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| They also serve who only stand and wait. |
He Really Doesn't Know How to Behave. Haley Britzky, et al., of CNN: “A US Army sentinel guarding the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier reprimanded Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and a group of his senior advisers Wednesday after some in the group laughed and talked near the solemn memorial following a Veterans Day ceremony. 'All visitors will maintain an atmosphere of silence and respect at all times,' the sentinel called out, stopping his patrol to face the group as they departed. Hegseth was standing and taking photos in front of the tomb with his wife, Jennifer, chief of staff Ricky Buria, deputy chief of staff Patrick Weaver and senior adviser and deputy assistant Tami Radabaugh after the ceremony held at Arlington National Cemetery for Veterans Day. Some in the group were laughing and chatting after taking photos, prompting the soldier patrolling in front of the Tomb to yell out and correct them.” The Independent's report is here. And here is video of Pete & his entourage posing for photos & yukking it up at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
Mississippi Senate Race. Marie: According to the NYT count at 3:45 pm ET (map linked below), the count has Scott Colom (D) 4,404 votes ahead. Reporters on MS NOW said a little earlier that there were only "a couple of thousand" uncounted votes around the state. Ergo, I don't see how it's mathematically possible for Li'l Miss Dixie to win. ~~~
~~~ Now, here's the sort of update I really enjoy: ~~~
~~~ Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: “The last Black man to represent Mississippi in the Senate was born into slavery and left office in 1881. More than a century later, on Wednesday, Scott Colom, a Democrat, defeated Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith, Republican of Mississippi, according to The Associated Press, delivering a remarkable upset and becoming the first Black person to be elected to the Senate in his state since the Reconstruction era. Mr. Colom’s victory, which came by a slim margin after more than a week of ballot tallying following the Nov. 3 election, puts an exclamation point on the sweeping Democratic victories across the country during this year’s midterms.... [Donald] Trump carried Mississippi by 23 percentage points in 2024, and Republicans have long dominated statewide elections.” The link is a gift link. ~~~
Alaska Senate Race. Ryan Mancini of the Hill: “Former Rep. Mary Peltola (D-Alaska) on Tuesday surpassed the combined vote total of Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) and independent Dan J. Sullivan following the latest ballot drop in the to-be-determined Senate race. Peltola expanded her narrow lead over the incumbent, with 49 percent of the vote to the incumbent’s 47.2 percent, as of 11:13 p.m. EST on Tuesday; 84 percent, or 245,470, of the ballots have been counted so far, according to unofficial results from Alaska’s Division of Elections. Dan J. Sullivan received 4,027 votes, or 1.7 percent. The Alaska Democrat’s lead hit 118,926 to the Sullivans’ unofficial ballot total of 118,703, the records show.”
When You're a Billionaire, They Let You Do It. Ryan Mac, et al., of the New York Times: “Jensen Huang, the leader of Nvidia who is under investigation for an affair with a woman who U.S. intelligence determined is a Chinese spy, also had an extramarital relationship with an executive who reports to him, according to five people who worked at the company. The relationship, which has not been previously reported, was with Kimberly Powell, Nvidia’s vice president of health care, said the people.... Under Nvidia’s code of conduct, employees are told to 'avoid situations where our actions create conflict' including 'personal relationships,' and the company states that it 'promptly investigates reports of misconduct.'... Both Mr. Huang and Ms. Powell are married to other people.” The link is a gift link.
White House Threatens Congress. Charlie Savage, et al., of the New York Times: “The White House’s top lawyer has warned the Democrat in line to lead the House’s chief investigative committee that aggressive oversight of the Trump administration 'may cross the line into blatant criminality,' a threat that experts called legally dubious. In a three-page letter to Representative Robert Garcia of California, the incoming chairman of the Oversight Committee, the White House counsel, Will Scharf, said Democrats had 'evinced a clear intent to transgress' constitutional limits on congressional investigations. He predicted that their inquiries would be used 'to harass and aggrandize, rather than to advance any legitimate legislative end.' The warning from the White House was dated Monday, a day after Attorney General Todd Blanche said on CNN that members of Congress had ;done nothing but threaten everything that’s happening in this administration.'... Taken together, their statements signal that Mr. Trump’s administration is likely to follow the playbook his first administration used after Democrats took the House in 2019. Then, Mr. Trump vowed to fight 'all' subpoenas, his administration routinely refused to comply and the disputes ended up in court.” The link is a gift link. ~~~
~~~ Joseph Gedeon of the Guardian: “The incoming Democratic chair of the powerful congressional oversight committee said it appears Donald Trump has 'something to hide' after the White House threatened criminal investigations over the party’s planned scrutiny of the administration. Robert Garcia, ranking member of the oversight committee in the House of Representatives, vowed to press on in the face of what he called 'baseless threats' after receiving a letter from White House counsel William Scharf which warned that Democratic pledges to use to investigate the president 'may cross the line into blatant criminality'.”
Ariana Baio of the Guardian: “Democratic lawmakers expressed outrage at ... their colleagues for missing a vote Tuesday evening to impeach the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, allowing Republicans to defeat the effort. Eleven Democrats missed the key procedural vote on the impeachment effort, which failed by just seven votes. Some blamed traffic and conflicting events and others accused Speaker Mike Johnson of closing the vote early. Many of those not in the Capitol said they support the effort to impeach Hegseth. 'You should show up and do your job,' Abdul El-Sayed, the senator-elect of Michigan, said on CNN to the Democratic lawmakers Tuesday.”
Ana Swanson & Tripp Mickle of the New York Times: “Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent confronted Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick last week over his handling of a Singaporean company at the heart of revelations about Chinese spying on Nvidia, demanding to know why the United States had not already banned sales of advanced A.I. chips to the firm. The exchange, which took place at the White House on Thursday and was described by people briefed on it, highlighted growing tensions inside the Trump administration over A.I. policy in general and the Commerce Department’s posture toward Nvidia in particular.” The link is a gift link.
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Maggie Haberman, et al., of the New York Times: Donald “Trump was told aboard Air Force One in May en route to China that the United States had obtained sensitive intelligence showing that Nvidia’s chief executive was in a relationship with a woman believed to be a Chinese spy, people with knowledge of the matter said. The message was delivered by Marco Rubio, his secretary of state and national security adviser, shortly before the Nvidia leader, Jensen Huang, joined the presidential trip to Beijing at Mr. Trump’s invitation. It marked at least the second time in seven months that the president had been told of intelligence about Mr. Huang’s involvement with the woman. The existence of the previously unreported update given to Mr. Trump contradicts the president’s assertion on Monday that he had not known at the time of the trip about Mr. Huang’s relationship with the woman, who U.S. officials had concluded was working for China’s Ministry of State Security. '“No, I didn’t hear about it then, Mr. Trump said when asked at a news conference whether he knew about Mr. Huang’s ties to the woman when he headed to a summit meeting with Xi Jinping, China’s leader.” The link is a gift link. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Multiple Choice. Choose A - F. More Than One Answer May Be Correct. Marie: (A) Maybe Trump didn't think Haberman, et al., would almost immediately catch him in a direct lie about a Chinese spy. (B) Or maybe he can't remember essential facts. (C) Or maybe he just can't handle inconvenient facts. (D) Or maybe it's all part of another corrupt deal. (E) Or maybe Trump is also a Chinese asset. (F) Or maybe he just doesn't care. ~~~
~~~ Luke Fountain & Kevin Breuninger of CNBC on Trump's cozy relationship with Jensen Huang (Nov. 9): "Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has spent the past two years cultivating an unparalleled relationship with ... Donald Trump, gaining extraordinary access and influence over federal artificial intelligence policy as his company has pushed for looser restrictions on selling advanced chips to China.... The chipmaker is nearly inseparable from its co-founder and CEO Huang, who during Trump’s second term has gone from being nearly unknown to the president to being part of a small cadre of executives accompanying him on Air Force One. Nvidia has committed at least $26 million to Trump’s pet projects, including $25 million toward his White House ballroom and $1 million to his 2025 inaugural fund. The company initially sought to keep its ballroom contribution anonymous.... Huang has become one of Trump’s most prominent allies in the technology industry, repeatedly praising the president, attending White House events and accompanying him on a trip to China in May."
~~~ Then There's This. Aisha Down & Dan Milmo of the Guardian (Nov. 9): “Trump has met frequently – at least seven times – the head of Nvidia since the start of his second term. Huang has flown on Air Force One and taken calls from the president during public events. Four of their meetings have touched on one of the most sensitive issues in US-China relationships: the controls that the US has put up around the export of the world’s most advanced AI chips, which are almost entirely sold by Nvidia. Under ... Joe Biden, the US put in place the Chips Act, a package of rules that introduced sweeping limitations on US tech companies and their overseas trading partners.... For Nvidia, this was bad for business.... Under Trump, things changed.... Trump allowed Nvidia to export previously banned chips to China. Nvidia agreed, in turn, to give the US government 15% of the sales revenue.
“Experts said the deal would help Beijing compete 'on the AI frontier', in other words develop AI systems to rival those being produced by the likes of Anthropic and OpenAI.... Five months later..., Trump ... agreed to allow [Huang] to export H200s – a far more powerful chip – to China, in exchange for 25% of the revenue. 'President Xi responded positively!' Trump wrote on Truth Social.” MB: Yeah, I'll bet he did. Jensen Huang gets cozy with Trump, and a Chinese spy get cozy with Jensen, and Xi gets what he wants. A very successful espionage endeavor. ~~~
~~~ Cat Zakrzewski, et al., of the Washington Post: “Just a week before ... Donald Trump is expected to meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Shenzhen, a burgeoning espionage scandal is exposing a contradiction at the center of his approach to America’s chief military and economic rival. Throughout his second term, Trump has repeatedly warned that the United States cannot afford to fall behind China in the race for artificial intelligence, invoking the threat from Beijing to justify opposition to regulation of the rapidly advancing technology. Yet he has approved the sale of advanced technology to China that hawks in his administration argued could help Beijing close the technological gap with the United States. And when allegations emerged that Chinese intelligence had successfully targeted Jensen Huang, one of the most influential executives in the technology industry and a man with close ties to the president, Trump appears to have taken little action.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: The reporters assume that Trump means to act in the best interests of the United States; therefore, aspects of his actions regarding China are contradictory. But their premise is wrong. In every matter, one must assume that Trump is acting in his own best interests, not those of the nation. Therefore, it is perfectly consistent for Trump to allow the sale of advanced technology to China at the same time he promotes domestic development. Both benefit him. This ethos runs in the family; see the story below about Melanie's "feminist" turn. ~~~
~~~ Marie: I swairtagod I saw Lutnick's fingerprints on this scheme. ~~~
~~~ Hi-De-Hi-De-Hi-De-Ho. Maria Curi & Marc Caputo of Axios: "Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick was sent a highly classified memo warning about Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's relationship with suspected Chinese spy Alice Huang.... Lutnick oversees the agency charged with keeping sensitive U.S. technology out of the hands of American adversaries.... The memo ... circulated before President Trump's May 13–15 trip to China.... On May 14, Reuters reported that the Commerce Department had cleared around 10 Chinese companies to purchase Nvidia's H200 chips."
Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: Donald “Trump's planned 250-foot triumphal arch has come under legal fire on multiple fronts: from veterans, a historian and the governments of the District of Columbia, Virginia and Arlington County. Now comes another legal challenge.... Arguing that the arch ... would cast a shadow on their relatives’ graves in Arlington National Cemetery, nine members of the Kennedy family moved to join existing litigation in Washington on Tuesday seeking to block the project. They also say the arch would obstruct the intended sightline from the eternal flame at President John F. Kennedy’s gravesite, 'destroying an essential element of the gravesite’s design.'... The plaintiffs are children or grandchildren of Senators Robert F. Kennedy and Edward M. Kennedy, the former president’s brothers, who are buried near him.” The link is a gift link. (Also linked yesterday.) An NBC News report is here.
Oh, the Ironies. Coral Davenport & Rebecca O'Brien of the New York Times: “On Sept. 23, Melania Trump rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange, surrounded by female business leaders from nearly 100 major companies.... The occasion was the first lady’s launch of Imperia, a networking forum bringing together women in business to 'convert individual success into collective momentum to create new opportunities,' as she said in remarks that day. One of her advisers called it 'Davos for women.' At first blush, it all seemed to be standard first lady fare. But Imperia’s mission appears at odds with the legal actions and policy objectives of the Trump administration....
“The federal government has sued and investigated corporations for convening events for women and minorities to help them advance their careers. Administration officials have characterized the programs as violations of civil rights law, asserting that they discriminate against men and white people. At the same time, the name and mission of the first lady’s initiative also appear to overlap with those of Imperia Global, an 11-year-old company focused on bringing together female business leaders. The company left the United States last year in response to the Trump administration’s crackdown on such programs.” The link is a gift link. MB: When some real episode of “Life with the Trumps” isn't a parody of itself, it is the premise for a parody of itself.
Donald Trump is Not the Only Treasonous Federal Employee Acting as a Foreign Agent (Allegedly!). Greg Miller of the Washington Post: “British police have arrested a U.S. Army officer suspected of attempting to steal secret information from a NATO installation and deliver that material to Russia. The suspect, a 41-year-old U.S. Army officer, was arrested on suspicion of espionage as part of an operation involving Britain’s MI5 domestic security service in coordination with the FBI, U.S. and British authorities said Tuesday. The suspect’s identity was not disclosed. Officials familiar with the investigation, who like others interviewed for this story spoke on the condition of anonymity to share details of the case, said that no sensitive information was passed to Russia, an indication that the suspect was under surveillance and detained before any transfer took place.”
The Alpha and the Omega of Alina Habba's Turn in Trump 's Nest of Vipers. ~~~
~~~ Alpha. Tracey Tully of the New York Times: “The Office of Attorney Ethics in New Jersey recommended on Tuesday that Alina Habba Mildon, the former top federal prosecutor in the state, be disciplined for her role in settling a sexual harassment complaint brought years ago by a waitress at ... [Donald] Trump’s golf club in Bedminster, N.J. The office’s determination allows the case to move forward to a hearing and could result in penalties ranging from admonition to disbarment.... At the time [of the offending behavior], Mrs. Mildon was a member of Trump National Golf Club Bedminster and had befriended a club waitress, Alice Bianco. Ms. Bianco, then 21, had alleged that her boss at the club had engaged in a pattern of sexual harassment, including 'quid pro quo sex in exchange for continued employment,' according to Tuesday’s filing. Mrs. Mildon and Ms. Bianco traded a series of text messages and had one-on-one conversations that eventually led Ms. Bianco to drop her lawyer and accept a $15,000 settlement — 'terms favorable to the golf club and unfavorable to Bianco,' the complaint states....
“Ms. Bianco later enlisted another lawyer, Nancy Erika Smith, to sue Mrs. Mildon and the club, charging that Mrs. Mildon had 'fraudulently induced' her to sign an illegal nondisclosure agreement. That lawsuit resulted in a $400,000 settlement.... Soon after Mrs. Mildon helped broker the $15,000 settlement, she began working as Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer.” The link is a gift link. MB: Get that? Habba led a victim of sexual harassment to believe she was helping her, when in fact she was secretly representing Trump's club. Habba's unethical, illegal success in conning the victim of his club's employee so impressed Trump that he hired her as his personal attorney. And don't lose sight of Trump's delight in re-victimizing another young victim of sexual abuse. Trump sits at the center of a nest of vipers. ~~~
~~~ Omega. Tyler Pager of the New York Times: “Alina Habba Mildon, one of ... [Donald] Trump’s former lawyers, was fired last week by the family company that gave her a $50 million contract weeks before Mr. Trump granted a pardon to the family’s patriarch. In a letter dated Nov. 4, the company, Concord Partners, terminated Mrs. Mildon citing a 'failure to perform duties.'... [A] person [close to the family] said Mrs. Mildon’s priorities appeared to shift away from Concord after she started dating Turhan Mildon, a 25-year-old Turkish investor, earlier this year. The firing came days after the disclosure of the deal by The Times prompted an angry outburst from Mr. Trump, who called the deal 'totally obnoxious and outrageous' and urged the Herrera family not to pay her. Mrs. Mildon will keep $6.5 million that was already paid to her and her signing bonus of $8 million. But she had signed a four-year contract that would have paid her $10 million a year for four years along with a range of bonuses.” The link is a gift link.
The Gators' Number One Fan. Noah White & Rick Maese of the Washington Post: “Since taking office last year, [Marco] Rubio, a [University of] Florida graduate, has flown to at least 10 Gators football games, the State Department confirmed in response to a Washington Post analysis of flight records. He has traveled to Gainesville aboard government aircraft at least 23 times, including 15 trips the department characterized as solely personal. Rubio’s personal travel, through nearly two years on the job, appears to significantly outpace that of his predecessors, former State Department officials said. And it’s adding up: The flights have cost the government more than $1.2 million, The Post found, using rates published by the Defense Department.... Rubio is barred from flying commercially for security reasons and is required, when traveling for personal reasons, to reimburse the government the equivalent of an economy-fare ticket. ” Marco's son Anthony is a team walk-on and has played in only four games in four years.
Der Trumpenbunker Expands. Maggie Haberman & Jonathan Swan of the New York Times: “Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent recently moved out of his home and onto a military base after Iranian threats against his life.... U.S. officials concluded in recent weeks that Iranian plotting against current and former American officials had reached a more advanced stage, based in part on intelligence about threats to Mr. Bessent.... Since August, Mr. Bessent has led an economic pressure campaign meant to isolate Iran financially through tougher sanctions and restrictions on trade routes. That role has made him one of the administration officials that Iran most wants to harm, the people said. The severity of the threats to him is unclear.... Mr. Bessent is the latest senior Trump administration official to leave a Washington-area home for a military base or other protected housing. At least half a dozen did so last year, including Stephen Miller, now the White House chief of staff, and Pam Bondi, then the attorney general.” The link is a gift link.
Miriam Jordan of the New York Times: “Ann Lawani, a highly regarded nurse and professor, was ... detained [by federal agents] at her at her home in Lodi, Calif., on Sept. 16. She placed a call that day to family from a nearby holding facility. After that, however, her siblings and lawyer could not find her in a public database.... They got no answers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Ms. Lawani had simply vanished.... Ms. Lawani, a 39-year-old from Nigeria, was arrested the day after the Department of Homeland Security conveyed that most detainees with final deportation orders — tens of thousands of immigrants — would no longer appear on the public database.... 'The government is trying to deport immigrants as quickly as possible, and disappearing people from the system helps accomplish that by making it very difficult for family members and attorneys to find people,' said Cassandra Charles ... [of] the National Immigration Law Center.” The link is a gift link.
Sophia Solano & Liam Bowman of the Washington Post: “Maria Flores Garcia, a 19-year-old student at the University of Maryland, and her mother were detained during an immigration check-in.... In 2021, an immigration judge issued a deportation order against Garcia, according to [DHS.... She was the valedictorian of her high school class & gave the class's commencement address in May.]... According to [her boyfriend], Garcia came to the United States from El Salvador as a 9-year-old in 2016. In 2021, she and [her mother Mirna] Cabrera were granted a withholding of removal under the Conventions Against Torture, barring deportation to their home country. DHS did not respond to questions seeking confirmation of deportation protections granted to Garcia.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: I don't mean to suggest, by linking the profiles of Lawani & Garcia, that all immigrants must be outstanding or potentially outstanding contributors to society, culture and the economy. Immigrants whose contributions are or seem more modest are important to the nation, too.
Pranav Baskar, et al., of the New York Times: “A U.S. deportation flight from Arizona carrying Iranians bound for Iran turned around midair and landed back in Arizona early Tuesday morning.... The Iranians on the flight were meant to be transferred to Iran from neighboring Pakistan, but the flight turned around after Pakistan abruptly declined to accept them.... There were at least nine people in the group.... The Iranian American Legal Defense Fund ... has filed a lawsuit on behalf of Iranian detainees.... In its lawsuit, filed this summer, the Iranian American Legal Defense Fund claims that the Trump administration had illegally shared confidential information about detainees’ asylum claims with Iran’s government, exposing dozens of Iranians to persecution.... After this story was published, the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that the flight included people with criminal records and that all of the immigrants had final orders of removal.” The link is a gift link.
Katis Benner & Alexandra Berzon of the New York Times: “David Brouillette, the rookie Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer who fatally shot a Colombian migrant [-- Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero -- on July 13 during an attempted traffic stop in Biddeford, Maine]..., has a troubling work history, past complaints of domestic violence and abuse, as well as mental health issues. He also has a record of deep-seated anti-immigrant hostility, especially against Colombians. In 2021, four years before he joined ICE, Mr. Brouillette, a former U.S. Army sergeant, raged against his sister and their relatives in a series of emails, castigating her for her longtime relationship with a Colombian man, with whom she had two children.... The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that 'any claims of substandard training or vetting are FALSE' and that ICE officers were 'trained to use the minimum amount of force necessary to resolve dangerous situations.'” The link is a gift link.
Ernesto Londoño & Abdi Dahir of the New York Times: “Federal prosecutors filed a felony charge earlier this year against a man who briefly served as a bodyguard for Representative Ilhan Omar in what his lawyer described as an unusual gambit to obtain incriminating information about the lawmaker. The case against the bodyguard, Abdullahi Mohamed, who was accused of lying to a government official under oath, provides new insight into the Justice Department’s efforts to build a criminal case against Ms. Omar, a Minnesota Democrat who last week won a fifth term in Congress. Federal prosecutors are reviewing Ms. Omar’s family immigration history as part of a sprawling criminal investigation that focuses in part on whether she entered into a sham marriage to help a man suspected of being her brother obtain a green card....
“In a move he described as shocking, [Mr. Mohamed's lawyer Bruce] Rivers said that prosecutors repeatedly told him and Mr. Mohamed that the investigation into Ms. Omar was '100 percent being run by 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.'... Justice Department officials — who dropped the charge against Mr. Mohamed in September — declined to answer questions about the case.” The link is a gift link.
Another Kennedy Legacy. Apoorva Mandavilli of the New York Times (Nov. 4): “Measles is once again endemic ... in the United States, 26 years after it was declared eliminated in the country, an analysis of genetic data from outbreaks of the disease has found. Data from the outbreaks will be the focus of deliberations by an international panel of scientific experts convening on Tuesday to decide whether the United States should lose its official designation as a nation that has eliminated measles. An announcement of the decision is expected on Nov. 17. The New York Times asked several scientists to analyze the publicly available genetic data before the meeting. Achieving elimination status in 2000 was a hard-fought public health victory for the United States.... Over the past two years, cases have soared, with nearly 5,200 reported so far this year....
“Some critics consider the potential loss of elimination status a referendum on Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has for decades questioned the safety of vaccines in general and the measles vaccine in particular. He has falsely said that the measles vaccine can be fatal, that it contains fetal debris and that its effectiveness plummets over time. None of the eight Americans who died from measles this year had been vaccinated against the disease. (Four were infants who were too young for the shot.)... The explosion of cases in the United States has coincided precisely with his time in office.” The link is a gift link.
Robert Jimison of the New York Times: “House Republicans banded together on Tuesday to shelve an effort to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, shielding him from a damaging rebuke and a potential ouster after their party suffered crippling losses in an election that turned on voters’ discontent about the Iran war. The action spared Republicans a vote on whether to impeach Mr. Hegseth on eight separate charges, including violating the Constitution to wage war in Iran and elsewhere without congressional authorization, flouting laws to mitigate civilian casualties and abusing his power by retaliating against a senator for public statements. The vote was 211 to 204 to refer the charges to a committee, which would allow Republicans to slow the process indefinitely. Only one Republican, Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky, who spearheaded the effort, voted with Democrats against doing so.... [Donald] Trump said the vote was an 'exoneration' of Mr. Hegseth and warned that Democrats 'must be stopped' from what he said was weaponization of government.” The link is a gift link. An earlier version of this report appeared as the pinned item in a liveblog & was linked here yesterday. ~~~
~~~ Marie: Was that "just a joke," too, Donald, you fat foundering fascist fart?
~~~ The Washington Post's story, also linked yesterday, is here.
~~~ Marie: Hard to say if these Republicans just love Pete or if they voted purely in their own self-interest. At least 30 of them will not be coming back to the House because they lost their re-election bids, and another 30+ won't be back because they didn't run for re-election. Now, some of these folks who are out of a job may have voted for Pete because they think getting crosswise of Fat Hitler will hurt their job-hunting prospects, but one would have thought that there were at least a dozen House Republicans who had the guts to send Pete on his way, particularly given the voters' disgust with the Iran War. Apparently not.
~~~ Also too, it is curious that eleven Democrats did not show up for the vote; their votes for impeachment would have made the difference. Among those otherwise occupied: Nancy Pelosi and Haley Stevens; Rep. Stevens (Michigan) was caught Monday hanging out in the Republican cloakroom. Of course it's possible that Stevens was actually sorting coats & whatnot for Republicans; she has been awfully accommodating to them lately.
~~~ Marie: It does appear House Republicans -- like Trump himself -- were unmoved by voters' concerns. To wit:
~~~ Michael Gold of the New York Times: “Divided House Republicans elected Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio to be their leader on Tuesday, elevating a pugilistic firebrand who has been a close ally of President Trump as they reel from a crushing defeat in the midterm elections. Mr. Jordan, the current chairman of the Judiciary Committee, will replace Speaker Mike Johnson next year, when Republicans are relegated to the minority and effectively shut out of power. He will inherit a fractious and diminished conference that was already plagued by bitter infighting before it lost control of the House. Mr. Jordan, 62, who was elected in a closed-door party meeting, will play a critical role in his party’s efforts to chart a path back to the majority. He will also lead Republicans’ efforts to shield Mr. Trump and his administration from an anticipated barrage of congressional investigations and oversight efforts from House Democrats.” The link is a gift link. (Also linked yesterday.) Politico's report is here.
“The consequences of Justice Scalia’s use of 'and' rather than 'or' have been profound. Since all guns are dangerous, courts have had to focus instead on determining whether a type of firearm is unusual, often parsing marketing data and consumer surveys to gauge a weapon’s popularity. A New York Times review found that courts have applied the 'dangerous and unusual' test in at least 98 opinions in civil lawsuits that challenged weapons restrictions, most of them bankrolled by activist groups, since the 2008 Heller decision.” The link is a gift link. MB: People have died because of Nino's mistake. Was it intentional? Or not? What are the odds the Roberts Court will want to set to rights nearly two decades of bad precedent?
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Israel. Gerry Shih of the Washington Post: “As Israel’s newly elected parliament convened for the first time Tuesday, Israeli opposition leaders, who together now hold the majority of seats, submitted a raft of bills aiming to apply scrutiny to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s handling of events leading up to and around the Oct. 7 attack and roll back some of his most controversial legislation. Yashar, the party led by retired general Gadi Eisenkot, Netanyahu’s main challenger for the prime minister’s seat, submitted a long-promised bill to form a state commission of inquiry into the Hamas-led attack on Israeli on Oct. 7, 2023, that was previously blocked by the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, when it was dominated by Netanyahu’s coalition. Eisenkot’s party also moved to repeal the Netanyahu government’s controversial judicial overhaul, which sought to limit the court’s powers, and to set term limits for the prime minister. The flurry of bills, taken together, would amount to a 'regime overhaul,' Yashar said....”
