The Full Belmonte, 9/22/2022
Former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida.
“Former President Donald Trump was dealt double legal blows on Wednesday as he attempts to fend off investigations on multiple fronts. An appeals court handed the Justice Department a victory by allowing it to continue looking at documents marked as classified that were seized from Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence last month. Three judges, including two appointed by Trump, ruled that the public has a strong interest in ensuring his retention of the material did not cause ‘exceptionally grave damage to the national security.’ Separately, New York state Attorney General Letitia James filed a civil lawsuit Wednesday against Trump, three of his adult children and the Trump Organization, alleging they were involved in an expansive fraud lasting over a decade that the former President used to enrich himself.” Read more at CNN
Jan. 6 committee reaches deal with Ginni Thomas for an interview
“The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection has reached an agreement with Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, to be interviewed by the panel in coming weeks, according to her attorney and another person familiar with the agreement.
Thomas’s attorney, Mark Paoletta, confirmed the agreement in a statement.
“I can confirm that Ginni Thomas has agreed to participate in a voluntary interview with the Committee,” Paoletta said. “As she has said from the outset, Mrs. Thomas is eager to answer the Committee’s questions to clear up any misconceptions about her work relating to the 2020 election. She looks forward to that opportunity.”
Trump campaign documents show advisers knew fake-elector plan was baseless
CNN was first to report on the agreement.
The committee had earlier announced a public hearing for next week.” Read more at Washington Post
Trump: President can declassify "by thinking about it"
Screenshot: Fox News
“Former President Trump told Fox News' Sean Hannity last night during a prerecorded interview at Mar-a-Lago: ‘If you're the president of the United States, you can declassify just by saying, 'It's declassified.’
‘There doesn't have to be a process, as I understand it,’ said Trump, who is in criminal jeopardy for leaving the White House with cartons of classified documents.
‘Even by thinking about it, because you're sending it to Mar-a-Lago or to wherever you're sending it. ... There can be a process, but there doesn't have to be.’
Reality check: ‘The executive branch has regulations laying out the process that should be followed, such as a requirement to make sure that other agencies and departments with an interest in the secret are consulted,’ the N.Y. Times' Charlie Savage writes (subscription).
‘There are also procedures for the removal of classification markings on documents.’” Read more at Axios
‘He’s done’: how Donald Trump’s legal woes have just gotten a lot worse
New York civil lawsuit accusing Trump family of ‘staggering’ fraud could derail presidential bid, experts say
“Donald Trump’s legal perils have become insurmountable and could snuff out the former US president’s hopes of an election-winning comeback, according to political analysts and legal experts.
On Wednesday, Trump and three of his adult children were accused of lying to tax collectors, lenders and insurers in a ‘staggering’ fraud scheme that routinely misstated the value of his properties to enrich themselves.
The civil lawsuit, filed by New York’s attorney general, came as the FBI investigates Trump’s holding of sensitive government documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida and a special grand jury in Georgia considers whether he and others attempted to influence state election officials after his defeat there by Joe Biden.
The former US president has repeatedly hinted that he intends to run for the White House again in 2024. But the cascade of criminal, civil and congressional investigations could yet derail that bid.
‘He’s done,’ said Allan Lichtman, a history professor at American University, in Washington, who has accurately predicted every presidential election since 1984. ‘He’s got too many burdens, too much baggage to be able to run again even presuming he escapes jail, he escapes bankruptcy. I’m not sure he’s going to escape jail.’” Read more at The Guardian
“The FDA has authorized the release of ‘numerous batches’ of Moderna's updated Covid-19 booster amid reports of supply problems in some areas. Updated boosters from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna were made available early this month, but some pharmacy chains have reported trouble keeping Moderna's shots in stock. Still, Moderna said it's on track to deliver 70 million doses of its updated vaccine by the end of 2022. To date, less than half of people in the US who received their initial series and are eligible for a booster have gotten one.” Read more at CNN
New Cherokee Nation campaign
Kim Teehee. Screenshot: Cherokee Nation
“The Cherokee Nation is launching a campaign to prod Congress to seat a nonvoting U.S. House delegate, holding lawmakers accountable to a 19th-century treaty that hasn't been honored, Axios' Keldy Ortiz writes.
The 1835 Treaty of New Echota, which was signed by then-President Andrew Jackson and ratified by the Senate, promised a nonvoting House delegate to the nation.
The treaty then forced the Cherokee Nation to eventually head to Oklahoma, after moving from their ancestral homelands in Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia. About 4,000 people died along the way.
Kim Teehee — named the tribe's first delegate in 2019 by principal chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. — would, if seated, be able to give House floor speeches and vote in committee, but couldn't vote on final legislation.
‘The obligation to seat a Cherokee nation delegate is binding today as it was in 1835,’ Hoskin said.
Between the lines: The Native American tribes of Cherokee and Navajo are among the biggest, with an enrollment of about 400,000 each, and they have the ability to vote in local, state and federal elections.
Flashback: Hoskin and Teehee told Russell Contreras on ‘Axios on HBO’ in December that they're optimistic about winning support in Congress.
Spokespeople for Speaker Pelosi have said she supports tribal sovereore at Axios
Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
“Five forthcoming state ballot initiatives on abortion rights could add to America's evolving patchwork of reproductive health policies.
The Supreme Court decision has hardened sentiments in red and blue states — and put access questions in front of more than 50 million voters this fall, Axios' Oriana Gonzalez and Victoria Knight write.
Between the lines: A Kansas referendum last month showed how potent the issue can be in driving turnout.
What's next: Voters in California, Michigan and Vermont have proposed constitutional amendments on the Nov. 8 ballot that aim to protect abortion access.
Kentucky and Montana voters will face questions on further restricting abortion rights, and conferring legal rights on fetuses.” Read more at Axios
Rudy Giuliani Backslapping Case to Be Dismissed, Report Says
“The case against a man accused of slapping Rudy Giuliani’s back in a supermarket is set to be dismissed, according to a report. ShopRite worker Daniel Gill had been charged with assault with intent to cause physical injury, harassment, and menacing over the incident on Staten Island in June. But a source with knowledge of the case told CNN that proceedings have been adjourned ‘in contemplation of dismissal’ and the case is expected to be dismissed completely in six months. Despite the severity of the charges against Gill, his attorney says he “merely patted” the former New York City Mayor ‘without malice to simply get his attention.’ ‘As we have maintained since earlier this year, Daniel Gill, who had no prior contact with the criminal legal system, did not commit any criminal act, and this outcome, which will ultimately dismiss the case in its entirety, reflects that reality,’ Gill’s lawyer Susan Platis said Wednesday. ‘Mr. Gill looks forward to putting this incident, one which completely upended his life, behind him.’” [Daily Beast] Read it at CNN
“One of the internet’s most famous ‘Karens’ has lost a lawsuit against her former employer that claimed she’d been illegally fired and portrayed as racist. Amy Cooper was dubbed ‘Central Park Karen’ after a video of her accusing a Black bird-watcher of threatening her and calling the police went viral in 2020. On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Ronnie Abrams rejected Cooper’s claims that she’d been defamed by her former employer, Franklin Templeton, when it gave her the boot in the aftermath of the viral incident. Cooper had tried to argue that the holding company and its chief executive, Jenny Johnson, had perpetuated an image of her as a ‘privileged white female ‘Karen’’ in public statements made about her firing. She claimed that posts made on social media implied that the company had found details of her alleged racism which weren’t shown in the video, but Abrams disagreed. ‘The contents of the viral video, as well as the dialogue surrounding it both in the media and on social media, were already matters of public knowledge,’ which made the defendants’ statements ‘inactionable as pure opinion,’ Abrams’ decision read.” [Daily Beast] Read it at New York Post
Vladimir Putin’s call-up of more troops highlights Russia’s continuing struggles in Ukraine.
Ukrainian solders in Kupiansk, Ukraine.Nicole Tung for The New York Times
Setback after setback
“The war news has gone from bad to worse for Vladimir Putin over the past two weeks.
Russia’s recent run of problems began when Ukrainian forces recaptured parts of the country’s northeast in the most successful counterattack of the seven-month war. Since then, Russia’s struggles have grown:
Putin yesterday took a step he had been resisting and called up an additional 300,000 troops, mostly former soldiers. Doing so forced him to acknowledge, at least implicitly, that the war was not going as well as he had hoped. The mobilization was ‘necessary and urgent,’ Putin said in a nationally televised speech, because the West had ‘crossed all lines’ by providing weapons to Ukraine.
As The Times has reported: ‘After mostly defending for months, Ukraine is now dictating the war, choosing where it wants to press new offensives.’ Russia is on defense.
Data as of Sept. 19. | Sources: Institute for the Study of War; C.N.A. Russia Studies; Rochan Consulting
Russia’s setbacks in Ukraine have emboldened a small but growing number of dissidents to speak out. More than 40 local elected officials have signed a petition demanding that Putin resign. A Russian pop star has criticized the war to her 3.4 million Instagram followers. Yesterday, Russian police detained more than 1,200 protesters; in Moscow, crowds shouted, ‘Send Putin to the trenches!’
Some Putin supporters have also grown frustrated and have called for a more aggressive war effort. My colleague Anton Troianovski, The Times’s Moscow bureau chief, says that some of these hawks were particularly alarmed by the unsolved assassination in a Moscow suburb last month of Daria Dugina, a pro-Putin television commentator, viewing her killing as a sign of Putin’s weakness. These hawks were even more alarmed by the Russian military’s stunning retreat in northeastern Ukraine this month, Anton said.
During a face-to-face meeting last week with Xi Jinping, China’s leader, Putin acknowledged that China had ‘questions and concerns’ about the war. The comment suggested that Russia’s most important global ally had grown less comfortable with the war.
India, which has longstanding military ties with Russia, has also grown more critical. ‘Today’s era is not of war,’ India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, told Putin during another recent meeting. India’s discomfort, in turn, gives China more reason to be concerned about the war: If India moves diplomatically closer to the U.S. and Western Europe, it would create a more powerful bloc to counter China’s rise.
What’s next?
These developments help explain why Putin has chosen to call up additional troops.
For months, he had resisted doing so, partly out of a concern that the move would increase public opposition to the war. Putin calibrated his past public comments to downplay the war at times, and polls suggest that many Russians are not paying much attention to it. He still has declined to institute a full military draft, although yesterday’s order was so broad that he could eventually expand it.
Putin’s national address yesterday.Russian Presidential Press Service, via Associated Press
Western officials called the move an act of desperation and noted that Russia may need months to train and equip the troops. But Julian Barnes, who covers intelligence agencies in Washington for The Times, says that the troop mobilization does help address one of Russia’s biggest military problems. ‘Russia has the equipment but not the manpower,’ Julian said. ‘Ukraine has the manpower but not the equipment.’
Julian added: ‘The potential countermove for the West is going to be to send more artillery tubes and tanks to Ukraine.’
The U.S., the E.U. and other allies have already sent billions of dollars worth of weapons to Ukraine. Those weapons, especially shoulder-fired and longer-range missiles, have been enormously helpful. President Biden, speaking at the United Nations yesterday, trumpeted this assistance while also warning Putin not to use nuclear weapons.
Still, Ukraine’s leaders say they need additional equipment to force Russian troops out of the country. The Biden administration has requested more funding for Ukraine from Congress.
One question is whether the U.S. would be willing to send longer-range missiles and more modern tanks to Ukraine than allies have previously sent. So far, the West has chosen not to, partly out of a desire to avoid making Putin believe that an invasion of Russia was plausible. In that scenario, Putin might choose to escalate his attacks. Without more tanks, however, Ukraine would likely be at a military disadvantage.
Amid all of Russia’s problems, has anything been going well for Putin lately?
“Militarily, not much has gone right since the summer, when Russia took control of most of the Donbas, in eastern Ukraine,” Julian said. “That said, Russia’s economy is doing better than expected. The sanctions have not totally ground things to a halt. High energy prices mean they can keep the economy going and discontent down. But will the partial mobilization unleash that unrest?”
More on the war
In a video to the U.N., President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine called for Russia to lose its Security Council veto.
Putin said he would support the results of referendums on annexation by Russia in occupied Ukrainian regions. NATO’s secretary general called such votes a “sham” on Bloomberg TV.
As Ukraine wins back towns, officials are working to identify — and punish — residents who helped the enemy.
Putin has indicated that he’s willing to escalate the war to win, Anton says on today’s episode of “The Daily.”
In Times Opinion, Marlene Laruelle of George Washington University writes that Putin’s mobilization is a response to criticism from Russia’s pro-war commentators.
Ukraine war: Russia arrests hundreds as call-up sparks protests
IMAGE SOURCE, AFP
Image caption, Scuffles broke out in Moscow as police made arrests
“Russian police are reported to have arrested hundreds of protesters rallying against the Kremlin's decision to call up thousands of extra troops to fight in Ukraine.
Russian human rights group OVD-Info put the total at more than 1,300. The largest numbers arrested were in St Petersburg and Moscow.
Dozens were held in Irkutsk and other Siberian cities, and Yekaterinburg.
Flights out of Russia sold out fast after Vladimir Putin's announcement.
Pictures on social media showed long queues at border posts, and on Google, the search for "how to leave Russia" skyrocketed.
Russia's president ordered a partial mobilisation, meaning some 300,000 military reservists - but not conscripts - will be drafted to bolster Russia's forces who have suffered recent battlefield reverses in Ukraine.
The move came a day after occupied areas of Ukraine announced snap referendums on joining Russia.
And in remarks condemned by Ukraine and its allies, Mr Putin stressed that he would use "all available means" to protect Russian territory - implying this could involve nuclear weapons.” Read more at BBC
“Prisoner exchange | Ukraine freed Viktor Medvedchuk, a key ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a swap deal for 215 prisoners of war, a move that outraged pro-Kremlin propagandists. The Ukrainian prisoners released by Moscow included 188 fighters who held out for months against a Russian assault at the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol.” Read more at Bloomberg
Fat Leonard: Malaysian criminal in US Navy scandal recaptured after jail break
By Frances Mao
BBC News
Image caption, 'Fat Leonard' had been on the run in Cuba, Mexico and was attempting to reach Russia
“A Malaysian businessman who scammed the US Navy in its biggest fraud scandal ever has been recaptured after he escaped house arrest two weeks ago.
Leonard Glenn Francis, known as "Fat Leonard", was captured in Venezuela attempting to board a flight to Russia.
He had been on the run since 4 September, when he fled his California home by cutting off his ankle bracelet.
A global Interpol warrant had been out for his arrest as US authorities tried to track him down.
On Wednesday, the 57-year-old was arrested at Simón Bolívar de Maiquetía airport by Venezuelan authorities.
Interpol says he entered the country from Mexico via a stopover in Cuba. He is due to be extradited back to the US.
Francis escaped house detention just weeks before he was due to face sentencing for his crimes. In 2015, he had admitted to bribery and corruption charges and had been a co-operative witness for prosecutors.
Authorities had allowed him to be detained at home in San Diego because he had suffered bouts of poor health in recent years, including kidney cancer.
However on 4 September, police went to his house after problems with his GPS bracelet were detected.
"Upon arrival they noticed that nobody was home," a US Marshal spokesman Omar Castillo told reporters at the time.
Neighbours said removal trucks had come in and out of the property in recent weeks, he added.
His recapture is the latest chapter in an embarrassing scandal for the US Navy. The US justice department has described it as a colossal fraud involving tens of millions of dollars.
Francis was the mastermind of a sprawling bribery scheme that operated through his Singapore-based company which serviced the US Navy's Pacific fleet.
Prosecutors say he overcharged the navy to the tune of $35m (£30m) and plied officers with cash, gourmet meals, cigars, rare liquor and sex parties in luxury hotels.
He was arrested in 2013, and pleaded guilty in 2015 to offering $500,000 (£444,000) in bribes to navy officers to funnel official work towards his shipyards.
Dozens of US naval officers have also been implicated. Four have been convicted so far and at least 27 other contractors and officials have pleaded guilty to accepting bribes.” Read more at BBC
“After fleeing Sri Lanka in the wake of inflation-fueled protests and spending nearly two months in self-imposed exile, former leader Gotabaya Rajapaksa has returned to a heavily guarded colonial-style bungalow in one of the island’s swankiest neighborhoods. Much has changed: The new president, Ranil Wickremesinghe, has vowed to stabilize the economy and the streets are quiet. But, as Sudhi Ranjan Sen and Kai Schultz report, many consider Wickremesinghe a close allyof the once-powerful Rajapaksa family and sense a wider plot to restore the clan to power.” Read more at Bloomberg
A march against Wickremesinghe’s government in Colombo on Aug. 20. Source: AFP/Getty Images
Khmer Rouge tribunal ends work after 16 years, 3 judgments
By SOPHENG CHEANG and GRANT PECK
“PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — The international court convened in Cambodia to judge the Khmer Rouge for its brutal 1970s rule ended its work Thursday after spending $337 million and 16 years to convict just three men of crimes after the regime caused the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million people.
In its final session, the U.N.-assisted tribunal rejected an appeal by Khieu Samphan, the last surviving leader of the Khmer Rouge government that ruled Cambodia from 1975-79. It reaffirmed the life sentence he received after being convicted in 2018 of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
Busloads of ordinary Cambodians turned up to watch the final proceedings of a tribunal that had sought to bring justice, accountability and explanations for the crimes. Many of those attending Thursday’s session lived through the Khmer Rouge terror, including survivors Bou Meng and Chum Mey, who had given evidence at the tribunal over the years.
Khieu Samphan, sitting in a wheelchair and wearing a white windbreaker and a face mask, listened to the proceedings on headphones.
He was the group’s nominal head of state but, in his trial defense, denied having real decision-making powers when the Khmer Rouge carried out a reign of terror to establish a utopian agrarian society, causing Cambodians’ deaths from execution, starvation and inadequate medical care. It was ousted from power in 1979 by an invasion from neighboring communist state Vietnam.
“No matter what you decide, I will die in prison,” Khieu Samphan said in his final statement of appeal to the court last year. “I will die always remembering the suffering of my Cambodian people. I will die seeing that I am alone in front of you. I am judged symbolically rather than by my actual deeds as an individual.”
His appeal alleged the court made errors in legal procedures and interpretation and acted unfairly, making objections to more than 1,800 points.
But the court noted Thursday that his appeal did not directly question the facts of the case as presented in court. It rejected almost all arguments raised by Khieu Samphan, acknowledging an error and reversing its ruling on one minor count. The court said it found the vast majority of Khieu Samphan’s arguments “unfounded,” and that many were “alternative interpretations of the evidence.”
Thursday’s ruling makes little practical difference. Khieu Samphan is 91 and already serving another life sentence for his 2014 conviction for crimes against humanity connected with forced transfers and disappearances of masses of people.
The court ordered that Khieu Samphan, who was arrested in 2007, be returned to the specially constructed jail where he has been kept.
His co-defendant Nuon Chea, the Khmer Rouge’s No. 2 leader and chief ideologist, was convicted twice and received the same life sentence. Nuon Chea died in 2019 at age 93.
The tribunal’s only other conviction was that of Kaing Guek Eav, also known as Duch, who was commandant of Tuol Sleng prison, where roughly 16,000 people were tortured before being taken away to be killed. Duch was convicted in 2010 of crimes against humanity, murder, and torture and died in 2020 at age 77 while serving a life sentence.
The Khmer Rouge’s real chief, Pol Pot, escaped justice. He died in the jungle in 1998 at age 72 while the remnants of his movement were fighting their last battles in the guerrilla war they launched after losing power.
The trials of the only other two defendants were not completed. The former foreign minister of the Khmer Rouge, Ieng Sary, died in 2013, and his wife, former Social Affairs Minister Ieng Thirith, was deemed unfit to stand trial due to dementia in 2011 and died in 2015.
Four other suspects, middle-ranking Khmer Rouge leaders, escaped prosecution because of a split among the tribunal’s jurists.” Read more at AP News
6.8 magnitude earthquake shakes Mexico, 2 dead
“MEXICO CITY (AP) — A powerful magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck Mexico early Thursday, causing at least two deaths, damaging buildings and setting off landslides.
The earthquake struck at 1:19 a.m. near the epicenter of a magnitude 7.6 quake that hit three days earlier in the western state of Michoacan. It was also blamed for two deaths.
The U.S. Geological Survey said Thursday’s earthquake was centered 31 miles (50 kilometers) south-southwest of Aguililla, Michoacan, at a depth of 15 miles (24.1 kilometers).
Michoacan’s state government said the quake was felt throughout the state. It reported damage to a building in the city of Uruapan and some landslides on highways.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said via Twitter that it was an aftershock from Monday’s quake and was also felt in the states of Colima, Jalisco and Guerrero.
Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum said via Twitter that two people died — a woman who fell down the stairs of her home and a man who had a heart attack. Residents huddled in streets as seismic alarms blared.” Read more at AP News
“NASA's James Webb telescope has done it again. The latest photos from the $10 billion telescope are the clearest images of Neptune's rings seen in more than three decades.” Read more at NPR
“Boston Celtics coach Ime Udoka is said to be facing disciplinary action over a consensual relationship with a female member of the franchise’s staff. Although Udoka is married to actress Nia Long, the couple were ‘believed to have been separated prior to current issue,’ Bally Sports’ Brandon Robinson said, citing unnamed sources. Udoka’s job is not thought to be under threat, ESPN reports, but the relationship has been deemed a breach of the Celtics’ organizational guidelines. While the length of a possible suspension is expected to be announced as early as Thursday, conversations at the franchise have allegedly included possibilities in which Udoka is suspended for the entire season.” [Daily Beast] Read it at ESPN
Pickleball is exploding, and it’s getting messy
With multiple pro tours and new venues everywhere, pickleball’s growth shows no signs of slowing down
MASON, Ohio — The public address announcer’s voice boomed as balls flew amid the chaotic symphony of plastic pops and thwacks. So many greats had played and won here at the Lindner Family Tennis Center outside of Cincinnati: McEnroe and Agassi, Djokovic and Federer, Nadal and Serena. But center court was suddenly the stage for something very different.
“We love tennis, and this is an incredible tennis facility,” the announcer bellowed, “but for today we are piiiiickleball!”
All eyes were on Anna Leigh Waters, 15, and Ben Johns, 23, a mixed doubles team and perhaps the brightest stars in the rapidly expanding pickleball universe, phenoms changing the way the game is played and perceived. Competing in the Baird Wealth Management Open, one of the biggest events staged by the Professional Pickleball Association, Waters and Johns are torchbearers for a young sport with a future as promising as it is unpredictable.
Quaint and complex, the game has been likened to chess on concrete and is most commonly compared to tennis, badminton and table tennis. It also has exploded into a big business with no shortage of deep-pocketed investors and eager opportunists.
“We’re going to see way more growth in the next three years than what we’ve seen in the previous three years,” said Connor Pardoe, the founder and commissioner of the PPA. “It seems like every day there’s something new and exciting and someone else that wants to get involved. It’s really hard to even predict three years out.”
Pickleball isn’t a sport at a crossroads as much as it’s a five-lane highway with everyone trying to merge while careening against the guardrails at top speed. There are three professional leagues battling for players, customers, sponsors and superiority. Communities are racing to build courts to satisfy an ever-growing appetite, and investors are finding new ways to monetize the sport. Meanwhile, the tennis community is trying to save its courts and safeguard its future.
There’s no blueprint for this kind of growth. Pickleball, with its quirky name and humble roots, was invented in 1965 and has long been popular in retirement communities. But it went mainstream only in the past few years. Aided by a pandemic boom, there were 4.8 million players last year, according to the Sports & Fitness Industry Association, though many in the industry suspect the real number is much higher, based on equipment sales and online activity. There are now 10,000 facilities nationwide registered with USA Pickleball, with three new venues opening every day on average.” Read more at Washington Post
‘Dilbert’ Comic Dropped by Nearly 80 Newspapers
“Satirical office comic strip “Dilbert” has been dropped by almost 80 newspapers, its creator said this week. Scott Adams, who has been writing and illustrating the beloved cartoon since 1989, announced the brutal cut on social media. “Dilbert was cancelled in 77 newspapers this week,” Adams tweeted, later adding that “one large chain” was responsible for the move. It appears that the cartoon has been caught up in wider changes being made by Lee Enterprises, which is said to be scaling back cartoon pages from its publications. Some have suggested that the cuts to the strip could have to do with Adams’ political views—but Adams himself has lampooned the idea. Sharing a link to an article headlined “Was Dilbert ‘Cancelled’ as Comic Creator Scott Adams Suggests?” Adams tweeted Wednesday: “All fake news here but funny.”” Read more at Daily Beast
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