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
powered by Surfing Waves
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[.]”

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, then Akhilleus found one, but it too bit the dust. He found yet another, which I've linked here, and as of September 23, 2024, it's working.

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
Friday
Feb172023

February 18, 2023

Afternoon Update:

** Peter Baker of the New York Times: "Former President Jimmy Carter, who at 98 is the longest living president in American history, has decided to forgo further medical treatment and will enter hospice care at his home in Georgia, the Carter Center announced on Saturday." The AP's story is here.

~~~~~~~~~~

Katie Rogers of the New York Times: "The United States on Friday called off the search for two of the unidentified flying objects that the military shot out of the sky this month, raising the possibility that the devices will never be collected and analyzed, according to a U.S. military official.... The punishing terrain and weather conditions were part of the reason. American authorities had been trying to reach remote areas of Alaska and Lake Huron for two of the objects, but on Friday a U.S. official said the conditions made it too difficult to pinpoint the objects. The Canadian search for the third object over the Yukon was still continuing, the official said." ~~~

~~~ Tara Copp & Lolita Baldor of the AP: "The U.S. has finished efforts to recover the remnants of the large balloon that was shot down off the coast of South Carolina, and analysis of the debris so far reinforces conclusions that it was a Chinese spy balloon, U.S. officials said Friday. Officials said the U.S. believes that Navy, Coast Guard and FBI personnel collected all of the balloon debris off the ocean floor, which included key equipment from the payload that could reveal what information it was able to monitor and collect. U.S. Northern Command said in a statement that the recovery operations ended Thursday and the final pieces are on their way to the FBI lab in Virginia for analysis. It said air and maritime restrictions off South Carolina have been lifted."

Meghann Myers of the Military Times: "The Defense Department dropped a trio of new policies Thursday aimed at closing some of the gaps that the overturn of Roe v. Wade opened up in service members' ability to access reproductive health care. They include fully paid travel expenses for troops who have to go out of state to obtain an abortion and up to three weeks of leave, including to accompany a dependent or spouse, whether it's for an abortion or a fertility treatment. The new regulations also give service members until 20 weeks to notify commanders of a pregnancy." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mr. Potato Head's Revenge. Connor O'Brien of Politico: "Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville plans to delay the approval of civilian Pentagon nominees and top military promotions after the Defense Department moved ahead with a new policy aimed at shoring up troops' access to abortion services. The Alabama Republican announced Friday that he will hold up the speedy confirmations and promotions over the policies rolled out on Thursday.... Placing a hold on personnel picks means Majority Leader Chuck Schumer will need to convene additional procedural votes, which makes confirming largely uncontroversial nominees much more time-consuming. The holds on general and flag officers are especially inconvenient and could delay dozens, or even hundreds, of top promotions. The Senate usually clears military promotions in large batches with little opposition or fanfare, which Tuberville's objection would upend."

Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) has amended his 12-point Rescue America plan to say that his proposal to sunset all federal legislation in five years does not apply to Social Security, Medicare or the U.S. Navy. After taking relentless fire from President Biden, Democrats and even fellow Republicans, Scott has amended Point Six of his plan, which includes the sunset proposal, to make 'specific exceptions of Social Security, Medicare, national security, veterans benefits, and other essential services.' 'Note to President Biden, Sen. Schumer and Sen. McConnell -- As you know, this was never intended to apply to Social Security, Medicare, or the U.S. Navy, Scott states in bolded language.... In an op-ed published Friday in The Washington Examiner, Scott said Democratic leaders and McConnell played 'gotcha politics' with his plan." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Carl Hulse of the New York Times: "As recently as this week, [Sen. Scott] defended the idea that all federal spending must be reconsidered in order to tackle the debt. The senator's retreat was the latest evidence that Republicans, who have long called for revisions to Medicare and Social Security to help rein in the nation's soaring debt, have fully backed off from such proposals -- at least for now -- taking them off the table in spending talks this year with the White House and congressional Democrats." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Mike & Nikki Didn't Get the Memo. Steve Benen of MSNBC: The Daily Beast reports, "'... Mike Pence became the latest prominent Republican to propose sunsetting Social Security and Medicare on Thursday, telling Fox News that "we can replace the New Deal with a better deal."... Pence said it was time to talk "about reforming entitlements" during the current debt ceiling negotiations. "I think we can replace the New Deal programs with a better deal," he declared.'... Nikki Haley ... this week ... said she also wants 'a new system' of social insurance programs for younger American workers. This dovetailed with her previous rhetoric about targeting Social Security and Medicare."

Perry Stein of the Washington Post: "Justice Department officials searched former vice president Mike Pence's Washington office and found no documents with classified markings, an aide to Pence said Friday. The officials removed one binder containing three redacted documents from the office of Pence's political advocacy group, Advancing American Freedom, according to Pence aide Devin O'Malley."

Hannah Rabinowitz of CNN: "A Republican strategist was sentenced Friday to 1.5 years in prison for facilitating an illegal contribution from a Russian businessman to Donald Trump's presidential campaign in 2016. Jessie Benton, who worked for the pro-Trump super PAC and was a longtime aide to former GOP Rep. Ron Paul, was convicted by a federal jury in November on several charges, including conspiring to solicit an illegal foreign campaign contribution. Both the Trump campaign and Trump himself were not aware of the scheme involving Russian money, the Justice Department has said. According to evidence presented at trial, Benton helped a Russian national secure a ticket to a Republican National Committee event in 2016.... The Russian national paid Benton $100,000 to get the ticket.... Benton created a fake invoice suggesting he had received the money for consulting services, donated $25,000 of that money under his own name to the RNC to get a ticket to the event and pocketed the remaining $75,000. A veteran GOP operative, Benton has now been convicted of crimes related to the 2016 and 2012 elections.... Trump pardoned Benton for [the 2012] crimes in late 2020...." ~~~

     ~~~ From Benton's Wiki page: "Benton is closely associated with the Paul family, having served as a campaign manager for both Ron Paul and Rand Paul. He is married to Valori Pyeatt, Ron Paul's granddaughter. Benton served as the campaign manager of Republican Mitch McConnell, until resigning on August 29, 2014, amid rumors surrounding campaign finance allegations during the 2012 presidential election."

Education Is for Dummies. Paul Krugman of the New York Times: "Ron DeSantis ... has been trying to position himself as America's leading crusader against wokeness. And lately higher education has become his most visible target.... Not that long ago most Americans in both parties believed that colleges had a positive effect on the United States. Since the rise of Trumpism, however, Republicans have turned very negative.... MAGA politicians began peddling scare stories about education.... And right-wingers also greatly expanded their definition of what counts as 'liberal propaganda.'... And so a large segment of the population -- the segment DeSantis is courting -- has become hostile to higher education as a whole.... For now, the important thing to understand is that people like DeSantis are attacking education, not because it teaches liberal propaganda, but because it fails to sustain the ignorance they want to preserve." Thanks to P.D. Pepe for the link. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Bowdlerizing Dahl. Hayden Vernon of the Guardian: "Roald Dahl's children's books are being rewritten to remove language deemed offensive by the publisher Puffin. Puffin has hired sensitivity readers to rewrite chunks of the author's text to make sure the books 'can continue to be enjoyed by all today', resulting in extensive changes across Dahl's work. Edits have been made to descriptions of characters' physical appearance. The word 'fat' has been cut from every new edition of relevant books, while the word 'ugly' has also been culled, the Daily Telegraph reported. Augustus Gloop in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is now described as 'enormous'. In The Twits, Mrs Twit is no longer 'ugly and beastly' but just 'beastly'. Hundreds of changes were made to the original text -- and some passages not written by Dahl have been added." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: See, folks. You don't have to ban books; you can just gut them till they're boring & unrecognizable (and why not give yourselves a co-authorship credit).

Noam Scheiber of the New York Times: "A federal judge in Michigan issued an injunction on Friday banning Starbucks from firing U.S. workers because they seek to form a union or engage in other collective activities. The move is the first nationwide judicial mandate related to the labor campaign that has led to the unionization of more than 275 company-owned Starbucks stores in little more than a year. Starbucks said it would appeal the decision. Experts said the injunction would allow the National Labor Relations Board to come before the judge and seek more rapid reinstatement of workers who it believed had been terminated for union organizing." The Hill's report is here. ~~~

~~~ Capitalism Is Awesome, Ctd.

Peter Eavis & Mark Walker of the New York Times: "The rate of accidents on Norfolk Southern's railway increased in each of the last four years, according to a recent company presentation. The record has worsened as executives at Norfolk Southern and other railroads have been telling investors on Wall Street that they can bolster their profit margins by keeping a lid on costs. At the same time, railway companies have lobbied against new rules aimed at making trains safer.... Over the past five years, [Norfolk Southern] paid shareholders nearly $18 billion through stock buybacks and dividends -- twice as much as the amount it invested in its railways and operations.... On Friday, Senator Maria Cantwell [D-Wash.] announced an investigation by the Senate Commerce Committee, which she leads, into railroads' handling of hazardous materials.... Criticisms that railroads are putting profits over other concerns echo the complaints of railroad union members who nearly went on strike last year."

Lauren Gurley of the Washington Post: "One of the country's largest food sanitation service providers has paid $1.5 million in penalties for illegally employing at least 102 children to clean 13 meatpacking plants on overnight shifts, the Labor Department announced Friday. The company, Packers Sanitation Services, allegedly employed minors as young as 13 to use caustic chemicals to clean 'razor-sharp saws,' head splitters and other dangerous equipment at meatpacking facilities in eight states, mostly in the Midwest and the South, in some cases for years. The plants are operated by some of the country's most powerful meat and poultry producers, including JBS Foods, Tyson and Cargill. Those companies were not charged or fined. Investigators learned in recent months that at least three children suffered injuries, including a chemical burn to the face, while sanitizing kill floors and other areas of slaughterhouses in the middle of the night.... Packers is privately owned by Blackstone, one of the world's largest private equity firms, and employs roughly 17,000 workers." The Huffington Post story is here.

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd.
(With an Awesome Capitalism Subtext)

Oliver Darcy of CNN: "After the [2020] election, an incensed Trump had attacked Fox News and encouraged his followers to switch to Newsmax, a smaller right-wing talk channel that was saturating its airwaves with election denialism. Trump was enraged that Fox News was the first network to call the critical swing state of Arizona for now-president Joe Biden. And he couldn't stand that the network, rightfully, declared Biden as the winner of the presidential contest. In the days and weeks after the presidential contest had been called, Fox News' audience listened to Trump and rebelled against the channel. Fox News shed a chunk of its audience while Newsmax gained significant viewership.... Rupert Murdoch, the Fox Corporation chairman, emailed Suzanne Scott, the Fox News chief executive..., and stressed to her, 'everything at stake here.'"

Aaron Blake of the Washington Post has some takeaways from the Dominion Voting Systems motion for summary judgment against Fox "News" that gives us a good idea of how Fox "adjusted" their content to fit viewer expectations rather than facts: "The filing is rife with examples of Fox News hosts and executives worrying that departing from Trump's line, or questioning his team's claims, might hurt their business model.... Bill Sammon, then Fox News senior vice president, added to the laments at one point, saying, 'It's remarkable how weak ratings' make 'good journalists do bad things.'... The filing repeatedly shows Fox News hosts and superiors objecting to how their colleagues fact-checked the Trump team's claims.... Reporter Kristin Fisher fact-checked [Rudy] Giuliani and [Sidney] Powell's Nov. 19 news conference, saying, 'So much of what he said was simply not true or has already been thrown out in court.'... Fisher said afterward she was reprimanded by her boss, Bryan Boughton.... The filing also makes clear that Fox acknowledged, broadly speaking, that the likes of Giuliani and Powell were not to be taken seriously. But such figures still got platforms on the network.... Fox executives also seemed to understand their hosts were too willing to broadcast wild claims." See also yesterday's links.

Here's Dominion's motion for summary judgment.

Marcy Wheeler: "With its filing, Dominion has given a snapshot of the ways and whys in which Fox News helped magnify false voter fraud claims, especially (though not exclusively) those of Sidney Powell.... Fox appears to have perceived that they had to play along with Trump's false claims or risk permanent damage to their brand.... [Sean] Hannity described how much reporting the truth (and Chris Wallace serving as a competent moderator for a Presidential debate) had undermined Fox's brand.... The response to [Fox 'News' reporter] Jacqui Heinrich's fact check of a Trump tweet is particularly stunning, as Hannity immediately called to have her fired for uttering the truth.... After Hannity 'dropped a bomb' about Heinrich's fact check with Scott, Heinrich deleted her tweet.... Keep in mind not just how [Dominion] proves Fox to be nothing but a propaganda platform aiming to help the Republican Party, but also the evidence it makes available to Jack Smith as he considers charges against those who used false claims about voting fraud to gin up a coup attempt.... Fox did all this ... knowing the intent was to harm the United States.... 'On November 18,' [according to the brief, 'Tucker producer Alex] Pfeiffer texted Carlson that powerful election fraud allegations like Powell's "need to be backed up" and could lead to undermining an elected president if Biden's confirmed,to which Carlson responded, "Yep. It's bad."'"

digby: "Whether or not [Jack] Smith can use any of this in a criminal case is unknown. But it certainly informs it."

Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: "... as an explosive new court filing in Dominion Voting Systems' defamation lawsuit against Fox News demonstrates, in trying to explain why [Tucker] Carlson and many of his colleagues do what they do, we shouldn't underestimate simple greed. The brief ... offers a portrait of extravagant cynicism. It reveals how obsessed Carlson and other leading Fox News figures were with audience share, and their fear of being outflanked by even further-right outlets like Newsmax.... Hyping false claims about election fraud was a way for Fox to win its audience back.... The [Dominion] brief reveals that some of [Sidney Powell's] claims about Dominion were based on an email [she] had received from someone who claimed to be capable of 'time travel in a semiconscious state.'... [When] Carlson hosted MyPillow founder Mike Lindell ... and let him sound off about Dominion without resistance..., MyPillow ... was Carlson's single biggest advertiser."

Michael Luciano of Mediaite: "On the night of Jan. 6, 2021, Fox News host Tucker Carlson referred to ... Donald Trump as 'a demonic force..., a destroyer. But he's not going to destroy us,' in a text to his producer after Trump's supporters stormed the Capitol that day.... On his show, Carlson has downplayed the Capitol riot and even referred to it as an 'election justice protest.'" The post contains an excerpt of the Dominion filing showing how panicked TuKKKer was after the network called Arizona for Joe Biden.

Erik Wemple of the Washington Post: "Even the generous protections of U.S. libel might not save Fox News in this case."

Steve M., with a sobering reality check: "The $1.6 billion in damages Dominion is seeking seems like a lot of money, but it's about a month and a half of revenue for Fox Corporation.... It seems quite possible that the decision to spread these lies made Fox more money than it will ever pay out. The viewers are back. Tucker Carlson is the most politically influential media figure in America. At Fox, life is good. So it was probably worth the cost."

Here's one time somebody at Fox showed some sense: ~~~

     ~~~ Annie Grayer of CNN: "... Donald Trump tried to call into Fox News after his supporters attacked the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, but the network refused to put him on air, according to court filings from Dominion Voting Systems.... The House select committee that investigated the January 6 attack did not know that Trump had made this call, according to a source familiar with the panel's work.... [Trump's] His newly revealed call to Fox News shows some of the gaps in the record that still exist, due to roadblocks the committee faced. 'The afternoon of January 6, after the Capitol came under attack, then-President Trump dialed into Lou Dobbs: show attempting to get on air,' Dominion lawyers wrote in their legal brief. 'But Fox executives vetoed that decision,' Dominion's filing continued.... The network rebuffed Trump because 'it would be irresponsible to put him on the air' and 'could impact a lot of people in a negative way,' according to Fox Business Network President Lauren Petterson, whose testimony was cited by Dominion in the new filing. Dobbs show on Fox Business -- in which he routinely promoted baseless conspiracies about the 2020 election – was canceled a few weeks after the January 6 insurrection."

Michael Grynbaum & John Koblin of the New York Times: "Don Lemon, the CNN morning-show anchor, faced an internal rebuke from the chairman of his own network on Friday after his on-air comments about women and aging set off an uproar inside the cable news channel. CNN's chairman, Chris Licht, opened his daily 9 a.m. editorial call by saying that the remarks by Mr. Lemon, which were widely viewed as sexist and insensitive, had left him 'disappointed.'... Mr. Lemon, a CNN veteran with a history of televised gaffes, roiled colleagues on Thursday when he asserted on-air that Nikki Haley, the 51-year-old Republican presidential candidate, 'isn't in her prime, sorry.... A woman is considered to be in her prime in her 20s and 30s and maybe 40s,' Mr. Lemon said, to the visible dismay of his 'CNN This Morning' co-anchors Poppy Harlow and Kaitlan Collins. He refused to back down after Ms. Harlow questioned his remarks, telling her to 'look it up.' On Friday, a far more contrite-sounding Mr. Lemon addressed the matter in a six-minute monologue to the CNN newsroom. 'I am sorry,' Mr. Lemon said. 'I did not mean to hurt anyone. I did not mean to offend anyone.' He added that 'the people I'm closest to in this organization are women,' citing a list of female colleagues including the anchors Dana Bash and Erin Burnett." MB: Yeah, some of his best friends are women. And they are in their prime. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ MEANWHILE, in Canada, Apparently No Longer in Her Prime. Norimitsu Onishi of the New York Times: "A household name in Canada for decades, [Lisa] LaFlamme was unceremoniously dismissed last summer by CTV, the country's largest private television network, after what her employer described as a 'business decision' to take the program 'in a different direction.'... Her departure set off multifaceted debates across Canada, especially after The Globe and Mail newspaper reported it may have been linked to Ms. LaFlamme-s hair -- which she had chosen to let go gray during the pandemic when hair salons and other businesses shut down. The network's owner, Bell Media, which denied that 'age, gender and gray hair' had been factors, named a 39-year-old male correspondent, Omar Sachedina, as her successor." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)


Ashley Parker & Justine McDaniel of the Washington Post: "A Washington Post analysis of seven high-profile cases in which people died after use of force by police officers -- from the fatal injury of Freddie Gray in police custody in 2015 to the death of [Tyre] Nichols last month -- found a familiar pattern: The initial police version of events was misleading, incomplete or wrong, with the first accounts consistently in conflict with the full set of facts once they finally emerged. In cases where the police are later accused of excessive and unwarranted use of force, the first draft of history is almost always written in part by those same officers, who often portray the police in flattering ways and the alleged suspect in less flattering ones."

Beyond the Beltway

South Carolina. Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs of the New York Times: "Prosecutors trying to convict Alex Murdaugh of murder in the killing of his wife and son revealed on Friday that the two victims had discovered bags of pills in Mr. Murdaugh's computer bag a month before the killings, disclosing the surprising new evidence of a possible motive before resting their case against the prominent lawyer. 'When you get here we have to talk,' Mr. Murdaugh's son, Paul Murdaugh, said in a May 2021 text to his father. 'Mom found several bags of pills in your computer bag.' The message bolsters the prosecution's argument that at the time of the murders, a 'perfect storm' was approaching Mr. Murdaugh, 54, that threatened to expose his embezzlement of millions of dollars from his law firm and clients, as well as his lavish spending on his addiction to painkillers." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: BTW, I recently discovered that Law & Crime covers the Murdaugh trial every day the court is in session, and the site also apparently runs video of the trial in progress.

Tennessee. Jessica Jaglois & Joseph Goldstein of the New York Times: "The five former officers accused of killing Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man pulled over for a traffic stop, pleaded not guilty on Friday to second-degree murder charges a month after police and traffic cameras captured the officers punching, kicking and striking Mr. Nichols with a baton. The five men -- Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin III, Desmond Mills Jr. and Justin Smith -- also face additional charges, including official misconduct, official oppression and kidnapping. They were formally arraigned on Friday in a brief court proceeding, less than a month after top police officials fired the officers." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Wat Beyond

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

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live briefings for Saturday are here: "Global political and defense leaders, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Vice President Harris, are in Munich, Germany, for a security conference focused heavily on the war in Ukraine. Harris will make public remarks later Saturday, a day after she met with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.... Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko offered to manufacture Su-25 fighter jets for Russia during a summit with Putin. The two largely avoided discussion about the war, despite their meeting occurring a week before the first anniversary of the Russian invasion, The Washington Post reported."

Niha Masih of the Washington Post: "More than 30,000 members of the Wagner Group, a Russian mercenary outfit, have been injured or killed in Ukraine, the White House estimates. Of those, about 9,000 were killed in action, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said at a briefing Friday.... The group was designated a transnational criminal organization by the United States in January. Of the 9,000 or so mercenaries killed, half lost their lives in the two months since mid-December, Kirby said. Russian activists and U.S. officials have said that Wagner has boosted its ranks by recruiting prisoners, many of whom are poorly trained and ill-equipped to fight. A video that circulated last year appeared to show [Putin ally Yevgeniy] Prigozhin promising inmates a pardon after six months of fighting."

Comments Off

Reader Comments (9)

Ron DeSantis and Florida continue to be agents of changein the old Swamp State. The SAT is too "woke", so...https://www.tampabay.com/news/florida-politics/2023/02/17/desantis-classical-learning-test-college-board-ap-sat/

February 18, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterBobby Lee

Here's my prediction for a future headline: 'Covid cases soar in
Idaho, hospitals are overwhelmed, morgues in shipping containers.'

https://www.ktvb.com/article/news/local/capitol-watch/idaho-
lawmakers-introduce-legislation-to-criminalize-those-who-administer-
covid-vaccines-legislature/277-2436a514-e7da-4b31-9762-f9be-
10300075

February 18, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterForrest Morris

On Women Past their Prime:

In folklore the Hag, while appearing to be the epitome of people's fears about aging, is actually a positive archetype. The Hag is a woman, from menopause onwards who is not defeated by her relationship to anyone else: she is not somebody's mother, or daughter or wife. She has her own power and her own way of being in the world. There is freedom to not belonging to anyone that allows her to come to fruition in the world.

As for the Little Foxes who done squash their tender grapes, all I can say is bring it on! When you lie like that it's got to get under your skin at some point and if not how can you pretend to be a decent human being? And Akilleus will counter that by saying–-"you call them human beings???" Aeee!!!

February 18, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterP.D.Pepe

Admit I was bit surprised at the news about the meat-packing conglomerate's illegal use of children (migrant?) to clean their equipment. Not in 2023, I thought--and then I thought again.

I certainly wasn't surprised at The Faux News news, one that tells the same sorry story of pure capitalism at work. So what was the difference?

They are stories about the same thing, after all. When the pursuit of money is the sole object, only a certifiable idiot would be surprised at behavior that tramples on laws and morality. Greed trumps all.

I think the difference was that Faux lies in plain sight. The child abusers did it in the dark, at night. No shame on the one hand; maybe a little on the other...

And agreed: the assessed and proposed monetary penalties in both cases are embarrassingly small. Hardly a slap on the wrist, almost like a reward for bad behavior.

Such penalties do tell us who we are, and it's not a pretty portrait.

February 18, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

Stock tip: invest in ammunition manufacturers.
So for this year, the first 6 weeks saw 71 mass shootings. That will
equate to over 600 this year at that rate.
USA, USA, we're number one again.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/02/15/mass-shootings-us-2023/11262414002/

February 18, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterForrest Morris

@Forrest Morris: Perhaps the most amazing aspect of "conservative values" designed to bring us back to the bad old days when the Western world was under sole ownership of wealthy, white, straight, Christian men is that those values include an abhorrence of modern science in all its forms, including medicine. So forget about fake climate change, clear-cut the forests, condemn pregnant women to backroom abortions of questionable efficacy, AND NO VACCINES. And so forth.

But don't bother me. I'm busy writing a model bill to bring back cure-by-leeches.

February 18, 2023 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

And don’t forget returning to the top tier tax rates of those golden days of yore. Rs keep forgetting that was part of the Great post WW2 era.

February 18, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterNiskyGuy

@Marie: Possibly someone has beat you to the 'bring back leech
cure.'
Amazon has tons of them for sale. Who knew!

February 18, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterForrest Morris

@Forrest Morris: I thought you were kidding till I read this on the Googles: "Leeches can be great pets for those not too squeamish to keep them. They can survive for several months without food, require minimal care, and are unique creatures to keep in a fish tank." And, yes, indeed, there are numerous sources to purchase the "pets." Eeeww!

February 18, 2023 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns
Comments for this entry have been disabled. Additional comments may not be added to this entry at this time.