“The celebrity physician Dr. Mehmet Oz is preparing to jump into the Pennsylvania Senate race on the Republican side, a move that would shake up contested primary and general election contests. The 61-year-old Oz has begun hiring a staff and reaching out to potential allies, according to influential Republicans familiar with his plans. It is unclear when he is planning an official announcement. The Cleveland-born, Delaware-raised, and New Jersey-based Oz rose to national attention as a guest on the Oprah Winfrey Show, where she dubbed him ‘America’s doctor,’ and later as the host of his own program. A political newcomer who has donated to both Democrats and Republicans, Oz’s principal connection to Pennsylvania appears to be his graduate education at the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned both medical and business degrees in the 1980s.”

“Oz would join the military veteran Sean Parnell and the business executive Jeff Bartos, among others, in the Republican primary. State GOP leaders are also urging the Pennsylvania native and Bridgewater Associates CEO David McCormick to jump into the race, expressing concern that the perceived weaknesses of the current candidates could cost Republicans a winnable race. Parnell is testifying this week in a child-custody battle with his ex-wife that has prompted allegations that he physically abused his wife and children – charges he has denied” – Washington Free Beacon.

New York Times:  “Thirteen of President Donald J. Trump’s most senior aides — including his son-in-law and his chief of staff — campaigned illegally for Mr. Trump’s re-election in violation of a law designed to prevent federal employees from abusing the power of their offices on behalf of candidates, a government watchdog agency said Tuesday.  Henry Kerner, who heads the Office of Special Counsel, made the assertion in a withering report that followed a nearly yearlong investigation into ‘myriad’ violations of the law, known as the Hatch Act.

“’Senior Trump administration officials chose to use their official authority not for the legitimate functions of the government, but to promote the re-election of President Trump in violation of the law,’ the report concluded.  Investigators in Mr. Kerner’s office said Trump administration officials purposely violated the law prohibiting political activity during the final few weeks of the administration, when they knew that the Office of Special Counsel would not have time to investigate and issue findings before Election Day.

“’The administration’s willful disregard for the law was especially pernicious considering the timing of when many of these violations took place,’ the report said.  Violations of the Hatch Act are not uncommon for any presidential administration. In October, Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, apologized after an outside group accused her of violating the law by commenting in the White House press room on the pending governor’s race in Virginia.

“But the Kerner report describes something more rare: a concerted, willful effort to violate the law by the most senior officials in the White House. The Washington Post disclosed the report’s release earlier on Tuesday.

“The people accused of breaking the law are a who’s who of Trump officials: Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette; Kellyanne Conway, counselor; Alyssa Farah, White House communications director; David Friedman, ambassador to Israel; Jared Kushner, senior adviser; Kayleigh McEnany, press secretary; Mark Meadows, chief of staff; Stephen Miller, senior adviser; Brian Morgenstern, deputy press secretary; Robert C. O’Brien, national security adviser; Marc Short, chief of staff to the vice president; Secretary of State Mike Pompeo; and Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf.”

The Select Committee issued subpoenas for records and testimony to the following individuals:
▪️Nicholas Luna
▪️Molly Michael
▪️Ben Williamson
▪️Christopher Liddell
▪️John McEntee
▪️Keith Kellogg
▪️Kayleigh McEnany
▪️Stephen Miller
▪️Cassidy Hutchinson
▪️Kenneth Klukowski

— January 6th Committee (@January6thCmte) November 9, 2021

“Pence, his aides, and staff were locked out of their offices in the capitol complex during the insurrection because their access badges had been DEACTIVATED the morning of the attack, according to sources familiar with the incident. According to one source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to an ongoing investigation, Pence’s team huddled in a loading dock, unable to access their offices, and started planning contingencies for a constitutional crisis and how to remove the president. The access badges worked that morning before the mob entered the capitol, but once Pence was removed from the chamber floor, their badges no longer worked.”

“Access was restored later that night after the threat was over. Access had been shut off to the VP Office Complex and the White House as well during the same time frame. That is where the new information I have ends, however, I want to remind everyone of a few publicly available details. In ‘I Alone Can Fix It’, Pence refused to get into a car with secret service during the attack. He said ‘I trust you, Tim, but you’re not driving the car. If I get in that vehicle, you guys are taking off. I’m not getting in the car.’ Additionally, in the book ‘Peril’ we learned that Pence asked Dan Quayle multiple times if there was ANY way he could do Donald’s bidding. After 3 rebuffs, Pence finally said to him ‘You don’t know the position I’m in'” reports ‘Mueller She Wrote’ podcaster Allison Gill.

“In sum, the superior court did not err in determining that [Phoenix Newspapers Inc, owner of the Arizona Republic] properly joined Cyber Ninjas, the custodian of audit records subject to the [Public Records Law], when it filed a statutory special action to compel disclosure of those records. As noted above, we understand the Senate has asked Cyber Ninjas to turn over to the Senate certain documents related to the audit. To the extent Cyber Ninjas fails to deliver to the Senate any audit documents requested by PNI, it must ‘promptly furnish’ those records directly to PNI.”

“As the superior court ordered, the Senate and Cyber Ninjas may confer about which public records in the possession, custody, or control of either party should be withheld based on a purported privilege or for any other legal reason. PNI requests attorneys’ fees and costs incurred in responding to the petition under A.R.S. §§ 39-121.02(B), and Ariz. R.P. Spec. Act. 4(g). Because PNI has substantially prevailed, we award it its reasonable costs and attorneys’ fees upon compliance with ARCAP 21 and Ariz. R.P. Spec. Act. 4(g)” says the order from the Arizona Court of Appeals.

Details are very sketchy, but the Texas Tribune’s Patrick Svitek reports “He was supposed to have an announcement at 11:30 in Tyler, tweeted a livestream around noon that didn’t work and isn’t answering calls.” The screencap above of the new site Gohmert.net was tweeted by the Houston Chronicle’s Jeremy Wallace though the site right now is simply a “Louie Gohmert” logo.

“Wisconsin election officials may not be able to adopt formal rules on ballot drop boxes and correcting absentee ballot paperwork because of partisan differences. Legislative auditors last month told the Wisconsin Elections Commission it needs to adopt rules that the Legislature can review on those issues. But the evenly divided commission may not be able to reach a deal on them. Adopting such rules could be difficult because the commission is split 3-3 and the two parties may disagree on the details of any rules. Even if the commissioners agree on the substance of the policies, Democrats may be reluctant to adopt them as administrative rules because Republicans who control the Legislature have the power to reject any such rules they write.”

“The commission in 2016 set a policy backed by Republicans that says local officials can fill in missing addresses for witnesses on absentee ballot envelopes. In many cases, clerks say only parts of addresses are missing, such as the city or ZIP code. Some Republicans turned against the policy after Trump’s loss and argued clerks should not count absentee ballots if parts of the witness addresses were missing on the ballot envelopes” the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports.

You really have to marvel at how fucking petty and stupid this is. Do they even have numbers on how many absentee ballots were missing witness address information and needed curing? Do they have any idea how many of those went to which candidate? Or are they just hoping that if they simply work in general to make voting harder that Trump won’t turn his wrath on them?

New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu didn’t even call Moscow Mitch or his pals to give them a heads up he’s not running for Senate, telling Politico’s Natalie Allison “I guess you’ll have to let them know. I haven’t talked to them”, while former Republican Senator Kelly Ayotte told WMUR’s John DiStaso she’s not running either. No word yet if Corey Lewandowski’s throwing in this time.

MAGA New Zealanders attempted to storm the island nation’s parliament building on Tuesday but were quickly pushed back by cops during a protest over the government Coronavirus vaccine mandates and lockdowns which have been pretty successful, Voice of America reports.

One group interviewed by Stuff NZ reporter Henry Cooke (video above) claimed that Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was arrested two years ago in the White House for allowing China to spy on Trump and is currently out on probation and wearing an ankle monitoring bracelet and so on and so forth – which is some pretty basic QAnon 101 shit compared to the vastly more elaborate and unhinged garbage that our own homegrown “Patriots” have been coming up with lately.

Reuters: “In Arizona, a stay-at-home dad and part-time Lyft driver told the state’s chief election officer she would hang for treason. In Utah, a youth treatment center staffer warned Colorado’s election chief that he knew where she lived and watched her as she slept. In Vermont, a man who says he works in construction told workers at the state election office and at Dominion Voting Systems that they were about to die. ‘This might be a good time to put a fucking pistol in your fucking mouth and pull the trigger,’ the man shouted at Vermont officials in a thick New England accent last December. ‘Your days are fucking numbered.’ The three had much in common. All described themselves as patriots fighting a conspiracy that robbed Donald Trump of the 2020 election. They are regular consumers of far-right websites that embrace Trump’s stolen-election falsehoods. And none have been charged with a crime by law enforcement alerted to their threats.”

“They were among nine people who told Reuters in interviews that they made threats or left other hostile messages to election workers. In all, they are responsible for nearly two dozen harassing communications to six election officials in four states. Seven made threats explicit enough to put a reasonable person in fear of bodily harm or death, the U.S. federal standard for criminal prosecution, according to four legal experts who reviewed their messages at Reuters’ request. These cases provide a unique perspective into how people with everyday jobs and lives have become radicalized to the point of terrorizing public officials. They are part of a broader campaign of fear waged against frontline workers of American democracy chronicled by Reuters this year.”

“New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu is NOT running for Senate in 2022. He had been the Republican Party’s top recruit” reports the NYT’s Shane Goldmacher.

The Bosnia Serb faction’s leader says the other two ethnic groups that form the country’s federation – the Bosniaks and Croats – are totally “clueless” and he’s going to be like “Hasta La Vista, Baby!” if the disagreement can’t be settled, Axios has the 411 on it so scope them out.

Former Georgia Senator Max Cleland has died at 79, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports while neglecting to mention if he was vaccinated from Coronavirus. The Journal-Constitution says it was due to heart failure, which is obviously important if we want to disingenuously suggest that a COVID-19 vaccine had something to do with it. Like if it were the Pfizer vaccine, we could say that this confirms preexisting assumptions among our right wing readers that the Pfizer vax is dangerous and nobody should take it. But then again, does it really matter which vax he got? If we really wanted to we could just say all vaccines have been known to cause heart failure and ignore the fact that a wheelchair-bound triple amputee probably had other preexisting health concerns.

AP: “Russian authorities named a prominent LGBT rights group and several lawyers as ‘foreign agents’ on Monday night, continuing a months-long crackdown on activists, opposition supporters and independent media. The Justice Ministry added the Russian LGBT Network, prominent lawyer Ivan Pavlov and four of his former colleagues to its registry of ‘foreign agents.’ The designation implies additional government scrutiny and carries strong pejorative connotations that can discredit recipients. The Russian LGBT Network has advocated for civil rights in Russia since 2006 and has 17 branches across the country. The group is well-known both in Russia and abroad for its effort to rescue gay men and lesbians from Chechnya, a predominantly Muslim region in the Russian south where local authorities were reported to have unleashed a violent crackdown on LGBT people.”

“Pavlov and four other activists added to the list used to be part of Team 29, an association of lawyers and journalists specializing in treason and espionage cases and freedom of information issues. Team 29 shut down earlier this year, fearing prosecution of its members and supporters, after authorities accused the group of spreading content from a Czech nongovernmental organization that had been declared ‘undesirable’ in Russia.”

“Plaintiffs’ [34] Emergency Motion for a Stay is hereby DENIED without prejudice. Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 62(d) allows temporary injunctive relief ‘[w]hile an appeal is pending from an interlocutory order or final judgment.’ This court has not yet entered any such interlocutory order or final judgment and thus a request for relief under Rule 62(d), which plainly requires an interlocutory order or final judgment before considering such motions, is premature. The court intends to rule expeditiously in this matter, and will consider a Rule 62(d) motion for a stay from the non-prevailing party following its ruling. Signed by Judge Tanya S. Chutkan on 11/09/2021” says the order as Trump grows antsy with the deadline fast approaching.

“The GOP leadership is bracing for rank-and-file lawmakers to attempt to strip committee assignments from the 13 Republican lawmakers who voted for the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill. Several of these lawmakers are also ranking members – top Republicans on committees – and those could be at risk, too. A number of GOP lawmakers were upset by the fact that several of their Republican colleagues voted early for the infrastructure package, helping Democrats cross the majority threshold on a key piece of President Joe Biden’s legislative agenda and undermining their party strategy” Punchbowl news reported on Tuesday.

Meanwhile on Monday night CNN’s Manu Raju reported that after QAnon Adulteress Marjorie Taylor Greene tweeted a list of the GOP reps, Michigan Congressman Fred Upton said he “received threats of violence. ‘It’s a real step back… But I have a colleague, as you know, that put out the phone numbers of the 13 of us that voted that way'” said the man who was censured by a local county GOP in his district for voting to expel Greene from committee assignments earlier this year.

“In late October 2020, Donald Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, was attending the confirmation hearing for Amy Coney Barrett when his cellphone rang. He answered with a whisper and walked out to the hallway to take the call. What was so urgent as to pull the chief of staff out of a Supreme Court confirmation hearing just two weeks before a presidential election? On the line was Andrew Hughes, the top staffer at the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Meadows had asked him to call because it had been brought to Meadows’s attention that a young assistant at HUD had been caught consorting with the enemy” writes ABC News White House Correspondent Jonathan Karl in an excerpt from his new book “Betrayal” published by the Atlantic.

“She had liked an Instagram post from the pop star Taylor Swift. The first photo in the post was of Swift with the word vote superimposed on it in large blue letters. But a swipe revealed a second photo, of Swift carrying a tray of cookies emblazoned with the Biden-Harris campaign logo. ‘We really can’t have our people liking posts promoting Joe Biden,’ Meadows told Hughes. Never mind that nearly 3 million other people had liked the post or that the young woman was a Taylor Swift fan who liked just about everything Swift had ever posted. To the enforcers of Trumpian loyalty, this was a sign of treachery in the ranks. Those enforcers – including the eagle-eyed official who had first spotted the offending ‘like’ – worked for the Presidential Personnel Office, a normally under-the-radar group responsible for the hiring and firing of the roughly 4,000 political appointees in the executive branch. During the final year of the Trump administration, that office was transformed into an internal police force, obsessively monitoring administration officials for any sign of dissent, purging those who were deemed insufficiently devoted to Trump and frightening others into silence.”

BBC: “Poland has warned of a possible ‘armed’ escalation on its border with Belarus, fearing its neighbour may try to provoke an incident with hundreds of migrants seeking to cross into the EU. Extra troops have been deployed after desperate crowds tried to cut a barbed-wire border fence. Poland, the European Union and Nato say Belarus is orchestrating the problem, a claim denied by its disputed leader. Poland says it is shutting a major border crossing at Kuznica. EU and Nato members Poland, Lithuania and Latvia have all seen a surge in the number of people trying to enter their countries illegally from Belarus in recent months. Many of them have come from the Middle East and Asia. Overnight temperatures at the border have slumped below zero and several migrants have already died in recent weeks. Activists say the migrants – many of them young men but also women and children – are being used as pawns in a political game between non-EU Belarus, run by authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko, and its neighbours.”

“JUST IN: Trump tells Judge Chutkan that if she doesn’t rule on his effort to block the Jan. 6 committee by Wednesday, he’s going to immediately ask the Appeals Court to intervene. … That’s because Thursday is Veteran’s Day and the National Archives is due to provide the Jan. 6 committee with records by Friday. Chutkan has made clear already she understands that Nov. 12 is the key date for Trump.” — Kyle Cheney of Politico