The Ledes

Sunday, September 29, 2024

Washington Post: “Towns throughout western North Carolina ... were transformed overnight by ... [Hurricane Helene]. Muddy floodwaters lifted homes from their foundations. Landslides and overflowing rivers severed the only way in and out of small mountain communities. Rescuers said they were struggling to respond to the high number of emergency calls.... The death toll grew throughout the Southeast as the scope of Helene’s devastation came into clearer view. At least 49 people had been killed in five states — Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. By early counts, South Carolina suffered the greatest loss of life, registering at least 19 deaths.”

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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 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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Wednesday
Feb082023

February 9, 2023

Afternoon Update:

** Katherine Faulders & John Santucci of ABC News: "Former Vice President Mike Pence has been subpoenaed by the special counsel overseeing probes into ... Donald Trump, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter. It's not immediately clear what information the subpoena from special counsel Jack Smith is seeking, but it follows months of negotiations between federal prosecutors and Pence's legal team." At 6:30 pm ET Thursday, this is a breaking story. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Either (1) negotiations between Pence & Smith broke down, or (2) Pence requested the subpoena so he could pretend he was not testifying voluntarily. ~~~

     ~~~ ** Update. Kaitlan Collins of CNN: "Special counsel Jack Smith's office is seeking documents and testimony related to January 6, the source said. They want him to testify about his interactions with Trump leading up to the 2020 election and the day of the attack on the US Capitol."

Edward Wong & Julian Barnes of the New York Times: "The Chinese spy balloon shot down by the U.S. military over the Atlantic Ocean was capable of collecting some forms of electronic communications and was part of a fleet of surveillance balloons directed by the Chinese military that had flown over more than 40 countries across five continents, the State Department said Thursday. While the balloon was still in the air, American U-2 surveillance planes took images of it to determine its capabilities, the department said in a statement, adding that the balloon's equipment 'was clearly for intelligence surveillance and inconsistent with the equipment on board weather balloons.' The agency said the balloon had multiple antennas in an array that was 'likely capable of collecting and geo-locating communications.' Solar panels on the machine were large enough to produce power to operate 'multiple active intelligence collection sensors,' the department said. The agency also said the U.S. government was confident that the company that made the balloon had direct commercial ties with the People's Liberation Army, the Chinese military, citing an official procurement portal for the army." The Guardian's story is here.

But My Kevin Needs Him! Jacqueline Sweet of Politico: "Rep. George Santos was charged with theft in Pennsylvania's Amish Country in 2017 after a series of bad checks were written in his name to dog breeders, according to the court and a lawyer friend who helped him address the charge. Just days after $15,125 in checks were made out for 'puppies,' according to the memo lines, Santos held an adoption event at a Staten Island pet store with his animal rescue charity Friends of Pets United, according to the store's Instagram account and a person who attended the event. The charge was dismissed and his record expunged after Santos claimed someone had stolen his checkbook, according to the court and the lawyer.... Attorney Tiffany Bogosian ... noted [in an email] to [a Pennsylvania state] trooper that the signatures were different on each of the [bad] checks and attached Santos' New York State driver's license to show his signature on that ID didn't match any of the ones on the checks.... A week after [the initial meeting between Santos & Bogosian], he went to Pennsylvania to address the warrant, and told prosecutors that he 'worked for the S.E.C.,' successfully persuading them to drop the charges, she remembered him telling her after he returned."

Robert Legare & Scott MacFarlane of CBS News: "The pro-Trump rioter who marched through the halls of Congress while wielding a Confederate flag on Jan. 6, 2021, was sentenced to 36 months behind bars on Thursday, more than two years after photos of him became some of the most widely recognized images of the attack on the Capitol. Kevin Seefried, 53, was convicted in June 2022 after a bench trial before Judge Trevor McFadden of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, who found him of multiple charges, including obstructing Congress, entering a restricted building, disorderly conduct and unlawful parading. His son, Hunter, was also convicted on the obstruction charge, but acquitted on other counts. Hunter was sentenced to two years in prison last year."

Kyle Cheney of Politico: "In private messages, revealed Thursday by prosecutors at a seditious conspiracy trial stemming from the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, members of the [Proud Boys] discussed Trump's Sept. 29 debate-stage exhortation to the Proud Boys to 'stand back and stand by' ahead of the November election. Some Proud Boy leaders, like Joe Biggs -- one of five seditious conspiracy defendants -- saw Trump's comment as a command to prepare to violently confront antifa.... After Trump's projected defeat in the presidential election on Nov. 7, the group's concerns about its role grew even more acute.... 'Trumps calling the troops in on the 6th,' Biggs said to the group.... Members of the group discussed a strategy to break into small teams to avoid being choked off by police blockades."

Ron DeSantolini, New President of the College Board. Dana Goldstein, et al., of the New York Times: "While the College Board was developing its first Advanced Placement course in African American studies, the group was in repeated contact with the administration of Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, often discussing course concepts that the state said it found objectionable, a newly released letter shows. When the final course guidelines were released last week, the College Board had removed or significantly reduced the presence of many of those concepts ... though it said that political pressure played no role in the changes. The specifics about the discussions, over the course of a year, were outlined in a Feb. 7 letter from the Florida Department of Education to the College Board. The existence of the letter was first reported by The Daily Caller, a conservative news site. A copy of the letter was posted on Scribd.... The back and forth between Florida and the College Board is sure to add to the controversy over the Advanced Placement curriculum...."

New Jersey. Nicholas Fernandez of NJ.com: "Two local politicians from New Jersey have been shot to death in the past week, officials said Wednesday evening. Russell D. Heller, a councilman in Milford, a small borough in Hunterdon County, was fatally shot outside the PSE&G Somerset Central Division Headquarters in Franklin by a former co-worker on Wednesday morning, officials said. Heller, 51, a senior distribution supervisor for the energy company, was pronounced dead on the scene of the Weston Canal Road headquarters, authorities said.... Gary T. Curtis, 58, of Washington in Warren County, was identified as the suspect in the shooting and located at 10:20 a.m. in Bridgewater, inside a car, dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, the Somerset County Prosecutor's Office said.... This comes just one week after a separate incident in which Sayreville councilwoman Eunice Dwumfour was fatally shot in a vehicle near her home."

Ukraine, et al. Frank Bajak of the AP: "Ukrainians reacted Thursday with puzzlement and some ire to comments by a top Starlink official that their country has 'weaponized' the satellite internet service, which has been pivotal to their national survival. President Gwynne Shotwell of SpaceX, which runs Starlink, was also reported to have said at the same venue Wednesday that the Elon Musk-controlled company has taken unspecified action to prevent Ukraine's military from using Starlink technology against Russian invaders. The network of low-orbiting satellites has been crucial to Ukraine's use of battlefield drones -- a central fixture of the year-old war -- and the country's defenders have no viable alternative. The satellite links help Ukrainian fighters locate the enemy and target long-range artillery strikes.... It was not clear whether Shotwell's comments Wednesday were made at the urging of Musk, the founder, CEO and chief engineer of SpaceX."

~~~~~~~~~~

Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "With his call for a 'blue-collar blueprint to rebuild America,' President Biden on Tuesday night acknowledged rhetorically wha Democrats have been preparing for two years: a fierce campaign to win back white working-class voters through the creation of hundreds of thousands of well-paid jobs that do not require a college degree.... In truth, much of that path was already laid by the last Congress with the signing of a $1 trillion infrastructure bill, a $280 billion measure to rekindle a domestic semiconductor industry and the Inflation Reduction Act, which included $370 billion for low-emission energy to combat climate change.... But Democrats will have to match those jobs [created by the act] against Republican appeals aimed at white grievances." MB: For as long as I can remember, blue-collar and other poor Republicans have been voting against their own interests. They don't have any sense, and no one is going to knock the sense into most of them.

Jennifer Bendery of the Huffington Post: "... the best part of the night happened right after [President] Biden's speech was over, when most (but not all) networks weren't airing his comments anymore and he made his way through the crowd. It was here, where the president could actually talk to all the dignitaries, members of Congress and other people in the room, that he was truly in his element.... Biden spent another 20 minutes cracking jokes with Supreme Court justices, telling stories, taking countless selfies, talking to people's kids on cell phones, listening to Democratic and Republican lawmakers' requests for help, and offering comfort to people who needed it." Bendery relates those parts of the conversations she could hear.

Paul Waldman & Gret Sargent of the Washington Post: "While delivering the Republican response to President Biden's State of the Union address, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders tried to link the 80-year-old Biden to a 'woke' mob and bragged of banning 'CRT' in her state. Sanders didnt define either term. She used the initials 'CRT' without spelling out 'critical race theory,' apparently certain most Americans know what that means. Watching Sanders toss around those extremely online terms -- only months after her party badly underperformed in the midterm elections while campaigning against those very things -- vividly demonstrates a problem for the GOP.... Given a rare opportunity to communicate a conservative vision to the entire country, Sanders delivered a message that was, as Matthew Sheffield put it, 'filled with far-right buzzwords that were likely incomprehensible to most Americans who had bothered to watch.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Tales from the Darkside. Marie: Waldman & Sargent don't mention it, perhaps because the criticism is definitely politically incorrect, but I found the worst part of Sanders' little video to be the visual. She looked like an Addams family member talking to the camera from a dark, scary cabin in the deep backwoods; the original Grimms' Hansel & Gretel site as remade by GOP Pictures, Ltd. Little children (like many adults) might not understand a word she said, but the image itself would give the kiddies nightmares. Good thing the horror show aired well past their bedtimes. I should like to think video of this frightening monologue will go down in history as the iconic representation of the Republican party in the 2020s. (BTW, at 2 am ET Thursday, the Waldman-Sargent post was the most-read article on the WashPo site; I'd guess Gov. Sarah unsettled a lot of readers.) ~~~

     ~~~ As Akhilleus did in yesterday's Comments, Robin Givhan of the Washington Post remarks on Marjorie Taylor Greene's outfit -- and her bad behavior: "She was a sideshow in the chamber.... She took on the demeanor of a hooligan in a chamber where violent insurrectionists remain a vivid memory -- insurrectionists she has defended and an incursion she has played down.... Later, she put her own assessment of the union [in a Twitter video in which] ... she reaches just out of frame to grab hold of a white, helium-filled balloon on a string. It was an evening-long set piece of grievances and grudges."

Stephen Collinson, opinion columnist at CNN, covers the SOTU antics as well as those in the hearing over the Vast Left-wing Conspiracy to Suppress Conservative Free Speech (related stories linked below). MB: I don't agree with all Collinson writes, but he picks up several threads worth unraveling. The main point I take issue with is this: "... [Kevin]McCarthy's comment on Fox that it was one of the most partisan State of the Union addresses he’d ever heard was not totally wide of the mark." It's easy enough to see how Collinson could make what I consider a mistake, because he -- like so many other opinionators -- doesn't take into account that Biden (as well as other Democrats and some Republicans) are not trying to advocate against Republicans as much as they are trying to save our democratic institutions.

I'm thinking primarily of the right to full participation in voting, protesting, bodily autonomy and other prerogatives of democracy, but I'm also talking about the right to benefit from those programs and policies that Americans have come to rely on over the last five to seven decades, like Social Security and Medicare. Or longer, like public education. These programs, and others, are now well-woven into the fabric of American life. It isn't just that to some extent or the other, we have individually prepaid into some of those programs, it's that they are necessary for the country to function. We can certainly tweak and improve them, but to cripple or eliminate them is a threat to the nation such that the president is sworn to defend against. That almost all of these existential threats are coming from Republicans and their allies is not Joe Biden's fault.

Biden Name-Checks the Perps. Mariana Alfaro & Timothy Bella of the Washington Post: "In his State of the Union address, [President] Biden said some -- but not all -- Republicans want to target programs such as Social Security and Medicare, drawing jeers and catcalls from certain members of the GOP caucus. On Wednesday, the president used his speech at a labor training center in Wisconsin to identify the Republicans he was talking about Tuesday night, reading direct comments the lawmakers have made when proposing changes. 'When I raised the plans of some of their members in their caucus to cut Social Security ... Marjorie Taylor Greene and others stood up and said: "Liar, liar,"' Biden said. 'Well, guess what? ... I [will] remind you that Rick Scott from Florida, the guy who ran a U.S. Senate campaign, has a plan. I got his brochure right here!' Biden was referring to Scott's plan that would require all legislation -- including that relating to entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare -- to be "sunset," which would require votes every five years to continue them.... Speaking in DeForest, Wis., the president also noted that one of the state's own senators, Republican Ron Johnson, also has expressed support for targeting the two programs in a budget-cutting move. Among those jeering or expressing disbelief during Biden's speech Tuesday night was Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah).... On Wednesday, Biden quoted from a 2010 video of Lee saying that it is his 'objective to phase out Social Security' and that 'Medicare and Medicaid ... need to be pulled up' by their roots.'" Politico's story is here.

     ~~~ Thanks to NiskyGuy for the lead.

** GOP Paranoia Panel Holds a Hearing. Luke Broadwater & Kate Conger of the New York Times: "House Republicans on Wednesday summoned former Twitter executives to answer to accusations that the social media platform has tried to silence voices on the right, but the hourslong hearing yielded new revelations about how the company failed to limit hateful speech or material that could incite violence, sometimes altering its own rules to avoid doing so. The Oversight and Accountability Committee called the hearing to investigate a decision that the company has for years admitted was a mistake: blocking an unsubstantiated New York Post article about the activities of Hunter Biden, President Biden's son, in Ukraine before the 2020 election, in which his father was running against President Donald J. Trump....

“But the session also served as a forum for Democrats to press their concerns about the behavior of the company. They have accused Twitter of playing a critical role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, including by changing internal rules to allow Mr. Trump to keep posting up until the riot.... Anika Collier Navaroli, a former Twitter executive who was a whistle-blower during the Jan. 6 investigation, recalled an incident from 2019 when a White House official tried to persuade the company to delete a tweet by the model Chrissy Teigen. She had insulted Mr. Trump in vulgar terms after he referred to her as 'filthy-mouthed.'... Ms. Navaroli also testified that Twitter changed its rules to avoid adding labels to some of Mr. Trump's tweets that would have identified them as violating the company's rules.... [Rep. Alexandria] Ocasio-Cortez responded, 'So much for bias against right wing on Twitter.'" MB: Well worth a read. If Democrats stay aggressive, they will be able to turn the Crazy Subcommittee into a vehicle against the GOP's paranoia panel. ~~~

~~~ Politico's story is here. CNN's story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Cat Zakrzewski & Cristiano Lima of the Washington Post: “On Wednesday, [Elon] Musk's 'Twitter Files' took center stage in a combative Capitol Hill hearing, as GOP leaders attempted to turn Twitter's decision to briefly block sharing a New York Post story about President Biden's son into evidence of a broad conspiracy.... The testimony of former Twitter executives repeatedly contradicted these accusations.... Some Republicans took a hostile tone toward the Twitter leaders during their time in front of the cameras. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said she was happy that they lost their jobs, and Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) referred to former executives as 'fascist Twitter 1.0.'"

     ~~~ Lawrence O'Donnell pointed out Wednesday that it took Twitter a whole two days to link the New York Post story. ~~~

     ~~~ Rodric Hurdle-Bradford of the Raw Story: "... the entire Republican party's discontent with Twitter posts was tracked in a database Twitter kept of GOP requests to remove posts, according to a new Rolling Stone report.... The discovery of this detailed list is contrary to the partisan point-of-view that new Twitter owner Elon Musk has been sharing, as he has strategically been dialed-in on communicating Twitter post removal and content challenges from Democrats.... According to the story in Rolling Stone, the requests not only came from the staffs of both then-President Trump and current President Joe Biden, but also from the staffs of high-profile members of Congress, including Republican Representatives Kevin McCarthy (California) and Elise Stefanik (New York). The requests include reinstating banned right-wing personalities.... During Wednesday's hearing, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) asked for the 'remarkable' Rolling Stone article to be read into the record. 'So for everybody's reading enjoyment, if people think it was biased against, this would lead us to believe it was definitely biased against liberals and progressives,' Raskin said." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Skepticism Pays. Although Rolling Stone is subscriber-firewalled, I guess nonsubscribers can still get in at least once a month because I was able to bring up its report, by Adam Rawnsley & Asawan Suebsang. And, lo and behold, Hurdle-Bradford completely misread the RS report. The complaints to Twitter came during the Biden administration from Republicans like McCarthy and Stefanik. Here's the telling RS sentence: "But during both the Trump and Biden presidencies, these types of moderation requests or demands were routinely sent to Twitter by the staff of influential GOP lawmakers -- ones with names like Kevin McCarthy and Elise Stefanik." Nothing else in the RS report contradicts that assessment. So, no, Joe Biden wasn't calling up Twitter to demand it take down tweets that insulted or miffed him. You're safe, Miss Margie.

Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "The acting director of the National Institutes of Health pushed back on Wednesday against Republicans' assertions that a lab leak stemming from taxpayer-funded research may have caused the coronavirus pandemic, telling lawmakers that viruses being studied at a laboratory in Wuhan, China, bore no resemblance to the one that set off the worst public health crisis in a century. Those viruses 'bear no relationship to SARS-CoV-2; they are genetically distinct,' the N.I.H. official, Dr. Lawrence A. Tabak, told a House panel, using the formal name for the virus.... Dr. Tabak's comments came at a hearing before members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, with the House newly under Republican control.... Republicans have made clear that they intend to tap into Americans' frustration with masking, mandates and other coronavirus restrictions to wage a broad assault on Mr. Biden and his administration."

2024 Presidential Race. Natasha Korecki & Jonathan Allen of NBC News: "New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu [R] has taken his most significant step yet in exploring a White House bid, launching a national political organization that's a popular tool for prospective presidential candidates testing the waters. The governor first confirmed to NBC News on Wednesday that he had formed the 'Live Free or Die' committee (borrowed from his state's nickname), a 501(c)(4) organization where politicians can raise unlimited funds. The donations don't have to be disclosed, and prospective candidates often use these political nonprofits as a way to gauge interest from donors." MB: Sununu is generally characterized as a "moderate Republican." Oh, yeah? As Planned Parenthood NH reminded us last November, he "signed [an] abortion ban into law - without any exceptions for rape, incest, or fatal fetal diagnoses - and he bragged on a national podcast about 'doing more on the pro-life issue ... than anyone.'" The PP article goes on to describe many of Sununu's anti-abortion actions, noting that he "continues to call himself 'pro-choice.'"

Beyond the Beltway

Mississippi Is Still Mississippi. Kayode Crown of the Mississippi Free Press: "White Mississippi lawmakers moved closer Tuesday evening to creating a new system of unelected judges and prosecutors chosen by white officials to oversee a part of the majority-Black capital city. Lawmakers debated House Bill 1020, which would create a new court system in an expanded Capitol Complex Improvement District, for five hours before representatives passed it in a 76-38 vote. Of the chamber's white lawmakers, 74 voted for it and just two voted against it; among Black lawmakers, 36 voted against it and just two voted for it. In remarks to the press at the Capitol after the vote Tuesday night, Jackson Mayor Chokwe A. Lumumba described the bill as 'oppressive' because it would take jurisdiction away from judges and the prosecutor elected by majority-Black Hinds County voters."

Texas. Emily Schmall of the New York Times: "A Texas man who fatally shot 23 people and injured dozens more at a Walmart store in El Paso in 2019 pleaded guilty on Wednesday to federal hate crimes and weapons charges in connection with the deadliest anti-Latino attack in modern United States history. Lawyers for the gunman, Patrick Crusius, said last month that he would change his plea to guilty days after federal prosecutors notified the court that they would not seek the death penalty. He has agreed to accept a sentence of 90 consecutive life terms, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Texas. Mr. Crusius is to be formally sentenced in June."

Way Beyond

Ukraine, et al.

The Washington Post's live briefing of developments Thursday in Russia's war on Ukraine is here: "Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky continues his Western Europe visit Thursday in Brussels, where he will meet with leaders and address the European Parliament, according to E.U. officials, who said the meetings will explore legal pathways to use frozen Russian assets to pay for reconstruction in Ukraine. He previously visited Britain and France, renewing his calls for warplanes and heavy weapons.... French President Emmanuel Macron awarded the Legion of Honor to Zelensky for his 'courage and commitment,' Macron said. Zelensky said in France, where he met Wednesday with Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, that 'we have very little time,' appealing to the two countries for tanks, jets and long-range missiles.... NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg met in Washington on Wednesday with top U.S. officials including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan.... Across Ukraine, troops are bracing for a do-over from Russia, as the Kremlin's efforts to seize the country have largely faltered." ~~~

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

Mark Landler of the New York Times: "President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine pleaded with Britain on Wednesday to supply his country with fighter jets, making his dramatic appeal during a surprise visit to London that began a two-day diplomatic blitz of Ukraine's Western allies.... So far, the British government has resisted Ukraine's request, as has the United States and other NATO countries, fearing that combat aircraft could escalate confrontation with Russia. But Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced that Britain would train Ukrainian pilots to fly NATO-standard jets, and signaled he was open to eventually sending planes."

Constant Méheut of the New York Times: "There are 'strong indications' that President Vladimir V. Putin decided to supply the antiaircraft missile system that Russia-backed separatists used to shoot down a Malaysia Airlines passenger jet above eastern Ukraine in 2014, a Dutch-led international team found. But the team said on Wednesday that it had suspended its criminal investigation because of insufficient evidence and immunity privileges that prevent new prosecutions in the crash of Flight MH17, which killed all 298 people aboard. The investigators noted that no evidence suggested that Mr. Putin ordered the downing of the aircraft and that he was, in any case, protected from prosecution under Dutch law because he enjoys immunity as a head of state."

News Ledes

New York Times: "Burt Bacharach, the debonair pop composer, arranger, conductor, record producer and occasional singer whose hit songs in the 1960s distilled that decade's mood of romantic optimism, died on Wednesday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 94."

Washington Post: "Anger and despair are mounting in Turkey, as the death toll from a pair of major earthquakes in the country and neighboring Syria climbs above 15,000, and survivors and opposition politicians express frustration at the speed of the government's disaster response. Hope of finding survivors is dimming. Freezing temperatures in the towns and cities flattened b Monday's quakes have lengthened the odds, even as international rescue teams flow into the country with technical equipment and rescue dogs able to detect human scents beneath piles of rubble." The Guardian's live updates are here. At 8 am ET today, the Guardian has the death toll at more than 17,000. Just devastating.

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Reader Comments (5)

Keystone Kongress Kourt is in session, all fall down!

Well kids, the fun has started. Morons running hearings and “investigations” to “prove” that they are too right about every easily debunked lie!

While trying to “prove” that Twitter colluded with Biden to help keep Hunter’s dickie-bird under wraps, something they would never do for the poor R’s, here comes actual proof that it just ain’t so, that Fatty demanded, and got, special treatment to keep embarrassing comments about his “pussy-ass bitchness” out of the public’s Twitter eye.

As one Democratic wag put it “My, my, my. What happens when you hold a hearing and can’t prove your point?”.

Get ready for loads of that. Because here’s the thing. If these lunkheaded liars are going to spend the next two years trying to say stuff like “Oh!! We would never do what we’re claiming Biden did!”, they must be forgetting that their guy in the White House for four years has a rap sheet that would put entire blocks of major prisons to shame. There aren’t too many crimes, outrages, or moral and ethical catastrophes that can’t be directly connected to Donald Trump and his congressional testicle washers.

And leave us not forget the wonders of videotape. Just a f’rinstance: Mike Lee whines about how he never, ever, cross his heart and hope to croak woke, sed we gotta kill Medicaid and Social Security! Then…mirabile dictu! Here’s ol’ Mikey Lee on the video saying “We gots to kill Medicaid and Social Security! Aieeee!”

Sorry, but there ain’t much in the way of all that’s stoopid and horrible and illegal that most of these traitors haven’t advocated over the years. Trying to claim purity of essence just won’t cut it.

The trick is, will the MSM just give such proof of hypocrisy and perfidy a great big “Meh…”?

My guess is “Yeh…”

That aside, it should be fun watching the Keystone Kongress Kops pile onto the Klown Kar while tripping over their dicks.

Or Hunter Biden’s.

Where’s ma popcorn?

February 9, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

@And what a fucking waste of time and energy. Here was Jamie Raskin, his head covered because of the effects of chemotherapy, having to sit through as well as counter this nonsense when he could have used his energy to do something productive. It infuriates me.

It is worth holding hearings to debunk crazy conspiracy theories -- like the Jan. 6 hearings where the proximate cause was the Big Lie -- but it's a travesty to hold hearings to try to prove them. If McCarthy were a leader instead of a pawn to your Keystone Kaucus, he would shut down the subcommittees & order committee heads not to conduct hearings predicated on bullshit.

February 9, 2023 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

Marie,

And you just KNOW that the pestilential pudknockers on the right are giggling amongst themselves at Raskin’s difficulties. It was reported the other day that BoBo, that gun brandishing, hellacious harpy, kick started her quotidian viciousness by praying—at some winger church— for Joe Biden to die, asap.

It’s never really been a battle over things like policy, governance, programs, budget allocations, priorities for helping Americans. Never been about that stuff. They simply want their enemies to suffer and die. There’s no substance to their opposition, because to oppose something means to have one’s own position. And they don’t. Because a position based on “Eat shit and die!” is no position at all. It’s just scattershot malevolence, a vindictiveness underpinned by ignorance and stark staring hatred.

And now it’s all about who can be the most outrageous in their mass malignity.

“I dressed up like a lunatic and called Biden a liar at the SOTU!”

“Oh yeah? I went to church and prayed for Jesus to kill him!”

Democrats (lookin’ at you Joe Biden) can forget about “bipartisanship”. That’s some prelapsarian folktale bullshit right there. There’s no “bi” in the parlous partisanship on the right. There’s just “die”.

What’s needed is a modern Carthaginian Peace. It’s all they understand.

February 9, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Tale of Two Cities

After the SOTU, Smarmy liar Sarah Sanders sat in her dark cave sending out stinking shibboleths that could only be understood by the traitors, declaring, stupidly, that her age made her better, smarter, more effective than Biden. This is like a middle school math teacher who can barely do long division stating that she’s smarter than Einstein because he was 75 and she was 35.

Let’s compare CV’s Sarah, you disgusting, unqualified liar.

Meanwhile, here’s Joe Biden, wading into the crowd with hopefulness, positive energy, and genuine feeling for other human beings. If you read the HuffPo piece linked here, you’ll notice that most of his interactions were with Democrats. Not because of Biden but because the traitors realize that even the slightest display of decency toward Biden will get them kicked out of the Nazi Party.

Two cities. Only one of which is a hollowed out racist shithole.

Guess which one?

February 9, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Ok, then you pusillanimous College Board.

Let's have the real American (White) history.

Since the Black portion of the U. S. population has remained steady at about 13% since 1860, let's have 13% of American history courses devoted to Black history, the experiences, challenges and triumphs of Black people

And since Hispanics are now around 18 % anof our population, how about a similar allotment to and for them.

That still leaves about 70% for DeSantis. Should be enuf, donja think?

February 9, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes
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