;)
April 12, 2022
Late Morning/Afternoon Update:
New York. Wowza! William Rashbaum, et al., of the New York Times: "Lt. Gov. Brian A. Benjamin of New York, the state's second-in-command to Gov. Kathy Hochul, surrendered early Tuesday morning to face a federal indictment charging him with bribery, fraud and falsification of records in connection with a scheme to funnel illegal donations to a previous campaign. The five-count indictment accused Mr. Benjamin of conspiring to direct state funds to a Harlem real estate investor in exchange for orchestrating thousands of dollars in illegal campaign contributions to Mr. Benjamin's unsuccessful 2021 campaign for New York City comptroller.... The investor was arrested on federal charges in November.... There is no suggestion that Ms. Hochul was aware of Mr. Benjamin's alleged criminal conduct, which prosecutors said occurred when he was a state senator. Still, she took office last year promising to end an era of impropriety in Albany, and selecting Mr. Benjamin, 45, was among her first major decisions as governor.... Even if he were to step down, [Mr. Benjamin] will likely remain on the ballot in June, when he faces two spirited primary challengers." An AP report is here.
Joshua Zitser of Business Insider, republished in Yahoo! News (April 10): "Speaking at a rally in Selma, North Carolina on Saturday evening..., Donald Trump claimed that he is one of the most honest human beings to walk on earth.... 'I think I'm the most honest human being, perhaps, that God ever created.' There were ripples of laughter from his supporters as he said it.... Trump became the first president to be impeached twice. According to The Washington Post's Fact Checker database, he made 30,573 false or misleading claims during his presidency. He told 21 lies a day on average, per The Post. During his time as president, Trump also promoted several conspiracy theories[.]..." Thanks to Akhilleus for the lead. See also his commentary in today's thread.
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Tuesday are here.
U.K. Police to Fine Lockdown Party Animals. Ivana Kottasová & Amy Cassidy of CNN: "Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his finance minister Rishi Sunak have been told they will be fined by police over lockdown-breaking parties held on UK government premises, a Downing Street spokesperson told CNN on Tuesday. London's Metropolitan Police said earlier Tuesday they had issued more than 50 fines as part of their ... investigation into gatherings held on government premises in Downing Street and Whitehall while the rest of the country was living under strict pandemic restrictions. Revelations of the parties sparked national outrage."
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Putin's War Crimes, Ctd.
The New York Times' live updates of developments Tuesday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "Austria's chancellor visited Mr. Putin on Monday -- the first European leader to see him in person since the war began -- and said he came away feeling not only pessimistic about peace prospects but also fearing that Mr. Putin intended to drastically intensify the brutality of the war.... A Ukrainian unit in Mariupol asserted Monday on social media that Russian invaders had already used chemical weapons there. Lesia Vasylenko, a member of Ukraine's Parliament, made a similar charge. But those reports could not be independently confirmed." ~~~
~~~ The Washington Post's live updates for Tuesday are here: "... Vladimir Putin will meet his ally, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, for talks Tuesday about Ukraine and ways to 'counter' pressure from sanctions by the West, Russian news agencies reported. Putin flew to Russia's far-east Amur region for the talks -- as his military sends reinforcements and supplies to troops positioned in Ukraine's east.... Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky charged that Russia's forces retreating from the north have left behind mines 'everywhere.' Zelensky said Russian troops 'deliberately did everything to kill or maim as many of our people as possible, even when they were forced to withdraw from our land.'" ~~~
~~~ The Guardian's live updates for Tuesday are here: "... Vladimir Putin has justified Russia's invasion of Ukraine, saying he had taken 'the right decision'. Visiting Vostochny Cosmodrome, he said: 'On the one hand, we are helping and saving people, and on the other, we are simply taking measures to ensure the security of Russia itself. It's clear that we didn't have a choice....'"
Dan Lamothe, et al., of the Washington Post: "Ukraine and its international partners are bracing for Russia to launch a new offensive, with the Pentagon on Monday saying there are signs that the Kremlin has begun reinforcing and resupplying its forces in the eastern Donbas region as a top official in Moscow vowed there would be no letup in hostilities before the next round of peace talks.... U.S. intelligence has observed a massive Russian military convoy making its way south toward Izyum, a strategically important town in northeast Ukraine that Russia seized earlier this month and may use now as a staging point to carry out assaults on larger cities to the south, said Pentagon spokesman John Kirby.... The mayor of Mariupol, Vadym Boychenko, said in an interview with the Associated Press that 10,000 civilians there have been killed."
Jesus Jiménez of the New York Times: "President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine in his latest address seized on an apparent Russian threat to use chemical weapons against the remaining defenders of Mariupol, as they prepare for what he called a 'new stage of terror against Ukraine.' Mr. Zelensky's comments came after Eduard Basurin, a spokesman for the Kremlin-backed, separatist Donetsk People's Republic, said on Russian television that Russia should bring in 'chemical forces' to use in Mariupol, the besieged southern city. He said the remaining Ukrainian forces in Mariupol were dug in at a steel plant and that Russia should encircle it and 'smoke out the moles.' Referring to those remarks, Mr. Zelensky said in his latest video address, 'We take this as seriously as possible.'"
Michael Shear & Mujib Mashal of the New York Times: "President Biden on Monday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India not to increase his country's reliance on Russian oil and gas, officials said, part of a global effort by the United States to maintain economic pressure on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. Mr. Biden also emphasized growing defense cooperation with India in a virtual meeting with Mr. Modi -- a line U.S. officials have increasingly highlighted in the hopes of convincing New Delhi to come off the fence over Russia's invasion. In the meeting between the two leaders, Mr. Biden offered to help Mr. Modi acquire oil and other energy from other sources.... But Mr. Biden stopped well short of pressuring India to stop buying Russian oil, which amounts to about 1 percent of its imports. And American officials said the president did not ask India to condemn Russia by name for the brutal military campaign against its neighbor, a step that India has been unwilling to take since the beginning of the invasion."
Loveday Morris of the Washington Post: "Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer said he had a 'direct' and 'tough' conversation with Vladimir Putin on Monday as he became the first Western leader to meet with the Russian president since Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. Following their 75-minute meeting in Moscow, Nehammer said that he had pressed for an immediate cease-fire and humanitarian corridors. 'This is not a friendly visit,' he said in a statement. 'I have just come from Ukraine and have seen with my own eyes the immeasurable suffering caused by the Russian war of aggression.'... Austria has backed European sanctions against Russia, but it has been one of several E.U. countries that opposed adopting tougher measures on Russian energy."
Brad Reed of the Raw Story: "Christo Grozev, executive director of Bellingcat, is reporting that Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered a mass purge at his intelligence agencies amid his country's floundering invasion of Ukraine. As relayed by the London Times, which described the purge as 'Stalinist,' Grozev said he has learned over 100 intelligence agents have been dismissed from the Federal Security Bureau, including some who have even been arrested. What's more, Grozev claims that 68-year-old former FSB chief Sergei Beseda has been sent to a prison in Moscow after being put under house arrest last month."
Pjotr Sauer of the Guardian: "A prominent Russian opposition activist and outspoken critic of the invasion of Ukraine has been detained in Moscow, his lawyer told the independent news outlet Sota on Monday evening. Vladimir Kara-Murza, 40, is a veteran Kremlin critic who says he was deliberately poisoned in Moscow in 2015 and 2017 as retaliation for his lobbying efforts to impose US and EU sanctions against Russian officials accused of human rights abuses. A close friend of the opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, who was shot and killed in 2015, Kara-Murza nearly died from kidney failure in the first incident." ~~~
~~~ MSNBC's Ali Velshi interviewed Kara-Murza this past Sunday (video).
Anna Cooban of CNN: "Russia has defaulted on its foreign debt because it offered bondholders payments in rubles, not dollars, credit ratings agency S&P has said. Russia attempted to pay in rubles for two dollar-denominated bonds that matured on April 4, S&P said in a note on Friday. The agency said this amounted to a 'selective default' because investors are unlikely to be able to convert the rubles into 'dollars equivalent to the originally due amounts.' According to S&P, a selective default is declared when an entity has defaulted on a specific obligation but not its entire debt." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Cora Engelbrecht of the New York Times: "Two days after a Russian missile strike hit a train station in eastern Ukraine's city of Kramatorsk, killing more than 50 people, volunteer drivers across the Donetsk region are coming forward to help residents still looking to flee before an anticipated onslaught from Russian forces.... Yuroslav Boyko, who is from Kramatorsk..., heads Everything Will Be Fine, a Ukrainian aid organization that has been working to evacuate people from Donetsk since the start of Russia's invasion.... Two train stations are still operational in the Donetsk region -- in the towns of Sloviansk and Pokrovsk -- but residents have become wary of gathering in stations since the attack [on the Kramatorsk station].... The volunteer fleet consists of at least 400 vehicles -- including city buses and private vans -- operated by approximately 1,000 volunteer drivers, who fan out daily to towns and villages across Donetsk to retrieve passengers." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Paul Sonne, et al., of the Washington Post: "... questions are mounting about how a Russian leader steeped in security policy and known for railing against the folly of regime-change wars could have sleepwalked into a such a strategic morass.... Putin rushed headlong into Ukraine, confident in his ability to secure a quick victory and weather any blowback within the authoritarian system he erected at home, [observers] said. Underpinning his assumptions: misconceptions about Ukraine fundamentally rooted in Moscow's colonial past.... The [failed war] operation, analysts said, bore the personal fingerprints of Putin. 'It's clear this was a military operation designed by spooks, not generals,' said Mark Galeotti, a Russia analyst...."
Jon Henley of the Guardian: "Sweden's ruling party has begun debating whether the country should join Nato, and neighbouring Finland expects to reach a decision within weeks, as Moscow warned that the Nordic nations' accession would 'not bring stability' to Europe. Both countries are officially non-aligned militarily, but public support for Nato membership has almost doubled since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, to about 50% in Sweden and 60% in Finland, multiple opinion polls suggest. Sweden's centre-left Social Democrats, led by prime minister Magdalena Andersson, said their 'security review' was about more than just joining the 30-nation alliance, adding that the party could decide to apply even without the backing of members."
Glenn Thrush & Katie Benner of the New York Times: "President Biden nominated a former federal prosecutor, Steven M. Dettelbach, on Monday to run the embattled Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives -- part of a renewed effort to combat gun violence and jump-start a stalled gun control agenda. Mr. Biden, facing pressure from gun safety groups to take bolder action, also announced completion of a rule to ban the unregulated online sale of 'ghost guns,' untraceable firearm components without serial numbers that are often sold in ready-to-assemble kits. Yet the president was visibly frustrated as he spoke in the Rose Garden during an appearance with victims of shootings and their families. He acknowledged that his core agenda -- renewing the ban on assault weapons and instituting universal background checks on gun buyers -- has been blocked by Congress, forcing him to take more modest actions." (This is an update of a story linked yesterday afternoon.) An NBC News story is here. ~~~
~~~ Marie: What a bad break for us former needleworkers who had switched to the satisfying craft of fashioning ghost guns from those nice kits.
Will Weissert of the AP: "President Joe Biden is visiting corn-rich Iowa on Tuesday to announce he'll suspend a federal rule preventing the sale of higher ethanol blend gasoline this summer as his administration tries to tamp down prices at the pump that have spiked during Russia's war with Ukraine. Most gasoline sold in the U.S. is blended with 10% ethanol. The Environmental Protection Agency will issue an emergency waiver to allow widespread sale of 15% ethanol blend that is usually prohibited between June 1 and Sept. 15 because of concerns that it adds to smog in high temperatures." ~~~
~~~ Because. Paul Wiseman of the AP: "With ever-rising costs for food, gasoline, housing and other necessities squeezing consumers and threatening the economy, inflation in the United States likely set yet another four-decade high in March. The government's consumer price index being released Tuesday is expected to show that prices shot up 8.4% from 12 months earlier, according to economists surveyed by the data firm FactSet. That would mark the fastest year-over-year inflation since December 1981. And it would surpass the 7.9% 12-month increase in February, which itself set a 40-year high."
Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "A former police officer from Rocky Mount, Va., whose bond was revoked last summer after he stockpiled firearms and endorsed political violence, was found guilty on all counts Monday at the second jury trial of a participant in the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. After a three-day trial, a federal jury in Washington deliberated a day and a half before convicting Thomas Robertson, 49, on six counts including obstructing Congress as it met to confirm President Biden's 2020 election victory, interfering with police during a riot, destroying evidence, and trespassing and disorderly conduct at the Capitol while armed with a dangerous weapon." An NBC News report is here.
Marie: I skipped linking the following story, published April 10, because I'm really sick of stories about how the Trump Crime Family is profiting, but listening to the teevee tonight, I realized I should have linked it: ~~~
~~~ David Kirkpatrick & Kate Kelly of the New York Times: "Six months after leaving the White House, Jared Kushner secured a $2 billion investment from a fund led by the Saudi crown prince, a close ally during the Trump administration, despite objections from the fund's advisers about the merits of the deal.... Those objections included: 'the inexperience of the Affinity Fund management' the possibility that the kingdom would be responsible for 'the bulk of the investment and risk'; due diligence on the fledgling firm's operations that found them 'unsatisfactory in all aspects' a proposed asset management fee that 'seems excessive'; and 'public relations risks' from Mr. Kushner's prior role as a senior adviser to ... Donald J. Trump.... But days later the full board of the $620 billion Public Investment Fund -- led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler and a beneficiary of Mr. Kushner's support when he worked as a White House adviser -- overruled the panel. Ethics experts say that such a deal creates the appearance of potential payback for Mr. Kushner's actions in the White House -- or of a bid for future favor if Mr. Trump seeks and wins another presidential term in 2024." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Lawrence O'Donnell of MSNBC was way surprised that all those Republicans who have been screaming about Hunter Biden's shady international dealings (and Hunter never held a government position) have been absolutely silent about the Saudis' $2 billion gift to the risky, inexperienced & unsatisfactory Kushner boy. I would add that way worse than whatever schemes Hunter & his pals cooked up were Donald Trump's holding back & threatening not to deliver military aid to Ukraine unless President Zelensky produced some fake dirt on Hunter & Joe Biden. It's one thing to trade on your connections (and, no, that's not a good thing) but quite another to use your own vast power to manipulate another government and threaten European peace, all to enhance your own political position.
Beating a Dead Horse. Will Steakin, et al., of ABC News: John "Eastman, a right-wing lawyer who drafted a plan for ... Donald Trump to cling to power by falsely claiming then-Vice President Mike Pence could reject legitimate electors during the 2020 presidential election, was part of a small group of Trump allies who secured a private meeting last month to try and convince the Republican leader of the Wisconsin state Assembly to decertify President Joe Biden's win.... On March 16, Eastman and others spent nearly two hours behind closed doors pressuring Republican Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos to nullify the 2020 election and reclaim the electors awarded to Biden, the sources said, which legal experts say is impossible.... The Wisconsin meeting is just one instance among many in an ongoing effort by Eastman and other Trump allies who, even 15 months into President Joe Biden's tenure, have continued to push for the results of the 2020 election to be overturned despite no evidence of widespread voter fraud." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Too bad Eastman wasn't a subject of the study cited in this next report. Maybe it would have helped him lose the crazy. ~~~
~~~ ** Fox "News" Viewers Can Be Deprogrammed! Adam Gabbatt of the Guardian: "In an unusual, and labor intensive, project, two political scientists paid a group of regular Fox News viewers to instead watch CNN for a month. At the end of the period, the researchers found surprising results; some of the Fox News watchers had changed their minds on a range of key issues, including the US response to coronavirus and Democrats' attitude to police. The findings suggest that political perspectives can be changed -- but also reveals the influence partisan media has on viewers&' ideology.... David Broockman and Joshua Kalla, political scientists at the University of California, Berkeley and Yale university, respectively, paid 304 regular Fox News viewers $15 an hour to instead watch up to seven hours of CNN a week during the month of September 2020." MB: I think Akhilleus mentioned this study last week in the Comments. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: "America's attempt to vaccinate the world against Covid is about to come to an end.... Such funding does not appear to be forthcoming.... Even for a body as broken and ineffectual as Congress, this level of self-sabotage is hard to fathom.... Because of the filibuster, Senate Democrats need 10 Republicans to support a stand-alone Covid bill, and Republicans are balking at more money for international Covid programs.... [Republicans are] re holding up authorization of any more Covid aid unless the administration reinstates Title 42, a policy adopted in 2020 to rapidly expel migrants without letting them apply for asylum, all in the name of protecting public health." MB: "Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of Congressional Republicans."
Michael Luciano of Mediaite: "Tucker Carlson told a group of churchgoers in San Diego he is not vaccinated against the coronavirus. Speaking at Awaken Church on April 2, the Fox News host mocked the idea of getting a second booster shot. 'I skipped the first three, I'm not getting that one either,' Carlson said, according to the Voice of San Diego.... [The Daily Beast reported that Tucker said that he had grown up] 'next to the Salk Institute in La Jolla' as evidence that he is 'obviously' not opposed to vaccines. 'I've had like a million of them.'.." MB: I grew up next to the town dump. Obviously, I oppose recycling. Yeesh! Maybe all that stupid isn't an act.
Beyond the Beltway
Florida. DeSantis Prevails Against Black Residents' Voting Rights. Steve Contorno of CNN: "Republican legislative leaders in Florida have given up trying to draw new congressional boundaries that can win Gov. Ron DeSantis' signature and, in an unprecedented move, announced Monday that they intend to essentially cede this constitutional power to the executive branch.... Last month, DeSantis vetoed the new district boundaries approved by lawmakers -- a rare public display of contention between the governor and a state legislature controlled entirely by his own party. DeSantis has demanded the legislature join his fight to eliminate two districts where Black residents are a plurality.... [DeSantis' map] was critiqued by opponents as a clear violation of a state constitutional amendment known as Fair Districts, which requires lawmakers to give minority communities an opportunity to 'elect representatives of their choice.'"
Way Beyond
Mexico. An Election about Nothing. Oscar Lopez & Natalie Kitroeff of the New York Times: "Pitched by [Mexico's] president as a landmark exercise for Mexico's democracy, Sunday's recall referendum gave voters the chance to remove their head of state from office for the first time. But with President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's popularity still high and the opposition largely boycotting the event, the results of the referendum were almost assured. Instead, like so much in the country's polarized politics these days, the vote became one more trench from which each side of the political spectrum could do battle. On Sunday, almost 18 percent of the electorate cast their ballot, far less than was needed for the result to become binding, making the outcome largely symbolic."
News Ledes
CNN: "America's inflation problem didn't abate in March. Prices kept creeping up, hitting a fresh 40-year high, data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed Tuesday. The Consumer Price Index rose 8.5% for the year ended in March, not adjusted for seasonal swings. That outpaced February's elevated reading of 7.9% and marked a level not seen since December 1981 when the CPI stood at 8.9%. Tuesday's March data was slightly higher than the 8.4% economists had predicted."
New York Times: "Several people were shot on the platform of a Brooklyn subway station during the Tuesday morning rush, officials said, a violent episode that heightened simmering fears about public safety that have hindered New York City's push to recover from the pandemic. Preliminary reports indicated that five people were shot, a law enforcement official said. The police were seeking a man with a gas mask and an orange construction vest, the official said. Police officers were called to the 36th Street subway station, where the D, N and R lines pass through the Sunset Park neighborhood, at around 8:30 a.m., a Police Department spokeswoman said. They had also received reports of smoke inside the station." This page is a liveblog. ~~~
~~~ Update: "At least 16 people were injured, 10 of them by gunfire, in the subway in Brooklyn during the Tuesday morning rush, officials said, after a man released a canister of smoke and opened fire on an N train. Just before 8:24 a.m., as the train pulled into the 36th Street Station in the Sunset Park neighborhood, a man in a construction vest put on his gas mask before firing shots that hit people on the train and the nearby platform, said Police Commissioner Keechant L. Sewell. The Fire Department said that five people were in critical condition, but none of them had suffered life-threatening injuries." ~~~
~~~ Update: "Five miles away from where a man opened fire in a subway train in Brooklyn and shot 10 people during the morning rush, the police recovered a rented U-Haul van late Tuesday afternoon that they believed had been driven by the gunman, a senior law enforcement official said. But the van was empty, the official said, and the shooter remained at large, as agents from dozens of local, state and federal law enforcement agencies searched for him, more than eight hours after he donned a gas mask on a crowded N train, released a canister of smoke and began shooting." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Fortunately, America's Mayor Rudy Giuliani was there to help: "The U-Haul was found after a man who lives in the Highlawn, an apartment building on the street, called the police to report it.... The man said his superintendent had complained to him that morning about a van with Arizona plates blocking the driveway, preventing him from moving his car. The tenant said he later heard about the hunt for the van on Rudy Giuliani';s radio show." ~~~
~~~ Marie: From the NYT liveblog: A "high-ranking police official said that the attack appeared to have been planned...." During an evening news conference officials said the perp had left behind quite a bit of stuff, including a Glock, the key to the U-Haul van & a credit card. This struck me, because a law enforcement expert who appeared on MSNBC this morning said that these bozos may plan their attack but they often don't plan the getaway. (Of course it's possible that this is all a masterful example of misdirection & the perp has stolen the identity of an innocent person.) ~~~
~~~ Update: "The police in New York on Tuesday evening identified a man they called a 'person of interest' in the mass shooting on a crowded subway train.... The police said that the man, Frank R. James, 62, had rented a U-Haul van in Philadelphia. A key to the van, they said, was found in a collection of belongings on the train that they believed belonged to the gunman, including a Glock 9-millimeter handgun, three ammunition magazines, a hatchet, fireworks and a liquid believed to be gasoline."
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Reader Comments (12)
So…TuKKKer Karlson, something, something grew up next to the Salk Clinic so…vaccines…something, something…
Is he kidding? I guess you have to consider the audience that would accept that as a logical construction.
“I grew up on a street. So…I know all about civil engineering?”
But then he sez “I’ve had about a MILLION vaccines! Yuck, yuck, yuck. Okay. Two things (I know, more logic, which doesn’t ever matter to these morons): first, if you’ve had “about a million” vaccines, many of which prevent you from getting communicable diseases and either suffering, dying, or making someone else—or multiple someones—from suffering and dying, where’s the logic that clearly dictates that THIS is the one you should reject?
There’s only two answers: you’re stoopid beyond words, or you think that not taking this vaccine will let you own the libs and look like a hero to other morons. Which is it? Hmmm…I suppose it could be both.
Second, if you took 10 shots a day (the million vaccines thing), since that black day you were born, you’d have to be around 274 years old.
Oh, but maybe you got 100 shots a day, which you could have done in less than 30 years. But then you wouldn’t have had time to do anything else, like go to school. Which explains the abysmal stupidity.
Never mind. Problem solved.
Today in Wingnut Theology
I read last night that Fatty went to North Carolina for another rag and rant event where he declared that he wuz the Most Honest Human Being that God Ever Created!!!
Cue wild applause from the droolers! (Same crowd that TuKKKer wowed with his wingnut logic?)
Most honest human being god ever created. Wow.
So here’s my question. What god was that? Whackma, God of Knee Slappers? I’m reminded of that movie from the 80’s, “The Gods Must Be Crazy”. “Ho-ho, let’s create a lying piece of blubber and let him tell everyone how honest he is! Ha! What fun!”
This from a guy who lied through his teeth an average of 20 times a day for four years.
Yesterday there was a piece about Marie Yovanovitch that our Marie put on. She, Marie Y., being one of the three who have come out with books giving us the skinny on their experience as deep state's foreign policy people. The others, Alexander Vindman and Fiona Hill. It's out of the ordinary because these diplomats are, as the term deep state indicates, are not front page coverage. I was especially interested in what Hill had to say about what its like to be a woman in the foreign policy establishment: she cites the pervasive sexism, and lower salaries. I'm guessing Vindman, in his book, does not mention what it's like to be a man.
When Hill was on a phone call between Trump and Putin, she was the only one who spoke Russian among the other advisors who were listening in. When it was over she wanted to call attention to some subtle menacing aspects of Putin's that the simul-translation had missed. Trump, mistaking her for a secretary, told her to type a copy of the press release describing how friendly Putin was and what a good call it had been. Wowza! thought Fiona, was speechless and suddenly, Fatty says:
"Hey, darlin', are you listening?
Soon though no one was mistaking her for a secretary and hence–-she was known by those in the Oval as "the Russian Bitch."
And now years afterward we are involved in a war whose beginnings began with phone calls––- and these three diplomats, all born in countries other than the U.S., harbored a deeper devotion than many of their native born colleagues. And the question should be–--WHY?
@Akhilleus: On Tucker: There were two things that got me about Tucker's "proof" he was not anti-vaccine: he grew up "next to the Salk Institute in La Jolla." You discussed the more important one, but there's a second that caught my eye. He was telling this to a San Diego audience, and you can bet a majority of them know that not only is La Jolla one of the most expensive & "prestigious" places to live in the San Diego area, it's one of the most expensive communities in the country. So Tucker thought he could further prove his creds by throwing in that he grew up richity-rich-rich.
(BTW, that church where Tucker spoke is very comfortable with anti-vax conspiracy theories, so it's almost surprising that Tucker wanted to claim he was not an anti-vaxxer. Maybe it was all about "I grew up in La Jolla.")
AK: How wonderful that we can turn our fury into funny. I'm thinking maybe all those who CNN paid to watch REAL news other than Fox could be rounded up to speak at Democrat's rallies. At present the Biden administration is being blamed for inflation among anything else the GOPee-ers can conjure up. And they are still gunning to put the Cockwomble back in the saddle. As far as their God––-"I'm the Chosen one" he said before getting on his helicopter one sunny afternoon.
OH WAIT~ stop my beating heart! Could it be? Frank Lutz reports that GOP leaders are laughing at Trump behind his back.
"He's fucking crazy," says N.H. Gov,. and more –-read on.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-trump-mocked-by-gop_n_62551286e4b052d2bd596726
Images you can't erase:
Archangel Gabriel announcing to DiJiT's mother that she will bear a child who is even MORE honest than the prior effort from 2000 years earlier. A "human being" whose superlatives will be the mostest and bestest ever in all of history, so far and to be.
Where is our Leonardo to put that on canvas?
Patrick, while they're fewer than they used to be we do have some very talented graphic editorialists (cartoonists) who could make a play at it.
@Patrick: Maybe not Leonardo, but perhaps a present-day Donatello or Michelangelo?
Another thing you'd not know if you watch and read the national news,
"The rate of murders in the US has gone up at an alarming rate. But, despite a media narrative to the contrary, this is a problem that afflicts Republican-run cities and states as much or more than the Democratic bastions.
In 2020, per capita murder rates were 40% higher in states won by Donald Trump than those won by Joe Biden.
8 of the 10 states with the highest murder rates in 2020 voted for the Republican presidential nominee in every election this century.
In addition, murder rates in many of these red states dwarf those in blue states like New York, California, and Massachusetts. And finally, many of the states with the worst murder rates—like Mississippi, Kentucky, Alabama, South Carolina, and Arkansas—are ones that few would describe as urban. Only 2 of America’s top 100 cities in population are located in these high murder rate states. And not a single one of the top 10 murder states registers in the top 15 for population density."
https://www.businessinsider.com/manchin-tears-into-biden-over-failing-to-stop-record-inflation-2022-4
Looks like Manchin is worried he'll have to settle for only half of a new yacht.
If he were still around, I’d opt for Francis Bacon to paint the Annunciationln of Fatty the “Honest”. Or maybe Edvard Munch, to depict the scream of humanity when that fat, ignorant, lying misanthropic pig was delivered into the world.
And then we could get Hieronymus Bosch to paint a picture of Right Wing World.