VOL. CLXIX . . . No. 58,534 © 2019 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2019

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Make a platter of these holiday cookies,created by the cookbook author SusanSpungen and found in a special section,and you’ll have an unforgettable spread.

THIS WEEKEND

Cookies for the Modern EraOlga Neuwirth’s new adaptation of“Orlando,” a journey across time andgender, is the first work by a woman atthe Vienna State Opera. PAGE C1

ARTS C1-7

A First for Female Composers

Jamelle Bouie PAGE A25

EDITORIAL, OP-ED A24-25

Ladj Ly put his whole life into a sharp-edged film that depicts the harshness ofParis’s immigrant suburbs. PAGE A8

INTERNATIONAL A4-10

His Life in Film

The French can retire at 62. Or 52.Sometimes 42. President EmmanuelMacron calls the tangle unsustainable.A million protesters disagree. PAGE A7

A Convoluted Pension System

In the military, on the job or in hospitals,regulations that protected transgenderpeople are under attack. PAGE A11

NATIONAL A11-19

Rollback of Transgender Rights

Investors balked, but some bankers andSaudi officials still hoped to achieve thecrown prince’s target price of $2 trillion.They settled for much less. PAGE B1

BUSINESS B1-6

How Aramco’s I.P.O. Fell Short

America’s job engine has againdefied jittery stock traders, bear-ish forecasters and blue-ribboneconomists to deliver eye-catch-ing gains and power an exception-ally resilient economy.

November’s reassuring em-ployment report, released Fridayby the Labor Department, fea-tured payroll increases of 266,000and offered a counterpoint to re-cent anxieties about an escalatingtrade war and a weakening globaleconomy.

“I think that this report is a realblockbuster,” said Daniel Zhao,senior economist at the career siteGlassdoor. “Payrolls smashed ex-pectations.”

At 3.5 percent, November wasthe 21st consecutive month withan unemployment rate of 4 per-cent or lower. Revisions to earlierestimates brought the averagemonthly payroll gain for the pastthree months to 205,000, a sub-stantial achievement for the 11thyear of an economic expansion.

The hearty performancepresented President Trump withsomething to showcase during aweek when he fielded criticism forfueling trade tensions with Ar-gentina, Brazil, China and Euro-pean allies. Abroad, foreign lead-ers were caught on camera takinggibes at the president, while athome, congressional Democratspressed ahead with plans thatcould result in an impeachmentvote before the end of the year.

At the moment, many Ameri-cans are more focused on expand-ing payrolls and fatter paychecks,and in that respect, Mr. Trump hasdelivered. “It’s the economy,stupid,” he wrote on Twitter justbefore the report’s release.

After the release, he returned toTwitter to celebrate the results.

U.S. JOB GROWTHSTAYS ON STREAK,SOOTHING JITTERS

ANEMIC WAGE INCREASES

End of G.M. Strike Helps,but Manufacturing Is

Still a Weak Spot

By PATRICIA COHEN

Continued on Page A12

NEWS ANALYSIS

WASHINGTON — PresidentTrump was greeted Friday morn-ing with news of a blockbusterjobs report, showing that em-ployers added 266,000 jobs inNovember and the unemploy-ment rate fell to 3.5 percent, itslowest level since 1969.

The country’s economic condi-tion, which has historicallyaligned with a president’s re-election chances, should be help-ing Mr. Trump sail into a secondterm. But what should be a topindicator of Mr. Trump’s perform-ance as president came a dayafter Speaker Nancy Pelosicalled on the House to begindrafting articles of impeachmentagainst him.

It didn’t take long for Mr.Trump to tie the two together.“Without the horror show that isthe Radical Left, Do NothingDemocrats, the Stock Marketsand Economy would be evenbetter, if that is possible,” hewrote on Twitter. “And the Bor-der would be closed to the evil ofDrugs, Gangs and all other prob-lems! #2020.”

Such is the Trump presidency:a leader who is presiding over arecord-long economic expansionthat has proved more durablethan anyone predicted whiledefending his fitness to holdoffice.

With 11 months to go beforethe 2020 election, a polarizedelectorate is dividing itself bywhich story line it views as morepertinent — the president’s po-tential abuse of power, or thecomfort of a steady paycheckcredited to his leadership.

The Trump campaign is bet-ting that Mr. Trump’s rote denialsof pressuring the Ukrainianpresident to investigate his politi-cal foes will eventually swayenough voters to put the entireimpeachment issue to the side.

“Trump having a perfectly

Trump ParriesImpeachmentWith a Boom

Competing Issues AreFacing Voters in 2020

By ANNIE KARNIand JEANNA SMIALEK

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics THE NEW YORK TIMES

2017 2018 2019

+100

+200

+300 thousand

Monthly change in jobs

+266,000Nov. 2019

Year-over-year wage growth

+3%

+2

+1

+3.1%

2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019

Unemployment rate

3.5%

8%

6

4

2

2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019

Unemployment has dipped below what for decades had been considered a rock-bottom level called “full employment.”

Monthly job gains have been remarkably consistent, with strong increases even after more than a decade of economic expansion.

Wage growth has inched up at a stubbornly slow rate since the recovery started, but the pace has recently picked up momentum.

Continued on Page A12

WASHINGTON — The WhiteHouse signaled on Friday that itdid not intend to mount a defenseof President Trump or otherwiseparticipate in the House impeach-ment proceedings, sending Demo-crats a sharply worded letter thatcondemned the process as “com-pletely baseless” and urged themto get it over with quickly.

“House Democrats havewasted enough of America’s timewith this charade,” the WhiteHouse counsel, Pat A. Cipollone,wrote in a letter to the House Judi-ciary Committee chairman, Rep-resentative Jerrold Nadler of NewYork. “You should end this inquirynow and not waste even moretime with additional hearings.”

The two-paragraph letter didnot explicitly say what Mr.Trump’s legal team planned to do,but it ended by quoting the presi-dent saying that the House shouldhold a swift vote on impeachmentto speed the way for a trial in theRepublican-controlled Senate,where White House officials be-lieve Mr. Trump will have a betterchance to mount a defense. Peopleclose to the White House said thatit would take major concessionsby Democrats for that position tochange.

“Adopting articles of impeach-ment would be a reckless abuse of

power by House Democrats andwould constitute the most unjust,highly partisan and unconstitu-tional attempt at impeachment inour nation’s history,” Mr. Cipollonewrote.

That timetable also suits HouseDemocrats, who have signaledthey want to move quickly to im-peach Mr. Trump before leavingWashington for Christmas.

The White House positionclears the way for House commit-tees to debate and approve im-peachment articles as soon asnext week, allowing a vote by thefull House by Dec. 20, the final leg-

White House Signals IntentionTo Spurn Impeachment Process

By NICHOLAS FANDOSand MAGGIE HABERMAN

President TrumpERIN SCHAFF/THE NEW YORK TIMES

Continued on Page A16

The plan was hatched with highhopes and missionary zeal: Forthe first time in its history, theUnited States would come togeth-er to create consistent, rigorouseducation standards and stop let-ting so many school children fallbehind academically.

More than 40 states signed on tothe plan, known as the CommonCore State Standards Initiative,after it was rolled out in 2010 by abipartisan group of governors, ed-ucation experts and philan-thropists. The education secre-tary at the time, Arne Duncan, de-clared himself “ecstatic.”

American children would readmore nonfiction, write better es-says and understand key mathe-matical concepts, instead of justmechanically solving equations.

“We are being outpaced byother nations,” President BarackObama said in one 2009 speech, inwhich he praised states thatadopted the Common Core. “It’snot that their kids are any smarterthan ours — it’s that they are be-ing smarter about how to educatetheir children.”

A decade later, after years full offoment in American schools, the

Common Core After 10 Years:Pass? Or Fail?

By DANA GOLDSTEIN

Continued on Page A18

Four days after pulling off themost high-profile mob killing indecades, Anthony Comello satdown with New York Police De-partment detectives and toldthem that the C.I.A. had infiltratedthe Mafia. And, he added, the gov-ernment was spying on him.

He had put his phone in a cop-per bag to protect it from “satel-lites,” he told them, and Demo-

cratic operatives in Washingtonwere doing business with JoaquínGuzmán Loera, the Mexican drugkingpin known as El Chapo.

In the nine months since thatconversation, Mr. Comello, 25, hasclaimed to his lawyer that hekilled Francesco Cali because themob boss was part of “the deepstate,” a member of a liberal cabalworking to undermine PresidentTrump.

At one court appearance, Mr.

Comello scrawled on his hand asymbol and phrases associatedwith the far-right conspiracy the-ory, “QAnon.”

Now, Mr. Comello’s paranoia isbeing litigated in a Staten Islandcourt, where he is charged withthe murder of Mr. Cali, known asFranky Boy. His lawyer has takenthe first steps in a legal battle thathinges on a question made for the

‘Deep State’ Paranoia Defense in Mafioso’s DeathBy ALI WATKINS

Continued on Page A23

LEON NEAL/GETTY IMAGES

The actor Hugh Grant campaigning for anti-Brexit candidates in a general election. Page A9.Look Who’s at the Door

The city has changed drastically overthe past 40 years, yet the M.T.A. mapdesigned in 1979 has endured. PAGE A22

Guiding the Way, From A to Z

L ZN1 74 B

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PENSACOLA, Fla. — A mem-ber of the Saudi Air Force armedwith a handgun fatally shot threepeople and injured eight others onFriday morning during a bloodyrampage in a classroom buildingat the prestigious Naval Air Sta-tion in Pensacola, Fla., where hewas training to become a pilot.

The authorities, led by theF.B.I., were investigating to deter-mine the gunman’s motive andwhether the shooting was an actof terrorism.

A United States military officialidentified the suspect, who waskilled by a sheriff’s deputy duringthe attack, as Second Lt. Moham-med Saeed Alshamrani. He wasone of hundreds of military train-ees at the base, which is consid-ered the home of naval aviation.

Six other Saudi citizens weredetained for questioning near thescene of the shooting, includingthree who were seen filming theentire incident, according to a per-son briefed on the initial stages ofthe investigation.

The gunman was using a locallypurchased Glock 45 9-millimeterhandgun with an extended maga-zine and had four to six other mag-azines in his possession when hewas taken down by a sheriff’s dep-uty, the person said.

The shooting, the second at aNavy base this week, sent servicemembers scrambling to lock thedoors of their barracks or flee thebase altogether.

The attack by a foreign citizeninside an American military in-stallation raised questions aboutthe vetting process for interna-tional students who are cleared bythe Department of Defense and islikely to complicate military co-operation between the United

A SAUDI TRAINEEFATALLY SHOOTS 3AT A NAVAL BASE

MOTIVE NOT YET KNOWN

Deaths on American SoilAdd to a Kingdom’s

Tarnished Image

This article is by Kalyn Wolfe, Pa-tricia Mazzei, Eric Schmitt andChristine Hauser.

Continued on Page A17

Coach David Fizdale was cut loose. But,Michael Powell writes, James L. Dolanshould really be the one to go. PAGE B7

SPORTSSATURDAY B7-10

Getting Rid of Wrong Knick

Pacific Gas & Electric has agreed to asettlement with the victims of deadlyblazes caused by its equipment. PAGE B1

$13.5 Billion Wildfire Deal

Late Edition

Police officers in Brooklyn say a com-mander told them to target black andLatino people on the subway. PAGE A20

NEW YORK A20-23

Lawsuit Over Subway Arrests

Today, sunny, a colder day, high 38.Tonight, clear to partly cloudy, cold,low 26. Tomorrow, periodic cloudsand sunshine, still rather cold, high44. Weather map is on Page B12.

$3.00