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The New York Times lists Emmy winners. The AP has an overview story here.

New York Times: “Hvaldimir, a beluga whale who had captured the public’s imagination since 2019 after he was spotted wearing a harness seemingly designed for a camera, was found dead on Saturday in Norway, according to a nonprofit that worked to protect the whale.... [Hvaldimir] was wearing a harness that identified it as “equipment” from St. Petersburg. There also appeared to be a camera mount. Some wondered if the whale was on a Russian reconnaissance mission. Russia has never claimed ownership of the whale. If Hvaldimir was a spy, he was an exceptionally friendly one. The whale showed signs of domestication, and was comfortable around people. He remained in busier waters than are typical for belugas....” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Oh, Lord, do not let Bobby Kennedy, Jr., near that carcass. ~~~

     ~~~ AP Update: “There’s no evidence that a well-known beluga whale that lived off Norway’s coast and whose harness ignited speculation it was a Russian spy was shot to death last month as claimed by animal rights groups, Norwegian police said Monday.... Police said that the Norwegian Veterinary Institute conducted a preliminary autopsy on the animal, which was become known as 'Hvaldimir,' combining the Norwegian word for whale — hval — and the first name of Russian President Vladimir Putin. 'There are no findings from the autopsy that indicate that Hvaldimir has been shot,' police said in a statement.”

New York Times: Botswana's “President Mokgweetsi Masisi grinned as he lifted the diamond, a 2,492-carat stone that is the biggest diamond unearthed in more than a century and the second-largest ever found, according to the Vancouver-based mining operator Lucara, which owns the mine where it was found. This exceptional discovery could bring back the luster of the natural diamond mining industry, mining companies and experts say. The diamond was discovered in the same relatively small mine in northeastern Botswana that has produced several of the largest such stones in living memory. Such gemstones typically surface as a result of volcanic activity.... The diamond will likely sell in the range of tens of millions of dollars....”

Click on photo to enlarge.

~~~ Guardian: "On a distant reef 16,000km from Paris, surfer Gabriel Medina has given Olympic viewers one of the most memorable images of the Games yet, with an airborne celebration so well poised it looked too good to be true. The Brazilian took off a thundering wave at Teahupo’o in Tahiti on Monday, emerging from a barrelling section before soaring into the air and appearing to settle on a Pacific cloud, pointing to the sky with biblical serenity, his movements mirrored precisely by his surfboard. The shot was taken by Agence France-Presse photographer Jérôme Brouillet, who said “the conditions were perfect, the waves were taller than we expected”. He took the photo while aboard a boat nearby, capturing the surreal image with such accuracy that at first some suspected Photoshop or AI." 

Washington Post: “'Mary Cassatt at Work' is a large and mostly satisfying exhibition devoted to the career of the great American artist beloved for her sensitive and often sentimental views of family life. The 'at work' in the title of the Philadelphia Museum of Art show references the curators’ interest in Cassatt’s pioneering effort to establish herself as a professional artist within a male-dominated field. Throughout the show, which includes some 130 paintings, pastels, prints and drawings, the wall text and the art on view stresses Cassatt’s fixation on art as a career rather than a pastime.... Mary Cassatt at Work is on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art through Sept. 8. philamuseum.org”

New York Times: “Bob Newhart, who died on Thursday at the age of 94, has been such a beloved giant of popular culture for so long that it’s easy to forget how unlikely it was that he became one of the founding fathers of stand-up comedy. Before basically inventing the hit stand-up special, with the 1960 Grammy-winning album 'The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart' — that doesn’t even count his pay-per-view event broadcast on Canadian television that some cite as the first filmed special — he was a soft-spoken accountant who had never done a set in a nightclub. That he made a classic with so little preparation is one of the great miracles in the history of comedy.... Bob Newhart holds up. In fact, it’s hard to think of a stand-up from that era who is a better argument against the commonplace idea that comedy does not age well.”

Washington Post: “An early Titian masterpiece — once looted by Napolean’s troops and a part of royal collections for centuries — caused a stir when it was stolen from the home of a British marquess in 1995. Seven years later, it was found inside an unassuming white and blue plastic bag at a bus stop in southwest London by an art detective, and returned. This week, the oil painting 'The Rest on the Flight into Egypt' sold for more than $22 million at Christie’s. It was a record for the Renaissance artist, whom museums describe as the greatest painter of 16th-century Venice. Ahead of the sale in April, the auction house billed it as 'the most important work by Titian to come to the auction market in more than a generation.'”

Washington Post: The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., which houses the world's largest collection of Shakespeare material, has undergone a major renovation. "The change to the building is pervasive, both subtle and transformational."

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A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves. -- Edward R. Murrow

Publisher & Editor: Marie Burns


Saturday
Oct222022

October 22, 2022

Afternoon Update:

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.'"

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." See also RockyGirl's comment in today's thread.... 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[.]"

Pennsylvania Senate. ~~~

~~~~~~~~~~

President Biden speaks about this past fiscal year's historical deficit reduction -- the largest-ever decline in the federal deficit. ~~~

If you're worried about the economy, you need to know this Republican leadership in Congress has made it clear they will crash the economy next year by threatening the full faith and credit of the United States. For the first time in our history, putting the United States in default unless we yield to their demand to cut Social Security, Medicare.... I will not yield. I will not cut Social Security. I will not cut Medicare, no matter how hard they work. -- President Biden, Friday ~~~

~~~ Eugene Scott & John Wagner of the Washington Post: "President Biden warned Friday that if Republicans seize the congressional majority in next month's midterm elections, they will 'crash the economy' by holding up the debt limit to extract spending cuts while targeting the two main entitlement programs: Medicare and Social Security. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who could become speaker if the GOP wins the House, suggested this week that his party would be willing to use an increase in the debt limit as leverage to force policy changes. McCarthy did not rule out including Medicare and Social Security in the calculation as Republicans look to reduce government spending. Those comments -- along with McCarthy signaling that House Republicans would be resistant to more aid for Ukraine -- gave Biden new issues to cite in making the case that voters should back Democrats in the midterms...." ~~~

~~~ Jeff Cox of CNBC: "The U.S. budget deficit was sliced in half for fiscal 2022, the biggest drop in history following two years of huge Covid-related spending. Though still large in historical terms, the budget shortfall declined to $1.375 trillion, compared to the 2021 deficit of $2.776 trillion."

Mary Papenfuss of the Huffington Post: "President Joe Biden took off the gloves Friday in a speech pummeling Republican lawmakers who backed massive federal subsidies for business owners, including themselves, during COVID-19 but are now complaining about his student debt forgiveness program. 'I don't want to hear it from MAGA Republicans who had hundreds of thousands of dollars of debts, even millions of dollars, in pandemic relief loans forgiven, who are now attacking me for helping working-class and middle-class Americans,' he railed. Georgia GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and her husband 'got over $180,000 in business loans forgiven,' Biden noted. He also bashed Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) amid loud boos from the audience. Cruz had criticized the student debt program for helping people he dismissed as 'slackers.'"

Stacy Cowley & Alan Rappeportof the New York Times: "A federal appeals court on Friday temporarily halted President Biden's student debt relief plan, preventing the government from moving forward with the debt cancellation it had said could start as early as next week. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit granted a stay in response to an appeal filed by six Republican-led states after a district court judge dismissed their case on Thursday for lack of standing. The action puts any debt cancellation on hold until the court can rule on the states' request for an injunction preventing the government from discharging debts. The court set a Monday deadline for the government to submit its response to the states' filing, and a Tuesday deadline for the states to respond." An ABC News report is here.

A Dark Day in Trumpersville

** Luke Broadwater & Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack issued a subpoena on Friday to Donald J. Trump.... The subpoena was the most aggressive step taken so far by what was already one of the most consequential congressional investigations in decades. Coming as the Justice Department conducts a separate criminal inquiry into efforts to overturn the 2020 election and weeks before the midterm elections, the subpoena threatened to thrust Mr. Trump and the Jan. 6 committee into a protracted legal battle that could ultimately be decided by the Supreme Court.... After interviewing more than 1,000 witnesses and obtaining millions of pages of documents, the Jan. 6 committee has presented a sweeping summation of its case placing Mr. Trump at the center of a calculated, multipart effort to overturn the vote that began even before Election Day.... The subpoena to Mr. Trump requires him to turn over documents by Nov. 4 and to appear for a deposition on or about Nov. 14. It says the interview could last several days.... Legal experts doubted that any lawyer representing the former president would allow him to testify." The AP report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ ** Marie: The ten-page subpoena, linked above, is a committee document. It's a doozy, and well-worth your reading.

** Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "Some of the classified documents recovered by the FBI from Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago home and private club included highly sensitive intelligence regarding Iran and China, according to people familiar with the matter.... At least one of the documents seized by the FBI describes Iran's missile program, according to these people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe an ongoing investigation. Other documents described highly sensitive intelligence work aimed at China, they said. Unauthorized disclosures of specific information in the documents would pose multiple risks, experts say. People aiding U.S. intelligence efforts could be endangered, and collection methods could be compromised. In addition, other countries or U.S. adversaries could retaliate against the United States for actions it has taken in secret." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: As Barrett reminds us, these super-sensitive documents are among those Trump said he could have declassified "even by thinking about it." It's too bad the Dubya/Darth team is not still in office, because Trump is the type of tool whom that bunch would have tossed in a black hole & waterboarded till he choked up what he knew. In the meantime -- and I'm serious here -- I think the FBI & DOJ have badly mishandled this matter; the minute they discovered what Trump had stolen, they should have locked down every single property owned by the Trumps, every safe deposit box, every storage facility, every other possible hideyhole where that Great Amerian Spy might have secreted his booty; then the feds should have thrown Trump in solitary confinement in a federal pen without the ability to speak to anyone except his own lawyers -- any only if those lawyers had top security clearance. ~~~

     ~~~ An NBC News report is here.

Ha Ha. Michael Cohen, appearing on MSNBC, called that Florida club "Mar-a-Lardo." I guess he's been reading Reality Chex.

Jonathan Swan & Zachary Basu of Axios: "A senior White House lawyer [Eric Herschmann] expressed concerns to President Trump's advisers and attorneys about the president signing a sworn court statement verifying inaccurate evidence of voter fraud, according to emails from December 2020 obtained by Axios.... The emails shed new light on a federal judge's explosive finding Wednesday that Trump knew specific instances of voter fraud in Georgia had been debunked, but continued to tout them both in public and under oath.... Herschmann told ... outside lawyers he would not allow the president to sign a verification without sound documentation attached, and challenged the accuracy of the state-level lawsuit that had been filed in Georgia, the three sources said.... Together, the emails obtained by Axios and those reviewed by Judge [David] Carter show that at least two of Trump's attorneys -- Herschmann and [John] Eastman -- explicitly raised concerns about having the president sign a sworn statement making specific claims about voter fraud that were inaccurate."

Glenn Thrush & Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "A federal judge on Friday sentenced Stephen K. Bannon, a longtime adviser to ... Donald J. Trump who aided in the effort to overturn the 2020 election, to four months in prison for disobeying a subpoena from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. Mr. Bannon, 68, was found guilty of two counts of contempt of Congress this summer after Judge Carl J. Nichols rejected an array of arguments offered by Mr. Bannon's defense team, including that he was protected from being compelled to testify by executive privilege. In a contentious exchange with the defense team before announcing a sentence, he said Mr. Bannon had shown 'no remorse for his actions' and had yet to 'demonstrate he has any intention of complying with the subpoena.... Others must be deterred from committing similar crimes,' said Judge Nichols, a Trump appointee, who also imposed a fine of $6,500 on Mr. Bannon.... Mr. Bannon will remain free pending his appeal." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: That last bit gives me a sad. I am anxious to see that disgusting SOB modeling the orange jumpsuit fit for Trump, albeit Bannon probably will sport layers of shirts beneath the orange coverall. ~~~

     ~~~ The AP's report is here.

Save Me, Clarence! Richard Fausset of the New York Times: "Senator Lindsey Graham asked the Supreme Court on Friday to stay a lower court's order that would force him to testify before a special grand jury investigating efforts to overturn ... Donald J. Trump's election loss in Georgia.... On Thursday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta rejected the argument that the Speech and Debate Clause fully shielded Mr. Graham from having to testify. Mr. Graham responded with an emergency application on Friday, asking the Supreme Court for a stay while he appeals the ruling, and, if necessary, a ruling enjoining the special grand jury from questioning him until the appeal is resolved. The filing notes that Mr. Graham was issued a fresh subpoena on Friday compelling him to testify on Nov. 17." CNN's report is here. MB: In fairness to Lindsey, I can see where it's so wrong to try to force a GOP senator to tell the truth.

Ryan Reilly of NBC News: "A Donald Trump supporter who brought two guns to the Capitol on Jan. 6, and dropped one of them on Capitol grounds, was sentenced to five years in federal prison on Friday. Mark Mazza was sentenced to 60 months behind bars by Judge James E. Boasberg.... Federal prosecutors said that Mazza, 'while armed with [a] .40 caliber loaded firearm, engaged in multiple efforts to break through the police line: he repeatedly pushed against officers using the combined physical exertion of the mob; he armed himself with a stolen police baton and assaulted officers with the baton; he yelled at officers telling them to get out the mob's way and to "Get out of our house!"; he held open the door to the tunnel entrance against the resistance of officers, and after being rebuffed, he gathered additional rioters into the tunnel area to continue "heave-ho" pushes against officers in the doorway.'"

November Elections

Nevada. Dana Milbank of the Washington Post: "If the midterm elections degenerate into chaos in a couple of weeks -- a very real possibility -- then Nevada is poised to lead the way. Indeed, the chaos here has already begun. The election supervisors in 10 of the state's 17 counties have already quit, been forced out or announced their departures. Lower-level election workers have quit in the face of consistent abuse. The state's elections staff has lost eight of its 12 employees. The (Republican) secretary of state, who vigorously defends the integrity of the 2020 election, is term-limited, and the GOP nominee to replace her, Jim Marchant, leads a national group of election deniers running for office. Marchant is on record saying that if he and his fellow candidates are elected, 'we're going to fix the whole country, and President Trump is going to be president again.'" Read on. It gets worse.

Pennsylvania Governor. Katie Glueck of the New York Times: "'Josh Shapiro is at best a secular Jew in the same way Joe Biden is a secular Catholic,' Jenna Ellis, a former lawyer for the Trump campaign who worked to overturn the 2020 election, wrote on Twitter, commenting on a headline that noted Mr. Shapiro's faith.... Mr. Shapiro, 49, the state's attorney general, is an observant Jew whose faith is a central part of his public identity. He keeps kosher, prioritizes Sabbath dinner with his family and is a Jewish day school alum.... Mr. Biden often referenced his religion on the campaign trail, and he is a regular churchgoer who once memorably defended the Democratic Party as one of faith.... Mr. Mastriano, a far-right Republican who promotes Christian power and disdains the separation of church and state, has alarmed a broad swath of Pennsylvania's Jewish community with his rhetoric and his associations." Ellis is a senior advisor to Doug Mastriano's campaign.

Beyond the Beltway

Florida Man. Miles Cohen of ABC News: "A Florida man had his election fraud charges dismissed on Friday, making him the first of 20 people who Gov. Ron DeSantis announced had been charged with voter fraud in August, to beat his case. The ruling by a Miami judge may now pave the way for similar motions and rulings in the other 19 election fraud cases, which garnered national attention and controversy when they were announced on Aug. 18. DeSantis said at the time that they were the 'opening salvo' by Florida's newly funded Office of Election Crimes and Security to crack down on voter fraud.... The judge agreed with the defense's argument, that the alleged violations, applying to vote and voting while ineligible, only occurred in Miami-Dade County. Thus, the statewide prosecutor [who brought the charges], was found to not have jurisdiction. In order for the attorney general's office to have jurisdiction, the crimes that they allege must have occurred in at least two judicial circuits. All 20 cases are being prosecuted by the statewide prosecutor."

Texas. David Goodman of the New York Times: "On Friday, the [Texas Department of Public Safety] issued termination papers to one of the officers [involved in the response to the Uvalde school massacre], Sgt. Juan Maldonado, according to two people briefed on the decision. Sergeant Maldonado was one of the first officers to arrive at the school, but could be seen on body camera video staying in a doorway to the school instead of heading toward the gunfire inside.... Captain [Joel] Betancourt's actions are now [also] the subject of an internal [departmental] investigation." Several times, Betancourt appears to have ordered officers to stand back.

Way Beyond

Italy. Chico Harlan & Stefano Pitrelli of the Washington Post: "Giorgia Meloni completed her groundbreaking rise in Italian politics Saturday, when she was sworn in as the country's first female prime minister, giving her once-fringe party a level of power that has been out of reach for other far-right forces in Western Europe.... When the far-right coalition swept to victory last month, it made Meloni's ascent to prime minister nearly inevitable. Her party won 26 percent of the overall vote, more than any other party. But her grip on power is nonetheless fragile. Italian voters are renowned for throwing their support behind leaders and then swiftly ditching them. The last several Italian governments have been brought down by infighting. And this time, the sparring started even before the government was sworn in." MB: Still, she'll probably remain head-of-state longer than the life of a head of lettuce.

Ukraine, et al.

The Washington Post's live briefings of developments Saturday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "Ukraine said it defended itself against more Russian rocket attacks on cities such as Kyiv and Odessa on Saturday, shooting down at least 18 cruise missiles, its Air Force said. Odessa regional governor Maksym Marchenko said two rockets hit energy infrastructure, wiping out power in some areas, while Ukraine's electricity company Ukrenergo said repair crews were working to restore power to networks in the west of the country. In Kyiv, air raid sirens sounded in the capital.... Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Moscow of seeking to blow up a major hydroelectric dam in Nova Kakhovka near the Russian-occupied city of Kherson, potentially flooding southern areas.... [U.S.] Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin held a rare call with his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu on Friday for the first time since May." ~~~

     ~~~ The Guardian's live updates for Saturday are here. The Guardian's summary report is here.

Emma Bubola of the New York Times: "Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine began in February, Russian authorities have announced with patriotic fanfare the transfer of thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia to be adopted and become citizens. On state-run television, officials offer teddy bears to new arrivals, who are portrayed as abandoned children being rescued from war. In fact, this mass transfer of children is a potential war crime, regardless of whether they were orphans. And while many of the children did come from orphanages and group homes, the authorities also took children whose relatives or guardians want them back.... As Russian troops pushed into Ukraine, children ... who were fleeing newly occupied territories were swept up.... This systematic resettlement is part of a broader strategy by ... Vladimir V. Putin, to treat Ukraine as a part of Russia and cast his illegal invasion as a noble cause. His government has used children -- including the sick, poor and orphaned -- as part of a propaganda campaign presenting Russia as a charitable savior." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Astounding cruelty. And the fact that Putin is touting the program as a "noble" venture is all the evidence you need of what a depraved, unhinged person he is.


U.K. Mark Landler of the New York Times: "No sooner had Prime Minister Liz Truss of Britain announced her sudden resignation on Thursday afternoon than a familiar name surfaced as a candidate to succeed her: Boris Johnson, the prime minister she replaced a mere 45 days ago. Mr. Johnson, who is vacationing in the Caribbean, has said nothing publicly about a bid for his old job. But the prospect of Boris redux has riveted Conservative Party lawmakers and cabinet ministers -- delighting some, repelling others, and dominating the conversation in a way that Mr. Johnson has for his entire political career." MB: Or, as one British reporter said this morning, the possible reinstallment of Boris as PM would be "like a dog returning to its own vomit." ~~~

     ~~~ The Guardian is live-updating developments in the prime minister sweepstakes.

News Ledes

New York Times: "Lucy Simon, who with her sister Carly began performing and recording as the Simon Sisters during the folk revival of the 1960s, and who then almost three decades later became a Tony Award-nominated composer for the long-running musical 'The Secret Garden,' died on Thursday at her home in Piermont, N.Y., in Rockland County. She was 82." ~~~

~~~ New York Times: "Joanna Simon, a smoky-voiced mezzo-soprano who grew up in a family loaded with musical talent, including her younger sisters Carly and Lucy, before forging an acclaimed career as an opera and concert singer, died on Wednesday in Manhattan. She was 85....Ms. Simon died in a hospital a day before Lucy Simon's death at 82...."

Comments Off
Thursday
Oct202022

October 21, 2022

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

President Biden speaks about this past fiscal year's historical deficit reduction -- the largest-ever decline in the federal deficit:

** Luke Broadwater & Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack issued a subpoena on Friday to Donald J. Trump, paving the way for a potentially historic court fight over whether Congress can compel testimony from a former president. The subpoena was the most aggressive step taken so far by what was already one of the most consequential congressional investigations in decades. Coming as the Justice Department conducts a separate criminal inquiry into efforts to overturn the 2020 election and weeks before the midterm elections, the subpoena threatened to thrust Mr. Trump and the Jan. 6 committee into a protracted legal battle that could ultimately be decided by the Supreme Court.... After interviewing more than 1,000 witnesses and obtaining millions of pages of documents, the Jan. 6 committee has presented a sweeping summation of its case placing Mr. Trump at the center of a calculated, multipart effort to overturn the vote that began even before Election Day.... The subpoena to Mr. Trump requires him to turn over documents by Nov. 4 and to appear for a deposition on or about Nov. 14. It says the interview could last several days.... Legal experts doubted that any lawyer representing the former president would allow him to testify." The AP report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ ** Marie: The eight-page subpoena, linked above, is a committee document). It's a doozy, and well-worth your reading.

Ryan Reilly of NBC News: "A Donald Trump supporter who brought two guns to the Capitol on Jan. 6, and dropped one of them on Capitol grounds, was sentenced to five years in federal prison on Friday. Mark Mazza was sentenced to 60 months behind bars by Judge James E. Boasberg.... Federal prosecutors said that Mazza, 'while armed with [a] .40 caliber loaded firearm, engaged in multiple efforts to break through the police line: he repeatedly pushed against officers using the combined physical exertion of the mob; he armed himself with a stolen police baton and assaulted officers with the baton; he yelled at officers telling them to get out the mob's way and to "Get out of our house!"; he held open the door to the tunnel entrance against the resistance of officers, and after being rebuffed, he gathered additional rioters into the tunnel area to continue "heave-ho" pushes against officers in the doorway.'"

Ha Ha. Just heard Michael Cohen call that Florida club "Mar-a-Lardo." I guess he's been reading Reality Chex.

Jeff Cox of CNBC: "The U.S. budget deficit was sliced in half for fiscal 2022, the biggest drop in history following two years of huge Covid-related spending. Though still large in historical terms, the budget shortfall declined to $1.375 trillion, compared to the 2021 deficit of $2.776 trillion."

Glenn Thrush & Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "A federal judge on Friday sentenced Stephen K. Bannon, a longtime adviser to ... Donald J. Trump who aided in the effort to overturn the 2020 election, to four months in prison for disobeying a subpoena from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. Mr. Bannon, 68, was found guilty of two counts of contempt of Congress this summer after Judge Carl J. Nichols rejected an array of arguments offered by Mr. Bannon's defense team, including that he was protected from being compelled to testify by executive privilege. In a contentious exchange with the defense team before announcing a sentence, he said Mr. Bannon had shown 'no remorse for his actions' and had yet to 'demonstrate he has any intention of complying with the subpoena.... Others must be deterred from committing similar crimes,' said Judge Nichols, a Trump appointee, who also imposed a fine of $6,500 on Mr. Bannon.... Mr. Bannon will remain free pending his appeal" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: That last bit gives me a sad. I am anxious to see that disgusting SOB modeling the orange jumpsuit fit for Trump, albeit Bannon probably will sport layers of shirts beneath the orange coverall. ~~~

     ~~~ The AP's report is here.

** Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "Some of the classified documents recovered by the FBI from Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago home and private club included highly sensitive intelligence regarding Iran and China, according to people familiar with the matter.... At least one of the documents seized by the FBI describes Iran's missile program, according to these people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe an ongoing investigation. Other documents described highly sensitive intelligence work aimed at China, they said. Unauthorized disclosures of specific information in the documents would pose multiple risks, experts say. People aiding U.S. intelligence efforts could be endangered, and collection methods could be compromised. In addition, other countries or U.S. adversaries could retaliate against the United States for actions it has taken in secret." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: As Barrett reminds us, these super-sensitive documents are among those Trump said he could have declassified "even by thinking about it." It's too bad the Dubya/Darth team is not still in office, because Trump is the type of tool whom that bunch would have tossed in a black hole & waterboarded till he choked up what he knew. In the meantime -- and I'm serious here -- I think the FBI & DOJ have badly mishandled this matter; the minute they discovered what Trump had stolen, they should have locked down every single property owned by the Trumps, every safe deposit box, every storage facility, every other possible hideyhole where that Great American Spy might have secreted his booty; then the feds should have thrown Trump in solitary confinement in a federal pen without the ability to speak to anyone except his own lawyers -- any only if those lawyers had top security clearance.

Florida Man. Miles Cohen of ABC News: "A Florida man had his election fraud charges dismissed on Friday, making him the first of 20 people who Gov. Ron DeSantis announced had been charged with voter fraud in August, to beat his case. The ruling by a Miami judge may now pave the way for similar motions and rulings in the other 19 election fraud cases, which garnered national attention and controversy when they were announced on Aug. 18. DeSantis said at the time that they were the 'opening salvo' by Florida's newly funded Office of Election Crimes and Security to crack down on voter fraud.... The judge agreed with the defense's argument, that the alleged violations, applying to vote and voting while ineligible, only occurred in Miami-Dade County. Thus, the statewide prosecutor [who brought the charges], was found to not have jurisdiction. In order for the attorney general's office to have jurisdiction, the crimes that they allege must have occurred in at least two judicial circuits. All 20 cases are being prosecuted by the statewide prosecutor."

U.K. Mark Landler of the New York Times: "No sooner had Prime Minister Liz Truss of Britain announced her sudden resignation on Thursday afternoon than a familiar name surfaced as a candidate to succeed her: Boris Johnson, the prime minister she replaced a mere 45 days ago. Mr. Johnson, who is vacationing in the Caribbean, has said nothing publicly about a bid for his old job. But the prospect of Boris redux has riveted Conservative Party lawmakers and cabinet ministers -- delighting some, repelling others, and dominating the conversation in a way that Mr. Johnson has for his entire political career." MB: Or, as one British reporter said this morning, the possible reinstallment of Boris as PM would be "like a dog returning to its own vomit."

~~~~~~~~~~

Mine, Mine, All Mine. Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump is claiming that nine documents seized by the F.B.I. from his Florida residence are his personal property -- but the Justice Department says they are official records that should be deposited with the National Archives, according to a new letter to the special master who is overseeing a review of the materials. The letter, filed on Thursday by the Justice Department, describes disputes over ownership and executive privilege claims involving a batch of 15 records that have undergone early review. It likely foreshadows larger fights to come over the main bulk of roughly 13,000 documents and other materials F.B.I. agents took from Mar-a-Lago.... The materials from the initial tranche that Mr. Trump maintains belong to him include six packages ... supporting requests that he grant clemency to pardon-seekers; two documents related to his administration's immigration policies; and an email addressed to him from a person at a military academy, it said....

"[The] dispute appeared to shed light on a comment that Judge [Raymond] Dearie[, the special master,] made in a telephone conference with the parties earlier this week. Complaining that the Trump legal team had not offered much substance to explain its claims, he noted a document that the lawyers had claimed was both personal property and protected by executive privilege. 'Unless I'm wrong..., there's certainly an incongruity there,' Judge Dearie said at the time." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: As an MSNBC contributor (I forget who) suggested yesterday, it makes a certain kind of "sense" that Trump thinks those pardon docs are his. He never understood the pardon power as a particular presidential responsibility but as a personal perq, which allowed him to reward his criminal made men.

Nicholas Wu, et al., of Politico: "... Donald Trump has hired a firm to engage with the Jan. 6 select committee on its forthcoming subpoena of him.... A person familiar with the situation said [the Dhillon Law Group] is now being tasked with negotiating the terms of the Trump subpoena, which the committee voted to issue last week.... Harmeet Dhillon, the firm's managing partner, is a national Republican committeewoman from California. She has helmed litigation related to other conservative causes including pushing back on policies that shut down schools, churches and businesses during the Covid pandemic. Dhillon has also been critical of previous select committee and Justice Department grand jury subpoenas to her other clients." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Perhaps the committee will soon be able to find someone who will accept its subpoena of Trump.

Katelyn Polantz, et al., of CNN: "Kash Patel, a top adviser to ... Donald Trump who has been deeply involved in disputes over classified records Trump kept from his presidency, appeared recently before the federal grand jury looking into the handling of documents at Mar-a-Lago, sources familiar with the matter tell CNN. Patel spent several hours throughout the morning of October 13 before a grand jury at the US courthouse in Washington, DC. But it's not clear if Patel answered the grand jury's questions or declined to respond citing his Fifth Amendment protections.... He is one of a handful of advisers around Donald Trump after his presidency who could have legal risk related to the Mar-a-Lago situation.... He has claimed in media interviews he personally witnessed Trump declassifying records before he left the presidency, and has argued [Trump] should be able to release classified information."

Sara Murray, et al., of CNN: "Prosecutors in Georgia have secured grand jury testimony from two prominent witnesses -- former US Sen. Kelly Loeffler and former White House Counsel Pat Cipollone -- in their investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in that state, sources familiar with the matter tell CNN. Their grand jury appearances in recent months, which have not been previously reported, highlight the wide-ranging investigation underway as Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis probes efforts by ... Donald Trump and his allies to try to keep him in power."

Richard Fausset & Danny Hakim of the New York Times: "A federal appeals court ruled on Thursday that Senator Lindsey Graham must appear before the special grand jury that is investigating efforts by ... Donald J. Trump and his allies to overturn Mr. Trump's election loss in Georgia, although the court set limits on the kinds of questions Mr. Graham could be asked. The ruling means that Mr. Graham, at some date after the Nov. 8 midterm elections, will most likely have to travel to the Fulton County courthouse in downtown Atlanta to answer questions about phone calls he made to the Georgia secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, in the weeks after the 2020 election.... The appeals court lined up behind [a] lower court ... ruling ... that 'any non-investigatory conduct covered by the subpoena was not protected' by the [U.S. Constitution's] Speech and Debate Clause, adding that there was 'genuine dispute about whether Senator Graham's phone calls with Georgia election officials were investigatory.'" An AP story is here.

Kyle Cheney & Nicholas Wu of Politico: "A log of text messages sent and received by former Sen. Kelly Loeffler [R-Ga.] during the weeks leading up to the Jan. 6 Capitol attack is raising questions about potentially unauthorized access to investigative material relevant to probes of the 2020 election. The messages, reviewed by Politico, shed light on Loeffler's shifting political calculus as she weighed whether to lodge a challenge to the 2020 results at the urging of ... Donald Trump.... The 59-page log of 405 texts was obtained by media organizations via an anonymous sender who declined to reveal more details about the source of the messages, which begin on Nov. 8, 2020 and end Feb. 3, 2021. The document, which Politico is not publishing in full because it contains unauthenticated as well as authenticated conversations, focuses only on Loeffler's election-related correspondence." After Loeffler called for the resignation of of Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, his wife Tricia Raffensperger wrote to Loeffler in an authenticated text, "... My family and I am being personally besieged by people threatening our lives because you didn't have the decency or good manners to come and talk to my husband with any questions you may have had. Instead you have put us in the eye of the storm." (Also linked yesterday.)

Alan Feuer & Zach Montague of the New York Times: "... messages from Jan. 6, revealed on Thursday at the seditious conspiracy trial of [Oath Keepers founder & leader Stewart] Rhodes and four of his subordinates, were shared with the jury along with striking audio and video recordings of the Capitol attack, presenting what amounted to a panoramic view of the chaos at the building and the move to push inside it as the crowd began to overwhelm the police.... But Mr. Rhodes, far from condemning the violence, seemed almost to be giddy.... These dramatic scenes ... placed the Oath Keepers squarely in the middle of the upheaval at the Capitol as the House and the Senate met inside to certify the results of the 2020 election." ~~~

     ~~~ Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Stewart Rhodes ... grew increasingly frustrated before Jan. 6, 2021 that Donald Trump had not taken even more extreme measures to seize a second term. Messages displayed by prosecutors Thursday showed Rhodes -- who littered his voluminous text messages with a stew of conspiracy theories -- venting his disappointment with Trump's refusal to invoke the Insurrection Act, a move he believed would permit the Oath Keepers to take up arms to prevent Joe Biden from taking office. Rhodes repeatedly exhorted his Oath Keeper brethren in the weeks before Jan. 6 to prepare to engage in a bloody battle if Trump refused to act, the messages reveal. 'Either Trump gets off his ass and uses the insurrection Act to defeat the ChiCom puppet coup or we will have to rise up in insurrection (rebellion) against the ChiCom puppet Biden,' Rhodes wrote in a Dec. 20, 2020 message.... '... They won't fear us until we come with rifles in hand,' he wrote on Dec. 29 to a group of five allies, including Kellye SoRelle, a girlfriend who Rhodes has also claimed was the group's attorney."

Michael Gerson, former Bush II staffer & current Washington Post opinion columnist goes full woke. At long last, by his own admission, he recognizes that racist remarks, most often made by Republicans, are not mere "gaffes" or "blunders, rooted in ignorance." Rather, "In MAGA world, the incitement of white grievance is the strategy. Such appeals are inseparable from racism." MB: I should not mock Gerson. It is indeed refreshing when a life-long Republican eventually gets the centrality of racism in our culture & in our institutions.


** Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "Attempts to block President Biden's student debt relief programs were dealt dual setbacks on Thursday, as a federal judge in Missouri and Justice Amy Coney Barrett rejected challenges to the sweeping measure.... Judge Henry E. Autrey of the Federal District Court in St. Louis dismissed the more prominent of the two lawsuits, one brought by six Republican-led states. The suit accused Mr. Biden of overstepping his authority under a 2003 federal law that allows the education secretary to modify financial assistance programs for students 'in connection with a war or other military operation or national emergency.'... Judge Autrey, who was appointed by President George W. Bush, did not rule on the [central] issue in the lawsuit, which was brought by Nebraska, Missouri, Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas and South Carolina. Instead, he said the states had not suffered injuries of the sort that gave them standing to sue.... Lustice Barrett denied [a Wisconsin taxpayer] association's challenge without comment.... She acted on her own, without referring the application to the full court, and she did not ask the administration for a response. Both of those moves were indications that the application was not on solid legal footing." ~~~

     ~~~ An AP story on the Supreme Court bid fail is here. The AP's story on the GOP states' fail is here.

Stacy Cowley of the New York Times: "A federal appeals court ruled on Wednesday that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a leading financial regulator, has been unconstitutionally funded since its creation more than a decade ago, a decision that vacated a bureau rule on payday lending and cast doubt over a vast swath of its regulations. The consumer bureau is funded directly by the Federal Reserve, a structure that Congress created through the 2010 Dodd-Frank law to shield the independent agency from political whims. It has been a frequent target of ire from Republican lawmakers. A three-judge panel of the New Orleans-based Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals said that the funding method improperly ceded too much authority to the bureau and insulated it from being accountable to Congress and the American people." (Also linked yesterday.)

Craig Whitlock & Nate Jones of the Washington Post: "Two retired U.S. admirals and three former U.S. Navy civilian leaders are playing critical but secretive roles as paid advisers to the government of Australia during its negotiations to acquire top-secret nuclear submarine technology from the United States and Britain. The Americans are among a group of former U.S. Navy officials whom the Australian government has hired as high-dollar consultants to help transform its fleet of ships and submarines, receiving contracts worth as much as $800,000 a person.... All told, six retired U.S. admirals have worked for the Australian government since 2015, including one who served for two years as Australia's deputy secretary of defense. In addition, a former U.S. secretary of the Navy has been a paid adviser to three successive Australian prime ministers. A Washington Post investigation found that the former U.S. Navy officials have benefited financially from a tangle of overlapping interests in their work for a longtime ally of the United States. Some of the retired admirals have worked for the Australian government while simultaneously consulting for U.S. shipbuilders and the U.S. Navy, including on classified programs." (Also linked yesterday.)

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Kipp Jones of Mediaite: "Newsmax TV has severed ties with Lara Logan after she said on the network the global elite 'dine on the blood of children' and made other bizarre statements.... [She told network host Eric Bolling that 'global elites'] 'want us eating insects.'... Logan was once an award-winning reporter with CBS News. She was cut loose by Fox Nation after she compared Dr. Anthony Fauci to Nazi doctor and madman Josef Mengele last year." Turns out even Newsmax has a red line when it comes to extreme batshit wingerdom.

Julia Jacobs & Nate Schweber of the New York Times: "A federal jury in Manhattan found Kevin Spacey not liable for battery on Thursday after the actor Anthony Rapp filed a lawsuit accusing Mr. Spacey of climbing on top of him and making a sexual advance in 1986, when Mr. Rapp was 14.... The disclosure by Mr. Rapp, which BuzzFeed News published in October 2017, was followed by more than a dozen other sexual misconduct accusations against Mr. Spacey. He has pleaded not guilty to sexual assault charges in Britain...." The NBC News story is here.

November Elections

Arizona Voter Intimidation. Yvonne Sanchez of the Washington Post: "For months..., [Arizona] elections officials and democracy advocates have worried that bands of activist observers hunting for fraud will harass and intimidate voters. Citizen watchdogs, organized and freelance, have advertised stakeout events to monitor the goings-ons in parking lots and other drop box locations as voters deposit their early ballots ahead of Election Day. [On Monday, the first report came in.]... 'There's a group of people hanging out near the ballot dropbox filming and photographing my wife and I as we approached the dropbox and accusing us of being a mule,' said the report, which was written by a voter in the Phoenix suburbs.... 'They took ... photographs of our license plate and of us and then followed us out the parking lot in one of their cars continuing to film.'... By Wednesday, Secretary of State Katie Hobbs (D), who oversees elections here, referred the matter to the U.S. Justice Department and the Arizona attorney general.... Hobbs's office also alerted county officials of another complaint about drop box observers...."

Pennsylvania Governor. Colby Itkowitz of the Washington Post: "As he campaigns for governor across Pennsylvania, Democrat Josh Shapiro tells voters how his Jewish faith drives his values. He also tells them about his Republican rival Doug Mastriano, who paid a consulting fee to a far-right social media website where a mass shooter went on antisemitic rants. And in an interview, Shapiro said that when he heard Mastriano accuse him of having 'disdain for people like us' because Shapiro and his children have attended a 'privileged, exclusive, elite' Jewish academy in the Philadelphia suburbs, the Democratic candidate immediately thought of all the students and teachers whose lives he felt his opponent had put 'at risk' by singling out their school."

Beyond the Beltway

California. Michael Levenson of the New York Times: "An obstetrician-gynecologist [James Heaps] who worked for years at the University of California, Los Angeles, was convicted on Thursday of sexually abusing patients in a case that cost the university hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements and came amid similar accusations against doctors at other universities.... Dr. Heaps faces up to 21 years in prison at his sentencing hearing, scheduled for Nov. 17, according to the office. U.C.L.A. has already paid about $700 million to settle claims of sexual misconduct against Dr. Heaps, who was affiliated with the university in various roles from 1983 to 2018.

Way Beyond

~~~ With a few shout-outs to the execrable Kevin McCarthy

Ukraine, et al.

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

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live briefings for Friday are here: "European Union leaders agreed early Friday to pursue measures to 'protect its citizens and businesses' against Russia's 'weaponization of energy,' though there was no consensus on capping the price of natural gas.... The United States said Iranian military personnel in Crimea are assisting Russia in its drone attacks against Ukraine by providing tech support and training.... Both the E.U. and Britain announced further sanctions Thursday against Tehran over Russia's use of Iranian-made drones in Ukraine.... In his nightly address Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned of a Russian plot aimed at destroying a major hydroelectric dam near the Russian-occupied city of Kherson, as he warned that Russian attacks on Ukrainian energy facilities could escalate.... Russia conducted three missile attacks and 24 airstrikes in the past day, hitting more than 15 settlements, including in the Kherson and Kharkiv regions, Ukraine's Defense Ministry said early Friday.... President Biden said he is worried that Republicans may cut aid to Ukraine if they win back the House." ~~~

~~~ Dan De Luce, et al., of NBC News: "Amid concerns that a new Congress could take a more skeptical view of aid to Ukraine, lawmakers from both parties are looking to lock in billions of dollars in military assistance to Kyiv before newly elected members are sworn in in January, according to a lawmaker and congressional staffers. House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy of California, who is poised to take over as speaker if the GOP wins a majority in the House in the November midterm elections, warned this week that his fellow party members are 'not going to write a blank check to Ukraine.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Richard Haas, of whom I am not much of a fan, made a valid point this morning. Kevin's threat is a sign to the international community that Donald Trump was not an aberration but a harbinger of the new reality that the U.S. cannot be counted on to fulfill its role as world leader. (I would say this has been evident for some time, particularly in Senate Republicans' history of blocking ratification of common-sense treaties.)

U.K., et al.

Lettuce Outlasts Liz. Peter Walker, et al., of the Guardian: "Liz Truss has resigned as prime minister and will step down after a week-long emergency contest to find her successor, she has announced outside Downing Street. It follows a turbulent 45 days in office during which Truss's mini-budget crashed the markets, she lost two key ministers and shed the confidence of almost all her own MPs. Her statement came after she met Graham Brady, the chair of the 1922 Committee of backbench Tory MPs at Downing Street, followed by her deputy PM, Thérèse Coffey, and the party chair, Jake Berry." MB: In fairness to Liz, she is the first British PM since Winnie whose "leadership" spanned the reigns of two rulers. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mark Landler & Stephen Castle of the New York Times: "Prime Minister Liz Truss announced on Thursday that she would resign, just days after her new finance minister reversed virtually all of her planned tax cuts, sweeping away a free-market fiscal agenda that promised a radical policy shift for Britain but instead plunged the country into weeks of economic and political turmoil. 'I cannot deliver the mandate on which I was elected,' she said in brief remarks outside Downing Street." This is a liveblog. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Leo Sands of the Washington Post: "The question was all over British social media. Who would survive longer: the United Kingdom's prime minister, Liz Truss, or a wilting head of lettuce with a shelf life of just 10 days? By Thursday at lunch time, Britain had its answer. It was the lettuce.... [A head of iceberg lettuce] has done what many Machiavellian politicians have failed to achieve -- a takedown of a sitting prime minister." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

BUT, on the Upside. Euan Ward of the New York Times: "Liz Truss is eligible for a taxpayer-funded allowance capped at 115,000 pounds ($129,000) a year for the rest of her life. Despite her short time in office, Ms. Truss became eligible on Thursday for what's called the Public Duty Costs Allowance -- a government reimbursement plan for staff and salary costs incurred by former prime ministers 'arising from their special position in public life' after they leave office, according to the government's website.'" MB: So I guess we know why she waited all the way till Thursday to announce her resignation.

Karla Adam & William Booth of the Washington Post: "After a whirlwind two months packed with drama and crisis, Britain finds itself right back where it was before with some of the same faces competing to become the third prime minister in just eight weeks. Supporters for the three presumed front-runners -- Rishi Sunak, Penny Mordaunt and, yes, Boris Johnson -- were out of the blocks early on Friday, setting out their pitches for why their person should get the keys to 10 Downing Street, the prime ministerial residence.... Rishi Sunak is the bookies' favorite." ~~~

     ~~~ The Guardian is liveblogging developments.

Marie: Last month, while new PM Liz was hastening the death of the beloved Queen Liz, Larry Kudlow -- Trump's National Economics Council Director & perpetual Fox host & guest -- had high praise for PM Liz's economic plan. You know, the plan that immediately tanked the British economy, the pound & Truss's popularity (which bottomed out at about 9 percent). The plan Truss had to completely reverse within weeks. Just before she lost her job in the shortest tenure of a PM in British history. "Truss has it exactly right," Kudlow assured Fox viewers in September. ~~~

~~~ A couple of days before Truss announced her resignation, I remarked that the the situation in Downing Street was funnier because it was "befalling a country that is not our own." But of course it could happen here. As RAS noted the same day, such an economic agenda would be even worse here: "Looking at the disaster in Britain and knowing that the GOP would try to implement some of the same policies that Truss did, but without anyone to turn the bus around when everyone started to freak out about what it would do in the real world to the US and world economies." ~~~

~~~ AND as Kudlow, in September, noted with glee, Kevin McCarthy will make it happen here:

Amanda Holpuch of the New York Times: "Anne Sacoolas, an American who fled Britain in 2019 [under diplomatic immunity] after her car fatally stuck a 19-year-old British motorcyclist in central England, pleaded guilty on Thursday to causing the death of the teenager, Harry Dunn, by careless driving, British prosecutors said. The British Crown Prosecution Service had previously charged Ms. Sacoolas, 45, with causing death by dangerous driving in December 2019, but she pleaded guilty to the lesser charge in a hearing in London on Thursday at the central criminal court of England and Wales. She appeared at the hearing in a video call. The police said that Ms. Sacoolas, a State Department employee, was driving on the wrong side of the road near the village of Croughton, in central England, on Aug. 27, 2019, when her car struck Mr. Dunn, who was riding a motorcycle on the correct side of the road. Mr. Dunn died at a hospital shortly after." (Also linked yesterday.)

Italy. Jason Horowitz of the New York Times: "... even before a government can be sworn in, [Silvio Berlusconi,] the 86-year-old billionaire media mogul has proved himself to be less of a stable, moderating force, than the source of renewed anxiety after the leak of surreptitiously recorded remarks revealed that he blamed Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelensky, for forcing President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia to invade Ukraine. The remarks, complete with talk about a 'sweet letter' and vodka from Mr. Putin, raise concerns that the new right-wing government, led by Giorgia Meloni, herself a solid supporter of Ukraine, is wobblier than expected and could, if it ever actually comes together with another Putin-admiring partner, potentially lead Italy to undercut Europe's united front against Russia.... Within days, the hard-right leader Giorgia Meloni ... is expected to become prime minister. But she needs Mr. Berlusconi's support, and he has now become the largest, and most erratic, obstacle to forming a government." (Also linked yesterday.)

Comments Off
Wednesday
Oct192022

October 20, 2022

Morning/Afternoon Update:

Nicholas Wu, et al., of Politico: "... Donald Trump has hired a firm to engage with the Jan. 6 select committee on its forthcoming subpoena of him.... A person familiar with the situation said [the Dhillon Law Group] is now being tasked with negotiating the terms of the Trump subpoena, which the committee voted to issue last week.... Harmeet Dhillon, the firm's managing partner, is a national Republican committeewoman from California. She has helmed litigation related to other conservative causes including pushing back on policies that shut down schools, churches and businesses during the Covid pandemic. Dhillon has also been critical of previous select committee and Justice Department grand jury subpoenas to her other clients."

Kyle Cheney & Nicholas Wu of Politico: "A log of text messages sent and received by former Sen. Kelly Loeffler [R-Ga.] during the weeks leading up to the Jan. 6 Capitol attack is raising questions about potentially unauthorized access to investigative material relevant to probes of the 2020 election. The messages, reviewed by Politico, shed light on Loeffler's shifting political calculus as she weighed whether to lodge a challenge to the 2020 results at the urging of ... Donald Trump.... The 59-page log of 405 texts was obtained by media organizations via an anonymous sender who declined to reveal more details about the source of the messages, which begin on Nov. 8, 2020 and end Feb. 3, 2021. The document, which Politico is not publishing in full because it contains unauthenticated as well as authenticated conversations, focuses only on Loeffler's election-related correspondence." After Loeffler called for the resignation of of Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, his wife Tricia Raffensperger wrote to Loeffler in an authenticated text, "... My family and I am being personally besieged by people threatening our lives because you didn't have the decency or good manners to come and talk to my husband with any questions you may have had. Instead you have put us in the eye of the storm."

Stacy Cowley of the New York Times: "A federal appeals court ruled on Wednesday that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a leading financial regulator, has been unconstitutionally funded since its creation more than a decade ago, a decision that vacated a bureau rule on payday lending and cast doubt over a vast swath of its regulations. The consumer bureau is funded directly by the Federal Reserve, a structure that Congress created through the 2010 Dodd-Frank law to shield the independent agency from political whims. It has been a frequent target of ire from Republican lawmakers. A three-judge panel of the New Orleans-based Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals said that the funding method improperly ceded too much authority to the bureau and insulated it from being accountable to Congress and the American people."

Craig Whitlock & Nate Jones of the Washington Post: "Two retired U.S. admirals and three former U.S. Navy civilian leaders are playing critical but secretive roles as paid advisers to the government of Australia during its negotiations to acquire top-secret nuclear submarine technology from the United States and Britain. The Americans are among a group of former U.S. Navy officials whom the Australian government has hired as high-dollar consultants to help transform its fleet of ships and submarines, receiving contracts worth as much as $800,000 a person.... All told, six retired U.S. admirals have worked for the Australian government since 2015, including one who served for two years as Australia's deputy secretary of defense. In addition, a former U.S. secretary of the Navy has been a paid adviser to three successive Australian prime ministers. A Washington Post investigation found that the former U.S. Navy officials have benefited financially from a tangle of overlapping interests in their work for a longtime ally of the United States. Some of the retired admirals have worked for the Australian government while simultaneously consulting for U.S. shipbuilders and the U.S. Navy, including on classified programs."

U.K. Lettuce Outlasts Liz. Peter Walker, et al., of the Guardian: "Liz Truss has resigned as prime minister and will step down after a week-long emergency contest to find her successor, she has announced outside Downing Street. It follows a turbulent 45 days in office during which Truss's mini-budget crashed the markets, she lost two key ministers and shed the confidence of almost all her own MPs. Her statement came after she met Graham Brady, the chair of the 1922 Committee of backbench Tory MPs at Downing Street, followed by her deputy PM, Thérèse Coffey, and the party chair, Jake Berry." MB: In fairness to Liz, she is the first British PM since Winnie whose leadership" spanned the reigns of two rulers. ~~~

     ~~~ Mark Landler & Stephen Castle of the New York Times: "Prime Minister Liz Truss announced on Thursday that she would resign, just days after her new finance minister reversed virtually all of her planned tax cuts, sweeping away a free-market fiscal agenda that promised a radical policy shift for Britain but instead plunged the country into weeks of economic and political turmoil. 'I cannot deliver the mandate on which I was elected,' she said in brief remarks outside Downing Street." This is a liveblog. ~~~

     ~~~ Leo Sands of the Washington Post: "The question was all over British social media. Who would survive longer: the United Kingdom's prime minister, Liz Truss, or a wilting head of lettuce with a shelf life of just 10 days? By Thursday at lunch time, Britain had its answer. It was the lettuce.... [A head of iceberg lettuce] has done what many Machiavellian politicians have failed to achieve -- a takedown of a sitting prime minister." ~~~

Amanda Holpuch of the New York Times: "Anne Sacoolas, an American who fled Britain in 2019 [under diplomatic immunity] after her car fatally stuck a 19-year-old British motorcyclist in central England, pleaded guilty on Thursday to causing the death of the teenager, Harry Dunn, by careless driving, British prosecutors said. The British Crown Prosecution Service had previously charged Ms. Sacoolas, 45, with causing death by dangerous driving in December 2019, but she pleaded guilty to the lesser charge in a hearing in London on Thursday at the central criminal court of England and Wales. She appeared at the hearing in a video call. The police said that Ms. Sacoolas, a State Department employee, was driving on the wrong side of the road near the village of Croughton, in central England, on Aug. 27, 2019, when her car struck Mr. Dunn, who was riding a motorcycle on the correct side of the road. Mr. Dunn died at a hospital shortly after."

Jason Horowitz of the New York Times: "... even before a government can be sworn in, [Silvio Berlusconi,] the 86-year-old billionaire media mogul has proved himself to be less of a stable, moderating force, than the source of renewed anxiety after the leak of surreptitiously recorded remarks revealed that he blamed Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelensky, for forcing President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia to invade Ukraine. The remarks, complete with talk about a 'sweet letter' and vodka from Mr. Putin, raise concerns that the new right-wing government, led by Giorgia Meloni, herself a solid supporter of Ukraine, is wobblier than expected and could, if it ever actually comes together with another Putin-admiring partner, potentially lead Italy to undercut Europe's united front against Russia.... Within days, the hard-right leader Giorgia Meloni ... is expected to become prime minister. But she needs Mr. Berlusconi's support, and he has now become the largest, and most erratic, obstacle to forming a government."

~~~~~~~~~~

Judge: Trump Lied in Sworn Affadavits. Kyle Cheney & Josh Gerstein of Politico: "... Donald Trump signed legal documents describing evidence of election fraud that he knew were false, a federal judge indicated on Wednesday. U.S. District Court Judge David Carter wrote in an 18-page opinion that emails from attorney John Eastman, an architect of Trump's last-ditch effort to subvert the 2020 election, needed to be turned over to the Jan. 6 select committee. Those emails, Carter wrote, 'show that President Trump knew that the specific numbers of voter fraud were wrong but continued to tout those numbers, both in court and to the public.' The emails are among the files that Eastman had been declining to turn over to the committee, citing attorney-client privilege.... [Judge Carter] ruled that Eastman must disclose four [of those] emails to congressional investigators because they are evidence of a likely crime." After Eastman warned some of Trump's attorneys that allegations Trump had previously made were "not accurate," "Trump and his lawyers opted to file the federal complaint using the same numbers that Eastman conceded were inaccurate." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Luke Broadwater & Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump signed a document swearing under oath that information in a Georgia lawsuit he filed challenging the results of the 2020 election was true even though his own lawyers had told him it was false, a federal judge wrote on Wednesday.... Judge [David] Carter wrote on Wednesday that the crime-fraud exception applied to a number of the emails related to Mr. Trump and [attorney John] Eastman's 'efforts to delay or disrupt the Jan. 6 vote' and 'their knowing misrepresentation of voter fraud numbers in Georgia when seeking to overturn the election results in federal court.'... In one [email], Mr. Trump's lawyers advised him that simply having a challenge to the election pending in front of the Supreme Court could be enough to delay the final tally of Electoral College votes from Georgia. 'This email,' Judge Carter wrote, 'read in context with other documents in this review, make clear that President Trump filed certain lawsuits not to obtain legal relief, but to disrupt or delay the Jan. 6 congressional proceedings through the courts.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: George Conway, appearing on CNN, said that the timing of the email exchange is crucial. Eastman urged Trump not to sign documents misrepresenting voter-fraud numbers in Georgia just a few days before Trump called Georgia Secretary of State [WashPo link] Brad Raffensperger (R) & pleaded with him to "find me 11,700 votes" because "we won the state, and we won it very substantially and easily." That is, Trump knew that everything he told Raffensperger about his big win in Georgia was a lie, including multiple claims like, "anywhere from 250 to 300,000 ballots were dropped mysteriously into the rolls," and "a couple of hundred thousand of forged signatures of people who have been forged." Yet Trump used these false (and absurd) claims to pressure Raffensperger to change votes for Joe Biden to votes for Trump. ~~~

     ~~~ As Politico notes, the false affidavits Trump signed were in a federal case, so Trump has managed to break both federal law -- by submitting false verifications to a federal court -- and Georgia state law -- by urging the Secretary of State to unlawfully change votes Trump knew were legal votes for Joe Biden.

Katherine Faulders of ABC News: "The Jan. 6 committee investigating the attack on the U.S. Capitol has yet to formally subpoena ... Donald Trump, in part because investigators are still trying to find someone authorized to accept service of it, sources familiar with the matter tell ABC News. Last week, the committee took the historic step of voting to subpoena the former president, with all nine members of the panel voting to approve the resolution to compel him to testify about the attack on the Capitol, which the committee argues was the violent culmination of Trump's many efforts to overturn the 2020 election. But multiple lawyers representing Trump have told committee investigators they aren't permitted to formally accept service of the subpoena on behalf of Trump...." At least three Trump lawyers have told committee investigators they don't have the authority to accept a subpoena for Trump.

Benjamin Weiser of the New York Times: "Three years after the writer E. Jean Carroll sued Donald J. Trump for defamation in New York, the former president submitted to a sworn deposition on Wednesday at Mar-a-Lago, his residence and private club in Florida. Ms. Carroll, in a 2019 book and excerpt in New York magazine, accused Mr. Trump of raping her in the mid-1990s at the department store Bergdorf Goodman. She said that he pushed her against a dressing room wall, pulled down her tights, opened his pants and forced himself upon her. Mr. Trump said that he had never met Ms. Carroll, that she was 'totally lying' and that she was not his 'type.'... [Recently] Mr. Trump blasted Ms. Carroll in a lengthy social media post, repeating the kind of statements that had prompted her to sue in the first place.... The trial is scheduled for Feb. 6." A CNN story is here.

Sarah Murray, et al., of CNN: "Donald Trump's legal team is weighing whether to allow federal agents to return to the former President's Florida residence, and potentially conduct a supervised search, to satisfy the Justice Department's demands that all sensitive government documents are returned, sources tell CNN.... In the throes of multiple legal battles and hoping to alleviate some of the pressure he is facing, Trump has recently signaled to aides and allies that he is open to a less adversarial approach toward the Justice Department.... The approach comes even as Trump continues to indulge legal theories that the records he took with him at the end of his presidency are his personal property...." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: This doesn't make any sense. We've already seen photos of Trump staff at the airport bringing file boxes from Mar-a-Lardo to some undisclosed location in New York or New Jersey. We've already read reports that the FBI doesn't believe all the docs Trump stole are at Mar-a-Lardo. So how is a Trump-"supervised" FBI visit to the Florida residence supposed to satisfy the FBI & DOJ? No search, without considerable cooperation from Trump staff, family members & other co-conspirators, can begin to answer where Trump has stashed all the stuff he (allegedly) stole.

Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump inquired whether a documentary filmmaker recording an interview with him last year was a 'good Jewish character,' described Persians as 'very good salesmen' and complained that Israeli Jews favored him more than Jews in the United States, a new clip released by the filmmaker shows.... The clip cuts off as Mr. Trump asks someone...: 'You Persian? Very smart. Be careful, they're very good salesmen.'... The video was recorded on May 20, 2021, and was provided to The New York Times by the documentary filmmaker, Alex Holder. It was filmed at an event at Mr. Trump's golf club in Bedminster, N.J., as he spoke with several people.... Mr. Holder said that in one of their meetings, Mr. Trump had, off camera, expected Mr. Holder to be appreciative of the fact that as president, he had moved the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv. Mr. Trump, he said, seemed surprised when Mr. Holder explained that he was British. 'But you're Jewish,' he recalled Mr. Trump saying.... Mr. Holder's footage was subpoenaed by the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I'm confused. Apparently if you're of Jewish heritage, no matter where in the world you live & however little you care or even know where the U.S. Embassy in Israel is located, you're supposed to be grateful -- and loyal -- to Trump because he moved it to Jerusalem. Or something.

Jill Colvin of the AP: "Former Vice President Mike Pence on Wednesday warned against the growing populist tide in the Republican Party as he admonished 'Putin apologists' unwilling to stand up to the Russian leader over his assault on Ukraine. Speaking at the conservative Heritage Foundation in Washington less than a month before November's midterm elections, Pence addressed the growing gulf between traditional conservatives and a new generation of populist candidates inspired, in part, by ... Donald Trump.... Pence criticized those in the party who have pushed a more isolationist foreign policy, particularly when it comes to Russian aggression."

Rachel Weiner of the Washington Post: "Christian Secor, who led a campus group at UCLA with white supremacist ties, was sentenced Wednesday to 42 months in prison for storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, after admitting he entered the Senate chamber that day and sat in Vice President Mike Pence's chair.... Secor, who pleaded guilty in May to obstructing an official proceeding, was among the first wave that broke into the Capitol. He went into House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office suite, where McFadden noted staffers were 'cowering ... terrified' in another room. Secor then joined a group of about 40 people pushing against three Capitol Police officers guarding a set of doors on the east side of the Rotunda. The door gave way, allowing more demonstrators to flood in -- including members of the Oath Keepers who are on trial in the same courthouse." The AP's report is here.

Fractured History. On Tuesday, Marjorie Taylor Greene posted to Liars Social, "Tonight, I stopped at the Wilder Monument in Chickamauga, GA, which honors the Confederate soldiers of the Wilder Brigade. I will always defend our nation's history!" Minor hiccup: the Wilder Monument memorializes the Wilder Brigade, a crack unit of the Union Army credited with twice saving the Union Army from the Confederates at the Battle of Chickamauga. The Confederates ultimately won the battle, but at the price of great loss of life on both sides. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)


Akilah Johnson & Dan Keating of the Washington Post: "The imbalance in death rates [from Covid-19] among the nation's racial and ethnic groups has been a defining part of the pandemic since the start.... Early in the crisis, the differing covid threat was evident in places such as Memphis and Fayette County. Deaths were concentrated in dense urban areas, where Black people died at several times the rate of White people.... Over time, the gap in deaths widened and narrowed but never disappeared -- until mid-October 2021, when the nation's pattern of covid mortality changed, with the rate of death among White Americans sometimes eclipsing other groups.... Racial disparity vanished at the end of last year, becoming roughly equal. And at times during that same period, the overall age-adjusted death rate for White people slightly surpassed that of Black and Latino people."

Fox "News" Starts a New Covid Conspiracy Theory. Dan Diamond & Lena Sun of the Washington Post: "On Tuesday morning, a Fox News contributor claimed on Twitter that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was set to mandate that schoolchildren get coronavirus vaccines. By Tuesday evening, the claim was being repeated by the nation's most popular cable news show, and had been amplified to millions more on social media. 'The CDC is about to add the Covid vaccine to the childhood immunization schedule, which would make the vax mandatory for kids to attend school,' host Tucker Carlson tweeted, sharing a segment from his show that has been viewed more than 1.5 million times online. But the claim was wrong: The CDC cannot mandate that schoolchildren receive vaccines, a decision left up to states and jurisdictions.... 'This is an all new level of dangerous misinformation,' Jerome M. Adams, who served as U.S. surgeon general during the Trump administration..., wrote in a text message to The Washington Post." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Surely some regulatory agency (FCC) can send Fox a cease-and-desist letter ordering it to stop describing the network as "Fox News" when so much of its content is "Faux News" or "Fox Rumors, Conspiracy Theories & Flat-Out Lies." If I sold you a bag of sand and gravel labelled "Pure Cane Sugar," you would have some recourse. Fox viewers should have similar protection.

November Elections

Arizona. Sebastian Murdock of the Huffington Post: "A GOP candidate running for an Arizona college district's governing board was arrested on a charge of public sexual indecency after an officer allegedly caught him masturbating in his truck near a preschool. Randy Kaufman was arrested Oct. 4 but suspended his campaign Tuesday following media reports of his arrest. Kaufman is running for the governing board of the Maricopa County Community College District, and was allegedly caught masturbating by the county's community college police.... The officer said ... that Kaufman was in view of a nearby bicyclist and a preschool where children were playing outside. When confronted, the officer said, Kaufman apologized for the act. 'I'm sorry,' Kaufman said, according to the report. 'I fucked up. I'm really stressed.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Beyond the Beltway

Florida. Another DeSantolini Stunt Gone Awry. Michael Wines & Neil Vigdor of the New York Times: "Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida announced in August 'a first salvo' in what he called a long-overdue crackdown on voting crimes. But newly released body camera footage indicates that people arrested on charges of voting illegally seemed puzzled and appeared to have run afoul of the law through confusion rather than intent. The arrests targeted people convicted of felonies, a group that includes many former inmates who had voting rights restored in a process that left many others uncertain or misinformed about their eligibility to vote. In the videos that were obtained on Wednesday by The New York Times from the Tampa Police Department, those arrested repeatedly told officers that they were blindsided by the charges and had previously been cleared to vote by election officials." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I heard on MSNBC (I think it was) that the state (the outfit DeSantolini runs) was supposed to send lists to the counties of ex-felons who were ineligible to vote for some reason. But, at least to the five largest Florida counties, the state did not send the list. So, naturally, poll workers allowed these registered voters to vote.

Way Beyond

Ukraine, et al.

The New York Times' live updates of developments Thursday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here. ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live updates for Thursday are here: "Ukrainians are set to experience rolling blackouts starting Thursday after Russia's military continued attacks on the country's energy facilities this week, officials said. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who will join a European Council summit to address Ukraine's energy challenges later in the day, pledged to do 'everything possible to restore the normal energy capabilities of our country.'... Ukraine's electricity grid operator told residents to charge their phones, flashlights and other key appliances, adding: 'The weather is getting worse.'... The resettlement of around 50,000 civilians from Kherson is under way, Russian proxy officials in the southern region said. The Wednesday announcement came as the Institute for the Study of War think tank said Russia's warnings of a Ukrainian offensive in the region were likely attempts to set the conditions for a full retreat across the Dnieper River and Russia's ceding of the city of Kherson, the first major settlement it took in the invasion.... The U.S. government has examined wrecked Iranian-made drones shot down in Ukraine, and information it gains about the drones could help the United States and its Ukrainian allies prevent future drones from reaching their targets...."

Andrew Kramer & Neil MacFarquhar of the New York Times: "President Vladimir V. Putin declared martial law in four Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine on Wednesday, but in a telling sign that his real concerns may lie far closer to home, he also moved to put the economy on a wartime footing and imposed restrictions in more than two dozen areas across Russia. With battlefield losses mounting in Ukraine and the Russian public simmering over an unpopular military conscription order, Mr. Putin's actions appeared to be less a show of strength than a sign of disarray. As a practical matter, Moscow has only tenuous control of the eastern Ukrainian regions where it imposed martial law, weeks after illegally annexing them."

Eric Tucker & Fatima Hussein of the AP: "The Biden administration on Wednesday announced a round of criminal charges and sanctions related to a complicated scheme to procure military technologies from U.S. manufacturers and illegally supply them to Russia for its war in Ukraine. Some of the equipment was recovered on battlefields in Ukraine, the Justice Department said, and other nuclear proliferation technology was intercepted in Latvia before it could be shipped to Russia. The Justice Department charged nearly a dozen people in separate cases in New York and Connecticut, including Russian nationals accused of purchasing sensitive military technologies from U.S. companies and laundering tens of millions of dollars for wealthy Russian businessmen; Latvians accused of conspiring to smuggle equipment to Russian and oil brokers for Venezuela accused of working on illicit deals for a Venezuelan state-owned oil company."


U.K. Mark Landler & Stephen Castle of the New York Times: "Fighting for her political survival after the collapse of her economic agenda, Prime Minister Liz Truss of Britain suffered another heavy blow on Wednesday after she was forced to fire one of her most senior cabinet ministers, the second major ouster in a six-week-old government that has tumbled into chaos. Hours after Ms. Truss rejected demands to resign herself..., the prime minister dismissed the home secretary, Suella Braverman, over a security breach involving a government document that Ms. Braverman had sent to a lawmaker in Parliament through her personal email.... Appearing at a stormy session of prime minister's questions in Parliament, Ms. Truss repeated her apology for the disastrous fiscal program.... The emergence of the news about Ms. Braverman only a few hours later exposed bitter rifts in the cabinet and a prime minister largely at the mercy of events.... In her letter of resignation to Ms. Truss, [Ms. Braverman] said she had 'concerns about the direction of this government,' accusing it of breaking pledges to voters and, in particular, of failing to curb immigration.... Ms. Braverman was replaced by Grant Shapps, a more centrist figure, whose appointment underscored the shift in the political balance of the cabinet away from the hard-liners who supported Ms. Truss in the leadership contest...." The Guardian's story, which first broke the news, is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Gosh, the U.K. is like a mini-U.S. An incompetent leader (tho maybe not as stupid as Trump), ridiculous Cabinet turnover, recriminations and even, "But the emails!" ~~~

~~~ Daniel Victor of the New York Times: "... [a head of] lettuce has become a caricature of the Conservative leader's flailing hold on power, pitted against the prime minister by The Daily Star, a left-leaning British tabloid. 'Will Liz Truss outlast this lettuce?' the newspaper asks in a live video that has been running since Oct. 14, attracting bounds of viewers and comments on social media. The lettuce gag was inspired by The Economist, which noted on Oct. 11 that between a near-immediate political implosion at the beginning of her tenure and the 10 days of mourning after Queen Elizabeth II died, her grip on power amounted to seven days, or 'roughly the shelf-life of a lettuce.'... On Tuesday the newspaper declared in a front-page headline: 'Lettuce Liz on Leaf Support.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

News Lede

Washington Post: Daniel R. "Smith, who was 90 when he died Oct. 19 at a hospital in Washington, was one of the last remaining children of enslaved Black Americans, and a rare direct link to slavery in the United States. Born when his father was 70, he was part of a generation that dwindled and then all but disappeared, taking with them stories of bondage that were told firsthand by mothers and fathers who, after enduring brutal conditions on Southern plantations, sought to build a new, better life for their families."

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