November 30, 2022

Afternoon Update:

Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "The House on Wednesday resoundingly approved legislation to avert a nationwide rail strike by imposing a labor agreement between rail companies and their workers, as lawmakers rushed to shield the economy from the threat of a holiday-season work stoppage and prevent a disruption in shipping across the country. Acting quickly the day after President Biden made a personal appeal at the White House, the House passed a measure that would force the rail companies and employees to abide by a tentative agreement that the Biden administration helped broker earlier this year, which increased pay and set more flexible schedules for workers. The bill passed on a bipartisan vote of 290 to 137. It goes next to the Senate, where leaders in both parties have indicated they would move quickly to avoid a disruption to the nation's rail service."

Adam Klasfeld & Marisa Sarnoff of Law & Crime: "In a rare victory lap for the typically reserved lawyer, Attorney General Merrick Garland celebrated the convictions of five Oath Keepers leaders and members on serious charges, including two leaders on the seditious conspiracy charge.... The press conference, convened the day after the historic verdict, marked the first time Garland directly addressed the resolution of any of the hundreds of Jan. 6-related cases on his expansive docket. He has not held any event like it after any jury trial, bench trial or guilty plea. The Oath Keepers trial, however, marked a uniquely significant event, as the first to accuse participants in the breach of the U.S. Capitol of trying to overthrow the government or block the execution of its laws by force."

** Lisa Mascaro of the AP: "Emboldened House Democrats ushered in a new generation of leaders on Wednesday with Rep. Hakeem Jeffries [N.Y.] elected to be the first Black American to head a major political party in Congress as long-serving Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her team step aside next year.... It's rare that a party that lost the midterm elections would so easily regroup and stands in stark contrast with the upheaval among Republicans.... The trio led by Jeffries, who will become the Democratic minority leader in the new Congress, includes 59-year-old Rep. Katherine Clark of Massachusetts as the Democratic whip and 43-year-old Rep. Pete Aguilar of California as caucus chairman. The new team of Democratic leaders is expected to slide into the slots held by Pelosi and her top lieutenants -- Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland and Democratic Whip James Clyburn of South Carolina -- as the 80-something leaders make way for the next generation." The New York Times story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Mike Lillis & Mychael Schnell of the Hill: "Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) on Wednesday announced a bid to join the top tiers of Democratic leadership, challenging Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) for the No. 4 spot within the party brass in the next Congress. The move, announced just moments before Democrats were set to vote on their next crop of leaders, came as a surprise. Clyburn had announced earlier in the month that he would cede his third-ranking spot next year, but would seek to remain in the top tiers of leadership at the No. 4 assistant leader position, arguing the South needed representation in the top ranks."

U.K. Karla Adam of the Washington Post: "A prominent lady-in-waiting to the late Queen Elizabeth II and godmother to royal heir Prince William resigned from her role in the Buckingham Palace household on Wednesday, and expressed 'profound apologies for the hurt caused,' after she pressed a Black British guest at the palace: 'Where are you really from?' Lady Susan Hussey, 83, had been dubbed 'Number One Head Girl' for the central role she played in the queen's life, and the new King Charles III had recently extended her honorary duties. But a spokesperson for Buckingham Palace said that a complaint emerging from a Tuesday reception had been 'investigated immediately,' with the conclusion that 'unacceptable and deeply regrettable comments' had been made. The palace did not name Hussey, but said the royal household member had 'stepped aside from her honorary role with immediate effect.'... Camilla, Queen Consort, has said she wants to modernize the role of lady-in-waiting. She is calling her six attendants 'Queen's Companions,' expecting them to attend fewer events and relieving them of having to help answer letters to the queen." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Judging from the badgering questions asked of Ngozi Fulani, a British activist -- "What part of Africa are you from?" "What Nationality are you?" "Where do you really come from?" "Where do your people come from?" and "When did you first come here?" -- the old girl must have drunk too much.

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Dan Michaelski of the Washington Post: "Two decades ago, Congress preserved the mountain -- called Avi Kwa Ame (ah-VEE-kwah-may) in Mojave -- and 33,000 acres around it as wilderness. Now the Biden administration is readying a proclamation that could put roughly 450,000 acres -- spanning almost the entire triangle at the bottom of the Nevada map -- off limits to development under the 1906 Antiquities Act. President Biden will commit on Wednesday at the White House Tribal Nations Summit to protecting the area, according to a senior administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the decision was not yet public. Biden hopes to visit the area soon, the official added."

Annie Karni of the New York Times: "The Senate passed landmark legislation on Tuesday to mandate federal recognition for same-sex marriages, as a lame-duck Congress mustered a notable moment of bipartisanship.... The 61-to-36 vote ... marked one of the final major legislative achievements for Democrats before Republicans shift the focus in the House to conducting investigations of President Biden's administration and family members. The bill must now win final approval by the House in a vote expected as soon as next week, which would clear it for Mr. Biden, who said he looked forward to signing it alongside the bipartisan coalition that helped shepherd it through the Senate. In a statement, the president said the vote reaffirmed 'a fundamental truth: Love is love, and Americans should have the right to marry the person they love.'"

Michael Shear of the New York Times: "Democratic and Republican leaders in Congress vowed on Tuesday to pass legislation averting a nationwide rail strike, saying they agree with President Biden that a work stoppage just days before Christmas would disrupt shipping and deal a devastating blow to the nation's economy. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, said after a meeting at the White House with Mr. Biden and their Republican counterparts that they would act quickly to move legislation through the chambers." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

Michael Sainato of the Guardian: "Railroad workers have expressed dismay at Joe Biden's proposed solution to a looming strike that threatens to derail the US economy, which they say belies his image as the most pro-union president in generations. As a 9 December deadline looms for the long-running labor dispute between the US's largest railway companies and their unions, Biden has called on Congress to intervene and block a strike that could cost the US economy around $2bn a day by some estimates.... On Wednesday Congress is expected to pass legislation that will force a settlement. But union leaders are unhappy that Biden's solution appears to be the imposition of a settlement reached in September that has already been rejected by many for failing to address members' concerns about pay, sick days, staff shortages and time off."

Alan Feuer & Zach Montague of the New York Times: "Stewart Rhodes, the leader of the far-right Oath Keepers militia, and one of his subordinates were convicted on Tuesday of seditious conspiracy as a jury found them guilty of seeking to keep ... Donald J. Trump in power through a plot that started after the 2020 election and culminated in the mob attack on the Capitol. But the jury in Federal District Court in Washington found three other defendants in the case not guilty of sedition and acquitted Mr. Rhodes of two separate conspiracy charges. The split verdicts, coming after three days of deliberations, were nonetheless a victory for the Justice Department and the first time in nearly 20 trials related to the Capitol attack that a jury decided that the violence that erupted on Jan. 6, 2021, was the product of an organized conspiracy." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) The AP's report is here.

Katelyn Polantz & Hannah Rabinowitz of CNN: "Former Trump adviser Stephen Miller testified on Tuesday to a federal grand jury in Washington, DC, as part of the January 6, 2021, investigation, CNN has learned, making him the first known witness to testify since the Justice Department appointed a special counsel to oversee the criminal investigations around the former president.... Miller, a former White House speechwriter and senior adviser to Trump, could provide a firsthand account of the former president's preparations for his speech at the Ellipse in Washington on January 6, including how he wanted to inspire his supporters, many of whom went on to attack the Capitol and disrupt Congress."

Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "Anthony M. Ornato, the former Secret Service agent and White House aide at the heart of a dispute over conflicting accounts of ... Donald J. Trump's actions during the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, was interviewed on Tuesday by the House committee investigating the attack.... The committee has sought for weeks to interview Mr. Ornato for a third time as it digs deeper into the activities of the Secret Service around the time of Jan. 6, 2021.... It was not immediately known what Mr. Ornato discussed with the panel. As a deputy White House chief of staff who oversaw the logistics of the president's movements, he is key to a dispute over the events in a presidential S.U.V. that day." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

"Manifestly Without Merit." Kyle Cheney & Josh Gerstein of Politico: "South Carolina's Supreme Court has ordered former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to testify to an Atlanta-area grand jury investigating Donald Trump's effort to overturn the election in Georgia. 'We have reviewed the arguments raised by Appellant and find them to be manifestly without merit,' South Carolina's Supreme Court justices wrote." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Catie Edmondson of the New York Times: "Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the Republican leader, on Tuesday disavowed one of the country's most prominent young white supremacists, but declined to criticize ... Donald J. Trump directly for dining with the man last week.... Mr. McCarthy had been silent for days on Mr. Trump's decision to have dinner with Nick Fuentes, the racist Holocaust denier who leads the white nationalist movement America First, and Kanye West, the artist and provocateur who has als made antisemitic comments.... He then falsely claimed that Mr. Trump had condemned Mr. Fuentes 'four times'; the former president has never done so....

"At the Capitol, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the minority leader, broke his silence on the dinner with a direct rebuke of Mr. Trump, though he did not name the former president.... 'There is no room in the Republican Party for antisemitism or white supremacy,' Mr. McConnell told reporters, 'and anyone meeting with people advocating that point of view, in my judgment, are highly unlikely to ever be elected president of the United States.'" Unlike McCarthy, McConnell addressed the matter without being prompted by reporters.

Trump Gets a Babysitter. Jill Colvin of the AP: "In an acknowledgment of the severity of the backlash [over his dinner with Ye & Nick Fuentes] and an effort to prevent a repeat, Trump's campaign is putting new protocols in place to ensure that those who meet with him are approved and fully vetted.... The changes will include expediting a system, borrowed from Trump's White House, in which a senior campaign official will be present with him at all times.... So far, Trump has refused to condemn the views of either visitor, despite growing condemnation from his party, including calls for an apology from his former Vice President Mike Pence. In an interview with Fox News Digital Tuesday, Trump said again that he had 'never heard of' Fuentes." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Trump's claim that he had never heard of Fuentes would be unbelievable without evidence to the contrary. Trump knows who his fanboys are. And Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times provided evidence in her column published a couple of days ago: "In September, I wrote a piece about a Trump-endorsed congressional candidate named Joe Kent that mentions Fuentes in the first paragraph. Trump scrawled a note of congratulations on the print version and mailed it to Kent, who sent the image out on his email list."

** Carlos Lozada of the New York Times: "... don't buy [Mike Pence's] redemption tale just yet. Pence ... served the president's needs more than those of the nation. In [his memoir] 'So Help Me God,' Pence rarely contradicts the president, even in private, until the days immediately preceding Jan. 6. He rarely attempts to talk Trump out of his worst decisions or positions. He rarely counters Trump's lies with the truth. Most damning, Pence failed to tell the president or the public, without hedging or softening the point, that the Trump-Pence ticket had lost the 2020 election, even after Pence had reached that conclusion himself.... You shouldn't get the glory for pulling democracy back from the brink if you helped carry it up there in the first place. And, so help me God, Pence did just that."

To Let the Punishment Fit the Crime. Adam Klasfeld of Law & Crime: "After sending thousands of admittedly fraudulent robocalls to largely Black communities in Cleveland, Ohio, right-wing operatives Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman have been dealt a sentence forcing them to expand the vote rather than suppress it. An Ohio judge ordered them to spend 500 hours registering voters living in low-income neighborhoods in the Washington, D.C. area. 'These two individuals attempted to disrupt the foundation of our democracy,' Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael C. O'Malley said in a statement. 'Their sentence of two years of probation and 500 hours of community work service at a voter registration drive is appropriate.'"

Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court sent a two-page letter to Democratic lawmakers looking into allegations of a leak by Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. or his wife. Words weren't really necessary; a see-no-evil monkey emoji would have aptly summarized the court's response.... [A New York] Times article [which exposed the leak], along with coverage by Politico and Rolling Stone, depicts a disturbing, coordinated effort by conservative activists to insinuate themselves into the lives of sympathetic justices via six-figure donations to the Supreme Court Historical Society and access to vacation spots.... A Supreme Court that took ethics seriously would want to get to the bottom of this smarmy arrangement."

Taylor Lorenz of the Washington Post: "Twitter will no longer enforce its policy against coronavirus misinformation, worrying experts who say the move could have serious consequences in the midst of a still-deadly pandemic. The rollback of Twitter's covid-19 misinformation policy is just the latest pivot since Elon Musk took control of the company a month ago.... Since [the early days of the pandemic in 2020], the company had suspended more than 11,000 accounts and removed more than 100,000 pieces of content for violating the policy, according to a report from the company. Several high-profile figures ran afoul of the policy, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), whose personal account was suspended in January for violating the policy by casting doubt on the efficacy of coronavirus vaccines. Her account was reinstated last week." ~~~

~~~ Robert Mackey & Micah Lee of the Intercept: Elon Musk "appears to be overseeing a purge of left-wing activists from [Twitter]. Several prominent antifascist organizers and journalists have had their accounts suspended in the past week, after right-wing operatives appealed directly to Musk to ban them and far-right internet trolls flooded Twitter's complaints system with false reports about terms of service violations."

Ronald Blum of the AP: "Christian Pulisic scored while crashing headfirst into the goalkeeper in the 38th minute and the United States advanced to the knockout round of the World Cup with a 1-0 win over Iran on Tuesday in a politically charged rematch of their famous meeting a quarter-century ago." According to reporting on MSNBC, many Iranians -- dissatisfied with their own government -- cheered the U.S. win. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Beyond the Beltway

Georgia Senate Race. Andrew Kaczynski & Olivia Alafriz of CNN: "Georgia Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker, facing renewed and growing questions about his residency in the final week of the runoff campaign, described himself during a campaign speech in January as living in Texas and said he decided to run for Georgia's Senate seat while at his Texas 'home,' according to a CNN KFile review of his campaign speeches. Georgia Democrats have called for an investigation by state officials into Walker's residency after CNN's KFile reported last week that Walker was getting a tax break in Texas intended for a primary residence, possibly running afoul of Texas tax law and some rules for establishing Georgia residency for voting and running for office. 'I live in Texas,' Walker said in January of this year, when speaking to University of Georgia College Republicans." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Neil Vigdor of the New York Times: "Herschel Walker, the Republican candidate in Georgia's Senate runoff, revealed in a financial disclosure statement that his Atlanta residence was being used as a rental property as recently as 2021. Tax and assessment records in Fulton County, Ga., listed Mr. Walker's wife, Julie Blanchard, as the sole owner of the 1.5-acre property in northwest Atlanta, further undermining the candidate's narrative about his Georgia residency.... On a financial disclosure form required by the Senate for incumbents and candidates, Mr. Walker reported in May that the 'Georgia residence' had generated between $15,001 and $50,000 in rental income in 2021 for his spouse.... In an interview posted in September by Rolling Out, a multimedia company, Mr. Walker said that he often stayed at a hotel in Atlanta instead of his residence of 'about 17 years' because of the upkeep involved in maintaining the home."

Way Beyond

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

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live briefings for Wednesday are here: "The European Union proposed establishing a specialized court to investigate and prosecute Russia for war crimes, following renewed calls by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to pursue Moscow for the 'crime of aggression' against Ukraine. 'Russia must pay for its horrific crimes,' European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen tweeted Wednesday, proposing that the tribunal be backed by the United Nations and work with the International Criminal Court.... Von der Leyen's proposal comes after months of Ukrainian calls for such a court.... NATO ministers will meet for a second day in Bucharest, Romania, after alliance officials condemned Russian President Vladimir Putin for targeting vital infrastructure and pledged wide-ranging support for Ukraine, including fuel and generators. On the sidelines of those talks, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced a U.S. plan to help Ukraine rapidly procure transformers, circuit breakers and other hardware to repair the electrical grid ahead of winter.... Russia resumed strikes on Ukraine's energy infrastructure overnight, targeting a gas distribution point in the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region, according to a local official." ~~~

~~~ Lauren Said-Moorhouse, et al., of CNN:"The new Prince and Princess of Wales [-- William & Kate --] touched down in Boston Wednesday.... The couple flew into the city on a commercial flight as controversy erupted back home, after an aide resigned following 'unacceptable and deeply regrettable' remarks to a Black executive visiting Buckingham Palace earlier this week. It's the couple's first visit to the United States since they hit the Big Apple eight years ago."

News Lede

New York Times: "Jiang Zemin, the Shanghai Communist kingpin who was handpicked to lead China after the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and presided over a decade of meteoric economic growth, died on Wednesday in Shanghai. He was 96."

November 29, 2022

Afternoon Update:

Alan Feuer & Zach Montague of the New York Times: "Stewart Rhodes, the leader of the far-right Oath Keepers militia, and one of his subordinates were convicted on Tuesday of seditious conspiracy as a jury found them guilty of seeking to keep ... Donald J. Trump in power through a plot that started after the 2020 election and culminated in the mob attack on the Capitol. But the jury in Federal District Court in Washington found three other defendants in the case not guilty of sedition and acquitted Mr. Rhodes of two separate conspiracy charges. The split verdicts, coming after three days of deliberations, were nonetheless a victory for the Justice Department and the first time in nearly 20 trials related to the Capitol attack that a jury decided that the violence that erupted on Jan. 6, 2021, was the product of an organized conspiracy."

Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "Anthony M. Ornato, the former Secret Service agent and White House aide at the heart of a dispute over conflicting accounts of ... Donald J. Trump's actions during the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, was interviewed on Tuesday by the House committee investigating the attack.... The committee has sought for weeks to interview Mr. Ornato for a third time as it digs deeper into the activities of the Secret Service around the time of Jan. 6, 2021.... It was not immediately known what Mr. Ornato discussed with the panel. As a deputy White House chief of staff who oversaw the logistics of the president's movements, he is key to a dispute over the events in a presidential S.U.V. that day."

Ronald Blum of the AP: "Christian Pulisic scored while crashing headfirst into the goalkeeper in the 38th minute and the United States advanced to the knockout round of the World Cup with a 1-0 win over Iran on Tuesday in a politically charged rematch of their famous meeting a quarter-century ago." According to reporting on MSNBC, many Iranians -- dissatisfied with their own government -- cheered the U.S. win.

"Manifestly without Merit." Kyle Cheney & Josh Gerstein of Politico: "South Carolina's Supreme Court has ordered former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to testify to an Atlanta-area grand jury investigating Donald Trump's effort to overturn the election in Georgia. 'We have reviewed the arguments raised by Appellant and find them to be manifestly without merit,' South Carolina's Supreme Court justices wrote."

Michael Shear of the New York Times: "Democratic and Republican leaders in Congress vowed on Tuesday to pass legislation averting a nationwide rail strike, saying they agree with President Biden that a work stoppage just days before Christmas would disrupt shipping and deal a devastating blow to the nation's economy. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, said after a meeting at the White House with Mr. Biden and their Republican counterparts that they would act quickly to move legislation through the chambers."

Georgia Senate Race. Andrew Kaczynski & Olivia Alafriz of CNN: "Georgia Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker, facing renewed and growing questions about his residency in the final week of the runoff campaign, described himself during a campaign speech in January as living in Texas and said he decided to run for Georgia's Senate seat while at his Texas 'home,' according to a CNN KFile review of his campaign speeches. Georgia Democrats have called for an investigation by state officials into Walker's residency after CNN's KFile reported last week that Walker was getting a tax break in Texas intended for a primary residence, possibly running afoul of Texas tax law and some rules for establishing Georgia residency for voting and running for office. 'I live in Texas,' Walker said in January of this year, when speaking to University of Georgia College Republicans."

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Michael Shear & Noam Scheiber of the New York Times: "Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Monday that lawmakers plan to intervene this week in the deepening labor dispute between rail companies and their unionized workers, voting on whether to impose an agreement that could avert a shutdown of the nation's freight trains just before Christmas. The announcement came shortly after President Biden called on Congress to act, saying the dispute cannot be allowed to 'hurl this nation into a devastating rail freight shutdown.'" ~~~

     ~~~ President Biden's statement is here.

Al Weaver of the Hill: "The Senate on Monday brought a bill to codify same-sex marriage protections one step closer to passage, voting to end debate on an amendment that features religious liberty protections sought by Republicans.... Senators ultimately voted 61-35 to advance the amendment to the Respect for Marriage Act that includes language related to religious liberty and conscience protections under the Constitution and federal law. It would also continues to prohibit polygamous marriage."

Annie Grayer & Sara Murray of CNN: "Kellyanne Conway, who served in the White House as a senior adviser to ... Donald Trump, is meeting with the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, insurrection in person on Monday, according to a source familiar with the meeting." MB: Gee, according to Conway, there are "alternate facts." Is there an alternate oath you can take prior to testifying, too? "I solemnly swear to tell the alternate truth & nothing but the alternate truth...." (Also linked yesterday.)

Amy Wang, et al., of the Washington Post: "Former vice president Mike Pence and numerous Republican lawmakers on Monday criticized Donald Trump for dining with the white nationalist Nick Fuentes and the rapper Ye, both of whom have a history of antisemitic remarks, marking a rare break with Trump in the upper echelons of the GOP. Pence was most clear in his condemnation, saying in an interview with NewsNation, 'President Trump was wrong to give a white nationalist, an antisemite and a Holocaust denier a seat at the table. I think he should apologize for it, and he should denounce those individuals and their hateful rhetoric without qualification.'... The public critiques of Trump were notable after years in which many Republicans remained silent as he courted extremists. Still, many stopped short of a full denouncement." Among the GOP senators directly criticizing Trump were Bill Cassidy (La.), Shelly Moore Capito (W.Va.) & Susan Collins (Maine). ~~~

~~~ Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "For much of Donald J. Trump's presidency, Jewish Republicans rationalized away the bigoted fringe of Mr. Trump's coalition, arguing that the unsavory supporters in his midst and the antisemitic tropes he deployed paled in comparison with the staunchly pro-Israel policies of his administration.... Now, even some of Mr. Trump's staunchest supporters say they can no longer ignore the abetting of bigotry by the nominal leader of the Republican Party.... Not all Republican leaders have spoken out, but Jewish Republicans are slowly peeling away from a former president who, for years, insisted he had no ties to the bigoted far right, but refused to repudiate it.... 'The normalization of antisemitism is here,' said Jonathan Greenblatt, chief executive of the Anti-Defamation League." ~~~

Now..., anti-Jewish bigotry, or at least tacit approval of anti-Jewish bigotry, is coming from people with serious power: the leader of a major political party, a famous pop star, and the world's richest man. -- Michelle Goldberg ~~~

~~~ Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: Since His Dinner with Adolf last week, "Trump has claimed he didn't know who [smirking little fascist Nick] Fuentes was. I find this unlikely. In September, I wrote a piece about a Trump-endorsed congressional candidate named Joe Kent that mentions Fuentes in the first paragraph. Trump scrawled a note of congratulations on the print version and mailed it to Kent, who sent the image out on his email list. But even if Trump's ignorance was sincere, he still didn't denounce Fuentes after learning his identity.... After buying Twitter, Elon Musk enthusiastically welcomed both Trump and Ye back to the platform, and has been tiptoing up to the edge of antisemitism himself. On Sunday, he tweeted that Alexander Vindman, the Jewish retired Army officer who testified about Trump's attempt to extort Ukraine's president, is both 'puppet & puppeteer,' echoing an old antisemitic trope about Jews pulling the strings behind world events. On Monday, Musk tweeted an image of the alt-right symbol Pepe the Frog."

Lola Facula & Jonah Bromwich of the New York Times: "Defense lawyers representing Donald J. Trump's family business rested their case Monday, marking the end of witness testimony in the company's tax fraud trial and clearing the way for closing arguments this week. The lawyers for the Trump Organization, which has been charged with letting some executives be compensated with off-the-books perks so that they could evade taxes, spent the vast majority of their defense time questioning a single witness: Donald Bender, who for years was an outside accountant for Mr. Trump and the company.... Prosecutors with the Manhattan district attorney's office have argued that under the terms of his arrangement with the company, Mr. Bender would not have been responsible for errors in the company's tax reporting."

Judge Sullivan to Trump: "We Are Not Amused." Katelyn Polantz of CNN: "A federal judge in Washington, DC, on Monday said that Donald Trump doesn't have 'absolute immunity,' as the former president claimed he should, in response to a lawsuit in its early stages related to Trump's actions around the 2020 presidential election. Civil rights groups have sued Trump for trying to disenfranchise voters. While Trump's lawyers argue he can't be held liable in civil lawsuits because of immunity around the presidency, Judge Emmet Sullivan of the DC District Court on Monday disagreed.... Sullivan said Trump's political conduct wouldn't be part of his official duties, giving him less legal protection. 'If Former President Trump disrupted the certification of the electoral vote count, as Plaintiffs allege here, such actions would not constitute executive action in defense of the Constitution. For these reasons, the Court concludes that Former President Trump is not immune from monetary damages in this suit,' Sullivan wrote.... Trump's response to the 2020 and 2022 elections..., Sullivan wrote, could show that Trump could still 'pose a very substantial risk in the future to Plaintiffs' fundamental right to vote.'"

So Much Losing. Peter Stone of the Guardian: "A spate of major court rulings rejecting claims of executive privilege and other arguments by Donald Trump and his top allies are boosting investigations by the US justice department (DoJ) and a special Georgia grand jury into whether the former US president broke laws as he sought to overturn the 2020 election results. Former prosecutors say the upshot of these court rulings is that key Trump backers and ex-administration lawyers -- such as ex-chief of staff Mark Meadows and legal adviser John Eastman -- can no longer stave off testifying before grand juries in DC and Georgia.... Ex-justice lawyers agree that Trump's legal plight has now grown due to the key court rulings.... Although Trump has been irked by the spate of court rulings against him and his allies, experts point out that they have included decisions from typically conservative courts, as well as ones with more liberal leanings[.]"

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court, which has become increasingly skeptical of federal prosecutions of public corruption in state government, seemed poised on Monday to hand prosecutors two more defeats. The justices heard arguments in a pair of cases involving defendants convicted of fraud during former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's administration in New York. One concerned Joseph Percoco, a former aide to Mr. Cuomo convicted of taking illicit payments to benefit a Syracuse-area developer. The other involved Louis Ciminelli, the owner of a Buffalo construction firm convicted of fraud in a bid-rigging scandal in connection with Buffalo Billion, a development project championed by Mr. Cuomo."

Court Declares Alito Innocent Because He Says So. Jodi Kantor of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court on Monday defended Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. against allegations that a former anti-abortion leader had been tipped off in 2014 to a landmark contraception ruling written by the justice. The court also sidestepped questions from lawmakers about whether the claim would be investigated further." MB: Who says there isn't equal justice under the law. Should you be accused of a crime, just tell the judge you're opting for the Alito Short Trial. That's the one where you harrumph, "How dare you!" and say you didn't do it, whereupon the judge takes your word for it.

Vox Populi, My Ass. Philip Bump of the Washington Post explains the barest fundamentals of polling to Elon Musk, who is -- or pretends to be -- completely unaware of the basics: "In recent weeks, Musk has outsourced the making of decisions about people banned from Twitter to users of the platform.... Of course, Twitter polls are not the 'voice of the people' to any significant extent. They are at best the voice of a subset of the people who are on Twitter. Even that is overstating things, though: They are a minor subset of Twitter users, a self-selected group that is aware of the poll being conducted. They are also very possibly automated accounts of the sort that ... [Musk himself] spent much of the year railing against as he leveled criticisms of Twitter as a platform.... Twitter polls are easily gamed in the way that polls in which participation is controlled are not.... [Donald] Trump, for example, encouraged people to vote in Musk's poll in a post on his own social media network."

Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "The New York Times and four European news organizations called on the United States government on Monday to drop its charges against Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, for obtaining and publishing classified diplomatic and military secrets. In a joint open letter, The Times, The Guardian, Le Monde, Der Spiegel and El País said the prosecution of Mr. Assange under the Espionage Act 'sets a dangerous precedent' that threatened to undermine the First Amendment and the freedom of the press. 'Obtaining and disclosing sensitive information when necessary in the public interest is a core part of the daily work of journalists,' the letter said. 'If that work is criminalized, our public discourse and our democracies are made significantly weaker.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

Windfall! Eric Lipton of the New York Times: There has been "a fundamental shift among major electric utilities nationwide as they deploy their considerable clout in Washington: After years of taking steps like backing dark-money groups to sue the government to block tighter air pollution rules..., a growing number of other utilities have joined forces to speed the transition away from fossil fuels. Their new stance is driven less by evolving ideology than the changing economics of renewable energy, fueled in part by the sheer amount of money the federal government is putting on the table to encourage utilities to move more quickly to cleaner and more sustainable sources of energy like solar and wind.... With the passage of the climate and economic policy bill known as the Inflation Reduction Act..., big utilities ... stand to benefit from the largest package of subsidies ever granted to the industry."

Ariana Cha & Dan Keating of the Washington Post: "More than 300 people are still dying each day on average from covid-19, most of them 65 or older, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. While that's much lower than the 2,000 daily toll at the peak of the delta wave, it is still roughly two to three times the rate at which people die of the flu -- renewing debate about what is an 'acceptable loss.'... Today, nearly 9 in 10 covid deaths are in people 65 or older -- the highest rate ever, according to a Washington Post analysis of CDC data."

Beyond the Beltway

Georgia. Dylan Wells , et al., of the Washington Post: "In the first and only weekend of early voting in the Georgia Senate runoff, tens of thousands of voters cast ballots in the election pitting Democratic Sen. Raphael G. Warnock against Republican challenger Herschel Walker -- the last Senate contest of the 2022 midterms. On Saturday, 70,050 Georgians turned out to vote.... On Sunday, an additional 86,937 people voted. That number combined with voters in select counties who voted before Thanksgiving and the 15,305 mail ballots accepted so far means that a total of 181,711 voters had cast their ballots by the weekend's end.... As of 4:45 p.m. [Monday], an additional 239,160 voters had cast their ballot, according to Gabriel Sterling, a top official in Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger's office." ~~~

     ~~~ AND there's this from the WashPo story: “Through the in-person early voting, Georgians had to wait hours in line at many locations to cast their ballots. Among them was Warnock, who voted Sunday afternoon in Fulton County. The lawmaker stood in line for almost an hour before being able to vote for himself. Early voting ends Friday. Warnock held several public campaign events over the weekend, while his opponent had none. Walker will return to the campaign trail Monday, after not holding any public events since Tuesday." MB: Really? Two weeks till the election in a campaign "season" that lasts only a month and you decide it would be a good time to take the week off? Maybe he had to go back to his real home in Texas to tuck in a home-cooked Thanksgiving dinner. ~~~

~~~ Georgia voters watch clips from Herschel Walker speeches:

Arizona. Fredreka Schouten & Maeve Reston of CNN: "Officials in a rural Arizona county Monday delayed the certification of November's midterm elections, missing the legal deadline and leading the Arizona secretary of state's office to sue over the county's failure to sign off on the results. By a 2-1 vote Monday morning, the Republican majority on the Cochise County Board of Supervisors pushed back certification until Friday, citing concerns about voting machines. Because Monday was the deadline for all 15 Arizona counties to certify their results, Cochise's action could put at risk the votes of some 47,000 county residents and could inject chaos into the election if those votes go uncounted. In the lawsuit filed by the office of Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs -- a Democrat who will be the state's next governor -- officials said failing to certify the election results violates state law and could 'potentially disenfranchise' the county's voters." ~~~

~~~ Pennsylvania. Charles Homans of the New York Times: "Similar actions have taken place in Pennsylvania, where activists have sued to block certification in Delaware County, and Republican election officials in Luzerne County voted against certification, forcing a deadlock on the county election board after one of the three Democratic board members abstained from voting.... [Certification] was regarded as little more than a formality until the 2020 election. Since then, local Republican officials aligned with the election denier movement have occasionally tried to use their position to hold up certification. The tactic has become more widespread this year and earned encouragement from Republican candidates and right-wing media personalities." The AP's story on the Pennsylvania non-certification is here.

Connecticut. Sarah Nir of the New York Times: "Five Connecticut police officers were charged on Monday with misdemeanors in a case in which a Black man who was being transported in the back of a police van became paralyzed when the driver hit the brakes hard, shattering the man&'s spine. The man, Richard Cox, 36, known as Randy, was being taken to a police station in New Haven on June 19 on a weapons-related charge in a van that was not equipped with seatbelts. He smashed headfirst into the van's inside wall, and the incident was captured on video. The officers appeared to treat him callously following his injuries, mocking his inability to sit up, police video and audio released by lawyers for his family show."

Virginia. Laura Vozzella & Meagan Flynn of the Washington Post: "Rep. A. Donald McEachin (D-Va.) died Monday, just weeks after winning reelection to Congress, his office announced. He was 61. McEachin had represented Virginia's 4th District, which stretches from Richmond to the North Carolina line, since 2017. Before that, he had served nine years as a state senator and eight as a delegate.... A special election for his replacement will be called at a date chosen by Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R)."

Way Beyond

China. Lyric Li of the Washington Post: "Small protests against China's strict 'zero covid' policy occurred in several cities Monday evening, as citizens defied a police crackdown and threats of reprisal, with Beijing blaming 'foreign forces' even as authorities moved to vaccinate more seniors and relax some distancing measures. From Hangzhou in the east to Kunming in the southwest and Beijing in the north, small groups of people demonstrated by holding up blank paper -- a symbol of state censorship -- in solidarity with protesters in Shanghai, the first major city where the recent rallies against the zero covid measures occurred."

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

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live briefings for Tuesday are here: "The United States is expected to announce steps to help Ukraine withstand Russian attacks on its energy infrastructure, as top diplomats representing NATO's 30 members and closest allies gather Tuesday in Romania.... Foreign Ministers representing each of the NATO alliance members, in addition to applicant members Finland and Sweden, will meet to discuss the resilience of critical infrastructure across the alliance as well as how to continue supporting Ukraine."

November 28, 2022

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Annie Grayer & Sara Murray of CNN: "Kellyanne Conway, who served in the White House as a senior adviser to ... Donald Trump, is meeting with the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, insurrection in person on Monday, according to a source familiar with the meeting." MB: Gee, according to Conway, there are "alternate facts." Is there an alternate oath you can take prior to testifying, too? "I solemnly swear to tell the alternate truth & nothing but the alternate truth...."

Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "The New York Times and four European news organizations called on the United States government on Monday to drop its charges against Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, for obtaining and publishing classified diplomatic and military secrets. In a joint open letter, The Times, The Guardian, Le Monde, Der Spiegel and El País said the prosecution of Mr. Assange under the Espionage Act 'sets a dangerous precedent' that threatened to undermine the First Amendment and the freedom of the press. 'Obtaining and disclosing sensitive information when necessary in the public interest is a core part of the daily work of journalists,' the letter said. 'If that work is criminalized, our public discourse and our democracies are made significantly weaker.'"

~~~~~~~~~~

Republicans Stand with Mass Murderers. Zach Schonfeld of the Hill: "Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), a leading advocate for gun control in the Senate, expressed doubt on Sunday that an assault weapons ban once again being pushed by President Biden after the country's latest mass shooting could pass the upper chamber. Biden said he was 'going to try to get rid of assault weapons' during the lame-duck session of Congress this year following a recent string of mass shootings, but such a proposal would need 10 Republican votes to break the legislative filibuster, assuming Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) can get all 50 Democrats to support the legislation. 'Probably not,' Murphy told CNN 'State of the Union' co-anchor Dana Bash when asked if the proposal could garner 60 votes. 'But let's see if we can try to get that number as close to 60 as possible,' Murphy continued. 'If we don't have the votes, then we'll talk to Senator Schumer and maybe come back next year with maybe an additional senator and see if we can do better."

Trump Fright, Ctd. Andrew Solender of Axios: "Republican lawmakers have largely remained silent in the wake of former President Trump's dinner with antisemitic rapper Ye and white nationalist Nick Fuentes, reviving a tactic they frequently relied on during his presidency.... Spokespeople for nearly two dozen House and Senate Republicans -- including party leaders, co-chairs of caucuses and task forces focused on Judaism or antisemitism and sponsors of legislation to combat antisemitic hate crimes -- did not respond to requests for comment.... The dynamic highlights the stranglehold Trump still has on the Republican Party outside a small group of vocal critics, even in the aftermath of poor performances by his handpicked candidates in the midterm elections." ~~~

~~~ BUT. Devan Cole of CNN: "... Donald Trump's meeting last week with White nationalist and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes was 'very troubling' and 'empowering' for extremism, Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson said Sunday. 'No, I don't think it's a good idea for a leader that's setting an example for the country or the party to meet with (an) avowed racist or anti-Semite. And so it's very troubling and it shouldn't happen and we need to avoid those kind of empowering the extremes,' Hutchinson told CNN's Dana Bash on 'State of the Union.'... Hutchinson, a former US Attorney in Arkansas, is term-limited and leaving office in January. He's currently mulling a 2024 White House bid, and he used Trump's controversial meeting to note his own record on such issues, telling Bash, 'the last time I met with a White supremacist it was in an armed standoff. I had a bulletproof vest on. We arrested them, prosecuted them and sent them to prison.'" ~~~

~~~ Hugo Lowell of the Guardian: "Donald Trump repeatedly refused to disavow the outspoken antisemite and white supremacist Nick Fuentes after they spoke over dinner at his Mar-a-Lago resort, rejecting the advice from advisers over fears he might alienate a section of his base, two people familiar with the situation said.... Trump eschewed making outright disavowals of Fuentes, the people said, and none of the statements from the campaign or on his Truth Social account included criticism of Fuentes.... Trump ultimately made clear that he fundamentally did not want to criticise Fuentes -- a product of his dislike of confrontation and his anxiety that it might antagonise a devoted part of his base -- and became more entrenched in his obstinance the more he was urged to do so." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The GOP clearly has become the Grand Chicken Party; Republican politicans are afraid of getting on the wrong side of Trump, and Trump is afraid of getting on the wrong side of white nationalists and any other groups of losers who might be inclined to vote for him. Pathetic. IOW, vile extremists are holding hostage the GCP.

Elon's New Automated Hate Filter Misses Racially-Motivated Massacres. Eva Corlett of the Guardian: "Twitter has removed freshly uploaded footage of the Christchurch terror attack that was circulating on the platform, but only after the New Zealand government alerted the company, which had failed to recognise the content as harmful. The video clips, filmed by the Australian white supremacist who murdered 51 Muslim worshippers at two mosques in Christchurch in 2019, were uploaded by some Twitter users on Saturday, according to the office of the prime minister, Jacinda Ardern. A spokesperson for the prime minister said Twitter's automated reporting function didn't pick up the content as harmful."

Way Beyond the Beltway

China. Lily Kuo of the Washington Post: "Protests erupted in cities and on campuses across China this weekend as frustrated and outraged citizens took to the streets in a stunning wave of demonstrations against the government's 'zero covid' policy and the leaders enforcing it. Residents in Shanghai, China's most populous city, came together Saturday night and early Sunday, calling for the end of pandemic lockdowns and chanting, 'We want freedom!' and 'Unlock Xinjiang, unlock all of China!' according to witnesses at the event. In even more extraordinary scenes of public anger aimed at the government's top leader, a group of protesters there chanted, 'Xi Jinping, step down!' and 'Communist Party, step down!'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Helen Davidson & Verna Yu of the Guardian: "Chinese police have barricaded a street in Shanghai where protesters have gathered for the last two nights in anticipation of further rallies against the governmen's rigid zero-Covid policies. Since Friday, a wave of protests has spread across multiple cities in China, prompted by the death of 10 people in a building fire in Urumqi in Xinjiang. Much of the region had been under lockdown for more than three months, and people blamed the lockdown for the deaths. Gatherings held to protest or to mourn the victims were held in Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu and other major Chinese cities on Saturday and Sunday, as well as dozens of university campuses, with some police clashes and detentions in Shanghai. Protesters demanded an end to lockdowns, while some groups decried censorship and called for democracy and an end to the rule of Xi Jinping. Most protests were peaceful. There were some clashes with police in Shanghai, and protesters in Wuhan pushed over pandemic barriers."

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.

News Ledes

Washington Post: Melissa Highsmith, "53 [-- who was kidnapped when she was 21 months old --] reunited last week with her parents and two of her siblings for the first time in more than five decades thanks to a home DNA test, a marriage certificate and the help of an amateur genealogist, the family said Sunday in an announcement, previously reported by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram."

It's Always Something. Washington Post: "For the first time in nearly four decades, the biggest active volcano on Earth is erupting. Lava flows from Mauna Loa, at the heart of Hawaii's Big Island, could threaten some roadways, but otherwise authorities said there was no immediate danger to populated areas. The U.S. Geological Survey said the eruption started about 11:30 p.m. local time Sunday in Mokuaweoweo, the summit caldera of Mauna Loa. It was visible from Kona, a popular tourist destination on the island's west coast. Mauna Loa's last eruption was in 1984. No evacuation orders had been issued by late Monday morning, but shelters were opened as a precaution, Hawaii County officials said. And authorities advised that winds could carry volcanic gas and fine ash downwind."

New York. Washington Post: "The man suspected of killing 10 people in a racially motivated attack at a Buffalo grocery store in May is expected to plead guilty to state charges on Monday morning. Payton Gendron, 19, was indicted on 25 counts, including domestic terrorism and murder as a hate crime, in late May. He faced a maximum possible sentence of life in prison without parole, because New York state does not have the death penalty. But a separate federal hate crimes case, which could bring the death penalty if Gendron is convicted, is pending." ~~~

     ~~~ New York Times Update: "The gunman who was accused of killing 10 Black people in a racist massacre at a Buffalo supermarket in May pleaded guilty to all state charges against him in Erie County Court on Monday morning. Payton Gendron, 19, who was arrested shortly after the shooting, was indicted by a grand jury in June on 25 counts, including murder, domestic terrorism and other charges in relation to the massacre."

Maryland. Washington Post: "A pilot and a passenger were rescued from a small plane that had crashed into a power line tower and power lines in Maryland after an hours-long ordeal that saw power cut to nearly 100,000 homes and businesses, led to school cancellations and plunged rescuers into a complex effort to safely remove the people aboard.... Montgomery County Fire Chief Scott Goldstein said the pilot and passenger suffered orthopedic injuries, trauma and had 'hypothermia issues.' 'Both people assisted us in their movement from the aircraft,' he said. Before they were extricated, Goldstein said, technicians had to conduct 'bonding and grounding' operations to make the tower safe.... The plane became entangled in high-voltage power lines north of Montgomery Village in Gaithersburg about 5:40 p.m.... The first victim, a woman, was pulled from the plane at 12:25 a.m. Residents who'd spent hours watching the incident play out clapped as she was lowered down in a bucket. The second occupant, a man, came down about 11 minutes later."