December 5, 2025

Trump, Implicated? Ryan Reilly of NBC News: "The man charged with planting two pipe bombs near the Democratic and Republican party headquarters on the eve of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol told the FBI he believed conspiracy theories about the 2020 election, according to two people familiar with the matter. Brian Cole Jr., 30, is cooperating with the FBI, NBC News has reported, citing a separate person familiar with the matter. Cole is expected to make his first court appearance on Friday. He was charged Thursday with leaving pipe bombs outside the Republican National Committee and Democratic National Committee in the hours before Donald Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol.... The suspect appeared in federal court for the first time since his arrest on Friday, wearing a prison jumpsuit. Cole, who vowed to answer all questions asked honestly, told the judge he graduated from high school and hadn’t had any alcohol or drugs that would impact his ability to understand what was happening." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: So all those wacko conspiracy theories -- looking at you, Dan Bongino -- about there being a connection between the pipe bombings and something, something MAGA? Well, yeah. Maybe just not exactly the something, something you had in mind. ~~~ 

     ~~~ Pierre Thomas, et al., of ABC News: "The man who is accused of placing two pipe bombs outside the Democratic and Republican National Committee offices on Jan. 5, 2021, told investigators he was 'disappointed' in the results of the 2020 election, according to U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro.... Pirro confirmed ABC News' reporting that Cole is talking to authorities and that they say he expressed concern about the 2020 election. She said 'it really isn't clear' if Cole is a supporter of either ... Donald Trump or former President Joe Biden. 'This guy was an equal opportunity bomber,' Pirro said. 'He put a bomb outside the Republican National Committee and the Democrat National Committee. He was disappointed to a great deal in the system, both sides of the system....'" 

Nicolai Ouroussoff of the New York Times: “Frank O. Gehry, one of the most formidable and original talents in the history of American architecture, died on Friday at his home in Santa Monica, Calif. He was 96.”

Apoorva Mandavilli of the New York Times: “After contentious debates and three failed attempts at a vote, a federal vaccine committee decided on Friday to end the decades-long recommendation that all newborns be immunized at birth against hepatitis B, a highly infectious virus that leads to chronic liver disease in most infected children. The vote was a victory for Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has sought for decades to overhaul the childhood vaccine schedule. But the divisiveness and dysfunction of the committee in making the decision raises questions about the reliability of the process and left at least one critic 'very concerned about the future' of the Centers for Disease Control.” Related story by Mandavilli linked below.

Heather Cox Richardson, in her newsletter, has a bit more on our Murder at Sea program.

Ken Dilanian of MS NOW is saying on-air that the D.C. pipe-bomber has confessed to planting bombs on January 6, 2021. MB: As for me, I hope he confesses to being a girl! 

Carol Leonnig & Ken Dilanian of MS NOW: "FBI Director Kash Patel has — on more than one occasion — ordered that the security detail protecting his girlfriend escort one of her allegedly inebriated friends home after a night of partying in Nashville, according to three people with knowledge of the incidents. Patel’s girlfriend, Alexis Wilkins, asked FBI agents on her security team at least two times, including once this spring, to drive her friend home, and agents objected to diverting from their assignment.... But Patel insisted they do as Wilkins requested and in one case called the leader of Wilkins’ security detail and yelled at him to do so."  

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With his administration falling apart, with his Cabinet officers flailing, with his policies failing, with even some Congressional Republicans thinking about thinking about standing up to him, with his public approval rating tanking and his policies more unpopular than ever, with own body breaking down before our very eyes, with all this, here is what Donald Trump was doing (when he wasn't making sure workers had slapped his name all over the Peace Institute): ~~~   

~~~ Erica Green of the New York Times: Donald “Trump has hired a new architecture firm to oversee the design of his new ballroom, the White House said on Thursday, a move that comes after he had multiple disagreements with his original designer. The president chose Shalom Baranes Associates, a Washington, D.C.-based firm that has designed other government buildings, to oversee the next phase of the project, a White House spokesman, Davis R. Ingle,​ said in a statement.... The selection comes after Mr. Trump had clashed with the original designer, McCrery Architects, as the president has insisted on increasing the size and scope of the ballroom on a short timeline.... Mr. Trump’s insistence that the ballroom be completed before his term ends in 2029 has resulted in sloppy plans. The various plans released so far, including a rushed model made by a contractor, have included windows that collide into each other and a staircase to nowhere.” ~~~

~~~ MEANWHILE, at the “Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace.” Dan Diamond, et al., of the Washington Post: “Trump hosted leaders from Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo at the building to sign a White House-brokered peace deal between the two countries. Speaking as the event got underway Thursday, Trump said he was honored that the building had been renamed for him and marveled at the new signage. 'Boy, that is beautiful,' Trump said, thanking Secretary of State Marco Rubio for putting his name on the building. Thursday’s deal signing between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo also comes amid an uptick in fighting this week in eastern Congo, observers said, warning that true peace in the region remains elusive.... The administration’s decision to add Trump’s name to the longtime USIP building comes after the president issued an executive order in February seeking to dismantle the organization, an independent nonprofit group created by Congress....  A federal district judge ruled in May that Trump had acted unlawfully, but the order is stayed pending appeal.”

Dani Anguiano & Robert Mackey of the Guardian: “The Pentagon announced on Thursday that the US military had conducted another deadly strike on a boat suspected of carrying illegal narcotics, killing four men in the eastern Pacific, as questions mount over the legality of the attacks. Video of the new strike was posted on social media by the US southern command, based in Florida, with a statement saying that, at the direction of Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, 'Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel in international waters operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization.... Intelligence confirmed that the vessel was carrying illicit narcotics and transiting along a known narco-trafficking route in the Eastern Pacific. Four male narco-terrorists aboard the vessel were killed.'...” ~~~

 

No Fog. 

They Could See Clearly. Helene Cooper, et al., of the New York Times: “The video that key lawmakers viewed on Thursday showed the first strike on Sept. 2, a fiery explosion that destroyed most of a boat in the Caribbean Sea. A black plume filled the air. When the smoke finally cleared about 30 minutes later, the front portion of the boat was overturned but still afloat, according to lawmakers and congressional staff who viewed the video or were briefed on it. Two survivors, shirtless, clung to the hull, tried unsuccessfully to flip it back over, then climbed on it and slipped off into the water, over and over. Then Adm. Frank M. Bradley, commander of the operation, gave an order for a follow-up strike. Three flashes of light filled the video screen. And the men were gone.

“In the briefings, military officials are said to have told lawmakers they assumed the hull might be afloat because it still contained packs of cocaine. They thought that the survivors might eventually have managed to float back to Venezuela, allowing them to try again to deliver that cocaine, or that another boat could come retrieve it. They assumed the survivors could be communicating. But the video did not show any radios or satellite phones, according to the people familiar with the briefings, and a surveillance plane apparently did not spot any nearby boat.... But while the order was for a lethal mission, the admiral denied that Mr. Hegseth had told him to give an order not to grant quarter, meaning kill enemies who were out of the fight. Instead, he insisted that the follow-up strike was lawful, in part..., because of the purported risk that cocaine might have remained.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: That is nonsensical. (Update: OR, according to the CNN report linked below, "[A] source with direct knowledge of the briefing called [Bradley's] rationale 'f**king insane.'" ) Let's assume that a reasonable person would have suspected that few kilos of cocaine "might have remained." So (1) you rescue the two men clinging to the boat, (2) then you blow up the boat and its contents. Admittedly, most rescues at sea are dangerous, but since surveillance had already determined that there were no confederates of the alleged drug dealers in nearby craft, this rescue would have been no more dangerous than many others. "There might be cocaine" is not an excuse for murder -- of these two people or of the nine others killed a bit earlier or of all the others killed since. Update 2: see Savage & Barnes' analysis linked below. ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post report is here. ~~~

~~~ Katie Lillis, et al., of CNN: “The two men killed as they floated holding onto their capsized boat in a secondary strike against a suspected drug vessel in early September did not appear to have radio or other communications devices, the top military official overseeing the strike told lawmakers on Thursday.... As far back as September, defense officials have been ... [claiming] the two survivors ... were legitimate targets because they appeared to be radioing for help or backup — reinforcements that, if they had received it, could have theoretically allowed them to continue to traffic the drugs aboard their sinking ship. Defense officials made that claim in at least one briefing in September for congressional staff.... For a little under an hour — 41 minutes, according to a separate US official — [Admiral Mitch] Bradley and the rest of the US military command center discussed what to do as they watched the men struggle to overturn what was left of their boat, the sources said.” MB: Wait. And during that 41 minutes while they were doing all that discussing, did they think to ask Drunk Pete, who had been watching the show, what he wanted them to do? There is really, really a lot that is not making sense. So not the fog of war. But definitely the fog of a humongous cover-up. ~~~

     ~~~ Mike Lillis of the Hill: “Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), the senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said Thursday that he is 'deeply' troubled by the Pentagon’s double-tap strikes on suspected drug runners in the Caribbean, saying it’s clear that U.S. forces targeted survivors who posed no threat to American security. Himes was among the handful of lawmakers who were briefed Thursday on the strikes by Adm. Frank Bradley, the commander of the Sept. 2 mission, in a secure location on Capitol Hill. He said the lawmakers were shown the video footage of the episode. 'I reviewed the video and it’s deeply, deeply troubling,' Himes said. 'The fact is that we killed two people who were in deep distress and had neither the means nor obviously the intent to continue their mission.'” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Sarah Fortinsky of the Hill: “Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) on Wednesday questioned where Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth went on Sept. 2, after watching the livestream of the first strike on a boat allegedly carrying narcotics in the Caribbean. Tillis, in an appearance on CNN’s 'The Source,' said he has no reason to doubt Hegseth’s claim that he did not see the second attack — which reportedly targeted two survivors of the initial attack — but said it’s important to get a full accounting of what happened during the military operation.... 'I would assume a part of the record was, what was the other thing that he was doing that was more important than a battle damage assessment over the first strike in the Caribbean?'” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

No War. 

~~~ Charlie Savage & Julian Barnes of the New York Times: “As Congress parses the details of a follow-on strike that killed shipwrecked survivors of ... [Donald] Trump’s first boat attack on Sept. 2, a much larger issue risks getting lost: whether Mr. Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have caused the military to commit crimes in a score of attacks.... Geoffrey S. Corn, who was formerly the Army’s senior adviser for law-of-war issues, [said], 'The real problem here is the dubious and legally overbroad assertion that the United States is justified in using wartime authority against a criminal problem.' As a matter of plain reality, an unarmed speedboat, even if it is carrying cocaine, is not a warship. And none of the 11 people aboard — not merely the two initial survivors ... — were fighting anyone.... And to the extent the administration has tried to offer substantive justifications for Mr. Trump’s purported determination [that the U.S. is at war with drug traffickers], they appear to collapse under scrutiny.... [Law professor] Rebecca Ingber..., a former State Department expert in the law of war, [said,] 'There is a risk that the focus on the second strike and specifically the talk of “war crimes” feeds into the administration’s false wartime framing and veils the fact that the entire boat-strikes campaign is murder, full stop,' she said.” ~~~

~~~ "It's Just Murder." Lisa Needham of Public Notice: "When there’s no war, you aren’t committing war crimes when you kill people indiscriminately. You’re just a straight-up murderer. And Hegseth and everyone else participating in these boat strikes are responsible for the deaths of 87 people on 23 boats (and counting).... We’re watching the flimsy justifications fall apart in real time. The administration can try to shift the blame. They can try to say that people clinging for dear life to the wreckage of a boat in the middle of the ocean are somehow an active threat. But in the end, it’s just murder." Needham provides some telling background on Elliot Gaiser, the attorney who heads up the Office of Legal Counsel, which "whip[ped] up an opinion insisting that [Trump's] Article II authority allows him to say, out of thin air, that we’re in an armed conflict with gangs who traffic drugs." ~~~

~~~ Phil Klay in a New York Times op-ed: “When Trump administration officials post snuff films of alleged drug boats blowing up..., they’re selling a version of what it means to be an American....  I suspect the question the administration cares about is not 'is this legal,' 'is this a war crime,' 'is this murder” or even 'is this good for America,' but rather, 'isn’t this violence delightful?'”

Here's the Pentagon Inspector General's report on Pete Hegseth's use of Signal to share sensitive information about an impending military strike. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ David Klepper, et al., of the AP: “Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth put U.S. troops at risk by sharing sensitive plans about an upcoming military strike in Yemen on his personal phone, according to a Pentagon inspector general’s report made public Thursday that criticized the use of unapproved messaging apps and devices across the Defense Department. Hegseth had the authority to declassify the material he shared with others in a Signal chat, the watchdog found. But it said the release of sensitive details about the strike on Houthi militants violated internal Pentagon rules about handling sensitive information that could put service members or their missions in danger. The report noted that the information that Hegseth sent — the quantity and strike times of manned U.S. aircraft over hostile territory about two hours to four hours before those strikes — 'created a risk to operational security that could have resulted in failed U.S. mission objectives and potential harm to U.S. pilots.'” ~~~

     ~~~ Dan Lamothe of the Washington Post: “The Defense Department’s top watchdog assessed in a report released Thursday that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s actions in the 'Signalgate' affair 'created a risk to operational security,' contradicting claims made by Hegseth and his aides that he received a  'total exoneration.'... Posting from his personal account on X, he wrote: 'No classified information. Total exoneration. Case closed. Houthis bombed into submission. Thank you for your attention to this IG report.'... Hegseth’s falsehoods about the report’s conclusions underscore the extent to which he and his top aides have worked to downplay the seriousness of his actions. Former top military officials and other national security experts have argued since the scandal surfaced earlier this year that such handling of highly sensitive information almost certainly put American lives at risk — a point the inspector general’s team emphasized in its findings.” The link is a gift link. ~~~

     ~~~ Jack Detsch, et al., of Politico: “The watchdog also noted that Hegseth had other classified devices he could have used to provide details about the Yemen strikes to national security leaders. Pentagon policies largely prohibit the use of Signal for sensitive updates.... Hegseth’s messages in the Signal chat created by then-national security adviser Mike Waltz were set to auto-delete after a period of time, so the Pentagon could only provide a partial copy of Hegseth’s messages. Investigators were forced to rely largely on transcripts published in The Atlantic, which Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg received when he was inadvertently added to a chat. The Pentagon denied the IG request for a full copy of the chats 'because it was not a DOD-created record.' Hegseth also refused to sit for an interview with the investigators.” ~~~ 

Alan Feuer, et al., of the New York Times: “Federal agents arrested a Virginia man on Thursday on charges that he planted two pipe bombs on Capitol Hill the night before Jan. 6, 2021, a breakthrough that came after years of false leads and rampant conspiracy theories — some promoted by the same F.B.I. leaders who took credit for cracking the case. The man, Brian Cole Jr., 30, has been charged with transporting explosive materials across state lines and with the attempted destruction of buildings with explosives, according to court papers filed in Federal District Court in Washington. He was expected to appear there in front of a judge on Friday.... Mr. Cole [was] taken into custody on Thursday morning at the home he shared with his parents in suburban Woodbridge.... 

“At a Justice Department news conference on Thursday, Kash Patel, the F.B.I. director, said the break in the case was not based on new information, but came after agents bore down — yet again — on their investigative files and connected dots that eventually led to Mr. Cole. Mr. Patel and Attorney General Pam Bondi both declined to discuss Mr. Cole’s motive.... Ms. Bondi used the moment to criticize [President] Biden, falsely claiming that the case had been left to languish under his administration. In fact, the F.B.I. had gone to great lengths to identify the would-be bomber almost from the moment the explosive devices were discovered....” (Also linked yesterday.)

     ~~~ Marie: I was in another room working on something and decided not to get up and turn off the teevee when Blondie along with Bongo & Kash conducted their presser. They are such obnoxious, hate-oozing, lying braggarts that I'm embarrassed for them. They're caricatures of the cruel boss or mean ex-girlfriend in 20th-century light comedies. ~~~

~~~ Following is the briefest of overviews of what FBI personnel were doing, what Bondi had the audacity to describe as letting the case "languish ... sitting there collecting dust." ~~~

~~~ Dan Watson, et al., of the New York Times: “Here’s what we know about the arrest:... The arrest came after years of investigative work, with agents conducting hundreds of interviews, combing through surveillance footage and producing profiles of several suspects. The authorities issued subpoenas to vendors selling items similar to those found in the bombs and even the type of sneakers the suspect was seen wearing. Investigators identified Mr. Cole, from Prince William County in Virginia, as a suspect after taking a fresh look at their files and re-examining earlier leads. A review of the case prompted agents to focus on his movements and transactions around the time the bombs were planted. Agents used Mr. Cole’s cellphone data to track his location on the night the bombs were set, then compared it with surveillance footage of the path the masked would-be bomber took. They also traced purchases of bomb components, including galvanized pipe, batteries, and timers, to his bank and credit card records.... Dan Bongino, a former right-wing podcaster who is now the F.B.I.’s deputy director, was one of the most prominent voices advancing [conspiracy] theories [about the case].”

Albert Sun of the New York Times: “The federal deployments that have swept through major cities as part of ... [Donald] Trump’s immigration crackdown have led to thousands of arrests. But they have been less effective at apprehending immigrants with a criminal record than more routine operations elsewhere, new data shows.... Less than 30 percent of the people arrested in any of these operations had been convicted of a crime, an analysis of the data shows, and a very small share had been convicted of a violent crime. The most common non-violent convictions were for driving under the influence and other traffic offenses.... Last year, under President Joseph R. Biden Jr., 63 percent of those arrested by ICE had a criminal conviction, and 24 percent had pending criminal charges. Under [Mr.] Trump, ICE arrests of all types are up, including transfers from other law enforcement agencies, the data shows. But the greatest increase in arrests has occurred outside of these programs. In five states and Washington, D.C., a majority of the people detained by ICE this year had no criminal record.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: IOW, the entire immigration crackdown is just a very expensive racist project. I would be a a lot happier if we could quit this project and I could limit my outrage to the Crazy Old Man in the White House taking vile racist jabs at Somalis in Minneapolis and Haitians in Springfield, Ohio.

Madeleine Ngo of the New York Times: “The Trump administration said it would reduce how long work permits are valid for refugees and asylum seekers, intensifying a sweeping crackdown on legal immigration after an Afghan national was charged with the shooting of two National Guard members in Washington. The federal government will now require some migrants to renew their work permits every 18 months instead of every five years, according to a statement from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services on Thursday. The agency said the change would help it screen and vet migrants more often, allowing it to identify people with 'potentially harmful intent so they can be processed for removal.'”

Anna Griffin of the New York Times: “The Trump administration has reversed plans to remove a U.S. Coast Guard rescue helicopter from a fishing and crabbing community in Oregon, lawmakers said Thursday, after facing uproar from worried residents and a temporary restraining order by a federal judge. Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, posted on social media that he had spoken with Coast Guard officials and that they had returned the helicopter to the Pacific Coast town, Newport, 'and promised to keep it there.' Some residents thought that the helicopter was removed to make way for ICE operations there. It is unclear whether the helicopter’s return means federal officials may still place an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in the central coast town.”

Zach Montague of the New York Times: “A federal appeals court in Washington on Thursday agreed to allow National Guard troops stationed by ... [Donald] Trump in the city since August to remain for now, blocking a lower court judge’s order that the Guard’s presence was unlawful and that the troops should be removed by Dec. 11. In a brief order, a three-judge panel wrote that the decision was designed to give the court enough time to consider the issue, and 'should not be construed in any way as a ruling on the merits' of the case. The unsigned order came from a panel made up of Judges Gregory G. Katsas and Neomi Rao, both Trump appointees, and Patricia A. Millett, an Obama appointee. But the order appeared likely to prolong, at least for the time being, Mr. Trump’s most expansive effort so far to use the military to police a city with Democratic leadership, after smaller deployments in several other states were halted or wound down by order of federal judges around the country.”

Apoorva Mandavilli of the New York Times: “Accusations that presenters were cherry-picking data and relying on speculation over science derailed a federal vaccine advisory panel vote on Thursday on whether to change a decades-long recommendation that all newborns be immunized at birth against hepatitis B. The committee deferred the vote to Friday because some members wanted more time to settle points of heated disagreement. The panel had postponed the vote twice before, for similar reasons. At one point in Thursday’s meeting, Dr. Jason Goldman, a liaison to the committee from the American College of Physicians, angrily told the panelists that they were 'promoting this anti-vaccine agenda without the data and evidence necessary to make those informed decisions.'... The members of the panel, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices or A.C.I.P., were handpicked by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. after he fired all 17 of the original panelists.”

More Racism, More Trump Aggrandizement. Kylie Mohr of SFGate: "The Donald Trump administration has changed which holidays qualify for free entrance to national parks, removing two holidays celebrating Black people and adding ... [Donald Trump's] birthday. Martin Luther King Jr. Day is an annual federal holiday that happens on the third Monday of January, close to the civil rights leader’s Jan. 15 birthday. Historically, it’s been the first fee-free day of the year for national parks, which waive entrance fees several days a year. Now, visitors to the 116 parks that charge entrance fees will no longer get in for free on MLK Day or on Juneteenth, a federal holiday on June 19 that celebrates the end of slavery in the U.S. They will, however, on Trump’s June 14 birthday, which was added to the list this year." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I was thinking this story might be half-bogus. It's obvious that the Park Service's intent, at best, is to diminish recognition of Black Americans. BUT Donald Trump's birthday is, after all, June 14, which is Flag Day. So maybe the Park Service added June 14 just to show respect for the American flag. So I checked out the Park Service's Webpage covering its "resident-only patriotic fee-free days for 2026." And here they are: 

• President’s Day (February 16, 2026)
• Memorial Day (May 25, 2026)
• Flag Day/President Trump’s birthday (June 14, 2026)
• Independence Day weekend (July 3–5, 2026)
• 110th Birthday of the National Park Service (August 25, 2026)
• Constitution Day (Sept. 17, 2026)
• Theodore Roosevelt’s birthday (Oct. 27, 2026)
• Veteran’s Day (November 11, 2026) 

Theodoric Meyer & Riley Beggin of the Washington Post: “The Senate is set to vote next week on extending Affordable Care Act health insurance subsidies for three years in a last-ditch effort to preserve them before they expire at the end of the year — but the plan is all but certain to fail.... Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-New York) said Thursday on the Senate floor that every Democratic senator would support the bill.... [The bill] has almost no chance of winning enough Republican support to pass the Senate — and even if it passed, it’s unclear whether House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) would bring it up for a vote or if ... Donald Trump would sign it.”

We are a higher court than the district court, but we are not a better one.... -- Justice Elena Kagan, dissent, Abbott v. Citizens ~~~

~~~⭐Gloves Off. Supremes Approve Racist Gerrymandering. Abbie VanSickle of the New York Times: “The Supreme Court cleared the way on Thursday for Texas lawmakers to use newly redrawn congressional maps favoring Republicans in the 2026 midterm elections. The decision overturns, at least for now, a lower-court ruling that the new maps were likely an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. That decision had blocked lawmakers from using the maps in the midterms. The Supreme Court’s order comes days before a Dec. 8 deadline for candidates to file to run for office in Texas. It marks a victory for Texas Republicans and for President Trump, who has pushed Republican-led states to revise their congressional maps to try to secure G.O.P. victories in the midterms. The ruling also adds to the growing list of successes for the Trump administration before the justices, particularly on their emergency docket of cases heard without oral arguments, where the court’s orders are intended to be merely interim....

“In a 17-page dissent, Justice Elena Kagan, joined by the court’s two other liberals, argued that the majority had wrongly overturned a careful, 160-page lower court ruling, 'based on its perusal, over a holiday weekend, of a cold paper record.'... 'We are a higher court than the district court, but we are not a better one when it comes to making such a fact-based decision,' she wrote. Justice Kagan wrote that the Supreme Court’s order 'disserves the millions of Texans whom the district court found were assigned to their new districts based on their race,' adding that 'because this court’s precedents and our Constitution demand better, I respectfully dissent.'” ~~~

     ~~~ The Hill's report is here. (Also linked yesterday.) Politico's report is here. The decision, via Politico, is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Kate Riga of TPM: “The Supreme Court was simply hamstrung, Justice Samuel Alito wrote, unable to knock down Texas’ hyper-partisan, likely racial gerrymander because the election it would govern is so close. Said election, though, is a whopping 11 months away. Yet that near year of time — plus a March primary, which Texas could delay — counts as the 'eve of an election,' Alito wrote in his concurrence, so close to voting that changing the maps risks confusing voters.... The plaintiffs challenging the maps and the district court, Justice Elena Kagan wrote in dissent, worked as quickly as they possibly could — meaning that the Court just wrote a roadmap for illegal gerrymanders. Just wait to pass them until the 'eve' of the election, and no one can stop you. 'And even supposing it is now the ninth or tenth hour, whose choice was that?' she wrote. 'It was of course the Texas legislature that decided to change its map six months before a March primary'... Alito’s — and presumably the unsigned majority’s — interpretation ... 'gives every State the opportunity to hold an unlawful election,' Kagan wrote.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Maybe not every state. Maybe just those led by Republicans. Let's see what happens when California's new gerrymandered districts wend their way through the court system on their way to Supreme judgment. I won't be surprised if Sam and the gang find a reason that California jiggering is just too much to abide.  

Ryan Reilly, et al., of NBC News: “The Justice Department on Thursday failed to secure an indictment against New York Attorney General Letitia James.... The presentation to the grand jury came less than two weeks after the original criminal case against her was dismissed ... [because] a judge found [that prosecutor Lindsey] Halligan’s appointment was unlawful.... The failure to secure an indictment on Thursday does not bar prosecutors from attempting to do so again in the future. A ... source familiar with the matter said there 'should be no premature celebrations.'” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Devlin Barrett & Jonah Bromwich of the New York Times: “The decision dealt another embarrassing setback to the president’s efforts to exert greater control over the Justice Department, highlighting how judges and jurors have acted as a check on Mr. Trump’s desire to use the criminal justice system to punish his political foes.... [The grand jurors'] deliberations seemed to be brief and uncomplicated, and by lunchtime, the jurors appeared to have adjourned.”

~~~ Bill Mahoney & Erica Orden of Politico: “A federal judge suggested Thursday that she may disqualify a Trump loyalist as the top federal prosecutor in the Albany region, a move that would extend a string of losses in the Trump administration’s gambit to circumvent the Senate confirmation process to install U.S. attorneys. During oral arguments, U.S. District Judge Lorna Schofield, appointed by President Barack Obama, appeared poised not only to toss the prosecutor, John Sarcone III, from the top job, but also from other posts that might allow him to serve in the same capacity.... The legal fight stems from an effort by New York Attorney General Letitia James to quash a pair of subpoenas Sarcone’s office issued earlier this year, related to civil cases she brought against Trump and the National Rifle Association. James argued the subpoenas are invalid because Sarcone wasn’t legally appointed. Sarcone, a Republican lawyer who ran for office unsuccessfully several times, had no apparent prosecutorial experience when he was appointed as a temporary U.S. attorney. He had a tumultuous start to his tenure that included listing as his home address a location that was actually a boarded-up building on a police affidavit.” (Also linked yesterday.)

Brooks Barnes, et al., of the New York Times: “Netflix announced plans on Friday to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery’s studio and streaming business, in a deal that will send shock waves through Hollywood and the broader media landscape. The cash-and-stock deal values the business at $82.7 billion, including debt. The acquisition is expected to close after Warner Bros. Discovery carves out its cable unit, which the companies expected be completed by the third quarter of 2026. That means there will be a separate public company controlling channels like CNN, TNT and Discovery. Netflix is already the world’s largest paid streaming service, with more than 300 million subscribers. Bulking up with Warner Bros. Discovery assets would create a colossus with greater leverage over theater owners and entertainment-industry unions. It could force smaller companies to merge as they scramble to compete.... Any deal would need approval from federal regulators.” MB: So another personal revenue stream for Donald Trump. How large will the bribe be? What form will the plunder take? 

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Europe. Adam Satariano & Kate Conger of the New York Times: “The European Union on Friday fined X, the social media company owned by Elon Musk, $140 million for violating one of the bloc’s major laws targeting the technology industry. The case has been seen as a test of European officials’ willingness to aggressively regulate tech companies at risk of antagonizing the Trump administration. X is the first company to be fined under the European Union’s Digital Services Act, a sweeping law intended to force large internet companies to protect their platforms against manipulation and illicit content. The Trump administration has criticized the policy as an attack on free speech and American tech firms. Regulators in Brussels said the penalty against X was not about free speech, but the company’s lack of controls to prevent the platform from being abused. That included X’s 'deceptive design' that allowed users to mislead others about their identities, opaque advertising practices and refusal to provide independent researchers with access to public data.”