The Conversation -- November 1, 2023

Matthew Chapman of the Raw Story: "'Over the course of seven years, [Mike] Johnson has never reported a checking or savings account in his name, nor in the name of his wife or any of his children, disclosures show. In fact, he doesn't appear to have money stashed in any investments, with his latest filing -- covering 2022 -- showing no assets whatsoever,' reported Roger Sollenberger [of the Daily Beast], noting that he probably does have a bank account, but just doesn't have enough money in it to trigger reporting requirements. 'House Ethics Committee filing guidelines state that members must disclose bank accounts they have at every financial institution, as long as the account holds at least $1,000 and the combined value of all accounts -- including those belonging to their spouse and dependent children -- exceeds $5,000,' the report continued." Thanks to RAS for the link to the Beast's story.

Mike Johnson, Troll. David Firestone of the New York Times: "It didn't take long for the new House speaker, Mike Johnson, to demonstrate to the world that he will not be a serious partner for American allies or for those who still believe that governing is not a petty little game.... Making sense isn't really Mr. Johnson's game.... By throwing ... the I.R.S. cut [in funding into an appropriations bill to fund aid to Israel (and cutting out Ukraine war funding)], he gets to show the same extremists who deposed his predecessor that he can play rough with the White House."

Amanda Marcotte of Salon has some thoughts on Mike Johnson's "covenant" marriage and why he's trying to keep his "Stepford wife" Kelly out of sight. Interesting read.

Former Guy to "Rebrand" USA as USA. Ed Mazza of the Huffington Post, republished in Yahoo! News: "In a new post on his Truth Social website, Donald Trump ... made a strange claim about the name of the country if he wins next year's election. 'We're gonna have a great country. It's gonna be called the United States of America,' he said, neglecting the obvious fact that the country is already called the United States of America.... Last week, Trump said he noticed for the first time that the abbreviation for the United States also spells the word 'us.' 'I just picked that up. Has anyone ever thought of that? I just picked that up,' he said in New Hampshire, then complained he probably won't get the credit he deserves for making the 'us' discovery. 'Now, if we say something genius, they'll never say it,' Trump said." Thanks to Forrest M. for the link. In today's Comments, RAS posits that Trump is hoping to earn branding credit for the name; he may think that could earn him billions.

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Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: "The F.B.I. director [Christopher Wray] warned Tuesday that the Israel-Hamas war had raised the potential for an attack against Americans to a new level and escalated threats against Jews and Muslims in the United States.... 'The ongoing war in the Middle East has raised the threat of an attack against Americans in the United States to a whole other level'..., Mr. Wray told senators on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee during a hearing about worldwide threats to the United States.... The biggest concern for the agency is attacks from violent extremists or lone actors in the U.S. inspired by hateful messages and calls to violence. The number of antisemitic acts in the United States had been on the rise even before the Israel-Hamas war, led in part by white supremacist propaganda and new nationalist groups across the country." NPR's story is here. ~~~

~~~ Alex Griffing of Mediaite: "FBI Director Christopher Wray lit into Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) during a Senate hearing on Tuesday after Johnson accused the FBI of partisanship. [Wray] pushed back on Johnson, saying, 'I see an FBI every day that conducts themselves with integrity and professionalism and selflessness and rigor. And I do not accept the characterization of our performance in this particular case.' 'That's not how I characterized it. I'm talking about partisanship at the top,' interjected Johnson, raising his voice.... 'And the idea that I, as a Republican appointee and a lifelong Republican is biased in the way that you are describing makes absolutely no sense,' Wray shot back."

Maegan Vazquez of the Washington Post: "The Senate on Tuesday confirmed Jack Lew to be the next U.S. ambassador to Israel at a critical moment in U.S.-Israeli relations, despite vocal opposition to President Biden's nominee by Republican senators over his defense of the Obama-era Iran nuclear agreement. Lew's nomination was approved 53-43, largely along party lines. The United States has been without a confirmed ambassador for Israel since this summer, when Thomas Nides departed from the role. Lew was nominated by Biden in September.... Lew's nomination has been on a fast track since [early October when the Israel/Hamas war began]." The NBC News report is here.

Manu Raju of CNN: "Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell bluntly warned Republican senators in a private meeting not to sign on to a bill from Sen. Josh Hawley aimed at limiting corporate money bankrolling high-powered outside groups, telling them that many of them won their seats thanks to the powerful super PAC the Kentucky Republican has long controlled. According to multiple sources familiar with the Tuesday lunch meeting, McConnell warned GOP senators that they could face 'incoming' from the 'center-right' if they signed onto Hawley's bill. He also read off a list of senators who won their races amid heavy financial support from the Senate Leadership Fund, an outside group tied to the GOP leader that spends big on TV ads in battleground Senate races. On that list of senators: Hawley himself, according to sources familiar with the matter. McConnell has long been a chief opponent of tighter campaign finance restrictions. But there's also no love lost between McConnell and Hawley, who has long criticized the GOP leader and has repeatedly called for new leadership atop their conference."

Katie Edmondson & Karoun Demirjian of the New York Times: "Speaker Mike Johnson's decision to force a stand-alone vote on aid for Israel, peeling off a request from the Biden administration for money from Ukraine and coupling it with spending cuts, has set up a confrontation between the House and Senate over how to fund U.S. allies during the conflicts. Mr. Johnson, the Louisiana Republican who has personally voted against sending military aid to Kyiv, released a $14 billion aid bill for Israel on Monday. It includes a provision that would rescind the same amount of money earmarked for the Internal Revenue Service as part of the Inflation Reduction Act, a key piece of President Biden's agenda. Mr. Biden has asked Congress to pass a $105 billion aid package for Israel and Ukraine that also has funds for Taiwan and border security in the United States. But Mr. Johnson spurned that request, in an acknowledgment of how toxic funding for Ukraine has become among Republicans." The ABC News story is here. ~~~

If you put this to the American people, and they weigh the two needs, I think they are going to say standing with Israel and protecting the innocent is in our national interest, and a more immediate need than IRS agents. -- Squeaker & Leading Contender for America's Most Obnoxious Weanie Mike Johnson, on Fox Tuesday ~~~

     ~~~ Jacob Bogage & Jeff Stein of the Washington Post: Speaker Mike "Johnson's gambit was swiftly rejected by lawmakers in both parties. Top Senate Republicans such as Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and Susan Collins (Maine) called for including Ukraine aid in the legislative package, while the White House and congressional Democrats said cutting the IRS was a non-starter.... Republicans are expected to try to pass the legislation through the House on Friday." ~~~

~~~ An Inconvenient Truth. Marcy Wheeler: "Since January, it has been the unrelenting focus of the GOP House -- including Mike Johnson -- to demand higher penalties on Hunter Biden for not paying all his taxes.... But as one of the first acts under Speaker Johnson, he will respond to a terrorist attack by trying to help rich tax cheats. His plan pays for funding for Israel by cutting funding to the IRS by $14.3 billion, funding that more than pays for itself. Johnson's move to cut IRS funding comes weeks after the IRS made headlines for the amounts it is collecting from tax cheats who are far richer than Hunter Biden." ~~~

~~~ digby republishes a major portion of Jonathan Chait's post in New York on Mike's deceptive little bill. ~~~

~~~ Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Matt Gertz of Media Matters: "Several major national news outlets are promoting House Republicans' deceptive spin as the party seeks to leverage emergency funding for Israel to enact its top priority of protecting wealthy tax cheats.... Some major news outlets promoted the GOP's spin that the IRS funding cuts 'offset' or 'pay for' the Israel spending, while providing no information to their readers indicating that those cuts will likely increase the deficit. [These include Fox, of course, as well as CBS News, Politico & Reuters.]... Other outlets similarly privileged the House GOP's false 'offset' framing, but either acknowledged later in their report that the IRS cuts would increase the deficit or at least cited critics making that point."

Marianna Sotomayor of the Washington Post: "Embattled Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) is set to face expulsion from the House as soon as Wednesday, possibly becoming the first congressman in more than 20 years to be removed in a motion brought forth by Republicans from his own delegation.... In what some lawmakers see as a move to delay the vote on Santos and affirm his right to due process, the House Ethics Committee released a statement Tuesday saying that it continues to investigate the counts against Santos and will announce its 'next course of action in this manner on or before November 17, 2023.' Based on what the committee decides about Santos's conduct, it could make several recommendations for the House to take, including punishments that include censure, reprimand or expulsion.... A swath of lawmakers worry that removing Santos ignores the presumption of innocence and would set a precedent that expulsion is a standard option for reprimand at a time when retribution has become the norm in the House.... Expulsion requires approval from two-thirds of House lawmakers voting...." ~~~

     ~~~ A CBS News story is here. See also Akhilleus' commentary at the top of today's thread.

Another Insomniac Attack. Colby Hall of Mediaite: "... Donald Trump attacked Judge Arthur Engoron and New York State Attorney General Letitia James in an unhinged 2:28 Truth Social post.... He also took aim at his former fixer, Michael Cohen, who testified against Trump last week.... What was unique about this post was his insistence that Judge Engoron 'Leave my children alone, Engoron. You are a disgrace to the legal profession!'... Wednesday's trial will see Trump's oldest son, Donald Trump, Jr., testify in the fraud trial, while Eric Trump is set to testify Thursday. Both Ivanka Trump and Trump himself will testify next week, though they could take the fifth." Includes full text of twoot.

Trump Has Hallowe'en Nightmares. Tommy Christopher of Mediaite: "... Donald Trump did the social media equivalent of waking up screaming in the night by posting an out-of-the-blue enraged exclamation at 4:24 in the morning. The latest trigger for Trump's rage is the gag order by Federal District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan, which Judge Chutkan reinstated Sunday.... Trump wrote at around 1 AM [Tuesday]: 'RADICAL LEFT JUDGE TAKING AWAY MY RIGHT TO FREE SPEECH IN ORDER TO HELP CROOKED JOE BIDEN & HIS THIRD WORLD ELECTION INTERFERENCE SCAM. AS GOOD AS THIS SOUNDS, IT WON'T WORK!' [And so forth.]... Then, suddenly, at 4:24 AM, Trump shouted into the blackness of the social media night sky: 'ELECTION INTERFERENCE!!!'" (Also linked yesterday.)

Those who can make you believe in absurdities can make you commit atrocities. -- Voltaire, some while back ~~~

~~~ Amanda Marcotte of Salon on "how evangelical delusions trained Republicans to love Trump's lies.... [Trump's] life philosophy, where what is 'true' is whatever he wants to believe, fits nicely within the demon-haunted rhetoric of the Christian right, where Noah's ark is real but science is not.... Because they are so comfortable 'believing' that which they know not to be true, it was a breeze for Republicans to go along with Trump's Big Lie -- and therefore the atrocities that were committed in service of it, such as the Capitol riot."

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court worked hard in a pair of arguments on Tuesday to find a clear constitutional line separating elected officials&' purely private social media accounts from ones that reflect government actions and are subject to the First Amendment. After three hours, though, it was not clear that a majority of the justices had settled on a clear test. The question in the two cases was when the Constitution limits officials' ability to block users from their accounts. The answer turned on whether the officials' use of the accounts amounted to 'state action,' which is governed by the First Amendment, or private activity, which is not. That same question had seemed headed to the Supreme Court after the federal appeals court in New York ruled in 2019 that ... Donald J. Trump's Twitter account was a public forum from which he was powerless to exclude people based on their viewpoints."

Presidential Race 2024 Trivia

Marie: Do not accuse me of ignoring all the news of Ron DeSantis' boot fetish, from white high-tops to "top-secret" lifts: ~~~

     ~~~ Kelby Vera of the Huffington Post: Ron Desantis "walked away [ha ha] from a chance to debunk the theory [that he has lifts in his boots] during an appearance Monday on conservative podcaster Patrick Bet-David's show. DeSantis seemed confused when Bet-David tried to explain the shoe scandal with a viral video, but he refused to put on a pair of very fancy Ferragamo loafers to prove he's 5 feet, 11 inches, as he claims. (Also linked yesterday.)

Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times: The lockdown of Southern Maine demonstrates that a society that fetishizes guns cannot flourish or even function. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Marie: We live in a country in which our "leaders" ban books but not assault weapons.

Charlie Nash of Mediaite: "Billionaire Twitter owner Elon Musk told podcast host Joe Rogan that he purchased the social network in an effort to save civilization from a zombie mind virus.... [Because] 'if you walk around downtown San Francisco, right near the X/Twitter headquarters, it's a zombie apocalypse. I mean, it's rough.... So, you know, a philosophy that would be ordinarily quite niche and geographically constrained, so that sort of the fallout area would be limited, was effectively given an information weapon, an information technology weapon to propagate what is essentially a mind virus to the rest of Earth, and the outcome of that mind virus is very clear if you walk around the streets of downtown San Francisco. It is the end of civilization.'" MB: Okay then. Clearly, a well-thought-out business plan.

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Idaho. Jessica Valenti in a Substack essay: "Last week, an Idaho teenager and his mother were arrested for bringing the teen's girlfriend out-of-state for an abortion. The pair were charged with multiple felonies, including second degree kidnapping, for taking a minor under 16 years-old 'with the intent to keep or conceal [her] from her custodial parent ... by transporting the child out of the state for the purpose of obtaining an abortion.' The 15 year-old, identified in court records as K.B., was living in Pocatello with her 18 year-old boyfriend Kaydn* and his mother, Rachael, when she became pregnant. In May, they brought her to Oregon, where K.B. received abortion medication. Idaho's "abortion trafficking" law went into effect that same month.... Prosecutors declined to use the 'abortion trafficking' statute specifically. This may have something to do with the fact that the law is being challenged, and abortion rights advocates are asking for a temporary injunction against it while the case makes its way through the courts.... [So they brought a 'kidnapping' charge but] used the exact language of the trafficking law in the kidnapping charge.]" Nice. Emphasis original.

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Israel/Palestine

The New York Times' live updates of developments Wednesday in the Israel/Hamas war are here: "Seriously injured Palestinians began arriving by ambulance in Egypt on Wednesday, Egyptian state TV and a local medical official said, as the Rafah border crossing opened for the first such crossings since the start of the war between Hamas and Israel. Hundreds of foreign passport holders were also moving through checkpoints at the border crossing as part of a deal negotiated among Israel, Egypt, Hamas, the United States and Qatar. Egypt was set to receive hundreds of people on Wednesday, according to Western diplomats in Cairo and Jerusalem and the Gaza authorities.... American citizens are not expected to be among Wednesday's evacuees..., but they are slated to follow in batches later in the week.... Early Wednesday, Gaza's two million residents appeared to have been once again plunged into a communication blackout.... The Pentagon said that American commandos were on the ground in Israel to help locate the more than 200 hostages seized during the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks." ~~~

     ~~~ CNN's live updates for Wednesday are here.

Israel Strikes a Gaza Refugee Camp. Susannah George of the Washington Post: "A series of Israeli strikes targeting a senior Hamas commander in the northern Gaza Strip left scores of dead and wounded in a crowded refugee camp Tuesday as Israel expands its assault by air and land. The Gaza Health Ministry and the director of Gaza's Indonesian hospital said hundreds of people were killed or injured in the attack. Palestinians carried away the injured and dead on blankets and mattresses in the densely packed Jabalya refugee camp. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said a senior Hamas commander, Ibrahim Biari, was killed in the strikes.... Israel's push deeper into Gaza has become a test for allies such as the United States, which has stood by Israel's right to retaliate after a deadly Hamas raid on Oct. 7 but has increasingly pressed for ways to help civilians caught in the war. At a Senate hearing in Washington on Tuesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said 'humanitarian pauses must be considered.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Kareem Khadder, et al., of CNN: "Survivors and eyewitness spoke of apocalyptic scenes in the aftermath of the strike, which tore a massive crater through the middle of the crowded camp.... 'Children were carrying other injured children and running, with grey dust filling the air. Bodies were hanging on the rubble, many of them unrecognized. Some were bleeding and others were burnt,' [an eyewitness] told CNN by telephone.' ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: How is mass murder by bomb more humane than murdering individual kids at a concert? Is it because the mass murderers didn't look into the eyes of their victims as the Hamas terrorists did?

The Conversation -- October 31, 2023

Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times: The lockdown of Southern Maine demonstrates that a society that fetishizes guns cannot flourish or even function.

Trump Has Hallowe'en Nightmares. Tommy Christopher of Mediaite: "... Donald Trump did the social media equivalent of waking up screaming in the night by posting an out-of-the-blue enraged exclamation at 4:24 in the morning. The latest trigger for Trump's rage is the gag order by Federal District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan, which Judge Chutkan reinstated Sunday.... Trump wrote at around 1 AM [Tuesday]: 'RADICAL LEFT JUDGE TAKING AWAY MY RIGHT TO FREE SPEECH IN ORDER TO HELP CROOKED JOE BIDEN & HIS THIRD WORLD ELECTION INTERFERENCE SCAM. AS GOOD AS THIS SOUNDS, IT WON'T WORK!' [And so forth.]... Then, suddenly, at 4:24 AM, Trump shouted into the blackness of the social media night sky: 'ELECTION INTERFERENCE!!!'"

Marie: Do not accuse me of ignoring all the news of Ron DeSantis' boot fetish, from white high-tops to "top-secret" lifts: ~~~

     ~~~ Kelby Vera of the Huffington Post: Ron Desantis "walked away [ha ha] from a chance to debunk the theory [that he has lifts in his boots] during an appearance Monday on conservative podcaster Patrick Bet-David's show. DeSantis seemed confused when Bet-David tried to explain the shoe scandal with a viral video, but he refused to put on a pair of very fancy Ferragamo loafers to prove he's 5 feet, 11 inches, as he claims."

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Cecilia Kang & David Sanger of the New York Times: "President Biden signed a far-reaching executive order on artificial intelligence on Monday, requiring that companies report to the federal government about the risks that their systems could aid countries or terrorists to make weapons of mass destruction. The order also seeks to lessen the dangers of 'deep fakes' that could swing elections or swindle consumers. 'Deep fakes use A.I.-generated audio and video to smear reputations, spread fake news and commit fraud,' Mr. Biden said at the signing of the order at the White House. He described his concern that fraudsters could take three seconds of a person's voice and manipulate its content, turning an innocent comment into something more sinister that would quickly go viral. 'I've watched one of me,' Mr. Biden said, referring to an experiment his staff showed him to make the point that a well-constructed artificial intelligence system could convincingly create a presidential statement that never happened -- and thus touch off a political or national security crisis." ~~~

     ~~~ Here's the order, via the White House.

Jeff Stein & Jacob Bogage of the Washington Post: "House Republicans on Monday unveiled a proposal to pay for emergency aid for Israel's war against Hamas by cutting IRS funds aimed at cracking down on rich tax cheats and improving taxpayer service. The legislation, released by the House Rules Committee, calls for approving roughly $14 billion primarily in military aid to Israel and cutting about the same amount from the IRS budget. President Biden has proposed giving Israel roughly the same amount in aid but did not call for offsetting cuts to other parts of the budget.... Biden also called for the Israel aid to be packaged with roughly $60 billion for Ukraine, an approach the GOP bill rejected.... Using the IRS funding to offset the Israel aid might not actually save money: The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office had estimated in 2022 that the $80 billion IRS expansion would cut the deficit by more than $100 billion by improving collections and enforcement.... Many Senate Democrats, with one notable exception [-- Joe Manchin --], declared the House Republican bill dead on arrival in the upper chamber." MB: So if you protect tax scoffs like our billionaire donor pals, we'll help Israel. AND screw the deficit and fageddaboud Ukraine. ~~~

~~~ Brett Samuels of the Hill: "The White House on Monday issued veto threats against two GOP-led House appropriations bills expected to come up for a vote this week as lawmakers seek to avoid a government shutdown in November. The administration expressed its opposition to two funding bills likely to come up on the House floor in the coming days -- one that would fund the Department of the Interior, Environment and related agencies, and another that would fund the Department of Transportation, Housing and Urban Development and related agencies.... In both cases, the White House argued the bills put forward by Republicans in the House undercut an agreement reached by administration officials and GOP lawmakers in May on spending as part of negotiations to raise the debt limit."

Jennifer Bendery of the Huffington Post: "House Speaker Mike Johnson's wife [Kelly Johnson] took down the website for her company, Onward Christian Counseling Services, a day after HuffPost pointed to documents on the site that compared homosexuality to bestiality and incest.... A spokesperson for Speaker Johnson did not respond to a request for comment about whether he wrote the bylaws for his wife's company that include the language about bestiality and incest, or if he knows why his wife's website is now inactive." MB: These people would be comical if they weren't so cruel & bigoted. Kelly Johnson has had this site since 2017. If she believed all that crap then, does she believe it now? How come gay sex was "offensive to God" last week when Mike was still a back-bencher, but it isn't anymore now that he is Speaker of the House? Why, you'd almost think the Website was nothing more than a business enterprise and the pretty little White Christianist blogger was more mercenary than God-fearing.

Ann Marimow of the Washington Post: "Senate Democrats announced plans Monday to vote to subpoena a pair of wealthy conservatives and a judicial activist who have underwritten or organized lavish travel for some Supreme Court justices.... Senate Judiciary Committee leaders said they would vote as soon as Nov. 9 to authorize subpoenas for information from Texas billionaire Harlan Crow, a close friend and benefactor of Justice Clarence Thomas, and from Leonard Leo, the conservative judicial activist. Senate Democrats do not need the vote of any Republican on the committee to authorize the subpoenas. No separate vote by the full Senate is necessary.... The committee said Monday that it would also vote to issue a subpoena to conservative donor Robin Arkley II. ProPublica reported that Arkley provided Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. with a free fishing trip to Alaska in 2008 that was organized by Leo."

Trump Gags on Gag Order. Rachel Weiner & Isaac Arnsdorf of the Washington Post: "On Thursday, former attorney general William P. Barr made some less-than-flattering comments about Donald Trump. Twice over the weekend, the former president snarled back -- first insulting Barr's appearance in a campaign speech, then calling Barr 'gutless' and 'weak' on social media. But one of those comments came just after a court order barring Trump from going after witnesses -- such as Barr -- who could testify at trial about his attempts to undo the 2020 election results. Minutes before the Truth Social post, U.S. District Court Judge Tanya S. Chutkan had reimposed a gag order barring Trump from comments that 'target ... any reasonably foreseeable witness' in the federal case in D.C. charging him with illegal interference in the 2020 election. When he posted about Barr, Trump had not yet been told by his attorneys that the gag order was in effect and was not intending to violate it, according to a campaign aide. A few minutes after the Barr insult, Trump wrote that he had just learned the gag order was reinstated....: (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: If what I heard on MSNBC is true (and I'm not sure of the source but I think it was an expert lawyer), the Trump is still in trouble: although he may or may not have known Judge Chutkan's gag order was back in force when he wrote his twoot,* he has not taken it down.

     * Twoot: A "truth," as Trump calls his tweets, uttered by a bratty child from a Long Island borough with a tendency to rhotacization; thus, "tr" sounds like "tw" & "th" sounds like "t."

Sarah Burris of the Raw Story: "A 59-year-old supporter of Donald Trump has been arrested for threats against Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and Fulton County Sheriff Pat Labat, Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter Tamar Hallerman posted on social media Monday. Arthur Ray Hanson II, of Huntsville, Alabama, was indicted for the threatening voicemails sent related to Trump's racketeering case.... Hanson left one voicemail threatening: 'watch it when you're going to the car at night, when you're going into your house, watch everywhere that you're going' and 'when you charge Trump on that fourth indictment, anytime you're alone, be looking over your shoulder.'"

Presidential Race 2024

Patrick Marley of the Washington Post: "At a historic hearing Monday, attorneys for a group of voters argued that ... Donald Trump should not appear on Colorado ballots next year because, they contend, he fomented an insurrection and is barred by the U.S. Constitution from running again. Trump's attorneys disputed those claims and said voters -- not judges -- should decide whether he deserves another term. The first day of the hearing, which is expected to last a week, featured an exhaustive retelling of what happened at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, by a Democratic lawmaker [-- Rep. Eric Swalwell (Calif.) --] who had to evacuate and two police officers [-- Daniel Hodges & Winston Pingeon --] who tried to stop the rioters. Both officers said they feared for their lives, and one described the assault on the Capitol as a 'terrorist attack.'... Ratified in 1868, the 14th Amendment ... barred people from holding office if they had sworn an oath to the Constitution and then gone on to engage in an insurrection or aided or comforted the nation's enemies." The AP's report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I hope somewhere in testimony, the plaintiffs with bring up that "aid & comfort" part of the Amendment, because Trump is still doing that big-time. He publicly mourns insurrectionist Ashli Babbitt (whom an officer shot dead as she tried to enter the House chamber), participates in a January 6 prisoners' choir & repeatedly promises to pardon most of the insurrectionists should he win the presidency*.

No Country for Old Men. Michael Bender & Michael Gold of the New York Times: "On Sunday in Sioux City, Iowa, [Donald] Trump wrongly thanked supporters of Sioux Falls, a South Dakota town about 75 miles away, correcting himself only after being pulled aside onstage and informed of the error. It was strikingly similar to a fictional scene that Mr. Trump acted out earlier this month, pretending to be [President] Biden mistaking Iowa for Idaho and needing an aide to straighten him out.... Aas the 2024 race for the White House heats up, Mr. Trump's increased verbal blunders threaten to undermine one of Republicans' most potent avenues of attack, and the entire point of his onstage pantomime: the argument that Mr. Biden is too old to be president." (Also linked yesterday.)

AND in More Important News.... Derek Guy in Politico Magazine: "In the last few weeks, posts mocking Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' strangely shaped cowboy boots have racked up millions of views on Twitter and TikTok, with online sleuths trying to determine whether he's wearing height-boosting insoles.... Three top experts in the field say the cowboy boot truthers might be onto something. 'I've dealt with these politicians many times,' says Zephan Parker, the bespoke bootmaker behind Houston's popular Parker Boot Company, which, he says, has made height-increasing cowboy boots for a number of Texan politicians. (No, he won't reveal any names.) 'I've helped them with their lifts. [DeSantis] is wearing lifts; there's no doubt.'"

Another Win for Workers. Tom Krisher of the AP: "The United Auto Workers announced Monday that it reached a tentative deal with General Motors, capping a whirlwind few days in which GM, Ford and Stellantis agreed to generous terms that would end the union's six weeks of targeted strikes, pending approval of the rank and file. The deal UAW President Shawn Fain closed on his 55th birthday is modeled on the ones agreed to with crosstown rivals Ford and Jeep-maker Stellantis, and would give workers higher raises than they've received in years. If approved, it would also claw back some concessions the UAW agreed to almost two decades ago, when the automakers were in desperate financial shape. Analysts say Fain's combative stance with the companies paid off for the workers, winning them pay and cost-of-living raises that would top 30% by the time the contracts expire in April 2028. Workers would get an immediate 11% pay bump upon ratification." ~~~

     ~~~ Jack Ewing & Neal Boudette of the New York Times: "The tentative agreements ... also appeared to be a win for President Biden, who had risked political capital by picketing with striking workers at a G.M. facility in Michigan last month.... The contracts the union negotiated are the latest in a series of prominent victories for organized labor, including Hollywood writers, UPS workers and even some university employees.... [And auto] companies without unions can expect the U.A.W. to deploy the same hardball tactics that Mr. Fain used against Ford, G.M. and Stellantis, including rhetorical attacks on multimillion-dollar executive pay and hourly wages that have failed to keep pace with high inflation." ~~~

~~~ Paul Krugman of the New York Times: "And maybe, just maybe, union victories in 2023 will prove to be a milestone on the way back to a less unequal nation.... Baby boomers like me grew up in a nation that was far less polarized economically than the one we live in today.... For example, chief executives of major corporations were paid 'only' 15 times as much as their average workers, compared with more than 200 times as much as their average workers now.... Unions are a force for greater wage equality; they also help enforce the 'outrage constraint' that used to limit executive compensation.... A revelatory 1991 paper by Claudia Goldin (who just won a richly deserved Nobel) and Robert Margo showed that a relatively equal America emerged not gradually but suddenly, with an abrupt narrowing of income differentials in the 1940s -- what the authors called the Great Compression.... Public approval of unions is at its highest point since 1965...." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Mitt Romney is hearing a kind of golden swan song these days as writer McKay Coppins makes the rounds selling a book about Romney, an effort with which Romney cooperated. Romney & Coppins portray Romney as a sort of noble throwback to the good old days when Republicans were honorable fellows who stood for some great American tradition of decency, civility and the work ethic (in contrast, of course, to the vile Donald Trump). But as we serenade Mitt, we should remind ourselves that Mitt made his fortune as a vulture capitalist, buying up, eviscerating & selling off the remains of troubled corporations, shedding thousands of workers along his rampage. Mitt's father, George Romney, before he became governor of Michigan, headed up American Motors. As David Leonhardt of the New York Times wrote in 2017, "A half-century ago, a top automobile executive named George Romney ... turned down several big annual bonuses. He did so, he told his company's board, because he believed that no executive should make more than $225,000 a year (which translates into almost $2 million [in 2017 dollars])."

Aaron Gregg, et al., of the Washington Post: "Walgreens and CVS workers are staging walkouts for three days starting Monday, organizers say, marking the second such job action this month by pharmacy staffs demanding better working conditions in the face of industry retrenchment. Organizers say they hope the job action -- on the heels of an Oct. 9 work stoppage by thousands of Walgreens pharmacists -- will step up pressure on management to address concerns about wages and staffing shortfalls that pharmacy workers say could hurt patients."

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Maine. Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs & Chelsia Marcius of the New York Times: "The Army Reserve and a Maine sheriff's department were aware of a reservist's deteriorating mental health more than five months before he killed 18 people in Lewiston, Maine, according to records released on Monday. Just six weeks ago, the records show, he had grown increasingly paranoid, punched a friend and said he was going to carry out a shooting spree. But there is no indication in the documents that any law enforcement officials ever made contact with the reservist, Robert R. Card II, 40, who carried out the deadliest mass shooting in America this year and set off a two-day manhunt before he was found dead. The warnings about Mr. Card were far more explicit than Maine officials had publicly acknowledged in the days since the shooting on Oct. 25. They came from Mr. Card's family members -- who believed he was hearing voices -- and his Army Reserve unit in Saco, Maine, and were investigated by the Sheriff's Office in Sagadahoc County, where Mr. Card lived." ~~~

     ~~~ Mark Berman, et al., of the Washington Post: "The family of the gunman who killed 18 people last week in Maine contacted police with concerns about his mental health and access to guns more than five months before the massacre, according to their local sheriff. In addition to his own relatives, law enforcement officials and government agencies also expressed anxiety about Robert Card and the possible risk he posed to others, long before police say Card gunned people down in a bowling alley and a bar Wednesday in Lewiston." ~~~

     ~~~ See also CNN story, linked yesterday.

Texas. Patrick Svitek of the Texas Tribune: Texas state "Attorney General Ken Paxton's long-delayed trial on securities fraud charges has been set for April 15. State District Judge Andrea Beall scheduled the trial during a hearing Monday morning in Houston.... Paxton was indicted on the charges over eight years ago, months into his first term as the state's top law enforcement official. The charges stem from accusations that in 2011 he tried to solicit investors in a McKinney technology company without disclosing that it was paying him to promote its stock. Paxton has pleaded not guilty." (Also linked yesterday.)

Virginia. Laura Vozzella of the Washington Post: "Gov. Glenn Youngkin's elections team has admitted in the run-up to pivotal General Assembly elections that it removed nearly 3,400 qualified voters from the state's rolls, far higher than the administration's previous estimate of 270. Elections officials under Youngkin (R) acknowledged what it called the mistaken removal of about 3,400 voters in a news release Friday -- five weeks after early voting began for Nov. 7 General Assembly elections.... The news release claimed that local registrars had already reinstated all but 'approximately 100' of the voters, all of whom had been convicted of felonies, had their voting rights restored and then went on to violate the terms of their probation. The state's computer software had erroneously counted the probation violations as new felonies that disqualified them from voting, administration officials have said.... Democrats say the administration's shifting accounts [of the purge] cast doubt on the intentions and competence of Youngkin, who won the governorship two years ago promising to bring 'election integrity' and business-world management savvy to state government." (Also linked yesterday.)

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Israel/Palestine. The New York Times' live updates of developments Tuesday in the Israel/Hamas war are here: "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel categorically dismissed any possibility of a cease-fire in Gaza at a news conference late Monday, as Israeli troops pushed deeper into the territory and appeared to advance on densely populated Gaza City from three directions.... Photos, satellite images and videos verified by The New York Times showed formations of troops and armored vehicles approaching Gaza City and nearby population centers from the north, east and south. Israel has renewed warnings for civilians to move to the southern part of Gaza. At the same time, its forces appeared to have reached Salah Al-Din Road, one of the territory's main north-south arteries. One widely circulated video showed an armored vehicle there firing on a car.... Two senior United Nations officials for humanitarian affairs spoke with urgency before the Security Council, calling for a halt to the fighting and describing a catastrophic situation for Gaza's two million civilians." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I apologize for making a remark that will be offensive to many people, but the first thought that came to my mind as I read about Israel's telling Palestinians to go to South Gaza, then firing on those who did so, was "Nazis urging Jews into the 'showers.'" `~~

     ~~~ CNN's live updates are here.

The Conversation -- October 30, 2023

Trump Gags on Gag Order. Rachel Weiner & Isaac Arnsdorf of the Washington Post: "On Thursday, former attorney general William P. Barr made some less-than-flattering comments about Donald Trump. Twice over the weekend, the former president snarled back -- first insulting Barr's appearance in a campaign speech, then calling Barr 'gutless' and 'weak on social media. But one of those comments came just after a court order barring Trump from going after witnesses -- such as Barr -- who could testify at trial about his attempts to undo the 2020 election results. Minutes before the Truth Social post, U.S. District Court Judge Tanya S. Chutkan had reimposed a gag order barring Trump from comments that 'target ... any reasonably foreseeable witness' in the federal case in D.C. charging him with illegal interference in the 2020 election. When he posted about Barr, Trump had not yet been told by his attorneys that the gag order was in effect and was not intending to violate it, according to a campaign aide. A few minutes after the Barr insult, Trump wrote that he had just learned the gag order was reinstated...." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: If what I heard on MSNBC is true (and I'm not sure of the source but I think it was an expert lawyer), the Trump is still in trouble: although he may or may not have known Judge Chutkan's gag order was back in force when he wrote his twoot,* he has not taken it down.

     * Twoot: A "truth," as Trump calls his tweets, uttered by a bratty child from a Long Island borough with a tendency to rhotacization; thus, "tr" sounds like "tw" & "th" sounds like "t."

No Country for Old Men. Michael Bender & Michael Gold of the New York Times: "On Sunday in Sioux City, Iowa, [Donald] Trump wrongly thanked supporters of Sioux Falls, a South Dakota town about 75 miles away, correcting himself only after being pulled aside onstage and informed of the error. It was strikingly similar to a fictional scene that Mr. Trump acted out earlier this month, pretending to be [President] Biden mistaking Iowa for Idaho and needing an aide to straighten him out.... As the 2024 race for the White House heats up, Mr. Trump's increased verbal blunders threaten to undermine one of Republicans' most potent avenues of attack, and the entire point of his onstage pantomime: the argument that Mr. Biden is too old to be president."

Texas. Patrick Svitek of the Texas Tribune: Texas state "Attorney General Ken Paxton's long-delayed trial on securities fraud charges has been set for April 15. State District Judge Andrea Beall scheduled the trial during a hearing Monday morning in Houston.... Paxton was indicted on the charges over eight years ago, months into his first term as the state's top law enforcement official. The charges stem from accusations that in 2011 he tried to solicit investors in a McKinney technology company without disclosing that it was paying him to promote its stock. Paxton has pleaded not guilty."

Virginia. Laura Vozzella of the Washington Post: "Gov. Glenn Youngkin's elections team has admitted in the run-up to pivotal General Assembly elections that it removed nearly 3,400 qualified voters from the state's rolls, far higher than the administration's previous estimate of 270. Elections officials under Youngkin (R) acknowledged what it called the mistaken removal of about 3,400 voters in a news release Friday -- five weeks after early voting began for Nov. 7 General Assembly elections.... The news release claimed that local registrars had already reinstated all but 'approximately 100' of the voters, all of whom had been convicted of felonies, had their voting rights restored and then went on to violate the terms of their probation. The state's computer software had erroneously counted the probation violations as new felonies that disqualified them from voting, administration officials have said.... Democrats say the administration's shifting accounts [of the purge] cast doubt on the intentions and competence of Youngkin, who won the governorship two years ago promising to bring 'election integrity' and business-world management savvy to state government."

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"Lord of the Flies." Ben Jacobs of Vox: "After more than three weeks without a speaker, the elevation of the previously obscure Mike Johnson of Louisiana to lead the House was a signal that finally the chamber could get back to governing. In the next day, members forced votes next week on two resolutions of censure and one of expulsion. In other words, things aren’t getting less weird anytime soon. But they won't be returning to the status quo under former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, either. There will now be a new normal as Congress has to deal with pressing issues. The government will shut down at midnight on November 18, Israel and Hamas are at war after the horrific attack Hamas launched on October 7, much of Ukraine is still occupied by Russia, and lawmakers are grappling with how to address the near-record numbers of undocumented immigrants entering the country. The House will face this new normal with a weak speaker in a scenario that one veteran Republican insider compared to 'Lord of the Flies' after the defenestration spree of the past three weeks...."

Sam Fossum & Manu Raju of CNN: "Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville, who has held up military promotions for nine months, slammed a proposal being floated to change the chamber's rules to allow a vote on many of the nominations en masse and attacked the White House and Senate Democrats for not negotiating with him. 'It's typical of this place. This administration would rather burn the Senate down and that's what would happen.... If you change the rules of the Senate then it lasts forever,' Tuberville told CNN's Manu Raju.... All Senate Democrats would have to join with nine Republicans for this latest plan to work. The bloc of nominees wouldn't include some higher-level military promotions, which senators would still want to confirm one at a time. The proposal could go to the Senate Rules Committee as soon as this week, a source told CNN Thursday.... Tuberville's hold is affecting a number of senior military posts in the Middle East as the US deploys units to the area amid heightened tensions after a series of attacks on coalition bases and the crisis in Israel and Gaza."

Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "A federal judge reinstated a gag order on ... Donald J. Trump on Sunday that had been temporarily placed on hold nine days earlier, reimposing restrictions on what Mr. Trump can say about witnesses and prosecutors in the case in which he stands accused of seeking to overturn the 2020 election. In making her decision, the judge, Tanya S. Chutkan, also denied a request by Mr. Trump's lawyers to freeze the gag order for what could have been a considerably longer period, saying it can remain in effect as a federal appeals court in Washington reviews it.... Prosecutors working for Mr. Smith argued that the gag order needed to be put back in place at once because while it was on hold, Mr. Trump had violated it by attacking Mr. Smith at least three times by name. The former president, the prosecutors noted, had also violated the frozen order by twice making public comments about Mark Meadows, his former chief of staff, who could appear as a witness in the case." The ABC News story is here. (Also linked yesterday.)

Jesse Wegman of the New York Times: "At a pivotal moment during one of the Watergate hearings in 1973, President Richard Nixon's counsel, John Dean, asked a question that still resonates: 'How in God's name could so many lawyers get involved in something like this?'... Fifty years after Watergate, the nation is once again confronted with a president who grossly abused the powers of his office, leading to criminal prosecutions. And once again, that abuse relied heavily on the involvement of lawyers. If Mr. Trump's 2020 racket was 'a coup in search of a legal theory,' as one federal judge put it, these lawyers provided the theory, and the phony facts to back it up. In doing so, they severely tarnished their profession.... A disturbing number of experienced attorneys, some of whom once held prestigious posts in government and academia, were willing and eager to tell transparent lies and concoct laughable legal arguments to help a con man stay in the White House against the will of the American people." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I am struck that Wegman, although he names names, skips right over Bill Barr, suggesting to me that Barr's self-serving & very tardy come-to-Jesus turnabout is faring well.

Presidential Race 2024

Trump Forgets Where He Is. Scott Lemieux in LG&$: "The press is still trying to EMAILS! Biden's age while his almost equally old opponent keeps saying stuff like this on a daily basis: 'Though Donald Trump often makes fun of Joe Biden for his old age, Trump himself apparently forgot where he was at during a speech in Sioux City, Iowa, Sunday, greeting the crowd with, "Hello to a place where we've done very well, Sioux Falls. Thank you very much."' Sioux Falls is located more than 80 miles north in neighboring South Dakota."

Adam Nagourney of the New York Times: "The decision by Mike Pence to end his presidential campaign on Saturday was a bow to what had finally become inevitable.... The root of his campaign's collapse -- and, very possibly, his political career -- goes back to 2016, when Mr. Pence accepted [Donald] Trump's offer to be his running mate.... He had never learned to manage his relationship with Mr. Trump, to navigate the deep cultural and personal differences between a taciturn Midwestern governor and a flashy New Yorker who never played by the rules of politics that had governed Mr. Pence's career." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Ken Meyer of Mediaite: "...Donald Trump made it clear he expects Mike Pence to endorse his 2024 campaign.... [Trump said in Las Vegas,] 'People are leaving now and they're all endorsing me. I don't know about Mike Pence. He should endorse me. You know why? Because I had a great, successful presidency and he was the vice president. He should endorse me. I chose him, made him vice president. But people in politics can be very disloyal. I've never seen anything like it.'... In the past, Trump has repeatedly defended his supporters who besieged the U.S. Capitol on January 6th, including those who wanted to 'Hang Mike Pence.' Trump's former aides have testified under oath that the former president thought Pence 'deserved' to be hanged by the riotous mob." (Also linked yesterday.)

Marcy Wheeler: Mike Pence just solved one big gag-order problem: "So long as Pence was in the race running on the policy of upholding the Constitution, as he did on January 6, there was a clear conflict between the gag's restrictions on Trump's attacks on witnesses and its explicit permission to attack the policies of his rivals in the 2024 Presidential race. That conflict has been resolved. These First Amendment questions are still difficult. This appeal may still give Trump a vehicle to get SCOTUS to protect the kind of mob incitement that is at the core of the indictment. But [Saturday], Pence resolved the most difficult of the questions."

Motown Plus. Neal Boudette of the New York Times: "After winning major gains in wages and benefits from two of the three Detroit automakers, the United Automobile Workers union is looking beyond th Motor City to car companies operating nonunion factories across the South. In a speech to union members live-streamed on Facebook Sunday night, the U.A.W. president, Shawn Fain, said the union planned a push to organize plants at some of the nonunion automakers, such as Toyota, Honda and Tesla. 'One of our biggest goals coming out of this historic contract victory is to organize like we've never organized before,' Mr. Fain said. 'When we return to the bargaining table in 2028, it won't just be with the Big Three. It will be the Big Five or Big Six.' The statement was one of Mr. Fain's clearest to date that the U.A.W. intended to renew efforts to unionize the plants of foreign-owned automakers and Tesla, which operates nonunion vehicle plants in California and Texas."

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Maine. Shimon Prokupecz, et al., of CNN: "CNN's reporting raises new questions about the lack of follow-through to make sure [Robert Card] was not a danger despite serious warning signs that were known by authorities and are now being detailed for the first time.... The Maine National Guard asked local police to check on the reservist who killed 18 people after a soldier became concerned he would 'snap and commit a mass shooting,' according to information shared with CNN. Officers from the Sagadahoc County and Kennebec County Sheriff's Offices responded and tried to contact Robert Card on September 16.... The Sagadahoc County sergeant called for backup, tried without success to talk to the reservist and then received disturbing details from the Maine National Guard and the shooter's family. The responding sergeant from the Sagadahoc County Sheriff's Office was told 'when [he] answers the door at his trailer, in the past he usually does so with a handgun in hand out of view from the person outside,' according to the source familiar with the welfare check report."

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Israel/Palestine

The New York Times' live updates of developments Monday in the Israel/Hamas war are here: "Israel's military said on Monday that it had hit hundreds of Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip over the last few days, continuing to bomb and expand ground operations in the enclave, as President Biden called on Israel to prioritize the 'protection of civilians.' Several health facilities in Gaza were damaged over the weekend and hospitals there continue to receive evacuation orders from Israel, the World Health Organization's office that operates in Gaza said overnight. The agency again urged Israel to rescind its evacuation order, saying it was impossible to clear hospitals without risking the lives of patients.... The largest shipment of food, water, medical supplies and other humanitarian aid since the start of the war reached Gaza on Sunday, according to the United Nations. The 33 trucks that entered are a fraction of what civilians need in Gaza. The Israeli military said overnight that it had responded to fire from Syrian and Lebanese territory. Fighting on those borders has been nearly constant during the war with Hamas. Israeli forces were also fighting in the West Bank, according to accounts in Palestinian media." ~~~

     ~~~ CNN's live updates are here.

Ronen Bergman, et al., of the New York Times: "The most powerful military force in the Middle East had not only completely underestimated the magnitude of the [October 7] attack, it had totally failed in its intelligence-gathering efforts, mostly due to hubris and the mistaken assumption that Hamas was a threat contained. Despite Israel's sophisticated technological prowess in espionage, Hamas gunmen had undergone extensive training for the assault, virtually undetected for at least a year. The fighters, who were divided into different units with specific goals, had meticulous information on Israel's military bases and the layout of kibbutzim. The country's once invincible sense of security was shattered.... It is clear the attacks were possible because of a cascade of failures over recent years -- not hours, days or weeks.... Overall, arrogance among Israeli political and security officials convinced them that the country's military and technological superiority to Hamas would keep the terrorist group in check." This is a longish article that outlines causes of Israel's failure to detect the October 7 attack.

Michael Tov of Haaretz: "Facing a barrage of criticism, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu deleted a controversial social media post on Sunday in which he blamed the defense and intelligence establishment for giving him faulty assessments before the deadly Hamas attack on October 7. The prime minister then published a new tweet. 'I was wrong,' he wrote, adding that 'the things I said following the press conference should not have been said, and I apologize for that. I fully support the heads of [Israel's] security services.' In a post overnight Saturday, Netanyahu asserted that he had never received any warning about Hamas' intentions to start a war against Israel and blamed the defense establishment -- citing Aharon Haliva and Ronen Bar, the heads of Military Intelligence and the Shin Bet security service -- for Israel's failure to anticipate the attack on October 7." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Isabel Kershner of the New York Times: "For many Israelis, the episode confirmed suspicions of rifts and disarray at the top during one of the worst crises in the country's 75-year history and reinforced qualms about Mr. Netanyahu's leadership.... Among the first to call out Mr. Netanyahu's middle-of-the night comments was Benny Gantz, the centrist former defense minister and military chief who, for the sake of national unity, left the ranks of the parliamentary opposition to join Mr. Netanyahu's emergency war cabinet in the days after the massacre by Hamas.... Opinion surveys since Oct. 7 have indicated overwhelming public trust in the military and plummeting faith in government officials."

Abu Bashir, et al., of the New York Times: "On Friday at sunset..., the weak phone and internet service that had allowed some semblance of life to continue inside the blockaded enclave was suddenly severed. Two American officials said the United States believed Israel was responsible for the communications loss.... Panic rippled through the territory.... The blackout stirred terror -- and fury -- across the Gaza Strip.... Connectivity restarted spontaneously on Sunday around 4 a.m., said Abdulmajeed Melhem, chief executive of Paltel Group, the main Palestinian telecommunications company. The company had made no repairs and had no understanding of how or why service had partly returned, he said.... Isolated from the outside world -- and each other -- Gazans faced scenes from an apocalyptic movie."

Russia/Israel. CBS/AP: "Hundreds of people stormed into the main airport in Russia's Dagestan region and onto the landing field Sunday, chanting antisemitic slogans and seeking passengers arriving on a flight from Tel Aviv, Israel, Russian news agencies and social media reported. Russian news reports said the crowd surrounded the airliner, which belonged to Russian carrier Red Wings. Authorities closed the airport in Makhachkala, the capital of the predominantly Muslim region, and police converged on the facility. Dagestan's Ministry of Health said more than 20 people were injured, with two in critical condition. It said the injured included police officers and civilians.... Video on social media showed some in the crowd waving Palestinian flags and others trying to overturn a police car. Antisemitic slogans can be heard being shouted and some in the crowd examined the passports of arriving passengers, apparently in an attempt to identify those who were Israeli."