October 29, 2021

Afternoon Update:

Maegan Vazquez of CNN: "President Joe Biden on Friday admitted that his administration was 'clumsy' in its handling of the deal that deprived France of billions in defense contracts. The comment came during of a closely watched meeting with his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, in Rome, meant to repair fractured ties after a rift over an agreement to provide Australia with submarines[.] 'I was under the impression that France had been informed long before that the deal was not going through, honest to God,' Biden said on Friday, sitting alongside Macron in the French Embassy to the Holy See."

Josh Boak, et al., of the AP: "President Joe Biden said Pope Francis told him he should continue to receive Communion, as the world's two most prominent Roman Catholics ran overtime in highly personal discussions on climate change, poverty and the coronavirus pandemic that also touched on the loss of president's adult son and jokes about aging well.... Video released by the Vatican showed several warm, relaxed moments between Francis and Biden as they repeatedly shook hands and smiled. Francis often sports a dour look, especially in official photos, but he seemed in good spirits Friday. The private meeting lasted about 75 minutes, according to the Vatican, more than double the normal length of an audience with the pontiff[.]'

Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Sixty-six former lawmakers, including two dozen Republicans, have signed on to a legal brief urging a federal judge to reject ... Donald Trump's effort to block Jan. 6 investigators from accessing his White House's records. The brief, which is slated to hit the docket in the D.C. federal District Court on Friday, contends that no possible argument about executive privilege could overcome Congress' need for documents to probe the violent attack on the Capitol -- one fueled by Trump's false claim that the 2020 election was stolen.

Reid Epstein of the New York Times: "Representative Adam Kinzinger, who emerged this year as one of the pre-eminent Republican critics of ... Donald J. Trump, announced Friday that he would not seek re-election in 2022. Mr. Kinzinger's electoral fate was largely sealed late Thursday when Illinois Democrats, in an 11th-hour vote shortly before midnight, adopted a new congressional map that eliminated the Republican-majority district Mr. Kinzinger represented for the last decade.... He announced his departure from Congress in a five-minute video in which he reiterated his opposition to Mr. Trump's influence on the Republican Party and reflected on his first congressional victory during the 2010 Tea Party wave." The AP's report is here.

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The New York Times is liveblogging (in its slow, methodical way) President Biden's activities in Europe: "With his domestic agenda in limbo and tensions with China and Russia smoldering in the backdrop, President Biden kicked off a whirlwind international tour on Friday in Rome, where he is meeting with Pope Francis to discuss global challenges like the pandemic and climate change. Mr. Biden, who is usually tardy to meetings, pulled up to the Vatican at noon on the dot. A minute after he and Jill Biden, the first lady, arrived in the presidential limousine, the president shook hands with Vatican officials before being taken inside to meet with Francis." ~~~

~~~ Chico Harlan & Seung Min Kim of the Washington Post: "For the first time during his administration, President Biden is meeting with Pope Francis on Friday, bringing together the world';s two most powerful Catholics, who share plenty of common ground and are contending with similar adversaries and polarization within the church.... Later Friday, Biden is scheduled to meet with French President Emmanuel Macron, their first in-person encounter since the U.S. role in a thwarted submarine deal incensed the French government."

Lisa Mascaro, et al., of the AP: "President Joe Biden declared Thursday he has reached a 'historic economic framework' with Democrats in Congress on his sweeping domestic policy package, a hard-fought yet dramatically scaled-back deal announced hours before he departs for overseas summits. Biden's remarks at the White House came after he traveled to Capitol Hill to make the case to House Democrats for the still robust domestic package -- $1.75 trillion of social services and climate change programs the White House believes can pass the 50-50 Senate.... At least one pivotal holdout, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., struck a similar tone: 'I look forward to getting this done.' However, another holdout, Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., was less committal: 'This is all in the hands of the House right now.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Kate Sullivan of CNN: "The $1.75 trillion proposal focuses on care for families, addressing the climate crisis, expanding access to health care, lowering costs for the middle class and tax reforms.... The new plan makes major concessions and does not have several key planks that Biden had initially proposed, including paid family and medical leave, prescription drug pricing provisions, free community college and vision or dental Medicaid coverage. Here's what is included in the plan[.]"(Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Here's the White House's summary of what's in the Build Back Better framework. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "Climate has emerged as the single largest category in President Biden's new framework for a huge spending bill placing global warming at the center of his party's domestic agenda in a way that was hard to imagine just a few years ago. As the bill was pared down from $3.5 trillion to $1.85 trillion, paid family leave, free community college, lower prescription drugs for seniors and other Democratic priorities were dropped -- casualties of negotiations between progressives and moderates in the party. But $555 billion in climate programs remained.... In remarks Thursday, Mr. Biden called it 'the most significant investment to deal with the climate crisis that ever happened, beyond any other advanced nation in the world.'... The centerpiece of the climate spending is $300 billion in tax incentives for producers and purchasers of wind, solar and nuclear power, inducements intended to speed up a transition away from oil, gas and coal." ~~~

~~~ Michael Shear & Jim Tankersley of the New York Times: President Biden told Democratic House members Thursday they "had to rally behind his $1.85 trillion economic and environmental spending bill ... because nothing less than his presidency was at stake. 'I don't think it's hyperbole,' he said as he unveiled a revised proposal and pleaded with Democratic lawmakers to support it during a last-minute morning meeting at the Capitol, hours before he left for a six-day trip to Europe to meet with world leaders. 'The House and Senate majorities and my presidency will be determined by what happens in the next week,' Mr. Biden told the lawmakers during the hourlong session, according to a person who was at the meeting. The president's proposals, while about half as costly as his original plan, still amount to a transformative agenda that would touch the lives of millions of Americans and serve as the core of his party's argument to stay in power through the 2022 midterm elections and the 2024 presidential contest." ~~~

~~~ Sarah Ferris, et al., of Politico: "Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi revved their party toward a House vote as soon as Thursday on a $550 billion Senate-passed infrastructure bill, even as progressives remain undecided about taking what one called 'a leap of faith in the president.' Soon after the White House outlined a framework for a $1.75 trillion deal on social spending, Biden made a high-stakes appearance on Capitol Hill to sell Pelosi's caucus on it. While some liberal priorities were included in the package of climate, health care and other social policy investments, others were left on the cutting-room floor -- and House progressives remain noncommittal about whether to vote yes on infrastructure given their uncertainty about the framework's Senate future. The Congressional Progressive Caucus held its own meeting after Biden left, as its chair Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) held off on where her group stood after the president's pitch for its votes. Another of her members, Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.), said simply 'no' when asked if she would vote for the infrastructure bill after the president's push." (Also linked yesterday.)

Miriam Jordan of the New York Times: "Migrant families separated at the border by the Trump administration may be eligible to each receive hundreds of thousands of dollars in compensation for the damage inflicted on them by the policy, according to several people familiar with the matter. Some families could receive as much as $450,000 for each member who was directly affected, the sources said. However, negotiations between the Biden administration and lawyers representing the families are not over, and many might get far less, they said. About 5,500 children were separated from parents at the southern border under ... Donald J. Trump's 'zero-tolerance' policy, mainly in the spring of 2018." MB: Ironically, it seems to me that the windfall could make the families eligible to enter the U.S. under a program that welcomes immigrants of means. So, good work, Trump, JeffBo & Stephen Miller, et al., you nasty bastids.

Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "The Justice Department agreed Thursday to pay $88 million to victims of a racially motivated shooting at a historic Black church in South Carolina -- a substantial but also symbolic figure meant to compensate for a background-check failure that allowed the killer to buy a weapon. A lawyer for the victims, Bakari Sellers, said the figure was particularly meaningful because the number 88 is significant among white supremacists like gunman Dylann Roof, who was convicted on federal hate crimes charges and sentenced to death." An ABC News report is here. MB: According to an on-air report on CNN, the Trump DOJ stonewalled settlement negotiations re: the 2015 mass murder. I don't know if that's true, but it's believable, isn't it? (Also linked yesterday.)

Christopher Flavelle of the New York Times: "Almost a year after being urged to address racial inequity in United States disaster programs, officials are still trying to decide how to deal with the problem, according to a document issued by the Federal Emergency Management Agency on Wednesday. The agency was responding to recommendations made in November by its own advisory panel.... A growing body of research shows that FEMA, the government agency responsible for helping Americans recover from disasters, often helps white disaster victims more than people of color, even when the amount of damage is the same.... The agency's programs have favored disaster victims who are wealthy and own property, and who are more likely to be white...."

Christopher Flavelle of the New York Times: "Centuries of land loss and forced relocation have left Native Americans significantly more exposed to the effects of climate change, new data show, adding to the debate over how to address climate change and racial inequity in the United States. The findings, which took seven years to compile and were published Thursday in the journal Science, mark the first time that researchers have been able to quantify on a large scale what Native Americans have long believed to be true: That European settlers, and later the United States government, pushed Indigenous peoples onto marginal lands.... 'This is not just a story of the past harms,' said Justin Farrell, a Yale University professor and another of the study's authors. 'We have to think about ways to recompense for this history.'"

Hiroko Tabuchi & Lisa Friedman of the New York Times: "At a heated hearing on Thursday, Democrats had some big questions for the chief executives of Exxon Mobil, Chevron, BP and Shell: Would they pledge to stop lobbying against efforts to reduce emissions? And were they willing to tell their powerful trade groups to stop working against electric vehicles? None of the executives agreed. Instead, the leaders of the four major oil and gas companies touted their support for a transition to clean energy and said they had never engaged in campaigns to mislead the public on the role of fossil fuel emissions in global warming. All four acknowledged that the burning of their products was driving climate change, but also told lawmakers that fossil fuels are not about to disappear.... Democrats responded with forceful language in the more than six-hour hearing. 'Some of us actually have to live the future that you all are setting on fire for us,' Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York told the executives." (This is an update of a story linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post live-updated the hearing. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court on Thursday lifted a stay of execution that a federal appeals court had granted to two Oklahoma death row inmates, clearing the way for the men to be put to death by lethal injection. As is the court;s custom, its brief order gave no reasons. The inmates, John Marion Grant and Julius Jones, had argued that the state's lethal injection protocol, which uses three chemicals, could subject them to excruciating pain. They also objected on religious grounds to a requirement imposed by a trial judge that they choose among proposed alternative methods of execution, saying that doing so would amount to suicide. The three more liberal members of the court -- Justices Stephen G. Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan -- dissented, also without providing reasons. Justice Neil M. Gorsuch did not participate in the case, presumably because he had considered an aspect of it when he was a federal appeals court judge." The story has been updated to describe the circumstances surrounding John Grant's execution. ~~~

     ~~~ ** Cruel & Unusual. Sean Murphy of the AP: "Oklahoma administered the death penalty Thursday on a man who convulsed and vomited as he was executed for the 1998 slaying of a prison cafeteria worker, ending a six-year execution moratorium brought on by concerns over its execution methods[.] John Marion Grant, 60, who was strapped to a gurney inside the execution chamber, began convulsing and vomiting after the first drug, the sedative midazolam, was administered. Several minutes later, two members of the execution team wiped the vomit from his face and neck. Before the curtain was raised to allow witnesses to see into the execution chamber, Grant could be heard yelling, 'Let's go! Let's go! Let's go!' He delivered a stream of profanities before the lethal injection started. He was declared unconscious about 15 minutes after the first of three drugs was administered and declared dead about six minutes after that, at 4:21 p.m. Someone vomiting while being executed is rare, according to observers.... Grant was the first person in Oklahoma to be executed since a series of flawed lethal injections in 2014 and 2015."

Tom Hamburger & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "Jeffrey Clark, the Trump-era Justice Department official who sought to support ... Donald Trump's false claims of massive voting fraud in the 2020 election, has received a postponement of the Friday deadline for him to appear before the House committee investigating the Jan. 6. attack on the Capitol. The panel made the decision Thursday after being informed that Clark's lawyer, Robert Driscoll, had dropped his representation of the former Justice Department official. Because of the change, the committee granted Clark a brief postponement.... It was not clear why Driscoll and Clark split, but people familiar with the matter suggested that it had to do with whether Clark would cooperate with the committee's requests."

Zachary Cohen, et al., of CNN: "Members of the House select committee investigating January 6 are losing patience with the pace of talks with former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, and some are considering whether more aggressive steps are needed to force his compliance in the sweeping probe, multiple sources tell CNN. Meadows was first subpoenaed more than a month ago, and since then the committee has indicated he's been 'engaging' in negotiations over th terms of his turning over documents and appearing for a deposition. But weeks after the committee granted Meadows a 'short' but indefinite postponement of the initial subpoena deadline, members are growing increasingly frustrated and contemplating when and how to ramp up the pressure." MB: Clear out a Capitol basement cell & lock him up, ladies & gentlemen.

** Rachel Weiner of the Washington Post: "The chief judge presiding over the federal court in Washington on Thursday unleashed a blistering critique of the Justice Department's prosecution of Capitol rioters, saying fiery rhetoric about the event's horror did not match plea offers to minor charges. 'No wonder parts of the public in the U.S. are confused about whether what happened on January 6 at the Capitol was simply a petty offense of trespassing with some disorderliness, or shocking criminal conduct that represented a grave threat to our democratic norms,' Judge Beryl A. Howell said in court Thursday. 'Let me make my view clear: The rioters were not mere protesters.'... Why, she asked, when prosecutors called the riot an 'attack on democracy ... unparalleled in American history,' were ... [January 6] participants facing the same charge as nonviolent protesters who routinely disrupt congressional hearings?" Politico's report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Howell is right of course. Those rabid monsters beating up police on their way to overturning an election & hanging the vice president were not Code Pink ladies giggling at Richard Shelby's representation of Jeff Sessions as a defender of equal rights. But Howell says her "hands are tied" by the prosecutors' decisions to undercharge the insurrectionists. I have never been under the impression that a judge must accept a plea deal worked out between prosecutor & defendant. It seems to me Howell could tell prosecutors to come up with more appropriate charges so that not only would the punishment fit the crime but also the crime alleged would fit reality.

Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "... nearly 10 months after Jan. 6, suggestions of legitimized violence continue to permeate the GOP and the conservative movement. [Donald] Trump has faded into the background somewhat..., but others have gladly picked up the torch, with almost no pushback from their party leadership. The most recent example involves Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who this week suggested that the attack on the Capitol actually was in line with the Declaration of Independence.... Need for political violence and a 1776-esque revolution are coming up with increasing frequency.... And extreme supporters have a way of taking the hint, which many Capitol rioters say they did from Trump's violent rhetoric." ~~~

~~~ TucKKKer Jumps the Shark. Michael Luciano of Mediaite: "Tucker Carlson previewed a trailer on Wednesday for an upcoming three-part series for FOX Nation.... 'The domestic war on terror is here,' alleges a man's voice. 'It's coming after half of the country.' Carlson himself appears and says, 'The helicopters have left Afghanistan, and now they're here at home.' 'The left is hunting the right,' alleges another voice. 'Sticking them in Guantanamo Bay, for American citizens, leaving them there to rot.'... A clip of President Joe Biden denouncing White supremacy and calling it a 'lethal threat' as footage of the 1926 Ku Klux Klan march on Washington rolled. 'False flags have happened in this country,' says another voice. 'One of which may have been January 6th.' The trailer ends with a brief audio of the 'Battle Hymn of the Republic.' The trailer is, in a word, batshit." You can watch the trailer here. His truth is marching on. The trailer is, in a word, batshit." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Philip Bump of the Washington Post has more on TuKKKer's excellent fake "documentary." And according to a Daily Beast blurb (story firewalled), the writer of this fine multi-part screed had a previous gig directing a Pizzagate opus.

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. David Moye of the Huffington Post: "On Wednesday, the [Wall Street Journal] printed a letter to the editor from ... Donald Trump where he basically regurgitated all the demonstrably false claims he's already made about the 2020 election. The paper came under fire for letting Trump spread false information without any sort of fact check. On Thursday, the paper's editorial board defended the decision to print Trump's letter without any kind of factual pushback by claiming that it trusts it readers 'to make up their own minds about his statement.' The editorial added, 'And we think it's news when an ex-President who may run in 2024 wrote what he did, even if (or perhaps especially if) his claims are bananas.' The editorial board justified printing Trump's election lies without clarification by claiming that 'Mr. Trump is making these claims elsewhere, so we hardly did him a special favor by letting him respond to our editorial.'' Tweeters respond. This is worse than bad journalism or no journalism. To publish lies, especially when delivered by an influential person, and not provide rebuttals & context, is the height of irresponsibility. The paper's actual journalists should walk out, en masse, for a day, leaving Rupert & Co. with nothing to print but wire service stories.

This Should Fix Everything. Mike Isaac of the New York Times: "Facebook rose to prominence over the past two decades with some of the world's most recognizable branding: a big blue-and-white letter F. No longer. On Thursday, the social networking giant took an unmistakable step toward an overhaul, de-emphasizing Facebook's name and rebranding itself as Meta. The change was accompanied by a new corporate logo designed like an infinity-shaped symbol that was slightly askew. Facebook and its other apps, such as Instagram and WhatsApp, will remain but under the Meta umbrella. The move punctuates how Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive, plans to refocus his Silicon Valley company on what he sees as the next digital frontier, which is the unification of disparate digital worlds into something called the metaverse." MB: Zuck seems to believe he's a deep-thinker; he has no idea how silly, jejune and pretentious he seems to those of us who have been around longer than he. But maybe we don't matter, especially if we don't use his products. ~~~

     ~~~ Facebook Is Facebook Is Facebook. Samantha Lock of the Guardian: "The announcement by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg that the social media giant will change the name of its holding company to Meta in a virtual-reality rebrand has prompted dismay and bemusement.... The Daily Show tweaked Zuckerberg's Meta presentation video by superimposing the tech billionaire onto footage of the January 6 Capitol riots and the 2017 Charlottesville white nationalist march. Both events were organised on Facebook.... 'Meta is such a low effort, first draft name that multiple consulting companies definitely got paid millions of dollars to come up with,' comedian and producer Mike Drucker said. 'And it was on that day that "that's so meta" went from being an interesting observation to a devastating insult, author and science vlogger Hank Green wrote.... Fast food outlet Wendy's tweeted: 'Changing name to Meat.'" ~~~

~~~ Jason Koebler of Vice: "Zuckerberg Announces Fantasy World Where Facebook Is Not a Horrible Company. Moments before announcing Facebook is changing its name to 'Meta' and detailing the company's 'metaverse' plans..., Mark Zuckerberg... pitch[ed] ... a delusional fever dream cribbed most obviously from dystopian science fiction and misleading or outright fabricated virtual reality product pitches from the last decade.... 'We have to fit hologram displays, projectors, batteries, radios, custom silicon chips, cameras, speakers, sensors to map the world around you, and more, into glasses that are five millimeters thick,' Zuckerberg says.... Zuckerberg's pitch of living, working, playing, and generally existing in a utopian, fake, Facebook-developed virtual world loaded with fun and friendly people, concerts where you can always be in the front row, seamless mixed-reality basketball games where you feel like you are actually playing basketball, and kicksass, uhh, NFTs you can use to modify your metaverse avatar, is a far cry from the disinformation, conspiracy theories, genocide-related, self-esteem destroying, spam, and general garbage content that exists on the platforms Facebook has already built." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The boy does seem to have a big problem connecting with, well, reality, and instead imagines an incel-like virtual existence in which you create your own fake perfection. Last night I watched a segment of a show aired on PBS where the actor Robson Green hikes the length of Hadrian's Wall. The hike inspired Green to use his imagination, too, thinking of the Romans who had built and patroled the wall, but the exercise struck me as a much healthier way to travel. Of course for me, as a viewer, I too was taking vicarious pleasure in someone else's experience, and I wished I had taken the same trek. But I was not using the magic of television to pretend to be somewhere I wasn't.

Lori Aratani of the Washington Post: "A flight attendant for American Airlines suffered broken bones in her face and had to be hospitalized after a passenger allegedly attacked her Wednesday in an incident the company's chief executive called 'one of the worst displays of unruly behavior we've ever witnessed.' The incident occurred on a flight from New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport to John Wayne Airport in Orange County, Calif. It prompted the pilots to divert the flight to Denver, where the passenger was detained. The flight attendant apparently bumped the passenger while moving through the first-class cabin, according to Julie Hedrick, president of the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, which represents those who fly for American Airlines. The flight attendant apologized, but the passenger left his seat, confronted her as she stood in the aircraft's galley, then punched her in the face, Hedrick said." MB: I hope the assailant is never allowed on any public carrier again, even if it is just as bad to imagine this vicious nutjob behind the wheel of a vehicle. Planes, trains, buses & boats should develop a "No Travel" list.

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: "The Iowa state legislature passed a bill Thursday that allows residents fired for noncompliance with vaccine mandates to receive unemployment benefits, while also broadening religious and medical exemptions from immunization. The bill was passed with overwhelming support in both chambers, which Republicans control. Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) said she plans to sign the legislation into law, though she added that a vaccine was the 'best defense' against the coronavirus. In a statement, she also vowed to resist President Biden's plan to require businesses with a hundred or more workers to ensure vaccination of their employees or regularly test unimmunized staffers." MB: Well, isn't that special?

Carla Johnson of the AP: "A cheap antidepressant reduced the need for hospitalization among high-risk adults with COVID-19 in a study hunting for existing drugs that could be repurposed to treat coronavirus. Researchers tested the pill used for depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder because it was known to reduce inflammation and looked promising in smaller studies. They've shared the results with the U.S. National Institutes of Health, which publishes treatment guidelines, and they hope for a World Health Organization recommendation. 'If WHO recommends this, you will see it widely taken up,' said study co-author Dr. Edward Mills of McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, adding that many poor nations have the drug readily available. 'We hope it will lead to a lot of lives saved.' The pill, called fluvoxamine, would cost $4 for a course of COVID-19 treatment. By comparison, antibody IV treatments cost about $2,000 and Merck's experimental antiviral pill for COVID-19 is about $700 per course." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: This could be very good news, though I suppose it will lead to anti-vaxxers saying, "See, we told you horse dewormer would cure Covid."

Alex Horton of the Washington Post: "Up to 12,000 Air Force personnel have rejected orders to get fully vaccinated against the coronavirus despite a Pentagon mandate, and officials say it is too late for them to do so by the Tuesday deadline, posing the first major test for military leaders whose August directive has been met with defiance among a segment of the force. The vast majority of active-duty airmen, more than 96 percent, are at least partially vaccinated, according to data from the Air Force. But officials have warned that, barring an approved medical or religious exemption, those who defy lawful orders to be fully immunized are subject to punishment, including possible dismissal from the service, or they could be charged in the military justice system."

Beyond the Beltway

New York. Felicia Sonmez & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "Former New York governor Andrew M. Cuomo has been charged with a misdemeanor complaint for a sex-crime-related offense. A spokesman for the New York courts said Thursday that the complaint was filed in Albany City Court." This is a brief, breaking news story. AN NBC-4 New York News story, which was more detailed when I linked the two reports yesterday afternoon, is here. The New York Times story is here.

Way Beyond

France, U.K. Ahoy, Another British/French Battle at Sea. Rick Noack of the Washington Post: "France escalated a fishing rights dispute with Britain on Thursday, announcing that French authorities had seized a British boat that lacked a license to operate in French waters and have issued a warning to another British vessel. France's minister of the sea, Annick Girardin, announced the seizure one day after the French government threatened a number of sanctions against Britain in the lingering dispute that has stirred emotions on both sides of the English Channel for months." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

October 28, 2021

Afternoon Update:

Felicia Sonmez & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "Former New York governor Andrew M. Cuomo has been charged with a misdemeanor complaint for a sex-crime-related offense. A spokesman for the New York courts said Thursday that the complaint was filed in Albany City Court." This is a brief, breaking news story. AN NBC-4 New York News story, which is more detailed, is here.

Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "The Justice Department agreed Thursday to pay $88 million to victims of a racially motivated shooting at a historic Black church in South Carolina -- a substantial but also symbolic figure meant to compensate for a background-check failure that allowed the killer to buy a weapon. A lawyer for the victims, Bakari Sellers, said the figure was particularly meaningful because the number 88 is significant among white supremacists like gunman Dylann Roof, who was convicted on federal hate crimes charges and sentenced to death." An ABC News report is here. MB: According to an on-air report on CNN, the Trump DOJ stonewalled settlement negotiations re: the 2015 mass murder. I don't know if it's true, but it's believable, isn't it?

TucKKKer Jumps the Shark. Michael Luciano of Mediaite: "Tucker Carlson previewed a trailer on Wednesday for an upcoming three-part series for FOX Nation.... 'The domestic war on terror is here,' alleges a man's voice. 'It's coming after half of the country.' Carlson himself appears and says, 'The helicopters have left Afghanistan, and now they're here at home.' 'The left is hunting the right,' alleges another voice. 'Sticking them in Guantanamo Bay, for American citizens, leaving them there to rot.'... A clip of President Joe Biden denouncing White supremacy and calling it a 'lethal threat' as footage of the 1926 Ku Klux Klan march on Washington rolled. 'False flags have happened in this country,' says another voice. 'One of which may have been January 6th.' The trailer ends with a brief audio of the 'Battle Hymn of the Republic.' The trailer is, in a word, batshit." You can watch the trailer is here. His truth is marching on.

Lisa Mascaro, et al., of the AP: "President Joe Biden declared Thursday he has reached a 'historic economic framework' with Democrats in Congress on his sweeping domestic policy package, a hard-fought yet dramatically scaled-back deal announced hours before he departs for overseas summits. Biden's remarks at the White House came after he traveled to Capitol Hill to make the case to House Democrats for the still robust domestic package -- $1.75 trillion of social services and climate change programs the White House believes can pass the 50-50 Senate.... At least one pivotal holdout, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., struck a similar tone: 'I look forward to getting this done.' However, another holdout, Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., was less committal: 'This is all in the hands of the House right now.'" ~~~

~~~ Kate Sullivan of CNN: "The $1.75 trillion proposal focuses on care for families, addressing the climate crisis, expanding access to health care, lowering costs for the middle class and tax reforms.... The new plan makes major concessions and does not have several key planks that Biden had initially proposed, including paid family and medical leave, prescription drug pricing provisions, free community college and vision or dental Medicaid coverage. Here's what is included in the plan[.]" ~~~

     ~~~ Here's the White House's summary of what's in the Build Back Better framework. ~~~

~~~ Sarah Ferris, et al., of Politico: "Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi revved their party toward a House vote as soon as Thursday on a $550 billion Senate-passed infrastructure bill, even as progressives remain undecided about taking what one called 'a leap of faith in the president.' Soon after the White House outlined a framework for a $1.75 trillion deal on social spending, Biden made a high-stakes appearance on Capitol Hill to sell Pelosi's caucus on it. While some liberal priorities were included in the package of climate, health care and other social policy investments, others were left on the cutting-room floor -- and House progressives remain noncommittal about whether to vote yes on infrastructure given their uncertainty about the framework's Senate future. The Congressional Progressive Caucus held its own meeting after Biden left, as its chair Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) held off on where her group stood after the president's pitch for its votes. Another of her members, Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.), said simply 'no' when asked if she would vote for the infrastructure bill after the president's push."

Hiroko Tabuchi & Lisa Friedman of the New York Times: "House Democrats have begun questioning the executives of some of the world's biggest oil and gas companies -- Exxon Mobil, Chevron, BP and Shell -- over allegations that the companies for years spread disinformation about the role played by fossil fuels in global warming in order to slow action on climate change. ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post is live-updating the hearing.

Ahoy, Another British/French Battle at Sea. Rick Noack of the Washington Post: "France escalated a fishing rights dispute with Britain on Thursday, announcing that French authorities had seized a British boat that lacked a license to operate in French waters and have issued a warning to another British vessel. France's minister of the sea, Annick Girardin, announced the seizure one day after the French government threatened a number of sanctions against Britain in the lingering dispute that has stirred emotions on both sides of the English Channel for months."

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** Tyler Pager & Sean Sullivan of the Washington Post: "President Biden plans to announce Thursday a revised framework for his social spending plan that he expects will gain the support of all Democrats, according to multiple people with knowledge of the situation, marking a potential breakthrough after months of lengthy negotiations and stalled talks. The White House plans to detail specific policies it expects to pass Congress after weeks of whittling down Biden's agenda, according to one of the people. Democrats on Capitol Hill were preparing written details of the revamped proposal for release on Thursday, according to the second person.... Biden will address House Democrats Thursday morning before delivering remarks from the White House about the plan." ~~~

~~~ Joseph Choi of the Hill: "President Biden is expected to attend a House Democratic caucus meeting on Thursday morning before he departs for Europe to attend a pair of global summits, in a last-minute attempt to push through the multi-billion dollar bipartisan infrastructure bill.... NBC noted the meeting will likely delay Biden's overseas travel plans, but White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki has said that 'flexibility' is built into the president's schedule." ~~~

~~~ Alan Rappeport & Jim Tankersley of the New York Times: "As they hunt for revenue to pay for their sprawling spending bill and try to unite a fractured caucus, Democrats are attempting to rewrite the United States tax code in a matter of days, proposing the kind of sweeping changes to how America taxes businesses and individuals that would normally take months or years to enact. The effort has effectively discarded trillions of dollars of carefully crafted tax increases that President Biden proposed on the campaign trail and that top Democrats have rolled out in Congress. Instead, lawmakers are throwing a slew of new proposals into the mix, including a tax on billionaires, hoping that they can pass muster both legally and within their own party. The frantic attempt to overhaul the complex U.S. tax code remained in a state of flux on Wednesday, with Senator Joe Manchin III and some House Democrats expressing reservations about a tax on billionaires that was proposed earlier in the day by Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon. On Tuesday, Mr. Manchin shot down a plan that would have given the Internal Revenue Service more visibility into certain taxpayers' bank accounts in order to catch tax cheats, forcing a group of Senate Democrats who support the provision to try to negotiate a compromise. Mr. Manchin's opposition to a new federal paid leave program also appeared to doom its chances of being included in the final legislation, although supporters of the provision said they would fight to keep it intact."

Seung Min Kim of the Washington Post: "President Biden -- who has made renewed international engagement a hallmark of his foreign policy ethos -- is headed to a pair of global summits in Europe this week with just a handful of his ambassadors in place, as most of his picks to represent the United States abroad remain mired in messy domestic politics. To date, only four of Biden's choices to be a U.S. ambassador to a foreign government have been approved by the Senate -- three of them just on Tuesday.... The delays stem from threats by some Republican senators, led by [Snidely Whiplash] Ted Cruz (Tex.), who has been angling for a fight with the Biden administration over matters of national security. That is prolonging the usually routine process of getting ambassadors formally installed, while several high-profile posts are also vacant because the White House has yet to put forward nominees for them." MB: Sorry about that.

Jason Horowitz of the New York Times: President "Biden, a Catholic who rarely misses Sunday Mass, arrives [at the Vatican Friday] at a moment when the political polarization in America has seeped deeply into its Catholic church. The president and pope, who share common ground on many issues, have become common targets of powerful conservative American bishops seeking to undercut them. The most hostile among them, appointed by [Pope] Francis&' conservative predecessors, have either ignored or resisted the pope's efforts to reorient the priorities of the church toward inclusion and social justice, and away from culture war issues like abortion and L.G.B.T.Q. rights. They have amplified their critiques of both men through a conservative Catholic media constellation that is Trump-friendly. Despite a clear warning from the Vatican, they have pursued an effort to deny holy communion to Roman Catholic politicians supportive of abortion rights -- including Mr. Biden."

Tierney Sneed of CNN: "Attorney General Merrick Garland defended his memo responding to threats aimed at school officials, pushing back on pointed criticism from Republicans at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday. The memo, Garland said, 'responds to concerns about violence, threats of violence, other criminal conduct.'... Several GOP committee members battered Garland with questions about the memo, which Republicans have sought to make a focal issue in the Virginia gubernatorial election. Republicans have equated the Justice Department's approach with treating parents like 'domestic terrorists' for protesting schools' Covid protocols and methods of teaching about race in American history. (The memo makes no reference to domestic terrorism.)... Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat from Rhode Island who serves on the committee, asked Garland specifically if the criminal investigation [into the January 6 insurrection] was constrained to those who physically breached the Capitol. 'The investigation is being conducted by the prosecutors in the US Attorney's Office and by the FBI field office. We have not constrained them in any way,' Garland said." ~~~

~~~ Harper Neidig of the Hill: "Attorney General Merrick Garland on Wednesday clashed with Republican senators over the Justice Department's efforts to crack down on violent threats against school boards, with one GOP member [Tom Cotton (Ark.)] telling the former judge, 'Thank God you're not on the Supreme Court.'" Let's give Tommy from Arkansas a big hand for winning the second-runner-up prize in the Best Impression of a Senator Feigning Outrage category. What a colossal prick: ~~~

     ~~~ ** Anderson Cooper takes on the lying lizards on the committee. A good (short) segment.

Kareem Fahim & Karen DeYoung of the Washington Post: "Iran has agreed to return to nuclear negotiations in Vienna by the end of November, Tehran's top negotiator said Wednesday, signaling the possible revival of a process aimed at restoring the 2015 nuclear deal that has been stalled for months and surrounded by uncertainty. In a message posted on Twitter, the negotiator, Ali Bagheri, the deputy foreign minister, who has been meeting with European diplomats in Brussels, said the exact date of the negotiations would be announced next week. Bagheri said he had engaged in 'very serious and constructive dialogue' with Enrique Mora, the European Union's deputy secretary general for political affairs, 'on the essential elements for successful negotiations.' But Peter Stano, a foreign affairs spokesman for the European Union, said 'there is nothing to announce at the moment.'"

Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "On Monday, the right-wing youth organization Turning Point USA had an event during which founder Charlie Kirk took questions from members of the audience. At one point, a bearded man asked one, as seen in video obtained by Media Matters. 'At this point, we're living under corporate and medical fascism. This is tyranny,' he said. 'When do we get to use the guns?' Members of the audience applauded. 'No, and I'm not -- that's not a joke,' he continued. '... I mean, literally, where's the line? How many elections are they going to steal before we kill these people?' Kirk's response was not, as you might hope, a strident rejection of the premise. He argued that an embrace of violence was what the left wanted, allowing for the creation of 'Patriot Act 2.0.'... The problem with these false claims of election fraud -- these false, nonsensical, debunked, irrational, garbage claims of election fraud -- is that people believe them."

WSJ Broadcasts Trump's Lies. Jeremy Barr of the Washington Post: "The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday published a lengthy letter to the editor from [Donald] Trump charging, inaccurately, that the 2020 presidential election won by Joe Biden was 'rigged.' The nearly 600-word letter is replete with loosely sourced and largely debunked claims of fraud in Pennsylvania, a state that President Biden won by 81,660 votes, handing him 20 electoral college votes that helped secure his victory.... The Journal's decision to publish the letter drew a backlash on Wednesday from some journalists and political commentators, who accused the publication of amplifying election misinformation. 'Most newspapers don't allow op-ed writers to just make up nonsense lies. Apparently the Wall Street Journal is not among them,' HuffPost White House correspondent S.V. Dáte wrote on Twitter." A Mediaite post is here. ~~~

~~~ Philip Bump of the Washington Post lists 14 things the Wall Street Journal failed to contextualize in publishing a lie-laced letter Donald Trump wrote about the 2020 election.

Charles Homans in the New York Times Magazine (Oct. 26) on "Kyle Rittenhouse & the New Era of Political Violence": "Prosecutors have yet to produce evidence that Rittenhouse held extremist views or associations before the shootings.... This is likely to center the [murder] trial on Rittenhouse's actions over a series of brief and fateful moments, and not the much larger question of what brought Rittenhouse and so many others to the streets of Kenosha equipped for war.... The city had simply been first to experience the inevitable consequences of a moment when partisan politics, rather than providing a alternative to political violence, had become an accelerant of it -- when the rhetoric swirling around those politics, and the voices amplifying it, had persuaded a large number of people with military-style weapons that the time for talking in America was over."

Elizabeth Dwoskin of the Washington Post: "Facebook sent out a companywide notice on Tuesday ordering employees to preserve documents and communications dating back to 2016 in response to legal inquiries from around the world, according to internal documents obtained by The Washington Post.... The Facebook Papers [released by a whistleblower] show how researchers knew that the platform caused polarization in numerous countries, led people down misinformation rabbit holes, failed to stop a violent network that led to the January 6 insurrection, and had negative impacts on the mental health of young people." ~~~

~~~ Poland, Another Country Where Facebook (Allegedly) Abets Extremists. Loveday Morris of the Washington Post: Facebook content posted by Poland's far-right Confederation party "generally does well, including a slew of anti-lockdown, anti-immigration, vaccine-skeptic posts often punctuated with large red exclamation marks.... That Facebook might be amplifying outrage -- while driving polarization and elevating more-extreme parties around the world -- has been ruminated on inside the company for years, according to the internal documents known as the Facebook Papers, which were disclosed by the whistleblower Frances Haugen...."

The Pandemic, Ctd.

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

Stephanie Nolan of the New York Times: "Merck has granted a royalty-free license for its promising Covid-19 pill to a United Nations-backed nonprofit in a deal that would allow the drug to be manufactured and sold cheaply in the poorest nations, where vaccines for the coronavirus are in devastatingly short supply. The agreement with the Medicines Patent Pool, an organization that works to make medical treatment and technologies globally accessible, will allow companies in 105 countries, mostly in Africa and Asia, to sublicense the formulation for the antiviral pill, called molnupiravir, and begin making it. Merck reported this month that the drug halved the rate of hospitalizations and deaths in high-risk Covid patients who took it soon after infection in a large clinical trial."

New York. Andrew Jeong of the Washington Post: "A judge on Wednesday denied a request from a New York City police union to temporarily halt Mayor Bill de Blasio's (D) order requiring all municipal employees, including law enforcement officials, to receive at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine by later this week or face unpaid leave. Richmond County Supreme Court Judge Lizette Colon ruled that de Blasio's mandate -- which the Police Benevolent Association of the City of New York is seeking to overturn -- can proceed, reportedly citing a previous state appellate ruling that upheld a vaccine mandate for measles."

Beyond the Beltway

New Mexico. Simon Romero, et al., of the New York Times: "Before he handed a revolver that he had declared 'cold' to the actor Alec Baldwin on the set of the film 'Rust' last week, Dave Halls, an assistant director on the film, told a detective he should have inspected each round in each chamber, according to an affidavit that was released Wednesday. But he did not.... The gun went off..., killing the film's cinematographer, Halyna Hutchins, 42, and wounding its director, Joel Souza, 48. The sheriff said that the 'lead projectile' that Mr. Baldwin had fired from the gun had been recovered from the director's shoulder, and said that it was apparently the same round that had killed Ms. Hutchins. Asked if it was an actual bullet that had been fired -- and not a blank — he said, 'We would consider it a live round, a bullet, live, because it did fire from the weapon and obviously caused the death of Ms. Hutchins and injured Mr. Souza. We also believe that we have the spent shell casing from the bullet that was fired from the gun,' he said. Sheriff [Adan] Mendoza said that investigators believe they recovered more live rounds on the film's set at Bonanza Creek Ranch, and that they would be sending some of the ammunition they seized to the F.B.I. crime lab for analysis."

Oregon. Andrew Selsky of the AP: "Former New York Times journalist Nicholas Kristof announced his candidacy Wednesday for Oregon governor, saying the state needs a political newbie to solve problems like homelessness and rural despair.... Kristof joins a crowded field of Democrats seeking their party's nomination to be the candidate in the 2022 election, including Oregon House Speaker Tina Kotek and state Treasurer Tobias Read. Democrats have held the governor's office since 1987."

Virginia State Race. Meagan Flynn & Shawn Boburg of the Washington Post: "Across Virginia, the GOP 'election integrity' push has largely driven[an] influx of election observers in this year's gubernatorial race, according to local, state and national Republican officials. In some trainings, prospective poll watchers have been taught to see themselves as a bulwark against election fraud, and some groups have been corralling their own poll watcher armies.... Numerous GOP officials described the poll watcher trainings as a branch extending from election integrity efforts -- something Republican candidate Glenn Youngkin has seized on as a core tenet of his gubernatorial campaign, calling for an audit of Virginia voting machines and repeatedly encouraging poll watchers to volunteer."

Way Beyond

Brazil. BBC News: "Brazilian senators have voted to recommend charging President Jair Bolsonaro over his handling of the devastating Covid pandemic. A Senate panel backed a report calling for charges against Mr Bolsonaro including crimes against humanity, after 600,000 deaths from coronavirus. The report has been handed to the chief prosecutor, a Bolsonaro appointee.... There is no guarantee this vote will lead to actual criminal charges, as the report's recommendations must now be assessed by Prosecutor-General Augusto Aras, who is expected to protect the president."

News Lede

AP: "The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell to a pandemic low last week as the job market continues to recover from last year's coronavirus recession. Jobless claims dropped by 10,000 to 281,000, lowest since mid-March 2020, the Labor Department said Thursday."

October 27, 2021

David Smith of the Guardian: "Joe Biden has framed a nail-bitingly close race for governor of Virginia as a referendum on his young presidency and an opportunity to rebuke his predecessor, Donald Trump. Seemingly liberated from the formal trappings of office by a return to the campaign trail, Biden used a rally in Arlington, Virginia, to launch an unusually scathing and sustained attack on the former president. 'Just remember this: I ran against Donald Trump,' he told an estimated 2,500 people gathered in a park on a chilly Tuesday night. 'And Terry [McAuliffe] is running against an acolyte of Donald Trump.' The election in Virginia is seen as the most important of the year, offering a window on to public sentiment about Biden's first nine months in office and a preview of what to expect in next year's midterm elections for Congress.... But Biden's sinking approval rating in recent weeks makes it unclear how much of a boost he can offer McAuliffe, who also enlisted Barack Obama last weekend to help him fight apathy and election weariness among Democratic voters."

Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "Senate Democrats rushed on Tuesday to nail down the details of a groundbreaking tax on billionaires' wealth, part of an elaborate menu of tax increases to finance a significantly scaled-back bill that would strengthen the social safety net and address climate change. Democrats' plans to pay for about $1.5 trillion in social policy and climate spending could prove to be the most innovative components of the party's domestic legislation, a top priority, which was once envisioned as a transformative cradle-to-grave initiative to vault a stagnant working class into prosperity. Now, even as President Biden and his allies cut down the plan to ensure it can pass even with Democrats' razor-thin edge in Congress, they are toiling to agree on new tax policies that could have far-reaching consequences. Among them is a measure Senate Democrats presented on Tuesday that would impose a 15 percent minimum tax rate on corporations based on the profits they report to their shareholders, not what they show to the Internal Revenue Service.... With Senator Kyrsten Sinema, Democrat of Arizona, a crucial holdout on Mr. Biden's plan, serving as a one-woman blockade against more conventional tax rate increases, Democrats appeared to have no choice but to turn to creative revenue measures." A CBS News story is here. The AP's story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: It's not necessary a bad thing that Sinema's irrational stonewalling led to some creative thinking on how to extract more revenues from the ultra-rich & corporations, but it is unconscionable that Sinema has does nothing but stomp her shiny red heels when -- if she's so smart -- she should have been digging in & thinking up these new ways instead of forcing other senators & their staffs to do the work that may or may not placate Her Dizziness. I'll bet next session her only committee assignment is junior member of the Housekeeping Committee. Which seems appropriate inasmuch as she seems to have ridden in to the Senate on a broomstick. ~~~

~~~ Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "The billionaires tax would almost certainly face court challenges.... It would for the first time tax billionaires on the unrealized gains in the value of their liquid assets, such as stocks, bonds and cash, which can grow for years as vast capital stores that can be borrowed off to live virtually income tax free. The tax would be levied on anyone with more than $1 billion in assets or more than $100 million in income for three consecutive years -- about 700 people in the United States. Initially, the legislation would impose the capital gains tax -- 23.8 percent -- on the gain in value of billionaires' tradable assets, such as stocks, bonds and cash, based on the original price of those assets.... After that, those billionaires would face an annual capital gains tax on the increase in value of their tradable assets over the course of the year.... For men like the Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, the Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and the Tesla founder Elon Musk, that hit would be enormous, since the initial value of their horde of stocks was zero. They would have five years to pay that sum." ~~~

~~~ Aris Folley of the Hill: "Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) voiced support for a proposal for a minimum tax on corporate profits as her party weighs the measure as a potential revenue raiser for its sweeping social spending plan." ~~~

     ~~~ Hank Stephenson in Politico Magazine: "... for those still perplexed about [Kyrsten] Sinema, her rise offers an object lesson in how to get ahead by flagrantly eschewing loyalty to one's own party.... The details of Sinema's transformation [from Green Party activist] lay in her time in the state legislature, where she learned to distance herself from progressives and made alliances with Republicans that she still leans on today.... She ... stood out immediately for her ability to make friends with the most conservative Republicans, including now-Rep. Andy Biggs, leader of the hard-line House Freedom Caucus, and Russell Pearce, [an anti-immigrant hardliner].... Her detractors say ... she's abandoned all principles she once held dear in exchange for power.... [A] former colleague says her decisions are based on cold hard political calculations — and a need to feed her hunger for attention, more than power even." MB: You know, I think we figured that out here without knowing all that much about her. ~~~

~~~ BUT THEN. Hans Nichols of Axios: "Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) is telling colleagues he has deep concerns about a proposed 'billionaire tax' but is waiting for more details before making a final decision, people familiar with the matter tell Axios.... The senator's doubts reveal an uncomfortable truth for the White House and congressional leaders as they race to finish -- and pay for -- their nearly $2 trillion social spending and climate package: A tax solution designed to satisfy Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) isn't necessarily acceptable to Manchin."

~~~ Ariel Zilber & Adam Manno of the Daily Mail & AP: " Elon Musk has slammed President Joe Biden's plan to tax billionaires' income to pay for his proposed spending bill as the Tesla CEO saw his company's value top $1trillion and his personal wealth increase by a single-day record of $36billion.... Earlier this year, it was revealed that Musk and his rival, Jeff Bezos, have in recent years paid nothing in federal income tax." MB: Elon should read Krugman, linked below. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ MEANWHILE. Maxine Joselow of the Washington Post: "Democrats are scrambling to address centrist Sen. Joe Manchin III's (D-W.Va.) objections to a methane fee in budget negotiations..., even as they expressed confidence they've assembled a broad climate package in the bill. Senate Democrats met Monday afternoon after Manchin pushed to drop or modify the methane fee in their social spending bill, which would impose a fee on emissions of the potent planet-warming gas that can leak from oil and gas wells, according to two people familiar with the matter. White House officials convened a separate meeting Monday with leading environmental groups, where they projected optimism about brokering a deal on climate...."

Jacqueline Alemany of the Washington Post: "The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol is expected to subpoena John Eastman, the pro-Trump legal scholar who outlined scenarios for denying Joe Biden the presidency, according to the panel's chairman.... In recent months, Eastman has distanced himself from the memos, telling the National Review last week that the options he outlined did not represent his advice.... But in an Oct. 7 op-ed in the Sacramento Bee, Eastman wrote that he advised [Mike] Pence to delay counting the electoral votes to give states time to resolve concerns about voting irregularities. Asked about the work of the select committee last month, Eastman defended Trump in an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network's David Brody, saying 'there's evidence out there' to support the former president's baseless claims of election fraud." CNN's story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ AND Tuesday night Rachel Maddow played a portion of a video interview, taped just this past Saturday, in which Eastman boasted that his memo posed a "solid" legal strategy that would have worked if only mike pence were not such an "establishment" guy & had had the balls to carry out his advice.

Kaitlan Collins of CNN: "At least five former Trump administration staffers have voluntarily spoken with the House committee investigating the January 6 attack on the US Capitol...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Isaac Dovere & Jeremy Herb of CNN: "Officials and aides in secretary of state offices in Arizona and other states targeted by ... Donald Trump in his attack on last year's election results told CNN about living in constant terror.... Staff members in the offices say they're dealing with long-term emotional and psychological trauma after a year of constant threats -- in person and virtually -- to the secretaries and to themselves.... Some [threats] get very specific, citing details and specifics that leave the secretaries and their staff rushing to report them to authorities.... No systems were in place on the state or federal level to [protect them].... The Justice Department launched a new task force this summer to address the rise in threats to election officials. But there are concerns that it's not prepared to do enough.... Several state and local election officials who testified at a Senate hearing Tuesday about threats to elections and election workers, warning about the consequences of them. 'We're already seeing high turnover among elections staff, and I fear that many more will reach a breaking point and decide that this line of public service is no longer worth it,' [Arizona Secretary of State Katie] Hobbs told the Senate Rules and Administration Committee." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Gee, do you suppose it would help if Donald Trump gave a heart-felt admonition to his supporters to lay off their threats to officials? I'm so surprised he hasn't done that. His silence suggests he just might be a vicious monster.

Amanda Seitz of the AP: "It had been three days since Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin [killed ... George Floyd.... A video taken by a bystander had been viewed millions of times online. Protests had taken over Minnesota's largest city and would soon spread throughout cities across America. But it wasn't until after [Donald] Trump posted about Floyd's death that the reports of violence and hate speech increased 'rapidly' on Facebook across the country, an internal company analysis of the ex-president's social media post reveals.... Trump wrote at 9:53 a.m. on May 28 from his Twitter and Facebook accounts[,] 'Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts the shooting starts!'... Facebook's own internal, automated controls, meant to catch posts that violate rules, predicted with almost 90% certainty that Trump's message broke the tech company's rules against inciting violence. Yet, the tech giant didn't take any action on Trump's message.... Twitter, meanwhile, responded quickly at the time by covering Trump's tweet with a warning and prohibiting users from sharing it any further."

Ellie Hall of BuzzFeed News: "Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, have long cited social media toxicity as a factor in their decision to step back from royal life. And now, an analysis of more than 114,000 tweets about the couple has revealed a coordinated campaign of targeted harassment of Meghan on Twitter -- and the 83 accounts responsible for approximately 70% of the negative and often hateful content. On Tuesday, Twitter analytics service Bot Sentinel released a report examining Twitter activity related to the Sussexes and found that the majority of the hate and misinformation about the couple originated from a small group of accounts whose primary, if not sole, purpose appears to be to tweet negatively about them. Bot Sentinel's analysis also revealed a level of sophistication and coordination between the accounts, who use their combined 187,631 followers to fuel a campaign of negativity against Harry and Meghan. A Twitter spokesperson told BuzzFeed News on Tuesday that they are 'actively investigating the information and accounts referenced in this report -- we will take action on accounts that violate the Twitter Rules.'"

Annabelle Timsit of the Washington Post: A woman is suing Kellogg for $5 million because there aren't enough strawberries in her so-called strawberry Pop-Tart. Marie: While this sounds like a frivolous, childish suit, she has a point. Her lawyer, BTW, is one of the suing-est lawyers around; he files two or three fraud suits a week. In the meantime, I'd suggest the lady look in the produce section for strawberries. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

The Pandemic, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Wednesday are here. The Washington Post's live Covid-19 updates for Wednesday are here: "New coronavirus infections in the United States have dropped nearly 60 percent since a September spike brought on by the more contagious delta variant, according to data compiled by The Washington Post. The seven-day average of infections stood at about 69,000 this week, figures show, reflecting a 58 percent drop from the latest surge's peak around Sept. 13, when the average for that week was 164,475. The impact of vaccinations is clear in regions with the highest uptake.... But a handful of states are still struggling to turn the tide, especially as colder weather brings more people indoors again. Those states include Montana, Colorado, Michigan, New Mexico, Utah, and Vermont.

Lauran Neergaard & Matthew Perrone of the AP: "The U.S. moved a step closer to expanding COVID-19 vaccinations for millions more children as a panel of government advisers on Tuesday endorsed kid-size doses of Pfizer's shots for 5- to 11-year-olds. A Food and Drug Administration advisory panel voted unanimously, with one abstention, that the vaccine's benefits in preventing COVID-19 in that age group outweigh any potential risks -- including a heart-related side effect that's been very rare in teens and young adults despite their use of a much higher shot dose.... The FDA isn't bound by the panel's recommendation and is expected to make its own decision within days. If the FDA authorizes the kid-size doses, there's still another step: Next week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will have to decide whether to recommend the shots and which youngsters should get them." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Oriana Pawlyk of Politico: "A Texas judge on Tuesday dismissed a request for an injunction against an impending vaccine mandate brought by a union that represents pilots at Southwest Airlines, a significant blow against their attempt to sidestep President Joe Biden's mandate for government contractors. Federal workers and government contractors, which includes major U.S. commercial airlines, must be vaccinated by Dec. 8."

The Trump White House's prioritization of election year politics over the pandemic response -- even as cases surged last fall -- is among the worst failures of leadership in American history. -- Rep. James E. Clyburn (D-S.C.) ~~~

~~~ Dan Diamond of the Washington Post: "The Trump administration was 'distracted' by last year's election and ignored recommendations to curb the pandemic, the White House's former coronavirus response coordinator told congressional investigators this month. 'I felt like the White House had gotten somewhat complacent through the campaign season,' said Deborah Birx, who ... Donald Trump chose in March 2020 to steer his government's virus response.... Birx, who sat for interviews with the subcommittee on Oct. 12 and 13, also detailed advice that she said the White House ignored late last year, including more aggressively testing younger Americans, expanding access to virus treatments and better distributing vaccines in long-term care facilities. More than 130,000 American lives could have been saved with swifter action and better coordinated public health messages after the virus' first wave, Birx told lawmakers.... Asked directly if Trump 'did everything he could to try to mitigate the spread of the virus and save lives during the pandemic,' Birx responded 'no.'" Emphasis added. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: You have two choices: (a) you fulfill the minimal requirements of your job, which may compel you to bark orders at a few more people, something you enjoy doing anyway; OR (b) you let 130,000 people die. Which do you choose? Why, (b), if you're Donald Trump. ~~~

     ~~~ Adam Cancryn of Politico: "As Covid-19 surged last winter, the Trump White House was torn between competing factions on how to manage the pandemic, including whether to let the virus spread unchecked to reach herd immunity, former coronavirus response coordinator Deborah Birx told congressional investigators. Birx and other doctors pressed the Trump administration to intensify efforts to control disease spread, according to portions of testimony released Tuesday by the Coronavirus Crisis Select Subcommittee. But ... Donald Trump's hand-picked coronavirus adviser, Scott Atlas, had rapidly consolidated power on a platform that downplayed the seriousness of Covid to most Americans, squeezing out Birx and other top government health officials."

Beyond the Beltway

Adam Gabbatt of the Guardian: "Of the thousands of diehard Trump supporters who gathered in Washington on 6 January, some are now beginning to emerge as Republican candidates for national and local office. The electoral chances of each person vary, but they add to the extremist political landscape, ahead of midterm elections in 2022 that could potentially see Democrats lose the House of Representatives." Read on. And if a picture is worth 1,000 words, then the photo of Pennsylvania Congressional candidate Teddy Daniels, which accompanies the article, speaks volumes.

California. Scott Wilson of the Washington Post: "The torrential rain that fell on much of California in recent days recharged rivers, filled storage tanks and prepared the ground for the next storm, providing what many climate experts say is an auspicious start to the winter. But the rainfall, which set records in some northern cities, was not nearly enough to end the state's deep drought, now affecting 37 million of California's 40 million residents.... The deficit of water from a drought now entering its third year is too great to be made up with just one storm, no matter how powerful it may have been. Compounding the problem, California's warming climate is undermining its ability to dent its droughts in the long term, even when the rains do come."

Idaho. Jesus Jiménez of the New York Times: "The lone suspect in a shooting at a mall in Boise, Idaho, on Monday that killed two people died on Tuesday of injuries he received in an exchange of gunfire with the police, according to the police. The authorities were still investigating the motive for the shooting, in which they say the suspect, Jacob Bergquist, 27, of Boise, fatally shot a mall security guard, Jo Acker, 26, of Caldwell, and Roberto Padilla Arguelles, 49, of Rupert, at Boise Towne Square. At a news conference on Tuesday, Chief Ryan Lee of the Boise Police Department said that Mr. Bergquist had frequented the mall and was known to mall security for calls categorized as disorderly conduct, trespassing and disruptive behavior."

New Mexico. Morgan Lee, et al., of the AP: "Investigators plan to discuss their initial findings Wednesday in the fatal movie-set shooting in which Alec Baldwin fired a prop gun, killing a cinematographer and wounding the director. The news conference by Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza and District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies promises the first detailed public comments by investigators about the killing of 42-year-old Halyna Hutchins during a rehearsal at a New Mexico ranch." ~~~

~~~ Simon Romero, et al., of the New York Times: "The Santa Fe County district attorney said on Tuesday that she was not ruling out criminal charges in last week's fatal shooting on a film set.... The district attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies ... said that the investigation was focusing on ballistics in an effort to determine what kind of round was in the gun that killed Halyna Hutchins, the cinematographer -- and who had placed the ammunition in the gun. 'There were an enormous amount of bullets on this set, and we need to find out what kinds they were,' Ms. Carmack-Altwies said. Detectives said that they recovered three revolvers, spent casings and ammunition -- in boxes, loose and in a fanny pack -- while executing a search warrant on the set, according to an inventory of the items released on Monday."

Pennsylvania. Jessica Lipscomb of the Washington Post: "Ellen Greenberg died in the kitchen of her Philadelphia apartment on the afternoon of a snowstorm in January 2011.... A knife had been plunged into her chest, one of 20 stab wounds discovered on her head, neck and torso.... The death was initially worked as a suicide, then -- after an examination by the medical examiner's office -- as a homicide. But after further investigation, the final determination in March 2011 was that Greenberg had taken her own life." Greensberg's parents are suing to have the autopsy ruling overturned. MB: The article does not address the severity of the 19 stab wounds that the medical examiner apparently found not to be fatal. But unless those were shallow "practice" stabs, I don't see how Greenberg could have stabbed herself 19 times before finally killing herself.

Wisconsin. Timothy Bella of the Washington Post: "A Wisconsin judge ruled Monday that attorneys in the Kyle Rittenhouse murder trial could refer to the men the teen shot in Kenosha, Wis., last year as 'rioters,' 'looters' and 'arsonists.' They could not, however, describe Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber, who were killed, and Gaige Grosskreutz, who was wounded, as 'victims' because the term was 'loaded,' the judge said.... [Judge Bruce] Schroeder said that while he advised Rittenhouse's team against using pejorative terms to describe the three men shot, such language could be used in their closing arguments if evidence shows the men participated in criminal acts.... Although such rulings are not uncommon in trials in which there is a dispute over self-defense, prosecutors suggested the judge was employing a double standard...." MB: No kidding.

News Ledes

New York Times: "Hurricane-force winds from an early-season nor'easter swept through coastal New England on Wednesday, a day after battering the New York City area, sending trees crashing onto power lines and cutting electricity to hundreds of thousands of households. The winds, which gusted to 94 miles per hour on Martha's Vineyard in the pre-dawn hours, picked up a small aircraft at the New Bedford Regional Airport, lifting it over a fence and onto a roadway, and peeled the roof off an apartment building in Quincy, Mass., snapping the eight-inch bolts that held it down."

New York Times: "Mort Sahl, who confronted Eisenhower-era cultural complacency with acid stage monologues, delivering biting social commentary in the guise of a stand-up comedian and thus changing the nature of both stand-up comedy and social commentary, died on Tuesday at his home in Mill Valley, Calif., near San Francisco. He was 94."Politico's obituary is here.