November 4, 2025

Marie: I've started the November 5 page early to cover the elections.

Digby has deduced how Dim Donald and Drunk Pete have got it into their heads to wage a crusade against the Nigerian government, a government they falsely believe -- based on no reliable evidence at all -- is persecuting Trump's "cherished Christians." (Digby's essay brings to mind Froomkin's first question for Trumpledummkopf (linked below): "Where do you get your information?") Thanks to Akhilleus for the link. 

~~~ Paul Krugman: "...  the party at Mar a Lago wasn’t a case of tone deafness, living it up despite others’ suffering. It was in large part a party held to celebrate others’ suffering." ~~~

     ~~~ Jon Stewart noticed the same thing: ~~~ 

Scott Nover & Drew Harwell of the Washington Post: “Laura Loomer, the far-right political activist and former congressional candidate in Florida, has been credentialed to cover the Defense Department..., joining a new cohort of right-wing media that have agreed to the Pentagon’s new press policy. Loomer, 32, has forged a close alliance with ... Donald Trump, routinely meeting with the president in the Oval Office during his second term.... But Loomer’s presence could also frustrate Pentagon officials, some of whom scrambled to contain the fallout from viral comments she made attacking [Defense Secretary Pete] Hegseth last month [for hosting a Qatari air force training center in Idaho].” The Hill's story is here.

Matthew Chapman of the Raw Story: "... Donald Trump has dismissed the inspector general in charge of the Federal Housing Finance Agency — a government agency that has become controversial due to Trump's appointee in the role lobbing a series of questionable bank fraud allegations at various critics and opponents of the president. According to Reuters, "The ouster of Joe Allen, FHFA's acting inspector general, follows the agency's director, Bill Pulte, becoming an outspoken voice in support of the Trump administration." MB: As I recall, Pulte is required to lodge any complaints he might have against individuals with the agency's IG. But Pulte bypassed Allen and went straight to the DOJ with complaints against New York AG Letitia James, Fed Gov. Lisa Cook & Sen. Adam Schiff.

Tracey Tully & Jonathan Wolfe of the New York Times: “Bomb threats that officials described as hoaxes were emailed on Tuesday morning to cities across New Jersey, disrupting voting and resulting in the brief closure or relocation of polling sites in some locations. The threats, which officials said were similar, appeared to go to towns throughout much of New Jersey, according to the state’s attorney general, Matthew Platkin. In a statement, Mr. Platkin said that officials had reported receiving threats in at least seven of New Jersey’s 21 counties, including Bergen, Essex, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth, Ocean and Passaic.” The News12 New Jersey report is here. Thanks to RAS for the link.

Josh Kovensky of TPM, republished by Yahoo! News: “The man who federal agents accused of dealing Greg Bovino a groin injury from which the Border Patrol commander purportedly needed two weeks to recover will no longer face charges after prosecutors on Monday moved to drop their case against him.... Prosecutors could still bring charges against [Cole] Sheridan in another form.... Footage of the alleged altercation failed to support the assault claim, per reports from the hearing. Bovino himself did not wear a bodycam that day. 'Without video of the actual physical exchange … there is only the evidence of the hearsay statement of Bovino,' Magistrate Judge Heather K. McShain reportedly said. McShain later declined to find probable cause for assaulting a federal officer, trimming that allegation from the charge while allowing the rest of the government’s case to continue.” Thanks to Akhilleus for the link. See today's Comments for Akhilleus' theory of the case.

ABC News: "Rep. Lauren Boebert and her boyfriend Kyle Pearcy, a real estate broker from Windsor, Colo., attended a Halloween party in Loveland, Colo., on Friday night, in costumes portraying a Mexican woman and an Immigration and Customs enforcement agent, photos obtained by ABC News show. The congresswoman was dressed in a traditional Mexican dress and wore a sombrero while Pearcy wore an ICE vest over fatigues." The couple also seem to have brought a sign that mocked Spanish accents. Thanks to RAS for the lead. MB: Boebert makes a convincing Mexican. ICE should grab her, slam her to the ground, cuff her & boot her over the border. 

~~~~~~~~~~  

Marie: Sorry, there is more news. I'll try to get to it later today. Meanwhile, RAS has made a fine start in today's Comments. And in yesterday's Comments, akaWendy linked to a couple of opinion pieces I had hoped to get to. And didn't.

⭐Robert McFadden of the New York Times: “Dick Cheney, widely regarded as the most powerful vice president in American history, who was George W. Bush’s running mate in two successful campaigns for the presidency and his most influential White House adviser in an era of terrorism, war and economic change, died Monday. He was 84.” Here is the AP's obituary, by Calvin Woodward. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I swaretagod I am going to spend the next several days saying nothing bad about Dick Cheney. You, on the other hand, are free to express yourselves as usual. Just wondering, BTW, what are the chances that the current president* -- also a Republican, after all -- will be attending the former veep's funeral? Maybe we could ask Liz Cheney about that. ~~~

     ~~~ For a different kind of obituary -- most of which I am too polite to repeat -- you might turn to Erik Loomis's remembrances of Dick Cheney in LG&$. 

Reid Epstein of the New York Times: “Voters on Tuesday will deliver an early judgment on ... [Donald] Trump’s administration in the first set of coast-to-coast elections since he began his turbulent second term. Contests for mayor of New York, governor of New Jersey and Virginia, and a redistricting ballot measure in California have revolved to varying degrees around how the Democratic Party should rebuild itself and respond to Mr. Trump’s power play in Washington. The elections are predominantly in Democratic areas and battleground states, where the party’s candidates have sought to harness anger about Mr. Trump while deflecting discontent about the state of the Democratic brand.”

Just in Time for the Holidays, Scrooge McTrump Brings Us Dickensian America. God Bless Us, Every One! 

Mariana Alfaro of the Washington Post: “The Trump administration said Monday that it will release enough funds to pay for a half-month’s worth of food assistance benefits in November, days after two courts ordered the U.S. Department of Agriculture to release the money to avoid forcing almost 42 million Americans into food insecurity. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — known as SNAP or food stamps — lost funding after the Trump administration said it would not tap into a $5.5 billion contingency fund to pay for the benefit. On Friday, a federal judge in Rhode Island ordered the administration to release backup funds moments after another federal judge in Massachusetts directed the government to decide by Monday whether it would use the contingency funds for food aid. USDA said Monday that it will comply with the Rhode Island judge’s order.... 

“In [a] Monday brief, Patrick Penn, the deputy undersecretary for food, nutrition and consumer services at USDA, said that the Food and Nutrition Service ... will spend about $450 million of the contingency funds paying for states to administer the program this month. An additional $150 million will be used for food assistance programs in Puerto Rico and American Samoa, and the remaining $4.65 billion in the fund will be used to pay for SNAP benefits. That money, Penn said, will cover 50 percent of each eligible household’s current allotment. 'This means that no funds will remain for new SNAP applicants certified in November, disaster assistance, or as a cushion against the potential catastrophic consequences of shutting down SNAP entirely,' Penn wrote in the brief.... In the brief, USDA said it would not tap a $23 billion fund for school lunch and child nutrition programs, known as Section 32 funding. Democrats in Congress and anti-hunger advocates have called for the Trump administration to tap those funds to fill in the SNAP shortfall....” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Tony Romm of the New York Times: “... the roughly one in eight families that receive SNAP may still be at risk of imminent hunger and financial hardship. The Trump administration opted against using its full stable of available funds — totaling into the billions of dollars — to sustain the nation’s largest anti-hunger program.... It also remained unclear when food stamp recipients would actually receive their aid.... Mr. Trump has made no real effort to negotiate an end to the fiscal stalemate roiling Washington.... Skye Perryman, the president of Democracy Forward, which represented cities and nonprofits that had sued, said the group was 'considering all legal options to secure payment of full funds.'”

     ~~~ According to Rachel Maddow, this is the first time in the history of SNAP programs -- which dates back to the Great Depression -- that the SNAP program has cut off funding. 

A Dangerous Ignoramus Doubles Down on Stupid. David Sanger & Zolan Kanno-Youngs of the New York Times: “...  this weekend, the president and his energy secretary, who oversees the development and maintenance of the nuclear stockpile, contradicted each other on the critical question of whether the United States is about to break the three-decade taboo on explosive testing of nuclear weapons.... Mr. Trump has doubled down on the concept that he has ordered a resumption of explosive nuclear testing — which the United States has refrained from for 33 years — to match what he contends were secret nuclear underground detonations, presumably by Russia, China, and other nuclear-armed states. But that claim has been rejected by many nuclear experts and Mr. Trump’s own nominee to lead the U.S. Strategic Command, which is responsible for America’s ground-based, undersea and bomber-launched nuclear weapons. 

“'They test way underground where people don’t know exactly what’s happening with the test,' Mr. Trump said in an interview that was recorded on Friday with CBS’s '60 Minutes.' 'You feel a little bit of a vibration. They test, and we don’t test. We have to test.' Mr. Trump pointed to Russia, China and North Korea and others as conducting unspecified tests. On Sunday, Chris Wright, Mr. Trump’s energy secretary, appeared to contradict Mr. Trump when he indicated the United States has no intention of conducting new explosive tests, and would simply continue its regular testing of nuclear components and systems to ensure they are working properly.”

     ~~~ Marie: If you read on down the page, (or if you read the transcript of Nora O'Donnell's interview of Trump, linked here yesterday), then you'll know Trump's ignorance comes with a huge dollop of arrogance (and misogyny) as he corrects the silly girl interviewer: “Ms. O’Donnell then reminded Mr. Trump that the only nation that had tested a nuclear warhead recently was North Korea. Russia had recently tested delivery systems, but not warheads themselves. Mr. Trump rejected that assertion and claimed Russia and China had secretly been testing nuclear weapons without the knowledge of the global network of nuclear experts, scientists and allies who would most likely detect such a dramatic move. 'You just don’t know about it,' Mr. Trump said.” Gee, maybe none of the experts felt the “little bit of a vibration.” Huh, and neither did their super-sensitive detection devices. (To defend Trump, CIA Director John Ratcliffe did assert in a tweet that in Trump's first term, China might have set off small-scale nuclear explosions & Russia might have violated some terms of the test moratorium.) ~~~

~~~ Mehdi Hasan does a bit of fact-checking of Trump's answers to Nora O'Donnell's softball questions: "There were so many falsehoods and half-truths, and so little pushback, that after a while, I gave up. I stopped counting. Here’s what I did manage to catch, in terms of brazen lies, all of which were left unrebutted, uncorrected, unchallenged, by O’Donnell[.]" Thanks to RAS for the link. (Also linked yesterday.

~~~ One of the best headlines ever: ~~~

     ~~~ "60 Minutes Edits Donald Trump Telling Them 60 Minutes Should Edit Donald Trump Talking About How 60 Minutes Paid Him For Editing Kamala Harris." Mike Masnick of TechDirt: "60 Minutes is under new management and things are getting stupid faster than you might expect. Last night’s episode featured ... [Donald] Trump, which is currently being described as 'nuts.' There are all sorts of crazy moments to call out, but let’s start with the recursively meta nonsense. 60 Minutes edited out a segment where Donald Trump tells them to edit out a segment in which he brags about getting CBS to pay him because of them editing out part of an answer by Kamala Harris, and he notes that CBS clearly did the wrong thing in editing Harris in the same fucking sentence he tells them to edit out what he’s saying. It is so fucking stupid." MB: Brian Stelter of CNN covered the details of this yesterday (linked on yesterday's page), but hardly with such aplomb. ~~~

~~~ Dan Froomkin of Press Watch: “When you sit down with someone who constantly says things that aren’t remotely true, you have a choice to make: Do you confront them? Or do you enable them? Sadly, in her interview with Donald Trump broadcast on Sunday, CBS News’s Norah O’Donnell – like so many journalists before her – chose to do the latter.... Seeing how Trump responds to being confronted with reality would have been informative.... A sit-down interview should focus on Trump’s lack of credibility, and on assessing his intellectual and mental state. Here are some of the questions that O’Donnell should have asked: Where do you get your information?... Are there any limits to your presidential power? Be specific.... Do you really believe that the 2020 election was stolen, despite the mountains of evidence to the contrary? It’s simply not true. Why do you persist in this lie? Tell us in your words what you think happened on January 6, 2021.... Who pays for tariffs?... Are you aware that grocery prices are up since you took office? What is your health-care plan? Why are you cancelling so much federal cancer research?... Why are you only welcoming white immigrants to this country? Why do you keep referring to accomplished Black people as 'low IQ?'” And more.

Lest you think Donald Trump is a heartless narcissist who can't feel other people's pain ~~~

     ~~~ Mithil Aggarwal of NBC News: “... Donald Trump expressed his sympathy for the British monarchy as it tries to douse the scandal surrounding the former Prince Andrew's ties to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. 'It’s a terrible thing that’s happened to the family,' Trump told reporters Sunday aboard Air Force One. Trump was responding to a question about King Charles III's decision last week to effectively banish his brother from the royal family over the saga. 'That’s been a tragic situation, and it’s too bad. I mean, I feel badly for the family,' Trump said.... His comments came as Democrats investigating Epstein intensified their calls for Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, as he is now known, to voluntarily testify before Congress about his links with the disgraced financier.” 

Carol Leonnig & Adam Davies from an adaptation of an excerpt from their book Injustice, published by MSNBC, on the FBI's search of Mar-a-Lago for classified documents and other items which Donald Trump stole from the White House: “'If it was anybody else, we would arrest him tomorrow,' [Julie] Edelstein [-- a top DOJ expert on mishandling classified documents --] said. Knowingly taking classified documents outside of a secure government facility was a crime, plain and simple, she explained. Trying to conceal them after receiving a May subpoena to return all classified records, as Trump had, made the crime far worse, she argued.... Trump has said recently that the search at Mar-a-Lago violated his civil rights and that he is considering authorizing the Justice Department to pay him $230 million in damages. But these new revelations from an unprecedented probe run counter to Trump’s insistence that he was mistreated and that he engaged in no criminal wrongdoing in withholding top-secret documents at his private social club.” Thanks to RAS for the link. (Also linked yesterday.)

Kenneth Vogel of the New York Times: “Consultants who worked on Donald J. Trump’s presidential campaigns were paid more than $1.6 million to advise a conservative Albanian opposition party on its strategy for parliamentary elections in May, according to a finance report filed on Monday. In the report, submitted to the Albanian election commission, the Democratic Party of Albania revealed payments totaling the equivalent of more than $1.62 million to the consulting firm of Chris LaCivita, who helped manage Mr. Trump’s 2024 campaign, and nearly $65,000 for polling by the firm of Tony Fabrizio, who has advised the Trump political operation. The Democratic Party of Albania lost badly in the May elections, despite efforts by Mr. LaCivita and Paul Manafort, who briefly ran Mr. Trump’s 2016 campaign, to position the party’s leader, former President Sali Berisha, as a sort of Trump-like figure....

“Mr. Berisha is facing corruption charges in Albania in connection with a property deal, and in 2021 he was sanctioned by the Biden administration for 'significant corruption,'  according to a statement from former Secretary of State Antony Blinken. He accused Mr. Berisha of misappropriating public funds and using his power to enrich his allies and family.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: So Berisha already was very much a “Trump-like figure.” Anyway, maybe his own consultants' lucrative involvement in Albania explains why Trump thinks that one of the many wars only he could end was a border dispute between Albania and Azerbaijan, even though those two countries are nowhere near each other. Trump did host the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan, which have been fighting over their border for decades; during the White House meeting, the Armenia & Azerbaijani leaders signed an agreement meant to resolve their border issues. 

Jeremy Roebuck of the Washington Post: “Justice Department lawyers on Monday defended Lindsey Halligan’s role as eastern Virg[i]]nia’s top federal prosecutor, saying in court filings that even if her appointment as U.S. attorney is ruled invalid, she now has an additional title that will allow her to continue overseeing cases against two of ... Donald Trump’s perceived foes. The department attorneys said Attorney General Pam Bondi designated Halligan last week as a 'special attorney' to the Justice Department, assigned to oversee the cases against former FBI director James B. Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James. Lawyers for Comey and James have urged a federal judge to dismiss the charges against them on grounds that Halligan was unlawfully installed as U.S. attorney in September and has no authority to prosecute them.” MB: Oh, Lindsey is special, all right.

Anna Liss-Roy of the Washington Post: Rep. LaMonica “McIver, 39, [D-N.J.] was charged with three counts of assaulting, resisting, impeding and interfering with federal officers. The Washington Post reviewed available footage of the incident and confirmed McIver made physical contact with at least two agents, but it is difficult to discern the level of force and whether the contact occurred intentionally or as a result of a chaotic moment. McIver denies wrongdoing and says the charges are politically motivated. Exactly what happened during the 68-second encounter between McIver, a first-term member of Congress..., and federal agents at the facility could soon be addressed at trial — if a federal judge decides the case should move forward. That decision is expected imminently. Last month, McIver’s defense asked the judge to throw out the charges, arguing that the legal principle of legislative immunity protects lawmakers from being sued or prosecuted for actions they take as part of their official duties.... The case could redefine what constitutes protected legislative work, placing new limits on how members conduct oversight.”

Jack Healy of the New York Times: “... so far, no local prosecutors are known to have filed criminal charges against immigration agents. That might change. At [the request of Brice Current, the police chief in Durango, Colo.,] the Colorado Bureau of Investigation has opened an investigation into [an] incident in Durango, putting Democratic-led Colorado on a potential collision course with the Trump administration, which has threatened to prosecute any local officials if they charge federal agents carrying out President Trump’s immigration crackdown.... [Current had seen] video of an immigration agent putting a protester into what the chief saw as a chokehold and throwing her down an embankment.... 'It appeared to be an out-of-policy and possibly illegal use of force,' he said in an interview at police headquarters.”

MEANWHILE, with no help from President* Laze E. Bonespurs, ~~~ 

~~~ Jordain Carney of Politico: “Senate Majority Leader John Thune said he was 'optimistic' an agreement can be reached this week to end the five-week shutdown as bipartisan rank-and-file talks make progress. Thune, speaking to reporters, said the goal was to be able to send a revised stopgap bill to the House by the end of the week to reopen agencies.... Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) told reporters Monday he also sensed senators are getting closer to an exit strategy but said he wasn’t yet sure what that would be.” AND ~~~

~~~ Benjamin Guggenheim & Meredith Hill of Politico: “A bipartisan quartet of House lawmakers released a 'statement of principles' Monday for a potential compromise on an extension of Obamacare subsidies, which would include a two-year sunset and an income cap for eligibility. The compromise framework from Republican Reps. Don Bacon of Nebraska and Jeff Hurd of Colorado, and Democratic Reps. Tom Suozzi of New York and Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey, is the first public tangible offering on health care policy since the government shutdown began 33 days ago.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Of course the House itself has not been in session for, what? five weeks, and we don't know what Bible Mike's plans for next week are. He probably doesn't know, either, as he is ALWAYS "too busy" to keep abreast of ANY current events. 

Annie Karni of the New York Times: “Republican lawmakers and influencers continued on Monday to distance themselves from Tucker Carlson after his sympathetic interview with the prominent white supremacist Nick Fuentes, putting on display a widening split on the right about how to address antisemitism within their party. The fallout included at least one resignation, as a key aide to the head of a prominent right-wing think tank [-- the Heritage Foundation --] stepped down after backing his boss’s vigorous defense of Mr. Carlson.... Ben Shapiro, the conservative podcast host, also condemned Mr. Carlson on Monday as 'the most virulent superspreader of vile ideas in America.'... On Capitol Hill, Republicans were quick to disavow antisemitism and declare unbending support for Israel, even as some refrained from singling out Mr. Carlson by name... [Sen. Ted] Cruz has positioned himself as one of the party’s loudest voices denouncing antisemitism and appeared especially eager for a hand-to-hand fight with Mr. Carlson.” Karni cites a number of other Republicans who declared themselves foes of antisemitism. ~~~

~~~ And Yet. And Yet. Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: Charlie Kirk & Hitler-loving white nationalist Nick Fuentes were bitter enemies. Now, after Kirk's death, Fuestes' stock has “risen higher than ever, revealing a seemingly unstoppable ratchet of radicalization on the right.... By cheering on Donald Trump as he promoted conspiracy theories and systematically destroyed bulwarks against nativism and bigotry in the Republican Party, [conservatives] helped make Fuentes’s rise possible. Fuentes reached a career high last week when he was invited onto Tucker Carlson’s podcast, one of the most popular shows in the country.... Their two-hour conversation was overwhelmingly friendly.... Within certain MAGA circles, to criticize someone for being too racist or reactionary is a betrayal....” ~~~

~~~ Will Sommer of the Bulwark recounts some recent major battles in the "Groyper War," which is consuming the Heritage Foundation. His report probably will not sadden you any.

Cat Zakrzewski of the Washington Post: “The Supreme Court test of Trump’s power is backed by a group funded without disclosure by wealthy conservatives.... Standing behind [the small businesses that brought the suit] ... — and paying for some of the high-priced legal talent [who will present arguments today] — is the Liberty Justice Center, a nonprofit group with a libertarian-leaning agenda.... Some of the most prominent groups and scholars associated with the conservative movement have sided against Trump in the tariff lawsuit, highlighting how import taxes have emerged as one of the clearest fault lines between the president’s MAGA base and the free-market groups that defined Republican politics before Trump.... At issue in the case are the sweeping import taxes Trump has levied against scores of other countries. He claims authority for those tariffs under an economic emergency law that Congress passed in 1977. The statute, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) does not mention tariffs.... The Constitution specifically gives the power to levy taxes and 'duties' to Congress.” ~~~

~~~ Marie: I have been listening to or reading Linda Greenhouse for decades, and I never noticed she had a funnybone, but Ken W. suggested this morning that she did. Maybe so: ~~~

~~~ Linda Greenhouse of the New York Times:  “...  where does the fun come in? If it comes, it will be from watching the conservative justices struggle to reconcile their deference to the president — abundantly apparent in recent months from their multiple unsigned and unexplained orders giving him nearly everything he wanted — with the method they embrace in other contexts for interpreting statutes. Inconveniently for these justices, deference and law in this case are quite clearly pulling in opposite directions, and the conservatives may have to twist themselves into knots in the effort to reconcile them.... Thanks to the livestreaming of the court’s argument audio, we can listen to 'Cognitive Dissonance: The Play' in real time ([Wednesday,] 10 a.m. Eastern).”

Abha Bhattarai & Andrew Ba Tran of the Washington Post: “A majority of Americans say they are spending more on groceries and utilities than they were a year ago, and they blame ... [Donald] Trump for the rising prices, a Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll finds.... Americans’ discontent reflects government data showing that inflation is slowly worsening.... Roughly 6 in 10 Americans blame Trump 'a great deal' or 'a good amount' for the current rate of inflation and rising prices, the Post-ABC-Ipsos survey found.... The poll also found that 65 percent of Americans disapprove of Trump’s handling of tariffs and that 62 percent disapprove of his handling of the economy....” ~~~

 

     ~~~ Marie: Trump keeps insisting he's never been more popular, but as Rachel Maddow demonstrated last night in citing a number of polls, he has in fact never been more unpopular. In fact, he is more unpopular, she said, than he was right after he sicced an armed, angry mob of supporters on the U.S. Congress on January 6, 2021. (In fairness, the numbers for Jan. 6 & today are within the margin of error. But still.) 

Elizabeth Dwoskin of the Washington Post profiles Chris Buskirk, a right-wing media figure who heads up “the Rockbridge Network, a secretive organization ...  of businessmen-cum-donors [which helped] fuel the president’s reelection last year and propelling one of its own — [JD] Vance — into the vice presidency.... Rockbridge aims to equip MAGA to outlive Trump.” Buskirk believes that an “aristocracy” of elites should lead the country. “His various projects echo what some on the right call 'aristopopulism' and aim to build a bridge between wealthy capitalists and the working-class people they intend to represent.” ~~~

     ~~~Marie: An interesting sort of "aristocracy": where the originator of what Akhilleus calls "Hillbilly Allergy" counts as an aristocrat and MAGA Nero ogles burlesque dancers while overseeing hunger games for millions of those working-class people he shepherds through their unnecessarily shortened lives. Buskirk likens his philosophy to that of the Greeks, and maybe he's right. Athens' democracy, after all, lasted a scant two centuries and eventually succumbed to the Thirty Tyrants -- pro-Spartan oligarchs. 

Lauren Hirsch & Rebecca Robbins of the New York Times: “Kimberly-Clark, the consumer products giant that owns Kleenex and Huggies, said on Monday that it agreed to spend about $40 billion to acquire Kenvue, the embattled maker of Tylenol, which has fought unproven claims by the Trump administration that link the common pain reliever to autism. Shares of Kenvue have plummeted this year as U.S. health officials have claimed that acetaminophen — the active ingredient in Tylenol — was linked to autism. In September, President Trump said that pregnant women should 'fight like hell not to take it.' Kenvue’s stock rebounded strongly on the deal announcement, rising 20 percent in premarket trading. Kimberly-Clark’ shares fell more than 10 percent, which if sustained would drag the company’s value down to a multiyear low.” (Also linked yesterday.)

~~~~~~~~~~ 

Florida Gubernatorial Race. Patricia Mazzei of the New York Times: “Jerry Demings, the mayor of Orange County, Fla., has filed to run for governor next year as a Democrat, expanding the field of candidates seeking to replace Gov. Ron DeSantis, a term-limited Republican. Mr. Demings has led the county, home to Orlando and one of the few places in the state that still lean left, since 2018. Three years ago, his wife, former Representative Val Demings, ran unsuccessfully against Senator Marco Rubio, who later became President Trump’s secretary of state. Mr. Demings is a former Orange County sheriff and a former police chief in Orlando, Florida’s fourth-largest city. Mr. Demings could prove a strong primary challenger for David Jolly, a former Republican congressman who has been campaigning for governor as a Democrat since June.... The county mayor position is nonpartisan, [Demings has] noted, though he won three elections for sheriff as a Democrat.”

New York City Mayoral Race. Geoff Earle of the New York Post: “House Republicans are exploring ways to prevent Zohran Mamdani from ever being sworn in as mayor even if he prevails in Tuesday’s election by using the Constitution’s 'insurrection clause.'... The New York Young Republican Club ... cites language in the post-Civil War 14th Amendment to the Constitution barring from office anyone who 'engaged in insurrection or rebellion' or who has 'given aid or comfort to the enemies.' The group argues that Mamdani’s own statements calling to resist ICE could violate the prohibition.... It’s the same provision Colorado used to try to kick Trump off the ballot last year, only to get slapped down by the Supreme Court. The high court ruled that it was up to Congress to enforcement the amendment....  Proponents would like to see a congressional vote on declaring Mamdani ineligible, although that would mean getting it through the narrow 219-213 Republican House majority and overcoming a Senate filibuster should leaders decide to put it on the floor. It would also have to survive any court challenge to removing a popularly elected official.... Meanwhile, House Republicans are doubling down on their effort to push the Justice Department to probe Mamdani’s path to citizenship.” Via RAS in yesterday's Comments. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I don't know what-all Mamdani may have said, but it would have to be pretty radical to qualify as insurrection. Urging people to resist agents who threaten, unlawfully detain and physically attack American citizens & other residents is not insurrection. It's as American as apple pie & Old Glory. ~~~

      ~~~ News from the Sex Abusers' Social Club. Trump Endorses Cuomo. Dana Rubenstein & Michael Gold of the New York Times: “'It is my obligation to run the Nation, and it is my strong conviction that New York City will be a Complete and Total Economic and Social Disaster should Mamdani win,' the president wrote in a social media post. As he has done in the past, Mr. Trump threatened to withhold federal funds 'other than the very minimum as required' from the city, his hometown, if Mr. Mamdani is elected. 'I would much rather see a Democrat, who has had a Record of Success, WIN,' he wrote, referring to Mr. Cuomo, a three-term governor, 'than a Communist with no experience and a Record of COMPLETE AND TOTAL FAILURE.'” ~~~

     ~~~ OR, as RAS put it yesterday, "Andrew Cuomo got the endorsement of the most hated New Yorker." ~~~

     ~~~ Dan Mangan of CNBC: "Trump’s endorsement of Cuomo’s independent candidacy came ... hours after Tesla CEO Elon Musk similarly endorsed the former New York governor.” Maybe I should mention that Musk deserves at least a conditional membership in the Sex Abusers' Social Club.