This Just In

Sources close to SCOTUS are quoting Justice Ginsburg:

"I was going to the break room for some coffee, reading a brief as I walked, and I tripped over the new guy who was passed out drunk in the hallway."

Last Week's Amy

In the midterms this week, Democrats took control of the House of Representatives, picking up between 35–40 seats, in an election dubbed “The Year of the Woman.” A history making 100 plus women will head to the House next session, as Democrats celebrated their upcoming check on Trump for the first time since he took office. As the week ended, senate races in Florida and Arizona and governor races in Florida and Georgia were still undecided, as Trump and his allies stoked false claims of voter fraud and interference by Democrats.

Americans did not get a chance to catch their breath, as the next day Trump took a major step towards ending the Mueller probe, forcing out Attorney General Jeff Sessions, and installing a crony who has been critical of the probe, and talked of starving it of funding to end it. Grassroots activists mobilized with protests nationwide to “Protect Mueller.” Post-election reporting indicated Trump is “depressed” ahead of possible indictments coming soon from the Mueller probe, including possibly of his son, Donald Jr.
Amy Siskind - Week 104

40. A report by the Lexington Herald-Leader found that Kentucky has fewer coal jobs than when Trump took office, shrinking from 6,550 jobs in the first quarter of 2017, to 6,381 this past quarter.

41. On Tuesday, Le Monde reported Dmitri Rybolovlev, the Russian oligarch who purchased a mansion from Trump in 2008, was detained in Monaco, and is under investigation for corruption and influence peddling.

99. On Wednesday, the Trump regime rolled out a rule that will exempt employers from providing insurance coverage for birth controlif it conflicts with their religious or moral beliefs.

100. The rule, which will take effect in 60 days, would roll back an Obama-era birth control rule which required employersmust cover all forms of contraception under Obamacare.

133. On Friday, WSJ reported Federal prosecutors have gathered evidence of Trump’s central role in hush payoffsto Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal, which violated campaign-finance laws.

134. In August 2015, as a presidential candidate, Trump met with David Pecker, chief executive of AMI. Pecker offered to use the National Enquirerto buy the silence of womenabout their sexual encounters with Trump.

135. The Journal found that Trump was involved in or briefed on nearly every step of the agreements. He directed deals in phone calls and meetingswith Michael Cohen and others. Cohen, Pecker, and Trump no longer speak.

136. Cohen, who Trump called “my attorney” in April 2018, pleaded guilty to campaign-finance violations. Federal prosecutors who investigated Cohen are now examining businessdealings by the Trump Organization.

146. On Saturday, NYT reported that the 5,600 American troops who were rushed to U.S.-Mexico border by Trump have little electricity, will receive no combat pay, and face holidays away from home.

147. Military morale is an issue. The deployment orders last through mid-December, meaning the troops will miss Thanksgiving, and have little to do beyond providing logistical support, unless Trump declares martial law.

Today's Pix

click to embiggen

Today's Tweet

A tweet thread on that Tucker Carlson thing

One last point on the Tucker Carlson protest, you don't wanna believe the protestors, why not go with the police version of events?

Cause there is a police report.

I'm gonna say that's a more reliable source than Mr. Carlson.

And it completely contradicts him.

Here goes.

— Rebecca J. Kavanagh (@DrRJKavanagh) November 11, 2018

Follow that thread

Today's GIF

I dunno - something something...counting the votes...something something...Florida.

Art Lesson

Othering. 

Nationalists and Exclusionists and Eliminationists need desperately to divide us; to keep us from seeing ourselves in each other...

...to be constantly suspicious of everybody. Small-minded, paranoid, insecure; looking to the Daddy State's reassuring authority to decide what's good for us, and even to do our thinking for us on a regular basis.

Uncle Wally

Wally Putin is a bad bad guy.

• He's ordered the murders of journalists and political opponents and dissidents - some on foreign soil. 
• He indulges the ambitions of empire on the part of himself and his oligarch pals. 
• He's deeply and personally involved in an all-out attack on western democracies.

And it has to be obvious to anyone with a living thinking brain that he's 45*'s bestest good buddy in the whole wide world.

POTUS has been kinda MIA this whole trip, except that it appears he's been sure to keep his appointments with Mr Putin.

It's just possible that we're seeing the beginning of Cult45's third act.

And just a quick update:

Ruth Bader Ginsberg was back on the job one day after falling and fracturing 3 ribs.

45* didn't make it to work on Saturday cuz it kinda got to rainin'.

This one never gets old. I'm not a Reagan fan. I voted for him, and then changed my mind after Iran-Contra. But I can't deny the guy was a gutsy bad ass in some ways.

This was just a coupla months after John Hinkley damned near put him in the ground.

This Week Last Night

John Oliver - cuz an awful lot of the real investigative journalism, and in-depth reporting is happening on cable comedy shows.

Oh Those Youngsters

Cassandra Levesque (D-Strafford 04), a 19-year-old Girl Scout, won a seat in the New Hampshire House of Representatives last Tuesday - running on the strength of her successful push to raise the Minimum Age to Marry from 13 to 16.

The Concord Monitor:

Levesque said she hadn’t originally planned on running this year – she has a busy schedule with online political science courses from Southern New Hampshire University and her position as a girl scout leader in Barrington. She is also still in the process of getting her driver’s license, and was worried about the commute to Concord, she said.

- and -

In 2017, as a senior at Dover High School, Levesque began her push to raise the marriage age – 13 for girls and 14 for boys – as part of a Girl Scouts project that ultimately earned her the organization’s gold award. Both her grandmother and great-grandmother entered into child marriages in their teens to escape abuse at home.

Diversity, bitches. Without it, we get stagnant. 

We've allowed our governments to be practically nothing but older white men. To be clear, I'm an older white man, but this is not about ducking my responsibilities, and I'm not indulging in self-loathing - the point is that we have to stop pretending we can have a healthy equitable society when the power structure is so unfairly out of balance. 

That oughta seem simple and obvious, but if we know so much, then we should understand that  artificially slanting things in favor of that Old White Guy Status Quo, can only make it better for fewer and fewer people - which means things get worse for more and more people.

Anyway, congratulations to Ms Levesque for chipping away at the monolith, lowering the average age of the New Hampshire legislature and skewing the gender split - all of which btw, contribute to raising the standards for that body and for the rest of us too.

Way to go, Cassie. Stay after it.

Today's Today

The eleventh month, on the eleventh day, at the eleventh hour.

The end of the war to end all wars - part 1.