November 19, 2021

Morning/Afternoon Update:

Jury finds Kyle Rittenhouse not guilty on all counts. MB: I guess he now can go on to a great career as a Congressional intern -- at least as long as Matt Gaetz himself can stay out of jail. This is an indictment (1) of the U.S. gun culture; (2) of the Supreme Court confederates for encouraging that gun culture; (3) of the Wisconsin open-carry law; (4) of the Kenosha police who let a kid who did not even look of age prance around town with a loaded AR-15 during a riot; and (5) of irresponsible parents who allowed their irresponsible child to go on a murderous excursion. ~~~

     ~~~ Here are the Washington Post's live updates; verdicts at the top.

Emily Cochrane & Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "The House on Friday narrowly passed the centerpiece of President Biden's domestic agenda, approving $2 trillion in spending over the next decade to battle climate change, expand health care and reweave the nation's social safety net, over the unanimous opposition of Republicans. The bill's passage, 220 to 213, came after weeks of cajoling, arm-twisting and legislative legerdemain by Democrats. It was capped off by an exhausting, circuitous and record-breaking speech of more than eight hours by the House Republican leader, Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, that pushed a planned Thursday vote past midnight, then delayed it to Friday morning -- but did nothing to dent Democratic unity." The AP's report is here.

Devon Sayers, et al., of CNN: "A defense attorney for one of the three White men accused of chasing and killing Black jogger Ahmaud Arbery asked prosecutors for a plea deal and was declined, an attorney for Arbery's mother told CNN. William 'Roddie' Bryan Jr.'s lawyer 'asked for a plea deal before resting their case. Prosecutors declined any plea offer,' Lee Merritt, an attorney for Wanda Cooper-Jones, said Friday. The district attorney's office that is prosecuting the case declined to comment about being approached about a plea deal."

~~~~~~~~~~~

Ashley Parker, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Biden met Thursday with the leaders of America's neighbors to the north and south amid much praise on all sides, part of the president's ongoing effort to rebuild relations with allies after a Trump administration that was often at odds with the nation's longtime partners. But ... while Canada and Mexico welcome Biden's friendlier tone, major points of contention remain, including over U.S. immigration policies and the country's approach to trade -- both flash points under ... Donald Trump -- as well as disputes over climate change.... The White House summit marked a return to the tradition of the three-way meetings after a four-year hiatus under Trump, who had a contentious relationship with [Canadian PM Justin] Trudeau and former Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto." The New York Times story, which as of 1:30 am ET didn't make the front page, is here. The AP report is here.

John Wagner & Cleve Wootson of the Washington Post: "President Biden said Thursday that his administration is 'considering' a diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympics in China, a move that would allow U.S. athletes to compete but keep government officials from attending the Games in Beijing to protest China's human rights abuses. Democratic and Republican lawmakers, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), have advocated for such a boycott." An AP story is here.

McCarthy "Filibusters" BBB Vote with a Lie-a-thon. Tony Romm, et al., of the Washington Post: "House Democrats plan to vote Friday on a sprawling, more than $2 trillion package to overhaul the country's health care, education, climate, immigration and tax laws, pushing back their initial plans after Republicans mobilized to briefly obstruct a central piece of President Biden's economic agenda. Democrats began Thursday hoping to hold a swift vote on the signature spending initiative, putting an end to months of intense, internal wrangling among their own liberal and moderate ranks.... But ... House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) took to the chamber floor beginning in the evening ... [and] embarked on a form of filibuster, using the unlimited time available to House leaders ahead of votes to rail on the roughly $2 trillion bill. McCarthy's winding speech attacked Democrats over a broad range of issues, including border security and Afghanistan policy, and repeatedly mischaracterized their exact spending ambitions. The GOP leader's ongoing remarks often drew jeers and laughs from Democrats...." This is an update of a story linked Thursday. ~~~

     ~~~ Update: According to CNN, Kevin's lie-a-thon ran for 8 hours & 32 minutes, the longest in House history. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The New York Times story, which sports a misleading headline -- "Social Policy Bill Will Add to Deficit, C.B.O. Says; Democrats Delay Vote" -- is here. The AP's report is here. ~~~

~~~ For those of you who are saddened you didn't stay up all night for Kevin McCarthy's lie-a-thon, Matt Fuller and Ursula Perano of the Daily Beast, via Yahoo! News, report the, uh, highlights: McCarthy "delivered a stemwinder of half-truths, outright lies, aggrieved arguments, unrelated tangents, and recycled rhetoric.... When McCarthy baselessly claimed the bill would cost $5 trillion, Democrats started yelling out increasingly large numbers. '$6 trillion!' one shouted, before another topped him with '$7 trillion!' -- with more Democrats joining in with even more farcical projections. When McCarthy said, 'If I sound angry, I am,' Democrats chimed in with a prolonged 'awww' sound...." ~~~

     (~~~ Marie: BTW, I did stay up much of the night, but I didn't listen to Kevin's speech. Instead, I kept going outside in the rain (because I'm not all that smart) to try to see the eclipse of the moon. Finally, the skies cleared enough at about 4 am for me to see the eclipse. Luckily, it was the longest eclipse in 580 years, because I would not have wanted to wait another 600 or so years to see an eclipse in inclement weather.) ~~~

~~~ Sarah Ewell-Wice & Melissa Quinn of CBS News: "The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office on Thursday released its much anticipated cost estimate of President Biden's signature social spending plan, Build Back Better. The analysis -- commonly referred to as the CBO score -- said passage of the legislation would increase the deficit by more than $367 billion over 10 years. But the estimate does not include the revenue that could be generated from increasing IRS enforcement.... Over the past several weeks, the Congressional Budget Office had been releasing estimates on individual components of the Build Back Better Act, but the section dealing directly with how much money the legislation would raise as well as its total cost was not released until Thursday. On Wednesday, the CBO estimated the legislation would include $1.63 trillion in spending. At the same time, changes to the tax code and other provisions would generate more than $1.26 trillion in revenue. The Congressional Budget Office said increased IRS enforcement would add another $207 billion in revenue." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I read the whole article, and it looks to me as if -- based on the numbers CBS News reports -- there's a shortfall of $163 billion, not $367 billion, when you include CBO's estimated enhanced enforcement revenue. Sixteen billion a year is chump-change for the federal government & therefore effectively meaningless in an estimate that covers a decade. ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Paul Waldman of the Washington Post agrees with me (in principle but not exactly with my arithmetic): "... the CBO score looks quite good for the BBB. It found that the bill will increase the deficit, but within a margin that should permit an important principle to kick in: While we should take the CBO's analysis into account, we should also remember that there's always a good bit of uncertainty in its projections.... On top of this, many people think CBO's figure on the cost savings from tax enforcement is a drastic underestimate.... We can't know for sure [who's right], which points to the reason it's foolish to act as though the CBO's predictions are necessarily the correct ones."

David Smith of the Guardian: "... Republicans in Washington ... dusted off the 'red scare' playbook to portray Joe Biden's choice to run one of the agencies that oversees the banking industry as a dangerous communist. Saule Omarova, 55, was nominated in September to be America's next comptroller of the currency. If confirmed, she would be the first woman and person of colour in the role in its 158-year-history. Omarova was born in Kazakhstan when it was part of the Soviet Union and moved to the US in 1991.... Questioning whether Omarova was still a member of communist youth organisations, [Sen. John] Kennedy [R-La.] said: 'I don't mean any disrespect: I don't know whether to call you professor or comrade.' The remark prompted gasps in the hearing room on Capitol Hill. [After rebutting Kennedy's charactertization of her political views,] Omarova ... told how her family suffered under the communist regime.... 'Taken in totality, her ideas do amount to a socialist manifesto for American financial services,' [Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.)] said. ~~~

"... the Democratic chairman of the committee, Sherrod Brown of Ohio..., said: 'Senate Republicans have a formula. Start with a passing and inaccurate reference to her academic work, distort the substance beyond recognition, mix in words -- Marx, Lenin, communism. End with insinuations about Professor Omarova loyalties to her chosen country. That's how Republicans turn a qualified woman into a Marxist boogeyman ... Now we know what happens when Trumpism meets McCarthyism.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Somehow I think Sen. Foghorn T. Leghorn (R-La.) did "mean disrespect" when he used a public Senate hearing to imply Omarova was a Communist. (I am not, BTW, the first person to equate Sen. Kennedy with the cartoon rooster. In 2019, Tim Morris of the New Orleans Times-Picayune assembled a series of statements in the form of a quiz, asking readers to choose who made each remark, Leghorn or Kennedy. I could not access any but the first question, but maybe you can.)

Felicia Sonmez & Eugene Scott of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump and House Republicans rallied behind Rep. Paul A. Gosar (R-Ariz.) Thursday, a day after he was censured for posting an altered anime video of himself killing a colleague, endorsing his reelection and signaling he would be given better committee assignments if Republicans win control of the House in 2022. Trump praised Gosar, who earlier this year appeared at an event whose organizer has defended racial segregation and minimized the Holocaust, as 'a loyal supporter of our America First agenda, and even more importantly, the USA.'... Earlier in the day, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said that he would likely give Gosar and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) better committee assignments if the GOP wins the majority next year, dismissing the lawmakers' embrace of violent rhetoric and imagery against Democrats." MB: Very touching. See also the second story linked on the civil suit brought against other white supremacists who attacked counter-demonstrators in Charlottesville, Va. There's a connection. ~~~

~~~ Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post: "Listen to political scientists, pollsters and well-meaning elected officials, and you'll likely hear a lot of chatter about 'polarization.'... The polarization argument too often treats both sides as equally worthy of blame, characterizing the problem as a sort of free-floating affliction (e.g., 'lack of trust'). This blurs the distinction between a Democratic Party that is marginally more progressive in policy positions than it was a decade ago, and a Republican Party that routinely lies, courts violence and seeks to define America as a White Christian nation." Read on: Rubin makes her case.

All in the Family. Joaquin Sapien & Joshua Kaplan of ProPublica: "Kimberly Guilfoyle, a top fundraiser for ... Donald Trump and the girlfriend of his son Donald Trump Jr., boasted to a GOP operative that she had raised $3 million for the rally that helped fuel the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. In a series of text messages sent on Jan. 4 to Katrina Pierson, the White House liaison to the event, Guilfoyle detailed her fundraising efforts and supported a push to get far-right speakers on the stage alongside Trump for the rally, which sought to overturn the election of President Joe Biden. Guilfoyle's texts, reviewed by ProPublica, represent the strongest indication yet that members of the Trump family circle were directly involved in the financing and organization of the rally.... Guilfoyle's attorney, Joe Tacopina, denied that Guilfoyle had anything to do with fundraising or approving speakers.... He threatened to 'aggressively pursue all legal remedies available' against ProPublica." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Sorry, Joe, unless ProPublica invented the emails they cite (and they almost certainly did not as ProPublica is a reputable news org), you don't have much in the way of "legal remedies" against them.

Trump Inspired Every Known Case of 2020 Presidential Election Voter Fraud. Dennis Aftergut in the (right-wing/anti-Trump) Bulwark: "On Tuesday, Donald Kirk Hartle, the CFO of a Nevada company that hosted a September 2020 rally for Donald Trump, pleaded guilty to voting twice in last November's election, including once in his dead wife's name. Hartle is just the latest in a string of apparent Trump supporters who committed voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election. This pattern is a warning of the lawlessness among Trump's followers that could engulf us all.... Last November, before it was discovered that he was the culprit, [Hartle] feigned 'disbelief' that someone would steal and submit his dead wife's ballot.... A review of [a Heritage Foundation] database reveals an astonishing fact: In every listed indictment and conviction for voter fraud or other malfeasance in connection with the 2020 presidential general election, when the culprit's political affiliation is known he or she turns out to be a Republican or 'unabashed conservative.'... There appears to have been a bit of an epidemic of Republican dead mothers voting.... A breakdown of the constraints of law occurred under the bombarding messages of Donald Trump and his enablers. Among Trump's followers, the end -- one party under Trump -- apparently justifies the means of breaking the law to vote for him twice." (The Heritage Foundation is also a right-wing outfit.)

Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "Two Iranian men were indicted by the U.S. Justice Department on Thursday, accused of a brazen hacking and disinformation campaign that targeted American voters in the run-up to the 2020 U.S. presidential election. Seyyed Kazemi, 24, and Sajjad Kashian, 27, allegedly sent threatening emails to try to scare voters, attempted to break into several states' voting-related websites and gained access to a U.S. media company's computer network. Officials say the pair emailed thousands of voters in October, including many Democrats. They allegedly claimed to be Proud Boys and threatened the email recipients with physical attacks if they did not change party affiliation and vote for ... Donald Trump. The emails seemed to target primarily voters in Florida and Alaska, officials said at the time. The same illicit effort also pushed a video through Facebook, Twitter and YouTube that claimed to show someone hacking into voter websites to create falsified overseas and absentee ballots, according to the indictment." The NBC News story is here.

Eric Schmitt & Ronen Bergman of the New York Times: "An armed drone strike last month on an American military base in southern Syria was Iranian retaliation for Israeli airstrikes in Syria, according to eight American and Israeli officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters. The drone attack, which caused no casualties, would be the first time Iran has directed a military strike against the United States in response to an attack by Israel, an escalation of Iran's shadow war with Israel that poses new dangers to U.S. forces in the Middle East. Five so-called suicide drones were launched at the American base at Al Tanf on Oct. 20 in what the U.S. Central Command called a 'deliberate and coordinated' attack. Only two detonated on impact, but they were loaded with ball bearings and shrapnel with a 'clear intent to kill,' a senior U.S. military official said."

Judges Sick of First Amendment Press Rights

Michael Grynbaum of the New York Times: "A New York trial court judge ordered The New York Times on Thursday to temporarily refrain from publishing or seeking out certain documents related to the conservative group Project Veritas, an unusual instance of a court blocking coverage by a major news organization. The order raised immediate concerns among First Amendment advocates, who called it a violation of basic constitutional protections for journalists, a viewpoint echoed by The Times.... The judge's order is part of a pending libel lawsuit filed by Project Veritas against The Times in 2020.... The Times planned to immediately oppose [the order] in an appellate court."

AP: "The judge at Kyle Rittenhouse's murder trial banned MSNBC from the courthouse Thursday after police said they briefly detained a man who had followed the jury bus and may have tried to photograph jurors. Judge Bruce Schroeder said the man had claimed to be working for MSNBC. The judge said he was stopped because he was following the bus from about a block behind and went through a red light. NBC News said in a statement that he was a freelancer who received a citation for a traffic violation that took place near the jury vehicle, and he 'never contacted or intended to contact the jurors during deliberations, and never photographed or intended to photograph them.' The network said it regretted the incident and would fully cooperate with an investigation." Moreon happenings around the Kenosha courthouse linked below.

The Pandemic, Ctd.

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

** NEW. Sharon LaFraniere & Noah Weiland of the New York Times: "The Food and Drug Administration on Friday authorized booster shots of both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines for everyone 18 and older, opening up eligibility to tens of millions more fully vaccinated adults.... Dr. Anthony S. Fauci ... has argued relentlessly over the past month for booster shots for all adults, a position shared by most of [President] Biden's other health advisers. Dr. Fauci has said that a dip in antibody levels in fully vaccinated people was a clear sign that booster shots were needed.... If the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention agrees, all adults who received a second shot of either Pfizer or Moderna at least six months ago will likely be eligible for a booster shot by the weekend. A meeting of the agency's outside advisers is scheduled for Friday." The Washington Post story is free to nonsubscribers.

Joel Achenbach of the Washington Post: "The location of early coronavirus infections in late 2019 in Wuhan, China, suggests the virus probably spread to humans from a market where wild and domestically farmed animals were sold and butchered, according to a peer-reviewed article published Thursday in the journal Science that is the latest salvo in the debate over how the pandemic began. The article, by University of Arizona evolutionary virologist Michael Worobey -- a specialist in the origins of viral epidemics -- does not purport to answer all questions about the pandemic's origins, nor is it likely to quell speculation that the virus might have emerged somehow from risky laboratory research. Worobey has been open to the theory of a lab leak. He was one of the 18 scientists who wrote a much-publicized letter to Science in May calling for an investigation of all possible sources of the virus, including a laboratory accident. But he now contends that the geographic pattern of early cases strongly supports the hypothesis that the virus came from an infected animal at the Huanan Seafood Market...." ~~~

     ~~~ A New York Times story is here. MB: And I don't suppose you'll be reading any of this in Right-Wing World News of the Week, where the virus is a Chinese plot to destroy America.

Beyond the Beltway

New Jersey. Michael Wilson of the New York Times: "The disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa, a mystery that has gripped the American imagination for half a century on its ascent to national folklore, is the subject of a new F.B.I. investigation centered on the site of a former landfill in Jersey City. A worker, on his deathbed, said he buried the body underground in a steel drum. F.B.I. agents armed with a search warrant arrived in Jersey City at a plot of dirt and gravel the size of a Little League diamond below the Pulaski Skyway on Oct. 25 and 26 to conduct a 'site survey,' according to the Detroit field office, which has led the investigation into Mr. Hoffa's disappearance in 1975. The steel drum is said to be buried about 15 feet below ground...."

New York. Shayna Jacobs of the Washington Post: "A judge dismissed the convictions of two of the three men found guilty of killing Malcolm X, after Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. acknowledged deep flaws in the decades-old prosecution and said 'it was clear these men did not receive a fair trial.' With 83-year-old Muhammad A. Aziz sitting at the next table in New York Supreme Court Justice Ellen Biben's courtroom, Vance said the convictions of him and the late Khalil Islam -- both of whom served 20 years in prison -- were 'wrongful' and asked for them to be vacated. He said there was no way to retry the legendary murder case with most witnesses dead and with major pieces of evidence missing from the record. Vance's office joined attorneys for Aziz and Islam's family in filing the motion seeking to overturn the first-degree murder convictions." The AP report is here.

Oklahoma. Michael Levenson, et al., of the New York Times: "Gov. Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma called off the execution of a death-row inmate just hours before the man was scheduled to die by lethal injection on Thursday, culminating an extraordinary campaign for clemency that drew in celebrities, his fellow conservatives and Christian leaders. Mr. Stitt, a Republican and death-penalty supporter, announced that, after 'prayerful consideration,' he had reduced the death sentence for the inmate, Julius Jones, 41, who was convicted of first-degree murder in 2002, to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Mr. Jones and his supporters insisted he was not guilty, and a state board voted twice to recommend that he be made eligible for parole." MB: Whether or not Stitt thinks he got a message from God, he did the right thing. This doesn't happen to Republicans very often, so we can all say Hallelujah!

Virginia. Ellie Silverman of the Washington Post: Jurors in the civil suit against white supremacists & hate groups heard closing arguments Thursday and are expected to begin deliberations Friday. ~~~

~~~ Ellie Silverman of the Washington Post: "The jury in a federal courtroom listened as a longtime researcher of far-right movements parsed the style guide of the infamous neo-Nazi website the Daily Stormer. 'The tone of the site should be light. Most people are not comfortable with material that comes across as vitriolic, raging, nonironic hatred. The unindoctrinated should not be able to tell if we are joking or not,' according to a guide section titled 'Lulz' — which stands for for 'laugh out loud.' Continuing with a derogatory term for Jews, it read, 'This is obviously a ploy and I actually do want to gas k---s. But that's neither here nor there.' This evidence, introduced in an ongoing civil trial against organizers of the deadly 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, appeared to highlight a sinister strategy expert witness Pete Simi was trying to teach the jurors: the ways in which white supremacists employ humor to shield their calls for violence, in an effort to render them legally ambiguous." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I don't have to tell you that this is exactly the advice Paul Gosar took when he "employed humor" to call for the murders of Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez & President Biden.

Wisconsin. Kyle Has the Sweetest Supporters. Tim Stelloh of NBC News: "A man seen carrying an AR-15 rifle outside the courthouse in Kenosha, Wisconsin, where a jury is deliberating in the double homicide trial of Kyle Rittenhouse, identified himself as a former police officer in Ferguson, Missouri.... [Jesse] Kline said he had traveled to Kenosha from Arizona, where he lives, to 'exercise my constitutional rights.'... After sheriff's deputies told Kline that he couldn't have the firearm because state law prohibits people from carrying guns within 1,000 feet of a school, the incident was resolved without further action...." Photos also captured him holding what appeared to be a sex toy [MB: which must be totally legal to brandish near a courthouse!].... Kline ... was fired [from the Ferguson police force] ... after he was accused of following an ex-girlfriend to another man's home and poking the man's chest with the barrel of his gun, NBC affiliate KSDK of St. Louis reported." The Chicago Tribune story, which is subscriber-firewalled, IDs Kline as "a man who screamed obscenities about Black Lives Matter ... outside the Kenosha County Courthouse...." So just a totally rational person.

Way Beyond

China, etc. Helen Davidson of the Guardian & Agencies: "The Women's Tennis Association is prepared to pull its tournaments out of China if there isn't an adequate response to Peng Shuai's allegation that she was sexually assaulted by China's former vice premier, chief executive Steve Simon has told US media. Peng, Chinese tennis star and former doubles world No.1, has not been seen in public since she accused the former high-ranking official, Zhang Gaoli, of sexual assault in a Weibo post that was deleted half an hour later. In the lengthy 2 November post, Peng alleged that Zhang had forced her into sex after inviting her to his house to play tennis with him and his wife three years ago. She also said she and Zhang had previously had an on-off consensual relationship.... Concern among the global tennis community and beyond has grown over Peng's safety and whereabouts since her allegation, with the WTA calling for an investigation and the world's top players tweeting #WhereIsPengShuai."

November 18, 2021

Seung Min Kim & Dino Grandoni of the Washington Post: "President Biden continued his infrastructure sales tour Wednesday with a visit to the Detroit area, promoting American-made electric vehicles and his broader public works law while the rest of his climate agenda hangs in the balance in Washington. The car-aficionado-in-chief took a spin through a General Motors plant retooled to manufacture electric cars, proclaiming that Detroit has led the world in electric vehicles and that the new infrastructure law would further boost the use of non-gasoline-powered vehicles across the country." ~~~

~~~ The text of President Biden's speech as delivered, via the White House, is here. Video of the full speech is here. The President began with remarks that should (but probably won't) shut up Democratic social infrastructure bill critics like Joe Look-at-Me Manchin:

... two of the leading rating agencies on Wall Street confirmed today -- not a liberal think tank, two Wall Street outfits -- that the economic proposals we put forward for the nation -- the infrastructure law we just signed and the Build Back Better plan are being considered this week in Congress -- will not add to inflationary pressures in the economy. And at one -- and here's what one of the agencies said, and I quote, 'The bills do not add to inflation pressures.'... The reason? Because the policies I proposed, quote, 'help ...; lift long-term economic growth via stronger productivity ... labor force growth,' as well as taking 'the edge off of inflation. -- President Biden, Wednesday, Detroit

House Votes to Censure Gosar; Almost All Republicans Favor Incitement to Murder AOC. Felicia Sonmez, et al., of the Washington Post: "The House voted Wednesday to censure Rep. Paul A. Gosar (R-Ariz.) for tweeting an anime video that depicted him killing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and swinging swords at President Biden -- a move that comes amid growing worries about violent political rhetoric 10 months after a mob of former president Donald Trump's supporters attacked the Capitol. The 223-to-207 vote, with one member voting present, marks the first time in more than a decade that the House has censured one of its members. The resolution also removes Gosar from his assignments on the House Oversight and Natural Resources committees. Two Republicans, Reps. Liz Cheney (Wyo.) and Adam Kinzinger (Ill.), joined Democrats in backing the measure. Rep. David Joyce (R-Ohio) voted 'present.'"(Also linked yesterday.) The New York Times story is here. CNN's report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: In a normal country, a few Republicans on the radical right would have supported Gosar. We do not live in a "normal country" when almost all of the elected House members of one party tacitly endorse violence against another member, specifically against a woman of color. Republicans are a party of violent, misogynistic cowards. They are reprehensible. ~~~

     ~~~ Gosar Repeats Censured Offense. Matthew Chapman of the Raw Story: "On Wednesday, Newsweek reported that Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) retweeted an account promoting his own anime video depicting himself murdering Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) -- just minutes after the House voted to censure him and strip him of committee assignments for the original tweet. 'Gosar had previously deleted the controversial video, which shows him slaughtering Ocasio-Cortez before turning the blade towards President Joe Biden, refusing to apologize but explaining that he had "self-censored" due to a sense of "compassion for those who generally felt offense."'" The Newsweek story, which is firewalled, is here.

~~~ Dana Milbank of the Washington Post: "... Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) is the one who truly has earned the censure of posterity. In his craven attempt to maintain himself as the House Republican leader, McCarthy showed once again that there is no level of violent, hateful or authoritarian speech that goes too far. By condoning threats and intimidation in the people's House, he is inviting actual violence -- and signing democracy's death warrant.... McCarthy was outraged -- not by the unrepentant [Paul] Gosar's homicidal cinematography but by Democrats' move to reprimand him.... McCarthy, on the House floor, mentioned the matter only in passing..., instead reciting a meandering list of grievances: Proxy voting! The Steele dossier! Afghanistan! He threatened that when speaker he would retaliate by stripping committee assignments from five Democrats over various perceived offenses.... There was once a case to be made that McCarthy was simply a weak leader. But now it's clear he is blessing the provocations to violence." ~~~

~~~ Aaron Blake of the Washington Post points out that Republicans' response to Democrats punishing their members for egregious acts is to threaten that when Republicans return to power, they will punish Democrats for no reason at all. ~~~

~~~ The Party of Killers. Michael Luciano of Mediaite: "Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) thanked Newsmax host Grant Stinchfield on Wednesday night for his support of Kyle Rittenhouse, who is currently on trial in Kenosha, Wisconsin.... [Gaetz said of Rittenhouse,] 'He is not guilty. He deserves a not guilty verdict, and I sure hope he gets it because you know what? Kyle Rittenhouse would probably make a pretty good congressional intern. We may reach out to him and see if he'd be interested in helping the country in additional ways.'" MB: "Additional ways"? IOW, killing two people & maiming a third was "helping the country."

Dan Lamothe & Paul Sonne of the Washington Post: "The D.C. National Guard's commanding general was directed twice by Pentagon leadership to send in troops as violence engulfed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, according to a newly released investigation that appears to undercut the now-retired general's claim that he would have responded to the riot more quickly if Trump administration officials had allowed. Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy first notified Maj. Gen. William Walker by phone at 4:35 p.m. that Walker was authorized to send troops to Capitol Hill, and then called the general again 'to reissue the deployment order' about 30 minutes after McCarthy 'originally conveyed it,' an unidentified Army witness told investigators with the independent Defense Department Inspector General, according to a newly released report. The investigation's findings bring new scrutiny to Walker, who earlier this year was lauded for his candor in publicly recounting how dysfunction at the Pentagon stalled the National Guard's response as supporters of ... Donald Trump brutalized police and panicked lawmakers pleaded for help.... Walker said he was not allowed to respond to the anonymous statements before the report...."

Hannah Rabinowitz & Katelyn Polantz of CNN: "Jacob Chansley, the so-called 'QAnon Shaman,' was sentenced to 41 months in prison for his role in the US Capitol riot.... Judge Royce Lamberth has had Chansley held in jail since his arrest, despite his multiple attempts to gain sympathy and his release. Other judges are likely to look to Lamberth's sentence as a possible benchmark, since Chansley is one of the first felony defendants among more than 660 Capitol riot cases to receive a punishment." (Also linked yesterday.) The New York Times story is here.

Rebecca Beitsch & Harper Neidig of the Hill: "... Stephen Bannon moved to plead not guilty Wednesday to criminal contempt of Congress charges after he failed to comply with a subpoena from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.... The filing anticipates an arraignment scheduled for Thursday for Bannon in which he was expected to plead not guilty. His lawyers filed a motion Wednesday to enter the not guilty plea and skip the arraignment -- a move that requires approval from the judge."

Ruth Graham of the New York Times: "The Roman Catholic bishops of the United States backed away from a direct conflict with President Biden on Wednesday, approving a new document on the sacrament of the eucharist that does not mention the president or any politicians by name.... For some conservative Catholics, the real question was ...: Should Catholic politicians who publicly support and advance abortion rights be denied the sacrament?... The document ... highlighted a divide between conservative American bishops and the Vatican, and pitted some of the nation's most powerful prelates against the country's second Catholic president.... An emboldened Catholic right wing, including media outlets and activist groups, now feels increasingly free to antagonize Pope Francis and his agenda."

Noam Scheiber of the New York Times: "About 10,000 workers at the agriculture equipment maker Deere & Company will go back to work after the approval of a contract on Wednesday, bringing to an end a five-week strike that affected 14 facilities primarily in Iowa and Illinois. The six-year contract was ratified, 61 percent to 39 percent, after workers voted down two earlier agreements between the United Automobile Workers and the company.... The new contract raises wages and includes language that makes the company's performance pay more generous."

Dan Keating & Lenny Bernstein of the Washington Post: "The U.S. drug epidemic reached another terrible milestone Wednesday when the government announced that more than 100,000 people had died of overdoses between April 2020 and April 2021. It is the first time that drug-related deaths have reached six figures in any 12-month period.... The new figures, which are provisional but rarely change much in final tallies, represent a 28.5 percent increase from the same period a year earlier. The financial, mental health, housing and other difficulties of the covid-19 pandemic are widely blamed for much of the increase." The Guardian's report is here. (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: "Mask-wearing reduces the incidence of covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, by 53 percent, according to a study published on Thursday that looked at the results of dozens of earlier research examining the efficacy of the face-coverings. The meta-analysis, which is a method that combines the results of multiple scientific studies, was conducted by researchers from Australia's Monash University and Scotland's University of Edinburgh and published on the BMJ, a weekly peer-reviewed medical trade journal published by the British Medical Association, a trade union."

** Laura Strickler of NBC News: "A federal agency that was run by a college friend of Jared Kushner and assigned $100 million to spend on fixing the Covid supply chain crunch has so far failed to invest a single dime, according to a new government watchdog report. In 2020, the Trump administration directed the International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) to loan out $100 million in Pentagon funds through the CARES Act to 'finance the domestic production of strategic resources needed to respond to the COVID-19 outbreak, and to strengthen any relevant domestic medical supply chains.'... Adam Boehler, briefly a college roommate of ... Donald Trump's son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner, ran the International Development Finance Corporation starting in fall 2019.... Boehler left the DFC on Jan. 20, the day of President Joe Biden's inauguration, and was succeeded by [an acting CEO, Dev] Jagadesan." Jagadesan blamed the Departments of Defense & Health & Human Services for the interminable delays in "emergency" funding. In fairness to the agency, it apparently has spent about $1MM (it doesn't keep very good records so no telling the exact figure) shuffling papers.

     ~~~ Marie: So if you thought putting Jared in charge of stuff was a terrible idea, look what you get when you put a "friend of Jared" in charge of something. Bupkis. Minus a million dollars (or so).

Beyond the Beltway

Georgia. Giulia Heyward of the New York Times: "Travis McMichael, the man who shot Ahmaud Arbery to death after chasing him through a suburban Georgia neighborhood, testified in his own defense on Wednesday, arguing that pointing his gun at Mr. Arbery was an attempt to 'de-escalate' the situation, a tactic he said he had learned during use-of-force training while serving in the U.S. Coast Guard. 'If you pull a weapon on someone, from what I've learned in my training, usually that tells people to back off,' Mr. McMichael said, describing it as 'compelled compliance.'... He described the encounter as 'the most traumatic experience of my life.'" MB: A little more traumatic for the man you murdered. I'd like to know if the Coast Guard really trains its personnel to fire on burglary suspects. McMichael's testimony, IMO, was bizarre.

New York. Ashley Southall & Jonah Bromwich of the New York Times: "Two of the men found guilty of the assassination of Malcolm X are expected to have their convictions thrown out on Thursday, the Manhattan district attorney and lawyers for the two men said, rewriting the official history of one of the most notorious murders of the civil rights era. For decades, historians have cast doubt on the case against the two men, Muhammad A. Aziz and Khalil Islam, who each spent more than 20 years in prison. Their exoneration represents a remarkable acknowledgment of grave errors made in a case of towering importance: the 1965 murder of one of America's most influential Black leaders.... A 22-month investigation conducted jointly by the Manhattan district attorney's office and lawyers for the two men found that prosecutors and two of the nation's premier law enforcement agencies -- the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the New York Police Department -- had withheld key evidence that, had it been turned over, would likely have led to the men's acquittal.... The case against them was questionable from the outset, and in the decades since, historians and amateur investigators have raised doubts about the official story." The AP's report is here.

Charles Blow of the New York Times: "There is quite the convergence at the moment of race and justice as cases featuring white male defendants accused of everything from murder to insurrection dominate news coverage." Blow looks at a number of cases in the news. But here's one that didn't catch his attention: ~~~

~~~ New York. Timothy Bella of the Washington Post: "A New York man who pleaded guilty to rape and sexual abuse for assaulting four teenage girls during parties at his parents' home will not face jail time after a judge Tuesday sentenced him to eight years probation. Niagara County Court Judge Matthew J. Murphy III said he 'agonized' over the case of 20-year-old Christopher Belter, who was accused of committing the crimes when he was 16 or 17. Belter pleaded guilty in 2019 to felony charges.... Murphy concluded that jail time for [Belter] 'would be inappropriate' in a ruling that shocked the courtroom.... Steven M. Cohen, an attorney for one of the victims..., told The Washington Post on Wednesday..., 'If Chris Belter was not a White defendant from a rich and influential family, in my experience ... he would surely have been sentenced to prison.'... [The rapes were] fueled by [Belter's] mother, Tricia Vacanti, now 50; his stepfather, Gary Sullo, 56; and Jessica M. Long, 42, a family friend, who allegedly supplied teen girls with alcohol and marijuana, according to state police."

South Dakota. John Wagner of the Washington Post: "The daughter of South Dakota Gov. Kristi L. Noem (R) said Tuesday that she would turn in her real estate appraiser license and exit the business by the end of the year amid continuing scrutiny over whether her mother intervened in her licensing. In a letter to the South Dakota Department of Labor, Kassidy Peters, Noem's daughter, insisted that neither she nor her mother had done anything wrong but said that a legislative inquiry into the matter had 'successfully destroyed my business.' 'It is clear that none of this will stop until my reputation and that of my young family are destroyed,' Peters wrote. 'The entire inquiry and media pressure has done irreparable damage to my business.'" MB: The South Dakota legislature is controlled by Republicans. Nonetheless, a Republican governor -- and even her family member -- are the oppressed victims of their ruinous harassment. That's just so wrong.

Way Beyond

Belarus/Poland. Isabelle Khurshudyan of the Washington Post: "Belarus used buses Wednesday to move hundreds of migrants from the Polish border to a nearby warehouse, providing temporary shelter amid freezing temperatures and potentially easing a standoff with the European Union. The Belarus decision comes a day after violence erupted along the border, where migrants from the Middle East and elsewhere have been stranded. For months, Belarus has opened routes for migrants to reach E.U. borders in retaliation for European sanctions. Polish authorities used water cannons to push back the migrants, an escalation they said was overseen by Belarusian forces." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Backfire! Robyn Dixon of the Washington Post: "Months after Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko unleashed a migrant crisis against the European Union, the gambit has come full circle. Lukashenko's regime is now struggling over what do with thousands of stranded people he lured from the Middle East and beyond -- and the man often called Europe's last dictator is trying to save face after trying to punish his neighbors over sanctions."

November 17, 2021

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

House Votes to Censure Gosar; Almost All Republicans Favor Murderous Video. Felicia Sonmez, et al., of the Washington Post: "The House voted Wednesday to censure Rep. Paul A. Gosar (R-Ariz.) for tweeting an anime video that depicted him killing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and swinging swords at President Biden -- a move that comes amid growing worries about violent political rhetoric 10 months after a mob of former president Donald Trump's supporters attacked the Capitol. The 223-to-207 vote, with one member voting present, marks the first time in more than a decade that the House has censured one of its members. The resolution also removes Gosar from his assignments on the House Oversight and Natural Resources committees. Two Republicans, Reps. Liz Cheney (Wyo.) and Adam Kinzinger (Ill.), joined Democrats in backing the measure. Rep. David Joyce (R-Ohio) voted 'present.'"

Hannah Rabinowitz & Katelyn Polantz of CNN: "Jacob Chansley, the so-called 'QAnon Shaman,' was sentenced to 41 months in prison for his role in the US Capitol riot.... Judge Royce Lamberth has had Chansley held in jail since his arrest, despite his multiple attempts to gain sympathy and his release. Other judges are likely to look to Lamberth's sentence as a possible benchmark, since Chansley is one of the first felony defendants among more than 660 Capitol riot cases to receive a punishment."

Dan Keating & Lenny Bernstein of the Washington Post: "The U.S. drug epidemic reached another terrible milestone Wednesday when the government announced that more than 100,000 people had died of overdoses between April 2020 and April 2021. It is the first time that drug-related deaths have reached six figures in any 12-month period.... The new figures, which are provisional but rarely change much in final tallies, represent a 28.5 percent increase from the same period a year earlier. The financial, mental health, housing and other difficulties of the covid-19 pandemic are widely blamed for much of the increase." The Guardian's report is here.

Belarus/Poland. Isabelle Khurshudyan of the Washington Post: "Belarus used buses Wednesday to move hundreds of migrants from the Polish border to a nearby warehouse, providing temporary shelter amid freezing temperatures and potentially easing a standoff with the European Union. The Belarus decision comes a day after violence erupted along the border, where migrants from the Middle East and elsewhere have been stranded. For months, Belarus has opened routes for migrants to reach E.U. borders in retaliation for European sanctions. Polish authorities used water cannons to push back the migrants, an escalation they said was overseen by Belarusian forces."

~~~~~~~~~~

Jim Tankersley of the New York Times: "President Biden on Tuesday began selling his $1 trillion infrastructure law, making the case that the money would do more than rebuild roads, bridges and railways. The law, he said, would help the United States regain its competitive edge against China. 'We're about to turn things around in a big way,' Mr. Biden said in remarks at a bridge over the Pemigewasset River, in snowy New Hampshire. 'For example, because of this law, next year will be the first year in 20 years that American infrastructure investment will grow faster than China's.' The president has cast the legislation as a giant leap for the United States in its battle with China to dominate the 21st-century economy, even though it does not include the full scope of his campaign promises to pour money into research and development and provide incentives for domestic manufacturing and other initiatives." ~~~

     ~~~ WMUR's (Manchester) report is here. Nothing in it about rabid anti-vaxxers tossing snowballs & epithets at Biden, so I guess the event went all right. Video of the President's speech is here. He begins speaking at about 2:25 minutes in.

Dino Grandoni of the Washington Post: "The Biden administration submitted a treaty amendment aimed at curbing a set of climate super-pollutants for Senate approval on Tuesday, White House officials confirmed. The United States played a key role in forging the Kigali Amendment to the 1987 Montreal Protocol, which compels countries to phase down hydrofluorocarbons -- human-made chemicals hundreds to thousands of times as powerful as carbon dioxide -- by 85 percent by 2036. But the Trump administration reversed Obama-era rules aimed at cutting these chemicals, known as HFCs, which are widely used in refrigeration and air conditioning. Curbing the use of hydrofluorocarbons is rare climate policy that garners support from both parties. It will need significant GOP backing to pass. The amendment, like all treaties, will require the approval of a two-thirds supermajority of the chamber to become law.... The White House announcement earned swift praise from both environmentalists and industry representatives."

Guardian & Agencies: "China and the US have agreed to ease restrictions on each other's journalists amid a slight easing of tensions between the two sides. The official China Daily newspaper said on Wednesday that the agreement was reached ahead of the virtual summit between Chinese leader Xi Jinping and US president Joe Biden held a day earlier. Under the agreement, the US will issue one-year multiple-entry visas to Chinese journalists and will immediately initiate a process to address 'duration of status' issues, China Daily said. China will reciprocate by granting equal treatment to US journalists once the US policies take effect, and both sides will issue media visas for new applicants 'based on relevant laws and regulations', the report said." The New York Times report is here.

Katie Benner of the New York Times: "The F.B.I. has begun to track threats against school administrators, teachers and board members to assess the extent of the problem, part of the Justice Department's effort to grapple with the heated and occasionally violent clashes over culture war issues like the teaching of racism and mask requirements. Last month the F.B.I. created a 'threat tag' to apply to reports of threats, harassment and violence against school officials, to comply with a memo sent by Attorney General Merrick B. Garland, according to a directive issued on Oct. 20 to the bureau's criminal and counterterrorism divisions that House Republicans made public on Tuesday.... Republicans in Congress have seized on the Justice Department's focus on [these] threats of violence ... to buttress their contention that the Biden administration and Democrats are seeking to intimidate or silence parents who object to local school policies." ~~~

     ~~~ Eric Kleefeld of Media Matters: "Fox News and other right-wing media voices are now hyping a letter from House Republicans claiming that the FBI is targeting parents who show up to complain at school board meetings. But the document they have produced does not even say that at all. Previously, Fox News lied about an FBI letter on efforts to track violent threats against school officials, to then claim that parents across the country would be labeled as 'domestic terrorists.' In fact, an official memorandum specifically differentiated such threats from 'spirited debate about policy matters' that is protected by the Constitution. The outlets are now misusing an FBI term of art, 'threat tag,' to make it sound like individual parents are being tracked." ~~~

~~~ Marie: It seems one of our favorite U.S. senators, Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) has responded to the FBI's shocking intimidation of concerned parents by introducing a Parents' Bill of Rights. That's fine, but I'm still awaiting Hawley's much-anticipated Manly Man Bill of Rights, which, at the very least, should return wives to a state of chattel & codify "love, honor and obey" as an essential element of a woman's marriage vow.

Mychael Schnell of the Hill: "House Democrats are planning to hold 1,000 events throughout the country between now and the end of the year to tout their latest legislative accomplishments, including the bipartisan infrastructure bill, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) Chairman Sean Patrick Maloney (N.Y.) announced on Tuesday." MB: The article does not mention the Covid relief package which the House & Senate (through reconciliation) passed on partyline votes late last winter. Everybody -- perhaps including Maloney -- has forgotten that law, which was a huge boost to the economy, no doubt saved millions of American families from near-destitution & substantially reduced the country's child poverty level. Maybe I'll get around to making up a New York address & writing to Maloney to remind him to tout the Covid bill, too.

Catie Edmondson of the New York Times: "House Democrats plan to move on Wednesday to formally rebuke Representative Paul Gosar, Republican of Arizona, and strip him of committee assignments for posting an animated video depicting him killing a Democratic congresswoman and attacking President Biden. Democratic leaders intend to hold a vote to censure Mr. Gosar -- the most severe punishment in the House of Representatives short of expulsion -- and oust him from his seats on the House Oversight and Natural Resources Committees. The action comes a week after he used his official social media accounts to circulate a video clip from a popular anime program altered to show a figure with Mr. Gosar's face slashing the neck of another figure bearing the face of Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Democrat of New York. It also showed his character swinging swords at Mr. Biden.... Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the Republican leader, has declined to publicly denounce the video, but told reporters on Tuesday that he has told lawmakers that he would not accept 'any action or showing of a violence to another member.'" Politico's report is here.

Maria Cramer of the New York Times: "Former employees of the technology company Afiniti, the broadcaster CBS and the luxury giant LVMH shared accounts of sexual abuse, rape and harassment with a congressional committee on Tuesday, experiences they said they had been required to keep quiet because they had signed contracts with 'forced arbitration' clauses. The testimony, which implicated executives at the companies, came as the House Judiciary Committee was considering legislation that would abolish forced arbitration for victims of sexual assault and harassment. Forced arbitration often requires an employee to go through a private proceeding with his or her employer after bringing an accusation of workplace misconduct, according to legislators.... [The women] testified for hours, under protection of congressional subpoenas."

Ryan Reilly of the Huffington Post: "Daniel Rodriguez, a pro-Trump extremist who electroshocked Metropolitan Police Officer Mike Fanone on Jan. 6, was in federal court in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday trying to get his videotaped confession to the FBI tossed on the grounds that special agents engaged in 'coercive questioning' and that Rodriguez wasn't properly advised of his rights. But U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson indicated on Tuesday that she'll likely allow most of Rodriguez's admission to be used if he goes to trial, finding that only a brief portion of the interview that took place before Rodriguez was advised of his Miranda rights had to be suppressed. She'll issue a final ruling down the road, after watching the entirety of the more than three-hour interview herself.... Attorneys for Rodriguez ... tried to argue that the traumatic experience of being arrested by the FBI at his home at 6 a.m. was coercive." MB: Well, Rodriguez has a point. One way to get the incarceration rate way down would be to determine that every arrest is so traumatizing & coercive that anything a defendant says subsequent to his arrest cannot be used against him.

Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump asked a federal appeals court on Tuesday to block the National Archives from giving Congress quick access to records from his White House related to the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, arguing that litigation over whether they are properly shielded by his claim of executive privilege should fully play out first. In a 54-page brief filed before the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, Jesse R. Binnall, a lawyer for Mr. Trump, reiterated his argument that the Constitution gives the former president the power to keep those files confidential even though he is no longer in office -- and even though President Biden refused to assert executive privilege over them."

** Will Steakin of ABC News: "In the aftermath of the 2020 election, some of Donald Trump's closest allies embarked on an unprecedented effort to get the Department of Defense to chase down outlandish voter fraud conspiracy theories in hopes of helping Trump retain power, ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl writes in his new book..., scheduled to be released [Tuesday]. Karl reports that former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn and former Trump attorney Sidney Powell tried to enlist a Pentagon official to help overturn the election. According to the book, Flynn -- who had just received an unconditional pardon from President Trump after pleading guilty in 2017 to lying to the FBI during the Russia probe -- made a frantic phone call to a senior Trump intelligence official named Ezra Cohen..., who previously worked under Flynn at both the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and the National Security Council." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Do read on, especially if you didn't know about Germany's jailing former CIA Director Gina Haspel after she went on a secret mission to seize a computer server in Germany. Shouldn't Haspel have given the assignment to Jason Bourne? And now I really would like to know what part Michael's brother, Lt. Gen. Charles Flynn, played in slowing the Pentagon's response to the insurrection.

The Pandemic, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Wednesday are here: "The White House, under pressure from activists to increase the supply of coronavirus vaccines to poor nations, is prepared to invest billions of dollars to expand U.S. manufacturing capacity, with the goal of producing at least one billion doses a year beginning in the second half of 2022, two top advisers to President Biden said in an interview on Tuesday. The investment is the first step in a new plan, to be announced on Wednesday, for the government to partner with industry to address immediate vaccine needs overseas and domestically and to prepare for future pandemics, said Dr. David Kessler, who oversees vaccine distribution for the administration, and Jeff Zients, Mr. Biden's coronavirus response coordinator." ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live Covid-19 updates for Wednesday are here.

Noah Weiland & Sharon LaFraniere of the New York Times: "The Food and Drug Administration is aiming to authorize booster doses of Pfizer-BioNTech's coronavirus vaccine for all adults as early as Thursday, a move that would expand the number of Americans eligible for additional shots by tens of millions, according to people familiar with the agency's plans. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's independent committee of vaccine experts has scheduled a meeting for Friday to discuss data on the booster dose's efficacy and safety. If both the F.D.A. and the C.D.C. sign off this week, they will have acted strikingly quickly -- a little more than a week after Pfizer asked for authorization of boosters for everyone 18 and older." ~~~

~~~ Katie Shepherd of the Washington Post: "While federal officials continue to limit who can receive a coronavirus booster shot, a growing number of governors from both political parties and other officials are circumventing that guidance to offer boosters to anyone over 18 in hopes of staving off a spike in cases over the holidays. California made the first move to expand access when public health officials quietly sent a letter to local health jurisdictions and vaccine providers on Nov. 9 instructing them to trust patients to decide whether a booster is appropriate.... Within days, officials in Colorado, New Mexico, Arkansas, West Virginia and New York City endorsed boosters for all adults -- and more states and jurisdictions are expected to follow."

Tyler Pager, et al., of the Washington Post: "The Biden administration is planning to purchase 10 million courses of Pfizer's covid pill, a $5 billion investment in a treatment that officials think will help change the trajectory of the coronavirus pandemic by reducing severe illness and deaths, according to two people with knowledge of the transaction. As the administration and Pfizer on Tuesday hammered out the final details, the company asked federal regulators to authorize the five-day antiviral pill regimen called Paxlovid. The medication is the second easy-to-take treatment aimed at keeping newly infected people out of the hospital to go before the Food and Drug Administration. The other is by Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics. Biden aides see both treatments as potential game-changers to help restore a sense of normalcy heading toward the pandemic's second anniversary and are eager to add them to a still-small collection of treatments for Americans who contract the coronavirus...." The article is free to nonsubscribers. ~~~

~~~ Adam Taylor & Claire Parker of the Washington Post: "U.S. pharmaceutical giant Pfizer has agreed to a license-sharing deal that would allow its experimental covid-19 drug to be manufactured more widely around the globe. It's an agreement that the company says could give more than half of the world's population access to the treatment, even as Pfizer rebuffs calls to grant poorer countries access to its coronavirus vaccine formula.... 'This license is so important because, if authorized or approved, this oral drug is particularly well-suited for low- and middle-income countries and could play a critical role in saving lives, contributing to global efforts to fight the current pandemic,' said Charles Gore, executive director of Medicines Patent Pool, the nonprofit group that reached the agreement with Pfizer."

Nancy, Bar the Door. Cristina Marcos of the Hill: "Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said Tuesday that she has accumulated $63,000 in fines for refusing to wear a mask on the House floor, with additional fines likely to be imposed as she continues to defy the chamber's mask requirement during the COVID-19 pandemic. 'I'm up to $63,000,' Greene told The Hill outside the House chamber while not wearing a mask and confirmed that the fines are automatically 'deducted out of my check.' Greene also volunteered that she is not vaccinated against COVID-19 after declining to disclose her vaccination status for months." MB: While it is essential to democracy that Margie's constituents be represented in Congress, even if they chose Margie to be that representative, there must be some way to preclude her from endangering her House colleagues. How will the residents of other districts be represented if Margie kills their Congressmembers?

Beyond the Beltway

Alabama. Igor Bobic of the Washington Post: "In a press release issued by his office on Monday, Alabama Rep. Gary Palmer [R-Ala.] touted funding in the [newly-signed infrastructure] bill aimed at connecting communities in the Appalachian region of the country to national interstate highways, something that will benefit his district, which encompasses the city of Birmingham. 'Birmingham is currently one of the largest metropolitan areas in the country without a complete beltline around it. Completing the Northern Beltline will benefit the entire region and enhance economic development and employment opportunities,' Palmer said in a statement. An accompanying tweet issued by the congressman also touted funding for the project, though it left out the fact that he voted against it."

California. Amy Wang of the Washington Post: "Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.), who has represented parts of San Mateo County and San Francisco in Congress since 2008, announced Tuesday she will not seek reelection in 2022."

Colorado. Ernest Luning of Colorado Politics: "Federal, state and local authorities searched the homes of Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters and three of her associates on Tuesday as part of an investigation into accusations the elected official was involved in voting machine security breaches, according to an official who helped conduct the searches. The FBI carried out a court-ordered search of Peters' home in Mesa County early Tuesday morning, leaving her 'terrified,' Peters said Tuesday night in an appearance on Lindell TV, an online channel run by MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell.... '... They were not men in suits with badges,' Peters said. 'They looked very much like they were in a combat zone -- soldiers with automatic weapons and combat gear.'... Lindell said one of the homes raided by law enforcement authorities belongs to Sherronna Bishop, a Garfield County resident and former campaign manager for U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert."

Florida. Your Vote Counts. Mariana Alfaro of the Washington Post: "A Florida primary to select the Democrat who will run in a special election to fill the House seat of the late Rep. Alcee L. Hastings (D) was decided by five votes. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, a health-care executive, emerged victorious Tuesday after Florida Secretary of State Laurel M. Lee ordered a machine ballot recount of the tight race. An initial vote count found Cherfilus-McCormick nearly deadlocked with Broward County Commissioner Dale Holness, with Holness leading by 12 votes out of more than 49,000 cast."

Virginia. School Board Members Come to Their Senses, Get Over Fear of Sex. Hannah Natanson of the Washington Post: "A school board in Virginia has reversed a recent decision to remove 'sexually explicit' books from school libraries after the move stirred community outrage and drew harsh national criticism -- especially over two board members' apparent suggestion to burn the books. The Spotsylvania County School Board voted 5 to 2 Tuesday to rescind its decision, a week after two parents complained about inappropriate content. At the Nov. 8 meeting, the board unanimously directed Schools Superintendent S. Scott Baker to reconsider whether every sexually explicit book in school libraries should be kept or permanently removed -- forcing a team of about three dozen staffers, including all of the district's librarians, to start poring through tens of thousands of titles.... Many Spotsylvanians spoke during a public comment period that stretched for more than four hours. A high-schooler told the board that censorship is 'contagious and leads to much worse,' according to the Free Lance-Star. A county librarian added, 'If you have a worldview that can be undone by a novel, let me suggest that the problem is not the novel,' the Free Lance-Star reported."

Way Beyond

Belarus/Poland. AP: "A Polish government official said Wednesday that migrants who have spent days in a makeshift camp on the Belarusian side of Poland's eastern border are being taken away by bus by Belarusian officials." The New York Times is live-updating developments here.

News Lede

AP: "As many parts of western Washington began drying out Tuesday after a storm that dumped rain for days, waters in some areas continued rising, more people were urged to evacuate and crews worked to restore power and reopen roads. Officials in the small city of Sumas, Washington, near the Canada border called the flood damage there devastating. Officials said on Facebook Tuesday that hundreds of people had been evacuated and estimated that 75% of homes had water damage."