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The Ledes

Friday, March 29, 2024

CNBC: “Inflation rose in line with expectations in February, likely keeping the Federal Reserve on hold before it can start considering interest rate cuts, according to a measure the central bank considers its more important barometer. The personal consumption expenditures price index excluding food and energy increased 2.8% on a 12-month basis and was up 0.3% from a month ago, the Commerce Department reported Friday. Both numbers matched the Dow Jones estimates.... Along with the inflation increase, consumer spending shot up 0.8% on the month, well ahead of the 0.5% estimate, possibly indicating additional inflation pressures. Personal income increased 0.3%, slightly softer than the 0.4% estimate.”

The Wires
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The Ledes

Thursday, March 28, 2024

The Washington Post's liveblog of developments in the Francis Scott Key bridge collapse is here: “Divers recovered the bodies of two construction workers who died when a massive cargo ship struck and collapsed a Baltimore bridge, as investigators revealed Wednesday that hazardous material was leaking from breached containers on the stranded vessel and state and federal lawmakers rushed to begin the recovery from the disaster that crippled the Port of Baltimore. Rescue crews found the victims shortly before 10 a.m. trapped in a red pickup truck in about 25 feet of water in the Patapsco River near the mid-span of the hulking wreck of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, Maryland State Police Secretary Roland L. Butler Jr. said at a news conference. The conditions were treacherous for the divers, so Butler said they were suspending the search for the bodies of four other construction workers who plunged to their deaths when the container ship in distress struck the bridge shortly before 1:30 a.m. Tuesday, causing it to fall.

“The workers are believed to be the only victims in the disaster.... The victims recovered were identified as Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes, 35, of Baltimore, and Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera, 26, of Dundalk, Md. Other victims identified Wednesday were Maynor Suazo Sandoval, 38, from Honduras, and Miguel Luna, from El Salvador, who was the father of three. The names of the remaining two victims have not been released.” ~~~

~~~ CNN's live updates are here.

Public Service Announcement

The Washington Post offers tips on how to keep your EV battery running in frigid temperatures. The link at the end of this graf is supposed to be a "gift link" (from me, Marie Burns, the giftor!), meaning that non-subscribers can read the article. Hope it works: https://wapo.st/3u8Z705

The Hollywood Reporter has the full list of 2024 Oscar winners here.

Ryan Gosling performs "I'm Just Ken" at the Academy Awards: ~~~

Marie: If you don't like birthing stories, don't watch this video. But I thought it was pretty sweet -- and funny:

If you like Larry David, you may find this interview enjoyable:


Tracy Chapman & Luke Combs at the 2024 Grammy Awards. Allison Hope comments in a CNN opinion piece:

~~~ Here's Chapman singing "Fast Car" at the Oakland Coliseum in December 1988. ~~~

~~~ Here's the full 2024 Grammy winner's list, via CBS.

He Shot the Messenger. Washington Post: “The Messenger is shutting down immediately, the news site’s founder told employees in an email Wednesday, marking the abrupt demise of one of the stranger and more expensive recent experiments in digital media. In his email, Jimmy Finkelstein said he was 'personally devastated' to announce that he had failed in a last-ditch effort to raise more money for the site, saying that he had been fundraising as recently as the night before. Finkelstein said the site, which launched last year with outsize ambitions and a mammoth $50 million budget, would close 'effective immediately.' The New York Times first reported the site’s closure late Wednesday afternoon, appearing to catch many staffers off-guard, including editor in chief Dan Wakeford. As employees read the news story, the internal work chat service Slack erupted in what one employee called 'pandemonium.'... Minutes later, as staffers read Finkelstein’s email, its message was underscored as they were forcibly logged out of their Slack accounts. Former Messenger reporter Jim LaPorta posted on social media that employees would not receive health care or severance.”

Washington Post: “The last known location of 'Portrait of Fräulein Lieser' by world-renowned Austrian artist Gustav Klimt was in Vienna in the mid-1920s. The vivid painting featuring a young woman was listed as property of a 'Mrs Lieser' — believed to be Henriette Lieser, who was deported and killed by the Nazis. The only remaining record of the work was a black and white photograph from 1925, around the time it was last exhibited, which was kept in the archives of the Austrian National Library. Now, almost 100 years later, this painting by one of the world’s most famous modernist artists is on display and up for sale — having been rediscovered in what the auction house has hailed as a sensational find.... It is unclear which member of the Lieser family is depicted in the piece[.]”

CNN: “Jon Stewart is heading back to 'The Daily Show.' The comedian, who during his 16-year run as host of the Comedy Central program established it as an entertainment and cultural force, will return to host the show each week on Mondays starting February 12, Showtime and MTV Entertainment Studios announced Wednesday. Stewart, who returns as the 2024 presidential election season heats up, will also executive produce the show and work with a rotating line-up of comedians who will helm the program the rest of the week, Tuesdays through Thursdays.”

~~~ Marie: I don't know if this podcast will update automatically, or if I have to do it manually. In any event, both you and I can find the latest update of the published episodes here. The episodes begin with ads, but you can fast-forward through them.

Contact Marie

Click on this link to e-mail Marie.

Constant Comments

A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves. -- Edward R. Murrow

Publisher & Editor: Marie Burns


Wednesday
Oct242018

The Commentariat -- October 25, 2018

Afternoon Update:

MSNBC is reporting that the FBI now believes that all the package bombs were sent through the mail. Also, at least some of the packages come from Florida. ...

... Laura Jarrett of CNN: "The FBI said in a tweet Thursday morning that it could confirm three more packages that were 'similar in appearance to the others.' 'One in New York addressed to Robert DeNiro, and two in Delaware addressed to former Vice President Joseph Biden,' said the tweet from the FBI's official account. This brings the total to 10 suspicious packages that have been discovered since earlier this week." This is a running report on developments. ...

... Jonathan Chait: "... the important issue here is not Trump's inability to convincingly advocate civility for an entire news cycle.... The issue is Trump's conviction that he should not be subjected to any scrutiny or criticism.... What has given Trump's version of it unusual virulence is his belief that the media should be an uncritical conduit for his lies. This is the true through line of his entire career.... What has given Trump's version of it unusual virulence is his belief that the media should be an uncritical conduit for his lies. This is the true through line of his entire career. [As a businessman,] he was fanatical about intimidating reporters with legal threats.... In his incarnation as a political candidate, Trump has mostly lost his ability to intimidate the media with legal threats. (Politicians have a prohibitively high standard for libel in the United States.) But his expectation and worldview are the same.... It is a supreme irony that Trump used his speech last night to delegitimize criticism. 'No one should carelessly compare political opponents to historical villains.' But ... Trump, in his psychological makeup and aspirations, is precisely such a historical villain." ...

... Stephen Collinson of CNN: "... the President has chosen not to rise above the tumult or even console or counsel those who opposed him. He did not mention the victims by name. Or give any indication that he is concerned that some people might see his flaming rhetoric as a spur to violence. Trump's response to Wednesday's events was a reminder of the gap between presidential expectations and performance that has often been evident in his response to grave national moments, crises and natural disasters." ...

... Margaret Sullivan of the Washington Post: "At a raucous rally in Montana last week, a Trump supporter -- juiced up by the president's crude praise of a congressman who body-slammed a reporter -- looked directly at CNN reporter Jim Acosta. Then he ran his thumb across his throat. And laughed. Later, Acosta described 'the Trump effect.' 'It has normalized and sanitized nastiness and cruelty in a way that I just never thought I would see,' he said, shortly after that Montana rally. The Trump effect is a straight line from years of his hateful rhetoric to real-world danger. It's a line that goes directly from disrespect to pipe bomb. And -- almost inevitably-- it will eventually go from failed attempt to spilled blood. If you can't see it, you aren't looking." ...

... Oliver Darcy of CNN: "Fox Business Network host Lou Dobbs, who is prone to peddling conspiracy theories and is a prominent supporter of President Trump, asserted without evidence on Thursday that it was 'fake news' that suspicious packages were mailed this week to high-profile Democrats and the New York City offices of CNN. 'Fake bombs,' Dobbs wrote in a tweet posted to his verified account Thursday morning. 'Who could possibly benefit by so much fakery?' Dobbs deleted his tweet after immediate and widespread condemnation. Authorities have said that the bombs found in the packages were rudimentary, but functional. After Dobbs deleted the tweet, he posted a second tweet which carried the same suggestion. In the second tweet, Dobbs wrote that 'Fake News had just successfully changed the narrative from the onslaught of illegal immigrants and broken border security to "suspicious packages."' Dobbs later deleted that tweet as well."

Barbara Starr of CNN: "Defense Secretary James Mattis is expected to sign deployment orders as soon as Thursday that could send 800 or more troops to the border with Mexico to help border patrol authorities stop a caravan of migrants from Central America moving through Mexico to enter the US, according to three administration officials.... The troops will not engage in lethal operations to stop the migrants. Instead they are expected to provide fencing, wall materials and other technical support at several key points along the border where it is believed the migrants may try to cross. The troops will also provide tents and medical care for border authorities in those areas.... President Trump hinted at the upcoming effort with a Thursday morning tweet, saying 'I am bringing out the military for this National Emergency.'"

Julian Borger of the Guardian: "The US mission to the United Nations is seeking to eliminate the word 'gender' from UN human rights documents, most often replacing it with 'woman', apparently as part of the Trump administration's campaign to define transgender people out of existence. At recent meetings of the UN's Third Committee, which is concerned with 'social, humanitarian and cultural' rights, US diplomats have been pushing for the rewriting of general assembly policy statements to remove what the administration argues is vague and politically correct language, reflecting what it sees as an 'ideology' of treating gender as an individual choice rather than an unchangeable biological fact." Mrs. McC: Oh great. Now we're trying to spread discrimination around the world. And you thought Trump wasn't trying to be a world leader.

Dan Friedman of Mother Jones: "In early January, Roger Stone, the longtime Republican operative and adviser to Donald Trump, sent a text message to an associate stating that he was actively seeking a presidential pardon for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange -- and felt optimistic about his chances. 'I am working with others to get JA a blanket pardon,' Stone wrote, in a January 6 exchange of text messages obtained by Mother Jones. 'It's very real and very possible. Don't fuck it up.' Thirty-five minutes later Stone added: 'Something very big about to go down.'... As [Robert] Mueller's team zeroes in on Stone, they have examined his push for an Assange pardon ... and have questioned at least one of Stone's associates about the effort."

*****

Scarcely a day goes by that President Trump doesn't prove anew he is the worst president* in American history. Today is no exception. -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie

A very big part of the Anger we see today in our society is caused by the purposely false and inaccurate reporting of the Mainstream Media that I refer to as Fake News. It has gotten so bad and hateful that it is beyond description. Mainstream Media must clean up its act, FAST! -- Donald Trump, in a tweet this morning ...

Stop blaming others. Look in the mirror. Your inflammatory rhetoric, insults, lies, & encouragement of physical violence are disgraceful. Clean up your act....try to act Presidential. The American people deserve much better. BTW, your critics will not be intimidated into silence. -- John Brennan, in response to Trump's tweet ...

... Kanyakrit Vongkiatkajorn of Mother Jones: "Hours after explosive devices were sent to Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and CNN, President Trump told a crowd in Mosinee, Wisconsin that bombs are bad, but so is [are!] the media. 'Any acts or threats of political violence are an attack on our democracy itself,' the president, who only last week celebrated a congressman's physical attack on a reporter, said. 'Such conduct must be fiercely opposed and firmly prosecuted,' he went on. 'We want all sides to come together in peace and harmony. Those engaged in the political arena must stop treating political opponents as being morally defective,' he continued, weeks after calling Democrats 'evil.'" ...

... Andrew Restuccia & Gabby Orr of Politico: Wednesday afternoon, Donald Trump decried "'political violence' and presenting himself as a bipartisan healer during remarks at the White House.... 'Those engaged in the political arena must stop treating political opponents as being morally defective,' a staid Trump said later at the start of a rally in Wisconsin, adding later, 'By the way, do you see how nice I'm behaving today? Have you ever seen this?' Trump's solemn remarks were a jarring contrast with his typical raucous political rallies, where he regularly whips his supporters into a frenzy by mocking his critics and political opponents. In Trump's world, [Hillary] Clinton should be imprisoned, [Barack] Obama 'founded' ISIS, CNN is 'fake news,' billionaire George Soros is funding liberal protesters and Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), who called on activists to confront administration officials, should 'be careful what you wish for.'... During his Wednesday rally, Trump couldn't help but take some shots at the media and the Democrats. 'The media also has a responsibility to set a civil tone and to stop the endless hostility and constant negative and oftentimes false attacks and stories,' he said.... 'They've got to stop.'" ...

... Veronica Rocha of CNN: At the Wisconsin rally, "... Donald Trump pointed the finger Wednesday night at Democrats and the news media for the turbulent national political environment, on the same day explosive devices were mailed to the Obamas, the Clintons, CNN and other public officials. Trump took no responsibility for the tone of the political discourse. [Besides citing media 'negative & oftentimes false attacks & stories,] he complained of 'mobs' -- a reference to protesters, who opposed Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court nomination and confronted Republican senators on Capitol Hill, and who have challenged GOP lawmakers and Trump Cabinet officials at restaurants and in public. 'No one should carelessly compare political opponents to historical villains, which is done often and all the time. It's got to stop. We should not mob people in public spaces or destroy public property. There is one way to settle our disagreements -- it's called peacefully, at the ballot box. That's what we want,' Trump said." ...

I will always remember where I was when the president responded to a mass internal assassination attempt with a powerful, stirring 'Ditto!' -- Joel Stein, in a tweet today ...

... Marcus Gilmar of Mashable: "As authorities investigated explosive devices sent to the home of Hillary Clinton, the office of Barack Obama, and the building that houses CNN's New York office..., Donald Trump incurred the wrath of Twitter for putting in the least possible effort condemning the threats by quote-tweeting Vice President Pence. Earlier in the day, Pence sent a tweet condemning the actions as 'cowardly' and 'despicable,' the kind of message you expect from a leader. Trump, then, decided the best he could do was a quote tweet of Pence with an added line that amounts to 'Yeah, what he said!'... Later on Wednesday afternoon, both First Lady Melania Trump and the president gave fuller statements on the incidents, though President Trump didn't mention any of the recipients by name." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... William Rashbaum of the New York Times: "Explosive devices were sent to former President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, as well as to CNN's offices in New York, sparking an intense investigation on Wednesday into whether a bomber is going after targets that have often been the subject of right-wing ire. The three devices were similar to one found Monday at the home of George Soros, the billionaire philanthropist and liberal donor who has come under fierce criticism from conservatives and conspiracy theorists. None of the devices harmed anyone. Law enforcement officials said they were investigating whether all the devices were sent by the same person or persons. Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Obama, Mr. Soros and CNN have all figured prominently in the pantheon of conservative political attacks -- many of which have been led by President Trump. He has often referred to major news organizations as 'the enemy of the people,' and has had a particular animus for CNN." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... The story has been updated multiple times. The lede & new information as of 7 pm Wednesday: "Pipe bombs were sent to several prominent Democrats, including former President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, setting off an intense investigation on Wednesday into whether a bomber is going after political figures vilified by the right wing. CNN received a similar bomb, addressed to John O. Brennan, a career intelligence officer who served as Mr. Obama's C.I.A. director. The discovery of the device caused a mass evacuation of the Time Warner Center in Midtown Manhattan, where the network is located.... Mr. Brennan [is] a Republican and a harsh critic of Mr. Trump. The president revoked his security clearance in what was seen as an act of retribution.... All the packages were mailed in manila envelopes lined with Bubble Wrap and bearing return addresses with the name of Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Florida congresswoman and a former Democratic National Committee chairwoman, the F.B.I. said. The mailing labels were computer-printed and six first-class stamps were affixed to all of the envelopes. A fifth device sent to Mr. Obama's attorney general, Eric H. Holder Jr., was apparently misaddressed, and because Ms. Wasserman Schultz's name was on the return address, it was ultimately delivered to her district office in Florida, the F.B.I. said.... Another package addressed to a Democrat, Representative Maxine Waters of California, was intercepted at a Congressional mail facility, Ms. Waters said in a statement. In recent months, Mr. Trump and Ms. Waters have often ridiculed each another." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Good for the Times for implicitly laying the blame on Trump. And think of that: the POTUS* is -- as we've said for a long time -- inciting violence against his political enemies. This is, needless to say, a first in modern American history. Investigators certainly will find the perp. ...

... AP: "The FBI is confirming that two additional suspicious packages, addressed to Rep. Maxine Waters, have been intercepted that are similar in appearance to five others that were received. The FBI updated its tally in a tweet Wednesday night. It came as federal authorities said a package addressed to Waters with similar markings and characteristics to the other devices was intercepted at a Los Angeles mail facility. Earlier in the day, Waters said her Washington office was the target of a suspicious package, though it wasn't immediately clear if that was related to the others." ...

... Here's the FBI's statement on the packages. ...

... AP: "A law enforcement official says a package addressed to former Vice President Joe Biden appears similar to packages containing bombs sent to prominent Democrats and has been intercepted at a Delaware mail facility.... The FBI confirms there is law enforcement activity at the U.S. mail facility in New Castle, Delaware. It says federal agents and New Castle County Police are responding to the facility." ...

... Daily Beast: "A suspicious device addressed to Robert De Niro has been sent to an address in New York City, two law enforcement sources told The Daily Beast. One of the officials said the device was 'identical' to those sent to former president Obama and the Clintons yesterday. De Niro has been repeatedly critical of President Trump...." ...

... Tucker Higgins of CNBC: "The U.S. Secret Service said Wednesday that reports of a suspicious package addressed to the White House are 'incorrect.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "In the home stretch of the fall campaign, President Trump has called Democrats 'evil' and argued they are 'too dangerous to govern.' He has denounced Barack Obama's presidency and demonized former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, inspiring chants of 'Lock her up!' at his rallies. The president has also used his bully pulpit to taunt Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) as a 'low I.Q. individual,' impugn former CIA director John Brennan and fan conspiracy theories about liberal philanthropist George Soros. And he has called the news media 'the enemy of the people,' singling out CNN's reporting as 'fake news.' This week, these targets of Trump's rhetoric became the intended targets of actual violence in the form of pipe bombs, many of which turned up Wednesday. Investigators have not disclosed information about the origin of the packages, and no evidence has surfaced connecting the acts to any political campaign. Still, a common theme among the targets was unmistakable: Each has been a recurring subject of Trump attacks.... The president sounded a call to all Americans to unite, though he did not address the tone of his own campaign rhetoric.... Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) responded in a joint statement: 'President Trump's words ring hollow until he reverses his statements that condone acts of violence.'" ...

     ... Here is Schumer & Pelosi's joint statement. ...

     ... Here are notes & a statement CNN president Jeff Zucker sent to staff. ...

... Democrats Did It. Kelly Weill & Will Sommer of the Daily Beast: "Minutes after news broke of 'potential explosive devices' being mailed to the homes of former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, along with CNN's New York City studio, the dark corners of the conservative Internet were declaring it a plot to gin up empathy for Democrats. Cries that the bomb threats was merely a 'false flag' operation were evident on Twitter and pro-Trump forums. Many of the personalities pushing the claim were fringe types. But not all of them. Popular talk radio host Rush Limbaugh hinted that the attempted bombings were set-up by Democrats, saying they would serve a political 'purpose.' 'It's happening in October,' Limbaugh said. 'There's a reason for this.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Dan Spinelli of Mother Jones: “'Breaking! Alex Jones Predicted False Flag Attack to Blame Patriots,' read the top headline Wednesday morning on Infowars, which Jones owns and operates.... Michael Flynn Jr., the son of former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, called the packages a 'political stunt' given the 'suspicious timing' of Wednesday's news.... Ann Coulter ... called bombs 'a liberal tactic.'... John Cardillo, a host on Newsmax, a conservative media outlet run by Trump golfing buddy Christopher Ruddy, said investigators should look at 'far left groups' who 'know they're losing.'" ...

... They Have No Shame. Will Sommer: "House Republicans' campaign committee released a new ad attacking billionaire Democratic donor George Soros as a 'radical' on Wednesday, just two days after a bomb was found in Soros's mailbox. The new ad from the National Republican Campaign Committee's independent expenditure arm..., is aimed at Minnesota House candidate Dan Feehan, who is locked in a close contest with Republican Jim Hagedorn." ...

... Todd Gillman & Robert Garrett of the Dallas Morning News: "On Tuesday, Sen. Ted Cruz joked that his opponent, Rep. Beto O'Rourke, could share a jail cell with Hillary Clinton and spoke darkly of Democratic mobs. A day later, federal authorities said they'd found seven mail bombs sent to the former secretary of state and others, among them former President Barack Obama and his attorney general, Eric Holder, billionaire Democratic donor George Soros and CNN -- a network that drew chants of 'CNN sucks!' at Cruz's big rally with ... Donald Trump on Monday night. Stumping in Dallas on Wednesday, Cruz denounced overheated rhetoric and political violence of any kind -- and lay the bulk of blame on the left for poisoning the nation's civic discourse.... He rejected the idea that he or Trump shares responsibility for stirring passions.... The White House rejected the possibility that attacks on liberal politicians and the news network Trump loves to bash were inspired by his harsh rhetoric, describing Democrats as 'evil' and journalists as the 'enemy of the people.'" ...

... Travis Gettys of the Raw Story: Meghan McCain, a host of ABC's "The View" and a daughter of John McCain, said Mitch McConnell's being heckled in restaurants was like Barack Obama & Hillary Clinton's getting bombs in the mail. Mrs. McC: Uh-huh. ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: In case you're thinking that the bomber(s) could be a "false flag" -- and that's not impossible -- there's this: Ben Collins of NBC News: "An image on the explosive device sent to former CIA Director John Brennan on Tuesday appears to be a parody of an ISIS flag taken from a meme that has been circulating on right-wing corners of the internet since 2014. The print-out appears to show a parody flag that replaces Arabic characters with the silhouette of three women in high heels, and a middle inscription reading 'Get 'Er Done' -- which is the catchphrase of standup comedian Larry the Cable Guy.... The 'Get 'Er Done' flag was originally created in 2014 by the right-wing parody site World News Bureau, for an article titled 'ISIS Vows Retribution For Counterfeit Flags.' It has since been shared as a meme on right-wing websites and forums.... The explosive device also appears to have a picture of a face next to the fake ISIS flag. The identity of the person in that picture is still unknown." (It looks like a slimmed-down Trump to me, but the photo -- which apparently came from Jim Acosta of CNN -- is grainy.) If the would-be bomber is a leftist or a foreign terrorist, s/he would have to at least be familiar with right-wing memes.


** China & Russia, if You're Listening... Matthew Rosenberg & Maggie Haberman
of the New York Times: "When President Trump calls old friends on one of his iPhones to gossip, gripe or solicit their latest take on how he is doing, American intelligence reports indicate that Chinese spies are often listening -- and putting to use invaluable insights into how to best work the president and affect administration policy, current and former American officials said. Mr. Trump's aides have repeatedly warned him that his cellphone calls are not secure, and they have told him that Russian spies are routinel eavesdropping on the calls, as well. But aides say the voluble president, who has been pressured into using his secure White House landline more often these days, has still refused to give up his iPhones. White House officials say they can only hope he refrains from discussing classified information when he is on them.... Mr. Trump is supposed to swap out his two official phones every 30 days for new ones but rarely does, bristling at the inconvenience." The Chinese have a strategy for manipulating the content of Trump's calls.

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: That's so surprising, because even now Trump periodically complains that Jeff Sessions hasn't put Hillary Clinton in jail yet for using a private e-mail server, which had the potential to become compromised (even tho the FBI says it wasn't). Maybe Trump thinks only men have the right to be reckless & irresponsible. As the reporters point out, Trump also still "basks" in chants of "Lock Her Up!" at his rallies. ...

The so-called experts on Trump over at the New York Times wrote a long and boring article on my cellphone usage that is so incorrect I do not have time here to correct it. I only use Government Phones, and have only one seldom used government cell phone. Story is soooo wrong! -- Donald Trump, in a tweet this morning ...

... Kimberly Dozier of the Daily Beast: "'It's far from a secret that cellular phone calls bouncing off towers are interceptable,' said Todd Rosenblum, a former intelligence official whose past posts include Homeland Security deputy undersecretary of Intelligence. 'The fundamental issue is that the president is not willing to adhere to the most basic norms of telephony operational security.' He added: 'The Chinese and Russians can and do augment what they learn about his emotional state and priorities in his tweets with more specific data spilled during unprotected cellular phone calls.'" ...

... Jeet Heer of the New Republic: "The saving grace of the situation can be found in President Trump's paranoia and lack of policy of knowledge, both of which act as guardrails preventing him from blurting out important secrets. 'Administration officials said Mr. Trump's longtime paranoia about surveillance -- well before coming to the White House he believed his phone conversations were often being recorded -- gave them some comfort that he was not disclosing classified information on the calls,' The New York Times observes. 'They said they had further confidence he was not spilling secrets because he rarely digs into the details of the intelligence he is shown and is not well versed in the operational specifics of military or covert activities.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: That's ridiculous. Even though Trump can't understand or remember the details of policy briefings, he can likely remember the picture -- or his distorted version of the big picture -- and discuss it with his supposed friends. Since he loves to boast about his power & his plans, you know he's sharing them.

... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie Bonus. I think I heard about this when it happened two weeks ago, but I didn't know there was video! Rachel Maddow brought up the Charmin-on-his-shoe episode in connection with the China-is-listening story, so here ya go:

     ... I've had many an embarrassing moment in my life, but so far to the best of my knowledge, not this one.

Megyn Kelly (Mrs. McC: that's the byline, & I'm going with it) of the Hill: "President Trump said in an early morning tweet on Thursday that he is 'bringing out the military' to secure the border with Mexico, calling it a 'National Emergency.' 'Brandon Judd of the National Border Patrol Council is right when he says on @foxandfriends that the Democrat inspired laws make it tough for us to stop people at the Border,' Trump tweeted. 'MUST BE CHANDED, but I am bringing out the military for this National Emergency. They will be stopped!'" Mrs. McC: Does anyone know what "CHANDED" means? "Changed" or "challenged"?

Matt Phillips of the New York Times: "The stock market stumbled yet again on Wednesday, as the benchmark Standard & Poor's 500-stock index shed more than 3 percent despite solid earnings reports from companies like Boeing and Altria. Declines in the tech sector generated significant pressure.... Stocks have fallen for 13 of the past 15 trading days, including a 3.3 percent drop on Oct. 10 that was the market's worst fall in eight months. The S.&P. 500 is now down more than 0.6 percent for the year." ...

... Damian Paletta & Danielle Paquette of the Washington Post: "U.S. stock markets fell sharply Wednesday, erasing all gains for the year and muddying one of President Trump's favorite talking points two weeks before the midterm elections.... The financial swoon threatens to undermine a market rise for which Trump has frequently claimed credit and to highlight controversial aspects of Trump's agenda, including tariffs many companies are blaming for their struggles and a tax cut that polls suggest the public views as inadequately helpful for the middle class.... 'I have created such an incredible economy,' Trump said in Montana last week. 'I have created so many jobs.'... In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, he falsely denied imposing any tariffs on imports, even though he has implemented numerous tariffs against a range of countries this year.... Trump has also promised a 10 percent middle-class tax cut, a proposal that caught his aides by surprise and that lawmakers said was exceedingly unlikely in the near future.... Trump has increasingly looked to shift focus away from economic indicators he once touted and toward immigration and other issues -- and assign blame elsewhere for any economic setbacks. He has pummeled the Federal Reserve...." ...

... Arthur Delaney of the Huffington Post: "... Donald Trump struggled mightily Tuesday to explain a new tax cut proposal he first mentioned in an offhand remark last week. The president said in an interview with Wall Street Journal reporters that he'd been working on the proposal 'for a long time' with Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas), the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.... 'I would have put it into the original bill,' Trump said, referring to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which he signed into law last December. 'But we couldn't have done it originally because we ― you know, we've become ― I mean, we're doing really well. The numbers are really good.'... Finally, Trump gave up. 'In fact, if you call Kevin Hassett, let him tell you, because I was going over it,' the president said, referring to his top economic adviser." Hassett told reporters to go to the press office. "The press office has not provided any additional information. It's almost as if there is no proposal at all.... 'The thing that's amazing to me is this keeps happening and all the policy reporters in town kind of take it seriously,' [said Howard Gleckman of the Tax Policy Center], pointing out that Trump has previously made slippery promises about taxes, immigration plans and health care." Thanks to MAG for the link.

Jordan Weissman of Slate: "... now that we are approaching the final days of the midterm races, [Donald Trump's] flights of fabulism seem to be reaching bizarre new altitudes. For instance: [in a tweet Wednesday, Trump claimed,] 'Republicans will totally protect people with Pre-Existing Conditions, Democrats will not! Vote Republican.' This is the sort of night is day, black is white, opposite-day variety of lie that Trump sometimes resorts to when he is desperate or frustrated.... Republicans spent much of 2017 attempting to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which bans insurers from discriminating against patients with pre-existing conditions. Democrats fought to protect it. Meanwhile, the White House has backed a federal lawsuit in Texas that seeks to strike down all of Obamacare, including its pre-existing condition rules, as unconstitutional. To say Democrats 'will not' protect Americans with pre-existing conditions, while Republicans 'totally' will is a simply surreal and childlike argument.... Because everything Trump does comes garnished with a grotesque twist of irony, the president is pushing all of this out at precisely the moment his own administration is undercutting the pre-existing conditions protections that already exist.... This week, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issued a new rule that would give states the option to let residents use their Obamacare premium subsidies to buy skimpy, 'limited duration' health plans."

Ken Dilanian & Anna Schecter of NBC News: "Special Counsel Robert Mueller's office has obtained communications suggesting that a right-wing conspiracy theorist might have had advance knowledge that the emails of Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman had been stolen and handed to WikiLeaks, a source familiar with the investigation told NBC News. Mueller's team has spent months investigating whether the conspiracy theorist, Jerome Corsi, learned before the public did that WikiLeaks had obtained emails hacked by Russian intelligence officers -- and whether he passed information about the stolen emails to Donald Trump associate Roger Stone, multiple sources said. Mueller's investigators have reviewed messages to members of the Trump team in which Stone and Corsi seem to take credit for the release of Democratic emails, said a person with direct knowledge of the emails."

Saudi Story 4.0 (or so). Ben Hubbard of the New York Times: "Saudi Arabia's public prosecutor said on Thursday that the death of the Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi had been 'premeditated,' the latest change in the kingdom's official story of how he was killed. Saudi officials previously said that a 15-man team that had flown to Turkey to confront Mr. Khashoggi inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2, leading to a 'fistfight' with Mr. Khashoggi. When he screamed, one of the men put him in a chokehold, killing him accidentally, they had said. The Saudi prosecutor's new statement, which was announced through the kingdom's state-run news media, said the conclusion was based on new information received from a joint Saudi-Turkish investigation taking place in Turkey. The latest change is almost certain to cast further doubt on the kingdom's explanation of what happened to Mr. Khashoggi." ...

... John Hudson, et al., of the Washington Post: "CIA Director Gina Haspel listened to audio purportedly capturing the interrogation and killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, giving a key member of President Trump's Cabinet access to the evidence used by Turkey to accuse Saudi Arabia of premeditated murder. Haspel, who departed for a secret trip to Turkey on Monday, heard the audio during her visit, according to people familiar with her meetings.... A person familiar with the audio said it was 'compelling' and could put more pressure on the United States to hold Saudi Arabia accountable for the death of Khashoggi, a contributing columnist for The Washington Post. 'This puts the ball firmly in Washington's court,' said Bruce Riedel, a former CIA official and scholar at the Brookings Institution. 'Not only will there be more pressure now from the media but Congress will say, "Gina, we would love to have you come visit and you can tell us exactly what you heard."'" ...

... Kevin Sullivan & William Branigin of the Washington Post: "In his first public comments since the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi security agents in Istanbul three weeks ago, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said Wednesday that his country is doing all it can to complete an investigation and bring the perpetrators to justice. Addressing a gathering of more than 3,000 business leaders from around the world at the Future Investment Initiative, Saudi Arabia's signature economic forum, often called 'Davos in the Desert,' Mohammed acknowledged no responsibility in the case. He called the killing 'a heinous crime' that was 'really painful to all Saudis' and to all other people. He accused unidentified critics of trying to use the case to 'drive a wedge' between Saudi Arabia and Turkey and pledged that this would not happen as long as his father is king and he is the crown prince." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Ben Hubbard of the New York Times: "The image of the Saudi crown prince shaking the hand of a son of the slain journalist Jamal Khashoggi stoked outrage on social media on Wednesday as suspicions continue that the crown prince had a role in the killing.... The younger Mr. Khashoggi appears stone-faced when the crown prince shakes his hand.... Mr. Khashoggi's son Salah is a dual Saudi-American citizen and has been barred from leaving the kingdom, friends of the family say, presumably to keep his relatives who are already in the United States from speaking out about the killing." The caption on the photo of the two men that accompanies the story calls the meeting "staged."

Chris Opfer of Bloomberg: "The Justice Department [Wednesday] told the U.S. Supreme Court that businesses can discriminate against workers based on their gender identity without violating federal law. Solicitor General Noel Francisco told the high court that a civil rights law banning sex discrimination on the job doesn't cover transgender bias. That approach already has created a rift within the Trump administration, contradicting the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's view of the law it's tasked with enforcing. A Michigan funeral home wants the high court to overturn a U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit decision finding that the company violated federal workplace discrimination law when it fired Aimee Stephens, a transgender worker. The EEOC successfully sued on behalf of Stephens in that case, but the Justice Department has the sole authority to represent the government before the Supreme Court. The DOJ told the high court that the Sixth Circuit got the case wrong.... The Supreme Court is expected to decide in the coming months whether to take up the case. It's also been asked to consider two other cases testing whether sexual orientation bias is a form of sex discrimination banned under the existing law."

Election 2018

See also stories linked above related to Donald Trump's lies about tariffs, fake middle-class tax cuts & pre-existing conditions.

Jacqueline Alemany of the Washington Post: "Republicans are starting to point to evidence -- and some fresh numbers -- that their chances of retaining the House majority when voters go the polls in 13 days may have slightly improved. And even some Democrats agree.... Most of the battleground House races are being fought on Republican turf (63 out of 69 seats, according to a new Washington Post-Schar School poll). That means that Democrats have a built-in edge that makes it easier to capture the net 23 seats needed to regain House control. But there's decent evidence those House races remain tight or could be tightening. That's not to say Democrats aren't still favored to take over the House -- by polls, history and sky-high enthusiasm to vote against President Trump." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Florida. David Smiley & Joey Flechas of the Miami Herald: "Sequels rarely live up to the original. But in their second and final meeting before the Nov. 6 election for Florida governor, Ron DeSantis and Andrew Gillum delivered a bare-knuckle brawl of a debate so heated that a racial slur was spelled out letter by letter on live television. DeSantis, a Trump-endorsed former congressman, painted his opponent as a corrupt on-the-take politician. Gillum, the unapologetically liberal mayor of Tallahassee, cast DeSantis as a vapid extremist who encourages racism."

Georgia. Amy Gardner of the Washington Post: "A federal judge on Wednesday ordered Georgia election officials to stop summarily tossing absentee ballots because of mismatched signatures, delivering a crucial win to voting-rights advocates -- and to Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams -- less than two weeks before Election Day. The ruling resulted from two lawsuits filed earlier this month after election officials in a single Atlanta suburb, Gwinnett County, rejected hundreds of absentee ballots with signature discrepancies, missing addresses or incorrect birth years.... U.S. District Judge Leigh Martin May ... ordered Secretary of State Brian Kemp to instruct all local election officials to stop rejecting absentee ballots over the mismatched signatures. Instead, such ballots will be marked 'provisional,' and the voter will be given the right to appeal the decision or confirm his or her identity. Kemp and the Gwinnett County election board were named as defendants in the suit."

Montana. Eli Rosenberg of the Washington Post: "The Republican National Committee sent out a mailer in a key state in the battle for the Senate in the upcoming midterm elections that erroneously informed voters about how to vote absentee. The mailer told voters in Montana, where incumbent Sen. Jon Tester (D) is engaged in a competitive fight against Republican challenger Matt Rosendale, that absentee ballots could be postmarked until the day before the election as long as they were received within 10 days of Nov. 6. But election officials told local reporters that the state's rules stipulate that ballots must be received by 8 p.m. on Election Day, regardless of the postmark. The RNC said the error was a mistake it was working to fix."

Texas. Dallas Morning News Editors: "... we favor U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke for U.S. Senate. The pivotal issue before our country is public leadership, and here we believe O'Rourke's tone aligns with what is required now. This inclusive and hopeful tone, along with O'Rourke's approach of starting with shared principles and working toward solutions, offset any policy differences we have with him. Leadership is more than policy, and whether we are addressing the very real challenges before us now turns on our ability to find points of agreement.In this respect, O'Rourke is the stronger candidate. In conducting his campaign, he has displayed a demeanor that offers respect for each person and a humbleness that will allow him to open the door to working with those who hold political views different from his." Mrs. McC: The editorial board of the Morning News is super-conservative: "On economic policy, for example, we supported the president's tax cuts that Cruz voted for. And we stand with Cruz in looking to remove federal regulations that stifle job creation."


Adam Goldman & Ali Winston
of the New York Times: "The F.B.I. arrested the leader of a violent California neo-Nazi gang on a federal conspiracy charge after he fled the country earlier this month. Robert Rundo, 28, of Huntington Beach, Calif., is being held at the federal jail in downtown Los Angeles. He was charged in a criminal complaint that was unsealed Tuesday. Mr. Rundo apparently crossed into Mexico two weeks ago from California and then made his way to Central America. He was later brought back to the United States, where he was arrested Sunday at Los Angeles International Airport, according to two people familiar with the case who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. He is the founder of the Rise Above Movement, a neo-Nazi gang based in Southern California whose members were involved in violent activity at protests throughout California in 2017. He and three other Californians associated with the group -- Robert Boman, 25, Tyler Laube, 22, and Aaron Eason, 38 -- were charged with inciting riots, according to court documents. Mr. Boman and Mr. Laube were arrested on Tuesday morning in Southern California. The F.B.I. said it was still searching for Mr. Eason."

Michelle Boorstein of the Washington Post: "Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring announced Wednesday that his office is running an 'ongoing investigation' into the state's two Catholic dioceses and whether there has been any sexual abuse and coverup. The announcement comes a day after D.C.'s top prosecutor made a similar announcement. The statement said the probe was launched in response to the Pennsylvania grand jury report released this summer, 'that documented decades of sexual abuse and coverup by Catholic clergy in Pennsylvania.' It also announced the creation of a hotline staffed by state police investigators and a website for reporting clergy abuse." (Also linked yesterday.)

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Brian Stelter of CNN: "Two years of pent-up bitterness and backbiting about Megyn Kelly have finally come to a head at NBC News. Her exit from the 9 a.m. hour of the 'Today' show appears to be imminent. Variety reported on Wednesday evening that Kelly and NBC News executives have had conversations about a new role for her. A person familiar with the matter confirmed that to CNN Business and said Kelly's show will be ending. Negotiations about the end date and other details are still underway, the person said. Kelly's offensive remarks about blackface Halloween costumes on Tuesday have raised more questions about her future at NBC.... Kelly started her show on Wednesday by apologizing for comments made the previous day. Her audience gave her a standing ovation, but disappointment inside NBC News runs deep and isn't likely to fade anytime soon. NBC News chair Andy Lack condemned her racially insensitive comments during a town hall meeting with staffers on Wednesday morning." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Ah, well, if she gets canned, Kelly will have time to make a nice Halloween costume. ...

... Ah, Looks as if She'll Stay at NBC. Brian Steinberg of Variety: "Megyn Kelly and NBC News have engaged in conversations about her taking a new role at the news division, according to a person who has spoken with the anchor, suggesting both sides have grown weary of the intense scrutiny being placed on her morning program, 'Megyn Kelly Today' and casting significant doubt on its future. Word of the shift comes after Kelly stirred outrage on Tuesday during a segment in which she questioned why it was wrong for people to don 'blackface' for Halloween costumes. The backlash contributed to [talent agency] CAA dropping Kelly as a client on Wednesday, according to an industry source (and first reported by the Hollywood Reporter). But the conversations about ending the 9 a.m. daytime show began before the controversy, the latest since the anchor joined NBC News in March of 2017." Mrs. McC: Maybe you can think of a job Kelly could handle at NBC. (And don't assume she can type or sort mail.) ...

... Update. Or Maybe Not. "Megyn Kelly Today" without Megyn Kelly. Joe Concha of the Hill: "Megyn Kelly will not be appearing on her NBC show on Thursday, two days after the host's controversial comments about blackface as a Halloween costume drew stinging criticism from inside the network, according to multiple reports. Two sources close to the situation tell The Hill that NBC and Kelly are working on an exit deal. The negotiations come less than two years after Kelly jumped from Fox News to NBC News in January 2017."

News Lede

Washington Post: "Typhoon Yutu's 180 mph winds overturned cars, knocked down hundreds of power poles and left an island of thousands without a medical center and another without an airport. Buildings were reduced to haphazard piles of tin and wood; if a structure wasn’t made of concrete, one resident said, it was probably wiped out by the mos powerful tropical cyclone to hit any part of the United States since 1935. Yutu spent roughly seven hours thrashing the small islands of Saipan and Tinian, the most populous part of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. territory, early Thursday morning local time. Residents of the islands north of Guam are accustomed to typhoons but quickly attested that this was the worst they'd seen. Yutu's gigantic eye enveloped much of Saipan and all of Tinian, leaving the islands 'mangled,' as one local official told The Washington Post. Rescue and relief operations have begun, but officials say their efforts are being hampered by dangerous weather and widespread destruction, which includes 'extensive damage to critical infrastructure,' according to an update Thursday from the governor's office. One woman on Saipan, who took shelter in an abandoned building that collapsed on her, died during the storm."

Tuesday
Oct232018

The Commentariat -- October 24, 2018

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

I will always remember where I was when the president responded to a mass internal assassination attempt with a powerful, stirring 'Ditto!' -- Joel Stein, in a tweet today ...

... Marcus Gilmar of Mashable: "As authorities investigated explosive devices sent to the home of Hillary Clinton, the office of Barack Obama, and the building that houses CNN's New York office..., Donald Trump incurred the wrath of Twitter for putting in the least possible effort condemning the threats by quote-tweeting Vice President Pence. Earlier in the day, Pence sent a tweet condemning the actions as 'cowardly' and 'despicable,' the kind of message you expect from a leader. Trump, then, decided the best he could do was a quote tweet of Pence with an added line that amounts to 'Yeah, what he said!'... Later on Wednesday afternoon, both First Lady Melania Trump and the president gave fuller statements on the incidents, though President Trump didn't mention any of the recipients by name." ...

... William Rashbaum of the New York Times: "Explosive devices were sent to former President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, as well as to CNN's offices in New York, sparking an intense investigation on Wednesday into whether a bomber is going after targets that have often been the subject of right-wing ire. The three devices were similar to one found Monday at the home of George Soros, the billionaire philanthropist and liberal donor who has come under fierce criticism from conservatives and conspiracy theorists. None of the devices harmed anyone. Law enforcement officials said they were investigating whether all the devices were sent by the same person or persons. Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Obama, Mr. Soros and CNN have all figured prominently in the pantheon of conservative political attacks -- many of which have been led by President Trump. He has often referred to major news organizations as 'the enemy of the people,' and has had a particular animus for CNN."

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Good for the Times for implicitly laying the blame on Trump. And think of that: the POTUS* is -- as we've said for a long time -- inciting violence against his political enemies. This is, needless to say, a first in modern American history. Investigators certainly will find the perp. ...

     ... Update: According to Pete Williams of MSNBC, the package sent to CNN was addressed to former CIA Director John Brennan at CNN's New York address. Also, the fake return address name on the devices was Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D), who has also received a suspicious package at her Sunrise, Florida office, which may or may not be a similar device. ...

     ... Update 2: MSNBC is reporting that a bomb always was sent to former AG Eric Holder, but it was intercepted before it got to him.

     ... Update 2a: The device sent to Wasserman Schultz was actually one meant for Holder. The address for Holder was wrong, & the perp had made Wasserman Schultz's address the return address.

     ... Update 3: CNN is reporting that Rep. Maxine Waters (D) also received a suspicious package. As you know, Trump often targets Waters. Mrs. McC: Doesn't seem like a coincidence to me. ...

... Tucker Higgins of CNBC: "The U.S. Secret Service said Wednesday that reports of a suspicious package addressed to the White House are 'incorrect.'" ...

... Josh Margolin, et al., of ABC News: "Explosive devices addressed to Hillary Clinton's home and the house of former President Barack Obama were intercepted, and the Time Warner Center that is home to CNN in New York City was evacuated after a suspicious package was sent there, officials said." ...

... Democrats Did It. Kelly Weill & Will Sommer of the Daily Beast: "Minutes after news broke of 'potential explosive devices' being mailed to the homes of former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, along with CNN's New York City studio, the dark corners of the conservative Internet were declaring it a plot to gin up empathy for Democrats. Cries that the bomb threats was merely a 'false flag' operation were evident on Twitter and pro-Trump forums. Many of the personalities pushing the claim were fringe types. But not all of them. Popular talk radio host Rush Limbaugh hinted that the attempted bombings were set-up by Democrats, saying they would serve a political 'purpose.' 'It's happening in October,' Limbaugh said. 'There's a reason for this.'"

Kevin Sullivan & William Branigin of the Washington Post: "In his first public comments since the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi security agents in Istanbul three weeks ago, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said Wednesday that his country is doing all it can to complete an investigation and bring the perpetrators to justice. Addressing a gathering of more than 3,000 business leaders from around the world at the Future Investment Initiative, Saudi Arabia's signature economic forum, often called 'Davos in the Desert,' Mohammed acknowledged no responsibility in the case. He called the killing 'a heinous crime' that was 'really painful to all Saudis' and to all other people. He accused unidentified critics of trying to use the case to 'drive wedge' between Saudi Arabia and Turkey and pledged that this would not happen as long as his father is king and he is the crown prince."

Jacqueline Alemany of the Washington Post: "Republicans are starting to point to evidence -- and some fresh numbers -- that their chances of retaining the House majority when voters go the polls in 13 days may have slightly improved. And even some Democrats agree.... Most of the battleground House races are being fought on Republican turf (63 out of 69 seats, according to a new Washington Post-Schar School poll). That means that Democrats have a built-in edge that makes it easier to capture the net 23 seats needed to regain House control. But there's decent evidence those House races remain tight or could be tightening. That's not to say Democrats aren't still favored to take over the House -- by polls, history and sky-high enthusiasm to vote against President Trump."

Michelle Boorstein of the Washington Post: "Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring announced Wednesday that his office is running an 'ongoing investigation' into the state's two Catholic dioceses and whether there has been any sexual abuse and coverup. The announcement comes a day after D.C.'s top prosecutor made a similar announcement. The statement said the probe was launched in response to the Pennsylvania grand jury report released this summer, 'that documented decades of sexual abuse and coverup by Catholic clergy in Pennsylvania.' It also announced the creation of a hotline staffed by state police investigators and a website for reporting clergy abuse."

*****

Mark Landler & Edward Wong of the New York Times: "President Trump on Tuesday condemned Saudi Arabia's account of the killing of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi as 'the worst cover-up ever,' and his administration warned for the first time that it would impose human rights sanctions on those who took part in the plot. Mr. Trump's latest criticism, and the threat of sanctions delivered by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, highlighted the mounting pressure on the White House after Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan described the killing of Mr. Khashoggi in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul as a premeditated and 'savage' murder. Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Mr. Trump said, 'They had a very bad original concept, it was carried out poorly, and the cover-up was one of the worst in the history of cover-ups.' Mr. Pompeo said the United States will revoke visas from and is considering imposing economic sanctions on the Saudis it had identified as being involved in the operation. But he did not name the Saudis to whom the punishments would apply, and he left open the possibility that people at the very top level of the Saudi royal court who might have ordered the killing could remain untouched. The chief State Department spokeswoman said later that 21 Saudi suspects would have their visas revoked or be barred from getting a visa to the United States. The United States would take action under the Global Magnitsky Act...." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: That's funny, because on Saturday, Trump said the very same nonsensical cover story was "credible." The NYT reporters don't bother to note that Trump's changing "assessment" is just as pathetic as the Saudis'. As for Pompeo's so-called sanctions, how tough is it exactly to revoke the visas of men who will probably be spending a few years in a Saudi jail and to impose economic sanctions on police functionaries who probably have very little money? These measures are an insult to Jamal Khashoggi's loved ones. ...

... MBS Gets a Standing O. Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "Saudi Arabia's crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, received a standing ovation as he made an unannounced appearance at a global investment conference here on Tuesday, further clouding an event that has been thrown into disarray after the killing of a dissident Saudi journalist. The crown prince, who is suspected of playing a role in the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, appeared just ahead of a late afternoon presentation about technology but did not give any remarks. His presence came as American business executives attending the conference tried to keep a low profile and Saudi business leaders attempted to distance themselves from Mr. Khashoggi's murder." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Just in case you thought global investors had an ounce of decency. ...

... Josh Lederman of NBC News: "The 15-man team sent by Saudi intelligence to Istanbul planned to hold Jamal Khashoggi against his will for up to two days in a safe house in Turkey while persuading him to return to his home country, Saudi officials said, adding another element to the kingdom's evolving explanation about the journalist's killing. Although Saudi Arabia has acknowledged that its operatives killed Khashoggi, it has maintained that the goal was not to kill him but to bring him back to Saudi Arabia, and that the exfiltration turned violent when Khashoggi resisted, leading to a fatal fistfight or strangulation. Turkish authorities have steadfastly disputed that account, with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan using a major speech Tuesday to say Turkey believes Khashoggi's murder was 'premeditated.' 'We have strong signs that this murder did not stem from a momentary incident, but it is rather a planned operation,' Erdogan said in Turkish." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Isn't it odd to confuse a "fistfight" with a "strangulation"? Obviously, one doesn't strangle a person with his "fists" but with open hands. ...

... Alex Crawford of Sky News: "Body parts belonging to murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi have been found, according to two Sky sources. The sources have told Sky News the writer had been 'cut up' and his face 'disfigured'. One source also suggested Mr Khashoggi's remains were discovered in the garden of the Saudi consul general's home - situated around 500 metres away from the consulate. It contradicts the explanation being made by Saudi officials that the body was rolled up in a carpet and handed to a local collaborator who was tasked with disposing of the evidence." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)


Linda Qiu of the New York Times: "There is no evidence that 'unknown Middle Easterners' have infiltrated the migrant caravan heading toward the United States' southern border. Reporters with The New York Times and other news media outlets traveling with the caravan say they have not seen any Middle Easterners in the group. No government agency has confirmed Mr. Trump's claim.... Nowhere in the White House's newly released 25-page counterterrorism policy or in testimony this month by Homeland Security Department and National Counterterrorism Center officials was the threat of terrorists infiltrating the nation's southern border raised.... 'We do not see any evidence that ISIS or other Sunni terrorist groups are trying to infiltrate the southern U.S. border,' said an American counterterrorism official...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Julie Davis of the New York Times goes in a vain search for some evidence to back up Trump's claim that Middle Easterners had joined the largely-Honduran caravan. Trump administration departments were not helpful. Trump blew up at Jonathan Karl of ABC News when Karl asked him directly about evidence. Finally, "Mr. Trump, questioned by reporters in the Oval Office about his assertions about the caravan, says, 'There's no proof of anything, but there very well could be' Middle Easterners who have joined the group. Minutes later, Tyler Q. Houlton, the spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, tweeted, 'Citizens of countries outside Central America, including countries in the Middle East, Africa, South Asia, and elsewhere are currently traveling through Mexico toward the U.S.'" Okay then. ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: There "could be"? There could be gorillas & intergalactic aliens, too. War of the Worlds, people. I'm terrified! More under "Election 2018" below. ...

Who Knew that President Dumbo Was an Epistemological Nihilist: "There's No Proof of Anything":

... Trump Warns of Terror Penguins:

... Alyza Sebenius of Bloomberg: "Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc. haven't detected Chinese meddling in the 2018 elections, company officials said, casting doubt on claims by ... Donald Trump that the Asian nation is trying to interfere. The social media giants have reported online disinformation campaigns ahead of the Nov. 6 elections that appear to originate from Russia and Iran. But press representatives for both companies, who spoke on condition they not be identified by name, said they haven't found evidence so far of such activity from China. Facebook and Twitter are the latest in a string of tech companies that have made findings undercutting Trump's claim. Last week, top cybersecurity firms -- FireEye Inc., Symantec Corp., and Crowdstrike Inc. -- said that, in working to help safeguard the November elections, they haven't seen evidence of digital interference by China." ...

... Trump Is Getting Worse. Amber Phillips of the Washington Post: We "compared Trump's Monday night speech in Texas to one he made as a presidential candidate and found that what Trump is saying in the past few weeks makes some of his 2016 rhetoric look fairly tame. Whereas Trump in 2016 allowed for some nuance that, say, 'some' immigrants in the country illegally might be good people, in 2018, he routinely describes cities 'overrun' with violent, illegal immigrant gangs. In 2016, he focused plenty on murders allegedly committed at the hands of immigrants in the country illegally, but now, he seems to revel in describing the violence committed at the hands of immigrants in the country illegally. Whereas in 2016, the Washington establishment was to blame for all this, in 2018, it's the Democrats." Phillips provides examples: "They carve you up with a knife" is a nice one. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: It seems to me that the actual carving of bodies in the news is the work of Donald & Jared's buddy Mohammmed bin Salman. ...

... William Saletan of Slate: "Trump has been testing the GOP's tolerance for demagoguery that explicitly promotes brutality. And so far, Republicans seem willing to go along." Saletan puts Republican "leaders"' responses into several categories: 1. No comment, 2. It's not news, 3. Nobody got hurt this time, 4. It's fun, 5. It's just politically incorrect, 6. It shows strength. "A day after Trump celebrated [Greg] Gianforte's [violent physical] assault on [Guardian reporter Ben] Jacobs, [who asked Gianforte about his position on health care,] a Republican official in Montana called in to a radio show to say she would have gone further. 'If that kid had done to me what he did to Greg, I would have shot him,' she said. Don';t pretend it can't happen here. It's happening." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: So in the view of this official, a reporter should be shot for asking a political candidate -- right before an election -- his position on a topic of interest to most Americans and one on which he would be, if elected, in a position to decide. If there's anything worse than murdering a dissident opinion writer in cold blood, shooting a reporter for asking a question would be it. ...

... His Subjects Hop to the Tune the Mad King Plays. Philip Rucker & Ashley Parker of the Washington Post: "The great election-eve middle-class tax cut began not as a factual proposal, but as a false promise. When President Trump abruptly told reporters over the weekend that middle-income Americans would receive a 10 percent tax cut before the midterm elections, neither officials on Capitol Hill nor in his administration knew anything about such a tax cut. The White House released no substantive information. And although cutting taxes requires legislation, Congress is not scheduled to be back in session until after the Nov. 6 elections. Yet Washington's bureaucratic machinery whirred into action nonetheless -- working to produce a policy that could be seen as supporting Trump's whim.... The mystery tax cut is only the latest instance of the federal government scrambling to reverse-engineer policies to meet Trump's sudden public promises -- or to search for evidence buttressing his conspiracy theories and falsehoods." ...

... Okay, We're All Dancing. Elliot Hannon of Slate: "Early on [in his presidency, [Donald Trump] recognized the positive feedback loop of saying unthinkably dumb things out loud. Doing so set off a frenzied chain reaction of analysis, reporting, and speculation about what was meant by whatever came out of his mouth that didn't make any sense at all.... And it's not that Trump is dumb himself that irks, although he very much is; it's how baldly dumb the things he says are, all the time.... The lying grates, but how poorly crafted and executed the lies are, how telegraphed they are in his own interest, and how unmoored from any semblance of reality they are, makes them particularly crushing."

Ted Kemp & Joanna Tan of CNBC: "... Donald Trump directly accused Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell of endangering the U.S. economy by raising interest rates, according to The Wall Street Journal. '"I'm just saying this: I'm very unhappy with the Fed because Obama had zero interest rates,' Trump told the Journal on Tuesday. 'Every time we do something great, he raises the interest rates.' The president said Powell 'almost looks like he's happy raising interest rates,' but declined to elaborate, according to the Journal. Trump acknowledged that the Fed is traditionally independent of political influence, the Journal reported, but he still pressed his attacks and appeared to view the United States' current economic performance as a competition between himself and President Barack Obama." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Here's what Prof. Trumpity-Doo-Dah understands about macroeconomics: __________. ...

... Matt Phillips of the New York Times: "Stocks declined in early trading on Wall Street on Tuesday, as the American industrial firms Caterpillar and 3M reported earnings that failed to ease investors' growing concerns about China's slowing economy and growing trade tensions. The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index was down more than 1.5 percent late Tuesday morning in New York. Stock markets in China, Japan and Germany -- some of the countries most heavily exposed to a slowdown in global trade -- all dropped earlier." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Update. Patti Domm of CNBC: "By late afternoon, the Dow reversed much of a more-than-500-point loss...."

We're in a hell of a mess in every direction.... Respect for government, respect for the Supreme Court, respect for the president, it's all gone. Even respect for the Federal Reserve.... How can you run a democracy when nobody believes in the leadership of the country? -- Former Fed Chair Paul Volcker to Andrew Sorkin of the New York Times

Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post: "U.S. Cyber Command has begun targeting Russian operatives, warning them that the military is tracking their activities in an attempt to deter them from disrupting the fast-approaching midterm elections, according to defense officials. Begun in recent days, the operation is the first under a new presidential order easing restrictions on offensive cyberspace actions against foreign networks and represents Cyber Command's initial foray into safeguarding U.S. elections, officials said. The news comes as President Trump's national security adviser, John Bolton, warned officials in Moscow this week that he considered Russian interference in the American election process 'intolerable.'"

"I Don't Know Much about KKK Art, But I Know What I Like." Lisa Rein of the Washington Post: "A senior official at the Department of Veterans Affairs said he removed a portrait of the Ku Klux Klan's first grand wizard from his Washington, D.C., office after offended employees began signing a petition to present to VA Secretary Robert Wilkie. David J. Thomas Sr. is deputy executive director of VA's Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization, which certifies veteran-owned businesses seeking government contracts. His senior staff is mostly African American. Thomas said he took down the painting Monday after a Washington Post reporter explained that its subject, Nathan Bedford Forrest, was a Confederate general and slave trader who became the KKK's first figurehead in 1868. He said he was unaware of Forrest's affiliation with the hate group, which formed after the Civil War to maintain white control over newly freed blacks through violence and intimidation. A basic Google search of Forrest's name returns various biographies detailing his role in the Confederacy and the white-supremacist strains of its aftermath. 'It was just a beautiful print that I had purchased, and I thought it was very nice,' Thomas said. He said he knew of Forrest only 'as a Southern general in the Civil War' and kept the portrait in his basement before decorating a new and larger office at VA's administrative headquarters a few months ago. Thomas, who has worked at VA since 2013, is a civil servant employed by the federal government -- not a political appointee posted there by President Trump..." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Let's assume you didn't know Bedford was a KKK founder. Still, why the hell would you hang a "beautiful print" of "a Southern general in the Civil War" in your office, especially when most of your staff are African-Americans? Seems like an intimidation tactic to me. Put that "very nice" print back in your basement, you dimwitted honky. And apologize.

Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "To a far greater degree than its predecessors, the Trump administration has sought to bypass adverse lower-court rulings on some of its signature issues by seeking extraordinary relief from a refortified conservative Supreme Court. Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Solicitor General Noel J. Francisco have repeatedly gone outside the usual appellate process to get issues such as the travel ban, immigration and greater authority for top officials before the justices. They were rewarded Monday night when the court, in an unsigned opinion, put a hold on a planned deposition of Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross. Ross had been ordered to submit to questioning because of shifting versions he has given about why he wanted to add a question to the 2020 Census regarding a respondent's citizenship."

Robert Barnes: "Retired Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who became the first female justice in 1981 and then one of the court's most influential members, announced Tuesday that she suffers from dementia and is 'no longer able to participate in public life.' In a letter released by her family, O'Connor, 88, said she wanted to 'be open about these changes, and while I am still able, share some personal thoughts.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Election 2018

Lachlan Markay, et al., of the Daily Beast: "Donald Trump and his political allies have embarked on an aggressive, end-of-the-campaign effort to drum up fear among voters about a caravan of poor migrants several thousand miles from the U.S.-Mexico border. Much of it is mistruths and embellishments, but Trumpland could care less. 'It doesn't matter if it's 100 percent accurate,' a senior Trump administration official told The Daily Beast. 'This is the play.' Over the past few days, Trump has issued cryptic warnings about the southern border being overrun. His vice president has amplified baseless accusations that terrorists may have infiltrated the group of -- largely -- Honduran asylum seekers. And conservative media have provided 'round-the-clock coverage of what they depict as a mob gaining in size and steam. Stoking immigration fears is a tried and true political winner for the Republican Party." ...

... James Poniewozik, the New York Times' TV critic, on how Fox "News" latched onto fear of ISIS & immigrants as a 2014 vote-getter, how Donald Trump picked up on the trend then & how both are going back to the same playbook this election season. Poniewozik's analysis of Trump's Twitter "focus-group" method is interesting. Remember, "It doesn't matter if it's 100 percent accurate"! Or, you know, even 10%.

Connecticut. Max Reiss of NBC Connecticut: "In a grainy video recorded over the summer at a campaign event, Bob Stefanowski, the Republican candidate for governor, shared some of his thoughts on childhood immunization laws.... [A] member of the audience ... asked, 'Do you think the state should dictate [immunizations] or should local [Boards of Education] handle that?' Stefanowski responded by saying, 'I think it depends on the vaccination. We shouldn't be dumping a lot of drugs into kids for no reason.' Connecticut mandates that students receive certain vaccinations at different points in their education."

Florida. Ali Vitali & Adam Edelman of NBC News: "A racist robocall that refers to Andrew Gillum as a 'negro' and a 'monkey' is making the rounds in Florida, prompting a furious response from the Democratic gubernatorial candidate's campaign. Florida voters who receive the call -- audio of which was obtained by NBC News -- hear a man impersonating the African-American politician.... A spokesperson for [Gillum's GOP opponent Ron] DeSantis said the campaign had 'absolutely nothing to do with' the robocall 'and joins those in condemning it.'" Mrs. McC: I won't repeat the text of the robocall, but you can read it on the linked page.

Georgia. Thanks, New York Times. Ed Kilgore: "I Remember Stacey Abrams's 1992 'Flag-Burning' Incident. It Was a Small, Peaceful Protest [against the inclusion of the Confederate flag on the state flag].... [A minor 1992 protest] would be a forgotten footnote to the long story of social change in the Deep South had not one of those protesters at the Georgia Capitol been Stacey Abrams.... Someone dug up a 1992 article from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that showed Abrams among the flag-burners, and posted it on Facebook. The New York Times wrote it all up, omitting most of the context.... The protests in which Abrams participated were righteous then and now, and posed no threat to public safety or order.... Abrams's underlying position on the flag is now, of course, accepted by everyone other than hard-core neo-Confederates." Mrs. McC: So Abrams has been cool for decades. Kudos. ...

... Jamil Smith of Rolling Stone: Secretary of State & GOP goobernatorial nominee Brian Kemp [R] is upset that Georgians are exercising their right to vote." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Nevada. Just to remind you what a real campaign speech sounds like:


William Rashbaum
of the New York Times: "Federal authorities believe that an explosive device found Monday in a mailbox at the home of George Soros, the billionaire philanthropist who has been a focus of right-wing vitriol and conspiracy theorists, was left there by someone and was not delivered by the Postal Service, several law enforcement officials said Tuesday. Mr. Soros]s home is in a suburb of New York City. The device was constructed from a length of pipe about six inches long filled with explosive powder, and it was 'proactively detonated' by bomb squad technicians, according to one of the officials, all of whom were briefed on the investigation.... Mr. Soros, who made his fortune in finance and is now a full-time philanthropist and political activist, is often a subject of the ire of right-wing groups. In recent days, some have falsely speculated that he funded a caravan of migrants moving north in Mexico.... His activism has made him a villain to conservative groups and the target of anti-Semitic smears. Roseanne Barr called him a Nazi in an infamous tweetstorm." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: One would think that in the neighborhood of the rich & famous, there would be CCTV cameras trained on the roads.

We Are Not Surprised. Talal Ansari of BuzzFeed News: "The wife of Richard Spencer, the white nationalist leader, has accused him of being 'physically, emotionally, verbally and financially abusive' throughout their marriage, according to divorce filings in Flathead County District Court in Montana. Nina Koupriianova, who married Spencer in August 2010 and has two young children with him, alleges that Spencer physically abused her, including instances where she was 'being hit, being grabbed, being dragged around by her hair, being held down in a manner causing bruising, and being prevented from calling for help.... Much of the abuse has occurred in the presence of the parties' children.'... Koupriianova said that Spencer’s favorite statement to her was, 'The only language women understand is violence.' He also allegedly told her once, 'I'm famous, and you are not! I'm important, and you are not!'" Mrs. McC: This is the same "argument" Trump uses to belittle reporters: "I'm president, and you're not" (here and here).

Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha Ha. Mrs. McCrabbie: Maybe you forgot about Megyn Kelly because she has a show on NBC that nobody watches. Well, somebody watches it because Opheli Lawler of New York (and some others) noticed that Kelly (and three other white people on her show) decided that it was okay for white kids to dress up in blackface for Halloween, "as long as you were dressing like a character." Like a "character" who'd been lynched, or what? Following a backlash, Kelly sent a note to colleagues apologizing for not being "more sensitive in this day and age." No doubt Megyn is looking forward to a "day and age" she doesn't have to be so "sensitive."

Beyond the Beltway

Sophie Weiner of Splinter: "... what appeared to be a vintage plane painted in Nazi insignia crashed onto the 101 freeway in Agoura Hills, a city in Los Angeles County.... The plane was decorated to resemble World War II craft flown by the Nazi Luftwaffe air force.... According to Jalopnik, the plane was identified as a North American T-6 Texan.... This isn't even the first time a plane like this has crashed on an American freeway in the last two years. In 2017, another small plane painted in a Luftwaffe design had to make an emergency landing on a freeway in Gwinnett County, Georgia. The pilot, Fred Meyer, told AJC at the time that the Nazi paint job was 'just for fun.'... But in a time when our president is slamming 'globalists' on TV while crypto-white nationalists keep emerging from his administration, it's a little harder to justify celebrating Nazi imagery as 'just for fun.'" Also according to Jalopnik, "The plane allegedly belonged to the Condor Squadron, a history group that flies old planes often in World War II-era liveries, and was dressed up to look like a WWII-era German Wermacht plane...." Mrs. McC: Nice metaphor, anyway.

Monday
Oct222018

The Commentariat -- October 23, 2018

Afternoon Update:

Linda Qiu of the New York Times: "There is no evidence that 'unknown Middle Easterners' have infiltrated the migrant caravan heading toward the United States' southern border. Reporters with The New York Times and other news media outlets traveling with the caravan say they have not seen any Middle Easterners in the group. No government agency has confirmed Mr. Trump's claim.... Nowhere in the White House's newly released 25-page counterterrorism policy or in testimony this month by Homeland Security Department and National Counterterrorism Center officials was the threat of terrorists infiltrating the nation's southern border raised.... 'We do not see any evidence that ISIS or other Sunni terrorist groups are trying to infiltrate the southern U.S. border,' said an American counterterrorism official...." ...

... Trump Is Getting Worse. Amber Phillips of the Washington Post: We "compared Trump's Monday night speech in Texas to one he made as a presidential candidate and found that what Trump is saying in the past few weeks makes some of his 2016 rhetoric look fairly tame. Whereas Trump in 2016 allowed for some nuance that, say, 'some' immigrants in the country illegally might be good people, in 2018, he routinely describes cities 'overrun' with violent, illegal immigrant gangs. In 2016, he focused plenty on murders allegedly committed at the hands of immigrants in the country illegally, but now, he seems to revel in describing the violence committed at the hands of immigrants in the country illegally. Whereas in 2016, the Washington establishment was to blame for all this, in 2018, it's the Democrats." Phillips provides examples: "They carve you up with a knife" is a nice one. ...

... AND speaking of actually carving people up with knives, let's check in with Mohammmed bin Salman, Donald & Jared's buddy:

MBS Gets a Standing O. Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "Saudi Arabia's crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, received a standing ovation as he made an unannounced appearance at a global investment conference here on Tuesday, further clouding an event that has been thrown into disarray after the killing of a dissident Saudi journalist. The crown prince, who is suspected of playing a role in the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, appeared just ahead of a late afternoon presentation about technology but did not give any remarks. His presence came as American business executives attending the conference tried to keep a low profile and Saudi business leaders attempted to distance themselves from Mr. Khashoggi's murder." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Just in case you thought global investors had an ounce of decency. ...

... Alex Crawford of Sky News: "Body parts belonging to murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi have been found, according to two Sky sources. The sources have told Sky News the writer had been 'cut up' and his face 'disfigured'. One source also suggested Mr Khashoggi's remains were discovered in the garden of the Saudi consul general's home - situated around 500 metres away from the consulate. It contradicts the explanation being made by Saudi officials that the body was rolled up in a carpet and handed to a local collaborator who was tasked with disposing of the evidence."

Matt Phillips of the New York Times: "Stocks declined in early trading on Wall Street on Tuesday, as the American industrial firms Caterpillar and 3M reported earnings that failed to ease investors' growing concerns about China's slowing economy and growing trade tensions. The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index was down more than 1.5 percent late Tuesday morning in New York. Stock markets in China, Japan and Germany -- some of the countries most heavily exposed to a slowdown in global trade -- all dropped earlier." ...

We're in a hell of a mess in every direction.... Respect for government, respect for the Supreme Court, respect for the president, it's all gone. Even respect for the Federal Reserve.... How can you run a democracy when nobody believes in the leadership of the country? -- Former Fed Chair Paul Volcker to Andrew Sorkin of the New York Times

Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "Retired Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who became the first female justice in 1981 and then one of the court's most influential members, announced Tuesday that she suffers from dementia and is 'no longer able to participate in public life.' In a letter released by her family, O'Connor, 88, said she wanted to 'be open about these changes, and while I am still able, share some personal thoughts.'"

Jamil Smith of Rolling Stone: Georgia Secretary of State & GOP goobernatorial nominee Brian Kemp is upset that Georgians are exercising their right to vote."

*****

National Emergy." Zachary Basu of Axios: "In a string of Monday morning tweets about the caravan of Honduran migrants currently in Mexico, President Trump stated the United States will begin cutting off foreign aid to Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. 'Sadly, it looks like Mexico's Police and Military are unable to stop the Caravan heading to the Southern Border of the United States. Criminals and unknown Middle Easterners are mixed in. I have alerted Border Patrol and Military that this is a National Emergy. Must change laws! ... Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador were not able to do the job of stopping people from leaving their country and coming illegally to the U.S. We will now begin cutting off, or substantially reducing, the massive foreign aid routinely given to them.'... Critics argue Trump's approach would over the long-term actually increase immigration from the three countries, which are struggling with high rates of poverty and violent crime. Incoming Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has suggested a U.S.-Mexico-Canada agreement to invest in Central America in order to address the root causes of immigration." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: As far as I know, this is the first time in history a POTUS* has declared a National Emergy. So I guess this makes the caravan of "criminals & unknown Middle Easterners" like, historic. ...

... Trump Baffles Caravaners. Karla Zabludovsky of BuzzFeed News: "... Donald Trump attempted to stoke new fears, tweeting that 'criminals and unknown Middle Easterners are mixed in.'... 'What?' Melvin Gómez, 32, exclaimed in English. 'Most of us come from Honduras. It's small, we all know each other. We would know.' The criminals 'must be the children, the women. The diapers must be the bombs,' said Irineo Mujica, director of Pueblo Sin Fronteras, the organization that coordinated a smaller caravan in April, during a press conference Monday.... The president's claim can be traced back to a statement earlier this month from Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales that has been twisted as it's made its way to Trump. Morales claimed that his country, unrelated to the caravan, has arrested and deported over 100 members of ISIS. That has been merged in the last week with right-wing coverage of the migrants' journey to produce headlines like '100 ISIS Terrorists Caught in Guatemala as Migrant Caravan of Military-Aged Males Marches to U.S.' (According to the head of Suchiate Civil Protection, only about third of the caravan is adult males -- the rest is made up of women and children.)" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Trump could just call up the CIA to find out if "criminals & unknown Middle Easterners" had actually infiltrated the caravan. But facts do not fit his objectives, so he shamelessly lies to the American people. One would think even Trumpbots would be angry when their leader lied to them to frighten them. But no. More on Trump's use of fearmongering & lies to drum up support linked under "Election 2018" below. ...

... Alternative Facts. Matt Shuham of TPM: "White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, following in President Donald Trump's footsteps, did her own conspiracy mongering about a caravan of asylum seekers and migrants traveling through Mexico toward the U.S. border Monday. Speaking to reporters at the White House, as quoted by CNN's Kaitlan Collins and CBS News' Mark Knoller, Sanders said the President 'absolutely' has evidence of 'unknown Middle Easterners' traveling with the caravan. She didn't respond to TPM's request to see the evidence.... Trump has provided no evidence for his claims, either." --s ...

... Paul Waldman in the Washington Post: "... we shouldn't be surprised if a few days before the midterm election, Trump does something dramatic -- like following through on his threat to send the military to the border -- to make sure that immigration dominates news coverage right before the election. It has already become clear that touting his accomplishments isn't getting the job of holding off a Democratic wave done.... So Trump ... falls back on what he always does: hate and fear. It might work, but the odds don't look good. By the way, if it fails and Democrats take the House, at least for the next two years he'll be able to say that Democrats really are stymieing his agenda [which is what he's claiming now, even tho Republicans control all three branches of government]." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Kareem Fahim of the Washington Post: "Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday that the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was a 'planned' and 'brutal' murder and called on Saudi Arabia to extradite 18 suspects to Turkey to face justice for the crime.... While Erdogan did not address the most explosive allegations that have surfaced during the investigation -- including that Khashoggi was dismembered after he was killed -- the president provided the most detailed timeline yet of the days and hours leading up the murder on Oct. 2, including allegations that a team of Saudi agents who were dispatched to Istanbul had carefully prepared for Khashoggi' s death. The Saudi team that planned the murder was first alerted, Erdogan said, after Khashoggi visited the consulate on Friday, Sept. 28.... Beginning three days later, on Oct. 1, teams of Saudi agents begin arriving in Istanbul, with one team visiting wooded areas in and around Istanbul, 'for reconnaissance,' to identify a possible place to dispose of a body, Erdogan said. After another team arrived at the Istanbul consulate, 'the hard disk on the consulate camera is removed,' he added." Mrs. McC: This is as far as the report goes, or went, as of 6:30 am ET. The Times story, linked next, has even less as of the same time. ...

... Richard Pérez-Peña of the New York Times: "President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, having promised to reveal the 'naked truth' of a Saudi plot to kill the journalist Jamal Khashoggi, said on Tuesday that a team including Saudi generals had flown in to carry out the mission.... Mr. Erdogan said that he would call King Salman of Saudi Arabia and ask that the case be adjudicated in Istanbul, not Riyadh or elsewhere in Saudi Arabia." ...

... David Jackson & Susan Page of USA Today: "... Donald Trump on Monday questioned the account Saudi officials have given him about the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi but said he still believed it was 'a plot gone awry.' In an exclusive interview with USA Today, he indicated he would oppose efforts to cease arms sales to the kingdom in response.... In characterizing the Khashoggi incident as a 'plot gone awry,' Trump indicated that he thought the journalist wasn't deliberately lured into the consulate to be murdered. Saudi officials last week said Khashoggi's death followed a 'brawl' inside the building, an explanation that drew skepticism from some on Capitol Hill.... Turkish officials have said Khashoggi's body was cut up with a bone saw. Asked about that detail as a possible indication of wrongdoing, Trump sounded incredulous. 'Do you know there was a bone saw?' he replied." ...

... Mark Landler & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin met with Saudi Arabia's crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, in Riyadh on Monday, discussing counterterrorism and economic ties amid growing questions about whether the prince had a role in the killing of a dissident journalist. A Treasury spokesman said the meeting was focused on combating terrorist financing and corralling Iran's influences in the region and that the two men discussed the investigation into the death of the journalist, Jamal Khashoggi.... The meeting, which had not been previously scheduled, came at the request of the Saudi government...." (This is an update to the story linked immediately below & yesterday.) ...

... Maggie Haberman: "Jared Kushner on Monday said the White House is still 'fact-finding' on the circumstances of the dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi's death, but he said it has its 'eyes wide open' as the investigations into how he died continue.... 'We're getting facts in from multiple places. Once those facts come in, the secretary of state will work with our national security team to help us determine what we want to believe.'... He made the remarks in his first televised interview since the 2016 election, conducted by the political activist Van Jones, at the 'Citizen by CNN' forum in Manhattan." Mrs. McC: "What we want to believe"??? (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... John Hudson, et al., of the Washington Post: "CIA Director Gina Haspel departed for Turkey on Monday amid a growing international uproar over Saudi Arabias explanation of the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, according to people familiar with the matter. The visit by the U.S. spy chief comes as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a speech planned for early Tuesday vows to reveal the full extent of what his aides are calling a Saudi-directed murder and attempted coverup. The arrival of the director suggests an effort by the U.S. intelligence community to assess the information the Turks have, including what Turkish officials have said is audio that captures the killing. Intelligence officials are increasingly skeptical of the Saudi account and have warned President Trump that the idea that rogue operators flew to Istanbul and killed Khashoggi without the knowledge or consent of Saudi leaders is dubious, a White House official said. On Monday, Trump told reporters that 'I am not satisfied with what I've heard' from Saudi Arabia and pledged to get to the bottom of what happened." ...

... Martin Chulov of the Guardian: "At about noon on Tuesday two regional leaders are due to make landmark addresses. In Riyadh, the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, will open an investment showpiece declaring the kingdom open for business. In Ankara, the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, is expected to make a speech that may well shut down the beleaguered kingdom. Such are the stakes when Erdoğan takes to a podium to discuss the death of the Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi that the region may not be the same when he's finished.... In some quarters of the royal court, a palpable sense of panic has taken hold. Erdoğan has the Saudis ... right where he wants [them].... Khaled al-Faisal, the governor of Mecca, returned after seeing Erdoğan and was really worried, one senior member of the royal family has revealed. 'He wasn't budging, he didn't want to listen to anything we said. Al-Faisal came back and told the King we have a crisis.'" --s ...

... Robin Wright of the New Yorker: "At 2:52 P.M., [Mustafa al]-Madani walked out of the consulate's back door in [Jamal] Khashoggi's clothes -- except for the shoes.... According to Turkish surveillance video, broadcast by CNN on Monday, Madani and an accomplice -- who had a hoodie over his head and was carrying a white plastic bag -- took a taxi to a crowded mosque and went into a public men's toilet. When they came out, Madani was back in his blue-and-white shirt, which presumably had been in the white plastic bag, and was still wearing his tennis shoes. Surveillance cameras then caught them tossing the bag, which likely contained Khashoggi's clothing at that point, into a dumpster. With that, the last trace of the Saudi dissident disappeared.... The idea of a rogue operation gone wrong ... no longer seems credible. Before Madani left the consulate in Khashoggi's clothes, he put on a false beard that resembled Khashoggi's facial hair. Like the bone saw that the team allegedly carried, a fake beard is a prop that they would presumably have needed to bring with them, especially given how fast the switch played out." ...

... Carlotta Gall of the New York Times: "In the continuing frenzy of media attention to the murder of Jamal Khashoggi before a much-anticipated statement by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkish media have published poignant photographs of Mr. Khashoggi and his fiancée in the last hours and days of his life. Mr. Khashoggi and Hatice Cengiz, who is Turkish, are seen holding hands as they visit the local marriage office and enter the building where they had bought an apartment that they were furnishing before he went to the appointment at the Saudi Consulate from which he never emerged. Ms. Cengiz has been provided with police protection.... Social media trolls have attacked Ms. Cengiz in Arabic and Turkish in recent days, questioning the extent of her relationship with Mr Khashoggi." ...

... Murder by Skype. Reuters: "... according to two intelligence sources..., Saud al-Qahtani, a top aide for Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman..., ran journalist Jamal Khashoggi's brutal killing at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul by giving orders over Skype.... According to one high-ranking Arab source with access to intelligence and links to members of Saudi Arabia's royal court, Qahtani ... began to hurl insults at Khashoggi over the phone. According to the Arab and Turkish sources, Khashoggi answered Qahtani's insults with his own.... A Turkish intelligence source relayed that at one point Qahtani told his men to dispose of Khashoggi. 'Bring me the head of the dog', the Turkish intelligence source says Qahtani instructed.... The Arab source and the Turkish intelligence source said the audio of the Skype call is now in the possession of Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan. The sources say he is refusing to release it to the Americans.... On Saturday, Saudi state media said King Salman had sacked Qahtani and four other officials over the killing carried out by a 15-man hit team." ...

... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Those of you old enough to remember the Iran-Contra scandal may find the name Khashoggi sounds familiar. That's because one of the central characters in the arms-for-hostages scheme was international arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi, who was the uncle of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. And, in the small-world department, Adnan's sister, the writer Samira Khashoggi, married billionaire Mohamed Al-Fayed. Their son Dodi Fayed had a romantic relationship with Britain's Princess Diana; the two of them died in a car crash in Paris. A short while after their deaths, I developed a conspiracy theory -- which I didn't believe, mind you -- that the crash was a cover for Diana to escape the constant hounding of paparazzi. In my imaginary scenario, Dodi & Diana are alive & well, & Diana is living secretly in the Middle East under the protection of Al-Fayed. Now, in light of the strange murder of Jamal Khashoggi, my nutty theory sounds a little less far-fetched (but it still is nutty). But at least it's a happier ending for an ill-starred princess.

Trump as Role Model. The Daily Beast: "A man arrested for allegedly groping a female passenger on a flight from Houston to New Mexico told police officers the president of the United States 'says it's OK to grab women by their private parts,' according to a criminal complaint filed Monday. The man, identified as Bruce Alexander, 49, is accused of groping a woman's breast when she was sleeping on the Southwest Airlines flight on Sunday." --s

Consider the Source. Karen Freifeld & Nathan Layne of Reuters: "Under an unusual arrangement, Paul Manafort's attorney has kept Donald Trump informed about the former campaign chairman's meetings with prosecutors investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. election and, according to Trump's lawyer, Manafort has not said anything damaging about the president.... [Rudy] Giuliani said the conversations were occurring under a so-called joint defense agreement, which allows lawyers who represent different clients to exchange information without violating attorney-client privilege. Legal experts said it was unusual for such an agreement to remain in effect after a person pleads guilty and agrees to cooperate with prosecutors as Manafort has done. Manafort is talking to Special Counsel Robert Mueller 'about a lot of things, none of which are incriminating with regard to the president,' Giuliani said in one of several conversations with Reuters this month. Giuliani said he was told by [Manafort attorney Kevin] Downing that Manafort had met with Mueller's team roughly a half dozen times.... Legal experts said Manafort's lawyer may be trying to remain on good terms with the Trump camp in the hopes that Manafort will ultimately receive a presidential pardon."

Everything Is Going Very Smoothly. Maggie Haberman & Katie Rogers of the New York Times: "An argument last February between the White House chief of staff, John F. Kelly, and Corey Lewandowski, an informal adviser to President Trump, turned into a physical altercation that required Secret Service intervention just outside the Oval Office, according to a half-dozen people familiar with the events. The episode, details of which have not been previously reported, is the latest illustration of the often chaotic atmosphere Mr. Trump is willing to tolerate in the White House as well as a reflection of the degree to which Mr. Kelly's temper can be provoked.... Mr. Kelly grabbed Mr. Lewandowski by the collar and tried to have him ejected from the West Wing.... Mr. Kelly, a retired four-star Marine Corps general, was widely hailed as the lone grown-up who could corral a staff full of bombastic and competing personalities when he was appointed in summer 2017. But Mr. Kelly has shown little inclination to curb his own instinct for confrontation, from scuffling with a Chinese official during a visit to Beijing last year to last week's profanity-laced shouting match with John R. Bolton, the national security adviser, after a meeting with the president."

Josh Hafner of USA Today: "An Air Force official admitted the branch's multiple purchases of coffee cups that break easily and cost $1,280 each 'is simply irresponsible,' vowing to pursue ways to fix the mugs instead of continually buying new ones. Buying and replacing the special mugs, which can reheat liquids aboard air refueling tankers in flight, has cost the Air Force $326,785 since 2016, Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson said in a letter. The letter, dated last Wednesday to Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, came after Grassley questioned 'yet another report of wasteful spending in the Department of Defense' in an earlier letter."

Joanne Freeman of The Atlantic: "The politics of outrage is fast becoming a political norm, each flare-up lowering the bar of acceptable rhetoric and producing an upswing in belligerent posturing. But Trump didn't invent this emotion-laden mode of political warfare ...; it has a long and storied history that predates even that notorious poisoner of the political realm, Newt Gingrich.... We often link such outrage with protest, but in truth, political power holders have long used anger, fear, and intimidation to preserve the status quo.... But bullying power holders often pay a price, fueling a backlash through the contagion of rage. It happened in the 1850s. And recent weeks have suggested much the same. Kavanaugh's howling outrage enraged women.... Trump's threats against the press have had a similar impact.... Republican outrage is enraging and empowering resistance. But ... resistance and violence aren't one and the same. Channeled properly and put to purpose, outrage can prove formative, inspiring civic engagement, political involvement, and organized protest, thereby leading to reform and change. And in a democratic politics, it is assertive, heartfelt, organized resistance -- not brute violence -- that best brings positive outcomes." --s

Election 2018

Ashley Parker, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump has settled on a strategy of fear -- laced with falsehoods and racially tinged rhetoric -- to help lift his party to victory in the coming midterms, part of a broader effort to energize Republican voters with two weeks left until the Nov. 6 elections. Trump's messaging -- on display in his regular campaign rallies, tweets and press statements -- largely avoids much talk of his achievements and instead offers an apocalyptic vision of the country, which he warns will only get worse if Democrats retake control of Congress.... The president believes his best contrast with Democrats is on immigration and is looking for a way to keep the issue in the news until the midterms, advisers said.... Over the past several weeks, the president has begun focusing on a 'Jobs Not Mobs' message -- portraying Democrats as 'too dangerous to govern,' a threat to Medicare and Social Security, supporters of voter fraud, and funders of caravans of migrants.... Unlike two years ago -- when some Republicans were hesitant to follow their nominee's lead in using divisive rhetoric -- Republicans are now more eagerly following the president's cues, including in their own campaign rhetoric and ads." ...

.... Alexander Burns & Astead Herndon of the New York Times: "President Trump on Monday sharply intensified a Republican campaign to frame the midterm elections as a battle over immigration and race, issuing a dark and factually baseless warning that 'unknown Middle Easterners' were marching toward the American border with Mexico. The unsubstantiated charge marked an escalation of Mr. Trump's efforts to stoke fears about foreigners and crime ahead of the Nov. 6 vote, as he did to great effect in the presidential race. Mr. Trump and other Republicans are insistently seeking to tie Democrats to unfettered immigration and violent crime, and in some instances this summer and fall they have attacked minority candidates in nakedly racial terms. Mr. Trump is now railing daily in speeches and on Twitter against the migrant caravan moving north through Central America.... The caravan has dominated conservative talk radio and Fox News, where there has also been loose speculation about a link to terrorism. The apparently groundless inclusion of 'unknown Middle Easterners' to the caravan echoes Mr. Trump's longstanding practice of amplifying fears about Islamic militants on the campaign trail. 'That is an assault on our country and in that caravan you have some very bad people and we can't let that happen to our country,' the president said at a rally in Houston on Monday night. Mr. Trump suggested without any proof that the opposition was involved in instigating the caravan. 'I think the Democrats had something to do with it,' he said." ...

... Daniel Dale of the Toronto Star: "Democrats will kick seniors off their health insurance. Democrats will end insurance protections for people with health problems. Democrats will destroy the Social Security retirement system. Democrats will give illegal immigrants free cars. Democrats will abolish America's borders. Democrats are behind the latest migrant caravan from Latin America. That caravan includes people from the Middle East. False, false, false, false, false, false, false.... Donald Trump made a brief attempt to campaign on his record of accomplishments but, as the November congressional elections approach, he has traded that shiny new positivity for the well-worn tactic that helped him win the presidency in 2016: a blizzard of fear-mongering and lies, many of them about darker-skinned foreigners." ...

... Caroline Orr of Shareblue: "Trump's authoritarian tendencies were on full display Monday night as he took the stage at a campaign event for GOP Sen. Ted Cruz, and proceeded to dive headfirst into an angry, unhinged, and at times terrifying rant riddled with lies, bigotry, and fearmongering at its most extreme. Using rhetoric straight from the dictator's playbook, Trump offered up an apocalyptic vision of America in which criminals are hiding around every corner, 'badpeople' are pouring over the border, and 'violent mobs' are taking over the streets. Furthermore, he warned, if Democrats take control of Congress in November, these fictional threats will 'destroy' the very fabric of the nation. The speech reflected the campaign strategy that Trump and the GOP have settled on in the final stretch leading up to midterms, which is one based on fear and fear alone. With few accomplishments to speak of, Republicans have apparently decided that if they can't motivate people to vote for them, they'll scare people into it, instead. Trump's rhetoric on Monday night embodied the GOP's fear-based campaign strategy, which itself mirrors tactics used by oppressive autocratic regimes, not usually democratic nations." ...

We're going to be putting in a 10% tax cut for middle income families next week. We've been working on it for a few months. It's brand new. -- Donald Trump, at the Cruz campaign rally, Monday

Fact check: No one knew about this until Saturday. And Congress is out until November, so they won't be 'putting it' anywhere. -- Christina Wilkie of CNBC, in a tweet Monday ...

But Beto O'Rourke will buy you a pony. And send you a monthly allowance for its feed & care. -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie ...

     ... Also too, Trump admitted during the speech he was a "nationalist," to which the Texas crowd responded, "You Ess Ay, You Ess Ay, You Ess Ay." Via Dominque Jackson of the Raw Story. ...

... AND It's Working. Dan Balz & Scott Clement of the Washington Post: "The contest for control of the House remains close and hard fought, according to a new Washington Post-Schar School poll of the most-contested districts in the country, with Democrats holding a statistically insignificant lead over Republicans. The latest survey shows only a marginal change in the race during October, with 50 percent currently supporting the Democratic candidate in their district and 47 percent backing the Republican. Candidates from the two parties collectively are running almost even in 48 contested congressional districts won by President Trump in 2016, while Democrats hold the advantage in 21 competitive districts won by Hillary Clinton. The Democrats' lead in those Clinton districts has narrowed a bit since the beginning of the month." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: This would be a good place to say, I guess, that Republican voters are the U.S.'s version of Chicken Little. They so easily succumb to sky-is-falling irrational fears that the most transparent lies drive them. The dimmest, most susceptible Chicken Littles are Second Amendment diehards; they are sure they needs guns, or arsenals, to protect them from the thundering hordes. Gun ownership, in most cases, isn't about safety; it's about cowardice and bullying. And the truth of course is that the chickens-and-bullies are much more dangerous to the U.S. than are a caravan of people "yearning to breathe free." ...

... Bad News. Adam Edelman of NBC News: "Republican-affiliated voters have outpaced Democratic-affiliated voters in early voting in seven closely watched states, according to data provided by TargetSmart and independently analyzed by the NBC News Data Analytics Lab. GOP-affiliated voters have surpassed Democratic-affiliated ones in early voting in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Montana, Tennessee and Texas, the data showed. Only in Nevada have Democratic-affiliated voters exceeded Republican-affiliated voters so far in early voting, according to the data.... [BUT] Republicans typically dominate early voting by absentee ballots, while Democrats tend to have the advantage with in-person early voting. So, for example, the entire early voting picture in Florida, which has yet to begin in-person voting, is incomplete."

Arkansas. Andrew DeMillo of TPM: "[F]our early voting sites in Garland County [Arkansas] were temporarily closed part of the morning after complaints that Susan Inman, the Democrat running for secretary of state, was not listed on the touchscreen ballot, County Election Commission Chairman Gene Haley said. Before the problem was discovered, 222 ballots without Inman's name had been cast. The sites reopened after Inman's name was added." --s

California. Rory Appleton of The Fresno Bee: "Elizabeth Heng, the Republican challenging Democrat Jim Costa in California's 16th Congressional District, appears to have violated several tax and election laws stemming from a Washington, D.C., property she claimed as her principal residence, a review of various public documents shows. Washington property records show Heng claimed a condominium as her principal residence despite living and actively campaigning in Fresno. She also collected rent on the property while receiving a tax credit meant for permanent residents and improperly registered to vote in California while technically claiming residency more than 3,000 miles away." --s

Nevada. Twelve family members of Adam Laxalt, the Republican candidate for governor of Nevada, write an op-ed denouncing his candidacy in the Reno Gazette Journal: "We are writing as members of the Laxalt family who have spent our lives in Nevada, and feel compelled to protect our family name from being leveraged and exploited by Adam Laxalt, the Republican candidate for governor.... But as this Election Day nears, we feel compelled to speak publicly about why we believe that Adam Laxalt is the wrong choice for Nevada's governorship." --s

Texas. Jeremy Wallace of the Houston Chronicle: "Thousands of people were already camped out at a key early voting location in Houston on Monday morning, hours before voting was even set to begin. Nearly 2,000 people stood in line outside of the Metropolitan Multi-Service Center on West Gray near River Oaks in a scene that looked more like a Black Friday shopping morning.... [Rep. Beto] O'Rourke was across the street firing up his supporters with a bullhorn.... O'Rourke has a half-dozen rallies planned all over the Houston area on Monday to start early voting. Those rallies come as U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz brings in ... Donald Trump for a rally to back his campaign at the 18,000-seat Toyota Center." The headline: "Shocking turnout for first day of early voting in Houston." ...

Beto O'Rourke greets early voters outside the Metropolitan Multi-Services Center on Monday, in Houston. Houston Chronicle photo.     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Hey, P.D., have you noticed that Beto looks like a Kennedy? Today is the first time it occurred to me. ...

     ... Update. Zach Despart of the Houston Chronicle: "Less than six hours in, Harris County [Houston] voters on Monday set a new record for the first day of early voting in a midterm election, County Clerk Stan Stanart said.... The numbers were on pace to beat the first-day turnout during the 2008 general election, when 39,201 voters cast ballots. Typically, far more voters turn out in general elections than midterms." (The Chron has a 3-free-articles-per-month limit.)

C'mon..., Ted:

Virginia. R-Full of Shit. Josh Israel of ThinkProgress: "Rep. Dave Brat (R-VA), who is facing a toss-up re-election race against Democrat Abigail Spanberger in Virginia's 7th Congressional District, made a bunch of demonstratively dishonest claims in an interview Monday on a conservative radio show. But one of his lies was false for about 1.9 trillion reasons.... Brat told host John Fredericks that Republicans do not deserve the blame for massively increasing the budget deficit and national debt [and] made the absurd claim that the tax cuts were actually fully paid for." --s

Colorado & Washington State. Two especially interesting comments about voting near the end of yesterday's thread, one from Linda in Denver, Colorado, & one from Ken W., who votes in Washington State.

Election 2020. Ryan Hutchins of Politico: "New Jersey Democrats are clearing the way for Sen. Cory Booker to run for reelection and president at the same time -- and they're not being bashful about their motivations. State lawmakers on Monday quickly introduced and advanced a bill that that would ensure no one could mount a legal challenge should Booker -- or, in theory, another federal elected official -- decide to run for the White House while trying to retain his current job."

Tierney Sneed of TPM: "Plans to depose Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross will remain on hold in the Census citizenship case, with the Supreme Court on Monday granting the Trump administration's request to halt the deposition, which was ordered by a lower court. The Supreme Court, however, will allow the deposition of a top Justice Department official [John Gore] to go forward, and will also permit additional discover in the case that was ordered by the lower court but that the Trump administration also sought to block.... The order, a temporary stay pausing the lower court's decision in favor of the deposition, set a deadline of next Monday for the Trump administration to ask that the court fully consider the move to depose Ross. If the Justice Department does not ask for that full review by the deadline, the Ross deposition will be allowed to go forward." --s ...

... Robert Barnes & Tara Bahrampour of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court on Monday shielded Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross from answering lawyers' questions in a lawsuit challenging his decision to add a citizenship question to the 2020 Census form.... The court's action makes it unlikely that Ross will have to give a deposition in the case but allows the suit to go forward, at least temporarily. The court said it would entertain other objections from the government before the trial, which is scheduled to start in New York on Nov. 5. The unsigned order seemed like an attempt by the court to avoid a 5-to-4 split in its first politically significant action since the addition of new Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh." ...

... The Supreme Stooge. Ian Millhiser of ThinkProgress: "In a brief opinion joined only by Justice Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch cast his lot on Monday with the Trump administration's effort to rig the 2020 Census in order to reduce the political influence of immigrant communities. Should this plan ultimately succeed, it is likely to shift power towards white people and away from Latinos.... Gorsuch's opinion ... suggest[s] that he and Thomas agree that the Trump administration should be able to add the citizenship question to the Census..., credulously suggesting that the citizenship question may be justified to help the Justice Department 'enforce the Voting Rights Act of 1965.'" --s

Sarah Mervosh, et al., of the New York Times: "An explosive device was found on Monday in a mailbox at a home of George Soros, the billionaire philanthropist who is a favorite target of right-wing groups, in a suburb north of New York City, the authorities said. A law enforcement official confirmed that the device was found near Mr. Soros's home. It did not explode on its own, and bomb squad technicians 'proactively detonated' it, the official said. Federal and state law enforcement officials responded to the scene in Katonah, N.Y., a hamlet in the upscale town of Bedford in northern Westchester County, after the Bedford Police Department received a call about a suspicious package at about 3:45 p.m. 'An employee of the residence opened the package, revealing what appeared to be an explosive device,' the police said in a statement. 'The employee placed the package in a wooded area and called the Bedford police.'"

Darryl Fears of the Washington Post: "An oil spill that has been quietly leaking millions of barrels into the Gulf of Mexico has gone unplugged for so long that it now verges on becoming one of the worst offshore disasters in U.S. history. Between 300 and 700 barrels of oil per day have been spewing from a site 12 miles off the Louisiana coast since 2004, when an oil-production platform owned by Taylor Energy sank in a mudslide triggered by Hurricane Ivan. Many of the wells have not been capped, and federal officials estimate that the spill could continue through this century. With no fix in sight, the Taylor offshore spill is threatening to overtake BP's Deepwater Horizon disaster as the largest ever. As oil continues to spoil the Gulf, the Trump administration is proposing the largest expansion of leases for the oil and gas industry, with the potential to open nearly the entire outer continental shelf to offshore drilling. That includes the Atlantic coast, where drilling hasn't happened in more than a half century and where hurricanes hit with double the regularity of the Gulf." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Fiona Harvey & Jonathan Watts of the Guardian: "Microplastics have been found in human stools for the first time, according to a study suggesting the tiny particles may be widespread in the human food chain. The small study examined eight participants from Europe, Japan and Russia. All of their stool samples were found to contain microplastic particles.... Based on this study, the authors estimated that 'more than 50% of the world population might have microplastics in their stools', though they stressed the need for larger-scale studies to confirm this.... Previous studies on fish have also found plastics in the gut. Microplastics have been found in tap water around the world, in the oceans and in flying insects. A recent investigation in Italy also found microplastics present in soft drinks." --s

Surprise! Good Pay Is Good for Workers. Noam Scheiber of the New York Times: "A research team including economists from the University of Washington has put out a paper showing that Seattle's recent minimum-wage increases brought benefits to many workers employed at the time, while leaving few employed workers worse off.... Large stacks of academic papers have shown that, for the average worker, a minimum-wage increase does more good in raising pay than it hurts by prompting some employers to cut back on hiring or hours.... This new paper, issued Monday, has a unique pedigree: Last summer, the same authors released a paper showing that Seattle's minimum-wage increases had large costs for workers. Because employers reduced hours in response to the city’s rising minimum wage in 2016, the researchers found, average pay fell by an eye-popping $125 a month, or about 6.6 percent. (They did not observe such effects for a minimum-wage increase the year before.)... Conservative politicians and news outlets quickly hailed the findings."

Michelle Goldberg: A.J. Delgado, who had a child with former Trump campaign honcho & married guy Jason Miller, filed court papers claiming "that Miller had made a previous girlfriend pregnant and then put abortion-inducing medication in her smoothie. In September the website Splinter, part of Gizmodo Media, reported on the filing, noting that Miller denied the allegations. In response, Miller ... [sued] the report's author, Katherine Krueger, and Gizmodo Media for $100 million. When Krueger's boyfriend, a co-host of the cult left-wing podcast Chapo Trap House, called Miller a 'rat-faced baby killer' in a tweet, Miller added him to the suit. Representing Miller are two veterans of the team that sued Gawker Media into oblivion for publishing a sex tape of the wrestler Hulk Hogan, a case partly bankrolled by Trump-supporting billionaire Peter Thiel. (Gizmodo is a spinoff of Gawker.)... People on the right [are] using the courts against their critics."

Michael Finnegan & Javier Panzar of the Los Angeles Times: "Michael Avenatti, the lawyer for porn actress Stormy Daniels, was hit with a personal judgment of $4.85 million Monday for his failure to pay a debt to a former colleague at his longtime Newport Beach firm. Less than an hour after his defeat in the Los Angeles lawsuit, the firm, Eagan Avenatti, suffered another setback at a trial in Santa Ana: The Irvine Co. won a court order evicting Avenatti and his staff from their suite at the Fashion Island mall for failing to pay the last four months of rent. The twin blows came as Avenatti was heading to New Hampshire for his third visit to the state that kicks off the 2020 presidential primaries. He is exploring a run for the Democratic nomination, and his troubled financial history could emerge as a significant campaign issue if he joins the race." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie Note to Avenatti: Two things we have in common: we both despise Donald Trump & neither of us is going to get his job. ...

... Seems Very Trumpy. Kate Briquelet of the Daily Beast: "Civil court filings paint a picture of Avenatti as a hard-charging attorney who enjoyed the luxe life -- jetting around the world to race cars with a Saudi prince and treating his wife and their friends to luxury villas in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Yet he and his companies owed hundreds of thousands in unpaid taxes and in compensation to one former colleague, who claims Avenatti stiffed him out of millions in law-firm profits. A review of court documents reveals that Avenatti, his former law firm Eagan Avenatti, and his former company Global Baristas, the majority owner of the Seattle-based Tully's coffee chain, have owed millions in unpaid federal and state taxes in Washington and California, as well as hundreds of thousands in past-due rent to landlords."