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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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Publisher & Editor: Marie Burns


Thursday
Oct062022

October 7, 2022

Afternoon Update:

Lara Seligman of Politico: "The Pentagon said Friday that it still has seen no indications that Vladimir Putin is planning to launch nuclear weapons after President Joe Biden warned of the risk of a nuclear 'Armageddon.' Biden's comments show how seriously the U.S. is taking Putin's threats to use nuclear weapons, Defense Department spokesperson J. Todd Breasseale said in a statement to Politico. 'However -- and to be clear: we have not seen any reason to adjust our own strategic nuclear posture nor do we have indications that Russia is preparing to imminently use nuclear weapons,' he said. U.S. officials told Politico that nothing has changed on the nuclear front in the past 24 hours. On Thursday, Pentagon press secretary Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder told reporters that the department does not have any information that would cause it to change its nuclear posture."

Timothy Shenk in a New York Times op-ed, based on an excerpt from a book Shenk is writing: Barack "Obama left Harvard with a blueprint for remaking American democracy. Written with Robert Fisher, a friend and former economics professor, the 250-page manuscript had the working title of 'Transformative Politics.'" Shenk outlines the Obama/Fisher thesis and how it fit into, you know, real life. Interesting.

The TrumpDocs Story Gets Weirder & Weirder. Mike Levine & Katherine Faulders of ABC News: "At the end of Donald Trump's presidency, his team returned a large batch of classified FBI documents and other government records to the Justice Department in such disarray that a year later -- in a letter to lawmakers -- the department said it still couldn't tell which of the documents were the classified ones. The documents came from the FBI's controversial probe in 2016 looking at alleged links between Russia and Trump's presidential campaign. Trump tried to make the documents public the night before he left office, issuing a 'declassification' memo and secretly meeting with conservative writer John Solomon, who was allowed to review the documents, Solomon told ABC News this past week." The story goes on. And on.

Dan Diamond, et al., of the Washington Post: "Federal officials have spent the past year urging Americans to get [Covid] booster shots to bolster their protection against the coronavirus, which wanes over time. In early September, they rushed out the first new shots -- reformulated to target the still-dominant omicron variants -- to give people time to get inoculated before a likely cold weather surge, when respiratory infections increase as people head indoors, and recommended that all Americans 12 and older receive a third and fourth dose of vaccine. But the campaigns have lagged badly. Only about 105 million U.S. adults -- roughly 40 percent -- have received the third shot of vaccine initially offered a year ago, according to federal data, a far lower rate than countries like the United Kingdom, where more than 70 percent of adults have gotten a third dose."

Georgia Senate Race. Maya King, et al., of the New York Times: "A woman who has said Herschel Walker, the Republican Senate nominee in Georgia, paid for her abortion in 2009 told The New York Times that he urged her to terminate a second pregnancy two years later. They ended their relationship after she refused. In a series of interviews, the woman said Mr. Walker had barely been involved in their now 10-year-old son's life, offering little more than court-ordered child support and occasional gifts.... [Mr. Walker] called her 'some alleged woman' in a radio interview on Thursday.... Mr. Walker has repeatedly denied her account, calling it a 'flat-out' lie and the work of Democrats and the hostile news media. He has disputed that he signed [a get-well] card [the woman produced].... The interviews and documents provided to The Times together corroborate and expand upon an account about her abortion first published on Monday in The Daily Beast. The Times also independently confirmed details with custody records filed in family court in New York and interviewed a friend of the woman...." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie's Note to Walker: Maybe the fact that you're sending child support payments to "some alleged woman" will help you recall who she is. You could consult your bank statement. ~~~

~~~ Gabby Orr & Michael Warren of CNN: "Herschel Walker's Senate campaign cut ties with its political director on Wednesday, CNN has learned, the move coming just days after The Daily Beast reported that the Georgia Republican paid for a woman's abortion more than a decade ago. The departure of Taylor Crowe, who previously held the same role on ex-GOP Sen. David Perdue's failed bid for Georgia governor this year, comes just weeks before Election Day in the crucial Senate contest against Democratic incumbent Raphael Warnock.... Two people familiar with the matter said Crowe was fired after suspected leaking to members of the media." ~~~

~~~ Quin Hillyer of the right-wing Washington Examiner: "Here's what Walker should do: Announce that he will stay on the ballot because it is legally too late to replace him. He should say if he wins, he will indeed be sworn in, in January, to make things official. He should pledge, though, that within two days of being sworn in, he will resign -- under one huge condition. Whomever the governor is (it is likely to be Republican Brian Kemp), of either party, they must agree to appoint a person chosen by the Georgia Republican Executive Committee to replace him until a new election can be held. The committee should name its choice before the Nov. 8 election so voters will know exactly for whom Walker is essentially standing as a proxy."

New York. Emma Fitzsimmons of the New York Times: "Mayor Eric Adams declared a state of emergency for New York City on Friday as the city struggles to respond to an influx of tens of thousands of migrants from Latin America. Mr. Adams said in a speech at City Hall that the city was preparing to spend $1 billion on its response and called for federal and state funding to help pay for housing and services for the busloads of migrants who have strained the city's homeless shelter system.... Mr. Adams, a Democrat who took office in January, said the city was moving forward with plans to build a tent intake center on Randalls Island, in the East River just off Manhattan. City officials are also negotiating with cruise ship companies to house migrants on board a ship."

Ireland. Ed O'Loughlin of the New York Times: "The Irish government introduced an online service this week that for the first time promises adopted people born in Ireland, wherever they now live, the right to see any information the state holds about them -- including the names of their birth mothers. It also offers a free tracing service for anyone, including birth mothers, trying to find relatives lost to them through Ireland's adoption system.... [The service] has the potential to be a significant step in reckoning with a painful national legacy of mistreatment of unmarried mothers and their children. Over decades, ending as recently as 1998, thousands of pregnant and unmarried women and girls in Ireland were confined to church-run 'mother and baby homes,' where they were expected and often pressured to give up their babies after birth. An official inquiry published last year acknowledged poor conditions, high death rates and abuses at the institutions."

~~~~~~~~~~~

** Dude! Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Biden on Thursday pardoned all people convicted of marijuana possession under federal law and said his administration would review whether marijuana should still be a Schedule 1 drug like heroin and LSD, saying that 'makes no sense.' The pardons will clear about 6,500 people who were convicted on federal charges of simple possession of marijuana from 1992 to 2021 and thousands more who were convicted of possession in the District of Columbia, officials said ahead of the president's announcement. Mr. Biden urged governors to follow his lead for people convicted on state charges of simple possession. The number of convictions under state laws vastly outnumbers those who have been charged with a violation of federal laws, limiting the overall reach of the president's actions on Thursday.... Mr. Biden stopped short of calling for the complete decriminalization of marijuana -- something that Congress would have to do -- and said that the federal government still needs 'important limitations on trafficking, marketing, and underage sales of marijuana.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) An AP report is here. ~~~

Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post: "President Biden went to Jiddah in July and gave a very public fist bump to Saudi Arabia's thuggish de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The prince, known by his initials MBS, has returned the favor with a sucker punch to the gut. The Saudi-led decision by the cartel of major oil-producing nations to cut production by 2 million barrels per day is bad news on every level.... Saudi Arabia is by far the biggest oil producer in OPEC, and thus calls the shots. Inside the kingdom, MBS, newly appointed prime minister, makes the decisions.... Biden needs to realize that Saudi Arabia under MBS is more part of the problem than part of the solution -- and to adjust U.S. policy accordingly.... Yes, these unsettled times require dealing with unsavory characters. But when one of them goes out of his way to hurt the United States, realpolitik means returning the favor." ~~~

~~~ Greg Sargent of the Washington Post: "Republicans are surely excited about the news that a group of oil-producing countries led by Saudi Arabia and Russia will slash oil production by 2 million barrels per day.... Democrats need to respond, not just for their own good but for the good of the country. This is an opportunity to clarify some murky complications in our politics about what the parties stand for -- and show that our energy future and even the fate of the Western alliance backing Ukraine are deeply entangled in these midterms. Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-N.J.), a vulnerable swing-district incumbent, is introducing a bill designed to increase pressure on OPEC and its allies to reverse the move. The bill would require the removal of U.S. troops and missile defense systems from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.... Biden as commander in chief doesn't need this bill to begin withdrawing military.... Biden has invested a great deal in 'cajoling' the Saudis, but it obviously failed...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Hwaida Saad, et al., of the New York Times: "U.S. Special Operations forces carried out two major strikes against the Islamic State in northern Syria on Thursday, killing three senior figures responsible for arming and recruiting fighters and plotting attacks, according to American and Syrian Kurdish officials. Taken together, the nighttime assaults dealt the Islamic State its most punishing blow since a risky predawn raid in northwest Syria in early February by American commandos resulted in the death of the terrorist group's overall leader, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi."

Julia Ainsley of NBC News: "Two Russian nationals sought asylum in Alaska on Tuesday when they landed by boat on St. Lawrence Island, leaving lawmakers from the state asking the federal government for extra support in case more Russians flee to Alaska amid President Vladimir Putin's military call-up. The town of Gambell on the northwestern tip of the island is more than 60 miles from mainland Russia across the Bering Strait. Local authorities first encountered the Russian nationals and contacted the U.S. Coast Guard for help. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, called the federal response 'lacking' and said that Customs and Border Protection had to send Coast Guard responders from over 750 miles away.... [Sen. Dan] Sullivan [R-Alaska] said he has encouraged CBP 'to have a plan ready with the Coast Guard in the event that more Russians flee to Bering Strait communities in Alaska,' Sullivan said." MB: My plan: accept their asylum applications, then bus them to Martha's Vineyard. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Katelyn Polantz of CNN: "A federal judge in Washington, DC, ruled Thursday that changes Postmaster General Louis DeJoy made to the US Postal Service before the 2020 election hurt mail delivery, and has put in place orders to prevent DeJoy from doing the same again. The decision, in a years-old lawsuit from Democratic-led state and local governments, is largely a response to mail across the country not being delivered on time at higher rates than normal in 2020.... In mid-2020, the USPS cut back on the number of mail sorting machines it used, and also hindered the ability of workers to make extra postal trips that would result in them being paid for overtime. The changes -- which Democratic politicians heavily criticized at the time because they dovetailed with ... Donald Trump's vocal opposition to mail-in balloting during the election -- hurt on-time mail delivery. DeJoy had made the changes without consulting the regulatory agency that oversees the post office first, Judge Emmet Sullivan wrote in his 65-page opinion Thursday."

Burgess Everett & Marianne Levine of Politico: "Ben Sasse is likely to accept a job as the president of the University of Florida and resign his Senate seat in the near future, according to two people familiar with the Nebraska Republican's plans.... Prior to running for Senate, he was president of Midland University.... Nebraska governor Pete Ricketts would then appoint a replacement for Sasse under state law, with the seat then up for a special election in 2024. One of the people familiar with Sasse's plans said Ricketts himself is viewed as a potential appointee for the seat. The University of Florida confirmed Sasse's plans in a press release Thursday that announced him as the sole finalist for the position." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) The New York Times' story is here.

** Prelude to an Indictment? Kaitlan Collins, et al., of CNN: "Justice Department officials have demanded in recent weeks to ... Donald Trump's attorneys that he return any outstanding documents marked as classified, making clear they do not believe he has returned all materials taken when he left the White House, a person familiar with the outreach told CNN. The Justice officials -- including Jay Bratt, a top lawyer in the Department of Justice's national security division -- have communicated to Trump's attorneys that he has an ongoing obligation to return the documents marked as classified.... In numerous court filings, prosecutors indicated they had concerns that classified records were possibly still missing." ~~~

     ~~~ ** Michael Schmidt, et al., of the New York Times: "A top Justice Department official told ... Donald J. Trump's lawyers in recent weeks that the department believed he had not returned all the documents he took when he left the White House, according to two people briefed on the matter. The outreach from the official, Jay I. Bratt, who leads the department's counterintelligence operations, is the most concrete indication yet that investigators remain skeptical that Mr. Trump has been fully cooperative in their efforts to recover documents the former president was supposed to have turned over to the National Archives at the end of his term.... The outreach from the department prompted a rift among Mr. Trump's lawyers about how to respond, with one camp counseling a cooperative approach that would include bringing in an outside firm to conduct a further search for documents and another advising Mr. Trump to maintain a more combative posture. The more combative camp ... won out." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I doubt the DOJ's "belief" is unfounded; no doubt the DOJ or FBI has developed some evidence that backs up their supposition.

Sarah Murray & Jason Morris of CNN: "The Georgia prosecutor leading an investigation into efforts by Donald Trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 election is aiming to quickly wrap up the grand jury's work after the midterm elections and could begin issuing indictments as early as December, sources familiar with the situation tell CNN. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has said that her investigation into attempts to subvert the 2020 election will go quiet beginning later this week to avoid any appearance of influencing the upcoming election. But while her investigation will not make any overt moves in the next few weeks, her team is gearing up for a flurry of activity after Election Day."

Josh Gerstein of Politico: "Three men involved with the Oath Keepers militia took the stand as prosecution witnesses on Thursday at the federal seditious conspiracy trial of its leaders, describing various levels of alarm about the group's rhetoric in advance of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol." Gerstein reports on their testimony.

Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "A lieutenant of longtime former Proud Boys chairman Henry 'Enrique' Tarrio became the group's first member to plead guilty to seditious conspiracy in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot on Thursday, deepening the government's case against an organization accused of mobilizing violence to prevent the inauguration of Joe Biden. Jeremy Bertino, 43, of Belmont, N.C., becomes a potential key witness for the Justice Department against Tarrio and four other Proud Boys leaders, some of whom had ties to influential supporters of ... Donald Trump. The five Proud Boys defendants are set to face trial in December on charges including plotting to oppose by force the presidential transition, culminating in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack at the Capitol." Politico's story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha Ha. David Folkenflik of NPR: "Besieged by angry viewers, denounced by then-President Trump, questioned by some of its own stars, Fox News found itself in a near-impossible spot on Election Night 2020 after its election-analysis team announced before any other network that Joe Biden would win the pivotal swing state of Arizona. Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott proved so flummoxed by what ensued that she warned colleagues, 'We can't give the crazies an inch.' That's according to the account of a lawyer for Dominion Voting Systems, which is seeking $1.6 billion from Fox in a defamation suit over false allegations on the network that the company committed election fraud.... In the weeks that followed, a cadre of Fox News stars hosted Trump's advisers -- and even Trump himself -- to peddle baseless conspiracy theories of election fraud. Many of those false claims asserted without evidence that Dominion's technology and machines had been used to rig the vote and to cheat Trump out of the White House.... Fox's attorney, Justin Keller, did not dispute the remarks attributed ... to Fox News CEO Scott." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Scott didn't give enough attention to the fact that her on-air staff were among the craziest of the crazies.

Devlin Barrett & Perry Stein of the Washington Post: "Federal agents investigating President Biden's son Hunter have gathered what they believe is sufficient evidence to charge him with tax crimes and a false statement related to a gun purchase, according to people familiar with the case. The next step is for the U.S. Attorney in Delaware, a Trump administration holdover, to decide on whether to file such charges, these people said. The investigation into Hunter Biden began in 2018, and became a central focus for ... Donald Trump during his unsuccessful 2020 reelection effort. Initially, the investigation centered around Hunter Biden's finances related to overseas business ties and consulting work." The CBS News story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie's Coda: Obviously, this story comes courtesy of a leaker. Anything is possible, but it's unlikely the leak would come from Hunter Biden's camp because there's not much upside for Hunter's team to admit the FBI found compelling evidence he had committed crimes. It could have come from the DOJ, but the most likely source is someone in the FBI, someone frustrated that the DOJ has not charged Hunter. If either federal agency is the source, it's probably a firing offense.

Lauren Hirsch & Kate Conger of the New York Times: "On Thursday, [Elon] Musk managed to slow Twitter's lawsuit against him. He asked a judge to delay a trial that was set to begin in little more than a week and that could force him to make good on a deal he struck in April to acquire the company for $44 billion. Kathaleen McCormick, the judge overseeing the case, granted Mr. Musk's request, giving the billionaire three weeks to complete his purchase of Twitter.... Twitter had opposed the motion, arguing that Mr. Musk did not appear to be serious about lining up his financing and that the trial should proceed unless he quickly makes good on his latest offer of $54.20 per share." ~~~

     ~~~ Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: "... I have mixed feelings about what might be the impending takeover of Twitter by Elon Musk.... Musk's politics are shaped by a fondness for trolling and a hatred of wokeness, and he's likely to make the site a more congenial place for racist demagogues and conspiracy theorists. Among other things, he's promised to reinstate Donald Trump.... Other far-right figures may not be far behind, along with Russian propagandists, Covid deniers and the like.... I have a shred of hope, however, that if Musk makes Twitter awful enough, users will flee, and it will become less relevant.... The best thing [Twitter] could do for society would be to implode."

Elizabeth Williamson of the New York Times: "Jury deliberations began late Thursday in the damages trial of the Infowars fabulist Alex Jones, who defamed the families of eight victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre and unleashed years of abuse and threats against them from people who believed Mr. Jones's lies on his online and radio broadcast that the Dec. 14, 2012, shooting was a hoax. Growing emotional at times, Chris Mattei, a lawyer on the families' legal team, walked the jurors through a litany of the abuse inflicted by Mr. Jone and his followers, who believed the families were complicit in the plot."

November Elections

** The Crazy Owns the GOP. Amy Gardner of the Washington Post: "A majority of Republican nominees on the ballot this November for the House, Senate and key statewide offices -- 299 in all -- have denied or questioned the outcome of the last presidential election, according to a Washington Post analysis. Candidates who have challenged or refused to accept Joe Biden's victory are running in every region of the country and in nearly every state. Republican voters in three states nominated election deniers in all federal and statewide races The Post examined. Although some are running in heavily Democratic areas and are expected to lose, most of the election deniers nominated are likely to win: Of the nearly 300 on the ballot, 173 are running for safely Republican seats. Another 52 will appear on the ballot in tightly contested races.

"The implications will be lasting: If Republicans take control of the House, as many political forecasters predict, election deniers would hold enormous sway over the choice of the nation's next speaker, who in turn could preside over the House in a future contested presidential election. The winners of all the races examined by The Post -- those for governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, attorney general, Senate and House -- will hold some measure of power overseeing American elections" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ If you want to know who the election deniers are on your state's ballot, this WashPo page makes it easy.

Arizona Senate. Jennifer Medina & Jack Healy of the New York Times assess Thursday night's debate between Sen. Mark Kelly (D) & challenger Blake Masters (Nuts). MB: The reporters treat the contest as if Masters were not nuts. Democracy Dies in Both-Sides "Journalism." ~~~

~~~ This Is More Like It. Lee Moran of the Huffington Post: "Arizona GOP Senate candidate Blake Masters was fiercely rebuked in an open letter penned by former teachers and classmates, along with other alumni from his school. The Donald Trump-backed Masters 'will lead Arizona down a dark, dystopian path' if he wins election in November, the alumni of Green Fields Country Day School in Tuscon warned in the letter shared by the Arizona Mirror on Thursday. 'He peddles extremist ideology -- attacking veterans, calling abortion "demonic," being endorsed by Neo-Nazis, blaming gun violence on "Black people, frankly," and that's just the tip of the iceberg,' they wrote."

Georgia Senate. Isaac Arnsdorf & others at the Washington Post look at the personal baggage Senate candidate Herschel Walker carries around, something that Georgia GOP politicos were worried about even before he formally announced his candidacy. Now that the Daily Beast has revealed that Walker allegedly encouraged & apparently paid for, his candidacy appears to be in trouble. "As a candidate, Walker has supported an absolute ban on abortions, with no exception for rape, incest or the health of the mother. Walker's campaign initially denied the report and promised to sue the next day, but no lawsuit has been filed. 'They keep telling me things like that, and it's totally, totally untrue,' Walker said in an interview on Thursday with the conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt. Walker added: 'If that had happened, I would have said there's nothing to be ashamed of there. People have done that -- but I know nothing about it.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Since it's not entirely clear what it is that Walker thought engendered no shame, reporters at a later campaign event asked him about the remark. Anderson Cooper of CNN read Walker's entire "explanation," and it was nothing but nonsensical word salad. If the remark to Hewitt was ambiguous, the "clarification" was incomprehensible. Even given Walker's incentive to obfuscate, his "answer" was a sad reminder of his mental & verbal limitations. I would add that Joy Reid of MSNBC, assuming that Walker meant that no man should be ashamed of funding an abortion (which is what he seems to have said), went on an appropriate rant about the GOP's misogynistic double standard: the law should ban abortions and should punish women who have abortions (and those who provide them); the men who impregnated the women should not have to take responsibility or feel any guilt about it. ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Mother Jones goes with this headline for Tim Murphy's column on the Walker mess: "Herschel Walker Says the Allegations Against Him are Untrue and He Didn't Send Anyone Money for an Abortion, But That He Sent Lots of People Money for Lots of Things and It's Hard to Keep Track, and If the Story Were True It Would Be Nothing to Be Ashamed of Because He Believes in Forgiveness, But He Has Done Nothing to Be Forgiven For, and Is Living Proof That You Can Make Mistakes and Move Forward, Which Is Really What This Campaign Is All About."

Beyond the Beltway

Alabama. If at First You Botch an Execution, Try, Try Again. Evan Mealins of the Montgomery Advertiser: "The state of Alabama is now seeking a new execution date for Alan Eugene Miller, who survived the state's first attempt to kill him in late September. Only a handful of people have walked away from an execution attempt alive, two of which had a second execution date set. On Tuesday, the Alabama attorney general's office filed with the Alabama Supreme Court an expedited motion to set an execution date for Miller before another man on death row.... After the U.S. Supreme Court OK'd Miller's execution by lethal injection shortly after 9 p.m. on Sept. 22, Alabama Department of Corrections staff tried to establish intravenous access to administer the lethal injection. Prison staff couldn't find a suitable vein and called off the procedure 30 minutes before midnight, when the execution warrant expired. Elizabeth Bruenig of the Atlantic reported that staff poked Miller with needles for more than an hour before he 'was left hanging off the upright gurney, his hands and one foot bleeding from failed IV attempts, waiting to die.'" ~~~

~~~ Otherwise, Everything Is Going Very Smoothly. Keri Blakinger of the Marshall Project in the Guardian: "Last Friday, five days after Alabama prisoners launched a statewide labor strike, Republican governor Kay Ivey stood on the steps of the governor's mansion and assured reporters that the head of the state's beleaguered corrections department had things 'well under control'. But images and interviews from inside the state's prisons show a system in disarray, with deteriorating conditions, pervasive violence, multiple deaths and little oversight from staff.... The Alabama prison system has been the target of a federal investigation for years, and in late 2020, the Department of Justice sued the state over concerns about overcrowding, violence and a high risk of death for incarcerated people. Despite the added scrutiny, prisoners and advocates said conditions have not improved."

New York. Jonah Bromwich of the New York Times: "A federal judge on Thursday blocked large portions of New York's new gun law, finding that the expansive restrictions on the public carrying of guns created by the measure were unconstitutional. In a 53-page order, the judge, Glenn T. Suddaby of the Northern District, said he would block the state from enforcing a number of the new law's provisions, writing that New York was trampling on the constitutional right to bear arms. But he agreed to a three-business-day stay of his order, pending an emergency appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.... Judge Suddaby, a former prosecutor who was appointed to the court in 2008 by President George W. Bush, took a harsh view of the new law, which was passed this summer after the Supreme Court struck down the state's previous gun law, one of the most restrictive in the nation." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Way Beyond

Ukraine, et al.

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

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live briefings for Friday are here: "Russia is moving ahead with plans to incorporate the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant into Russia's energy system, although the process could take months, according to officials cited in Russian media on Friday. Work has begun to restart two of the power units at Europe's largest nuclear power plant, according to a Kremlin-backed official in the Russian-controlled Ukrainian town of Enerhodar, where the plant is located. A specialist team from the International Atomic Energy Agency is due to visit the Zaporizhzhia plant on Friday, Reuters reports....

"A top Russian official has voiced disagreement directly to Putin in recent weeks, according to U.S. intelligence. The identity of the member of Putin's inner circle is unclear, but questions about Putin's leadership have been simmering in Moscow of late, breaking taboos, with open criticism of top military officials becoming more common.... European Union leaders are meeting in Prague on Friday to discuss the war and its impact, including rising inflation and energy shortages heading into winter.... A Swedish investigation has found evidence of 'gross sabotage' on the Nord Stream pipelines, which convey natural gas from Russia to Europe, after they were damaged in explosions last week."

Paul Schemm, et al., of the Washington Post: "The 2022 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded Friday to imprisoned Belarusian human rights advocate Ales Bialiatski and two human rights organizations -- one Russian and the other Ukrainian -- in what the Norwegian Nobel committee said was an effort to promote 'a vision of peace and fraternity between nations' amid the war in Ukraine. In addition to Bialiatski, who has been detained in Belarus without trial since 2020, the two organizations sharing this year's prize are the Russian human rights group Memorial and Ukraine's Center for Civil Liberties."

Aamer Madhani & Zeke Miller of the AP: "President Joe Biden said Thursday that the risk of nuclear 'Armageddon' is at the highest level since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, as Russian officials speak of the possibility of using tactical nuclear weapons after suffering massive setbacks in the eight-month invasion of Ukraine. Speaking at a fundraiser for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Biden said Russian President Vladimir Putin was 'a guy I know fairly well' and the Russian leader was 'not joking when he talks about the use of tactical nuclear weapons or biological or chemical weapons.' Biden ... suggested the threat from Putin is real 'because his military is -- you might say -- significantly underperforming.' U.S. officials for months have warned of the prospect that Russia could use weapons of mass destruction in Ukraine as it has faced a series of strategic setbacks on the battlefield, though Biden's remarks marked the starkest warnings yet issued by the U.S. government about the nuclear stakes." The New York Times story is here.


U.K. Mark Landler & Stephen Castle of the New York Times: "Six weeks ago, Prime Minister Liz Truss of Britain refused to say whether President Emmanuel Macron of France was friend or foe. On Thursday, she turned up in Prague at the maiden meeting of Mr. Macron's European Political Community, suggesting, on balance, that she'd rather be friends. Ms. Truss's appearance at the gathering of 44 nations was the latest in a perceptible warming trend toward Europe in the new British government.... Former diplomats and political analysts said the improved mood music could lead to more tangible results, as Britain begins to define a post-Brexit relationship with its European neighbors." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie's Helpful Fashion Advice: Unless you are dressing up for a glamorous night out, do not wear spikey heels with pants. Workday pants suits or pants, paired with skinny heels, look ridiculous. Spikey heels obviously are uncomfortable, impractical footware. So they look unprofessional. In general, any woman who wants to be taken seriously should not wear spike heels before 5 pm. Reference: photo accompanying the linked article about Truss.

News Ledes

CNBC: "Job growth fell just short of expectations in September and the unemployment rate declined despite efforts by the Federal Reserve to slow the economy, the Labor Department reported Friday. Nonfarm payrolls increased 263,000 for the month, compared to the Dow Jones estimate of 275,000. The unemployment rate was 3.5% vs the forecast of 3.7% as the labor force participation rate edged lower to 62.3% and the size of the labor force decreased by 57,000."

New York Times: "An apparently unprovoked stabbing attack outside a casino on the Las Vegas Strip ... left two people dead and six others injured on Thursday, the authorities said. The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department did not announce a motive for the attack but said that a suspect was in custody. A 'large knife with a long blade' that was used in the stabbing spree was recovered at the scene, the police said."

New York Times: "Judy Tenuta, a standup comic who shot to fame during the 1980s, delivering her frenetic, off-kilter comedy while dressed in outlandish outfits, playing the accordion and anointing herself 'The Love Goddess,' died on Thursday in Los Angeles. She was 72."

Comments Off
Wednesday
Oct052022

October 6, 2022

Afternoon Update:

** Dude! Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Biden on Thursday pardoned all people convicted of marijuana possession under federal law and said his administration would review whether marijuana should still be a Schedule 1 drug like heroin and LSD, saying that 'makes no sense.' The pardons will clear about 6,500 people who were convicted on federal charges of simple possession of marijuana from 1992 to 2021 and thousands more who were convicted of possession in the District of Columbia, officials said ahead of the president's announcement. Mr. Biden urged governors to follow his lead for people convicted on state charges of simple possession. The number of convictions under state laws vastly outnumbers those who have been charged with a violation of federal laws, limiting the overall reach of the president's actions on Thursday.... Mr. Biden stopped short of calling for the complete decriminalization of marijuana -- something that Congress would have to do -- and said that the federal government still needs 'important limitations on trafficking, marketing, and underage sales of marijuana.'" ~~~

Greg Sargent of the Washington Post: "Republicans are surely excited about the news that a group of oil-producing countries led by Saudi Arabia and Russia will slash oil production by 2 million barrels per day.... Democrats need to respond, not just for their own good but for the good of the country. This is an opportunity to clarify some murky complications in our politics about what the parties stand for -- and show that our energy future and even the fate of the Western alliance backing Ukraine are deeply entangled in these midterms. Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-N.J.), a vulnerable swing-district incumbent, is introducing a bill designed to increase pressure on OPEC and its allies to reverse the move. The bill would require the removal of U.S. troops and missile defense systems from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.... Biden as commander in chief doesn't need this bill to begin withdrawing military.... Biden has invested a great deal in 'cajoling' the Saudis, but it obviously failed...."

** November Elections. The Crazy Owns the GOP. Amy Gardner of the Washington Post: "A majority of Republican nominees on the ballot this November for the House, Senate and key statewide offices -- 299 in all -- have denied or questioned the outcome of the last presidential election, according to a Washington Post analysis. Candidates who have challenged or refused to accept Joe Biden's victory are running in every region of the country and in nearly every state. Republican voters in three states nominated election deniers in all federal and statewide races The Post examined. Although some are running in heavily Democratic areas and are expected to lose, most of the election deniers nominated are likely to win: Of the nearly 300 on the ballot, 173 are running for safely Republican seats. Another 52 will appear on the ballot in tightly contested races.

"The implications will be lasting: If Republicans take control of the House, as many political forecasters predict, election deniers would hold enormous sway over the choice of the nation's next speaker, who in turn could preside over the House in a future contested presidential election. The winners of all the races examined by The Post -- those for governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, attorney general, Senate and House -- will hold some measure of power overseeing American elections."

Burgess Everett & Marianne Levine of Politico: "Ben Sasse is likely to accept a job as the president of the University of Florida and resign his Senate seat in the near future, according to two people familiar with the Nebraska Republican's plans.... Prior to running for Senate, he was president of Midland University.... Nebraska governor Pete Ricketts would then appoint a replacement for Sasse under state law, with the seat then up for a special election in 2024. One of the people familiar with Sasse's plans said Ricketts himself is viewed as a potential appointee for the seat. The University of Florida confirmed Sasse's plans in a press release Thursday that announced him as the sole finalist for the position."

Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "A lieutenant of longtime former Proud Boys chairman Henry 'Enrique' Tarrio became the group's first member to plead guilty to seditious conspiracy in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot on Thursday, deepening the government's case against an organization accused of mobilizing violence to prevent the inauguration of Joe Biden. Jeremy Bertino, 43, of Belmont, N.C., becomes a potential key witness for the Justice Department against Tarrio and four other Proud Boys leaders, some of whom had ties to influential supporters of ... Donald Trump. The five Proud Boys defendants are set to face trial in December on charges including plotting to oppose by force the presidential transition, culminating in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack at the Capitol." Politico's story is here.

Devlin Barrett & Perry Stein of the Washington Post: "Federal agents investigating President Biden's son Hunter have gathered what they believe is sufficient evidence to charge him with tax crimes and a false statement related to a gun purchase, according to people familiar with the case. The next step is for the U.S. Attorney in Delaware, a Trump administration holdover, to decide on whether to file such charges, these people said. The investigation into Hunter Biden began in 2018, and became a central focus for ... Donald Trump during his unsuccessful 2020 reelection effort. Initially, the investigation centered around Hunter Biden's finances related to overseas business ties and consulting work." The CBS News story is here.

New York. Jonah Bromwich of the New York Times: "A federal judge on Thursday blocked large portions of New York's new gun law, finding that the expansive restrictions on the public carrying of guns created by the measure were unconstitutional. In a 53-page order, the judge, Glenn T. Suddaby of the Northern District, said he would block the state from enforcing a number of the new law's provisions, writing that New York was trampling on the constitutional right to bear arms. But he agreed to a three-business-day stay of his order, pending an emergency appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.... Judge Suddaby, a former prosecutor who was appointed to the court in 2008 by President George W. Bush, took a harsh view of the new law, which was passed this summer after the Supreme Court struck down the state's previous gun law, one of the most restrictive in the nation."

Julia Ainsley of NBC News: "Two Russian nationals sought asylum in Alaska on Tuesday when they landed by boat on St. Lawrence Island, leaving lawmakers from the state asking the federal government for extra support in case more Russians flee to Alaska amid President Vladimir Putin's military call-up. The town of Gambell on the northwestern tip of the island is more than 60 miles from mainland Russia across the Bering Strait. Local authorities first encountered the Russian nationals and contacted the U.S. Coast Guard for help. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, called the federal response 'lacking' and said that Customs and Border Protection had to send Coast Guard responders from over 750 miles away.... [Sen. Dan] Sullivan [R-Alaska] said he has encouraged CBP 'to have a plan ready with the Coast Guard in the event that more Russians flee to Bering Strait communities in Alaska,' Sullivan said."MB: My plan: accept their asylum applications, then bus them to Martha's Vineyard.

~~~~~~~~~~

Katie Rogers of the New York Times: "President Biden, standing amid the devastation a week after Hurricane Ian slammed into southwest Florida, said on Wednesday that the federal government would provide 'every element' of its resources to support the recovery effort. Gov. Ron DeSantis, a potential Republican rival to the president in 2024, stood near Mr. Biden and praised the work the White House had done to pump federal resources into his state 'from the very beginning.'... In any other political era, such an appearance would have been standard fare.... But it took a Category 4 hurricane to temporarily dull the animosity between Mr. Biden and Mr. DeSantis.... For those looking for evidence of the tension between them -- apparent most recently over the stunt engineered by Mr. DeSantis to fly migrants from Texas to Martha's Vineyard as a way of criticizing the administration over its immigration policy -- there were subtle signs that their rivalry is alive and well." The AP's story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Two Salty Old Dogs Meet on a Beach. Judy Kurtz of the Hill: "President Biden appeared to share a lighthearted, R-rated exchange while caught on a hot mic as he met with Florida officials and residents affected by Hurricane Ian. 'No one f[ucks] with a Biden,' the president appeared to say with a laugh as he had a seemingly friendly conversation with Fort Myers Beach Mayor Ray Murphy on Wednesday.... 'You're goddamn right,' Murphy chuckled in response...." ~~~

     ~~~ Danielle Paquette & Meryl Kornfield of the Washington Post: "... Ian already is shaping up to be the deadliest storm to pound Florida since 1935. State authorities have documented 72 deaths thus far -- slightly under Hurricane Irma's toll in 2017, according to the National Hurricane Center. County sheriffs have reported dozens more, pushing the total to at least 103. That makes Ian more fatal than Hurricane Andrew in 1992."

Stanley Reed of the New York Times: "Saudi Arabia and Russia, acting as leaders of the OPEC Plus energy cartel, agreed on Wednesday to their biggest cuts in production in more than two years in a bid to raise prices, rebuking efforts by the United States and Europe to choke off the massive revenue Moscow reaps from the sale of crude. President Biden and European leaders have urged more oil production to ease gasoline prices and punish Moscow for its aggression in Ukraine. Russia, a co-leader of OPEC Plus with Saudi Arabia, has been accused of using energy as a weapon against countries opposing its invasion of Ukraine, and the optics of the decision could not be missed." CNN's report is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Let's say you're a patriotic American Neanderthal and you can't help but think climate change is a myth/hoax. Wouldn't you still want the U.S. to develop alternate sources of energy to save the U.S. (and other nations) from being so dependent upon fickle oil & gas producers in the Middle East & Russia? ~~~

     ~~~ Jeff Stein, et al., of the Washington Post: "The move by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its partners prompted a blistering reaction from White House officials and reverberated almost immediately through domestic and global financial markets, threatening higher energy costs for the United States and European countries already grappling with inflation and economic instability.... 'The President is disappointed by the shortsighted decision by OPEC Plus to cut production quotas while the global economy is dealing with the continued negative impact of Putin's invasion of Ukraine,' U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan and National Economic Council Director Brian Deese said in a statement. The statement added that the administration will consult with Congress on additional mechanisms 'to reduce OPEC's control over energy prices' -- suggesting the U.S. policymakers could be interested in repealing a long-standing exemption to federal antitrust law that allows the consortium to effectively coordinate on prices." ~~~

     ~~~ Here's the Sullivan-Deese statement, via the White House. ~~~

     ~~~ Lee Shan of CNBC: "OPEC+'s plans to cut oil production is a 'mistake,' according to U.S. Senator Chris Murphy, who said there needs to be a re-evaluation of the alliance between the group's de-facto leader and the United States.... 'I think it is a mistake on their part. And I think it's time for a wholesale re-revaluation of the U.S. alliance with Saudi Arabia,' Murphy told CNBC's Hadley Gamble Tuesday. Murphy said that the United States needed the Saudis to take steps that 'may affect their short-term bottom line when it comes to oil revenues,' but which would allow the West to survive the challenge against Russia." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Why Can't the U.S. Be More Like Uruguay? Noah Shannon in the New York Times: "This is the paradox at the heart of climate change: We've burned far too many fossil fuels to go on living as we have, but we've also never learned to live well without them.... There are countries more prosperous, and countries with a smaller carbon footprint [than Uruguay's], but perhaps in none do the overlapping possibilities of living well and living without ruin show as much promise as in Uruguay.... Today, Uruguay boasts one of the world's greenest grids, powered by 98 percent renewable energy." Interesting. MB: Despite Uruguay's attempts to mitigate the environmental effects of their huge cattle industry, I still think they should learn to eat less beef. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Carol Leonnig of the Washington Post: "A motorcade taking Vice President Harris to work was in a one-car accident on a closed roadway in D.C. on Monday morning, an incident that concerned both the Secret Service director and the vice president and revived worries about the agency's history of concealing its mistakes, according to two people familiar with the incident. The Secret Service agent driving Harris in an SUV struck the curb of a downtown tunnel hard enough that the vehicle's tire needed to be replaced.... The routine nature of the travel and the high level of training required for agents who drive the president and vice president led many in the Secret Service, as well as Harris, to question how such an accident could happen. The Secret Service also failed to note key details of the incident in an electronic message formally alerting senior leadership to the motorcade's delay. The agency's protective intelligence division reported that 'a mechanical failure' in the lead car had forced agents to transfer Harris to another vehicle...."

Cora Engelbrecht of the New York Times: "An Iranian American who was held captive in Iran for seven years was released on Wednesday for urgent medical surgery [in the U.A.E.], according to his lawyer and the U.N. The man, Baquer Namazi, 85, a retired UNICEF official, was imprisoned in 2016 by Iranian authorities during a visit to Iran to check on his son, Siamak Namazi, who had been arrested the year before while on a business trip. The Namazis were convicted of collaborating with a hostile power -- the United States -- in a secretive trial in Iran in October 2016, but the precise nature of the accusations has never been made clear. A video released by Iranian state media on Wednesday appeared to show Baquer Namazi on a tarmac struggling to board a flight of stairs...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Trump Loses Again. Kaia Hubbard of U.S. News: "An appeals court sided with the Justice Department on Wednesday, granting its request to expedite an appeal of the appointment of a special master to review the documents recovered by the FBI from ... Donald Trump's Florida estate. The Justice Department last week asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit to expedite its consideration of the government's appeal of District Judge Aileen Cannon's move to grant Trump a special master to review the seized materials, while barring the government's review of thousands of documents, arguing that the move is harmful to its criminal investigation.... Donald Trump's legal team on Monday opposed the Justice Department's request to expedite its appeal." ~~~

~~~ Oops! From the Department of Be Careful What You Wish For. Rebecca Beitsch of the Hill: "An inadvertently shared log of potentially privileged materials taken from former President Trump's Florida home includes details of his calls as president, analyses of who should receive pardons and heaps of records tied to his many legal entanglements. The logs, apparently unsealed in error, were first reported by Bloomberg News, which shared the filing that has since been removed from the court docket.... Among the tranche of records at Trump's home were communications about securing clemency for Rod Blagojevich, the former Democratic Illinois governor whose sentence was commuted by Trump.... He also had 'internal pardon packages[s],' or clemency requests, for individuals listed only as RN, IR, JC and MB." MB: That "MB," of course, is I. ~~~

     ~~~ Marcy Wheeler on how Judge Aileen Cannon appears to have caused Donald Trump more harm than if she "had left well enough alone.... That's because, by means that are not yet clear (but are likely due to a fuck-up by one of Cannon's own staffers), the inventories [of documents] ... were briefly posted on the docket. (h/t Zoe Tillman, who snagged a copy [MB: Bloomberg link]). Those inventories not only show Cannon's claims of injury to Trump were even more hackish than I imagined. But it creates the possibility that DOJ's filter team will attempt to retain some of the documents..., notably records pertaining to the Georgia fraud attempts and January 6, they otherwise wouldn't have.... The single solitary medical document pertaining to Trump ... is this letter from Trump's then-personal physician released during the 2016 Presidential campaign.... [That is, Cannon] personally halted efforts to keep the United States safe, in part, to prevent leaks of a document that Trump released himself six years ago." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Ken Bensinger & Sheera Frenkel of the New York Times: "Soon after the F.B.I. searched Donald J. Trump's home in Florida for classified documents, online researchers zeroed in on a worrying trend. Posts on Twitter that mentioned 'civil war' had soared nearly 3,000 percent in just a few hours as Mr. Trump's supporters blasted the action as a provocation. Similar spikes followed, including on Facebook, Reddit, Telegram, Parler, Gab and Truth Social.... Posts mentioning 'civil war' jumped again a few weeks later, after President Biden branded Mr. Trump and 'MAGA Republicans' a threat to 'the very foundations of our republic' in a speech on democracy in Philadelphia. Now experts are bracing for renewed discussions of civil war, as the Nov. 8 midterm elections approach and political talk grows more urgent and heated.... Polling, social media studies and a rise in threats suggest that a growing number of Americans are anticipating, or even welcoming, the possibility of sustained political violence, researchers studying extremism say." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: And here's something I missed: "At a recent fund-raiser, Michael T. Flynn, who briefly served as Mr. Trump's national security adviser, said that governors had the power to declare war and that 'we're probably going to see that.'" That is, Flynn is endorsing a theory that armed revolution is legal. ~~~

~~~ AND It's the Godly Thing to Do. Jonathan Edwards of the Washington Post: "Federal officials said Wednesday that [Bill] Dunfee, 57, [an Ohio pastor,] ... travel[ed] from his home in Frazeysburg, Ohio, to Washington, D.C., where he allegedly instigated rioters, pushed barricade into officers and praised those who stormed the Capitol as they left the building. Dunfee has been charged with several felonies and misdemeanors, including committing violence on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol, interfering with a law enforcement officer during a civil disorder, and obstruction of an official proceeding...."

Megan Messerly of Politico: "In the 100 days since Roe v. Wade was overturned, 66 clinics in more than a dozen states have stopped providing abortions, according to a new report from the Guttmacher Institute, an abortion-rights advocacy and research group. Of those 66 clinics, 40 still offer non-abortion services while 26 have shut their doors, the analysis found. Among them is Jackson Women's Health Organization in Mississippi -- the abortion clinic at the center of the Supreme Court case decided in June that dismantled Roe -- which closed in early July with plans to move to New Mexico."

Beyond the Beltway

Gail Collins of the New York Times: "... Republicans have assembled a trove of truly terrible candidates." Collins names a few.

Arizona Statewide Races. Allan Smith of NBC News: "Rep. Liz Cheney urged voters to reject Arizona's Republican nominees for governor and secretary of state in next month's midterm election, casting them as existential threats to U.S. democracy. 'If you care about democracy and you care about the survival of our republic, then you need to understand -- we all have to understand -- that we cannot give people power who have told us that they will not honor elections,' Cheney, R-Wyo., said Wednesday night at an event at Arizona State University. Kari Lake, the Republican nominee for governor, and Mark Finchem, the GOP nominee for secretary of state, have both put denial of the 2020 election results in their state at the forefront of their campaigns. Aligning themselves closely with former President Donald Trump and his stolen election lie, Lake has falsely called President Joe Biden an illegitimate president, while Finchem has said that had he been secretary of state when Biden won Arizona, he would not have certified the 2020 election results."

Georgia Senate Race. Brad Dress of the Hill: "The woman who had an abortion at GOP Senate candidate Herschel Walker's urging is the mother of one of his children, The Daily Beast reported on Wednesday. The woman, who remains anonymous, said the Georgia football legend-... requested she get an abortion in 2009 and also told her it was not a 'convenient time' to have a child when she conceived again years later. The woman, who decided to have the child the second time, said Walker 'didn't accept responsibility for the kid we did have together, and now he isn't accepting responsibility for the one that we didn't have.... That says so much about how he views the role of women in childbirth, versus his own. And now he wants to take that choice away from other women and couples entirely,' she told the outlet.... Walker, who has categorically denied the reports that he paid for an abortion in 2009, told Fox News on Wednesday that he was unable to determine who the woman is." A New York Times story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Yeah, Walker also said he was going to immediately sue the Daily Beast. He didn't. It sure is odd he can't remember the woman with whom he had a child, but apparently he pretty much forgot his out-of-wedlock children, too, so I suppose there's a kind of consistency there. ~~~

~~~ Marie: Newt Gingrich is endorsing Herschel Walker because Walker has a "commitment to Christ," ignoring the fact that Walker's opponent, the Rev./Sen. Raphael Warnock has spent his adult life as a Christian pastor. Newt excuses Walker's bad behavior on account of "He had a lot of concussions coming out of football, he suffered PTSD." I agree that some of Walker's violent behavior may be attributed, at least in part, to the battering he took as a football player. And I also would blame football "culture" for his lack of regard for women. But neither a commitment to Christ or a mental disability that causes violence against women is a reason to make a person a U.S. senator. I've believed all along that someone should have talked Walker out of running for Senate & Walker should have taken that advice. Walker has proved, by the false assertions he has made, that he knows what sorts of things a good person might do. Instead of falsely claiming he has done those good deeds, he should go forth & do a few of them.

~~~ Amanda Terkel & Kevin Robillard of the Huffington Post: "'...I supervise six hospitals around the United States,' [Herschel Walker] said [in 2011]. But the reason not many people know about Walker supervising hospitals around the country is because it doesn't appear that he ever did. It's part of a pattern by Walker where he embellishes his business record and misstates facts about his personal history.

Way Beyond

Ukraine, et al.

The New York Times' live updates of developments Thursday 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 Thursday are here: "Several Russian missiles destroyed residential buildings in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine's foreign minister said Thursday. The region's governor said the attacks caused huge fires in the city, and that rescuers are pulling people out from the rubble.... The attacks came as Rafael Mariano Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, traveled to Kyiv to discuss a protection zone around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.... Vladimir Putin ordered this week that Moscow oversee the plant, heightening international concerns about nuclear safety."

Adam Schreck of the AP: "Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the final papers Wednesday to annex four regions of Ukraine while his military struggled to control the new territory that was added in violation of international laws. Ukrainian law enforcement officials, meanwhile, reported discovering more evidence of torture and killings in areas retaken from Russian forces. In Lyman, an eastern town liberated after more than four months of Russian occupation, residents emerged from their destroyed homes to receive packages of food and medicine. In a defiant move, the Kremlin held the door open for further land grabs in Ukraine." ~~~

     ~~~ Mary Ilyushina of the Washington Post: "In a vain bid to celebrate his illegal annexation of Ukrainian territory, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday ... promised to organize restful autumn holidays for schoolchildren in 'restless and even dangerous' areas of Ukraine. But even as he spoke, Russian forces continued to retreat from the territories Putin just claimed as his own.... Putin's surreal message to the war-torn areas amid cascading Russian military setbacks on the battlefield created a stark split-screen between the image of control that the Kremlin is trying to project and the reality on the front lines, where Russia has been losing ground for weeks. Earlier Wednesday, the president had signed legislation to absorb the seized regions into Russia despite his lack of control."

Julian Barnes, et al., of the New York Times: "United States intelligence agencies believe parts of the Ukrainian government authorized the car bomb attack near Moscow in August that killed Daria Dugina, the daughter of a prominent Russian nationalist, an element of a covert campaign that U.S. officials fear could widen the conflict. The United States took no part in the attack, either by providing intelligence or other assistance, officials said. American officials also said they were not aware of the operation ahead of time and would have opposed the killing had they been consulted. Afterward, American officials admonished Ukrainian officials over the assassination, they said. The closely held assessment of Ukrainian complicity, which has not been previously reported, was shared within the U.S. government last week. Ukraine denied involvement in the killing immediately after the attack, and senior officials repeated those denials when asked about the American intelligence assessment." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) A CNN story is here.


Denmark. Johnny Diaz of the New York Times: "Queen Margrethe II of Denmark has apologized for upsetting members of her family with her announcement last week that she was stripping four of her grandchildren of their royal titles, but she did not back down from her decision.... On Sept. 28, the palace announced that, as of Jan. 1, the four children of Margrethe's youngest son, Prince Joachim, would no longer carry the titles of prince or princess and would be called count or countess of Monpezat instead." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Seems to me Margrethe could have allowed the kids to retain their titles. After all, according to the Washington Post's story, "... the four grandchildren already were not expecting salaries from the state." And "all four will keep their spots in line for the throne." People like their titles. Through my husband, I was acquainted with a number of people who would have held noble titles had their home countries not revoked their titles en masse. Still, the people, with one exception, all preferred to be addressed as "Princess" or "Count" or whatever. And we serfs would oblige.

News Ledes

Guardian: "The Nobel prize in literature has been awarded to Annie Ernaux 'for the courage and clinical acuity with which she uncovers the roots, estrangements and collective restraints of personal memory'." This is a developing story. The New York Times report is here.

New York Times: "The police in Saskatchewan said on Thursday that a stabbing rampage last month in western Canada had been carried out by one man, Myles Sanderson, who killed not just several people on an Indigenous reserve and in a nearby village but also his own brother, Damien Sanderson. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police raised the death toll to 11 from 10, with Damien now counted among the victims."

New York Times: "A former police officer opened fire at a child-care facility in northeastern Thailand on Thursday, killing more than 30 people, more than 20 of them children. The gunman, identified by the police as Panya Kamrab, 34, shot and stabbed children at the child-care center, some as young as 2, Police Col. Jakkapat Vijitraithaya said in an interview with the local television station, Thairath TV. He then fatally shot himself and his wife and child, according to Police Maj. Gen. Paisan Leusomboon." This is a liveblog.

New York Times: "A Police Department vehicle crashed into another car in the Bronx and careened onto a nearby sidewalk on Thursday, striking a crowd of pedestrians and sending 10 people to the hospital, four of them with 'life-threatening injuries,' spokesmen for the Police and Fire Departments said." At 5:15 pm ET, his is a breaking news story; it may be updated later.

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Wednesday
Oct052022

October 5, 2022

Afternoon Update:

The New York Times is live-updating news about President Biden & Jill Biden's trip to Florida to view hurricane damage.

Stanley Reed of the New York Times: "Saudi Arabia and Russia, acting as leaders of the OPEC Plus energy cartel, agreed on Wednesday to their biggest cuts in production in more than two years in a bid to raise prices, rebuking efforts by the United States and Europe to choke off the massive revenue Moscow reaps from the sale of crude. President Biden and European leaders have urged more oil production to ease gasoline prices and punish Moscow for its aggression in Ukraine. Russia, a co-leader of OPEC Plus with Saudi Arabia, has been accused of using energy as a weapon against countries opposing its invasion of Ukraine, and the optics of the decision could not be missed." CNN's report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Let's say you're a patriotic American Neanderthal and you can't help but think climate change is a myth/hoax. Wouldn't you still want the U.S. to develop alternate sources of energy to save the U.S. (and other nations) from being so dependent upon fickle oil & gas producers in the Middle East & Russia? ~~~

     ~~~ Lee Shan of CNBC: "OPEC+'s plans to cut oil production is a 'mistake,' according to U.S. Senator Chris Murphy, who said there needs to be a re-evaluation of the alliance between the group's de-facto leader and the United States.... 'I think it is a mistake on their part. And I think it's time for a wholesale re-revaluation of the U.S. alliance with Saudi Arabia,' Murphy told CNBC's Hadley Gamble Tuesday. Murphy said that the United States needed the Saudis to take steps that 'may affect their short-term bottom line when it comes to oil revenues,' but which would allow the West to survive the challenge against Russia." ~~~

~~~ Why Can't the U.S. Be More Like Uruguay? Noah Shannon in the New York Times: "This is the paradox at the heart of climate change: We've burned far too many fossil fuels to go on living as we have, but we've also never learned to live well without them.... There are countries more prosperous, and countries with a smaller carbon footprint [than Uruguay's], but perhaps in none do the overlapping possibilities of living well and living without ruin show as much promise as in Uruguay.... Today, Uruguay boasts one of the world's greenest grids, powered by 98 percent renewable energy." Interesting. MB: Despite Uruguay's attempts to mitigate the environmental effects of their huge cattle industry, I still think they should learn to eat less beef.

Julian Barnes, et al., of the New York Times: "United States intelligence agencies believe parts of the Ukrainian government authorized the car bomb attack near Moscow in August that killed Daria Dugina, the daughter of a prominent Russian nationalist, an element of a covert campaign that U.S. officials fear could widen the conflict. The United States took no part in the attack, either by providing intelligence or other assistance, officials said American officials also said they were not aware of the operation ahead of time and would have opposed the killing had they been consulted Afterward, American officials admonished Ukrainian officials over the assassination, they said. The closely held assessment of Ukrainian complicity, which has not been previously reported, was shared within the U.S. government last week. Ukraine denied involvement in the killing immediately after the attack, and senior officials repeated those denials when asked about the American intelligence assessment."

Cora Engelbrecht of the New York Times: "An Iranian American who was held captive in Iran for seven years was released on Wednesday for urgent medical surgery [in the U.A.E.], according to his lawyer and the U.N. The man, Baquer Namazi, 85, a retired UNICEF official, was imprisoned in 2016 by Iranian authorities during a visit to Iran to check on his son, Siamak Namazi, who had been arrested the year before while on a business trip. The Namazis were convicted of collaborating with a hostile power -- the United States -- in a secretive trial in Iran in October 2016, but the precise nature of the accusations has never been made clear. A video released by Iranian state media on Wednesday appeared to show Baquer Namazi on a tarmac struggling to board a flight of stairs...."

From the Department of Be Careful What You Wish For. Marcy Wheeler on how Judge Aileen Cannon appears to have caused Donald Trump more harm than if she "had left well enough alone.... That's because, by means that are not yet clear (but are likely due to a fuck-up by one of Cannon's own staffers), the inventories [of documents] ... were briefly posted on the docket. (h/t Zoe Tillman, who snagged a copy [MB: Bloomberg link]). Those inventories not only show Cannon's claims of injury to Trump were even more hackish than I imagined. But it creates the possibility that DOJ's filter team will attempt to retain some of the documents..., notably records pertaining to the Georgia fraud attempts and January 6, they otherwise wouldn't have.... The single solitary medical document pertaining to Trump ... is this letter from Trump's then-personal physician released during the 2016 Presidential campaign.... [That is, Cannon] personally halted efforts to keep the United States safe, in part, to prevent leaks of a document that Trump released himself six years ago."

~~~~~~~~~~

Alex Marquardt, et al., of CNN: "The Biden administration has launched a full-scale pressure campaign in a last-ditch effort to dissuade Middle Eastern allies from dramatically cutting oil production, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter. The push comes ahead of Wednesday's crucial meeting of OPEC+, the international cartel of oil producers that is widely expected to announce a significant cut to output in an effort to raise oil prices. That in turn would cause US gasoline prices to rise at a precarious time for the Biden administration, just five weeks before the midterm elections. For the past several days, President Joe Biden's senior-most energy, economic and foreign policy officials have been enlisted to lobby their foreign counterparts in Middle Eastern allied countries including Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE to vote against cutting oil production."

Marie: It's Tuesday afternoon as I type this, and Trump hasn't filed a new lawsuit since way back on Monday. So ~~~

~~~ Not a New Case, But a New Venue. Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump asked the Supreme Court on Tuesday to intervene in the litigation over documents marked as classified that the F.B.I. removed from his Florida estate, saying that an appeals court had lacked jurisdiction to rule on the matter. Although the Supreme Court is dominated by six conservative justices, three of them appointed by Mr. Trump, it has rejected earlier efforts to block the disclosure of information about him, and legal experts said Mr. Trump's new emergency application faced significant challenges. The new filing was largely technical, saying that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, in Atlanta, had not been authorized to stay aspects of a trial judge's order appointing a special master in the case." CNN's report is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Oh, and There's This. Devlin Barrett & Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The petition was filed with Justice Clarence Thomas, who oversees emergency requests from the 11th Circuit. Thomas instructed the Justice Department to file a response to the court by Oct. 11." MB: I don't see a problem. Do u? (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Shane Harris of the Washington Post: "During his four years in office, [Donald] Trump never strictly followed the rules and customs for handling sensitive government documents, according to 14 officials from his administration.... He took transcripts of his calls with foreign leaders as well as photos and charts used in his intelligence briefings to his private residence with no explanation. He demanded that letters he exchanged with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un be kept close at hand so he could show them off to visitors. Documents that would ordinarily be kept under lock and key mingled with piles of newspaper articles in Trump's living quarters and in a dining room that he used as an informal office.... Several former aides said Trump spent his time in office flouting classification rules and intimidating staffers who might try to take secret intelligence material away from him." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Those 14 former aides are all liars, Maggie Haberman is a creep, and if you don't acknowledge that only Donald Trump is the source of all truth and knowledge, human and divine, Democrats will come & eat you and your children alive.

A Grandiose Call to Arms. Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "Stewart Rhodes, the leader of the Oath Keepers militia, was a prolific writer of encrypted text messages, many of which have been featured this week as evidence at his trial on seditious conspiracy charges in Federal District Court in Washington. The government has used the messages to build its case that Mr. Rhodes and four other members of the group plotted to stop the transfer of power and keep ... Donald J. Trump in office. But they have also provided a window into the mind-set of Mr. Rhodes and others in the far-right organization during a period when Mr. Trump was stoking outrage among his supporters.... The messages, which were seized during the government's investigation of the Capitol assault, paint a portrait of an organization in thrall to conspiracy theories and willing to use extreme measures to fight for what they saw as a country in apocalyptic decline." The article includes partial texts of numerous Rhodes missives in which, among other things, he seems to compare himself to George Washington in his capacity as revolutionary general.

Natasha Korecki of NBC News: "Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., acknowledged Tuesday that he exchanged text messages with one of Donald Trump's attorneys before and after Johnson's staff tried to deliver a package to then-Vice President Mike Pence on Jan. 6, 2021. He added that the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack 'smeared' him because it didn't publicize all the text messages between his and Pence's aides. Johnson, in response to questions from NBC News, said 'the entire episode lasted about an hour,' referring to his ties to a fake electors scheme he said he knew nothing about. He also said he didn't know the contents of the package he said the attorney wanted to be delivered. 'You can't even call it participation. I wrote a couple texts,' Johnson said. Johnson has previously distanced himself from the scheme, telling WISN-TV of Milwaukee in August: 'My involvement in that attempt to deliver spanned the course of a couple seconds.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Yeah, I know you're shocked that Johnson would lie to a reporter while pretending to be on the phone to try to avoid answering the reporter's questions about Johnson's involvement in or knowledge of the fake electors scheme.

Justices in Search of a Path to Permit Racism. Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "In Supreme Court arguments on Tuesday, members of the court's conservative majority seemed to be searching for a narrow way to uphold a congressional map drawn by Alabama lawmakers that a lower court had said diluted the power of Black voters, violating the Voting Rights Act. Based on their questioning, which was mostly subdued and limited, the court's conservatives seemed likely to reject some of the state's most aggressive arguments, which would impose profound new restrictions on how the 1965 act applies in redistricting cases." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson engaged in some first-class trolling of the Court's confederate originalists. And of CJ John Roberts, who infamously wrote in an opinion in an earlier case, "The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race." This, of course, is a pretense to all but ignore racism as a valid reason for taking, or failing to take, certain actions that promote racist discrimination. Jackson said in oral arguments yesterday that "the law had to be understood in the context of the history of the 14th Amendment, adopted after the Civil War, which was meant to protect formerly enslaved Black people. 'That's not a race-neutral or race-blind idea,' she said."

Rachel Pannett of the Washington Post: On Monday, the "Onion -- a satirical publication known for poking fun at everything from popular culture to global politics -- ... filed an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court in support of an Ohio man who faced criminal charges over a Facebook page parodying his local police department.... True to form, the supporting brief filed by the Onion's lawyers Monday takes a satirical approach in its bid to get the nation's top court to consider Novak's petition.... Despite the sarcasm and hyperbole, the legal brief isn't a joke. The publication's aim is to get the Supreme Court to scrutinize qualified immunity and free speech rights.... It also highlights what the Onion suggests are shortcomings in the legal system when it comes to protecting those who use comedy to question people in positions of authority." ~~~

     ~~~ Alex Henderson of AlterNet: "The Onion, founded in 1988, has been offering parody for 34 years. In the Amicus brief, The Onion noted its ability to occasionally fool people. None of the articles published in The Onion are meant to be taken seriously, but on occasion, some readers have taken them seriously and didn't realize they were reading fiction.... In the Amicus brief, The Onion's lawyers argued that a 'reasonable reader' should be able to recognize parody when they see it.... Noting the Onion's Latin motto is "Tu stultus es. You are dumb," the brief claims: '... the phrase 'you are dumb' captures the very heart of parody: tricking readers into believing that they're seeing a serious rendering of some specific form -- a pop song lyric, a newspaper article, a police beat -- and then allowing them to laugh at their own gullibility when they realize that they've fallen victim to one of the oldest tricks in the history of rhetoric.'" Thanks to RAS for the link. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: You sort of have to read both stories to get to the gist of the brief: the WashPo story give the background but too little in the way of content. The AlterNet story provides little in the way of background; it doesn't even mention the case for which the Onion filed the brief, but it goes much more into the content of the Onion's brief. Most interesting to me is that the Onion's brief makes precisely the argument Trump lawyer & all-around wacko Sidney Powell made in her own defense in a defamation suit Dominion Voting Systems brought against her: "'No reasonable person would conclude that the statements were truly statements of fact,' Powell's attorneys said in a court filing...." That is, an intelligent Fox "News" viewer (okay, an oxymoron) would realize that her attacks on Dominion were obviously hyperbolic. I can foresee Donald Trump making a similar claim about his January 6 speech at the ellipse. Reportedly, he already has called the insurrectionists "idiots."

Kate Conger & Lauren Hirsch of the New York Times: "Elon Musk, in a surprise move..., proposed a deal with Twitter on Monday evening that could bring to an end an acrimonious legal fight between the billionaire and the social media company. The arrangement would allow Mr. Musk to acquire Twitter at $54.20 per share, the price he agreed to pay for the company in April, two people familiar with the proposal who were not authorized to speak publicly said. But it was not immediately clear whether Twitter planned to accept his offer, which could be seen as a negotiating tactic by Mr. Musk to halt Twitter's litigation against him." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) An NBC News story is here.

Beyond the Beltway

Florida. Christopher Flavelle & Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "Hurricane Ian's wrath made clear that Florida faces some of the most severe consequences of climate change anywhere in the country. But the state's top elected leaders opposed the most significant climate legislation to pass Congress -- laws to help fortify states against, and recover from, climate disasters, and confront their underlying cause: the burning of fossil fuels. Senators Marco Rubio and Rick Scott voted against last year's bipartisan infrastructure law, which devotes some $50 billion to help states better prepare for events like Ian, because they said it was wasteful. And in August, they joined every fellow Republican in the Senate to oppose a new climate law that invests $369 billion in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the largest such effort in the country's history. At the same time, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has blocked the state's pension fund from taking climate change into account when making investment decisions, saying that politics should be absent from financial calculations." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Southwest Florida is a Republican stronghold. It's fine to feel sorry for the people who lost their homes and/or their lives to a climate-change exacerbated hurricane, but the fact is that many of the people who are now crying for help from the rest of us taxpayers voted for Republicans who oppose efforts to mitigate the effects of climate change. Sorry, Ronnie Boy, but it's your own party that has consistently decided to put the politics into sound climate policy. And Republicans have done so for the crassest of "financial" reasons: campaign contributions from the fossil-fuel industry.

Georgia. Hypocrites on Parade. Shane Goldmacher, et al., of the New York Times: "National Republicans quickly began to close ranks on Tuesday behind Herschel Walker, the party's embattled nominee for Senate in Georgia, a day after a report that Mr. Walker, an outspoken supporter of an abortion ban with no exceptions, had paid for a girlfriend's abortion in 2009.... Mr. Walker appeared on Fox News on Monday hours after the allegations broke, denying the Daily Beast report and explaining away the $700 payment by saying, 'I send money to a lot of people.'... The statements of support from fellow Republicans came quickly on Tuesday.... Mr. Walker, who has spoken extensively about his religious faith, is counting on the support of evangelical Christians in Georgia. [Christianist leader Ralph] Reed argued that the latest report could lift turnout among social conservatives, saying voters would rally to defend Mr. Walker." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Wait, wait. How is it that Walker is such a paragon of Christian virtue, whereas Sen. Warnock, who has a Ph.D. from Union Theological Seminary & for decades has been pastor of prominent churches, is not? ~~~

~~~ Meredith McGraw, et al., of Politico: "Months before news broke alleging that Herschel Walker paid for an abortion, top Republicans in the state -- including those advising his team -- warned him that the story could torpedo his campaign. Four people with knowledge of those preliminary discussions said that the abortion issue was well known within the state, even before reporters began inquiring about it.... Rather than move to proactively address the story, Walker's team held their breath, hoping that the election would pass before it surfaced."

Way Beyond

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

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live briefings for Wednesday are here: "... Vladimir Putin signed documents Wednesday for the illegal annexation of four regions of Ukraine, although the exact borders of the attempted land grab remain unclear. The move is a breach of international law. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukrainian forces were making a 'fast and powerful advance' in the country's south, with 'dozens of settlements' liberated from Russian control.... The Biden administration approved an additional $625 million in security assistance for Kyiv, bringing total U.S. military aid to Ukraine to $16.8 billion since February, the Defense Department said in a statement.... The OPEC Plus group of oil-producing nations is set to meet Wednesday, and oil prices rose Tuesday amid signals it would announce plans to cut production significantly.... A Russian court set Oct. 25 as the appeal date for Brittney Griner, the WNBA star held in Russia on charges of drug possession, the Associated Press reported."

News Ledes

New York Times: "The Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Carolyn R. Bertozzi, Morten Meldal and K. Barry Sharpless on Wednesday for the development of click chemistry and bio-orthogonal chemistry -- work that has 'led to a revolution in how chemists think about linking molecules together,' the Nobel committee said. Dr. Bertozzi is the eighth woman to be awarded the prize, and Dr. Sharpless is the fifth scientist to be honored with two Nobels, the committee noted."

Forgot this yesterday:

New York Times: "Three physicists whose works each showed that nature is even weirder than Einstein had dared to imagine have been named winners of the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics. John Clauser, of J.F. Clauser and Associates in Walnut Creek, Calif.; Alain Aspect of the Institut d'Optique in Palaiseau, France; and Anton Zeilinger of the University of Vienna in Austria, will split a prize of 10 million Swedish kronor. Their independent works explored the foundations of quantum mechanics, the paradoxical rules that govern behavior in the subatomic world."

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