September 26, 2022

Afternoon Update:

Mystery Solved. Ryan Reilly & Ben Collins of NBC News: "A high-ranking member of the far-right Oath Keepers organization who has been charged in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol exchanged messages in November 2020 with former Trump White House aide Andrew Giuliani about election issues. That same Oath Keeper member, Kellye SoRelle, also tried to text a White House number on Dec. 20, according to a new book from Denver Riggleman, a former Republican congressman from Virginia, and journalist Hunter Walker. That text message went to a White House switchboard line, so it could not be delivered.... Riggleman told NBC News that he had divulged details of the text messages in his book so that 'reporters would follow up on some of the crucial evidence that had not been made public.' NBC News has seen a copy of the book, which will be published Tuesday.... Andrew Giuliani ... was on leave from the White House to work on elections issues in late 2020...."

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "President Vladimir V. Putin on Monday granted Russian citizenship to Edward J. Snowden, the former U.S. intelligence contractor who became one of the world's most high-profile fugitives after he disclosed mass surveillance techniques to news organizations. Mr. Snowden said in 2020 that he was applying for Russian citizenship, describing the decision as a practical measure to give his family greater freedom crossing borders. His request was granted by Mr. Putin in a decree dated Monday and published by the Kremlin. Mr. Snowden, 39, was among dozens of foreigners granted citizenship in the decree." The AP's report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Well, that's nice. Now when is Putin going to grant Russian citizenship to the other person famous for playing fast & loose with U.S. government secrets? There may yet be a Trump Tower Moscow. Better yet, a Trump Tower Omsk.

Zachary Cohen of CNN: Former White House chief of state Mark Meadows & election conspirary theorist Phil Waldron texted each other in late December 2020 about gaining access to voting machines in Arizona & Texas. "The messages, which have not been previously reported, shed new light on how Waldron's reach extended into the highest levels of the White House and the extent to which Meadows was kept abreast of plans for accessing voting machines, a topic sources tell CNN, and court documents suggest, is of particular interest to state and federal prosecutors probing efforts to overturn the 2020 election. The messages also provide an early window into how an effort to gain access to voting machines through the courts and state legislatures morphed into a more clandestine endeavor that is now the subject of multiple criminal investigations."

Dalton Bennett, et al., of the Washington Post: "The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by a pro-Trump mob intends to show at its hearing this week video footage of Roger Stone recorded by Danish filmmakers during the weeks before the violence, according to people familiar with the matter. The committee is considering including video clips in which Stone, a longtime friend and adviser to ... Donald Trump, predicted violent clashes with left-wing activists and forecast months before the 2020 vote that the president would use armed guards and loyal judges to stay in power...."

Pennsylvania Gubernatorial Race. Reid Epstein of the New York Times: Doug "Mastriano, an insurgent state senator who in the spring cruised to the Republican nomination, is learning this fall that while it is one thing to win a crowded G.O.P. primary on the back of online fame and Donald J. Trump's endorsement, it is quite another to prevail in a general election in a battleground state of nearly 13 million people. He is being heavily outspent by his Democratic rival [Josh Shapiro], has had no television ads on the air since May, has chosen not to interact with the state's news media in ways that would push his agenda, and trails by double digits in reputable public polling and most private surveys.... Republicans elsewhere [-- Arizona, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts and Michigan --] who, with Mr. Trump's endorsement, won primaries against the wishes of their local political establishments are facing similar disparities in TV advertising in the final weeks of the midterm campaigns."

Mary Ilyushina of the Washington Post: "A young man shot and wounded the chief recruitment officer at a military enlistment station in Russia's Irkutsk region on Monday, local authorities said, as thousands of fighting-age men continued to flee the country to escape being summoned to duty in President Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine."

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Edward Helmore of the Guardian: ""Donald Trump denied knowing at the time the January 6 attack on the US Capitol started that a mob of his supporters -- whom he privately called 'fucking crazy' -- were rioting, the author of a forthcoming book on his chaotic presidency writes in what may stand as one of the most surprising, non-believable postscripts of his tenure in the Oval Office. 'I didn't usually have the television on. I'd have it on if there was something. I then later turned it on and I saw what was happening,' Trump told New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman..., despite congressional testimony that he was indeed watching events that day.... In an extract published in the Atlantic, Haberman writes that she was given three post-presidential opportunities to speak with Trump and found that 'his impulse to try to sell his preferred version of himself was undeterred by the stain that January 6 left on his legacy and on the democratic foundations of the country -- if anything, it grew stronger'. At Mar-a-Lago..., the former president appeared 'diminished.'"

Julia Mueller of the Hill: "Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) on Sunday said former President Trump is pushing himself toward a 'self-inflicted indictment' with his combative public statements on his legal battle with the Justice Department. 'The more you absolutely antagonize with nonsense arguments on television that your lawyers won't make in court -- because they're afraid they'll be sanctioned if they do because they have no evidence -- you're pushing yourself closer to a self-inflicted indictment,' Christie said on ABC's 'This Week' with host George Stephanopoulos."

Brad Dress of the Hill: "Former U.S. Rep. Denver Riggleman (R-Va.) said text messages to and from then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows revealed a 'roadmap to an attempted coup' as former President Trump attempted to overturn his 2020 election loss. Riggleman -- who led a data analyst team for the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot -- told CBS' '60 Minutes' host Bill Whitaker in an interview aired Sunday that messages connected to Meadows revealed an extensive conspiracy within Trump's White House following the 2020 election." ~~~

     ~~~ Here's the transcript of the interview, via CBS News. Includes video. ~~~

     ~~~ Jacqueline Alemany & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "News that a former adviser to the committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection is publishing a book billed as a 'behind-the-scenes' look at the committee's work came as a shock to most lawmakers and committee staff when it was announced last week. Denver Riggleman, a former Republican congressman, is set to publish 'The Breach' on Tuesday, just one day before the final public hearing of the Jan. 6 panel, which has gone to extraordinary lengths to prevent unauthorized leaks, as well as keep its sources and methods of investigation under wraps. Riggleman's book announcement came in the form of a tweet touting his upcoming appearance Sunday on '60 Minutes' as his first time speaking publicly about the book.... Senior staff previously confronted Riggleman after rumors circulated that he was working on a book about his work for the committee, according to a person close to the panel." Riggleman denied at one point that he was writing about the committee & at another point said the book would not be published before the end of the year. "Committee staff members were infuriated by Riggleman's cable news tour earlier this summer during which he revealed private details about the staff's work, according to people involved with the investigation."

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "... the Conference of Chief Justices, a group representing the top state judicial officers in the nation, [has filed] a brief in the U.S. Supreme Court in a politically charged election-law case. The brief urged the court to reject a legal theory pressed by Republicans that would give state legislatures extraordinary power.... If the Supreme Court adopts the theory, it will radically reshape how federal elections are conducted by giving state lawmakers independent authority, not subject to review by state courts, to set election rules in conflict with state constitutions. The conference's brief, which was nominally filed in support of neither party, urged the Supreme Court to reject that approach, sometimes called the independent state legislature theory."

Kenneth Chang of the New York Times: "On Monday, NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test spacecraft, or DART, is set to collide with Dimorphos, a small asteroid that is the moon of a larger space rock, Didymos. While these two near-Earth objects pose no immediate threat to our world, NASA launched DART last year to test a technique that could one day be used for planetary defense.... The mission is a proof-of-principle demonstration that hitting an oncoming asteroid with a projectile can nudge it into a different orbit.... DART is set to crash into Dimorphos at 14,000 miles per hour at 7:14 p.m. Eastern time on Monday. NASA Television will broadcast coverage of the end of this mission beginning at 6 p.m. Or you can watch it in the video player embedded [at the top of this page]."

Way Beyond the Beltway

Italy. Frances D'Emilio & Giada Zampano of the AP: "Italian voters rewarded Giorgia Meloni's euroskeptic party with neo-fascist roots, propelling the country toward what likely would be its first far-right-led government since World War II, based on partial results Monday from the election for Parliament. In a victory speech, far-right Italian leader Giorgia Meloni struck a moderate tone after projections based on votes counted from some two-thirds of polling stations showed her Brothers of Italy party ahead of other contenders in Sunday's balloting.... The formation of a ruling coalition, with the help of Meloni's right-wing and center-right allies, could take weeks. If Meloni, 45, succeeds, she would be the first woman to hold the country's premiership." ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Jason Horowitz of the New York Times: "Italy turned a page of European history on Sunday by electing a hard-right coalition led by Giorgia Meloni, whose long record of bashing the European Union, international bankers and migrants has sown concern about the nation's reliability in the Western alliance. Results released early Monday showed that Ms. Meloni, the leader of the nationalist Brothers of Italy, a party descended from the remnants of fascism, had led a right-wing coalition to a majority in Parliament, defeating a fractured left and a resurgent anti-establishment movement."

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: "At least 100 people were arrested in Russia's southwestern region of Dagestan on Sunday, according to the human rights group OVD-Info, as protesters gathered in the regional capital of Makhachkala to condemn the war in Ukraine days after ... Vladimir Putin announced a military mobilization that would affect up to 300,000 reservists from around the country. In a speech Sunday night, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky responded to the protests by urging Russians to 'fight to ensure that your children are not sent to die.' Zelensky also said Kremlin-backed forces in Crimea have begun mobilizing Tatars ... for their war effort in the Ukrainian port city of Kherson, calling it 'another element of Russia's policy of genocide.' The Kremlin plans to continue staged referendums this week to annex occupied parts of Ukraine. Russia controls large swaths of the Luhansk and Kherson regions, as well as significant parts of Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk."

News Ledes

New York Times: "Jim Florio, who was elected governor of New Jersey in 1989 by persuading voters that he would not raise state taxes but who then pushed through a record increase shortly after taking office, incurring public wrath that led to his defeat in his bid for a second term, died on Sunday. He was 85."

New York Times: "Tropical Storm Ian strengthened into a hurricane early Monday and was expected to continue to grow rapidly through the day as it moves closer to Cuba and eventually Florida in the coming days. Forecasters warned of 'significant' winds and storm surge for western Cuba, and issued watches and warnings for much of the region, including the Dry Tortugas, the Florida Keys and Grand Cayman. The National Weather Service issued a hurricane watch for parts of the west coast of Florida, including Tampa Bay, where the governor, Ron DeSantis, warned residents to begin preparing for the storm's arrival."

New York Times: "At least nine people have been killed and 20 injured in a school shooting on Monday in the Russian city of Izhevsk, 600 miles east of Moscow, according to Russian authorities. A gunman entered School Number 88, which teaches the first to 11th grades, and killed two security guards, two teachers and at least five minors, according to federal investigators, who also said the assailant killed himself."

September 25, 2022

Adela Suliman of the Washington Post: "British singer Elton John was left teary eyed and 'flabbergasted' after being awarded a surprise national humanities medal by President Biden, following a concert at the White House on Friday night. John, 75, who was born Reginald Kenneth Dwight, is a world-renowned singer, pianist and songwriter. He has also championed numerous charities and humanitarian causes, especially those tackling HIV/AIDS. Flanked by the president and first lady, John, wearing his signature red-tinted spectacles, looked visibly shocked as he first spotted the medal, covering his face with his hands in disbelief." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Losers, Losing. Maureen Dowd of the New York Times: "Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, long entwined, continue on vile parallel paths: They would rather destroy their countries than admit they have lost. They have each created a scrim of lies to justify lunatic personal ambition. And while it should be easy to see through these lies, both cult-of-personality leaders are able to con and bully enough people to remain puissant.... Both thugs are getting boxed in, Trump by a bouquet of investigations into his chicanery and Putin by an angry public pushback against his bloody vanity war.... Both Putin and Trump are famous for accusing everyone else of their own sins.... It would be poetic justice to think the walls were closing in on Putin and Trump at the same time, because at some point, all this will become unsustainable. Losers, refusing to admit defeat." MB: Yes, I had to look up the meaning of "puissant." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Annie Grayer of CNN: "Wyoming GOP Rep. Liz Cheney said at The Texas Tribune festival Saturday that if ... Donald Trump becomes the Republican Party's nominee for president in 2024, she will not remain a Republican. 'I'm going to make sure Donald Trump, I'm going to do everything I can to make sure he is not the nominee. And if he is the nominee, I won't be a Republican,' Cheney said. Cheney also said she will campaign for Democrats to ensure that Republican candidates who promote election lies do not get elected. Cheney was talking about the Arizona gubernatorial race, and how she will work to ensure that GOP nominee Kari Lake, the former television journalist who has become a leading voice behind Trump's lies about election fraud, does not get elected."

Ramon Vargas of the Guardian: "A QAnon conspiracy theorist who led a pack of Donald Trump supporters that chased a solitary police officer [Eugene Goodman] around the US Capitol on the day of the January 6 attack has been found guilty of several felonies. Douglas Jensen -- the bearded 43-year-old Iowa man who appeared in several media photos of the attack while wearing a black T-shirt with a large 'Q' -- could in theory face more than 50 years in prison after a federal jury in Washington DC convicted him on Friday, US justice department prosecutors said in a statement.... Prosecutors said that Jensen -- carrying a knife with a three-inch blade in his pocket -- barked at Goodman as well as other officers to 'back up' and ordered them to arrest ... Mike Pence, whom the mob was threatening to hang if he didn't halt the certification of [Joe] Biden's electoral college win.... Jurors needed just four hours to convict Jensen as charged of assaulting police, obstructing a congressional proceeding, interfering with law enforcement, entering a restricted building and disorderly conduct with a dangerous weapon, which are all felonies."

The kindly gentleman who sent this photo our way expressed concern that the carefully-laid-out maze still looked too difficult for some Trumpenlumpen to navigate.

Taylor Lorenz of the Washington Post: "The most prominent forum for men who consider themselves involuntarily celibate or 'incels' has become significantly more radicalized over the past year and a half and is seeking to normalize child rape, a new report says. The report, by the Center for Countering Digital Hate's new Quant Lab, is the culmination of an investigation that analyzed more than 1 million posts on the site. It found a marked spike in conversations about mass murder and growing approval of sexually assaulting prepubescent girls. The report also says that platforms including YouTube and Google, as well as internet infrastructure companies like Cloudflare are facilitating the growth of the forum,which the report said is visited by 2.6 million people every month." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

You Are the Lab Rat. Natasha Singer of the New York Times: "LinkedIn ran experiments on more than 20 million users over five years that, while intended to improve how the platform worked for members, could have affected some people's livelihoods, according to a new study. In experiments conducted around the world from 2015 to 2019, Linkedin randomly varied the proportion of weak and strong contacts suggested by its 'People You May Know' algorithm -- the company's automated system for recommending new connections to its users. The tests were detailed in a study published this month in the journal Science and co-authored by researchers at LinkedIn, M.I.T., Stanford and Harvard Business School.... The company did not inform users that the tests were underway. Tech giants like LinkedIn, the world's largest professional network, routinely run large-scale experiments in which ... users often have no idea that companies are running the tests on them."

Beyond the Beltway

November Elections. Not Racist, Not Racist at All. Annie Linskey & Colby Itkowitz of the Washington Post: "Republicans have said [their] ads [against Wisconsin's Democratic Senate candidate Mandela Barnes] are part of a broader strategy of calling out Democrats on crime, an argument they believe will be potent in the closing stage of this year's midterm elections. But some allies of Barnes, who would be Wisconsin's first Black Senator, have derided the attacks as racist messages that feed on stereotypes.... In the Senate race in Florida, incumbent Marco Rubio (R) launched ads featuring local law enforcement officers who claim that his opponent, Rep. Val Demings (D-Fla.), [MB: who also is Black,] 'turned her back on law enforcement.' Before she was elected to Congress, Demings served as chief of the Orlando Police Department.Republicans are increasingly centering their pitch to voters on crime, casting Democrats as weak and ineffective buffers against violent criminal conduct.... During the first three weeks of September, the Republican candidates and allies aired about 53,000 commercials on crime, according to AdImpact, which tracks political spots on network TV."

Colorado. Maya Yang of the Guardian: "A dramatic video released by Colorado authorities shows the moment a freight train hit a police patrol cruiser parked on the train tracks with a person handcuffed in the backseat. The video, which was released on Friday by the Platteville and Fort Lupton police departments, shows how Yareni Rios-Gonzalez, 20, was hurt after officers from both agencies detained her in a patrol car on 16 September as they searched her pickup truck for weapons.... A Platteville police officer stopped Rios-Gonzalez's truck near a set of railroad tracks and parked the patrol vehicle atop the tracks.... [As the officers searched the truck and surrounding area,] a train's horn is heard in the distance. The officers appear to take at least 15 seconds to realize a Union Pacific train was incoming. Once one of the officers grasps that the train is approaching..., they yell while another officer tells his colleague to 'stay back'. An officer is then shown turning around a few times near the patrol vehicle before ultimately running for cover as the train slammed into the car, pushing it several yards down the tracks." Here's a short-version video of the crash: ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Have we not now have collected ample anecdotal evidence that police departments must stop discriminating against applicants with better-than-average or high IQs?

Maine Gubernatorial Race. Alyce McFadden & Michael Bender of the New York Times: "Making a comeback attempt now against his successor, Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat, [former Gov. Paul] LePage [Rrrrr] is focusing heavily in his campaign on a push to phase out Maine's income tax. He argues that the change is needed to keep wealthy residents from moving to Florida for just long enough each year to take advantage of the Sunshine State's tax breaks. But Mr. LePage and his wife, Ann LePage, who have owned property in Florida for over a decade, have themselves benefited from that state's tax laws while living in the Maine governor's mansion, and again as he campaigns to return to the job. From 2009 to 2015, and also from 2018 through the end of this year, the couple received property tax breaks reserved for permanent Florida residents, public records show.... Mr. LePage's campaign defended the tax moves, saying that Mrs. LePage's mother had used the Florida home as her primary residence from 2009 until her death in 2015, when the couple removed the first homestead exemption.... A seldom-used provision in the Florida tax code allows homeowners to claim a homestead exemption if a dependent is residing on the property." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: It's not clear from the story that LePage had declared his mother was his dependent. Moreover, I don't believe that, as the story says, that the LePages realized only about $8,500 in tax breaks over the course of seven or eight years. As I recall, the taxes on my Florida home were reduced by more than that nearly every year I was eligible for the break. It said so right on my tax bills. The main reason for the substantial break is that under Florida's "Save Our Homes" law, homesteaded property taxes cannot rise more than three percent every year. So if the valuation of your property increases 100 percent in a year, your taxes would be 103% of what they had been the previous year, not 200% of the previous year.

Way Beyond

Ukraine, et al.

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

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live briefings for Sunday are here: "Russian strikes hit the city of Zaporizhzhia, the only one of four regions where Kremlin-backed authorities are staging referendums on the prospect of joining Russia where the regional capital is not under military occupation. Voting is underway in occupied areas of Ukraine, including the Donetsk, Luhansk, and Kherson regions, as Russia's foreign minister insisted that these regions would be 'under the full protection of the state' if they are annexed -- despite widespread condemnation. Some residents called it a vote 'under a gun barrel,' with the outcome predetermined by the Kremlin. Russia is attempting to crack down on massive protests sweeping across the country, including in Moscow, St. Petersburg and other big cities, in a defiant turnout against President Vladimir Putin's mobilization of hundreds of thousands of reservists to fight in Ukraine.... China and India -- traditionally allied with Russia -- have called for negotiations to end the war in Ukraine. 'China supports all efforts conducive to the peaceful resolution of the Ukraine crisis. The pressing priority is to facilitate talks for peace,' Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said in New York during the U.N. General Assembly. India's foreign minister, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, said: 'India is on the side of peace and will remain firmly there.'"

David Stern & Robyn Dixson of the Washington Post: "Officials in Russian-occupied territories in eastern and southern Ukraine were forcing people to vote ... as staged referendums -- intended to validate Moscow's annexation of the territory it occupies -- entered their second day. Voting is taking place in portions of Ukraine's Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions and will last five days, ending Tuesday. The outcome is not in doubt. The purported referendums are illegal under Ukrainian and international law and would not remotely meet basic democratic standards for free and fair elections. Western leaders, including President Biden, have denounced the process as a 'sham' to prepare the ground for Russia's theft of Ukrainian land.... Ukrainians who are in contact with friends and relatives in the occupied territories describe groups of men armed with Kalashnikov rifles, accompanied by a person with a portable ballot box, going door-to-door in apartment buildings and houses.... [Ukraine President Volodymyr] Zelensky also said that occupation authorities had begun to mobilize local Ukrainians to fight against Kyiv forces, a prospect that Ukrainians should avoid 'by any means.'"

Jared Gans of the Hill: "Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday offered guaranteed protections to Russian soldiers who surrender amid the conflict between the countries after ...Vladimir Putin announced he was calling up 300,000 reservists to replenish Russian forces. Appealing directly to Russians during an address, Zelensky said Ukraine could guarantee three terms to Russian soldiers in exchange for their surrender. He said such Russians will be treated in a civilized manner, the circumstances of their surrender will remain undisclosed and Ukraine will find a way to ensure those who do not want to return to Russia are not exchanged."

Nahal Toosi of Politico: "By the time Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov took the stage at the United Nations General Assembly this week, he and his country had already lost much of the audience. Throughout the annual gathering, world leader after world leader had expressed deep discomfort if not outright condemnation over Russia's war in Ukraine. Even some countries that have stayed friendly with the Kremlin called for a cease-fire or other ways to end the crisis.... The growing global unhappiness with Russia was hard to miss.... But for now, it's more a shift in tone than anything tangible that could add pressure to the Kremlin economically or militarily -- many countries still rely on Russia for oil and gas supplies. Lavrov, for one, seemed to realize this, and so the veteran diplomat did not hold back in his speech Saturday. He insisted that Moscow's war was just and that Russia was defending itself and Ukraine-based Russian speakers against a neo-Nazi regime in Kyiv -- a claim not based in reality."

News Ledes

New York Times: "Tropical Storm Ian, which formed late Friday over the central Caribbean Sea, could threaten Florida as a major hurricane early next week after moving over or near western Cuba, forecasters said. Forecasters said that Ian was expected to become a hurricane by late Sunday and a major hurricane by late Monday or early Tuesday.... On Saturday, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida declared a state of emergency for all of Florida's 67 counties ahead of the storm. Under the order, money would be freed up for protective measures and the National Guard would be activated, Mr. DeSantis said." MB: DeSantis also announced a massive effort to round up and bus all immigrants to sanctuary cities in California and the Northeast.

CBS News: Post-tropical storm "Fiona washed houses into the sea, tore the roofs off others and knocked out power to the vast majority of two Canadian provinces as it made landfall before dawn Saturday as a big, powerful post-tropical cyclone. Fiona transformed from a hurricane into a post-tropical storm late Friday, but it still had hurricane-strength winds and brought drenching rains and huge waves. There was no confirmation of fatalities or injuries." The Washington Post's story is here.

September 24, 2022

Afternoon Update:

Adela Suliman of the Washington Post: "British singer Elton John was left teary eyed and 'flabbergasted' after being awarded a surprise national humanities medal by President Biden, following a concert at the White House on Friday night. John, 75, who was born Reginald Kenneth Dwight, is a world-renowned singer, pianist and songwriter. He has also championed numerous charities and humanitarian causes, especially those tackling HIV/AIDS. Flanked by the president and first lady, John, wearing his signature red-tinted spectacles, looked visibly shocked as he first spotted the medal, covering his face with his hands in disbelief." ~~~

Losers, Losing. Maureen Dowd of the New York Times: "Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, long entwined, continue on vile parallel paths: They would rather destroy their countries than admit they have lost. They have each created a scrim of lies to justify lunatic personal ambition. And while it should be easy to see through these lies, both cult-of-personality leaders are able to con and bully enough people to remain puissant.... Both thugs are getting boxed in, Trump by a bouquet of investigations into his chicanery and Putin by an angry public pushback against his bloody vanity war.... Both Putin and Trump are famous for accusing everyone else of their own sins.... It would be poetic justice to think the walls were closing in on Putin and Trump at the same time, because at some point, all this will become unsustainable. Losers, refusing to admit defeat." MB: Yes, I had to look up the meaning of "puissant."

Taylor Lorenz of the Washington Post: "The most prominent forum for men who consider themselves involuntarily celibate or 'incels' has become significantly more radicalized over the past year and a half and is seeking to normalize child rape, a new report says. The report, by the Center for Countering Digital Hate's new Quant Lab, is the culmination of an investigation that analyzed more than 1 million posts on the site. It found a marked spike in conversations about mass murder and growing approval of sexually assaulting prepubescent girls. The report also says that platforms including YouTube and Google, as well as internet infrastructure companies like Cloudflare are facilitating the growth of the forum, which the report said is visited by 2.6 million people every month."

Maine Gubernatorial Race. Alyce McFadden & Michael Bender of the New York Times: "Making a comeback attempt now against his successor, Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat, [former Gov. Paul] LePage [Rrrrr] is focusing heavily in his campaign on a push to phase out Maine's income tax. He argues that the change is needed to keep wealthy residents from moving to Florida for just long enough each year to take advantage of the Sunshine State's tax breaks. But Mr. LePage and his wife, Ann LePage, who have owned property in Florida for over a decade, have themselves benefited from that state's tax laws while living in the Maine governor's mansion, and again as he campaigns to return to the job. From 2009 to 2015, and also from 2018 through the end of this year, the couple received property tax breaks reserved for permanent Florida residents, public records show.... Mr. LePage's campaign defended the tax moves, saying that Mrs. LePage's mother had used the Florida home as her primary residence from 2009 until her death in 2015, when the couple removed the first homestead exemption.... A seldom-used provision in the Florida tax code allows homeowners to claim a homestead exemption if a dependent is residing on the property." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: It's not clear from the story that LePage had declared his mother was his dependent. Moreover, I don't believe that, as the story says, that the LePages realized only about $8,500 in tax breaks over the course of seven or eight years. As I recall, the taxes on my Florida home were reduced by more than that nearly every year I was eligible for the break. It said so right on my tax bills. The main reason for the substantial break is that under Florida's "Save Our Homes" law, homesteaded property taxes cannot rise more than three percent every year. So if the valuation of your property increases 100 percent in a year (it happens), your taxes would be 103 percent of what they had been the previous year, not 200 percent of the previous year.

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

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Blake Hounshell of the New York Times: "President Biden became involved in state legislative races for the first time, with an email Friday asking Democrats to each donate the modest sum of $7 to his party's campaign arm for statehouse elections. And, following his Sept. 1 speech lashing 'MAGA Republicans,' Biden is framing the stakes as a battle for American democracy, coupled with a bread-and-butter message about inflation, an issue that has bedeviled his presidency.... As my colleague Nick Corasaniti reported on Friday, one outside group working on winning statehouses for Democrats, the States Project, plans to spend $60 million across just five states. That would be a humdrum sum for a hot Senate race, but it's an astronomical amount in races where spending is often in the range of thousands of dollars...." ~~~

~~~ Brett Samuels of the Hill: "President Biden on Friday sought to dismantle the agenda proposed hours earlier by House Republican leaders should they take back the House, hitting Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) for dodging key issues and warning that a GOP majority would try to strip away fundamental rights and government programs. Biden, in remarks at a Democratic National Committee event at the National Education Association (NEA), issued a point-by-point rebuttal to the agenda unveiled by McCarthy.... Biden, pointing to a proposal from Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) that would ban abortion after 15 weeks, warned the GOP would attempt to block access to the procedure if they hold the House majority. He pledged to veto any such legislation if it passed, arguing a stronger Democratic majority could help codify abortion access.... He rebuked McCarthy's pledge to help Americans live longer, healthier lives by arguing some Republicans have called for cuts to Medicare and Social Security. Biden cited a policy platform from Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) that called for a vote every five years to determine the fate of those programs.... And Biden took aim at Republicans for wanting to restore faith in elections, noting dozens of GOP lawmakers still refuse to accept the results of the 2020 election." And so forth.

Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "At a manufacturing plant [in Monongahela, Pa., Kevin McCarthy], introduced the 'Commitment to America,' an innocuous-sounding set of principles he said would guide a G.O.P. majority, and which appeared aimed at uniting [GOP] members...: fighting inflation, securing the border and hiring more police.... The agenda was light on details and avoided certain topics that polls show are not favorable to Republicans' chances of electoral success: the abortion bans that most in the party have embraced, defunding the F.B.I., the Jan. 6 attack or Mr. Trump and his ongoing legal troubles.... But ... the agenda ... contained a reference to the party's commitment to enacting strict abortion restrictions.... It alluded to the G.O.P.'s continuing embrace of Mr. Trump's false claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election, promising that a Republican majority would 'increase accountability in the election process through voter ID.' And it hinted that Republicans would look to change the Affordable Care Act and roll back legislation allowing Medicare to negotiate the cost of prescription drugs...." ~~~

     ~~~ House Speaker Nancy Pelosi: "Today's rollout is the latest evidence of House Republicans' whole-hearted Commitment to MAGA: going all-in on an extremist agenda designed to greatly diminish Americans’ health, freedom and security. This alarming new extreme MAGA platform threatens to criminalize women's health care, slash seniors' Medicare and raise prescription drug prices, and attack our free and fair elections. These appalling proposals have long been advanced by right-wing politicians and are widely supported by the dark money special interests who call the shots in the GOP. But this extreme MAGA agenda is way out of step with Americans' priorities, who align with Democrats' vision of putting People Over Politics: with lower costs, better-paying jobs and safer communities." ~~~

     ~~~ Nancy Pelosi (September 21): "OOPS. Looks like Leader McCarthy fumbled his agenda rollout by accidentally posting the webpage of House Republicans' 'Commitment to America' -- and then scrambled to password protect the website again ... but not before we got screenshots. Screenshots that reveal that House Republicans are doubling down on an extreme MAGA agenda: to criminalize women's health care, to slash seniors' Medicare (including with the repeal of the lower drug prices for seniors in the Inflation Reduction Act), and to attack our democracy." Thanks to RAS for the link. MB: This press release also appears on Pelosi's website, but the Pelosi page does not include the screenshots, perhaps because of a glitch. Had RAS not linked the Wayback Machine page, I would never have found it. ~~~

~~~ Republicans Promise to Make America Great Again -- Just Like Russia & Ukraine. Jennifer Bendery of the Huffington Post: "House Republican leaders on Friday unveiled their 'Commitment to America' agenda for 2023 ― and with it, an inspirational video full of scenes presented as exceptional imagery of America that were actually stock footage from Russia and Ukraine.... In another scene, a boy is seen smiling and running in a field with a toy airplane. The words 'Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness' appear on the screen, a reference to the Declaration of Independence. This clip was also ... filmed in [Russia's] Volgograd region.... 'Democrats have led America off track,' the narrator [of another clip] says. The words 'Crippling inflation and rampant crime' appear on the screen, over a shot of a woman walking through a grocery store. But this is footage from a European grocery store, [likely in Ukraine]." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: So weird. Can't the GOP find any amber waves of grain in, say, Kansas or Nebraska? If they were going to steal footage, they could have copped clips from this fabulous 2016 closing ad for Bernie Sanders. ~~~

     ~~~ Republicans Confuse Lincoln with Lehman Brothers. Taegan Goddard of Political Wire. In another video, "The House Republican conference rolled out their platform for the 2022 midterm elections with words attributed to Abraham Lincoln, but the Daily Beast reports the quote is actually from a Lehman Brothers ad from the 1980s." The Daily Beast story is firewalled.

Evan Perez, et al., of CNN: "... Donald Trump's attorneys are fighting a secret court battle to block a federal grand jury from gathering information from an expanding circle of close Trump aides about his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, people briefed on the matter told CNN. The high-stakes legal dispute -- which included the appearance of three attorneys representing Trump at the Washington, DC, federal courthouse on Thursday afternoon -- is the most aggressive step taken by the former President to assert executive and attorney-client privileges in order to prevent some witnesses from sharing information in the criminal investigation [of] events surrounding January 6, 2021.... Former Trump White House adviser and lawyer Eric Herschmann ... is not ... fighting the [grand jury] subpoena [he received]. Instead, Trump's lawyers are asking a judge to recognize the former President's privilege claims and the right to confidentiality around his dealings. Herschmann's grand jury testimony has been postponed." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Maggie Haberman & Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "In emails reviewed by The Times, Mr. Herschmann complained that a letter from Mr. Trump directing him to assert privilege in front of the grand jury -- as other witnesses had -- was not enough to allow him to avoid answering questions. 'I will not rely on your say-so that privileges apply here and be put in the middle of a privilege fight between D.O.J. and President Trump,' Mr. Herschmann, a former prosecutor, wrote in one of the emails.... Mr. Herschmann repeatedly implored [Mr. Trump's attorneys Evan] Corcoran and [John] Rowley to go to court seeking an order from a judge 'precluding me from answering questions based on privilege assertions by President Trump,' according to the emails. They ignored his request for many days, before ultimately filing a motion under seal on Sept. 1, just hours before Mr. Herschmann was set to testify, the emails showed.... Attorney-client privilege ... can be swept aside in cases where crimes have been committed."

Andrew Desiderio of Politico: "Intelligence officials have resumed their national security risk review of top-secret documents that were seized at ... Donald Trump's Florida estate, according to a spokesperson for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. The resumption, which has not been previously reported, comes after a federal appeals court delivered the Justice Department a decisive win, unanimously blocking elements of a lower-court ruling that forced federal prosecutors to seek a pause in the highly anticipated intelligence review."

Marie: I don't know if this is true, but if it is from a transcript of a hearing conducted by special master Judge Raymond Dearie, it is -- as Bill Lewis says -- "priceless":

Priceless:👇

Judge Dearie: When you say "the President", do you mean President Biden?

Attorney: "No, President Trump."

Judge: Let the record show Mr Trusty was referring to former President Trump, now a private citizen. Please continue.😅😂🤣

— Bill Lewis (@theAntenna_uk) September 23, 2022

Mark Follman of Mother Jones: "As the ex-president faces advancing federal and state investigations ranging from Mar-a-Lago to New York to Georgia, he has escalated an insidious form of political incitement, behavior that seems to signal a growing desperation over his legal predicaments.... Asked by [Sean] Hannity [on Wednesday] to comment on a new lawsuit from New York Attorney General Letitia James..., the ex-president laid into the state's top lawyer and her staff: 'They were demeaning me constantly, these people,' he said. 'There's something wrong with them. I really believe they hate our country.'... Elsewhere in the interview, Trump declared that the federal judge who approved the search warrant to seize highly classified documents stashed at Mar-a-Lago 'took the case' because he 'hated Trump.' The ex-president also demonized leaders at the National Archives and Records Administration..., telling Hannity that the agency is run by 'a radical left group of people.' Regarding the federal agents who entered his residence, Trump said the FBI has 'attacked' and been 'so horrible to so many people' he knows, and further claimed the agents showed up for the 'raid' armed with AK-47s."

Keith Zubrow of CBS News: "Former senior technical adviser for the January 6 Committee, Denver Riggleman, said the White House switchboard connected a phone call to a Capitol rioter on January 6, 2021.... Riggleman, an ex-military intelligence officer and former Republican congressman from Virginia, oversaw a data-driven operation for the January 6 committee, pursuing phone records and other digital clues tied to the attack on the Capitol. He stopped working for the committee in April."

Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "Career prosecutors have recommended against charging Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) in a long-running sex-trafficking investigation -- telling Justice Department superiors that a conviction is unlikely in part because of credibility questions with the two central witnesses, according to people familiar with the matter. Senior department officials have not made a final decision on whether to charge Gaetz, but it is rare for such advice to be rejected...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) CNN's report is here. MB: Matt's Tip O' the Day for Lawbreakers: hang out with people too sleazy to be believed. It won't matter if they finger you.

How Hot Was It? On this Washington Post page, you can find out just how hot it was this summer in your home county (or any other county, of course). The page compares day & nighttime temp as well as rainfall to temps & precipitation prior years. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Beyond the Beltway

Arizona. Punishing Women & Abortion Providers Like It's 1864. Eliza Fawcett of the New York Times: "A judge on Friday ruled that a near-total abortion ban written before Arizona became a state must be enforced, throwing abortion access into question one day before the start of a 15-week ban that passed the Legislature this year. The stricter ban, which can be traced to 1864, was blocked by a court injunction in 1973 shortly after the Supreme Court, in Roe v. Wade, determined that there was a constitutional right to abortion. On Friday, Judge Kellie Johnson of Pima County Superior Court lifted that injunction, noting that Roe had been overruled in June and that Planned Parenthood's request for the court to 'harmonize the laws' in Arizona was flawed. The 1864 law, first established by the state's territorial legislature, mandates a two- to five-year prison sentence for anyone who helps a woman obtain an abortion. In 1901, the state updated and codified the law.... Gov. Doug Ducey has said that the 15-week ban he signed in March would supersede the century-old ban, but Attorney General Mark Brnovich, a fellow Republican, has argued that the older ban should take precedence." The AP's story is here.

Colorado. Deon Hampton & Erik Ortiz of NBC News: "An amended autopsy report released Friday revealed Elijah McClain, a 23-year-old Black man who died after a confrontation with police officers, died because he was injected with ketamine by paramedics after being forcibly restrained. 'I believe this tragic fatality is most likely the result of ketamine toxicity,' the report said, adding McClain received a higher dosage of the sedative than he should have. 'Simply put, this dosage of ketamine was too much for this individual and it resulted in an overdose.'"

Georgia. Richard Fawcett of the New York Times:"Brad Raffensperger, Georgia's secretary of state, said on Friday that his office would replace voting equipment in Coffee County, where allies of ... Donald J. Trump and contractors working on Mr. Trump's behalf copied software and other data after the 2020 election. But in a statement, a plaintiff in a federal lawsuit contending that Georgia's statewide voting system is fundamentally insecure in the wake of the Trump allies' visit to Coffee County called the changes 'embarrassingly thin' and 'cosmetic.' The statement said the server for the county's election management system remained 'potentially contaminated.'... ... David Cross, a lawyer representing some of the plaintiffs in the civil litigation, has said the information that was copied includes the software used by all 159 of Georgia's counties.... The move by Mr. Raffensperger, a Republican, comes after the plaintiffs complained that he was moving too slowly to address the security breach in Coffee County, which took place in January 2021.... One Trump supporter involved in the breach, Scott Hall, said in a recorded phone call that the team that traveled to Coffee County, roughly 200 miles southeast of Atlanta, had 'scanned all the equipment, imaged all the hard drives and scanned every single ballot.'" An AP story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: IOW, this is a hot mess. It seems likely that Trump operatives have the data they need to manipulate every damned voting machine in Georgia in any damned election they choose to do so. Georgia Democrats have every reason to mistrust the results of all election results that report a GOP win.

Maryland. Slum Landlord Kushner, et al., Settle. Linda Qiu of the New York Times: "An apartment management company partly owned by Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of ... Donald J. Trump, has agreed to pay a $3.25 million penalty and make restitution to thousands of tenants who were overcharged fees and subject to leaks, rodents and mold infestations, the Maryland attorney general said on Friday. Westminster Management, the property management arm of Kushner Companies, and 25 affiliated businesses that owned nearly 9,000 units across the Baltimore area have agreed to settle a 2019 lawsuit over their rental practices. The companies violated consumer protection laws by charging tenants illegal fees and failed to adequately maintain the properties, the lawsuit said.... Under the settlement, former and current tenants at 17 properties can file claims to recover a host of fees that [state Attorney General Brian] Frosh [D] said the company had improperly charged them. They could also file claims with an outside arbiter ... who can return rental payments to tenants if they faced serious maintenance issues."

Michigan Gubernatorial Race. Because Plotting to Kidnap (and Murder) a Democrat Is Hilarious. Eric Bradner, et al., of CNN: "Tudor Dixon, the Republican challenging Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, made light of the 2020 kidnapping plot against Whitmer on Friday, telling a crowd [at an event hosted by Kellyanne Conway] that ... 'The sad thing is that Gretchen will tie your hands, put a gun to your head, and ask if you're ready to talk.... For someone so worried about being kidnapped, Gretchen Whitmer sure is good at taking business hostage and holding it for ransom.'... After her comment drew backlash, Dixon joked again about the kidnapping plot at a second event Friday, this time with Donald Trump Jr.... A federal jury in August convicted two men of conspiring to kidnap Whitmer at her vacation home in 2020. They were also convicted of one count of conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction after prosecutors detailed their plans to blow up a bridge to prevent police from responding to the kidnapping of the governor."

Mississippi. Meghann Cuniff of Law & Crime: “A 23-year-old Mississippi man accused of burning a cross in his front yard to intimidate a Black family who lived nearby has been charged with a federal hate crime. Axel Charles Cox was arraigned Friday after prosecutors obtained a warrant for him to be brought into court from state prison, where he's serving eight years for drug and stolen property.... The charges allege he also 'used threatening and racially derogatory remarks' toward the victims, who are identified only by their initials in the indictment but were fully identified to the Southern District of Mississippi grand jury that returned it." MB: Burning a cross?? Mississippi is so backward, even its hate crimes are old-fashioned.

Way Beyond

Iran. Joyce Lee, et al., of the Washington Post: "It has been a week since the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who fell into a coma after being detained by Iran's 'morality police.' But the anti-government protests she inspired are still raging across Iran. Demonstrators, many of them women, are burning hijabs and fighting back against police; they are tearing down posters and setting fire to billboards of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the country's supreme leader.... At least 30 people have been killed, according to rights groups and news reports. Hundreds have been injured. The government has disrupted cellular service across the country, and has imposed significant internet outages in some regions.... Videos verified by The Washington Post show security forces opening fire on protesters. And a further escalation could be coming -- Iran's military warned Friday it would intervene if the demonstrations continued."

Ukraine, et al.

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

Julian Barnes, et al., of the New York Times: "President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has thrust himself more directly into strategic planning for the war in Ukraine in recent weeks, American officials said, including rejecting requests from his commanders on the ground that they be allowed to retreat from the vital southern city of Kherson.... Such a retreat would be another humiliating public acknowledgment of Mr. Putin's failure in the war, and would hand a second major victory to Ukraine in one month.... Focused on victory at all costs, Mr. Putin has become a more public face of the war as the Russian military appears increasingly in turmoil...."

News Ledes

Weather Channel: "The former Hurricane Fiona is bringing a historic pummeling to parts of Atlantic Canada with widespread damaging winds, flooding rain and storm surge this weekend after hammering Bermuda. Fiona made landfall over eastern Nova Scotia early Saturday and is plowing through eastern Canada. A wind gust up to 100 mph was measured near Beaver Island. New low-pressure records have been set in Canada. Strong winds are hammering the coast of Atlantic Canada."

Weather Channel: "Tropical Storm Ian is strengthening in the Caribbean Sea and may become a serious hurricane threat for the northwestern Caribbean and Southeast U.S. next week, including Florida." Shows projected track.

New York Times: "Donald Blinken, a financier, patron of the arts and Democratic Party donor who became an ambassador to Hungary, helping to inspire the career in politics and diplomacy of his son, Antony, the current secretary of state, died on Thursday at his home in East Hampton, N.Y. He was 96. Secretary Blinken confirmed the death."

New York Times: "Louise Fletcher, the imposing, steely-eyed actress who won an Academy Award for her role as the tyrannical Nurse Ratched in 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest,' died on Friday at her home in Montdurausse, France. She was 88."