The Commentariat -- November 5, 2018

Late Morning Update:

Trump's Closing Argument. Andy Borowitz of the New Yorker (satire): "Employing the fear tactics that have typified his midterm campaigning, Donald J. Trump told a rally audience on Sunday that electing Democrats would drag the nation back to the dark days of tolerance and decorum. Trump made his closing argument to the Chattanooga, Tennessee, audience by raising the spectre of a return to the dignified and restrained discourse that plagued the nation during the regime of his predecessor, Barack Obama."

Willie Nelson at a September rally for Beto O'Rourke (see today's Comments):

Budapest, U.S.A. David Leonhardt of the New York Times: "I was in Hungary for several days last week and was alarmed at how much the autocratic ruling party there reminded me of the Republican Party here in the United States. And the most alarming thing was how normal Hungary feels to a Westerner.... Like Viktor Orbán's Fidesz party in Hungary, today's Republican Party has repeatedly been willing to subvert democracy for the sake of power. It's the single biggest reason that Republicans need to be held accountable in tomorrow's elections.... What Orbán has done is to squash political competition. He has gerrymandered and changed election rules, so that he doesn't need a majority of votes to control the government. He has rushed bills through Parliament with little debate. He has relied on friendly media to echo his message and smear opponents. He has stocked the courts with allies. He has overseen rampant corruption. He has cozied up to Putin. To justify his rule, Orbán has cited external threats -- especially Muslim immigrants and George Soros, the Jewish Hungarian-born investor -- and said that his party is the only one that represents the real people. Does any of this sound familiar?" Mrs. McC: Leonhardt has two pieces likening Hungary to the GOP, & I borrowed from both of them in this summary. The columns are here and here. ...

... AND Leave Us Not Forget the Confederate Supremes. Matt Ford of the New Republic on "How the Roberts Court Caused Georgia's Election Mess." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I happen to agree with the Court's opinion that the Voting Rights Act is discriminatory in that it limits pre-clearance to certain states & districts. Confederate voter suppression has crept north & (especially) west, and I think a new voting rights act should apply to all states for all forms of voter discrimination, including that effected by gerrymandering.

Lydia Wheeler & Harper Neidig of the Hill: "The Supreme Court on Monday put an end to a legal battle over the Obama administration's net neutrality rules, refusing to hear an appeal of a lower court ruling that upheld the 2015 regulations. The court declined to hear the appeal from the trade group USTelecom, which represents internet service providers, and Century Link Inc. without explanation. The internet service providers, along with the Trump administration, had asked the justices to toss out the ruling from the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals." Mrs. McC: The decision is unsigned, but one can extrapolate from the report who made it: Thomas, Alito & Gorsuch opposed it; Roberts & Kavanaugh recused themselves. That leaves Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor & Kagan as the "deciders."

*****

How Republicans Have Made It Harder to Vote. Danny Hakim & Michael Wines of the New York Times: "Limiting access to voting is rooted deep in American history, beginning with the founding fathers and peaking during the Jim Crow era in the South. But in the wake of the civil rights movement and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the idea that disenfranchising legitimate voters was unethical, and even un-American, gained traction. No more. Almost two decades after the Bush v. Gore stalemate led to voting rules being viewed as key elements of election strategy, the issue is playing an extraordinary role in the midterm elections. Restrictions on voting, virtually all imposed by Republicans, reflect rising partisanship, societal shifts producing a more diverse America, and the weakening of the Voting Rights Act by the Supreme Court in 2013."

Kevin Roose & Ali Winston of the New York Times: "On Wednesday, minutes after President Trump posted an incendiary campaign ad falsely accusing Democrats of flooding the country with murderous illegal immigrants, virulent racists on an online message board erupted in celebration.... In recent weeks, as Mr. Trump and his allies have waged a fear-based campaign to drive Republican voters to the polls for the midterm elections on Tuesday, far-right internet communities have been buoyed as their once-fringe views have been given oxygen by prominent Republicans. These activists cheered when Mr. Trump suggested that the Jewish billionaire George Soros could be secretly funding a caravan of Latin American migrants -- a dog-whistle reference to an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory.... They roared their approval when Mr. Trump began stirring up fears of angry, violent left-wing mobs, another far-right boogeyman.... Since the 2016 election, these far-right communities have entered into a sort of imagined dialogue with the president. They create and disseminate slogans and graphics, and celebrate when they show up in Mr. Trump's Twitter feed days or weeks later.... [Trump has given them] a feeling of empowerment -- a sense that the boundaries of acceptable speech are widening in the Trump era...." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Good for the Times for linking Trump's racist remarks to the same right-wing extremists a story in Sunday's NYT Magazine (linked here yesterday) demonstrated were more dangerous within the U.S. that foreign-bred extremism. It would seem the Times news division is finally having its Pogo moment. ...

... Keith Collins & Kevin Roose of the New York Times: "Since President Trump's election, his loyalists online have provided him with a steady stream of provocative posts and shareable memes, often filtered up from platforms like Reddit through media channels like Fox News. In return, Mr. Trump has championed many of their messages as his own, amplifying them back to his larger base. This feedback loop is how #JobsNotMobs came to be. In less than two weeks, the three-word phrase expanded from corners of the right-wing internet onto some of the most prominent political stages in the country, days before the midterm elections." The reporters provide a timeline of how the meme Jobs Not Mobs from yer average right-wing nutjob to more prominent right-win nutjobs to Fox "News" & then to the right-wing nutjob in the White House. Mrs. McC Note: the reporters do not use the technical term "nutjob." ...

... ** Mike Levine of ABC News: "... Donald Trump has repeatedly refused to accept any responsibility for inciting violence in American communities.... Little more than a week ago, he insisted he deserves 'no blame' for what he called the 'hatred' seemingly coursing through parts of the country, and outside of the White House on Friday, Trump accused news outlets of fomenting the very violence they have been asking him about. But a nationwide review conducted by ABC News has identified at least 17 criminal cases where Trump's name was invoked in direct connection with violent acts, threats of violence, or allegations of assault. Nearly all -- 16 of 17 -- cases identified by ABC News are striking in that court documents and direct evidence reflect someone echoing presidential rhetoric, not protesting it. ABC News was unable to find any such case echoing presidential rhetoric when Barack Obama or George W. Bush were in the White House. The perpetrators and suspects identified in the 17 cases are mostly white men..., while the victims represent an array of minority groups -- African-Americans, Latinos, Muslims and gay men." Levine lists the cases.

Matt Shuham of TPM: "President Donald Trump on Sunday invented a Fox News poll that he said showed 40 percent support among African Americans. TPM found no evidence of poll results saying that.... [T]he President may have been referring to a daily tracking poll performed by Rasmussen that, according to an Oct. 29 report from the company, showed 40 percent approval for Trump among black voters." --s

Amy Harder & Andrew Freedman of Axios: "When 'Axios on HBO' interviewed President Trump last week, one goal was to get him to reckon with his own government's scientific findings, which unequivocally state that global warming is nearly entirely caused by humans. We thought it might be harder to dismiss the science if we showed him his own administration's most comprehensive report.... We were wrong. Trump disputed that report, said he hadn't seen it and indicated -- while doing a wave motion with his hand -- that the climate goes up and down. These comments ... are among the most extreme he's made dismissing a scientific issue nearly all other world leaders take seriously.... The report is the most comprehensive and up-to-date assessment published by the entire federal government, from NASA to the Environmental Protection Agency. It concludes that 'there is no convincing alternative explanation' for the global warming we've observed, other than human causes." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Obviously, the Axios reporters failed to account for Trump's "natural instinct for science," which is the basis of his refusal to accept all peer-reviewed analyses of climate change causation.

Andrew Higgins & Ken Vogel of the New York Times: Putin- and (allegedly) mob-connected Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska may be successful in his attempt to avoid U.S. sanctions against his business empire. "... the current lobbying effort on behalf of Mr. Deripaska's companies still appears to have made substantial headway. In recent months, Mr. Deripaska's firms have notched initial victories by winning multiple postponements from the Treasury Department of the sanctions on the oligarch's holding company, EN+, and the giant aluminum company it controls, Rusal. Now, with the administration closing in on its latest self-imposed deadline to make a final decision by Dec. 12, there are signs that Mr. Deripaska's companies could escape the sanctions entirely. Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, has signaled that he is open to a plan under which Mr. Deripaska would reduce his stake in his companies in return for the sanctions being lifted. But sidestepping the business sanctions is not Mr. Deripaska's only goal. His team is preparing an audacious and previously unreported campaign to remove the personal sanctions on him, too."

Election 2018

... Robert Costa of the Washington Post: "Michael R. Bloomberg, the billionaire former mayor of New York City who is considering a 2020 presidential campaign, took another step closer to that possibility Sunday with a $5 million national advertising effort that encourages voters to support Democrats in Tuesday's midterm elections -- and offers Bloomberg's centrist politics as a counter to President Trump. Bloomberg's two-minute television ad, which features him speaking directly to the camera and standing before an American flag, will first air Sunday during CBS's '60 Minutes.' It will air again Monday during the evening news programs on broadcast networks and on MSNBC and CNN."

Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "President Trump is painting an astonishingly apocalyptic vision of America under Democratic control in the campaign's final days, unleashing a torrent of falsehoods and portraying his political opponents as desiring crime, squalor and poverty.... Trump is claiming that Democrats want to erase the nation's borders and provide sanctuary to drug dealers, human traffickers and MS-13 killers. He is warning that they would destroy the economy, obliterate Medicare and unleash a wave of violent crime that endangers families everywhere. And he is alleging that they would transform the United States into Venezuela with socialism run amok. Trump has never been hemmed in by fact, fairness or even logic. The 45th president proudly refuses to apologize and routinely violates the norms of decorum that guided his predecessors. But at one mega-rally after another in the run-up to Tuesday's midterm elections, Trump has taken his no-boundaries political ethos to a whole new level -- demagoguing the Democrats in a whirl of distortion and using the power of the federal government to amplify his fantastical arguments. In Columbia, Mo., the president suggested that Democrats 'run around like Antifa' demonstrators in black uniforms and black helmets, but underneath they have 'this weak little face' and 'go back home into Mommy's basement.'"

CNN Thumps Racist Trumps. Amy Wang of the Washington Post: "CNN ... refused to run an election ad released by ... President Trump earlier this week, a video that featured Luis Bracamontes -- an undocumented immigrant who was convicted in the murder of two California sheriff's deputies -- in an apparent attempt to drum up fears about immigration. 'I guess they only run fake news and won't talk about real threats that don't suit their agenda,' Donald Trump Jr. tweeted, linking to a shorter, 30-second version of the ad. 'Enjoy. Remember this on Tuesday. #vote #voterepublican' CNN's public relations department promptly fired back..., repeating a statement that the network's reporters had made last week: The ad was racist. 'CNN has made it abundantly clear in its editorial coverage that this ad is racist,' CNN PR tweeted. 'When presented with an opportunity to be paid to take a version of this ad, we declined. Those are the facts.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Update. BUT NBC Is Good with Stoking Racism in Football Fans. Daniel Victor of the New York Times: "In the middle of a highly anticipated 'Sunday Night Football' broadcast, NBC aired an immigration-themed advertisement, approved by President Trump, that CNN publicly declared to be too racist to accept as a paid ad.... It was a shorter version of an ad that the president shared on Twitter last week, which falsely claimed about Mr. Bracamontes that Democrats 'let him into our country' and 'let him stay.' The network dedicated substantial editorial coverage to the longer ad, sometimes showing clips as anchors and chyrons declared it 'racist.' The 30-second version run by NBC did not include the false claim about Democrats, but it still drew a direct connection from immigrants to crime, a tactic the president has repeatedly used. (Many studies have shown immigrants do not drive an increase in crime.)" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I do have to compliment Trump's campaign for finding the perfect venue for its racist ad. There are few national shows that attract as many violence-loving idiots than do professional football broadcasts. I put pro football right up there with automatic rifles, kiddie porn & Donald Trump. ...

... Margaret Sullivan of the Washington Post: "On election night 2016, I described the news media's campaign performance as 'an epic fail.'... So now, with the midterm elections upon us, it's fair to ask how much improvement has there been. The short answer: not enough.... There's still one overarching problem: Too many journalists allow Trump to lead them around by the nose, which is why you've heard so very much about that migrant caravan in recent weeks.... And as Trumpian falsehoods have wildly escalated in recent weeks, the media have not figured out how to deal with them, other than to point them out after the fact."

Georgia. In Desperate Measure, Kemp Abuses His Office. Mark Niesse of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "Just two days before the election, Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp's office launched an investigation Sunday into the Democratic Party after an alleged attempt to hack the state's voter registration system. Kemp, who is the Republican candidate for governor on Tuesday's ballot, didn't provide any evidence of hacking when his office announced the probe. He faces Democrat Stacey Abrams in the election. The Democratic Party of Georgia called the allegation '100 percent false' and 'an abuse of power by Kemp's office." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... The New York Times story, by Alan Blinder & Richard Fausset, is here. "Ms. Abrams, in a round of television interviews on Sunday morning, said Democrats had done nothing wrong and accused Mr. Kemp of 'trying to rile up his base by misleading voters yet again,' as she put it to an Atlanta TV station. In a CNN interview, Ms. Abrams added, 'He is desperate to turn the conversation away from his failures, from his refusal to honor his commitments, and from the fact that he's part of a nationwide system of voter suppression that will not work in this election.'" ...

... AND this from the New York Times' "Tip Sheet," which doesn't mince words: "Although Mr. Kemp's office raised the specter of wrongdoing by Democrats, word of the inquiry was certain to heighten fears that Mr. Kemp was seeking to tamper with the integrity of the election. Democrats have spent weeks calling on Mr. Kemp to resign his post, arguing that he could not independently oversee an election in which he is running." ...

... Raphael Warnock, chair of the New Georgia Project & pastor of Atlanta's Ebenezer Baptist Church, in a Washington Post op-ed (Nov. 1), cites some of the ways Brian Kemp & GOP-writ state laws are purging eligible voters from the voting rolls. "The system is functioning exactly as it was designed. They're the consequence of the policies pursued by Secretary of State and gubernatorial candidate Brian Kemp (who, like a boxer refereeing his own bout, oversees the election in which he's running).... Georgia has followed seemingly every strategy in the voter-suppression playbook, like partisan gerrymandering and closing polling locations. It even charged a poll worker with a felony for helping someone use a voting machine." ...

... Remember This? Curt Devine & Drew Griffin of CNN [Aug. 14]: "... Republican candidate for governor Brian Kemp has sought to assure voters that his state's election system is secure and that any allegations to the contrary are 'fake news.' But Kemp, who is also the secretary of state in charge of Georgia's elections, is now being accused in a federal lawsuit of failing to secure his state's voting system and allowing a massive breach that exposed voter records and other sensitive election information.... The suit describes how a private researcher discovered the records of more than 6 million registered Georgia voters, password files and encryption keys could be accessed online by anyone looking. Days after the lawsuit was filed, technicians erased the hard drives of the server in question.... Because the data was destroyed, an independent review cannot be conducted.... Kemp has criticized news reports that raise questions about the integrity of state election systems." --s ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: It occurs to me that Kemp's failure to address the breach was a feature, not a bug. Kemp could not have known who his Democratic opponent would be in 2018, but that's beside the point; he knew s/he would be a Democrat, and he knew he would run for governor. Even had he lost the primary, his control (or lack thereof) of the voting system would leave him with the opportunity to manipulate it for Republican candidates in the public ways he has done & in secret ways we don't know. His purpose was always to destabilize the system, and what better way than to leave it vulnerable to hacking, then -- without evidence, as the new idiom goes -- to finger Democrats? ...

... Josh Marshall of TPM: "It turns out the backstory to Brian Kemp's accusation against the Georgia Democratic party is about as stupid as you could imagine.... But the gist is this. There was a security vulnerability in the system Kemp's is responsible for securing. His office was alerted the vulnerability. Then instead of focusing on fixing it he put out a press release accusing the state Democratic party of trying to 'hack' the state system. Shocking and awful and about as bad as you can imagine." --s ...

... ** Richard Hasen in Slate ties it all together: "... the latest appalling move by Kemp to publicly accuse the Democrats of hacking without evidence is even worse than that: Kemp has been one of the few state election officials to refuse help from the federal Department of Homeland Security to deter foreign and domestic hacking of voter registration databases. After computer scientists demonstrated the insecurity of the state's voting system, he was sued for having perhaps the most vulnerable election system in the country. His office has been plausibly accused of destroying evidence, which would have helped to prove the vulnerabilities of the state election system.... What Kemp has done now goes beyond the pale. He's accused his opponents of election tampering without evidence on the eve of the election, and plastered the incendiary charge on an official state website in the days before his office will administer that election. This is some banana republic stuff."

Kansas. Speaking of Our Formerly-Favorite Voter Suppressor Guy ... Stephanie Kirchgaessner of the Guardian: "The Republican candidate for governor of Kansas, Kris Kobach, who has close ties to the Trump administration, has accepted financial donations from white nationalist sympathizers and has for more than a decade been affiliated with groups espousing white supremacist views. Recent financial disclosures show that Kobach, a driving force behind dozens of proposals across the US designed to suppress minority voting and immigrant rights, has accepted thousands of dollars from white nationalists. Donors include a former official in the Trump administration who was forced to resign from the Department of Homeland Security this year after emails showed he had close ties to white supremacists.... Now Kansas secretary of state, Kobach is running in a tight race against the Democrat Laura Kelly. The election has drawn the concern of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), after the single polling place located in Dodge City was moved outside the town, in what some claimed to be an attempt to suppress the Hispanic vote."

Ian Millhiser of ThinkProgress: "In what will almost certainly be a victory for the religious right, the Supreme Court announced on Friday that it will decide whether the Constitution permits a local government to display 'on public property a 40-foot tall Latin cross, established in memory of soldiers who died in World War I.'... In the long term..., such a blow to the separation of church and state could embolden Christian nationalists and distort American politics..., and this decision in unlikely to be the last gift the Court's Republican majority gives to the Christian right."--s

** Rebecca Solnit in the Guardian: "In the 158th year of the American civil war, also known as 2018, the Confederacy continues its recent resurgence. Its victims include black people, of course, but also immigrants, Jews, Muslims, Latinos, trans people, gay people and women who want to exercise jurisdiction over their bodies. The Confederacy battles in favour of uncontrolled guns and poisons, including toxins in streams, mercury from coal plants, carbon emissions into the upper atmosphere, and oil exploitation in previously protected lands and waters. Its premise appears to be that protection of others limits the rights of white men, and those rights should be unlimited.... As Michelle Alexander reminded us recently: 'The whole of American history can be described as a struggle between those who truly embraced the revolutionary idea of freedom, equality and justice for all, and those who resisted.' She argues that we are not the resistance; we are the river that they are trying to dam; they are the resistance, the minority, the people trying to stop the flow of history." --s ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: This is a concept we settled on way back BTE (Before the Trump Era), when we decided to more accurately name most self-described "conservatives" as "confederates," a descriptor contributor Monoloco suggested.

Peter Maass of The Intercept: "The latest terror attacks in America have provoked a new wave of indignation against [Fox News], culminating in a widely noted call by the U.S. editor of the Financial Times, Edward Luce, for an advertiser boycott.... It's a worthwhile idea, but its impact will be limited.... The network's main source of revenue is from cable subscribers, not advertisers.... Rupert Murdoch and his heirs are welcomed into the halls of power and money even though their network has done irreparably more damage to America than Breitbart News, the media platform [Steve] Bannon once controlled.... What would ostracism of the Murdochs look like? To begin with, it would probably involve the rescinding of invitations to all the conferences and galas they regularly attend [and refuse their donations]. They would become as toxic to business-as-usual as Bannon has become.... The question now is whether America's great and good, having deplored the rising tide of far-right violence, are willing to confront the family that controls the largest platform of intolerance." --s

** Damian Carrington of the Guardian: "Toxic air is now the biggest environmental risk of early death, responsible for one in nine of all fatalities. It kills 7 million people a year, far more than HIV, tuberculosis and malaria combined, for example.... The lost lives and ill health caused are also a colossal economic burden: $225bn in lost labour income in 2013, or $5.11tn per year (about $1m a minute), if welfare losses are added in, according to a 2016 World Bank report, which called the figure 'a sobering wake-up call'. Air pollution is getting worse in the developing world and, while it is getting better in some developed nations, our knowledge of how comprehensively it damages our bodies and minds is growing even faster." --s

Way Beyond the Beltway

Anthony Boadle & Gram Slattery of Reuters: "For Brazil's right-wing President-elect Jair Bolsonaro, attacking critical press outlets almost daily on social media is not enough. Once in office, he vows to hit their bottom line. With half a billion dollars in public-sector marketing budgets coming under his discretion, the fiery former Army captain is threatening to slash ad buys with adversarial media groups, striking at the financial foundations of Brazil's free press.... [T]he prospect of a president out to punish unfriendly coverage has put many reporters on edge.... [Many] have started to throttle back their criticism, fearing backlash from a Bolsonaro government -- and violence from his supporters.... Bolsonaro's supporters said the Brazilian media has a leftist bias and they have turned to social media for news about him." --s

The Daily Beast: "Some Saudi Arabian citizens, enraged by the criticism leveled at the country by The Washington Post over the slaughter of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, have started a movement to boycott Amazon, another company owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos. Bloomberg News reports that 'Boycott Amazon' was dominating Twitter in Saudi Arabia for 'several hours' Sunday.... Participants were reportedly especially upset about an op-ed written by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that appeared in the Post on Friday, which addressed the remaining mysteries surrounding Khashoggi's death." --s

The Commentariat -- November 4, 2018

Afternoon Update:

CNN Thumps Racist Trumps. Amy Wang of the Washington Post: "CNN ... refused to run an election ad released by ... President Trump earlier this week, a video that featured Luis Bracamontes -- an undocumented immigrant who was convicted in the murder of two California sheriff's deputies -- in an apparent attempt to drum up fears about immigration. 'I guess they only run fake news and won't talk about real threats that don't suit their agenda,' Donald Trump Jr. tweeted, linking to a ... 30-second version of the ad. 'Enjoy. Remember this on Tuesday. #vote #voterepublican' CNN's public relations department promptly fired back..., repeating a statement that the network's reporters had made last week: The ad was racist. 'CNN has made it abundantly clear in its editorial coverage that this ad is racist,' CNN PR tweeted. 'When presented with an opportunity to be paid to take a version of this ad, we declined. Those are the facts.'"

In Desperate Measure, Kemp Abuses His Office. Mark Niesse of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "Just two days before the election, Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp's office launched an investigation Sunday into the Democratic Party after an alleged attempt to hack the state's voter registration system. Kemp, who is the Republican candidate for governor on Tuesday's ballot, didn't provide any evidence of hacking when his office announced the probe. He faces Democrat Stacey Abrams in the election. The Democratic Party of Georgia called the allegation '100 percent false' and 'an abuse of power by Kemp's office."

*****

Paul Sonne of the Washington Post: "The total price of President Trump's military deployment to the border, including the cost of National Guard forces that have been there since April, could climb well above $200 million by the end of 2018 and grow significantly if the deployments continue into next year, according to analyst estimates and Pentagon figures.... Although the costs of the border deployments will be a tiny slice of a $716& billion annual defense budget, they arrive as the Trump administration is calling on the Pentagon to cut unnecessary expenditures. The White House recently ordered the Pentagon to slash next year's budget for the military by about $33 billion in response to the largest increase in the federal deficit in six years. Veterans and Democratic lawmakers have complained that Trump is wasting military dollars in a politically motivated stunt ahead of Tuesday's midterm elections, at a time when the Pentagon budget is under pressure." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: This is, of course, spending millions of your tax dollars to lose millions for the U.S. economy. If we admitted those people seeking asylum, most would become productive members of society & contribute to the economy. One of the side effects of bigotry is economic waste. ...

... Luckily, Our Troops Have "Help." Mary Lee Grant & Nick Miroff of the Washington Post: "Gun-carrying civilian groups and border vigilantes have heard a call to arms in President Trump's warnings about threats to American security posed by caravans of Central American migrants moving through Mexico. They're packing coolers and tents, oiling rifles and tuning up aerial drones, with plans to form caravans of their own and trail American troops to the border.... According to military planning documents obtained by Newsweek, the military is concerned about the arrival of 'unregulated militia members self-deploying to the border in alleged support' of U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The assessment estimates that 200 militia members could show up. 'They operate under the guise of citizen patrols,' the report said, while warning of 'incidents of unregulated militias stealing National Guard equipment during deployments.'" (The Newsweek story was linked here earlier this week.) Mrs. McC: What could possibly go wrong? ...

Ben Protess, et al., of the New York Times: "Across the corporate landscape, the Trump administration has presided over a sharp decline in financial penalties against banks and big companies accused of malfeasance, according to analyses of government data and interviews with more than 60 former and current federal officials. The approach mirrors the administration's aggressive deregulatory agenda throughout the federal government.... While career officials in the federal government have continued to investigate wrongdoing at companies large and small, some of the top political appointees under Mr. Trump have led a philosophical shift in governing that favors big business and prioritizes the interests of individual investors."

Fake Diplomacy. Bess Levin of Vanity Fair: "Earlier this week ... reports began to surface that Donald Trump -- who on Monday was ready to slap tariffs on every single Chinese import -- had suddenly reached some kind of breakthrough with Beijing.... Unsurprisingly, markets soared on the news, and all those Trump supporters who've been burned by his tariffs presumably got that warm, cuddly feeling back about the president just four days before the midterms. Except, according to National Economic Council director Larry Kudlow, the whole thing ... is FAKE NEWS! 'There's no massive movement to deal with China,' Kudlow told CNBC on Friday, noting ... little actual progress was made on trade.... He added...'We're not on the cusp of a deal.'" --s ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Kudlow's remark sounds like the definition of a gaffe. Obviously, old Larry is out of the loop. ...

     ... So Then. Fred Imbert of CNBC: "Equities fell to their lows of the day following Kudlow's comments, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropping more than 200 points. Kudlow's comments come a day after Trump tweeted he had a 'long and very good conversation' with Chinese President Xi Jinping on trade."

There are relatively few Americans voicing their support for ISIS online. But there are millions of racists, anti-Semites, Islamophobes, homophobes and xenophobes who engage in eliminationist rhetoric about the communities of people they fear and hate every day on social media and radio talk shows. -- Michael German of the Brennan Center for Justice ...

... Janet Reitman in the New York Times Magazine: "For two decades, domestic counterterrorism strategy has ignored the rising danger of far-right extremism. In the atmosphere of willful indifference, a virulent movement has grown and metastasized.... White supremacists and other far-right extremists have killed far more people since Sept. 11, 2001, than any other category of domestic extremist. The Anti-Defamation League's Center on Extremism has reported that 71 percent of the extremist-related fatalities in the United States between 2008 and 2017 were committed by members of the far right or white-supremacist movements. Islamic extremists were responsible for just 26 percent.... These statistics belie the strident rhetoric around 'foreign-born' terrorists that the Trump administration has used to drive its anti-immigration agenda.... Law enforcement seems uninterested in policing the violent far right."...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: As you read Reitman's report, you'll see that the rise of white nationalist radicals didn't start with Trump, but he & his administration have made the problem much worse. For a decade, the real reason white domestic terrorists have not been identified, monitored & prosecuted is ... Republicans. Republicans think "white nationalist terrorists" equal "conservatives." Yeah, check the stories linked under Beyond the Beltway.

E. A. Crunden of ThinkProgress: "Information about climate change on the website for the Environmental Protection Agency ... has been missing for over a year, with no indication that plans are in the works to reverse the situation.... A section of the site relating to climate change that has been under an update notice since April 2017 now lacks even that, the Guardian reported this week.... For a lengthy period of time following the inauguration of ... Donald Trump, the page indicated that the section was being updated to reflect the current administration's priorities.... But ... this week that changed, and the page is now completely defunct." --s ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: As someone who has a natural instinct for science, I can assure you that climate change & its Death to Earth effects will go away if you delete it from your Website.

AP & Stella Kim of NBC News: "North Korea has warned it could revive a state policy aimed at strengthening its nuclear arsenal if the United States does not lift economic sanctions against the country.... The North came short of threatening to abandon the ongoing nuclear negotiations with the United States. But it accused Washington of derailing commitments made by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and ... Donald Trump at their June summit in Singapore to work toward a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula, without describing how and when it would occur." ... OR, as New York's Daily Intelligencer put it, "North Korea upset that Trump hasn't kept up his undefined end of fake peace deal."

Election 2018

Trump Stumps Where Chumps Clump. Josh Boak of the AP: "... Donald Trump is in the final stretch of a 44-city blitz for the midterm elections, but the America he's glimpsed from the airport arrivals and his armored limousine is hardly a reflection of the nation as a whole. The president has mostly traveled to counties that are whiter, less educated and have lower incomes than the rest of the United States, according to Census Bureau data. It's a sign that he is seeking to galvanize the same group of voters that helped carry him to victory in 2016."

Florida. Matt Dixon of Politico: "During a Saturday rally for Florida Republican gubernatorial candidate Ron DeSantis..., Donald Trump's top agriculture official [Sonny Perdue, the former governor of Georgia,] used the term 'cotton-pickin' to describe the importance of Florida's gubernatorial race, which also features Democrat Andrew Gillum, who is running to be Florida's first black governor. 'Public policy matters. Leadership matters,' said ... Sonny Perdue said at a Lakeland rally, according to audio provided by American Bridge. 'And that is why this election is so cotton-pickin' important to the state of Florida. I hope you all don't mess it up.'" Mrs. McC: Perdue meant to say "monkey it up," as DeSantis did the day after his nomination. BTW, these old white boys make racist remarks to their base, because they know their base is racist.

Georgia. Veronica Stracqualursi of CNN: "A white supremacist group that targeted Florida gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum with racist robocalls is now targeting Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams. The prerecorded phone message features a voice impersonating Oprah Winfrey, who was in Georgia on Thursday stumping for Abrams, and contains racist and anti-Semitic rhetoric. The robocall went out to Georgia voters, but it is unclear how many received it.... The group behind the robocall is The Road to Power, a white supremacist and anti-Semitic video podcast hosted by Scott Rhodes of Idaho."

Maine. Like Father, Like Son. Tim Murphy of Mother Jones: "Often when conservative politicians talk about their opposition to large groups of non-white immigrants, they couch it in the rhetoric of 'bad apples.' Saying you're worried about MS-13, for instance, is a more socially acceptable argument than simply saying you don't like Central Americans.... In the tweet ['Angus King is a Fake Independent who votes with Schumer 88% of the time. Angus wants to repopulate Maine with Syrian and Somalian refugees. Support @SenatorBrakey who fights for secure borders and Better Jobs for Maine.' [Donald] Trump [Jr.]isn't offering misplaced fears about, I don't know, Al-Shabaab or something. He's not couching it in anything, there are no dots to connect; he just doesn't want Somalis, full-stop. Having Somalis in your community is bad, on its surface, simply because they're Somalis -- that's it, that's the argument." --s

Montana. "FU45." Kristen Inbody of the Great Falls (Montana) Tribune: "Kevin Crawford of Bozeman and Curtis Roe of Belgrade decided to protest ... Donald Trump's visit Saturday to the Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport in grass. The pair mowed 'FU45' on Roe's land under the landing approach Air Force One would make. The result was lettering 60 feet tall and 150 feet across. Crawford said that seemed like a better approach than protesting at the campaign rally because 'his wingnut base loves nothing more than to think they are pissing off a bunch of liberals who are protesting.'"

E. A. Crunden: "A landmark case brought by a group of young people attempting to force the federal government to take action on climate change will proceed despite efforts from the Trump administration to stop the lawsuit in its tracks. On Friday night, the Supreme Court declined to halt the lawsuit, Juliana vs. United States, after briefly delaying it last month to consider an emergency request from the government." --safari: The fact that this lawsuit even exists is a damning condemnation of the "leave a better future for our children" modern-day fairytale. ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Related story linked yesterday.

Amoral Markets. Matthew Martin & Dinesh Nair of Bloomberg: "For a moment, Wall Street seemed to be inching away from Saudi Arabia. Now, it's already inching back. A month after the murder of government critic Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, bankers say the rewards of doing business with the oil-rich kingdom far outweigh the risks." --safari: As long as no Wall Streeters get the bone saw, everything's cool. And even if one did, hey, less competition, right? Capitalism is awesome.

Virginia Heffernan in a Los Angeles Times op-ed: "... before [Julian] Assange was known for his romance with the Kremlin, and his shady contacts with scurvy Trumpites like Roger Stone and Donald Trump Jr., he was a punk idol, a hacker god. For years, he seemed like an opener of governments who could disinfect the Earth with the sunlight of his tech virtuosity and his eccentric radiance. But, like many online high-fliers of the aughts, Assange lacked a moral imagination equal to his skills as a technologist.... To hook up with Russian oligarchs and military intelligence to embarrass one American political candidate on behalf of another -- that's... deputizing yourself to an actual authoritarian regime, the kind that a hacker like Assange used to be committed to exposing."

Beyond the Beltway

David Mack, et al., of BuzzFeed News: "The man who shot dead two women at a yoga studio in Tallahassee, Florida, on Friday before killing himself was a far-right extremist and self-proclaimed misogynist who railed against women, black people, and immigrants in a series of online videos and songs. Scott Beierle, 40, was named by Tallahassee Police as the shooter who opened fire inside the Hot Yoga Tallahassee studio, killing two and injuring four other women and a man. Those killed were named as Dr. Nancy Van Vessem, 61, who worked at Florida State University's College of Medicine, and FSU student Maura Binkley, 21.... Police ... noted Beierle had previously been investigated for harassing women.... On a YouTube channel in 2014, Beierle filmed several videos of himself offering extremely racist and misogynistic opinions, in which he called women 'sluts' and 'whores,' and lamented 'the collective treachery' of girls he went to high school with.... He was highly critical of the Obama administration in his 2014 videos. In one video, he said that he resented having to subsidize as a taxpayer 'the casual sex lives of slutty girls through the Affordable Care Act's contraception provisions. In the same video he also criticized 'the invasion of Central American children' in the US that year and said the migrants seeking asylum should be deported on barges."

ABC 7 New York: "Police have made an arrest after disturbing messages of hate were found inside a Brooklyn synagogue Thursday evening, the latest in a string of anti-Semitic incidents across the nation. 26-year-old James Polite is charged with four counts of criminal mischief as a hate crime and making graffiti. Polite has been sent to Woodhull Hospital for psychiatric observation, authorities say."

Steve Sadin of the Chicago Tribune: "A 39-year-old Winthrop Harbor man was arrested Thursday by Highland Park police for allegedly making threatening statements in an Oct. 29 phone call to the Central Avenue Synagogue in Highland Park[, Illinois]. Police say the phone call was placed just two days after 11 people were fatally shot and six others injured during services at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. Dean R. West, of ... Winthrop Harbor, has been charged with a hate crime against a church or synagogue, according to Cynthia Vargas, spokeswoman for the Lake County State's Attorney's office." Mrs. McC: The article is accompanied by a photo (mug shot?) of West, who looks just like what you thought a hate-filled bigot looks like. Obviously, lack of originality is hardly West's worst trait, but it is a trait.

Paighten Harkins of the Salt Lake Tribune: North Ogden, Utah, Mayor Brent "Taylor was killed during an apparent insider attack early Saturday in Kabul[, Afghanistan]. The attacker was immediately killed by Afghan Forces, according to NATO. The Utah National Guard hasn't confirmed Taylor was killed in the attack, but Maj. Gen. Jefferson S. Burton, the adjutant general, in a news release, said: 'My heart breaks for the loss and sacrifice of our soldier, particularly for the family. I wish them all the comfort and courage to face the difficult days ahead.'" Taylor served as a major in the National Guard.

The Commentariat -- November 3, 2018

Afternoon Update:

ABC 7 New York: "Police have made an arrest after disturbing messages of hate were found inside a Brooklyn synagogue Thursday evening, the latest in a string of anti-Semitic incidents across the nation. 26-year-old James Polite is charged with four counts of criminal mischief as a hate crime and making graffiti. Polite has been sent to Woodhull Hospital for psychiatric observation, authorities say." ...

... Steve Sadin of the Chicago Tribune: "A 39-year-old Winthrop Harbor man was arrested Thursday by Highland Park police for allegedly making threatening statements in an Oct. 29 phone call to the Central Avenue Synagogue in Highland Park[, Illinois]. Police say the phone call was placed just two days after 11 people were fatally shot and six others injured during services at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. Dean R. West, of the 1100 block of Sheridan Road, Winthrop Harbor, has been charged with a hate crime against a church or synagogue, according to Cynthia Vargas, spokeswoman for the Lake County State's Attorney's office." Mrs. McC: The article is accompanied by a photo (mug shot?) of West, who looks just like what you thought a hate-filled bigot looks like. Obviously, lack of originality is hardly West's worst trait, but it is a trait.

Some people just don't appreciate 7th-grader fart jokes:

*****

Matthew Dessem of Slate: "In unrelated news, actress Tilda Swinton and her partner, artist Sandro Kopp, directed a music video for Anthony Roth Costanzo's performance of 'Rompo i Lacci,' from Handel's Flavio, starring her dogs running around on a beach in slow motion. It probably won't make you feel much better. It might not make you feel any better at all. You could watch the entire thing and close the tab and still feel like the American experiment is collapsing all around you." Thanks to Aunt Hattie for the link. ...

In unrelated news... Des Shoe of the New York Times: "He's a Mandarin duck, and his species is native to East Asia. He should not be paddling in the Pond in Central Park, and yet there he is. Nobody is sure how he got to Manhattan, but he appears healthy and is getting along well with the local mallards. His glorious plumage is already attracting fans." ...

Nicole Lafond of TPM: "President Donald Trump took his 'enemy of the people' diatribe a step further on Friday, accusing 'fake news' and reporters of 'creating violence' by their 'questions.' 'No, no, you know what, you're creating violence by your questions,' he said. ' You are creating, you. And also a lot of the reporters are creating violence by not writing the truth. The fake news is creating violence.'" --s ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: As Marvin S. says, the POTUS* is mentally ill.

Nick Miroff & Missy Ryan of the Washington Post: "Seizing on immigration as his main campaign theme ahead of Tuesday's midterm elections, Trump has depicted the caravans -- at least four have formed, though they remain hundreds of miles away -- as a grave danger to U.S. national security, claiming they are composed of 'unknown Middle Easterners,' hardened criminals and 'very tough fighters.' He also insists the number of migrants heading north is much larger than estimates put forward by U.S. and Mexican government officials. The [U.S.] military assessment does not support any of those claims." ...

... James LaPorta, et al., of Newsweek: "The Trump administration's plan to deploy thousands of troops to the U.S. border took officials by surprise, with many senior-level Defense Department officers saying they believed the move was politically motivated and a waste of money, multiple Pentagon sources with knowledge of the directive told Newsweek. Four sources with direct knowledge of how plans for the troop deployment -- dubbed Operation Faithful Patriot -- came together said that the initial directive to send troops to the border came directly from the president's office, known in Pentagon parlance as National Command Authority, which would mean ... Donald Trump or Defense Secretary James Mattis.... But ultimately, the decision to move forward with the southern-border deployment was unexpected by military planners. Speaking to Newsweek on condition of anonymity..., the four U.S. military sources said senior leaders within the Pentagon had derided the deployment not only as a significant waste of taxpayer dollars but as running counter to military readiness, but that a minority lauded the Trump administration's hardline crackdown on immigration." ...

... Ryan Browne & Nicole Gaouette of CNN: "When the Trump administration first asked the Pentagon to send troops to the southern border, the administration wanted the troops to take on duties that Department of Defense officials viewed as law enforcement functions.... The Pentagon said no.According to two defense official familiar with the request, the Department of Homeland Security asked that the Pentagon provide a reserve force that could be called upon to provide 'crowd and traffic control' and safeguard Customs and Border Protection personnel at the border to counter a group of Central American migrants walking to the US border to request asylum.... Defense officials have repeatedly emphasized the troops at the border are there to support civil authorities and that they are not expected to come into any contact with migrants." ...

     ... Paul Yingling has "Advice For US Troops Sent To The Mexican Border In An Age Of Terrible Leaders." Thanks to Monoloco for the link. Mrs. McC: Kwitcherbitchin. Young officers & enlisted personnel have it worse than most of us do. ...

... David Ignatius of the Washington Post: "When President Trump issues an election-time order to send up to 15,000 troops to confront what many experts say is a nonexistent threat on the U.S.-Mexico border, what should Defense Secretary Jim Mattis do about it? Mattis's answer, so far, has been to support the president and mostly keep his mouth shut. He gruffly batted back a reporter's question Wednesday about whether Trump's troop deployment order was a political stunt by saying, 'We don't do stunts in this department.' Unfortunately, some of Mattis's colleagues fear he's doing just that in implicitly backing Trump's incendiary talk of an immigrant 'invasion' that requires sending active-duty troops. Watching Mattis walk the Trump tightrope is agonizing. For many Americans, the retired Marine four-star general is the model of a stand-up guy -- the sort of independent, experienced leader who can steady the nation in a time of division. But in dealing with Trump, Mattis often takes a seat and quietly accommodates the president's erratic and divisive rhetoric -- evidently believing that it's better to hold fire and work from inside to sustain sensible policies." (Also linked yesterday.)

Words Matter

Trump's Remarks Used to Justify Mass Murder. Dionne Searcey & Emmanuel Akinwotu of the New York Times: "The Nigerian Army, part of a military criticized for rampant human rights abuses, on Friday used the words of President Trump to justify its fatal shootings of rock-throwing protesters. Soldiers opened fire this past Monday on a march of about 1,000 Islamic Shia activists who had been blocking traffic in the capital, Abuja. Videos circulated on social media showed several protesters hurling rocks at the heavily armed soldiers who then shot fleeing protesters in the back. The Nigerian military said three protesters were killed but the toll appears to have been much higher. Amnesty International as well as leaders of the protest said more than 40 people were killed at the march and two other smaller marches, with more than 100 wounded by bullets. A Reuters reporter counted 20 bodies at the main march.... The Army's official Twitter account posted a video, 'Please Watch and Make Your Deductions,' showing Mr. Trump's anti-migrant speech on Thursday in which he said rocks would be considered firearms if thrown toward the American military at the nation's borders.... 'We're not going to put up with that,' Mr. Trump said in the clip. 'They want to throw rocks at our military, our military fights back.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Update. Matthew Choi of Politico: "... Donald Trump told reporters Friday that U.S. troops will not necessarily shoot at migrants heading toward the southern border if the asylum-seekers throw rocks, in contrast to earlier comments he made that troops on the border should treat hurled rocks as firearms." ...

... Remembrances of Slurs Past. Michael Cohen Recalls Some of Trump's Racist Remarks. Emily Fox of Vanity Fair: "Cohen recalled a discussion at Trump Tower, following the then-candidate's return from a campaign rally during the 2016 election cycle. Cohen had watched the rally on TV and noticed that the crowd was largely Caucasian.... 'I told Trump that the rally looked vanilla on television. Trump responded, "That's because black people are too stupid to vote for me."'" There's more. ...

Mass Murderer & Bomb Mailer Are Inconvenient. Morgan Gstalter of the Hill: "President Trumpwhose actions halted Republican momentum ahead of Tuesday's midterm elections. 'We did have two maniacs stop a momentum that was incredible, because for seven days nobody talked about the elections,' Trump aid at a Missouri campaign rally. 'It stopped a tremendous momentum.'... The president had previously lamented that the mailed bombs had stolen headlines away from the GOP so close to the midterms." (Also linked yesterday.)

Amy Sorkin of the New Yorker: "At the White House, on Thursday, after President Trump had wrapped up his remarks about immigration..., he continued, 'I don't want them [the migrants] in our country. And women don't want them in our country. Women want security. Men don't want them in our country. But the women do not want them. Women want security. You look at what the women are looking for.' Less than a week before the midterm elections, Trump has returned to the image that he invoked on the day, three years ago, when he announced that he was running for President: rapists on their way from Mexico. Trump is not subtle about the racial aspects of this appeal to fear.... Nor are there any limits, it seems, on the President's willingness to ply the country with conspiratorialism.... Treating migrants as soldiers or terrorists would hardly be more radical than one that Trump has already proposed: ending birthright citizenship, a fundamental promise of the Fourteenth Amendment[.]" --s

Sharon LaFraniere of the New York Times: "A federal judge in Maryland on Friday ordered evidence-gathering to begin in a lawsuit accusing President Trump of violating the Constitution by maintaining a financial interest in his company's Washington hotel. The plaintiffs are seeking records that could illuminate potential conflicts of interest between Mr. Trump and foreign leaders or state officials who patronize Trump International Hotel, blocks from the White House. The judge, Peter J. Messitte of the United States District Court in Greenbelt, Md., said the Justice Department had failed to show a compelling reason to hold up the case while its lawyers appeal his earlier rulings. He ordered the parties to come up with a timeline within 20 days to produce evidence. The lawsuit, filed by the District of Columbia and the State of Maryland, seeks for the first time to define the meaning of constitutional language that restricts the president from accepting financial benefits, so-called emoluments."

She Doesn't Care. Erika Harwood of Vanity Fair: "According to federal spending records, [Melanie (sic)] Trump's hotel bill during her stop in Cairo cost taxpayers $95,050 -- even though, as spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham told Quartz, Trump did not even stay overnight at the InterContinental Semiramis hotel and was only in Cairo for six hours. It's unclear how the First Lady and her staff racked up the bill at the hotel, where rooms start at $119 and go up to $699 for the presidential suite." --s

Darren Samuelsohn of Politico: "A senior Trump administration official in line to become special counsel Robert Mueller's new supervisor if there's a Justice Department shakeup secured White House approval earlier this year on what critics say is a potential ethics hurdle that could have kept him from assuming the high-profile role. Solicitor General Noel Francisco has long been considered a likely candidate to oversee Mueller's Russia probe if Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein is fired or quits. But the 49-year-old conservative lawyer has also been dogged by conflict of interest concerns because he previously worked as a partner at Jones Day, the same law firm that represents Donald Trump's presidential campaign in the Russia probe." --s ...

... Frank Dale of ThinkProgress: "Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility (CREW) revealed on Friday that Trump signed a secret waiver to prevent Solicitor General Noel Francisco, the man who 'built his law practice as if his primary goal was to troll the libs' and is poised to oversee Mueller's probe if Trump fires Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, from having to recuse himself from the Russia investigation. Trump's campaign is represented by Francisco's former law firm, Jones Day, in [Robert] Mueller's investigation.... To make all of this even more questionable, Francisco is not included on the list of waivers on the government website for 'preventing conflicts of interest in the executive branch.'"

... Betsy Woodruff & Spencer Ackerman of the Daily Beast: "The Senate intelligence committee has asked the National Rifle Association to provide documents on its connections to Russia -- including documents related to a 2015 trip some of its top leaders made to Moscow.... Former NRA President David Keene and soon-to-be president Peter Brownell were both on the trip.... The NRA's Russia connections have drawn growing public scrutiny after a key figure in Russian outreach to the powerful gun lobby, Maria Butina, was indicted in July on charges of being an undeclared Russian operative connected to the country's intelligence apparatus.

Gardiner Harris of the New York Times: "The Trump administration announced on Friday that it was exempting eight countries from bruising sanctions that the United States was reimposing against Iran, undercutting its pledge to economically punish Tehran's regional aggressions while widening a profound rift with European allies. Mike Pompeo, the secretary of state, did not identify the eight countries that were being granted six-month waivers, but a senior official confirmed that they include India, South Korea, Japan and China -- among the world's largest importers of Iranian oil. Mr. Pompeo said the European Union, which recently announced the creation of an economic channel to continue financial dealings with Iran, was not among those receiving waivers. The sanctions were promised in May, when President Trump announced that the United States was withdrawing from a 2015 deal with world powers to limit Iran's nuclear program."

Fake Diplomacy Falters. Jiyhe Lee of Bloomberg: "North Korea stepped up its attack on U.S.-led sanctions, threatening to resume its nuclear program if the measures aren't lifted. The Foreign Ministry's Institute for American Studies said it could revive its policy of economic construction and nuclear development if sanctions continue. The U.S. 'had better stop the self-destructive act of putting pressure' on the North, the Korean Central News Agency cited director Kwon Jong Gun as saying.... The remarks come a week before a planned meeting between U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo and North Korean official Kim Yong Chol to discuss details of a potential second summit between Kim [Jong-un] and President Donald Trump." [Open in private window]--s

Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court refused Friday to delay an upcoming trial in which a number of states and civil rights organizations allege there was an improper political motive in Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross's decision to add a citizenship question to the 2020 Census. The trial is scheduled to begin Monday in New York. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Neil M. Gorsuch said they would have granted the Trump administration's request to delay the trial. It is unclear how the other six voted -- including new Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh -- because justices are not required to publish their votes in such procedures. But at least five of the six were unwilling to block the trial."

Heather Long of the Washington Post: "The big news Friday is that wages are growing above 3 percent for the first time since 2009. It's a significant milestone after years of sluggish wage growth and most economists say workers are likely to see strong gains for the foreseeable future. But the good news comes with two caveats. The first is that the 3.1 percent annual wage growth figure the Labor Department reported Friday is slightly inflated because of some hurricane effects.... The second caveat is that while wage growth is getting better, it's still well below the norm.... Corporate profits, meanwhile, are at an all-time high.... Corporate tax cuts have enabled companies to boost profitability, many analysts and executives say. But companies are spending a lot of their extra cash on stock buybacks and dividends, leaving only a little extra for workers." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Karen DeYoung of the Washington Post: "The Trump administration is waiting to see the results of a Saudi investigation into the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, according to U.S. officials, and appears in no hurry to decide whether and how to punish Saudi Arabia. The only specific response suggested so far has come from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who said this week that the administration was 'reviewing putting sanctions on the individuals ... engaged in that murder.'... While President Trump has demanded the truth and all options are said to be on the table, he has repeatedly emphasized that business as usual with Saudi Arabia is precisely what he has in mind. He has cited the economic importance of Saudi purchases of U.S. weapons, the stability of international oil markets and what he considers the kingdom's key role in advancing U.S. objectives in the Middle East.&" ...

... President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, in a Washington Post op-ed: "Over the course of the past month, Turkey has moved heaven and earth to shed light on all aspects of [the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi]. As a result of our efforts, the world has learned that Khashoggi was killed in cold blood by a death squad, and it has been established that his murder was premeditated. Yet there are other, no less significant questions whose answers will contribute to our understanding of this deplorable act. Where is Khashoggi's body? Who is the 'local collaborator' to whom Saudi officials claimed to have handed over Khashoggi's remains? Who gave the order to kill this kind soul? Unfortunately, the Saudi authorities have refused to answer those questions." ...

... Yaron Steinbuch of the New York Post: "Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu said Friday that Saudi Arabia should get a pass for murdering US-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi because the kingdom is an ally of the Jewish state against Iran. 'What happened at the Istanbul consulate was horrendous and it should be duly dealt with. But at the same time, it is very important for the stability of the region and the world that Saudi Arabia remain stable,' Netanyahu said in Bulgaria, the Times of Israel reported."

Election 2018

Peter Baker of the New York Times: "As he hit the campaign trail this fall, [President Barack] Obama has vented his exasperation loud and often, assailing his successor in a sharper, more systematic way arguably than any former president has done in three-quarters of a century. Although some admirers believe he remains too restrained in an era of Trumpian bombast, Mr. Obama has excoriated the incumbent for 'lying' and 'fear-mongering' and pulling 'a political stunt' by sending troops to the border. As he opened a final weekend of campaigning before Tuesday's midterm elections, Mr. Obama has re-emerged as the Democrats' most prominent face, pitting president versus president over the future of the country." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: This has all been very upsetting to that nice Karl Rove: "I was taken aback by the amount of space in Presiden Obama's speeches that are devoted to a full frontal assault on Donald J. Trump and his administration. He spends a considerable amount of his time to get up there and trash Trump" ...

** The Desperate Demagogue. Laura McGann & Stavros Agorakis of Vox: "President Donald Trump's closing argument for the 2018 midterm elections represents a dangerous escalation of demagogic rhetoric.... He smears minority groups, particularly immigrants, with impunity.... It looked erratic or even desperate.... It might be desperate, but it's not irrational. Trump has a good reason to act as he has. It's his most effective political strategy. And it's a strategy that demagogues know has to keep ratcheting up to work. And if he's not stopped now, he'll only get worse.... Trump's message is growing increasingly extreme.... While the media and other political observers struggle to see anything but a meltdown, his supporters see exactly what they want to see. They don't support him in spite of his behavior. They support him because of it.... Trump's approval numbers nationally are underwater. But among Republicans, 89 percent approved of the job he's doing, according to Gallup's most recent poll.... [According to] Michael Signer, a professor at the University of Virginia..., 'This is one of, if not the greatest, tests constitutional democracy has been through.'" --s ...

... Dana Milbank: "On Tuesday, voters will make a decision in what is the purest midterm referendum on a sitting president in modern times: Will we take a step, even a small one, back from the ugliness and the race-baiting that has engulfed our country? Or will we affirm that we are really the intolerant and frightened people Donald Trump has made us out to be? If we choose the latter, 2018 will in some ways be more difficult to take than 2016. This time, we don't have the luxury of saying we didn't really know what Trump would do. Our eyes are wide open." Milbank recalls many of Trump's atrocities in office.

Jacques Billeaud of the AP: "A political ad from ... Donald Trump that shows a Mexican immigrant bragging about killing police officers has put the spotlight back on noted immigration hard-liner Joe Arpaio, who detained and released the man in the video years ago.... Trump blames Democrats for weak laws that allowed the man to keep coming across the border, even though he was deported during the administrations of Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. Bracamontes was also incarcerated four times in jails run by Arpaio, a Republican who is known for his crackdowns on illegal immigration and being the first person to receive a pardon from Trump. He campaigned for Trump on several occasions during the presidential campaign...." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I know I've run a couple of stories on this before, but it just irritates me to no end that Trump blames Democrats for something Joe Arpaio -- the scourge of decent people -- did. Too bad Fox "News" will never cover this (unless Shep Smith has).

Thanks, Supremes. Richard Hasen in Slate: "In separate rulings on Thursday, two federal courts had the same message for minority voters making credible claims of potential disenfranchisement: Your arguments may be good on the merits, but it's too late. These courts, which were examining onerous voting rules in North Dakota and Kansas, took their cues from the U.S. Supreme Court, which has embraced an unfortunate rule that even serious voting problems cannot be remedied in the period before Election Day." --s

Christopher Bing of Reuters: "Twitter Inc ... deleted more than 10,000 automated accounts posting messages that discouraged people from voting in Tuesday's U.S. election and wrongly appeared to be from Democrats, after the party flagged the misleading tweets to the social media company.... The removals represent an early win for a fledgling effort by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, or DCCC, a party group that supports Democrats running for the U.S. House of Representatives.... The Tweets included ones that discouraged Democratic men from voting, saying that would drown out the voice of women...."

California. Courting Extremists. Elham Khatami of ThinkProgress: "Rep. Steve Knight (R-CA) is 'proud' to have the vote of a veteran who has posted numerous anti-Semitic, anti-Muslim, and racist comments on Facebook. Knight ... is currently facing a tough re-election campaign against Democratic challenger Katie Hill.... In a screenshot obtained by the Los Angeles Times, Knight also shared [an] ad on his campaign Facebook page, writing that he is 'proud to have earned David Brayton's vote.' The LA Times reported that, in addition to Brayton's dozens of bigoted comments, he has also posted comments promoting violence against the media and left-wing protesters, while praising President Donald Trump." --s ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: The LA Times report, which lays out some of Brayton's disgusting remarks, was linked here Thursday.

Georgia. Daniel Strauss of Politico: "Former President Barack Obama joined the chorus of Democrats criticizing Georgia Republican gubernatorial nominee Brian Kemp for his record on voting rights, contrasting the Georgia secretary of state with Democrat Stacey Abrams, whom the president called 'most experienced, most qualified candidate in this race.' Obama made the remarks in front of a packed audience at Morehouse College on Friday night, just a few days ahead of the midterm elections as Georgia braces for a close gubernatorial race.... 'How can you actively try to prevent the citizens from your state from exercising their most basic right?. Obama said.... Earlier in the evening, former Attorney General Eric Holder made similar warnings about Kemp and national Republicans." ...

... Alan Blinder of the New York Times: "President Trump disparaged Stacey Abrams, the Democratic nominee for governor of Georgia, in ambiguous and unusually personal terms on Thursday, warning that 'her past' left her 'not qualified to be the governor.' Mr. Trump did not elaborate and offered no evidence for his assertion, which seemed to be a potential preview of the political message he will deliver on Sunday, two days ahead of the election, at a Georgia rally for Brian Kemp, Ms. Abrams's Republican rival. But the decision of the president, who has been criticized for inflammatory language, to invoke Ms. Abrams's background so broadly was a distinct escalation in his attacks on her bid to become the first black woman to be elected governor in the United States. Ms. Abrams, a former Democratic leader of the Georgia House of Representatives, has staked out an array of liberal positions during her campaign, but her tenure in the Legislature has drawn measured praise from the Republicans who led the State Capitol." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Mark Niesse of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "A federal judge ordered Georgia election officials to end the 'severe burden' facing some new U.S. citizens trying to vote for the first time, deciding Friday that they must be allowed to cast regular ballots if they show proof of citizenship at the polls. U.S. District Judge Eleanor Ross ruled against Secretary of State Brian Kemp, the Republican candidate for governor who faces Democrat Stacey Abrams in Tuesday's election. Kemp, who oversees Georgia's elections, had argued that state law already provides a process for new citizens to vote. Ross wrote in her order that the state's process wasn't working because some new citizens who signed up to register to vote have been turned away at early-voting locations. Her injunction, coming just four days before Election Day, orders that anyone whose voter registration has been put on hold because of his or her citizenship status can vote on a regular ballot after showing proof to a poll manager or deputy registrar. Previously, only deputy registrars could verify citizenship, and they weren't always available when voters tried to cast their ballots."

Montana. Allegra Kirkland of TPM: "Montana voters heading to the polls on Tuesday could be forgiven for having no idea that Republican Senate nominee Matt Rosendale once spoke at a rally held by an anti-government militia group. Rosendale's appearance at an April 2014 Oath Keepers rally in the town of Kalispell received little attention in the press, with the exception of one left-leaning local blog.... The Second Amendment rally was focused on supporting the Bundy family's armed standoff against the federal government over their illegal use of public lands." --s

North Dakota. Danielle McLean of ThinkProgress: "Hundreds of Native American voters may now be unable to vote in North Dakota this Election Day because of a new rule that requires their addresses in a government database to exactly match the one on their ID cards. Many don’t match because local emergency services changed those database addresses so officials could use GPS to more easily find locals’ homes in case of a emergency.... On Thursday, Robin Smith, enrollment director for Spirit Lake tribe, went down a list of tribal IDs she's issued since Oct. 22, plugging in voters' addresses into the state DOT website.... With a ThinkProgress reporter watching, Smith checked about a dozen voters' addresses against the website, and found just one had the correct matching address. The others had mismatching towns, mismatching zip codes, and mismatching home numbers. Smith said she would need to print out new identifications — potentially for hundreds of voters — with the updated addresses, before Election Day." --s

Virginia. Patrick Wilson of the Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch: "John W. Warner, a Republican who represented Virginia in the U.S. Senate for 30 years, endorsed Democrat Abigail Spanberger in her challenge to Republican Rep. Dave Brat in a close House race that has implications for control of the chamber. Warner's endorsement was the second time this week that the second longest-serving senator in Virginia history crossed the aisle in an endorsement. Earlier, he announced support for Democrat Leslie Cockburn in the 5th U.S. House District race against Republican Denver Riggleman to succeed Rep. Tom Garrett, a Republican who did not seek re-election. Spanberger, a former CIA officer, is challenging Brat in the 7th District, which includes parts of Chesterfield and Henrico counties.... Warner endorsed Democrat Hillary Clinton and her running mate, Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., in the 2016 presidential election. He has endorsed Kaine in his race this year against Republican Corey Stewart. In 2017, Warner backed Republican Ed Gillespie for governor." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: AND, speaking of Warner's endorsement of Leslie Cockburn, I apologize to the Roanoke Times for republishing this letter-to-the-editor in full:

Please explain to me why Leslie Cockburn pronounces her name Coburn. There is no way you can get 'co' out of 'cock' and please don't tell me that the CK is silent. If she finds her name offensive for some reason or another, then why doesn't she just change it? Is it because she is a Democrat and doesn't know the difference? I know this won't be printed because the paper is liberal and never wants to print the truth.

I have omitted the writer's name to spare him any further embarrassment. ...

... There are far too few perfect moments in life. This would be one.

Robert Barnes & Brady Dennis of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court Friday night refused to halt a novel lawsuit filed by young Americans that attempts to force the federal government to take action on climate change, turning down a request from the Trump administration to stop it before trial. The suit, filed in 2015 by 21 young people who argue that the failure of government leaders to combat climate change violates their constitutional right to a clean environment, is before a federal judge in Oregon. It had been delayed while the Supreme Court considered the emergency request from the government. Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil M. Gorsuch would have stopped the suit. The other justices did not indicate how they voted on the government's request. The court's three-page order said the government should seek relief from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. It noted the government's assertion that the 'suit is based on an assortment of unprecedented legal theories, such as a substantive due process right to certain climate conditions, and an equal protection right to live in the same climate as enjoyed by prior generations.'"

Beyond the Beltway

Jacey Fortin of the New York Times: "A man walked into a yoga studio in Tallahassee, Fla., on Friday evening and shot six people -- two fatally -- before killing himself, the police said.... Not all of those injured had been shot; one was pistol-whipped." ...

... Tallahassee Democrat: "Andrew Gillum's campaign to be governor was disrupted Friday by a shooting in Tallahassee. The mayor locked in a tight race with Republican Ron DeSantis canceled campaign events in Miami Dade to return to the capital city. 'I'm deeply appreciative of law enforcement's quick response to the shooting at the yoga facility in Tallahassee today. No act of gun violence is acceptable. I'm in close communication with law enforcement officials and will be returning to Tallahassee tonight,' Gillum tweeted shortly after the late-afternoon shooting."

Trumpism Comes to New York City. Ali Watkins of the New York Times: "The African Burial Ground Monument in Lower Manhattan, a treasured site for the nation's black community, was defaced with a racist slur on Thursday, the authorities said.In black marker, a vandal scrawled 'Kill,' followed by the slur, on a plaque at the monument. The authorities said they did not have a suspect in the incident. Discovered in 1991 during construction of an office building, the six-acre burial ground is estimated to contain 15,000 intact skeletal remains of New York City's colonial African-American community, who were not allowed at the time to be interred in traditional church cemeteries. Many were slaves. The monument, which is steps from City Hall, is considered a literal and figurative symbol of New York's prominent and long-ignored role in colonial African-American culture. The graffiti was quickly scrubbed from the site on 290 Broadway. But soon after, the city was jarred by another incident of hate when 'Kill All Jews' and other anti-Semitic slurs were discovered written inside a Brooklyn synagogue.... According to a report from California University's Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, hate crimes have increased in major American cities over the last two years." ...

... Fanning Flames. Noor Al-Sibai of RawStory: "The New York Police Department received reports of fires at seven Hasidic Jewish institutions in a single neighborhood in Brooklyn — around the same time vandals spray-painted 'Kill All Jews' inside a reform synagogue in the same borough. City Council Member Stephen Levin and State Senator Martin Dilan released a statement about the fires Friday afternoon." --s

Way Beyond

Tom Phillips of the Guardian: "[A]lready in the few days since his victory [Jair Bolsonaro] has given Brazil -- and the world -- a dizzying, and to many disturbing, glimpse of the rightist roller-coaster ahead.... [He] has reaffirmed his regard for Brazil's 1964-85 dictatorship and vowed to brand social movements such as the Landless Workers' Movement (MST) terrorists. He has publicly embraced a radical televangelist who calls himself 'public enemy number one' of the gay movement and invited another commander of Brazil's religious right to his home, stirring fears of a puritanical tack. On Thursday, just hours after controversially naming the judge who jailed his main rival for the presidency as his justice minister, Bolsonaro announced his intention to move Brazil's embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.... He suggested building 'a very high wall' along Brazil's southwestern border with Paraguay to block gun runners and smugglers." --s