The Conversation -- November 12, 2023

In honor of our great Veterans on Veteran's Day, we pledge to you that we will root out the Communists, Marxists, Fascists, and Radical Left Thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our Country, lie, steal, and cheat on Elections, and will do anything possible, whether legally or illegally, to destroy America, and the American Dream. The threat from outside forces is far less sinister, dangerous, and grave, than the threat from within. Despite the hatred and anger of the Radical Left Lunatics who want to destroy our Country, we will MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! -- Donald Trump, in what was supposed to be a Veterans Day message ~~~

~~~ A paragraph for readers who can't handle the subtle nuances of Mein Kampf. -- Journalism Prof. Bill Grueskin ~~~

Please tell us if this reminds you of any earlier historical figure. -- Historian Michael Beschloss ~~~

The use of 'vermin' ... appears in history in chiefly in one context, and one context only.... [It is] straight-up Nazi talk, in a way [Trump has] never done quite before. -- Michael Tomasky of the New Republic ~~~

This vermin must be destroyed. The Jews are our sworn enemies, and at the end of this year there will not be a Jew left in Germany. -- Adolf Hitler, 1939

I apologize for underplaying this earlier today. Once again, argumentum ad Hitlerum is not a logical fallacy. -- Marie Burns

This is a classic example of autocratic intention signaling. We should take it for its meaning and what the intention actually is going forward. https://t.co/pvsTaOtRnH

— Trygve Olson (@trygveolson) November 10, 2023

     ~~~ Thanks to RAS for the link.

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Kevin Freking & Stephen Groves of the AP: "House Speaker Mike Johnson unveiled his proposal on Saturday to avoid a partial government shutdown by extending government funding for some agencies and programs until Jan. 19 and continuing funding for others until Feb. 2. The approach is unusual for a stopgap spending bill. Usually, lawmakers extend funding until a certain date for all programs.... The bill excludes funding requested by President Joe Biden for Israel, Ukraine and the U.S. border with Mexico." (Also linked yesterday.) The New York Times story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: All I can figure out is that Johnson's plan is to pass the buck to the Senate and President; if they don't approve the bill, Mike will blame Democrats for shutting down the government. ~~~

     ~~~ The White House statement, by Karine Jean-Pierre is here. Here's a piece of it: "With just days left before an Extreme Republican Shutdown -- and after shutting down Congress for three weeks after they ousted their own leader -- House Republicans are wasting precious time with an unserious proposal that has been panned by members of both parties." ~~~

     ~~~ AND. Olivia Beavers, et al., of the Politico: "It already seems unlikely the spending plan could pass the House, with the new speaker saying they would need Democrats to support it.... Johnson has told members he plans to bring the plan up for a floor vote on Tuesday, but its chances already seem bleak.... The Rules Committee is scheduled to consider the spending plan Monday, eventually deciding whether it can come to the House floor. One conservative on that panel, House Freedom Caucus member Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) already announced on X he would oppose the legislation, saying it amounted to a 'clean CR.'... Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Warren Davidson (R-Ohio) also posted on X that they would vote against the spending package. Johnson can only afford to lose four GOP votes if all Democrats oppose it, assuming full attendance.... Johnson told the House GOP that if this package fails to pass the chamber, he plans to bring a full-year stopgap spending bill to the floor. That package would include blanket cuts to non-defense spending, he said...."

Josh Gerstein of the Politico: "Donald Trump is endorsing an effort by news organizations to provide live television coverage of his trial on federal charges that he conspired to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. In a bombastic legal filing submitted late Friday to the judge who's scheduled that trial to begin in March, Trump's attorneys argued he's the victim of political persecution by President Joe Biden's administration and should be allowed to use the platform of TV to showcase the proceedings’ unfairness. 'The prosecution wishes to continue this travesty in darkness. President Trump calls for sunlight,' defense attorneys John Lauro and Todd Blanche wrote." (Also linked yesterday.)

Presidential Race 2024

Paul Campos in LG&$: "Biden and Trump are going to be the choice people face next November not because of a dereliction of our political elites, but because that's what a democratic primary process in the two major parties is going to produce, by overwhelming consensus in both cases. The political elites would very much prefer otherwise.... The 'manifestly too old' thing about [President] Biden is at this point just completely weird Biden is barely older than Trump, and Trump seems vastly less coherent, even by his incredibly degraded standards.... In American presidential politics right now, the only thing that matters is whether you are doing what you can to advance Joe Biden's candidacy or Donald Trump's. There are no other choices. Anything that undercuts Biden's chances of getting re-elected is objectively pro-Trump. Thumb suckers about (76-year-old!) Joe Manchin as a middle way alternative are, at the margin, bad for Biden and good for Trump." ~~~

     ~~~ Scott Lemieux in LG&$: "I wanted to make a couple of follow-up points to Paul's excellent post ... because bad faith arguments like [NYT columnist Ross] Douthat's are going to become increasingly common, especially if some combination of Manchin and Romney decide to run a No Labels ratfucking campaign. Let's stipulate that, in an ideal world, it would be better to have a presidential nominee who was younger than 75. It should also be clear that given the actual alternatives in the 2024 election Biden's age should be absolutely, 100% immaterial: Manchin and Romney being the dream candidates for the 'Biden's age is entirely disqualifying' crowd is useful, because Manchin and Romney would both be over 80 by the end of their first term. Dreaming on Manchin and Romney makes it absolutely stark just how much bad faith is involved in the 'Biden, and only Biden, is too old to be president' argument.... Because age is immaterial to this particular race, the only reason to prefer Trump is because you prefer reactionary authoritarianism to liberalism. That's it." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The only writer I've read who was willing to tell the truth about "Biden's too old" was Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times. She did this some time back. Biden is perceived as being too old because he garbles his words. All the time. Every other sentence. His sentences are coherent, for the most part, but his delivery is not. As in "The King's Speech" (which is based on a true story), Biden could learn to enunciate more clearly. He has chosen not to take the time to do that, and not to take the time to speak clearly. If he wants to be perceived as "not too old," the solution is simple: speak clearly. P.S. I'm not linking Douthat's column, but you can find it if you really want to read it.

Marisa Iati & Isaac Arnsdorf of the Washington Post: "The DeSantis campaign recently posted a thread of more than two dozen clumsy or confusing remarks by ... Donald Trump, positing that 'this is why his handlers won't let him debate.' Former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley, speaking to Jewish donors, mocked Trump for speaking positively about the leaders of China and North Korea, saying he is evidently 'confused' about which countries are American allies and which are adversaries. And the Biden campaign has also stepped up its posts about Trump's verbal fumbles, including a minute-long video compilation of various miscues. In press statements, it has slammed Trump for mispronouncing 'Hamas' and for musing aloud that the abbreviation for United States is spelled like the word 'us.' As Trump's Republican rivals face growing pressure to stop his momentum, while Democrats seek to neutralize concerns about Biden's age, the two sides are converging on a common argument -- that Trump's cognition has declined too far for him to lead the country again."

The Nastiest POS in the U.S. Michael Gold of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump, on a day set aside to celebrate those who have defended the United States in uniform, promised to honor veterans in part by assailing what he portrayed as America's greatest foe: the political left. Using incendiary and dehumanizing language to refer to his opponents, Mr. Trump vowed to 'root out' what he called 'the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country.... The threat from outside forces is far less sinister, dangerous and grave than the threat from within,' Mr. Trump said Saturday in a nearly two-hour Veterans Day address in Claremont, N.H.... Here are some of the more notable elements of Mr. Trump's Veterans Day speech."

President for Life. Marie: Yesterday we linked to a WashPo story that cited Donald Trump's saying during a Univision interview,

"They [Democrats] have done something that allows the next party .. if I happen to be president and I see somebody who's doing well and beating me very badly, I say, "Go down and indict them." They'd be out of business. They'd be out of the election."

Trump's plan to break the knees of his political adversaries has gained at least some of the attention it deserves. But I haven't heard a single mention of Part 2 of what Trump says is the plan. To parse Trump's terrible syntax as best I can: Trump says here, "If I am elected president*, I will tell DOJ to indict anyone who is 'beating me very badly' in the next election." Now, I ask you, What "next election"? Should Trump win a second term, he would be term-limited out. Under the Constitution, he cannot run again; there cannot be another presidential election in which Trump is president*, he sics the DOJ on an opponent who is "beating me very badly." Ergo, it is obvious that Trump plans to run for a third term.

Mass Murder, Brought to You by the Federal Government. Ben Dooley of the New York Times: The "Lake City Army Ammunition Plant..., the federal site ... built during World War II ... in Independence, Mo., has made nearly all the rifle cartridges used by the U.S. military since it pulled out of Vietnam. In recent years, the factory has also pumped billions of rounds of military-grade ammunition into the commercial market, an investigation by The New York Times found, leaving the 'LC' signature scattered across crime scenes, including the sites of some of the nation's most heinous mass shootings. The plant, operated by a private contractor with Army oversight, is now one of the country's biggest manufacturers of commercial rounds for the popular AR-15, and it remains so even as the United States supplies ammunition to Ukraine.... Starting in 2012 with the massacre of 12 people at a movie theater in Aurora, Colo., the rounds have been tied to at least a dozen mass shootings involving AR-15-style guns, including at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, a FedEx warehouse in Indianapolis -- and Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.... Over the last two decades, the government has invested more than $860 million to improve and repair the plant and expand its capacity, according to Justine Barati, an Army spokeswoman.... The Defense Department argues that the public-private partnership is necessary for national security."

Pope to Bishop: "You're Fired." Ruth Graham & Jason Horowitz of the New York Times: "Pope Francis fired on Saturday a bishop in Texas who was one of his loudest American critics within the Catholic Church, a highly rare dismissal that appeared to reflect the growing rift between the Vatican and a more conservative wing of the church. The Vatican did not cite a reason for the dismissal of the bishop, Joseph Strickland, saying in a statement only that the pope 'relieved' Bishop Strickland from the governance of his diocese in Tyler, Texas. Bishop Strickland had significant ideological differences with Pope Francis. He was arguably the most prominent figure representing traditionalist American Catholics who see Francis as dangerously liberal on social issues like divorce, abortion and same-sex marriage, and on theological issues including his discouragement of the Latin Mass. Ultraconservatives in the United States have emerged as the financial center and media megaphone of the resistance to Francis' papacy."

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Virginia Political Races. Laura Vozzella of the Washington Post: "Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.) will not seek reelection in Virginia's 7th District next year so she can run for Virginia governor in 2025, according to two people familiar with the Democrat's plans. Spanberger, who won a third term last year in one of the state's most competitive swing districts, will announce her gubernatorial bid very soon, according to the two, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the congresswoman had hoped to make her announcement a surprise."

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Israel/Palestine

The Washington Post's live updates of developments Sunday in the Israel/Hamas war are here: "Gaza's Health Ministry said its largest hospital, al-Shifa, was an 'open war zone' on Sunday, a day after the ministry's director general told The Washington Post that Israeli forces were 'striking us from all sides.' Israel denied that its forces were targeting or blockading al-Shifa. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ruled out any role for the Palestinian Authority in the Gaza Strip, saying Israel would assert 'total security control' after the fighting ends. The Rafah border crossing with Egypt will open again on Sunday for 'foreign passport holders' whose names are on preapproved departure lists, Wael Abu Omar, a Gaza border official, told The Post." ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times' live updates are here.

Wafaa Shurafa & Bassem Mroue of the AP: "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pushed back Saturday against growing international calls for a cease-fire, saying Israel's battle to crush Gaza's ruling Hamas militants will continue with 'full force.' A cease-fire would be possible only if all 239 hostages held by militants in Gaza are released, Netanyahu said in a televised address. The Israeli leader also insisted that after the war, now entering its sixth week, Gaza would be demilitarized and Israel would retain security control there. Asked what he meant by security control, Netanyahu said Israeli forces must be able to enter Gaza freely to hunt down militants." (Also linked yesterday.)

Megan Specia of the New York Times: "Hundreds of thousands of people marched through central London in a huge pro-Palestinian demonstration on Saturday, a tense day in which the police battled with a small right-wing group to keep order on some city streets. The large march in support of the Palestinian cause coincided with Armistice Day, when Britain commemorates those who fought in World War I and subsequent conflicts, and followed days of debate about whether the protest should be allowed to go ahead. A spokesperson for London's Metropolitan Police Service said by phone on Saturday afternoon that about 300,000 people had attended the march, making it one of the largest protests in Britain in recent years. Earlier in the day, a right-wing group clashed with the police near the Cenotaph, a war memorial close to the prime minister's official residence, shortly after a two-minute silence was held to mark Remembrance Day. Videos showed some people bursting through a cordoned-off area. By late Saturday, the police said that 126 people had been arrested."

Ukraine, et al. Shane Harris & Isabelle Khurshudyan of the Washington Post: "A senior Ukrainian military officer with deep ties to the country's intelligence services played a central role in the bombing of the Nord Stream natural gas pipeline last year, according to officials in Ukraine and elsewhere in Europe, as well as other people.... The officer's role provides the most direct evidence to date tying Ukraine's military and security leadership to a controversial act of sabotage that has spawned multiple criminal investigations and that U.S. and Western officials have called a dangerous attack on Europe's energy infrastructure. Roman Chervinsky, a decorated 48-year-old colonel who served in Ukraine's Special Operations Forces, was the 'coordinator' of the Nord Stream operation..., managing logistics and support for a six-person team that rented a sailboat under false identities and used deep-sea diving equipment to place explosive charges on the gas pipelines. On Sept. 26, 2022, three explosions caused massive leaks on the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines, which run from Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea. The attack left only one of the four gas links in the network intact as winter approached. Chervinsky ... took orders from more senior Ukrainian officials, who ultimately reported to Gen. Valery Zaluzhny, Ukraine's highest-ranking military officer, said people familiar.... Chervinsky's participation in the Nord Stream bombing contradicts [President] Zelensky's public denials that his country was involved." (Also linked yesterday.)

The Conversation -- November 11, 2023

Santa Fe National Cemetery

Kevin Freking & Stephen Groves of the AP: "House Speaker Mike Johnson unveiled his proposal on Saturday to avoid a partial government shutdown by extending government funding for some agencies and programs until Jan. 19 and continuing funding for others until Feb. 2. The approach is unusual for a stopgap spending bill. Usually, lawmakers extend funding until a certain date for all programs.... The bill excludes funding requested by President Joe Biden for Israel, Ukraine and the U.S. border with Mexico." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: All I can figure out is that Johnson's plan is to pass the buck to the Senate and President; if they don't approve the bill, Mike will blame Democrats for shutting down the government.

Wafaa Shurafa & Bassem Mroue of the AP: "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pushed back Saturday against growing international calls for a cease-fire, saying Israel's battle to crush Gaza's ruling Hamas militants will continue with 'full force.' A cease-fire would be possible only if all 239 hostages held by militants in Gaza are released, Netanyahu said in a televised address. The Israeli leader also insisted that after the war, now entering its sixth week, Gaza would be demilitarized and Israel would retain security control there. Asked what he meant by security control, Netanyahu said Israeli forces must be able to enter Gaza freely to hunt down militants."

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Josh Gerstein of the Politico: "Donald Trump is endorsing an effort by news organizations to provide live television coverage of his trial on federal charges that he conspired to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. In a bombastic legal filing submitted late Friday to the judge who's scheduled that trial to begin in March, Trump's attorneys argued he's the victim of political persecution by President Joe Biden's administration and should be allowed to use the platform of TV to showcase the proceedings' unfairness. 'The prosecution wishes to continue this travesty in darkness. President Trump calls for sunlight,' defense attorneys John Lauro and Todd Blanche wrote."

President for Life. Marie: Yesterday we linked to a WashPo story that cited Donald Trump's saying during a Univision interview,

"They [Democrats] have done something that allows the next party ... if I happen to be president and I see somebody who's doing well and beating me very badly, I say, "Go down and indict them." They'd be out of business. They'd be out of the election."

Trump's plan to break the knees of his political adversaries has gained at least some of the attention it deserves. But I haven't heard a single mention of Part 2 of what Trump says is the plan. To parse Trump's terrible syntax as best I can: Trump says here, "If I am elected president*, I will tell DOJ to indict anyone who is 'beating me very badly' in the next election." Now, I ask you, What "next election"? Should Trump win a second term, he would be term-limited out. Under the Constitution, he cannot run again; there cannot be another presidential election in which Trump is president*, he sics the DOJ on an opponent who is "beating me very badly." Ergo, it is obvious that Trump plans to run for a third term.

Shane Harris & Isabelle Khurshudyan of the Washington Post: "A senior Ukrainian military officer with deep ties to the country's intelligence services played a central role in the bombing of the Nord Stream natural gas pipeline last year, according to officials in Ukraine and elsewhere in Europe, as well as other people.... The officer's role provides the most direct evidence to date tying Ukraine's military and security leadership to a controversial act of sabotage that has spawned multiple criminal investigations and that U.S. and Western officials have called a dangerous attack on Europe's energy infrastructure. Roman Chervinsky, a decorated 48-year-old colonel who served in Ukraine's Special Operations Forces, was the ''coordinator' of the Nord Stream operation..., managing logistics and support for a six-person team that rented a sailboat under false identities and used deep-sea diving equipment to place explosive charges on the gas pipelines. On Sept. 26, 2022, three explosions caused massive leaks on the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines, which run from Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea. The attack left only one of the four gas links in the network intact as winter approached. Chervinsky ... took orders from more senior Ukrainian officials, who ultimately reported to Gen. Valery Zaluzhny, Ukraine's highest-ranking military officer, said people familiar with how the operation was carried out.... Chervinsky's participation in the Nord Stream bombing contradicts [President] Zelensky's public denials that his country was involved."

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Yasmeen Abutaleb & Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post: "President Biden will meet with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on the sidelines of an economic conference in San Francisco next week, one year after their last face-to-face meeting in Bali. The two leaders are expected to meet on Wednesday as they both travel to San Francisco for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference, which is being held in San Francisco, senior administration officials told reporters during a call on Thursday. Biden and Xi have not had any direct communication since their last in-person summit last year. The highly anticipated meeting comes as the two sides try to stabilize a relationship rocked by a series of crises, including China's aggressive response to former speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan last year and the U.S. military's shoot-down of a Chinese spy balloon that crossed the United States in February."

Darla Mercado & Christina Wilkie of CNBC: "Moody's Investors Service on Friday lowered its ratings outlook on the United States' government to negative from stable, pointing to rising risks to the nation's fiscal strength.... 'In the context of higher interest rates, without effective fiscal policy measures to reduce government spending or increase revenues,' the agency said. 'Moody's expects that the US' fiscal deficits will remain very large, significantly weakening debt affordability.' Brinkmanship in Washington has also been a contributing factor, Moody's said. 'Continued political polarization within US Congress raises the risk that successive governments will not be able to reach consensus on a fiscal plan to slow the decline in debt affordability,' the ratings agency said." MB: This is both-siderism-speak. Maybe Mike Johnson is a good indicator of what "polarization" really means: some about scrapping most of the Constitution. ~~~

Laura Jedeed in Politico Magazine: "'Speaker Mike Johnson has long been a supporter of Convention of States,' Mark Meckler, co-founder of Convention of States Action (COSA), told me.... For the last 10 years, the 'Convention of States' movement has sought to remake the Constitution and force a tea party vision of the framers' intent upon America. This group wants to wholesale rewrite wide swaths of the U.S. Constitution in one fell swoop. In the process, they hope to do away with regulatory agencies like the FDA and the CDC, virtually eliminate the federal government's ability to borrow money, and empower state legislatures to override federal law." ~~~

~~~ Travis Gettys of the Raw Story: "House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) displays a flag associated with Christian extremism outside his office at the U.S. Capitol. The Louisiana Republican posted flags outside his office representing the United States and Louisiana, along with a Revolutionary War-era 'Appeal to Heaven' flag, which has become associated with New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) network seeking to place the government under right-wing Christian control, reported Rolling Stone.... 'The "Mandate," as they understand it, is given by God for Christians to "take dominion" and "conquer" the tops of all seven of these sectors and have Christian influence flow down into the rest of society,' reported Bradley Onishi and Matthew D. Taylor for the magazine."

Dana Milbank of the Washington Post: "The House is not in order. Under [Mike] Johnson, the House is utterly out of control. It's not just the speaker's inability to curb the proliferation of censure resolutions, which have turned the chamber into a seething den of recriminations. In just seven days, the federal government will shut down after a temporary extension in funding (which cost Kevin McCarthy the speakership) expires. And Johnson (R-La.) has been fumbling in the dark. He squandered this week without passing, or even floating, a plan to avoid a shutdown. His plan -- whatever it is -- will come to the floor just days before the lights go out.... The serial failures are the direct result of GOP leadership's stubborn insistence on passing spending bills with Republican votes alone -- in contrast to the Senate, where all 12 appropriations bills command bipartisan support.... Trust him? Not after this start."

Jonah Bromwich & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Representative Elise Stefanik, a member of the House Republican leadership and an ally of ... Donald J. Trump, filed an ethics complaint Friday attacking the judge presiding over Mr. Trump's civil fraud trial, the latest salvo in a right-wing war against the case. Echoing the courtroom rhetoric of Mr. Trump's lawyers, the letter complains that the Democratic judge, Arthur F. Engoron, has been biased against the former president.... The letter, to a judicial conduct commission, is unlikely to have any immediate repercussions in the trial, which will determine the consequences Mr. Trump and his company will face as a result of the fraud. But it represents the latest Republican attempt to tar Justice Engoron, and to meddle with Ms. James's case." The NBC News story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: If you look at the letter, you'll see that it is a screed with footnotes. You might think the authors were hack lawyers for Trump.

Devlin Barrett & Perry Stein of the Washington Post: "The judge overseeing Donald Trump's indictment for allegedly mishandling classified documents said Friday she would give the former president more time to review evidence before the May trial date, but also signaled she could decide next year if the trial itself should be pushed back. In a nine-page order, U.S. District Judge Aileen M. Cannon said she would revisit Trump's request to delay the trial in South Florida at a scheduling conference in March.... Cannon wrote in her order Friday that she expects a significant amount of legal fighting to come over what she called the 'unusually high volume' of evidence, particularly classified evidence." Politico's story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The hoohah over access to classified docs seems warranted. While there are likely a few classified docs that the Trump team needs to see because the government alleges in its charging papers that Trump has shared classified information he obtained from them, the main issues regarding the classified material is not the content of the documents but the facts that he stole them, hid them and lied to the feds about having them. So for most of the hundreds of classified documents the feds found lying around Mar-a-Lardo, all the Trumpies need to review are the folders or cover sheets, not the contents.

Richard Fausset of the New York Times: "The Rev. Stephen C. Lee is one of the lesser-known figures indicted with ... Donald J. Trump in Fulton County, Ga., on charges of unlawfully conspiring to keep Mr. Trump in power after the 2020 election. But on Thursday night at an evangelical church near Chicago, dozens of people held their arms aloft and prayed over Pastor Lee at a fund-raiser where he was portrayed as an American hero -- and a victim of religious persecution.... Pastor Lee, 71, is a former law enforcement officer who became a Lutheran minister and currently leads a small church in Orland Park, Ill.... His lawyer, David Shestokas, has argued that Pastor Lee was ... engaging in 'pastoral activities' when he showed up in Georgia after the 2020 election. There, he tried to meet with Ruby Freeman, a Fulton County elections worker whom Mr. Trump and his allies had falsely accused of ballot fraud, a conspiracy theory that ricocheted around the internet. At the time, Ms. Freeman was being barraged with threats and harassment."

Ryan Reilly of NBC News: "An associate of a Jan. 6 defendant pleaded guilty this week to charges that the two men plotted 'to murder employees of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.' Austin Carter, who was a 26-year-old security officer and a member of the Army Reserves at the time of his arrest in December 2022, admitted in a plea agreement that he 'unlawfully and knowingly combined, conspired, and agreed with his co-defendant,' Edward Kelley, to kill FBI personnel. Carter admitted that he provided a cooperating witness 'with a list of FBI employees that CARTER received from KELLEY' on or about Dec. 13, 2022, and that Carter instructed the cooperating witness 'to memorize the FBI employees identified on the list and then burn the list.' Kelley and Carter 'discussed plans to attack the FBI Field Office in Knoxville, Tennessee' and that the purpose of the conspiracy was 'to retaliate against government conduct,' Carter admitted. A court filing from December said that the list Kelley provided included about 37 names of law enforcement personnel who worked on Kelley's Jan. 6 case, and identified which officers were present when Kelley was arrested."

Ryan Reilly & Jonathan Dienst of NBC News: "A former New Jersey National Guard police sergeant accused of pepper-spraying officers during the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack turned himself in to authorities in New Jersey on Friday following a 48-hour manhunt. Gregory Yetman faces several charges, including felonies such as assaulting officers and obstruction of law enforcement during civil disorder, as well as some misdemeanor offenses, according to the FBI. Yetman was taken into custody after the FBI on Thursday announced a $10,000 reward for information leading to his arrest."

Presidential Race 2024

Charlie Savage, et al., of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump is planning an extreme expansion of his first-term crackdown on immigration if he returns to power in 2025 -- including preparing to round up undocumented people already in the United States on a vast scale and detain them in sprawling camps while they wait to be expelled.... Mr. Trump wants to revive his first-term border policies, including banning entry by people from certain Muslim-majority nations and reimposing a Covid 19-era policy of refusing asylum claims -- though this time he would base that refusal on assertions that migrants carry other infectious diseases like tuberculosis. He plans to scour the country for unauthorized immigrants and deport people by the millions per year."

Charlie Nash of Mediaite: Former Trump Secretary of Defense Mark Esper explained on CNN that Trump could invoke the Insurrection Act against ordinary protesters, and in his opinion, it would be "completely legal."

Tommy Christopher of Mediaite: "On Tuesday night, Democrats won a slew of unexpected victories in those off-year elections -- such as Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear's victory and the success of ballot initiatives protecting abortion rights -- that stunned the political world. But in a new interview for Univision Noticias with Enrique Acevedo, Trump took credit once again for overturning Roe v. Wade and made a stunning escalation of his oft-told lie that Democrats believe in literally murdering babies after they’re born: '...The Democrats were killing babies after birth, killing babies in the ninth month, you know, etc., etc....'"

Ben Terris & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post play "Where's Melanie?" I don't think they've seen her but they hear she's mostly at Mar-a-Lardo & sometimes at Trump Tower in NYC.

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Louisiana. Katie Benner of the New York Times: "A federal appeals court on Friday agreed with a lower-court ruling that Louisiana's latest congressional map very likely violated the Voting Rights Act by diluting the power of Black voters, and ordered the state to finalize a new map by Jan. 15. The decision, issued by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, said that the State Legislature should complete a new set of voting districts in time 'for the result to be used for the 2024 Louisiana congressional elections.' Louisiana is one of several Southern states led by Republicans that have been mired in legal battles as they face accusations of racial discrimination in their electoral maps."

New York. William Rashbaum, et al., of the New York Times: "F.B.I. agents seized [New York City] Mayor Eric Adams's electronic devices early this week in what appeared to be a dramatic escalation of a criminal inquiry into whether his 2021 campaign conspired with the Turkish government and others to funnel money into its coffers. The agents approached the mayor after an event in Manhattan on Monday evening and asked his security detail to step away, a person ... said. They climbed into his S.U.V. with him and, pursuant to a court-authorized warrant, took his devices, the person said. The devices -- at least two cellphones and an iPad -- were returned to the mayor within a matter of days, according to that person and another person familiar with the situation." CNN's story is here.

Ohio. Melissa Quinn of CBS News: "Republicans in the Ohio state legislature are threatening to strip state courts of their authority to review cases related to Issue 1, the ballot measure approved by voters on Tuesday that established a right to abortion in the state constitution. A group of four state GOP lawmakers announced their plans in a press release Thursday, which also teased forthcoming legislative action in response to voters' approval of the reproductive rights initiative.... The GOP lawmakers did not provide details on the legislation they plan to introduce."

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Israel/Palestine. The Washington Post's live updates of developments Saturday in the Israel/Hamas war are here: "As Israeli tanks encircled hospitals in Gaza City, bombardment and fighting has raged around al-Shifa Hospital, the city's largest, with medical workers unable to leave. Fuel shortages left the overcrowded hospital without power, killing a premature baby and four patients in the intensive care unit, Gaza health officials said Saturday. The International Committee of the Red Cross warned earlier that the medical system in the besieged Palestinian enclave had reached a 'point of no return.' Doctors Without Borders said they could not reach staff at al-Shifa, where thousands of displaced people have been sheltering. Amid an Israeli advance against Hamas, several hospitals in Gaza City have come under fire or were overtaken by Israeli forces on Friday, forcing their evacuation, according to videos verified by The Washington Post." ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times's live updates are here. CNN's live updates are here.

The Conversation -- November 10, 2023

Jeanne Whalen of the Washington Post: "President Biden and the head of the United Auto Workers on Thursday hailed the planned reopening of a shuttered auto factory in northern Illinois, saying the recent autoworkers' strike had pushed Stellantis to reinvest in the site and promise thousands of new jobs. The Jeep maker's pledge to reopen the facility was one of the union's bigger wins in the tentative contract agreement that it reached with the company late last month. It's also a win for Biden, who threw his weight behind the autoworkers' strike and personally lobbied Stellantis for the factory's revival. The tentative agreement, which still must be ratified by a majority of Stellantis's UAW workers, calls for the company to invest roughly $5 billion in Belvidere, a small city 70 miles northwest of Chicago." ~~~

     ~~~ Jennifer Bahney of Mediaite: "President Joe Biden had a comical moment while addressing United Auto Workers members in Illinois on Thursday in the form of a sudden thud that interrupted his speech.... 'I want the press to know, that wasn't me,' he continued to applause and laughter, as he broke into a smile."

Tony Romm & Marianna Sotomayor of the Washington Post: "For the second time this year, the U.S. government on Thursday began making formal preparations for a possible federal shutdown, as hard-line House conservatives once again threatened to leave Congress unable to meet a fast-approaching fiscal deadline. With only eight days remaining [MB: make that seven] before current funding expires, the White House's top budget office told federal agencies to ready their plans for a major interruption, which could see millions of civilian workers and military personnel sent home or forced to work without pay after Nov. 17.... Even as the House prepared on Thursday to conclude its legislative work for the week, the chamber still did not have a fully developed plan in hand to extend federal funding, days after House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) urged the public to 'trust us.'" ~~~

~~~ Epic Fail. Catie Edmondson & Carl Hulse of the New York Times: “At odds with one another on spending, House Republicans abruptly scrapped their legislative work on Thursday and left Washington with little progress toward funding the government and no plan to avert a shutdown next week. Speaker Mike Johnson, just two weeks into the job, had yet to give any public indication about his plan to prevent a lapse in government spending -- currently slated to happen next Friday at midnight if Congress fails to act. That effort would involve rallying deeply anti-spending Republicans around a stopgap funding bill that is likely to be a dead letter in the Democratic-controlled Senate. Instead of revealing a path forward to keep the government open, Mr. Johnson spent the week trying and failing to push through two individual spending bills that collapsed for lack of G.O.P. support." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The chaos caucus almost certainly wants to shut down the government. They're so anti-government that they seem to have a perverse strategy to prove that everything about the federal government, themselves included, is worthless. BTW, Mike, an actual leader would keep the kids in their seats all weekend, not give them a long weekend vacay.

Sour Grapes. Manu Raju, et al., of CNN: "Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy ... railed on the Republicans who voted for his removal -- and bluntly predicted that one of his detractors would lose reelection next year. In an exclusive interview with CNN in his new office on Thursday, McCarthy said that GOP Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina didn't deserve to be reelected in her competitive district next year -- and he questioned the wisdom of his GOP critics for following the lead of Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, whom he accused of leading the charge out of retaliation for an ethics complaint he is facing.... McCarthy referred to six of his GOP detractors as 'disruptors,' and said he was particularly surprised that Mace and Tennessee Rep. Tim Burchett joined Gaetz in the effort to oust him. And McCarthy said the Republican Party would benefit 'tremendously' if Gaetz was no longer a member of the House, saying there should be 'consequences' for his action."

Pot > Kettle. Tori Otten of the New Republic, republished by Yahoo! News: Rep. James "Comer [R-Ky.] has for months accused [President] Biden of corruption, although he has yet to produce any evidence. In late October, he dropped a so-called 'bombshell': Biden had given his brother James Biden a $200,000 check with the words 'loan repayment' on the front. Comer insisted the check was actually proof of 'shady' business practices in the Biden family, despite the fact that multiple news outlets -- including conservative-leaning ones -- found evidence to the contrary. What's more, the check was from 2018, when Biden was not in office or running for president. But as The Daily Beast pointed out in a report published Thursday, 'if Comer genuinely believes these transactions clear the "shady business practices" bar, he might want to consider a parallel inquiry into his own family.' Not only did Comer also lend his brother $200,000, he did it in the sketchiest way possible, according to the report. Comer co-owns a farming business with his brother.... With this business, Comer and his brother have engaged in multiple land swaps over the years.... While he was swapping the land from his family's farming business, Comer held multiple important roles in agriculture oversight.... The Beast also found that Comer supposedly runs multiple businesses that do not appear to exist on paper." Thanks to Forrest M. for the link.

Tobi Raji of the Washington Post: "The Senate Judiciary Committee postponed its highly anticipated Thursday morning vote to subpoena a pair of close associates of two Supreme Court justices, after Republicans on the committee filed more than 90 amendments to slow the next phase of a months-long Supreme Court ethics inquiry. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary subcommittee that oversees the federal courts, in a statement accused Republicans of 'jamm[ing] the gears of the committee' as it seeks to understand the extent of the gifts and luxury trips Dallas billionaire Harlan Crow and conservative judicial activist Leonard Leo provided or helped arrange for Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr." CNN's story is here.

** Jack Has a Plan. Kyle Cheney of Politico: "A new court filing from [Jack] Smith's team this week reveals that the mob that stormed Congress in [Donald] Trump's name will be the centerpiece of his trial, scheduled to begin on March 4. It wasn't just an unfortunate reaction to Trump's incendiary remarks that day, prosecutors contend. It was a tool that Trump used to launch one last desperate bid to cling to power. Trump's criminal conspiracies 'culminated and converged' on Jan. 6, when he attempted to prevent Congress from finalizing Joe Biden's victory, argued senior assistant special counsel Molly Gaston. One of the ways that the defendant did so ... was to direct an angry crowd of his supporters to the Capitol and to continue to stoke their anger while they were rioting,' Gaston wrote in the filing.... By combining the Trump allegations with the riot, Smith is unlocking a mountain of case law developed in those Jan. 6 riot cases to tie Trump more clearly to the violence than he has been to date. In short, he's casting Trump as one of the 1,200-plus riot defendants who have already been charged....

"The words in Smith's filing are almost verbatim the case that the committee's vice chair, Liz Cheney, made at the panel's first public hearing.... To make [the prosecution's] case, Smith seems poised to adopt another tactic the select committee once used: testimony of the Jan. 6 rioters themselves, along with video of the mob's intense violence -- much of it coming after Trump repeatedly implored his supporters to march on the Capitol.... Dozens -- if not hundreds -- of those charged in the riot have pointed squarely at Trump for motivating their conduct. Thousands of Trump's supporters had already begun marching to the Capitol before Trump urged them to conduct their march 'peacefully and patriotically.'" ~~~

The new prosecution filing, which is here, was submitted in answer to Trump's motion to "prohibit federal prosecutors from even mentioning the chaos and violence unleashed by his supporters at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021." This answer is worth reading, too, as it provides not only a narrative of January 6 events but also evidence that Trump himself has previously admitted, in court filings, that the the indictment "directly alleges that [the defendant] 'directed [supporters] to the Capitol to obstruct the certification proceeding,"' and argued that any Select Committee records of his and others' knowledge and intent related to actions at the Capitol on January 6 "is plainly relevant." (Also linked yesterday.)

Katelyn Polantz & Paula Reid of CNN: "A plumber, a maid, a chauffeur and a woodworker are among Mar-a-Lago staffers and contract workers who federal prosecutors may call to testify against ... Donald Trump and his two co-defendants at their upcoming criminal trial in Florida, according to multiple people familiar with the investigation.... Other likely witnesses also include Trump Secret Service agents, former intelligence officials, as well as people who were in the room with Trump when he was captured on multiple audio recordings referencing a military document about potential plans to bomb Iran, according to the sources. But the low-level workers who were the eyes and ears of Mar-a-Lago, if called to testify, could offer the public a new level of insight into the exclusive club and Trump's approach to sensitive national security information since he left office. Some of them are still employed at Mar-a-Lago."

Marcy Wheeler: "Right in the middle of an impeachment for extorting Volodymyr Zelenskyy to dig up dirt on the Bidens and Burisma, Bill Barr's DOJ shut down a corruption investigation into Burisma's Mykola Zlochevsky. Then, days later, Barr set up a process that would insert an allegation that Zlochevsky bribed Joe Biden into the ongoing investigation of Hunter Biden. That is -- by far -- the most scandalous allegation that has come out of the Jamie Comer and Jim Jordan-led effort to gin up an impeachment of Joe Biden. Bill Barr's DOJ shut down an investigation into Zlochevsky's corruption, and then mainlined an allegation of corruption involving Zlochevsky into the investigation of Joe Biden's son. To be fair, the claim that Bill Barr's DOJ shut down a corruption investigation of Zlochevsky didn't come from Comer or Jordan. It came from [Sen.] Chuck Grassley [R-Iowa]. Thanks to RAS for the link. MB: Just is case you were wondering if Barr's DOJ might have been politically corrupt right at the tippy-top. (Also linked yesterday.)

Elections 2024

Michael Wines of the New York Times: "Suspicious letters were sent to local elections officials in at least four states, the authorities said on Thursday, including to two locations in Washington State that were said to include white powders containing the toxic drug fentanyl. Preliminary tests indicated that letters sent to at least two of four Washington election offices -- in Spokane County and King County, which includes Seattle -- contained fentanyl, law enforcement officials said. Georgia authorities said that a letter bound for the election office in Fulton County, which includes much of Atlanta, had been flagged as potentially including fentanyl but had not yet been delivered. And California authorities said that they were uncertain what was in letters sent to election offices in Sacramento and Los Angeles. Fentanyl can be fatal if ingested even in small doses, but in general, experts say, skin contact such as what might occur when opening a letter poses little risk. None of the affected election offices reported that any employees were [was!] injured." The NBC News story is here.

Presidential Race. Matt Viser & Michael Scherer of the Washington Post: "President Biden ... is now facing an expanding list of declared or potential challengers who could further complicate his effort to win a second term and defeat leading rival Donald Trump. On Thursday, Jill Stein, blamed by some Democrats for helping to funnel votes away from Hillary Clinton in 2016, announced another presidential bid in 2024 as the Green Party candidate. And later in the day, Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) ... announced he was retiring from the Senate and would spend the coming months traveling the country to gauge 'if there is an interest in creating a movement to mobilize the middle and bring Americans together.' [Manchin stories linked below.] Biden also faces nettlesome campaign opponents in Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.) -- who recently launched a Democratic primary challenge declaring that 'it's time for a new generation' -- and from Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who after flirting with a primary campaign is running as an independent in the general election."

Presidential Race. Margaret Sullivan of the Guardian: Reading the results of a poll that "showed Donald Trump winning the presidential election by significant margins over Joe Biden in several swing states..., [plus] Biden's low approval ratings, despite his accomplishments, and you come to an unavoidable conclusion: the news media needs [need!] to do its job better. The press must get across to American citizens the crucial importance of this election and the dangers of a Trump win.... Instead, journalists have emphasized Joe Biden's age and Trump's 'freewheeling' style. They blame the public's attitudes on 'polarization', as if they themselves have no role. And, of course, they make the election about the horse race -- rather than what would happen a few lengths after the finish line. Here's what must be hammered home: Trump cannot be re-elected if you want the United States to be a place where elections decide outcomes, where voting rights matter, and where politicians don't baselessly prosecute their adversaries." Thanks to Elizabeth for the link. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Maegan Vazquez of the Washington Post: "In an interview that aired Thursday night on Univision..., Donald Trump indicated that if he's elected in 2024, he may use the federal government to punish his critics and he defended his administration's separation of migrant families at the U.S.-Mexico border. During the interview on the Spanish-language TV network, journalist Enrique Acevedo asked Trump if he would weaponize the FBI and Justice Department on his opponents in the same way he claims federal law enforcement agencies have been weaponized against him. 'Yeah. If they do this, and they've already done it, but if they follow through on this, yeah, it could certainly happen in reverse,' Trump told Acevedo, according to excerpts of the interview.... 'They have done something that allows the next party ... if I happen to be president and I see somebody who's doing well and beating me very badly, I say, 'Go down and indict them." They'd be out of business. They'd be out of the election,' Trump continued....

"The decision to separate families [at the U.S.-Mexico border], he argued, stopped people from coming by their hundreds of thousands because 'when they hear family separation, they say "Well, we better not go."'" MB: I doubt this sounds any better in Spanish. A CBS News story is here.

Presidential Race/West Virginia Senate Race. Manchin's One-Two Punch. Burgess Everett of Politico: "Joe Manchin will not seek reelection to the Senate, a move that essentially cedes his seat to the GOP in deep-red West Virginia and removes one of Congress' most prominent centrist voices in either party.... Manchin has repeatedly declined to rule out a third-party run for president, possibly on a ticket funded by the deep-pocketed group No Labels. He indicated that he may not be leaving the political scene entirely, saying that he will be 'traveling the country and speaking out to see if there is an interest in creating a movement to mobilize the middle.'" MB: Newsflash, Joe: A politician who avidly promotes fossil fuel is not "in the middle." Anyhow, I have the feeling Joe looked in the mirror and saw a distinguished senator who should be president. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: Joe Manchin's decision "not seek re-election [deals] a blow to Democrats' chances of holding the Senate next year.... Mr. Manchin, who served six years as governor before his election to the Senate in 2010, was seen as the only Democrat with a chance of holding the seat.... Instead, Mr. Manchin ... said he would continue exploring whether there was an appetite in the country for a centrist third-party bid for the presidency. That prospect has alarmed many Democrats, who fear such a run could doom President Biden's hopes of remaining in the White House.

~~~~~~~~~~

Israel/Palestine

The New York Times' live updates of developments Friday in the Israel/Hamas war are here. ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live updates are here: "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel doesn't 'seek to occupy Gaza,' a slight shift in tone after his previous comments that Israel would be responsible for the Palestinian enclave's security 'for an indefinite period' raised red flags in the Biden administration. 'We don't seek to conquer Gaza ... and we don't seek to govern Gaza,' he said in an interview with Fox News late Thursday, adding that the goal 'in the foreseeable future' was to eliminate threats from Hamas militants. Israel announced a six-hour evacuation corridor on Gaza's main highway on Friday, after agreeing to 'tactical, localized pauses' for aid deliveries and fleeing civilians. However, this fell short of the three-day pause sought by President Biden, while aid groups described the pauses as insufficient for Palestinians growing desperate with little food or water, and nowhere safe to flee. ~~~

"Barbara Leaf, the top U.S. diplomat for the Middle East, said this week that the number of Palestinian lives lost in Gaza is likely to be higher than the 10,000 being cited by Gaza's Health Ministry. Leaf, the assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern Affairs, told a House panel Wednesday the number of lives lost in just one month of fighting is probably 'higher than is being cited.'" ~~~

     ~~~ CNN's live updates for Friday are here: "US Secretary of State Antony Blinken gave one of his most direct condemnations yet of the mounting death toll in Gaza, saying 'far too many Palestinians have been killed.' The US has offered firm support to Israel but Blinken's messaging has shifted in recent days. A hospital in Gaza said Israeli strikes hit near the vicinity of two hospitals in the north of the territory, where fighting has been raging. Israel has not commented on the strikes, but accuses Hamas of embedding itself in civilian infrastructure."

New York Times: "Israeli strikes have continued to batter the Gaza Strip since Israel's ground invasion began 13 days ago. As the Israeli military has encircled Gaza City and reached deep into the city, air and ground strikes have hit locations throughout the enclave where thousands of displaced people are known to be sheltering, including hospitals and schools."

From CNN's liveblog on the Israel/Hamas war, also linked yesterday: "Israel will begin to implement four-hour pauses of military operations in areas of northern Gaza each day, the White House says, to allow for humanitarian assistance and to allow civilians to flee. Israel will announce the timing of the pauses three hours beforehand, according to John Kirby, a spokesperson for the US National Security Council. 'We've been told by the Israelis that there will be no military operations in these areas over the duration of the pause, and that this process is starting today,' Kirby said." MB: It seems pretty clear, from comments President Biden made to reporters, that the U.S. is behind these temporary ceasefires. I doubt if Trump -- or any of the bozos on Wednesday night's debate state, would have instigated these humanitarian pauses. (Also linked yesterday.)

Charlie Nash of Mediaite: "An open letter condemning 'Israel's killing of journalists in Gaza' received more than 750 signatures from journalists on Thursday. 'We condemn Israel's killing of journalists in Gaza and urge integrity in Western media coverage of Israel's atrocities against Palestinians,' declared the letter, which noted that at least 35 journalists had been killed, with many other reporters losing members of their family, as a result of Israel's bombing campaign in Gaza over the past month." MB: That is a staggering number of journalists killed in less than a month. By comparison, in the 20-year Vietnam war, 63 journalists were killed.

Jake Offenhartz of the AP: ""Pro-Palestinian demonstrators occupied the lobby of The New York Times on Thursday, demanding an immediate cease-fire in Gaza while accusing the media of showing a bias toward Israel in its coverage of the Israel-Hamas war. The latest in a series of near-nightly demonstrations since the start of the war saw thousands march through Midtown Manhattan to protest Israel's attacks on Gaza. At around 5 p.m., a small group of demonstrators led by media workers calling themselves 'Writers Bloc' entered the atrium of the Times building carrying a banner calling for a cease-fire. They remained for over an hour, reading off the names of thousands of Palestinians killed in Gaza, including at least 36 journalists whose deaths have been confirmed since the war began. They scattered editions of a mock newspaper -- 'The New York War Crimes' -- that charged the media with 'complicity in laundering genocide' and called on The Times' editorial board to publicly back a cease-fire."