February 3, 2022

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Julian Barnes of the New York Times: "The United States has acquired intelligence about a Russian plan to fabricate a pretext for an invasion of Ukraine using a faked video that would build on recent disinformation campaigns, according to senior administration officials and others briefed on the material. The plan -- which the United States hopes to spoil by making public -- involves staging and filming a fabricated attack by the Ukrainian military either on Russian territory or against Russian-speaking people in eastern Ukraine."

**Remembering Zucker. Margaret Sullivan of the Washington Post: Jeff "Zucker's relationship with Donald Trump will define his legacy. Zucker, as much as any other person in the world, created and burnished the Trump persona -- first as a reality-TV star who morphed into a worldwide celebrity, then as a candidate for president who was given large amounts of free publicity.... Zucker created Trump the TV sensation, which was the necessary foundation for Trump the candidate.... CNN infamously took his campaign speeches live, sometimes going so far as to broadcast images of an empty lectern with embarrassing chyrons such as 'Breaking News: Standing By for Trump to Speak.'... Zucker also brought on the air Trump surrogates who should have had no place on a national news network: ... Corey Lewandowski..., Jeffrey Lord and Kayleigh McEnany...."

Katelyn Polantz of CNN: "The National Archives decided on Tuesday that it will turn over former Vice President Mike Pence's records to the House Select Committee early next month, after ... Donald Trump said he wanted to keep secret more than 100 documents. This is the first set of records related to Pence's office that the Archives has cleared for release after House investigators sought them and comes as top officials around Pence on January 6 testify to the panel."

Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post: "In a body full of MAGA sycophants and Ivy League-educated senators spewing anti-elite rhetoric, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) manages to stand out. From his fist-pumping approval of the Jan. 6 mob to his whining that his canceled book deal amounts to censorship, Hawley has specialized in inflammatory stunts and victimhood to shove himself to the front of the line of wannabe MAGA cult leaders who seek to follow defeated ... Donald Trump. So no one can be surprised when Hawley adopts the talking points of Trump's favorite dictator, Russian President Vladimir Putin. As President Biden draws a tough stance against Putin's designs on Ukraine and deploys troops to our NATO allies, Hawley has taken Putin's side in the central dispute. Does Ukraine have a right to determine its alliance? Hawley's answer: Nyet!"

~~~~~~~~~~

Sarah Dadouch, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Biden said Thursday that a U.S. Special Operations forces counterterrorism mission overnight in northwestern Syria had killed the leader of the Islamic State militant group. The raid killed thirteen people, including children, local first responders said. No U.S. casualties were reported in the operation, which left a U.S. helicopter destroyed on the ground. In a statement Thursday, Biden said: 'Last night at my direction, U.S. military forces in northwest Syria successfully undertook a counterterrorism operation to protect the American people and our Allies, and make the world a safer place. Thanks to the skill and bravery of our Armed Forces, we have taken off the battlefield Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi -- the leader of ISIS. All Americans have returned safely from the operation.'... A U.S. official with knowledge of the situation said the civilian casualties were caused by a man in the targeted compound who detonated explosives, killing multiple women and children." ~~~

     ~~~ Ghaith Alsayed, et al., of the AP: "U.S. special forces landed in helicopters and assaulted a house in a rebel-held corner of Syria, clashing for two hours with gunmen, witnesses said. Residents described continuous gunfire and explosions that jolted the town of Atmeh near the Turkish border...." The New York Times is liveblogging developments.

Dan Lamothe, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Biden is dispatching additional U.S. military personnel to Eastern Europe at the recommendation of the Pentagon, and about 3,000 service members are expected to deploy in the coming days, U.S. officials said Wednesday. The deployments of U.S. troops from Germany and Fort Bragg, N.C., are temporary moves intended to reassure NATO allies, according to two U.S. officials in Washington who spoke on the condition of anonymity.... The moves reflect concerns that Russia is preparing to invade Ukraine, and other service members could also be ordered to go and remain on a heightened alert status, the officials said." An AP report is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Andrew Desiderio of Politico: "Republican senators are unmoved by Tucker Carlson's relentless warpath against support for Ukraine -- even as it widens an existing rift in their party. The Fox News prime time host and others on the far-right have excused and even rationalized Russia's aggression toward Ukraine and downplayed its relevance to U.S. national security. And while GOP senators are shrugging off his name-and-shame campaign, Carlson's views are permeating the GOP base in a way that could undermine Republicans' efforts to emphasize cross-party unity as they seek to deter a Russian invasion of Ukraine." (Also linked yesterday.) But it looks like Josh loves Tucker. ~~~

     ~~~ Felicia Sonmez of the Washington Post: "The White House on Wednesday pushed back against Sen. Josh Hawley's suggestion that the United States would be worse off if Ukraine were admitted to NATO, accusing the Missouri Republican of 'parroting Russian talking points.' Ukraine is not a member of NATO, the military alliance of 30 mainly Western countries -- including the United States -- united by a mutual defense treaty. But as Russia once again threatens to invade Ukraine, NATO members have been sending troops and other reinforcements to the region, and the question of the country's potential admission to the alliance has risen to the forefront."

Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "President Biden unveiled a plan on Wednesday to reduce the death rate from cancer by at least 50 percent over the next 25 years -- an ambitious new goal, he said, to 'supercharge' the cancer 'moonshot' program he initiated and presided over five years ago as vice president. Mr. Biden, joined by his wife, Jill Biden, and Vice President Kamala Harris, also announced a campaign to urge Americans to undergo screenings that were missed during the coronavirus pandemic. And he said he would create a new 'cancer cabinet' to center the fight against cancer inside the White House." (This is an update of a story linked yesterday.)

Seung Min Kim of the Washington Post: "The White House is formally tapping three outside advisers who are veterans of politics and communications to help shepherd President Biden's eventual Supreme Court pick through the Senate confirmation process. The new team is led by former senator Doug Jones (D-Ala.), whose selection as the Supreme Court nominee's guide was made public this week. The two others are Minyon Moore, political director in the Clinton White House who is tasked with mobilizing a nationwide constellation of outside groups to build support for Biden's nominee, and Ben LaBolt, who served as both campaign and White House spokesman for former president Barack Obama. LaBolt will be advising on communications and messaging."

Anna Phillips & Jacob Bogage of the Washington Post: "The Biden administration launched a last-minute push Wednesday to derail the U.S. Postal Service's plan to spend billions of dollars on a new fleet of gasoline-powered delivery trucks, citing the damage the polluting vehicles could inflict on the climate and Americans' health.... The EPA and the White House Council on Environmental Quality sent letters to the Postal Service on Wednesday that urge it to reconside plans to buy mostly gas-powered vehicles and conduct a new, more thorough technical analysis. The EPA also asked the Postal Service to hold a public hearing on its fleet modernization plans, a request the agency had rejected when California regulators made it Jan. 28.... Over the past week, environmentalists and California's top air quality regulator have called on the EPA to block the Postal Service from moving forward with what they described as a poorly thought-out purchase...." ~~~

~~~ Lisa Friedman of the New York Times: "Representative Gerald Connolly, the Virginia Democrat who leads the House subcommittee overseeing the United States Postal Service..., called on Wednesday for the resignation of Louis DeJoy, the postmaster general, saying he flouted President Biden's plan to electrify the federal fleet by placing a multibillion-dollar order for mostly gasoline-powered vehicles.... The order, for up to 165,000 trucks, would be the Postal Service's first large-scale vehicle purchase in three decades, according to a statement from Oshkosh Defense. Both the Environmental Protection Agency and the White House Council on Environmental Quality wrote to Mr. DeJoy on Wednesday to say that the Postal Service had made the wrong decision to buy gasoline powered trucks based on a flawed environmental analysis.... Other Democrats said they wanted the board that oversees the post office to remove Mr. DeJoy.... The E.P.A. estimated the climate damages that would be caused by the new fleet at $900 million."

Josh Dawsey, et al., of the Washington Post: A December 18, 2020 memo that circulated among Trump allies advocated that "Donald Trump should invoke the extraordinary powers of the National Security Agency and Defense Department to sift through raw electronic communications in an attempt to show that foreign powers had intervened in the 2020 election to help Joe Biden win. Proof of foreign interference would 'support next steps to defend the Constitution in a manner superior to current civilian-only judicial remedies.'... The previously unreported proposal, whose provenance remains murky, in some ways mirrors other radical ideas that extremists who denied Biden's victory were working to sell to Trump.... By law, the NSA cannot target a U.S. person's communications without a court order." The story goes on to describe a meeting at the Trump hotel, organized by MyPillow Guy Mike Lindell & attended by several Republican senators & some goofy "self-styled technical consultants and intelligence experts ... [who] laid out a variety of baseless conspiracy theories that included foreign powers such as China and Venezuela hacking voting machines...."

Alan Feuer, et al., of the New York Times: "Fifteen days after Election Day in 2020, James R. Troupis, a lawyer for the Trump campaign in Wisconsin, received a memo setting out what became the rationale for an audacious strategy: to put in place alternate slates of electors in states where ... Donald J. Trump was trying to overturn his loss.... The memos show how just over two weeks after Election Day, Mr. Trump's campaign was seeking to buy itself more time to undo the results. At the heart of the strategy was the idea that their real deadline was not Dec. 14, when official electors would be chosen to reflect the outcome in each state, but Jan. 6, when Congress would meet to certify the results.... The plan to employ alternate electors was one of Mr. Trump's most expansive efforts to stave off defeat, beginning even before some states had finished counting ballots and culminating in the pressure placed on Mr. Pence...."

There's Witness Tampering & There's Witness Suppression. Tara Palmeri of Politico: "In the final days of his presidency, Donald Trump seriously considered issuing a blanket pardon for all participants in the Jan. 6 riot, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter. Between Jan. 6 and Joe Biden's inauguration on Jan. 20, Trump made three calls to one adviser to discuss the idea.... 'Is it everybody that had a Trump sign or everybody who walked into the Capitol' who could be pardoned? Trump asked, according to [another] adviser. 'He said, "Some people think I should pardon them." He thought if he could do it, these people would never have to testify or be deposed.'... Trump's consideration of preemptive pardons quickly hit a wall. It was unclear how he could pardon an entire class of people that hadn't been charged." Emphasis added. MB: IOW, Trump's "compassion & generosity" were once again merely means to ensure that none of the hundreds of co-conspirators & actors in the coup plot would testify against him.

Holmes Lybrand, et al., of CNN: "Former Department of Justice official Jeffrey Clark and his attorneys met with the House select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection for nearly two hours on Wednesday, two months after the panel voted to hold him in contempt for his lack of cooperation.... [Committee chair Bennie] Thompson [D-Miss.] said he had not gotten a readout of the proceedings and could not say if Clark plead the Fifth Amendment, as he had previously said he would.... Clark is key to the panel's investigation as he was one of the officials within the Justice Department pushing to pursue unfounded claims of voter fraud in the weeks after the 2020 election, and, according to officials who interacted with him was in touch with ... Donald Trump repeatedly."

Kyle Cheney, et al., of Politico: "The Jan. 6 select committee has subpoenaed the phone records of Arizona GOP Chair Kelli Ward and her husband, Michael Ward, who both signed documents falsely claiming to be among their state's presidential electors in 2020.... T-Mobile indicated it would turn over the records by Feb. 4 unless the Wards filed suit.... The Wards filed suit Tuesday against the House panel in federal court in Arizona seeking to block the couple's phone provider, T-Mobile, from sharing their records with the committee. The lawsuit was initially assigned to U.S. District Court Judge Susan Brnovich -- the wife of Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, who is running for Senate and is an ally of ... Donald Trump -- but she quickly recused herself from the matter." MB: Kelli Ward was the driving force behind the Cyber Ninja's "fraudit" of Maricopa County 2020 ballots.

Katelyn Polantz of CNN: "Retired Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, who served on the National Security Council and emerged as a star witness against ... Donald Trump during the 2019 Ukraine impeachment, is suing Donald Trump Jr., Rudy Giuliani and former Trump White House staffers, alleging they conspired against him. Vindman, in a new lawsuit filed in DC District Court, said Trump's family, his lawyers, right-wing media and others in the White House tried to intimidate and retaliate against him because he was willing to testify against the President, calling out Trump's entreaties of Ukraine for his personal political gain. He bluntly called the efforts to intimidate him obstruction. And the lawsuit, articulating over 73 pages Vindman's saga in Trump's first impeachment, aims to capture the plight whistleblowers face after standing up to a powerful political machine." (Also linked yesterday.)

Antonio Planas & Ron Allen of NBC News: "Six 'tech savvy' juveniles have been identified as persons of interest by the FBI in threats to historically Black colleges and universities that appear to be racially motivated. More than a dozen historically Black colleges and universities received bomb threats on Tuesday, the first day of Black History Month.... A law enforcement official ... says [the teens used] sophisticated methods to try to disguise the source of the threats, which appear to have a racist motivation."

Oh Dear. Zucker Rhymes with.... Michael Grynbaum & John Koblin of the New York Times: "Jeff Zucker resigned on Wednesday as the president of CNN and the chairman of WarnerMedia's news and sports division, writing in a memo that he had failed to disclose to the company a romantic relationship with another senior executive at CNN.... The abrupt end of his nine-year tenure immediately throws into flux the direction of CNN and its parent company, WarnerMedia, which is expected to be acquired later this year by Discovery Inc. in one of the nation's largest media mergers. In a memo to colleagues that was obtained by The New York Times, Mr. Zucker wrote that his relationship came up during a network investigation into the conduct of Chris Cuomo.... [Mr. Zucker had a relationship with] Allison Gollust..., one of the highest-ranking leaders of the network.... Ms. Gollust said in a statement on Wednesday that she was remaining in her role at CNN." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ CNN's report, by Brian Stelter & Oliver Darcy, is here. MB: I don't think Zucker really had to resign. Gollust would have been required to reveal the relationship, too. She didn't, and she's staying. Neither was married & they had worked together for years prior to beginning their relationship, so the so there's no fake "scandal." It all seems perfectly natural to me. Seems to me Zucker is using his failure to report the affair when it began as an excuse to "explore other opportunities." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Dominic Patten & Ted Johnson of Deadline: "... the relationship itself is not what triggered WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar's call to Zucker in recent days informing him that he had to exit or face termination, we've learned. Rather, it was Zucker's failure to disclose the relationship, in violation of WarnerMedia policy. Mere days afte Kilar was informed of Zucker's omissions by outside lawyers probing the now-fired Chris Cuomo's stint at CNN, the exec called Zucker and told him, 'You can't remain here.'... Discovery's largest shareholder, John Malone, a critic of CNN, made it known that corporate procedures had to be followed to the letter in regards to Zucker, we hear. Being that WarnerMedia's standards of business conduct require disclosure of relationships that develop with a boss and subordinate, Zucker's goose was officially cooked." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Okay, I was wrong. This was other men's excuse for getting rid of Zucker.

Lachlan Markay of Axios: "Some big-name 2022 [Republican] candidates are cutting checks to high-profile backers who endorsed their campaigns, records show.... Key endorsements are a known boon to campaigns battling for support, especially among ideologically committed primary voters. The payments raise the specter of a quid pro quo." MB: It would be a surprise if Donald Trump wasn't getting in on this "paid endorsement" racket.

Groundhog Day News. As previously reported in yesterday's Comments, Amanda Watts of CNN also reports, "Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow Wednesday, meaning that if you believe in a groundhog's ability to predict the weather -- we're in for six more weeks of winter." (Also linked yesterday.)

The Pandemic, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Thursday are here. The Washington Post's live Covid-19 updates for Thursday are here.

Lolita Baldor of the AP: "The Army said Wednesday it will immediately begin discharging soldiers who have refused to get the mandatory COVID-19 vaccine, putting more than 3,300 service members at risk of being thrown out soon. The Army's announcement makes it the final military service to lay out its discharge policy for vaccine refusers. The Marine Corps, Air Force and Navy have already discharged active-duty troops or entry-level personnel at boot camps for refusing the shots. So far, the Army has not discharged any."

Beyond the Beltway

New York. Michael Wilson of the New York Times: "On Wednesday, 12 days after he was trapped in a bullet-fueled attack in a Harlem hallway..., [NYPD] officer Wilbert D. Mora, who at 27 impressed his seniors with his diligence and quiet manner in just three years on the job, was laid to rest before thousands at a funeral under the soaring arches of St. Patrick's Cathedral."

New York. Benjamin Weiser & Troy Closson of the New York Times: "A Brooklyn man was charged on Wednesday with selling a deadly dose of fentanyl-laced heroin to the actor Michael K. Williams, who was best known for his portrayal of the gay stickup man Omar Little in the television series 'The Wire.' The man who was charged, Irvin Cartagena, and three others were accused of being part of a drug-trafficking crew that continued to sell the drug even after knowing it had killed Mr. Williams -- operating in broad daylight amid apartment buildings in Brooklyn and Manhattan, according to a criminal complaint. The sale of the fatal dose to Mr. Williams in a hand-to-hand transaction in Brooklyn's Williamsburg neighborhood on Sept. 5, 2021, was captured on security video, the authorities said.... The other men charged along with Mr. Cartagena, 39, were Hector Robles, 57; Luis Cruz, 56; and Carlos Macci, 70. All are from Brooklyn, the government says."

Texas. A Conspiracy of Butterflies. Sharon Pruitt-Young of NPR: "The National Butterfly Center in Mission, Texas, has announced that it's closing its doors 'for the immediate future' after ongoing harassment directed at employees and the center itself. The center, a nonprofit nature reserve nestled near the U.S.-Mexico border, unwittingly became the subject of conservative conspiracy theories and political conflict in recent years, having been locked in a years-long legal battle with the Trump administration and We Build the Wall regarding a planned border wall.... The National Butterfly Center filed a lawsuit in 2017 after the Trump administration allegedly began construction of a wall, using chainsaws to destroy trees and other plant life, on center-owned property without permission." ~~~

     ~~~ Sneha Day of the Texas Tribune: "The National Butterfly Center, along the U.S.-Mexico border in Mission, has long been the target of QAnon conspiracy theories falsely tying the organization to human trafficking. The center is a 20-year-old nature conservatory for wild butterflies. There are no law enforcement investigations into the organization or its staff for human trafficking.... In 2019, Brian Kolfage, a supporter of ... Donald Trump, tweeted out false rumors accusing Treviño-Wright of human trafficking. The National Butterfly Center responded by suing Kolfage and his organization, We Build the Wall, for defamation and disparagement in state court. Kolfage and others were indicted in 2020 over allegedly redirecting funds from We Build the Wall to personal expenses.... The harassment escalated in late January when a right-wing congressional candidate from Virginia, Kimberly Lowe, visited the nature conservatory, [center director Marianna] Treviño-Wright said. Lowe demanded the center give her access to the river 'to see all the illegals crossing on the raft.' Treviño-Wright said Lowe tackled her when she asked Lowe to leave the premises."

Washington State, etc. Mike Baker of the New York Times: "Among the thousands of mail-in ballots that were rejected in Washington State during the 2020 election, auditors have found that the votes of Black residents were thrown out four times as often as those of white voters. The rejections, all of them because of problematic signatures, disqualified one out of every 40 mail-in votes from Black people -- a finding that already is causing concern amid the national debate over voter access and secure balloting. Washington, a state with broad experience in mail-in balloting, found that rejection rates were also elevated for Native American, Hispanic, and Asian and Pacific Islander voters.... The findings in Washington State mirror mail-ballot research that has been conducted in other states in recent years, including Georgia and Florida."

Way Beyond

Canada. Amanda Coletta & Annabelle Timsit of the Washington Post: "Ottawa police said Wednesday that a 'significant element' from the United States has been involved in the participation, funding and organization of a self-described 'Freedom Convoy' that has for several days jammed streets in the capital to protest public health measures and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. 'They have converged in our city, and there are plans for more to come,' said Ottawa Police Chief Peter Sloly. He said that the participants, who also include locals and other Canadians, are 'putting our city and our residents, our partners and our officers at great risk.'... Some protesters carried Confederate flags, and at least one flag with a swastika drawn on it could be seen.... Meanwhile, media reported that there had been a breakthrough in a blockade of a busy U.S.-Canada border crossing in southern Alberta, with protesters agreeing to open up one lane of traffic in each direction, citing lawyers working with the group." MB: This takes the bad behavior of American tourists abroad to a whole 'nother level. Congrats, confederate Nazis.

~~~ Netherlands. The Dutchman Definitely Would Not Recognize Rotterdam Now. Miriam Berger of the Washington Post: "Rotterdam has agreed to temporarily dismantle part of its historic Koningshaven Bridge so that Jeff Bezos's 417-foot-long, three-mast yacht can pass through the waterway sometime this summer, according to a spokeswoman for the city. The Dutch company Oceano has been building the massive vessel for an estimated $500 million in the nearby city of Alblasserdam. Once completed this year, the ship, known as Y721, will be the world's largest sailing yacht, according to Boat International. But to reach the open seas it must first pass through Rotterdam -- considered the maritime capital of Europe -- and the city's historic steel bridge, locally known as De Hef, which has a clearance of just over 131 feet.... It was decommissioned in 1994 after being replaced by a tunnel, but later declared a national monument. The bridge underwent a major restoration from 2014 to 2017, after which the city said it would not be dismantled again, according to the Dutch broadcaster Rijnmond.... Oceano and Bezos will pay to dismantle the bridge, Rijnmond reported."

News Ledes

Market Watch: “New requests for U.S. unemployment benefits fell for the second week in a row to 238,000, as the record omicron wave receded and more people were able to go back to work. Initial jobless claims declined by 23,000 from a revised 261,000 in the prior week, the Labor Department said Thursday."

Washington Post: Tens of thousands of customers in Texas were without power Thursday morning as a major winter storm continued moving east across the United States, bringing snow, sleet and freezing rain to Midwestern and Southern states. Nearly 53,000 power outages were reported in Texas early Thursday, along with about 15,000 in Arkansas, according to poweroutage.us, which tracks outages nationwide." ~~~

~~~ CNN: "A triple whammy of sleet, snow and ice has bombarded more than 2,000 miles in the eastern US -- and many are now stuck in the storm with no electricity. More than 100 million people in 25 states stretching from the Mexican to Canadian borders were under winter weather alerts Thursday, CNN meteorologist Monica Garrett said." ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times is live-updating storm developments here.

February 2, 2022

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Oh Dear. Zucker Rhymes with.... Michael Grynbaum & John Koblin of the New York Times: "Jeff Zucker resigned on Wednesday as the president of CNN and the chairman of WarnerMedia's news and sports division, writing in a memo that he had failed to disclose to the company a romantic relationship with another senior executive at CNN. Mr. Zucker, 56, is among the most powerful leaders in the American media and television industries. The abrupt end of his nine-year tenure immediately throws into flux the direction of CNN and its parent company, WarnerMedia, which is expected to be acquired later this year by Discovery Inc. in one of the nation's largest media mergers. In a memo to colleagues that was obtained by The New York Times, Mr. Zucker wrote that his relationship came up during a network investigation into the conduct of Chris Cuomo.... [Mr. Zucker had a relationship with] Allison Gollust..., one of the highest-ranking leaders of the network.... Ms. Gollust said in a statement on Wednesday that she was remaining in her role at CNN." ~~~

     ~~ CNN's report, by Brian Stelter & Oliver Darcy, is here. MB: I don't think Zucker really had to resign. Gollust would have been required to reveal the relationship, too. She didn't, and she's staying. Neither was married & they had worked together for years prior to beginning their relationship, so the so there's no fake "scandal." It all seems perfectly natural to me. Seems to me Zucker is using his failure to report the affair when it began as an excuse to "explore other opportunities."

Katelyn Polantz of CNN: "Retired Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, who served on the National Security Council and emerged as a star witness against ... Donald Trump during the 2019 Ukraine impeachment, is suing Donald Trump Jr., Rudy Giuliani and former Trump White House staffers, alleging they conspired against him. Vindman, in a new lawsuit filed in DC District Court, said Trump's family, his lawyers, right-wing media and others in the White House tried to intimidate and retaliate against him because he was willing to testify against the President, calling out Trump's entreaties of Ukraine for his personal political gain. He bluntly called the efforts to intimidate him obstruction. And the lawsuit, articulating over 73 pages Vindman's saga in Trump's first impeachment, aims to capture the plight whistleblowers face after standing up to a powerful political machine."

Andrew Desiderio of Politico: "Republican senators are unmoved by Tucker Carlson's relentless warpath against support for Ukraine -- even as it widens an existing rift in their party. The Fox News prime time host and others on the far-right have excused and even rationalized Russia's aggression toward Ukraine and downplayed its relevance to U.S. national security. And while GOP senators are shrugging off his name-and-shame campaign, Carlson's views are permeating the GOP base in a way that could undermine Republicans' efforts to emphasize cross-party unity as they seek to deter a Russian invasion of Ukraine."

Dan Lamothe, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Biden is dispatching additional U.S. military personnel to Eastern Europe at the recommendation of the Pentagon, and about 3,000 service members are expected to deploy in the coming days, U.S. officials said Wednesday. The deployments of U.S. troops from Germany and Fort Bragg, N.C., are temporary moves intended to reassure NATO allies, according to two U.S. officials in Washington who spoke on the condition of anonymity ahead of a formal Pentagon announcement. The moves reflect concerns that Russia is preparing to invade Ukraine, and other service members could also be ordered to go and remain on a heightened alert status, the officials said." An AP report is here.

Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "President Biden will unveil a plan on Wednesday to reduce the death rate from cancer by at least 50 percent over the next 25 years -- an ambitious new goal, senior administration officials say, for the cancer 'moonshot' program he initiated and presided over five years ago as vice president. Mr. Biden and his wife, Jill Biden, will also announce a campaign to urge Americans to undergo screenings that were missed during the coronavirus pandemic, according to the officials...."

Groundhog Day News. As previously reported in today's Comments, Amanda Watts of CNN also reports, "Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow Wednesday, meaning that if you believe in a groundhog's ability to predict the weather -- we're in for six more weeks of winter."

~~~~~~~~~~

Isabelle Khurshudyan, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Vladimir Putin hit back publicly against the West on Tuesday, accusing the United States and NATO of using Ukraine to hem in Russia and ignoring Moscow's security concerns.The Russian leader, speaking in Moscow during in a news conference with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, said the Kremlin was studying U.S. and NATO replies to recent Kremlin proposals seeking to check NATO military activity in the region...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) An AP story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Yesterday, the New York Times was liveblogging developments. The front-page headline on the liveblog was kinda perfect: "Putin accuses U.S. of stoking war in Ukraine as Russia masses troops." It's so Trumpian. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Carol Rosenberg of the New York Times: "The Biden administration has pledged to no longer invoke statements made by a prisoner [-- Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, a Saudi man ... accused of plotting Al Qaeda's suicide bombing of the U.S. Navy destroyer Cole --] during his years in C.I.A. custody in his death-penalty proceedings, repudiating an earlier effort to use evidence obtained from torture in a case at Guantánamo Bay.... A 37-page filing submitted Monday night at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said the law governing military commission trials at Guantánamo Bay 'prohibits the admission of statements obtained through torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment at all phases of a military commission.' The filing, however, did not entirely foreclose the possibility that a future U.S. government might choose to ... use evidence obtained through torture. Instead, the Justice Department asked the appeals court to step aside and let military judges at Guantánamo Bay decide the question as it comes up."

Katie Rogers of the New York Times: "Doug Jones, a former Democratic senator from Alabama, will serve as a guide for President Biden's Supreme Court nominee during the Senate confirmation process, two senior administration officials said on Tuesday. Mr. Jones, who left the Senate in 2021 and was on a short list to serve as Mr. Biden's attorney general, will be a so-called Senate sherpa for Mr. Biden's nominee." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Shane Goldmacher of the New York Times: "A series of new remarks by Donald J. Trump about the aftermath of the 2020 election and new disclosures about his actions in trying to forestall its result -- including discussing the use of the national security apparatus to seize voting machines -- have stripped away any pretense that the events of Jan. 6, 2021, were anything but the culmination of the former president's single-minded pursuit of retaining power.... Historians say the episodes have newly underscored the fragility of the nation's democratic systems.... In the year since [Mr. Trump] left office, he has systematically tried to remove those who were obstacles to him in 2020 and its aftermath: seeking to drive out of office the Republicans who voted to impeach him..., recruiting challengers to Republican officials who certified the 2020 vote, and backing new candidates to serve as election administrators and legislators in key states."

Luke Broadwater, et al., of the New York Times: "The House Jan. 6 committee is scrutinizing ... Donald J. Trump's involvement in proposals to seize voting machines after the 2020 election, including efforts to create a legal basis for directing national security agencies to take such an extreme action, according to three people with knowledge of the committee's activities.... The panel for weeks has been studying the actions of Michael T. Flynn, a former national security adviser to Mr. Trump who investigators say was involved in discussions about seizing voting machines, declaring a national emergency and invoking certain national security emergency powers, including during a meeting in the Oval Office on Dec. 18. Mr. Flynn also gave an interview to the right-wing media site Newsmax a day earlier in which he talked about the purported precedent for deploying military troops and declaring martial law to 'rerun' the election." The report goes into some detail about related hairbrained schemes presented by individuals who got into the White House by more-or-less putting a foot between the front door & the jamb. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: It's unclear from this report & a Times report linked yesterday just what the Trumpies planned to do with the purloined voting machines. According to one scenario, Trump would oversee an "audit" of the machines & vote totals, "justified" by the baseless conspiracy theory "that Chinese officials, international shell companies and the financier George Soros had conspired to hack into Dominion's machines in ... a 'globalist/socialist' plot to steal the election."

Josh Dawsey, et al., of the Washington Post: In a new "statement Tuesday, [Donald] Trump took renewed aim at the House select committee examining the Jan. 6 insurrection, saying it was filled with 'political hacks, liars, and traitors.' Trump said a better focus for the committee would be 'why Mike Pence did not send back the votes for recertification or approval, in that it has now been shown that he clearly had the right to do so!'" The Post reporters call this "a more nuanced take" on Trump's recent statement in which he said pence should have overturned the election. MB: I call it attempt to wriggle out of a written confession. (Also linked yesterday.)

Quint Forgey of Politico: "Rep. Pete Aguilar, a member of the House Jan. 6 select committee investigating the Capitol insurrection, on Wednesday said ... Donald Trump 'absolutely' was tampering with the panel's witnesses by discussing potential pardons for defendants charged in relation to the attack. 'I think the question is more for my colleagues on the other side of the aisle. Where are they? Do they support this? When is enough enough?' Aguilar (D-Calif.) said in an interview on CNN.... Trump has repeatedly suggested in recent days that he may pardon the Capitol rioters or other people associated with the insurrection if he wins a second term as president."

Ellis Kim & Rebecca Kaplan of CBS News: "Greg Jacob, who served as then-Vice President Pence's chief counsel, is the latest member of the former vice president's team to speak with the House select committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol.... Jacob spoke to the committee behind closed doors for about eight and a half hours, including lunch and other breaks.... According to The Washington Post, Jacob was with Short and Pence in the Capitol on January 6 as pro-Trump rioters overtook the building and they were forced to evacuate to a safe location within the Capitol complex.... Jacob reportedly clashed with Trump attorney John Eastman over the legal authority of the vice president to overturn the election during Congress' counting of the electoral votes."

Jonathan Karl, et al., of ABC News: "Former White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany turned over text messages to the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, according to a source familiar with the investigation.... McEnany, who was at work in the White House and around ... Donald Trump before and during the Capitol attack, was subpoenaed by the panel for records and testimony in November, and turned over text messages to committee investigators." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Everything Will Be Okay; Susan Collins Is Concerned. Lisa Mascaro & Farnoush Amiri of the AP: "Donald Trump's relentless, false claims about the 2020 presidential election have sparked fresh urgency in Congress -- and in both parties -- for changing the Electoral Count Act to ensure no one can undo a future presidential election. Lawmakers are working furiously to update the 135-year-old law that was put in place in the aftermath of the Civil War and came perilously close to unraveling on Jan. 6, 2021.... Trump continues to insist the vice president 'could have overturned the election' -- a deeply troubling development as the former president considers another White House run. 'President Trump's comments underscored the need for us to revise the Electoral Count Act, because they demonstrated the confusion in the law and the fact that it is ambiguous,' Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, told reporters at the Capitol.... A bipartisan group led by Collins, the rare and frequent Republican Trump critic, has been meeting behind closed doors and hopes to present a draft as soon as this week.... Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday he's open to the effort, as he also rejected the idea Trump floated at a weekend rally of pardoning people who have been criminally charged in the deadly riot at the Capitol."

Chris Cameron & Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "Senator Ben Ray Luján, Democrat of New Mexico, suffered a stroke last week and is expected to make a full recovery, his chief of staff said on Tuesday.... Mr. Luján's office did not say how long he might be out, but with Senate Democrats' fragile 50-50 majority, a prolonged absence from a member who caucuses with Democrats is likely to imperil, or at least delay, Democratic legislation or presidential appointments that come to the Senate floor without Republican support. Several Democrats said on Tuesday that they were relieved that Mr. Luján would recover, but declined to comment on the political implications of Mr. Luján's stroke...." Politico's story is here.

Sinema's "Gusher of Fossil Fuel Donations." Peter Stone of the Guardian: "With a crucial vote pending over filibuster rules that would have made strong voting rights legislation feasible, Democratic senator Kyrsten Sinema flew into Houston, Texas, for a fundraiser that drew dozens of fossil fuel chieftains.... Sinema ... informed a mostly Republican crowd that they could 'rest assured' she would not back any changes with filibuster rules.... The Arizona senator also addressed some energy industry issues according to the executive, who added that overall he was 'tremendously impressed'.... The Houston gusher of fossil fuel donations for Sinema from many stalwart Republican donors underscores how pivotal she has become...." (Also linked yesterday.)

Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "America's gross national debt topped $30 trillion for the first time on Tuesday, an ominous fiscal milestone that underscores the fragile nature of the country's long-term economic health as it grapples with soaring prices and the prospect of higher interest rates. The breach of that threshold, which was revealed in new Treasury Department figures, arrived years earlier than previously projected as a result of trillions in federal spending that the United States has deployed to combat the pandemic. That $5 trillion, which funded expanded jobless benefits, financial support for small businesses and stimulus payments, was financed with borrowed money."

Craig Timberg of the Washington Post: "The surveillance company NSO Group offered to give representatives of an American mobile-security firm [Mobileum] 'bags of cash' in exchange for access to global cellular networks, according to a whistleblower who has described the encounter in confidential disclosures to the Justice Department that have been reviewed by The Washington Post.... In a statement, NSO said that it had 'never done any business with' Mobileum, and that it 'does not do business using cash as a form of payment' and is not 'aware of any DOJ investigation.'... [According to whistleblower & former Mobileum VP Gary Miller, in a 2017 conference call, NSO] officials made clear ... that they wanted access to SS7 so NSO's clients could conduct surveillance of cellphone users to investigate crimes.... When one of Mobileum's representatives pointed out that security companies do not ordinarily offer services to surveillance companies and asked how such an arrangement would work, NSO co-founder Omri Lavie allegedly said, 'We drop bags of cash at your office.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: NSO's denial is a non-denial. If representatives of two companies meet & don't strike a deal, then it's fair to say they have "not done business with each other." There's no reason to think the remark about "dropping bags of cash" was intended to be taken literally; rather, it was likely a metaphor for some other means of illicit payoff, so stating the company doesn't "use cash as a form of payment" is meaningless. As for being "unaware of a DOJ investigation," the DOJ doesn't usually give a heads-up to a target early on.

This Doesn't Look Good. Cate Cadell of the Washington Post: "Chinese drone maker DJI, a leading supplier of drones to U.S. law enforcement, obscured its Chinese government funding while claiming that Beijing had not invested in the firm, according to a Washington Post review of company reports and articles posted on the sites of state-owned and -controlled investors, as well as analysis by IPVM, a video surveillance research group.... Brendan Carr, the senior Republican on the Federal Communications Commission, which authorizes DJI's equipment for use on U.S. communications networks, labeled reports of the links as 'deeply concerning' in an interview. The FCC proposed changes last year that could severely limit access to U.S. markets for companies deemed a national security risk. Scrutiny of DJI comes as the company is already facing action by U.S. regulators over its ties to Beijing's security apparatus." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Tom Krisher of the AP: "Tesla is recalling nearly 54,000 cars and SUVs because their 'Full Self-Driving' software lets them roll through stop signs without coming to a complete halt. Recall documents posted Tuesday by U.S. safety regulators say that Tesla will disable the feature with an over-the-internet software update. The 'rolling stop' feature allows vehicles to go through intersections with all-way stop signs at up to 5.6 miles (9 kilometers) per hour. The recall shows that Tesla programmed its vehicles to violate the law in most states, where police will ticket drivers for disregarding stop signs." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Perfectly understandable. Teslas are manufactured in California. Making a rolling stop is so common in California, it's called a "California stop." Seriously, breaking safety laws is apparently what Tesla engineers do for fun. From the AP report: "Jonathan Adkins, executive director of the governors safety association, said he's not surprised that Tesla programmed vehicles to violate state laws. 'They keep pushing the bounds of safety to see what they can get away with, and they've really been pushing a lot,' he said."

Alisha Ebrahimji, et al., of CNN: "A growing number of historically Black colleges and universities have had to lock down or postpone classes due to bomb threats on the first day of Black History Month. At least 14 HBCUs reported bomb threats Tuesday. At least one of them, Howard University, also received a bomb threat Monday."

Jennifer Hassan of the Washington Post: "Whoopi Goldberg has been suspended from ABC's talk show 'The View' for two weeks after claiming on the show that the Holocaust was 'not about race' but rather 'about man's inhumanity to man' -- comments that sparked widespread outrage from viewers and members of the Jewish community.... 'Racism was central to Nazi ideology,' the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum tweeted Monday. 'Jews were not defined by religion, but by race. Nazi racist beliefs fueled genocide and mass murder.'... Late Monday, Goldberg apologized.... There is some debate over how to best define Judaism and Jewishness today. The Anne Frank House has previously written: 'Jews are not a race, and categorizing people according to race is wrong and dangerous. Even so, some people still believe in the concept. If it is the basis for their hatred of Jews, it is undoubtedly racist.'" A Hollywood Reporter story is here.

Ken Belson of the New York Times: "Nearly two years after dropping its longtime name and logo under pressure, the Washington Football Team announced it would rebrand as the Commanders, in a nod to the region's links to the armed forces. The name [was] announced on NBC's 'Today' show on Wednesday.... The team for years faced calls from fans, sponsors and Native American groups to drop the previous franchise name, which had long been considered a racial slur of Native Americans.... But in July 2020, following the murder of George Floyd by the police, and a national debate that followed over the treatment of nonwhite people, [team owner Daniel] Snyder relented and discarded the name 'Redskins,' which had stood for 87 years." The Washington Post is liveblogging this earth-shaking news.

The Pandemic, Ctd., Brought to You by Republicans

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Wednesday are here. The Washington Post's live Covid-19 updates for Wednesday are here.

Benjamin Mueller & Eleanor Lutz of the New York Times: "Two years into the pandemic, the coronavirus is killing Americans at far higher rates than people in other wealthy nations.... Deaths have now surpassed the worst days of the autumn surge of the Delta variant, and are more than two-thirds as high as the record tolls of last winter, when vaccines were largely unavailable.... Despite having one of the world's most powerful arsenals of vaccines, the country has failed to vaccinate as many people as other large, wealthy nations. Crucially, vaccination rates in older people also lag behind certain European nations. The United States has fallen even further behind in administering booster shots, leaving large numbers of vulnerable people with fading protection as Omicron sweeps across the country." ~~~

~~~ Adam Taylor of the Washington Post: "A new study of pandemic preparedness across 177 countries and territories appears to have found a key element ... [to] success: trust.... Better outcomes appear to have gone hand in hand with high levels of trust in government and other citizens. Perception of government corruption was correlated with worse outcomes.... Multiple polls have shown that the United States has relatively low levels of trust in government compared with other high-income countries and high levels of political polarization."

Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times: "Lloyd J. Austin III, the defense secretary, has written a letter to seven Republican governors, rejecting their requests for exemptions from coronavirus vaccination mandates for their states' National Guard troops. The rejection -- sent to the governors of Alaska, Oklahoma, Texas, Idaho, Mississippi, Nebraska and Wyoming, who have all sought to allow their guard troops to refuse the vaccine without consequences -- sets the stage for a potential legal battle.... Federal officials have long said that governors have no legal standing to allow Guard members to refuse to comply with the military's vaccine mandate. State officials and some legal experts, however, believe that unless National Guard members are federally deployed, they are under the jurisdiction of the governor of their state and therefore not subject to federal mandates." (Also linked yesterday.)

Beyond the Beltway

Michigan. John Wagner of the Washington Post: "Republican candidates for governor and the state Senate in Michigan are drawing scrutiny for suggesting that poll workers unplug voting machines if they suspect fraud and that people should 'show up armed' to protect GOP election observers' access to ballot counting. The comments by Ryan D. Kelley, a gubernatorial candidate, and Mike Detmer, a state Senate candidate, were made at an event over the weekend in Livingston County, Mich., and captured on video that has since circulated widely on social media.... Detmer ... was asked what could be done to 'protect' Republican election observers at the venue in Detroit where absentee ballots were counted after the 2020 presidential election. 'The ideal thing is to do this peacefully,' Detmer said. '... But the American people, at some point in time, if we can't change the tide, which I believe we can, we need to be prepared to lock and load... You asked what can we do. Show up armed.'... [In a text exchange with the Detroit News Monday, Detmer wrote,] 'That's what the 2nd Amendment is for.... Worst case ... lock and load.'... Their comments also came swiftly to the attention of Michigan's top election official, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, and Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, both Democrats. Benson on Monday referred both men's comments to Nessel's office." The Detroit News story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: What these mainstream Republicans are saying is that Black people (i.e., Detroit residents & officials) cheat and/or their votes are inherently invalid, so good (white) Republicans may have to resort to deadly violence & election tampering to get a fair(-complexioned) election outcome. Oh, did I mention, Donald Trump endorsed Detmer.

Ohio. Reid Wilson of the Hill: "Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose (R) has referred just 27 potential instances of illegal votes cast in the 2020 presidential election to state and local prosecutors for investigation, an indication of what he called a secure election two years ago.... More than 5.9 million registered voters cast ballots in the 2020 elections in Ohio, setting the rate of potential fraud -- assuming all of the 27 cases are in fact fraud -- at just 0.0005 percent. 'Our state is proof positive you don't have to choose between secure or convenient elections -- we have both,' LaRose said. 'In Ohio, easy to vote and hard to cheat aren't mutually exclusive....'... LaRose has been among the Republicans who defended the integrity of the 2020 elections even in the face of former President Trump's repeated efforts to distract from his own loss with a series of disproven conspiracy theories and outright lies."

Texas. Mike Hixenbaugh of NBC News: "... books ... have been vanishing from the shelves of Katy Independent School District [Houston area] libraries the past few months ... -- all coming-of-age stories that prominently feature LGBTQ characters and passages about sex. Some titles were removed after parents formally complained, but others were quietly banned by the district without official reviews.... Hundreds of titles have been pulled from libraries across the state for review, sometimes over the objections of school librarians, several of whom told NBC News they face increasingly hostile work environments and mounting pressure to pre-emptively pull books that might draw complaints." Among the books parents have asked to be removed are biographies of Michelle Obama & Olympian Wilma Rudolph because they referred to racism. One parent suggested books about racism be replaced by copies of the Christian Bible. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Most public libraries carry newspapers & news magazines & provide access to archived editions. Soon enough, it will dawn on "concerned citizens" that MSM outlets like the New Yawk Times are chock-full of stories that cause "discomfort." I predict demands to ban MSM newspapers & magazines will be next.

Virginia. Yacob Reyes of Axios: "A Virginia state Senate panel voted 9-6 along party lines Tuesday to block former Trump EPA head Andrew Wheeler from joining Gov. Glenn Youngkin's Cabinet as secretary of natural resources.... The majority-Democratic Privileges and Elections Committee voted to remove Wheeler's name from a resolution to approve Youngkin's cabinet picks. But Republicans could still approve Wheeler's nomination with the support of at least one Democrat in the full Senate.... At least one Democrat, state Sen. Joe Morrissey, told Courthouse News he would be open to voting in favor of Wheeler."

Virginia, et al. Dana Milbank of the Washington Post cites excerpts from a textbook "Virginia: History, Government, Geography" by Francis Butler Simkins which Milbank sees as a good candidate for "Glenn Youngkin's No-Guilt History of Virginia for Fragile White People." The views presented in the book are something to behold: "A feeling of strong affection existed between masters and slaves in a majority of Virginia homes.... Most [Negroes] were treated with kindness.... The tasks of each [house slave] were light.... Those Negroes who went to Liberia .. were homesick. Many longed to get back to the plantations.... Life among the Negroes of Virginia in slavery times was generally happy." If you have a WashPo subscription, read the whole column. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Having grown up in the South, I vaguely remember hearing or reading similar accounts of lucky-ducky slaves. Since this is not what I would have heard at home, I must have heard or read it in school.

February 1, 2022

Afternoon Update:

Isabelle Khurshudyan, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Vladimir Putin hit back publicly against the West on Tuesday, accusing the United States and NATO of using Ukraine to hem in Russia and ignoring Moscow's security concerns. The Russian leader, speaking in Moscow during in a news conference with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, said the Kremlin was studying U.S. and NATO replies to recent Kremlin proposals seeking to check NATO military activity in the region...." ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times is liveblogging developments. The front-page headline on the liveblog is kinda perfect: "Putin accuses U.S. of stoking war in Ukraine as Russia masses troops." It's so Trumpian.

Katie Rogers of the New York Times: "Doug Jones, a former Democratic senator from Alabama, will serve as a guide for President Biden's Supreme Court nominee during the Senate confirmation process, two senior administration officials said on Tuesday. Mr. Jones, who left the Senate in 2021 and was on a short list to serve as Mr. Biden's attorney general, will be a so-called Senate sherpa for Mr. Biden's nominee."

Jonathan Karl, et al., of ABC News: "Former White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany turned over text messages to the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, according to a source familiar with the investigation.... McEnany, who was at work in the White House and around ... Donald Trump before and during the Capitol attack, was subpoenaed by the panel for records and testimony in November, and turned over text messages to committee investigators."

Josh Dawsey, et al., of the Washington Post: In a new “statement Tuesday, [Donald] Trump took renewed aim at the House select committee examining the Jan. 6 insurrection, saying it was filled with 'political hacks, liars, and traitors.' Trump said a better focus for the committee would be 'why Mike Pence did not send back the votes for recertification or approval, in that it has now been shown that he clearly had the right to do so!'" The Post reporters call this "a more nuanced take" on Trump's recent statement in which he said pence should have overturned the election. MB: I call it attempt to wriggle out of a written confession.

Sinema's "Gusher of Fossil Fuel Donations." Peter Stone of the Guardian: "With a crucial vote pending over filibuster rules that would have made strong voting rights legislation feasible, Democratic senator Kyrsten Sinema flew into Houston, Texas, for a fundraiser that drew dozens of fossil fuel chieftains.... Sinema ... informed a mostly Republican crowd that they could 'rest assured' she would not back any changes with filibuster rules.... The Arizona senator also addressed some energy industry issues according to the executive, who added that overall he was 'tremendously impressed'.... The Houston gusher of fossil fuel donations for Sinema from many stalwart Republican donors underscores how pivotal she has become...."

This Doesn't Look Good. Cate Cadell of the Washington Post: "Chinese drone maker DJI, a leading supplier of drones to U.S. law enforcement, obscured its Chinese government funding while claiming that Beijing had not invested in the firm, according to a Washington Post review of company reports and articles posted on the sites of state-owned and -controlled investors, as well as analysis by IPVM, a video surveillance research group.... Brendan Carr, the senior Republican on the Federal Communications Commission, which authorizes DJI's equipment for use on U.S. communications networks, labeled reports of the links as 'deeply concerning' in an interview. The FCC proposed changes last year that could severely limit access to U.S. markets for companies deemed a national security risk. Scrutiny of DJI comes as the company is already facing action by U.S. regulators over its ties to Beijing's security apparatus."

Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times: "Lloyd J. Austin III, the defense secretary, has written a letter to seven Republican governors, rejecting their requests for exemptions from coronavirus vaccination mandates for their states' National Guard troops. The rejection -- sent to the governors of Alaska, Oklahoma, Texas, Idaho, Mississippi, Nebraska and Wyoming, who have all sought to allow their guard troops to refuse the vaccine without consequences -- sets the stage for a potential legal battle.... Federal officials have long said that governors have no legal standing to allow Guard members to refuse to comply with the military's vaccine mandate. State officials and some legal experts, however, believe that unless National Guard members are federally deployed, they are under the jurisdiction of the governor of their state and therefore not subject to federal mandates."

Tom Krisher of the AP: "Tesla is recalling nearly 54,000 cars and SUVs because their 'Full Self-Driving' software lets them roll through stop signs without coming to a complete halt. Recall documents posted Tuesday by U.S. safety regulators say that Tesla will disable the feature with an over-the-internet software update. The 'rolling stop' feature allows vehicles to go through intersections with all-way stop signs at up to 5.6 miles (9 kilometers) per hour. The recall shows that Tesla programmed its vehicles to violate the law in most states, where police will ticket drivers for disregarding stop signs." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Perfectly understandable. Teslas are manufactured in California. Making a rolling stop is so common in California, it's called a "California stop." Seriously, breaking safety laws is apparently what Tesla engineers do for fun. From the AP report: "Jonathan Adkins, executive director of the governors safety association, said he's not surprised that Tesla programmed vehicles to violate state laws. 'They keep pushing the bounds of safety to see what they can get away with, and they've really been pushing a lot,' he said."

~~~~~~~~~~

The New York Times is running a liveblog on the Russia/Ukraine crisis. ~~~

~~~ Rachel Pannett of the Washington Post: "Secretary of State Antony Blinken will speak with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday in a bid to defuse tensions over the Ukraine crisis, just hours after U.S. and Russian diplomats squared off at the United Nations in one of the most confrontational international meetings in years.... Leaders from Britain, France, the Netherlands, Poland, Turkey and Canada are currently in Ukraine or planning to visit in the coming days. 'We continue to engage in nonstop diplomacy and to de-escalate tensions and attempt like the devil to improve security for our allies and partners and for all of Europe, for that matter,' President Biden told reporters Monday." ~~~

~~~ John Hudson & Ashley Parker of the Washington Post: "The Russian government has delivered a written response to a U.S. proposal aimed at de-escalating the Ukraine crisis, said a U.S. official.... The delivery of the response comes as the Biden administration continues a delicate dance that seeks to keep Russia at the diplomatic table without conceding to any of its core demands.... The official declined to provide details about the proposal, delivered ahead of a phone call between Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday." A CBS News story is here. ~~~

~~~ Rick Gladstone & Maria Varenikova of the New York Times: "The United States and Russia bitterly attacked each other over the Ukraine crisis in a diplomatic brawl Monday at the U.N. Security Council, in a session replete with acidic exchanges that could have been lifted from the Cold War era. The Americans, backed by their Western allies, accused Russia of endangering peace and destabilizing global security by massing more than 100,000 troops on Ukraine's borders, while Kremlin diplomats dismissed what they called baseless and hysterical U.S. fear-mongering aimed at weakening Russia and provoking armed conflict." ~~~

     ~~~ Robyn Dixon, et al., of the Washington Post: "Russia angrily denounced the United States Monday for 'whipping up hysteria' over Ukraine, saying it had brought 'pure Nazis' to power on Russia's border and wanted to make 'heroes out of those peoples who fought on the side of Hitler.' In a blistering attack at a meeting of the United Nations Security Council, Russian Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya said the United States itself was 'provoking escalation' of the situation by falsely charging Moscow with preparing to invade Ukraine.... With the support of only China, the Russians forced a vote at the beginning of the U.S.-called meeting on whether to hold the session behind closed doors.... But the majority of the 15-member council voted to proceed with the public session...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Scrap Your Plans for a Belarus Vacay. Jennifer Hansler of CNN: "The US State Department on Monday ordered family members of employees at the US Embassy in Belarus to depart the country and warned American citizens against travel there due to an 'unusual and concerning Russian military buildup' along Belarus' border with Ukraine." Here's the State Department's advisory.

David Sanger, et al., of the New York Times: "The United States and its European allies appear on the cusp of restoring the deal that limited Iran's nuclear program, Biden administration officials said on Monday, but cautioned that it is now up to the new government in Tehran to decide whether, after months of negotiations, it is willing to dismantle much of its nuclear production equipment in return for sanctions relief. Speaking to reporters in Washington, a senior State Department official signaled that negotiations had reached a point where political leaders needed to decide whether they would agree to key elements of an accord that would essentially return to the 2015 deal that ... Donald J. Trump discarded four years ago, over the objections of many of his key advisers." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The history of 21st-century America is of Democratic presidents coming into office with the tremendous burden of undoing the messes created by their Republican predecessors.

Nick Miroff of the Washington Post: "Venezuelans taken into custody along the U.S. southern border will be sent to Colombia under a new attempt by the Biden administration to contend with spiking numbers of migrants arriving from nations around the world. Venezuelans have crossed into the United States in recent months in record numbers, typically after flying to a Mexican border city and walking across to surrender to American authorities. U.S. Customs and Border Protection stopped 24,819 Venezuelans in December, up from 206 a year earlier. The Department of Homeland Security said Monday that it will begin returning Venezuelans to Colombia if they had previously resettled in that country, expelling them from the United States under the pandemic-era health authority known as Title 42. The emergency provision allows authorities to bypass immigration proceedings without affording asylum seekers a chance to seek protection under U.S. law."

** Trump Planned the Coup. Alan Feuer, et al., of the New York Times: "... new accounts show that [Donald] Trump was more directly involved than previously known in exploring proposals to use his national security agencies to seize voting machines as he grasped unsuccessfully for evidence of fraud that would help him reverse his defeat in the 2020 election, according to people familiar with the episodes.... Six weeks after Election Day..., directed his lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, to ... ask the Department of Homeland Security if it could legally take control of voting machines in key swing states, three people familiar with the matter said. Mr. Giuliani did so, calling the department's acting deputy secretary [Kenneth Cuccinelli], who said he lacked the authority to audit or impound the machines. Mr. Trump pressed Mr. Giuliani to make that inquiry after rejecting a separate effort by his outside advisers to have the Pentagon take control of the machines. And the outreach to the Department of Homeland Security came not long after Mr. Trump, in an Oval Office meeting with Attorney General William P. Barr, raised the possibility of whether the Justice Department could seize the machines, a previously undisclosed suggestion that Mr. Barr immediately shot down...." ~~~

~~~ "Even Mr. Giuliani, who had spent weeks peddling some of the most outrageous claims about election fraud, felt that the idea of bringing in the military was beyond the pale. After Mr. Flynn and Ms. Powell left the Oval Office, according to a person familiar with the matter, Mr. Giuliani predicted that the plans they were proposing were going to get Mr. Trump impeached." MB: Now how often will you read a story where Rudy Giuliani & Ken Cuccinelli are the voices of reason? Such an occasion apparently requires as a predicate an idea dreamed up or promoted by Michael Flynn.

     ~~~ Zachary Cohen & Paul Reid of CNN: "... Donald Trump's advisers drafted two versions of an executive order to seize voting machines -- one directing the Department of Defense to do so and another the Department of Homeland Security -- as part of a broader effort to undermine the 2020 election results, multiple sources tell CNN. The idea of using the federal government to access voting machines in states that Trump lost was the brainchild of retired Col. Phil Waldron and retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, Trump's former national security adviser, the sources said.... It's unclear who drafted the executive orders, and neither was issued." ~~~

~~~ Then Trump Tore up Records of the Coup. Jacqueline Alemany, et al., of the Washington Post: "When the National Archives and Records Administration handed over a trove of documents to the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection, some of the Trump White House records had been ripped up and then taped back together, according to three people familiar with the records.... Donald Trump was known inside the White House for his unusual and potentially unlawful habit of tearing presidential records into shreds and tossing them on the floor -- creating a headache for records management analysts who meticulously used Scotch tape to piece together fragments of paper that were sometimes as small as confetti, as Politico reported in 2018..., despite the Presidential Records Act -- which requires the preservation of memos, letters, notes, emails, faxes and other written communications related to a president's official duties.... The National Archives on Monday took the unusual step of confirming the habit, saying in a statement that records turned over from the Trump White House 'included paper records that had been torn up by former President Trump.'" A CNN story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Finally, as we know, Trump claimed executive privilege to try to keep the records from being turned over to the January 6 committee. Trump's suit was unsuccessful, of course, no thanks to Clarence Thomas. ~~~

~~~ My Wife Made Me Do It. Michael Kranish of the Washington Post: "Ginni Thomas's name stood out among the signatories of a December letter from conservative leaders, which blasted the work of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection as 'overtly partisan political persecution.' One month later, her husband, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, took part in a case crucial to the same committee's work: ... Donald Trump's request to block the committee from getting White House records that were ordered released by President Biden and two lower courts. Thomas was the only justice to say he would grant Trump's request. That vote has reignited fury among Clarence Thomas's critics, who say it illustrates a gaping hole in the court's rules: Justices essentially decide for themselves whether they have a conflict of interest, and Thomas has rarely made such a choice in his three decades on the court.... Thomas has never bowed out of a case due to alleged conflicts with his wife's activism, according to [Gabe] Roth [of Fix the Court]."

Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "Marc Short, who served as chief of staff to former Vice President Mike Pence, testified privately last week before the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, the latest turn in weeks of negotiations between the panel's investigators and Mr. Pence's team. Mr. Short appeared in response to a subpoena from the committee, according to three people with knowledge of the developments, making him the most senior person around Mr. Pence who is known to have cooperated in the inquiry.... Mr. Short was with Mr. Pence on Jan. 6 as a mob of Mr. Trump's supporters attacked the Capitol, and has firsthand knowledge of the effort by Mr. Trump and his allies to try to persuade the former vice president to throw out legitimate electoral votes for Joseph R. Biden Jr. in favor of fake slates of pro-Trump electors." CNN's story, by Jamie Gangel & others, is here. CNN apparently broke the story.

Josh Gerstein & Kyle Cheney of Politico: "The House of Representatives' top lawyer accused John Eastman, a key legal adviser to ... Donald Trump, of dragging out his response to a House subpoena and frustrating a House panel's efforts to investigate Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election results. During a hearing before a federal judge overseeing a lawsuit Eastman brought to prevent his former employer, Chapman University, from turning over more than 94,000 pages of emails to the House panel, House General Counsel Douglas Letter said Eastman was seeking to 'defeat' the subpoena by reviewing the earliest subpoenaed records first rather than those from around the time of the Electoral College showdown in Congress on Jan. 6, 2021.... The House has asked Eastman to prioritize emails from between Jan. 4 and Jan 7, 2021.... [But] 'The subpoena did not specify a prioritization order,' [Judge David] Carter said."

Dylan Stableford of Yahoo! News: "The Georgia prosecutor looking into ... Donald Trump's attempts to overturn the 2020 election results is asking the FBI for protection after Trump called for protests of the 'racist prosecutors' investigating him. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis sent a letter to the FBI's Atlanta field office on Sunday requesting that the bureau conduct a risk assessment of the county courthouse and government center, as well as provide protective resources, including 'intelligence and federal agents' as her office ramps up its own investigation of the former president."(Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Tim Miller in the Bulwark: "... Sen. Susan Collins (R-Concerned) was asked on ABC's This Week whether she would support Donald Trump if he ran in 2024. She demurred, leaving the door open to the possibility of having faith in a Trump resurrection, while providing some perfunctory lip service to the notion that there were other people she might prefer, but whom she -- of course -- did not name. She was rewarded a few hours later with the former president attacking her for not having given his coup attempt a full-throated endorsement.... If someone as politically safe as Collins won&'t stick her neck out, what hope is there that a meaningful group of others will find the mettle not just to privately hope for an alternative but to wage a vigorous, scorched-earth campaign on behalf of the alternative?" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) MB: Hey, Susan, let's ask Liz Cheney, who has been studying Trump's behavior, what she thinks about a Trump resurrection. ~~~

~~~ Dylan Stableford of Yahoo! News: "Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., on Monday warned that ... Donald Trump's suggestion at a weekend rally that he might pardon those who have been convicted of crimes related to the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol shows he would 'do it all again.' 'Trump uses language he knows caused the Jan 6 violence; suggests he'd pardon the Jan 6 defendants, some of whom have been charged with seditious conspiracy; threatens prosecutors; and admits he was attempting to overturn the election,' Cheney tweeted. 'He'd do it all again if given the chance.'"

Tom Boggioni of the Raw Story: "Calling Donald Trump's promise to pardon Capitol rioters at a Texas rally 'worse than Watergate,' conservative Matt Lewis warned that the former president is dangerously close to opening the door to a wave of violence if his supporters believe he will have their back should they be arrested. In his column for the Daily Beast, the Republican Lewis lamented the grip that the former president has on party members who, unlike Republicans under Richard Nixon, have not turned their back on him.... You can read more here -- subscription required."

Afterthoughts. Marie: One thing we learned from Trump's admission that he wanted mike pence to "overturn the election" is that Trump did know he lost. To "overturn an election" means to upend the true results, not to correct miscounts. On CNN, Jeff Toobin pointed out that Trump's vow to pardon January 6 insurrectionists if he were re-elected was two-fold; it wasn't only to encourage new coups but also to influence the behavior of those charged in the January 6 attempt. Just as Trump sent out signals to his 2016 co-conspirators that he would pardon them if they didn't cooperate with Robert Mueller's investigation -- and then did pardon them -- he was signaling this weekend that he would pardon those who refused to cooperate with January 6 participants.

Whitney Wild, et al., of CNN: "Then-Vice President-elect Kamala Harris drove within several yards of a pipe bomb lying next to a bench outside the Democratic National Committee headquarters on January 6, 2021, and remained inside the DNC for nearly two hours before the bomb was discovered, according to multiple law enforcement officials familiar with the situation. Details about Harris' proximity to the pipe bomb and the extended period she remained inside the DNC have not been previously reported. The revelations further expose a security lapse on January 6 as law enforcement tried to respond to multiple major events, protect highly visible politicians, and fend off tens of thousands of riotous protesters that had flooded into Washington and attacked the US Capitol." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

How Will I Get a Pardon Now? Rebecca O'Brien of the New York Times: "Thomas J. Barrack Jr., a real-estate investor and close friend of ... Donald J. Trump, asked a federal judge to dismiss the foreign lobbying and obstruction of justice charges against him on Monday, contending that the Justice Department delayed prosecuting him until after Mr. Trump left office. The argument, laid out in a court filing, marks Mr. Barrack's first substantive response to an indictment unsealed last July in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, which accused him of using his access to Mr. Trump to advance the foreign policy aims of the United Arab Emirates and then misleading federal agents about his activities.... In his final days in office, Mr. Trump issued executive pardons and commutations to dozens of people, including supporters and former aides facing federal indictments and serving sentences for convicted crimes."

Congressional Races. Michael Scherer & Isaac Stanley-Becker of the Washington Post: "Major Republican organizations focused on winning back control of the House and the Senate ended last year with significantly more money than their Democratic counterparts, a reversal of past fortunes that suggests shifting momentum ahead of the midterm elections. The new fundraising totals, revealed Monday in filings to the Federal Election Commission, showed both parties holding record amounts for the off-year of the congressional cycle. But the growth in the Republican cash hoard compared with the 2020 and 2018 cycles outstripped Democratic gains, as GOP donors, particularly those who give seven- and eight-figure checks, leaned into the effort to take back control of the House and the Senate this fall." ~~~

~~~ Brittany Gibson of Politico: "Former President George W. Bush contributed to Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Sen. Lisa Murkowski's (R-Alaska) reelection campaigns at the end of 2021, according to campaign finance reports filed Monday, backing up two of the most prominent Republicans who supported impeaching Donald Trump a year ago. Bush donated a maximum individual contribution of $5,800 to Cheney last October.... The 43rd president also threw in $2,900 -- the maximum allowable primary donation -- for Murkowski's reelection efforts.... Trump has endorsed Republican challengers seeking to unseat Cheney, Murkowski and others as retribution after they voted to remove him from office and said he incited the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot." ~~~

~~~ Brian Schwartz of CNBC: "Sen. Kyrsten Sinema's campaign raised over $1.5 million toward the end of 2021 as she opposed key elements of her own party's agenda, according to new Federal Election Commission records.... Sinema's donors in the fourth quarter included wealthy investors who had supported ... Donald Trump.... Sinema also picked up donations from major corporations and business groups including from The Carlyle Group, Gilead Sciences, Microsoft, Cigna and the American Petroleum Institute.... [Sen. Joe] Manchin has also received a wave of support from wealthy financiers and corporations.... Like Sinema, Manchin is not up for reelection until 2024."

Neil Vigdor of the New York Times: "Georgetown University's law school placed a newly hired administrator on leave on Monday after he said on Twitter that President Biden would nominate not 'the objectively best pick' but a 'lesser Black woman' to be the next Supreme Court justice. The decision came one day before the scholar, Ilya Shapiro, a prominent libertarian, had been scheduled to assume his role as a senior lecturer and the executive director of the Georgetown Center for the Constitution, which is part of the law school. Mr. Shapiro, a constitutional law expert at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, drew a sharp rebuke from students, faculty members and alumni with his comments about the search process for the next justice. The posts have since been deleted."

The Pandemic, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Tuesday are here. The Washington Post's live Covid-19 updates are here.

Laurie McGinley, et al., of the Washington Post: "Coronavirus vaccines for children younger than 5 could be available far sooner than expected -- perhaps by the end of February -- under a plan that would lead to the potential authorization of a two-shot regimen in the coming weeks, people briefed on the situation said Monday. Pfizer and its partner, BioNTech, the manufacturers of the vaccine, are expected to submit to the Food and Drug Administration as early as Tuesday a request for emergency-use authorization for the vaccine for children 6 months to 5 years old, which would make it the first vaccine available for that age group. Older children already can receive the shot. The FDA urged the companies to submit the application so that regulators could begin reviewing the two-shot data...."

Stacy Cowley of the New York Times: "One new analysis [of the efficacy of the Paycheck Protection Program, an $800 billion pandemic relief effort,] found that only about a quarter of the money spent by the program paid wages that would have otherwise been lost, partly because the government steadily loosened the rules for how businesses could use the money as the pandemic dragged on. And because many businesses remained healthy enough to survive without the program, another analysis found, the looser rules meant the Paycheck Protection Program ended up subsidizing business owners more than their workers.... David Autor, [an MIT economics professor who led a 10-member team who studied the program, said,] "... it turns out [they money] didn't primarily go to workers who would have lost jobs. It went to business owners and their shareholders and their creditors.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Plus ça change.... This report goes to show a couple of things: (1) Congress either doesn't know how to write laws that have the intended effect, or here again it intended to mislead the public by applying a name that implied one thing to help ordinary Americans while doing something different; and (2) on a grand scale, even small, struggling entrepreneurs have the same propensity as large, grasping corporations to bilk the government. It's fine for Neil Young & Joni Mitchell & all to boycott Spotify because its owners are morally corrupt & irresponsible -- I'm all for it. But if we tried to boycott every business whose owners are morally corrupt & irresponsible, we'd have go out in the woods & become completely self-sufficient, because there isn't much we could buy.

Jessica Bursztynsky of CNBC: "Podcaster Joe Rogan has apologized to Spotify, while also addressing the controversy around his podcast." MB: He didn't apologize to the dopes he duped by presenting Covid disinformation. But then some of them are dead. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Beyond the Beltway

Florida. Richard Luscombe of the Guardian: "A slew of bills has advanced [through the GOP-led Florida legislature] attacking everything from diversity rights, abortion protections and free speech in schools, in addition to a proposal that would legally shield white people from feeling 'discomfort' over the state's racist past. And last Wednesday, an anti-masker physician, hand picked by the governor [-- Ron DeSantis (R) --] and apathetic about the value of Covid-19 vaccines, was backed unanimously by a Republican senate panel as the next surgeon-general following a walk-out by Democratic politicians frustrated by Joseph Ladapo's evasiveness. To hear DeSantis tell it, the 'freedom state' of Florida is merely following the will of a populist citizenry.... Yet ... more of the state's 21 million people, which elected him in 2018 by barely 32,000 votes, appears displeased at the creeping authoritarianism.... Brandon Wolf [of Equality Florida] ... [says,] '... the thing that connects [these bills] is the concerted attempt by Governor Ron DeSantis and his allies to push themselves to the right of Donald Trump and set DeSantis up to run for president in 2024. 'In Florida you are free, but only free to do and say as you are told.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Florida. Miami Herald Editorial Board: After neo-Nazi demonstrators held a rally on an Orlando overpass where they unfurled a Nazi flag, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) held a press conference Monday. But instead of condemning the demonstrators, DeSantis "attacked Democrats..., dragg[ing] in issues like immigration and inflation and crime. Accus[ing] unnamed people -- Democrats, of course -- of trying to 'smear' him.... His remarks came after his press secretary, Christina Pushaw, sent a now-deleted tweet Sunday night questioning whether the Orlando demonstrations were orchestrated by Democratic staffers. Her comment drew widespread condemnation. She followed with a tweet admitting she didn't know who had staged the protest and said hate speech is wrong."

Georgia. Richard Fausset of the New York Times: "A federal judge on Monday rejected plea agreements with the Justice Department for two of the three white men facing hate crime charges in the killing of Ahmaud Arbery after his family expressed fierce opposition to the deal.... The decision by Judge Lisa Godbey Wood of U.S. District Court to reject identical plea deals hammered out between the Justice Department and the two men, Travis McMichael, 36, and his father, Gregory McMichael, 66, means that the McMichaels could now see their federal case go before a jury as early as next week."

New York. Grace Ashford of the New York Times: "The last of five criminal investigations into allegations of sexual misconduct against former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo ended on Monday with the Oswego County district attorney joining his peers in concluding that there were insufficient legal grounds to bring criminal charges."

Way Beyond

U.K. Esther Webber & Matt Honeycombe-Foster of Politico: "An update from the official inquiry into claims of lockdown-busting parties in Boris Johnson's administration has found 'a serious failure' to observe the standards expected in government. Sue Gray, a senior civil servant, was asked to look into a series of allegations that social gatherings were held in No. 10 Downing Street in breach of COVID-19 rules. In her 12-page update -- truncated while the Metropolitan Police separately investigates some of the allegations -- Gray found there was 'too little thought given to what was happening across the country' when considering whether some of the events should have gone ahead. Johnson told his restive Conservative MPs Monday he was 'sorry' -- and vowed to learn lessons." Johnson refused to resign and instead "announced the creation of an 'office of the prime minister' and promised other improvements to the way No. 10 and the Cabinet Office are run." MB: IOW, add a layer of bureaucracy. That should help. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Rowena Mason of the Guardian has more on Boris's Very Bad Hair Day. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

I'm sorry for the parties during Covid.
I'm sorry that I couldn't find my mask.
But more than anything else,
I'm sorry for myself,
'Cause you're taking me to task.

     ~~~ Mark Landler & Stephen Castle of the New York Times: "A long-awaited report on parties in Downing Street during the pandemic dealt Prime Minister Boris Johnson a stinging blow on Monday, condemning him for failed leadership and painting a damning picture of 'excessive' workplace drinking in the inner sanctum of the British government.... He was battered in Parliament, facing a new round of questions about his personal participation in social gatherings that appear to have violated lockdown rules meant to stop the spread of Covid-19. Even in heavily redacted form, the report by Sue Gray, a senior civil servant, deepened the crisis that has engulfed Mr. Johnson for weeks...."

News Ledes

New York Times: "A gunman fatally shot a police officer and a campus safety officer at Bridgewater College in Virginia on Tuesday afternoon after they responded to reports of a suspicious person near a campus building, the authorities said. The assailant, identified by the Virginia State Police as Alexander Wyatt Campbell, 27, shot the two officers around 1:20 p.m. after college employees called the police after he startled them, Corinne Geller, a police spokeswoman, said in a news briefing on Tuesday night. The officers died on campus. Mr. Campbell ran off and waded through a river, where he ended up on a small island, Ms. Geller said. He was captured at 1:55 p.m. after a 'massive search operation' involving local, state and federal law enforcement officials, the college said...."

New York Times: Tom Brady "announced his retirement on Instagram on Tuesday." The Times thinks this is such a big story that they're live-blogging developments.