The Ledes

Thursday, September 19, 2024

New York Times: “A body believed to be of the suspect in a Kentucky highway shooting that left five people seriously injured this month was found on Wednesday, the authorities said, ending a manhunt that stretched into a second week and set the local community on edge. The Kentucky State Police commissioner, Phillip Burnett Jr., said in a Wednesday night news conference that at approximately 3:30 p.m., two troopers and two civilians found an unidentified body in the brush behind the highway exit where the shooting occurred.... The police have identified the suspect of the shooting as Joseph A. Couch, 32. They said that on Sept. 7, Mr. Couch perched on a cliff overlooking Interstate 75 about eight miles north of London, Ky., and opened fire. One of the wounded was shot in the face, and another was shot in the chest. A dozen vehicles were riddled with gunfire.”

The Wires
powered by Surfing Waves
Help!

To keep the Conversation going, please help me by linking news articles, opinion pieces and other political content in today's Comments section.

Link Code:   <a href="URL">text</a>

OR here's a link generator. The one I had posted died, but Akhilleus found this new one that he says is easy to use.

OR you can always just block, copy and paste to your comment the URL (Web address) of the page you want to link.

Note for Readers. It is not possible for commenters to "throw" their highlighted links to another window. But you can do that yourself. Right-click on the link and a drop-down box will give you choices as to where you want to open the link: in a new tab, new window or new private window.

Thank you to everyone who has been contributing links to articles & other content in the Comments section of each day's "Conversation." If you're missing the comments, you're missing some vital links.

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."

Contact Marie

Click on this link to e-mail Marie.

Page Links
Sunday
Dec052021

December 5, 2021

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Katharine Seelye of the New York Times: "Bob Dole, the plain-spoken son of the prairie who overcame Dust Bowl deprivation in Kansas and grievous battle wounds in Italy to become the Senate majority leader and the last of the World War II generation to win his party's nomination for president, died on Sunday. He was 98."

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Sunday are here.

Props to PD Pepe & Forrest M. for pointing out in today's thread how very smart Dr. Margie Greene (or, as she's known in the home of the unwashed, Majorette Traitor Gangrene) is:

Every single year more than 600,000 people in the US die from cancer. The country has never once shut down. Not a single school has closed. And every year, over 600,000 people, of all ages and all races will continue to die from cancer. -- Majorie Taylor Greene, in a tweet

News from the Funny Papers. Martin Pengelly of the Guardian: "The double negative, a common grammatical elephant trap, claimed a high-profile victim on Saturday night. Donald Trump. In a statement, the former president said: 'Anybody that doesn't think there wasn't massive election fraud in the 2020 presidential election is either very stupid, or very corrupt!' There was no massive election fraud in the 2020 presidential election, which Trump lost to Joe Biden by 306-232 in the electoral college and by more than 7m ballots in the popular vote. But Trump thinks, or at least says, that there was massive election fraud. Though his own formula would therefore make him 'very stupid, or very corrupt', his claims have had deadly effect, stoking the attack on the US Capitol on 6 January." When a person who claims to have "a very good brain" turns out to be "very stupid, or very corrupt," it's "Sad!"

~~~~~~~~~~

Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times: Donald "Trump appears to have exposed dozens, if not hundreds, of people, including his 77-year-old opponent, to a potentially deadly illness. It was a remarkable demonstration of his selfish indifference to the health and welfare of everyone around him.... When asked about this news, on Wednesday, President Biden said, simply, that he did not 'think about the former president.' I think this dismissal is a mistake.... The news of Trump's decision to endanger everyone around him was an opportunity to ... emphasize the many and overlapping disasters he inherited from the former president and how both Trump and his party were poor stewards of the United States and the American people. A sharp remark would have put Trump's failure back in the news and forced other Republicans to respond to it -- on Biden's terms."

Luke Broadwater & Nick Corasaniti of the New York Times: "Members of the select congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack at the Capitol are pressing to overhaul the complex and little-known law that ... Donald J. Trump and his allies tried to use to overturn the 2020 election, arguing that the ambiguity of the statute puts democracy itself at risk. The push to rewrite the Electoral Count Act of 1887 -- enacted more than a century ago in the wake of another bitterly disputed presidential election -- has taken on new urgency in recent weeks as more details have emerged about the extent of Mr. Trump's plot to exploit its provisions to cling to power. Mr. Trump and his allies, using a warped interpretation of the law, sought to persuade Vice President Mike Pence to throw out legitimate results when Congress met in a joint session on Jan. 6 to conduct its official count of electoral votes. It was Mr. Pence's refusal to do so that led a mob of Mr. Trump's supporters to chant 'Hang Mike Pence,' as they stormed the Capitol, delaying the proceedings as lawmakers fled for their lives." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Lisa Kim of Forbes: "Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) tweeted a Christmas photo of his family Saturday in which they're all holding guns and smiling in front of a Christmas tree, with the caption: 'Merry Christmas! ps. Santa, please bring ammo,' days after a mass shooting at a Michigan high school sparked renewed calls for gun control measures. In the photo, Massie appears to be holding an M60 machine gun while seated next to his youngest daughter, who sports an Uzi -- his wife, three other children and another man hold assault-style rifles." Joe.My.God. has the Massies' mow-'em-down "Christmas" photo.

Brian Stelter of CNN: "CNN said Saturday that anchor Chris Cuomo has been 'terminated' by the network, 'effective immediately.' The announcement came after an outside law firm was retained to review information about exactly how Cuomo aided his brother, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, when the then-governor was accused of sexual harassment.... 'While in the process of [a] review, additional information has come to light,' CNN's statement [said]. 'Despite the termination, we will investigate as appropriate.' While the contours of Chris Cuomo's involvement with the governor's office were reported several months ago, the specifics were detailed in a massive document dump on Monday. The documents -- released by New York Attorney General Letitia James after an investigation into the governor -- showed that Chris Cuomo, while working as one of CNN's top anchors, was also effectively working as an unpaid aide to the governor." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Michael Grynbaum, et al., of the New York Times: "On Wednesday, Debra S. Katz, a prominent employment lawyer, informed CNN of a client with an allegation of sexual misconduct against Chris Cuomo. Ms. Katz said in a statement on Saturday that the allegation against the anchor, which was made by a former junior colleague at another network, was 'unrelated to the Gov. Andrew Cuomo matter.' It was not fully clear what role the allegation played in CNN's decision to dismiss Mr. Cuomo. Ms. Katz is also the lawyer for Charlotte Bennett, a onetime aide to Andrew Cuomo who accused the former governor in February of sexual harassment."

The Pandemic, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Saturday are here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Ellen Francis & Hannah Knowles of the Washington Post: "Most vaccines are safe to use as boosters and give people more immunity against the coronavirus, according to a new study of seven of them. The mRNA vaccines by pharmaceutical giants Pfizer, with partner BioNTech, and Moderna appeared to give the highest boost of antibodies 28 days after the extra dose, although other vaccines in the study may take more time to build up better immunity."

Beyond the Beltway

Florida. Generalissimo DeSantis. Steve Cortono of CNN: "Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis wants to reestablish a World War II-era civilian military force that he, not the Pentagon, would control. DeSantis pitched the idea Thursday as a way to further support the Florida National Guard during emergencies, like hurricanes. The Florida National Guard has also played a vital role during the pandemic in administering Covid-19 tests and distributing vaccines. But in a nod to the growing tension between Republican states and the Biden administration over the National Guard, DeSantis also said this unit, called the Florida State Guard, would be 'not encumbered by the federal government.' He said this force would give him "the flexibility and the ability needed to respond to events in our state in the most effective way possible." DeSantis is proposing bringing it back with a volunteer force of 200 civilians, and he is seeking $3.5 million from the state legislature in startup costs to train and equip them." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Paul Blest of Vice: "Nearly two dozen states have active state guards, including California, New York, and Texas. But some state guards have previously been a hotbed of far-right extremism. In 1987, Utah Gov. Norman Bangerter 'dismantled and reorganized' the Utah State Guard from more than 400 people to fewer than three dozen, after a review found the force included 'convicted felons, mental cases, and neo-Nazis.' One member was found to have traveled to Idaho to train members of the Aryan Nation in combat." Ken W. provides a link to a Daily Beast story on Ron's little project. (Firewalled.) And Akhilleus (and others) commented on the little general's plans in yesterday's thread. (Also linked yesterday.)

Michigan. Bryan Pietsch of the Washington Post: "The Michigan high school student accused of fatally shooting four classmates had numerous conversations with school counselors in the day and hours before the shooting, before staff sent him back to class despite finding images of bullets on his phone and disturbing drawings at his desk, the superintendent told parents in a detailed letter. Those conversations will be part of an independent investigation into the school's actions, the superintendent of Oxford Community Schools, Tim Throne, said. In a lengthy note to families on Saturday, Throne ...detailed the school's account of the events preceding the shooting...." CNN's report is here. MB: The most shocking aspect of the counselors' inaction, IMO, was that they knew there were firearms in the Crumbley home, yet they sent Ethan back to the classroom without checking his person, his backpack or his locker. Read the story & decide for yourselves. ~~~

~~~ Kathleen Foody & Corey Williams of the AP: "A judge imposed a combined $1 million bond Saturday for the parents of the Michigan teen charged with killing four students at Oxford High School, hours after police said they were caught hiding in a Detroit commercial building. James and Jennifer Crumbley entered not guilty pleas to each of the four involuntary manslaughter counts against them during a hearing held on Zoom. Jennifer Crumbley sobbed and struggled to respond to the judge's questions at times and James Crumbley shook his head when a prosecutor said their son had full access to the gun used in the killings. Judge Julie Nicholson assigned bond of $500,000 apiece to each of the parents and required GPS monitoring if they pay to be released, agreeing with prosecutors that they posed a flight risk." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Wisconsin. Laura Thornton, in a Washington Post op-ed: "On Nov. 10, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and Republican state lawmakers proposed a hostile takeover of election management in their state. As Johnson told the New York Times, 'Unfortunately, I probably don't expect [Democrats] to follow the rules. And other people don't either, and that's the problem.' Johnson's conclusion: The current system of bipartisan oversight by both parties should be abolished, and Republican legislators must be in control of the elections in which they are competing.... The proposed Wisconsin power grab is shocking in its brazenness. If this occurred in any of the countries where the United States provides aid, it would immediately be called out as a threat to democracy.... Yet we are conspicuously failing to hold ourselves to the same standard.... Wisconsin's shenanigans are just the latest in a series of actions to undermine the most basic democratic principles we demand of others: One person, one vote. Neutral election management. Majority rule. Acceptance of election results. Peaceful transition of power. Don't storm your legislature and attack people and then pretend it didn't happen."

Way Beyond

Christina Goldbaum of the New York Times: "Nearly four months since the Taliban seized power, Afghanistan is on the brink of a mass starvation that aid groups say threatens to kill a million children this winter -- a toll that would dwarf the total number of Afghan civilians estimated to have been killed as a direct result of the war over the past 20 years. While Afghanistan has suffered from malnutrition for decades, the country's hunger crisis has drastically worsened in recent months. This winter, an estimated 22.8 million people -- more than half the population -- are expected to face potentially life-threatening levels of food insecurity, according to an analysis by the United Nations World Food Program and Food and Agriculture Organization.... Such widespread hunger is the most devastating sign of the economic crash that has crippled Afghanistan since the Taliban seized power. Practically overnight, billions of dollars in foreign aid that propped up the previous Western-backed government vanished and U.S. sanctions on the Taliban isolated the country from the global financial system, paralyzing Afghan banks and impeding relief work by humanitarian organizations."

Comments Off

Reader Comments (13)

No, Virginia, Santa will not be bringing you a Sig Sauer this year. Just ask him for ammo.

It’s not bad enough that one Trump-and-gun loving family murders four kids in a school and wounds many others, now here’s Kentucky congressman Thomas Massie sending out a Christmas card—while those dead kids in Michigan aren’t even in the ground—of his own Trump-and-gun loving family smiling in front of a Christmas tree, all armed to the teeth, with the caption “Santa! Please bring ammo!”

It used to be that after one of these horrific school mass murders Republicans would pretend to care (a little, but not too much—don’t want to look like a sissy) and back off on the “Guns for everyone, NOW!” insanity. No more. Trump has taught them that the thing to do is double down and give the families of those dead kids the finger. So now it’s “Another demonstration of the wonders of the second amendment with a few bodies bleeding in a classroom? Fuck yeah! MORE AMMO!!”

https://www.forbes.com/sites/lisakim/2021/12/04/controversial-kentucky-congressman-posts-christmas-photo-of-family-holding-guns-asks-santa-for-ammo/?sh=467183194615

December 5, 2021 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Here’s something to make you smile…

Trump wannabe liar and Agent of Chaos, Tom Cotton, got up in the senate to attack Biden and Democrats for being…wait for it…soft on communists! Well, more like soft on Russia, but it’s the same old Joe McCarthy lies.

But this time he ran into a buzz saw. Senator Jeanne Shaheen from Marie’s state, took this pencil neck apart at the seams.

This is great.

https://mobile.twitter.com/TrumpsTaxes/status/1466566152470028300

December 5, 2021 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

AK: Yes, indeedy, Sheheen done cleaned Cotton's clock but after she spoke, he came back with more fluffy cotton balls and got the last word. We need more Sheheen mean–––we need democrats to raise their voices ––they speak the truth but much too softly.

December 5, 2021 | Unregistered CommenterP.D. Pepe

I also blame the Democrats for their namby-pamby words and actions. Through the years, they have watered down their own public messages to the point that they are unheard and unseen. Why in the hell Chuck Grassley and other wingers is permitted a forum is beyond me. He and his ilk are much louder than the Dems (see the other weasely Chuck--)and always beat them at their game. I am fed up with it. I became fed up when the always-reasonable Barack Obama was so scared of being the "angry Black man" that he was relentlessly wounded in the fray. I'm tried of their dignity and reasonableness in the trenches. This is WAR and has been for quite a long time. They will disappear entirely when the Huns take over the national legislature. The idea that idiot Massie feels happy and bold enough to send out a card filled with guns THIS WEEK speaks to their monsterness. Call it out! Tell it like it is and don't hide in Twitter! Repugs ARE monsters. All of 'em.

December 5, 2021 | Unregistered CommenterJeanne

Oops-- tried= tired. Gonna quit whining now and go eat cinnamon bread.

December 5, 2021 | Unregistered CommenterJeanne

And here, ladies and gents, another sage message from our Greene Gal.

"Every single year more than 600,000 people in the US die from cancer. The country has never once shut down. Not a single school has closed."
-- Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene"

Now don't that just put a wee smile on your face this Sunday morn?

December 5, 2021 | Unregistered CommenterP.D. Pepe

Who knew cancer was contagious? Genetic maybe, don't know for
sure 'cause I'm not a scientist of geneticist like M.T. Greene must be.
Maybe if we shut down Congress things would get back to normal
with no more shootings, cancers, virus, etc.

December 5, 2021 | Unregistered CommenterForrest Morris

My wife calls MTG Majorette Traitor Gangrene. Seems appropriate.

December 5, 2021 | Unregistered Commenterunwashed

@Forrest Morris: Every two years, the House of Representatives conducts a sort of school for freshman members, teaching them the House rules, showing them where the bathrooms are, etc. Next time, there should be a special breakout session for Republicans, to explain to them how analogies work. Because Dr. Margie there thinks a communicable disease is just like a non-communicable disease and a face mask designed to limit Covid cooties is just like the yellow armband Jews & Romas were forced to wear as badges of inferiority. And she's not the only one of these wing-a-ding-a-dingbats with an analogy problem.

December 5, 2021 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

@Marie: Included in that curriculum should be the reason they are
in the House of Representatives. They were elected by their
constituents. They are supposed to "represent" the people, not
the people (corporations are people, my friend) who wine and dine
them and instruct them on how to vote, or you won't be getting their
support (money).
Term limits. Term limits. Term limits. Change is good.

December 5, 2021 | Unregistered CommenterForrest Morris

One can understand DiJiT having double negative problems. This is the guy who thought that having a positive test result for a disease was a good result. The power of positive thinking, I suppose.

And concerning Marjoram Taykettle Queeg's cancer stats ... maybe cancer isn't contagious, but it's looking more and more like stupidity is.

December 5, 2021 | Unregistered CommenterPatrick

As John Kerry observed "Massie has tested positive for being an asshole."

December 5, 2021 | Unregistered CommenterBOWTIEJACK

@Patrick: Ha ha. I'd forgotten that Trump has problems even with single negatives.

@Bowtiejack: I hadda look that one up. But you weren't kidding; Kerry really said that about Massie. But that was back in early 2020; if Massie is any indicator, assholery is a chronic condition.

December 5, 2021 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns
Comments for this entry have been disabled. Additional comments may not be added to this entry at this time.