;)
November 14, 2022
Afternoon Update:
Seung Min Kim & Zeke Miller of the AP: "President Joe Biden objected directly to China's 'coercive and increasingly aggressive actions' toward Taiwan during the first in-person meeting of his presidency with Xi Jinping, as the two superpower leaders aimed on Monday to 'manage' their differences in the competition for global influence. The nearly three-hour meeting was the highlight of Biden's weeklong, round-the-world trip to the Middle East and Asia, and came at a critical juncture for the two countries amid increasing economic and security tensions. Speaking at a news conference afterward, Biden said that when it comes to China, the U.S. would 'compete vigorously, but I'm not looking for conflict.' He added: 'I absolutely believe there need not be a new Cold War' between America and the rising Asian power."
Marie: In today's Comments, Ken W. generously does the Republicans' post-election "autopsy" for them. Everything Ken writes is, IMO, sensible, straightforward & obvious. I think some of the brighter Republicans would agree if you gave them truth serum. But they have no intention of following Ken's advice.
Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court paved the way on Monday for the House committee investigating the Capitol attack to obtain phone records of Kelli Ward, the chairwoman of the Arizona Republican Party. As is its custom in ruling on emergency applications, the court's brief order gave no reasons in denying Ms. Ward's request that it block a subpoena. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr. noted dissents, also without giving reasons. Experts in legal ethics have said that Justice Thomas should recuse himself from cases concerning the Jan. 6 attack in light of the efforts of his wife, Virginia Thomas, to overturn the 2020 election. Ms. Thomas's activities included lobbying the speaker of the Arizona House to try to reverse Joseph R. Biden Jr.'s victory in the state." Politico's story is here. MB: A guy who probably perjured himself during his Senate hearing is not all that likely to be bothered by even the most obvious ethics standards.
Devlin Barrett & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "Federal agents and prosecutors have come to believe ... Donald Trump's motive for allegedly taking and keeping classified documents was largely his ego and a desire to hold on to the materials as trophies or mementos, according to people familiar with the matter.... [Investigators'] review [of the classified documents Trump stole] has not found any apparent business advantage to the types of classified information in Trump's possession, these people said. FBI interviews with witnesses so far, they said, also do not point to any nefarious effort by Trump to leverage, sell, or use the government secrets. Instead, the former president seemed motivated by a more basic desire not to give up what he believed was his property, these people said. Several Trump advisers said that each time he was asked to give documents or materials back, his stance hardened, and that he gravitated toward lawyers and advisers who indulged his more pugilistic desires. Trump repeatedly said the materials were his, not the government's -- often in profane terms, two of these people said." ~~~
~~~ Marie: So Trump's Achilles' heel is all in his head? Perhaps a new variant of foot-in-mouth disease.
Drew Harwell of the Washington Post: Last Thursday afternoon a tweet "using the name and logo of the pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Co., ... immediately attracted a giant response: 'We are excited to announce insulin is free now.' The tweet carried a blue 'verified' check mark, a badge that Twitter had used for years to signal an account's authenticity -- and that Twitter's new billionaire owner, Elon Musk, had, while declaring 'power to the people! suddenly opened to anyone, regardless of their identity, as long as they paid $8. But the tweet was a fake.... Inside the real Eli Lilly..., officials scrambled to contact Twitter representatives and demanded they kill the viral spoof.... Twitter, its staffing cut in half, didn't react for hours.... By Friday morning, Eli Lilly executives had ordered a halt to all Twitter ad campaigns -- a potentially serious blow, given that the $330 billion company controls the kind of massive advertising budget that Musk says the company needs to avoid bankruptcy. They also paused their Twitter publishing plan for all corporate accounts around the world.... [Friday] morning, Musk tweeted that the launch of Twitter's new $8 verification regime was 'overall proceeding well.'... When Eli Lilly's share price sank 4 percent on Friday -- in line with a drop in other health care stocks -- many Twitter users credited the fake account...."
New York. Jonah Bromwich of the New York Times: "Lawyers for people detained on Rikers Island intend to ask a federal judge to take control of the jail complex away from New York City, according to a letter filed with the court on Monday, setting the stage for a potentially pivotal hearing this week. The lawyers' intention to request an outsider -- called a receiver -- to run the jails was conveyed in a letter filed by a federal official appointed to monitor the island lockup, where close to 5,900 people are held. The letter could be the first step in a drawn-out process that determines the future of Rikers, where conditions have deteriorated precipitously over the past two years."
Turkey. Ben Hubbard & Sifak Timur of the New York Times: "The Turkish authorities arrested a woman on Monday they suspect was behind the deadly bombing in central Istanbul a day earlier, saying she had been sent to Turkey from Syria by Kurdish militants to carry out the attack.... Turkey accused the United States of complicity in the attack because America has long maintained a military partnership with a Kurdish-led militia in Syria. Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu, during a visit to the site of the attack on Monday, dismissed condolence messages from the United States, saying this was like 'the killer is among the first ones returning to the scene.' The United States is an ally of Turkey in NATO...."
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Amy Wang, et al., of the Washington Post: "Democrats on Sunday were celebrating retaining their majority in the Senate after Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) was projected to win reelection, even as control of the House remained undetermined.... 'Maybe the Republican Party, which has been so negative on so many different issues, will realize that the election was a clarion call by the American people: Stop all this negativity, stop flirting with autocracy, stop spending your time denying the election, and work to get something done,' [Senate Majority Leader Chuck] Schumer [N.Y.] said.... Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) on NBC's 'Meet the Press' on Sunday credited [President] Biden and Democratic voters for the midterm wins.... 'It was not anything that we ever accepted when the pundits in Washington said we couldn't win because history, history, history. Elections are about the future,' [House Speaker Nancy] Pelosi [Calif.] said on ABC's 'This Week.'... '... Our candidates ... had courage, they had purpose, and they understood their district.'" Meanwhile, various Republicans were pointing fingers at Donald Trump or Mitch McConnell. ~~~
~~~ Donald Who? Maggie Astor of the New York Times: "... as Republicans sought to explain their unexpectedly weak election performance in interviews on Sunday, the morning after Democrats clinched control of the Senate, some of them denied [that Donald Trump was the head of the party]. 'We're not a cult....,' Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana said.... 'When any party is out of power, as Republicans are now, we don't have a single leader,' [Sen. Tom] Cotton [Ark.] said...." While Cassidy said he wanted to concentrate on bipartisan legislation, hardliner Rep. Jim Banks (Ind.) said he wanted Republicans to investigate the Biden administration and "to be the last line of defense to block the Biden agenda." ~~~
~~~ It's Called Legislating, You Blithering Idiot. Brad Dress of the Hill: "Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) on Sunday said Senate GOP leadership 'caved' to Democrats on a number of legislative bills over the past year, citing that as one reason Republicans did not perform as well as projected in the midterm elections. Scott, the chair of the Senate Republicans' campaign arm, told Maria Bartiromo on Fox News channel's 'Sunday Morning Futures' that Republicans 'caved in on the debt ceiling, caved in on a gun bill, caved in on a fake infrastructure bill.... We [made] it difficult for our candidates.... We can't do that.'" MB: IOW, we lost in election after election because we got a few things done (none of which was a big tax cut for the rich).
Daniel De Vise of the Hill: "Democrats ... won big with young women. Exit polls show 72 percent of women ages 18-29 voted for Democrats in House races nationwide. In a pivotal Pennsylvania Senate race, 77 percent of young women voted for embattled Democrat John Fetterman, helping to secure his victory." MB: Those little ladies will be ever so sorry because they'll never find husbands now.
Georgia Senate Runoff. Look Away, Look Away, Dixieland! Itoro Umontuen of the Atlanta Voice: "There will not be any early voting on the Saturday before the December 6th Senate runoff between Senator Rev. Raphael Warnock, D-Georgia, and Republican opponent Herschel Walker because it will take place on the day after a state holiday that was initially created to honor Confederate general Robert E. Lee."
Matt Viser, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping launched a high-stakes meeting [in Indonesia] on Monday, the first in-person exchange between them as their nations' leaders and at a time of extreme tensions between the global powers.... As reporters were being ushered out of the [meeting] room [after a photo op], a TV producer called out to ask Biden if he would raise human rights during the talks. A man on the Chinese side yanked the producer backwards by her backpack and she lost her balance but didn't fall. Two White House staff members then intervened and said the producer should be left alone." A Politico report, by Jonathan Lemire, is here. ~~~
~~~ The New York Times is liveblogging the meeting between President Biden & Xi Jinping. The Guardian is liveblogging the G20 meeting.
Tal Axelrod of ABC News: "Former Vice President Mike Pence said in an exclusive interview with ABC's 'World News Tonight' anchor David Muir that ... Donald Trump's rhetoric was 'reckless' as a mob of his supporters ransacked the Capitol last year -- with Pence and others temporarily forced into hiding. 'I mean, the president's words were reckless. It was clear he decided to be part of the problem,' Pence told Muir.... 'The president's words that day at the rally [before the riot] endangered me and my family and everyone at the Capitol building.'"
Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "While in office..., Donald J. Trump repeatedly told John F. Kelly, his second White House chief of staff, that he wanted a number of his perceived political enemies to be investigated by the Internal Revenue Service, Mr. Kelly said.... Mr. Kelly said that among those Mr. Trump said 'we ought to investigate' and 'get the I.R.S. on' were the former F.B.I. director James B. Comey and his deputy, Andrew G. McCabe. His account of Mr. Trump's desires to use the I.R.S. against his foes comes after the revelation by The Times this summer that Mr. Comey and Mr. McCabe had both been selected for a rare and highly intrusive audit by the tax agency in the years after Mr. Kelly left the White House.... At the time both audits occurred, the I.R.S. was led by a Trump political appointee....
"Mr. Kelly said that ... Mr. Trump discussed using the I.R.S. and the Justice Department to investigate the former C.I.A. director John O. Brennan; Hillary Clinton; Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon and the owner of The Washington Post, whose coverage often angered Mr. Trump; Peter Strzok, the lead F.B.I. agent on the Russia investigation; and Lisa Page, an F.B.I. official who exchanged text messages with Mr. Strzok that were critical of Mr. Trump." Keeping it classy, a spokeswoman for Trump denied the allegations & called Kelly a psycho.
Benjamin Weiser & William Rashbaum of the New York Times: "Across America, [U.S. private] investigators are increasingly being hired by a new kind of client — authoritarian governments like Iran and China attempting to surveil, harass, threaten and even repatriate dissidents living lawfully in the United States, law enforcement officials said.... Most appear to have been used unwittingly, and later cooperated with the authorities; a few, however, were charged.... [In a New York City case], Manhattan federal prosecutors filed kidnapping conspiracy charges in July 2021 against an Iranian intelligence official and three associates, all in Iran. None are likely to be apprehended if they remain there, but officials said the goal, beyond protecting potential victims, was to expose and deter plots devised at the highest levels of a foreign government."
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: "A triumphant President Volodymyr Zelensky visited ... [Kherson] recaptured just days ago by his country's troops, saying in a speech in the central square that the victory marked the 'beginning of the end of the war.' Standing in front of a raucous crowd of several hundred people, Zelensky said Western-supplied weapons played a crucial role in recent battlefield victories but that they were paid for in Ukrainian blood. Zelensky made the visit as the city began assessing damage and evidence of what he said were 'hundreds' of war crimes during eight months of Russian occupation. Basic services -- ranging from water and power supplies to the city's postal system -- are slowly being restored for Kherson's residents.... Elsewhere, heavy fighting continued in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine.... Zelensky plans to address the Group of 20 summit via video on Tuesday, and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba is in Asia this week to meet with his counterparts and discuss support."
Then They Took the Animals in the Zoo. Robyn Dixon of the Washington Post: "Russia's military has gained a reputation for looting its way across Ukraine, taking washing machines, electronics, cultural artifacts and even the bones of the lover of Empress Catherine II. But the latest theft -- including seven raccoons, two female wolves, peacocks, a llama and a donkey from Kherson Zoo -- entered the realm of farce. A private Crimean zoo, Taigan Lion Park, owned by Oleg Zubkov, filmed him inexpertly grabbing raccoons by their tails and dumping them into cages in a YouTube video.... Zubkov called the theft a humanitarian mission.... Zubkov ... was convicted of negligence after one of his tigers bit off the finger of a 1-year-old boy in September 2021."
Turkey. Ben Hubbard & Sifak Timur of the New York Times: "A bomb attack struck a bustling pedestrian thoroughfare in central Istanbul on Sunday, killing at least six people, in what officials said could be a terrorist attack, and shattering a sense of calm as Turkey's tourist industry works to recover from the pandemic.The attack was the deadliest in Turkey in more than five years...."
News Ledes
New York Times: "Samuel Folsom, one of the last surviving Marine fighter pilots of World War II, who engaged in aerial dogfights and shot down two Japanese bombers in the horrific struggle for the strategic island of Guadalcanal at a crucial juncture in the Pacific war, died on Saturday in Sherman Oaks, Calif. He was 102.... In the vast undertaking to capture and hold Guadalcanal in the late summer and fall of 1942, Lieutenant Folsom was a 22-year-old aviator who had never flown at high altitude and had fired the wing guns of his Grumman F4F Wildcat only once, in a training exercise in California.... During Lieutenant Folsom's three months on the island, nearly half of his squadron's pilots were killed or wounded. In dogfights, the faster, more maneuverable Zeros often riddled his plane with bullets. He was wounded twice by shrapnel and once by a bullet that gashed his leg. When he ran out of ammunition, he escaped by flying into clouds and circling back to his tiny airstrip...."
New York Times: "A student gunman was at large after he fatally shot three people and wounded two others at a garage on the University of Virginia campus late Sunday night, the authorities said. Around 6:30 a.m. Eastern time on Monday, the university again urged people in and around campus to remain sheltered in place as the authorities searched for the suspect. Classes on Monday were canceled.... The University of Virginia Police Department identified the gunman as Christopher Darnell Jones Jr., who the university president said in an email to the campus was a student at the school.... Mr. Jones was described by the police as wearing a burgundy jacket, bluejeans, red shoes and possibly driving a black sport-utility vehicle." ~~~
~~~ Update. Marie: Law enforcement stated on-air at about 11:15 am ET that the suspect was in custody. No further information. ~~~
~~~ NYT liveblog update: "A University of Virginia student has been arrested and charged in the shooting deaths of three members of the school's football team and the wounding of two other people Sunday night, university officials said Monday. The suspect is being charged with three counts of second-degree murder and three counts of using a handgun in the commission of a felony, the authorities said.... [A campus lockdown] was lifted around the time the suspect was arrested without incident near Richmond, Va., about an hour's drive from Charlottesville. The university's president, Jim Ryan, identified the three students who were killed as Devin Chandler of Virginia Beach; Lavel 'Tyler' Davis of Dorchester, S.C.; and D'Sean Perry of Miami."
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Reader Comments (10)
Dial “I audit U” for quick IRS harassment of your enemies!
Naturally, Fatty sez he’d never do anything like that…
“Keeping it classy, a spokeswoman for Trump denied the allegations & called Kelly a psycho.” Then threatened to have him audited.
Just as aside note, imagine being a spokesperson for Trump, constantly having to lie and deny. I suppose on one hand, it’d be relatively easy. Just pick any one of the following ripostes:
Never happened!
Sez who?
Fucking traitors!
Pence did it.
McConnell did it.
Obama did it.
Are you stupid?
Psycho!
Then hang up and hit the head. And if you’re in Marred a Lardo, you can grab some top secret documents to read while you’re on the crapper.
But in truth, I can’t say I’m overly dismayed to hear that ol’ Jim (Don’t lock her up, but don’t vote for her) Comey got the double-depth IRS proctology audit. Wonder if they found Jimmy Hoffa while rooting around in there.
Whoa…early voting on a Saturday—a SATURDAY—when plenty of people are off work and could easily take the time to vote is now canceled because…Robert E Fucking Lee? Are they kidding? Is there an Honor the KKK state holiday too?
So, in a state with one of the highest percentages of black voters in the country, in one of the most important run-off elections in modern history for the US senate between two black candidates, one of whom preaches at a church formerly the spiritual home of Martin Luther King (the other of whom doesn’t know who that is), there’s no early voting on a Saturday before that election because Massa’s in de cold, cold ground?
WTF!?
@Akhilleus: Oh, you ain't just whistling Dixie. In 1921, Tennessee established Nathan Bedford Forrest Day, making July 13 a state holiday. Nathan there was not only a Confederate general, he was the founder & first grand wizard of the KKK. By 1969, slightly wiser minds decided shutting down state government offices to honor the old grand wizard was not a good look, so the legislature determined that the government must issue a proclamation every year announcing July 13 was NBF Day. And they do.
In 2021, the 100th anniversary of the holiday, a Black state representative introduced a bill to eliminate NBF Day. The bill failed in a committee voice vote (where the legislators' votes are not recorded).
So Happy KKK Day to you.
Akhilleus,
Or instead of heading to the head to upchuck after your lie-fest on the Pretender's behalf, you can return to your home state of Arkansas and be elected governor with 63 percent of the vote.
So much for the wages of sin...
Or to put it another way, sin sometimes pays very well. Especially if you hang out with sinners.
Gunman at large after shooting 3 and wounding others at the U.of V.
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/11/14/us/uva-shooting
Identity Crisis:
Thought I'd offer a helping hand to those Republicans who are again "taking stock."
It's not that hard, except for those whom Marie points out are "blithering idiots."
Your vision for the country is unpopular. The majority is not in favor of more tax cuts for the rich, for dismantling the safety net, for shredding democracy, for cozying up to dictators, for confusing American homes with armories, for your increasingly blatant racism, for your denigration of woman, thinly disguised by a constant stream of lies and hypocrisy.
Making cynical use the un-democratic elements of our Constitution, aggressive gerrymandering, voter suppression, and by cobbling together a shaky coalition of the fearful, resentful and ignorant, held together by the generously applied glue of unlimited money, you have managed to keep real democracy at bay for years.
But those days are over. Your coalition is crumbling. More Americans are unchurched. More are educated, and more are not white. Women (drat!) are more active in politics. And you've pissed off people enough that more of them are voting.
If you wish to have broader appeal, you will have to jettison your doctrinaire extremists, your racists and your liars...but then you won't be Republicans.
Tough choice.
Ken,
Excellent points, all. And what we need now is for a smart, aggressive, coordinated attack plan to build on the success of these midterms. Advances in the states are in some ways more important than the victories in the Senate since allowing the extreme election denying haters of democracy control of all future elections could be a blow from which we might never recover.
Democrats, typically an unruly bunch of the herding cats variety, need to appreciate how close we came to evisceration by the traitors, haters, Nazis, and con artists. We need a coordinated front moving forward, a sold narrative that encapsulates what the Democratic Party, what liberals and progressives do—and have always done—for Americans, held up against the violence, ignorance, and authoritarianism of the Party of Traitors.
And we need to trumpet our legislative achievements. What have Republicans done? Stripped Americans of rights, supported an insurrection, bolstered criminals, fed the wealthy and starved everyone else. That’s all they got. Every day I read about some new initiative or other being pushed by the Biden Administration to make life better, initiatives instantly and viciously attacked by the Greenes, Ccttons, Pauls, Lees, by Fox, the NY Post, tbe WSJ; attacks meekly stenographed by tbe MSM. Enough of that shit.
And we need to do this stuff now. To hell with victory parties. I’ve seen too many chess games where white believes he has black on the ropes only to get lazy, lose his queen and get chased ignominiously around the board until mated. Fuck that. We have them on the run. Let’s checkmate those assholes.
Now.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/14/us/politics/ward-subpoena-jan-6-supreme-court.html
Note the dissenting traitors...
I agree that Dems shouldn't get all milquetoast now we have had a decent showing, but I already got an email requesting money, from Chuckie Schumer, which seems crass...I get it--everything takes money, but I want to see a stronger leader in the Senate. I just don't like ole Chuckie that much... But I might switch my Fetterman and Shapiro donations through Act Blue to the reverend, if I can figure out how to do that...
Not surprised that the IRS got weaponized by ole Hogwarts, like the DOJ also. Dumpsterfire only knows revenge and sticking it to people and not paying for anything except gold toilets. He's a disgusting human being and I do not plan to listen to his announcement tomorrow. We may be margarita-ing quite early in the day. Not in celebration.
Hoping Katie Hobbs holds on. Kari Lake is created in Dump's image and Junior Hogwarts needs to be shut down.