The Ledes

Saturday, September 28, 2024

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

The Wires
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The Ledes

Friday, September 27, 2024

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Click on photo to enlarge.

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

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

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

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

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

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April 16, 2023

Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff of the Washington Post: "... it is not out of the norm for a young person in the military to be entrusted with such responsibilities [as leaker Jack Teixeira had], experts say.... In his role as a 'Cyber Transport Systems Journeyman,' Teixeira managed computers and communications systems, a function similar to providing tech support. To do that job, he had maintained a top-secret clearance since 2021.... Teixeira also had access to a Defense Department computer network called the Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communications System.... Teixeira was serving in a National Guard unit that has large responsibilities. The 102nd Intelligence Wing runs an around-the-clock operation that distills intelligence for senior military leaders, a defense official told CNN.... More than a million people have top-secret security clearance.... The clearances show someone is reliable only at a moment in time. But 18- or 19-year-olds who receive clearances could undergo significant changes in maturity or ideology before follow-up clearance checks, which often are conducted every five years." ~~~

The Security Check Didn't Pick up This. Dave Philipps, et al., of the New York Times: &"Kailani Reis, 20, a high school classmate in Airman [Jake] Teixeira's graduating class, said that as a student, the airman expressed his interest in weapons often enough that she and some other students found it 'unsettling' and avoided him. She said few of the former classmates she knew were surprised when he was arrested.&" MB: One would think that security clearance for a person just out of high school would include an extensive check of his high-school records & activities, including interviews with teachers & classmates.

Uh-oh. Another Trumpity-Doo-Dah Day. Jacqueline Alemany, et al., of the Washington Post: "One of former president Donald Trump's top lawyers on the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case is no longer working on the matter after he appeared before a federal grand jury last month, according to people familiar with the move. Evan Corcoran is still representing Trump in other cases, such as special counsel Jack Smith's probe into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.... Prosecutors investigating Trump's taking classified documents to his Mar-a-Lago Club after leaving office won a court fight that allowed them to question Corcoran when judges ruled that he could not use attorney-client privilege to avoid disclosing information about his communications with Trump.... Corcoran was forced to answer questions about Trump and his legal team's response to [a] subpoena [for documents] and regarding the communications he had with Trump about returning the documents, The Post has previously reported." CNN has a developing report here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

A Lie of Omission. Caroline Kitchener, et al., of the Washington Post: "As a lawyer for a conservative legal group, Matthew Kacsmaryk in early 2017 submitted an article to a Texas law review criticizing Obama-era protections for transgender people and those seeking abortions. The Obama administration, the draft article argued, had discounted religious physicians who 'cannot use their scalpels to make female what God created male' and 'cannot use their pens to prescribe or dispense abortifacient drugs designed to kill unborn children.' But a few months after the piece arrived, an editor at the law journal ... received an unusual email: Citing 'reasons I may discuss at a later date,' Kacsmaryk, who had originally been listed as the article's sole author, said he would be removing his name and replacing it with those of two colleagues at his legal group, First Liberty Institute.... What Kacsmaryk did not say in the email was that he had already been interviewed for a judgeship by his state's two senators and was awaiting an interview at the White House. As part of that process, he was required to list all of his published work on a questionnaire submitted to the Senate Judiciary Committee.... [Kacsmaryk] did [not] list the article on the paperwork he submitted to the Senate in advance of confirmation hearings...." Read on. First Liberty claims Kacsmaryk was only a "placeholder" on the article, but there is strong evidence that is a lie. Experts the reporters consulted were not amused. The Raw Story summarizes the WashPo reporting. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Shawn Boburg & Emma Brown of the Washington Post: "Over the last two decades, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has reported on required financial disclosure forms that his family received rental income totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars from a firm called Ginger, Ltd., Partnership. But that company -- a Nebraska real estate firm launched in the 1980s by his wife and her relatives -- has not existed since 2006.... The previously unreported misstatement might be dismissed as a paperwork error. But it is among a series of errors and omissions that Thomas has made on required annual financial disclosure forms over the past several decades, a review of those records shows. Together, they have raised questions about how seriously Thomas views his responsibility to accurately report details about his finances to the public." MB: It would be perfectly believable if Clarence blamed Ginni for this repeated error; we'll see if he does. BUT "Thomas did not respond to emailed questions sent through a court spokeswoman. His wife also did not respond to requests for comment."

Maureen Dowd of the New York Times compares Shakespeare's King Lear to the U.S.'s geriatric leaders. MB: A fairly good Dowd column, IMO, though I suppose Shakespeare scholars might know otherwise. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Sorry We Lied to You, Judge. Marshall Cohen of CNN: "Fox News formally apologized to the judge in the Dominion defamation case, taking responsibility for the 'misunderstanding' regarding Rupert Murdoch's role at the network that led the judge to launch an investigation into potential legal misconduct by Fox, according to a letter obtained by CNN. In the letter, which was dated Friday and filed with the court, Fox attorney Blake Rohrbacher said the right-wing network 'never intended to omit information' and that its inaccurate representations about Murdoch's formal role at Fox News were 'not meant to mislead the Court or evade the question.'... The legal spat revolves around Murdoch's roles at Fox News and its parent company, Fox Corporation. In past court filings, and when asked directly by the judge, Fox lawyers have repeatedly said he didn't have an official title at Fox News. But last week, Fox disclosed that he is also an executive officer at Fox News.Dominion says this distinction may have narrowed what Fox turned over as part of the discovery process...." ~~~

~~~ Truth on Trial. Elahe Izadi, et al., of the Washington Post: "One of the most closely watched media trials in decades begins Monday morning in a Delaware courtroom, as Fox News defends itself against a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit brought by a voting technology company that says its business was severely damaged by lies about a stolen presidential election. At its core, the trial will test the limits of libel law and whether Fox News can be held legally accountable for airing false election fraud claims about Dominion Voting Systems in the wake of Donald Trump's 2020 loss.... Once the trial gets underway, on-air personalities such as prime-time ratings champ Tucker Carlson, [Maria] Bartiromo and others are expected to testify, as could conservative billionaire founder Rupert Murdoch. Some observers also view the trial, which is expected to last up to six weeks, as a symbolic referendum on the truth-challenged 'alternative facts' culture that defined the Trump presidency." A Guardian story is here.

Faiz Siddiqui of the Washington Post: "Twitter has been dramatically transformed under [Elon] Musk and few -- even among some in the billionaire's corner -- say the changes have been for the better. In recent weeks, government agencies, news organizations and powerful social media influencers have questioned the usefulness of the platform, with some major players publicly abandoning their accounts or telling users they can't rely on it for urgent information. Advertisers have fled in droves over Musk's policy changes and erratic behavior on the site, causing advertising revenue to recently drop by as much as 75 percent.... Rounds of layoffs have left Twitter operating with a skeleton staff of 1,500 -- an 80 percent reduction -- and so riddled with bugs and glitches that the site goes down for hours at a time. Meanwhile, the company's valuation has cratered, Musk has said, to less than half the $44 billion he paid [for it].... A previous Post analysis found Twitter was amplifying hate speech..., thanks in part to Musk's decision to restore thousands of previously suspended accounts.... Twitter is also aggressively trying to monetize.... Meanwhile, Twitter is a shadow of its former self, without anything to replace it, one of the former workers said."

Beyond the Beltway

New Mexico. Timothy Bella of the Washington Post: "New Mexico police officers were questioning whether they were at the right house shortly before they fatally shot an armed homeowner this month at what turned out to be the wrong address, according to body-camera video released Friday. The release of the video comes more than a week after Robert Dotson, 52, was killed by police in Farmington, N.M., on April 5, when officers showed up to the wrong house in response to a domestic violence call.... The fatal mix-up is being investigated by the New Mexico State Police. After the officers appeared to laugh at the notion that they mixed up the addresses, police backed away and shined a light on Dotson once he came to the door.... When Dotson opened the screen door and began to raise his firearm, police opened fire on the homeowner, who quickly fell to the ground, according to body-cam video.&" (Also linked yesterday.)

New York. Hurubie Meko of the New York Times: "New York City's storefront businesses ... are ... contending with what the police say is a dramatic increase in shoplifting. But statistics also reveal a startling reality: A relative handful of shoplifters are responsible for an outsize percentage of retail crime. Nearly a third of all shoplifting arrests in New York City last year involved just 327 people, the police said. Collectively, they were arrested and rearrested more than 6,000 times, Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell said." MB: I've linked this story because it bears on a comment yesterday by Forrest M. Apropos of Forrest's remarks, I'm betting a few of those 327 shoplifters are very, very strong, although -- oddly! -- Meko's story makes no mention of refrigerators. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

South Dakota. Candice Ortiz of the Mediaite: "South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem explained to an NRA audience on Friday, that her toddler grandchild already has several guns.... During her speech, Noem talked about her grandchildren. 'Little Miss Addie, who is almost two, and Branch who's just a few months old, they have brought us so much joy. They've brought us purpose,' Noem explained. 'Now Addie, who you know -- soon will need them, I wanna reassure you, she already has a shotgun and she already has a rifle and she's got a little pony named Sparkles too. So the girl is set up,' Noem added. According to her office, Noem signed an executive order in the middle of her speech, designed to 'further protect the 2nd Amendment rights of South Dakotans.'" MB: Maybe she should have signed an order to protect South Dakotans from that toddler holstering a shotgun over her diapers. This woman and her family are sick. Social Services should check up on the child. MEANWHILE, Forrest M. speculates today that Sparkles is for target practice.

Tennessee. Brad Reed of the Raw Story: "A new robocall is falsely accusing the three Tennessee Democrats targeted by Republicans for expulsion from the state legislature of being violent 'Antifa' radicals. Audio of the call, which was obtained by the Tennessee Holler, describes Tennessee Democrats Justin Pearson, Justin Jones, and Gloria Johnson as 'radical activists posing as elected officials' who purportedly 'led an angry mob of Antifa intending violence' to the Tennessee State Capitol building earlier this month. The robocall also falsely claimed that law enforcement officials confiscated 'pipe bombs' from demonstrators protesting against the three Democrats' expulsion. According to the Tennessee Holler, the calls were funded by right-wing organization Enlighten Tennessee...."

Texas. Ja'han Jones of MSNBC: "... Texas' Republican governor, Greg Abbott, is a proud supporter of Daniel Perry, the Army sergeant convicted of murdering a Black Lives Matter protester in 2020. The fact Perry killed someone in opposition to conservative ideals has made him into a celebrity of sorts on the right, including many in far-right media who have called for Abbott to pardon Perry. And Abbott has wasted no time obliging.... Abbott claims a jury and a 'progressive' district attorney 'nullified' Texas' self-defense laws by convicting Perry. But a court filing released Thursday give us a clearer window into who Daniel Perry is: a racist, blood-thirsty killer who fantasized about carrying out violence against protesters and, I should note, seemed interested in connecting with young girls.... Here's just a sampling of what was found on Perry's phone, according to the court document[.]"

Way Beyond

China/Taiwan. Ellen Nakashima, et al., of the Washington Post: "Taiwan is unlikely to thwart Chinese military air superiority in a cross-strait conflict, while tactics such as China's use of civilian ships for military purposes have eroded U.S. spy agencies' ability to detect a pending invasion, according to leaked Pentagon assessments that contain troubling details about the self-governed island's ability to fend off war.... The classified documents addressing a potential conflict suggest China's air force would have a much better shot at establishing early control of the skies -- a strategy that Taipei itself believes will underpin an attack -- than Russia did in Ukraine."

Germany. Kate Brady of the Washington Post: "Germany is ending its nuclear energy era with the shutdown of its last three nuclear reactors by midnight on Saturday night -- a moment pushed by the country's steadfast anti-nuclear movement for decades and promised by successive governments, though it comes at a time when many other countries are moving in the opposite direction. Originally scheduled to be turned off by December, the three plants won a brief extension as Germany dealt with the fallout of the war in Ukraine and scrambled to find substitutes for cheap pipeline gas from Russia."

Sudan. Declan Walsh & Abdi Dahir of the New York Times: "Fighting raged across the capital of Sudan for a second day on Sunday, as months of rising tensions between factions of the armed forces suddenly spiraled into an all-out battle that threatened to scuttle the last remaining hopes of a transition to civilian rule. By Sunday morning, it was unclear who was in control of Sudan, with both the Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group each denying that the other group had claimed control of key installations. Residents of the capital hid in their homes through a night of fighting that appeared to intensify as the sun rose on Sunday. At least 56 people were dead and almost 600 injured, mostly in Khartoum.The chaos was an alarming turn for a nation that only four years ago was an inspiration in Africa and the Arab world." This is the top item of a liveblog.

Ukraine, et al. The Washington Post's live briefing of developments Sunday in Russia's war on Ukraine is here: "The Kremlin-linked Wagner mercenary group released more than 100 Ukrainian prisoners of war on Sunday to mark Orthodox Easter, Reuters said that at least 50 buildings were destroyed in the attack and that there were more bodies buried in the rubble.... Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva told reporters the United States should cease 'encouraging' war in Ukraine and support peace efforts." ~~~

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

News Ledes

Saturday Night in the U.S.A.

New York Times: "At least four people were killed and several others were injured in a shooting on Saturday night in an Alabama city, officials said. The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency said in a statement on Sunday that the shooting in Dadeville took place around 10:34 p.m.... The shooting took place at the Mahogany Masterpiece dance studio, where teenagers had gathered for a birthday party, The Montgomery Advertiser reported. Dadeville is about 60 miles northeast of Montgomery, and about 3,000 people live there." A CNN report is here.

New York Times: "Two people were dead and four others injured after a shooting at a park in Louisville, Ky., on Saturday night, the police said, the latest instance of gun violence just days after five people were fatally shot at a downtown bank in the city. The shooting at Chickasaw Park occurred around 9 p.m. as hundreds of people gathered to enjoy a warm spring night outside, Deputy Chief Paul Humphrey of the Louisville Police Department said at a news conference on Saturday night. Police were still looking for a gunman as of Saturday night, and said that they were unsure if there was more than one."

Comments Off

Reader Comments (5)

At the NRA get together to praise gun ownership, S. Dakota Governor,
Kristi Noem is the clear winner, or is she the stupidest, anyway,
she'll probably be getting lots of $ for her campaigns from the NRA,
after stating that her 2 (two) year old granddaughter owns a rifle and
a shotgun, and a pony. Guess the pony is for target practice.
https://news.yahoo.com/south-dakota-governor-says-her-
143317211.html?.tsrc=daily_mail&uh_test=0_01
Meanwhile, 20 victims shot in the little town of Dadeville, Ala. this
morning.
2 dead and 4 injured in Louisville, Ky last night.
More guns! More guns! They make us feel safer!

April 16, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterForrest Morris

Anecdotal only, but I can attest security checks on recently graduated high school students who had sensitive military positions were common and seriously conducted.

I remember wondering what mysterious things those young men were up to now, only a year or two after learning how to shave and leaving home.

BTW, in those years, maybe only one check on a young lady....

April 16, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

I have been reading about nature's creatures who deceive –-we are all familiar with many of the ways–-how butterflies can camouflage themselves so not to get eaten; how certain birds put their eggs in other nests and so on. The difference, of course, between humans and these creatures is that it is in the latter's nature–-it's "what they do!" in contrast to humans who decide to deceive.

My favorite example of nature's deception is that of the firefly:
Sex is fertile ground for these mimi flies. Males from the genus 'photinus' flash to attrack mates. If females are interested they flash back. But waiting in the wings are females from the genus Photuris who mimic the other female's flash, then, when males get close they GOBBLE THEM UP. These female are known as the firefly Femme Fatales.
One wishes in our day of certain males of the human kind who are determined to make decisions for us females that we could do a little flash in the pan operation on them. Yum! gobble up the bums!

April 16, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterP.D.Pepe

"TAIWAN IS NO MATCH FOR CHINA IN CASE OF ATTACK"

headlines the WaPo front page print edition today. This astonishing fact was revealed in "recently leaked documents".

As an old baseball-aficianado has-been columnist might say: "Well. Who could have guessed? "

This headline, and the story is sort of like giving front page alarmist bold font treatment to news like "POPE IS CATHOLIC, SAY ANALYSTS". Based on leaked newstand copies of "L'Osservatore".

China is a competing power, and presents a military threat. True, and known by military planners for decades. So what's new? Here's what: as the "War On Terror" recedes in the rearview, we need a new boogey monster to justify the hew-mon-gous defense budget, which will get even more h-m-g as our military retools to face what we know is Chinese strategic doctrine. We need $ for counter-anti-satellite warfare, e-pulse hardening of commo and intel systems, more theater ABM capabilities, etc. The Chinese, being pragmatists, after our spljurge, will then limit their high rate of military growth because they know that they will have evoked the traditional US overresponse. They will be satisfied with increasing the US debt, thereby weakening US global power.

They don't need Taiwan. They claim it as part of China, and find it a useful catspaw to rile up the US and some of the Europeans. They could take it over militarily in quick order, and have had that capability for a few decades now. But that would serve no purpose, when they can continue to use it to antagonize us.

April 16, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterPatrick

Here's an interesting interview with a Jeanne's governor, Josh Shapiro, that took place on The MeidasTouch.

April 16, 2023 | Unregistered Commenterunwashed
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