May 29, 2022

Kevin Liptak of CNN: President "Biden and first lady Jill Biden plan to visit Uvalde, Texas, [Sunday].... The White House said they would meet community and religious leaders along with family members of the young victims."

Tim Craig, et al., of the Washington Post: "The Uvalde massacre was "prolonged and worsened by the failure of security measures and a catastrophically slow response from authorities.... Heartbreak bubbled into rage as Texas officials waxed on about police bravery, glossing over law enforcement missteps that took days to acknowledge. Only now, a more reliable chronology is emerging through official statements, 911 logs, social media posts, and interviews with survivors and witnesses. The revelations tell a story of institutional failure at the expense of unprotected children." The story is an account of what happened when.

Stefanie Dazio of the AP: "The actions -- or more notably, the inaction -- of a school district police chief and other law enforcement officers have become the center of the investigation into this week's shocking school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. The delay in confronting the shooter -- who was inside the school for more than an hour -- could lead to discipline, lawsuits and even criminal charges against police.... The chief's decision [not to confront the shooter] -- and the officers' apparent willingness to follow his directives against established active-shooter protocols -- prompted questions about whether more lives were lost because officers did not act faster to stop the gunman, and who should be held responsible.... One of the officials said audio recordings from the scene capture officers from other agencies telling the school police chief that the shooter was still active and that the priority was to stop him." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Just looking at CNN's timeline, though it's necessarily vague, it appears the gunman did shoot children after there was a substantial assemblage of police in the corridor. Also, it would seem, from other reporting, that there was at least one child who was mortally wounded but still alive for some time who might have been saved by early medical care. Experts seem to agree (link is to a CNN story).

"Delay, Obstruct, Prevent." Ashley Parker & Michael Scherer of the Washington Post: "... over ... three decades, [Mitch McConnell has] consistently working to delay, obstruct or prevent most major gun-control legislation from passing Congress.... During his seven terms in Congress, [he would offer] vague promises of action, often without any specifics, only to be followed by no action or incremental measures that avoided new gun regulations. As a Republican leader, he also helped dissuade his conference -- as after the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. -- from supporting gun legislation and, as majority leader, refused to bring up significant gun-control measures for a vote.... Many Democrats and anti-gun advocates ... [predict] that McConnell and his fellow Republicans are poised to obstruct any consequential gun-violence-prevention bills yet again." The reporters relate some of Mitch's obstructionist moves.

Stephen Gandel of the New York Times: "... a new law in Texas ... bars state agencies from working with a firm that 'discriminates' against companies or individuals in the gun industry. One provision of the law requires banks and other professional-services firms to submit written affirmations that they comply with the law." Giant banks like JPMorgan & Citigroup have filed letters with the Texas attorney general declaring they do business with firearms companies. "If a bank states that it is in compliance with the law and is found to be otherwise, it could face criminal prosecution. It could also be shut out of the state's giant municipal bond market. Texas is one of the biggest bond issuers in the country, and Wall Street has long made lucrative -- and relatively risk-free -- fees underwriting municipal bonds.... The Texas law is the first of its kind in the country. Similar ones -- described by gun industry lobbyists as FIND laws, or firearm industry nondiscriminatory legislation -- are working their way through at least 10 statehouses...." MB: Mind-boggling, but not surprising because ~~~

~~~ Anna Massoglia of Open Secrets: "Texas representatives in the 117th Congress took more money from gun rights groups than lawmakers in any other state, a new OpenSecrets analysis found. Senators and House members representing Texas have received more than $14 million in contributions from gun rights interests over the course of their careers, with much of that coming from the National Rifle Association. Texas also ranks second among the 19 states tracked by OpenSecrets for state-level lobbying by gun rights groups with more than $3 million in spending from 2015 through 2021. During that period, the NRA spent more on state-level lobbying in Texas than any other state in the 19 states tracked by OpenSecrets with over $2.5 million in spending. The influence gun rights groups exert in Texas is also evident in grassroots organizing and advocacy efforts spearheaded by the NRA." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: There's a chain of cause and effect that leads back to the way we finance political campaigns in this country. If legislators and other elected officials were not so dependent upon gun-lobby financing, there's a good chance the assault-weapons ban would have been extended and other crazy pro-gun laws never would have been enacted.

Guess what happened where the red line is. Anyone? pic.twitter.com/vkahBGCkbj

— Mike Jason (@mikejason73) May 27, 2022

     ~~~ That red line indicates when the U.S. assault weapons ban ended. Thanks to RAS for the link.

Frederic Frommer in the Washington Post: "Four years ago, when -- as now -- the nation was reeling from the horror of a mass school shooting, a retired Supreme Court justice suggested a radical solution: getting rid of the Second Amendment.John Paul Stevens issued the call after 17 people were killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., in February 2018. The attack prompted hundreds of thousands to demand action the next month to end gun violence at the March for Our Lives. In a March 27, 2018, New York Times op-ed, Stevens praised the protesters and their call for stricter gun control laws. 'But the demonstrators should seek more effective and more lasting reform,' he wrote, about a year before his death at 99. 'They should demand a repeal of the Second Amendment.' Stevens said the amendment was adopted out of concern that a national standing army might pose a threat to the security of the states. 'Today that concern is a relic of the 18th century,' he wrote.... But Stevens didn't acknowledge the herculean challenge that his proposal entailed, as there was (and remains) zero chance that gun control advocates would get anywhere close to the two-thirds majority in both houses of Congress and ratification by three-fourths of the states needed for repeal."

Silvia Foster-Frau, et al., of the Washington Post: "... girls who spoke with The Post lived around the world but met [the Uvalde gunman] on Yubo, an app that mixes live-streaming and social networking and has become known as a 'Tinder for teens.'... He could be cryptic, demeaning and scary, sending angry messages and photos of guns. If they didn't respond how he wanted, he sometimes threatened to rape or kidnap them -- then laughed it off as some big joke. But the girls and young women who talked with [him] online in the months before he allegedly killed 19 children in an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, rarely reported him. His threats seemed too vague, several said in interviews with The Washington Post. One teen who reported Ramos on the social app Yubo said nothing happened as a result. Some also suspected this was just how teen boys talked on the Internet these days -- a blend of rage and misogyny so predictable they could barely tell each one apart." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: We already know social media are doing entirely too little to ensure that their apps aren't used for nefarious purposes. But are schools teaching students how to interact safely online? Are parents & teachers explaining boundaries? Social media apps & the devices that run them have to be the most disruptive & destructive systems afflicting teenagers (and some "adults") in the history of Earth. For all of the open sexism that was the status quo in the 1960s, no one ever threatened to rape and kill me. Had anyone done so, I certainly would not have brushed it off as "just talk."

Caitlin O'Kane of CBS News: "The Uvalde mass shooting suspect bought more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition before opening fire and killing 22 people at Robb Elementary School, a law enforcement official said during a news conference on Friday. A U.S. soldier would take 210 rounds into combat.... [Three hundred fifteen] rounds were found inside the school, said Steven McCraw, the director of the Texas Department of Public Safety. A law enforcement source told CBS News that the amount of ammunition that the suspect brought with him is more than what an average U.S. soldier would go into basic combat with, apparently planning on a massive gun battle." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Just after he turned 18 a few weeks ago, that kid bought two automatic rifles, reportedly costing about $2,000 each, and more than 1,000 rounds of ammo. He worked in a fast-food place. Did he really make enough money assembling burgers to buy these tools of war?

María Méndez & Jolie McCullough of the Texas Tribune: Daniel Patrick, "Texas' lieutenant governor, has echoed the idea of locking all but one door of a school. And [Ted] Cruz and ... Donald Trump repeated the call for single-entry schools at the National Rifle Association convention in Houston on Friday.... But limiting schools to one access point is not a proposal grounded in reality, according to several school and safety experts." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The underlying message in all of these half-assed proposals is, "Look, we are going to continue to enact laws that make it easier for bad actors to kill you and your family. It's up to you to spend a lot of money futilely trying to save yourselves & your loved ones from us. Good luck, suckers."

Timothy Bella & Adela Suliman of the Washington Post: "Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) was heckled at a Houston restaurant on Friday night, following his speech at the National Rifle Association's convention, in which he broadly rejected proposals for gun control, days after the Uvalde school shooting. A video shared on social media shows Cruz standing stoically at Uptown Sushi in Houston as a man challenges him to support expanding background checks on gun sales, which the senator and many of his Republican colleagues have rejected. 'Why did you come here to the convention?' the man, later identified as Benjamin Hernandez, asked Cruz. 'Why? When 19 children died!' As Hernandez was pulled away by security officials, he said to Cruz: 'That's on your hands! That's on your hands, Ted Cruz! That's on your hands!'" The Huffington Post's story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Of course I'm with Hernandez, but I find it amusing that Ted Cruz, he-man gunslinger, was dining at a place called Uptown Sushi. Is Uptown Sushi where he-man gunslingers go to rustle up some grub?

Minyvonne Burke of NBC News: "Congressman Chris Jacobs (R-NY), who was endorsed by the National Rifle Association in 2020, said he would support a ban on assault weapons following two horrific mass shootings at a grocery store in New York and an elementary school in Texas. Jacobs made the remarks -- a contradiction to the Republican party's staunch stance on gun laws -- during a news conference on Friday.... Jacobs ... also said he is in favor of raising the age for some gun purchases to 21."

Joanna Walters & Gloria Olpadipo of the Guardian: "The last funeral for victims of a gunman's racist attack on a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, two weeks ago took place on Saturday afternoon, as the oldest person to die in the mass shooting was laid to rest. Ruth Whitfield, 86, was shot and killed along with nine other people, all of them Black, when a white supremacist and self-declared 'eco-fascist' extremist allegedly traveled far from his home to wreak violence and tragedy. The vice-president, Kamala Harris, and second gentleman, Doug Emhoff, attended and the civil rights activist Al Sharpton delivered the eulogy at the service at Mount Olive Baptist church in Buffalo."

Ellen Nakashima & Amy Gardner of the Washington Post: "The federal government has found no evidence that flaws in Dominion voting machines have ever been exploited, including in the 2020 election, according to the executive director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. CISA, an arm of the Department of Homeland Security, has notified election officials in more than a dozen states that use the machines of several vulnerabilities and mitigation measures that would aid in detection or prevention of an attempt to exploit those vulnerabilities. The move marks the first time CISA has run voting machine flaws through its vulnerability disclosure program, which since 2019 has examined and disclosed hundreds of vulnerabilities in commercial and industrial systems that have been identified by researchers around the world." CNN's report is here.

Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "A prominent Republican-appointed federal judge on Thursday joined calls for Supreme Court justices to be subject to an ethics code, saying a failure by judges to police their own misconduct lessens Americans' respect for the judiciary. Senior U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton of D.C. told attendees of a conference in Chicago focused on threats to the independence of the courts that it was 'unimaginable that we have a segment of our federal judiciary that's not subject to an ethics code,' Reuters reported."

Vimal Patel of the New York Times: "A California woman who repeatedly punched a Southwest Airlines flight attendant last year, bloodying her face and chipping three of her teeth, was sentenced on Friday to 15 months in federal prison, prosecutors said. The woman, Vyvianna M. Quinonez, 29, of Sacramento, will also have to pay nearly $26,000 in restitution and a $7,500 fine, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of California. A video of the attack, which occurred in May 2021, was widely viewed on social media. Judge Todd W. Robinson of United States District Court also ordered Ms. Quinonez to be on supervised release for three years after completing her sentence, during which she will be barred from flying on any commercial aircraft."

Fenit Nirappil, et al., of the Washington Post: "For the third year, Americans are greeting the unofficial start of summer shadowed by the specter of the coronavirus amid rising covid-19 cases and hospitalizations across the country. The United States is recording more than 100,000 infections a day -- at least five times higher than this point last year -- as it confronts the most transmissible versions of the virus yet. Immunity built up as a result of the record winter outbreak appears to provide little protection against the latest variants, new research shows. And public health authorities are bracing for Memorial Day gatherings to fuel another bump in cases, potentially seeding a summer surge.... A year ago..., coronavirus seemed to teeter on the brink of defeat as cases plummeted to their lowest levels since spring 2020 and vaccines became widely available for adults."

Way Beyond the Beltway

Ukraine, et al.

The New York Times' live updates of developments Sunday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "Ukraine, newly armed with Harpoon anti-ship cruise missiles from Denmark, is making a last push to hold on to its eastern Donbas region, where Russian forces are close to occupying the entirety of Luhansk, a province now at the heart of the conflict. In a war that is increasingly becoming an arms race, Russia has been deploying thermobaric warheads, fearsome explosives that send potentially lethal shock waves into bunkers or trenches. Russia's defense ministry also claimed to have successfully test-fired a hypersonic Zircon cruise missile from the Barents Sea at a target more than 620 miles away. Ukraine, for its part, has stepped up its calls for Western nations to provide it with better weaponry. The Biden administration has approved sending long-range multiple-launch rocket systems to Ukraine, a significant transfer that could hugely aid the country's defense.... Vladimir V. Putin of Russia said in a statement from the Kremlin that he was 'open to renewing dialogue with Kyiv,' but Zelensky has not addressed the offer." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Russia's war of aggression on Ukraine should put an end to the maxim, "To the victor go the spoils." There should not be a reward for invading and trying to destroy a sovereign country on groundless or even flimsy excuses. Any treaty should come down hard on Russia. ~~~

     ~~~ The Guardian's live updates for Sunday are here.

Elena Becatoros & Ricardo Mazalan of the AP: "Russian and Ukrainian troops engaged in close-quarter combat in an eastern Ukraine city Sunday as Moscow's soldiers, supported by intense shelling, attempted to gain strategic footholds in the region while facing fierce Ukrainian resistance. Ukrainian regional officials reported that Russian forces were 'storming' the eastern city of Sievierodonetsk, where the fighting has knocked out power and cellphone services and terrorized civilians who haven't fled. Sievierodonetsk, a manufacturing center, has emerged as an epicenter of Russia's quest to conquer Ukraine's industrial Donbas region. Russia also stepped up its efforts to take nearby Lysychansk, where Ukrainian officials reported constant shelling."

U.K. Danica Kirka of the AP: Britain "will celebrate Queen Elizabeth II's 70 years on the throne this week with four days of pomp and pageantry in central London. But behind the brass bands, street parties and a planned appearance by the aging queen on the balcony of Buckingham Palace lies a drive to show that the royal family still remains relevant after seven decades of change." ~~~}

~~~ Brexit, by the Ounce. Nadeem Badshah of the Guardian/Observer: "Boris Johnson will reportedly announce the return of imperial measurements to mark the Queen's platinum jubilee, in an apparent attempt to garner support among Brexiter voters in battleground seats that the Conservatives are in danger of losing. Britain currently uses a mix of imperial and metric measurements, with speed limits in miles per hour and milk and beer bought in pints. The prime minister, under increasing pressure after further damaging revelations in the Partygate scandal, is expected to announce next week that British shops will be allowed to sell products in pounds and ounces to coincide with celebrations for the monarch's 70 years on the throne.... Since 1995, goods sold in Europe have had to display metric weights and measurements.... While it is still legal to price goods in pounds and ounces, these have to be displayed alongside the price in grams and kilograms."

May 28, 2022

Texas officials have drastically altered the Uvalde timeline they initially provided, and what occurred during that time: ~~~

~~~ From the New York Times live updates: "In an emotional and at times tense news conference, Steven C. McCraw, the director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, gave the most detailed accounting of the shooting yet, diverging in substantial points from the original timeline given by officials. Most of the time the gunman was at the school, Mr. McCraw explained, he was inside the classrooms where nearly all of the killing took place, while as many as 19 police officers waited outside in the school hallway. Multiple people in the classrooms, including at least two students, called 911 over that horrifying stretch, begging for police. But apparently believing that the suspect had barricaded himself in the classroom and that 'there were no kids at risk,' the police did not enter the classroom until 12:50 p.m., 78 minutes after the shooter walked inside.... By 12:15 p.m., agents from Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement had arrived with tactical shields, he said, far earlier than previously known. But local police at the scene would not allow them to go after the gunman who had opened fire on students inside the school." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Jim Vertuno & Elliot Spagat of the AP: "Students trapped inside a classroom with a gunman repeatedly called 911 during this week's attack on a Texas elementary school, including one who pleaded, 'Please send the police now,' as nearly 20 officers waited in the hallway for more than 45 minutes, authorities said Friday. The commander at the scene in Uvalde -- the school district's police chief &-- believed that 18-year-old gunman Salvador Ramos was barricaded inside adjoining classrooms at Robb Elementary School and that children were no longer at risk, Steven McCraw, the head of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said at a contentious news conference. 'It was the wrong decision,' he said." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ CNN has the latest timeline related by Texas law officials. The New York Times has the time breakdown here. ~~~

     ~~~ Washington Post updates are here: "The Uvalde, Tex., gunman emerged from a classroom closet firing at Border Patrol tactical agents entering the room, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection official said Friday, offering new details about the shooting after days of shifting accounts from authorities. The Border Patrol agents, using a ballistic shield, entered the classroom and shot and killed the gunman after a phalanx of officers had waited outside for nearly 50 minutes while children repeatedly called 911, pleading for help, Texas law enforcement acknowledged for the first time Friday, four days after the massacre of 21 people." ~~~

~~~ Julia Ainsley of NBC News: "Federal agents who went to Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on Tuesday to confront a gunman who killed 19 children were told by local police to wait and not enter the school -- and then decided after about half an hour to ignore that initial guidance and find the shooter, say two senior federal law enforcement officials. According to the officials, agents from BORTAC, the Customs and Border Protection tactical unit, and ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) arrived on the scene between noon and 12:15 p.m. on Tuesday. Local law enforcement asked them to wait, and then instructed HSI agents to help pull children out of the windows.... After approximately 30 minutes passed, however, the federal agents opted of their own volition to lead the 'stack' of officers inside the school and take down the shooter." ~~~

~~~ Pete Williams of NBC News said that although the classroom door where the gunman who killing children was locked, the door had a broken window -- the shooter broke the window -- and the room had exterior windows, some of which the shooter also broke. MB: That is, it isn't as if the law enforcement officers who were gathered outside the room had no way to access it.

     ~~~ ** Update: If you look at the CNN timeline, you'll see that it wasn't until 12:50 pm [CT?] -- 77 minutes after the first gunfire inside the school -- that the police thought to get a key from the janitor, unlock the door, and kill the gunman.

Safia Ali of NBC News: Peter Arredondo, "the police chief who reportedly made the call not to immediately send officers into Robb Elementary School to confront a gunman, was elected to Uvalde's City Council just three weeks ago after running on a platform of communication and outreach to the community." MB: If Arredondo dares show up to sworn in, I hope there's a procedure to recall city councilmen.

Marie: I was once in a perilous situation with another person, whom I knew to be an intelligent problem-solver. But the situation was so frightening that this person just shut down. He not only didn't know what to do, he denied what was happening. It took me a moment to realize he had rendered himself completely useless and actually an impediment to overcoming the peril. So I said nothing, took charge and neutralized the danger, which was a multi-step process. I think what happened to the school district police chief -- supposedly in charge of the rescue operation -- is what happened to my friend. According to reports, the chief insisted the situation did not involve an active shooter but a barricaded person. He would not allow other officials, including Border Patrol officers armed with tactical gear, to storm the shooter. In other words, the chief just froze up and was unable to act responsibly and responsively.

Tim Miller of the Bulwark: "In the coming days there will be a desire to obsess only over the unfathomable failures of those who were charged with keeping these kids safe. The poor teacher who left a door ajar. The MIA resource officer. The cops, excuse me -- the SWAT Team -- that posed on Facebook in tactical gear with weapons of war looking like they were prepared to head to the Donbas, but were apparently unequipped to take on a lone teenager who was slaughtering their town's children. But the main thing to take away from all of that is ... that in a nation with 130,000 schools there will always be some kind of human error when responding to an active shooter.... When a child is able to access two assault rifles and hundreds of rounds of bullets -- and are able to massacre a dozen innocents in the blink of an eye -- then there is no level of door control or resource officer training that can reliably stop them."

Don't Look Here; Look Over There! Glenn Thrush of the New York Times: "One by one, the gun rights activists and politicians who showed up at the National Rifle Association convention on Friday said they were appalled, horrified and shaken by the massacre of 19 children and two adults a few days earlier in Uvalde, Texas. One by one, they then rejected any suggestion that gun control measures were needed to stop mass shootings. They blamed the atrocities on factors that had nothing to do with firearms -- the breakdown of the American family, untreated mental illness, bullying on social media, violent video games and the inexplicable existence of 'evil.' Above all, they sought to divert pressure to support popular overhauls like expanded background checks by seizing on the issue of school safety, amid reports that the gunman in Uvalde gained easy access to Robb Elementary School through an unguarded door.... Donald J. Trump, speaking at the event's keynote session late Friday, called for 'impenetrable security at every school all across our land.'" An AP report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Isaac Arnsdorf of the Washington Post: At the NRA convention, "Donald Trump, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R), among other speakers, broadly rejected proposals for new restrictions and called instead for more school security or mental health screenings, while issuing dark warnings of alleged Democratic plots to take weapons. 'We all know they want total gun confiscation, know that this would be a first step,' Trump told the crowd.... The speakers also pivoted from condemning the evil of the Uvalde school shooter to vilifying 'elites,' the media, Democrats, and 'communist Marxists,' eliciting cheers from the undercapacity but vocal crowd. MB: Yeah, I was just about to blame communists Marxists. But not Putin!

Michael Sisak of the AP takes "a look at how suspects in mass shootings over a decade obtained guns, based on police accounts, court documents and contemporaneous reporting[.]"

Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs of the New York Times: There is a "wealth of evidence that ... [the Uvalde gunman] had begun to tease his plans -- sometimes in oblique and sometimes in more explicit ways -- in the days and weeks before he fatally shot 19 children and two teachers in a classroom on Tuesday." Several young people who were aware of his online "disturbing messages" were fearful that he would commit a violent crime. "The exchanges raise questions about whether teenagers who knew the 18-year-old should have reported the concerns to their parents or the authorities.... J. Reid Meloy, a forensic psychologist..., said as many as 90 percent of young attackers might tell someone in advance about their intent to cause harm." A related CNN story is here.

Abbott: Plenty of Experience, But Still Not Ready for Prime Time. Isaac Stanley-Becker & Michael Scherer of the Washington Post: "One day after an elementary school shooter killed 21 people in a small Texas town this week, Gov. Greg Abbott appeared before a grieving nation to explain how it happened, delivering an authoritative account of law enforcement heroes facing down evil and preventing the additional loss of life with quick action. But much of that story wasn't true. Abbott was back in Uvalde, Tex., on Friday to acknowledge that key parts of what he had told the country had been disproved by the ongoing criminal investigation, and to pin the errors on law enforcement officials who had briefed him Wednesday.... 'As everybody has learned, the information that I was given turned out in part to be inaccurate. And I'm absolutely livid about that.'... Abbott ... faces increasing criticism that he moved too quickly to amplify a false law enforcement narrative that aligns with his own political beliefs. Federal authorities were 'flabbergasted at the amateurish communications coming from Texas,' said a federal law enforcement official who, along with others, spoke on the condition of anonymity.... [Abbott] has overseen the state's response to mass shootings that, together, have killed more than 90 people...."

Isaac Stanley-Becker of the Washington Post: "The owners of Daniel Defense, the manufacturer of the rifle apparently used in the massacre of 21 people at an elementary school in Uvalde, Tex., are deep-pocketed Republican donors, giving to candidates and committees at the federal and state level aligned against limits on access to assault rifles and other semiautomatic weapons.... The rifle reportedly used in the shooting, the DDM4 V7, sells for about $2,000, according to Daniel Defense's website.... An image posted on the company's Twitter account shows a child [Marie: really, a toddler!] handling a rifle with the caption, 'Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.' Shortly after the shooting, the company locked its Twitter account." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Stacy Cowley & Ella Koeze of the New York Times: "Daniel Defense, the company that made the rifle a gunman used to kill 21 people inside a Texas elementary school this week, was one of hundreds of gun makers and merchants that got emergency small-business aid from the federal government through the Paycheck Protection Program. The company, based in Ellabell, Ga., received a $3.1 million loan in early April 2020 -- just days after the relief fund opened, when many companie were struggling to break through a crush of applications as the pandemic began. The loan, made by Cadence Bank, was used to support some 200 employees, according to government records. Daniel Defense met the program's requirements to have its loan forgiven, and it was paid off by the government in June 2021."

** Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: "It will be impossible to do anything about guns in this country, at least at a national level, as long as Democrats depend on the cooperation of a party that holds in reserve the possibility of insurrection. The slaughter of children in Texas has done little to alter this dynamic.... Victims of our increasingly frequent mass shootings are collateral damage in a cold civil war.... Guns are now the leading cause of death for American children. Many conservatives consider this a price worth paying for their version of freedom." MB: There's that child sacrifice thing again. Thanks to P.D. Pepe for the link. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Tyler Pager, et al., of the Washington Post: "White House officials are currently planning to cancel $10,000 in student debt per borrower, after months of internal deliberations over how to structure loan forgiveness for tens of millions of Americans, three people with knowledge of the matter said. President Biden had hoped to make the announcement as soon as this weekend at the University of Delaware commencement..., but that timing has changed after the massacre Tuesday in Texas. The White House's latest plans called for limiting debt forgiveness to Americans who earned less than $150,000 in the previous year, or less than $300,000 for married couples filing jointly, two of the people said."

AP: "Two fires that merged to create the largest wildfire in New Mexico history have both been traced to prescribed burns set by U.S. forest managers as preventive measures, federal investigators announced Friday. The findings could have implications for the future use of prescribed fire to limit the buildup of dry vegetation amid a U.S. Forest Service moratorium on the practice. They also could affect complex deliberations concerning emergency aid and liability for a fire that has spread across 1,260 square kilometers (486 square miles) and destroyed hundreds of structures. The two fires joined in April to form the massive blaze at the southern tip of the Rocky Mountains, in the Sangre de Cristo range." MB: Uh, this is making Trump's plan to sweep the forests sound a little smarter.

House Traitors Leader Stonewalls January 6 Committee. Jacqueline Alemany of the Washington Post: "House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) issued a statement Friday indicating that he is unlikely to comply with a subpoena issued this month requesting that he testify before the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. An 11-page response to the committee from McCarthy's counsel questioned the committee's authority and claimed that lawmakers on the panel are 'not exercising a valid or lawful use of Congress' subpoena power,' according to a letter from Elliot S. Berke, McCarthy's lawyer. Berke goes on to request information from the committee, including a more specific list of the subjects and topics the committee intends to discuss with McCarthy, along with the legal rationale justifying the subpoena request."

Trumpty-Dumpty Takes a New Fall. Ben Protess, et al., of the New York Times: In the latest legal blow to Donald J. Trump, a federal judge on Friday dismissed a lawsuit the former president filed that sought to halt the New York attorney general's civil investigation into his business practices. On Thursday, an appellate court ordered Mr. Trump and two of his children to sit for questioning under oath from the office of the state attorney general, Letitia James. Together, the rulings clear the way for Ms. James to complete her investigation in the coming weeks or months.... Last month, one of her lawyers indicated that a suit could be coming soon, saying that the office was preparing an 'enforcement action' in the near future." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Richard Fausset & Danny Hakim of the New York Times: "As many as 50 witnesses are expected to be subpoenaed by a special grand jury that will begin hearing testimony next week in the criminal investigation into whether ... Donald J. Trump and his allies violated Georgia laws in their efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss in the state.... [Fulton County, Ga., District Attorney Fani] Willis is weighing racketeering among other potential charges.... Her investigators are also reviewing the slate of fake electors that Republicans created in a desperate attempt to circumvent the state's voters. She said the scheme to submit fake Electoral College delegates could lead to fraud charges, among others...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) A CNN story is here.

Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "Prosecutors on Friday urged a jury to convict well-connected attorney Michael Sussmann, saying that he thought he had 'a license to lie' to the FBI at the height of the 2016 presidential campaign. Sussmann's defense lawyers countered that the case against Sussmann was built on a 'political conspiracy theory.'... The case brought by Special Counsel John Durham charges that Sussmann lied by claiming he did not bring the information to the FBI on behalf of any client, when he allegedly did so on behalf of two clients: the Clinton campaign and a tech executive, Rodney Joffe.... The jury, which began deliberating about 1 p.m. Friday, is tasked with answering a fairly simple legal and factual question -- whether Sussmann lied about his client and whether that lie was relevant to the FBI investigation." MB: Sounds like two questions to me. Politico's report is here.

New Info from the Mueller Investigation! Uh, All Redacted. Josh Gerstein of Politico: "The Justice Department has released portions of a previously unseen alternative version of special counsel Robert Mueller's report on ties between ... Donald Trump and Russia. However, the 37-page report prepared at the direction of Mueller deputy Andrew Weissmann and released this week under the Freedom of Information Act is heavily redacted. Justice Department officials withheld large swaths of the document on grounds of ongoing investigations, privacy and protecting internal deliberations.... The secrecy puts the Biden administration in the curious position of fighting to keep from public view evidence of alleged wrongdoing by top advisers to Trump. It appears that those blacking out the redacted document sought to delete any details not made public in the version of Mueller's report released in 2019 or in other public documents. The report focuses on the work of what was known within Mueller's office as 'Team M' a group of investigators and prosecutors focused on connections between Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort and businessmen and politicians friendly to Russia."

Beyond the Beltway

Oregon House Race. Gillian Flaccus of the AP: "Seven-term U.S. Rep. Kurt Schrader, a centrist who was endorsed by President Joe Biden, has been ousted in the Democratic primary in Oregon by progressive challenger Jamie McLeod-Skinner after results were delayed more than a week by a ballot-printing issue. The vote count in the state's 5th Congressional District was slowed because tens of thousands of ballots were printed with blurry bar codes, making them unreadable by vote-counting machines. Workers in Clackamas County, the state's third-largest county, had to transfer votes by hand to fresh ballots so they could be tallied. That process continued Friday for other races yet to be called."

Texas House Race. Acacia Coronado of the AP: "The Texas primary runoff between Democratic U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar and his progressive challenger, Jessica Cisneros, remained too early [close??] to call Friday. Cuellar led Cisneros by 175 votes, or 0.4 percentage points, out of 45,209 ballots counted as of 3 p.m. ET Friday. Election officials in Bexar County, where Cisneros has a significant lead over Cuellar among ballots counted, said they will not release results of an undisclosed number of ballots that require voters to cure an issue preventing it from being counted until Tuesday."

Way Beyond

The Guardian's live updates of developments Saturday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here. ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times' live updates for Saturday are here: "... Ukrainian and Russian forces [were] fighting street to street in a battle for Sievierodonetsk, one of the most important cities in the Donbas region still held by Ukraine.... For months, [President] Zelensky has called for heavier weapons to relieve pressure in the Donbas region and turn the tide in the war, and officials said on Friday that the Biden administration had approved sending long-range multiple launch rocket systems to Ukraine.... The capture this week of the city of Lyman in the region was an example of the incremental progress that analysts say Moscow continues to make.... The leaders of the central branch of the Orthodox church in Ukraine have made a formal break with the hierarchy in Moscow, widening the schism in a church that was already divided before Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Russia is responsible for inciting genocide in Ukraine, with the apparent intent of destroying the Ukrainian people, a new report released Friday by international legal scholars and human rights experts concluded." ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live updates for Saturday are here: "Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky pledged Friday to continue fighting for the eastern region of Donbas, where Russian forces have taken more territory in recent days.... The British Defense Ministry said most of the town [of Lyman, a key transport hub,] has probably fallen into Russian hands. Russia is also trying to encircle Severodonetsk, but the regional governor said Saturday that the city has not been cut off."

Peter Beaumont & Isobel Koshiw of the Guardian: "Joe Biden has accused Vladimir Putin of trying to 'wipe out' Ukraine's culture but suggested the plan had at least partially backfired by spurring the expansion of Nato in Europe. The US president told 1,200 graduating cadets in Annapolis, Maryland, on Friday: 'Not only is he trying to take over Ukraine, he's literally trying to wipe out the culture and identity of the Ukrainian people. Attacking schools, nurseries, hospitals, museums, with no other purpose than to eliminate a culture.'"

May 27, 2022

Afternoon Update:

Texas officials have drastically altered the Uvalde timeline they initially provided, and what occurred during that time: ~~~

~~~ From the New York Times live updates: "In an emotional and at times tense news conference, Steven C. McCraw, the director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, gave the most detailed accounting of the shooting yet, diverging in substantial points from the original timeline given by officials. Most of the time the gunman was at the school, Mr. McCraw explained, he was inside the classrooms where nearly all of the killing took place, while as many as 19 police officers waited outside in the school hallway. Multiple people in the classrooms, including at least two students, called 911 over that horrifying stretch, begging for police. But apparently believing that the suspect had barricaded himself in the classroom and that 'there were no kids at risk,' the police did not enter the classroom until 12:50 p.m., 78 minutes after the shooter walked inside.... By 12:15 p.m., agents from Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement had arrived with tactical shields, he said, far earlier than previously known. But local police at the scene would not allow them to go after the gunman who had opened fire on students inside the school. ~~~

~~~ "The National Rifle Association's annual convention opened Friday in Houston. In years past, the conclave has taken on the tenor of a gun-rights rally. This one was planned months ago, but its timing, days after an 18-year-old gunman killed 19 children and two teachers with a semiautomatic rifle, has drawn nationwide attention and protests. Numerous scheduled speakers and performers have withdrawn from the N.R.A. event, including Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas who backed out late Thursday in favor of another trip to Uvalde and will provide prerecorded video remarks at the N.R.A. meeting. The latest to cancel was Dan Patrick, the lieutenant governor of Texas.... Donald J. Trump, who ran on a pro-gun platform in 2020, and Senator Ted Cruz who has rejected new gun laws since the attack, were expected to offer an unapologetic defense of gun rights in addresses at the N.R.A. convention on Friday." ~~~

~~~ Jim Vertuno & Elliot Spagat of the AP: "Students trapped inside a classroom with a gunman repeatedly called 911 during this week's attack on a Texas elementary school, including one who pleaded, 'Please send the police now,' as nearly 20 officers waited in the hallway for more than 45 minutes, authorities said Friday. The commander at the scene in Uvalde -- the school district's police chief -- believed that 18-year-old gunman Salvador Ramos was barricaded inside adjoining classrooms at Robb Elementary School and that children were no longer at risk, Steven McCraw, the head of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said at a contentious news conference. 'It was the wrong decision,' he said." ~~~

~~~ CNN has the latest timeline related by Texas law officials.

Pete Williams of NBC News said that although the classroom door where the gunman who killing children was locked, the door had a broken window -- the shooter broke the window -- and the room had exterior windows, some of which the shooter also broke. MB: So it isn't as if the law enforcement officers who were gathered outside the room had no way to access it.

Isaac Stanley-Becker of the Washington Post: "The owners of Daniel Defense, the manufacturer of the rifle apparently used in the massacre of 21 people at an elementary school in Uvalde, Tex., are deep-pocketed Republican donors, giving to candidates and committees at the federal and state level aligned against limits on access to assault rifles and other semiautomatic weapons.... The rifle reportedly used in the shooting, the DDM4 V7, sells for about $2,000, according to Daniel Defense's website.... An image posted on the company's Twitter account shows a child [Marie: really, a toddler!] handling a rifle with the caption, 'Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.' Shortly after the shooting, the company locked its Twitter account."

** Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: "It will be impossible to do anything about guns in this country, at least at a national level, as long as Democrats depend on the cooperation of a party that holds in reserve the possibility of insurrection. The slaughter of children in Texas has done little to alter this dynamic.... Victims of our increasingly frequent mass shootings are collateral damage in a cold civil war.... Guns are now the leading cause of death for American children. Many conservatives consider this a price worth paying for their version of freedom." MB: There's that child sacrifice thing again. Thanks to P.D. Pepe for the link.

Trumpty-Dumpty Takes Another Fall. Ben Protess, et al., of the New York Times: In the latest legal blow to Donald J. Trump, a federal judge on Friday dismissed a lawsuit the former president filed that sought to halt the New York attorney general's civil investigation into his business practices. On Thursday, an appellate court ordered Mr. Trump and two of his children to sit for questioning under oath from the office of the state attorney general, Letitia James. Together, the rulings clear the way for Ms. James to complete her investigation in the coming weeks or months.... Last month, one of her lawyers indicated that a suit could be coming soon, saying that the office was preparing an 'enforcement action' in the near future."

Richard Fausset & Danny Hakim of the New York Times: "As many as 50 witnesses are expected to be subpoenaed by a special grand jury that will begin hearing testimony next week in the criminal investigation into whether ... Donald J. Trump and his allies violated Georgia laws in their efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss in the state.... [Fulton County, District Attorney Fani] Willis is weighing racketeering among other potential charges.... Her investigators are also reviewing the slate of fake electors that Republicans created in a desperate attempt to circumvent the state's voters. She said the scheme to submit fake Electoral College delegates could lead to fraud charges, among others...."

~~~~~~~~~~

The New York Times' live updates of developments in the Uvalde massacre are here.

Jon Swaine, et al., of the Washington Post: "A gunman roamed outside a Texas elementary school for about 12 minutes, entered without challenge and spent an hour inside before he was killed by law enforcement, authorities said Thursday, revising key details in their account of the massacre as the police response to it was criticized by some parents. The new details of how 18-year-old Salvador Ramos was able to kill 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Tex., on Tuesday, together with cellphone videos and witness accounts of police outside tackling or handcuffing desperate parents who tried to rush into the building, called into question earlier claims by Gov. Greg Abbott (R) that a 'quick response' by law enforcement had saved lives." The AP report is here. ~~~

~~~ Mark Berman of the Washington Post: "Officials, who are facing mounting questions about the police response to the massacre, have offered varied timelines and explanations of the massacre and law enforcement's response. They have also made sometimes inconsistent or contradictory announcements about key details, such as how the shooter entered the school or how long he was inside. They have even withdrawn some claims outright. While it is common for details to shift following mass attacks, some of the changes in Uvalde made during news briefings and interviews have been striking. Here is a brief rundown of some ways the official accounts have differed[.]" MB: Most striking (to me): the fictitious -- and "heroic"! -- armed security guard who confronted the gunman as he entered the school grounds. There was no such person on the scene.

Kipp Jones of Mediaite: "A Texas Department of Public Safety official said responding officers were cautious as they entered Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas because 'they could've been shot.'... The New York Times reported the shooter was inside the school for about an hour before officers finally breached the classroom he was in and shot and killed him.... On Thursday's The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer, the host discussed the Tuesday's horrifying events with DPS Lt. Chris Olivarez.... 'Don't current best practices, don't they call for officers to disable a shooter as quickly as possible, regardless of how many officers are actually on site?' Blitzer asked him. Olivarez ... said, '... if they proceeded any further not knowing where the suspect was at, they could've been shot, they could've been killed....'"

Tommy Christopher of Mediaite: "Texas Department Public Safety spokesman Lt. Christopher Olivarez confirmed to a reporter during a live shot that police officers went into Robb Elementary School to get their own children during the massacre." This happened Amid outrage over reports that frantic families who complained about police inaction during the massacre were held back by police, a clip of a live interview with Olivarez from Tuesday has gone viral." Includes clip & text of interview.

Salvador Hernandez of BuzzFeed News: "... when members of law enforcement were pointedly asked during a press conference Thursday why it took more than 60 agonizing minutes -- during which the shooter killed 19 children and 2 adults -- before armed officers went in to stop the gunfire, officials turned and walked away. 'What were you doing between 11:44 and 12:44?' one reporter asked Victor Escalon, regional director for the Texas Department of Public Safety.... Escalon told reporters, 'We will circle back and answer all of your questions.' Escalon and other law enforcement officials standing beside him then ended the press conference suddenly and walked away." Officials called the presser, they said, "to clear up misinformation.

His Heart Broke. Eduardo Medina of the New York Times: "Joe Garcia, the husband of Irma Garcia, one of the two teachers killed in the massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, died on Thursday of a heart attack, said his nephew John Martinez.... The couple had been married for 24 years and had four children, with the oldest 23 and the others teenagers."

     ~~~ Thanks to unwashed for the link.

Ted Can't Handle the Truth. Timothy Bella of the Washington Post: "As Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) attended a vigil Wednesday for the victims of the massacre in Uvalde, Tex., he stormed away from an interview after he was asked by a British journalist why mass shootings happen 'only in America.'" Here's the Sky News story, by Cruz's interviewer Mark Stone. Stone tries to explain U.S. gun culture to the Brits in the child-friendly way a loyal aide might try to explain Zulu culture to Donald Trump. ~~~

"Hershel Walker Has Some Thoughts." digby, citing what may be an Atlanta Journal-Constitution op-ed (no link): "'On Tuesday night, CNN's Manu Raju asked the former football player, "Do you support any new gun laws in the wake of this Texas shooting?" Walker responded, "What I like to -- what I like to do is see it and everything and stuff." This morning, the Republican candidate shared some additional thoughts on the subject. After reminding viewers that "Cain killed Abel" -- I'm not entirely sure how that's relevant -- Walker added: "What we need to do is look into how we can stop those things. You know, they talk about doing a disinformation, what about getting a department that could look at young men that's looking at women that looking at social media. What about doing that? Looking into things like that? If we can stop that that way?"'" MB: It's likely getting hit too many times on the football field damaged Hershel's brain, and that's a tragedy, but a concomitant tragedy would be to elect him to a policy-making job.

GOP More Extreme Than NRA. Isaac Arnsdorf & Carol Leonnig of the Washington Post: "GOP politicians are taking more-uncompromising positions on guns even as lawsuits and infighting have dragged down the flagship gun lobby.... For GOP voters and lawmakers, gun rights have become a central culture-war issue animating their movement. Arguments that once centered on hunting and rural traditions have turned into bitter battles over identity, with no need for a giant lobbying group like the NRA to stoke the flames.... Now, many of the most vocal gun rights voters are turning to activists ... who fault the NRA for negotiating in the past on some legislation."

Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: "Hopes for a long-shot deal to pass a new federal law that could keep guns out of the hands of potential mass murderers were left Thursday in the hands of a small bipartisan group of senators, who pledged to explore multiple options even as lawmakers left Washington for a Memorial Day recess. The talks, to be led by Sens. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) and Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), began in earnest less than two days after a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers at a Texas elementary school -- and just moments after Senate Republicans blocked a bill aimed at addressing a previous U.S. mass shooting, the May 14 killing of 10 people at a Buffalo supermarket. The 47-to-47 vote on that bill, which was aimed at focusing the federal government on combating domestic terrorism and white supremacy, demonstrated the partisan polarization around any measure addressing acts of mass gun violence." MB: Yeah, well, my thoughts and prayers go out to that small bipartisan group. ~~~

~~~ Alas, once again thoughts and prayers likely will come to naught. Apparently Texas' Big John did not voluntarily join this effort to pass some mild form of gun safety legislation: ~~~

     ~~~ Lauren Fox, et al., of CNN: "Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told CNN on Thursday he met earlier in the day with Texas Sen. John Cornyn and encouraged the senior Republican senator to begin discussions with Democrats, including Sens. Chris Murphy of Connecticut and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, to see if they can find a middle ground on legislation to respond to the tragic Texas elementary school shooting."~~~

~~~ Marianne Levine & Andrew Desiderio of Politico: "Senate Republicans on Thursday blocked legislation intended to combat domestic terrorism.... The GOP widely views the legislation as unnecessary and an attempt by Democrats to politicize the killing of 10 people, mostly Black.... Democrats noted that all House Republicans supported a nearly identical domestic terrorism bill less than two years ago, when it passed by voice vote."

Too Young to Buy a Handgun; A-Ok for two AR-15s. Kiah Collier & Jeremy Schwartz of the Texas Tribune & ProPublica: "The fact that the gunman responsible for this week's massacre in Uvalde was able to buy two AR-15s days after his 18th birthday highlights how much easier it is for Americans to purchase rifles than handguns. Under federal law, Americans buying handguns from licensed dealers must be at least 21, which would have precluded the gunman from buying that type of weapon. That trumps Texas law, which only requires buyers of any type of firearm to be 18 or older."

Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: "The Biden administration will begin to allow certain migrants to ask for asylum as they arrive at the southwestern border at the end of the month, even as it continues to use a pandemic-era public health rule to quickly turn migrants away without the option to seek it. The new process, intended to deliver a decision within months instead of the years it currently takes via the immigration court system, will apply to a 'few hundred' migrants a month, administration officials said. The policy's immediate effect is likely to be minimal, dwarfed by vast backlogs in the immigration system and a recent surge of migrants at the border, and it is far from a broad restoration of access to asylum, which was curtailed by the Trump administration and the pandemic."

Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "Four House Republicans including Representative Kevin McCarthy, the minority leader, signaled on Thursday that they would not cooperate with subpoenas from the committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, posing a dilemma for the panel that could have broad implications for the inquiry and for Congress itself. Representatives Jim Jordan of Ohio, Scott Perry of Pennsylvania and Andy Biggs of Arizona each sent letters to the committee objecting to the investigation ahead of the depositions scheduled for this week, and Mr. McCarthy, of California, filed a court brief arguing the panel's subpoenas are illegitimate." MB: About a thousand people, many of whom did not want to do so, concluded that it was their legal & patriotic duty to do whatever they could to protect their country from insurrection. These jamokes are lawless traitors.

Betsy Swan & Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows burned papers in his office after meeting with a House Republican who was working to challenge the 2020 election, according to testimony the Jan. 6 select committee has heard from one of his former aides. Cassidy Hutchinson, who worked under Meadows when he was ... Donald Trump's chief of staff, told the panel investigating the Capitol attack that she saw Meadows incinerate documents after a meeting in his office with Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.).... The person familiar with the testimony said investigators pressed Hutchinson for details about the issue for more than 90 minutes during a recent deposition." MB: So much classier than stuffing the papers down the toilet, as Trump has done.

Jonah Bromwich, et al., of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump and two of his adult children must sit for questioning under oath as part of the New York attorney general's civil investigation into their business practices, a state appeals court ruled on Thursday. Mr. Trump's lawyers had argued that the inquiry by the state attorney general, Letitia James, was politically motivated and that she should not be permitted to question him or the children, Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump. The lawyers also claimed that the attorney general could not force Mr. Trump to face questioning in her civil investigation because he was also the subject of a criminal inquiry into some of the same business practices. But the court found that the Trumps had not shown they were being treated differently from other investigative targets and argued that 'the existence of a criminal investigation does not preclude civil discovery of related facts.'... The unanimous ruling from a four-judge panel of the New York State Supreme Court's Appellate Division, First Department, upheld a decision from a lower court granting Ms. James permission to question Mr. Trump and his children.... Lawyers for the Trumps could appeal the ruling to New York's highest court, the Court of Appeals." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Lawless Little Prick Runs for Oklahoma Senate Seat. Eric Lipton of the New York Times: "Scott Pruitt, while in charge of the Environmental Protection Agency during the Trump administration, repeatedly pressured his federal security officers to drive at excessive and sometimes dangerous speeds on routine trips, with sirens and emergency lights on, because he had a habit of running late, according to a federal report released on Thursday. The security officers said they knew this was a violation of federal policies and 'endangered public safety,' the report said. Among the incidents cited in the report was a 2017 trip in which a special agent drove Mr. Pruitt with the lights and sirens going, in the wrong direction into oncoming traffic, to pick up Mr. Pruitt's dry cleaning, when Mr. Pruitt was late for an agency meeting.... Until now, an internal E.P.A. report that substantiated the allegations about the abusive use of lights and sirens on his government-issued car had never been made public, even though it was completed a month before Mr. Pruitt resigned. Mr. Pruitt ... is now running as a Republican for the United States Senate in Oklahoma and previously served as the state's attorney general...." A Huffington Post story is here.

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court said on Thursday that it would allow the Biden administration to continue to take account of the costs of greenhouse gas emissions in regulatory actions, rejecting an emergency application from Louisiana and other Republican-led states to block the use of a formula that assigns a monetary value to changes in emissions. The court's brief order gave no reasons, which is typical when the court acts on emergency applications. There were no noted dissents."

David Gelles & Hiroko Tabuchi of the New York Times: "Across the country, Republican lawmakers and their allies have launched a campaign to try to rein in what they see as activist companies trying to reduce the greenhouse gases that are dangerously heating the planet.... [Republican state officials] have pushed climate change from the scientific realm into the political battles already raging over topics like voting rights, abortion and L.G.B.T.Q. issues. In recent months, conservatives have moved beyond tough words and used legislative and financial leverage to pressure the private sector to drop climate action and any other causes they label as 'woke.'" MB: I suppose this story will get lost in the clutter of more sensational reports, but this is pretty astounding. It isn't just that these Republicans don't care about the demise of Earth; it's that they are encouraging it.

Sarah Bailey, et al., of the Washington Post: "Southern Baptist leaders on Thursday evening released a list of alleged church-related sexual abuse offenders that denomination heads had kept secret for more than a decade. The Executive Committee for the Southern Baptist Convention said earlier this week it would publish the names after it issued a third-party investigation that suggested a widespread coverup by top leaders who ignored and even 'vilified' people who came forward with stories of abuse. The database, which an SBC attorney said includes people who have been criminally convicted of abuse and those who have confessed to abuse, is expected to show what top leaders knew behind the scenes while telling Southern Baptists they could not create a list of accused abusers because the denomination is not hierarchical and churches operate independently from one another." You can read the database here. (MB: If this link doesn't work, please let me know.)

Alex Marshall & Julia Jacobs of the New York Times: "The British authorities have authorized criminal charges against Kevin Spacey on four counts of sexual assault against three men, the country's Crown Prosecution Service announced in a news release on Thursday.... The authorization of charges followed a review of the evidence collected by London's police force. Mr. Spacey cannot be formally charged unless he enters England or Wales, a spokesman for the service said in a telephone interview. The spokesman declined to comment on whether the service would pursue extradition proceedings...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Thursday are here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Ariana Cha of the Washington Post: "A large U.S. study looking at whether vaccination protects against long covid showed the shots have only a slight protective effect: Being vaccinated appeared to reduce the risk of lung and blood clot disorders, but did little to protect against most other symptoms. The new paper, published Wednesday in Nature Medicine, is part of a series of studies by the Department of Veterans Affairs on the impact of the coronavirus, and was based on 33,940 people who experienced breakthrough infections after vaccination." This article is free to nonsubscribers.

Beyond the Beltway

New York. Lou Michel & Dan Herbeck of the Buffalo News: "Law enforcement officers are investigating whether a retired federal agent had about 30 minutes advance notice of a white supremacist's plans to murder Black people at a Buffalo supermarket, two law enforcement officials told The Buffalo News. Authorities believe the former agent -- believed to be from Texas -- was one of at least six individuals who regularly communicated with accused gunman Payton Gendron in an online chat room where racist hatred was discussed, the two officials said. The two law enforcement sources with direct knowledge of the investigation stated these individuals were invited by Gendron to read about his mass shooting plans and the target location about 30 minutes before Gendron killed 10 people at Tops Markets on Jefferson Avenue on May 14. The News could not determine if the retired agent accepted the invitation."

Wyoming House Race. Zach Shonfeld of the Hill: "Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) formally launched her reelection bid on Thursday, seeking the Republican nomination for her seat for the fourth time amid rebukes from her own party. 'Some things have to matter,' Cheney said in her announcement video. 'American freedom, the rule of law, our founding principles, the foundations of our republic matter. What we do in this election in Wyoming matters.'... In this year's Aug. 16 primary, she will face a challenger, attorney Harriet Hageman, backed by [Donald] Trump and his allies, who have viewed removing Cheney as a top priority. Trump is slated to stump for Hageman at a Saturday rally, which will also include video addresses by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), who became chairwoman of the House Republican Conference after Cheney was ousted from the role last year."

Way Beyond

Ukraine, et al.

The New York Times' live updates of developments Friday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "As Russian forces make incremental gains in eastern Ukraine amid an intensified military campaign, including seizing the city of Lyman, the wide-scale devastation of towns and cities in the region has widened a spiraling crisis for civilians.... Lyman's fall followed intense artillery bombardments, including from one of the most fearsome weapons in Russia's conventional arsenal: fuel-air bombs that set off huge, destructive shock waves.... President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine warned in an overnight address that Russian forces were trying to turn cities and towns in the east of the country 'to ashes.' With civilians also being killed at an alarming rate, he charged that the actions amounted to 'an obvious policy of genocide pursued by Russia.' A new report from international legal scholars released on Friday echoed such claims about the war generally. It said that mass killings, deliberate attacks on shelters or evacuation routes, and the indiscriminate bombardment of residential areas by Russian forces established a 'genocidal pattern' indicating an intent to wipe out a substantial part of the Ukrainian population."

** Katie Lillis, et al., of CNN: "Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians have been processed through a series of Russian 'filtration camps' in Eastern Ukraine and sent into Russia as part of a systemized program of forced removal, according to four sources familiar with the latest Western intelligence -- an estimate far higher than US officials have publicly disclosed. After being detained in camps operated by Russian intelligence officials, many Ukrainians are then forcibly relocated to economically depressed areas in Russia, in some cases thousands of miles from their homes..., sources said.... In some cases, Ukrainians have been sent to Sakhalin Island, a distant spit in the Pacific Ocean on Russia's far east -- 10,000 miles from the Ukrainian border. If they are fortunate, sources tell CNN, Russia will provide housing in residential areas and perhaps a Russian SIM card and a small amount of money. Others are simply dropped off with nothing and expected to survive on their own."

David Ignatius of the Washington Post on how the Biden administration secretly -- and effectively -- planned for Russia's invasion of Ukraine. MB: One part that interested me was the major role CIA Director William Burns (no relation), a one-time ambassador to Russia, played in the effort: "CIA Director William J. Burns traveled to Moscow on Nov. 1 to warn ... Vladimir Putin that the United States and its allies were prepared to arm Ukraine and impose crippling sanctions on Russia if he invaded. Putin apparently thought Biden wouldn't be able to deliver.... The Ukrainians knew the Russians were coming. Burns had secretly traveled to Kyiv in January to brief Zelensky on the Russian plan...." I shudder to think of what buffoonery a Trump administration would have unleased during such a period.