December 11, 2021

Zolan Kanno-Youngs of the New York Times: "President Biden made his first late-night show appearance since taking office on Friday, condemning partisanship in Congress and endorsing a song featuring the rapper Megan Thee Stallion to encourage Americans to get the Covid vaccine.... The president used the opportunity to celebrate the passage of his bipartisan infrastructure package, emphasize the importance of voting rights and encourage Americans to get their shots." ~~~

John Wagner, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Biden hailed former senator Bob Dole as a 'genuine hero,' praising his courage on the battlefield and integrity on Capitol Hill, as he spoke at an invitation-only memorial service at Washington National Cathedral. Former senators Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) and Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), and Dole's daughter, Robin Dole, also spoke. At a public ceremony at the World II Memorial in Washington, actor Tom Hanks lauded Dole's military service and said 'the memory and conscience of the man himself will always be here, right here, for as long as there is an America.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: President Biden used his remarks to contrast Dole's political style with those of today's dangerous Republicans. Pretty good: ~~~

Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol issued six new subpoenas on Friday, digging deeper into the rallies that preceded the mob violence and organizers' meetings with ... Donald J. Trump. Those issued subpoenas Friday included Robert 'Bobby' Peede Jr., a former director of the White House advance team and Max Miller, a former Trump White House aide, who both met with Mr. Trump in his private dining room by the Oval Office on Jan. 4 to discuss the rally planned for two days later at the Ellipse, a park just south of the White House; and Brian Jack, Mr. Trump's former political affairs director who reached out to several members of Congress to ask them to speak at the Jan. 6 rally. (Mr. Jack is currently the political director for ... Kevin McCarthy.)... The committee also issued subpoenas for Bryan Lewis, who obtained a permit for a rally outside the Capitol on Jan. 6 to 'urge Congress to nullify electoral votes from states that made illegal changes to voting rules during their elections'; and Ed Martin, an organizer of the Stop the Steal movement who the committee said was involved in the planning and financing of the rally immediately before the attack.... The panel also issued a subpoena to Kimberly Fletcher and her organization, Moms for America, which helped organize a Jan. 5 rally at Freedom Plaza and the Jan. 6 rally at the Ellipse...." Politico's story is here.

The clear purpose and actual effect of S.B. 8 has been to nullify this court's rulings.... It is the role of the Supreme Court in our constitutional system that is at stake. -- Chief Justice John Roberts, in a dissent joined by Sotomayor, Kagan & Breyer

This is a brazen challenge to our federal structure. It echoes the philosophy of John C. Calhoun, a virulent defender of the slaveholding South who insisted that States had the right to 'veto' or 'nullif[y]' any federal law with which they disagreed.... The Nation fought a Civil War over that proposition, but Calhoun's theories were not extinguished.... [B]y foreclosing suit against state-court officials and the state attorney general, the Court clears the way for States to reprise and perfect Texas' scheme in the future to target the exercise of any right recognized by this Court with which they disagree. This is no hypothetical. -- Justice Sonia Sotomayor, in a separate dissent ~~~

~~~ Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court on Friday said that Texas abortion providers may sue to stop the state's ban on most abortions after six weeks, but left the law in place for now. The splintered decision allows the providers to return to a district judge who once blocked the law, saying it violated the constitutional right to abortion. That restarts the legal process that has seen the law remain in effect since Sept. 1, when the Supreme Court refused to step in to block it. Eight justices said the abortion providers may bring the challenge. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., writing for himself and the court's three liberals, said the district judge should act quickly. 'Given the ongoing chilling effect of the state law, the District Court should resolve this litigation and enter appropriate relief without delay,' Roberts wrote." The New York Times report, by Adam Liptak, is here. (Also liked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Dahlia Lithwick's commentary on these rulings is in Slate and is subscriber-firewalled. However, Annie Laurie of Balloon Juice republishes the meat of Lithwick's analysis: "The real story of the two decisions in U.S. v. Texas and Whole Woman's Health v. Jackson is that Chief Justice John Roberts has now lost control of his court." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: For what it's worth, I think the "real story" is the one Sonia Sotomayor tells in her dissent: that the confederate Supremes have set a precedent -- and guidelines -- for states to nullify Constitutional rights which the Supreme Court has, over the years, defined & solidified. It gets as basic as First Amendment rights to freedom of speech, the press, religion. Any state could nullify these rights simply by allowing vigilantes to successfully sue, say, non-Protestants for practicing their religions. They could sue the local newspaper for writing an editorial disparaging the governor. They could sue you for standing on a soapbox in the town square & making "unapproved" remarks. They could sue, say, interracial or gay married couples. In less draconian ways, states could eliminate all manner of federal laws that have kept us safer. Ironically, by providing a pathway to making states invulnerable to federal oversight, the Fab Five have undercut their own authority. Apparently, that was their intention.

Barak Ravid in Axios: “Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu were the closest of political allies during the four years they overlapped in office, at least in public. Not anymore. "I haven't spoken to him since," Trump said of the former Israeli prime minister. 'F**k him.'... Trump repeatedly criticized Netanyahu during two interviews for my book.... The final straw for Trump was when Netanyahu congratulated President-elect Biden for his election victory while Trump was still disputing the result." MB: Trump is still "disputing the results." (Also liked yesterday afternoon.)

Luke Broadwater & Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol is scrutinizing a 38-page PowerPoint document filled with extreme plans to overturn the 2020 election that Mark Meadows, the last chief of staff to ... Donald J. Trump, has turned over to the panel. The document recommended that Mr. Trump declare a national emergency to delay the certification of the election results and included a claim that China and Venezuela had obtained control over the voting infrastructure in a majority of states. A lawyer for Mr. Meadows, George J. Terwilliger III, said on Friday that Mr. Meadows ... merely received [the document] by email in his inbox and did nothing with it.... Phil Waldron, a retired Army colonel and an influential voice in the movement to challenge the election, said on Friday from a bar he owns outside Austin, Texas, that he had circulated the document.... Mr. Waldron said that he did not personally send the document to Mr. Meadows.... Rudolph W. Giuliani ... has cited Mr. Waldron as a source of information for his legal campaign." The Guardian's report is here.

** Jason Szep & Linda So of Reuters: On January 4, "a Chicago publicist for hip-hop artist Kanye West traveled to the suburban home of Ruby Freeman, a frightened Georgia election worker who was facing death threats after being falsely accused by ... Donald Trump of manipulating votes.... The visitor, Trevian Kutti, gave her name but didn't say she worked for West, a longtime billionaire friend of Trump. She said she was sent by a 'high-profile individual,' whom she didn't identify, to give Freeman an urgent message: confess to Trump's voter-fraud allegations, or people would come to her home in 48 hours, and she'd go to jail. Freeman refused.... The day after Freeman's meeting with Kutti, an agent from the Federal Bureau of Investigation called Freeman and urged her to leave her home of 20 years because it wasn't safe, Freeman said.... According to a defamation lawsuit Freeman and [her daughter Wandrea 'Shaye'] Moss [-- whom Trump also accused of illegally counting phony ballots --]..., left [her home on January 6,] hours before a mob of angry Trump supporters surrounded her home, shouting through bullhorns." The article includes video from a bodycam worn by a police officer who came to Freeman's house after she called 911 for protection. Related story linked below under Beyond the Beltway. ~~~

     ~~~ Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "Had Kutti successfully compelled Freeman to admit committing some crime, it would certainly have upended the conversation about the election at a particularly fraught moment. The results in Georgia would have been called into question with at least some legitimacy, giving Trump and his allies ammunition to stall the upcoming certification of electoral votes. Trump would almost certainly have still been ousted, but in a throw-spaghetti-at-the-wall strategy to retain power, even one sticky piece of pasta is useful." MB: BTW, police and other authorities have brought no charges against Kutti or any of the dozens & dozens of people who have threatened Freeman.

Betsy Swan & Kyle Cheney of Politico: "A Donald Trump campaign lawyer wrote two legal memos in the week before the Jan. 6 Capitol attack that claimed then-Vice President Mike Pence had the authority to refuse to count presidential electors from states that delivered Joe Biden the White House. The memos from then-Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis, which contain widely disputed legal theories about Pence's ability to stop a Biden presidency, underscore Ellis' promotion of extreme arguments that she promulgated amid Trump's effort to reverse the election results.... A Dec. 31 Ellis memo delivered to Trump's office suggested that Pence -- who was constitutionally responsible for presiding over Congress' counting of electoral votes on Jan. 6 -- should simply refuse to open envelopes from states whose election results Trump considered to be fraudulent.... In a second, previously unreported memo dated Jan. 5, Ellis made a more technical legal argument that she delivered to Jay Sekulow, one of Trump's outside lawyers." The memos are here (pdf).

Attention: Coup in Progress. Charles Homans of the New York Times: "According to a May Reuters/Ipsos poll, more than 60 percent of Republicans now believe the 2020 election was stolen. This belief has informed a wave of mobilization at both grass-roots and elite levels in the party with an eye to future elections. In races for state and county-level offices with direct oversight of elections, Republican candidates coming out of the Stop the Steal movement are running competitive campaigns, in which they enjoy a first-mover advantage in electoral contests that few partisans from either party thought much about before last November. And legislation that state lawmakers have passed or tried to pass this year in a number of states would assert more control over election systems and results by partisan offices that Republicans already decisively control."

David Ignatius of the Washington Post: "Russian President Vladimir Putin's path toward threatening an invasion of Ukraine is marked by reckless actions. In this move toward defiance of international norms, Putin has been subtly encouraged by ... Donald Trump, a fellow traveler in recklessness.... Trump has been doing Putin's work of destabilization for him.... Now, as Putin contemplates a move into Ukraine, he beholds an America weakened by political division bordering on dysfunction. He sees a moment of opportunity."

Brian Deese, et al., of the White House: "In September, we explained that meat prices are the biggest contributor to the rising cost of groceries, in part because just a few large corporations dominate meat processing. The November Consumer Price Index data released this morning demonstrates that meat prices are still the single largest contributor to the rising cost of food people consume at home. Beef, pork, and poultry price increases make up a quarter of the overall increase in food-at-home prices last month. As we noted in September, just four large conglomerates control approximately 55-85% of the market for pork, beef, and poultry, and these middlemen were using their market power to increase prices and underpay farmers, while taking more and more for themselves." Emphasis original.

The Pandemic, Ctd.

California. Lindsey Bever of the Washington Post: "The second-largest school district in the United States is facing mounting woes over its coronavirus vaccine mandate, recently terminating hundreds of employees who refused to comply and vowing to put thousands of unvaccinated students into online classes. Board members of Los Angeles Unified School District -- which has one of the strictest vaccine mandates in the nation -- voted Tuesday to terminate 496 employees who failed to get vaccinated ahead of the deadline. In addition, some 34,000 students are also in violation of the requirements, according to the Los Angeles Times. Per the district's vaccination policy, students 12 and older must be fully vaccinated -- or receive an exemption -- by the start of the second semester in January. Those who fail to do so will not be allowed on school campuses and will be referred to an online independent study program."

New York. Shannon Young of Politico: "All New Yorkers must wear masks inside any business that does not implement a vaccine requirement, Gov. Kathy Hochul said Friday, announcing one of the most stringent mandates in the nation. The new requirement, which takes effect Monday and will be reassessed on Jan. 15, comes amid a surge in Covid-19 cases throughout much of upstate New York, and as more cases of the Omicron variant are confirmed throughout the state."

Pennsylvania. Mark Scolforo of NBC 10 Philadelphia: "A statewide mask mandate for Pennsylvania schoolchildren was thrown out by the state Supreme Court on Friday, raising the prospect that at least some students in the state may soon be allowed to attend classes without a face covering. The justices announced their decision to invalidate the Wolf administration's statewide mandate for masks inside K-12 school buildings and child care facilities but did not issue a written opinion that explains their reasoning. They upheld a lower-court decision that the mandate was imposed by Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf's acting health secretary without legal authorization. The practical impact of the decision will depend on what the justices say in the written opinion or opinions they will issue in the case and which schools and school districts impose their own masking requirements. The court took action amid a statewide surge in new infections and hospitalizations."

Beyond the Beltway

Georgia. Perdue Goes All Trumpy. Jeff Amy of the AP: "Days after announcing his candidacy for governor, Republican David Perdue further embraced debunked claims of electoral fraud in Georgia's 2020 presidential race by joining a lawsuit seeking to prove he and ... Donald Trump were cheated out of election victories. The suit claims that fraudulent or counterfeit ballots were counted in Fulton County, the state's most populous jurisdiction, although investigators rebutted the same claims previously.... His position that Georgia's 2020 election was wrongly decided isn't new. He called on Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to resign while votes were still being counted in 2020, saying he 'failed to deliver honest and transparent elections,' said if he had been in the U.S. Senate on Jan. 6, he would have voted against accepting Georgia's electoral votes. But until now he hadn't sued.... The suit also renews debunked claims that election officials purposefully lied about stopping counting on election night, claiming that once observers left that election workers pulled out 'suitcases' of ballots and counted the votes multiple times, effectively running up the score for Democrats." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: This fake claim about election workers recounting suitcases full of ballots refers to Ruby Freeman & her daughter Wandrea 'Shaye' Moss, and perhaps others. I hope they add Perdue to their defamation lawsuit.

Oregon. Michael Levenson of the New York Times: "A former member of the Proud Boys from Texas who traveled to Portland, Ore., to confront protesters there last year was sentenced on Friday to 10 years in prison for shooting a man in the eye with a paintball gun, spraying people in the face with bear mace and aiming a loaded handgun at a crowd, prosecutors said. The former member, Alan Swinney, 51, was a 'white nationalist vigilante cowboy,' who went to Portland to engage in political violence during protests there in the summer of 2020, prosecutors said. In social media posts, he made threats against 'the left' and 'antifa,' prosecutors said, and he tried to recruit people to form a militia to fight in what he believed was a civil war."

Texas. David Goodman & Ruth Graham of the New York Times: "Within the span of a few hours, a Texas judge and the U.S. Supreme Court appeared to undercut Texas' six-week abortion ban, ruling in separate opinions late Thursday and early Friday that aspects of the law were unconstitutional under state law and that federal challenges could go forward. But the victories for abortion rights supporters were largely hollow, and providers in Texas were not cheering on Friday. Neither decision altered the reality on the ground in the state. Both left in place the new abortion law, the most restrictive in the country, which effectively bans abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, with no exceptions for rape or incest.... For Texas women, the new normal will continue."

News Ledes

The New York Times maps where tornadoes were reported, provides some photographic images of the destruction & reports on power outages. ~~~

~~~ New York Times: "Dozens of people were feared dead and communities across the Midwest and southern United States were left scrambling to assess the damage on Saturday morning after a string of unseasonably powerful storms and tornadoes swept across five states overnight. Officials said that there were 'confirmed fatalities' after a roof collapsed at an Amazon warehouse in Illinois, leaving workers trapped inside, and that tornadoes had killed at least one person at an Arkansas nursing home. Kentucky's governor said that at least 50 had been killed in a tornado's path of over 200 miles, and that the state's death toll was likely to increase to more than 70 in the coming hours.″ The linked page is a liveblog and will be updated. ~~~

     ~~~ The Weather Channel is live-updating developments here.

New York Times: "Michael Nesmith, who rocketed to fame as the contemplative, wool-cap-wearing member of the Monkees in 1966, then went on to a diverse career that included making one of the rock era's earliest music videos and winning the first Grammy Award for video, died on Friday at his home in Carmel Valley, Calif. He was 78." ~~~

     ~~~ Little Known Fact: Nesmith's mother was Bette Nesmith Graham, who invented Liquid Paper, & who -- through incredible pluck -- turned the product into an international business that made the one-time $300/month clerk-typist a wealthy woman. (NYT link.)

December 10, 2021

Speed-reader John Kruzel of the Hill: "The Supreme Court on Friday cleared the way for abortion providers to pursue a federal lawsuit challenging a restrictive Texas law that bans abortion after six weeks of pregnancy. The ruling did not deal directly with the ban's legality, and Texas's law remains intact for now. Rather, the justices determined that federal courts have the power to review their legal challenge against some of the named defendants. In a separate opinion, the justices dismissed a similar challenge brought by the Department of Justice (DOJ). Developing." ~~~

~~~ Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court on Friday said that Texas abortion providers may sue to stop the state's ban on most abortions after six weeks, but left the law in place for now. The splintered decision allows the providers to return to a district judge who once blocked the law, saying it violated the constitutional right to abortion. That restarts the legal process that has seen the law remain in effect since Sept. 1, when the Supreme Court refused to step in to block it. Eight justices said the abortion providers may bring the challenge. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., writing for himself and the court's three liberals, said the district judge should act quickly. 'Given the ongoing chilling effect of the state law, the District Court should resolve this litigation and enter appropriate relief without delay,' Roberts wrote." The New York Times report, by Adam Liptak, is here.

The Washington Post is live-updating the memorial service at the National Cathedral to former Sen. Bob Dole. There will be another service at the World War II memorial on the National Mall.

Barak Ravid in Axios: “Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu were the closest of political allies during the four years they overlapped in office, at least in public. Not anymore. "I haven't spoken to him since," Trump said of the former Israeli prime minister. 'F**k him.'... Trump repeatedly criticized Netanyahu during two interviews for my book.... The final straw for Trump was when Netanyahu congratulated President-elect Biden for his election victory while Trump was still disputing the result." MB: Trump is still "isputing the results."

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Aamer Madhani & Colleen Long of the AP: "President Joe Biden on Thursday opened the first White House Summit for Democracy by sounding an alarm about a global slide for democratic institutions and called for world leaders to 'lock arms' and demonstrate democracies can deliver. Biden called it a critical moment for fellow leaders to redouble their efforts to bolster democracies. In making the case for action, he noted his own battle to win passage of voting rights legislation at home and alluded to challenges to America's democratic institutions and traditions.... 'Here in the United States we know as well as anyone that renewing our democracy and strengthening our democratic institutions requires constant effort,' Biden said.... The International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, said in its annual report that the number of countries experiencing democratic backsliding 'has never been as high' as the past decade, with the U.S. added to the list alongside India and Brazil." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Vice President Harris speaks at the Summit for Democracy & calls out anti-democratic efforts in the U.S.:

Paul Sonne & Ashley Parker of the Washington Post: "President Biden moved to solidify a unified position with Ukraine and U.S. allies on Europe's eastern flank in a set of phone calls Thursday, part of an urgent effort to prevent and prepare for a potential Russian invasion of Ukraine. In a call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Biden emphasized American support for Kyiv, seeking to reassure a country that has seen Russian forces mass on its border in recent days. The White House is also trying to work out the shape of forthcoming talks with Russia on the Ukraine crisis and other security issues. Biden also held a separate call Thursday with the 'Bucharest Nine,' a group of NATO members on Europe's eastern edge close to Russia, including the Baltics and Poland, that are particularly sensitive to aggressive moves by Moscow."

The Biden Boom No One Has Noticed. Robert Shapiro in the Washington Monthly: "While many people are uncomfortable communicating bad news, Democrats have a problem these days talking about good news, especially on the economy. Based on the data, President Biden and the Democratic Congress are set to preside over the strongest two-year performance on growth, jobs, and income in decades -- so long as the current cycle of inflation eases, and the Omicron variant does not trigger another round of shutdowns. The future paths of inflation and the pandemic are large and important unknowns -- but if they break right, everything else points to a Biden boom through 2022. Over the first three quarters of this year, real GDP increased at a 7.8 percent annual rate -- that's adjusted for the current inflation. The Federal Reserve expects real growth of 5.9 percent for all of 2021, followed by another 3.8 percent increase in 2022. By any recent standard, these are extraordinary gains."

Clare Foran, et al., of CNN: "The Senate voted on Thursday to advance a bill to create a fast-track process allowing Democrats to raise the federal debt limit without votes from Republicans, a crucial next step as lawmakers race the clock to avert a catastrophic debt default. A first-ever default would trigger financial disaster and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has warned the debt limit could be reached on December 15, leaving little time left to act.... The first vote to take place in the Senate on Thursday was a cloture vote to break a GOP filibuster, which required 60 votes to succeed. The vote tally was 64 to 36 and 14 Senate Republicans crossed the aisle to vote with Democrats...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "The breakthrough came after 14 Republicans joined every Democrat to effectively end their party's monthslong blockade of debt-limit legislation, allowing the bill to advance in the 50-50 Senate. The legislation later passed by a similar margin, 59 to 35, with 10 Republicans joining Democrats for final passage. President Biden is expected to quickly sign the bill into law.... [Senate GOP Leader Mitch] McConnell was among the 10 Republicans who voted both to advance and pass the legislation, amid recriminations from lawmakers and activists in his party who said it was a betrayal." Cochrane explains the convoluted route debt-ceiling legislation will continue along after Biden signs this bill.

** Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post: "As Democrats race to finish their marquee Build Back Better legislation, it's worth noting just how much their political ambitions have narrowed in this past year. Democratic lawmakers have nearly abandoned trying to solve many of the major social problems that their constituents want them to address. That's not entirely by choice. It's because of complicated Senate rules -- rules that befuddled, frustrated voters might ultimately punish Democrats for abiding by. The problem is this: We have a system of governance that nobody in their right mind would design." Emphasis added. Read on. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Rampell doesn't really mention it, but it's important to keep in mind that, for the most part, the way the Senate operates is not specified (or even implied) by the Constitution or by law. Nope, the Senate governs itself by rules that the Senate makes up and revises every few years. These are not rules that are cloaked in sacred tradition, as some would have it. In fact, the Senate changed the rules just this week for the sole purpose of letting Republican senators pretend they had nothing to do with increasing the debt limit. There is no reason the majority (and that would include you, Manchin, Sinema & Tester) can't change or flat-out ignore unhelpful Senate rules.

Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "The House on Thursday passed a sweeping package of constraints on presidential power, which Democrats framed as a response to Donald J. Trump's norm-busting presidency and Republicans unanimously opposed for the same reason. By a nearly party-line vote of 220 to 208, the House approved the Protecting Our Democracy Act, which would impose new curbs on executive power. Proponents of tighter government ethics have long sought many of the measures, and Republican have supported them, but they have been recast as partisan issues because of their association with Mr. Trump.... The legislation would require presidential candidates to disclose their tax returns.... The act would also strengthen the Constitution's previously obscure ban on presidents taking emoluments, or payments, by extending anticorruption prohibition to commercial transactions.... The bill would also require campaigns to report any offers of foreign assistance to the F.B.I.... Among many other things, the bill would make it harder for presidents to bestow pardons in briberylike contexts. It would create new protections against firing inspectors general without a good reason or retaliating against whistle-blowers. And it would constrain a president's ability to spend or secretly freeze funds contrary to congressional appropriations.... The package now moves to the Senate, where the 60-vote threshold for passing legislation means that Republicans can block it.... Supporters of the bill envision breaking it up and attaching different components to other legislation in the Senate in a bid to regain bipartisan backing...." CNN's report is here.

Amy Goldstein of the Washington Post: "The pharmaceutical industry relies on drug-pricing practices that are 'unsustainable, unjustified and unfair,' according to findings from a nearly three-year investigation by the House Oversight Committee. The findings, released Friday, show that companies studied by the committee raised prices of common brand-name drugs during the past five years by nearly four times the rate of inflation. The report seeks to debunk industry contentions that companies' price strategy is needed to plow money back into researching and developing new medicines, finding that revenue is substantially greater than those investments. The 269-page report is the work of the committee's Democratic majority." Committee Republicans wrote their own report, blaming price hikes on "pharmacy benefit managers, which act as go-betweens to manage drug benefits on behalf of private insurers, Medicare drug plans and other payers."

Reuters, republished by Yahoo! News: "A casket bearing the remains of former U.S. Senator Bob Dole, a three-time Republican presidential candidate and decorated World War Two veteran, was placed in the Capitol's Rotunda on Thursday as dignitaries gathered there for a memorial service.... President Joe Biden was on hand to deliver remarks. Dole's wife Elizabeth, also a former senator, stood at the top of the Capitol's East Front steps as a military honor guard carried his flag-draped casket up the steep incline to be placed in the building's storied Rotunda for the memorial service. Members of Congress and other invited guests paid their respects to Dole...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Michael Shear, et al., of the New York Times: "The Elizabeth Dole Foundation has cut ties with Tim Unes, an event planner working on former Senator Bob Dole's funeral, after the Senate's top Republican complained that Mr. Unes had been subpoenaed by the Jan. 6 select committee for his work organizing the rally before that day's attacks.... Representatives of Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, raised the issue this week with a contact for the Dole family, who quickly agreed that Mr. Unes's role in the event would be limited and that he would not be attending the ceremony in the Capitol.... In a Sept. 29 letter to Mr. Unes, the Select Committee to Investigate the Jan. 6 Attack wrote that paperwork filed for the rally permit listed him as the 'stage manager' for the event."

The Old "I Forgot" Excuse. Kathryn Watson of CBS News: "A staffer on Capitol Hill was arrested Thursday morning after he allegedly brought a handgun into a House office building, U.S. Capitol Police said. Officers in the Longworth House Office Building spotted the image of a gun in a bag on an X-ray screen. The bag's owner, identified as 57-year-old Jeffrey Allsbrooks, was tracked down four minutes later and arrested, U.S. Capitol Police said in a statement. He is being charged with carrying a pistol without a license. Allsbrooks, who works for the House Chief Administrative Office, told officers he forgot the gun was in his bag, according to U.S. Capitol Police. It is unclear why officers didn't stop Allsbrooks at the security checkpoint and only later tracked him down." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Drip, Drip. Jamie Gangel & Zachary Cohen of CNN: "Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows provided the House select committee investigating the January 6 riot with text messages and emails that show he was 'exchanging with a wide range of individuals while the attack was underway,' according to a source.... The messages on Meadows' personal cell phone and email account, which were voluntarily handed over without any claim of executive privilege, relate to 'what Donald Trump was doing and not doing during the riot,' the source added. These communications offer a window into what people were texting to Meadows on January 6, what he was telling them about Trump in real time, and what the former President was doing for those hours while the Capitol was under attack and rioters were chanting 'Hang Mike Pence,' according to the source." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: You know other major media are working this story, so I don't think it will be long before we get a fuller account of the tunes Nero was fiddling while the Capitol was breached. ~~~

~~~ Nicholas Wu, et al., of Politico: "Mark Meadows and the National Archives are in talks over potential records he did 'not properly' turn over from his personal phone and email account, the presidential record-keeping agency confirmed Thursday.... Meadows, in recent legal filings, indicated he shared 6,800 pages of emails and more than 2,300 text messages with the Jan. 6 committee in an initial bid to cooperate. But members of the committee raised alarms about Meadows' claim that some of his private records were shielded by executive privilege. If that's the case, they said, those records should likely have been turned over to the National Archives as part of official government business.... In a series of recent statements, members of the select panel have suggested that Meadows may have violated the Presidential Records Act by failing to transfer official documents to the National Archives that he maintained on his personal cell phone and email accounts."

** Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "A federal appeals court on Thursday rejected ... Donald Trump's bid to keep his White House documents secret from a congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, potentially setting up an emergency review by the Supreme Court. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit upheld a lower court's opinion, which said that in a dispute between a current and past president over whether to release White House records, the sitting president must prevail. Judges Patricia A. Millett, Robert L. Wilkins and Ketanji Brown Jackson denied Trump's request for a preliminary injunction blocking the National Archives and Records Administration from releasing the first roughly 800 pages of disputed Trump papers after President Biden declined to assert executive privilege as requested by his predecessor, setting up the first of its kind constitutional controversy. The court stayed the opinion 14 days for Trump's legal team to appeal to the Supreme Court, as they requested at a Nov. 30 hearing in case of adverse ruling." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) Politico's report is here. The opinion, via the court, is here (pdf). ~~~

      ~~~ Marie: The ruling also is bad news for Steve Bannon, Mark Meadows & Jeffrey Clark, because the Appeals Court rejects arguments both of them are making in their attempts to avoid testifying under subpoena. Maybe Meadows will flip-flop again & decide to appear before the committee. More bad news, BTW, for Trumpzilla linked under Beyond the Beltway/New York.

Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post: "The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol will fail us if it quietly goes about its important work. It needs to be louder. Much louder.... The committee ... is doing the right things. But most of its work is out of sight -- which, for most Americans, means out of mind.... But the insurrection was an unprecedented event in our life as a nation, and we must not allow it to be minimized.... The select committee has no power to prosecute. Its only job is to reveal -- and to do so in a way that makes the nation pay attention."

Send in the Goons. David Edwards of the Raw Story: "Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) on Thursday talked with conservative broadcaster Steve Bannon about a plan to use '4,000 shock troops' to take over the jobs of federal government employees.... 'Understand, this is a theory of governing,' Bannon [said]. 'It's fresh and it's new. This is Trumpism in power. That's when we went to the 4,000 shock troops we have to have that's going to man the government. Get them ready now. Right? We're going to hit the beach with the landing teams and the beachhead teams and all that nomenclature they use when President Trump wins in 2024 -- or before.'... 'Yes,' Gaetz replied. 'And we're going to go after this administrative state and we're going to start at the Department of Justice and the FBI. That's the job I want. You know, send me over to the Judiciary Committee and their sphincters will tighten because they have been doing a lot of corrupt things over there.'"

Chantal Da Silva of NBC News: "WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on Friday came one step closer to facing charges he allegedly broke a United States spying law and conspired to hack into government computers after Washington won an appeal over his extradition in a British court. Assange's legal team promised to appeal. Assange, 50, is wanted in the U.S. to face trial on 18 charges, including breaking espionage laws after WikiLeaks published thousands of secret U.S. files in 2010." The New York Times report is here.

Will Englund of the Washington Post: "Look at any map of charging stations in the United States, and in most of the big cities, what is immediately apparent are big blank spaces coinciding with Black and Latino neighborhoods. Electric vehicle advocates call them charging deserts. While electric vehicle use is growing rapidly in well-to-do, mostly White communities, minority neighborhoods are being left behind.... In the coming age, the lack of charging stations and electric vehicles that depend on them threatens to worsen an already disproportionate exposure to air pollution in minority neighborhoods and relegate Black and Latino drivers to gasoline-powered cars, which, though cheaper to buy, are more expensive to fuel and maintain." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: So corporate America has found another way to discriminate against racial minorities. I blame local governments, too. When they issue permits for new facilities, they could force corporations to add or maintain outlets in minority neighborhoods. For instance, back when I lived in Fort Myers, Florida, the city council permitted Publix supermarkets to open two new grocery stores in growing, upscale neighborhoods. During hearings, Publix "promised" to maintain the stores in areas of town that had become racially mixed, but the chain closed the minority-area stores as soon as they opened their new stores. The council could have put teeth in Publix's promises; it did not.

Jonathan Franklin of NPR: "Local officials in Washington, D.C., have passed a bill that will name a portion of the street outside the Saudi embassy after slain Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The 'Jamal Khashoggi Way Designation Act,' which passed unanimously on Tuesday, will serve as a reminder of the dangers faced by journalists across the world, noting that a free press is 'fundamental to our democracy,' said D.C. councilmember Brooke Pinto in a statement." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

The Pandemic, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Friday are here. The Washington Post's live Covid-19 updates for Friday are here.

Laurie McGinley of the Washington Post: "Federal regulators Thursday authorized booster shots of Pfizer-BioNTech's coronavirus vaccine for 16- and 17-year-olds, a step that could bolster protection against delta, the dominant variant in the United States, and the emerging omicron version. The Food and Drug Administration's decision came the day after new data from the companies suggested that boosters may play a critical role in helping control the omicron variant by raising virus-fighting antibodies to block the pathogen, which echoed a finding by leading scientists in South Africa released earlier this week. The FDA's authorization is expected to be reviewed and endorsed by Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, perhaps as soon as Thursday. The clearance means 16- and 17-year-olds who received the initial two-shot series of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine will be able to get a booster six months after the second dose. The Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines are not authorized for anyone under 18." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Michigan. Katharine Seelye of the New York Times: "William Hartmann, one of two Republican election officials from Michigan who initially refused to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election in Wayne County, where Joseph R. Biden Jr. had trounced Donald J. Trump, died on Nov. 30 at a hospital in Wyandotte, Mich., near Detroit. He was 63. About two weeks before his death, which was confirmed by the Michigan Republican Party, his sister, Elizabeth Hartmann, wrote on Facebook that Mr. Hartmann was 'in ICU with Covid pneumonia and currently on a ventilator.' He had been outspoken in his opposition to Covid vaccines."

Beyond the Beltway

Arkansas. Neil Vigdor of the New York Times: "Josh Duggar, a onetime star of the TLC reality show '19 Kids and Counting,' about a large family guided by conservative Christian values, was convicted on Thursday in federal court in Arkansas of downloading child sexual abuse imagery. A jury returned the verdict in the U.S. District Court in Fayetteville, Ark., one day after it began its deliberations in a case that drew widespread attention. Mr. Duggar, 33, was found guilty on one count of receiving child pornography and one count of possessing child pornography, each of which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and $250,000 in fines." The AP's report is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Illinois. David Li of NBC News: "A Chicago jury Thursday reached guilty verdicts on five of six charges against 'Empire' actor Jussie Smollett, who was accused of falsely reporting he was the victim of a disturbing, hate-fueled beating. The panel, deliberating since Wednesday afternoon, weighed six counts of felony disorderly conduct against Smollett for telling police he was brutally assaulted on Jan. 29, 2019, at 2:45 a.m. in the Windy City's Streeterville neighborhood. The offenses are class 4 felonies and could be punishable by up to three years behind bars. But Smollett has a clean criminal record, making any jail time highly unlikely." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) The New York Times story is here.

Maryland. Democrats Can Gerrymander, Too. Meagan Flynn & Ovetta Wiggins of the Washington Post: "Gov. Larry Hogan on Thursday vetoed the proposed congressional map that the Maryland General Assembly sent to his desk less than 24 hours earlier, lambasting it as an unfair and partisan and calling on the Justice Department to add Maryland to a redistricting lawsuit filed this week over gerrymandered maps passed in Texas. But within hours, Democrats, who hold supermajorities in both chambers, convened to override Hogan's veto. Hogan (R) and anti-gerrymandering critics vowed to continue fighting the maps in court."

New York, New York. Katie Glueck & Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "Letitia James, the attorney general of New York, announced on Thursday that she was dropping out of the governor's race and running instead for re-election. Her decision upends the high-profile race for governor and further solidifies Gov. Kathy Hochul's standing as the early front-runner." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ New York, New York. Jonah Bromwich, et al., of the New York Times: "The New York State attorney general, Letitia James, is seeking to question ... Donald J. Trump under oath in a civil fraud investigation, according to two people with knowledge of the matter, an unusual move that comes at a critical juncture in a parallel criminal investigation into the former president. Ms. James, whose office is also participating in the criminal investigation being run by the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., is seeking to question Mr. Trump on Jan. 7 as part of her separate civil inquiry into his business practices. If Ms. James finds evidence of wrongdoing, she could file a lawsuit against Mr. Trump, but she could not file criminal charges. But her request comes as Mr. Vance is pushing to determine whether Mr. Trump or his family business, the Trump Organization, engaged in a pattern of criminal fraud by intentionally submitting false property values to potential lenders. Mr. Vance, a Democrat, did not seek re-election and is leaving office at the end of the year." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) The AP's report is here.

AND More New York. Noam Scheiber of the New York Times: "Employees at a Buffalo-area Starbucks store have voted to form a union, making it the only one of the nearly 9,000 company-owned stores in the United States to be organized and notching an important symbolic victory for labor at a time when workers across the country are expressing frustration with wages and working conditions. The result, announced on Thursday by the National Labor Relations Board, represents a major challenge to the labor model at the giant coffee retailer, which has argued that its workers enjoy some of the best wages and benefits in the retail and restaurant industry and don't need a union.... Starbucks responded to the union campaign with a sense of urgency. Throughout the fall, out-of-town managers and executives -- even [North American president Rossann] Williams -- converged on stores in Buffalo, where they questioned employees about operational challenges and assisted in menial tasks like cleaning bathrooms." Employees at two other Buffalo Starbucks also voted on whether or not to unionize; the results are not yet definitive. NPR's story is here.

AND More. Robin Pogrebin of the New York Times: "In the wake of growing outrage over the role the Sacklers may have played in the opioid crisis, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Sackler family jointly announced on Thursday that the Sackler name would be removed from seven exhibition spaces, including the wing that houses the Temple of Dendur." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Still More. Jeffery Mays & Annie Correal of the New York Times: "New York City became the largest city in the country to allow noncitizens to vote in local elections after the City Council on Thursday overwhelmingly approved legislation granting the right to more than 800,000 legal residents. The move places New York City at the forefront of the debate over voting rights, serving as a stark contrast to some states that have moved to add voting restrictions, including explicitly barring noncitizens from voting. The legislation was approved over the objections of Mayor Bill de Blasio, who questioned whether the City Council has the power to grant voting rights to noncitizens. Legal experts expect that the bill could face a legal challenge.... Mr. de Blasio has said he would not veto the bill. The bill automatically becomes law if it is not signed in 30 days." CNN's report is here.

Texas. David Goodman of the New York Times: "A state district court judge in Texas ruled on Thursday that the unique enforcement scheme of a restrictive abortion law violated the State Constitution by allowing any private citizen to sue abortion providers or others accused of breaking the law. In a 48-page opinion, Judge David Peeples found that the approach, which had been seen by anti-abortion groups as its greatest strength, unconstitutionally granted standing to those who were not injured, denied due process and represented an 'unlawful delegation of enforcement power to a private person.' While deemed an important victory for abortion rights groups, abortion providers said on Thursday that they would not immediately resume performing the procedure after about six weeks of pregnancy." ~~~

     ~~~ Reese Oxner & Eleanor Klibanoff of the Texas Tribune: "Although Thursday’s ruling is a win for abortion rights advocates, the order only has direct consequences for the 14 lawsuits in the case that the judge oversaw. The judge did not issue an injunction to block cases from being filed, though experts say it would likely be used as precedent in those cases."

     ~~~ Marie: How come this more-or-less local judge is so much smarter than the confederate Supremes, who were just flummoxed by the enforcement provisions of the Texas law?

Way Beyond

China. Is this Washington Post headline supposed to be a double entendre? "In need of a baby boom, China clamps down on vasectomies"?

Mexico. Oscar Lopez of the New York Times: "At least 53 people were killed and dozens injured in a horrific truck accident in southern Mexico on Thursday, the authorities said, with most of the victims believed to be migrants coming from Central America. The accident, which took place in southern Chiapas state, occurred when a truck carrying more than 100 people overturned on Thursday afternoon near Tuxtla Gutiérrez, the capital, the head of the state Civil Protection Service, Luis Manuel García Moreno, told Milenio TV. The accident is one of the deadliest involving migrants in decades.... Mr. García said that, based on witness testimony, the truck was traveling at excessive speed and then flipped over while rounding a sharp curve, with the trailer carrying the migrants then crashing into a pedestrian bridge and construction nearby.... Bordering Guatemala, the state of Chiapas has in recent years seen a surge of migrants from Central America, many of them being smuggled through Mexico on their way to the United States border."

News Lede

Washington Post: “Prices rose 6.8 percent in November to a nearly 40-year high, compared with [a] year ago, as inflation continues to squeeze households and businesses nationwide and complicate the political environment for Congress and the White House. Data released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that prices rose 0.8 percent in November compared with October, with inflation spreading further throughout the economy, including to areas that had not been previously hurt by the coronavirus pandemic. The increases were driven by broad-based price hikes in most of the categories tracked, similar to October. Indexes for gasoline, shelter, food, used cars and trucks and new vehicles were among the larger contributors. Airline fares also increased. Also, rents have been climbing, influenced by soaring home prices." CNBC's report is here.

December 9, 2021

Afternoon Update:

David Li of NBC News: "A Chicago jury Thursday reached guilty verdicts on five of six charges against 'Empire' actor Jussie Smollett, who was accused of falsely reporting he was the victim of a disturbing, hate-fueled beating. The panel, deliberating since Wednesday afternoon, weighed six counts of felony disorderly conduct against Smollett for telling police he was brutally assaulted on Jan. 29, 2019, at 2:45 a.m. in the Windy City's Streeterville neighborhood. The offenses are class 4 felonies and could be punishable by up to three years behind bars. But Smollett has a clean criminal record, making any jail time highly unlikely."

Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "A federal appeals court on Thursday rejected ... Donald Trump's bid to keep his White House documents secret from a congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, potentially setting up an emergency review by the Supreme Court. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit upheld a lower court's opinion, which said that in a dispute between a current and past president over whether to release White House records, the sitting president must prevail. Judges Patricia A. Millett, Robert L. Wilkins and Ketanji Brown Jackson denied Trump's request for a preliminary injunction blocking the National Archives and Records Administration from releasing the first roughly 800 pages of disputed Trump papers after President Biden declined to assert executive privilege as requested by his predecessor, setting up the first of its kind constitutional controversy. The court stayed the opinion 14 days for Trump's legal team to appeal to the Supreme Court, as they requested at a Nov. 30 hearing in case of adverse ruling."

Aamer Madhani & Colleen Long of the AP: "President Joe Biden on Thursday opened the first White House Summit for Democracy by sounding an alarm about a global slide for democratic institutions and called for world leaders to 'lock arms' and demonstrate democracies can deliver. Biden called it a critical moment for fellow leaders to redouble their efforts to bolster democracies. In making the case for action, he noted his own battle to win passage of voting rights legislation at home and alluded to challenges to America's democratic institutions and traditions.... 'Here in the United States we know as well as anyone that renewing our democracy and strengthening our democratic institutions requires constant effort,' Biden said.... The International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, said in its annual report that the number of countries experiencing democratic backsliding 'has never been as high' as the past decade, with the U.S. added to the list alongside India and Brazil."

Clare Foran, et al., of CNN: "The Senate voted on Thursday to advance a bill to create a fast-track process allowing Democrats to raise the federal debt limit without votes from Republicans, a crucial next step as lawmakers race the clock to avert a catastrophic debt default. A first-ever default would trigger financial disaster and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has warned the debt limit could be reached on December 15, leaving little time left to act.... The first vote to take place in the Senate on Thursday was a cloture vote to break a GOP filibuster, which required 60 votes to succeed. The vote tally was 64 to 36 and 14 Senate Republicans crossed the aisle to vote with Democrats...."

Reuters, republished by Yahoo! News: "A casket bearing the remains of former U.S. Senator Bob Dole, a three-time Republican presidential candidate and decorated World War Two veteran, was placed in the Capitol's Rotunda on Thursday as dignitaries gathered there for a memorial service.... President Joe Biden was on hand to deliver remarks. Dole's wife Elizabeth, also a former senator, stood at the top of the Capitol's East Front steps as a military honor guard carried his flag-draped casket up the steep incline to be placed in the building's storied Rotunda for the memorial service. Members of Congress and other invited guests paid their respects to Dole...."

The Old "I Forgot" Excuse. Kathryn Watson of CBS News: "A staffer on Capitol Hill was arrested Thursday morning after he allegedly brought a handgun into a House office building, U.S. Capitol Police said. Officers in the Longworth House Office Building spotted the image of a gun in a bag on an X-ray screen. The bag's owner, identified as 57-year-old Jeffrey Allsbrooks, was tracked down four minutes later and arrested, U.S. Capitol Police said in a statement. He is being charged with carrying a pistol without a license. Allsbrooks, who works for the House Chief Administrative Office, told officers he forgot the gun was in his bag, according to U.S. Capitol Police. It is unclear why officers didn't stop Allsbrooks at the security checkpoint and only later tracked him down."

Drip, Drip. Jamie Gangel & Zachary Cohen of CNN: "Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows provided the House select committee investigating the January 6 riot with text messages and emails that show he was 'exchanging with a wide range of individuals while the attack was underway,' according to a source with knowledge of the communications. The messages on Meadows' personal cell phone and email account, which were voluntarily handed over without any claim of executive privilege, relate to 'what Donald Trump was doing and not doing during the riot,' the source added. These communications offer a window into what people were texting to Meadows on January 6, what he was telling them about Trump in real time, and what the former President was doing for those hours while the Capitol was under attack and rioters were chanting 'Hang Mike Pence,' according to the source."~~~

     ~~~ Marie: You know other major media are working this story, so I don't think it will be long before we get a fuller account of the tunes Nero was fiddling while the Capitol was breached.

Jonathan Franklin of NPR: "Local officials in Washington, D.C., have passed a bill that will name a portion of the street outside the Saudi embassy after slain Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The 'Jamal Khashoggi Way Designation Act,' which passed unanimously on Tuesday, will serve as a reminder of the dangers faced by journalists across the world, noting that a free press is 'fundamental to our democracy,' said D.C. councilmember Brooke Pinto in a statement."

Laurie McGinley of the Washington Post: "Federal regulators Thursday authorized booster shots of Pfizer-BioNTech's coronavirus vaccine for 16- and 17-year-olds, a step that could bolster protection against delta, the dominant variant in the United States, and the emerging omicron version. The Food and Drug Administration's decision came the day after new data from the companies suggested that boosters may play a critical role in helping control the omicron variant by raising virus-fighting antibodies to block the pathogen, which echoed a finding by leading scientists in South Africa released earlier this week. The FDA's authorization is expected to be reviewed and endorsed by Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, perhaps as soon as Thursday. The clearance means 16- and 17-year-olds who received the initial two-shot series of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine will be able to get a booster six months after the second dose. The Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines are not authorized for anyone under 18."

New York, New York. Katie Glueck & Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "Letitia James, the attorney general of New York, announced on Thursday that she was dropping out of the governor's race and running instead for re-election. Her decision upends the high-profile race for governor and further solidifies Gov. Kathy Hochul's standing as the early front-runner." ~~~

~~~ New York, New York. Jonah Bromwich, et al., of the New York Times: "The New York State attorney general, Letitia James, is seeking to question ... Donald J. Trump under oath in a civil fraud investigation, according to two people with knowledge of the matter, an unusual move that comes at a critical juncture in a parallel criminal investigation into the former president. Ms. James, whose office is also participating in the criminal investigation being run by the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., is seeking to question Mr. Trump on Jan. 7 as part of her separate civil inquiry into his business practices. If Ms. James finds evidence of wrongdoing, she could file a lawsuit against Mr. Trump, but she could not file criminal charges. But her request comes as Mr. Vance is pushing to determine whether Mr. Trump or his family business, the Trump Organization, engaged in a pattern of criminal fraud by intentionally submitting false property values to potential lenders. Mr. Vance, a Democrat, did not seek re-election and is leaving office at the end of the year."

AND New York. Robin Pogrebin of the New York Times: "In the wake of growing outrage over the role the Sacklers may have played in the opioid crisis, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Sackler family jointly announced on Thursday that the Sackler name would be removed from seven exhibition spaces, including the wing that houses the Temple of Dendur."

Arkansas. Neil Vigdor of the New York Times: "Josh Duggar, a onetime star of the TLC reality show '19 Kids and Counting,' about a large family guided by conservative Christian values, was convicted on Thursday in federal court in Arkansas of downloading child sexual abuse imagery. A jury returned the verdict in the U.S. District Court in Fayetteville, Ark., one day after it began its deliberations in a case that drew widespread attention. Mr. Duggar, 33, was found guilty on one count of receiving child pornography and one count of possessing child pornography, each of which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and $250,000 in fines." The AP's report is here.

~~~~~~~~~~

Joe Biden Gives a Holiday Gift to America's Children. Lisa Friedman of the New York Times: "President Biden on Wednesday set in motion a plan to make the federal government carbon neutral, ordering federal agencies to buy electric vehicles, to power facilities with wind, solar and nuclear energy, and to use sustainable building materials. In a series of executive orders, Mr. Biden directed the government to transform its 300,000 buildings, 600,000 cars and trucks, and use its annual purchases of $650 billion in goods and services to meet his goal of a federal government that stops adding carbon dioxide into the atmosphere by 2050.... Unlike most executive orders that undergo a lengthy and sometimes fractious regulatory process before they are enacted, procurement rules can take effect almost immediately, said Richard L. Revesz, a professor of environmental law at New York University. He called the executive orders 'very significant.'"

Alex Horton & Dan Lamothe of the Washington Post: "The Army on Wednesday said it has approved Purple Heart awards for an additional 39 soldiers wounded in an Iranian ballistic missile strike nearly two years ago in western Iraq, a significant victory for troops whose brain injuries were downplayed by their commander in chief at the time..., Donald Trump. The announcement is official acknowledgment that the attack, a dramatic escalation by Tehran after a U.S. drone strike that killed Iranian Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani, was far more serious than Washington was willing to concede initially even though no fatalities occurred. More than 30 Purple Hearts were awarded previously to U.S. soldiers forced to take cover when 11 missiles ... slammed into Ain al-Asad air base on Jan. 8, 2020.... Trump responded to the lack of American fatalities by declaring on Twitter that 'All is well!' A few days later, he said some of the troops involved had 'headaches.' but that the situation was 'not very serious,' prompting a rebuke from veterans groups.... Alyssa Farah, a former Pentagon spokeswoman, said in a September podcast that the Trump White House leaned on the Defense Department to downplay the attack." The Army Times' report is here.

A "Colossal Waste of Resources." David Winkie of the Army Times: "For much of 2021, more than 4,000 [Army National] Guard personnel from 20 states helped monitor the U.S.-Mexico border alongside Customs and Border Protection personnel.... Most returned home in October, when a new Guard task force took over. This is the story of a task force that left soldiers at isolated observation posts for hours on end without the night vision goggles they needed. They ... fell asleep on the job while awaiting shipments of equipment for months, and only assisted in less than one in every five apprehensions. Legal restrictions on the use of Guardsmen left them with little more than watching as a mission.... When troops weren't on duty, most were at hotels in remote locations. Alcohol and drug abuse became so widespread that senior leaders issued breathalyzers and instituted alcohol restrictions that tightened as the misconduct incidents piled up.... At least 16 soldiers from the mission were arrested or confined for charges including drugs, sexual assault and manslaughter." Thanks to RAS for the link.

Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) offered a forceful warning to Republican colleagues during a private lunch on Wednesday, saying former President Trump will come down hard on any GOP senators who vote for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's (R-Ky.) deal to set up a special pathway to raise the debt limit. In blunt remarks to the Senate Republican Conference, Graham harshly criticized McConnell for putting Senate Republicans in position to get 'shot in the back' over the deal.... Trump issued a blistering statement Wednesday evening that slammed McConnell for agreeing to a special process for raising the debt limit with a simple majority." MB: For Trump so loved his country that he was outraged at an effort to secure its full faith & credit -- because he thought international financial chaos might give him some small political advantage. And it looks as if Lindsey, whose presidential ambitions fell flat, is now eying McConnell's job.

** Jacqueline Alemany & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol said it is preparing to hold Mark Meadows, who served as ... Donald Trump's chief of staff, in criminal contempt for not complying with the panel's subpoena as it ramps up efforts to force former Trump administration officials to cooperate with its inquiry. Committee Chairman Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.) said in a letter sent Tuesday evening to Meadows's attorney, George Terwilliger III, that the panel's patience has run out.... In the letter, Thompson outlined some of the documents that Trump's former chief of staff has already provided to the committee, including a Nov. 7, 2020, email 'discussing the appointment of alternate slates of electors as part of a "direct and collateral attack" after the election.' Also mentioned in the letter is a Jan. 5 email 'regarding a 38-page PowerPoint briefing titled "Election Fraud, Foreign Interference & Options for 6 JAN" that was to be provided "on the hill"' and a Jan. 5 'email about having the National Guard on standby.' ~~~

"Meadows provided the committee last week with 'certain relevant messages' from 'saved and backed up phone data' from his personal cellphone, according to Thompson's letter. The text messages produced by Meadows include a Nov. 6, 2020, correspondence 'with a Member of Congress apparently about appointing alternate electors in certain states as part of a plan that the Member acknowledged would be "highly controversial" and to which Mr. Meadows apparently said, "I love it."'" MB: You can download the letter from Thomson (via the committee) by clicking on the link. I thought maybe Meadows -- I won't appear, I will appear, I won't appear flipflops were a form of delay, but it looks as if he really did change his mind again -- after Trump dissed his book. Some of the docs Meadows provided before deciding he was unable to lunch today would seem to be fairly incriminating. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Update. Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "Mark Meadows ... filed suit on Wednesday against Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol in an attempt to persuade a federal judge to block the committee's subpoenas.... His lawsuit, filed in federal court in Washington, accuses the committee of issuing 'two overly broad and unduly burdensome subpoenas' against him, including one sent to Verizon for his phone and text data."

Alan Feuer & Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "Ali Alexander, a prominent organizer of Stop the Steal rallies with ties to far-right members of Congress who sought to invalidate the 2020 election results, is cooperating with the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, pledging to deliver a trove of documents that could shed light on the activities that preceded the attack. The participation of Mr. Alexander, who is scheduled to be deposed by the panel on Thursday, could provide insight into the nature and extent of the planning by ... Donald J. Trump and his Republican allies in Congress for their bid to overturn the election on Jan. 6. It could also help clarify whether and to what degree the prospect of violence was discussed or contemplated before or during the rampage." The article includes background on Alexander's participation in events & publishes snippets of his planned testimony before the committee, so it's worth a read.

A Trumped-up Case Gets Trumpier. Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "When a special counsel accused a prominent cybersecurity lawyer of lying to the F.B.I. during a September 2016 meeting about Donald J. Trump's possible links to Russia, the indictment presented a lengthy narrative but the direct evidence appeared lean. The indictment said the lawyer, Michael A. Sussmann, had made a false statement by telling an F.B.I. official that he was not representing a client in presenting the information. Mr. Sussmann, who has pleaded not guilty, has denied saying that. No one else was present and their conversation was not recorded, so the direct and clearly admissible evidence appeared to boil down to one witness. This week, additional pieces of evidence emerged into public view that were not in the indictment -- one of which appears to dovetail with the accusation against Mr. Sussmann by the special counsel, John H. Durham, who was appointed during the Trump administration, while several others appear to conflict with it."

Jonathan Swan & Andrew Solender of Axios: "Donald Trump and his associates are systematically reshaping the Republican Party, working to install hand-picked loyalists across federal and state governments and destroy those he feels have been disloyal, sources close to the former president tell Axios.... If most or all of Trump's candidates win, he will go into the 2024 election cycle with far more people willing to do his bidding who run the elections in key states.... Trump is tapping his national network of allies to identify Republicans who were 'weak' in 2020 because they refused to go along with his efforts to overturn the election. No office has proven too small." ~~~

~~~ Lawrence Norten & Derek Tisler of the Brennan Center: "Election officials were some of the biggest heroes of the 2020 election. After a grueling year that saw a pandemic, unprecedented disinformation efforts, and the highest turnout in over a century, they stood up to pressure from political actors seeking to overturn or cast doubt on the election results in key states. This collective, bipartisan effort helped avoid a constitutional crisis last year. But the effort to sabotage our elections has only intensified, which is why Congress and state and local governments must take critical steps to protect against insider threats.... Following the threats, harassment, intimidation, political pressure, disinformation, and general exhaustion that election officials faced in 2020, many are choosing to leave the election administration field altogether.... And in many cases, the people seeking to fill these open positions are those who have been most activated by the conspiracies surrounding the 2020 election and the most determined to abuse their authority to ensure a different outcome in 2024.... States and counties should take the following actions (and, where appropriate, provide the funds necessary to support such mandates)[.]" Lead via Rachel Maddow.

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court on Wednesday seemed ready to take another step in requiring states to pay for religious education, with a majority of the justices indicating that they would not allow Maine to exclude religious schools from a state tuition program. The court has said that states may choose to provide aid to religious schools along with other private schools. The question in the new case was the opposite: Can states refuse to provide such aid if it is made available to other private schools?" MB: I sure hope the Pastafarians start up a school as soon as the Supremes decide in favor of these discriminatory religious schools.

Jacob Bogage of the Washington Post: "A pharmaceutical company formerly owned by Martin Shkreli will pay as much as $40 million to resolve price-gouging allegations brought by federal regulators and seven states. Vyera Pharmaceuticals, known as Turing when Shkreli ran the operation, acquired the rights to Daraprim, an anti-parasitic medication used to treat HIV patients and others with immunocompromised conditions, and raised the price of a pill from $17.50 to $750 -- more than 4,000 percent. It also blocked competitors from producing a generic version of the drug by restricting access to key ingredients, according to charges brought by the Federal Trade Commission and attorneys general from California, Illinois, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia. Under the settlement filed in the Southern District of New York, Vyera and its parent company, Phoenixus AG, will pay $10 million up front and as much as $30 million over 10 years if their financial condition improves. They are required to make Daraprim available to generic competitors. Kevin Mulleady, who succeeded Shkreli as CEO, will be banned from owning, working or consulting for a pharmaceutical company for seven years."

The Pandemic, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Thursday are here. The Washington Post's live Covid-19 updates for Thursday are here: "The new omicron variant could increase the likelihood that people will need a fourth coronavirus vaccine dose earlier than expected, executives at pharmaceutical giant Pfizer said Wednesday. Boosters are likely to help control the variant, according to the company, which said early lab experiments suggest the standard two-dose regimen still provides some protection against severe illness from the variant."

Sharon LaFraniere of the New York Times: "Pfizer and BioNTech said Wednesday that laboratory tests suggest a booster shot of their coronavirus vaccine offers significant protection against the fast-spreading Omicron variant of the virus. The companies said that tests of blood from people who had received only two doses found much lower levels of antibodies protecting against Omicron than against an earlier version of the virus. That suggests that two doses 'may not be sufficient to protect against infection' by the new variant, the companies said.... President Biden went out of his way to draw attention to Pfizer-BioNTech's findings on Wednesday, calling them 'very, very encouraging' and saying they showed that the vaccines remain a bulwark against the virus.... [But] scientists say it could take a month or more to really understand the new variant's threat."

Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "The Senate on Wednesday voted narrowly to roll back President Biden's vaccine and testing mandate for large employers, taking mostly symbolic action as Republicans escalate their protest of the administration's push to immunize Americans against a deadly pandemic. The vote was bipartisan, as two centrist Democrats -- Senators Joe Manchin III of West Virginia and Jon Tester of Montana -- joined all 50 Republicans in voting to overturn the regulation, which has already been blocked amid a wave of litigation by large employers and Republican-controlled states. But the House is not expected to take up the measure, and administration officials said Mr. Biden would veto it should it reach his desk. For Republicans who forced the action, it was a prime opportunity to paint the administration's efforts to increase coronavirus vaccinations as federal overreach, a central component of their campaign message going into the midterm elections next year." The NBC News story is here.

Vaccine? No, Listerine. Andrew Jeong of the Washington Post: "Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) recommended mouthwash as a treatment for the coronavirus during a town hall meeting Wednesday, immediately drawing criticism for suggesting gargling would offer protection. The senator has been criticized for spreading conspiracy theories about the coronavirus and has promoted the use of drugs that have shown little to no evidence that they are effective in treating covid-19. YouTube this year suspended his account for violating the company's medical misinformation policies. He has also expressed skepticism about the efficacy of coronavirus vaccine mandates and doses, which have undergone vigorous health testing. His latest remarks run up against medical advice from a major producer of mouthwash and health experts. 'Standard gargle, mouthwash, has been proven to kill the coronavirus,' Johnson said.... Though mouthwash can partially kill off parts of the coronavirus in a person's mouth, most infections occur through the nose, health experts said."

Charles Blow of the New York Times: "I am disappointed, and I am angry ... with all the people who are choosing not to get vaccinated. There was a point, earlier on in the pandemic, when vaccines were still scarce, when I tried to be tolerant with the holdouts.... But that time has long since passed for me.... I will not coddle willful ignorance anymore. I will not indulge the fool's errand of 'I'm still doing my own research' anymore, either. This virus has already killed nearly 800,000 Americans and infected nearly 50 million. We are now averaging about 120,000 new cases a day.... The only way out of this situation, for our country and the world, is through the vaccines." MB: Blow speaks for me. And I'm even angrier at people in positions of authority or high-status for spreading conspiracy theories that persuade the numbnuts to forego vaccination. Like Stupidest Sen. Ron Johnson & teevee ratings-whore TuKKKer.

Finland. PM Partying Like It's 2019. Reis Thebault of the Washington Post: "It was Saturday evening when Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin learned that a cabinet colleague and close contact had tested positive for the coronavirus. That information, however, did not derail her weekend plans, and the leader proceeded to party at a Helsinki nightclub until the wee hours, with photos showing her maskless in a crowd. Marin, who is fully vaccinated, later apologized for what she described as an indiscretion, yet images from that night have since gone viral.... The 36-year-old Social Democrat did not violate the country's public health rules, as Finland does not require vaccinated people to quarantine. But guidance does 'strongly recommend that you voluntarily avoid contact with people outside your household' while waiting for [test results].... [Marin] She tested negative for the virus Sunday, she said, and did so again Monday."

U.K. Stephen Castle of the New York Times: "For a week, Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain has denied damaging claims that his staff broke lockdown rules by holding a party last Christmas when such festivities were banned under government-imposed coronavirus restrictions. Late Tuesday, the government's story weakened when a video surfaced of senior staff members joking about just such a party four days after they had reportedly gathered to eat snacks, drink wine and play party games in Downing Street. The revelations have shaken Mr. Johnson's government, coming just as Britain and the rest of the world enter a second holiday season battered by the emergence of a new variant and faced by anger and frustration from exhausted citizens." ~~~

     ~~~ Guy Davies of ABC News: "U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson is facing calls to resign over reports that members of his staff attended a Christmas party last year while the country was in lockdown."

Beyond the Beltway

Georgia. Perdue Says He Would Have Broken Law to Help Trump Overturn 2020 Election Results. Emma Hurt of Axios: Trump-backed "Georgia gubernatorial candidate David Perdue wouldn't have signed the certification of the state's 2020 election results if he had been governor at the time, the former Senate Republican told Axios.... When Gov. Brian Kemp signed the state's election certification, he pointed out that state law required him to do so.... Georgia's law does not offer the governor or the secretary of state the ability to not certify an election. Any challenge to an election's integrity must happen through the courts."

Illinois. Julia Jacobs & Mark Guarino of the New York Times: "The jury tasked with deciding whether Jussie Smollett falsely told the police that he had been the victim of a racist and homophobic assault began deliberations on Wednesday and started to grapple with the two differing narratives of what happened on a freezing Chicago night in 2019. Prosecutors have accused Mr. Smollett of orchestrating the attack himself by instructing two brothers, Abimbola Osundairo and Olabinjo Osundairo, to punch him just hard enough to create bruises, pour bleach on his clothing and place a rope around his neck like a noose while yelling racist and homophobic slurs. But the defense, which relied on more than seven hours of testimony by Mr. Smollett himself, has argued he was the victim of a real attack, perpetrated by the brothers, who then lied to investigators to avoid being prosecuted themselves."

North Carolina. Michael Wines of the New York Times: "The North Carolina Supreme Court ordered a two-month delay in the state's 2022 primary elections on Wednesday, giving critics of the state legislature's gerrymandered political maps additional time to pursue a legal battle to redraw them. The unsigned ruling was a setback for the Republican-controlled General Assembly, which created the maps and had argued that a delay in the primaries would sow chaos among both candidates and voters. The court ordered the March 8 primary elections for all offices postponed until May 17, citing 'the importance of the issues to the constitutional jurisprudence of this state, and the need for urgency' in deciding the maps' legality. New boundaries for state legislative districts and for North Carolina's 14 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives face three lawsuits filed by Democrats and voting-rights advocates in a state court in Raleigh. In a state split almost evenly between Republican and Democratic voters..., the new House map, for example, would all but ensure victory for G.O.P. candidates in 10 of the 14 districts, with a decent shot at winning an 11th seat."

Way Beyond

France. Rick Noack & Sarah Dadouch of the Washington Post: "The arrest of a man previously believed to have been a suspect in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi has turned out to be a case of mistaken identity, the Paris prosecutor's office said Wednesday. The man was released from detention after 'thorough checks,' authorities said. The announcement came almost 30 hours after French authorities detained the man at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris."

Germany. Katrin Bennhold & Melissa Eddy of the New York Times: "After 16 years as leader of Germany and unofficial leader of Europe, [Angela] Merkel on Wednesday left the office she first took over when President George W. Bush was still in the White House in a characteristically understated way. 'Congratulations dear Mr. Chancellor, dear Olaf Scholz,' Ms. Merkel told her successor in a small gathering at the chancellery.... Ms. Merkel was the central political figure in Germany and Europe through four U.S. presidents and five British and eight Italian prime ministers. Her steady accretion of authority drew admirers and detractors alike, but she remained a singular source of stability for the continent through repeated crises." (Also linked yesterday.)

News Lede

AP: "The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits plunged last week to the lowest level in 52 years, more evidence that the U.S. job market is recovering from last year's coronavirus recession. Unemployment claims dropped by 43,000 to 184,000 last week, the lowest since September 1969, the Labor Department said Thursday. The four-week moving average, which smooths out week-to-week ups and downs, fell below 219,000, lowest since the pandemic hit the United States hard i March 2020."