November 7, 2022

Afternoon Update:

Marie: Gosh, I wish I knew how to do those Twitter hashtag things. Because, if I did, I'd do one called #HowDumbIsElon.

     Entry No. 1. Reuters, republished by Yahoo! News: "After Twitter Inc laid off roughly half its staff on Friday following Elon Musk's $44 billion acquisition, the company is now reaching out to dozens of employees who lost their jobs and asking them to return, Bloomberg News reported on Sunday. Some of those who are being asked to return were laid off by mistake. Others were let go before management realized that their work and experience may be necessary to build the new features Musk envisions, the report said citing people familiar with the moves."

     Entry No. 2. Nicole Guadiano of Business Insider, republished by Yahoo! News: "... Elon Musk urged his Twitter followers on Monday to elect a Republican Congress on Tuesday in an appeal to 'independent-minded voters.'... 'Shared power curbs the worst excesses of both parties, therefore I recommend voting for a Republican Congress, given that the Presidency is Democratic,' he tweeted...." MB: Let's call that "Notes from La-La Land." You don't have to be much of a student of U.S. politics over the past 20 years to know that "shared power leads to gridlock." Yeah, I suppose it curbs "excesses" because it curbs everything. Which is, Elon, an excess in itself; an excess of inertia & dysfunction. It would help, I suppose, if both parties knew how to "share power," but no one in your preferred party knows how to share.

Here's that Rachel Maddow podcast that Akhilleus discusses in today's Comments:

Amy Gardner & Emma Brown of the Washington Post: "Republican officials and candidates in at least three battleground states are pushing to disqualify thousands of mail ballots after urging their own supporters to vote on Election Day, in what critics are calling a concerted attempt at partisan voter suppression. In Pennsylvania, the state Supreme Court has agreed with the Republican National Committee that election officials should not count ballots on which the voter neglected to put a date on the outer envelope -- even in cases when the ballots arrive before Election Day. Thousands of ballots have been set aside as a result, enough to swing a close race. In Michigan, Kristina Karamo, the Republican nominee for secretary of state, sued the top election official in Detroit last month, seeking to toss absentee ballots not cast in person with an ID, even though that runs contrary to state requirements. When asked in a recent court hearing, Karamo's lawyer declined to say why the suit targets Detroit, a heavily Democratic, majority-Black city, and not the entire state. And in Wisconsin, Republicans won a court ruling that will prevent some mail ballots from being counted when the required witness address is not complete.... While the rejections may have some basis in state law, experts say they appear to go against a principle, enshrined in federal law, of not disenfranchising voters for minor errors." Emphasis added. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I can improve on that lede: "Republican officials and candidates in at least three battleground states are pushing to disqualify thousands of mail ballots after urging their own supporters to vote on Election Day, in what critics are calling a concerted attempt at partisan voter suppression." There. All fixed. As for the emphasized sentence, "appear to"? Really? For Pete's sake, if a ballot was received before Nov. 8, then obviously it was mailed before Nov. 8, unless a mess of Pennsylvania voters are skilled time-travelers or something.

AP: "Kremlin-connected entrepreneur Yevgeny Prigozhin admitted Monday that he had interfered in U.S. elections and would continue to do so -- confirming for the first time the accusations that he has rejected for years. 'Gentlemen, we have interfered, are interfering and will interfere. Carefully, precisely, surgically and in our own way, as we know how to do,' Prigozhin boasted in remarks posted on social media. The statement, from the press service of his catering company that earned him the nickname 'Putin's chef,' came on the eve of U.S. midterm elections in response to a request for comment." Thanks to Forrest M. for the lead.

AP: "New Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson has issued her first Supreme Court opinion, a short dissent Monday in support of a death row inmate from Ohio. Jackson wrote that she would have thrown out lower court rulings in the case of inmate Davel Chinn, whose lawyers argued that the state suppressed evidence that might have altered the outcome of his trial. Jackson, in a two-page opinion, wrote that she would have ordered a new look at Chinn's case 'because his life is on the line and given the substantial likelihood that the suppressed records would have changed the outcome at trial.'... Justice Sonia Sotomayor was the only other member of the court to join Jackson's opinion. The two justices also were allies in dissent Monday in Sotomayor's opinion that there was serious prosecutorial misconduct in the trial of a Louisiana man who was convicted of sex trafficking."

Trump Is Stuck with Liars Social. Drew Harwell & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: Donald "Trump has told his allies that he can't leave Truth Social, because he's propping it up, and he doesn't want a site so closely associated with his brand to collapse, according to people familiar with his thinking.... Trump's 4 million followers on the platform are a small fraction of the 88 million he once had on Twitter, and his dozens of posts -- called 'truths' -- there in recent weeks have received none of the broad engagement and traction he counted on during his presidency.... In February 2021..., Trump signed a document with a 'mutual noncompete' clause pledging not to work with anyone else in exchange for 90 percent of the company's shares, [Will] Wilkerson, the former Trump Media executive, told The Post. He was fired last month after that interview."

~~~~~~~~~~

November Elections

David Smith of the Guardian: "Joe Biden is fighting a rearguard action to stave off defeat in Tuesday's midterm elections as Republicans look poised to make sweeping gains in the US Congress, setting up two years of political trench warfare. The president, along with former president Barack Obama, has been criss-crossing America in a last-ditch bid to persuade voters that a Democratic victory is critical not only to Biden's legislative agenda but the preservation of American democracy. But momentum appears to be with Republicans capitalising on frustration over inflation and fears of crime and illegal immigration. Election forecasters and polls say it is highly likely that the party of ex-president Donald Trump will win a majority in the House of Representatives and also have a shot of taking control of the Senate."

Washington Post Editors: "In deciding whether and how to vote, Americans should keep the fundamentals in mind, supporting candidates committed to the democratic system and the peaceful transfer of power, and opposing those who have tried to profit from toxic lies about election integrity.... In total, a Post tally found nearly 300 election deniers running for major office in 48 of 50 states.... The stakes are higher than where the top marginal tax rate might end up, what kinds of judges get confirmed or even the size of government. The past two elections have not been normal, and this one is not, either."

Ezra Klein of the the New York Times outlines what Republicans would do if they took control of the Congress: create crisis after crisis. Klein, of course, is not merely speculating. It's what Republicans have said out loud they would do. MB: And Klein, IMO, doesn't cover the half of it. Miss Margie thinks her gang will control the House, and if she's right, well, we're on the way to becoming a White nationalist "Christian" nation. And all that may mean, none of it good.

Steven Myers of the New York Times: "... the cybersecurity group Recorded Future .... and other researchers have identified ... a new, though more narrowly targeted, Russian effort ahead of Tuesday's midterm elections. The goal, as before, is to stoke anger among conservative voters and to undermine trust in the American electoral system. This time, it also appears intended to undermine the Biden administration's extensive military assistance to Ukraine.... The campaign -- using accounts that pose as enraged Americans ... -- have added fuel to the most divisive political and cultural issues in the country today. It has specifically targeted Democratic candidates in the most contested races, including the Senate seats up for grabs in Ohio, Arizona and Pennsylvania, calculating that a Republican majority in the Senate and the House of Representatives could help the Russian war effort. The campaigns show not only how vulnerable the American political system remains to foreign manipulation but also how purveyors of disinformation have evolved and adapted to efforts by the major social media platforms to remove or play down false or deceptive content."

Arizona. Yvonne Sanchez & Lenny Bronner of the Washington Post: Republicans railed against early voting -- uh, until they started encouraging it.

** Dana Milbank of the Washington Post: "The fear of exile has become common as Jews see the unraveling rule of law, ascendant Christian nationalists and anti-Israel sentiments turning antisemitic on the far left. Wondering where Jews might move 'is among the most frequently asked questions that I get,' Jonathan Greenblatt, head of the Anti-Defamation League, told me.... The United States has until now been different because of our constitutional protections of minority rights: our bedrock principles of equal treatment under law, free expression and free exercise of religion. Now, the MAGA crowd is attacking the very notion of minority rights. Ascendant Christian nationalists, with a sympathetic Supreme Court, are dismantling the separation between church and state. Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), for example, calls the principle 'junk that's not in the Constitution' and claims 'the church is supposed to direct the government.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Martin Niemöller's famous remark, "First, they came for the socialists...." comes to mind. But it's more than that. The odds are high that you yourself belong to a group that is or has been oppressed in this country. If you're non-Christian, non-White, non-male, non-straight, if you're of Southern European or Irish or German (think, esp. WWI) or Polish descent, if you're poor, if you're an immigrant, if you're elderly, if you're not a member of the dominant "tribe" in your community, then you (or your forebears) have been subject to discrimination here. Maybe you're okay now, but chances are, you belong to at least one of these groups. And the goblins will get you if we don't all watch out. ~~~

     ~~~ BTW, Milbank notes what Donald Trump said in reaction to Kanye West's attacks on Jews: "He was really nice to me."

There was a bit of discussion at the top of yesterday's Comments thread about reports that Merrick Garland was considering appointing a special counsel if/when Donald Trump announces another presidential* run. The beat goes on: ~~~

~~~ Katie Benner of the New York Times: "... Mr. Garland's hopes [that the DOJ can remain above the political fray] are being tested by Mr. Trump's apparent plan to announce that he will run again for the White House, a step that would transform him from a former president into an electoral opponent of President Biden at a time of extreme political polarization -- an environment leading the Justice Department to weigh whether to appoint a special counsel to handle open criminal inquiries related to Mr. Trump.... That person has more independence than a United States attorney, but any final decisions on whether to charge Mr. Trump would still rest with Mr. Garland and the department's top leaders.... A special counsel could theoretically shield the department from the perception that an investigation into Mr. Trump is a partisan attack on Mr. Biden's top political opponent. But it could also imply that the Justice Department on its own could not be trusted by all Americans to make decisions about holding Mr. Trump to account." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: C'mon, Merrick. Just charge the SOB. He's a criminal & you know it.

Way Beyond the Beltway

Ukraine, et al. The New York Times' live updates of developments Monday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here. The Guardian's live updates for Monday are here. The Guardian's summary report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live briefings for Monday are here: "Millions of people in Ukraine's capital region were without power Sunday because of blackouts aimed at relieving the strain on a damaged power grid, as President Volodymyr Zelensky warned of more Russian strikes on energy infrastructure. Ukrainian forces laid claim to an attack on a Russian base in the occupied Kherson region, as they continued to target Russian logistics in the region.... If the Republican Party makes significant gains in Tuesday's midterm elections, it could possibly revamp the United States' whole approach to supporting Ukraine, Ishaan Tharoor writes in the latest Today's WorldView newsletter. 'Under Republicans, not another penny will go to Ukraine,' Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said last week. There is no uniform consensus within the Republican caucus on how best to support Ukraine's resistance to Russian invasion. However, various GOP lawmakers and candidates have indicated that the fire hose of funding must be turned off."

Luke Hareding & Artem Mazhulin of the Guardian: "For centuries Ukrainians have celebrated Christmas on 7 January, the date on which Jesus was born, according to the Julian calendar. But following Vladimir Putin's invasion in February, the Orthodox church of Ukraine is allowing its congregations for the first time to celebrate Christmas on 25 December, in a move away from Russia and towards the west. The issue of when to celebrate Christmas has been a matter of longstanding debate in Ukraine. The church has traditionally observed Christmas on 7 January, at the same time as the Moscow patriarchy, which has blessed Putin's war.... In 2017, 25 December became a public holiday in Ukraine. The country's Orthodox church has previously allowed prayers to be said on the date. At a meeting of its synod in October, and following requests, the Kyiv Metropolitanate announced that parishes could hold a full religious service on the 25th if they wished. The decision affects about 7,000 churches across the country."

November 6, 2022

Peter Baker & Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "Taking the stage to roaring applause and blaring music [in Philadelphia last night, President] Biden and [President] Obama joined hands with Josh Shapiro, the Democratic candidate in the Pennsylvania governor's race, and John Fetterman, the Democrat running for a Senate seat. Mr. Biden, who spoke first, hailed the legacy of Mr. Obama, whom he called 'a great president, a historic president -- I'm proud to say, a dear friend.'... On Saturday, Mr. Biden spoke in fiery bursts, lacing into his predecessor, Donald J. Trump, and Republicans. Describing the election as a battle between two vastly different agendas, he said that 'character is on the ballot' and warned that Republicans would try to roll back America's safety net programs if they won power in Washington.... Each addresses in his own way the threat they see in a passel of election deniers loyal to Mr. Trump taking power in the midterm elections.... With his can-you-believe-this tone, no one skewers the other side with sarcasm quite like Mr. Obama." A Politico story, which also devotes some ink to Trump, is here.

Maureen Dowd of the New York Times: "Much to our national shame, it looks like ... over-the-top and way, way, way out-of-the mainstream Republicans -- and the formerly normie and now creepy Republicans who have bent the knee to the wackos out of political expediency -- are going to be running the House, maybe the Senate and certainly some states, perhaps even some that Joe Biden won two years ago. And it looks as if Kevin McCarthy will finally realize his goal of becoming speaker, but when he speaks, it will be Marjorie Taylor Greene, Jim Jordan and Lauren Boebert doing the spewing. It will be like the devil growling through Linda Blair in 'The Exorcist' -- except it will be our heads spinning.... These extreme Republicans don't have a plan. Their only idea is to get in, make trouble for President Biden, drag Hunter into the dock, start a bunch of stupid investigations, shut down the government, abandon Ukraine and hold the debt limit hostage." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Here's something I missed when it happened. From the Guardian: "Earlier this year, [Rep. Lauren] Boebert [R-Colo.] hinted that Jesus may have prevented his crucifixion if he had owned AR-15 rifles. 'How many AR-15s do you think Jesus would have had?' Boebert asked a crowd at a Christian event in Colorado. 'Well, he didn't have enough to keep his government from killing him.'" Maybe the most amazing part of Boebert's gun-weilding Jesus is that she understand absolutely nothing about what she claims is her own religion. All of Christian theology hangs upon the crucifixion story. The crucifixion is not an aberration; it is essential to the faith. ~~~

     ~~~ Here's Matthew's fairly succinct explanation (Chap. 26). As Jesus' enemies come to the Garden of Gethsemane to seize Jesus & denounce him before Pontius Pilate, one of Jesus' followers took out his sword & cut off the ear of an attacker. Jesus admonishes his sword-wielding follower: "Put your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?" I doubt the legions of angels would have come strapped with AR-15s, but you get the point. Unfortunately, Boebert does not. And that's my Sunday sermon.

Florida Governor. Ron DeSantis adds some verses to Genesis, & wouldn't you know it? They're all about DeSantis. Jared Gans of the Hill: "'And on the eighth day, God looked down on his planned paradise and said, "I need a protector." So God made a fighter,' DeSantis's ad begins. The ad shows pictures of DeSantis meeting with officials and civilians while serving as governor. It describes a series of traits God 'said' he needs in someone, including a willingness to 'travel thousands of miles for no other reason than to serve the people, to save their jobs, their livelihoods, their liberty, their happiness.'"

Virginia House. Meagan Flynn of the Washington Post: "Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), the GOP&'s most vocal critic against Trumpian politics' threats to democracy, has endorsed Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.) over Spanberger's Republican challenger in one of Virginia's most consequential races this year, transcending party lines to push for the vulnerable Democrat days before the election. In a statement to The Washington Post, Cheney acknowledged that she and Spanberger have policy differences, but said she was 'honored' to back Spanberger, describing her as a lawmaker 'dedicated to working across the aisle to find solutions' while criticizing her Donald Trump-backed Republican opponent, Yesli Vega, >a member of the Prince William County Board of Supervisors."

Danny Hakim & Alexandra Berzon of the New York Times: "Because elections in America are more fraught than ever, the scrutiny of ballot counting now starts well before Election Day, and the legal challenges have already begun. The Republican Party and allied groups, many seized by Donald J. Trump's falsehoods about fraud in elections, are training monitors around the country to spot what they see as irregularities at absentee ballot counting centers. The monitors are told to take copious notes, which could be useful for potential court challenges, raising the prospect of a replay in state and local elections of Mr. Trump's attempt to use the courts to overturn his loss two years ago. The activity has not produced reports of major disruptions or problems."

Lies And the Lying Liars

Cecilia Kang of the New York Times: "Voting-related falsehoods and rumors are flourishing across social media in the final stretch before Election Day on Tuesday. Much of the misinformation and conspiracy theories, which are swirling on Facebook, Twitter and other platforms, builds on familiar and unsubstantiated narratives spread about the 2020 presidential election. They include debunked claims of meddling with voting equipment, falsehoods about fraudulent ballots, alleged malfeasance by elections officials and unsubstantiated rumors about mail-in voting. Many of the posts are outright falsehoods, while others appear intended to simply raise doubts and undermine confidence in voting.... Here are some of the most widespread falsehoods and rumors related to voting." ~~~

Adam Gabbatt of the Guardian: "Ballot boxes being stuffed. 'BlueAnon'. Men in underpants. Every Democratic candidate: a 'complete weirdo psychopath'. To dive into Truth Social, Donald Trump's Twitter-but-for-conspiracy-theorists social media platform, is to enter a world where all of the above are real topics of debate, breathlessly discussed by Trump-backing Republicans and anonymous rightwing provocateurs. Truth Social has always been a platform for lies and obfuscations; about the 2020 election, the Democratic party, vaccines, Hunter Biden. But with less than a week before the election, the platform and its users have become even more unhinged. The site, formed as Trump's alternative to Twitter after he was banned from that platform in the wake of the January 6 insurrection, is awash with false theories about how the Democratic party is attempting to manipulate the midterm vote, false claims about the attack on Paul Pelosi, Nancy Pelosi's husband, and false accusations about Democratic candidates themselves." ~~~

~~~ Republicans Can't Handle the Truth -- That a Brutal Attack is their Fault:

Annie Karni, et al., of the New York Times: "Within hours of the brutal attack last month on Paul Pelosi, the husband of the speaker of the House, activists and media outlets on the right began circulating groundless claims -- nearly all of them sinister, and many homophobic -- casting doubt on what had happened. Some Republican officials quickly joined in, rushing to suggest that the bludgeoning of an octogenarian by a suspect obsessed with right-wing conspiracy theories was something else altogether, dismissing it as an inside job, a lover's quarrel or worse. The misinformation came from all levels of Republican politics. A U.S. senator [Ted Cruz] circulated the view that 'none of us will ever know' what really happened at the Pelosis; San Francisco home. A senior Republican congressman [Clay Higgins (La.)] referred to the attacker as a 'nudist hippie male prostitute,' baselessly asserting that the suspect had a personal relationship with Mr. Pelosi.... Donald J. Trump questioned whether the attack might have been staged. The world's richest man [Elon Musk] helped amplify the stories. But none of it was true." ~~~

~~~ Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Paul Farhi of the Washington Post: "NBC News reporter Miguel Almaguer had what seemed like a scoop on Friday about an intruder&'s attack last week on Paul Pelosi. The curious new details he presented on the 'Today' show quickly went viral on right-wing sites and social media accounts.... Much of Almaguer's account was inaccurate, based on flawed information provided by a source who was unnamed in the report.... [NBC News] said Almaguer was incorrect when he reported that the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) gave police no indication he was in danger when he answered the door. In fact, San Francisco police have said that Pelosi was struggling with the intruder, David DePape, when they first saw him. But before NBC News' hasty removal of the video from its website -- accompanied by a vague note that the story 'did not meet NBC News reporting standards' -- it spawned a sinister new narrative ... [that] fed the unfounded speculation and conspiracy theories that have been swirling around the incident ever since the Oct. 28 home-invasion assault."

** Trump's DHS Falsely Accused 100s -- or 1,000s -- of Americans of Terrorism. Dell Cameron of Gizmodo: "The Department of Homeland Security launched a failed operation that ensnared hundreds, if not thousands, of U.S. protesters in what new documents show was as a sweeping, power-hungry effort before the 2020 election to bolster ... Donald Trump's spurious claims about a 'terrorist organization' he accused his Democratic rivals of supporting. An internal investigative report, made public this month by Sen. Ron Wyden, a Democrat of Oregon, details the findings of DHS lawyers concerning a previously undisclosed effort by Trump's acting secretary of homeland security, Chad Wolf, to amass secret dossiers on Americans in Portland attending anti-racism protests in summer 2020 sparked by the police murder of Minneapolis father George Floyd. The report describes attempts by top officials to link protesters to an imaginary terrorist plot in an apparent effort to boost Trump's reelection odds, raising concerns now about the ability of a sitting president to co-opt billions of dollars' worth of domestic intelligence assets for their own political gain." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Most of Trump's lies are terrible, but targeting real people, many of them Black people -- abducting them, arresting them, charging them, accessing their financial records, & developing "dossiers" on them -- is right out of the Brown Shirt handbook. Comparing Trump's tactics to Hitler's is well past the false argumentum ad Hitlerum. It was real.

Way Beyond the Beltway

Ukraine, et al. The New York Times' live updates of developments Sunday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here. The Guardian's live updates are here. ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live briefings for Sunday are here: "The United States is pushing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to reconsider his stance against negotiating with Russian President Vladimir Putin, The Washington Post reports. The effort is intended as a means to maintain international support, not necessarily to induce bargaining between the warring nations. Meanwhile, Iran acknowledged publicly for the first time that it had given Russia deadly drones -- albeit, it said, before the Kremlin's full-scale invasion began in February. Zelensky called Tehran's statement a 'confession' after weeks of attacks from Iranian Shahed drones.... More than 800,000 tons of food left three Black Sea ports during the week ending on Saturday, Zelensky said. The ships are on their way to Africa, China and the Middle East."

News Lede

New York Times: The Houston Astros won the World Series.

November 5, 2022

Dan Diamond of the Washington Post: "A bill to permanently ... [end daylight savings time] has been stalled in Congress for more than seven months, as lawmakers trade jabs over whether the Senate should have passed the legislation at all. House officials say they've been deluged by voters with split opinions and warnings from sleep specialists who insist that adopting permanent standard time instead would be healthier, and congressional leaders admit they just don't know what to do.... [Frank] Pallone [D-NJ], who chairs the House Energy and Commerce committee that oversees time-change policies, also said he's wary of repeating Congress' previous attempt to institute year-round daylight saving time nearly 50 years ago, which was quickly repealed amid widespread reports that darker winter mornings led to more car accidents and drearier moods.... There is little chance of the legislation being advanced during the lame-duck period that follows next week's election, congressional aides said."

Sadly, much of the news is about the Biggest Jerk & his friends. I just ignored it earlier in the day, but I guess these are things you might want to know.

Michael Bender & Haley Johnson of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump is expected to announce a third White House campaign soon after the midterms, possibly as soon as the week of Nov. 14, according to people familiar with the planning. Advisors cautioned that no final decisions had been made and that the former president could change his mind on the details. The potential announcement date was first reported by Axios. Mr. Trump has been eager to launch a new campaign, in part to shield himself from a stream of investigations, including some focused on his attempts to cling to power after losing the 2020 election." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Glenn Thrush of the New York Times: "The Justice Department hopes to reach a decision on whether to bring charges against ... Donald J. Trump before the 2024 campaign heats up, and is considering appointing a special counsel to oversee investigations of him if he runs again, according to people familiar with the situation.The department is investigating Mr. Trump's role in the efforts to reverse the outcome of the 2020 election and the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, and his retention of sensitive government documents at his residence and resort in Florida. It has made no decision in either case.... "CNN's report is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Delay, Delay. Jacqueline Alemany of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump will have an additional week to meet the deadline to turn over documents to the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. 'We have received correspondence from the former President and his counsel in connection with the Select Committee's subpoena,' Chairman Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.) and Vice Chair Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) said in a joint statement Friday evening. 'We have informed the former President's counsel that he must begin producing records no later than next week and he remains under subpoena for deposition testimony starting on November 14th.'" The Guardian's report is here.

Annie Grayer & Zachary Cohen of CNN: "The House January 6 select committee is getting a window into ... Donald Trump's motorcade on the day of the US Capitol attack, interviewing on Friday the Secret Service agent who was in the lead car on January 6 and scheduling testimony from the driver of Trump's presidential vehicle as soon as next week, multiple sources tell CNN." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

The Thief-in-Chief. Jacqueline Alemany & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "Congressional investigators are looking for dozens of pricey mementos gifted to ... Donald Trump and his family members by foreign governments.... The House Oversight Committee has asked for help in locating the items from the National Archives, which is among the agencies charged with keeping presidential gifts.... The eclectic list ranges from golf clubs given to Trump by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to a 2018 World Cup soccer ball gifted by Russian President Vladimir Putin, a gold-plated collar of Horus ... given by Egypt's president, a large painting of Trump from the president of El Salvador, and a $6,400 collar of King Abdulaziz al Saud, a ceremonial honor from Saudi Arabia.... The dozens of gifts are worth in sum an estimated $50,000 or more.... The committee has asked the archives to check whether the gifts are among the items transferred there from the White House at the end of Trump's presidency as required by law.... The Foreign Gifts and Decorations Act ... prohibits presidents and other government officials from personally keeping gifts from foreigners worth more than $415 unless they pay for them." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Can anyone doubt that Trump considers these baubles "mine, all mine"?

Tom Jackman & Rachel Weiner of the Washington Post: "Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes took the stand in federal court Friday in an attempt to convince a jury of Washington, D.C., residents that he committed no crime when members of his group went into the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Rhodes asserted his belief -- unsupported by courts -- that the 2020 presidential election was 'unconstitutional,' because of pandemic-related changes made to voting procedures in some states. 'That made it invalid,' Rhodes said. But he also sought to downplay the Oath Keepers' desire for violence. He contrasted his group with the Proud Boys, another far-right organization, saying they 'want to go and street fight' while the Oath Keepers preferred to 'stay calm.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Dareh Gregorian of NBC News: "... Donald Trump’s longtime friend and former fundraiser, Tom Barrack, was found not guilty Friday of charges that he acted as an unregistered foreign agent for the United Arab Emirates during the Trump administration and then lied to the FBI about those contacts. The jury deliberated for about two days in federal court in Brooklyn, New York, before voting to acquit Barrack, who prosecutors alleged had traded on his decades-long friendship with Trump to 'illegally provide' UAE officials with access to -- and inside information on -- the Trump White House and his 2016 presidential campaign." The Washington Post's story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Kate Conger, et al., of the New York Times: "When the ax came down at Twitter on Friday, it did not fall smoothly.... Some learned they were unemployed in the middle of their night.... [Some found out] when their email accounts were shut off late Thursday.... [At one product meeting, a] ... worker was locked out of the company's systems during the call.... By early Friday, the scale of the layoffs ... was becoming clear: Roughly half of the company's work force, or about 3,700 jobs, had been eliminated.... The cuts hit across many divisions, including the engineering and machine learning teams, the trust and safety teams that manage content moderation, and the sales and advertising departments.... On Friday, [Elon] Musk addressed Twitter's layoffs while speaking at an investment conference in New York. He said the cuts were needed because 'Twitter was having pretty serious revenue challenges and cost challenges' before the deal [he made to buy the company], which have been made worse by 'activist groups pressuring major advertisers to stop spending money on Twitter.'" The Verge's story is here. MB: I knew it! Musk isn't a cruel, avaricious billionaire. The whole callous middle-of-the-night layoffs thing is the liberals' fault. ~~~

~~~ Ah, Chaos Was of the Essence of the Scheme. Drew Harwell, et al., of the Washington Post: "Devastating cuts to Twitter's workforce on Friday, four days before the midterm elections, are fueling anxieties among political campaigns and election offices that have counted on the social network's staff to help them combat violent threats and viral lies. The mass layoffs Friday gutted teams devoted to combating election misinformation.... The layoffs included a number of people who were scheduled to be on call this weekend and early next week to monitor for signs of foreign disinformation, spam and other problematic content around the election.... As of Friday morning, employee access to internal tools used for content moderation continued to be restricted, limiting staff's ability to respond to misinformation.... A representative from one of the national party committees said they are seeing hours-long delays in responses from their contacts at Twitter, raising fears of the toll workplace chaos and sudden terminations is taking on the platform's ability to quickly react to developments." An NBC News story is here. ~~~

~~~ Twitter Trends Hate-Speech & Bigotry. Jason Koebler of Vice: "'The Jews' is trending on Twitter, and its algorithm has selected Ye as a 'Top' person to follow while Elon Musk fires roughly half of the company's staff, including many of its policy experts and content moderators. Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, recently had his Twitter access limited after saying he would go 'death con 3' on 'JEWISH PEOPLE,' and has been dropped by the vast majority of his business partners after repeatedly making blatantly antisemitic comments over the last few weeks. The freeze on Ye's account has since been lifted.... '#IStandWithKyrie' is also trending, a reference to Brooklyn Nets star Kyrie Irving, who recently recommended that people watch an antisemitic documentary and was suspended for five games after declining to apologize and evasively answering a question on whether he holds 'anti-semitic beliefs.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Yeah, but see, this isn't all bad because white supremacist Twitterbugs are suddenly all in with a couple of "The Blacks." For now.

November Elections

North Carolina House. Christine Hauser of the New York Times: "A Republican congressional candidate in North Carolina criticized his Democratic opponent's campaign on Friday for showing one of his homes in a TV ad, saying that someone had recently fired a bullet into his parents' house. The Hickory Police Department confirmed that the parents of the Republican candidate, Pat Harrigan, had reported on Oct. 19 that someone had fired a bullet that put a hole in a window in their home's laundry room the night before. No one was injured.... Mr. Harrigan's Democratic opponent, Jeff Jackson, took down the ad showing a different Harrigan residence. The ad had been running since Oct. 18, apparently the same date the bullet hole was found." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Beyond the Beltway

Colorado. James Anderson of the AP: "A Colorado man ... Richard Patton, 31, of Pueblo ... who is a registered Democratic voter has been arrested on suspicion of tampering with voting equipment by allegedly inserting a USB thumb drive into a voting machine at a polling station during the primary election in June, authorities said. No elections data were accessed, and the June 28 incident didn't cause any major disruption to voting, authorities said. But it heightened concerns among election officials and security experts that conspiracy theories related to the 2020 presidential election could inspire some voters to meddle with -- or even attempt to sabotage -- election equipment. Experts say even unsuccessful breaches could become major problems in the days leading up to and on Tuesday's midterm election, causing delays at polling places or sowing the seeds of misinformation campaigns."

New Jersey. Tracey Tully & Shlomo Schorr of the New York Times: "Hours after issuing a rare warning about a security risk at New Jersey synagogues, the Federal Bureau of Investigation identified a man who holds 'radical extremist views,' and who they say was the source of the threat, a federal official told faith leaders Friday morning. It was not clear if a suspect was in custody, but officials said the threat had been 'mitigated.' 'He no longer poses a threat to the community at this time,' James E. Dennehy, the special agent in charge of the F.B.I.'s Newark office, said during a morning conference call with state and federal law enforcement officials and more than 500 Jewish leaders. Mr. Dennehy said investigators believed that the man, who is from New Jersey, was acting alone, but they are continuing to pursue leads about people he might have been in contact with."

Way Beyond

Ukraine, et al. The New York Times' live updates of developments Saturday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here. The Guardian's live updates for Saturday are here. The Guardian's summary report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live briefings for Saturday are here: "World leaders fortified their support for Ukraine ahead of the punishing winter months, with the United States announcing a $400 million aid package that includes funding for additional air defenses against Russian attacks on critical infrastructure. The aid package also includes the refurbishment of 45 T-72 tanks for Ukraine -- the first time that Washington has answered pleas from Kyiv to provide such weapons for use on to be sent to the front lines -- as well as drones, air defense missiles, and riverine boats.... [President] Zelensky thanked the U.S. and the Netherlands for 'strengthening' Ukraine's tank units.... White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan made an unannounced visit to Kyiv on Friday to reaffirm the United States' 'unwavering' support for Ukraine.... The G-7 ... announced the establishment of a 'coordination mechanism 'to help Ukraine 'repair, restore and defend its critical energy and water infrastructure.'"