;)
November 11, 2022
Late Morning Update:
Kevin Liptak & Ella Nilsen of CNN: "President Joe Biden on Friday used a short visit to the United Nations climate change summit in Egypt to tell the world the United States was ready to take back its leadership role on fighting a warming planet after the passage of one of the president's key priorities. In a speech to the United Nations COP27 summit, Biden proclaimed the US is back as a global leader on climate change following passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, which included around $370 billion in clean energy incentives meant to slash the use of harmful greenhouse gases. 'My friends, I came to the presidency determined to make ... transformational changes that are needed, that America needs to make and we have to do for the rest of the world, to overcome decades of opposition and obstacles of progress on this issue alone,' Biden said, 'to reestablish the United States as a trustworthy and committee global leader on climate. As I stand here before you, we've taken enormous strides to achieve that.' Biden added that other nations must similarly raise to the challenge." ~~~
~~~ The New York Times is liveblogging developments at the COP27 summit. The Guardian's live updates are here.
~~~~~~~~~~
Blake Hounshell of the New York Times: "Democrats grew increasingly optimistic on Thursday that they would hold on to their control of the Senate as votes were counted in Arizona and Nevada.... Republicans need to flip at least one seat to take control of the chamber, but their path appeared to be narrowing on Thursday, with Democrats holding a shrinking but durable lead in Arizona and picking up mail ballots in Nevada at a rate that seemed to give the party a slight edge. The G.O.P.'s odds of success were greater in the House, where the party had won or was leading in the races for 221 seats, just three more than it needs to retake the chamber.... If Democrats prevail in Arizona and Nevada, they will clinch control of the Senate even before the Georgia runoff contest. This would lower the stakes of that Dec. 6 rematch between Senator Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker...."
The New York Times is live-updating election results & developments.
Marie: Just to give you an idea of how seriously Republicans have lost the trust of the voters, in the first midterm after President Clinton's election, Republicans gained 54 House seats; in President Obama's first midterm, Republicans gained 64 House seats. They cannot come anywhere close to that number this year. ~~~
~~~ Update: Aaron Blake of the Washington Post does an actual analysis (as compared to my little Wowza: "The 2022 election wasn't that good for today's Democrats. But it's clearly the exception to the rule that the opposition party benefits quite a bit in the midterms the vast majority of the time. And that's even more striking considering how many on the right assured just a few days ago that we were headed toward a 'red wave.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Scott Wong, et al., of NBC News: Kevin "McCarthy has spent years trying to position himself to be the next Republican House speaker. The job holds tremendous power, including the ability to control legislation on the floor and influence the makeup of committees. Some House Freedom Caucus members are outright opposed to McCarthy, while others are demanding concessions from him that would greatly water down his power as speaker. Because the majority could be so thin, McCarthy will need the support of nearly every Republican. That has given the Freedom Caucus enormous leverage.... He needs 218 Republican votes on the House floor -- Democrats won't help -- meaning it's possible fewer than a dozen conservatives could derail McCarthy's chances and throw the process into certain chaos." A number of the usual suspects already have expressed their reservations about McCarthy.
Phil McCausland of NBC News: "... Democrats had a much better [election] night on the state level than expected. With votes still being counted across the country, the party has flipped the Michigan state Senate away from Republican control, according to The New York Times, citing AP data. And Democrats appear on track to flip the state House in Michigan, as well as in Pennsylvania and Minnesota, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), the nonpartisan organization that represents legislative chambers. Democrats are also competitive in races to flip the legislative chambers in Arizona and New Hampshire, the NCSL said. Republicans, meanwhile, consolidated power by creating supermajorities in both Florida legislative chambers as well as the North Carolina Senate, Wisconsin Senate, Iowa Senate and South Carolina House. They have not flipped any chambers as of yet."
Rick Scott Has a Sudden Change of Plans. Jonathan Martin, now back at Politico, in Politico Magazine: "Senator Rick Scott of Florida was poised to challenge [Mitch] McConnell [as GOP Senate leader], Republicans briefed on his plans told me, until he decided against a bid Wednesday morning, when it became clear Republicans may not capture the majority and there was to be a Senate runoff in Georgia. Scott had cut an announcement video declaring his intentions, word had reached some prominent conservatives outside the Senate and a handful of GOP senators had gotten wind of his plan and started calculating just how many votes his longshot campaign could accrue at the leadership vote next week in the Capitol.... Scott's challenge was not so much aimed at unseating the longtime Senate Republican leader as it was channeling the anger of grassroots conservatives, and the former president, who were peeved at McConnell's criticism of the 'candidate quality' of this year's roster of Senate GOP candidates.... But only one of those candidates -- Ohio's J.D. Vance -- won his race outright."
Trumpty-Dumpty Had a Great Fall. Jeremy Peters of the New York Times: "For a second consecutive day, the recriminations about Republicans' unexpectedly weak Election Day performance played a prominent role on the pages and over the airwaves of Rupert Murdoch's media properties. And the consensus wasn't kind to ... Donald J. Trump. 'Trump is the Republican Party's biggest loser,' declared the headline on a Wall Street Journal editorial on Thursday, which accused Mr. Trump of having 'flopped in 2018, 2020, 2021 and 2022.' The cover of the New York Post on Thursday ... had an illustration of Mr. Trump depicted as Humpty Dumpty.... Inside, the Post ran an opinion piece by the conservative writer John Podhoretz, a frequent critic of the former president, that called Mr. Trump 'the most profound vote repellent in modern American history.' Fox News spent all day Wednesday featuring commentators who blamed Mr. Trump for dragging the entire party down, and the criticism continued into prime time."
Daniel Douglas-Gabriel of the Washington Post: "A federal judge in Texas on Thursday struck down President Biden's student loan forgiveness program, delivering a victory to a conservative advocacy group that sued to halt the plan. The Job Creators Network Foundation filed a lawsuit in October on behalf of a borrower who does not qualify for the full $20,000 in debt relief and one who is ineligible altogether. The suit alleges the administration violated federal procedures by denying borrowers the opportunity to provide public comment before unveiling the program. U.S. District Judge Mark T. Pittman, who was appointed by Donald Trump, declared the policy unlawful in the Thursday order.... In a statement, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the administration said: 'We strongly disagree with the District Court's ruling on our student debt relief program and the Department of Justice has filed an appeal....'... Pittman's order comes after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit last month granted a temporary stay against the loan forgiveness program in a separate lawsuit brought by six Republican-led states." Politico's story is here. ~~~
~~~ Marie: I'm not sure why Republicans think it's such a good idea to squelch the student loan forgiveness program unless they figure that none of their voters is smart enough to get into college and wrack up loan debt.
AP: "A man already in custody in last month's attack on the husband of U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was indicted Wednesday by a federal grand jury on charges of assault and attempted kidnapping. The charges against David DePape stem from the Oct. 28 break-in at the Pelosis' San Francisco home are the same as but supersede those in an earlier federal complaint that was filed on October 31." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "A federal judge in Florida imposed sanctions on Thursday against a group of lawyers for ... Donald J. Trump who handled a sprawling lawsuit that accused Hillary Clinton and a range of Mr. Trump's perceived enemies of a vast conspiracy against him. The judge, Donald M. Middlebrooks of the Southern District of Florida, had thrown out the case in September, and in a scathing 19-page ruling, he accused Mr. Trump's lawyers of abusing the legal system by suing for political purposes.... 'Every claim was frivolous, most barred by settled, well-established existing law,' he said.... Judge Middlebrooks, who was appointed by President Bill Clinton, wrote, Mr. Trump put forward 'political grievances masquerading as legal claims.' He added, 'The courts are not intended for performative litigation for purposes of fund-raising and political statements.'... Mr. Trump's lawyers were also ordered to cover about $16,000 in legal fees paid by one of the defendants, Charles Dolan, a Democratic public-relations executive." Politico's story is here.
Joseph Menn, et al., of the Washington Post: "Several top executives resigned from Twitter on Thursday, some of whom cited fears over the risks from Elon Musk's leadership in a stunning exodus that prompted federal regulators to warn they might step in. One of the most surprising was the company's head of moderation and safety, Yoel Roth, who had become the public face of the company's efforts to reassure users and advertisers that Twitter would not descend into a 'free-for-all.'... Several other members of the site's privacy and security unit also had resigned and those remaining were trying to stop a wave of abuse in the company's expanded paid service, Twitter Blue.... The privacy departures prompted a rare warning from the Federal Trade Commission.... It marked the second time in two days that a federal official has expressed concern about the chaotic developments at the company, coming less than 24 hours after President Biden said Musk's relationships with other countries deserved scrutiny. The agency said that ... it was prepared to take action to ensure the company was complying with ... a consent order, which requires Twitter to comply with certain privacy and security requirements because of allegations of past data misuse." ~~~
~~~ Oliver Darcy of CNN: "The world is watching the world's richest man single-handedly destroy one of the world's most powerful and important communication platforms, just weeks after acquiring it for $44 billion.... The loss of the senior executives ... will make it extraordinarily difficult to lure already skeptical advertisers back to the social media site.... In his first all-staff email, where he abruptly announced mandatory return-to-office, Musk warned that 'the economic picture ahead is dire' and said 'without significant subscription revenue, there is a good chance Twitter will not survive the upcoming economic downturn.' In his first meeting with Twitter employees, Bloomberg reported that Musk said bankruptcy is on the table if the company doesn't soon start generating more cash." ~~~
~~~ New York Times reporters write about the "Two Weeks of Chaos" inside Twitter since Scrooge McMusk took over the company. ~~~
~~~ Marie: Looks like the only out now is for Musk to follow the Trumpian model & make a successful run for U.S. president* so he can scam the federal government into buying Teslas, communicating via Twitter & replacing NASA with SpaceX. Update: Oops! See RAS's comment below. So unfa-a-a-air!
Elizabeth Williamson of the New York Times: "The Infowars conspiracy broadcaster Alex Jones must pay the families of eight Sandy Hook shooting victims an additional $473 million in punitive damages for defaming them, a judge in Connecticut ruled on Thursday, bringing the total damages to nearly $1.5 billion." Law & Crime's story is here.
Beyond the Beltway
New Jersey. Hurubi Meko of the New York Times: "An 18-year-old man from Middlesex County, N.J., has been arrested and charged with threatening to attack a synagogue and Jews earlier this month, an episode that led to warnings from the Federal Bureau of Investigation in New Jersey of a broad security risk to synagogues in the state. The man, identified as Omar Alkattoul, of Sayreville, N.J., shared a document titled 'When Swords Collide' with several people through a social media application on Nov. 1, prosecutors said. Mr. Alkattoul admitted to writing the document, which included inflammatory language about relations between Jews and Muslims, and told a person he shared it with that the manifesto was 'in the context of an attack on Jews,' according to prosecutors. An individual who received a link to the document from Mr. Alkattoul informed law enforcement officials, according to the charging documents." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Way Beyond
Ukraine, et al. The New York Times' live updates of developments Friday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here. The Guardian's live updates are here. ~~~
~~~ The Washington Post's live briefings for Friday are here: "Russia said it had finished withdrawing all its troops from the west bank of the Dnieper River in Kherson on Friday, and claimed that no troops or military equipment had been left behind. The retreat from the city, if confirmed, would mark the latest major battlefield setback for the Kremlin in Ukraine. However, it comes sooner than Western officials had predicted -- U.S. Army Gen. Mark A. Milley said Tuesday that the retreat would take 'days and maybe even weeks,' while Ukraine's defense minister had also expressed skepticism that Russia could withdraw so quickly.... The United States pledged an additional $400 million in security assistance for Ukraine, including Avenger air defense systems that come equipped with Stinger missiles, on Thursday."
Andrew Kramer of the New York Times: "The Ukrainian Army is moving cautiously into areas abandoned by Russian troops along a front line in the Kherson region of southern Ukraine, a day after Russia's defense minister announced a retreat from the western bank of the Dnipro River, in the latest significant setback for Russia's military. President Vladimir V. Putin in September declared parts of this region Russian land, in a claimed annexation rejected by Ukraine and its Western allies.... Ukrainian soldiers are advancing into heavily mined towns and villages, and navigating around bridges the Russians blew up to cover their withdrawal. Heavy fighting continues in some places. But the Ukrainian advance without a fight into Snihurivka, an important> hub north of Kherson City that was abandoned overnight, indicates the Russians are, indeed, retreating. Ukrainian officials had initially been skeptical; they feared a ruse in the Russian announcement of a pullback...."
Germany. The Worst Promo in World History. Tim Carman of the Washington Post: "... on Nov. 9, 1938, mobs took to the streets across Nazi Germany, laying waste to Jewish homes, businesses and synagogues in riots that police and firefighters did nothing to stop. Over the course of two days, sometimes in broad daylight, rioters looted and ransacked thousands of Jewish homes and business, and killed at least 91 Jews. Another 30,000 Jewish men were arrested and sent to concentration camps. The riots became known as 'Kristallnacht,' a reference to the shattered glass in the streets afterward.... On Wednesday, the 84th commemoration of those brutal riots, KFC Germany sent out push notifications to users of the fried chicken chain's app. The notification suggested that for the '[c]ommemoration of the Reich pogrom night,' customers could '[f]eel free to add more tender cheese to the crispy chicken,' according to a Google translation of the original message. 'Now at KFCheese.' The blow back was immediate.... [KFC Germany said the message was a mistake:] '... an automated push notification was accidently [sic] issued to KFC app users in Germany that contained an obviously unplanned, insensitive and unacceptable message and for this we sincerely apologise....'"
Share Article 
Reader Comments (15)
Rank Triumphalism on the Court
A recent black tie soirée of the far-right Federalist Society, Donald Trump’s go-to source for Nazi judges, was attended by all three of the judges he dumped into the Supreme Court, plus Hit Man Sam Alito. Gracing (if you can use that word) the evening’s proceeding, at which congratulations no doubt were shared regarding the Federalist’s role in packing federal courts with right-wing rubber stamps, in addition to the author of the opinion that knifed Roe, were Amy Phony Barrett, Beery Bart, and Die for Your Company Gorsuch. Only Pubic Hair Clarence, the other solid vote to kill Roe, was absent (most likely home with Gin-Gin plotting the evisceration of other rights).
They don’t even try to appear non-partisan anymore. As former US Attorney Joyce Vance puts it, "Some of our judges seem to have forgotten that and that they have life tenure to serve the American people, not the political agenda of the people who put them in place."
What she said.
But far right triumphalism is the order of the day now on the high court. It’s not about justice (a foreign concept anyway on the right), it’s now all about “Look what we did to advance our personal ideologies and that of our pals!”
One surprise in the article was the knee-slapper about how the Federalists promote themselves as “non-partisan”. Hahahaha. Yeah, just like Heinrich Himmler had no truck with antisemitism.
https://www.rawstory.com/scotus-federalist-society/
Yesterday's. Krugman prompted this bird walk.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/10/opinion/biden-economy-midterms.html
Krugman mentions those polls that show people opinions of the economy diverge. Mine not so bad, they say, but the general economy sucks.
When I read that, it had a familiar ring. I thought of all the polls I've encountered that exhibit the same pattern about schools: My local schools are good, but the nation's schools are in dire straits...
Why the difference?
Is it simply the gap between what we experience directly and personally and what we only hear or read, an instance of our innate distrust of the faceless and unfamiliar? The difference between my bureaucracy and yours?
Maybe. But the skeptic that lives inside me wonders also if there's an element of conspiracy here...
For public schools the divergence has been around at least since Reagan's "A Nation at Risk." We know Republican administrations are no fans of public schools and take every opportunity to criticize them and diminish their effectiveness in the public's eye.
Why not create narratives to sow the same distrust with the economy?
It's easy enough to do, since the only economy we really know is our own.
A skeptic might think it's a Right Wing anti-government plot.
Regarding Rs killing the loan forgiveness program, several things are in play.
First, any, and I mean ANY program or legislation put forward or passed by Democrats are considered evil by the Party of Traitors, and thus subject to immediate vivisection.
Second, government money can only be handed out by them, to people, causes, and groups they care about, the rich and the weaponized (military, eg).
Finally, loan forgiveness is anathema because some of “those people” might benefit. Ixnay on that.
Then there’s the usual canard of how right wingers all did everything themselves with no help from anyone ever, as if they all came out of a cave and had to each invent the wheel, electricity, indoor plumbing, gerrymandering, and Fox “News”.
Update on traitors past and present…
I’ve almost concluded the Rachel Maddow podcast “Ultra”, which recounts Republican perfidy and treason back before WWII. The parallels with today’s Party of Traitors are astonishing.
You all have heard of the viciously antisemitic priest Father Coughlin, whose radio audience by the late 30’s numbered in the millions. Coughlin, a virulent right-winger, founded a movement called the Christian Front, a nationwide organization of paramilitary groups whose mission was to overthrow the government.
They referred to themselves as great patriots for America, believing that Christian control was absolute. Sounds very much like the sort of thing Christian nationalists are on about. They actually did plan a coup, blowing up munitions factories and targeting congressmen for assassination. The plot was stopped by the FBI. Coughlin and his thugs began referring to Roosevelt as Rosenfelt, calling him a “secret Jew”, in very much the same way as confederates denounced Obama as a “secret Muslim”.
Dozens of members of Congress, nearly all Republicans, worked hand in glove with Nazi propagandists to support a foreign totalitarian power while aiding in that power’s attempt to derail democracy in America. Back them it was Hitler, today it’s Putin.
One amazing revelation was the fact that the Nazis and their Republican pals got the American taxpayer to foot the bill for disseminating propaganda and chaos-sowing disinformation. How? They used the franking privilege of members of Congress to mail Nazi speeches to millions of Americans. No cost to Hitler. We, American taxpayers, picked up the tab, courtesy of Republican traitors.
Which made me think, Jesus! they’re still doing this! In the run up to the midterms we were inundated with mailings from R’s in Congress spreading lies about Russia, Trump, the economy, crime, voting “fraud”, you name it. All free of charge.
Other historical parallels include the attacks they made on journalists and DoJ investigators who outed them, calling reports of their treason hoaxes and fake news stories.
Maddow provides much more granular detail in her inimitable style, but it’s worth listening to in order to see how little things have changed. We still have anti-democratic traitors working to undermine the government, destroy voting rights, and install Christian control.
They never stop.
And leave us not forget, in our avoidance of the Red Wave (a new kind of Red Scare, innit?), that the traitors will control the House. This means endless “investigations”, impeachment trials, and five alarm yelping on a daily basis that will make benghazi, Benghazi, BENGHAZI, look like a 60 second infomercial for one of Dr. Oz’s snake oil products.
MTG will demand much greater control of House business, and if inept, impotent, wet treason-noodle McCarthy gets to be Speaker, she’ll get whatever she wants. Oh, goodie.
There could be a silver lining to these clouds of piss rain, if Democrats get their act together and make plans for a rousing comeback in 2024. It’s been clear now for a generation that Republicans in charge are no better than drunks announcing important messages at airports and railway terminals: lots of garbled shouting, confusion and chaos, but nothing of value. They simply have no idea how to do the job.
And yes, the MAGA morons are still burrowing into the foundations of democracy like evil termites, but perhaps enough voters can be convinced that the Red Way is the road to hell.
But then there’s the Supreme Court…
Shit.
Okay, one horrible problem at a time.
Commemorate Kristallnacht with extra cheese on your chicken nuggets?
What? Geeeez…why not Auschwitz fries? Fuck me.
Gives new meaning to the term Mad Men.
I hear that many restaurants in the D.C. area have added crow to
their menu.
Might also suggest bluefin tuna.
I thought Trump was supposed to be the Republicans' next Speaker of the House. Bring up CSPAN's ratings.
Fortunately for us Elon's long form birth certificate won't allow him to run for US president.
@RAS: Oh, yeah, you're right. I forgot he was born in South Africa.
@Marie: Elon will probably be given some cabinet position that he could use to enrich himself if a Republican is able to force his way into the presidency again. Or he will offer to pay the Secretary of ...whatever's salary in return for getting his hands on billions in government contracts.
Thanks for all your thoughts today, peeps. I have nothing to add.
Aren't you glad??
Musk, like Trump, seems to believe that being rich means you can do anything, run any business, take over a country, or step on people who don’t show you the proper obeisance. It also seems, in their minds, that you’re better and smarter than everyone else.
Unlike Trump, however, Musk wasn’t handed everything on a silver platter. He clearly has abilities in certain fields, and was smart enough to hire even smarter people to build his Space X business. He lists himself as chief engineer and although he has a background in physics and the development of internet applications, none of that necessarily translates to effective and efficient management of a company like Twitter.
Like Trump, it’s clear that his lethal narcissism overwhelms many other brain functions, again equating money with superior skills in any field he decides to take over, which in both cases appears to be getting them in a lot of trouble.
At least I hope so.
Not recommended even for those made of stern stuff.
I didn't read the whole thing but noted the new Douthat NYTimes Newsletter in which he does his post-mortem on the election, casts blame on both parties for the election's near gridlock (his word) and suggests each is equally unpopular, while wholly ignoring total votes cast by each party in recent general elections and somehow managing to avoid any mention of abortion as a possible issue.
There are none so blind.....
I see the Times did not invite comments on this one. I can also see why.
Jeanne and I need a break––all you males can carry the day and by jove––you do it so well! thank you!
I will say that Rachel's podcast is dynamite; interesting that PBS' series American Experience covered the same historical info a few months ago. So yes, we have been there before, and believed this country changed––-grew up–-but it appears we are still in the teenage years struggling with the same crap we were back then but now it has a different smell–––the fire next time kind of thing that seems more terrifying.