October 24, 2022

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Ariane de Vogue & Tierney Sneed of CNN: "Justice Clarence Thomas on Monday agreed to temporarily freeze a lower court order requiring the testimony of Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham in front of an Atlanta-area special grand jury that is investigating efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election in the state. Thomas acted alone because he has jurisdiction of the lower court that issued the original order. Thomas' move is an administrative stay that was most likely issued Monday to give the Supreme Court justices more time to consider the dispute. The court has asked for a response from the Georgia investigators by Thursday." MB: Yeah, I think he asked Ginny what to do.

Ramon Vargas of the Guardian: "As a mob of Donald Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol during the January 6 attack in a desperate attempt to keep him in the Oval Office, Ted Cruz hid in a closet next to a stack of chairs, but he never thought twice about continuing to sow doubt about the former president's electoral defeat, the Republican senator ... has revealed.... Cruz said ... some [of his fellow senators] blam[ed] him and his allies in the chamber 'explicitly for the violence that was occurring'.... While we waited for the Capitol to be secured, I assembled our coalition in a back room (really, a supply closet with stacked chairs) to discuss what we should do next, Cruz continued.... Cruz said several of those in his coalition wanted to suspend their objections to the certification.... But ... 'I urged my colleagues that the course of action we were advocating was the right and principled one.'

Michigan. Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs of the New York Times: "A former Minneapolis police officer who helped to pin George Floyd down as he gasped for air under the knee of another officer pleaded guilty to manslaughter on Monday, forgoing a trial in exchange for an agreement to drop a more serious murder charge. J. Alexander Kueng, a rookie officer..., placed his knee on Mr. Floyd for several minutes in May 2020 while Mr. Floyd protested that he could not breathe and eventually lost consciousness.... Mr. Kueng, who also is Black, is already serving a three-year prison sentence in the federal case, after a jury convicted him of failing to provide aid or to intervene as another officer, Derek Chauvin, knelt on Mr. Floyd's neck for more than nine minutes. Mr. Kueng had knelt on Mr. Floyd's torso."

Michigan. Stephanie Saul of the New York Times: "A Michigan teenager [Ethan Crumbley] calmly confessed in court on Monday to killing four fellow students and injuring seven others during a shooting rampage at his high school last November.... As the families of victims listened in the crowded Oakland County courtroom, the defendant, now 16, also made a disclosure that could play a role in his parents' pending criminal case on charges of involuntary manslaughter: The gun, he said, 'was not locked.' The defense attorneys for the teenager's parents, James and Jennifer Crumbley, were not immediately available for comment. But they had previously said that the gun was secured. The parents have pleaded not guilty."

Peter Walker & Rowena Mason of the Guardian: "Rishi Sunak has become the new Conservative leader and will be prime minister after Penny Mordaunt followed Boris Johnson in withdrawing from the running, minutes before the party was due to announce how many MPs had backed each candidate. In an apparent acknowledgment that she had not reached the necessary 100 MP threshold to progress, two minutes before the nomination process closed at 2pm, Mordaunt tweeted that she had pulled out, and that Sunak had her 'full support'. Five minutes later, Sir Graham Brady, the chair of the Conservative backbench 1922 Committee, formally announced the result: 'I can confirm that we have one valid nomination, and Rishi Sunak is elected as leader of the Conservative party.' He will formally take over as prime minister from Liz Truss, most likely on Tuesday, after meeting the king at Buckingham palace, at which point Truss would have served 50 days in the job. It is understood the king is travelling back to London from his Sandringham estate in Norfolk on Monday afternoon." ~~~

~~~ Richer & More Powerful than the King. Karla Adam of the Washington Post: "Rishi Sunak is one of the wealthiest people in Britain and will soon be the most powerful when he becomes prime minister. This may be the first time in history that the residents of Downing Street are richer than those of Buckingham Palace.... Sunak, a former banker, and his wife, Indian tech heiress Akshata Murty, have an estimated fortune of about 730 million pounds ($830 million), according to the Sunday Times Rich List. On this year's list, published before her death, Queen Elizabeth II was estimated to have about 370 million pounds ($420 million) by comparison. The couple's money comes primarily from Murty's stake in her father's company, Infosys.... Earlier this year, Sunak's wife was at the center of a tax scandal after it emerged that she had been filing in the United Kingdom as a 'non-domiciled' resident, which allowed her to avoid paying British taxes on the substantial income she earned abroad. The family had been living at 10 Downing Street, in the apartment designated for Britain's finance minister.... In the last leadership election this summer, they circulated a video clip from a 2007 BBC documentary in which he suggests he doesn't have any 'working-class friends.'"

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When you compare Trump's cons with the $50 trillion that the GOP has swindled out of the American working class and given to the top 1 percent since 1980, Trump looks like a piker. -- Thom Hartmann ~~~

~~~ Thom Hartmann discusses the impact of Lewis Powell's infamous memo (1971) that sounded the alarm about how liberals were on the verge of destroying capitalism. He also mentions a Supreme Court decision Powell wrote -- Bank of Boston v. Bellotti -- "which defined the free speech right of corporations." MB: Hartmann is a black-and-white thinker, so he tends to exaggerate & oversimplify, but he's usually on the right track. For instance, here's something from his essay I can go along with 100%: "... here we have Republican politicians acting on behalf of rightwing billionaires as they are spending mind-boggling amounts of time, effort, and money promoting 'solutions' to a problem that doesn't exist." That, IMO, is the fundamental GOP policy prescription. From that, all else flows. And it is, as Hartmann writes, the biggest con in American history. Thanks to RAS for the link.

Sarah Mervosh & Ashley Wu of the New York Times: "U.S. students in most states and across almost all demographic groups have experienced troubling setbacks in both math and reading, according to an authoritative national exam released on Monday, offering the most definitive indictment yet of the pandemic's impact on millions of schoolchildren. In math, the results were especially devastating, representing the steepest declines ever recorded on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, known as the nation's report card, which tests a broad sampling of fourth and eighth graders and dates to the early 1990s.... The picture was mixed, and performance varied by grade level and subject matter in ways that were not always clear cut.... '... The results in today's nation's report card are appalling and unacceptable,' said Miguel Cardona, the secretary of education. 'This is a moment of truth for education. How we respond to this will determine not only our recovery, but our nation's standing in the world.'"

Ben Protess, et al., of the New York Times: "This week will drive home [a] stark reversal of fortune [for Donald Trump's businesses] as the company faces a highly public reckoning: a criminal trial in Manhattan, where the district attorney's office will accuse it of tax fraud and other crimes.... The trial in State Supreme Court will present an embarrassing scene for the former president.... This case centers on special perks doled out by the former president's business, the Trump Organization, which comprises a universe of more than 500 corporate entities. Last year, the district attorney's office accused two of those entities -- The Trump Corporation and Trump Payroll Corp. -- of awarding off-the-books benefits like rent-free apartments and leased luxury vehicles to a few top executives who failed to pay taxes on the perks. As jury selection begins on Monday, the district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg, appears to have the upper hand. The Trump Organization's 75-year-old chief financial officer, Allen H. Weisselberg, recently pleaded guilty to conspiring with the two corporations to carry out the scheme -- and agreed to testify at their trial, tipping the case in favor of Mr. Bragg, a Democrat." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Some crap reporting here: (1) Trump cannot be embarrassed. As he famously said, not paying taxes "makes me smart." (2) Bragg's party affiliation has nothing to do with the fact that Trump's company (allegedly) cheated on taxes.

Hope Yen of the AP: "The [House January 6] committee is demanding [Donald] Trump's testimony under oath next month as well as records relevant to its investigation. To avoid a complicated and protracted legal battle, Trump reportedly had told associates he might consider complying with the subpoena if he could answer questions during live testimony.... Rep. Liz Cheney on Sunday ... said the committee would not allow Trump's testimony to turn into a 'food fight' on TV -- much as was seen, she said, in Trump's broadcast appearances such as one of his 2020 presidential debates -- and she warned that the committee will take action if he does not comply with the subpoena. 'We are going to proceed in terms of the questioning of the former president under oath,' Cheney, R-Wyo., said on 'Meet the Press' on NBC. 'It may take multiple days, and it will be done with a level of rigor and discipline and seriousness that it deserves. We are not going to allow -- he's not going to turn this into a circus.'" ~~~

~~~ Olivia Olander of Politico: "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi goaded ... Donald Trump on the airwaves Sunday, saying she doesn't think he'll testify for the committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection. 'I don't think he's man enough to show up,' Pelosi (D-Calif.) told MSNBC's 'The Sunday Show' host Jonathan Capehart in a wide-ranging interview. She also suggested Trump's lawyers might not want him to show up, since he would be testifying under oath and possible penalty of perjury."

Bob Woodward in the Washington Post: "In more than 50 years of reporting, I have never disclosed the raw interviews or full transcripts of my work. But after listening again to the 20 interviews I conducted with ... Donald Trump during his last year as chief executive, I have decided to take the unusual step of releasing them. I was struck by how Trump pounded in my ears in a way the printed page cannot capture." MB: The point of this article is to promote Woodward's audio book. If you click on the audio button at the right of the screen, you can hear excerpts. I turned it on, then turned it right off. Listening to the grating, nagging voice of a whining braggart is too much.

Sam Jones of the Guardian: "Salman Rushdie has lost sight in one eye and the use of one hand after the attack he suffered while preparing to deliver a lecture in New York state two months ago, his agent has confirmed. The 75-year-old author, who received death threats from Iran in the 1980s after his novel The Satanic Verses was published, was stabbed in the neck and torso as he came on stage to give a talk on artistic freedom at the Chautauqua Institution on 12 August."

Monica Alba of NBC News: "President Joe Biden will get the updated Covid-19 shot Tuesday after he delivers remarks about the pandemic and the administration's efforts to get people in the U.S. boosted, a White House official said."

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 are here. The Guardian's summary report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live briefings for Monday are here: "The United States, Britain and France rejected as 'transparently false' claims by Moscow's defense minister that Ukraine is preparing to use a 'dirty bomb' -- explosive weapons designed to widely disperse radioactive material -- on its own territory with Western help, characterizing the claims as an attempt by Moscow to create a pretext for escalating the conflict.... 'Ukrainian efforts to defeat' Iranian-made drones used by Russia on the battlefield 'are increasingly successful,' the British Defense Ministry said, citing claims by [President] Zelensky that Ukrainian forces are intercepting up to 85 percent of the unmanned aerial vehicles' attempted strikes.... Ukraine still faces widespread power outages and cuts after Russian strikes pummeled the country's energy infrastructure in recent days."

U.K. The New York Times is running a liveblog of developments in Britain's Conservative party effort to quickly come up with a new prime minister. Mark Landler: "Rishi Sunak, the former chancellor of the Exchequer, was poised to become Britain's next prime minister as soon as Monday, after Boris Johnson pulled out of the race to succeed Liz Truss on Sunday evening." ~~~

~~~ Bye-bye, BoJo. Mark Landler of the New York Times: "Boris Johnson pulled out of the race to succeed Liz Truss as Britain's prime minister on Sunday evening, leaving Rishi Sunak, his former chancellor of the Exchequer, with a commanding lead in the contest to be Britain's next leader.... Mr. Johnson's decision ends a feverish couple of days in which he mounted a lively bid to reclaim the job he gave up three months ago amid a cascade of scandals. The former prime minister's campaign never gained momentum, however, as prominent members of the Conservative Party threw their support to Mr. Sunak as a better option to try to reunite a deeply divided party." The AP's story is here. (Also linked late yesterday.)

News Ledes

New York Times: "Leslie Jordan, a comic actor who after a late start in his performing career became a recognizable face from roles on numerous television shows, most notably 'Will & Grace,' then achieved even more fame during the pandemic when his quirky homemade videos attracted millions of Instagram followers, died on Monday in a car crash in Hollywood, Calif. He was 67."

Washington Post: "A man opened fire at a St. Louis high school Monday morning, leaving a teenage girl and an adult woman dead and several others wounded before being fatally wounded by police, according to school and police officials. The shooting was reported shortly after 9 a.m. at the Central Visual and Performing Arts High School, a specialty school of about 400 students known as CVPA, in the southwestern corner of the city. Police arrived a couple of minutes later to find students running from the building and reporting that the man had a long gun, according to Michael Sack, the St. Louis Police commissioner."

October 23, 2022

Late Afternoon Update:

Bye-bye, BoJo. Mark Landler of the New York Times: "Boris Johnson pulled out of the race to succeed Liz Truss as Britain's prime minister on Sunday evening, leaving Rishi Sunak, his former chancellor of the Exchequer, with a commanding lead in the contest to be Britain's next leader.... Mr. Johnson's decision ends a feverish couple of days in which he mounted a lively bid to reclaim the job he gave up three months ago amid a cascade of scandals. The former prime minister's campaign never gained momentum, however, as prominent members of the Conservative Party threw their support to Mr. Sunak as a better option to try to reunite a deeply divided party." The AP's story is here.

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Victoria Bekiempis of the Guardian & the AP: "The Biden administration is urging student loan borrowers to continue applying for debt relief despite a federal appeals court order late on Friday that temporarily halted this program. '[This] temporary order does not prevent borrowers from applying for student debt relief,' White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement following the eighth circuit court of appeals' temporary stay.... The appeals court's decision stems from a motion brought by six Republican-led states which are seeking to block Biden's program."

** Farhad Manjoo of the New York Times: "The fragility of the convoluted [international cooperation it takes to make computer chips] became apparent in last year's Covid-induced chip shortage, which the White House has estimated cost the United States a full percentage point of economic output, or hundreds of billions of dollars.... The question of who controls the semiconductor industry carries geopolitical significance.... That's why I have been so impressed with the aggressive and creative way the Biden administration has gone about curtailing China's alarming, decades-long effort to build a domestic semiconductor industry that's independent from the rest of the world. This month, the Commerce Department announced a set of restrictions that prevent China from getting much of what it needs to establish a commanding position in the chip business.... Analysts ... said the [new] rules will devastate China's domestic chip industry, potentially setting it back decades." The trick now is to make sure China can't evade the rules. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: When you are made even vaguely aware of the intricacies President Biden employed to get the better of China and compare it to Trump's ham-handed trade wars -- which he mostly lost -- you see an essential reason to choose Democrats.

Greg Sargent of the Washington Post: "Republicans are already threatening to use a potential default on the nation's debt limit as a weapon in fiscal negotiations, so if the GOP wins the House, protecting the country from this looming disaster before the next Congress begins is imperative.... A group of House Democrats has written a letter to the party's congressional leadership, urging them to 'permanently end the threat that the federal debt limit poses.'... It's absolutely within Congress's power to put an end to these debt ceiling threats.... Legislation abolishing the debt limit would get filibustered in the Senate. So Democrats could instead use the 'reconciliation' process to raise the debt limit on a simple majority vote far beyond what it will attain during Joe Biden's presidency, or even to an astronomically high number that will never be reached. Another possibility: Transfer control over raising the debt limit to the treasury secretary, while giving Congress only the authority to reverse a hike by Treasury. That would have a budgetary component, [Rep. Brendan] Boyle [D-Pa.] suggests, so theoretically the Senate parliamentarian should allow it under reconciliation."

A couple of days ago, Akhilleus complained that the New York Times was questioning whether or not Congress can subpoena a former president*. Well now, the Times is laying out Trump's arguments for him: ~~~

~~~ Charlie Savage & Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "If ... Donald J. Trump decides to fight the subpoena issued to him on Friday by the House committee investigating his attempts to overturn the 2020 election, his lawyers are likely to muster a battery of constitutional and procedural arguments for why a court should allow him not to testify.... One Supreme Court precedent could prove relevant: In 1982, the court ruled that former presidents are immune from being sued for damages over official decisions they made while in office.... The question in Mr. Trump's case would be whether a president could be similarly hindered by a fear of being forced to testify in front of Congress. Mr. Trump's legal team could also invoke executive privilege in an attempt to ward off the subpoena.... Mr. Trump could also try to mount a procedural argument that the subpoena is invalid."

Edward Helmore of the Guardian: "The Trump Organization is set to face criminal tax fraud charges on Monday in New York.... Monday's case is centered on charges that [Donald Trump's] Manhattan-headquartered real estate company defrauded New York tax authorities by awarding 'off the books' compensation over 15 years to company executives.... Eyes and ears will be on the testimony of the Trump Organization's then chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg, 75, who was charged in the DA's 2021 indictment but has since pleaded to 15 counts ranging from grand larceny to tax fraud to falsifying business records in exchange for his testimony."

Josh Gerstein of Politico: "A federal appeals court has turned down former Arizona GOP senate candidate Kelli Ward's attempt to block a House committee subpoena for her phone records in connection with an investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol building and other events related to the 2020 presidential election. A divided panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals voted, 2-1, to deny Ward's request for an order preventing telephone carrier T-Mobile from complying with the subpoena issued by the House select committee probing Jan. 6."

Rachel Weiner & Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "The third week of the government's case in the seditious conspiracy trial of [five Oath Keepers] ... culminated in a minute-by-minute account of the Oath Keepers' actions on Jan. 6 that prosecutors say shows how the group's leaders plotted 'rebellion' beforehand, greenlit violence while at the Capitol and appeared to coordinate their actions with other figures pushing to subvert the results of the 2020 presidential election.>... At 2:28 p.m., [Oath Keepers leader Stewart] Rhodes wrote, 'Back door of the Capitol,' and sent it to an encrypted chat group that included [Proud Boys leader Enrique] Tarrio, Trump confidant Roger Stone, Stop the Steal organizer Ali Alexander and right-wing talk show host Alex Jones, according to prosecutors.... Rhodes has argued [that earlier] plans were only in preparation for the possibility that President Trump would deputize his group as a legal militia under the Insurrection Act. But in a Dec. 10 text message, Rhodes said that if Trump did not act, 'we will have to rise up in insurrection (rebellion).'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Over the years, I have read articles indicating that Trump used phones other than his official phone to conduct White House business. So I wonder if investigators on the January 6 committee or in the DOJ have asked White House staff if Trump had a burner phone or phones. That seems like something they should have asked and something even low-level staff might have observed. It seems to me any mob boss would have a few disposable, untraceable phones.

November Elections

Christina Cassidy & Ali Swenson of the AP: "Republican activists who believe the 2020 election was stolen from ... Donald Trump have crafted a plan that, in their telling, will thwart cheating in this year's midterm elections. The strategy: Vote in person on Election Day or -- for voters who receive a mailed ballot -- hold onto it and hand it in at a polling place or election office on Nov. 8. The plan is based on unfounded conspiracy theories that fraudsters will manipulate voting systems to rig results for Democrats once they have seen how many Republican votes have been returned early. There has been no evidence of any such widespread fraud. If enough voters are dissuaded from casting ballots early, it could lead to long lines on Election Day and would push back processing of those late-arriving mailed ballots." MB: With any luck, these goofballs will forget about voting altogether.

Arizona. Sasha Hupka of the Arizona Republic: "Days after Maricopa County officials warned people to stop taking photos of voters and election staffers at ballot drop boxes, the Arizona Secretary of State's Office continues to refer complaints to the Department of Justice. Two new complaints filed this week with the office allege that small groups of people are filming voters and capturing photographs of their license plates as they drop off their early ballots.... 'They're harassing people,' [Maricopa Board of Supervisors chair Bill Gates] said. 'They're not helping further the interests of democracy.'"

Georgia. Carlisa Johnson of the Guardian: "Georgia voters turned out in record numbers for the first week of early voting, casting their ballots in the two critical elections, the gubernatorial and Senate races. However, as the election progresses, the impact of Georgia's new voting laws continues to unfold.... Unlimited challenges to eligibility and poorly trained poll workers [are] caus[ing] frustration" among voters.

New York Governor. The New York Times endorses Gov. Kathy Hochul (D). Hochul's challenger, Rep. Lee Zeldin (R), "has demonstrated a loyalty to Trumpism over his oath to defend American democracy and the Constitution. In his campaign for governor, he makes spurious arguments about crime, and his public safety plan appears to be little more than returning to the zero-tolerance policies that have no clear connection to improving safety. Ads from Mr. Zeldin's campaign use threatening images of Black men to stoke panic, and one features a crime that took place in California. And the plans Mr. Zeldin has laid out during this campaign lack a serious interest in the work of governing.... Hochul ... has used her first year in office as governor to show that she can get things done to improve the lives of New Yorkers."

Pennsylvania Senate. ~~~

Virginia. Everything Is Going Very Smoothly. Laura Vozzella of the Washington Post: "State elections officials directed more than 30,000 Northern Virginia voters to the wrong polling place in mailers sent ahead of the Nov. 8 midterm elections, an error they acknowledged Friday and blamed on the private printing company that produced the notices. Those mistakes follow even more error-riddled effort in Southwest Virginia, where an additional 30,000 voters were affected. Some notices in that part of the state were sent to physical addresses instead of P.O. boxes, then re-sent to the boxes but with the wrong information, the Bluefield Daily Telegraph reported this week. And earlier this month, the department disclosed that an unspecified technical glitch had left about 107,000 voter applications in limbo for months.... Democrats seized on the string of errors to question the competence of the Elections Department under Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R), a former private equity chief who won the office last year on promises to bring 'election integrity' and his executive skills to state government[.]" See also RockyGirl's comment in yesterday's thread.

Way Beyond the Beltway

China. "Maximum Xi." Chris Buckley & Keith Bradsher of the New York Times: "Poised to take a groundbreaking third term in power, China's leader, Xi Jinping, has advanced a contingent of Communist Party loyalists ready to defend him, expand state influence over the economy and bolster national security. Mr. Xi opened the new phase of his authoritarian rule with a clutch of victories at the end of a party congress on Saturday. He hurried into retirement two top officials from a more moderate political mold. He positioned allies to dominate the new leadership. He kept officials who have promoted his muscular approach in diplomacy and the military. And Mr. Xi gave no hint of preparing for eventual retirement by anointing a likely successor." MB: And somewhere in Mar-a-Lardo, Donald Trump is eating his heart out. Trump conceives but Xi achieves. ~~~

~~~ Christian Shepherd of the Washington Post: "A meeting of top Chinese officials concluded on Saturday with leader Xi Jinping's power undisputed, as his 'core' status was enshrined in the Communist Party charter, his former political rival retired and his predecessor was escorted off the stage in a surprising departure from protocol.... The choreographed show of unity was undermined by an unexpected break from the program as former party general secretary Hu Jintao was abruptly led away by aides.... Two suited men helped him to his feet and guided him off the stage, leaving an empty chair to the left of Xi." The article describes Hu's peculiar exit. This CNN article concentrates on Hu's unceremonious departure.

Ukraine, et al.

The New York Times' live updates of developments Sunday in Russia's war on 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: "Kremlin-backed authorities are stepping up efforts to relocate civilians from the Russian-controlled city of Kherson, transporting them into Crimea and other occupied regions, in what Ukrainian officials have called an attempt by Moscow to 'depopulate' areas of Ukraine that Kyiv is poised to recapture.... Occupying Russian authorities ordered residents to leave Kherson and urged them to take 'documents, money, valuables and clothes' with them. Photos showed people boarding ferries and buses in Kherson, pets and luggage in tow. Officials are promising government payments of 100,000 rubles (about $1,600) and housing certificates to purchase an apartment for those who comply."

David Stern, et al., of the New York Times: "Russia unleashed a 'barrage' of missiles across Ukraine early Saturday morning, Ukrainian officials said -- targeting the country's electrical grid and blacking out large areas -- while the Kyiv government increased its calls for Western governments to urgently provide antiaircraft systems as a defense against the airstrikes. As Ukrainians braced themselves for the high probability of even more attacks -- and prepare for what could be a winter without heating, water and electricity in parts of the country -- officials said that they had managed to impede the assault in some places, while in others the rockets 'completely' destroyed electrical facilities. Along the front line, Ukrainian officials said their forces were holding their positions or making small but consistent advances."

U.K. Maureen Dowd of the New York Times: Liz Truss "turned out to be a stooge for a reckless, unprincipled Boris Johnson, who was no doubt scheming to see if he could snatch back the reins. 'The moment she gets into political difficulty,' [former PM Theresa May's chief-of-staff Gavin] Barwell told The Times's Mark Landler, 'there's going to be a bring-back-Boris movement.' And here we are at that moment.... Many think Johnson planned this from the start.... Johnson threw his support behind Truss, knowing that she would be so mediocre that he'd look good in comparison.... The outcome was foggy, as Johnson rushed back from a vacation in the Caribbean.... British conservatives are becoming as shameless as American conservatives, willing to put up with any outrage to keep their posh offices and perks."

October 22, 2022

Afternoon Update:

Christina Cassidy & Ali Swenson of the AP: "Republican activists who believe the 2020 election was stolen from ... Donald Trump have crafted a plan that, in their telling, will thwart cheating in this year's midterm elections. The strategy: Vote in person on Election Day or -- for voters who receive a mailed ballot -- hold onto it and hand it in at a polling place or election office on Nov. 8. The plan is based on unfounded conspiracy theories that fraudsters will manipulate voting systems to rig results for Democrats once they have seen how many Republican votes have been returned early. There has been no evidence of any such widespread fraud. If enough voters are dissuaded from casting ballots early, it could lead to long lines on Election Day and would push back processing of those late-arriving mailed ballots." MB: With any luck, these goofballs will forget about voting altogether.

Arizona. Sasha Hupka of the Arizona Republic: "Days after Maricopa County officials warned people to stop taking photos of voters and election staffers at ballot drop boxes, the Arizona Secretary of State's Office continues to refer complaints to the Department of Justice. Two new complaints filed this week with the office allege that small groups of people are filming voters and capturing photographs of their license plates as they drop off their early ballots.... 'They're harassing people,' [Maricopa Board of Supervisors chair Bill Gates] said. 'They're not helping further the interests of democracy.'"

Virginia. Everything Is Going Very Smoothly Laura Vozzella of the Washington Post: "State elections officials directed more than 30,000 Northern Virginia voters to the wrong polling place in mailers sent ahead of the Nov. 8 midterm elections, an error they acknowledged Friday and blamed on the private printing company that produced the notices. Those mistakes follow even more error-riddled effort in Southwest Virginia, where an additional 30,000 voters were affected. Some notices in that part of the state were sent to physical addresses instead of P.O. boxes, then re-sent to the boxes but with the wrong information, the Bluefield Daily Telegraph reported this week. And earlier this month, the department disclosed that an unspecified technical glitch had left about 107,000 voter applications in limbo for months." See also RockyGirl's comment in today's thread.... Democrats seized on the string of errors to question the competence of the Elections Department under Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R), a former private equity chief who won the office last year on promises to bring 'election integrity' and his executive skills to state government[.]"

Pennsylvania Senate. ~~~

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President Biden speaks about this past fiscal year's historical deficit reduction -- the largest-ever decline in the federal deficit. ~~~

If you're worried about the economy, you need to know this Republican leadership in Congress has made it clear they will crash the economy next year by threatening the full faith and credit of the United States. For the first time in our history, putting the United States in default unless we yield to their demand to cut Social Security, Medicare.... I will not yield. I will not cut Social Security. I will not cut Medicare, no matter how hard they work. -- President Biden, Friday ~~~

~~~ Eugene Scott & John Wagner of the Washington Post: "President Biden warned Friday that if Republicans seize the congressional majority in next month's midterm elections, they will 'crash the economy' by holding up the debt limit to extract spending cuts while targeting the two main entitlement programs: Medicare and Social Security. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who could become speaker if the GOP wins the House, suggested this week that his party would be willing to use an increase in the debt limit as leverage to force policy changes. McCarthy did not rule out including Medicare and Social Security in the calculation as Republicans look to reduce government spending. Those comments -- along with McCarthy signaling that House Republicans would be resistant to more aid for Ukraine -- gave Biden new issues to cite in making the case that voters should back Democrats in the midterms...." ~~~

~~~ Jeff Cox of CNBC: "The U.S. budget deficit was sliced in half for fiscal 2022, the biggest drop in history following two years of huge Covid-related spending. Though still large in historical terms, the budget shortfall declined to $1.375 trillion, compared to the 2021 deficit of $2.776 trillion."

Mary Papenfuss of the Huffington Post: "President Joe Biden took off the gloves Friday in a speech pummeling Republican lawmakers who backed massive federal subsidies for business owners, including themselves, during COVID-19 but are now complaining about his student debt forgiveness program. 'I don't want to hear it from MAGA Republicans who had hundreds of thousands of dollars of debts, even millions of dollars, in pandemic relief loans forgiven, who are now attacking me for helping working-class and middle-class Americans,' he railed. Georgia GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and her husband 'got over $180,000 in business loans forgiven,' Biden noted. He also bashed Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) amid loud boos from the audience. Cruz had criticized the student debt program for helping people he dismissed as 'slackers.'"

Stacy Cowley & Alan Rappeportof the New York Times: "A federal appeals court on Friday temporarily halted President Biden's student debt relief plan, preventing the government from moving forward with the debt cancellation it had said could start as early as next week. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit granted a stay in response to an appeal filed by six Republican-led states after a district court judge dismissed their case on Thursday for lack of standing. The action puts any debt cancellation on hold until the court can rule on the states' request for an injunction preventing the government from discharging debts. The court set a Monday deadline for the government to submit its response to the states' filing, and a Tuesday deadline for the states to respond." An ABC News report is here.

A Dark Day in Trumpersville

** Luke Broadwater & Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack issued a subpoena on Friday to Donald J. Trump.... The subpoena was the most aggressive step taken so far by what was already one of the most consequential congressional investigations in decades. Coming as the Justice Department conducts a separate criminal inquiry into efforts to overturn the 2020 election and weeks before the midterm elections, the subpoena threatened to thrust Mr. Trump and the Jan. 6 committee into a protracted legal battle that could ultimately be decided by the Supreme Court.... After interviewing more than 1,000 witnesses and obtaining millions of pages of documents, the Jan. 6 committee has presented a sweeping summation of its case placing Mr. Trump at the center of a calculated, multipart effort to overturn the vote that began even before Election Day.... The subpoena to Mr. Trump requires him to turn over documents by Nov. 4 and to appear for a deposition on or about Nov. 14. It says the interview could last several days.... Legal experts doubted that any lawyer representing the former president would allow him to testify." The AP report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ ** Marie: The ten-page subpoena, linked above, is a committee document. It's a doozy, and well-worth your reading.

** Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "Some of the classified documents recovered by the FBI from Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago home and private club included highly sensitive intelligence regarding Iran and China, according to people familiar with the matter.... At least one of the documents seized by the FBI describes Iran's missile program, according to these people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe an ongoing investigation. Other documents described highly sensitive intelligence work aimed at China, they said. Unauthorized disclosures of specific information in the documents would pose multiple risks, experts say. People aiding U.S. intelligence efforts could be endangered, and collection methods could be compromised. In addition, other countries or U.S. adversaries could retaliate against the United States for actions it has taken in secret." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: As Barrett reminds us, these super-sensitive documents are among those Trump said he could have declassified "even by thinking about it." It's too bad the Dubya/Darth team is not still in office, because Trump is the type of tool whom that bunch would have tossed in a black hole & waterboarded till he choked up what he knew. In the meantime -- and I'm serious here -- I think the FBI & DOJ have badly mishandled this matter; the minute they discovered what Trump had stolen, they should have locked down every single property owned by the Trumps, every safe deposit box, every storage facility, every other possible hideyhole where that Great Amerian Spy might have secreted his booty; then the feds should have thrown Trump in solitary confinement in a federal pen without the ability to speak to anyone except his own lawyers -- any only if those lawyers had top security clearance. ~~~

     ~~~ An NBC News report is here.

Ha Ha. Michael Cohen, appearing on MSNBC, called that Florida club "Mar-a-Lardo." I guess he's been reading Reality Chex.

Jonathan Swan & Zachary Basu of Axios: "A senior White House lawyer [Eric Herschmann] expressed concerns to President Trump's advisers and attorneys about the president signing a sworn court statement verifying inaccurate evidence of voter fraud, according to emails from December 2020 obtained by Axios.... The emails shed new light on a federal judge's explosive finding Wednesday that Trump knew specific instances of voter fraud in Georgia had been debunked, but continued to tout them both in public and under oath.... Herschmann told ... outside lawyers he would not allow the president to sign a verification without sound documentation attached, and challenged the accuracy of the state-level lawsuit that had been filed in Georgia, the three sources said.... Together, the emails obtained by Axios and those reviewed by Judge [David] Carter show that at least two of Trump's attorneys -- Herschmann and [John] Eastman -- explicitly raised concerns about having the president sign a sworn statement making specific claims about voter fraud that were inaccurate."

Glenn Thrush & Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "A federal judge on Friday sentenced Stephen K. Bannon, a longtime adviser to ... Donald J. Trump who aided in the effort to overturn the 2020 election, to four months in prison for disobeying a subpoena from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. Mr. Bannon, 68, was found guilty of two counts of contempt of Congress this summer after Judge Carl J. Nichols rejected an array of arguments offered by Mr. Bannon's defense team, including that he was protected from being compelled to testify by executive privilege. In a contentious exchange with the defense team before announcing a sentence, he said Mr. Bannon had shown 'no remorse for his actions' and had yet to 'demonstrate he has any intention of complying with the subpoena.... Others must be deterred from committing similar crimes,' said Judge Nichols, a Trump appointee, who also imposed a fine of $6,500 on Mr. Bannon.... Mr. Bannon will remain free pending his appeal." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: That last bit gives me a sad. I am anxious to see that disgusting SOB modeling the orange jumpsuit fit for Trump, albeit Bannon probably will sport layers of shirts beneath the orange coverall. ~~~

     ~~~ The AP's report is here.

Save Me, Clarence! Richard Fausset of the New York Times: "Senator Lindsey Graham asked the Supreme Court on Friday to stay a lower court's order that would force him to testify before a special grand jury investigating efforts to overturn ... Donald J. Trump's election loss in Georgia.... On Thursday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta rejected the argument that the Speech and Debate Clause fully shielded Mr. Graham from having to testify. Mr. Graham responded with an emergency application on Friday, asking the Supreme Court for a stay while he appeals the ruling, and, if necessary, a ruling enjoining the special grand jury from questioning him until the appeal is resolved. The filing notes that Mr. Graham was issued a fresh subpoena on Friday compelling him to testify on Nov. 17." CNN's report is here. MB: In fairness to Lindsey, I can see where it's so wrong to try to force a GOP senator to tell the truth.

Ryan Reilly of NBC News: "A Donald Trump supporter who brought two guns to the Capitol on Jan. 6, and dropped one of them on Capitol grounds, was sentenced to five years in federal prison on Friday. Mark Mazza was sentenced to 60 months behind bars by Judge James E. Boasberg.... Federal prosecutors said that Mazza, 'while armed with [a] .40 caliber loaded firearm, engaged in multiple efforts to break through the police line: he repeatedly pushed against officers using the combined physical exertion of the mob; he armed himself with a stolen police baton and assaulted officers with the baton; he yelled at officers telling them to get out the mob's way and to "Get out of our house!"; he held open the door to the tunnel entrance against the resistance of officers, and after being rebuffed, he gathered additional rioters into the tunnel area to continue "heave-ho" pushes against officers in the doorway.'"

November Elections

Nevada. Dana Milbank of the Washington Post: "If the midterm elections degenerate into chaos in a couple of weeks -- a very real possibility -- then Nevada is poised to lead the way. Indeed, the chaos here has already begun. The election supervisors in 10 of the state's 17 counties have already quit, been forced out or announced their departures. Lower-level election workers have quit in the face of consistent abuse. The state's elections staff has lost eight of its 12 employees. The (Republican) secretary of state, who vigorously defends the integrity of the 2020 election, is term-limited, and the GOP nominee to replace her, Jim Marchant, leads a national group of election deniers running for office. Marchant is on record saying that if he and his fellow candidates are elected, 'we're going to fix the whole country, and President Trump is going to be president again.'" Read on. It gets worse.

Pennsylvania Governor. Katie Glueck of the New York Times: "'Josh Shapiro is at best a secular Jew in the same way Joe Biden is a secular Catholic,' Jenna Ellis, a former lawyer for the Trump campaign who worked to overturn the 2020 election, wrote on Twitter, commenting on a headline that noted Mr. Shapiro's faith.... Mr. Shapiro, 49, the state's attorney general, is an observant Jew whose faith is a central part of his public identity. He keeps kosher, prioritizes Sabbath dinner with his family and is a Jewish day school alum.... Mr. Biden often referenced his religion on the campaign trail, and he is a regular churchgoer who once memorably defended the Democratic Party as one of faith.... Mr. Mastriano, a far-right Republican who promotes Christian power and disdains the separation of church and state, has alarmed a broad swath of Pennsylvania's Jewish community with his rhetoric and his associations." Ellis is a senior advisor to Doug Mastriano's campaign.

Beyond the Beltway

Florida Man. Miles Cohen of ABC News: "A Florida man had his election fraud charges dismissed on Friday, making him the first of 20 people who Gov. Ron DeSantis announced had been charged with voter fraud in August, to beat his case. The ruling by a Miami judge may now pave the way for similar motions and rulings in the other 19 election fraud cases, which garnered national attention and controversy when they were announced on Aug. 18. DeSantis said at the time that they were the 'opening salvo' by Florida's newly funded Office of Election Crimes and Security to crack down on voter fraud.... The judge agreed with the defense's argument, that the alleged violations, applying to vote and voting while ineligible, only occurred in Miami-Dade County. Thus, the statewide prosecutor [who brought the charges], was found to not have jurisdiction. In order for the attorney general's office to have jurisdiction, the crimes that they allege must have occurred in at least two judicial circuits. All 20 cases are being prosecuted by the statewide prosecutor."

Texas. David Goodman of the New York Times: "On Friday, the [Texas Department of Public Safety] issued termination papers to one of the officers [involved in the response to the Uvalde school massacre], Sgt. Juan Maldonado, according to two people briefed on the decision. Sergeant Maldonado was one of the first officers to arrive at the school, but could be seen on body camera video staying in a doorway to the school instead of heading toward the gunfire inside.... Captain [Joel] Betancourt's actions are now [also] the subject of an internal [departmental] investigation." Several times, Betancourt appears to have ordered officers to stand back.

Way Beyond

Italy. Chico Harlan & Stefano Pitrelli of the Washington Post: "Giorgia Meloni completed her groundbreaking rise in Italian politics Saturday, when she was sworn in as the country's first female prime minister, giving her once-fringe party a level of power that has been out of reach for other far-right forces in Western Europe.... When the far-right coalition swept to victory last month, it made Meloni's ascent to prime minister nearly inevitable. Her party won 26 percent of the overall vote, more than any other party. But her grip on power is nonetheless fragile. Italian voters are renowned for throwing their support behind leaders and then swiftly ditching them. The last several Italian governments have been brought down by infighting. And this time, the sparring started even before the government was sworn in." MB: Still, she'll probably remain head-of-state longer than the life of a head of lettuce.

Ukraine, et al.

The Washington Post's live briefings of developments Saturday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "Ukraine said it defended itself against more Russian rocket attacks on cities such as Kyiv and Odessa on Saturday, shooting down at least 18 cruise missiles, its Air Force said. Odessa regional governor Maksym Marchenko said two rockets hit energy infrastructure, wiping out power in some areas, while Ukraine's electricity company Ukrenergo said repair crews were working to restore power to networks in the west of the country. In Kyiv, air raid sirens sounded in the capital.... Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Moscow of seeking to blow up a major hydroelectric dam in Nova Kakhovka near the Russian-occupied city of Kherson, potentially flooding southern areas.... [U.S.] Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin held a rare call with his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu on Friday for the first time since May." ~~~

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

Emma Bubola of the New York Times: "Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine began in February, Russian authorities have announced with patriotic fanfare the transfer of thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia to be adopted and become citizens. On state-run television, officials offer teddy bears to new arrivals, who are portrayed as abandoned children being rescued from war. In fact, this mass transfer of children is a potential war crime, regardless of whether they were orphans. And while many of the children did come from orphanages and group homes, the authorities also took children whose relatives or guardians want them back.... As Russian troops pushed into Ukraine, children ... who were fleeing newly occupied territories were swept up.... This systematic resettlement is part of a broader strategy by ... Vladimir V. Putin, to treat Ukraine as a part of Russia and cast his illegal invasion as a noble cause. His government has used children -- including the sick, poor and orphaned -- as part of a propaganda campaign presenting Russia as a charitable savior." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Astounding cruelty. And the fact that Putin is touting the program as a "noble" venture is all the evidence you need of what a depraved, unhinged person he is.

U.K. Mark Landler of the New York Times: "No sooner had Prime Minister Liz Truss of Britain announced her sudden resignation on Thursday afternoon than a familiar name surfaced as a candidate to succeed her: Boris Johnson, the prime minister she replaced a mere 45 days ago. Mr. Johnson, who is vacationing in the Caribbean, has said nothing publicly about a bid for his old job. But the prospect of Boris redux has riveted Conservative Party lawmakers and cabinet ministers -- delighting some, repelling others, and dominating the conversation in a way that Mr. Johnson has for his entire political career." MB: Or, as one British reporter said this morning, the possible reinstallment of Boris as PM would be "like a dog returning to its own vomit." ~~~

     ~~~ The Guardian is live-updating developments in the prime minister sweepstakes.

News Ledes

New York Times: "Lucy Simon, who with her sister Carly began performing and recording as the Simon Sisters during the folk revival of the 1960s, and who then almost three decades later became a Tony Award-nominated composer for the long-running musical 'The Secret Garden,' died on Thursday at her home in Piermont, N.Y., in Rockland County. She was 82." ~~~

~~~ New York Times: "Joanna Simon, a smoky-voiced mezzo-soprano who grew up in a family loaded with musical talent, including her younger sisters Carly and Lucy, before forging an acclaimed career as an opera and concert singer, died on Wednesday in Manhattan. She was 85....Ms. Simon died in a hospital a day before Lucy Simon's death at 82...."