The Commentariat -- October 23, 2021

Late Morning Update:

Jacqueline Alemany, et al., of the Washington Post: "They called it the 'command center,' a set of rooms and suites in the posh Willard hotel a block from the White House where some of ... Donald Trump's most loyal lieutenants were working day and night with one goal in mind: overturning the results of the 2020 election.... The activities at the Willard that week add to an emerging picture of a less visible effort, mapped out in memos by a conservative pro-Trump legal scholar and pursued by a team of presidential advisers and lawyers seeking to pull off what they claim was a legal strategy to reinstate Trump for a second term. They were led by Trump's personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani. Former chief White House strategist Stephen K. Bannon was an occasional presence as the effort's senior political adviser. Former New York City police commissioner Bernard Kerik was there as an investigator. Also present was John Eastman, the scholar, who outlined scenarios for denying Biden the presidency in an Oval Office meeting on Jan. 4 with Trump and Vice President Mike Pence."

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AP: "China on Friday said there is 'no room' for compromise or concessions over the issue of Taiwan, following a comment by U.S. President Joe Biden that the U.S. is committed to defending the island if it is attacked. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin reasserted China's longstanding claim that the island is its territory at a daily briefing after Biden made his comment a day before at a forum hosted by CNN. China has recently upped its threat to bring Taiwan under its control by force if necessary by flying warplanes near the island and rehearsing beach landings.... Biden's comments on Thursday were viewed as stretching the 'strategic ambiguity' Washington has maintained over how it would respond to an assault on the self-governing island republic.... In his comments, Biden said the U.S. did not want a new Cold War but expressed concern about whether China was 'going to engage in activities that will put them in a position where they may make a serious mistake.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Biden on Friday named Neera Tanden, a longtime Democratic insider in Washington, to be White House staff secretary, moving her into a little-known but influential West Wing post after failing earlier this year to install her as the director of the Office of Management and Budget. For the last several months, Ms. Tanden has been a senior adviser to the president, working quietly behind the scenes to build support among interest groups for his social spending agenda and overseeing a government reform agenda with officials at the budget office." CNN's report is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "Attorney General Merrick Garland on Friday launched a new Justice Department initiative aimed at combating discriminatory lending policies among banks, saying the practice harms minority communities and contributes to the racial wealth gap. In an address to staff, Garland cited the history of banks denying loans to Black borrowers during the Great Depression -- a tactic known as redlining -- and warned that such practices remain widespread more than 90 years later. He said the department would, in conjunction with other federal agencies, mount the federal government's 'most aggressive and coordinated effort' to root out and punish those who violate federal laws that prohibit such practices.:

** Katelyn Polantz, et al., of CNN: "The House select committee investigating the US Capitol insurrection is planning for former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark to testify next Friday -- teeing him up to be the first Trump administration official to comply with a subpoena for an interview with the panel, two sources ... told CNN. Clark's testimony could be a major step forward for Democrats as they attempt to determine what ... Donald Trump, Republican members of Congress and his advisers did and said behind closed doors about overturning the results of the 2020 election before January 6. CNN has also learned that Alyssa Farah, former director of strategic communications in the Trump White House and assistant to the president, has voluntarily met with Republicans on the House select committee and provided information in several meetings...."

Marshall Cohen & Holmes Lybrand of CNN: "A federal judge said Friday that defiant US Capitol rioters, who are still defending their role in the January 6 insurrection, are fueling threats against judges from people who falsely believe the 2020 election was stolen from ... Donald Trump. 'It bothers me that she would try to associate herself with that type of violence... and then she goes on television on two occasions and is proud of what she did, and says she would do it again,' district Judge Reggie Walton said at a hearing for Capitol riot defendant Lori Vinson. 'I know that these types of comments have an impact,' Walton added. 'As judges, we're getting all kinds of threats and hostile phone calls when we have these (January 6) cases before us, because there are unfortunately other people out there who buy in on this proposition, even though there was no proof, that somehow the election was fraudulent.' These comments came at a sentencing hearing for Vinson and her husband, Thomas Vinson. Walton gave them each five years of probation and a $5,000 fine -- the maximum allowed, and the largest for a Capitol rioter so far. Prosecutors asked for a month in jail for Lori and house arrest for Thomas."

Madeleine May of Vice: "On December 5..., Donald Trump singled ... out [Richard Barron, elections director of Georgia's Fulton County,] at a rally in Valdosta, Georgia. He showed a video of Barron to the hundreds of attendees, and voiced conspiracies about voter fraud in Georgia. 'So, if you just take the crime of what those Democratic workers were doing,' said Trump, 'that's ten times more than I need to win the state.'... Barron [and] his entire election staff became a target [of dozens of threatening voicemails].... 'My staff is almost exclusively African American, and they started receiving calls laced with racial slurs.' Physical threats began as well.... [People were surveilling the elections facility, taking photos of individuals & of license plates.] Officials across the United States experienced physical stalking, explicitly violent phone calls, racial slurs, home surveillance, bomb scares, and threats of mass shootings.... In election hotspots like Georgia, Arizona, and Pennsylvania, many of these threats came directly after Trump mentioned election workers (like Barron) at events and in tweets.... For some officials in Georgia and Pennsylvania, the threats have continued for nearly a year. And now, many of these officials want to quit."

Colin Moynihan of the New York Times: "On Friday, in Federal District Court in Manhattan, [Lev] Parnas and an associate, Andrey Kukushkin, were convicted on all counts [brought for campaign finance crimes]. [His associate Igor] Fruman and a fourth defendant, David Correia, had pleaded guilty previously.... [Mr.] Parnas and his business partner, [Mr.] Fruman, had climbed to prominent places in the orbit of ... Donald J. Trump when they were arrested at Dulles International Airport near Washington in 2019 while holding one-way tickets to Frankfurt. The two Soviet-born businessmen were accused of funneling a Russian tycoon's money into American political campaigns. But in the two years that followed, Mr. Parnas's role in events connected to Mr. Trump's first impeachment slowly emerged. He acknowledged participating in an effort by Rudolph W. Giuliani to pressure Ukrainian officials to investigate Joe Biden, who was then a leading Democratic presidential candidate. Even as Mr. Parnas's profile grew, though, the campaign finance charges against him loomed.... Speaking outside the courtroom after the verdict was announced, Mr. Parnas’s lawyer, Joseph A. Bondy, said his client planned to appeal and seek to have the conviction vacated." Thanks to P.D. Pepe for the link. An AP story is here.

Katie Lillis of CNN: "Michael Ellis, who was installed as the top lawyer at the National Security Agency during ... Donald Trump's final days in office, was appropriately sidelined the day after his arrival at the agency based on a pair of security incidents that took place in early 2021, the Defense Department inspector general found in a report released on Thursday. The investigation also found that the Pentagon's selection of Ellis for the role was appropriate and carried out without political influence. The two security incidents took place after Ellis' hiring in the fall of 2020, but before he started work on January 19, according to the report. NSA Director Gen. Paul Nakasone placed him on administrative leave on January 20, the day President Joe Biden was inaugurated." MB: Read on. Ellis's actions sound remarkably careless/suspicious to me. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court on Friday said it will consider legal arguments over the Texas abortion law that is the nation's most restrictive on Nov. 1, and that the law will remain in effect. The court granted an expedited review of what is called S. B. 8, which the Biden administration in a filing Friday said 'has virtually eliminated abortion in Texas after six weeks of pregnancy.'... The court said it will consider the law's unique enforcement policy, which authorizes individual citizens to sue anyone who helps a woman obtain an abortion after cardiac activity is noted in the embryo, usually about six weeks. The court did not accept a request from Texas specifically to reconsider Roe and Casey.... Justice Sonia Sotomayor was the lone dissenter in the order." MB: Just put those unwanted pregnancies on holds, Texas gals. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Ryan Mac & Sheera Frenkel of the New York Times: "Facebook has publicly blamed the proliferation of election falsehoods on ... Donald J. Trump and other social platforms.... But the company documents show the degree to which Facebook knew of extremist movements and groups on its site that were trying to polarize American voters before the election. The documents also give new detail on how aware company researchers were after the election of the flow of misinformation that posited votes had been manipulated against Mr. Trump.... What was unmistakable was that Facebook's own employees believed the social network could have done more, according to the documents.... Disclosures from [Facebook whistleblower Frances] Haugen, who plans to appear at a hearing in Britain's Parliament on Monday, have resurfaced questions about what role Facebook played in the events leading up to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot." The article gives some preliminary hints of how large a role Facebook content played in the insurrection. ~~~

~~~ Craig Timberg, et al., of the Washington Post: "... in the days after the 2020 presidential election..., many who had worked on the election, exhausted from months of unrelenting toil, took leaves of absence or moved on to other jobs. Facebook rolled back many of the dozens of election-season measures that it had used to suppress hateful, deceptive content. A ban the company had imposed on the original Stop the Steal group stopped short of addressing dozens of look-alikes that popped up in what an internal Facebook after-action report called 'coordinated' and 'meteoric' growth. Meanwhile, the company's Civic Integrity team was largely disbanded by a management that had grown weary of the team's criticisms of the company.... [On January 6,] measures of online mayhem surged alarmingly on Facebook, with user reports of 'false news' hitting nearly 40,000 per hour, an internal report that day showed. On Facebook-owned Instagram, the account reported most often for inciting violence was @realdonaldtrump -- the president's official account, the report showed. Facebook has never publicly disclosed what it knows about how its platforms, including Instagram and WhatsApp, helped fuel that day's mayhem." Emphasis added. CNN's report is here. ~~~

~~~ Brandy Zadrozny of NBC News: "In the summer of 2019, a new Facebook user named Carol Smith ... describ[ed] herself as a politically conservative mother from Wilmington, North Carolina. Smith's account indicated an interest in politics, parenting, and Christianity, and followed a few of her favorite brands, including Fox News and ... Donald Trump. Though Smith had never expressed interest in conspiracy theories, in just two days Facebook was recommending she join groups dedicated to QAnon.... Smith didn't follow the recommended QAnon groups, but whatever algorithm Facebook was using to determine how she should engage with the platform pushed ahead just the same. Within one week, Smith's feed was full of groups and pages that had violated Facebook's own rules, including those against hate speech and disinformation. Smith wasn't a real person. A researcher employed by Facebook invented the account, along with those of other fictitious 'test users' in 2019 and 2020, as part of an experiment in studying the platform's role in misinforming and polarizing users through its recommendations systems. That researcher said Smith's Facebook experience was 'a barrage of extreme, conspiratorial, and graphic content." The NYT story linked above also outlines the finding for the "Carol Smith" account. ~~~

~~~ Craig Timberg of the Washington Post: "A new whistleblower affidavit submitted by a former Facebook employee Friday alleges that the company prizes growth and profits over combating hate speech, misinformation and other threats to the public, according to a copy of the document obtained by The Washington Post. The whistleblower's allegations, which were declared under penalty of perjury..., echoed many of those made by Frances Haugen, another former Facebook employee whose scathing testimony before Congress this month intensified bipartisan calls for federal action against the company. Haugen, like the new whistleblower, also made allegations to the Securities and Exchange Commission, which oversees publicly traded companies.... The SEC affidavit goes on to allege that Facebook officials routinely undermined efforts to fight misinformation, hate speech and other problematic content out of fear of angering ... Donald Trump and his political allies, or out of concern about potentially dampening the user growth key to Facebook's multi-billion-dollar profits."

Dan Milmo of the Guardian: "Twitter has admitted it amplifies more tweets from rightwing politicians and news outlets than content from leftwing sources. The social media platform examined tweets from elected officials in seven countries -- the UK, US, Canada, France, Germany, Spain and Japan. It also studied whether political content from news organisations was amplified on Twitter, focusing primarily on US news sources such as Fox News, the New York Times and BuzzFeed.... The research found that in six out of seven countries, apart from Germany, tweets from rightwing politicians received more amplification from the algorithm than those from the left; right-leaning news organisations were more amplified than those on the left; and generally politicians' tweets were more amplified by an algorithmic timeline than by the chronological timeline."

Eileen Sullivan & Miriam Jordan of the New York Times: "A record 1.7 million migrants from around the world, many of them fleeing pandemic-ravaged countries, were encountered trying to enter the United States illegally in the last 12 months, capping a year of chaos at the southern border, which has emerged as one of the most formidable challenges for the Biden administration. It was the highest number of illegal crossings recorded since at least 1960, when the government first began tracking such entries. The number was similarly high for the 2000 fiscal year, when border agents caught 1.6 million people, according to government data."

Beyond the Beltway

Nevada. Amy Wang of the Washington Post: "... a few days after Election Day..., [Donald Kirk Hartle, a] Las Vegas man, was telling a local news station that someone had stolen his late wife's mail-in ballot and returned it to Clark County election officials, according to Nevada's online ballot tracker. 'That is pretty sickening to me, to be honest with you,' Hartle said in an interview then with KLAS 8 News Now.... On Thursday, the Nevada attorney general's office announced it had filed two charges of voter fraud against Hartle, alleging that he forged his late wife's name to vote with her ballot.... The claims by Hartle, a registered Republican, spread quickly in conservative circles, jumping from local outlets to Fox News's Tucker Carlson, who used it to bolster Trump supporters' assertions that widespread voter fraud could have swayed the 2020 election results."

New Mexico. Simon Romero, et al., of the New York Times follow up on the shooting death of Halyna Hutchins on a film set by actor-producer Alec Baldwin: "The plot of the film Mr. Baldwin was shooting, 'Rust,' hinges on an accidental killing and its aftermath.... An assistant director grabbed one of three prop guns that the film's armorer had set up outside on a gray cart, handed it to Mr. Baldwin, and, according to an affidavit signed by Detective Joel Cano of the Santa Fe County sheriff's office, yelled 'Cold Gun!' -- which was supposed to indicate that the gun did not have any live rounds in it.... Several members of the crew walked off the set earlier this week over working conditions, according to several people familiar with the shoot.... On film sets, the safety protocols for using guns are well established and straightforward...." See also related stories in yesterday's News Ledes.

October 22, 2021

Afternoon Update:

Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court on Friday said it will consider legal arguments over the Texas abortion law that is the nation's most restrictive on Nov. 1, and that the law will remain in effect. The court granted an expedited review of what is called S. B. 8, which the Biden administration in a filing Friday said 'has virtually eliminated abortion in Texas after six weeks of pregnancy.'... The court said it will consider the law's unique enforcement policy, which authorizes individual citizens to sue anyone who helps a woman obtain an abortion after cardiac activity is noted in the embryo, usually about six weeks. The court did not accept a request from Texas specifically to reconsider Roe and Casey.... Justice Sonia Sotomayor was the lone dissenter in the order." MB: Just put those unwanted pregnancies on holds, Texas gals.

Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Biden on Friday named Neera Tanden, a longtime Democratic insider in Washington, to be White House staff secretary, moving her into a little-known but influential West Wing post after failing earlier this year to install her as the director of the Office of Management and Budget. For the last several months, Ms. Tanden has been a senior adviser to the president, working quietly behind the scenes to build support among interest groups for his social spending agenda and overseeing a government reform agenda with officials at the budget office." CNN's report is here.

AP: "China on Friday said there is 'no room' for compromise or concessions over the issue of Taiwan, following a comment by U.S. President Joe Biden that the U.S. is committed to defending the island if it is attacked. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin reasserted China's longstanding claim that the island is its territory at a daily briefing after Biden made his comment a day before at a forum hosted by CNN. China has recently upped its threat to bring Taiwan under its control by force if necessary by flying warplanes near the island and rehearsing beach landings.... Biden's comments on Thursday were viewed as stretching the 'strategic ambiguity' Washington has maintained over how it would respond to an assault on the self-governing island republic.... In his comments, Biden said the U.S. did not want a new Cold War but expressed concern about whether China was 'going to engage in activities that will put them in a position where they may make a serious mistake.'"

Katie Lillis of CNN: "Michael Ellis, who was installed as the top lawyer at the National Security Agency during ... Donald Trump's final days in office, was appropriately sidelined the day after his arrival at the agency based on a pair of security incidents that took place in early 2021, the Defense Department inspector general found in a report released on Thursday. The investigation also found that the Pentagon's selection of Ellis for the role was appropriate and carried out without political influence. The two security incidents took place after Ellis' hiring in the fall of 2020, but before he started work on January 19, according to the report. NSA Director Gen. Paul Nakasone placed him on administrative leave on January 20, the day President Joe Biden was inaugurated." MB: Read on. Ellis's actions sound remarkably careless/suspicious to me.

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Michael Shear & Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "President Biden said on Thursday that he was open to ending the Senate filibuster so Democrats could pass voting rights legislation, raise the federal debt limit and possibly enact other parts of his agenda that had been blocked by Republicans.... Mr. Biden was blunt about his intentions once the debate over the spending bills was over. He said the need to pass sweeping voting rights legislation favored by Democrats is 'equally as consequential' as the debt limit vote, which protects the full faith and credit of the United States.... The president spoke of the filibuster during a 90-minute event [-- a CNN "town hall" --] in which he also expressed confidence that Democrats were closer to a deal on his sprawling domestic policy package, which he said would surpass the Affordable Care Act in its scope and impact on American society." ~~~

     ~~~ Matt Viser of the Washington Post: "President Biden on Thursday night sought to use a 90-minute nationally televised town hall to breathe life into his domestic agenda, making a final push for Democratic lawmakers to unite behind trillions of dollars in new spending. He spoke in detail about various proposals and revealed with remarkable candor a number of specifics from the private negotiations, shedding new light on the status of his ambitious spending plans.... In multiple instances, he cited the opposition of two moderate senators, Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), saying that after more than 100 hours of negotiation they had forced him to shift gears.... With 50 Democrats in the 100-member Senate, 'everyone is a president,' Biden said. 'Every single one. So you gotta work something out.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Claire Rafford of Politico: "President Joe Biden on Thursday reaffirmed the Justice Department's independence in the investigations into the violent insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6. In doing so, he partially walked back a comment he made last week in which he said he hopes the department 'goes after them and holds them accountable criminally,' referring to those who defied subpoenas to produce documents and testify in front of Congress. 'The way I said it was not appropriate,' Biden said at a CNN town hall on Thursday evening. When asked last Friday whether the Justice Department should prosecute people who refuse to appear under subpoena, Biden said, 'I do, yes.'... 'I have yet to talk to the attorney general about anything,' he added. However, Biden doubled down on his support for pressing charges against those who defy subpoenas from the House select committee investigating the events of Jan. 6. 'I think that anyone who does not respond to that kind of question from the legitimate committee and the House of Representatives [and] the United States Senate should be held accountable,' he said." ~~~

     ~~~ Stephen Collinson of CNN: "Joe Biden, showing candor and good humor, on Thursday reminded America why it picked him as President in a dark hour of crisis. But, at a CNN town hall in Baltimore, he also showed his tendency to send his own White House into emergency damage control as he flipped set-in-stone policy off the cuff, and offered gaping openings for his Republican foes.... Overall, Biden appeared to do his stalled Washington agenda considerable good, and completed some handy repair work on a presidential image badly scarred by a wretched summer that dented his approval ratings.... Biden came across as humble, decent and humane -- in his element with the audience. His self-deprecation was in stark contrast to the constantly boastful persona and raging victim-complex of his predecessor and was one of the keys to why he beat Trump last year." ~~~

~~~ Myah Ward & Sam Stein of Politico: "President Joe Biden's CNN town hall on Thursday ... seemed crafted for an audience of two. Biden spent the first portion of the evening in Baltimore not only confirming the various concessions he is likely to make in order to pass his Build Back Better agenda. He also discussed in notable specifics the areas where he is finding disagreement with Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.)[.]... The remarks ... effectively placed the two senators at center stage. And they suggest that the White House is still having difficulty coming to final agreements on key items and might be eager to see Democratic voters intensify the pressure campaigns on them to get on board." ~~~

~~~ Burgess Everett & Marianne Levine of Politico: "Joe Manchin and Bernie Sanders tangled in a private Democratic meeting this week that helped set the stage for growing progress on President Joe Biden's agenda. As Democratic leadership gathered Monday..., Manchin (D-W.Va.) laid out what he could accept.... Universal pre-K was in, he said, but no tuition-free community college.... 'Bullshit,' Sanders said, according to a readout of the meeting.... Sanders said Manchin was telling the rest of the Democratic caucus to go 'F themselves' and bend to one senator's agenda. Manchin disputed that, recounting that he'd told Biden the president did not win West Virginia and his very presence in the Senate is remarkable. Shortly after that tussle, Manchin and Sanders met privately, posed for a photo together and publicly reconciled. They've met four times so far this week, each softening their rhetoric toward one another and speaking more hopefully of a deal even as they continue to spar behind the scenes." ~~~

~~~ Mariana Alfaro of the Washington Post: "Five veterans on Sen. Kyrsten Sinema's advisory council resigned, accusing the centrist Arizona Democrat of being 'one of the principal obstacles to progress' because she refuses to back key provisions of President Biden's agenda that 'support our veteran community and protect the very heart and soul of our nation.' In a letter, first reported by the New York Times, the veterans said they could no longer stand by Sinema as she continues to oppose portions of the president's multitrillion-dollar domestic policy agenda. They also criticized her opposition to abolishing the filibuster, a tool Republicans are using to block voting rights legislation. The veterans said Sinema is hanging her constituents 'out to dry' and accused her of 'answering to donors rather than your own people.'... The group also took issue with her lack of support for negotiations on reducing the cost of prescription medication, which they said contravenes her campaign promises.... Portions of the letter are being used in a new ad by the progressive veterans group Common Defense. The ad will air in Phoenix and Tucson and calls on Sinema to support Biden's economic agenda." ~~~

~~~ David Litt in a Guardian op-ed: "West Virginia's Joe Manchin, who raised more than $400,000 from the oil and gas industry while the [Build Back Better] bill was being negotiated, is now poised to gut [President] Biden's clean-energy plan. Arizona's Kyrsten Sinema spent the summer and fall collecting checks from corporate groups and Trump donors who oppose the Biden agenda, then helped cut the size of the reconciliation package by approximately half. Political horse-trading is nothing new.... But there's still something unseemly about the way this bill has been negotiated.... It's impossible to know for certain which provisions, if any, were cut because of wealthy campaign donors. But that's precisely the problem, and it goes far beyond one bill and two senators. Our campaign finance system -- one that has existed for barely more than a decade -- makes it nearly impossible to distinguish between politics-as-usual, influence peddling and outright bribery."

Rebecca Beitsch & Cristina Marcos of the Hill: "The House on Thursday voted to hold Steve Bannon in contempt of Congress after he defied a subpoena from the Jan. 6 committee, a remarkable censure of the former Trump White House strategist that leaves the Department of Justice to weigh whether to pursue criminal charges. The vote fell almost entirely along party lines, 229-202. Nine Republicans voted with every Democrat in favor of the resolution: Reps. Liz Cheney (Wyo.), Brian Fitzpatrick (Pa.), Anthony Gonzalez (Ohio), Jaime Herrera Beutler(Wash.), John Katko (N.Y.), Adam Kinzinger (Ill.), Nancy Mace (S.C.), Peter Meijer (Mich.) and Fred Upton (Mich.). All but two of those Republicans voted to impeach ... Trump after the Jan. 6 insurrection." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) The Guardian's story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ ** Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "... what was clear on Thursday was that nine months after the deadliest attack on the Capitol in two centuries, many Republicans in Congress remain bent on whitewashing, ignoring or even validating what took place as their party continues to embrace the lie of a stolen election.... [They] followed the lead of Mr. Trump, who in a statement before the vote derided the election he lost as a crime and praised the mob attack -- which injured 140 police officers and claimed several lives -- as a legitimate response. 'The insurrection took place on Nov. 3, Election Day,' Mr. Trump wrote. 'Jan. 6 was the protest!'... The question of what will happen to Mr. Bannon now goes to the Justice Department, where Attorney General Merrick B. Garland has declined to say whether he will move forward with charges." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Broadwater's report is as close as we'll ever get to a condemnation of the bulk of the Republican party in a straight news story running on the online front page of the paper. The editors seem to have escaped, at least for the moment, he-said/she-said "journalism." As for Bannon, he must be thrilled to find himself once again, more or less, "on the cover of the Rolling Stone." ~~~

     ~~~ Scott Wong of the Hill: "Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), tangled with two members of the Jan. 6 committee on the House floor Thursday, getting into an impromptu shouting match over Black Lives Matter and a wild conspiracy theory about space lasers starting California wildfires. Greene, a top Trump loyalist, crossed the aisle and approached Reps. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) as voting began on a resolution holding a former adviser of former President Trump, Stephen Bannon, in contempt for defying panel subpoenas." MB: It appears Margie & Liz said some things that could inspire the House to discipline them for "disorderly behavior."

Annie Grayer & Zachary Cohen of CNN: "GOP Rep. Jim Banks lamented on the House floor that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi prevented him from serving on the House committee investigating the January 6 attack on the US Capitol on Thursday. And yet, Banks sent a letter to at least one government agency falsely claiming that he is ranking member of the committee in his signature. Fellow Republican Liz Cheney, who serves as vice chair of the committee, called Banks out for his actions on the House floor as the House began debate on the criminal contempt referral of Steve Bannon ... for evading a subpoena.... According to a letter provided to CNN, Banks wrote to the Department of the Interior on September 16 asking to be provided with any information the department turns over to the House committee.... Banks signed the letter as ranking member of the committee, while admitting that Pelosi blocked his appointment." Marie of Romania: And Donald Trump is the real president*.

Katie Benner of the New York Times: "Attorney General Merrick B. Garland sidestepped questions from Democrats in Congress on Thursday about whether the Justice Department would back their latest efforts in the investigation of the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. He also batted away criticism from Republicans that he had politicized the department's response to threats of violence stemming from the debate over how racial issues are taught in schools. In his first oversight hearing as attorney general, Mr. Garland told the House Judiciary Committee that the special counsel appointed by the Trump administration to scrutinize the Russia investigation, John H. Durham, had his budget approved for another year, indicating that his work was ongoing. And Mr. Garland confirmed that the department's tax-related investigation of President Biden's son Hunter Biden was continuing.... Mr. Garland used his opening statement to walk lawmakers through the work done over the past several months to address what he considers the department's top priorities: upholding the rule of law, keeping the country safe and protecting civil rights."

Catie Edmondson & Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "The House Committee on Ethics on Thursday released four reports into separate violations of ethics rules by four congressmen, portraying what investigators suggested was a sweeping array of improper financial conduct. The allegations against three Republicans and one Democrat center on stock trades and the improper use of campaign funds, according to the Office of Congressional Ethics, which investigated the cases. Representative Mike Kelly, Republican of Pennsylvania, is under scrutiny over stock purchases by his wife that investigators say were affected by his actions as a member of Congress. Representative Tom Malinowski, Democrat of New Jersey, is facing allegations that he failed to properly disclose hundreds of thousands of dollars in stock trades. Representative Alex X. Mooney, Republican of West Virginia, is accused of improperly using campaign funds for personal expenses, and Representative Jim Hagedorn, Republican of Minnesota, of improperly awarding contracts to companies owned by his aides' relatives. All four cases will continue to be reviewed by the House Ethics Committee, a bipartisan panel of lawmakers charged with enforcing the chamber's internal rules....

"In a particularly scathing report about Mr. Kelly and his wife, Victoria Kelly, investigators concluded that there was 'substantial reason to believe' that she had bought stock in a steel company with a plant in her husband's district 'based upon confidential information' that he had 'learned from his official job duties.'"

Michael Schmidt & Katie Benner of the New York Times: "The Justice Department has added two top prosecutors from Washington to the child sex trafficking investigation of Representative Matt Gaetz [R-Fla.], according to two people briefed on the matter, a sign of the complex and high-stakes nature of the inquiry into Mr. Gaetz.... The Washington prosecutors have joined a group of federal authorities in Florida who have been investigating accusations of sex trafficking, fraud and corruption by several people connected to Republican politics in Florida, including Mr. Gaetz. The authorities have been examining whether Mr. Gaetz violated a federal child sex trafficking law by providing goods or payments to a 17-year-old girl in exchange for sex." A Raw Story summary report is here. MB: This does look like another bad-hair day for Matt, but I have a feeling DOJ will decide not to prosecute him; I hope I'm wrong.

Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post: "Recently ... GOP leaders have been cobbling together a new coalition, welcoming insurrectionists, white-nationalist tiki-torchers and people who think Bill Gates is trying to microchip them. The latest recruit to the Big Tent? Tax cheats.... [Democrats have initiated a financial transactions] reporting proposal [that] is estimated to bring in $200 billion to $250 billion in revenue over the next decade, according to Treasury. This is revenue that would be collected without having to raise a single tax rate, which you'd think Republicans would applaud. Instead, the GOP, backed by the bank lobby, has fought every version of the reporting policy tooth and nail. Just as they did with Obamacare 'death panels,' Republicans have megaphoned misinformation.... The GOP seeks to exploit the confusion of honest, rank-and-file taxpayers. Their income is already quite well reported to the IRS...."

Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "A Texas man charged in the Capitol riot was sentenced to 14 months of incarceration Thursday after pleading guilty to a felony count of making an interstate threat based on social media posts from his Washington hotel room on Jan. 6 and 7. Troy Smocks, 59, was the second person to be sentenced among the 15 felony defendants who have pleaded guilty to charges related to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by a pro-Trump mob. Smocks, of Dallas, admitted posting a message on Parler as 'ColonelTPerez' the day after the riot that was viewed at least 54,000 times, stating: 'Prepare our weapons, and then go get'em. Lets hunt these cowards down like the Traitors that each of them are. This includes RINOS, Dems, and Tech Execs. We now have the green light.'"

David Enrich, et al., of the New York Times: "After decades of bankruptcies, loan defaults, business disputes and commercial failures -- not to mention a polarizing presidency that ended with a violent mob storming the Capitol -- Donald J. Trump was shunned by much of corporate America. Now, thanks to one of Wall Street's hottest fads, the former president has managed to sidestep that tarnished reputation and gain access to hundreds of millions of dollars to launch a social media company. Riding to his rescue: SPACs. Special purpose acquisition companies are the reverse of initial public offerings. Sometimes called blank-check companies, SPACs go public first and raise money from investors with the goal of finding a private company to merge with. Those investors have no clue about what that merger partner will turn out to be. Which led some of the prominent investors in a SPAC called Digital World Acquisition -- including the hedge funds D.E. Shaw and Saba Capital -- to the surprising realization that they were financially backing Mr. Trump's latest company. Mr. Trump's new company, Trump Media and Technology Group -- incorporated in Delaware in February with little fanfare, and with no revenue or tested business plan -- reached a deal to merge with Digital World on Wednesday." ~~~

~~~ A Pig Takes a Dump on Donald's "Media Powerhouse," Which Is, Apparently, a Perfect Metaphor. Drew Harwell of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump and his team declared Wednesday night that they would soon launch a 'media powerhouse' that would help them triumph in their long-running war against Big Tech. But within hours, pranksters found what appeared to be an unreleased test version and posted a picture of a defecating pig to the 'donaldjtrump' account.... The site, called Truth Social [MB: Hahahaha], has since been pulled offline, evidence that Trump is likely to face a daunting challenge in building an Internet business that can stand on its own.... The site's early hours revealed lax security, rehashed features and a flurry of bizarre design decisions. An open sign-up page allowed anyone to use the site shortly after it was revealed, sparking the creation of the 'donaldjtrump' account and the pig posting. A Washington Post reporter was able to register and post under the account name 'mikepence' without any stops in place. New sign-ups were blocked shortly after.... The site looks almost entirely like a Twitter clone.... The site's code shows it runs a mostly unmodified version of Mastodon, the free, open-source software ... that anyone can use to run a self-made social networking site.... Though the site portrays itself as a refuge for free speech uncensored by Big Tech, Trump's site will ban any content that would 'disparage, tarnish, or otherwise harm, in our opinion, us and/or the Site,' the terms state." ~~~

     ~~~ Joseph Cox of Vice: "... Donald Trump's new social network "Truth Social" is seemingly a thinly disguised fork of popular social network codebase Mastodon [and is using the open software code without giving Mastodon credit.... In some instances, the Trump site accidentally uses Mastodon's own logo and contact info. The] terms [of Trump's site] say that 'all source code' of Truth Social is proprietary. That might run afoul of Mastodon's own license. '... Mastodon is free software, released under the AGPLv3 license, so anyone can use it -- provided they comply with the license. The main part of the license is making the source code and any modifications to it available to the public, [Mastodon's founder Eugen] Rochko told Motherboard." ~~~

     ~~~ Another Trump Product Destined to Fail. Jack Shafer of Politico in Politico Magazine: "There's nothing new about the comic grandiosity of TMTG's ambitions.... It only conforms with Trump's long-held belief that 'truthful hyperbole' is the key to selling real estate -- or any of the crap products (steaks, mattresses, water, men's wear, vodka, perfume, eyeglasses, coffee) Trump has hawked to resistant customers.... All those overpriced, shoddy namesake products failed in the marketplace because Trump didn't know how to compete with people who really understood those businesses. We can expect Truth Social and the other world-beater enterprises TMTG proposes to likewise be sucked into the void because Trump 1) has no clue about how to run media or tech properties and 2) lacks sufficient appeal."

The Pandemic, Ctd.

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

Apoorva Mandavilli of the New York Times: "In a sweeping victory for the Biden administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday endorsed booster shots of the Moderna and the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccines for tens of millions of Americans. The decision follows an agency endorsement last month of booster shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and opens the door for many Americans to seek out a booster shot as early as Friday.... [The] approval [by Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky, director of the C.D.C.,] brings the country closer to fulfilling President Biden's promise in August to offer boosters to all adults. The pandemic is now retreating in most parts of the country, but there are still about 75,000 new cases every day, and about 1,500 Covid deaths." The Washington Post story is free to nonsubscribers. Politico's story is here.

Beyond the Beltway

Texas. This Should Be Fair & Impartial. David Goodman of the New York Times: "Amid pressure from ... Donald J. Trump to support a broad review of the 2020 election in Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott on Thursday appointed as secretary of state a lawyer who briefly joined Mr. Trump's challenge to the 2020 results in Pennsylvania. The new secretary of state, John Scott, will oversee Texas elections at a time when a new law imposing further restrictions on voting and a Republican redistricting plan have raised alarm among voting rights advocates that the state's growing nonwhite population would not be fairly represented. More immediately, Mr. Scott, a Fort Worth lawyer who worked for Mr. Abbott when he was the state's attorney general, will take charge of a limited review of the 2020 election results that Mr. Abbott, a Republican, ordered last month for four of the most populous counties in Texas."

Utah. Laura Meckler of the Washington Post: "A federal investigation into a Utah school district found 'serious and widespread racial harassment' of Black and Asian American students and a persistent failure by school officials to respond, the Justice Department said Thursday. The investigation concluded that the Davis school district in Farmington, Utah, failed to address pervasive and racist harassment of students of color, disciplined Black students more harshly than White students for comparable behavior, and denied Black students' request to form student groups while allowing other students to do so.... Sometimes the offensive behavior came from district staff, the investigation found, with staff members ridiculing students in front of their peers, endorsing pejorative stereotypes of people of color in class and retaliating against students of color for reporting harassment. Under a settlement with the Justice Department, the district agreed to take several steps to better identify and respond to discrimination complaints." MB: The article cites some disgusting particulars.

Way Beyond

Haiti.  Widmore Merancourt & Amanda Coletta of the Washington Post: "The head of the gang that kidnapped 17 members of an Ohio-based Christian missionary group threatened to kill them if his demands aren't met, according to a video that circulated online Thursday, as the chief of police in this beleaguered Caribbean nation resigned. Wilson Joseph, head of 400 Mawozo, a street gang notorious for violent mass abductions, did not say what his demands were or provide a deadline in the video that circulated on social media. Liszt Quitel, Haiti's justice minister, told The Washington Post this week that the gang was seeking a ransom of $1 million per person in exchange for their release."

Russia. A Virtual Iron Curtain. Adam Satariano & Paul Mozur of the New York Times: "Russia's boldest moves to censor the internet began in the most mundane of ways -- with a series of bureaucratic emails and forms. The messages, sent by Russia's powerful internet regulator, demanded technical details -- like traffic numbers, equipment specifications and connection speeds -- from companies that provide internet and telecommunications services across the country. Then the black boxes arrived. The telecom companies had no choice but to step aside as government-approved technicians installed the equipment alongside their own computer systems and servers. Sometimes caged behind lock and key, the new gear linked back to a command center in Moscow, giving authorities startling new powers to block, filter and slow down websites that they did not want the Russian public to see. The process, underway since 2019, represents the start of perhaps the world's most ambitious digital censorship effort outside of China."

U.K. Mark Landler of the New York Times: "Queen Elizabeth II entered the hospital on Wednesday afternoon for tests and was discharged on Thursday, a day after Buckingham Palace announced she would cancel a visit to Northern Ireland on the advice of her doctors.... People with ties to the palace said the decision to cancel the Northern Ireland trip was prompted by concerns that the queen, 95, was exhausted after a hectic series of public events, including a reception for business people, including Bill Gates, at Windsor Castle on Tuesday evening." MB: Yeah, I imagine anyone would find it rather exhausting to have to listen to Bill Gates.

News Ledes

New York Times: "Earl Old Person, the chief of the Blackfeet Nation who for nearly 70 years pushed for its economic development and self-sufficiency and against what he saw as an unreliable, at times untrustworthy federal government, died on Oct. 13 in Browning, Mont. He was 92."

New York Times: "Peter Scolari, a familiar face on 'Bosom Buddies,' 'Newhart,' 'Girls' and other television shows and in Broadway, Off Broadway and regional theater productions, died on Friday in Manhattan. He was 66."

CNN: "Convicted killer Robert Durst, who was the subject of the HBO docuseries 'The Jinx,' has been charged with the murder of his former wife, according to the Westchester District Attorney's office.... Kathleen McCormack Durst was last seen in 1982 and declared legally dead in 2017. Her body has not been found. [Robert] Durst is battling Covid-19."

New York Times: Actor-producer "Alec Baldwin discharged a prop firearm on the set of a Western he was making in New Mexico on Thursday, killing the film's director of photography and wounding the movie's director, the authorities said. The cinematographer, Halyna Hutchins, 42, was killed, and the director, Joel Souza, 48, was injured around 1:50 p.m. on the set of 'Rust,' which is being filmed in Santa Fe County, said Juan Rios, a spokesman for the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office. The circumstances of the shooting are under investigation. Mr. Rios said the shooting at Bonanza Creek Ranch happened in the middle of a scene that was either being rehearsed or filmed. He said the Sheriff's Office was interviewing people on the set to determine how the two had been shot." An AP report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: This is a scenario that appears in many a TV murder mystery, but one never expects it to happen in real life-and-death, although -- as the NYT report points out -- it has happened before. ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Gawker: "A partial crew walkout reportedly preceded the deadly incident in which Alec Baldwin fired a prop gun that killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and injured director Joel Souza while they were on the set of the film Rust in New Mexico on Thursday. The Los Angeles Times reports that earlier that day, half a dozen camera operators and assistants walked off the set to protest working conditions, highlighting issues with long hours and pay. The crew also said that they had been promised hotel rooms in nearby Santa Fe, but after filming began, they were told they had to stay in Albuquerque instead, which would require an additional two hours' round trip every day.... There were also concerns about safety on the set, with one source telling the Times that there had already been multiple misfires with the prop gun. Hutchins, the director of photography who was killed, had allegedly been advocating for safer conditions for her team."

Brian Laundrie's Remain Identified. New York Times: "Human remains found in a Florida wildlife area on Wednesday belonged to a man who had been declared a 'person of interest' in the murder of his fiancée, the F.B.I. said on Thursday, ending a search that had drawn intense national interest. A comparison of dental records confirmed that the remains, which were found in the Carlton Reserve and the adjoining Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park in Sarasota County, were those of Brian Laundrie, the F.B.I. said. The discovery of the remains came seven weeks after Mr. Laundrie returned home from a monthslong van trip without his fiancée, Gabrielle Petito, and about four weeks after she was found dead in a national forest in Wyoming." An NBC News story is here.

CNN: "The mystery behind the deaths of a couple, their baby daughter and the family dog, who were found on a hiking trail near Yosemite National Park in August, has come to an end. The cause of death for Jonathan Gerrish, Ellen Chung and their 1-year-old daughter, Miju, was hyperthermia with possible dehydration due to environmental exposure, Mariposa County Sheriff Jeremy Briese said at a news conference Thursday. 'This is a very tragic incident, tragic situation, and has been very unique from the onset,' Briese said. The cause of death for the family dog, Oski, is still undetermined, according to the sheriff, but they also suspect heat-related issues."

October 21, 2021

Afternoon Update:

Rebecca Beitsch & Cristina Marcos of the Hill: "The House on Thursday voted to hold Steve Bannon in contempt of Congress after he defied a subpoena from the Jan. 6 committee, a remarkable censure of the former Trump White House strategist that leaves the Department of Justice to weigh whether to pursue criminal charges. The vote fell almost entirely along party lines, 229-202. Nine Republicans voted with every Democrat in favor of the resolution: Reps. Liz Cheney (Wyo.), Brian Fitzpatrick (Pa.), Anthony Gonzalez (Ohio), Jaime Herrera Beutler (Wash.), John Katko (N.Y.), Adam Kinzinger (Ill.), Nancy Mace (S.C.), Peter Meijer (Mich.) and Fred Upton (Mich.). All but two of those Republicans voted to impeach former President Trump after the Jan. 6 insurrection."

~~~~~~~~~~~

Carl Hulse of the New York Times: "Republicans on Wednesday blocked action for the third time this year on legislation to bolster voting rights, leaving Democrats few options to advance the bill outside of changing the Senate filibuster rule and passing it over G.O.P. opposition. All 50 Democrats and independents supported bringing the Freedom to Vote Act to the floor, but all 50 Republicans voted against doing so, maintaining a stalemate over a proposal that Democrats say is needed to counter efforts in Republican-controlled states to impose new restrictions on voting in the aftermath of the 2020 elections.... ([Majority Leader Chuck] Schumer switched his vote to 'no' at the last moment, enabling him under Senate rules to move to reconsider the bill at some point in the future and putting the official tally at 49 to 51.)... 'These laws will make it harder for millions of Americans to participate in their government,' said ... Schumer. 'If there is anything worthy of the Senate's attention, if there's any issue that merits debate on this floor, it is protecting our democracy from the forces that are trying to unravel it from the inside out.'" ~~~

Joe Manchin has been given all summer to both draft and negotiate this bill. He is the one who holds the key as to whether or not this bill will actually pass. So the question for Joe Manchin [on Wednesday] is, are you going to show more loyalty to our democracy and our country? Or are you going to show more loyalty to an arcane Senate rule that is arbitrarily blocking your own legislation from being passed? -- Meagan Hatcher-Mays of the Indivisible network ~~~

     ~~~ Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: "The vote was meant, in part, to demonstrate the depth of the Republican opposition to one of the holdouts over changing the filibuster rule, Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.), who played a leading role in crafting a narrower alternative to the sprawling bill that Senate Republicans blocked in June.... The procedural vote Wednesday came after Manchin spent the past month wooing Republican colleagues -- including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) -- to support it.... Now Manchin is facing new pressure to sketch out a path around the continued Republican opposition...."

Ari Berman of Mother Jones: "In March 2021, before the Senate held its first hearing on the For the People Act, the Democrats' sweeping democracy reform bill, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) told me that her party had a 'once-in-a-century moment to protect people's right to vote.' But that historic opportunity to pass voting rights legislation is rapidly disappearing. And many Democrats and voting rights advocates are growing increasingly frustrated with the Biden Administration's lack of urgency and prioritization concerning threats to democracy, as Republicans across the country aim to consolidate their power for at least a decade to come through brazen gerrymandering and voter suppression laws. On Wednesday, the Senate will vote on the Democrats' new voting rights bill, the Freedom to Vote Act (a retooled version of the For the People Act), but when Republicans unanimously oppose it that will mark the third time this year that the GOP has blocked a voting rights bill from reaching the Senate floor." MB: The Senate bill is now dead, as Carl Hulse reported in the story linked above. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

David Corn of Mother Jones: "In recent days, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) has told associates that he is considering leaving the Democratic Party if President Joe Biden and Democrats on Capitol Hill do not agree to his demand to cut the size of the social infrastructure bill from $3.5 trillion to $1.75 trillion, according to people who have heard Manchin discuss this. Manchin has said that if this were to happen, he would declare himself an 'American Independent.' And he has devised a detailed exit strategy for his departure." MB: As much as we may think so, this is not good news. OR, it may just be Manchin seeking Even more attention. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ "UPDATE: After this article was published, reporters questioned Manchin about it. He replied, 'I can't control rumors, and it's bullshit, bullshit spelled with a B, U, L, L, capital B.' Mother Jones stands by the story." ~~~

~~~ Steve M. (and Jonathan Chait of New York) notice that Manchin may prove to be less of a problem than Kyrsten Sinema, whose deceit and evasions appear to be masking the fact that she has no intention to ever agreeing to any any aspect of the Build Back Better bill. "Her problem is that the rest of the party is willing to compromise, which means she needs to find new objections every time her Democratic colleagues make concessions so she can seem to be negotiatiing without actually trying to make a deal.... She want[s] to maintain the appearance of negotiating in good faith -- either that or her corporate owners want her to maintain that fiction. This is how Republicans pretend to negotiate.... So now this [GOP] style of attack is coming from within the Democratic Party. And Democrats never seem to see it coming." ~~~

~~~ As a result, you get stories like this:

     ~~~ Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "Senior Democrats insist that they have not given up the push to grant Medicare broad powers to negotiate lower drug prices as part of a once-ambitious climate change and social safety net bill that is slowly shrinking in scope. They know that the loss of the provision, promoted by President Biden on the campaign trail and in the White House, could be the single most embarrassing defeat in the package, since it has been central to Democratic congressional campaigns for nearly three decades.... But with at least three House Democrats opposing the toughest version of the measure, and at least one Senate Democrat, Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, against it, government negotiating power appears almost certain to be curtailed, if not jettisoned." ~~~

     ~~~ AND This. Jim Tankersley & Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "The Biden administration and congressional Democrats are moving toward dropping their push to raise corporate and individual income tax rates to pay for their sprawling domestic policy bill, instead drafting a plan that includes new ways to tax the wealthy and multinational corporations, according to people familiar with the discussions. The conversations have been driven in large part by the concerns of a crucial centrist senator, Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, who has been resisting any increase in either rate for more than a month." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: It appears Manchin is engaging in the corrupt things he believes in -- like enhancing his own family fortune at the expense of his constituents -- while Sinema is engaging in an old-fashioned hustle.

Felicia Sonmez & Donna Cassata of the Washington Post: "Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-Neb.) stepped down Wednesday as the top Republican on the House appropriations subcommittee on agriculture, one day after a federal grand jury indicted him on charges of lying to federal investigators about his campaign contributions. Under House Republican rules, lawmakers who have been indicted must resign from their committee assignments while the charges are pending."

Ed Pilkington of the Guardian: "The House of Representatives is expected to vote on Thursday to refer Steve Bannon to federal prosecutors for potential criminal charges relating to his defiance of Congress over the investigation into the 6 January Capitol insurrection." ~~~

~~~ Felicia Sonmez of the Washington Post: "Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) on Wednesday struggled to answer questions about his communications with ... Donald Trump during the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, telling a House panel that he doesn't recall the number of times he spoke with Trump that day. The statement from Jordan, a staunch Trump ally and a potential witness in the House's investigation of the attack, came during a Rules Committee meeting on whether to hold former White House chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon in contempt for refusing to comply with a congressional subpoena. 'Of course I talked to the president,' Jordan told members of the Rules Committee on Wednesday, in response to questioning from the panel's chairman, Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.). 'I talked to him that day. I've been clear about that. I don't recall the number of times, but it's not about me. I know you want to make it about that.'... In the months since the attack, Jordan has given conflicting answers as to his communications with Trump that day.... Both Jordan and [Matt] Gaetz [R-Fla.] said they accept that Biden 'is the president' but declined to say that he won the 2020 election." MB: A subpoena of Jordan's phone records might help his memory. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Ryan Reilly of the Huffington Post: "On Jan. 6, Landon Mitchell bragged to a Facebook friend that he 'breached the Capitol' and was 'one of the very first in' when a pro-Trump mob stormed the halls of Congress. He appeared in video on the floor of the U.S. Senate, went through a senator's desk and took to the dais, where he posed next to the so-called QAnon Shaman. Later, when a friend feared that the FBI might arrest Mitchell, he wrote that he was 'invincible' and 'not too worried' because he 'was masked up the whole time' he was inside the Capitol. The FBI arrested Mitchell on Wednesday."

Alex Horton of the Washington Post: "An Army reservist charged in the Justice Department's sweeping investigation of the U.S. Capitol riot was demoted and discharged earlier this year, becoming the first known service member to be forced out of the military after officials learned of an alleged involvement in the Jan. 6 insurrection, according to personnel records.... Timothy Hale-Cusanelli, 31, was working part-time as an Army Reserve sergeant in human resources. In May, he was demoted to private -- the enlisted force's lowest rank -- and given an other-than-honorable discharge the next month, terminating a 12-year military career, said his attorney Jonathan Crisp. Federal authorities have accused Hale-Cusanelli of illegally entering the Capitol, using hand and arm signals to advance rioters forward and harassing police officers.... Several colleagues told investigators about his wearing of a 'Hitler mustache' while at work, court papers show." MB: Hale-Cusanelli also reportedly made a particularly disgusting anti-Semitic remark, which I won't republish here but which Horton reports. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

William Rashbaum & Ben Protess of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump's family business, which is already under indictment in Manhattan, is facing a criminal investigation by another prosecutor's office that has begun to examine financial dealings at a golf course the company owns, according to people with knowledge of the matter. In recent months, the district attorney's office in suburban Westchester County, N.Y., has subpoenaed records from the course, Trump National Golf Club Westchester, and the town of Ossining, which sets property taxes on the course, a sprawling private club that is perched on a hill north of New York City.... The district attorney, Mimi E. Rocah, appears to be focused at least in part on whether Mr. Trump's company, the Trump Organization, misled local officials about the property's value to reduce its taxes, one of the people said. Ms. Rocah, a Democrat, has not accused anyone at the company of wrongdoing, and it is unclear whether the investigation is examining Mr. Trump's conduct or if it would ultimately lead to any charges." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Somehow the following graf got "disappeared" sometime between last night & today. See also Akhilleus's commentary in today's thread on the same subject:

     ~~~ Marie: Here's the fun part of the NYT report: "In seeking to cut the tax bill -- sometimes by as much as 90 percent -- the club has argued that the property was worth much less than Ossining officials had determined.... In one year, the Trump club put the property;s value at about $1.4 million, while the town assessed it at roughly $15 million.... Mr. Trump ... declared in federal disclosure forms when he was president that the club was worth more than $50 million." Rachel Maddow reported that in the very same year -- 2016 -- Trump declared the property worth the $1.4 million for tax purposes and $50 million on the financial disclosure forms. According to Zillow, the average price of a single-family home is about $725,000 (which admittedly would have been somewhat less in 2016). Still, it is risible that a property that covers 140 acres, has a humungous clubhouse with upscale amenities and 16 townhouses, each larger than 3,000 sq. ft., is worth only about twice the price of one average house.

Pete Williams of NBC News: "A Maryland man accused of trying to sell sensitive secrets to a foreign country about the Navy's nuclear-powered submarines will remain in jail while waiting for a trial that could result in life sentences for him and his wife if they're convicted. The couple, Jonathan and Diana Toebbe (pronounced 'Toby'), of Annapolis, pleaded not guilty Wednesday in separate hearings in federal court in Martinsburg, West Virginia." ~~~

~~~ Josh Gerstein of Politico: "Prosecutors seeking to keep a Maryland teacher [-- Diana Toebbe --] locked up on charges of looking to sell nuclear submarine secrets to a foreign government said on Wednesday that she and her husband [Jonathan], a nuclear engineer, appeared to have assembled cash, rubber gloves, a cryptocurrency wallet and their children's passports to be ready to flee the country if their activities were exposed..... Lawyers for ... Diana Toebbe sought her release -- prompting a three-hour-long court session in which an FBI agent laid out new details about law enforcement's efforts to track down the couple's identities and the lengths to which the defendants went to conceal their activities."

Sarah Kaplan of the Washington Post: "Climate change is set to become the 'defining narrative of human health,' a top medical journal warned Wednesday -- triggering food shortages, deadly disasters and disease outbreaks that would dwarf the toll of the coronavirus. But aggressive efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions from human activities could avert millions of unnecessary deaths, according to the analysis from more than 100 doctors and health experts. In its annual 'Countdown on health and climate change,' the Lancet provides a sobering assessment of the dangers posed by a warming planet. More than a dozen measures of humanity's exposure to health-threatening weather extremes have climbed since last year's report."

Capitalism Is Awesome, Ctd. David Gelles & Emily Steel of the New York Times: "To avoid responsibility for what many experts believe is a public health crisis, leading chemical companies like Chemours, DuPont and 3M have deployed a potent mix of tactics. They have used public charm offensives to persuade regulators and lawmakers to back off. They have engineered complex corporate transactions to shield themselves from legal liability. And they have rolled out a conveyor belt of scantly tested substitute chemicals that sometimes turn out to be just as dangerous as their predecessors.... PFAS substances are known as 'forever chemicals' because they do not naturally break down and can accumulate in the environment and in the blood and organs of people and animals. When the compounds get into water supplies, the effects can be devastating.... Research by chemical companies and academics has shown that exposure to PFAS has been linked to cancer, liver damage, birth defects and other health problems.... This week, the Environmental Protection Agency announced that it was going to start requiring companies to test and publicly report the amount of PFAS in the products they make."

The Pandemic, Ctd.

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

Carolyn Johnson, et al., of the Washington Post: "Millions more people in the United States will soon be able to receive an extra dose of any coronavirus vaccine, regardless of their initial vaccination -- a flexibility that comes along with the authorization Wednesday of the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson booster shots by federal regulators. The decision by the Food and Drug Administration paves the way for boosters of all three authorized shots to be available to a wide swath of the U.S. population and promises to ease the logistics of the booster campaign for pharmacies and clinics offering vaccines." The AP's report is here.

Lena Sun, et al., of the Washington Post: "The White House on Wednesday announced plans to distribute vaccines to a huge group that has been ineligible so far to receive the coronavirus shots -- 28 million children aged 5 to 11. The operation is slated to begin as soon as federal health officials sign off on a reduced dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which the Biden administration anticipates as soon as the first week of November[.] White House officials said they have already acquired enough doses to vaccinate the entire group and are planning to make the specially packaged children's vaccine available at more than 25,000 pediatricians' and doctors' offices, hospitals, pharmacies, community health centers, and school- and community-based clinics. They also plan a campaign to educate parents about the vaccines and answer their questions." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Laurie McGinley of the Washington Post: "Federal regulators are seriously considering authorizing coronavirus vaccine boosters for everyone 40 years old and older, a move that could sharply increase the number of people eligible for the shots, according to two federal officials familiar with the plans. Action would not occur until next month, after the Food and Drug Administration deals with two big items on its agenda, said the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the issue." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I got a booster this morning, and it was even more painless than the shots I got late last winter. If I think about it, I can feel a teensy bit of soreness when I move my arm in a certain way, but as I sit here typing, I can't feel it at all. Otherwise, I feel no symptoms at all.

Beyond the Beltway

Jessica Garrison, et al., of BuzzFeed News: "Over the past dozen years, at least 28 people who currently hold elected office joined or financially supported the Oath Keepers, the extremist group that figured prominently in the violent Jan. 6 storming of the US Capitol, a BuzzFeed News analysis of data from the organization shows. In the months since the Capitol insurrection, as two dozen people linked to the Oath Keepers have been charged with crimes, including conspiracy, for their roles, several of those elected officials have continued to voice support for the organization. And at least two officials -- David Eastman and Mark Finchem of the Alaska and Arizona Houses of Representatives, respectively -- were in Washington, DC, on Jan. 6 to protest the certification of Biden's Electoral College victory. Neither of the men has been charged." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Florida. Michael Levenson & Isabella Paz of the New York Times: "Human remains were found in a thickly wooded Florida park on Wednesday, near a notebook and other items belonging to a man who has been declared a 'person of interest' in the murder of his fiancée, the F.B.I. said. The discovery came seven weeks after the man, Brian Laundrie, returned home from a monthslong van trip without the fiancée, Gabrielle Petito, and about four weeks after she was found dead in a national forest in Wyoming. >Michael F. McPherson, the special agent in charge of the F.B.I.'s Tampa field office, said that the authorities had found a notebook and a backpack that belonged to Mr. Laundrie, near what appeared to be human remains in the Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park, a heavily wooded, 160-acre park in North Port, Fla...."

Florida. Derek Hawkins & Mark Berman of the Washington Post: Nikolas Cruz, "the former student who killed 17 people at a South Florida high school in 2018, pleaded guilty Wednesday to 17 counts each of murder and attempted murder, paving the way for a jury to decide whether to sentence him to death or life without parole."

Maryland. Alyssa Lukpat of the New York Times: "The owner of the three zebras that escaped from a farm in suburban Maryland in August, delighting residents and stealthily evading efforts to corral them, was charged with three counts of animal cruelty on Tuesday, the authorities said. The charges against the owner, Jerry Lee Holly, came a month after one of the wayward zebras was found dead in an illegal snare trap, and a day after another zebra that hadn't escaped was found dead inside Mr. Holly's enclosure."

Oklahoma. Bryan Pietsch of the Washington Post: "An Oklahoma law that educators say restricts discussions of race and sex in classrooms is unconstitutional, the American Civil Liberties Union alleged in a lawsuit filed Tuesday. The civil rights organization and groups of students and educators say in the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma against the state's governor, attorney general and top education officials that the law violates students' and educators' First and 14th Amendment rights. They are seeking a preliminary injunction that would block the law from being enforced." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)