October 25, 2022

Late Morning Update:

David Stern & Isabelle Khurshudyan of the Washington Post: "Members of Ukraine's political elite rejected demands by some congressional Democrats for negotiations with Russia to end the war, saying this was 'not a viable option,' after a group of liberals called on President Biden to push Kyiv for direct talks with Moscow. The Ukrainians said that Russian President Vladimir Putin had closed off any possibility of negotiations by illegally declaring the annexation of four Ukrainian regions, and that the Russians, who are facing repeated setbacks on the battlefield, would use any cease-fire to rebuild their strength and then resume Putin's plan to steal Ukrainian territory and destroy Ukraine as a nation." Related story linked below.

Michael de la Merced, et al., of the New York Times: "Adidas said on Tuesday that it is cutting ties with Kanye West, ending what may have been the most significant corporate fashion partnership of the rapper and designer's career after he made a series of antisemitic remarks and embraced a slogan associated with white supremacists that earned him widespread condemnation."

Israel/Palestine. Isabel Kershner of the New York Times: "Israeli forces carried out a major raid against a Palestinian militia in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus on Tuesday, killing a leader of the group and four other men, according to members of the militia and Palestinian officials.... Many Palestinians have championed the group's fighters as popular heroes.... Israel has blamed the [militia known as the] Lions' Den for a rise in shootings that it says are aimed at its troops and Jewish settlements in the West Bank, including one that killed a soldier this month. It said that it had killed the group's leader, Wadie al-Houh, in an exchange of gunfire, adding that he was the main target of the raid and was responsible for producing bombs and obtaining weapons for the group."

Russia. Maite Simon of the Washington Post:"A Russian court rejected U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner's appeal against her nine-year prison sentence on drug charges Tuesday. The basketball star has been imprisoned since her Feb. 17 arrest, after she was accused of entering Russia with vape cartridges containing cannabis oil, which her lawyers said was prescribed as part of treatment for chronic pain and other conditions." An NBC News story is here.

~~~~~~~~~~

Michael Schmidt, et al., of the New York Times: "Federal prosecutors investigating ... Donald J. Trump's handling of national security documents he took with him from the White House have ratcheted up their pressure in recent weeks on key witnesses in the hopes of gaining their testimony, according to two people briefed on the matter.... A key focus for prosecutors is Walt Nauta, a little-known figure who worked in the White House as a military valet and cook when Mr. Trump was president and later for him personally at Mar-a-Lago.... At the same time, the prosecutors are trying to force a longtime aide and ally to Mr. Trump, Kash Patel, to answer questions before a grand jury about how the documents were taken to Mar-a-Lago and how Mr. Trump, his aides and his lawyers dealt with requests from the government to return them.... Mr. Patel refused to answer many questions this month before a grand jury in Washington hearing evidence about Mr. Trump's handling of the documents, citing his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination...."

Ariane de Vogue & Tierney Sneed of CNN: "Justice Clarence Thomas on Monday agreed to temporarily freeze a lower court order requiring the testimony of Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham in front of an Atlanta-area special grand jury that is investigating efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election in the state. Thomas acted alone because he has jurisdiction of the lower court that issued the original order. Thomas' move is an administrative stay that was most likely issued Monday to give the Supreme Court justices more time to consider the dispute. The court has asked for a response from the Georgia investigators by Thursday." MB: Yeah, I think he asked Ginny what to do. (Also linked yesterday.)

Ramon Vargas of the Guardian: "As a mob of Donald Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol during the January 6 attack in a desperate attempt to keep him in the Oval Office, Ted Cruz hid in a closet next to a stack of chairs, but he never thought twice about continuing to sow doubt about the former president's electoral defeat, the Republican senator from Texas has revealed.... Cruz said ... some [of his fellow senators] blam[ed] him and his allies in the chamber 'explicitly for the violence that was occurring'.... While we waited for the Capitol to be secured, I assembled our coalition in a back room (really, a supply closet with stacked chairs) to discuss what we should do next, Cruz continued.... Cruz said several of those in his coalition wanted to suspend their objections to the certification.... But ... 'I urged my colleagues that the course of action we were advocating was the right and principled one.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

The Collaborator. Ryan Reilly of NBC News: "A former police officer charged with obstruction for telling a Jan. 6 rioter to remove a Facebook post about being in the U.S. Capitol testified Monday that he was 'embarrassed' about having spoken to the man, who he claims duped him about his level of involvement in the attack. Michael Riley, who sent messages to Jan. 6 rioter Jacob Hiles shortly after the insurrection, when he was a U.S. Capitol Police officer, told jurors Monday that he believed Hiles when Hiles posted that he was forced into the Capitol by the pro-Trump mob.... Riley was charged in October 2021 and resigned from the department that month; the details of his departure and his current status have been concealed from jurors." Riley sent his advice to Hiles in a private message, and Riley later deleted the message.

Rebecca O'Brien of the New York Times: "In 2015, the financier Thomas J. Barrack Jr. agreed to support his old friend Donald J. Trump's long-shot presidential campaign because he sensed an opportunity in his career's twilight to 'weave a web of tolerance' in the Middle East. The result was 'disastrous,' Mr. Barrack told a jury Monday in Brooklyn's federal court, where he took the witness stand in his own defense on charges that he acted as an undisclosed agent for the United Arab Emirates. Mr. Trump's ban on Muslim immigrants and support for a blockade of Qatar alienated Mr. Barrack's longtime friends and business partners in Middle East, said Mr. Barrack.... The administration's near-constant 'drama' made investors skittish about Mr. Barrack's companies, he testified. Then the investigators came calling."

Zoe Richards of NBC News: "A pair of right-wing provocateurs pleaded guilty Monday to telecommunications fraud stemming from robocalls made shortly before the 2020 election. Jacob Wohl, 24, and Jack Burkman, 56, each pleaded guilty to one felony count, a spokesperson from the Cuyahoga County [Ohio] Prosecutor's Office confirmed. Both men were indicted in October 2020 on eight counts of telecommunications fraud and seven counts of bribery in connection with trying to influence voters through robocalls on Aug. 26, 2020, that included disinformation about mail-in voting ahead of the November election.... Prosecutors said more than 8,100 of the robocalls went to phone numbers of residents in Cleveland and East Cleveland.... Burkman, of Arlington, Virginia, and Wohl, of Irvine, California, have been accused of trying to dissuade 85,000 voters in urban areas across the country, through robocalls that included misinformation about mail-in voting leading up to the 2020 election in Illinois, Michigan, New York and Pennsylvania and other states." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Rachel Maddow played one of the robocalls last night, and it really was intimidating; a woman with a sweet voice said she was calling to warn "urban voters" that information they provided on their mail-in ballots would be used against them by local law enforcement.

Elahe Izadi of the Washington Post reviews the interview techniques Bob Woodward used is talking with Donald Trump. Interesting.

Lauren Lumpkin & Sahana Jayaraman of the Washington Post: "In March 2021, the Biden administration released the federal government's largest pool of pandemic relief for public schools. The American Rescue Plan infused campuses with $122 billion to reopen buildings, address mental health needs and help students who had fallen behind academically.... But ... school systems throughout the country reported spending less than 15 percent of the federal funding.... The trend of a slow rollout was especially apparent in some of the school districts that have incurred the steepest learning losses in English and math, according to the data.... The vast majority of funds have already been committed to 'critical needs,' ... and will be spent over the next two years.... Many expenses, such as staff salaries, can only be drawn down gradually, officials added."

Hugo Lowell of the Guardian: "Two Chinese intelligence officers tried to bribe a US law enforcement official as part of an effort to obtain inside information about a criminal case against the Chinese telecommunications company Huawei, federal prosecutors alleged in an indictment unsealed on Monday. The announcement of charges against the two alleged agents came as attorney general Merrick Garland detailed two other cases in which Chinese intelligence operatives harassed dissidents inside the United States and pressured US academics to work for them.... Washington has long accused Beijing of meddling in US politics and attempting to steal intellectual property. But the move to unmask the espionage operation marked an escalation by the justice department after it accused Huawei in February 2020 of conducting racketeering and conspiracy to steal trade secrets."

I believe that there is a right to privacy. I think it's settled as part of the liberty clause of the 14th Amendment and the Fifth Amendment. -- Judge Sam Alito, to Ted Kennedy, 2005 ~~~

~~~ Confederate Justices Are Big Fat Liars. John Farrell of the New York Times: In 2005, Judge Samuel Alito told Sen. Ted Kennedy that he considered Roe v. Wade settled law & that he recognized the right to privacy on which it is based. When, in 2022, Alito wrote the Dobbs decision, overturning Roe, he wrote, "Roe was egregiously wrong from the start." "In a case similar to Mr. Kennedy's, Senator Susan Collins, a Maine Republican who supports abortion rights, said she felt betrayed by Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, who in seeking her support as a court nominee in 2018 persuaded her that he was no threat to Roe."

Uh, Maybe Not the Best Defense. Meghann Cuniff of Law & Crime: "A defense lawyer for Harvey Weinstein told jurors Monday that the once-renowned movie producer regularly engaged in 'transactional sex' with women looking to break into Hollywood, part of a widely accepted 'casting couch' culture.... 'You'll learn that in Hollywood, sex was a commodity.... Everyone did it.... Because each wanted something from another,' Mark Werksman said in his opening statement. The sex 'may have been unpleasant' and 'might be embarrassing,' Werksman said, but it was consensual.... 'He's not Brad Pitt or George Clooney. Do you think those beautiful women had sex with him because he's hot? No. They did it because he was powerful,' Werksman said.... Two others who accuse him are lying about consensual encounters, Werksman said, including Jennifer Siebel Newsom, wife of California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D). If Siebel Newsom wasn't married to the governor and pushing herself as a leader in the #MeToo movement, 'she'd be just another bimbo who slept with Harvey Weinstein to get ahead in Hollywood.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: SAG should sue Werksman for asserting that "unpleasant, embarrassing" sex with an unattractive man is fine because it's a valid part of a job application, and women who work in film are bimbos. Just disgusting.

Scott Dance of the Washington Post: "Researchers amassed data on food production and its impacts on the Earth including disturbances to wild-animal habitats, water use and pollution, and contribution to planetary warming. Their findings reveal what types of food production have the greatest consequences, and where. The study published in the journal Nature Sustainability -- which examined nearly 99 percent of all food production on land and sea as reported to the United Nations in 2017 -- offers a new way to evaluate what to eat and how to feed the world, according to its lead author, Ben Halpern, a professor at the University of California at Santa Barbara.... Five countries account for nearly half of all food system impacts: India, China, the United States, Brazil and Pakistan." MB: Kinda makes you feel like not eating. At all.

November Elections

Carl Hulse of the New York Times: Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been racing to cities across the country "in a grueling, nonstop push for campaign money to hang on to her embattled House majority.... This could well be Ms. Pelosi's final trip around the track as party leader.... Since assuming the party's House leadership in 2002, she has brought in $1.25 billion for Democrats, according to a party tally, including $42.7 million in the third quarter of this year alone. Her haul so far this election cycle is $276 million, reaped at more than 400 events. Just this month, she has visited more than 20 cities."

Florida. Bridgette Matter of WPLG-TV Miami: "'Last night one of our canvassers wearing my T-shirt and a (DeSantis) hat was brutally attacked by (four) animals who told him Republicans weren't allowed in their (Hialeah) neighborhood,' [Sen. Marco] Rubio tweeted late Monday morning. 'He suffered internal bleeding, a broken jaw & will need facial reconstructive surgery.'" MB: Looks as if Marco is trying to make himself a victim of vicious Democrats. It turns out there was only one person who attacked his campaign worker and police have not determined that the motive was political. Another person came out to help the canvasser/victim. Plus, it's a bit hard to believe the "victim" was entirely blameless; at a political rally in 2017, he "was wearing a shirt that said 'League of the South.' [Police then accused him of] of jabbing a flag, containing a Confederate design, at people. At the time, he faced charges of aggravated assault, inciting a riot and disorderly conduct." The League of the South is a neo-Confederate hate group. ~~~

     ~~~ Oh, and at a rally on Sunday, Rubio said of the incident, "It's always important to have details. We're not like these other people that always jump to conclusions...."

Beyond the Beltway

Michigan. Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs of the New York Times: "A former Minneapolis police officer who helped to pin George Floyd down as he gasped for air under the knee of another officer pleaded guilty to manslaughter on Monday, forgoing a trial in exchange for an agreement to drop a more serious murder charge. J. Alexander Kueng, a rookie officer..., placed his knee on Mr. Floyd for several minutes in May 2020 while Mr. Floyd protested that he could not breathe and eventually lost consciousness.... Mr. Kueng, who also is Black, is already serving a three-year prison sentence in the federal case, after a jury convicted him of failing to provide aid or to intervene as another officer, Derek Chauvin, knelt on Mr. Floyd's neck for more than nine minutes. Mr. Kueng had knelt on Mr. Floyd's torso." (Also linked yesterday.)

Michigan. Stephanie Saul of the New York Times: "A Michigan teenager [Ethan Crumbley] calmly confessed in court on Monday to killing four fellow students and injuring seven others during a shooting rampage at his high school last November.... As the families of victims listened in the crowded Oakland County courtroom, the defendant, now 16, also made a disclosure that could play a role in his parents' pending criminal case on charges of involuntary manslaughter: The gun, he said, 'was not locked.' The defense attorneys for the teenager's parents, James and Jennifer Crumbley, were not immediately available for comment. But they had previously said that the gun was secured. The parents have pleaded not guilty." (Also linked yesterday.)

Texas. Eduardo Medina of the New York Times: "The man who sold a gun to a British national who used the weapon to take four people hostage at a Texas synagogue in January was sentenced on Monday to nearly eight years in prison, the Justice Department said. The man, Henry Dwight Williams, 33, who had previously been convicted of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, pleaded guilty in June to being a felon in possession of a firearm in U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Texas, prosecutors said. Mr. Williams sold the pistol to Malik Faisal Akram two days before Mr. Akram used it to take four people hostage inside Congregation Beth Israel of Colleyville, a Fort Worth suburb, on Jan. 15, the Justice Department said. Mr. Akram, 44, was killed by an F.B.I. hostage-and-rescue team after a harrowing 11-hour ordeal, during which one hostage was released and the three others escaped unharmed."

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 liveblog for Tuesday is here. The Guardian's summary report is here.~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live briefings for Tuesday are here: "Russia apparently intends to raise at the U.N. Security Council its unfounded accusation that Ukraine is planning to use a 'dirty bomb' -- an explosive weapon designed to scatter radioactive material -- on its own soil. Russian Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya, in a letter to the council that was seen by Reuters, urged Western nations 'to exert their influence' on Kyiv to prevent what he called a potential 'act of nuclear terrorism.'... A Moscow court has begun hearing [Brittney] Griner's appeal. Her lawyers previously said the WNBA star -- who appeared in court Tuesday via video link from detention outside the Russian capital -- isn't expecting 'miracles.' A judgment is expected later in the day.... House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is in Croatia for a summit organized by Ukraine to discuss the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014.... Russia has lost over a quarter of its fleet of attack helicopters in the war, Britain's Defense Ministry said."

Yasmeen Abutaleb of the Washington Post: "A group of 30 House liberals is urging President Biden to dramatically shift his strategy on the Ukraine war and pursue direct negotiations with Russia, the first time prominent members of his own party have pushed him to change his approach to Ukraine. A letter sent by the group to the White House on Monday, first reported by The Washington Post, could create more pressure on Biden as he tries to sustain domestic support for the war effort, at a time when the region is heading into a potentially difficult winter and Republicans are threatening to cut aid to Ukraine if they retake Congress.... Many Democrats fiercely pushed back on the letter...."

United Kingdom

The Guardian's liveblog of the transfer of power to a new prime minister is here. It includes most of the content of new PM Rishi Sunak's first speech. Also a photo of Sunak's audience with King Charles.

William Booth & Karla Adam of the Washington Post: "Liz Truss's tenure as Britain's shortest-serving prime minister came to an end Tuesday, after 49 days in office, and Rishi Sunak's premiership began, as he picked up responsibility for Britain's battered economy and deeply divided politics.... Truss held her last cabinet meeting and made a defiant final statement outside 10 Downing Street before she submitted her resignation to King Charles III. Sunak will follow her to Buckingham Palace and ask permission to form a government in a ceremony known as 'kissing hands.' Sunak will return to Downing Street around 11:35 a.m. and deliver his first remarks as prime minister -- as the first person of color and first Hindu to hold the role. Expect a flurry of cabinet announcements as he seeks to form a government...." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The other day, Ken W. noted in the Comments thread that it's unlikely an American president would resign to get back to writing his book about Shakespeare, as Boris Johnson reputedly has done. (Okay, Boris actually resigned to vacation in the Caribbean, but let's not quibble.) Anyway, I guess Liz thought she would one-up Boris by citing Seneca: "As the Roman philosopher Seneca wrote, 'it is not that things are difficult that we do not dare, it's because we do not dare, that it is difficult.'" But then. "She stumbled somewhat over Seneca's name." (I didn't see how one could stumble on the name Seneca, but she did.) The oddest thing about her little speech, though, was that she spoke as if she had been a normal PM for a normal term in office.

Peter Walker & Rowena Mason of the Guardian: "Rishi Sunak has become the new Conservative leader and will be prime minister after Penny Mordaunt followed Boris Johnson in withdrawing from the running, minutes before the party was due to announce how many MPs had backed each candidate. In an apparent acknowledgment that she had not reached the necessary 100 MP threshold to progress, two minutes before the nomination process closed at 2pm, Mordaunt tweeted that she had pulled out, and that Sunak had her 'full support'. Five minutes later, Sir Graham Brady, the chair of the Conservative backbench 1922 Committee, formally announced the result: 'I can confirm that we have one valid nomination, and Rishi Sunak is elected as leader of the Conservative party.' He will formally take over as prime minister from Liz Truss, most likely on Tuesday, after meeting the king at Buckingham palace, at which point Truss would have served 50 days in the job. It is understood the king is travelling back to London from his Sandringham estate in Norfolk on Monday afternoon." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Richer AND More Powerful than the King. Karla Adam of the Washington Post: "Rishi Sunak is one of the wealthiest people in Britain and will soon be the most powerful when he becomes prime minister. This may be the first time in history that the residents of Downing Street are richer than those of Buckingham Palace.... Sunak, a former banker, and his wife, Indian tech heiress Akshata Murty, have an estimated fortune of about 730 million pounds ($830 million), according to the Sunday Times Rich List. On this year's list, published before her death, Queen Elizabeth II was estimated to have about 370 million pounds ($420 million) by comparison. The couple's money comes primarily from Murty's stake in her father's company, Infosys.... Earlier this year, Sunak's wife was at the center of a tax scandal after it emerged that she had been filing in the United Kingdom as a 'non-domiciled' resident, which allowed her to avoid paying British taxes on the substantial income she earned abroad. The family had been living at 10 Downing Street, in the apartment designated for Britain's finance minister.... In the last leadership election this summer, they circulated a video clip from a 2007 BBC documentary in which he suggests he doesn't have any 'working-class friends.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

News Lede

New York Times: "Ashton B. Carter, an academic physicist who later climbed the leadership ranks at the Pentagon, culminating in two years as secretary of defense under President Barack Obama, a position he used to further open the military to women and transgender service members, died on Monday in Boston. He was 68."

October 24, 2022

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Ariane de Vogue & Tierney Sneed of CNN: "Justice Clarence Thomas on Monday agreed to temporarily freeze a lower court order requiring the testimony of Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham in front of an Atlanta-area special grand jury that is investigating efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election in the state. Thomas acted alone because he has jurisdiction of the lower court that issued the original order. Thomas' move is an administrative stay that was most likely issued Monday to give the Supreme Court justices more time to consider the dispute. The court has asked for a response from the Georgia investigators by Thursday." MB: Yeah, I think he asked Ginny what to do.

Ramon Vargas of the Guardian: "As a mob of Donald Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol during the January 6 attack in a desperate attempt to keep him in the Oval Office, Ted Cruz hid in a closet next to a stack of chairs, but he never thought twice about continuing to sow doubt about the former president's electoral defeat, the Republican senator ... has revealed.... Cruz said ... some [of his fellow senators] blam[ed] him and his allies in the chamber 'explicitly for the violence that was occurring'.... While we waited for the Capitol to be secured, I assembled our coalition in a back room (really, a supply closet with stacked chairs) to discuss what we should do next, Cruz continued.... Cruz said several of those in his coalition wanted to suspend their objections to the certification.... But ... 'I urged my colleagues that the course of action we were advocating was the right and principled one.'

Michigan. Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs of the New York Times: "A former Minneapolis police officer who helped to pin George Floyd down as he gasped for air under the knee of another officer pleaded guilty to manslaughter on Monday, forgoing a trial in exchange for an agreement to drop a more serious murder charge. J. Alexander Kueng, a rookie officer..., placed his knee on Mr. Floyd for several minutes in May 2020 while Mr. Floyd protested that he could not breathe and eventually lost consciousness.... Mr. Kueng, who also is Black, is already serving a three-year prison sentence in the federal case, after a jury convicted him of failing to provide aid or to intervene as another officer, Derek Chauvin, knelt on Mr. Floyd's neck for more than nine minutes. Mr. Kueng had knelt on Mr. Floyd's torso."

Michigan. Stephanie Saul of the New York Times: "A Michigan teenager [Ethan Crumbley] calmly confessed in court on Monday to killing four fellow students and injuring seven others during a shooting rampage at his high school last November.... As the families of victims listened in the crowded Oakland County courtroom, the defendant, now 16, also made a disclosure that could play a role in his parents' pending criminal case on charges of involuntary manslaughter: The gun, he said, 'was not locked.' The defense attorneys for the teenager's parents, James and Jennifer Crumbley, were not immediately available for comment. But they had previously said that the gun was secured. The parents have pleaded not guilty."

Peter Walker & Rowena Mason of the Guardian: "Rishi Sunak has become the new Conservative leader and will be prime minister after Penny Mordaunt followed Boris Johnson in withdrawing from the running, minutes before the party was due to announce how many MPs had backed each candidate. In an apparent acknowledgment that she had not reached the necessary 100 MP threshold to progress, two minutes before the nomination process closed at 2pm, Mordaunt tweeted that she had pulled out, and that Sunak had her 'full support'. Five minutes later, Sir Graham Brady, the chair of the Conservative backbench 1922 Committee, formally announced the result: 'I can confirm that we have one valid nomination, and Rishi Sunak is elected as leader of the Conservative party.' He will formally take over as prime minister from Liz Truss, most likely on Tuesday, after meeting the king at Buckingham palace, at which point Truss would have served 50 days in the job. It is understood the king is travelling back to London from his Sandringham estate in Norfolk on Monday afternoon." ~~~

~~~ Richer & More Powerful than the King. Karla Adam of the Washington Post: "Rishi Sunak is one of the wealthiest people in Britain and will soon be the most powerful when he becomes prime minister. This may be the first time in history that the residents of Downing Street are richer than those of Buckingham Palace.... Sunak, a former banker, and his wife, Indian tech heiress Akshata Murty, have an estimated fortune of about 730 million pounds ($830 million), according to the Sunday Times Rich List. On this year's list, published before her death, Queen Elizabeth II was estimated to have about 370 million pounds ($420 million) by comparison. The couple's money comes primarily from Murty's stake in her father's company, Infosys.... Earlier this year, Sunak's wife was at the center of a tax scandal after it emerged that she had been filing in the United Kingdom as a 'non-domiciled' resident, which allowed her to avoid paying British taxes on the substantial income she earned abroad. The family had been living at 10 Downing Street, in the apartment designated for Britain's finance minister.... In the last leadership election this summer, they circulated a video clip from a 2007 BBC documentary in which he suggests he doesn't have any 'working-class friends.'"

~~~~~~~~~~

When you compare Trump's cons with the $50 trillion that the GOP has swindled out of the American working class and given to the top 1 percent since 1980, Trump looks like a piker. -- Thom Hartmann ~~~

~~~ Thom Hartmann discusses the impact of Lewis Powell's infamous memo (1971) that sounded the alarm about how liberals were on the verge of destroying capitalism. He also mentions a Supreme Court decision Powell wrote -- Bank of Boston v. Bellotti -- "which defined the free speech right of corporations." MB: Hartmann is a black-and-white thinker, so he tends to exaggerate & oversimplify, but he's usually on the right track. For instance, here's something from his essay I can go along with 100%: "... here we have Republican politicians acting on behalf of rightwing billionaires as they are spending mind-boggling amounts of time, effort, and money promoting 'solutions' to a problem that doesn't exist." That, IMO, is the fundamental GOP policy prescription. From that, all else flows. And it is, as Hartmann writes, the biggest con in American history. Thanks to RAS for the link.

Sarah Mervosh & Ashley Wu of the New York Times: "U.S. students in most states and across almost all demographic groups have experienced troubling setbacks in both math and reading, according to an authoritative national exam released on Monday, offering the most definitive indictment yet of the pandemic's impact on millions of schoolchildren. In math, the results were especially devastating, representing the steepest declines ever recorded on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, known as the nation's report card, which tests a broad sampling of fourth and eighth graders and dates to the early 1990s.... The picture was mixed, and performance varied by grade level and subject matter in ways that were not always clear cut.... '... The results in today's nation's report card are appalling and unacceptable,' said Miguel Cardona, the secretary of education. 'This is a moment of truth for education. How we respond to this will determine not only our recovery, but our nation's standing in the world.'"

Ben Protess, et al., of the New York Times: "This week will drive home [a] stark reversal of fortune [for Donald Trump's businesses] as the company faces a highly public reckoning: a criminal trial in Manhattan, where the district attorney's office will accuse it of tax fraud and other crimes.... The trial in State Supreme Court will present an embarrassing scene for the former president.... This case centers on special perks doled out by the former president's business, the Trump Organization, which comprises a universe of more than 500 corporate entities. Last year, the district attorney's office accused two of those entities -- The Trump Corporation and Trump Payroll Corp. -- of awarding off-the-books benefits like rent-free apartments and leased luxury vehicles to a few top executives who failed to pay taxes on the perks. As jury selection begins on Monday, the district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg, appears to have the upper hand. The Trump Organization's 75-year-old chief financial officer, Allen H. Weisselberg, recently pleaded guilty to conspiring with the two corporations to carry out the scheme -- and agreed to testify at their trial, tipping the case in favor of Mr. Bragg, a Democrat." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Some crap reporting here: (1) Trump cannot be embarrassed. As he famously said, not paying taxes "makes me smart." (2) Bragg's party affiliation has nothing to do with the fact that Trump's company (allegedly) cheated on taxes.

Hope Yen of the AP: "The [House January 6] committee is demanding [Donald] Trump's testimony under oath next month as well as records relevant to its investigation. To avoid a complicated and protracted legal battle, Trump reportedly had told associates he might consider complying with the subpoena if he could answer questions during live testimony.... Rep. Liz Cheney on Sunday ... said the committee would not allow Trump's testimony to turn into a 'food fight' on TV -- much as was seen, she said, in Trump's broadcast appearances such as one of his 2020 presidential debates -- and she warned that the committee will take action if he does not comply with the subpoena. 'We are going to proceed in terms of the questioning of the former president under oath,' Cheney, R-Wyo., said on 'Meet the Press' on NBC. 'It may take multiple days, and it will be done with a level of rigor and discipline and seriousness that it deserves. We are not going to allow -- he's not going to turn this into a circus.'" ~~~

~~~ Olivia Olander of Politico: "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi goaded ... Donald Trump on the airwaves Sunday, saying she doesn't think he'll testify for the committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection. 'I don't think he's man enough to show up,' Pelosi (D-Calif.) told MSNBC's 'The Sunday Show' host Jonathan Capehart in a wide-ranging interview. She also suggested Trump's lawyers might not want him to show up, since he would be testifying under oath and possible penalty of perjury."

Bob Woodward in the Washington Post: "In more than 50 years of reporting, I have never disclosed the raw interviews or full transcripts of my work. But after listening again to the 20 interviews I conducted with ... Donald Trump during his last year as chief executive, I have decided to take the unusual step of releasing them. I was struck by how Trump pounded in my ears in a way the printed page cannot capture." MB: The point of this article is to promote Woodward's audio book. If you click on the audio button at the right of the screen, you can hear excerpts. I turned it on, then turned it right off. Listening to the grating, nagging voice of a whining braggart is too much.

Sam Jones of the Guardian: "Salman Rushdie has lost sight in one eye and the use of one hand after the attack he suffered while preparing to deliver a lecture in New York state two months ago, his agent has confirmed. The 75-year-old author, who received death threats from Iran in the 1980s after his novel The Satanic Verses was published, was stabbed in the neck and torso as he came on stage to give a talk on artistic freedom at the Chautauqua Institution on 12 August."

Monica Alba of NBC News: "President Joe Biden will get the updated Covid-19 shot Tuesday after he delivers remarks about the pandemic and the administration's efforts to get people in the U.S. boosted, a White House official said."

Way Beyond the Beltway

Ukraine, et al. The New York Times' live updates of developments Monday 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 Monday are here: "The United States, Britain and France rejected as 'transparently false' claims by Moscow's defense minister that Ukraine is preparing to use a 'dirty bomb' -- explosive weapons designed to widely disperse radioactive material -- on its own territory with Western help, characterizing the claims as an attempt by Moscow to create a pretext for escalating the conflict.... 'Ukrainian efforts to defeat' Iranian-made drones used by Russia on the battlefield 'are increasingly successful,' the British Defense Ministry said, citing claims by [President] Zelensky that Ukrainian forces are intercepting up to 85 percent of the unmanned aerial vehicles' attempted strikes.... Ukraine still faces widespread power outages and cuts after Russian strikes pummeled the country's energy infrastructure in recent days."

U.K. The New York Times is running a liveblog of developments in Britain's Conservative party effort to quickly come up with a new prime minister. Mark Landler: "Rishi Sunak, the former chancellor of the Exchequer, was poised to become Britain's next prime minister as soon as Monday, after Boris Johnson pulled out of the race to succeed Liz Truss on Sunday evening." ~~~

~~~ Bye-bye, BoJo. Mark Landler of the New York Times: "Boris Johnson pulled out of the race to succeed Liz Truss as Britain's prime minister on Sunday evening, leaving Rishi Sunak, his former chancellor of the Exchequer, with a commanding lead in the contest to be Britain's next leader.... Mr. Johnson's decision ends a feverish couple of days in which he mounted a lively bid to reclaim the job he gave up three months ago amid a cascade of scandals. The former prime minister's campaign never gained momentum, however, as prominent members of the Conservative Party threw their support to Mr. Sunak as a better option to try to reunite a deeply divided party." The AP's story is here. (Also linked late yesterday.)

News Ledes

New York Times: "Leslie Jordan, a comic actor who after a late start in his performing career became a recognizable face from roles on numerous television shows, most notably 'Will & Grace,' then achieved even more fame during the pandemic when his quirky homemade videos attracted millions of Instagram followers, died on Monday in a car crash in Hollywood, Calif. He was 67."

Washington Post: "A man opened fire at a St. Louis high school Monday morning, leaving a teenage girl and an adult woman dead and several others wounded before being fatally wounded by police, according to school and police officials. The shooting was reported shortly after 9 a.m. at the Central Visual and Performing Arts High School, a specialty school of about 400 students known as CVPA, in the southwestern corner of the city. Police arrived a couple of minutes later to find students running from the building and reporting that the man had a long gun, according to Michael Sack, the St. Louis Police commissioner."

October 23, 2022

Late Afternoon Update:

Bye-bye, BoJo. Mark Landler of the New York Times: "Boris Johnson pulled out of the race to succeed Liz Truss as Britain's prime minister on Sunday evening, leaving Rishi Sunak, his former chancellor of the Exchequer, with a commanding lead in the contest to be Britain's next leader.... Mr. Johnson's decision ends a feverish couple of days in which he mounted a lively bid to reclaim the job he gave up three months ago amid a cascade of scandals. The former prime minister's campaign never gained momentum, however, as prominent members of the Conservative Party threw their support to Mr. Sunak as a better option to try to reunite a deeply divided party." The AP's story is here.

~~~~~~~~~~

Victoria Bekiempis of the Guardian & the AP: "The Biden administration is urging student loan borrowers to continue applying for debt relief despite a federal appeals court order late on Friday that temporarily halted this program. '[This] temporary order does not prevent borrowers from applying for student debt relief,' White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement following the eighth circuit court of appeals' temporary stay.... The appeals court's decision stems from a motion brought by six Republican-led states which are seeking to block Biden's program."

** Farhad Manjoo of the New York Times: "The fragility of the convoluted [international cooperation it takes to make computer chips] became apparent in last year's Covid-induced chip shortage, which the White House has estimated cost the United States a full percentage point of economic output, or hundreds of billions of dollars.... The question of who controls the semiconductor industry carries geopolitical significance.... That's why I have been so impressed with the aggressive and creative way the Biden administration has gone about curtailing China's alarming, decades-long effort to build a domestic semiconductor industry that's independent from the rest of the world. This month, the Commerce Department announced a set of restrictions that prevent China from getting much of what it needs to establish a commanding position in the chip business.... Analysts ... said the [new] rules will devastate China's domestic chip industry, potentially setting it back decades." The trick now is to make sure China can't evade the rules. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: When you are made even vaguely aware of the intricacies President Biden employed to get the better of China and compare it to Trump's ham-handed trade wars -- which he mostly lost -- you see an essential reason to choose Democrats.

Greg Sargent of the Washington Post: "Republicans are already threatening to use a potential default on the nation's debt limit as a weapon in fiscal negotiations, so if the GOP wins the House, protecting the country from this looming disaster before the next Congress begins is imperative.... A group of House Democrats has written a letter to the party's congressional leadership, urging them to 'permanently end the threat that the federal debt limit poses.'... It's absolutely within Congress's power to put an end to these debt ceiling threats.... Legislation abolishing the debt limit would get filibustered in the Senate. So Democrats could instead use the 'reconciliation' process to raise the debt limit on a simple majority vote far beyond what it will attain during Joe Biden's presidency, or even to an astronomically high number that will never be reached. Another possibility: Transfer control over raising the debt limit to the treasury secretary, while giving Congress only the authority to reverse a hike by Treasury. That would have a budgetary component, [Rep. Brendan] Boyle [D-Pa.] suggests, so theoretically the Senate parliamentarian should allow it under reconciliation."

A couple of days ago, Akhilleus complained that the New York Times was questioning whether or not Congress can subpoena a former president*. Well now, the Times is laying out Trump's arguments for him: ~~~

~~~ Charlie Savage & Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "If ... Donald J. Trump decides to fight the subpoena issued to him on Friday by the House committee investigating his attempts to overturn the 2020 election, his lawyers are likely to muster a battery of constitutional and procedural arguments for why a court should allow him not to testify.... One Supreme Court precedent could prove relevant: In 1982, the court ruled that former presidents are immune from being sued for damages over official decisions they made while in office.... The question in Mr. Trump's case would be whether a president could be similarly hindered by a fear of being forced to testify in front of Congress. Mr. Trump's legal team could also invoke executive privilege in an attempt to ward off the subpoena.... Mr. Trump could also try to mount a procedural argument that the subpoena is invalid."

Edward Helmore of the Guardian: "The Trump Organization is set to face criminal tax fraud charges on Monday in New York.... Monday's case is centered on charges that [Donald Trump's] Manhattan-headquartered real estate company defrauded New York tax authorities by awarding 'off the books' compensation over 15 years to company executives.... Eyes and ears will be on the testimony of the Trump Organization's then chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg, 75, who was charged in the DA's 2021 indictment but has since pleaded to 15 counts ranging from grand larceny to tax fraud to falsifying business records in exchange for his testimony."

Josh Gerstein of Politico: "A federal appeals court has turned down former Arizona GOP senate candidate Kelli Ward's attempt to block a House committee subpoena for her phone records in connection with an investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol building and other events related to the 2020 presidential election. A divided panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals voted, 2-1, to deny Ward's request for an order preventing telephone carrier T-Mobile from complying with the subpoena issued by the House select committee probing Jan. 6."

Rachel Weiner & Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "The third week of the government's case in the seditious conspiracy trial of [five Oath Keepers] ... culminated in a minute-by-minute account of the Oath Keepers' actions on Jan. 6 that prosecutors say shows how the group's leaders plotted 'rebellion' beforehand, greenlit violence while at the Capitol and appeared to coordinate their actions with other figures pushing to subvert the results of the 2020 presidential election.>... At 2:28 p.m., [Oath Keepers leader Stewart] Rhodes wrote, 'Back door of the Capitol,' and sent it to an encrypted chat group that included [Proud Boys leader Enrique] Tarrio, Trump confidant Roger Stone, Stop the Steal organizer Ali Alexander and right-wing talk show host Alex Jones, according to prosecutors.... Rhodes has argued [that earlier] plans were only in preparation for the possibility that President Trump would deputize his group as a legal militia under the Insurrection Act. But in a Dec. 10 text message, Rhodes said that if Trump did not act, 'we will have to rise up in insurrection (rebellion).'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Over the years, I have read articles indicating that Trump used phones other than his official phone to conduct White House business. So I wonder if investigators on the January 6 committee or in the DOJ have asked White House staff if Trump had a burner phone or phones. That seems like something they should have asked and something even low-level staff might have observed. It seems to me any mob boss would have a few disposable, untraceable phones.

November Elections

Christina Cassidy & Ali Swenson of the AP: "Republican activists who believe the 2020 election was stolen from ... Donald Trump have crafted a plan that, in their telling, will thwart cheating in this year's midterm elections. The strategy: Vote in person on Election Day or -- for voters who receive a mailed ballot -- hold onto it and hand it in at a polling place or election office on Nov. 8. The plan is based on unfounded conspiracy theories that fraudsters will manipulate voting systems to rig results for Democrats once they have seen how many Republican votes have been returned early. There has been no evidence of any such widespread fraud. If enough voters are dissuaded from casting ballots early, it could lead to long lines on Election Day and would push back processing of those late-arriving mailed ballots." MB: With any luck, these goofballs will forget about voting altogether.

Arizona. Sasha Hupka of the Arizona Republic: "Days after Maricopa County officials warned people to stop taking photos of voters and election staffers at ballot drop boxes, the Arizona Secretary of State's Office continues to refer complaints to the Department of Justice. Two new complaints filed this week with the office allege that small groups of people are filming voters and capturing photographs of their license plates as they drop off their early ballots.... 'They're harassing people,' [Maricopa Board of Supervisors chair Bill Gates] said. 'They're not helping further the interests of democracy.'"

Georgia. Carlisa Johnson of the Guardian: "Georgia voters turned out in record numbers for the first week of early voting, casting their ballots in the two critical elections, the gubernatorial and Senate races. However, as the election progresses, the impact of Georgia's new voting laws continues to unfold.... Unlimited challenges to eligibility and poorly trained poll workers [are] caus[ing] frustration" among voters.

New York Governor. The New York Times endorses Gov. Kathy Hochul (D). Hochul's challenger, Rep. Lee Zeldin (R), "has demonstrated a loyalty to Trumpism over his oath to defend American democracy and the Constitution. In his campaign for governor, he makes spurious arguments about crime, and his public safety plan appears to be little more than returning to the zero-tolerance policies that have no clear connection to improving safety. Ads from Mr. Zeldin's campaign use threatening images of Black men to stoke panic, and one features a crime that took place in California. And the plans Mr. Zeldin has laid out during this campaign lack a serious interest in the work of governing.... Hochul ... has used her first year in office as governor to show that she can get things done to improve the lives of New Yorkers."

Pennsylvania Senate. ~~~

Virginia. Everything Is Going Very Smoothly. Laura Vozzella of the Washington Post: "State elections officials directed more than 30,000 Northern Virginia voters to the wrong polling place in mailers sent ahead of the Nov. 8 midterm elections, an error they acknowledged Friday and blamed on the private printing company that produced the notices. Those mistakes follow even more error-riddled effort in Southwest Virginia, where an additional 30,000 voters were affected. Some notices in that part of the state were sent to physical addresses instead of P.O. boxes, then re-sent to the boxes but with the wrong information, the Bluefield Daily Telegraph reported this week. And earlier this month, the department disclosed that an unspecified technical glitch had left about 107,000 voter applications in limbo for months.... Democrats seized on the string of errors to question the competence of the Elections Department under Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R), a former private equity chief who won the office last year on promises to bring 'election integrity' and his executive skills to state government[.]" See also RockyGirl's comment in yesterday's thread.

Way Beyond the Beltway

China. "Maximum Xi." Chris Buckley & Keith Bradsher of the New York Times: "Poised to take a groundbreaking third term in power, China's leader, Xi Jinping, has advanced a contingent of Communist Party loyalists ready to defend him, expand state influence over the economy and bolster national security. Mr. Xi opened the new phase of his authoritarian rule with a clutch of victories at the end of a party congress on Saturday. He hurried into retirement two top officials from a more moderate political mold. He positioned allies to dominate the new leadership. He kept officials who have promoted his muscular approach in diplomacy and the military. And Mr. Xi gave no hint of preparing for eventual retirement by anointing a likely successor." MB: And somewhere in Mar-a-Lardo, Donald Trump is eating his heart out. Trump conceives but Xi achieves. ~~~

~~~ Christian Shepherd of the Washington Post: "A meeting of top Chinese officials concluded on Saturday with leader Xi Jinping's power undisputed, as his 'core' status was enshrined in the Communist Party charter, his former political rival retired and his predecessor was escorted off the stage in a surprising departure from protocol.... The choreographed show of unity was undermined by an unexpected break from the program as former party general secretary Hu Jintao was abruptly led away by aides.... Two suited men helped him to his feet and guided him off the stage, leaving an empty chair to the left of Xi." The article describes Hu's peculiar exit. This CNN article concentrates on Hu's unceremonious departure.

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 for Sunday are here. The Guardian's summary report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live briefings for Sunday are here: "Kremlin-backed authorities are stepping up efforts to relocate civilians from the Russian-controlled city of Kherson, transporting them into Crimea and other occupied regions, in what Ukrainian officials have called an attempt by Moscow to 'depopulate' areas of Ukraine that Kyiv is poised to recapture.... Occupying Russian authorities ordered residents to leave Kherson and urged them to take 'documents, money, valuables and clothes' with them. Photos showed people boarding ferries and buses in Kherson, pets and luggage in tow. Officials are promising government payments of 100,000 rubles (about $1,600) and housing certificates to purchase an apartment for those who comply."

David Stern, et al., of the New York Times: "Russia unleashed a 'barrage' of missiles across Ukraine early Saturday morning, Ukrainian officials said -- targeting the country's electrical grid and blacking out large areas -- while the Kyiv government increased its calls for Western governments to urgently provide antiaircraft systems as a defense against the airstrikes. As Ukrainians braced themselves for the high probability of even more attacks -- and prepare for what could be a winter without heating, water and electricity in parts of the country -- officials said that they had managed to impede the assault in some places, while in others the rockets 'completely' destroyed electrical facilities. Along the front line, Ukrainian officials said their forces were holding their positions or making small but consistent advances."

U.K. Maureen Dowd of the New York Times: Liz Truss "turned out to be a stooge for a reckless, unprincipled Boris Johnson, who was no doubt scheming to see if he could snatch back the reins. 'The moment she gets into political difficulty,' [former PM Theresa May's chief-of-staff Gavin] Barwell told The Times's Mark Landler, 'there's going to be a bring-back-Boris movement.' And here we are at that moment.... Many think Johnson planned this from the start.... Johnson threw his support behind Truss, knowing that she would be so mediocre that he'd look good in comparison.... The outcome was foggy, as Johnson rushed back from a vacation in the Caribbean.... British conservatives are becoming as shameless as American conservatives, willing to put up with any outrage to keep their posh offices and perks."