Afternoon Update:
Rachel Siegel, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Biden is closing in on a decision on who should run the Federal Reserve, and both Fed Chair Jerome H. Powell and Fed governor Lael Brainard, the only Democrat on the central bank's board, were spotted at the White House on Thursday, a person familiar with the matter confirmed Friday. The president has not made a decision but expects to soon, according to a source familiar with the process. It wasn't clear if Powell or Brainard met directly with the president. Powell's term as chair is up in February." A CNBC story is here. MB: Biden should consult Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen for her input. She is, of course, way too short to be the Fed chair herself, but I'd say she's tall enough to have a considered opinion.
Michael Schmidt, et al., of the New York Times: "The Justice Department searched two locations associated with the conservative group Project Veritas as part of an investigation into how a diary stolen from President Biden's daughter, Ashley, came to be publicly disclosed a week and a half before the 2020 presidential election, according to people briefed on the matter. Federal agents in New York conducted the court-ordered searches on Thursday -- one in New York City and one in suburban Westchester County -- at places linked to people who had worked with the group and its leader, James O'Keefe.... Project Veritas did not publish Ms. Biden's diary, but dozens of handwritten pages from it were posted on a right wing website on Oct. 24, 2020, at a time when ... Donald J. Trump was seeking to undermine Mr. Biden's credibility by portraying his son, Hunter, as engaging in corrupt business dealings. The posting was largely ignored by other conservative outlets and the mainstream media.... The Justice Department, then led by Attorney General William P. Barr, opened an investigation into the matter shortly after a representative of the Biden family reported to federal authorities in October 2020 that several of Ms. Biden's personal items had been stolen in a burglary...."
Betsy Swan & Kyle Cheney of Politico: "A top Trump Justice Department official who aided the former president's quest to overturn the 2020 election met Friday with congressional investigators probing the Jan. 6 Capitol attack -- accompanied by a lawyer who worked on a suit aimed at overturning the Georgia election results. And according to a letter from that lawyer reviewed by Politico, former DOJ official Jeffrey Clark is refusing to cooperate with the Jan. 6 select committee.... The letter is unusual and surprising; to make the case that Clark cannot testify to the Jan. 6 committee, it cites a separate letter in which Trump's lawyer specifically said the former president would not try to block Clark's congressional testimony. In the lengthy letter, Clark counsel Harry MacDougald cites attorney-client privilege -- among other things -- to justify his client's refusal to cooperate. But any such privilege lies with the client to assert, and even if Trump were Clark's client under these circumstances, the former president has already declined to block Clark's testimony.... MacDougald [is] an Atlanta lawyer who partnered with conspiracy theorist Sidney Powell to challenge the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia." MB: "Uh, I can't testify because Trump said I could testify." I think what Clark means to say is, "I hereby invoke my Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination."
Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "Since the spring, a steady tide of school board members across the country have nervously come forward with accounts of threats they have received from enraged local parents. At first, the grievances mainly centered on concerns about the way their children were being taught about race and racism. Now, parents are more often infuriated by Covid-19 restrictions like mask mandates in classrooms. It is an echo of what happened when those faithful to the Tea Party stormed Obamacare town halls across the country more than a decade ago. In recent months, there have been Nazi salutes at school board meetings and emails threatening rape. Obscenities have been hurled -- or burned into people's lawns with weed spray. n one extreme case, in suburban San Diego, a group of people protesting mask mandates ... summarily installed themselves as the district's new board." ~~~
~~~ Marie: As long as there's a cooperative police presence, it's not that hard to control a school board meeting. The cops eject attendees who won't observe "regular order." As to what the vicious bastids may do in the shadows, that's a whole 'nother thing.
New York City. Ed Shanahan of the New York Times: "Rodents are among New York's permanent features. But across the city, one hears the same thing: They are running amok like never before." The cause, according to some experts, is a "perfect-pandemic-storm scenario." ~~~
~~~ Marie: For a short time in 1999-2000, we had a small second-storey apartment in the Mews behind Washington Square North. Back in the day, it was servants' quarters for the posh people who lived on the Square. When we had the apartment, NYU owned it, and the super worked & resided in an NYU-owned apartment complex cobbled together from a few of the townhouses on the Square. I had come to know where to find the super, as our toilet would occasionally act up, sometimes running continuously and sometimes trying to overflow. One cold & icy February morning, I was sitting alone in the living room when I heard the toilet acting up again. I went in to see if a jiggle of the handle would fix it. It would not. The cause of the noise was not faulty plumbing but a rat swimming 'round and 'round in the toilet bowl. I slammed down the toilet seat, slammed shut the bathroom door, and in a feet-don't-fail-me-now comedic moment, I raced down the stairs and around the corner -- barefoot on the icy pavement -- to get the super. He brought along an entourage of helpers, and one way or the other, they extracted the uninvited swimmer from our quarters.
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Reid Epstein, et al., of the New York Times: "The Justice Department on Thursday sued Texas over the state's new voting law, arguing that the Republican-led measure would disenfranchise Texans who do not speak English, people with disabilities, older voters and those who live outside the United States. The department argues that the law violates the Voting Rights Act by limiting the help that poll workers can provide to voters. It also contends that the law runs afoul of the Civil Rights Act by requiring mail-in ballots to be thrown out if they fail to include a voter's current driver's license number, an election identification number or part of a Social Security number." An ABC News report is here. The DOJ's statement is here.
Quit Squawking. Build Back Better Will Pay for Itself. Sarah Ewall-Wice of CBS News: "Tax hikes on the wealthy and large corporations in the proposed [Build Back Better] social spending bill would rake in $1.48 trillion, the Joint Committee on Taxation estimated. Their analysis comes as Democrats are hitting the gas pedal on efforts to pass President Joe Biden's agenda, arguing the plan would be paid for. The White House framework of the Build Back Better Act puts the cost of the entire bill at $1.85 trillion. But that version of the proposal does not include paid leave or raising the cap on the state and local tax deduction -- known as SALT -- which were included in the House version of the bill which could be voted on this week.... The provisions included in the agenda to pay for it remain closely aligned.... House Speaker Nancy Pelosi pointed to the Joint Committee on Taxation estimates on Thursday, claiming it validates how the agenda is 'solidly' paid for. The Biden administration argues that the provisions to raise revenues in the Build Back Better Agenda will actually reduce the deficit. They estimate the money generated would total $2.15 trillion." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Moreover, as far as I can tell, the Joint Committee estimate doesn't include the likely higher wages -- and therefore higher taxes paid -- that may be garnered as a result of the advantages the bill gives to workers & workers-to-be. ~~~
I do believe in polite compromise, but it's past time for some of this.~~~ Emily Cochrane & Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "House Democrats are scrambling to line up the votes needed to push through a $1.85 trillion social safety net, climate and tax bill, as moderate Democrats, spooked by Tuesday's electoral drubbing, have raised concerns about the cost and details of the rapidly evolving plan. Late Thursday night, Democratic leaders postponed a vote on the measure to Friday, when they also hoped to clear a Senate-passed $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill for President Biden's signature. A senior aide who disclosed the update on the condition of anonymity said they were confident they could complete the measures by Friday."
Hansi Lo Wang of NPR: "The Senate has confirmed Robert Santos, President Biden's nominee to head the U.S. Census Bureau, for a historic political appointment. After a bipartisan 58-35 vote on Thursday, Santos, one of the country's leading statisticians, is on track to be sworn in as the first Latino to lead the federal government's largest statistical agency, which carries out key national surveys and the once-a-decade head count used to distribute political representation and federal funding around the United States."
Jordain Carney of the Hill: "emocrats are ramping up their discussions about changing the Senate's rules amid growing frustration about the inability to move voting rights legislation. After months of trying to give space for bipartisan discussions on election legislation, Democrats are planning internal talks about what, if any, rules changes they'll be able to get through on their own. Those ideas include smaller shifts on nominations or amendments. But altering the filibuster -- particularly when it comes to elections bills -- is getting the most attention. A group of Democratic senators have been tasked with leading the talks and feeling out their colleagues on how to 'restore' the Senate.... [Majority Leader Chuck] Schumer said multiple times this week that Democrats are exploring 'alternate paths' to how to pass voting rights legislation without needing the 10 GOP votes required to break a filibuster.... Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), who is a close ally of President Biden<, became the latest senator this week to back nixing the filibuster for voting rights."
Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "A federal judge on Thursday expressed skepticism about Donald J. Trump's attempt to block from release a wide range of documents related to the Capitol riot, signaling that she might be open to allowing a congressional committee scrutinizing the violence to pore over hundreds of files that the former president wants to keep secret. At a hearing by video conference, Judge Tanya S. Chutkan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia repeatedly asked pointed questions about the legal basis for Mr. Trump's claim that at least 770 pages of documents related to the mob attack must be shielded by executive privilege. 'The Jan. 6 riot happened in the Capitol,' Judge Chutkan told Mr. Trump's lawyer, Justin Clark. 'That is literally Congress's house.' Still, the judge also suggested that the House select committee ... might have overreached, referring to its demand for documents -- which potentially amounts to millions of pages -- as 'very broad' and, at one point, 'alarmingly broad.'" ~~~
~~~ Kyle Cheney of Politico: District Court Judge Tanya “Chutkan repeatedly seemed incredulous at Trump's legal effort to block Congress from obtaining the documents, noting that this is a rare case in which Congress and the current White House are in 'harmony' about the decision to release them. And Trump, she said, as a former president, has no authority over either branch of government.... 'There is only one executive,' said ... Chutkan...."
Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Congressional investigators probing the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol are examining the contacts between one of the rioters who breached the Capitol and state-level GOP officials who worked with ... Donald Trump as he attempted to overturn the 2020 election. The rioter, who interviewed with the committee twice in the past week, described knowledge of contacts between GOP officials in a key state Trump lost and allies of the former president in the weeks leading up to the Jan. 6 attack. The person interviewed ... discussed those contacts in a voluntary interview with congressional investigators."
Rachel Weiner of the Washington Post: "A Texas real estate agent who bragged after Jan. 6 that as a blonde White woman she would not be going to jail for joining in the assault on the U.S. Capitol by a pro-Trump mob was sentenced Thursday to two months of incarceration. It was one of the harshest penalties imposed to date on a participant in events at the Capitol who was found guilty only of a petty offense. 'For better or worse, you've become one of the faces of January 6,' U.S. District Judge Christopher R. Cooper of D.C. told Jenna Ryan, 50. She gained national attention by defending her conduct at the Capitol in media interviews and on Twitter. Because of that notoriety, Cooper said, people would look to her sentence as evidence of 'how our country responded to what happened.' He continued, 'I think the sentence should tell them that we take it seriously, that it was an assault on our democracy....'" The Huffington Post's story is here. ~~~
~~~ Marie: Ryan's impending incarceration raises a lot of questions. Like, "Do orange jump suits clash too much with white skin?" and "Can you get your hair highlighted in jail?"
Paulina Villegas of the Washington Post: "The Federal Aviation Administration announced Thursday that it has referred the cases of more than three dozen unruly passengers to the FBI for potential criminal prosecution in hopes of curbing a sharp uptick in people acting violently on planes this year. 'Let this serve both as a warning and a deterrent: If you disrupt a flight, you risk not just fines from the FAA but federal criminal prosecution as well,' FAA Administrator Stephen Dickson said Thursday in a news release. In August, the FAA and the Justice Department began developing an information-sharing protocol to refer the most serious cases to the FBI for further review and faster prosecution, the agencies said in a joint statement.... Now, all incidents are subject to a fine of up to $37,000 for each federal violation. The FAA reported 5,033 incidents of unruly passengers as of November during this year, 3,642 of which were related to mask-wearing. From the total number of incidents, the FAA initiated 950 investigations, a sixfold increase from last year." ~~~
~~~ Marie: I'm all for throwing the book at these belligerent nitwits, but it's a huge shame that many of the Trumpbots who, with premeditation (or premedication! as I am wont to spell), injured police officers, threatened the lives of top political leaders and tried to overthrow a presidential election will pay a lesser price for their crimes.
The Mysterious Case of the Missing Whisky. Karen Young of the Washington Post: "The State Department has investigated, and the $5,800 bottle of Japanese whisky is still missing, along with a gold coin and assorted trinkets the Trump administration had prepared as gifts for a G-7 summit that never happened. To recap: When the Biden administration took over the State Department last January, it found a number of items missing from the vault where foreign gifts to U.S. government officials are stored -- including a bottle of Suntory Hibiki 30-year-old whisky given to then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo by the government of Japan in 2019. Pompeo, through his lawyer, has previously said he never received the whisky and denied any knowledge of the gift.... The OIG made no reference to media reports that Trump officials had walked off with the swag bags, purchased by the U.S. government and valued at $680 each.... The OIG investigation began, the report said, after 'the political appointees that formerly led' the office under ... Donald Trump 'resigned on January 20, 2021, and career officials assumed acting leadership.' On that day, the new team 'entered the gift vault ... and found it in a state of disarray.'"
Adam Goldman & Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "An analyst who was a key contributor to Democratic-funded opposition research into possible links between Donald J. Trump and Russia was arrested on Thursday and charged with lying to the F.B.I. about his sources. The analyst, Igor Danchenko, was a primary researcher for claims that went into the so-called Steele dossier, a compendium of rumors and unproven assertions suggesting that Mr. Trump and his 2016 campaign were compromised by and conspiring with Russian intelligence officials to help him defeat Hillary Clinton. In a 39-page indictment obtained by the special counsel, John H. Durham, a grand jury accused Mr. Danchenko of five counts of making false statements to the F.B.I. about his sources for certain claims in the dossier." Politico's story is here. ~~~
~~~ Marisa Sarnoff of Law & Crime summarizes what-all the indictment alleges Igor Danchenko lied about to FBI agents. Includes copy of the indictment.
Shayna Jacobs, et al., of the Washington Post: "The Manhattan district attorney has convened a second long-term grand jury to hear evidence about the Trump Organization's financial practices and potentially to vote on criminal charges, according to people with knowledge of the matter.... One person ... said the second grand jury was expected to examine how ... Donald Trump's company valued its assets."
Devan Cole & Tierney Sneed of CNN: "Allies of ... Donald Trump testified under oath that they had done little to verify debunked claims of fraud in the 2020 election before spreading them on the national stage, according to tapes of their depositions obtained exclusively by CNN. The new footage of sworn testimony from Trump attorneys Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell animates the behind-the-scenes movements of the two in their effort to sow doubt about the integrity of the presidential election results. The video details responses from the Trump allies as a lawyer representing former Dominion Voting Systems executive Eric Coomer in his defamation case against them peppers them with questions about their allegations.... 'It's not my job, in a fast-moving case, to go out and investigate every piece of evidence that was given to me. Otherwise, you're never going to ... come to a conclusion,' [Giuliani testified]." MB: Giuliani doesn't understand the definition of "evidence." He gets it confused with "unsubstantiated allegation" & "zany conspiracy theory."
Brad Plumer & Lisa Friedman of the New York Times: "More than 40 countries pledged to phase out coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel, in a deal announced Thursday at the United Nations climate summit that prompted Alok Sharma, the head of the conference, to proclaim 'the end of coal is in sight.' But several of the biggest coal consumers were notably absent from the accord, including China and India, which together burn roughly two-thirds of the world's coal, as well as Australia, the world's 11th-biggest user of coal and a major exporter. The United States, which still generates about one-fifth of its electricity from coal, also did not sign the pledge."
The Pandemic, Ctd.
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Friday are here: "Pfizer announced on Friday that its pill to treat Covid-19 had been found in a key clinical trial to be highly effective at preventing severe illness among at-risk people who received the drug soon after they exhibited symptoms. The antiviral pill is the second of its kind to demonstrate efficacy against Covid. It appears to be more effective than a similar offering from Merck, which is awaiting federal authorization. Pfizer's pill, which will be sold under the brand name Paxlovid, cut the risk of hospitalization or death by 89 percent when given within three days of the start of symptoms." See also WashPo full story, linked below. ~~~
~~~ The Washington Post's live Covid-19 updates for Friday are here.
Carolyn Johnson of the Washington Post: "An experimental coronavirus pill reduced the risk of hospitalization and death by 89 percent in high-risk people infected with the virus, pharmaceutical giant Pfizer announced Friday. The effect of the drug, a five-day regimen designed to block the virus from making copies of itself, was found to be so strong midway through the study that an independent committee monitoring the clinical trial recommended it be stopped early. The data has not yet been published or peer-reviewed, but Pfizer said in a news release that it would submit the data to regulators 'as soon as possible.'"
Lauren Hirsch of the New York Times: "The Biden administration on Thursday set Jan. 4 as the deadline for large companies to mandate coronavirus vaccinations or start weekly testing of their workers, the government's biggest effort yet to enlist private businesses in combating the virus. The new rule, applying to companies with 100 or more employees, is expected to cover 84 million workers, roughly 31 million of whom are unvaccinated. It lays out details of a plan President Biden announced in September, invoking emergency powers over workplace safety. In a separate measure that will affect 17 million more workers, nursing homes and other health care facilities that receive Medicare and Medicaid funds must ensure all employees are vaccinated by Jan. 4, with no option for testing." ~~~
~~~ Andrew DeMillo & Geoff Mulvihill of the AP: "Republican state officials reacted with swift rebukes Thursday to President Joe Biden's newly detailed mandate for private employers to require workers to be vaccinated against COVID-19, threatening a wave of lawsuits and other actions to thwart a requirement they see as a stark example of government overreach. At least two conservative groups moved quickly to file lawsuits against the workplace safety mandate, and a growing roster of GOP governors and attorneys general said more lawsuits were on the way as soon as Friday. Some Republican-led states had already passed laws or executive orders intended to protect employers that may not want to comply."
Nomaan Merchant of the AP: "Thousands of intelligence officers could soon face dismissal for failing to comply with the U.S. government's vaccine mandate, leading some Republican lawmakers to raise concerns about removing employees from agencies critical to national security. Several intelligence agencies had at least 20% of their workforce unvaccinated as of late October, said U.S. Rep. Chris Stewart, a Utah Republican who is a member of the House Intelligence Committee. Some agencies in the 18-member intelligence community had as much as 40% of their workforce unvaccinated, Stewart said, citing information the administration has provided to the committee but not released publicly. He declined to identify the agencies because full information on vaccination rates was classified.... Intelligence officers are particularly hard to replace due to the highly specialized work they do and the difficulties of completing security clearance checks."
Chris Hamby of the New York Times: "The federal government has canceled its contract with a troubled Covid-19 vaccine manufacturer that ruined millions of doses and had to halt production for months after regulators raised serious quality concerns. The decision marks a stark reversal of fortune for the politically connected contractor, Maryland-based Emergent BioSolutions, and an abandonment by the government of a deal that was supposed to be a centerpiece of Operation Warp Speed."
Beyond the Beltway
Arizona Governors Race. Em Steck & Andrew Kaczynski of CNN: "Kari Lake, the Arizona gubernatorial candidate recently endorsed by former President Donald Trump, has embraced fringe far-right figures in her campaign events, including publicly thanking a Nazi sympathizer for his support and appearing with figures linked to the QAnon conspiracy.... At a campaign event in late August, Lake posed for a photo and video with far-right personalities Ethan Schmidt-Crockett, the founder of the AntiMaskersClub, who harassed a store specializing in wigs for cancer patients this summer because it required customers to wear masks, and Greyson Arnold, a Nazi sympathizer who has a history of making White nationalist, racist, antisemitic and pro-Nazi statements, including once calling Adolf Hitler 'a complicated historical figure which many people misunderstand.'... Lake became an early favorite in the GOP primary by embracing the once-fringe extremism now mainstream within the Republican Party, including promoting election lies, doubling down against mask and vaccine mandates, and calling for the imprisonment of Democratic Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, who is also running for governor."
Arizona. Baxter Holmes of ESPN: "Interviews with more than 70 former and current [Phoenix] Suns [professional basketball organization] employees throughout [majority owner Robert] Sarver's 17-year tenure describe a toxic and sometimes hostile workplace under Sarver. Some told ESPN that he has used racially insensitive language repeatedly in the office. Employees recounted conduct they felt was inappropriate and misogynistic, including Sarver once passing around a picture of his wife in a bikini to employees and speaking about times his wife performed oral sex on him. Some said the longtime owner fostered an environment in which employees felt they were his property, even once asking one woman whether he 'owned' her to determine whether she worked for the Suns. 'The level of misogyny and racism is beyond the pale,' one Suns co-owner said about Sarver." MB: Unless those interviewed are making up stuff, it appears Sarver routinely uses the N-word even though, in case he didn't know better, he's been told not to do so.
Georgia. The Batson Challenge. Richard Fausset & Tariro Mzezewa of the New York Times: "Even as he approved the selection of a nearly all-white jury this week to hear the murder case against three white men accused of killing Ahmaud Arbery, a Georgia judge declared that there was an appearance of 'intentional discrimination' at play. But Judge Timothy R. Walmsley of Glynn County Superior Court also said that defense lawyers had presented legitimate reasons unrelated to race to justify unseating eight Black potential jurors.... What may have seemed like convoluted logic to non-lawyers was actually the judge's scrupulous adherence to a 35-year-old Supreme Court decision that was meant to remove racial bias from the jury selection process -- but has come to be considered a failure by many legal scholars."
New Jersey State Senate Election. Nick Corasaniti & Tracey Tully of the New York Times: "For nearly a decade, Stephen M. Sweeney, the second most powerful lawmaker in New Jersey, seemed truly unassailable. He boasted deep ties to the most feared political power broker in the state and unyielding support from the influential building trade unions. Four years ago, the state's teachers' union spent more than $5 million to unseat him. He won by 18 points. This year, his challenger was Edward Durr, a truck driver for Raymour & Flanigan, a furniture chain, who had never before held office. His campaign video was shot on a smartphone. Yet Mr. Sweeney, the State Senate president and a Democrat, was ousted in a shocking political upset by Mr. Durr, a Republican.... Mr. Sweeney's loss amounts to a seismic restructuring of political power and influence, leaving a substantial vacuum in the State Legislature; he had held the post of senate president, with the ability to set the legislative agenda, for nearly 12 years." ~~~
~~~ Felicia Sonmez of the Washington Post: "Hours after the race was called in his favor, [Edward] Durr faced calls to resign over past social media posts in which he denigrated Muslims, described Islam as 'a false religion' and played down the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob.... '... Mr. Durr should either renounce his hate-filled statements or resign from office,' the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said in a statement."
Wisconsin. Timothy Bella & Mark Berman of the Washington Post: "A juror in the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse was dismissed Thursday after making a joke to a police deputy about the 2020 shooting of Jacob Blake, which set off protests in the Wisconsin city where the teen is accused of shooting three people. Kenosha County Circuit Judge Bruce Schroeder said in court that the incident occurred when the White male juror was being escorted to his car earlier this week. Prosecutors said the joke the juror made about the number of shots fired at Blake -- a Black man who was shot by a White police officer in Kenosha, Wis., and left partially paralyzed -- showed racial bias."
News Lede
New York Times: "The American economy added 531,000 jobs in October, the Labor Department said Friday, a sharp rebound from the previous month and a sign that employers are feeling more optimistic as the latest coronavirus surge eases. Economists polled by Bloomberg had been looking for a gain of 450,000 jobs. The unemployment rate declined to 4.6 percent, from 4.8 percent. The October gain was an improvement from the 312,000 positions added in September -- a number that was revised upward on Friday, along with the August figure, providing a more upbeat picture of the last few months.' CNBC's report is here.
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