The Conversation -- November 18, 2024

Ivana Saric of Axios: "... Trump confirmed Monday that he is planning to declare a national emergency and use the U.S. military to carry out mass deportations.... Tom Fitton, the president of the conservative group Judicial Watch, posted on Truth Social earlier this month that Trump was 'prepared to declare a national emergency and will use military assets to reverse the Biden invasion through a mass deportation program.' Trump reposted Fitton's comment Monday with the caption, 'TRUE!!'"

Here We Go. Jacob Bogage, et al., of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump's economic advisers and congressional Republicans have begun preliminary discussions about making significant changes to Medicaid, food stamps and other federal safety net programs to offset the enormous cost of extending Trump's 2017 tax cuts next year. Among the options under discussion by GOP lawmakers and aides are new work requirements and spending caps for the programs...."

They Can't Handle the Truth. Ron Dicker of the Huffington Post: "Scott Pelley recapped the Cabinet picks of ... Donald Trump in the '60 Minutes' opening Sunday, enraging MAGA supporters despite the segment's recitation of facts.... Pelley ... began by noting 'some nominees appear to have no compelling qualifications other than loyalty to Trump.'... One commenter who approved of the report observed on X, 'This 60 Minutes open didn't tell one lie, didn't exaggerate, and gave very pertinent information regarding these poor nominations. And the MAGA cult thinks 60 Minutes is wrong for doing it. The country is fucked.'... But Trump supporters took umbrage. Check out other reactions here[.]"

⭐ Robert Tracinski of the UnPopulist: Trump selected every appointee ... as a deliberate negation, even a mockery, of the function of government he or she will be in charge of.... These individuals are not merely unqualified for their offices. They are disqualified. They are anti-qualified -- the antithesis of what the offices call for. If Trump gets his way, we will have a defender of war criminals as Secretary of Defense, a Russian lackey as Director of National Intelligence, a criminal running the Department of Justice, and a crank promoter of quack remedies in charge of Health and Human Services.... Trump is already trying to pressure the Republican Senate to declare a fake recess so he can appoint his officers without any approval process.... This is an attempt to destroy both the independence of the legislative branch and the Advice and Consent Clause of the Constitution in one fell swoop.... Trump campaigned against 'elites' only to subject government to the whims of his billionaire friends." Read the whole essay. Tracinski goes a long way in a short essay to expose Trump. Thanks to laura h. for the link and even to (argh!) Bill Kristol for suggesting it.

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Suck-up City Edition. Alex Weprin of the Hollywood Reporter: "Seven years after they last spoke to him, MSNBC Morning Joe hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski traveled to Mar-a-Lago over the weekend to meet with ... Donald Trump. The duo, who used to be friends with Trump, turned into fierce critics during his first term in office, and he returned the favor, occasionally ripping into them in posts on X. At the top of Monday's program, they disclosed their trip...."

Kriston Capps of the Washington Post: "The Smithsonian Institution quietly removed the director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum this summer and placed her in another role, following years of complaints from staff about her management of the prominent institution.... Stephanie Stebich, who joined the museum as director in 2017, told staff in July that she was taking indefinite medical leave. In September, she became a senior adviser within the Smithsonian Institution. Current and former employees at the American Art Museum and its Renwick Gallery, which Stebich also led, accused the director of having a management style that frequently left staff members frustrated and confused. After years of declining morale, several senior staffers in the museum system outlined their complaints in a letter to Smithsonian leadership in July 2023, according to people familiar with the document."

Niraj Chokshi of the New York Times: "Spirit Airlines, whose approach to selling cheap tickets without amenities earned it fans and detractors, filed for bankruptcy protection on Monday after a string of setbacks, most recently a failure to renegotiate its looming debt. The airline, which last reported an annual profit in 2019, has had trouble finding its footing after a federal judge blocked a planned merger with JetBlue Airways in January. Spirit has also struggled to capitalize on the recovery from the pandemic because of intense competition, engine problems and other factors. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in New York. It also announced an agreement with bondholders to restructure its debts and raise money to help it operate during the bankruptcy process, which it expected to exit in the first quarter of next year."

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The most powerful solutions to fight climate change are all around us -- the world's forests. -- President Joe Biden, speaking in the Amazon region Sunday ~~~

~~~ Matt Viser of the Washington Post: "President Joe Biden stopped Sunday in [Manaus, Brazil,] in the heart of the rainforest, marking the first time a sitting U.S. president has visited the Amazon, as he sought to emphasize the importance of taking on climate change two months before a successor who is far less sympathetic to that effort takes office. Biden took a dramatic aerial survey of this portion of the world;s largest tropical rainforest in his Marine One helicopter, as well as a tour of Museu da Amazônia, a 'living museum' showcasing the forest's diverse ecosystem. He traveled to this remote spot during a break between the conclusion of one international summit in Lima, Peru, and the beginning of another in Rio de Janeiro.... He signed a U.S. proclamation designating Nov. 17 as International Conservation Day." The AP's report is here.

Jonathan Swan, et al., of the New York Times: "Mr. Trump had been expected to pick [as Treasury Secretary] either Howard Lutnick, the chief executive of the Wall Street firm Cantor Fitzgerald, or Scott Bessent, the founder of the investment firm Key Square Capital Management and a former money manager for George Soros. And he had been seen as likely to make the selection late last week. But he has been having second thoughts about the top two candidates, and has slowed down his selection process. He is expected to invite the contenders to interview with him this week at Mar-a-Lago. Mr. Lutnick, who has been running Mr. Trump's transition operation, has gotten on Mr. Trump's nerves lately. Mr. Trump has privately expressed frustration that Mr. Lutnick has been hanging around him too much and that he has been manipulating the transition process for his own ends.... [So Mr. Trump is considering other candidates, including a former Fed governor, Kevin Warsh.] He has also remarked that Mr. Warsh is smart and handsome." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I do not understand why Trump would want to hire men he thinks are "smart and handsome." Doesn't he know he's dumb and ugly, and that smart and handsome young men can only serve to emphasize his unfitness for office and his lumpy mess of a human-ish form? ~~~

~~~ Scott Lemieux in LG&$: "The scary thing is that this is what passes for the 'normal' candidate: [citing a WSJ article] '[Scott] Bessent has defended Trump's agenda on television and in recent op-eds. After some of his critics argued to Trump's advisers that Bessent hadn't sufficiently signaled support for the president-elect's pledge to impose a series of stiff tariffs, the longtime investor wrote an op-ed for Fox News praising them....' The 'mainstream' candidate for Treasury has to write op-eds lying about how tariffs won't increase consumer prices, even though the whole point of protective tariffs is to raise consumer prices. The stock market is in retreat after an initial post-election boost, and I suspect one reason is that some investors are begging to figure out that Trump really means it when he says he wants a massively inflationary and disruptive across-the-board tariff policy. The thing about elections is that all sales are final."

Cecilia Kang of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump on Sunday chose Brendan Carr to be chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, naming a veteran Republican regulator who has publicly agreed with the incoming administration's promises to slash regulation, go after Big Tech and punish TV networks for political bias. Mr. Carr, who currently sits on the commission, is expected to shake up a quiet agency that licenses airwaves for radio and TV, regulates phone costs, and promotes the spread of home internet. Before the election, Mr. Trump indicated he wanted the agency to strip broadcasters like NBC and CBS of their licensing for unfair coverage. Mr. Carr, 45, was the author of a chapter on the F.C.C. in the conservative Project 2025 planning document, in which he argued that the agency should also regulate the largest tech companies, such as Apple, Meta, Google and Microsoft. 'The censorship cartel must be dismantled,' Mr. Carr said last week in a post on X. Mr. Carr could drastically reshape the independent agency, expanding its mandate and wielding it as a political weapon for the right, telecommunications attorneys and analysts said." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: So here we see Trump putting the government propaganda infrastucture in place. Carr, no doubt, will be just one of the ministers of that sprawling enterprise. And, of course, so much for Trump's denials of his knowledge of the odious Project 2025.

Aaron Davis, et al., of the Washington Post: In January 2021 after the insurrection, "Travis Akers, then a naval intelligence officer..., posted ... photos [of some of Pete Hegseth's tattoos] to ... Twitter, calling the tattoos 'white supremacist symbols' -- an interpretation Hegseth has since forcefully denied. The tweet was forwarded to the D.C. National Guard's head of physical security, Master Sgt. DeRicko Gaither, who soon warned commanding general William J. Walker that the Latin phrase suggested Hegseth could be an 'insider threat.' As he was about to be deployed [to duties surrounding Joe Biden's inauguration], Hegseth -- now ... Donald Trump's nominee to be defense secretary -- received a call from his superior officer ordering him to stand down.... Hegseth's removal from the mission became a seminal moment in his life.... [He] wrote in the opening lines of his most recent book ... that he left the military because of the episode. [He wrote, 'So, I resigned. On Jan. 20, 2021, I drafted the letter. F*** Biden anyway.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Hegseth claims innocence, but here's what he once wrote about the tattoo in question, according to the Post: "... Hegseth ties his belief in an existential struggle over America's 'native' and 'Judeo-Christian' culture to the Crusades, writing that Christians, along with their 'Jewish friends and freedom-loving people everywhere,' must fight back against secularism, leftism, globalism and Muslim immigration. 'See you on the battlefield,' he writes in closing out the book. 'Together, with God's help, we will save America. Deus vult!'" ~~~

~~~ Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump has told advisers he is standing by his nominee for defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, after the transition team was jolted by an allegation he had sexually assaulted a woman in an interaction he insists was consensual. Mr. Trump made his view plain to aides after a conversation with Mr. Hegseth days ago...." Haberman recounts the same she-said/he-said regarding the rape allegations that WashPo writers did the other day. ~~~

~~~ Alexandra Marquez of NBC News: "Former Fox News host Pete Hegseth's attorney on Sunday confirmed to NBC News that Hegseth ... paid a woman an undisclosed amount after she accused him of sexual assault.... Timothy Parlatore, Hegseth's attorney..., also denied that the encounter between Hegseth and an unnamed woman, which she alleges happened in 2017, was sexual assault."

Annie Karni of the New York Times: "When Speaker Mike Johnson said last week that he would 'strongly request' that a damning congressional ethics report on the conduct of former Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida be kept under wraps, it was a full-circle moment for the man at the center of the controversy. After all, Mr. Gaetz was the one who orchestrated the coup against the last speaker, Kevin McCarthy, that made room for Mr. Johnson ... to ascend to the top job in the House. And Mr. McCarthy always claimed his nemesis moved against him because he refused to halt the very same House Ethics Committee investigation into sexual misconduct and illicit drug use allegations against Mr. Gaetz.... Now ... Mr. Johnson is doing what Mr. McCarthy never would -- intervening to try to make sure the damaging material on Mr. Gaetz never sees the light of day. It is a fitting coda to two years of tumult in the Republican-led House, disorder that was exacerbated by bad blood among individual members." Read on.

     ~~~ Marie: How is it that Bible Mike, who is so sex-obsessed that he and his son monitor each other's Internet porn viewing, is so enthusiastic about covering up allegations that Matt Gaetz sexually abused girls?

David Smith of the Guardian: "This week a flurry of controversial and extremist picks for [Trump's] cabinet and other high-ranking administration positions came at a hectic pace and with a level of provocation that made heads spin.... Tara Setmayer, a former Republican communications director on Capitol Hill, said: 'Their entire political brand is shock and awe. Prior to Trump's re-election it was notional. Now they have the power to execute all of their depravity with the full backing of American government power virtually unchecked. I don;t think the people who voted for Donald Trump, allegedly because of economic angst, have a full appreciation for what that means.'... She added: 'The Trump administration is going to plunge America into a cross between The Hunger Games and The Celebrity Apprentice, unfortunately at great expense to the future of our democracy and the humanity of millions of Americans who will suffer at the hands of this gallery of degenerates. The American electorate fucked around and now they're going to find out.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: And my congratulations to the Guardian for acknowledging that "fucked" is not spelled "f---ed" or "f***ed."

Roxane Gay of the New York Times: "Mr. Trump's election demonstrates how American tolerance for the unacceptable is nearly infinite.... Mr. Trump's voters are granted a level of care and coddling that defies credulity and that is afforded to no other voting bloc.... We must refuse to participate in a mass delusion. We must refuse to accept that the ignorance on display is a congenital condition rather than a choice.... Clearly, Mr. Trump is successful because of his faults, not despite them, because we do not live in a just world.... But to suggest we should yield even a little to Mr. Trump's odious politics ... is unacceptable.... We cannot abandon the most vulnerable communities to assuage the most powerful. Even if we did, it would never be enough. The goal posts would keep moving until progressive politics became indistinguishable from conservative politics. We're halfway there already.... Absolutely anything is possible, and we must acknowledge this, not out of surrender, but as a means of readying ourselves for the impossible fights ahead." ~~~

~~~ In contrast to Gay's dark, realistic depiction of what we face, conservative New York Times columnist David French takes the bright, sunny view that Donald Trump is already beginning to fail: "Donald Trump is planting the seeds of his own political demise. The corrupt, incompetent and extremist men and women he's appointing to many of the most critical posts in his cabinet are direct threats to the well-being of the country, but they're also political threats to Trump and to his populist allies.... If Trump's cabinet picks help him usher in the chaos that is the water in which he swims, then the question won't be whether voters rebuke MAGA again, but rather how much damage it does before it fails once more." (Also linked yesterday.)

Reversal of Fortunes. Myah Ward & Megan Messerly of Politico: "The economy Donald Trump said was broken? All it took was him winning, and consumer sentiment among Republicans soared. Elections? Suddenly Republicans are on board with the reality that they're secure. House Speaker Mike Johnson said he saw no evidence of fraud in the 2024 campaign. And the media landscape? Viewership of Fox News has surged since Trump's win despite his harsh criticism of the network in the run up to Nov. 5. At the same time, Democrats' sentiment of the economy -- essentially how they view its overall health -- dropped by 13 percent after Trump's win. And viewership for liberal MSNBC has seen a downturn."

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Sanewashing Crazy Bobby. Albert Burneko of the Defector cites the text of the subhead and lede of a New York Times report on the nomination of RFJ, Jr., to head HHS: "'Vaccine skeptic.' 'Vaccine skepticism.' What the fuck are we talking about here?... You don't often encounter a word being used to describe its exact opposite in the pages of one of the English language's most prominent publications.... In my lifetime as a word-nerd, I have known 'skepticism' to refer to a sort of stubborn insistence upon rigor and evidence in place of things like dogma and 'common sense.' A skeptic, by those terms, is someone who questions what they are told. Crucially, a skeptic actually questions, as in seeks answers. A person who merely refuses to learn what can be known is not a skeptic, but rather an ignoramus.... There is no such thing as an adult 'vaccine skeptic' in the year 2024.... Any reasonable questions that a skeptical, critical-minded person might have about how and whether vaccines work can be answered by more hard, clear evidence than a person could exhaust in a year of nonstop research.... How does a shit-for-brains like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. come to be described as a 'vaccine skeptic' in the New York Times, in 2024, when he absolutely is not one, and when there is also no such thing as one?... Surely the incurable politeness of America's boneless legacy press plays a role in this." During the course of his rant Burneko supplies the Times with an appropriate word to replace "skeptic": "denier." Thanks to RAS for the link. MB: Worth a read, if just for the fun of it. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Marie: In case you were wondering what the Defector is, as I was, here's its self-description: "... a new sports blog and media company. We made this place together, we own it together, we run it together. Without access, without favor, without discretion, and without interference."

Simon Levien of the New York Times: "strong>J. Ann Selzer, the vaunted Iowa political pollster who released an eyebrow-raising poll just before Election Day, said on Sunday that she would end her election polling operation. Ms. Selzer, 68, has long been a trusted voice in the polling industry, predicting the state's margins of past presidential elections with an accuracy few rivaled. So when her last poll before Election Day showed Vice President Kamala Harris leading ... Donald J. Trump in Iowa, it created a political shock wave. It was a surprising result, showing Ms. Harris leading by three percentage points. And observers noted it was an outlier. But many trusted Ms. Selzer's expertise and her track record. Nearly every other poll in Iowa showed Mr. Trump leading the state by a healthy margin, and in 2020 Mr. Trump won the state by eight points. By the time ballots were counted early this month, Mr. Trump led Ms. Harris by more than 13 points en route to his overall victory. Ms. Selzer said in a column in The Des Moines Register that she decided over a year ago that this would be the last election she polled." Politico's story is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Why is it that when untalented men make mistakes, they soldier on, often not admitting to their errors or blaming others? When talented women make mistakes, they fall on their swords, they apologize and they quit. ~~~

     ~~~ UPDATE. David Gilmour of Mediaite: "... Donald Trump called for an investigation into retired Iowa pollster J. Ann Selzer as he accused her of undermining trust in the 2024 election, despite his decisive win in Iowa...: '... Thank you to the GREAT PEOPLE OF IOWA for giving me such a record breaking vote, despite possible ELECTION FRAUD by Ann Selzer and the now discredited 'newspaper' for which she works. An investigation is fully called for!" Thanks to Akhilleus for the link. See his commentary at the top of today's thread.

Amanda Holpuch of the New York Times: "The Justice Department has opened an investigation into the fatal shooting by a sheriff's deputy of Sonya Massey, a woman who had called the police because she thought a prowler was outside her home and was killed after an exchange with responding officers over a pot of hot water. In a letter to officials in Sangamon County, the Justice Department said that it had reviewed reports about the shooting of Ms. Massey, who was Black, and that they raised 'serious concerns' about the Sangamon County Sheriff's Office's interactions with Black people and people with behavioral health disabilities. The Justice Department is also investigating the county and its central emergency dispatch system for possible violations of federal nondiscrimination policies.... The deputy, Sean Grayson, who is white, shot Ms. Massey, 36, inside her home in Springfield, Ill., on July 6." (Also linked yesterday.)

Pat Koch Thaler is dead. You will want to read her obituary. This is supposed to be a gift link for nonsubscribers to Thaler's New York Times' obituary, by Sam Roberts. If the link doesn't work properly, I apologize. And please let me know. (Also linked yesterday.)

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Ohio. Michael Corkery of the New York Times: "Officials in Columbus, Ohio, and across the state condemned a small group of people who marched through part of the city on Saturday carrying Nazi flags and shouting racial slurs and expressions of white power. The marchers appeared to number only about a dozen people, but the invectives they shouted through a bullhorn at anyone they passed and the large swastika symbols they bore seemed to achieve their goal of rattling not just Columbus but a wider audience online.... The Anti-Defamation League said that the Columbus event fit a recent pattern of white supremacist incidents, hundreds of which have taken place across the country over the past 18 months. The marches tend to be small, unannounced to avoid counterprotesters and tailor-made for social media, said Oren Segal ... of the Anti-Defamation League Center on Extremism.... Shannon Hardin, president of the Columbus City Council..., tied the incident to Donald J. Trump's election. 'I am sorry that the president-elect has emboldened these creeps,' Mr. Hardin, a Democrat, said in a post [on X]."

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Israel/Palestine, et al. Anthony Faiola & Niha Masih of the Washington Post: "Pope Francis has said that Israel's attacks in Gaza should be investigated to determine if they meet the legal definition of genocide, according to excerpts from a forthcoming book based on interviews with the pontiff. Francis has privately used the word 'genocide' to describe Israel's actions, according to people who have interacted with him, The Washington Post has reported. But his comments to the journalist Hernán Reyes Alcaide, excerpted Sunday in the Italian newspaper La Stampa, are the first time he has publicly called for an investigation."

Ukraine, et al.

Adam Entous, et al., of the New York Times: "President Biden has authorized the first use of U.S.-supplied long-range missiles by Ukraine for strikes inside Russia, U.S. officials said. The weapons are likely to be initially employed against Russian and North Korean troops in defense of Ukrainian forces in the Kursk region of western Russia, the officials said. Mr. Biden's decision is a major change in U.S. policy. The choice has divided his advisers, and his shift comes two months before ... Donald J. Trump takes office, having vowed to limit further support for Ukraine. Allowing the Ukrainians to use the long-range missiles, known as the Army Tactical Missile Systems, or ATACMS, came in response to Russia's surprise decision to bring North Korean troops into the fight, officials said." The AP's report is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Marc Santora of the New York Times: "Russia renewed its campaign to destroy Ukraine's battered power grid on Sunday, targeting facilities across the country with missiles and long-range drones in one of the largest and most complex bombardments of the war, Ukrainian officials said. The attack lasted several hours and featured around 120 missiles and 90 drones, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a statement. Air-defense teams destroyed 144 targets, but at least nine civilians were killed, officials said. Mr. Zelensky said F-16 pilots had shot down 10 targets. 'The enemy's target was our energy infrastructure throughout Ukraine,' Mr. Zelensky said. 'Unfortunately, there is damage to objects from hits and falling debris.' Interceptor missiles could be seen streaking across blue skies over the capital, before exploding in thunderous claps. Similar scenes played out across Ukraine, Ukrainian officials said." (Also linked yesterday.)

News Lede

New York Times: "One person has died and 39 people have become ill in an E. coli outbreak linked to organic carrots, federal regulators said on Sunday. The infections were tied to multiple brands of recalled organic whole bagged carrots and baby carrots sold by Grimmway Farms, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. Fifteen people have been hospitalized, according to the agency. Carrots currently on store shelves are unlikely to be affected by the recall but those in consumers" refrigerators or freezers may be, the authorities said."

The Conversation -- November 17, 2024

Adam Entous, et al., of the New York Times: “President Biden has authorized the first use of U.S.-supplied long-range missiles by Ukraine for strikes inside Russia, U.S. officials said. The weapons are likely to be initially employed against Russian and North Korean troops in defense of Ukrainian forces in the Kursk region of western Russia, the officials said. Mr. Biden’s decision is a major change in U.S. policy. The choice has divided his advisers, and his shift comes two months before ... Donald J. Trump takes office, having vowed to limit further support for Ukraine. Allowing the Ukrainians to use the long-range missiles, known as the Army Tactical Missile Systems, or ATACMS, came in response to Russia’s surprise decision to bring North Korean troops into the fight, officials said.” The AP's report is here. ~~~

~~~ Marc Santora of the New York Times: “Russia renewed its campaign to destroy Ukraine’s battered power grid on Sunday, targeting facilities across the country with missiles and long-range drones in one of the largest and most complex bombardments of the war, Ukrainian officials said. The attack lasted several hours and featured around 120 missiles and 90 drones, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a statement. Air-defense teams destroyed 144 targets, but at least nine civilians were killed, officials said. Mr. Zelensky said F-16 pilots had shot down 10 targets. 'The enemy’s target was our energy infrastructure throughout Ukraine,' Mr. Zelensky said. 'Unfortunately, there is damage to objects from hits and falling debris.' Interceptor missiles could be seen streaking across blue skies over the capital, before exploding in thunderous claps. Similar scenes played out across Ukraine, Ukrainian officials said.”

Aaron Davis, et al., of the Washington Post: In January 2021 after the insurrection, “Travis Akers, then a naval intelligence officer..., posted ... photos [of some of Pete Hegseth's tattoos] to ... Twitter, calling the tattoos 'white supremacist symbols' — an interpretation Hegseth has since forcefully denied. The tweet was forwarded to the D.C. National Guard’s head of physical security, Master Sgt. DeRicko Gaither, who soon warned commanding general William J. Walker that the Latin phrase suggested Hegseth could be an 'insider threat.' As he was about to be deployed [to duties surrounding Joe Biden's inauguration], Hegseth — now ... Donald Trump’s nominee to be defense secretary — received a call from his superior officer ordering him to stand down.... Hegseth’s removal from the mission became a seminal moment in his life.... [He] wrote in the opening lines of his most recent book ... that he left the military because of the episode. [He wrote, 'So, I resigned. On Jan. 20, 2021, I drafted the letter. F*** Biden anyway.'” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Hegseth claims innocence, but here's what he once wrote about the tattoo in question, according to the Post: “... Hegseth ties his belief in an existential struggle over America’s 'native' and 'Judeo-Christian' culture to the Crusades, writing that Christians, along with their 'Jewish friends and freedom-loving people everywhere,' must fight back against secularism, leftism, globalism and Muslim immigration. 'See you on the battlefield,' he writes in closing out the book. 'Together, with God’s help, we will save America. Deus vult!'”

Conservative New York Times columnist David French must be an optimist because he thinks Donald Trump is already beginning to fail: “Donald Trump is planting the seeds of his own political demise. The corrupt, incompetent and extremist men and women he’s appointing to many of the most critical posts in his cabinet are direct threats to the well-being of the country, but they’re also political threats to Trump and to his populist allies.... If Trump’s cabinet picks help him usher in the chaos that is the water in which he swims, then the question won’t be whether voters rebuke MAGA again, but rather how much damage it does before it fails once more.

Amanda Holpuch of the New York Times: “The Justice Department has opened an investigation into the fatal shooting by a sheriff’s deputy of Sonya Massey, a woman who had called the police because she thought a prowler was outside her home and was killed after an exchange with responding officers over a pot of hot water. In a letter to officials in Sangamon County, the Justice Department said that it had reviewed reports about the shooting of Ms. Massey, who was Black, and that they raised 'serious concerns' about the Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office’s interactions with Black people and people with behavioral health disabilities. The Justice Department is also investigating the county and its central emergency dispatch system for possible violations of federal nondiscrimination policies.... The deputy, Sean Grayson, who is white, shot Ms. Massey, 36, inside her home in Springfield, Ill., on July 6.”

Simon Levien of the New York Times: “J. Ann Selzer, the vaunted Iowa political pollster who released an eyebrow-raising poll just before Election Day, said on Sunday that she would end her election polling operation. Ms. Selzer, 68, has long been a trusted voice in the polling industry, predicting the state’s margins of past presidential elections with an accuracy few rivaled. So when her last poll before Election Day showed Vice President Kamala Harris leading ... Donald J. Trump in Iowa, it created a political shock wave. It was a surprising result, showing Ms. Harris leading by three percentage points. And observers noted it was an outlier. But many trusted Ms. Selzer’s expertise and her track record. Nearly every other poll in Iowa showed Mr. Trump leading the state by a healthy margin, and in 2020 Mr. Trump won the state by eight points. By the time ballots were counted early this month, Mr. Trump led Ms. Harris by more than 13 points en route to his overall victory. Ms. Selzer said in a column in The Des Moines Register that she decided over a year ago that this would be the last election she polled.” Politico's story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I'm wondering why it is that when untalented men make mistakes, they soldier on, often not admitting to their errors or blaming others. When talented women make mistakes, they fall on their swords, they apologize and they quit. 

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Sanewashing Crazy Bobby. Albert Burneko of the Defector cites the text of the subhead and lede of a New York Times report on the nomination of RFJ, Jr., to head HHS: "'Vaccine skeptic.' 'Vaccine skepticism.' What the fuck are we talking about here?... You don't often encounter a word being used to describe its exact opposite in the pages of one of the English language's most prominent publications.... In my lifetime as a word-nerd, I have known 'skepticism' to refer to a sort of stubborn insistence upon rigor and evidence in place of things like dogma and 'common sense.' A skeptic, by those terms, is someone who questions what they are told. Crucially, a skeptic actually questions, as in seeks answers. A person who merely refuses to learn what can be known is not a skeptic, but rather an ignoramus.... There is no such thing as an adult 'vaccine skeptic' in the year 2024.... Any reasonable questions that a skeptical, critical-minded person might have about how and whether vaccines work can be answered by more hard, clear evidence than a person could exhaust in a year of nonstop research.... How does a shit-for-brains like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. come to be described as a 'vaccine skeptic' in the New York Times, in 2024, when he absolutely is not one, and when there is also no such thing as one?... Surely the incurable politeness of America's boneless legacy press plays a role in this." During the course of his rant Burneko supplies the Times with an appropriate word to replace "skeptic": "denier." Thanks to RAS for the link. MB: Worth a read, if just for the fun of it. ~~~

~~~ Marie: In case you were wondering what the Defector is, as I was, here's its self-description: "... a new sports blog and media company. We made this place together, we own it together, we run it together. Without access, without favor, without discretion, and without interference."

Part of our Constitutional duties as U.S. citizens to laugh at these people, and SNL is here to help:

Pat Koch Thaler is dead. You will want to read her obituary. This is supposed to be a gift link for nonsubscribers to Thaler's New York Times' obituary, by Sam Roberts. If the link doesn't work properly, I apologize. And please let me know.

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Zolan Kanno-Youngs & Alexandra Stevenson of the New York Times: “When President Biden and China’s leader, Xi Jinping, met on Saturday in Peru, they spoke directly to each other for perhaps the last time about a fierce superpower rivalry that Mr. Biden has sought to keep from spiraling into open conflict. But both men also seemed to be addressing ... Donald J. Trump.... Mr. Xi, in his opening remarks, offered what appeared to be a stern warning as U.S.-China relations enter a new period of uncertainty after the American election.... In his own opening comments, Mr. Biden seemed to try to make the case for maintaining a relationship with Beijing, as Mr. Trump talks about imposing more punishing tariffs on China and picks hard-liners for top administration posts....

“But even as Mr. Biden’s session with Mr. Xi, during a gathering of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, began with conciliatory words, it also gave the president a final chance to challenge the Chinese leader directly.... Mr. Biden pushed Mr. Xi to maintain peace in Taiwan, and pressed the Chinese leader over Beijing’s support for Russia, according to his national security adviser, Jake Sullivan. Mr. Biden also urged Mr. Xi to discourage North Korea from continuing to support Russia in its war in Ukraine, Mr. Sullivan said.... [Mr. X pushed back on these and other concerns.]... Even as Mr. Biden has sought to steady relations, the fierce competition between the two countries was on vivid display during the APEC meeting in Lima.”

      ~~~ Here's the White House readout of President Biden's meeting with Xi Jinping.

A Most Unserious Man. Maggie Haberman & Jonathan Swan of the New York Times: “Emboldened, confident in his instincts and more contemptuous than ever of Washington expertise, Mr. Trump is staffing the most important roles in his government at breakneck speed. Advisers have been stunned at how fast he is ticking through his choices, filling the government’s most important positions roughly a month sooner than he did in 2016. Much of the action has taken place under the chandelier in the tearoom at Mar-a-Lago, where Mr. Trump surveys his potential Cabinet nominees on giant video screens. He flicks through shortlists that his transition team, led by the billionaire Howard Lutnick, has drafted over the past months. If Mr. Trump shows an interest in a candidate, the presentation is designed to allow him to immediately watch videos of the potential nominee’s TV appearances — essential for any would-be Trump cabinet official.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: It is tempting to compare Trump to a casting director, except I believe most casting directors take their jobs more seriously than Trump takes his role of filling administrative jobs. As for his being “contemptuous of Washington expertise,” he is contemptuous of all expertise, and he is contemptuous of elites everywhere, especially in Manhattan, where the upper crust is equally contemptuous of him.

With the nomination of Chris Wright, Trump is following through on the $1 billion offer he made to Big Oil at a dinner this spring. -- Tiernan Sittenfeld of the League of Conservation Voters ~~~

~~~ Trump Picks Another Dangerous Crackpot. Evan Halper, et al., of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump announced on Saturday that he has selected Chris Wright, the head of fracking company Liberty Energy and a skeptic of mainstream climate science, to lead the Department of Energy and to serve on a new National Energy Council.... In Wright, Trump has chosen a skeptic of the scientific consensus on global warming who argues the 'climate crisis' is a myth. The fracking executive runs a foundation focused on dispelling the conventional wisdom on climate change and promoting expanded fossil fuel production as a solution to many of the world’s problems, an approach others say would drive dangerous levels of warming.... [Wright's] assertions conflict sharply with the conclusions of the world’s leading climate scientists affiliated with the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change....

“Wright emerged as a front-runner for the role of energy secretary at the behest of oil tycoon Harold Hamm, one of Trump’s closest allies.... Like Hamm, Wright ranked as a major donor to the Trump campaign.... Wright’s antipathy toward clean-energy subsidies and rules that penalize fossil fuel emissions contrasts with positions taken by [North Dakota Gov. Doug] Burgum[, whom Trump has tapped to be his interior secretary and 'energy czar.']” Politico's story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: We'll see how this works out. According to Michael Gold of the New York Times, Trump claimed Wright “had worked for years with Doug Burgum.” Another reason Wright is such an awful choice: he (1) has no government experience, according to Gold, and (2) he “would be in charge of the nation’s nuclear weapons arsenal, and he would oversee the domestic nuclear energy industry when the sector is seeking to extend the lives of existing reactors and bring new reactor technologies to market,” write the WashPo reporters.

Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: “... Donald J. Trump’s choice to lead the Department of Defense, Pete Hegseth, paid a woman who had accused him of sexual assault as part of a settlement agreement with a confidentiality clause, but Mr. Hegseth insists it was a consensual encounter, his lawyer said on Saturday.... According to [a Monterey, California,] police statement, the complaint was filed four days after the encounter [in October 2017], and the complainant had bruises to her thigh. The police report itself was not released.” ~~~

     ~~~ Michael Kranish, et al., of the Washington Post broke the story: “Hegseth’s attorney, Timothy Parlatore, said that Hegseth was 'visibly intoxicated' at the time of the incident, and maintained that police who were contacted a few days after the encounter by the woman concluded that 'the Complainant had been the aggressor in the encounter.' Police have not confirmed that assertion.... The [attorney's] statement came after a detailed memo was sent to the Trump transition team this week by a woman who said she is a friend of the accuser. The memo, a copy of which was obtained by The Post, alleged he raped the then-30-year-old conservative group staffer in his room after drinking at a hotel bar.... After [the woman] threatened litigation in 2020, Hegseth made the payment and she signed the nondisclosure agreement, his attorney said.” The story has more details. ~~~

     ~~~ Scott Lemieux in LG&$: "In addition to what he is credibly accused of, your reminder that Hegseth definitely favors pardoning particularly appalling war criminals.... [Lemieux cites a Time report detailing the convicted or accused war criminals Hegseth advocated for.] Since we’re dealing with the Republican Party in 2024, the extensive evidence that Hegseth is a moral degenerate in addition to being entirely unqualified to be Secretary of Defense is presumably a positive factor for his likelihood of being confirmed." MB: You do have to keep in mind that Trumpworld mindset that killing "the enemy" -- even if the "enemy" is a civilian or a child and especially if the "enemy" is non-white -- is considered to be an admirable act of machoismo. The Trumpists are the cartoonish characters of B-grade action movies. On the other hand, there's this: ~~~

~~~ Courtney Kube, et al., of NBC News: "The Trump transition team is compiling a list of senior current and former U.S. military officers who were directly involved in the withdrawal from Afghanistan and exploring whether they could be court-martialed for their involvement, according to a U.S. official and a person familiar with the plan. Officials working on the transition are considering creating a commission to investigate the 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan, including gathering information about who was directly involved in the decision-making for the military, how it was carried out, and whether the military leaders could be eligible for charges as serious as treason, the U.S. official and person with knowledge of the plan said.... A 2022 independent review by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction blamed both the Trump and Biden administrations for the chaotic U.S. withdrawal in 2021."

Ian Millhiser of Vox: “Trump chose Todd Blanche, the criminal defense lawyer in his New York hush money trial..., to be deputy attorney general.... The DAG, as this position is known within the department, wields tremendous power over federal criminal prosecutions. If successfully appointed, Blanche will supervise the 93 regional US attorneys who bring the bulk of all federal prosecutions in the United States.... Meanwhile, Trump wants John Sauer, the lawyer who represented him in the Supreme Court case holding that Trump is allowed to use the powers of the president to commit crimes, to serve as solicitor general. The role oversees the Justice Department’s legal strategy in the Supreme Court....

“Another one of Trump’s personal criminal defense lawyers, Emil Bove, will serve as principal associate deputy attorney general, and will hold the DAG spot on an acting basis until Blanche or some other Trump nominee is confirmed or otherwise formally appointed to the job.... Bove’s new role does not require Senate confirmation. So he will be able to move into this job on the first day of Trump’s second presidency.... Blanche, Sauer, and Bove’s conventional résumés also mean that, if they use their DOJ posts to pursue Trump’s personal campaign of vengeance, they are likely to be fairly effective in doing so.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Marie: In Friday Comments, RAS argued that “Team Trump’s most human failings may thwart some of their most evil plans....” As one of several ferinstances, RAS asked rhetorically, “Do you think Matt Gaetz is going to work the hours necessary to not just learn DoJ but run it in detail?” My answer to that would be, no, but the meatheads of Trump's choosing will have underlings to do their bidding. And Millhiser proves my point with specifics: both Blanche & Bove were federal prosecutors for nine years, and Sauer, who clerked for Antonin Scalia, was Missouri's attorney general. Millhiser acknowledges that “Gaetz may struggle to navigate the department’s internal bureaucracy or to resist its internal culture, which seeks to insulate prosecutorial decisions from the White House.... But if Trump gets his way, his ultraloyalist attorney general will now be backed by people who know the Justice Department and the culture of elite federal lawyers quite well.”

Steve Eder, et al., of the New York Times: “This year, America’s southern border was once again a flashpoint in a presidential election, with ... Donald J. Trump pledging to deport millions of people who he said were 'poisoning the blood' of the country. Within days of his re-election, he announced his intention to appoint hard-liners on immigration. But despite the tough talk, the broken border has been a lifeline for America’s on-demand economy under both Democratic and Republican administrations, including Mr. Trump’s first term, an investigation by The New York Times found. Thousands of companies have exploited its porousness by plucking workers from the ranks of unauthorized migrants, sometimes with impunity.... Staffing agencies ... recruit workers for warehouses, factories and distribution centers that serve up billions of dollars in goods for brand-name companies.”

“Apparently Some People Think It Makes Us Look Like Nazis.” digby: “Yes, they will be building concentration camps. There's money in it.” digby cites an ABC News report that the private prison industry is delighted with the windfall Trump's need for deportation camps promise the industry. She also cites a Rolling Stone report that shows “that Stephen Miller and Trump himself have often referred to the need to build 'camps.' Trump says he doesn’t think they’ll have to build too many though because they’ll be 'moving them out' so fast. No need for due process or anything like that. [According to Rolling Stone,] '... Some top Trump advisers get so annoyed when the media refers to his publicly detailed immigration-crackdown plans as including “camps” that they’ve cautioned the president-elect’s allies and surrogates to stop using the word “camps” during the current presidential transition, according to two sources familiar with the situation. “I have received some guidance to avoid terms, like ‘camps,’ that can be twisted and used against the president, yes,” says one close Trump ally. “Apparently some people think it makes us look like Nazis.”'”

No, They Have No Shame. Eric Lipton of the New York Times: “The to-do list for ... Donald J. Trump from Marc Andreessen, the venture capital billionaire from California, is long, but quite specific. Now, after donating big money to Mr. Trump, Mr. Andreessen is eager to see his candidate work through the list.... Mr. Andreessen’s excitement is a hint of just how broadly the victory by Mr. Trump has resonated with business executives who invested millions of dollars in his candidacy and now stand to profit from his policies.... 'It will be a billionaires’ ball,' said Robert Reich, who served as secretary of labor during the Clinton administration and who has long been critical of the income disparity in the United States.” Lipton runs down a list of fat cats and industries that are looking forward to profiting from the investments in Trump.

Jacqueline Alemany, et al., of the Washington Post: “Elon Musk, the Tesla and SpaceX billionaire who has become ... Donald Trump’s 'first buddy,' appeared to publicly pressure Trump on economic policy and a key Cabinet appointment Saturday. In a Saturday morning post on X..., Musk praised a foreign leader’s decision to cut tariffs — the same import taxes that Trump wants to raise to the highest level in a century. Several hours later, Musk posted that Howard Lutnick, Trump’s co-transition chair, would be a better choice than hedge fund executive Scott Bessent for treasury secretary.... He encouraged his nearly 205 million followers to weigh in, too.... Several people in Trump’s circle expressed astonishment Saturday that Musk would publicly push for his choice for a crucial economic role while the president-elect was still weighing his decision.... Bessent and Lutnick have been jockeying for the role of treasury secretary over the past week, with allies of each candidate potshotting the other to transition officials.” Politico's story is here.

Joe Kucinski of Road & Track: "Tesla's vehicles have the highest fatal accident rate among all car brands in America, according to a recent iSeeCars study that analyzed data from the U.S. Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS). The study was conducted on model year 2018–2022 vehicles, and focused on crashes between 2017 and 2022 that resulted in occupant fatalities. Tesla vehicles have a fatal crash rate of 5.6 per billion miles driven, according to the study; Kia is second with a rate of 5.5, and Buick rounds out the top three with a 4.8 rate. The average fatal crash rate for all cars in the United States is 2.8 per billion vehicle miles driven."

Another Job Merrick the Unready Didn't Do. David Nakamura & Mark Berman of the Washington Post: “President Joe Biden took office promising greater police accountability, and during his tenure the Justice Department launched a dozen investigations into state and local law enforcement agencies. Nearly four years later, his administration has yet to lock in reform agreements with any of them, putting a major civil rights initiative in jeopardy as Biden prepares to yield the White House to ... Donald Trump.... The race to formalize police accountability plans comes as Trump is vowing to empower local law enforcement to use more aggressive tactics to fight violent crime and potentially dispatch the National Guard, or even the U.S. military, to help patrol some U.S. cities.” MB: “The race”? Oh, there's a “race” now? Try to picture Merrick racing. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: One thing we're looking at here is the downside to the policy of keeping "a wall of separation" between the White House and the Justice Department. Cabinet officers, like any subordinates in any settings, must be accountable to their bosses. But if the president can't call on the attorney general to give an accounting of his or her activities, then the AG can be as irresponsible as, say, Merrick Garland. The buck should stop with the POTUS, but it cannot if a subordinate is effectively untouchable, short of firing.

Hurubie Meko of the New York Times: “Nearly 60 years after Malcolm X’s assassination at the Audubon Ballroom in Manhattan, his family filed a federal lawsuit on Friday claiming that the New York Police Department, C.I.A. and F.B.I. played a role in his killing. The suit, filed in Manhattan, claims that the agencies knew about threats against the civil rights leader, but 'failed to intervene on his behalf.' It says that they had 'intentionally removed their officers from inside the ballroom' before he was shot and left him even more exposed by arresting his security detail in the days before the event. The family also claims that the agencies engaged in 'fraudulent concealment and cover-up' after Malcolm X’s death by keeping information from his family and hamstringing efforts to identify his killers.”

Tom Winter & Tim Stelloh of NBC News: “Federal law enforcement officials said Thursday that they stopped a Texas man from carrying out a possible terrorist attack in Houston.... Anas Said, 28, was charged last month with attempting to provide material support to the terrorist group ISIS, according to an indictment filed in U.S. District Court in Texas. Said was arrested last week at the Houston apartment complex where he is alleged to have planned the attack, said the FBI, which accused him of bragging that he would commit "a 9/11-style" attack if he had the resources.” (Also linked yesterday.) 

~~~~~~~~~~

The Conversation -- November 16, 2024

A Most Unserious Man. Maggie Haberman & Jonathan Swan of the New York Times: "Emboldened, confident in his instincts and more contemptuous than ever of Washington expertise, Mr. Trump is staffing the most important roles in his government at breakneck speed. Advisers have been stunned at how fast he is ticking through his choices, filling the government's most important positions roughly a month sooner than he did in 2016. Much of the action has taken place under the chandelier in the tearoom at Mar-a-Lago, where Mr. Trump surveys his potential Cabinet nominees on giant video screens. He flicks through shortlists that his transition team, led by the billionaire Howard Lutnick, has drafted over the past months. If Mr. Trump shows an interest in a candidate, the presentation is designed to allow him to immediately watch videos of the potential nominee's TV appearances -- essential for any would-be Trump cabinet official." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: It is tempting to compare Trump to a casting director, except I believe most casting directors take their jobs more seriously than Trump takes his role of filling administrative jobs. As for his being "contemptuous of Washington expertise," he is contemptuous of all expertise, and he is contemptuous of elites everywhere, especially in Manhattan, where the upper crust is equally contemptuous of him.

Ian Millhiser of Vox: "Trump chose Todd Blanche, the criminal defense lawyer in his New York hush money trial..., to be deputy attorney general.... The DAG, as this position is known within the department, wields tremendous power over federal criminal prosecutions. If successfully appointed, Blanche will supervise the 93 regional US attorneys who bring the bulk of all federal prosecutions in the United States.... Meanwhile, Trump wants John Sauer, the lawyer who represented him in the Supreme Court case holding that Trump is allowed to use the powers of the president to commit crimes, to serve as solicitor general. The role oversees the Justice Department's legal strategy in the Supreme Court....

"Another one of Trump's personal criminal defense lawyers, Emil Bove, will serve as principal associate deputy attorney general, and will hold the DAG spot on an acting basis until Blanche or some other Trump nominee is confirmed or otherwise formally appointed to the job.... Bove's new role does not require Senate confirmation. So he will be able to move into this job on the first day of Trump's second presidency.... Blanche, Sauer, and Bove's conventional résumés also mean that, if they use their DOJ posts to pursue Trump's personal campaign of vengeance, they are likely to be fairly effective in doing so." ~~~

~~~ Marie: In Friday Comments, RAS argued that "Team Trump's most human failings may thwart some of their most evil plans...." As one of several ferinstances, RAS asked rhetorically, "Do you think Matt Gaetz is going to work the hours necessary to not just learn DoJ but run it in detail?" My answer to that would be, no, but the meatheads of Trump's choosing will have underlings to do their bidding. And Millhiser proves my point with specifics: both Blanche & Bove were federal prosecutors for nine years, and Sauer, who clerked for Antonin Scalia, was Missouri's attorney general. Millhiser acknowledges that "Gaetz may struggle to navigate the department's internal bureaucracy or to resist its internal culture, which seeks to insulate prosecutorial decisions from the White House.... But if Trump gets his way, his ultraloyalist attorney general will now be backed by people who know the Justice Department and the culture of elite federal lawyers quite well."

Tom Winter & Tim Stelloh of NBC News: "Federal law enforcement officials said Thursday that they stopped a Texas man from carrying out a possible terrorist attack in Houston.... Anas Said, 28, was charged last month with attempting to provide material support to the terrorist group ISIS, according to an indictment filed in U.S. District Court in Texas. Said was arrested last week at the Houston apartment complex where he is alleged to have planned the attack, said the FBI, which accused him of bragging that he would commit "a 9/11-style" attack if he had the resources."

~~~~~~~~~~

Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Biden expressed concern on Friday about what he called 'dangerous and destabilizing cooperation' between North Korea and Russia, as he met with the leaders of South Korea and Japan at the global summit of Asia Pacific leaders in Peru. In a joint statement, Mr. Biden, Shigeru Ishiba, the prime minister of Japan, and President Yoon Suk Yeol of South Korea, said they 'strongly condemn' the cooperation between North Korea and Russia, including the decision by North Korea to send thousands of troops to Russia to help President Vladimir V. Putin in his war with Ukraine.... Flanked by Mr. Ishiba and Mr. Yoon, Mr. Biden expressed confidence in new security and economic cooperation that the three nations announced during a summit last year at Camp David.... He did not mention the possible impact of ... Donald J. Trump's return to the White House, but he noted that Friday's meeting would be his last with the group."

Tara Copp, et al., of the AP: Trump's nominee for Defense Secretary "Pete Hegseth ... was flagged as a possible 'Insider Threat' by a fellow service member due to a tattoo on his bicep that's associated with white supremacist groups. Hegseth, who has downplayed the role of military members and veterans in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack and railed against the Pentagon's subsequent efforts to address extremism in the ranks, has said he was pulled by his District of Columbia National Guard unit from guarding Joe Biden's January 2021 inauguration. He's said he was unfairly identified as an extremist due to a cross tattoo on his chest. This week, however, a fellow Guard member who was the unit's security manager and on an anti-terrorism team at the time, shared with The Associated Press an email he sent to the unit's leadership flagging a different tattoo reading 'Deus Vult' that's been used by white supremacists, concerned it was an indication of an 'Insider Threat.'" Read on.

Michael Kranish, et al., of the Washington Post: "Senior officials on ... Donald Trump's transition team on Friday weighed the future of Pete Hegseth, Trump's choice to lead the Defense Department, amid new revelations that police investigated an allegation that he sexually assaulted a woman in 2017.... Monterey[, California,] police confirmed that they investigated Hegseth over an allegation of 'alleged sexual assault' in 2017 and that the incident did not result in criminal charges. The transition team was caught by surprise by the detailed allegations and now fears more negative revelations about Hegseth, said [a] person familiar with the complaint. 'There's a lot of frustration around this,' the person said. 'He hadn't been properly vetted.'... 'No private firm vetted him, according to a person familiar with the matter...." ~~~

~~~ And here's something Patrick mentioned in a comment earlier this week:

"Hegseth has been married three times.... He married his first wife, Meredith, in his early 20s and they divorced in 2009, according to Minnesota court filings. The couple agreed that the reasons for the split were an 'irretrievable breakdown' of the marriage and Hegseth's 'infidelity,' according to a filing in their divorce case.... He married his second wife, Samantha, in 2010. Hegseth fathered a child with another woman, Jennifer Rauchet, then a Fox News producer, in August 2017, during that marriage. According to court records, Samantha Hegseth ... filed for divorce in September -- a month after the child was born. Following his second divorce, Hegseth married Rauchet." MB: As Patrick wrote, "Why, he's like the son DiJiT never had!" And that's why I'm surprised a sexual assault allegation is of any concern to Team Trump.

Michael Gold of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump announced on Friday that he had chosen Karoline Leavitt, who worked in his administration and served as his campaign's press secretary, to be his White House press secretary. Ms. Leavitt, 27..., will be the youngest person ever to assume the role.... Throughout the campaign, Ms. Leavitt adopted Mr. Trump's disdain for the mainstream media in frequent appearances on major television networks and conservative outlets." NPR's report is here.

Jess Bidgood of the New York Times: "With his early selections for cabinet and other high-level posts..., Donald Trump is taking the bomb-throwing, hyper-macho and preternaturally online energy that infused his campaign and seeking to inject it directly into Washington's veins.... It's effectively government by bro -- and it seems that the more you've trolled the establishment, the better your chances are of being invited by the president-elect to join it. Trump's presidential campaign was a celebration of masculine kitsch." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: A reminder that when the MAGA movement boys rail against "woke," they are expressing more than their racism, xenophobia & homophobia. They are equally anti-feminist -- nay, anti-woman. Trump frequently said on the campaign trail, in a lewd manner, "I love women." That is the second Big Lie. He hates women. He loves to use women; he loves to manipulate women; he loves to berate women; he loves to abuse women. He won election on the wings of a thousand lies, but underpinning those lies was his bet that misogyny and racism would beat out decency and democracy. He won that bet, and I think we should look at Trump voters not just as dupes of the right-wing media but as hateful, vengeful pricks. ~~~

     ~~~ Update. A young woman -- a high-school student in a progressive -- Upstate New York town, notices that Trump won over the boys in her class. In an anonymous Guardian essay, she writes, "Young, well-off white boys from liberal families are being tempted by conservatism simply to protect an archaic idea of masculinity that guarantees them inherent power.... Clearly, a shift back toward traditional gender roles is resonating with them now as progression toward female empowerment threatens their already delicate self esteem.... Boys in our school as young as eight are beginning to exhibit these same misogynistic tendencies that we never remember noticing when we were their age. And the most dangerous aspect of this is how little it's talked about in mainstream media and how easily it has been overlooked in progressive communities. In fact this is an epidemic that will continue to spread rapidly until we start talking about it."

Julie Tsirkin & Rebecca Shabad of NBC News: "House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said Friday that he would 'strongly request' that the House Ethics Committee not release a report detailing its investigation into former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla.... There is precedent for releasing ethics reports after or on the same day that a lawmaker resigns from Congress.... Johnson returned to Washington, D.C., early Friday morning after meeting with Trump at Mar-a-Lago on Thursday. Johnson declined to say whether he spoke to Trump about the Ethics report. The bipartisan, 10-member Ethics panel had been scheduled to meet Friday to discuss the report on Gaetz and whether to release it to the public, but a source with direct knowledge had said on Thursday that the meeting was canceled." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Maybe the reason Trump doesn't like dogs is that he finds it so much easier to train human pets to lie down & roll over. ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Meryl Kornfield, et al., of the Washington Post: "The comments marked a stunning reversal for Johnson, who just Thursday told Fox News that the speaker's role is not to get 'involved in what happens in Ethics. Lots of important reasons for that.'... Intervening at the conclusion of an investigation -- into someone seeking to be the nation's chief law enforcement officer -- has no modern precedent.... Several Senate Judiciary Committee Republicans have publicly asked for the House Ethics panel to release its report -- or at least transmit it privately to the committee -- so they can adequately prepare to question Gaetz in a confirmation hearing...." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: So the sequence is (1) Bible Mike tells Fox News Thursday morning that there are "lots of important reasons" not to get involved in House Ethics Committee decisions; (2) Mike spends Thursday night at Mar-a-Lardo; (3) Mike says at midday Friday that he would "strongly request the Ethics Committee not issue the report." The only mystery here is why Trump's team is supposedly so concerned about Pete Hegseth's alleged sexual misdeeds when obviously the boss wants to cover up Gaetz's suspected proclivities.

Daniel Payne of Politico: "Lobbyists expecting a more conventional pick to lead the government's $3 trillion health agency than Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the brash contrarian ... Donald Trump named on Thursday to take charge, are plotting how to stop the Senate from confirming him. They're also currying favor in case they can't.... Companies would prefer to let their allies in the Senate, buttressed by years of campaign contributions and revolving-door hires, sideline Kennedy before they spend political capital to fight him." ~~~

~~~ Leana Wen of the Washington Post: "The reason [Robert] Kennedy [Jr.] is uniquely unfit compared with past nominees is that his approach to scientific inquiry is as an activist, not a scientist. The clearest example of this is his repeated assertions that childhood immunizations are harmful. Kennedy is one of the most prominent promoters of disinformation that vaccines cause autism, despite dozens of rigorously conducted medical studies that have debunked the claim.... In the face of overwhelming evidence, he is unwilling to change his views. Instead, he doubles down on his advocacy and asserts opinions as facts. He is either unable to understand the scientific process that forms the basis of modern medicine or he purposefully ignores the research when conclusions don't support his preconceived notions." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: On the plus side, RFK Jr. is (allegedly!) an infamous serial/concurrent philanderer.

M. Gessen of the New York Times makes some observations and predictions about what Trump is up to, based largely on her knowledge of what Viktor Orban & Vladmir Putin have done as well as by Trump's actions during his first term. (Also linked yesterday.)

Leonie Chao-Fong of the Guardian: "Racist text messages targeting Black people across the US just hours after Donald Trump won a second presidency have now expanded to the Hispanic communities -- and homophobic versions have been aimed at LGBTQ+ people, the FBI said on Friday. Authorities say they are investigating the messages -- which now include emails -- and that they have not received reports of violent acts stemming from the hateful messages. The recipients of the messages include high school students being told that they have been 'selected for deportation or to report to a re-education camp', the FBI said in a statement. After the 5 November US presidential election saw Trump returned to the White House, Black Americans reported receiving racist text messages telling them they had been 'selected' to pick cotton and needed to report to the 'nearest plantation'.:

Kate Christobek of the New York Times: "The editor in chief of Scientific American, the oldest continuously published magazine in the United States, has resigned more than a week after she posted comments on social media that called some supporters of ... Donald J. Trump 'bigoted' and 'fascists.' On election night, Laura Helmuth, who served as editor in chief of the publication for more than four years, posted a series of expletive-laden comments on Bluesky, a social platform. In one comment, she apologized to younger voters for Generation X being full of 'fascists.' In another, she wrote, 'Solidarity to everybody whose meanest, dumbest, most bigoted high-school classmates are celebrating early results.'... Her resignation announcement, which she shared on Bluesky, did not reference her previous posts. Ms. Helmuth had previously apologized for her posts.... She attributed her comments to 'shock and confusion about the election results' and said that they did not reflect the position of Scientific American or her colleagues.... Earlier this year, Scientific American published an editorial endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: No, no. Helmuth was right. She should not have resigned. Her every public statement does not need to reflect an editorial board consensus. She is allowed to be a person; she should be allowed to tell the truth. The people she denounced are "mean, dumb & bigoted fascists." And I'm not resigning.

Nitwits' Remorse. Look Who's Sorry Now. Andrea Shalal of Reuters: "U.S. Muslim leaders who supported Republican Donald Trump to protest against the Biden administration's support for Israel's war on Gaza and attacks on Lebanon have been deeply disappointed by his cabinet picks, they tell Reuters. 'Trump won because of us and we're not happy with his secretary of state pick and others,' said Rabiul Chowdhury, a Philadelphia investor who chaired the Abandon Harris campaign in Pennsylvania and co-founded Muslims for Trump. Muslim support for Trump helped him win Michigan and may have factored into other swing state wins, strategists believe." MB: They could not possibly have seen this coming. They remind me of these voters Akhilleus pointed out in yesterday's Comments: ~~~

~~~ Candace McDuffie of the Root: "As America grapples with Trump's impending second presidential term, folks in red states are wondering if they can change their vote.... Google Trends saw a dramatic increase in searches for 'How to change my vote' as early as the morning of Election Day before the polls were closed.... Iowa, which went red, was the state that had the highest amount of people looking into changing their votes." As Akhilleus wrote, "It figures idiots too stupid to understand the stakes also think they can change their vote."

Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: "Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, the two Georgia poll workers defamed by Rudolph W. Giuliani after the 2020 election, received his watch collection, a ring and his vintage Mercedes-Benz on Friday. The deliveries, which Mr. Giuliani's lawyer, Joseph Cammarata, reported to the court on Friday, were a long time coming for the women, who are mother and daughter. It was also a small down payment on what the former New York City mayor owes them.... [Mr. Giuliani has missed a number of deadlines to turn over certain assets to the women.] Earlier this week, Mr. Giuliani's lawyers asked the judge for permission to withdraw as his counsel, citing ethical concerns.... Mr. Trump owes Mr. Giuliani about $2 million in unpaid legal fees. Ms. Freeman and Ms. Moss are looking to collect that as well." Oh, and get this: ~~~

~~~ "A trial set for January in New York is to determine whether Mr. Giuliani can claim his $3.5 million Palm Beach condo as his primary residence, which, under Florida law, would keep it from being seized by Ms. Freeman and Ms. Moss. In [a] letter to the court on Friday, Mr. Cammarata requested a delay for the trial so that his client could attend ... Trump's inauguration on Jan. 20."

     ~~~ Politico's report, by Erica Orden, has more detail. For instance, there's this: "On Wednesday, an attorney for Freeman and Moss told the judge that a lawyer for [a storage] facility had provided them with invoices and photographs suggesting that Giuliani had moved large amounts of property there in October, including 24 pallets of 'unknown boxes and loose furniture,' potentially in violation of a restraining notice that took effect Aug. 7. The documents also showed Giuliani owed the facility nearly $100,000 as of mid-October. Until this week, Giuliani had been represented by two other attorneys, Kenneth Caruso and David Labkowski. Hours after the filing about the storage facility, Caruso and Labkowski wrote to the court asking to withdraw as his attorneys, citing rules that allow withdrawal based on a client's behavior. Their court filing suggested their deep disagreement with Giuliani's approach to the case, his lack of cooperation and his insistence on a defense that is 'not warranted under existing law.'" In fairness to Sullivan, she links to an earlier story she wrote that covers the falling-out between Giuliani & his legal team.

Carlos Greaves in McSweeney's (Nov. 6), sees the presidential election results in Swiftian (or, more accurately, in Lucasian terms): "It might seem completely delusional to be optimistic about the Empire retaking control of the galaxy, given that Palpatine's mind has become so ravaged by the power of the Sith that he spends most of his day stumbling around screaming, 'They're eating the Ewoks!' and pretending to fellate Darth Vader's lightsaber.... The rebel alliance may be shocked at this sudden reversal of fortune, but the truth of the matter is that the Empire has always been popular.... Relax. This resurgence of the Empire will likely be a temporary blip in the course of the galaxy, much like the last time the Empire was in control. Unless, of course, you're on one of the planets that gets blown to pieces." Thanks to RAS for the link.

Victoria Bisset of the Washington Post: "A former linebacker for the Detroit Lions was arrested Thursday in Georgia for allegedly assaulting law enforcement officers during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, in one of the first Capitol riot cases brought by prosecutors since Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential election. Leander Antwione Williams, who is 31 and from Savannah, Georgia, was charged with a felony offense of assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers and obstruction of law enforcement during a civil disorder, the U.S. attorney's office for the District of Columbia said in a statement Thursday. He is also charged with misdemeanor offenses including entering and remaining in a restricting building or grounds, and disorderly and disruptive conduct. Williams was a fifth-round pick by the Detroit Lions in the 2016 NFL draft, and was released the following year. He played under the name Antwione Williams."

He's B-a-a-ack! Dan Diamond & Rachel Roubein of the Washington Post: "Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) on Thursday announced he would lead the Senate's government oversight panel and prioritize investigations into the coronavirus pandemic, repeating his allegation that federal officials participated in a 'covid coverup' related to the possible origins of the virus. The libertarian senator has long maintained that government leaders have not been forthcoming about U.S. ties to virus research conducted in Wuhan, China, where the coronavirus outbreak was first detected in 2019. In combative congressional hearings, infectious-disease experts such as Anthony S. Fauci, the longtime National Institutes of Health official who retired from government service in 2022, have insisted to Paul and other Republicans that while NIH funded the virus research, the work could not have sparked the pandemic. Paul has rejected those explanations." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I feel so relieved knowing that two wacky conspiracy theorists -- RFK Jr. & Li'l Randy -- are looking out for my health concerns.

It Didn't Take Long for a Judge to Put Out My One Tiny Candle. Laura Wagner of the Washington Post: "A federal bankruptcy judge has paused the Onion's acquisition of Alex Jones's Infowars pending a court review of the auction process, after lawyers for Jones and the company affiliated with him complained that the satirical news site had put in a bid of $3.5 million.... Judge Christopher Lopez said Thursday that he had concerns about how the bidding process played out and ordered a hearing for next week to review how the auction was conducted."(Also linked yesterday.)

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Michigan. Matthew Chapman of the Raw Story: "An irate man testifying to Michigan lawmakers against a bill that would restrict the carrying of guns at the State Capitol shouted a racial slur at the shocked senators Thursday..... 'Let's be very clear: this is legislation that targets white people,' said [Avi] Rachlin. 'It is racial, because the people who carry in the Capitol are primarily white people who have [concealed pistol licenses], are primarily white, and this is retaliation for the only demographic that overwhelmingly voted to support Donald Trump. And that is why it is being taken out on us, because you don't like us.... If you want to address gun violence, we would be focusing on the people who bring guns into communities and shoot people, like where I live in Detroit -- where you represent, Stephanie Chang.' He said the area is 'overwhelmingly' 13- to 44-year-olds -- and hurled a racial slur to describe their ethnicity. At Rachlin's last remark, Chang, a Democrat, immediately gaveled him down and cut his mic, as senators from both parties roundly condemned him."

Texas. Kim Bellware of the Washington Post: "A Texas judge has ruled that Melissa Lucio is innocent of killing her daughter in 2007 and recommended that her death sentence be overturned, according to a filing made public Thursday. The finding by Cameron County Judge Arturo Nelson puts Lucio's fate in the hands of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, which has the final authority to overturn the conviction and sentence.... Nelson cited findings that the original prosecutors in Lucio's case withheld evidence that her 2-year-old daughter died after an accidental fall, rather than of abuse.... Nelson's ruling, which was written Oct. 16 and made public Thursday, comes months after a rare agreement between defense attorneys and the prosecutor that the office of the original district attorney who prosecuted Lucio's case withheld evidence that would have been favorable to the defense.... [In April,] Nelson made his first recommendation that the appeals court overturn Lucio's conviction and sentence. In June, the appeals court directed Nelson to first review the other claims for relief filed by Lucio's attorneys."