The Conversation -- December 5, 2023

Great Battles in Military History: The Spudsville Retreat. Catie Edmonson of the New York Times: "Senator Tommy Tuberville, Republican of Alabama, announced on Tuesday that he would lift his blockade of nearly all the military promotions he had delayed for months in protest of a Pentagon policy ensuring abortion access for service members. Mr. Tuberville said he had lifted his holds on about 440 military promotions. 'Everybody but the 10 or 11 four-stars,' he said. 'Those will continue.' The announcement came amid mounting pressure on Mr. Tuberville about his decision, announced in February, to hold up officer promotions over a new Pentagon policy that offers time off and travel reimbursement to service members seeking abortions or fertility care. His blockade, which both Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill had vociferously opposed, had for months disrupted the Pentagon's ability to fill its top ranks." An NPR story is here.

A Speaker's Lot Is Not a Happy One. Sahil Kapur of NBC News: "Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., announced Tuesday that he won't seek re-election in 2024, a shocking move to many of his colleagues that will further thin the ranks of Republican institutionalists in Congress. He plans to finish out his two-year term, he said ... on X. McHenry, 48, became the chair of the powerful House Financial Services Committee at the beginning of the year. He gained national attention during his three-week stint in October as House Speaker pro tempore after Republicans ousted Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., from the position." The Washington Post's story is here. MB: Funny how all the GOP speakers -- Newt, Hastert (okay, he landed in jail), Boehner, Ryan -- quit their jobs; rumors abound that My Kevin is about to leave Congress, too. Turns out if you hold the job merely on an interim basis for just a few weeks, it's all too much.

Speaking of Newt.... Ken Meyer of Mediaite: Newt Gingrich said of Fox Monday that any House Republican who votes against an impeachment inquiry into President Biden will get a primary challenge.

** Speaker Johnson Is Protecting Violent Criminals. Igor Derysh of Salon: "House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., drew criticism after telling reporters on Tuesday that Republicans are blurring faces in security footage from the Jan. 6 Capitol attack to protect the rioters. 'We have to blur some of the faces of persons who participated in the events of that day because we don't want them to be retaliated against and to be charged by the DOJ,' said Johnson, who played a key role in ... Donald Trump's efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss. Numerous MAGA Republicans who falsely alleged that the attack was instigated by federal agents or was largely executed by violent leftists have long called for the release of the footage, which they claim will back up their baseless conspiracy theories.... Andrew Weissmann called ... Mike Johnson's comments 'open contempt for the rule of law and a violation of oath of office.' Despite Johnson's comments, the FBI and DOJ have long had access to the video footage, though blurring people’s faces could prevent civilians from reporting tips to the FBI." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Just think how lawless this is. If you and I proactively hid the identities of violent criminals, we would likely face criminal charges for obstruction of justice. As Steve Benen of MSNBC reminds us, "At a Capitol Hill press conference last week, House Speaker Mike Johnson boasted to reporters, 'We are the rule-of-law team.' The Louisiana Republican quickly added, 'The Republican Party stands for the rule of law.'" (Normally, when you see blurred faces [or license plates or house numbers] in news footage, the images that have been blurred are of children or other innocent bystanders.)

All Those Times Trump Incriminated Himself. Spencer Hsu & Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "Federal prosecutors on Tuesday accused ... Donald Trump of a long pattern of lying about elections and encouraging violence, saying he 'sent' supporters on Jan. 6, 2021 to criminally block the election results. In a new court filing, prosecutors working for special counsel Jack Smith went further than in their August indictment in attempting to tie him to that day's violence, saying they intended to introduce evidence of his other acts both before the November 2020 presidential election and subsequent alleged threats to establish his motive, intent and preparation for subverting its legitimate results." ~~~

     ~~~ Brandi Buchman of Law & Crime: "... prosecutor Molly Gaston cited Trump's eerily familiar sentiment that voting machines had been rigged against Mitt Romney in 2012 when he ran against Barack Obama. The same thing occurred in 2016, Gaston wrote, when Trump 'claimed repeatedly with no basis, that there was widespread voter fraud including through public statements and tweets.'... The special counsel also indicated that they would enter evidence at trial that showed Trump's history of remarks where he 'repeatedly refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power,' the filing states." ~~~

     ~~~ Katelyn Polantz, et al., of CNN: "Special counsel Jack Smith plans to present evidence at Donald Trump's trial next year that his continued support for US Capitol rioters helps to show he intended to inspire violence on January 6, 2021, as part of a conspiracy he led to overturn the 2020 election. In a court filing made public Tuesday, prosecutors point to Trump endorsing the Proud Boys during a 2020 presidential debate, saying he would pardon January 6 rioters and playing a recording of the National Anthem from imprisoned January 6 defendants at a campaign rally. Prosecutors say the fact that Trump has financially supported -- and celebrated -- January 6 rioters establishes his motive and intent to commit federal crimes." MB: Read the filing, linked above. It contains several examples of Trump's self-incriminating remarks.

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** Presidential Race 2024, Hair-on-Fire Edition

Ishan Tharoor of the Washington Post: "'One of the things that we see happening today is a sort of a sleepwalking into dictatorship in the United States," [Liz] Cheney said [in a CBS interview that aired Sunday].... In her CBS interview, Cheney said a Trump victory could mark the end of the American republic. 'He's told us what he will do,' she said.... 'For many Americans, a turn toward authoritarianism isn't seen as a negative,' [WashPo columnist Philip] Bump wrote [last month]. 'Many Americans support that idea.'" Read on.

Charlie Savage, Jonathan Swan & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: Donald "Trump's violent and authoritarian rhetoric on the 2024 campaign trail has attracted growing alarm and comparisons to historical fascist dictators and contemporary populist strongmen.... As he runs for president again facing four criminal prosecutions, Mr. Trump may seem more angry, desperate and dangerous to American-style democracy than in his first term. But the throughline that emerges is far more long-running: He has glorified political violence and spoken admiringly of autocrats for decades.... What would be different in a second Trump administration is not so much his character as his surroundings. Forces that somewhat contained his autocratic tendencies in his first term ... would all be weaker.... It is likely that Republicans in Congress would be even more pliable in any second Trump term.... Parts of Mr. Trump's agenda ... are aberrational.... More than anything else, Mr. Trump's vow to use the Justice Department to wreak vengeance against his adversaries is a naked challenge to democratic values."

Jan-Werner Müller in a Guardian op-ed: "... with today's pioneers of autocracy, things tend to only get really bad when they enter office the second time.... Authoritarians like ... Viktor Orbán, or Polish strongman Jarosław Kaczyński ... considered it deeply unfair that they had suffered election defeat (duly attributed to various enemies, from judges to hostile media outlets). When they came back to power, they had learned one thing for sure: not to waste political capital on culture wars, but to capture state institutions, ideally on day one, with the judiciary and the state bureaucracy as primary targets.... If Trump wins, he will claim that 'the people' -- for only his voters are the 'real people' -- democratically decided in favor of revenge and destruction."

Ken Meyer of Mediaite: "The Atlantic announced that their first issue of 2024 will focus on what they believe to be the potentially disastrous consequences of Donald Trump returning to the White House. 'The next Trump presidency will be worse,' the magazine declared Monday on X (formerly Twitter). It outlined The Atlantic's planned January/February 2024 issue, in which 24 of the publication's contributors will lay out the 'potential ramifications' on a variety of subjects if Trump is reelected. As of this writing, The Atlantic has published eight of the 24 essays they promised for 'If Trump Wins,' which focus on Trump and autocracy, NATO, his loyalists, immigration, the Justice Department, misogyny, climate, and journalism. The issue also includes a note from Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg, who warned that America endured 'serious damage' from Trump's first term, and a second one 'will be much worse.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Steve M. notes that MSM journalists hav sidelined themselves for decades with the naive belief that nobody could really be as depraved as Newt Gingrich & Rush Limbaugh & Donald Trump appeared to be. "... so [these journalists] also couldn't imagine that the souls of millions of rank-and-file right-wingers were being poisoned by this hateful rhetoric." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Several other factors operate against realistic MSM reporting: (1) editors insist reporters be "neutral" and not criticize political candidates; (2) editors assign reporters to "granular" tasks like covering a particular politician's rally in Sioux City, so reporters seldom have a professional opportunity to step back and see the big picture; (3) editors assign reporters to get out & "understand" voters, and voters are liars; (4) publishers think (rightly or wrongly -- I don't know) that horse-race stories sell newspapers.

AND last week the Washington Post published a dire warning by conservative Robert Kagan: that "a Trump dictatorship is increasingly inevitable." As of this morning, the Kagan essay (which we linked last week) is still up on the WashPo's front page. BTW, the citation there is from the headline writer, not from Kagan. I don't think "increasingly inevitable" makes sense. "Inevitable" is like "unique": it is or it isn't; there are no shades of gray.

Philip Bump of the Washington Post homes in on Trump's formula for using lies to his advantage: "He gets buy-in on a familiar claim [like Joe Biden called parents at school board meetings 'domestic terrorists' (he didn't)] and then pivots it to his advantage, either by depicting himself in opposition to shared enemies or by leveraging the credibility he earns to make other false statements.... Another point of his falsehoods: throw out so much garbage that the truth is obscured.... One thing that has changed since 2015, when Trump first deployed this approach to politics, is that nearly the entire right-wing media and political ecosystem is now oriented around boosting similar falsehoods. There's no fringe anymore, really." ~~~

~~~ digby covers a number of these Trump Tricks, and warns of the consequences: Trump "instinctively understands the power of turning his own flaws into his rivals' and then criticizing them for it. Psychologists call this 'projection' and it is. But it's more than that. Trump is corrupt and incompetent and he's projecting that on to Biden to be sure. But he's also feeding the cynicism that has overtaken our political culture. His own followers may believe that he is an innocent martyr being persecuted unjustly, but all those swing voters or 'low information' voters who may be unhappy about other things can be persuaded that 'they all do it' ... so what's the big deal? He knows that all he has to do is get his fan base out and convince a small sliver of the rest of the voting population that there's not a dime's worth of difference between him and Joe Biden and he could pull off another win like he did in 2016."

Burgess Everett, et al., of Politico survey Congressional sheeples to see how they would maneuver a second Trump presidency*: "Congressional Republicans are steeling themselves for a return to daily life with Donald Trump -- which means constant, uncomfortable questions about his erratic policy whims and political attacks.... But Hill Republicans are girding to treat Trump the third-time nominee the same way they did Trump the neophyte candidate and then president. They're distancing themselves and downplaying his remarks.... Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) said plenty in the GOP dread Trump's return to the political spotlight but 'everybody is being more private about it.'"

In Other Election News

Kierra Frazier of Politico: "North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum dropped his bid for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination on Monday after repeatedly polling in the single digits and failing to qualify for the third and fourth GOP debates. Burgum is the latest candidate to drop out of the race, following former South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, Vice President Mike Pence, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, former Rep. Will Hurd and businessperson Perry Johnson." (Also linked yesterday.)

Rebecca O'Brien & Reid Epstein of the New York Times: "A super PAC backing the independent presidential candidacy of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is planning to spend $10 million to $15 million to get Mr. Kennedy on the ballot in 10 states, a substantial effort that, even if partly successful, could heighten Democratic concerns about his potential to play the role of spoiler in 2024. The hefty sum underscores the challenge facing Mr. Kennedy, an environmental lawyer and prominent purveyor of conspiracy theories, as he pursues his long-shot White House bid. It also shows the substantial financial support he has generated so far."

Karoun Demirjian & Lara Jakes of the New York Times: "The White House warned congressional leaders on Monday that the United States would run out of money to send weapons to Ukraine by year's end, severely jeopardizing Kyiv's ability to defend itself against Russia if lawmakers fail to approve emergency military aid soon. The urgent warning from President Biden's top budget official, delivered in a blunt letter, was the administration's latest bid to pressure the Republicans resisting another infusion of aid to Ukraine to drop their opposition. It came at a critical time in the war, as Ukraine struggles to push back Russian troops in a counteroffensive that has largely stalled. President Vladimir V. Putin has continued to send a steady stream of his forces into the conflict, willing to endure high casualties amid signs of flagging resolve from Kyiv's Western allies."

Jacqueline Alemany & Matt Viser of the Washington Post: "As House Republicans move toward a floor vote to authorize an impeachment inquiry against President Biden, House Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) has again mischaracterized evidence of payments from Hunter Biden to his father. In an email to reporters, a spokesperson for Comer claimed that the House Oversight Committee, which is investigating Biden, had obtained bank records revealing that Hunter Biden's law firm, Owasco PC, which had received payments from Chinese-state-linked companies and other foreign companies in the past, made direct monthly payments to Joe Biden.... The three payments of $1,380 that occurred in September, October and November 2018 -- nearly two years after Biden had left the vice presidency -- were actually for a 2018 Ford Raptor truck Joe Biden had purchased that Hunter Biden was using.... Other expenses listed in [Comer] email verified by The Post included payments for health insurance, college and high school tuition for Hunter Biden's children, the Yale Club and a storage unit."

Jonathan Dienst, et al., of NBC News: "At least four gold bars found in the FBI search of Sen. Bob Menendez's home had been directly linked to a New Jersey businessman now accused of bribing Menendez, the state's senior senator, Bergen County prosecutor's records from a 2013 robbery case show. The businessman, Fred Daibes, reported to police that he was the victim of an armed robbery in 2013, and he asked police to recover the gold bars stolen from him. Daibes reported that $500,000 in cash and 22 gold bars were stolen, Edgewater, New Jersey, police records show. Police later caught four people with the stolen goods. To get his property back, Daibes signed 'property release forms' certifying the gold bars belonged to him, the records show. 'Each gold bar has its own serial number,' Daibes told investigators in a 2013 transcript made by prosecutors and police who recovered -- and returned to Daibes -- the stolen valuables.... decade later, it said, the FBI found four gold bars with [the same] unique serial numbers in the Clifton, New Jersey, home of Menendez and his wife, Nadine."

Trump Brings Conspiracy Theories to Court. Rachel Weiner & Isaac Arnsdorf of the Washington Post: "Ever since he was indicted on charges of interfering in the 2020 election results, Donald Trump has relished the chance to use the case in Washington as a venue to air his baseless claims of fraud. Now he is using it to circulate a new set of falsehoods: that the federal government staged or incited violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, to discredit Trump and his supporters.... Trump is ... suggesting that the government is withholding information on people known as 'Fence Cutter Bulwark' and 'Scaffold Commander' -- nicknames given by conspiracy theorists to people they claim are government agents who instigated the Jan. 6 riot.... He also asked for any intelligence the government had on 'Antifa,' on pipe bombs found near the Capitol on Jan. 6, and on 'informants, cooperators [and] undercover agents ... involved in the assistance, planning, or encouragement' of the events of that day. These are all references common on right-wing social media...."

Please, Please, Let Me Keep Doxxing & Dissing the Clerk. ABC News live-updated developments yesterday in the Trump Organization's civil fraud trial in New York: "... Donald Trump's request for an expedited grant of leave to appeal the gag orders in his civil fraud trial was denied Monday afternoon. The gag order is now likely to still be in effect on Monday when Trump takes the witness stand in his own defense. Trump's lawyers requested that Judge David Friedman, who initially lifted the gag order, permit them to appeal the final decision that reinstated the gag order to New York's Court of Appeals. 'You had a decision by a panel of judges. A single judge cannot undo a panel's decision,' Lauren Holmes, a court attorney, said during a scheduling meeting Monday afternoon at the Appellate Division.... Dennis Fan, a lawyer for the New York Attorney General, also declined to consent to expediting the briefing schedule." (Also linked yesterday.)

Trump, the Cartoon. Lee Moran of the Huffington Post: First Frames: "In [Liz] Cheney's upcoming 'Oath and Honor,' the former lawmaker said Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) had told her he'd visited Trump at his Mar-a-Lago home in the aftermath of the 2021 U.S. Capitol riot -- in what was essentially the first step toward the rehabilitation of Trump's image among Republicans -- because he'd been told Trump wasn't eating." Last Frame: Trump, in a rant Monday on Liars' Social, wrote, "I was not depressed, I WAS ANGRY, and it was not that I was not eating, it was that I was eating too much." MB: So he's fat because Joe Biden.

Guns America. Bonnie Berkowitz of the Washington Post: "In less than 90 minutes on Sunday afternoon, two 911 calls led police in Texas and Washington to two mass shootings that pushed the nation to a gruesome milestone. They were the 37th and 38th shootings this year in which four or more victims were killed, the highest number of mass killings in any year since at least 2006. Last year's 36 was the previous record. In Dallas, a 21-year-old man who was supposed to be wearing an ankle monitor because of a previous aggravated assault charge walked into a house and shot five people, killing a toddler and three adults. He fled in a stolen car, police said, but fatally shot himself as highway patrol officers chased him. In a suburb of Vancouver, Wash., five family members died in what sheriff's deputies think was a murder-suicide."

Kevin Breuninger of CNBC: "A major Swiss bank admitted to conspiring with U.S. taxpayers and others to hide over $5.6 billion from the Internal Revenue Service, the Department of Justice announced Monday. Banque Pictet, the private banking division of the 218-year-old Pictet Group, will pay about $122.9 million in restitution and penalties as part of an agreement with prosecutors. Between 2008 and 2014, the bank had 1,637 accounts on behalf of American clients, who collectively evaded approximately $50.6 million in U.S. taxes, the DOJ said."

Rebecca Carballo of the New York Times: "Hackers, using old passwords from customers of the genetic testing company 23andMe, were able to gain access to personal information from about 6.9 million profiles, which in some cases included ancestry trees, birth years and geographic locations, the company said on Monday. In October, a hacker posted a claim online that they had 23andMe users' profile information, the company wrote in a Securities and Exchange Commission disclosure on Friday. 'We have not learned of any reports of inappropriate use of the data after the leak,' a 23andMe spokeswoman said on Monday."

Lori Aratani of the Washington Post: "Alaska Airlines has reached a nearly $2 billion deal to buy Hawaiian Airlines, executives with the two carriers announced Sunday."

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Pennsylvania. Olafihimihan Oshin of the Hill: "Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have publicly condemned the antisemitic protest that took place outside a restaurant that serves Israeli food in Philadelphia. Demonstrators supporting Palestinians gathered outside of Goldie which is part of a restaurant group co-owned by Israeli-born Michael Solomonov, calling for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war Sunday night, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer. Protesters were seen chanting 'Goldie, Goldie you can't hide, we charge you with genocide.' They also marched through the Center City neighborhood, calling out Philadelphia Eagles fans who were watching their team play in local bars.... 'Tonight in Philly, we saw a blatant act of antisemitism -- not a peaceful protest," Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) wrote on X.... 'A restaurant was targeted and mobbed because its owner is Jewish and Israeli.'... The Biden administration also condemned the demonstrators in front of Goldie's, calling it 'completely unjustifiable.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

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Israel/Palestine

The Washington Post's live updates of developments Tuesday in the Israel/Hamas war are here: "Israel's military is advancing into southern Gaza in a push that ushers in a new phase of its war against Hamas -- and an increasingly perilous situation for Palestinian civilians who have few safe places left to flee. Israel says Hamas leaders who planned the Oct. 7 attack are sheltering in the south.... 'For people ordered to evacuate, there is nowhere safe to go and very little to survive on,' a spokesman for U.N. Secretary General António Guterres said. A territory-wide communications blackout also hampered the humanitarian response overnight." ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times' live updates for Tuesday are here. CNN's live updates are here.

Michael Shear of the New York Times: "Vice President Kamala Harris's trip to the Middle East over the weekend was both a major foray into wartime diplomacy and an effort to show that the administration is taking a harder line with Israel about the civilian toll of its war against Hamas.... Over the course of just three hours at the U.N. climate summit in Dubai, Ms. Harris juggled four high-stakes meetings or calls with kings and presidents. Her message on the war, privately and publicly, was one of the most pointed pronouncements from any American official -- including [President] Biden -- establishing guidelines for how Israel should fight its war and what the country should do once the fighting is over. 'Under no circumstances,' her office wrote in describing her remarks in a face-to-face meeting with President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt, 'will the United States permit the forced relocation of Palestinians from Gaza or the West Bank, the besiegement of Gaza, or the redrawing of the borders of Gaza.' Jake Sullivan, the president's national security adviser, said on Monday that 'there's no daylight' between the vice president and Mr. Biden...."

The Conversation -- December 4, 2023

Please, Please, Let Me Keep Doxxing & Dissing the Clerk. ABC News is live-updating developments in the Trump Organization's civil fraud trial in New York: "... Donald Trump's request for an expedited grant of leave to appeal the gag orders in his civil fraud trial was denied Monday afternoon. The gag order is now likely to still be in effect on Monday when Trump takes the witness stand in his own defense. Trump's lawyers requested that Judge David Friedman, who initially lifted the gag order, permit them to appeal the final decision that reinstated the gag order to New York's Court of Appeals. 'You had a decision by a panel of judges. A single judge cannot undo a panel's decision,' Lauren Holmes, a court attorney, said during a scheduling meeting Monday afternoon at the Appellate Division First Department. Dennis Fan, a lawyer for the New York Attorney General, also declined to consent to expediting the briefing schedule."

Pennsylvania. Olafihimihan Oshin of the Hill: "Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have publicly condemned the antisemitic protest that took place outside a restaurant that serves Israeli food in Philadelphia. Demonstrators supporting Palestinians gathered outside of Goldie, which is part of a restaurant group co-owned by Israeli-born Michael Solomonov, calling for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war Sunday night, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer. Protesters were seen chanting 'Goldie, Goldie you can't hide, we charge you with genocide.' They also marched through the Center City neighborhood, calling out Philadelphia Eagles fans who were watching their team play in local bars.... 'Tonight in Philly, we saw a blatant act of antisemitism -- not a peaceful protest," Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) wrote on X.... 'A restaurant was targeted and mobbed because its owner is Jewish and Israeli.'... The Biden administration also condemned the demonstrators in front of Goldie's, calling it 'completely unjustifiable.'"

Kierra Frazier of Politico: "North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum dropped his bid for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination on Monday after repeatedly polling in the single digits and failing to qualify for the third and fourth GOP debates. Burgum is the latest candidate to drop out of the race, following former South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, Vice President Mike Pence, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, former Rep. Will Hurd and businessperson Perry Johnson."

     ~~~ Thanks to D in MD for the link.

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Joshua Goodman & Eric Tucker of the AP: "A former American diplomat who served as U.S. ambassador to Bolivia has been arrested in a long-running FBI counterintelligence investigation, accused of secretly serving as an agent of Cuba's government, The Associated Press has learned. Manuel Rocha, 73, was arrested in Miami on Friday on a criminal complaint.... [A person] said the Justice Department case accuses Rocha of working to promote the Cuban government's interests.... Rocha's 25-year diplomatic career was spent under both Democratic and Republican administrations, much of it in Latin America during the Cold War, a period of sometimes heavy-handed U.S. political and military policies."

Scenes from an Expulsion. Kara Voght, et al., of the Washington Post: "This is the paradox of [George] Santos's downfall. His falsehoods and alleged crimes have been bold enough to be galling, yet frivolous enough to be funny. Unlike a certain other Republican politician whom the Justice Department recently charged with federal crimes, Santos is not a presidential contender with an army of supporters.... America may disagree on the political villains of our time, but a mostly powerless political villain is a court jester at best." ~~~

~~~ Jorge, the Movie. Edward Helmore of the Guardian: "A book about the improbable rise and rapid fall of former congressman George Santos has been optioned by HBO Films, it was reported Saturday, and will be produced under the guidance of Frank Rich, a former New York Times columnist known for executive production credits on Emmy awards-winning Succession and Veep. HBO reportedly optioned the rights to Mark Chiusano's The Fabulist: The Lying, Hustling, Grifting, Stealing, and Very American Legend of George Santos, published last week."

Presidential Election 2024

Caleb Howe of Mediaite: "... Donald Trump on Saturday said at a rally that he believes he would win California [and other states] in a presidential election if Jesus and God came down to oversee the ballots." MB: Apparently, the evil elections officials and voting machines are the collective anti-Christ.

God's Favorite Candidate Is a Confused Liar. Phillip Nieto of Mediaite: "... Donald Trump claimed he saved Obamacare after calling the Affordable Care act a 'disaster' and bragging about his efforts to remove it. During a rally a campaign rally in Iowa on Saturday, the Republican frontrunner started bragging to his supporters about how he nearly took down Obamacare while also invoking the name of deceased Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona). Trump attempted to pressure Congressional Republicans to repeal Obamacare during his first year in office when the GOP maintained a majority in the House and Senate. However, on July 27, 2017, McCain, the deciding vote in the matter, famously gave a thumbs down during the floor vote on its repeal. 'Obamacare is a disaster. And I said we're going to we're going to do something about it. I saved Obamacare when we got John McCain's negative vote,' Trump told the crowd." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Nieto doesn't say so, but after failing to repeal Obamacare, Trump did manage to sabotage it six way from Sunday. That's not exactly "saving" Obamacare.

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Florida. Stephanie Saul of the New York Times: Many liberal-leaning professors at Florida's universities "are giving up coveted tenured positions and blaming their departures on Governor [Ron] DeSantis and his effort to reshape the higher education system to fit his conservative principles.... They raised concerns that the governor's policies have become increasingly untenable for scholars and students." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Not exactly breaking news. My mother went to Florida State in the early 1940s, when it was Florida State College for Women. The board harassed her journalism teacher, Earl Vance, and a decade later tried to remove him from his job even though (I think) he had tenure. His offense? Too liberal. The board failed, even though they made life miserable for him. I recall seeing a teevee news report in which he was pictured climbing to his fourth-floor cubbyhole of an office via a fire escape because the board had removed him from a "normal," comfortable office in the department's HQ. What saved "Mistavance," as my mother called him, was that graduates of his classes worked as reporters all over Florida, and they raised a public fuss, exposing the board's antediluvian bias. Florida, and no doubt many other states, have a history of tensions between fatcat college board members and "egghead" faculty members.

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Israel/Palestine

The Washington Post's live updates of developments Monday in the Israel/Hamas war are here: "Israel's military is expanding its ground operation against Hamas across the Gaza Strip, a spokesman said. As the hostilities resume, many civilians already displaced by the conflict are again being forced to flee as the fight moves south. An estimated 1.8 million people -- or 80 percent of the population of Gaza -- are now internally displaced, according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Aid groups and Palestinian families say maps posted online by Israel directing them to 'safer' areas are sowing confusion because they lack specifics or those areas are overcrowded or under attack. The death toll continues to rise, with at least 316 people killed in the past day, the Gaza Health Ministry said Sunday, adding that more are likely buried under the rubble."

Peter Baker & Karoun Demirjian of the New York Times: "The U.S. government is making an intense effort to persuade Israel and Hamas to resume negotiations so they can once again pause hostilities and exchange more prisoners for hostages, a White House spokesman [John Kirby] said on Sunday.... In appearances on several Sunday talk shows, Mr. Kirby emphasized that Hamas was to blame for the breakdown in talks, saying that it had not lived up to the terms of its original agreement to begin handing over captives held in Gaza.... Israel has since resumed its attacks on Hamas, and Mr. Kirby urged it to avoid civilian casualties, while crediting its forces with making efforts to do so. He said Israeli authorities had been open to U.S. advice about how to make their assault more precise." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I wish newspapers would stop citing Republicans as experts on anything. For instance, in this article, they cite Lindsey Graham, who said Sunday that he had "lost confidence" in Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. Or, if the reporters insist upon quoting these doofuses, they would describe them as, say, "Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), whose opinions and concerns are premised on whatever will get him on the teevee."

The Conversation -- December 3, 2023

** David French of the New York Times: "[The Insurrection Act] is a land mine embedded in the United States Code, one that Donald Trump, if re-elected president, could use to destroy our republic. But it's not too late for Congress to defuse the mine now and protect America.... Some version of the Insurrection Act is probably necessary.... [The act has] been used rarely, and when it has been used, it's been used for legitimate purposes.... That historical restraint has been dependent on a factor that is utterly absent from Trump: a basic commitment to the Constitution and democracy.... It will be difficult if not impossible for any reform bill to pass Congress. Mike Johnson, the speaker of the Republican-led House of Representatives, was a central player in Trump's effort to overturn the 2020 election. Many of Trump's congressional allies share his thirst for vengeance. But it's past time ... to strip unilateral authority from the president." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Once again, the reason Congress won't curb the raw presidential power encoded in the Insurrection Act is that one of the two major political parties is opposed to democracy and the rule of law. I don't suggest that all of our political ills are the fault of Republicans, but I'd say about 90% of them are. A democratic republic cannot function when one party believes in nothing but power and nutty conspiracy theories.

Jon Gambrell of the AP: "Commercial ships came under attack Sunday by drones and missiles in the Red Sea and a U.S. warship there opened fire in self-defense as part of an hourslong assault claimed by Yemen's Houthi rebels, officials said. The attack potentially marked a major escalation in a series of maritime attacks in the Mideast linked to the Israel-Hamas war as multiple vessels found themselves in the crosshairs of a single Houthi assault for the first time in the conflict."

Damian Carrington & Ben Stockton of the Guardian: "The president of Cop28, Sultan Al Jaber, has claimed there is 'no science' indicating that a phase-out of fossil fuels is needed to restrict global heating to 1.5C, the Guardian and the Centre for Climate Reporting can reveal. Al Jaber also said a phase-out of fossil fuels would not allow sustainable development 'unless you want to take the world back into caves'. The comments were 'incredibly concerning' and 'verging on climate denial', scientists said, and they were at odds with the position of the UN secretary general, António Guterres. Al Jaber made the comments in ill-tempered responses to questions from Mary Robinson, the chair of the Elders group and a former UN special envoy for climate change, during a live online event on 21 November." Thanks to RAS for the link. ~~~

     ~~~ Valerie Volcovici of Reuters: "Climate advocate and former U.S. Vice President Al Gore on Sunday slammed the UAE - host of the COP28 climate summit.... The comments, made to Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of the conference in Dubai, reflected skepticism among some delegates that COP28 President Sultan al-Jaber, head of the UAE's national oil company ADNOC, can be an honest broker of a climate deal. 'They are abusing the public's trust by naming the CEO of one of the largest and least responsible oil companies in the world as head of the COP,' Gore said. At a presentation at the COP's main plenary hall before the interview, Gore unveiled data showing that the UAE's greenhouse gas emissions rose by 7.5% in 2022 from the previous year, compared to a 1.5% percent rise in the entire world."

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Joe Versus the Stinkers. Ben Lefebvre, et al., of Politico: "The Environmental Protection Agency unveiled sweeping new regulations targeting methane emissions from the oil and gas sector on Saturday, a significant milestone for President Joe Biden's strategy for curbing the pollution driving up the Earth's temperatures. The rule's 3 a.m. rollout was timed to coincide with the ongoing U.N. climate talks in Dubai, where the U.S. has sought to play a leading role in global efforts to reduce emissions of the powerful planet-heating gas. But its biggest test will be in the legal arena at home, where conservatives on the Supreme Court have slapped down regulations the justices viewed as White House overreach." ~~~

     ~~~ Jim Tankersley & Lisa Friedman of the New York Times: "Vice President Kamala Harris pledged at a United Nations climate summit on Saturday that the United States would spend billions more to help developing nations fight and adapt to climate change, telling world leaders that 'we must do more' to limit global temperature rise. Her remarks followed an announcement by U.S. officials at the summit the same day that the federal government would, for the first time, require oil and gas producers to detect and fix leaks of methane. It was the most ambitious move to reduce fossil fuel emissions that President Biden's administration was expected to unveil at the summit...."

Emily Steel & Sydney Ember of the New York Times: "Air traffic controllers, who spend hours a day glued to monitors or scanning the skies with the lives of thousands of passengers at stake, are a last line of defense against crashes. The job comes with high stakes and intense pressure, even in the best of conditions. Yet the conditions for many controllers are far from ideal. A nationwide staffing shortage -- caused by years of employee turnover and tight budgets, among other factors -- has forced many controllers to work six-day weeks and 10-hour days.... In the past two years, air traffic controllers and others have submitted hundreds of complaints to a Federal Aviation Administration hotline describing issues like dangerous staffing shortages, mental health problems and deteriorating buildings, some infested by bugs and black mold. There were at least seven reports of controllers sleeping when they were on duty and five about employees working while under the influence of alcohol or drugs."

Wherein George Santos announces he will be "filling" ethics complaints against some House members who led the charge to oust him. Thanks to Ken W. for the link.

Marie: So I figured Trump's many last-minute pardons of slimeballs were a cash-in-your-chips project the Little Prince of Corruption Jared managed. But it turns out Trump had another use for many of said slimeballs: ~~~

~~~ Beth Reinhard, et al., of the Washington Post: "Experts say [Donald] Trump's abuse of the pardon power while in office was unprecedented in modern times.... Never before had a president used his constitutional clemency powers to free or forgive so many people who could be useful to his future political efforts.... Trump's clemency record offers critical insights into how he might wield one of the presidency's most unfettered powers if he is elected to a second term -- potentially to undo the work of a Justice Department he scorns, to eliminate the threat of criminal prosecution against him and his allies, and to continue to build an army of indebted supporters he can call on as needed to back him.... Many of the campaign donors, Republican operatives and media pundits who made his clemency list were well-positioned to return the favor.... [Clemency expert Jeffrey Crouch said,] '... Put simply, Trump regularly abused clemency for his own personal reasons.'"

Maureen Dowd of the New York Times: "When I interviewed them at their makeshift San Francisco headquarters back in 2016, the OpenAI founders -- Sam Altman, Elon Musk, Ilya Sutskever and Greg Brockman -- presented themselves as our Praetorian guard against the future threat of runaway, evil A.I.... But ... Musk is gone, and Altman is no longer casting himself as humanity's watchdog. He's running a for-profit outfit, creating an A.I. cookbook. He's less interested in peril than investors, less concerned about existential danger than finding A.I.'s capabilities.... The government has nibbled the edges of regulation, but the quicksilver A.I. has already leaped ahead of the snaillike lawmakers and bureaucrats. Nobody, even in Silicon Valley, has any clue how to control it.... We are totally at the mercy of Silicon Valley boys with their toys, egos crashing, temperaments colliding, ambition and greed soaring." Dowd sort of explains all the hoohah over the ousting and restoration of Altman in the top job at OpenAI.

Presidential Race 2024. The Orwellian Candidate. Michael Gold of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump ... repeatedly claimed to supporters in Iowa on Saturday that it was President Biden who posed a severe threat to American democracy. While Mr. Trump shattered democratic norms throughout his presidency..., the former president in his speech repeatedly accused Mr. Biden of corrupting politics and waging a repressive 'all-out war' on America.... 'Joe Biden is the destroyer of American democracy,' [he said]. Mr. Trump has made similar attacks on Mr. Biden a staple of his speeches in Iowa and elsewhere.... Mr. Trump has a history of accusing his opponents of behavior that he himself is guilty of, the political equivalent of a 'No, you are' playground retort.... Even as he was insisting that Mr. Biden threatens democracy, Mr. Trump underscored his most antidemocratic campaign themes....

"At an earlier event on Saturday, where he sought to undermine confidence in election integrity well before the 2024 election, he urged supporters in Ankeny, a predominantly white suburb of Des Moines, to take a closer look at election results next year in Detroit, Philadelphia and Atlanta, three cities with large Black populations in swing states that he lost in 2020.... 'We're like a third-world nation,' he [said]." The AP's report is here.

Tom Sullivan, on digby's Hullabaloo, looks down the rabbithole of conspiracy world. MB: My favorite bit: "'If you don't buy into a conspiracy theory, that means you're part of the conspiracy,' one former Twitter user posted Thursday. 'And lack of evidence for the conspiracy is proof that the conspiracy is WORKING,' replied Lindsay Beyerstein." So not only do these people live in make-believe world, they have realized a dandy self-rationalizing proof that fake is real. Thanks to RAS for the link.

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Israel/Palestine. The Washington Post's live updates of developments Sunday in the Israel/Hamas war are here: "Top U.S. officials warned Israel to protect civilian lives as it resumed aerial attacks on Gaza after a week-long pause in fighting, including in the south, where the majority of the Strip's population is now crowded after Israel instructed people in the north to evacuate. 'Too many Palestinian civilians have been killed,' Vice President Harris said Saturday. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said he 'personally pushed Israeli leaders to avoid civilian casualties,' saying that a failure to do so would drive Palestinians 'into the arms of the enemy,' undermining its war efforts against Hamas. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the military was determining 'safe areas' for Gazan civilians.: ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times' live updates for Sunday are here. CNN's live updates are here.