The Ledes

Saturday, September 28, 2024

Washington Post: “Rescue teams raced to submerged homes, scoured collapsed buildings and steered thousands from overflowing dams as Helene carved a destructive path Friday, knocking out power and flooding a vast arc of communities across the southeastern United States. At least 40 people were confirmed killed in five states since the storm made landfall late Thursday as a Category 4 behemoth, unleashing record-breaking storm surge and tree-snapping gusts. 4 million homes and businesses have lost electricity across Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas, prompting concerns that outages could drag on for weeks. Mudslides closed highways. Water swept over roofs and snapped phone lines. Houses vanished from their foundations. Tornadoes added to the chaos. The mayor of hard-hit Canton, N.C., called the scene 'apocalyptic.'” An AP report is here.

The Wires
powered by Surfing Waves
The Ledes

Friday, September 27, 2024

New York Times: “Maggie Smith, one of the finest British stage and screen actors of her generation, whose award-winning roles ranged from a freethinking Scottish schoolteacher in 'The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie' to the acid-tongued dowager countess on 'Downton Abbey,' died on Friday in London. She was 89.”

The Washington Post's live updates of developments related to Hurricane Helene are here: “Hurricane Helene left one person dead in Florida and two in Georgia as it sped north. One of the biggest storms on record to hit the Gulf Coast, Helene slammed into Florida’s Big Bend area on Thursday night as a Category 4 colossus with winds of up to 140 mph before weakening to Category 1. Catastrophic winds and torrential rain from the storm — which the National Hurricane Center forecast would eventually slow over the Tennessee Valley — were expected to continue Friday across the Southeast and southern Appalachians.” ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times' live updates are here.

Mediaite: “Fox Weather’s Bob Van Dillen was reporting live on Fox & Friends about flooding in Atlanta from Hurricane Helene when he was interrupted by the screams of a woman trapped in her car. During the 7 a.m. hour, Van Dillen was filing a live report on the massive flooding in the area. Fox News viewers could clearly hear the urgent screams for help emerging from a car stuck on a flooded road in the background of the live shot. Van Dillen ... told Fox & Friends that 911 had been called and that the local Fire Department was on its way. But as he continued to file the report, the screams did not stop, so Van Dillen cut the live shot short.... Some 10 minutes later, Fox & Friends aired live footage of Van Dillen carrying the woman to safety, waking through chest-deep water while the flooding engulfed her car in the background[.]”

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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


Thursday
Feb232023

February 23, 2023

Afternoon Update:

Mark Walker & Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "The crew of a Norfolk Southern freight train carrying toxic chemicals tried to slow the train moments before it derailed in the outskirts of East Palestine this month as an overheating wheel bearing set off an audible alarm on the train, an initial report from federal investigators found.... The crew then saw fire and smoke and reported a possible derailment to the dispatcher. Five of the derailed cars were carrying 115,580 gallons of vinyl chloride, a colorless hazardous gas. The report was released on Thursday as Pete Buttigieg, the transportation secretary, visited East Palestine." ~~~

~~~ Sam Sweeney & Amanda Maile of ABC News: "Federal investigators on Thursday released a preliminary report into the derailment of a Norfolk Southern train carrying toxic chemicals in East Palestine, Ohio, earlier this month. Detailing the report at a Washington, D.C., news conference, chairwoman Jennifer Homendy said 'we know what derailed the train' and addressed the town's worried residents. 'I can tell you this much. This was 100% preventable. We call things accidents. There is no accident. Every single event that we investigate is preventable. So, our hearts are with you know that the NTSB has one goal and that is safety. And ensuring that this never happens again,' she said." ~~~

     ~~~ The NTSB's preliminary report is here.

Alan Feuer & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "The Justice Department has asked a federal judge to force former Vice President Mike Pence to testify fully in front of a grand jury investigating ... Donald J. Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election, seeking to cut short any attempt by Mr. Trump to use executive privilege to shield Mr. Pence from answering questions, two people familiar with the matter said on Thursday. The request -- amounting to a pre-emptive motion to compel Mr. Pence's testimony -- came before the former vice president had even appeared in front of the grand jury, and before any privilege claims had actually been raised in court.... Last week, people close to Mr. Pence previewed his attempt to fight the grand jury subpoena by saying that the former vice president planned to argue that his role as the president of the Senate meant he was protected from legal scrutiny by the executive branch -- including the Justice Department -- under the Constitution's 'speech or debate' clause. That provision is intended to protect the separation of powers. But the special counsel's motion to compel Mr. Pence's testimony ... did not address ... [those arguments]. Rather, it focused on the issue of executive privilege and advanced the proactive argument that Mr. Pence should not be permitted to avoid answering questions by invoking it on Mr. Trump's behalf...." The CBS News story is here.

Josh Gerstein & Kyle Cheney of Politico: "A three-judge federal appeals court panel wrestled Thursday with tangled questions about Congress' immunity from criminal inquiries -- and whether it might apply to efforts by Rep. Scott Perry to aid Donald Trump's bid to subvert the 2020 election. Two of the three D.C. Circuit judges hearing the case appeared highly skeptical of the Justice Department's narrow view of the Constitution's 'speech or debate' protection for lawmakers, but it was unclear whether that disagreement would translate into a ruling that denies investigators access to the contents of a cell phone they seized from the Republican congressman in August. The complex dispute has enormous implications for Congress itself and the scope of protection that lawmakers enjoy from the speech or debate clause, which the framers intended to protect members of the House and Senate from coercion or intimidation by the executive branch."

Richard Fausset & Danny Hakim of the New York Times: "Lawyers for ... Donald J. Trump said late Wednesday that details divulged this week by the forewoman of a special grand jury investigating election interference by Mr. Trump and his allies had 'poisoned' the Georgia inquiry. As of Thursday afternoon, however, the two lawyers had not filed any motions in court challenging the inquiry. Nor would they discuss what form such a challenge might take, saying only that they were weighing their options." ~~~

~~~ Barbara McQuade in an MSNBC opinion piece: "A blabbing grand jury threatens to upend the whole enterprise. At some point, impropriety by a grand jury could be grounds for a claim of violation of the due process rights of the accused. And a successful claim could taint anything that occurred afterward, requiring dismissal of any indictments and a complete do-over, so long as the statute of limitations has not yet run.... The rule in Georgia appears to be somewhat more lax [than federal rules of criminal procedure]. It requires only that grand jurors protect the secrecy of 'deliberations.' What's more, the judge overseeing the investigation did not prohibit members of the special grand jury from talking to the media so long as they did not reveal their deliberations.... But acknowledging that the grand jury had recommended indictments against more than a dozen people sounds awfully close to revealing deliberations."

Paul Farhi, et al., of the Washington Post: "The disclosure of emails and texts in which Fox News executives and personalities disparaged the same election conspiracies being floated on their shows has greatly increased the chances that a defamation case against the network will succeed, legal experts say. Dominion Voting Systems included dozens of messages sent internally by Fox co-founder Rupert Murdoch and on-air stars such as Tucker Carlson in a brief made public last week in support of the voting technology company's $1.6 billion lawsuit against the network.... Some employees privately described [the false claims] as 'ludicrous' and 'mind blowingly nuts' -- but Fox kept airing them to keep its audience from changing channels.... Under New York Times v. Sullivan, a 1964 Supreme Court ruling that has guided libel and defamation claims for nearly 60 years, a plaintiff like Dominion must show that a defendant like Fox published false statements with 'actual malice' -- meaning that it was done 'with knowledge that it was false or with reckless disregard of whether it was false or not.' Based on the messages revealed last week, 'I think that Dominion both will and should prevail,' said Laurence Tribe, a former Harvard law professor."

Lauren Herstik of the New York Times: "Harvey Weinstein, the movie producer whose treatment of women propelled the #MeToo movement in 2017, was sentenced on Thursday to 16 years in prison for committing sex crimes in Los Angeles County. The sentence in Los Angeles adds to the 23 years Mr. Weinstein is serving in New York after his conviction there in 2020. In December, jurors in Los Angeles Superior Court found Mr. Weinstein guilty on three counts: forcible rape, forcible oral copulation and sexual penetration by a foreign object. All three counts were related to one woman, referred to as Jane Doe 1 in court...."

Robert Chiarito & Julia Jacobs of the New York Times: "A federal judge on Thursday sentenced R. Kelly to 20 years in prison for child sex crimes, after a jury found that he had produced three videos of himself sexually abusing his 14-year-old goddaughter. In a victory for the defense, the judge ruled that all but one year of the prison sentence would be served at the same time as a previous 30-year sentence that Mr. Kelly received after a jury in Brooklyn convicted him of racketeering and sex trafficking charges."

South Carolina. Ben Brasch & Timothy Bella of the Washington Post: "Alex Murdaugh delivered emotional testimony in a South Carolina court on Thursday, with the disbarred lawyer saying he did not kill two family members as financial pressures mounted and his life unraveled... Murdaugh said in court that he suffered from 'paranoid thinking' when he admittedly lied to authorities ... about his whereabouts the night of the killings. When asked by his defense attorney why he continued to lie to authorities, Murdaugh claimed he had no other choice. 'Oh, what a tangled web we weave,' Murdaugh testified. 'Once I told a lie [that] I told my family, I had to keep lying.'"

~~~~~~~~~~

Luis Martinez of ABC News: "A close-up photo of the Chinese spy balloon, taken mid-air from a U-2 spy plane, has been released by the U.S. military. The photo was taken on Friday, Feb. 3 as the balloon flew over the American Midwest at an altitude of 60,000 feet -- as the U-2 spy plane trailed it flew across the continental United States.... Visible in [the photo is] the balloon's white fabric ... and below it is the payload that carried reconnaissance sensors, antennae, and solar power panels." Includes photo.

"I Promised." Appeasing the Traitors. Luke Broadwater & Jonathan Swan of the New York Times: "Speaker Kevin McCarthy's decision to grant the Fox News host Tucker Carlson exclusive access to thousands of hours of security footage from inside the Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack was his latest move to appease the right wing of his party, this time by effectively outsourcing a bid to reinvestigate the riot to its favorite cable news commentator, who has circulated conspiracy theories about the assault.... 'I promised,' Mr. McCarthy said on Wednesday in a brief phone interview in which he defended his decision to grant Mr. Carlson exclusive access to the more than 40,000 hours of security footage.... After Mr. Carlson has had his way with the video, Mr. McCarthy said he planned to make the footage more widely available. His team has had internal conversations about providing the footage to other media outlets after Mr. Carlson has had his 'exclusive' first airing, according to a source familiar with the deliberations who insisted on anonymity to speak about them.... In a letter to fellow Democrats on Wednesday, Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the majority leader, said the speaker was 'needlessly exposing the Capitol complex to one of the worst security risks since 9/11.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: McCarthy is no Neville Chamberlain. McCarthy is worse. By appeasing Hitler, Chamberlain was trying to keep his country out of a European war. By appeasing American traitors, McCarthy has to know he is doing nothing but aiding an abetting another American civil war. There is no upside.

Maggie Haberman & Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump's daughter Ivanka and his son-in-law Jared Kushner have been subpoenaed by the special counsel to testify before a federal grand jury about Mr. Trump's efforts to stay in power after he lost the 2020 election and his role in a pro-Trump mob's attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, according to two people briefed on the matter. The decision by the special counsel, Jack Smith, to subpoena Ms. Trump and Mr. Kushner underscores how deeply into Mr. Trump's inner circle Mr. Smith is reaching, and is the latest sign that no potential high-level witness is off limits." CNBC's report, which cites the New York Times, is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Amy Gardner & Matthew Brown of the Washington Post: "The forewoman of a special grand jury in Georgia may have complicated an investigation into efforts by ... Donald Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 election by speaking bluntly about its findings in interviews this week, several legal experts said.... Several legal experts said they were surprised and concerned by [Emily] Kohrs's unusually candid commentary, which included evaluation of witnesses, tidbits about jurors socializing with prosecutors and a stated hope that the investigation yields charges because of how much time she and others invested in the case.... If Willis does indict Trump -- becoming the first prosecutor to bring charges against a former president -- Trump could use Kohrs's remarks to advance the argument he's made all along: that [Fulton County D.A. Fani] Willis's probe has amounted to a political prosecution and not a serious investigative inquiry." An ABC News story is here.

"An All-out Revolution." Zach Montague & Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "Appearing for a second day of testimony at the seditious conspiracy trial of five members of the Proud Boys in Federal District Court in Washington, [a former Proud Boys leader Jeremy] Bertino gave the proceeding a sudden burst of drama by taking the stand against his former associates.... As anxiety spread throughout the group after the Supreme Court declined to overturn Mr. Biden's victory in Pennsylvania in December 2020, Mr. Bertino said that he and the group's top leaders came to believe that 'time was running out to save the country.' The Proud Boys, he went on, would have to take the lead in galvanizing other Trump supporters who came to Washington into realizing an 'all-out revolution.'... In text messages during the riot, Mr. Bertino and other members appeared eager to whip other demonstrators in Washington into a frenzy, expressing hope that they would 'burn that city to ash.'" Bertino was not in Washington, D.C., on January 6 because he was "recovering from stab wounds he sustained during an earlier pro-Trump rally...." Politico's story is here.

Dareh Gregorian of NBC News: "A Jan. 6 rioter who threatened Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on social media after participating in the attack on the Capitol was sentenced Wednesday to 38 months in prison. Prosecutors had asked for a sentence of 48 months in prison for Garret Miller, an unemployed Texan who, they noted, was wearing a T-shirt bearing ... Donald Trump's picture and the words 'I was there, Washington, D.C., January 6, 2021' when he was arrested weeks after the attack.... [Ocasio-Cortez] had tweeted the word 'impeach' after the Capitol riot, to which Miller responded, 'assassinate AOC.' In addition to the prison time, U.S. District Court Judge Carl Nichols ordered 36 months of supervised release...." Includes of photo of Miller in his fashionable incriminating T-shirt. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) The Washington Post's story is here.

Katelyn Polantz, et al., of CNN: "A law firm that represented former Donald Trump strategist Steve Bannon ... is suing Bannon for nearly $500,000 in unpaid legal bills. The lawsuit states that Davidoff Hutcher & Citron LLP worked for Bannon from November 2020 through November 2022 and represented him on several high-profile cases, including investigations into Bannon's crowdfunding border-wall effort and the subpoena from the House select committee investigating the US Capitol attack on January 6, 2021.... While Trump pardoned Bannon in the federal border wall case, the Manhattan DA's office announced an indictment last year charging Bannon with state charges of fraud, conspiracy and money laundering related to the effort. Bannon has pleaded not guilty to the charges. The lawyers representing him in that case -- from a different firm -- have sought to withdraw from representing him and said there were 'irreconcilable differences.' Bannon is due in court next week to update the judge on his efforts to find new lawyers."

Annals of “Journalsim,” Ctd. Past His Prime. Monica Hesse of the Washington Post: "If you turned on CNN on Wednesday morning curious to see how Don Lemon would address his mini sexism scandal after his mini sabbatical and his 'formal training,' the answer is that he wouldn't address it, at least not on air. A few moments before his show began, the news anchor tweeted that he appreciated 'the opportunity to be back' and, to his colleagues and viewers, wrote, 'I've heard you, I'm learning from you, and I'm committed to doing better.'... 'Nikki Haley isn't in her prime,' he announced unbidden to CNN's viewers [last Thursday]. 'Sorry, when a woman is considered to be in her prime in her 20s and 30s and maybe 40s....' While his horrified co-host [Poppy] Harlow repeatedly tried to reel Lemon back in ('Prime for what?'), Lemon defiantly blundered forth, insisting that wasn't according to him, that he was just the 'messenger,' that this was according to common knowledge and 'Google.'... His error was unforced and repeated.... Lemon, by the way, is 56.... I don't know what 'formal training' could provide Lemon that living through the #MeToo era apparently did not."

Naomi Nix of the Washington Post: "Facebook parent company Meta is preparing for a fresh round of job cuts, deputizing human resources, lawyers, financial experts and top executives to draw up plans to deflate the company's hierarchy, in a reorganization and downsizing effort that could affect thousands of workers. Meta plans to push some leaders into lower-level roles.... The job eliminations arrive after [CEO Mark] Zuckerberg sought to reassure workers that he didn't 'anticipate more layoffs' after the company slashed 11,000 jobs -- roughly 13 percent of its workforce -- in November." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

David Folkenflik of NPR: "NPR's chief executive announced the network would lay off roughly 10% of its current workforce -- at least 100 people -- and eliminate most vacant positions. CEO John Lansing cited the erosion of advertising dollars, particularly for NPR podcasts, and the tough financial outlook for the media industry more generally.... On an annual budget of roughly $300 million, Lansing says, revenues are likely to fall short by close to $30 million, although that gap could reach $32 million." MB: How about getting rid of your GOP-friendly, both-sides reporters, "analysts" & producers first. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) The Washington Post's story is here.

Presidential Race 2024. Meryl Kornfield, et al., of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump visited ... [East Palestine, Ohio] on Wednesday, escalating a political showdown in the wake of a fiery train derailment that left some residents fearful of contaminated air and water.... He was joined by East Palestine Mayor Trent Conaway, who earlier called President Biden's recent trip to Ukraine a 'slap in the face,' as well as Sen. J.D. Vance (Ohio) and other Republicans. Yet Trump has also faced criticism for his administration's rollback of rail safety rules and moves to downsize the Environmental Protection Agency, which Democrats have cited as they seek to direct some of the heat toward the 45th president in the aftermath of the derailment. And some residents of East Palestine -- including Trump supporters -- said they saw little value in his visit.... GOP leaders seized on Biden's surprise trip to Kyiv to suggest he was prioritizing a foreign conflict over the situation in Ohio.... EPA officials arrived at the site the morning after the crash, and administration officials have argued that an earlier appearance by senior officials could have interfered with emergency efforts." CNN's report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: BTW, no paper towels this trip. WashPo: "Instead, Trump said Wednesday he brought thousands of water bottles for residents -- 'Trump water, actually,' along with some other water of 'much lesser quality,' he added." ~~~

     ~~~ Guardian & Agencies: "Donald Trump's record of rolling back environmental protections was highlighted by critics on Wednesday as the ex-president visited the town of East Palestine, Ohio, and called the federal response to the toxic train derailment there earlier this month a 'betrayal'. Trump's administration, which rolled back more than 100 environmental rules in total, watered down several regulations at the behest of the rail industry. He withdrew an Obama-era plan to require faster brakes on trains carrying highly flammable materials, shelved a rule that demanded at least two crew members on freight trains and dropped a ban on transporting liquified natural gas by rail, despite fears this could cause explosions." ~~~

~~~ Put a Wick in It. Topher Sanders & Dan Schwartz of ProPublica: "Norfolk Southern allows a monitoring team to instruct crews to ignore alerts from train track sensors designed to flag potential mechanical problems.... The National Transportation Safety Board will be looking into the company's rules, including whether that specific policy played a role in the Feb. 3 derailment in East Palestine.... Norfolk Southern disregarded a similar mechanical problem on another train that months earlier jumped the tracks in Ohio.... Four miles [after the monitoring team gave the train a go-ahead to continue despite an overheated engine wheel], the train derailed ... and dumped thousands of gallons of molten paraffin wax in the city of Sandusky." ~~~

Corporations do stock buybacks, they do big dividend checks, they lay off workers. They don't invest in safety rules and safety regulations, and this kind of thing happens. -- Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) ~~~

~~~ Chris Isidore of CNN: "Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw pledged Tuesday the freight railroad will spend $6.5 million to help those affected by the release of toxic chemicals from its derailment nearly three weeks ago in East Palestine, Ohio. But in a plan released earlier this year, the company said it's planning to spend more than a thousand times that amount -- $7.5 billion -- to repurchase its own shares in order to benefit its shareholders.... It's not clear how much of the accident's cost will fall on Norfolk Southern. The company revealed Wednesday during a conference call with investors that it has as much as $1.1 billion worth of liability insurance coverage that it can draw upon to compensate third parties for losses caused by the accident. It also has about $200 million worth of insurance coverage to cover damage to its own property, such as tracks or equipment."

Beyond the Beltway

Arizona. GOP State AG Falsely Promoted the Big Lie. Yvonne Sanchez & Isaac Stanley-Becker of the Washington Post: "Nearly a year after the 2020 election, Arizona's then-attorney general, Mark Brnovich, launched an investigation into voting in the state's largest county that quickly consumed more than 10,000 hours of his staff's time. Investigators prepared a report in March 2022 stating that virtually all claims of error and malfeasance were unfounded.... Brnovich, a Republican, kept it private. In April, the attorney general — who was running in the GOP primary for a U.S. Senate seat -- released an 'Interim Report' claiming that his office had discovered 'serious vulnerabilities.' He left out edits from his own investigators refuting his assertions. His office then compiled an 'Election Review Summary' in September that systematically refuted accusations of widespread fraud and made clear that none of the complaining parties ... had presented any evidence to support their claims. Brnovich left office last month without releasing the summary....

"The records show how Brnovich used his office to further claims about voting in Maricopa County that his own staff considered inaccurate. They suggest that his administration privately disregarded fact checks provided by state investigators while publicly promoting incomplete accounts of the office's work. The innuendo and inaccuracies, circulated not just in the far reaches of the internet but with the imprimatur of the state's attorney general, helped make Arizona an epicenter of distrust in the democratic process, eroding confidence in the 2020 vote as well as in subsequent elections." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Congress shall make no law ... prohibiting ... the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances, except in Florida. -- First Amendment, U.S. Constitution, revised ~~~

~~~ Florida, the Sunshine Fascist State. Matt Dixon of Politico: "The DeSantis administration now requires events held at the Florida state Capitol to 'align' with its mission, a recent change that is sparking concerns that the governor's office is trying to censor events it doesn’t like. The Department of Management Services, the administration department that oversees state facilities, over the past few months has changed rules for groups or individuals who want to reserve space inside the Capitol.... The new rules specify that organizations must make their requests through DeSantis administration agency heads, the House speaker or any member of the Senate. The chief justice of the Florida Supreme Court can also ask on their behalf.... The new rules include language that allows DMS to request organizers 'reduce in size and scope' their event."

Marie: Many years ago, I had a job assessing essays that were part of state-run school tests. One year, Maryland required the students to write about the major problem in their towns. The kids who lived on the Eastern Shore wrote about the way some people docked their boats. The kids who lived in Baltimore wrote about street gangs killing their friends. What follows below is much more in line with Eastern Shore municipal "problems." The young people of Balto should be so lucky: ~~~

~~~ New Hampshire. Marisa Iati of the Washington Post: "In a small New Hampshire tourist town, the front of a roadside bakery is adorned with an image of the sun rising over a row of doughnuts, muffins and other pastries. Whether that painting is a mural or a sign will determine whether the high school students who created it will see it taken down. The Conway, N.H., community has been captivated for months by a dispute, previously reported by the Conway Daily News, over whether the art project is considered a sign under the municipal code. The town says yes, because the painting shows baked goods -- and that the image exceeds the legal size limit for signs. The owner of Leavitt-s Country Bakery says no -- and, in a federal lawsuit, contends the town ordinance violates the First Amendment." MB: BTW, to my mind, the story includes one student's opinion that suggests defeatism is a formative principle of conservatism."

Texas. Oops, I Left My Gun in the Boys' Bathroom. Christine Chung of the New York Times: "The superintendent of a Texas school district has resigned a month after a child found his gun in an elementary school bathroom, a school district official said. Robby Stuteville had worked for the Rising Star Independent School District for more than three decades, serving as its superintendent for about the last two years, said Monty Jones, the district's high school principal. On Jan. 20, Mr. Stuteville accidentally left his gun in a bathroom at Rising Star Elementary School, where it was found by a third-grade student, Mr. Jones said.... Mr. Jones said that both he and Mr. Stuteville had the district board's approval to carry guns and that all students had been informed about this practice.... 'If we are going to take care of our kids and make them feel safe, we have to do it in house,' Mr. Jones said." MB: Yes, because nothing makes little children "feel safe" like leaving a (presumably loaded) gun for them to play with. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Way Beyond

Ukraine, et al.

The New York Times' live updates of developments Thursday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here. The Guardian's live updates for Thursday are here. ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live briefing for Thursday is here: "The U.N. General Assembly is set to vote this week on a resolution calling on Russia to leave Ukraine, with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba calling on members during a special session to vote and preserve his country's sovereignty, ahead of the Russian invasion's first anniversary Friday.... Wagner Group head Yevgeniy Prigozhin said an ammunition shipment is on its way to his mercenaries, in a Telegram post on Thursday. It comes days after he launched a bitter tirade against the Russian military, claiming it was depriving his fighters of ammunition.... Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez arrived in Kyiv on Thursday, saying in a tweet that Spain will stand with Ukraine 'until peace returns to Europe.' There 'will certainly be consequences for China' if it sends lethal military aid to Russia for its war in Ukraine, the Pentagon said Wednesday, after China's top diplomat, Wang Yi, visited Moscow."

A New World Order: The West v. Everybody Else? Liz Sly of the Washington Post: "In the year since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, a reinvigorated Western alliance has rallied against Russia, forging what President Biden has trumpeted as a 'global coalition.' Yet a closer look beyond the West suggests the world is far from united on the issues raised by the Ukraine war. The conflict has exposed a deep global divide, and the limits of U.S. influence over a rapidly shifting world order. Evidence abounds that the effort to isolate Putin has failed, and not just among Russian allies that could be expected to back Moscow, such as China and Iran. India announced last week that its trade with Russia has grown by 400 percent since the invasion. In just the past six weeks, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has been welcomed in nine countries in Africa and the Middle East.... U.S. officials point out that 141 of 193 countries at the United Nations voted to condemn Russia after the invasion and that 143 voted in October to censure the Kremlin's announced annexation of parts of Ukraine. But only 33 countries have imposed sanctions on Russia, and a similar number are sending lethal aid to Ukraine. An Economist Intelligence Unit survey last year estimated that two-thirds of the world's population lives in countries that have refrained from condemning Russia."

Christian Shepherd & Vic Chiang of the Washington Post: China "considers the United States -- not Russia -- the progenitor of global insecurity, including in Ukraine.... From the beginning of the war, China has tried to protect its rapidly deepening economic and political ties with Russia at the same time it tried to assure Western audiences that it wants peace and should not be a target for sanctions.... At the core of Xi [Jinping]'s priorities for promoting China's security is an effort to counteract the United States' influence in the international order, often by enlisting countries that share similar grievances. Chinese complaints about American 'abuse of hegemony' in global military, political and economic affairs were listed in a five-page document issued by the Chinese Foreign Ministry on Monday, which called the Ukraine conflict a case of the United States 'repeating its old tactics of waging proxy ... wars.'"


Israel/Palestine. Patrick Kingsley of the New York Times: "At least 10 Palestinians were killed and more than 100 others wounded on Wednesday, Palestinian officials said, in an hourslong gun battle between Israeli security forces and armed Palestinian groups in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The Israeli military said the firefight occurred during an operation to arrest Palestinian gunmen. Three armed Palestinian groups said that six of the casualties were fighters in their movements. Others appeared to be noncombatants: Time-stamped CCTV footage from late Wednesday morning that circulated on social media seemed to show the shooting of at least two unarmed Palestinians as they ran away from gunfire.... The raid on Wednesday was the second in less than a month to end in the deaths of at least 10 Palestinians -- two of the most lethal such incidents in years. A raid in Jenin late last month killed 10 Palestinians." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

News Lede

Florida. New York Times: "A man who fatally shot a 20-year-old woman on Wednesday morning in Orange County, Fla., returned to the scene later in the day and went on a shooting spree, the authorities said, killing a TV news reporter who had been covering the original homicide and a 9-year-old at a nearby home. The gunman, Keith Melvin Moses, 19, also shot two other people in Pine Hills, Fla., the Orange County Sheriff's Office said in a news conference on Wednesday: the mother of the 9-year-old and a photographer who worked with the TV news reporter at Spectrum News 13 in Orlando. They were both in critical condition on Wednesday night. Mr. Moses was in custody by Wednesday evening and charged with one count of murder in connection with the killing of the 20-year-old; additional charges are expected for the other shootings in Pine Hills, about five miles east of Orlando, said the Orange County sheriff, John Mina." The story has been updated. The Spectrum News story is here.

Comments Off
Wednesday
Feb222023

February 22, 2023

Afternoon Update:

Maggie Haberman & Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump's daughter Ivanka and his son-in-law Jared Kushner have been subpoenaed by the special counsel to testify before a federal grand jury about Mr. Trump's efforts to stay in power after he lost the 2020 election and his role in a pro-Trump mob's attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, according to two people briefed on the matter. The decision by the special counsel, Jack Smith, to subpoena Ms. Trump and Mr. Kushner underscores how deeply into Mr. Trump's inner circle Mr. Smith is reaching, and is the latest sign that no potential high-level witness is off limits." CNBC's report, which cites the New York Times, is here.

Dareh Gregorian of NBC News: "A Jan. 6 rioter who threatened Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on social media after participating in the attack on the Capitol was sentenced Wednesday to 38 months in prison. Prosecutors had asked for a sentence of 48 months in prison for Garret Miller, an unemployed Texan who, they noted, was wearing a T-shirt bearing ... Donald Trump's picture and the words 'I was there, Washington, D.C., January 6, 2021' when he was arrested weeks after the attack.... [Ocasio-Cortez] had tweeted the word 'impeach' after the Capitol riot, to which Miller responded, 'assassinate AOC.' In addition to the prison time, U.S. District Court Judge Carl Nichols ordered 36 months of supervised release...." Includes of photo of Miller in his fashionable incriminating T-shirt.

Naomi Nix of the Washington Post: "Facebook parent company Meta is preparing for a fresh round of job cuts, deputizing human resources, lawyers, financial experts and top executives to draw up plans to deflate the company's hierarchy, in a reorganization and downsizing effort that could affect thousands of workers. Meta plans to push some leaders into lower-level roles.... The job eliminations arrive after [CEO Mark] Zuckerberg sought to reassure workers that he didn't 'anticipate more layoffs' after the company slashed 11,000 jobs -- roughly 13 percent of its workforce -- in November."

David Folkenflik of NPR: "NPR's chief executive announced the network would lay off roughly 10% of its current workforce -- at least 100 people -- and eliminate most vacant positions. CEO John Lansing cited the erosion of advertising dollars, particularly for NPR podcasts, and the tough financial outlook for the media industry more generally.... On an annual budget of roughly $300 million, Lansing says, revenues are likely to fall short by close to $30 million, although that gap could reach $32 million." MB: How about getting rid of your GOP-friendly, both-sides reporters, "analysts" & producers first.

Arizona. GOP State AG Falsely Promoted the Big Lie. Yvonne Sanchez & Isaac Stanley-Becker of the Washington Post: "Nearly a year after the 2020 election, Arizona's then-attorney general, Mark Brnovich, launched an investigation into voting in the state's largest county that quickly consumed more than 10,000 hours of his staff's time. Investigators prepared a report in March 2022 stating that virtually all claims of error and malfeasance were unfounded.... Brnovich, a Republican, kept it private. In April, the attorney general -- who was running in the GOP primary for a U.S. Senate seat -- released an 'Interim Report' claiming that his office had discovered 'serious vulnerabilities.' He left out edits from his own investigators refuting his assertions. His office then compiled an 'Election Review Summary' in September that systematically refuted accusations of widespread fraud and made clear that none of the complaining parties ... had presented any evidence to support their claims. Brnovich left office last month without releasing the summary....

"The records show how Brnovich used his office to further claims about voting in Maricopa County that his own staff considered inaccurate. They suggest that his administration privately disregarded fact checks provided by state investigators while publicly promoting incomplete accounts of the office's work. The innuendo and inaccuracies, circulated not just in the far reaches of the internet but with the imprimatur of the state's attorney general, helped make Arizona an epicenter of distrust in the democratic process, eroding confidence in the 2020 vote as well as in subsequent elections."

Texas. Oops, I Left My Gun in the Boys' Bathroom. Christine Chung of the New York Times: "The superintendent of a Texas school district has resigned a month after a child found his gun in an elementary school bathroom, a school district official said. Robby Stuteville had worked for the Rising Star Independent School District for more than three decades, serving as its superintendent for about the last two years, said Monty Jones, the district's high school principal. On Jan. 20, Mr. Stuteville accidentally left his gun in a bathroom at Rising Star Elementary School, where it was found by a third-grade student, Mr. Jones said.... Mr. Jones said that both he and Mr. Stuteville had the district board's approval to carry guns and that all students had been informed about this practice.... 'If we are going to take care of our kids and make them feel safe, we have to do it in house,' Mr. Jones said." MB: Yes, because nothing makes little children "feel safe" like leaving a (presumably loaded) gun for them to play with.

Israel/Palestine. Patrick Kingsley of the New York Times: "At least 10 Palestinians were killed and more than 100 others wounded on Wednesday, Palestinian officials said, in an hourslong gun battle between Israeli security forces and armed Palestinian groups in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The Israeli military said the firefight occurred during an operation to arrest Palestinian gunmen. Three armed Palestinian groups said that six of the casualties were fighters in their movements. Others appeared to be noncombatants: Time-stamped CCTV footage from late Wednesday morning that circulated on social media seemed to show the shooting of at least two unarmed Palestinians as they ran away from gunfire.... The raid on Wednesday was the second in less than a month to end in the deaths of at least 10 Palestinians -- two of the most lethal such incidents in years. A raid in Jenin late last month killed 10 Palestinians."

~~~~~~~~~~

Aamer Madhani of the AP: "President Joe Biden is wrapping up his whirlwind, four-day visit to Poland and Ukraine by reassuring eastern flank NATO allies that his administration is highly attuned to the looming threats and other impacts spurred by the grinding Russian invasion of Ukraine. Before departing Warsaw on Wednesday, Biden will hold talks with leaders from the Bucharest Nine, a collection of nations on the most eastern parts of the NATO alliance that came together in response to Russian President Vladimir Putin's 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine."

Aamer Madhani, et al., of the AP: "President Joe Biden, returning on Tuesday to the Polish castle where he spoke shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine last year, said the war had hardened Western resolve to defend democracy around the globe. He warned that there were 'hard and bitter days ahead,' but pledged that the United States and its allies would 'have Ukraine's back' as the war enters its second year. 'Democracies of the world will stand guard over freedom today, tomorrow and forever,' he said at the Royal Castle, a historical landmark in Warsaw, before a cheering crowd of Polish citizens and Ukrainian refugees." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) Related stories linked under Ukraine, et al., below. ~~~

Miriam Jordan of the New York Times: "In a bid to prevent a surge of migrants at the southern border when a pandemic measure is lifted in May, the Biden administration on Tuesday announced its toughest policy yet to crack down on unlawful entries. The proposed rule, which has been opened for 30 days of public comment before taking effect, would presume that migrants are ineligible for asylum if they entered the country unlawfully, a significant rollback in the country's traditional policy toward those fleeing persecution in other countries. It would allow rapid deportation of anyone who had failed to request protection from another country while en route to the United States or who did not notify border authorities through a mobile app of their plans to seek asylum. Administration officials said the policy would take effect on May 11 with the expected termination that day of Title 42, a Trump-era health emergency rule that has allowed border authorities to swiftly expel migrants back to Mexico." The Guardian's story is here.

Sarah Fitzpatrick of NBC News: "The Environmental Protection Agency announced a sweeping enforcement action against Norfolk Southern on Tuesday, compelling the rail company to conduct and pay for cleanup actions associated with the Feb. 3 derailment of a train carrying toxic chemicals in East Palestine, Ohio. 'The Norfolk Southern train derailment has upended the lives of East Palestine families, and EPA's order will ensure the company is held accountable for jeopardizing the health and safety of this community,' said EPA Administrator Michael Regan in remarks prepared for a news conference in East Palestine. 'Let me be clear: Norfolk Southern will pay for cleaning up the mess they created and for the trauma they've inflicted on this community.' If the company fails to complete any of the actions ordered by the EPA, the agency will 'immediately' conduct the necessary work and then seek to compel Norfolk Southern to pay triple the cost." (Also linked yesterday.)

Steve Benen of MSNBC: “By some accounts, [House Speaker Kevin] McCarthy committed to the release [of all January 6 security footage] as part of the negotiations with his far-right detractors who initially stood in the way of him becoming speaker.... Axios was first to report ... [that] '... McCarthy has given Fox News' Tucker Carlson exclusive access to 41,000 hours of Capitol surveillance footage from the Jan. 6 riot....'... The video tapes in question are official government materials. They don't belong to one member, one party, or one cable channel; they belong to all of us. And yet, there's the new House speaker, who apparently made a unilateral decision to give one controversial Fox News host exclusive access to 41,000 hours of surveillance footage. What could possibly go wrong?... Carlson lacks credibility on the issue.... [And there] is the extraordinary timing: It was just days ago when a new court filing presented evidence of Fox News hosts, including Carlson, deliberately promoting bogus election claims they knew to be false in order to pander to their audience and make more money.

"There are also security considerations to keep in mind. Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson, who chaired the Jan. 6 committee and now serves as the ranking member on the House Homeland Security Committee, said in a statement yesterday, 'It's hard to overstate the potential security risks if this material were to be used irresponsibly.'... Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland ... ask[ed], 'What security precautions were taken to keep this from becoming a roadmap for 2024 insurrection?'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Lauren Sforza of the Hill: "House Homeland Security Committee ranking Democrat Bennie Thompson (Miss.) on Monday blasted Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) for handing over tens of thousands of hours of riot footage from Jan. 6, 2021, to Fox News host Tucker Carlson.... 'If Speaker McCarthy has indeed granted Tucker Carlson -- a Fox host who routinely spreads misinformation and [Russian President Vladimir] Putin's poisonous propaganda -- and his producers access to this sensitive footage, he owes the American people an explanation of why he has done so and what steps he has taken to address the significant security concerns at stake,' Thompson said.... In 2021 [Carlson] produced 'Patriot Purge,' a documentary series that purports to tell an alternative story of the Jan. 6 insurrection and features at least one subject who suggests the event may have been a 'false flag' operation. Fox News staffers were reportedly angered by the series, and at least two contributors to the network resigned in protest." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Gabe Ferris of ABC News: "... Fox host Tucker Carlson said on his program Monday night that he had gained 'unfettered' access to the [January 6 security] video, saying that some of his 'smartest producers' have been reviewing the footage at an undisclosed location for about a week.... Carlson claimed that some of the footage appears to contradict 'the story that we've been told for more than two years,' but he was short on details or specifics. Instead, Carlson teased that his team's findings would air on his program next week.... The U.S. Capitol Police maintain access to and control over such surveillance videos, but ABC News has learned that the department did not directly provide the videos to Fox.... At times, the DOJ has joined with the Capitol Police in expressing concern over the release of some footage that could disclose sensitive areas in the Capitol, the location of closed circuit cameras, and other sensitive security movements.... 'The apparent transfer of video footage represents an egregious security breach that endangers the hardworking women and men of the United States Capitol Police,' House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries wrote in a letter to his caucus on Tuesday." ~~~

     ~~~ Kyle Cheney & Jordain Carney of Politico: "Speaker Kevin McCarthy's apparent deal to grant Tucker Carlson access to thousands of hours of Capitol security footage from Jan. 6, 2021 came as a surprise to at least one official with oversight responsibility over those files: Capitol Police Chief Thomas Manger. A person familiar with the matter said Manger told associates he didn't learn of the arrangement between McCarthy and Carlson until it began publicly circulating Monday. Capitol Police have been extremely reluctant to share large swaths of their security footage, citing potential risks to lawmakers, aides and officers tasked with protecting the building. House Sergeant at Arms William McFarland also told associates he learned about it around the same time Axios broke the news Monday, the person familiar said." ~~~

Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "... it's an extremely bad idea to grant Fox News's Tucker Carlson the power to construct whatever narrative he wants out of the footage captured at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.... Carlson has an extensive record of making dishonest, unchecked claims on his program, with Fox attorneys even admitting he should not be considered an objective source of information. His false claims include a litany of debunked or unfounded assertions about the Jan. 6 riot."


Marie: The following print stories only hint at what a silly person served as foreperson of the special grand jury investigating whether Donald Trump and others interfered with the 2020 presidential election. It is discouraging, but no doubt typical, of what happens when lawyers must choose "a jury of their peers," especially in high-profile cases where the jurors must be fairly ignorant of the subject matter in order to be, you know, "objective" jurors. ~~~

~~~ Danny Hakim of the New York Times: "A special grand jury that investigated election interference by ... Donald J. Trump and his allies in Georgia recommended indictments of multiple people on a range of charges in its report, most of which remains sealed, the forewoman of the jury said in an interview today. 'It is not a short list,' the forewoman, Emily Kohrs, said, adding that the jury had appended eight pages of legal code 'that we cited at various points in the report.'... Asked whether the jurors had recommended indicting Mr. Trump, Ms. Kohrs gave a cryptic answer: 'You're not going to be shocked. It's not rocket science,' adding 'you won't be too surprised.'" At 2:20 pm ET Tuesday, this is a breaking story. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ "Really Cool." Tamar Hamilton & Bill Rankin of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Emily Kohrs "said she had largely been unfamiliar with the fighting surrounding Georgia's last presidential election because of the COVID-19 pandemic but was enthusiastic to serve. High energy, with a red vape in her hand and a notebook in front of her containing instructions from [Judge Robert] McBurney on what could and could not be discussed, Kohrs expressed amazement at the media attention she had received over the last several hours. Kohrs said she volunteered to be foreperson of the grand jury because of a longtime interest in politics, even though she said she's never voted. She brought along sketches she drew of two of the investigation witnesses, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Marc Short, a top aide to former Vice President Mike Pence....

"'We heard a lot of recordings of President Trump on the phone,' she said, declining to give specifics. 'It is amazing how many hours of footage you can find of that man on the phone.... Some of these that were privately recorded by people or recorded by a staffer.'... After portions of the report were released last week, Trump posted on his social media platform Truth Social. 'Thank you to the Special Grand Jury in the Great State of Georgia for your Patriotism & Courage,' the former president posted. 'Total exoneration.' When AJC reporters on Tuesday told Kohrs about that reaction she rolled her eyes and then burst out laughing. 'Did he really say that?' she asked. 'Oh, that's fantastic. That's phenomenal. I love it.' When asked if she had any response, she said, 'I invoke my Fifth Amendment right. That's what I have to say to that.'... When asked how she felt about what happened when all was said and done, Kohrs described the experience as 'really cool.'"

~~~ Kate Brumback of the AP: "The AP identified [special grand jury foreperson Emily] Kohrs after her name was included on subpoenas obtained through open records requests. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney advised Kohrs and other jurors on what they could and could not share publicly, including in interviews with the news media.... But her general characterizations provided unusual insight into a process that is typically cloaked in secrecy. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who was on the receiving end of Trump's pressure campaign, was 'a really geeky kind of funny,' she said. State House Speaker David Ralston, who died in November, was hilarious and had the room in stitches. And Gov. Brian Kemp, who succeeded in delaying his appearance until after his reelection in November, seemed unhappy to be there.... Rudy Giuliani was funny and invoked privilege to avoid answering many questions but 'genuinely seemed to consider' whether it was merited before declining to answer, she said." Read on. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Here's the print report by Blayne Alexander & Dareh Gregorian of NBC News, which is worth reading. Alexander conducted the first video interview of Emily Kohrs. To give you a flavor of Kohr's demeanor, here are clips of Alexander's interview: ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Here's hoping Judge McBurney calls Kohrs in and gives her what-for.

Michael Luciano of Mediaite: "Anderson Cooper and Elie Honig discussed the multiple awkward media appearances by the forewoman of the grand jury that will reportedly recommend indictments in a case involving Donald Trump.... Cooper ... expressed bafflement at the forewoman's behavior. [Honig,] CNN's senior legal analyst, told the host that what she's doing is a 'horrible idea' because it could provide Trump's legal team with fodder for a motion to dismiss any indictments[. Hogi said,] '... We're talking about -- indicting any person, you're talking about potentially taking away that person's liberty -- we're talking about potentially former president for the first time in this nation of history. She does not seem to be taking that very seriously.... It's a prosecutor's nightmare. Mark my words, Donald Trump's team is going to make a motion if there's an indictment to dismiss that indictment base on grand jury impropriety. She's not supposed to be talking about anything, really. But she's really not supposed to be talking about the deliberations. She's talking about what specific witnesses they saw, what the grand jury thought of them.'" Includes video.


Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump, who throughout his business career had a reputation for not paying lawyers, spent roughly $10 million from his political action committee on his own legal fees last year, federal election filings show. The money that went to Mr. Trump's legal bills was part of more than $16 million that Mr. Trump's PAC, Save America, spent for legal-related payments in 2021 and 2022, the filings show. Some of the $16 million appears to have been for lawyers representing witnesses in investigations related to Mr. Trump's efforts to cling to power. But the majority of it -- about $10 million -- went to firms directly representing Mr. Trump in a string of investigations and lawsuits, including some related to his company, the filings showed.... Some campaign finance experts are raising questions about whether, as a candidate, Mr. Trump can continue to use the PAC to pay for his personal legal bills." CNN's story is here.

Melissa Quinn of CBS News: "The Supreme Court appeared resistant on Tuesday to limiting the scope of a federal law that has served as a powerful legal shield for internet companies, expressing concerns about the ramifications of a broad potential decision that could open the door to a deluge of lawsuits and change the current landscape of the internet. At the center of the case, known as Gonzalez v. Google, is Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996, which protects internet companies from liability over content posted by third parties, and allows platforms to remove objectionable content.... The question before the justices is whether Section 230 immunizes platforms like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter when they make targeted recommendations of information to users.... 'We're a court. We really don't know about these things. These are not the nine greatest experts on the internet,' [Justice Elena] Kagan told [Gonzalez attorney Eric] Schnapper to laughter." The New York Times story, by Adam Liptak, is here.

Rob Wile of NBC News: "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and a nonprofit entity that it controlled have been fined $5 million by the Securities and Exchange Commission over accusations that the religious institution failed to properly disclose its investment holdings. In an order released Tuesday, the SEC alleged that the [Morman] church illicitly hid its investments and their management behind multiple shell companies from 1997 to 2019. In doing so, it failed to disclose the size of the church's equity portfolio to the SEC and the public."

Chris McGreal of the Guardian: "Last year, the US Transport Security Administration (TSA) seized 6,542 guns from people about to board planes at 262 airports -- a sixfold increase since 2010. Nearly nine in 10 of the weapons were loaded.... Some cities and states press criminal charges, and the offending individual is marched out the airport in handcuffs. But it is not uncommon in gun-friendly parts of the country for a passenger to be allowed to put their weapon in their car and return to board their flight. Atlanta airport tops the gun seizure table with more than one a day found in passenger hand luggage.... In 2014, Georgia's Republican-controlled legislature passed a law pushed by the National Rifle Association allowing people to carry loaded guns in the state's airports. Georgia was also one of 10 states to pass laws over the past couple of years no longer requiring a permit to carry a concealed firearm.... In 2015, ABC News revealed that the TSA sent undercover investigators through airport checkpoints carrying real guns and fake bombs. Security officers only discovered three of the 70 smuggled items. The TSA's director was sacked."

Beyond the Beltway

California Senate Race. Jazmine Ulloa & Rein Epstein of the New York Times: "Representative Barbara Lee, who stood alone against authorizing military action after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and remains a leading antiwar voice in Congress, entered the 2024 Senate race in California on Tuesday, becoming the third prominent Democrat to run for the seat being vacated by Dianne Feinstein. Ms. Lee, 76, the highest-ranking Black woman appointed to Democratic leadership in the House, unveiled her Senate bid in a video that highlighted the racism she fought against in her youth and the struggles she faced as a single mother and a survivor of domestic violence." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Mississippi. Supremes Go with Gerrymandering. Again. Ashton Pittman of the Mississippi Free Press: "The U.S. Supreme Court [Tuesday] declined to hear Buck v. Reeves, a case alleging that the state's congressional maps are racially gerrymandered. The decision affirms that Mississippi is no longer required to get federal preclearance for its congressional maps. In 2002, a three-judge panel ordered Mississippi to use court-drawn congressional maps 'in accordance with the procedures in Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.' However, in 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court's conservative majority struck down Section 5, with Chief Justice John Roberts saying at the time that 'things have changed in the South.'" MB: Uh, yeah. Now White Southerners are more into secession.

Montana Senate Race 2024. Amy Wang of the Washington Post: "Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) announced Wednesday that he will seek reelection, bolstering Democratic hopes as the party faces a tough Senate map in 2024.... Tester was elected in 2006 in the Republican-leaning state that ... Donald Trump won handily in both 2016 and 2020."

New York. Where "Democrats in Disarray!" Is a Real Thing. Ross Barkan of the New York Times: "These days, New York is known as the deep-blue state where Democrats lost four seats on the way to losing the House of Representatives and effectively halting President Biden's domestic agenda for the next two years.... [In November 2022,] Democrats stumbled in territory on Long Island and in the Hudson Valley that Biden won handily just two years earlier. These disappointments have cast into sharp relief both the divisions within the party and the peculiar void of the state's Democratic organization itself.... Elsewhere in the country, state Democratic parties are much more robust than they are in New York.... And now the Democratic civil war rages." Barkan explores some of the gory details.

Rhode Island Congressional Election. Julia Shapero of the Hill: "Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) will leave Congress in June to take over as the president and CEO of the Rhode Island Foundation, his office announced on Tuesday.... Cicilline, who has represented Rhode Island's 1st Congressional District since 2011, will officially step down June 1. Cicilline's staff will continue to operate the district's Rhode Island and Washington, D.C., offices until a new representative is chosen in a special election, his office said." MB: Sad news. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Virginia Congressional Election 2023. Chandelis Duster of CNN: "Virginia state Sen. Jennifer McClellan will win the special election for Virginia's 4th Congressional District and will become the first Black woman to represent the commonwealth in Congress, CNN projected Tuesday. McClellan will defeat Republican Leon Benjamin, a pastor and Navy veteran, to succeed the late Democratic Rep. Donald McEachin, who died in November." The New York Times story is here.

Wisconsin State Supreme Court. Patrick Marley of the Washington Post: "In a race that will determine whether liberals or conservatives control the Wisconsin Supreme Court..., voters narrowed the field to two candidates in a Tuesday primary. The winners now begin a 42-day sprint to an April 4 general election that is sure to see record spending.... Officially, the race is nonpartisan, but one candidate is closely aligned with Republicans and the other with Democrats. The state parties and dark-money groups are the biggest spenders in the race. Milwaukee County Judge Janet Protasiewicz shored up Democratic support early in the race and easily rolled through Tuesday's primary.... Emerging from the primary was Daniel Kelly, who was appointed to the state Supreme Court in 2016 by Gov. Scott Walker (R). While campaigning, Kelly -- who lost his seat in a 2020 election -- has touted his rulings to allow concealed guns on city buses and end the coronavirus lockdown imposed by Gov. Tony Evers D)." CNN's report is here. The New York Times report is here.

Way Beyond

Ukraine, et al.

The New York Times' live updates of developments Wednesday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here. The Guardian's live updates for Wednesday are here. The Guardian's summary report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live briefing for Wednesday is here: "As the war in Ukraine approaches its one-year mark, China's top diplomat, Wang Yi, is in Russia where he is meeting with [Vladimir] Putin. Early Wednesday, Wang met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who said that 'relations between Russia and China are developing dynamically, despite the turbulence.' Lavrov said that 'Moscow and Beijing are ready to defend each other's interests.'... Russia's State Duma passed a law suspending the country's participation in the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty on Wednesday. It comes after Putin announced Tuesday that Russia would be suspending its participation in New START, the only remaining arms control agreement between Russia and the United States.... One in 10 of Ukraine's hospitals have been damaged by wartime attacks, according to a report by Physicians for Human Rights, a U.S. nonprofit group."

Mary Ilyushina, et al., of the Washington Post: "Russian President Vladimir Putin announced in a state of the nation address Tuesday that Moscow is 'suspending' its participation in the New START nuclear nonproliferation agreement, the last remaining arms control treaty between the United States and Russia. Putin said that Russia will not 'withdraw' completely from the treaty, which has been extended to run through Feb. 4, 2026, but that Russia would not allow NATO countries to inspect its nuclear arsenal. He accused the alliance of helping Ukraine conduct drone strikes on Russian air bases that host strategic bombers that are part of the country's nuclear forces." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ David Sanger of the New York Times: "When President Vladimir V. Putin announced at the end of a 100-minute speech on Tuesday that he would suspend Russia's participation in the New START treaty..., it was one more indication that the era of formal arms control may be dying.... He sounded like a leader who was done with arms control at a time of escalating confrontation with the United States and NATO. If that attitude holds, whoever is sitting in the Oval Office when the treaty expires in a bit more than 1,000 days may face a new world that will look, at first glance, similar to the one of a half-century ago, when arms races were in full swing and nations could field as many nuclear weapons as they wanted." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Oren Liebermann & Natasha Bertrand of CNN: "Russia carried out a test of an intercontinental ballistic missile that appears to have failed around the time President Joe Biden was in Ukraine on Monday, according to two US officials familiar with the matter. Russia notified the United States in advance of the launch through deconfliction lines, one official said. Another official said that the test did not pose a risk to the United States and that the US did not view the test as an anomaly or an escalation. The test of the heavy SARMAT missile -- nicknamed the Satan II in the West and capable of delivering multiple nuclear warheads -- appears to have failed, officials said. It has been successfully tested before and had this one worked, US officials believe Russian President Vladimir Putin would have highlighted the test in his State of the Nation address on Tuesday."

Karen DeYoung of the Washington Post: "Russia called Tuesday for a special United Nations commission to investigate the explosions that blew up the Nord Stream undersea natural gas pipelines in September, based largely on an American journalist's controversial allegation that a U.S. covert operation was responsible for the attack. The United States said the accusation was 'completely false,' and it accused Russia of trying to distract attention from criticism around the first anniversary of its unprovoked Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine and ongoing attacks on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure. The exchanges took place at the U.N. Security Council, which has become the world's only public forum for direct, and often antagonistic, contacts between Washington and Moscow. On the 15-member council, only China offered full support for Russia's call for a special U.N. inquiry.... Two weeks ago, journalist Seymour Hersh published a lengthy article on Substack -- an online subscription platform for independent journalists and bloggers -- alleging that U.S. Navy divers, operating under cover of a NATO exercise with Norway in the Baltic Sea early last summer, placed explosives on the two pipelines. Three months later, Hersh wrote, President Biden gave the order to blow them up.... No other media outlet has corroborated [Hersh's] account."


Mexico. Shayna Jacobs & Kevin Sieff of the Washington Post: "A former top law enforcement official who oversaw Mexico's efforts to combat narcotics trafficking was convicted Tuesday of taking millions in bribes from the Sinaloa drug cartel. Genaro García Luna, who headed the equivalent of the FBI in Mexico, was charged in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn in 2019 with acting as an enabler for the cartel, which is notorious for engaging in rampant violence to keep its operation running."

News Lede

Washington Post: "A strong, intensifying storm system continued its trek across the Lower 48 early Wednesday, unleashing high-impact winter weather that could cause widespread power outages and grind travel to a halt. At least 75 million Americans are under winter storm, ice storm, blizzard warnings or winter weather advisories. In addition to hefty precipitation in much of the Midwest and parts of the Plains, there could also be snow in notably low elevations -- including in areas that rarely see measurable snowfall. Even the Los Angeles County mountains are included in a rare blizzard warning -- the first issued by the National Weather Service office there since 1989."

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Tuesday
Feb212023

February 21, 2023

Afternoon Update:

Aamer Madhani, et al., of the AP: “President Joe Biden, returning on Tuesday to the Polish castle where he spoke shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine last year, said the war had hardened Western resolve to defend democracy around the globe. He warned that there were 'hard and bitter days ahead,' but pledged that the United States and its allies would 'have Ukraine’s back' as the war enters its second year. 'Democracies of the world will stand guard over freedom today, tomorrow and forever,' he said at the Royal Castle, a historical landmark in Warsaw, before a cheering crowd of Polish citizens and Ukrainian refugees.”

Sarah Fitzpatrick of NBC News: “The Environmental Protection Agency announced a sweeping enforcement action against Norfolk Southern on Tuesday, compelling the rail company to conduct and pay for cleanup actions associated with the Feb. 3 derailment of a train carrying toxic chemicals in East Palestine, Ohio. 'The Norfolk Southern train derailment has upended the lives of East Palestine families, and EPA’s order will ensure the company is held accountable for jeopardizing the health and safety of this community,' said EPA Administrator Michael Regan in remarks prepared for a news conference in East Palestine. 'Let me be clear: Norfolk Southern will pay for cleaning up the mess they created and for the trauma they’ve inflicted on this community.' If the company fails to complete any of the actions ordered by the EPA, the agency will 'immediately' conduct the necessary work and then seek to compel Norfolk Southern to pay triple the cost.”

Steve Benen of MSNBC: “By some accounts, [House Speaker Kevin] McCarthy committed to the release [of all January 6 security footage] as part of the negotiations with his far-right detractors who initially stood in the way of him becoming speaker.... Axios was first to report ... [that] '... McCarthy has given Fox News’ Tucker Carlson exclusive access to 41,000 hours of Capitol surveillance footage from the Jan. 6 riot....'... The video tapes in question are official government materials. They don’t belong to one member, one party, or one cable channel; they belong to all of us. And yet, there’s the new House speaker, who apparently made a unilateral decision to give one controversial Fox News host exclusive access to 41,000 hours of surveillance footage. What could possibly go wrong?... Carlson lacks credibility on the issue.... [And there] is the extraordinary timing: It was just days ago when a new court filing presented evidence of Fox News hosts, including Carlson, deliberately promoting bogus election claims they knew to be false in order to pander to their audience and make more money.

“There are also security considerations to keep in mind. Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson, who chaired the Jan. 6 committee and now serves as the ranking member on the House Homeland Security Committee, said in a statement yesterday, 'It’s hard to overstate the potential security risks if this material were to be used irresponsibly.'... Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland ... ask[ed], 'What security precautions were taken to keep this from becoming a roadmap for 2024 insurrection?'”

     ~~~ Lauren Sforza of the Hill: “House Homeland Security Committee ranking Democrat Bennie Thompson (Miss.) on Monday blasted Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) for handing over tens of thousands of hours of riot footage from Jan. 6, 2021, to Fox News host Tucker Carlson.... 'If Speaker McCarthy has indeed granted Tucker Carlson — a Fox host who routinely spreads misinformation and [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s poisonous propaganda — and his producers access to this sensitive footage, he owes the American people an explanation of why he has done so and what steps he has taken to address the significant security concerns at stake,' Thompson said.... In 2021 [Carlson] produced 'Patriot Purge,' a documentary series that purports to tell an alternative story of the Jan. 6 insurrection and features at least one subject who suggests the event may have been a 'false flag' operation. Fox News staffers were reportedly angered by the series, and at least two contributors to the network resigned in protest.”

Danny Hakim of the New York Times: “A special grand jury that investigated election interference by ... Donald J. Trump and his allies in Georgia recommended indictments of multiple people on a range of charges in its report, most of which remains sealed, the forewoman of the jury said in an interview today. 'It is not a short list,' the forewoman, Emily Kohrs, said, adding that the jury had appended eight pages of legal code 'that we cited at various points in the report.'... Asked whether the jurors had recommended indicting Mr. Trump, Ms. Kohrs gave a cryptic answer: 'You’re not going to be shocked. It’s not rocket science,' adding 'you won’t be too surprised.'” At 2:20 pm ET Tuesday, this is a breaking story. ~~~

     ~~~ Kate Brumback of the AP: “The AP identified [special grand jury foreperson Emily] Kohrs after her name was included on subpoenas obtained through open records requests. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney advised Kohrs and other jurors on what they could and could not share publicly, including in interviews with the news media.... But her general characterizations provided unusual insight into a process that is typically cloaked in secrecy. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who was on the receiving end of Trump’s pressure campaign, was 'a really geeky kind of funny,' she said. State House Speaker David Ralston, who died in November, was hilarious and had the room in stitches. And Gov. Brian Kemp, who succeeded in delaying his appearance until after his reelection in November, seemed unhappy to be there.... Rudy Giuliani was funny and invoked privilege to avoid answering many questions but 'genuinely seemed to consider' whether it was merited before declining to answer, she said.” Read on.

Julia Shapero of the Hill: “Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) will leave Congress in June to take over as the president and CEO of the Rhode Island Foundation, his office announced on Tuesday.... Cicilline, who has represented Rhode Island’s 1st Congressional District since 2011, will officially step down June 1. Cicilline’s staff will continue to operate the district’s Rhode Island and Washington, D.C., offices until a new representative is chosen in a special election, his office said.” MB: Sad news.

California Senate Race. Jazmine Ulloa & Rein Epstein of the New York Times: “Representative Barbara Lee, who stood alone against authorizing military action after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and remains a leading antiwar voice in Congress, entered the 2024 Senate race in California on Tuesday, becoming the third prominent Democrat to run for the seat being vacated by Dianne Feinstein. Ms. Lee, 76, the highest-ranking Black woman appointed to Democratic leadership in the House, unveiled her Senate bid in a video that highlighted the racism she fought against in her youth and the struggles she faced as a single mother and a survivor of domestic violence.”

Mary Ilyushina, et al., of the Washington Post: “Russian President Vladimir Putin announced in a state of the nation address Tuesday that Moscow is 'suspending' its participation in the New START nuclear nonproliferation agreement, the last remaining arms control treaty between the United States and Russia. Putin said that Russia will not 'withdraw' completely from the treaty, which has been extended to run through Feb. 4, 2026, but that Russia would not allow NATO countries to inspect its nuclear arsenal. He accused the alliance of helping Ukraine conduct drone strikes on Russian air bases that host strategic bombers that are part of the country’s nuclear forces.” ~~~

     ~~~ David Sanger of the New York Times: “When President Vladimir V. Putin announced at the end of a 100-minute speech on Tuesday that he would suspend Russia’s participation in the New START treaty..., it was one more indication that the era of formal arms control may be dying.... He sounded like a leader who was done with arms control at a time of escalating confrontation with the United States and NATO. If that attitude holds, whoever is sitting in the Oval Office when the treaty expires in a bit more than 1,000 days may face a new world that will look, at first glance, similar to the one of a half-century ago, when arms races were in full swing and nations could field as many nuclear weapons as they wanted.”

~~~~~~~~~~

AP: "Russian President Vladimir Putin accused Western countries Tuesday of igniting and sustaining the war in Ukraine, dismissing any blame for Moscow almost a year after the Kremlin’s unprovoked invasion of its neighbor that has killed tens of thousands of people. In his long-delayed state-of-the-nation address, Putin cast Russia — and Ukraine — as victims of Western double-dealing and said Russia, not Ukraine, was the one fighting for its very existence."

The New York Times' live updates of developments Tuesday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here. "President Vladimir V. Putin is scheduled to deliver a state-of-the-nation speech in Moscow on Tuesday in which he is expected to double down on war goals despite not having achieved any of his objectives nearly a year into his full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Hours later and 800 miles away, President Biden is scheduled to deliver an address in Warsaw, the capital of neighboring Poland, a day after a brief but dramatic visit to Kyiv that highlighted the American commitment to supporting Ukraine. The speeches — three days before the anniversary of the Russian invasion — will offer a rare moment of almost direct confrontation between two leaders at opposing ends of the global order." ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live updates for Tuesday are here: "President Biden is due to meet with leaders of the Bucharest Nine during his visit to Europe this week. The group consists of nine countries that are part of NATO’s eastern flank: Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania and Slovakia. The leaders of Poland and Romania launched the Bucharest Nine in 2015, shortly after Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine." ~~~

     ~~~ The Guardian's live updates for Tuesday are here. The Guardian's summary report is here.

On Presidents' Day, a President Worthy of the Title. David Rothkopf of the Daily Beast: President “Biden joined a great history of American presidents standing up to Russian aggression, and significantly broke from the shameful actions of his predecessor.... Biden, in going to Kyiv, offered the clearest possible reminder of his stance against Russian aggression from the first moments of his presidency. It illustrated that he did not hesitate to support Ukraine when it was imperiled and that his leadership among our allies worldwide has been one of the signature triumphs of his first term in office.... To Vladimir Putin, it was Biden’s way of saying, 'I am here in Kyiv and you are not. You not only did not take Kyiv in days as some predicted, but your attack was rebuffed. Your army suffered a humiliating defeat from which it has not recovered.'...

Biden went to Europe to send Putin a message of American and allied strength. Trump went to grovel before Putin. Biden stood up for American values and our allies. Trump said he trusted Putin more than America’s own intelligence and law enforcement services. Biden embodied America’s strength. Trump illustrated and represented our greatest weakness. A year after Trump embarrassed the country in Helsinki, he compounded the offense by withholding aid from Ukraine in an attempt to extort [Volodymyr] Zelensky into doing political dirty work against Biden to help Trump’s reelection efforts.... [And] Biden’s trip sent an important reminder to Beijing just how high a priority Ukraine is for the U.S. and the West and presenting the war in the context of Russia’s violations of international law will emphasize to the Chinese that directly supporting Russia’s attack and serial war crimes would make China an accessory to those crimes.” Firewalled. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Mark Wright of the (right-wing) National Review: "President Biden’s secret visit to wartime Kyiv is an example of America in its finest tradition. The New York Times reports that after a “trans-Atlantic flight to Poland, Mr. Biden crossed the border by train, traveling for nearly 10 hours to Kyiv as other American officials have in recent months.' This trip took guts.... Make no mistake, there was risk involved in this trip. Traveling to the capital of a nation fighting a shooting war with a great power, the U.S. had no way to choreograph with exactitude the circumstances of his travel or arrival. Neither the U.S. nor Ukraine has total control of the airspace. Neither the U.S. nor Ukraine could guarantee Biden’s security on the ground.” Firewalled. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Evan Vucci, et al., of the AP: “President Joe Biden’s motorcade slipped out of the White House around 3:30 a.m. Sunday.... The president vanished into the darkness on an Air Force C-32, a modified Boeing 757 normally used for domestic trips to smaller airports.... Once Biden was secreted aboard the Air Force jet, the call sign 'SAM060,' for Special Air Mission, was used for the plane instead of the usual 'Air Force One.' It took off from Joint Base Andrews at 4:15 a.m. Eastern time.... After a refueling stop in Germany, Biden’s aircraft switched off its transponder for the roughly hour-long flight to Rzeszow, Poland, the airport that has served as the gateway for billions of dollars in Western arms and VIP visitors into Ukraine.... He arrived in Kyiv at 8 a.m. Monday and was greeted by Ambassador Bridget Brink and entered his motorcade for the drive to Mariinsky Palace.... Over the next five hours, the president made multiple stops around town — ferried about in a black SUV rather than the presidential limousine — without any announcement to the Ukrainian public that he was there.... A small group of senior officials at the White House and across U.S. national security agencies set about working in secret for months to make it happen, national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Monday. Biden only gave the final sign-off on Friday.” Read on. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) The New York Times story is here.

Peter Beaumont & Julian Borger of the Guardian: “The White House notified the Kremlin of Joe Biden’s intention to visit Kyiv hours before he departed for Ukraine, as the details began to emerge of how the US president pulled off his high-profile diplomatic coup. Meticulously planned over several months by a tight circle of key advisers, Biden’s visit was described as 'unprecedented in modern times' by his national security adviser, Jake Sullivan on the grounds that it was the first time a US president had visited 'the capital of the country at war where the United States military does not control the critical infrastructure.... We did notify the Russians that President Biden will be traveling to Kyiv, Sullivan said. 'We did so some hours before his departure for deconfliction purposes, and because of the sensitive nature of those communications I won’t get into how they responded or what the precise nature of our message was, but I can confirm that we provided that notice.'” (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

The Wingnuts Will Always Be With Us. Shannon Pettypiece of NBC News: “President Joe Biden’s surprise trip to Ukraine on Monday drew a variety of attacks from congressional Republicans who criticized his support for the war-torn country and accused him of neglecting issues back at home. 'You should be standing with East Palestine — an American town in your own country that needs your help,' tweeted Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz.... The President’s Day criticism, much of which came as Biden was still in the war zone, echoed Republicans who have accused Biden of neglecting the U.S. southern border and bearing some responsibility for the war in Ukraine.... Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene ... said the conflict has become a proxy war between the U.S. and China and should be ended immediately.” More on Miss Margie linked below.


Oh, My Kevin Has His Very Own January 6 Committee. It's Called TuKKKer Carlson. Mike Allen of Axios: "House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has given Fox News' Tucker Carlson exclusive access to 41,000 hours of Capitol surveillance footage from the Jan. 6 riot, McCarthy sources tell me. Carlson TV producers were on Capitol Hill last week to begin digging through the trove, which includes multiple camera angles from all over Capitol grounds. Excerpts will begin airing in the coming weeks.... Carlson has repeatedly questioned official accounts of 1/6, downplaying the insurrection as 'vandalism.'... The process with Carlson started in early February...." MB: For anyone who thought there was a chance My Kevin might grow into his job -- a job that's one of the most important in the country -- get over it. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) 

Uncivil War. Miss Margie Calls for Secession. Shannon Pettypiece of NBC News: “Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene called for the U.S. to be separated by red and blue states and for shrinking the federal government in a tweet on President's Day.... 'We need a national divorce. We need to separate by red states and blue states and shrink the federal government,' Greene, R-Ga., said in the tweet. '... From the sick and disgusting woke culture issues shoved down our throats to the Democrat’s traitorous America Last policies, we are done.'” ~~~

     ~~~ Steve Benen of MSNBC: "House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and GOP leaders recently rewarded Greene with committee assignments, including a slot on the House Homeland Security Committee. Are Republicans prepared to defend a member of the House Homeland Security Committee openly endorsing the dissolution of the United States?... GOP leaders should let the public know whether they’re comfortable with such a dynamic — and what they’re prepared to do in response if they’re not comfortable with such a dynamic.... The focus should be on McCarthy." MB: How can a person who proposes to destroy so-called homeland security sit on a committee committed to preserving the country's security?

Santos Lies About Lying Again. Jacob Kornbluh of the Forward: “Rep. George Santos ... appeared to double down in a new TV interview on Monday about his false claim that he had Jewish grandparents, and openly denied calling himself a member of the Jewish faith. 'I never claimed to be Jewish,' Santos said in a tense exchange with British television host Piers Morgan for the Piers Morgan Uncensored program, which airs in the United Kingdom and on the Fox Nation streaming service. Santos said it was a 'party favor joke' he used in public appearances to claim he was “Jew-ish” since 'my grandparents are Jewish on my mother’s side.' Santos publicly raised his Jewish ancestry and called himself a 'Latino Jew' and 'halachically Jewish' during last year’s campaign. He claimed his grandparents fled anti-Jewish persecution in Ukraine and then Belgium during World War II. In a two-page document that the Santos campaign shared last year with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and other Jewish groups, Santos described himself as a 'proud American Jew.' In a speech at the Republican Jewish Coalition conference after his election in November, Santos said he was proud to be one of three Jewish members of the Republican caucus.... However, a Forward review of genealogy websites showed that both of his maternal grandparents were born in Brazil before the Nazis rose to power.” Firewalled.

Congressional Race 2023. Meagan Flynn of the Washington Post: “State Sen. Jennifer L. McClellan (D-Richmond) will square off with Republican pastor Leon Benjamin on Tuesday as voters select their next member of Congress in a special election to fill the seat of Rep. A. Donald McEachin (D-Va.), who died in November. McClellan, a lawyer who has served in the Virginia General Assembly since 2006, is widely expected to prevail in the deep-blue, Richmond-anchored 4th Congressional District. Benjamin has run for the seat twice and lost to McEachin in November by roughly 30 percentage points, weeks before McEachin died following a long battle with the secondary effects of cancer treatment.”

Cat Zakrzewski & Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: “The Supreme Court on Tuesday will hear oral arguments in Gonzalez v. Google, a lawsuit that argues tech companies should be legally liable for harmful content that their algorithms promote. The Gonzalez family contends that by recommending ISIS-related content, Google’s YouTube acted as a recruiting platform for the group in violation of U.S. laws against aiding and abetting terrorists.At stake is Section 230, a provision written in 1996, years before the founding of Google and most modern tech giants, but one that courts have found shields platforms from culpability over the posts, photos and videos that people share on their services.”

Michael Schmidt, et al., of the New York Times: “James O’Keefe, who as the leader of the conservative group Project Veritas used theatrical stunts, undercover stings and other deceptive tactics in efforts to inflict embarrassment and charges of hypocrisy and wrongdoing on perceived liberal enemies in politics and the media, has left his post, Mr. O’Keefe disclosed on Monday. His departure came amid an uproar among the group’s staff about his leadership style, his treatment of subordinates and his use of the group’s funds for high-priced expenses like flights on a private plane. It also came in the midst of an ongoing Justice Department investigation into how Project Veritas acquired a diary kept by Ashley Biden, President Biden’s daughter, before the 2020 election. Mr. O’Keefe’s home was searched by F.B.I. agents with a warrant in the fall of 2021 as part of the investigation. Project Veritas’s board put Mr. O’Keefe on paid leave earlier this month.” Politico's story is here; it describes O'Keefe as having been stripped of his post.

Fox's Main Source for Election Fraud Claims: a Headless, Semi-Conscious Time-Traveler. David Folkenflik of NPR: "A woman who says the wind talks to her and put forth claims of election fraud in the 2020 presidential race that she admitted were 'pretty wackadoodle' turns out to be a key source of allegations that Fox News presented, night after night, to millions of viewers late that fall. Joe Biden's victory caused Fox News personalities to all but melt down on the air.... Fox News and the Fox Business Network turned at least a dozen times to a pro-Trump attorney named Sidney Powell who, when pressed for evidence, forwarded a memo entitled 'Election Fraud Info' to Fox anchor Maria Bartiromo.... The author of the memo in which Powell and Bartiromo put so much stock offered detailed and utterly false claims of how Dominion Voting Systems helped rig the election for Biden. She also ... [wrote] that she gains insights from experiencing something 'like time-travel in a semi-conscious state.... Who am I? And how do I know all of this?... I've had the strangest dreams since I was a little girl,' the woman wrote in the email shared by Powell with Bartiromo and [then-Fox Business host Lou] Dobbs. 'I was internally decapitated, and yet, I live.'... David Clark, then the senior executive over Fox's weekend shows, later said under oath to Dominion's lawyers that he 'would not have allowed that claim to be aired,' had he known this memo was the sole foundation of the 'crazy' theories."

Julia Jacobs of the New York Times: “Prosecutors have downgraded the involuntary manslaughter charges against Alec Baldwin, significantly reducing the possible prison time for the actor, who was holding the gun that discharged on the 'Rust' movie set, killing the film’s cinematographer. Mr. Baldwin’s lawyers argued this month that the Santa Fe County district attorney had incorrectly charged the actor under a version of a New Mexico firearm law that was passed months after the fatal shooting in October 2021. If convicted under that law, called a firearm enhancement, Mr. Baldwin would have received a minimum prison sentence of five years. Instead, he now faces a maximum of 18 months in prison.”

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