedly making blatantly antisemitic comments over the last few weeks. The freeze on Ye's account has since been lifted.... '#IStandWithKyrie' is also trending, a reference to Brooklyn Nets star Kyrie Irving, who recently recommended that people watch an antisemitic documentary and was suspended for five games after declining to apologize and evasively answering a question on whether he holds 'anti-semitic beliefs.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Yeah, but see, this isn't all bad because white supremacist Twitterbugs are suddenly all in with a couple of "The Blacks." For now.

November Elections

North Carolina House. Christine Hauser of the New York Times: "A Republican congressional candidate in North Carolina criticized his Democratic opponent's campaign on Friday for showing one of his homes in a TV ad, saying that someone had recently fired a bullet into his parents' house. The Hickory Police Department confirmed that the parents of the Republican candidate, Pat Harrigan, had reported on Oct. 19 that someone had fired a bullet that put a hole in a window in their home's laundry room the night before. No one was injured.... Mr. Harrigan's Democratic opponent, Jeff Jackson, took down the ad showing a different Harrigan residence. The ad had been running since Oct. 18, apparently the same date the bullet hole was found." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Beyond the Beltway

Colorado. James Anderson of the AP: "A Colorado man ... Richard Patton, 31, of Pueblo ... who is a registered Democratic voter has been arrested on suspicion of tampering with voting equipment by allegedly inserting a USB thumb drive into a voting machine at a polling station during the primary election in June, authorities said. No elections data were accessed, and the June 28 incident didn't cause any major disruption to voting, authorities said. But it heightened concerns among election officials and security experts that conspiracy theories related to the 2020 presidential election could inspire some voters to meddle with -- or even attempt to sabotage -- election equipment. Experts say even unsuccessful breaches could become major problems in the days leading up to and on Tuesday's midterm election, causing delays at polling places or sowing the seeds of misinformation campaigns."

New Jersey. Tracey Tully & Shlomo Schorr of the New York Times: "Hours after issuing a rare warning about a security risk at New Jersey synagogues, the Federal Bureau of Investigation identified a man who holds 'radical extremist views,' and who they say was the source of the threat, a federal official told faith leaders Friday morning. It was not clear if a suspect was in custody, but officials said the threat had been 'mitigated.' 'He no longer poses a threat to the community at this time,' James E. Dennehy, the special agent in charge of the F.B.I.'s Newark office, said during a morning conference call with state and federal law enforcement officials and more than 500 Jewish leaders. Mr. Dennehy said investigators believed that the man, who is from New Jersey, was acting alone, but they are continuing to pursue leads about people he might have been in contact with."

Way Beyond

Ukraine, et al. The New York Times' live updates of developments Saturday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here. The Guardian's live updates for Saturday are here. The Guardian's summary report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live briefings for Saturday are here: "World leaders fortified their support for Ukraine ahead of the punishing winter months, with the United States announcing a $400 million aid package that includes funding for additional air defenses against Russian attacks on critical infrastructure. The aid package also includes the refurbishment of 45 T-72 tanks for Ukraine -- the first time that Washington has answered pleas from Kyiv to provide such weapons for use on to be sent to the front lines -- as well as drones, air defense missiles, and riverine boats.... [President] Zelensky thanked the U.S. and the Netherlands for 'strengthening' Ukraine's tank units.... White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan made an unannounced visit to Kyiv on Friday to reaffirm the United States' 'unwavering' support for Ukraine.... The G-7 ... announced the establishment of a 'coordination mechanism 'to help Ukraine 'repair, restore and defend its critical energy and water infrastructure.'"

November 4, 2022

Afternoon Update:

Sadly, much of the news is about the Biggest Jerk & his friends. I just ignored it earlier in the day, but I guess these are things you might want to know.

Michael Bender & Haley Johnson of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump is expected to announce a third White House campaign soon after the midterms, possibly as soon as the week of Nov. 14, according to people familiar with the planning. Advisors cautioned that no final decisions had been made and that the former president could change his mind on the details. The potential announcement date was first reported by Axios. Mr. Trump has been eager to launch a new campaign, in part to shield himself from a stream of investigations, including some focused on his attempts to cling to power after losing the 2020 election."

Glenn Thrush of the New York Times: "The Justice Department hopes to reach a decision on whether to bring charges against ... Donald J. Trump before the 2024 campaign heats up, and is considering appointing a special counsel to oversee investigations of him if he runs again, according to people familiar with the situation.The department is investigating Mr. Trump's role in the efforts to reverse the outcome of the 2020 election and the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, and his retention of sensitive government documents at his residence and resort in Florida. It has made no decision in either case...." CNN's report is here.

MSNBC reported live today that Trump missed his deadline to produce records in according with a January 6 House committee subpoena.

Annie Grayer & Zachary Cohen of CNN: "The House January 6 select committee is getting a window into ... Donald Trump's motorcade on the day of the US Capitol attack, interviewing on Friday the Secret Service agent who was in the lead car on January 6 and scheduling testimony from the driver of Trump's presidential vehicle as soon as next week, multiple sources tell CNN."

Tom Jackman & Rachel Weiner of the Washington Post: "Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes took the stand in federal court Friday in an attempt to convince a jury of Washington, D.C., residents that he committed no crime when members of his group went into the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Rhodes asserted his belief -- unsupported by courts -- that the 2020 presidential election was 'unconstitutional,' because of pandemic-related changes made to voting procedures in some states. 'That made it invalid,' Rhodes said. But he also sought to downplay the Oath Keepers' desire for violence. He contrasted his group with the Proud Boys, another far-right organization, saying they 'want to go and street fight' while the Oath Keepers preferred to 'stay calm.'"

Dareh Gregorian of NBC News: "... Donald Trump's longtime friend and former fundraiser, Tom Barrack, was found not guilty Friday of charges that he acted as an unregistered foreign agent for the United Arab Emirates during the Trump administration and then lied to the FBI about those contacts. The jury deliberated for about two days in federal court in Brooklyn, New York, before voting to acquit Barrack, who prosecutors alleged had traded on his decades-long friendship with Trump to 'illegally provide' UAE officials with access to -- and inside information on -- the Trump White House and his 2016 presidential campaign." The Washington Post's story is here.

Christine Hauser of the New York Times: "A Republican congressional candidate in North Carolina criticized his Democratic opponent's campaign on Friday for showing one of his homes in a TV ad, saying that someone had recently fired a bullet into his parent' house. The Hickory Police Department confirmed that the parents of the Republican candidate, Pat Harrigan, had reported on Oct. 19 that someone had fired a bullet that put a hole in a window in their home's laundry room the night before. No one was injured.... Mr. Harrigan's Democratic opponent, Jeff Jackson, took down the ad showing a different Harrigan residence. The ad had been running since Oct. 18, apparently the same date the bullet hole was found."

~~~~~~~~~~

Some additions between 8 & 9 am ET.

Congress, Honor Your Treaty. Simon Romero of the New York Times: "In 1835, U.S. officials traveled to the Cherokee Nation's capital in Georgia to sign a treaty forcing the Cherokees off their lands in the American South, opening them to white settlers. The Treaty of New Echota sent thousands on a death march to new lands in Oklahoma. The Cherokees were forced at gunpoint to honor the treaty. But though it stipulated that the Nation would be entitled to a nonvoting seat in the House of Representatives, Congress reneged on that part of the deal. Now, amid a growing movement across Indian Country for greater representation and sovereignty, the Cherokees are pushing to seat their delegate, 187 years later." MB: Gee, do you think Trumpy judges would rule that the Cherokees had a Second-Amendment right to force Congress "at gunpoint to honor the treaty" just as the Cherokees were forced to do? Perhaps not. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: "The Canadian man accused of attacking Paul Pelosi with a hammer and trying to kidnap Speaker Nancy Pelosi had been living in the United States with an expired immigration status for years, officials at the Department of Homeland Security said on Thursday. David DePape, 42, who the authorities say broke into the Pelosis' home in San Francisco on Friday, entered the United States legally on March 8, 2008, from Mexico through a port of entry in California, the department said. Typically, Canadian visitors who travel to the United States for work or pleasure are admitted for six months." MB: Cue the screams that the attack on Paul Pelosi was all Democrats' fault because "open borders," "illegals." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

      ~~~ Luke Broadwater & Kellen Browning of the New York Times: "Six days after suffering a fractured skull in a vicious attack, Paul Pelosi, the husband of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, has been discharged from the Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital. Mr. Pelosi, 82, is resting at home, recovering from the injuries to his head, arm and hand. He spent most of his time at the hospital in the intensive care unit...."

Carol Leonnig, et al., of the Washington Post: "Kash Patel, a loyal aide to Donald Trump and former White House deputy, faced questions before a grand jury Thursday as part of a criminal investigation into the former president's possession of classified records.... National security prosecutors asked Patel about his public claims this spring that Trump had declassified a large number of government documents before leaving office in 2021. Patel was also questioned about how and why the departing president took secret and top-secret records to Mar-a-Lago.... Investigators did not expect Patel to offer evidence implicating Trump in possible crimes, these people said. But they added that the government badly wanted his firsthand account, under oath, of any declassification decisions made by Trump."

As a private company, nobody knew very much about the great business that then-businessman Donald Trump had built but now it is being revealed by [Letitia] James and much to her chagrin. The continuing witch hunt that has haunted and targeted Donald Trump since he came down the 'golden escalator' at Trump Tower in June of 2015 continues. -- Language in a frivolous, hilarious complaint filed by Donald Trump's lawyers against New York AG Letitia James ~~~

~~~ Jonah Bromwich, et al., of the New York Times: "A tirade of a lawsuit that Donald J. Trump filed on Wednesday against one of his chief antagonists, the New York attorney general, was hotly opposed by several of his longstanding legal advisers, who attempted an intervention hours before it was submitted to a court. Those opposed to the suit told the Florida attorneys who drafted it that it was frivolous and would fail, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The loudest objection came from the general counsel of Mr. Trump's real estate business, who warned that the Floridians might be committing malpractice. Nonetheless, the suit was filed. It accuses Attorney General Letitia James of trespassing on Mr. Trump's right to privacy in Florida, where he lives, and seeks to halt her own civil case in New York against the former president and his company.... On Thursday, a judge granted a recent request from Ms. James to stop Mr. Trump from transferring assets and to appoint a monitor to make sure that he does not." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) A Law & Crime story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Biggest Toddler Gets a Babysitter. Josh Gerstein of Politico: "A judge Thursday granted the New York attorney general's request that ... Donald Trump's business empire be overseen by an independent monitor. New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron issued an order after a daylong hearing, requiring that the Trump Organization's dealings with banks and sale of major assets be subject to supervision by a third-party expert to be named by the court. One provision in the order requires 14-days notice to the court before Trump can dispose of any 'non-cash asset' listed in a financial statement his firm prepared last year. The judge's order came over strenuous objections from Trump's lawyers in Manhattan earlier Thursday, where Trump's team pleaded with Engoron to reject Attorney General Tish James' bid to impose potentially far-reaching supervision of Trump's business empire as litigation proceeds over her claims that the firms engaged in vast bank and insurance fraud in real estate transactions. Engoron said in his ruling the evidence of fraudulent valuations by Trump and his businesses was 'more than sufficient' to indicate that James is likely to prevail in the lawsuit she filed in September, which is seeking strict limits on the Trump businesses' activities in New York and a ban on the former president and his three eldest children from serving as an officer of any New York corporation."

Mike Isaac & Ryan Mac of the New York Times: "Elon Musk, the new owner of Twitter, is throwing everything against the wall to make more money at the social media company.... Mr. Musk and his advisers have discussed adding paid direct messages -- which would let users send private messages to high-profile users -- to the service.... They have also talked about adding 'paywalled' videos, which would mean that certain videos could not be viewed unless users paid a fee.... This week, Mr. Musk moved to make money from Twitter's 'blue check' verification program, a method of making sure users are who they say they are.... To finance his Twitter deal, he loaded the company with $13 billion in debt, putting it on the hook to pay more than $1 billion annually in interest alone. But last year Twitter had less than $1 billion in cash flow.... Mr. Musk has already ordered job cuts across Twitter.... In meetings with engineers, his advisers have proposed saving from $1 million to $3 million in infrastructure costs a day...." ~~~

     ~~~ Bye-Bye, Birdie. Kate Conger & Ryan Mac of the New York Times: "Elon Musk will begin laying off Twitter employees on Friday, according to a companywide email, culling the social media service's 7,500-person work force a little over a week after completing his blockbuster buyout. Twitter employees were notified in the email that the layoffs were set to begin, according to a copy of the message seen by The New York Times. Workers were instructed to go home and not go to the offices on Friday as the cuts proceeded. The message, which came from a generic address and was signed 'Twitter,' did not detail the total number of layoffs."

Tracey Tully & Shlomo Schorr of the New York Times: "The Federal Bureau of Investigation is warning synagogues in New Jersey of a broad security threat after getting what it called 'credible information' about an increased level of risk.... The warning comes as incidents of antisemitic bias and violence have been on the rise across the country." ~~~

~~~ Tania Ganguli of the New York Times: "The Nets suspended guard Kyrie Irving indefinitely Thursday, calling him 'unfit to be associated' with the team because he has declined to say he has no antisemitic views in the week since he posted a link on Twitter to a film with hateful claims about Jewish people. 'Such failure to disavow antisemitism when given a clear opportunity to do so is deeply disturbing, is against the values of our organization, and constitutes conduct detrimental to the team,' the Nets said in a statement. Irving will be suspended without pay for at least five games and 'until he satisfies a series of objective remedial measures that address the harmful impact of his conduct,' the team said." ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Oh, Look Who's Sorry Now. Ben Golliver of the Washington Post: "In a message posted to Instagram late Thursday evening, Irving finally relented and apologized 'to all Jewish families and communities that are hurt and affected from my post,' acknowledging that he had linked to a film that 'contained some false antisemitic statements, narratives and language that were untrue and offensive.'" MB: And we're sure that's one sincere apology.

November Elections

Rachel Leingang of the Guardian: "... the Arizona secretary of state has received more than a dozen complaints from voters about intimidation from drop box watchers, many of which have been forwarded to the US Department of Justice and the Arizona attorney general as of late October, as well as a threat sent to the secretary of state herself. A federal judge issued a temporary restraining order on 1 November to limit the watchers' activities.... Though Arizona has become a hotbed for these tactics, it is also a sign of the mounting national threats to security that voters are facing as the 8 November elections near -- part of an orchestrated countrywide strategy pushed by rightwing groups who believe baseless conspiracy theories that the 2020 presidential election was rife with fraud and irregularities.... In Michigan, a local offshoot of a group called the America Project is training volunteers to set up hidden cameras to monitor drop boxes and to carry guns in case they encounter criminals while watching the boxes, the Detroit Free Press reported.... A pastor in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, told PennLive he had seen increased traffic in his community, where trucks with Maga flags drive through regularly, which he sees as an attempt to intimidate the largely Black community." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Of course it's intimidating to have masked gunmen dressed in camo & bulletproof vests taking pictures of you & IDing you by snapping photos of your license plate. Add to that that you know these masked gunmen are stark-staring crazy & believe you're a criminal trying to steal the election from Kari Lake .

Pennsylvania Senate. Oprah Tries to Atone, Backs Fetterman. Dan Merica of CNN: "The woman who helped turn Mehmet Oz into a household name is backing the Republican's opponent in Pennsylvania's key Senate race. Television icon Oprah Winfrey announced on Thursday night that she prefers Democratic Senate nominee John Fetterman over Oz in the midterm election contest. 'If I lived in Pennsylvania, I would've already cast my vote for John Fetterman, for many reasons,' Winfrey said during a conversation she hosted on voting. Oz rose to national fame as a regular guest on 'The Oprah Winfrey Show' and later when Winfrey backed his own spin off, 'The Dr. Oz Show.'"

Wisconsin Fake Voter Fraud. Patrick Marley of the Washington Post: "Milwaukee's mayor fired a top elections official after learning she had sent military ballots under fictitious names to a state lawmaker who has questioned how elections are run in Wisconsin, the mayor said Thursday. Mayor Cavalier Johnson (D) announced he had fired Kimberly Zapata, the deputy elections director for the city, after discovering she had sent the ballots in an apparent attempt to show committing such a crime was possible.... State Rep. Janel Brandtjen (R) -- the chairwoman of the Wisconsin State Assembly's elections committee... -- announced Monday she had received three military ballots under what appeared to be fake names at her home. Brandtjen turned the ballots over to the Waukesha County sheriff's office and disclosed what happened in a news release.... Zapata used the state's online portal for ordering absentee ballots that is available to anyone and did not use any systems that are available only to election workers, said Claire Woodall-Vogg, Milwaukee's elections director."

Beyond the Beltway

Oregon. Andrea Salcedo of the Washington Post: "The mayor of a small Oregon town has been charged with attempted murder after he opened fire at a moving car with two children in it, police said. The alleged road rage incident happened about 9 p.m. Monday when Dowen Jones, the mayor of Rufus, Ore., abruptly pulled over along a highway, raising another driver's concerns, the Hood River County Sheriff's Office said in a news release. When the driver, who had slowed down to get a description of Jones's SUV, passed the pulled-over vehicle, a man stepped out of the passenger side and 'fired multiple rounds from a handgun' at the other vehicle, police said.... [Jones] remains at the Northern Oregon Corrections facility on $100,000 bail as of Thursday, jail records show." "He's a good man," the Rufus town council president said. MB: Apparently not.

Way Beyond

Ukraine, et al.

The New York Times' live updates of developments Friday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here. The Guardian's live briefings for Friday are here. The Guardian's summary report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live briefings for Friday are here: "Russia's military command has already withdrawn [from in & around Kherson] to the eastern bank of the Dnieper River, 'leaving demoralized and leaderless men to face the Ukrainian assaults,' Western officials told reporters.... A Russian-installed official in Kherson ... said Moscow would 'likely' pull its troops from the west bank of the Dnieper River to the eastern bank -- even as Ukrainian officials warned that Russian troops could be setting up a trap by signaling a retreat, as an element of uncertainty about Moscow's precise plans remains.... Top diplomats from the world's major industrialized economies, among them the United States, have agreed to combine efforts to pay to repair and defend Ukraine's critical infrastructure, including water and energy, at a meeting in Germany on Friday, a senior State Department official told The Washington Post.... President Volodymyr Zelensky said some 4.5 million people across [Ukraine] were without power as he accused Russia of carrying out 'energy terror.'"

Marc Santora & Ivan Nechepurenko of the New York Times: "With Russian and Ukrainian forces apparently girding to battle for the city of Kherson, signs of Kremlin rule are disappearing from the city's streets while the remaining residents, unsure what to believe and afraid of what comes next, are stocking up on food and fuel to survive combat. Russian soldiers, patrols and checkpoints have suddenly become extremely scarce in the city center, according to residents reached by phone on Thursday, and most civilians have left. The Russian tricolor flag, raised over government offices after Moscow's forces captured Kherson in February, was missing on Thursday from the main regional administrative building and other sites.... Kremlin-appointed administrators have relocated to a site 50 miles away -- after looting anything of value they could take, residents and Ukrainian officials said." ~~~

     ~~~ Michael Miller of the Washington Post: "Ukrainian officials have signaled that an assault on Kherson city -- the only regional capital that Russia has managed to capture since its invasion began Feb. 24 -- could be imminent. President Volodymyr Zelensky told Ukrainians to 'expect good news' from the region, and another top official recently said he expects to retake the city by the end of the year. Russia, however, has shown no indication that it is willing to give up the city, or the broader Kherson region, which carries enormous strategic and political importance for the Kremlin.... The Kherson region forms the last crucial component of the 'land bridge' from mainland Russia to Crimea that Putin has coveted ever since Moscow invaded the peninsula and annexed it illegally in 2014."

James McKinley, et al., of the New York Times: "U.S. officials met with the jailed American basketball star Brittney Griner on Thursday for the first time since a Russian court rejected her appeal on a drug-possession conviction, and the White House said she was doing 'as well as can be expected.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

China. Eh, Wherever. Kenneth Chang of the New York Times: "On Friday, a 23-ton center Chinese rocket stage tumbled back to Earth in the Pacific Ocean, the United States Space Command reported in a tweet on Friday morning.... That was a large piece of the Long March 5B rocket that launched a third and final module to complete its Tiangong space station. And once again, that created some nervous sky-watching around the world as China's rocket designers left it to chance where exactly the rocket stage would re-enter, scattering tons of metal pieces across the surface."

Israel. Patrick Kingsley of the New York Times: With the concession of PM Yair Lapid "on Thursday, Benjamin Netanyahu cemented his return to the prime minister's post that he has held for longer than any other Israeli leader. With years of political instability and repeated elections seemingly resolved at last, the question ahead for Israel was how Mr. Netanyahu and his political partners on the far right would wield their new power." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Pakistan. Salman Massod & Christina Goldbaum of the New York Times: "Former Prime Minister Imran Khan of Pakistan was wounded at a rally on Thursday after at least one unidentified man opened fire on his convoy, in what aides have called a targeted attack. The attack, one of the most serious outbreaks of political violence targeting a prominent government official since former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in 2007, hit while Mr. Khan was in Wazirabad, in eastern Pakistan, leading a protest march to the capital, Islamabad. Mr. Khan, 70, sustained bullet wounds in both legs and was moved to Lahore for treatment, officials said.... Seven people including Mr. Khan were injured in the attack and one person died, according to Waqas Nazeer, the spokesman for the Punjab Police. One suspect has been detained, he added." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

News Lede

CNBC: "Job growth was stronger than expected in October despite Federal Reserve interest rate increases aimed at slowing what is still a strong labor market. Nonfarm payrolls grew by 261,000 for the month while the unemployment rate moved higher to 3.7%, the Labor Department reported Friday. Those payroll numbers were better than the Dow Jones estimate for 205,000 more jobs, but worse than the 3.5% estimate for the unemployment rate. Average hourly earnings grew 4.7% from a year ago and 0.4% for the month, indicating that wage growth is still likely to pressure inflation."