January 17, 2023

Julia Mueller of the Hill: "President Biden on Monday called Republicans 'fiscally demented' and knocked GOP priorities during the keynote speech at the National Action Network's (NAN) annual breakfast to mark Martin Luther King Jr. Day.... Biden in his speech offered sweeping remarks on his administration's work on civil rights and called out Republicans for their economic stances in light of disparities faced by minority communities.... Biden also talked about building Black generational wealth by chipping away at economic disparities and closing the racial wealth gap -- refocusing on funding for historically Black colleges and universities and 'aggressively' combating discrimination in housing. And the president reiterated calls to ban assault weapons, protect abortion rights and pardon marijuana possession charges. He said he didn't 'want to hear a word from the other side' about his plan to forgive student loan debt."

M.J. Lee & Kevin Liptak of CNN: "The White House counsel's office says there are no visitors logs that track guests who come and go at President Joe Biden's home in Wilmington, Delaware. House Republicans have been demanding that the White House turn over all information related to misplaced classified documents from Biden's time as vice president, including any visitors logs to Biden's private residence and who might have had access to his private office in Washington, DC, where the first batch of documents were discovered in early November. 'Like every President across decades of modern history, his personal residence is personal,' the counsel's office said in a statement Monday morning. 'But upon taking office, President Biden restored the norm and tradition of keeping White House visitors logs, including publishing them regularly, after the previous administration ended them.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Republicans Are Full of It. Michael Shear of the New York Times: "'The Secret Service doesn't maintain visitor logs at the private residences of protectees,' [Anthony] Guglielmi[, communications chief for the Secret Service,] said. 'The visitor logs that are kept at government buildings are part of the National Archives and Records Administration, and while we have access to those, we are not the custodian of those records and logs.'... On social media on Monday, [Donald Trump] mocked [President] Biden for keeping classified documents in his home. He also bragged: 'Mar-a-Lago is a highly secured facility, with Security Cameras all over the place, and watched over by staff & our great Secret Service. I have INFO on everyone!' But Mr. Biden's Republican critics, like [Rep. James] Comer [Ky.], are seeking transparency in ways they have not for Mr. Trump. Asked on Monday whether the Oversight Committee would be requesting from Mr. Trump the 'INFO on everyone' from Mar-a-Lago, a spokesman for Mr. Comer declined to answer....

"'Either completely uninformed or deliberately misleading,' Eric Schultz, who was a spokesman for President Barack Obama, tweeted on Monday [about Republican demands for Mr. Biden's home logs].... Mr. Schultz noted that there were no logs kept for the homes of Mr. Trump, former President George W. Bush or former President George H.W. Bush. 'No logs from Trump's homes, Crawford ranch, Kennebunkport, or any President's family home,' he wrote."

David Nakamura of the Washington Post: Attorney General Merrick Garland believes the Justice "Department's civil rights work is just as essential as its high-profile probes of ... Donald Trump..., especially as a deeply polarized country faces spiking hate crimes, heightened scrutiny of abusive policing, attempts to restrict voting access and a judicial rollback of federal abortion protections. Those challenges and others have led Garland to push for a department-wide focus on civil rights cases that is drawing praise from longtime advocates, even as they worry that the litany of injustices the agency is trying to address could overwhelm available resources and muddy its sense of mission."

Jennifer Hansler & Kylie Atwood of CNN: "An American wrongfully detained in Iran is calling on President Joe Biden to take notice of US detainees there, launching a hunger strike Monday to mark seven years since he was left behind in a prisoner swap that brought other Americans home. In a letter to Biden, Siamak Namazi called on the US president to think of him every day for the seven days he intends to carry out the hunger strike commemorating the grim milestone. 'In the past I implored you to reach for your moral compass and find the resolve to bring the US hostages in Iran home. To no avail. Not only do we remain Iran's prisoners, but you have not so much as granted our families a meeting,' wrote Namazi, who is one of three Americans who remain wrongfully detained in Iran. Emad Shargi and Morad Tahbaz have also been imprisoned there for years." (Also linked yesterday.)

Isaac Stanley-Becker & Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: "George Santos ... has deeper ties than previously known to a businessman who cultivated close links with a onetime Trump confidant and who is the cousin of a sanctioned Russian oligarch.... Andrew Intrater and his wife each gave the maximum $5,800 to Santos' main campaign committee and tens of thousands more since 2020 to committees linked to him, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission. Intrater's cousin is Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg, who has been sanctioned by the U.S. government for his role in the Russian energy industry. The relationship between Santos and Intrater goes beyond campaign contributions.... The evidence suggests Santos may have had a business relationship with Intrater as Santos was first entering politics in 2020. It also shows, according to the SEC filing, that Intrater put hundreds of thousands of dollars into Santos' onetime employer, Harbor City, which was accused by regulators of running a Ponzi scheme." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ The Volleyball Chronicles, Ctd.

Episode 1 Recap. In the pilot episode, we learned that George Santos told the Nassau County GOP chairman that he was a star player (WashPo link) on the Baruch College volleyball team. We knew, however, that this could not have been possible inasmuch as George did not attend Baruch College, much less earn a degree there, as he claimed.

Episode 2 Recap. In this episode, we heard audio of George on the phone with New York City radio personality Sid & friends and told an elaborate story about how he went to Baruch on a volleyball scholarship, starred on this top East Coast team, and put so much into the game that he required two knee replacements. It was a fairly elaborate story, but all made up. Or so we thought. (See yesterday's Reality Chex page for audio as well as commentary in the Comments section.)

Episode 3. In today's episode, we learn that George did not make up that story about starring on the volleyball team. No sirree. he stole it. Virginia Chamlee of People (Jan. 13): "... a new report suggests that some of the 'key elements' of Santos' story bear a striking resemblance to the resume of his former boss, Pablo Oliveira. Inside Edition reports that Oliveira, who was Santos' boss at financial services company LinkBridge Investors, graduated from Baruch University, where he played on the school's winning volleyball team and was a two-time All-American volleyball player." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: And here I was going to give George credit for his imaginative Fake biography. Turns out he's just an identity thief. Some enterprising journalist should find Pablo & ask him about his artificial knees. BTW, the volleyball tale is scarcely the first instanced in which Santos resorted to identity theft to further his own aims. When he lived in Brazil, he kited checks with a stolen checkbook. And one of his campaign aides impersonated Kevin McCarthy's chief-of-staff when soliciting campaign donations; I'm just going to speculate (without evidence) that this ploy was George's idea.

"Six Things People Believe about Politics That Are Totally Wrong." Paul Waldman of the Washington Post: "If members of Congress read bills before voting on them, legislation would be better.... If only we stopped wasteful spending, we'd solve most of our problems.... My family balances its budget. Why shouldn't the government?... Government should be run like a business.... The parties need to stop the partisan squabbling and get things done.... We need more people in Congress who aren't politicians."

Sarah Burris of the Raw Story: "... members of Twitter's safety policy team spoke on a video conference to talk about expectations for Jan. 6, 2021.... According to information that was turned over to the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack, the safety policy and Twitter management team were fighting over whether to take a tougher stance on the incitement of violence by Donald Trump, Rolling Stone reported Monday.... [Ultimately,] Twitter didn't use their 'coded-incitement-to-violence policy,' Rolling Stone noted.... The video is part of a collection of evidence that still hasn't been released by the Jan. 6 committee but it's now in the hands of the Justice Department."

Beyond the Beltway

New Mexico. Republican Arrested for (Allegedly!) Shooting at Democrats' Homes & Offices. Remy Tumin of the New York Times: "The authorities in Albuquerque said on Monday that a former Republican candidate who lost his bid for a State House seat in November had been arrested in connection with a series of recent shootings at the homes and offices of a half-dozen Democratic elected officials. Chief Harold Medina of the Albuquerque Police Department said at a news conference that the former candidate, Solomon Peña, was 'the mastermind' behind a conspiracy in which four other men were paid to shoot at the homes of two county commissioners and two state legislators. Mr. Peña lost the election in a landslide to an incumbent Democrat, Miguel Garcia, but refused to concede after making unfounded claims of election fraud. Chief Medina said a gun that was found during the arrest of another suspect in the shootings last week was later linked to Mr. Peña.... Kyle Hartsock ... of the Police Department's homicide unit..., said there was evidence that Mr. Peña pulled the trigger at a shooting on Jan. 3." The AP's story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Rachel Maddow said Monday that a young girl was at home during of one of the shootings, and that three bullets were found in the room where the girl was sleeping.

Way Beyond

China. Alexandra Stevenson & Zixu Wang of the New York Times: "... China's population has begun to shrink, after a steady, yearslong decline in its birthrate that experts say is irreversible. The government said on Tuesday that 9.56 million people were born in China last year, while 10.41 million people died. It was the first time deaths had outnumbered births in China since the Great Leap Forward, Mao Zedong's failed economic experiment that led to widespread famine and death in the 1960s." ~~~

Keith Bradsher of the New York Times: "The Chinese economy had one of its worst performances in decades last year as growth was dragged down by numerous Covid lockdowns followed by a deadly outbreak in December that swept across the country with remarkable speed. China grew 3 percent for the year, numbers released Tuesday show, much less than in 2021 and short of Beijing's target of 5.5 percent. Other than 2020, it was the most disappointing showing since 1976, the year Mao Zedong died, when the economy declined 1.6 percent.... Despite the blow inflicted by 'zero Covid,' China appears to have grown faster last year than major rivals like the United States, Japan and Germany, all of which are estimated by economists to have expanded less than 2 percent last year."

Italy. Jason Horowitz & Gaia Pianigiani of the New York Times: "... on Monday, after 30 years on the lam and achieving infamy as Italy's most wanted fugitive, Matteo Messina Denaro, 60, the last Italian mobster linked to a savage period in which Sicily's 'black hand' declared war on the Italian state, was quietly arrested outside a clinic in Palermo after he showed up under an alias for a medical appointment.... Italian officials, including the prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, who flew to Sicily to congratulate local law enforcement, immediately heralded the arrest as proof that justice, even if slow, would ultimately catch up with the country's mobsters."

Ukraine, et al.

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

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live updates for Tuesday are here: "An adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky resigned after suggesting Ukrainian air defense systems may have been responsible for the deadly damage in Dnipro to an apartment building, which was mostly destroyed Saturday as Russian missiles rained down across Ukraine. The adviser, Oleksiy Arestovych, later distanced himself from the suggestion, but it was used by the Kremlin to cast doubt on who was to blame. Arestovych apologized on Ukrainian television and said in a letter announcing his resignation that he had made a.fundamental error.'... On Monday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russia does not strike residential buildings and suggested that Ukraine's air defenses may have been responsible, echoing Arestovych's claim.... It is 'highly likely' that a Russian bomber hit the Dnipro building with an AS-4 'Kitchen' anti-ship missile, Britain's Defense Ministry said, adding that the missile is notoriously inaccurate in urban settings.... A joint military exercise involving Russia and Belarus kicked off Monday, the Belarusian Defense Ministry said."

Andrew Kramer & Megan Specia of the New York Times: "... emergency workers [in Dnipro, Ukraine,] found one body after another on Monday, lifting them out of the cratered wreckage that had once been bedrooms and kitchens in one of Ukraine's largest cities. The crews reported a new toll on Monday, days after the desperate search began: at least 40 people killed by a Russian strike over the weekend, one of the single deadliest for civilians since Russia invaded Ukraine nearly a year ago.... In addition to the 40 dead, at least 75 people were wounded in the strike and 34 remained unaccounted for as of Monday afternoon, Ukraine's State Emergency Service said in a post on Telegram.... Dnipro, the city where the ordinary, nine-story apartment building had stood, is far from the front lines where Ukrainian and Russian troops have been fighting viciously over abandoned villages and even mere yards of land. But the strike on Saturday fit a pattern of Russia firing long-range missiles at civilian targets...." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Meanwhile, I heard on the news Monday that Putin said the war was "going according to plan."

Dan Lamothe of the Washington Post: Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, "on Monday visited two sites in Germany used by the U.S. military to enhance the fighting skills of their Ukrainian counterparts.... The general's visit marked his first trip to this facility in the muddy Bavarian countryside since Russia's invasion of Ukraine nearly a year ago. The base, covering roughly 90 square miles, began hosting Ukrainian forces in 2014, when Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimean peninsula. It's now the site of a newly expanded regimen for the Ukrainian military..."

Loveday Morris of the Washington Post: "German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht resigned Monday after a series of missteps that cast doubt on her ability to lead her country's response to the war on Ukraine.... The embattled politician, a member of [Chancellor Olaf] Scholz's Social Democrats, had faced mounting pressure to step aside after a widely slammed New Year's Eve message and revelations she took her son by military helicopter to northern Germany for a holiday. The public relations blunders added fuel to broader criticism of her handling of the war response at the Defense Ministry and a planned revamp of the country's military." A Politico story is here.

Matt Murphy of the BBC: "A former commander with the Russian paramilitary Wagner Group has claimed asylum in Norway after deserting from the mercenary outfit. Andrey Medvedev, 26, crossed the border into Norway last Friday, where he was detained by border guards. He is currently being held in the Oslo area where he faces charges of illegal entry to Norway, his lawyer Brynjulf Risnes told the BBC. Mr Risnes said his client left Wagner after witnessing war crimes in Ukraine."

January 16, 2023

Afternoon Update:

M.J. Lee & Kevin Liptak of CNN: "The White House counsel's office says there are no visitors logs that track guests who come and go at President Joe Biden's home in Wilmington, Delaware. House Republicans have been demanding that the White House turn over all information related to misplaced classified documents from Biden's time as vice president, including any visitors logs to Biden's private residence and who might have had access to his private office in Washington, DC, where the first batch of documents were discovered in early November. 'Like every President across decades of modern history, his personal residence is personal,' the counsel's office said in a statement Monday morning. 'But upon taking office, President Biden restored the norm and tradition of keeping White House visitors logs, including publishing them regularly, after the previous administration ended them.'"

Jennifer Hansler & Kylie Atwood of CNN: "An American wrongfully detained in Iran is calling on President Joe Biden to take notice of US detainees there, launching a hunger strike Monday to mark seven years since he was left behind in a prisoner swap that brought other Americans home. In a letter to Biden, Siamak Namazi called on the US president to think of him every day for the seven days he intends to carry out the hunger strike commemorating the grim milestone. 'In the past I implored you to reach for your moral compass and find the resolve to bring the US hostages in Iran home. To no avail. Not only do we remain Iran's prisoners, but you have not so much as granted our families a meeting,' wrote Namazi, who is one of three Americans who remain wrongfully detained in Iran. Emad Shargi and Morad Tahbaz have also been imprisoned there for years."

Isaac Stanley-Becker & Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: "George Santos ... has deeper ties than previously known to a businessman who cultivated close links with a onetime Trump confidant and who is the cousin of a sanctioned Russian oligarch.... Andrew Intrater and his wife each gave the maximum $5,800 to Santos' main campaign committee and tens of thousands more since 2020 to committees linked to him, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission. Intrater's cousin is Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg, who has been sanctioned by the U.S. government for his role in the Russian energy industry. The relationship between Santos and Intrater goes beyond campaign contributions.... The evidence suggests Santos may have had a business relationship with Intrater as Santos was first entering politics in 2020. It also shows, according to the SEC filing, that Intrater put hundreds of thousands of dollars into Santos' onetime employer, Harbor City, which was accused by regulators of running a Ponzi scheme."

~~~~~~~~~~~

Esau McCaulley in a New York Times op-ed: "In 1968, four days before he was shot on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his last Sunday sermon at the Washington National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. It was entitled, 'Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution,' and although King doesn't say the word 'woke,' he uses the concept as it was understood by many Black folks then, well before the term was co-opted by the political right to refer to any left-leaning policy that it wanted to condemn. King opened his sermon by ... ... [noting that in Washington Irving's story 'Rip Van Winkle,' when Rip went to sleep, King George III reigned, and when he awoke, George Washington had become president.... King believed that too many Americans, especially those in its churches, were also snoozing through a time ripe for transformation.... But the war on 'wokeness' will no doubt continue."

Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times: Martin Luther "King [Jr.] first delivered 'A Christmas Sermon on Peace' on Christmas Eve, 1967, at Ebenezer Baptist Church, where he served as co-pastor.... [His] message of obligation and interconnectedness is as relevant today as ever.... To connect to laborers around the world, to see that their struggles relate to ours and ours relate to theirs, is to begin to forge the 'network of mutuality' that we will need to tackle our global problems as well as to confront the obstacles to our collective liberation from domination and hierarchy"

Peter Baker of the New York Times: "None of the sweeping voting rights measures [President Biden] championed passed the Democratic-controlled Congress last year, and the prospects of any passing a newly elected Republican-controlled House seem vanishingly small. And so a leader who arguably owes his presidency to the critical and timely support of Black voters in 2020 was left to offer only vague exhortations of hope and no concrete policy plans or legislative strategies. He assured an audience at Dr. King's fabled Ebenezer Baptist Church that its side in the struggle would, indeed, overcome someday."

Stephen Neukam of the Hill: "Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) is pressing the White House to release the visitor log for President Biden's Delaware residence, as Republicans ratchet up their probe into the recent discovery of Obama-era classified documents from Biden's time as vice president. 'Given the serious national security implications, the White House must provide the Wilmington residence's visitor log,' Comer wrote in a letter to Biden's chief of staff, Ron Klain." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Wait, wait! Trump wouldn't release even the White House visitor logs [NYT link], much less the visitor logs to Bedminster and Mar-a-Lardo, where he hoarded secret documents, and now Republicans demand visitor logs to Biden's private home? These people cannot see themselves.

"A Perfect Fit." Isaac Stanley-Becker, et al., of the Washington Post: "In July 2020, a small Florida-based investment firm announced that a man named George Devolder had been hired as its New York regional director. 'When we had the opportunity to welcome him to our team, I was delighted,' the company's founder and chief executive said in a news release. 'He's a perfect fit.' Devolder is now better known as George Santos, the 34-year-old freshman Republican congressman from New York's 3rd Congressional District who brazenly lied to voters about key details of his biography. And the company for which he was 'a perfect fit,' Harbor City Capital, is no longer in operation. Its assets were frozen in 2021, when the Securities and Exchange Commission accused it of running a 'classic Ponzi scheme' that had defrauded investors of millions of dollars. The SEC complaint did not name Santos, who has denied knowledge of the alleged wrongdoing.... Records ... obtained by the Washington Post, as well as interviews..., reveal how the firm ... acquainted [Santos] with business associates who have gone on to play notable roles in his scandal-plagued political career." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Worth bookmarking if you want to remind yourself some day about how sleazy people operate. Oh, and a cameo appearance by Don Junior & the lovely Kimberly. And it's good to learn What's-His-Name had yet another alias: George Devolder. He said he used the name to keep his political ambitions & professional career separate; in fact, it appears he used his political contacts to try to secure investors in the Ponzi scheme and his wealthy contacts to enhance his political schemes. ~~~

~~~ The Fantastical Volleyball Career of George Santos. BTW, George did not attend Baruch College, did not have any first-hand knowledge of Baruch professors' in-class methods, was not graduated from Baruch College, was not on the Baruch College volleyball team and did not get knee injuries as a result of playing for that team. Otherwise, quite a bit of what he says in this audio tape is true*:

     * Update: Oops, George lied about other stuff in this short audio, too. See Akhilleus' commentary below.

George Santos on tape here lying about being a volleyball star at Baruch College, and claims he got two knee replacements as a result. pic.twitter.com/6FU9itVjLa

— Steven Dennis (@StevenTDennis) January 15, 2023

Beyond the Beltway

Missouri. Marie: The New York Times just got around to publishing an article (by Eduardo Medina) on the Missouri House's revision of the dress code for women members, and that has irritated me all over again. "'I think we're being quite pedantic here by making rules so petty,' State Representative Raychel Proudie, a Democrat, said on Wednesday in the chamber. 'And what it will ultimately lead to is the disenfranchisement of folks. For example, they don't make jackets or blazers for women who are pregnant. That can be very uncomfortable.'" Well, gosh, can't those pregnant ladies just knit themselves a super-sized cardigan wardrobe? They should learn to knit, you know. I think all the House Democrats -- men and women -- should get together one day and show up in bathing suits or hula outfits or pjs or whatever they feel like. Then let's see what happens. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

You can tell the English, you can tell the Dutch. You can tell the Trumpies, but you can't tell 'em much. As contributor Jeanne & others repeatedly remind us, it's the GQP party. And if you live in Lycoming County, Pa., the local stars of that party just wasted your tax dollars: ~~~

~~~ Pennsylvania. Trip Gabriel of the New York Times: "On the 797th day after the defeat of ... Donald J. Trump, a rural Pennsylvania county on Monday began a recount of ballots from Election Day 2020. Under pressure from conspiracy theorists and election deniers, 28 employees of Lycoming County counted -- by hand -- nearly 60,000 ballots. It took three days and an estimated 560 work hours.... The results of Lycoming County's hand recount -- like earlier recounts of the 2020 election in Wisconsin, Georgia and Arizona -- revealed no evidence of fraud. The numbers reported more than two years ago were nearly identical to the numbers reported on Thursday. Mr. Trump ended up with seven fewer votes than were recorded on voting machines in 2020. Joseph R. Biden Jr. had 15 fewer votes. Overall, Mr. Trump gained eight votes against his rival.... [That did not] quell the doubts of election deniers, who had circulated a petition claiming there was a likelihood of 'rampant fraud' in Lycoming in 2020[.]... The county director of elections ... attributed the slight discrepancies between the hand recount and voting machine results to human error in reading ambiguous marks on the paper ballots. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.

     ~~~ Marie: One of the "proofs" of fraud cited by petitioners who implored the county to conduct a recount: "registered Republicans grew their numbers in Lycoming County compared with Democrats from 2016 to 2020," so if was unpossible for Biden to get more votes than Hillary Clinton. They didn't seem to notice that Trump got 16 percent more votes in 2020 than he did in 2016. These people are not very bright.

Way Beyond

Ukraine, et al.

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

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live briefing for Monday is here: "The death toll from a weekend missile strike on an apartment building in Dnipro has risen to at least 35, according to the local governor, with a similar number of residents unaccounted for. Kyiv renewed its calls for more advanced Western air defense systems after the strike, a plea that was echoed by civilians gathered at the scene.'How many other people have to die until the world will see us?' asked Aziza Nosenko, 30, a baker who was handing out sandwiches to volunteer rescuers Sunday. Meanwhile, Kyiv and Moscow continue to dispute control of the eastern salt mining town of Soledar, a gateway to the city of Bakhmut that has been the focus of recent fighting. Russia claims to have seized the town, but Ukraine's 46th Air Assault Brigade said Ukrainian soldiers are still fighting there.

Dan Lamothe of the Washington Post: "The U.S. military has launched an expanded, more sophisticated training program of Ukrainian forces that is focused on large-scale combat and meant to bolster Ukraine's ability to take back territory from Russian forces, the Pentagon's top general said Sunday. Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on a flight from Washington to Europe that the training began Sunday at the Grafenwoehr Training Area in Germany and will continue for five or six weeks. About 500 soldiers will go through the initial version of training...."

Keeping It Classy. Bryan Pietsch of the Washington Post: "Dmitry Medvedev, Russia's former president and a senior security official in President Vladimir Putin's administration, said Saturday that Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida should perform a ritualistic suicide by disembowelment to repent for what Medvedev called servitude to the United States.... Medvedev's remarks were in response to a joint statement Friday by President Biden and Kishida, in which the leaders said that 'any use of a nuclear weapon by Russia in Ukraine would be an act of hostility against humanity and unjustifiable in any way." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

News Lede

New York Times: "Gina Lollobrigida, the Italian movie actress who became one of the post-World War II era's first major European sex symbols, died on Monday in Rome. She was 95."

January 15, 2023

Afternoon Update:

"A Perfect Fit." Isaac Stanley-Becker, et al., of the Washington Post: "In July 2020, a small Florida-based investment firm announced that a man named George Devolder had been hired as its New York regional director. 'When we had the opportunity to welcome him to our team, I was delighted,' the company's founder and chief executive said in a news release. 'He's a perfect fit.' Devolder is now better known as George Santos, the 34-year-old freshman Republican congressman from New York's 3rd Congressional District who brazenly lied to voters about key details of his biography. And the company for which he was 'a perfect fit,' Harbor City Capital, is no longer in operation. Its assets were frozen in 2021, when the Securities and Exchange Commission accused it of running a 'classic Ponzi scheme' that had defrauded investors of millions of dollars. The SEC complaint did not name Santos, who has denied knowledge of the alleged wrongdoing.... Records ... obtained by the Washington Post, as well as interviews..., reveal how the firm ... acquainted [Santos] with business associates who have gone on to play notable roles in his scandal-plagued political career." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Worth bookmarking if you want to remind yourself about how sleazy people operate. Oh, and a cameo appearance by Don Junior & the lovely Kimberly. And it's good to learn What's-His-Name had yet another alias: George Devolder. He said he used the name to keep his political ambitions & professional career separate; in fact, it appears to me he used his political contacts to try to secure investors in the Ponzi scheme and his wealthy contacts to enhance his political schemes. ~~~

~~~ The Fantastical Volleyball Career of George Santos. BTW, George did not attend Baruch College, did not have any first-hand knowledge of Baruch professors' in-class methods, was not graduated from Baruch College, was not on the Baruch College volleyball team and did not get knee injuries as a result of playing for that team. Otherwise, quite a bit of what he says in this audio tape is true:

George Santos on tape here lying about being a volleyball star at Baruch College, and claims he got two knee replacements as a result. pic.twitter.com/6FU9itVjLa

— Steven Dennis (@StevenTDennis) January 15, 2023

Missouri. Marie: The New York Times just got around to publishing an article (by Eduardo Medina) on the Missouri House's revision of the dress code for women members, and that has irritated me all over again. "'I think we're being quite pedantic here by making rules so petty,' State Representative Raychel Proudie, a Democrat, said on Wednesday in the chamber. 'And what it will ultimately lead to is the disenfranchisement of folks. For example, they don't make jackets or blazers for women who are pregnant. That can be very uncomfortable.'" Well, gosh, can't those pregnant ladies just knit themselves a super-sized cardigan wardrobe? They should learn to knit, you know. I think all the House Democrats -- men and women -- should get together one day and show up in bathing suits or hula outfits or pjs or whatever they feel like. Then let's see what happens.

You can tell the English, you can tell the Dutch. You can tell the Trumpies, but you can't tell 'em much. As contributor Jeanne & others repeatedly remind us, it's the GQP party. And if you live in Lycoming County, Pa., the local stars of that party just wasted your tax dollars: ~~~

~~~ Pennsylvania. Trip Gabriel of the New York Times: "On the 797th day after the defeat of former President Donald J. Trump, a rural Pennsylvania county on Monday began a recount of ballots from Election Day 2020. Under pressure from conspiracy theorists and election deniers, 28 employees of Lycoming County counted -- by hand -- nearly 60,000 ballots. It took three days and an estimated 560 work hours.... The results of Lycoming County's hand recount -- like earlier recounts of the 2020 election in Wisconsin, Georgia and Arizona -- revealed no evidence of fraud. The numbers reported more than two years ago were nearly identical to the numbers reported on Thursday. Mr. Trump ended up with seven fewer votes than were recorded on voting machines in 2020. Joseph R. Biden Jr. had 15 fewer votes. Overall, Mr. Trump gained eight votes against his rival.... [That did not] quell the doubts of election deniers, who had circulated a petition claiming there was a likelihood of 'rampant fraud' in Lycoming in 2020[.]... The county director of elections ... attributed the slight discrepancies between the hand recount and voting machine results to human error in reading ambiguous marks on the paper ballots."

     ~~~ Marie: One of the "proofs" of fraud cited by petitioners who implored the county to conduct a recount: "registered Republicans grew their numbers in Lycoming County compared with Democrats from 2016 to 2020," so if was unpossible for Biden to get more votes than Hillary Clinton. They didn't seem to notice that Trump got 16 percent more votes in 2020 than he did in 2016. These people are not very bright.

Keeping It Classy. Russia. Bryan Pietsch of the Washington Post: "Dmitry Medvedev, Russia's former president and a senior security official in President Vladimir Putin's administration, said Saturday that Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida should perform a ritualistic suicide by disembowelment to repent for what Medvedev called servitude to the United States.... Medvedev's remarks were in response to a joint statement Friday by President Biden and Kishida, in which the leaders said that 'any use of a nuclear weapon by Russia in Ukraine would be an act of hostility against humanity and unjustifiable in any way."

~~~~~~~~~~~

Drippity-Doo-Dah. Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "President Biden's aides found additional pages of classified information at his Delaware home this week, the White House said on Saturday, bringing the tally to six pages uncovered this week. The additional pages, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said, were discovered hours after a White House statement on Thursday that cited only one that had turned up in a storage area adjacent to the garage of his Wilmington home. Justice Department employees had gone to retrieve that page, which Mr. Biden's aides had discovered the night before. The revelation came as Mr. Biden's lawyers provided new details about their unfolding discovery over the past two months of classified materials from his time as vice president at his house and an office he used before beginning his 2020 campaign for the White House." Savage goes into those details, including adding to the timeline & providing a rationale/explanation for the initial delay. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Zeke Miller of the AP: "Lawyers for President Joe Biden found more classified documents at his home in Wilmington, Delaware, than previously known, the White House acknowledged Saturday. White House lawyer Richard Sauber said in a statement that a total of six pages of classified documents were found during a search of Bide's private library. The White House had said previously that only a single page was found there. The latest disclosure is in addition to the discovery of documents found in December in Biden's garage and in November at his former offices at the Penn Biden Center in Washington, from his time as vice president." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Adriana Diaz, et al., of CBS News: "The approximately 10 documents marked classified and discovered at the Penn Biden Center included top-secret material, according to a federal law enforcement official familiar with the investigation.... Fewer than 10 documents marked classified were found at the Biden residence in Wilmington, Del., and none were marked top secret. In all, the source said, the total number of known documents marked classified is roughly 20, between the two locations."

Jon Levine of the New York Post: "Embattled GOP Rep. George Santos wore stolen clothing to an election rally which accused President Biden of stealing the 2020 presidential election, according to a former roommate. Gregory Morey-Parker, who once lived with Santos in a Queens apartment, told Patch he was '100 percent' sure Santos was wearing his own Burberry scarf when the future Congressman attended a 'Stop the Steal' rally at the Capitol on Jan. 5, 2021.... Patch also published screenshots of a 2020 text between Morey-Parker and Yasser Rabello, another one-time roommate, discussing the stolen scarf and other clothes they say Santos swiped. Both men had previously come forward to the local news website to allege Santos had pilfered phones, dress shirts, and checks from a checkbook."

Way Beyond the Beltway

Ukraine, et al. The Washington Post's live updates of developments Sunday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "The death toll from a weekend attack on a residential apartment block in Dnipro rose to at least 18 people, the regional governor said early Sunday. Dozens were injured Saturday in the attack, which shattered the relative calm in a central Ukrainian city that had previously served as a safe haven for people displaced from other regions. Ukrainian officials claimed Saturday's strike, which tore through a high-rise building, was caused by a long-range Russian missile that Ukraine's military was not 'capable of shooting down.'... Kyiv has long lobbied for more advanced Western air defense systems, and Ukraine's armed forces said defensive weapons such as the Patriot missile system that the Pentagon is preparing to send could have been capable of intercepting such an attack....

"Missile attacks on Dnipro and several other cities, including the capital, Kyiv, come as Western allies prepare to send more advanced military equipment to Ukraine. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a phone call on Saturday that the United Kingdom would provide Challenger 2 tanks, along with additional artillery systems, following a pledge by the United States, Germany and France to send advanced infantry fighting vehicles. Ukrainian forces have been using Soviet-era tanks.... The Ukrainian air force said on Telegram that it had shot down 25 of 38 rockets launched by Russian forces on Saturday as part of a massive attack on infrastructure."

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

China. David Pierson & Olivia Wang of the New York Times: "China said on Saturday that it had recorded nearly 60,000 fatalities linked to the coronavirus in the month since the country lifted its strict 'zero Covid' policy, accelerating an outbreak that is believed to have infected millions of people. The disclosure was the first time China has provided an official measure of the Covid wave now sweeping the country, and represents a huge spike in the official death toll. Until Saturday, China had reported a total of just 5,241 Covid deaths since the pandemic began in the city of Wuhan in late 2019. That measure was narrowly defined as deaths from pneumonia or respiratory failure caused by Covid. The new figure released Saturday included those who had Covid, but also died from other underlying illnesses." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I'd have to check with meterologist Herschel Walker, but I'm afraid China's "bad air got to move ... over to our good air space," meaning we're bound to catch the covid floating around in China's bad air.

News Lede

New York Times: "A fresh wave of storms inundated California again on Saturday, swelling rivers, downing power lines and imperiling travelers during yet another holiday weekend as a procession of atmospheric rivers continued to wallop the state.... The state's northern and central regions have sustained the most damage: Levees have broken, thousands of trees have toppled, towering waves have shattered piers and mudslides have blocked highways. Flash flooding has shut down critical roads in the valleys and coastal areas, and heavy snow has blocked passages east over mountain ranges. As of Saturday evening, millions of residents from Eureka, in the far north of the state, to San Diego were under flood advisories. Across the state, emergency officials said, more than 75,000 people were under evacuation orders and warnings. More than 23,000 customers were without power statewide, according to PowerOutage.us, which tracks power interruptions. A federal emergency declaration covered much of the state, with the cost of damage expected to reach hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars by the time skies clear." ~~~

     ~~~ CNN's report is here.

My new (used) reading chair: