The Ledes

Thursday, September 19, 2024

New York Times: “A body believed to be of the suspect in a Kentucky highway shooting that left five people seriously injured this month was found on Wednesday, the authorities said, ending a manhunt that stretched into a second week and set the local community on edge. The Kentucky State Police commissioner, Phillip Burnett Jr., said in a Wednesday night news conference that at approximately 3:30 p.m., two troopers and two civilians found an unidentified body in the brush behind the highway exit where the shooting occurred.... The police have identified the suspect of the shooting as Joseph A. Couch, 32. They said that on Sept. 7, Mr. Couch perched on a cliff overlooking Interstate 75 about eight miles north of London, Ky., and opened fire. One of the wounded was shot in the face, and another was shot in the chest. A dozen vehicles were riddled with gunfire.”

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The New York Times lists Emmy winners. The AP has an overview story here.

New York Times: “Hvaldimir, a beluga whale who had captured the public’s imagination since 2019 after he was spotted wearing a harness seemingly designed for a camera, was found dead on Saturday in Norway, according to a nonprofit that worked to protect the whale.... [Hvaldimir] was wearing a harness that identified it as “equipment” from St. Petersburg. There also appeared to be a camera mount. Some wondered if the whale was on a Russian reconnaissance mission. Russia has never claimed ownership of the whale. If Hvaldimir was a spy, he was an exceptionally friendly one. The whale showed signs of domestication, and was comfortable around people. He remained in busier waters than are typical for belugas....” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Oh, Lord, do not let Bobby Kennedy, Jr., near that carcass. ~~~

     ~~~ AP Update: “There’s no evidence that a well-known beluga whale that lived off Norway’s coast and whose harness ignited speculation it was a Russian spy was shot to death last month as claimed by animal rights groups, Norwegian police said Monday.... Police said that the Norwegian Veterinary Institute conducted a preliminary autopsy on the animal, which was become known as 'Hvaldimir,' combining the Norwegian word for whale — hval — and the first name of Russian President Vladimir Putin. 'There are no findings from the autopsy that indicate that Hvaldimir has been shot,' police said in a statement.”

New York Times: Botswana's “President Mokgweetsi Masisi grinned as he lifted the diamond, a 2,492-carat stone that is the biggest diamond unearthed in more than a century and the second-largest ever found, according to the Vancouver-based mining operator Lucara, which owns the mine where it was found. This exceptional discovery could bring back the luster of the natural diamond mining industry, mining companies and experts say. The diamond was discovered in the same relatively small mine in northeastern Botswana that has produced several of the largest such stones in living memory. Such gemstones typically surface as a result of volcanic activity.... The diamond will likely sell in the range of tens of millions of dollars....”

Click on photo to enlarge.

~~~ Guardian: "On a distant reef 16,000km from Paris, surfer Gabriel Medina has given Olympic viewers one of the most memorable images of the Games yet, with an airborne celebration so well poised it looked too good to be true. The Brazilian took off a thundering wave at Teahupo’o in Tahiti on Monday, emerging from a barrelling section before soaring into the air and appearing to settle on a Pacific cloud, pointing to the sky with biblical serenity, his movements mirrored precisely by his surfboard. The shot was taken by Agence France-Presse photographer Jérôme Brouillet, who said “the conditions were perfect, the waves were taller than we expected”. He took the photo while aboard a boat nearby, capturing the surreal image with such accuracy that at first some suspected Photoshop or AI." 

Washington Post: “'Mary Cassatt at Work' is a large and mostly satisfying exhibition devoted to the career of the great American artist beloved for her sensitive and often sentimental views of family life. The 'at work' in the title of the Philadelphia Museum of Art show references the curators’ interest in Cassatt’s pioneering effort to establish herself as a professional artist within a male-dominated field. Throughout the show, which includes some 130 paintings, pastels, prints and drawings, the wall text and the art on view stresses Cassatt’s fixation on art as a career rather than a pastime.... Mary Cassatt at Work is on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art through Sept. 8. philamuseum.org”

New York Times: “Bob Newhart, who died on Thursday at the age of 94, has been such a beloved giant of popular culture for so long that it’s easy to forget how unlikely it was that he became one of the founding fathers of stand-up comedy. Before basically inventing the hit stand-up special, with the 1960 Grammy-winning album 'The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart' — that doesn’t even count his pay-per-view event broadcast on Canadian television that some cite as the first filmed special — he was a soft-spoken accountant who had never done a set in a nightclub. That he made a classic with so little preparation is one of the great miracles in the history of comedy.... Bob Newhart holds up. In fact, it’s hard to think of a stand-up from that era who is a better argument against the commonplace idea that comedy does not age well.”

Washington Post: “An early Titian masterpiece — once looted by Napolean’s troops and a part of royal collections for centuries — caused a stir when it was stolen from the home of a British marquess in 1995. Seven years later, it was found inside an unassuming white and blue plastic bag at a bus stop in southwest London by an art detective, and returned. This week, the oil painting 'The Rest on the Flight into Egypt' sold for more than $22 million at Christie’s. It was a record for the Renaissance artist, whom museums describe as the greatest painter of 16th-century Venice. Ahead of the sale in April, the auction house billed it as 'the most important work by Titian to come to the auction market in more than a generation.'”

Washington Post: The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., which houses the world's largest collection of Shakespeare material, has undergone a major renovation. "The change to the building is pervasive, both subtle and transformational."

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Publisher & Editor: Marie Burns


Friday
Mar112022

March 11, 2022

Late Morning Update:

The New York Times' live updates in developments in Russia's war on Ukraine Friday are here.

Morgan Chalfant of the Hill: "President Biden announced Friday that the United States and other allies would move to revoke the 'most favored nation' trade status for Russia in response to its military invasion of Ukraine. In remarks from the Roosevelt Room, Biden said the coordinated move would deal a 'another crushing blow to the Russian economy.' The move requires an act of Congress and Biden said Friday that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) had agreed to hold off on a bill ending normal trade relations with Russia until he could get U.S. allies behind a plan to do so together." ~~~

~~~~~~~~~~

Putin's War Crimes, Ctd.

The Guardian's live updates of Friday's developments in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "The UK government has urged British veterans not to travel to Ukraine to fight.... A total of 48 schools have been destroyed in Kharkiv, its mayor has said, as the city comes under relentless bombardment....The regional governor of Kharkiv has condemned today's attack on a psychiatric hospital, saying it was 'a war crime against civilians'.... Russian forces shelled residential areas of Kharkiv 89 times in one day, the local governor has said. Reuters reports that Oleh Synegubov also said there is no danger to civilians after an institute with a nuclear laboratory was hit. Vladimir Putin today approved bringing thousands of fighters from the Middle East to fight for Russia against Ukraine. At a meeting of Russia's Security Council, defence minister Sergei Shoigu said there were 16,000 volunteers in the Middle East who were ready to come to fight with Russian-backed forces in eastern Ukraine in the breakaway Donbass region.... Lithuania's president Gitanas Nausėda said there was a 'flavour of disappointment' to the decision by the EU leaders at a summit in Versailles not to offer Ukraine a fast track to EU candidate status in their response to Volodymyr Zelenskiy's request.... Russian forces have killed more Ukrainian civilians than soldiers, Ukraine's defence minister [Oleksii Reznikov] said today."

~~~ The Washington Post's live updates of Friday's developments in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "The northern Ukrainian city [of Chernihiv] has been under intense bombardment, and the Pentagon said Thursday that Chernihiv, like Mariupol, appears to have been isolated by Russian troops. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a defiant address early Friday morning that he would keep up efforts to fight for the city.... The European Union has held off on quickly granting Kyiv membership. European leaders said late Thursday that they had asked the E.U.'s executive arm to review Ukraine's application, but that the bloc would also immediately 'further strengthen our bonds and deepen our partnership to support Ukraine in pursuing its European path.'"

Martin Farrer & Luke Harding of the Guardian: "Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has accused Russia of being a 'terrorist state' after its tanks prevented a delivery of food, water and medicine to the besieged city of Mariupol, and said Moscow was capable of chemical weapon attacks. As Russian forces appeared to be regrouping in order to encircle Kyiv and the US planned to ratchet up the economic pressure on Vladimir Putin, Zelenskiy tried to rally Ukrainians with another video address late on Thursday condemning Moscow's relentless assault on cities.... More than 400,000 people remain trapped in Mariupol, which is surrounded by Russian forces, and basic supplies are running out.... Mariupol's mayor, Vadym Boichenko, said Russia was targeting residential areas 'every 30 minutes'.... Attacks appeared to be intensifying in western Ukraine with air-raid sirens heard in Lviv, explosions reported in Lutsk, and bombing in Ivano-Frankivsk. Dnipro, a major stronghold in central-eastern Ukraine, suffered air strikes on Friday morning...."

Hannah Knowles of the Washington Post: "More than 40 Republican U.S. senators on Thursday called for President Biden ' to Ukraine after officials quashed Poland's offer to send fighter jets with American help. The senators said in a letter that they 'strongly disagree' with the Biden administration's stance on Poland's proposal, and that the Ukrainian military is in 'dire need of more lethal aid' as it fights Russia's invasion. They urged the president to work with NATO allies on providing those resources -- uniting behind a step that U.S. officials worry could pull the Western alliance into war. American officials have criticized Poland's proposal to transfer MiG-29 jets through the United States as risking escalation without significantly changing the situation in Ukraine, given that Ukraine's air force is largely intact." ~~~

~~~ Why, That's Odd, Because.... Felicia Sonmez & Mariana Alfaro of the Washington Post: "Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.) recently called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky a 'thug' and said the Ukrainian government is 'incredibly evil,' in remarks that are at odds with the broad bipartisan support for Ukraine among American lawmakers and the public amid Russia's invasion. 'Remember that Zelensky is a thug. Remember that the Ukrainian government is incredibly corrupt, and it is incredibly evil, and it has been pushing woke ideologies,' Cawthorn told supporters at a recent event in North Carolina, according to video published Thursday by Raleigh-based TV station WRAL." The Hill's story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Steve M. points out that Cawthorn gets some of his information about "evil" Ukrainians from an American white nationalist who has repeatedly warred of "white genocide."

Paul Krugman of the New York Times: "For the most part..., America's [right-wing] Putin lovers are having a moment of truth.... The problem is that the strongman they admired ... is turning out to be remarkably weak. And that's not an accident. Russia is facing disaster precisely because it is ruled by a man who accepts no criticism and brooks no dissent.... Some of this dictator-love reflected the belief that Putin was a champion of antiwokeness.... Some of it reflected a creepy fascination with Putin's alleged masculinity.... Finally, many on the right simply like the idea of authoritarian rule.... While you might imagine that there are big advantages to rule by a strongman..., these advantages are more than offset by the absence of free discussion and independent thought. Nobody can tell the strongman that he's wrong or urge him to think twice before making a disastrous decision."

Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: Donald Trump Junior says Donald Trump Senior was only praising Putin to "play" Putin." As Blake points out, Senior has been "playing" strongman-style leaders for a really long time.

Anton Troianovski of the New York Times: "Besieged by an onslaught of sanctions that have largely undone 30 years of economic integration with the West in the space of two weeks..., Vladimir V. Putin on Thursday opened the door to nationalizing the assets of Western companies pulling out of Russia.... With the ruble having lost nearly half its value in the last month, prices of basic goods have risen sharply, causing panic buying at supermarkets. The central bank, which has kept the Moscow stock exchange closed since the war began, has introduced new capital controls, preventing companies from withdrawing more than $5,000 in cash for the next six months.... Of particular concern are Western companies that once symbolized post-Soviet Russia's integration into the world economy, like McDonald's and Ikea, that have now shuttered hundreds of stores and factories. Mr. Putin told officials in the televised meeting that the assets of such companies should be put under 'external management' and then transferred 'to those who want to work.'" ~~~\

     ~~~ Marie: This sounds a lot like "communism," doesn't it? Turning Big Mak patties into beet burgers should come as no surprise to Russian consumers.

Edward Wong of the New York Times: "One of Russia's most incendiary disinformation campaigns ramped up days ago, when its defense and foreign ministries issued statements falsely claiming that the Pentagon was financing biological weapons labs in Ukraine. Then Chinese diplomats and state media organizations repeated the conspiracy theory at news conferences in Beijing, in articles and on official social media accounts. Now, the Biden White House has taken the extraordinary step of calling out both countries on their coordinated propaganda campaign and saying they might be providing cover for a potential biological or chemical weapons attack on Ukrainians by the Russian military."

The New York Times' live updates of Thursday's developments in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "Russian forces were making slow, bitterly-fought advances in Ukraine on Thursday as high-level talks failed to yield progress on ending the war or even a temporary cease-fire. Russian troops were laying siege to Chernihiv, near the Belarus border, where the mayor reported that the city was running out of burial space as the death toll rises. Although Russia has failed to capture major cities in the past week, its forces have gradually pushed forward into smaller population centers. Outside of Kyiv, Russian forces gained control of the town of Bucha and moved southwest in an attempt to encircle the capital. They were also approaching Kyiv from the east, with heavy fighting involving a line of Russian tanks reported in the suburb of Brovary, according to videos posted on Thursday." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)


Alex Gangitano of the Hill: "President Biden issued a warning to his party about the possibility of Republicans taking control of Congress in the upcoming midterm elections during remarks to Democratic National Committee members on Thursday evening.... 'I believe we have a record to be incredibly proud of ... a message that resonates: Build a better America. Now we have to do the work,' Biden said."

A Very Trumpy Census. Maria Cramer of the New York Times: "The 2020 census undercounted the country's population by 18.8 million people, the Census Bureau said on Thursday, acknowledging that the count had underrepresented Black, Latino and Indigenous residents. At the same time, the census overcounted the number of white and Asian residents, the bureau said.... The 2020 census faced a series of challenges. The coronavirus pandemic shut down much of the count just as it was beginning in April 2020, forcing the bureau to extend its work by nearly two months. Later in the year, wildfires in the West and coastal hurricanes upended the bureau's work just as door-knockers were fanning out to survey millions of households that had not filled out their forms." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) An NPR story is here.

Neil Vigdor & Christine Hauser of the New York Times: "... the Interior Department, led by Deb Haaland, the first Native American cabinet secretary, is taking steps to strip the word ['squaw,' which is derogatory,] from mountains, rivers, lakes and other geographic sites and has solicited input from tribes on new names for the landmarks. A task force created by the department will submit the new names for final approval from the Board on Geographic Names, the federal body that standardizes American place names. The National Park Service was ordered to take similar steps.... Several states have passed laws mandating the erasure of the slur from nonfederal sites." MB: By contrast, Donald Trump turned the given name "Pocahontas" into a slur, too. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "Congress cleared the first major federal spending legislation of President Biden's administration on Thursday, approving a $1.5 trillion measure with substantial increases for domestic and national security programs, along with $13.6 billion in emergency aid for Ukraine as it battles Russia's invasion. The Senate approved the more than 2,700-page measure by a vote of 68 to 31 less than two days after it was finalized and pushed through the House, a rapid timetable that reflected strong bipartisan support for assisting Ukraine and a sense of urgency to avert a government shutdown within days. The bill, which funds the government through September, includes generous spending on domestic programs long prioritized by Democrats and military investments championed by Republicans. Mr. Biden was expected to quickly sign the measure, which marked the first time since he took office and Democrats won unified control of Congress that they have been able to enact a spending bill that reflects their priorities, including investing in climate resilience, public assistance programs and unlocking aid for projects contained in the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure law."

Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "Michael T. Flynn, a former national security adviser who was one of the most extreme voices in ... Donald J. Trump's push to overturn the election, repeatedly cited the Fifth Amendment before the [January 6] committee because, his lawyer said, he believes the panel is exploring criminal referrals against Mr. Trump and his allies."

But He Loves Turtles! Michael Levenson of the New York Times: "A New York man was arrested on Wednesday and charged with shoving a Capitol Police officer over a ledge on Jan. 6, 2021, when a mob of Trump supporters disrupted Congress as it was certifying the 2020 election results, prosecutors said. The F.B.I. said that it had identified the man, Ralph Joseph Celentano III of Broad Channel, Queens, from a photo on Facebook and Instagram that showed him attending a fund-raiser for a sea turtle foundation in March 2018. Body-camera videos from the Metropolitan Police Department of Washington showed Mr. Celentano engaging in several other 'physical altercations' with officers on the grounds of the Capitol, court papers said." MB: Actually, I'm not sure about the guy's concern for turtles; he went to the fundraiser with a sometimes-girlfriend.

Kyle Cheney & Josh Gerstein of Politico: "A federal judge delivered a warning to special counsel John Durham on Thursday after recent court filings became fodder for pro-Trump media and prompted incendiary allegations from the former president himself. 'Keep in mind that the pleadings in this case are under a microscope and may be employed for one reason or another by folks for reasons that have nothing to do with the ultimate issues in this case,' U.S. District Court Judge Christopher Cooper said after offering the attorneys working for Durham a chance to correct any 'misinterpretation' of their earlier filings. They declined. Cooper's admonishment came in the case of Michael Sussmann, a cybersecurity lawyer with Democratic Party ties whom Durham has charged with making false statements to the FBI."

James Wagner of the New York Times: "An agreement reached Thursday by Major League Baseball's club owners and its players' union after months of heated negotiations will allow for a full season, with opening day scheduled for April 7. The five-year collective bargaining agreement will increase pay for young players and better incentivize teams to compete, among other provisions."

The Pandemic, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Friday are here: "The World Health Organization, often criticized for being too slow to declare in 2020 that a pandemic was underway, now says -- two years to the day after making that declaration -- that many countries are being too quick to declare it over and let down their guard."

Meep, Meep! Ellie Silverman, et al., of the Washington Post: "A group of truckers and others opposed to pandemic-related mandates looped the Capital Beltway for a fourth day Thursday, this time with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), who rode shotgun in the lead truck. Cruz visited the 'People's Convoy' at the Hagerstown Speedway, telling crowds their voice was being heard. He then boarded a truck and detoured just pass noon to head into Washington, where he and convoy organizers called for an end to such mandates."

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Thursday are here: "The Transportation Security Administration will extend its mask mandate for airplanes and other public transportation..., as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention works with federal agencies to revise mask policies, the two agencies announced on Thursday. The requirement will extend at least through April 18 at C.D.C.'s recommendations, and will apply to public transportation and transportation hubs. Under the T.S.A.'s rule, passengers on airplanes buses and trains and people in airports, stations and transit hubs must wear masks." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Beyond the Beltway

Florida. Caroline Vakil of the Hill: "Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) on Thursday brushed off criticism from Disney CEO Bob Chapek over state legislation that would restrict discussions on LGBTQ topics in schools, calling the company 'woke.'... The Florida Republican signaled again he is likely to support the legislation, telling people 'the chance that I am going to back down from my commitment to students and back down from my commitment to parents rights simply because of fraudulent media narratives or pressure from woke corporations, the chances of that are zero.'"; MB: Oooh, Ron, you're so tough.

Illinois. Julia Jacobs & Robert Chiarito of the New York Times: "A judge in Chicago sentenced Jussie Smollett to five months in jail on Thursday, ordering that the actor be incarcerated for falsely reporting to the police that he had been the victim of a racist and homophobic attack in 2019.... Judge James B. Linn excoriated Mr. Smollett from the bench.... His lawyers immediately said they planned to appeal." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Judge Linn said Smollett had faked a hate crime "... for one reason: You wanted to make yourself more famous." It worked. I never heard of Smollett until the initial report of the false claim arose; now I know his name. ~~~

     ~~~ CBS News Chicago: "Judge James Linn sentenced [Jussie] Smollett to 30 months' probation, and said he will be required to spend the first 150 days in jail, beginning immediately. He also ordered Smollett to pay $120,106 in restitution to the city and fined him $25,000."

South Dakota. Stephen Groves of the AP: "South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem's cabinet secretary who oversaw an investigation into the state's attorney general for a 2020 fatal car crash on Wednesday urged House lawmakers to bring impeachment charges against him, alleging in a letter that the attorney general was distracted, was untruthful during the investigation and previously traded 'disparaging and offensive' text messages with his staff about other state officials. Secretary of Public Safety Craig Price released the letter sent to House lawmakers Wednesday, stating that the investigation led him to conclude Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg is 'unfit to hold the position as the chief law enforcement officer' of the state.... Price's letter did not divulge details about the messages besides one -- sent to Ravnsborg from a political consultant -- that stated, 'Well, at least the guy was a Democrat' two days after the crash."

News Lede

New York Times: "Sally Schmitt, who with her husband, Don, opened the French Laundry, the now famous restaurant in the Napa Valley of California, in 1978, and in doing so helped solidify the valley as a food-and-wine destination and start a culinary movement built on seasonal local ingredients, died on Saturday at her home in Philo, Calif. She was 90."

Comments Off
Thursday
Mar102022

March 10, 2022

Afternoon Update:

The New York Times' live updates of Thursday's developments in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "Russian forces were making slow, bitterly-fought advances in Ukraine on Thursday as high-level talks failed to yield progress on ending the war or even a temporary cease-fire. Russian troops were laying siege to Chernihiv, near the Belarus border, where the mayor reported that the city was running out of burial space as the death toll rises. Although Russia has failed to capture major cities in the past week, its forces have gradually pushed forward into smaller population centers. Outside of Kyiv, Russian forces gained control of the town of Bucha and moved southwest in an attempt to encircle the capital. They were also approaching Kyiv from the east, with heavy fighting involving a line of Russian tanks reported in the suburb of Brovary, according to videos posted on Thursday."

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Thursday are here: "The Transportation Security Administration will extend its mask mandate for airplanes and other public transportation..., as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention works with federal agencies to revise mask policies, the two agencies announced on Thursday. The requirement will extend at least through April 18 at C.D.C.'s recommendations, and will apply to public transportation and transportation hubs. Under the T.S.A.'s rule, passengers on airplanes buses and trains and people in airports, stations and transit hubs must wear masks."

A Very Trumpy Census. Maria Cramer of the New York Times: "The 2020 census undercounted the country's population by 18.8 million people, the Census Bureau said on Thursday, acknowledging that the count had underrepresented Black, Latino and Indigenous residents. At the same time, the census overcounted the number of white and Asian residents, the bureau said.... The 2020 census faced a series of challenges. The coronavirus pandemic shut down much of the count just as it was beginning in April 2020, forcing the bureau to extend its work by nearly two months. Later in the year, wildfires in the West and coastal hurricanes upended the bureau's work just as door-knockers were fanning out to survey millions of households that had not filled out their forms.

Neil Vigdor & Christine Hauser of the New York Times: "... the Interior Department, led by Deb Haaland, the first Native American cabinet secretary, is taking steps to strip the word ['squaw,' which is derogatory,] from mountains, rivers, lakes and other geographic sites and has solicited input from tribes on new names for the landmarks. A task force created by the department will submit the new names for final approval from the Board on Geographic Names, the federal body that standardizes American place names. The National Park Service was ordered to take similar steps.... Several states have passed laws mandating the erasure of the slur from nonfederal sites." MB: By contrast, Donald Trump turned the given name "Pocahontas" into a slur, too.

~~~~~~~~~~

Putin's War Crimes, Ctd.

The Guardian's live updates of Thursday's developments in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "The British home secretary has pledged to streamline the online visa application system for Ukrainians following heavy criticism of her response to the crisis. Priti Patel said that from Tuesday, Ukrainian refugees will no longer have to go to a visa application centre to provide their biometrics before coming to the UK. A humanitarian convoy trying to reach Mariupol today has been forced to turn around due to fighting, Reuters reports the Ukrainian deputy prime minister has said.... A meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian foreign ministers, Sergei Lavrov and Dmytro Kuleba, in Turkey ended with little progress appearing to have been made. In a news conference afterwards, Reuters reports that Kuleba said that no progress was made on a ceasefire and that Lavrov did not commit to a humanitarian corridor in Mariupol, where he said the situation was most difficult. The US vice-president, Kamala Harris, says she will discuss issues with Poland that will force Russia to pay a price for its invasion on Ukraine, reports Reuters. Speaking today during a visit to Warsaw, she also said that Poland was doing 'extraordinary work. to help Ukrainian refugees.... The UK has frozen the assets of seven Russian businessmen including Roman Abramovich, Igor Sechin, Oleg Deripaska and Dmitri Lebedev after they were added to the country's sanctions list, reports Reuters. Abramovich is the owner of Chelsea Football Club, Deripaska has stakes in En+ Group, Sechin is the chief executive of Rosneft and Lebedev is chairman of the board of directors of Bank Rossiya." ~~~

~~~ The Washington Post's live updates of Thursday's developments in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "At least three people, including a child, were killed and 17 more were injured in a Russian airstrike on a maternity hospital in Ukraine's southeastern port of Mariupol, city officials said Thursday, as foreign ministers from the two countries arrived in Turkey for their first high-level talks since the invasion.... The strike ripped through the hospital and buried patients under the rubble despite a cease-fire deal for people to flee Mariupol, the latest attack underscoring the conflict's civilian toll. The World Health Organization verified 18 attacks on health facilities, health workers and ambulances, resulting in at least 10 deaths.... As the White House warned that Russia may be considering using chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine, Vice President Harris landed in Eastern Europe late Wednesday to reassure U.S. allies of protection and promise aid for Ukrainians who fled their country in a historic exodus. Her trip started in Poland...." ~~~

Vadim Ghirda & Yuras Karmanau of the AP: "A Russian attack severely damaged a maternity hospital in the besieged port city of Mariupol, Ukraine said Wednesday, and citizens trying to escape shelling on the outskirts of Kyiv streamed toward the capital amid warnings from the West that Moscow's invasion is about to take a more brutal and indiscriminate turn. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on Twitter that there were 'people, children under the wreckage' of the hospital and called the strike an 'atrocity.' Authorities said they were trying to establish how many people had been killed or wounded. Video shared by Zelenskyy showed cheerfully painted hallways strewn with twisted metal and room after room with blown-out windows. Floors were covered in wreckage. Outside, a small fire burned, and debris covered the ground." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Do Putin & his military strategists think that slaughtering Ukrainian newborns, women in labor and healthcare workers is a good way to win the hearts and minds of Ukrainians?

Tucker Reals of CBS News: "The power supply was cut to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant on Wednesday, Ukrainian authorities said, blaming Russia's invading forces for the blackout and warning that it could lead to 'nuclear discharge.' The U.N.-backed global nuclear watchdog agency, the IAEA, downplayed concerns of an imminent radioactive release, but a Ukrainian national emergency services agency said if power to the plant's cooling systems -- which keep spent nuclear fuel safely surrounded by water -- is not ensured, it could create a 'radioactive cloud' to blow over 'other regions of Ukraine, Belarus, Russia and Europe.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Henry Fountain of the New York Times outlines what could happen as a result of the power cut-off at the Chernobyl plant.

Andrew Desiderio of Politico: "The House passed legislation Wednesday night banning U.S. imports of Russian oil and other energy sources, as lawmakers look to escalate U.S.-led sanctions on Vladimir Putin over his invasion of Ukraine. House Democratic leaders decided to move forward with the vote even though President Joe Biden announced a Russian oil embargo on Tuesday. The Senate is not expected to consider the House-passed bill, with upper-chamber Democrats wary of tying Biden's hands."

Fiona Harvey of the Guardian: "Oil and gas companies are facing a potential bonanza from the Ukraine war, though few in the industry want to admit it, and many are using soaring prices and the fear of fuel shortages to cement their position with governments in ways that could have disastrous impacts on the climate crisis.... The crisis gives western oil and gas companies such as BP, Shell, Exxon and Total leverage among governments. In the UK, prime minister Boris Johnson defended oil companies against calls for a windfall tax on Wednesday from Labour.... Green campaigners warned that oil and gas companies were using the Ukraine emergency to further their own interests, by encouraging governments to prioritise oil and gas production and make decisions now on investments that would have little impact on the current crisis but would vastly increase fossil fuel use for years to come."

Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "In the final years of Donald J. Trump's presidency, Republicans portrayed Ukraine as an Eastern European Wild West run by nefarious oligarchs and unlawful politicians, a bad actor that sought to tamper in American elections and channel millions of dollars to Joseph R. Biden Jr.'s son. 'We're talking Ukraine,' thundered Representative Jim Jordan, Republican of Ohio, in 2019, describing the country as 'one of the three most corrupt countries on the planet.'... Now such voices are fading, as the bulk of the Republican Party tries to get on the right side of history amid a brutal Russian invasion of Ukraine. Republicans are among the most vociferous champions for the United States to amp up its military response, and are competing to issue the strongest expressions of solidarity with Ukraine's leaders." Read on. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: To the extent that Ukraine was a "Wild West run by nefarious oligarchs," the country was aided & abetted in those illicit endeavors by Americans like Republican operative & short-time Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, who was collecting bags full of cash from crooked, pro-Russian Ukrainian politicians. Then Vice President Joe Biden, on the other hand, was pressuring Ukraine's corrupt leaders to straighten up & fly right. Funny how that worked, innit? ~~~

~~~ To Wit. Aw, Shucks, a Dilemma for Shady Lobbyists, Lawyers & Super-Wealth Managers. Matthew Goldstein, et al., of the New York Times: "... a constellation of American and European advisers -- including some of the world's largest law firms -- ... have long helped Russian oligarchs navigate the Western financial, legal, political and media landscapes. Now..., lawyers and investment advisers are coming under intense scrutiny for work that weeks earlier was occurring almost entirely below the public radar.... Some firms parted ways with Russian clients whose praises they had been singing in the days leading up to the invasion."

Dana Milbank of the Washington Post: "A cynic is rarely disappointed by this Republican Party. Yet even by that standard, the current attempt to blame President Biden -- and absolve Vladimir Putin -- for the spike in gas prices is a special case. For days, Republicans called for a ban on imports of Russian oil, a move that, while the right thing to do to counter Putin's attack against Ukraine, would cause already high gas prices to rise even further. Biden did as Republicans wanted -- and they responded by blaming his energy policies for spiking gas prices. It's not only that the charge is bogus -- the current price of gas has virtually nothing to do with Biden's energy policies -- but that the Republican officials leveling it are sowing division at home and giving a rhetorical boost to the enemy at a perilous moment when national unity and sacrifice will be needed to prevail against Russia."

U.A.E. Is Still a Refuge for Russian Oligarchs. David Kirkpatrick, et al., of the New York Times: "... even notoriously secretive banking centers like Switzerland, Monaco and the Cayman Islands have begun to cooperate with the freezing of accounts, seizing of mansions and impounding of yachts [owned by Putin's super-wealthy friends].... But not Dubai, the cosmopolitan resort and financial center in the United Arab Emirates. Although a close partner to Washington in Middle Eastern security matters, the oil-rich monarchy has in recent years also become a popular playground for the Russian rich, in part because of its reputation for asking few questions about the sources of foreign money. Now the Emirates may undercut some of the penalties on Russia by continuing to welcome targeted oligarchs.


Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "The House on Wednesday passed a sprawling $1.5 trillion federal spending bill that includes a huge infusion of aid for war-torn Ukraine and money to keep the government funded throug September, after jettisoning a package to fund President Biden's new Covid-19 response effort. Bipartisan approval of the first major government spending legislation of Mr. Biden's presidency marked the first time since he took office that Democrats were able to use their congressional majorities and control of the White House to set funding levels for their priorities, including climate resilience, public education and child care. But the exclusion of the $15.6 billion pandemic aid package, amid disputes about its cost that threatened to derail the broader legislation, infuriated the White House and frustrated Democratic leaders, leaving the fate of the Biden administration's coronavirus strategy uncertain." An ABC News story is here. ~~~

~~~ Earlier. Tony Romm of the Washington Post: "Congressional Democrats and Republicans on Wednesday finalized a roughly $1.5 trillion measure that would provision massive funding increases for key federal health, science, education and defense programs, setting in motion a bipartisan push to stave off a looming government shutdown set to occur at the end of the week. The release of the sweeping spending package, known in congressional parlance as an omnibus, put to end a tumultuous few months of bipartisan negotiations on Capitol Hill. It opened the door for the House to vote as soon as Wednesday on the measure, which lawmakers have used as the vehicle to advance roughly $14 billion in new humanitarian, military and economic assistance for Ukraine. But the chamber's attempts to take swift action ran into an unexpected snag, after a group of Democrats objected to the way that the bill sought to source roughly $15 billion in new coronavirus aid from an existing stimulus fund set aside for state governments." Related story linked below under "The Pandemic, Ctd."

Hugo Lowell of the Guardian: Right-wing lawyer & Trump collaborator John Eastman knew that "interrupting the certification of Joe Biden's election win on 6 January last year as part of the scheme to return Donald Trump to office was ... unlawful..., according to an email exchange about the potential conspiracy.... [Eastman] conceded in an email to counsel for the vice-president Mike Pence, Greg Jacob, that the plan was a violation of the Electoral Count Act. But Eastman then urged Pence to move ahead with the scheme anyway ... [because] it was only a 'minor violation' of the statute.... The admission ... undercuts arguments by Eastman and the Willard war room team that they believed there was no wrongdoing in seeking to have Pence delay the certification past 6 January.... It additionally raises the prospect that the other members of the Willard war room -- including Trump's former attorney Rudy Giuliani and Trump's former strategist Steve Bannon -- were also aware that the scheme to delay or stop the certification was unlawful from the start." ~~~

~~~ Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "A federal judge said on Wednesday that he would review 111 emails that the lawyer John Eastman, an ally of ... Donald J. Trump, is attempting to keep from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, as the panel works to force the release of documents from lawyers involved in plans to overturn the 2020 election. Judge David O. Carter, of the United States District Court for the Central District of California, said in an order that he would review emails Mr. Eastman had sent and received between Jan. 4 and Jan. 7 of last year as he decides whether to release them to the committee. Judge Carter made no mention of the committee’s most explosive argument in the case: that Mr. Eastman's emails are not protected by attorney-client privilege because they were part of a criminal conspiracy."

Myah Ward & Kyle Cheney of Politico: "The Republican National Committee is suing the Jan. 6 select committee after investigators sought fundraising information from Salesforce, a major RNC vendor. The select committee subpoenaed Salesforce on Feb. 23, according to the RNC's court filing, for information about the party's fundraising, including 'non-public information on Republican donors, volunteers, and supporters and the internal deliberative processes of the RNC.' The company was due to provide the documents to the committee by Wednesday, and it's unclear whether it complied.... 'Between Election Day 2020 and January 6th, the RNC and the Trump campaign solicited donations by pushing false claims that the election was tainted by widespread fraud,' select committee spokesperson Tim Mulvey said in a statement. 'These emails encouraged supporters to put pressure on Congress to keep President Trump in power.'"

Ken Bensinger of BuzzFeed News: "As the government's prosecutions of members of the Oath Keepers -- by most measures, the most significant of any to come out of the Jan. 6 insurrection -- move toward trial, defense lawyers..., it appears, are getting outside help. A nonprofit founded by Sidney Powell -- the former attorney for ... Donald Trump who has repeatedly attempted to reverse the results of the 2020 election -- has been covering the full legal expenses of at least one and potentially multiple defendants in the high-profile case, BuzzFeed News has learned. Since October, the organization, Defending the Republic, has been making monthly payments to the defense attorney for Kelly Meggs, a member of ... the Oath Keepers.... In an interview, the attorney, Jonathon Moseley, said he was aware of 'at least three or four other defendants who have that arrangement' as well."

John Wagner & Cat Zakrzewski of the Washington Post: "A bipartisan group of House Judiciary Committee members has alerted the Justice Department to 'potentially criminal conduct' by Amazon and senior executives in relation to a committee investigation into competition in digital markets. In a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland, the lawmakers, including Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), accused Amazon of engaging in a 'pattern and practice' of misleading conduct that appeared designed to 'influence, obstruct, or impede' the committee. The referral is a significant escalation of lawmakers' years-long questioning of statements Amazon executives made during lawmakers' 16-month investigation into competition in digital markets that concluded in 2020."

Gaby Goldstein & David Dailey, in Salon, argue that at least four Supremes, and maybe five, have written or joined opinions that appear to support an interpretation of the radical "independent state legislatures doctrine," which "threatens the very nature of our elections and makes it easier for gerrymanders, voter suppression and electoral subversion to succeed."

You're Paying for Police Misconduct, Especially for Repeat Offenders. Keith Alexander ,et al., of the Washington Post: "The Post collected data on nearly 40,000 payments at 25 of the nation's largest police and sheriff's departments within the past decade, documenting more than $3.2 billion spent to settle claims.... The Post found that more than 1,200 officers in the departments surveyed had been the subject of at least five payments. More than 200 had 10 or more. The repetition is the hidden cost of alleged misconduct: Officers whose conduct was at issue in more than one payment accounted for more than $1.5 billion, or nearly half of the money spent by the departments to resolve allegations, The Post found."

Aaron Blake of the Washington Post on how Tucker Carlson's faint foray into "journalism" proved that Fox "News" acted with "actual malice" against Smartmatic, a voting machine company that even more reckless Fox hosts Maria Bartiromo & Lou Dobbs could not meet because their on-air false claims about Smartmatic were "so inherently improbable that only a reckless person would have put [them] in circulation." ~~~

     ~~~ BTW, Blake points out here that TuKKKer is still on his Putin appeasement push, blaming the West for provoking Putin into attacking Ukraine.

The Pandemic, Ctd.

Sheryl Stolberg & Madeleine Ngo of the New York Times: "... on Wednesday, Democrats in Congress stripped a $15.6 billion emergency aid package from a broader spending bill amid disputes over how to cover the cost. The move injects uncertainty into President Biden's plan, announced last week, to address 'urgent needs' in his pandemic response and to prepare for future variants. With Republicans blocking new spending on the pandemic, Democrats had agreed to take the emergency aid from existing programs -- including $7 billion that states had been counting on for their own pandemic responses. That led governors to protest, rank-and-file lawmakers to balk and Speaker Nancy Pelosi to plan on passing the coronavirus funding package separately, a risky move given Republican opposition to new federal spending in the evenly divided Senate."

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

Beyond the Beltway

Colorado. Trumpy Nitwit Indicted. Maggie Astor of the New York Times: "Tina Peters, a county clerk running as a Republican for secretary of state of Colorado, was indicted Tuesday evening on 10 criminal counts related to allegations that she tampered with election equipment after the 2020 election. The indictment, which the district attorney of Mesa County, Colo., announced on Wednesday, is connected to Ms. Peters's work as the top county election administrator, a role in which she promoted ... Donald J. Trump's false claims that the election had been stolen.... Ms. Peters's case is a prominent example of how false theories about election fraud and Republican-led calls for 'audits' of the 2020 vote count have created election-security threats involving the integrity of voting machines, software and other election equipment. And in running for secretary of state, Ms. Peters is among a group of brazenly partisan candidates who claim that Mr. Trump may have won the election and who are transforming races around the country for such once little-known offices." CNN's report is here.

Florida. Lori Rozsa of the Washington Post: "Two months after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis proposed a plan for a powerful elections police force that would answer to him, state lawmakers on Wednesday passed a watered-down version that barely resembles what the governor asked for but still worries voting rights advocates. DeSantis (R) had asked for nearly $6 million to hire 52 people, including sworn officers, to investigate alleged violations of elections laws. The GOP-led House and Senate instead gave him about $2.5 million for the new Office of Election Crimes and Security. The agency will be the first of its kind in the nation. Its staff of 25 will be part of the Department of State, which answers to DeSantis. Both chambers approved its creation by wide margins...." ~~~

     ~~~ Sarah Whitten of CNBC: "The Walt Disney Company is now publicly opposing Florida's controversial 'Don't Say Gay' bill. On Wednesday, CEO Bob Chapek ... told shareholders that he will meet with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Disney will donate $5 million to organizations, including the Human Rights Campaign, that work to protect LGTBQ+ rights. DeSantis' office confirmed that Chapek had called but said no meeting had been scheduled yet...."

Louisiana. Was It a Bird? Was It a Plane? It Sure Wasn't Superman. Neil Vigdor of the New York Times: New Orleans' "power company said it believed that a bird of an unknown type had damaged an electrical substation serving parts of downtown and the Uptown neighborhood, affecting nearly 10,000 utility customers, according to Entergy New Orleans.... It was not clear what happened to the bird."~~~

     ~~~ Alex Isenstadt of Politico: "... Donald Trump's plane made an emergency landing on Saturday evening following his speech at a Republican National Committee-hosted donor retreat in New Orleans, according to two people familiar with the matter. The plane was in the air for between 20 and 30 minutes before one of the engines failed and the pilot of the private plane decided to turn around and return to the New Orleans airport, one of the sources said."

Minnesota. Holly Bailey of the Washington Post: "Nearly two years after the police killing of George Floyd ignited fiery unrest in Minneapolis, a long-awaited report offered a scathing indictment of the city's response, suggesting the chaotic situation was made worse by a mayor who disregarded emergency protocols and a police department whose officers failed to follow 'consistent rules of engagement.' The 86-page report conducted for the city of Minneapolis by the Chicago-based security risk firm Hillard Heintze listed a litany of communications and leadership failures by Mayor Jacob Frey (D) and other city officials that left residents feeling 'abandoned' and fueled chaos on the ground amid days of escalating violence and destruction. The report's authors, including several former law enforcement officials, said police on the front lines operated without clear guidance or supervision as they fired tear gas and rubber bullets at crowds, including peaceful protesters...."

New York. Jesse McKinley & Grace Ashford of the New York Times: "New York State will soon announce plans to usher in its first outlets for retail sales of marijuana by the end of the year, giving applicants access to stockpiles of the drug grown by local farmers and offering sweeteners like new storefronts leased by the state.... To be one of the state's first licensed retailers, you or a member of your family must have been convicted of a marijuana-related offense.... In favoring those with marijuana convictions and prepping their businesses for turnkey sales, New York appears to be trying to avoid pitfalls encountered in some other states, which have seen designated 'social equity' applicants and other mom-and-pop marijuana businesses struggle with issues like lack of capital or competition from deep-pocketed corporate operations."

North Carolina. Sad News (and I Missed It). Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times (March 4): "A judge on Friday blocked a novel electoral challenge that sought to disqualify Representative Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina from running for re-election by labeling him an insurrectionist, issuing an equally novel order that invoked a post-Civil War law that forgave confederate soldiers and sympathizers. U.S. District Judge Richard E. Myers II, an appointee of ... Donald J. Trump, stepped in to squelch an effort by lawyers and voters in North Carolina who had filed a motion before the state's Board of Elections declaring Mr. Cawthorn, 26, ineligible for re-election under the Constitution. They had contended that the first-term Republican's support for rioters who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, made him an 'insurrectionist,' and therefore barred him from office under the little-known third section of the 14th Amendment, adopted during Reconstruction to punish members of the Confederacy." Under North Carolina law, the challengers cannot appeal the ruling, though the state's AG or its board of elections could. CNN's story is here. ~~~

~~~ Dianne Gallagher of CNN: "North Carolina Rep. Madison Cawthorn is facing a charge of driving with a revoked license for the second time since 2017. The Class 3 misdemeanor charge, which could carry a maximum penalty of up to 20 days in jail, is one of three pending traffic citations against the Republican congressman in his home state."

Way Beyond

South Korea. Choe Sang-Hun of the New York Times: "A graft prosecutor turned opposition leader has won an extremely close presidential election in South Korea, reinstating conservatives to power with calls for a more confrontational stance against North Korea and a stronger alliance with the United States. With 98 percent of the votes counted, the opposition leader, Yoon Suk-yeol, was leading by a margin of 263,000 votes, or 0.8 percentage points, when his opponent conceded early Thursday. It was South Korea's tightest race since it began holding free presidential elections in 1987. Mr. Yoon will replace President Moon Jae-in, a progressive leader whose single five-year term ends in May."

News Ledes

New York Times: "The first person to have his failing heart replaced with that of a genetically altered pig in a groundbreaking operation died Tuesday afternoon at the University of Maryland Medical Center, two months after the transplant surgery. David Bennett Sr., who lived in Maryland, was 57. He had severe heart disease, and had agreed to receive the experimental pig's heart after he was rejected from several waiting lists to receive a human heart. It was unclear whether his body had rejected the foreign organ. 'There was no obvious cause identified at the time of his death,' a hospital spokeswoman said."

No Joy in Mudville, Ctd. New York Times: "Despite a marathon negotiating session that dragged from Tuesday morning until Wednesday night ... Major League Baseball and the players' union could not resolve a roadblock and reach a new labor deal ahead of a 6 p.m. deadline set by the league. As a result, M.L.B. Commissioner Rob Manfred announced on Wednesday night that another week of regular season games has been canceled. And the second-longest work stoppage in the sport's history continued."

Comments Off
Tuesday
Mar082022

March 9, 2022

Afternoon Update:

Vadim Ghirda & Yuras Karmanau of the AP: "A Russian attack severely damaged a maternity hospital in the besieged port city of Mariupol, Ukraine said Wednesday, and citizens trying to escape shelling on the outskirts of Kyiv streamed toward the capital amid warnings from the West that Moscow's invasion is about to take a more brutal and indiscriminate turn. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on Twitter that there were 'people, children under the wreckage' of the hospital and called the strike an 'atrocity.' Authorities said they were trying to establish how many people had been killed or wounded. Video shared by Zelenskyy showed cheerfully painted hallways strewn with twisted metal and room after room with blown-out windows. Floors were covered in wreckage. Outside, a small fire burned, and debris covered the ground." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Do Putin & his military strategists think that slaughtering Ukrainian newborns, women in labor and healthcare workers is a good way to win the hearts and minds of Ukrainians?

Tucker Reals of CBS News: "The power supply was cut to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant on Wednesday, Ukrainian authorities said, blaming Russia's invading forces for the blackout and warning that it could lead to 'nuclear discharge.' The U.N.-backed global nuclear watchdog agency, the IAEA, downplayed concerns of an imminent radioactive release, but a Ukrainian national emergency services agency said if power to the plant's cooling systems -- which keep spent nuclear fuel safely surrounded by water -- is not ensured, it could create a 'radioactive cloud' to blow over 'other regions of Ukraine, Belarus, Russia and Europe.'"

Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "In the final years of Donald J. Trump's presidency, Republicans portrayed Ukraine as an Eastern European Wild West run by nefarious oligarchs and unlawful politicians, a bad actor that sought to tamper in American elections and channel millions of dollars to Joseph R. Biden Jr.'s son. 'We're talking Ukraine,' thundered Representative Jim Jordan, Republican of Ohio, in 2019, describing the country as 'one of the three most corrupt countries on the planet.'... Now such voices are fading, as the bulk of the Republican Party tries to get on the right side of history amid a brutal Russian invasion of Ukraine. Republicans are among the most vociferous champions for the United States to amp up its military response, and are competing to issue the strongest expressions of solidarity with Ukraine's leaders." Read on. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: To the extent that Ukraine was a "Wild West run by nefarious oligarchs," the country was aided & abetted in those illicit endeavors by Americans like Republican operative & short-time Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, who was collecting bags full of cash from crooked, pro-Russian Ukrainian politicians. Then Vice President Joe Biden, on the other hand, was pressuring Ukraine's corrupt leaders to straighten up & fly right. Funny how that worked, innit? ~~~

~~~ To Wit. Aw, Shucks, a Dilimma for Shady Lobbyists, Lawyers & Super-Wealth Managers. Matthew Goldstein, et al., of the New York Times: "... a constellation of American and European advisers -- including some of the world's largest law firms -- ... have long helped Russian oligarchs navigate the Western financial, legal, political and media landscapes. Now..., lawyers and investment advisers are coming under intense scrutiny for work that weeks earlier was occurring almost entirely below the public radar.... Some firms parted ways with Russian clients whose praises they had been singing in the days leading up to the invasion."

Tony Romm of the Washington Post: "Congressional Democrats and Republicans on Wednesday finalized a roughly $1.5 trillion measure that would provision massive funding increases for key federal health, science, education and defense programs, setting in motion a bipartisan push to stave off a looming government shutdown set to occur at the end of the week. The release of the sweeping spending package, known in congressional parlance as an omnibus, put to end a tumultuous few months of bipartisan negotiations on Capitol Hill. It opened the door for the House to vote as soon as Wednesday on the measure, which lawmakers have used as the vehicle to advance roughly $14 billion in new humanitarian, military and economic assistance for Ukraine. But the chamber's attempts to take swift action ran into an unexpected snag, after a group of Democrats objected to the way that the bill sought to source roughly $15 billion in new coronavirus aid from an existing stimulus fund set aside for state governments."

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

Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "New York Supreme Court Judge David B. Cohen has now ruled that voting-machine company Smartmatic's $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News and Rudolph W. Giuliani can proceed. The case involved numerous false and baseless claims made on Fox about voter fraud involving the company's voting machines.... The ruling ... says that claims made by Giuliani, Fox host Maria Bartiromo and now-former Fox Business host Lou Dobbs could meet the legal standard of claims being 'so inherently improbable that only a reckless person would have put [them] in circulation.'... The judge noted that the company must prove Fox met the standard of acting with 'actual malice.'... And on that count, the judge says the best evidence that it did is [Tucker] Carlson. That's because ... Carlson said ... that [Trump lawyer Sidney] Powell ... had yet to substantiate [her claims about Smartmatic, even though he had asked her to provide evidence of the company's wrongdoing].... 'Therefore,' [the judge noted,] 'there are sufficient allegations that Fox News knew, or should have known, that Powell's claim was false, and purposefully ignored the efforts of its most prominent anchor to obtain substantiation of claims of wrongdoing by [Smartmatic]." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: And you thought TuKKKer wasn't a journalist!

~~~~~~~~~~

Putin's War, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of Wednesday's developments in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "Russia's Central Bank limited withdrawals of foreign currency, hoping to shore up the plunging ruble as Western economic penalties take a serious toll. In Ukraine, efforts to evacuate civilians from battered cities resumed, but many remain trapped in the areas of heaviest fighting."

The Washington Post's live updates of Wednesday's developments in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "Attempts to evacuate civilians continued on Wednesday, as both sides announced routes to allow people to leave hard-hit cities. But Ukraine said it remained skeptical of Russia's new commitments to temporary cease-fires -- after accusing ... Vladimir Putin's forces of shelling the escape routes four days in a row.... China on Wednesday restated that it considers the United States and NATO responsible for pushing tensions between Russia and Ukraine to a breaking point, as Beijing steps up support for the Kremlin even while claiming it is not taking sides in the war."

Jeff Stein, et al., of the Washington Post: "The United States will ban imports of oil and natural gas from Russia, President Biden announced Tuesday, a decision reached after days of behind-the-scenes talks that revolved around protecting the global economy from an energy shock. The move represents one of America's most far-reaching actions to penalize Moscow since the beginning of its invasion into Ukraine. It would carry enormous geopolitical consequences, as the price of oil has already skyrocketed since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, creating huge new costs for businesses and consumers.... Europe, which is far more dependent on Russian energy than the United States, announced Tuesday a plan to cut gas imports from Russia by two-thirds this year. If successful, this move would sharply reduce but does not completely sever energy ties to Moscow.... Russian oil accounts for about a quarter of the European Union's oil imports, but just 3 percent of the United States' imports." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

Edward Helmore of the Guardian: "The de-facto leaders of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have declined to arrange calls with US president Joe Biden in recent weeks as the US and it allies have sought to contain a surge in energy prices caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine. According to the Wall Street Journal, citing Middle East and US officials, both Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and the UAE's Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al Nahyan have been unavailable to Biden after US requests were made for discussions.... Last week, OPEC+, which includes Russia, declined to increase oil production despite western entreaties.... Relations between the US and Saudi Arabia have chilled during the Biden administration over American policy in the Gulf region." MB: Okay, I'll admit this would not have happened if Trump were president*.

Zelensky Is No Hamlet. Mark Landler & Marc Santora of the New York Times: "In a dramatic video address to Britain's Parliament, clad in his now-famous military fatigue T-shirt, [Ukraine's President Volodymyr] Zelensky echoed Winston Churchill's famous words of no surrender to the same chamber at the dawn of World War II as Britain faced a looming onslaught from Nazi Germany. 'We will fight till the end, at sea, in the air,' Mr. Zelensky said with the blue-and-yellow Ukrainian flag draped behind him. 'We will fight in the forests, in the fields, on the shores, in the streets.' The speech, the first ever by a foreign leader to the House of Commons, was the climax of Mr. Zelensky's darkest-hour messaging to fellow Ukrainians and the world in what has become a typical 20-hour day for him in Kyiv, the besieged capital.... To Shakespeare's elemental question, 'to be or not to be,' he said, Ukrainians had decided 'to be.'"

Jeremy Herb, et al., of CNN: "The Pentagon on Tuesday evening dismissed Poland's proposal floated hours earlier to transfer its MiG-29 fighter jets to the United States for delivery to Ukraine. Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said in a statement that the Pentagon did not believe Poland's proposal was 'tenable,' just hours after Polish officials released a statement saying the government was ready to deploy all of its MiG-29 fighter jets to US Air Force's Rammstein Air Base in Germany so they could then be provided to Ukraine in its fight against Russia.... The idea as laid out by Poland was too risky, Kirby said, as the US and NATO seek to avoid an outright conflict between the alliance and Russia." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Alexander Vindman, appearing on MSNBC, said the way this proposal & rejection rolled out in public was the result of the Biden administration's mishandling of the matter. Vindman said that, in general, the Biden administration was not very nimble in its reactions to fast-changing circumstances. Even though the Pentagon had done a good job of getting massive amounts of weapons & related materiel to Ukraine, those transfers were pre-planned. MB: When you also consider the Afghanistan pull-out catastrophe, it's kind of hard to argue with Vindman. There appears to be some kind of serious breakdown among the White House, the National Security Council, the Pentagon & State.

Julian Barnes of the New York Times: "Top U.S. intelligence officials said on Tuesday that ... Vladimir V. Putin of Russia had been surprised and unsettled by the problems that have hampered his military in Ukraine, issues that will make it more difficult for Russian forces to control the country. But Mr. Putin is determined to succeed in Ukraine, and will try to double down and use ever more brutal tactics, the officials said during an appearance before the House Intelligence Committee. America's intelligence agencies, which before the attack released information on Russia's troop buildup and war plans, will work to highlight Russian atrocities and crimes, a continuation of the information war that helped rally the West to impose tough sanctions on Ukraine, the officials said.... Given the problems the Russian military has faced, and the rising will of Ukraine to fight, intelligence officials predicted the war would intensify. William J. Burns, the C.I.A. director [MB:and former ambassador to Russia], is anticipating an 'ugly next few weeks.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Ken Dilanian of NBC News: "U.S. intelligence agencies estimate that between 2,000 and 4,000 Russian soldiers have been killed in the two-week invasion of Ukraine -- possibly more than the number of Americans killed in the 20-year war in Afghanistan. Lt. Gen. Scott Berrier, the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, said during a worldwide threats hearing before the House Intelligence Committee on Tuesday morning that analysts give the estimate low confidence.... The estimate underscores the steep price Russia is already paying for a conflict that Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, in the same hearing, called 'a shock to the geopolitical order with implications for the future that we are only beginning to understand.'"

Sahil Kapur & Scott Wong of NBC News: "Congressional Republicans are championing President Joe Biden's decision to ban Russian oil imports to the U.S., a highly anticipated move that could continue to push gas prices to record highs. But in the same breath, GOP leaders ... are trying to capitalize by blaming Biden and his energy policies for Americans' having to pay more at the pump. Republicans argue that Biden could have it both ways -- sanction Russian oil but also keep U.S. prices down by allowing a rampant increase in domestic production, which they argue Biden isn't doing in furtherance of liberal environment goals. But oil production isn't a spigot that can just be flipped on, and the domestic market has been suppressed not just by federal rules, but also by an international market that depressed the price and made drilling unprofitable. Democrats point to the thousands of wells that have been approved but aren't being drilled." See also Akhilleus' commentary at the top of today's thread.

U.K. Rowena Mason of the Guardian: "The UK will phase out imports of Russian oil by the end of 2022 and is exploring options to ending gas imports, the energy secretary Kwasi Kwarteng has confirmed. The decision ... came as Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky prepared to address the House of Commons. The day after Boris Johnson said western nations would need a 'step-by-step transition period' away from Russian hydrocarbons, Kwarteng warned businesses they should 'use this year to ensure a smooth transition so that consumers will not be affected'." (Also linked yesterday.)

Paka Paka, Big Mak. Social Media Boycott Campaigns Worked. Julie Creswell of the New York Times: "Amid mounting pressure to act, McDonald's announced on Tuesday that it was temporarily closing its nearly 850 locations in Russia and halting operations in the country. Soon after the McDonald's announcement, other prominent food companies and restaurants followed. Starbucks said it, too, was closing all of its locations in Russia, where they are owned and operated by the Kuwaiti conglomerate Alshaya Group. Coca-Cola said it was halting sales there. And PepsiCo, whose products have been in Russia since the early 1970s, said it would no longer sell Pepsi and 7-Up there but would continue to produce dairy and baby food products in the country as a 'humanitarian' effort and to keep tens of thousands manufacturing and farm workers employed.... Yum, which owns KFC and Pizza Hut, said on Tuesday that it was suspending operations at 70 company-owned KFCs and all 50 franchise-owned Pizza Huts in Russia. (The vast majority of the 1,000 KFCs in Russia are franchise-owned and, at this time, not part of these suspensions.)" A CNBC story is here.

Mark Thompson of CNN: "Shell (RDSA) said Tuesday it was breaking completely with Russia's giant energy industry, halting all purchases of Russian crude oil immediately and shutting its service stations in the country. The UK-based company, which last week announced it was dumping its investments in Russia, said its decision to abandon all trade in Russian fossils fuels was 'aligned with new government guidance.'... Shell will also immediately begin to shut down its service stations, aviation fuels and lubricants operations in Russia in 'the safest way' possible, and begin a phased withdrawal from Russian petroleum products, pipeline gas and liquified natural gas." (Also linked yesterday.)

Michael Grynbaum of the New York Times: "The New York Times said on Tuesday that it was temporarily removing its journalists from Russia in the wake of harsh new legislation that effectively outlaws independent reporting on the Russian invasion of Ukraine. 'Russia's new legislation seeks to criminalize independent, accurate news reporting about the war against Ukraine. For the safety and security of our editorial staff working in the region, we are moving them out of the country for now,' a spokeswoman for The Times, Danielle Rhoades Ha, said in a statement." (Also linked yesterday.)

Venezuela. Ana Herrero & Samantha Schmidt of the Washington Post: "The Venezuelan government has released at least two Americans detained in the country for years, according to five people with knowledge of the situation, days after a U.S. delegation made a rare trip to the socialist state. Among those released on Tuesday was Gustavo Cárdenas, one of the six executives of Citgo Petroleum Corp. who were arrested during a business trip to Caracas in November 2017 and later charged with corruption. The other was Jorge Alberto Fernández, a tourist who was detained and accused of terrorism for flying a drone early last year, according to a human rights defender in Venezuela.... The release comes after a group of senior U.S. officials traveled to Caracas on Saturday for a meeting with President Nicolás Maduro to discuss the possibility of easing sanctions on Venezuelan oil exports as the Biden administration weighed banning imports of Russian oil." ~~~

     ~~~ President Biden's statement is here, via the White House.


Sonia Moghe of CNN: "A dual Russian-American citizen has been charged with acting as a spy in the US, according to court filings that say she ran organizations that 'sought to spread Russian propaganda.' Elena Branson was charged Tuesday with acting and conspiring to act in the US illegally as an agent of the Russian government, willfully failing to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, conspiring to commit visa fraud and making false statements to the FBI, according to a criminal complaint. The complaint alleges that Branson fled to Russia in 2020."

The Good News. Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "Congress gave final approval on Tuesday to the most sprawling overhaul of the Postal Service in nearly two decades, sending President Biden legislation intended to return the beleaguered agency to solvency and address pandemic-era mail delays. The Senate voted 79 to 19 to approve the measure, which passed the House last month with overwhelming bipartisan support. Mr. Biden was expected to sign the bill, which the agency's leadership and an array of interest groups support." ~~~

     ~~~ The Bad News. Marie: No doubt there will be a signing ceremony in the Oval Office or thereabouts, and it's likely that Fat Bastard Louis DeJoy will shove his way to a prominent spot next to the President for the photo-op.

Jacob Kornbluh of the Forward: "Republican Sen. Ron Johnson on Tuesday blocked a vote on the nomination of Deborah E. Lipstadt as the Biden administration;s antisemitism envoy. Instead Johnson met with a group of truckers in Washington, D.C., in protest of the COVID-19 mandates and to support those imprisoned for participating in the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol. Jewish groups expressed outrage at the holdup, with Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt calling Johnson's behavior 'disgraceful.' The Senate Foreign Relations Committee was scheduled to vote to advance Lipstadt's confirmation, one of about a dozen nominations, following a long-delayed and contentious hearing last month."

Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol on Tuesday laid out its theory for potential criminal charges against ... Donald J. Trump, arguing before a federal judge that he and the conservative lawyer John C. Eastman were involved in a conspiracy to perpetrate a fraud on the American public as part of a plan to overturn the 2020 election. The allegations, which the committee first leveled against the men last week in response to a lawsuit filed by Mr. Eastman, could determine just how deeply the panel can dig into emails, correspondence and other documents of lawyers close to Mr. Trump who have argued that such material should be shielded from scrutiny because of attorney-client privilege.... The House committee's argument is a risky one. If Judge [David] Carter were to reject its claims, the inquiry's legal team would be less likely to win support for a criminal prosecution unless investigators unearthed new evidence."

Josh Dawsey, et al., of the Washington Post: "The House Jan. 6 committee has ... [been attempting to trace] every dollar that was raised and spent on false claims that the election was stolen.... The [scrutiny] is part of an effort by the committee's 'green team' to scrutinize whether the Trump campaign, its affiliated super PACs, the Republican National Committee and protest organizers knowingly used false claims that the election was stolen to dupe donors and raise large sums of cash.... The primary objective is to determine whether email solicitations spreading false claims of election fraud served as a powerful source of misinformation, prompting the need to make proposals for strengthening campaign finance laws. The committee will also consider if any laws were broken and refer those to the Justice Department...."

** Guilty, Guilty, Guilty. Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "A Texas man who helped lead a pro-Trump mob in an advance on the police at the Capitol last year was convicted on Tuesday of obstructing congressional certification of the 2020 presidential election, bringing an end to the first criminal trial to stem from the violent assault. The guilty verdict against the defendant, Guy Wesley Reffitt, came only about three hours into the first day of jury deliberations and after a weeklong trial that included testimony from police officers, a Secret Service agent, one of Mr. Reffitt's compatriots in the Texas Three Percenters militia group and Mr. Reffitt's son. The jury also convicted Mr. Reffitt of wearing an illegal pistol on his hip during the attack and of later threatening his teenage son and daughter to keep them from turning him in to the authorities. He faces a maximum of 20 years in prison on the obstruction count alone." (Also linked yesterday.)

Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "Enrique Tarrio, the former leader of the Proud Boys, has been charged with conspiring with other top lieutenants of the far-right nationalist group to attack the Capitol last year, according to an indictment set to be released on Tuesday by federal prosecutors.... Mr. Tarrio was not in Washington on Jan. 6, having been arrested two days earlier for having vandalized a Black Lives Matter banner at a Black church in the city after a pro-Trump rally in December 2020. Mr. Tarrio, who was also charged at the time with carrying two high-capacity rifle magazines, was ordered to leave Washington by a local judge as part of his release agreement. But prosecutors say that he issued orders before the attack on the Capitol for members of the group to be dressed 'incognito' when they arrived in Washington on Jan. 6. He also took part in a private Telegram group chat as several leaders and members of the Proud Boys stormed the Capitol." An NBC News story is here. (Also linked yesterday.)

Julianne McShane of the Washington Post: Ali "Fensome, a [Manchester, England,] software developer, built ... a bot, writing code that leads it to perform the function listed in its Twitter bio: 'Employers, if you tweet about International Women's Day, I'll retweet your gender pay gap,' it warns. By the end of the day on Tuesday, @PayGapApp had gone viral, with more than 120,000 followers. It had also sent out hundreds of tweets calling out companies with information about their hourly median gender pay gaps.... [In the U.K. in 2020,] women earned about 85 percent of what men did on average.... In the United States in 2020, women on average earned 83 percent of what men earned, according to the American Association of University Women. The disparities are starker along racial lines, with Black women being paid 64 percent of what White, non-Hispanic men did in 2020 and Latinas being paid 57 percent of what White men made that year, according to AAUW. Native American women typically earn only 60 percent of what White men earn, according to the National Women's Law Center, which also notes that the wage gap typically stands at 85 percent for Asian American and Pacific Islander women."

The Pandemic, Ctd.

David Fahrenthold of the New York Times: The F.B.I. has carried out a series of raids of supposed non-profit organizations around Minneapolis that claimed to be feeding thousands of children with federal pandemic relief funds administered by the state of Minnesota but was actually a "'massive fraud scheme' among groups that Feeding Our Future was supposed to oversee, saying they siphoned off tens of millions of dollars by charging taxpayers for nonexistent meals.... 'Almost none of this money was used to feed children,' the government wrote in one filing. 'Instead, conspirators misappropriated the money and used it to purchase real estate, cars and other items.'... In his State of the Union address last week, President Biden said that 'billions' in pandemic aid had been stolen, and that he would soon name a chief prosecutor for pandemic fraud."

Congratulations, People! We All Own a Rare Pokémon Card. Neil Vigdor of the New York Times: The federal government now owns, and will auction off, a Pokémon trading card a Georgia man bought with Small Business Administration funds intended for coronavirus relief. "The man, Vinath Oudomsine, 31, of Dublin, Ga., was sentenced to three years in federal prison on Friday.... Prosecutors said that he had claimed [to own a business that] had 10 employees and gross revenues of $235,000 during the 12 months before the coronavirus pandemic.... Prosecutors said there was no such business. The fraud scheme came amid a booming market for older cards and Pokémon Trading Card Game packs. Some veteran collectors said that has somewhat cooled off compared with earlier in the pandemic."

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Tuesday are here: "Mask mandates have disappeared rapidly in the last few weeks in the United States as Omicron cases have receded. But some school districts, cities and one state are holding out, and some teachers, parents and students fear that dropping mask mandates in schools is premature. As of Monday, Hawaii remains the only U.S. state that is not lifting its statewide indoor mask mandate. About a third of the school districts in the United States still require masks, according to the school tracking site Burbio...." (Also linked yesterday.)

Pam Belluck of the New York Times: "Covid-19 may cause greater loss of gray matter and tissue damage in the brain than naturally occurs in people who have not been infected with the virus, a large new study found. The study, published Monday in the journal Nature, is believed to be the first involving people who underwent brain scans both before they contracted Covid and months after. Neurological experts who were not involved in the research said it was valuable and unique, but they cautioned that the implications of the changes were unclear and did not necessarily suggest that people might have lasting damage or that the changes might profoundly affect thinking, memory or other functions." MB: And I'd like to add that this is no excuse for Donald Trump, Ron Johnson, Rand Paul & all the other Republicans who contracted Covid, often because they were careless. They were dopes three years ago, and they would be dopes today if they'd never had Covid. (Also linked yesterday.)

Beyond the Beltway

Michigan. Mariana Alfaro of the Washington Post: "A Republican candidate favored to win a seat in the Michigan House said he tells his daughters to 'just lie back and enjoy it' if raped, as he attempted to make an analogy about abandoning efforts to decertify the results of the 2020 election. Robert Regan, who is running to represent Michigan's District 74 in the state legislature, made the comments during a Facebook live stream Sunday."

Missouri. Caroline Kitchener of the Washington Post: "... a prominent antiabortion lawmaker in Missouri, from where thousands of residents have traveled to next-door Illinois to receive abortions since Missouri passed one of the country's strictest abortion laws in 2019, believes she has found a solution. An unusual new provision, introduced by state Rep. Mary Elizabeth Coleman (R), would allow private citizens to sue anyone who helps a Missouri resident obtain an abortion out of state, using the novel legal strategy behind the restrictive law in Texas that since September has banned abortions in that state after six weeks of pregnancy. Coleman has attached the measure as an amendment to several abortion-related bills that have made it through committee and are waiting to be heard on the floor of the House of Representatives.... The measure would target anyone even tangentially involved in an abortion performed on a Missouri resident.... [The] amendment also would make it illegal to manufacture, transport, possess or distribute abortion pills in Missouri."

Pennsylvania. Possession of AR-15 Is 9/10ths of the Law. Matthew Chapman of the Raw Story: "On Tuesday, The Daily Beast reported that a 72-year-old former lawyer from Pennsylvania has pleaded guilty to a plot to travel to D.C. and attack Senate Democrats. 'Kenelm Shirk III, 72, was arrested less than two weeks after the riot at the Capitol when his wife contacted authorities to say he had threatened her life during an argument over the 2020 presidential election,' reported A.J. MacDougall. 'Shirk had also told her he was planning to attack a number of unnamed federal lawmakers, according to police. State police stationed along an interstate subsequently spotted Shirk's car at a gas station and arrested him. In his car, officers found an AR-15 rifle, two handguns, and a box of ammunition.'" The Daily Beast story, which is firewalled, is here.

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