October 3, 2022

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "Setting out their opening argument in the trial of [Oath Keepers leader Stewart] Rhodes and four other members of the Oath Keepers on charges of seditious conspiracy, federal prosecutors said on Monday that [beginning as early as two days after the November 2020 election, Oath Keepers made] a broad effort to stop the transfer of presidential power and to use the might of the far-right militia to keep ... Donald J. Trump in office.... Mr. Rhodes riled up and recruited dozens of Oath Keepers to join his plot, prosecutors said, eventually deploying them in Washington and across the river in Virginia to disrupt the certification on Jan. 6, 2021, of Mr. Biden's victory.... In his own opening statement, Phillip Linder, Mr. Rhodes's lawyer, said that Mr. Rhodes and his subordinates had never planned an illegal attack against the government.... Instead, Mr. Linder said, the Oath Keepers were waiting for Mr. Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act -- a move, they claim, would have given the group standing as a militia to employ force of arms in support of Mr. Trump." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: This may prove to be an interesting trial to follow because it's likely to release some new facts about the insurrection or ones we've only speculated about.

This New York Times story, by Edgar Sandoval & others, examines how Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis used Florida funds to round up asylum-seekers in San Antonio, Texas, and ship them to Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, without telling the migrants their destination or that they were going to a place that had no jobs or facilities for them. The story also identifies, for the first time (MB: I think), who the mysterious recruiter "Perla" is.

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "In its first argument of the Supreme Court's new term and the first to feature its newest member, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the justices on Monday considered a dispute over the Environmental Protection Agency's authority to police some kinds of water pollution. In June, on the final day of its last term, the court limited the E.P.A.'s power to address climate change under the Clean Air Act. The new case concerned its authority under a different law, the Clean Water Act, which allows the regulation of discharges into what the law calls 'waters of the United States.' The question for the justices was how to determine which wetlands qualify as such waters."

Jeremy Herb of CNN: "... Donald Trump falsely claimed he had given the letters he exchanged with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to the National Archives last year when he was interviewed by New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman for her forthcoming book, according to audio of the interview obtained by CNN.... Haberman told The New York Times, which first reported the audio clips, that she asked Trump in a September 2021 interview 'on a lark' whether he had taken any memento documents from the White House. Trump told Haberman, 'Nothing of great urgency, no,' before bringing up the Kim letters unprompted. 'I have great things though, you know. The letters, the Kim Jong Un letters. I had many of them,' Trump said. 'You were able to take those with you?' Haberman asked. 'No, I think that has the ... I think that's in the archives, but most of it is in the Archives. But the Kim Jong Un letters, we have incredible things. I have incredible letters with other leaders.'... CNN and other outlets have previously reported that Trump, in fact, had kept the Kim letters among the tens of thousands of government documents that he took to his Mar-a-Lago resort after leaving the White House." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Kind of fun to see how Trump uses word salad to lie his way out of an accidental moment of candor. And how Haberman, a Trump pro, catches him. First, she asks an "innocent" question. He answers with a boast, saying he has (present tense) many great things. Then he mentions, without using a connective word, the Kim letters. Then he says he had (evidently the exact same subject, but now, inexplicably, he describes his possession of them in the past tense) many of them (so not all??). As we now know, "I have" is true, but Trump suddenly realizes in the conversation with Haberman that it's illegal for him to "have" them. So "have" becomes "had" in the very same thought fart. Haberman tries to verify that Trump kept the letters, but by then he's ready to embellish his lie with more obfuscation, telling her he thinks the Kim letters are in the Archives. Then he utters one of those nonsense sentences for which he is famous: "But the Kim Jong Un letters, we have incredible things." Those letters are "great," they're "incredible." Superlatives required. Finally, he changes the subject to "incredible" exchanges with other leaders. ~~~

     ~~~ MEANWHILE, Trump is out there calling Haberman a lying creep. ~~~

     ~~~ AND David Leonhardt of the New York Times goes a bit meta when he interviews Haberman about interviewing Trump.

Lawrence Hurley of NBC News: "The Supreme Court on Monday rejected MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell's bid to fend off a defamation lawsuit the voting machine company Dominion Voting Systems filed over his far-fetched claims about the 2020 presidential election. The justices' decision not to hear the case means a federal judge's ruling in August 2021 that allowed the lawsuit to move forward remains in place."

Alabama State GOP Chairman Used Fake ID to Vote. Kyle Whitmere of AL.com: In "Alabama, state law requires you to show a photo ID at the polls. For most folks, this means a driver's license, but other forms of government-issued ID are permitted -- a military ID, a passport or a college student ID, among others.... And if you don't have any of those, the Alabama Secretary of State's office will help you get a special voter ID. The office will even make house calls for the non-ambulatory. But the last few times Alabama Republican Party Chairman John Wahl voted, he presented poll workers with an ID they'd never seen before.... It bore a state seal, a barcode and Wahl's picture. The badge said Wahl was a media representative for State Auditor Jim Zeigler. But when I asked the Alabama Department of Finance, which administers employee IDs, that department said it had never issued him one, nor was Wahl on the list of employees, past and present, in Zeigler's office. As it turns out, Wahl made the ID, he says, with Zeigler's permission. And now, the state's top election official, Secretary of State John Merrill, says that badge is not a valid voter ID." MB: The story gets weirder. Uh, something about Anabaptists & the "mark of the beast." Really.

From Marie's Celebrity* News Page. Declan Harty & Sam Sutton of Politico: "Kim Kardashian will pay $1.26 million to settle federal charges that she promoted a cryptocurrency without disclosing she was paid to do so, the Securities and Exchange Commission said Monday. The SEC alleged that the celebrity billionaire and reality TV star used her Instagram account -- followed by 331 million people -- to tout EthereumMax's token, EMAX, without disclosing that she was being given $250,000 in exchange. EMAX is a token built on the popular Ethereum blockchain. Its value has fallen by more than 99 percent since peaking in May 2021." MB: BTW, herein we find an opportunity to appropriately use the word "deceptive." (See today's Comments). As in, "By failing to disclose that she received a fee for endorsing the product, Ms. Kardashian engaged in deceptive advertising."

*Celebrity: someone who is famous for being famous. And not much else.

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Apocalypse Pending. Yasmeen Abutaleb of the Washington Post: "With a tough midterm election about six weeks away, many Democrats have largely settled on a campaign message ... that ... amounts to a stark warning: If Republicans take power, they will establish a dystopia that cripples democracy and eviscerates abortion rights and other freedoms.... For months leading Democrats, starting with President Biden, signaled that they would campaign on having helped Americans, from fixing bridges to cutting drug costs. Biden suggested that attacking Republicans too harshly would divide the country and alienate potential supporters. But with Trump's reemergence, the proliferation of Republican nominees who reject fair elections, and the Supreme Court's overturning abortion rights, the calculus has starkly changed." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: It depends upon the audience. In my state, Congressional Democrats are running ads about how bipartisany they are & how they are so independent, they cross the aisle all the time to work with Republicans. The ads make me sick, but I suppose the candidates have focus-grouped out what the nitwits want to hear.

The Party of Psychopaths. Joshua Zitser of Insider, republished by Yahoo! News: "Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene ... claimed at a rally for ... Donald Trump in Warren, Michigan, on Saturday that Democrats are murdering Republicans. 'I'm not going to mince words with you all,' Greene said. 'Democrats want Republicans dead. They've already started the killings.' Greene, who has repeatedly spread bizarre conspiracy theories, went on to reference two local news stories to support her baseless claim that Democrats are hunting down GOP voters.... 'Joe Biden has declared every freedom-loving American an enemy of the state,' she said. It was Trump who used this specific terminology, referring to President Joe Biden as an 'enemy of the state' during a rally in Pennsylvania last month. 'We will take back our country from the communists who have stolen it and want us to disappear,' she continued. 'We will expose the unelected bureaucrats, the real enemies within, who have abused their power and have declared political warfare on the greatest president this country has ever had.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

The Collaborators: The Things They Do for Orange Jesus. Steve Eder, et al., of the New York Times: Republican Congressional "votes to reject the election results have become a badge of honor within the party, in some cases even a requirement for advancement, as doubts about the election have come to define what it means to be a Trump Republican. The most far-reaching of Mr. Trump's ploys to overturn his defeat, the objections to the Electoral College results by so many House Republicans did more than any lawsuit, speech or rally to engrave in party orthodoxy the myth of a stolen election. Their actions that day legitimized Mr. Trump's refusal to concede, gave new life to his claims of conspiracy and fraud and lent institutional weight to doubts about the central ritual of American democracy.... Objectors are set to fill the Republican leadership posts and head a majority of the committees....

"In formal statements justifying their votes, about three-quarters relied on the arguments of a low-profile Louisiana congressman, Representative Mike Johnson, the most important architect of the Electoral College objections. On the eve of the Jan. 6 votes, he presented colleagues with what he called a 'third option.' He faulted the way some states had changed voting procedures during the pandemic, saying it was unconstitutional, without supporting the outlandish claims of Mr. Trump's most vocal supporters. His Republican critics called it a Trojan horse that allowed lawmakers to vote with the president while hiding behind a more defensible case."

Martin Pengelly of the Guardian: "In an extraordinarily candid and profane interview with Rolling Stone, Michael Fanone -- the former Washington police officer who was seriously hurt at the US Capitol during the January 6 attack -- called the Republican House leader, [Kevin McCarthy,] potentially the next speaker, a 'fucking weasel bitch'.... Fanone, now an analyst for CNN, said his new mission in life was to 'wag[e] a one-man war against Donald Trump and the fucking people that refuse to accept reality'."

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The last Supreme Court term ended with a series of judicial bombshells in June that eliminated the right to abortion, established a right to carry guns outside the home and limited efforts to address climate change. As the justices return to the bench on Monday, there are few signs that the court's race to the right is slowing. The new term will feature major disputes on affirmative action, voting, religion, free speech and gay rights. And the court's six-justice conservative supermajority seems poised to dominate the new term as it did the earlier one. 'On things that matter most,' said Irv Gornstein, the executive director of the Supreme Court Institute at Georgetown Law, 'get ready for a lot of 6-3s.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post: "Already, with its calendar only partly filled, the justices have once again piled onto their agenda cases that embroil the court in some of the most inflammatory issues confronting the nation -- and more are on the way."

Way Beyond the Beltway

Brazil. Terrence McCoy, et al., of the Washington Post: "Brazil's deeply polarizing presidential election, which has pitted populists from opposite ends of the political spectrum -- right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro and left-wing former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva -- will go to a second round after no candidate secured enough votes Sunday to claim outright victory. In a race that voters, analysts and the candidates themselves framed as an existential moment in Latin America's largest country, Lula, a former union leader who served two terms as president from 2003 to 2010, won a narrow plurality. But it was not enough to defeat Bolsonaro, who ended the night with a far more significant share of the vote than many polls predicted." An AP report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ The Guardian is live-updating developments.

Iran. AP: "Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei responded publicly on Monday to the biggest protests in Iran in years, breaking weeks of silence to condemn what he called 'rioting' and accuse the United States and Israel of planning the protests. The unrest, ignited by the death of a young woman in the custody of Iran's morality police, are flaring up across the country for a third week despite government efforts to crack down. On Monday, Iran shuttered its top technology university following an hours-long standoff between students and the police that turned the prestigious institution into the latest flashpoint of protests and ended with hundreds of young people arrested." MB: Because dictators & repressive governments are never at fault.

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: "Russian lawmakers are poised to finalize the illegal takeover of four Ukrainian regions this week, with both houses of Russia's rubber-stamp parliament expected to pass annexation documents Monday and Tuesday. Ukraine celebrated the retaking of Lyman, saying on Sunday that the key logistics hub in the eastern Donetsk region was completely 'cleared of the Russian occupiers.' Russian forces' retreat from Lyman and other recent setbacks led to unusually open criticism of the Russian military on hard-line pro-Kremlin Telegram channels.... Denmark said the Nord Stream gas leaks are under control.... About 150 Ukrainian schools have been destroyed and 900 damaged, first lady Olena Zelenska said in an interview with '60 Minutes' that aired Sunday. 'Around 3,500 schools will operate online only, because schools cannot receive students and because their parents are afraid to send their children to school,' Zelenska said."

Michael Biesecker, et al., of the AP: "... an investigation by The Associated Press and the PBS series 'Frontline' has found ... a sophisticated Russian-run smuggling operation that has used falsified manifests and seaborne subterfuge to steal Ukrainian grain worth at least $530 million -- cash that has helped feed President Vladimir Putin's war machine.... The ongoing theft, which legal experts say is a potential war crime, is being carried out by  wealthy businessmen and state-owned companies in Russia and Syria, some of them already facing financial sanctions from the United States and European Union. Meanwhile, the Russian military has attacked farms, grain silos and shipping facilities still under Ukrainian control with artillery and air strikes, destroying food, driving up prices and reducing the flow of grain from a country long known as the breadbasket of Europe."

U.K. Mark Landler of the New York Times: "Bowing to intense opposition from Conservative lawmakers after a market backlash, Prime Minister Liz Truss of Britain on Monday reversed plans to abolish the top income tax rate of 45 percent on high earners, a key element of her government's tax-cutting economic agenda. The announcement buoyed the British pound, which had been driven down by fears over the government's plans. But it was a humbling capitulation by the government, a day after Ms. Truss declared that she would go ahead with the tax cuts that were the centerpiece of her successful campaign to replace Boris Johnson as leader of the Conservative Party.: The Guardian's story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Perhaps you think Miss Lizzie does not know what she's doing. I don't think she does.

October 2, 2022

Afternoon Update:

The Party of Psychopaths. Joshua Zitser of Insider, republished by Yahoo! News: "Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene ... claimed at a rally for ... Donald Trump in Warren, Michigan, on Saturday that Democrats are murdering Republicans. 'I'm not going to mince words with you all,' Greene said. 'Democrats want Republicans dead. They've already started the killings.' Greene, who has repeatedly spread bizarre conspiracy theories, went on to reference two local news stories to support her baseless claim that Democrats are hunting down GOP voters.... 'Joe Biden has declared every freedom-loving American an enemy of the state,' she said. It was Trump who used this specific terminology, referring to President Joe Biden as an 'enemy of the state' during a rally in Pennsylvania last month. 'We will take back our country from the communists who have stolen it and want us to disappear,' she continued. 'We will expose the unelected bureaucrats, the real enemies within, who have abused their power and have declared political warfare on the greatest president this country has ever had.'"

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Michael Shear & Farnaz Fassihi of the New York Times: "Seven Americans who had been held captive in Venezuela for years were on their way home Saturday after President Biden agreed to grant clemency to two nephews of Cilia Flores, Venezuela's first lady, officials said. The men had been sentenced in 2017 to 18 years in prison for conspiring to smuggle cocaine into the United States. At the same time, Iran on Saturday released Siamak Namazi, a 51-year-old dual-national Iranian American businessman who had been jailed since 2015, on a temporary furlough and lifted the travel ban on his father, Baquer Namazi, an 85-year-old former official for the United Nations, according to the family's lawyer." An AP story on the Venezuelan exchange is here.

Annie Karni of the New York Times: "In its final vote before lawmakers left Washington for November's midterm elections, the House on Friday overwhelmingly passed bipartisan legislation that would authorize $2.7 billion in compensation payments to the families of victims of the Sept. 11 attacks. The bill passed 400 to 31, with just one Democrat, Representative Kurt Schrader of Oregon, opposing it. It was to go next to the Senate..., where its prospects are uncertain. The bill would direct the money to be used for lump-sum payments to immediate family members of Sept. 11 victims who have been barred from receiving money from the U.S. Victims of State-Sponsored Terrorism Fund."

Jacqueline Alemany of the Washington Post: "The National Archives has told the House Oversight Committee that it has not yet recovered all of the records from Trump administration officials that should have been transferred under the Presidential Records Act. The Archives will consult with the Department of Justice 'on whether "to initiate an action for the recovery of records unlawfully removed," as established under the Federal Records Act,' acting archivist Debra Steidel Wall said in a letter sent on Friday to the committee's chairwoman, Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.). Steidel Wall added that the Archives has been unable to obtain federal records related to 'non-official electronic messaging accounts that were not copied or forwarded into their official electronic messaging accounts.'... Under the Presidential Records Act, the immediate staff of the president, the vice president and anyone who advises the president must preserve records and phone calls pertaining to official duties." A CNN story is here.

Trump Knocks McConnell, Makes Racist Remark(s) about Chao. Asawan Suebsaeng & Nikki Ramirez of Rolling Stone, republished by Yahoo! News: "'He has a DEATH WISH,' Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social of Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell, while also adding a racist dig at McConnell's wife Elaine Chao, who is Asian American and a former member of Trump's own cabinet. 'Must immediately seek help and advise [sic] from his China loving wife, Coco Chow!' Chao was born in Taiwan.... The screed came after President Joe Biden signed into law a bill to fund the US government until Dec. 16 to avoid a shut down at midnight." MB: Chao was an ineffectual Transportation Secretary, except when it came to carrying out her corrupt projects (which is befitting of any post in a Trump administration), but no one should make racist remarks about her. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Isaac Arnsdorf of the Washington Post writes that "many" people thought Trump's suggestion that McConnell had a "death wish" was a threat. But Arnsdorf doesn't cite any people who expressed that view. MB: So the report is just as convincing as one of Trump's "many people say..." remarks. IMO, saying someone has a death wish does not invite other people to fulfill that wish. A reference to a death wish seems out-of-place and inappropriate, but it may just be a reflection of Trump's limited vocabulary. He may mean something like McConnell is engaging in self-sabotage or his actions are self-defeating or self-destructive. Or he may just mean that McConnell is ineffectual. Or maybe that he's filled will self-loathing. No way to know, because Trump probably doesn't know, either. More generally, I think Trump often makes incendiary remarks because he doesn't know any other words or terms. Superlatives impress him so he can remember them. He discards terms with a little more nuance because they don't shock the conscience so he can't remember them. ~~~

     ~~~ A great deal of Trump's bad behavior can be explained by "He's just not all that bright," and the corollary, "And he knows it."

Mary Jordan of the Washington Post:"Former president Jimmy Carter is celebrating his 98th birthday Saturday by seeing family members and taking calls in his modest living room in Plains, Ga., the small town where he began his improbable campaign for the nation's highest office nearly half a century ago." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Beyond the Beltway

Maryland Gubernatorial Race. Washington Post Editors endorse Democrat Wes Moore for governor of Maryland: "The candidates are not merely a study in policy contrasts. They exist in different worlds. Mr. Moore has staked out the aspirational high ground as a liberal intent on tackling high crime, unaffordable housing, child poverty, and the racial wealth and opportunity gaps. [Republican Dan] Cox's political views are rooted in hard-right resentment -- at President Biden's 2020 victory, which he falsely denies; at pandemic mask and vaccine mandates, which saved countless lives; at critical race theory, a chimera wielded to stoke racial anger; at climate change forecasts, which he regards as phony." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Way Beyond

Ukraine, et al.

The New York Times' live updates in developments Sunday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here. ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live updates of developments Sunday are here: "Western countries cast Russian troops' withdrawal from Lyman, a key supply hub in eastern Ukraine, as a strategic victory that could undermine Russia's effort to control the Donetsk region.... The United Nations' nuclear watchdog called for Russian forces to release the director of the Zaporizhzhia power plant, Europe's largest nuclear facility."

Thomas Gibbons-Neff, et al., of the New York Times: "Russian forces retreated from the strategic eastern Ukrainian city of Lyman on Saturday, a humbling setback for President Vladimir V. Putin just one day after he illegally declared the surrounding region to be part of Russia. The Ukrainians' assault on Lyman, a rail hub leading into the mineral-rich Donbas region, underscored their resolve to attack in territory Mr. Putin now claims sovereignty over -- raising the stakes in a war in which a nuclear-armed Russia has declared it would use 'all available means' to defend land it considers its own."

Isaac Arnsdorf of the Washington Post: "Prominent Republicans are digging in against American support for Ukraine despite Russia's threats to use nuclear weapons and evidence of mass graves and war crimes facilitated by Moscow. The Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday tweeted -- and then hours later deleted -- a message that called on Democrats to 'end the gift-giving to Ukraine' while featuring a fluttering Russian flag. The tweet also referred to 'Ukraine-occupied territories,' appearing to legitimize ... Vladimir Putin's claims to annex provinces based on a referendum that the U.S. and allies view as illegal. CPAC chairman Matt Schlapp on Saturday said the tweet did not clear the normal approval process because he was traveling for a conference in Australia.... CPAC has repeatedly flirted with pro-Putin views in recent years, including hosting pro-Russian Hungarian prime minister Victor Orban at a Dallas conference in August." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: There's nothing wrong with opposing U.S. wars or similar foreign entanglements, but there's plenty wrong with supporting dictators, war criminals & imperialist aggressors.

Dan Lamothe of the Washington Post: "Alex Drueke and Andy Tai Huynh evaded Russian forces for hours, slogging through pine forests and marshes in Ukraine to avoid detection. The U.S. military veterans were left behind -- 'abandoned,' they said -- after their Ukrainian task force was attacked, and determined that their best chance of survival was to hike back to their base in Kharkiv. What followed was an excruciating, often terrifying 104 days in captivity. They were interrogated, subjected to physical and psychological abuse, and given little food or clean water, Drueke and Huynh recalled. Initially, they were taken into Russia, to a detention complex dotted with tents and ringed by barbed wire, they said. Their captors later moved them, first to a 'black site' where the beatings worsened, Drueke said, and then to what they called a more traditional prison run by Russian-backed separatists in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine.... [The two men were] freed on Sept. 21 as part of a sprawling prisoner exchange between Russia and Ukraine."

News Ledes

New York Times: "The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Svante Pääbo, a Swedish geneticist, on Monday for his discoveries concerning the genomes of extinct hominins and human evolution.... 'Through his pioneering research, Svante Pääbo ... accomplished something seemingly impossible: sequencing the genome of the Neanderthal, an extinct relative of present-day humans,' the Nobel committee said in a statement. Pääbo's discoveries have generated new understanding of our evolutionary history,' the statement said, adding that this research had helped establish the burgeoning science of 'paleogenomics,' or the study of genetic material from ancient pathogens." The Guardian report is here.

New York Times: "Hurricane Orlene, a Category 2 storm, approached western Mexico early Monday and threatened the region with significant wind, storm surge and rainfall, forecasters said. Storm preparations were underway in at least three Mexican states. The storm was about 15 miles north of Las Islas Marías, an archipelago of four islands, and was moving north, the National Hurricane Center said on Monday in a 2 a.m. Eastern advisory. Orlene had maximum sustained winds of about 105 miles per hour, with higher gusts."

New York Times: "Sacheen Littlefeather, the Apache activist and actress who refused to accept the best actor award on behalf of Marlon Brando at the 1973 Oscars, drawing jeers onstage in an act that pierced through the facade of the awards show and highlighted her criticism of Hollywood for its depictions of Native Americans, has died. She was 75."

October 1, 2022

Afternoon Update:

Mary Jordan of the Washington Post: "Former president Jimmy Carter is celebrating his 98th birthday Saturday by seeing family members and taking calls in his modest living room in Plains, Ga., the small town where he began his improbable campaign for the nation's highest office nearly half a century ago."

Trump Knocks McConnell, Makes Racist Remark(s) about Chao. Asawan Suebsaeng & Nikki Ramirez of Rolling Stone, republished by Yahoo! News: "'He has a DEATH WISH,' Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social of Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell, while also adding a racist dig at McConnell's wife Elaine Chao, who is Asian American and a former member of Trump's own cabinet. 'Must immediately seek help and advise [sic] from his China loving wife, Coco Chow!' Chao was born in Taiwan.... The screed came after President Joe Biden signed into law a bill to fund the US government until Dec. 16 to avoid a shut down at midnight." MB: Chao was a lousy transportation secretary, except when it came to carrying out her corrupt projects (befitting of any post in a Trump administration), but no one should make racist remarks about her.

Washington Post Editors endorse Democrat Wes Moore for governor of Maryland: "The candidates are not merely a study in policy contrasts. They exist in different worlds. Mr. Moore has staked out the aspirational high ground as a liberal intent on tackling high crime, unaffordable housing, child poverty, and the racial wealth and opportunity gaps. [Republican Dan] Cox's political views are rooted in hard-right resentment -- at President Biden's 2020 victory, which he falsely denies; at pandemic mask and vaccine mandates, which saved countless lives; at critical race theory, a chimera wielded to stoke racial anger; at climate change forecasts, which he regards as phony."

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Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "Congress gave final approval on Friday to a short-term spending package that would keep the government open through mid-December, staving off a midnight shutdown and sending about $12.3 billion in military and economic aid to Ukraine. The House passed the measure less than 12 hours before funding was set to lapse, clearing it for President Biden's signature. It would keep the government open through Dec. 16, giving lawmakers time to iron out their considerable differences over the dozen annual spending bills. The package included a third tranche of aid to Ukraine for its battle with Russia, on top of a total of about $54 billion approved earlier this year. With the vote on Friday, Congress has now committed more military aid to Ukraine than it has to any country in a single year since the Vietnam War...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Update. New Lede: "Congress gave final approval on Friday to a short-term spending package to keep the government open through mid-December and President Biden signed it soon afterward, staving off a midnight shutdown and sending about $12.3 billion in military and economic aid to Ukraine."

Jennifer Schussler of the New York Times: "President Biden on Friday issued an executive order re-establishing the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, an advisory board that was dissolved five years ago after its members resigned in protest over ... Donald J. Trump's reaction to the deadly white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va. The announcement reverses the outcome of one of the stormier episodes in Mr. Trump's mutually antagonistic relationship with artists and cultural figures. In a group resignation letter in August 2017, the committee ... decried what it called Mr. Trump's 'support of the hate groups and terrorists who killed and injured fellow Americans,' saying 'the false equivalencies you push cannot stand.' In response, the White House issued a statement saying Mr. Trump had already been planning to dissolve the group, describing it as 'not a responsible way to spend American tax dollars.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Besides, the committee probably refused to recommend purchasing this nice masterpiece, which somehow found its way to spot in the hall outside Trump's temporary HQ in the Oval Office. I guess a person could contemplate the painting while awaiting her audience with the King.

Gillian Brockell of the Washington Post: "'A woke military is a weak military,' former CIA director Mike Pompeo tweeted Tuesday. A few weeks earlier at CIA headquarters, in Langley, Va., current CIA director William J. Burns had a different perspective: cutting the ribbon on a new statue of abolitionist and military spy Harriet Tubman, a move some might decry as 'woke' for an intelligence agency. Burns shared ribbon-cutting duties with Tina Wyatt, a descendant of Tubman's who was invited to the private ceremony.... CIA employees proposed the statue project after attending a team-building program in Maryland, where Tubman was raised and where she eventually led scores of enslaved people to freedom. It is a reproduction of a statue by artist Brian Hanlon that stands in front of the New York State Equal Rights Heritage Center in Auburn, N.Y., and was made with the artist's permission." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: BTW, I saw the Pompeo anti-"woke" ad referenced in this Fox "News" story. It ran on CNN or MSNBC, and it's disgusting, probably as a roll-over in early-primary states markets. And it's a reminder that the next Republican president* will be worse than Trump, because he (and mostly likely not she) probably will be less ham-handed than Trump. Instead of blurting out atrocious, bigoted remarks, the new president* will say them softly, over inspiring, patriotic theme music.

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court, was welcomed by her colleagues on Friday at an investiture ceremony at the court that was attended by President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. The proceedings were 'purely ceremonial,' the court's public information office noted, as Justice Jackson has been a member of the court since she was sworn in on June 30. But the event was nonetheless stately and steeped in history." MB: Yeah, welcome to a hot mess. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Alexandra Petri of the Washington Post channels Sam Alito to explain the divine right of confederate Supremes to rule with impunity: "All I know is that the legitimacy of the Supreme Court is something that ought to be taken on faith, as a matter of dogma -- which, coincidentally, is also a pretty great way of making judicial decisions. Yes, I'm sure I have that right.... But to call my court's integrity into question -- the temerity! This kind of horrible disrespect is the sort I will not suffer in silence. All I want is to live my life as I choose, holding sway over the entire nation without pushback or criticism. Yet at every turn my benevolence is met with treachery and complaint.... So stop questioning my authority!"

Merrick Garland Is Tired of Trying to Reason with Aileen Cannon. Kyle Cheney & Josh Gerstein of Politico: "The Justice Department moved to quickly dismantle the independent review of documents seized from Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate, contending that the review -- ordered by U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon -- is impeding its criminal investigation. In a 15-page filing asking a federal appeals court to speed its consideration of the issue, prosecutors complained the 'special master' review prevents DOJ from accessing thousands of non-classified records recovered from the former president's estate.... Justice Department officials said the continued blockade on non-classified materials had slowed investigators' efforts to determine how some of the classified records were transferred to Mar-a-Lago and whether any of them were improperly accessed.... The filing also hints at prosecutors' irritation with Cannon, a Trump appointee confirmed days after his defeat in the 2020 election. The Justice Department noted that she has repeatedly overruled decisions made by the special master she appointed at Trump's suggestion...."

Trump Legal "Team."Rosalind Helderman, et al., of the Washington Post: "... just a few weeks after ... Christopher Kise accepted $3 million to represent Donald Trump in the FBI's investigation of government documents stored at Mar-a-Lago..., he finds himself in a battle, trying to persuade Trump to go along with his legal strategy and fighting with some other advisers who have counseled a more aggressive posture. The dispute has raged for at least a week, Trump advisers say, with the former president listening as various lawyers make their best arguments.... [Kise] remains part of the team and will continue assisting Trump in dealing with some of his other legal problems..., but on the Mar-a-Lago issue, he is likely to have a less public role.... Trump seems, at least for now, to be heeding advice from those [lawyers] who have indulged his desire to fight." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Donald Trump is very upset Maggie Haberman didn't choose him as a fact-checker. But then, ironically enough, she proves in a tweet (showing a photo of her questions & Trump's handwritten answers) that she did, which is to say that the World's Greatest Fact-Checker even lied about fact-checking. For some reason, Haberman did not accept his fact-checking as, you know, conclusive.

[The Second Amendment] is about maintaining within the citizenry the ability to maintain an armed rebellion against the government, if that becomes necessary. -- Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.)

[The Second Amendment was] designed purposefully to empower the people to resist the force of tyranny used against them. -- Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) ~~~

~~~ ** Jamie Raskin, former professor of Constitutional law & now Maryland MOC (D), in a New York Times op-ed (September 27) explains the Second Amendment to some his dimwitted colleagues: "It is essential to reject the myth that frustrated citizens have a Second Amendment right to raise arms against the government -- an outrageous betrayal of our Constitution.... Of the more than 900 people charged with crimes tied to Jan. 6 -- including smashing windows, assaulting Capitol officers and conspiring to overthrow or interfere with the government -- not a single charge has been dismissed by any federal (or state) court on the grounds that the Second Amendment or any other part of the Constitution gives them the right to engage in violent insurrection against the government.... The Constitution treats insurrection and rebellion as political dangers, not protected rights. Article I gives Congress the power to 'provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions.'" [Raskin also cites Article IV & the 14th Amendment, which grant the federal government the power to put down "domestic violence" and "rebellion."] "The Supreme Court has been clear that the Second Amendment's reference to a 'well-regulated militia' means well-regulated by the government."

Marie: Maybe Reality Chex should go commercial. How about I try to get a big oil company to back me? RAS found this ad that would be perfect: ~~~

     ~~~ Via RAS, via Crooks & Liars, via Common Dreams, by director Adam McKay. Thanks, everybody!

Marie's Question of the Day: Why is it that so many (alleged!) virulent, murderous racists (WashPo link) look as if they could play Evil Santa? Even without makeup, these horrible miscreants are ready for their closeup. (Currently -- at 7 am ET -- photos of these fat pink fucks' faces also appear on the front page of the WashPo, so you can see what I mean without clicking on a firewalled page.)

Beyond the Beltway

Florida. Frances Robles, et al., of the New York Times: "... while officials along much of [the southwest Florida] coastline responded [ahead of Hurricane Ian] with orders to evacuate on Monday, emergency managers in Lee County held off, pondering during the day whether to tell people to flee, but then deciding to see how the forecast evolved overnight.... Lee County, which includes the hard-hit seaside community of Fort Myers Beach, as well as the towns of Fort Myers, Sanibel and Cape Coral, did not issue a mandatory evacuation order for the areas likely to be hardest hit until Tuesday morning, a day after several neighboring counties had ordered their most vulnerable residents to flee.... [the Lee County] delay, an apparent violation of the meticulous evacuation strategy the county had crafted for just such an emergency, may have contributed to catastrophic consequences that are still coming into focus as the death toll continues to climb. At least 16 storm-related deaths have been identified in Lee County, the highest toll anywhere in the state...."

    ~~~ Marie: In fairness to Lee County, this is the best they ever have done. It's true the messages came late, but I received four phone calls from Lee County emergency services (even though I haven't lived there for several years). I have never received advisory phone calls or text messages from Lee County prior to this so I have relied on weather reports to assess my own situation. To get elected a county commissioner in Lee County, you have to be a Republican. And you know, Republicans don't want to impinge upon your freeeedom.

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Marie: The most frustrating part of national reporting on Hurricane Ian is that reporters have no idea what area or town they're describing. So, for instance, CNN & MSNBC have reported massive destruction in Fort Myers -- over videos of massive destruction in Fort Myers Beach, a barrier island some 10 miles away from Fort Myers. Or they showed areas of North Fort Myers -- an unincorporated, low-lying area separated from Fort Myers by a mile-plus-wide river -- as Fort Myers. If the shots are wide enough, locals can tell what they're looking at, but others don't know. It's reasonable to assume this geographical ignorance is a commonly repeated error and that the networks often misinform viewers in this manner.

Georgia. Kate Brumback of the AP: "A federal judge on Friday found that Georgia election practices challenged by a group associated with Democrat Stacey Abrams do not violate the constitutional rights of voters, ruling in favor of the state on all remaining issues in a lawsuit filed nearly four years ago. 'Although Georgia's election system is not perfect, the challenged practices violate neither the constitution nor the VRA,' U.S. District Judge Steve Jones in Atlanta wrote, referring to the Voting Rights Act of 1965. He detailed his reasoning in a 288-page order." MB: President Obama appointed Judge Jones.

Way Beyond

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

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live briefings for Saturday are here: "Ukrainian forces say they have surrounded Russian forces in the eastern city of Lyman, pressing their counterattacks in a region that Moscow now claims as its own. Ukrainian forces advanced on the key transport hub overnight even as Russia put on a show of celebrating its annexation of Ukrainian territory with a grand ceremony and a pop concert in Moscow.... Ukrainian state firm Energoatom said the director general of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant went missing, and accused a Russian patrol of detaining him after he left the facility Friday in his car. 'For the time being, there is no information on his fate,' the nuclear operator said early Saturday, appealing to the U.N. nuclear watchdog for help.... A U.N. resolution calling on 'all states' not to recognize Russian annexation failed to pass at the Security Council on Friday after Russias veto. Four nations, including China and India, abstained from voting on the resolution, which condemned Russia's 'illegal, so-called referenda' in Ukraine.... The United States sees no indications Russia is about to use nuclear weapons but is taking the threat 'very seriously,' U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Friday."

Vlad the Imperial. Mary Ilyushina of the Washington Post: "Amid patriotic pageantry hyped up by the fervor of war, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday proclaimed the annexation of four Ukrainian regions, a flagrant violation of international law that stands to escalate and prolong the military conflict in Ukraine, sharpen Moscow's confrontation with the West and add to the Kremlin's growing global isolation. At a ceremony in the gilded Grand Kremlin Palace, attended by senior political and military officials, members of parliament and even Russian war bloggers, Putin on Friday signed so-called accession treaties to absorb the Ukrainian regions of Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia. Patriotic music played ahead of the signing ritual, in which Putin sat at one white gold-trimmed desk and four proxy leaders of the occupied regions sat at another. Once the documents were signed, Putin and the four proxy leaders held hands and chanted 'Russia! Russia! Russia!' to cheers and applause from the audience." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ MB: You can see where Trump was a failed wannabe Putin. He tried to annex Greenland by buying it from Denmark, when all he had to do was get "his" generals to drop a few bombs, then hold a ceremony in a room furnished with gaudy Trumpian furniture, sign an executive order & lead a chant of "USA! USA!" What a wimp! ~~~

~~~ Matthew Lee, et al., of the AP: "The United States and its allies hit back at Russia's annexation of four Ukrainian regions on Friday, slapping sanctions on more than 1,000 people and companies including arms supply networks as President Joe Biden warned Vladimir Putin he can't 'get away with' seizing Ukrainian land. The Russian annexation, though expected, escalated an already heated conflict that's become fraught with potential nuclear implications." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Michael Crowley & Edward Wong of the New York Times: "President Biden condemned Russia's claimed annexation of captured Ukrainian territory on Friday, responding to Moscow's latest escalation with a range of sanctions and a warning to President Vladimir V. Putin that the United States would defend 'every single inch' of NATO territory from a potential attack.... World leaders rallied around Mr. Biden in a forceful collective denunciation of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.... Even among Russia's traditional allies, no country stepped forward to recognize the annexation." ~~~

~~~ Isabelle Khurshudyan of the Washington Post: "Ukraine is applying for 'accelerated ascension' into NATO, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday, in an apparent answer to Russia's move to illegally annex four of the country's partially occupied regions. The remarks were more symbolic than practical: The speedy admittance of Ukraine to the alliance would require members to immediately send troops to fight Russia, under collective defense obligations." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

U.K. A New King Is Minted. Karla Adam of the Washington Post: "King Charles III is depicted uncrowned and facing to the left on the first British coins featuring his image, unveiled by the Royal Mint on Friday. The first 50-pence coins featuring the king will start appearing in general circulation before Christmas. His portrait will also appear on a new 5-pound commemorative coin, which, on the reverse side, will feature two new portraits of Charles's mother, the late Queen Elizabeth II. That coin range will be released next week." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

News Ledes

NBC News: "The death toll from Hurricane Ian rose Saturday to more than 77 as one of strongest and costliest storms to ever hit the U.S. pushed northward from the Carolinas leaving in its wake a trifecta of misery --- dangerous flooding, power outages and massive destruction."

Washington Post: "Hurricane Ian made landfall for the second time this week on Friday, crashing into coastal South Carolina as a Category 1 storm that brought lashing rains and storm surge but appeared unlikely to wreak the sort of devastation that was still emerging in Florida. There, the vast parameters of the damage became more evident as emergency crews pulled people and bodies from streets -- some still flooded and others dry but strewn with wreckage. About 34,000 Floridians had filed for federal emergency aid, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said. At least 23 people had been determined to be victims of the storm as of Friday evening, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement said, but officials cautioned that confirming causes of death was a slow and deliberate process and said the toll was likely to rise as medical examiners completed more autopsies" ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times' live updates of Hurricane Ian developments are here.