January 10, 2023

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Ben Protess, et al., of the New York Times: "Allen H. Weisselberg, once one of Donald J. Trump's most loyal lieutenants, was sentenced on Tuesday to five months at the Rikers Island jail complex for his role in a tax fraud scheme that led to the conviction of the Trump Organization last year. A state court judge handed down the sentence after Mr. Weisselberg, 75, who worked for the Trump family for the past half-century, testified as the prosecution's star witness at the trial of the company. Mr. Weisselberg, its former chief financial officer, had been facing years in prison. Under a plea deal, he agreed to testify truthfully in exchange for a punishment that, with good behavior, might last no more than 100 days."

Hugo Lowell of the Guardian: "The US justice department is intensifying its investigation of Donald Trump's unauthorized retention of national security materials as it prepares to question the people who searched the former president's properties at the end of last year and found more documents with classified markings. The department was given a general explanation from Trump's lawyers at the time about who conducted the search.... But the department, unsatisfied with that accounting, last week convinced a federal judge in a sealed hearing to force Trump's lawyers to give the names of the people who retrieved the documents with an intent to question them directly.... The pattern of prosecutors now seeking judicial intervention at every turn signals an aggressive posture from the special counsel Jack Smith...." ~~~

~~~ Yeah But. Whaddaboud Joe? ~~~

~~~ Marcy Wheeler writes a post on the Biden confidential documents in which she calls out "insanely bad reporting, including this article from the NYT -- with four reporters bylined and two more contributing." That's the same NYT article linked below. In addition to other faults Wheeler finds with the Times reporters, she says they fail to "note that Biden is not complaining that this is under investigation, whereas Trump has never shut up about it. Indeed, a key part of Trump's defense has been that NARA had no authority to refer the matter for investigation. So Trump's embrace of this investigation eliminates a claim he has been relying on in his own defense. Another amusing difference is that for the entirety of the Trump Administration, Biden continued to have clearance; Biden decided not to continue intelligence briefings for Trump shortly after he launched a coup attempt.... But there's something else missing from the coverage so far: it's not even clear that the documents had been in Biden's possession, as opposed to another of his former staffers at the Obama White House. As CBS noted [also linked below], Tony Blinken was the Managing Director at the start, followed by Steve Richetti.... In other words, it might not even be a Biden thing." ~~~

~~~ Tommy Christopher of Mediaite: "Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough did an extended comedy bit mocking comparisons between President Joe Biden's self-reported and immediately-returned classified documents and the criminal probe into ... Donald Trump over classified docs." Video & transcript of route included. ~~~

~~~ Jamie Gangel & Marshall Cohen of CNN have an update on information about the documents found in President Biden's private office at U. Penn. MB: IMO, the opportunities for innocent explanations abound as to how those docs got there & stayed there, as long as Biden doesn't suddenly have a Trumpertantrum & declare, "It's not theirs; it's mine."

George Santos really likes the new House rules package that severely weakens the House ethics committee.

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Marie: Sorry for all the late entries. My computer would not wake up this morning, and every little entry took at least 20 minutes to post. I'll try again a little later. Fighting with an inanimate object has worn me out.

Michael Shear & Natalie Kitroeff of the New York Times: "President Biden was under growing political pressure Monday to confront the surge of undocumented migrants at the southern border as he began two days of diplomacy in Mexico City intended to secure more help from Mexico to stem the tide of people fleeing toward the United States. Mr. Biden is also looking for more cooperation from Mexico in the fight against drug trafficking, and for the resolution of a dispute over the Mexican government's financial support for its energy industries. He began those conversations on Monday evening with a one-on-one meeting with the country's president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the second time that the two leaders have met in person since Mr. Biden took office two years ago."

Catie Edmondson of the New York Times: "House Republicans on Monday pushed through an overhaul of operating rules for the new Congress, overcoming the concerns of some rank-and-file members about concessions that Speaker Kevin McCarthy made to the hard right last week in the desperate and drawn-out process of securing his job.... On Monday, he was already confronting his first challenge, uncertain whether he would have the votes even to approve the rules that would allow the House to begin legislative business. In the end, a handful of holdouts dropped their opposition and supported the measure...." ~~~

~~~ Carl Hulse & Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "The set of new rules Republicans pushed through the House on Monday make it easier to remove their own speaker, establish new investigatory committees, and make it harder to raise taxes or spend federal money, and could potentially slow ethics investigations. The package, backed by the House on a mostly party-line vote, does not detail all of the concessions made by Kevin McCarthy to nail down the votes he needed to be elected speaker -- such as the allocation of prime committee assignments -- some of which were handshake deals or would require further action by House Republicans."

     ~~~ Marie: Rachel Maddow said Monday night on-air that she was concerned the most consequential "new rule" may be the one that sets of a committee, headed by Jungle Gym Jordan, to run "oversight" of "ongoing Justice Department investigations." If Congress is able to prevail over the DOJ, which certainly will tell the boys to butt out, that would mean Jordan & others would not only be snooping into, and possibly aborting, investigations of Donald Trump, but also investigations of themselves & other insurrectionists. For instance, Scott Perry, who wants to be on the committee, is already under investigation. Later, on Lawrence O'Donnell's show, Andrew Weissmann & Neal Katyal agreed that this was something up with which no reputable attorney general would put. ~~~

~~~ Hugo Lowell of the Guardian: "House Republicans moved to pre-emptively kill any investigations against its members as it curtailed the power of an independent ethics office just as it was weighing whether to open inquiries into lawmakers who defied subpoenas issued by the House January 6 select committee last year.... The rules package first undercut the ability of the office of congressional ethics (OCE) to function.... The changes to the OCE are twofold: reintroducing term limits for members of the bipartisan board, which would force out three of four Democratic-appointed members, and restricting its ability to hire professional staff in the first 30 days of the new congressional session.... In essence, the changes mean that by the time the OCE has a board, it may have run out of time to hire staff, leaving it with one counsel to do possible investigations into the new House speaker Kevin McCarthy and other Republican lawmakers who defied January 6 select committee subpoenas. There would also only be that one counsel to investigate Republican congressman George Santos...."

Tony Romm of the Washington Post: "Fulfilling their 2022 election pledge to take aim at President Biden's economic agenda, House Republicans late Monday voted to strip roughly $71 billion from the Internal Revenue Service, targeting money Congress approved last year to help the agency find and pursue tax cheats. The 221-210 outcome marked the first major legislative effort by a new GOP majority now under the leadership of Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.)." MB: Besides being Kevin's first bill, it is also his first bill designed to harm ordinary Americans. The noble idea here is to make sure that rich people don't have to pay their fair share & you have to wait on the phone for hours if you call the IRS. Fortunately, should the bill pass the Senate, which is unlikely, President Biden will veto it.

Peter Baker, et al., of the New York Times: "President Biden's lawyers discovered 'a small number' of classified documents in his former office at a Washington think tank last fall, the White House said on Monday, prompting the Justice Department to scrutinize the situation to determine how to proceed. The inquiry, according to two people familiar with the matter, is a type aimed at helping Attorney General Merrick B. Garland decide whether to appoint a special counsel, like the one investigating ... Donald J. Trump's hoarding of sensitive documents and failure to return all of them. The documents found in Mr. Biden's former office, which date to his time as vice president, were found by his personal lawyers on Nov. 2, when they were packing files at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, according to the White House.... The White House said in a statement that the White House Counsel's Office notified the National Archives and Records Administration on the same day the documents were found 'in a locked closet' and that the agency retrieved them the next morning.... The discovery was not in response to any prior request from the archives, and there was no indication that Mr. Biden or his team resisted efforts to recover any sensitive documents. Mr. Garland has assigned John R. Lausch Jr., the U.S. attorney in Chicago who was appointed by Mr. Trump, to look into the matter...." The CBS News story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: In case you are of the misapprehension that this is "just like" the Mar-a-Lago thing, it isn't. One of these things is not like the other. Biden's own lawyers & his own White House counsel's office immediately notified the Archives about the documents & immediately turned them over to the Archives. After the Archives discovered Trump had retained hundreds of classified documents & thousands of presidential records, Trump refused to turn them over and used his lawyers to obfuscate & withhold the purloined papers for more than half a year. The contrast could hardly be starker.

Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "Rudolph W. Giuliani, the lawyer who oversaw ... Donald J. Trump's legal challenges to the 2020 election, has received a grand jury subpoena for records related to his representation of Mr. Trump, including those that detailed any payments he received, a person familiar with the matter said on Monday. The subpoena, which was sent in November, bore the name of a prosecutor in the U.S. attorney's office in Washington. It predated the appointment of Jack Smith, the special counsel chosen to take over the Justice Department's investigation of the roles that Mr. Trump and several of his aides and lawyers played in seeking to overturn the results of the election. It remained unclear, however, if Mr. Smith and his team have assumed control of the part of the inquiry related to Mr. Giuliani. As part of its investigation, the special counsel's office has been examining, among other things, the inner workings of Mr. Trump's fund-raising vehicle, Save America PAC. The records subpoenaed from Mr. Giuliani could include some related to payments made by the PAC...." NEW. CNN's report is here.

Richard Fausset & Danny Hakim of the New York Times: "A special grand jury investigating ... Donald J. Trump and his allies for possible election interference in Georgia after the 2020 contest has concluded its work, according to Judge Robert McBurney of the Superior Court of Fulton County, who oversaw the grand jury.... The report has not been publicly released, so it is not clear what the grand jury recommended [or].... A hearing will be held on Jan. 24 to determine whether the report will be made public, as the grand jury is recommending, according to the judge's order. Any criminal charges would have to be sought from one of the regular grand juries that consider criminal matters in the county." CNN's story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Keith Alexander of the Washington Post: "The D.C. Court of Appeals on Tuesday will hear arguments on whether Donald Trump was acting within his job as president when he denied a writer's allegation that he sexually assaulted her in the mid-1990s -- a legal question that is key to whether the writer's defamation lawsuit against Trump can move forward. Lawyers for the New York-based writer E. Jean Carroll argue that Trump acted as a private citizen when he denied raping Carroll, and therefore can be sued like anyone else. Trump's lawyers argue that his responses were made as part of his job as president -- which would effectively end Carroll's case against him."

Isaac Stanley-Becker of the Washington Post: "A complaint filed Monday with the Federal Election Commission accused Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.), who has admitted to fabricating key details of his biography, of wide-ranging campaign finance violations. The alleged wrongdoing includes masking the true source of his campaign's funding, misrepresenting his campaign's spending and using campaign resources to cover personal expenses. The complaint, filed by the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center, could propel a formal investigation into Santos by the federal regulator, the latest chapter in a saga testing the boundaries of political falsehood. Santos has been revealed to have lied about his heritage, education and professional qualifications during his campaign for Congress last year."

Benjamin Wiser & Lola Fadulu of the New York Times: The trial began Monday of "Sayfullo Saipov, the man accused of driving a rental truck down [Lower Mahattan's Hudson River bike] path, killing eight people and wounding more than a dozen others, all in the name of the Islamic State.... Mr. Saipov is the first person to face a death penalty trial during the administration of President Biden, who had campaigned against capital punishment.... [Donald Trump's] attorney general ... authorized prosecutors in the Southern District of New York to seek Mr. Saipov's execution if he was convicted [after Trump tweeted, 'SHOULD GET DEATH PENALTY!']. Mr. Saipov's lawyers last year asked the Justice Department under President Biden to withdraw the death penalty request, but Attorney General Merrick B. Garland refused."

Beyond the Beltway

Arkansas. Jonathan Edwards of the Washington Post: "On Thursday, [Arkansas Judge Thomas] Carruth, 63, was arrested on accusations that he solicited sex in exchange for judicial favors and then lied about it to the FBI. A federal grand jury in the U.S. District of Eastern Arkansas has indicted him on three counts of honest services wire fraud, three counts of using a facility in interstate commerce in furtherance of unlawful activity, one count of bribery, one count of making false statements and one count of obstruction of justice.... Carruth resigned his position as judge in August before successfully running for city attorney of Clarendon, a town of about 1,500 in Monroe County, Ark., according to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette." In 2018, the state's Judicial Discipline and Disability Commission admonished him for the same type of conduct. According to the federal indictment, in 2018, Carruth "had solicited sexual favors from women appearing before him as a judge." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: One would think that the people of a small town like Clarendon would know what a slimeball Carruth (allegedly!) is. But they elected him to a position of responsibility anyway.

New Mexico. Jesus Jiménez & April Rubin of the New York Times: "The authorities in Albuquerque announced Monday that a suspect in the recent shootings at the homes or offices of a half-dozen Democratic elected officials was in custody on unrelated charges and that they had recovered a gun used in at least one of the shootings. Officials did not release information on the suspect other than to say that he is a man under 50; nor would they say what the unrelated charges were.... The authorities have not definitively tied the shootings to politics or ideology."

Virginia. Justin Jouvenal, et al., of the Washington Post: "Abigail Zwerner was teaching a lesson Friday at a Virginia elementary school when a 6-year-old student pulled out a 9mm handgun he had brought from home, pointed it in her direction and fired a single shot, police said Monday. The bullet tore through the teacher's raised hand and hit her chest, but despite the grievous wound, the 25-year-old managed to usher 16 to 20 students to safety from her Richneck Elementary School classroom in Newport News, police said.Newport News Police Chief Steve Drew credited Zwerner with saving lives Monday, after watching the aftermath of the shooting unfold on school surveillance video.... The boy's mother had purchased the gun legally, Drew said.... The motive for the shooting remains under investigation, but Drew said it was not preceded by any kind of altercation, as police had previously indicated. They are still investigating how the boy got the gun from his home."

Way Beyond

Ukraine, et al. The Washington Post's live briefing of developments Tuesday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "Fighting has intensified around Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk region, Kyiv warned Monday. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Russian forces 'have concentrated their greatest efforts' on Soledar, a salt mining town just three miles from Bakhmut, where the land is 'covered with the corpses of the occupiers and scars from the strikes.' A senior Ukrainian defense official said Russian forces had regrouped and launched a powerful assault on Soledar over the weekend. The recent fighting has been 'really savage,' including 'thousands upon thousands of artillery rounds that have been delivered between both sides,' a senior U.S. defense official said Monday.... Russian forces and hired fighters from the Wagner Group are likely in control of most of [Soledar], Britain's Defense Ministry said Tuesday.... Iran could be contributing to war crimes in Ukraine by providing military support to Russia, the White House said Monday. Russia has used hundreds of Iranian attack drones to target civilian infrastructure in Ukraine, according to U.S. and Ukrainian officials."

Brazil, U.S. Miriam Berger, et al., of the Washington Post: Former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro's "tenure in [Florida], where some analysts believe he's hoping to stay clear of possible legal trouble back home, could be limited. If he entered the United States on a diplomatic visa, he would have to depart by the end of the month or apply for a different status, the State Department said Monday, amid calls by some lawmakers to extradite the far-right leader. The United States requires all visitors from Brazil to acquire a visa. But Bolsonaro's legal status remains murky. Both the White House and the State Department have refused to comment on his visa status, citing the need to protect individual confidentiality.... The White House said that while it had not yet received any requests from Brazil regarding Bolsonaro's 'visa status,' it would 'treat seriously' any inquiries to review or revoke it." ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post is live-updating developments related to the riots in Brazil's capital. ~~~

~~~ Michael Luciano of Mediaite: "Tucker Carlson baselessly claimed Brazil's presidential election was rigged and said rioters who stormed government buildings in the capital city have reason to be angry.... On Monday, Carlson, who conducted a softball interview with Bolsonaro in June, told his audience unequivocally that Brazil's election was 'very clearly. stolen.... [Carlson] went on to allege [current President] Lula 'has eliminated [the rioters'] most basic civil liberties,' though he did not explain how."

>News Ledes

New York Times: "Blake Hounshell, an influential political journalist who was managing editor of Foreign Policy magazine and a top editor at Politico before joining The New York Times and overseeing its popular newsletter 'On Politics,' died on Tuesday in Washington. He was 44."

"The Forger." New York Times: Adolfo "Kaminsky died on Monday at his home in Paris, his daughter Sarah Kaminsky said. He was 97.... Kaminsky's talent was as banal as could be: He knew how to remove supposedly indelible blue ink from paper. But it was a skill that helped save the lives of thousands of Jews in France during World War II. He had learned how to remove such stains as a teenager working for a clothes dyer and dry cleaner in his Normandy town. When he joined the anti-Nazi resistance at 18, his expertise enabled him to erase Jewish-sounding names like Abraham or Isaac that were officially inscribed on French ID and food ration cards, and substitute them with typically gentile-sounding ones. The forged documents allowed Jewish children, their parents and others to escape deportation to Auschwitz and other concentration camps, and in many cases to flee Nazi-occupied territory for safe havens." ~~~

     ~~~ You can watch the New York Times' award-winning 2016 documentary about Kaminsky here. (NYT link.)

New York Times: "Charles Simic, the renowned Serbian-American poet whose work combined a melancholy old-world sensibility with a sensual and witty sense of modern life, died on Monday at an assisted living facility in Dover, N.H. He was 84."

Washington Post: "Heavy rain will continue to fall over California on Tuesday, weather officials said, as the ongoing bout of strong storms ravages the state, causing flash flooding, toppled trees, at least 14 fatalities and sweeping away a 5-year-old boy who remains missing."

January 9, 2023

Afternoon Update:

Marie: I gather the House will meet tonight to vote tonight on establishing rules for this Congress.

Richard Fausset & Danny Hakim of the New York Times: "A special grand jury investigating ... Donald J. Trump and his allies for possible election interference in Georgia after the 2020 contest has concluded its work, according to Judge Robert McBurney of the Superior Court of Fulton County, who oversaw the grand jury.... The report has not been publicly released, so it is not clear what the grand jury recommended [or].... A hearing will be held on Jan. 24 to determine whether the report will be made public, as the grand jury is recommending, according to the judge's order. Any criminal charges would have to be sought from one of the regular grand juries that consider criminal matters in the county." CNN's story is here.

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Cleve Wootson of the Washington Post: "President Biden on Sunday made his first trip to the southern border since his election two years ago, seeking to blunt criticism that his immigration policies have been ineffective and increasingly less humane than he promised.... On Sunday, Biden toured enforcement operations and spoke with border patrol agents at [El Paso's] busiest crossing. He walked along a border fence and then met with local officials, faith leaders and aid groups at a migrant services center. Asked what he's learned during the trip, he said: 'They need a lot of resources. We're going to get it for them.' The president traveled with several members of Congress and a coterie of local and federal law enforcement officers." The Guardian's story is here.

Hope Yen & Lisa Mascaro of the AP: "After an epic 15-ballot election to become House speaker, Republican Kevin McCarthy faces his next big test in governing a fractious, slim majority: passing a rules package to govern the House. The drafting and approval of a set of rules is normally a fairly routine legislative affair, but in these times, it's the next showdown for the embattled McCarthy.... Promises [McCarthy made to far-right extremists] -- or at least some of them -- are being put into writing to be voted on when lawmakers return this week for their first votes as the majority party. On Sunday, at least two moderate Republicans expressed their reservations about supporting the rules package, citing what they described as secret deals and the disproportionate power potentially being handed out to a group of 20 conservatives.... Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., a strong McCarthy supporter, said she currently is 'on the fence' about the proposed rules.... Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, was an outright 'no' against the rules package...." A related New York Times story is here.

Let the "Investigations" Begin. Charlie Savage & Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: &"Newly empowered House Republicans are preparing a wide-ranging investigation into law enforcement and national security agencies, raising the prospect of politically charged fights with the Biden administration over access to sensitive information like highly classified intelligence and the details of continuing criminal inquiries by the Justice Department. The House plans to vote this week on a resolution to create a special Judiciary subcommittee on what it calls the 'weaponization of the federal government,' a topic that Republicans have signaled could include reviewing investigations into ... Donald J. Trump. The panel would be overseen by Representative Jim Jordan, Republican of Ohio, who is also poised to become the Judiciary Committee’s chairman."

As If Wells Fargo Weren't Bad Enough. Bryan Pietsch & Karishma Mehrotra of the Washington Post: "An executive at Wells Fargo's operations in India was fired and is being held following allegations that he urinated on an elderly woman during a flight from New York to New Delhi. The man, Shankar Mishra, was arrested in Bangalore by New Delhi police on Saturday, said Suman Nalwa, a police spokeswoman. A judge in New Delhi ordered him to be held in prison for 14 days because he was considered a flight risk, Nalwa said." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: This story was linked in a number of places on the WashPo's front page Sunday. One was in the Travel section. I guess it's sort of a Tips for Travelers thing. Not sure if the message is (a) don't piss on your seatmate; you could get fired from your job; or (b) bring an extra outfit in your carry-on in case your seatmate pisses on you. Good advice in either case.

The Pandemic, Ctd. Fenit Nirappil & Laura WeberWashington Post: "Three years after the novel >coronavirus emerged, a new variant, XBB.1.5, is quickly becoming the dominant strain in parts of the United States because of a potent mix of mutations that makes it easier to spread broadly, including among those who have been previously infected or vaccinated. XBB.1.5, pegged by the World Health Organization as 'the most transmissible' descendant yet of the omicron variant, rose from barely 2 percent of U.S. cases at the start of December to more than 27 percent the first week of January, according to new estimates by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than 70 percent of cases in the Northeast are believed to be XBB.1.5." This article is free to nonsubscribers.

Beyond the Beltway

Colorado. Lauren Sforza of the Hill: "Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) announced Sunday that his state will stop sending migrants to New York City and Chicago after those cities' Democratic mayors told Polis they were becoming overwhelmed with the number of people arriving in their jurisdictions.... Polis' office said he had 'productive' conversations with New York City Mayor Eric Adams and Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and informed them that no more chartered migrant buses would be heading from Denver to Chicago or New York after tomorrow. Adams and Lightfoot wrote to Polis the day before asking him to halt busing migrants to their respective cities because they are 'over capacity,' Politico reported."

Florida. Valerie Strauss of the Washington Post: "Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) on Friday moved to turn the state's progressive public liberal arts honors college into a bastion of far-right conservatism like Hillsdale College in Michigan, a small but influential Christian school whose leader is aligned with ... Donald Trump. Three days after declaring that Florida is 'No. 1 in public higher education,' DeSantis appointed six new members to the board of the New College of Florida in Sarasota -- which is ranked fifth in 'top public schools' by U.S. News & World Report and which prides itself on educating 'free thinkers.' Its website says that the school community 'celebrates diversity, encourages individual expression, and values openness, kindness and mutual respect' and that the private college that was its predecessor was 'founded on principles of equality and inclusion.' That doesn't seem to be what DeSantis has in mind.... Christopher Rufo, one of the six appointments, tweeted on Jan. 4: 'Gov. DeSantis is going to lay siege to university "diversity, equity and inclusion' programs.'" MB: Nice.

Way Beyond

Brazil

Anthony Faiola & Mariana Dias of the Washington Post: "Thousands of radical backers of far-right ex-president Jair Bolsonaro breached and vandalized Brazil's presidential office building, congress and supreme court Sunday in scenes that hauntingly evoked the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol by supporters of ... Donald Trump. The attack -- the most significant threat to democracy in Latin America's largest nation since the 1964 military coup -- came a week after the inauguration of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to succeed Bolsonaro. It suggested a spreading plague of far-right disrupters in Western democracies, as hard-liners radicalized by incendiary political rhetoric refuse to accept election losses, cling to unfounded claims of fraud and undermine the rule of law.... Images broadcast by Globo TV showed smashed glass and protesters roaming the halls of the Planalto Palace, the office of the president. In an echo of the behavior of the U.S. insurrectionists, videos shared on social media showed bolsonaristas taking trophies." The AP's report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's liveblog of developments Sunday is here. The Post's liveblog for Monday is here. ~~~

~~~ Tom Phillips & Andrew Downie of the Guardian: "Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has toured the wreckage of his presidential palace after an extraordinary day of political violence in the capital, Brasília, saw thousands of far-right extremists run riot through the country's democratic institutions in a failed attempt to overthrow his week-old government.... Lula was not in Brasília at the time of the attack but he gave an angry speech blaming Bolsonaro for the chaos and promising that 'anyone involved will be punished'. Calling those who took part in the attacks 'vandals, neo-fascists and fanatics', Lula ordered a federal intervention in the capital, bringing policing under the control of the central government." ~~~

~~~ Jack Nicas & Ana Ionova of the New York Times: "The Brazilian authorities are investigating one of the worst attacks on the country's democracy in the 38 years since the end of the military dictatorship, after thousands of supporters of Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil's far-right former president, stormed government buildings in the capital, Brasília, on Sunday to protest what they falsely claim was a stolen election. Brazil was also bracing for the possibility of further unrest on Monday as the authorities started to dismantle tent cities outside military headquarters, where Bolsonaro supporters have been camping out since October's election." This is part of a liveblog posted Monday. ~~~

~~~ Jack Nicas & André Spigariol of the New York Times: "Thousands of supporters of Brazil's ousted former president, Jair Bolsonaro, stormed Brazil's Congress, Supreme Court and presidential offices on Sunday to protest what they falsely claim was a stolen election, the violent culmination of years of conspiracy theories advanced by Mr. Bolsonaro and his right-wing allies.... For years, Mr. Bolsonaro had asserted, without any proof, that Brazil's election systems were rife with fraud and that the nation's elites were conspiring to remove him from power. [Brazil's President, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva] said Sunday that those false claims had fueled the attack on the plaza...." This is part of a liveblog posted Sunday. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: As much as Brazilian wingers may have hoped to emulate Wingnuts of the U.S.A., one major difference between the two insurrection attempts is that the Brazilian institutions were not open for business on the day of their insurrection.

Olivia Olander & Nahal Toosi of Politico: "The Biden administration on Sunday condemned the attacks by supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil on the country's congress, supreme court and presidential palace. 'I condemn the assault on democracy and on the peaceful transfer of power in Brazil,' President Joe Biden tweeted Sunday evening after a visit to El Paso, Texas. 'Brazils democratic institutions have our full support and the will of the Brazilian people must not be undermined.'"

Lauren Sforza of the Hill: "Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) called on the Biden administration and local authorities in Florida on Sunday to send back to Brazil its former far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, whose supporters stormed the country's Congress and Supreme Court. '[Bolsonaro] should be extradited to Brazil,' Castro said to CNN's Jim Acosta. 'In fact, it was reported that he was under investigation for corruption and fled Brazil to the United States. He's a dangerous man, they should send him back to his home country, Brazil[.]' Bolsonaro flew to Florida in late December as he faced multiple investigations from his time in office, according to the New York Times."

Blame It on the Bosso Viejo. Mike Wendling of the BBC: "The scenes in Brasilia looked eerily similar to events at the US Capitol on 6 January two years ago - and there are deeper connections as well.... The [Brazilian presidential] race was heading towards a run-off and the final result was not even close to being known. Yet [Steve] Bannon, as he had been doing for weeks, spread baseless rumours about election fraud. Across several episodes of his podcast and in social media posts, he and his guests stoked up allegations of a 'stolen election' and shadowy forces. He promoted the hashtag #BrazilianSpring, and continued to encourage opposition even after Mr Bolsonaro himself appeared to accept the results. Mr Bannon ... was just one of several key allies of Donald Trump who followed the same strategy used to cast doubt on the results of the 2020 US presidential election.... The links between Mr Bolsonaro and the Trump movement were highlighted by a meeting in November between the former president and Mr Bolsonaro's son at Mr Trump's Florida resort.... A number of prominent Brazilian Twitter accounts which spread election denial rumours were reinstated after the election and acquisition of the company by Elon Musk, according to a BBC analysis."

Ukraine, et al. The New York Times' live updates of developments Monday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here. The Guardian's live updates for Monday are here. The Guardian's summary report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live briefing for Monday is here: "Russian forces struck a market in a village southeast of Kharkiv, killing two women, regional governor Oleh Synyehubov reported on Telegram Monday morning. At least four more people, including a child, were injured, Synyehubov and the Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor's Office said. Images on social media appeared to show a building on fire and emergency workers sifting through rubble.... The fiercely contested eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut is holding out 'against all odds,' President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly address, despite conflicting claims about the pace of Russian gains in the area, on the front lines of the 10-month-old conflict.... Russia deployed 'the most professional Wagner units' in its efforts to capture Soledar, [Ukrainian Col. Gen. Oleksandr] Syrsky said while visiting troops defending the area, according to the Ukrainian Military Media Center Telegram channel."

U.K. Marie: There have been many, many stories about an HBO special featuring Price Harry & his wife Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, any many, many more stories about leaked copies of a book by Harry titled Spare, and about his book tour interviews -- like this one. In most of these stories, we find out Harry, or Harry & Meghan, have dished on the other British royals: Prince William physically attacked Harry, King Charles was jealous of the attention Harry & Meghan received, & Queen Camilla leaks negative stories about the young couple. And so forth. Sorry, but you're on your own on these. I'm not saying the stories aren't newsworthy, but unless they particular hit on politics, I don't think they're particularly relevant here.

January 8, 2023

Late Morning Update:

Michael Shear of the New York Times: "As President Biden heads [to El Paso, Texas,] on Sunday to tour an American border city swamped by migrants, he has found himself under siege from all sides. Democrats and human rights activists condemned his new enforcement plan as a 'humanitarian disgrace.' Republicans blasted his two-year delay in coming to a border they say is 'wide open' to undocumented immigrants. And Mexican officials -- who are preparing to welcome him to a summit of North American leaders on Monday -- warned that his proposals would cross a 'red line' for them."

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Democrat                                                     Republicans     ~~~ Thanks to RAS for the lead.

Melanie Zanona, et al., of CNN write a good summary of how (and, to an extent, why) Kevin McCarthy "won" the speakership on the 15th round of votes. For instance, we learned from Matt Gaetz that his principled reason for changing his vote from "Anyone But Kevin" to "present" was, "I ran out of things I could even imagine to ask for." If you have been busy with your real life, this article will catch you up.

Arianna Coghill of Mother Jones borrows from CNN to summarize what concessions the extremists wrenched from McCarthy. MB: These concessions presumably will be incorporated into House rules. The rules would normally be adopted just after the speaker & the members are sworn in, but that didn't happen Saturday morning, either because McCarthy didn't have them written up yet or because he didn't have the votes to pass them. In any event, the concessions will not just weaken McCarthy to nothing more than a puppet of the extremists, they will also render the House unable to perform its fundamental duties to legislate.

Catie Edmondson of the New York Times: "The astonishing spectacle [of the floor fight between Kevin McCarthy & Matt Gaetz] that played out into the early hours of Saturday morning was a fitting coda to a week that spotlighted the deep divisions in the Republican Party, the power of an unyielding hard-right flank that revels in upending normal operations of government and a leader who has repeatedly capitulated to the right in his quest for power.... The dysfunction that left the House without a speaker for a week also allowed the indignities to become more public. Photographers and videographers, unfettered from the normal rules governing their conduct because there was no speaker to put any in place, allowed spectators the opportunity to parse rare footage live from the House floor....

"[Donald] Trump ...attributed [Mr. McCarthy's] success to his interventions in a post on his social media site on Saturday, claiming news coverage had shown he had 'greatly helped' Mr. McCarthy in winning the speaker post. 'Thank you, I did our Country a big favor!'... Mr. McCarthy made a point of lavishing praise on Mr. Trump during a news conference in the Statuary Hall after he was elected."

     ~~~ Marie: Another thing the absence of House rules allowed was cursing. I think it was Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) who said on MSNBC that he'd never heard so many F-bombs dropped anywhere.

Robert Draper of the New York Times: "... to both Democrats and Republicans, the jut-jawed intransigence of House Republicans opposing Representative Kevin McCarthy's ultimately successful bid to be speaker [began with Newt Gingrich].... Mr. Gingrich's triumph in 1994 in wresting the House from a Democratic majority for the first time since 1952 was the starting point for the zero-sum brand of politics that mutated into the Tea Party movement, the grievance-based populism of the Trump era, and what was garishly displayed on the House floor in a raucous four-day speaker battle.... Those mutations have culminated in a tissue-thin Republican majority, auguring legislative episodes likely long on melodrama and short on happy endings, thanks to cameo actors such as [Matt] Gaetz.... The bitterly partisan stalemates of the Gingrich era may well have metastasized into a state of governance by chaos."

E.J. Dionne of the Washington Post: "In creating a humiliating, days-long spectacle that delayed the election of Kevin McCarthy as speaker of the House until the early hours of Saturday morning on the 15th ballot, the far right of the Republican Party has won.... Most of the drama played out on Friday, as President Biden was honoring democracy's protectors at an event marking the anniversary of the 2021 attack on the Capitol. This only brought home that a majority of House Republicans, and not just McCarthy's foes, voted to reject the outcome of the 2020 election.... As a practical matter going forward, [Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.)] said, the concessions McCarthy made to the rebels, including expanding far-right membership on a Rules Committee that determines what gets to the House floor, will hollow out the speaker's power, enable a radical right agenda and make it far more difficult to get anything done in a politically divided federal government.... The result will be a new House majority that is not much of a majority at all."

AP: "A former U.S. defense intelligence analyst who was convicted of spying for Cuba more than 20 years ago has been released from a federal prison in Fort Worth, Texas. Ana Belen Montes, 65, was released Friday, Federal Bureau of Prisons spokesman Scott Taylor said Saturday. Montes, an analyst for the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency, was arrested in September 2001 and charged with spying for Cuba. Montes pleaded guilty in 2002 to conspiring to commit espionage as part of a plea deal with federal prosecutors and was sentenced to 25 years in prison." CNN has a bit more on Montes' life as a double agent, & how she was caught.

Way Beyond the Beltway

Iran. Farnaz Fassihi of the New York Times: "Iran on Saturday hanged two men, a 22-year-old national karate champion and a 39-year-old poultry worker, who participated in antigovernment demonstrations and whose executions were condemned as a ploy by the government to use violence and sow fear to crush the protests. The men, Mohammad Mehdi Karami, the karate champion, and Sayed Mohammad Hosseini, the factory worker, were hanged at dawn on Saturday in the city of Karaj near the capital, Tehran, after hasty trials on charges that they participated in the killing of a member of the Basij paramilitary group in November, according to the judiciary. Iran has deployed heavy-handed violence against protesters since mid-September, when the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of the morality police sparked a nationwide uprising to demand an end to theocratic rule in Iran. Rights groups say at least 500 people have been killed by security forces, including 50 children, and the United Nations says at least 14,000 have been arrested."

Ukraine, et al.

The Washington Post's live briefing of developments Sunday in Russia's war on Ukraine is here: "Moscow's unilaterally declared cease-fire came to an end after no sign of a pause in fighting in the 36 hours that it was apparently in place. Both sides traded blame for the ongoing shelling, which continued early Sunday and threatened to mar Orthodox Christmas celebrations on both sides. Ukraine had not agreed to the supposed truce, viewing it as a ploy for Russian forces to regroup." ~~~

     ~~~ The Guardian's live updates for Sunday are here. The Guardian's summary report is here.

Condoleezza Rice & Robert Gates, in a Washington Post op-ed: "When it comes to the war in Ukraine, about the only thing that's certain right now is that the fighting and destruction will continue. Vladimir Putin remains fully committed to bringing all of Ukraine back under Russian control or -- failing that -- destroying it as a viable country.... Both of us have dealt with Putin on a number of occasions, and we are convinced he believes time is on his side: that he can wear down the Ukrainians and that U.S. and European unity and support for Ukraine will eventually erode and fracture.... For Putin, defeat is not an option. He cannot cede to Ukraine the four eastern provinces he has declared part of Russia.... We agree with the Biden administration's determination to avoid direct confrontation with Russia. However, an emboldened Putin might not give us that choice. The way to avoid confrontation with Russia in the future is to help Ukraine push back the invader now."

News Ledes

Washington Post: "Bernard Kalb, a journalist and author who covered global affairs and later cast a critical eye on the media as a commentator for CNN, but who may be best remembered for his resignation in 1986 as State Department spokesman to protest a government disinformation campaign, died Jan. 8 at his home in North Bethesda, Md. He was 100."

New York Times: "Russell Banks, whose vivid portrayals of working-class Americans grappling with issues of poverty, race and class placed him among the first ranks of contemporary novelists, died on Sunday at his home in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. He was 82."