March 20, 2022

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Pedal Power! A lone bicyclist slowed down the fake "Freedom Convoy" Saturday as the truckers attempted to disrupt traffic again in D.C. Thanks to Akhilleus for the link. And do see his commentary below. Funny thing is, the truckers were all pissed off when somebody disrupted their own disruption. Lacking any self-awareness or sense of humor, the truckers began blaring their horns at the biker. Turning up the volume is the bully's Plan B. At one point, a pick-up truck pulled up alongside the leisurely bike-rider (who, sadly, was not wearing a mask!) & the driver asked him what he was doing. "You've got a bunch of trucks behind you!" the pick-up driver shouted. The biker responded, "Say what? I can't hear you. It's too loud!" BTW, this is not the first time a biker has stymied a fake "Freedom Convoy." Six weeks ago in Vancouver, B.C., courier Tyrone Siglos slowed down & stopped a convoy in that city. He rode his bike slowly, completely stopping from time to time in order to split up the line of trucks between lights. He said he stopped for as long as 20 minutes or a half-hour at one point.

The New York Times' live updates of developments Sunday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "Firing rockets and bombs from the land, air and sea, Russian forces continued to bombard the besieged coastal city of Mariupol on Sunday even as they were also forcibly deporting thousands of residents of against their will to Russia, according to city officials and witnesses. With the Russian advance on Ukraine's major cities stalled and satellite imagery showing soldiers digging into defensive positions around Kyiv, the fierce fighting in the coastal city showed no signs of easing. The bombing of a theater where an estimated 1,300 people were seeking refuge on Thursday was followed on Sunday, according to local officials, by a strike on a drama school where 400 people were hiding." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: According to CNN, there are some reports that the Ukrainians who have been forced into Russia are being sent to concentration camps deep inside Russia.

Jane Arraf of the New York Times: "... tens of thousands of young, urban, multilingual Russian professionals who are able to work remotely from almost anywhere, many of them in information technology or freelancers in creative industries," are leaving Russia. Many are going to Yerevan, the capital of Armenia to plot out their next moves. "The speed and scale of the exodus are evidence of a seismic shift that the invasion set off inside Russia." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Masha Gessen has an article in the New Yorker that seems to be on a similar topic; if someone who has a New Yorker subscription would like to link Gessen's article in the Comments section, that would be greatly appreciated. ~~~

~~~ MEANWHILE. Marc Fisher, et al., of the Washington Post: "... the reality is setting in for Ukrainian Americans eager to bring their relatives to safety that despite government pledges of solidarity, getting into the United States is a lengthy and cumbersome process that remains largely unchanged from before the war, according to those trying to bring relatives into the country and advocates who are helping them.... Some lawmakers and advocacy groups are urging the Biden administration to expedite the arrival of Ukrainians. But officials say the refugee system is not built for speed, as the U.S. vetting process often takes years." MB: Our State Department bureaucracy has been a quagmire for decades. There's no excuse for it. State left behind thousands of Afghans because of the sometimes four-year process of vetting even our known friends there. Even if you're an American citizen, you may have had to wait months for a new passport or visa (to a friendly country).

Marie: Last weeks, someone wrote in the Comments that Arnold Schwarzenegger was exhibiting delusions of grandeur when he made a video urging Russians to oppose the war. As is too often the case, I didn't know enough about the topic to address it. However, this morning Jake Tapper said on CNN that Schwarzenegger has a huge following in Russia. So it would seem his video might do some good, after all.

Carl Hulse of the New York Times: "Republicans are intensifying their attacks on Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson after weeks of publicly reserving judgment on President Biden's Supreme Court nominee, ahead of historic hearings on the first Black woman to be put forward as a justice. Republican leaders, wary of engaging in a potentially racially charged spectacle that could prompt a political backlash, have promised a more dignified review of the latest Supreme Court candidate, after a series of bitter clashes over the court. But in recent days, with the approach of the Senate Judiciary Committee's hearings on her nomination that begin on Monday, their tone has shifted." MB: Leading the pack of wolves in that smarmy little insurrectionist Josh Hawley.

~~~~~~~~~~

Putin's War Crimes, Ctd.

The Washington Post's live updates of developments Sunday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here. The Guardian's live updates for Sunday are here.

Loveday Morris, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Volodymyr Zelensky defiantly told Moscow the time had come for 'meaningful negotiations on peace' as a barrage of Russian attacks continued across his nation over the weekend.... There was no immediate response from Moscow, which has been frustrated in its effort to enter Kyiv and topple Zelensky's government. As Russian tank columns stalled in the wake of Ukrainian resistance, which relied significantly on U.S.-supplied weapons, Moscow continued its strategy of siege and terror, killing civilians, bombing apartment buildings and kidnapping local officials.... At least 40 people were killed when a Russian bomb hit the barracks of a military facility in the city of Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine on Friday morning, according to journalists who documented the scene hours after the attack.... Moscow claimed it had for the first time fired a Kinzhal hypersonic missile, a long-range weapon that it says could not be intercepted by a defense system. Moscow said the missile was used to attack an underground arms depot in western Ukraine, a claim that had not been verified."

Khrystyna Bondarenko, et al., of CNN: "Residents of the Ukrainian city of Mariupol are being taken to Russia against their will by Russian forces, the Mariupol City Council said Saturday.... Captured Mariupol residents were taken to camps where Russian forces checked their phones and documents, then redirected some of the residents to remote cities in Russia, the statement said, adding that the 'fate of the others is unknown.' 'What the occupiers are doing today is familiar to the older generation, who saw the horrific events of World War II, when the Nazis forcibly captured people,' Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boichenko said in the statement."

The New York Times' live updates of developments Saturday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "Russian forces made significant gains in Ukraine, advancing into the port of Mariupol, destroying an underground weapons depot and leaving a barracks in ruins following one of the deadliest rocket strikes on Ukraine's military in the nearly month-old war."

Patrick Kingsley of the New York Times: "Along Russia's borders, in post-Soviet countries like Georgia that remain caught between Russian and Western influence, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has presented governments with a strategic dilemma. Apart from Belarus, none have backed the Russian offensive. But nor have they strongly opposed it -- fearful of upsetting a dominant neighbor that is a major source of trade and remittances, a guarantor of some countries' security and a potential aggressor to others. A small, mountainous country of 3.7 million people at the southeastern extreme of the European continent, Georgia is perhaps running the narrowest gauntlet.... Russia [is] in de facto control of roughly a fifth of Georgian territory.... But [the government's] cautious approach has put the Georgian government at odds with most of its population -- creating a far more pointed clash between majority opinion on Ukraine and government policy than in most other European countries."

U.K. Toby Helm & Daniel Boffey of the Guardian: "Boris Johnson has caused fury among political leaders across Europe -- and outrage among opponents of Brexit at home -- after he compared the resistance of the Ukrainian people to Russia's invasion to the UK's decision to leave the EU.... [At a speech to a Conservative conference, Johnson said,] 'And you say that we're better off making accommodations with tyranny.... And I know that it's the instinct of the people of this country, like the people of Ukraine, to choose freedom, every time.... When the British people voted for Brexit, in such large, large numbers..., it was because ... they wanted to be free to do things differently and for this country to be able to run itself.' The remarks caused astonishment not only because Ukraine applied last month, after the Russian invasion began, to become a member of the EU, but because the comments suggested that the EU was itself a form of tyranny...."

Dana Milbank of the Washington Post: "It took just 14 seconds to approve an order moving Americans' clocks an hour ahead, permanently." It also took a conspiracy between Senators Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), the presiding officer, with a little help from the incompetent Sen. Roger Wicker (Miss.). And in that 14 seconds, as Sen. Tommy Potatohead opined, the Senate had initiated a remarkable change that would create "more sunshine." "The former football coach apparently believes the Senate time-change bill altered the rotation of the Earth -- by unanimous consent." Thanks to Ken W. for the link. ~~~

     ~~~ Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life. Marie: There are, I'll admit, too many things I don't know much about. I'm in awe of the people who do understand these things, and many of you readers are among those awesome people. But what is it like to be Tommy Tuberville, whose knowledge of the universe would seem to be limited to the four corners of a football field? Perhaps more unsettling, Tommy doesn't know what he doesn't know, and he is happy to offer his childish misunderstandings about many things: like the three branches of the U.S. government, which Tommy volunteered were "the House, the Senate, and the executive"; or the cause of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which Tommy told constituents was, "It's a communist country, so [Putin] can't feed his people, so they need more farmland."

The Winter of Their Discontent Has Turned to Spring -- and More Discontent. Charles Homans of the New York Times: "... the ['Freedom Convoy''s] protest is perhaps most notable as a window onto the evolution of the American right in the wake of Donald J. Trump's presidency, and one that Republican politicians are watching. Although organizers insist that their demonstration is nonpartisan and narrowly focused on Covid restrictions, in practice, it is animated by a broad, familiar array of conservative and right-wing issues and grievances. Complaints about schools mix with far-right conspiracy theories and refusal to accept the 2020 election results.... This week, one side of the stage [at the Hagerstown, Maryland Speedway, where the truckers and sundry followers are encamped,] was piled with books written by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an anti-vaccine activist; while near the other, a vendor sold stickers saying 'WHEN I DIE DON'T LET ME VOTE DEMOCRAT.' On Wednesday evening, Dr. Paul Alexander, a former official in Mr. Trump's Health and Human Services Department..., called for President Biden to pardon the defendants facing charges related to the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the Capitol." MB: I don't suppose any of this comes as a surprise to you.

Washington Post Editors: "Violent and threatening political rhetoric, normalized and encouraged by ... Donald Trump, is metastasizing in the Republican Party. As nearly a third of GOP voters tell pollsters that violence might be required to 'save our country,' some officeholders and candidates who espouse menacing views are rewarded with fundraising and social media success. Too often, mainstream party leaders -- the very voices who should be drawing the line at hate speech -- are silent. Silence is complicity.... History provides abundant evidence that rhetorical violence begets actual violence. By countenancing vile, dehumanizing, bloody-minded rhetoric, Republicans are paving a dangerous road to the future."

Beyond the Beltway

Kim Bellware of the Washington Post: "On Monday, Ohio became the 23rd state to enact a law eliminating permits as a requirement for concealed carry. The Buckeye State closely followed Alabama, where Gov. Kay Ivey signed a similar law on March 10. The back-to-back wins for gun-rights advocates who want to see fewer restrictions on the Second Amendment signal how partisan divides and relentless activism at the state level are significantly reshaping the landscape around gun possession." Experts attribute the lax permitting to increased polarization: Republican primary candidates try to out-extreme one another.

Michigan. Meet Your Fellow American. Tresa Baldas & Arpan Lobo of the Detroit Free Press: "... the COVID-19 vaccines, and the thought of them becoming mandatory..., pushed the alleged Gov. Gretchen Whitmer kidnap plotters over the edge, an undercover FBI informant testified Friday.... 'Buildings that manufacture vaccines -- blow them up,' [defendant Brandon] Caserta is heard telling [the informant known as] Dan [in a recording played in court]. He also called for killing police officers who would enforce vaccine mandates, and killing the lawyers who support vaccines by cutting off their heads.... Caserta was so angry about the vaccine that he wanted to target groups responding to the pandemic, including contact tracers, doctors and companies manufacturing the vaccines.... 'Doctors who advocated mandated vaccines -- bullet to the face,' Caserta is heard saying in recordings captured by Dan.... Caserta ... wanted to identify those participating in contact tracing. 'I don't call it contact tracing, I call it constitutional trampling,' Caserta said in a recording made in Aug. 2020 during a meetup in Munith. 'We create a dynamic where no one wants to be a contact tracer because they might f****** die.'... 'I want Zionist banker blood,' Caserta is heard saying in one recording, likely referring to an antisemitic conspiracy theory that 'Zionists' have infiltrated the government...." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The most amazing part, to me, is that these guys don't think they are toughs who are plotting to pull off heinous crimes; no, they think they are super-patriots who are going to save the country and the Constitution by slaughtering public officials, healthcare workers and "Zionist bankers."

News Lede

You Are Not Safe in the U.S.A. Washington Post: "Two people were killed and three others wounded in a shooting outside a popular Norfolk[, Virginia,] restaurant early Saturday morning, police said. Sierra M. Jenkins, a 25-year-old journalist for the Virginian-Pilot and Daily Press, was among those killed, her employer and police confirmed.... When officers arrived they found five people had been shot. One of them, Devon M. Harris, 25, of Portsmouth, was pronounced dead at the scene." ~~~

     ~~~ The Virginian-Pilot story is here. The reporter is Jane Harper, who was called in to the paper when editors couldn't reach Jenkins to cover the shooting.

March 19, 2022

Putin's War Crimes, Ctd.

The Washington Post's live updates of developments Saturday in Russia's war against Ukraine are here: "Ukrainian forces continued to put up a defiant defense of their country's cities, limiting Russian ground advances as the Kremlin's invasion entered its 24th day. Major population centers such as Kyiv and Kharkiv remain in Ukrainian hands, and Russia's troops are still 'stalled across the country,' the Pentagon said, even as it cautioned that Moscow retains 90 percent of its assembled combat power.... On Saturday, the Ukrainian military said it has been cut off from the Sea of Azov, immediately south of [Mariupol].... The United Nations said Friday that roughly 9.8 million people have either fled Ukraine or are internally displaced as a result of the fighting, while 12 million are stranded or otherwise face dangerous living conditions. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said early Saturday that Russian forces have committed war crimes by blocking critical aid deliveries to Ukraine's embattled cities.... Vladimir Putin, at a rally in Moscow, celebrated the invasion and again baselessly claimed that he was stopping a genocide. Chinese leader Xi Jinping pledged more humanitarian assistance to Ukraine during his Friday call with President Biden...." ~~~

     ~~~ The Guardian's live updates for Saturday are here.

Ellen Nakashima, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Biden, in a nearly two-hour video call Friday, warned China's leader, Xi Jinping, that his country would face significant repercussions if it provided aid to Russia.... The call was part of an urgent U.S. effort to head off any Chinese moves to provide economic or military help to Russia as America and its allies try to shut down Moscow's financial lifelines.... There was little indication Friday that Xi was receptive to Biden's entreaties that his country not come to Russia's aid, however.... Administration officials would not say whether Biden explicitly outlined the types of consequences Beijing might face if it should aid Russia in its war on Ukraine.... Most of the discussion between the two leaders was devoted to the Ukraine crisis, the official said.... Biden and Xi on Friday also discussed Taiwan." CNBC's report is here. The White House's readout is here.

John Simpson of BBC News: "On Thursday afternoon..., Vladimir Putin rang the Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and told him what Russia's precise demands were for a peace deal with Ukraine.... The Russian demands fall into two categories[, according to Ibrahim Kalin, Mr. Erdogan's leading advisor].... Chief among [those in the first category] is an acceptance by Ukraine that it should be neutral and should not apply to join Nato. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has already conceded this.... Ukraine would have to undergo a disarmament process to ensure it wasn't a threat to Russia. There would have to be protection for the Russian language in Ukraine. And there is something called de-Nazification.... Mr Putin said that it would need face-to-face negotiations between him and President Zelensky before agreement could be reached on [demands in the second category].... Mr Kalin was much less specific about these issues, saying simply that they involved the status of Donbas, in eastern Ukraine, parts of which have already broken away from Ukraine and stressed their Russianness, and the status of Crimea. Although Mr Kalin didn't go into detail, the assumption is that Russia will demand that the Ukrainian government should give up territory in eastern Ukraine." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Nothing is fair in love and war, but I don't think Putin should get a prize for invading Ukraine, killing, maiming & starving Ukrainians & bombing their homes & hospitals. Rather, in any negotiation, Russia should have to give up its occupation of Donbas & Crimea & pay reparations to Ukraine. And it would be nice if Putin were forced to spend the rest of his unnatural life in modest accommodations on a tiny Pacific atoll, one that was not too radioactive. Without a yacht.

Robyn Dixon of the Washington Post: "Thousands of flag-waving Russians crammed into Moscow's Luzhniki Stadium ... during a triumphal celebration Friday of the eighth anniversary of Russia's annexation of Crimea.... Vladimir Putin, breaking from his recent image as a remote figure at the end of a very long table, strode about the stage, extolling the war against Ukraine as testament to Russia's 'Christian values.'... He said Russia took military action to stop 'neo-Nazis and extreme nationalists' in Ukraine committing 'genocide.' But the video feed of his speech abruptly cut off mid-sentence, an interruption that was later described by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as a technical problem. 'Well, or sabotage,' tweeted the exiled Anti-Corruption Foundation of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Russian state television replayed the speech in full.... As usual for such events, some of the attendees were state employees ordered to attend."

Just a Coincidence! AP: "Three Russian cosmonauts have arrived at the International Space Station wearing yellow flight suits with blue accents, colours that match the Ukrainian flag. The men were the first new arrivals on the space station since the start of the Russian war in Ukraine last month.... When the cosmonauts were able to talk to family back on Earth, [Oleg] Artemyev was asked about the suits. He said every crew chose their own. 'It became our turn to pick a colour. But, in fact, we had accumulated a lot of yellow material so we needed to use it,' he said. 'So that's why we had to wear yellow.'"

The New York Times' live updates of developments Friday in Russia's war against Ukraine are here: "At least 130 survivors have escaped the ruins of a theater that was nearly leveled in a Russian attack in the embattled southern city of Mariupol, a Ukrainian official said on Friday, but hundreds remained unaccounted for in the wreckage.... A missile strike on the outskirts of Lviv, a western city that has been a haven for people fleeing areas under siege, rattled the relative peace there on Friday. The strike may have been an attempt to target the abilities of Ukraine's air force because the local news media has reported that a plant at the airport was 'the only enterprise in Ukraine that refurbishes MiG-29s for the Ukrainian Air Force.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

John Ismay of the New York Times describes the NLAW -- Next Generation Light Anti-Tank Weapon -- an anti-tank missile made by Saab that is half the weight of a Javelin, that costs much less, & that a soldier can easily carry on his back. "In perhaps 15 seconds, and sometimes even faster than that, the soldiers can unsling the weapon, unfold its aiming sight, release a safety catch and wait for their prey to appear." NLAWs are something of an equalizer between a foot soldier & an armored tank. The U.K. reportedly has given 4,200 of them to Ukraine. An NLAW hit kills everybody in the tank.

Rachel Lerman & Cat Zakrzewski of the Washington Post: "Elon Musk recently challenged Russian President Vladimir Putin to a one-handed fistfight for the future of Ukraine. But the entrepreneur's real defense of the besieged country is his effort to keep Ukrainians online with shipments of Starlink satellite Internet service. Starlink is a unit of Musk's space company, SpaceX. The service uses terminals that resemble TV dishes equipped with antennas and are usually mounted on roofs to access the Internet via satellite in rural or disconnected areas. When war broke out in Ukraine, the country faced threats of Russian cyberattacks and shelling that had the potential to take down the Internet.... So the country's minister of digital transformation, Mykhailo Fedorov, tweeted a direct plea to Musk urging him to send help. Musk replied just hours later: 'Starlink service is now active in Ukraine. More terminals en route.' Ukraine has already received thousands of antennas from Musk's companies and European allies, which has proved 'very effective,' Fedorov said in an interview with The Washington Post Friday."

John Reinan of the Minneapolis Star Tribune: "Jimmy Hill's last act was gathering food for hospital patients in Ukraine. The Mahtomedi native, 67, was killed Thursday in the northern Ukraine city of Chernihiv when Russian forces attacked people standing in a bread line. He is among several U.S. citizens to die so far in the war that began when Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24."

Michael Luciano of Mediaite recounts an exchange between Sens. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) & Chris Murphy (D-Ct.) in which Sasse in particular seemed to forget he was speaking in the chamber of "the world's greatest deliberative body." Eventually, the presiding officer had to ask the senators to address their remarks to the president of the Senate & not to each other. Luciano notes that Sasse's remarks might include "the first time in history a senator has directly addressed another senator as 'dude' on the floor." Marie: But I find it rather more notable that Sasse used the venue to accuse another senator of verbal masturbation when he asked Murphy, "Do you think a single person that your Twitter self-pleasuring was for ... voted against it because they were against Ukrainian aid?" (Also linked yesterday.)

Melanie Zanona & Manu Raju of CNN: Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-Russia) "infuriated members of his own party this week for calling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky a 'thug' and the Ukrainian government 'incredibly evil' -- comments that surfaced just days before Zelensky made a passionate plea to Congress on Wednesday for more help in defending Ukraine against Russia's bloody assault on the country.... Cawthorn's latest comments have put GOP leaders in an awkward spot -- just as they're trying to show a unified front against Russia and paint President Joe Biden as weak against ... Vladimir Putin. The remarks from a freshman firebrand with the ear of ... Donald Trump risks undermining their anti-Russia position.... 'Madison is wrong, if there's any thug in this world it's Putin,' House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said at his weekly news conference on Friday, though he said he's still supporting Cawthorn's reelection bid."

Finally, Some Appreciation for Fox "News"' Fair & Balanced Coverage. Joanna Walters of the Guardian: "Russia's foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, has praised Fox News for its coverage, appearing on the Russian state-controlled RT network to hail the right-leaning US cable channel, whose primetime host Tucker Carlson has played down the invasion. 'We know the manners and the tricks that are being used by the western countries to manipulate media, we understood long ago that there is no such thing as an independent western media,' said Lavrov, speaking in English in a studio interview on Friday. 'If you take the United States, only Fox News is trying to present some alternative point of view.'..."

Ellen Francis & Amy Cheng of the Washington Post: "Four American service members were killed on Friday night after a U.S. military aircraft crashed in Norway while taking part in a NATO exercise, the Norwegian prime minister said.... The U.S. 2nd Marines Expeditionary Force, in a statement, had not specified how many people were in the MV-22B Osprey, which is capable of vertical takeoffs and landings and is primarily used to transport troops and equipment in support of amphibious assaults. Norwegian civilian authorities led search and rescue efforts, the Marines said. The aircraft was assigned to participate in Exercise Cold Response 2022, a 'long-planned and regular' routine that Norway hosts biannually, according to the NATO military alliance. Around 30,000 troops from more than 27 NATO countries have gathered to train in Norway's cold-weather conditions. Norway announced Friday that it would step up defense spending in support of forces near its border with Russia.... NATO stressed that the exercise was not in response [to Russia's war on Ukraine]."

Maria Sachetti of the Washington Post: "Homeland Security's inspector general on Friday called for the immediate evacuation of dozens of immigrants detained at a privately run detention facility in New Mexico, saying it is 'critically understaffed' and has unsanitary conditions such as clogged toilets, moldy sinks and water leaks throughout the facility.... The report drew a highly unusual rebuke from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and CoreCivic, the private company that runs the facility, with both accusing the government watchdog of staging photos and fabricating claims. Filthy sinks and clogged toilets, for instance, were in unoccupied areas undergoing renovations, company officials said. ICE officials signaled the agency would not withdraw the 60 detainees from the facility...."

Felicia Sonmez & Mariana Alfaro of the Washington Post: "The House on Friday passed the Crown Act, legislation that would ban discrimination against individuals based on how they choose to wear their hair. The measure, H.R. 2116 ... passed on a vote of 235 to 189, with 14 Republicans joining all Democrats in supporting the measure. The legislation was introduced by Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-N.J.) and prohibits discrimination 'based on the individual's hair texture or hairstyle, if that hair texture or that hairstyle is commonly associated with a particular race or national origin.'... The measure's future in the Senate remains uncertain.... The White House has said it strongly supports the House bill.... More than a dozen states have already enacted similar legislation, often with bipartisan support."

Maybe It's Her Hair. Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post: "How desperate can you get? This desperate: Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) is pushing the argument that Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson is dangerously soft on sex offenders, child pornographers in particular. 'I've noticed an alarming pattern when it comes to Judge Jackson's treatment of sex offenders, especially those preying on children,' Hawley tweeted. 'I'm concerned that this [is] a record that endangers our children.'" Hawley then takes snippets of Jackson's writings and her rulings way out of context or otherwise misrepresents them to try to make his case. "Douglas Berman, an expert on sentencing policy at Ohio State University, reviewed Jackson's sentences in child pornography cases and pronounced them 'not at all out of the ordinary.'&" ~~~

~~~ Tierney Sneed of CNN digs a little more deeply into Jackson's record & Hawley's "concerns": "Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson's writings, remarks and decisions as she wrestled with the highly sensitive issue of child pornography crimes are the focus of a new GOP line of attack on President Joe Biden's pick for the Supreme Court.... But a CNN review of the material in question shows that Jackson has mostly followed the common judicial sentencing practices in these kinds of cases, and that Hawley took some of her comments out of context by suggesting they were opinions, rather than follow-up questions to subject-matter experts." ~~~

Take It Away, Wingers! She's clearly got a very scary history when it comes to pedophilia, or at least handling people who are pedophiles. It's one more drop in the bucket when it comes to dealing with the left and their problem with pedophilia. -- Red State Editor Brandon Morse, on Ketanji Brown Jackson, OAN interview ~~~

~~~ Zachary Pleat of Media Matters: "Following Sen. Josh Hawley's (R-MO) Twitter rant yesterday against Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, a segment on [far-right cable channel] OAN took his unfounded and misleading attacks against her record in a more deranged direction. The host and her guest falsely accused Jackson of being 'kind' to pedophiles, echoing the long-running QAnon conspiracy theory accusing liberal elites of engaging in pedophilia."

Annie Karni of the New York Times: "They were once seatmates in the spare limousine of the White House motorcade, traveling the globe together as part of the president's inner circle. Bonded by the miles they logged on the road and their unique access to power, Pete Souza, the former official White House photographer who took nearly two million photographs of former President Barack Obama, and Representative Ronny Jackson of Texas, the former White House physician who was elected to Congress as a Republican in 2020, were once close friends. Now, they are the most public of enemies on social media, where Mr. Jackson routinely hurls insults and unsubstantiated claims of cognitive decline at President Biden and Mr. Souza responds with bitingly personal, sometimes salacious takedowns of the congressman's character. He often begins them tauntingly with, 'Hey Ronny." MB: All I can say is, "Go Pete!" (Also linked yesterday.)

Maria Cramer of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump's presidential campaign has been ordered to pay more than $300,000 in legal fees and expenses to a former employee who the campaign's lawyers said had violated the terms of a nondisclosure agreement when she accused Mr. Trump of forcibly kissing her in 2016. The award, the culmination of an arbitration claim that was dismissed in November, represents the latest instance of Mr. Trump"s failure to use a nondisclosure agreement successfully against an ex-worker."

Tara Bernard of the New York Times: "Equifax, Experian and TransUnion -- the giant credit-reporting companies that each keep files on roughly 200 million Americans -- said on Friday that they will soon [-- beginning July 1 --] wipe away credit stains created by certain medical debts. The changes -- including removing black marks for people who settled a debt after it went to collections -- were cheered by consumer advocates and reflected a growing acceptance that such debts aren't the best predictor of a consumer's financial behavior. The companies said the changes would eliminate up to 70 percent of the medical debt accounts on consumers' credit reports, which contain reams of data used to calculate the all-important three-digit credit score that is the key to mortgages, car loans, rental agreements and more.... And beginning in the first half of 2023, the credit-reporting companies said, they will exclude unpaid medical collection debts under $500.... But the changes will do little to lift the scores of people with the largest unpaid debts, who are often dealing with catastrophic or costly illnesses that result in high bills even with insurance coverage."

Sooner or Later, It All Comes Down to Racism. Brad Dress of the Hill: "A member of the 'People's Convoy' said that he was going to tar and feather Black Lives Matter Plaza while speaking to a crowd gathered in Washington, D.C.... In a video captured by The Daily Beast, a speaker standing on a stage bearing a sign for 'Freedom Convoy 2022' tells a crowd to 'take back' a street adorned with the slogan 'Black Lives Matter,' which stretches for two blocks on 16th Street NW in D.C." MB: Just as I forgot all about the "People's Convoy," this guy seems to have forgot that the idea of the protest was to fight Covid-19 healthcare protocols.

Robert McFadden of the New York Times: "Don Young, the Alaska congressman who secured pork-barrel billions for his state over nearly a half-century and became the longest-serving Republican in the House of Representatives and the oldest current member of both the House and Senate, died on Friday. He was 88. Mr. Young died while traveling home to Alaska, his office said. His wife, Anne, was with him. In a state whose small population allows for two senators but only one representative, Mr. Young, who cultivated the image of a rugged frontiersman with outsize clout in Washington, was sometimes called Alaska's 'third senator.'... Most Alaskans have had no congressman in their lifetimes but Mr. Young, who was first elected in 1973, during the Nixon administration.... Gruff and irascible, Mr. Young, who survived occasional allegations of shady ethics, was a staunch opponent of environmental causes and a tough defender of Alaska's oil, mineral and logging industries." MB: IOW, a nasty piece of work, may the Fates rest his soul, if he has one.

The Pandemic, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Friday are here. (Also linked yesterday.)

Beyond the Beltway

Alabama. Jonathan Edwards of the Washington Post: So this Alabama gunshop owner named Nathan Kirk thought it would be funny to get a vanity plate that read, "LGBFJB," which signified to Kirk, "Let's Go Brandon. Fuck Joe Biden." After a while, Kirk got a letter from Alabama's motor vehicle officials telling him his plate was an affront to the "peace and dignity of the State of Alabama" and Kirk would have to turn it in. Well, sez Kirk, "I wasn't going to just lay down." He means "lie down," but he's an Alabama Republican, so. Poor Kirk's plight became a right-wing cause célèbre. So the state Motor Vehicle Division reversed itself & told Kirk they were right sorry for any inconvenience that might have caused him. (Also linked yesterday.)

Ohio Senate Race. Craig Howie of Politico: "An onstage standoff erupted between Ohio Republican Senate candidates Josh Mandel and Mike Gibbons at a primary debate Friday evening. In video from the Gahanna debate, former state treasurer Mandel stood up to challenge investment banker Gibbons during a heated discussion over a stock trade as the crowd jeered the confrontation and a debate official sought to separate the two men.... The men repeatedly told each other to back off before standing eye-to-eye for several seconds, while fellow GOP debate participants Matt Dolan, Jane Timken and JD Vance looked on awkwardly. Mandel eventually took his seat. Mandel and Gibbons continued their feud offstage, with Gibbons' team calling Mandel 'unhinged' and Mandel further criticizing Gibbons' investment record. The two candidates have been locked in a tight race for first place in the Republican Senate primary, according to recent polling."

South Carolina. Meg Kinnard of the AP: "South Carolina has given the greenlight to firing-squad executions, a method codified into state law last year after a decade-long pause in carrying out death sentences because of the state's inability to procure lethal injection drugs. The state Corrections Department said Friday that renovations have been completed on the death chamber in Columbia and that the agency had notified Attorney General Alan Wilson that it was able to carry out a firing-squad execution. Lawmakers set about tweaking state law to get around the lethal injection drug situation. Legislation that went into effect in May made the electric chair the state's primary means of execution while giving inmates the option of choosing death by firing squad or lethal injection, if those methods are available."

Way Beyond

A Heat Wave in Antartica. Jason Samenow & Kasha Patel of the Washington Post: "The coldest location on the planet has experienced an episode of warm weather this week unlike any ever observed, with temperatures over the eastern Antarctic ice sheet soaring 50 to 90 degrees above normal. The warmth has smashed records and shocked scientists.... Parts of eastern Antarctica have seen temperatures hover 70 degrees (40 Celsius) above normal for three days and counting, [climate researcher Jonathan] Wille said. He likened the event to the June heat wave in the Pacific Northwest, which scientists concluded would have been 'virtually impossible' without human-caused climate change.

News Lede

New York Times: "At least one person was killed, 50 homes were destroyed and nearly 500 others evacuated in central Texas after a wildfire burned more than 45,000 acres, officials said on Friday. The wildfire, a set of blazes west of the Dallas-Fort Worth area called the Eastland Complex fire, began on Thursday evening. A deputy with the Eastland County Sheriff's Office, Barbara Fenley, died while helping people escape, the authorities said. The blaze was 15 percent contained as of Friday evening, the Texas A&M Forest Service said on Twitter."

March 18, 2022

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Michael Luciano of Mediaite recounts an exchange between Sens. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) & Chris Murphy (D-Ct.) in which Sasse in particular seemed to forget he was speaking in the chamber of "the world's greatest deliberative body." Eventually, the presiding officer had to ask the senators to address their remarks to the president of the Senate & not to each other. Luciano notes that Sasse's remarks might include "the first time in history a senator has directly addressed another senator as 'dude' on the floor." Marie: But I find it rather more notable that Sasse used the venue to accuse another senator of verbal masturbation when he asked Murphy, "Do you think a single person that your Twitter self-pleasuring was for ... voted against it because they were against Ukrainian aid?"

The New York Times' live updates of developments in Russia's war against Ukraine are here: "At least 130 survivors have escaped the ruins of a theater that was nearly leveled in a Russian attack in the embattled southern city of Mariupol, a Ukrainian official said on Friday, but hundreds remained unaccounted for in the wreckage.... A missile strike on the outskirts of Lviv, a western city that has been a haven for people fleeing areas under siege, rattled the relative peace there on Friday. The strike may have been an attempt to target the abilities of Ukraine's air force because the local news media has reported that a plant at the airport was 'the only enterprise in Ukraine that refurbishes MiG-29s for the Ukrainian Air Force.'"

Annie Karni of the New York Times: "They were once seatmates in the spare limousine of the White House motorcade, traveling the globe together as part of the president's inner circle. Bonded by the miles they logged on the road and their unique access to power, Pete Souza, the former official White House photographer who took nearly two million photographs of former President Barack Obama, and Representative Ronny Jackson of Texas, the former White House physician who was elected to Congress as a Republican in 2020, were once close friends. Now, they are the most public of enemies on social media, where Mr. Jackson routinely hurls insults and unsubstantiated claims of cognitive decline at President Biden and Mr. Souza responds with bitingly personal, sometimes salacious takedowns of the congressman’s character. He often begins them tauntingly with, 'Hey Ronny.'" MB: All I can say is, "Go Pete!"

Jonathan Edwards of the Washington Post: So this Alabama gunshop owner named Nathan Kirk thought it would be funny to get a vanity plate that read, "LGBFJB," which signified to Kirk, "Let's Go Brandon. Fuck Joe Biden." After a while, Kirk got a letter from Alabama's motor vehicle officials telling him his plate was an affront to the "peace and dignity of the State of Alabama" and Kirk would have to turn it in. Well, sez Kirk, "I wasn't going to just lay down." He means "lie down," but he's an Alabama Republican, so. Then poor Kirk's plight became a right-wing cause célèbre. So the state Motor Vehicle Division reversed itself & told Kirk they were right sorry for any inconvenience that might have caused him.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Friday are here.

~~~~~~~~~~

Putin's War Crimes, Ctd.

The Washington Post's live updates of developments Friday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "The Russian invasion of Ukraine, now in its fourth week, is 'basically frozen' on the ground amid fierce resistance and mounting logistical difficulties, according to the Pentagon. But Western officials warned that the Kremlin still has significant combat power in reserve, even though poor logistics and Ukrainian attacks on their supply lines have left Russian forces scrambling for food and fuel. In the absence of major advances, Russia -- which has launched more than 1,000 missiles so far -- is increasingly relying on 'dumb' bombs to wear cities and civilians down. The United Nations has reported 1,900 civilian casualties, including the deaths of 52 children, and the flight of more than 3.1 million refugees. But humanitarian groups have warned that the true scale of human suffering is likely to be far greater.... A video from the besieged city of Chernihiv, verified by The Washington Post, shows blanket-covered bodies of children amid rubble. (A U.S. citizen was killed amid Russian shelling there Thursday.) In Kharkiv, where a Post reporter witnessed evidence of cluster bombs being used in civilian areas, body bags and coffins are in short supply. And on Friday morning, missiles struck near an airport in Lviv, a city close to the Polish border...."

Loveday Morris of the Washington Post: "Before the war, Kharkiv was known as Ukraine's intellectual capital. With more than 30 universities, it brimmed with hundreds of thousands of students. It was a scientific and cultural hub. But today, the 19th-century architectural gems in its center have been ravaged by missile strikes. Burst water pipes leave a cascade of icicles framing blown-out windows. Parts of the city were eerily devoid of people. Around half the population, some 700,000 people, have fled, according to the regional administration. At a checkpoint on a desolate, potholed road into the city -- one of the few safe remaining passages in and out -- a Ukrainian territorial defense soldier warned of what lies ahead. 'Be careful,' he said. 'The sky is on fire there.'" MB: An accompanying photo of plastic body bags piled on the side of the road like trash on pick-up day is devastating. This is Putin's legacy.

Marie: I have no idea if the following is true, because Inside Edition, but I'm passing it along anyway: ~~~

~~~ Inside Edition: "Daily Beast contributing editor Craig Copetas says he's been told that Putin has people tasting his food before he eats it and that last month, he replaced his entire personal staff of 1,000 people. MB: Let's look at the logic of such a staffing decision: You have a thousand fairly anonymous people who've been working for you for various lengths of time and none of them has poisoned you, so you fire them and replace them with a thousand more fairly anonymous people, any one or more of whom might be inclined to poison you or stab you with a fork. So you're moving from the known (= so far, not assassins) to the unknown (= could be assassins).

India, Friend to Russia. Gerry Shih of the Washington Post: "India, the world’s biggest oil importer behind China and the United States, has agreed to purchase 3 million barrels of Russian oil at a heavy discount, an Indian official said Thursday. The purchase, which was first reported by the Wall Street Journal, is relatively small given Russia's production and Indian demand. But the volume could increase in the coming months and reinforce a growing perception that India is determined to preserve its extensive trade and military ties with Moscow, even as the United States and its allies urge governments around the world to isolate Russia. Aside from the oil deal, the Indian government is also exploring ways to maintain trade with Russia by reviving a Cold War-era arrangement called the rupee-ruble trade.... The mechanism ... would let Indian and Russian firms do business while bypassing the need to use U.S. dollars -- the predominant currency of international trade -- and lowering the risk of potential U.S. sanctions."

The New York Times' live updates of developments Thursday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "Rescuers on Thursday began pulling some survivors from the wreckage of a theater in the besieged port city of Mariupol, an adviser to the city's mayor said, a day after an attack destroyed the building where hundreds of people were believed to be taking shelter. The extent of casualties was unknown as Russian forces continued to shell the area, he said, hampering recovery efforts. In an overnight address, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine alleged that a Russian aircraft had 'purposefully dropped a huge bomb' on the theater.'... Cease-fire talks between the Russians and Ukrainians were expected to enter their fourth day on Thursday, but increasingly harsh comments by ... Vladimir V. Putin ... were a dim portent for progress, despite conciliatory public statements by negotiators from both sides.... His statements came amid an increasingly brutal war of attrition unfolding on the ground and in the air, with fierce battles raging in the suburbs of Kyiv, Ukrainian forces claiming to have shot down more Russian aircraft, and Russian warships on the Black Sea launching missiles at towns around the southern city of Odessa.... British intelligence reports say that Russian forces have 'made minimal progress on land, sea or air in recent days,' and that they 'continue to suffer heavy losses.' Still, Russian forces have taken control of large sections of Ukraine, particularly in the east and south. The battle for the skies above Kyiv raged overnight on Thursday, with the Ukrainian military claiming to have shot down 10 Russian planes and missiles. The remnants of one rocket tore through a residential high-rise and killed at least one person, officials said." (Also linked yesterday.)

Andrea Rosa of the AP: "Rescuers searched for survivors Thursday in the ruins of a theater blown apart by a Russian airstrike in the besieged city of Mariupol, while a ferocious bombardment left dozens dead in a northern city over the past day, authorities said. Hundreds of civilians had been taking shelter in the grand, columned theater in central Mariupol after their homes were destroyed in three weeks of fighting in the besieged port city. Nearly a day after the airstrike there were no reports of deaths. With much of the city cut off from the flow of information, there were also conflicting reports on whether anyone had emerged from the rubble. 'We hope and we think that some people who stayed in the shelter under the theater could survive,' Petro Andrushchenko, an official with the mayor's office, told The Associated Press. He said the building had a relatively modern basement bomb shelter designed to withstand airstrikes." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ MEANWHILE. Michael Luciano of Mediaite: Sen. Rand Paul appeared on a Newsmax show where he opined that Ukraine should pay for the military aid the U.S. is sending them. But, hey, Paul does "have sympathy for Ukraine." MB: Thanks to Akhilleus for the lead, and do see his commentary in today's thread. How is it that Li'l Randy is so dense he doesn't understand that Ukrainians are fighting our war? Ukrainians of every age are the missile fodder that is protecting the people of all Western countries. I believe President Zelensky explained that to, you know, members of Congress yesterday. I feel guilty that all I'm doing is sending money & supplies when little children are dying in this war on the West. And all Randy wants is a check. Oddly enough, it never occurred to him that the check he wants should come from Russia, not Ukraine. (Also linked yesterday.)

Jacob Knutson of Axios: "President Biden will speak to Chinese President Xi Jinping Friday as 'part of our ongoing efforts to maintain open lines of communication between the United States and the PRC,' press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement Thursday. Biden and Xi will in part discuss Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine after reports indicated that Moscow had asked China's government for military ​equipment and other assistance to support its war." (Also linked yesterday.)

Maegan Vazquez & Nikki Carvajal of CNN: "Speaking at the annual Friends of Ireland Luncheon on St. Patrick's Day at Capitol Hill, [President] Biden said Putin is 'a murderous dictator, a pure thug who is waging an immoral war against the people of Ukraine.'" (Also linked yesterday.)>

** Watch What We Say, Not What We Do. It's Impossible to Be More Hypocritcal Than We Are. Mariana Alfaro & Eugene Scott of the Washington Post: "More than two dozen Senate Republicans are demanding that President Biden do more to aid war-torn Ukraine and arm its forces against Russia's brutal assault, after voting last week against $13.6 billion in military and humanitarian assistance for Ukraine.... '"We should send more lethal aid to Ukraine which I voted against last week" is making my brain melt,' tweeted Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii).... 'They voted to exonerate Trump for this specific reason, which was to withhold aid from Zelensky, and here they are again, opposing aid to Zelensky,' Schatz said. 'So now they're doing it twice.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

Catie Edmondson of the New York Times: "The House voted overwhelmingly on Thursday to strip Russia of its preferential trade status with the United States, moving to further penalize the country's economy in response to the invasion of Ukraine. The lopsided 424-to-8 vote came after President Biden announced last week that the United States and its European allies would take new steps to isolate Russia from the global trading system. All of the lawmakers who opposed the measure were Republicans. The bill ... would allow the United States to impose higher tariffs on Russian goods.... The trade measure still needs Senate approval. Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the majority leader, said he would work to move it through the chamber quickly. ~~~

     ~~~ The Usual Suspects. Bryan Metzger of Business Insider, republished in Yahoo! News: "Here are the eight Republicans who voted against the bill...."

O Canada! (Click on the letter to call up a readable-sized version. Thanks to RAS for the link.)

Monica Hesse of the Washington Post: In a nine-minute video available to Russians via "various different channels," Arnold Schwarzenegger tries to get across the real strength that's demonstrated by Russians who oppose the war on Ukraine: ~~~

Elisha Fieldstadt of NBC News: "American basketball star Brittney Griner's detention in Russia has been extended until May, the Russian state news agency TASS reported, citing the Khimki Court of the Moscow Region.... Griner has been detained for weeks fter Russian officials said they found vape cartridges containing oil derived from cannabis in her luggage at the Sheremetyevo airport near Moscow." (Also linked yesterday.)

Another Way Donald Trump Is Still Ruining Earth. Lisa Friedman of the New York Times: "The nation's largest federally owned utility plans to invest more than $3.5 billion in new gas-burning electric plants, despite President Biden's commitment to swiftly move away from fossil fuels and eliminate greenhouse gases from the power sector in a little more than a decade. The Tennessee Valley Authority, which provides electricity to nearly 10 million people across the Southeast, is replacing aging power plants that run on coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel. But critics say substituting gas for coal would lock in decades of additional carbon dioxide emissions that are heating the planet and could be avoided by generating more electricity from solar, wind or another renewable source.... It raises the question of whether President Franklin D. Roosevelt's grand 20th-century experiment with electrification can adapt to a 21st-century climate crisis.... Like the Postal Service, the Tennessee Valley Authority is an independent organization governed by a board of directors made up of presidential appointees. And in both cases, the board is dominated by members nominated by ... Donald J. Trump, who frequently mocked climate science and was an ally of the fossil fuel industry."

Can You Hear Me Now? Bob Brigham of the Raw Story: "'Indicted Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE) may have just staked his political career -- and possibly his freedom -- on a tried-and-true excuse: Bad cell phone reception,' The Daily Beast reported Thursday. 'Attorneys for Fortenberry, who on Thursday became the first sitting member of Congress to stand trial in 21 years, told a federal jury that what the government calls lying to the FBI could boil down to a misunderstanding stemming from "a bad cell phone connection."' In October, the Department of Justice alleged that 'Fortenberry repeatedly lied to and misled authorities during a federal investigation into illegal contributions to Fortenberry's re-election campaign made by a foreign billionaire in early 2016.'"

The Pandemic, Ctd.

Katie Shepherd of the Washington Post: "Biotechnology company Moderna on Thursday asked the Food and Drug Administration to allow adults 18 and older to receive a second booster shot of the company's mRNA vaccine amid concerns that immune protection from the vaccines wanes over time. Moderna's application is substantially broader than what Pfizer and its German partner, BioNTech, sought earlier in the week -- FDA authorization for a second booster shot for adults 65 and older." Free to nonsubscribers.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Thursday are here. (Also linked yesterday.)

Michael Shear & Sheryl Stoldberg of the New York Times: "Jeffrey D. Zients, an entrepreneur and management consultant who steered President Biden's coronavirus response through successive pandemic waves and the largest vaccination campaign in American history, plans to leave the White House in April to return to private life, President Biden said in a statement. Mr. Zients will be replaced as the White House coronavirus coordinator by Dr. Ashish K. Jha, the dean of the Brown University School of Public Health and a practicing internist who has urged an aggressive approach to the pandemic in frequent television appearances. Dr. Jha will coordinate the government's Covid-19 response from inside the White House, officials said." An NBC News story is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ President Biden's statement, via the White House, is here. (Also linked yesterday.)

Beyond the Beltway

New Hampshire. Kathy McCormack of the AP: "New Hampshire Republican Gov. Chris Sununu said Thursday that he will veto a GOP-backed redistricting plan that would tilt the state's 1st Congressional District toward Republicans while solidifying the Democrats- advantage in the 2nd District, shortly after legislators passed the bill.... The Senate's 13-11 vote in favor of the plan on Thursday followed House passage of the bill in January on a vote of 186-164. Republicans lead by a narrow majority in the Legislature. Overturning a veto requires a two-thirds majority in both bodies." (Also linked yesterday.)

North Carolina. Finally. Blatant 2020 Voter Fraud Under Legitimate Investigation. Reid Epstein of the New York Times: "North Carolina officials said on Thursday that they planned to investigate whether Mark Meadows, who as ... Donald J. Trump's chief of staff helped amplify false claims of voter fraud in an attempt to overturn the 2020 election, cast a legal vote in that year's presidential race. The North Carolina Department of Justice has asked the State Bureau of Investigation to examine whether Mr. Meadows broke the law when he registered to vote, and voted from, a remote mobile home where he did not live, said Nazneen Ahmed, a spokeswoman for Josh Stein, the state attorney general, who is a Democrat." Politico's report is here.

News Ledes

New York Times: "A 13-year-old boy was behind the wheel of a pickup truck that struck a van in Texas on Tuesday night in a collision that killed nine people, including a college golf coach and six of his players, along with the boy and a man traveling with him, officials said on Thursday. Bruce Landsberg, vice chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, said at a news conference that the truck's left front tire was a spare that had blown out before the truck veered into the lane the golf team's van was traveling in and struck the van head-on. It was unclear at what speeds the vehicles were traveling, but Mr. Landsberg noted that the speed limit in the area is 75 miles per hour.... Both vehicles went up in flames in the collision near Andrews, Texas, about 50 miles east of the state line with New Mexico."

New York Times: Domenico DeMarco, who defined the New York slice "has died at age 85, his daughter Margie DeMarco Mieles announced Thursday in a Facebook post. Originally from the Italian province of Caserta, he began making pies at Di Fara Pizza in Midwood, Brooklyn, in 1965."