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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February 19, 2023

** 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. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Here's the statement from the Carter Center.

Michael Crowley & David Sanger of the New York Times: "Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken held what American officials described as a confrontational meeting with his Chinese counterpart on Saturday night in Munich, warning him that the flight of a Chinese surveillance balloon across the United States 'must never happen again.' He also cautioned Beijing against providing 'material support' to Russia's war in Ukraine, a prospect he later suggested China was now 'strongly' considering. The U.S. description of the meeting, which resumed diplomatic contact between Washington and Beijing after it broke down over the balloon episode, said nothing about how the Chinese official, Wang Yi, responded. But a brief summary on official Chinese state media described an equally sharp exchange. Mr. Wang, according to that account, said it was up to the United States to 'solve the damage caused by the indiscriminate use of force' when it shot down the large balloon off South Carolina."

Marie: I heard on TV yesterday that Donald Trump gave $1mm to the fake audit of Arizona's 2020 presidential election results. I didn't know that, so I checked it out. Here's the nearly month-old story I missed: ~~~

     ~~~ Brendan Fischer & Ed Pilkington of the Guardian (Jan. 27): "One of the enduring mysteries surrounding the chaotic attempts to overturn Donald Trump's defeat in the 2020 presidential battle has been solved: who made a secret $1m donation to the controversial election 'audit' in Arizona?... The person who partially bankrolled the failed attempt to prove that the election was stolen from Trump was ... Trump. An analysis by the watchdog group Documented has traced funding for the Arizona audit back to Trump's Save America Pac. The group tracked the cash as it passed from Trump's fund through an allied conservative group, and from there to a shell company which in turn handed the money to contractors and individuals involved in the Arizona audit." Various officials, including Republican leaders in the Arizona state senate who approved the fraudit, denied that Trump had anything to do with funding the stunt.

Beyond the Beltway

Florida. Timothy Bella & Hannah Natanson of the Washington Post: "A Florida teacher was fired this week after posting a video of empty bookshelves that Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) called 'a fake narrative' at a time when teachers in the state are removing or covering books in public schools to comply with new state laws. Brian Covey, a substitute teacher at Mandarin Middle School in Jacksonville, posted a video to Twitter last month showing rows of empty bookshelves at the school's library. Covey is one of several teachers in Duval and Manatee counties who've posted photos or videos in recent weeks showing how school districts are responding to new Florida laws regarding books and materials available to children in classrooms and libraries.... When DeSantis was asked about the empty bookshelves in the viral video at a news conference on Tuesday, the governor denounced it as misinformation.... Covey pointed out to The Post that the 6,000 books approved by the state is 0.375 percent of the 1.6 million book titles that Duval County Public Schools says need to be reviewed."

Michigan. Neil Vigdor of the New York Times: "Michigan Republicans on Saturday picked Kristina Karamo to lead the party in the battleground state, fully embracing an election-denying Trump acolyte after her failed bid for statewide office, one in which she unsuccessfully sued to throw out mail-in votes in Detroit and refused to concede. Ms. Karamo won a majority of delegate votes at the state party's convention in Lansing, the state capital, after three rounds of voting that -- slowed by paper ballots and hand counting -- went on hours longer than the period for which the party had originally rented the convention space. Her victory appeared to be an upset of Matthew DePerno, another vocal champion of ... Donald J. Trump's election falsehoods who had his backing in the leadership contest.... The fractured state G.O.P. now appears to have either purged or alienated more moderate voices and is plotting a defiant course as the 2024 presidential election approaches." Beginning with Paragraph 20, Vigdor describes the election shenanigans that made both Karamo & DePerno popular among the delegates. MB: The wingnuts love the crazy.~~~

     ~~~ The AP's report is here. MB: It is less flattering to the party than the Times story.

Way Beyond

Canada. Ian Austen of the New York Times: "One of the biggest political issues in Canada in recent years has been whether Prime Minister Justin Trudeau abused his authority by imposing never before used emergency powers to end protests against Covid regulations that had paralyzed the capital and shut down a border crossing that disrupted billions in trade. On Friday, a public inquiry concluded that Mr. Trudeau was justified in imposing the sweeping measures because it was the only way to restore order and safety and protect the country's economy. At the same time, the judge who oversaw the inquiry said the need to apply such drastic action was the result of a breakdown in policing and a failure of coordination among politicians across various levels of government."

Turkey, Syria. Kelly Cho of the Washington Post: "More than 46,400 people have died across Syria and Turkey after earthquakes tore through the region nearly two weeks ago, officials said. In the final days of search and rescue operations, emergency workers have managed to extract a handful of individuals from the rubble alive.... AFAD [-- Turkey's disaster management agency --] expects to end most of its rescue efforts Sunday night, according to VOA News."

Ukraine, et al. The Washington Post's live briefing of developments Sunday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "Ukraine is dominating the agenda at the Munich Security Conference. As the first anniversary of Russia's invasion nears, Vice President Harris reaffirmed the Biden administration's commitment to supporting Kyiv and, in her address to the annual gathering of officials from across the world, accused Russia of committing 'crimes against humanity' in Ukraine.... Russia's ambassador to Washington, Anatoly Antonov, hit back at U.S. allegations of crimes against humanity, accusing the Biden administration of attempting to 'demonize Russia.'... Balloons spotted by Ukraine's Armed Forces over Kyiv and Dnipro in the past week were probably Russian, said Britain's Defense Ministry. The balloons, which carried radar reflectors, 'likely represent a new tactic by Russia to gain information about Ukrainian air defence systems and compel the Ukrainians to expend valuable stocks of surface to air missiles and ammunition,' the ministry said."

News Ledes

New York Times: "Richard Belzer, who became one of American television's most enduring police detectives as John Munch on 'Law & Order: Special Victims Unit' and several other shows, died on Sunday at his home in Beaulieu-sur-Mer, France. He was 78."

New York Times: "An auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles was fatally shot at his home on Saturday afternoon, the police said. Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department deputies responding to an emergency medical call found the Roman Catholic bishop, David O'Connell, at his home with a gunshot wound around 1 p.m., the department said. He was pronounced dead at the scene, the authorities said. The circumstances leading to the shooting and the precise nature of the medical call were not immediately clear. The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Office said that it was investigating Bishop O'Connell's death as a murder. Bishop O'Connell, 69, lived in Hacienda Heights, a suburban community in the San Gabriel Valley.... In a statement, José H. Gomez, the archbishop of Los Angeles, described Bishop O'Connell as a 'peacemaker with a heart for the poor and the immigrant.'"

Comments Off

Reader Comments (9)

Balloonatics

What does “solve the damage caused by the indiscriminate use of force” mean? Does China mean put the balloon back together again? And how is the targeted downing of a spy balloon “indiscriminate”? Sounds like plenty of discrimination to me.

So basically, Sec’y Blinken says “Don’t do that shit again” and the Chinese guy says “Well…fix it!”

Um…Okay. Sure.

Sounds like they had no real comeback, so say something stupid.

But not nearly as stupid as the caterwauling on the right about this whole affair. My favorite idiotic right-wing comment came from Rep. Comer (I think it was Comer, if not it was someone just as stupid), who screamed that the Chinese were using the balloon to spread deadly toxins across the country. When asked if he had any proof for such a startling claim, Comer said “Well, I mean that might have…”

Right. And you might have graduated from the third grade.

February 19, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

I never knew drag queens were so dangerous until I read this article
about the Christian-Facists in Texas and the likes of Proud Boys
who go from city to city to disrupt any venue that has a drag show.
https://truthout.org/articles/armed-community-groups-are-defending-
texas-drag-queens-from-christian-facists/

Wonder what would happen if a group of drag queens started
interrupting those Baptist houses of worship every Sunday. They'd
probably get shot, it being Texas.

I know which side all my relatives in Tx would be on. They'd be
huddled inside those Baptist churches clutching their weapons.

February 19, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterForrest Morris

Not a sermon; just a Sunday morning grouch..

Have seen a number of articles like this one over the weekend:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/02/17/biden-buttigieg-criticism-ohio-train-derailment/

All in the what's wrong with these White House clowns vein?

But I seemed to remember the Ohio governor suggesting soon after the Feb. 3 derailment that the state had the situation under control (couldn't find a reference)--but in fact he did not request federal help until three days ago.

No doubt Ohio's I can do it myself stance had something to do with the Fed's "delayed" response.

And in background I can hear Faux gleefully beating the anti-administration drum, keeping its audience fully informed of the facts, of course.

February 19, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

A reminder to Republicans from My Feb 17 post:

Something to remember when the GOP are blaming Biden's DOT for
the Ohio train derailment:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100217651383
Fortune Magazine, Sept 24, 2018: an Obama rule to require new
brakes to reduce the risk of train derailments, causing explosions and
spilling was reversed by trump.

February 19, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterForrest Morris

According to trump spawn, Donald Jr., daddy trump will visit the
site of the Ohio derailment next Wednesday. He wants daddy to
beat Biden and Buttigieg to the punch. Says he, somebody has to
help and only daddy can do it.
Actually, trump probably just wants to see the results of his handywork, repealing the very rules that would have no doubt
prevented the crash.
https://www.newsweek.com/trump-sets-date-visit-ohio-derailment-
village-before-biden-buttigieg-1782157
repealing the very thing that would have prevented

February 19, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterForrest Morris

And Forest––let us not forget that when asked about Junior's Daddy running for President, little Don says, " he will run when things are so bad and only he can fix them"––or something in that vein. The sheer lunacy of that remark takes your breath away.

February 19, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterP.D.Pepe

Maybe TFG can ask Mitch McConnell if he can borrow his wife for the photo op in Ohio since Elaine was Transportation Secretary when they rolled back the safety rule. Though holding off on the racist nicknames for a day might prove to much for the TFG.

February 19, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterRAS

What I don't understand about this recent drag controversy is that many seem to ignore history, perhaps thousands of years of men dressing up as women. (Others are probably more attuned to providing literary reference.)

I most recent decades there were numerous occurrances of famous
males dressing as women, all were acceptable at the time. Some that come to mind:
1. Milton Berle and Bob Hope
2. Flip Wilson as Geraldine
3. Robin Williams as Mrs. Doubtfire
4. Tom Hanks (the fucking all-american home boy who made millions after his drag introduction to the public) and Peter Scolari in the 80's sitcom "Busom Buddies." (Could busom even be used today in the title of a modern TV show?)
5. Asshole Rudy Guiliani. (He was pretty ugly though [also a new unacceptable word to be uttered in public.])
6. Devine (aka Harris Milstead) who was a staple in early John Waters films.

I'm sure there are more. Please feel free to add to the list.

February 19, 2023 | Unregistered Commenterunwashed

The good ole days of drag, replete with the ambiguity of presentation I remember:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiHoQ9x0G_U

With a brief nod to the local color of Puget Sound and its storied Black Ball ferry line...

February 19, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes
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