November 1, 2022

Morning/Afternoon Update:

Well I Swanee! Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to block a Georgia grand jury subpoena seeking testimony from Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, about his activities in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election. The court's order was a paragraph long and did not note any dissents. It said that Mr. Graham had been afforded substantial protections by lower courts, which had ruled that he did not have to testify on subjects related to his official duties."

Rehearsal for an Insurrection. Alan Feuer & Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump and other top Republicans were stoking claims that the election had been stolen, and their supporters were protesting in the streets. Members of the far-right group the Proud Boys and people close to Roger J. Stone Jr., including Representative Matt Gaetz, took part in the action as the crowd was chanting 'Stop the Steal.' The time was 2018, the setting was southern Florida, and the election in question was for governor and a hotly contested race that would help determine who controlled the United States Senate. Now, four years later, the Justice Department is examining whether the tactics used then served as a model for the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. In recent months, prosecutors overseeing the seditious conspiracy case of five members of the Proud Boys have expanded their investigation to examine the role that Jacob Engels -- a Florida Proud Boy who accompanied Mr. Stone to Washington for Jan. 6 -- played in the 2018 protests...."

Brazil. Jack Nicas & André Spigariol of the New York Times: "Two days after losing Brazil's presidential election, President Jair Bolsonaro agreed to a transition of power on Tuesday, easing fears that the far-right leader would contest the results after warning for months that the only way he would lose would be if the vote was stolen. In a two-minute speech, Mr. Bolsonaro thanked his supporters, encouraged protesters to be peaceful, celebrated his accomplishments, criticized the left and said he has always followed the constitution. What was absent was any acknowledgment that he had lost the vote or that the election had been free and fair." MB: So Brazil's despot isn't as bad as our despot.

Supreme CJ Gives Trump Another Delay/Break. John Kruzel of the Hill: "The Supreme Court on Tuesday temporarily halted a House panel from accessing the financial records of former President Trump ahead of their expected release. The move, which comes in response to an emergency request Trump filed on Monday, was ordered by Chief Justice John Roberts, who handles emergency matters arising in the District of Columbia." Update: A Washington Post story is here.

David Corn of Mother Jones: "If you want to see just how crazy the GOP has become, you need only watch the video recording of a conference on 'election integrity' held in Florida on Saturday by a group of 2020 election denialists. In attendance, either virtually or in person, were the Republican candidates running for secretary of state -- the guardians of election integrity -- in the crucial swing states of Arizona, Nevada, and Michigan, respectively, Mark Finchem, Jim Marchant, and Kristina Karamo. Each has already demonstrated their own devotion to extremism by associating with QAnoners and championing Donald Trump's baseless claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him. But they further signaled their loyalty to the politics of paranoia and conspiracism by hobnobbing with conference participants who have promoted some of the looniest conspiracy theories." Read on.

Pennsylvania Senate. Travel Tip: Visit Pennsylvania's Beautiful Oceanfront Resorts! Kipp Jones of Mediate: "Mehmet Oz declared the commonwealth of Pennsylvania to be an Atlantic-bordering region on Monday, apparently unaware the Keystone State is hopelessly landlocked.... Throughout his campaign, the former TV doctor has defended himself against accusations he is a carpetbagger from New Jersey who only registered to vote in the state in 2020.... Oz told [Sean] Hannity: 'Pennsylvania is too important. This is important, we do not have a Republican senator north of North Carolina on the Atlantic coast until you get to Maine if I don't hold this seat....'" Thanks to Akhilleus for the link. See his commentary below. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: See, Republicans? Oz's remarkable unfamiliarity with the state he thinks he is qualified to "represent" is the kind of thing you joke about. Not a life-threateningl attack on the elderly husband of a top Democrat. ~~~

~~~ Lenny Bernstein & Colby Itkowitz of the Washington Post: "In May 2003, Mehmet Oz was the senior author on a study that ... was scheduled to lead off the scientific session of the 83rd annual American Association for Thoracic Surgery (AATS) conference.... But Oz was forced to withdraw his work and was banned from presenting research to the organization for the next two years.... He was also prohibited from publishing his work in the society's medical journal for the same period of time.... At issue were questions about the strength of the data used by Oz, a cardiothoracic surgeon, to reach an important medical conclusion.... The penalty he experienced in 2003 was a significant one, according to an expert who was not involved in the dispute.... Oz, who has published hundreds of peer-reviewed research papers, is back in the good graces of the AATS.... Oz has made his career in medicine a central feature of his campaign" for U.S. Senate.

Justice for Ruby Freeman? Richard Fausset & Danny Hakim of the New York Times: "... prosecutors [say three people] participated in a bizarre plot to pressure a Fulton County, Ga., election worker to falsely admit that she committed fraud on Election Day in 2020. The three -- Trevian Kutti, [a] publicist; Stephen C. Lee, [a] pastor; and Willie Lewis Floyd III, [a] polo fan -- have all been ordered to appear before a special grand jury in Atlanta, with a hearing for Mr. Lee scheduled for Tuesday morning at a courthouse near his home in Kendall County, Ill.... The decision to seek their testimony suggests that prosecutors in Fulton County are increasingly interested in the story of how the part-time, rank-and-file election worker, Ruby Freeman, 63, was confronted by allies of [Donald] Trump at her home in the Atlanta suburbs in the weeks after he was defeated by President Biden.... Mr. Trump helped spread the fiction that Ms. Freeman & her daughter entered fake votes for Mr. Biden.

Denmark. Isabella Kwai & Jasmina Nielsen of the New York Times: "Denmark started voting on Tuesday in a general election precipitated by anger over a government-mandated mink cull during the pandemic that embroiled top officials and led to accusations against the prime minister of misleading the public. A wealthy Scandinavian kingdom that includes Greenland and the Faroe Islands, Denmark is known for its relatively stable, consensus-seeking political culture and its ranking as one of the happiest nations in the world. But in a crowded field of more than a dozen parties -- including some newcomers -- analysts said that the election could throw up some surprises. As late as Monday, there was no clear indication about who was most likely to form the next government." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Of course the real scandal is PM Mette Frederiksen's refusal to entertain Donald Trump's generous offer to buy Greenland.

Israel. The New York Times is live-updating developments in today's elections. Turnout is high.

South Korea. Michelle Lee of the Washington Post: "Transcripts of about 11 emergency call logs released Tuesday show mounting desperation and repeated warnings from partygoers [at Seoul's deadly Halloween street party] for at least four hours before the crush turned deadly. They pleaded for emergency personnel to intervene and control the crowd.... At least 156 people died and at least 157 were injured in the country's deadliest incident in years.... The transcripts reflect the chaos of that scene and corroborate some witness accounts that the area was worryingly crowded from early on in the evening. Many partygoers and members of the public have criticized the lack of police presence in the area."

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Peter Baker & Clifford Krauss of the New York Times: "President Biden threatened on Monday to seek a new windfall profits tax on major oil and gas companies unless they ramp up production to curb the price of gasoline at the pump, an escalation of his battle with the energy industry just a week before the midterm elections. The president lashed out against the giant firms as several of them reported the latest surge in profits, which he called an 'outrageous' bonanza stemming from Russia's war on Ukraine. He warned them to use the money to expand oil supplies or return it to consumers in the form of price reductions.... But it was more of a way to pressure the oil firms than a realistic policy prescription for the short term given that Congress ... would be even less likely to approve such a measure if Republicans capture one or both houses in next week's election....

"Mr. Biden's statement came just days after the oil giants reported another three months of flush coffers. Exxon Mobil brought in a record of nearly $20 billion in profits for the third quarter of the year, 10 percent higher than the previous quarter and its fourth consecutive quarter of robust earnings. Chevron reported $11.2 billion in profits, just below the record it set the quarter before. The European-based Shell and Total Energies companies similarly reported that profits more than doubled from the same period a year ago." MB: President Biden called the O&G companies "war profiteers." ~~~

Glenn Thrush, et al., of the New York Times: "Federal prosecutors charged the man accused of breaking into the home of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi with attempting to kidnap Ms. Pelosi and with assaulting a relative of \a federal official, according to charging documents filed on Monday.... [David] DePape ... was carrying 'a roll of tape, white rope, a second hammer, a pair of rubber and cloth gloves, and zip ties,' according to the U.S. attorney's office for the Northern District of California, which filed the charges. The swift action by the Justice Department in bringing federal charges -- on the same day the San Francisco District Attorney's Office was expected to file its own charges against Mr. DePape -- reflects the Biden administration's urgency in addressing what it sees as a politically motivated crime shortly before the 2022 midterm elections.... [Paul] Pelosi remains in the intensive care unit of a San Francisco hospital...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon. The story has been updated.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: According to MSNBC, Paul Pelosi has spoken with investigators.

     ~~~ The DOJ's press release is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) The federal charging documents are here, via Politico. The Affidavit includes details of the attack & remarks the assailant made to officials after the attack. ~~~

     ~~~ Jeff Pegues & Gina Martinez of CBS News: "The suspect in the attack on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband Paul Pelosi had a list of people he wanted to target, law enforcement sources briefed on the investigation confirmed...." The story does not specify who may have been on the attacker's list. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Lisa Mascaro, et al., of the AP: "'This house and the speaker herself were specifically targets,' San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said at a Monday evening news conference announcing state charges against [David] DePape, including attempted murder.... The stark narrative laid out by state and federal prosecutors stands in contrast to the mocking jokes and conspiracy theories circulated by far-right figures and even some leading Republicans just a week before midterm elections. A record number of security threats are being reported against lawmakers and election officials. At a campaign event Monday in Arizona, Kari Lake, the Republican candidate for governor, drew hearty laughs as she joked about security at the Pelosi home.... Donald Trump Jr., was among those making light of the attack on Paul Pelosi, tweeting crude jokes about it." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: It was not only the audience that laughed at Kari Lake's funny joke about hammering the skull of an 82-year-old man. The networks played video clips of the incident, & the moderator of whatever the event was was absolutely wracked with giggles. His body shook, he had to cover his face, and yet he still could not stop smiling ear-to-ear. You can put the entire GOP in the Hannibal Lecter/psychopath column. Remember, this is how they behave in public; imagine what they're saying in private. ~~~

     ~~~ More from Brian Bennett of Time. ~~~

     ~~~ Martin Pengelly of the Guardian: "... Donald Trump Jr posted online a crude meme featuring a hammer, the weapon used to attack the husband of the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, on Friday. 'OMG,' the former president's son wrote next to the picture, which also had the caption 'Got my Paul Pelosi Halloween costume ready'. The internet backlash was swift but Trump Jr, a full-time provocateur and surrogate for his father, doubled down equally swiftly -- posting another, this time clearly homophobic, meme which appears to reference a baseless conspiracy theory about the assault." ~~~

~~~ Brett Samuels of the Hill: "Former President Trump in an interview Sunday called the attack on Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-Calif.) husband in their San Francisco home a 'terrible thing' as he railed against crime in Democrat-led cities. 'With Paul Pelosi, that's a terrible thing, with all of them it's a 'terrible thing,' Trump said in an interview with Americano Media, a conservative Spanish language outlet. 'Look at what's happened to San Francisco generally. Look at what's happening in Chicago. It was far worse than Afghanistan.... We have to give the police back their dignity, their respect. They can solve the problem. But today if a police officer says something that's slightly out of line it's like the end of his life, the end of his pension, the end of his family.... We have to give the police back their authority and their power and their respect. Because this country is out of control.' Trump remained silent on the attack on Paul Pelosi over the weekend, as others in the GOP sent mixed messages about it. Many Democrats, including President Biden, called for members of both parties to unequivocally condemn the attack as they worried about a rise in political violence." ~~~

~~~ Steven Myers & Stuart Thompson of the New York Times: "In the days since Paul Pelosi, the 82-year-old husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, was attacked by an intruder asking, 'Where is Nancy?', a litany of Republicans and conservatives have spread baseless conspiracy theories about the assault and its motives.... While many Republican officials have denounced the violence, others have at the very least tolerated, and in some cases cheered, a violent assault on the spouse of a political rival.... No top Republican lawmakers joined in peddling unfounded claims about the attack, but few denounced them, either.... The conspiracy theories found receptive audiences, receiving tens of thousands of engagements on numerous platforms like Facebook and Twitter.... Fox News ... coverage of the attack on Mr. Pelosi began with fairly straightforward coverage of the crime, before portraying it as a consequence of Democratic 'soft-on-crime' policies and, finally, as a mystery with darker undercurrents that could not yet be known. 'Look for what's missing and what doesn't add up,' David Webb, a Fox News contributor, said during 'The Big Sunday Show.'"

New York Times: "The trial of Donald J. Trump's family business opened on Monday, with prosecutors accusing the company of running a 15-year scheme to help its executives evade taxes by compensating them with lavish off-the-books perks.... 'This case is about greed and cheating,' a prosecutor told jurors as the tax fraud trial of two of the former president's companies started in Manhattan." This is a liveblog. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Running-Out-the-Calendar Ploy May Work for Trump Again. Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump asked the Supreme Court on Monday to intervene in the long-running dispute over whether a House committee can obtain access to his tax returns. In a 31-page filing, lawyers for Mr. Trump asked Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. to freeze matters while they prepare a formal appeal of a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which held that the House Ways and Means Committee had a right to see his returns.... Whether the Supreme Court decides to extend a judicial order that has blocked the Treasury Department from complying with the request while the matter was litigated before the appeals court could effectively decide whether the House committee obtains the documents, which it has sought since 2019. That is because if Republicans retake control of the House in the midterm elections next week, as polls indicate is likely, they are almost certain to drop the request when the new Congress is seated in January." CNN's report is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "A federal judge on Monday dismissed a lawsuit by Mark Meadows, the final chief of staff for ... Donald J. Trump, that sought to block two subpoenas from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack, including one to Verizon for Mr. Meadows's phone and text data. In throwing out the suit, Judge Carl J. Nichols of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia found that the committee's subpoenas were covered under the Constitution's speech or debate clause, which he said protected them from civil suits as legislative actions. The decision is the latest chapter in a nearly yearlong legal battle between Mr. Meadows and the committee, but it is unlikely to be the final one that delivers investigators what they have been seeking. Mr. Meadows can appeal.... And with the committee almost certain to shut down if Republicans win control of the House, as expected, in next week's elections, the panel is most likely running out of time."

Azu Paybarah of the Washington Post: "The leaders of True the Vote -- founder Catherine Engelbrecht and former board member Gregg Phillips --] an organization that has spread unfounded claims questioning the results of the 2020 election, were taken into custody Monday morning after a federal judge in Texas ruled them in contempt of court.... The order marked the latest twist in a defamation case brought last month by Konnech, an election software company that True the Vote claimed allowed the Chinese government to have access to a server in China that held the personal information of nearly 2 million U.S. election workers. Konnech has vigorously disputed the claim. The judge overseeing the case, U.S. District Judge Kenneth Hoyt, had ordered Engelbrecht and Phillips to reveal the name of a person who allegedly helped True the Vote access Konnech's computer systems. When they declined to meet the court's 9 a.m. deadline, the judge found them in contempt. The pair have claimed, without evidence, that the person who helped them was a confidential FBI informant.... Phillips and Engelbrecht are prominent and long-standing members of the election denier movement." ~~~

     ~~~ A Votebeat Texas story is here. Marie: I'm not familiar with Votebeat Texas, but -- based on the WashPo story -- their reporting appears to be accurate.

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court on Monday appeared ready to rule that the race-conscious admissions programs at Harvard and the University of North Carolina were unlawful, based on questioning over five hours of vigorous and sometimes testy arguments, a move that would overrule decades of precedents. Such a decision would jeopardize affirmative action at colleges and universities around the nation, particularly elite institutions, decreasing the representation of Black and Latino students and bolstering the number of white and Asian ones.... In general, two themes ran through questions from the court's conservatives: that educational diversity can be achieved without directly taking account of race and that there must come a time when colleges and universities stop making such distinctions." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The winger justices took the I'm-an-Ignoramus approach: Clarence Thomas pretended he didn't know what "diversity" meant. And Sam Alito said he didn't understand the meaning of "underrepresented minority." ~~~

     ~~~ Washington Post: "Conservative Supreme Court justices on Monday seemed open to ending decades of precedent allowing race-conscious admission decisions at colleges and universities, expressing doubt that the institutions would ever concede an 'endpoint' in their use of race to build diverse student bodies. After nearly five hours of oral argument, the programs at Harvard College and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill seemed in doubt. The question is how broad such a decision by the court's conservative majority might be, and what it would mean for other institutions of higher education. Overturning the court's precedents that race can be one factor of many in making admission decisions would have 'profound consequences' for 'the nation that we are and the nation that we aspire to be,' Solicitor General Elizabeth B. Prelogar told the justices during arguments in the Harvard case." This is a liveblog. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post: "... Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, got to the heart of the matter in Monday's oral arguments over affirmative action in college admissions:" whether or not legacy admissions (i.e., where applicants whose forebears were alumni) deserved more consideration than affirmative action admissions. The attorney for the plaintiffs, who are challenging the universities' affirmative action policies, said, well yeah. And you can bet the majority of the Supremes will agree with the plaintiffs. MB: And of course admissions panels should give their own kiddies a leg up.

Matt O'Brien & Barbara Ortutay of the AP: Elon Musk "fired [Twitter]'s board of directors and made himself the board's sole member, according to a company filing Monday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Musk later said on Twitter that the new board setup is 'temporary,' but he didn't provide any details. He's also testing the waters on asking users to pay for verification. A venture capitalist working with Musk tweeted a poll asking how much users would be willing to pay for the blue check mark that Twitter has historically used to verify higher-profile accounts so other users know it's really them.... On Friday, meanwhile, billionaire Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal said he and his Kingdom Holding Company rolled over a combined $1.89 billion in existing Twitter shares, making them the company's largest shareholder after Musk. The news raised concerns among some lawmakers, including Sen. Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut. Murphy tweeted that he is requesting the Committee on Foreign Investment -- which reviews acquisitions of U.S. businesses by foreign buyers -- to investigate the national security implications of the kingdom's investment in Twitter[.]"

Alexandra Alter & Elizabeth Harris of the New York Times: "A federal judge blocked on Monday a bid by Penguin Random House, the biggest book publisher in the United States, to buy one of its main rivals, Simon & Schuster, in a significant victory for the Biden administration, which is trying to expand the boundaries of antitrust enforcement. The judge, Florence Y. Pan, who heard the case in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, said in an order that the Justice Department had demonstrated that the merger might 'substantially' harm competition in the market for U.S. publishing rights to anticipated top-selling books."

November Elections

Hannah Knowles, et al., of the Washington Post: "Jewish leaders raised alarms Monday about antisemitism they say is increasingly normalized in American politics after a series of bigoted comments from associates or supporters of GOP candidates and growing calls for them to firmly reject such rhetoric.... Jack Rosen, president of the advocacy group American Jewish Congress, said..., 'on the right ... we don't see the kind of leadership it's going to take to stop the growth of this kind of antisemitic hatred.'... In Arizona, the GOP candidate in a marquee House race, Eli Crane, urged the audience to look up an antisemitic sermon at a recent campaign stop. Speaking last month in Casa Grande, Crane said ... that he was most concerned about 'Cultural Marxism,' which the Southern Poverty Law Center has described as an antisemitic conspiracy theory gaining traction on the American right.... In Georgia, Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker did not publicly reject a show of support from Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, who has made a slew of comments attacking Jewish people in recent weeks...." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: In fairness to Walker, I don't think he's smart enough to understand there's anything wrong with antisemitism.

Arizona. Ken Bensinger of the New York Times: "The Justice Department has weighed in on the debate over election activists who have been stationing themselves -- at times with guns -- near ballot boxes in Arizona, saying that their activity may not be constitutionally protected if it has the potential to intimidate voters. 'The First Amendment does not protect individuals' right to assemble to engage in voter intimidation or coercion,' Kristen Clarke, the assistant attorney general for civil rights, wrote in a brief filed on Monday in U.S. District Court in Phoenix.... The filing was made in a case that the League of Women Voters of Arizona brought last week against two groups that have been organizing ballot box monitoring, the Lions of Liberty and Clean Elections USA, as well as some of their principals.

"On Friday, the plaintiff asked the court for an injunction against those groups to stop the activity. That petition is still pending. The judge overseeing the case, Michael T. Liburdi, on Friday refused to issue an injunction in a parallel lawsuit against Clean Elections USA, claiming that the Constitution protected the activities of citizens who wish to gather near ballot boxes. The Justice Department's intervention represents a rebuke to that ruling by Judge Liburdi, a longtime member of the Federalist Society who was appointed in 2019 by ... Donald J. Trump. The Justice Department's brief addresses numerous points made by the judge...."

Georgia Senate. Marie: I get a kick out of this remark President Obama made Friday:

Texas. Molly Hennessey-Fiske & Amy Gardner of the Washington Post: "... a showdown is emerging between state and local leaders [in Harris County (Houston)] over how to protect the security of the vote without intimidating voters and election workers.... State and local Republicans are deploying monitors to oversee the handling of ballots in the Democratic enclave. Local Democratic officials have said the move is an effort to intimidate voters -- and asked the Justice Department to send federal observers in response.... GOP officials and conservative poll watchers say heightened scrutiny is necessary to prevent election fraud and mismanagement. Voting-rights advocates and local leaders, meanwhile, say the GOP is scaring voters and election workers alike -- and undermining faith in the results for a county that Republicans are pushing hard to win control of on Nov. 8."

Texas House. Andrew Lapin of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency: "The Republican nominee for Congress in Texas' 7th district is a self-proclaimed history buff, but his take on Anne Frank is not one that most historians would endorse. Johnny Teague, an evangelical pastor and business owner who won the district's primary in March, in 2020 published 'The Lost Diary of Anne Frank,' a novel imagining the famous Jewish Holocaust victim's final days in the Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps as she might have written them in her diary. The kicker: In Teague's telling, Frank seems to embrace Christianity just before she is murdered by the Nazis." MB: Good grief! Do you get points for finding a "novel" way to express antisemitism? ~~~

     ~~~ Steve M. has more. Teague is apparently a QAnon enthusiast, so Steve sez, "Well, at least he didn't write a novel in which Anne Frank finds Q."

Beyond the Beltway

New York. Marisa Iati of the Washington Post: "A man exonerated in the assassination of civil rights leader Malcolm X and the estate of another man whose conviction was thrown out will receive $36 million to settle lawsuits filed on their behalf after prosecutors said the men had not received a fair trial. New York City will pay $26 million to Muhammad A. Aziz and the estate of Khalil Islam to compensate them for their wrongful murder convictions in 1966, according to the city's legal office and an attorney for the men. The sum will be divided equally between Aziz and Islam's estate, said the lawyer, David Shanies. New York state also has agreed to pay $5 million to Aziz and the same sum to Islam's estate, according to Shanies and court records.... Stefan Mooklal, deputy chief of staff for New York City's law department, said his office agreed with former Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr.'s conclusion that Aziz and Islam had been wrongfully convicted.... A Netflix documentary released in 2020 publicized new evidence casting doubt on Aziz and Islam's involvement, prompting Vance to launch a two-year review of their first-degree murder convictions."

Way Beyond

Brazil. Jack Nicas, et al., of the New York Times: "For months, President Jair Bolsonaro claimed the only way he would lose Brazil's presidential election was if it was rigged. On Monday, a day after he lost, he declined to immediately concede to his leftist challenger, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, leaving Latin America's largest democracy on edge over whether there would be a peaceful transition of power. Mr. Bolsonaro spent much of Monday holed up at the presidential offices, meeting with top advisers and Brazil's minister of defense. At least some of the advisers urged the president to concede, but it was not clear if he had yet reached a decision on what to do...."

Ukraine, et al. The Washington Post's live briefings of developments Tuesday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky pledged to continue exporting grain from the country's Black Sea ports, and accused Russia of exacerbating a global food crisis by suspending a United Nations-brokered shipping deal and threatening to block grain vessels. In a late-night speech, Zelensky said he was grateful for the U.N. and world leaders who were trying to preserve the grain export initiative and prevent the 'spread of large-scale famine in some regions of the world.' Moscow's U.N. representative, Vasily Nebenzya, earlier on Monday accused Kyiv of using the grain corridor for 'military and sabotage purposes,' and said drones had been used to attack Russian ships over the weekend 'under the cover' of the deal. He did not provide evidence for the claim that Ukraine was responsible for the attack.... Russia unleashed a fresh wave of infrastructure attacks across Ukraine on Monday...."

October 31, 2022

Thanks to a friend for the link to this festive photo.

Afternoon Update:

Glenn Thrush, et al., of the New York Times: "Federal prosecutors charged the man accused of breaking into the home of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi with attempting to kidnap Ms. Pelosi and with assaulting a relative of a federal official, according to charging documents filed on Monday.... [David] DePape ... was carrying 'a roll of tape, white rope, a second hammer, a pair of rubber and cloth gloves, and zip ties,' according to the U.S. attorney's office for the Northern District of California, which filed the charges. The swift action by the Justice Department in bringing federal charges -- on the same day the San Francisco District Attorney's Office was expected to file its own charges against Mr. DePape -- reflects the Biden administration's urgency in addressing what it sees as a politically motivated crime shortly before the 2022 midterm elections.... [Paul] Pelosi remains in the intensive care unit of a San Francisco hospital...." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: According to MSNBC, Paul Pelosi has spoken with investigators. The DOJ's press release is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Jeff Pegues & Gina Martinez of CBS News: "The suspect in the attack on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband Paul Pelosi had a list of people he wanted to target, law enforcement sources briefed on the investigation confirmed...." The story does not specify who may have been on the attacker's list.

New York Times: "The trial of Donald J. Trump's family business opened on Monday, with prosecutors accusing the company of running a 15-year scheme to help its executives evade taxes by compensating them with lavish off-the-books perks.... 'This case is about greed and cheating,' a prosecutor told jurors as the tax fraud trial of two of the former president's companies started in Manhattan." This is a liveblog.

Running-Out-the-Calendar Ploy May Work for Trump Again. Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump asked the Supreme Court on Monday to intervene in the long-running dispute over whether a House committee can obtain access to his tax returns. In a 31-page filing, lawyers for Mr. Trump asked Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. to freeze matters while they prepare a formal appeal of a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which held that the House Ways and Means Committee had a right to see his returns.... Whether the Supreme Court decides to extend a judicial order that has blocked the Treasury Department from complying with the request while the matter was litigated before the appeals court could effectively decide whether the House committee obtains the documents, which it has sought since 2019. That is because if Republicans retake control of the House in the midterm elections next week, as polls indicate is likely, they are almost certain to drop the request when the new Congress is seated in January." CNN's report is here.

Washington Post: "Conservative Supreme Court justices on Monday seemed open to ending decades of precedent allowing race-conscious admission decisions at colleges and universities, expressing doubt that the institutions would ever concede an ';endpoint' in their use of race to build diverse student bodies. After nearly five hours of oral argument, the programs at Harvard College and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill seemed in doubt. The question is how broad such a decision by the court's conservative majority might be, and what it would mean for other institutions of higher education. Overturning the court's precedents that race can be one factor of many in making admission decisions would have 'profound consequences' for 'the nation that we are and the nation that we aspire to be,' Solicitor General Elizabeth B. Prelogar told the justices during arguments in the Harvard case." This is a liveblog.

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Katelyn Polantz of CNN: "The House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol has obtained eight emails from late 2020 that a judge determined show Donald Trump and his lawyers planning to defraud courts and obstruct the congressional vote on the presidency.... [Attorney] John] Eastman is now asking the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals for an order telling the House to return or destroy the eight emails."

Robert Barnes of the Washington Post (Oct. 29): "The most diverse group of Supreme Court justices in history will gather Monday to confront the issue that has vexed and deeply divided past courts: whether affirmative action in college admissions recognizes and nourishes a multicultural nation or impermissibly divides Americans by race.... The court on Monday will be reviewing the admission policies at Harvard and the University of North Carolina, cases brought by longtime affirmative action opponent Edward Blum and his Students for Fair Admissions." MB: Another fine example of right-wing counter-labeling. The AP's story is here. ~~~

~~~ Theodoric Meyer & Tobi Raji of the Washington Post: "... the Supreme Court is now more diverse along racial and gender lines than ever before, with four female justices, two Black justices and one Latina justice. The elite group of lawyers who argue before the justices, however, remains mostly White and male.... As the Supreme Court grapples with several cases involving race, including affirmative action cases set to be argued on Monday, the paucity of Black and Hispanic lawyers who argue before the court spotlights how people of color are often excluded from the rooms in which decisions that affect them are made."

Amy Wang & Molly Hennessy-Fiske of the Washington Post: "Several Republicans on Sunday tempered their denunciations of an attack on Paul Pelosi, the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), casting blame for political violence on 'both sides' of the aisle.... Donald Trump has so far remained silent.... [And] Ronna [Romney] McDaniel, chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, said Sunday it was 'unfair' for Democrats to link Republicans' inflammatory rhetoric toward their political opponents to the attack on Paul Pelosi. 'I think this is a deranged individual,' McDaniel said on 'Fox News Sunday.'"(Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Marie: The New York Times published an op-ed this weekend by biographer David Nasaw (linked yesterday). Nasaw writes that Elon Musk is no special genius, but merely another boorish robber baron with a big megaphone. Musk seems determined to prove this: ~~~

     ~~~ Kurtis Lee of the New York Times: "Three days after Elon Musk purchased Twitter, the billionaire posted a tweet that advanced baseless allegations about the recent attack on the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.... On Saturday, Hillary Clinton ... posted a tweet assailing Republicans for spreading 'hate and deranged conspiracy theories' that she said had emboldened the man who attacked Ms. Pelosi's husband, Paul, inside the couple's home in San Francisco early Friday. Mr. Musk's tweet was later deleted, and it was not immediately clear who had deleted it. In a reply to Mrs. Clinton's tweet, Mr. Musk wrote, 'There is a tiny possibility there might be more to this story than meets the eye' and then shared a link to an article in the Santa Monica Observer. The article alleges that Mr. Pelosi was drunk and in a fight with a male prostitute.... In 2016, for example, the publication advanced a claim that Mrs. Clinton had died and that a body double was sent to debate ... Donald J. Trump." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) CNN's report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I'll admit that "blaming it on the gays" was not a conspiracy theory I anticipated, but maybe we're supposed to be pleased Twitter has become an equal-opportunity conspiracy hub. At any rate, all of this highlights the obvious fact that we have to tax the multi-billionaires into relative oblivion. See also Akhilleus' comment yesterday. ~~~

~~~ Elon Had Company. Isaac Stanley-Becker of the Washington Post: "Elon Musk and a wide range of right-wing personalities cobbled together misreporting, innuendo and outright falsehoods to amplify misinformation about last week's violent assault on Paul Pelosi to their millions of online followers. A forum devoted to former White House adviser Stephen K. Bannon's right-wing radio show alerted its 78,000 subscribers to 'very strange new details on Paul Pelosi attack.' Roger Stone, a longtime political consigliere to former president Donald Trump, took to the fast-growing messaging app Telegram to call the assault on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband an 'alleged attack,' telling his followers that a 'stench' surrounded mainstream reporting about the Friday break-in that left Pelosi, 82, hospitalized with a skull fracture and other serious injuries.... The rush to sow doubt about the assault on Pelosi's husband illustrates how aggressively influential figures on the right are seeking to dissuade the public from believing facts about the violence, seizing on the event to promote conspiracy theories and provoke distrust." ~~~

~~~ (Conservative) Max Boot of the Washington Post: "It should not be controversial to say that America has a major problem with right-wing political violence. The evidence continues to accumulate -- yet the GOP continues to deny responsibility for this horrifying trend.... Republican leaders cite [the few] attacks to exonerate themselves of any responsibility for political violence.... They are evading their responsibility for their extremist rhetoric that all too often motivates extremist actions. The New America think tank found last year that, since Sept. 11, 2001, far-right terrorists had killed 122 people in the United States, compared with only one killed by far-leftists.... There is little doubt about what is driving political violence: the ascendance of Trump. [Trump's] type of extremist rhetoric ... now [is] the GOP mainstream, with predictable consequences. The U.S. Capitol Police report that threats against members of Congress have risen more than tenfold since Trump's election in 2016, up to 9,625 last year."

November Elections

My role is not to represent community values. My role is to tell you what the damn law is. -- Pickens County Attorney Phil Landrum ~~~

~~~ Stephanie McCrummen of the Washington Post: A rural county lawyer fights back elections skeptics who wanted to unseal ballots. Republicans vilified him & accused him of standing against "community values." to which Landrum responded by explaining what being the Pickens County attorney meant. MB: This is an uplifting story, but in the real world there are far too few officials with Landrum's integrity -- and backbone.

Way Beyond the Beltway

Brazil. Jack Nicas of the New York Times: "Voters in Brazil on Sunday ousted President Jair Bolsonaro after just one term and elected the leftist former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to replace him, election officials said, a rebuke to Mr. Bolsonaro's far-right movement and his divisive four years in office. The victory completes a stunning political revival for Mr. da Silva -- from the presidency to prison and back -- that had once seemed unthinkable. It also ends Mr. Bolsonaro's turbulent time as the region's most powerful leader. It was the first time an incumbent president failed to win re-election in the 34 years of Brazil's modern democracy.... Without evidence, Mr. Bolsonaro criticized the nation's electronic voting machines as rife with fraud and suggested he might not accept a loss, much like... Donald J. Trump. Many of his supporters vowed to take to the streets at his command. Yet in the hours after the race was called, far-right lawmakers, conservative pundits and many of Mr. Bolsonaro's supporters had recognized Mr. da Silva's victory." CNN's report is here.

Ukraine, et al.

The New York Times' live updates of developments Monday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here. ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live briefings for Monday are here: "Strikes hit critical infrastructure in the Ukrainian capital and other key cities on Monday morning, with officials warning of power outages and water shortages.... The strikes come two days after drone strikes damaged Russian warships in the Crimean port of Sevastopol. Ukraine has not taken responsibility for the attack."

Shashank Bengali, et al., of the New York Times: "World leaders on Sunday urged Russia to reconsider its suspension of an agreement that allowed the export of grain trapped by the war in Ukrainian ports, warning that Moscow's decision could unleash dire consequences on a hungry planet.... Should Russia stick to the decision and continue blocking shipments from Ukraine, one of the world's biggest food exporters, the experts said, the effects will almost certainly be profound. The suspension threatens to stall more than 9.5 million tons of grain and other foodstuffs, according to the United Nations office that oversees the agreement.... In announcing its withdrawal from the agreement on Saturday, Russia cited what it said was a flurry of seagoing drone assaults by Ukraine on its fleet in the Black Sea. But in fact, the Kremlin long ago made known its unhappiness with the grain deal reached in July."

October 30, 2022

Afternoon Update:

Marie: The New York Times published an op-ed this weekend by biographer David Nasaw (linked below). Nasaw writes that Elon Musk is no special genius, but merely another boorish robber baron. Musk seems determined to prove this:

Kurtis Lee of the New York Times: "Three days after Elon Musk purchased Twitter, the billionaire posted a tweet that advanced baseless allegations about the recent attack on the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.... On Saturday, Hillary Clinton ... posted a tweet assailing Republicans for spreading 'hate and deranged conspiracy theories' that she said had emboldened the man who attacked Ms. Pelosi's husband, Paul, inside the couple's home in San Francisco early Friday. Mr. Musk's tweet was later deleted, and it was not immediately clear who had deleted it. In a reply to Mrs. Clinton's tweet, Mr. Musk wrote, 'There is a tiny possibility there might be more to this story than meets the eye' and then shared a link to an article in the Santa Monica Observer. The article alleges that Mr. Pelosi was drunk and in a fight with a male prostitute.... In 2016, for example, the publication advanced a claim that Mrs. Clinton had died and that a body double was sent to debate ... Donald J. Trump." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I'll admit that "blaming it on the gays" was not a conspiracy theory that occurred to me, but maybe we're supposed to be pleased Twitter has become an equal-opportunity conspiracy hub. At any rate, all of this highlights the obvious fact that we have to tax the multi-billionaires into relative oblivion. See also Akhilleus' comment below.

Amy Wang & Molly Hennessy-Fiske of the Washington Post: "Several Republicans on Sunday tempered their denunciations of an attack on Paul Pelosi, the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), casting blame for political violence on 'both sides' of the aisle.... Donald Trump has so far remained silent.... [And] Ronna [Romney] McDaniel, chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, said Sunday it was 'unfair' for Democrats to link Republicans' inflammatory rhetoric toward their political opponents to the attack on Paul Pelosi. 'I think this is a deranged individual,' McDaniel said on 'Fox News Sunday.'"

~~~~~~~~~~

Has anyone noticed that "Weekend Update," even with the absurd jokes included, is as accurate as Fox "News"?

Meet your GOP Senate candidates:

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Sadly this attack was inevitable. Political violence is on the rise. And instead of GOP leaders condemning it, they condone it with silence or, even worse, glorification. -- Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) ~~~

~~~ Ashley Parker, et al., of the Washington Post: "In 2010, Republicans launched a 'Fire Pelosi' project -- complete with a bus tour, a #FIREPELOSI hashtag and images of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) engulfed in Hades-style flames -- devoted to retaking the House and demoting Pelosi from her perch as speaker. Eleven years later, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) joked that if he becomes the next leader of the House, it will be hard not to hit Pelosi with the speaker's gavel. And this year, Pelosi -- whom Republicans have long demonized as the face of progressive policies and who was a target of rioters during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol -- emerged as the top member of Congress maligned in political ads, with Republicans spending nearly $40 million on ads that mention Pelosi in the final stretch of the campaign, according to AdImpact, which tracks television and digital ad spending. The years of vilification culminated Friday when Pelosi's husband, Paul, was attacked with a hammer during an early-morning break-in at the couple's home in San Francisco by a man searching for the speaker and shouting 'Where is Nancy? Where is Nancy?'' A Politico story on the same topic is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: As Alex Wagner of MSNBC pointed out Friday night, Republicans take particular pleasure in vilifying female politicians -- Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton, the Squad. ~~~

~~~ Aaron Davis & Dalton Bennett of the Washington Post: "The San Francisco Bay area man arrested in the attack on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband filled a blog a week before the incident with delusional thoughts, including that an invisible fairy attacked an acquaintance and sometimes appeared to him in the form of a bird, according to online writings under his name. David DePape, 42, also published hundreds of blog posts in recent months sharing memes in support of fringe commentators and far-right personalities. Many of the posts were filled with screeds against Jews, Black people, Democrats, the media and transgender people. During October, DePape published over 100 posts. While each loads, a reader briefly glimpses an image of a person wearing a giant inflatable unicorn costume, superimposed against a night sky. The photos and videos that followed were often dark and disturbing." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Cue Republicans to immediately return to their "mental illness" crouch and absolve themselves from all responsibility for the actions of this sick fuck. ~~~

~~~ Blame Biden, Crime-Ridden Cities, Defund the Police: How Fox "News" Handled the Violent Attack. Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "Paraphrasing [a panel discussion that occurred just as the details of the news were breaking]: If this wasn't a function of politics, it is an act of heinous violence that represents precisely the sort of horrible, surging crime that Fox News has been warning its viewers about endlessly for weeks. If it was a function of politics -- presumably politics that cast Pelosi negatively -- then it's simply division, something that lamentably reflects our nation's sad state under Biden." MB: And now, they'll add mental illness to the mix.

Dan Lamothe of the Washington Post: "The White House rejected a recommendation by senior Pentagon officials to promote an Army general who came under intense scrutiny after the Pentagon's slow response to the riot at the Capitol, defense officials said, pushing the officer to a near-certain retirement. Lt. Gen. Walter E. Piatt, the director of the Army staff, was backed to become the four-star general at Army Futures Command by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Army Secretary Christine Wormuth -- both of whom were appointed by President Biden -- and Gen. James McConville, the Army's top officer, said two defense officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue. The White House declined to send a nomination for Piatt to the Senate for months, the officials said, effectively killing the possibility."

Zarar Khan of the AP: "A 75-year-old from Pakistan who was the oldest prisoner at the Guantanamo Bay detention center was released and returned to Pakistan on Saturday, the foreign ministry in Islamabad and the U.S. Defense Department said. Saifullah Paracha was reunited with his family after more than 17 years in custody in the U.S. base in Cuba, the ministry added. Paracha had been held on suspicion of ties to al-Qaida since 2003, but was never charged with a crime. Last year in May, he was notified that he had been been approved for release." A New York Times story is here.

Chloe Folmar of the Hill: "NBA star LeBron James on Saturday called on new Twitter owner Elon Musk to respond to the 'scary AF' increase in the use of the N-word on the social media platform. James tweeted in response to a post sharing a Business Insider article that reported, based on what a social media research group told The Washington Post, that the use of the racial slur increased by 500 percent after Musk's takeover of Twitter on Thursday." MB: I think that means "scary as fuck," but I'm guessing & will stand corrected if, well, corrected. ~~~

~~~ ** David Nasaw in a New York Times op-ed: Elon Musk is just another robber baron who has developed his automotive & space businesses on government subsidies but who has an advantage over latter-day robber barons because of his "ability to promote his businesses and political notions with a tweet.... Elon Musk is a product of his -- and our -- times. Rather than debate or deride his influence, we must recognize that he is not the self-made genius businessman he plays in the media. Instead, his success was prompted and paid for by taxpayer money and abetted by government officials who have allowed him and other billionaire businessmen to exercise more and more control over our economy and our politics." (Also linked yesterday.)

November Elections

The Closer. Annie Linskey of the Washington Post: "With midterm elections just over a week away, [former President Barack] Obama, 61, has stepped into the spotlight on the political stage with rallies to gin up interest in marquee midterm races in battleground states. A day after appearing in Georgia with Sen. Raphael G. Warnock, who is in a tight race with [Herschel] Walker, and Stacey Abrams, who is trailing in her rematch with Gov. Brian Kemp, Obama headlined rallies in Michigan and Wisconsin. The former president is regarded as the Democratic Party's top communicator to base voters, more in demand than President Biden, who has not been the sought-after surrogate in the top races amid a dismal approval rating. The president spent one of the busiest campaign weekends of the cycle at his home in Delaware, where he attended his granddaughter's field hockey game and, separately, cast his ballot. Democratic strategists say Obama is the sole party leader able to draw major base-motivating crowds without simultaneously angering the other side."

Dan Balz of the Washington Post: "The vicious attack on Paul Pelosi, husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), is a reminder of what the 2022 election is about.... The backdrop of politics today includes a climate of possible violence, with rising numbers of threats aimed at individual lawmakers. It includes threats to local officials and citizen volunteers who administer elections. It includes intimidation of individual voters depositing ballots at drop boxes in Arizona.... A majority of Republicans on the ballot for Senate, House and key statewide races have denied or questioned the 2020 presidential election, echoing ... Donald Trump's unfounded claims. It all adds up to what has been stated repeatedly for the past two years: Democracy itself is at risk in this country."

Beyond the Beltway

California. AP: "A man who spent more than 38 years behind bars for a 1983 murder and two attempted murders has been released from a California prison after long-untested DNA evidence pointed to a different person, the Los Angeles County district attorney said Friday. The conviction of Maurice Hastings, 69, and a life sentence were vacated during an Oct. 20 court hearing at the request of prosecutors and his lawyers from the Los Angeles Innocence Project at California State University, Los Angeles. 'I prayed for many years that this day would come,' Hastings said at a news conference Friday, adding: 'I am not pointing fingers; I am not standing up here a bitter man, but I just want to enjoy my life now while I have it.'"

Virginia. The Last Confederate Statue in Richmond. Christine Hauser of the New York Times: "Since 1892, the statue of Ambrose P. Hill, a Confederate lieutenant general, has towered over a busy intersection in Richmond, Va., built over the spot where his remains are buried. The statue is the last Confederate monument in the city.... Judge D. Eugene Cheek Sr., of the Circuit Court of the City of Richmond, this week ruled that the city had the right to dismantle the statue and donate it to the Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia. The remains of the general will be reburied at a cemetery in Culpeper, about 85 miles north, according to his ruling."

Way Beyond

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 for Sunday are here. The Guardian's summary report is here.

Mark Santora of the New York Times: "Hours after accusing Ukraine of attacking its ships with a swarm of drones, Russia withdrew on Saturday from an agreement aimed at bringing down global food prices by allowing the export of grain from Ukrainian ports. The Russian decision, which United Nations and Ukrainian officials said could exacerbate hunger, brought to a screeching halt a rare case of wartime coordination that had allowed the movement of more than 9 million tons of agricultural products, many of them bound for poor countries. Stéphane Dujarric, a spokesman for the United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, called on the warring parties to ensure that the grain deal continued."

Iran. Miriam Berger, of the Washington Post: "The two female Iranian journalists who helped break the story of Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman whose death in the custody of the so-called morality police last month sparked a nationwide uprising, were formally accused late Friday of being CIA spies and the 'primary sources of news for foreign media' -- the former a crime punishable by the death penalty in Iran. Journalists Niloofar Hamedi and Elahe Mohammadi have been held in Iran's notorious Evin prison since late September as Iran's clerical leaders have struggled to contain an outpouring of public anger and protests calling for their overthrow.... In the joint statement sent to Iranian media late Friday local time, the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and the intelligence agency of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard ... accused the CIA of orchestrating Hamedi and Mohammadi's reporting, and said 'allied spy services and fanatic proxies,' planned the nationwide, leaderless unrest." They also accused British, Israeli & Saudi spy agencies in participating in planning & organizing the protests.

Somalia. Omar Faruk of the AP: "Somalia's president says at least 100 people were killed in Saturday's two car bombings at a busy junction in the capital and the toll could rise in the country's deadliest attack since a truck bombing at the same spot five years ago killed more than 500. President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, at the site of the explosions in Mogadishu, told journalists that nearly 300 other people were wounded. 'We ask our international partners and Muslims around the world to send their medical doctors here since we can't send all the victims outside the country for treatment,' he said."

News Lede

India. New York Times: “At least 70 140 people were killed after a century-old pedestrian bridge collapsed in the western Indian state of Gujarat on Sunday evening, sending hundreds plunging into the Machchhu River, officials said. About 350 people were on and around the bridge, a major tourist attraction, at the time of the collapse, said Brijesh Merja, a minister in the Gujarat government. A majority of those who died were children, women and older people, according to officials.”