November 21, 2021

Late Morning Update:

** Michael Wines of the New York Times: "Experts say that even as gerrymanders become ever more egregious, the legal avenues to overturn them are becoming narrower.... More and more states -- mostly Republican like Ohio and Texas, but now Democratic ones like Illinois -- are drawing maps that effectively guarantee that the party in power stays in power.... The racial impact of the maps is sweeping. The government accountability watchdog group Common Cause said a quarter of the 36 state legislative seats held by African Americans, all Democrats, would be likely to flip Republican.... The Supreme Court in 2019 ended a decades-long debate over the constitutionality of partisan gerrymandering, saying it was up to Congress, not the courts, to fix politically skewed maps. The court also has made it harder to prove that political districts were drawn to reduce minority voters' clout...." ~~~

~~~ Marie: Okay then, just as our good friends the Supremes say, Congress alone can fix it! Oh, wait, ~~~

~~~ Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: Kyrsten Sinema (D-ish-Az.) "said this week she remains firmly opposed to changing federal election laws on a partisan basis, signaling that a planned last-ditch voting rights push that party leaders and activists are planning for the closely divided Senate in the coming months is likely to fail." MB: If she's so smart, why is she playing dumb?

Joshua Zitser of the Insider, republished in Yahoo! News: "Kyle Rittenhouse's criminal defense attorney [Mark Richards] told Insider that he thinks it is 'disgusting' that some prominent Republicans have tried to cash in on his client's acquittal." Paul Gosar, Matt Gaetz & Madison Cawthorn all claim they are bidding to hire Rittenhouse as an intern. "Richards also spoke negatively of Donald Trump Jr. tweeting that a gun rights organization would "award" Rittenhouse with an AR-15." According to Ali Veshi of MSNBC, Gosar said Rittenhouse should get the Congressional Medal of Freedom.

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Michael Scherer, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Biden and members of his inner circle have reassured allies in recent days that he plans to run for reelection in 2024, as they take steps to deflect concern about the 79-year-old president's commitment to another campaign and growing Democratic fears of a coming Republican return to power. The efforts come as the broader Democratic community has become increasingly anxious after a bruising six-month stretch that has seen Biden's national approval rating plummet more than a dozen points, into the low 40s, amid growing concerns about inflation, Democratic infighting in Washington and faltering public health efforts to move beyond the covid-19 pandemic. The message is aimed in part at tamping down the assumption among many Democrats that Biden may not seek reelection...."

Jasmine Wright of CNN: "Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband Doug Emhoff achieved another first in their historic roles when they affixed a white mezuzah to the right-hand side of the doorway of the vice presidential residence. The moment the sacred object was affixed to the Naval Observatory's wooden entryway marked the first time an executive home has carried the abiding sign of sanctity of a Jewish home, according to Rabbi Peter Berg of Hebrew Benevolent Congregation (The Temple) in Atlanta, which loaned the mezuzah. Berg led the private ceremony at the Naval Observatory in October. Emhoff is the first Jewish spouse of a president or a vice president, and Harris is the first woman and first woman of color to hold her title." MB: Probably just nailed up the mezuzah to make all the white-Christian-nation people even crazier. MichaelFlynnskin just rent himself in half.

Michael Laris & Ian Duncan of the Washington Post: Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg's "role overseeing hundreds of billions of dollars in infrastructure investments puts Buttigieg at the center of one of the Biden administration's chief accomplishments, with implications for his boss's future and his own. He was handed the resources to uncork ambitious projects across the country, elevating local ideas and reshaping federal transportation priorities. About $1 billion in grants the department awarded Friday offers a taste of the administration goals as it eyes much bigger spending through the infrastructure package. Buttigieg prioritized equity and environmental criteria in making the awards and shifted emphasis away from road-building efforts the Trump administration favored." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: So if Republicans take over at least one House of Congress, I predict with 100 percent certainty that Republicans will expend a helluva lot of energy drumming up & "investigating" fake scandals about how Pete has mismanaged something or the other. If Democrats manage to hold onto both Houses -- unlikely -- Republicans will still make up scandals about Pete, but they won't be able to do much fake "investigating." With great power comes a great target on your back.

Carl Hulse of the New York Times: Speaker Nancy Pelosi's efforts to shepherd the Build Back Better bill through the House "-- fraught with challenges and littered with near-death experiences for the bill -- finally paid off on Friday with House passage of the $2.2 trillion social policy and climate change package. Along the way, Ms. Pelosi, who is known for delivering legislative victories in tough circumstances, was forced repeatedly to pull back from a floor showdown on the bill as she labored to unite the feuding liberal and moderate factions in her caucus. A crucial but less-seen part of her task was sounding out and cajoling a pair of Democratic holdouts in the Senate, [Joe] Manchin [W. Va.] and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, who were opposed to major elements of [President] Biden's plan and had the power to upend whatever delicate deal Ms. Pelosi was able to strike."

Abigail Hauslohner of the Washington Post: "More than two months after the United States' chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, the federal government is still in the process of resettling roughly 45,000 Afghans housed in temporary camps on U.S. military bases after they were airlifted from their home country. Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico is among eight facilities that became hubs for one of the largest humanitarian resettlement operations in U.S. history. Biden administration officials say about 73,000 Afghans have arrived in the United States since the fall of Kabul to the Taliban. Holloman received 7,100, half of them children, between late August and early October. They include Afghans who risked their lives to aid the U.S. government during its two-decade war effort in their country, officials say. Others are relatives of those who served or of U.S. citizens, as well as many others who felt at risk in Taliban-held Afghanistan."

Aya Elamroussi of CNN: "Authorities are searching for the man who escaped an Atlanta airport security checkpoint after a weapon was discharged Saturday, frightening travelers and temporarily grounding flights at one of world's busiest airports the weekend before Thanksgiving. Officials believe the weapon that was discharged at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport was in a bag belonging to Kenny Wells, a passenger who, police say, ran away with the weapon in hand. Wells, 42, is wanted on warrants accusing him of carrying a concealed a weapon at a commercial airport, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, discharging a firearm and reckless conduct, Atlanta Police Department Airport Precinct Commander Reginald L. Moorman said.... Saturday's incident unfolded around 1:30 p.m., when the passenger's property was flagged for a 'secondary search' after the X-ray screening at the security checkpoint detected a 'prohibited item,' Robert Spinden, the TSA's federal security director for Georgia, said during a news conference. 'During that secondary search, the passenger lunged into his property, grabbing a firearm that was located inside, which ultimately discharged,' Spinden said. 'The passenger then fled the security checkpoint through an adjacent exit lane with his firearm.'"

Brakkton Booker of Politico: Kyle "Rittenhouse's acquittal, scholars say, sends a signal to those who want to take up arms to defend property or attend politically or racially charged events: There is legal ground for you to use your weapon. Just claim fear. Those protections though likely will not extend to everyone. 'I don't have to tell you this, there is no set of circumstances, no reading of the law, no rendering of the imagination, in which a Black person could get away with this,' said Cornell William Brooks, former president and CEO of the NAACP, who now teaches at Harvard University. 'What this case says legally may be good for Kyle Rittenhouse. What it says culturally is dangerous in terms of racialized violence.'... [Paul Butler, a former federal prosecutor,] says there’s a throughline from the armed vigilante presence in Kenosha unrest to the Jan. 6 attack by supporters of ... Donald Trump, who at his urging, sought to stop the certification of now-President Joe Biden's electoral college victory."

Beyond the Beltway

Ohio. AP: Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed into law a map of new congressional districts on Saturday that will be in effect for the next four years, despite objections from Democrats and voting rights groups. DeWine said in a statement that, compared with other proposals from House and Senate lawmakers from both parties, the Senate legislation he signed 'makes the most progress to produce a fair, compact, and competitive map.'... Democrats blasted the Republican-led mapmaking process as unfair, partisan and cloaked in secrecy.... The nonpartisan Princeton Gerrymandering Project gave the map an F grade. The new law creates at most three safe Democratic districts out of 15 new U.S. House seats in a state where voters are split roughly 54% Republican, 46% Democratic."

Texas. AP: "U.S. Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, a trailblazing Black Democrat in Texas who has served in Congress for nearly 30 years, announced Saturday that she will not seek reelection next year. Johnson, 85, is a political fixture in her hometown of Dallas, where early in her career she became the first Black woman to serve the city in the state Senate since Reconstruction. She grew up in the segregated South and was elected in 1992 to Congress, where she became the first Black woman to chair the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology. 'There is a good reason I should stay: I am a personal friend to the president, I have gained some respect and influence,' Johnson said during her announcement. But she said plans to keep a promise she made after winning the Democratic primary in March that her current term would be her last."

Way Beyond

Russia. Valerie Hopkins of the New York Times: Marina Butina, former Russian spy (or something), is now a member of the Russian Duma representing the Kirov region. She got her job either as a reward for her U.S. shenanigans or because of her ambush interview of Russian political prisoner Aleksei Navalny, which was very favorable to the state.' MB: In recent photos, she looks very smart. You won't come across a more ambitious person than Butina.

November 20, 2021

President Biden does the annual Stupid Pet Trick. An AP story is here:

Katie Rogers & Lawrence Altman of the New York Times: "President Biden's personal physician [Kevin O'Connor] said on Friday that he was a 'healthy, vigorous, 78 year old' who was fit to carry out his duties, after the president underwent a full medical evaluation and briefly transferred powers to the vice president so he could undergo a colonoscopy."

Felicia Sonmez of the Washington Post: "Kamala D. Harris on Friday became the first woman to serve as acting president of the United States, as President Biden was briefly placed under anesthesia for a routine colonoscopy. Biden underwent the procedure at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., Friday morning. Harris was acting president for about an hour and twenty-five minutes, according to the White House.... Harris worked 'from her office in the West Wing during this time,' the White House said." ~~~

     ~~~ Wait! Wait! Harris Is the Real President All the Time! Claire Goforth of the Daily Dot (Nov. 17): "On Monday, President Joe Biden signed his big infrastructure bill into law. [Shortly thereafter,] Vice President Kamala Harris tweeting a video of the bill signing.... The presidential seal is blurred in the video." This excited numerous conspiracy theorists like one Paul McCullough, who tweeted, "Because he's not the real president. Totally fraudulent election. The truth will come out!" Others seemed to think everything in the video was fake, including the bill and the image of the President himself. Alas, the truth that came out is a bit simpler: "Federal law dictates that the seal can't be used for any type of advertisement, such as campaigning. Thus, the seal had to be blurred because Harris tweeted the video from her personal Twitter account, rather than the official vice president account."

Odious DeJoy Could Be on the Way Out. Jacob Bogage of the Washington Post: "President Biden on Friday announced plans to nominate two former federal officials to the U.S. Postal Service's governing board, replacing key allies of Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, including its Democratic chairman. The move was a surprise to postal officials and even members of Congress, according to three people with knowledge of the matter, and casts doubt on DeJoy's future at the agency. It potentially gives liberals on the panel two crucial votes to oust the postal chief, who can be removed only by the board.... The White House on Friday, confirming a Washington Post report on the decision, announced it would nominate Daniel Tangherlini, who served as the administrator of the General Services Administration during the Obama administration, to replace Ron A. Bloom. Derek Kan, a Republican and the former deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget, would replace Republican John M. Barger."

Julian Barnes & Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: "American intelligence officials are warning allies that there is a short window of time to prevent Russia from taking military action in Ukraine, pushing European countries to work with the United States to develop a package of economic and military measures to deter Moscow, according to American and European officials. Russia has not yet decided what it intends to do with the troops it has amassed near Ukraine, American officials said, but the buildup is being taken seriously and the United States is not assuming it is a bluff."

Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post: "Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack will propose reinstating a Clinton administration-era rule to ban logging and road building in more than half of North America's largest temperate rainforest[, Alaska's Tongass National Forest].... The restrictions had managed to stay in place for years because of a series of court battles, but the Trump administration wiped them out last fall.... The proposed rule would protect critical habitat and prevent the carbon dioxide trapped in the forest's ancient trees from escaping into the atmosphere, but Alaska's governor and congressional delegation say it would hurt the timber industry. Alaska Native leaders, environmentalists and tour operators argue that protecting the region's remaining wild landscapes will sustain the state's economy in the long term." MB: Well, yes, it does seem likely that banning logging would hurt the timber industry.

Emily Cochrane & Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "The House on Friday narrowly passed the centerpiece of President Biden's domestic agenda, approving $2 trillion in spending over the next decade to battle climate change, expand health care and reweave the nation's social safety net, over the unanimous opposition of Republicans. The bill's passage, 220 to 213, came after weeks of cajoling, arm-twisting and legislative legerdemain by Democrats. It was capped off by an exhausting, circuitous and record-breaking speech of more than eight hours by the House Republican leader, Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, that pushed a planned Thursday vote past midnight, then delayed it to Friday morning -- but did nothing to dent Democratic unity." The AP's report is here. (Also linked yesterday.)

While the verdict in Kenosha will leave many Americans feeling angry and concerned, myself included, we must acknowledge that the jury has spoken.... I urge everyone to express their views peacefully, consistent with the rule of law. -- President Joe Biden in a statement

I'm disappointed in the verdict, I have to tell you. I think it speaks for itself. But I also have spent the majority of my career focused on what we need to do to ensure that the criminal justice system is more fair and just, and we still have a lot of work to do. -- Former President-for-a-Moment Kamala Harris, remarks Friday ~~~

~~~ Mark Guarino, et al., of the Washington Post: "A jury acquitted Kyle Rittenhouse on all counts Friday, more than a year after the teenager fatally shot two people and wounded a third amid unrest over a police shooting in Kenosha, a case that set off searing national debates over guns, race, vigilantism and self-defense."

Marie: This is an indictment (1) of the U.S. gun culture; (2) of the Supreme Court confederates for encouraging that gun culture; (3) of the Wisconsin open-carry law; (4) of the Kenosha police who let a kid who did not even look of age prance around town with a loaded AR-15 during a riot; and (5) of irresponsible parents who allowed their irresponsible child to go on a murderous excursion. Although race was not mentioned during the trial, it should not be lost upon us that Rittenhouse associated himself with the white supremacist Proud Boys and the men he killed and maimed were participating in a Black Lives Matter protest. Whether in the acquittal of the murderers of three civil rights workers in 1964 Mississippi or the acquittal of Kyle Rittenhouse, the U.S. "justice" system, both in the South & in the North, protects white supremacists even when they murder anti-racist activists.

Steve M. posts a few responses from the right. He concludes, "This is what Republicans say to one another when they don't believe anyone else is paying attention. This is what no New York Times reporter on a rural diner safari has ever managed to elicit from them. But it's what they really think." ~~~

~~~ Anti-Defamation League: "As soon as the jury announced its verdict, online extremist spaces erupted in cheers and self-congratulatory rhetoric. Supporters heralded the Rittenhouse verdict as a victory for the principle of self-defense and providing legal precedent for violent responses to perceived threats, and some argued that people no longer need to avoid acting during tense situations for fear of legal repercussions...." The extremist posts, tweets & messages the ADL republishes are horrible.

Charles Blow of the New York Times: "... perhaps the most problematic aspect of this case was that it represented yet another data point in the long history of some parts of the right valorizing white vigilantes who use violence against people of color and their white allies.... The idea of taking the law into one's own hands not only to protect order, but also to protect the order, is central to the maintenance of white power and its structures."

Not Just Racists, But Misogynists, Too. Michelle Cottle of the New York Times: "So upbeat [is the GOP outlook] that it apparently is cool with the fact that in three Senate races -- Georgia, Missouri and Pennsylvania -- it has leading candidates who have been accused of harassing, abusing, threatening or otherwise mistreating women.... The allegations, the candidates' responses, the warmth of the party's embrace -- the creeping not-so-casual misogyny is indicative of the dark path down which ... Donald Trump continues to lead the G.O.P.... For devout Trumpists, accusations of toxic masculinity can even be a comfort of sorts, a kind of corrective to a #MeToo movement that many in the MAGAverse consider excessive and anti-man.... Under Mr. Trump, the Republican Party has undergone a fundamental shift, swapping a fixation on character and morality and so-called Family Values for a celebration of belligerence, violence, and, yes, toxic masculinity." Cottle provides numerous examples of the "new GOP." Emphasis added.

Kyle Cheney of Politico: "A federal judge on Friday squarely placed the blame for the Jan. 6 Capitol attack on Donald Trump, suggesting that the former president's role in seeding lies about the 2020 election -- and the effect it had on his followers -- has been an underappreciated part of the entire episode. Judge Amit Mehta issued his commentary as he delivered a 14-day jail sentence to Jan. 6 rioter John Lolos -- a sentence Mehta said he shortened in part to reflect the fact that Lolos was responding to Trump's call.... 'People like Mr. Lolos were told lies, told falsehoods, told our election was stolen when it clearly was not,' Mehta [said], adding that the defendants were paying for conduct that was largely enabled by Trump and his allies. 'We're here today deciding whether Mr. Lolos should spend 30 days in jail when those who created the conditions that led to Mr. Lolos' conduct, led to the events of Jan. 6 [haven't been] held to for their actions and their word.' 'In a sense, Mr. Lolos, I think you were a pawn,' Mehta continued." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Sorry, Judge, if people are going to believe the "news" disseminated by Fox "News," Facebook & the right-wing mediasphere in general, they are going to make terrible mistakes (see also Rittenhouse). Normal Americans had every reason to know that Donald Trump and his allies are congenital liars and that Joe Biden won the presidential election. Citizens have an obligation to be discerning. If they are not, they should suffer the consequences. Yes, Trump is responsible for inciting the insurrection, but the "pawns" themselves should accept responsibility for their own acts of stupidity & violence.

Amy Gardner, et al., of the Washington Post: "Federal and state investigators are examining an attempt to breach an Ohio county's election network that bears striking similarities to an incident in Colorado earlier this year, when government officials helped an outsider gain access to the county voting system in an effort to find fraud. Data obtained in both instances were distributed at an August 'cyber symposium' on election fraud hosted by MyPillow executive Mike Lindell, an ally of ... Donald Trump.... Together, the incidents in Ohio and Colorado point to an escalation in attacks on the nation's voting systems by those who have embraced Trump's false claims that the 2020 election was riddled with fraud.... Investigators with the office of Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose (R) believe a government official appears to have facilitated the attempted breach of the election network in Lake County, a spokesman for LaRose said."

This Man Has Too Much Money. Karen Matthews of the AP: "A rare first printing of the U.S. Constitution sold at Sotheby's in New York for $43.2 million, a record price for a document or book sold at auction. The buyer, hedge fund manager Kenneth Griffin, will loan the document to the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas, for public exhibition, Sotheby's announced Friday. Griffin, the founder and CEO of multinational hedge fund Citadel, outbid a group of 17,000 cryptocurrency enthusiasts from around the world who crowdfunded to buy it over the last week.... The museum opened in 2011 and was founded by Alice Walton, the daughter of Walmart founder Sam Walton.... This printing of the Constitution was last sold in 1988, when real estate developer and collector S. Howard Goldman bought it at auction for $165,000. Proceeds from Thursday's sale will benefit a foundation established by Goldman's widow, Dorothy Tapper Goldman, to further the understanding of constitutional principles."MB: Okay, that's nice, but all these people have/had too much money.

The New York Times has some great still pictures of Friday morning's lunar eclipse.

The Pandemic, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Saturday are here.

Lauran Neergaard, et al., of the AP: "The U.S. on Friday opened COVID-19 booster shots to all adults and took the extra step of urging people 50 and older to seek one, aiming to ward off a winter surge as coronavirus cases rise even before millions of Americans travel for the holidays.... Under the new rules, anyone 18 or older can choose either a Pfizer or Moderna booster six months after their last dose. For anyone who got the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine, the wait already was just two months. And people can mix-and-match boosters from any company.... The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had to agree before the new policy became official late Friday. CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky endorsed [the] recommendation from her agency's scientific advisers...." The New York Times story is here. A Washington Post story, which is free to nonsubscribers, is here.

Frances Sellers of the Washington Post: "The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released two new reports Friday highlighting the dangers of covid-19 to pregnant people and their fetuses or babies, particularly since July, when the highly contagious delta variant took hold in the U.S. One report examines covid -- associated deaths during pregnancy.... The second report focuses on stillbirths -- a usually rare event that has been more strongly linked to covid-19 since delta became dominant.... The reports' authors emphasize the importance of preventive measures including vaccination, which the CDC recommends for pregnant women. Only about 30 percent of pregnant Americans are vaccinated, a rate far lower than the population as a whole." The article is free to nonsubscribers.

Beyond the Beltway

California. Christine Hauser of the New York Times: "A former university professor has been indicted on charges that he set four wildfires in national forests while on an 'arson spree' in California this summer, prosecutors said. The former professor, Gary Stephen Maynard, 47, was charged with four counts of arson to federal property, the acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of California, Phillip A. Talbert, announced on Thursday. Some of the fires were ignited behind firefighters as they worked to extinguish the flames of the Dixie fire, which consumed more than 960,000 acres as one of the largest wildfires in California history." Maynard has denied the charges.

Florida. Jason Dearen of the AP: "In June, three Florida prison guards who boasted of being white supremacists beat, pepper sprayed and used a stun gun on an inmate [of color] who screamed 'I can't breathe!' at a prison near the Alabama border, according to a fellow inmate [Jamaal Reynolds] who reported it to the state. The next day, the officers at Jackson Correctional Institution did it again to another inmate, the report filed with the Florida Department of Corrections' Office of Inspector General stated.... Both incidents occurred in view of surveillance cameras, he said.... But the inspector general's office did not investigate, corrections spokeswoman Molly Best said.... Some Florida prison guards openly tout associations with white supremacist groups to intimidate inmates and Black colleagues, a persistent practice that often goes unpunished, according to allegations in public documents and interviews with a dozen inmates and current and former employees in the nation's third-largest prison system." Read on.

Georgia. When Will This Lawyer Wear His White Hood to Court? Russ Bynum of the AP: "The defense attorney who caused an outcry by saying Black pastors should be barred from the murder trial over Ahmaud Arbery's death declared in court Friday that a courthouse rally and other actions supporting the slain Black man's family were comparable to a 'public lynching' of the three white defendants.... [Attorney Kevin] Gough renewed a request for a mistrial the day after the Rev. Al Sharpton, the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Martin Luther King III joined hundreds of pastors, most of them Black, praying and rallying at the steps of the Glynn County courthouse. The event was organized after Gough last week objected to Sharpton sitting in the back row of the courtroom with Arbery's parents.... He told the judge his client's right to a fair trial was being violated by a 'left woke mob.' Superior Court Judge Timothy Walmsley dismissed the mistrial motion with little discussion." ~~~

~~~ Devon Sayers, et al., of CNN: "A defense attorney for one of the three White men accused of chasing and killing Black jogger Ahmaud Arbery asked prosecutors for a plea deal and was declined, an attorney for Arbery's mother told CNN. William 'Roddie' Bryan Jr.'s lawyer 'asked for a plea deal before resting their case. Prosecutors declined any plea offer,' Lee Merritt, an attorney for Wanda Cooper-Jones, said Friday. The district attorney's office that is prosecuting the case declined to comment about being approached about a plea deal." (Also linked yesterday.)

Wisconsin. More Disturbing News from the Badger State. Reid Epstein of the New York Times: "Republicans in Wisconsin are engaged in an all-out assault on the state's election system, building off their attempts to challenge the results of the 2020 presidential race by pressing to give themselves full control over voting in the state. The Republican effort -- broader and more forceful than that in any other state where allies of ... Donald J. Trump are trying to overhaul elections -- takes direct aim at the bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission, an agency Republicans created half a decade ago that has been under attack since the chaotic aftermath of last year's election.... Last week, [U.S.] Senator Ron Johnson, a Republican, said that G.O.P. state lawmakers should unilaterally assert control of federal elections, claiming that they had the authority to do so even if Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, stood in their way -- an extraordinary legal argument debunked by a 1932 Supreme Court decision and a 1964 ruling from the Wisconsin Supreme Court. His suggestion was nonetheless echoed by Michael Gableman, a conservative former State Supreme Court justice who is conducting the Legislature's election inquiry." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Hey, Sens. Joe, Krysten, et al., as we may have mentioned, you-all could fix this by suspending the filibuster & passing voting rights legislation.

November 19, 2021

Morning/Afternoon Update:

Jury finds Kyle Rittenhouse not guilty on all counts. MB: I guess he now can go on to a great career as a Congressional intern -- at least as long as Matt Gaetz himself can stay out of jail. This is an indictment (1) of the U.S. gun culture; (2) of the Supreme Court confederates for encouraging that gun culture; (3) of the Wisconsin open-carry law; (4) of the Kenosha police who let a kid who did not even look of age prance around town with a loaded AR-15 during a riot; and (5) of irresponsible parents who allowed their irresponsible child to go on a murderous excursion. ~~~

     ~~~ Here are the Washington Post's live updates; verdicts at the top.

Emily Cochrane & Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "The House on Friday narrowly passed the centerpiece of President Biden's domestic agenda, approving $2 trillion in spending over the next decade to battle climate change, expand health care and reweave the nation's social safety net, over the unanimous opposition of Republicans. The bill's passage, 220 to 213, came after weeks of cajoling, arm-twisting and legislative legerdemain by Democrats. It was capped off by an exhausting, circuitous and record-breaking speech of more than eight hours by the House Republican leader, Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, that pushed a planned Thursday vote past midnight, then delayed it to Friday morning -- but did nothing to dent Democratic unity." The AP's report is here.

Devon Sayers, et al., of CNN: "A defense attorney for one of the three White men accused of chasing and killing Black jogger Ahmaud Arbery asked prosecutors for a plea deal and was declined, an attorney for Arbery's mother told CNN. William 'Roddie' Bryan Jr.'s lawyer 'asked for a plea deal before resting their case. Prosecutors declined any plea offer,' Lee Merritt, an attorney for Wanda Cooper-Jones, said Friday. The district attorney's office that is prosecuting the case declined to comment about being approached about a plea deal."

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Ashley Parker, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Biden met Thursday with the leaders of America's neighbors to the north and south amid much praise on all sides, part of the president's ongoing effort to rebuild relations with allies after a Trump administration that was often at odds with the nation's longtime partners. But ... while Canada and Mexico welcome Biden's friendlier tone, major points of contention remain, including over U.S. immigration policies and the country's approach to trade -- both flash points under ... Donald Trump -- as well as disputes over climate change.... The White House summit marked a return to the tradition of the three-way meetings after a four-year hiatus under Trump, who had a contentious relationship with [Canadian PM Justin] Trudeau and former Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto." The New York Times story, which as of 1:30 am ET didn't make the front page, is here. The AP report is here.

John Wagner & Cleve Wootson of the Washington Post: "President Biden said Thursday that his administration is 'considering' a diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympics in China, a move that would allow U.S. athletes to compete but keep government officials from attending the Games in Beijing to protest China's human rights abuses. Democratic and Republican lawmakers, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), have advocated for such a boycott." An AP story is here.

McCarthy "Filibusters" BBB Vote with a Lie-a-thon. Tony Romm, et al., of the Washington Post: "House Democrats plan to vote Friday on a sprawling, more than $2 trillion package to overhaul the country's health care, education, climate, immigration and tax laws, pushing back their initial plans after Republicans mobilized to briefly obstruct a central piece of President Biden's economic agenda. Democrats began Thursday hoping to hold a swift vote on the signature spending initiative, putting an end to months of intense, internal wrangling among their own liberal and moderate ranks.... But ... House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) took to the chamber floor beginning in the evening ... [and] embarked on a form of filibuster, using the unlimited time available to House leaders ahead of votes to rail on the roughly $2 trillion bill. McCarthy's winding speech attacked Democrats over a broad range of issues, including border security and Afghanistan policy, and repeatedly mischaracterized their exact spending ambitions. The GOP leader's ongoing remarks often drew jeers and laughs from Democrats...." This is an update of a story linked Thursday. ~~~

     ~~~ Update: According to CNN, Kevin's lie-a-thon ran for 8 hours & 32 minutes, the longest in House history. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The New York Times story, which sports a misleading headline -- "Social Policy Bill Will Add to Deficit, C.B.O. Says; Democrats Delay Vote" -- is here. The AP's report is here. ~~~

~~~ For those of you who are saddened you didn't stay up all night for Kevin McCarthy's lie-a-thon, Matt Fuller and Ursula Perano of the Daily Beast, via Yahoo! News, report the, uh, highlights: McCarthy "delivered a stemwinder of half-truths, outright lies, aggrieved arguments, unrelated tangents, and recycled rhetoric.... When McCarthy baselessly claimed the bill would cost $5 trillion, Democrats started yelling out increasingly large numbers. '$6 trillion!' one shouted, before another topped him with '$7 trillion!' -- with more Democrats joining in with even more farcical projections. When McCarthy said, 'If I sound angry, I am,' Democrats chimed in with a prolonged 'awww' sound...." ~~~

     (~~~ Marie: BTW, I did stay up much of the night, but I didn't listen to Kevin's speech. Instead, I kept going outside in the rain (because I'm not all that smart) to try to see the eclipse of the moon. Finally, the skies cleared enough at about 4 am for me to see the eclipse. Luckily, it was the longest eclipse in 580 years, because I would not have wanted to wait another 600 or so years to see an eclipse in inclement weather.) ~~~

~~~ Sarah Ewell-Wice & Melissa Quinn of CBS News: "The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office on Thursday released its much anticipated cost estimate of President Biden's signature social spending plan, Build Back Better. The analysis -- commonly referred to as the CBO score -- said passage of the legislation would increase the deficit by more than $367 billion over 10 years. But the estimate does not include the revenue that could be generated from increasing IRS enforcement.... Over the past several weeks, the Congressional Budget Office had been releasing estimates on individual components of the Build Back Better Act, but the section dealing directly with how much money the legislation would raise as well as its total cost was not released until Thursday. On Wednesday, the CBO estimated the legislation would include $1.63 trillion in spending. At the same time, changes to the tax code and other provisions would generate more than $1.26 trillion in revenue. The Congressional Budget Office said increased IRS enforcement would add another $207 billion in revenue." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I read the whole article, and it looks to me as if -- based on the numbers CBS News reports -- there's a shortfall of $163 billion, not $367 billion, when you include CBO's estimated enhanced enforcement revenue. Sixteen billion a year is chump-change for the federal government & therefore effectively meaningless in an estimate that covers a decade. ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Paul Waldman of the Washington Post agrees with me (in principle but not exactly with my arithmetic): "... the CBO score looks quite good for the BBB. It found that the bill will increase the deficit, but within a margin that should permit an important principle to kick in: While we should take the CBO's analysis into account, we should also remember that there's always a good bit of uncertainty in its projections.... On top of this, many people think CBO's figure on the cost savings from tax enforcement is a drastic underestimate.... We can't know for sure [who's right], which points to the reason it's foolish to act as though the CBO's predictions are necessarily the correct ones."

David Smith of the Guardian: "... Republicans in Washington ... dusted off the 'red scare' playbook to portray Joe Biden's choice to run one of the agencies that oversees the banking industry as a dangerous communist. Saule Omarova, 55, was nominated in September to be America's next comptroller of the currency. If confirmed, she would be the first woman and person of colour in the role in its 158-year-history. Omarova was born in Kazakhstan when it was part of the Soviet Union and moved to the US in 1991.... Questioning whether Omarova was still a member of communist youth organisations, [Sen. John] Kennedy [R-La.] said: 'I don't mean any disrespect: I don't know whether to call you professor or comrade.' The remark prompted gasps in the hearing room on Capitol Hill. [After rebutting Kennedy's charactertization of her political views,] Omarova ... told how her family suffered under the communist regime.... 'Taken in totality, her ideas do amount to a socialist manifesto for American financial services,' [Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.)] said. ~~~

"... the Democratic chairman of the committee, Sherrod Brown of Ohio..., said: 'Senate Republicans have a formula. Start with a passing and inaccurate reference to her academic work, distort the substance beyond recognition, mix in words -- Marx, Lenin, communism. End with insinuations about Professor Omarova loyalties to her chosen country. That's how Republicans turn a qualified woman into a Marxist boogeyman ... Now we know what happens when Trumpism meets McCarthyism.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Somehow I think Sen. Foghorn T. Leghorn (R-La.) did "mean disrespect" when he used a public Senate hearing to imply Omarova was a Communist. (I am not, BTW, the first person to equate Sen. Kennedy with the cartoon rooster. In 2019, Tim Morris of the New Orleans Times-Picayune assembled a series of statements in the form of a quiz, asking readers to choose who made each remark, Leghorn or Kennedy. I could not access any but the first question, but maybe you can.)

Felicia Sonmez & Eugene Scott of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump and House Republicans rallied behind Rep. Paul A. Gosar (R-Ariz.) Thursday, a day after he was censured for posting an altered anime video of himself killing a colleague, endorsing his reelection and signaling he would be given better committee assignments if Republicans win control of the House in 2022. Trump praised Gosar, who earlier this year appeared at an event whose organizer has defended racial segregation and minimized the Holocaust, as 'a loyal supporter of our America First agenda, and even more importantly, the USA.'... Earlier in the day, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said that he would likely give Gosar and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) better committee assignments if the GOP wins the majority next year, dismissing the lawmakers' embrace of violent rhetoric and imagery against Democrats." MB: Very touching. See also the second story linked on the civil suit brought against other white supremacists who attacked counter-demonstrators in Charlottesville, Va. There's a connection. ~~~

~~~ Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post: "Listen to political scientists, pollsters and well-meaning elected officials, and you'll likely hear a lot of chatter about 'polarization.'... The polarization argument too often treats both sides as equally worthy of blame, characterizing the problem as a sort of free-floating affliction (e.g., 'lack of trust'). This blurs the distinction between a Democratic Party that is marginally more progressive in policy positions than it was a decade ago, and a Republican Party that routinely lies, courts violence and seeks to define America as a White Christian nation." Read on: Rubin makes her case.

All in the Family. Joaquin Sapien & Joshua Kaplan of ProPublica: "Kimberly Guilfoyle, a top fundraiser for ... Donald Trump and the girlfriend of his son Donald Trump Jr., boasted to a GOP operative that she had raised $3 million for the rally that helped fuel the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. In a series of text messages sent on Jan. 4 to Katrina Pierson, the White House liaison to the event, Guilfoyle detailed her fundraising efforts and supported a push to get far-right speakers on the stage alongside Trump for the rally, which sought to overturn the election of President Joe Biden. Guilfoyle's texts, reviewed by ProPublica, represent the strongest indication yet that members of the Trump family circle were directly involved in the financing and organization of the rally.... Guilfoyle's attorney, Joe Tacopina, denied that Guilfoyle had anything to do with fundraising or approving speakers.... He threatened to 'aggressively pursue all legal remedies available' against ProPublica." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Sorry, Joe, unless ProPublica invented the emails they cite (and they almost certainly did not as ProPublica is a reputable news org), you don't have much in the way of "legal remedies" against them.

Trump Inspired Every Known Case of 2020 Presidential Election Voter Fraud. Dennis Aftergut in the (right-wing/anti-Trump) Bulwark: "On Tuesday, Donald Kirk Hartle, the CFO of a Nevada company that hosted a September 2020 rally for Donald Trump, pleaded guilty to voting twice in last November's election, including once in his dead wife's name. Hartle is just the latest in a string of apparent Trump supporters who committed voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election. This pattern is a warning of the lawlessness among Trump's followers that could engulf us all.... Last November, before it was discovered that he was the culprit, [Hartle] feigned 'disbelief' that someone would steal and submit his dead wife's ballot.... A review of [a Heritage Foundation] database reveals an astonishing fact: In every listed indictment and conviction for voter fraud or other malfeasance in connection with the 2020 presidential general election, when the culprit's political affiliation is known he or she turns out to be a Republican or 'unabashed conservative.'... There appears to have been a bit of an epidemic of Republican dead mothers voting.... A breakdown of the constraints of law occurred under the bombarding messages of Donald Trump and his enablers. Among Trump's followers, the end -- one party under Trump -- apparently justifies the means of breaking the law to vote for him twice." (The Heritage Foundation is also a right-wing outfit.)

Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "Two Iranian men were indicted by the U.S. Justice Department on Thursday, accused of a brazen hacking and disinformation campaign that targeted American voters in the run-up to the 2020 U.S. presidential election. Seyyed Kazemi, 24, and Sajjad Kashian, 27, allegedly sent threatening emails to try to scare voters, attempted to break into several states' voting-related websites and gained access to a U.S. media company's computer network. Officials say the pair emailed thousands of voters in October, including many Democrats. They allegedly claimed to be Proud Boys and threatened the email recipients with physical attacks if they did not change party affiliation and vote for ... Donald Trump. The emails seemed to target primarily voters in Florida and Alaska, officials said at the time. The same illicit effort also pushed a video through Facebook, Twitter and YouTube that claimed to show someone hacking into voter websites to create falsified overseas and absentee ballots, according to the indictment." The NBC News story is here.

Eric Schmitt & Ronen Bergman of the New York Times: "An armed drone strike last month on an American military base in southern Syria was Iranian retaliation for Israeli airstrikes in Syria, according to eight American and Israeli officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters. The drone attack, which caused no casualties, would be the first time Iran has directed a military strike against the United States in response to an attack by Israel, an escalation of Iran's shadow war with Israel that poses new dangers to U.S. forces in the Middle East. Five so-called suicide drones were launched at the American base at Al Tanf on Oct. 20 in what the U.S. Central Command called a 'deliberate and coordinated' attack. Only two detonated on impact, but they were loaded with ball bearings and shrapnel with a 'clear intent to kill,' a senior U.S. military official said."

Judges Sick of First Amendment Press Rights

Michael Grynbaum of the New York Times: "A New York trial court judge ordered The New York Times on Thursday to temporarily refrain from publishing or seeking out certain documents related to the conservative group Project Veritas, an unusual instance of a court blocking coverage by a major news organization. The order raised immediate concerns among First Amendment advocates, who called it a violation of basic constitutional protections for journalists, a viewpoint echoed by The Times.... The judge's order is part of a pending libel lawsuit filed by Project Veritas against The Times in 2020.... The Times planned to immediately oppose [the order] in an appellate court."

AP: "The judge at Kyle Rittenhouse's murder trial banned MSNBC from the courthouse Thursday after police said they briefly detained a man who had followed the jury bus and may have tried to photograph jurors. Judge Bruce Schroeder said the man had claimed to be working for MSNBC. The judge said he was stopped because he was following the bus from about a block behind and went through a red light. NBC News said in a statement that he was a freelancer who received a citation for a traffic violation that took place near the jury vehicle, and he 'never contacted or intended to contact the jurors during deliberations, and never photographed or intended to photograph them.' The network said it regretted the incident and would fully cooperate with an investigation." Moreon happenings around the Kenosha courthouse linked below.

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.

** NEW. Sharon LaFraniere & Noah Weiland of the New York Times: "The Food and Drug Administration on Friday authorized booster shots of both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines for everyone 18 and older, opening up eligibility to tens of millions more fully vaccinated adults.... Dr. Anthony S. Fauci ... has argued relentlessly over the past month for booster shots for all adults, a position shared by most of [President] Biden's other health advisers. Dr. Fauci has said that a dip in antibody levels in fully vaccinated people was a clear sign that booster shots were needed.... If the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention agrees, all adults who received a second shot of either Pfizer or Moderna at least six months ago will likely be eligible for a booster shot by the weekend. A meeting of the agency's outside advisers is scheduled for Friday." The Washington Post story is free to nonsubscribers.

Joel Achenbach of the Washington Post: "The location of early coronavirus infections in late 2019 in Wuhan, China, suggests the virus probably spread to humans from a market where wild and domestically farmed animals were sold and butchered, according to a peer-reviewed article published Thursday in the journal Science that is the latest salvo in the debate over how the pandemic began. The article, by University of Arizona evolutionary virologist Michael Worobey -- a specialist in the origins of viral epidemics -- does not purport to answer all questions about the pandemic's origins, nor is it likely to quell speculation that the virus might have emerged somehow from risky laboratory research. Worobey has been open to the theory of a lab leak. He was one of the 18 scientists who wrote a much-publicized letter to Science in May calling for an investigation of all possible sources of the virus, including a laboratory accident. But he now contends that the geographic pattern of early cases strongly supports the hypothesis that the virus came from an infected animal at the Huanan Seafood Market...." ~~~

     ~~~ A New York Times story is here. MB: And I don't suppose you'll be reading any of this in Right-Wing World News of the Week, where the virus is a Chinese plot to destroy America.

Beyond the Beltway

New Jersey. Michael Wilson of the New York Times: "The disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa, a mystery that has gripped the American imagination for half a century on its ascent to national folklore, is the subject of a new F.B.I. investigation centered on the site of a former landfill in Jersey City. A worker, on his deathbed, said he buried the body underground in a steel drum. F.B.I. agents armed with a search warrant arrived in Jersey City at a plot of dirt and gravel the size of a Little League diamond below the Pulaski Skyway on Oct. 25 and 26 to conduct a 'site survey,' according to the Detroit field office, which has led the investigation into Mr. Hoffa's disappearance in 1975. The steel drum is said to be buried about 15 feet below ground...."

New York. Shayna Jacobs of the Washington Post: "A judge dismissed the convictions of two of the three men found guilty of killing Malcolm X, after Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. acknowledged deep flaws in the decades-old prosecution and said 'it was clear these men did not receive a fair trial.' With 83-year-old Muhammad A. Aziz sitting at the next table in New York Supreme Court Justice Ellen Biben's courtroom, Vance said the convictions of him and the late Khalil Islam -- both of whom served 20 years in prison -- were 'wrongful' and asked for them to be vacated. He said there was no way to retry the legendary murder case with most witnesses dead and with major pieces of evidence missing from the record. Vance's office joined attorneys for Aziz and Islam's family in filing the motion seeking to overturn the first-degree murder convictions." The AP report is here.

Oklahoma. Michael Levenson, et al., of the New York Times: "Gov. Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma called off the execution of a death-row inmate just hours before the man was scheduled to die by lethal injection on Thursday, culminating an extraordinary campaign for clemency that drew in celebrities, his fellow conservatives and Christian leaders. Mr. Stitt, a Republican and death-penalty supporter, announced that, after 'prayerful consideration,' he had reduced the death sentence for the inmate, Julius Jones, 41, who was convicted of first-degree murder in 2002, to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Mr. Jones and his supporters insisted he was not guilty, and a state board voted twice to recommend that he be made eligible for parole." MB: Whether or not Stitt thinks he got a message from God, he did the right thing. This doesn't happen to Republicans very often, so we can all say Hallelujah!

Virginia. Ellie Silverman of the Washington Post: Jurors in the civil suit against white supremacists & hate groups heard closing arguments Thursday and are expected to begin deliberations Friday. ~~~

~~~ Ellie Silverman of the Washington Post: "The jury in a federal courtroom listened as a longtime researcher of far-right movements parsed the style guide of the infamous neo-Nazi website the Daily Stormer. 'The tone of the site should be light. Most people are not comfortable with material that comes across as vitriolic, raging, nonironic hatred. The unindoctrinated should not be able to tell if we are joking or not,' according to a guide section titled 'Lulz' — which stands for for 'laugh out loud.' Continuing with a derogatory term for Jews, it read, 'This is obviously a ploy and I actually do want to gas k---s. But that's neither here nor there.' This evidence, introduced in an ongoing civil trial against organizers of the deadly 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, appeared to highlight a sinister strategy expert witness Pete Simi was trying to teach the jurors: the ways in which white supremacists employ humor to shield their calls for violence, in an effort to render them legally ambiguous." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I don't have to tell you that this is exactly the advice Paul Gosar took when he "employed humor" to call for the murders of Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez & President Biden.

Wisconsin. Kyle Has the Sweetest Supporters. Tim Stelloh of NBC News: "A man seen carrying an AR-15 rifle outside the courthouse in Kenosha, Wisconsin, where a jury is deliberating in the double homicide trial of Kyle Rittenhouse, identified himself as a former police officer in Ferguson, Missouri.... [Jesse] Kline said he had traveled to Kenosha from Arizona, where he lives, to 'exercise my constitutional rights.'... After sheriff's deputies told Kline that he couldn't have the firearm because state law prohibits people from carrying guns within 1,000 feet of a school, the incident was resolved without further action...." Photos also captured him holding what appeared to be a sex toy [MB: which must be totally legal to brandish near a courthouse!].... Kline ... was fired [from the Ferguson police force] ... after he was accused of following an ex-girlfriend to another man's home and poking the man's chest with the barrel of his gun, NBC affiliate KSDK of St. Louis reported." The Chicago Tribune story, which is subscriber-firewalled, IDs Kline as "a man who screamed obscenities about Black Lives Matter ... outside the Kenosha County Courthouse...." So just a totally rational person.

Way Beyond

China, etc. Helen Davidson of the Guardian & Agencies: "The Women's Tennis Association is prepared to pull its tournaments out of China if there isn't an adequate response to Peng Shuai's allegation that she was sexually assaulted by China's former vice premier, chief executive Steve Simon has told US media. Peng, Chinese tennis star and former doubles world No.1, has not been seen in public since she accused the former high-ranking official, Zhang Gaoli, of sexual assault in a Weibo post that was deleted half an hour later. In the lengthy 2 November post, Peng alleged that Zhang had forced her into sex after inviting her to his house to play tennis with him and his wife three years ago. She also said she and Zhang had previously had an on-off consensual relationship.... Concern among the global tennis community and beyond has grown over Peng's safety and whereabouts since her allegation, with the WTA calling for an investigation and the world's top players tweeting #WhereIsPengShuai."