Thanksgiving Day

Maggie Haberman & Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "The Justice Department is seeking to question former Vice President Mike Pence as a witness in connection with its criminal investigation into ... Donald J. Trump's efforts to stay in power after he lost the 2020 election, according to two people familiar with the matter. Mr. Pence, according to people familiar with his thinking, is open to considering the request, recognizing that the Justice Department's criminal investigation is different from the inquiry by the House Jan. 6 committee, whose overtures he has flatly rejected. Complicating the situation is whether Mr. Trump would try to invoke executive privilege to stop him or limit his testimony, a step that he has taken with limited success so far with other former officials." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) The Guardian's story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: He's "considering it"? I have a suggestion: just break into pence's house at 6 am, drag him by the collar of his Jesus pajamas out into his front yard & cuff him.

Ben Goggin & Kate Tenbarge of NBC News: "Some right-wing media figures and influencers have doubled down on the use of inflammatory rhetoric against the LGBTQ community in the wake of Saturday night's shooting at a Colorado gay club that killed five. The rhetoric mirrors what LGBTQ advocates have warned about for months, most notably false claims that children are being sexualized or 'groomed' by LGBTQ people and events.... Alejandra Caraballo, a clinical instructor at Harvard Law School's Cyberlaw Clinic, said that the repetitive messaging from [Tucker] Carlson and others has opened the door for violence against LGBTQ people. 'The way they soften up the support for this kind of violence is essentially by making it seem morally justified in the minds of people who believe this,' Caraballo said. 'The way they do this is by constantly painting LGBT people as pedophiles and groomers, and so people feel morally justified in carrying out this violence.'"

Beyond the Beltway

** Alaska. Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "Representative Mary Peltola, Democrat of Alaska and the first Alaska Native woman to serve in Congress, on Wednesday won a full term in the House, according to The Associated Press, holding back three conservative challengers. Ms. Peltola first won the seat in an August special election to finish the term of Representative Don Young, a Republican who died in March. Her victory, which flipped the seat for Democrats for the first time i 50 years, was considered an upset against Sarah Palin, the former governor and vice-presidential candidate." ~~~

     ~~~ Swan Song for a Turkey. Jeremy Peters of the New York Times: "... having lost her bid for Congress after years out of the spotlight, [Sarah] Palin is a much diminished force. She was, in many ways, undone by the same political currents she rode to national prominence, first as Senator John McCain's vice-presidential nominee in 2008 and later as a Tea Party luminary and Fox News star. Along the way, she helped redefine the outer limits of what a politician could say as she made dark insinuations about Barack Obama's background and false claims about government 'death panels' that could deny health care to seniors and people with disabilities. Now, a generation of Republican stars follows the template she helped create.... Next to Mr. Trump's lies about a huge conspiracy to deny him a second term, or Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene's casual allusions to political violence, Ms. Palin's provocations more than a decade ago can seem almost quaint." ~~~

     ~~~ In the spirit of the holiday, leave us not forget the historic Palin Turkey Massacre of 2008. Mind you, this was supposed to be a photo-op wherein Gov. Sarah pardoned a turkey to demonstrate her executive props:

** Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, a centrist Republican, won a fourth full term on Wednesday, according to The Associated Press, overcoming a conservative backlash against her independent streak and her vote to convict ... Donald J. Trump for incitement of insurrection after the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021. Ms. Murkowski was declared the winner after securing more than 50 percent of the vote, a mandated threshold under the state's new ranked-choice system. She defeated Kelly Tshibaka, a conservative rival backed by Mr. Trump and the state Republican Party, and Pat Chesbro, a Democrat.... Ms. Murkowski is now positioned to remain a pivotal swing vote in the chamber and to wield significant seniority on the Senate Indian Affairs Committee and the Appropriations Committee, which controls government funding."

Georgia. Ava Sasani of the New York Times: "The Georgia Supreme Court on Wednesday reinstated the state's ban on abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, temporarily restoring the law that had been blocked by a lower court last week. The decision reverses last week's ruling by Judge Robert C.I. McBurney of the Fulton County Superior Court, who had said the six-week ban was unconstitutional when the state legislature approved it in 2019 -- more than three years before the U.S. Supreme Court revoked the constitutional right to abortion. The Georgia Supreme Court also denied a request by abortion providers and advocates for a 24-hour notice before reinstating the ban." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

** Georgia. Fredreka Schouten & Tierney Sneed of CNN: "The Georgia Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to block counties from offering early voting on Saturday, rejecting an emergency request from Republicans. Counties in Georgia are not required to offer early voting on Saturday, but many have said they will do so, after Democrats successfully sued to challenge instructions from state officials claiming that early voting the Saturday after Thanksgiving was unlawful. The move is a victory for Democrats, including Sen. Raphael Warnock, who is seeking reelection in a December 6 runoff election against Republican Herschel Walker."

Georgia. Herschel Walker's Primary Residence Is in ... Texas. Andrew Kaczynski & Em Steck of CNN: "Republican Herschel Walker is getting a tax break intended only for a primary residence this year on his home in the Dallas, Texas, area, despite running for Senate in Georgia. Publicly available tax records reviewed by CNN's KFile show Walker is listed to get a homestead tax exemption in Texas in 2022, saving the Senate candidate approximately $1,500 and potentially running afoul of both Texas tax rules and some Georgia rules on establishing residency for the purpose of voting or running for office. Walker registered to vote in Atlanta, Georgia, in 2021 after living in Texas for two decades and voting infrequently. In Texas, homeowner regulations say you can only take the exemption on your 'principal residence.': (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) The New York Times story is here.

Kansas. Julia Shapero of the Hill: "A Kansas judge on Wednesday blocked a state law that banned doctors from prescribing abortion pills via telemedicine. Shawnee County District Court Judge Teresa Watson granted a Wichita reproductive clinic;s request for a temporary injunction, after the Kansas Court of Appeals overturned her previous ruling. Watson initially denied the clinic's request for an injunction. However, the appeals court in June found that Watson 'diverged from well-established Kansas caselaw' in her decision and sent the issue back to the lower court, according to the Topeka Capital-Journal."

Pennsylvania. Bob Brigham of the Raw Story: "The GOP nominee for governor in Pennsylvania lost by fourteen points in the midterm elections, but supporters of Doug Mastriano are expanding their election denial efforts despite the lopsided outcome. On Tuesday, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported Mastriano supporters are now seeking to force hand recounts in multiple Pennsylvania counties.... '... Recounts change election results very little, if at all,' the newspaper reported. 'But the baseless efforts threaten to sow confusion about the validity of this month's election, tie up state courts, and disrupt officials' ongoing work to audit and certify results by Monday's deadline. It's the latest front for an election denial movement that helped lift Mastriano to prominence, and has repeatedly tried to find and exploit vulnerabilities in the state's election system.'"

Way Beyond

Brazil. Jack Nicas & André Spigariol of the New York Times: After losing the presidential election, "... President Jair Bolsonaro ... reluctantly agreed to begin the transition of power -- while his allies inspected the election results for evidence of anything amiss. This week, his campaign claimed to have found it: a small software bug in the voting machines. On Tuesday, the campaign filed a request to effectively overturn the election in Mr. Bolsonaro's favor, saying the bug should nullify votes from about 60 percent of the voting machines. Of the remaining votes, Mr. Bolsonaro would win 51 percent, the campaign said, making him the victor instead of the leftist former president who defeated him, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.... Independent experts said the bug had no impact on the integrity of the vote. And then, late Wednesday, Brazil's elections chief dismissed the complaint and fined the three conservative parties behind it $4.3 million for filing it." ~~~

~~~ But of Course. Elizabeth Dwoskin & Gabriela Sz Pessoa of the New York Times: "... members of Bolsonaro's inner circle are meeting with advisers to ... Donald Trump to discuss next steps. Brazilian congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro, the president's son, has visited Florida since the Oct. 30 vote, meeting Trump at Mar-a-Lago and strategizing with other political allies by phone. He spoke with former Trump strategist Stephen K. Bannon, who was in Arizona assisting the campaign of GOP gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, about the power of the pro-Bolsonaro protests and potential challenges to the Brazilian election results, Bannon said. He lunched in South Florida with former Trump campaign spokesman Jason Miller, now CEO of the social media company Gettr, and discussed online censorship and free speech, Miller said."

November 23, 2022

Afternoon Update:

Maggie Haberman & Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "The Justice Department is seeking to question former Vice President Mike Pence as a witness in connection with its criminal investigation into ... Donald J. Trump's efforts to stay in power after he lost the 2020 election, according to two people familiar with the matter. Mr. Pence, according to people familiar with his thinking, is open to considering the request, recognizing that the Justice Department's criminal investigation is different from the inquiry by the House Jan. 6 committee, whose overtures he has flatly rejected. Complicating the situation is whether Mr. Trump would try to invoke executive privilege to stop him or limit his testimony, a step that he has taken with limited success so far with other former officials." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: He's "considering it"? I have a suggestion: just break into pence's house at 6 am, drag him by the collar of his Jesus pajamas out into his front yard & cuff him.

Georgia. Ava Sasani of the New York Times: "The Georgia Supreme Court on Wednesday reinstated the state's ban on abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, temporarily restoring the law that had been blocked by a lower court last week. The decision reverses last week's ruling by Judge Robert C.I. McBurney of the Fulton County Superior Court, who had said the six-week ban was unconstitutional when the state legislature approved it in 2019 -- more than three years before the U.S. Supreme Court revoked the constitutional right to abortion. The Georgia Supreme Court also denied a request by abortion providers and advocates for a 24-hour notice before reinstating the ban."

Georgia. Herschel Walker's Primary Residence Is in ... Texas. Andrew Kaczynski & Em Steck of CNN: "Republican Herschel Walker is getting a tax break intended only for a primary residence this year on his home in the Dallas, Texas, area, despite running for Senate in Georgia. Publicly available tax records reviewed by CNN's KFile show Walker is listed to get a homestead tax exemption in Texas in 2022, saving the Senate candidate approximately $1,500 and potentially running afoul of both Texas tax rules and some Georgia rules on establishing residency for the purpose of voting or running for office. Walker registered to vote in Atlanta, Georgia, in 2021 after living in Texas for two decades and voting infrequently. In Texas, homeowner regulations say you can only take the exemption on your 'principal residence.'"

~~~~~~~~~~

Stacy Cowley & Zolan Kanno-Youngs of the New York Times: "The Biden administration extended the pause on federal student loan payments on Tuesday after Republican legal challenges temporarily halted President Biden's plan to cancel up to $20,000 in debt for millions of borrowers. The payments, which had been set to resume on Jan. 1, now could be delayed until Sept. 1 as the White House tries to fend off lawsuits over the program, which the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates could cost $400 billion. 'Republican special interests and elected officials sued to deny this relief even for their own constituents,' President Biden said in a video released on Twitter. 'It isn't fair to ask tens of millions of borrowers eligible for relief to resume their student debt payments while the courts consider the lawsuit.'" A CNN report is here.

Eugene Scott of the Washington Post: "strong>Anthony S. Fauci, the nation's leading infectious-disease expert, who has served under seven presidents, used his valedictory at the White House podium on Tuesday to urge Americans to get updated coronavirus booster shots.Fauci, 81, has announced he will leave government service next month, stepping down as President Biden's top medical adviser and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which he has led for 38 years." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Lora Kelley of the New York Times: "A Senate subcommittee announced on Tuesday that it would hold a hearing on the lack of competition in the ticketing industry after Taylor Swift fans faced days of chaos last week as they tried buying concert tickets through Ticketmaster. In a statement, Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, who leads the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Competition Policy, Antitrust, and Consumer Rights, which will conduct the hearing, wrote: 'The high fees, site disruptions and cancellations that customers experienced shows how Ticketmaster&'s dominant market position means the company does not face any pressure to continually innovate and improve.' She added, 'When there is no competition to incentivize better services and fair prices, we all suffer the consequences.' Ms. Klobuchar, a Democrat, and Senator Mike Lee of Utah, a Republican and a ranking member on the committee, did not announce a hearing date or witnesses."

Donald's Very Bad Hair Day

Kyle Cheney & Meredith McGraw of Politico: "It was a nightmare day for Donald Trump in court. Again. The former president has had no shortage of legal and political setbacks since leaving the White House. But in recent weeks, the sheer volume of acute threats -- both criminal and civil -- have put Trump in a vise unlike any he's faced before."

Charlie Savage & Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "A federal appeals court panel signaled on Tuesday that it is likely to end a review of a trove of government documents seized this summer from ... Donald J. Trump, a move that would greatly free up an investigation into his handling of the material. At a 40-minute hearing in Atlanta, the three-member panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit seemed to embrace the Justice Department's position that a federal judge had acted improperly two months ago when she ordered an independent arbiter to review the documents taken from Mr. Trump's Florida compound, Mar-a- Lago. Through their questions, the panel expressed concern that Judge Aileen M. Cannon, who appointed the so-called special master, had acted without precedent by ordering a review of the seized material. The panel also suggested that Judge Cannon, who was appointed by Mr. Trump, had overstepped by inserting herself into the case.... During the proceeding in Atlanta, all of the judges on the panel, two of whom were Trump appointees, appeared to support the Justice Department's overarching argument that Judge Cannon's appointment of the special master and her efforts to keep the government from using the documents seized from Mr. Trump were highly unusual and wrongly decided." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) CNN's report is here.

Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court on Tuesday denied ... Donald Trump's efforts to block the release of his tax records to a congressional committee that has sought the information for years. The court's order means that the Treasury Department may quickly hand over six years of tax records from Trump and some of his companies to the House Ways and Means Committee. There were no recorded dissents in the court's order.... Time is not on the side of Democrats who run the committee. The demands for the records will almost surely expire in January, when Republicans take control of the House as a result of the recent midterm elections.... Last month, the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit declined to review earlier rulings finding that lawmakers are entitled to the documents in the long-running legal battle. That court also refused to put the release of the papers on hold while Trump's lawyers sought Supreme Court review. But Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., the justice designated to hear emergency orders from that court, stopped the release Nov. 1, requesting more briefing and giving the high court more time to act." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) The AP's report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Neal Katyal said on the teevee what I had been thinking as soon as I read "Time is not on the side of Democrats": that the Ways & Means Committee should figure out a way to transfer those tax records to the Senate.

Michael Sisak of the AP: "Donald Trump reported losses on his tax returns every year for a decade, including nearly $700 million in 2009 and $200 million in 2010, his longtime accountant testified Tuesday.... Donald Bender, a partner at Mazars USA LLP who spent years preparing Trump's personal tax returns, said Trump's reported losses from 2009 to 2018 included net operating losses from some of the many businesses he owns through his Trump Organization.... Bender's tax loss testimony echoed what The New York Times reported in 2020, when it obtained a trove of Trump's tax returns. Many of the records reflected massive losses and little or no taxes paid, the newspaper reported at the time.... Bender testified that [Trump Org CFO Allen] Weisselberg kept him the dark on [a tax avoidance scheme in which Weisselberg & others received compensation in forms like apartments & vehicles] -- and that he only found out about it from prosecutors last year. But emails shown in court Tuesday suggested that [the Trump Org's comptroller] tried to loop [Bender] in as early as 2013, with attached spreadsheets listing Weisselberg's pay and reductions for extras, including Trump-paid tuition for his grandchildren's private schooling.... Also Tuesday, the judge in New York Attorney General Letitia James' civil fraud lawsuit against Trump and his company set an October 2023 trial date...."

Holly Bailey & Matthew Brown of the Washington Post: "After months of failed legal challenges, Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) appeared Tuesday before a special grand jury investigating efforts by ... Donald Trump and his allies to overturn Trump's 2020 election loss in Georgia, the latest high-profile witness in a probe that is believed to be nearing conclusion.... Graham's testimony followed an extended legal challenge to block his appearance that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which this month declined to overturn lower court rulings requiring him to appear.... Trump personally urged [Georgia Secretary of State Brad] Raffensperger to 'find' enough votes to overturn his defeat in the state.... Raffensperger ... told The Washington Post he felt pressured by other Republicans, including Graham, who he said echoed Trump's claims about voting irregularities in the state. He claimed that Graham, on one call, appeared to be asking him to find a way to set aside legally cast ballots." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Insurrectionist-in-Chief. Christopher Cadelago & Daniel Lippman of Politico: "When Donald Trump plunged into the 2024 presidential race last week at his Mar-a-Lago club..., among [the attendees were] ... those sympathetic to or even a part of the riot on the Capitol on January 6. A Politico review of social media posts of the Mar-a-Lago guests, as well as encounters at the venue, revealed at least six who were in Washington the day of Trump's speech and the insurrection. Some of them marched on the Capitol.... Trump refrained from mentioning Jan. 6 during his presidential bid announcement. But the inclusion of those who were in Washington on Jan. 6 at his Mar-a-Lago event underscores how closely linked he remains to the melee that unfolded that day. Rather than isolating and ostracizing Jan. 6 figures, Trump's team has kept them in the fold, even promising pardons for those who were there.... Elijah Schaffer, who attended Trump's campaign launch..., is seen [in a newly-released video] filming himself in [Speaker Nancy] Pelosi's office mirror and appears to be saying, '... We have, we are occupying the Capitol building.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Ron Dicker of the Huffington Post: "Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Monday that American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten> is 'the most dangerous person in the world.'... 'If you ask, "Who's the most likely to take this republic down?" It would be the teacher's unions, and the filth that they're teaching our kids, and the fact that they don't know math and reading or writing.'... Like many of his potential Republican rivals, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Pompeo appears to be casting himself as a soldier in the so-called 'anti-woke' culture wars." ~~~

     ~~~ Mike Pompeo is undoubtedly a very intelligent person. He was first in his class at West Point & editor of the Harvard Law Review. So we have to assume that he knows what he's saying & he knows the impact he intends it to have. Now, while the country is still reeling from a mass murder that is most likely a hate crime against gay people, Pompeo is telling us that teachers who teach equality -- equality which he describes as "filth" -- are the real danger. In one insane proclamation, Mike has endangered teachers and every person who is part of a minority group whom teachers welcome. Mike thinks he should be POTUS*. I think he should be shunned, isolated, muzzled. Mike Pompeo is disgusting.

Kayla Gogerty of Media Matters: "Since acquiring Twitter, embattled CEO Elon Musk has assured civil rights leaders and advertisers that he would maintain content moderation policies and create clear processes for reinstating previously banned accounts. Less than a month into his ownership, Musk has single-handedly reinstated at least 11 right-wing accounts, including ... Donald Trump." The story lists accounts Musk reinstated. ~~~

     ~~~ According to this Washington Post report, by Cat Zakrzewski & others, Musk dismantled Twitter's moderation team and is planning to replace it with an automated system, "eliminating some of the nuance from complicated decisions for a cheaper approach."

Elon Stiffs Twitter Vendors. Mike Isaac & Ryan Mac of the New York Times: Elon "Musk has embarked on an enormous cost-cutting campaign since closing his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter. He initially slashed half of the company's 7,500-person work force, fired workers and continued with layoffs as recently as Monday. But he has also conducted a sweeping examination of all types of other costs at the company, instructing staff to review, renegotiate and in some cases not pay Twitter's outside vendors at all, eight people with knowledge of the matter said. Mr. Musk and his advisers have trained their sights on computing costs that support Twitter's underlying infrastructure, travel expenses, software services, real estate and even the company's normally lavish in-office cafeteria food."

Naomi Nix & Jeremy Merrill of the Washington Post: "More than a third of Twitter's top 100 marketers have not advertised on the social media network in the past two weeks, a Washington Post analysis of marketing data found -- an indication of the extent of skittishness among advertisers about billionaire Elon Musk's control of the company. Dozens of top Twitter advertisers, including 14 of the top 50, have stopped advertising in the few weeks since Musk's chaotic acquisition of the social media company...."

Elizabeth Williamson of the New York Times: "A Texas judge said on Tuesday that she would order the Infowars fabulist Alex Jones to pay the entire $49 million verdict a jury had awarded to the parents of a Sandy Hook school shooting victim, despite a Texas law capping punitive damages at far less than the amount jurors had allotted.... In a hearing on Tuesday, Judge Maya Guerra Gamble of the District Court in Travis County, where Infowars is based, questioned the constitutionality of the Texas cap, and called the verdict 'a rare case' in which the emotional damage inflicted on Ms. Lewis and Mr. Heslin was so severe that 'I believe they have no recourse.'"

Beyond the Beltway

Arizona, Alexander Berzon, et al., of the New York Times: "Abe Hamadeh, the Arizona Republican locked in a tight race to become the state’s next attorney general, filed a lawsuit on Tuesday contesting the preliminary results of an election that had already been headed to an automatic recount. The state's final tally from the Nov. 8 election, which was set to be certified by counties by next week, has Mr. Hamadeh just 510 votes behind the Democratic candidate, Kris Mayes -- 1,254,102 for Mr. Hamadeh and 1,254,612 for Ms. Mayes. That difference was within the margin needed to force an automatic recount under state law. Mr. Hamadeh's lawsuit, filed in State Superior Court in Maricopa County, names as defendants Arizona's secretary of state -- Katie Hobbs, a Democrat who won the governor's race -- as well as the county recorders and boards of supervisors in the state's 15 counties. The Republican National Committee joined Mr. Hamadeh in the suit as a plaintiff."

Colorado. Marc Fisher, et al., of the Washington Post on how the shooting inside Club Q in Colorado Springs, unfolded: "In a matter of seconds -- probably less than a minute, the city's police chief said -- [a] man with [a] rifle shot and killed five people. At least 18 others were injured.... The shooter started firing right after he walked in and kept shooting as he walked deeper into the club, witnesses said. He didn't say anything.... People were running for their lives....

"Somewhere in the chaos, an unarmed patron grabbed hold of the shooter and 'acted so courageously as to remove a handgun from his waist and use that handgun to subdue him,' hitting the gunman in the head with the weapon, Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers told The Washington Post on Monday. 'This person is a real hero.' The hero was Richard Fierro, who went to Club Q with his family to celebrate a friend's birthday and watch the drag show, which included a performance by his 22-year-old daughter's best friend. When he heard the shots, Fierro hit the floor, then saw the shooter. 'I ran across the bar, grabbed the guy from the back and pulled him down and pinned him against the stairs,' Fierro told The Washington Post on Monday.... 'He went for his weapon, and I grabbed his handgun,' Fierro said. Fierro said he ordered a young man to 'Kick him! Move the AR! Then I just started hitting him ... The back of his head was my target.'... Fierro had the shooter pinned to the floor when police entered the club.> (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Florida. Philip Jackson of the Huffington Post: "Prosecutors in Florida on Monday dropped charges against a Black man who was arrested earlier this year as part of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis' a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/desantis-voter-fraud-arrests-controversy_n_631854f4e4b046aa022f434c">purported crackdown on voter fraud/ In August, Tony Patterson, 44, was one of 20 people in the state arrested and charged with 'election voting by unqualified voter' and 'false swearing' during the 2020 election. But prosecutors filed a notice of nolle prosequi on Monday, indicating they will no longer longer pursue criminal charges against Patterson -- ultimately amounting to a dismissal of the case. Patterson is the first person to have their charges dropped, although a judge previously tossed out a criminal case against Robert Lee Wood, 56, who was also among those arrested this summer." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: DeSantolini's cruel tough-guy feints are not going well, what with the Texas-to-Martha's Vineyard airlift backfiring and prosecutors & a judge laughing him out of court on the fake voter-fraud cases. Maybe he should stick with picking on fair-minded teachers, which he's been happy to do, too. So far, endangering teachers is working for Mike Pompeo. These guys, like many others in their party, seem to have learned from Trump that bullying relatively defenseless people is the pathway to the White House. Apparently, they think they're showing "strength."

Georgia. Voters Win; Raffensperger & Confederates Lose in Voting Restriction Case. Maggie Astor of the New York Times: "Early voting will be allowed on Saturday in Georgia's runoff election for Senate after an appeals court rejected an argument that state law forbade it. In a brief ruling on Monday, the Georgia Court of Appeals declined a request from the state to halt a ruling made by a Fulton County judge on Friday, which found voting on Saturday permissible. It is up to individual counties whether to actually offer early voting that day. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, argued that early voting was not allowed that day under Georgia law, which bars it on the second Saturday before an election if the preceding Thursday or Friday are state holidays. Thursday is Thanksgiving, and Friday is a Georgia holiday that once honored Robert E. Lee, the Confederate general. The runoff between Senator Raphael Warnock, a Democrat, and his Republican challenger Herschel Walker, is on Dec. 6, and Georgia law requires five days of early voting from Monday, Nov. 28, through Friday, Dec. 2. Counties are allowed, but not required, to offer up to three additional days of early voting, and some -- including Fulton County, which includes Atlanta and is a Democratic stronghold -- planned to offer Saturday, Nov. 26." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Kate Brumback of the AP: "Republican groups appealed to Georgia's highest court Tuesday in an attempt to prohibit early voting this Saturday in the U.S. Senate runoff election between Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican challenger Herschel Walker. The Georgia Republican Party, the National Republican Senatorial Committee and the Republican National Committee filed the appeal with the Georgia Supreme Court. They are asking the high court to issue an emergency stay of a lower court ruling that said Georgia law does allow voting this Saturday.... State officials accepted [an appeals court] ruling [allowed] Saturday voting] and said they would not pursue further appeals. But the Republican groups, who had been allowed to join the [state's] lawsuit as intervenors, on Tuesday appealed to the Georgia Supreme Court." ~~~

~~~ Another Reason the Georgia Senate Election Matters. Greg Sargent of the Washington Post: "In an evenly divided Senate, subpoenas are issued on a bipartisan basis. But having 51 Democratic senators in the next Congress would give Democrats on key committees unilateral control over investigations.... 'If we're investigating legitimate issues while they're fixated on Hunter Biden's laptop, we'll be doing our job,' Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) told me. 'And we'll be winning the battle of public opinion.'"

Way Beyond

Ukraine, et al. The New York Times' live updates of developments Wednesday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here. The Guardian's live updates are here. ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live briefings for Wednesday are here: "The Ukrainian government is planning to set up thousands of shelters across the country to offer basic services -- including electricity, internet, heat, water, and first aid -- in anticipation of more Russian airstrikes on civilian infrastructure as winter sets in. 'By helping each other, we will all be able to get through this winter together,' President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a nightly address, after officials raised the prospect of regular blackouts through March.... Russian energy giant Gazprom said it will begin reducing natural gas supply to Europe through a pipeline that runs through Ukraine.... Kyiv said it launched an investigation into videos circulating online that the Kremlin said show Ukrainian forces executing Russian prisoners of war.... A newborn baby was killed in a Russian strike on a maternity hospital in Zaporizhzhia region, its governor, Oleksandr Starukh, said in a Telegram post early Wednesday."

Brazil. Reuters, via the Guardian: "Jair Bolsonaro has challenged the Brazilian presidential election he lost last month to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, arguing votes from some machines should be 'invalidated'. Bolsonaro's claim seems unlikely to get far, as Lula's victory has been ratified by the superior electoral court and acknowledged by Brazil's leading politicians and international allies. It could however fuel a small but committed protest movement that has so far refused to accept the result."

Qatar. Leo Sands of the Washington Post: "Soccer fans wearing the rainbow, a symbol of LGBTQ inclusivity, have said they were refused entry into World Cup stadiums and confronted by members of the public to remove the emblem, despite assurances from FIFA, soccer's governing body, that visitors would be allowed to express their identities during the tournament in Qatar." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Scotland. Libby Brooks & Ben Quinn of the Guardian: "The Scottish parliament cannot hold a second independence referendum without Westminster approval the [U.K.] supreme court has ruled, in a unanimous judgment likely to anger Scottish nationalists who say the country's future is for Scottish voters to decide. The first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, said immediately after the ruling: 'Scottish democracy will not be denied.' She added: 'Today's ruling blocks one route to Scotland's voice being heard on independence == but in a democracy our voice cannot and will not be silenced.'"

U.K. Mark Landler of the New York Times: "Stung by inflation and bracing for tax increases, the country is in the midst of its gravest slump in a generation, leading many to wonder how much the split with the European Union is to blame.... Not all -- or even most -- of the problems are because of Brexit, but Britain's vexed trade relationship with the rest of Europe indisputably plays a role. Only 32 percent of those surveyed in [a] poll [conducted last week], by the firm YouGov, said that they thought leaving the European Union was a good idea; 56 percent said it was a mistake.... The Brexit second-guessing grew louder this week, after The Sunday Times of London published a report that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was considering pursuing a closer arrangement with the European Union, modeled on that of Switzerland." Sunak denied the claim.

November 22, 2022

Afternoon Update:

Charlie Savage & Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "A federal appeals court panel signaled on Tuesday that it is likely to end a review of a trove of government documents seized this summer from ... Donald J. Trump, a move that would greatly free up an investigation into his handling of the material. At a 40-minute hearing in Atlanta, the three-member panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit seemed to embrace the Justice Department's position that a federal judge had acted improperly two months ago when she ordered an independent arbiter to review the documents taken from Mr. Trump's Florida compound, Mar-a- Lago. Through their questions, the panel expressed concern that Judge Aileen M. Cannon, who appointed the so-called special master, had acted without precedent by ordering a review of the seized material. The panel also suggested that Judge Cannon, who was appointed by Mr. Trump, had overstepped by inserting herself into the case.... During the proceeding in Atlanta, all of the judges on the panel, two of whom were Trump appointees, appeared to support the Justice Department's overarching argument that Judge Cannon's appointment of the special master and her efforts to keep the government from using the documents seized from Mr. Trump were highly unusual and wrongly decided."

Eugene Scott of the Washington Post: "Anthony S. Fauci, the nation's leading infectious-disease expert, who has served under seven presidents, used his valedictory at the White House podium on Tuesday to urge Americans to get updated coronavirus booster shots.Fauci, 81, has announced he will leave government service next month, stepping down as President Biden's top medical adviser and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which he has led for 38 years."

Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court on Tuesday denied ... Donald Trump's efforts to block the release of his tax records to a congressional committee that has sought the information for years.The court's order means that the Treasury Department may quickly hand over six years of tax records from Trump and some of his companies to the House Ways and Means Committee. There were no recorded dissents in the court's order.... Time is not on the side of Democrats who run the committee. The demands for the records will almost surely expire in January, when Republicans take control of the House as a result of the recent midterm elections.... Last month, the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit declined to review earlier rulings finding that lawmakers are entitled to the documents in the long-running legal battle. That court also refused to put the release of the papers on hold while Trump's lawyers sought Supreme Court review. But Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., the justice designated to hear emergency orders from that court, stopped the release Nov. 1, requesting more briefing and giving the high court more time to act."

Insurrectionist-in-Chief. Christopher Cadelago & Daniel Lippman of Politico: "When Donald Trump plunged into the 2024 presidential race last week at his Mar-a-Lago club..., among [the attendees were] ... those sympathetic to or even a part of the riot on the Capitol on January 6. A Politico review of social media posts of the Mar-a-Lago guests, as well as encounters at the venue, revealed at least six who were in Washington the day of Trump's speech and the insurrection. Some of them marched on the Capitol.... Trump refrained from mentioning Jan. 6 during his presidential bid announcement. But the inclusion of those who were in Washington on Jan. 6 at his Mar-a-Lago event underscores how closely linked he remains to the melee that unfolded that day. Rather than isolating and ostracizing Jan. 6 figures, Trump's team has kept them in the fold, even promising pardons for those who were there.... Elijah Schaffer, who attended Trump's campaign launch..., is seen [in a newly-released video] filming himself in [Speaker Nancy] Pelosi's office mirror and appears to be saying, '... We have, we are occupying the Capitol building.'"

Holly Bailey & Matthew Brown of the Washington Post: "After months of failed legal challenges, Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) appeared Tuesday before a special grand jury investigating efforts by ... Donald Trump and his allies to overturn Trump's 2020 election loss in Georgia, the latest high-profile witness in a probe that is believed to be nearing conclusion.... Graham's testimony followed an extended legal challenge to block his appearance that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which this month declined to overturn lower court rulings requiring him to appear.... Trump personally urged [Georgia Secretary of State Brad] Raffensperger to 'find' enough votes to overturn his defeat in the state.... Raffensperger ... told The Washington Post he felt pressured by other Republicans, including Graham, who he said echoed Trump's claims about voting irregularities in the state. He claimed that Graham, on one call, appeared to be asking him to find a way to set aside legally cast ballots."

Marc Fisher, et al., of the Washington Post on how the shooting inside Club Q in Colorado Springs, Colorado, unfolded: "In a matter of seconds -- probably less than a minute, the city's police chief said -- [a] man with [a] rifle shot and killed five people. At least 18 others were injured.... The shooter started firing right after he walked in and kept shooting as he walked deeper into the club, witnesses said. He didn't say anything.... People were running for their lives....

"Somewhere in the chaos, an unarmed patron grabbed hold of the shooter and 'acted so courageously as to remove a handgun from his waist and use that handgun to subdue him,' hitting the gunman in the head with the weapon, Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers told The Washington Post on Monday. 'This person is a real hero.' The hero was Richard Fierro, who went to Club Q with his family to celebrate a friend's birthday and watch the drag show, which included a performance by his 22-year-old daughter's best friend. When he heard the shots, Fierro hit the floor, then saw the shooter. 'I ran across the bar, grabbed the guy from the back and pulled him down and pinned him against the stairs,' Fierro told The Washington Post on Monday.... 'He went for his weapon, and I grabbed his handgun,' Fierro said. Fierro said he ordered a young man to 'Kick him! Move the AR! Then I just started hitting him ... The back of his head was my target.'... Fierro had the shooter pinned to the floor when police entered the club.>

Georgia. Voters Win; Raffensperger & Confederates Lose in Voting Restriction Case. Maggie Astor of the New York Times: "Early voting will be allowed on Saturday in Georgia's runoff election for Senate after an appeals court rejected an argument that state law forbade it. In a brief ruling on Monday, the Georgia Court of Appeals declined a request from the state to halt a ruling made by a Fulton County judge on Friday, which found voting on Saturday permissible. It is up to individual counties whether to actually offer early voting that day. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, argued that early voting was not allowed that day under Georgia law, which bars it on the second Saturday before an election if the preceding Thursday or Friday are state holidays. Thursday is Thanksgiving, and Friday is a Georgia holiday that once honored Robert E. Lee, the Confederate general. The runoff between Senator Raphael Warnock, a Democrat, and his Republican challenger, Herschel Walker, is on Dec. 6, and Georgia law requires five days of early voting from Monday, Nov. 28, through Friday, Dec. 2. Counties are allowed, but not required, to offer up to three additional days of early voting, and some -- including Fulton County, which includes Atlanta and is a Democratic stronghold -- planned to offer Saturday, Nov. 26."

Qatar. Leo Sands of the Washington Post: "Soccer fans wearing the rainbow, a symbol of LGBTQ inclusivity, have said they were refused entry into World Cup stadiums and confronted by members of the public to remove the emblem, despite assurances from FIFA, soccer's governing body, that visitors would be allowed to express their identities during the tournament in Qatar."

~~~~~~~~~~~

Travis Andrews of the Washington Post: "Moments after President Biden pardoned Chocolate and Chip, two hefty gobblers from a couple states south, they let out loud, ecstasy-filled gobbles that resounded throughout the Rose Garden ceremony -- but declined to make further comment. Theirs were not the only animal cries punctuating Monday's ceremony, as a (presumably) salivating Commander, Biden's German shepherd, watched from the White House's second-floor balcony and occasionally let loose a commanding woof. Sorry, Commander, you're a good boy, but these turkeys are free." ~~~

     ~~~ Here's the White House transcript, as delivered, of President Biden's remarks, complete with dad jokes.

Carl Hulse of the New York Times: "With Republicans on track to assume control of the House next year, progressive groups that have been bracing for that prospect for months are rolling out a coordinated campaign to counter the new majority as soon it takes charge in January. Under the umbrella of an initiative called Courage for America, progressive activists plan to establish a war room, begin media campaigns, hold events in targeted congressional districts and conduct other activities to emphasize what they see as the harms of Republican policies and counter the G.O.P.'s efforts to hamstring and tarnish the Biden administration with a barrage of investigations." ~~~

~~~ Paul Krugman of the New York Times: "... the G.O.P. won't help govern America. It will, in fact, almost surely do what it can to undermine governance. And Democrats, in turn, need to do whatever they can both to thwart political sabotage and to make the would-be saboteurs pay a price.... The good news is that Democrats can, as The Washington Post's Greg Sargent puts it, 'crazyproof' policy during the lame duck session, raising the debt limit high enough that it won't be a problem and locking in sufficient aid for Ukraine to get through the many months of war that surely lie ahead.... Beyond that, Democrats can and should hammer Republicans for their extremism, for focusing on disruption and fake scandals rather than trying to improve Americans' lives."

Devlin Barrett & Perry Stein of the Washington Post: "Newly appointed special counsel Jack Smith continues to work remotely from Europe as he assembles a team, finds office space, and takes over two high-stakes investigations into ... Donald Trump -- complex cases that officials insist will not be delayed by Smith's appointment, even as they also said they do not know when he will return to the United States. Smith, a war crimes prosecutor at the International Criminal Court at The Hague, injured his leg in a recent bicycle accident and is recovering from surgery.... A court filing Monday said Smith has reviewed arguments in a months-long court fight between the Justice Department and Trump's lawyers over papers seized in the FBI's Aug. 8 search of Mar-a-Lago." CNN's report is here.

Hugo Lowell of the Guardian: "The US justice department is scheduled to ask a court on Tuesday to void the special master review examining documents seized from Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence and make the materials available to the criminal investigation surrounding the former president. The hearing is particularly consequential for Trump: should he lose, it could mark the end of the special master process on which he has relied to delay, and gain more insight into, the investigation surrounding his potential mishandling of national security information. In a 40-page brief filed in advance of an expedited afternoon hearing in the 11th circuit court of appeals, the department argued that Trump should never have been able to get an independent arbiter because the federal judge who granted the request misapplied a four-part legal test in making her judgment."

Jonah Bromwich, et al., of the New York Times: "Manhattan prosecutors rested their case in the tax fraud trial of Donald J. Trump's family business on Monday without calling a witness they had previously planned to question, an indication of confidence after the company's longtime chief financial officer testified last week. The former chief financial officer, Allen H. Weisselberg, strengthened the prosecution's hand as he admitted to his participation in a tax scheme that the company, the Trump Organization, is also charged with.... Donald Bender, who for years was an outside accountant for Mr. Trump and the company..., works for the accounting firm Mazars USA, [and] has been cooperating with prosecutors since at least last year. Last week, [prosecutors] said in court that they expected to call Mr. Bender, but reversed that plan. The Trump Organization's lawyers indicated Monday morning that they plan to call him as a defense witness instead." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) The Guardian's report is here.

Jonah Bromwich, et al., of the New York Times: "The Manhattan district attorney's office has moved to jump-start its criminal investigation into Donald J. Trump, according to people with knowledge of the matter, seeking to breathe new life into an inquiry that once seemed to have reached a dead end. Under the new district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg, the prosecutors have returned to the long-running investigation's original focus: a hush-money payment to a porn star [Stormy Daniels] who said she had an affair with Mr. Trump.... For Mr. Bragg, the hush-money developments suggest the first signs of progress since he took office at the beginning of the year, when he balked at indicting Mr. Trump in connection with his business practices." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Michael Cohen has been wondering for a long time why he went to jail for the illegal payment to Daniels when he made the payment at Trump's behest & Trump repaid him. Maybe Bragg finally has begun to wonder about that, too.

Bill Barr in Common Sense: "It is painfully clear from his track record in both the 2020 election and the 2022 midterms that Donald Trump is neither capable of forging [a] winning coalition or delivering the decisive and durable victory required. Trump's extraordinarily divisive actions since losing in 2020 are not those of someone capable of leading a party, much less a country.... Trump's willingness to destroy the party if he does not get his way is not based on principle, but on his own supreme narcissism. His egoism makes him unable to think of a political party as anything but an extension of himself -- a cult of personality." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Whitney Wild of CNN: "The Justice Department has determined that the death of a US Capitol Police officer by suicide in the days following the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol occurred in the line of duty and qualifies for line-of-duty death benefits, the officer's family said in a statement Monday. Capitol Police Officer Howard Liebengood died by suicide on January 9, 2021.... Liebengood's widow recounted in an open letter how he was ordered to remain on duty 'practically around the clock' for three days after the Capitol attack, and how he was 'severely sleep deprived' before his January 9 suicide."

Kyle Cheney of Politico: "A Pennsylvania woman who joined a mob in Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office suite on Jan. 6, 2021, was convicted Monday for impeding police officers trying to defend the Capitol. After three days of deliberation, jurors convicted Riley Williams, 23, of six charges, including two felonies: participating in a civil disorder and impeding officers who tried to clear the Capitol Rotunda. But the jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict on two of the central charges in the case: whether Williams 'aided and abetted' in the theft of a laptop from Pelosi's office that the speaker used to make Zoom calls amid the Covid pandemic, and obstruction of Congress' Jan. 6 proceeding -- a felony that carries a 20-year maximum penalty."

Ryan Reilly of NBC News: "For the first time in at least a decade, a jury is set to deliberate federal seditious conspiracy charges, weighing the government's case against members of the far-right Oath Keepers organization who prosecutors say plotted to oppose the peaceful transfer of power by force in the lead-up to the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.... After hearing from the government last week and from the defendants' attorneys on Friday and Monday, federal prosecutors got the last word during rebuttal before the case went to the jury late Monday."

Lauren Gurley of the Washington Post: "One of the largest railroad unions narrowly voted to reject a contract deal brokered by the White House, bringing the country once again closer to a rail strike that could paralyze much of the economy ahead of the holidays, union officials announced on Monday. The union representing roughly 28,000 rail conductors, SMART Transportation Division, voted the deal down by 50.9 percent, the union said. The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, which represents engineers, announced on Monday that 53.5 percent of members voted to ratify the deal. These unions represent 57,000 workers and are the largest and most politically powerful of the 12 rail unions in contract discussions." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Elon Was Always a Dick. Ryan Mac & Jack Ewing of the New York Times: "Over the years, [Elon] Musk has developed a playbook for managing his companies -- including Tesla and the rocket manufacturer SpaceX -- through periods of pain, employing shock treatment and alarmism and pushing his workers and himself to put aside their families and friends to spend all their energy on his mission. At Twitter, Mr. Musk has used many of those same tactics to upend the social media company in just a few weeks.... The similarities between Mr. Musk's approach to Twitter and what he did at Tesla and SpaceX are evident, added Tammy Madsen, a management professor at Santa Clara University.... 'At Tesla and SpaceX, the approach has always been high risk, high reward,' Dr. Madsen said. 'Twitter has been high risk, but the question is: What is the reward that comes out of it?'"

Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: "The massacre this past weekend at Club Q, an L.G.B.T.Q. club in Colorado Springs, was at once shocking and entirely predictable, like terrorist attacks on synagogues and abortion clinics.... In recent years, the right has become increasingly fixated on all-ages drag shows, part of a growing moral panic about children being 'groomed' into gender nonconformity. Club Q hosted a drag show on Saturday night and had an all-ages drag brunch scheduled for Sunday.... The language of 'grooming' recapitulated old homophobic tropes about gay people recruiting children, while also playing into the newer delusions of QAnon, which holds that elite liberals are part of a sprawling satanic child abuse ring.... It's been clear for some time that there are people willing to act on such ideas. Just last month, a man in a red baseball cap firebombed a Tulsa doughnut shop that had hosted a drag event.... Now that a mass shooting has drawn attention to the danger of the right's dehumanizing language, many of those who have demagogued about trans kids and drag queens are painting themselves as victims."

Marie: If you are of a certain age, you will remember where you were & what you did 59 years ago today.

Beyond the Beltway

Alabama. Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs of the New York Times: "Alabama's governor issued a sweeping order on Monday suspending all executions in the state and ordering a review of Alabama's execution process following a series of problems delivering lethal injection drugs this year. The move by Gov. Kay Ivey, a Republican, comes four days after prison officials said they had been unable to insert one of two intravenous lines into Kenneth Eugene Smith before his death warrant expired at midnight. That episode was the third time this year in which Alabama executioners failed to reach a death row prisoner's veins and the second time in less than two months that the problems forced the state to call off an execution. Ms. Ivey said she had asked the state's attorney general to withdraw Alabama's two pending requests for execution dates and seek no more until the investigation is over. She ... also said that ...'legal tactics and criminals hijacking the system' were responsible for the problems." MB: By this, Ivey apparently meant she blamed last-minute appeals. Don't think Kaye has gone soft on the death penalty. She hasn't. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

California. Stephanie Lai of the New York Times: "Representative David Valadao, Republican of California, won re-election on Monday, according to The Associated Press, managing to survive politically after his vote to impeach ... Donald J. Trump, a move that cost some of his Republican colleagues their seats. Mr. Valadao defeated Rudy Salas, a Democratic state assemblyman, in a competitive district in the Central Valley that became more difficult for Republicans after newly drawn boundaries tilted it more to the left. The outcome was decided nearly two weeks after Election Day, with Mr. Valadao leading by more than three percentage points." The AP's story is here.

Oregon. Way Better than Pardoning Turkeys. Andrew Selsky of the AP: "Gov. Kate Brown announced Monday she is pardoning an estimated 45,000 people convicted of simple possession of marijuana, a month after President Joe Biden did the same under federal law. 'No one deserves to be forever saddled with the impacts of a conviction for simple possession of marijuana -- a crime that is no longer on the books in Oregon,' said Brown, who is also forgiving more than $14 million in unpaid fines and fees. Biden has been calling on governors to issue pardons for those convicted of state marijuana offenses, which reflect the vast majority of marijuana possession cases. Biden's pardon applies to those convicted under federal law and thousands convicted in the District of Columbia. In recent months, the governors of Colorado, Nevada, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Washington state have taken steps to grant pardons to those with low-level marijuana convictions, according to the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, or NORML."

Virginia. Ian Shapira of the Washington Post: "Ever since Virginia Military Institute began rolling out new diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives last year, a fierce and well-funded group of conservative alumni has been attacking the efforts to make VMI more welcoming to women and minorities. Now the mostly White alumni group has turned its sights on a new target: the first Black superintendent at the nation's oldest state-supported military college. Some alumni have raised questions about what VMI is paying retired Army Maj. Gen. Cedric T. Wins, while others have called for him to be fired -- suggestions that have outraged his supporters. Wins, 59, who graduated from VMI in 1985 after starring on the basketball team, was chosen to lead the college two years ago amid a state-ordered investigation into alleged racism on the Lexington, Va., campus. The investigation concluded that VMI has long tolerated a 'racist and sexist culture' and must change. But at a school where cadets fought and died for the Confederacy, resistance to change was immediate and intense. 'This is about a bunch of rich, older White guys who are losing power,' said Chuck Rogerson, 61, a White retired Army colonel who roomed with Wins during their four years together at VMI." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: As Rogerson suggests, these are not "conservative alumni." They're racist, sexist, useless old assholes, and the Post should clearly identify them as such.

Way Beyond

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

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live briefings for Tuesday are here: "Ukrainians gathered Monday to commemorate a protest movement that began in November 2013 and led to the removal of a pro-Moscow president. The so-called Maidan revolution was followed by a proxy war with Russia, which was a precursor to the current conflict. President Volodymyr Zelensky used the occasion to elevate the spirits of his people, who have faced nearly nine months of brutal warfare and are in the onset of winter.... The situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, which has faced heavy shelling, continues to alarm international leaders.... Russian authorities set up 'pseudo-law enforcement agencies' in several buildings in Kherson during their occupation, where they allegedly illegally detained and tortured people, according to Ukrainian investigators.... Systemic damage from a barrage of Russian strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure is now so severe that Zelensky is urging residents and businesses to be 'very frugal' and spread out their power consumption across the day to avoid outages during peak periods."