November 2, 2021

Afternoon Update:

Lauren Neergaard & Mike Stobbe of the AP: "An influential advisory panel [to the CDC] voted Tuesday that all children ages 5 to 11 should get Pfizer's pediatric COVID-19 shots, putting the U.S. on the brink of a major expansion of vaccinations -- and a final decision is expected within hours.... If the CDC's director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, signs off, it will mark the first opportunity for Americans under 12 to get the powerful protection of any COVID-19 vaccine. Shots into little arms could begin this week, as Pfizer already is packing and shipping the first orders, millions of doses, to states and pharmacies to be ready."

The New York Times is live-updating developments today in state-wide races in New Jersey & Virginia as well as other local races. The Times is updating developments in New York City's mayoral & other key city races here.

Jonathan Weisman & Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "Democrats reached a deal on Tuesday to add a measure to control prescription drug costs to President Biden's social safety net plan, agreeing to allow the government to negotiate prices for medications covered by Medicare, as the House moved closer to a vote on the sprawling bill. The prescription drug deal is limited. Starting in 2023, negotiations could begin on what Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon called the most expensive drugs -- treatments for cancer and rheumatoid arthritis, as well as anticoagulants. Most drugs would still be granted patent exclusivity for five years before negotiations could start, and more advanced drugs, called biologics, would be protected for 12 years. But for the first time, Medicare would be able to step in after those periods, even if drug companies secure patent extensions or otherwise game the patent system."

Elizabeth Harris, et al., of the New York Times: "The Biden administration on Tuesday sued to stop Penguin Random House, the largest publisher in the United States, from acquiring its rival Simon & Schuster, a major antitrust lawsuit and a sign of a different view of corporate consolidation than the one that has prevailed for decades in Washington.... Earlier this year, President Biden signed an executive order focused on spurring competition across the economy. He has appointed skeptics of corporate concentration to the Federal Trade Commission and his economic policy team. His nominee to lead the Justice Department's antitrust division, Jonathan Kanter, is a lawyer who represented critics of the tech giants. And the federal government has gone to court to block a series of corporate deals this year...."

I almost didn't link the following story because it's so sick. For those who are offended, I don't blame you. ~~~

Bob Brigham of the Raw Story: "QAnon supporters gathered in Dallas [at the site where President Kennedy was assassinated] on Tuesday in the hopes that John F. Kennedy, Jr. would make major revelations. 'QAnon supporters are gathering for an event in Texas on Tuesday at which they falsely believe JFK junior will reveal he is not dead and announce a 2024 presidential run with Donald Trump, the former president,; the Independent reports. The son of America's 35th president died in 1999. Journalist Steven Monacelli posted a video of members of the crowd chanting a euphemism for 'f*ck Joe Biden' while holding a Trump-Kennedy QAnon banner.... The banner is from 2020, showing yet another 'prophecy' that did not occur." ~~~

~~~ Of course, this is just as sick. ~~~

Can we be surprised that after years of being told that they are the problem, that their manhood is the problem, more and more men are withdrawing into the enclave of idleness and pornography and video games? While the left may celebrate this decline of men, I for one cannot join them. -- Josh Hawley, in a speech ~~~

~~~ Adam Gabbatt of the Guardian: "The effort to combat toxic masculinity in the US has led men to consume more pornography and play more video games, the Missouri senator Josh Hawley claimed in a speech to a group of Republicans. Speaking at the National Conservatism Conference in Orlando, Florida, Hawley addressed the issue of 'manhood', which he said was under attack, and called for men to return to traditional masculine roles.... [Hawley,] who notoriously raised a fist in support of a mob outside the US Capitol on 6 January appeared to echo talking points made by the likes of the Proud Boys, a far-right group that opposes feminism and believes men are under attack from liberal elites."

Kashmir Hill & Ryan Mac of the New York Times: "Facebook plans to shut down its decade-old facial recognition system this month, deleting the face scan data of more than one billion users and effectively eliminating a feature that has fueled privacy concerns, government investigations, a class-action lawsuit and regulatory woes.... Facial-recognition technology, which has advanced in accuracy and power in recent years, has increasingly been the focus of debate because of how it can be misused by governments, law enforcement and companies." The AP's report is here.

~~~~~~~~~~

The New York Times' live updates of developments at the COP26 climate meeting are here. The Washington Post's live updates are here.

Tik Root & Maxine Joselow of the Washington Post: "More than 100 world leaders representing over 85 percent of the world's forests pledged to halt deforestation over the next decade Tuesday at COP26, the United Nations climate summit underway in Glasgow, Scotland. The announcement included Brazil, which is home to the Amazon rainforest, as well as Canada, Russia, Norway, Colombia and Indonesia. The United States also signed onto the agreement, which was backed by $12 billion in public funds and $7.2 billion in private money. The destruction of forests is a major factor driving up global greenhouse gas emissions, according to the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, with about 23 percent of total emissions stemming from agriculture, forestry and other land uses." The AP's report is here.

Seth Borenstein of the AP: "World leaders turned up the heat and resorted to end-of-the-world rhetoric Monday in an attempt to bring new urgency to sputtering international climate negotiations. The metaphors were dramatic and mixed at the start of the talks, known as COP26. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson described global warming as 'a doomsday device' strapped to humanity. United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres told his colleagues that humans are 'digging our own graves.' And Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley, speaking for vulnerable island nations, added moral thunder, warning leaders not to 'allow the path of greed and selfishness to sow the seeds of our common destruction.'... Meanwhile, U.S. President Joe Biden and German Chancellor Angela Merkel avoided soaring rhetoric and delved into policy." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) The New York Times story is here.

Ellen Francis of the Washington Post: "Rising sea levels could sink buildings and flood much of the Marshall Islands, but the country's climate envoy refuses to accept the scenario experts describe as a looming reality: She wants world leaders to step up.... Like many of the countries hit hardest by climate change, the Marshall Islands needs help and money.... 'We're on the front lines,' the Marshall Islands envoy said. 'We are the most vulnerable and if you protect the most vulnerable you protect yourself.'"

Dino Grandoni & Steven Mufson of the Washington Post: "The Biden administration unveiled a sweeping set of policies Tuesday to cut emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, from oil and gas operations across the country. The proposals, announced at the U.N. climate summit known as COP26, represent one of the president's most consequential efforts so far to combat climate change. Proposed rules from the Environmental Protection Agency could establish standards for old wells, impose more frequent and stringent leak monitoring, and require the capture of natural gas found alongside oil that is often released into the atmosphere. They mark the first time the federal government has moved to comprehensively tackle the seepage of methane across U.S. oil and gas infrastructure. Meanwhile, the Transportation Department's Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration will finalize a rule Tuesday extending federal pipeline safety standards to more than 400,000 miles of currently unregulated onshore gathering lines." An AP report is here.

Kelsey Ables of the Washington Post: The Washington Post's "former publisher, the late Katharine Graham, is being honored by the U.S. Postal Service with a new stamp. On Monday, the USPS announced several stamps it will debut in 2022 including a commemorative stamp for the 50th anniversary of the passage of Title IX as well as stamps featuring the sculptor Edmonia Lewis, folk musician Pete Seeger, marine biologist Eugenie Clark and Native American Modernist painter George Morrison. Graham, who took over as chairman and chief executive of The Washington Post Co. after her husband's death in 1963, is honored as a part of the 'Distinguished Americans; series. Graham led The Post through the 1971 publishing of the Pentagon Papers, which told the history of the Vietnam War through secret government documents, and coverage of the Watergate scandal. In 1998, she won a Pulitzer Prize for her memoir 'Personal History.'"

Emily Cochrane, et al., of the New York Times: "Senator Joe Manchin III of West Virginia raised new doubts on Monday about an emerging compromise on a $1.85 trillion climate change and social safety net bill, warning that he had serious reservations about the plan and criticizing liberals in his party for what he called an 'all or nothing' stance on it. Mr. Manchin's broadside, delivered during an appearance in the Capitol, threatened to upend the Democratic Party's ambitions to vote this week on President Biden's top two legislative priorities, even as lawmakers were gathering for what was supposed to be a momentous week for the president's ambitious domestic agenda.... White House officials and leading Democrats rushed to downplay Mr. Manchin's remarks, insisting that the package was still on track. They worked quickly to refute his fiscal concerns, issuing statements that described how the legislation was written to be fully financed and would help create jobs. They cited a letter from 17 Nobel Prize-winning economists who predicted that the plan would ease inflationary pressures in the long term." CNN's report is here. Thanks to Ken W. for the link. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Shocking as it seems, it is apparent that Manchin has chosen not to believe 17 Nobel Prize-winning economists or even me, Marie Burns. He's either a dimwit or a con artist. Oh, and Joe's timing makes it appear he wants Terry McAuliffe (D) to lose the Virginia gubernatorial race. ~~~

~~~ MEANWHILE. Rachel Roubein, et al., of the Washington Post: "Congressional Democrats are scrambling to work out a drug-price compromise that would cap seniors' out-of-pocket costs for medicine and lower the price of insulin, with negotiators working through the weekend and Monday to convince key holdouts like Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.). The compromise, which would allow Medicare to negotiate some prescription drug prices but significantly scale back Democrats' earlier ambitions, comes after the White House abandoned a drug-pricing initiative in its social-spending package after acknowledging it lacked the votes. That decision last week prompted a barrage of complaints from patient advocates and liberal Democrats, who argued the party was ditching a key promise to voters and setting itself up for disaster in next year's midterm elections." A Politico story is here.

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "After almost three hours of lively arguments, a majority of the justices seemed inclined to allow abortion providers -- but perhaps not the Biden administration -- to pursue a challenge to a Texas law that has sharply curtailed abortions in the state. That would represent an important shift from a 5-to-4 ruling in September that allowed the law to go into effect. Justices Brett M. Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, who were in the majority in that ruling, asked questions suggesting that they thought the novel structure of the Texas law justified allowing the providers to challenge it." The AP's report, also linked yesterday afternoon, is here. ~~~

~~~ Ian Millhiser of Vox: "All four of the dissenters from the September order appear likely to rule against Texas.... It also appears likely that Justices Brett Kavanaugh or Amy Coney Barrett will switch sides and provide the fifth (and maybe a sixth) vote against Texas.... Kavanaugh pointed to a brief filed by the Firearms Policy Coalition, which argued that, if SB 8 is allowed to stand, 'it will undoubtedly serve as a model for deterring and suppressing the exercise of numerous constitutional rights' -- including the Second Amendment. Kavanaugh appeared to view such an outcome as untenable, and that's bad news for SB 8. That said, even if the Court does rule against Texas in Whole Woman's Health, there's no guarantee that such a decision will do much to help abortion providers in Texas. The narrow question currently before the Supreme Court in Whole Woman's Health -- and in United States v. Texas, a similar challenge to SB 8 brought by the Justice Department that is also before the justices -- is ... whether anyone is allowed to sue to block the law. The reason there's any uncertainty about how to answer this question is that SB 8 was drafted for the very purpose of evading judicial review." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Also, too, Chief Justice John Roberts "seemed to grow increasingly annoyed with Texas Solicitor General Judd Stone." MB: I guess nobody told Judd it's a bad idea to smart off to the CJ during arguments. If this were a novel, and not real life, a character named Judd Stone would be decidedly dense & rough around the edges.

Robert Barnes & Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court on Monday declined to decide whether the public has at least a limited right to review the decisions of a largely secret federal surveillance court whose influence has been growing. The justices turned down a request from the American Civil Liberties Union and others to review a ruling that denied access to decisions of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC). That court said it lacked authority even to consider a public claim under the First Amendment to its secret decision-making. Justices Neil M. Gorsuch and Sonia Sotomayor said the case should have been reviewed.... Privacy advocates have criticized the court as a rubber stamp, because judges hear only the government's request. Most subjects never know they are targets or what the government told the judge. In 2019, for instance, judges approved 952 applications in whole or with modifications, while denying 58 in whole or in part."

Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court turned down the chance to consider whether a Catholic hospital can be sued over refusing a transgender patient treatment the hospital says would violate its core religious beliefs. A California court said Evan Minton could pursue his lawsuit after a hospital canceled a scheduled hysterectomy after learning days before that he was transgender. The operation was part of his treatment for gender dysphoria, a condition in which an individual's gender identity does not conform to the sex they were assigned at birth. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Neil M. Gorsuch said they would have accepted the case. (Also linked yesterday.)

Contributor Patrick says a letter, also linked yesterday, from WashPo Executive Editor Sally Buzbee reminded him of the final scene of "Deadline-USA." Say, Patrick, is that Buzbee giving the high sign to the Bogart character? (Or is it legendary publisher Katharine Graham?) See Patrick's commentary in today's thread. We are all shocked, shocked (oh, Bogie, you are everywhere!), of course, that Patrick would seem to compare Trump to a gangster/murderer. ~~~

Mark Thompson of CNN: "The American chief executive of Barclays (BCS), Jes Staley, is stepping down with immediate effect following an investigation by British regulators into his relationship with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, the bank said on Monday. The investigation by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Bank of England's Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) was disclosed by Barclays in early 2020 and focused on how Staley had characterized the relationship to his employer. Barclays and Staley were made aware on Friday evening by the FCA and the PRA of the preliminary conclusions of their investigation.... Staley had been running Barclays since late 2015. Prior to that he worked for more than 30 years at JPMorgan (JPM), where he served as head of its investment banking division. His relationship with Epstein dated back to 2000, when he became head of JPMorgan's private bank.... Staley had told the Barclays board that he had no contact with Epstein since becoming Barclays CEO in December 2015." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

The Pandemic, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Tuesday are here. The Washington Post's live Covid-19 updates for Tuesday are here.: "Advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are meeting Tuesday to discuss giving the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine to children ages 5 to 11 and are expected to recommend moving forward. The Food and Drug Administration has already authorized the two-shot regimen, in which each vaccine dose is one-third of that used for adolescents and adults. CDC Director Rochelle Walensky is expected to sign off later Tuesday on the recommendation from the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, allowing clinicians, pharmacies and other health-care providers to start giving the shots as early as Wednesday."

Daniel Slotnik of the New York Times: "The coronavirus is responsible for more than five million confirmed deaths around the world as of Monday, according to data from the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.... Experts say that five million is an undercount. Many countries are unable to accurately record the number of people who have died from Covid-19, like India and African nations; experts have questioned the veracity of data from other countries, like Russia."

Paul Krugman of the New York Times: "... the U.S. right is, in effect, trying to keep the pandemic going.... Fox News serves up anti-vaccine messages almost every day. Republican governors have tried to ban vaccine mandates not just by local governments and school districts but by private businesses. Multiple Republican attorneys general have filed suit to stop federal vaccine mandates.... A successful vaccination campaign could mean a successful Biden administration, and the right is determined to prevent that, no matter how many avoidable deaths result from vaccine sabotage.... Incidentally, the fact that breakthrough infections happen ... actually strengthens the case for mandates, because it means that even those who've gotten their shots face some danger from those who refuse to follow suit. And the harm done to others by rejecting vaccines goes beyond an increased risk of disease. The unvaccinated are far more likely than the vaccinated to require hospitalization, which means that they place stress on the health care system. They also impose financial costs on the general public, because given the prevalence of insurance both public and private, their hospital bills end up being largely covered by the rest of us."

The Washington Post's live updates of Covid-19 developments Monday are here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Florida. Greg Sargent of the Washington Post: "Last spring, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida took the reprehensible step of signing the state's new voter suppression law on Fox News.... Now this story has taken another ugly turn: The University of Florida has barred three professors from serving as expert witnesses in a lawsuit against the voter suppression measure.... The lawsuit argues that the voting law's provisions, such as the ones restricting drop boxes and making it harder to get absentee ballots in various ways, will impose disproportionate burdens on nonwhite voters. The professors -- Daniel A. Smith, Michael McDonald and Sharon Wright Austin -- were hired by the plaintiffs to testify to this and other matters.... DeSantis, it turns out, has top allies at the university.... It's not clear whether those allies -- or DeSantis himself -- are behind this decision.... Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) tells me she is circulating a letter among the Florida congressional delegation condemning the decision and asking for an accounting of how it was arrived at.... With conservatives regularly railing against allegedly rampant liberal censoriousness on college campuses, how Republicans and their media allies approach this should prove instructive." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

New York. From Monday's New York Times live updates of Covid-19 developments, also linked yesterday: "New York City started to enforce its Covid vaccine mandate for municipal workers on Monday, and about 9,000 workers who refused to get vaccinated were placed on unpaid leave.... The vaccine mandate has been especially contentious within the tight-knit Fire Department. More than 2,000 New York City firefighters -- out of a total uniformed force of about 11,000 -- have taken sick days over the past week in what city officials describe as a large-scale protest against the mandate. 'Irresponsible bogus sick leave by some of our members is creating a danger for New Yorkers and their fellow firefighters,' the fire commissioner, Daniel A. Nigro, said in a statement. He attributed the uptick in sick leave to 'anger at the vaccine mandate.'... 'Hundreds of guys are feeling flulike symptoms, because that's what the shot does to people,' [Andrew] Ansbro[, president of the Uniformed Firefights Association,] said." MB: Uh-huh: It's believable that a few firefighters would feel sick from the vaccine, but two thousand? I don't think so. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Gina Bellafante of the New York Times: "The mandates are partly about protecting the municipal workers and largely about protecting the collective good. The problem, of course, is a widespread disinclination to serve that good, whether it is fueled by selfishness and ignorance or the sense that one's contributions to the commonweal have not felt adequately reciprocal. In this case, refusal becomes primarily an assertion of power, a self-interested counterpunch -- the only means available to people who believe that their government has ignored them.... Among [NYC firefighters & police officers] there was still, after two decades, a lingering sense of betrayal around the safety conditions at the World Trade Center in the wake of Sept. 11, something that has played out as a blanket mistrust of public health edicts." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Beyond the Beltway

New Jersey Elections. Matt Friedman of Politico: "New Jersey's state-level elections, held in the year after the presidential election and long rooted in local issues, have become increasingly nationalized as politicians in Washington look to New Jersey and Virginia -- the only two states with off-year gubernatorial races -- as bellwethers for the upcoming midterms. That's accelerated in New Jersey as ... Donald Trump's embrace of culture war politics and racial division have turned the state's once-reliably Republican suburbs Democratic.... For Democrats, the hope is that last year's suburban swing against Trump extends to the gubernatorial race. Republicans, meanwhile, are hoping Biden's sinking approval numbers will depress Democratic turnout in deep blue New Jersey and lure some voters back to the GOP. Those dynamics will help determine if [Gov. Phil] Murphy becomes the first New Jersey Democrat to win reelection to the governorship in four decades."

New York. Charles Bagli of the New York Times: "... decades after [Kathie Durst's] disappearance -- and just weeks after [Robert] Durst >was convicted of murder in another woman's death in Los Angeles -- prosecutors in Westchester, N.Y., say they can finally prove what many have long suspected. Mr. Durst, a one-time heir to a real estate empire whose towers are strung across Manhattan, was indicted in White Plains on Monday on a single count of second-degree murder that accuses him of killing Kathie Durst when she was 29 and months away from fulfilling her dream of becoming a doctor."

Pennsylvania Senate Race. AP: "The estranged wife of Sean Parnell, the Republican endorsed by ... Donald Trump for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, testified under oath Monday that she endured years of rage and abuse from him, including being choked until she had to bite him, a newspaper reported. Laurie Parnell's testimony came during divorce and custody proceedings in Butler County court over the custody of their three school-age children, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. She testified that, once after a Thanksgiving trip, he forced her out of their vehicle and left her alongside the highway during an argument when he told her to 'go get an abortion.' Laurie Parnell also testified that Sean once slapped one of their children hard enough to leave welts through the back of the child's shirt. One time, he called her a 'whore' and other obscenities while pinning her down. 'It just got worse and worse' she testified.... Sean Parnell, a decorated former Army Ranger who led a platoon in Afghanistan, was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, she testified. Parnell has been open about that diagnosis...." The Inquirer story is firewalled.

Virginia Election Day. Teo Armus of the Washington Post: "Glenn Youngkin (R) and Terry McAuliffe (D) crisscrossed Virginia on Monday in a final appeal to voters, seeking to energize their bases as the neck-and-neck race for governor draws to a close. Virginians will go to the polls Tuesday to choose the commonwealth's chief executive in a race that is drawing national attention for what it might reveal about party politics when ... Donald Trump is not on the ballot and in the first year of a Joe Biden presidency.... Recent polls suggest that the [gubernatorial] contest is a toss-up." ~~~

~~~ David Corn of Mother Jones: "This is how it's going to be forever: Republicans and conservatives will claim that any election they lose is fraudulent. Donald Trump established this as the playbook for his party-cum-cult. And the full embrace of this authoritarian and dangerous tactic has been evident in the much-watched and tight-as-a-tick governor's race in Virginia between Republican Glenn Youngkin and Democrat Terry McAuliffe." Corn reports quite a few particulars. Here's another. ~~~

~~~ Media Matters: Newt Gingrich tells Sean Hannity on Hannity's Fox "News" show: "First of all if it's really tight they'll steal it, so you can't afford to have a really tight election. You have to win by a big enough margin that they can't steal it."

November 1, 2021

Afternoon Update:

Seth Borenstein of the AP: "World leaders turned up the heat and resorted to end-of-the-world rhetoric Monday in an attempt to bring new urgency to sputtering international climate negotiations. The metaphors were dramatic and mixed at the start of the talks, known as COP26. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson described global warming as 'a doomsday device' strapped to humanity. United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres told his colleagues that humans are 'digging our own graves.' And Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley, speaking for vulnerable island nations, added moral thunder, warning leaders not to 'allow the path of greed and selfishness to sow the seeds of our common destruction.'... Meanwhile, U.S. President Joe Biden and German Chancellor Angela Merkel avoided soaring rhetoric and delved into policy."

The New York Times liveblogged this morning's Supreme Court hearing on the Texas abortion case. Adam Liptak writes, "After almost three hours of lively arguments, a majority of the justices seemed inclined to allow abortion providers -- but perhaps not the Biden administration -- to pursue a challenge to a Texas law that has sharply curtailed abortions in the state. That would represent an important shift from a 5-to-4 ruling in September that allowed the law to go into effect. Justices Brett M. Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, who were in the majority in that ruling, asked questions suggesting that they thought the novel structure of the Texas law justified allowing the providers to challenge it." The AP's report is here. ~~~

~~~ Ian Millhiser of Vox: "All four of the dissenters from the September order appear likely to rule against Texas.... It also appears likely that Justices Brett Kavanaugh or Amy Coney Barrett will switch sides and provide the fifth (and maybe a sixth) vote against Texas.... Kavanaugh pointed to a brief filed by the Firearms Policy Coalition, which argued that, if SB 8 is allowed to stand, 'it will undoubtedly serve as a model for deterring and suppressing the exercise of numerous constitutional rights' -- including the Second Amendment. Kavanaugh appeared to view such an outcome as untenable, and that's bad news for SB 8. That said, even if the Court does rule against Texas in Whole Woman's Health, there's no guarantee that such a decision will do much to help abortion providers in Texas. The narrow question currently before the Supreme Court in Whole Woman's Health -- and in United States v. Texas, a similar challenge to SB 8 brought by the Justice Department that is also before the justices -- is ... whether anyone is allowed to sue to block the law. The reason there;s any uncertainty about how to answer this question is that SB 8 was drafted for the very purpose of evading judicial review." ~~~

     ~~~ Also, too, Chief Justice John Roberts "seemed to grow increasingly annoyed with Texas Solicitor General Judd Stone." MB: I guess nobody told Judd it's a bad idea to smart off to the CJ during arguments. If this were a novel, and not real life, a character named Judd Stone would be decidedly dense & rough around the edges.

Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court turned down the chance to consider whether a Catholic hospital can be sued over refusing a transgender patient treatment the hospital says would violate its core religious beliefs. A California court said Evan Minton could pursue his lawsuit after a hospital canceled a scheduled hysterectomy after learning days before that he was transgender. The operation was part of his treatment for gender dysphoria, a condition in which an individual's gender identity does not conform to the sex they were assigned at birth. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Neil M. Gorsuch said they would have accepted the case.

Contributor Patrick says the letter, linked below, from WashPo Executive Editor Sally Buzbee reminded him of the final scene of "Deadline-USA." Say, Patrick, is that Buzbee giving the high sign to the Bogart character? See Patrick's commentary in today's thread. We are all shocked, shocked (oh, Bogie, you are everywhere!), of course, that Patrick would seem to compare Trump to a gangster/murderer. ~~~

From Monday's New York Times live updates of Covid-19 developments, also linked below: "New York City started to enforce its Covid vaccine mandate for municipal workers on Monday, and about 9,000 workers who refused to get vaccinated were placed on unpaid leave.... The vaccine mandate has been especially contentious within the tight-knit Fire Department. More than 2,000 New York City firefighters -- out of a total uniformed force of about 11,000 -- have taken sick days over the past week in what city officials describe as a large-scale protest against the mandate. 'Irresponsible bogus sick leave by some of our members is creating a danger for New Yorkers and their fellow firefighters,' the fire commissioner, Daniel A. Nigro, said in a statement. He attributed the uptick in sick leave to 'anger at the vaccine mandate.'... 'Hundreds of guys are feeling flulike symptoms, because that's what the shot does to people,' [Andrew] Ansbro[, president of the Uniformed Firefights Association,] said." MB: Uh-huh: It's believable that a few firefighters would feel sick from the vaccine, but 2,000? I don't think so. ~~~

~~~ Gina Bellafante of the New York Times: "The mandates are partly about protecting the municipal workers and largely about protecting the collective good. The problem, of course, is a widespread disinclination to serve that good, whether it is fueled by selfishness and ignorance or the sense that one's contributions to the commonweal have not felt adequately reciprocal. In this case, refusal becomes primarily an assertion of power, a self-interested counterpunch -- the only means available to people who believe that their government has ignored them.... Among [NYC firefighters & police officers] there was still, after two decades, a lingering sense of betrayal around the safety conditions at the World Trade Center in the wake of Sept. 11, something that has played out as a blanket mistrust of public health edicts." ~~~

~~~ The Washington Post's live updates of Covid-19 developments Monday are here.

Florida. Greg Sargent of the Washington Post: "Last spring, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida took the reprehensible step of signing the state's new voter suppression law on Fox News.... Now this story has taken another ugly turn: The University of Florida has barred three professors from serving as expert witnesses in a lawsuit against the voter suppression measure.... The lawsuit argues that the voting law's provisions, such as the ones restricting drop boxes and making it harder to get absentee ballots in various ways, will impose disproportionate burdens on nonwhite voters. The professors -- Daniel A. Smith, Michael McDonald and Sharon Wright Austin -- were hired by the plaintiffs to testify to this and other matters.... DeSantis, it turns out, has top allies at the university.... It's not clear whether those allies -- or DeSantis himself -- are behind this decision.... Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) tells me she is circulating a letter among the Florida congressional delegation condemning the decision and asking for an accounting of how it was arrived at.... With conservatives regularly railing against allegedly rampant liberal censoriousness on college campuses, how Republicans and their media allies approach this should prove instructive."

Mark Thompson of CNN: "The American chief executive of Barclays (BCS), Jes Staley, is stepping down with immediate effect following an investigation by British regulators into his relationship with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, the bank said on Monday. The investigation by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Bank of England's Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) was disclosed by Barclays in early 2020 and focused on how Staley had characterized the relationship to his employer. Barclays and Staley were made aware on Friday evening by the FCA and the PRA of the preliminary conclusions of their investigation.... Staley had been running Barclays since late 2015. Prior to that he worked for more than 30 years at JPMorgan (JPM), where he served as head of its investment banking division. His relationship with Epstein dated back to 2000, when he became head of JPMorgan's private bank.... Staley had told the Barclays board that he had no contact with Epstein since becoming Barclays CEO in December 2015."

~~~~~~~~~~~

The New York Times is live-updating events in the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland. The Washington Post's live-updates of the COP26 climate summit are here: "The global summit convening in Glasgow, Scotland, has been widely described as the most important international climate negotiations since the landmark 2015 Paris climate accord. The overarching goal: to put the world on a path to aggressively cut greenhouse gas emissions and slow Earth's warming."

Lisa Friedman, et al., of the New York Times: "President Biden will walk into a riverside event space on Monday to try to convince a gathering of world leaders that the United States, which has pumped more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere than any other nation, is finally serious about addressing climate change and that others should follow its lead. But Mr. Biden is coming with a weaker hand than he had hoped. He has been forced to abandon the most powerful mechanism in his climate agenda: a program that would have quickly cleaned up the electricity sector by rewarding power companies that migrated away from fossil fuels and penalizing those that did not. His fallback strategy is a bill that would provide $555 billion in clean energy tax credits and incentives. It would be the largest amount ever spent by the United States to tackle global warming but would cut only about half as much pollution.... Mr. Biden has made climate action a central theme of his presidency, winning praise from diplomats and other leaders, who expressed relief after ... Donald J. Trump had scoffed at climate science and had withdrawn the United States from global efforts to address the crisis. But they remain skeptical, having seen other American presidents promise ambitious action to confront climate change, only to fall short." MB: Thanks, Manchinema --- AND every Congressional Republican! This is one of a number of important reminders that every vote for a Republican is a vote against the United States.

David Herszenhorn of Politico: "U.S. President Joe Biden on Sunday blamed Russia and China for any disappointment over the level of commitment by G20 leaders to fight climate change. 'With regard to the disappointment, the disappointment relates to the fact that ... not only Russia but China basically didn't show up in terms of any commitments to deal with climate change,' Biden said at his news conference at the end of the two-day leaders' summit in Rome. 'And there's a reason why people should be disappointed in that,' Biden added. 'I found it disappointing myself.'... Biden ... also name-checked Saudi Arabia among countries that he argued are still not doing enough."

Anton Troianovski & David Sanger of the New York Times: "As world leaders met at the Group of 20 summit this weekend in Rome, [President] Biden did not even get the chance to hash things out with his Russian counterpart face to face because President Vladimir V. Putin, citing coronavirus concerns, attended the event remotely. Yet beneath the surface brinkmanship, the two global rivals are now also doing something else: talking. The summit between Mr. Biden and Mr. Putin in June in Geneva touched off a series of contacts between the two countries, including three trips to Moscow by senior Biden administration officials since July, and more meetings with Russian officials on neutral ground in Finland and Switzerland. There is a serious conversation underway on arms control, the deepest in years.... Several weeks ago ... the United States turned over the names and other details of a few hackers actively launching attacks on America.... Officials in both countries say the flurry of talks has so far yielded little of substance but helps to prevent Russian-American tensions from spiraling out of control."

There's a New Sheriff in Town. Annie Linskey, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Biden sought to reverse key policies and approaches of ... Donald Trump during this weekend's summit of the Group of 20, and attempted to ensure those reversals would stay in place even if there is a change in American leadership. Biden lifted steel and aluminum tariffs enacted by Trump that had caused friction between the U.S. and the European Union. He huddled with allies on how to reinvigorate talks aimed at preventing Iran from securing a nuclear weapon, which the last administration had abandoned. He forged an agreement aimed at ensuring corporations pay more taxes. And he struck a deal with other nations to end government funding of new coal-fired power plants, part of a broader agenda to curtail climate change and reclaim international leadership on a topic Trump eschewed."

Nicole Winfield, et al., of the AP: "Leaders of the world's biggest economies made a vague commitment Sunday to seek carbon neutrality 'by or around mid-century' as they wrapped up a two-day Rome summit that was laying the groundwork for the U.N. climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland. According to the final meeting communique, the Group of 20 leaders also agreed to end public financing for coal-fired power generation abroad but set no target for phasing out coal domestically -- a clear nod to China, India and other coal-dependent countries. The G-20 countries represent more than three-quarters of the world's greenhouse gas emissions and summit host Italy and Britain, which is hosting the Glasgow climate conference, had looked for more ambitious targets to come out of Rome." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Karla Adam of the Washington Post: "Greta Thunberg may not have been officially invited to the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, but on the first day of the conference, she was making her presence felt. The Swedish teenager, who is something of a rock star for climate campaigners worldwide, is among thousands of activists descending on Glasgow for the 12-day U.N. Climate Change Conference, known as COP26, which kicked off Sunday. They are calling on world leaders to take bold action to prevent global temperatures from rising by more than 1.5 Celsius above preindustrial levels."

E.J. Dionne of the Washington Post: "President Biden and Democrats in Congress are on the cusp of ending their long journey through legislative hell by enacting a remarkable list of practical, progressive programs. This will confront them with a choice. They can follow the well-tested rules for champions of social change. Or they can repeat past mistakes by letting their opponents define what they have done and complain about the things left undone.... Celebrate victory. Explain what you've achieved. Defend it from attack. Change the public conversation in your favor. Build on success to make more progress. And for God's sake, don't moan about what might have been."

Congressional Sociopaths in the News. Sarah Rumpf of Mediaite: "While campaigning for a Republican congressional candidate in central Florida on Saturday, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) complained about the metal detectors in the Capitol, lying about why they were installed and going so far as to joke about blowing them up with explosives.... Rep. Lauren Boebert ... [was one of] multiple Republican lawmakers [who] loudly complained about the metal detectors, claiming they were a violation of their constitutional rights, and Boebert was among those who attempted to circumvent the screening by walking around the metal detectors or refusing to allow her bag to be searched. Boebert, said Gaetz during his remarks Saturday, was a '5 foot nothing woman' who 'carries a firearm for her personal protection,' but the metal detectors on the House floor were installed after 'they got triggered by that.' Again, to be clear, the metal detectors were installed in the immediate aftermath of the violent riots that took place at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.... 'I said, man, is it, is it "tannonite" [sic] or C4 we want to put in those metal detectors and we blow 'em up,' said Gaetz.... Boebert cheered Gaetz on, retweeting his tweet with 'I'll bring the Tannerite!'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: IMO, both Gaetz & Boebert should be sanctioned for threatening to use a powerful explosive in the U.S. Capitol. And they should be detained & given a full body-search by fully-geared munitions experts every time they attempt to enter the Capitol building. I'm not kidding. Threats of extreme violence against the Capitol and those who are in the building, especially after January 6, should be taken seriously, even if Matt there characterizes his remarks as a joke.

Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court will face a bramble of unsettled legal questions when it reviews Texas's most-restrictive-in-the-nation abortion law Monday, but the inquiry itself is evidence of a changed court whose view of abortion as a constitutional right is in doubt. Monday's hastily scheduled hearing opens the most dramatic month for reproductive rights at the Supreme Court in three decades." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Whatever the Court's ultimate decision, bear in mind that the majority of the Supremes were named by male Republican presidents (and president*) who were entirely unconcerned about women's rights. AND since the Court is highly unlikely to determine that abortion is unconstitutional, there is no reason Congress could not pass a bill that would guarantee the right to abortion, which when signed into law would override state restrictions. Except Republicans. I have nothing against people who are opposed to abortion. I just detest people who make it difficult or impossible for you to get an abortion.

** The Washington Post has published a long, three-part feature on the January 6 insurrection. It begins, sensibly enough, with the "before" section here. Click on "during" and "after" for the other two parts. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ digby republishes a portion of the "before" report. Then she writes, "The FBI thought it was just a bunch of malcontents exercising free speech and the Department of Justice thought it was the military's prob's. The locals assumed everything was fine because the permits were in order and they had some bike racks set up. The head of the FBI was afraid the president would go after him and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs was afraid the president would try to use the military to stay in power. They were all at cross purposes and obviously didn't take the threat of violence all that seriously (I would guess because the threats were coming from white middle class Americans who like to cosplay as revolutionaries.)" ~~~

     ~~~ Sally Buzbee, the Washington Post's executive editor, writes in a letter to readers: "Throughout much of this year, a team of 75 Washington Post journalists has been working to produce a definitive account of Jan. 6 -- its causes, its costs and its aftermath. The result of that investigation, a three-part series being published today, makes clear that the violence that day was neither a spontaneous act nor an isolated event." ~~~

     ~~~ Russ Choma of Mother Jones: "A sprawling new investigation by the Washington Post into the events leading up to the Capitol insurrection has revealed that the Federal Bureau of Investigations received numerous and highly-detailed tips on the potential for serious violence by followers of ... Donald Trump on January 6. And, despite the specificity and volume of reports, the FBI largely dismissed the warnings. The fact that law enforcement of all stripes reportedly underestimated the likelihood of violence on Jan. 6 has already been widely reported. But the Post's massive project -- started last spring and based on interviews of more than 230 people -- describes in excruciating detail just how much was ignored. In one of the more shocking revelations, the Post recounts how information began flooding into the FBI as early as Dec. 6, when the agency received a tip about a message in an online post telling Trump supporters: 'Please be in DC, armed, on the 6th. You might have to kill the palace guards. Are you okay with [that]?'" ~~~

~~~ Washington Post Staff: "The Post provided [Donald] Trump a list of 37 findings reported as part of its investigation. His spokesman Taylor Budowich provided a lengthy written response that included series of unrelated, inflammatory claims that The Post is not publishing in full. In response to the investigation's findings, Budowich said that the former president 'greatly objected' to all of them. He disputed The Post's investigation as 'fake news' and falsely cast people who entered the Capitol on Jan. 6 as 'agitators not associated with President Trump.' The statement repeated Trump's false claim that the 2020 election was rigged." ~~~

     ~~~ Dear Wall Street Journal Editorial Board: And that is how you handle a letter from Donald Trump or one of his lackeys. One of your millions of non-subscribers, Marie Burns ~~~

~~~ Paul Campos is LG&$: "After the initial shock wore off, the Republican party collectively decided that the 1/6 attempted coup was a good thing, and that it would do everything it could to ensure that the next attempt wouldn't fail.... There isn't going to be anything resembling a normal election in 2024, because the right wing in this country is now completely committed to living their truth, which is that Democrats don't win elections legitimately. This started out as a paranoid delusion, but now it's an Article of Faith, that can't be abandoned, because it's become so intimately connected to their tribal identity."

Judges Prefer Blondes. Ryan Reilly of the Huffington Post: "Federal prosecutors say an infamous Capitol attack defendant who traveled to Washington on a private plane and called Jan. 6 'one of the best days of my life' should spend time in prison, in part because she didn't think she would. Jenna Ryan was arrested in January after she openly bragged about her exploits at the Capitol on social media, livestreaming on Facebook from inside the building and tweeting a photo of herself standing at a broken window, captioning it 'if the news doesn't stop lying about us we're going to come after their studios next...'... The Justice Department's sentencing memo says that Ryan was 'publicly cheerleading' a violent attack.... Moreover, the government said, Ryan's tweet stating she had 'blonde hair white skin a great job a great future and I'm not going to jail' showed she thought she was immune from punishment for her crimes because of her race and physical appearance." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Sixty days? How about making sure she isn't eligible for parole (not that she'd be a model prisoner) for at least a year?

Carol Rosenberg of the New York Times: "In a stark rebuke of the torture carried out by the C.I.A. after the Sept. 11 attacks, seven senior military officers who heard graphic descriptions last week of the brutal treatment of a terrorist while in the agency's custody wrote a letter calling it 'a stain on the moral fiber of America.' The officers, all but one member of an eight-member jury, condemned the U.S. government's conduct in a clemency letter on behalf of Majid Khan, a suburban Baltimore high school graduate turned Qaeda courier. They had been brought to the U.S. Navy base at Guantánamo Bay to sentence Mr. Khan, who had earlier pleaded guilty to terrorism charges. They issued a sentence of 26 years, about the lowest term possible according to the instructions of the court."

Here's a surprise. Donald & Melanie Trump attended a World Series game Saturday night where they did something offensive (link is to a CBS News story). Oh, and here's a funny -- and characteristic -- note: "Mr. Trump told supporters on Saturday that he would be attending with New York Yankees president Randy Levine and thanked the MLB for the invitation. However, the MLB denied making the invitation and said in a statement, 'He requested to attend the game.'"

** Robin Stein, et al., of the New York Times: "A New York Times visual investigation reviewed footage from 120 vehicle stops over the last five years in which police officers killed motorists who were not brandishing a gun or knife or being pursued for violent crimes. We found a striking pattern. In dozens of incidents, footage shows, officers made tactical mistakes that put themselves in positions of danger -- walking into the path of a car, reaching into a window, jumping onto a moving vehicle -- then used lethal force to defend against that danger. Criminologists call this 'officer-created jeopardy.' But it often goes unexamined in deadly-force cases. Many courts instruct prosecutors and juries to consider only the instant in which an officer uses force -- what's known as the 'final frame' of the encounter. The narrow focus on that moment protects police officers and agencies from legal liability. Proponents of the final-frame approach point to a landmark Supreme Court decision, Graham v. Connor, which says courts should not second-guess the 'split-second' judgments officers make in the heat of the moment. But ... 'scrutinizing the entire incident..., some legal scholars and policymakers ... argue, aligns with another part of Graham v. Connor that instructs courts to consider the 'totality of circumstances.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Michael Levenson of the New York Times summarizes key findings of the Times investigation. "Over the last five years, The Times found, the police killed more than 400 drivers or passengers who were not wielding a gun or a knife or under pursuit for a violent crime. Traffic stops -- which are often motivated by hidden budgetary considerations because of the ticket revenue they generate -- are the most common interactions between police officers and the public. Yet the police consider them among the most dangerous things they do. That presumption of peril has been significantly overstated, but it has become ingrained in police culture and court precedents -- contributing to impunity for most officers who use lethal force at vehicle stops."

Michael Levenson of the New York Times: "When Kermit Warren lost his job shining shoes during the Covid-19 pandemic last year, he and his son took his life savings of nearly $30,000 to buy a tow truck.... But after flying from New Orleans to Ohio to buy the truck, Mr. Warren and his son discovered that it was the wrong kind ... so they returned home with $28,180 in cash.... As Mr. Warren walked through security at the airport in Columbus, Ohio, the screeners asked him about the money and then let him continue on. At the gate, just before Mr. Warren and his son boarded their flight, three agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration ... suspected that Mr. Warren was carrying illegal drug money and seized the cash.... The seizure, on Nov. 4, 2020, led to a yearlong ordeal that highlighted what Mr. Warren's lawyers call the injustice of civil forfeiture, which allows law enforcement officials to seize the cash, cars or other personal property of people suspected of crimes but not charged.... [Dan Alban, a lawyer with the Institute for Justice, who represents Mr. Warren, provided evidence that Warren] 'had a legitimate purpose for his trip to Ohio and a legitimate source for the cash he had earned,' Mr. Alban said. On Thursday, federal prosecutors agreed to return all $28,180 to Mr. Warren and to dismiss their civil forfeiture complaint 'with prejudice,' which means that it cannot be refiled, Mr. Alban said." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Yeah, the law is an ass, but one obvious lesson here: for Pete's sake, don't carry around big wads of cash. Not so long ago, I purchased a vehicle from another state, and I paid for it with a certified check, which I think cost something like $25 -- a lot less than the loss of capital for a year & a cheap price to pay for saving the worry of cash getting lost, stolen or seized. Oh, and if officers do suspect you of some crime, don't try to wriggle out of it by impersonatng a police officer, which is something else Warren did.

Niraj Chokshi of the New York Times: "American Airlines canceled more than 1,200 flights this weekend, blaming bad weather and staffing shortages for the widespread disruption. The cancellations represented more than 12 percent of the airline's scheduled flights for Saturday and Sunday, it said, and came just weeks after Southwest Airlines was forced to cancel nearly 2,000 flights. Severe wind late last week hampered operations at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, American's largest hub airport, cutting into runway capacity and forcing a round of cancellations, David Seymour, the airline's chief operating officer, said in a note to staff on Saturday. That disruption, combined with bad weather elsewhere in its network, stranded American flight crews in the wrong places, hindering the airline as it went into a typically busy weekend."

Adela Suliman of the Washington Post: "Southwest Airlines is conducting an internal investigation after one of its pilots reportedly said a phrase used in right-wing circles as a stand-in for swearing at President Biden over the plane's public address system -- apologizing to customers and insisting it does not condone employees sharing personal political opinions while on the job. The airline faced turbulence on social media over the weekend after an Associated Press journalist was on a flight from Houston to Albuquerque on Friday when she heard the pilot use the phrase 'let's go Brandon,' writing that it brought on 'audible gasps from some passengers.' Audio of the pilot's greeting, which The Washington Post could not independently verify, was separately circulating widely on social media." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

The Pandemic, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Monday are here.

Laurie McGinley of the Washington Post: "The Food and Drug Administration is delaying a decision on whether to make Moderna's coronavirus vaccine available to adolescents because the agency needs more time to evaluate if the shot increases the risk of a rare cardiac side effect, the company said Sunday. Moderna, a Cambridge, Mass., biotechnology company, said in a news release that the FDA indicated it will take until at least January to complete the review of Moderna's application for use in 12- to 17-year-olds. The agency told the vaccine maker Friday evening it needed more time to analyze emerging international data on the risk of myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle that in rare instances occurs after vaccination."

Kaitlan Collins of CNN: "White House press secretary Jen Psaki, who dropped off President Joe Biden's international trip shortly before he departed, has tested positive for coronavirus after members of her household did, she said in a statement Sunday. Psaki said she last saw Biden Tuesday outside while masked, before the President departed for Rome for the Group of 20 Summit. Psaki said she was disclosing the positive test result 'out of an abundance of transparency,' adding that she has experienced mild symptoms and is working remotely. The White House announced Thursday that Psaki would no longer join Biden on his trip abroad 'for at least the first few days,' citing a family emergency. White House deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre instead traveled with the President." Thanks to P.D. Pepe for the link.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Sunday are here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Way Beyond the Beltway

France/Australia. Ellen Francis of the Washington Post: "French President Emmanuel Macron accused Australia's prime minister, Scott Morrison, of lying to him about a sunken $66 billion submarine deal that triggered an angry charge of betrayal from Paris. 'I don't think, I know,' Macron responded to a question about whether he thought Morrison had lied by not disclosing negotiations with the United States and Britain that nixed Australia's deal with France. 'We will see what he will deliver,' Macron said about the prospect of rebuilding trust, speaking to Australian reporters Sunday on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Italy."

October 31, 2021

~~~ Marie: I wonder what would be scarier? (1) Donald Trump trick-or-treating as Donald Trump, or (2) Donald Trump trick-or-treating as Grover Cleveland, who was president for two non-consecutive terms?

~~~ Sophie June of the New York Times: "Supply chain issues have been making everything from Cheerios to toilet paper more expensive since the start of the pandemic. At the same time, Halloween fans have pent-up demand for celebrations after last year's holiday was subdued by Covid-19 restrictions. Consumers are expected to spend $10.1 billion on Halloween this year, up from $8.05 billion in 2020, according to the National Retail Federation. And an estimated 65 percent of Americans plan to celebrate, up from 58 percent last year.... This year is a perfect storm for a costume shortage. There are all the reasons the port-to-store supply chain is running at less than capacity -- including shortages of truck drivers, warehouse employees and other workers, Covid lockdowns, natural disasters, and container scarcity." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: When I was in the second grade, I desperately wanted a store-bought Halloween costume. My parents said, no, that they were too expensive, and they would make me a costume. To my childish chagrin, my father, mostly, dressed me up as Al Capp's L'il Abner witch, and off we went to the school Halloween celebration. At one point, and to my bewilderment, many of us were lined up for a costume prize. I won. That was the last and only time I felt deprived for not having the "right" Halloween costume. Kids, sometimes your parents get things right.

Afternoon Update:

Nicole Winfield, et al., of the AP: "Leaders of the world's biggest economies made a vague commitment Sunday to seek carbon neutrality 'by or around mid-century' as they wrapped up a two-day Rome summit that was laying the groundwork for the U.N. climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland. According to the final meeting communique, the Group of 20 leaders also agreed to end public financing for coal-fired power generation abroad but set no target for phasing out coal domestically -- a clear nod to China, India and other coal-dependent countries. The G-20 countries represent more than three-quarters of the world's greenhouse gas emissions and summit host Italy and Britain, which is hosting the Glasgow climate conference, had looked for more ambitious targets to come out of Rome."

** The Washington Post has published a long, three-part feature on the January 6 insurrection. It begins, sensibly enough, with the "before" section here. Click on "during" and "after" for the other two parts.

Adela Suliman of the Washington Post: "Southwest Airlines is conducting an internal investigation after one of its pilots reportedly said a phrase used in right-wing circles as a stand-in for swearing at President Biden over the plane's public address system -- apologizing to customers and insisting it does not condone employees sharing personal political opinions while on the job. The airline faced turbulence on social media over the weekend after an Associated Press journalist was on a flight from Houston to Albuquerque on Friday when she heard the pilot use the phrase 'let's go Brandon,' writing that it brought on 'audible gasps from some passengers.' Audio of the pilot's greeting, which The Washington Post could not independently verify, was separately circulating widely on social media."

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Sunday are here.

~~~~~~~~~~

Somini Sengupta of the New York Times: "As presidents and prime ministers arrive in Glasgow this week for a pivotal climate summit, the outcome will determine, to a large extent how the world's seven billion people will survive on a hotter planet and whether far worse levels of warming can be averted for future generations. Tensions loom over the 12-day summit. Some poor countries hard hit by climate disasters are holding out for money promised, and yet to be delivered, by the industrialized nations that fueled the crisis. Polluting countries are pressing each other to cut their emissions while jockeying for advantage and wrestling with the impacts on their own economies.... Complicating matters, the need for collective action to tackle such an urgent, existential global threat comes at a time of rising nationalism. This makes the talks in Glasgow a test of whether global cooperation is even possible to confront a crisis that does not recognize national borders."

The Washington Post is live-updating developments at the G-20 summit. The New York Times' live updates are here.

Katie Rogers, et al., of the New York Times: "From the opening moments of the Group of 20 summit on Saturday, the leaders of the world's largest economies wanted to send a strong message about ending the coronavirus pandemic.... But as the leaders gathered to discuss plans to protect against future pandemics, health experts and activists expressed concerns that the world's richest nations were still not doing enough to help people in poor nations survive the current one.... While wealthy nations are offering people third vaccine doses and increasingly inoculating children, poor countries have administered an estimated four doses per 100 people, according to the World Health Organization.... [As President Biden addresses other issues,] health experts and influential advocates, including Pope Francis, have urged Mr. Biden during his trip to stay focused on closing the vaccine gap for poor nations...."

Seung Min Kim, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Biden opened new fronts in global engagement Saturday, endorsing international accords on taxation and vaccinations while joining key European allies to ramp up pressure on Iran to revive the 2015 deal to curb its nuclear program.... Taken together, the moves marked fresh efforts to turn away from Trump's policies that included withdrawal from key international accords, a snub of the Iran nuclear deal and a range of protectionist trade measures. Perhaps the most uncertain of the developments Saturday is the fate of the nuclear accord that set limits on Iran's uranium enrichment and other advances in exchange for easing international sanctions.... During the first full day of the G-20 summit in Rome, Biden met with leaders of the E3 countries -- France, Germany and Britain -- in an attempt to coordinate with other parties of the original agreement. Russia and China were also part of the accord." ~~~

~~~ Jeff Stein & Seung Min Kim of the Washington Post: "President Biden and the other national leaders gathered for the Group of 20 summit formally endorsed a new global minimum tax on Saturday, capping months of negotiations over the groundbreaking tax accord. The new global minimum tax of 15 percent aims to reverse the decades-long decline in tax rates on corporations across the world, a trend experts say has deprived governments of revenue to fund social spending programs. The deal is a key achievement for Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who made an international floor on corporate taxes among the top priorities of her tenure and pushed forcefully for swift action on a deal.... Nearly 140 countries representing more than 90 percent of total global economic output have endorsed the deal, but they each must implement the new standards in a process that could take time and overcome internal political opposition.... The minimum tax will be coupled with a broader change to global taxation intended to prevent countries and companies from undercutting the new floor. Under the pact, corporations trying to evade taxation by shifting profits to low-tax countries will face a 'top-up' tax, which would require them to pay the difference between the tax haven's tax rate and the 15 percent minimum tax rate of the companies where they are headquartered." ~~~

~~~ Ana Swanson & Katie Rogers of the New York Times: "The Biden administration announced on Saturday that it had reached a deal to roll back tariffs on European steel and aluminum, an agreement that officials said would lower costs on goods like cars and washing machines, reduce carbon emissions, and help get supply chains moving again. The deal, which comes as President Biden and other world leaders meet at the Group of 20 summit in Rome, is aimed at easing trans-Atlantic trade tensions that had worsened under ... Donald J. Trump, whose administration initially imposed the tariffs. Mr. Biden has made clear he wants to repair relations with the European Union, but the agreement also appears carefully devised to avoid alienating U.S. labor unions and manufacturers that have supported Mr. Biden.... The agreement will put an end to retaliatory tariffs that the European Union had imposed on American products including orange juice, bourbon and motorcycles. It will also avert additional tariffs on American products that were set to go into effect on Dec. 1." MB: Hmmm. Sounds like good news for Florida & Kentucky.

Tony Romm of the Washington Post: "House Democrats are aiming to vote as soon as Tuesday on two spending initiatives totaling roughly $3 trillion as they seek to overcome months of delays that have ensnared President Biden's broader economic agenda. The tentative schedule would mark the final vote for a roughly $1.2 trillion package to improve the country's infrastructure, which would then head to the president's desk for a signature. And it would tee up the Senate to begin debate over a second, roughly $1.75 trillion measure to overhaul the nation's health care, education, climate, immigration and tax laws." ~~~

~~~ Tony Romm of the Washington Post: "With the House set to vote on a sweeping spending measure as soon as Tuesday, it marked a new test as to whether Democrats, largely led by women in the House and Senate, could sway [Sen. Joe] Manchin [D-ish-W.Va.] and deliver the help they long have promised to millions of Americans.... The paid-leave plan that Democrats originally envisioned would have provided 12 weeks of aid for Americans who fall ill, need to care for a sick loved one or are tending to the birth of a new child.... An incensed Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) hammered Manchin indirectly, stressing that Democrats are 'not going to let one man tell all the women in this country that they can't have paid leave.' And a wide array of lawmakers including Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) have placed calls to Manchin directly about the issue...."

Kim Bellware of the Washington Post: "Goodluck Nwauzor fled Boko Haram militants in Nigeria only to end up cleaning showers for $1 a day while housed at one of the United States' largest immigrant detention facilities. Now his testimony has helped convince a federal jury that GEO Group, which runs the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, Wash., violated the state's minimum wage laws and owes thousands of immigrant detainees $17.3 million in backpay.... The decision on Friday means Nwauzor and roughly 10,000 other detainees will receive individual awards ranging from $7 for a single day worked, to more than $30,000 in the instance of a detainee who worked almost 700 days, according to ... the law firm representing Nwauzor and the other detainees. On Monday, U.S. District Judge Robert Bryan will decide how much money GEO Group must pay the state for unjust enrichment -- a sum on top of the $17.3 million already ordered.... 'Immigration detention center labor is a kind of murky area that's been operating under the aegis of prison labor, [Erin Hutton, a University of Buffalo sociology professor,] said. 'It's been in dispute, but this ruling shows that they can't get away with it without scrutiny.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I had no idea that working for pennies an hour -- or candy! -- was one of the options for detainees. But according to the story, "Detainees at the Northwest ICE Processing Center were paid a $1 per day regardless of how many hours they worked in various cooking, cleaning, laundry and maintenance roles, if they were paid at all; some detainees were paid with candy or other snacks, according to court records." Congress needs to acknowledge there's something really, really wrong with ICE -- and do something about it.

Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Donald Trump is seeking to prevent Jan. 6 investigators from accessing daily presidential diaries, drafts of election-related speeches, logs of his phone calls, handwritten notes and files of top aides, the National Archives revealed in a Saturday morning court filing. According to the National Archives, the former president has sought to block about 750 pages out of nearly 1,600 identified by officials as relevant to the Jan. 6 investigation. Among them are hundreds of pages from 'multiple binders of the former press secretary [Kayleigh McEnany] which is made up almost entirely of talking points and statements related to the 2020 election,' according to the court filing. The filing details are the clearest indication yet of what Trump is trying to withhold from congressional investigators.... The National Archives indicated that many files were drawn from the systems of key Trump aides including former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, adviser Stephen Miller and deputy counsel Patrick Philbin.... The National Archives submitted its filing in response to Trump's lawsuit seeking an emergency court order to block [Archivist David] Ferriero from transmitting them to Congress.... But the archives rejected Trump's legal arguments, emphasizing that the Jan. 6 committee's requests were tailored specifically to its investigation, and that President Joe Biden had already made the 'manifestly reasonable' decision to reject Trump's claims of privilege." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times story is here. In case you were asking yourself, "Why, what's he got to hide?", read on. ~~~

** Josh Dawsey, et al., of the Washington Post: "As Vice President Mike Pence hid from a marauding mob during the Jan. 6 invasion of the Capitol, an attorney for ... Donald Trump emailed a top Pence aide to say that Pence had caused the violence by refusing to block certification of Trump's election loss. The attorney, John C. Eastman, also continued to press for Pence to act even after Trump's supporters had trampled through the Capitol -- an attack the Pence aide, Greg Jacob, had described as a 'siege' in their email exchange. 'The "siege" is because YOU and your boss did not do what was necessary to allow this to be aired in a public way so that the American people can see for themselves what happened,' Eastman wrote to Jacob, referring to Trump's claims of voter fraud.... Jacob, Pence's chief counsel, included Eastman's emailed remarks in a draft opinion article about Trump's outside legal team that he wrote later in January but ultimately chose not to publish. The Washington Post obtained a copy of the draft. [The draft shows] that Eastman's efforts to persuade Pence to block Trump's defeat were more extensive than has been reported previously...." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Here's the text (via the WashPo) of the draft op-ed Greg Jacob wrote in January 2021. It begins: "In the days and hours leading up to the counting of the electoral votes in Congress, a cadre of outside lawyers to the President spun a web of lies and disinformation, to him and to the public, for the purpose of pressuring the Vice President to betray his oath to uphold our laws and the Constitution of the United States.... Now that the moment of immediate crisis has passed, the legal profession should dispassionately examine whether the attorneys involved should be disciplined for using their credentials to sell a stream of snake oil to the most powerful office in the world, wrapped in the guise of a lawyer's advice." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Josh Marshall of TPM views the Washington Post story (Josh Dawsey, et al.) linked below as "one of the biggest revelations I've seen to date.... Here we're getting the details, the documentary evidence. [Attorney John] Eastman didn't recoil when the President's rally escalated to violence. He clearly saw the inside coup plot and the insurrectionists on the street as part of the same effort. This isn't surprising to most of us.... Eastman recognized the insurrection as the paramilitary wing of the coup plot he was part of and as the Capitol was under siege used it as a cudgel to force Pence's hand.... There was the notorious phone call between Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Trump in which McCarthy demanded Trump call off his insurrectionists. Trump notoriously responded, 'Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are.'... Trump's message was the same as Eastman's. You brought it on yourself and they're my guys.... They both recognized the insurrectionists as their foot soldiers and expressed as much in real time to the members of Congress under siege." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "Trump's comment to McCarthy, and Trump's tweet attacking Pence, it's pretty clear the Trump team saw utility in the mob. And they apparently tried to exploit it to the bitter end." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Tim Murphy of Mother Jones: "Since [John Eastman's] memo [on how to overturn the election results] was published, Eastman and his current employer, the Claremont Institute, have sought to downplay its significance.... But Eastman was not participating in some after-hours law-school bull session; he was advising a corrupt and desperate man who would do almost anything to hold onto power. The radical scenario outlined in the memo, and the equally-radical scenario Eastman says he ultimately recommended -- in which Pence would decline to certify the results, buying time for Republican legislators in key states to purportedly investigate alleged fraud, and submit new slates of electors -- would have only indulged Trump's delusions about his own chances. And Eastman pursued all of this, because he was likewise deluded about what had happened in November. As part of a legal analysis he prepared for state legislators making the case that they could reject their states' election results, the Post reported, 'Eastman's seven-page paper featured theories about voter fraud published by the right-wing blog the Gateway Pundit and an anonymous Twitter user named "DuckDiver19."' DuckDiver19. It's a long way from Federalist no. 68." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Andrew Kaczynski & Em Steck of CNN: "John Eastman, a conservative lawyer working ... Donald Trump's legal team, said in a radio interview in early January that then-Vice President Mike Pence had the power to throw the 2020 presidential election to the House of Representatives, saying it depended on whether Pence had 'courage and the spine.' Those comments are more direct than how Eastman has recently described his conversation with Pence, when he has said he told the vice president it was an 'open question' whether he could throw out seven states' Electoral College votes and that it'd be a 'foolish' option to pursue. Eastman made the comments, unearthed by CNN's KFile, on the radio show of former Trump White House senior adviser Stephen Bannon on January 2...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Ed Pilkington of the Guardian writes a recap of what we know about Trump's attempted coup. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

The Pandemic, Ctd.

** Alexander Nazaryan of Yahoo! News: "... a new study published on Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that finds that natural immunity offers far weaker protection than does a vaccine. The new study finds that people who had natural immunity from having recently fought off COVID-19 and who were not vaccinated were 5.49 times more likely to experience another COVID-19 infection than were vaccinated people who had not previously been infected. 'The data demonstrate that vaccination can provide a higher, more robust, and more consistent level of immunity to protect people from hospitalization for COVID-19 than infection alone for at least 6 months,' a CDC press release said." MB: I for one am shocked, shocked to learn that Doctor-Senator Rand Paul got this ass-backwards. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Beyond the Beltway

California. Maria Cramer of the New York Times: "'Absolutely stunning' is how the University of California, Santa Barbara, described plans for Munger Hall, a towering residence hall for more than 4,500 students that was designed by Charles T. Munger, a billionaire and an executive of Berkshire Hathaway. But Dennis McFadden, an architect who served as a consultant on the university's design review committee, did not agree. On Oct. 24, in a scathing letter to the chairwomen of the committee, he announced that he was resigning over the university's decision to approve a design he likened to 'a social and psychological experiment.' He said he was 'disturbed' by a design that would cram the students into a 1.7-million-square-foot, 11-story building and make the vast majority of them live in small rooms without windows, 'wholly dependent on artificial light and mechanical ventilation.'" MB: But, hey, the cells will have fake natural light! I guess this is how billionaires think the little people should live, even when the little people attend a toney U.C. institution.

Texas. Kate McGee of the Texas Tribune: "As supporters of ... Donald Trump surrounded and harassed a Joe Biden campaign bus on a Central Texas highway last year, San Marcos police officials and 911 dispatchers fielded multiple requests for assistance from Democratic campaigners and bus passengers who said they feared for their safety from a pack of motorists, known as a 'Trump Train,' allegedly driving in dangerously aggressive ways. 'San Marcos refused to help,' an amended federal lawsuit over the 2020 freeway skirmish claims. Transcribed 911 audio recordings and documents that reveal behind-the-scenes communications among law enforcement and dispatchers were included in the amended lawsuit, filed late Friday.... The lawsuit alleges that by refusing the help, law enforcement officers violated the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871 because they were aware of 'acts of violent political intimidation' but did not take appropriate steps to prevent the Trump supporters from intimidating eligible voters.... Trump later praised his supporters' behavior [in the bus incidents], which occurred months before the former president's backers violently stormed the U.S. Capitol...."

Way Beyond

Russia/Ukraine. Paul Sonne, et al., of the Washington Post: "A renewed buildup of Russian troops near the Ukrainian border has raised concern among some officials in the United States and Europe who are tracking what they consider irregular movements of equipment and personnel on Russia's western flank. The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity..., said the troop movements have reignited concerns that arose in April, when the largest buildup of troops by Russia near the Ukrainian border in years sparked an international outcry. The renewed movements of Russian forces in the area come as the Kremlin embraces a harder line on Ukraine. Russian officials from President Vladimir Putin on down have escalated their rhetoric in recent months, attacking Kyiv's Western ties and even questioning its sovereignty. Putin has warned that any expansion of NATO military infrastructure on Ukrainian territory represents a 'red line' for Moscow."

News Lede

NBC News: "One person was killed and three others were injured in a shooting at the home of a city official in California, where an outdoor party was taking place early Saturday, police said. A man was pronounced dead at the home of Gilroy City Council Member Rebeca Armendariz, and the three survivors were hospitalized, two with 'life-threatening injuries,' the Gilroy Police Department said in a statement[.]"