;)
April 16, 2022
Putin's War Crimes, Ctd.
The New York Times' live updates of developments Saturday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "A large explosion rocked Kyiv early Saturday, and the Ukrainians claimed to have shot down missiles aimed at Odesa in the south and Lviv in the west.... The Russian government had threatened to intensify missile strikes targeting Kyiv after asserting that Ukrainian forces had attacked Russian villages near the countries' shared border. A Ukrainian military official also said Russia had fired missiles at the Lviv region in western Ukraine on Saturday morning. The head of the Lviv military administration said that Ukrainian anti-aircraft systems had destroyed four cruise missiles. There was no word on casualties or damage. At the same time, there were reports of shelling and bombardments in other towns and cities across southern and eastern Ukraine as Russian continued to move military equipment and forces into position for a renewed offensive." ~~~
~~~ The Washington Post's live updates for Saturday are here: "Kyiv region police said Friday that the bodies of more than 900 civilians had been tallied in the area — more than 350 of which were discovered in the Bucha suburb. The vast majority of them were found with gunshot wounds. Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told CNN his country had lost 2,500 to 3,000 troops since the Feb. 24 invasion, with perhaps another 10,000 injured. Russia appears to be on the verge of capturing the devastated port city of Mariupol, which a regional leader said had been 'wiped off the face of the earth.'... Large swaths of Ukraine are littered with explosive ordinances that authorities are trying to deactivate."
Julian Barnes & James Glanz of the New York Times: "The Moskva was the pride of Russia's Black Sea Fleet, a symbol of the country's dominance of the region and a powerful war machine that had been used to launch precision cruise missiles deep inside Ukraine. Despite claims by Russia that an accidental fire broke out on the ship, U.S. officials confirmed on Friday that two Ukrainian Neptune missiles had struck the vessel, killing an unknown number of sailors and sending it and its arsenal to the bottom of the Black Sea. The sinking of the Moskva on Thursday was a grave blow to the Russian fleet and a dramatic demonstration of the current era of warfare in which missiles fired from shore can destroy even the biggest, most powerful ships. It was also the most significant combat loss for any navy since 1982, when Argentina's Air Force sank a British guided missile destroyer and other ships during the Falklands War." See also commentary at the end of yesterday's thread. ~~~
~~~ AND They Did It with Homemade Weapons. Adam Taylor & Claire Parker of the Washington Post: "Soon after Russia seized Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in 2014, a Ukrainian defense firm used an arms show in Kyiv to unveil its latest project: an anti-ship cruise missile it called 'Neptune.' The new missile ... is in the spotlight after ... Ukrainian forces used Neptune missiles to strike and sink Russia's flagship Moskva.... The strike on Wednesday marked a major boost for Ukraine -- not only for its war effort but also for the homegrown arms industry, even as it relies on weapons donated by Western allies."
John Hudson & Jeff Stein of the Washington Post: "Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has made a direct appeal to President Biden for the United States to designate Russia a state sponsor of terrorism, one of the most powerful and far-reaching sanctions in the U.S. arsenal. Zelensky's request, which has not previously been reported, came during a recent phone call with Biden that centered on the West's multifaceted response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, according to people familiar with the conversation. Biden did not commit to specific actions during the call, these people said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive dialogue between the two leaders. The president has told his Ukrainian counterpart he is willing to explore a range of proposals to exert greater pressure on Moscow, they added." The NBC News report is here.
Drew Harwell of the Washington Post: "Ukrainian officials have run more than 8,600 facial recognition searches on dead or captured Russian soldiers in the 50 days since Moscow's invasion began, using the scans to identify bodies and contact hundreds of their families.... The country's IT Army, a volunteer force of hackers and activists that takes its direction from the Ukrainian government, says it has used those identifications to inform the families of the deaths of 582 Russians, including by sending them photos of the abandoned corpses. The Ukrainians champion the use of face-scanning software from the U.S. tech firm Clearview AI as a brutal but effective way to stir up dissent inside Russia, discourage other fighters and hasten an end to a devastating war. But some military and technology analysts worry that the strategy could backfire, inflaming anger over a shock campaign directed at mothers...."
TuKKKer the Tool. Russia's Propaganda Gold Mine: Fox "News." Stuart Thompson of the New York Times: "The narratives advanced by the Kremlin and by parts of conservative American media have converged in recent months, reinforcing and feeding each other. Along the way, Russian media has increasingly seized on Fox News's prime-time segments, its opinion pieces and even the network's active online comments section -- all of which often find fault with the Biden administration -- to paint a critical portrait of the United States and depict America's foreign policy as a threat to Russia's interests. [Tucker] Carlson was a frequent reference for Russian media, but other Fox News personalities -- and the occasional news update from the network -- were also included. Sergey Lavrov, Russia's foreign minister, who has made several false claims about the war -- including that Russia never attacked Ukraine — singled out Fox News for praise last month.... Mentions of Fox News in Russian-language media grew 217 percent during the first quarter of this year compared with the final quarter of last year...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: Maybe TuKKKer will start sending shortwave messages to Ukrainians, urging them to surrender; Kyiv KKKarlson could be Fox's 2022 version of WWII's Tokyo Rose.
~~~ Oh, We Watch Fox "News" in Kentucky. Jonathan Edwards of the Washington Post: When the general manager of a Colton's Steak House & Grill franchise in Bardstown, Kentucky, flew a Ukrainian flag over the restaurant, "hate started coming from all fronts -- the restaurant's phone, Facebook page and reviews on Google. Over the past week, the firestorm has kept raging in Bardstown, a city of about 13,500 in central Kentucky. [Ben] Ashlock, describing himself as an uncontroversial person, said he had planned to keep the flag up until Russia left Ukraine." He has not taken down the flag, but the hate messages keep coming. Ashlock and his wife have an adopted Ukrainian son. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Biden and his wife on Friday reported earning $610,702 in 2021, almost the same amount the couple said they earned the year before, according to copies of their tax return made public by the White House. The release of their return -- which comes just days before Monday's deadline for Americans to file their taxes with the I.R.S. -- shows that Mr. Biden and the first lady, Jill Biden, paid $150,439 in federal income tax, for an effective rate of 24.6 percent. Most of the money Mr. Biden and his wife earned came from his $400,000 annual salary for being president and two pensions. He also reported almost $62,000 from an S corporation controlled by the Bidens, which received money in 2021 from two publishing houses, Simon & Schuster and Flatiron Books.... The president and first lady reported donations of $17,394 to 10 charities....
"The White House also released the tax returns for Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff. The couple reported earning $1,655,563 and paying $523,371 in federal income tax, a rate of 31.6 percent. They also paid $120,517 in California income tax and $2,044 in New York income tax, according to the White House. Mr. Emhoff, who is an entertainment lawyer, also paid $54,441 in District of Columbia income tax. Their tax returns show that the couple earned money from the sale of a California property for $860,000 and from income on the memoir Ms. Harris published in 2019, 'The Truths We Hold: An American Journey.'"
~~~ Politico's report is here. The Bidens' return is here; the Emhoff-Harris return is here. Both are pdfs via the White House.
Drill, Baby, Drill. -- Sarah Palin's 2008 Opponent. Anna Phillips of the Washington Post: "As pressure increases on the Biden administration to lower the price of fuel, the Interior Department announced on Friday plans to hold its first onshore oil and gas lease sales since President Biden took office. The department said it plans to open roughly 144,000 acres up for lease next week and will charge oil and gas companies higher royalties to drill on federal land, raising the fees for the first time. Under the plans unveiled Friday, royalty rates would increase to 18.75 percent from 12.5 percent for oil and gas lease sales."
Eugene Scott of the Washington Post: "Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) is pushing back on lawmakers' accounts that her memory has deteriorated and she is mentally unfit to serve, insisting that she remains a productive senator at the age of 88. 'The real question is whether I’m still an effective representative for 40 million Californians, and the record shows that I am,' she said in a statement Thursday. Feinstein, who is the oldest U.S. senator, took the step of responding to a San Francisco Chronicle report that four Senate colleagues -- three of them Democrats -- and three of the lawmaker's former staffers and a California Democrat in the House said her memory is rapidly deteriorating. Various individuals said the lawmaker's staff does most of the work because of what they described as her cognitive decline." (Also linked yesterday afternoon. The original Chron report also was linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post: "The portrayal of the 88-year-old Feinstein in an article this week in the San Francisco Chronicle was devastating, painful and, from my own reporting, accurate.... Feinstein's handling of the 2018 Brett M. Kavanaugh confirmation hearings -- in particular, her decision not to alert fellow lawmakers to the allegations by Christine Blasey Ford -- prompted a near-insurrection by her Democratic colleagues. Her performance at the 2020 confirmation hearings for Justice Amy Coney Barrett, including her post-hearing hug of Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) and thanks for 'one of the best set of hearings that I've participated in,' was the last straw. Under pressure from Senate Democratic leader Charles E. Schumer, Feinstein announced she would step down from her position as the committee's ranking Democrat. According to the New Yorker's Jane Mayer, that took 'several serious and painful talks,' in part because 'Feinstein seemed to forget about the conversations soon after they talked, so Schumer had to confront her again.'"
This is a sh*tshow... Fix this now. -- Rep. Chip Roy, text to Mark Meadows, January 6, 2021
We are -- Mark Meadows to Chip Roy, January 6, 2021 ~~~
~~~ ** Ryan Nobles, et al., of CNN: "In the weeks between the 2020 election and the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, almost 100 text messages from two staunch GOP allies of ... Donald Trump reveal an aggressive attempt to lobby, encourage and eventually warn the White House over its efforts to overturn the election, according to messages obtained by the House select committee and reviewed by CNN. The texts, which have not been previously reported, were sent by Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah and GOP Rep. Chip Roy of Texas to then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. The text exchanges show that both members of Congress initially supported legal challenges to the election but ultimately came to sour on the effort and the tactics deployed by Trump and his team.... Lee and Roy both voted to certify the electoral results in favor of [Joe] Biden...." You can read the messages between Lee & Meadows, & between Roy & Meadows, via CNN, here. (Also linked yesterday.)~~~
~~~ The New York Times story, by Luke Broadwater, is here. ~~~
I don't think the president is grasping the distinction between what we can do and what he would like us to do. -- Sen. Mike Lee to Mark Meadows, January 3, 2021 ~~~
~~~ A Washington Post story, by Mariana Alfaro, concentrates on Mike Lee's texts: "Lee makes clear that he was working hard to assist Trump, saying in one text that he was spending '14 hours a day' on the effort and contacting state lawmakers seeking anything to give Congress a reason not to count the electoral votes for Biden on Jan. 6, 2021 and affirm his win.... Lee's willingness to support Trump's campaign to overturn the election is notable given his experience -- he clerked for Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. and was mentioned as a possible Supreme Court nominee when Trump ran for office in 2016.... Lee's texts show that, soon after the election, it was Lee who encouraged Meadows to give [Sidney Release the Kraken] Powell access to Trump, saying she would help him push forward the legal challenges. He provided Meadows with Powell's contact information.... By late November, Lee had backed away from Powell and instead began encouraging Meadows to hire right-wing lawyer John Eastman. But the trust in Eastman didn't last long either...."~~~
A coup that goes unpunished is just a training exercise. -- Mehdi Hasan on MSNBC Friday ~~~
~~~ Marie: On MSNBC Friday night, Mehdi Hasan zeroed in on Lee's efforts to overturn the election by trying to get states to submit false slates of pro-Trump electors. Lee, who seems to think he's a brave defender of the Constitution, believes that it's pkay to overturn the will of the people if he can get state legislators to throw out the electors the voters chose. If he figured that was, you know, Constituional in 2020, Hasan pointed out, there's no reason it won't be okay in 2024 or in any other presidential election that goes to the Democrat.
A Different System. Marie: Mehdi Hasan listed a number of white men who knowingly cast illegal votes in the names of dead relatives & so on, who were prosecuted, and who received suspended sentences. Then he interviewed Crystal Mason, the Black Texas woman who unknowingly cast an illegal provisional vote in 2016 & was sentenced to a five-year prison term (now on appeal). Hasan asked her if she thought the difference was that those who got probation were white men and she was a Black woman. She summed up as well as anyone could the persistent stain on American "justice": "Yes, it's a different system." Yes, it is.
Paul Blumenthal of the Huffington Post: "... the $2 billion stake invested by the Saudis in [Jared] Kushner’s new private equity firm dwarfs all previous post-presidential money grabs in both size and scope.... As with so many things done by Trump and his family, Kushner's $2 billion Saudi payout highlights a preexisting malady in American life by taking it to its extreme. In this case, that malady is the commercialization of the post-presidency that has taken hold over the past 40 years.... Unlike the money made by other ex-presidents or their family members, this is a gigantic lump sum coming from a foreign government with discrete policy interests in the U.S. government that Kushner was happy to support when in the White House.... Most importantly..., Trump ... is likely to run again in 2024 and is considered the front-runner for the Republican Party nomination."
Lauren Hirsch & Kate Conger of the New York Times: "Twitter unveiled its counterattack against Elon Musk on Friday, using a strategy invented to repel corporate raiders in an attempt to block a takeover bid by the world's richest person. The strategy, known as a poison pill, would flood the market with new shares if Mr. Musk, or any other individual or group working together, bought 15 percent or more of Twitter’s shares. That would immediately reduce Mr. Musk's stake and make it significantly more difficult to buy up a sizable portion of the company. Mr. Musk currently owns more than 9 percent of the company's stock. The goal is to force anyone trying to acquire the company to negotiate directly with the board. Investors rarely try to break through a poison pill threshold, according to securities experts -- one said 'it would be financially ruinous, even for him.' But Mr. Musk rarely abides by precedent." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Mike Masnick of TechDirt: At a TED talk, Elon Musk demonstrated how little he understands about social media content moderation. His simplistic views "sound like what the techies who originally created social media said in the early days.... All of them eventually learned that their simplistic belief in how things should work does not work in reality and have spent the past few decades trying to iterate. And Musk ignores all of that while (somewhat hilariously) suggesting that all of those things can be figured out eventually, despite all of the hard work many, many overworked and underpaid people have been doing figuring exactly that out, only to be told by Musk he’s sure they're doing it wrong.... The problem is not 'someone I dislike saying something I dislike' the problem is spam, abuse, harassment, threats of violence, dangerously misleading false information, and more. Musk not understanding any of that is just a representation of how little he understands this topic." Emphasis original. ~~~
~~~ Marie: A fundamental problem: people like Musk & Zuckerberg who are super-successful in one arena think their success somehow is proof that they are already very good at other arenas in which they have no experience or expertise whatsoever. When it comes to understanding human nature -- including the spammers, abusers, harassers, threateners & liars -- Musk is just another drunk pontificating from his perch at the end of the bar. Musk thinks he's David Hume, but he's really Cliff Clavin.
Beyond the Beltway
Florida. Ron DeSantis, Child Abuser. Aaron Rupar of Public Notice: "Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has lately been surrounding himself with kids at public events, including while signing extremely controversial pieces of legislation.... To be clear, it’s standard political practice for elected officials to invite children to participate in relatively uncontroversial things like Easter egg hunts or fitness programs. But... DeSantis is ... using kids to confer legitimacy upon legislation that restricts rights and harms people. Some examples: DeSantis was flanked by kids holding 'Choose Life' signs ... when he banned abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy. There are no exceptions or provisions in the bill for extreme cases, not even rape or incest.... He also surrounded himself with kids last month when he signed legislation threatening teachers with lawsuits if they discuss sexual orientation or gender identity' with their students." ~~~
~~~ Marie: I guess I think it's okay to let your young children hold signs for political candidates you endorse, perhaps because in theory your little tot could like Grampy Grassley or Auntie Margie even if the candidates have horrifying policy positions. But it's pretty disgusting to have kids brandishing support for things they obviously can't understand like abortion & LGBTQ rights.
Missouri. Alex Cooper of the Advocate: "The Missouri House approved a bill Wednesday evening that would allow school districts to vote on whether to ban trans student athletes from youth sports.... State Rep. Chuck Basye, a Republican who proposed the amendment, said it was to 'save women's sports.' In a video seen more 700,000 times on TikTok, gay Missouri lawmaker Ian Mackey called out Basye. He compared the anti-trans bill to his own experience as a queer student growing up and even brought up Basye's own gay brother." MB: Watch the video embedded in the story. If you haven't wanted to say what Mackey said on the Missouri House floor, especially if you're of a certain age, I guarantee you know a number of people who do. And BTW, Basye's clueless response to Mackey's query is classic, too. Bigotry is blinding. Thanks to Lawrence O'Donnell for the lead.
Texas. Laura Reiley of the Washington Post: "Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) said Friday that there were no longer any secondary inspections of trucks crossing into his state from Mexico, announcing the end of a policy that had created multi-mile backlogs and that critics alleged had cost them millions of dollars in losses because key trade routes had ground to a halt. The announcement came after Abbott said he had reached agreements with a number of Mexican officials to improve border security." The AP report is here.
Wisconsin. Thanks, Supremes! Michael Wines of the New York Times: "The conservative majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court voted to adopt new state legislative maps [link fixed] drawn by Republicans who control the Legislature, reversing its earlier decision that favored maps drawn by the state's Democratic governor. The court acted after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down its previous decision last month, stating in a contentious ruling that the state justices had not considered whether the Democratic-drawn map complied with the federal Voting Rights Act. The newly adopted maps -- partisan gerrymanders that had been drawn in secret in 2011 after the G.O.P. took control from Democrats in both houses of the Legislature -- essentially lock in overwhelming Republican majorities in the Assembly and the Senate for the next decade." The AP report is here. MB: I look upon this as a victory for Mitch McConnell, who is singularly responsible for the make-up of the U.S. Supreme Court.
News Ledes
Unsafe Anywhere: Shot While Shopping. AP: "Ten people were shot and two others injured in a shooting at a busy shopping mall in South Carolina's capital [Columbia] that authorities do not believe was a random attack. Three people who had firearms have been detained in connection with the Saturday afternoon shooting at Columbiana Centre, Columbia Police Chief W.H. 'Skip' Holbrook said. He said at least one of those three people fired a weapon. 'We don't believe this was random,' Holbrook said. 'We believe they knew each other and something led to the gunfire.' Authorities said no fatalities have been reported but that eight of the victims were taken to the hospital. Of those eight, two were in critical condition and six were in stable condition, Holbrook said." The Guardian's report is here.
Guardian: "Five people who provided 'critical information' that helped lead to the arrest of the man charged with this week's mass shooting in a New York subway will share a $50,000 reward, police announced."
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And here's the response by Rep. Chuck Basye to Ian Mackey's emotional speech in the Missouri floor of Congress.
"Representative Mackey is a loudmouth crybaby. He was campaigning on the floor of the Missouri House of Representatives. He is worried about his re-election and his rhetoric during the debate has absolutely nothing to do with the amendment I offered to House Bill 2140. During the 3 hour debate the radical democrats attacked my character and made many slanderous accusations! It didn’t phase me at all, I went home afterwards, enjoyed a delicious glass of Maker’s 46 Bourbon then laid down and slept like a baby!!"
So that's what they do––these sorts who make lives for many miserable and disabling. They let truth slide off their backs like ducks in water, nary a care for what they have wrought. Fortified by drink––and mentioned by name–-they sleep like babies. These lucky fucking duckies will continue to pollute the waters of progress because they have the backing of so many that do the same.
If Greg Abbott could spare all those Texas public safety peace ossifers to inspect trucks along the Rio Grande, it must mean that he has swept Texas' streets and alleys clean of rapists, as he promised to do when signing Texas' abortion bounty bill. Yet, modest as he is, he has not announced his conquest over rape. Whattaman!
@PD Pepe: Thanks for filling in more about that jerk Chuck Bayse. And let's hope not many babies are plied with bourbon to get them to nod off.
@Patrick: Aw, you're prejudging Greggers. I think he has a plan. He has picked up all the rapists he found in the streets and alleys and is getting ready to put them in a semi he seized at the border, truck them all to Washington, D.C., and drop them off in front of the White House or Fox "News." Oh, and then he'll have a press conference.
One guess who forced the Saudis to lower oil production that has contributed to the recent rise in gas prices. He threatened to pull US troops out if they didn't do as he demanded. He was worried about the poor US planet killers' bottom lines when gas was affordable for the average person.
"Trump demanded that Saudi Arabia cut back production back in 2020. According to Trump, he worked out a deal where OPEC producers would all agree to reduce their output. The reason we now have high oil prices is that they have not returned their production to pre-pandemic levels. Hey, by the media’s standards of what makes a politician responsible for an event in the world, this is practically airtight.
It’s more than a bit bizarre that Donald Trump literally boasted about getting oil producers to cut production, but somehow President Biden is held responsible for high gas prices."
Last night Amanpour had on the last surviving prosecutor in the Nuremberg trials, Benjamin Ferenz who is now one hundred and three. He recited the first part of his introduction to the letter and used the term Genocide. After talking about the atrocities he witnessed at the end said he still harbored hope for the human race. I, on the other hand, am not so optimistic and lean more toward the words of Richard Burton (the actor) who wrote in his "Diaries"––––
"The more I read about man and his maniacal ruthlessness and his murdering envious scatological soul the more I realize that he will never change. Our stupidity is immortal, nothing will change it. The same mistakes, the same prejudices, the same injustice, the same lusts wheel endlessly around the parade-ground of the centuries. Immutable and ineluctable. I wish I could believe in a God of some kind but I simply cannot. My intelligence is too muscular and my imagination stops at the horizon, and I have an idea that the last sound to be heard on this lovely planet will be a man screaming.”
RAS,
I read that last night.
As always, Democrats working to clean up the godawful messes left by confederate administrations, are blamed for the consequences of Republican perfidy, ignorance, and nastiness. Just like Putin, Trump has planted plenty of (political) landmines for a real president. But also, as always, he will get away with it, because so much of the press is wedded to both sides thinking, and has learned that printing the truth about Republicans is a loser for them.
Once again I must give Maureen a hand-clap for her piece today on "Still Feeling the Bern" about, of course, Bernie Sanders, who at 80 appears to be just as ornery and determined as ever. The information about another whipper snapper who at 88 is losing some of that W.S. was difficult to read about. Feinstein, according to many observers is declining to such a degree that it has become apparent she needs to retire. Dealing with the early stages of dementia is so difficult and seems more so by those observing rather than the person who is performing. Here's hoping someone will reach her and convince her to call it a day––-if not Congress may have to step in.
Here's Bernie at his best!
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/16/opinion/bernie-sanders-democratic-policies.html
PD,
Thanks for the Burton quote. I read it with his stupendous Welsh voice in my head. Somehow this made even those dour sentiments vaguely entertaining, and even mellifluous. Like King Arthur reading the nightly news.
Thinking of that voice, which Dick Cavett once referred to as the Welsh organ, I recalled an anecdote Cavett recounted in a series of NY Times pieces some years ago.
I don’t recall all the cast members of this particular story, but it appears that Burton showed up at a birthday party for some Broadway notable (I think it might have been Jerry Orbach), with a young actress in tow. A number of the women pulled the poor girl out into the kitchen to warn her about getting involved with a rake like Burton. Suddenly the great man burst into the kitchen with the host and regaled the group with an astounding bit of off the cuff but decidedly baroque apologies in that memorable voice for showing up without a present. He then turned on his heels and left the onlookers agape with this on the spot performance. The young actress looked at the other women and said “And that’s just the talking part”.
Hahaha.
Anyway, as usual, my brain is in full associative mode. Thanks for the association.