JustOneMinute

Another Wild Weekend

Away we go.

That Went Well

Democrats keep the Senate, may even keep the House.

One of the many things that will make 2024 interesting - Republicans probably know by now that they have a problem and may even try to fix it. Democrats, on the other hand, may think their party has it all worked out.

IMHO (and that of George Will) someone has to thank Joe and Kamala for their service and push them out the door. That's harder after this recent Dem success in which neither was on the ballot.

Election Day!

What with all the extended voting rules Election Day is now the end of the beginning. Brookings has background on the various timetables states have adopted for processing and counting absentee ballots. Close races are likely to lead to delayed results in, eg, Pennsylvania.

Captain Ed reprises another pre-mortem on what looks like an emerging Democratic minority.

Welcome To Portland

Welcome to Portland, and be sure to drive your Clown Car:

An ‘Army’ of Volunteer Sleuths Are Out Hunting for Your Stolen Car

In Portland, Ore., vehicle thefts have soared, and the police say they are focused on other crimes. Now victims are helping each other track down their own cars.

The police force was cut back as part of the 'defunding the police' brain wave. Now homicides are setting new records and tracking stolen cars is a reduced priority.

Fortunately, a Facebook group has sprung into the breach. Srsly.

Sunday Evening

I'm waiting for the Yankees to close this up... they are trailing 6-5 in the 8th.

Jan 6 Hearings - Mission Accomplished?

The WSJ editors tell us what they think the Jan 6 hearings accomplished:

The House Jan. 6 committee voted 9-0 on Thursday to subpoena former President Trump, but the clock is ticking. If Republicans take the House, they’ll shut down the inquiry posthaste in early January. If he wants to avoid the hot seat, Mr. Trump only needs to find a way to resist the subpoena until then.

...

Getting direct evidence of Mr. Trump’s action—and inaction—was always going to be a challenge. There is no evidence so far that Mr. Trump was communicating or coordinating with the Proud Boys or other nefarious elements in the runup to Jan. 6. On Thursday the committee played video of foolish talk by Roger Stone, another Trump flunkie who also took the Fifth. “I say f— the voting, let’s get right to the violence,” Mr. Stone said on Nov. 2, which was the day before the election.

What the committee has accomplished, however, is to cement the facts surrounding Mr. Trump’s recklessness after Nov. 3 and his dereliction of duty on Jan. 6. The Justice Department and Mr. Trump’s own campaign repeatedly told him that his fraud claims were without basis. Whether it was willful blindness or an intentional strategy, he kept repeating them.

...

Committee members said Thursday they will write a report summarizing their findings. Transcripts of the testimony ought to be released at the same time, so that posterity can see what Mr. Cipollone and others said in full. Ditto for the documents gathered. The committee’s credibility has suffered without GOP cross-examination of the witnesses. And the way that the committee selectively leaked Ginni Thomas’s text messages was outrageous, and appeared to be an effort to discredit her husband, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

The Jan. 6 committee probably won’t get Mr. Trump under oath, but the evidence of his bad behavior is now so convincing that political accountability hardly requires it.

 

It Begins!

We'll see how far the best hitter in baseball can carry the Yankees. If he gets the chance.

In other match-up news, here is the showdown we wanted - orcas versus great whites! Bet orcas.

Drone and helicopter footage captured off the coast of South Africa provides what scientists say is the first direct proof that orcas are capable of hunting and killing one of the world’s largest sea predators: the great white shark.\

A study published this week in the journal Ecology details a more than hour-long pursuit of a number of white sharks by a pod of killer whales off Mossel Bay, a harbor town in South Africa’s Western Cape province. At least two white sharks were killed over a 71-minute period in May, the researchers said.

“This behavior has never been witnessed in detail before, and certainly never from the air,” the study’s lead author, Alison Towner, a shark biologist at Marine Dynamics Academy in Gansbaai, South Africa, said in a statement.

The footage could help explain the disappearance of great white sharks off the coast of South Africa in recent years, a decline that scientists and government officials had long suspected was due to killer whales, rather than illegal hunting or overfishing.

 

Meanwhile, Back In Ukraine...

The Russian Army continues to under-perform. I would think that with autumn upon us and and winter approaching that Major Mud and General Snow will stall any further Ukranian offensives. OTOH, the Russians probably have a brutal logistics challenge in front of them - this war is taking longer than planned and their transportation lines keeping getting, well, re-organized as they fall back.

Water, Water Everywhere... But Not Enough And Not Where We Need It

The Colorado River situation is just part of the US and the global water management problem oppportunity.

But things coud be worse! We haven't hit "Worst Year EVER!" status, where 536 AD may be the reigning champ.

Good Meeting, Vlad

India joins China in distancing from Putinn.

Good Meeting, Vlad

India joins China in distancing from Putinn.

Timing Being Everything...

Putin's 'special military operation' in the Ukraine is looking extra-special after the rout around Kharkiv. And now he gets to meet hat-in-hand with Xi, who may be having revised thoughts about Putin as his ride-or-die. Not Putin's best week.

MORE: In the Times.

 

Winter Is Coming

However much the US has suffered from higher energy prices, it is far worse in Europe and Britain. Can pro-Ukraine unity survive a cold, gas-free winter? Putin aims to find out.

All Very Awkward

The WSJ editors are right: unless Trump's Mar-a-Laga documents contained some truly consequential secrets its hard to see a criminal indictment coming out of this:

It’s hard to believe that a dispute over documents would yield a criminal indictment. Attorney General Merrick Garland would have to explain to the public why Mr. Trump’s behavior was so much more nefarious than other cases of mishandled classified documents. That includes former national security adviser Sandy Berger, who pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor. And Hillary Clinton, who got off with a sanctimonious lecture from then FBI director James Comey.

We aren’t defending Mr. Trump’s behavior in any of this. He brings much of his trouble on himself. But his political enemies make it worse when they break political norms themselves. They also help Mr. Trump by making him into a political martyr. If you’re going to indict a former President, you’d better have him dead to rights on something bigger than mishandling documents.

But how will the government prove any such secrets were in fact consequential? Team Trump will insist the documents were over-classified trivia; the government is hardly in a position to release the secrets to prove they are a BFD. Or maybe Trump's supporters will take the word of leaks to the NY Times and a pronouncement from Biden's Director fo National Intelligence? Yeah, definitely maybe not.

DC is not a high-trust outfit these days.