November 14, 2022

Afternoon Update:

Seung Min Kim & Zeke Miller of the AP: "President Joe Biden objected directly to China's 'coercive and increasingly aggressive actions' toward Taiwan during the first in-person meeting of his presidency with Xi Jinping, as the two superpower leaders aimed on Monday to 'manage' their differences in the competition for global influence. The nearly three-hour meeting was the highlight of Biden's weeklong, round-the-world trip to the Middle East and Asia, and came at a critical juncture for the two countries amid increasing economic and security tensions. Speaking at a news conference afterward, Biden said that when it comes to China, the U.S. would 'compete vigorously, but I'm not looking for conflict.' He added: 'I absolutely believe there need not be a new Cold War' between America and the rising Asian power."

Marie: In today's Comments, Ken W. generously does the Republicans' post-election "autopsy" for them. Everything Ken writes is, IMO, sensible, straightforward & obvious. I think some of the brighter Republicans would agree if you gave them truth serum. But they have no intention of following Ken's advice.

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court paved the way on Monday for the House committee investigating the Capitol attack to obtain phone records of Kelli Ward, the chairwoman of the Arizona Republican Party. As is its custom in ruling on emergency applications, the court's brief order gave no reasons in denying Ms. Ward's request that it block a subpoena. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr. noted dissents, also without giving reasons. Experts in legal ethics have said that Justice Thomas should recuse himself from cases concerning the Jan. 6 attack in light of the efforts of his wife, Virginia Thomas, to overturn the 2020 election. Ms. Thomas's activities included lobbying the speaker of the Arizona House to try to reverse Joseph R. Biden Jr.'s victory in the state." Politico's story is here. MB: A guy who probably perjured himself during his Senate hearing is not all that likely to be bothered by even the most obvious ethics standards.

Devlin Barrett & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "Federal agents and prosecutors have come to believe ... Donald Trump's motive for allegedly taking and keeping classified documents was largely his ego and a desire to hold on to the materials as trophies or mementos, according to people familiar with the matter.... [Investigators'] review [of the classified documents Trump stole] has not found any apparent business advantage to the types of classified information in Trump's possession, these people said. FBI interviews with witnesses so far, they said, also do not point to any nefarious effort by Trump to leverage, sell, or use the government secrets. Instead, the former president seemed motivated by a more basic desire not to give up what he believed was his property, these people said. Several Trump advisers said that each time he was asked to give documents or materials back, his stance hardened, and that he gravitated toward lawyers and advisers who indulged his more pugilistic desires. Trump repeatedly said the materials were his, not the government's -- often in profane terms, two of these people said." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: So Trump's Achilles' heel is all in his head? Perhaps a new variant of foot-in-mouth disease.

Drew Harwell of the Washington Post: Last Thursday afternoon a tweet "using the name and logo of the pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Co., ... immediately attracted a giant response: 'We are excited to announce insulin is free now.' The tweet carried a blue 'verified' check mark, a badge that Twitter had used for years to signal an account's authenticity -- and that Twitter's new billionaire owner, Elon Musk, had, while declaring 'power to the people! suddenly opened to anyone, regardless of their identity, as long as they paid $8. But the tweet was a fake.... Inside the real Eli Lilly..., officials scrambled to contact Twitter representatives and demanded they kill the viral spoof.... Twitter, its staffing cut in half, didn't react for hours.... By Friday morning, Eli Lilly executives had ordered a halt to all Twitter ad campaigns -- a potentially serious blow, given that the $330 billion company controls the kind of massive advertising budget that Musk says the company needs to avoid bankruptcy. They also paused their Twitter publishing plan for all corporate accounts around the world.... [Friday] morning, Musk tweeted that the launch of Twitter's new $8 verification regime was 'overall proceeding well.'... When Eli Lilly's share price sank 4 percent on Friday -- in line with a drop in other health care stocks -- many Twitter users credited the fake account...."

New York. Jonah Bromwich of the New York Times: "Lawyers for people detained on Rikers Island intend to ask a federal judge to take control of the jail complex away from New York City, according to a letter filed with the court on Monday, setting the stage for a potentially pivotal hearing this week. The lawyers' intention to request an outsider -- called a receiver -- to run the jails was conveyed in a letter filed by a federal official appointed to monitor the island lockup, where close to 5,900 people are held. The letter could be the first step in a drawn-out process that determines the future of Rikers, where conditions have deteriorated precipitously over the past two years."

Turkey. Ben Hubbard & Sifak Timur of the New York Times: "The Turkish authorities arrested a woman on Monday they suspect was behind the deadly bombing in central Istanbul a day earlier, saying she had been sent to Turkey from Syria by Kurdish militants to carry out the attack.... Turkey accused the United States of complicity in the attack because America has long maintained a military partnership with a Kurdish-led militia in Syria. Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu, during a visit to the site of the attack on Monday, dismissed condolence messages from the United States, saying this was like 'the killer is among the first ones returning to the scene.' The United States is an ally of Turkey in NATO...."

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Amy Wang, et al., of the Washington Post: "Democrats on Sunday were celebrating retaining their majority in the Senate after Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) was projected to win reelection, even as control of the House remained undetermined.... 'Maybe the Republican Party, which has been so negative on so many different issues, will realize that the election was a clarion call by the American people: Stop all this negativity, stop flirting with autocracy, stop spending your time denying the election, and work to get something done,' [Senate Majority Leader Chuck] Schumer [N.Y.] said.... Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) on NBC's 'Meet the Press' on Sunday credited [President] Biden and Democratic voters for the midterm wins.... 'It was not anything that we ever accepted when the pundits in Washington said we couldn't win because history, history, history. Elections are about the future,' [House Speaker Nancy] Pelosi [Calif.] said on ABC's 'This Week.'... '... Our candidates ... had courage, they had purpose, and they understood their district.'" Meanwhile, various Republicans were pointing fingers at Donald Trump or Mitch McConnell. ~~~

~~~ Donald Who? Maggie Astor of the New York Times: "... as Republicans sought to explain their unexpectedly weak election performance in interviews on Sunday, the morning after Democrats clinched control of the Senate, some of them denied [that Donald Trump was the head of the party]. 'We're not a cult....,' Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana said.... 'When any party is out of power, as Republicans are now, we don't have a single leader,' [Sen. Tom] Cotton [Ark.] said...." While Cassidy said he wanted to concentrate on bipartisan legislation, hardliner Rep. Jim Banks (Ind.) said he wanted Republicans to investigate the Biden administration and "to be the last line of defense to block the Biden agenda." ~~~

     ~~~ It's Called Legislating, You Blithering Idiot. Brad Dress of the Hill: "Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) on Sunday said Senate GOP leadership 'caved' to Democrats on a number of legislative bills over the past year, citing that as one reason Republicans did not perform as well as projected in the midterm elections. Scott, the chair of the Senate Republicans' campaign arm, told Maria Bartiromo on Fox News channel's 'Sunday Morning Futures' that Republicans 'caved in on the debt ceiling, caved in on a gun bill, caved in on a fake infrastructure bill.... We [made] it difficult for our candidates.... We can't do that.'" MB: IOW, we lost in election after election because we got a few things done (none of which was a big tax cut for the rich).

Daniel De Vise of the Hill: "Democrats ... won big with young women. Exit polls show 72 percent of women ages 18-29 voted for Democrats in House races nationwide. In a pivotal Pennsylvania Senate race, 77 percent of young women voted for embattled Democrat John Fetterman, helping to secure his victory." MB: Those little ladies will be ever so sorry because they'll never find husbands now.

Georgia Senate Runoff. Look Away, Look Away, Dixieland! Itoro Umontuen of the Atlanta Voice: "There will not be any early voting on the Saturday before the December 6th Senate runoff between Senator Rev. Raphael Warnock, D-Georgia, and Republican opponent Herschel Walker because it will take place on the day after a state holiday that was initially created to honor Confederate general Robert E. Lee."

Matt Viser, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping launched a high-stakes meeting [in Indonesia] on Monday, the first in-person exchange between them as their nations' leaders and at a time of extreme tensions between the global powers.... As reporters were being ushered out of the [meeting] room [after a photo op], a TV producer called out to ask Biden if he would raise human rights during the talks. A man on the Chinese side yanked the producer backwards by her backpack and she lost her balance but didn't fall. Two White House staff members then intervened and said the producer should be left alone." A Politico report, by Jonathan Lemire, is here. ~~~

~~~ The New York Times is liveblogging the meeting between President Biden & Xi Jinping. The Guardian is liveblogging the G20 meeting.

Tal Axelrod of ABC News: "Former Vice President Mike Pence said in an exclusive interview with ABC's 'World News Tonight' anchor David Muir that ... Donald Trump's rhetoric was 'reckless' as a mob of his supporters ransacked the Capitol last year -- with Pence and others temporarily forced into hiding. 'I mean, the president's words were reckless. It was clear he decided to be part of the problem,' Pence told Muir.... 'The president's words that day at the rally [before the riot] endangered me and my family and everyone at the Capitol building.'"

Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "While in office..., Donald J. Trump repeatedly told John F. Kelly, his second White House chief of staff, that he wanted a number of his perceived political enemies to be investigated by the Internal Revenue Service, Mr. Kelly said.... Mr. Kelly said that among those Mr. Trump said 'we ought to investigate' and 'get the I.R.S. on' were the former F.B.I. director James B. Comey and his deputy, Andrew G. McCabe. His account of Mr. Trump's desires to use the I.R.S. against his foes comes after the revelation by The Times this summer that Mr. Comey and Mr. McCabe had both been selected for a rare and highly intrusive audit by the tax agency in the years after Mr. Kelly left the White House.... At the time both audits occurred, the I.R.S. was led by a Trump political appointee....

"Mr. Kelly said that ... Mr. Trump discussed using the I.R.S. and the Justice Department to investigate the former C.I.A. director John O. Brennan; Hillary Clinton; Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon and the owner of The Washington Post, whose coverage often angered Mr. Trump; Peter Strzok, the lead F.B.I. agent on the Russia investigation; and Lisa Page, an F.B.I. official who exchanged text messages with Mr. Strzok that were critical of Mr. Trump." Keeping it classy, a spokeswoman for Trump denied the allegations & called Kelly a psycho.

Benjamin Weiser & William Rashbaum of the New York Times: "Across America, [U.S. private] investigators are increasingly being hired by a new kind of client — authoritarian governments like Iran and China attempting to surveil, harass, threaten and even repatriate dissidents living lawfully in the United States, law enforcement officials said.... Most appear to have been used unwittingly, and later cooperated with the authorities; a few, however, were charged.... [In a New York City case], Manhattan federal prosecutors filed kidnapping conspiracy charges in July 2021 against an Iranian intelligence official and three associates, all in Iran. None are likely to be apprehended if they remain there, but officials said the goal, beyond protecting potential victims, was to expose and deter plots devised at the highest levels of a foreign government."

Way Beyond the Beltway

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 briefings for Monday are here: "A triumphant President Volodymyr Zelensky visited ... [Kherson] recaptured just days ago by his country's troops, saying in a speech in the central square that the victory marked the 'beginning of the end of the war.' Standing in front of a raucous crowd of several hundred people, Zelensky said Western-supplied weapons played a crucial role in recent battlefield victories but that they were paid for in Ukrainian blood. Zelensky made the visit as the city began assessing damage and evidence of what he said were 'hundreds' of war crimes during eight months of Russian occupation. Basic services -- ranging from water and power supplies to the city's postal system -- are slowly being restored for Kherson's residents.... Elsewhere, heavy fighting continued in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine.... Zelensky plans to address the Group of 20 summit via video on Tuesday, and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba is in Asia this week to meet with his counterparts and discuss support."

Then They Took the Animals in the Zoo. Robyn Dixon of the Washington Post: "Russia's military has gained a reputation for looting its way across Ukraine, taking washing machines, electronics, cultural artifacts and even the bones of the lover of Empress Catherine II. But the latest theft -- including seven raccoons, two female wolves, peacocks, a llama and a donkey from Kherson Zoo -- entered the realm of farce. A private Crimean zoo, Taigan Lion Park, owned by Oleg Zubkov, filmed him inexpertly grabbing raccoons by their tails and dumping them into cages in a YouTube video.... Zubkov called the theft a humanitarian mission.... Zubkov ... was convicted of negligence after one of his tigers bit off the finger of a 1-year-old boy in September 2021."

Turkey. Ben Hubbard & Sifak Timur of the New York Times: "A bomb attack struck a bustling pedestrian thoroughfare in central Istanbul on Sunday, killing at least six people, in what officials said could be a terrorist attack, and shattering a sense of calm as Turkey's tourist industry works to recover from the pandemic.The attack was the deadliest in Turkey in more than five years...."

News Ledes

New York Times: "Samuel Folsom, one of the last surviving Marine fighter pilots of World War II, who engaged in aerial dogfights and shot down two Japanese bombers in the horrific struggle for the strategic island of Guadalcanal at a crucial juncture in the Pacific war, died on Saturday in Sherman Oaks, Calif. He was 102.... In the vast undertaking to capture and hold Guadalcanal in the late summer and fall of 1942, Lieutenant Folsom was a 22-year-old aviator who had never flown at high altitude and had fired the wing guns of his Grumman F4F Wildcat only once, in a training exercise in California.... During Lieutenant Folsom's three months on the island, nearly half of his squadron's pilots were killed or wounded. In dogfights, the faster, more maneuverable Zeros often riddled his plane with bullets. He was wounded twice by shrapnel and once by a bullet that gashed his leg. When he ran out of ammunition, he escaped by flying into clouds and circling back to his tiny airstrip...."

New York Times: "A student gunman was at large after he fatally shot three people and wounded two others at a garage on the University of Virginia campus late Sunday night, the authorities said. Around 6:30 a.m. Eastern time on Monday, the university again urged people in and around campus to remain sheltered in place as the authorities searched for the suspect. Classes on Monday were canceled.... The University of Virginia Police Department identified the gunman as Christopher Darnell Jones Jr., who the university president said in an email to the campus was a student at the school.... Mr. Jones was described by the police as wearing a burgundy jacket, bluejeans, red shoes and possibly driving a black sport-utility vehicle." ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Marie: Law enforcement stated on-air at about 11:15 am ET that the suspect was in custody. No further information. ~~~

     ~~~ NYT liveblog update: "A University of Virginia student has been arrested and charged in the shooting deaths of three members of the school's football team and the wounding of two other people Sunday night, university officials said Monday. The suspect is being charged with three counts of second-degree murder and three counts of using a handgun in the commission of a felony, the authorities said.... [A campus lockdown] was lifted around the time the suspect was arrested without incident near Richmond, Va., about an hour's drive from Charlottesville. The university's president, Jim Ryan, identified the three students who were killed as Devin Chandler of Virginia Beach; Lavel 'Tyler' Davis of Dorchester, S.C.; and D'Sean Perry of Miami."

November 13, 2022

Marie: Thank you to all the Democratic candidates & their campaign staffs, to all the harried elections workers & poll workers, to all the Democratic voters who performed their civic duty, no matter how inconvenient or difficult. And a one-handed clap for Sam Alito & the Dancing Supremes for their clueless arrogance in blowing up women's rights -- a motivating factor for Democratic votes.

** Democrats Keep Senate Majority. Hannah Knowles & Liz Goodwin of the Washington Post: "Democrats were projected to retain control of the Senate on Saturday, clinching a narrow majority as they showed strength in battleground races in a daunting midterm year that handed President Biden a major victory as he looks to his next two years in office. The final blow to Republican hopes of retaking the chamber came in Nevada, where on Saturday Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D) was projected to win reelection, edging past Adam Laxalt (R), a former state attorney general. Cortez Masto's projected win ensures Democrats a 50th seat, with a runoff election still to come in Georgia on Dec. 6. Vice President Harris is empowered to cast tiebreaking votes in the Senate. Control of the House was still up in the air on Saturday, as vote counting continued days after an election in which Democrats overperformed expectations in many contested areas across the country.... In Nevada, Cortez Masto's win was part of a perfect record so far by incumbent senators seeking reelection in the midterms, as voters tilted strongly against upending the established order in the chamber. It was part of a strong showing by Democrats in battleground areas...." The AP's story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Sahil Kapur of NBC News: "The Democratic Party's stunning hold on Senate control will enable President Joe Biden and his allies in the chamber to do something that has been a low-key success: churning out federal judges without the threat of Republican obstruction. The Senate majority, inked by a Democratic win in Nevada, gives Biden a clear runway to continue one of his most consequential pursuits: reshaping federal courts with a diverse array of lifetime-appointed liberal judges, including record numbers of women, minorities, former public defenders and civil rights lawyers. The Senate has confirmed 84 Biden-nominated judges, including Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson ... and 25 appeals court judges, confirming judges at a faster rate than ... Donald Trump before the 2022 election."

Nevada Secretary of State. Hannah Knowles of the Washington Post: "Democrat Cisco Aguilar is projected to win Nevada's secretary of state race, beating a Republican nominee, Jim Marchant, who sought oversight of Nevada's elections while baselessly denying the results from 2020. It was the latest defeat for GOP candidates who campaigned on ... Donald Trump's false insistence the 2020 election was stolen and would have wielded power over the voting process in 2024. Marchant remained in close competition to oversee voting in a 2024 battleground state, where the current secretary of state -- a Republican -- has defended the integrity of the voting process amid an onslaught of baseless claims. Aguilar, who chairs the board of trustees for a school in North Las Vegas, campaigned on making voting more accessible and said he would 'protect our democracy.'"

Voters Save Democracy. For Now. Nick Corasaniti of the New York Times: "Every election denier who sought to become the top election official in a critical battleground state lost at the polls this year, as voters roundly rejected extreme partisans who promised to restrict voting and overhaul the electoral process. The national repudiation of this coalition reached its apex on Saturday, when Cisco Aguilar, the Democratic candidate for secretary of state in Nevada, defeated Jim Marchant, according to The Associated Press. Mr. Marchant, the Republican nominee, had helped organize a national right-wing slate of candidates under the name 'America First.' With Mr. Marchant's loss to Mr. Aguilar, all but one of those 'America First' candidates were defeated. Only Diego Morales, a Republican in deep-red Indiana, was successful, while candidates in Michigan, Arizona and New Mexico were defeated."

Arizona. Stacey Barchenger of the Arizona Republic: "A pivotal day of vote counting in Arizona on Saturday saw Democratic candidate for governor Katie Hobbs slightly widen her lead over her Republican opponent, though the race was still too close to call. Hobbs, Arizona's secretary of state and a former lawmaker, now leads Kari Lake, the Republican nominee and former television news anchor, by more than 34,000 votes, such a slight change the race was still separated by 1.4 percentage points. County election officials have counted about 2.3 million votes statewide, but another approximately 265,000 are left to tally. Most of those are from counties that house Arizona's population centers...."

Elizabeth Warren, in a New York Times op-ed, in praise of Joe Biden (and progressive policies): "... this electoral success belongs to Mr. Biden, who ignored ivory-tower economists and out-of-touch pundits claiming that bold action to help families was bad politics. Instead, Mr. Biden delivered significant economic progress for working people.... A few lobbyist-friendly Democrats in our own party blocked much of the president's agenda for working families."

Ezra Klein of the New York Times with a theory of now: ";In September, John Sides, Chris Tausanovitch, and Lynn Vavreck released 'The Bitter End: The 2020 Presidential Campaign and the Challenge to American Democracy.'... What they found clarifies not just 2020, but 2016 and 2022: Because politics is so calcified, virtually nothing matters, but because elections are so close, virtually everything matters.... The parties are so closely matched that even minuscule shifts in the electoral winds can blow the country onto a wildly different course. And even in a time of profound economic dislocation, American politics has become less about which party is good for your wallet and more about whether the cultural changes of the past 50 years delight or dismay you."

Maureen Dowd of the New York Times: "... Trump helped Republicans lose the House in 2018 and lose the White House and the Senate after the 2020 elections. Now he seems to have rescued Democrats from the traditional midterm shellacking.... Trump has been poison for his party.... [But] it's not hard to imagine that this revolt against the revolting Trump will die down in a few days.... 'If blackmailing Ukraine, inciting a riot, trying to overturn the election, hoarding classified documents, using overtly racist language for seven years, including at Glenn Youngkin today, was not enough to cause you to walk away from Donald Trump,' the political analyst Ron Brownstein said on CNN Friday, what makes people think Trump is toast now?" ~~~

~~~ Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times: "The idea that Republican elites could simply swap Trump for another candidate [like Ron DeSantis] without incurring any serious damage rests on two assumptions: First, that Trump's supporters are more committed to the Republican Party than they are to him, and second, that Trump himself will give up the fight if he isn't able to win the party's nomination.... He leads a cult of personality, in which he is an almost messianic figure, practically sent by God himself to purge the United States of liberals (and other assorted enemies) and restore the nation to greatness. He is practically worshiped by a large and politically influential group of Americans, who describe him as 'anointed.'... There is a real chance that Trump, if he loses the nomination, decides to run for president anyway.... Republican elites might be done with Trump, but Trump is not done with the Republican Party." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: What all this says to me is something we all knew way back when: Republicans should have dumped Trump, even before the 2016 election. And as Ron Brownstein pointed out, they have had a number of opportunities to do so again. Leave us not forget the Billy Bush tape, the Muslim ban, Trump's refusal to put his assets in a blind trust & many other financial abuses of the presidency*, the support for white supremacists at Charlottesville. Yet Republicans looked away every time. They chose not to be a normal party in the democratic tradition. Now they're paying for that.

Matt Viser & Yasmeen Abutaleb of the Washington Post: "President Biden arrived [in Phnom Penh, Cambodia,] Saturday, the second stop of a week-long foreign trip seeking to reassure the world community that, no matter the political disruptions back home, the United States can still be a reliable global leader. On the heels of a midterm election that gave him better-than-expected results -- yet still could cost his party full control of Congress when final results are in, complicating his goals -- he has used both appearances so far to press that theme and rally other nations. During a speech in Egypt at the COP27 climate conference, Biden touted the United States as the global pacesetter in fighting climate change. And in Phnom Penh for a summit of southeast Asian nations, he immediately began trying to unite other nations to provide a counterweight to the rising economic and military threat that China poses." ~~~

~~~ Katie Rogers & Jim Tankersley of the New York Times: "President Biden told members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations on Saturday in Cambodia that the United States was committed to deepening 'peace and prosperity throughout the region' by protecting against threats like climate change and the economic fallout of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The president was betting that an in-person appearance at the ASEAN gathering in Cambodia's capital, Phnom Penh, would help reinforce his administration's broad efforts to promote human rights in a country where democracy has been suppressed and to counter China's rise, even as ASEAN countries embrace economic ties with Beijing."

Nick Miroff of the Washington Post: "U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Chris Magnus resigned late Saturday, the White House said in a short statement, ending an awkward standoff between the country's top border official and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. Mayorkas asked Magnus to step down on Wednesday but the CBP commissioner refused to go quietly, insisting he would not leave unless asked by the White House. The White House said President Biden accepted Magnus's resignation...."

John Hudson of the Washington Post: "U.S. intelligence officials have compiled a classified report detailing extensive efforts to manipulate the American political system by the United Arab Emirates, an influential, oil-rich nation in the Persian Gulf long considered a close and trusted partner. The activities covered in the report, described to The Washington Post by three people who have read it, include illegal and legal attempts to steer U.S. foreign policy in ways favorable to the Arab autocracy. It reveals the UAE's bid, spanning multiple U.S. administrations, to exploit the vulnerabilities in American governance, including its reliance on campaign contributions, susceptibility to powerful lobbying firms and lax enforcement of disclosure laws intended to guard against interference by foreign governments, these people said."

Way Beyond the Beltway

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

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live briefings for Sunday are here: "Ukrainian troops reentering Kherson, one of the first Ukrainian cities to be captured after Russia's invasion, discovered the regional capital without water, heat or electricity, an official who had spoken to residents there told The Washington Post. According to Ukrainian officials, the city's Russian occupiers destroyed Kherson's critical infrastructure as they withdrew, leaving inhabitants without enough to eat or drink. The city's liberation after eight months of Russian occupation -- a major morale boost for all of Ukraine with winter approaching -- was celebrated over the weekend by jubilant residents who greeted Ukrainian soldiers with music and blue and yellow flags.... [President] Zelensky warned residents returning to Kherson to avoid handling objects left behind by the Russians as bomb disposal teams have removed some 2,000 explosive devices in the Kherson region -- 'mines, trip wires and unexploded ammunition.'... Ukrainian forces are on the defensive in the eastern Donetsk region, Zelensky said. 'It's just hell there,' he added, describing the 'extremely brutal battles' that Kyiv's troops are engaged in every day to prevent Russian forces from advancing further into the region, which Putin illegally claimed to annex in September.... Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba thanked Washington for its support months into the conflict during a meeting Saturday with Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who was in Cambodia with a U.S. delegation that includes President Biden."

News Ledes

New York Times: "Two World War II-era airplanes collided in midair at an air show in Dallas on Saturday, the authorities said, turning the commemorative Veterans Day weekend event into a scene of horror. Six people were killed in the crash, the National Safety Transportation Board said on Sunday. The planes -- a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress and a Bell P-63 Kingcobra -- crashed at about 1:20 p.m. local time, the Federal Aviation Administration said. The crash happened at the Wings Over Dallas air show at Dallas Executive Airport, which is about 10 miles south of downtown Dallas."

Washington Post: "The 77-year-old Iranian refugee whose ordeal inspired the 2004 movie 'The Terminal' died Saturday inside the Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport, where he had previously lived for 18 years. Mehran Karimi Nasseri died around noon local time of a heart attack, a spokesperson for the Paris airport authority said Sunday. 'He was an iconic, charismatic character. There is a lot of emotion at the airport in the wake of his death.'... In 1988, French authorities stopped him at the Paris airport as he tried to pass through without identity papers, which he said had been stolen. Authorities held him for several days in limbo in a transit zone, and then released him into one of Charles de Gaulle's terminals.Caught in an immigration trap, he soon set up a makeshift home of his own in the airport and lived for many years in Terminal 1.... By 1999, France offered him a residency permit. But he continued to live inside the airport until 2006. After leaving the airport, he appeared to struggle to adapt to outside life."

November 12, 2022

** New Mexico Senate. Jazmine Ulloa of the New York Times: “Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona won a tough campaign for re-election on Friday, The Associated Press reported, defeating his Trump-backed Republican rival, Blake Masters, to put Democrats within one seat of retaining control of the Senate. Democrats hope to clinch the chamber when votes are fully counted in the Nevada contest between Senator Catherine Cortez Masto, a Democrat, and her Republican challenger, Adam Laxalt, who held a tiny lead late Friday but was expected to fall behind.... Mr. Masters, a venture capitalist and political newcomer who embraced ... Donald J. Trump’s lie that the 2020 election was stolen, burst into Arizona politics with millions of dollars in support from the technology billionaire Peter Thiel, his former employer. With an ideological fervor that excited the state Republican Party’s ascendant right wing, he portrayed himself as an internet-savvy insurgent while playing to xenophobic and racist fears, claiming that Democrats were trying to bring more immigrants to the country to change its demographics and gain a political edge.” Masters was one of those Trump faves. The Guardian's story is here.

Arizona Secretary of State. A Big Win for Democracy. Zoë Richards of NBC News: “Republican Mark Finchem, a prominent election denier, has lost to Democrat Adrian Fontes in the race for Arizona secretary of state race, NBC News projects. Fontes, a former top elections official for Maricopa County, will succeed Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, the Democratic nominee for governor. Finchem was among a host of GOP candidates for statewide office who have repeatedly cast doubt over Joe Biden’s presidential victory or falsely claimed that the 2020 election was stolen from ... Donald Trump in Arizona. Last year, Trump backed Finchem's candidacy and highlighted his record of defending the stolen election claims. 'Mark was willing to say what few others had the courage to say' about the 2020 election, Trump said in offering his public support.”

Nevada Governor. Jennifer Medina of the New York Times: “Joseph Lombardo, the Clark County sheriff who rose to prominence after the 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas, defeated Gov. Steve Sisolak of Nevada, a Democrat who faced intense criticism over pandemic-era shutdowns, according to The Associated Press. Mr. Sisolak conceded to Mr. Lombardo shortly before The A.P. called the race on Friday.” The NBC News story is here.

Republicans in Disarray! Marinna Sotomayor, et al., of the Washington Post: “... angry Republicans mounted public challenges to their leaders in both chambers Friday as they confronted the possibility of falling short of the majority, eager to drag Rep. Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) and Sen. Mitch McConnell (Ky.) down from their top posts as consequence.... 'It’s an unworkable majority. Nothing meaningful will get passed,' a dejected aide to a senior House Republican said.... The staunchly conservative House Freedom Caucus is calling for a delay to [leadership elections] efforts [and nailing down conference rules] — especially if control of the House is not decided by then.” ~~~

~~~ Gabby Orr, et al., of CNN: "... Donald Trump is calling up his allies in the Senate ... and making a suggestion as he seeks to divert blame for Republicans’ lackluster midterm performance: Take aim at Mitch McConnell.... [And] McConnell is facing new dissension within the ranks as a faction of Senate Republicans are grumbling internally about the timing of the leadership elections next week and are now calling for a delay – something that several GOP sources and a member of Republican leadership have signaled is unlikely to happen. The internal back-biting has prompted a new round of fears: That Republicans will be at odds over their future and hurt their ability to unite ahead of the December 6 runoff for the US Senate seat in Georgia." MB: And wouldn't that be a shame?

Liz Goodwin of the Washington Post: “Donald Trump..., who boosted some inexperienced Senate candidates in their primaries who underperformed on Tuesday, declared before the midterms that he wanted 'all the credit' if Republicans won. 'If they lose, I should not be blamed at all,' he told NewsNation. But now that Republicans are facing the prospect of being in the minority in the Senate and are still waiting to see whether they will officially nab an uncomfortably narrow majority in the House, some unexpected voices within the party are beginning to question Trump’s influence.... The volume of open criticism illustrates a rare moment of weakness for Trump among Republicans just as he prepares to announce his 2024 presidential bid next week.... 'We’ve heard this song before,' said Doug Heye, a former spokesman for the Republican National Committee who has long been critical of Trump. 'The question is: Will this time be different?'”

In his effort to undermine Ron DeSantolini, Donald Trump claimed on Liars Social that Ron never would have become governor in 2018 but for Trump; Trump claimed he sent the FBI into Broward County to stop the vote counting: “I stopped his Election from being stolen.…” Philip Bump of the Washington Post proves this is not true. RickScott did allege that the Broward vote count was suspicious, but that was two days after DeSantolini was declared the winner. And Bump says there is no evidence Trump sent in the FBI; the counting in Broward continued for another two weeks or so. “We know that Trump worked very hard to get the FBI to intervene in the 2020 election results, but that no intervention followed. There’s no reason to think that the Bureau was influenced more successfully two years prior.” ~~~

     ~~~ Bump also notes that Trump claimed that he is a better vote-getter than DeSantolini: “... I got 1.1 Million more votes in Florida than Ron D got this year, 5.7 Million to 4.6 Million?” Marie: Actually, based on Trump's "logic," Trump is a worse vote-getter than Ronnie D. In 2020, Joe Biden got about 5,297,000 votes, or only about 370,000 votes fewer than Trump. In 2022, Charlie Crist, DeSantolini's opponent, got 3,103,260 votes, or about 1.5 million fewer than Ron's. That is, Trump got only 51.2% of the Florida vote, while in 2022, DeSantis got 59.4% of the vote for governor. Of course, you're really comparing apples to Orange Jesus here: different electorate, different rate of turnout, different conditions, different jobs (president* & governor). But Trump, once again, is a winner only in his own mind, the Walter Mitty of American politics. Pitiful. ~~~

     ~~~ Oh, and according to Akhilleus & Patrick, writing in today's Comments, former Physicist*-in-Chief Donald Trump is charging (ha ha) that Democrats “stole the electron” in Arizona's Senate race.

Chris Buckley & David Sanger of the New York Times: “Just weeks after President Biden and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, laid out competing visions of how the United States and China are vying for military, technological and political pre-eminence, their first face-to-face meeting as top leaders will test whether they can halt a downward spiral that has taken relations to the lowest level since President Nixon began the opening to Beijing half a century ago. Their scheduled meeting Monday in Indonesia will take place months after China brandished its military potential to choke off Taiwan, and the United States imposed a series of export controls devised to hobble China’s ability to produce the most advanced computer chips — necessary for its newest military equipment and crucial to competing in sectors like artificial intelligence and quantum computing. Compounding the tension is Beijing’s partnership with Moscow, which has remained steadfast even after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.”

Kevin Liptak & Ella Nilsen of CNN: “President Joe Biden on Friday used a short visit to the United Nations climate change summit in Egypt to tell the world the United States was ready to take back its leadership role on fighting a warming planet after the passage of one of the president’s key priorities. In a speech to the United Nations COP27 summit, Biden proclaimed the US is back as a global leader on climate change following passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, which included around $370 billion in clean energy incentives meant to slash the use of harmful greenhouse gases. 'My friends, I came to the presidency determined to make … transformational changes that are needed, that America needs to make and we have to do for the rest of the world, to overcome decades of opposition and obstacles of progress on this issue alone,' Biden said, 'to reestablish the United States as a trustworthy and committee global leader on climate. As I stand here before you, we’ve taken enormous strides to achieve that.' Biden added that other nations must similarly raise to the challenge.”

Mark Mazzetti & Ronen Bergman of the New York Times: “During a closed-door session with lawmakers last December, Christopher A. Wray, the director of the F.B.I., was asked whether the bureau had ever purchased and used Pegasus, the hacking tool that penetrates mobile phones and extracts their contents. Mr. Wray acknowledged that the F.B.I. had bought a license for Pegasus, but only for research and development.... But dozens of internal F.B.I. documents and court records ... produced in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit brought by The New York Times against the bureau, show that F.B.I. officials made a push in late 2020 and the first half of 2021 to deploy the hacking tools — made by the Israeli spyware firm NSO — in its own criminal investigations.... In January, The Times revealed that F.B.I. officials had also tested the NSO tool Phantom, a version of Pegasus capable of hacking phones with U.S. numbers. The F.B.I. eventually decided not to deploy Pegasus in criminal investigations in July 2021, amid a flurry of stories about how the hacking tool had been abused by governments across the globe. But the documents offer a glimpse at how the U.S. government ... wrestled with the promise and peril of a powerful cyberweapon. And ... court documents indicate the bureau remains interested in potentially using spyware in future investigations.”

Get Out! No! Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: “The Customs and Border Protection commissioner said Friday that he had been asked to step down but was refusing to do so, in what appears to be the Biden administration’s first attempted shake-up after the midterm elections. The commissioner, Chris Magnus, said both Alejandro N. Mayorkas, the homeland security secretary, and the department’s deputy secretary asked him to resign or face being the first political appointee to be fired by President Biden. Mr. Magnus has been in the position for less than a year. 'I want to make this clear: I have no plans to resign as C.B.P. commissioner,' Mr. Magnus, the head of the agency, said in a statement shared with The New York Times. He said the Department of Homeland Security cut off his access to his Customs and Border Protection Twitter account.... Mr. Magnus said Mr. Mayorkas told him earlier this week that he needed to resign because he had lost confidence in him, in part because he was making things difficult for Raul Ortiz, the chief of the Border Patrol.” A CBS News story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Yeah, the coup de grace was losing that Twitter account, wasn't it? Don't worry, Chris, for $8/month, you can buy yourself a new, verified account. Update: Oh, wait. No, you can't.

Surprise, Surprise! Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: “... Donald J. Trump filed suit on Friday against the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, seeking to block the panel’s subpoena that required him to testify and hand over documents related to the effort to overturn the 2020 election. The 41-page lawsuit, filed in federal court in Florida, comes just days before Mr. Trump was scheduled to appear before the panel for a deposition on Monday. The panel had been in discussions with Mr. Trump’s lawyers and had given them additional time to begin producing documents.” Politico's story is here.

Supremes Don Tuxes & Celebrate Curbing Women's Rights. Guardian & Agencies: “Four of the five US supreme court justices who overturned the constitutional right to abortion in America showed up at the ultra-conservative Federalist Society’s black-tie dinner marking its 40th anniversary. Justice Samuel Alito, who wrote the opinion in the shock decision, got a long, loud ovation at the event on Thursday night from a crowd of 2,000 people, most in tuxedos and gowns, when another speaker praised him on the overturning of Roe v Wade in June.... Norm Eisen, an ethics expert who served in the Obama administration..., said the justices had shown a brazen disregard for ethical appearances, because the [Federalist Society]’s mission is to move the law in a conservative direction. 'While there is no legal obstacle to them showing up at the Federalist Society dinner, the appearances are awful,' Eisen wrote in an email.”

A Dickensian Horror Story. Remy Tumin of the New York Times: “One of the largest food safety companies in the United States illegally employed more than two dozen children in at least three meatpacking plants, several of whom suffered chemical burns from the corrosive cleaners they were required to use on overnight shifts, the Labor Department found. The department filed for an injunction in U.S. District Court in Nebraska on Wednesday against Packers Sanitation Services, which Judge John. M. Gerrard swiftly ordered on Thursday. The injunction requires the company to stop 'employing oppressive child labor' and to comply with a Labor Department investigation into the practice. Packers, a cleaning and sanitation company based in Kieler, Wis., provides contract work at hundreds of slaughtering and meatpacking plants across the country. The Labor Department found that Packers employed at least 31 children, ranging in age from 13 to 17, who cleaned dangerous equipment with corrosive cleaners during overnight shifts at three slaughtering and meatpacking facilities....”

Ryan Mac, et al., of the New York Times: “After Elon Musk, Twitter’s new owner, revamped a subscription service to give users a coveted verification check mark for $8 a month, users began abusing the program this week. Twitter accounts with check marks posed as companies like Eli Lilly and PepsiCo, sending spoof messages about free insulin and the superiority of Coca-Cola. One account with a check mark pretended to be Tesla, Mr. Musk’s electric car company, and bragged about using child labor. By Thursday night, the disorder on Twitter seemed to have become too much for Mr. Musk. 'We need to urgently roll out official labels for big advertisers due to impersonation,' a Twitter engineering manager wrote in an internal message seen by The New York Times. 'Request is from Elon.'” ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Rachel Lerman & Cat Zakrzewski of the Washington Post: “Twitter on Thursday night pressed pause on Elon Musk’s first major product launch — a paid-for blue check mark — after misinformation flooded the site.... Twitter temporarily disabled sign-ups for the new service Thursday night, according to an internal note viewed by The Washington Post, to 'help address impersonation issues.' But in several cases, the damage was already done, and some fake accounts were still active as of Friday. On Friday afternoon, Sen. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) sent a letter to Musk asking several questions about the blue check mark subscription program. A Washington Post columnist set up an account impersonating Markey this week, with the senator’s permission, and paid for a blue check mark.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The main reason I find this amusing is that there is no circumstance in which I would rely on Twitter as a source of accurate information. If I saw something of interest on Twitter that looked credible or at least possible, I would check it out in other media.

Way Beyond the Beltway

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

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live updates for Saturday are here: “After months of fighting, Kyiv’s forces have retaken much of the strategic city of Kherson from Russian occupation, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced. A crowd of chanting revelers, some draped in Ukrainian flags, gathered Friday in Kherson’s central square to celebrate, according to videos shared widely on social media and verified by The Washington Post.... Russia’s retreat from Kherson 'has broader strategic implications,' Jake Sullivan, the White House national security adviser, said on Air Force One.... Sullivan added that Ukraine’s ability to push Russian troops across the Dnieper River reduces the “long-term threat” to places such as Odessa and the Black Sea shore.... Ukraine is moving to restore the area around Kherson.... [The area's] military administrator Vitaliy Kim ... said that officials were working on providing electricity and communications, and that more humanitarian aid was expected to reach local warehouses on Saturday.... At least seven people were killed in a Russian attack on a residential building in the southern Mykolaiv region Friday, a stark reminder that, even as Kherson city comes under Ukrainian control, Russian forces on the eastern bank of the river will still be able to hit Mykolaiv with drones or missiles.”